The third chief seat of the manufacture was the West Riding of Yorkshire,where the worsted trade centred round Halifax,which,according to Camden,began to manufacture about 1537;and where Leeds and its neighbourhood manufactured a coarse cloth of English wool.In 1574the manufacturers of the West Riding made 56,000pieces of broad cloth and 72,000of narrow.It will be seen from this short survey that,however greatly the production of these different districts may have changed in proportion since 1760,the several branches of the trade are even now distributed very much as they were then,the West Riding being the headquarters of the worsted and coarse cloth trade,while Norwich still keeps the crape industry,and the West manufactures fine cloth.
The increased demand for English wool consequent upon the extension of this industry led to large enclosures of land,especially in Northamptonshire,Rutlandshire,Leicestershire,and Warwickshire,which counties supplied most of the combing wools used for worsted stuffs and stockings;but parts of Huntingdon,Bedford,Bucks,Cambridgeshire,Romney Marsh,and Norfolk competed with them,and by 1739most counties produced the fine combing wool.Defoe mentions the sale of wool from Lincolnshire,'where the longest staple is found,the sheep of those parts being of the largest breed".and in Arthur Young's time Lincolnshire and Leicestershire wools were still used at Norwich.
The Cotswold and Isle of Wight sheep yielded clothing or short wools,'but they were inferior to the best Spanish wools,'and could not 'enter into the composition without spoiling and degrading in some degree the fabric of the cloth.'Consequently in the West of England,occupied as it was with the production of the finest cloths,Spanish wool was largely used,though shortly before Young's time it was discovered that 'Norfolk sheep yielded a wool about their necks equal to the best from Spain.'
Next in importance was the iron trade,which was largely carried on,though by this time a decaying industry,in the Weald of Sussex,where in 1740there were ten furnaces,producing annually 1400tons.The trade had reached its chief extent in the seventeenth century,but in 1724was still the principal manufacturing interest of the county.The balustrades which surround St.Paul's were cast at Lamberhurst,and their weight,including the seven gates,is above 200tons.They cost *11,000.
Gloucestershire,Shropshire,and Yorkshire had each six furnaces.
In the latter county,which boasted an annual produce of 1400tons,the most famous works were at Rotherham.There were also great ironworks at Newcastle.
In 1755an ironmaster named Anthony Bacon had got a lease for ninety-nine years of a district eight miles in length,by five in breadth,at Merthyr-Tydvil,upon which he erected iron and coal works.In 1709the Coalbrookdale works in Shropshire were founded,and in 1760Carron iron was first manufactured in Scotland.Altogether,there were about 1737fifty-nine furnaces in eighteen different counties,producing 17,350tons annually.
It has been computed that we imported 20,000tons.In 1881we exported 3,820,315tons of iron and steel,valued at *27,590,908,and imported to the value of *3,705,332.
The cotton trade was still so insignificant as to be mentioned only once,and that incidentally by Adam Smith.It was confined to Lancashire,where its headquarters were Manchester and Bolton.In 1760not more than 40,000persons were engaged in it,and the annual value of the manufactures was estimated at *600,000.The exports,however,were steadily growing;in 1701they amounted to *23,253,in 1751to *45,986,in 1764to *200,354.Burke about this time spoke of 'that infinite variety of admirable manufactures that grow and extend every year among the spirited,inventive,and enterprising traders of Manchester.'
But even in 1764our exports of cotton were still only one-twentieth of the value of the wool exports.
The hardware trade then as now was located chiefly in Sheffield and Birmingham,the latter town employing over 50,000people in that industry.The business,however,was not so much concentrated as now,and there were small workshops scattered about the kingdom.'Polished steel,'for instance,was manufactured at Woodstock,locks in South Staffordshire,pins at Warrington,Bristol,and Gloucester,where they were 'the staple of the city.'The hosiery trade,too,was as yet only in process of concentration.By 1800the manufacture of silk hosiery had centred in Derby,that of woollen hosiery in Leicester,though Nottingham had not yet absorbed the cotton hosiery.But at the beginning of the century there were still many looms round London,and in other parts of the South of England.In 1750London had 1000frames,Surrey 350,Nottingham 1500,Leicester 1000,Derby 200,other places in the Midlands,7300;other English and Scotch towns,1850;Ireland,800;Total,14,000.Most of the silk was woven in Spitalfields,but first spun in the North at Stockport,Knutsford,Congleton,and Derby.In 1770there was a silk-mill at Sheffield on the model of Derby,and a manufactory of waste silk at Kendal.Coventry had already,in Defoe's time,attracted the ribbon business.In 1721the silk manufacture was said to be worth *700,000a yew more than at the Revolution.
Linen was an ancient manufacture in England,and had been introduced into Dundee at the beginning of the seventeenth century.In 1746the British Linen Company was incorporated to supply Africa and the American plantations with linen made at home,and Adam Smith considered it a growing manufacture.It was,of course,the chief manufacture of Ireland,where it had been further developed by French Protestants,who settled there at the end of the seventeenth century.
