ABSTRACT
Against these serious encroachments upon their trade and livelihoods the London weavers struggled incessantly; the Company mainly by petitioning Parliament, the small masters and journeymen by continual angry grumbling and occasional riots.5 It was a long, hard fight not only against powerful commercial interests grouped within and around the East India Company, but against the intangible, almost invincible 'universal Female Fancy'. Despite some set-backs the Weavers persevered and, by the turn of the century, had achieved a measure of success. Although the London Weavers' petition against the wearing of East India fabrics was rejected by Parliament in 1680, an additional duty of 10 per cent on imported Indian calicoes, wrought silks and various mixtures was imposed in 1685. Moreover, this duty was doubled in 1690 and renewed by successive Acts of Parliament until it was made permanent in 1711. But the profit margins on Indian fabrics were so wide and the amount of smuggling so great that even these tariffs were ineffective as protective measures. The recorded imports of Indian calicoes and Bengal wrought silks in the four years 1698-1701 are shown in Table 14.l.%
During the 1690s the weavers' plight became even more desperate, for besides the competition from abroad they appeared to be suffering from serious overcrowding of their industry at home. Some of the journeymen went tramping; some went to sea; all were a t breaking point. According to Macaulay, numerous copies of a ballad, probably Jacobite in origin, exhorting the weavers to rise against the Government were discovered in 1693. But the most powerful stimulants to violent action were economic, 'bread-and-butter' arguments, not other people's political ambitions. In January 1697, when Parliament was discussing a Bill designed to prohibit imports of Indian wrought silks, between 4,000 and 5,000 weavers and their wives marched to
the House, crowded into the lobby and threatened to invade the Chamber itself. The same evening a mob attacked East India House, broke open the outer door, pulled down rails, smashed windows and knocked down an officer of the Poultry Compter, who lost his hat and halberd; but when the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs arrived with a guard and arrested three men (who were later sent to Newgate) the rest of the rioters dispersed. The Commons, extremely angry, declared that those who had incited the rioters had committed a high crime and misdemeanour against the constitution and freedom of Parliament? The next day (22 January) small groups of weavers entered some shops in the City and tore up calicoes and imported silks.
