ABSTRACT
Generalisations about the behaviour of businessmen in the wool textile industry during the nineteenth century must necessarily reflect the industry’s complex structure. Its various sections posed at any time different problems and opportunities for entrepreneurs. The profit-maximising calculations of the dyer, comber or spinner on commission work were distinct from those of the manufacturer buying raw materials for conversion into finished products. Indeed, their interests were often opposed to each other. Similarly, the business stratagems of the mercantile sections of the industry, whether involved in specialist dealings in raw wool, yarns, tops or cloth, diverged from those pursued by the manufacturer, and each type of merchant, though performing similar basic functions, faced different markets and, therefore, opportunities. Buying, holding and selling the commodity in which he traded, his economic function was further differentiated clearly from that of the commission agent with whom he competed but who did not finance the holding of stocks, whether they were in transit to more or less distant markets or whether they were being held speculatively.
