ABSTRACT
THE difficulties connected with any attempt to determine quite accurately with our existing statistical material, the number of persons employed in the woollen and worsted industries were pointed out in the Introduction to this book. As to the indirect employment which these or any industries give—that is a thing which can never be put into figures. A great staple trade draws into the circle of its dependents railwaymen and miners, landowners and farmers, makers of machinery and makers of houses, bankers, lawyers, accountants, and professional football players, besides the large commercial class that is engaged directly in the work of collecting its raw material and distributing its products. The figure of 259,909 which represents the total number of persons employed in the year 1901, according to the returns made to the factory inspectors, is no doubt somewhat inexact. It certainly does not include all those employed about the mills, though not in the 175actual manufacturing processes; it only includes those dyers, bleachers and printers—some 3,000 all told—who serve in the mills and not in separate works; but it is as accurate a return as we are likely to get of those engaged in the primary processes described in Chapter II.
