ABSTRACT

The most significant new setting for work in early industrial Britain was the factory (originally ‘manufactory’, but soon abbreviated for convenience). An early factory, in the form of a silk throwing mill, was constructed on the River Derwent in Derby in 1719 after the Lombe brothers brought back new techniques of manufacturing silk from Italy. But silk was a high-value textile with an inelastic demand*. It was not until the demographic growth and consumer rev­ olution of the second half of the eighteenth century occurred that demand for more readily saleable woollens and cottons began to flourish and textile mills became the premises for the manufacture of a large turnover of goods. Woollens comprised broadcloths, coatings, kerseys, tammies, stuffs, serges and shalloons and a host of other fabrics. Cotton clothing included checks, stripes, plaids, corduroys, plain cot­ tons, lace and fustians (the latter having a linen warp and a cotton weft) [12, 135], These textiles were suitable for sales in the home market and overseas. Lancashire cotton goods and Yorkshire woollens played a significant role in export growth in the second half of the eighteenth century, as chapter 8 will show.