ABSTRACT

This chapter compares the experiences of textile workers in cotton and wool in Britain from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century. 1 The emphasis is on the contrast between the responses of labour in Lancashire and Yorkshire to industrialization and shows that despite the similarities of technology, workers in cotton and wool adopted different industrial strategies. The most significant of these contrasts was the development of trade unionism by nineteenth-century Lancashire cotton workers and the absence of effective trade unionism in Yorkshire wool until 1914. The chapter examines why given their similar geographical and technological background, these responses of labour were so different.