ABSTRACT
Cotton had been the industry most synonymous with the development of the nineteenth-century British economy. In absolute terms production peaked in 1913 when over 1900 million lbs of yarn were produced. Yarn production had halved by 1930 and cloth production had fallen even more. The fall-off in production reflected export performance. There were two principal causes of export decline. One was falling world trade. Although global consumption of cotton goods was still rising between the wars consumer needs were met increasingly by protected home industries rather than imports. The government's stance in cotton also stood in marked contrast to that adopted in coal where producer divisions did not prevent a steady tightening of the cartel aspects of the 1930 Coal Mines Act. Thus with greater political will, there seems little doubt that a more powerful piece of legislation could have been put through Parliament, where cotton reorganization attracted little controversy.
