ABSTRACT
The growth of the cotton industry demanded an efficient handling and warehousing system both for the import of cotton and the export of finished goods. In Manchester, where the bulk of these activities were concentrated, this grew up in a somewhat haphazard, if practical, fashion, the splendour of the Watts warehouse and that of companies like J.& N. Phillips being matched by many squalid and seedy premises each seeking a market for the piece goods finished by the dyers, bleachers and calico printers.
