ABSTRACT
By the second half of that century a significant skills base was developing. Archaeological excavations within the Staffordshire Potteries provide tangible evidence for greatly-increased production, of very fine quality earthenwares from c. 1660 onwards, and of salt-glazed stonewares from the 1680s. Between 1766–70 they invested £2,000 in the Trent and Mersey Canal, which was destined to improve the business of all north Staffordshire manufacturers, and they were major shareholders in the Caldon Canal Company. The minutiae of their business are recorded, and consequently they are an excellent case study of the progress of industrialization in the mid 18th century. The industrialization of ceramic manufacture was a complex process, involving new processes and new wares, and increases in the scale of production, the number of factories and workers employed, and in the volume of output. These were not accompanied by the extensive use of machinery, and the industry remained labour-intensive to the end of the 19th century.
