ABSTRACT
In view of the contribution made by textiles to the economy, and of water-power to the textile industry, an analysis of textile mill development offers the most useful line of inquiry into the role of industry in the new rural order. This chapter seeks a balanced view by first examining the development of all types of textile mills over the whole of Scotland, in terms of the roles played by landowners, merchant manufacturers and tenants. In certain areas the landowner could try to re-employ them in fisheries, but the greatest potential lay in the fourth option, textiles, which could create domestic employment in spinning and weaving or in mill-based employment in a variety of processes. As the scale of textile mills increased, so also did the range of processes performed by them, and with control passing increasingly to merchants and manufacturers, the benefits to the landowner were correspondingly reduced.
