ABSTRACT
The lace trade, though it occupies only a minor place among British textile industries, is of considerable interest to the economic historian and to the student of industrial organization. Machine-made lace, introduced in the early nineteenth century, was a characteristic product of the English industrial revolution. It owed its development in the early days almost entirely to British inventive skill and enterprise, and with a potential market virtually world-wide there seemed to be no limit to its possible expansion. But our monopoly of the new product was not long maintained; other countries, especially France, Germany and the U.S.A., began to acquire British built machines and, aided by British skilled labour and to some extent by British capital, set out to supply their home markets and later to compete with us in foreign markets; in time our European competitors were even able to enter our own home market.
