ABSTRACT
Linen had already emerged as Ireland’s most important industry during the eighteenth century. This chapter will briefly trace the evolution of the industry in the pre-factory era, when some of the groundwork was laid for the subsequent industrial development of Ulster. In this period, new technologies were utilised for bleaching and finishing Irish linens, new trading frontiers were opened up and new systems of raising credit and marketing cloth were adopted. Linen at this point was used for a range of household furnishings and clothing right across the social spectrum from infants christening gowns to shrouds for the dead; from the coarse cloth worn by slaves in the West Indies and America to the more refined products demanded by the British and Irish gentry. Flax could also be used to make sailcloth, sacking and tents.1 The home market was clearly an important source of demand in the eighteenth century, although this is difficult to measure. It has also attracted considerably less attention than the dramatic expansion of exports, which rose from about 2 million yards in 1713, to over 47 million yards by 1796, when linen, flax and hemp accounted for over 56 per cent of the value of all Irish exports.2
