men are employed, but also the very children, by their own labour, can maintain themselves. There are, besides, all kinds of foreign merchandise brought and returned by the merchants of the town, amounting to the sum of many thousands of pounds weekly."*

Dr. Fuller, whose authority has been already quoted, and whose work was published in 1662, gives some further information concerning the manufactures of Manchester and Bolton. The passage will not be the less acceptable, if we preserve the quaint conceits of the old divine. After mentioning the names of the Jen, Augsburgh, and Milan fustians, he says:

"These retain their old names at this day, though these several sorts are made in this country, whose inhabitants, buying the Cotton Wool or Yarne, coming from beyond the sea, make it here into fustians, to the good imployment of the poor, and great improvement of the rich therein, serving mean people for their outsides, and their betters for the lineing of their garments. Bolton is the staple-place for this commodity, being brought thither from all parts of the country.

"As for Manchester, the Cottons† thereof carry away the credit in our nation, and so they did an hundred and fifty years agoe. For when learned Leland, on the cost of king Henry the Eighth, with his guide, travailed Lancashire, he called Manchester the fairest and quickest town in this county; and sure I am, it hath lost neither spruceness nor spirits since that time.

"Other commodities made in Manchester are so

Aikin's "History of Manchester," in which the "Description" is said to “abound in terms of exaggeration." p. 154.

There can be no doubt that these "cottons" were the woollen fabric of that name, as they are said to have been famous one hundred and fifty years before.

small in themselves, and various in their kinds, they will fill the shop of an Haberdasher of small wares. Being, therefore, too many for me to reckon up or remember, it will be the safest way to wrap them all together in some Manchester-Tickin, and to fasten them with the Pinns, (to prevent their falling out and scattering,) or tye them with the Tape, and also (because sure bind, sure find) to bind them about with Points and Laces, all made in the same place.'

From this passage we should infer, that fustians were manufactured in many parts of Lancashire, and taken for sale to Bolton market; and that, although these and other cotton goods were made at Manchester, yet the species of manufacture for which that town was still most remarkable, were its strong woollens and small wares. As the mercantile metropolis of the county, Manchester bought fustians and other goods, as they came from the loom, in the neighbouring towns and villages, finished them for sale, and then sold them at its variously-stored marts. "The kinds of fustian then made were herring-bones, pillows for pockets and outside wear, strong cotton ribs and barragon, broad-raced lin thicksets and tufts, dyed, with white diapers, striped dimities, and lining jeans. Cotton thicksets were made

Fuller's Worthies of England, Vol. I. p. 537. edit. 1811.

+ Dr. Aikin explains this more fully:-" Fustians were manufactured about Bolton, Leigh, and the places adjacent; but Bolton was the principal market for them, where they were bought in the grey by the Manchester chapmen, who finished and sold them in the country. The Manchester traders went regularly on market-days to buy pieces of fustian of the weaver; each weaver then procuring yarn or cotton as he could, which subjected the trade to great inconvenience. To remedy this, some of the chapmen furnished warps and wool to the weavers, and employed persons on commission to put out warps to the weavers. They also encouraged weavers to fetch them from Manchester, and, by prompt payment and good usage, endeavoured to secure good workmanship.”—History of Manchester, P. 158.

sometimes, but as frequently dropped for want of proper finishing. When tufts ceased to be in demand, more figured goods were made for whiting, and a greater variety of patterns attempted, by weavers who had looms ready mounted for the former purposes. But as figures made with treadles are confined to a scanty range, beyond which they grow too complicated, the workmen had recourse to the use of draw-boys, which gave name to a new and important branch of trade."*

At this period, the extent of mercantile establishments, and the modes of doing business, were extremely different from what they are at present. Though a few individuals are found who made fortunes by trade, it is probable that the capital of merchants was generally very small, until the end of the seventeenth century, and all their concerns were managed with extreme frugality. Masters commonly participated in the labours of their servants. Commercial enterprise was exceedingly limited. Owing to the bad state of the roads, and the entire absence of inland navigation, goods could only be conveyed on pack-horses, with a gang of which the Manchester chapmen used occasionally to make circuits to the principal towns, and sell their goods to the shopkeepers, bringing back with them sheep's wool, which was disposed of to the makers of worsted yarn at Manchester, or to the clothiers of Rochdale, Saddleworth, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was only towards the close of the seventeenth century, that trade became sufficiently productive to encourage the general erection of brick houses in Manchester, in place of the old dwellings, constructed of wood and plaster. So great was the increase of the manufactures and trade of England

• Aikin's History of Manchester, p. 158.

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towards the close of this century, that the exports rose from £2,022,812, in 1662, (and they were about the same in 1668,) to £6,788,166, in 1699.*

In the latter part of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, such considerable importations of Indian calicoes, muslins, and chintzes were made, as to excite the vehement opposition of our manufacturers, and to lead parliament to exclude those goods by heavy penalties. This has already been shewn in the chapter on the Indian cotton manufacture, page 77 to 81. The jealousy felt in England was not, however, on behalf of our cotton manufacture, but of our woollen and silk manufactures; which sufficiently proves that no cotton goods were then made in England of the fine and light qualities of those from India.

The business of calico printing was commenced in London in the latter part of the seventeenth century; and for the sake of encouraging this branch of industry, plain Indian calicoes were admitted under a duty. In 1712, the business had become sufficiently extensive to lead parliament to impose an excise duty of 3d. per square yard on calicoes printed, stained, painted, or dyed, (10 Anne, c. 19.); and in 1714, the duty was raised to 6d. per square yard, (12 Anne, sec. 2, c. 9.) But the history of the printing, and of the legislative interferences with the cotton trade, will be given in a subsequent part of this work.

In the twenty years from 1720 to 1740, which was a period of almost uninterrupted peace, Manchester, as well as many other commercial towns, continued to make

Dr. Davenant's Report to the Commissioners of Accounts; and Anderson's Origin and History of Commerce, Vol. II. pp. 227, 228.

rapid strides in wealth, population, and manufacturing

eminence.

Dr. Stukely, who visited Manchester about 1720, says, in his Itinerarium Curiosum,-" The trade, which is incredibly large, consists much in fustians, girthwebb, tukings, tapes, &c., which are dispersed all over the kingdom, and to foreign parts."

Daniel de Foe, in his "Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain," published in 1727, speaking of Manchester, says, "That within a very few years past, here, as at Liverpoole, and also at Froome in Somersetshire, the town is extended in a surprising manner, being almost double to what it was a few years ago. So that, taking in all its suburbs, it now contains, at least 50,000 people. [This must have included the whole parish.] The grand manufacture which has so much raised this town is that of cotton in all its varieties, which, like all our other manufactures, is very much increased within these thirty or forty years.'

De Foe says also, "About eight miles from Manchester, N.W., lies Bolton. We saw nothing remarkable in it, but that the cotton manufacture reached hither, though the place did not, like Manchester, seem increasing. We turned east here, and came to Bury, a small market town on the river Roch, which is the utmost bound of the cotton manufacture, which flourishes so well at Manchester."†

• De Foe's Tour, Vol. III. p. 219.

On the antiquity of the cotton manufacture, De Foe was extremely illinformed. He says, "The antiquity of the manufacture is indeed worth taking notice of; which, though we cannot trace it by history, we have reason to believe began something earlier than the woollen manufactures in other parts of England, of which I have spoken so often; because the cotton might itself come from the Mediterranean, and be known by correspondents in those counties, when that of