Introduction |
Questions to Consider |
Source
Manchester Becomes a Thriving Industrial City
(1795)
John Aikin
Introduction
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries England
experienced a substantial degree of urbanization, with all the
attendant problems. In many respects this urbanization was the result
of the expansion of factory-based industrialization, especially in
the textiles sector of the economy. Manchester, located in the heart
of the country, is representative of the rapid expansion of English
urban centers in the industrializing era. It grew from a relatively
small and obscure village to a large, bustling manufacturing center
in less than two generations: in 1772 the population was about 25,000
people; by 1850 it had grown to a staggering 367,000! In the same
period Liverpool, an established port city a short distance from
Manchester, grew from 77,000 in 1800 to 400,000 in 1850. It was to
Manchester that a young Frederick Engels would go to observe English
manufacturing techniques and become appalled at what
industrialization had created in the slums of this manufacturing
center. This document is excerpted from the observations of a local
citizen, John Aikin, in 1795. It is obvious from the tenor of his
comments that Aikin was enthusiastic about the growth; he also seems
to be rather accurate in assessing the causes of growth.
Questions to Consider
-
Which industry was most responsible for the initial growth of
Manchester?
-
How does Aikin explain the expansion of industrial activity in
Manchester?
Source
No exertions of the masters or workmen could have
answered the demands of trade without the introduction of spinning
machines.
These were first used by the country people on a confined scale,
twelve spindles being thought a great matter; while the awkward
posture required to spin on them was discouraging to grown up people,
who saw with surprise children from nine to twelve years of age
manage them with dexterity, whereby plenty was brought into families
formerly overburthened with children, and the poor weavers were
delivered from the bondage in which they had lain from the insolence
of spinners.
The improvements kept increasing, till the capital engines for
twist were perfected, by which thousands of spindles are put in
motion by a water wheel, and managed mostly by children, without
confusion and with less waste of cotton than by the former methods.
But the carding and slubbing preparatory to twisting required a
greater range of invention. The first attempts were in carding
engines, which are very curious, and now brought to a great degree of
perfection; and an engine has been contrived for converting the
carded wool to slubbing, by drawing it to about the thickness of
candlewick preparatory to throwing it into twist.
These machines exhibit in their construction an aggregate of
clock-maker's work and machinery most wonderful to behold. The cotton
to be spun is introduced through three sets of rollers, so governed
by the clock-work, that the set which first receives the cotton makes
so many revolutions than the next in order, and these more than the
last which feed the spindles, that it is drawn out considerably in
passing through the rollers; being lastly received by spindles, which
have every one on the bobbin a fly like that of a flax wheel;º
Upon these machines twist is made of any fineness proper for
warps; but as it is drawn length way of the staple, it was not so
proper for weft; wherefore on the introduction of fine callicoes and
muslins, mules were invented, having a name expressive of their
species, being a mixed machinery between jennies and the machines for
twisting, and adapted to spin weft as fine as could be desired.
These mules carry often to a hundred and fifty spindles, and can
be set to draw weft to an exact fineness up to 150 hanks in the
pound, of which muslin has been made, which for a while had a prompt
sale; but the flimsiness of its fabric has brought the finer sorts
into discredit, and a stagnation of trade damped the sale of the
rest.
The prodigious extension of the several branches of the Manchester
manufactures has likewise greatly increased the business of several
trades and manufactures connected with or dependent upon them. The
making of paper at mills in the vicinity has been brought to great
perfection, and now includes all kinds, from the strongest parcelling
paper to the finest writing sorts, and that on which banker's bills
are printed. To the ironmongers shops, which are greatly increased of
late, are generally annexed smithies, where many articles are made,
even to nails. A considerable iron foundry is established in Salford,
in which are cast most of the articles wanted in Manchester and its
neighborhood, consisting chiefly of large cast wheels for the cotton
machines; cylinders, boilers, and pipes for steam engines; cast
ovens, and grates of all sizes. This work belongs to Batemen and
Sharrard, gen[tle]men every way qualified for so great an
undertaking. Mr. Sharrard is a very ingenious and able engineer, who
has improved upon and brought the steam engine to great perfection.
The tin-plate workers have found additional employment in
furnishing many articles for spinning machines; as have also the
braziers in casting wheels for the motion-work of the rollers used in
them; and the clock-makers in cutting them. Harness-makers have been
much employed in making bands for carding engines, and large wheels
for the first operation of drawing out the cardings, whereby the
consumption of strong curried leather has been much increased.
Within the last twenty or thirty years the vast increase of
foreign trade has caused many of the Manchester manufacturers to
travel abroad, and agents or partners to be fixed for a considerable
time on the continent, as well as foreigners to reside at Manchester.
And the town has now in every respect assumed the style and manners
of one of the commercial capitals of Europe.
Source: John Aikin,
A
Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles Round
Manchester, in Walter Arnstein, ed., The Past Speaks, 2d ed. (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1993), 2:148-149.
