Total value of every description of cotton goods annually manufactured in Great Britain £36,000,000 Raw material, 130,000,000lbs. at 1s. 4 d. per lb. £9,000,000 &c. at £20 a-year each Wages of 133,000 engineers, machine-makers, smiths, masons, joiners, &c. at £30 a-year each Profits of the manufacturers, wages of superintendence, sums to purchase the materials of machinery, coals, &c. 15,000,000 4,000,000 8,000,000 -£36,000,000 The capital employed may be estimated as follows:Capital employed in the purchase of the raw material £9,000,000 Capital employed in payment of wages 19,000,000 37,000,000 Capital invested in spinning-mills, power and hand-looms, workshops, warehouses, &c. £65,000,000 Now, this sum of 65 millions, supposing the interest of capital, inclusive of the wages of superintendence, &c. to amount to 10 per cent, will yield a sum of £6,500,000; which, being deducted from the 8 millions of profits, &c. leaves £1,500,000 to purchase materials to repair the waste of capital, the coals necessary in the employment of the steam-engines, to effect insurances, &c. If we are nearly right in these estimates, it will follow-allowance being made for old and infirm persons, children, &c. dependent on those who are actually employed in the various departments of the cotton manufacture, and in the construction, repairs, &c. of the machinery and buildings required to carry it on-that it must furnish, on the most moderate computation, subsistence for from 1,000,000 to 1,100,000 persons! And for this new and most prolific source of wealth, we are indebted partly and principally, as we have already shown, to the extraordinary genius and talent of a few individuals; but, in a great degree, also, to that security of property and freedom of industry which give confidence and energy to all who embark in industrious undertakings, and to that universal diffusion of intelligence which enables those who carry on any work, to press every power of nature into their service, and to avail themselves of productive capacities of which a less instructed people would be wholly ignorant. The effect that the sudden opening of so vast and profitable a field for the employment of capital and labour, has had on the population of the different towns of Lancashire and Lanarkshire, the districts where the cotton manufacture is principally carried on, has been most striking. In 1774, for example, the parish of Manchester is estimated to have contained 41,032 inhabitants-a number which was swelled in 1821 to 133,788, having more than tripled in the space of 47 years! The population of Preston, in 1780, is said not to have exceeded 6,000, but it is stated by Mr Baines to have amounted to 30,000 in 1825. In like manner, the population of Blackburn has increased from 11,980 in 1801, to 21,940 in 1821; that of Bolton has increased in the same period, from 17,416 to 39,616; that of Wigan, from 10,989 to 17,716, &c. But the progress of Liverpool is the most extraordinary, and can be matched only by the progress of one or two cities in the United States. Liverpool is not properly one of the seats of the cotton manufacture; but it is, notwithstanding, mainly indebted to it for the unparalleled rapidity of its growth. It is the grand emporium of the cotton district-the port where almost all the raw cotton, and the various foreign articles required for the employment and subsistence of the persons engaged in the manufacture, are imported, and from whence the finished goods are exported to other countries. It has, therefore, become a place of vast trade, and is now, in that respect, second only to London. In 1700, according to the best accounts that can be obtained, the population of Liverpool amounted to only 5,145; in 1750 it had increased to 18,450; in 1770 it amounted to 34,050. The cotton manufacture now began rapidly to extend, and, in consequence, the population of Liverpool had increased in 1801 to 77,653, and in 1821 it amounted to 118,972. The progress of population in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire has been equally striking. In 1780, the city of Glasgow contained only 42,832 inhabitants; in 1801, that number had increased to 83,769; and, in 1821, it amounted to 147,043. The growth of Paisley is similar. In 1782, it contained, inclusive of the Abbey Parish, only 17,700 inhabitants; in 1801 it contained 31,179; and in 1821 it contained about 46,000. Since the repeal of the absurd system of Irish protecting duties in 1823, the cotton manufacture has begun to make a very considerable progress in Ireland. This is proved by a statement, laid before the House of Commons, which shows that the number of yards of cotton goods, manufactured chiefly from yarn sent from England, exported from Ireland to Great Britain, in 1822, amounted to 406,687; in 1823, to 556,646; in 1824, to 3,840,699; and in 1825, it amounted to no less than 6,418,645;-having increased in a nearly twelvefold proportion in two years, by the abolition of duties that were intended to protect the industry of Ireland! For a very long period the woollen manufacture was the great Declared Values. Official Values. staple of the country. But the progress of improvement in the spinning and manufacturing of cotton since 1770, being so much more rapid than any that has taken place in the woollen manufacture, the value of the former is now vastly greater than that of the latter. It appears, from the accounts of the declared or real values of the different sorts of exported commodities obtained by the Custom-house, that the exports of cotton goods, including yarn, amount, on an average, to about seventeen millions sterling, or to nearly half the value of the whole manufacture; and form of themselves about two-thirds of the total value of all the wove fabrics exported from the empire. We subjoin a statement, compiled from papers printed by order of the House of Commons: Statement of the Official, and the Declared or Real, Values of the Cotton Manufactured Goods, Cotton Yarn, Woollen, and Silk Manufactures, and the Totals of all other articles of British Produce and Manufactures, Exported from Great Britain to all parts of the World (except Ireland) in each of the Thirteen Years 1814-1826 :— L. L. Woollen. Linen. Silk. L. Total of Total of all Wove Fabrics. Other Articles. L. L. [1814 16,690,365 1,119,850 4,931,670 1,524,457 173,348 24,439,684 8,760,896 15 21,699,505 808,853 7,122,570 1,590,074 224,873 31,445,876 10,266,126 16 16,335,124 1,380,486 5,586,364 1,559,367 161,874 25,023,215 9,751,305 17 20,357,147 1,125,257 5,676,920 1,943,194 152,734 29,255,253 9,980,144 18 21,627,936 1,296,776 6,344,100 2,153,309 167,559 31,589,683 10,373,844 19 16,876,206 1,585,753 4,602,270 1,547,352 126,809 24,738,390 8,185,185 1820 20,704,600 2,022,153 4,363,973 1,935,186 118,370 29,144,283 8,673,753 121,630,493 1,898,695 5,500,922 2,303,443 136,402 31,478,955 8,715,938| 2 24,566,920 2,353,217 5,943,612 2,594,783 141,007 35,599,539 7,958,950 24 117,549 2,425,419 5,539,789 2,654,098 141,320 34,878,175 8,266,291 4 27,170,107 2,984,329 6,136,092 3,283,403| 159,648 39,733,579 8,296,457 5 26,597,574 2,897,706 5,929,342 2,709,772 150,815 38,285,209 8,167,812 6 21,445,565 3,748,526 5,041,585 2,056,760 106,738 32,399,174 7,932,830 1814 17,393,796 2,791,249 6,372,494 1,701,384 530,020 28,788,940 14,658,432 15 19,124.062 1,674,022 9,338,142 1,777,563 622,120 32,535,905 17,117,340 16 13,072,757 2,628,448 7,844,855 1,452,667|480,522|25,479,252 14,849,690| 17 14,178,022 2,014,182 7,163,472 1,703,632 408,523 25,467,827 14,869,292 18 16,643,579 2,385,305 8,143.193|1,949,815 499,175 29,621,067 15,567,182| 19 12,388,833 2,516.783 5,986,807 1,391,245 376,798 22,660,467 11,588,029 1820 13,843,569 2,826,643 5,583,430 1,653,804 374,114 24,278,570 11,290,109 113,786,957 2,307 830 6,461,567|1,981,465 373,938 24,911,759 10,914,223 2 14,534,253 2,700,437 6,488,523 2,192,772 381,455 26,297,429 9,879,468 3 13,751,415 2,625,947 5,634,137 2,095,574 350,880 24,457,952|10,233,172 4 15,240,006 3,135,496 6,011,534|2,442,440 442,582 27,272,059 10,301,359 5 15,034,138 3,206,729 6,193,775|2,130.705 296,677 26,862,024 11,221,749 6 10,522,357 3,491,268 4,982,898|1,489,647 168,453 20,652,623 10,195,015 Previously to 1790, the supply of raw cotton for the British manufacture was principally derived from the West Indies and the Levant. But, after the termination of the American war, cotton began to be cultivated in Carolina and Georgia, and has succeeded so well that it now forms one of the most valuable productions of the United States. American cotton is generally known by the names of Sea Island and Upland. The former is the finest cotton imported into Britain. It grows on small sandy islands contiguous to the shore, and on the low grounds bordering on the sea. The Upland grows at a distance from the coast, and is so very difficult to separate from the seed, that it was for a considerable period not worth cultivating. But the genius of a Mr Whitney, who invented a machine which separates the wool from the seed with the utmost facility, has done for the planters of Carolina and Georgia what the genius of Arkwright did for the manufacturers of Lancashire. Before Mr Whitney's invention, in 1793, very little upland cotton was cultivated, and not a single pound was exported from the United States. No sooner, however, had Mr Whitney's machine been constructed, than the cultivation of this species of cotton became the principal object of the agriculturists of Carolina and Georgia; and the quantity exported has increased to upwards of 100 millions of pounds weight! Mr Whitney took out a patent for his invention, and sold the right to use it to the state of South Carolina for 50,000 dollars. In Georgia, and some of the other states, he had to struggle with a powerful combination, who endeavoured to deprive him of the profits to be derived from his invention; and a considerable period elapsed before he succeeded in making his patent effectual. Having finished this brief, and necessarily very imperfect sketch of the rise, progress, and present magnitude of the cotton manufacture, we shall now take leave to submit a few observations with respect to the probability of our preserving our ascendency in it, and its influence on the condition and morals of the people. It is obvious, that a great deal of conjecture must always insinuate itself into our reasonings with respect to the future state of any branch of manufacturing industry. They are all liable to be affected by so many contingent and unforeseen circumstances, that it is impossible to predicate, with anything like certainty, what may be their condition a few years hence. But abstracting from the effect of national struggles and commotions, which can neither be foreseen nor calculated, we do not think that there is anything in our state, or in that of the dif ferent commercial and manufacturing countries of the world, that should lead us to anticipate that the gloomy forebodings of those who contend that the cotton manufacture of England has reached its zenith, and that it must now begin to decline, will be realized. The natural capabilities we possess for carrying on the business of manufacturing, are, all things considered, decidedly superior to those of any other people. But the superiority to which we have already arrived is perhaps the greatest advantage in our favour. Our master manufacturers, engineers, and artisans, are more intelligent, skilful, and enterprising, than those of any other country; and the extraordinary inventions they have already made, and their familiarity with all the principles and details of the business, will not only enable them to perfect the processes already in use, but can hardly fail to lead to the discovery of others. Our establishments for spinning, weaving, printing, bleaching, &c. are infinitely more complete and perfect than any that exist elsewhere; the division of labour in them is carried to an incomparably greater extent; the workmen are trained from infancy to industrious habits, and have attained that peculiar dexterity and sleight of hand in the performance of their separate tasks, that can only be acquired by long and unremitting application to the same employment. Why, then, having all these advantages on our side, should we not keep the start we have already gained? Every other people that attempts to set up manufactures, must obviously labour under the greatest difficulties as compared with us. Their establishments cannot, at first, be sufficiently large to enable the division of employments to be carried to any considerable extent, at the sametime that expertness in manipulation, and in the details of the various processes, can only be attained by slow degrees. It appears, therefore, reasonable to conclude, that such new beginners having to stand the competition of those who have already arrived at a very high degree of perfection in the art, must be immediately driven out of every market equally accessible to both parties; and that nothing but the aid derived from restrictive regulations and prohibitions will be effectual to prevent the total destruction of their establishments in the countries where they are set up. But it is said, that great as these advantages certainly are, they are counterbalanced by still greater drawbacks; that the advantage of obtaining the raw material of the manufacture from their own citizens, and without having to pay the expense of conveying it to a distant country, will, in the end, enable the nascent manufactures of America to obtain an ascendency over ours; and that the high price of provisions in this country, and |