The Rise of Europe

The Role of Textiles

Medieval Cloth Production• Almost all civilizations

produce cloth, a basic consumer good

• Primarily small-scale production (some exceptions)

• Medieval spinning wheel and improvements

• Knitting frame invented in 1598

Coveted Goods• Rich and luxurious Arab

and Ottoman fabrics—muslins (Mosul), damasks (Damascus), fustians (El-Fustat)

• Chinese silks and porcelain (arcanum)

• India cotton, kashmir (cashmere), and calicoes

• Tastes stimulated global commerce

Textiles, ca. 1700

• Indian products carried in Dutch ships

• Britain tried to protect domestic industry from Indian textiles

• World trade in textiles dominated by Asia and the Middle East

• No clear European advantage in styles or production methods

Domestic Manufacture• Bypass guild system• Role of cloth merchant• Supplement to

agricultural incomes• May have promoted

higher birth rate• Family division of labor

“Among the manufacturers' houses are likewise scattered an infinite number of cottages or small dwellings, in which dwell the workmen which are employed, the women and children of whom, are always busy carding, spinning, etc. so that no hands being unemployed all can gain their bread, even from the youngest to the ancient; anyone above four years old works.” –Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724)

The Process

Ginning and Carding

Combing orFulling

Spinning

WeavingFinishing and

Bleaching/Dyeing

Cottons, wools, worsteds, linens (flax), lace

The First InnovationsFly Shuttle—1733 (halved time of weaving)

Spinning Jenny—1764 (8 spindles)

Water Frame—1771 (first cotton mill)

Mule—1779 (combined two technologies)

Result: mechanization of spinning

MechanizationPower Loom—1785 (problems with weft)

Jacquard Loom—1801 (complex patterns)

Adoption of factory system

Other Industrial Effects

• Stimulus to bleaching and dyeing industries• Promoted mechanization in other industries• Watt’s steam engine used in cotton mills• Led to Luddite movement• Promoted urbanization• Formed basis for later corporations• Legislation that protected corporations—Joint

Stock Company Act (1844) and Limited Liability Act (1855)

Economic ImpactCotton Imported to Britain between 1701 and 1800

Year Lbs.

1701 1,985,868

1710 715,008

1720 1,972,805

1730 1,545,472

1741 1,645,031

1751 2,976,610

1764 3,870,392

1775 4,764,589

1780 6,766,613

1790 31,447,605

1800 56,010,732

Economic Impact

Year £

1701 23,253

1710 5,698

1720 16,200

1730 13,524

1741 20,709

1751 45,986

1764 200,354

1780 355,060

1787 1,101,457

1790 1,662,369

1800 5,406,501

Cotton Goods Exported by Britain between 1701 to 1800

Economic Impact

Date £ (thous.) % of total

1784-86 766 6.0

1794-96 3,392 15.6

1804-06 15,871 42.3

1814-16 18,742 42.1

1824-26 16,879 47.8

1834-36 22,398 48.5

1844-46 25,835 44.2

1854-56 34,908 34.1

Export of British Cotton Goods, 1784 to 1856

Social Effects1813 2400 looms 150,000 workers1833 85,000 looms 200,000

workers1850 224,000 looms >1 M workers

• Growth of new classes• Rise of British dominance• Expansion of industry to the

continent (often imitating British methods in textiles)

• Opposition to mechanization• Environmental, housing, urban,

family issues• Reform and revolution• Stimulated growth of slavery

(cotton production)

The International Balance of Power

An Assessment“European textile manufacture trailed much of the rest of the world at the outset of the eighteenth century. Then a series of inventions and the application of mineral power led to the widespread mechanization of the textile industry. Britain led the way, benefitting from a legal and political framework that supported private enterprise, whether through the enclosure acts, intellectual property rights, favorable incorporation laws, or anti-union legislation. Mechanization of textiles stimulated the growth of and set the model for related and other industries. By 1840, Britain—and then other European nations and the United States—garnered an increasing share of world production and trade. Production methods and technologies first applied in textiles allowed Europe by 1900 to extend its economic, technological, and political control to areas of the world that only recently had equaled or surpassed Europe.”