Search for a place
Search for a place
Next Selection Previous Selection
Manufactures.
THE only manufacture of considerable importance in Ireland is that of linen, which the Irish have for near a century considered as the great staple of the kingdom. The history of it in its earlier periods is very little known; a committee of the house of commons, of which Sir Lucius O'Brien was chairman, examined the national records with great attention, in order to discover how long they had been in it; all that they discovered was that by an act passed in 1542 the 33d. of Henry 8. linen and woollen yarn were enumerated among the most considerable branches of trade possessed by the natives of Ireland in an act made against grey merchants forestalling. The 11th of Queen Elizabeth the same act was revived, and a further law made against watering hemp or flax, &c. in rivers. By the 13th of Elizabeth all persons were prohibited from exporting wool, flax, linen and woollen yarn, except merchants residing in cities and boroughs, and by a further act the same year a penalty of 12d. a pound was imposed on all flax or linen yarn exported, and 8d. more for the use of the town exported from. In this last act it is recited that the merchants of Ireland had been exporters of those articles in trade upwards of one hundred years preceding that period: and by many subsequent acts, and proclamations during the reigns of Charles I. and II. those manufactures were particularly attended to; from whence it evidently appeared that the kingdom possessed an export trade in these commodities at those early periods. The Earl of Strafford, Lord Lieutenant in Charles I. reign, passed several laws, and took various measures, to encourage this manufacture, insomuch, that he has by some authors been said to have established it originally. At the end of the last century, in king William's reign, it arose to be an object of consequence, but not singly so, for it appears from a variety of records, in both kingdoms, that the Irish had then a considerable woollen manufacture for exportation, which raised the jealousy of the English manufacturers in that commodity, so much that they presented so many petitions to both lords and commons, as to induce those bodies to enter fully into their jealousies and illiberal views; which occasioned the famous compact between the two nations brought on in the following manner. Die jovis 90. Junij
1698. The Earl of Stamford
reported from the lords committees (appointed to draw an address to be presented to his Majesty, relating to the woollen manufacture in Ireland)
the following address, viz
, WEE the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled. Do humbly represent unto your Majesty, that the growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland
, both by the cheapness of all sorts of necessaries of life, and goodness of materials for making all manner of cloth, doth invite your subjects of England, with their families and servants, to leave their habitations to settle there, to the increase of the woollen manufacture in Ireland, which makes your loyal subjects in this kingdom very apprehensive that the further growth of it may greatly prejudice the said manufacture here; by which the trade of this nation and the value of lands will very much decrease, and the numbers of your people be much lessened here; wherefore, we do most humbly beseech your most sacred majesty, that your majesty would be pleased, in the most public and effectual way, that may be, to declare to all your subjects of Ireland, that the growth and increase of the woollen manufacture there, hath long, and will ever be looked upon with great jealousie, by all your subjects of this kingdom: And if not timely remedied may occasion very strict laws, totally to prohibit and suppress the same, and on the other hand, if they turn their industry and skill, to the settling and improving the linen manufacture, for which generally the lands of that kingdom are very proper, they shall receive all countenance, favour and protection from your royal influence, for the encouragement and promoting of the said linen manufacture, to all the advantage and profit, that kingdom can be capable of. To which the House agreed. IT is ordered, by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that the lords with white staves doe humbly attend his majesty with the address of this house, concerning the woollen manufacture in Ireland. Die Veneris 10° Junij
1698. "The lord Steward reported his Majesty's answere to the address, to this effect, (viz).
THAT his Majesty will take care to do what their "lordships have desired. ASHLEY COWPER. Jovis 30 Die Junij
1698. Most Gracious Sovereign,
WE your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the commons in parliament assembled, being very sensible that the wealth and power of this kingdom do, in a great measure, depend on the preserving the woollen manufacture, as much as possible entire to this realm, think it becomes us, like our ancestors, to be jealous of the establishment and increase thereof elsewhere; and to use our utmost endeavours to prevent it. AND therefore, we cannot without trouble observe, that Ireland is dependant on, and protected by England, in the enjoyment of all they have; and which is so proper for the linen manufacture, the establishment and growth of which there, would be so enriching to themselves, and so profitable to England; should, of late, apply itself to the woollen manufacture, to the great prejudice of the trade of this kingdom; and so unwillingly promote the linen trade, which would benefit both them and us. THE consequence whereof, will necessitate your parliament of England, to interpose to prevent the mischief that threatens us, unless your majesty, by your authority, and great wisdom, shall find means to secure the trade of England, by making your subjects of Ireland to pursue the joint interest of both kingdoms. AND we do most humbly implore your majesty's protection and favour in this matter; and that you will make it your royal care, and enjoin all those you employ in Ireland, to make it their care, and use their utmost diligence, to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland, except to be imported hither, and for the discouraging the woollen manufactures, and encouraging the linen manufactures in Ireland, to which we shall always be ready to give our utmost assistance. RESOLVED, That the said address be presented to his majesty by the whole house. Sabbati. 2. die Julii.
HIS MAJESTY'S ANSWER. GENTLEMEN, I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland, and to encourage the linen manufacture there; and to promote the trade of England. Thursday 27th September
, 1698. Part of the Lords Justices Speech. AMONGST these bills there is one for the encouragement of the linen and hempen manufactures, at our first meeting, we recommend to you that matter, and we have now endeavoured to render that bill practicable and usesul for that effect, and as such we now recommend it to you. The settlement of this manufacture will contribute much to people the country, and will be found much more advantageous to this kingdom, than the woollen manufacture, which being the settled staple trade of England, from whence all foreign markets are supplied, can never be encouraged here for that purpose, whereas the linen and hempen manufactures will not only be encouraged, as consistent with the trade of England, but will render the trade of this kingdom both usesul and necessary to England. The Commons of IRELAND returned the following Answer to the Speech from the Throne. WE pray leave to assure your excellencies that we shall heartily endeavour to establish a linen and hempen manufacture here, and to render the same useful to England, as well as advantageous to this kingdom, and that we hope to find such a temperament in respect to the woollen trade here; that the same may not be injurious to England. And they passed a law that session commencing the 25th of March, 1699, laying 4s. additional duty on every 20s. value of broad-cloth exported out of Ireland, and 2s. on every 20s. value of serges, baize, kerseys, stuffs, or any other sort of new drapery made of wool or mixed with wool (frizes only excepted) which was in effect a prohibition. And in the same session a law was passed in England, restraining Ireland from exporting those woollen manufactures, including frize, to any other parts except to England and Wales. THE addresses of the two houses to the king carry the clearest evidence of their source, the jealousy of merchants and manufacturers; I might add their ignorance
too, they are dictated upon the narrow idea that the prosperity of the woollen fabrics of Ireland was inconsistent with the welfare of those of England; it would at present be fortunate for both kingdoms if these errors had been confined to the last century. There is an equal mixture also of falshood in the representations; for they assert that the cheapness of necessaries in Ireland drew from England the woollen manufacturers, but they forgot the cheapness of labour in Ireland to which no workman in the world ever yet emigrated. The Irish were engaged in various slight fabricks not made in England; but had they been employed on broad cloth for exportation, the English manufacture would well have bore it, they did at that time and afterwards bear a rapid increase of the French fabrics, and yet flourished. We have had so long an experience of markets increasing with industry and invention that the time ought to have come long ago for viewing competitors without the eye of jealousy. THE memoirs of the time, as well as the expression in the above transaction, evidently prove that it was understood by both kingdoms to be a sort of compact, that if Ireland gave up her woollen manufacture, that of linen should be left to her under every encouragement. I have, however, myself heard it in the British parliament denied
to have been any compact; but simply a promise of encouragement not precluding a like or greater encouragement to the British linens. This is certainly an error, for so understood what is the meaning of the ample encouragements promised
by the British parliament? They could not mean internal encouragement or regulation, for they had nothing to do with either: it could simply mean as the purport of the words evidently shew, that they would enter into no measures which should set up a linen manufacture to rival the Irish. That woollens should be considered and encouraged as the staple of England, and linens as that of Ireland: it must mean this or it meant nothing. That the Irish understood it so cannot be doubted fer a moment; for what did they in consequences? They were in possession of a flourishing woollen manufacture, which they actually put down and crippled by prohibiting exportation. Let me ask those who assert there was no compact, why they did this? it was their own act. Did they cut their own throats without either reward, or promise of reward? Common sense tells us they did this under a perfect conviction that they should receive ample encouragement from England in their linen trade: but what moonshine would such encouragement prove if England departing from the letter and spirit of that compact had encouraged her own linen manufacture to rival the Irish, after the Irish had destroyed their woollen fabrics to encourage those of England? Yet we did this in direct breach of the whole transaction, for the 23d of George II. laid a tax on sail cloth made of Irish hemp. Bounties also have been given in England without extending fully to Irish linens. Checked, striped, printed, painted, stained or dyed linens of Irish manufacture are not allowed to be imported into Britain. In which, and in other articles, we have done everything possible to extend and increase our own linen manufacture, to rival that of Ireland. I admit readily, that the apprehensions of the Irish at the progress of British linens are in the spirit of commercial jealousy as well as our violence in relation to their woollens. But with this great difference; we forced them to put down a manufacture they were actually in possession of; and we being the commuting power do not leave them that freedom of market which we possess ourselves, points which necessarily place the two nations in this respect upon very different footings. Give them, as they ought to have, a free woollen trade, and they will then have no objection to »ny measures for the encouragement of our linens which do not absolutely exclude theirs. THE following table will shew the progress of their linen manufacture. An ACCOUNT of the EXPORT of LINEN-CLOTH, and LINEN-YARN, from IRELAND. MR HENRY ARCHDALL, in the year 1771, asserted before a committee of the house of commons, that Ireland manufactured for THE latter article must be a mere guess; the first we find contradicted in the preceding table, unless he meant cloth only. THIS ample table calls for several observations. It first appears that the manufacture has gone on in a regular increase, until it has arrived in the last seven years to be an object of prodigious consequence. The averages of each period of seven years are of particular importance; as there is one political lesson to be deduced from them, which may be of great use hereafter: they prove in the clearest manner that no judgment is ever to be formed of the state of the manufacture from one or two years, but on the contrary from seven years alone. In 1774 the export was lower than it had been for nine years before, and we very well recollect the noise which this fall made in England. I was repeatedly in the gallery of the English house of commons when they sat in a committee for months together upon the state of the linen trade, and from the evince I heard at the bar I thought Ireland was sinking to nothing, and that all her fabricks were tumbling to pieces: the assertion of the linen fabrics declining a third
was repeated violently, and it was very true. But they drew this comparison from 1771, when it was at its zenith, and a very unnatural one, for it rose at once five millions of yards which was unparallelled. It was ridiculous to draw a sudden start into precedent, for what manufacture in the world but experiences moments of uncommon prosperity, the continuance of which is never to be expected; this fall of a third therefore, though true in fact
, was utterly false in argument
. In truth the fall is exceedingly trivial, for the only comparison that ought to have been made was with the average of the preceding seven years, the decline then would have appeared only seven or eight hundred thousand yards, that is, not a twentieth
instead of a third.
But because the trade had run to a most extraordinary height in 1 771, the manufacturers and merchants felt the fall the more, and were outrageously clamorous because every year was not a jubilee one. If such were to be the consequences of an unusual demand, ministers and legislatures would have reason to curse any extraordinary prosperity, and to prevent it if they could, under the conviction that the grasping avarice of commercial folly, would be growling and dunning them with complaints when the trade returned to its usual and natural course. In the year 1773 and 4, all Ireland was undone; the linen manufacture was to be at an end; but lo! at the end of the period of seven years upon examining the average it is found to be in as great a state of increase as ever known before; for the four periods have all the same rise one above another of three millions of yards each: consequently, I say, upon the evidence of the clearest facts that there has been no declension
but an INCREASE. And I shall draw this manifest conclusion from it to disbelieve commercial complaints as long as I exist, and put no credit in that sort of proof which is carried to parliament in support of such complaints. Falshood and imposition I am confident find their way to the bar of a house, and I do not think, it much for the credit of those who supported the Irish complaints at the period above mentioned, that I should find in copying at Dublin part of this table from the parliamentary record of import and exports, the export of the year 1775 erased; the only considerable erasure there is in those volumes, the total of particulars makes 19,447,750 yards, but it now stands written over that erasure 20,205,087. It is easily accounted for; if the trade had been known to have experienced so immediate a revival half their arguments would have had no weight, it might therefore be convenient to sink the truth. If it was merely accidental in the clerk I can only say it was at a most unfortunate time
and subject.
2
THE following table will shew that England is the market for cighteen-twentieths of the total Irish exportation, QUANTITIES of IRISH LINENS imported into ENGLAND THE following table will shew the importation of the raw materials for this fabrick. IMPORT of FLAX, HEMP, and FLAX-SEED, into IRELAND. THIS account is favourable to the state of the manufacture; for the increased import of flax-seed in the second period, implies that the country supplied herself with more flax of her own producing, which accounts for the falling off in the import of undressed flax: the persons who have studied the manufacture in all its branches with the most attention, agree that there is no greater improvement to be wished for, than the raising the flax instead of importing foreign. It is much to be lamented, that the flax-husbandry has not made a greater progress in the kingdom; for the profit of it is very great. The minutes of the tour furnish the following particulars: FROM hence we find, that the profit is near seven pounds an acre, clear, after paying large expences, and that on the Cunningham acre. THERE is a notion common in the north of Ireland, which I should suppose must be very prejudicial to the quality as well as the quantity of flax produced; it is, that rich land will not do for it, and that the soil should be pretty much exhausted by repeated crops of oats, in order to reduce it to the proper state for flax. The consequence of this is, as I every where saw, crops full of weeds, and of poor half-starved flax: the idea is absurd; there is no land in the north of Ireland that I saw too rich for it. A very rich soil sown thin produces a branching harsh flax, but if very clear of weeds, and sown thick for the stems to draw each other up, the crop will be in goodness, and quantity proportioned to the richness of the land. A poor exhausted soil cannot produce a flax of a strong good staple; it is the nourishment it receives from the fertility of the land which fills the plant with oil, and bleachers very well know that the oil
is the strength
of the staple, and unfortunately it is, that bleaching cannot be performed without an exhalation of this oil and consequent weakness. But though it is necessary for colour to exhale a portion of the oil, flax that never had but little from the poverty of the soil it grew in is of little worth, and will not bear the operation of bleaching like the other. Potatoes kept very clean under the plough are an excellent preparation for flax; and turnips, well hoed, the same. THE earnings of the manufacturers in the linen fabrics are on an average, THESE earnings are from double to near treble those of husbandry labour throughout the kingdom, and yet complaints of poverty are infinitely more common among these people than in those parts of the kingdom that have no share of the manufacture. It is so in all countries; and ought to prevent too assiduous an attention to such complaints. Those who for the sake of great earnings will become weavers, must do it under the knowledge that they embrace or continue in a life not of the same regular tenour with the lowest species of labourers. If they will not be more prudent and saving, they ought not to clamour and expect the public to turn things topsy turvy to feed them, who, with any degree of attention, might have supported themselves much better than another class that never complains at all, HAVING thus endeavoured to shew the rise, progress, and present amount of this manufacture, it will be necessary to lay before the reader some account of the sums of public money which have, according to the fashion of Ireland, been expended in its encouragement. This is not so easy to do fully and accurately as I could wish, but the following papers are the best authorities I could find. An Account of the net Produce of the Duties appropriated to the Use of the Hempen and Linen Manufactures from their Commencement, and also the Bounties from Parliament. From 1721 to 1775. THE tea duties were granted for the use of this manufacture. BUT that this account is not complete appears by another7
to the following effect. An Account of the Money for which the Vice-treasurers have claimed Credit, as being paid by them for the Use of the Hempen and Linen Manufactures, from the 25th of March, 1700, to the 25th of March, 1775, returned to the Honourable House of Commons pursuant to their Order, November 25, 1775. THE expenditure of this money is under the direction of the linen board, upon a similar plan as the navigation board explained above. Their mode of applying it will be seen by the following account. Disbursements of the Linen Trustees, from 1757 to 1772. SUBSEQUENT to 1698 Ireland, at an enormous expence
to the public, made a progress in the linen manufacture, &c.9
THE trustees of the linen board expended near half a million of money to extend and promote the linen manufacture before the year 1750.10
BUT these accounts do not yet shew the full amount of public money which has been granted for the use of this great manufacture; to have this complete we must take in the bounties on the import of seed, and on the export of canvass and sail cloth, which have been as follow: THE most careless observer cannot help remarking, the great amount of this total; and must think, that an annual grant of £33,000 a year in support of a manufacture which works to the annual amount of two millions sterling, an extraordinary measure. I must be free to own, that I cannot, upon any principles, see the propriety of it. They cannot have done any considerable mischief I grant, but if they do no good there is a great evil in the misapplication of so much money. That a manufacture in its very cradle, if it happens to be of a sickly growth, may be benefited by bounties and premiums, is certain; but that even in such a case it is wise to give them, I doubt, very much; for fabricks being sickly in their growth is a reason against encouraging them. The truly valuable manufactures, such as linen in Ireland, wool and hardware in England, and silk in France, want no help but a demand for their produce. Ireland has always had a demand for her linens, and having been in the trade from the beginning of this century would naturally increase in proportion to the demand; but she would have done this though no linen board nor bounties had existed. It is contrary to all the principles of commerce to suppose, that such an increasing manufacture would want flax or flax-seed without bounties on the import; or that manufacturers in it would not earn their bread without a present of £55,000. The only instance in which these bounties would certainly have a considerable effect is, the case of expensive machines: the first introduction of which is difficult to individuals in a poor country. But this article, in its fullest extent, would have demanded but a small sum in the linen trade, for it by no means goes to common spinning wheels, the construction of which is generally known. If there is any reason to suppose linen would, throughout the century, have stood upon its own legs, how much more is there for its doing so at present! I will venture to assert, that there is not one yard of linen more made on account of the thirty-three thousand pounds a year now expended. It is to such a great manufacture a drop of water in the ocean.——An object too contemptible to have any effects attributed to it. It is idle and visionary to suppose, that a fabric which has employed a fourth part of the kingdom for 70 years, and exports to the amount of a million and a half annually, wants boards, and bounties, and premiums, and impertinence to support it. I have heard it said more than once in Ireland, that a seat at the linen board might easily be worth £300 a year; it is very well if the whole becomes a job, for it might just as well as be applied to inspectors, itinerent men, builders and salaries. I before calculated the extent of waste land, the bounty on the inland carriage of corn would have improved at £10 an acre, let me do the same with the 1,300,000 expended on linen. It would have improved 130,000 acres, which would now be yielding £520,000 a year, or a fourth part of the whole amount of all the linen manufacture of Ireland; so infinitely more productive is money bestowed on the land than on the fabrics of a state. I do not mean to find fault with the establishment of this manufacture; it has grown to a great degree of national importance, but from some unfortunate circumstances in the police of it (if I may use that expression) that importance is not nearly equal to what it ought to be, from the extent of country it absolutely fills. It will be at least a curious enquiry to examine this point; from the best information I can assert, that the linen and yarn made in Connaught, and part of Leinster, vastly exceed in value all the exports of Ulster, exclusive of those two commodities, which make linen the whole exportable produce of that province, or £1,600,000 a year. Ulster in the common estimation contains 2,836,837 plantation acres; suppose that vast tract under sheep, and feeding no more than two to an acre, their fleeces only at five shillings each, would amount raw to £1,418,418 and spun into bay yarn, without receiving any farther manufacture, the value would be £2,127,622 reckoning the labour half the value of the wool, that is to say, the amount would be more than the whole value of the linen manufacture both exported and consumed at home. How exceedingly different are the manufactures of England! That of the single city of Norwich amounts to near as much as the whole linen export of Ireland,12
but very far is that from being the whole exported produce of a province! It is not that of a single county, for Norfolk, besides feeding that city, Yarmouth and Lynn, two of the greatest ports in England, and a variety of other towns, exports I believe more corn than any other county in the kingdom; and whoever is acquainted with the supply of the London markets, knows that there are thousands of black cattle fattened every year on Norfolk turnips, and sent to Smithfield. What a spectacle is this! The agriculture in the world, the most productive of wealth by exportation around one of the greatest manufactures in Europe. It is thus that manufactures become the best friends to agriculture; that they animate the farmer's industry by giving him ready markets, until he is able, not only to supply them fully, but pushes his exertions with such effect, that he finds a surplus in his hands to convert into gold in the national balance, by rendering foreigners tributary for their bread. Examine all the other fabrics in the kingdom, you see them prodigious markets for the surrounding lands; you see those lands doubling, trebling, quadrupling their rents, while the farmers of them increase daily in wealth; thus you see manufactures rearing up agriculture, and agriculture supporting manufactures; you see a reaction which gives a reciprocal animation to human industry; great national prosperity is the effect; wealth pours in from the fabrics, which spreading like a fertile stream over all the surrounding lands, renders them, comparatively speaking, so many gardens, the most pleasing spectacles of successful industry. CHANGE the scene, and view the North of Ireland; you there behold a whole province peopled by weavers; it is they who cultivate, or rather beggar the soil, as well as work the looms; agriculture is there in ruins; it is cut up by the root; extirpated; annihilated; the whole region is the disgrace of the kingdom; all the crops you see are contemptible; nothing but filth and weeds. No other part of Ireland can exhibit the soil in such a state of poverty and desolation. A farming traveller, who goes through that country with attention, will be shocked at seeing wretchedness in the shape of a few beggarly oats on a variety of most fertile soils, which, were they in Norfolk, would soon rival the best lands in that county. A most prosperous manufacture, so contrived as to be the destruction of agriculture, is certainly a spectacle for which we must go to Ireland; but the cause of all these evils, which are absolute exception to everything else on the face of the globe, is easily found. It is owing to the fabric spreading over all the country, instead of being confined to towns. This in a certain degree is found in some manufactures in England, but never to the exclusion of farmers; there, literally speaking, is not a farmer in a hundred miles of the linen country in Ireland. The lands are infinitely subdivided, no weaver thinks of supporting himself by his loom; he has always a piece of potatoes, a piece of oats, a patch of flax, and grass or weeds for a cow, thus his time is divided between his farm and his loom. Ten acres are an uncommon quantity to be in one man's occupation; four, five, or six, the common extent. They sow their land with successive crops of oats until it does not produce the seed again, and they leave it to become grass as it may, in which state it is under weeds and rubbish for four or five years. Such a wretched management is constant destruction to the land; none of it becomes improved: unless from a state of nature; all the rest is destroyed, and does not produce a tenth of what it would, if cultivated by farmers, who had nothing to do but mind their business. As land thus managed will not yield rent, they depend for that on their web; if linen sells indifferently, they pay their rents indifferently, and if it sells badly, they do not pay them at all. Rents in general, at their value, being worse paid there than in any other part of Ireland. WHERE agriculture is in such a state of ruin, the land cannot attain irs true value; and in fact the linen counties, proportioned to their soil, are lower let than any others in Ireland. There has been a great rise on many estates, and so there has all over the kingdom, but not at all owing to the manufacture; and I am confident, from having gone over the whole with attention., that any given tract of land in the linen country, if it could be moved to some other part of the kingdom where there are no weavers, would let 20 per cent. higher than it does at present; and I am so convinced of this, that if I had an estate in the South of Ireland, I would as soon introduce pestilence and famine as the linen manufacture upon it, carried on as it is at present in the North of that kingdom.
Particular spots may be, and are high let in the North, but I speak of the average of any large tract. BUT if, instead of the manufacture having so diffused itself as absolutely to banish farmers, it had been confined to towns, which it might easily have been, the very contrary effect would have taken place, and all those vast advantages to agriculture would have flowed, which flourishing manufactures in other countries occasion. The towns would have been large and numerous, and would have proved such ample markets to all the adjacent country, that it could not have failed becoming well cultivated, and letting probably at double the present rent. The manufacturers would have been confined to their own business, and the farmers to theirs; that both trades would have flourished the better for this, the minutes of the journey very generally shew; a weaver who works at a fine cloth, can never take the plough or the spade in hand without injury to his web. I have heard but two objections to this: first, That the weavers would be unhealthy in towns: and second, That the country would be less populous. To the first I reply, that ill health is the consequence of a sedentary life and a bended posture; whether the man has his farm or not it is not a little work now and then that will remedy this evil if he supports himself by the loom. I was in several of the linen markets, and never saw more pallid pictures of disease; I defy any town to shew worse. Robust, healthy, vigorous bodies are not to be found at looms; if the health of the people is your object, you must give up manufactures, and betake yourselves to agriculture altogether; but this in the present state of the world is visionary. If the weavers were confined to towns, as I propose, there would be a much greater aggregate of health than at present, for the country would be as healthy as it always is in the hands of farmers and labourers, but at present all
is unhealthy as all
are manufacturers. THE second objection I totally deny, for it is against all the principles of population to assert, that a measure, which is beneficial to both agriculture and manufactures, can be prejudicial to the increase of people; more food would be raised from well than from ill cultivated ground; a whole race of farmers and labourers would be employed in feeding the towns; to think that population could be injured by such an arrangement is an absurdity too gross to deserve attention. But if such foolish ideas did arise, here is a fresh reason for actually numbering the people, at different epochs, as the only sure way of gaining a solid foundation for political reasoning.13
THAT the circumstances of the Irish manufacture are lamentable, when the extent of country is considered, no man of reflection can doubt, for the value of it taken in that light (important as it is in its total amount) appears to be comparatively trivial. Fortunately the evil is not without a remedy; the landlords of the country might, with no great difficulty, effect the change. Let them steadily refuse to let an acre of land to any man that has a loom; the business would and ought to be gradual; but farms should be thrown by degrees into the hands of real farmers, and weavers driven into towns, where a cabbage garden should be the utmost space of their land; and those gentlemen, who are introducing the manufacture in other parts of the kingdom, should build the cabbins contiguous, and let the inhabitants on no account have any land. All encouragement, all attention, all bounty, all premium, all reward, should go to those, who lived by, and attended to their looms alone, not in a separated cabbin, but in a street. The more a person attends to the abominable state of land in the North of Ireland, the more he will be convinced of the propriety, and even necessity of this measure; and if contrary to common sense, a paltry board is permitted to exist, by way of promoting a fabric of two millions a year, let them have this object, and this only as their business. Let them devise the means of inducing landlords to drive their weavers into towns, and they will in a few years do more good to their country than all their inspectors, itinerant men, and spinning wheels, will do in a century. RELATIVE to the other manufactures of Ireland, I am sorry to say, they are too insignificant to merit a particular attention; upon the subject of that of wool I must however remark, that the policy of England, which has always hitherto been hostile to every appearance of an Irish woollen manufacture, has been founded upon the mean contractions of illiberal jealousy; it is a conduct that has been founded upon the ignorance and prejudices of mercantile people, who, knowing as they are in the science which teaches that two and two make four, are lost in a labyrinth the moment they leave their counting-houses, and become statesmen; they are too apt to think of governing kingdoms upon the same principles they conduct their private business on, those of monopoly, which though the soul of private interest, is the bane of public commerce. It has been the mistaken policy of this country, to suppose that all Ireland gained by a woollen manufacture would be so much loss to England; this is the true monopolizing ignorance. We did not think proper to draw these bands of commercial tyranny so tight as to interdict their linens; we gave them a free trade; nay we import an immense quantity of Russian and German linen, and yet between this double fire of the Irish and foreigners, has our own linen manufacture flourished and increased; it is the spirit and effect of every species of monopoly to counteract the designs which dictate that mean policy. The rivalship of the Irish (if a rivalship was to ensue) would be beneficial to our woollen trade; as a fast friend to the interest of my native country, I wish success to those branches of the Irish woollens which would rival our own; a thousand beneficial consequences would flow from it; it would inspirit our manufacturers; it would awaken them from their lethargy, and give rise to the spirit of invention and enterprize. How long did our old broad cloth trade sleep in the west without one sign of life strong enough to animate a new pursuit; but a different spirit breaking out in Yorkshire and Scotland, new fabrics were invented, and new trades opened. A free Irish woollen trade would put our manufacturers to their mettle, and would do more for the woollen trade of England than any other measure whatever. Our merchants think such a rivalship would ruin them; but do they think the French would not have reason for such fears also? Have we not lost the Levant and Turkey trade through the obstinacy of our monopolists? And why should not Ireland have a chance for such a branch as well as Languedoc? But such has been our narrow policy, with respect to that kingdom, that we have for a century set down more contented with the successful rivalship of France, than with the chance of an Irish competitor. WHENEVER any question, relative to commercial indulgence to Ireland, has come into the British parliament, its friends have always urged the distressed state of Ireland
as a motive. This is taking the ground of duplicity, perhaps of falshood, they ought to be more liberal, and avow that their principle is not to relax the present laws as a matter of humanity to Ireland, but of right and policy to themselves; to demand a free trade to Ireland as the best friends to Britain; to demand that France may be rivalled by the subjects of the British empire; if those of one kingdom cannot, or will not do it, that those of another may. ONE would have reason to suppose, from the spirit of commercial jealousy among our woollen towns, that whatever Ireland got was lost to England. That kingdom is one of the greatest customers we have upon the globe; is it good policy to wish that our best customer may be poor? Do not the maxims of commercial life tell us that the richer he is the better? Can any one suppose that the immense wealth of Holland is not of vast advantage to our manufactures; and though the Russia trade, upon the balance, is much against us, who can suppose that the increasing wealth of that vast empire, owing to the unparalleled wisdom of its present empress, the first and most able sovereign in the world, is not an increasing fund in favour of British industry? THE tabinets and poplins of Ireland (a fabric partly of woollen, partly of silk) did that island possess a greater freedom in the woollen trade, would find their way to a successful market throughout all the South of Europe. A friend of mine travelled France and Spain with a suit of that pleasing fabric among others, and it was more admired and envied than any thing he carried with him. This is a manufacture of which we have not a vestige in England. UNDER another head I inserted the export of wool and yarn, and also the import of woollen goods from England; the following slight minute on the proportionate value of the labour to the material, will conclude what I have to say on a manufacture, which working only for home consumption, can never thrive. Bay yarn.
A woman, on an average, spins three skains a day, which weigh a quarter of a pound, the value spun is from ten-pence to a shilling, medium ten-pence three farthings. THE balls are a pound and an half each of twelve skains, the woman spins a ball in four days; being paid ten pence; in Leinster it is ten pence half- penny, and in Munster it is nine pence; average nine pence three farthings. Combing a ball is about three pence, which with spinning nine pence three farthings makes twelve pence three farthings labour on a ball; and the price of a ball, both wool and labour, in the year 1778, was three shillings and six pence. In a war the price of wool generally falls in Ireland. The last French war did not sink prices in Ireland, but the Spanish one did. The silk manufacture of Ireland has already been discussed in Section 16, and is a fabrick that merits neither the encouragement of the natives, nor the attention of others. 1
Journals of the commons, vol. 16. page 368. 2
In the woollen manufacture of England the same spirit of complaint and falshood has at different times pestered both parliament and the public. See this point discussed in my Political Arithmetic
, page 151. 3
Substance of Mr. Glover's evidence before the house of commons, 1774, page 60. 4
At £3 10S. a hogshead from 28 s. to £6. 5
At 48 s. from £45 to £52 per ton. 6
At 32 s. from £24 to £40 per ton, average £32. 7
Commons Journals, vol. 17, p. 263. 8
Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xv. p. 375. 9
REPORT of Sir Lucius O'Brien's Committee Journals, vol. xv, p. 396. 10
Ibid. page 400. 11
EXTRACTED from an account of national premiums, MS Communicated by the Right Hon. John Forster. 12
Norwich works to the amount of about £1,200,000 a year. 13
La Iista de los habitantss, su clasificacion por sexos, edades y ocupaciones forman el fundamento de los discursos relativos a la poblacion. Campomanes apendice a la Educion Popular.
Tom 4. p. 410.SECTION XIX.
Clerk Parliamentor."
Average of 7 years, from 1750 to 1756.
Linen Cloth,
11,796,361
yards
Yarn,
24,328
Cwt.
Cloth, valued at 1s. 3d. per yard,
745,057
£.
Yarn, valued at £6 per 120 lb.
145,972
£.
Total value,
904,479
£.
Average of 7 years, from 1757 to 1763.Linen cloth,
14,511,973
yards
Yarn,
33,114
Cwt.
Cloth, valued at 1s. 3d. per yard,
967,445
£.
Yarn, valued at £6 per 120 lb.
198,690
£.
Total value,
1,166,136
£.
Average of 7 years, from 1764 to 1770.Linen cloth
17,776,862
yards
Yarn
32,311
Cwt.
Cloth, valued at 1s. 3d. per yard,
1,184,171
£.
Yarn, valued at £6 per 120 lb.
193,868
£.
Total value,
1,379,512
£.
Average of 7 years, from 1771 to 1777.Linen cloth,
20,252,239
yards
Yarn,
31,475
Cwt.
Cloth, valued at 1s. 3d. per yard,
1,390,919
£.
Yarn, valued at £6 per C. 120 lb.
188,810
£.
Total value,
1,615,654
£.
Average of 30 years since 1748,
1,228,148
£.Average of 30 years before,
417,600
£.
£.
Exportation, — —
1,541,200
And for home consumption, —
658,906
2,200,1061
from Christmas 1756, to Christmas 1773.From 1757 to 1761.
65,768,072 yards, or per annum
13,153,614.
From 1762 to 1766.
72,474,915 yards, or per annum
14,494,583.
From 1767 to 1771.
87,063,578 yards, or per annum
17,612,715.
In the year
1772 — —3
19,171,771.
1773 — —
17,896,994.
Average of 7 years from 1764 to 1770.
Flaxd seed,
31,809
hogsheads,4
Value
£111,333
Undressed flax,5
15,608
Cwt.
Value
£37,387
Undressed hemp,6
16,243
Cwt.
Value
25,988
Total Value £174,710
Average of 7 years from 1771 to 1777.Flax seed,
33,050
hogsheads,
Value
£115,675
Undressed flax,
9,322
Cwt.
Value
£22,374
Undressed hemp,
14,590
Cwt.
Value
£23,343
Total Value £161,394
Expences.
Stones
scutched.
At per
stone.
Value.
£.
s.
d.
s.
d.
£.
s.
d.
Averages,
8
13
2
36
7
2
15
8
1
£.
s.
d.
Weavers of fine cloths a day, —
0
1
5
Ditto of coarse, — —
0
1
0½
Spinners, — — —
0
0
3¼
Nett Duties.
Bounties.
£.
£.
Totals,
453,204
184,540
Nett tea duties for 7 years,
ending 1775,}
72,500
184,540
710,244
Average of the last 7 years
duties,}
1,385
Ditto of tea duties,
10,357
Together,
11,742
£
Total,
847,504
Average of the last 7 years,
14,446
£
Spinning schools, — —
3,634
Flax shops, — —
2,197
Flax dressers, — —
4,145
Bleachers, — —
14,323
Contractors, — —
5,720
Yarn inspectors,
654
Manufacturers,
55,013
Utensils, — —
69,445
Raising flax, — —
5,101
Flaxseed mixed with potatoes,
2,818
Fraudulent lapped linens, —
748
Buildings and repairs, —
25,936
Clerks, &c. at linen office —
11,728
Ditto, linen and yarn halls, —
7,642
Inspectors, itinerent men, and reed makers,
7,723
Incidental charges, —
11,773
In sixteen years, —
225,606
Or per annum, —
14,1008
Years, ending
Lady day.
Import Hemp
and flaxseed.
£.
1765
11,464
1767
15,894
1769
16,810
1771
16,062
1773
16,279
1775
14,674
1777
14,479
Totals, — —
226,834
Average of the last seven years, —
15,09411
The bounty on the export of canvas and
sail cloth, from 1731 to 1755,
28,682
£.
By one of these accounts the annual net produce
of those duties appropriated to this manufacture,
on an average of the last seven years, is —
11,742
But by the other, the treasury charges the manufacture
on the same average with, —
14,446
Difference, —
2,704
The total annual sums at present applied appear to be these:
£.
Produce of duties appointed for the purpose,
14,446
Parliamentary bounty, —
4,000
Bounty on the import of flax-seed, —
15,094
Total per annum, —
33,540
And that the total sums thus applied since the year 1700 have been:
£.
Paid by the vice treasurers,
847,504
Parliamentary bounty, —
192,540
Bounty on flax import, —
226,834
Ditto on export of canvas, —
28,682
Total, —
1,295,560
d.
Combing it not quite ———
1
Spinning, — —
2½
3½
Value of the wool, ———
7¼
10¾
Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780)