Weaving and the Textile Industry
If it wasna for the weavers, what would ye do?
Ye wouldna hae your cloth that's made o woo.
Ye wouldna hae your cloak neither black nor blue
If it wasna for the wark o the weavers!
In the middle of the 19th century, the predominant manufactures in Scotland were textiles:
cotton, wool, flax (linen) and silk. Scotland's principal imports at that
time were raw materials for the cotton and linen mills. In 1838, well
over 100,000 people were employed in the textile industry. Factory employment
rose from about 60,000 in 1838 to nearly 80,000 by 1856; seventy per cent
of these employees were female. In this period, while the cotton industry
remained almost static, employing about 35,000 factory workers, the woollen
industry doubled in size from 5,100 workers, in 112 factories, in 1838
to 10,200 workers, in 204 factories, in 1856.
Linen had been a
major industry in Scotland for hundreds of years; by 1684 an estimated
12,000 people were employed its manufacture. The industry was stimulated
by an act of Parliament of 1686 stipulating that everyone had to be buried
in linen winding sheets made from materials which had been grown, spun
and woven in Scotland. Further stimulus came from the act of 1748 prohibiting
the importing or wearing of French cambrics, "under severe penalties";
and that of 1751 which allowed weavers to work in all parts of Scotland
"free of all corporation dues, conjoined with a bounty of 1 1/2 d. [0.6
pence] per yard on all linens exported at and under 18d [7.5 pence] per
yard." Linen had by this time become Scotland's most important export.
Although superseded by the cotton industry, in 1838, there were still
17,900 linen factory workers, which had grown to 31,700 by 1856 . There
appears to have been substantial consolidation in the industry then however,
for the number of factories decreased between 1838 and 1856 from 183 to
163 presumably as a scale effect of the economics of increased mechanisation.
Before the American
War of Independence, the tobacco trade had been a major source of wealth
in Scotland (contributing largely to Glasgow's growth). Subsequently the
Americans could sell freely anywhere, resulting in a substantial decrease
in Scotland's trade. This resulted in investment being diverted into cotton,
and this industry dominated Scotland's economy for the next hundred years.
But the influence of America on Scotland was felt again in the 1860s,
when the Civil War cut off supplies of raw cotton and Scotland's cotton
industry collapsed. This began Scotland's shift from textiles to heavy
industry.
The factory-based
textile industries were concentrated into different areas. The cotton
industry was based mainly in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire; from the 1851
census, over 37,000 people in Glasgow were involved directly or indirectly
in cotton manufacturing, out of a population of 360,000; a weavers' village
was founded in 1705 in the Calton area in the east of Glasgow. Glasgow
weavers were involved in several serious industrial and political disputes
in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The woollen industry
developed mainly in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire but with significant
activity in Perthshire and Stirlingshire; until the late 20th century
the Border towns of Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh and Selkirk were largely
dependent on their woollen mills.
The linen industry
was based mainly in Fife and Forfarshire, Dundee becoming its centre,
with nearly 50,000 people being employed by 1861 in the city and its surroundings,
in mills at at hand-looms. Other areas with significant linen manufacturing
were Kincardineshire, Perthshire, and Midlothian.
The silk industry
was quite small employing under a thousand people, mainly in Paisley.
Paisley's main textile businesses by the middle of the 19th century were
the production of its famous shawls and of cotton thread.
In 1838, an estimated
85,000 hand-looms were in use in Scotland: about 50,000 for cottons, in
Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, and about 26,000 for linens, mainly in Fife
and Forfarshire. Dunfermline was the centre of "harness" work, such as
damask table cloths, napkins, with about 3,000 looms. "Ordinary" linen
work - sheets and coarse linens ("dowlas and "osnaburghs") was the staple
manufacture, located mainly in Forfarshire (around Dundee). This work
employed from 17,000 weavers in summer, to 22,000 or 23,000 in winter,
nearly all in small detached buildings adjacent the weavers' cottages.
The weaving of tartans - employing about 2,500 looms - was concentrated
mainly at Stirling and Aberdeen, was done in the weavers' cottages. But
Glasgow had been renowned for its plaids in the early 18th century.
An important act
of Parliament of 1833 regulated labour in factories and enforcing care
for the education of child-workers. A report in 1853 records that the
owners of factories in Scotland "so far from considering their schools
a trouble, take the greatest pleasure and pride in showing them; for while
they profit by the labours of the children, they do not forget that they
have a duty to perform in return, not by carrying out the requirements
of the act as if it were intended to be a mere matter of form, but by
appointing efficient teachers, furnishing them with the means of imparting
the instruction so necessary to the welfare of the children in after-life,
and by taking care that it is done." In the larger factories, the adult
workers could also participate in the schools.
One might be tempted
to cynicism by such a glowing report, and question how many factory owners
actually were so caring about their employees. But as early as 1784, David
Dale established the New Lanark manufacturing
village just outside Lanark, whose inhabitants nearly all worked in the
cotton spinning factories there. Dale was deeply concerned about the welfare
of his workers and provided a school as well as accommodation.
The table below shows
how the numbers of children employed in Scottish textile factories decreased
from the 1830s on. But there were still significant numbers of under-13s
employed in the second half of the century.
| |
No. of children |
No. of workers over 13 |
| Year |
Males |
Females |
Males |
Females |
| 1835 |
2,821 |
3,961 |
12,997 |
30,401 |
| 1838 |
918 |
944 |
17,530 |
39,920 |
| 1850 |
585 |
779 |
19,881 |
45,998 |
| 1856 |
378 |
742 |
21,762 |
53,806 |
Workers
Disputes
In 1787, the Clyde Weavers' Association went on strike in Glasgow
when the mill-owners proposed to cut workers' wages. Hitherto strikes
had been resolved peaceably, but in this case the army was called in and
six weavers were killed. The leader, James Granger, was sentenced to be
flogged. Apparently after this event many of the weavers enlisted in the
regiment (the 39th) which had been called in.
In 1819-1820, during
a period of great radical activity, several Glasgow workmen fled to America
to avoid prosecution. One group of weavers marched from Strathaven to
Glasgow, with the claimed intention of capturing the city; their leader,
James Wilson, was hanged and beheaded.
New
Lanark
New Lanark was established by David Dale (1739-1806), who had served
an apprenticeship as a weaver in Paisley, then travelled round Scotland
as an agent buying home-spun linen. He set up his own business in Glasgow
in 1763, importing linen yarn from Holland and Flanders. A devout Christian
and lay preacher, when he set up the New Lanark mills in the 1780s, the
welfare of his workers was a major concern; New Lanark was a complete
village, with accomodation and a school. The site was a dell on the bank
of the River Clyde, surrounded by steep and beautifully wooded hills.
From 1791, he became
concerned with the plight of impoverished Highlanders who were considering
emigrating; he set up spinning mills in Sutherland - at "Spinningdale",
burnt down in 1809 - and at Oban; he gave jobs and housing to a group
of destitute Highlanders from an emigrant ship wrecked off the west coast.
He also gave employment, schooling and accommodation at New Lanark to
hundreds of pauper children from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In 1799 Dale sold
New Lanark to another cotton mill manager - his son-in-law, Robert Owen,
the famous Welsh social and educational reformer. Owen established a model
community at New Lanark, with improved housing and working conditions.
He built an Institute for the Formation of Character; the school now included
the world's first day-nursery, and had evening classes for the adults.
The village store was the forerunner of the cooperative movement in Britain.
Owen founded several other "Owenite" communities, including one at New
Harmony, Indiana (1825-28), but all failed. He sold all his shares in
New Lanark in 1828.
New Lanark in the 1860s had a population of about 1,400, with about 280 houses. It is now a World Heritage Village.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, Fullerton & Co, c.1865
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