- In 1738 there were 75,000 pieces of woollen cloth produced in the West Riding of Yorkshire; in 1817 there were 490,000 pieces, and so rapid was the extension of the industry that in 1834 , 450,000 more pieces were produced than in 1825 . * In 1801 , 101,000,000 pounds of wool (7,000,000 pounds of it imported) were worked up; in 1835 , 180,000,000 pounds were worked up; of which 42,000,000 pounds
The principal centre of this industry is the West Riding of Yorkshire, where, especially at Bradford, long English wool is converted into worsted yarns, etc. ; while in the other cities, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, etc. , short wool is converted into hard-spun yarn and cloth.
Then come the adjacent part of Lancashire, the region of Rochdale, where in addition to the cotton industry much flannel is produced, and the West of England which supplies the finest cloths.
Here also the growth of population is worthy of observation:
A population which, since 1831 , must have increased at least 20 to 25 percent further.
In 1835 the spinning of wool employed in the United Kingdom 1,313 mills, with 71,300 workers, these last being but a small portion of the multitude who are supported directly or indirectly by the manufacture of wool, and excluding nearly all weavers.
Progress in the linen trade developed later, because the nature of the raw material made the application of spinning machinery very difficult. Attempts had been made in the last years of the last century in Scotland, but the Frenchman, Girard, who introduced flax spinning in 1810 , was the first who succeeded practically, and even Girard’s machines first attained on British soil the importance they deserved by means of