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It enjoyed an advantage over the woollen industry in beingable to develop itself in the field of the new time without hin-drance. On the basis of property and freedom, the spirit ofcommerce launched this, the first modern industry. It was notby chance that the delicate fibre, its standard-bearer, was a childof the distant tropics. Commerce had first brought the fibrehere, and Commerce had to be thanked for the freedom fromancient enactments which still strangled her home-bred sisters,the woollen and linen fibres (13a).
The revolution first attacked spinning so early, because up tonow the demand for yarns had by far outstripped the supply (13).Powerloom weaving could not be thought of until spinning bypower delivered yarns in suitable quantities. Hie first factory,in the modern sense, was the spinning mill of Arkwright , in Not-tingham, 1768.
The following moments are to be noted in the first decadesof the cotton industry—I. The prohibition of Indian woven goods.In 1772 the first printed calicoes wholly of cotton were made inEngland ; in 1822 the first twist was exported to India. II. Thechange of fashion to cotton among the wealthy as well as theworking classes. Fustian , a sort of cotton velvet, became for avery long time the clothing of the English workman. III. Theflooding of the Continent with English yarns and woven goods.In 1792 English yarns appeared for the first time in large quan-tities at the Leipsic fair. IV. The Napoleonic war, which hin-dered the flourishing of a Continental industry, and, with thetremendous extension of smuggling, scarcely harmed the English cotton industry. V. The quick realisation of large fortunes inthe hands of the earliest manufacturing families. Up to the“twenties” there were, unless we except 1812 to 1814, no de-pressed business years.
As early as 1801, with total exports of 18 millions, cottongoods counted for 7 millions. Truly could Macculloch say thatthe rapid growth of the cotton industry had given England the
13. Compare Baines, pp. 115, 116.
13a. On the other hand the German cotton industry, because older thanthe English , was under Guild control, the Augshurg industry (compare NuhlingUlm’s Baumwollindustrie in Mittelalter , Leipzig, 1890) as well as that of theVoigtland (compare Bein : “ Die Industrie des Voigtlandes,” Leipzig, 1884).Even in this century the existence of Guild trade limitation was a fetter pre-venting the development of the Augsburg cotton industry. Compare Grass-mann: “ Augsburger Industrie in Jahrhundert,” Augsburg, 1894, pp. 12, 13,27, 29, 31, 107. Only in 1861 did the Weavers’ Guild cease to exist.