AND ON THE CONTINENT.

75

would he to accept ono of the same capacity as a free anduntrammelled gift, but located in a place not possessing theseadvantages.”

The division of labour which exists between the industrialplaces extends to the single mills. Ono employer producesat the present time few specialties. The large spinning-mills of Oldham and Bolton spin, for instance, not more than onecount, or at most but a few counts, and these from year to year. Inthe same way many weaving-mills of North Lancashire produceonly one sort of current staple goods (19).

This far-reaching division of labour is only made possible bythe certainty of sale which is guaranteed by the organisation ofcommerce in Manchester. This also has made the principles ofcentralisation and division of labour useful in a high degree.The most important in this respect is, that the millowner doesnot himself go to customers, but the wholesale merchant orexporter acts between both.

We have above followed cotton up to its buying by the spinnerthrough the broker. A highly-developed railway and canal net-work assists the traffic from the market of the raw material to thecentres of production. Whilst the older spinning-mills are almostalways situated on canals, and the cotton is raised from the boatto the immediate neighbourhood of the mixing-room, the newerspinning-mills are more and more dependent upon railway com-munication, often being connected by railway sidings with themain line.

The opening of the Ship Canal now being constructed willmean a further facilitation of traffic. Already at this time onesees those tremendous docks excavated in the neighbourhood ofManchester which only now require connection with the sea inorder to receive here, in the middle of the seat of industry, itsraw materials direct from the producing land. (19a.) A ten-yearsagitation in speeches and writings—carried on by employers aswell as employed—preceded this colossal undertaking. It wasauthorised on the 30th July, 1885, with aquisition rights, alongwith which, as a. condition, the authority of Parliament hail fixed

10. Compare “ Protokollc der Reichseuquete fur die Bauimvoll uud Leinen-iudustrie,” p. 380. Eighty thousand English spindles have spun, siuce thecommencement of the “sixties,” the same two counts—32s twist, 40’s weft—an example of many.

19a. Now in full operation.