The fact of the trade being carried on in two divisions, each in different districts, has its disadvantages, the greatest being that of additional carriage--an extra cost of no inconsiderable amount. To remove this and other disadvantages, many attempts have been made to introduce the lacking department both in the North and South of Lancashire, but such attempts have generally failed to a greater or less extent, mainly in consequence of the incompetence of the hands, or rather the insufficient number of competent ones. Where the majority may excel in weaving, the number of good spinners is generally very small, and _vice versâ_. Another objection is the disadvantage at which the one party is placed should the production of one part of the industry exceed that of the other, the margin which might serve to provide remunerative occupation for both being at present often unequally distributed, the over-producer taking the lower position. On the contrary, there is no doubt that the skill of the operative is more greatly developed where one district takes up a specific branch of the sub-divided labour, and conducts it in a more fully equipped style, than would be the case were it to be attempted on a small scale. The known pre-eminence of Manchester as the market town is attributed in part to the necessity for some common centre where a meeting of the representatives of each of these industries could take place to transact the business of the trade. The Exchange of Cottonopolis is that centre. Here, every day of the week, but more especially on the Tuesday and Friday market days from all parts where the cotton trade is conducted, the spinner goes to meet the manufacturer, the manufacturer to meet the merchant, who in turn represents all countries to which our manufactures are exported; and thus the Exchange has become, as it were, the heart of the trade, for on it depends the prosperity of the whole industry, and a stoppage or diminution of the business there paralyses the trade.