PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER HISTORICAL SERIES No. XXXVI THE EARLY ENGLISH COTTON INDUSTRY Published by the University of Manchester at THE UNIVERSITY PRESS (H. M. MCKECHNIE, Secretary) 12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD, MANCHESTER LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. LONDON: 39 Paternoster Row NEW YORK: 443-449 Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street CHICAGO: Prairie Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street BOMBAY: 8 Hornby Road CALCUTTA: 6 Old Court House Street MADRAS: 167 Mount Road [Illustration: STATUE OF SAMUEL CROMPTON NELSON SQUARE, BOLTON _On the base there is a representation of Hall-i’-th’-Wood which can just be distinguished in the photograph_] THE EARLY ENGLISH COTTON INDUSTRY WITH SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF SAMUEL CROMPTON BY GEORGE W. DANIELS, M.A. SENIOR LECTURER IN ECONOMICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY GEORGE UNWIN, M.A. PROFESSOR OF ECONOMIC HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MANCHESTER: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, ETC. 1920 PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER No. CXXXIII PREFACE In view of what is said by Professor Unwin in his introductory chapter concerning the business material of the firm of M‘Connel & Kennedy, the reason why this small volume has been written requires little explanation. From the time this material was kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. J. W. M‘Connel, grandson of one of the founders of the firm, my interest has been centred mainly in the development of the English cotton industry from its beginning to about the end of the third decade of the nineteenth century. Fortunately this investigation fitted in well with work on which I was already engaged. For some time previously the preparation of lectures for students of the Tutorial classes, conducted by the University of Manchester in conjunction with the Workers’ Educational Association, had caused me to turn my attention to the sources of the social and economic history of the late seventeenth and the early eighteenth centuries, with the object of enabling me to speak with a little more confidence than I could gain from easily accessible books. Last summer when I began that which has developed into the following chapters my intention was to write a few pages of introduction to the succeeding letters of Samuel Crompton, and later to publish a volume dealing with the English cotton industry throughout the period mentioned. Much of what appears in this volume was intended to form the first part of that work, but the second part has been left for a separate volume. There are, therefore, many gaps and deficiencies in the present volume. Some of these gaps, I trust, may be filled and deficiencies supplied at a later date.