In 1782 it was estimated by Arkwright and his partners that they had £30,000 embodied in factories, while licences for the use of the patent machinery had been issued to “adventurers” in the counties of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Worcester, Stafford, York, Hertford and Lancaster, in connection with which these men had invested at least £60,000. Altogether, at this time, it was claimed, the cotton industry thus organised employed “upwards of five thousand persons, and a capital on the whole of not less than £200,000.”[317] According to Arkwright’s statement, “it was not till upwards of five years had elapsed after obtaining his first patent, and more than £12,000 had been expended in machinery and buildings, that any profit accrued to himself and partners.”[318] This date would roughly coincide with the Act they obtained relating to the manufacture and sale of calicoes, and with the grant of the second patent. [Footnote 317: _Trial_, 25th June 1785, pp. 99, 102.] [Footnote 318: _Ibid._, p. 99.] Witness to the progress that was being made after this date is borne by the infringements of the patents, which led to the institution of nine actions by Arkwright, only one of which came to trial in 1781. It is quite certain that privileges such as Arkwright enjoyed were not viewed with favour in Manchester. Since February, 1774, a Committee for the Protection of Trade had existed in the town, and continued to exist until July, 1781, when it was succeeded by another, representative of the Cotton and Linen, the Silk, and the Smallware Manufacturers of Manchester and District.[319] [Footnote 319: _Manchester Mercury_, 8th March 1774; 17th July 1781. This second committee consisted of sixteen members, ten for cotton and linen, and three each for silk and smallware. A cotton manufactures company also came into existence in Manchester about October, 1774, which finally closed its accounts in November, 1778. This company apparently existed for the purpose of buying cotton in large quantities and then disposing of it to those who would sign an agreement to purchase from the company for six months. It seems to have arisen out of an agitation against the cotton dealers in Manchester (_ibid._ 20th September, 4th October, 22nd November, 1774; 10th November 1778, and many other dates. _Cf._ the Feltmakers’ Project in the seventeenth century described by Unwin, _Industrial Organisation in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries_, pp. 156-164).]