But my greatest debt is to Professor George Unwin. Whatever taste for social and economic history I now possess, or may acquire, I owe to him. He has contributed far more to this volume than the introductory chapter. But my deepest obligation is for his companionship, which for many years has been to me a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. G. W. D. THE UNIVERSITY, MANCHESTER, _June, 1920_. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION xix.-xxxi. I.--The stimulus given to research in economic history by the discovery of Messrs. M‘Connel’s records and of Crompton’s letters; central position in economic history occupied by commerce and industry of textiles; Lancashire cotton industry a graft on this old stock. II.--Beginning of cotton manufacture in Europe; mediæval gilds in textile trades; rise of an organised journeyman class in fourteenth century; but in the sixteenth century the centre of the labour problem was the small master, whose well-being was dependent on free flow of capital and credit. III.--Industrial conditions in seventeenth-century Lancashire resembled those in mediæval Florence and Douai, but differed vitally by the absence of a monopoly of capital; such a monopoly was developing in the Merchant Adventurers and other companies in Elizabeth’s reign; and led to a crisis in the textile industries in 1586-1587; the expansion of the northern textile industries due to its exceptional freedom. IV.--The removal of restrictions on the free flow of capital a main factor in the Industrial Revolution; illustrations of this from the careers of William Radcliffe, David Dale, and Nathan Meyer Rothschild. CHAPTER I THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COTTON MANUFACTURE 1-29 I.--The development of the English cotton industry the classic example of the Industrial Revolution movement; its importance as an indication of what the transition from the domestic to the factory system of organisation involved, 1-2; cotton and cotton-cloth common articles of import before the sixteenth century; “cottons” a prominent Lancashire manufacture in the early sixteenth century; unsuccessful attempts to regulate the manufacture, 2-6; necessity for caution in accepting the view that cotton was not used in the manufacture of Lancashire cloths in the sixteenth century, 7-8.