[69] The important part which the cotton and iron industries play in the export trade of England entitles them to special consideration as representatives of world-industry. Out of £263,530,585 value of English exports in 1890, cotton comprised £74,430,749; iron and steel, £31,565,337. [70] Cunningham, chap. ii. p. 450. [71] Schulze-Gaevernitz, _Der Grossbetrieb_, p. 34. [72] Ure, _The Cotton Manufacture_, p. 187. [73] Modern economy now favours the specialisation of a factory and often of a business in a single group of processes--_e.g._, spinning or weaving or dyeing, both in the cotton and woollen industries. This, however, is applicable chiefly to the main branches of textile work. In minor branches, such as cotton thread, the tendency is still towards an aggregation of all the different processes under a single roof, both in England and in the United States. [74] P.R. Hodge, civil engineer--evidence before House of Lords Committee in 1857. In Germany a spinning-wheel had been long in use for flax-spinning, which in effect was an anticipation of the throstle (cf. Karmarch, _Technologie_, vol. ii. p. 844, quoted Schulze-Gaevernitz, p. 30), and machine-weaving is said to have been discovered in Danzig as early as 1579. [75] Cf. Brentano, _Uber die Ursachen der heutigen socialen Noth; Der Grossbetrieb_, p. 30. [76] Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, p. 219. [77] Selected from Porter, p. 218. [78] In 1824 Mr. Huskisson introduced the principle of free trade, securing a reduction of the duties on raw and thrown silks, and in 1825, 1826, considerable further reductions were made. (Cf. Ure, _Philosophy of Manufactures_, p. 454, etc.) But protection of English silk manufactured goods was maintained until the French Treaty of 1860. [79] Cf. Ure, _History of the Cotton Manufacture_, vol. i. p. 223. [80] Scrivener, _History of the Iron Trade_, p. 56. [81] Cooke Taylor, _Modern Factory System_, p. 164; cf. also Karl Marx, _Capital_, p. 381. [82] Schulze-Gaevernitz, p. 140. [83] Yeats, _The Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce_, p. 284. [84] The average income for England in 1688 he puts at £7 18s; for Holland, £8 1s. 4d.; France, £6--p. 47. Such an estimate, however, has little value. [85] In 1810 the total produce was 140,000 tons. " 1818 " " " 114,000 " " 1824 " " " 164,000 " (Scrivener, _History of the Iron Trade_, p. 153.) [86] Yeats, _Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce_, p. 285. [87] Schulze-Gaevernitz, _Der Grossbetrieb_, p. 48. [88] Ellison, _History of the Cotton Trade_, presents the following interesting table (yarn, 40 hanks to the lb.):-- 1779. 1784. 1799. 1812. 1830. 1882. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.