- Late 1700s & early 1800s England - economic indicators growing at noticeably faster rate;

- New wealth supported city growth.

- London — pop’n of 130,000 in 1631; more than 900,000 in 1801;

England tremendous market;

- Relative ease & low cost of transport & communication.

- Rising average income, consumer activity & investment.

- Important new business opportunities.

- Starting 1550s, English trade with Russia, East Asia & Mediterranean.

- One of England's potential primary exports — cloth;

- textile industry pacesetter of change.

- Entering 1600s, British textile industry still weak — low production, poor quality.

- People preferred light, comfortable cotton imported from India & China.

- British weavers frustrated by unemployment, worried by foreign competition.

- Brit government concerned - philosophy of mercantilism;

- 1700 protectionist laws barring imports of cloth from India & China.

- Huge potential market for cotton cloth in Britain,

- Problem of speeding up production, improving quality;

Invention:

- flying shuttle for weaving - John Kay 1733.

- 1753 riot - mob of weavers attacked Kay;

- manufacturers reluctant to pay royalties.

Textile manufacture as series of interlocking steps — spinning and weaving.

Technological change upsets balance of system.

- 1765 James Hargreaves - spinning jenny (from "engine")

- eight separate spindles.

- Later models up to 120 spindles;

- workers smashed machines;

- textile-making cottage industry - merchants purchase raw materials, distribute to workers in their own homes

- 1768 water frame for spinning — claimed by Richard Arkwright.

- 1771 Arkwright establish textile-making workshop;

- 1779 several thousand spindles & 300 workers.

- first successful factory in mechanized textile manufacture;

- Arkwright ‘s industrial empire.

- 1779 rioters set fire to factory.

- factories 150 to 600 workers;

- 1779 Samuel Crompton - spinning mule (hybrid of spinning jenny & water frame.)

Jenny fine-textured thread but weak. Water frame thread — stronger, but coarse. Mule combined advantages of both.

- Later versions - over 1000 spindles each,

- Social problems - shortage of skilled weavers;

- 1785 power loom - Edmund Cartwright.

- factory burned.

- 1813, 2,400 power looms in England; by 1850, 224,000.

- 1820, 250,000 skilled hand weavers; by 1850, only 50,000.

- Textile price dropped, demand soared.

- Exports to British empire - mercantilism.

- 1797, 900 cotton mills all across Britain,

- by 1816, a few employing 1,500 people.

- 1760, Manchester 17,000 inhabitants; 1830, 180,000,

Water power:

- problems of location;

- steam engine — new power source, solves problem of location;