Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T12:58:49.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rise and Fall of the Belfast Cotton Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

John J. Monaghan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Though Belfast's present position as a great centre of trade was won for her chiefly by the manufacture of linen and the building of ships, the foundation of her prosperity, contrary to popular belief, is to be traced to the cotton industry, which had its rise about the year 1790 and flourished till about 1830, when the linen industry which had then been gathering force in Ireland profited from a slump in the cotton industry and ousted it from its preeminence. The manufacture of cotton was begun in Leinster and Munster as early as 1750, and, before 1782, was developed in the counties of Cork, Carlow, Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Waterford. The Linen Board, strangely enough, encouraged the cotton industry by the payment of bounties that were intended solely for mixed fabrics, that is cloth made of linen warp and cotton weft. As the manufacturers used the money for the purchase of spinning jennies and carding machines, the Linen Board was, in fact, subsidising the cotton manufacture.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , March 1942 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1942

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 1 note 1 Wakefield, , Account of Ireland, i. 699 Google Scholar; Gill, , Rise of the Irish linen industry, pp. 227-43Google Scholar.

page 1 note 2 Ibid., pp. 227-30.

page 2 note 1 Horner, , The linen trade of Europe, p. 134.Google Scholar

page 2 note 2 O'Brien, , Ireland from the union to the famine, pp. 308, 415-7, 419Google Scholar ; Belfa News Letter (hereafter cited as News Letter), 18 Aug. 1807.

page 2 note 3 Wakefield, op. cit., i. 708.

page 2 note 4 Ibid., i. 708 ; Gill, , The Irish linen industry, pp. 235-6.Google Scholar

page 2 note 5 Gill, op. cit., p. 234.

page 2 note 6 Dubourdieu, , Survey of co. Antrim, p. 408.Google Scholar

page 2 note 7 Gill, op cit., p. 236.

page 2 note 8 Bradshaw, , Belfast Directory (1819), pp. 102, 107-9, 124-5.Google Scholar

page 3 note 1 News Letter, 13/17 May, 25/28 Oct. 1791

page 3 note 2 News Letter, 31 Oct., 16 Dec. 1806.

page 3 note 3 Gill, op. cit., p. 239.

page 3 note 4 Pim, , Acts of parliament constituting the Belfast Charitable Society, pp. 177-84.Google Scholar

page 3 note 5 Owen, , History of Belfast, p. 150.Google Scholar

page 3 note 6 Dubourdieu, , Co. Antrim, pp. 404, 408.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 News Letter, 7 and 18 June 1799.

page 4 note 2 Ibid., 20 May, 3 June, 20 June, 1 July, 5 Aug., 19 Aug., 7 Nov. 1823.

page 4 note 3 News Letter, 4 Feb. 1800.

page 4 note 4 Dubourdieu, op. cit., p. 404.

page 4 note 5 News Letter, 16 Dec. 1806.

page 4 note 6 Ibid., 19 Mar. 1811 ; 9 Feb. 1813.

page 4 note 7 Dubourdieu, op. cit., pp. 404-7

page 5 note 1 News Letter, 28 Apr. 1815.

page 5 note 2 Dubourdieu, op. cit., 405, 517-8.

page 5 note 3 Gill, op. cit., pp. 233-4.

page 5 note 4 Benn, , Belfast (1823), pp. 291-2.Google Scholar

page 5 note 5 News Letter, 22 Feb., 4 Mar., 15 Apr. 1803 ; 25 Apr. 1806; 29 Apr., 20 June 1823 ; 11 Jan. 1825. Northern Whig, 6 Jan. 1825.

page 5 note 6 News Letter, 25 Oct. 1808.

page 6 note 1 Proceedings of the Linen Board, 5/1/1809 to 5/7/1809, pp. 158-9.

page 6 note 2 Brown linen report, 1822, p. 27

page 6 note 3 Dubourdieu, op. cit., p. 389.

page 6 note 4 Winsor, Justin, History of America, vii. 482.Google Scholar

page 6 note 5 Belfast Monthly Magazine, iii. 239 (Sept. 1809).

page 6 note 6 Ibid., iv. 476 (June 1810).

page 6 note 7 Ibid., vi. 346, 510 (Apr., June 1811) ; vii. 418 (Nov. 1811).

page 7 note 1 Ibid., xi. 434 (Nov. 1813) ; xii. 261 (Mar. 1814).

page 7 note 2 McCall, , Ireland and her staple manufactures (1870), pp. 502, 510-3.Google Scholar

page 7 note 3 Above, p. 6.

page 7 note 4 Of these, ten were actually in the town.

page 7 note 5 Bradshaw, , Belfast Directory (1819), pp. 102, 107-9, 124-5.Google Scholar

page 7 note 6 Above, p. 2.

page 7 note 7 O'Brien, op. cit., pp. 416-7.

page 8 note 1 O'Brien, op. cit., p. 423.

page 8 note 2 1 Geo. IV c. 45 (1820).

page 8 note 3 O'Brien, op. cit., pp. 423-9.

page 8 note 4 5 Geo. IV c. 22.

page 8 note 5 McCall, op. cit., pp. 514-6.

page 8 note 6 Gill, op. cit., p. 243.

page 8 note 7 News Letter, 19 Sept. 1823.

page 9 note 1 McCall, op. cit., pp. 527-8.

page 9 note 2 O'Brien, op. cit., p. 311.

page 9 note 3 O'Brien, op. cit., pp. 310-1.

page 9 note 4 Gill, op. cit., p. 243.

page 9 note 5 O'Brien, op. cit., pp. 312-4.

page 10 note 1 News Letter, 14 Dec. 1810.

page 10 note 2 Woodward, , Age of reform, 1815-70, pp. 4–6.Google Scholar

page 10 note 3 O'Brien, op. cit., p. 312.

page 10 note 4 News Letter, 7 May 1805.

page 10 note 5 Pim, , Acts of parliament constituting the Belfast Charitable Society, pp. 178-9.Google Scholar

page 10 note 6 See above, p. 3.

page 10 note 7 Ibid., pp. 180-4.

page 11 note 1 Gill, op. cit., p. 233 ; McCall, op. cit., pp. 482-4. In the list of ‘ Trades & professions’ given for Lisburn in Bradshaw's Belfast Directory for 1819 (pp. 182-92), there is no mention of cotton or calico manufacturers, though a list of seven muslin manufacturers is given.

page 11 note 2 Dubourdieu, , Co. Antrim> pp. 405-7+pp.+405-7>Google Scholar

page 11 note 3 News Letter, 9 Sept. 1806.

page 11 note 4 Ibid., 16 Aug. 1808.

page 11 note 5 Ibid., 21 Apr. 1809.

page 12 note 1 News Letter, 9 Feb., 19 and 23 Mar. 1813.

page 12 note 2 McCall, op. cit., pp. 391-2, 506.

page 12 note 3 Ibid., pp. 484, 482-4.

page 12 note 4 Dubourdieu, , Co. Antrim, pp. iii, 406.Google Scholar

page 12 note 5 News Letter, 6 Sept. 1811

page 12 note 6 Wakefield, op. cit., i. 705-6.

page 12 note 7 McCall, op. cit., pp. 511-3.

page 13 note 1 Dubourdieu, , Co. Antrim, p. 394 Google Scholar; Chart, , Economic history of Ireland, p. 126.Google Scholar

page 13 note 2 McCall, op. cit., p. 499.

page 13 note 3 News Letter, 20 Feb. 1818.

page 13 note 4 McCall, op. cit., p. 499.

page 13 note 5 News Letter, 10 Sept. 1816.

page 13 note 6 Ibid., 28 Apr. 1815.

page 13 note 7 Ibid., 20 Feb. 1818.

page 13 note 8 McCall, op. cit., p. 499.

page 13 note 9 Ibid., pp. 498-9.

page 14 note 1 Dubourdieu, , Co. Antrim, pp. 410-1.Google Scholar

page 14 note 2 Dubourdieu, , Co. Down, p. 236.Google Scholar

page 14 note 3 News Letter, 2 May 1815.

page 14 note 4 McCall, op. cit., p. 510-3.

page 14 note 5 Hammond, , The town labourer, p. 298.Google Scholar

page 14 note 6 News Letter, 3 Dec. 1824.

page 14 note 7 Chart, , Ireland, 1801-29, p. 91.Google Scholar

page 14 note 8 News Letter, 3 Nov. 1820, 10 Apr. 1821 The average number per house in Belfast in 1821 was 6.7 (Abstract of the returns of the census of 1821, p. 238) and the round figure of 7 has been used in the above calculations.

page 15 note 1 News Letter, 19 Mar. 1811 ; 9 Feb. 1813.

page 15 note 2 McCall, op. cit., pp. 391-2.

page 15 note 3 News Letter, 12 Feb. 1830.

page 15 note 4 Ibid., 16 and 17 Dec. 1862.

page 15 note 5 Ibid., 12 Feb. 1830.

page 15 note 6 Ibid., 16 Feb. 1830.

page 15 note 7 Ibid., 12 Feb. 1830.

page 15 note 8 Ibid., 16, 17 Dec. 1862.

page 15 note 9 Ibid., 12 Feb. 1830 ; 16, 17 Dec. 1862.

page 16 note 1 News Letter, 16 Feb. 1830 ; 18 Dec. 1862.

page 16 note 2 Ibid., 16 Feb. 1830.

page 16 note 3 Ibid., 18 Dec. 1862.

page 16 note 4 Ibid., 12 Feb. 1830 ; 18 Dec. 1862.

page 16 note 5 McCall, op. cit., pp. 524-5.

page 17 note 1 News Letter, 17 May 1803.