a (in conjunction with importers), b (as regarded warps), and β.
Weft the weaver had to get spun by his family or outsiders. So,
broadly speaking, there was one single commercial setting. After
the appearance of the factory, the commercial work as between the
water-twist mills, the mule-spinning businesses and the manufacturers,
so far as the businesses were distinct, appears to have
been done by the several producing firms concerned. It was not
at once that (αb) began to differentiate, β was already a separate
business in the hands of Manchester merchants and the foreign
houses who had established themselves in Manchester to direct the
export trade. At the present time an advanced stage of commercial
specialism has been reached. From the risks connected
with the buying of cotton the spinner may if he please escape
entirely.[1] Selling work is now done usually through intermediaries,
but there is no one uniform rule as to the carrying of
the commercial risks involved. This appears to be now to some
extent a matter of arrangement between the persons concerned,
but ultimately no doubt the risks will have to be borne by those
most qualified by experience to bear them, namely, the commercial
specialists. In no other trade in England, and in no other
cotton industry abroad, has commercial specialism been carried
so far as in the cotton trade of Lancashire. It is partly in
consequence of the difference in this respect between the cotton
industry in Lancashire and abroad that the separation of spinning
from weaving is far more common in England than elsewhere.
Elsewhere producers are deterred from specializing processes
further in distinct businesses by the fear of the worries of buying
and selling as between them.
The explanation of differences in respect of the degree of commercial specialism in different places and industries can be formulated only very generally. Time is required for the differentiation and localization to take place. The English cotton trade had not advanced very far in the “’thirties,” if we are to judge from the evidence given to commissions and parliamentary committees. The general conditions under which commercial specialism evolves may be taken to be a moderately limited range of products which do not present many varieties, and the qualities of which can be judged generally on inspection. In such circumstances private markets need not be built up, as they must be, for instance, for a new brand of soap which claims some subtle superiority to all others. Soaps under present conditions must be marketed by their producers. Broadly stated, if there be little competition as to substitutes, though there may be much as to price in relation to quality, commercial functions may specialize. On the whole this is the case in the cotton industry; in so far as it is not and firms produce specialities, they undertake much of the marketing work themselves.
The advantages of commercial specialism are numerous. Firstly it allows of differentiation of industrial processes, and this, of necessity, is accompanied by increasing returns. When weaving dissociates from spinning, both the number of looms in each business and the number of spindles in each business tend to increase; more division of labour is therefore secured, and lower costs of production are reached, and there is a further gain because producers concentrate their attention upon a smaller range of work. Again when producers are freed entirely, or to some extent, from commercial worries, they can attain a higher level of efficiency at the industrial task of mill organization, and a more perfect accommodation of capacity to function will be brought about. If the business unit is (aAα), a particular person may retain his place in the market by reason of his excellence at the work a or α, though as works organizer (i.e. at the performances of function A) he may be incompetent. The heads of businesses will succeed according to their average capacities at the three tasks a, A and α, and there is no guarantee, therefore, that any one of these tasks will be performed with the highest attainable efficiency in our present somewhat immobile economic system. But if the three functions are separated there is more certainty of a person’s success in the performance of each determining his continued discharge of it. The problems that arise when specialized markets become very highly developed are dealt with in the article Cotton: Marketing and Supply.
The distribution of cotton operatives among the chief centres has already been shown, but their distribution between processes has yet to be considered, and the proportions of different ages and sexes from time to time, together with the Operatives in various processes. total. With such statistical material as is available relating to supplies of labour we may set forth also the official returns made of the quantity of machinery at work from time to time. It hardly need be pointed out that the ratio of machinery to operatives roughly measures the efficiency of labour, other things being equal.
| Years. | Spinning Spindles. |
Doubling Spindles. | Power- Looms. |
| 1874 | 37,516 | 4366 | 463 |
| 1878 | 39,528 | 4679 | 515 |
| 1885 | 40,120 | 4228 | 561 |
| 1890 | 40,512 | 3993 | 616 |
| 1903 | 43,905 | 3952 | 684 |
(The figures in italics relate to Married and Widowed Women.)
| 1901. | 1891. | 1881. | ||||||||||
| Lancashire. | England and Wales. |
Lancashire. | England and Wales. |
Lancashire. | England and Wales. | |||||||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| Cotton, card and blowing-room processes | 11.4 | 28.7 | 13.8 | 34.0 | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · |
| 10.1 | 12.2 | |||||||||||
| Cotton spinning processes | 49.5 | 19.6 | 64.1 | 28.6 | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · |
| 4.3 | 6.0 | |||||||||||
| Cotton weaving, warping, &c. | 57.6 | 113.5 | 66.1 | 130.8 | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · |
| 13.0 | 15.8 | |||||||||||
| Cotton winding, warping, &c. | 14.8 | 38.6 | 18.3 | 48.9 | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · |
| 38.1 | 44.4 | |||||||||||
| Total | 133.3 | 265.9 | 162.3 | 320.7 | 178.2 | 281.8 | 213.2 | 332.8 | 150.7 | 249.8 | 185.4 | 302.4 |
| Cotton workers in other processes or undefined | 29.0 | 6.7 | 34.5 | 9.4 | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · |
| 1.8 | 2.3 | |||||||||||
| Tape, manufacturer dealer | · · | · · | · · | · · | .47 | .25 | .9 | 1.5 | .4 | .24 | .7 | 1.2 |
| Thread, manufacturer dealer | · · | · · | · · | · · | .2 | .9 | .6 | 2.1 | .1 | .9 | .5 | 1.7 |
| Fustian, manufacturer dealer | .6 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 5.0 | 1.7 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 5.2 |
| .55 | 1.0 | |||||||||||
| Cotton, calico, warehouseman, dealer | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | 2.5 | .3 | 3.2 | .38 |
