
Chapter 5: The Textile Industry
The Industrial Revolutions
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The Troubles With the Cotton Trade in England
By the early 1600s, English merchants were importing cotton and getting it produced via their cottage industry networks of wool weavers. By 1774, Parliament decided that all cotton goods sold in the kingdom had to be spun and woven in the kingdom. The labor costs of weaving were much higher in Britain than in India. So began a concerted effort to improve the technology used in cotton spinning and weaving in order to boost productivity. It now took four spinners to supply one weaver.
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