History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain: with a notice of its early history in the East, and in all the quarters of the globe ... and a view of the present state of the manufacture / By Edward Baines, jun.

  • Baines, Edward, Sir, 1800-1890.
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain: with a notice of its early history in the East, and in all the quarters of the globe ... and a view of the present state of the manufacture / By Edward Baines, jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    192/606 (page 166)
    seems to have been gratuitously malicious, and, fortu- nately for themselves, it was unsuccessful. With some- what more of reason, the silk and woollen manufacturers had opposed the introduction of Indian calicoes at the end of the preceding century, finding that this new and elegant fabric came into competition with their own products. They then, as has been shown, so completely prevailed, as to obtain the entire prohibition of Indian, Persian, or Chinese silks and printed calicoes, for home consumption: and when calico printing extended in this country, and great quantities of calicoes manu- factured in India, but printed or dyed in England, were used for apparel and household furniture, parliament again interfered in 1720, and passed an Act (7 Geo. I. c. 7,) prohibiting altogether “ the use or wear in Great Britain, in any garment or apparel whatsoever, of any printed, painted, stained, or dyed calico, under the penalty of forfeiting to the informer the sum of £5.” By the same Act, the use of printed or dyed calico “ in or about any bed, chair, cushion, window curtain, or any other sort of household stuff or furniture,” was forbidden under a penalty of £20; and the same penalty attached to the seller of the article. And so far did the Act extend, that it forbad the use of any printed or dyed goods, of which cotton formed any part; so that the goods made of linen warp and cotton weft could not be used in the printed or dyed state. Calicoes dyed all blue, as well as muslins, neckcloths, and fustians, were excepted from the prohibitions of this act. The prohi- bition to use mixed goods containing cotton, in the dyed or printed state, seems not to have been strictly en- forced; and as it obviously struck at the existence of the then rising cotton manufacture of England, that