Cotton was Britain's largest industry for more than a century and its principal source of wealth during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The book tells the story of the cotton industry from its spectacular growth during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to its devastating decline in the twentieth century.
The impact of the British cotton trade was enormous. Goods mass-produced in busy factories undercut all competition and the industry became the first to make the whole world its market. Cotton inaugurated a new way of life for the thousands who flocked to the mill towns of Lancashire, and there the world's first industrial society produced a remarkably wide range of social, religious and political movements, which profoundly affected the nation's life.
Using much previously unpublished material, this book traces cotton's birth, growth and downfall. The development of the processes used to transform raw cotton into finished goods is also described and illustrated.
Contents:
The rise and fall of the cotton industry
Preparing the raw cotton
Spinning
Weaving
Finishing the cloth
Cotton's impact on the world
Social consequences
Further reading
Places to visit
