Persephone Cooper

Abstract.

During the mid-eighteenth century, Britain had mastered the art of woollen cloth production and exploited its global trade networks. However, with the introduction of new materials such as cotton, the technical development of woollen cloth is often overlooked. Similarly, the regional differences between the design and production of woollen textiles are little known. Therefore, this research explores the provincial characteristics of eighteenth-century woollen cloth by using newly discovered archival evidence from a prominent but often forgotten merchant-manufacturer from the Devon and Somerset borders. It explores the design, production and trade networks used during the late eighteenth century, before the industry fully industrialised.

This research builds outwards from an order book kept by local textile producers Were and Co. Evidence of this nature, which combines cloth samples and commercial information, has often been used to foreground the complexity of mercantile activity in this period. I add to this that it provides a point of entry into a much larger community of small manufacturers – dyers, weavers, fullers, spinners, etc. - who were the mainstays of the Weres' success but are much more obscure in historical terms. I argue that the demand for more variety in cloth was led by the firm trying to maintain its global trade networks while at the same time trying to curtail the risk to its business during a time of great turmoil, c 1781 to 1815. Britain was involved in a series of conflicts during this period, many of which were part of its larger struggle for dominance in Europe and globally. Indeed, there was an escalation in the variety of goods made before the woollen industry industrialised that needs to be explained and linked to regional explanations for technical change. This investigation suggests the diversification in cloth design was also linked to the customer or agent's demand for new and better colours and styles of cloth for the new fashion market in regions of Europe. This research has explored ways of illustrating and measuring these findings to identify and understand how this merchant-manufacturer's business constraints in the production and trade of woollen cloth in the late eighteenth century were resolved.