of wool. The
wool, safely received, was handed over to the sorters, who rigorously
applied their gauge of required length of staple and mercilessly
chopped off by shears or hatchet what did not reach the standard as
wool fit for the clothing trade. The long wool thus passed into the
hands of the combers, and, having been brought back to them into the
combed state, was again carefully packed and strapped on the back of
the sturdy horse, to be taken into the country to be spun.... Here, at
each village, he had his agents, who received the wool, distributed it
amongst the peasantry and received it back as yarn. The machine
employed was still the old one-thread wheel, and in summer weather on
many a village green might be seen the housewives plying their busy
trade, and furnishing to the poet the vision of contentment spinning
at the cottage door. Returning in safety with his yarn, the
manufacturer had now to seek out his weavers, who ultimately delivered
to him his camblets or russels, or tammies or calimancoes (such were
the leading names of the fibres) ready for sale to the merchant or
delivery to the dyer."[44]

The condition of the cotton-trade in Lancashire about 1750
illustrates most clearly the transition from the independent weaver to
the dependent weaver. So far as the linen warp of his fabric was
concerned he had long been in the habit of receiving it from the
larger "manufacturer" in Bolton or in Manchester, but the cotton yarn
he had hitherto supplied himself, using the yarn spun by his own
family or purchased by himself in the neighbourhood. The difficulty of
obtaining a steady, adequate supply, and the waste of time involved in
trudging about in search of this necessary material, operated more
strongly as the market for cotton goods expanded and the pressure of
work made itself felt.[45] It was this pressure which we shall see
acting as chief stimulus to the application of new inventions in the
spinning[46] trade. In the interim, however, the habit grew of
receiving not only linen warp but cotton weft from the merchant or
middleman. Thus the ownership of the raw material entirely passed out
of the weaver's hands, though he continued to ply his domestic craft
as formerly.[47] This had grown into the normal condition of the trade
by 1750. The stocking-trade illustrates one further encroachment of
the capitalist system upon domestic industry. In this trade not only
was the material given out by merchants, but t