The Textile Industry in the Industrial Revolution: Cotton, Wool, and the Factory System
The textile industry was the first major industry to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution, and it remained one of the most important industries in the world throughout the nineteenth century. The mechanization of the textile industry transformed the production of cloth and laid the foundation for the factory system. This pillar page provides a comprehensive account of the textile industry in the Industrial Revolution.
The Importance of the Textile Industry
The textile industry was important for several reasons. First, it was the largest single industry in the world throughout the nineteenth century, employing millions of workers and producing a large share of the world’s manufactured goods. Second, it was the first major industry to be transformed by the new industrial technology, and it served as the model for the mechanization of other industries. Third, it had important effects on the development of the new industrial economy, providing the raw materials and the markets for the iron, coal, and engineering industries.
By the 1830s, the British cotton industry alone employed perhaps a million people directly, with many more in supporting industries, and it produced more than 1.5 billion yards of cloth a year. The British textile industry was the largest in the world, and it was a major contributor to the British balance of trade and the British dominance of the world economy.
The Key Fibers
The textile industry of the Industrial Revolution was based on several key fibers, each with its own history and its own distinctive pattern of development.
Cotton
Cotton was the most important fiber of the Industrial Revolution. Cotton was easier to spin and weave than wool or linen, and the new machines were particularly well suited to cotton. The article on cotton manufacturing covers the development of the cotton industry in more detail.
Wool
Wool was the second most important fiber of the Industrial Revolution. The article on the wool industry covers the development of the woolen industry in more detail.
The Key Inventions
The transformation of the textile industry was driven by a series of key inventions, each of which built on the work of the previous. The article on the spinning jenny covers the first major invention, which mechanized the spinning of yarn. The article on the power loom development covers the second major invention, which mechanized the weaving of cloth.
The article on the textile mills and factories covers the institutions that housed the new machines and the workers who operated them. The article on the Lowell mills covers the most famous example of the American textile industry.
The Geography of the Textile Industry
The textile industry of the Industrial Revolution was concentrated in particular regions, with each region developing its own specialty. In Britain, the cotton industry was concentrated in Lancashire, the woolen industry in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the linen industry in Scotland. The article on the British textile industry covers the geography of the British textile industry in more detail.
In the United States, the textile industry was initially concentrated in New England, with the Lowell mills as the most famous example. The article on the American textile industry covers the geography of the American textile industry in more detail.
The Working Conditions in the Textile Industry
The working conditions in the early textile mills were often brutal. The working day was long, typically twelve to sixteen hours, and the work was physically demanding and often dangerous. The article on factory conditions describes the conditions in the mills in more detail.
The working conditions in the textile industry were also important for the development of the labor movement. The textile workers were among the first to organize trade unions, and they played a central role in the development of the British and American labor movements. The article on labor movements and unions describes the development of the labor movement in more detail.
The most important open scholarly debate about the textile industry and the Industrial Revolution is the Indian-deindustrialization debate, which is the cleanest test case for the global consequences of British industrialization. The traditional answer, going back to the 19th-century nationalist historians and given its modern form in dependent-development theory, is that the British systematically destroyed the Indian textile industry in order to clear a market for Lancashire cloth. The revisionist answer, developed in Prasannan Parthasarathi’s Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not (2011) and Tirthankar Roy’s How Britain Underdeveloped India (2019), is more complicated: Indian weavers were still the largest single source of cloth consumed in the world as late as 1800, the Lancashire steam advantage took decades to overcome Indian handloom productivity, and the actual collapse of the Indian handloom sector happened in the 1870s-1900s rather than in the early 19th century. The interesting current question, raised in the work of development economist Branko Milanović, is how to weigh the producer-side losses (deindustrialization, lost livelihoods) against the consumer-side gains (cheap cloth, lower mortality, faster industrialization in follower countries). The honest answer, given the comparative data, is probably: the 19th-century global cotton economy was a net good for the world consumer and a net bad for the world producer, and the two effects are difficult to compare on a single scale.