520 LAISSEZ FAIRE 
fashion. This policy would have commended itself to the 
minds of the artisans; had it been adopted, the cleavage 
between capital and labour would hardly have been so 
marked. But the spirit of keen competition had caught 
hold of the employing class; they were of opinion, and in 
all probability their judgement on this point was perfectly 
sound, that it was only by a continued exercise of the 
activity by which they had found their way into foreign 
markets that they could hope to retain them. 
The Manchester School were aiming at the same object 
as the Mercantilists had pursued during the period of Whig 
wtby ascendancy: they desired to promote the industrial activity 
the old of the country; but the means they recommended were the 
stem. cory opposite of those which had been adopted in earlier 
days. They felt that they could dispense with fostering care 
and exclusive privileges; this was in itself a tribute to the 
success of the policy which had been so steadily pursued for 
generations. The maritime power of England had been built 
up, the industry had been developed, the agriculture had 
been stimulated, and the economic life had become so vigorous 
that it appeared to have outgrown the need of extraneous 
help. There seemed to be a danger that the very measures 
which had been intended to support it should prove to be 
fetters that hampered its growth. 
A.D. 1776 
18560. 
II. TE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY IN THE 
TEXTILE TRADES. 
gation 247. The cotton manufacture was the first of the textile 
ous the trades to be revolutionised by the introduction of new 
eld where achinery. Appliances worked by power had been in opera- 
ution first tion from time immemorial in the subsidiary operations of 
the woollen trade, such as the fulling-mills; and silk-mills 
had been erected on the model of those in Piedmont®; but 
the series of inventions, for carding and spinning cotton, 
which is associated with the name of Richard Arkwright, 
marks the beginning of a fresh era. He had been brought 
1 See above, p. 519. These mills appear to have inspired Arkwright's deter. 
mination to apply power to the cotton manufacture. Gentl. Mag., 1792, 11. 863.