LAISSEZ FAIRE 
listress occurred throughout all the textile trades after the 
American panic in 1837; and this exceptional distress had 
been the reason for appointing a Commission to enquire into 
she condition of hand-loom weavers generally. 
la: , iv. Much of what has been said in the preceding sections 
rade to applies to woollen, as well as to cotton weaving; but there 
are several special points in regard to this ancient industry 
which demand attention. The power-loom had been generally 
introduced in the worsted trade which centred at Bradford, 
but it had only been recently adapted to the woollen trade, 
for which Leeds was the great market? As the power-loom 
was introduced the market seems to have expanded; or at 
any rate there was employment for a large number of hands 
in attending the looms; but still the weavers suffered 
severely, and were entirely displaced, as the new work was 
done not by men, but by women and girls, who had been 
smployed to some extent before, but who now seemed to be 
preferred to the exclusion of male weavers®. 
This was one reason for the distress felt in this industry, 
but there was also a complaint of some standing in regard to 
wages. From 1801 to 1815 wages had been exceptionally 
high in the cloth trades in Scotland, as well as in Yorkshire. 
The special advantages of that kingdom were attracting to it 
she employment which had been previously diffused through 
ther districts; and though wages had not fallen back below 
she eighteenth century standard of comfort, the weavers had 
never reconciled themselves to the loss of the prosperity they 
had enjoyed during the wars. And indeed, though the rates 
of wages had apparently kept up, the work had become 
somewhat harder, as heavier cloths were being made’. In 
Scotland the wages of woollen-weavers were higher than 
those of cotton-weavers, especially in the Galashiels district, 
where they made a class of goods which was in great demand 
and in the production of which there was little competitions. 
7198 
A.D. 1776 
—1850. 
i Reports, 1840, xxIV. 642. 2 Ib, xx111. 431. 8 Tb. 431. 
+ Reports, 1840, xxix. 339. Accounts and Papers, 1839, xrxx. 568. The decline 
of wages was partly to be ascribed to the number of discharged soldiers who took 
1p an easily learned employment and “exchanged the musket for the shuttle.” 
(b. 568. 5 Reports, 1840, xx111. 397. 
Accounts and Papers, 1839, x1.11. 570. * As the weavers possess and equitably