Cotton famine
Encyclopedia
The Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as The Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic (1861–1865), was a depression in the textile industry
of North West England
, brought about by the interruption of baled cotton
imports caused by the American Civil War
. The boom years of 1859 and 1860 had produced more woven cotton than could be sold and a cutback in production was needed. The famine of raw cotton and the difficult trading conditions caused a change in the social circumstances of the Lancashire
regions's extensive cotton mill
workforce. The factories ran out of raw cotton to process, large parts of Lancashire region's working society became unemployed, and went from being the most prosperous workers in Britain to the most impoverished.
Local relief committees were set up. They appealed for money both locally and nationally. There were two major funds, the Manchester Central Committee and the Mansion House Committee of the Lord Mayor of London. The poorest applied for relief under the Poor Law
s, through the Poor Law Union
s. The local relief committees experimented with soup kitchens, and then direct aid. In 1862, sewing classes and industrial classes were organised by local churches, and attendance triggered a Poor Law payment. After the Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act 1864 was passed local authorities were empowered to borrow money for approved public works. They commissioned the rebuilding of sewerage systems
, cleaning rivers, landscaping parks, and surfacing roads.
In 1864, cotton was restored, the mills became larger, some towns had diversified out of cotton, and many thousands of operatives had emigrated.
, the High Peak of Derbyshire
, and the north east parts of Cheshire
. The region had swamped the American market with printed cottons, and was speculatively exporting to India
. The populations of some mill towns in the Lancashire region, which includes parts of Cheshire
and Derbyshire
, had almost doubled, the profit to capital ratio was running at over 30%, and a recession
was looming. When the free trade
slave-owning southern states
of America demanded secession from the protectionist north
and declared war in 1861, the cotton supply was interrupted at first by a Southern imposed boycott and then later a Union blockade. The South's thinking was that it could force British support through an economic boycott.
In 1860, there were 2,650 cotton mill
s in the region, employing 440,000 people. They were paid in total £11,500,000 per annum. 90% were adults and 56% female. The mills used 300000 hp of which 18,500 was generated by waterpower. The mills had 30,387,467 spindle
s and 350,000 power loom
s. The industry imported 1390938752 lb (630,919,205 kg) of raw cotton a year. It exported 2,776,218,427 yards of cotton cloth and 197343655 lb (89,513,576.2 kg) of twist and yarn. The total value of its exports was £32,012,380.
Of the 1,390,938,752 lb of raw cotton 1,115,890,608 lb came from America.(80 %)
At the end of 1860, there remained 250,428,610 lb in storage in the United Kingdom.
It was initially believed that British warehoused stocks of cotton would be adequate to see out the anticipated brief conflict. As all the early Union advances on were driven back it became clear to European observers that the war would not be over quickly. By December, Middling Orleans was selling at 11¾d a lb. The merchants were holding onto their cotton, speculating on a price rise. By the beginning of 1862, mills were being closed and workers were being laid off; one-third of the families in one Lancashire cotton town were in receipt of relief.
The price of Middling Orleans, which had been produced at a cost of d and bought by the merchants for 8d in 1861, rose to 2s. 3d. by October 1862, and to 2s. 5d. the following year. It is calculated that the merchants had a windfall of £35 million.
, also known as Extra Long Staple, was the best quality cotton. It was grown on the islands off the Carolina coast of America. Egyptian, which the name given to Sea Island cotton that had been successfully introduced into Egypt, was the second best grade. The most common grades were the short staple American
cottons which included Middling Orleans. It was these grades that were used by the majority of Lancashire's calico producers. The Surat cotton
s from India were the least suitable for machinery, which were only ever used as a small percentage of a mixture as the fibres were short and broke easily.
Surat came in smaller bales which contained stones and other impurities. Each town in Lancashire used different mixtures and when the supply of American and Sea Island Cotton dried up, the mill owners moved over to Surat. Some machines could be adjusted to take the Surat, but extra humidity was needed to reduce breakages. Running a loom on Surat could only produce about 40% of the previous throughput and, as workers were paid by the piece, their income was slashed.
Mill owners were also in difficulty. Many of the smaller family owned mills were heavily mortgaged. If they stopped running the owners would fall behind with payments. Shopkeepers had no sales and could not afford the rents. Workers defaulted on their rents, and the landlord who stood the loss was often the millowner.
The wealthier mill owners such as Henry Houldsworth
, were confident that the famine was only temporary and were planning ahead for the new more efficient larger machinery that was becoming available, it was during the famine (1863–5) that he built Houldsworth Mill, Reddish
, the first of the next generation of larger mills, and at the time the worlds largest mill with 138,000 spindles.
But with most raw cotton unavailable, mill owners had to either close the mill and attempt to help the workers financially, use inferior cotton or bring new cotton into production. Surat was available but mainly used internally in British India. Some limited increase in production was achieved. Attempts were made to establish Sea Island in Queensland
and New Zealand
, and to grow short staple near Mumbai
.
that could be adjusted to use a different cotton, others did not. Owners of integrateds (mills that both spun and wove) could better balance the workload, thus preserving the precious raw material for longer. Some cautious millowners always held stock in hand, others bought as required.
The older paternalistic millowners who lived among the local community were quick to divert their neighbours and workforce to maintenance work at their expense. For example, in Glossop
, Lord Howard
called a family meeting of millowners, clergy and respectable residents to take charge of the situation. Two relief committees were formed. They experimented unsuccessfully with soup kitchens then set about distributing thousands of pounds worth of provisions, coal, clogs and clothing. Edmund Potter
loaned his workers money and Howard took on extra workers on his estate. After the 1864 Public Works Act, they took a loan to extend the waterworks. They set up schools, provided free Brass Band concerts and public readings from Pickwick Papers. The only recorded tension was when the Relief Committee, mistakenly decided to auction instead of distributing free a gift of food from the Federal American government.
Towns with room and power mill
s and a strong cooperative tradition, were quick to mitigate the social damage. The firms renting space in room and power mills would rent the space and buy the machines on credit, cotton was cheap and the profit from the cloth was used to pay off the loan and provide a return for the risk. When cotton was unavailable they were the first to go bankrupt. After the famine the need was for more advanced machines and bigger mills: the investment was too much for many private mill owners, and limited companies
built the new larger mills. Limited companies developed fastest in the areas with a room and power tradition. Municipal authorities did not have the legal power to borrow money to finance public works until the 1864 Act: before this, they had to finance this from reserves, which varied from town to town.
industries. A small number of mills such as Crimble Mill, Heywood converted to woollen production buying in second hand fulling stock
s, carding
equipment, mule
s and loom
s. The towns of Stockport
, Denton
and Hyde
diversified into hatting (hat making).
Tameside
was the worst affected district. It suffered a net loss of population between 1861 and 1871. But in 1864 in Stockport 2000 houses were left empty, in Glossop there were 686 empty houses, 65 empty shops and fifteen empty beer houses. The exodus was caused primarily by evictions. The spring of saw a wave of emigration stimulated by special agencies. The steamship companies cut their rates: steerage to Ellis Island
, New York cost £3 15s 6d. The Australian and New Zealand governments offered free passage, and 1,000 people had emigrated by August 1864, 200 of them from Glossop.
, which required the Poor Law Guardians
to find work for the fit. In rural communities this was stone breaking in the quarries, the mines etc. Outdoor work was quite unsuitable for men who had been working in the humid, heated mills, whose lungs had been damaged by cotton dust. However the act only required that men be set to work as long as he continued to receive relief
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
had required parishes to come together to form Poor Law Union
s to administer the relief. Their job was to minimise the cost to the parishes which must finance their own poor. Paupers should be returned to their parishes of origin.
Charles Pelham Villiers
MP, the Poor Law Commissioner who represented an industrial constituency, wrote to the Poor Law Unions in Sept 1861 warning them of potential famine and instructing them to fulfil their duties with Compassion. Funding for this, had to be raised locally on the parish rates. H.B. Farnell, was appointed by parliament to investigate the effects in Lancashire, where he started in May 1862 in Preston. He laid down a liberal interpretation of the Act, and instructed gifts from charity should not be taken into account when assessing need. As an alternative to outdoor work, sewing classes were run by the churches which entitled the participants or "scholars" to receive benefit. Bible Reading classes followed and then industrial classes which taught reading, writing, and simple maths with carpentry, shoemaking and tailoring.
The Poor Law Unions were limited in moneys they could raise through rates, and had no powers to borrow. Two measures were passed through parliament to assist. The first was the Union Relief Aid Bill 1862 which allowed the burden be shared between the parishes and the county, and then Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act 1864 were authorised borrowing.
All those in work were encouraged to subscribe to charity, and lists of subscribers were published. Local relief committees were set up to administer these funds, and receiving other donations from the Mansion House Committee of London, and Central Relief Committee of Manchester. The Mansion House Fund, more properly named the Lancashire and Cheshire Operatives Relief Fund, was set up on 16 May 1862, when £1,500 (equivalent to about £ as of ) was sent to the distressed districts. Benefactors all over the United Kingdom, the Empire, and across the world, raised money for the appeal. Between April 1862 and April 1863, £473,749 was collected and distributed (about £ as of ).
The Central Committee was formed 20 June 1862, composed of mayors of the affected towns; it put out an appeal letter to other towns across the country.
A third fund, set up in June 1862 for slightly different purposes, was the Cotton Districts Relief Fund. It became part of the Central Committee.
, one of the worse affected towns. Only five of the town's 39 factories and 24 machine shops were employing people full-time. Contributions were sent from all over the world for the relief of the cotton operatives in Lancashire and at one point three-quarters of Stalybridge workers were dependent on relief schemes. By 1863 there were 750 empty houses in the town. A thousand skilled men and women left the town in what became known as "The Panic".
In 1863 the local relief committee decided to substitute a system of relief by ticket instead of money. The tickets were to be presented at the shops of local grocers. On Thursday 19 March a public meeting resolved to resist the tickets.
On Friday 20 March 1863, the officials of the relief committee went to the 13 schools to offer the tickets, the men refused the tickets and turned out onto the streets. They stoned the cab of the departing official, and then broke the windows of the shops owned by members of the relief committee. They then turned to the depots of the relief committee which they sacked. By evening, a company of Hussar
s came from Manchester. The Riot Act
was read and eighty men were arrested. The women and girls continued to harangue and verbally abuse the police and soldiers.
On Saturday 21 March, the magistrates released most of the prisoners but committed 28 for trial in Chester. They were taken to the railway station by police and soldiers, who were pelted with stones. A further public meeting demanded "money and bread" not "tickets". The mob was in control. The rioters demanded bread at various shops and in each case it was given to them. At 23:30, a company of foot soldiers
arrived and patrolled the streets with bayonet
s fixed. On the Sunday, supporters and visitors arrived in the town but there were no developments.
On Monday 23 March the riot spread to Ashton
, Hyde
and Dukinfield
. The schools had reopened, but only 80 of the expected 1,700 scholars attended; that is agreed to be paid by ticket. Representatives were sent to the schools in the neighbouring towns to persuade the scholars to walk out, but were met by soldiers.
On the Tuesday the resistance was over. The relief committee offered to pay the outstanding tickets and to accept a delegation from the 13 schools to discuss the matter further. The mayor offered that the MP, Mr John Cheetham would take the matter to parliament. The crowd believed that they had not lost relief, and the ticket system would soon be abolished.
The Stalybridge relief committee re-established authority. The Manchester Central Committee was critical of their poor management, but they were being undermined by the Mansion House Fund
of the Lord Mayor of London, which offered to distribute cash to scholars directly through the churches. The violence was blamed on outsiders coming to agitate, and the blame was put on a minority ethnic immigrant community. Descriptions suggest about 3,500 participants, although there were only 1,700 scholars receiving aid.
The Public Works Manufacturing Districts Act 1864 became law 2 July 1863. This allowed public authorities to borrow money for public works. Cotton operatives could now be employed on useful projects. Blackburn, for example laid paving flags and built new sewers.
hoped that distress in the European cotton manufacturing areas (similar hardships occurred in France), together with distaste in European ruling circles for Yankee democracy would lead to European intervention to force the Union
to make peace on the basis of accepting secession of the Confederacy. (The Union forces nearly provoked Great Britain to enter the war on the secessionist side, when its forces boarded the RMS Trent
sailing under the British flag.) However, after Union forces had repulsed a Confederate incursion at the Battle of Antietam
in September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation
.
Slavery had been abolished in the British Empire in 1833 several decades earlier after a long campaign. The Unionists believed that all the British public, would now see this as an antislavery issue rather than an anti-protectionism issue, and would pressure its government not to intervene in any way that helped the South.
Many mill owners and workers resented the blockade and continued to see the war as an issue of tariffs against free trade. Attempts were made to run the blockade, by ships from Liverpool, London and New York. 71,751 bales of American cotton reached Liverpool in 1862. Confederate flags were flown in many cotton towns.
On 31 December 1862, a meeting of cotton workers at the Free Trade Hall
in Manchester
, despite their increasing hardship, resolved to support the Union in its fight against slavery
. An extract from the letter they wrote in the name of the Working People of Manchester to His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America says:
On 19 January 1863, Abraham Lincoln
sent an address thanking the cotton workers of Lancashire
for their support. He wrote:
A monument in Brazenose Street, Lincoln Square, Manchester, commemorates the events and reproduces portions of both documents. The Abraham Lincoln statue by George Grey Barnard
, 1919, was formerly located in the gardens at Platt Hall in Rusholme.
The Federal American government sent a gift of food to the people of Lancashire. The first consignment was sent aboard the George Griswold. Other ships were the Hope and Achilles. To celebrate the aid a carnival procession was organised, carrying the bread for distribution from St Peters Square, The crowd first joined the celebration, but realising that this was a political stunt, stopped the procession and distributed the aid there.
.
More important were the main sewers that were commissioned to replace the collapsing medieval drains and to bring sanitation to the hundred of millworkers cottages that supported the mills. Canals were dug, rivers straightened and new roads constructed such as the cobbled road on Rooley Moor above Norden
.
All in all, the public works commissioned in this period, left a major impression on the infrastructure of the towns Greater Manchester, Lancashire and the surrounding cotton areas.
Regions such as Australia, welcomed skilled spinners and weavers and encouraged their immigration.
Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society. Opinion varies as to the exact date, but it is estimated that the First Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850, and the second phase or Second Industrial Revolution between 1860 and 1900. The three key drivers in...
of North West England
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
, brought about by the interruption of baled cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
imports caused by the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The boom years of 1859 and 1860 had produced more woven cotton than could be sold and a cutback in production was needed. The famine of raw cotton and the difficult trading conditions caused a change in the social circumstances of the Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
regions's extensive cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
workforce. The factories ran out of raw cotton to process, large parts of Lancashire region's working society became unemployed, and went from being the most prosperous workers in Britain to the most impoverished.
Local relief committees were set up. They appealed for money both locally and nationally. There were two major funds, the Manchester Central Committee and the Mansion House Committee of the Lord Mayor of London. The poorest applied for relief under the Poor Law
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, sometimes abbreviated to PLAA, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system . It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the...
s, through the Poor Law Union
Poor Law Union
A Poor Law Union was a unit used for local government in the United Kingdom from the 19th century. The administration of the Poor Law was the responsibility of parishes, which varied wildly in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements...
s. The local relief committees experimented with soup kitchens, and then direct aid. In 1862, sewing classes and industrial classes were organised by local churches, and attendance triggered a Poor Law payment. After the Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act 1864 was passed local authorities were empowered to borrow money for approved public works. They commissioned the rebuilding of sewerage systems
Sewage collection and disposal
Sewage collection and disposal systems transport sewage through cities and other inhabited areas to sewage treatment plants to protect public health and prevent disease. Sewage is treated to control water pollution before discharge to surface waters....
, cleaning rivers, landscaping parks, and surfacing roads.
In 1864, cotton was restored, the mills became larger, some towns had diversified out of cotton, and many thousands of operatives had emigrated.
Background
The 1850s had been a period of unprecedented growth for the cotton industry in LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, the High Peak of Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, and the north east parts of Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. The region had swamped the American market with printed cottons, and was speculatively exporting to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The populations of some mill towns in the Lancashire region, which includes parts of Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
and Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, had almost doubled, the profit to capital ratio was running at over 30%, and a recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
was looming. When the free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
slave-owning southern states
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
of America demanded secession from the protectionist north
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
and declared war in 1861, the cotton supply was interrupted at first by a Southern imposed boycott and then later a Union blockade. The South's thinking was that it could force British support through an economic boycott.
In 1860, there were 2,650 cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s in the region, employing 440,000 people. They were paid in total £11,500,000 per annum. 90% were adults and 56% female. The mills used 300000 hp of which 18,500 was generated by waterpower. The mills had 30,387,467 spindle
Spinning mule
The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...
s and 350,000 power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
s. The industry imported 1390938752 lb (630,919,205 kg) of raw cotton a year. It exported 2,776,218,427 yards of cotton cloth and 197343655 lb (89,513,576.2 kg) of twist and yarn. The total value of its exports was £32,012,380.
| Lancashire | Cheshire | Derbyshire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mills | 1920 | 200 | 25 |
| Workers | 310000 | 38000 | 12000 |
Of the 1,390,938,752 lb of raw cotton 1,115,890,608 lb came from America.(80 %)
| Country | Imports |
|---|---|
| America | 1,115,890,608 |
| East Indies | 204,141,168 |
| West Indies | 1,630,784 |
| Brazil | 17,286,864 |
| Other | 52,569,328 |
At the end of 1860, there remained 250,428,610 lb in storage in the United Kingdom.
The first year
Unsold cloth had been building up in the warehouses in Bombay (Mumbai). Production had exceeded demand and short time working was inevitable. As indications came that trouble was possible, the American growers hurried to export their crop earlier than usual. Almost enough the 1861 crop had reached Liverpool to supply the mills. Middling Orleans, the type of cotton that was used to gauge the prices, was selling for d a lb in June 1861.It was initially believed that British warehoused stocks of cotton would be adequate to see out the anticipated brief conflict. As all the early Union advances on were driven back it became clear to European observers that the war would not be over quickly. By December, Middling Orleans was selling at 11¾d a lb. The merchants were holding onto their cotton, speculating on a price rise. By the beginning of 1862, mills were being closed and workers were being laid off; one-third of the families in one Lancashire cotton town were in receipt of relief.
The price of Middling Orleans, which had been produced at a cost of d and bought by the merchants for 8d in 1861, rose to 2s. 3d. by October 1862, and to 2s. 5d. the following year. It is calculated that the merchants had a windfall of £35 million.
Surat
Sea IslandGossypium barbadense
Gossypium barbadense, also known as extra long staple cotton as it generally has a staple of at least 1 3/8" or longer, is a species of cotton plant. Some types of ELS cotton are American Pima, Egyptian Giza, Indian Suvin, Chinese Xiniang, Sudanese Barakat, and Russian Tonkovoloknistyi...
, also known as Extra Long Staple, was the best quality cotton. It was grown on the islands off the Carolina coast of America. Egyptian, which the name given to Sea Island cotton that had been successfully introduced into Egypt, was the second best grade. The most common grades were the short staple American
Gossypium hirsutum
Gossypium hirsutum, known as Upland Cotton or Mexican Cotton, is the most widely planted species of cotton in the United States, constituting some 95% of all cotton production and is native to Central America and possibly Mexico Worldwide, the figure is about 90% of all production for this...
cottons which included Middling Orleans. It was these grades that were used by the majority of Lancashire's calico producers. The Surat cotton
Gossypium arboreum
Gossypium arboreum, commonly called tree cotton, is a species of cotton native to India and Pakistan and other tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. There is evidence of its cultivation as long ago as the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley for the production of cotton textiles...
s from India were the least suitable for machinery, which were only ever used as a small percentage of a mixture as the fibres were short and broke easily.
Surat came in smaller bales which contained stones and other impurities. Each town in Lancashire used different mixtures and when the supply of American and Sea Island Cotton dried up, the mill owners moved over to Surat. Some machines could be adjusted to take the Surat, but extra humidity was needed to reduce breakages. Running a loom on Surat could only produce about 40% of the previous throughput and, as workers were paid by the piece, their income was slashed.
Mill owners were also in difficulty. Many of the smaller family owned mills were heavily mortgaged. If they stopped running the owners would fall behind with payments. Shopkeepers had no sales and could not afford the rents. Workers defaulted on their rents, and the landlord who stood the loss was often the millowner.
The wealthier mill owners such as Henry Houldsworth
William Houldsworth
Sir William Henry Houldsworth, 1st Baronet was a mill-owner in Reddish, Stockport. He was Conservative MP for Manchester North West from 1883 to 1906, and sometime chairman of the Fine Cotton Spinners' Association...
, were confident that the famine was only temporary and were planning ahead for the new more efficient larger machinery that was becoming available, it was during the famine (1863–5) that he built Houldsworth Mill, Reddish
Houldsworth Mill, Reddish
Houldsworth Mill, also known as Reddish Mill, is a former mill in built in 1865 in Reddish, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England . Designed by Abraham Stott, it was constructed for Henry Houldsworth, a prominent mill owner at the time...
, the first of the next generation of larger mills, and at the time the worlds largest mill with 138,000 spindles.
But with most raw cotton unavailable, mill owners had to either close the mill and attempt to help the workers financially, use inferior cotton or bring new cotton into production. Surat was available but mainly used internally in British India. Some limited increase in production was achieved. Attempts were made to establish Sea Island in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and to grow short staple near Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
.
Suffering
The severity of the famine depended on many factors, and different towns were affected differently. The cotton industry had become highly specialised by the 1860s; some towns were built around mills using short fibre American cotton, while others used the longer fibre Egyptian that continued to be available. Some mills had mulesSpinning mule
The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...
that could be adjusted to use a different cotton, others did not. Owners of integrateds (mills that both spun and wove) could better balance the workload, thus preserving the precious raw material for longer. Some cautious millowners always held stock in hand, others bought as required.
The older paternalistic millowners who lived among the local community were quick to divert their neighbours and workforce to maintenance work at their expense. For example, in Glossop
Glossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield. Glossop is situated near Derbyshire's county borders with Cheshire, Greater...
, Lord Howard
Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop
Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop PC , styled Lord Edward Howard between 1842 and 1869, was a British Liberal politician...
called a family meeting of millowners, clergy and respectable residents to take charge of the situation. Two relief committees were formed. They experimented unsuccessfully with soup kitchens then set about distributing thousands of pounds worth of provisions, coal, clogs and clothing. Edmund Potter
Edmund Potter
Edmund Potter senior , was a Manchester industrialist and MP and grandfather to Beatrix Potter.He was a unitarian and, from 1861 to 1874, Liberal MP for Carlisle. Potter moved his business to Glossop in 1825, he rebuilt Joseph Lyne's Boggart Mill, and converted it to a printworks. He moved his...
loaned his workers money and Howard took on extra workers on his estate. After the 1864 Public Works Act, they took a loan to extend the waterworks. They set up schools, provided free Brass Band concerts and public readings from Pickwick Papers. The only recorded tension was when the Relief Committee, mistakenly decided to auction instead of distributing free a gift of food from the Federal American government.
Towns with room and power mill
Room and power mill
A room and power mill was a type of textile mill found in Lancashire region of England in the 19th century. Small businesses paid the owner rent for space for their machines, and power from the mill engine or waterwheel.-The System:...
s and a strong cooperative tradition, were quick to mitigate the social damage. The firms renting space in room and power mills would rent the space and buy the machines on credit, cotton was cheap and the profit from the cloth was used to pay off the loan and provide a return for the risk. When cotton was unavailable they were the first to go bankrupt. After the famine the need was for more advanced machines and bigger mills: the investment was too much for many private mill owners, and limited companies
Oldham Limiteds
Oldham Limiteds were the 154 cotton manufacturing companies founded to build or operate cotton mills in Oldham in northwest England, and predominantly during the joint-stock boom of 1873–1875.-History:...
built the new larger mills. Limited companies developed fastest in the areas with a room and power tradition. Municipal authorities did not have the legal power to borrow money to finance public works until the 1864 Act: before this, they had to finance this from reserves, which varied from town to town.
Panic
Some workers left Lancashire to work in the Yorkshire woollen and worstedWorsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
industries. A small number of mills such as Crimble Mill, Heywood converted to woollen production buying in second hand fulling stock
Fulling
Fulling or tucking or walking is a step in woolen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker...
s, carding
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
equipment, mule
Spinning mule
The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...
s and loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
s. The towns of Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Denton
Denton, Greater Manchester
Denton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is five miles to the east of Manchester city centre, and has a population of 26,866....
and Hyde
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Hyde is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2001 census, the town had a population of 31,253. Historically part of Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester....
diversified into hatting (hat making).
Tameside
Tameside
The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after the River Tame which flows through the borough and spans the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield, Hyde, Mossley and Stalybridge. Its western...
was the worst affected district. It suffered a net loss of population between 1861 and 1871. But in 1864 in Stockport 2000 houses were left empty, in Glossop there were 686 empty houses, 65 empty shops and fifteen empty beer houses. The exodus was caused primarily by evictions. The spring of saw a wave of emigration stimulated by special agencies. The steamship companies cut their rates: steerage to Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
, New York cost £3 15s 6d. The Australian and New Zealand governments offered free passage, and 1,000 people had emigrated by August 1864, 200 of them from Glossop.
Relief effort
Relief in times of hardship was governed by the Poor Law ActElizabethan Poor Law (1601)
The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601, popularly known as the "Elizabethan Poor Law", "43rd Elizabeth" or the "Old Poor Law" was an Act of Parliament passed in 1601 which created a national poor law system for England and Wales....
, which required the Poor Law Guardians
Board of Guardians
Boards of guardians were ad hoc authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.-England and Wales:The boards were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish Overseers of the Poor established under the old poor law, following the recommendations...
to find work for the fit. In rural communities this was stone breaking in the quarries, the mines etc. Outdoor work was quite unsuitable for men who had been working in the humid, heated mills, whose lungs had been damaged by cotton dust. However the act only required that men be set to work as long as he continued to receive relief
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, sometimes abbreviated to PLAA, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system . It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the...
had required parishes to come together to form Poor Law Union
Poor Law Union
A Poor Law Union was a unit used for local government in the United Kingdom from the 19th century. The administration of the Poor Law was the responsibility of parishes, which varied wildly in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements...
s to administer the relief. Their job was to minimise the cost to the parishes which must finance their own poor. Paupers should be returned to their parishes of origin.
Charles Pelham Villiers
Charles Pelham Villiers
Charles Pelham Villiers was a British lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament .-Background and education:...
MP, the Poor Law Commissioner who represented an industrial constituency, wrote to the Poor Law Unions in Sept 1861 warning them of potential famine and instructing them to fulfil their duties with Compassion. Funding for this, had to be raised locally on the parish rates. H.B. Farnell, was appointed by parliament to investigate the effects in Lancashire, where he started in May 1862 in Preston. He laid down a liberal interpretation of the Act, and instructed gifts from charity should not be taken into account when assessing need. As an alternative to outdoor work, sewing classes were run by the churches which entitled the participants or "scholars" to receive benefit. Bible Reading classes followed and then industrial classes which taught reading, writing, and simple maths with carpentry, shoemaking and tailoring.
The Poor Law Unions were limited in moneys they could raise through rates, and had no powers to borrow. Two measures were passed through parliament to assist. The first was the Union Relief Aid Bill 1862 which allowed the burden be shared between the parishes and the county, and then Public Works (Manufacturing Districts) Act 1864 were authorised borrowing.
All those in work were encouraged to subscribe to charity, and lists of subscribers were published. Local relief committees were set up to administer these funds, and receiving other donations from the Mansion House Committee of London, and Central Relief Committee of Manchester. The Mansion House Fund, more properly named the Lancashire and Cheshire Operatives Relief Fund, was set up on 16 May 1862, when £1,500 (equivalent to about £ as of ) was sent to the distressed districts. Benefactors all over the United Kingdom, the Empire, and across the world, raised money for the appeal. Between April 1862 and April 1863, £473,749 was collected and distributed (about £ as of ).
The Central Committee was formed 20 June 1862, composed of mayors of the affected towns; it put out an appeal letter to other towns across the country.
A third fund, set up in June 1862 for slightly different purposes, was the Cotton Districts Relief Fund. It became part of the Central Committee.
Stalybridge Riot
By the winter of 1862–1863 there were 7,000 unemployed operatives in StalybridgeStalybridge
Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 22,568. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is east of Manchester city centre and northwest of Glossop. With the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of...
, one of the worse affected towns. Only five of the town's 39 factories and 24 machine shops were employing people full-time. Contributions were sent from all over the world for the relief of the cotton operatives in Lancashire and at one point three-quarters of Stalybridge workers were dependent on relief schemes. By 1863 there were 750 empty houses in the town. A thousand skilled men and women left the town in what became known as "The Panic".
In 1863 the local relief committee decided to substitute a system of relief by ticket instead of money. The tickets were to be presented at the shops of local grocers. On Thursday 19 March a public meeting resolved to resist the tickets.
On Friday 20 March 1863, the officials of the relief committee went to the 13 schools to offer the tickets, the men refused the tickets and turned out onto the streets. They stoned the cab of the departing official, and then broke the windows of the shops owned by members of the relief committee. They then turned to the depots of the relief committee which they sacked. By evening, a company of Hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
s came from Manchester. The Riot Act
Riot Act
The Riot Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action...
was read and eighty men were arrested. The women and girls continued to harangue and verbally abuse the police and soldiers.
On Saturday 21 March, the magistrates released most of the prisoners but committed 28 for trial in Chester. They were taken to the railway station by police and soldiers, who were pelted with stones. A further public meeting demanded "money and bread" not "tickets". The mob was in control. The rioters demanded bread at various shops and in each case it was given to them. At 23:30, a company of foot soldiers
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
arrived and patrolled the streets with bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
s fixed. On the Sunday, supporters and visitors arrived in the town but there were no developments.
On Monday 23 March the riot spread to Ashton
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
, Hyde
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Hyde is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2001 census, the town had a population of 31,253. Historically part of Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester....
and Dukinfield
Dukinfield
Dukinfield is a small town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in central Tameside on the south bank of the River Tame, opposite Ashton-under-Lyne, and is east of the city of Manchester...
. The schools had reopened, but only 80 of the expected 1,700 scholars attended; that is agreed to be paid by ticket. Representatives were sent to the schools in the neighbouring towns to persuade the scholars to walk out, but were met by soldiers.
On the Tuesday the resistance was over. The relief committee offered to pay the outstanding tickets and to accept a delegation from the 13 schools to discuss the matter further. The mayor offered that the MP, Mr John Cheetham would take the matter to parliament. The crowd believed that they had not lost relief, and the ticket system would soon be abolished.
The Stalybridge relief committee re-established authority. The Manchester Central Committee was critical of their poor management, but they were being undermined by the Mansion House Fund
Mansion House, London
Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his...
of the Lord Mayor of London, which offered to distribute cash to scholars directly through the churches. The violence was blamed on outsiders coming to agitate, and the blame was put on a minority ethnic immigrant community. Descriptions suggest about 3,500 participants, although there were only 1,700 scholars receiving aid.
Public Works Manufacturing Districts Act 1864
In March 1863, there were some sixty or seventy thousand women attending sewing school, and twenty thousand men and boys attending classes. They were thus defined as doing useful work so could legally receive aid under the Poor Law legislation. There remained a further twenty five thousand men receiving aid but not doing any work. To Victorian thinking this was a difficult problem, and some means was needed to provide paid work. Local authorities did have work that needed to be done- but no legal way to borrow to pay for it.The Public Works Manufacturing Districts Act 1864 became law 2 July 1863. This allowed public authorities to borrow money for public works. Cotton operatives could now be employed on useful projects. Blackburn, for example laid paving flags and built new sewers.
Cotton starts to flow
A trickle of raw cotton reached Lancashire in late 1863, but failed to get to the worst affected regions, being swallowed up in Manchester. The cotton was adulterated with stones, but its arrival caused the principle operators to bring in key operators to prepare the mills. The American Civil War ended in April 1865. In August 1864, the first large Consignment arrived and Wooley Bridge mill in Glossop was able to reopen, giving all operatives a four and half day week. Employment then returned to normal. Raw cotton prices had risen from 6½d in 1861 to 27½d in 1864.Politics
The ConfederacyConfederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
hoped that distress in the European cotton manufacturing areas (similar hardships occurred in France), together with distaste in European ruling circles for Yankee democracy would lead to European intervention to force the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
to make peace on the basis of accepting secession of the Confederacy. (The Union forces nearly provoked Great Britain to enter the war on the secessionist side, when its forces boarded the RMS Trent
Trent affair
The Trent Affair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War...
sailing under the British flag.) However, after Union forces had repulsed a Confederate incursion at the Battle of Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...
in September 1862, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
.
Slavery had been abolished in the British Empire in 1833 several decades earlier after a long campaign. The Unionists believed that all the British public, would now see this as an antislavery issue rather than an anti-protectionism issue, and would pressure its government not to intervene in any way that helped the South.
Many mill owners and workers resented the blockade and continued to see the war as an issue of tariffs against free trade. Attempts were made to run the blockade, by ships from Liverpool, London and New York. 71,751 bales of American cotton reached Liverpool in 1862. Confederate flags were flown in many cotton towns.
On 31 December 1862, a meeting of cotton workers at the Free Trade Hall
Free Trade Hall
The Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, was a public hall constructed in 1853–6 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre and is now a hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The architect was Edward Walters The hall subsequently was...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, despite their increasing hardship, resolved to support the Union in its fight against slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. An extract from the letter they wrote in the name of the Working People of Manchester to His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America says:
On 19 January 1863, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
sent an address thanking the cotton workers of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
for their support. He wrote:
George Grey Barnard
'George Grey Barnard was an American sculptor, "an excellent American sculptor", the French art dealer René Gimpel reported in his diary , "very much engrossed in carving himself a fortune out of the trade in works of art." His lasting monument, rather than any sculpture of his own, is the...
, 1919, was formerly located in the gardens at Platt Hall in Rusholme.
The Federal American government sent a gift of food to the people of Lancashire. The first consignment was sent aboard the George Griswold. Other ships were the Hope and Achilles. To celebrate the aid a carnival procession was organised, carrying the bread for distribution from St Peters Square, The crowd first joined the celebration, but realising that this was a political stunt, stopped the procession and distributed the aid there.
Public works
The Lancashire area has a legacy of municipal parks that were created in this period such as Alexandra Park, OldhamAlexandra Park, Oldham
Alexandra Park is a public park in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It was created in response to the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865 as an attempt to keep local textile workers employed. The park is located in the Glodwick area of Oldham....
.
More important were the main sewers that were commissioned to replace the collapsing medieval drains and to bring sanitation to the hundred of millworkers cottages that supported the mills. Canals were dug, rivers straightened and new roads constructed such as the cobbled road on Rooley Moor above Norden
Norden, Greater Manchester
Norden is a suburban village within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on the western edge of Rochdale....
.
Effects in other parts of the world
In order to moderate the effects of the cotton famine, Great Britain tried to diversify its sourcing of cotton by making former subsistence farmers in British India, Egypt and elsewhere grow cotton for export often at the expense of staple food production. An attempt to grow cotton was also made on the island of Sicily. With the ending of the American Civil War, these new cotton farmers became redundant and their cotton was hardly demanded. This led to their impoverishment and aggravated various famines in these countries in the second half of the 19th century.Regions such as Australia, welcomed skilled spinners and weavers and encouraged their immigration.