The Textile Fabrics of India and Huddersfield Cloth Industry

Abstract

There was a large and rapidly expanding cloth finishing industry in London in the late fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century. London merchants brought provincial cloth to the City, some of which was finished prior to export, and some was finished for the City's expanding clothing industry. The success of the London Fullers and Shearmen was reflected in their merger to form the Clothworkers' Company in 1528, and their acceptance ten years later as the last and twelfth merchant company in the City. The paper traces both the economic progress of the company and some of its principal members, and the difficulties that the Fullers and Shearmen faced as they decided to merge, and then to become accepted as one of the leading companies in the City.     

Late Saxon Textiles from the City of London

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS in the City of London have produced an important collection of late 9th- to early 12th-century textiles manufactured from wool, goat hair, silk and flax. The production processes associated with the different types of cloth are here described, together with details of weaving techniques and dyeing practices. Changes in the types of cloth used in the nth century are related to the introduction of new technology and the decline in use of the warp-weighted loom. Evidence is examined for the local manufacture of cloth and for the import of foreign silks. Lastly, attention is drawn to the similarity of the London textiles to those found in other regions of northern Europe.     

Salamander's Wool: The Historical Evidence for Textiles Woven with Asbestos Fibre

Abstract

In 1684 Members of the Royal Society of London discussed the nature of a type of woven cloth described as incombustible linen, or salamander's wool. It was an attempt to explain scientifically the phenomenon described in many cultures over more than 1,500 years, of a cloth which could be immersed in fire and emerge, not only unburnt, but even cleansed. Such cloth is known to have been woven using fibres from the mineral asbestos. This paper explores the evidence for the historical use of asbestos fibre in woven textiles before its rediscovery and commercial development for fire protection in the nineteenth century.     

The Levant Company under Attack in Parliament, 1720–53

Parliamentary debates concerning the British chartered companies in the 18th century are an important resource which can provide a range of insights into the fate of the companies, the concerns of British economic policy, and the process of political decision making on economic issues. Of all the parliamentary debates concerning chartered companies in the 18th century, those concerning the Levant Company have received the least scholarly attention. This article examines a series of debates involving the Levant Company during the period 1720–53. These debates saw the company increasingly put on the defensive. By the middle of the century, there was, in the words of the duke of Bedford, ‘a very great outcry against companies of all kinds’. However, the debates concerning the Levant Company did not turn on competing views regarding political economy. War was an influence on the timing of the debates, but it was the economic impact of the company's deteriorating competitive position on its woollen cloth suppliers from the west country which was crucial. As French competition gained momentum, cloth exports fell and the political pressure on the company intensified. In the face of this, the company was far from defenceless in parliament. It had influential supporters and did not hesitate to pander to fears about the potential domination of its trade by jewish merchants. The company was forced to lower its admission fee in 1753, but survived and continued to operate into the 19th century.     

The varieties of urban ethnicity

Almirol, Edwin B. Ethnic Identity and Social Negotiation: A Study of a Filipino Community in California. New York: AMS Press, 1985. vii + 296 pp. including appendices, references, and index. $47.50 cloth.

Baskauskas, Liucija. An Urban Enclave: Lithuanian Refugees in Los Angeles. New York: AMS Press, 1985. vii 4–173 pp. including references, appendix, and index. $35.00 cloth.

Gerber, Stanford Neil. Russkoya Celo: The Ethnography of a Russian‐American Community. New York: AMS Press, 1985. vii + 131 pp. including appendices, references, and index. $29.50 cloth.

Laguerre, Michel S. American Odyssey: Haitians in New York City. London: Cornell University Press, 1984. 198 pp. including references and index. $29.95 cloth, $9.95 paper.

Wheeler, Wayne. An Analysis of Social Change in a Swedish‐Immigrant Community: The Case of Lindsborg, Kansas. New York: AMS Press, 1986. 386 pp. including appendix, references, and index.     

试论英国崛起中的尼德兰因素

英国的崛起存在外来因素特别是尼德兰因素的参与和推动。从11世纪到18世纪,尼德兰人移居英国经历了四次高潮,这种移民既有尼德兰人逃离内乱或寻求生存和发展新环境的动机,也有英国方面的主观因素,即政府和民众的欢迎态度。对英国崛起有决定意义的重大经济现象,如呢绒工业的发展,乡村毛纺业的兴起,棉纺业的起步,农业革命的进行,工业革命的资金准备,都与尼德兰移民和资本的到来有密切关系。     

Reporting and Interpreting Legal Violence in Asia: The East India Company's Printed Accounts of Torture, 1603–24

This article examines how printed accounts of torture can reveal the ways the law was experienced, interpreted and reported by the East India Company (EIC) during the early decades of the seventeenth century. It will explore how the company came to impose its own interpretation of the law when interacting with local powers and people while simultaneously attempting to adapt to and operate within existing legal systems in early modern Asia. This careful balance—sustaining English law while accepting the restraints of a different legal system—was essential in a region where merchants and other travellers moved through areas criss-crossed with overlapping jurisdictions. Interactions with locals often turned violent, even when under the protection of local states, and the English used legal violence to sustain their position in Asia as much as they were threatened by its use by others. Concepts of how the law operated were far from simple and overlapping legal institutions, customs and ideas resulted in numerous moments of competition as different legal structures were imposed simultaneously. The company was forced to think carefully about these issues when law and violence came together during the most violent aspect of judicial enquiry—torture. To assess how the EIC thought about the law and how this influenced the development of their imperial policies this article will focus on how information regarding the law—in its most extreme application—was reported to an English and European audience through the careful presentation of information regarding events in Asia.

It will focus on two case studies where torture was experienced by English merchants—and where accounts were deemed important enough for reportage and printed distribution. The accounts considered here, reporting the experience of torture in Bantam in 1603 and in Amboyna in 1623, were carefully developed and distributed by the company and intended to effectively present its ideas regarding the law and jurisdiction in the developing world of global commerce and empire. In the first, we see the English factors at Bantam seeking to operate within the parameters of the local rulers but increasingly turning to their own understanding of the law in response to threats. The account of this episode reveals how the company justified the seizure of legal authority through the effective interpretation of both English ideas of proof and their own grasp of international law. The second account covers an opposing scenario, where Dutch merchants seized legal authority over the English in contravention—or so the company claimed—of the law of nature and failing to effectively follow the rules of law regarding proof. Across the two accounts we see how the company struggled to come to terms with the ways it interpreted the law. This is turn defined how it developed policies regarding its role overseas, and the reporting of these legal encounters in England changed the way that other parts of the world and the challenges of international trade were understood.     

Justice,aggression, and theatre: Contradictions and conflict in the modern world

Cohen, Ronald L. ed. Justice: Views from the Social Sciences. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1986. xii + 283 pp. including chapter references and subject and author indices. $32.50 cloth.

Gilmore, David D. Aggression and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian Culture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987. xvi + 218 pp. including map, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. $24.50 cloth.

Wagner‐Pacifici, Robin Erica. The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986. xi + 360 pp. including appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $45.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Gorecki, Jan. Capital Punishment: Criminal Law and Social Evolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. x + 165 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $12.50 paper.     

The Ossett Mill Company

Abstract

The history of Joint-Stock Company Woollen Mills exhibits a singular instance of energy amongst the smaller capitalists of the manufacturing districts…. the clothiers of certain country districts, such as Farsley, Idle, Eccleshill, Batley, Dewsbury, etc, put their heads together, and subsequently their purses…by erecting mills at home, to scribble their own wool and full their own cloth …. In the formation of a company mill a number of clothiers (for they must be clothiers to be partners) of small capital meet together and determine to become a company of so many partners, from ten to fifty, in shares generally of £25 each, each person taking as many shares as his capital will enable him…. With this subscribed capital deeds of partnership are drawn, land is bought, a mill erected, and machinery put up …. The processes which are carried on in these company mills are scribbling, carding, slubbing, and fulling cloth, which are the preparatory processes of the cloth manufacture, and the remaining processes—viz, spinning, warping, weaving, and burling—are done at home by members of the family or by persons employed for that purpose.     

Some miscellaneous ancient fleece remains

Wool fibre measurements are described from four unconnected remains: (1) some possibly Iron Age sheepskin from Germany that appeared to have a hairy fleece type; (2) the cloth from the Quernmore burial, Lancashire (dated 1300 years BP), one yarn of which was of hairy medium type, and the other true medium; (3) some sheepskin from Saxon Durham which had wool of true medium type, and (4) some wool of medieval date from Baynard's Castle, London, which was of true fine type.     

17世纪英国海外贸易的拓展与转型

17世纪,英国与西欧、北欧呢绒的贸易趋于衰落,而与利凡特东印度以及北美殖民地的进口贸易却繁荣起来。进口的目的是为了再出口。这种输入与再输出的贸易越来越发达,而呢绒出口贸易则逐渐走向衰落,这就是所谓的贸易转型。17世纪英国的贸易转型分两个阶段：第一阶段发展的是与利凡特—东印度的贸易;第二阶段发展的是与殖民地的贸易。这种以再出口为目的的新型海外贸易,是17世纪英国巨额财富的主要来源。     

The United Kingdom and the Negotiation of the 1969 New York Convention on Special Missions

During 1968–9, members of the United Nations, meeting in the Legal Committee of the General Assembly, negotiated a Convention on Special Missions, sometimes known as the New York Convention, setting out the privileges and immunities of ad hoc embassies between states. The negotiation was part of a process through which the UN sought to clarify the status and rights of official representatives, so that diplomacy could function with security and certainty. This article looks at the role of one leading power, the United Kingdom, in the talks. It explores how British interests were defined, the tactics used to secure them and how London came to terms with pressure from other states to redefine its approach. The focus is on the overall political thrust of the British negotiating position, as formulated mainly by the Foreign Office, rather than the detailed talks on such thorny issues as tax avoidance and diplomatic property. The article shows that, while London was keen to see a codification of diplomatic law, cold-war considerations made it less than enthusiastic about an upsurge in the number of special missions that the New York Convention might encourage.     

光绪徽商护票及其价值

清代商人护票现已不常见.最近,笔者从安徽省档案馆发现了6件清代光绪徽商护票.从这些护票中,我们可以研究徽商百货业经营的税收和经营、徽商商品运输路程以及清代光绪厘金护票制度等问题.     

‘Leger est aprendre mes fort est arendre’: wool,debt, and the dispersal of Pipewell Abbey (1280-1330)

It has long been known that English Cistercian monasteries often sold their wool in advance to foreign merchants in the late thirteenth century. The abbey of Pipewell in Northamptonshire features in a number of such contracts with Cahorsin merchants. This paper looks again at these contracts in the context of over 200 other such agreements found in the governmental records. Why did Pipewell descend into penury over this fifty year period? This case study demonstrates that the promise of ready cash for their most valuable commodity led such abbots to make ambitious agreements – taking on yet more debt to service existing creditors – that would lead to their eventual bankruptcy.     

A MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF REMAINS OF TEXTILES MADE FROM PLANT FIBRES

Summary. Plant fibres in textiles from the following sites were investigated and those not already identified as flax were identified as such: Tybrind (Mesolithic Denmark)-unidentified; Çatal Hüyük (Neolithic Turkey); the Kerma civilization of Nubia (2000 BC); Kings Road, Guernsey (Iron Age) (mineralised cloth), and eighteenth-century England. Some Bronze Age nettle fabric from Denmark was examined.
The Scanning Electron Microscope provided an invaluable aid to identification, particularly in the mineralised material. Fibre diameter measurements in the form of distributions, like those used with wool, also assisted identification, but no evolutionary changes with time were evident in these. It was possible also to make such measurements on SEM photomicrographs of the mineralised fibres.     

The Macclesfield Silk Button Industry: The Probate Evidence

Abstract

Most histories of the silk industry in England begin with the arrival of French refugees to Spitalfields in London, yet silk was prepared for embroidery in Macclesfield by the Middle Ages and the silk button trade was well-established by the early modern period. Through the study of probate evidence, this article aims to redress the imbalance in the historiography of the silk industry in England away from the focus on the activities of the Huguenots in the early modern period, and away from the silk weaving in order to show that the silk button industry succeeded not through technical innovation, but through marketing a luxury item in sufficiently small packages to make it accessible to a wide portion of the population. The silk button industry can be viewed as having laid the foundations in east Cheshire for the transformation of the silk industry into weaving cloth in the mid-eighteenth century.     

The End of the Gamble: The Termination of the Virginia Lotteries in March 1621*

The sudden cancellation of the Virginia lotteries during the first sitting of the parliament of 1621 was not part of a general parliamentary attack on monopolies but a calculated political act intended to pressure the Virginia Company of London to pay more taxes than required by its charter of 1612. The appropriate context for considering the cancellation is the financial difficulties of James I and the search for funds by Sir Lionel Cranfield. The cancellation coincided with a rejection of a new charter for the company, possibly incited by Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in England. The cancellation of the lotteries was the most important turning point in the history of Jamestown and started the company on its downward spiral.     

Through the Backdoor: An Overview of the English East India Company’s Rise and Fall in Safavid Iran, 1616–40

In 1616, the English East India Company expanded its trade into Safavid Iran. The chief merchants in India hoped to acquire a significant share of the Iranian silk trade. After several difficult years in India, the English traders in Surat felt pressure to establish a solid foundation in Iran where they could redirect Iranian silk through Iran’s southern ports and onto Company ships for Europe. Despite Robert Sherley’s promise of wealth and a prosperous market for English cloth, many in the English camp, predominantly Sir Thomas Roe, objected to the silk trade on grounds that it was generally a risky venture. But several leading merchants dismissed Roe’s concerns and pursued the trade without his approval. After early indications that the venture had potential for success, the English silk trade quickly began to falter and finally ceased to exist by 1640. Although its demise was once described as the Company’s failure to produce a substantial quantity of purchasing power—eastern goods, precious metals, and English commodities—this paper explores an alternative explanation that suggests the Company’s failure in Iran was not exclusively the consequence of poor economics.     

The number of Huguenot immigrants in England in the late seventeenth century

The task of assessing the number of Huguenots seeking refuge in later Stuart England is exceptionally difficult. They left France by stealth, so no emigration lists exist. French names could be anglicized almost immediately on arrival across the Channel or otherwise changed beyond recognition, and marriage and burial records concerning Huguenots are often entered in the registers of English churches rather than those of the French congregations themselves. As refugees the mobility of the Huguenots was great. Guesses as to the numbers reaching England, exaggerated in the eighteenth century and since reduced, have varied from 20,000 to 150,000. A study of surviving baptismal records, in conjunction with other evidence including informed contemporary estimates, suggests that some 40,000–50,000 Huguenots settled in England betwen the late 1670s and the reign of Queen Anne. Refugee communities were located south of a line drawn from the Severn to the Wash. Almost all were near the sea, normally in towns rather than in the countryside. By far the largest concentration was in London; living for the most part in the eastern and western suburbs, Huguenots comprised about 5% of the total population of the capital at the end of the seventeenth century. Their contribution to the commercial and political transformation of England which took place at that time was significant and deserves re-evaluation.     

SKIN, AND WOOL-TEXTILE REMAINS FROM HALLSTATT, AUSTRIA

Summary. A study was made of wool cloth remains comprising 56 yarns and of 33 samples of haired animal skin from the Kilbwerk salt-mine site at Hallstatt, Austria dated 6th to 8th century BC. Most of the wool in the cloth was primitive hairy-medium or generalised-medium type and over half the samples had natural coloration, the predominant colour being grey. One yarn was of medium wool type and four were of semi-fine fleece type, neither of these having been previously reported before the Roman period. The skins were much hairier, only one-third having fleece types found in the cloth, and only two of these were of the finer generalised medium variety. Most of the skins with the coarsest hair were probably from goats, and those with less coarse hair from true hairy sheep, a fleece type that is thought to have developed during the Iron Age. The staining reaction of the skin indicated rawhide or oil tanning. The presence of inactive hair follicles within the skin showed that over half had ceased to live during the autumn-winter period.