Iron, Steam & Money by Roger Osborne

Author:Roger Osborne [Roger Osborne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2013-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Sir Richard Arkwright

Arkwright extended his empire into Staffordshire, Manchester and, with a spectacular visit in 1784, Scotland. By then mills were already using his machines illegally at Penicuik, Rothesay and Dovecothall in Renfrew, and through legal licence at Paisley, where Corse, Burns & Co. had built a six-storey mill. While the American war disrupted cotton imports, it devastated the tobacco firms of Glasgow, who then became eager to diversify; Arkwright, on the other hand, battled continually with the Manchester cotton spinners and saw Scotland as an ideal ground for expansion. During his visit in the autumn of 1784, he was feted in Paisley where ‘for his good deeds done and to be done for the well and utility of the Burgh . . . was by the magistrates and Town Councill . . . Made and Created a free Burgess’. The Glasgow Mercury of 7 October 1784 went on to report: ‘Mr Richard Arkwright, Esq of Cromford, Derbyshire, the ingenious manufacturer of cotton yarn, was in town, on a tour to view the Manufactures of Scotland . . . On Friday [1 October] they were entertained by the Lord Provost and magistrates in the Town-hall, and Mr Arkwright presented with the freedom of the city.’16

Arkwright was treated as a hero who would bring the riches of the cotton trade to Scotland. Among those who greeted him was David Dale, the owner of cotton mills at Lanark. One story suggests that Dale took Arkwright to the Clyde Falls immediately after a banquet, knowing that the site would impress his cash-rich visitor. Together they agreed to build mills at New Lanark, powered by the spectacular water flow, and spinning there began in 1786. The partnership ended soon after, however, and the mills would pass to Dale’s son-in-law Robert Owen in 1810, who became famous for his principles of common ownership and philanthropy. After his visit to the Clyde Falls Arkwright travelled on to Aberdeen, where he helped to set up a mill at Woodside and offered to train local workers at Cromford, and finally to Perth where cotton works were built at Stanley on the Tay.

His own mills were only part of Arkwright’s cotton empire; he also earned from licensing his spinning frame to other mill-owners. No written agreements outlining the terms have survived, and there is a strong suspicion that Arkwright came to verbal agreements in order to avoid sharing the income with his original partners, who still had a stake in the patent. He also limited the number of licensed spindles at each mill to 1,000 to disable any serious competition to his own mills. In 1780 a spinner asserted that Arkwright charged £7,000 for every 1,000 spindles, while in 1785, Robert Peel, a notable Lancashire textile-maker, claimed that Arkwright was charging £2 per spindle. At a conservative estimate of 50,000 spindles licensed to other mill-owners, this brought Arkwright an enormous annual income.

By 1782, by his own estimation, Arkwright had sold water-frames and carding machines to hopeful entrepreneurs in eight

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