wool and woollen cloth

wool and woollen cloth. Although wool was worn from earliest times (see dress), there is no evidence of systematic large‐scale production for the market prior to the arrival of the Anglo‐Normans and the development of a manorial system of farming. Sheep farming was extensively developed on the Cistercian monastic estates from 1142 onwards, especially in the favourable conditions of the south‐east. By the 13th century many of the manors, often located on limestone areas which provided good grazing, were producing so much wool that they were major contributors to the Great Custom on wool and woolfells, first levied in 1275. Over half the total of this tax was paid by the almost contiguous ports of New Ross and Waterford, as these were located at the estuary of the Barrow–Nore–Suir river system on which much of the wool was transported. This trade was dominated by Flemish merchants, and was financed by great Italian merchant families from cities such as Lucca and Florence. As a result the king, nobility, and religious houses were nearly always in debt to these Italian banking firms. But much of the wool must also have been produced from the smaller flocks of lesser lords and peasants, and sold to the neighbouring town.

Although Irish wool was of poorer quality than English and was used for making coarser, heavier cloth, Irish cloaks were widely exported throughout Europe. The industry expanded throughout the first half of the 14th century and skilled Irish weavers migrated to England where many of them were employed in the growing industry in the west country. In the later Middle Ages more ready‐made cloaks, worsted, and serge were being made and exported, which caused a decline in raw wool exports. The main export markets in the 15th century were Flanders and the Low Countries, mainly through the port of Calais.

From c.1500 woollens, generally coarse frieze, were the most common cloth type made and worn in Ireland, and there was also and export trade, largely to England, in wool and frieze. Wool exports increased dramatically between the 1580s and 1640s, with the more commercialized areas of Munster dominating this trade. At this stage government regulations ensured that most Irish wool exports went to England rather than continental Europe. With favourable price trends the trade in wool had increased further by the end of the 17th century. By this time there were about 50,000 settlers engaged in woollen manufacture. The Woollen Act (1699) ended the export trade, but the manufacture of wool for the home market remained important throughout the 18th century and beyond.

The rural cottage‐based industry produced a coarse cloth range, while a more specialist craft‐based industry producing finer woollens had developed in a number of towns during the 18th century. Dublin was the largest centre, and also the most important for finishing and marketing cloth made in rural Ireland. Other urban centres included Cork, Bandon, Blarney, Newmarket, Doneraile, Castlemartyr, Kilkenny, Carrick‐on‐Suir, Maryborough, and Mountmellick. Imports of finer British woollens increased from the 1770s, when Yorkshire manufacturers began to adopt carding and spinning machinery, damaging the urban‐based industry in Ireland. The domestic manufacture of coarse cloths (which most of the population wore) proved more resilient and was still expanding by the turn of the century. But as mechanization proceeded, costs could be reduced and both English and Irish factory‐based producers were gradually able to gain a greater share of the Irish market for coarse cloth.

From the 1790s a number of urban manufacturers began to introduce machinery, notably in Dublin, and with protection from British competition until the removal in 1824 of the transitional protective tariffs permitted under the Act of Union, these manufacturers of coarse cloth built up a reasonable trade. Cork was the main centre of the worsted industry, and here too a number of manufacturers had invested in machinery. However, after the removal of the protection afforded by the union duties in 1824, the precarious growth of the factory industry was thrown into reverse as British competition became more intense; the number of mills declined from 36 in 1835 to 11 by the mid‐19th century. British imports also began to make inroads into parts of the domestic industry, notably in Leinster and Munster. Wool's role as a traded or bartered commodity remained significant in poorer peripheral regions, but even this experienced contraction during the second half of the 19th century.

Domestic spinning and handloom weaving nevertheless survived after the end of the 19th century in Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, and some other districts, with the help of the Congested Districts Board, which made efforts to revive the flagging industry. Irish factory production, meanwhile, made significant progress during the second half of the 19th century competing successfully with British imports. By importing machinery from the best British machine makers and specializing in Irish cloth types (for example, Blarney tweed) Irish manufacturers were able to retain a niche in the market for machine‐made fabrics, building a limited export trade. The number of mills between 1850 and 1904 rose from 11 to 100, and Cork emerged as the most important centre of the factory industry; it was here that Mahony's of Blarney (the largest and most innovative firm in the country, and the first to mechanize all aspects of the industry) were located.

Bibliography

Bielenberg, A. , ‘British Competition and the Vicissitudes of the Irish Woollen Industry 1785–1923’, Textile History, 31 (2000)
Cullen, L. , An Economic History of Ireland since 1660 (1972)
Gillespie, R. , The Transformation of the Irish Economy 1550–1700 (1991)

TB/ and Terry Barry