Cotton Industry

Cotton was Britain's largest industry for more than a century and its principal source of wealth during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Yet, despite its importance, it has attracted few historians. This book tells the story of the cotton industry from its spectacular growth during the late eigtheenth and early nineteenth centuries to its devastating decline in recent years. The impact of the British cotton trade was enormous. Goods mass-produced in busy factories undercut all competition and the industry became the first to make the whole world its market. Cotton inaugurated a new way of life for thousands who flocked to the mill towns of Lancashire and there the world's first industrial society produced a remarkably wide range of social, religious and political movements, which profoundly affected the nation's life. Using much previously unpublished material, the book traces cotton's birth, growth and downfall. The development of the processes used to transform raw cotton into finished goods is also well illustrated.Aspin, Chris is the author of 'Cotton Industry', published 1997 under ISBN 9780852635452 and ISBN 0852635451.