Case Study III: Cotton Textiles Under the Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij

Abstract

By 1830 virtually a century of continuous technological advance had transformed the manufacturing process for cotton textiles. In Britain the old household craft basis of the industry was almost entirely surplanted by modern steampowered factories. Entire new towns had sprung up where previously only small villages had stood. The revolution had been completed first in the spinning sector where the suitability of Crompton’s mule (1779) for adaptation to steam rendered redundant such earlier inventions as Hargreaves’ jenny (1765) and Arkwright’s water frame (1769). The sudden availability of vast quantities of cheap thread created a bottleneck in weaving but it was not until the 1820’s and 30’s that Kay’s flying shuttle (1733) was rapidly displaced by improved power-looms. These inventions and innovations had enabled massive gains to be made in levels of output and productivity in many other European states. Yet, until the Belgian secession forced the government to take an active interest in fostering the cotton industry in the Northern provinces, these developments had made virtually no impression on the traditional textile areas of Twente and North Brabant. At a time when the British spinning industry could boast ten million spindles (almost entirely power driven), the foundations for the first steam-mill were being dug in Twente. At a time when there were 55,000 power-looms operating in British factories, Dutch weavers had still to be introduced to the use of the flying shuttle — a hundred years after its invention.¹