Evening star., 1902-08-02
COTTON IN ENGLAND
How It is Sold or Made Into
Cloth.
LANCASHIRE factories
JOHN BULL BEATS UNCLE SAM IN
THIS TRADE.
We Grow Nine-Tenths of the Worlds
Product, but Manufacture Only
Small Part.

Small Part.
Copyright, 1902, by Frank C. Carpcuter)
Special Correspondence of The Evening star
MANCHESTER. England. July "a, 1902
have spent the greater part Of today in
one of the largest cotton mills of Manches-
ter This city is the center of the cotton
spinning of the world and the place where
more than half of all the raw cotton we sell
is handled. The product is brought to Liv-
erpool or up the ship canal to Manchester,
and from there distributed over this little
cotton district of west England. The dis
trict is only seventy-siX miles long and
from ten to forty miles wide, but it is so
spotted with mills that it might be called
one vast cotton factory. Not only in Man
chester, but in the hundreds of villages and
towns nearby the spinning. dyeing and
weaving goes on. The very air is filled
with the smoke and the streams are so
discolored by the dyes that they seem to
flow ink. In the town of Oldham there is
a point where you can count 800 factory
chimneys without moving. Blackburn,
where HargreaVes set up the first spinning
jenny, still makes cotton, calico and mus
lin, and at Bolton, where CromptOn in
vented the spinning muIe, lneIe are tllbi-
nous cotton mills and bleaching and dye
works The first cotton mill was put up at
ROchedale in 1875, and now.there are 23,pc
looms and 10000 spndles at work there.
This region was noted for its woolen man
ufacturers before cotton making by ma
chinery began, and it got its start through
its natives being the inventors of the foun-
dation tools for cotton weaving and SPIN
ming The business grew more, however,
through the advantages of the climate.
ba hero fell that there is no
place in the world where the conditions are
so favorable to the making of cotton CLOTH
The air has just the right amount of moist
ure the water is excellent for dyeing and
the colors are fast. AS a result the cotton
industry has steadily grown, and IL is To-
day bigger than ever. The increase OF the
trade of 1900 over that of 1899 amounted TO
more than $50 .O00,0 in value, and new
mills are still being built.
Where John Bull Beats Uncle Sam.
1t is in the cotton trade that John Bull
has the advantage of Uncle Sam. How long
he will hold it remains to be seen, but so
far his grip has not loosened. He is now
producing about s5000o0,e00 worth Of cot
ton manufactures yearly, and more than
two-thirds of this product is exported. As
far as the worlds trade in cotton manufac-
lures is concerned we are not in it, although
we grow nine-tenths of the worlds cotton
and are now putting up our factories rlght
in the cotton fields. England Is thousands
of miles away from any place where cot
ton is grown but it supplies its own cotton
goods and has &C per cent of the world s
exports. while we have only about > per
cent. Great Britain pays us sloo,"o;ooo
and upward for our raw materials, but
it sells it's product for al least three times
the amount it pays us, so that Il really
makes about twice as much out of that part
Of our crop as we do.
In the Cotton Exchanges.
The most of our cotton now comes to
Iiyerpool. although the shipments via the
Manchester canal are increasing and ii is
at Liverpool where the bulk of the Amer
lean product is sold. The sales are in the
cotton exchange. where every day there
are hundreds of buyers and sellers. The
cotton is taken from the ships to the ware
houses of the various brokers, each or
whom has sample room with exhibits OF
the grades of cotton on hand. The samples
are rolled up in sheets of brown paper about
a ward wide. so that they look for all the
world like rolls of cotton batting. Each
roll contains several pounds of cotton taken
fl ON the various bales, labeled according TO
the grades of the market.
The cotton is bought and sold by samples,
the spinners sending their orders to the
brokers. 1 saw scores of boys moving about
the streets of Liverpool with such samples
under their arms, and L stopped one who
was carrying two bundles from one broker
to another and photographed him. This
was on the flags of the exchange, where,
later on, l saw the brokers out in the open
air buying and selling.
The Flags Of Liverpool
1t used to be that all of the cotton busi-
ness of Liverpool was done out of doors.
There is court in the exchange known as
the Flags and the bulk of the cotton is
buoght and sold on the Flags instead Of un-
der cover. 1 went through the exchange
with its secretary. He informed me that
Liverpool has little fear of Manchester TAX
ing its cotton business away from ii, and
that the natural landing place of American
cotton is and always will be at the Liver
pool docks.
The cotton business of Liverpool is very
great. 1t is l am told, the largest cotton
market of the world. can easily believe
this from the business l saw going on at
the huge cotton warehouses, and from the
six and eight ton loads of cotton bales each
hauled by two of Liverpoors famous
horses, which make a steady procession
along the wharves and through the busiest
streets leading up from the docks.
The Biggest Exchange of the World.
Quite as interesting as the Liverpool eX-
change is that of Manchester, which is said
to be the largest exchange building of the
world. 1t is a magnificent structure in the
very heart of the city built in the classical
style out of massive stones, now blackened
by the smoke of the cotton mills of the
region about. 1t was yesterday that / en-
tered the great hall with one of the brok-
ers and watched the 6.O00 men who gather
there from the 100 cotton towns nearby to
buy and sell all sorts of goods, every Tues |
day and Friday.
The hall covers almost an acre and it is |
crowned with a dome ninety-siX feet high |
About it are hung the coats-of-arm of the |
various manufacturing towns and upon a
shield near the door l noticed the coat-of- |
arms of the United States.
In the exchange not only raw cotton but |
cotton cloths. machinery paper and all |
sorts of goods are sold. The Manchester |
manufacturers are SO excellent that buyers !
come here from all parts of the world to |
collect goods There are 800 resident pur-
chasing agents who represent every civil |
lied country on earth who spend their time
here looking into the products Of this region |
and buying them for their customers. There |
are many Syrians and East Indians. men
from Australia and South America and |
from the United States and all parts of Eu-
rope. The business with China is chiefly |
done through the English firms, which have |
their direct connection with Manchester |
found the brokers, however. a little appre-
H. %lox N,,~ ;<~l,x