|
 Although
the older forms of production did not disappear immediately the
impact of new technology would prove to be a fundamental break
with the past.
Investment in mill building and machinery
proclaimed an essential shift in emphasis from circulating capital
to fixed capital, this change permanently altered the financial
framework which had sustained the pre-factory trade. This was
not just an issue of the introduction of more machines, it involved
a complete reorientation of the principles of an essentially
rural trade dominated by the production of many independent clothiers
into an urban society commanded by factory production.
Clothiers became increasingly incapable of
controlling the trade as their batch methods could not compete
against mass production of the factory system. At best some clothiers
continued to make an uncertain living as sub-contractors to factory
owners, others had little option but to give up their textile
business and join the ranks of the handloom weavers.
 |
36
of 36 in this section |
 |
|
