DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1401#0161
THE ILLUSTRATED EXHIBITOR.
Ill
are
weaving than any mere words; but it may assist the reader to know that the elastic tiss.ue of which stockings
composed, is formed of one thread, entwined or woven together without warp or woof, and easily adapting itself to the
form of the limb it is intended to encase.
Worsted hosiery is chiefly made in Leicestershire, silk hosiery in Derby and Nottingham, and cotton hosiery
throughout the counties of Nottingham and Derby, at Hinckley, and at Tewkesbury. The following analysis may
serve to show the kinds and qualities of goods upon which the frames are at present employed :—
Plain cotton, 14 to 22-gauge, 1,600 ; 24 to 28-gauge, 1,600 ; 30 to 34-gauge, 2,790; 36 to
60-gauge, 1,600 frames...........
Gauze, 600; gloves and caps, 1,000 ; drawers, 500 ; sundries, 560 . . . \
"Wide frames, making cut-ups and various other kinds......
Worsted, 12 to 20-gauge, 4,400; 22 to 26-gauge, 3,600; 28 to 34-gauge, 1,450 frames
Angola, 1,350; lambs' -wool, 1,900; shirts, 500 frames . .....
Wide frames, on with worsted goods.........
Silk, 2,300; gloves, 350; and knots, 350........
7,590
2,660
6,030
9,450
3,750
520
3,000
Total of frames...........33,000
In the above no account is taken of the hosiery made in Westmoreland and Cumberland, and in Scotland, where,
however, it is rather extensively produced. In fact, there are at present between 700 and 800 stocking frames at work
in Dumfries and its vicinity, and about 1,350 in Hawick, exclusive of a farther number in Aberdeen, &c, and of the
knitted stockings made in the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
" In our Customs returns," says M'Culloch, " cotton hosiery and lace are mixed up together, so that the value of the
exports of each cannot be separately specified. The exports of both have, however, increased considerably of late
years, and we are well assured that the increase has been as great in the hosiery as in the lace branch. The Germans
it is true, have succeeded in disposing of considerable quantities of hosiery in South America, particularly in Brazil__
a consequence, partly, of the low price at which the goods are produced in the cottages of peasants who derive the
principal part of their subsistence from other sources. The value of the cotton hosiery annually made is, however
estimated at £880,000; that of worsted, &c, is £870,000 ; and that of silk is £241,000. To produce these goods it is
probable that 4,584,000 lbs. of raw cotton wool, value £153,000, are used; and 140,000 lbs. of raw silk (2-5ths China
and 3-5ths Novi), value £91,000 ; also, 6,318,000 lbs. of English wool, value £316,000. The total original value of
the materials used is therefore £560,000, which, it appears, becomes of the ultimate cost value of £1,991,000 in this
manufacture."
In the various processes of the hosiery trade there are employed the following number of persons:—
In cotton spinning, doubling, &c, 3,000; worsted carding, spinning, &c, 2,500 ; silk winding,
throwing, &c, 1,000.............6,500
In making stockings, 13,000 men, 10,000 women, and 10,000 youths; and women and children
in seaming, winding, &c, 27,000...........60,000
In embroidering, mending, bleaching, dyeing, dressing, putting-up, &c, probably about . 6,500
Total persons employed.........73,000
The capital employed in the various branches of the trade may be thus estimated, taking the machinery and frames
at neither their original cost nor acutual selling price, but at their working value, and the stocks of hosiery on an
average of years:—The fixed capital in mills and machinery, for preparing cotton, is estimated at £140,000, thus
apportioned -.—Cotton, £70,000; worsted, &c, £52,000; silk, £18,000. The capital sunk in frames is £245,000; making
a total of £385,000. Floating capital in spinning wool and yarn in process and stock, is about £270,000. Capital
in narrow cotton frames, £62,000; wide, £60,000; narrow worsted frames, £76,000; wide, £11,000; silk frames,
£36,000; making a total of fixed capital in frames, of £245,000. Floating capital in making hose, in spinning, &c,
£1,050,000.
The following statement, it is believed, presents a sufficiently accurate approximation to the annual amount in
quantity and value of the goods manufactured in this trade, to answer all practical purposes :—■
Each narrow cotton frame produces about 40 dozen of hose a year, if of woman's size ; wide cotton frames, 300;
narrow worsted, 75 ; wide worsted, 150 ; and silk, 30. There are-
Frames.
10,300
6,000
9,500
1,000
1,300
1,900
3,000.
33,000
em
g
ffashioned cotton-
hose............
cut up, &c......
fashioned worsted.
cut up, &c........
Angola............
lambs' -wool.......
silk.....
o ..... _J
03
o
o
Dozen.
420,000"
1,960,000
710,000
100,000
95,000
135,000
90,000J
3,510,000
as
o
o
cotton
yarn
Lbs.
880,000
2,940,000
2,840,000 worsted
400,000
332,500
639,500
105,000 silk
£
£
£
73,000
60
•rf
220,000""
32,000
i—i
-(J
172,000
285,000
6C
98,000
03
—v—
lued
284,000
m
215,000
41,000
S3
40,000
30,000
10,000
" 00 "
a>
03
45,000
«>
40,000
19,000
%
80,000
bfl
50,000
16,000
&
l 120,000^
£
L 108,000J
L 13,000J
814,000
948,000
229,000
£
325,000
555,000
540,000
80,000
104,000
146,000
241,000
1,991,000'
8,137,000
According to the above estimate of the total value of the stocking manufacture in 1833 (£1,991,000) it would not
give more than 2s. 5d. for the average expenditure on stockings of each individual of the then existing inhabitants of
Great Britain. There can, however, be little doubt that this sum is decidedly under the mark; and its insufficiency
will appear the more striking when it is recollected that a large portion of the hosiery whose value is included in the
above estimate, does not consist of stockings, but of woollen and cotton shirts and drawers, gloves, mitts, night-caps,
shawls, &c. Perhaps, we shall not be far wrong in estimating the total average expenditure per individual of the
population of Great Britain on stockings and other articles of hosiery, at 4s. each; which, taking the population at
18,500,000, would give £3,700,000 for the total value of the manufacture. And this estimate, we incline to think, will
be found to be pretty near the mark.