English Textile Industries and the International Competition in the XVIIth Century

FUNAYAMA Eiichi

doi:10.20633/tochiseido.7.2_1

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Other Title

イギリス毛織物工業と国際競争 : 17世紀における新旧毛織物の隆替をめぐって
イギリスケオリモノコウギョウトコクサイキョウソウ 17セイキニオケルシンキュウケオリモノノリュウタイオメグッテ

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Description

It is my intention to examine the effects of the international competition to the development of English textile industries in the XVIIth century. At first I have made a statistical survey of the conspicuous change in the textile industries of this period; the fall of the traditional woollen industry and the rise of the new-drapery. Why did such a sectorial change happen and what impact did it give to the English national economy? In this article I have confined myself to find out the chiefest cause in the side of the foreign market. I have pointed out based on some statistics : First, the woollen (not worsted) was the main sector of the textile industries in the XVIth century England. Second, the greatest part of the woollen exoprt was made of unfinished white cloths which were almost exclusively sent to Northern and Central Europe. The expansion of foreign export into these districts was the most important incentive to the rapid development of the English woollen industry up to the XVIth century. In the next century, however, England had to meet with the keen competition of foreign countries such as Italy, Silesia, especially Holland, where their own industries were growing day by day. Sellers' market that England had firmly held has broken up. Moreover, compared with the price of woollen goods made in these countries, English woollen was relatively dear in the international market. As a result of such a situation, the English woollen export was drastically shrinking during the XVIIth century. A good deal of disinvestment and unemployment appeared in English woollen industry. It may be called a serious crisis of the national economy. English textile industry was able to break free from this deadlock only through substituting the cheap new drapery for the dear woollen industry. That is why the new turing of the main sector is found in the textile industries of the XVIIth century.

Journal

The Journal of Agrarian History

The Journal of Agrarian History 7 (2), 1-23, 1965

The Agrarian History Society (Renamed as The Political Economy and Economic History Society)