Royal Commission on hand-loom weavers

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Domains

Politics

Dates

Date of occurrence 1841

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Handloom weaving had been a lucrative craft in the late eighteenth century, and was actually aided by the invention of the Spinning Jenny in the 1760s. With a ready supply of spun thread, but no machine able to produce the woven cloth they created, weaving attracted huge numbers of workers. However, once power looms had been invented, and first introduced in mills in Manchester in 1791, it was only a matter of time before the handloom weavers were superseded. The new machines could be run by unskilled workers, who were paid a pittance. By 1841, destitution even among employed weavers was so severe that in Blackburn, for example a committee was formed to administer poor relief. A Royal Commission was formed to investigate the situation, but they concluded that the march of industrial…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

136 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Royal Commission on hand-loom weavers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4823, accessed 06 May 2024.]

Save this article