nufactures which had sprung up after the
revolution had made considerable strides, but the conquest and
settlement of vast new areas of land, and the immense facilities
afforded for the production of raw material, retarded their rate of
growth until long after the opening of this century. It was, indeed,
not until about 1845 that the cotton manufacture made rapid strides in
the United States. During the twenty years previous the progress had
been very slight, but between 1845 and 1859 a very substantial and,
making allowance for fluctuations in the cotton crops, a very steady
growth took place.[90]

Another great economic advantage which assisted England was the fact
that she, more than any other European nation, had broken down the old
industrial order, with its guilds, its elaborate restrictions, and
conservative methods. Personal freedom, security of property, liberty
to work and live where and how one liked, existed in England to an
extent unknown on the Continent before the French Revolution. The
following account of the condition of the cotton manufacture in
Germany in the eighteenth century will serve to indicate the obstacles
to the reformed methods of industry:--"Everything was done by rule.
Spinning came under public inspection, and the yarn was collected by
officials. The privilege of weaving was confined to the confraternity
of the guild. Methods of production were strictly prescribed; public
inspectors exercised control. Defects in weaving were visited with
punishment. Moreover, the right of dealing in cotton goods was
confined to the confraternity of the merchant guild: to be a
master-weaver had almost the significance of a public office. Besides
other qualifications, there was the condition of a formal examination.
The sale also was under strict supervision; for a long time a fixed
price prevailed, and a maximum sale was officially prescribed for each
dealer. The dealer had to dispose of his wares to the weaver, because
the latter had guaranteed to him a monopoly of the export trade."[91]

Under such conditions the new machine-industry could make little
advance. Excepting in the case of the woollen industries, England had
for the most part already shaken off the old regulations before 1770.
In particular, the cotton trade, which was in the vanguard of the
movement, being of recent growth and settling outside the guild towns,
had never known such restrictions, and therefore lent itself to the
new order w