e West
Riding of Yorkshire; in 1817 there were 490,000 pieces, and so rapid was
the extension of the industry that in 1834, 450,000 more pieces were
produced than in 1825. In 1801, 101,000,000 pounds of wool (7,000,000
pounds of it imported) were worked up; in 1835, 180,000,000 pounds were
worked up; of which 42,000,000 pounds were imported. The principal
centre of this industry is the West Riding of Yorkshire, where,
especially at Bradford, long English wool is converted into worsted
yarns, etc.; while in the other cities, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield,
etc., short wool is converted into hard-spun yarn and cloth. Then come
the adjacent part of Lancashire, the region of Rochdale, where in
addition to the cotton industry much flannel is produced, and the West of
England which supplies the finest cloths. Here also the growth of
population is worthy of observation:

Bradford contained in 1801 29,000, and in 1831 77,000 inhabitants.
Halifax ,, ,, 68,000, ,, ,, 110,000 ,,
Huddersfield ,, ,, 15,000, ,, ,, 34,000 ,,
Leeds,, ,, 53,000, ,, ,, 123,000 ,,

And the whole West Riding 564,000, ,, ,, 980,000 ,,

A population which, since 1831, must have increased at least 20 to 25 per
cent. further. In 1835 the spinning of wool employed in the United
Kingdom 1,313 mills, with 71,300 workers, these last being but a small
portion of the multitude who are supported directly or indirectly by the
manufacture of wool, and excluding nearly all weavers.

Progress in the linen trade developed later, because the nature of the
raw material made the application of spinning machinery very difficult.
Attempts had been made in the last years of the last century in Scotland,
but the Frenchman, Girard, who introduced flax spinning in 1810, was the
first who succeeded practically, and even Girard's machines first
attained on British soil the importance they deserved by means of
improvements which they underwent in England, and of their universal
application in Leeds, Dundee, and Belfast. From this time the British
linen trade rapidly extended. In 1814, 3,000 tons of flax were imported;
in 1833, nearly 19,000 tons of flax and 3,400 tons of hemp. The export
of Irish linen to Great Britain rose from 32,000,000 yards in 1800 to
53,000,000 in 1825, of which a large part was re-exported. The export of
English and Scotch woven linen goods rose from 24,000,000 yards in 1820
to 51,000,000 yards in 1833. The number of flax spinning establishments
i