ready-made shirts, underclothing, &c.,
corresponds to a change in the habits of the people. The factories which
have been erected in the north of Ireland, on the outskirts of London
and elsewhere turn out millions of garments that would, under the old
conditions, have been made at home. It is not necessary here to balance
the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems, and it must not be
supposed that made-up cotton garments are necessarily cheap and
inefficient.

The chief distributing centre of cotton made-up goods is London, though
a considerable trade is done through wholesale houses in Manchester and
elsewhere. Large warehouses in the city of London carry on the trade and
frequently supply Lancashire with her own goods. Of course the partial
loss of the piece-goods trade by the shops is not a loss in aggregate
trade, as they are the ultimate distributors of the made-up garments,
which are probably at least as profitable to retail as calico or
flannelette sold in lengths.

The normal course of home trade piece-goods is from manufacturer to
bleacher, dyer, printer or finisher, either on account of a merchant to
whom the goods are sold or on the manufacturer's own account. By far the
majority of Lancashire manufacturers sell their goods as they come from
the loom, or, as it is called, in the "grey state," but an increasing
number now cultivate the trade in finished goods. Usually the
manufacturer sells either directly or through an agent to a merchant who
sells again to the shopkeeper, but the last twenty or thirty years have
seen a considerable development of more direct dealing. Some
manufacturers now go to the shopkeeper, and this has made it difficult
for the merchant with a limited capital and therefore a limited
assortment to survive. The great general houses such as Rylands's,
Philips's and Watt's in Manchester, and Cook's and Pawson's in London,
some of which are manufacturers to a minor degree, continue to flourish
because under one roof they can supply all that the draper requires, and
so enable him to economize in the time spent in buying and to save
himself the trouble of attending to many accounts. Some general
merchants, indeed, supply what are practically "tied houses," which give
all their trade in return for pecuniary assistance or special terms.

The tendency to eliminate the middleman has not only brought a good many
manufacturers into direct relation with the shopkeeper, but in some
except