The Genesis of Industrial Capital
A Study of West Riding Wool Textile Industry, c.1750-1850

Analyses the sources of finance used in the Yorkshire wool textile sector during the 'industrial revolution'.

Pat Hudson (Author)

9780521890892, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 April 2002

368 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.597 kg

This book analyses the sources of finance used in the Yorkshire wool textile sector during a period of rapid expansion, considerable technical change and the gradual transformation from domestic and workshop production to factory industry. Although there has been much recent debate about capital investment proportions and their sources nationally, there is no other study of a region or section capable of testing various hypotheses current in the general literature of the British 'industrial revolution'. How was capital amassed in proto-industry? How important were merchants in building factories? What role did landowners and the local banking sector? What influence did trade credit and fluctuations in trade credit have on the expansion of productive enterprise? How important was reinvestment and what determined both profitability and the extent to which it was ploughed back into business? The answers to these questions have value for all students of the industrialisation process, whilst the detailed material on Yorkshire is of interest for local study and provides a model of the questions which could be asked in other similar regional studies of the future.

List of plates
List of diagrams, graphs and maps
List of tables
Foreword François Crouzet
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. Introduction: 1. The study of capital accumulation
2. An industry in transition: the West Riding wool textile sector, 1750–1850
Part II. The Primary Accumulation of Capital: 3. Proto-industrialisation
4. Land and industry
Part III. The Web of Credit: 5. Wool purchase
6. Materials, plant, services and labour
7. The trade in woollen and worsted products
8. Trade credit and growth
Part IV. External and Internal Finance: 9. Attorneys, banks and industry
10. Ploughed-back profits
Part V. Summary and Conclusion: 11. The genesis of industrial capital
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Primary sources
Major secondary sources
Name and place index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]