Note 319 — Chapter IV · THE OPPOSITION TO THE PATENTS
Reading edition
Manchester Mercury, 8th March 1774; 17th July 1781. This second committee consisted of sixteen members, ten for cotton and linen, and three each for silk and smallware. A cotton manufactures company also came into existence in Manchester about October, 1774, which finally closed its accounts in November, 1778. This company apparently existed for the purpose of buying cotton in large quantities and then disposing of it to those who would sign an agreement to purchase from the company for six months. It seems to have arisen out of an agitation against the cotton dealers in Manchester (ibid. 20th September, 4th October, 22nd November, 1774; 10th November 1778, and many other dates. Cf. the Feltmakers’ Project in the seventeenth century described by Unwin, Industrial Organisation in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, pp. 156-164).