Several reasons are linked to why the cotton textile industry was the first significant manufacturing industry: 1. the development of spinning machines increased the cotton thread amount tenfold in Great Britain, and 2. the cloth was relatively expensive compared to its bulk and weight (Atack et al., 1994). Moreover, the transportation cost was low, not a centralized production barrier. However, the cotton textile industry was not the only one to grow during the early 1800s. Wool textiles were also beneficiaries of similar organizational and technological advancements that saw the rapid development of cotton textiles. Compared to cotton, wool textile growth was hindered by the following: first, machines had difficulty handling animal fiber, an issue that was inherently harder to solve (Atack et al., 1994). Second, due to price reductions, wool cloth sales were less; therefore, there were fewer apparent financial incentives for mechanization (Atack et al., 1994). Further, wool clothing proved challenging to keep clean, making it competitive against cotton poor.
The spinning technique that substituted labor capital was superior, making the spread of slater mills fast in New England, especially in towns that provided sufficient water power to drive the mills. The growth of cotton textile manufacturing occurred in stages, with the first being the development of the spinning mills. The second, more complicated step was weaving the yarn or threat into the fabric (Atack et al., 1994). In America, cost reduction was enabled by the introduction of the power looms, which proved essential to the industry’s survival. The first company to use the power looms was Francis Lowell’s Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham, Massachusetts (Atack et al., 1994). Towards the eve of the Civil War, the industry employed 115,000 workers, produced 7 percent of manufacturing income, and the total commodity production was over 2 percent, a considerable economy (Atack et al., 1994). In addition to providing an attractive alternative to wool textiles, cotton’s price demand elasticity was high.
Reference
Atack, J., Passell, P., & Lee, S. (1994). A new economic view of American history: From colonial times to 1940. (2nd ed.). Norton.