West Riding – Western Rhineprovince, 1790-1840: Diverse Paths to ...

West Riding – West of the Rhineland, 1780-1840 14
Alfred Reckendrees, University of Cologne reckendrees@wiso.uni-koeln.de
cloth-maker corporations and the gild system signified crucial elements of the institutional
arrangements until the 18 th century. These arrangements were, of course, not the same, but
the development took the same direction. In the West Riding the cloth-maker corporations
and the gild system vanished in the early 18 th century, however, the system of apprenticeship
(seven years before settling as a master clothier) was still alive. It was, more or less,
respected until the end of the Napoleonic Wars and prevailed much longer than in other
places in England. 44 In the west of the Rhineland the cloth-maker corporations and the gild
system were first abolished by the French occupation of 1794 (and 1798-1814); and they
were never restored. However, at that time the traditional institutional arrangements were
already disintegrated, they had eroded from inside and because of competition. Since decades
clothiers and shearmen had evaded the gild regulations 45 in order to compete with the
successful large gild-free clothiers of Montjoie, Eupen, Burtscheid, and Vaals that rose up
since the early 18 th century. However, the gilds had still a strong influence.
Both regions originally provided appropriate natural resources for cloth production, especially
sufficient supply and quality of water. In the West Riding water was an ubiquity.
Also the little mountains provided a important natural asset for the water mills. The west of
the Rhineland was privileged with lime-free water that was indespensable for finest cloth
qualities, and the warm springs around Aix-la-Chapelle provided excellent conditions for
finishing and dying the cloth. With the extension of manufacturing in the 18 th century the
brooks of Aix-la-Chapelle, which were very small, could no longer provide all branches of
the local industry, and water supply became a permanent problem of cloth production.
Figur 1 (following page) on the water mills in the town of Aix-la-Chapelle suggests however
that the woollen cloth industry of the 18 th century was very competitive compared
with the other industries, as the woollen cloth industry increased the number of water mills
employed on the account of the other industries.
There were, however, also major differences in the industrial structure and the institutional
arrangements of the two regions. The region around Aix-la-Chapelle was circled, it was
even crossed through, by toll bars and toll bridges and by different custom regimes. It was,
therefore and because of the slow land traffic, expensive and difficult to visit the wool
market in Breslau or the cloth fair in Frankfurt. In contrast to this, the West Riding was
situated in a national single market and travelling was easier in England. The most important
industrial difference was, probably, that until the 1850s woollen cloth was the by far
the most important textile product in the region around Aix-la-Chapelle. In the West Riding
the worsted industry was established in the 18 th century and it grew rapidly since the
1770s.
Starting from these general remarks I will outline the “pre-industrial” systems of production,
first in the West Riding, then in the west of the Rhineland.
44 Heaton, Yorkshire (1965), 301pp.; Lipson, Woollen Industries (1921), 74pp.
45 See: Heizmann, Lage (1923), 14p., 42p.; Seidl, Wollenindustrie (1923), 46p.; Kermann, Manufakturen
(1972), 118p.; Winzen, Auseinandersetzungen (1994); Ebeling, Handwerkswirtschaft (1997), 327pp.;
Pfister, Produktionsregimes (2004), 170p., 174p.; Anonym, [Clermont] Freymüthige Betrachtungen
(1788).