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

West Riding – West of the Rhineland, 1780-1840 42
Alfred Reckendrees, University of Cologne reckendrees@wiso.uni-koeln.de
the Zollverein. While a large amount of worsted yarn (11,000 tons) was imported to it’s
member states, the Zollverein imported scarcely any woollen yarn because the German
woollen yarn spinnery was ‘highly developed and since longest at one stage with the English,
French and Belgian woollen yarn spinnery’. 147 This interpretation helds for woollen
cloth, too. Since the 1820s hardly any woollen cloth was imported to Prussia. 148 For that
years import is estimated at only 1% of all woollens (worsteds are still estimated at 99%)
as the ‘foreign woollen cloth production could generally not competed against domestic
factories‘. 149 One reason for the competitive advantage of the German woollen cloth industry
was, however, the import duty of 30 Rthlr. (“Reichsthaler”) per 55 kg valid to 1865.
But most of the European and the North American states had similar tariff protection. 150
The relevance of the cloth industry of the west of the Rhineland can only be estimated.
There is no account of the woollen cloth export and there is also no account of the overall
production as well. The Prussian statisticians were well aware that entrepreneurs were not
in favour of presenting production data to the state as they feared an increasing taxation.
Therefore, the Prussian and, later, the statistic of the Zollverein counted only the most important
means of production spindles, looms and steam engines. 151 And they counted the
factories. The earliest figures regarding the woollen cloth industry that cover larger parts of
the German states stem from the 1861 census of the German Zollverein (German tariff union)
that included a factory return (“Fabrikentabelle”) (table 14). This factory return is, in
fact, not strictly reliable but, as far as Prussia is concerned, the figures seem to be quite exact
as the methods of data collecting had seriously improved because of the factory returns
each third year since 1837. 152
Table 14: Wollen factories in the German Tariff Union, 1861 (factories, spindles, looms)
woollen yarn wollen cloth
factories spindles s/f factories machine looms m/f hand looms h/f
% % % % %
Prussia 1095 61,6% 649197 58,1% 592,9 504 47,2% 1877 72,4% 3,7 8568 72,5% 17,0
of this: Rhine-Province 204 11,5% 259132 23,2% 1270,3 208 19,5% 1264 48,8% 6,1 3678 31,1% 17,7
of this: District Aix-la-Chapelle 107 6,0% 184405 16,5% 1723,4 103 9,7% 742 28,6% 7,2 3204 27,1% 31,1
Saxony 332 18,7% 303397 27,1% 913,8 135 12,7% 506 19,5% 3,7 1127 9,5% 8,3
Wuerttemberg 59 3,3% 41191 3,7% 698,2 74 6,9% 76 2,9% 1,0 527 4,5% 7,1
Thuringia 91 5,1% 40994 3,7% 450,5 50 4,7% 4 0,2% 0,1 321 2,7% 6,4
Total German Tariff Union 1777 100,0% 1117862 100,0% 629,1 1067 100,0% 2592 100,0% 2,4 11818 100,0% 11,1
147 Bienengräber, Statistik (1868), p.225.
148 Ferber, Neue Beiträge (1832), 101. Guelich
149 Bienengräber, Statistik (1868), p.228.
150 Bienengräber, Statistik (1868), 227-229.
151
The statisticians believed being able to estimate production with these indices. However this is not possible:
(1) machinery is a measure for capacity, but it’s utilisation was highly volatile; (2) neither spindles
nor looms are homogenous instruments. Spindles may be adjusted to a spinning-wheel, a jenny or
a selfacting mule; looms may be small or broad, they may be operated with a fly shuttle or not – productivity
would differ manifold.
152
The problems with these returns are (1) that the criteria changed over the years, (2) that it was not
always clear what the mayors should count, (3) that the owners of the factories did not provide the
necessary informations.