Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

From Westphalia to the Caribbean
There are a number of reasons for the end of the chain migration
from Elberfeld to London, which had lasted for more than a century.
Competition from the Scottish and Irish linen industries had grown
since the beginning of the century, and at the time when the partnership
came to an end, Britain was experiencing a major financial crisis
caused by excessive speculation. This crisis also affected the textile
industry. Personal tensions within the partnership may have been
another reason. 48 The 1770s, moreover, saw the beginning of the
industrialization of the cotton industry, not only in Britain but also in
the Rhineland, Saxony, and the region of Elberfeld. The spinning
industry was mechanized much more slowly in Germany than in
Britain, and first attempts to copy British machines were only partially
successful. 49 They could thus not compete with the British textile
industry for some decades. However, there was still a high de -
mand for linen yarn, which was used as warp in the worsted industry,
and in the 1780s John Roger Teschemacher moved to Notting -
hamshire. He established himself there as merchant-manufacturer in
the hosiery industry and was also an inventor. He constructed two
textile machines for which he received patents in 1791 and 1792
respectively. 50
The Herford houses of Furstenau, Schroder & Co, and its successor
Langkopf, Molling & Rasch appeared in the records of the
Virginia and Maryland house of Joshua Johnson of London as large
pur chasers of tobacco in the early 1770s, while they supplied the
Ameri cans with German linen. During the Napoleonic Wars, the
house of Molling, Spitta & Co had switched from linen to cotton and
in 1812 it exported a large amount of cotton yarn on commission for
the Manchester firm of McConnell & Kennedy. 51 Surviving records of
48 Herefordshire Record Office, Articles of Partnership Apr. 1769, BA89/8/7.
The contract between John Roger and John Amyand explicitly recorded that
the uncle Claudius Amyand should not interfere in the business.
49 Jörg Engelbrecht, Das Herzogtum Berg im Zeitalter der Französischen Revolu -
tion: Modernisierungsprozesse zwischen Bayerischem und französischem Modell
(Paderborn, 1996), 103–4.
50 See patent no. 1808 and patent no. 1917 in Bennet Woodcraft, Subject Mat -
ter Index of Patents of Inventions 1617–1852, pt. 2: Chronological Index of Patents
(London, 1854), 332, 352.
51 Letters to and from Molling Spitta and Molling. Rylands Library Man -
chester, McConnell and Kennedy Papers, MCK/2/1/18–21.
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