The dynamics of the linen triangle: Factor, family and farm in Ulster, 1740 to 1825.
McKernan, Anne
1990
Abstract
Through a detailed analysis of an estate in rural Ulster, this dissertation examines the establishment and growth of small scale linen production in the County Armagh countryside and its effect on Irish households, from the onset of commercial linen production until shortly before flax spinning was mechanized. Because the traditional mode of production and marketing system persisted so long in Ulster, the industry has been characterized as static and backward. A statistical snapshot taken in 1821 by a census enumerator, offers rare data on real households located on the Richhill estate which lay within an area of concentrated linen production called the linen triangle. Together with evidence drawn from estate records, state papers and local newspapers, this picture tells the story of a process of economic development in which rural linen producers actively responded to large scale economic change mediated at the local level by resident landlords and local entrepreneurs. The theory of proto-industrialization, developed by Franklin Mendels and broadened by others, provides the back drop for this examination of Irish proto-industry. The Ulster case shows robust rural production and high population density but, as with other cases, it does not meet the theory's basic criteria. In Richhill, domestic industry occurred on good agricultural land with tight social cohesion. These conditions encouraged, rather than inhibited, tenants to take on linen weaving. Richhill's rural households wove linen for sale at the public markets, not for urban-based manufacturers. This study contributes to the literature on proto-industry because it takes into account what Hudson called the larger contextual questions within which rural industry developed. Politics, the nature of land-holding, and the link between region and nation are central to this analysis of Irish rural industry. From the start, the linen industry appealed to an economic nationalism that drew all social groups into participating at some level in the manufacture and export of linen cloth. The two dynamic forces were farm families and factors (drapers). The farmer-weaver household resulted from a complicated process in which the shift in land use from pasture to tillage provided additional household labor for commercial linen production. Later, the emergence of landless rural weavers increased the labor supply. From the state-sponsored system of regulated markets emerged local petty entrepreneurs who risked small capitals, and then larger ones, to expand production. The continued responsiveness of both groups to changes in the international market shows that Irish peasantism and traditionalism are exaggerated in the literature.Subjects
Dynamics Factor Family Farm Linen Northern Ireland Triangle Ulster
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