Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/220

212 weight of weft and twist of all counts from twenties to nineties, wound or unwound, and valued at £180. The nine winders had 80 lb. more, but most of the yarn was in the hands of the weavers. Of the sixty-nine weavers employed by Oldknow one was debited only with 2½lb. of cotton and three with a warp apiece. Of the remainder two-thirds had received warp and weft, and one-third warp and wool. In a score of cases the weavers are said to have received with their weft or wool only a third, a half, or two-thirds of the warp, the implication being that they were to provide the rest themselves. The total value of the materials thus given out to the weavers was £261 17s. 11d. But by far the greatest part of Oldknow's assets was to be found in his stock of manufactured goods valued at £812, of which four-fifths were muslins mainly in the Anderton warehouse, and one-fifth other cotton goods mainly in the Manchester salesroom; and in the book-debts owing to him, amounting to £1,407. Against total assets in these various forms of about £2,636 there were Oldknow's own debts, which amounted to £1,548, including a loan from A. Crompton, Esq., of £1,000.

In spite, however, of this favourable balance, the problem mooted by Oldknow in his letter to S. & W. Salte in April of finding capital for expansion of his business had not yet been solved. It is true that both the London firms had given him permission to draw upon them, that is, to borrow money on security of goods not yet delivered; and, if drafts made in round numbers represent such loans, the firm of S. & W. Salte advanced £670, their total payments for the year being £1,387. But such temporary advances, however helpful, did not enable Oldknow to realize his ambitions, and it is clear from later letters that Messrs. Salte were not prepared to invest larger sums for longer periods in the muslin business. The one man who was known to be rendering this kind of aid in other directions was Richard Arkwright, then the recognized leader of the cotton industry, and he likewise had in his hands the main supply of one of Oldknow's chief materials. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the book of sundry expenses recording two visits of several days each to Derby and Cromford in November and December 1783, and three longer journeys, one of them lasting a fortnight, to Cromford and Nottingham in January and February 1784. These long discussions with Arkwright led to business arrangements including a loan of £3,000 at 5 per cent., which was to enable Oldknow to start his manufacture on a larger scale at Stockport. The details of the bargain have not been preserved, but its broad significance is clear enough. The new inventions had endowed certain forms of fixed capital with unexampled powers of production, and the disposal of the surplus thus created gave to the