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ON TIIE POLITICAL ECONOMY

tlie common wheel must be continued. Machinery, how'*ever, possesses several advantages over hand-spinning. It isdriven by water or steam, and the whole manufactory maVbe contained in one house, where the dressing and spinningof the flax, with the weaving or twisting of the yarn, may atthe same time be conducted. All the operations required tobring the raw material to a finished state, are thus placedunder the immediate inspection of the master, who, besides,receives a quicker return for the capital invested, than whenhe resorts to hand-spinning, which is both more tedious andexpensive. Not only the dressed flax, but the tow or refuse,and also hemp and hempen tow, are spun by machinery, a-dapted respectively to the nature of the different materials. Sovarious and important, indeed, is the power of mechanism,that the invention of mills may be deemed a new era in thelinen manufacture.

The yarn produced by the spinning-mills is partly manu-factured into threads, shirtings, ticks, checks, sail-cloth,Osnaburghs, &c. in Scotland , and partly sent to the marketsof England for similar purposes. It is made up in smallbundles, denominated spyndles, regulated as to length andnumber of threads by act of Parliament *. Each spyndlecontains four hanks, and each hank 12 cuts of 120 threads90 inches in length.

2. Linen Cloth —Since the year 1727, the progress and ex-tent of the linen cloth manufacture in Scotland , may be knownwith tolerable accuracy, by the returns of the stamp-mastersto the Board of Trustees . It appears, that in 1728, therewere stamped 2,183,97S yards, value L. 103,312 : 9 : 3 Ster-ling, and that the trade has gradually increased since thatperiod, the quantity stamped in 1S12, being 18,975,8624-yards, amounting to L. 1,020,493 : 11 : 2^ Sterling. It isalso evident from the returns, that the average value of the

' 3. Coo. I, c. 3J.