Lord Clarendon, in 1642,
speaks of Leeds, Halifax, and Bradford, "as three very rich and populous
towns, depending wholly upon clothing."
The first charter was granted to Leeds by Charles I., and the second by
Charles II., on petition of the clothworkers, merchants, and others, "to
protect them from the great abuses, defects and deceits, discovered and
practised by fraudulent persons in the making, selling, and dyeing of woollen
cloths."
The principal manufacture of Leeds is woollen cloth. Formerly the trade was
carried on by five or six thousand small master clothiers, who employed their
own families, and some thirty or forty thousand servants, and also carried on
small farms. But the extension of the factory system has somewhat diminished
their numbers. There are still, however, in connection with Leeds, several
small clothing villages, in which the first stages of the operation are
carried on, in spinning, weaving, and fulling.
Large quantities of worsted goods are brought to Leeds to be finished and
dyed, which have been purchased, in an undyed state, at Bradford and Halifax.
The dye-houses and dressing-shops of Leeds are very extensive. Goods
purchased in a rough state in the Cloth Halls and Piece Halls are taken there
to be finished.
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