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As a subterranean, highly elastic energy source, coal played a vital role in the cotton industry revolution. Coal was also vital to Lancashire's primacy in this revolution, because it was necessary both to the original accumulation of agglomeration economies before the steam age and to their reinforcement during the steam age. In no other part of the world was the cotton industry situated on a coalfield, and the response of other parts of the world cotton industry to Lancashire's agglomeration advantages was dispersal in search of cheap water and/or labour power. Lancashire coal helped to shape the global pattern of cotton production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the economic condition of the British cotton industry during the 1940s. Particular emphasis is laid on the government policy and planning at the industry level. Despite the government's best efforts 30 per cent of Lancashire, England's spindleage remained idle in 1950, output was far below prewar levels, and productivity levels were disappointing. As a result of overtime working, and the closure of inefficient units under the concentration scheme, yarn production per operative had risen during the war, but progress was slow after 1945. Recruitment had been sluggish, and in 1950 the number of workers in spinning and weaving was still 120,000 below the level of 1937. The government's targets for Lancashire were achieved because they were pitched at modest levels which took account of productive inefficiency and the continuing labor shortage. Cotton made a significant contribution to the export drive in the 1940s, the value of all cotton textile exports increased from pound 87 million in 1946 to pound 211 million in 1950, maintaining a constant 9 per cent share of all British visible exports. But Lancashire could have done more if enough people had been willing to return to the mills.

This article examines the employment conditions in the cotton industry in Great Britain from 1950 to 1970. This examination of imports and exports is based on data collected from the statistical reports of the Cotton Board. The results suggest that the relative impact of these factors on employment varied significantly over the period. Between 1950 and 1955 declining exports made the largest contribution to the fall in the employment of cotton operatives. Rising imports were the major factor accounting for declining employment between 1955 and 1960, while falling domestic demand for cloth and yarn was the predominant influence during the 1960s. Participation in this trade, for which demand was relatively buoyant, helped many of Lancashire, England's cotton mills to survive through these difficult years. The accounting procedure is a static technique which is unable to identify any dynamic linkages or interdependencies between the factors analyzed. The reaction in Lancashire to this inexorable decline points to the need for further investigation into the underlying causes of the cotton industry's demise.