This article considers the neglected legacies of the Lancashire cotton industry and their impact on the U.K. outdoor trade. Studies of the decline of the Lancashire cotton industry after the Second World War have concentrated on the collapse of coarse cotton spinning and weaving, largely...

British industrial policy in the 1930s has generated considerable historical controversy. This article furthers the debate by using the cotton industry as a case study. The biggest constraint on active government policies toward cotton was not institutional inertia or quot;industrial...

How much of the rapid growth in labor productivity in nineteenth century cotton weaving arose from capital-labor substitution and how much from technical change? Using an engineering production function and detailed information on inventions, I find that factor substitution accounts for little...