Progress in the linen trade developed later, because the nature of the
raw material made the application of spinning machinery very difficult.
Attempts had been made in the last years of the last century in Scotland,
but the Frenchman, Girard, who introduced flax spinning in 1810, was the
first who succeeded practically, and even Girard's machines first
attained on British soil the importance they deserved by means of
improvements which they underwent in England, and of their universal
application in Leeds, Dundee, and Belfast. From this time the British
linen trade rapidly extended. In 1814, 3,000 tons of flax were imported;
in 1833, nearly 19,000 tons of flax and 3,400 tons of hemp. The export
of Irish linen to Great Britain rose from 32,000,000 yards in 1800 to
53,000,000 in 1825, of which a large part was re-exported. The export of
English and Scotch woven linen goods rose from 24,000,000 yards in 1820
to 51,000,000 yards in 1833. The number of flax spinning establishments
in 1835 was 347, employing 33,000 workers, of which one-half were in the
South of Scotland, more than 60 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Leeds,
and its environs, 25 in Belfast, Ireland, and the rest in Dorset and
Lancashire. Weaving is carried on in the South of Scotland, here and
there in England, but principally in Ireland.

With like success did the English turn their attention to the manufacture
of silk. Raw material was imported from Southern Europe and Asia ready
spun, and the chief labour lay in the twisting of fine threads. Until
1824 the heavy import duty, four shillings per pound on raw material,
greatly retarded the development of the English silk industry, while only
the markets of England and the Colonies were protected for it. In that
year the duty was reduced to one penny, and the number of mills at once
largely increased. In a single year the number of throwing spindles rose
from 780,000 to 1,180,000; and, although the commercial crisis of 1825