Towns > Dundee > 1822 - Dundee delineated; or, A history and description of that town, its institutions, manufactures and commerce

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Not many, years ago, buckram was manufactured
in the place, and met with considerable success/
The house in which it was earned on still remains,
on the south side of the Ward. It happened about
the time of this trade becoming stationary, or per-
haps on the decay of it, that the spinning of cotton i
was introduced ; and the house was fitted up with
machinery for that purpose.
„ The manufacture of cotton had once the appear-
ance of forming a very important branch in the
trade of Dundee. Seven companies were engaged
in it, and gave employment to above 400 men,
women, and children. The annual quantity of yarn
spun for woof was about 135,000 lbs., and valued
at £20,000. Part of this was manufactured into,
cloth in the place ; the warp being brought from dis-
tant cotton-mills : but the greater part of this yarn
was sent to the places where yarn for warp was
more commonly prepared. The spinning and ma-
nufacture of cotton did not continue its success long
in Dundee. The fields of its flourishing seem to
have been chiefly in the west of Scotland. There,
the facilities of importing the raw material -were
greater ; extensive buildings were established for,
printing the manufactured goods ; and more direct
channels were opened for their exportation.
About the time, or a little after the cotton ma-
nufacture was engaging the attention of so many
of the merchants and manufacturers of Dundee, —
an English company, a branch from a house in
Lambeth, endeavoured to establish a woollen ma-
nufacture close by the town ; where every part of
the business, from the wool to the finished clotl^