Gazetteer of Scotland

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PAI
work was completed in 1791* at the
expence of 4000I. Since this naviga-
tion has been opened, the advantages
refulting from it have been very great,
and now veffels of 40 tons burden
can eafily come up and unload at the
quay. Paifiey is certainly the firft
manufacturing town in Scotland, and
is greatly celebrated on account of
fome of its branches of manufacture,
particularly in the weaving line. Its
commercial importance is eafily to be
traced, from very fmall beginnings ;
but its progrefs, at fome periods, has
been rapid and aftoniihing k Not long
after the Union, when a free trade
was opened with South Britain, the
fpirit of manufacture began to mani-
feft itfelf in Paifiey, and their fabric
of the cloth was fo much efteemed,
that it found a ready market not only
in the vicinity, but alfo in the neigh-
bouring kingdom. But the trade of
Paifiey in that period owed its chief
encouragement to a fet of men which
were of great benefit to this country,
though they are difcountenanced and
laid under fevere reftrictions by go-
vernment, viz. the pedlars or travel-
ling merchants of England. Thefe
men having long frequented Paifiey
for the purchafe of their goods, and
having made a little money, came to
fettle in the town, and bought up the
goods which they vended to their
friends and correlpondents in Eng-
land. The merchants of Glafgow
alfo began to make purchafes for ex-
portation. Such was the trade of
Paifiey about the year 1760, before
which period the articles of manu-
facture were coarfe chequered linen
cloth, and fine linen handkerchiefs.
Thefe were fucceeded by lawn, linen
gauze, and that fpecies of thread,
which was firft introduced into this
neighbourhood from Holland by a
lady of the Bargarron family, and is
ftill one of the chief branches of ma-
nufacture. About the year 1760, the
manufacture of filk gauze, fimilar to
that of Spittalfields in London, was
introduced, and fucceeded far beyond
expectation. It was foon brought to
great perfection, and is now wrought
in a great variety of patterns. It has
been computed, that there have been
no fewer than 5000 weavers employ-
ed in that branch in Paifiey and the
neighbourhood ; and the number of
winders, warpers, clippers, and others
neceffary in the other parts of the filk
manufacture, has been computed to
be nearly equal. Each loom is cal-
culated to produce, on an average,
upwards of 70I. fterling per annum ;
fo that the whole will be more than
350,0081. It appeared, on the belt
calculation, that what could be made
then, in the year 1784, the manufac-
tures of Paifiey in filk gauze, lawn
and linen gauze, and white fewing
thread, amounted to the annual value
of 579,185b 16s. 6d., and 26,484 per-
fons were employed in carrying them
on. At prefent, it is difficult to give
an exact account of the ftate of their
manufactures. The filk branch has
greatly declined, but the muflin and
thread have confiderably increafed ^
and, fince the conclufion of the war,
the cotton manufacture has been car*.
ried on to an extent unknown before.
Befides thefe principal manufactures,
there are fome others which ought
not to be forgot ; for inftance, feveral
tan works, foap and candle works,
and the manufacture of tape and rib-
bons. In 1789, the ftate of the dif-
ferent branches of trade was thus ef-
timated ;
No. vf 'hands Aimual
ManufaEitireSt employed. produce.
Silk gauze, . . • 10,000 . L.350,000
Lawns,cambrics, ~\
thread gauze & £12084 • . 180,385
muflins, j
White thread, . . . 4800 . . . 70,000
Soap & candles, 48,000
Ribbons, Sec. < 2,000
Tan works, &c 10,000
Total yearly value of the . . . . .
manufactures of Paifiey, L.660,385;
Befides thefe extenfive works in town,
there are many others in the Abbey
parilh of Paifiey, which includes the
fuburbs, and is nearly equal in po^
pulation with the town. In the va-
rious weaving branches, there were
employed at Whitfunday 1791, in the
fuburbs of Paifiey, 1208 looms. The
cotton-fpinning is alfo carried on in
the Abbey parifh to a great extent ;
two of the mills contain 22,572 fpin-
dles, and employ nearly 1000 perfons.
There is alfo a calico-printing work,
a copperas work, and feveral exten-
five bleachfields. In the fuburbs alfo,
is a foap and candle work, which
I pavs about jtoool. of duty iter annum
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