More thoughts on fabric
I've been transforming in the info on exports from Liverpool's port in 1770 from "An essay towards the history of Leverpool, drawn up from papers left by the late G. Perry, and from other materials" into spreadsheets to see if anything can be gleaned about printed fabrics. Taken as a percentage of textiles in general, printed fabrics are completely insignificant - less than 1%. Is this because most of the print houses were in London and shipped directly from there? And/or because East Indian re-exports would also leave from London? Were printed textiles that rare? And/or is it because I'm not comparing like to like?
The latter is one I'm seriously considering. Of 516,927 yards of textiles sent to New York, 201,193 are British and Irish linen. If these are just plain white linens, they're destined for shirts, shifts, sheets, and other utilitarian uses, and aren't competitors to printed fabrics. The same could be said for checked fabrics and so-called "negro cloth." If those are taken out of the equation, the percentage of printed fabrics will go way up.
Am I being reasonable, or just massaging the numbers to get the result I want?
The latter is one I'm seriously considering. Of 516,927 yards of textiles sent to New York, 201,193 are British and Irish linen. If these are just plain white linens, they're destined for shirts, shifts, sheets, and other utilitarian uses, and aren't competitors to printed fabrics. The same could be said for checked fabrics and so-called "negro cloth." If those are taken out of the equation, the percentage of printed fabrics will go way up.
Am I being reasonable, or just massaging the numbers to get the result I want?