The developments show that market forces and not the encouragement of the Trustees were the v ita l factors, though the prerequisite in many oases o f matching grants by landowners as a precondition o f the Board's
;
encouragement ensured landlord envolvement in the caning developments. Of more/
1 . Loch V o l.II p .40.
2 . S.R.O. B.O.T. NG 1 /1 /1 9 . 4 /3 /1 7 7 2 .
3 . 3.R.O. NG 1 /1 /2 6 10/12/1788* NG 1 /1 /2 4 1 7 /U /1 7 8 4 ; NG 1 /1 /2 4 15/12/1784.
the small manufacturer to give out better yam or for small men to club together to improve the yam for their own use as in the ca. a of the dtratbmiglo Lanufaoturers, whose petition was backed by General okene the proprietor of dtrathmiglo. The Trustees gave ju st £20 for "the general should contribute the rest ox the expense#
The development of bleaching by the Dunfermline trade could only be indirect* so long as the town water supply remained unsuitable for bleaching* However* by increasing the output of fin er oloth the trade stimulated the use of improved methods in the long-established bleaching centres near Perth and encouraged enterprises to be -a t up an the river Devon in Clackmannan* notably ILdg’ s bleachfield at Dollar, started in 1707# bignii'icantly i t was this H eld whioh won the Board*s prize o f
£25
for tho fir s t cloth bleached successfully by the new methods of (2)chemical bleaching*' The growth of the Life bloaohing end dyeing
trade, therefore* *awr.ited tho injection of capital into the industry in the la tte r h alf of the Eighteenth oentury; it s development was constrained by the sale of much o f the l i f e output unbleached and by the lack of fa c ilitie s for bleacliing in the principal weaving centres* Large- scale yam bleachworks awaited the chemical developments of the nineties whioh revolutionised the bleaching process and the concomitant developments in yam spinning which encouraged the exploitation o f new and existin g fiJCilitiOB,/
1 . S.R.O. KG 1 /1 /2 4 . 7 /7 /1 7 8 4 . 2 . S.R.O. KG 1 /1 /2 7 9 /2 /1 7 9 1 .
55
f a c i li t ie s , particularly those on the River Leven pioneered in the Eighties.
I f the Trustees' contribution to the finishing trade is limited, the extent of their effects on the weaving trade are obscure owing to the scattered, domestic nature of the trade. F irstly, claims were made for improvements whioh were already well-established in other centres such as the improved diaper loom. Seoondly,
valuable Improvements were slew to be adopted and thirdly, grants were given for theoretioal improvements which had no practical
application or were no more effioien t than the methods they were designed to replaoe. (See notes 1-4 p* 58 below) Nevertheless, grants could well be generous in relation to the wages earned by the inventors, who were usually weavers, and there was throughout the Board's existence a continual stream of new ideas being put forward, which
the Trustees were ready to publioise. The landowners, too, who served on the Board were very much aware of the quality of weavers' work for they were the main employers of customer weavers for their household needs. Thus, in the case of the Leven and Melville family whioh had a member on the Board in the period, there is a small book for the years 1784 and 1785 which indicates that the estate gave out large quantities of yarn to be woven in P ltlessle and Kettle to make Damask Napkins, fine Holland and Hall table oloths as well as sheeting'*( 17£ spindles to Robert Maokie to make 44 yards of linen, 2\ broad, intended for our own/
own bed)” ; yard wide lin e n , stripeu and cnequared c lo th Hto be yard and
T
wide lo r a gown” and a lso chequered lin e n . Cotton yam was purchased i n Perth, some yam was got in Udinburch and the fin e clo th when fin ish edwas sont to Iiuntingtower to be b le a c h e d .^ A ll th is suggest th at a t le a s t some o f the important men who sa t on the Board o f Trustees were d ir e c tly involved with the producers in the provision o f th e ir
extensive needs, and would be concerned to improve the q u a lity o f uhelr purchases,
A p rere q u isite o f more even c lo th was the use o f b e tte r reeds and in the e a r lie s t years the Board provided a reedmaker to provide i- • xru ction Hin th a t business in which they were very unskilful**/^ The incorp orations> too, encouraged reodmakers uid Charles Roy was made a froeraan in 1743 o f the Dunfermline c r a f t , ^
'J
The successive reedmakersn Dinfermline a l l owe th e ir po it io n to the incorporation and the Board o f T ru stees. Ctae George C ro ll studied under the Board's Dutch reedmaker and s e ttle d in Perth in 1766 another C ro ll went to Dundee and from there to Dunfermline fo llo w in g a p e titio n by the Incorporation o f Weavers to the Trustees fo r a reedmaker.^
rJ
when Crol l died he was replaced by Alexander McIntosh who was enabled to purchase a s t e e l reedmaking machine with a ten-pound grrnt from the Board end, when he in turn died ^hiaa s s is ta n t tillia m Chalmers became reedmaker in Dunfermline and was given (5 )
McIntosh'a machine. ' The Board was p a r tic u la r ly concerned to spread
the/
1 . S.R.O. Leven and M e lv ille Papers. (3) 26/5/712.
2. S tates o f the Annual Progress o f the Linen Manufacture p .4, 3* D. Thomson, The heavers G raft p .307#
4 . S.R.O. B*0.T. NG 1/1/21 25/6/1777. 5 . S.R.O. B .O .T. NG 1/1/34 7/12/1819.
57
the use o f the f i n e ; s te a l reeds and the machines fo r making then and here again the sca le o f provision was such th a t the Board could make a r e a l con tribu tio n . Thus William Iceland whose fam ily had been reedmakerc in Buo< ii&ven fo r over one hundred years was unable to affo rd a new
reodmaking machine t i l l given a grant fo r £ 2 7 .^ ' Again in 1824, John Beveridge, reedmaker in Kirkcaldy, was given £15 towards the cost