Lancashire on the Scrapheap

The Cotton Industry, 1945-1970

Published by the Pasold Research Fund

Pasold Studies in Textile History, Volume 8

This is the first major study of the final phase in the history of the Lancashire cotton industry, form 1945 until the industry's absorption by the man-made fibre producers during the 1960s. The opening chapter surveys the history of the industry before 1939. The following four chapters offer a detailed treatment of the cotton industry in the 1940s, paying particular attention to the involvement of government in long run planning, and cotton textiles' contribution to the postwar recovery of the British economy.

Lancashire's declining fortunes in the period of renewed overseas competition in the 1950s and 1960s are the focus of attention in the remaining five chapters. Consideration is given to the effects of falling demand on labour relations, restrictive trade practices, and investment decisions.

The main conclusion to be drawn is that the industry's collapse was inevitable in the absence of protectionist policies, and that the economy would have benefitted from the freeing of resources which an even faster decline of cotton could have effected.

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