Child labour in a textile mull. In the early nineteenth century children were often expected to work long hours in conditions which seem terrible to many people today.
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Until 1820, cotton exports went mainly to Europe and the U.S.A. After that, though, much more went to India and the Far East. By 1850, cotton cloth was Britain's biggest export, and India was her biggest market. Cotton was 'king' in Lancashire. The port of Liverpool thrived, importing raw cotton from the U.S.A., and exporting finished cloth.
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Spinning with ‘mules‘ in a Lancashire cotton mill in 1834. The boy in the bottom right of the picture is sweeping beneath the machine while it is working.

A woman spinning by hand in her own home in the eighteenth century
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Since the Middle Ages, making woollen cloth had been England's main industry. Most of the work was done by country people in their own homes. Labourers´ wives would spin and weave when they had time to spare. Their husbands helped when there was no work for them on the farm. Rich clothiers bought the raw wool, employed the spinners and weavers, and sold the finished cloth. Most of the time, they could sell all the cloth that was made. So they were glad when inventors came up with machines that could spin and weave more quickly. From the mid-eighteenth century, inventors brought about a massive change. John Kay´s "flying shuttle" made weaving much faster. Then James Hargreaves, with his "spinning jenny", gave the spinner the power to work sixteen spindles at once. By and large, though, spinners and weavers still worked in their own homes, making woollen cloth. Weavers in England had made cloth that was part-cotton and part linen for some time. (The yarn was not strong enough for pure cotton cloth.) But Richard Arkwright´s "water frame" spun strong cotton yarn. And the "water frame" was driven by a water-wheel, not by hand or foot. Arkwright and a partner started a water-driven cotton-mill near Derby in 1771. Samuel Crompton´s "mule" spun fine, smooth cotton yarn. Before long, British cotton cloth was the best in the world. It was also the cheapest, because the spinning was done on machines, in mills. The power in the mills at first was water. In the 1790s, though, came the first cotton-mills with machines that were worked by steam.
Until the 1830s, most of the weaving was done by handloom weavers, working at home or in their workshops. They were well paid - in 1805 they got 23 shillings (£1.15) a week. Then, after 1830, power looms and weaving mills began to take over. Handloom weavers' wages crashed to six shillings (30p) a week. The woollen industry also changed to machines and mills. But here the changes came later. Until 1830, most of the spinning and weaving was still done by hand. By 1850, though, spinning was done mainly in the west Yorkshire mills. Weaving took another 20 years to follow suit.
The Victorian Age 1837-1901
Queen Victoria and the Victorian Temper
• Ruled England from 1837-1901 • Exemplifies Victorian qualities: earnestness, moral responsibility, domestic propriety • The Victorian Period was an age of transition • An age characterized by energy and high moral purpose
Factory Children
• • • Mill owners said that they had to keep their prices down. That was why workers' hours had to be long, and wages low. Women and children got lower wages than men, so the owners employed a lot of women and children. Children as young as six or seven worked up to fourteen hours a day in the mills. Their pay was about three shillings (15p) a week. Many were killed or injured by the moving parts of the machines they had to clean. Others were maimed by a foreman's fist or strap. Sadly, many of them were forced to work by their own parents. Their fathers were out of work, and the family needed the few shillings that they could earn. Some decent employers paid their workers a fair wage. Some even built good houses for them, and ran schools for their children. Some mill-owners took part in a movement for factory reform. Most mill-owners were against the reformers, though. They said that shorter hours for children would put up their costs, and bring them to ruin. Mill-owners did not obey Parliament's first acts cutting mill hours. But an act passed in 1833 said that inspectors would enforce the law. The act banned all children under nine from cotton mills. Children over nine were allowed to work, but there were strict controls on their hours. By 1847, ten hours per day was the limit for boys and all female workers.