'Their palms were crossed with silver': The Payment of Workers in Early Textile Factories 1780–1830

Abstract

The expansion of the textile trades in Great Britain during the industrial revolution introduced great changes to the lives and work of a significant proportion of its population. The growth in production and trade brought wealth to the successful entrepreneurs, through the endeavours of their workforce; but paying the wages of this labour was no easy matter. Cash was in very short supply from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century. This research note explores one strategy adopted by the new textile industrialists in response to the Royal Mint's inability to produce any quantity of silver coinage between 1751 and 1816. It focuses on the particular practice of countermarking foreign coinage. As yet few contemporary records of this practice have been identified; and it is hoped that further research will generate dialogue between textile historians and numismatic researchers.