Empire of Cotton

Born in 1758 in Belfast, Greg built one of the first-ever cotton factories at Quarry Bank Mill outside Manchester, utilizing the weight of falling water to power spinning machines. In evaluating the significance of Greg’s factory, Beckert writes, “Though modest in size, Greg’s mill was unlike anything the world had seen. By 1784 here and on a handful of riverbanks nearby, for the first time in human history, machines powered by non-animate energy manufactured yarn” (56). Before long, the countryside around Manchester was full of similar mills, which later came to be powered by steam rather than falling water. In turn, this development recast Britain’s population as tens of thousands moved from the countryside into factories, setting the stage for the first widespread labor mobilization project outside of the plantation.

While Greg deserves credit for virtually inventing the cotton mill, he was also extraordinarily well-positioned to develop this innovation, in large part due to his connection to war capitalism and his status as a recipient of its spoils:

[Greg] had secured his part of the family fortune through Hillsborough Estate, a profitable sugar plantation on the Caribbean Island of Dominica, where he held hundreds of enslaved Africans until the final abolition of slavery in British territories in 1834.