Jonathan Baldwin

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since February 16, 2008

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February 16, 2008, on Internet Software Patents:
"there were no textile millionaires in the industrial revolution" Actually there were - lots of them. It's just that in those days a few thousand pounds was the equivelant of millions in today's money. The north of England (Bradford, Manchester etc) and parts of Scotland (especially Dundee and Perthshire) were centres of textile production that saw massive exports across the globe. The industrial revolution, don't forget, lasted a long time. But even at the start, people were getting rich out of it. The 'jute barons' of Dundee built massive factories and communities. I live in a tenement block once occupied by workers in the textile industry, and there are hundreds more nearby. Virtually all the people who lived here worked for very rich men who got their wealth as a result of the industrial revolution and its effect on textile production.