The growth of the pottery industry in England, 1660–1815

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper summarizes the author's attempts to quantify the growth of the pottery industry in England before 1815. It begins by considering the nature and limitations of the large body of miscellaneous data about trade, including the exports of glass and earthware and the imports of china-ware. It continues by presenting some new calculations of the growth of the industry based on a count, at five-yearly intervals, of the numbers of potteries at work and their sizes. The results of these estimates are presented in nine tables in the appendix. The third part of the article uses this new evidence to analyse the patterns of growth from 1660–1815 and concludes that this provides a framework for further, and more detailed, studies.