The United Kingdom’s textile industry plays a vital role in the country’s economy for centuries. The textile industry of the UK drove the industrial revolution, advanced technology, raw materials imports, and better logistic. And as a result of this, the UK became the global textile industry leader.
Today, the UK textile industry holds 6 percent market share only in the fashion sector. The domestic market value of the UK fashion industry in Approximate 66 Million Pounds. Total household clothing consumption in the UK is above 6 Million Dollars per year. The country has advance spinning and weaving technologies to produce the high-quality and largest collection of fabric. Later on, the fabrics are exported and supplied around the European, Middle East, China, Pakistan, and the other parts of the globe.
Later in the 18th century, the major shift was towards machine-based manufacturing from labor and draft animal-based economy. The UK textile industry was getting mechanized with the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Textile manufacturers were now able to pull thousands from low-productivity work in agriculture to high-productivity urban jobs.
By the turn of the 19th century, imported American cotton has replaced wool in the North West of England. Although wool always remained the chief textile in Yorkshire.
The textile industry can be identified as a catalyst for technological development. The UK textile trade progress soon outstripped the original suppliers of raw materials as the economic growth was not sustained by domestic demand alone. The advanced technology and the factory system of the UK created the levels of mass production and cost efficiency, which enabled British manufacturers to export cost-effective clothes and other goods across the world.