ROMANCE OF COTTON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 13

ROMANCE OF COTTON.

The name of Coats is known the world over wherever needles and cotton are used, but there are probably very few people who know much about the beginning of the huge firm which to-day practically controls the sewing cotton industry. The death of Sir James Coats, Bt., at the age of 78, this week recalls one of the most extraordinary industrial romances of the last century. Nearly ninety years ago—in 1524 to be precise—James Coats, grandfather of ! the dead baronet, began business as a | maker of thread in the little town of j Paisley, about seven miles from Glasgow. | The origins of the threadmaking busi- j ness go further back—to the early part j of the 18th century, in fact, when Scots-,: women did their own spinning at home. The wife of "a Renfrewshire clergyman,; who had great skill in the use of the spinning wheel, taught her craft ] to a number of young women in her district. In that way the industry spread, and it grew with astonishing rapidity after 1824, the year in which Mr James Coats opened his little factory in Paisley, with an engine of 12 horse-power to do all the work. Coats' business throve apace, and with its extension Paisley grew in importance ' until to-day one of the sights of the West, of Scotland is the great range of mills . and factories in which the tnread is manufactured. The works cover more than a hundred acres of ground, and over 10,000 men and women are employed in them. These Paisley factories, however, vast as they arc, represent only a part of the business of the firm, which, in 1896, developed into a large "com-* bine." _ . . At the time of the Civil War in America, Mr James Coats (as he then' was) went as a young man to the United States —then a very valuable market for thread—and -rema>iraed there for some years, but the war interfered materially "with the development of his business plans, and he returned to Paisley. Before long, however, he was back again in j America'setting up factories and extend- i ing his threadmaking business to his complete satisfaction. Year by year the business grew, and was extended into the countries of Europe. Coats' firm, j However, had not the threadmaking field . to themselves. They had powerful rivals • in the Clarks, the Brooks Brothers, and | the Chadwicks. But their rivalry came j to an end' in 1896. for the four firms "pooled themselves," so to speak, and became one gigantic organisation. Some years- earlier, in 1880, the firm of J. and* P. Coats had been formed' into a limited liability company, ani it was undoubtedly the amazing success of-this company that led to the great "combine" of sewing-cotton manufacturers. The prosperity of the Coats Company may be fathered "from the fact that its dividends roes from 8 per cent in the first year to 50 per cent in 1899-1900. In 1901 the capital underwent reorganisation, and the new ordinary shares received 20 per cent. The net profits of the "combine" for the three years 1904-1907 were over £8,000,000. The members of the Coats family have left enormous fortunes. Mr James Coats, jun., left £1,964,745; Mr Archibald Coats, £1,365,132; and the late Sir James Coats, whose will remains to be proved, is said to ih-ave been worth nearer two millions than one.