13. Other Industries. Paper, Wool, Combs.
The industries apart from agriculture, work in granite, and the fisheries are mostly concentrated in and around the chief city. These, although numerous, are not carried on in a large way, but they are varied; and there is this advantage in the eggs not being all in one basket that when depression attacks one trade, its effect is only partial and does not affect business as a whole. Paper, combs, wool, soap are all manufactured. The first of these engages four large establishments on the Don and one on the Dee at Culter. Writing paper and the paper used for the daily press and magazines as well as the coarser kinds of packing paper are all made in considerable quantity. Esparto grass and wood pulp are imported in connection with this industry. Comb-making is also carried on, and the factory in Aberdeen is the largest of its kind in the kingdom.
Textile fabrics are still produced, but the progress made in these is not to be compared with the advances made in the south of Scotland, where coal is cheap. Weaving was introduced at an early period by Flemish settlers, who made coarse linens and woollens till the end of the sixteenth century, when “grograms” and worsteds, broadcloth and friezes were added. Provost Alexander Jaffray the elder in 1636 established a house of correction—the prototype of the modern reformatory—wherebeggars and disorderly persons were employed in the manufacture of broadcloths, kerseys and other stuffs. A record of this novelty in discipline survives in the Aberdeen street called Correction Wynd.
In 1703 a joint-stock company was formed for woollen manufactures at Gordon’s Mills on the Don, where a fulling-mill had existed for generations, and where the making of paper had been initiated a few years earlier. The Gordon’s Mills developed the manufacture of cloths of a higher quality, half-silk serges, damask and plush, and skilled workmen were brought from France to guide and instruct the operatives. To-day high-class tweeds are made at Grandholm, and such is the reputation of these goods for quality and durability that in spite of high tariffs they make their way into America, where they command a large sale at prices more than double of the home prices.
In the olden days the cloth sold in the home markets was a product of domestic industry. The farmers’ daughters spun the wool of their own sheep into yarn, which was sent to county weavers to be made into cloth. Aberdeenshire serge made in this way was sold at fairs and was hawked about the county by travelling packmen.
The hosiery trade was worked on similar lines. The wool was converted into worsted by rock and spindle, and the worsted was knitted into stockings by the women and girls of the rural population. One man employed as many as 400 knitters and spinners. In the latter half of the eighteenth century this industry brought from £100,000 to £120,000 into Aberdeenshire every year.Stockings were made of such fineness that they cost 20s. a pair and occasional rarities were sold at four or five guineas. In 1771 twenty-two mercantile houses were engaged in the export trade of these goods, which went chiefly to Holland. The merchants attended the weekly markets and country fairs, where they purchased the products of the knitters’ labour. Such work provided a source of income to the rural population and was indirectly the means of increasing the number of small holdings. These were multiplied of set purpose to keep the industrious element in the population within the county. The invention of the stocking-frame together with the dislocation of trade due to the Napoleonic wars made the trade unremunerative and it came to an end with the eighteenth century.
The linen trade began in 1737 at Huntly, where an Irishman under the patronage and encouragement of the Duke of Gordon manufactured yarn and exported it to England and the southern Scottish towns. Silk stockings were also made there. By and by linen works sprang up on the Don at Gordon’s Mills and Grandholm as well as within Aberdeen itself. The linen trade in the form of spinning and hand-loom weaving was carried on in most of the towns and villages of the county and several new villages grew up in consequence, such as Cuminestown, New Byth, Strichen, New Pitsligo, Stuartfield and Fetterangus, in some of which the manufacture is continued on a small scale to this day. Much flax was grown in the county for a time to minister to this industry, but gradually the crop disappeared as fibre ofbetter quality was imported from Holland. Yet the spinning of linen yarn was widely practised as a domestic industry when the woollen trade declined, and every farmer’s daughter made a point of spinning her own linen as the nucleus of her future house-furnishings. The linen trade, except as regards coarser materials such as sacking, has decayed. There is still a jute factory in Aberdeen.
Another industry which employs a large number of hands is the preserving of meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. There are several of these preserving works in Aberdeen. Dried and smoked haddocks, usually called “Finnan Haddies,” from the village of Findon on the Kincardineshire coast, are one of the specialities of Aberdeen. They had at one time a great vogue, and are still largely in demand though the quality has fallen off by the adoption of a simpler and less expensive method of treatment.
Ship-building is another industry long established at Aberdeen. In the days before iron steamships, fleets of swift-sailing vessels known as “Aberdeen Clippers” were built on the Dee and made record voyages to China in the tea trade and to Australia. The industry of to-day is concerned, for the greater part, with the building of trawlers and other fishing craft, but occasionally an ocean going steamer is launched. The trade is meantime suffering from depression.
Making smoked haddocks, Aberdeen
Making smoked haddocks, Aberdeen
Other industries well represented are soap and candle making, coach and motor-car building, iron-founding and engineering, rope and twine making, the manufacture of chemicals, colours and aerated waters. Besides, Aberdeen is a great printing centre and many of the books issued by London publishers are printed by local presses.