In 1733, a clockmaker named John Kay used the principle of springs inside clocks to invent the Flying Shuttle. It was essentially a shuttle fitted with small wheels at both ends of a track, with springs installed at either end to send it back and forth. This sped up the loom and greatly improved weaving efficiency, but it was not yet the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
As weaving efficiency improved, the supply of cotton yarn could no longer keep up. First of all, Britain's cotton textile industry was not an original invention, but an imitation of Indian cotton. However, in 1721, Parliament ordered an absolute ban on importing Indian cotton yarn. With demand exceeding supply, cotton yarn prices soared, and people racked their brains for ways to improve yarn production efficiency. But it was not until 1764, when a textile worker kicked over his wife's spinning machine, that true innovation erupted.
Yet as the Water Frame and Spinning Mule appeared one after another, the loom underwent no further innovation. That meant spinning output exceeded Britain's demand for woven cloth, leading to overcapacity. Cotton yarn manufacturers began cutting prices to promote sales. As raw material prices fell, cotton cloth prices followed, but Britain still relied mainly on manual weaving at the time.
This was entirely a lesson learned from the spinning industry. Even though someone had already invented a water-powered loom, if the new loom tripled efficiency, then of the 200,000 people engaged in hand weaving, 150,000 would have to be cut.
Of course, they might not have cared. The year the 1786 trade agreement took effect was also the year the American Constitutional Convention convened. George III's bouts of madness were not merely due to his physical condition.
Though somewhat mad, he was not like Louis XVI, willing to