The local economies of Liverpool and Manchester and the surrounding Lancashire area struggled between the two words wars. Liverpool’s port trade experienced severe fluctuations, which increased unemployment and the city saw some of the highest levels of poverty in the country. In Manchester, the challenges faced by its ailing cotton industry meant nearly 20% of insured workers were unemployed in the early 1930s, but levels were far higher in the mill towns throughout Lancashire, such as Bolton and Blackburn.

“Cottonopolis”: Cotton ‘made’ Manchester but the industry struggled after 1918

Local politicians and business owners looked to employ programmes of economic diversification and aimed to boost trade and investment by promoting Liverpool and Manchester in new ways. For instance, politicians and civic leaders attempted to market Liverpool and Manchester as a holiday destination, particularly for American visitors. This ambition was especially strong in Liverpool following the investment in Gladstone Docks opened in 1927, part of a wider attempt to ensure the city was at the forefront of technological advances in transport and communication. The docks remained central to Liverpool’s civic identity and often featured as central attractions in grandiose civic celebrations hosted in the city during the late 1920s.

Embed from Getty Images

The SS Galantez at the opening of the Gladstone Docks at Liverpool.

Manchester, in particular, looked to China for investment in its ailing cotton industry. In January 1924, a Chinese Industrial Mission headed by Chang Chien, representative of the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Minister Plenipotentiary and High Commissioner of the Republic of China, spent two days in Manchester, as part of a wider tour of Britain aimed at developing trade links. The Mission visited the Ship Canal and took lunch with Manchester’s Chamber of Commerce where a speech by the president of the Chamber, Mr Clare Lees, credited China for inspiring the Ship Canal. Lees took the opportunity to try and convince the Mission of Manchester’s leading commercial prowess. Referring to the news that the Mission were visiting Sheffield, the president claimed that their city’s banks took just £57 million compared to Manchester’s £756 million ‘and that was why, when they wished to buy something, they should come to Manchester.’ Visit Liverpool, he said, and they would be told Liverpool was a better port but it was ‘in fact, the only thing Liverpool could say.’ Rather, ‘if you want to do business, come to Manchester.’ Lees illustrated ‘Manchester’s splendour’ by suggesting that if there was a road between London and Shanghai wide enough to carry 120 motorcars, then Manchester would carpet it every year with 200 million pounds of weight to export. (Manchester Guardian, 18 Jan 1924: 11).

Lees’ rhetoric seemed to pay off and by 1931, Lancashire exported 8080000 yards of cotton to China. Businessmen and civic leaders proclaimed with confidence that the future of Lancashire’s cotton trade lay in the development of trade with China: ‘China is the market of the future’, one business owner claimed. (Manchester Guardian, 22 October 1928: 12.) However, the success was short lived and whereas Lancashire exported over 10000000 pounds of cotton to China in 1932, it fell to just over 1700000 pounds in 1933, as political instability and an increased tariff in China alongside increased competition from Japan stifled trade. Lancashire ‘looked in vain for a sign of a break in the clouds.’ (Manchester Guardian, 10 January 1934: 5).

Manchester’s cotton industry never regained its world-leading status as “Cottonopolis” but the attempts by businessmen and local politicians to foster links with China to develop new markets draws attention to the city’s continued ambition and tenacity in the face of economic hardship.