Cottonopolis: How Manchester’s nickname was coined during the brutal progression of the Industrial Revolution

It’s difficult to talk about Manchester during the Industrial Revolution without talking about cotton. The city, and the wider Lancashire area, supplied a huge amount of the product to the world, peaking at one point at around 70%. 

The revolution changed the way the country and the world worked. Preston-born inventor Richard Arkwright devised the concept of the factory system, and answered the question of how the textiles industry could be made more efficient which employers had been desperately asking. 

With the factories popping up across the North West, Manchester was on the cusp of becoming an industrial powerhouse. Workers moved from agricultural work in the countryside to factory-based work in Britain’s expanding towns and cities and by the end of the 1700s, Manchester was the beating heart of the Industrial Revolution. 

The infrastructure and geographical layout of southern Lancashire helped Manchester grow and flourish. The sloping hills of the county allowed streams to pour towards the city, providing water that could be used to power the mills and factories that were being erected across the region. 

Lancashire's coalfield meant that collieries could supply coal to power steam engines and the creation of canals allowed for easy transportation of cotton across the country to ports and then around the world. The pieces came together nicely and when they did, Manchester was moving in only one direction - forward. 

Manchester was first christened ‘Cottonopolis’ in the late 18th century, a title it would earn right up until after the First World War when the cotton industry went into decline. During this time, it became one of the great northern cities which thrived on a hard-working population and became world famous for it. 

The way people worked was dramatically changed during the Industrial Revolution, and with this Manchester became the world's first industrial city. As the quest for profit and progress by the employers quickened, those who did the hardest work became increasingly exploited.

The rise of Manchester as an industrial powerhouse led to many workers forced into crowded houses, working for small wages. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in what was a brutal age for Britain. The exploitation didn’t stop at home, either. 

Thousands of workers toiled on the new machinery, creating cotton to be sent around the world. Overseas, the shadow of slavery loomed over the process, with thousands of people forced against their will to pick the cotton which supplied the factories and mills of England. The cotton industry of the North West was revolutionary, but you can’t talk about it and not mention the exploitation it put thousands of people through. 

The days of cotton mills lining the Manchester skyline have gone, in their place stand skyscrapers and buildings of modern business and commerce. Yet Manchester’s time as ‘Cottonopolis’ is one which saw the city at the forefront of one of the biggest social and industrial changes in modern history.