in 1820, to £·48,030,037 in 1824, being an increase exceeding one fourth in four years; while in the same time the declared value, or price, increased from £35,568,670 to £37,573,918, being an increase in value of little more than one-eighteenth. The abundance of capital, thc facility of obtaining credit at country banks, the increasing amount of paper money in circulation, and the spirit ol` speculation then so rife, gave a strong impulse to manufactures. At this period the cotton manufactories become larger establishments than ever; all the departments of the business began to he conducted with the utmost decision, celerity, and promptitude; the profits were rendered small by incessant competition paring them to the quick, but the returns were large in the aggregate, and capital accumulated in a proportionably increased ratio, and exhibited its massy aggregate in the detailed extent and number of erections and establishments. The town was, however, indebted for many of its new buildings, enlarged factories, and steam engine establishments, entirely to the age of paper money. "The manufacturers of houses and mills were as eager speculators as those of goods and yarn." During the ascendancy of such a spirit, streets were in many instances run up on every side as fast if not faster than tenants could bc found, hence thc sudden enlargement. of the town on every hand, owing to the abode of speculating builders, clever lawyers, and money making bankers, who were of course anxious to make five per cent. of their credit. "The growth of the manufactures exceeded the growth in the numbers of the people, and if the inquiry was made in 1823-1824 at what place in thc county of Lancaster in proportion to its size were cotton mills rising most rapidly? the answer was, at Oldham."

Of the 18 cotton manufacturing firms existing in the township in 1791, there were only three survivors still engaged in business in 1821, and the remainder of the concerns had passed into the hands of other firms and

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