Following a brief summary of the findings of each major section of the thesis, this Part draws some conclusions whilst also highlighting the remaining gaps in our knowledge.

Primary accumulation

The essential prerequisite of the development of industrial capitalism is the concentration of ownership of the means of production and the emergence of a landless ‘free’ proletariat. By examining this gradual development as it affected one region and one industrial sector, interesting features of the initial accumulation process have been revealed.

The classical Marxist questions about the nature of ‘primitive accumulation’, together with the recent proto-industrialisation debate have drawn attention to three factors in particular which have been highlighted in the present study. First, the relationship between industrial capital formation and the changing nature of landholding. Secondly, the varying role of artisan capital, and thirdly, the place of merchant capital in industrial transformation: was mercantile accumulation a revolutionising influence?

On the question of land distribution, a number of interesting points have emerged from the current research. It has been argued that the nature of landholding associated with both the agrarian and the institutional environment was a crucial determinant of the organisational structure of proto-industry. The varying rural industrial structures in turn conditioned the accumulation of capital and the timing and nature of the transition to factory production.

The artisan structure of the woollen sector generally retained its dominance in the eighteenth century in areas of later enclosure, of larger landholdings and where considerable land remained leasehold and copyhold.