Partnerships and New Lanark
He had a brief partnership with Richard Arkwright, the cotton industrialist, to exploit Arkwright's new technology. The partnership failed partly because Arkwright had not managed to secure full ownership of the design of the spinning frame. However, Dale continued to set up cotton spinning factories. The one at Blantyre failed but he went on to set up the New Lanark Mills in 1786. One motivation for this (apart from profit) was the desire to provide alternative employment for destitute Highlanders who had been cleared from their crofts (perhaps from the estates of his Campbell of Jura relatives) as part of the Highland Clearances. Others thought he had taken a typical business opportunity when a ship-load of would-be emigrants to America were stranded at Greenock.
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