"The Britons," says Cæsar, "in the interior parts of the country are clothed in skins." These are supposed not to have been sewed together, but to have been cast over the shoulders as a mantle. Their stiffness, however, rendered them aught but pleasant, as we may guess from their endeavours to make them soft and pliable, by steeping in water, beating them with stones and sticks, and rubbing them with fat. The people of the southern parts are supposed to have been well acquainted with the dressing, spinning, and weaving, both of flax and wool, having been instructed by a Belgic colony, long before the invasion by the Romans. Two kinds of cloth, which they manufactured at this period, were much esteemed by their invaders; the one a thick harsh cloth, worn in cold climates as a sort of mantle, and agreeing in many respects with our Lowland plaids; the other made of fine wool, dyed of different colours, woven into chequered cloth, and corresponding to our Highland tartan. They are also believed to have made felts of wool, without either spinning or weaving, and to have stuffed mattresses with the portions shorn from it in dressing. The Britons must have been well acquainted with the dyeing of wool, as the Gauls were then celebrated, according to Pliny, for the invention of a "method of dyeing purple, scarlet, and all other colours, only with certain herbs." The plant, which they chiefly used for the purpose, was the glastum or woad, and they seem to have been led to the discovery of its value in dyeing cloth, from their former use of it in staining their bodies. A deep blue having been the colour they stained their skins, it long continued a favourite; particularly, with the Caledonians, as a tint for all their dresses. Though the most civilized of the ancient Britons were tolerably versed in the most essential branches of the woollen manufacture, yet that useful art was not diffused over our island till the landing of the Romans, whose soldiers, being almost all drawn from the plough, were well adapted, when settled in the country, to foster the arts of peace. In order to benefit themselves and the island, their emperors were at great pains to discover and procure the best artificers of every description, particularly the best manufacturers of woollen and linen cloths, whom they formed into colleges, or corporations, endowed with various privileges, and governed by a procurator, who was under the direction of that great officer of their empire, the Count of the Sacred Largesses. In this manner it appears that the first woollen manufactory was established at Venta Belgarum, now Winchester, a hundred years after the conquest of the country.
It has been believed, from Britain having been partly peopled from Spain, that our sheep were originally Spanish; and, as Giraldus Cambrensis (Collectan. de Reb. Hibern.) affirms, that the Irish in his time were clothed in black garments, from the wool of their sheep being so coloured, some have supposed the sheep of that island were imported from Spain, a supposition rendered probable by Southey telling us, in his letters from that country, that in the north of the Peninsula the animals are almost all of a black colour.
No mention ever occurs in the ancient writers, of the importation of sheep into Britain, from which it may be supposed, that they had found their way into it long before its forcible separation from the continent by natural convulsions. Cambden, in his work on Britain, quotes from an old orator, part of a beautiful panegyric on the great Constantine, in which the happiness of Britain is eloquently described, and its advantages in regard to sheep graphically depicted. "Innumerable are thy herds of cattle, and thy flocks of sheep, which feed thee plentifully, and clothe thee richly." So that, even allowing for the high-flown nature of the verbiage, the sheep of the island must have been far from indifferent, and well worthy of any trouble the grasping Romans may have been put to, in the erection of manufactories.
(41.) Importance of the British Woollen Manufacture.—The history of our wool, and the woollen manufacture, is, at one period and in one point of view, the history of our public revenue, while in a succeeding period it becomes the capital object of our commerce, and the important subject of our political councils. The preserving and supporting it against foreign rivals, the due regulation of its numerous branches, and the proper restrictions deemed requisite to ensure to this country the commercial benefits resulting from it, have occupied our ablest statesmen for many centuries.
The wools of England have always been in the highest repute, and that more abroad than at home. Their fineness and abundance have been ascribed by many to the sweet short grass on most of our downs and pastures, and to the sheep having the privilege of feeding, all the year round, without being shut in folds; but it cannot be denied, that, though food and climate may have much concern in the matter, the energetic industry and persevering attention with which an Englishman devotes himself to the attainment of an object, have tended more than any other circumstance to the advancement of our wools, and woollen manufactures, and to the consequent prosperity of our island.
The reason of the existence of so many laws relating to wool is, that it continued for ages to be the principal commodity, meeting all demands for the support of armies, and payment of public revenues, and affording aids to the crown, which were in general granted therein. The scarcity of money in England before the discovery of America, rendered it necessary to levy taxes frequently in kind, and as wool was abundant, it often figured as the representative of a more portable currency. Part of the £300,000 demanded by the Emperor of Germany as the ransom of Richard I., was raised by a loan of wool. Edward I., the great reformer of our laws, imposed a duty of 6s. 8d. on every sack of wool exported, and the like sum on every 300 wool-fells; but soon after, when his necessities demanded a larger income, he laid those additional duties on foreign merchants, which afterwards became the tonnage and poundage, so famous in England's history. Among these additions, the former taxes on wool and fells were increased by forty pence, while at the same time, like other monarchs of the period, he occasionally received subsidies of wool. In the same way Edward III., in attempting, during the twelfth year of his reign, to wrest the crown of France from the house of Valois, procured a grant of half the wool in England, amounting to 20,000 packs, which, taking it as valued by some authors at £40 a pack, must have realized the sum of £800,000.
(42.) Weavers brought from Flanders.—Commerce and industry were at a very low ebb during the time of Edward III., the principal export being wool, which only brought into the kingdom about £450,000. Edward promoted the woollen manufacture by bringing, in 1331, John Kemp, with seventy Walloon families, weavers, from Flanders, and, owing to the want of native skill in this department, gave every encouragement to foreign weavers. (11 Edward III. cap. 5.)[ [6] A further encouragement was given to the home manufacture, by the enactment of a law (11 Edward III. cap. 2) which prohibited every one from wearing any cloth not of English fabric. Parliament, however, in an evil hour, thwarted these benefits, by prohibiting the exportation of woollen goods, certainly an injurious step, so long as wool was allowed to be shipped from our ports.
On the introduction of the Flemish weavers, Kendal became the metropolis of this branch of industry, and was soon equalled in the extent of its manufactories by many other towns, as Norwich, Sudbury, Colchester, and York; while woollens were spun and wove, though to a less extent, in Devonshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire Sussex, and Wales.
(43.) Regulations regarding Staples.—The staple, or market for wool, was fixed by act of Parliament (27 Edward III.) in particular towns of England, but was afterwards removed by law to Calais, and English merchants were prohibited from exporting any goods from the staple, or, in other words, foreign navigation was abandoned. To the custom of taking subsidies in kind, may be traced the principle of those multifarious regulations which fixed the staple in certain towns, either in England, or more commonly on the continent; and to the fluctuating state of politics may be ascribed the shiftings which those staples so frequently underwent; but it is not easy to see the drift of many of the provisions relating to it, some of which tend to the benefit of foreign, rather than of British, commerce.
(44.) The progress which this manufacture made in a very short period, may be well illustrated by the following table of exports and imports in woollen, about the middle of the fourteenth century, or twenty years after the arrival of John Kemp and his establishment.