EXPORTS.
Thirty-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-one and ahalf of wool, at L.6 value each sack,£189,90900
Three thousand, thirty-six hundred and sixty-fivefells, at 40s. value, each hundred at six score,6,07318
Whereof the custom amounts to81,62411
Fourteen last, seventeen dicker, and five hides ofleather, after L.6 value the last8950
Whereof the custom amounts to.6176
8,061½ of worsted, after 16s. 8d. value, theprice is6,717184
Whereof the custom amounts to 215 13 7
Summary of the out-carried commodities in value andcustom,£285,635 17 2
IMPORTS.
1,832 cloths, after L.6 value each,10,92200
Whereof the custom amounts to 91 12 0
Summary of the in-brought woollens in value andcustom,£11,013120

That the imported cloths were much finer than those exported, may be inferred from their comparative value as here stated, and we may conclude pretty justly, that the fabrication of coarse cloths exclusively occupied the manufacturers of Britain, while the finer fabrics were still brought from abroad, and that, in fact, the wants of the mass of the people were the regulators of British industry.

(45.) Subsidies raised by Edward III.—In 1338, Edward took a fifteenth of all the commonalty of his realm in wool, rating the price of every stone of 14 lbs. at 2s., although, in the previous November, he had sent the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Earls of Suffolk and Northampton, with one thousand sacks of wool, into Brabant, which, being sold at L.40 a sack, procured him L.40,000. Edward was apparently not very sure how far his subjects would submit to so sweeping a taxation, as we find him addressing a letter, dated Berwick-upon-Tweed, March 28th, 1338, to the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, desiring the favour of their prayers, and requesting that they would excuse him to his people, on account of the great taxes he was obliged to lay upon them. During the summer of 1339, the laity granted to the king the one-half of their wools throughout the whole realm, a favour his majesty is reported to have received most graciously; but of the clergy he levied the whole, compelling them to pay nine merks for every sack of the best wool. Knighton, who held an office in the Abbey of Leicester, says that that house alone furnished eighteen sacks. The revenue officers during this reign appear to have exercised their calling with great strictness, and to have interfered in an especial manner with the secret trade of the inhabitants of Bristol, but this was terminated by the king granting a licence, dated Langley, November 25th, 1339, to their weavers, allowing them "to make woollen cloth without being liable to any molestation from the king's officers."

(46.) Progress of the trade under Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Edward VI.—During the bloody and destructive wars of the white and red roses, when success graced the arms alternately of York and Lancaster, commercial enterprise was almost at a stand. This unhappy period brought, however, with all its evils, blessings in its train, and Henry VII. not only did more for the advancement of the wool-trade than his predecessors, but also gave it greater vigour than it could lay claim to at any former period. Fine cloths were much improved in his reign, and luxury began to be attended to in an article, which, till then, had only been rendered amenable to comfort. The ostentatious reign of Henry VIII., gave an additional impulse to the trade, and cloth was sold in 1512 for five merks, which fifty years before would only have brought about forty shillings; while, in consequence of increasing wealth, population, and consumption, the demand was materially increased. A new market was also opened up for the exit of their woollens, by the establishment of an intercourse in 1516 with several islands in the Archipelago, and a few of the towns on the coast of Syria.

Edward VI., or rather his ministers, for he was then a minor, attempted to lay a poll-tax upon sheep, every ewe kept in a separate pasture being charged threepence, every wedder twopence, and all sheep kept on commons three-halfpence; but it was found to be so oppressive, so annoying to the people, and so difficult to collect, that it was repealed during the next year. England made a distinguished figure in this reign as a commercial nation. The manufacture of woollens was raised to a great height. Cloth, besides being exported to Flanders, found its way to Holland, Hamburgh, Sweden, and Russia, whose coarse warm stuffs were very much wanted, and the trade wore such an air of affluence, that a tax of eightpence in the pound was laid upon all cloth made for sale in England. This, however, was speedily repealed, a very short time serving to point out, that, though made for an endurance of three prosperous years, the people who were galled by a trifling impost on their sheep, would not, unless under very favourable circumstances, submit to imposts on the fabrics which they wore.

During the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Edward VI., an undue preference was given to grazing. Acts were framed to put a stop to this mismanagement, which was fast ruining the country, by driving people from it. Henry VII. exempted Norwich from the penalties of the law, on account of the decay of manufactures from the want of hands; and shortly after the whole county of Norfolk obtained a like exemption in regard to some branches of the woollen trade. The practice of depopulating the country, by abandoning tillage, and throwing the lands into pasturage, had run to so great an extent in the time of Henry VIII., that an enactment was made, whereby the king became entitled to half the rents of the land where any farm-houses were allowed to fall to decay. The number of sheep in a flock was at the same time limited to two thousand. Hume conjectures, in his History of England, that unskilful husbandry was probably the cause why the proprietors found no profit in tillage;—thus leading a farmer to keep a flock sometimes of twenty-four thousand as expressed in the statute. This had the effect of increasing the price of mutton, a remarkable coincidence, which parliament attributes to the commodity having gotten into few hands, though Hume ascribes it to the daily increase of money, thinking it almost impossible that such an article could be engrossed. At the commencement of the reign of Edward VI., the people were still sadly deficient in a knowledge of agriculture—a profession, which, as Hume wisely remarks, of all employments, requires the most reflection and experience. A great demand having arisen for wool both at home and abroad, whole estates were laid waste, while the tenants, regarded as a useless burden, were expelled their habitations, and the cottagers deprived even of the commons on which they fed their cows; no wonder there was a decay of the people!

(47.) Wool Trade encouraged by Elizabeth.—Elizabeth extended her protection to the Protestants who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, and the woollen manufactories became more flourishing than ever—so much so, that, although in 1552, a large quantity of raw material was exported, yet in less than thirty years, the people of Germany, Poland, France, Flanders, Denmark, and Sweden, were covered with British cloths; two hundred thousand pieces being annually exported, though the price was nearly tripled. At that time the processes by which woollens are rendered beautiful were unknown in England, and as our exports consisted in white undressed cloth, the profits upon dyeing and finishing, amounting to nearly a million a year, were lost. This was attempted to be remedied by prohibiting the exportation of white cloths, but the Dutch and Germans, who benefitted by the dyeing processes, forbade the entrance of any English woollens dyed in the piece, into their territories, and the export consequently fell immediately from 200,000 to sixty pieces. Then the restriction was taken off. It was at this crisis that the fabrication of medley cloths, or mixtures of wool dyed of different colours and wrought into the same web, was commenced.

(48.) Woollen Cloth monopolized by the merchant adventurers.—Though nine-tenths of the commerce of the kingdom consisted in the time of James I. of woollen goods, wool was allowed to be exported till the nineteenth year of his reign, when it was forbidden by proclamation, but never strictly enforced. The cloth was very little admired even at home, and though it was the staple commodity of the realm, a company of merchant adventurers were allowed by a patent, to possess the sole disposal of it. Elizabeth at one time attempted to rescue this important trade from the hands of these merchants, but they instantly conspired, and ceased to make purchases of cloth, when the queen was necessitated to restore the patent. A board of trade was brought together by James I. in 1622, and one of the purposes contemplated was to remedy the low price of wool, which was leading the people to complain of the decay of the woollen manufacture; but Hume supposes, and with every appearance of probability, that this fall of prices proceeded from an increase of wool.

(49.) English consumption of Wool increased.—Till the fifteenth century our wool was sold in the fleece to such as came to buy it. Among the principal of our customers were numbered the Flemings, and Brabanters, and in particular the merchants of Ghent, and Louvain, who took off vast quantities for the supply of two manufactories, that had flourished in those cities from the tenth century, and had furnished the greater part of Europe, and even England itself, with every kind of woollen cloth. Thus they might have continued, to the great loss of our island, had not the democratic hands employed in those manufactories repeatedly revolted, owing to their determination to resist a tax on looms, and being at length punished and dispersed, found their way in no long time to Holland. While in the last place, the spirit of sedition still being dominant, certain of their party attacked and killed some of the civil authorities, for which they had to make a precipitate flight to England, where they settled as peaceful citizens, and instructed our people in the working of wool. This occurred in 1420, from which time neither skill, money, nor enactments, have been spared to enable us to retain so valuable a trade. In the reign of Edward IV., every pack of English wool was liable when exported to a custom of 50s., a goodly sum in those days, and one which brought a yearly revenue of L 250,000. This excessive custom, almost amounting to a prohibition, added to the above mentioned opportunities, in a manner compelled the people to manufacture for themselves, and in this they succeeded so well, that by the time of Elizabeth, the exportation of live sheep and wool was prohibited on pain of having the right hand struck off. It does not appear that this enactment was ever repealed, though supposed to be so by the 12th of Charles II. cap. 32, see. 3, which, without taking away the penalties imposed by former statutes, imposes a new penalty;—20s. for every sheep exported, or attempted to be exported, together with the forfeiture of the sheep.

(50.) Severity of prohibitory enactments reprobated.—By the 14th of Charles II. chap. 18 the exportation of wool was deemed felony, and punished accordingly. This tended in no slight degree to the defeat of the ends intended, by hindering all who were not cold-blooded from bringing to justice the actors in so trifling an offence. This was soon however seen through, and corrected, by the 7th and 8th of William III. chap. 28, sec. 4, in which it was declared, that "Whereas the statute of the 13th and 14th of King Charles II., made against the exportation of wool, among other things in the said act mentioned, doth enact the same to be deemed felony, by the severity of which penalty the prosecution of offenders hath not been so effectually put into execution; be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that so much of the said act, which relates to the making the said offence felony, be repealed and made void."