Ireland, said the Irish Government while there were still hopes of stopping the dreaded Bill, ‘is a country generally proper only for breeding and grazing of cattle, which, with what commodities proceed from them, are their chief merchandises.’ Gookin, the friend of Ireland, said the same thing many years before. So it had always been, and so it is likely to remain, for there is no finer cattle country in the world. The winters are so mild that the beasts need not be housed, while the grass begins earlier and lasts longer than elsewhere, but corn suffers from the abundance of rain and the want of sunshine. A time came when Irish rents were raised by high protective duties on grain, the mass of the people living on potatoes, and suffering annually between the old crop and the new. There were many Irish famines before 1846, but they are forgotten. When the potatoes failed and the duties were abolished the area under corn gradually shrank, and the production of meat again became the national and natural industry. The evils foretold by Ormonde and his advisers followed upon the restrictive legislation, and cattle became a drug on the market. Efforts were, however, made to continue the trade, since the Act which forbade importation into England had no force to prevent exportation from Ireland, and the extreme cheapness of the stock was a great temptation. By the Act such cattle might be seized unless they were declared on oath to be of British origin, half the proceeds of sale going to the informer and half to the poor of the parish. But the speculators sometimes compounded with the churchwardens beforehand, and the smuggling went on, though the risks attending the traffic were so great that no perceptible relief was given to the Irish stockmasters. An amending Act was passed next year which made the ships liable to seizure and the sailors to the common gaol. Even then the possibility of great profit tempted the blockade-runners. There had always been a trade between Ireland and Minehead, and a struggle was made to maintain it. ‘So little,’ says a local historian, ‘were the wants of the poor or so considerable were the forfeitures that in the year 1675 an accumulated surplus sum of about 500l. was in hand, and then laid out in the purchase of a freehold estate in the parish of Ottery St. Mary, which estate still retains the name of the Cow-lands.’ The proceeds of this investment are even now applied on each New Year’s Day to a distribution of blankets, and this is always called the Cow Charity.[69]
Evil effects of the exclusion policy.
The trade with England in fat cattle having been destroyed by the Act of 1663, Ireland was full of young stock which the Act of 1667 left upon their owners’ hands. They were excluded from Scotland as well as from England. The immediate loss was of course very great. Many tenants deserted their holdings, and rents were everywhere hard to collect. The contraband business did not pay very well, but foreign ports were open, and the great Dutch market seemed to offer the easiest remedy. Very little hay was made in Ireland, and the young animals, half starved in winter upon withered grass, were in no condition to thrive on the spring herbage. The meat was too soft to salt well, the curing was ill done, much of it was uneatable when landed and had to be destroyed. Hides were sold by weight, which was increased by exporting them dirty, so that the credit of the trade was low. Butter was badly and dishonestly packed, making a good show at the ends of each firkin, with inferior stuff in the middle, and even stones sometimes. But the Irish stockholders were quick to learn. They kept their bullocks until age made them fit for salting, and two years after the passing of the prohibitory Act some of their beef reached Holland in as good condition as English produce, while their butter was even better. The second Dutch War interrupted the trade for a time, but it was resumed later, and England by denying a market to Ireland had only succeeded in creating a formidable competitor abroad.[70]
The woollen trade.
English rents were not raised by the interruption of the cattle trade; for even the breeding counties lost more on their wool than they gained on their calves, Irish landowners having turned their attention to sheep. By English statutes passed since the Restoration it had been made felony to transport wool from England or Ireland to Scotland or to any country outside England. When Charles tried to repair the loss to Ireland, it was not thought possible to make wool free. The King’s power to pardon a felony was not disputed, but even prerogative lawyers doubted whether it could be done before the fact. The restrictions were imposed in the manufacturers’ panic caused by Dutch competition, which was successful partly on account of cheap Irish provisions; but Petty thought such exorbitantly ‘fierce ways of prohibition’ might do twice as much harm as the trade was worth. England suffered by her own legislation, which promoted a glut in the market, for Irish wool was produced so cheaply that it could be sent over Channel in vast quantities in spite of the heavy licence duty. English flockmasters were injured, but the profit to Ireland was small. Irish wool was good, and better prices were to be had from foreigners, so that smuggling was found to pay well, and a trade was begun which reached vast proportions in later days.
Ireland was thinly peopled, but there was so little employment that labour was cheap, and there was plenty of available land. English commercial jealousy was thus excited, and the House of Commons forgot that they were really dealing with the Protestant settlers and showing them how to seek support from other and perhaps hostile nations. The Roman Catholic majority had always done so, and would do it again when opportunity offered. Petty saw that a legislative union was the only real solution of the problem, for without it the colony was starved, while the natives were at the mercy of those who had supplanted them. In the meantime he wrote in 1676: ‘It is wonderful that men born in England, who have lands granted to them by the King for service done in Ireland to the Crown of England, when they have occasion to reside or negotiate in England should by their countrymen, kindred, and friends there, be debarred to bring with them out of Ireland food whereupon to live, nor suffered to carry money out of Ireland, nor to bring such commodities as they fetch from America directly home, but round about by England with extreme hazard and loss, and be forced to trade only with strangers and become unacquainted with their own country; especially when England gaineth more than it loseth by a free commerce.’ The prohibition of cattle alone had destroyed a carrying trade which employed one hundred English ships, and things became much worse when the bulk of Irish wool was smuggled away in foreign bottoms.[71]
Ireland retaliates on Scotland.
As soon as the Cattle Bill became law the Irish Government addressed the King with a view to lessening its effects, Anglesey, Burlington, and Conway, three of the protesting peers, being authorised to press the case in London. They told the King that Ireland was ruined by the exclusion of her stock from England and Scotland, that the people, being deprived of their usual occupation, were driven into rebellion, that the revenue would suffer, and that the means of repelling foreign invasion would be taken away. They suggested as a remedy that Ireland should be allowed to export freely to foreign countries, and to keep out Scottish goods till such ‘times as the restraint upon Irish cattle and commodities in Scotland be taken off.’ This would keep a little money in the country, and repress ‘the luxury and humour of the people after outlandish commodities.’ In the meantime it would be necessary to send 50,000l. in specie from England to pay the army and defray the expense of government. In a little more than a month after the three lords presented their memorial Charles took steps to defeat by a side-wind the law which he had insisted on making in its worst form. The matter, he said, had been several times discussed at the Privy Council, with whose advice he granted much of what Ormonde and his friends asked for; believing that Ireland, exhausted as she was by long wars, could not do without trade, and that her loyalty deserved all the tenderness and care that he could show. But the people were to be encouraged to avoid the consumption of luxuries that could not be produced at home. The restraints upon exportation from Ireland to foreign parts were therefore taken off, saving the rights of the Canary, Turkey, and East India Companies, and subject to the existing law about trade with the Plantations. The Lord Lieutenant was empowered to grant licences accordingly, and the Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral, was directed to grant the necessary passports. Ormonde lost no time in issuing a proclamation giving effect to the King’s orders, and excluding all the commodities of Scotland as a measure of retaliation. Anglesey as vice-treasurer would carry over the necessary 50,000l. Proclamations were made and licences issued without much delay, but the money was long in coming.[72]
First Dutch War. A descent feared.
When England came to be at war with both France and Holland at the beginning of 1666, it was natural to suppose that there might be danger of a descent on Ireland. Orrery, who was an alarmist, thought there would be a rebellion; and he dreaded the sectaries and Presbyterians almost as much as the more numerous natives. Ormonde, who always kept cool, had little fear. There were indeed plenty of disaffected people, but they were not united, and he thought that the Government would always be too strong for any discontented party. As the spring came on, the Duke of Beaufort’s fleet was thought to be dangerous, and there were signs that Ireland was not forgotten by the French. In April one of their men-of-war entered Kenmare Bay, took soundings, and explored it thoroughly while three others lay outside. A little later on an Irish vessel from Galicia came into the Shannon with the usual cargo of fruit and soap, but twelve pieces of heavy ordnance were found in her hold. In June thirty-nine vessels came into Kinsale together; they had been reported long before they reached the coast and were generally believed to be French, but proved to be the Virginia fleet. Orrery did not believe in the landing of a great French army, for the game would not be worth the candle, and the country could not support it. A small force might, however, be sent as a nucleus round which Irish disaffection could gather. Cork harbour and many smaller havens lay practically open. The Tories were always available to keep the small army in Ireland busy, and a Dutch cruiser plying between Waterford and Youghal carried off a cargo of cattle to France, which showed how imperfect were the naval preparations of England. Irish gunsmiths were at work in many places, and it was not to be supposed that this was for any good purpose. Most of the Protestants had been disarmed after the plot in 1663, and indeed many of them were hardly to be trusted, but Orrery did not believe that any except a few really damnable fanatics would join a foreign invader and so play into the hands of Irish papists. But the uneasiness was general, and whenever a few sail were descried they were declared to be part of Beaufort’s fleet.[73]