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 A SHORT HISTORY 
 
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 OF ENGLISH COMMERCE 
 AND INDUSTRY 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 A SHORT HISTORY 
 
 r 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 BY 
 
 L. L. PRICE 
 
 Fellow of Ortel Colleoe, Oxford 
 
 ArxiioK OF 
 
 A Short History of Pof.itii ai. Eionomy in' Enoland from Apam Smith 
 
 TO Arnold Totkeee,' etc. 
 
 
 / LONDON: 
 
 EDWARD ARNOLD, 37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 1900
 
 • • • * '• " 
 
 • •• 
 
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 ^L'S'S 
 
 v: PREFACE 
 
 •^ 
 
 The scope of this Short History is explained in the 
 Introductory Chapter. Its object is to give a brief 
 account of the commercial and industrial development 
 V of England from the earliest times to the reign of Queen 
 r^ \ Victoria. The limits of space would, in any case, 
 compel the selection of certain points for special treat- 
 ment, and the omission of many others ; but an 
 endeavour has been made to touch at least upon the 
 most important events and characteristics of each period. 
 *^ An order of time has been followed so far as it has been 
 ■ I possible ; but in some instances it has been necessary to 
 ^ depart from this arrangement in order to complete a 
 story. It is obvious that such a book cannot pretend to 
 originality ; and the obligations of the author to living 
 writers like Professor Ashley and Dr. Cunningham, who 
 have created Economic History for English students, 
 are great. He is indebted also to many others ; and 
 the utmost that he can hope to have attained is to 
 have consulted such authorities, so far as they have been 
 accessible. It has been thought well, in order to permit, 
 and if it may be to encourage, fuller study, to mention 
 in the text, where opportunity has occurred, the chief 
 
 ^
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 books on which rehance has thus been placed. The 
 history ends with the introduction of Free Trade, 
 because with this event one period seems to close, and 
 another to begin, and the features and incidents of the 
 last period, which is now running its course, are as yet 
 too close to allow of calm observation from a distance. 
 
 L. L. P. 
 
 Okiel College, 
 Oxford.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Economic Histokv: its Oimects and its Diffkui/ites. 
 
 Pack 
 
 The opening of the twentieth century i-s an important epoch. — 
 2. An iniiuiry into the commercial and industrial history of 
 England is suggested. — 3. Such an inquiry belongs to "economic 
 liistory," a department of "economic science." — 4. Economic 
 liistory is of great interest and ini|)ortance. — ;>. But it is com- 
 paratively young. Tlie liistorian haslieen inclined to neglect it. 
 — 6. It requires some economic training. — 7. But the economist 
 lias viewed it with suspicion. — 8. The "historical method" was 
 once a sul)jeet of controversy. —9. Reconciliation was possible. 
 — 10. It has only been recently achieved. — 11. Consequently, 
 economic history presents dittieulties arising from imperfect 
 knowledge; of the material. — 12. Especially in the earlier period. 
 — 13. But also in the later. — 14. It is necessary to select s<mie 
 central fact or institution for special attention. — 1.^). Tliis course 
 will be pursued in the successive chapters of the present book - 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 The Romans and the Ax(;i,o-S.a.xons. 
 
 Tlie econiomic lustory of early times is scanty. — 2. Roman 
 civilisation in iiiitain resend)led that found elsewliere. — 3. In 
 the Anglo-Saxon peri<id anticijiations of later institutions may b(> 
 l'oun<l. — 4. Tlie period before the Roman occupation is diflicult 
 even to imagine. — 5. Tlie Romans introduced an advanced 
 civilisation.— 6. They left behind material remains of theii' 
 greatness. — 7. Their economic activity was sliown in various 
 ways — S. The exact elfects of the Anglo-Saxon Conijuest are 
 doubtful. — 9. But the Saxon jieriod was one of little economic 
 progi-ess. — 10. The incursions of the Danes stinnilated fresh 
 activity. — 11. They led to the growth of towns - - - 14
 
 VI CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER. 
 
 (From William I. to Edward I.) 
 
 AGRlrULTUIlE AND THE COUNTUY. — TuE MANORIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. At the time of tlie Xornian Conquest agriculture was the most 
 important industry. — 2. An inquiry into its conditions is not 
 free from difliculty. — 3. It was pursued under tlie Manorial 
 System. The plough-land was worked on the "three-field 
 system." — 4. These fields were subdivided into small strips, 
 securing substantial equality between the different individual 
 holders. — 5. Tliis arrangement points to a free rather than a 
 servile origin.— 6. The other view is open to objections. — 7. But 
 at the Xorman Conqnest the villagers were dependent on a lord. 
 —8. The village land consisted of his demesne, and their indi- 
 vidnal holdings. — 9. They belonged to different classes. — 10. The 
 m.ajority, consisting of rilleins, were partly free and partly not 
 free. — 11. Their original state is donbtful. — 12. Their services 
 were divided into ivcek-irork and boon-work. — 13. Officials were 
 needed to su]>ervise. — 14. Some nianors belonged to the King, 
 wlio was at the head of the Fendal Sy.stem. — 15. Our information 
 is obtained for the most part from the Domesday Survey. — 16. It 
 was prepared for a particular object. — 17. This must be borne 
 in mind in interpreting the terms employed. — 18. The Manorial 
 System was lialtle to changes. — 19. These were accomplished 
 gradually - - - - - - - 23 
 
 CHArTER IV. 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER. 
 
 [From irHliam I. to Edward I.) 
 
 CdM.MEUI K AND InDCSTKY AND THE TOWN.S. — TnE INFLUENCE OF THE 
 
 Kings. — The Rise of the Oit,ds. 
 
 ] . Tli(! reign of Edward I. marks the close of a period of national 
 formafion. — 2. Villages and towns were, mostly, isolated inde- 
 piMidi-nt units. — 3. TIk^ inlluence of the King was powerful. — 
 4. The Xorm.ni Conqui^st brought important changes. — ;">. 
 Various immigrants came to England. — 6. The Jews occui)ied a 
 special position.— 7. The King's I'eveuues were derived from 
 diffei-ent sources (1) as a feudal sujjerior. — 8. (2) In his public 
 capacity. — 9. Tiic collection of these I'evenues needed an organ- 
 ised system. — 10 Together with account-k(!ej)ing on the manors, 
 this sjiows a growth of money-payments. — ]1. The Assize of 
 Measuri'S and the Assizi! of liread illustrate the mediieval policy 
 of th". Crown.- 12. Th^i King's inlluence was also shown in 
 connection with the growth of towns. — 13. The towns sought
 
 ^ CONTENTS Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 liberty to manage their oavii ainiirs. — 14. Tlu-y secured this in 
 various wnyn and degrees. ^15. Tlic merchant -gild was an im- 
 portant institution. — 16. It controlled the tradc-monopol}- in an 
 exclusive spirit. — 17. But within the limits of tiie gild the regu- 
 lations were more publio-spirited. — IS. Its precise relations to 
 the town are obscure. — 19. Its connection with the craft-gild 
 lias biMMi misundci'stood. — 20. The real relation seems to have 
 been dilferent. --21. The craft-gilds resembhid the merchant- 
 gilds in spirit and in conduct. — 22. Thus life iu the towns, as in 
 the villages, was coniineil, though changes were at work - 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 FROM THE MEDIEVAL TO THE MODERN WORLD. 
 
 (From Edward I. to thr Tiidors.) 
 
 COMMKltcK AM) iMU'sritV, AM) THE TuWNS. — TlIE WuOLLKX 
 
 Indu.stry. 
 
 1. The Hundred Rolls date from Kdward I.— 2. They show the 
 character of his economic policy. — .3. This polic}' was followed 
 by lidward III., but was afterwards reversed. — 1. The Land 
 Laws of Eilward I. coml)ined a regard for the jiublic interest 
 with attention to that of the Crown. — 5. This combination of 
 objects was shown iu the raising of the revenue. — 6. It was also 
 seen in other regulations. — 7. The policy of Edward III., and 
 liis successors may be conveniently examined in connection 
 with the history of the woollen industr}". — 8. Thus the foreign 
 policy of Eilward III. had an economic side. — 9. Successive 
 changes in the " customs " reflected the gi'owth of the woollen 
 industry. — 10. The inunigration of Flenush weavers exercised 
 great influence. — 11. Tiie position of the " aulnager " showed 
 the imi)ortance of the worsted industry. — 12. The strict regula- 
 tion of trade was also seen in other measures. — 13. It was esi)eci- 
 ally noticeal)le in the selection of the '"staple." — 14. Tiio 
 encouragement of foreign merchants was a part of the policy of 
 Edward. — 1.5. Tlie opi)osition of the gilds to the foreigners was 
 l)itter and jiersistent.^16. Some early craft-gilds may jierhajis 
 have originated among foreign immigrants. — 17. The Flemisli 
 weavers of Ivlward III.'s reign were gradually absorbed in the 
 gild.s. — 18. The craft-gilds first grew in power, and then declined. 
 — 19. They became more exchisive. — 20. Separate classes of 
 dealers, sudi as the " drapers, " arose. — 21. Restrictions were 
 ]ilaced on apjireuticeship. — 22. ''.Touriu^ynien " increased in 
 mimber. — 23. The woollen industry passed into the " domestii; 
 system." — 24. There were even tjicu some single instani'es of 
 factories. — 2."). Tlu» "clothier" was tiie centre of the "domestic 
 system."— 26. The gilds finally declined.— 27. Hut the towns 
 may, or may not, have lost their prosperity - - -69
 
 Vlll CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 FROM THE MEDIAEVAL TO THE MODERN WORLD. 
 
 {From Edward I. to the Titdors.) 
 AORICrLTFRE, AND THE COUNTRY. — ThE BlACK DeATII, THE 
 
 Peasant Revolt, and Inclosures. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Sir Walter of Henley and Fitzherbert were famous agricultural 
 writers in the thirteenth and sixteentli centuries. — 2. In the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an agi-icultural "revolution" 
 occurred. — 3. Changes had occurred before in the Manorial 
 System.— 4. The Black Death visited England in 1348. —5. The 
 ravages of the pestilence were very great. — 6. Tlie Statutes of 
 Labourers tried to prevent the rise of wages, which followed. — 
 
 7. They failed. — 8. " Stock and land '"' leases became conmion. 
 — 9. Disputes arose between the lords and the villeins. — 10. The 
 Peasant Revolt did not abolish villeina<(e. — 11. Economic forces 
 giadually accomplished this. — 12. Inclosures were made. — 13. 
 They often injured the villeins. — 14. This was especially the case 
 during the earlier period of the inclosures (1450-1.550). — 15. The 
 legal position of the villeins was doubtful. —16. Legislation was 
 passed to check inclosures. — 17. The break-up of the Manorial 
 System took place. — 18. Dilferent opinions have been held 
 about the economic conditions of the fifteenth century - - 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM AND THE OLD 
 ECONOMICS. 
 
 {Fram the Tudors to the Georges. ) 
 
 Trade and Industry in England. 
 
 1. The Tudor Monarchy favoured the commercial and industrial 
 classes. — 2. The economic policy of the day was the " Mercantile 
 System." — 3. National jiower, and not jilenty, was the object 
 sought. — 4. Tile ideas of the Mercantile System were seen 
 eai'lier (a) in attention to ti'casure. — 5. They were al.so seen 
 {b) in the development of slup]iing. — 6. they were shown in 
 (c) the encouragement of agriculture, and especially of tillage. 
 — 7. Tliey were seen {d) in various other regulations. — 
 
 8. In tlie reign of Elizaljetli the iiiMuence of tlie System was 
 very marked. I>ut agricultural progress was slow. — 9. Tliat 
 of manufacturing imlustiy was also slow before the middle of 
 the eigliteenth century. — 10. Monoj)olie3 were frequently granted 
 under the Mercantile System. — II. They were condemned by 
 Parliament. — 12. The Statute of Apprentices was an important 
 measure of the reign. — 13. Its wages-clauses did not introduce 
 a new practice. — 14. The actn-il circct of tliese i-lauses lias lieen 
 disputed. — 15. The Elizabethan Poor Law was based on past
 
 CONTENTS IX 
 
 PAGF. 
 
 experience. — 16. It wa? aMy ainl coiii|iiili(.'n.sively conceived. — 
 17. Tlie Law of Settlement wasau ini|"iitant Act, jiasscfl latir. 
 — 18. Adam Smith traced the changes in its provision.s. — 10. 
 The reformation of tiie currency was the thinl great economic 
 measure of tlie reign of Elizabeth. — '20. .Silver was the metal in 
 general use, and gold was " rateil " to it, causing certain ditli- 
 cultics. — 21. TIic (Ictiasement of the currency exerted in addition 
 a mischievous influttnce. — '2'2. The recuinage was successfully 
 accomplished by Elizabeth. — 23. It did not fulfil all expecta- 
 tions. — 24. Another recoinage was undertaken by William III. - 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM AND THE OLD 
 ECONOMICS. 
 
 (Fro/ti. /he Tinlors (o //n; (feorges.) 
 
 Imiiii.icn .\m> Colon tat, Cummkrck. 
 
 1. Tlie Kli/.ii>eLliau Age marked the beginning of the maritime, 
 industrial and commercial power of England. — 2. The seven- 
 teenth ccntuiy saw the commencement of colonial expansion. — • 
 3. The contest with France for the New A\'(jrld was a conspicuous 
 feature of (he eighteenth century. — -i. Economic motives, at 
 least in part, prom[pled thewars of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries. — 5. First, Spain was overthrown at the defeat of the 
 Armada. — 6. Then, Holland was injured by the Navigation Acts. 
 — 7. Their effect seems to have l)een great. — 8. Lastl}'. France 
 was fought and overcome. —!). Colonial trade was regulated Viy 
 the principles of the I\Iercantile System. -10. Exclusive trading 
 companies were common. — 11. The East India Comiiany was 
 conspicuous among these. — 12. At tirst conniiercial, it ended by 
 being political. — 13. The difference between " Bullionist " and 
 "Mercantilist" arose in controversies about Indian trade. — 
 14. Another iui]iortant change of opinion and practice was seen 
 in connection with the lending ol money. — 15. The National 
 Debt and the Hank of England came into existence together. — 
 16. Connnercial Treaties were made in accordance with the 
 princi]iles of the Mercantile System. — 17. The treatment of 
 Ireland was unfortunate. — 18. Yet the Jlercantile System 
 marked a stage of progress - - - - -156 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE NEW 
 
 ECONOMICS. 
 
 {From the Gconjcs to Victoria.) 
 
 The Nkw Atiun ii.rrKK, the Factouy System, and Fuek Tuahk. 
 
 A. — THE AOllK ll.n-UAI. KEVOLUTION. 
 
 1. Tlie period from 1750 to 1850 is very important. — 2. It marked 
 a fresh stage of development. — 3. In agriculture, the process of
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 inclosure was renewed. — 4. Tlie object was improvement, of 
 which Townshend was one pioneer. — 5. Bakewell. Coke, and 
 Arthur "S'ounj,' were others. — 6. Inclosui'e was necessary, Init 
 tlie peasantry sufl'ered. — 7. Tlie smaller IVeeliolders, or j'eomen, 
 disappeared - - - - - - - 184 
 
 r.. — THE f.\i"I"oi;y svsikm : ns (Ar.sKs, 
 
 8. In nianulaeturing industry inventions and iinpro\ements were 
 introduced, especially in the cotton trade. — 9. Other industries 
 shared in the proj;ress made. — 10. The modes ot transport, by 
 water and by land, and the metliods ot conducting business, 
 were altered. — 11. These changes gave advantages to special 
 districts. — 12. The use ot water as a motive jiower favoureil 
 Lancashire. — 13. The substitution of steam had a distinct iii- 
 llueuce. — 14. The factory system took the i)lace of the domestic 
 system ....---- 192 
 
 C. — THE FACTORY SVSIEM : ITS COXSEQUENCES. 
 
 15. The Factory System was attended by certain evils ; but for these 
 the system itself was not entirely respon-sible. — 16. The circum- 
 stances of its introiluetion were unfortunate. — 17. Legislation 
 was demanded. — 18. Tiiis was afterwards more effective than it 
 was at first. — 19. With the Factory Act of 1850, its main 
 ]irinciiiles were settled. — 20. Another evil of tlie period was the 
 alarming growth of pauperism. — 21. A crisis was reached when, 
 in 1834, the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed - - 201 
 
 D. — INDUSTKIAL MOVEMENTS : TRADE UXIONS. 
 
 22. The Factory System stimulated, but did not create Trade 
 Unionism. — 23. The Unions first appealed, in vain, to the old 
 laws. — 24. The law was not hostile to them until a General 
 Combination Act Avas passed. — 25. The Combination Laws were 
 repealed largely through the energy of Francis Place. — 26. But 
 the final victory of the Unions was not won for fifty years - 210 
 
 E. — COMMERCIAL MOVEMENTS : BANKING REFORM AND FREE TRADE. 
 
 27. The effect of the War with France was great, especially in 
 matters of finance. — 28. A controversy on the management of 
 the papei' currency ended in the Bank Charter Act of 1844. — 
 29. "Commercial crises" were not prevented by the Act. —30. 
 Agricultuie was depressed, in sjiite of the Corn Laws. — 31. The 
 Repeal of the Laws marked a stage of reform. Walpole had been 
 a great tinancici'. — 32. The retVum of ?]nglisli finance began again 
 with Pitt. — 33. ^\'ith the adoption of Free Trade this history 
 ends 217 
 
 CTTAI'TFR .v. 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE NEW 
 
 ECONOMICS. 
 
 Con(;lusion : Tiik Kise and I'lmciiKss hf Kchnumic Scienck. 
 
 1. A serious difliculty of economic histor}' is the connection of causes 
 and effects. — 2. Our industrial and commercial supremacy lias
 
 CONTENTS xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 been due to several intermingled eauses. — 3. Human action has 
 assisted natural I'nrees ; and Free Trade has had a powerful in- 
 tluenee. — 4. Tlie adoption of Free Trade marked a change in 
 eeonomie o[)ini()n. — f). Adam Smith was the father ol' a new 
 school of tlio>igiit. — 6. He separated tlie science of Economics 
 from the art of finaucc. — 7. With liis name those of Malthas 
 and Rieardo may be joined. — 8. He was peculiarly impressed 
 by the evils of restricting "natural lilierty." — 9. In spite of 
 different judgments passed upon his " A\'ealth of Nations," it 
 occupies an unifjue position. — 10. Malthas is known for his 
 Essay on Population, — 11. His infhience was great, in spite of 
 some uncertainty of view. — 12. On general economic matters he 
 adopted a position ojiposite to that taken l)y Rieardo. — 13. 
 Ricardo's writing was marked by subtle abstract reasoning, 
 due largely to his surroundings. — 14. He exerted a great in- 
 fluence both on economic fliouglit and on the economic practice 
 of his day, especially in tlie adoption of Free Trade. — 15. J. S. 
 Mill endiraceil the approved conclusions of his predecessors in a 
 treatise, from which a new departure Ijegan - - - 228 
 
 Index .-.-.... 244
 
 A SHORT HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH COMMEIICE AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Economic History : its OiiJECTS and its Difficulties. 
 
 I. The opening of the twentieth century is an 
 important epoch. 
 
 The intluence exerted on the thoughts and conduct of 
 men by the fact that one century is ending, and another 
 is beginning, can hardly be doubted by observers of the 
 " signs of the times." The periods thus distinguished 
 may be artificial divisions, but they impress the 
 imagination, and their close, or opening, may hasten or 
 hinder action. An opportunity is given for review of 
 the past, and for prophecy of the future, ^Yhich seems to 
 be more appropriate, and more significant, than any 
 afforded in the time bet\Yeen. In the stress and hurry 
 of life actors and spectators may be so continuously 
 occupied as to concern themselves with nothing more 
 than the passing events and interests of the succeeding 
 
 1
 
 2 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 scenes ; but the fall of the curtain on one act, and its 
 rise on another, suggests a study of the plot of the 
 drama, and the occasion is seized by the thoughtful, 
 and forced on the careless. A seriousness and a mystery 
 attach to such moments, which may exalt them above 
 their real importance, but compel attentive notice. 
 
 2. An inquiry into the commercial and industrial 
 history of England is suggested. 
 
 The period, marking the close of the nineteenth, and 
 the opening of the twentieth, century may take a note- 
 worthy place among such epochs. It has produced an 
 abundant crop of meditations and prophecies, and it 
 has been marked by incidents of critical interest.* That 
 the nineteenth century has been one, in which England 
 has attained an Empire wider than any yet recorded by 
 history, is a fact attested by the jealous admissions of 
 opponents waiting opportunity for successful assault. 
 That during the same period she has enjoyed a supreme 
 position in commerce and industry, which some regard 
 as a cause, and others as a consequence, of that world- 
 wide Empire, allows of no more question than the 
 ominous circumstance that the close of the century has 
 witnessed resolute attempts to challenge that supremacy 
 on the part of the thrifty, industrious German, and the 
 alert, inventive American. Whatever, measured by the 
 test of figures, be the success, which has as yet attended 
 those efforts, they have prompted gloomy predictions of 
 the future, which may, or may not, be realised. They 
 suggest examination of the past. They encourage an 
 endeavour to find the causes, to which our industrial 
 
 * E.f/., the wars between China and Japan, the United States 
 and Spain, and the English and the Boers, which seem lUiely to 
 produce consequences of great importance to the future of the 
 world.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 and commercial supremacy has been due. We are 
 instigated to trace their working, sometimes gradual 
 and sometimes speedy, sometimes obvious and more 
 often obscured by surrounding circumstance. We note 
 the assistance, which they have received, and the ob- 
 stacles they have encountered. We guess how far they 
 are enduring, and how far they are perishing, in what 
 respects they need, and admit of, internal strengthen- 
 ing or external support, in what directions they are 
 most exposed to menace or danger, on what sides they 
 are likely to prove least infirm or vulnerable in the 
 near or distant future. 
 
 3. Such an inquiry belongs to " economic history" 
 —a department of " economic science." 
 
 This incjuiry belongs to what is known as "economic 
 history." An English economist* has recently defined 
 his subject as a " study of man's actions in the ordinary 
 business of life "~as inquiring " how he gets his income, 
 and how he uses it." " Thus," he proceeds, " Political 
 Economy, or Economics, is on the one side a study of 
 wealth, and on the other, and more important, side a 
 part of the study of man. For man's character has 
 been moulded by his every-day work, and by the material 
 resources, which he thereby procures, more than by any 
 other influence, unless it be that of his religious ideals ; 
 and the two great forming agencies of the world's 
 history have been the religious and the economic. 
 Here and there the ardour of the military or the artistic 
 spirit has been for a while predominant ; but religious 
 and economic influences have nowhere been displaced 
 from the front rank even for a time ; and they have 
 
 * Professor IMarsliall in his "Principles of Economics," vol. i., 
 book i., chap. i. 
 
 1—2
 
 4 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 nearly always been more important than all others put 
 together. Eeligioiis motives are more intense than 
 economic ; but their direct action seldom extends over 
 so large a part of life. For the business by which a 
 person earns his livelihood generally fills his thoughts 
 during by far the greater part of those hours in which 
 his mind is at its best ; during them his character is 
 being formed by the way in which he uses his faculties 
 in his work, by the thoughts and feelings which it 
 suggests, and by his relations to his associates in work, 
 his employers or his employes." 
 
 4. Economic history is of great interest and 
 importance. 
 
 This definition, which does not err in narrowness, may 
 conveniently inclicate the general character of the in- 
 vestigations of the economic historian. He is concerned, 
 similarly, with the study of that part of history, which 
 relates to "man's actions in the ordinary business of 
 life," to the inquiry " how he gets his income, and how 
 he uses it." The interest of this study will not be 
 questioned by anyone, who pursues it with serious 
 attention ; its importance alike for statesmen and for 
 philosophers must be acknowledged by all candid 
 inquirers. For the conduct of the afi'airs, and the 
 interpretation of the thoughts, of a commercial and 
 industrial nation, like our own, an adequate knowledge 
 of their economic history must be fraught with ad- 
 vantage ; and ignorance of it is likely to lead to danger, 
 or even disaster. To understand the present, and to 
 guide the future aright, an acquaintance with the 
 significant facts of the past is necessary ; and economic 
 facts are not the least significant for a commercial and 
 industrial people.
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 5. But it is comparatively young-. The historian 
 has been inclined to neglect it. 
 
 Yet economic history is comparatively young. It is 
 recently that it has secured distinct recognition from 
 historian and economist. The one has been disposed 
 to neglect it, or to hold it in strict subordination ; the 
 other, retaining the memory of a bitter controversy, has 
 found it hard to overcome a suspicion once excited. 
 "Picturesque" historians have concerned themselves 
 with the stirring incidents of history, with the pageantry 
 and intrigues of courts, the perils and exploits of war, 
 the rise and fall of dynasties, the ambitions and rival- 
 ries of politicians. " Philosophic " and " scientific " 
 historians, who have endeavoured to penetrate beneath 
 the surface, and to disclose the underlying causes 
 influencing the actions of men and of nations — the deep- 
 seated forces directing the movement of affairs — have 
 turned their attention more often to political, religious, 
 and ethical, than to strictly economic considerations. 
 They have indeed occasionally considered the economic 
 state of a country, its riches or its poverty, the numbers 
 and efficiency of its population, its readiness or ability 
 to contribute to revenue, or to furnish and maintain 
 armies and fleets. The distribution of wealth between 
 different classes of the community may sometimes have 
 entered among the factors contributing to form a 
 historical judgment. Some attention may have been 
 devoted to the "condition of the people," to the details 
 of their callings, to the development or decline of their 
 agriculture or their manufactures, to the success or 
 failure of their trade at home or abroad. Bat such 
 topics, which are of the first importance for the economic 
 historian, have generally been kept in the background.
 
 6 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Until lately it has been the exception rather than the 
 rule to find any large space given to economic considera- 
 tions in the pages of a general history. 
 
 6, It requires some economic training. 
 
 This result may be due to the influence of instinct or 
 tradition ; or it may be traced to a lack of special 
 training. For an adequate treatment of economic 
 history is scarcely possible without such training. The 
 economic historian explores the history of the past ; and 
 he differs from the general historian in devoting special 
 attention, as he travels over the ground, to economic 
 facts and forces, which may indeed be connected with 
 those interesting to the politician and the moralist, but 
 form the special object of study of the economist. He 
 should therefore possess, in addition to his historical 
 training, a familiarity with the outlines of that economic 
 science, which was defined above. He should Icnow the 
 nature of the reasonings pursued, and the conclusions 
 reached, by those who, like the economist from whom 
 we have quoted, have devoted themselves to the syste- 
 matic investigation of "man's actions in the ordinary 
 business of life," who have inquired "how he gets his 
 income, and how he uses it," who have attempted to 
 detect and to analyse, to trace to their origin, and to 
 follow to their effects, the motives, which influence the 
 conduct of men in the production, distribution, exchange, 
 and consumption of wealth. 
 
 7. But the economist has viewed it with suspicion. 
 
 But if, in search of this information, the historian 
 betook himself to the economist, he might possibly 
 return from his quest in bewildered despair. He might 
 find that the economist looked with suspicion on economic 
 history, and hesitated to engage in alliance on terms of
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 mutual aid and respect. The echoes of a controversy, 
 which once raged with bitter obstinacy, are still occa- 
 sionally heard, and the memory of claims and rebuffs 
 remains as an obstacle to reconciliation. The contro- 
 versy arose on the methods of study. One party urged 
 that the method, mainly followed by a powerful school 
 of English writers, was fundamentally wrong. They 
 contended that those writers, of whom David Eicardo* 
 was the most famous, had constructed from their 
 imaginations convenient, but fictitious, conceptions, 
 which did not correspond with fact. They had created 
 the idea of an " economic man," constantly engaged in 
 the pursuit of wealth, deaf to motives, and blind to 
 considerations, which would not lead him by the most 
 direct road to the goal of which he was in search. The 
 whole of this elaborate construction, they urged, must be 
 levelled to the ground, and the study commenced afresh. 
 From a new starting-point the economist must issue 
 forth, and be guided on his route by a new method. 
 He must industriously gather together a mass of facts, 
 he must slowly raise on their broad basis secure general 
 truths, and if he attempted by reasoning to draw con- 
 clusions, he must compare his results constantly with 
 actual facts, and reject without hesitation those with 
 which the facts did not at once agree. Such was the 
 criticism offered by these assailants of the dominant 
 sect. Such, stated in its most extreme and uncom- 
 promising terms, was the profession of faith, which they 
 put forward. 
 
 8. The " historical method " was once a subject 
 of controversy. 
 
 They were described as belonging to the " historical 
 * He Uvea from 1772 to 1823, Cf. Chapter X.
 
 8 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 school," and the}' advocated the use of the "historical 
 method." The description was appropriate ; for historical 
 study laid stress on the importance of facts. But it 
 might mislead, and it gave rise to prejudice. The 
 defenders of the position, thus vigorously assailed, were 
 prone to associate the method with its advocates, and to 
 condemn alike the extravagant utterances of eager con- 
 troversy and the employment of a useful instrument of 
 inquiry. The assailing party were disposed to regard 
 the study of economic history as necessarily connected 
 with the repudiation of the whole scheme of doctrine 
 held by their opponents, and to reject with scorn the 
 possibility of deriving any benefit or aid from any portion 
 of their teaching. 
 
 9. Reconciliation was possible. 
 
 The field of economic investigation has now grown 
 so large that the advantage, or necessity, of dividing it 
 into separate portions has become plain, and economic 
 history occupies a distinct and important, but not ex- 
 clusive, place among those divisions. The controversy 
 between the " historical " and the " Eicardian " school, 
 between the advocates of the "new" and the "old" 
 method, as they are often distinguished, with some 
 inaccuracy, is closed by a mutual admission that there 
 is room for both in the wide region of economic inquiry-. 
 Either may make a more prominent use of the methods 
 which they prefer, and find to be more appropriate to 
 tlieir studies ; but they will retard, and not promote, 
 advance by contempt or contradiction. A knowledge of 
 the principles of economics, as expounded by Eicardo, 
 and his more liberal and instructed successors, will 
 improve the intellectual equipment of the economic 
 historian ; an acquaintance with the results of historical
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 research is no less indispensa])le to the ordinary 
 economist who wishes to be abreast of his subject. 
 
 10. It has only been recently achieved. 
 
 This understanding has been reached by gradual 
 stages, and hitherto, perhaps, has met with wide rather 
 than universal acceptance. In any case, it is recently 
 that the general historian, on the one hand, has shown 
 any marked inclination to devote attention to those of 
 the conditions and circumstances, the events and the 
 acts, that he narrates, which may be classed as economic ; 
 and, on the other, no long time has elapsed since the 
 results of controversy have been shown in the definite 
 grant by the economist of a sphere of inquiry to his- 
 torical research. As a separate systematic study, with 
 a recognised position, and a defined area of work, 
 "economic history" is comparatively young. The 
 general study of economics in any form resembling its 
 present shape does not, as we shall see at the conclusion 
 of this history, date back to a time much earlier than 
 that* at which Adam Smith wrote his " Wealth of 
 Nations," and England was entering on her manu- 
 facturing supremacy. But, if Economics is thus little 
 more than a century old. Economic History has hardly 
 attained its majority. It is true that writers, discussing 
 economic topics, engaged in historical research in days 
 before Adam Smith ; but they were rather unsystematic 
 and unconscious pioneers, anticipating the work of later 
 times. It remains substantially true that economic 
 history is comparatively young. It may disj)lay all the 
 vigour, and some of the confidence, of youth ; it can 
 scarcely as yet command the ripe experience, the broad 
 wisdom, or the stable judgment of matured age. 
 
 * 1776 ; cf. Chapter X.
 
 10 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 11. Consequently, economic history presents 
 difficulties arising from imperfect knowledge of 
 the material. 
 
 From this position certain consequences follow, which 
 deserve and require notice. The economic history of 
 this country alone consists of a mass of material, which 
 has only been partly examined. Laborious research has 
 as yet been unable to accomplish more than a portion of 
 its task. A preliminary survey has been made of the 
 country to be explored, and in some directions the ground 
 has been scrutinised with minute attention. But it is 
 impossible to review even rapidly the results of the work 
 of different investigators without feeling that, while year 
 by year greater certainty is attained on matters of main 
 importance, that which is still uncertain represents a 
 large part of the entire area. Some of the most plausible 
 guesses, and promising theories, of earlier pioneers have 
 been called in question, and proved untenable, by later 
 workers. The student, attempting to examine for him- 
 self an economic event, or series of events, will often be 
 surprised, and perhaps discouraged, to find how scanty 
 is the information obtained from any general history, 
 and how ambiguous, and even contradictory, have been 
 the conclusions of economic historians. 
 
 12. Especially in the earlier periods. 
 
 This uncertainty, as we might expect, attaches in a 
 greater degree to earlier periods. As we advance to 
 later times we are met by more abundant material for 
 forming a judgment, and by more definite, authoritative 
 opinions of its value. On the one hand, the general 
 historian, though he may not recognise the full im- 
 portance of economic considerations, possesses a more 
 accurate and minute acquaintance with the details of the
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 period, with which he is dealing, and in giving fuller 
 treatment to events and circumstances generally, is 
 compelled, consciously or unconsciously, to include in 
 his narrative a more ample notice of those, which are of 
 interest for the economic historian. He may still select 
 for emphasis the more stirring and picturesque incidents, 
 or the more familiar and significant movements and 
 forces, as they appear to him ; but his principle of 
 selection is likely to prove more liberal, when he finds 
 an abundance, and not a poverty, of material. On the 
 other hand, the later the period, which we are examining, 
 the more probable it is that competent economists should 
 take their place among the authorities, on which we rely. 
 The}', indeed, may find their chief interest elsewhere 
 than in collecting economic facts, or studying economic 
 forces, with a single view to historical research. But 
 they are not unlikely to assist such an aim, for they will 
 supply references, many or few, to contemporary con- 
 ditions and circumstances treated in their economic 
 significance. It is hardly necessary to add that, defec- 
 tive as they may seem, when tried by the later standard 
 of wider knowledge and more scientific attainment, they 
 are likely to prove superior to their own predecessors. 
 From both sides, then— from that of the general 
 historian and that of the ordinary economist — the 
 economic historian is destined to meet with larger, 
 more effective aid in the later than in the earlier periods 
 of history. 
 
 13. But also in the later. 
 
 Even in these he will still be beset by difticulty arising 
 from the mass of material partly, or wholl}', unexplored. 
 He must be content to discover that the efi'orts of in- 
 vestigators have centred on prominent portions of the
 
 12 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 subject rather than been spread over the whole. Certain 
 facts, or institutions, have attracted pecuHar, and perhaps 
 disproportionate, attention ; and researchers have en- 
 deavoured by dihgent scrutiny to ascertain their 
 character and measure their significance. This task 
 has absorbed their energies, and forced them, either to 
 postpone to a future occasion the minute study of other 
 conditions, or at least to group round some central fact 
 or institution the circumstances of the times. 
 
 14. It is necessary to select some central fact or 
 institution for special attention. 
 
 In the successive chapters of this history, in which 
 we shall attempt to give a brief account of the agri- 
 cultural, industrial, and commercial development of 
 England, we shall conform to this model. We shall 
 follow this course, both because the space at our disposal 
 compels selection and abridgement, and also because we 
 desire, so far as it may be possible, to treat mainly of 
 those parts of economic history which, resting on the 
 most certain and established foundations, seem at the 
 same time to be most calculated to arouse and maintain 
 interest. They have exerted a peculiar attraction for 
 the researcher ; they may perhaps serve to transmit 
 some of his enthusiasm to the reader, 
 
 15. This course will be pursued in the successive 
 chapters of the present book. 
 
 From the dim obscurity, which surrounds the long 
 Pioman occupation of Britain, and lingers about Anglo- 
 Saxon institutions, we shall advance into the fuller light 
 following the Norman Conquest. The Manorial System, 
 under which agriculture was then generally pursued, 
 though its origins, and even in some respects its mature 
 formation, date back into Saxon times, may be treated as
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 the conspicuous feature of country life, while the develop- 
 ment of Gilds was a prominent characteristic of economic 
 activity in the growing towns. From the eleventh, 
 twelfth, and thirteenth centuries we shall pass to the 
 three which follow. They may be said to embrace the 
 transition from mediaeval to modern conditions. In 
 commerce and industry the growth of the Woollen Trade, 
 which, more than any other, deserves the name of being 
 historically the staple industry of the country, may form 
 a convenient centre, around which movements and insti- 
 tutions may be grouped. In agriculture the Black Death, 
 the Peasant Eevolt, and the Inclosures overshadow other 
 events. We shall then examine the Mercantile System, 
 founded on the old economics of the sixteenth, seven- 
 teenth, and eighteenth centuries, in contrast with that 
 Industrial Eevolution, which accompanied the growth 
 and propagation of the new ideas of the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries. Of the former period the en- 
 couragement and regulation of Domestic Trade and 
 Industry and Foreign and Colonial Commerce, in accord- 
 ance wdth mercantilist ideas, are outstanding features. 
 But they are not surpassed in importance and promi- 
 nence by the development of Agricultural Science and 
 Practice, by the rise of the Factory System, and the 
 introduction and adoption of Free Trade, as leading 
 incidents of the later period. In conclusion, we shall 
 attempt to review the progress of that Economic Science 
 which was in a sense " born again " at the time of the 
 Industrial Eevolution, and accompanied, and aided, the 
 full recognition of Free Trade.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 The Eomans and the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 I. The economic history of early times is scanty. 
 
 A scarcity of material, and a difficulty in fixing its 
 meaning, compel the economic historian to pass lightly 
 over large portions of our early history. The occupation 
 of Britain by the PkOmans lasted for some three centuries 
 and a half; and it was separated from the Norman Con- 
 quest by more than six hundred years. Yet the economic 
 history of this long period, which exceeds that which has 
 since elapsed, is of necessity compressed within narrow 
 limits. It can only be written by the help of meagre 
 indications, and by the lavish use of inference and 
 surmise. A few facts of some certainty stand out from 
 the dim bacL'ground, but they are not sufficient to 
 furnish the framework of a detailed story. In a number 
 of cases we are forced to argue from the circumstances 
 of later to those of earlier times, and thus to reason 
 from the known to the unknown. Such a method, 
 however necessary it may prove in default of other 
 information, may easily mislead, and is a treacherous 
 path for the unwary to tread. In other cases we 
 interpret the statements of ancient writers on the actual 
 condition of their times by our modern experience, and
 
 THE ROMANS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS 15 
 
 we may read into their words a meaning which is not 
 contained. 
 
 2. Roman civilisation in Britain resembled that 
 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 It is true that in its broad features Eoman civilisation 
 hi Britain seems to have corresponded to that, of which 
 distinct traces survived in abiding influence on the 
 customs and institutions of other nations, and accounts 
 exist, written by competent observers. It is also true 
 that allusions to the economic conditions and material 
 resources of Britain itself, before and during the Pioman 
 occupation, may be found in Latin authors. But they 
 are few and fragmentary ; and it is not doubted that the 
 Pioman civilisation disappeared more completely here 
 than from the Continent of Europe, and that the arrival 
 of the Saxons involved a return to comparative barbarism. 
 
 3. In the Anglo-Saxon period anticipations of later 
 institutions may be found. 
 
 It may be allowed that some of those economic insti- 
 tutions, like the Manorial System, which we find pre- 
 vailing at the Norman Conquest, date back to the Saxon 
 period, and in some places, and in some respects, had 
 already attained a matured character. The invaders 
 from Normandy, dislodging the previous occupants from 
 positions of authority, continued to administer the 
 organisations, over which they presided, pushing to 
 completeness some tendencies already manifest. Simi- 
 larly the Gilds, which became so prominent a feature 
 of economic life in the towns, may less certainly be 
 connected with Saxon anticipations. It is none the less 
 true that the Norman Conquest marks a dividhig line, 
 and that, while, measured by duration in time, the six 
 preceding centuries may seem a long period, they are
 
 16 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 an episode of small importance in the life of the nation, 
 if we judge them by what is known with any certainty 
 of their economic significance. 
 
 4. The period before the Roman occupation is 
 difficult even to imagine. 
 
 If we try to penetrate further, and grope our way by 
 hesitating steps among the mists, which envelop the 
 country before the Koman occupation, we may discover 
 some scanty signs of economic activity. We may un- 
 earth remains of the rude implements of primitive 
 peoples, and distinguish periods of antiquity by the 
 material — the stone, or bronze, or iron — of which they 
 consist. We may discern the dim figure of the short 
 and dark Iberian, followed by the fair and tall Celt. 
 We may imagine the pastoral life of wandering shepherds 
 giving way in some places to agriculture, as different 
 tribes settled to the more abiding occupation of those 
 districts, from which they excluded their enemies. Before 
 the Romans came they seem, in some parts of the 
 country, to have domesticated various animals, and 
 attained some degree of skill in tillage of the ground.* 
 Some foreign commerce, at least in the exportation of 
 the metals, had apparently arisen ; and the Romans 
 may have been tempted to their descent by rumours 
 of the possibilities of mineral and agricultural wealth 
 spread through the channels of trading intercourse. 
 Some exchanges of rude articles, of clothes and of food, 
 may have taken place in some districts between the 
 members of the same, or different, tribes. But to com- 
 pose from these scraps of information, or guesses, any 
 adequate account of the economic condition of the 
 country and the activities of its inhabitants, to show 
 * E.(j., in " marling " the land.
 
 THE ROMANS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS 17 
 
 how in these primitive days men obtained their income 
 and how they expended it, is a task as hard as it is 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 5. The Romans introduced an advanced civilisation. 
 With the triumph of the Eoman arms an advanced 
 
 civiHsation made its entrance, and here, as in other 
 districts of the world, the Eomans left behind indelible 
 traces of their greatness. It is true that their with- 
 drawal some four centuries later was followed by a period 
 of disturbance, which involved in irretrievable ruin many, 
 if not most, of their institutions ; and in this respect 
 our country was unlike parts of the European Continent, 
 such as France, over which Eome exercised her sway. 
 Eecent research has attempted to rescue from the 
 destruction wrought by the Anglo-Saxon invaders relics 
 of Eoman organisation, and to trace back to their antici- 
 pations in Eoman times some of the prominent institu- 
 tions of a later period. It seems possible that in this, as 
 in other departments of historical research, inquiry may 
 revert to the older explanation of the facts ; and, in any 
 event, the opinions we may form must rest largely on 
 conjecture. 
 
 6. They left behind material remains of their 
 greatness. 
 
 The material remains of Eoman greatness were more 
 lasting, and the least observant of men could hardly fail 
 to be impressed by their testimony to the high level of 
 Eoman civilisation. The traveller, who to-day visits 
 Eome itself, finds among the many sights of that 
 amazing city few more impressive than the remains 
 of the aqueducts stretching across the deserted Cam- 
 pagna, and in some cases bringing, as in imperial times, 
 those copious supplies of fresh water in which Eome 
 
 2
 
 18 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 equals or surpasses the most modern of cities. Yet a 
 more impressive sight, recalling more vividly the vast 
 power of the empire, may be discovered in our own land, 
 in the ruins of the wall extending from sea to sea across 
 the North of England. AVhen we contemplate the 
 remains of the bridge which spanned the stream at one 
 place, when we scrutinise the ruts of the chariot-wheels 
 at the gates of the camp at another, or when we trace 
 the line of the wall following the edge of the hills, we note 
 with admiring wonder how the authority of Rome and her 
 genius for grand enduring construction made themselves 
 felt at these extreme boundaries of her vast dominions. 
 We cannot fail to feel the greatness of the people. The 
 long lapse of time has not sufficed to destroy such me- 
 morials of their power. The tessellated pavements and 
 heating apparatus of their villas, the ruins of their castles, 
 the foundations of their military roads, like Watling 
 Street, which sometimes followed, but also confirmed 
 for ever, the line of older causeways, recall the fact that 
 for three centuries and a half they occupied Britain. 
 
 7. Their economic activity was shown in various 
 ways. 
 
 Their rule may have been less firmly established and 
 their civilising influence less dominant in some parts of 
 the country than in others. Their main strength may 
 have lain in the south. In the north the great wall, or 
 series of defences built by successive emperors, was 
 intended to arrest the incursions of the Pict, and in the 
 west the tribal institutions of the Celt offered apparently 
 a stubl)ornness of resistance which insured the survival 
 of some of their features to Saxon and even later times. 
 It is possible that the Eoman civilisation may have 
 affected deeply those sections of the population alone
 
 THE ROMANS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS 19 
 
 with which they came into more immediate contact ; 
 and outside the towns, and among any but the higher 
 classes, their influence may not have been considerable, 
 and therefore may not have proved enduring. But the 
 growth of those towns, among which London and York, 
 Chester and Lincoln, Gloucester and St. Albans, may be 
 named, the export of grain, largely compulsory, which 
 earned for Britain the title of one of the granaries of 
 Eome, the increased production of minerals — of tin in 
 Cornwall, of lead in Derbyshire, of iron in the Forest of 
 Dean, and even of coal in Northumberland— afford proof 
 of the energy and capacity of the Romans in kindling 
 economic activity, and turning to advantageous account 
 the natural resources of the country. That the establish- 
 ment of the " Pioman peace " would permit and encourage 
 economic progress is as certain as the raising of revenue 
 from duties on imports and exports points unmistakably 
 to the existence of foreign trade. The revenue levied from 
 this and from other sources, together with the liability 
 to serve in the armies, was probably the most oppressive 
 incident of Eoman rule. It must receive serious atten- 
 tion in any attempt to weigh the general advantages and 
 drawbacks of the occupation. 
 
 8. The exact effects of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest 
 are doubtful. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifth century the increasing 
 difficulties, which beset the Empire, led to the with- 
 drawal of the Eoman legions, and a period of long 410 
 disturbance followed. For some time even before 
 that withdrawal Saxon pirates on the southern coast and 
 Picts in the north had harassed the country, and to 
 check incursion threatened from the latter quarter the 
 inhabitants, to their own doom, invited foreign help. 
 
 2—2
 
 20 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 For the strangers, who came in response, first vanquished 
 the Picts, and then turned their arms against those who 
 had asked for their aid. Following on their success, fresh 
 hands of invaders crossed the sea. By a series of conquests 
 extending over many years the Anglo-Saxons hecame 
 dominant in Britain. From their original homes, where 
 they had apparently heen little, if at all, affected by Eoman 
 influence, they brought their Teutonic manners and 
 customs. They forced the Britons gradually westward, 
 and, while it is possible that in some cases they may have 
 adopted or merged in their own institutions particulars 
 of Celtic organisation, it is possible also that fighting 
 peoples, such as they were, preferred to harry the original 
 inhabitants from their dwellings, and to drive them to 
 take refuge in remote districts of the land, to retaining 
 them in immediate servitude. It is possible, again, that 
 in some places and in some respects they may have 
 transferred to later times unaltered in their main 
 characteristics Eoman arrangements which they found 
 existing, but it is also possible that throughout the 
 greater portion of the country they erased the Roman 
 civilisation, and substituted their own peculiar customs. 
 From lack of assured knowledge, and the uncertainty of 
 inference drawn from later conditions, our answers to 
 such questions must remain ambiguous, and the authori- 
 ties are not agreed. 
 
 9. But the Saxon period was one of little economic 
 progress. 
 
 But that the period was one of little progress, and 
 much of the Eoman civilisation vanished, cannot be 
 questioned. The towns fell into decay,* and the rude 
 practices of a primitive agriculture supplied the main 
 
 * E.g., Silchester, the site of which has been lately discovered.
 
 THE ROMANS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS 21 
 
 activity of economic life. Some simple, necessary handi- 
 crafts were no doubt pursued within the villages. The 
 carpenter, blacksmith and shoemaker must have been 
 not the least important inhabitants, apart from those 
 fully engaged in the ordinary work of agriculture, as it 
 recurred with the returning seasons. Each separate 
 village was for the most part independent of its neigh- 
 bours, and supplied its own simple wants. A notable 
 exception consisted of salt, needed for preserving meat 
 for winter consumption in an age when the cattle must 
 be killed, or starve, for lack of winter feed. The demand 
 for this commodity might cause intercourse with strangers 
 coming from the outside world, and the beginnings at 
 least of markets seem to have arisen. But the means of 
 communication were difficult, and were not abundant. 
 The times were continually disturbed, and no sooner did 
 a settlement of the country, or of some large portion of 
 it, approach completeness, than a fresh quarrel or new 
 invasion caused a repetition of the old turmoil. The 
 mining, which had flourished under the Koman rule, 
 declined ; the towns were overthrown, and fell into ruin 
 and decay, and the trade which the Ilomans had fostered 
 dwindled to comparative insignificance. Some amount 
 of coined money appears to have existed, at any rate in 
 later times, but it was not adequate for its purpose, and 
 any comprehensive judgment of the Saxon period must 
 pronounce that little economic movement was apparent. 
 10. The incursions of the Danes stimulated fresh 
 activity. 
 
 During the last two or three centuries before the Norman 
 Conquest the invasions of the Danes added a new ry 
 disturbance, but they also stirred the stagnant 
 waters. They were an enterprising people, whose
 
 22 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 voyages took them to great distances from their own 
 homes. They stimulated foreign commerce, for they 
 were engaged in trading relations with the East. English 
 merchants had before found their way to some of the 
 great Continental fairs, hut the arrival of the Danes was 
 followed by the growth of a more adventurous spirit. 
 To resist their incursions Alfred built new ships, 
 897 reviving the affection for the sea, which, powerful 
 among his subjects once, had afterwards declined. 
 His example was followed by his successors. Its natural 
 consequence was a development of foreign trade, and, as 
 in earlier times, the metals were exported. 
 
 II. They led to the growth of towns. 
 
 A further effect of the Danish invasions was the new 
 growth of towns. These originated from various causes, 
 and in some cases centred round the monasteries, which 
 encouraged artistic industry in the shape of metal-work 
 and gold embroidery. Such articles of refinement made 
 their way abroad, and a systematic traffic in slaves also 
 existed. But, in spite of the stimulus applied by the 
 Danes, the general character of the whole period was 
 unprogressive. The economic historian may justly 
 declare that when the lloman occupation ended the 
 hands on the clock of progress were violently thrust 
 backwards, and that during the succeeding six centuries 
 of the Anglo-Saxon dominion they moved but a little 
 forward, without recovering their old position.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER. 
 
 {From William I. to Edward I.) 
 
 Agriculture and the Country. — The Manorial 
 
 System. 
 
 I. At the time of the Norman Conquest agriculture 
 was the most important industry. 
 
 Agriculture has often been described as the oldest and 
 most important English industry. AVhether the latter 
 epithet is or is not now appropriate, of the truth of the 
 former there can be no doubt. " Till nearly the end of 
 the fourteenth century," Professor Ashley remarks, in 
 his "Economic History,"* "England was a purely agri- 
 cultural country. Such manufactures as it possessed 
 were entirely for consumption within the land, and for 
 goods of the finer qualities it was dependent on importa- 
 tion from abroad. The only articles of export were the 
 raw products of the country, and of these by far the 
 most important was the agricultural product, wool. To 
 understand, therefore, the life of rural England during 
 this period is," he continues, " to understand nine-tenths 
 of its economic activity." In the present chapter we 
 shall attempt to gain some acquaintance with the main 
 features of English rural life at the Norman Conquest. 
 
 * Book i., chap, i., ^^ 1.
 
 24 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 We may find much that is still uncertain, and it is not 
 easy or possible to escape a conflict of opinion. But 
 here, as elsewhere, controversy has at least prompted a 
 search for new material and enforced a scrutiny of the 
 old ; and if sometimes this process may have seemed to 
 deepen obscurity, at others it has shed fresh light. 
 
 2. An inquiry into its conditions is not free from 
 difficulty. 
 
 In the Saxon age, we have noted, the great bulk of the 
 population lived in villages, and was occupied in agri- 
 culture. During a portion, at any rate, of that long 
 period influences were at work tending to produce a 
 certain type of rural society. Its particular character- 
 istics might vary at different times and in different 
 places. Here one special feature might appear peculiarly 
 prominent, and there another, while in a third district a 
 distinct type might seem to prevail. At one time and 
 place we may, as we think, actually discern unmis- 
 takable signs of the influences at work ; at another we 
 may be driven to infer their existence from more or less 
 trustworthy indications. In this, as in some similar 
 cases, later research points to the conclusion that we 
 must not suppose that one uniform type, starting from 
 a single origin, developed on identical lines in one direc- 
 tion until a single final form was simultaneously reached. 
 We must rather admit the likelihood of differences of 
 origin and of varieties of development. The forces 
 brought into play by the Norman Conquest may have 
 been so powerful as to hasten tendencies in a particular 
 direction, and to compress material, willing or unwilling, 
 into a special mould. Of this we may feel tolerably 
 certain, but it is tempting to penetrate to an earlier 
 period, and to infer the existence and operation of
 
 THE MANOKIAL SYSTEM 25 
 
 causes which must of necessity be unknown. Here our 
 position grows less secure, as Professor Maitland has 
 shown in his "Domesday Book and Beyond."* "A 
 result," he remarks, " is given to us ; the problem is to 
 find cause and process." The manorial system, in fact, 
 as it existed in later times, must supply the chief 
 material for any conception we may frame of its earlier 
 forms, and the dangers of this method are neither small 
 nor few ; for we are liable to read into the past what 
 may have been true only of the present. 
 
 3, It was pursued under the manorial system. 
 The plough-land was worked on the "three-field 
 system." 
 
 With this caution, then, let us study the manorial 
 system in its developed form. The land around each 
 village was composed of three main varieties — of arable 
 or plough land, of meadow or pasture, and of waste and 
 woodland. The arable was generally worked on the 
 " three-field" system. It was divided into three fields, 
 one of which was sown for wheat, a second was appro- 
 priated to barley or oats or beans, and the third lay 
 fallow. The field, which had one year yielded its crop 
 of wheat, sown in the previous autumn, would be planted 
 in the following spring for barley or oats or beans, and 
 after the harvest would lie fallow until, in the autumn 
 of the next year, the round would begin again. Centuries 
 later roots for winter feed took their place in a four- 
 course rotation ; but the three-field system itself was an 
 improvement on the more primitive and earlier methods 
 of a two-field t or a one-field course. "Writers who have 
 sought a Koman origin for the manorial system point to 
 
 * Preface, p. v. 
 
 f This was also common in mediaeval England ; one field lay 
 fallow every year.
 
 26 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the circumstance that in their former homes the Anglo- 
 Saxons followed a one-field course, sometimes called 
 " wild-field-grass husbandry." Under this fresh tracts of 
 land were continually taken and ploughed and cropped 
 year after year, and, when exhausted, allowed to fall back 
 into pasture. No acquaintance, it seems, was shown with 
 the mode of resting and refreshing the soil by giving it 
 a change of crops ; and on their arrival in their new 
 country the Saxons may have found in existence, as 
 a relic of the Eoman period, the more advanced system 
 of "intensive" agriculture which they adopted with 
 other parts of the Koman organisation. 
 
 4. These fields were subdivided into small strips, 
 securing substantial equality between the different 
 individual holders. 
 
 The large arable fields, however, were subdivided into 
 separate strips, parted from one another by turf -mounds 
 or "balks," and an individual holding was made up of 
 several scattered strips. This arrangement, cumbrous 
 as it might seem, continued to be a feature of rural 
 economy for many centuries, and signs of it may still 
 be detected in parts of the country where the separating 
 mounds or balks remain. It is reasonable to suppose 
 that it was intended to secure that equality of advantage 
 between different holders which would be the cherished 
 aim of a society of free men. It may be added that it 
 harmonises with the conception of an earlier period, 
 whether real or imagined, when a fresh allotment of the 
 holdings may have taken place at stated intervals, and 
 the occupation of each successive holder was not yet 
 permanent. Such a system itself might be regarded 
 as an advance on that of a period, even more remote 
 and misty, when individual occupation may have been
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 27 
 
 unknown. At any rate, with separate tenure frequent 
 re-allotment would afford a chance for all, and with 
 permanent occupation a similar aim might be secured 
 by giving to each individual several scattered strips 
 in different portions of the three fields. Each man 
 would thus obtain a rough equality of the advantage 
 or disadvantage arising from the varying nature of the 
 soil and the different shape and position of the plot.* 
 The possession by every villager of such a strip in each 
 of the three fields made it possible to combine individual 
 tenure with that co-operation in actual tillage which the 
 conditions of the times required. It was possible that 
 each of the fields throughout its area should take its 
 place in the recognised rotation of crops without injuring 
 the interests of the separate occupants, for they possessed 
 some land in each division. In an age, when the oxen 
 of a single villager were few in number or were borrowed 
 for the time from a more w^ealthy neighbour, it was onl}^ 
 by combining resources that the difficulties of cultivation 
 were overcome. The system of scattered strips recon- 
 ciled common tillage with individual tenure. It produced 
 a rough equality of advantage. It satisfied the natural 
 desires and inherited traditions of a society of free men. 
 
 5. This arrangement points to a free rather than 
 servile origin. 
 
 But it would hardly commend itself to the master of 
 dependent serfs, who, by the exorcise of despotic control, 
 could fashion society on a model of which he approved. 
 Such was the Iloman, with his dependants and slaves, 
 and such the Anglo-Saxon would have been had he, suc- 
 ceeding the Eoman, retained the essential details of the 
 
 * An equivalence in quality, rather than in precise quantity, 
 seems to have been specially sought.
 
 28 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 organisation ruled by his predecessor. In that case he 
 might have kept in immediate servitude a mass, either 
 of Celts, or of other dependants, possibly brought by the 
 Eomans to Britain from dijfierent parts of their vast 
 empire, possibly belonging to races surviving in the 
 country itself from times before the Celts. He might 
 have found them in this servile condition on his arrival, 
 and he might have swelled their number by serfs brought 
 with him from his own country. It is certainly true that 
 the disappearance of Roman civilisation from Britain did 
 not imply the departure or extermination of the humbler 
 hihabitants of the country. It is possible that survivals 
 of the lioman system, with its villa, its ruling noble or 
 oliicial, its dependent coloni and slaves, escaped the 
 overthrow and lingered on. It may also be argued 
 that the system impressed itself so deeply on the minds 
 and manners of the mass of the humbler inhabitants, 
 whom the Eomans kept in servitude, that their fresh 
 Anglo-Saxon conquerors were compelled, even if they 
 were unwilling, to preserve and adopt the old rather 
 than introduce the new. Some inquirers have even 
 hinted that the Piomans themselves may have accepted 
 a model which they found existing among the original 
 Celts, and transferred it as confirmed tradition to their 
 Anglo-Saxon successors. 
 
 6. The other view is open to objections. 
 
 Against such theories opposing arguments have been 
 advanced. The overthrow of the Boman civilisation, if 
 it was not complete, was certainly more universal in 
 Britain than it was on the Continent of Europe. The 
 disappearance of the Latin language is significant. No 
 less important is the fact that Christianity seems also to 
 have vanished, and some centuries later to be introduced
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 29 
 
 afresh. A similar absence of Celtic words is more in 
 accordance with the view that, driven from their homes, 
 the Celts took refuge in the remoter districts of the 
 country, than with that which represents them living in 
 subjection to the Anglo-Saxons, under new masters and 
 an old system. It is supported by the fact that in those 
 western parts of England, where the most distinct and 
 abundant traces of Celtic influence are found later, rural 
 society was composed apparently of small scattered 
 hamlets, and not of those larger consolidated village 
 groups which formed the units of the manorial arrange- 
 ment, and seem to be an essential Saxon institu- 
 tion. 
 
 7. But at the Norman Conquest the villagers were 
 dependent on a lord. 
 
 Yet it is not questioned that at the Norman Conquest 
 the majority of villagers were in subjection to a superior, 
 to whom they were bound to render services of a more 
 or less burdensome character. This is the manorial 
 system as it is usually defined. It has been traced 
 some distance into the Saxon period, and investigators 
 have even found its characteristics, as they maintain, at 
 no long interval after the Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 
 
 8. The village land consisted of his " demesne," 
 and their subordinate holdings. 
 
 Under such a system tho land was divided between 
 the demesne of the lord and the various holdings of his 
 subordinates. The demesne might form a separate 
 whole, or it might more probably be composed of a 
 number of strips scattered, like those of the villagers 
 generally, in dili'erent parts of the three arable fields. It 
 might consist at the same moment of both varieties, or 
 in course of time one might take the place of the other,
 
 30 ENGLISH COM^IERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and the demesne become consolidated. With the meadow 
 land it was apparently the case that rich meadows by 
 the river-side often belonged to the lord's demesne, and 
 the other meadows would be held in different portions, 
 settled by lot, or custom, or rotation, by different holders 
 (including, it might be, the lord among the number). 
 Beyond the meadows would be the waste and woodland. 
 On the former the villagers would have privileges of 
 pasture and of cutting turf, and on the latter rights 
 of gathering wood. On the permanent pasture of the 
 waste the number of cattle belonging to each villager, 
 which were allowed to graze, was sometimes limited, 
 
 and sometimes no such restriction or " stint " was 
 1236 made. At a later period* the encroachments of 
 
 the lord were expressly permitted, with the con- 
 dition that he should leave enough to satisfy these rights 
 of pasture. On the arable fields, when the corn had 
 l)een cut, and on the village meadows when the hay had 
 been harvested, common rights of pasture were also 
 exercised; and the term "Lammas Fields" survives to 
 show how Lammas Day marked the time when the 
 harvests had been gathered and the ground was opened 
 for this purpose. In the village the lord's mansion 
 would be surrounded by a close or closes belonging to 
 the demesne, and some of the more important villagers 
 would possess round their dwellings, or even away from 
 them, closes of humbler size. The dimensions would 
 diminish as the rank of the villager descended in the 
 social scale. 
 9. They belonged to different classes. 
 The greater number of the dependent villagers con- 
 sisted of the rillani, each of whom occupied what was 
 * By the Statute of Merton.
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 31 
 
 known as a rin/ate''' of land, or about that quantity. In 
 modern language this might correspond to some thirty 
 acres; and beneath the villa iii were the J>ordarii,\ or 
 cotarii, with their small holdings of five acres,:!; or less, 
 dwelling in cottages, while the viUani could boast of the 
 possession of houses, and sometimes owning not so 
 much as the whole of a single plough to set against the 
 ox or team of oxen which the viHani might command. 
 Beneath the hordar'd and cotarii, again, there were, at 
 the time of the Norman Conquest, actual seni, or slaves, 
 but they lasted as a separate class for not more than a 
 century, and were merged in the section above them. 
 They were found in larger numbers towards those 
 western districts where the Celts survived, and probably 
 they represented the original inhabitants whom the 
 Anglo-Saxons kept in immediate personal subjection. In 
 the eastern districts we find another class predominant. 
 These were above the villani in station, as the slaves 
 were below the cotarii. They were the socmanni, the 
 liheri homines, or lihcre tenentes. They were the free 
 men. They were bound, like the villani, to render 
 certain services to their lord, but the services were less 
 burdensome, and their position was one of greater 
 dignity and independence. The sociiiaiuii afterwards 
 gave the technical legal title to freehold tenure of land 
 without obligation of military service — to " free and 
 common socage," as it was called. But there are 
 reasons for thinking that a liability to such service, 
 
 * A virgate was the fourth part of a hide. This was a unit for 
 purposes of assessment. It might vai'y in quantity, but it corre- 
 sponded, apparently, to the amount of land which might be worked 
 by a plough with a team of eiglit oxen. 
 
 t The bordarii, as a separate name, disappeared from England. 
 
 X These, perhaps, generally surrounded their cottages, and were 
 not in the open fields.
 
 32 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 resting on them personally, may at one time have been 
 the mark of their enjoyment of a standing higher than 
 that of the riUaiii. Their greater number in the 
 eastern counties points to the likelihood that they con- 
 sisted, to a large extent, of Danes ; for members of that 
 warlike race, ^Yhile ready to own some dependence to a 
 chief, might not be willing to place themselves in such 
 subjection as that in which the villain stood to an Anglo- 
 Saxon superior. 
 
 10. The majority, consisting- of " villeins," were 
 partly free and partly not free. 
 
 The villeins then (including in the more general term 
 the eotarii as well as the villani proper) occupied a 
 position between the slaves and the free men. To some 
 extent they were free, and to some extent they were not. 
 They might in some cases be even personally unfree, in 
 others they might be free persons, holding land by a base 
 or servile tenure, to which disabling liabilities attached. 
 Like the socmen, they were bound to render services to 
 their lord, and their obligations were generally more 
 burdensome. Like the socmen also, when these duties 
 were discharged, they were secured, by custom at least, 
 though their tenure might technically be "precarious " 
 in the continued occupation of their holdings and the 
 enjoyment of the produce. That both classes were 
 subjected, or liable, to more or less restriction in quitting 
 their position did not necessarily imply a loss of freedom 
 felt seriously at all times by men who, as a rule, 
 perhaps, did not desire to remove. That dependence, 
 and even subjection, in the eyes of the law might prove 
 compatible with an amount of economic lil:)erty is a 
 consideration in ,'iny judgment we may form of their 
 position. The different classes of the subordinate
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 88 
 
 tenants were shaded, in fact, into one another l)y fine 
 divisions ; and even villeins seem, at any rate at one 
 time, to have possessed some customary rights against 
 their lords which were an obligation, and might prove a 
 burden,* 
 
 II. Their original state is doubtful. 
 
 Whether they were originally serfs, and had ])y 
 degrees obtained a measure of freedom, or whether, 
 originally free, they had in various ways and for 
 different reasons agreed or been compelled to surrender 
 a small or great part of their freedom, is a disputed 
 question. If with those who, like Mr. Seebohm in his 
 "English Village Community," seek a Roman origin for 
 the manor, we adopt the former view, we have to explain 
 the existence of free tenants, especially in the villages of 
 those eastern counties which comprised an important 
 quarter of the country, whether measured by area or 
 estimated by population or by wealth. In those villages 
 a large number of free holders have been discovered, 
 and it is reasonable to suppose that here the Danes 
 may have checked a process operating more decisively 
 elsewhere. In these villages, in fact, we may find traces 
 of earlier stages of development. The constitution and 
 proceedings of the manorial courts, especially those 
 accompanying the siirrciuler and admittance of tenants, 
 point, it has been urged, f in the same direction of 
 original freedom. If we accept the other view, we have 
 to illustrate the manner in which men originally free 
 might become dependent on a lord. It might be that 
 
 * E. g., prescribing " when and how he is to feed thcni "; as, for 
 example, on " boon -days " (see below). Cf. Vinogi-adoff, " Villainage 
 in England," p. 174. 
 
 t Cf. Vinogradoff, " Villainage in England," Part II., chap. v. 
 
 3
 
 34 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 grants of land by the king, first to religious houses and 
 then to favoured nobles, might carry with them as 
 bestowed or as possible of exercise an authority of 
 administering and controlling justice, of enforcing or 
 regulating military or other service, or of levying 
 revenue, which tended to depress the villagers. Such 
 influences seem to have been at work in Saxon times, 
 and similar forces acting from below may have 
 contributed. From a variety of circumstances one 
 villager may have become more powerful and more 
 conspicuous, and his humbler, weaker neighbours, 
 "commending" themselves to his protection, and 
 agreeing to render him certain "customary" services, 
 may have taken a position of dependence more or less 
 acknowledged. The further back the evidence is pushed 
 for the existence of the manorial system, with its 
 essential characteristics, the less time is allowed for 
 causes such as these to have accomplished their appro- 
 priate effects. The more likely it becomes that a servile 
 origin of the villeins must be sought in the conditions 
 of Eoman, or even of earlier, society. Neither view is 
 freed from difficulty ; both rest largely on conjecture. 
 
 12. Their services were divided into "week-work" 
 and " boon-work." 
 
 But, whatever was their original condition, villeins 
 and socmen were subject to certain disabilities, and 
 bound to render certain services. The disabilities might 
 take the form of the "merchet," or fine, paid on the 
 marriage of a daughter by some villeins and socmen, or 
 the " heriot," consisting generally of the best beast, 
 given by the heir to property held by base or military 
 tenure. The services were for the most part discharged 
 by labour on the lord's demesne. This labour might be
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 35 
 
 " week-work," or it might be " boon-work," and the 
 superiority of the socmen was partly shown by their 
 avoidance of the first of these varieties. The " week- 
 work," as the name impHes, was rendered for certain 
 days in every week throughout the year. The " boon- 
 work " was performed at special times of peculiar need, 
 which might arise when the land was being ploughed, 
 when the hay was being cut, or the corn was being 
 harvested. 
 
 13. Officials were needed to supervise. 
 
 The discharge of these services would prove most 
 bm'densome to the villagers at the time when they 
 were most useful, or necessary, to the lord. They might 
 wish to be working on their individual holdings when he 
 demanded their labour on his demesne ; and, if the 
 demesne were mingled with their strips and therefore 
 near at hand, the temptation to follow their own 
 interests and neglect those of their lord w^ould not be 
 less attractive. The superintendence, then, of certain 
 officials was required to satisfy the condition that the 
 villagers should render the lord his rightful due. They 
 themselves generally elected from their number a i)vovoHt, 
 or reeve, w'ho was bound to serve, if chosen. He was 
 responsible for the performance of their stipulated labour, 
 and in primitive fashion kept a record. The lord, on 
 his side, was represented by a hailijf, who attended to 
 the demesne, and saw that the work done corresponded 
 in amount and quality to that which ought to have been 
 rendered. A further official superior to him was the 
 senesclial, or steward, to whom was given the supervision 
 of several manors where the lord owned more than one. 
 He paid his visits of inspection at intervals, and the 
 bailiff resided on the spot. 
 
 3—2
 
 36 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 14. Some manors belonged to the King, who was 
 at the head of the feudal system. 
 
 A smgle lord might possess more than one manor. 
 He might live elsewhere, and make a progress from time 
 to time, visiting in succession his different manors. 
 Among the owners of manors the King himself was 
 numbered, and the royal progresses on which he went 
 throughout the country enabled him to inspect his 
 property, and thus review the source of no small portion 
 of his revenue. Under the Normans society was organised 
 on the feudal system, and for some time previously 
 under the Anglo-Saxons such a system was apparently 
 developing. From the King at the apex to the villeins 
 at the base of the social pyramid a relation was finally 
 established of dependence on a superior, to whom his 
 immediate inferior was bound to render certain services 
 as the condition of tenure of land. The possession of 
 the land and the exercise of the rights of that superior 
 were, in their turn, subject to the performance of 
 services to a further superior. The Anglo-Saxon Kings 
 had their thegns, and the tliegns had their dependants, 
 apparently both free and not free. A still earlier division 
 of society was that between the euiis and the cheorls. 
 The Norman Conquest might seem to confirm a type 
 which it found developing, rather than create a new social 
 organism. It might hasten the action of tendencies 
 already working. It might compel them to follow a 
 particular direction with more rapidity. The slaves dis- 
 appeared in the space of a century. The legal authority 
 of lords over villeins was given sterner and more emphatic 
 significance. The military character of the feudal tie 
 between the lords, with their dependants, and the King 
 was brought into greater prominence. The centralising
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 37 
 
 power of the monarchy increased with its more active 
 exercise. But, while such changes are tolerably certain, 
 it is not easy to fix exactly the resemblance borne by 
 the Norman manor to its counterpart in earlier times. 
 
 15. Our information is obtained for the most part 
 from the Domesday Survey. 
 
 Nor is the difdculty lessened by the nature of the 
 document which furnishes the greater portion of 
 the evidence on the manor as then established. 1086 
 The Domesday Survct/, ordered by the Conqueror, 
 contains information of high interest. But it was 
 made for a definite object. An historian has remarked* 
 that " of the three sons " of William I. " each inherited 
 some one of his special gifts." "Robert had his spirit 
 of adventure, William his prowess as a soldier, and 
 Henry his statesmanship," The last quality was that 
 which prompted the preparation of the Survey. The 
 King was anxious to know the capacities of the country 
 for the payment of that Danegeld which formed the 
 chief source of extraordinary revenue. Originally, as its 
 name implies, it had been the tribute tendered to Danish 
 invaders, and had then become a war-tax occasionally 
 levied. A survey was now to be made of the difierent 
 manors of the country. The size of each manor, the name 
 of its lord in the time of Edward the Confessor and that 
 of William himself, the numbers of the various classes 
 of tenants and dependants, the amount of meadow and 
 of woodland, and the stock of animals were to be duly 
 ascertained. The account was also to contain a 
 statement of the geld actually then paid, and an esti- 
 mate of the value of the manor. This was evidently 
 
 * Mr. Goldwin Smith in "The United Kingdom: a Pohtical 
 History," p. 58.
 
 38 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 ordered with some reference to the possibihties of an 
 mcrease in the payment by developing the resources of 
 the manor. The survey does not inckide some six 
 counties, mostly situated in the north, which were then 
 of no great importance, and it furnishes fuller in- 
 formation for some districts than it does for others. 
 Some of the returns, as Mr. Eound has suggested in his 
 "Feudal England," may be preserved in a final, approved 
 shape, while others may represent an earlier, imperfect 
 stage. 
 
 i6. It was prepared for a particular object. 
 
 It is probable that one chief object, which the King* 
 intended to secure by means of the information thus 
 obtained, was a reassessment of the different manors. 
 It was here that his instinct for just and prudent 
 statesmanship was shown. The assessment in some 
 cases no doubt was to be increased, and in others 
 to be diminished. By such a process the burden of a 
 geld greater in total amount might be borne more easily, 
 for it would be distributed with greater equity. At 
 any rate, it is in the light of immediate reference to the 
 payment of the geld that we must read and interpret the 
 Domesday Survey. It may take account only of dis- 
 tinctions necessary or important for its purpose, and 
 neglect others of no less interest or significance for the 
 historian. It may appear to employ particular terms in 
 a rigid special sense, and yet they may be loosely used, 
 and conceal important differences beneath apparent 
 similarity. The Survey, in fine, was prepared for an 
 immediate practical object ; it was not designed to give 
 a full account of the economic condition of the country, 
 or the minute details of the organisation of society. 
 
 * William himself died in the year following the Survey.
 
 THE Mi^NORJAL SYSTEM 39 
 
 17. This must be borne in view in interpreting the 
 terms employed. 
 
 It is, for example, possible that the term " villein " 
 employed in the Survey refers to a large class com- 
 posed of various individuals enjoying different amounts 
 of freedom, and subject to the discharge of services 
 of diverse character and burden. Professor Maitland* 
 is inclined to hold that it may be interpreted most 
 safely as meaning any individual for the payment of 
 whose geld the lord himself was directly responsible. 
 Similarly the term manor applied in Domesday to 
 organisations which do not correspond exactly with the 
 general notion now' entertained of the manorial system, 
 and covering cases where there was no demesne, or 
 where free men were the only tenants, might imply 
 strictly that from which geld was levied. The socnioi, 
 again, might be those persons whose geld was mcluded 
 with that of the lord, though he was not directly 
 responsible for its payment. It is especially hard to fix 
 their status with precision. That some differences pre- 
 vailed between them and the lihcre tenentes is probable, 
 if it is not certain ; but the distinction is obscure, and 
 the precise degree of their dependence on the lord is, 
 like its origin, not easy to establish. They seem some- 
 times to have had subordinates dependent on themselves, 
 and their own dependence, such as it was, appears to 
 have arisen in various ways and taken different forms. 
 
 18. The manorial system was liable to changes. 
 From the history of the manorial system after the 
 
 Norman Conquest two signilicant facts stand out. One 
 is that in spite of a decline in the legal standing of the 
 
 * u 
 
 Domesday and Beyond," Essay I.
 
 40 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 villein,* which the training and traditions of the Norman 
 lawyers would combine with the natural disposition of 
 the Norman nobles to produce, his economic status 
 steadily advanced, and the number of free tenants grew. 
 Even the legal theory regarding the villein as dependent 
 on the arbitrary will of the lord admitted exceptions, 
 which qualified the general doctrine, and point in the 
 direction of previous freedom and of the possession of 
 customary rights. The other significant fact connected 
 with the first was the growing tendency to substitute 
 money payments for services in actual labour. Free 
 tenants might, for example, cultivate land taken from 
 the waste, or parts of the lord's demesne, which he could 
 not with convenience till, or perhaps odd portions of 
 the open fields which did not fit into the ordinary hold- 
 ings. In such cases they seem to have made a money 
 payment in lieu of some service more or less burdensome 
 in character. Some free tenants, again, subject origin- 
 ally to " boon-work," appear to have commuted it for 
 money. Others, without gaining this amount of freedom, 
 might still be liable to boon-work, but in the main 
 might pay sums of money for the land they held. They 
 might possibly be descendants of villeins who had risen 
 a degree in the social scale. Various groups arose between 
 the free and the servile tenants. Such were " molmen," 
 " censuarii," or " gavelmanni." They, or at least some 
 of their number, may always have paid a rent in money 
 or in kind. ' Even the villein, who remained in a servile 
 condition, might commute part of his services. Some 
 money payments can be traced to a period before the 
 Norman Conquest, and from that time they steadily 
 
 * Cf. " Villainage in England," Part I., chap. iv. 
 t Ibid,, p. IH'6, etc.
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 41 
 
 encroached on the practice of forced labour. The villein, 
 continuing to be liable to " boon-work," might yet make 
 a money-payment in place of " week-work." The former 
 was given at seasons when the need for additional hands 
 was specially urgent. The lord might, therefore, accept 
 commutation for " week- work," if he could fill the place 
 of the villeins by hired labourers, recruited, as time 
 advanced, from men possessing little or no land. J3ut, 
 although his demands for the services of the villeins 
 would grow less as he let to freemen parts of his demesne, 
 or hired labourers to help him, he would probably be 
 less ready to dispense with "boon-work" than with 
 " week- work." 
 
 19. These were accomplished gradually. 
 
 Such changes were gradual, and became conspicuous 
 in the course of two or three centuries. In some 
 instances and places they were more marked and rapid 
 than in others, and on the royal demesne they seem to 
 have been accomplished at an earlier period. In this, as 
 in other ways, it was better to hold under the King than 
 under his nobles. But, although even on the royal 
 manors tiie movement was steady rather than quick, its 
 drift could hardly be mistaken. The self-sufficing village, 
 with the lord as superior, occupying his demesne, or 
 visiting it at more or less lengthy intervals ; with the 
 parson cultivating his glebe and receiving his tithe, and 
 conducting services in that village church which was 
 the common place of meeting, and might on occasion be 
 used for purposes of a very secular nature ; with the 
 necessary simple craftsmen, the village carpenter and 
 the blacksmith, sometimes doing their work in return 
 for the holding of land, and sometimes supplying the 
 needs of more than a single village ; with the officials of
 
 42 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the lord — the reeve, the baihff and the steward — siiper- 
 intendmg the management of the estate ; with the 
 various classes of dependants, the socmen and the 
 villeins, rendering their services, weekly or at recurring 
 seasons, in ploughing or sowing or reaping or carting, 
 and making their other payments in kind, such as honey 
 or malt, or in cash, and grinding their corn perforce at 
 the village mill — this rural society, permanent as it 
 might seem, and free from disturbance from without or 
 commotion from within, was not exempt from the slow, 
 inevitable influence of forces working steadily for change. 
 In a later chapter we shall note some of their effects. 
 
 Note. — The Domesday Survey. 
 
 Mr. Townsend Warner, in his " Landmarks in English 
 Industrial History," chap, ii., gives the following transla- 
 tion of two typical extracts from the Domesday Survey : 
 
 1. " The land of the Canons of St. Paul in Essex, and 
 the Hundred of Hinckford. St. Paul held Belchamp in 
 the time of King Edward for a Manor and five hides. 
 There were always two plough-teams in the demesne, 
 and twelve plough-teams of the tenants, 24 villeins, 
 10 bordars, 5 serfs. There is a wood there for 60 hogs, 
 30 acres of meadow, 9 animals, 2 load-horses, 40 hogs, 
 100 sheep, 5 goats. It was always worth €16." 
 
 2. " King William holds in his demesne Chideminstre. 
 . . . This Manor was all waste. In the demesne there 
 is one plough-team and twenty villeins and thirty bordars 
 with eighteen plough-teams, and twenty plough-teams 
 more could be there. There are two serfs and four bond- 
 women, and two mills of the value of sixteen shillings,
 
 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 43 
 
 and two salt-pans of the value of thirt}^ shillings, and a 
 fislipund of the value of one hundred pence. There is a 
 wood of four miles. The whole Manor in the time of 
 King Edward paid fourteen pounds for ferm, now it pays 
 ten pounds four shillings by weight."
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER. 
 
 (From William I. to Edward I.) 
 
 Commerce and Industry, and the Towns. — The In- 
 fluence OF THE Kings. — The Eise of the Gilds. 
 
 I. The reign of Edward I. marks the close of a 
 period of national formation. 
 
 " With the reign of Edward," remarks Green in his 
 " Short History of the EngHsh People,"* " begins ' the 
 England in which we live.' " " From the earliest moment 
 of his reign Edward the First definitely abandoned all 
 dreams of recovering the foreign dominions of his race, 
 to concentrate himself on the administration and good 
 government of Britain itself. We can only fairly judge 
 his annexation of Wales, or his attempt to annex 
 Scotland, if we regard them as parts of the same scheme 
 of national administration to which we owe his final 
 establishment of our judicature, our legislation, our 
 Parliament. The King's English policy, like his 
 English name, are the signs of a new epoch. The long 
 period of national formation has come practically to an 
 end." What is stated in these words of the political 
 importance of the reign of Edward is also true of its 
 
 * Chapter IV., sec. II.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 45 
 
 economic interest. That reign, as we shall see in the 
 following chapter, marks an epoch when in tlie 
 " ordinary business of life," as influenced by the action 
 of the Government, broader views supplanted narrower 
 interests. In the present chapter we shall study the 
 economic institutions and the movements of the previous 
 period of "national formation" which led to these 
 important changes. 
 
 2. Villages and towns were mostly isolated, in- 
 dependent units. 
 
 We have examined, with such evidence as might be 
 forthcoming, that manorial system which governed the 
 affairs of rural society, guiding such activity as pre- 
 vailed in agricultural industry. We may now turn our 
 attention to the towns, and form some idea of the origin, 
 character, and action of institutions which became 
 important as the towns rose in prominence. As in the 
 recurring work of agriculture, so in the exchange of 
 those agricultural products which for long furnished 
 the chief material for business in such trading centres 
 as gained a recognised position, the prevailing note was 
 that of confirmed routine. A permanence begotten of 
 unaltering custom and traditional established privilege 
 was attached to the conditions of life within the towns, 
 where it seemed no less natural or necessary than it did 
 in the villages among which they emerged. The lapse 
 of three centuries did not fail to bring changes of 
 importance to the classes of M'hich rural society con- 
 sisted, but the separate villages were for a long time 
 self-sufficing. To a great extent they were independent 
 of any need for more than occasional communication 
 with the world outside ; for in each case the villagers 
 themselves supplied most of their simple wants. In the
 
 46 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 same way we shall notice that the inhabitant of one 
 town seems to have been regarded and treated by that 
 of another as being no less a foreigner than if he had 
 come across the seas. In economic life the unit of 
 importance to the mass of the people did not cease to be 
 their village or their town ; and the views and interests 
 of most inhabitants rarely passed beyond these narrow 
 boundaries. But with the reign of Edward I. a national 
 organisation of economic affairs was contemplated by the 
 sovereign. An economic policy was consciously and 
 vigorously directed to securing national aims. 
 3. The influence of the King was powerful. 
 From the Norman Conquest onwards the monarchy 
 was an influential factor in economic matters. The 
 
 Conqueror had indeed to earn his title ; 
 1 066- 1 087 and the reign of Stephen was a period of 
 I135-1154 long disturbance, due to the weakness of 
 
 the Crown. But William himself was 
 remembered for the peace he made, "so that a man 
 might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold " ; 
 and the reigns of the first two Henries were epochs of 
 vigorous administration, which at once strengthened the 
 Monarchy, and tended to unite into one nation the 
 Norman and the English race. It needs no profound 
 acquaintance with economic principles to see that the 
 maintenance of order by a firm hand was a condition of 
 
 progress, and neither to the " Lion of 
 1100-1135 Justice," as the first Henry was sometimes 
 1 1 54- 1 1 89 called, nor to his grandson, the founder of 
 
 the Plantagenets, Henry II., would the 
 candid critic deny the possession of a resolute will or the 
 exercise of administrative capacity. Both were states- 
 men of aljility gifted with an instinct of orderly govern-
 
 THE INFLUEXCK OF THE KINGS 47 
 
 ment. The continuous absence of Richard Cour de Lion 
 from his English dominions did not prove 
 unfavourable to the economic activity of 1189-1199 
 the towns, for the same motive, which took 
 him on Crusades, begat a readiness to grant charters in 
 return for the funds for his expeditions. His example 
 was copied by his followers, who, to satisfy their urgent 
 wants, were willing to surrender the manorial rights, 
 which they possessed over the liberties of the townsmen. 
 To some extent the Crusades seem to have stimulated 
 foreign trade, though they may also have checked it by 
 the warfare which they caused, and l)y a refusal to 
 have dealings with the infidel. Yet they may have 
 contributed to open traffic to the East. At any rate, the 
 connection of the Norman Kings generally with their 
 Continental dominions, if it distracted their attention 
 from the affairs of their new kingdom, paved the 
 way for intercourse between their English subjects 121 5 
 and foreign traders. In the clauses of Magna 
 Carta, the most enduring memorial of the reign of 
 John, some indications may be found, not 
 only of the growing independence of the 1199-1216 
 towns, but also of the increasing influence 
 of merchants and of traders. The thirteenth century 
 saw, in addition, the rise of craftsmen into distinctive 
 prominence. Economic progress thus reached a new and 
 important stage. A development, which started from 
 conditions where those engaged in agriculture supplied in 
 the moments given to a second occupation such simple 
 wants as they then felt, and advanced with the lapse of 
 time until the growth of fresh desires and provision for 
 meeting them created a demand for the services of 
 merchant traders, entered now on a fresh phase. Crafts
 
 48 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and industries arose, distinct alike from agriculture and 
 
 from the business of dealing in its products. With this 
 
 new development the thirteenth century, 
 
 1 21 6-1 272 over a great part of which the long reign of 
 
 Henry III. stretched, largely coincided. 
 
 4. The Norman Conquest brought important 
 changes. 
 
 The close connection of the King with the economic 
 life of the nation may be seen in more than one depart- 
 ment of affairs. In his essay on the " Coal Question "* 
 Jevons observed that " almost all the arts we practised 
 in England until within the last century were of Conti- 
 nental origin," and we shall have occasion in later 
 chapters to notice the influence thus exerted at different 
 times on different industries by foreign immigrants. In 
 the period with which we are now dealing a connection 
 has been sought between the rise of the early craftsmen 
 and the protection often given to them by the Crown in 
 a theory that they were largely of foreign origin. In 
 any event, the Norman Conquest itself may be regarded 
 from one standpoint as a conspicuous example of foreign 
 immigration.! For some time before the actual Con- 
 quest, apparently, Normans found their way into the 
 country, and Freeman | has written of the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor, in the middle of the eleventh 
 century, as a "period of struggle between 
 1 042- 1 065 natives and foreigners for dominion in 
 England." At the Conquest they came 
 in greater numbers. It is true that in some respects, 
 as we have seen, they assumed the control of an 
 
 * Page 69. 
 
 ■|- Cf. Dr. Cunningham, " Alien Immigrants in England," chap. i. 
 + " Norman Conquest," vol. ii., p. 30, quoted by Dr. Cunningham, 
 An English reaction followed.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KING.S 49 
 
 organisation already established, and merely hastened 
 certain tendencies in a particular direction. It is also 
 true that the efforts of far-sighted kings, such as the 
 two first Henries, were continually directed, with success, 
 to the union of the English and Norman races in one 
 nation. The Conquest was none the less a great 
 reality. If feudalism, or some of its characteristics, 
 were already in existence, the policy of the Conqueror 
 and his successors introduced important changes. They 
 emphasised the military side. They aimed expressly at 
 the exaltation of their own authority by dispersing the 
 possessions and diminishing the powers of the nobles. 
 They sought to establish a closer tie between the sub- 
 ordinate tenants and the monarch at the head, and 
 in this they were generally successful, although struggles 
 with the barons were the conspicuous incidents of different 
 reigns. 
 
 5. Various immigrants came to England. 
 
 Nor were the Norman nobles thus placed, with powers 
 more strictly limited, in the possession of manors con- 
 trolled previously by Anglo-Saxons the only immigrants. 
 Whether the lesser tenants and actual cultivators were 
 or were not to any large extent recruited from the ranks 
 of Normans may perhaps be doubted. It is more certain 
 that the many castles, in some cases marking the de- 
 struction, in others menacing the liberty, of the towns, 
 and the ecclesiastical architecture, which arose in that 
 Norman style of which parallel survivals are found in 
 Normandy itself, were built by the hands or under the 
 superintendence of Norman masons. It is possible that 
 various bodies of early craftsmen may have been alien 
 immigrants to whom the kings extended their protection. 
 It cannot be questioned that privileges were granted by 
 
 4
 
 50 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 different kings at different times to foreign merchants. 
 Even in the Saxon age the "men of the Emperor," as 
 they were called, seem to have secured some such posi- 
 tion. Before the reign of Edward the " Steelyard," in 
 which foreign German traders lived, like a garrison in a 
 fortress, had become important. The merchants, who 
 formed the privileged " Hanse of London," came first 
 from the Netherlands and from France. They were 
 destined to be overshadowed by the Teutonic Hanse, 
 to which the merchants dwelling in the " Steelyard " 
 belonged. The members of this came from the towns 
 of the Hanseatic League, which won such fame and 
 power in European trade. But immigrants like these 
 were rather visitors, whose business often brought them 
 to the country, than residents seeking a fixed abode. 
 
 6. The Jews occupied a special position. 
 
 The Jews were in a different plight. They were under 
 the protection of the King, for this was their guarantee 
 from popular assault. They were the King's " chattels." 
 On his sufferance they depended for the unhindered 
 conduct of their profitable but odious business of lending 
 money ; and of their gains, which were strictly his, he 
 asked the share he pleased or was able to exact. They 
 were unpopular, for they carried on a trade which con- 
 flicted with Christian principles. Money was then lent 
 and borrowed not, as now, for the development of busi- 
 ness, but to relieve distress or to meet emergency. The 
 taking of usurious, or even of moderate interest, when the 
 lender could not put his money to a profitable use by 
 investing it in trading or industrial enterprise, and ought 
 therefore to have been content to recover the principal 
 alone, was repugnant to the doctrines of the Church. 
 At a later period the growth of industry and commerce
 
 THE 3NFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 51 
 
 supplied occasions of lucrative advantage for employing 
 borrowed money to individuals able to protect them- 
 selves, and earlier, when the need arose, legal subtlety 
 discovered means of meeting legal prohibitions. Even in 
 the infancy, so to speak, of economic development, the 
 Jews, like other usurers, such as the Caursines (or men 
 of Cahors), and, later, the Lombards,* aided the achieve- 
 ment of some undertakings which seemed to l)e for the 
 public interest. But an unpopularity naturally excited by 
 the nature of their calling was not diminished by their 
 adherence to their peculiar faith and the isolation in which 
 they lived. In England they seem to have enjoyed kinder 
 fortune than elsewhere, l^ecause the power of the King was 
 more predominant ; but the dislike of the people, never 
 small, was increased by the outburst of religious fervour 
 which was at once a cause and a consequence of the 
 Crusades. From the reign of Eichard I. they were 
 expelled from city after city, and their usury 
 was subject to strict regulation. By Edward I. 1290 
 they were even banished from the country, and 
 the veto on their return was not formally withdrawn for 
 upwards of three centuries. 
 
 7. The King's revenues were derived from different 
 sources: (i) As a feudal superior. 
 
 They had previously supplied some amount of 
 revenue. The King exacted payment for his protection. 
 As Dr. Cunningham has remarked in his " Growth of 
 English Industry and Commerce,"! the Jews thus 
 " served the purpose of a sponge which sucked up the 
 
 * They were often luerchants, who collected the Papal revenues, 
 made arrani^'ements for transmitting them to l\ome, and increased 
 their gains by lending money. 
 
 t Vol. i., book ii., chap, iv., § 70. 
 
 4—2
 
 52 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 resources of the subjects, and from which then' wealth 
 could be easily squeezed into the royal coffers." In 
 nothing, perhaps, was the power of the Crown shown 
 more plainl}' than in the collection of its various 
 revenues. Of the landowners of the country, exercising 
 rights of receiving services in kind and money from 
 subordinates, the King was the most important. His 
 manors and his forests yielded a revenue which called 
 for personal attention on repeated "progresses," and 
 the energy of such an active sovereign as Henry H. was 
 shown by the speed with which he made his presence 
 felt in different districts of the country. Powers of 
 jurisdiction brought additional revenue. Eights of com- 
 pulsory purchase — both of provisions on journeys by 
 "purveyance," as it was called, and of goods offered 
 for sale by "prise," which seems the origin of the tolls 
 received at ports, at markets, and at fairs — were among 
 the grievances for which redress was sought and granted 
 in Magna Carta, and the reign of Edward. A wise king 
 did not exercise such rights without discretion. At first 
 levied in kind, they were afterwards commuted into 
 money. A similar commutation of the services rendered 
 by subordinate tenants to their lords seems, as we saw, 
 to have taken place on the royal demesne at an earlier 
 time than that at which it was achieved elsewhere. 
 Those military obligations to the sovereign, which the 
 Norman Conquest, emphasising as feudal incidents, 
 laid on tenants-in-chief and, more directly than before, 
 on subordinate holders, were exchanged also for a 
 money payment, under the name of scutcKjc* Further 
 occasional dues were rendered to the King, as to other 
 feudal superiors, when his eldest son was knighted or 
 * This enabled the formation of a professional army.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 53 
 
 his eldest daughter married, or, as in the ease of 
 Richard I., he himself required to be ransomed. To 
 these burdens must be added the relief 'pa.id on succession 
 to property by tenants-in-chief, and the revenue derived 
 both from the icardship of heirs and heiresses during 
 their minority, and from the marriage of heiresses. 
 Escheats of manors, when heirs failed, and forfeitures, 
 when tenants rebelled, swelled the dimensions of the 
 royal demesne. 
 
 8. (2) In his public capacity. 
 
 As the most important private individual in the realm, 
 the King received such payments. In his public capacity 
 he secured further revenue. The Danegeld, paid origin- 
 ally as tribute to the Danes, was collected by the Xorman 
 Kings at first on special occasions, and then as regular 
 income. It lost apparently its peculiar name, but in its 
 stead the Crown took what was known as canicafic. 
 From places exempt from Danegeld* the King demanded 
 and accepted taUages. They were part of the ferm 
 usually paid by the towns. Henry II. introduced a new 
 practice of taxing movables, and this, in the shape of 
 taking a portion — it might be a fortieth, it might even 
 be a fourth — of a man's possessions, was followed 
 regularly by his successors, and finally superseded 
 scuta;! cs and talla(jcs. 
 
 9. The collection of these revenues needed an 
 organised system. 
 
 A machinery was needed for the collection of these 
 revenues, but they were seldom, if ever, raised together 
 at one and the same time. One variety of tax would be 
 taken one year ; in another a different class of the com- 
 munity would be brought under contribution by a second 
 
 * E.g., belonging to the " ancient demesne " (see below, p. 58).
 
 54 EXGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 or a third variety. The Court of the Exchequer* seems 
 to have been organised for the purpose in the reign of 
 Henry I., although some similar institution or arrange- 
 ment may have existed earlier. It was apparently re- 
 organised by his grandson. It had various officials 
 — a Chancellor, a Treasurer, and, at first, a Justiciar. 
 Two important sessions were held in every year. At 
 the first, at Easter, a payment was made by the sheriffs 
 on account of the various revenues it was their duty to 
 collect. At the second session, at Michaelmas, they 
 accounted for the whole, and discharged the balance. 
 In an age when mathematical ability was rare the 
 reckoning of the ignorant was helped by visible lines or 
 squares on an actual table and the use of counters. The 
 eye thus supplied what the brain lacked ; and in a 
 similar fashion the receipt for the instalment took 
 shape in the form of a notched rod, or " tally," divided 
 mto two halves, one of which was kept by the sherifi' 
 and the other by the Exchequer. It is possible that 
 these " tallies " belonged to an earlier stage of account- 
 keeping, of which the " chequered " cloth on the table 
 and the counters were a later mode, and that they 
 formed a superfluous record of a calculation no longer 
 preserved by such primitive means, but entered in a 
 written document. They survived for many centuries. 
 They were even used by the officials of the Exchequer so 
 late as the nineteenth century, and were accumulated in 
 
 * The Court is said to have been so called from the "chequered" 
 cloth covering the table. It was described in the " Dialogus de 
 Scaccario," written by Ricliard, Bishop of TiOndon, in the reign of 
 Henry II. The "Ripe Rolls" of the Exchequer, dating, in one 
 instance, from the reign of Henry I., and extending with scarcely 
 a break from Henry II. to William IV., furnish information of 
 great interest and value.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 55 
 
 such great numbers that their destruction caused, it is 
 said, the fire of the Houses of ParHament after they had 
 ceased to serve a more honourable purpose. 
 
 10. Together with account-keeping on the manors, 
 this shows a growth of money payments. 
 
 On the separate manors also the steady growth of 
 money payments in place of services required the keeping 
 of accounts, and bailiffs' rolls were common about the 
 middle of the thirteenth century. The Extenta (or 
 survey) of the manor, giving information on its condi- 
 tion, the Iiirciitonj adding to that particulars which, 
 stated in the Domesday Survey of the eleventh century, 
 were omitted from the Extenta of the thirteenth, and the 
 Court liolls, or records of proceedings of the manorial 
 courts, form a series of documents which illustrate the 
 changes of manorial society. The commutation of 
 services for money, to which they point, increased the 
 need for improvements in the currency, and to this 
 necessity of economic progress the more efficient kings, 
 like Henry I. and Henry H., did not neglect to turn 
 attention. The silver penny was the current coin.* But 
 it was hard, if not impossible, to preserve the standard 
 unimpaired at a time when several mints were necessary 
 to distribute coin throughout the country, and the 
 process of coining itself had not yet reached a perfection 
 which would defeat the efforts of false coiners, or of 
 those "clippers" and "sweaters" who removed good 
 metal from the edge or sides of genuine coin. 
 Yet Henry I. cut off the right hands of 1125 
 the " moneyers " who "had ruined this land 
 with the great quantity of bad metal "; and Henry H. 
 
 * Henry III. is stated to liave introduced, without success, gold 
 coins in 1257.
 
 56 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 arrested the abuses of independent minting to which the 
 barons had recourse in the turbulent times of his pre- 
 decessor. In the settlement of accounts with the officials 
 current coins had been subject to some test of W'oight and 
 fineness ; but a public trial of the quality of those issued 
 first took place in the reign of Henry III, although a 
 previous attempt was made to reduce the number of 
 types by calling in and replacing the various dies. 
 
 11. The Assize of Measures and the Assize of 
 Bread illustrate the mediaeval policy of the Crown. 
 
 An endeavour to secure a uniform standard of weights 
 and measures, by the Assue of Measures, in the 
 1 197 reign of Eichard I., harmonised with this policy. 
 1202 The Assize of Bread, ordering a variation in the 
 weight of the farthing loaf corresponding to the 
 variation in the price of the quarter of wheat, was so 
 far an extension of the policy, that it was based on an 
 idea that the buyer must be preserved from fraudulent 
 dealing by the seller, and know what he was purchasing. 
 But it proceeded further. The modern conception that 
 the buyer should look after himself may be appropriate 
 to an age of competition, but it was repugnant to the 
 medieval mind. That, governed by established custom, 
 and ready to obey authority, believed that a " just 
 price " could be fixed by some standard, settled and 
 enforced which was not altering continually with the 
 " higgling of the market." 
 
 12. The King's influence was also shown in con- 
 nection with the growth of towns. 
 
 In these various ways the power of the King was a 
 factor in economic life. We have yet to notice another 
 notable direction in which his influence was felt. This 
 was the rise and growth of towns. Towards the close of
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 57 
 
 the Saxon period, under the stimuUis given by the Danes, 
 the towns began to revive from the destruction which fell 
 upon them when the Komans left. The Norman Con- 
 quest did not, indeed, favour them immediatel}^ for they 
 suffered from the disturbed times, and from the erection 
 of castles which were built in various places. But the 
 Conquest, once accomplished, brought a twofold benefit. 
 Internal peace was kept under a powerful ruler, and that 
 intercourse was gained with the external world which 
 resulted from a foreign connection. Trade developed 
 under the control of strong, able sovereigns such as 
 Henry I. and Henry II., and the towns, which were at 
 the outset, perhaps, but larger villages, grew into centres 
 of business. At first, no doubt, this took the form alone 
 of the exchange of agricultural produce. Then the grow- 
 ing commerce with the Continent would bring foreign 
 goods into the trading transactions of the merchants, 
 and at last separate crafts and industries arose. 
 
 13. The towns sought liberty to manage their own 
 affairs. 
 
 The towns, like the villages from w^hich they emerged, 
 were subject to the exercise of rights by the King, or by 
 his nobles, or by powerful ecclesiastics.* The inhabitants 
 of the villages were obliged, under the manorial system, 
 to render more or less burdensome services to their lord, 
 to grind their corn at his mill, to feed their sheep in his 
 fold, to pay his dues, and to obey the decisions of the 
 manorial courts, which they were forced to attend. The 
 inhabitants of the towns seem to have bought and sold 
 
 * Mrs. Green (" Town Life in the Fifteenth Century '") traces a 
 correspondence between the degree of difficulty attending the cfTorts 
 of towns to gain their independence and tlie character of their 
 superiors.
 
 58 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 in their markets, in some respects under conditions 
 ^Yhicll were similar. In certain instances there are 
 reasons for doubting whether they passed through a 
 manorial stage ; and the divided exercise of privilege 
 by different authorities might imply comparative freedom 
 from the absolute control of one.* In many, if not most, 
 cases the lord might be the King himself, and the town 
 would belong to the royal demesne. Tenants on the 
 " ancient demesne," which, according to legal theory 
 and practice, consisted of the manors of the Crown at the 
 time of the Conquest, enjoyed certain privileges in which 
 their l)rethren did not share, and these continued when 
 the property passed to someone else. In any event, 
 the authority of the King over some of the old county 
 towns may never have reached the strictness of manorial 
 rights, and he would surrender privileges more readily 
 perhaps than a resident lord. Nor in those instances, 
 where more than one lord possessed rights in different 
 quarters of the same town, was it unlikely that conflicts 
 of authority might occur, by which the townsmen might 
 profit, opposing the strength which lay in union to the 
 weakness which accompanied division. In this way, as 
 a class, or at least in certain cases, they may have 
 enjoyed a greater measure of liberty and of independence 
 from manorial control. The Conquest may have found 
 older towns in a condition which offered greater resist- 
 ance to manorial authoritj^ and it may have been more 
 completely and easily exerted in the towns which after- 
 wards arose. 
 
 * Cf. Maitland, "Township and Borough," and also Pollock and 
 Maitland's " History of Enghsh Law," (second edition). London 
 seems to have developed on peculiar lines, and its model may have 
 been French. Cf. J. H. Round, "The Commune of London."
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE KINGS 69 
 
 14. They secured this in various ways and 
 degrees. 
 
 ])iit, where the inhabitants were bound to make a 
 return in goods, or labour, or cash to a feudal superior 
 for the tenure of the holdings on which they lived, or 
 for their privileges of trading, they would, in the first 
 instance, no doubt, if they could, substitute money 
 payments for payments in kind or labour. This result 
 achieved, they had won some independence, l)ut they 
 would not have gained all that they wished. They 
 sought liberty to manage their own affairs. If the King 
 were the lord, with him alone they dealt, whether they 
 were concerned with what was due to him as their 
 feudal superior, or with the payments made to him in 
 his more general capacity as sovereign in common with 
 his other subjects. They endeavoured to obtain the 
 coveted important privilege of assessing themselves. 
 They wished to contract for the collective discharge of 
 the tallaf/es which they might render. They desired to 
 make themselves as a body responsible for the fixed 
 "firma burgi," ov fee -farm- rent, for which they sought 
 to exchange these varying payments. They aimed at 
 excluding from their internal affairs the King's sheriff 
 and the lord's bailiff. Sometimes they were successful 
 in gaining a charter. Sometimes they might have to 
 wait for long before they achieved internal independence. 
 They then became responsible as a body for their 
 obligations, and they raised the necessary money by a 
 house-rate levied by themselves on themselves. The 
 rights and liberties of the burgesses of a " liber burgus," 
 or free borough, thus belonged to those who, paying the 
 rate, were, it was said, at " scot and lot " w^ith their 
 fellow-burgesses. From the time of the Conquest in
 
 60 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 increasing numbers and in larger measure these cherished 
 privileges were won, and the Crusades assisted, for they 
 begat a willingness in King and noble to grant charters, 
 or, at least, to make concessions, in return for needful 
 cash. 
 
 15. The merchant gild was an important institu- 
 tion. 
 
 In this manner and degree the townsmen gained their 
 liberty. They assessed themselves for the payment of 
 the ferm. They were secured in the enjoyment of their 
 customs and their institutions. They were freed from 
 various tolls. They elected their own officials. They 
 were tried according to their own law in their own courts. 
 Among the privileges thus obtained in less or greater 
 measure by different towns at different times, that of 
 controlling trade was not the least important, and the 
 mercha)it gild, to which this duty was committed, fills a 
 conspicuous place in economic history. The institution 
 may have been an importation from abroad, brought to 
 England with the Norman Conquest. It may have been 
 an adaptation to a new important purpose of the old 
 idea of strength derived from union. Such an idea was 
 certainly embodied in religious gilds, and frith gilds, 
 which in Saxon times provided for the joint performance of 
 religious duties, or for the mutual preservation of desired 
 peace. But it is believed that no distinct reference to the 
 merchant gild can be discovered at an earlier date than 
 the last ten years of the eleventh century. It is men- 
 tioned in various municipal charters of the reign of 
 Henry I., and Dr. Gross in his " Gild Merchant "* has 
 affirmed that " it may be safely stated that at least one- 
 third — and probably a much greater proportion — of the 
 
 * Vol. i., p. 22.
 
 THE GILDS 61 
 
 boroughs of England were endowed with " the institu- 
 tion "in the thirteenth century." In London and the 
 Cinque Ports the name was apparently unknown, though 
 the rights and privileges usually connected with it may 
 have been enjoyed. 
 
 i6. It controlled the trade monopoly in an ex- 
 clusive spirit. 
 
 The clause establishing a merchant gild ran in many 
 charters in the following terms :* " We grant a Gild 
 Merchant with a hanse and other customs belonging to 
 the Gild so that no one who is not of the Gild may 
 merchandise in the said town, except with the consent 
 of the burgesses." The merchant gild thus received an 
 exclusive right of trading. As Dr. Gross has said,+ 
 " The gild was the department of town administration, 
 whose duty was to maintain and regulate the trade 
 monopoly." For rights won by the burgesses by lucky 
 opportunity or hard bargaining from king or lord were 
 jealously preserved. The officials of the gild with the 
 alderman at their head summoned its meetings, admitted 
 its members on payment of the entrance fees, and 
 managed its affairs. Strangers were not wholly excluded 
 from trading in the town, but they were subjected to dis- 
 abilities from which gildsmen were free. They had to 
 pay tolls on the purchase or the sale of goods when 
 gildsmen paid none, or, at least, were charged on a lower 
 scale. They were not allowed to sell retail at any rate 
 those goods which were the staple commodities of the 
 place. They were forbidden to purchase sQme articles, 
 which were either scarce or were the raw material of the 
 manufactures of the town. Such merchandise as they 
 might sell they must offer in a public place, where it was 
 
 * Vol. i., p. 8. t ■^^'■'^•. P- ^3.
 
 62 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 possil)le to exercise strict supervision, and they were not 
 permitted to remain within the town for more than a 
 certain time. Where, again, they were allowed to buy 
 the gildsmen might enjoy the right of making a first 
 offer. In victuals alone, in fact, was there free trade. 
 Such restrictions were not indeed identical in every 
 town, and were relaxed on occasions such as fairs or 
 even in special instances on market-days. But the spirit 
 animating them could not be mistaken. It was common 
 to all. It was a desire to prevent intrusion. 
 
 17. But within the limits of the gild the regula- 
 tions were more public-spirited. 
 
 AVliile, however, the gilds were narrow and exclusive 
 in their treatment of outsiders, within their limits more 
 generous provisions were discovered. If a member had 
 made a purchase at a certain price, at the same price his 
 fellow-members were entitled to claim a portion of the 
 goods which had been bought. If he were imprisoned 
 in another district of the country, the officials of the gild 
 themselves were to seek his release at the expense of his 
 fellow-members. If he were ill, he was visited ; if poor, 
 he was relieved ; and if dead, he was duly and honourably 
 buried. Nor were the wider prerogatives, which the gilds 
 assumed, of regulating trade and industry exercised with- 
 out regard to fair and honest dealing. Bad quality and 
 short weight were apparently forbidden equally with 
 that speculation — that holding back to sell at a more 
 favourable time, or that buying to sell again more 
 advantageously in the same market — which was re- 
 pugnant to the mediaeval mind. 
 
 i8. Its precise relations to the town are obscure. 
 
 The gild, we have seen, may be described as a depart- 
 ment of the town administration charged with the care
 
 THE GILDS 63 
 
 of trade. Its exact relation to the town, however, is not 
 easy to discover. The gildsman was bound indeed to 
 " be in scot and lot " with the burgesses, but this condi- 
 tion, J)r. Gross contends,* might mean no more than 
 participation in " assessments." " In other words, the 
 gildsman was expected to render the authorities of the 
 borough assistance, according to his means, whenever 
 they wanted money." To repeat an expression with 
 which we became familiar when we examined the 
 manorial system, he was to be in " geld " with the 
 burgesses. But the officials of the gild were not, it 
 seems, identical with the officials of the town. Member- 
 ship of the gild was apparently possessed by individuals 
 who were not burgesses, and lived sometimes in neigh- 
 bouring and sometimes in distant towns. There were 
 burgesses, again, who were not gildsmen, just as there 
 were persons living in the towns, like the Jews, who were 
 neither members of the gild nor burgesses. With the 
 lapse of time, indeed, the membership and government 
 of the town and of the gild were more fully merged 
 together, and by the fourteenth century at least such a 
 tendency had developed. But at the outset, it seems, the 
 merchant gilds were so far distinct from the body of the 
 ))urgesses that the grant of a gild and that of a free 
 town were separated in some charters, and in other cases 
 gilds were found in towns which had not yet achieved 
 independence of manorial control or gained those full 
 privileges to which the burgesses aspired. 
 
 19. Its connection with the craft gild has been 
 misunderstood. 
 
 If the relation of the merchant gilds to the towns is 
 not free from difficulty, their connection with similar 
 
 * Vol. i., p. 54.
 
 64 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 bodies among craftsmen, which came into existence,* 
 and rose into general prominence, f about a century 
 later, is scarcely less uncertain. On the Continent, 
 undoubtedly, a bitter struggle raged between merchants 
 and craftsmen, which ended in the triumph of the latter. 
 It has been suggested! that something similar may have 
 occurred in England ; that craftsmen, who became im- 
 portant as a class as industries arose distinct from 
 agriculture, were excluded by merchants from the 
 merchant gilds, formed rival associations of their own, 
 and engaged in a contest for the control of the towns, 
 in which they were eventually victorious. It is true that 
 in Scotland some such conflict happened, but the circum- 
 stances of England, it has been urged, do not support 
 the analogy it is sought to establish, and the evidence 
 given for the theory admits of another interpretation. 
 Here, as in the case of the manor, development may 
 have followed more than one line of advance. " In the 
 twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries," Dr. Gross 
 maintains,^ "craftsmen" (generally speaking) "were 
 freely admitted to the Gild Merchant." It is true that 
 in certain places certain craftsmen, weavers and fullers, 
 " did not enjoy the rights of full burgesses."! "But," 
 he continues, "it is far more rational to consider the 
 restrictions upon these artisans as exceptional, being 
 probaljly due to the circumstance that they were re- 
 garded as alien intruders, who were attempting to 
 develop a comparatively new branch of industry." It 
 is true also that at a later period, during the fourteenth 
 
 * In the twelfth century. 
 
 f in the thirteenth century. 
 
 X hy Professor Brentano, " Gilds and Trade Unions," IV. 
 
 § " The Gild Merchant," vol. i. p. 107. 
 
 II Ibid., p. 108.
 
 THE GILDS 65 
 
 and fifteenfcli centuries, when for various reasons, of 
 which the growth in population was the most obvious, 
 the management of the town affairs had passed from 
 the whole body of the burgesses to a small, select, 
 exclusive section, the craft gilds in some places took 
 a conspicuous part in the struggle to regain popular 
 control. As a result they obtained sometimes a share in 
 the government of the town ; but the close body which 
 they then opposed was, it is argued, not the merchant 
 gild as such, nor did they themselves, as a rule, possess 
 or exercise political functions. 
 
 20. The real relation seems to have been different. 
 
 The distinction between rich, powerful merchants and 
 poor, oppressed craftsmen conveys, it is urged, a wrong 
 impression. On the one hand, the early merchants 
 included everyone who traded, both great and small. 
 On the other, the early master craftsman himself bought 
 his raw material and sold his finished goods. In England 
 the greater power of the King checked the growth of 
 lesser authorities, which in its absence proved oppressive 
 on the Continent. The distinction, then, between mer- 
 chant gild and craft gild must on this view be sought 
 not so much in antagonism between their members as 
 in a difference of rights and duties. The merchant gild 
 was that department of the town government which pro- 
 tected the trade monopoly generally, and was not limited 
 in membership or interest to any special trade. The 
 craft gild — at first, at any rate — comprised the crafts- 
 men of a single trade, had not political duties, and 
 made its rules and regulations under the control of 
 the town government. It might gam a monopoly of 
 working and of trading in its special industry, but its 
 existence and its privileges seem to have depended on 
 
 5
 
 66 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the payment of a ferm to the Crown, and not, like those 
 of the merchant gild, on a clause in the mmiicipal 
 charter. As time passed the number of separate indus- 
 tries increased, and craft gilds grew more important. 
 In this, as in other cases, division of labour tended to 
 supersede the general by the particular, the universal 
 by the special. The merchant gild, whose business it 
 was to protect the general monopoly of trade, sank in 
 importance, and the craft gilds, which were separate 
 bodies, concerned in each case with the special monopoly 
 of a particular industry, gained new influence. When, 
 in fact, the towns ceased to be large villages, and became 
 less or more important centres of trading, the merchant 
 gild was the chief institution ; but as separate industries 
 arose, and craftsmen were more and more identified in 
 person with free citizens, the craft gilds overshadowed 
 and incroached on other bodies. Such changes were 
 not accomplished in the course of one or of more than 
 a single century, and, as we saw, the process of develop- 
 ment may not have been always the same. It may 
 possibly be the case that some craftsmen, possessing 
 the qualification of citizenship, were admitted to the 
 merchant gild, while others of humbler station were 
 excluded. Craftsmen may only have come into direct 
 collision with merchants when they wished to attend 
 the markets, and did not produce to the immediate 
 order of a private customer. 
 
 21. The craft gilds resembled the merchant gilds 
 in spirit and in conduct. 
 
 Like the merchant gilds, the craft gilds were exclusive 
 in their attitude to outsiders, but did not neglect the 
 public interest in their internal regulations. Good 
 workmanship and good materials were sought, and
 
 THE GILDS f)7 
 
 measures taken to prevent deceit. To such objects we 
 may ascribe the veto laid on work at night, and that 
 insistance on an apprenticeship for a number of years 
 which was coming into favour in the early part of the 
 fourteenth century. The same spirit dictated the penal- 
 ties on such devices, quoted by Professor Ashley in his 
 "Economic History,"* as "putting better wares at the 
 top of a bale than below, moistening groceries to make 
 them heavier, selling second-hand furs for new, soldering 
 together broken swords, selling sheep-leather for doe- 
 leather." As in the merchant gilds, relief in sickness 
 or old age, assistance to widows, and burial of the dead, 
 were regarded as the duty of the gild. The officials of 
 the gilds, the wardens or others, elected year by year 
 at the meetings, admitted members, fined or punished 
 wrongdoers, and supervised the trade. 
 
 22. Thus life in the towns, as in the villages, was 
 confined, although changes were at work. 
 
 Under such conditions the economic life of the towns 
 was spent. Routine and privilege prevailed, and the 
 views of the inhabitants and their rulers rarely, if ever, 
 passed outside the circle of their exclusive interests. 
 Like the village to the rustic, the town was the unit to 
 the merchant and the craftsman. The stranger coming 
 from another town was a foreigner, to recover a debt 
 from whom might need the action of the merchant gild 
 of one or both of the towns in question. t Contrasted 
 with the condition of the villages, greater liberty was 
 found, and some charters contahied a clause providing 
 "that a villein might acquire freedom by remaining in 
 
 * Book i., chap, ii., pp. 90, 91. 
 
 t Some curious "filial relations" existed between some towns, 
 taking their customs from one another. 
 
 5—2
 
 68 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the town, holding land, and belonging to the merchant- 
 gild, for a "year and a day" without being claimed. 
 But such freedom consisted, not in the enterprise and 
 competition now associated with the term, but in the 
 narrow enjoyment of exclusive privilege. Established 
 custom governed the production and the sale of goods, 
 and any alteration or improvement was rarely, if ever, 
 considered possible. Great fairs might, indeed, be held 
 at fixed intervals, such as those at Stourbridge and 
 at Winchester, and traders might come from all 
 districts of England and abroad. But these fairs, it 
 seems, were regulated, and special privileges were pre- 
 served only less jealously than at the markets in the 
 towns. Yet the two centuries parting the Norman Con- 
 quest from the reign of Edward I. were an important 
 period of " national formation." Institutions, apparently 
 the most unchanging, were not exempt from change. 
 The commutation of services for money and the liberty 
 of managing their own affairs were stages passed by 
 village and by town on the road to the larger activity 
 and the broader notions to which they were destined 
 to be brought.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE MEDIEVAL TO THE MODERN 
 
 WORLD. 
 
 (From Edward I. to the Tudors.) 
 
 Commerce and Industry, and the Towns. — The 
 Woollen Industry. 
 
 I. The Hundred Rolls date from Edward I. 
 
 Towards the close of his reign William the Conqueror 
 made that survey of his new dominions which is known 
 by the name of Domesday. It has furnished, as we 
 saw, information on the economic arrangements of the 
 time and the nature of the manorial system. 
 Two centuries later EdNvard I. ordered another 1274 
 inquiry, the surviving records of which supply 
 some material for comparing the two periods, and 
 noting the advance achieved. The Hundred Rolls are 
 found in complete form for seven counties alone, while 
 from the more comprehensive Domesday Siirrei/ the 
 returns for a smaller number of counties are absent. But 
 in its limited sphere the information of 1274 is more 
 detailed than that of 108G. The object of the later 
 inquiry was slightly different from that of the earlier, 
 and the difference is signilicant of the economic policy 
 of Edward. He wished to ascertain the exact nature
 
 70 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and precise extent of the royal possessions, and to 
 discover the excesses or shortcomings of the officers 
 whose business it was to manage the property, fulfil 
 the duties and maintain the rights of the Crown. The 
 manors, which belonged then or before that time to 
 the King, the tenants-in-chief holding directly from him, 
 and the loss caused by grants of subordinate tenures, or 
 " subinfeudation " (as it was called), the free socmen on 
 the royal demesne, the fee-farm-rents or fcrms paid by 
 boroughs and hundreds and shires, and the injury 
 arising from their surrender or bestowal on others, the 
 different claims and concessions made and allowed of 
 royal rights and privileges, like the " assize " of bread 
 or ale — all these particulars were recorded, together with 
 the failings of officials in accepting bribes, in passing 
 by misdeeds, in allowing castles or manors to fall out 
 of repair, in extorting more than was properly due, in 
 neglecting what was rightly forfeit. 
 
 2. They show the character of his economic 
 policy. 
 
 The combination of a diligent regard for the privileges 
 and propert}' of the Crown with an active interest in 
 the common welfare of his subjects, and a firm, prudent 
 resolve to protect himself and them from the excesses 
 and defects of royal officials, which is shown by the 
 character of the information gained in the Hundred 
 
 liolls, supplies the keynote of the policy of 
 1272-1307 Edward. It was thus that his reign opened 
 
 a new economic epoch. The nation as a 
 whole took the place in his eyes which the town, or the 
 gild in the town, had occupied before. National con- 
 siderations had not been absent from the purposes and 
 acts of earlier sovereigns, but on the whole they had
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 71 
 
 been fitfully pursued, and the nation itself was being 
 formed. The altered conditions of the times permitted 
 and required a change. The growing existence of Parlia- 
 ment was a sign, which could not be mistaken, that the 
 period of " national formation " was closing, and with 
 such assistance, Edward I. sought in economic affairs 
 to substitute national interests for those local and 
 sectional aims which had prevailed before. 
 
 3. This policy was followed by Edward III., but 
 was afterwards reversed. 
 
 It is true that this policy consisted not so much in 
 introducing a new as in copying in a bolder hand an 
 approved pattern, and in extending to the wider area of 
 the whole country regulations which had applied within 
 the narrower circle of gild or town. It is true also that 
 the policy did not prove to be lasting, and that, after 
 an interval, the jealous opposition of disturbed privilege, 
 entrenched once more against intrusion, baffled where 
 it did not overcome more generous intentions. The 
 catholic spirit animating Edward I. and 
 Edward III. was exchanged for the shift- 1327- 1377 
 ing attitude of Eichard II. in the earlier I377-I399 
 portion of his reign, and in the later the 
 recovery of exclusive rights checked the further spread 
 of liberal tendencies. In this reign we may trace the 
 beginnings, not yet very distinct, of a new national 
 policy. It was conceived in a different vein. It was the 
 " Mercantile System," as it was afterwards called. 
 Under the Tudors it reached conspicuous 
 prominence. In the century between the 1485-1603 
 struggle of the Houses of Lancaster and 
 York was the cause of much bloodshed in the Wars of 
 the Eoses, which disturbed the country during a score
 
 72 ENGLISH COINIMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 or so of years. Yet that fierce, obstinate struggle 
 seems to have interfered more seriously with the 
 domestic peace and the political power of the nobles 
 than with the business transactions and industrial 
 affairs of the people. The goal of the mercantile 
 system was national advantage ; the particular object 
 sought was the maintenance and increase of power and 
 not the provision of plenty. The interests of the con- 
 sumer, which had apparently exerted an important 
 influence on the policy of Edward I. and his grandson, 
 were placed below the interests of the producer ; and 
 the older conception was revived, four centuries later, 
 in the ideas of freedom of trade. National power was 
 insured by the development of shipping, the increase of 
 treasure, and the growth of population. Such are the 
 ideas which can be discerned beneath the surface before 
 they gained open recognition. 
 
 4. The land laws of Edward I. combined a regard 
 for the public interest with attention to that of the 
 Crown. 
 
 Edward I. united a regard for national interests with 
 a jealous custody of the rights and possessions of the 
 
 Crown. This watchful keenness was shown in the 
 1279 legislation upon land passed in his reign. The 
 
 Statute of Mortmain checked its transfer to 
 1290 religious houses. The statute known by its 
 
 opening words as " Quia Emptores " stopped 
 the practice of " subinfeudation." It provided that 
 in cases of sale the purchaser should be subject to 
 the same feudal superior as the seller had been. In 
 both statutes the object in view was the protection 
 of feudal superiors, and among them the Crown, from 
 the loss of their rights ; for a nominal alienation to
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 73 
 
 ecclesiastical body, or to private individual, might be 
 used to cover re-instatement of the original possessors, 
 freed from their feudal obligations. By an irony of 
 fate the statute of " Quia Emptores " encouraged that 
 transfer of land which was certainly not intended, 
 for it was now permitted, if only the condition was 
 satisfied, that the rights of the feudal superior were 
 protected. Thus a process, which preserved the interests 
 of the Crown, did not fail to advance the position of its 
 humbler subjects, to whom land might now be freely and 
 securely granted. 
 
 5. This combination of objects was shown in the 
 raising of the revenue. 
 
 The substitution of regular customs for irregular rights 
 of j)rise may be traced to the desire of the King and his 
 Parliament to protect themselves alike from defects and 
 extortions of royal officials.* The ''ancient custom" on 
 wool and leather exported, which was paid by all, and 
 the "new custom" taken in addition from foreigners on 
 imports and exports of wool and other merchandise, were 
 fixed in amount, and were collected in the ports, to which 
 the trade was of necessity confined, by " customers," to 
 whom belonged the duty of preventing smuggling. 
 Special "subsidies" were also voted by Parliament on 
 particular occasions, and these sometimes took the form 
 of ttiiincujc on every tun of wine, and ponndaije on every 
 pound of merchandise. They were taken from English 
 subjects and foreigners alike. The taxes on movables, 
 introduced by Henry II., which had become a regular 
 mode of raising revenue, in the form of a certain pro- 
 portion — a tenth on the towns and a fifteenth on the 
 
 * Cf. Hall, "Tlie Customs Revenue of England," vol. ii., chaps, 
 v.-vii., and also Dowcll, " History of Taxation."
 
 74 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 counties — were in the reign of Edward III. fixed at a 
 
 definite figure by negotiation between royal com- 
 1334 missioners and each town and village. In this 
 
 way certainty, afterwards pronounced by Adam 
 Smith* to be the chief essential of a good system of 
 taxation, was secured in fuller measure, and the old 
 tallages and scutages were, in theory at least, abandoned. 
 In the emergencies of practice the Kings, compelled by 
 that necessity which knows no law, had recourse to older 
 forms of revenue. Edward I. himself set the example, 
 and the right of piirreyanve remained as a weapon in 
 reserve, the destructive power of which might be in- 
 creased if occasion demanded. 
 6. It was also seen in other regulations. 
 Other measures perhaps were designed more obviously 
 
 to serve the public interest. The recovery of 
 1283 debts was aided by a statute which took its 
 
 name from the place, Acton Burnel, where it was 
 enacted. The safety of the highways was guaranteed 
 
 more fully by the provision of the statute of 
 1285 Winchester, that "there be neither dyke nor 
 
 bush, whereby a man may lurk to do hurt, 
 within two hundred foot of the one side and two 
 
 hundred foot on the other side of the way." The 
 1290 expulsion of the Jews, who were in a sense no 
 
 part of the nation, fell in with a national policy, 
 and the necessary harshness of the measure was softened 
 by the King's own action. The attention paid to the 
 needs of a steady currency, by checking the entry of 
 bad money from abroad, was a further sign of that 
 anxious care for trading wants which guided and inspired 
 his policy. 
 
 * "Wealth of Nations," Book V., chap, u., part ii.
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 75 
 
 7. The policy of Edward III. and his successors 
 may be conveniently examined in connection with 
 the history of the woollen industry. 
 
 The economic aims of Edward III. were hardly less 
 evident. In his foreign wars, which were so conspicuous, 
 and in his peaceful legislation, we can see a purpose, con- 
 sciously pursued, to further the material progress of the 
 country. The measures taken with this aim may be 
 connected conveniently with that woollen industry which 
 was for many centuries our most important trading 
 interest. With the advance of that industry from a 
 time when the raw material alone was produced in 
 England, and was sent abroad for manufacture, to a 
 time when both the material and the manufactured 
 article were supplied within the limits of the realm, sig- 
 nificant changes in taxation and commercial policy were 
 linked. The great export of wool made it possible to 
 transmit to Italy large Papal revenues without draining 
 England of the precious metals. The important crop of 
 wool was seized at least on one occasion by the King as 
 a forcible means of raising the funds he urgently re- 
 quired, and restored to the merchants to whom it 
 belonged when they had made compulsory payment, or 
 was sold to purchasers, and the proceeds appropriated. 
 The influence of foreign immigration on English industry 
 was showai by few incidents more remarkal)ly than by 
 the introduction of Flemish weavers by William I., by 
 Edward III., and by Elizabeth. In the infancy of the 
 manufacture of cloth, in the deliberate attempt of 
 Edward III. to stimulate its growth, in the intention of 
 Elizabeth to cause the production of the finer qualities, 
 we note successive stages of development, when material 
 aid was sought and obtained from foreign immigration.
 
 76 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 The rise and decline of the gilds, the origin of the 
 "domestic system" of industry, which assisted and 
 followed their overthrow, the early anticipations of the 
 factory, which was at a later time to supplant the 
 domestic system, were events in the history of the 
 woollen trade. With the important changes in rural 
 economy which we shall study in the following chapter 
 it was connected. In his " Six Centuries of Work and 
 Wages " Thorold Rogers justly observes* that the 
 " mainstay of English agriculture was the sheep." Pro- 
 fessor Ashley remarlisf that the " history of English 
 wool and cloth has a twofold interest ; it explains the 
 origin of the wealth of England, and it illustrates, with 
 peculiar clearness, the development of industry." 
 
 8. Thus the foreign policy of Edward III. had an 
 economic side. 
 
 The foreign policy of Edward III, in which he re- 
 turned to the idea of Continental dominion, apparently 
 dismissed by Edward I. when, with a statesman's 
 instinct, he addressed himself to the more pressing duty 
 of strengthening and consolidating his EngHsh kingdom, 
 is associated in its earlier stages with the fame of the 
 victories of the archer at Crecy and Poitiers, and the 
 military renown of the Black Prince. There are reasons 
 for thinking that it was prompted and guided by some 
 economic considerations, t Flanders on the north and 
 Guienne on the south opposed the suzerainty of France. 
 They were supported by Edward, who was hereditary 
 ruler of the latter, and used the former as his base of 
 military operations. Both districts were connected with 
 
 * Pp. 78, 79. t " Economic History," vol. ii., chap, iii., p. 191. 
 I A similar motive may be traced afterwards in the foreign policy 
 of Henry V.
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 77 
 
 important English trading interests. From Guienne 
 came wine, tlie chief import, and Edward paid distinct 
 regard to tlie welfare of consumers. In Flanders, with 
 which he was closely allied, wool, the most conspicuous 
 export, found its market. Other motives, no doubt, 
 exercised an influence ; the coincidence of economic 
 with political interests is at least apparent. Scarcely 
 less signilicant were the terms of the peace* which 
 followed the earlier war. Flanders was surrendered, 
 but Guienne was taken, and, while the King may have 
 exerted no choice in the matter, tlie importance of 
 Flanders was certainly diminished by the prospect that 
 England would herself manufacture the cloth, the raw 
 material of which she had previously exported. 
 
 9. Successive changes in the Customs reflected 
 the growth of the woollen industry. 
 
 A century earlier, in the reign of Henry III., the 
 exportation of wool was forbidden expressly to 
 encourage the manufacture of cloth. A little later 1258 
 not merely was the export of wool arrested, but 
 the importation of cloth w^as stopped. This re- 1271 
 striction, however, was intended to serve the 
 temporary object, in which it was successful, of forcing 
 Flanders to agreement in political proposals by pressure 
 on her trading interests. Three years later, again, the 
 restriction was withdrawn ; but changes in the subse- 
 quent history of the customs — in their figures and 
 their regulations — reflect with clearness the growth of 
 the woollen industry. At one time wool was the 
 largest item of revenue, l)ut its place was taken 1347 
 afterwards by cloth. About the middle of the 
 fourteenth century new duties were imposed on cloth. 
 * The treaty of Bretigny (1360).
 
 78 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 A century later, when the industrial and mercantile 
 classes had reversed the liberal policy of Edward III,, 
 and substituted protective measures, they followed the 
 example which he himself had set in a temporary de- 
 parture from his principles, made, as we shall see, 
 1463 for a special object. The importation of cloth was 
 
 forbidden, and its export in preference to wool was 
 stimulated by a rearrangement of the export duties. With 
 
 the same object of defending and promoting the 
 1434 cloth industry, the Government thirty years before 
 
 had met a veto on the entry of English cloth into 
 Flanders by forbidding the export of wool. In this policy 
 they collided with the interests of important classes who 
 grew and exported wool, and its stringency was relaxed 
 under pressure. But the policy itself showed the great 
 and growing importance of cloth. The Flemish rulers, 
 on their side, were divided between anxiety to protect an 
 ancient industry from the dangers of English competi- 
 tion, and unwillingness to be shut off from what was 
 still, despite of other wool-producing countries,* the 
 
 chief source of the raw material. Finally, at the 
 1496 close of the fifteenth century, the free importation 
 
 of English cloth into the Netherlands was secured 
 l;y the Intercursus Mcu/iius,i as it was called, and the 
 consequence was ultimately seen in the decay of the 
 Flemish industry. England had, in fact, won an 
 acknowledged supremacy. 
 
 10. The immigration of Flemish weavers exer- 
 cised great influence. 
 
 , The decline of Flanders was aided by other 
 
 causes, of which the immigration of Flemish 
 weavers into England under Elizabeth was not the least 
 * E.g., Spain. t "The Great Intercourse."
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 79 
 
 important. They brought with them a knowledge of 
 the finer modes of making cloth. They lent material 
 help to the success of their adopted country. But this 
 was not the first occasion on which the stimulus was 
 applied. William the Conqueror was connected with 
 Flanders through his wife Matilda, and she received 
 and helped her countrymen, who left their homes to 
 avoid inundation. Their relations with the English, 
 like those of their successors, were not free from 
 friction, and Henry I. met the situation by 1107 
 settling them in a Welsh district, where traces 
 of their different origin from that of their Celtic neigh- 
 bours may still be found. They were the first Flemish 
 weavers to come to England. Like their successors, 
 thej' were under royal protection. Like their successors 
 also, they were driven from their own country by adverse 
 circumstance. It was the persecutions of Alva which 
 expelled the Flemish immigrants of the Elizabethan 
 age, and Edward IIL was enabled by serious dis- 
 turbance in Flanders to induce the weavers of his time 
 to settle in this counti'y. He promised them important 
 privileges. They were freed from the control of the 
 aulnager* an official charged with the duty of seeing 
 that cloth was made in pieces of a particular size or 
 number of ells in length. Li their interests the pro- 
 tection given by checking the export of wool and for- 
 bidding the import of cloth was expressly included among 
 the provisions of the ordinance under which 
 they were invited to come ; but the precedent of 1337 
 an earlier occasion was again followed when the 
 political motive of securing the neutrality of Flanders 
 awakened the more liberal instincts of the King. 
 * Appointed by Edward I.
 
 80 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 II. The position of the aulnager showed the 
 importance of the worsted industry. 
 
 Before the arrival of these immigrants the new manu- 
 facture of worsted had become important. In con- 
 sequence of the complaints of merchants that the 
 worsteds produced were not of the length that was 
 stated, a special aulnager was appointed for the 
 county of Norfolk, which was the chief seat of the 
 industry. So important, indeed, was that county that 
 in 1341, Thorold Rogers remarks,* its capital, Norwich, 
 " was probably, for its size, the second city in the 
 kingdom in point of wealth." According to an assess- 
 ment made in 1453 it was still the third, although 
 fifty years later it had become the fifth. The county 
 was conveniently situated for easy communication with 
 Flanders. The appointment of the special aulnager, 
 however, evoked such opposition among the craftsmen 
 that in 1329 the King withdrew from its holder the 
 grant of the office, and for the latter half of the four- 
 teenth century the producers of worsted were free from 
 supervision. With the gift of a new charter to the city 
 of Norwich in the early years of the fifteenth century, 
 the municipal authorities sought and obtained the power 
 of aulnage in the interests of the trade. The import- 
 ance of the industry is shown by the statement in their 
 petition that the trade of Norwich was " in nothing but 
 worsteds," and that no less than twenty-one different sorts 
 and sizes of worsted cloth existed. With the lapse of time, 
 however, and the growing diversity of the wool which was 
 used, the functions of the aulnager generally underwent 
 a significant change, t His statement of the length of 
 
 * " Six Centuries," p. 115. 
 
 + The ofifice existed until tlie reign of William III.
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 81 
 
 the cloth ottered for sale continued to be the authorised 
 statement, but cloths falling below the ancient standard 
 were no longer forfeit. 
 
 12. The strict regulation of trade was also seen in 
 other measures. 
 
 The duties thus discharged by the " aulnager " were 
 the ott'spring of the same motives which had dictated 
 the " assize " of bread and of ale, fixing the prices of 
 those articles. Such regulations caused certainty in 
 busmess transactions. They were devised to protect the 
 consumer from fraudulent dealing and to preserve the 
 repute of the trade. This was a public duty. A close 
 supervision of the supply of victuals was exercised in 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by the local 
 authorities, and a notable sign of the decline in their 
 power, which was evident in the sixteenth, was the 
 neglect or loss of this function. " Sumptuary" legisla- 
 tion, forbidding luxury in food or extravagance in dress, 
 protected the consumer from his own worse inclinations. 
 The provisions against "regrating," or "forestalling," 
 and "engrossing" may be cited as further examples of 
 the policy of guarding him from deceit or injury. Like 
 other local rules, they were given a general application 
 by the King. " llegraters " were "persons buying corn 
 or other victuals and reselling the same in the same 
 market-place or in any other fair or market within four 
 miles." " Forestallers " were "persons buying goods 
 or victuals on their way to a market or a port, or con- 
 tracting to buy the same before actually brought for 
 sale, or endeavouring by these or other means to enhance 
 the price or prevent the supply." "Engrossers" were 
 defined similarly, by a statute of the sixteenth century,* 
 '^' By an Act of 1551-52. 
 

 
 82 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 as " any buying corn growing, or any other corn, grain, 
 butter, cheese, fish, or other dead victual, with intent to 
 resell the same again;" but at an earlier time their deal- 
 ings w^ere not necessarily confined to these commodities, 
 and the three names were indifferently used to cover 
 with a general censure all forms of speculation which 
 raised prices and encouraged fraud. 
 
 13. It w^as specially noticeable in the selection of 
 the " staple." 
 
 Perhaps the most instructive instance of the strict 
 regulation of trade was the institution and manage- 
 ment of the staple. The interests of the King in the 
 sure and easy collection of his " customs " coincided 
 here with the interests of producers and exporters in 
 the certainty and security of business. Both such aims 
 were more likely to be realised if the channels of trade 
 were defined. The importance of the commodity wool 
 is again shown, for at first the staple was usually placed 
 in Flanders. The staple was the town or towns to 
 which commodities for export were compelled to be sent 
 for their market. The "Merchants of the Staple" 
 were the exporters. They enjoyed a monopoly. They 
 claimed to date from the reign of Henry III., and before 
 their time the export trade had, it seems, been chiefly 
 
 conducted by the Hanse merchants. Edward III. 
 1328 tried the experiment in 1328 of abolishing "all 
 
 staples beyond the sea and on this side." In 
 1341 1341 Bruges was selected as the staple town ; in 
 1353 1353 ten towns in England were substituted ; 
 1363 and in 13G3 the staple was placed at Calais. 
 
 The reasons for these successive changes are 
 found in the results of the various experiments. The 
 necessity for some definite guidance of the stream of
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 83 
 
 commercial intercourse was shown by the selection of 
 Bruges in place of the system of unrestricted liberty 
 which was previously tried for a time. The removal of 
 the staple from Bruges to England was due, partly to 
 the selfish efforts made by Flemish merchants to exclude 
 other purchasers, partly to the desire to avoid the perils 
 of crossing the sea, which were no by means trifling, in 
 spite of attempts made by Edward to check or suppress 
 piracy, and partly to a wish to restrain the import into 
 England of bad foreign coin, which troubled the King 
 no less than his grandfather. The transfer, again, to 
 Calais was prompted by the need of attracting foreign 
 merchants, who could not be tempted to come to 
 England, in spite of regulations made for their special 
 convenience. Such were the courts, in which " law 
 merchant," distinct from the " common law," was 
 administered by the "mayor of the staple," and the 
 "constables" and "assessors" elected by the merchants, 
 either local or foreign. Such also was the provision for 
 enforcing the law by means of the ordinary oflicials of 
 the towns, who were bound to obey the orders of the 
 "mayor of the staple" and his assistants. The motive 
 of attracting foreign merchants was strengthened by the 
 advantage, as it seemed, of concentrating trade in a 
 single staple town. That town, indeed, was now to 
 be within the English dominions ; and at Calais the 
 staple continued to be placed for a time, until at last it 
 was permanently fixed. 
 
 14. The encouragement of foreign merchants was 
 a part of the policy of Edward. 
 
 The wish to encourage foreign merchants, shown in 
 the rules and customs of the Staple, was an essential 
 part of the policy of Edward. In this he followed his 
 
 6—2
 
 84 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 grandfather, and was met by no less stubborn opposi- 
 tion. The provisions of Magna Carta for the "free 
 travel " of foreign merchants in the kingdom were a 
 pious hope rather than a practical reality. The burgesses 
 wanted the merchants to come, to transact their business 
 •with speed, and thereupon depart again. They were 
 peculiarly anxious to exclude strangers from retail trade. 
 Both Edward I. and Edward III. succeeded in removing 
 the limit of residence, fixed at forty days, and the restric- 
 tion, preventing the merchants from trading with others 
 than those living in the port at which they landed. 
 Under Edward I. the burgesses generally retained the 
 monopoly of retail trade, but this was thrown open by 
 his grandson. The victory did not last for long. By 
 the end of the fourteenth century the towns recovered 
 their exclusive rights. They triumphed over the kings, 
 who, apart from any wish to advance the trade of the 
 nation and to benefit the consumer, would be ready 
 to welcome additions to the customs revenue. They 
 triumphed no less over the landowning nobles, who were 
 not unwilling to increase the export of the wool produced 
 on their land. 
 
 15. The opposition of the gilds to the foreigners 
 was bitter and persistent. 
 
 In view of such jealousy of intrusion, it was not likely 
 that the Flemish weavers, invited by Edward, would 
 meet with a friendly reception. Craftsmen could not be 
 expected to welcome them more readily than burgesses 
 were prepared to receive foreign merchants. The king 
 might rise superior to local, or even to national preju- 
 dice. He might try to break down the barriers of local 
 prejudice where they obstructed what he held to be national 
 interests, and in such a spirit as this he might establish
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 85 
 
 rules, borrowed from municipal practice, and applied 
 to the country as a whole. lie mipjht thus enlarge the 
 boundaries of individual freedom. He might even go 
 further, and, where national welfare was promoted and 
 the interests of the consumer were served, he might 
 not be anxious to consult the immediate advantage of 
 producers or the exclusive wishes of an existing genera- 
 tion. He might thus proceed from a local to a national, 
 and, to some extent, even from a national to an inter- 
 national standpoint. But throughout he must be pre- 
 pared to encounter the bitter, persistent opposition of 
 narrower interests and views. In this respect, at least, 
 "history repeated itself." 
 
 i6. Some early craft-gilds may perhaps have 
 originated among foreign immigrants. 
 
 There are reasons for thinking that an explanation 
 of the recorded acts of oppression suffered by some 
 early craftsmen may be found in hostility felt towards 
 foreigners by burgesses and merchants. It certainly 
 seems to be the case that gilds of weavers were among 
 the first examples of such institutions ; that they 
 were found in certain towns as early as 1130, 1130 
 paying annual sums to the king ; that in some 
 places at least unfriendly measures were taken against 
 weavers and fullers, drawing unfavourable distinctions 
 between them and free burgesses, and that in 
 London John was persuaded to abolish* the 1200 
 weavers' gild in consideration of an annual 
 payment by the citizens to the Exchequer. If such acts 
 of enmity were specially intended to injure alien crafts- 
 men, introduced under royal protection, they can be 
 reconciled with the fact that, so far from there being 
 
 * It was restored after a brief interval.
 
 86 P]NGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 clear evidence of general strife between merchants and 
 craftsmen, like that which caused a long and bitter 
 contest on the Continent of Europe, and was not absent 
 from Scottish history, craftsmen seem, as we saw, to 
 have been admitted generally to the merchant-gilds, 
 and at the outset to have differed little from merchants 
 in the rank, which they occupied, or in the scope or 
 character of their business and work. The craft-gilds 
 appear to have superseded the merchant-gilds as a 
 natural result of increased division of labour, and the 
 distinct separation of trades and industries. The pro- 
 minence of weavers in the early history alike of foreign 
 immigration and of the gild supports the view that 
 such gilds were rather peculiar formations, suited to 
 the special circumstances of particular industries, than 
 examples of a general type, the history of which may be 
 treated as characteristic of the gild known at a later 
 period. In the case of the gilds, as of the manor, 
 general statements may indeed prove as delusive as 
 they are tempting ; and the lines of development 
 followed in different instances may have differed in 
 detail, or even direction. The view, which has just been 
 stated, affords at least an explanation of such oppressive 
 rules as those which provided that a freeman could not 
 be accused by a weaver or fuller, and that a craftsman, 
 who wished to reach such an enviable dignity, must 
 forswear his craft. And yet it is consistent with the 
 ascertained facts of later history. 
 
 17. The Flemish weavers of Edward III.'s reign 
 were gradually absorbed in the gilds. 
 
 History then " repeated itself," and when the Flemish 
 weavers arrived in London in the reign of Edward III. 
 they met with the enmity of the weavers' gild, which
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 87 
 
 had gained an acknowledged position. Tlie gild wished 
 to force them to contribute to the ferni paid to the king. 
 The king himself took their part ; but by the fifteenth 
 century the foreigners were included in the gild, though 
 in the interval, it seems, they had formed at one time 
 an association among themselves, and the weavers' 
 gild (or company) had declined in power and wealth. 
 The course of events in London, Professor Ashley 
 thinks,* was not unlike that which happened in Norwich 
 and other parts of the country where the weavers 
 settled. At the first they met with no cordial welcome ; 
 in the end, with the willing or unwilling assent of the 
 original members, they were merged in the established 
 association. 
 
 i8. The craft-gilds first grew in power, and then 
 declined. 
 
 If " the woollen manufacture was " thus " the first to 
 take the form of the gild," it was also "the first to 
 break through its limits."! With the lapse of time 
 the craft-gilds lost control of the trade, and a fresh 
 development was seen outside. For they became more 
 narrow and exclusive. They grew indeed in number 
 and in authority as the merchant-gilds declined. For 
 when the towns resumed their restrictive privileges, 
 reversing the more liberal policy of Edward I. and his 
 grandson, the craft-gilds tilled, to some extent at least, 
 the position taken before by the merchant-gilds. They 
 owned and exercised a monopoly' of the particular trade, 
 which, in each case, they controlled ; and altogether, 
 the authority they possessed, to which they gave ex- 
 pression in rules of similar pattern, amounted to direc- 
 
 * "Economic History," vol. ii., p. 202. 
 t IhicL, p. 192.
 
 88 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 tion of the trade-monopoly as a whole. The love of 
 pageantry and the calls of religious ceremonial made a 
 powerful appeal to the media3val mind, and the craft- 
 gilds, like other "mysteries" and "companies" of the 
 times, offered a convenient means for their easy abun- 
 dant gratification. They were encouraged by those in 
 
 authority. The Yorkist kings used their help to 
 1463 carry into effect the prohibition of foreign cloth ; 
 
 and a century earlier the rigid lines of division 
 drawn by them between different crafts or different 
 parts of the same industry were recognised by such 
 ordinances as that which provided that " no dyer or 
 weaver shall make any cloth," or, in other words, be a 
 cloth-finisher. 
 
 19. They became more exclusive. 
 Against intrusion from outside they had from the 
 first set up and maintained strong barriers, but with 
 the lapse of time they tried to obstruct the narrow 
 passages permitted through these barriers to the com- 
 parative freedom and equality that reigned within. 
 Inside the outer limits of the trade they made fresh 
 preserves. Entrance fees were raised, hereditary rights 
 of membership were established, and various other 
 hindrances were offered to the admission of new 
 members. Thus they l)ecame more and more close 
 corporations. Their government tended by similar 
 means to pass into fewer hands. The expense of buying 
 the costly " liveries," worn on those ceremonial occasions 
 when important l)usiness was transacted, ended l)y ex- 
 cluding poorer meml)ers from the election of officials, 
 and from the conduct and even the knowledge of the gild 
 affairs. Among " liverymen " themselves in the London 
 Companies a yet smaller l)ody, the "Court of Assistants,"
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 89 
 
 gained a monopoly of control in the sixteenth century. 
 In somewhat the same way and for the same reasons 
 differences of wealth gave rise to differences of power 
 and rank l)etween the twelve greater and the lesser of 
 those London Companies. 
 
 20. Separate classes of dealers, such as the 
 " drapers," arose. 
 
 These Companies, however, among which the Drapers 
 took an important place, consisted rather of merchants 
 and dealers as distinct from craftsmen. The early crafts- 
 man had often been at once dealer and producer. He had 
 bought his raw material. He had turned it into a manu- 
 factured article. He had sold his finished goods. The 
 early merchant had, it seems, filled the same social station, 
 and joined in the mem})ership of the same merchant- 
 gild. The lapse of time and the increase of industry 
 and commerce brought a distinction between dealer 
 and producer. The growth of the woollen industry 
 is shown by many changes and developments, but not 
 the least significant is the fact that l)y the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century need had arisen for a separate class 
 of "drapers," or dealers in cloth, distinct at once from 
 the craftsmen, who produced the cloth, and from the 
 early merchants, who included it with other articles 
 in the simple transactions of their limited business. 
 The first charter was granted to the Drapers' Company 
 of London in 13G4, giving a monopoly of the 
 retail sale of cloth ; but at that time the 1364 
 drapers were, it seems, still engaged in the 
 actual production of the cloth — in that part which 
 formed the finishing process. Within fifty years the 
 Company had gained great power ; even at the end of the 
 reign of Edward HL, together with the Mercers, who
 
 90 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 dealt in silk, and the Grocers, who dealt in spices, they 
 had risen to the first position among the London Com- 
 panies. A similar place was taken l)y the three trades 
 in other towns, and from their number, and especially 
 from the mercers, the important Society of Merchant 
 Adventurers afterwards arose, " the parent," in Professor 
 Ashley's words,* " of all the later trading companies, 
 which won for England her commercial supremacy." 
 Unlike the Merchants of the Staple, the Adventurers were 
 ready to push the sale of fresh commodities in new direc- 
 tions. The Merchants of the Staple dealt in raw materials ; 
 the later Adventurers traded in the manufactured 
 articles, and among these cloth rapidly assumed the chief 
 position, as wool before had enjoyed the lead of 
 1407 the raw material exported from the country. 
 Their first charter dates from the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century. 
 
 21. Restrictions were placed on apprenticeship. 
 
 The early craftsman was in many cases his own 
 dealer and himself bought his raw material and sold 
 his finished goods. He also did the actual work of 
 manufacture. He may, it is true, have employed tvvfo 
 or three persons beside himself, but — at first, at any 
 rate — they enjoyed an equality of rank with him. In 
 course of time distinctions arose which were at once 
 a cause and a consequence of the more exclusive spirit 
 shown by the gilds. The master-craftsman was parted 
 l)y degrees from his apprentices, learning their craft, and 
 from his.;o»7vic?/?;K'u, or hired labourers. The conditions 
 of apprenticeship were used as a means of limiting the 
 numbers of the trade. It was gradually established as 
 the sole route by which men passed to mastership, and 
 * " Economic History," vol. ii., p. 216,
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 91 
 
 gradually was its duration fixed. Seven years thus came 
 to be the common term. Villeins, as such, were excluded. 
 Fees were taken, which at a later period were burdensome 
 enough to cause a grievance. By the sixteenth century 
 restriction on the number of apprentices was general. 
 Such conditions may have proceeded from the same 
 mixed motives as those which often prompted both 
 merchant-gild and craft-gild. Their rules united a 
 regard for the honest workmanship, which advanced 
 the public interest, with a wish to gain and to preserve 
 exclusive privilege. Similarly, restriction of the number 
 of apprentices may have been intended to promote 
 efficient training as well as to diminish competition. 
 At any rate, such a limit became usual, and 
 the clause on the matter in the famous Statute 1563 
 of Apprentices, passed in the fifth year of the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, was, it seems, designed, with 
 other statutes, to hinder certain trades from departing 
 from a custom generally observed. 
 
 22. " Journeymen " increased in number. 
 
 Some of these rules fixed a relation between the 
 number of apprentices, which a master-craftsman could 
 take, and the number of journeymen in his employment. 
 By the middle of the fourteenth century this class of 
 journeymen had grown important. At first, no doubt, 
 each apprentice might reasonably look forward to the 
 hope of being a master-craftsman, either at the close of 
 his apprenticeship or after a short interval of hiring as 
 a journeyman. With the growth of population and an 
 increase in the scale of industry, an abundance of labour 
 seeking employment, on the one hand, and a necessity, 
 on the other, for accumulating capital, before a business 
 could be started, joined with the selfishness of existing
 
 92 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 masters, who wished naturally to limit their numbers, 
 in making such a prospect more remote. A journeyman 
 could no longer count on reaching the position of a 
 master. Some conflict of interests between journeymen 
 and masters is perhaps shown by the " journeymen's 
 associations," or "fraternities," which arose in certain 
 industries in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
 centuries. In England, as on the Continent, they 
 covered their economic aims, whatever they may have 
 been, beneath that open disguise of a religious associa- 
 tion which was a common feature of the time. At the 
 stage indeed, in which we actually discover them, they 
 seem rather to be subordinate departments of the masters' 
 companies ; and in any event, it would appear, they were 
 less prominent in England than they became upon the 
 Continent. The opposition prevailing here l)etween 
 journeymen and masters was not so pronounced. The 
 general conditions of industry, in fact, were different. 
 
 23. The woollen industry passed into the " domes- 
 tic system." 
 
 The weavers of Coventry furnish one example of such 
 a journeymen's association, and there an agreement 
 between masters and journeymen was reached by 
 mutual understanding in the middle of the fifteenth 
 century. The masters were permitted to restrict the 
 number of apprentices ; the journeymen were allow^ed to 
 form a " fraternity," and to gain the rank of masters on the 
 payment of a pound. At that time, however, changes of 
 great importance, which we may now study, were making 
 their appearance in the woollen industry. It was leaving 
 the gild-system ; it was entering a new phase. Professor 
 Ashley remarks* that economic historians have distin- 
 * " Economic History," vol. ii., p. 219.
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 93 
 
 guished four stages of the development of industry. In 
 the lirst, under the faniili/ sijsfoii, " the work was carried 
 on by the members of a household for the use of that 
 household." In the second, under the ffild system, the 
 craftsman alone, or with his few apprentices and journey- 
 men, produced for a small and steady market, and often 
 himself bought his materials and sold his goods, or at 
 least received the materials from a customer, who in- 
 tended the goods for his own use, and paid the craftsman 
 for their manufacture. The third stage of development 
 was what is known as the domestic system. It lasted from 
 the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the eighteenth 
 century. The master-craftsman, still working at home 
 with his apprentices and journeymen, no longer did the 
 work of buying, or, at least, of selling. A middleman, 
 who bore the risks of the trade, often supplied the raw 
 material, and always took the finished goods for sale. 
 "With the factory system, which, at the close of the 
 eighteenth century, marked the fourth and final stage, 
 workers were massed together in one building, under 
 the immediate control and direction of capitalist-em- 
 ployers. 
 
 24. There were even then some single instances 
 of factories. 
 
 The woollen industry was now entering the third 
 of these four stages. Single instances might indeed 
 be found where the factor}^ system was already so far 
 in existence that a number of workpeople were collected 
 underneath one roof. In this connection the name of 
 " Jack of Newbury " is famous, although the scale of his 
 undertakings has probably received addition from the 
 extravagance of rumour or of fable. A hundred or 
 two hundred looms, and ten hundred men, women, and
 
 94 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 children working in his factory, may he an excessive 
 numher for the real enterprise of one John Winch- 
 comhe, who controlled a husiness of European fame at 
 Newhury at an early period of the sixteenth century. 
 Yet the existence of some such extensive undertakings 
 receives support from provisions applying to the owner- 
 ship and the hiring of looms contained in a Weavers' 
 Act of 1555. There is also reason for thinking 
 1555 that some monastic huildings were turned to 
 some such use ; and, as Professor Ashley writes,* 
 a distinction between separate stages of development 
 does not imply that at any one period one system 
 occupied, to the exclusion of others, the whole field 
 of industry, or that all industries and all districts 
 passed in turn through each successive stage, or that 
 varieties might not be found which did not correspond 
 exactly to any one of the four stages. 
 
 25. The ** clothier " was the centre of the " domestic 
 system." 
 
 Of the presence of the domestic system in the woollen 
 industry from the middle of the fifteenth century 
 onwards little, or no, doubt can be felt. The existence 
 of a number of local varieties of cloth, which led in the 
 later part of the fourteenth century, and during the 
 fifteenth, to experiments in the "aulnage," in the 
 direction of allowing greater choice, points to the rapid 
 spread of the industry in various districts. The pro- 
 visions of different statutes, which were passed, reflect 
 the natural desire of the old industry, still organised in 
 the towns on the gild system, to restrict the growth of 
 the new industry in the country, or at least to settle its 
 strange conditions according to what was conceived to 
 * " Economic History," vol. ii., pp. 220-222.
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 05 
 
 l)e the public interest. The manufactures of the West 
 Country and of the Eastern Counties attract repeated 
 notice, and were therefore, in all probability, the dis- 
 tricts first favoured by the novel system. It was 
 not until later that the northern county of York- 
 shire became conspicuous as a seat of the new woollen 
 industry. The motive force and the directing spirit 
 of the system were embodied in the person of the 
 "clothier." Distinct alike from the mere dealer or 
 merchant, who might buy the finished cloth and sell 
 it in the market, and from the mere craftsman, who 
 might buy the unfinished raw material and turn it into 
 the manufactured cloth, the "clothier" arranged for 
 the whole process of production from first to last. In 
 Professor Ashley's words, " He buys the wool ; causes it 
 to be spun, woven, fulled, and dyed ; pays the artisan for 
 each stage in the manufacture ; and sells the finished 
 commodity to the drapers."* He may not, indeed, in 
 any individual case have employed a large amount of 
 capital, measured by a modern standard. He may have 
 attempted to practise petty extortions at the expense of 
 the craftsmen, which they and the State resented. But 
 of his great economic importance as the centre of the 
 system there can be no doubt. The significance of the 
 change itself is not easy to overrate. 
 
 26. The gilds finally declined. 
 
 Two consequences it produced, the influence of which 
 was widely felt. Of the change from arable to pastoral 
 farming — from tillage to the raising of sheep — which 
 was stimulated by the enlarged demand for continuous 
 supplies of wool, we shall trace the course in the follow- 
 ing chapter. We may now notice that individuals thrown 
 * " Economic History," voL ii., p. 228.
 
 96 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 out of occupation by the agricultural change supplied — in 
 part, at least — the labour needed for the new industrial 
 development. The graziers (or large sheep-farmers), in 
 their turn, seem to have joined with "drapers" and 
 others in swelling the ranks of the " clothiers." A 
 further change of momentous importance was the decline 
 of the gilds. They continued, indeed, to exist for some 
 time after the introduction of the domestic system. It 
 is probable that confiscating legislation 
 1545-1547 which was passed took from them only 
 such portions of their revenues as were 
 set apart for religious purposes. It is certain that 
 changes directly affecting them were not rapid. The 
 increasing influence of national considerations under 
 the Tudor Sovereigns, and the growing interference of 
 the central government, assailed them from outside. 
 They lost such power as they still possessed of settling 
 the prices of goods. They saw their authority over 
 apprentices and journeymen disappear as the Eliza- 
 bethan Statute intrusted to the justices of the 
 1563 peace the duties they had exercised as rights. 
 From within, their control of trade was weakened 
 by the fact that by combining different " companies " 
 they became bodies with such diversities of character 
 and interest that they were no longer able with 
 expert knowledge to exercise effective supervision over 
 industry. That, indeed, had now ceased to accord 
 with popular feeling. Yet the growth of the domestic 
 system of industry outside their boundaries and control, 
 though it may not have proved immediately fatal, and 
 they may have survived until their strength was sapped 
 by other more destructive forces, must have been a 
 weakening influence. Its similar effects on the restric-
 
 THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 1)7 
 
 tivG powers and privileges of the municipal authorities, 
 with which the gilds themselves were linked, hardly need 
 to be shown in detail. 
 
 27. But the towns may or may not have lost their 
 prosperity. 
 
 That the towns themselves declined in prosperity 
 between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries has 
 been maintained by some and denied by others. It is 
 contended that it is not proved by remissions made by 
 the Crown from their assessments for taxing purposes 
 after 1482. These may have meant the substitution of 
 a definite rule for an irregular, unsatisfactory practice 
 which had previously been followed. The lastmg records 
 of costly splendour preserved in the surviving architec- 
 ture and the testimony borne by "sumptuary laws" 
 to extravagance may be set against provisions for 
 compelling ruined houses to be rebuilt, which had be- 
 come a public nuisance, needing public pressure for its 
 removal. They may also be set against the withdrawal 
 of wealthy inhabitants from dwellings in the towns to 
 residences of greater pleasantness outside. But, what- 
 ever opinion we may form* on the economic conditions 
 of the times and the material resources of the towns, 
 the exclusive powers of the municipal authorities cer- 
 tainly declined. Agreements for mutual exemptions 
 of their burgesses from tolls made between dili'erent 
 towns, and the increasing energy of the central govern- 
 ment in framing and enforcing rules of general applica- 
 tion, were co-operating causes. They were aided by the 
 rise of the domestic system of industr}- in the country 
 outside the influence of municipal control. One system, 
 
 * Cf. below in the next chapter, p. 119.
 
 98 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 in short, was dying, and another was coming into being 
 in its place. Of this the changes in the towns were 
 signiticant ; the changes in the country, as we shall see 
 in the following chapter, were equally momentous. An 
 old order was indeed passing away, and a new era was 
 beginning.
 
 \\ 
 
 CHAPTER yi. 
 
 FROM THE MEDIi^VAL TO THE MODERN 
 
 WORLD. 
 
 (From Edward I. to tlic Tudors.) 
 
 Agriculture and the Country. — The Black Death, 
 THE Peasant Revolt, .ysiD Inclosures. 
 
 I. Sir Walter of Henley and Fitzherbert were 
 famous agricultural writers in the thirteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. 
 
 In the thirteenth centary Sir Walter of Henley wrote 
 in French a book on farming under the title of 
 " Husbandry,"* which enjoyed great repute. Its fame 
 continued until in the sixteenth century its place was 
 taken by another work with a similar title. 
 " Mayster Fitzherbert's Boke of Husbandry " 1523 
 passed through many editions before the close of 
 the century. An agricultural expert! has stated recently 
 that the theory, which the author of that book put 
 forward "of the origin of the liuke in sheep, survives 
 in a more scientific form at the present day." 
 
 * Strictly, "Lc Ditc clc Hoscbondrie." It has been translated 
 by Miss E. Laiuond. 
 
 t Mr. R. E. Prothero, in " The Pioneers and Progress of Enghsh 
 Farming," p. 29. Eit/.herbert included some of Sir Walter of 
 Henley's work in his own book. 
 
 7—2
 
 100 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 "The sixteenth century," Mr. Prothero remarks m his 
 "Pioneers and Progress of EngHsh Farming," "especially 
 towards its close, witnessed a general impulse to the 
 study and practice of farming." Nor was this sur- 
 prising, for " between 1450 and 1560 an agricultural 
 revolution was accomplished, which may be briefly 
 described as a change from self-sufficing to profit-gain- 
 ing agriculture, from common to individual ownership."* 
 The change, in fact, was of no less importance than that 
 which occurred about the same time in manufacturing 
 industry, and was connected with it. That, as we 
 saw, was the passage of the woollen trade from the 
 gild regime to the domestic system. The agricultural 
 change may be detected by a comparison between Sir 
 Walter of Henley and Fitzherbert. The former wrote 
 at a time when tillage of "open fields " was the general 
 mode. The latter showed in his writings that he was 
 fully aware of the advantages of what is known as 
 " convertible husbandry." 
 
 2. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an 
 agricultural revolution occurred. 
 
 Under the first of these systems the arable and pasture 
 were kept distinct ; with the second the pasture broken 
 up at short intervals was brought for a time under the 
 plough. The difference revealed the altered standpoint 
 of the farmer. With the " open-field system " the plough- 
 land was treated as filling the chief position ; before the 
 adoption of " convertible husbandry " it had given place 
 in importance to the pasture. Convertible husbandry was 
 practised Ijecause it was found by experience to be of 
 greater advantage than continuous pasture given to that 
 breeding of sheep, which was rendered peculiarly profit- 
 * " The Pioneers and Progress of English Farming," p. 18.
 
 AGRICULTURAL CHANGES 101 
 
 able l)y the growth of the woollen industry ; but its full 
 benefit could not have been reaped unless certain circum- 
 stances had made it possil)le to substitute pasture for 
 arable. These are found in a change from " common 
 to individual ownership," from combined to separate 
 cultivation, which was at once a cause and a con- 
 sequence of the break up of the manorial system. For 
 the inclosures, which announced and accompanied the 
 agrarian revolution, consisted not merely of incroach- 
 ments made by the lord, but also of the consolidation 
 of scattered holdings dispersed before through " open 
 fields." Not only were they necessary to the devotion 
 of land to large tracts of pasture for sheep, but they also 
 allowed improved arable cultivation, when in convertible 
 husbandry land was from time to time brought under the 
 plough. The substitution of " several" for "champion," 
 as the two systems of tenure were respectively termed, 
 proved thus of advantage to arable as well as to pastoral 
 farming, and of this Fitzherbert was aware. Nor was 
 "convertible husbandry" more than one important 
 phase of development. As the domestic system in manu- 
 facturing industry was destined to give way to the 
 factory, so in agriculture convertible husbandry was to be 
 followed and supplanted by the more scientific rotation 
 of crops. The domestic system, as we saw, rose in import- 
 ance as the gilds declined, and convertible husbandry in 
 the same way resulted from influences which proved fatal 
 to the open-field system found under the manor. In both 
 manufacture and agriculture the development from one 
 phase to another was neither universally nor uniformly 
 accomplished. In some places survivals from an earlier 
 or anticipations of a later phase might be found, and 
 instances might be discovered of varieties departing less
 
 102 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 or more from a prevailing pattern. But convertible 
 husbandry certainly marked a stage of advance. During 
 a particular period it was general, and it was a con- 
 sequence of causes previously at work. 
 
 3. Changes had occurred before in the manorial 
 system. 
 
 The open-field system was a characteristic feature of 
 the manor. The three great fields* into which the 
 aral)le land was divided were in their turn subdivided 
 into several strips. Some of these scattered strips 
 might form portions of the lord's demesne ; some might 
 consist of the holdings of villeins, bound to render services 
 of a more or less burdensome character ; and others 
 might belong to the socmen or the free tenants, whose 
 position, though subordinate to the lord, was yet more 
 dignified and independent than that of the villeins. 
 With the lapse of time the number of free tenants 
 increased from various causes. The economic position of 
 the villeins improved, although their standing in the 
 eyes of the law might be inferior to that which they 
 had in fact gained by custom. The occasion, and sign, of 
 this improvement was the increasing exchange of labour 
 services for money payments. It is possible that the 
 lord's demesne may gradually have been withdrawn 
 from scattered strips distributed in the open fields, and 
 gathered into a compact united whole. But, whether this 
 were the case or not before the time of those inclosures, 
 of which we shall treat later, it certainly was not 
 unusual for portions of the demesne to be let at money 
 ]-ents to tenants more or less free, and incroachments 
 
 * Tt seem<5 that tlie two-field system, where it prevailed, lent 
 itself more easily than tlie fhrec-ficld system to " convertible hus- 
 bandry," and, afterwards, to ihe four-course rotation.
 
 THE BLACK DEATH 103 
 
 from the common waste, allowed under conditions ])y the 
 Statute of Merton, might he put to a similar use. As 
 portions of the demesne were let — and this ol^ject would, 
 of course, he achieved more conveniently as the demesne 
 itself was consolidated — the need for the actual services 
 of the villeins would diminish, and a readiness to accept 
 money payments instead would increase. A similar 
 result would follow the substitution of hired labourers 
 from the ranks of those who either possessed no land, or, 
 like the cottars, occupied holdings which were not large 
 enough to supply their wants or to fill their time. In 
 any event, from the Norman Conquest onwards an 
 increase in the number of hired labourers, a growing 
 commutation of services, and a development of the 
 practice of leasing were changes occurring with different 
 degrees of completeness and at different rates of speed 
 in different manors and districts of the country. The 
 tenants of a manor from the first may have been 
 composed of various classes, distinguished now for 
 convenience of study into broad groups, and yet con- 
 sisting in reality of smaller sections shading into one 
 another by nice differences which might baffle percep- 
 tion. These differences might be multiplied in fact by 
 the changes we have noted. They might be reduced by 
 legal theory and practice, which tended to give rigidity 
 and permanence to broad lines of division, and to merge 
 minor distinctions in the two classes of the free and 
 the unfree. 
 
 4. The Black Death visited England in 1348. 
 
 In the middle of the fourteenth century a disturl)ing 
 influence appeared. This was the Black ])eath, which 
 visited England in 1848 and 1349. Of the terrible 
 nature of its ravages no doubt can be felt. It reached
 
 104 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the country in the year after Edward III. returned 
 in triumph from his victory at Crecy and at 
 1348 Calais ; and before it passed away it had de- 
 stroyed from a third to a half of the people. 
 Dr. Jessopp has examined certain records in the 
 Eastern counties, and given the result in his book 
 on "The Coming of the Friars."* Their testimony is 
 the more deserving of confidence, because they consist of 
 a bare catalogue of incidents, for tampering with which 
 there was no sufficient motive. Chroniclers, writing 
 their narratives in the midst of the alarm and distress 
 of the " deadly pestilence," might be tempted to 
 exaggerate; but the Institution Books of the Diocesan 
 Eegistries, and the Rolls of the Manor Courts, tell, 
 without comment, an impressive tale, neither adding to, 
 nor taking away from, its silent elo(iuence. The Institu- 
 tion Books record the admissions to livings. They were 
 kept, and have been preserved, with care ; for when 
 Papal interference with private patronage was at once 
 jealously resented, and constantly feared, these Books 
 supplied the holder of a benefice, into which he had 
 been hastily thrust at the death of his predecessor, with 
 the guarantee needed to preserve his claim. They 
 supply, therefore, a record of deaths among the parochial 
 clergy, and also among the heads of religious houses, 
 who were generally compelled to present themselves on 
 election to their Bishop. A similar record of the deaths 
 of the holders of land is found in the rolls of the 
 IVfanorial Courts. On the decease of a tenant, certain 
 rights of the lord arose. If he died without heirs his 
 land might ])e forfeit, or " escheated." ITis heirs might 
 have to yield a "heriot," in the form of the best beast, 
 * Gf. Essays IV. and V.
 
 THE BLACK DEATH 105 
 
 on tlieir succession, and to pay a fmo for admission. To 
 protect, therefore, the rights of the lord, and to secure 
 the interests of the tenants, the Court Rolls required, 
 and received, the same careful attention as the Institu- 
 tion Books. Their joint testimony accordingly to the 
 ravages of the plague can hardly he impeached ; and 
 they record a part alone of the mortality occurring in 
 the area, to which they refer. For a living might remain 
 vacant for some time from lack of a successor, and only 
 the heads of families figured, as a rule, on the rolls of 
 the Manor Courts. 
 
 5. The ravages of the pestilence were very great. 
 
 From Dr. Jessopp's examination of these records we 
 may select some typical examples. Entries, noting the 
 absence of heirs, " swarm in the Court Eolls " of the 
 year 1349. Sometimes the record is broken for a year 
 or two. Sometimes it is begun in one hand and con- 
 tinued in another, not yet fully formed, or is marred by 
 the bungles of some amateur. In one manor seventeen 
 tenants, eight of whom left no heirs, died in the interval 
 between one court and another. In a second manor 
 fifty-four men and fourteen women from a population, 
 which must have numbered less than four hundred, 
 were killed in six months, and twenty-four left no heirs. 
 In the parish of Hunstanton, " which a man may walk 
 round in two or three hours, and the whole population 
 of which might have assembled in the church then 
 recently built, one hundred and seventy-two persons, 
 tenants of the manor, died off in eight months ; sevent}'- 
 four of them left no heirs male, and nineteen others had 
 no blood relation in the world to claim the inheritance 
 of the dead." "In the two counties of Norfolk and 
 Suffolk, at least nineteen religious houses were left
 
 106 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 without prior or abbot," "In the house of Augustinian 
 Canons at Heveringland prior and canons died to a 
 man." "During the month of July" (1349) "in 
 scarcely a village within five miles of Norwich had the 
 parson escaped the mortality." "In a single year 
 upwards of eight hundred parishes lost their parsons, 
 eighty-three of them twice, and ten of them three times 
 in a few months." "When I consider all this," 
 Dr. Jessopp remarks, "and a great deal more that 
 might be dwelt on, I see no other conclusion to arrive 
 at but one, namely, that during the year ending March, 
 1350, more than half the population of East Anglia was 
 swept away by the Black Death. If anyone should 
 suggest that many more than half died, I should not be 
 disposed to quarrel with him." It must also be remem- 
 bered, as Dr. Jessopp observes, that probably the mor- 
 tality in the towns of East Anglia, which even then were 
 by no means unimportant, was equally or more severe, 
 for the sanitary conditions may well have been worse. 
 There are certainly reasons for thinking that other parts 
 of the land suffered no less disastrously from the Black 
 Death. 
 
 6. The Statutes of Labourers tried to prevent the 
 rise of wages, which followed. 
 
 The natural consequence of this great mortality was 
 seen in a scarcity of labour, and a difficulty in obtaining 
 its services at the previous rates of payment. This 
 difficulty would be felt in town and country. Where 
 the demesne was cultivated by hired labour, the for- 
 feiture of land on the death of a tenant, which must 
 often have resulted from the failure of heirs, would 
 prove but a mixed advantage to the lord. Where tenant 
 and heirs alike had died, there was no fine to be paid
 
 THE BLACK DEA.TH 107 
 
 on admission, and fresh labour must l)e hired to work 
 the additional land. That labour could only be hired 
 at a dearer rate. To meet the emergency a proclamation 
 was issued ; and, when Parliament assembled, 
 the Statute of Labourers was passed in 1351, to 1351 
 he followed by others of a similar but more 
 stringent character in 1357 and 1360. The proclama- 
 tion and the Statutes were intended to force labourers to 
 work at the old rates of wages. None were to give, or 
 to take, higher wages in the country or the town. None, 
 who possessed no other means of livelihood, were to 
 refuse an offer of work on such terms. None were to 
 quit their employment on pain of imprisonment. Those, 
 who took this step, were, by the Statute of 1360, to be 
 branded on their foreheads. By the Statute of 1357 
 the fines levied for breaking the earlier Statute were 
 given to the lords as a stimulus to their activity in 
 arresting offenders. These Statutes were noteworthy, 
 not merely because the}' tried, in harmony with the 
 mediaeval temper, to regulate strictly the conditions of 
 employment, but also on account of their penalties 
 against giving alms to those " valiant beggars " who were 
 able to work but preferred to tramp, and of the endeavour 
 which they made to fix the price of provisions. By the 
 latter attempt they softened, in spirit at least, the harsh- 
 ness of which they might be accused. In the veto on 
 almsgiving they anticipated later legislation dealing with 
 the undeserving poor. 
 
 7. They failed. 
 
 The Statutes failed to achieve their aim. The forces 
 with which they came into conflict were too powerful. 
 To fix by legislation a "just price" was, indeed, a 
 favourite object of the mediaeval ruler. To establish by
 
 108 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the same means a "just wage" did not seem to be 
 either novel or impossible, but, on the contrary, a 
 promising method of checking a rise of prices. Nor 
 could an attempt to determine wages by regulation, 
 accompanied by an endeavour to settle the price of 
 provisions, be deemed unjust, however oppressive were 
 the penalties for breaches of the law imposed by the 
 later severer Statutes. Before the Statutes, wages had, 
 it seems, risen in a higher degree than the prices, which 
 would chiefly concern the labourers' expenditure, and 
 their demands might appear "extortionate." After the 
 Statutes, the rise of prices was probably helped by certain 
 changes made in the coins, which became less heavy 
 in proportion to their size, and by the introduction of 
 foreign money, which would aid in swelling the currency, 
 in rendering it less valuable, and raising the prices of 
 goods for which it was exchanged. The labourer, there- 
 fore, might now l)e the victim, as he had formerly 
 perhaps l^een the agent, of " extortion." As a matter of 
 fact, Thorold Eogers believes* that average wages rose 
 some fifty per cent. He thinks that the Statutes were 
 generally evaded, and that recourse was had to such 
 colourable pretences as those revealed in the bailiffs' 
 rolls, where high figures were first entered, through 
 which the pen was afterwards drawn, and lower figures 
 were then put in their place. 
 
 8. " Stock and land" leases became common. 
 
 For town and for country alike the Statutes of 
 Labourers had been intended. Saddlers and skinners, 
 tailors, smiths and carpenters, were included in the 
 proclamation of 1340. Carpenters, masons and plas- 
 terers, tilers, carriers and shoemakers, and other crafts- 
 * "Six Centuries," p. 237.
 
 THE BLACK DEATH 109 
 
 men, were brought under the Statute of 1351. In the 
 towns, it seems, the faihu-e of the legishition was 
 admitted, and the rise of wages w'as, wilHngly or 
 unwiUingly, allowed. In the country the situation was 
 met in another way, and greater friction was caused. 
 Before the Black Death the practice of letting land, 
 whether it belonged to the demesne or had been taken 
 from the waste, was not unknown, and money-rents 
 were generally paid. Even the " stock and land leases," 
 described by Thorold Rogers, ''■ had occasionally been 
 given and taken. Under these the rent was measured, 
 and treated, not as a money-commutation for service 
 rendered before in labour, but as a proportion of the profit 
 expected to arise from the cultivation of the land. In the 
 last half of the fourteenth century such leases became 
 common. The tenant rented the land with the necessary 
 stock for working it ; and at the close of his tenancy, 
 which might last for seven or for ten years, he restored 
 the stock or its value in money. Sometimes he was only 
 liable to make the replacement if the losses incurred were 
 usual, and were not caused by some exceptional calamity. 
 In time he might substitute his own stock for that of his 
 landlord; and thus the " stock-and-land " lease issued 
 by a natural development, in the course of some seventy 
 years, in the modern form of tenancy, f Under this the 
 farmer possesses the stock with which the land is worked, 
 and conducts the business of cultivation with capital 
 which he controls, whether it belong to himself or be 
 borrowed from a banker or some other source. The 
 landlord supplies and maintains the buildings, and bears 
 the expense of the permanent improvements. This 
 practice of English landlords, in which they diU'er 
 * " Six Centuries," p. 279, etc. f Ibid., p. 2«2.
 
 110 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 from Irish, may, perhaps, Thorold Kogers holds,* be 
 traced to the "habit of cultivating their own estates 
 with their own capital, at their own risk," which at first 
 prevailed. In any case, the tenant under the new " stock 
 and land" lease, in spite of some important differences, 
 might be regarded as a forerunner of the farmer of to- 
 day, who works his land, and pays his rent, on commercial 
 principles. On these grounds at any rate he might be 
 distinguished from his predecessors. The great pressure 
 resulting from the scarcity of labour after the Black 
 Death stimulated the lords thus to seek relief in leasing 
 their land, wdiere they were able. The tenants would, for 
 the most part, be content to cultivate it with the labour 
 of themselves and their families, for which they need 
 not pay high wages in a dear market. The landlord was 
 freed from the difficulty of obtaining hired labour, work- 
 ing, as before, under his bailiff. 
 
 9. Disputes arose between the lords and the 
 villeins. 
 
 But leasing was not always possible, even where it 
 was welcome. Most of the tenants placed in this new 
 relation had probably been free labourers. The villeins 
 remained, rendering services, partly in labour and partly 
 in money. With the rise of prices the money did not 
 go so far in the purchase of commodities, and among 
 these might be included the instruments of agricultural 
 production. With the scarcity of hired labour and the 
 advance in wages, the interests of the lords inclined, 
 where they had the choice, in the direction of obtaining 
 services in actual labour in preference to money-payments. 
 That the process of commutation should be arrested — and 
 
 * "Six Centuries," p. 54.
 
 TUE PEASANT REVOLT 111 
 
 in the Eastern Counties, apparently, it had not yet gone 
 very far — that services in labour should be rigidly exacted; 
 that the lords should take advantage of any superiority 
 that their status or control of documents might aiford ; 
 that the manorial courts, where the issue was tried, 
 should give them, and not the villeins, the benefit of 
 the doubt where doubt existed ; that the fines and dis- 
 abilities which remained when services in labour had 
 been commuted, such as restrictions on the marriage of 
 a daughter or the education of a son, should appear to 
 the villeins a more grievous burden than hitherto they 
 had been,* were consequences which naturally followed. 
 They created or increased friction between lord and 
 villein. Escapes of villeins to the towns became more 
 frequent. The imposition, in 1380, of a poll-tax, 
 which was specially heavy, to meet the expenses 1380 
 of a war that had latterly been unfortunate and 
 so mismanaged that it was attended by ravaging of the 
 English coasts, fanned the smouldering embers of dis- 
 content. Its collection required and evoked strict and 
 vexatious attention, repeated in a second inquiry, on the 
 part of the collectors, whose duty it was to ascertain the 
 amount of a man's possessions. The humbler clergy, 
 whose tithes were often " impropriated " for the benefit 
 of some great lord, encouraged the rising ; and the 
 exciting influence of the sermons of John Ball and the 
 disturbing, stimulating teaching of Wycliflfe and his 
 followers, which, in spite of the scholastic lan- 
 guage in which its socialistic leanings were ex- 1381 
 pressed, may, by different channels, have reached 
 the popular ear, combined to rouse fermenting grievance 
 
 * Certain grievances arc noticed in "' i'iers the Plowman," by 
 William Langland.
 
 112 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 into open revolt. In 1381 the storm burst, and by its 
 violence alarmed those in authority.* 
 
 10. The Peasant Revolt did not abolish villeinage. 
 
 The Peasant Revolt was marked by the destruction of 
 muniment rooms and by the burning of mills. These acts 
 were significant. The former contained the documentary 
 evidence of serfdom ; the latter were visible tokens of 
 the oppressive privileges of the lords, who compelled 
 their dependants to grind their corn at their mills. The 
 hopes and ambitions of the peasants were vaguely directed 
 to freedom ; when they were forced to substitute a 
 specific demand for general discontent, they asked for 
 the letting of land at moderate rates. The Eevolfc was, 
 at first, attended by success. Manors were attacked, 
 towns were invaded, and the safety of the capital itself 
 was threatened by the bands, which came from the 
 neighbouring counties. Those from Kent, where the 
 peasants were, at least in theory, free, were led by 
 Wat Tyler, and his death proved a serious blow. The 
 bold and conciliatory address of the youthful king re- 
 moved the danger. But, when the Revolt had been 
 suppressed with a vigorous arm, the peasantry had not 
 achieved their freedom, although the indirect influence 
 on the minds and memories of those in power may ulti- 
 mately have proved considerable. At the moment, how- 
 ever, Richard did not keep the promises which he made ; 
 and for this excuse might be sought in the violence of the 
 peasants themselves, which roused the influential portion 
 of the nation to crush them, and in the firm determina- 
 tion of the lords to preserve obligations, from which the 
 King was unable, and Parliament was unwilling, to grant 
 release. Services and disabilities continued. They dis- 
 
 * Cf. G. M. Trevelyan, " England in the Age of Wycliffe."
 
 THE PEASANT REVOLT 113 
 
 appeared under the gradual influence of economic forces, 
 which produced slowly what the revolt failed at once 
 
 to achieve. But Fitzherbert in the sixteenth ^^^^ 
 
 1574 
 century could still regret the existence of vil- 
 leinage ; and Elizabeth freed the villeins on the royal 
 estates. 
 
 II. Economic forces gradually accomplished this. 
 
 When Fitzherbert wrote, the system of " convertible 
 husbandry" was so far recognised that he knew its 
 merits. That system followed a large conversion of 
 arable into pasture, which was stimulated, not only by 
 the developments of the woollen industry, but also by 
 difficulty ill obtaining labour. Pasture required far 
 less labour than arable. The rise in wages made hired 
 labour dearer : the reluctance and ill-will, which would 
 naturally accompany the forced discharge of services by 
 villeins, begat a disposition to avoid the need. By the 
 close of the sixteenth century villeinage disappeared. 
 During the fifteenth the change of arable into pasture 
 steadily progressed. The manorial economy, in fact, 
 was undermined. The growth of sheep-farming proved 
 fatal to the open-field system, under which the villeins, 
 the free tenants, and sometimes also the lord himself, 
 possessed holdings made up of small strips, dispersed in 
 different places. In manufacturing industry the domestic 
 system proved incompatible with the restrictive rules 
 of the gilds. In agriculture the traditional routine of 
 the manor gave way before the irresistible pressure 
 of economic influences ; and the same methods, which 
 encountered and removed the obstacles of the open- 
 field system, made it no longer of advantage to insist on 
 forced labour. 
 
 8
 
 114 ENGLISH COMMENCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 12. Inclosures were made. 
 
 The change from arable to pasture meant mclosure. 
 From 1470 to 1530 accordmgly mclosures were made on 
 an extensive scale. This period, like that which, later, 
 stretched from 1760 to 1830, marked a stage of rapid 
 movement in a process, which occupied in all upwards 
 of four hundred years. The earlier, like the later period, 
 accompanied and allowed developments of agricultural 
 practice. But the permanent advantage of the whole 
 nation was not incompatible with serious injury to 
 special classes. The substitution of " several " for 
 " champion " proved certainly of profit to arable as well 
 as to pastoral farming. The energy of the individual 
 could now be centred on a compact inclosed whole, instead 
 of being distributed, and, it might be, dissipated, over 
 many scattered fragments in open fields. He could pursue 
 the course of cultivation, which he found most con- 
 venient to himself, and most suitable to his land, without 
 interference caused by common rights of grazing, or a 
 stipulated order of rotation. It is evident at least that 
 the change from arable to pasture was not followed by 
 the advance in the price of corn, which might have 
 l)een expected. 
 
 13. They often injured the villeins. 
 
 None the less the process of inclosure wrought injury 
 to villeins in particular, and in general to the humbler 
 classes of the community. During the reign of Elizabeth, 
 when the movement was less rapid, such inferior interests 
 met with more attention, and villeins might derive the 
 advantage in cultivation which naturally resulted from 
 union of their lioldings. Even then smaller cottagers 
 might suffer from the loss of employment, or the for- 
 feiture of rights of pasture, which would follow the
 
 INCLOSURES 115 
 
 inclosure of the waste and the extension of sheep-farming. 
 But from 1450 to 1550 the position differed seriously from 
 that which afterwards obtained from the middle to the 
 end of the sixteenth century. At the last date indeed the 
 inclosures ceased as a general movement, to be renewed 
 again two centuries later, in obedience to the needs of 
 agricultural science. 
 
 14. This was especially the case during the earlier 
 period of the inclosures, 1450-1550. 
 
 Villeins were affected by the inclosures in various 
 ways. The change of the demesne of the lord from 
 arable to pasture curtailed employment. It injured the 
 smaller tenants, who added to the scanty resources of 
 their little holdings the help of occasional wages. 
 Such a result followed, even when the demesne had 
 been withdrawn before from the open fields, and gathered 
 into a separate whole. If it were still mingled with the 
 scattered holdings of the free tenants and the villeins, 
 its inclosure would interfere with common cultivation, 
 and might limit, or annul, the rights of common pasture 
 on the stubble and the fallow. A similar result would 
 follow the inclosure of their holdings by free tenants ; 
 but in this case, as in that of the lord's demesne, the only 
 ground of grievance for the villeins would be interference 
 with rights of pasture over fallow and stubble. It may 
 be doubted whether their interests, protected as they 
 might possibly be in legal theory, would, in actual 
 practice, be consistently regarded. It is certain that 
 the waste was extensively inclosed, and that this was 
 felt to be a real grievance. The legal position here 
 was less favourable to the preservation of the rights 
 of the villeins. The Statute of Merton allowed the 
 lord to incroach, if enough remained to meet the re- 
 
 8—2
 
 116 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 quirements of the tenants. The burden of proof lay on 
 then* side, and not on his ; and, while free tenants 
 were expressly mentioned in the Statute, villeins were 
 included by customary interpretation alone. 
 
 15. The legal position of the villeins was doubtful. 
 Even from their own scattered holdings they were 
 
 sometimes ousted. They might be ejected b}^ the force, 
 which overrode the law. Or they might be removed 
 under various legal pretexts. Fines for admission, which 
 they could not pay, might be demanded, and the land 
 might then be forfeit. Or leases, which were virtually 
 tenancies at will, might be substituted for the tenure, 
 which in legal theory was "precarious," but by custom 
 was considered permanent. The custom itself arose but 
 slowly. Villeinage, with a tenure dependent on the will 
 of the lord, was gradually transformed into copyhold, 
 under which a tenant was secured from eviction. The 
 Black Death may have helped to fix the custom ; for it 
 made the lords more anxious to keep, than eager to 
 expel, tenants bound to render their due of labour. The 
 Yorkist kings, who encouraged the towns, and the humbler 
 classes, may have favoured its judicial recognition. 
 But even the new custom did not prevent the lords from 
 resorting with success to older legal rights, when 
 economic motives urged in this direction ; and the 
 doubts, surrounding the legal position, were such as to 
 permit of a ruling by the courts injurious to the tenant. 
 
 16. Legislation was passed to check inclosures. 
 
 There were, it is true, counties scarcely affected by in- 
 closures, and there were others, where the amount was 
 small. But there were also counties, such as Suffolk and 
 Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent, Northampton- 
 shire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire,
 
 INCL08URES 117 
 
 where inclosures took place over the greater part, if not 
 the whole, of the district. The attention of the Legis- 
 lature was attracted to the matter, and Commissions of 
 Enqim^ were appointed, and measm-es taken to check 
 the evils. It is interesting to note that the Com- 
 mission of 1517 followed, at no long interval, the 1517 
 time when Sir Thomas More, in his "Utopia," 
 had spoken* of sheep becoming so "great devowerers 
 and so wylde, that they eate up, and swallow downe the 
 very men them selfes. They consume, destroye and 
 devoure whole lieldes, howses, and cities. For looke," 
 he continues, "in what parts of the realme doth growe 
 the fynest, and therefore dearest woll, there noblemen 
 and gentlemen ; yea, and certeyn Abbottes, . . . leave 
 no grounde for tillage, thei inclose al into pastures : 
 thei throw doune houses ; they plucks downe townes, 
 and leave nothing standynge, but only the churche to 
 be made a shepehowse." The encouragement of popula- 
 tion was, it is true, an object kept in view by the Mercantile 
 System as an essential condition of national power ; and 
 agriculture, and especially tillage, were favoured as a 
 means to such an end. The Tudor sovereigns followed 
 thus an example set by their predecessors in trying to 
 check the destruction of houses, and to limit the acreage 
 of land, which one individual might occupy, and the 
 number of sheep, which he might possess. But such 
 laws were evaded, and inclosure continued. 
 
 17. The break-up of the Manorial system took 
 place. 
 
 Yet the woollen industry, which stimulated the in- 
 closures, itself supplied to some extent the remedy for 
 the distress that it was causing. The domestic system, 
 
 * In the First Book.
 
 118 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 under which it was now being conducted, furnished a 
 second occupation for the seasons, and the hours, when 
 the labourer, and his family, could not pursue their 
 agricultural work. The growth of the manufacture of 
 cloth offered new opportunity for employment to those 
 driven from farming to make room for sheep. The 
 total influence of this industry was certainly remark- 
 able. It was the first to discard the restrictive rules of 
 the gilds in the towns ; it helped to cause in the country 
 the break-up of the manor. The modern world, in fact, 
 with its fresh ideas and novel practices, was taking the 
 place slowly, but surely, of the customs and institutions 
 of the middle ages. They, or their ghosts, might linger, 
 in some places for many a day, but the life was gone 
 from them, and their influence was spent. The un- 
 altering conditions of media3val times, which were thus 
 departing, have been regretted by some thinkers, troubled 
 by the restless movements and bewildering uncer- 
 tainties of the more modern age in which they live. But 
 another view of the matter is also held. It has been 
 eloquently expressed by Froude in the opening words 
 of his "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to 
 the Death of Elizabeth." " In periods like the present," 
 he writes,* " when knowledge is every day extending, 
 and the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually 
 changing under the influence of new discoveries, it is 
 no easy matter to throw ourselves back into a time in 
 which for centuries the European world grew upon a 
 single type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts 
 were the forms of the son's, and the late descendant was 
 occupied in treading into paths the footprints of his 
 distant ancestors. So absolutely has change become 
 
 * P. 1.
 
 INCLOSURES 119 
 
 the law of our present condition, that it is identified 
 with energy and moral health ; to cease to change is to 
 lose place in the great race ; and to pass away from off 
 the earth with the same convictions which we found 
 when we entered it, is to have missed the best object 
 for which we now seem to exist." Yet " to cease to 
 change " was the cherished ideal of the middle ages. 
 
 i8. Different opinions have been held about the 
 economic conditions of the fifteenth century. 
 
 A peculiar difference of opinion has arisen on the 
 economic conditions of that fifteenth century in which, 
 we have noted, both in manufacturing and in agricultural 
 industry important revolutions were beginning. The 
 century has been described by one writer* as the 
 "golden age of the English labourer " — as a time when 
 he enjoyed a prosperity, a command of necessary com- 
 modities allowed by his wages and their prices, which 
 he never reached again. Another writerf has painted 
 the conditions of the people in the blackest colours, 
 living in uncomfortable dwellings, looking on mean 
 unsanitary surroundings, and visited by frequent pesti- 
 lence and famine. It is possible that the unfavourable 
 critic has placed excessive trust in the exaggerated 
 accounts of certain years and places given by certain 
 chroniclers. It seems probable that the sanguine 
 observer has not paid enough attention to that general 
 irregularity, and frequent interruption, of employment, 
 which must have seriously diminished the annual average 
 income gained even by the men, whose wages have 
 been actually recorded by day or week or month. As 
 we saw in the previous chapter, facts may be opposed to 
 
 * Thorold Rogers. 
 
 t Denton, in his " England in the Fifteenth Century."
 
 120 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 facts ; evidence must be compared with evidence. It 
 cannot be denied that the material comforts of life have 
 been supplied in greater fulness in the present age than 
 they could have been four centuries before. It may be 
 the case that something of certainty and independence 
 has been yielded in exchange. At any rate, the whole 
 period that we have been examining saw an eventful 
 change. We may quote again the language of Froude 
 who thus describes the sixteenth century. " A 
 change," he writes,* " was then coming upon the 
 world, the meaning and direction of which even still 
 is hidden from us, a change from era to era. The 
 paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were broken 
 up ; old things were passing away, and the faith and 
 life of ten centuries were dissolving like a dream. 
 Chivalry was dying ; the abbey and the castle were soon 
 together to crumble into ruins ; and all the forms, desires, 
 beliefs, convictions of the old world were passing away, 
 never to return." " In the fabric of habit in which they 
 had so laboriously built for themselves, mankind were to 
 remain no longer." "And now it is all gone — like an 
 unsubstantial pageant faded ; and between us and the 
 old English there lies a gulf of mystery which the prose 
 of the historian will never adequately bridge. They 
 cannot come to us, and our imagination can but feebly 
 penetrate to them." 
 
 * "History," p. 01.
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM AND THE OLD 
 
 ECONOMICS. 
 
 {From the Tudors to the Georges.) 
 
 Trade and Industry in England. 
 
 I. The Tudor monarchy favoured the commercial 
 and industrial classes. 
 
 "The Tudor monarchy," writes Mr. Goldwin Smith 
 in his " Political History" of the " United Kingdom,"* 
 " rested on the middle classes, which, in spite of the 
 Wars of the Ptoses, had been all the time gaining ground, 
 and, being commercial and industrial, welcomed after 
 the civil war a strong government, thinking less, for the 
 time, of political liberty than of liberty to ply the loom, 
 speed the plough, grow the wool, and spread the sail. 
 A nation enriching itself in peace and sub- 
 missive to the fatherly rule of a wise king 1485- 1509 
 was the ideal of the first Tudor." The 
 practice of his son and successor, in reducing the amount 
 of good metal contained in the coins, or debasing the 
 currency, as it is called, departed from tliis 
 ideal, and dealt a blow to the economic I509-I547 
 welfare of the nation, and especially of the 
 labouring classes, which was none the less deadly, 
 
 * Cf. " The United Kingdom : a Political History," vol. i., p. 289.
 
 122 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 because it was subtle. The i^ernicious example thus 
 set by Henry YIII. in the later years of his reign 
 was followed at first by the ministers of 
 1547-1553 Edward YI. They also pursued, and ex- 
 tended, the policy of appropriating religious 
 revenues, which, beginning with the monastic houses, 
 was afterwards applied to the funds of the gilds, con- 
 secrated to such objects. This policy, indeed, was not 
 responsible for the appearance of pauperism, or its 
 accompanying evils, and the charity of the religious 
 foundations may not, at any rate at the last, have been 
 well or wisely bestowed ; but it wrought destruction to 
 an established order of affairs, and injury to those, who 
 depended on its continuance. The reign of 
 1558-1603 Elizabeth is as remarkable for the resolute 
 wisdom of the measures taken by her and 
 her counsellers in repairing great economic ills, as it 
 deserves to be memorable for laying the foundations of 
 maritime supremacy, and starting colonial " expansion." 
 "The Queen poor; the realm exhausted; the nobility 
 poor and decayed ; good captains and soldiers wanting ; 
 the people out of order ; justice not executed ; all things 
 dear ; excesses in meat, diet, and apparel ; divisions 
 among ourselves ; war with France ; the French king 
 bestriding the realm, having one foot in Calais, and the 
 other in Scotland ; steadfast enemies, but no steadfast 
 friends "* — such was the legacy of troubles 
 1553-1558 which Elizabeth received from Mary; and 
 her Recoinago, her Statute of Appren- 
 tices, and her Poor Law, bear testimony no less 
 to the greatness of the problems with which she 
 dealt than to the ability, and statesmanship, shown in 
 * Quoted Ijy Froude, " History of England," vol. vii., p. 8.
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 123 
 
 their handling. " A nation enriching itself " " under 
 the fatherly rule" of a "wise" and "strong govern- 
 ment " may justly be said to have been the economic 
 " ideal " of the Elizal)ethan age. 
 
 2. The economic policy of the day was the 
 " Mercantile System." 
 
 The assertion, with increasing emphasis, of the 
 authority of the central government, entering the 
 domain, and withdrawing the privileges, of local bodies, 
 and replacing smaller interests by national considera- 
 tions, was characteristic of the Tudor monarchy. In 
 this it pursued a policy resembling that of Edward I. 
 and Edward III.; and it lent its powerful co-operation to 
 the overthrow of the old, narrow, rigid society, of which 
 the Manor and the Gild were types. A strong govern- 
 ment was now ready in their stead to guide the advance 
 of commerce and industry. But the principles, which 
 stimulated, and controlled economic activity in the days 
 of the Tudors, differed from the liberal instincts inspir- 
 ing an earlier national policy. That the Mercantile 
 System was the right guide for a nation to follow in its 
 economic conduct, even if individual wealth, or national 
 plenty, were thereby sacrificed to national 
 power, was a belief shared by the Tudors 1603-1688 
 with the Stuarts. It lasted through the 
 Commonwealth, the Restoration, and the Eevolution. 
 It was one of the motives of the contest with Holland, 
 and the later struggle with France, as well as the earlier 
 quarrel with Spain. Amid civil commotion and political 
 change it continued to prompt and direct economic 
 policy in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries. The principles of the system were briefly 
 stated by Lord Bacon when he observed that Henry YII.
 
 124 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 "bowed" the "ancient policy of the realm" from 
 "consideration of plenty to consideration of power." 
 National power was the object sought, and it would be 
 hard to prove that it was not the object reached, by 
 the Mercantile System. Adam Smith, whose criticism 
 largely helped to sap and destroy its influence, justified 
 an exception he was willing to allow to that freedom of 
 trade, which he sought to put in its place, by the 
 argument that "defence" was "of much more import- 
 ance than opulence."* The excuse thus made for the 
 Act of Navigation, " the wisest of all the commercial 
 regulations of England," might be extended. For the 
 economic policy of Edward III., aiming at plenty, had 
 consulted the interest of the consumer ; but the Mercan- 
 tile System, on the other hand, at the cost, perhaps, of 
 some " opulence," sought the advantage of the producer, 
 as a sign and condition of national power, and of 
 ability to make a successful "defence" against foreign 
 assault 
 
 3. National power, and not plenty, was the object 
 sought. 
 
 Power was maintained, and advanced, by the collec- 
 tion of treasure, by the increase of shipping, and by the 
 growth of population. All three were elements of 
 national strength. Treasure, which supplied the sinews 
 of prompt and effective war, and was possessed in 
 abundant measure by Spain, the enemy of England, 
 might be secured by direct attention to the movements 
 of the precious metals themselves into, and out of, the 
 country, or might indirectly be obtained by managing 
 the exjDorts and imports of goods. The early " buUion- 
 ists " adopted the stricter attitude ; the later "mercan- 
 * Cf. " Wealth of Nations," liook IV., cliap. ii.
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 1'25 
 
 tilists " were distinguished by their broader views. 
 Shipping, again, furnished the material for a powerful 
 navy, the " first line of defence " of an island. Its 
 development was the motive, v/hich prompted Naviga- 
 tion Acts, reserving to English ships the privilege of 
 carrying goods. For the same reason favouring atten- 
 tion was turned to the fishing industry, from which 
 mariners could be supplied. Nor was a large and 
 vigorous population less important an element of 
 national power than treasure or ships. Tillage was 
 encouraged because it provided the food, and preserved 
 the health, of the people, to whom it offered larger 
 opportunity of employment than its competitor, and 
 supplanter, pasture. All these motives — the accumula- 
 tion of treasure, the growth of shipping, and the main- 
 tenance and increase of the numbers and strength of 
 the people— guided the regulation of trade and industry. 
 With such objects in view new industries were intro- 
 duced, old industries protected, commerce extended, 
 probable rivals jealously excluded, actual competitors, 
 if possible, injured. These were the main principles of 
 the Mercantile System. 
 
 4. The ideas of the Mercantile System were seen 
 earlier (a) in attention to treasures. 
 
 Its influence over the opinions and conduct of men 
 declined before its theorj^ was abandoned, or its practice 
 reversed. For some time before it gave place to freedom 
 of trade, its authority was growing less, and new ideas 
 were taking shape. In the same way, although 
 Henry YII. might be credited with a fresh direction 
 given to the " ancient policy" of the realm, the leading 
 ideas of the Mercantile System had been expressed in 
 the acts of previous rulers. Its beginnings may be seen
 
 126 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 in the reign of Richard II., and traced, with increasing 
 distinctness, under the Yorkist kings, who favoured the 
 commercial and industrial classes then growing in wealth 
 
 and power. The Mercantile System, for instance, 
 1335 aimed at the accumulation of treasure. But 
 1339 Edward III. provided in his day that no one 
 
 should take silver or gold from the country 
 without a license, and that every merchant should 
 import 13s. 4d. in plate for every sack of wool that 
 he exported. Although this provision might anticipate 
 in the letter the principles of the Mercantile System, 
 its immediate object perhaps was, not the collection of 
 treasure, but the purity and abundance of the current 
 coins. In the reign of Eichard II. the former intention 
 came more clearly into view ; and the spirit, animating 
 later " bullionists " and "mercantilists" respectively, 
 was then revealed in combination. The first of these, 
 as w^e shall see,* sought to achieve their end by pre- 
 venting the export of bullion ; and the second would 
 contrive, by a " favourable balance " of trade, to bring 
 more precious metals into the country in payment .for 
 exports than they would allow to be taken away in 
 
 exchange for imports. A mixture of such views 
 1 38 1 may be traced in certain measures taken by 
 
 Eichard II. To prevent " destruction of the 
 realm" no one was allowed to export gold or silver 
 for any object but the payment of wages in fortresses 
 beyond the seas. All other foreign obligations must be 
 discharged by the export of goods. Half the value of 
 the imports of foreigners was to be spent in the purchase 
 of English exports ; and this proportion was afterwards 
 increased from a half to the whole. The condition 
 * Cf. below, Chapter VIII.
 
 1'HE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 127 
 
 made later by Henry YI., that foreigners should furnish 
 security that they would not export gold, and the 
 stigma of felony, with its attendant penalties, 1428 
 placed on such action by Edward IV,, were, it 
 seems, intended to serve the double purpose of dealing 
 with the currency difficulty caused by a scarcity 
 of gold, and of avoiding the "impoverishing" 1478 
 of the realm. Henry VH., again, could be 
 accused of no neglect in accumulating treasure ; l)ut 
 his own subjects perhaps, more than foreigners, knew 
 this to their cost, and his methods consisted of direct 
 extraction of money from their pockets rather than of 
 preventing the export of bullion, or compelling its im- 
 port. His son displayed no less diligence in spending 
 the treasure, which had been amassed; and, to replenish 
 his exhausted stores, he tapped new sources of revenue 
 in the funds of the monasteries. 
 
 5. They were also seen (b) in the development of 
 shipping. 
 
 The reign of Richard H., again, was noteworthy for the 
 passing of the first Navigation Act. Its promise, 
 however, was greater than its possible perform- 1381 
 ance. According to its provisions no English 
 subject was to ship merchandise going out of, or coming 
 into, the realm in any but English ships ; but a lack of 
 ships compelled the speedy alteration of such ex- 
 clusive employment into a preference, where it 1406 
 was possible. Henry IV. and Henry VI. tried, 1433 
 in vain, to organise the defence of the coasts. 
 Henry V. attempted to improve the construction of 
 ships ; but for the time at least the distinctive policy 
 of the Navigation Act fell into disuse. Henry VII. 
 indeed extended some favour to it ; but Henry VIII.
 
 128 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 preferred, apparently, the revenue arising from licenses 
 
 to use foreign ships. His minister, Thomas 
 1540 Cromwell, reverted to the older laws ; but 
 
 Edward YI. consulted the wishes of those who 
 wanted imported wine to be cheap, together with woad, 
 a material employed in the important cloth manufacture. 
 In his reign the Navy, which had been improved under 
 Henry YHL, grew less efficient. The establishment of 
 a naval arsenal, and the incorporation of the Trinity 
 House, to increase the provision for safe navigation, 
 may serve to illustrate the active interest taken by the 
 
 earlier king in shipping affairs. But even under 
 1548 Edward VI. the fishing industry, a possible 
 
 recruiting and training ground for sailors, was 
 directly encouraged by maintaining, for political pur- 
 poses, rules about fasting which had been discarded as 
 superstitious by the new religious creed. 
 
 6. They were shown in (c) the encouragement of 
 agriculture, and especially of tillage. 
 
 The contrast between the " ancient policy " of national 
 plenty and the fresh policy of national power was also 
 shown by the attitude of successive governments towards 
 the export of corn. Edward III., in the interests of 
 
 plenty, forbade the export to any place but 
 1394 Calais or Gascony. Eichard II., on the contrary, 
 
 allowed free export except to his enemies. In 
 practice this permission may have proved unimportant ; 
 but the change in policy was certainly noteworthy. 
 
 The Statute was confirmed by Henry VI., and 
 1457 Edward IV. went yet further in encouraging 
 1463 agriculture, when he forbade the entry of foreign 
 
 corn, unless the price in the port, to which it 
 came, was above 6s. 8d. the quarter. The promotion of
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 12!t 
 
 tillage as a means of maintaining the numbers, and 
 preserving the vigour, of the people was evident, not 
 only in attempts like these to raise the price of corn, 
 but in the constant endeavours, vainly made, to check 
 the growth of sheep -farms and the destruction of 
 dwellings. 
 
 7. They were seen (d) in various other regulations. 
 
 In advancing these three main objects — the collection 
 of treasure, the development of shipping, and the increase 
 of tillage — the leading ideas of the Mercantile System 
 were recognised from the reign of Eichard II. onwards. 
 The encouragement of native industry, and a strong, 
 numerous population, by forbidding the import of finished 
 goods, and assisting their export, and by favouring the 
 import of the necessary materials, and discouragmg their 
 export, was a method of adding to power, and amass- 
 ing treasure, which met with increasing approval in 
 later times. It was then illustrated in the silk and the 
 woollen industries, but it had been actively pursued by 
 the Yorkist kings. The development of foreign com- 
 merce was seen in a keen continuous rivalry between 
 the English Merchant Adventurers and the German 
 Hansards, whose monopoly of trade in the Baltic was 
 first threatened, and then successfully assailed. The 
 privileged position of the Hanse in London itself was 
 attacked in retaliation for burdens, stated by English 
 traders to be laid on them abroad ; and, although the 
 Hanse merchants secured special rights from Edward IV. 
 in return for aid they had given him, these were with- 
 drawn by Edward VI. By the time of Elizabeth, who 
 conlirmed their withdrawal, the " Steelyard," their 
 favoured settlement for many centuries, had lost its 
 importance. Florentine bankers, again — including the
 
 130 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Bardi and others — had carried on a considerable business 
 in London in the reign of Edward III., and lost 
 1345 heavily on the loans they made to him. From 
 an early time they exported wool to Italy, and 
 arranged, with other Italian traders, for the trans- 
 mission, in goods, of the papal revenues. With the 
 lapse of time their importance declined. Nor were they 
 the only Italians engaged in commerce with England. 
 The Genoese brought arms, and alum, and woad, and 
 other materials employed in the manufacture of cloth. 
 The Venetian fleet came year by year to Southampton, 
 bringing spices, and drugs, and articles of luxury. But 
 the influence of the new ideas was seen in the increasing 
 jealousy with which such foreign traders were regarded. 
 The Venetians were received with less favour because the 
 goods, which they brought, were not, like those of the 
 Genoese, of direct assistance to English industry. 
 1587 In the reign of Elizabeth, when the old routes to 
 the East had been closed, and the marvellous 
 " Queen of the Adriatic " was losing her great com- 
 mercial position, the Venetian fleet ceased to pay its 
 annual visit. 
 
 8. In the reign of Elizabeth the influence of the 
 System was very marked. But agricultural progress 
 was slow. 
 
 In this famous reign. Dr. Cunningham has said,* the 
 " whole " policy of the Mercantile System was " worked 
 out in a complete and systematic form." Favour shown 
 to the fishing industry aided the growth of power on the 
 sea. With the same object the sowing of hemp was 
 encouraged ; and a change, in the direction of greater 
 
 * "Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern 
 Times," p. 16.
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 131 
 
 freedom, was made in the restrictions placed in the 
 previous reign of Mary on the export of corn. This was 
 avowedly intended " for the maintenance and increase of 
 the mariners of this realm" as well as the " better increase 
 of tillage." But tillage continued to receive the support 
 of special legislation against inclosure and pasture. 
 Towards the end of the sixteenth century, 1592 
 indeed, the abundance of grain, and its reason- 
 able price, seemed to show that the evil was cured ; but 
 the experience, which resulted from suspending the veto, 
 caused its renewal some five years later. Greater 
 freedom, however, was now allowed. The con- 1597 
 tinued keeping of land under the plough was not 
 to prevent a convenient course of husbandry, or an 
 occasional change to grass, to enable the land to recover 
 its strength. Yet in this, as in other cases, the steady 
 pressure of economic forces effected in the end the cure 
 which prohibition by the law had been invoked to force. 
 The price of wool fell rather than rose in the seventeenth 
 century, and the price of corn increased. The conversion 
 of tillage to pasture, which had reached the dimensions 
 of a social calamity under Henry YIII. and Edward VI., 
 shrank to harmless proportions. In the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, as we shall see in another chapter,* 
 the process of inclosure was again resumed on a large 
 scale, but the object sought was, not the formation of 
 sheep farms for the growth of wool, but the opportunity 
 of applying to practice the teaching of improved agri- 
 cultural knowledge. In the interval between the two 
 periods the drainage of the fens, and the introduction 
 of turnips and clover, were the most notable incidents 
 of a slow agricultural development, which prepared the 
 
 * Cf. below, Chapter IX. 
 
 9—2
 
 132 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 way for later changes. Hops, indeed, were cultivated 
 in the reign of Henry VHI. ; but Fitzherbert and 
 
 Tusser, who represented the high-level of the 
 1523 knowledge of the sixteenth century, and wrote, 
 1573 the one in the first, and the other in the last, 
 
 quarter of the century, were ignorant of clover 
 and artificial grasses, were unacquainted with the merits 
 of turnips, thought lightly of the virtues of manure, 
 and failed to recognise, if they knew, the possibilities of 
 drainage. They both, however, approved of inclosures. 
 Their successors in the seventeenth century, Hartlib 
 
 and Blith, advanced a stage further. The latter 
 
 1649 dealt ably and persuasively with the subject of 
 
 1650 drainage ; the former urged the use of roots and 
 of clover. During the same period the revival of 
 
 gardening marked the recovery of what had almost 
 become a lost art. Towards the close of the 
 1688 century the bounty on the export of corn, which 
 was then granted, and continued, with brief sus- 
 pensions, during the next century, gave a new stimulus 
 to arable farming. 
 
 9. That of manufacturing industry was also slow- 
 before the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 
 It is curious to note that the successful drainage of 
 the fens was accomplished by the Dutch ; and the 
 policy, of which this was one example, of starting new, 
 or improving old, industries by the help of foreign 
 immigrants, was regarded with favour, and attended by 
 success, under the Mercantile System. In the reign of 
 Elizabeth, Flemish weavers, driven from their country 
 by Alva, came in considerable numbers, and settled in 
 various towns. They brought a knowledge of the finer 
 qualities of cloth. They introduced the "new drapery,"
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 1:}B 
 
 as their predecessors in the reign of Edward III. had 
 developed the "old." They enabled their adopted 
 country to secure a pre-eminence of the woollen 
 industry. The revocation, in 1685, of the Edict 
 of Nantes by Louis XIV., like the religious 1685 
 persecutions of Alva in the previous century, 
 caused the flight to England of a large number of 
 foreign immigrants. The Huguenot refugees, who thus 
 came at the close of the seventeenth, and the opening 
 of the eighteenth century, were apparently welcome. 
 They exerted a notable influence on the growth of the 
 silk industry ; but their activity was not seen in that 
 trade alone. In the manufacture of linen, in calico- 
 printing, in the production of sail-cloth and of paper, 
 they occupied an important place. Yet in manufacturing 
 industry as a whole, as in agriculture, the period before 
 the changes of the eighteenth century, which we shall 
 study in a later chapter,* was a time of slow preparation 
 rather than of great achievement. Home industry was 
 indeed encouraged by forbidding the import of finished 
 goods, and the export of raw materials. The use 
 of English articles by English subjects was 
 enforced by authority. Elizabeth insisted on 1571 
 the wearing of English caps on Sundays and 1666 
 Holy - days. Under Charles II. an Act was 
 passed providing for burial in woollen shrouds ; and the 
 Scotch linen industry was, in 1G86, similarly 
 encouraged by an "Act for Burying in Scots 1686 
 linen." The export of wool was stopped, and the 
 import of silk was allowed, because both were materials 
 for English manufactures, and the one was produced in 
 the country itself, while the other was obtained from 
 * Cf. below, Chapter JX.
 
 I8i ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 abroad. In the reign of Elizabeth the invention of the 
 stocking-frame l)y William Lee was a notable 
 1589 event in the history of industrial discovery, 
 and eventually brought into active being an 
 industry, which early in the eighteenth century was so 
 important as to attract the notice of Parliament. But 
 the inventor himself shared the fate of many of his 
 successors, and was regarded with any but friendly 
 feelings by the public, or the government, of his day. 
 Until the time when the " industrial revolution " of the 
 eighteenth century saw the successful smelting of iron 
 by coal, the dearness of wood proved a serious obstacle 
 to the growth of an iron industry. Experiments were 
 made in the reign of James I. with some success by 
 Dudley in smelting by coal ; but pig-iron was imported 
 from abroad, in spite of the abundance of ore, which 
 existed in England, awaiting employment. Coal, indeed, 
 had been obtained in some districts of the country from 
 early times, and was used for domestic consumption. 
 But it was not employed for manufacturing purposes, or 
 extracted from the mines, to any large extent, before the 
 introduction of improved raising machinery, the discovery 
 and application of steam as a source of motive power, and 
 the changes made in the smelting of iron. Even the 
 woollen industry, with the deliberate encouragement 
 which it continuously received, was scarcely making pro- 
 gress in the century before the " industrial revolution." 
 
 10. Monopolies were frequently granted under the 
 Mercantile System. 
 
 During the predominance of the Mercantile System 
 the management of internal trade, and the conduct of 
 external commerce, were often trusted to monopolists 
 enjoying exclusive rights of manufacture or sale. Com-
 
 THE MERCANTILE .SYSTEM 135 
 
 panics were organised afresh in the place of the craft- 
 gilds, which were dying, or dead. In some cases they 
 were invested with the ancient function of guarding the 
 quality of goods ; but this could be less thoroughly dis- 
 charged, when the governing body represented many 
 trades combined, and did not consist simply of the 
 craftsmen of a single industry, possessing actual know- 
 ledge of the personal character of the producers and 
 the details of production. The companies lasted through 
 the seventeenth century, and lingered in the eighteenth. 
 But the office, which they filled more effectively, as pro- 
 tectors of the freemen from the intrusion of strangers, 
 sank in importance as the favour of the Government, or 
 the public, was extended to Protestant immigrants. 
 Patents and monopolies were granted also to private 
 individuals. They were sometimes a stimulus to a 
 desirable industry, protecting the originators from tres- 
 pass on their rights. But, when they had served this 
 legitimate purpose, they might remain to cripple de- 
 velopment. They might hinder improvement. They 
 might injure consumers by raising the prices of goods. 
 Yet the regulation of industry accorded with the spirit 
 of the times ; and public policy might sometimes be 
 urged in defence of monopoly. The monopoly of salt- 
 petre was justified by the need of commanding a 
 sufficient supply of gunpowder. The patent for ale- 
 houses might be maintained on grounds of public 
 moralit}'. The manufacture of gold thread might be 
 regulated by the Crown from a fear of exhausting the 
 treasure of the realm. Such control might indeed be 
 employed, as the Stewarts discovered, as a means of 
 replenishing empty purses ; but the opposition to mono- 
 polies dates back to a time when they jiroduced no
 
 136 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 great revenue for the Crown. Even then they might 
 be used to reward loyal courtiers at the expense of the 
 public ; and they certainly roused effective hostility in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, who could more justly be charged 
 with parsimony than extravagance. 
 
 II. They were condemned by Parliament. 
 
 In the reign of James I. the Statute of Monopolies 
 was passed ; and, with certain exceptions, of 
 1624 which new inventions, and the privileges of 
 trading companies, were perhaps the most im- 
 portant, the grant of a right of exclusive trading was 
 pronounced an abuse of the royal prerogative. When 
 Charles I., like his father, violated the Statute, the 
 economic motive of preventing extortion, and permitting 
 improvement, was strengthened by the addition of the 
 political aim of controlling the royal revenues. The 
 quarrel, in fact, of the king with the Parliament arose 
 largely from his wish to escape the restraint of depend- 
 ence on Parliamentary grants. The attempt, made 
 famous ])y its consequences, to levy " ship-money," was 
 due to such a motive. But the introduction of a regular 
 excise under the Commonwealth and the Piestoration 
 removed a possible plea, which might be urged by any 
 government, for tapping an important source of revenue. 
 It was no longer necessary for the State to retain in its 
 own hands, or to bestow on others in return for payment, 
 a monopoly of manufacture or sale in some profitable 
 trade. Under Charles II. the royal revenues were also 
 placed on a more permanent and satisfactory footing. 
 For the old feudal dues and rights, including those of 
 purchase and " purveyance," a grant was made to the 
 king and his successors of an " hereditary excise," and, 
 in addition, of a temporary excise to the king for his
 
 THE STATUTE OF APPRENTICES 137 
 
 own life. The " liereditary excise " formed a portion 
 of the taxation on beer and liquors, and on tea and 
 coffee. " Tunnage and poundage " from the " customs," 
 the monopoly of the Post-Office, and " hearth-money " 
 (or a tax on houses) made up the annual sum required, 
 and were supplemented by special " subsidies " in special 
 emergencies. Thus the excuse for making grants of 
 exclusive trading privileges was withdrawn, and, if they 
 were given, they might be bestowed for reasons of which 
 the public did not disapprove. 
 
 12. The Statute of Apprentices was an important 
 measure of the reign. 
 
 The regulation of trade and industry was recognised 
 as a general principle. It was conspicuous in the 
 important Elizabethan legislation on labour. That 
 legislation still maintained its hold, when, two centuries 
 later, economic conditions were being transformed. 
 When, at the close of the eighteenth century, the old 
 order of industry gave place to the new% a remedy 
 favoured by the workmen for the troubles from which 
 they were suffering was found in the provisions of 
 the Elizabethan Statute of Apprentices.* That 1563 
 famous statute included in a comprehensive 
 scheme regulations approved by previous experience. 
 Its apprenticeship clauses were, it seems, really intended 
 to check departure from a rule, which had become an 
 established custom, and had been recognised and en- 
 forced by the gilds. The duration of apprenticeship 
 was fixed for manufacturing industry. The proportion 
 of apprentices to journeymen was settled, and the classes 
 determined from which, in different trades, they might 
 be obtained. Such regulations were, it seems, brought 
 * Cf. below, Chapter IX.
 
 138 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 forward in no opposition, either to the pubKc welfare, as 
 it then a})peared, or to the spirit of the times. They 
 might be intended, not only to provide for an adequate 
 training for work, but also to prevent a want of employ- 
 ment. Nor were an obligation to accept offers of work, 
 and a prohibition of dismissal or retirement from service 
 before the end of the period of engagement, which was 
 commonly fixed at a year, in conflict with older enact- 
 ments. They would, on the contrary, tend to promote 
 a desirable permanence in social relations ; and Statutes 
 of Labourers, from the time of the Black Death onwards, 
 had sought similar objects. 
 
 13. Its wages clauses did not introduce a new 
 practice. 
 
 The Statutes of Labourers had also tried to settle the 
 wages of labour ; and the Statute of Apprentices renewed 
 the attempt. But it endeavoured, in harmony with a 
 tendency characteristic of much of the Elizabethan 
 legislation, to allow some elasticity, where before it 
 was scarcely permitted. The Statutes of Labourers 
 of Edward IIL, as we saw, ordered the payment of 
 the old wages, coupling with this a provision for reason- 
 able prices. In the reign of Richard IL, in 1388, 
 1388 the wages of different labourers were definitely 
 1423 fixed. In 1423 the justices of the peace were 
 1444 directed to proclaim the proper rates. In 1444 
 maximum rates were settled, though lower rates 
 might be paid, and the figures named, which were twice 
 those of 1388, evidently had been raised, as the 
 1495 altered circumstances demanded. In 1495 similar 
 1 514 provision was made, but the rates were not 
 higher than those fixed fifty years previously, 
 and the Act w^as repealed in the following year. In 1514
 
 THE STATUTE OF APPRENTICES 139 
 
 another Act was passed, and in the next year a 
 special exemption was made of London, where it was, 
 it seems, impossible to enforce the Act on account of 
 the price of lodging and food. In 1548 a law 
 was directed against combinations of labourers, 154^ 
 trying to obtain their own terms. The famous 
 Statute of Elizabeth had recourse to a more elastic 
 method. In the summer of every year the justices of 
 the peace were to take counsel on the " plenty or scarcity 
 of the time and other circumstances necessary to be 
 considered," and to settle wages, reserving liberty to 
 revise, six weeks later, the rates, which they had fixed. 
 In intention, at least, the Statute was elastic, and per- 
 mitted a wide discretion. The language of the preamble 
 has been held to show that its purpose was to raise 
 rather than lower wages. 
 
 14. The actual effect of these clauses has been 
 disputed. 
 
 The actual effect of these wages clauses has been 
 disputed. Forty-seven assessments of wages at least are 
 known, the earliest of which dates from the year 1562, 
 and the latest from 1727. These assessments belong to 
 various districts of the country ; and from a comparison 
 with average w^ages, which have been noted, and evi- 
 dence given at trials of offences against the labour laws 
 recorded during the latter part of the sixteenth and the 
 first half of the seventeenth century. Professor Hewins, 
 in his "English Trade and Finance, chiefly in the 
 Seventeenth Century,"* drew the conclusion that, 
 " generally speaking, the Justices' rates were actually 
 paid." Dr. Cunningham, on tlie other hand, has urgedf 
 
 * P. 85 ; and also Economic Journal, viii., p. 340, etc. 
 t Cf. Economic Journal, iv., p. 514.
 
 140 ENGLISH COMlVrERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 that the assessments, though made, were only occa- 
 sionally enforced. Evidence has been recently dis- 
 covered, in favour of the former view, in the archives 
 of the Corporation of London.* There are signs of a 
 practice followed continuously for a considerable period 
 in that important city ; and an absence of assessments 
 in the country generally, it has been suggested, may 
 be due to omission to enter them regularly in certain 
 records, even when they were made and enforced. A 
 further question arises whether the Statute can be 
 held responsible for the oppression, or misfortune, 
 of the labourer. Thorold Rogers regardsf it as an 
 engine of great injustice. Its possibilities, if en- 
 forced, were certainly considerable and a neglect of 
 their duties by the justices might tend to oppression, if 
 they permitted wages lower than the rates assessed, 
 or forbore to make the new assessments required 
 by changing circumstance. On the other hand, as 
 Dr. Cunningham has contended, t the rise of prices, 
 following the entry into England in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries of the new silver from America, 
 was marked by a rapidity and magnitude which would 
 not enter into ordinary calculation, and, whether wages 
 were assessed or not, or the assessments recognised or 
 not, they were not unlikely to fall behind the rise of 
 prices. As a matter of fact, certain evidence ^ shows that, 
 taking the seventeenth century as one period, the com- 
 
 * Cf. Miss E. McArthnr, in the English Historical Bcvieiv, July, 
 1900. 
 
 I •' Six Centuries," p. y98. 
 
 X " Growth of EngUsh Industry," p. 43. 
 
 J Professor Hewins points out (" Englisli Trade and Finance," 
 pp. 89-94) that the evidence quoted in the text refers only to certain 
 districts, and does not take account of a loss, probably serious, 
 arising from irregular employment.
 
 THE POOR LAW 141 
 
 mand of commodities by the labourer seems to have 
 diminished and his standard of Uving to have fallen. 
 In the first half of the eighteenth he appears, once more, 
 to have enjoyed comparative prosperity. 
 
 15. The Elizabethan Poor Law was based on past 
 experience. 
 
 The Eliza! )ethan poor law, like the Statute of Appren- 
 tices, was a comprehensive measure based on past 
 experience — on efforts made in various ways by the 
 municipal authorities in previous centuries, and on the 
 successive experiments tried by the national legislature 
 in the sixteenth. The early Statutes of Labourers at- 
 tempted, by severe penalties, to check the increase of 
 " valiant beggars " ; but, with the lapse of time, the " im- 
 potent poor" began to attract attention, and clauses 
 dealing with them were inserted in the measures 
 passed. Like the able-bodied, they were directed, 1388 
 failing relief in their present abode, to go to their 
 proper place of dwelling, and there remain. The Act of 
 1388, ordering this, was followed by other statutes of a 
 similar character. Li the sixteenth century the 
 dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIIL, and 1536 
 the appropriation of the religious foundations of 1539 
 the gilds by Edward VL, called fresh attention 1547 
 to the matter. The confiscation of the religious 
 property of the gilds did not indeed touch revenues, 
 Avhich might be bestowed in charity on poorer members 
 or their relations ; and the monasteries may have en- 
 couraged professional beggars, and failed to relieve the 
 honest poor. Yet their dissolution widened the scope of 
 an agricultural change, which injured the labouring 
 classes by supplanting men by sheep. Chances of 
 employment were removed. Inclosure brought the loss
 
 142 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 of rights of common, and perhaps the forfeiture of 
 holdings. Such alterations might, it is true, have 
 occurred in any case on ecclesiastical as well as private 
 property ; but probably they would have been more 
 gradual. At least, the general agricultural movement, 
 combined with the developments of manufacturing in- 
 dustry, which offered the uncertainties of a larger market 
 in exchange for the steady demand of the immediate 
 neighbourhood, increased the volume of distress and 
 poverty. A series of bad harvests preceded the 
 1536 passing, in 1536, of a new poor law. In this 
 systematic provision was made both for the 
 employment of the able-bodied, and for the relief of 
 the impotent, through the officials of the towns and 
 villages. Alms were to be collected by the Church- 
 wardens on Sundays and festivals. " Valiant beggars " 
 were to be helped on their way to their proper home, 
 when they had furnished testimonials that they had 
 been duly whipped. The "impotent" were no longer 
 to beg. Poor children were to be placed in service. 
 Indiscriminate private almsgiving was forbidden. This 
 important law, it should be noted, was passed in the 
 year, in which the smaller monasteries were suppressed, 
 and the larger did not suffer this fate till three years 
 later. The evils, therefore, with which it dealt, pre- 
 ceded, and did not follow, their dissolution. 
 
 16. It was ably and comprehensively conceived. 
 
 " The several provisions of this comprehensive statute," 
 remarks Sir George Nicholls in his "History of the 
 English Poor Law,"'^' " seem in fact to have been 
 1547 the foundation " of what was afterwards com- 
 pleted. The principles of the law of 1536 were, 
 in effect, the principles of the " Elizabethan Poor 
 
 * Part I., chap. iii.
 
 THE POOR LAW 143 
 
 Law." In 1547 penalties a<fainst " valiant beggars " 
 were made especially severe. Slavery for a time, or 
 for life, and branding with a V or S,* were ordered; 
 but the law was repealed in the succeeding year. 
 In 1552 collectors were appointed to " gently 1552 
 ask " parishioners for systematic gifts. If anyone 
 refused, he was to be exhorted by the parson, or ad- 
 monished by the bishop. If the bishop failed, the 
 justices of the peace might, by an act of ten 
 years later, tax at their discretion the obscinate 1562 
 refuser. Ten years later still they were directed 1572 
 to make, of their own motion, the necessary 
 assessment upon all. They were to arrange for the 
 collection of the tax, and, if required, for contributions 
 from elsewhere, and for the appointment of " overseers" 
 of the poor. Convenient dwellings were to be provided 
 for the ''impotent," and the surplus remaining when 
 they had been relieved, was to be used in making 
 vagrants work. In 1576, by a statute of that 
 year, ** houses of correction " were to be estab- 1576 
 lished, and stores of hemp, flax, iron, wool, and 
 other material supplied, on which pauper labour might 
 be set to work. ]3efore 15U7, it would seem, 
 these houses had either not been built, or had 1597 
 been put down ; but in that year fresh provision, 
 repeated in the reign of James I., was made for their 
 erection. In the same year compulsory contribution to 
 poor relief was enforced by distraint of goods. 
 Finally, in 1601, the famous Act of the forty- 1601 
 third year of Elizabeth was passed, consolidating 
 previous acts in one comprehensive measure, improving 
 the details of their machinery, and allowing, definitely, 
 * V = vagrant ; S = slave.
 
 144 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 a "rate in aid " of excess of poverty, or lack of means 
 to relieve the poor, in any particular locality. The Act, 
 as Dr. Cunningham has said,* was designed to " provide 
 work for those who could work, relief for those who could 
 not, and punishment for those who would not." Although 
 the first of these three objects was not realised in later 
 practice, the Act itself was comprehensively conceived. 
 " So complete " were its " chief provisions," writes Sir 
 George Nicholls,+ "that they stand entire, and consti- 
 tute the basis of the law at the present day." "It was 
 not the result of a sudden thought or a single effort, but 
 was gradually framed upon the sure ground of experience." 
 It was, as Miss Leonard has lately shown, in her "Early 
 History of English Poor Eelief," enforced before the Civil 
 War by the repeated issue of Orders of the Privy Council 
 to the Justices of the Peace. This was in keeping with the 
 exaltation of the personal authority of the king, which 
 Tudors and Stuarts favoured. It extended to the actual 
 provision of " work for those who could work." It served 
 to perpetuate the Poor Law as an institution, which in 
 England gained a permanence unknown elsewhere. 
 
 17. The Law of Settlement was an important Act, 
 passed later. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, partly, perhaps, in conse- 
 quence of the Elizabethan Law, pauperism seems to 
 have been less serious an evil ; and the disturbance of 
 the Civil War did not produce the effects which might 
 have been expected. The Law of Settlement, 
 1662 however, passed in 16G2, was of no small im- 
 portance. Adam Smith described it in a well- 
 known passage of his "Wealth of Nations"! as 
 
 * " Growth of English Industry," p. 61. 
 
 + " History of Enghsh Poor Law," Part I., chap. iv. 
 
 J Look I., chap. x.
 
 THE POOR LAW 145 
 
 " ill-contrived, '^ and joined it with the ''statute of 
 apprenticeship " and the " exclusive privileges of cor- 
 porations " as vexatious obstacles to " natural liberty " 
 hindering the " free circulation of labour." The appren- 
 ticeship clauses of the statute* applied only to trades in 
 existence before it was passed, and to market-towns. 
 They may have been intended to afford, by giving 
 greater liberty, encouragement to agriculture. The 
 " exclusive privileges of corporations " did not affect 
 the country districts. But in 1776 Adam Smith wrote 
 that there was " scarce a poor man in England of 
 forty years of age " who had " not in some part of his 
 life felt himself most cruelly oppressed " by the law of 
 settlement. Yet the law might be evaded ; and it may 
 have been conceived in a different spirit from that which 
 marked its later history. It might be described as pro- 
 viding for the discharge by public authority of a function 
 previously fulfilled by a lord when he recovered, and 
 removed, a serf who had run away. The suggestion 
 of making the law seems to have come especially from 
 London, where men were afraid of an excessive popula- 
 tion ; and it aimed at the redress of inequality in the 
 burden of the poor. Responsibility was to be brought 
 home by a clearer definition of the individuals for whose 
 relief a particular place was liable. A " settlement," 
 which entitled to assistance, could only be obtained by 
 fulfilling certain specified conditions. 
 
 1 8. Adam Smith traced the changes in its pro- 
 visions. 
 
 Adam Smith has traced the changes made successively 
 
 * The wages clauses had been extended to all laboiu-eis m the 
 reign of James I. ; but, hi 1776, Adam Smith remarks, they had 
 " gone entirely into disuse." 
 
 10
 
 146 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 in these conditions. The law originally required un- 
 disturbed residence for forty daj^s. Within that time a 
 new inhabitant might be removed to his last legal 
 parish, unless he occupied a tenement rented at ^10 a 
 
 year, or could give security that he would not 
 1685 prove a burden in his new abode. In the reign 
 
 of James II. the forty days were reckoned from 
 the time, when notice in writing of the place of dwelling, 
 and the number of the family, had been given to the 
 
 overseers or churchwardens. In the reign of 
 1691 William III. the notice was to be published in 
 
 church ; and so prohibitive was this condition 
 thought that four different modes of gaining a settle- 
 ment without notice were allowed. The payment of 
 parish rates was one, another was the election to a 
 parish office and its tenure for a year, a continued hiring 
 for the same period was a third, and a fourth was the 
 serving of an apprenticeship. These alternatives, Adam 
 Smith contended, were concessions in appearance, not 
 in reality. In the course of the next five years they 
 were withdrawn, and the "invention of certi- 
 1696-97 ficates " took their place. The production of 
 a certificate from his previous parish allowed 
 an individual to stay undisturbed in another place until 
 he was actually chargeable upon the rates. He would 
 then be removed at the expense of his former parish. 
 Thus, Adam Smith concluded, as the result of the law 
 it was "often more difficult for a poor man to pass the 
 artificial boundary of a parish than an arm of the sea, 
 
 or a ridge of high mountains." At the end of 
 1795 the eighteenth century an Act was passed, which, 
 
 by extending the provision about removal made 
 in connection with the "certificates," relieved the pres-
 
 THE CURRENCY 147 
 
 sure of the law. In the early part, however, of that 
 century the destruction of cottages was a policy avowedly 
 adopted to avoid a possible burden on the rates. As the 
 century advanced towards its close the agricultural and 
 industrial " revolution," which took place, was partly 
 responsible for an increase of the evils of pauperism 
 until it reached an alarming magnitude.* 
 
 19. The reformation of the currency was the third 
 great economic measure of Elizabeth. 
 
 The third great economic measure of the Elizabethan 
 age was the reformation of the currency. To the 
 debasements of the Queen's predecessors — her father 
 and her brother — the misfortunes, which the labourer 
 suffered in the sixteenth century, were partly due ; and 
 retracing of the steps along that slippery road needed 
 wisdom no less than resolution. It was true that 
 the recoinage, carried to a successful end by 1561 
 Elizabeth in 1561, resulted, on the whole, in a 
 profit for the Crown, and that the accompanying loss 
 fell on the people. It was also true that the ministers 
 of Edward VI., in the last year of his reign, had planned, 
 and partly executed, a bold, considered scheme. In his 
 "Treatise on the Coins of the Realm," Lord Liveri:)ool 
 maintains that this plan was in some respects superior 
 to that of Elizabeth ; but during the intervening reign 
 of Mary the question had been left untouched. Elizabeth 
 found in existence both a gold and a silver coinage ; but 
 it was only with the latter that she dealt, for silver was 
 the metal in general circulation. 
 
 20. Silver was the metal in general use, and gold 
 was " rated " to it, causing certain difficulties. 
 
 From William I. to Edward I. the silver ptiuiy had 
 * Cf. below, Chapter IX. 
 
 10—2
 
 148 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 been the current coin. Jfalf-jx'iicc and farthings 
 were also introduced ; and Edward I., who 
 1066- diminished slightly the weight of the silver 
 1274 money, coined groats of the value of four pence, 
 1298 which were not current till later. Henry III. 
 1257 attempted, in vain, to issue pennies of gold; 
 1351 but Edward III., after an experiment of a com- 
 mon gold coinage with Flanders, provided new 
 coins of his own, and, among them, gold nohlcs. He 
 considerably decreased the weight of the coins he issued 
 at various times. The gold was given a certain value in 
 relation to the silver ; but in a period when the precious 
 metals were scarce every nation was anxious to secure 
 and keep a sufficient quantity for its own needs, and 
 constant difficulties arose from differences of the rates 
 between the metals observed in different countries. A 
 change in rates might attract the one or the other metal 
 from the country, where it was rated lower in com- 
 parison, to a country, where a higher value was placed 
 upon it. This was a natural consequence of self- 
 interest; but it caused annoyance and perplexity. In 
 the uncertain knowledge of such a force, and its insiduous 
 working, some explanation may be found of restrictions 
 on exporting bullion, and of difficulties which occurred 
 from time to time. The control of these rates was, as 
 ]\[r. Shaw has shown in his " History of Currency," a 
 matter of financial and political importance. The 
 alterations made in the weight of the silver coins, and 
 the raising of the value of the gold, by different 
 sovereigns from Edward HI. onwards, may have been 
 due to an imperfect understanding of the real situation. 
 The regulation of the business of exchange by the State, 
 and the institution of a royal official for the purpose,
 
 THE CURRENCY 149 
 
 point to some such difficulties. They are reflected on 
 the pages of different writers.* Nor did they cease with 
 the recoinage of Ehzabeth, or even with that made a 
 century and a half later by William III. ]jetween the 
 two recoinages the free play of market influences liad 
 been substituted for regulation of the rates, 
 although in practice this freedom was not always 1666 
 recognised. Gratuitous coinage, for which no 
 charge was made, had also been adopted in place of the 
 varying seigniorage, which had before been taken, and 
 had only been abandoned for a time by Elizabeth, and, 
 previously, by Henry V., when they recoined, in the 
 earlier case, the gold, and in the later, the defective 
 silver. But, despite of these important changes, the 
 difficulties of the rates recurred. The disadvantages of 
 the situation were increased when faulty foreign coin, 
 or clipped and worn coin of the country itself, made an 
 entry, or retained a position, in the currency, and good 
 coin of full weight and fineness went abroad. The 
 worse coin might legally fulfil the purpose of purchasing 
 commodities in the place where it possessed a legal 
 value, but it w^ould be taken at its real metallic worth 
 when, withdrawn from the currency, it was used for 
 other objects. The irresistible temptation of self-interest 
 would lead to the selection, and removal, of the better 
 coins for export, and the worse would be retained for 
 circulation in the country. The operation of this 
 powerful motive afterwards received the name of 
 " Gresham's Law," which was shortly expressed in the 
 statement that " bad money drives out good." Sir 
 
 E.g., in the controversy between ^Misselden ami Malyncs, who 
 lis "Treatise on the Canker of Kn,i,'land's Comuionwealtli," 
 
 in his 
 
 contended that the exchange should be controlled.
 
 150 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Thomas Gresham, from whom the name was taken, 
 advised Elizabeth on monetary and financial matters, 
 and, among these, on the recoinage. 
 
 21. The debasement of the currency exerted in 
 addition a mischievous influence. 
 
 The debasement of the currency was a needless mis- 
 chievous addition to such troubles. Although the 
 weight of the silver coins had been successively reduced 
 by Edward III. and others, the fineness of the metal 
 had been preserved. The pound of silver at first, when 
 the pound in " tale " * was equal to the pound in weight, 
 was coined into twenty shillings and two hundred and 
 forty pence. The penny was thus equal to the penny- 
 weight. It was now coined into as many as forty-five 
 shillings. The earlier measures of Henry VIII., and 
 perhaps even those taken as late as 1543, might be 
 regarded as an attempt to meet the difficulties, which 
 
 we have noted in connection with the rating of 
 1545 the metals. But from 1545 onwards a deliberate 
 
 debasement of the currency was begun, and was 
 continued. "Various and violent proceedings," as Lord 
 Liverpool described them, then took place. The silver 
 testoon, or shilling, first coined by Henry VII., but not 
 common before Henry VIII., was reduced in value. A 
 proportion of ten ounces of silver to two of alloy was 
 
 altered by degrees to one of four ounces of 
 1550 silver to eight of alloy. In 1550, in the reign 
 
 of Edward VI., who first coined sixpennies 
 and threepennies, the quantity of alloy was further 
 increased to nine, and the quantity of fine silver was 
 reduced to three. Such debasement formed an easy, 
 but disastrous, mode of raising revenue. It was, in 
 * I.e., by counting, or reckoning.
 
 THE CURRENCY 151 
 
 effect, a forced loan, taken without security for repay- 
 ment; and never before or after did English sovereigns 
 use this dangerous expedient. "All commerce was 
 nearly at a stand " in consequence. A rise of prices, 
 and an uncertainty of business, were evils which ensued. 
 That their appearance was delayed, and that they were 
 not greater in degree, may have been due partly to the 
 lavish use of the precious metals for the adornment of 
 the dress or person. This occasioned a demand, which 
 diminished the amount available for coinage. It made 
 the metals more scarce. It made the prices of com- 
 modities lower. The resistance offered to all change 
 and movement by the social and industrial arrangements 
 of the times, and, possibly, the hoards amassed by 
 Henry YIL, and dissipated by his son, may have 
 delayed, or checked, the rise of prices. But that the 
 evils caused were sensible and serious is shown by many 
 loud complaints. Such complaints were echoed in the 
 Sermons of Bishop Latimer. They are reflected on the 
 pages of the " Discourse on the Common Weal of 
 this Eealm of England," written in 1549 by W. S. 1549 
 In this dialogue, in which Latimer himself was 
 supposed to bear a share, one speaker remarks: "I 
 think the alteration of the coin to be the first original 
 cause that strangers first sell their wares dearer to us, 
 and that makes all farmers and tenants that reareth any 
 commodity again to sell the same dearer ; the dearth 
 thereof makes the gentlemen to raise their rents." 
 
 22, The recoinage was successfully accomplished 
 by Elizabeth. 
 
 One of the earliest acts of Elizabeth was an endeavour 
 to complete the work begun by Edward VI., and not 
 continued, and to correct the bad condition of the cur-
 
 152 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 rency. Like her predecessors, she reduced the weight 
 of the silver coins ; for the pound was coined into sixty 
 shilHngs in the year of the recoinage, and into no less 
 than sixtj^-two towards the close of her reign. At this 
 point it afterwards remained. But she restored the 
 standard of fineness of the metal from the debased con- 
 dition into which it had been brought. Silver, as we 
 noticed, was the current coin ; and to it alone attention 
 was directed. With the lapse of time, and the growth in 
 the scale of business, the coin in general use had in- 
 creased from the jJCiinj/ to the slulUmi or testooii. In the 
 reign of Henry VIII. crowns were coined, which became 
 current in the reign of Mary, when lialf-cnnvns were also 
 coined. The circulation of gold, on the other hand, 
 was small. Edward III. coined gold nobles, worth six 
 shillings and eightpence, and also half and quarter 
 nobles. Edward IV. issued angels of the same value 
 as the old nobles, and raised the value of the noble, 
 then called a rial, or rose noble, to ten shillings. 
 Henry VII. introduced the sovereign, or double rial, of 
 twenty shillings. Henry VIII., following the common 
 practice, raised the value of the existing nobles, and coined 
 crouiis and george nobles. Edward VI. raised the value 
 of sovereigns, rials and angels. Such had been the 
 history of the coinage l;efore the commencement of the 
 reign of Elizabeth. She "called down" the debased 
 silver in circulation to its real value, and issued from 
 the mint new coinage of the old standard. Coins pecu- 
 liarly debased, containing three ounces only of pure 
 silver, were at once to lose currency, and a short j^eriod 
 was allowed for them to be presented at the mint, where 
 they were taken at their real bullion value. Coins, 
 which had suffered less debasement, continued for a
 
 THE CURRENCY 153 
 
 time to be current ; but a mark was placed upon them 
 to show then- real value. In their turn they were with- 
 drawn, and new standard coin was substituted ; and for 
 a certain period a premium was allowed on large quan- 
 tities of the old defective coins presented at the mint. 
 The recoinage was carried through without delay and 
 with success, though some miscalculation was unfor- 
 tunately made. For her services the Queen received 
 thanks in her lifetime, and after her death her action in 
 the matter was commemorated on her tomb. 
 
 23. It did not fulfil all expectations. 
 
 Yet the recoinage did not reduce high prices. Such a 
 hope was formed ; but the opposing forces proved too 
 powerful. The discovery of America at the close of the 
 fifteenth century was followed by the entrance into 
 Europe of silver issuing in abundant output from the 
 mines of Mexico and Peru, and, in especial richness, from 
 the deposits of Potosi. The silver found its way at first 
 to Spain, and then passed to the Netherlands by the 
 channels of trading intercourse. It did not enter 
 into England until the reformation of the currency 1570 
 removed the hindrance of debased conditions ; 
 and it caused then, between 1570 and 1640, an increase 
 of prices, amounting at least to two or even three hundred 
 per cent. This advance applied a stimulus to com- 
 mercial and industrial development. It rendered pos- 
 sible the more rapid growth of capital, and its easier 
 movement from one employment to another. But it 
 changed industrial relations. It injured the labourer 
 whose wages failed to rise with the same rapidity as the 
 prices of the goods he bought. It added to the financial 
 dilficulties of Elizabeth, faced by increased expenditure, 
 but anxious and resolved to spare the pockets of her
 
 154 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 subjects. It was, in part, responsible for the later 
 differences between Charles I. and his Parliament. It 
 also prompted close attention to the development of 
 trade as a source of possible revenue. 
 
 24, Another recoinage was undertaken by 
 William III. 
 
 In the reign of William III., at the close of the 
 1696 seventeenth century, a fresh recoinage was accom- 
 plished.* The silver currency was again in a bad 
 condition, caused by clipping and wearing, and export of 
 the heavier coins. It had not been changed in weight 
 since the Elizabethan age, and the silver pound was 
 still coined into sixty-two shillings. In the interval the 
 gold had been raised four times in value. The guinea 
 mtroduced by Charles 11. was now the gold coin which 
 w^as current. But prices were reckoned in silver, and 
 the silver pound was the monetary unit, though the 
 current silver coins were of smaller value. The gold 
 was legal tender at twenty shillings, but it was accepted 
 in offices of the Government at twenty-one, and then at 
 twenty-one and sixpence. In no long period it rose 
 from twenty-two to thirty shillings. As in the time 
 before the recoinage of Elizabeth, money lost the 
 certainty of value needed to enable it to serve as a good 
 medium of exchange, and, much more, to perform the 
 office of a just and steady standard. As in Elizabethan 
 times also, the light coin was called in, and new 
 coin issued to correct these evils. So firmly was the 
 Elizabethan standard now established, that it was de- 
 termined to preserve the silver at its old intrinsic value. 
 The gold guinea was rated to it first at twenty-eight 
 
 * Of. the present writer's " Money and its Relations to Prices," 
 pp. 131-133.
 
 THE CURRENCY 155 
 
 shillings, and was then reduced by successive stages to 
 twenty-two. In 1699 it was reduced to twenty- 
 one shillings and sixpence, and in 1717, by the 1699 
 advice of Sir Isaac Newton, then Master of the 171? 
 Mint, to twenty-one shillings. But even then it 
 was rated too high in comparison with the Continental 
 rating, and the natural consequence followed that the 
 silver was exported abroad and the gold took its place 
 in the English currency. The same thing had occurred 
 before this recoinage ; and difficulties due to similar 
 causes had, as we saw, been a common feature of early 
 monetary history. In the eighteenth century their in- 
 fluence was combined with that of increased supplies 
 of gold from the mines. The more costly, but overrated, 
 metal thus became predominant in the currency, 
 and at the time of the next recoinage, in 1774, 
 its condition attracted, and received, particular attention.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM AND THE 
 OLD ECONOMICS. 
 
 {From the Tudors to the Georges.) 
 
 Foreign and Colonial Commerce. 
 
 I. The Elizabethan age marked the beginning of 
 the maritime, industrial, and commercial power of 
 England. 
 
 In the remarkable lectures on " The Expansion of 
 England," which expressed, if they did not inspire, the 
 leading ideas of the important movement for " Imperial 
 Federation," Sir John Seeley reached* the " conclusion 
 that the England we know, the supreme maritime, com- 
 mercial, and industrial Power, is quite of modern growth, 
 that it did not clearly exhibit its principal features till the 
 eighteenth century, and that the seventeenth century is 
 the period when it was gradually assuming this form. 
 If we ask," he continues, " when it began to do so, the 
 answer is particularly easy and distinct. It was in the 
 Elizabethan age." It was in that age that "England 
 began to discover her vocation to trade, and to the 
 dominion of the sea." A new era then opened. " Before 
 the Tudor period we find only the embryo of a navy." 
 
 * Chapter V.
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL CO^LMERCE 157 
 
 "Manufactures," indeed, had not been " wanting," even 
 to the " England of the Plantagenets " ; but " she began 
 to be a great manufacturing country" in the EHzabethan 
 age. It was when the manufacturers of Flanders 
 "perished" in the "catastrophe of the religious war 
 of the Low Countries with Spain," that " Flemish 
 manufacturers swarmed over into England," " and gave 
 new life to the industry, which long had its centre at 
 Norwich," Nor, again, was a "carrying trade " possible 
 save for a " great maritime country " at a time when a 
 "great sea traffic existed." The "great sea traffic" 
 followed the discovery of the New World ; and England 
 became a "great maritime country" after the Eliza- 
 bethan age. The discovery of the New World shifted 
 the highway of traffic from the inland lake of the 
 Mediterranean to the open Ocean, and England was 
 favourably placed, by geographical situation, for trade 
 between America and the Continent of Europe. It 
 is curious, and not unimportant, to note that in the 
 Far East at the present day Japan occupies a similar 
 l)osition between America and Asia. " From the point 
 of view," lastly, "of business " England, in the Middle 
 Ages, was " not an advanced, but on the whole a back- 
 ward country." " She must have been despised in the 
 chief commercial countries ; as now she herself looks 
 upon the business system and the banking of countries 
 like Germany and even France as old-fashioned com- 
 pared to her own, so in the IMiddle Ages the Italians 
 must have looked upon England." 
 
 2. The seventeenth century saw the commence- 
 ment of Colonial expansion. 
 
 It was, then, in the Elizabethan age that England 
 " first assumed its modern character." " At this point "
 
 158 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 also " we mark the beginning of the expansion, the first 
 symptom of the rise of Greater Britain." The historian, 
 from whom we have quoted, put forward the view* 
 that " competition for the New World between the five 
 western maritime States of Europe" — Spain, Portugal, 
 France, Holland, and England — " sums up a great part 
 of the history of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies." The preceding " sixteenth century," he writes, 
 "may be called the Spain and Portugal period." "In 
 the seventeenth the other three states, France, Holland, 
 and England enter the colonial field." At first the 
 "Dutch take the lead"; but during the course of the 
 century " Portugal declines," " Spain remains in a 
 condition of immobility," and, later, Holland loses its 
 importance. " The eighteenth century," in its turn, 
 " witnesses the great duel of France and England for 
 the New World." Thus treated, the economic history 
 of England during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries receives fresh illumination. A connecting 
 thread may then be followed through Commonwealth, 
 and Piestoration, and Ee volution, stretching from the 
 Elizabethan age to the Battle of Waterloo. The growth 
 of Greater Britain gives an order and an unity to what 
 might otherwise appear confused and disconnected. In 
 the " Elizabethan war with Spain " the " fermentation " 
 may be discovered "out of which" Greater Britain 
 " sprang." " Under the first two Stuarts," it came 
 " into existence by the settlement of Virginia, New 
 England and Maryland. At a later time, in the 
 eighteenth century, it is seen to engage, now more 
 mature, in a long duel with Greater France"; and the 
 interval was filled by the " foundation of the English 
 
 * Chapter VI.
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 159 
 
 navy" and the "duel with Holland." This last period 
 it is which " covers the middle of the seventeenth 
 century." " It embraces our first great naval wars." 
 It witnesses the taking of Jamaica from Spain by 
 Cromwell, and that of Bombay from Portugal, and 
 New York from Holland, by Charles II. 
 
 3. The contest with France for the New World 
 was a conspicuous feature of the eighteenth century. 
 
 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries England 
 conducted a long contest with France, known as the 
 Hundred Years' War. It left as a legacy a serious 
 strain on her resources. The distress felt afterwards 
 in town and country, which rests on evidence more safely 
 treated as showing the special condition of particular 
 places and classes than the general state of the whole 
 people,* may yet be traced, in part at least, to such a 
 large and powerful general cause. In the eighteenth 
 century the country was again engaged in a great duel 
 with France. Of the hundred and twenty-six years, 
 parting the Battle of Waterloo from the Eevolution of 
 1G88, some sixty-four were spent in war. At the begin- 
 ning of the period the English national debt did not 
 exceed a million pounds; at the end it had grown to 
 more than eight hundred millions. Of the seven great 
 wars, thus fought successively, five began, and the other 
 two ended, as wars with France. " The whole period," 
 in fact, Sir John Seeley observes,t " stands out as an 
 age of gigantic rivalry between England and France, a 
 kind of second Hundred Years' War." The "explana- 
 tion" of the long quarrel is, he holds, the rivalry of the 
 two candidates for the possession of the New World. 
 In America, as in Asia, " France and England stood in 
 
 * Cf. above, Chapters V. and VI. + Chapter II.
 
 160 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 direct competition for a prize of absolutely incalculable 
 value " ; " and, probably, Arthur Wellesley believed that 
 at Assaye and Argaum," in India, in his early military 
 days, " he struck at the same enemy as afterwards " in 
 Europe " at Salamanca and Waterloo. ' 
 
 4. Economic motives in part at least prompted the 
 wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 It is true that other causes may have worked together 
 with this special influence. The maintenance of the 
 " balance of power " in Europe itself was an idea firmly 
 held, and constantly asserted. Eeligious differences 
 took an important place among the forces, which 
 excited, and sustained, the opposition led by the Pro- 
 testant William III. to the " most Catholic " Louis XIV. 
 But one great motive, at least, prompting and directing 
 the continuous warfare, was distinctly economic. Posses- 
 sion of the New World, and dominion over India, meant 
 the control of a mighty instrument of national "power." 
 The wealth, and trading prospects, of India and America, 
 offered, in truth, a tempting prize to manufacturers and 
 merchants. The New World at any rate held out at first 
 the very attractive bait of stores of actual treasure. As 
 Adam Smith observed in his "Wealth of Nations,"* 
 ** every Spaniard, who sailed to America, expected to 
 find an Eldorado.'^ " Fortune, too," he proceeded to 
 add, " did upon this what she has done upon very few 
 other occasions ; she realised in some measure the 
 extravagant hopes of her votaries." The golden expecta- 
 tions, thus formed, and thus fulfilled, were shared by 
 other nations. They suggested, and they stimulated, 
 efforts to snatch away from Spain advantages enjoyed 
 in the New Continent across the seas. But India offered 
 
 * Book iv., chap, vii., part i.
 
 FOKKICN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE IGl 
 
 a prize no less tempting than America. The discovery 
 of the West Indies was made in the hope of finding there 
 a short way to the East ; and the development of Mer- 
 cantilist views, which put in the place of immediate 
 ownership of actual bullion a "favourable balance of 
 trade," came into notice in a controversy on the l^enefits 
 to England of East Indian trade. A fresh direction 
 was then given to men's thoughts. But the assertion, 
 so familiar in after days, that " trade follows the flag" 
 was at variance M'ith the current economic creed, neither 
 in its old and narrow, nor in its later and more liberal 
 form. Professor Schmoller, in his learned Essay on the 
 "Historical Significance" of the "Mercantile System,"* 
 remarks, in much the same spirit as Sir John Seeley, 
 that the "long w'ars," which fill the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, had " economic objects as their 
 main aim." " The national passion of economic rivalry," 
 he writes, " had been raised to such a height that it was 
 only in wars like these that it could find its full ex- 
 pression and satisfaction." The violent exclusion of 
 competitors in trade, and the jealous maintenance of 
 commercial and industrial monopoly, might as easily 
 call for the drawing of the sword, as they might follow 
 its successful handling. It was, in fact, some gain that 
 men should be "content, in the intermediate years of 
 peace, to carry on the conflict with prohibitions, tarifl's 
 and navigation laws instead of with sea-fights." 
 
 5. First, Spain was overthrown at the defeat of the 
 Armada. 
 
 "A project of commerce to the East Indies gave 
 occasion," as we saw, " to the first discovery of the 
 
 * Translated as a volume of Professor Ashley's " Economic 
 Classics." Cf. p. 69. 
 
 11
 
 162 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 West." The old routes overland to the East were barred 
 by the growmg dommion of the Turk, with the doubtful 
 exception of that passing through Egypt ; and other 
 routes were eagerly sought. The hope of reaching India 
 by a new way urged the Portuguese on their voyages 
 round the coast of Africa under Yasco di Gama 
 1481-98 and others in the closing years of the fifteenth 
 century. The same desire, half a century 
 later, prompted English efforts, attended by less direct 
 success, to find a North-East passage. In the 
 1553 time between the part taken first by John, 
 and afterwards by Sebastian, Cabot in the dis- 
 1494 covery of the mainland of America, and in other 
 ventures, which met with constant support from 
 the Bristol merchants, and fitful encouragement from 
 the Crown, was connected with the attempt to open 
 a North-West passage. For this, like the North-East, 
 might be free from Spanish or Portuguese interference. 
 The dominion, however, of the New World passed in the 
 first instance to Spain ; and first the Portuguese and 
 then the Dutch preceded French and English in 
 1578 the East. Unsuccessful trials were made under 
 1587 Elizabeth to colonise Newfoundland and Vir- 
 ginia; but the day of prosperous "plantations" 
 had not come. The latter enterprise, led by Sir Walter 
 Pialeigh, was the better conceived of the two ; but it 
 ended equally in failure. Brighter fortune attended the 
 repeated seizure in the Channel and the Spanish main 
 of trading cargoes by Drake and his fellow "sea-rovers." 
 To quote the language used by Froude in his "English 
 Seamen in the Sixteenth Century,"* the "privateering," 
 which they practised with no less boldness than good 
 
 * r. 25.
 
 FOREICN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 163 
 
 fortune, " suited " the " convenience " of Elizabeth, and 
 " suited her disposition. She hked daring and adven- 
 ture. She liked men, who would do her work without 
 being paid for it, men whom she could disown when 
 expedient ; who would understand her, and would not 
 resent it." They certainly played their part with skill, 
 and with astonishing audacity. Sir John Hawkins 
 managed a lucrative traffic in slaves between the Guinea 
 Coast of Africa and the West Indies with mingled 
 luck and boldness. Sir Francis Drake made a 1577 
 voyage round the world in 1577. Ten years later 1587 
 he entered the harbour at Cadiz, set fire to the 
 fleet lying there, or, in his own words, " singed the King 
 of Spain's beard," and " passed out again without the 
 loss of a boat or a man." Such courage and ability 
 yielded no small profit when Spanish merchantmen, 
 bringing treasure from America, were the prize. They 
 gained a crowning triumph in the Defeat of the 
 Armada in 1588— a deed accomplished, it seems, 1588 
 in spite of the miserliness and hesitation of the 
 Queen — which at once overthrew the maritime sovereignt}' 
 of Spain, and was the beginning of the English navy. 
 
 6. Then Holland was injured by the Navigation 
 Acts. 
 
 The end of the sixteenth century saw this famous 
 victory over Spain ; in the middle of the seventeenth 
 the Navigation Acts were aimed against the Dutch. The 
 language used by English economic writers of the time 
 affords convincing proof of the great position of that 
 nation. Sir Josiah Child begins his " New Dis- 
 course of Trade," published first in 16G8, with 1668 
 some remarks, which may serve as an example. 
 "The prodigious increase," he writes, "of the Nether- 
 
 11—2
 
 164 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 landers in their domestick and foreign trade, riches, and 
 multitude of shipping, is the envy of the present, and 
 may be the wonder of future generations." Imitation 
 of the Dutch, the " sincerest form of flattery," was 
 strongly recommended to the English people. Their 
 success had indeed been great. As the result of their 
 contest with Spain, they had founded a colonial empire 
 in two hemispheres. They enjoyed a monopoly of the 
 carrying trade. Their country furnished, in Adam 
 Smith's words, the " great emporium for all European 
 goods." In both these respects, however, their 
 1 65 1 position was assailed by the Navigation Act of 
 1051. According to its provisions no goods or 
 commodities of the growth, produce, or manufacture of 
 Asia, Africa, or America, were to be imported into 
 England, or Ireland, or any British "plantation," ex- 
 cept in ships, owned by English subjects, and manned, 
 to the extent of three-quarters of the crew, by English 
 sailors. No goods of the growth, produce, or manufac- 
 ture, of any country in Europe were to be imported into 
 Great Britain except in English ships, or in ships belong- 
 ing to the country where they were produced or exported. 
 This Act was passed under the Commonwealth ; 
 1660 the Act of 1660 of the Piestored Monarchy (usually 
 known as the Navigation Act) was even more 
 severe. Not merely were the provisions of the previous 
 Act endorsed. Not merely were the Dutch, so far as the 
 English could secure, to be excluded from the carrying 
 trade of Asia, America and Africa. Not only were they, 
 as a country having little or no produce of their own to 
 export, to be debarred from the carrying trade of Europe, 
 and to cease to be a depot for goods on their way to 
 England from some other European country. But they
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 165 
 
 were not to be allowed even to enter our colonies as 
 agents or merchants. Their fishing industry was injured, 
 and that of England was encouraged, by a "double- 
 aliens " duty on salt-fish, whale-fins, whalebone, oil and 
 blubber, imported into England as articles of commerce 
 by ships other than those which had obtained them. 
 
 7. Their effect seems to have been great. 
 
 The hostility revealed in these measures did not 
 attempt concealment by any thick or thin disguise. The 
 Acts were avowedly intended to secure the maritime 
 supremacy of England. They were aimed deliberately 
 at the naval power and trade of Holland. By this time 
 the English fleet had, under Blake, grown to a reality, 
 and had left behind the buccaneering days of Queen 
 Elizabeth. It is true that in the War, which followed 
 immediately the Navigation Act of 1651, the Dutch 
 admiral. Van Tromp, gained a notable victory over 
 Blake ; but in the end the power of Holland, strained by 
 the struggle with England, and then by the contest with 
 France, declined, and the power of England grew. The 
 final result, perhaps, was due less or more to other causes ; 
 but the Navigation Acts may certainly claim their share. 
 An observer of the da}^ like Sir Josiah Child, who was 
 not careless in his judgments, described the Act of 1(560 
 as "one of the choicest and most prudent" "that ever 
 was made in England," although he allowed that it had 
 interfered with trade. A century later Adam Smith, 
 who looked with no friendly eye on restrictions of 
 " natural liberty," admitted* that " some " of its regula- 
 tions "may have proceeded from national animosity." 
 But, he added, " they are as wise " "as if they had all 
 been dictated by the most deliberate wisdom. National 
 * " Wealth of Nations," Book IV., chap. ii.
 
 166 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 animosity at that particular time aimed at the very same 
 object which the most dehberate wisdom would have 
 recommended — the diminution of the naval power of 
 Holland." At any rate, with changes of detail, the 
 principles of the Acts remained in favour and, ap- 
 parently, in force until the nineteenth century. 
 8. Lastly, France was fought and overcome. 
 By confining English trade to English ships the 
 Navigation Acts may have fostered a mercantile marine, 
 from which the Navy might be fed. But by checking 
 competition, and by offering protection to the English 
 shipper, they may also have raised the price of goods 
 for the consumer who imported, and decreased the 
 business of the exporting merchant. At least, what- 
 ever may have been the case in England itself, they 
 certainly seem to have dealt an injury to English 
 colonies by narrowing the market for their goods. Yet 
 the Colonial Empire of Great Britain was extending. 
 The " Plantations " in America were growing in 
 1607 number and importance. Under James I. 
 Virginia was colonised with mixed success ; and 
 the Pilgrim Fathers, sailing in the Maijjloicer, began to 
 found their settlements in New England. Profit- 
 1621 ing by experience, and enjoying greater independ- 
 ence of control, they made rapid progress. In 
 the reign of Charles I. the Protestant New England, 
 and the Catholic Maryland, were added to the 
 1632 colonies. Under Cromwell Jamaica was wrested 
 1655 from the Spaniards. Under Charles II., with the 
 1663, I682 foundation of the Carolinas and the Quaker 
 1664 Pennsylvania, and the expulsion of the Dutch 
 from New York and Delaware, the Plantations 
 stretched in unbroken line along the Atlantic sea-board.
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 1G7 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Treaty of 
 Utrecht, closing in 1713 the War of the Spanish 
 Succession, is regarded by Sir John Seeley 17 13 
 as one of the "greatest epochs " in the "expan- 
 sion " of Great Britain.* "It marks," he observes, 
 "the beginning of England's supremacy." At the 
 time of the Spanish Armada she entered the race ; 
 now she outstripped both Holland and France. The 
 former country steadily declined ; after the death of 
 William III., from whose ability and fame she gained 
 a borrowed lustre, her decay was evident. From France, 
 who was, however, soon to renew the contest, England 
 received, by the Treaty of Utrecht, Nova Scotia and 
 Newfoundland. She thus* deprived her rival of one of 
 her three possessions in North America. She was now 
 the "first state in the world, and she continued for some 
 years to be first without a rival." Yet her foreign and 
 colonial possessions consisted only of a " fringe on the 
 Atlantic coast," " of a few Western islands, and a few com- 
 mercial stations in India." She had still to fight 
 a duel with France both in Asia and America. 1757 
 The eighteenth century ran more than half its 1759 
 course before in India Clive won the victory of 
 Plassey, and in the New World the Conquest of Canada 
 was achieved. 
 
 9. Colonial trade was regulated by the principles 
 of the Mercantile System. 
 
 The motives, which led to the foundation of the 
 English colonies, were largely economic. The gain 
 derived from actual treasure, or from profitable com- 
 merce, was an object commonly pursued. The principles, 
 by which the trade was regulated, were those of the 
 * "Expansion of England," p. lo2.
 
 1G8 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 current economic creed — that of the Mercantile System. 
 The Plantations were to serve, and not to injure, the 
 interests of the mother-country. The distinction of 
 "enumerated" and "non-enumerated" commodities, 
 made in the Navigation Act and afterwards, illustrates 
 the guiding purpose. " Non-enumerated " commodities 
 might be exported to other countries than Great Britain, 
 if they were taken in British or plantation ships, owned, 
 and manned, to the extent of three-quarters of the crew, 
 by British subjects. " Enumerated " commodities were, 
 on the contrary, strictly limited to the market of the 
 mother country. But they consisted of the peculiar 
 produce of America, or of commodities, which were not 
 produced in the mother country, or were produced in 
 quantities too small to meet the need. The cheap 
 purchase of necessary goods by English merchants, the 
 l)rofit on the carriage of articles forced to pass through 
 the mother country on their way to foreign nations, and 
 the injury caused to the trade of other countries by 
 replacing with colonial goods those which they had 
 formerly supplied, were the obvious aims of such restric- 
 tions. They might earn the blame of critics like Adam 
 Smith for turning trade into artificial channels, and for 
 violating rules of " liberty." Yet he allowed that the 
 " non-enumerated " commodities, which could be exported 
 freely, included such important products of the colonies 
 as grain, timber, fish, sugar, and rum, that the mother 
 country, by way of compensation, gave advantages in 
 her markets by bounties, or diminished duties, in which 
 foreigners did not share, and that her whole policy was 
 more generous and free than that of other countries. 
 Sometimes indeed, as in the instance of tobacco, she 
 might even protect a colony from possible competitors in
 
 FOREION AND COLONIAL COMMERCE IHO 
 
 the mother country itself. In any case it was the more 
 enlightened form of the Mercantile System — the promo- 
 tion of a " favourable balance of trade," and not the 
 collection of actual bullion — which inspired this colonial 
 policy. It was in keeping with the Mercantilist creed 
 that the interests of an individual colony should be 
 placed below what was thought to be the general welfare 
 of the realm. The further restriction, made in the 
 reign of George III., limiting the export of " non- 
 enumerated " commodities to countries south of Cape 
 Finisterre, betrayed a characteristic wish to allow 
 competing manufacturing countries to obtain no benefit 
 from such trade ; for they lay to the North of the limit 
 which was chosen. Whether the American colonies 
 were, in fact, seriously injured, or their trading de- 
 velopment greatly hindered, by restrictions imposed by 
 the mother country is not certain, and has been ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 10. Exclusive trading companies were common. 
 
 The colonial trade, like commerce generally, was often 
 more or less the monopoly of an "exclusive company." 
 Professor Hewins in his "English Trade and Finance"* 
 thus describes the " condition of things at the beginning 
 of the reign of James I." " The Piussia Company had 
 the monopoly of the trade in Russia, Armenia, ]\Iedia, 
 Hyrcania, Persia, and the Caspian Sea. The trade to 
 Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic was under the control 
 of the Eastland merchants. The Merchant x\dventures 
 enjoyed the monoply of the trade from the Cattegat to 
 the mouth of the Somme. Then came the Levant 
 Company with its monopoly of the trade of the Mediter- 
 ranean and the East. In the newly-discovered lands, 
 
 * P. 25.
 
 170 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the Guinea Company traded to the West Coast of Africa, 
 while the East India Company's charter inckuled the 
 ishmds and continents beyond the Cape to the Straits of 
 Magellan. In North America the South Virginia 
 Company monopolised the trade of Maryland, Virginia, 
 and Carolina ; and the Plymouth Adventurers Pennsyl- 
 vania, New Jersey, New York, and New England." 
 These companies consisted of two main varieties, which 
 were called respectively re(iiilat<'d and joint- stock. Under 
 the first, and older, form the individual trader provided 
 and controlled his capital. He paid the fees of the 
 company, and obeyed its rules, and exercised a voice in 
 its government and policy, if his payment were sufficient. 
 In the joint-stock company the independence of the 
 individual member was less complete, and the authority 
 of the corporation greater. The stock was held in 
 common ; the losses sustained and the profit reaped 
 were shared in common also. The latter type of 
 company might seem the more likely of the two to 
 become a close monopoly ; in actual practice, even a 
 "regulated company" might, by restrictive rules, grow 
 more and more exclusive. In either case the opposition 
 of " interlopers," as they were called, was a constant 
 source of difficulty. It was an object of the most jealous 
 precaution. It was a cause of the most frequent and 
 continuous alarm. In either case political necessities, 
 or services, might furnish an excuse, more or less satis- 
 factory, for economic injury, or loss, occasioned to the 
 community at large. In any event, the spirit of the 
 times did not as yet favour free competition ; it was 
 content to limit, where it could, the excessive evils of 
 extreme monopoly. The amount of fines for admission 
 might be limited ; and the less exclusive regulated
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 171 
 
 companies might replace joint-stock. In the eighteenth 
 century, it was true, the companies might be required to 
 justify their conduct, or existence, at the bar of popular 
 opinion ; but in the seventeenth the regulation of trade 
 and industry was still treated alike as a necessity and 
 a benefit. Exceptions might indeed occur even at that 
 time. Private merchants often made voyages of dis- 
 covery before a company was formed ; and "interlopers " 
 afterwards, by running risks, could usually secure large 
 gains. But monopoly was still the rule and competition 
 the exception. 
 
 II. The East India Company was conspicuous 
 among these. 
 
 Of these various associations the East India Company 
 has possessed, perhaps, the most conspicuous name. It 
 was incorporated as a joint-stock company at the 
 close of the sixteenth century. Its functions were 1600 
 finally taken over by the Government in 1858, at 
 the suppression of the Indian Mutiny. At the outset 
 its ventures, which were made by small subordinate 
 associations, were extremely cautious. But b}' 
 1617, when the funds of these smaller bodies 1617 
 were merged together in one joint-stock, the 
 public interest had grown. Capital was raised from 
 upwards of a thousand individuals of different ranks 
 and classes, to an amount four times as large as the 
 original stock. The ea,v\y histor}', however, of the 
 Company was marked by an unsuccessful contest for 
 the Spice Islands with the Dutch, who had in the East 
 succeeded to the Portuguese. This contest ended 
 in the massacre of the English at Amboyna in 1622 
 1G22, and their expulsion from the islands. The 
 credit of the Company declined, their stock fell, and
 
 172 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 they were forced to seek the protection of the King. 
 
 For his favour they paid heavily. In 1G40 
 1640 Charles I., compelling them to sell to him, in 
 
 exchange for bonds, the whole of the pepper they 
 then had in store, and disposing of the article for ready- 
 money, raised, in effect, a loan of some £50,000, which 
 he did not repay. Throughout the seventeenth century 
 the Company were fighting "interlopers," sometimes 
 consisting of mere private individuals, in contending 
 with whom the power of a large corporation was a great 
 advantage, and sometimes of traders, or associations, 
 supported by the kings like James I. and Charles I. 
 From Charles II. and James II. they had to meet 
 demands for "consideration-money," which were far 
 from modest, when they sought the renewal of their 
 charter. They were assailed by a suspicious, if not 
 hostile, popular opinion, encouraged by the Levant 
 Company, whose interests they injured. It was urged 
 that their trade was harmful to English interests, or 
 that it was for the public advantage that they should be 
 a " regulated " and not a "joint-stock" company. At 
 the close of the seventeenth century their existence was 
 threatened, first by the toleration shown by the Crown 
 
 to "interlopers," and then by the sanctioned 
 1708 creation of a new company; but in 1708 an 
 
 " United Company of Merchants of England 
 trading to the East Indies " was incorporated, with the 
 approval of Parliament. During the eighteenth century 
 they retained their exclusive privileges, although at 
 each renewal of their charter criticism was offered, and 
 opposition was encountered, and the terms secured 
 became more burdensome.
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 173 
 
 12. At first commercial, it ended by being political. 
 
 At the outset of their history the Company had re- 
 sented the intrusion of "interlopers" into the trade of 
 India, because they were thus drawn into political 
 entanglements by the hasty injudicious action of traders 
 free from responsibility or restraint. Such political 
 troubles they were anxious to avoid. At the close of 
 the eighteenth century the position of affairs had 
 strangely altered. The question occupying then the 
 minds of Ministers and Parliament was as much the 
 control of the great political power of the East India 
 Company as the restriction of their commercial monopoly ; 
 and they kept their administrative functions after they 
 had ceased to be a trading institution. The struggle 
 between France and England in India had resulted in the 
 victory of the latter, and our Indian Empire had been 
 established by the ability and energy of Robert Clive. Yet 
 Clive himself had often acted against the instructions of 
 the Directors of the Company at home ; and in their old 
 commercial, no less than in their new political relations, 
 the difficulties, which first arose with interlopers, were 
 experienced later with their servants. Their servants 
 were allowed to trade on their own account in India 
 itself, while the Company monopolised the trade between 
 India and Europe. By means of such trade individuals 
 gained great fortunes ; but they caused difficulties with 
 the natives in India itself, and they excited the envy of 
 the public at home, which formed exaggerated notions 
 of the power and possessions of the Company. 
 
 13. The difference between ** BuUionist" and 
 "Mercantilist" arose in controversies about Indian 
 trade. 
 
 The permission, originally granted to the East India
 
 17i ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Company, to export bullion gave rise to a notable 
 controversy in which the "mercantilists" parted from 
 the " bullionists." The latter would have restrained 
 the movements of the precious metals by direct action. 
 They would have stopped by force their export. They 
 would have induced or compelled their import. They 
 turned their attention to the transactions of bullion 
 dealers and exchangers ; and the office, and work, of the 
 royal " exchanger " were the outcome of such views. 
 The former, on the contrary, argued that the essential 
 point was to secure a " favourable balance of trade " ; 
 but they contended that an export of bullion for the 
 time might accord with sound principle and with 
 correct practice. It would do so, if in the long run it 
 resulted in a greater flow of the precious metals into 
 than out of the country. To secure such a "favourable 
 balance " it was necessary, they urged, that the export 
 of goods should exceed the imports, and that a difference 
 should be due, to be discharged in bullion. Such a 
 conception, though it might be destined in its turn to 
 give way to the broader theory of free trade, which 
 Adam Smith expounded, was yet less narrow than the 
 bullionist opinion, which it superseded. It was advocated 
 by Sir Thomas Mun with special reference to England 
 and her Indian trade. His "England's Treasure by 
 
 Forraign Trade" was published, after his death; 
 1669 in 1661). The second title of the essay contains 
 
 the gist of the argument. It runs: "The 
 Ballance of our Forraign Trade is the Eule of our 
 Treasure." " We must," he remarks in the essay, 
 " ever observe this Eule : to sell more to strangers 
 yearly than we consume of theirs in value." "But," he 
 adds, " we need not fetch in the more money imme-
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMP^RCE 175 
 
 diatsly, but rather first ' enlarge our Trade.' This we 
 may do by paying money enabling us to Ining in more 
 forraign Wares, which being sent out again will in due 
 time much encrease our Treasure." "Most men," he 
 continues, " search no further than the beginning of the 
 work, which misinforms their judgments, and leads 
 them into error : For if we only behold the actions of 
 the Husbandman in the Seed-time when he casteth 
 away much good Corn into the ground, we will rather 
 accompt him a madman than a Husbandman : but 
 when we consider his labours in the Harvest, which is 
 the end of his endeavours, we find the worth and 
 plentifull encrease of his actions." Such was the 
 nature of the reasoning by which the " bullionists " 
 were controverted, and the earlier "balance of bargain" 
 theory, as Richard Jones called it in an essay on 
 "Primitive Political Economy,"* was superseded by the 
 later theory which laid the stress upon the " balance of 
 trade." This change of view may justly be considered 
 an advance in theor3^ In practice, the encouragement 
 of exports by bounties and drawbacks, the discourage- 
 ment of imports by prohibitive or restrictive duties, tlie 
 limitation of the sales and purchases of colonists to the 
 markets of the mother countr}^ and the regulation of 
 trade by exclusive companies — all the bonds and fetters 
 of the Mercantile System, as it was known in later 
 times — were relaxations in comparison with the strict- 
 ness and severity of earlier " bullionist " restraint. It 
 was a step backwards, when writers confined their view 
 to the balance of trade with each particular country in 
 place of the balance of trade generall}^ which Mun himself 
 put forward. It was an advance when, in the eighteenth 
 * Included in his " Literary liemains "' pp. 291, etc.
 
 176 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 century, they shifted their standpoint, and considered 
 the balance of trade as a test of the commercial 
 prosperity of the country rather than as a means of 
 increasing, indirectly, its treasure. Even then they were 
 disposed to apply the test to the trade with separate 
 countries and not to the total commerce with the 
 world. 
 
 14. Another important change of opinion and 
 practice was seen in connection with the lending 
 of money. 
 
 Another development of practice, which exerted an 
 important influence on theory, was seen in this period. 
 With the growth of capital, and the increasing oppor- 
 tunity for its investment, the prohibition of interest, 
 and the opinions, on which it had been founded, under- 
 went a change. Subtle distinctions were drawn, intended 
 to preserve the letter of a principle, and to permit de- 
 partures from its spirit. The adoption of a maximum 
 rate of interest, beyond which no borrower or lender 
 could rightly go, was really a step onwards. It was, 
 in effect, a concession to the practice of giving or 
 1546 receiving interest at all. In 1546 and 1571 this 
 1 57 1 legal rate was fixed at 10 per cent. In 1624 it 
 1624 was reduced to 8, in 1651 to 6, and in 1714 
 1 65 1 to 5 per cent. Nor could the title of extortion 
 1714 be now consistently applied to interest paid by 
 a goldsmith for the loan of money, which was 
 again lent out by him to some shipowner on the security 
 of a cargo, or "bottomry," as it was called. The latter 
 transaction might conform to the definition of legitimate 
 business, because some risk was run, and, if the ship 
 were wrecked, and the cargo lost, the lender would 
 receive no interest. The former might legally be
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 177 
 
 " usurious," as a mere loan of money was involved. Yet 
 it was only the forbidden means to a permitted end. 
 Technically the two might differ ; in essence they were 
 the same. And they were now becoming common. 
 The goldsmiths stood between those who had capital 
 to lend and those who wished to borrow. When the 
 office of Eoyal Exchanger was suspended under the 
 Tudors, and then, after revival by Charles I., abolished, 
 they acted as exchangers of coin for bullion and of 
 English for foreign coin. As money-lenders, they suc- 
 ceeded to the place once filled by Jews and Caur sines and 
 Loml:)ards. In loaning wealth deposited with them, they 
 were forerunners of the modern banker. They not only 
 discharged the functions afterwards fulfilled by their 
 successors ; but they even anticipated some of the 
 technical mechanism by which the business of banking 
 is conducted. The receipts, which they gave for the 
 money intrusted to their keeping, passed from hand 
 to hand as currency. They were, in fact, emploj^ed, 
 like bank-notes later, as a convenient means of payment. 
 The goldsmiths aided also the finance of government. 
 They lent money to Charles II. on the security, and in 
 
 advance, of the taxes. But he followed the ex- 
 1640 ample of his father, who, in 1640, had seized the 
 1672 bullion placed in the mint by merchants for safe 
 
 custody. In 167'2 he stopped the repayments due 
 to the goldsmiths from the Exchequer, promising interest 
 instead of principal. Credit thus received a violent shock. 
 The money, amounting to more than a million pounds, 
 owing to the depositors, some ten thousand in numl)er, 
 who had put it for security into the goldsmiths' hands, 
 was finally hicluded in the National Debt. 
 
 12
 
 178 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 15. The National Debt and the Bank of England 
 came into existence together. 
 
 The National Debt was formally created at the close 
 of the seventeenth century. In consequence of the 
 serious blow to credit dealt by the action of Charles 11. , 
 William III. found it difficult to raise the money needed 
 for the War with France. After the Civil War the 
 various old feudal dues had been abolished, and new 
 taxation took their place. But, with fresh demands on 
 the Exchequer, it was hard to find new modes of raising 
 revenue. It was not easy to discover suitable taxes 
 or to lay their burden fairly on the different classes 
 of the people. A tax on property generally became in 
 time a tax on land, based on a fixed assessment, which 
 did not alter with the value of the land. The "hearth- 
 money," raised under the Stuarts, excited great un- 
 popularity. Poll-taxes were tried by William III., and 
 aroused no less disfavour. A general excise was found 
 impossible by Walpole in the middle of the eighteenth 
 century. Towards its close the unfortunate attempt to 
 tax the American colonies by Grenville was the occasion 
 of their Revolt ; and it apparently originated in the 
 difficulty of finding adequate modes of raising revenue. 
 William III. set the example of borrowing to meet 
 emergencies ; but the credit of the country, and the 
 rate, at which it raised the loans required, in the last 
 resort depended on the evidence, which was forthcoming, 
 of its taxable capacity. The device, however, now pro- 
 posed by William Paterson, by which i:i, 200,000 
 1694 were raised from a number of subscribers at a 
 rate of interest of 8 per cent., was at once the 
 formal origin of the National Debt, and the foundation 
 of the Bank of England. The immediate burden of
 
 FORPHGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 170 
 
 taxation, with its unpopularity, was diminished ; and 
 the subscribers to the loan were incorporated as the 
 "Governor and Company of the Bank of England." 
 They took the place of the goldsmiths. They enjoyed 
 the prestige of being the Government bank. They 
 secured privileges, which, in effect, gave them a 
 monopoly of the issue of bank-notes in London. The 
 position of sole superiority at the head of the banking 
 hierarchy was an ultimate consequence. An early, but 
 enduring, result was the hostility of the City, and the 
 monied classes, to the efi'orts of the Jacobites and the 
 Pretender to disturb the occupation of the throne. The 
 founding of the Bank of England illustrates thus the 
 growth of credit as an economic influence. The excesses, 
 to which inexperience may easily conduct, are 
 similarly shown in the speculative mania, ending 1720 
 in disaster, of the South Sea Bubble of 1720. 
 Then, as often since, unreasoning panic followed on un- 
 wise excitement. The stock of the South Sea Company 
 first rose enormously in price, and then fell with no less 
 rapidity. Everybody imagined at the first that he was 
 certain to gain, by a quick and easy road, a fortune ; he 
 found in the end that he was face to face with ruin. 
 
 16. Commercial Treaties were made in accordance 
 with the principles of the Mercantile System. 
 
 Two points of the Mercantile System may still be 
 noticed. Adam Smith remarked that the Mercantilists 
 sometimes sought to gain their object by com- 
 mercial treaties. At the beginning of the 1703 
 eighteenth century the famous Methuen Treaty 
 oll'ered economic benefit to Portugal in order to secure 
 political alliance. Portuguese wines were to enter Eng- 
 land, if English woollen manufactures were allowed to 
 
 12—2
 
 180 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 enter Portugal, on the payment of a duty one-third less 
 than that charged on the wines of France. The treaty 
 was expressly advocated on the ground that our balance of 
 trade in the case of Portugal was greater than in that of 
 any other country. The trade with France, for similar 
 reasons, was regarded with disfavour ; for there the 
 
 balance was against us. In 1713 negotiations 
 1713 were opened with France for a treaty, based on 
 
 the liberal principle that either country should 
 errant to the other the same treatment as that given 
 to the " most favoured nation." But they were unable 
 to meet a storm of opposition which was raised. It 
 came from those who feared the sacrifice of trade with 
 a country like Portugal, where the balance was " favour- 
 able," to trade with a country like France, which might 
 not only compete with EngUsh industries, but also pre- 
 sented the serious, if not fatal, disadvantage of an 
 " unfavourable balance." The Mercator, edited by 
 Daniel Defoe, pleaded for the separation of economic 
 from political considerations. Without abandoning 
 restraints on importation, it sought the removal of 
 what might prove a burden upon exports. It supported 
 the commercial clauses of the treaty of Utrecht. The 
 British Merchant, on the other hand, opposed these 
 clauses with the same ardour as that with which it 
 clamoured for the Methuen Treaty, called afterwards by 
 Pitt the " commercial idol of England." 
 
 17. The treatment of Ireland was unfortunate. 
 The treatment of Ireland under the Mercantile System 
 was characteristic but unhappy. Her trading interests 
 were kept in strict subordination to those of England. 
 Plantations of settlers were made as in the Colonies ; 
 and in the fifteenth century it was hoped that through
 
 FOIIEIGN AND COLONIAL COMMERCE 181 
 
 such centres of order and of industry placed amid the dis- 
 order and the misery which prevailed, when uncertainty 
 of life was great, owing to constant feuds of quarrelling 
 bands of "wild Irish," the colonising Saxon might 
 develop the resources of the country. In the 
 reign of Elizabeth unsuccessful attempts were 1567 
 made in Ireland, as in America, to found such 
 settlements. Under James I. the " plantation " of Ulster 
 enjoyed a more lasting prosperity because it had been 
 planned with greater wisdom. But its success was not 
 complete. Under Charles I. Strafford developed the 
 linen manufacture ; but he was careful to do nothing to 
 encourage the woollen trade, which might compete with 
 English industry. The military settlements of Crom- 
 well, and the ruthless removal of hostile or neutral 
 settlers after the Rebellion, turned the country into 
 " little better than a wilderness." After the Restora- 
 tion, in a similar spirit to that shown by Stratford, 
 pasture farming, suited alike to Irish soil and Irish 
 climate, was sacrificed to English interests by forbidding 
 the import of Irish cattle. This discouraged graziers, 
 although it proved of some advantage to the humbler 
 cultivators, who were less afraid of being disturbed to 
 make room for cattle. An immigration of woollen manu- 
 facturers into Ireland created a new* industry, which 
 excited jealousy in England ; but Irish frieze, which did 
 not compete with English cloth, was not molested. The 
 Navigation Acts, however, wrought injury ; for Ireland 
 was not allowed to trade directly with the American 
 "plantations." The Revolution of 1(588 made her once 
 again familiar with the miseries of war ; and the war 
 was followed, in the interests of English clothiers 
 threatened by the competition of the "cheap" labour
 
 182 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and the "cheap" material of the Irish woollen in- 
 dustry, by countervailing duties on Irish drapery. 
 The linen industry, however, which did not enter into 
 rivalry with England, was developed. In its favour re- 
 laxation was even made of the Navigation Acts. Yet it 
 might be sacrificed to more important English interests, 
 if need demanded, or to Scotch, after the Union with 
 England, when the linen industry in Scotland was en- 
 couraged. Ireland, in fact, was given no better treat- 
 ment than a colony, and sometimes worse. She had 
 to contribute to the power of England ; for so the 
 Mercantile System ordered. After the loss of the 
 American colonies the jealous policy was changed, and 
 her industry was helped. But serious mischief was 
 already done. 
 
 i8. Yet the Mercantile System marked a stage of 
 progress. 
 
 Yet, on the whole, the Mercantile System marked a 
 stage of economic progress. It was, in some respects, 
 an advance on previous practice. It replaced a local by 
 a national policy. For a later period it was reserved to 
 pass beyond the barriers now maintained ; but those 
 barriers themselves had been pushed forward from the 
 lines on which they rested at an earlier time. A move- 
 ment from a national to an international standpoint 
 might afterwards be desired and achieved ; a movement 
 from a local or municijml to a national position was 
 none the less important an advance. Professor 
 Schmoller's words supply perhaps no unjust or in- 
 accurate judgment of the entire system. " The whole 
 internal history," he writes,* "of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries " "is summed up in the opposition 
 * "The MercantUe System," p. 50.
 
 FOREIGN AND COTONIAL COMMERCP: 183 
 
 of the economic policy of the state to the town " and 
 the " district ; the whole foreign history is summed up 
 in the opposition to one another of the separate interests 
 of the newly-rising states." " Each " " sought to ohtain 
 and retain its place in the circle of European nations, 
 and in that foreign trade, which now included America 
 and India."
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE 
 NEW ECONOMICS. 
 
 {From the Georges to Victoria.) 
 
 The New Agriculture, the Factory System, and 
 
 Free Trade. 
 
 A.— THE AGRICULTUEAL EEYOLUTION. 
 
 I, The period from 1750 to 1850 is very important. 
 
 The last half of the eighteenth, and the first half of 
 the nineteenth, century cover a period of great import- 
 ance in the economic history of England. The changes 
 then accomplished in manufacturing industry have been 
 described as "revolutionary," They were accompanied 
 by agricultural movements hardly less complete or less 
 remarkable ; and the adoption of Free Trade, which 
 followed, was a reversal of the ideas, which, under the 
 Mercantile System, had long guided the commercial 
 policy of the country. The extent of the changes was 
 such as to earn the title of a " revolution " ; their speed 
 seemed so great as to astonish and confuse, though it 
 has certainly been shown that preparation had been 
 made for them some time before they were achieved. 
 The possession by England of a commercial and indus- 
 trial supremacy is a characteristic of the nineteenth 
 century ; and it was a sequel, if it was not a consequence,
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION 185 
 
 of the agricultural, industrial and commercial changes 
 we are now to consider. They opened a new, eventful 
 chapter of economic history. 
 
 2. It marked a fresh stage of development. 
 
 At first a purely agricultural country, with rude 
 methods of tillage, and a rigid system of tenure, then 
 a manufacturer of the cloth, the raw material of which 
 had heen before exported to be turned elsewhere into a 
 finished good, then, as a maritime, commercial nation, 
 taking from the Dutch their carrying-trade, and con- 
 tending with the French for the possession and the 
 business of America and India, England finally became 
 the workshop of the world. As the Middle Ages passed 
 away, the close institutions of the Manor and the Gild 
 were merged in the larger community of the nation ; 
 and now the Mercantile System, which, in its pursuit of 
 power, had removed internal barriers, was to withdraw 
 before Free Trade, in whose eyes the whole world was 
 to be as one nation, and nations were to be as persons. 
 Such was the language used by Sir Dudley North in his 
 "Discourse upon Trade " as early as 1091. A cosmo- 
 politan spirit, aiming at the increase of the total sum of 
 wealth, was now prepared to overthrow external barriers, 
 parting geographically, and not economically, one country 
 from another. The time had come for taking a new 
 standpoint, from which trade and industry might be 
 surveyed ; and institutions and practices, fitted to older 
 circumstances, were not suited to the new conditions. 
 
 3. In agriculture, the process of inclosure was 
 renewed. 
 
 " Previously to 17G0," writes Arnold Toynbee in his 
 "Industrial Revolution,"* "the old industrial system 
 
 * P. 32.
 
 186 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 obtained in England ; none of the great mechanical 
 inventions had been introduced ; the agrarian changes 
 were still in the future." The beginning, then, of this 
 new chapter may be placed about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. Our attention may first be turned 
 to the "agrarian changes." In the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries the growth of the woollen industry 
 offered a powerful inducement to inclosure. Large 
 sheep farms, formed both from the common land and 
 from individual holdings in the "open" fields, aroused 
 the anxious, unavailing notice of the legislature. A 
 decrease of employment in some cases, in others an 
 actual loss of property, wrought serious injury to the 
 labourer and the smaller farmer. Sheep, in fact, took 
 the place of men. But the inclosure of the " open 
 fields " was a condition of improvement, and marked a 
 definite advance. Where the land, under the new 
 system of ''convertible husbandry," which followed on 
 the sheep-farms, was, from time to time, changed from 
 jjloughing to pasture, and again, after an interval, from 
 pasture to ploughing, the improvement rendered possible 
 by uniting scattered plots in a continuous farm, and 
 allowing the holder freedom to cultivate in such order 
 as might suit the land, and meet his own convenience, 
 was so obvious and so great that experts were agreed in 
 favouring inclosures. Yet even in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, when a fresh impulse was given to 
 agricultural development, more than half the land of 
 England was still formed of open fields. Once again 
 high agricultural authorities, like Arthur Young, eager 
 to secure free opportunity for scientific cultivation, urged 
 inclosure, complaining of the wretched methods by which 
 the land in the open fields was farmed. Once again
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION 187 
 
 inclosiu-es were made on an extensive scale ; and the 
 less important members of the community, Hke their 
 predecessors, suffered from injustice or neglect, or, at 
 least, from inability to protect themselves. The same 
 Arthur Young, who dwelt on the advantage, or necessity, 
 of inclosure, was careful to point out the way in which 
 the peasantry might lose. 
 
 4. The object was improvement, of which Towns- 
 hend was a pioneer. 
 
 In one respect the later inclosures differed from those 
 which had occurred two or three centuries before. The 
 evils arising from the earlier inclosures ceased to excite 
 complaint, when the stationary, or falling, price of wool, 
 and the rising price of corn, made sheep less profitable 
 and tillage more remunerative. The bounty on the 
 export of corn, which was granted at the close of the 
 seventeenth century, and continued, with brief mter- 
 ruptions, during the greater portion of the eighteenth, 
 supplied a motive for the growth of corn, whatever may 
 have been its other consequences for good or ill. Its 
 influence was aided by duties on the import of foreign 
 corn, and by a veto on the export of English wool. 
 The later inclosures, then, were not, like the earlier, 
 intended to permit the substitution of sheep for men, 
 but they were suggested, and required, by the urgent 
 claims of advancing agriculture. Three names enjoy 
 especial prominence on the roll of those who led the 
 way in agricultural improvement. The title given to 
 "Turnip Townshcnd " needs no explanation. Lord 
 Townshend, indeed, did not introduce the cultivation 
 of those roots from which his nickname was derived. 
 They, and clover, had been tried as experiments during 
 the period of slow development before the time when
 
 188 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 he, deserting the town and politics, addressed himself 
 to the more tranquil business of rural life. But 
 1730 ^Yhen, in 1730, he took to farming, he caused a 
 revolution in agricultural methods by giving to 
 turnips and to artificial grasses their definite place in a 
 four-course rotation. Under the system of "convertible 
 husbandry " the land had gained the necessary respite 
 from continued tillage by falling back to pasture, and, 
 after remaining under pasture for some time, was, with 
 renewed advantage, broken up for a fresh interval of 
 ploughing. Under the primitive rotation of the "open- 
 field " system, a period of fallow once in every two or 
 three years was ordered, and the land was unproductive 
 for the time. The change, by which, under the new 
 " Norfolk system," roots and grasses alternated with 
 corn crops, not only provided the necessary refreshment 
 without an idle interval, but also furnished the winter 
 food for cattle which was wanting in the older agri- 
 culture. Such a change, resulting in such consequences, 
 was a '^revolution." 
 
 5. Bakewell, Coke, and Arthur Young were others. 
 
 During the same period in Leicestershire Bakewell, 
 who lived from 1725 to 1794, was winning 
 1725-1794 European fame for his improvements in 
 sheep and cattle-breeding. He took a new 
 standpoint, from which the carcase of the sheep was 
 tb ought no less important than its fleece. In his 
 attempts to improve the breed of cattle he was not 
 so successful ; but his sheep, " small in size and great 
 in value," brought him both celebrity and wealth. The 
 latter disappeared beneath the pressure of a lavish hospi- 
 tality ; the former estal^lished his position as the chief 
 of a number of imitators, who followed his example with
 
 THE AGIIICULTURAL REVOLUTION 189 
 
 advantage to themselves and to the public. A third 
 reformer was Mr. Coke of Holkham, whose energy was 
 shown in various directions. The rental of his estate 
 is said to have grown from £2,200, when he entered on 
 possession in 1776, to more than nine times as much 
 forty years later. The plentiful, but judicious use of 
 manure, the introduction of oil-cake and other artificial 
 food for cattle, the practice of stall-feeding and the im- 
 provement of live-stock, and the erection of model farm- 
 buildings and labourers' cottages, were illustrations of 
 his pervading zeal. The knowledge of these new im- 
 provements was spread by Arthur Young. He 
 was the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, 1793 
 established in 1793, and on his various tours, in 
 England, in Ireland, and in France, he gained, and tried 
 to communicate, a knowledge of promising experiment 
 and proved success. 
 
 6. Inclosure was necessary, but the peasantry 
 suffered, 
 
 "Before 1780," Mr. Prothero remarks in his history 
 of "English Farming,"* "the Eastern counties and 
 Leicestershire had alone profited to any substantial 
 degree by improvements in agriculture or stock-breeding." 
 In those counties the farms were large, and the open fields 
 were few. In many other places the old system lasted ; 
 and even in 1794 "it is calculated that of 8,500 
 parishes, 4,500 were" "farmed in common." 1794 
 The drawbacks of this system were tolerably 
 plain. Time was idly spent in passing from scattered 
 strip to scattered strip. Drainage was a failure, if your 
 neighbour did not drain his land as well. The use of 
 new maclunery was as little possible as the observance 
 
 * P. 55.
 
 190 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 of a new "rotation"; and common rights of pasture 
 over the stubble were a serious obstacle to winter crops. 
 An unreasoning conservatism, born of local prejudice, 
 wedded to familiar but old-fashioned methods, and 
 sustained in some districts by lack of intercourse along 
 roads, where the mud lay thick, might agree with the 
 routine of the " open-field " system, but it hindered, 
 where it did not prevent, improvement. Inclosure was 
 a remedy as naturally suggested as it proved 
 1777 efiectual. It was extensively employed. Between 
 1795 1777 and 1795 upwards of six hundred Inclosure 
 1809 Acts were passed. Between 1795 and 1809 the 
 1843 number of a thousand was exceeded. Between 
 1760 and 1843 some seven million acres of 
 common land were inclosed. By the process agricultural 
 improvement was secured ; but the peasant suffered. 
 Humbler claims were overlooked, or set aside. The 
 extinction of rights of common meant the loss of an 
 opportunity of adding to means of livelihood. The 
 inclosures were to some extent responsible for the occur- 
 rence, or aggravation, of distress. They joined with a 
 vicious poor law in swelling the amount of pauperism. 
 They helped to separate the peasant from the soil. 
 They added their compulsion to the attraction of work 
 in the manufacturing industries which were growing 
 with amazing speed. 
 
 7. The smaller freeholders, or yeomen, disappeared. 
 
 Nor, it must be remembered, was it the labourer alone 
 who was thus affected. The disappearance of the smaller 
 freeholders, or yeomen, who were once an important, and 
 welcome, part of rural society, may l)e traced to a com- 
 bination of causes, among which the inclosures take a 
 significant position. The forfeiture of ancient rights of
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION 101 
 
 common grazing was a serious reality to many of their 
 number. It sometimes turned a scale wavering beneath 
 the weight of other burdens. Such a burden might be 
 found in the excitement caused by violent movements 
 in the price of agricultural produce. These might be 
 due to the influence of the Napoleonic War, w'hich was 
 accompanied by scarcity and by increased demand, and 
 followed by comparative abundance and diminished 
 custom. They might also be occasioned by Corn Laws, 
 which, excluding, or restricting, the entrance of foreign 
 corn, caused greater fluctuation, less easily foreseen, 
 than that occurring afterwards, when a freer trade drew 
 its supplies from a larger area. Difficulties might, in 
 addition, be produced by oppressive mortgage debts 
 contracted rashly by the yeomen to permit an increase 
 in their holdings, or an improvement, or extension, of 
 their buildings, or provision for their family. The 
 growing pressure of the Poor Eates, as pauperism 
 increased towards the end of the eighteenth century, 
 was a further serious burden. Such difficulties as these 
 threatened them with ruin, and forced the sale of their 
 land. They were tempted to the same fatal course by 
 high prices offered by men wanting the social position 
 or the political power of landed ownership, or seeking 
 opportunity for applying capital to agriculture under 
 the more advantageous methods possible when the scale 
 of the enterprise was large. Thus by direct or indirect 
 means the movements of the times wrought their decline. 
 At the end of the seventeenth century, according to 
 Gregory King, the number of freeholders in England 
 amounted to 180,000. Less than a century later, Arthur 
 Young speaks of them as if they had vanished from the 
 scene. He does no more than anticipate what after-
 
 192 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTEY 
 
 wards occniTed. Their disappearance was to be re- 
 gretted, even when it was due to natural causes. It 
 was the more to be lamented that it was hastened by 
 artificial influence. 
 
 B.— THE FACTORY SYSTEM: ITS CAUSES. 
 
 8. In manufacturing industry inventions and im- 
 provements were introduced, especially in the cotton 
 trade. 
 
 The new manufacturing developments supplied the 
 capital for buying out the landed interest of the 
 yeomen. They attracted, or compelled, the inhabitants 
 of the country districts to move into the towns. In 
 their pressing demand for abundant labour they favoured, 
 as we shall see, the encouragement of population by a 
 lax administration of the Poor Law. By the injury 
 they wrought to the "domestic system" they deprived 
 the peasantry of additions to their incomes made l)y the 
 employment of themselves, or of their wives or children, 
 on manufacturing work in the slack or idle hours of 
 agriculture. The domestic system of industry had 
 afforded compensation for the inclosures of the fifteenth 
 and the sixteenth centuries, by opening new avenues to 
 work ; but it was now superseded by the factory. The 
 mechanical inventions of the eighteenth century were 
 achieving an "industrial revolution," They thrust wool 
 from the sovereignty, which it had occuj^ied for so long 
 a period of English history, and seated cotton in its 
 place. In 1770 woollen goods formed more than a 
 quarter of the exports of the country ; and the value of 
 the cotton export was but a twentieth of that of wool. 
 In 1836-1840 the annual consumption of raw cotton
 
 THE FAGTOKY SYSTEM 193 
 
 was about 406,000,000 lbs., and that of wool was, in 
 1840, some 200,000,000 lbs. The manufacture of cotton 
 was first transformed. A notable series of inven- 
 tions wrought this result. In n~)'6 the introduc- 1753 
 tion of the llying-shuttle by King increased the 
 pace of the hand-loom so much that the demands of the 
 weavers for yarn outstripped the supplies which the 
 spinners could furnish. The position of affairs 
 was soon reversed. In 1769 Arkwright invented 1769 
 the water-frame, in 1770 Hargreaves patented 1770 
 the spinning-jenny, and in 1779 Crompton intro- 1779 
 duced the mule, combining in one machine the 
 principles of the jenny and the water-frame. The 
 conditions of spinning were now transformed, and the 
 supplies of the spinners outran the demands of the 
 weavers. Eapidity was gained by the discovery due to 
 Hargreaves. Arkwright' s invention enabled men to 
 spin cotton-yarn of sufficient strength ; and the pro- 
 duction of the liner yarn, and, as a consequence, that 
 of muslins, were made possible by Crompton' s mule. 
 The labour of the hand-loom was in such request that 
 the weavers had no leisure left for following, as before, 
 their agricultural work ; and they enjoyed a prosperous 
 independence, for they commanded the market for their 
 services. An equal, or greater, transformation in the 
 processes of weaving resulted, some time later, from the 
 general use of Cartwright's power-loom. It was 
 patented as early as 1785 ; but afterwards it was 1785 
 much improved, and it was not, it seems, em- 
 ployed on an extensive scale until the first twenty years 
 of the nineteenth century had passed away. In the 
 year 1785 also the steam-engine, patented by 
 Watt in 1769, was introduced into the cotton 1769 
 
 13
 
 194 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 1789 industry, and in 1789 it was first applied to the 
 power-loom. 
 
 9. Other industries shared in the progress made. 
 
 The use of steam as a motive-power created a new 
 demand for coal. The successful smelting of iron by 
 coal, and the employment of steam in blast-furnaces, 
 increased this demand, and revolutionised the iron 
 industry. Its products were needed for the manu- 
 facture of the new machinery ; and, leaving the char- 
 coal furnaces of the forests of the South, it settled in 
 the neighbourhood of the large coal strata further North. 
 AVith these important discoveries the names of Darby, 
 Roebuck, and Cort, are linked in the period covered 
 by the latter half of the eighteenth century. The other 
 textile industries of linen and of wool shared in the 
 impulse given by the new inventions which were ex- 
 tended to them in their turn. Improvements in the 
 combing of w^ool, and in the spinning of flax, were seen 
 at the close of the eighteenth century. The making of 
 lace, and the printing of calico, by machinery, together 
 with improvements in dyeing and bleaching, were dis- 
 coveries of the same eventful period ; and they were 
 hardly surpassed in the importance of their results 
 by the progress made in certain industries where little 
 or no machinery was as yet employed. In the history 
 of pottery the name of Josiah Wedgwood has left a 
 lasting reputation ; and he was not alone among the 
 inventors, and designers, of the time. 
 
 10. The modes of transport, by water and by 
 land, and the methods of conducting business, were 
 altered. 
 
 The age was crowded with notable discoveries and 
 improvements; and among these the steam-engine
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEiM l'J5 
 
 takes a place of chief importance. It was to revolu- 
 tionise the modes of locomotion. Experiments were 
 made promising great results ; but the fulfilment lias 
 surpassed the highest expectations. In our time the 
 possibilities of electricity as a motive power are engaging 
 the attention of inventors ; and it is hard to tell what 
 the future of locomotion may be under this new imj^ulse. 
 Yet it is not long since the speed and cost of carriage 
 across the sea were completely altered by the general 
 substitution of steam for sailing-vessels, and the middle 
 of the nineteenth century was an epoch of railway con- 
 struction so rapid and so large as to beget a speculative 
 mania, and to end in a financial crisis. In the 
 eighteenth century improvement in the means of 
 carriage was due mainly to canals. Of these the 
 Grand Trunk, joining the Trent and the Mersey 
 in 1777, and the Grand Junction, uniting London 1777 
 with the Midlands in 1792, were conspicuous 1792 
 examples. The names of Telford and Macadam 
 were connected with the construction and improvement 
 of the turn-pike roads in the early part of the nine- 
 teenth century ; the first railway was opened in 
 1880, and the first steamer crossed the Atlantic 1830 
 Ocean from America to England in 1819 and 1819 
 from England to America in 1838. Better 1838 
 methods of conveying goods were accompanied 
 by more efticient ways of conducting business ; and the 
 development of banking, and the making and erection 
 of different parts of that elaborate, but smooth and 
 easy, mechanism, with which the modern trader is 
 familiar, altered the character and processes of business. 
 The manufacturing and agricultural "revolution" thus 
 found its counterpart in trade and commerce. In 1750 
 
 13—2
 
 196 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Burke had declared that " out of London " there were 
 " hardly a dozen banks." "In 1793," Mr. Fox Bourne 
 states in his " Eomance of Trade,"* "there were more 
 than four hundred." By the middle of the nineteenth 
 century the latter number had increased as much 
 1840 again. In 1840 the penny post wa-s introduced ; 
 1837 in 1887 the first electric telegraph-line was laid. 
 It was the fresh development of English commerce, 
 following the manufacturing advance, which suggested, 
 and enforced, Free Trade. 
 
 II. These changes gave advantages to special 
 districts. 
 
 The manufacturing inventions altered the relative 
 importance of the factors of production, and changed 
 the comparative advantages of different districts. Hand- 
 labour was not indeed immediately displaced. The 
 earlier inventions, like the spinning- jenny, might be 
 worked by hand. The hand-loom held its own in 
 weaving for some time after machinery, driven by a 
 new motive-power, had been established in the spinning 
 industry. Water supplied the source of that motive- 
 power before it was superseded by the steam-engine. 
 These successive changes were followed by distinct 
 results. In a previous age, under the old conditions 
 of industry, a plentiful supply of the raw material on 
 the one hand, and easy access to the market for the sale 
 of the finished goods on the other, were chief considera- 
 tions fixing the place of manufacture. The Eastern 
 Counties became the main seat of the woollen industry, 
 because the flocks of sheep, from which the wool was 
 taken, were raised and pastured on the neighbouring 
 plains, and intercourse was easily and speedily con- 
 
 * r. 89.
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 197 
 
 ducted across the adjoining sea with the markets of 
 the Netherlands and Germany. The fine breed of sheep 
 in the West of England, and the importance of the port 
 of Bristol, were jointly responsible for the fame of West 
 of England cloth. So long as the tools of manufacture 
 were simple, and the processes of production slow, the 
 domestic system of industry was possible in the woollen 
 as in other trades as a second pursuit for an agricultural 
 people. But the increased speed of output, and the use 
 of automatic motive - power, which accompanied the 
 manufacturing inventions, wrought a great change. 
 In the words of Mr. Cooke Taylor, in his " Modern 
 Factory System,"* " it was easier now to bring the raw 
 material to the motive-power than the motive-power to 
 the raw material ; or rather it was possible to do the 
 one, but quite impossible to do the other." 
 
 12. The use of water as a motive power favoured 
 Lancashire. 
 
 The motive-power first employed was generally water, 
 although in some cases the services of horses or of wind 
 might be enlisted. Water was found in abundance in 
 the Northern counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, and 
 Yorkshire, but was scanty in the South and East. 
 Lancashire was specially favoured. The range of hills 
 stretching from Kendal in Westmoreland to Macclesfield 
 in Cheshire broke the rain-clouds coming from the West ; 
 but the slope, by which the rivers reached the sea, was 
 little more than fifty miles on the western side in Lanca- 
 shire, while the Yorkshire rivers on the eastern side had 
 to travel twice that length, and the Derbyshire rivers 
 on the south were severed from their outlet by some 
 two hundred miles. The water-power thus available 
 
 * P. 135.
 
 IDS ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 in Lancashire was at once greater in force, and more 
 constant in supply ; and the cotton industry, enabled 
 by comparative freedom from tradition to take advantage 
 of the new factory system more readily than the ancient 
 woollen industry, was established in the district. The 
 abundant rainfall, which furnished copious stores of the 
 motive-jDower, caused a dampness in the air which 
 favoured the spinning of the yarn. For similar reasons 
 the woollen industry left the Eastern counties, and 
 found its principal home in Yorkshire, where it had 
 settled to some extent before and was worked on the 
 domestic system. In this industry the parting from 
 earlier traditions was accomplished more slowly and more 
 reluctantly, for the traditions themselves were older and 
 more firmly rooted. The reasons, which led to the settle- 
 ment of the linen industry in the North of Ireland, and 
 in Scotland, were also similar ; and the later movement 
 of the silk manufacture from Spitalfields ni London to 
 Macclesfield in Cheshire was connected with the change 
 from handicraft to factory. 
 
 13. The substitution of steam had a distinct 
 influence. 
 
 With the invention of the steam-engine a new source 
 of motive-power took the place of water. And now, in 
 Mr. Taylor's words,* " there being no longer a necessity 
 to seek either the motive-power or material in the same 
 degree, labour became the prime consideration." Near- 
 ness to the material needed to make the new machinery, 
 and to produce the power to drive it, ranked next to 
 labour, but below it, in importance. The factories left 
 the Ijanks of rivers, and settled in crowded cities. With 
 the old source of motive-power iron had been required 
 
 * Ibid., p. 137.
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 10!l 
 
 for the production of the machmery, and coal had ])een 
 latterly employed to smelt the h-on. With the advent 
 of the steam - engine the demand for manufacturing 
 machinery became more urgent, and a fresh demand 
 arose for coal as a source of motive-power. Nearness to 
 coal and iron thus gained a new importance ; and water 
 continued to be valued as a means of cheap communi- 
 cation rather than as a supply of motive-power. But 
 Lancashire and Yorkshire were equally suited for the 
 second as they had been adapted for the first stage 
 of the factory system. They possessed stores of coal 
 and iron. They were near to districts similarly supplied. 
 They contained centres of population, even then large 
 and rapidly increasing. Their water-ways were numerous, 
 and admitted of easy communication with markets before 
 the days of railways. For these reasons they became 
 the manufacturing districts. The Eastern Counties de- 
 clined and the progress of the West was small. Even 
 in the time of Adam Smith the population of Liverpool 
 was ten times, and that of Manchester five times, as 
 great as at the end of the seventeenth century. Between 
 1801 and ]811 the population of the latter city grew 
 from 90,000 to 300,000, and that of the former from 
 78,000 to 2>28,000. 
 
 14. The factory system took the place of the 
 domestic system. 
 
 Thus the domestic system of industry was doomed. 
 The use of powerful elaborate machinery prompted and 
 required the collection of a crowd of workers underneath 
 one roof. The isolated independent workman might 
 continue in some places and some industries. In others 
 the small company of the master-craftsman and his 
 family, or his apprentices and journeymen, working
 
 200 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 together, might be found. But the factory was in- 
 croaching on their province. When manufactures were 
 produced by hand, or by the aid of simple implements, 
 or rude mechanical contrivances, the material might be 
 supplied, and the goods placed on the market, by a 
 middleman, owning the capital and willing to take the 
 risk ; but the actual work was done in the houses of 
 small craftsmen, directing a few apprentices and 
 journeymen, who lived with them, eating at their 
 table. Manufacturing was then pursued as a second 
 occupation by a rural people. The substitution of 
 machinery for manual labour, and of power derived 
 from a natural force for the muscles of the workman, 
 made it advantageous to bring and keep production 
 near the source of motive-power.* The application, in 
 its turn, of steam, increasing the speed and enlarging 
 the scale of manufacture, rendered it desirable, and 
 even necessary, to generate in a single spot the force 
 which was required to drive machinery sufficient to 
 employ the labour of a crowd of workers. Manu- 
 facturing industry, leaving the villages, settled in the 
 towns, where it produced commodities in masses for 
 markets of the world. As the result of the mechanical 
 inventions England became an industrial workshop — a 
 manufacturing country, with a great increase in popula- 
 tion, of which, a hundred years later than the changes, 
 more than two-thirds were living in the urban, and less 
 than a third in the rural districts. The first half of the 
 eighteenth century, when the commerce of the country 
 
 * The substitution for steam of a source of motive-power, which, 
 like gas, or oil, or electricity, may be generated in one centre, and 
 distributed over a wide area, may possibly reverse some of the con- 
 ditions of the factory system.
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 201 
 
 alone had grown to any large extent, had seen an 
 mcrease in the population of some seventeen or eighteen 
 per cent. ; in the second half, when the manufacturing 
 changes added their influence, the addition amounted to 
 some fifty-two per cent. Between 1801 and 1831, as 
 Porter pointed out in his "Progress of the Nation,"* 
 the increase was fifty-seven per cent. 
 
 C— THE FACTORY SYSTEM : ITS CONSE- 
 QUENCES. 
 
 15. The factory system was attended by certain 
 evils ; but for these the system itself was not entirely 
 responsible. 
 
 The factory system thus became a necessary condition 
 of improved production ; but it was attended by eertahi 
 evils. A distinction may be drawn between the system 
 itself and the circumstances of its introduction. Under 
 the old domestic system greater intimacy prevailed 
 between the master-craftsman and his apprentices and 
 journeymen than could arise between an employer and 
 a crowd of workers. Carlyle described the new relation 
 in emphatic language as a " cash nexus " ; and it cannot 
 be denied that the change from the earlier to the later 
 system was a change from an industrial relation, which 
 lent itself more readily to sentiment and personal 
 affection, to a relation resting rather on hard considera- 
 tions of mere business. It was possible that the new 
 employer might not know the faces of the "hands" 
 working in his factory ; it was inconceivable that such 
 a lack of knowledge should be found between the 
 master-craftsman and the inmates of his house. Yet 
 
 * Section 1, chap. i.
 
 202 EXGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the older system undoubtedly had its evils. All crafts- 
 men were not kindly, or unwilling to use opportunities 
 for petty tyranny. The individual worker was perhaps 
 more dependent on the individual master than he 
 became when the factory took the place of the domestic 
 workshop. He may have had a better chance of rising 
 to independence as a master-craftsman ; but, on the 
 other band, the worst conditions of employment are 
 now found in trades where a domestic system still 
 prevails. Nor has historical inquiry failed to disclose 
 some i^arallels in times before the advent of the factory. 
 
 i6. The circumstances of its introduction were 
 unfortunate. 
 
 Opinion on the special circumstances of its introduc- 
 tion rests on more certain ground. Of the grave nature 
 of the evils, which arose, no question can be raised. 
 That some of the early masters were harsh and cruel, 
 unfitted to bear responsibilities for which they had no 
 training, or to exercise a power, of which their experience 
 was fresh, cannot be denied. That they were ready, in 
 the pursuit of wealth, to neglect considerations, to which 
 they might have proved more sensible in calmer times, 
 and less strange circumstances, may be admitted, while 
 we allow that others, like David Dale and Robert Owen 
 at New Lanark, took an interest in the health and 
 welfare of their men, and that the evils seem to have 
 been worst in the smaller mills. That the nation 
 itself, engaged in that long and arduous contest with 
 Napoleon, for which it furnished a large portion of 
 the funds, did not recognise at first that the permanent 
 interests of national well-being were sacrificed to the 
 more pressing and immediate, but not more important, 
 aim of increased production, is a conclusion suggested
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 20B 
 
 alike by a study of the discussions, which preceded 
 Factory Legislation, and the experience which has 
 followed its enactment. No competent historian would 
 now deny the grievous and alarming nature of the evils, 
 to redress which the interference of the law was asked. 
 Young children of tender age were crowded into factories. 
 Their labour was cheaper, and more obedient to strict 
 control, than that of older men. Their strength and 
 their intelligence were equal to much of the work 
 required l)y the new machinery ; and their smaller 
 bodies could creep through places where adults could 
 not pass. But they were often maimed, or injured, by 
 such machinery, from dangerous contact with which they 
 were not protected. They were maltreated by rough 
 overseers, and distressing deformity sometimes resulted 
 from deliberate or careless human act as well as from 
 the unconscious agency of passionless machinery. Their 
 hours of labour were long. Their conditions of life were 
 injurious to health, both physical and moral. Their 
 minds were neglected equally with their bodies. The 
 misery, which they suffered, has found eloquent expres- 
 sion in Mrs. Browning's poetry. It aroused the interest 
 of philanthropists, like Lord Ashley. It inspired the 
 efforts of the Factory Reformers associated with him, 
 such as liichard Oastler, and Michael Sadler. It 
 awakened at last the conscience of the nation, and 
 demanded notice from the legislature. 
 
 17. Legislation was demanded. 
 
 The lirst Factory Act, hi 1802, was passed at the 
 instance of Sir Robert Peel, the father of the 
 famous statesman, and himself a master-manu- 1802 
 facturer. Its objects were the same as those 
 achieved by later legislation. Restriction of day-work,
 
 204 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and prohibition of night-work, provision of education by- 
 attendance at school during working-hours, and insist- 
 ance on elementary sanitary requirements, such as 
 whitewashing, and the admission of fresh air by 
 sufficient windows, were intentions common to this Act 
 and its successors. It was due immediately to alarm 
 
 occasioned by ravages of epidemics in the factory 
 1796 districts. This led to the appointment, in 1796, 
 
 of a Board of Health, who, in their first report, 
 charged overcrowding in the factories with large respon- 
 sibility for disease. The Act, however, was limited to 
 apprentices legally bound to service : for it was the duty 
 of the law, which bound them, to protect their life and 
 health. When manufacturers first sought the necessary 
 power for iheir machinery on the banks of the rivers 
 of the North, a system arose among the overseers of the 
 South and elsewhere of binding parish apprentices to 
 service in the mills. When the substitution of steam 
 for water moved the factories from the rivers to the 
 cities, parents also sent their children to work, to enlarge 
 their earnings. They were, it seems, no less neglectful 
 
 of their future health than the masters of appren- 
 1819 tices had been. In 1811), accordingly, a new 
 
 Factory Act limited, for the first time, the age, at 
 which children generally, whether legal apprentices or 
 not, could be admitted to the mills, to nine years and 
 upwards, and, as before, restricted the hours of labour 
 (l)etween the ages of nine and of sixteen) to twelve. 
 
 But, while the earlier Act applied to cotton and 
 1825 to woollen mills, the later was limited to cotton. 
 1831 In 1825 and 1831 further Acts were passed. The 
 
 chief provision of the first was, perhaps, the ap- 
 proach made to a half-holiday on Saturday, and the most
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 205 
 
 notable characteristic of the second was that,unhke its pre- 
 decessors, excellent in intention but of no avail in practice, 
 it was, to some extent at least, carried into effect. 
 
 i8. This was afterwards more effective than it was 
 at first. 
 
 Factory Legislation now received support from the 
 Tory party ; for they were anxious to secure some 
 counterweight to the popularity gained by Liberal poli- 
 ticians from the movements for Parliamentary lleform 
 and the Repeal of the Corn Laws. The agitation 
 for a " Ten Hours Bill " was actively conducted. 1833 
 In 1833, as the result of the inquiries of a Royal 
 Commission, Lord Althorp's Act was passed. It applied 
 to cotton, wool, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, and silk-mills, 
 where steam, or water, or other mechanical power, was 
 used to propel or work machinery. It drew a distinction 
 between " children " of nine to thirteen years of age, and 
 "young persons " of thirteen to eighteen. The former 
 were not to work more than nine, and the latter more 
 than twelve hours a day. It compelled attendance at 
 school ; for this condition seemed to offer the surest 
 guarantee that a child was not at work. Finally — and 
 this perhaps was of most importance — inspectors were 
 appointed to prevent evasions of the Act. They were 
 even intrusted with the magisterial powers, given before 
 to the local justices, but rarely, if ever, exercised. 
 By the Act of 1844, a power to prosecute took the 1844 
 place of this penal jurisdiction ; but the effective 
 operation of the Laws has undoubtedly been due to the 
 regular appointment of inspectors, to their possession of 
 sufficient authority, and to the zealous fearless exercise 
 of their important duties. The Act of 1844, passed by 
 Sir Robert Peel himself, consolidated previous measures,
 
 206 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and introduced changes suggested by experience. Six 
 and a half hours a day, or ten hours on three alternate 
 days in the week, with five hours' schooling on the other 
 da3's, were to be the maximum hours of labour for 
 " children" of eight to thirteen years of age. All adult 
 women were given the same protection as that accorded 
 to "young persons"; and careful rules were laid down 
 about the hours allowed for meals, the certificates of age, 
 and those of school-attendance. Provision was 
 1847 first made for the fencing of machinery. In 
 1847 the Ten Hours Bill was passed, limiting, 
 after May in 1848, the hours of work to ten for "young 
 persons " and for women. The manufacturers, however, 
 met the restriction of the law, and satisfied the demands 
 of reviving trade, by a system of "relays." They thus 
 kept their factories open for a greater period than the 
 maximum time, but did not employ " protected persons " 
 for longer than the legal hours. The inevitable com- 
 plications of the system furnished opportunity for 
 1850 evading the law, and misleading the inspectors ; 
 and in 1850 a compromise was reached, by which 
 the legal working-day for " young persons" and women 
 was fixed at ten and a half hours in the time between 
 six in the morning and six in the evening, and, in the 
 winter months, with the consent of the inspectors, 
 1853 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. On Saturdays work 
 was to cease at two o'clock. In 1853 the same 
 limits of time, between which the maximum hours must 
 fall, were applied to "children." 
 
 19. With the Factory Act of 1850 its main prin- 
 ciples were settled. 
 
 A\'ith the Act of 1850 an important period of Factory 
 Legislation closed. Its governing principles had been
 
 'JHE FACTOKY SYSTEM 207 
 
 laid down. The provisions, by which its observance 
 was secured, were now estabhshed. The struggle 
 between its advocates and its opponents had ended in 
 the victory of the former ; and subsequent development 
 consisted mainly in its extension to industries not yet 
 included. The conditions of employment in coal and 
 metal mines also received the notice of Parliament even 
 before 1850, and Eoyal Commissioners found there evils, 
 which might be compared to the worst misery and 
 oppression of the early factories. In their case, simi- 
 larly, the law endeavoured to prevent their repetition by 
 regulation and inspection. To non-textile factories, and 
 to workshops, the Factory Acts have been extended by 
 successive stages. The machinery of the Acts themselves 
 has been improved; and greater emphasis has been 
 given to certain principles. It would be rash to assert 
 that practical experience has silenced opposition or 
 distrust, but the general current of opinion is fairly 
 represented by language used by the late Duke of 
 Argyll. "During the present century," he writes, in 
 his " Eeign of Law,"* " two great discoveries have been 
 made in the Science of Government : the one is the 
 immense advantage of abolishing restrictions upon 
 Trade ; the other is the absolute necessity of imposing 
 restrictions upon Labour." "If during the last fifty 
 years it has been given to this country to make any 
 progress in Political Science, that progress has been in 
 nothing happier than in the Factory Legislation." ' 
 
 20. Another evil of the period was the alarming 
 growth of pauperism. 
 
 In the tirst instance, we have seen, Factory Legislation 
 was applied only to those apprentices legally bound to 
 * P. 334. t Ibid., p. 3(54.
 
 208 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 service, who had, m many cases, been brought, or sent, 
 to the North by the overseers of the Poor Law from the 
 parishes of the South and elsewhere. The overseers were 
 influenced b}^ a wish to reheve their parishes of the burden 
 of pauperism. Among the evils of the last quarter of 
 the eighteenth, and the first quarter of the nineteenth 
 century, an extraordinary and alarming growth of 
 pauperism fills a conspicuous place. It was due, in the 
 main, to lax administration of the law. In 1722 
 1722 the "workhouse test" had been established. 
 Workhouses were to be erected by parishes 
 uniting with one another ; and relief was to be refused to 
 all who would not enter them. Such, at any rate, was 
 the theory ; in practice the test may have been made 
 impossible by neglect or refusal to build or provide the 
 necessary houses. Yet its formal abolition, sixty 
 1782 years later, by Gilbert's Act, marked a significant 
 change of policy. The provisions of that Act 
 were, it is true, permissive ; for its adoption depended 
 on the assent of a certain number of the ratepayers in 
 any district. But the current of ideas was altered. A 
 little later, the demand for soldiers to fight in the War 
 against Napoleon made the encouragement of population 
 a patriotic duty. This feeling was confirmed, or anti- 
 cipated, by the urgent call for abundant labour in the 
 factories, which the mechanical inventions brought in 
 large numbers into being. In place of that destruction 
 of cottages to avoid an increase of the rates, which had 
 before commended itself to the influential classes, the 
 policy, begun by the Berkshire magistrates, meet- 
 1795 ing at Speenhamland in 17U5, of granting allow- 
 ances in aid of wages in proportion to the price 
 of wheat and to the numbers of a family, met with
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 209 
 
 approval. It received that genuine form of flattery 
 which consists in general imitation. It was 
 shortly afterwards indorsed by Parliament. A 1796 
 certain amount of pauperism, it must be allowed, 
 was caused by the agricultural and manufacturing 
 changes of the times. The peasantry were injured by 
 inclosures, and by the decay of the domestic system. 
 Workmen, accustomed to manufacture by hand, were, 
 for the time at least, thrown out of emploj^ment by 
 machines, or by the cheaper and more dependent labour 
 of women and children, who were competent to perform 
 the less laborious and skilful work required. But none 
 the less the volume of pauperism was increased by the 
 administration of the Poor Law ; and the evils finally 
 became so serious and manifest that reform was urgently 
 required. 
 
 21. A crisis was reached when, in 1834, the Poor 
 Law Amendment Act was passed. 
 
 The Commission, to whose Report the Amendment 
 Act of 1834 was due, found cases not unusual, 
 where the condition of a pauper was preferred 1834 
 to that of an independent labourer ; and it was 
 possible that those, who received relief from the rates, 
 might be more prosperous than those who bore the 
 burden of their payment. The expenditure on poor- 
 relief increased from some two millions of pounds in 
 1783 to twice that figure in 1803, and by 1818 it 
 amounted to nearly eight millions of pounds for 1818 
 a population of eleven millions of people. During 
 the period of strict administration, it had duninished 
 from t\S19,000 in 1698 to £619,000 in 1750. Wages 
 sank, for the gaps in them were filled by allowances. 
 Population grew by legitimate or illegitimate means ; 
 
 14
 
 210 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 for relief was given in proportion to the numbers of a 
 family. Independence was at a discount. The nominally 
 dependent were in practice insolent, and even dictatorial. 
 A witness before the Commission summed up the situa- 
 tion by remarking: "Poor is the diet of the pauper; 
 poorer is the diet of the small ratepayer ; poorest is the 
 diet of the independent labourer." If the whole nation, 
 or the vast majority, were not to become paupers, a 
 complete change was necessary; and, accordingly, the 
 Commission recommended, and the Legislature adopted, 
 those principles of stricter administration, which 
 1834 were embodied in the Act of 1834. The work- 
 house test was re-imposed. Gilbert's Act had 
 forbidden the guardians to send to the "house" any 
 but the "impotent." By the Act of 1796 refusal to 
 enter it was not to be made a cause for withholding 
 poor-relief. But the Act of 1834 distinctly forbade 
 relief to aljle-bodied persons except in well-regulated 
 workhouses. A Central Board was to be appointed to 
 control the local authorities, to frame rules for their 
 guidance, and to insist on their observance. The vigorous 
 action of the three Commissioners, first selected for this 
 purpose, roused reaction ; and they incurred the penalty 
 of unpopularity. But they altered the whole condition 
 of affairs. They arrested the growth of what were 
 justly called "enormous" evils. They averted a great 
 calamity. 
 
 D.— INDUSTRIAL MOVEMENTS: TEADE UNIONS. 
 
 22. The Factory System stimulated, but did not 
 create, Trade Unionism. 
 
 The rise of the factory, with its new and strange
 
 TRADE UNIONS 211 
 
 developments, and the sudden, overwhelming flood of 
 young labour, caused bewilderment and alarm to men 
 accustomed to the old conditions. They tried to stop 
 the torrent of apprentices. They attempted to resist 
 the inroads made upon traditional rates of wages. They 
 sometimes offered opposition to the new machinery. 
 They often sought protection by combining in Trade 
 JJnuDts. In their " History of Trade Unionism,"* 
 Mr. and Mrs. Webb find its " fundamental condition " 
 not so much in the " introduction of machinery and the 
 factory system " itself as in the accompanying, and 
 preceding, " economic revolution." At that particular 
 time indeed the economic change was felt more widely 
 and more completely wrought ; but at an earlier date it 
 had been accomplished in some places and some trades. 
 The essence of the change was this. " In all cases," 
 Mr. and Mrs. Webb write, " in which Trade Unions 
 arose, the great bulk of the workers had ceased to be 
 independent producers, themselves controlling the pro- 
 cesses, and owning the materials and the product of 
 their labour, and had passed into the condition of life- 
 long wage-earners, possessing neither the instruments 
 of production, nor the commodity in its finished state." 
 The building of factories, and the use of costly, elaborate, 
 machinery, hastened the process and extended its range ; 
 but " permanent combinations " of wage-earners, or trade 
 unions, had arisen previously. In the West of England, 
 for example, the "wealthy clothiers" supplied, and 
 owned, the material, and employed at different stages 
 of the manufacture different sets of workers, who had 
 the implements, but not the capital or knowledge, 
 necessary to conduct the industr}-. In Yorkshire, on 
 
 * r. 24. 
 
 14—2
 
 212 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 the other hand, the small master-craftsman contmued 
 to buy his raw material and sell his finished goods ; 
 and in this district Unions did not arise until the 
 factory came. But in the West of England they 
 prevailed throughout the eighteenth century. In the 
 same waj', when the framework knitter, in the hosiery 
 trade, and the Sheffield operative, in the cutlery manu- 
 facture, lost, as a class, the ownership of their frames 
 and wheels, combinations made their appearance, and 
 remained. Unionism, in fact, first arose, not in the 
 distress of the end of the century, among unhappy 
 workmen, suffering "intolerable oppression," but amid 
 the comparative prosperity of its first fifty years with 
 "journeymen, whose skill and Standard of Life had 
 been for centuries encouraged, and protected, by legal 
 and customary regulations," and by the "limitation 
 of their numbers." 
 
 23. The Unions first appealed, in vain, to the old 
 law^. 
 
 In the early history of the movement an appeal was 
 made to the law and not against it. The skilled crafts- 
 man, threatened by the flood of young pauper labour, 
 sought protection in the Act of Elizabeth, which limited 
 the quantity, and fixed the conditions, of apprenticeship. 
 The worker in those textile trades, which had grown up 
 since, and were exempt from such provisions, tried to 
 secure that legal ordering of wages, which, taken from 
 clauses of the Statute of Apprentices, had been extended 
 to a wider area. Petitions with these objects were sent 
 to Parliament, and until the middle of the eighteenth 
 century met with treatment which was not unfavourable. 
 The attitude of the House of Commons changed, less 
 in consequence of any deliberate adoption of a fresh
 
 TRADE UNIONS 213 
 
 political or economic theory, than under the resistless 
 influence of the new facts brought forward by the new 
 employers. The mediaeval customs were impossible, 
 they urged, if tlie growing export trade of the country 
 was to be maintained ; for the unrestricted use of the im- 
 proved machinery, and the free employment of cheap, 
 abundant labour, were conditions essential to the pro- 
 gress of those rising manufactures, by which the export 
 trade was swelled. New legislation on the matter was 
 accordingly refused ; and the attempt of the workmen 
 to enforce, by law, statutes disused, but not annulled, 
 was met by their repeal. In 1813 the power 
 of the justices to fix the rates of wages dis- 1813 
 appeared, and, a little later, the apprenticeship 
 clauses of the Elizabethan Statute shared the same fate. 
 
 24, The law was not hostile to them until a 
 general Combination Act was passed. 
 
 Trade Unions, then, were not at the outset hostile to 
 the law ; but, on the contrary, sought, unavailingly, its 
 aid. Nor was the law at first avowedly hostile to them. 
 Some combinations were permitted ; others met with 
 rare interference. If they sought merely to enforce 
 the existing law — to secure a regulation of wages by 
 authority, or to bring to account masters, who violated 
 the Statute of Apprentices — they were not, it seems, 
 treated as illegal. If, on the other hand, they tried 
 to settle for themselves the conditions of employment, 
 they came into conflict, not only with the common law 
 forbidding " restraint of trade," as it was soon to be 
 interpreted, but also with express provisions of the 
 statute law. But it was not until the close ^ « 
 of the century, in 1799 and 1800, that a 
 general Combination Act declared that all combinations
 
 214 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 were illegal. In theory this veto applied no less to 
 employers than to employed. In practice there were 
 difficulties in reaching combinations of the former, which 
 might rest on some general understanding, or were at 
 least more easily kept secret. Nor was there any dis- 
 position on the part of the administrators of the law to 
 make its powers felt in this direction. The passing of 
 the Act, it seems, was prompted by the rapid growth 
 of Unions among the textile workers of Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire ; and, while some associations of work- 
 men might continue unmolested, and approved by 
 the employers, among the old skilled handicrafts, 
 the pressure of the laws was, on the other hand, 
 severely felt in the industries, where the ancient 
 barriers had been removed, and the new regime of 
 machinery w'as fully introduced. There it was that 
 ill-feeling was rife, and that disturbances occurred. 
 There it was that machinery was attacked and broken. 
 Unions were formed, and suppressed, and formed 
 again in secrecy. Competition for employment, at 
 intervals at least, became quite reckless. Wages were 
 thrust downwards. Misery and poverty prevailed. 
 
 25. The Combination Laws were repealed largely- 
 through the energy of Francis Place. 
 
 The repeal of the Combination Laws was due partly 
 to the action in Parliament of Joseph Hume. 
 1824- 1825 It was more largely due to the skill and zeal 
 of Francis Place — a " figure behind the 
 scenes." His life, which has been written* in the main 
 from manuscript left Ijy himself, is a record of busy 
 energy. He has been described, f not unjustly, as, 
 
 * By .Mr. Graliaui Wiillas. 
 
 t hy Mr. and Mrs. Webb ("History of Trade Unionism," p. 86).
 
 TRADE UNIONS 215 
 
 in his narrow sphere, the "most remarkable politician 
 of his age." "His chief merit," it has been said, " lay 
 in his thorough understanding of the art of getting 
 things done." " Of all those artifices by which a 
 popular movement is first created, and then made 
 effective on the Parliamentary system, he was an in- 
 ventor and tactician of the first order." By trade a 
 master-tailor, he made his shop at Charing Cross the 
 centre, first of the movement for the repeal of the 
 Combination Laws, and then of that for the Eeform 
 of Parliamentary Piepresentation, which ended in the 
 famous Bill of 1832. His management of the Com- 
 mittee of Inquiry appointed in 1824, on Hume's motion, 
 to investigate the three subjects of the laws forbidding 
 respectively the emigration of artisans, the exportation 
 of machinery, and the combination of workmen, and 
 intended by Hume and by himself to achieve the one 
 particular end they had in view, was masterly. The 
 Ministry were betrayed into taking no interest in its 
 original formation ; but Hume, as chairman, guided its 
 proceedings, and Place prepared the evidence. The 
 result was a Pieport favourable to complete freedom 
 alike of combination and of emigration, and the passage 
 of a Bill, repealing all the Combination Laws, without 
 discussion or division. 
 
 26. But the final victory of the Unions was not won 
 for fifty years. 
 
 The workmen were not slow to use their privilege. 
 Unions were formed, and strikes occurred, in many 
 trades. The employers were alarmed, the Ministry were 
 aroused, and a fresh Committee of Inquiry was appointed, 
 made up this time on difterent lines. But Place, again, 
 under adverse circumstances, showed his mastery of the
 
 216 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 arts of agitation. The Committee was forced to hear 
 the evidence of workmen favouring the repeal of the 
 Laws, as well as of employers anxious that they should 
 be again enforced. Hume, who was sitting on this new 
 Committee, was duly furnished with the appropriate 
 means of examination and of cross-examination. 
 Numerous petitions were laid before both Houses, and 
 a wholesome fear was fostered of revolutionary disturb- 
 ance, should the Laws be introduced afresh. In 
 1825 the event, an Act was passed, by which the pro- 
 hibition of the common law was nominally re- 
 established, but associations for fixing wages, or the 
 hours of labour, were exempt from prosecution. A real 
 victory for the right of combination was thus won. 
 Place himself and his friends thought, indeed, that the 
 Unions would disappear when the motive of resistance 
 to the law did not exist. Other observers held that the 
 struggle of the workmen with the law was over. The 
 prophets were proved wrong. Unions were formed in large 
 numbers, and became a permanent institution of the 
 labour world ; and fifty years had yet to pass before it 
 was pronounced by Parliament that no act was illegal, 
 when performed by a group of workmen, which would 
 not be illegal, if it were done by a single individual. In 
 the time between unionists sometimes found themselves 
 entangled in the meshes of the common law, forbidding 
 action " in restraint of trade." Or they were accused 
 and sentenced, in name perhaps for such offences as 
 giving or taking illegal oaths, or intimidating, but really 
 for the "crime" of combination. For a while, they 
 i8zl8 ^^'^^'^ caught by the wave of political agitation, 
 which ended in the Chartist movement of 1848 — 
 the contribution made by England to the revolutionary
 
 FREE TRADE 217 
 
 disturbances of that eventful year. Ambitious aims 
 of a vast federation of the labour-world, or socialistic 
 schemes, attracted their attention at that time. But 
 from about the middle of the nineteenth century they 
 passed under the strong, but prudent, guidance 
 of a group of able, resolute officials, who, by 1871-75 
 limiting their programme, accomplished its 
 performance. They finally won for the Unions legal 
 recognition and liberty of action. 
 
 E.— COMMERCIAL MOVEMENTS: BANKING EE- 
 FORM AND FREE TRADE. 
 
 27. The effect of the War with France was great, 
 especially in matters of finance. 
 
 The fortunes of the Unions rose and fell, not merely 
 with their success, or failure, in winning Parliamentary 
 concession, or legal sanction, but also with the ebb and 
 flow of the tide of trade. The War with France laid a 
 lasting burden on the finances of the country. It left 
 behind a great increase of national indebtedness. But 
 during its continuance manufacturers and merchants 
 reaped advantage. Our trade developed in the absence 
 of foreign competition. It grew in spite of hostile action, 
 such as the Berlin and Milan Decrees, by which 
 Napoleon, retaliating for Orders in Council, 1806-7 
 aimed by us against neutral traders, tried to 
 exclude our goods from Continental markets. The close 
 of the war was followed by serious depression. "Whether 
 the inevitable reaction was, or was not, increased by 
 incidents connected with the banking institutions of 
 the country, was a question which gave rise to eager
 
 218 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 and prolonged dispute. In 1797 the Bank of England 
 was directed to suspend its " specie payments." 
 
 1797 It was thus freed from an obligation to give, 
 on demand, coin in exchange for its notes. For 
 
 some time, by wise and able management, it avoided the 
 danger which was likely to arise. There was no sign of 
 excessive issue of the notes, now rendered " inconvertible." 
 But, after a while, either, as some contended, from the 
 pressure of special adverse circumstance, or, as others 
 argued, owing to the lapse of the directors themselves 
 from a standard dilticult to maintain, a depreciation in 
 the value of the notes occurred. According to the 
 1810 Eeport of the Bullion Committee, appointed in 
 1810, it was shown by the " foreign exchanges." 
 That Committee recommended a return to " specie pay- 
 ments." In 1815 peace was again restored, and 
 1819 with the Resumption Act of 1819 the period of 
 the Bank " Restriction " ended. The Bank itself, 
 by its own action, anticipated the date when the pro- 
 visions of this Act came into force. The Piesumption 
 took place on the new basis of a single gold standard. In 
 1774, when the bad condition of the gold in circulation 
 had attracted notice, and required recoinage, the silver 
 also was made legal tender in the payment of debt l)y ■ 
 " tale " (or simple counting) for sums of less than twenty- 
 five pounds alone, while it continued to be legal tender by 
 weight for any amount. This measure was, it seems, 
 suggested by the great quantity of light silver 
 
 1798 circulating, especially of foreign origin. In 1798, 
 however, the free coinage of silver was first sus- 
 pended, and then forbidden ; and, on the "resumption" 
 of cash payments, silver ceased to be legal payment for 
 debts of greater amount than forty shillings, and both
 
 FREE TRADE 219 
 
 it and copper were henceforth token corns, containing 
 less metal than was represented on their face. 
 
 28, A controversy on the management of the 
 paper currency ended in the Bank Charter Act of 
 1844. 
 
 The sequel, if not the consequence, of the " resump- 
 tion " of cash payments was an unpleasant period of 
 trade " depression." In 1825 many failures followed an 
 excessive issue of notes hy the country banks, and over- 
 speculation was succeeded by depression. During the 
 time, which passed between the " resumption " and the 
 Bank Charter Act of 1844, a controversy raged on the 
 proper mode of managing the paper-currency. One 
 party, of which at one time Thomas Tooke was a leader, 
 urged that the issue of paper-money might, with safety 
 and advantage, be treated as an ordinary affair of bank- 
 ing, subject only to the common rules, and guarded by 
 the regular precautions, of wise banking. If, they 
 argued, the notes were on demand " convertible " into 
 gold, they would not be issued to excess ; for at the 
 moment when their value, owing to undue abundance, 
 sank below the coin, of which they were the repre- 
 sentatives, they would be brought for payment to the 
 banks from which they had been issued. The other 
 party, under the guidance of Lord Overstone, contended, 
 on the contrary, that further measures should be taken 
 to guarantee "convertibility." This party triumphed; 
 and their opinions found expression in the Act 
 of 1844, renewing the charter of the Bank of 1844 
 England. That Act separated the Issue Depart- 
 ment of the Bank from the Banking Department, which 
 carried on the ordinary business of a banker, receiving 
 deposits, discounting bills, and cashing cheques. Beyond
 
 220 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 a certain figure, representing the amount of notes likely 
 to remain always in circulation, the issue of paper was 
 restricted by the condition that gold must be placed to 
 meet it in the cellars of the bank. The action of the 
 Issue Department became automatic, giving notes in 
 exchange for gold, or gold for notes. The issues of the 
 country banks were to lapse to the Bank of England 
 whenever the partnerships, by which they were then 
 managed, were dissolved, and to the extent of two-thirds 
 of these lapsed issues the Bank of England might make 
 further issues without depositing gold to meet them. 
 
 29. "Commercial crises" were not prevented by 
 the Act. 
 
 Lord Overstone and his supporters hoped, by control- 
 ling the issue of paper-money, to check excessive specu- 
 lation, and to prevent "commercial crises." They 
 wished to avoid the ruin and distress which followed. 
 In this they were disappointed. Prosperity and depres- 
 sion of business came, and went again, in turn. Dulness 
 brightened into cheerful confidence ; confidence grew into 
 extravagant speculation ; speculation ended in sudden 
 collapse, followed again by despondent dulness. In Lord 
 Overstone's own words, " trade revolved " in an " estab- 
 lished cycle." These commercial crises were connected 
 with the growth of credit. They had, indeed, occurred 
 in the early part of the eighteenth century, and the 
 South Sea Bubble of 1720 was a notorious instance. 
 But the great increase of business in the internal 
 transactions of the country, and in its intercourse with 
 foreign nations, which accompanied, and followed, the 
 manufacturing development of the latter half of the 
 century, was attended, and to some extent was rendered 
 possible, by a corresponding growth of credit. Paper-
 
 FREE TRADE 221 
 
 promises to pay — bills of exchange and cheques — were 
 used in greater numbers in place of the immediate 
 passage of actual cash from purchaser to vendor. The 
 possibilities of speculation — of buying to sell again — 
 were enlarged, when goods made in great quantities, in 
 anticipation of demand, were sent to distant quarters of 
 the globe. But the possibilities of disaster were also 
 multiplied ; for more frequent and more serious mis- 
 calculation might be made. Fashion might change 
 from some caprice, or some calamity might unexpectedly 
 occur, in a distant district, and demand might suddenly 
 grow less. Merchants and manufacturers might be re- 
 quired to meet engagements before they intended, or 
 were ready. Credit might contract ; paper-promises to 
 pay, accepted freely hitherto, might be suspect ; and 
 actual coin, or notes convertible into cash on demand, 
 might be urgently sought ; for they alone could 
 legally discharge a debt. Such crises occurred 1793 
 in 1793 before the Bank Eestriction, in 1810 and 1810 
 1816 before the " resumption " of cash payments, 1816 
 in 1825, after this had taken place, in 1837, 1825 
 before the Bank Charter Act was passed, in 1817, 1837 
 and 1857, after its enactment. Their immediate 1847 
 causes differed. Speculation in American mines, 1857 
 and the over-issue of notes by the country banks, 
 were alleged in 1825. Excessive development of rail- 
 way construction, fixing capital in a form from which it 
 could not easily be diverted, was accused in 1848. But, 
 whatever the special cause might be, the consequences 
 were the same. Nor NNas the course of one commercial 
 crisis widely different from another. Panic succeeded 
 to excessive confidence, and was followed by reluctance 
 to engage in any but the safest ventures.
 
 222 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 30. Agriculture was depressed, in spite of Corn 
 Laws. 
 
 The agriculture of the country did not escape its share 
 of the depression following the War. That was felt in 
 a serious fall of prices. Corn indeed had ceased to 
 be exported. The demands of a population, which had 
 grown from some five millions at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, and some six millions in the middle, 
 to some nine millions at the end, changed the position 
 of affairs. But the growth of corn was still encouraged 
 by the action of the State. It was shielded by 
 1773 import duties from foreign competition. In 1773 
 its export was forbidden, and the bounty was 
 withdrawn, when the price of wheat rose above forty- 
 four shillings the quarter. Importation from abroad 
 was permitted only if the price of English wheat 
 1813 were more than forty-eight shillings. In 1813 
 1815 the bounty on export was abolished. In 1815 the 
 limit, placed upon the importation of foreign 
 1829 wheat, was raised to eighty shillings. In 1829 a 
 "sliding scale" was substituted, and, henceforth, 
 the import duty varied with the price of English 
 wheat, and was lowered when the latter rose. But in 
 practice the benefits of such protection were discovered 
 to be mixed. The landlord gained, but the farmer 
 suffered. Prices varied suddenly and widely ; and rents, 
 offered and taken on the footing of the higher prices, 
 which were expected, were not easily altered, and, in 
 fact, failed to correspond, to a lower level. The excite- 
 ment of speculation existed ; ))ut its accompanying 
 
 tRao ^^'^^'^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^° make their presence felt. In 
 
 1816, however, the Corn Laws were repealed, 
 
 and in 1849 the duties finally disappeared. The agita-
 
 FREE TRADE 223 
 
 tion for Repeal was vigorously conducted. It enjoyed 
 the support of the persuasive reasoning of liichard 
 Cobden, and of the pure but moving eloquence of John 
 Bright. It enlisted the active sympathy of the manu- 
 facturing classes, interested in o})taining labour cheap, 
 and anxious that food should be abundant. As the Tory 
 landowners demanded Factory Legislation, so the Whig 
 manufacturers urged the Repeal of the Corn Laws. 
 Their motives were mixed, and were not disinterested. 
 In either case from private selfishness public advantage 
 finally resulted. But perhaps the most efi'ective argu- 
 ment for Repeal was famine in Ireland. The stern 
 logic of fact thus accomplished what the logic of words 
 might have tried in vain to achieve. 
 
 31. The Repeal of the Laws marked a stage of 
 reform. Walpole had been a great financier. 
 
 The immediate introducer of Free Trade in Corn was 
 Sir Robert Peel. His conduct was bitterly condemned 
 by members of his own political party, who said that 
 they had been betrayed. It was described as a sudden 
 strange conversion. Undoubtedly he laid himself open 
 to the charge of taking his supporters by surprise, 
 although the Repeal may have been a conclusion to which 
 he did not know that he was coming before he found 
 escape impossible. Yet it is certain, as cooler observers 
 noted later, that his action was not inconsistent with 
 his general policy. The Repeal of the Corn Laws was a 
 further advance in the same direction of Free Trade as 
 that in which his previous dealings with duties on other 
 commodities had tended. He moved, in fact, along a path 
 of reform trodden by Huskisson before him. He added 
 a fresh stage to a building, of which the foundations 
 were attempted by Pitt, and the coping-stone was placed
 
 224 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 by Gladstone. In the early part of the eighteenth 
 century, during the long period of peace and 
 1721-42 prosperity which marked Walpole's adminis- 
 tration of affairs, no mean financial genius 
 had been shown. Walpole had remodelled the revenue 
 in various ways. He had tried to reduce the Debt. He 
 had improved the mode of collecting certain duties, such 
 as that on tea. By establishing " warehouses," where 
 the imported article might remain in " bond," paying 
 the duty only when removed for sale, he had been 
 enabled at once to lower the tax, and to increase its 
 yield ; for he had diminished smuggling. He had been 
 anxious to extend the same reform to wine and tobacco. 
 But he had been compelled to yield before an unpopu- 
 larity aroused by the connection with his measure of the 
 odious name of excise. A customs duty, payable on 
 importation, was, by his scheme, to be replaced by an 
 excise duty, paid when the article was about to be con- 
 sumed. In spite, however, of such anticipations of the 
 reforms in the machinery of collecting the taxes, which 
 were afterwards brought to successful completion by 
 financiers, like Peel and Gladstone, Walpole's customs 
 policy was framed in accord with the principles of the 
 Mercantile System ; and forty years of war, and of bad 
 finance, sufficed to undo much of the improvement he 
 had introduced. 
 
 32. The reform of English finance began again 
 with Pitt. 
 
 Towards the close of the century, Pitt, imbued with 
 Free Trade principles, which he had learnt from 
 A ' Adam Smith, began the work afresh. He 
 tried to establish a balance between expendi- 
 ture and revenue ; and he took some effective steps
 
 FREE TRADE 225 
 
 towards this end. But his repute has suffered from 
 the faith which he, like many others less able than 
 liimself, reposed in the delusive juggle of a sinking- 
 fund, by which the del)t was to be reduced with sur- 
 ])rising speed by the mysterious force of compound 
 interest. He also showed an anxiety to lower exces- 
 sive duties. He succeeded in making them simpler by 
 substituting a single tax on each commodity for the 
 varied number, which had been imposed from time to 
 time with little reference to what had taken place before, 
 or to any regular system. During the early period of 
 his tenure of office, while peace was preserved, his 
 finance was guided by such enlightened principles. 
 But his efforts were rudely checked by the War, and by 
 the overpowering need of raising revenue from every 
 source by every means. The Debt was enormously in- 
 creased. From two hundred and forty millions it rose to 
 nine hundred. The annual expenditure grew from nine- 
 teen millions, of which the charge for the Army and Navy 
 amounted to six, and that for the Debt to nine and a 
 half, to a hundred millions, of which the Army and 
 Navy absorbed fifty-six, and the Debt thirty-two millions. 
 After the war was over Huskisson enjoyed, and 
 used, the more favourable opportunity for re- 1823- 
 formed finance. He relaxed the Navigation Laws. 1827 
 The revolt of the American Colonies had made a 
 change necessary, if trade was to be pursued between 
 England and the States; and before the time of Huskisson 
 himself some special exceptions to the restrictions of the 
 Laws had been allowed. A principle of mutual "give 
 and take," then recognised, was now extended. Li 
 return for facilities granted by foreign nations for im- 
 porting goods into their countries, England yielded 
 
 15
 
 2'26 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 some part of that monopoly of the carriage of goods to 
 Enghsh territory, which the Navigation Laws had re- 
 tained for Enghsh ships. Concessions were also given to 
 the Colonies. Nor was this the one example of Huskis- 
 son's more liberal policy in international trade. He 
 aimed at substituting restrictive for prohibitive duties. 
 He paved the way, in short, for the further advances to 
 Free Trade, which his successors were to make. 
 
 33. With the adoption of Free Trade, this history- 
 ends. 
 
 Peel followed in his steps. He tried also to abolish 
 duties on the raw materials of manufacture, as 
 1842 he declared in 1842, in his first Budget speech. 
 His Eepeal of the Corn Laws was thus in a real 
 sense the continuation of his fiscal policy. Mr. Buxton 
 has remarked in his " Finance and Politics," * that " Peel 
 found the tariff with over a thousand articles subject to 
 duties ; and left it with but half the number." 
 1853 By the budgets of 1853 and 1860 Gladstone closed 
 i860 the work. The many unfruitful taxes on number- 
 less commodities were reduced to duties which were 
 so light as not to encourage smuggling, and were levied on 
 a few articles very generally consumed. Such duties were 
 raised for purposes of revenue alone, and did not aim at 
 protecting goods produced at home from the competition 
 of foreign articles. They were accordingly placed on 
 goods which were not products of the country, such as 
 tea, or coffee, or tobacco ; or, where foreign commodities, 
 like wine, competed with home-produce, such as beer, 
 an excise duty was imposed on the beer, equivalent to the 
 customs duty on the wine. The intention, at any rate, 
 of the authorities was plain. Trade was to flow in 
 
 * Vol. i., p. 63.
 
 FREE TRADE 227 
 
 natural channels, so far as Government could secure 
 this aim, by abstaining from interference. Artilicial 
 encouragement was at least no longer to be consciously 
 bestowed. Thus was proved untrue the prophecy 
 made less than a century before by Adam Smith, who 
 declared* that it was " as absurd " to " expect " that the 
 "freedom of trade" "should ever be entirely restored 
 in Great Britain" as it was to "expect that an Oceana 
 or Utopia should ever be established in it." The 
 Eepeal of the Corn Laws was followed, in 1849, 1849 
 and 1854, by the total abolition of the Navigation 1854 
 Laws ; and the Budgets of 1853 and 1860 com- 
 pleted the work of reform. The Mercantile System dis- 
 appeared ; the era of Free Trade was opened in its stead. 
 The economic events, which have happened since, are too 
 recent to be treated in these pages, and with the middle 
 of the nineteenth century this history may fitly end. 
 In the next and final chapter we shall examine the ideas 
 of that new school of economic science, to whose influ- 
 ence was largely due the acceptance of the principles of 
 which Free Trade was the illustration. 
 
 * " Wealth of Nations," Bk. IV., chap. ii. 
 
 15—2
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE 
 NEW ECONOMICS. 
 
 Conclusion : The Eise and Progress of 
 Economic Science. 
 
 I. A serious difficulty of economic history is the 
 connection of causes and effects. 
 
 The study of economic history is beset by more or less 
 serious difficulties ; but no problem presents itself more 
 often, or is less easy to solve, than that of parting from 
 the tangled mass of facts the threads connecting causes 
 with effects. Events follow, and seem related to, one 
 another. But to decide that one event is the sole cause 
 of another, or that the consequences of a particular 
 movement can be separated from their surroundings, is 
 often impossible, and is generally hazardous. To produce 
 a certain result many causes have usually been at work, 
 of which some have joined, and others have clashed, 
 with one another ; and the precise portion of the total 
 effect, which should be assigned to any one, may be 
 imagined, but can rarely be ascertained. The diligent 
 examination of historical records, however, diminishes 
 the chance that an important influence will be neglected. 
 It affords the means of bringing together events in orderly
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMK! SCIENCE 229 
 
 succession. It increases the likelihood of avoiding error 
 in the estimates we form of the strength of different forces. 
 
 2. Our commercial and industrial supremacy has 
 been due to several intermingled causes. 
 
 Thus, the study of English economic history leads 
 to the conclusion that our commercial and industrial 
 supremacy has been due to many causes. Our geo- 
 graphical situation enabled us to take advantage of the 
 opportunity offered in the sixteenth century by the dis- 
 covery of America, and the opening of the passage to 
 India round the Cape. Commercial intercourse was 
 then shifted from the Mediterranean to the Ocean, and 
 Venice lost what England eventually gained, though 
 Spain and Portugal, and Holland and France pre- 
 ceded her. The influence of this single cause cannot 
 be doubted ; but with the effects of our situation, 
 l)lac'ed between the Continent of Europe and the sea 
 joining the Nev/ to the Old World, the results of our 
 occupation of an island are also mingled. That has 
 given security against foreign invasion, and favoured 
 maritime and commercial enterprise. The new me- 
 chanical inventions of the eighteenth century made 
 possible the development of our manufactures ; but 
 they also received a stimulus, and the rapidity of the 
 process was increased, during the Napoleonic War, when 
 the competition of foreign countries was checked by the 
 presence of armies on their soil, or the threat of their 
 approach. Since we succeeded in taking the carrying- 
 trade from Holland, distracted as she w^as by exposure 
 to attack by land, we have enjoyed the largest share 
 of maritime traffic. We have secured, and we have 
 retained, the mastery of the sea. Our coast-line, again, 
 has furnished convenient harbours ; and the existence
 
 280 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 of iLany rivers, either navigable by nature, or easily 
 rendered so by artificial means, has permitted of trading 
 intercourse, scarcely less easy and effective, in the interior 
 of the country. In the early days of the mechanical 
 inventions the rivers of the North supplied plentiful 
 stores of the motive-power used to produce the goods, 
 and convenient routes for their carriage to their markets 
 or the sea. At a later period of the " industrial revolu- 
 tion," when a new source of motive -power was used, and 
 a new means of locomotion was introduced, abundant 
 stores of coal were found available at no great distance 
 from rich deposits of iron. The material for the new 
 machinery, the means of preparing that material for 
 use, and of generating the power to drive that machinery, 
 were thus supplied in plenty. Similarly the iron to 
 make, and the coal to move, the locomotive were ready 
 for the call of the inventive genius of the engineer. The 
 consequences of the exhaustion of our coal, or at least of 
 the seams more cheaply worked, are not easy to foretell. 
 Whether they will, or will not, be postponed, or be 
 made less serious, by the use of electricity as a motive- 
 power, is a question which the near, or distant, future 
 will answer. But that in the past advantage has been 
 gained from the convenient situation and the rich nature 
 of our coal deposits is a fact of economic history. 
 
 3. Human action has assisted natural forces ; and 
 Free Trade has had a pov^rerful influence. 
 
 If we pass from physical or natural advantages to 
 those more closely concerned with the action of man, 
 it is not difficult to name powerful influences, which 
 have contributed to the development of English industry 
 and commerce ; but it is rarely, if ever, possible to show, 
 or measure, the precise effect due to each separate cause,
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 231 
 
 or to fix the exact result following, or likely to follow, a 
 decline in its strength, or its entire decay. Many forces 
 have been at work at different times, producing mingled 
 consequences. The introduction of foreign workmen, 
 such as the Flemish weavers, the encouragement of 
 certain industries, like the growth of corn, by granting 
 bounties, or the manufacture of cloth, by forbidding 
 the export of the raw material, and the discourage- 
 ment, or prevention, of foreign competition by naviga- 
 tion laws or import duties, have in different periods 
 of the past exercised an influence. In the nineteenth 
 century the adoption of Free Trade was followed by 
 a great increase of wealth ; but writers, tracing to 
 this single cause the subsequent prosperity of England, 
 are met by the fact, which deserves and needs con- 
 sideration, that the introduction of Free Trade was 
 accompanied, or was followed after a brief interval, 
 by important events, like the large construction of 
 railway's, which improved the means, and reduced the 
 cost, of transport, or the great discoveries of gold in 
 California and Australia, which applied to trade the 
 quickening impulse of rising prices. To these, in any 
 comprehensive estimate, some portion at least of the 
 growth of business and of wealth must be attributed. 
 
 4. The adoption of Free Trade marked a change 
 in economic opinion. 
 
 Yet the adoption of Free Trade opened a new era ; 
 and its importance may here be noted as the outward 
 sign of a changed mental attitude. It was the triumph 
 of a new school of thought. It was the application to 
 an important department of practice of the fundamental 
 ideas of that economic science, which supplanted the 
 old Mercantilist creed. Trade was to flow in natural
 
 232 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 channels, not between artificial dykes. Labour and 
 capital, freed from restrictions, were to seek the most 
 advantageous employments, guided by their own in- 
 stincts. The increase of the "wealth of nations," and 
 not the promotion of the power of a nation, was to be 
 the controlling principle of commercial policy. With 
 the discovery of the mechanical inventions, revolu- 
 tionising the methods of industry, it had seemed 
 absurd, if not impossible, to retain ancient restric- 
 tions placed on the free use of labour by the statute of 
 apprentices and the regulation of wages. Free Trade, in 
 the same way, implied the removal of barriers between 
 nation and nation, which were equally vexatious, and no 
 less opposed to the new conditions. In matters of com- 
 mercial intercourse the whole world was to be one 
 nation, and nations were to be as persons. Division 
 of labour, and the growth of separate employments, 
 within the boundaries of a country, marked the advance 
 of civilisation, and promoted the increase of wealth. 
 But they were not fully possible without free exchange 
 of the products of the labour thus divided. Free Trade 
 was, in essence, the development of this principle— it 
 was " international division of labour." 
 
 5. Adam Smith was the father of a new school 
 of thought. 
 
 Such doctrines as these Adam Smith expounded to- 
 wards the close of the eighteenth century in his " Wealth 
 of Nations." He has been called the "father " of English 
 Economics ; and the description is substantially correct. 
 It is true that before his time writers of note had dealt 
 with such topics as he discusses. " Man's actions 
 in the ordinary business of life" — the way in which he 
 makes his income and the mode in which he uses it —
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 233 
 
 had attracted earlier notice. The pages of this history 
 contain some references to ideas, more or less profound, 
 expressed at various periods on economic matters. But 
 with Adam Smith the standpoint, from which the study 
 was regarded, was changed. A fresh conception was 
 introduced, and economic science was severed from the 
 art of national finance. The Mercantilists had connected 
 their inquiries closely with the aim of a wise statesman — 
 the best mode of adding to the power of a country. This 
 lay chiefly, as they held, in additions to its stock of 
 treasure. It was because a "poor people" made a 
 " poor king " that French " economists " similarly busied 
 themselves with the causes of the wealth and poverty of 
 the people. They were the source of the revenue of the 
 sovereign. The questions, which thus engaged the 
 thoughts of economic students, were concerned with good 
 or bad finance. Adam Smith himself retained traces of 
 this as he did of other ideas, which in the main he had 
 discarded. Yet his writings were an advance, because he 
 laid more stress on the connection between cause and 
 effect in matters of wealth, and gave less prominence 
 than heretofore to the practical art of enlarging the 
 revenues of the sovereign. He took a more detached 
 position. He sought to answer more frequently the 
 question what is the case and not what ought to be. 
 
 6. He separated the science of Economics from 
 the art of finance. 
 
 He is chiefly known to fame for his advocacy of Free 
 Trade, which met with rare success. In pursuance of 
 this aim he examined and refuted Mercantile opinion. 
 He rejected the balance of trade as the test of flourish- 
 ing commerce. He urged the removal of restrictions on 
 "natural liberty." He preached the adoption of Free
 
 234 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 Trade as the course most likely to promote the *' wealth 
 of nations." That would result, in his opinion, from the 
 unrestrained pursuit of their own interests by individuals. 
 By this change of practical aim the new Economics was 
 parted from the old. But it was also separated in another 
 way. The scientific study of facts, as they were, replaced 
 the art, which, by continued interference, moulded facts 
 according to a pattern it desired. When freedom of 
 individual action superseded the regulation of the state, 
 such scientific study was possible ; and, though Adam 
 Smith did not consistently maintain this attitude, yet he 
 conformed to its requirements more closely than his pre- 
 decessors had tried to do. It was in a scientific spirit 
 that he investigated the forces influencing the growth and 
 the decay of wealth. He may accordingly be called with 
 justice the father of English Economics. Economic 
 Science, as we now know it in this country, began with 
 his writing. The agricultural, industrial and commercial 
 changes, noted in the last chapter, amounted to a " revo- 
 lution." They were accompanied by a change of reason- 
 ing no less complete. The " Wealth of Nations " marked 
 a Ijreach from the type of reasoning — more practical than 
 scientific, more political than economic — which had before 
 found favour. 
 
 7. With his name those of Malthus and Ricardo 
 may be joined. 
 
 Three names are conspicuous on the roll of economic 
 writers between the middle of the eighteenth and the 
 middle of the nineteenth century.* The study proceeded, 
 in the main, on the lines which they laid down ; and at 
 the close of the period a fourth economist, from whose 
 
 * Cf. thf; present writer's " Short History of I'olitical Economy 
 in Eiif^land from Adam Smith to Arnold Toynbee."
 
 THE EISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 235 
 
 writings a fresh departure began, embraced in a com- 
 preliensive scheme the conchisions reached by them, 
 and their disciples and critics. The three writers 
 were Adam Smith himself, Thomas Robert Malthus, 
 and David Ricardo. The fourth economist was John 
 Stuart Mill. In a history of economic science it is 
 true that other names would need more than a passing 
 mention. The ability of Nassau William Senior left a 
 deep impression on economic thought. The direct and 
 indirect influence of Jeremy Bentham and of James Mill 
 was great. Richard Jones has been treated by some 
 historians as a leader in their studies. In statistics, 
 which, acting as a handmaid to economic science, pre- 
 sents facts in numerical array, Thomas Tooke is con- 
 spicuous for inquiries similar to those which Sir William 
 Petty, with poor material, but marked ability, had 
 attempted more than a century before. 
 
 8. He was peculiarly impressed by the evils of 
 restricting natural liberty. 
 
 Yet Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo were specially 
 prominent. They were in a distinctive sense the repre- 
 sentatives of the new economics. Adam Smith, the first 
 in time and influence, lived on the eve of the industrial 
 changes ; Malthus and Ricardo, w^ho were contem- 
 poraries and friends, dwelt in their midst. The theories 
 of all were coloured by the circumstances of their day. 
 Adam Smith himself was deeply impressed by the mis- 
 chief due to surviving relics of an old-fashioned system. 
 He was conscious of the serious hindrance to free in- 
 dustry and enterprise offered in the internal business of 
 the country by the statute of apprentices, the law of settle- 
 ment, and the rules and restrictions of corporations, and 
 in external commerce b}^ the " mean and malignant "
 
 236 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 expedients of the Mercantile System — the duties on im- 
 ports, the bounties on exports, the commercial treaties 
 with foreign countries, the monopoly of colonial trade 
 and the government by exclusive companies. He did not 
 witness the evils attending unrestricted liberty in the 
 early period of the factory system. He was inspired by 
 a passion for freedom, which lent force to his pleading, 
 and imparted interest to his argument. 
 
 9. In spite of different judgments passed upon his 
 "Wealth of Nations," it occupies an unique posi- 
 tion. 
 
 His " Wealth of Nations " was published in 1776. In 
 the first two of the five books, into which it is 
 1776 parted, he treats of topics usually found in a 
 modern text-book ; but a different order is fol- 
 lowed, and the discussion is less systematic. In his 
 fourth and fifth books he is more concerned with the 
 art and practice of statesmanship, with the rejection of 
 the false methods of the Mercantile System, and the 
 announcement of sound rules of finance. In the third 
 book he is engaged in an historical inquiry into the 
 progress of the wealth of different nations. The record 
 of facts is here prominent ; but throughout his treatise 
 so lavish w^as his use of facts, and so keen and constant 
 was his reference to practice, that he has been claimed 
 by some critics as the example of that proper mode of 
 economic study which consists, as they think, of inquiry 
 into fact, and avoids long chains of reasoning. Others 
 have urged that certain assumptions, such as a harmony 
 between the interests of the community and the interests 
 of the individual, underlie his argument, and that his 
 reasoning furnishes a starting-point, from which elaborate 
 developments of theory have sprung. Malthus and
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 237 
 
 Ricardo, again, respected him as their common teacher, 
 though they differed from him on certain points. Yet 
 he has heen praised as a model from whose example 
 Eicardo departed with unfortunate results. Searching 
 inquiry has also shown that he was influenced more 
 largely by his predecessors, and especially by the French, 
 than had been supposed, or might even be judged from 
 his own acknowledgments. But this criticism has not 
 dethroned him from the eminence which he enjoys. He 
 possessed that originality, which will state an old pro- 
 position so that it seems, and is really, new. He added 
 so much of his own genius, where he borrowed from 
 others, that he might claim at least a parentage of 
 adoption. He wrote in a manner which earned for his 
 book the rare repute of a "classic." He exerted an 
 influence on practice which has not been paralleled. 
 
 10. Malthus is known for his " Essay on Popula- 
 tion." 
 
 If the fame of Adam Smith was great, the notoriety of 
 Malthus was scarcely less. He has suffered indeed the 
 fate of many writers, whose opinions are taken as they are 
 passed through common rumour, and are rarely, if ever, 
 compared with their original statement. It is 
 true that in the first edition of his famous 1798 
 "Essay on the Principle of Population" he 
 asserted his position with an emphasis which was 
 softened in succeeding versions. Mistrusting the glow- 
 ing picture drawn by socialist reformers, like Godwin, 
 of a future state of society, where the substitution of 
 common for private property would be attended by 
 unbroken happiness, he maintained that an antagonistic 
 principle, rooted in the nature of man, would work 
 destruction. Population, he argued, tended, unless
 
 23f^ ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 restrained by checks, to multiply faster than the means 
 of subsistence. In his first edition he laid the stress 
 of his argument on the powerful character of the 
 tendency ; in the later editions he devoted the greater 
 portion of an enlarged treatise to a careful study of the 
 operation of the checks. To those checks he made a 
 significant addition in the prudent foresight of man 
 himself. By preventing an excessive population from 
 coming into existence, man might thus remove the need 
 for the cruel relentless action of nature, which destroyed 
 by pestilence or famine an existing redundant popula- 
 tion. In the first edition, in fine, Malthus was a 
 controversialist ; in the later he was rather the his- 
 torian and statistician. 
 
 II. His influence was also great, in spite of some 
 uncertainty of view. 
 
 Like Adam Smith he was influenced by the circum- 
 stances of his own day. Under the lax administration 
 of the Poor Law, and the stimulus applied by the 
 demand for soldiers in the army, and for labourers in 
 the factory, population was growing with alarming 
 speed. It seemed to be pressing more and more closely 
 on the means of subsistence ; for worse and worse land 
 was continually being taken into cultivation. A series 
 of bad harvests was added to the evils of the time. The 
 price of food was rising. The rate of wages was falling. 
 Since that distressing period circumstances have greatly 
 changed. But such was the influence of Malthus on the 
 current of thought that, in spite of corrections made by 
 himself, leaving his final position doubtful, and of further 
 qualifications suggested by later experience and longer 
 reflection, a writer like John Stuart Mill, fifty years 
 afterwards, was haunted by the dread of over-population,
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 239 
 
 and tested all proposals of reform— whether peasant- 
 proprietorship or co-operative production — by their effect 
 on the numl)ers of the people. 
 
 12. On general economic matters he adopted a 
 position opposite to that taken by Ricardo. 
 
 Malthus is chiefly known for his " Essay on Popula- 
 tion." But he wrote on other economic topics ; and the 
 same temper, which caused his attitude on the possi- 
 bilities of population, and the efficacy of checks on its 
 increase, to become so balanced as to seem indefinite, 
 or even inconsistent, made him mistrust the rigid, con- 
 sistent, scheme of doctrine put forward by Eicardo. 
 Some correspondence, passing between Eicardo and 
 himself, has been preserved ; and in their friendly dis- 
 cussions he appears to have played a similar part, and 
 to have raised similar objections, to those associated 
 afterwards with critics of the Eicardian economics, who 
 advocated the historical method. For Eicardo has 
 been generally regarded as the typical example of that 
 abstract reasoning to which, as we saw at the begin- 
 ning of this book, the historical method was opposed.* 
 
 13. Ricardo's writing was marked by subtle, 
 abstract reasoning, due largely to his surroundings. 
 
 Eicardo' s theories, indeed, were not, as some of his 
 critics have urged, unrelated to facts. Like Adam Smith 
 and Malthus, he was influenced by the times in which he 
 lived. His conceptions were suggested by some promi- 
 nent characteristics of the world around him. The 
 industrial "revolution" had disturbed the existing 
 order. It had introduced an unresting bustle in place 
 of more stable conditions. A rapid production of 
 wealth, and a constant movement of population, seemed 
 
 * Cf. above, chap. i.
 
 240 EXGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 to betoken the presence and influence of that intense 
 resistless competition, which formed the assumption of 
 so much of Eicardo's reasoning. It did not appear un- 
 true to fact to treat human individuals as if they were 
 urged in one direction or another solely by a desire for 
 wealth. It did not seem unreal to ignore, in comparison 
 with the ruling motive of enlightened self-interest, the 
 various feelings and passions of men and women, which 
 might offer a resistance unknown to commodities. Such 
 an assumption was, at least, especially true of that money- 
 market, in which Eicardo passed the greater portion of 
 his life ; and his reasoning on money has held its ground 
 unchallenged, even when his treatment of the human 
 agents of production, and his conception of the forces 
 governing the distribution of wealth among them, has 
 been questioned, and been modified, and even over- 
 thrown. To the general spirit of the times, and the 
 special associations of his business-life, the national 
 temperament of a Jew, with a fondness and capacity for 
 subtle reasonmg, must be added as an influence tending 
 to give his opinions their peculiar cast. He was always 
 imagining " strong cases," he stated to Malthus. He 
 was less inclined to lay any stress on exceptions to 
 general rules. Nor, he believed, was he able to avoid 
 certain "defects of writing." He was but a "poor 
 master of language," he remarked. He "never exj)lains 
 himself," a critic has observed. He was induced, 
 1817 perhaps against his better judgment, to publish; 
 and his friends and followers erected into a 
 systematic treatise his "Principles of Political Economy 
 and Taxation," which might more fittingly be regarded 
 as collected notes. 
 
 14. He exerted a great influence both on the
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 241 
 
 economic thought and on the economic practice of 
 his day, especially in the adoption of Free Trade. 
 
 Lut his iiifhience was very great. His scheme of 
 doctrine and his mode of argument agreed with a 
 prevalent school of thought, the characteristics of which 
 were happily described by an acute observer, when he 
 said that Euchd was to its disciples the type of reasoning. 
 A neat consistent system, dependent on a few simple 
 principles, borne to their conclusions by rigid chains of 
 logical argument, commended itself to their approval. 
 Eicardo's theories were established as essential parts of 
 economic science, sometimes without the qualifications, 
 which a careful reader might discern as intended, though 
 not emphasised, by Eicardo himself. Nor was the average 
 citizen averse to finding easy guidance in such dogmatic 
 utterances of economic authorities. The direct influence 
 of economic theory on political practice in the middle of 
 the nineteenth century was very great — greater probably 
 than it has been before or after — and it was largely due 
 to the simple emphatic form in which that theor}^ was 
 presented. The introduction of Free Trade was caused 
 immediately by the pressure of famine in Ireland. It 
 was also due less directly to the influence of the 
 economic thought stated by the followers of Adam 
 Smith, and, emphatically, by Eicardo. For the practical 
 moral of the new Economics was the removal of all 
 obstruction, and the opening of an unimpeded passage 
 for natural forces to all departments of economic life — 
 in foreign as well as internal commerce. 
 
 15. J. S. Mill embraced the approved conclusions 
 of his predecessors in a treatise, from which a new- 
 departure began. 
 
 With the adoption of Free Trade a new period of 
 
 16
 
 242 ENGLISH COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 economic study opened. Since that great triumph was 
 won the attention of economic thinkers has been turned 
 in fresh directions. Practical reform has changed its 
 inchnation. New tests have been applied to measure 
 the worth or truth of theories. Old reasonings and 
 conclusions have been revised, or questioned. The 
 
 treatise of John Stuart Mill on the " Principles 
 1848 of Political Economy," published in 1848, may 
 
 be said to stand at the parting of the ways. 
 He was trained in the Eicardian school ; but in 
 economics, as in other subjects, he left to some extent 
 the traditions of his youth. In his Preface he states an 
 intention to follow the example set by Adam Smith, and 
 to bring principles into close connection with their prac- 
 tical application. By Malthus he was so much influenced 
 that the fear of over-population dictated his judgment on 
 proposals of reform. He attempted, in fact, to combine 
 into one whole the approved portions of the teaching of 
 his three great predecessors ; and, if later critics found 
 inconsistency in different portions of his treatise, due to 
 the uncertain state of his own opinions, for some time at 
 least it was taken as the authorised version of that 
 economic creed which Adam Smith had first expounded, 
 and Malthus and Pdcardo had afterwards accepted and 
 developed. With Mill, accordingly, our sketch of the new 
 economics may properly conclude. In criticism of his 
 treatise a fresh development of thought began, too near 
 in time to receive as yet the judgment which may after- 
 wards be possible. As we noticed in the previous chapter, 
 the facts of economic practice since the adoption of Free 
 Trade have not taken their final place in history. It is 
 at least not unfitting that an account of the new economic 
 thought, which accompanied, and aided, the transition
 
 THE RISE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE 243 
 
 from the Mercantile System, should end about the same 
 point, and Mill's treatise was severed by a few years 
 only from the Repeal of the Corn Laws. With that 
 time, accordingly, this history concludes. 
 
 16-2
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AcTox BuRXEL, statute of, 74 
 Agriculture, importance of, in 
 
 Englisli economic history, 23 
 Agricultural revolution in the 
 
 eigliteenth century, 186 
 Alfred the Great, 22 
 Allovmnces, parish, 208 
 Althorp's Act, 205 
 Alva, persecutions of, 79, 132 
 Aniboyna, massacre of, 171 
 American colonies, and Navigation 
 
 Laws, 22') 
 American colonies, and taxation, 
 
 178 
 Ancient demesne, 53, 58 
 Angels, 152 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Conquest, 20 
 Aj)prentices, 90 
 
 ,, jjarish, 204, 208 
 
 ,, Statute of, 91, 96, 137, 
 
 212, 213 
 Apprentices, Statute of, wages 
 
 clauses of, 138 
 Apprenticeship, 67, 90 
 Argyll, Duke of, quoted, 207 
 Arkwrigiit, 193 
 Armada, defeat of, 163 
 Asldey, Lord, 203 
 Ashley, Professor, quoted, 23, 67, 
 
 76, 87, 90, 92, 94, 95 
 Assize of Ale, 70 
 
 ,, Bread, 56, 70 
 ,, Measures, 56 
 Aulnager, 79, 80, 94 
 
 Bacon, Lord, quoted, 123 
 Builift; 35 
 
 Bailiffs' Rolls, 55 
 
 Bakewell, 188 
 
 Balance of power, 1 60 
 
 Balance rf trade, 126, 161, 169, 174, 
 
 179, 233 
 Balks, 26 
 Ball, John, 111 
 liank Charter Act, 219 
 lianking, anticipations of, 177 
 Bank of England, foundation of, 179 
 Bank Restriction, 218 
 Bardi, 130 
 Bentham, 235 
 Berlin Decrees, 217 
 Black death, 103 
 
 effects of, 110, 116 
 Blacksmiths, early importance of, 
 
 21, 41 
 Blake, 165 
 Blith, 132 
 
 Bond, keeping goods in, 224 
 Boon-work, 33, 35, 40, 41 
 Bordarii, 31 
 Bottomry, 176 
 
 Bounty on corn, 132, 187, 222 
 lidurne, Mr. Fox, quoted, 196 
 Ijrentano, Professor, quoted, 04 
 Bri'tigny, treaty of, 77 
 l»ritain, a granary of Rome, 19 
 British Merchant, tlie, 180 
 Browning, Mrs., and factoi-y work, 
 
 203 
 Bruges, 82 
 
 liullion Committee, report of, 218 
 Bullioiiists, 124, 126, 174 
 Burke, quoted, 196 
 Burying in Scots Linen, Act for, 133
 
 INDEX 
 
 24; 
 
 Buxton, Mr. Sydney, quoted 226 
 
 Cabot, Jolin, 162 
 
 ,, Sebastian, 162 
 Calais, 82 
 Canada, 167 
 
 Canals, iin])roveinent of, 195 
 Carlyle, Tlionias, (|Uotcd, 201 
 Carolinas, the, 166 
 Carpenters, early iin[iortance of, 
 
 21, 41 
 Cartvvriglit, 193 
 C'arucage, 53 
 Cash-nexus, 201 
 Cattle-breedint;, improvement in, 
 
 188 
 Caursines, 51 
 Celtic organisation, 20 
 Celtic words, disajj^earancc' of, 29 
 Celts as .serfs, 28 
 Celts, survival of, in West, 31 
 Cciisiutrii, 40 
 Certificates, parish, 146 
 Chavipton, 101, 114 
 Charles I., 136, 154, 166, 172, 177 
 Charles II., 133, 136, 154, 166, 172, 
 
 177 
 Cliarters of towns, 47, 59 
 Chartist movement, 216 
 Cheorls, 36 
 
 Child, Sir Josiah, quoted, 163, 165 
 Children, detined in Factory Acts, 
 
 205, 206 
 Christianity, disappearance of, from 
 
 Britain, 28 
 Church, use of, for secular oljjects, 
 
 41 
 Clivo, Robert, 167, 173 
 Cloth, growing importance of, 78 
 Clothier, 95, 211 
 
 Clover, introduction of, 131, 132 
 Coal and metal mines, conditions of 
 
 employment in, 207 
 Coal, importance of, 193, 230 
 Coal, smelting of iron by, 134, 194 
 Coinage, free, 149 
 
 ,, ()r((tiiit(ius, 149 
 Coins, introduction of foreign, 83, 
 
 149 
 Coins, Anglo-Saxon, 21 
 
 ,, changes in weight of, 108 
 Coke, Mr., o( Ilolkhain, 189 
 
 Colonial trade, and Mrrcantilc 
 
 System, 168 
 Colonies and Xavigation Acts, 166 
 
 ,, growth of, 166 
 Combination Acts, 213 
 Combinations, legislation against, 
 
 138 
 Coniincndalion, 34 
 Commercial and industrial supre- 
 macy of ICngland, 185 
 Commercial and industrial sujirc- 
 
 macy of England, causes of, 3, 229 
 Commercial crises, 220, 221 
 Connnercial treaties, 179 
 Companies, exclusive trading, 169 
 Companies, London, 89 
 Conversion of arable to pasture, 113, 
 
 131 
 Convertible hushnndry, 100, 186, 
 
 188 
 Copyhold tenure, 116 
 Corn, bounty on, 132 
 
 ,, export ol', and legislation, 
 
 123, 187, 222 
 Corn, im])ort of, and legislation, 
 
 128, 187, 222 
 Corn Laws, 191, 222 
 Cort, 194 
 Cotarii, 31, 103 
 Cottages, destruction of, 147 
 Cotton industry, rise of. 192, 193, 
 
 198 
 Court Rolls, 55, 104 
 Coventry, weavers of, 92 
 Craft-gilds and town-government, 
 
 65 
 Craft-gilds, decline of, 96 
 
 ,. growth in power of, 88 
 
 ,, regulations of, ^^ 
 
 ,, restrictive spirit of, 87 
 
 Craftsmen and merchant-gilds, 64 
 ,, in early times and the 
 
 Crown, 48, 85 
 Craftsmen, rise of, 47, 64 
 Credit, growth of, 179, 220 
 Crompton, 193 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 166, 181 
 
 Thomas, 128 
 Croxvns, 152 
 
 Crusades, influence of, 47, 60 
 Cunningham, Dr., quoted, 48, 51, 
 
 130, 139, 1 10. 144
 
 246 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cuneiicy, ilchascmcnl ol', 117. 150 
 (lilticuUics of, 127, 148 
 ,, liistory oC, 148 
 ,, iiiipiovenients in, 55 
 ,, inaiiageuient of, 219 
 ,, steadiness of, 74 
 Cicslom, ancient, 73 
 
 ,, new, 73 
 Ciistonuuy services, 34 
 C'uslo liters, 73 
 Customs, history of, and woollen 
 
 industry, 77 
 Customs, introduction of, 73 
 
 Dale, David, 202 
 Dauegeld, 37, 53 
 Danes in Eastern Counties, 32, 33 
 
 ,, invasions of, 21 
 Darl.y, 194 
 Debnscmcnt of currency, 121, 147, 
 
 150 
 Debt, National, increase of, 159, 
 225 
 
 ,, ,, origin of, 177, 178 
 
 Debts, recoveiy of, 67, 74 
 Defoe, Daniel, 180 
 Delaware, 166 
 Demesne, 29 
 
 ,, and free tenants, 40, 102 
 Denton, W., quoted, 119 
 Domesday Survey, 37, 38, 42 
 Domestic sijstciii of industry, 93, 96, 
 
 118, 192, 199 
 Drainage, 132 
 Drainage of fens, 131, 132 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 162. 163 
 Drapers, 89, 96 
 Drajiers' Company, 89 
 Drapery, tlie new, 132 
 tlieold, 133 
 Dudley, 134 
 Dutch, the, assailed by Navigation 
 
 Acts, 164 
 Dutcli, tlie, and tlie drainage of 
 
 tlie feus, 132 
 Dutch, the, and the East, 171 
 Dutch, the, position of the, 164 
 
 Early times, scanty economic history 
 
 of, 14 
 Eastern Counties and the domestic 
 
 system, 95 
 
 Eastern Counties and the woollen 
 
 industry, 196 
 Eastern Counties, commutation of 
 
 labour services in, 111 
 Eastern Counties, decline of, 199 
 East India Company, 170-174 
 East Indies, importance of, 161, 162 
 Eastland merchants, 169 
 Economic history, definition of, 4 
 ,, ,, dilheultiesof, 10, 
 
 228 
 Economic history, importance of, 4 
 
 5, 9 
 
 recent origin of, 
 
 Economic history, relations of, to 
 
 economics, 7 
 Economic history, relations of, to 
 
 general history, 6 
 Economic history, uncertainty of, 
 
 10 
 Economic man, idea of, 7 
 
 ,, science, rise of, 231 
 Economics, definition of, 3 
 Edict of Nantes, revocation of, 133 
 Edward I., 44, 51, 69, 72, 84, 148 
 Edward III., 74-76, 82, 84, 126, 
 
 128, 148, 152 
 Edward IV., 127, 128, 129, 152 
 Edward VI., 122, 128, 129, 147, 
 
 150, 152 
 Electricity, possiljle consequences 
 
 of, 195 
 Elizabeth, 75, 113, 122, 129, 130, 
 
 1.32, 162, 181 
 Elizabethan legi.slation on currency, 
 
 147 
 Elizabethan legislation on labour, 
 
 137 
 Elizabethan legislation on pauper- 
 ism, 141 
 Engrossiiuj, 81 
 
 Enumerated cmnmodities, 168 
 Eorls, 36 
 Escheat, 53, 104 
 
 Exchange regulated by State, 148 
 E.rchanger, 174, 177 
 Exchequer, Court of, 54 
 Excise, 136, 178, 224 
 
 ,, hereditary, 136 
 Exlenta, 55 
 
 Factory inspection, 205
 
 INDEX 
 
 247 
 
 Factory legislation, 203-207 
 ,, rel'ornieis, '203 
 system, 93, 201 
 ,, ,, evils oi; 201-203 
 
 Fairs, 68 
 
 Family system of industry, 93 
 Fee farm rent, i)%, 70 
 Ferin, 53, 66, 70, 87 
 Feudal dues, abolition of, 178 
 
 ,, System, 36 
 
 ,, ,, military character 
 
 of, 36, 49 
 Fifteenth century, condition of, 119 
 Finisterre, Cape, 169 
 Firnui burgi, 59 
 Fishing industry, importance of, 
 
 125, 128, 130 
 Fitzherbert, 99, 100, 101, 113, 132 
 Flanders, 77 
 Flemish weavers, introduction of, 
 
 75, 78, 132 
 Florentines in England, 129 
 Flying shuttle, invention of, 193 
 Foreign immigration, 48, 78, 132, 
 
 231 
 Foreign traders, 47, 50, 83 
 Forcsfd/ling, 81 
 Foiir-coursc-rotation, 188 
 France, contest with, 167 
 Free holders in Eastern Counties, 33 
 Freeman, quoted, 48 
 Free tenants, growtli in number of, 
 
 40, 102 
 Free Trade, 72, 185, 196, 224, 231, 
 
 232 
 French economists, 233 
 Fronde, quoted, 118, 119, 122, 162 
 
 Gardening, revival of, 132 
 
 Gavebmcuni, 40 
 
 Genoese traders, 130 
 
 George III., 169 
 
 George nobles. 152 
 
 Gilbert's Acti 208 
 
 Gilds, confiscation of funds of, 122, 
 
 141 
 Gilds, craft, 64, 65 
 
 ,, frith, 60 
 
 ,, merchant, 60 
 
 ,, religious, 60 
 Gild system of industry, 93 
 Gladstone, W. E., 226 
 
 Gold coins, 55 
 
 Gold, inllucncr ui discoveries of, 
 
 231 
 Gdldsniiths, the, 176, 177, 179 
 Goldsmiths' receipts, 177 
 Gold standard, introduction of, 218 
 Grand Junction Canal, 195 
 
 ,, Trunk C'anal, 195 
 Greater Britain, 158 
 Green, J. It., quoted, 44 
 
 ,, Mrs., quoted, 57 
 Grenville, G., 178 
 Gresham, SirT., 150 
 Gresham's Law, 149 
 Grouts, 148 
 
 Grocers' Company, the, 89 
 Gross, Dr., quoted, 60, 61, \3'.i, 64 
 Ciuieune, 77 
 (luinea, 154 
 Guinea Com]iany, 170 
 
 Hanseatic League, the, 50 
 Hanse merchants, the, 82, 129 
 
 ,, of London, 50, 129 
 
 ,, Teutonic, 50 
 Hargreaves, 193 
 ILartlib, 132 
 Hawkins, Sir .Tohn. 
 Hearth-muiicy, 137, 
 Henry L, 46, 54, 55, 
 Henry IL, 46, 52, 53, 54, 56 
 Henry IIL, 55, 148 
 Henry IV., 127 
 Henry V., 127, 149 
 Henry VI., 127, 128 
 Henry VIL, 127, 152 
 Henry VIII., 122, 127, 150, 152 
 Hcriot, 34, 104 
 
 Hewins, Professor, quoted, 139, 169 
 Hide, 31 
 Historical method, the, 8, 239 
 
 ,, school, the, 8 
 
 Holland, decline of, 165, 167 
 
 ,, iirosperity of, 164 
 
 Hops, introduction of, 132 
 Houses of correction, 143 
 Huguenot refugees in England, 133 
 Hume, Joseph, 214-216 
 Hundred Rolls, the, 69 
 Huskisson, W., 225 
 
 luclosures, 101. 114, 190 
 
 163 
 178 
 79 
 54,
 
 248 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Iiiclosiires, legislation against, 117, 
 
 131 
 Indian JIutiny, 171 
 Industrial revolution, the, 192, 239 
 Institution Books, 104 
 TntcrcHrsus Magnus, 78 
 Interest, tixing of maxinnim rate 
 
 of, 176 
 Interest, jiroliibition of, 50, 176 
 Interlopers, 170-173 
 International division of labour, 232 
 Inventory, 55 
 Ireland and tlie mercantile system, 
 
 ISO 
 Irish frieze, 181 
 
 „ linen, 182 
 Iron industry, 134, 194 
 Irregularity of employment, 119 
 Italian financiers, 157 
 
 Jack of Xewhury, 93 
 
 Jamaica, 166 
 
 James I., 134, 136, 143, 166, 172, 
 
 181 
 James II., 146, 172 
 Jajian, 157 
 
 Jessopp, Dr., quoted, 104-106 
 Jevons, W. S., quoted, 48 
 Jews, the, 50, 51, 63, 74 
 Joint-stock-company, 1 70 
 Jones, Richard, 235 
 
 ,, ,, quoted, 175 
 
 Journeymen, 90, 91 
 
 ,, fraternities of, 92 
 
 Justices of the peace and the Poor 
 
 Law, 144 
 Justices of tlie peace and wages, 96, 
 
 138, 139 
 Just price, 56, 107 
 
 Kay and the flying sliuttle, 193 
 King, Gregory, quoted, 191 
 Kings, tlie eeonomie imjiortance in 
 early times of tlie, 46 
 
 Labour, liiriiig of, 103 
 
 ,, scarcity of, after Black 
 Death, 106 
 
 Labourers, Statutes of, 107, 108,131 
 
 Lammas I'lelds, 30 
 
 Lancasliire and industrial revolu- 
 tion, 197 
 
 Land, legislation on, by Edward I., 
 
 72 
 Landlords, English, 109 
 Latimer, Bishop, 151 
 Law merchant, 83 
 Lease, stock-ancl-lancl, 109 
 Leasing, growth of. 103, 110, 116 
 Lee, William, 134 
 Leonard, Miss, quoted, 144 
 Letting land, modern form of, 109 
 Levant Company, 169, 172 
 Liber burgus, 59 
 Libere tenentes, 31 
 Liberi homines, 31, 39 
 Liveries, 88 
 Liverpool, growing imiiortance of, 
 
 199 
 Liverpool, Lord, quoted, 147, 150 
 Loml)ards, the, 51 
 London and early craft-gilds, 85 
 
 ,, ,, excessive population, 
 145 
 London and Flemish weavers, 86 
 
 ,, ,, fixing of wages, 140 
 
 ,, ,, merchant-gilds, 61 
 
 ,, Companies, 89 
 Louis XIV., 133 
 
 Magna Carta, 47, 51, 84 
 
 Maitland, Professor, quoted, 25, 
 39, 58 
 
 Malthus, T. R., 235, 237-239, 242 
 
 Malynes, 149 
 
 Manchester, growing importance of, 
 199 
 
 Manor as used in Domesday, 39 
 
 Manorial Courts, 33, 57, 111 
 
 , , .system after Norman Con- 
 quest, 39 
 
 Manorial system and towns, 58 
 ,, ,, break-up of, 101 
 
 ,, ,, deliuition of, 29 
 
 ,, ,, origin of, 25, 33 
 
 Markets, beginnings of, 21 
 
 Marsliall, Professor, quoted, 3 
 
 Maryland, 166 
 
 Matilda, 79 
 
 Mayflower, tlie, 166 
 
 Mayor of the Stapde, the, 83, 90 
 
 Mc Arthur, Miss E., quoted, 140 
 
 Meadow-land in early times, 30
 
 INDEX 
 
 240 
 
 Men of the Emperor, the, 50 
 Mercantile system, the, 71, 72, 117, 
 
 123, 13-2, 134, 168, 179, 180, 
 
 185, 224, 227, 233 
 Mercantilists, the, 125, 126, 174 
 Merrator, the, 180 
 Mercers' Company, the, 89 
 Merchant Adventurers, the, 90, 
 
 128, 169 
 Merchant-gilds, 60 
 
 ,, ,, and craft-gilds, 63 
 
 ,, ,, and towns, 62 
 
 ,, ,, regulations of, 62 
 
 Merchants of the Staple, 82, 90 
 Merchet, 34 
 
 Merton, Statute of, 30, 103, 115 
 Methuen Treaty, the, 179, 180 
 Middle Ages, the end of the, 118 
 Milan decrees, 217 
 Mill, James, 235 
 Mill, John Stuart, 235, 237, 242 
 Mill, the village, and the rights of 
 
 the lord, 42, 57, 112 
 Missleden, 149 
 Molineii, 40 
 Monasteries, the, 22, 94 
 
 ,, dissolution of the, 122, 
 
 141 
 Money-market, influence of the, 240 
 Money-payments, suhstitutiou of, 
 
 for laliour services, 40, 59, 102, 
 
 110 
 Monopolies, 134 
 
 ,, Statute of, 136 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, (quoted, 117 
 Mortmain, Statute of. 72 
 Mule, the, 193 
 Mun, Sir Thomas, quoted, 174 
 
 Najwleonic War, effects of the, 
 
 191, 208, 217, 225, 229 
 Navigation, Act of, 124, 163, 164, 
 
 165, 168 
 Navigation Acts, 127, 166, 182 
 
 ,, ,, abandonment of, 
 
 227 
 Navigation Acts, mollification of, 
 
 225 
 New England, 166 
 Newfoundland, 162, 107 
 New Lanark, 202 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 155 
 
 New "World, discovery of the, 157 
 
 ,, ,, treasure in the, 160 
 
 New York, 166 
 NichoUs, Sir George, quoted, 142, 
 
 144 
 Nobles, 148 
 
 Non-enumcvatcd commodities, 168 
 Norfolk, importance of, 80 
 ,, System, the, 188 
 Norman Conquest and feudalism, 
 
 37, 52 
 Norman Conquest and immigration, 
 
 48, 49 
 Norman Conquest and mercliant- 
 
 gilds, 60 
 Norman Conquest, importance of, 
 
 15, 49, 57 
 Norman Conquest, influence of, 24 
 North, Sir Dudley, (luoted, 185 
 North -East passage, 162 
 North- West passage, 162 
 Norwich, importance of, 80 
 Nova S;otia, 167 
 
 Oastler, Richard, 203 
 Open-field-system, 100, 102, 186, 
 
 189 
 Orders of Council, 217 
 Overseers of the poor, 143 
 Overstone, Lord, 219, 220 
 
 ,, quoted, 220 
 Owen, Robert, 202 
 
 Papal revenues, transmission of, to 
 
 Italy, 51, 75, 130 
 Pasture, growth of, 113 
 
 ,, loss of rights of, 114, 115 
 Patents, 135 
 Paterson, William, 178 
 Pauperism, 122 
 
 ,, growth of, 208 
 
 Peasant Revolt, the, 112 
 Peel, Sir Robert the elder, 203 
 
 .> 3'ounger, 205, 
 
 223, 226 
 Pcnnsvlvania, 166 
 Penny, gold, 148 
 
 ,, silver, 55, 147, 150 
 Penny post, introduction of the, 196 
 Petty, Sir William, 235 
 Pilgrim Fathers, the, 166 
 Pipe Rolls, the, 54
 
 250 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Pitt, William, 224, 225 
 
 Place, Francis, 214-216 
 
 Plantations, 162, 166 
 
 ,, in Ireland, 181 
 
 Plassey, victory of, 167 
 
 Plyinontli Adventurers, the, 170 
 
 Political Economy, definition of, 3 
 
 Pollock and Maitland, quoted, 58 
 
 PuU-ta.c, 111, 178 
 
 Poor Law Amendment Act, 209 
 ,, Commission, 209 
 ,, Elizabethan, 143 
 
 Poor Relief, growth in cost of, 209 
 
 Population encouraged by Mercan- 
 tile System, 117, 125 
 
 Population stimulated by pauper- 
 ism, 208 
 
 Population, Essay on, 237 
 
 Portuguese trade, 179 
 
 ,, voyages of the, 162 
 
 Poundage, 73, 137 
 
 Pound, silver, 150, 154 
 
 Power as contrasted with plenty, 
 72, 124 
 
 Power-loom, the, 193 
 
 Price of provisions, tixing of, 107 
 
 Prise, 52, 73 
 
 Privateering, 162 
 
 Privy Council, orders of, and the. 
 Poor Law, 144 
 
 Progresses, royal, 36, 52 
 
 Prothero, Mr. R. E. , quoted, 99, 
 100, 189 
 
 Provost, 35 
 
 Purveyance, 52, 74, 136 
 
 Quia Emptores, kStatute of, 72 
 
 Railway mania, the, 195, 221 
 
 the first, 195 
 Railwavs, influence of, 231 
 lialeigh, Sir Walter, 162 
 Rating of gold to silver, 148 
 Recoinage under Elizabeth, 147 
 
 ,, ,, George II L, 155 
 
 „ Henry V., 149 
 
 ,, ,, William III., 154 
 
 lleeve, 35 
 Jtcf/rating, 81 
 Jiefpdaied Company, 170 
 Relays in factory woiking, 206 
 Jielief, 53 
 
 Repeal of the Corn Laws, 223, 226 
 Restraint of trade, action in, 213, 
 
 216 
 Resumption Act, 218 
 Retail trade, 61, 84 
 Revenues, collection of, in early 
 
 times, 53 
 Revenues, improvements effected in, 
 
 136 
 Revenues, source of, in early times, 
 
 51 
 Picds, 152 
 
 Ricardo, David, 7, 235, 237, 239 
 Richard I., 47, 51, 56 
 
 ,, II., 71, 126, 127, 128 
 Roads bad condition of, 1 90 
 ,, improvement of, 195 
 Roebuck, 194 
 Rogers, Thorold, quoted, 76, 80, 108, 
 
 109, 110, 119, 140 
 Roman civilisation, advanced char- 
 acter of, 17 
 Roman civilisation, disappearance 
 
 of 15, 20, 28 
 Roman peace, 19 
 
 ,, society, 27, 28 
 ,, villa, 28 
 ,, Wall, the, 18 
 Rotation of crops, 101, 188 
 Round, J. H., quoted, 35, 58 
 Routine as characteristic of medi.Te- 
 
 val society, 45 
 Royal demesne, changes on, 41 
 Russia Company, the, 167 
 
 Sadler, Michael T., 203 
 
 Salt, importance of, in early times, 
 
 21 
 Schmoller, Professor, quoted, 161, 
 
 182 
 Scot aiul lot, 59, 63 
 ScvMrje, 52. 53, 74 
 Seebohni, Mr. F., 33 
 Seeley, Sir John, quoted, 156, 157- 
 
 159, 167 
 Seigniorage, 149 
 Seneschal, 35 
 
 Senior, Nassau William, 235 
 Servi, 31 
 Settlement, conditions of obtaining, 
 
 146 
 Settlement, law of, 144, 145
 
 INDEX 
 
 2r,i 
 
 Several, 101, 111 
 Shaw, Mr. \V. A., qvu.lcil, 148 
 Sliip-moiicy, 13G 
 SIii|i]iiii<,', importance of, 125 
 Silk industry, the, 133, 198 
 Silver, inliux of, IVoiii America, 153 
 Sinking Fund, fallacy of, 225 
 Ulidiuy ticale, 223 
 Smith, Adam, 9, 224, 232, 235-237 
 ,, ,, quoted. 74, 124, 144, 
 
 145,146,160, 164, 165, 168, 179, 
 
 227 
 Smith, Mr. Goldwin, (juotcd, 37,121 
 Socage, free and common, 31 
 Socmanni, 31 
 
 Socmen as used in Domesday, 39 
 South Sea Uulililc, the, 179, 220 
 South Virginia Company, the, 170 
 SoL-cri'lgii, 152 
 Si)eculation, 221 
 
 ,, prohibition of, 62 
 
 S](('enhaniland Act, 208 
 Spinning-jenny, the, 193, 196 
 S[)ice Islands, the, 171 
 Skqih, tlie, 82 
 
 ,, Maj'or of the, 83 
 ,, Merchants of the, 82, 90 
 Steam-engine, importance of the, 
 
 195, 198 
 Steam-engine, invention of the, 193 
 Steamer, the tirst, 195 
 Steelyard, the, 50, 129 
 Steivard, 35 
 Stint, 30 
 
 Slock -aiid-land lease, 109 
 Stocking frame, inver.tion of the, 
 
 134 
 Stourbridge fair, 68 
 Straliord, 181 
 Strangers, treatment of, in early 
 
 times, 61 
 Subdivision of fields in early times, 
 
 27 
 Subinfeudation, 70, 72 
 Suhsidics, 73, 137 
 Sumptuary legislation, 81, 97 
 Susjiension of specie payments, 218 
 
 Tallages, 53, 59, 74 
 
 Tallies, 54 
 
 Taxes on land, 178 
 
 ,, on moveables, 53, 73 
 
 Tavlor, Mr. AV. Cooke, quoteil, 197, 
 i98 
 
 Telford, 195 
 
 Telegra]ih, introduction of the, 196 
 
 Ten Hour.s' liill, the, 206 
 
 Tenllt mid jiftcentli, 73 
 
 Tcstoon, im 
 
 Thcgns, 36 
 
 Tlirce-jield-systcm, 25 
 
 Tillage, encouragement of, 125, 131 
 
 Tooke, Thomas, 219, 235 
 
 Tories, the, and factory legi-slation, 
 205 
 
 Towns, the, and self-assessment, 59 
 ,, charters of the, 48, 59 
 ,, decay of, under Anglo- 
 Saxons, 20 
 
 Towns, lilial relations between, 67 
 ,, growth of, under Danes, 22 
 ,, prosi>erity or decline of, 97 
 ,, rise of, under Normans, 56 
 ,, taxes on the, 53 
 
 Townsliend, Lord, 187 
 
 Toynbee, Arnold, (juoted, 185 
 
 Trade Unions, origin of, 211 
 ,, ,, recognition of, 217 
 
 Treasure, imjiortance of, 124, 126 
 
 Trinit}' House, the, 128 
 
 Tudors, the, and inclosure, 117 
 ,, ,, and the middle classes, 
 
 121 
 
 Tudors, the, and national policy, 
 96, 123 
 
 Tiainage aiid poundage, 73, 137 
 
 Turnips, cultivation of, 132 
 ,, introduction of, 131 
 
 Turnip Townshend. 187 
 
 Tusser, 132 
 
 Tico-field-systcin, 25, 102 
 
 Tyler, Wat, 112 
 
 Utrecht, Treaty of, 167, 180 
 
 Valiant beggars, 107, 141, 142 
 
 Vasco di Gama, 162 
 
 Venetian fleet, the, 130 
 
 Venice, 229 
 
 Victuals, supervision of supplv of, 
 
 81 
 Villa, the Roman, 28 
 \'illages, independence of, in early 
 
 times, 21, 45
 
 252 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vilhtnl, 30 
 
 Villeinage, disappearance of, 113 
 
 Villeins and apiuenticesliip, 91 
 ,, and com mutation of ser- 
 vices, 41, 102 
 
 Villeins and freedom in towns, 67 
 ,, as used in Domesday, 39 
 ,, disabilities of, 34, 111 
 ,, early condition of, 32, 33 
 ,, escapes of, 111 
 
 injured by inclosure, 114, 
 
 115 
 Villeins, legal standing ot, 40, 
 
 116 
 Virfjcdc, 31 
 Virginia, 162, 166 
 
 102, 
 
 Wages, fixing of, 108, 138, 212, 213 
 
 Walpole, Robert, 178, 224 
 
 Walter of Henley, 99, 100 
 
 Wardship, 53 
 
 ll'irrchousing, 224 
 
 Warner, Mr. G. Townsend, quoted, 
 42 
 
 War, Xajioleonic, effects of, 191 
 
 Wars, econonuc objects of, in seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 161 
 
 Wars of Roses, 71 
 
 AV'aste, the, 30 
 
 ,, encroachments on the, 30, 
 115 
 
 Water-frame, the, 193 
 
 Water-power, use of, 197 
 
 Watling Street, 18 
 
 AVatt, .lames, 193 
 
 IFe'dth of Nations, the, 9, 236 
 
 Weavers Act of 1555, 94 
 
 ,, and craft-gilds, 64, 85 
 
 Webb, Mr. and Mrs. S., quoted, 
 
 211, 215 
 Wedgwood, Josiah, 194 
 Week-work, 35 
 
 ,, and commutation, 41 
 
 Welleslev, Arthur, 160 
 West of England cloth, 197 
 ]F ild-field-y rass h usbandri/, 26 
 William I., 37, 46, 75, 79 
 AVilliam III., 146, 154, 178 
 Winchcombe, John, 94 
 AVinchester fair, 68 
 
 ,, Statute of, 75 
 
 AVoodland, 30 
 AVool, displacement of, by cotton, 
 
 192 
 AVoollen industry, importance of, 
 
 75, 118 
 Wofkhousc test, the, 208, 210 
 AVorsted industry, the, 80 
 AV. S., quoted, 157 
 AVyclitle, 111 
 
 Yeomen, disappearance of the, 
 
 191 
 Yorkist kings, the, and craft-gilds, 
 
 88 
 Yorkist kings, the, and copyhold, 
 
 116 
 A'orkist kings, the, and encourage- 
 ment of native industry, 129 
 Yorkshire and trade unions, 212 
 ,, and the woollen industry, 
 
 95 
 Young, Arthur, 189 
 
 quoted, 186, 187, 
 
 191 
 Ymuuj persons defined in Factory 
 
 Acts, 205, 206 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 October, 1900. 
 
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 OF ZACHARY MACAULAY. 
 
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 Mr. Zachary Macaulay was born in 1768, and lived seventy years, 
 devoting the whole of his lon^:; career to the pubHc good. He was one 
 of the small band of indomitable workers whose exertions secured the 
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 his intimate knowledge of the slave trade in all its horrors made him 
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 -MILTON. 
 
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 Author of 'Style,' 'The English Novel,' etc. 
 
 Croivn 8i>o., doth, ds. 
 
 Contents. 
 Introduction. — I. John Milton. — XL The Prose Works. — III. Paradise 
 Lost : the Scheme. — IV. Paradise Lost : the Actors. The Later 
 Poems. — V. The Style of Milton : Metre and Diction.— VL The Style 
 of Milton and its Influence on English Poetry. — Epilogue. 
 
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 unwithered countenance, is bright as at the day of creation.' — From the Epilogue.
 
 THE JOURNAL OF MRS. FENTON 
 
 5n 3nNa an& tbe Colonies, 1826-1830. 
 
 One voliwie, octavo. 
 
 Seventy-five years ago the writer of this journal married Captain 
 Campbell, and accompanied him to India. ^Vithin a year Captain 
 Campbell died, and his widow, after an interval, the greater part of 
 which was spent in Calcutta, became the wife of Captain Fenton. 
 Shortly afterwards Captain Fenton decided to quit the army and settle 
 in Tasmania, and with this object they left India and sailed to the 
 Mauritius. Here Mrs. Fenton spent several months, and a daughter 
 was born to her. She then followed her husband to Tasmania, where 
 they settled permanently. Such in dry oudine is the story of this 
 journal. It chronicles no great events, but the writer has the true 
 Boswellian turn for vivid presentation of everyday scenes and incidents, 
 for artless portraiture, and naive self-revelation. She has a keen eye for 
 scenery, but is more interested in persons than things. In her wander- 
 ings she is thrown in contact with many, and expresses a decided 
 opinion on the merits and demerits of most of them. Altogether it is a 
 lively glimpse into ordinary life under many skies in the time of our 
 great-grandparents. The gossip of 1S27 is history in 1900. 
 
 FRANCIS : 
 
 Zhc Xtttle poor /iRan of Sssisl. 
 
 A SHORT STORY OF THE FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS MINOR. 
 
 By JAMES ADDERLEY, 
 
 Author of ' Stephen Remarx,' ' Paul Mercer,' etc. 
 
 Elegantly bound, with a photogravure Frontispiece, croxvn Svo., 35". 6d. 
 
 The author's object in compiling this sketch of Francis of Assisi is to 
 provide a small life of the saint for those who for any reason are unable 
 to indulge in the purchase of the larger biographies. It is largely based 
 upon the ' Life of S. Francis ' by M. Paul Sabatier, who has kindly 
 written an Introduction to Father Adderley's volume. The scope of the 
 book maybe judged from the following outline of contents: — I. The 
 Religious Life. II. The Times of Francis. III. Early Days and Con- 
 version. IV. The Beginnings of Ministry. V. Progress. VI. Portiun- 
 cula. VII. The General Chapters. VIII. Opposition to the Mind of 
 Francis. IX. The Clarisses and the ' Third Order.' X. The Stigmata. 
 XI. The Last Years. Appendices on the Friars in England and the 
 Rule of St. Francis. The frontispiece is a photogravure reproduction 
 of a beautiful allegorical picture of S. Francis by Sister Katharine Ruth.
 
 THE PLAGUE. 
 
 3t3 Iblstoi's, Clinical ^Features, ipatl^olog^, aiiD asactcrlologg. 
 
 WITH SUGGESTIONS AS TO GEXERAL PREVENIIVE MEASURES, 
 
 INCLUDING PREVENTIVE INOCULATION AND 
 
 CURATIVE TREATMENT. 
 
 By Dr. W. M. HAFFKINE. 
 
 Assisted by Dr. E. KLEIN, F.R.S., and Others. 
 
 Illustrated^ one volume, demy Svo. 
 
 It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of the subject of 
 this book. Merely as a matter of history, the part played by the plague 
 in our own islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was 
 appallingly large, while in different parts of the continent of Europe it 
 has raged even more recently. Viewed in a purely scientific light, it 
 presents problems of profound interest. These are treated of with well- 
 recognised authority by Professor Klein. But perhaps the most absorb- 
 ing portion of the subject is its practical side — the actual struggle with 
 this most baffling and insidious of diseases, in which Dr. Haffkine and 
 his staff in Bombay have taken so notable a share. Not the least 
 striking feature of this struggle are the administrative difficulties arising 
 out of it which amount sometimes, as is well known, to grave political 
 dangers, and deserve the serious attention of all who are interested in 
 our Indian Empire. 
 
 FOOD AND THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 DIETETICS. 
 
 By ROBERT HUTCHISON, M.D. Edin., M.R.C.P., 
 
 Assistant Physician to the London Hosi-ital, and to the Hospital for Sick 
 Children, Great Ormond Street. 
 
 Illustrated, demy 'ivo., i6j. net. 
 
 This volume forms a comprehensive work of reference and informa- 
 tion upon a subject of vital importance. The lectures delivered by the 
 author to students at the London Hospital have formed the basis of the 
 work, but although eminently scientific in method, the style and diction 
 are not too technical to spoil the interest of the general reader. Among 
 the matters discussed are : The Amount of Food required in Health, 
 Animal Foods, Vegetable Foods, Sugar, Water and Mineral Waters, 
 Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, Alcoholic Beverages, the Cooking of Food, Diges- 
 tion, Principles of Feeding in Infancy and Childhood, Principles of 
 Feeding in Disease, etc. The book is illustrated with graphic diagrams 
 from sketches by the author, and three plates in colour.
 
 8 
 
 PARIS: 
 
 21 Ibistorg ot tbe Cttg from tbe jEarllest ^(mes to tbe ipresent Das. 
 
 By HILAIRE BELLOC, 
 
 AUTHOK OF ' DaNTON,' ETC. 
 
 Ofie vol., large crown S?;*?., 7iHth Maps, js. 6d. 
 
 ' A serious piece of history, admirably studied and excellently written ; above all, it 
 breathes the true spirit of Paris, the most wonderful of modern cities. The beauty, the 
 taste, the art, which inform the capital of France, do not elude Mr. Belloc's fancy.' — 
 Daily Mail. 
 
 ' Anyone who wishes to consider the history of the city, to be informed with breadth of 
 culture how it grew from a mere group of ;-avaee huts into that bewitching bazaar which 
 now attracts so many of the crowned lieads of Europe, ought to read Mr. Belloc's volume.' 
 — Scotsman. 
 
 FINLAND AND THE TSARS. 
 
 By JOSEPH R. FISHER, B.A., 
 
 Barrister-at-Law. 
 
 Demy Zvo., doth, 12 s. 6d. 
 
 We much regret to learn that the Russian Government has pro- 
 hibited the importation of this book into Russia. 
 
 ' In Mr. Fisher's very interesting work there is nothing that could offend the most 
 vehement of Russian patriots.' — Review of the Week. 
 
 ' In this book for the first time a mass of matter, previously only accessible to specialists, 
 has been collected and condensed ; and we have a really adequate statement of the Finnish 
 case, enforced by quotations from State documents.' — Fall A/all Gazelle. 
 
 ' A powerful and illuminating book.' — Speaker. 
 
 ' Highly valuable as a record of the views of one who writes from personal knowledge, 
 and it is the plainest statement of the merits of the Finnish claims that has yet appeared.' 
 — AlheiKBum.
 
 NEW NOVELS. 
 
 ROSE ISLAND. 
 
 By W. CLARK RUSSELL, 
 
 Author of 'The Wrf.ck of the Gkosvenor,' etc. 
 
 LORD LINLITHGOW. 
 
 By MORLEY ROBERTS, 
 
 Author of ' The Colossus,' ' A Son of Empire,' etc. 
 
 THE DUKE. 
 
 By J. STORER CLOUSTON, 
 
 Author of ' The Lunatic at Large.' 
 
 VERITY. 
 
 By SIDNEY PICKERING, 
 
 Author of ' Wanderers,' etc. 
 
 JENNY OF THE VILLA. 
 
 By Mrs. C. H. RADFORD. 
 
 RED POTTAGE. 
 
 By MARY CHOLMONDELEY. 
 
 [ The Thirty-ninth Thousand now ready. 
 
 %
 
 lO 
 
 A Cynic's Conscience. By C. T. Podmore. Crown 
 
 8vo., 6s. 
 
 ' A remarkably clever piece of writing.' — Aihenaum. 
 ' The writer has marked imagination and originality.' — Pilot. 
 
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 Mall Gazette. 
 
 ' A novel instinct, with a tender and gracious sentiment.' — Calcutta Englishman. 
 ' The conversations are full of wit and merriment.' — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 Lotus or Laurel? By Helen Wallace (Gordon Roy). 
 Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 'Admirably written, and most promising.' — Truth. 
 
 ' It contains some imaginative work of a very high class.' — Speaker. 
 
 ' Well worth reading for its literary finish and workmanship alone.' — Athen{SU7n. 
 
 ' The conception of the story is strong and original.' — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 LECTURES ON THEORETICAL AND 
 PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 By Dr. J. H. VAN 'T. HOFF, 
 
 Professor at the University of Berlin. 
 
 PART I.— CHEMICAL DYNAMICS. \2s. net. 
 
 PART II— CHEMICAL STATICS. ?>s. 6d. ?tet 
 
 PART ni— RELATIONS BETWEEN PROPERTIES AND 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 3 vols., demy Sw., p. 6d. net. 
 
 The third volume of this important treatise, completing the work, is 
 now ready ; the translation has been made by Professor R. A. Lehfeldt, 
 as in the former volumes. 
 
 * Students and teachers will be graieful to Professor Van 'T. Hoff and his translator for 
 this clear, systematic and stimulating book. No other living writer shows such mastery of 
 his subject ; few write so tersely or suggestively upon it.' — Manchester Guardian.
 
 II 
 
 PUBLICATIONS OF THE ESSEX HOUSE 
 
 PRESS. 
 
 These books are printed at Essex House, on the presses used by the 
 late Mr. William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, which were purchased 
 by the Guild of Handicraft. Members of Mr. Morris's staff are also 
 retained at the Essex House Press, and it is the hope of the Guild of 
 Handicraft by this means to continue in some measure the tradition of 
 good printing and fine workmanship which William Morris revived. 
 
 A new type is being designed by Mr. C. R. Ashbee, and is nearly 
 ready ; in the meantime the books of the Essex House Press are being 
 printed in a fine eighteenth-century Caslon fount, with specially designed 
 ornaments and initials. It is gratifying to note that the demand for the 
 limited editions of the books already issued is steady and persistent, and 
 it will probably not be long before they are out of print. 
 
 Subscribers to the complete series of Essex House Publications are 
 given priority for any new book issued, and the number of subscribers 
 is constantly increasing. 
 
 The following are in active preparation. 
 
 Shelley's Adonais. The first of a series on Vellum of the great 
 poems of the language. Rubricated with coloured wood-block frontispiece by 
 C. R. Ashbee. Fifty copies printed ; all are subscribed for, and the book is out 
 of print. 
 
 Keats' Eve of St. Agnes. The second of the Vellum Series. It 
 will be rubricated, and will contain a hand-coloured wood-block frontispiece by 
 Reginald Savage. Edition limited to 125 copies. Price £,2 net.
 
 12 
 
 // is hoped that these hooks 7vill be foUoivcd by others in the 
 same Vellum Series, and by 
 
 Sir Thomas Hoby's translation (Elizabethan) of Baldassare 
 Castiglione's Courtiep. 
 
 The Psalms of David, according to the text of the Anglican Prayer- 
 Book. 
 
 Erasmus' Praise of Folly. Sir Thomas Challoner's translation 
 
 (Elizabethan). 
 
 The publications already issued are : 
 
 1. Mr. Ashbee's translation of the Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini 
 
 on Metal Work and Sculpture. 600 copies. A few still left. Price 
 
 35s. net. 
 
 2. The Hymn of Bardaisan, the first Christian Poem, rendered into 
 
 English verse from the original Syriac, by F. CRAWFORD BuRKiTT, of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. 250 copies. A few left. Price 7s, 6d. net. 
 
 3. Bunyan'S Pilgrim's Progress. Edited from the earlier editions by 
 
 Janet E. Ashbek, with a frontispiece by Reginald Savage. 750 copies. 
 Price 30s. net. 
 
 4. An Account of the Church of St. Mary Stratford Bow. By 
 
 OsiiORN IIil.i.s, with an introductory chapter by C. R. AsHBEE. 250 copies. 
 All copies offered for sale have been disposed of. I^rice ^i. 
 
 5. Shelley's Adonais. Coloured wood-block frontispiece by C. R 
 
 ASHBEE. On vellum. Rubricated. 50 copies. Out of print. 
 
 6. The Poems of Shakespeare and Lyrics from his Plays, 
 
 in the orthograjihy of the earliest editions. Edited by F. S. Ellis, with a 
 frontispiece by Reginald .Savage, and a new alphaljct of ' Bloomers' designed 
 by C. R. AsHiiEE. The book is small 4to. (9 in. by 7 in.), 254 pages, printed in 
 red and black, with limp vellum cover, edition limited to 450 copies. 
 Price ;^2 net. \Out oj Print. 
 
 These volumes are published on behalf of the Essex House Press by 
 Mr. Edwakd Arnold, and can be ordered either from him or from any 
 Bookseller.
 
 13 
 
 PICTURE BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS 
 
 PRESENTS. 
 
 I. Really and Truly ; or, The Century for Babes. 
 
 By Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Ames. Twenty splendidly Coloured 
 Plates, with amusing verses, depicting the great events of the 
 nineteenth century. 4to., 3s. 6d. 
 
 2. Tails with a Twist. An Animal Picture-book, 
 inexpressibly funny. By E. T. Reed, the famous Punch artist. 
 With verses by ' Belgian Hare.' Twenty plates, each coloured in 
 one tint. 4to., 3s. 6d. Only a limited number of copies now 
 remain. 
 
 3. More Beasts for Worse Children. By H. B. and 
 
 B. T. B. Grotesque pictures in black and white, and inimitably 
 clever verses. 4to., with coloured cover, 3s. 6d. 
 
 4. Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes. By 
 
 Col. D. Streamer, with Pictures by ' G. H.' Oblong 4to., 
 3s. 6d. 
 
 5. The Modern Traveller. By H. B. and B. T. B. 
 
 Fully Illustrated, with coloured cover. 4to., 3s. 6d. 
 
 ' The gaiety of nations has not received such a stimulus as this book affords for many a 
 merry Christmas.' — World. 
 
 6. A Moral Alphabet: In words of from one to seven 
 
 syllables. By H. B. and B. T. B. Fully Illustrated, with cover in 
 colour, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ' H. B.'s uncommon humour is still quite unspoilt, and the pictures of B. T. B. are as 
 full of surprises and quaint touches as of old.' — Isii.
 
 SOUVENIRS FROM THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 ' A souvenir of Christmas and its sacred and beautiful associations at 
 once peculiarly appropriate and attractive has been prepared by the 
 Rev. Harvey B. Greene, who has spent, it appears, three springs in 
 gathering and pressing, with the aid of native helpers, wild flowers from 
 the Holy Land. These have been tastefully and skilfully mounted in 
 books and on cards, which should please the eyes and touch the hearts 
 of many. The largest collection, containing seventeen specimens, bears 
 the title of " Wild Flowers from Palestine "; a smaller set of twelve 
 examples is embraced in " Pressed Flowers from the Holy Land "; while 
 the single Flower from the Christ Land is an ideal Christmas Card. 
 Bond-fiJes is guaranteed by printed letters from the British and American 
 Consuls at Jerusalem, Dean Hole of Rochester has written an introduc- 
 tion to the Flower Volumes, and Mr. Greene has himself supplied letter- 
 press descriptions and Scripture references. But the Syrian wild flowers 
 speak most eloquently for themselves.' — Scotsman. 
 
 Mr. Harvey Greene s deeply interestmg souve7iirs can he obtained 
 in the following forms : 
 
 I. WILD FLOWERS FROM PALESTINE. 
 
 (5atbere& ajtD ipresseC) in palcBtlne. 
 With an Introduction by the Very REV. S. REYNOLDS HOLE, 
 
 Dean of Rochester. 
 
 Ciotk e/egant, i6mo., /[s. 6d. 
 
 2. PRESSED FLOWERS FROM THE PIOLY 
 
 LAND. 
 
 6atbereD auD ipreeseD in palcetine. 
 
 With an Introduction by DEAN HOLE. 
 
 Tastefully boufid, 2,2mo.^ paper, 2S. 6d. 
 
 3. A FLOWER FROM THE CHRIST LAND. 
 
 B levels Cbrietmas CarD containing a Single ipresseJ) iFlower. 
 
 Price 6d. 
 ' Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.'
 
 15 
 BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Adderley. FRANCIS OF ASS I SI. (See page 6.) 
 
 Alexander. RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIGHLAND SUBALTERN, 
 dunny the Campaigns of the 93rd Highlanders in India, under Colin Campbell, 
 Lord Clyde, in 1857-1859. i5y Lieutenant-Colonel W. Gordon Alexander. 
 Illustrations and Maps. Demy Svc, cloth, i6s. 
 
 Arnold. PASSAGES IN A WANDERING LIFE. By Thomas 
 Arnold, M.A. Demy 8vo., with Portrait, 12s. 6d. 
 
 Boyle. THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE DEAN OF SALISBURY. 
 By the Very Rev. G. D. Boyle, Dean of Salisbury. With Photogravure Portrait. 
 One vol., demy 8vo., cloth, i6s. 
 
 Clough. A MEMOIR OF ANNE J. CLOUGH, Principal of Newnham 
 College, Cambridge. By her Niece, Blanche A. Clough. With Portraits, 
 8vo., 12s. 6d. 
 
 DeVere. RECOLLECTIONS OF AUBREY DE VERE. Third Edition, 
 with Portrait. Demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
 Hare. MARIA EDGEWORTH : her Life and Letters. Edited by 
 Augustus J. C. Hare, Author of ' The Story of Two Noble Lives,' etc. With 
 Portraits. Two vols., crown 8vo., i6s. net. 
 
 Hervey. HUBERT HERVEY, STUDENT AND IMPERIALIST. 
 By the Right Hon. Earl Grey. Demy 8vo., Illustrated, 7s. 6d. 
 
 Hole. THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. By the Very Rev. S. 
 Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. With Illustrations from Sketches by 
 Leech and Thackeray. Popular Edition. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Hole. MORE MEMORIES : Being Thoughts about England spoken in 
 America. By Dean Hole. With Frontispiece. Demy 8vo., 163. 
 
 Hole. A LITTLE TOUR IN AMERICA. By Dean Hole. Illustrated. 
 Demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
 Hole. A LITTLE TOUR IN IRELAND. By 'Oxoni.\n' (Dean Hole). 
 Illustrated by John Leech. Large crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Holmes. RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON POLICE COURT. 
 By Thomas Holmes. (See page 3.) 
 
 HoUand. LETTERS OF MARY SIBYLLA HOLLAND. Selected and 
 edited by her Son, Bernard Holland. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., 
 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 Jowett. BENJAMIN JOWETT, MASTER OF BALLIOL. A Personal 
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 Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Le Fanu. SEVENTY YEARS OF IRISH LIFE. By the late W. R. 
 Le Fanu. Popular Edition. Crown 8vo., 6s.
 
 i6 
 
 Macaulay. THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ZACHARY 
 
 INIACAULAY. By Viscountess Knutsford. (See page 5.) 
 
 Macdonald. THE MEMOIRS OF THE LATE SIR JOHN A. 
 MACDONALD, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of Canada. Edited by Joseph 
 Pope, his Private Secretary. With Portraits. Two vols., demy 8vo., 32s. 
 
 Merivale. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DEAN MERIVALE. With 
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 Morley. THE LIFE OF HENRY MORLEY, LL.D., Professor of 
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 Mott. A MINGLED YARN. The Autobiography of Edward Spencer 
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 Pigou. PHASES OF MY LIFE. By the Very Rev. Francis Pigou, 
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 Rochefort. THE ADVENTURES OF MY LIFE. By Henri Roche- 
 fort. Second Edition. Two vols., large crown 8vo., 25s. 
 
 Roebuck. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LETTERS of the Right 
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 Simpson. MANY MEMORIES OF MANY PEOPLE. By Mrs. M. C. 
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 Stevenson. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. By Walter Raleigh, 
 
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 Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ToUemache. TALKS WITH MR. GLADSTONE. By the Hon. L. A. 
 Tollemache. With Portrait. Cloth, 6s. 
 
 Twining. RECOLLECTIONS OF LIFE AND WORK. Being the 
 Autobiography of Louisa Twining. One vol., 8vo., cloth, iss. 
 
 THEOLOGY. 
 
 Hole. ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN from Pulpit and Platform. 
 By Dean Hole. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Hole. FAITH WHICH WORKETH BY LOVE. A Sermon preached 
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 Holland. ESSENTIALS IN RELIGION. Sermons preached in 
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 Onyx. A REPORTED CHANGE IN RELIGION. By Onyx. Crown 
 8vo., 3s. 6d.
 
 17 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 Benson and Tatham. MEN OF MIGHT. Studies of Great Characters. 
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 Fisher. FINLAND AND THE TSARS. By Joseph R. Fisher, B.A. 
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 Gardner. ROME: THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD. By Alice 
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 Odysseus. TURKEY IN EUROPE. By Odysseus. (See page i.) 
 
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 i8 
 
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 Collingwood. THORSTEIN OF THE MERE : a Saga of the Northmen 
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 19 
 
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 20 
 
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 About. TRENTE ET QUARANTE. Translated by Lord Newton. 
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 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Cherhuliez. THE TUTOR'S SECRET. (Le Secret du Prdcepteur.) 
 Translated from the French of Victor Cherbuliez. One vol., crown 8vo., 
 cloth, 6s. 
 
 Chester. A PLAIN WOMAN'S PART. By Norley Chester. 
 Crown Svo., 6s. 
 
 Cholmondeley. A DEVOTEE : An Episode in the Life of a Butterfly. 
 By Mary Cholmondeley, Author of 'Diana Tempest,' 'The Danvers Jewels,' 
 etc. Crown 8vg., 3s. 6d. 
 
 Cholmondeley. RED POTTAGE. By Mary Cholmondeley, Author of 
 ' Diana Tempest,' etc. Tenth Edition. Crown 8vo., 6s, 
 
 Coleridge. THE KING WITH TWO FACES. By M. E. Coleridge. 
 
 Eighth Edition, crown Svo., 6s. 
 
 CoUingwood. THE BONDWOMAN. A Story of the Northmen in 
 Lakeland. By W. G. CoLLiNGWOOD, Author of ' Thorstein of the Mere,' ' The 
 Life and Work of John Ruskin,' etc. Cloth, i6mo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 Dunmore. ORMISDAL. A Novel. By theEARLOFDuNMORE, F.R.G.S., 
 Author of 'The Pamirs.' One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 Edwards. THE MERMAID OF INISH-UIG. By R. W. K. Edwards. 
 Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.
 
 21 
 
 Falkner. MOONFLEET. By J. Meade Falkner. Second Edition, 
 crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Ford. ON THE THRESHOLD. By Isabella O. Ford, Author of 
 'Miss Blake of Monkshalton.' One vol., crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 Gaunt. DAVE'S SWEETHEART. By Mary Gaunt. One vol., 8vo., 
 cloth, 3s. 6J. 
 
 Hall. FISH TAILS AND SOME TRUE ONES. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Harrison. THE FOREST OF BOURG-MARIE. By S. Frances 
 Harrison (Seranus). Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Hutchinson. THAT FIDDLER FELLOW. A Tale of St. Andrews. By 
 Horace G. Hutchinson, Author of ' My Wife's Politics,' ' Golf,' • Creatures of 
 Circumstance,' etc. Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Knutsford. THE MYSTERY OF THE RUE SOLY. Translated by 
 Lady Knutsford from the French of H. DE Balzac. Crown 8vo., cloth, 
 3s. 6d. 
 
 Lightliall. THE FALSE CHEVALIER. By W. D. Lighthall. 
 Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 McNulty. MISTHER O'RVAN. An Incident in the History of a Nation. 
 By Edward McNulty. Small 8vo., elegantly bound, 3s. 6d. 
 
 McNulty. SON OF A PEASANT. By Edward McNulty. One vol., 
 crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Montr^sor. WORTH WHILE. By F. F. Montr^sor, Author of ' Into 
 the Highways and Hedges.' Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Oxenden. A REPUTATION FOR A SONG. By Maud Oxenden. 
 Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Oxenden. INTERLUDES. By Maud Oxenden. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Podmore. A CYNIC'S CONSCIENCE. By C. T. Podmore. Crown 
 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Pinsent. JOB HILDRED. By Ellen F. Pinsent, Author of 'Jenny's 
 Case.' One vol., crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 Roberts. THE COLOSSUS. By Morley Roberts, Author of 'A Son 
 of Empire.' Third Edition. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Spinner. A RELUCTANT EVANGELIST, and other Stories. By 
 Alice Spinner, Author of ' Lucilla,' 'A Study in Colour,' etc. Crown 8vo., 6s. 
 
 Wallace. LOTUS OR LAUREL ? By Helen Wallace (Gordon Roy). 
 Crown Svo., 6s. 
 
 Williams. THE BAYONET THAT CAME HOME. By N. Wynne 
 Williams. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d.
 
 22 
 
 TRAVEL AND SPORT. 
 
 Bell. TANGWEERA : Life among Gentle Savages on the Mosquito Coast 
 of Central America. By C. N. Bell. With numerous illustrations by the Author. 
 Demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
 Beynon. WITH KELLY TO CHITRAL. By Lieutenant W. G. L. 
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 Relief Force. With Maps, Plans, and Illustrations. Second Edition. Demy 
 8vo., 7s. 6d. 
 
 Bottome. A SUNSHINE TRIP : GLIMPSES OF THE ORIENT. 
 
 Extracts from Letters written by Margaret Bottome. With Portrait, elegantly 
 bound, 4s. 6d. 
 
 Bradley. HUNTING REMINISCENCES OF FRANK GILLARD 
 WI rn THE BELVOIR HOUNDS, 1860-1896. Recorded and Illustrated 
 by CuTHBERT Bradley. 8vo., 15s. 
 
 Bull. THE CRUISE OF THE ' ANTARCTIC ' TO THE SOUTH 
 POLAR REGIONS. By H. J. Bull, a member of the Expedition. With 
 Frontispiece by W. L. Wylie, A.R.A., and numerous full-page Illustrations by 
 W. G. Burn-Murdoch. Demy 8vo., 15s. 
 
 Burton. TROPICS AND SNOWS: a Record of Sport and Adventure 
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 demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
 Chapman. WILD NORWAY. By Abel Chapman, Author of 'Wild 
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 FresMeld. THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS. By 
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 Illustrated with Photogravures and Maps, 2 vols., 4to., £'^ 3s. net. 
 
 Gleichen. WITH THE BRITISH MISSION TO MENELIK, 1897. 
 By Count Gleichen, Grenadier Guards, Intelligence Officer to the Mission. 
 Illustrated, demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
 Gordon. PERSIA REVISITED. With Remarks on H.I.M. Mozufifer- 
 ed-Din Shah, and the Present Situation in Persia (1895). By General Sir T. E. 
 Gordon, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.S.I. Formerly Military Attache and Oriental 
 Secretary to the British Legation at Teheran, Author of ' The Roof of the 
 World,' etc. Demy 8vo., with full-page Illustrations, los. 6d. 
 
 Grey. IN MOORISH CAPTIVITY. An Account of the 'Tourmaline' 
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 Author of ' Rough Mischance.' With an original Etching by the Author, and 
 twelve full -page Illustrations by T. 11. McLachlan. Crown 8vo., 6s.
 
 23 
 
 Macdonald. SOLDIERING AND SURVEYING IN BRITISH EAST 
 AFRICA. By Major J. R. Macdonald, R.E. Fully Illustrated. Demy 8vo., l6s. 
 
 McNab. ON VELDT AND FARM, IN CAPE COLONY, BECHUANA- 
 LAND, NATAL, AND THE TRANSVAAL. By Frances McNab. With 
 Map. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., 300 pages, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Pike. THROUGH THE SUB-ARCTIC FOREST. A Record of a 
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 Demy 8vo., i6s. 
 
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 PortaL MY MISSION TO ABYSSINIA. By the late Sir Gerald H. 
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 Slatin and Wingate, FIRE AND SWORD IN THE SUDAN. By 
 
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 few copies of the Original Edition. Demy 8vo., 21s. net. 
 
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 and Charles Whymper. Super royal 8vo., One Guinea net. 
 
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 the Punjab Police. With 16 full-page Illustrations by Charles Whymper. 
 Demy 8vo., l6s. 
 
 Thompson. REMINISCENCES OF THE COURSE, THE CAMP, 
 AND THE CHASE. By Colonel R. F. Meysey Thompson. Large crown 
 8vo., IDS. 6d. 
 
 Warkworth. NOTES FROM A DIARY IN ASIATIC TURKEY. 
 By Fakl Percy (then Lord Warkworth). With numerous Photogravures. 
 Fcap. 4to., 2 IS. net.
 
 24 
 
 THE SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY. 
 
 Edited by the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P. 
 
 A Re-issue, in handsome volumes, of certain rare and entertaining books on 
 
 Sport, carefully selected by the Editor, and Illustrated by the best 
 
 Sporting Artists of the day, and with Reproductions of old Plates. 
 
 Library Edition, 15s. a Volume. Large-Paper Edition, limited to 200 copies. 
 
 Two Guineas a volume. Also obtainable in Sets only, in fine leather 
 
 bindings. Prices on application. 
 
 Volume L 
 
 Smith. THE LIFE OF A FOX, AND THE DIARY OF A HUNTS- 
 MAN. By Thomas Smith, Master of the Hambledon and Pytchley Hounds. 
 With Illustrations by the Author, and Coloured Plates by G. H. Jalland. 
 
 Sir Ralph Payne-Galwey, Bart., writes: 'It is excellent and beautifully produced.' 
 
 ' Is sure to appeal to everyone who has had, or is about to have, a chance of a run with the 
 hounds, and those to whom an unkindly fate denies this boon will enjoy it for the joyous music 
 of the hounds which it brings to relieve the winter of our discontent amid London fogs.' — Pall 
 Mali Gazette. 
 
 ' It will be a classic of fox-hunting till the end of time.' — Yorkshire Post. 
 
 ' No hunting men should be without this book in their libraries.' — World. 
 
 Volume II. 
 
 Thornton. A SPORTING TOUR THROUGH THE NORTHERN 
 PARTS OF ENGLAND AND GREAT PART OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 OF SCOTLAND. By Colonel T. Thornton, of Thornville Royal, in 
 Yorkshire. With the Original Illustrations by Garrard, and other Illustrations 
 and Coloured Plates by G. E. Lodge. 
 
 ' Sportsmen of all descriptions will gladly welcome the sumptuous new edition issued by Mr. 
 Edward Arnold of Colonel T. Thornton's " Sporting Tour," which has long been a scarce book.' 
 — Daily Neivs. 
 
 ' It is excellent reading for all interested in sport.' — Black and White. 
 
 ' A handsome volume, effectively illustrated with coloured plates by G. E. Lodge, and with 
 portraits and selections from the original illustrations, themselves characteristic of the art and 
 sport of the time.' — Times. 
 
 Volume III. 
 
 Cosmopolite. THE SPORTSMAN IN IRELAND. By a Cosmopolite. 
 
 With Coloured Plates and Black and White Drawings by P. Chenevix Trench, 
 and reproductions of the original Illustrations drawn by R. Allen, and engraved 
 by W. Westall, A.R.A. 
 
 ' This is a most readable and entertaining hook.'— Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 ' As to the " get up " of the book we can only repeat what we said on the appearance of the 
 first of the set, that the series consists of the most tasteful and charming volumes at present 
 being issued by the English Press, and collectors of handsome books should find them not only 
 an ornament to their shelves, but also a sound investment.' 
 
 Volume IV. 
 
 Berkeley. REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. By the Hon. 
 Grantley F. Berkeley. With a Coloured Frontispiece and the original 
 Illustrations by John Leech, and several Coloured Plates and other Illustrations 
 by G. H. Jalland. 
 
 'The latest addition to the sumptuous "Sportsman's Library" is here reproduced with all 
 possible aid from the printer and binder, with illustrations from the pencils of Leech and G. H. 
 Jalland.' — Globe. 
 
 ' The Hon. Grantley F. Berkeley had one great quality of the raconteur. His self-revelations 
 and displays of vanity are delightful.' — Times.
 
 25 
 
 Volume V. 
 
 Scrope. THE ART OF DEERSTALKING. By William Scrope. 
 With Frontispiece by Edwin Landseer, and nine Photogravure Plates of the 
 original Illustrations. 
 
 ' With the fine illustrations by the Landseers and Scrope himself, this forms a most worthy 
 number of a splendid series.' — Fall Mall Gazette. 
 
 'Among the works published in connection with field sports in Scotland, none probably have 
 been more sought after than those of William Scrope, and although published more than fifty 
 years ago, they are still as fresh as ever, full of pleasant anecdote, and valuable for the many 
 practical hints which they convey to inexperienced sportsmen.' — Field. 
 
 Volume VI. 
 
 Nimrod. THE CHASE, THE TURF, AND THE ROAD. By Nimrod. 
 With a Photogravure Portrait of the Author by D. Maclise, R.A., and with 
 Coloured Photogravure and other Plates from the original Illustrations by 
 Alkkn, and several reproductions of old Portraits. 
 
 ' Sir Herbert Maxwell has performed a real service for all who care for sport in republishing 
 Niinrod's admirable papers. The book is admirably printed and produced both in the matter 
 of illustrations and of binding.' — St. James's Gazette. 
 
 ' A thoroughly well got-up book.' — World. 
 
 Volume VII. 
 
 Scrope. DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. By William 
 Scrope. With coloured Lithographic and Photogravure reproductions of the 
 original Plates. 
 
 ' This great classic of sport has been reissued by Mr. Edward Arnold in charming form.' — 
 Literature. 
 
 COUNTRY HOUSE. 
 
 Brown. POULTRY-KEEPING AS AN INDUSTRY FOR FARMERS 
 AND COTTAGERS. By Edward Brown, F.L.S. Fully Illustrated by 
 Ludlow. RevLsed Edition, demy 410., cloth, 6s. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 PLEASURABLE POULTRY-KEEPING. Fully Illustrated. One vol., 
 crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d, 
 
 INDUSTRIAL POULTRY-KEEPING. (See page 3.) 
 
 POULTRY FATTENING. Fully Illustrated. New Edition. Crown 8vo., 
 IS. 6d. 
 
 Cunningham. THE DRAUGHTS POCKET MANUAL. By J. G. Cun- 
 ningham. An introduction to the Game in all its branches. Small 8vo., with 
 numerous diagrams, is. 6d. 
 
 Elliot. AMATEUR CLUBS AND ACTORS. Edited by W. G. ELLIOT. 
 With numerous Illustrations by C. M. Newton. Large Svo., 15s.
 
 26 
 
 Ellacombe. IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN. By the Rev. 
 H. N. Ellacombe, Vicar of Bitton, and Honorary Canon of Bristol. Author 
 of 'Plant Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare.' With new Illustrations by 
 Major E. B. Ricketts. Second Editi'^n. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 Gossip. THE CHESS POCKET MANUAL. By G. H. D. Gossip. 
 A Pocket Guide, with numerous Specimen Games and Illustrations. Small 8vo., 
 IS. 6d. 
 
 Hole. A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. By the Very Rev. S. Reynolds 
 Hole, Dean of Rochester. Sixteenth Edition. Illustrated by H. G. Moon and 
 G. S. Elgood, R.I. Presentation Edition, with Coloured Plates, 6s. Popular 
 Edition, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Hole. A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN AND THE GARDENER. 
 By Dean Hole. Popular Edition, crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 Holt. FANCY DRESSES DESCRIBED. By Ardern Holt. An 
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 About 60 Illustrations by LILLIAN YouNG. Many of them coloured. One vol., 
 demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 Holt. GENTLEMEN'S FANCY DRESS AND HOW TO CHOOSE 
 IT. By Ardern Holt. New and Revised Edition. With Illustrations. 
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 Sir Herbert Maxwell. (See page 2.) 
 
 'WYVERN'S' COOKERY BOOKS. 
 
 Kenney-Herbert. COMMON-SENSE COOKERY : Based on Modern 
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 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 FIFTY BREAKFASTS : containing a great variety of New and Simple 
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 FIFTY DINNERS. Small 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 FIFTY LUNCHES. Small 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Shorland. CYCLING FOR HEALTH AND PLEASURE. By 
 L. H. Porter, Author of ' Wheels and Wheeling,' etc. Revised and edited by 
 F. W. Shorland, Amateur Champion 1892-93-94. With numerous Illustrations, 
 small 8vo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 Smith. THE PRINCIPLES OF LANDED ESTATE MANAGE- 
 MENT. By Henry Herbert Smith, Fellow of the Institute of Surveyors; 
 Agent to the Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G., the Earl of Crewe, Lord Methuen, 
 etc. With Plans and Illustrations. Demy 8vo., 1 6s. 
 
 White. PLEASURABLE BEE-KEEPING. By C. N. White, Lecturer 
 to the County Councils of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, etc. Fully illustrated. 
 One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d.
 
 27 
 
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 Bell. CONVERSATIONAL OPENINGS AND ENDINGS. By Mrs. 
 Hugh Bei.l. Square Svo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 Clouston. THE CHIPPENDALE PERIOD IN ENGLISH FURNI- 
 TURE. By K. Warren Clouston. With 2Cxd Illustrations by the Author. 
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 Fell. BRITISH MERCHANT SEAMEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. By 
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 GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Eton — Harrow — Winche.ster — 
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 HARROW SCHOOL. Edited by E. W. HowsoN and G. Townsend 
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 Hartshome. OLD ENGLISH GLASSES. AnAccount of Glass Drinking- 
 Vessels in England from Early Times to the end of the Eighteenth Century. 
 With Introductory Notices of Continental Glasses during the same period, 
 Original Documents, etc. Dedicated by special permission to Her Majesty the 
 Queen. By Albert Hartshorne, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Illus- 
 trated by nearly 70 full-page Tinted or Coloured Plates in the best style of Litho- 
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 Three Guineas net. 
 
 Herschell. THE BEGGARS OF PARIS. Translated from the French 
 of M. Louis Paulian by Lady Herschell. Crown 8vo., is. 
 
 Pilkington. IN AN ETON PLAYING FIELD. The Adventures of 
 some old Public School Boys in East London. By E. M. S. PiLKINGTON. 
 Fcap. 8vo., handsomely bound, 2s. 6d. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED HUMOROUS BOOKS. 
 
 Ames. REALLY AND TRULY. By Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Ames. (See 
 
 page 1 3-) 
 H. B. and B. T. B. MORE BEASTS (FOR WORSE CHILDREN). 
 
 New Edition. One vol., 4to., 3s. 6d. (See page 13.) 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHORS. 
 
 THE MODERN TRAVELLER. (See page 13.) 
 
 A MORAL ALPHABET. (See page 13.) 
 
 Lockwood. THE FRANK LOCKWOOD SKETCH-BOOK. Being a 
 Selection of Sketches by the late Sir Frank Lockwood, Q.C, M.P. Third 
 Edition. Oblong royal 4to., los. 6d.
 
 28 
 
 Reed. TAILS WITH A TWIST. An Animal Picture-Book by E. T. 
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 Burgess. POLITICAL SCIENCE AND COMPARATIVE CONSTI- 
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 By William Graham, M.A., Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy 
 
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 HiU. A MANUAL OF HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY. By Leonard Hill, 
 
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 Holland. SUGGESTIONS FOR A SCHEME OF OLD AGE PEN- 
 SIONS. By the Hon. Lionel Holland. Crown 8vo., is. 6d. 
 
 Hopkins. THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. By E. W. Hopkins, Ph.D. 
 (Leipzig), Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Bryn Mawr 
 College. One vol., demy 8vo., 8s. 6d. net. 
 
 Hutchison. FOOD AND THE PRINCIPLES OF DIETETICS. 
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 Ladd. LOTZE'S PHILOSOPHICAL OUTLINES. Dictated Portions 
 of the Latest Lectures (at Gottingen and Berlin) of Hermann Lotze. Translated 
 and edited by George T. Ladd, Professor of Philosophy in Yale College. About 
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 Vol. II. Philosophy of Religion. Vol. III. Practical Philosophy. Vol. IV. 
 Psychology. Vol. V. vi-.sthetics. Vol. VI. Logic. 
 
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 A. Lehfeldt, Professor of Physics at the East London Technical College. 
 Crown 8vo., 7s. 6d. 
 
 Morgan. ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR. By C. Lloyd Morgan, F.R.S., 
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 PSYCHOLOGY FOR TEACHERS. With a Preface by Sir Joshua 
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 Third Edition. One vol., crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Paget. WASTED RECORDS OF DISEASE. By Charles E. Paget, 
 Lecturer on Public Health in Owens College, Medical Officer of Health for 
 Salford, etc. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6d.
 
 29 
 
 Pearson. THE CHANCES OF DEATH, and other Studies in Evolution. 
 By Karl Pearson, F.R.S., Author of 'The Ethic of Free Thought,' etc. 
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 Van 'T. Hoff. LECTURES ON THEORETICAL AND PHYSICAL 
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 Young. A GENERAL ASTRONOMY. By Charles A. Young, 
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 Halliday. STEAM BOILERS. By G. Halliday, late Demonstrator at 
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 THE NATIONAL REVIEW. 
 
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 of the mouth, which give a masterly review of the important events of
 
 3° 
 
 the preceding month, form a valuable feature of the Review, which now 
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 PUBLICATIONS OF THE INDIA OFFICE AND OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
 
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 CATALOGUE OF WORKS FOR USE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRESENTS AND PRIZES. 
 
 BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 SIX SHILLINGS EACH. 
 FIRE AND SWORD IN THE SUDAN. By Sir Rudolph Slatin and Sir F. R. 
 
 WiNGATE. (See page 23.) 
 
 MOONFLEET. By J. Meade Falkner. (See page 21.) 
 
 FIVE SHILLINGS EACH. 
 SNOW - SHOES AND SLEDGES. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illustrated. 
 
 Crown 8vo., cloth, ss. 
 
 RICK DALE. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illustrated. Crown 8vo., cloth, 53. 
 THE FUR SEAL'S TOOTH. By Kirk Munroe. Fully illustrated. Crown 
 
 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 HOW DICK AND MOLLY SAW ENGLAND. By M. H. Cornwall 
 
 Legh. With numerous Illustrations. Foolscap 4to., ss. 
 
 DR. GILBERT'S DAUGHTERS. By Margaret Harriet Mathews. 
 
 Illustrated by Chris. Hammond. Crown 8vo., cloth, ss. 
 
 ERIC THE ARCHER. By Maurice H. Hervey. With 8 full-page Illustrations. 
 
 Handsomely bound, crown Zmo., ss. 
 
 THE REEF OF GOLD. By Maurice H. Hervey. With numerous full-page 
 
 Illustrations, handsomely bound, gilt edges, 5s. 
 
 BAREROCK ; or, The Island of Pearls. By Henry Nash. With numerous 
 Illustrations by Lancelot Speed. Large crown Svo., handsomely bound, gilt edges, ss. 
 
 WAGNER'S HEROES. By Constance Maud. Illustrated by H. Granville 
 
 Fell. Crown 8vo., ss. 
 
 WAGNER'S HEROINES. By Constance Maud. Illustrated by W. T. Maud. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 5s. 
 
 THREE SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE EACH. 
 
 TALES FROM HANS ANDERSEN. With nearly 40 Original Illustrations 
 by E. A. Le.mann. Small 4to., handsomely bound in cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE SNOW QUEEN, and other Tales. By Hans Christian Andersen. 
 
 Beautifully illustrated by Miss E. A. Lemann. Small 410., handsomely bound, 3s. 6d.
 
 31 
 
 HUNTERS THREE. By Thomas W. Knox, Author of 'The Boy Travellers,' 
 etc. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE SECRET OF THE DESERT. By E. D. Fawcett. With numerous 
 
 full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 JOEL : A HOY OF GALILEE. By Annik Fellows Johnston. With ten 
 
 full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE MUSHROOM CAVE. By Evelyn Raymond. With Illustrations. 
 
 Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE DOUBLE EMPEROR. By W. Laird Clowes, Author of 'The Great 
 Peril,' etc. Illustrated. Crowu 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 SWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE. By E. D. Fawcett. Illus- 
 trated. Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 HARTMANN THE ANARCHIST ; or, The Doom of the Great City. By 
 E. Douglas Fawcett. With sixteen full-page and numerous . smaller Illustrations by F. T. 
 Jane. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ANIMAL SKETCHES : a Popular Book of Natural History. By Professor C. 
 
 Lloyd Morgan, F.R.S. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ROME THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD. By Alice Gardner. Illustrated. 
 
 Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 TIVO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE. 
 
 FRIENDS OF THE OLDEN TIME. By Alice Gardner, Lecturer in 
 
 History at Newnham College, Cambridge. Second Edition. Illustrated. Square 8vo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 TWO SHILLINGS EACH. 
 THE CHILDREN'S FAVOURITE SERIES. A Charming Series of Juvenile 
 
 Books, each plentifully Illustrated, and written in simple language to please young readers. 
 Price 2S. each ; or, gilt edges, 2s. 6d. 
 
 My Book of Wonders. 
 
 My Book of Travel Stories. 
 
 My Book of Adventures. 
 
 My Book of the Sea. 
 
 My Book of Fables. 
 
 Deeds of Oold. 
 
 My Book of Heroism. 
 
 THE LOCAL SERIES. 
 
 The Story of Lancashire. 
 The Story of Yorkshire. 
 The Story of the Midlands. 
 The Story of London. 
 
 My Book of Perils. 
 My Book of Fairy Tales. 
 My Book of History Tales. 
 My Story Book of Animals. 
 Rhymes for You and Me. 
 My Book of Inventions. 
 
 The Story of Wales. 
 
 The Story of Scotland. 
 
 The Story of the West Country. 
 
 ONE SHILLING AND SIXPENCE EACH. 
 
 THE CHILDREN'S HOUR SERIES. 
 
 All with Full-page Illustrations. 
 THE PALACE ON THE MOOR. By E. Davenport Adams, is. 6a. 
 TOBY'S PROMISE. By A. M. Hopkinson. is. 6d. 
 MASTER MAGNUS. By Mrs. E. M. Field, is. 6d. 
 MY DOG PLATO. By M. H. Cornwall Legh. is. 6d. 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED GEOGRAPHY. By Ale.xis Frye and A. J. Herbertson. 
 
 Royal 4to., 7s. 6U. and 5s.
 
 5n&e£ to Butbors. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 About - 
 
 
 20 
 
 ' Adalet ' 
 
 
 20 
 
 Adams, E. Davenport 
 
 
 3t 
 
 Adderley, Hon. and Rev. J 
 
 Oj 
 
 20 
 
 Alexander, W. Gordon 
 
 
 15 
 
 Ames, Ernest - 
 
 
 13 
 
 A Moral Alphabet _ - _ 
 
 
 13 
 
 Andersen, Hans Christian 
 
 
 3° 
 
 Arnold-Forster, H. 0. 
 
 *-) 
 
 28 
 
 Arnold, Thomas 
 
 
 15 
 
 Ashbee, C. R. - 
 
 
 12 
 
 Bagot, Mrs. J. 
 
 
 4 
 
 Bell, Mrs. Hugh 
 
 1 8, 
 
 27 
 
 Bell, Napier - 
 
 
 22 
 
 Belloc, Hilaire 
 
 
 8 
 
 Benson, A. C. - 
 
 
 17 
 
 Berkeley, Hon. Grantley F 
 
 
 24 
 
 Beynon, W. G. L. 
 
 
 22 
 
 Bouome, Margaret - 
 
 
 22 
 
 Boyle, Very Rev. G. D. 
 
 
 15 
 
 Bradley, Cuthbert 
 
 
 22 
 
 Brown, Edward 
 
 D 
 
 25 
 
 Bull, H. J. - 
 
 
 22 
 
 Bunsen, Marie von 
 
 
 20 
 
 Burgess, John W. 
 
 
 28 
 
 Burkitt, F. Crawford - 
 
 
 12 
 
 Burneside, Margaret - 
 
 
 20 
 
 Burton, Capt. R. G. - 
 
 
 22 
 
 Builer, A. J. - 
 
 
 18 
 
 Chapman, Abel 
 
 
 22 
 
 Charleton, R. J. 
 
 
 20 
 
 Cherbuliez, Victor 
 
 
 20 
 
 Chester, Norley 
 
 lO 
 
 20 
 
 Children's Favourite Series 
 
 
 31 
 
 Children's Hour Series 
 
 
 31 
 
 Cholmoiideley, Mary - 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 Cloiigh, Blanche A. - 
 
 
 15 
 
 Clouston, J. Storer 
 
 
 9 
 
 Clouston, K. Warren - 
 
 
 27 
 
 Clowes, W. Laird 
 
 
 31 
 
 Coleridge, M. E. 
 
 
 20 
 
 CoUingwood, W. G. - 
 
 iS 
 
 20 
 
 Collins, J. Churton 
 
 
 19 
 
 Cook, Prof. A. S. 
 
 
 iS 
 
 Cosmopolite 
 
 
 24 
 
 Cunningham, J. G. - 
 
 
 25 
 
 Davidson, Thomas 
 
 
 18 
 
 De Vcre, Aubrey 
 
 
 IS 
 
 Dunmore, Earl of 
 
 
 20 
 
 Dymond, T. S. 
 
 
 29 
 
 Edwards, R. W. K. - 
 
 
 20 
 
 Ellacombe, H. N. 
 
 i8 
 
 ,26 
 
 Elliot, W. G. ■ 
 
 
 25 
 
 Essex Hou^e Publications 
 
 II 
 
 > 12 
 
 Falkner, J. Meade 
 
 
 21 
 
 Fawcett, E. D. 
 
 
 3» 
 
 Fell, H. Granville 
 
 
 •9 
 
 Fell, Rev. J. - 
 
 
 27 
 
 F'enton, Mrs. - 
 
 
 6 
 
 Field, Mrs. E. M. 
 
 
 31 
 
 Fisher, J. R. - 
 
 
 8 
 
 Fleming, Canon 
 
 
 18 
 
 Ford, Isabella 0. 
 
 
 21 
 
 Freshfield, Douglas W. 
 
 . 
 
 22 
 
 Frye, Alexis - 
 
 - 
 
 31 
 
 Gardner, Alice 
 
 - 
 
 17 
 
 Garnett, J. M. 
 Gaunt, Mary 
 
 Gleichen, Count 
 Glencairn, R. J. 
 Gordon, Sir T. E. 
 Goschen, Rt. Hon. G. J. 
 Gossip, G. H. D. 
 Graham, \V. 
 Great Public Schools 
 Greene, Harvey B. 
 Grey, Earl 
 Grey, H. M. - 
 Gummere, F. B. 
 
 Haffkine, Dr. W. M. 
 Hall, Bradnock 
 Halliday, G. - 
 Hare, Augustus J. C. 
 Harrison, Frederic 
 Harrison, S. Frances 
 Harrow School 
 Hartshorne, Albert 
 Herschell, Lady 
 Hervey, M. H. 
 Hill, Leonard - 
 Hoff, Dr. J. H. Van 
 Hofmeyr, A. - 
 Hole, Dean - ' 15 
 
 Holland, Bernard 
 Holland, Hon. Lione 
 Holland, Maud 
 Holland, Rev. F. J. 
 Holmes, Thomas 
 Holt, Ardern - 
 Hopkinson, A. M. 
 Hopkins, E. W. 
 Hudson, H. N. 
 Hutchinson. Horace G. 
 Hutchison, Robert 
 
 Indian Office Publications 
 Johnston, Annie Fellows 
 Journal of Morphology 
 Jowett, Benjamm 
 Kenney-Herbert 
 Knox, T. W. - 
 Knutsford, Lady 
 Kuhns, L. Oscar 
 Ladd, G. T. - 
 Lang, Andrew - 
 Le Fanu, V/. R. 
 Legh, M. H. Cornwall 
 Lehfeldt, Dr. R. A. - 
 Lighthall, W. D. 
 Local Series - 
 Lockwood, Sir Frank - 
 Macdonald, Lt.-Col. J. R. 
 Macdonald, Sir John A. 
 Mathews, Margaret H. 
 Maud, Constance 
 Maxse, L. J. • 
 Maxwell, Sir Herbert- 
 McNab, Frances 
 McNulty, Edward 
 Merivale, J. A. 
 Milner, Sir Alfred 
 Modern Traveller, The 
 Montr^sor, F. F. 
 More Beasts for Worse Child 
 Morgan. C. Lloyd - 2, 
 Morlev, Henry 
 Mott, E. S. - 
 
 PAGE 
 
 - 22 
 
 ■ 19 
 
 - 22 
 
 27 
 14 
 
 15. 
 22 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 24 
 
 29 
 15 
 18 
 21 
 27 
 27 
 27 
 
 30 
 28 
 10 
 
 4 
 ,26 
 
 I 19 
 28 
 
 PAGE 
 
 30 
 30 
 29 
 20 
 25 
 
 
 19 
 16 
 
 
 3 
 
 26 
 
 
 31 
 28 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 21 
 
 7> 
 
 28 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 29 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 31 
 
 5. 
 
 21 
 
 iB 
 
 
 28 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 15 
 
 30. 
 
 ^i 
 28 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 27 
 
 13 
 
 23 
 16 
 
 
 30 
 
 19 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 
 29 
 26 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 21 
 
 ren 
 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 31 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 Munroe, Kirk 
 Nash, Henry - 
 National Review 
 Newton, Lord - 
 Nimrod 
 
 Oman, C. 
 Onyx - 
 Oxenden, Maud 
 
 Paget, Charles E. 
 Pasley, Sir T. S. 
 Pearson, Karl - 
 Perry, Prof. John 
 Pickering, Sidney 
 Pigou, Very Rev. Francis 
 Pike, Warburton 
 Pilkington, E. M. S. - 
 Pinsent, Ellen F. 
 Podmore, C. T. 
 Pollok, Lieut. -Colonel 
 Portal, Sir Gerald H. 
 Price, L. L. R. 
 Pritchett, R. T. 
 
 Quiller" Couch, A. T. - 
 
 Radford, C H. 
 
 Raleigh, Walter 
 
 Ransome, Cyril 
 
 Raymond, Evelyn 
 
 Reed, E. T. - 
 
 Reid, Arnot - 
 
 Rendel, Hon. Daphne 
 
 Reynolds, Rev. S. H. 
 
 Richmond, Rev. Wilfrid 
 
 Roberts, Morley_ 
 
 Rochetort, Henri 
 
 Rodd, Sir Rennel 
 
 Roebuck, Rt. Hon. J. A. 
 
 Roy, Gordon - 
 
 Russell, W. Clark ■ 
 
 Schelling, Prof. F. E. 
 
 Scrope, William 
 
 Shaw, C. Weeks 
 
 Shorland, F. W. 
 
 Simpson, Mrs. M. C. - 
 
 Slatin Pasha, Sir Rudolf 
 
 Smith, A. Donaldson - 
 
 Smith, H. H. - 
 
 Smith, Thomas 
 
 Spinner, Alice • 
 
 Sportsman Library - 24, 
 
 Stevenson, R. L. 
 
 Stone, S. J. - 
 
 Streamer, Colonel D. • 
 
 Tatham, H. F. W. • 
 Taylor, Isaac - 
 Thompson, Col. R. F. Meysey 
 Thornton, Col. T. 
 Tolleniache, Hon. L. A. 
 Turkey in Europe 
 Twining, Louisa 
 Wallace, Helen 
 Warkworth, Lord 
 White, C. N. - 
 Whitman, C. O. 
 Williams, N. Wynne - 
 Wilson, Ernest 
 Wingate, Sir F. R. - 
 Young, Charles A.
 
 OCT 7 
 
 my 1 3 1938 
 
 rtBii-l9« 
 
 7 i9<a 
 
 Form L-9-15m-7,'32
 
 255 Price - 
 
 P95s 
 
 A short 
 history of English 
 comiTierce and in- 
 dustry. 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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