^^1^^^ •^^^^^•i^vfJS8 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 http://archive.org/details/englanindustryinOOgibbrich INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND HISTORICAL OUTLINES BY H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A., D.LlTT. SOMETIME UNIVERSITY (COBDEN) PRIZEMAN IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, OXFORD ; AUTHOR OF "the INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND" AND "the HISTORY OF COMMERCE IN EUROPE" WITH MAPS, TABLES, AND A PLAN SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON 1897 KiUiJ'ja- TO MY WIFE OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY AND SOCIAL REFORM. "... The Sibyl offers her hooksy in which the future is forecast^ to the Roman statesman^ according to the legend. The price is refused tunce, and^ after each repulse, she destroys irrevocably one of the volumes, demanding the sam£ price for the third. This is what Bacon called tJie toisdom of the ancients, and the m,oral is plain,** JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS. PREFACE In 1890 the author published a small book, entitled The Industrial History of EnglaTid, which met with a some- what undeserved success, and has rapidly gone through several large editions. It was described in the first preface as " an attempt to relate in a short, concise, and simple form the main outlines of England's economic and industrial history," meant "to serve as an introduction to a fuller study of the subject, and as a preliminary sketch which the reader can afterwards, if he wishes, fill in for himself from larger volumes ; " and it seems to have attained its object of awakening popular interest, to some extent, in a very important branch of national history. But it had all the faults of a brief outline, and contained errors of fact and of expression which no one has regretted more sincerely than the author. It has therefore been my endeavour, in this larger work, to produce a History of Industry of a more satisfactory character, while at the same time retaining the essential features that characterised the earlier effort. As before, I have attempted, as far as possible, in the brief limits of a work like this, to connect economic and industrial questions with Sicial, political, and military movements, since only in some such mutual relation can historical events obtain their full significance. The Industrial History of England has been taken, on the whole, as the basis of this book, and the arrangement h ^» viii PREFACE of periods and chapters has been but slightly altered ; but the original book has been entirely re-written, and so much new matter has been added that the present volume is quite three times the size of the first essay. Fresh maps have been drawn, new tables of statistics added, and foot- notes have been given for every statement of any im- portance. The first period also, up to the Norman conquest, contains entirely new matter, involving a certain amount of original work. For some time it has appeared to me that the results of archaeological and antiquarian research into the pre-historic period have not been sufficiently utilised in dealing with our industrial history, and that the origin of the manor, in especial, derives added light from these investigations. It has therefore been my endeavour to weave into the story of industrial progress several of the results arrived at by investigators of pre-historic conditions, believing, as I do, that the many centuries of industrial human life which elapsed before our written history began must have left upon our nation some traces of their course. At the same time, I have not wished to emphasise the pre-historic period unduly, and have therefore confined the remarks upon it to a very limited space. But I hope that the " survey of the origin of the manor," in § 32, may be some contribution to the discussion of the subject. Throughout the book I have tried to review the in- dustrial life of England as a whole, and to present a general survey of it throughout its gradual development. In this respect Industry in England differs from most works of the kind, for they have generally been devoted either to some special period or some special aspect, or have dealt PREFACE ix with industry only as a branch of the national commerce, I have endeavoured to give full weight to the views of other writers, especially on disputed points/ but have also indi- cated my own (though with considerable diffidence) where there seemed reason to differ from them. I do not suppose that I have succeeded in being impartial, for, though impartiality is the ideal, it is also the will o' the wisp of the historian, and generally deserts him when he needs it most ; but I have at least endeavoured to give reasons for my conclusions. And while in some points I differ, no one admires more than myself the work of such historians as Dr Cunningham and Professor Ashley, whose names I venture specially to mention, because I wish gratefully to acknowledge the magnitude of the help rendered to me, as to all students, by their recent contributions to industrial history. My obligations to them are, I trust, acknowledged as often as possible in the footnotes, but mere references of that kind cannot convey by any means adequately the extent to which a student like myself has benefited from their researches. As regards the footnotes generally, every endeavour has been made to acknowledge all the sources which have been consulted, and any omission in this respect the author sincerely regrets. Considerable difficulty was occasioned by my change of residence during the completion of the book, and a consequent compulsory recourse to different libraries; and the indulgence of readers and critics is therefore asked for any omission or error thereby caused. It might also be added that this book has been written in ^ As, e.gr., The Peasants' Revolt, the condition of the Labourer in the fifteenth century, the Poor Law of Elizabeth, the Assessment of Wages, &c., &c. X PREFACE the intervals of a very busy life, and out of reach of any special collection of works on industrial subjects or of any of the greater libraries of the kingdom. I cannot conclude without paying a tribute to the memory of the late Professor J. E. Thorold Rogers, to whom I showed, as a mere beginner in his special subject,, the proofs of the first few chapters of the little book {The Imdustrial History of Uv^land) from which this larger volume has developed. To his kindly encouragement and to the inspiring teaching ot his economic works, I owe what- ever knowledge I possess of that side of our national history which is of such vast importance to a citizen of modern England. H. DE B. GIBBINS. Liverpool, Skptbmbbb 1896. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The very favourable reception and rapid sale of this book have necessitated the issue of a second edition within a few months of the publication of the first. Only a few verbal corrections have been made, but I should like to quote the following explanation from the preface to the fifth edition of my earlier work, the Industrial History of England : " It has been said that I write with a prejudice against the owners of land ; but this is not the case. The landed gentry of England happen, for some centuries, to have held the predominant power in the State and in society, and used it, not unnaturally, in many cases to further their own interests. It is the duty of an historian to point this out, but it need not, therefore, be thought that he has any special bias against the class. Any other class would have certainly done the same, as, for instance, mill-owners did among their own employes at the beginning of this century, and as, in all probability, the working-classes will do, when a further extension of democratic government shall have given them the opportunity. It is a fault of human nature that it can rarely be trusted with irresponsible power, and unless the influence of one class of society is counterbalanced xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION more or less by that of another, there will always be a tendency to some inj^tice. I trust that my readers will bear this in mind when reading the following pages, and will believe that I intend no unfairness to the landed gentry of England, who have done much to promote the glory and stability of their country." H. DE B. GIBBINS. Liverpool, July 1897. CONTENTS PERIOD I EARLY HISTORY, FROM PRE-HISTORIC TIMES TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST CHAPTER I PRE-BOMAN BRITAIN 8KCTI0K 1. Industrial History . 2. The English Nation and Country . 3. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Britain 4. Their Social and Economic Condition 5. The Bronze Age and the Celtic Immigration 6. Resume : The Peoples of Eariy Britain 7. Their Social and Economic Condition 8. The Celts in the time of Pytheas . 9. Foreign Trade of Britain . "Aw. Internal Trade : Roads and Rivers 11. Physical Aspect of Pre-Roman Britain FAOB 3 3 5 7 8 10 10 11 14 16 17 CHAPTER II / ROMAN BRITAIN 12. The Roman Occupation <«ti. Roman Roads .... 14. Roman Towns in Britain . 15. The Romans and Agriculture , 16. Celtic and Non-Roman Influence in Agriculture 17. Commerce and Industry in Roman Britain 21 22 23 25 27 81 CHAPTER III THE SAXON PERIOD 18. The Saxon Invasions 19. The Saxon Village and its Inhabitants 20. Village Life ... . 21. Methods of Cultivation 84 87 38 40 zifi XIV CONTENTS SBCnON 22. Isolation of VUlages. Crafts and Trades. Markets 23. Foreign Commerce and the Danes 24. Summary of Trade and Industry in the Saxon Period PAOK 41 43 46 CHAPTER IV THE MANOR AND THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 25. The Interest of the Question as to the Origin of the Manor 26. The Mark Theory and the Manor . 27. Criticisms of the Mark Theory 28. VinogradoflTs Evidence on the Manorial System 29. Evidence from Manorial Courts and Customs 30. The "Customary" Tenants 31. The Evidence of Village Communities 32. A Survey of the Origin of the Manor • 83. The Feudal System 47 48 49 52 55 56 67 58 PERIOD II FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE REIGN OF HENRY III (1066-1216 A.D.) CHAPTER V DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 34. The Survey ordered by William I. 35. The Population given by Domesday 36. The Wealth of various Districts . 37. The Manors and Lords of the Manors 38. The Inhabitants of the Manor 39. The Condition of these Inhabitants 40. Services due to the Lord from his Tenants in Villeinage 41. Money Payments and Rents 42. Free Tenants. Soke-men . 43. The Distinction between Free and Unfree Tenants 44. Illustrations of Manors from Domesday . 45. Cuxham Manor in the Eleventh and lliirteenth Centuries 46. Description of an Eleventh Century Village 47. The Decay of the Manorial System 65 66 68 70 71 78 74 74 75 76 78 79 80 84 CHAPTER VI THE TOWNS AND THE GILDS 48. The Origin of the Towns 49. Rise of Towns in England 50. Towns in Domesday 86 87 CONTENTS XV 51. Special Privileges of Towns . , 52. How the Towns obtained their Charters . 53. The Gilds and the Towns. Various kinds of Gilds 54. How the Merchant Gilds helped the Growth of Towns 55. How the Craft Gilds helped Industry 56. Life in the Towns of this time . - • PAGE 89 90 91 93 94 96 CHAPTER VII MANUFACTURES AND TRADE : ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES 57. Economic Effects of the Feudal System .... 98 --6«. Foreign Trade, '•^e Crusades ..... 100 59. The Trading Clauses in the Great Charter . . .101 60. The Jews in England ...... 103 61. Manufactures in this Period : Flemish Weavers . . . 104. 62. Economic Appearance of England in this Period. Population. The North and South ...... 106 68. General Condition of the Period ..... 108 PERIOD III FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, INCLUDING THE GREAT PLAGUE (1216-1500) CHAPTER VIII AGRICULTURE IN MEDI-aEVAL ENGLAND <64. Introductory. Rise of a Wage-earning Class . . . Ill 65. Agriculture the Chief Occupation of the People . . .112 66. Methods of Cultivation. The Capitalist Landlord and his Bailiff. The "Stock and Land" Lease . . . . .113 67. The Tenants' Communal Land and Closes • . . 115 «8. Ploughing ........ 116 «9. Stock, Pigs, and Poultry ...... 116 70. Sheep 117 71. Increase of Sheep- farming . . . . . . 118 72. Consequent Increase of Enclosures . • , 119 CHAPTER IX THE WOOLLEN TRADE AND MANUFACTURES 73. England's Monopoly of Wool ..... 120 74. Wool and Politics ....... 121 75. Prices and Brands of English Wool . , . . 124 76. English Manufactures . . . . . .126 XVI CONTENTS 8ECTI0N 77. Foreign Manufacture of Fine Goods i- 78. Flemish Settlers teach the English Weavers. 79. The Worsted Industry . 80. Gilds in the Cloth Trade . 81. The Dyeing of Cloth i— -82. The Great Transition in English Industry 83. The Manufacturing Class and Politics Norwich CHAPTER X THE TOWNS, INDUSTEIAL VILLAGES, AND PAIRS 84. The Chief Manufacturing Towns . 85. Staple Towns and the Merchants 86. Markets ..... 87. The Great Fairs .... 88. The Fairs of Winchester and Stourbridge 89. English Mediaeval Ports . 90. The Temporary Decay of Manufacturing Towns 91. Growth of Industrial Villages. The Genus of the Modem Fac tory System .... CHAPTER XI THE GREAT PLAGUE AND ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS 92. Material Progress of the Country. 93. Social Changes. The Villeins and the Wage-paid Labourers 94. The Famine and the Plague 95. The Efifects of the Plague on Wages 96. Prices of Provisions .... 97. Effects of the Plague upon the Landowners 98. Large and Small Holdings : the Yeomen 99. The Statute of Quia Bmptores 100. The Emancipation of the Villeins CHAPTER XII THE peasants' BSVOLT OF 1381, AND THE SUBSEQUENT CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 101. The Place of the Revolt in English History 102. New Social Doctrines 103. The Coming of the Friars. Wiklif 104. The Renewed Exactions of the Landowners 105. Social and Political Questions 106. The Mutteriags of a Storm 107. The Storm Breaks Out . 108. The Result of the Revolt 109. The Condition of the English Labourer . 110. Purchasing Power of Wages 111. Drawbacks .... CONTENTS xvu CHAPTER XIII THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 8KCII0N 112. The Nobility .... 113. The Country (Gentry 114. The Yeomen .... 115. Agriculture and Sheep-fanning . 116. The Stock and Land Lease 117. The Tovras and Town Constitutions 118. The Gilds and Municipal Institutions 119. The Decay of Certain Towns 120. The Commercial and Industrial Changes of the Fifteenth Century .... 121. The Close of the Middle Ages . rAOE 180 182 183 184 186 187 189 190 192 194 PERIOD IV FKOM THE SIXTEENTH CENTUKY TO THE EVE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1509-1716) CHAPTER XIV THE REION OP HENEY VIII., AND ECONOMIC OHANOES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 122. Henry VIII. 's Wastefulness 123. The Dissolution of the Monasteries 124. Results of the Suppression 125. Pauperism 126. The Issuing of Base Coin . 127. The Confiscation of the Gild Lands 128. Bankruptcy and Rapacity of Edward VI. 129. The Agrarian, Situation . 130. The Enclosures of the Sixteenth Century 131. Evidence of the Results of Enclosing 132. Other Economic Changes. The Finances 133. Sumniary of the Changes of the Sixteenth Century 's Government 199 202 203 205 206 207 209 211 213 215 218 220 CHAPTER XV THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 134. The Expansion of Conmierce. The New Spirit . 135. Foreign Trade in the Fifteenth Century . 136. The Venetian Fleet .... 137. The Hanseatic League's Station in London 224 225 227 XVlll CONTENTS «SCTION PAOB 138. Trade with Flanders. Antwerp in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries ....... 228 139. The Decay of Antwerp and Eise of London as the Western Emporium ....... 280 140. The Merchants and Sea-Captains of the Elizabethan Age in the New World 281 141. Remarks on the Signs and Causes of the Expansion of Trade . 282 CHAPTER XVI ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 142. Prosperity and Pauperism 143. The Restoration of the Currency ... 144. The Growth of Manufactures 145. Monopolies of Manufacturing Towns 146. Exports of Manufactures and Foreign Trade 147. The Flemish Immigration 148. Monopolies ..... 149. The Revival of the Craft Gilds . 150. Agriculture ..... 151. Social Comforts ...... 152. The Condition of the Labourers ... 153. Assessment of Wages by Justices. The First Poor Law 154. The Working of the Assessment System 155. The Law of Apprenticeship 156. The Elizabethan Poor Law 157. Population ..... 284 285 286 230 240 241 242 246 247 250 251 253 255 259 260 CHAPTER XVII PEOGEESS OF AGEIOTTLTUEE IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND BIGHTEENTH OENTUEIES 158. R&sram^ of Progress since Thirteenth Century 159. Progress in James I.'s Reign. Influence of Landlords . 160. Writers on Agriculture. Improvements. Game 161. Drainage of the Fens ..... 162. Rise of Price of Com and of Rent 163. Special Features of the Eighteenth Century. Popularity of Agriculture ...... 164. Improvements of Cattle, and in the Productiveness of Land Statistics ...... 165. Survivals of Primitive Culture. Common Fields 166. Great Increase of Enclosures .... 167. Benefits of Enclosures as Compared with the Old Common Fields 168. The Decay of the Yeomanry .... 169. Causes of the Decay of the Yeomanry 170. The Rise in Rent . . . . . 171. The Fall in Wages ..... 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 273 274 275 276 278 279 280 CONTENTS XiX CHAPTER XVIII OOMMEROB AND WAR IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES sscnoN 172. England a Commercial Power 173. The Beginnings of the Struggle with Spain 174. Cromwell's Conmiercial Wars and the Navigation Acts 175. The "Wars of William III. and of Anne 176. English Colonies . 177. Further Wars with France and Spain 178. The Struggle for India . 179. The Conquest of Canada . 180. Survey of Commercial Progress during these Wars 181. Commercial Events of the Seventeenth Century (Banking — the Bank of England, 'National Debt, Restoration of the Currency) 182. Other Important Commercial Events (Darien Scheme, Union of England and Scotland, Methuen Treaty, Speculation and the South Sea Bubble) ...... PAQX 284 285 286 288 290 291 29a 295 296 299 301 CHAPTER XIX MANUFACTURES AND MINING 183. Circumstances Favourable to English Manufactures • 184. Wool Trade. Home Manufactures. Dyeing . — 186. Other Influences Favourable to England. The Huguenot Im migration .... 186. Distribution of the Cloth Trade . 187. Coal Mines .... — 188. Development of Coal Trade : Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries .... 189. The Iron Trade .... 190. Pottery ..... 191. Other Mining Industries . 192. The Close of the Period of Manual Industries 305 305 307 308 310 311 312 314 315 816 PERIOD V THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND MODERN ENGLAND CHAPTER XX THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 193. Industry and Politics. Landowners and Merchant Princes • 321 194. The Coming of the Capitalists ..... 324 195. The Class of Small Manufacturers . . . .326 196. The Condition of the Manufacturing Population . , 827 XX CONTENTS SECTION 197. Two Examples of Village Life . 198. Condition of the Agricultural Population 199. Growth of Population 200. England still mainly Agricultural 201. The Domestic System of Manufacture CHAPTER XXI THE EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 202. The Suddenness of the Revolution and its Importance . 203. The Great Inventors ..... 204. The Revolution in Manufactures and the Factories 205. The Growth of Population and the Development of the Northern Districts ...... 206. The Revolution in the Mining Industries . . 207. The Improvements in Communicationa . . ' . 208. The Nation's Wealth and its Wars . . , CHAPTER XXII WARS, POLITICS, AND INDUSTRY 209. England's Industrial Advantages in 1763 210. The Mercantile Theory .... 211. The Mercantile Theory in Practice 212. English Policy towards the Colonies 213. Attempts to raise a Revenue from America 214. Outbreak of War . .... 215. The Great Continental War 216. Its EflFects upon Industry and the Working Classes 217. Politics among the Working Classes 218. Political Results of the Industrial Revolution , CHAPTER XXIII THE FACTORY SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS 219. The Results of the Introduction of the Factory System 220. Machinery and Hand Labour 221. Loss of Rural Life and of Bye-Industries 222. Contemporary Evidence of the New Order of Things 223. English Slavery. The Apprentice System 224. The Beginning of the Factory Agitation . 225. Efforts towards Factory Reform 226. Richard Oastler . 227. Factory Agitation in Yorkshire. For and Against 228. Ten Hours' Day and Mr Sadler 229. The Evidence of Facts . 230. English Slavery . 231. The Various Factory Acts 232. How these Acts were Passed CONTENTS XXI CHAPTER XXIV THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES SECTION 233. Disastrous Eflfects of the New Industrial System 234. The Allowance System of Relief . 235. The Growth of Pauperism and the Old Poor Law 236. The Poor Law and the Allowance System 237. Restrictions upon Labour 238. The Combination Acts . 239. Growth of Trades Unions 240. The Working Classes Fifty Years Ago 241. Wages .... CHAPTER XXV THE RISE AND DEPRESSION OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 242. Services Rendered by the Great Landowners 243. The Agricultural Revolution 244. The Stimulus caused by the Bounties 245. Agriculture under Protection . • 246. Improvements in Agriculture . , 247. The Depression in Modern Agriculture . 248. The Causes of the Depression (lack of capital, rents, lack of adaptability, lack of education and scientific methods) 249. The Labourer and the Land .... 250. The Condition of the Labourer . . , , 251. The Present Condition of British Agriculture CHAPTER XXVI MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 252. The Growth of our Industry 253. State of Trade in 1820 .... 254. The Beginnings of Free Trade . 255. Revolution in the Means of Transit 256. Modern Developments .... 257. Our Colonies ..... 258. England and other Nations' Wars 259. Present Difl&culties. Commercial Crises . 260. Commercial Crises since 1865 261. The Recent Depression in Trade . 262. The Present Mercantile System. Foreign Markets 263. Over-production and Wages 264. The Power of Labour. Trades Unions and Co-operation. Labour Politics ....... 266. The Necessity of Studying Economic Factors in History LIST OF MAPS 1. Physical Aspect op England in Saxon and Norman Times ..... Tofacepcige 65 2. Plan op a Typical Villaqe . . . On page 84 3. The Distribution op "Wealth in England in 1503 To face page 196 4. The Distribution op Wealth in England in 1636 „ 263 6. Industrie England, 1700-1750 (Showing Popu- lation AND Manufactures) . . . ,i 350 6. Industrial England in 1895 (Showing Population AND Manufactures) . , . . „ 454 PERIOD I EARLY HISTORY, FROM PRE-HISTORIC TIMES TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST THE HISTORY OF INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND CHAPTER I PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN § 1. Industrial History. The history of a nation's industry must necessarily date back to pre-historic times and to the earliest stages of national life. For the history of industry is the history of civilisation, and a nation's economic development must, to a large extent, underlie and influence the course of its social and political progress. Hence it has been aptly remarked ^ that there is no fact in a nation's history but has some traceable bearing on the industry of the time, and no fact that can be altogether ignored as if it were unconnected with industrial life. " The progi-ess of mankind is written in the history of its tools ; " 2 and to the economic historian the transition from the axehead of stone to that of bronze is quite as important as a chaDge of dynasty ; and certainly, in its way, it is as serious an industrial revolution as the change from the hand-loom to machinery. There are, indeed, few studies more interesting than that in which we watch how a nation developes in economic progress, passing from one stage of industrial activity to another, tiU at length it reaches the varied and multitudinous complexity of toil that forms our present system of industry and commerce. During this progress the necessities of its trade and manufactures bring it into contact with the politics of other nations in a manifold and often a curious variety of ways, and thus political history gains fresh interest and a clearer light from causes which, in themselves, are often neglected as obscure or insignificant. § 2. The English Nation and Country, Now, in dealing with the history of England, or indeed ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, I. p. 7. ^ Walpole, Land of Home Bule, p. 15. 3 4 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND with that of any other nation, there are two fixed data which must always be considered first, namely^ the people and their country. So much has been said about the special fitness of the people and country of England for the pursuits of industry and commerce that we are apt to forget that this fitness has only been discovered in very recent times, and that, till the days of Elizabeth, the English were far behind several other European nations, if not in economic develop- ment, at any rate in economic supremacy. It is, in fact, useful to remind ourselves that England is not inhabited by a naturally inventive nation,^ and that we owe most of our pro- gress in the arts and manufactures to foreign influences. The causes, moreover, of English supremacy and commerce in the nineteenth century are almost as recent as that supremacy it- self, and, with one great exception — the application of steam- power to industry — reside more in the natural advantages of the country than in the natural ingenuity of the nation. But since the dawn of history both people and country have undergone many and remarkable changes, and, indeed, few things are more essential to an adequate understanding of the English people and their economic progress than a recognition of the fact that they consist of an exceedingly mixed population. Like a palimpsest which has been used over and over again, the general surface of English char- acteristics presents to the historical inquirer, in a more or less blurred condition, the traces of Teutonic, Roman, Celtic, and even pre-historic races, who have each contributed their quota to the economic progress of the nation and to the physical peculiarities of the individual. To take but one instance, the agricultural development of this country was for centuries profoundly affected by the manorial system, and in the village community upon which this was based we can see survivals of each of the waves of conquest which passed over the land, while beneath and below them all remain, as crystallised relics of a pre-historic age, strange customs and habits of a primitive race that lead us back in thought to the earliest dawn of civilised institutions. It will not, therefore, be altogether out of place if we a^jiempt to obtain some slight idea of those early races who ^^>, ^ Rogers, Econ. Inter p. of History, ch. xiii. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 5 inhabited England long before it had gained its present name, or had even received its Romanised-Celtic appellation of Britannia. For whole races of mankind are rarely, if ever, entirely annihilated ; " the blood of the conquerors must in time become mixed with that of the conquered ; and the preservation of men for slaves and women for wives will always insure the continued existence of the inferior race, however much it may lose of its original appearance, manners, or language." ^ The pre-historic populations of the British Isles left traces for centuries upon our agricul- tural industry and village customs, so that the more detailed study and wider recognition of their survivals into modem times are not merely the idle interest of an unscientific curiosity. The strange persistence of early or inferior races and institutions amid the most devastating wars and most overwhelming invasions is one of the most remarkable features of history ; ^ and the intelligent recognition of this fact in recent times has done much to enlarge and correct •our conceptions of human progress. Many an agricultural labourer of to-day shows in the cast of his features and shape of his head a continuity of descent from the pre-historic inhabi- tants of his native land beside which the pedigree traced from a Norman noble fades into the insignificance of modernity. § 3. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Britain. Now, at the earliest period to which the written records of classical writers take us back, there seems to have been living in Britain a population originating from no less than three stocks. "The civilised Gauls had settled on the eastern coasts before the Roman, invasions began^ and were to spread across the island before the Roman conquest was complete. The Celts of an older migration were established towards the north and west, and ruled from the Gaulish settlements as far as the Irish Sea ;.and here and there we find traces of still older peoples who are best known as the tomb-builders and the constriictors of the pre-historic monuments."^ Of these three stocks the aboriginal was 1 Elton, Origins^ ch. i. ^ (y Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 331. 3 Elton, Origins, p. 93. 6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that of the Iberians or Ivemians, the oldest Neolithic race known in Europe, a small, dark-haired, dolichocephalic people. These were already retreating before an immigration of Celtic peoples, but seem to have also amalgamated with the immigrating race to a considerable extent, and, being thus preserved from absolute extinction, have survived to our own day.^ These aborigines were known to the Eomans under the name of Silures,^ and, like the Goidels of the first Celtic immigration,^ were in the Neolithic stage of culture. Their industry and mode of life has been recon- structed for us with marvellous care and fidelity by the labours of Professor Boyd Dawkins.* He concludes that the population was probably large, and divided into tribal com- munities, who certainly possessed fixed habitations — not only caves, but log-huts and wooden houses — and, though living principally on their flocks and herds and the game of the vast forests, they were by no means unacquainted with the arts of agriculture. The implements by which their building and agricultural operations were carried on were only of stone, but they seemed to have been used very skilfully. Indeed, the use of the stone axe marks a distinct epoch in the history of industry, for by it man wa& enabled "to win his greatest victory over nature," b}' cut- ting down the trees of the vast primeval forests in order to make a clearing for tilling the ground and building his house. The arts of spinning and weaving ^ were also intro- duced into Europe and Britain in the Neolithic age, and were preserved, in the more remote districts, with but little variation until the quite modern introduction of more complicated machinery. Flint-mining and pottery-making were also carried on, and the art of boat-building^ had pro- ceeded sufficiently to allow of voyages being made [in canoes] from France to Britain and from Britain to Ireland. It is also evidei.'' that the Neolithic tribes of Britain had * Cf. Rhys, Celtic Britain^ p. 275. — "Skulls are harder than consonants and races lurk behind when languages slink away. The lineal descendants of the Neolithic aborigines are ever among us, possibly even those of a still earlier race." « Tac. , Agric, , c. xi. ^ cf. Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 213. * Early Man in Britain, ch. viii. p. 290. » Ih. , p. 275. « /&. , p. 290. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 7 ay^commercial intercourse one with another, though of course only in the rude and primitive form of barter ; ^ for stone axes and other implements are found distributed over dis- tricts very far removed from the places in which they were made. That this sort of traffic was carried on over consider- able distances is also proved from the fact that axes of jade ^ are found in Britain where that material was quite unknown. § 4. Their Social and Economio Condition, The social condition of the people in this period seems to have been very much like that of the tribes of Central Africa at the present time. They were divided into tribal communi- ties, generally at war one with another, though each tribe probably obeyed its own chief, " whose dominion was limited to the pastures and cultivated lands protected by his fort, and extended but a little way into the depths of the forests, which were the hunting ground common to him and his neighbours." Each community inhabited a sort of clearing in the forests that overspread the land, and grew a few patches of flax for spinning or small-eared wheat for food ; ^ but the flocks and herds must have constituted their chief property. From the possession of such property social difi'erences must very early have arisen ; and the variation in the size and shape of their burial places goes to show that even in those pre-historic times property was by no means equally distributed. The flocks and herds here mentioned consisted of pigs, sheep, goats, and oxen, all of which were domesticated in the Neolithic period. Of oxen, two or three breeds were known in Europe, though in Britain ** the small, delicately- shaped Celtic shorthorn " * was the sole domestic ox as late as the English conquest. In the fields there were no less than eight kinds of cereals (including varieties of wheat, barley, and millet) and " several of our most familiar seeds and fruits [e.g., peas, apples, pears, plums] grew in the Neolithic gardens and orchards," ^ though all were ^ CJ. Solinus, c. 24, speaking of the Siluree of Wales in Roman times : "They will have no markets or money, but give and take in kind, getting what they want by barter and not by sale." ^ Early Man, p. 281. ' /&., p. 272. * 76., p 297. ^ lb., p. 301. 8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND smaller and nearer to their wild forms than those now known. Since this Neolithic age we have done little but progress on lines which the primitive workers of Britain and I Europe began. " To the Neolithic peoples we owe the rudiments of the culture which we ourselves enjoy. The arts which they introduced have never been forgotten, and all subsequent progress has been built upon their foundation. Their cereals are still cultivated by the farmer, their domestic animals still minister to us, and the arts of which they possessed only the rudiments have developed into the in- dustries — spinning, weaving, pottery-making, mining — with- out which we can scarcely recognise what our lives would be."^ § 6. The Bronze Age and the Celtic Immigration. The Neolithic age survived in remote parts of Britain almost unchanged into Eoman times, for the Silures who fought so desperately against the Romans in Wales were still in this stage of culture.^ But, disregarding these exceptional tribes, it is clear that culture, civilisation, and industry all made vast and rapid strides when the Bronze age succeeded that of stone, and the little stone axes were superseded by those of metal. Whether the Celts of the first Celtic immigration brought implements and weapons of bronze with them, as Professor Boyd Dawkins seems to think,^ or whether these Celts were, like the Iberians, still in the stone age of culture when they first came to Britain,* it is certain that, before the second Celtic immigration took place the bronze age had long since begun. And the bronze axe marked a new epoch. The forest trees were now more easily cut down, and further clearings were made for agricultural operations. Wild animals became scarcer with the invasion of the forests, and men had to rely less upon the chase and more upon agriculture for their food. With the progress of agriculture came a step upward in civilisation. Habitations, too, became larger and were better built ; * the arts of spinning and weaving both flax and wool were carried on more successfully ; ^ the harvest 1 Early Man, p. 308. ^ Elton, Origins, p. 138. » ^arly Man, p. 342. * So Taylor, Origin of the Aryans, p. 128. » Early Man, p. 352. «7fe.,p. 359. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 9 was now gathered with bronze reaping-hooks;^ and the smith became an important craftsman with a comparatively large array of tools. ^ Mining was now more easily carried on, and it is probable that Cornish tin, and Irish and Welsh gold,* were worked by the natives of Britain and found their way to the Greek and Phenician traders of the Mediterranean through Gaul to the port of Massilia. As yet these southern merchants had not yet ventured as far as our coasts, and the adventurous voyage of Pytheas (B.C. 330 ?) was yet to come. But the inhabitants of the Britain of this period were possessed of an appreciable degree of civilisation. " It is clear," says Elton,* " that they were not mere savages, or a nation of hunters and fishers, or even a people in the pastoral and migratory stage. The tribes had learned the simpler arts of society, and had advanced towards the refinements of civilised life. . . . They were, for instance, the owners of flocks and herds ; they knew enough of weaving to make clothes of linen and wool ; and without the potter's wheel they could mould a plain and useful kind of earthenware. The stone querns or hand-mills, and the seed-beds in terraces on the hills of Wales and Yorkshire, show their acquaintance with the growth of some kind of grain, while their pits and hut- circles prove that they were sufficiently civilised to live in regular villages.^' The Bronze age was succeeded by that of Iron, but the pre-historic Iron Age in Britain was probably of much shorter duration than that of bronze.^ " It is represented principally by the contents of an insignificant number of tombs, and by numerous isolated articles." But now the small isolated communities of the Neolithic age are becoming welded together into larger bodies, obedient to one rule ; ^ civilisation becomes much higher, and commerce 1 Early Man, p. 360. * 76., p. 385. 3 Ib.y p. 421. * Origins, p. 145. ^ Dr Evans places the beginning of the bronze age in Britain between 1400 and 1200 B.C., and thinks that iron swords were used in the south of Britain soon after the fourth or fifth century B.C. In the third or second century B.C. bronze had practically fallen into disuse for cutting imple- ments. — Evans, Ancient Bronze ImpltmentSy pp. 471, 472. 6 Early Man, p. 426. lO INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND increases, till at length we come out of the mists of antiquity into the clearer dawn of history, and the pre-historic period is at an end. § 6. Resume : The Peoples of Early Britain. We have thus seen that originally, during the greater part of the stone age, Britain was inhabited by the short, dark, Iberian race, and that towards the end of that period it was invaded by a tall and fair Celtic people, who either brought with them, or before long acquired, implements and weapons of metal.^ It is also probable ^ that there were two Celtic invasions of Britain, the first that of the Goidels, who spread into Scotland and Ireland, often amal- gamating with the aborigines, and the second that of the Brythones, who seized the more fertile portions of the island, in the south and south-east, and drove the others before them into the west and north. These Brythones included the Gaulish tribes mentioned by Caesar^ as having crossed over from Belgic territories into Britain not very long before his own invasion of that country, *' though there are signs that an immigration from Belgium had been pro- ceeding for several generations " previously.* There were thus, for some time before the Roman invasion of Caesar (b.c. 55), peoples of three different stocks living together in Britain. There were the more or less civilised Gauls in the eastern portions, who had come over long before the Roman period, and gradually, both before and during the Roman occupation, spread across the island in a northerly and southerly direction. Then there were, in the north and west of the island, the civilised Celts of an older migration, whose territories stretched from the Gaulish settlements to the Irish Sea, and included both Goidels and Brythones. And, lastly, here and there in many localities, among the other tribes, we constantly come upon survivors of the older and pre-historic tribes of a much remoter period. § 7. Their Social and Economic Condition. It must not, however, be imagined that any uniform ^ Taylor, Origin of Aryans^ p. 80. ^ Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 213, and map. 8 B. G., ii. 4, and v. 14. * Elton, Origins, p. 102. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN ii description will apply to the industrial or social develop- ment of these different races. They were all in various stages of civilisation, and though commercial, and possibly social, intercourse between them was not uncommon, they remained for centuries with their distinguishing features unobliterated. The oldest races were in the pre-metallic stage ; ^ the British Celts were in the later Bronze period on their first arrival, and possibly became acquainted with the use of iron later, while the more recent Gaulish arrivals were certainly familiar with iron implements and weapons. We are prepared, therefore, to find great dissimilarity of culture among the varied population of Britain in the pre- Roman period. The oldest races were really little other than savages in their mode of life — at any rate, in those remote regions to which they had retreated before the successive Celtic invasions. Where they had come in con- tact with their more civilised neighbours they were, however, probably not so wild or degraded as the descriptions of Greek and Roman writers of that day seem to imply .^ But they do not seem to have had regular towns, houses, or fields, though they kept flocks and herds. They depended very largely on hunting for their subsistence, and also on the natural products of the woods, such as wild fruits and nuts. Dion Cassius mentions their strange refusal to eat the fish with which British rivers were at that time swarm- ing, and it is curious to notice, as showing how pre-historic customs have persisted into our own time, that in certain Irish and Highland localities this prejudice still exists.^ § 8. The Celts in the time of Pytheas. The condition of the Celtic invaders has already been alluded to in the remarks made above ^ on the industries of the Bronze Age, but we may here briefly add the informa- tion derived from the observations of the Greek explorer Pytheas, who started from the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseilles) about 330 B.C. to explore "the Celtic countries" of the north. He was commissioned by a committee of the ^ Elton, Origins, p. 122. 2 Cf. Dion Cassius (XiphUine), Ixxvi. 12 ; Claudian, B. Getic, 417 ; Solinus, c. 4. 3 Elton, p. 165. ^ Above, p. 8. 12 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Massalian merchants to discover the sources of the lucrative tin trade, the secret of which had hitherto been jealously guarded by the Carthaginians, who monopolised it The nar- rative of his voyage is for us of peculiar interest, for its frag- ments contain the first notices of what was then an almost unknown land ; ^ while the fact that the Massalians thought the tin trade of such importance as to warrant the expense of an exploring expedition is a proof of the activity of the foreign commerce of pre-historic Britain. Pytheas, on reaching Britain, which he first touched on the shores of Kent, not only landed there, but travelled over part of the country on foot to collect information about the tin trade. He almost certainly went westward, passing through what is now Wiltshire and South Hampshire — then a great forest district — to Cornwall. " Here he found the country of the tin, which was dug out of the ground in mines with shafts and galleries. The people were very hospitable, their commerce with foreign merchants having civilised them and softened their manners." 2- The tin thus mined was carried six days' journey to an island called Ictis,3 whence the traders from Gaul conveyed it across the Channel into Gaul, and finally down the Rhone in barges to Massalia. Besides tin-mining, Pytheas found a fairly considerable agriculture, observing " an abundance of wheat in the fields," though, owing to the moist nature of the climate and lack of regular sunshine, the sheaves had to ^ The statements of Pytheas, recorded as they are only by his critics, have been received both in ancient and modern times with considerable scepticism, but there seems, after a careful review of them, little reason to doubt their substantial accuracy. See especially C. R. Markham's paper on Pytheas, the discoverer of Britain, in The Geographical Journal, Vol. I. No. 6, where his observations are vindicated from a geographical stand- point. 2 Of. Diodorus Siculus, c. 22. This account was almost certainly taken from Timaeus, who derived it from Pytheas. 2 Where "Ictis" was situated is still a subject of controversy. Elton thinks it was Thanet (p. 35-37), Sir E. Bunbury and Captain Markham think it was St Michael's Mount. Professor Rhys {Celtic Britain, 46, 47) inclines to Thanet. This latter view certainly explains Caesar's story that the tin •' nascitur in mediterraneis regionibus," and also explains why Pytheas on touching the coast at Kent had to travel westwards, seeing on his way the temple of Stonehenge, very early reports of which reached the Greek. But Elton doubts his being in those parts. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 15 be thrashed in " great barns/' ^ The natives possessed also " cultivated fruits, a great abundance of some domesticated animals but a scarcity of others, and made a beverage from wheat and honey," ^ the " metheglin " of some country dis- tricts in the present day. That the state of agriculture was, however, very backward in some districts (probably those occupied by the older inhabitants), we gather from Posi- doniiis,^ who visited Britain in the first century B.C., and related that the " people have mean habitations made chiefly of rushes or sticks, and their harvest consists in cutting off the ears of corn and storing them in pits underground/' using it from day to day. But, on the other hand, agricul- ture was well advanced in the Gaulish settlements of the South and East. " The British Gauls," says Elton,* *' appear to have been excellent farmers, skilled as well in the pro- duction of cereals as in stock-raising and the management of the dairy. Their farms were laid out in large fields without enclosures or fences, and they learned to make a permanent separation of the pasture and arable, and to apply the manures which were appropriate to each kind of field. The plough was of the wheeled kind, an invention that superseded the old ' overtreading plough ' held down by the driver's foot." A remarkable proof of their advanced knowledge was shown in the practice of marling. " They relied greatly on marling and chalking the land. The same soil, however, was never twice chalked, as the effects were visible after standing the experience of fifty years. The effect of the ordinary marl was of even longer duration, the benefit being visible in some instances for a period of eighty years." Many varieties of marl were used — the lime-marl, chalk-marl, the red, dove-coloured, sandy, and pumice varieties being all mentioned by Pliny. They had two varieties of cattle — the small Welsh breed or " Celtic short- horn " and the Kyloe or Argyllshire variety — as well as sheep, pigs, and fowls.^ It is worthy of notice, in view of landed customs which we shall have to note in later times, that there is no trace among them of co-operative husbandry. ^ Strabo, iv., v. 6. {Cos. 201). « lb. ^ See Diodorus, v. 21. * Elton, pp. 115-116. » lb., pp. 116-117. 14 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND The Gauls were likewise expert not only in agricultural but also in textile manufactures of a simple kind in cloth and linen. " They wove their stuffs for summer, and rough felts or druggets for winter wear,^ which are said to have been prepared with vinegar, and to have been so tough as to resist the stroke of a sword. They had learned the art of using alternate colours for the warp and woof, so as to bring out a pattern of stripes and squares," and obviously of dyeing the materials. We see, then, from a survey of the various inhabitants of DBritain in pre-Roman times, that they had reached in some /parts a very fair degree of industrial development, especially in agriculture, though in other districts they were equally backward. Manufactures and mining ^ were in progress, and the latter had given rise to what must have been for those times a considerable foreign commerce, though this was confined to the southern coasts. It is not easy, perhaps, to gain a general survey of the country, because the conditions of culture in the various districts and among the different races were so diverse, and this diversity was at once a consequence and a cause of the difficulties of com- munication. But though we cannot in this period make any industrial generalisations, we may be certain that its industrial conditions left some marks on future ages, and that any consideration of post-Roman civilisation and customs — especially in the permanent and abiding influences of agriculture — must necessarily be imperfect if it fails to take into account the survivals of the pre-historic period. § 9. Foreign Trade of Britain, It was the conquest of Gaul that brought the Romans of Julius Caesar's day close to the shores of Britain, and it was mainly from the reports of Gaulish traders that Caesar derived not only his knowledge of that country but also his 1 Elton, pp. 110, 111. 2 The tin districts of the time of Pytheas and Posidonius, i.e. in the third and first centuries B.C., are given by Elton, p, 33, as Dartmoor, the country round Tavistock and round St Austell, the southern coast of Cornwall, the district round St Agnes on the north coast, and between Cape Cornwall and St Ives. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 15 desire to conquer it The Romans evidently thought the conquest worth making for the sake of the possible wealth that might accrue from it, for the inhabitants of Britain were hardly formidable enough politically to threaten the Roman frontiers in Gaul. Probably they expected more from the island than they actually obtained,^ and, as Elton remarks,^ " the ultimate conquest was doubtless hastened by the dream of winning a land of gold and a rich reward of victory." But although we may admit that the Romans entertained exaggerated hopes, we may glance for a moment at the actual state of trade in Britain in the days before their arrival. It is obvious, in the first place, that the Phenicians and Carthaginians, and — after the voyage of Pytheas — also the Greeks, would not have made their long and dangerous voyages to Britain for tin unless the supplies of that metal had been sufficiently large to make it well worth their while, especially as it was procurable also in Spain. Hence the British tin trade must have been of considerable dimensions for those times. It is equally obvious that the foreign traders must have brought other goods to exchange for tin, since the British were in that stage of civilisation when barter comes naturally to the uncommercial mind, and the use of coined money was little understood.^ Besides tin, it is certain that the gold which is found with tin in Cornwall, and the silver which is also mingled with the lead, formed articles of export. Iron was also exported,* especially when the Gauls of the later immigration began to work the mines of the Weald of Kent. Besides metals, we find mention of agricultural and pastoral produce, corn and barley, cattle and hides ; and the trade in the special British breed of hunting dogs,^ both with Gaul and Rome, was of some importance. The pearl fishery, of which we hear so much from Bede, was probably greatly exaggerated, since Tacitus mentions British pearls only to slight them, and it is improbable that it should not have continued till 1 Tac, Agric, 12. 2 Origins, p. 293. * For these imports, see p. 16. •* Cassar, B. G., v. 12, ^ Martial, Epigram, xiv. 200; Claudian, SHL, iii. 301. 1 6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND much later times if it had been lucrative. On the other hand, the slave trade was an important feature, especially after the Roman conquest. Among the most ancient articles of commerce was almost certainly amber, of which small quantities were found on certain portions of the British coast ; but the British supply is too small to account for the great quantity found in the tumuli} and hence it must have formed an important article of import from the North Sea and Baltic shores. Very probably the Phenician and other traders found it a useful medium of exchange, and under the Roman Empire the import from the Ostians ^ was sufficient to bear a tax which yielded a small revenue.^ Ivory, bracelets (and certainly other ornaments), glass, and " such-like petty merchandise," are all mentioned by Strabo * as being imported, and his statements indicate the kind of trade that must have gone on for centuries before his time. Weapons of all kinds would find a ready sale in the island, while furs and the skins of wild animals, of which there were very large numbers in Britain, were exported. Speaking generally we may say that, although the Britains were able to manufacture implements, weapons, pottery, and clothing for themselves, yet the foreign trade was necessar- ily an exchange of foreign manufactured articles for raw pro- duce, and continued for many centuries to be of this nature. > § 10. Internal Trade: Roads and Rivers. The means of communication by which trade was carried on internally were the rivers, the " ridge ways " ^ or roads on the open ground at the top of ridges of hills — of which the High Street in the Lake district, afterwards a Roman road, is a very good example — and other rough tracks. The first road-makers were the wild animals migrating to early pastures and the savages who followed them.^ But the place of rivers in the commercial history of the early and middle ages was most important, since, till good roads were made, 1 Cf. Elton, p. 63. * They occupied the district near the mouth of the Elbe, though Dr Latham places them further east. » Strabo, iv. 278. ■* Ih. « Social England, voL i. p. 88, • Thorold Rogers, Econ. Int. of History, p. 490. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 17 carriage by water was far less troublesome and expensive than by land/ and it has been well remarked ^ that the rivers Thames and Severn were of prime importance to the development of early British trade.^ Down these rivers the British trader floated in his frail coracle or " curragh " of hides, and even ventured to cross over from the western coasts to Ireland.* The people of the southern and Cornish shore had, however, ships of oak of a much more seaworthy character, and evidently, from Caesar's account,^ were skilful and daring navigators. They traded chiefly with Northern and Western Gaul. § 11. Physical Aspect of Pre-Roman Britain. Having gained some idea of the industry and com- merce of early Britain, it is now time to glance briefly at the physical condition of the country which the Romans were about to conquer. We are struck at once by the fact that its appearance was vastly different from the aspect which it wears to-day. The typical English landscape of the present, with its smiling pasturage, neat hedges, and well-tilled fields, simply did not then exist, or, at any rate, was to be seen only in a few favoured spots. Whereas to-day the cultivable and cultivated area includes the greater part of the surface, it was at that time only a small fraction of it. Forests and scrub, fen, moor, and marsh occupied most of the land. " A cold and watery desert " is ' Elton's description of it,^ and though his expression is j exaggerated, it is nearer the truth than another writer's ^ fanciful epithet '' of a " land of sunshine and pearls." Britain was certainly far more rainy then than now, owing ^ So, too, in Europe the main commercial routes followed in France the Rhine, and in Germany the Rhone and Danube ; see my Commerce in Europe, §§ 68, 69. 2 Social England, vol. i. p. 89. ' In this commerce coins were probably not much used, and it is supposed that no British coins were struck before 200 B.C., though some are said to appear to be '* centuries older than Caesar's first expedition." Later on the various chiefs seem to have struck silver and other coins for their own tribes in imitation of Gallic and Roman money. Of. Evans, Coins of the Ancient Britons, for a subject which we cannot discuss properly here. * Elton, p. 232. ^ Caesar, B. G., iii. 9, 13. ^ Origins, p. 218. ^ In Social England, vol. i. p. 89. B 1 8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to the influence of the vast forests which covered the land, and consequently also it was more foggy. " The ground and atmosphere were alike overloaded with moisture. The fallen timber obstructed the streams ; the rivers were squandered in the reedy morasses, and only the downs and hill-tops rose above the perpetual tracts of wood." ^ It was these downs and hill-tops on which the earliest inhabitants, unable to clear the forests effectually with their feeble axes, necessarily practised the first elements of agriculture,^ and it is here that their traces are most abundant. The gradual clearing away of the woodland in later, and especially in Roman, times drew the agriculturist down into the river valleys. The extent of forest was immense. In the South there were more than a hundred miles of the " Andreds- weald " between Hampshire and the Medway, and many miles more in the opposite direction into Dorset and Wilt- shire. In the Severn valley was the forest of the Wyre, around the modern Worcester, extending right over Cheshire, and the forest of Arden nearly covered all Warwickshire. Another huge wood lay between London and the Wash ; the Midlands from Lincoln to Leicester and from the Peak to the Trent were occupied by miles of forest, of which Sherwood and Charnwood are only fractional and fragmentary remains. Yorkshire and Lancashire were wild wastes of moorland and scrub, and most of the country was regarded as a desert that lay between Derby Peak and the Roman Wall.^ The marshes and swamps were also of considerable extent in many low-lying parts that have since been drained and re- claimed. Notably this was the case with the Romney Marsh on the coast of Kent, which, when Caesar came to Britain, was a morass invaded every day by the tide as far as Roberts- bridge in Sussex.* The low-lying parts of Essex, Surrey, and 1 Elton, p. 218. 'Green, Makinrj of England, p. 8; and Gomme, Village Community, pp. 75-95, who deals fully with the "terrace cultivation" on the hills. ' The above description is based on Green's vivid picture in the Making of England, pp. 10-12. ■» Elton, p. 103. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 19 Kent below London were then " extensive flats covered with water at every tide,"^ and the Thames estuary invaded a district almost as large as the Wash. The valley of the Stour ^ was also covered by the sea for many miles above the present tidal limit, while the Wash extended north- wards nearly to Lincoln and westwards to Huntingdon and Cambridge. The lower reaches of the Trent formed another huge marsh, and its basin generally was one of the wildest and least frequented parts of the island.^ In this comparatively wild and uncultivated condition of the country, it is easy to believe that wild animals were exceedingly numerous. In fact, they existed till far into the period of modern history. Wolves and bears were met in the vast forests for centuries after the Roman and Saxon invasions, and only gradually became extinct.^ The wild boar was very common, and so late as Henry II. 's reign was hunted on Hampstead Heath, where also were chased the wild cattle whose descendants are now regarded as curiosi- ties in the famous herd at Chillingham Park. A sign of the infrequency of human habitation in certain districts is seen in the numbers of beavers that built their colonies on the streams, remaining in remote parts till the twelfth century.* Indeed, it is evident that the Britain of pre- Roman days must have been, on the whole, a very wild and savage country, many parts of which had scarcely even been trodden by the foot of man. Yet, as we have seen, there were already in some places, especially in the South-East, many marks of civilisation and progress in industrial arts, and when the Romans came to the island they found many tribes and settlements that were considerably advanced in agricultural and domestic industries, though, on the other ^ Airy, in Athenceum, 1683, on the Claudian Invasion of Britain. ^Making of England, p. 75. 'Martial {Epigr., vii. 34), mentions the Scotch bear, and Boyd Dawkins {Gave Hunting, p. 75), thinks the native British bear was not extinct till the tenth century a.d. Frequent mention of wolves is found in mediaeval docu ments — e.g., in the account rolls of Whitby Abbey, temp. Ric. II., and they probably were not extinct in England till the end of the fifteenth century. (Newton, Zoology of Ancient Europe^ p. 24), and in Scotland much later. * Girald. Carabrenais, Jtin. Wall, ii. 3. 20 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND hand, there were others but little removed from savagery. We shall probably be right in supposing that the divergences of culture were very strongly marked, and that a considerable distinction was to be found between the skilled Gaulish farmer of Kent and the wild pre-Aryan inhabitants of the North and West. CHAPTER II ROMAN BRITAIN § 12. The Roman Occupation. The two expeditions of Julius Caesar in the years 55 and 54 B.C. — the first of which was certainly a failure and the second very nearly so — were followed by almost a century\ of repose from foreign invasion. It was not till ninety years after Caesar's earlier attempts that the Romans, led , on this occasion by Aulus Plan tins, and aided by German \ auxiliaries, again invaded Britain (a.d. 44). But this time I they came to stay, and although the conquest proved perhaps more diflScult than they had anticipated, it was under successive generals accomplished at last. The year 70 A.D. may be taken, for convenience, as the date when the power of the most stubborn of the natives was effec- tually broken, and though much fighting remained to be done, the conquest was practically complete. For seventy years after the victories of Julius Agricola (a.d. 70-84) there was peace, and had it not been for the incursions of the Picts and Scots by land, and of the Saxon pirates by sea, the peace would have been almost uninterrupted. The Romans remained as the rulers of Britain for three centuries and a half, and then the exigencies of self-defence in other regions of the Empire compelled them to retire. The last legions left the island in 407 A.D.^ It is difficult to estimate the exact effect of their occu- pation. While some very able writers^ have found reason to believe that it had lasting effects both on the political, municipal, industrial, and especially on the agricultural development of the country, others have regarded it merely as a military administration, similar (as we are told with a rather wearisome paucity of example) to that of the French ^ Green, Making of England, p. 24. The date 410 a.d. is that of the letter bidding Britain provide for its own defence. '^ As e.gr. Coote, in his liomans in Britain. 22 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND in Algeria.^ It would probably be nearer the truth to compare the Roman position with that of the English in India, making due allowance for differences of civilisation and of policy. The Romans could no more settle in Britain on account of the cold than we can settle in India on account of the heat. So, too, if the English were to withdraw from India after three hundred years of occupancy (and they will probably retire before that period), the net effect of their presence would be much the same as that of the Romans here. The influence in both cases has been only skin deep, and though it touches the upper classes of the natives very effectually, it hardly affects the lower. Well- to-do British youths went to study and " see life " in Rome, just as well-to-do Hindu and Mahommedan youths come to London, and with much the same result. Prominent natives were occasionally entrusted in Britain with Roman administratioD, as they are similarly entrusted by us in India. After all, it is mainly the efforts of industry which survive. The customs, laws, and language disappear, and the roads and bridges remain. These, with a number of ruined fortresses, lighthouses,^ drainage works, and towns which had sprung from camps, are the most important relics of the Roman occupation in Britain. § 13. Boman Boads. We will speak of the roads first, because, especially now, in an age of railways, their importance cannot be over- estimated. They were not all by any means first built by the Romans, but represent in many cases adaptations of and improvements upon Celtic, or even still more ancient,^ roadways. The roadway over High Street, near Winder- mere, is such an one. But the main function of the Roman roads was, after all, military, and therefore we find them made sometimes more with a view to the military import- ance of certain strategic connections than to the require- ments of commerce. At the same time, after these roads ^ Green, Making of England, p. 7, and Pearson, History of England, i. 55. ^ As at Dover, and the Richborough beacon. * Of. Thorold Rogers, Econ. Interpr. oj History, p. 490. ROMAN BRITAIN 23 had been once made, whatever their original purpose may have been, they were eagerly used by traders, who were also thankful for the military protection which the roads enjoyed. " The Roman plan," says Elton,^ " was based on the requirements of the provincial government, and on the need for constant communication between the Kentish ports and the outlying fortresses on the frontiers." Hence several of the routes fell into comparative desuetude when the strategic need for them was gone, and only those which afforded the greatest facilities for commerce were kept up. The needs of industry frequently outlive those of war. In mediaeval times we find four great highways traversing the kingdom of England, and representing " a combination of those portions of the Roman roads which the English adopted and kept in repair, as communications between their prin- cipal cities." These four great highways were ^ : — (1.) Watting Street (to use its later name), from Kent to London, and then vid St Albans and Northampton to Chester and on to York, bifurcating then northwards to Carlisle and to near Newcastle. (2.) The Fosse Way, from the Cornish tin-mines through Bath and Cirencester to Lincoln, crossing Watling Street at High Cross between Coventry and Leicester. (3.) Ermin Street, a direct route from London to Lincoln through Colchester and Cambridge, and sending out branches to Doncaster and York. (4.) Ikenild or Ickenield Street, whose course is some- what obscure, and is often confused with Ryknild Street, which latter led from the Severn valley and Gloucester to Doncaster. The Ikenild Street came from Norwich and Bury St Edmunds to Dunstable, thence to Southampton, with branches to Sarum and the western districts. § 1 4. Roman Towns in Britain. Of these, which are commonly called the four JRoman ways, the Ikenild Street was almost certainly an ancient 1 Origins, p. 327, where the military system of roads is fully explained. 2 Cf. Elton, Origins, p. 326, and Guest, The Four Roman Ways, Archceol. Joum., xiv. p. 99, and also Cooper King in Social England^ vol i. pp. 49-5^^ who adds others. 24 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND British pathway, possibly adapted and used by the Romans, while Ermin Street is thought not to have been Roman south of Huntingdon. There was, however, an important Roman road from London to Richborough (Rutupiae) on the Kentish coast, then the chief military and commercial port for intercourse with Gaul, and strongly fortified, where on dark nights a beacon always shone to guide ships across the channel. Along all the roads there were frequent I fortresses and stationary camps, and it is in many cases from these camps that our English towns have grown up.^ The towns were divided (constitutionally) into four classes, and the division helps us to understand their relative im- portance. First came the ^oloniw, inhabited by Roman veterans, and enjoying the same laws and customs as Rome itself. There were nine of these — Richborough and Reculver, guarding the now filled-up channel of Thanet to the Thames ; London, an important trading centre from Celtic times ; Colchester ; Bath, then as now a noted sanatorium ; and Gloucester, Caerleon-on-Usk, Chester, Lincoln, and Chesterfield, all of military importance. Next came the munici/£ia, where the inhabitants had the rights of Roman' citizens, making their own laws and electing their own magistrates. There were only two of these — York, the northern capital, quite as important in those times as London ; and Verulamium (St Albans), which guarded the entrances to the Midlands. Third in order came those towns, ten in number, which had the Latin ^VQ^Jit and elected their own magistrates, and lastly came the stij^endmr]i_iQyinQ, which were governed by Roman officials, and had to pay tribute. This class included all towns not mentioned above — that is to say, nearly the whole population of Britain.^ It has been truly said that " the type of every Roman city was the camp," ^ but it is equally true that " a Roman camp was a city in arms,"* in which the soldiers corresponded to the colonists and settlers of more modem times. " The * About 218 Roman stations are known in Britain. Soc. England, vol. i. p. 62. 2 Lingard, Hist. o/Eng., i. p. 50; Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon. 2 Pearson, Hist, o/Eng., i. 43, * Elton, Origins, p, 310, ROMAN BRITAIN 25 ramparts and pathways of the camps developed into walls and streets, the square of the tribunal into the market- place, and every gateway was the beginning of a suburb, where straggling rows of shops, temples, rose-gardens, and cemeteries were delivered from all danger by the presence of a permanent garrison. In the centre of the town stood a group of public buildings, containing the court-house, baths, and barracks, and it seems likely that every important place had a theatre or a circus for races and shows." ^ There were fifty-nine towns ^ that might be called Roman, but the bulk of the population was engaged in agriculture and re- sided in the country districts, and therefore it is to rural industry that we must now turn our attention. § 15. The Romans and Agriculture. It seems doubtful whether the Romans ever settled inA sufficient numbers to alter permanently the conditions of . agricultural industry, except in a few very favourable neigh-^ bourhoods. In the first place the climate was against) them, just as it is against the English in India, though from a totally different reason. Just as no Englishman could tolerate life in India without the ever-moving punkah, so no Roman could reside in his English villa unless it was carefully heated by hot-water pipes.^ Nor did the land offer a chance of making great wealth. "The great number of villas whose remains can still be traced is a proof that the lords of the soil were in easy circumstances, while the fact that the structures were commonly of wood, raised upon a brick or stone foundation, is an argument against large fortunes. " * The surface of the country, too, was still wild and unreclaimed in many parts, and not suitable for advanced agriculture. The river-valleys, which contain a richer and more fertile soil, were only gradually being cleared of the primeval forest that encumbered them, for it is a significant fact that it is mainly in the natural clearings of the uplands that the population concentrated itself at the close of the Roman rule, and it is over these districts that the ruins of the ^ Elton, Origins, p. 311. ^ Marcianus, Heradeota, ii. 14. ^ Green, Making of England, pp. 7 and 45. ? Pearson, History of England, i. 62 26 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND villas or country houses of the Roman landowners are most thickly planted.^ Besides all this, the distance of Britain from the centre of the Roman world was sufficient to pre- vent a large influx of Roman settlers, and hence it is not at all surprising to find that most of the Roman monuments and inscriptions in our island refer mainly to matters of a military and official character. At the same time there can be no doubt that those dis- tricts where the few Roman settlers did build their villas must have enjoyed many industrial advantages over the more barbarous portions of the island. Traces of those villas,^ with their Italian inner courts, colonnades, and tesselated pavements are still found, the household buildings being surrounded by an outer wall, against which were pro- bably built the rude huts of the British peasantry or serfs who itilled the foreigner's land. But it is not certain that these Roman farmers were responsible for the peculiar features that afterwards distinguished English agricultural and manorial life, and very possibly too much importance has been attached to Roman influence in this respect. It is going too far to say that, during the Roman period, " Eng- land became an agricultural country," and that " the agri- cultural system then established remained during and after the barbarian invasions." ^ We know that even before the arrival of Caesar the Gallic Britons of the south-east were comparatively good farmers (p. 13), and it is sufficient to admit that their agriculture was further developed after the Roman conquest, without assuming the introduction of the Roman agricultural system. The majority of the remains of Roman villas are found in the southern counties,* and, however great their influence undoubtedly was here, it did not extend very far into the interior. The fact that Britain became celebrated for its export of com ^ may be taken in more than one way. Some have regarded it as a proof of good agriculture under Roman influence, others as merely showing that the population was * Green, Making of England ^ p. 9. * Wright, Cdti Romany and Saxon, p. 243 and pp. 227 sq. * Ashley, Introduction to Coulanges' Origin of Property in Land, p. xxiv. " Professor Ashley mentions this himself, p. xxvi. ' Cf. ib., p. xxv. ROMAN BRITAIN 27 so small that it could not consume all the corn it grew. In any case, " the great private estates surrounding the villas of wealthy landowners, and cultivated by dependants of various grades — coloni, freed men, and slaves " ^ — cannot j have been numerous enough to influence the agricultural development of the country as a whole. Had this been the case, we should almost certainly find more traces than we do of the Roman implements of husbandry,^ which are well- known and continue in use at the present day, with very little difference in their structure, in those countries where Roman influence was most deeply felt. But, as a matter of fact, as Mr Seebohm shows,^ though he draws a different conclusion therefrom, one of the main features of English husbandry was the plough-team of eight oxen, common to the agriculture of England, Wales and Scotland, but certainly not Roman in origin. Moreover, the remains of the home- steads and houses of early English villages show us that Roman influence never extended very markedly into agri- cultural buildings. *' The villager in his wattle and daub, and the lord in his oak-rooted hall, carry us back to primi- tive economics within which there is no room for the great commercialism of the Roman world," * and it is a significant fact in this connection that the art of making bricks, and building in brick, introduced by the Romans, was never taken up by the agricultural population as a whole, but became extinct after the Roman occupation till its revival in the fifteenth century.^ V^ § 16. Celtic and Non-Rorrtan Influence in Agriculture, The same conclusion — that the Roman occupation had little practical influence with the agricultural industry of the country, except in a few favoured districts ^ — is forced upon 1 Ashley, as above, p. xxv. '^ E.g. the wheel-plough ; cf. Gomme, Village Community, p. 277. ^ Seebohm, Village Community, p. 388. * Gomme, Village Community, p. 46. ^ Thorold Rogers, Econ. Interp. oj Hist., p. 279. * The extent of the Romanised area is often exaggerated. The North and West were almost untouched by Romans, and no villas are found north of Aldborough in Yorks. See F. T. Richards in Social England i. p. 24. 28 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND us again by a review of the philological and ethnological evidence, which has hitherto been almost disregarded by- economic historians. Where Koman power was greatest in Britain was in the creation of a national government. It hardly so much as entered the life of the agricultural village communities/ in which, in spite of the influence of the Romanised towns, the mass of the population of Britain continued to dwell from the first dawn of civilisation till the advent of the factory system and its concomitants. Rome had probably no more effect on the agricultural life of the people of Britain than England has on the methods of the peasant population of India, and when we hear that Britain exported large quantities of corn in the Roman era, we merely note that India exports equally large quantities to England at the present day, without inferring therefrom that the Hindu ryot has adopted English agricultural methods. The agricultural history of our country begins, not with the Roman invasion, but with the pre-historic efforts of those ancient hill-tribes,^ ^ whose industrial relics still remain for our investigation, and ■ who cultivated their hill-sides in terraces, because these were the only clearings that emerged from the all-pervading primeval forest. This is the reason why the population, even at the close of the Roman period, was most numerous in the uplands.^ The hillmen gave way to the Celts, though their traces are still among us, and the Celts, with their superior culture, developed agriculture probably almost up to the level at which it was found at the Saxon conquest, and at which it remained for many centuries afterwards. The philological evidence on this point is of considerable interest. An extraordinary number of words in our present language referring to agricultural implements and industry are of Celtic origin, and those are said to be " not a twentieth of what might be alleged." ^ A few instances ^ Cf. Gomme, ut supra, p. 133. ^ For a careful investigation of this evidence see Gomme, Village Com- munity, pp. 71, 83-95. ^ Green, Making of England, p. 8. * Gamett, in the Journal of the Philological Society, i. 171. Among others he instances : — bran (skin of wheat), cabin, gusset {cf. Welsh, cwysed, ridge or furrow), threave (a bundle of sheaves, W., drefa), bill, fleam (W., flaim, a cattle lancet), wain, wall, trace, stock (of com), gavelock (a fork), park ( = a field), filly, fog ( = f og-graas), basket, &c., &c. Measures of ROMAN BRITAIN 29 are given in the footnote, and it should also be noticed, as showing the permanence of ancient populations in the rural districts, that many rural or " provincial " terms ^ are Celtic in origin. The survivals of curious customs connected with land, and the evidence of folk-lore generally, must be left to the archaeologist ; ^ but the student of industrial history cannot fail to notice the persistence of ancient populations, even in a subject condition, and their influence upon indus- trial life. Very possibly it is to this persistence that the backwardness of English agriculture for so many centuries is largely due. Learning little from the Roman, the native inhabitants of Britain had little to teach the Saxon. Even now, at the close of the nineteenth century, in the remoter districts of Ireland the heir of centuries of Celtic civilisation may be seen ploughing with his rude plough fastened to his horse's tail,^ while in the Isle of Man a farmer of the present generation sacrificed one of his cattle at the cross roads to cure a plague which was destroying the others.* The ethnological evidence has of late been carefully studied, and distinct traces of an earlier (non- Aryan) population have been found in many places, the distin- guishiDg characteristics of this early race being their dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, and small stature. Such traces are seen in such varying localities as the counties compris- ing the ancient Siluria — Glamorgan, Brecknock, Mon- mouth, Radnor, and Hereford — in Cornwall and Devon, and in Gloucester, Wiltshire, and Somerset.^ We may grain show Celtic origin — e.g., windle (Lanes, dialect for a measure, from W. , gwyntell, a basket) hoop (Yorks. for a quarter peck), hattock ( Yorks. for a shock of corn), peck (c/. W., peg). Also flannen (Hereford for flannel), frieze, brat (Yorks. for ** pinafore," cf. W., &ra< = clout ; rag), mesh (cf. W., masg, a stitch), borel (O.E. for coarse cloth, cf. bureler), lath, &c., may be instanced for textile industry. Probably a careful investigation of rural dialects would furnish many more. ^ Besides provincialisms given above, cf. Yorks. toppin, a crest or ridge ; sile, a strainer ; Northern stook, a shock of com ; Somerset, soc, a plough- share, on which last cf Schrader, Sprachvergleichung (Eng. trans.), p. 288. ^ Of. Gomme, ut supra, chs. v. and vi. ^ The author heard this stated publicly by a Notts farmer who was an eye-witness during a visit to Ireland. ^ Walpole, Land of Home Rule, p. 190 n. This farmer was alive in 1893. ^ Elton, Origins, p. 137, with which cf the note on p. 57 of Cunning- ham's English Industry and Commerce, vol. i. 30 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND expect to find survivals in the west, but it is more surprising to discover them still existing in the eastern fen country and in the Midlands — especially round about Derby, Stamford, Leicester, and Loughborough ^ — for here we know, from place names and other evidence, that the Saxon and Danish conquerors settled in over- whelming numbers. But this merely proves how hard it' is to destroy a subject population,^ and if the non-Aryan, pre-Celtic inhabitants of early Britain have thus sur- , vived, a fortiori must we make allowance for the survival of the Celtic races who succeeded and conquered them, only to be in turn conquered themselves. The Celtic race, in \ spite of some modern appearances to the contrary, possesses, under certain circumstances,^ a considerable power of amal- gamation with other races without entirely losing its dis- tinctive characteristics. They amalgamated as conquerors with the Iberians,* and as conquered with the Saxon and Scandinavian,^ and the most recent historian of the Isle of Man, where their influence is so strongly marked, has called attention to their place in the history of culture. **We live in a time when the Celtic race is gradually disappearing. Those parts of Europe where Celtic blood is predominant are those where population is decreasing (as in Ireland) or with difficulty maintained (as in France). Yet we ought not, in consequence, to forget the great part which the Celt has played in history, or the influence which the Celt has exercised in the civilisation of the world." ^ Hitherto, certainly, the economic historian has neglected to note his influence^ upon English agriculture, an influence which, though at first in favour of progress up to a certain point, was probably afterwards rather conservative ^ Elton, w. 8. 2 Of. also S. Walpole, Land of Home Rule, p. 14, and also p. 21, for de- scription of the Celtic and Iberian population as existing in the undisturbed isolation of the Isle of Man in Roman times. 3 As now in the United States. ■* Walpole, t&., p. 14. ^ Strikingly so in the Isle of Man, which aJBfords a very favourable field for ethnological study; c/. Walpole, »6., p. 76. * Ih., p. 41. 7 Though some admit the survival of many of the Celtic and pre-Celtic population (q/. Ashley, preface to F. de Coulanges' Origin of Property in Landf p. 36), they forget the influence which these must have exercised. ROMAN BRITAIN 31 or even retrogressive. If it is true, as Professor Ashley puts it,^ that '* under the Celtic, and therefore under the Roman, rule, the cultivating class was largely composed of the pre-Celtic race," and that " the agricultural population was but little disturbed," ^ it seems clear that the economic influence of such a population must have been very marked. Such indeed we shall find afterwards to be the case, when we come to investigate more closely the manorial system as it appeared in Anglo-Saxon and Norman times. § 17. Commerce and Industry in Bonnan Britain. But before proceeding to the Saxon period we must in conclusion give a short glance at trade and industry under the Romans. The jpax Bomana allowed both to develop as far as they were at that time likely to do, and, though never a rich country, in this early time* Britain was cer- tainly not a land of poverty. Agriculture went on, as it had done before the Romans came,* and as it was sure to do under a peaceful regime, while mining seems to have been even more vigorously carried on than of old. Lead was mined in the Mendip Hills, Derbyshire, and elsewhere, and became so abundant that its output was limited by law; copper in Anglesey and Shropshire ; iron in the Forest of Dean, Hereford, and Monmouth ; coal, though only for home use, in Northumberland ; and in some parts a little silver.^ The roads also threw those parts of the country through which they passed open to trade and intercourse, though on the other hand in later periods nothing is more striking than the self-contained character of the villages, and their comparative isolation one from the other.^ The harbours of the south and south-east coast did a busy trade with Gaul, whose merchants acted as intermediaries between Britain and the outer world. The chief British exports seem to have been, besides corn and the minerals already ^ Ashley, preface to F. de Coulanges' Origin of Properly in Land, p. 37. "^ Cf. also Gibbon, Decline and Fall, oh. xxxviii. 3 Cf. F. T. Richards in Soc. England, vol. i. p. 93. •* Of. O. M. Edwards in Social England, vol. i. p. 87. •^ F. T. Richards in Social England, vol. i. p. 92. ^ Cf. the case of Bampton, quoted by Gomme, V. C. , p. 160. 32 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND referred to, cattle and sheep, the skins and furs of wild animals, wild beasts themselves for the Koman games, hunting dogs, and a large number of slaves. Kentish oysters were also known in Rome. Most of the ordinary clothing and textile fabrics for domestic use were made in the island itself,^ and so too were the coarser kinds of pottery, and great quantities of bricks and tiles. The imports consisted of a limited supply of the finer kinds of cloth and pottery for the use of the upper classes, of wine, and ivory, amber, and all kinds of metallic ornaments.^ Exports were almost certainly in excess of imports, since, like all provinces sub- ject to the Roman rule, Britain had to pay heavy taxes to its conquerors. These included the tributum, or property and income-tax ; the annona, s, fixed quantity of corn for the Roman armies in Britain and on the Continent ; and portoria, or import duties,^ The collection of the last- named was made at the harbours with which our coasts abounded,* though the fact that these harbours were so numerous, and the ships of that time so light that they could run in almost anywhere, probably caused a large amount of smuggling. In this connection it should be noticed that many towns standing on rivers, now inac- cessible to our large ships, were used as ports for sea-going vessels, both in Roman and in mediaeval times. Such were Exeter, Lincoln, Nottingham, York, and a host of others.^ The rivers themselves also formed natural highways into the interior, which were used far more then than now ^ in proportion to the amount of trade carried on. As regards the population, it is impossible to form an exact estimate. Caesar^ speaks of " an infinite number of people" as living ^ They also knew how to dye these in purple, scarlet, and other colours. Pliny, Hist. Nat., xvi. 8 ; xxii. 26. ^ The Britons were very fond of these, using brass and iron, if they could not get gold. Social England, vol. i. p. 103. * F. T. Richards in Social England, vol. i. p. 21. A five per cent, legacy duty was also levied on those who had the Roman franchise. ^ Euminius, Pan. Constant., c. 11. and cf. "Innumerable ports, some since silted up and forgotten, some perhaps buried in the German Ocean." Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 153. ^ Social England, vol. i. p. 205. * Cf. examples of their use in Continental traffic in my Commerce in Europe, §§ 68, 69, and cf. § 26. ' CsBsar, B. G., vi. 12. ROMAN BRITAIN 33 in the south-east, and the story of the sack of Verulamium, when 70,000 Romans are said to have been massacred,^ although the number is probably exaggerated, yet shows that the towns at least were populous. The condition of agriculture and trade also, which was more flourishing than it became for some time after the Saxon conquests, would lead us to suppose a fairly numerous population, though the unreclaimed and wooded nature of much of the country prevented it from being by any means dense. But, on the whole, it was a fairly flourishing province and people on which the Saxons descended. ' Tacitus, Ann., xiv. 33. CHAPTER III THE SAXON PERIOD § 18. The Saxon Invasions. The development of Roman Britain, after proceeding for three and a half centuries, was gradually checked by the weakness of the Roman power. As everyone knows, Rome had in the fifth century enough to do in defending the Continental portions of her empire without troubling about an outlying province like Britain. The Romans were compelled to leave Britain to its fate, and their legions had to quit its shores. But years before they went the Eastern and ^outh-Eastem coast of the island had been harried by pirates of Teutonic race, "the second wave ot the Aryans," and a special officer had to be appointed to keep them in check. He was known as the Count (Comes) of the Saxon shore,^ and had command of a squadron and a line of nine forts extending from Brancaster on the Wash to Pevensey on the coast of Sussex. Besides these Saxon pirates, the Pi^s and Scots raided the country, venturing on one occasion (368 A.D.) as far south as the banks of the Thames, and, thus harassed both by sea and land, the un- fortunate Britons might well cry out, " The barbarians drive us to the sea ; the sea to the barbarians ; we are massacred or must be drowned." In course of time the barbarians conquered the country. The conquest was the result not of one but of a series of invasions and expeditions, which, beginning at first as mere piratical raids, assumed by the middle of the fifth century the more serious aspect of victorious colonisation and mi- gration.2 Into the details of that conquest we have not time to go, but it has been picturesquely and minutely ^ 7,e., the shore infested by the Saxon pirates, not that colonised by the Saxons, as some think. Cf. Stubbs, Const. Hist. , I. c. iv. p. 19, and Free- man, Norman Conquest, I. p. 11. ^ gtubbs, Const. Hist., I. iv. p. 59. THE SAXON PERIOD 35 described by the graphic author of the Making of England, It is, however, interesting to note that the expeditions ol the Saxon invaders were, as much perhaps from the nature of the country as from the manner of their inception, inde- pendent and separate one from the other. When the " East Saxons " landed in Essex, proceeding as they did up the valleys of the Colne and Stour, they found a junction with the invaders of Kent (even had they wished one) blocked by a gigantic forest, which prevented further progress south- ward.^ But, leaving the manner and details of the con- quest to others, it is of prime importance to the economic historian to discover how far the Saxons destroyed or left undisturbed the inhabitants of the conquered country. Here we come at once to disputed ground. Some have thought that they practically made a clean sweep of all the institu- tions, both Roman and British, which they found, and began history afresh with Teutonic customs and manners both in political and industrial life.^ " The Britons fled from their homes ; ^ whom the sword spared famine and pestilence devoured : the few that remained either refused or failed altogether to civilise the conquerors." This view is based upon the exaggerated statements of mere ecclesi- astical historians like Bede and Gildas, who had a natural prejudice against the heathen Saxons, and wished to draw a dark picture of the sufferings of their church. It is adopted also by those who like to make picturesque generalisations from striking but insufficient data, and who take the utter devastation of places like Andredes-Ceaster as typical of '^hat happened to the whole country.* A truer view is that which, while admitting the disappearance of many of the upper class, the Romans and Romanised Britons, infers from a number of very different facts the survival of the great mass of the British population. " The common belief that the Celtic population of Britain was exterminated or driven into Wales and Brittany by the Saxons has absolutely no ^ Epping and Hainault forests are its relics now. Cf. Airy, Hist, oj Eng.y^. 9. ^ So Stubbs, I. iv. p. 61, who heads one paragraph "general desolation." 3/6. ^ So Green, whose judgment seems here at fault. Short History, pp. 10, 11 ; and his numerous followers— e.gr., Airy, Hist. o/Eng., p. 10. 36 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND foundation in history " ; ^ and the great Gibbon, fully as he describes the havoc wrought by the Saxons in art, religion, and political institutions, carefully points out that this does not imply the extirpation of the subject population itself. " Neither reason nor facts," he says, " can justify the un- natural supposition that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the desert which they had subdued. After the sanguinary barbarians had secured their dominion, it was their interest to preserve the peasants as well as the cattle of the unresisting country. In each successive revolution the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters, and the salutary compact of food and labour is silently ratified by their mutual necessities." ^ Or, as a less cele- brated author concisely puts it, the object of the Saxon invaders was not " to settle in a desert, but to live at ease, as an aristocracy of soldiers, drawing rent from a peaceful population of tenants," ^ and we may add, as time went on, assisting in the calm pursuits of peace themselves. The facts of archaeology, ethnology, and language, to some of which we have already referred, and the curious survivals and customs of the manorial system, to which we shall come presently, bear out this supposition. It is certain, for instance, that there is a large proportion of Celtic and pre- Celtic blood in the population even of the east of England as well as of the west, and the English language itself, which has been called " the tongue of one people spoken by another," is regarded by some as further confirmatory evidence.* Women and slaves were sure to have been kept alive rather 1 Pearson, Hist, of Eng. , I. p. 99. ^ Decline and Fcdl^ ch. xxxviii. 3 Pearson, Hist, of Eng.^ I. p. 101. Cf. also Ashley (preface to F. de Coulanges' Origin of Property in Land^ p. 32.), "the destruction of Roman or Romanised landowmcr* is not inconsistent with the undisturbed residence upon the rural estates of the great body of actual labourers." * F. York Powell in Social England, Vol. I. p. 132. On the other hand. Prof. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, dbc. Vol. I. p. 60, thinks there must have been "a general displacement of population to allow of the introduction of a new speech " ; but there are plenty of historical cases to prove the contrary. There is no general law regulating the survival of languages ; sometimes that of the conqueror, sometimes that of the con- quered prevails. Cf Walpole, Land of Home Hide, p. 76, and Taylor, Origin of the Aryans, p. 209. The Celtic language did not prevail in France, though the Celtic race has remained. The destruction of the THE SAXON PERIOD 37 than uselessly massacred ; and, in fact, we may readily believe that the land was continuously tilled " in the same fashion and chiefly by people of the same stock " from the time when the Romans came, or before it, till the close of the middle ages and the more modern changes in agriculture.^ It has been well observed that whereas the Roman settler* \ always remained outside the life of the British village com- munity, the Saxon forced his way into it,^ and the whole; development of English social and industrial history is dominated by this fact — the intrusion of a conquering element into a conquered community.^ Thus the manor, as we shall see, presents to us two main elements, the seigneurial and communal, the relations of tenants to their lord and to each other. The only difficulty is to distinguish the origin of each. § 19. The Saxon Village and its Inhabitants. For the present, let us glance at the inhabitants of the ordinary English village as we find them much later when the struggles of invader and invaded have ceased, and both are living peacefully together. It is at the village that we must look, not at the town, for the Saxon disliked urban life and was essentially a dweller in villages. The divisions of its inhabitants have been admirably summarised by Mr York Powell * in the following manner : First came the gentry, including the thegen (landlord or " squire ") and parish priest. The thegen lived on his own land and paid for it by special duties to the king, to whose following (comitatus) he belonged ; the priest also lived on the land— -i^ the glebe with which his patron (probably the thegen) had endowed the village church. Next came the farmer-class of yeomen or geneats, corresponding to Christian religion, on which, with others. Freeman and Cunningham also rely to prove the disappearance of the pre-Saxon population, means very little. Nothing is more frequent than change of religion by half- civilised peoples, as witness the triumphs of Islam, while, on the other hand, the Christian Church in Roman Britain was only the religion of the few, and the extent of its influence has been greatly exaggerated by the interested statements of ecclesiastical historians. ^ York Powell, ut supra. ^ Gomme, Village Community, pp. 41, 60, 147. ^ Cf. Vinogradofi", Villeinage, p. 303, who implies this, though not in so many words. * Social England, Vol. I. p. 124. 38 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND tenant-farmers, freemen who farmed their own land, or perhaps farmed their lord's, working for the landlord as well as paying rent to him. Thirdly came the peasant class of cotsetlas, or cottagers, and gehurs or copyholders, the former being labourers with five acres of land to support them instead of receiving wages, and the latter copyholders bound to heavy services or " task-work " for their lord. The fourth class were the labourers, such as herdsmen, barnkeepers, and woodwards, who were serfs, and were paid partly in food and clothes, and partly, if they were village officials, by certain perquisites and dues. Distinct from them were the free village tradesmen, such as the hunter, fowler, smith, carpenter, potter, pedlar, and travelling merchants,^ who either took service under a lord or pur- sued their occupation independently. We have, therefore, here several classes whom we may classify as follow : — I. Gentry (" of gentle rank "), including (1) the thegen, (2) the priest. II. Freemen, including (1) the geneat, and (2) the tradesmen. III. Unfree men, including (1) the cotsetla, (2) the gebur, (3) the labourers and serfs. To which we should add, as quite distinct from the others, the small class of slaves (not serfs), such as the women-servants and menials about the house of the squire or yeoman. These formed a small, and, as time went on, a diminishing class, though for centuries the export trade in slaves was a dismal feature of English commerce. § 20. Village Life. The life of the villages was very much the same in Anglo-Saxon times as it has always been in agricultural districts, and must, in its broad features, always continue to be. We need only make allowances for differences of degree in agricultural progress. It is very fully pictured to us in the illuminated manuscripts of the period, and in ^ Those, of course, had their houses in some town, but travelled from village to village selling their wares. THE SAXON PERIOD 39 the Bayeux tapestry. The early part of the year was taken up with ploughing, diggiug, and sowing, and the approach of the lambing season ; then came the hay and grain harvest and sheep-shearing ; while the autumn brought with it extensive preparations for winter in the way of killing and salting cattle for food in the winter months and storing wood for fires. During the winter itself threshing and winnowing went on, and most of the smith's and carpenter's work was postponed till then, while in the houses the women were busy weaving and making rough and homely garments for their men. The most noticeable features in rural life from these early times right up to the sixteenth century, and even later, were the absence of winter roots for cattle, and of coal for their masters. Roots, and even carrots and parsnips, were then unknown to the farmer,^ and it was consequently impos- sible for him to keep his cattle through the cold weather. Hence they had to be killed and salted, and could never attain to the excellence of our modern breeds. The absence of coal involved the use of large quantities of firewood in our cold climate, and hence there was a continual and in- creasing encroachment upon the forests. Fish and game were fortunately plentiful, and helped to relieve the monotony of salt meat, and eels were a very favourite food,* being found in greater numbers then than now owiug to the numerous fens and marshes that occupied so many districts. Though it was impossible to keep cattle in any great numbers through the winter, oxen were used for ploughiug, and also for food, and sheep were valued for their wool, which, " from the earliest records," formed an article of export to Flanders,^ and was afterwards much more largely produced. Large numbers of swine were kept,* since the rearing and maintenance of these was far more economical than that of cattle, as they could feed on * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 78. ^ So much so that rent was often paid by a stipulated quantity of eels. Social England, Vol. I. p. 207. "Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 78, and see also Macpherson, i. 288. * P. H. Newman in Social England, Vol. I. p. 213, and see the illumina- tion in the Cottonian MSS. 40 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the acorns and beech-mast found in unlimited quantities in the forests. " Pannage/' or food for swine, is frequently mentioned in Domesday, being given as for over thirty thousand hogs in Hertfordshire and over ninety thousand in Essex. Beekeeping was an important industry, the honey being used both for mead and flavouring.^ § 21. Methods of Cultivation. As regards agriculture, it is noticeable that at one time extensive culture was common,^ as at Lauder,^ but it gradually was given up in favour of the intensive system. Special fields were set apart for cultivation in common <»/ as permanent arable land on the open field system, and numerous survivals thereof are found in England even to the present day, as at Laxton in Notts, in Cambridgeshire, and elsewhere.* Both the two-field and the three-field system were employed, one field lying fallow and the other being under crop according to the former method, while, under the latter, two out of three fields were under crops and the third lay fallow.^ Though the two-field system, or a modified form of it,® was not uncommon, the three- field one became eventually more usual. The crops grown included wheat, rye, oats, and barley, with beans and pease. The fields were not enclosed, except by temporary fences, which were removed after harvest so that the cattle might feed, and strips of land belonging to various owners and tenants lay intermingled ^ with those occupied by the others, being only marked off by " balks " of untilled land. A villein generally possessed a pair of oxen along with his holding, but probably the various small tenants combined their teams in order to do their ploughing more effectively,^ the normal team being, as we saw, of eight oxen.^ Most of the operations of agriculture were performed in common, 1 York Powell, Soc. JEng., Vol. I. p. 124 ; for swine, c/. ib., p. 213. 'Cunningham, i. p. 20. * So Cunningham, butc/. Gomme, V. C, p. 150. *Seebohm, Village Community, 1-13. ''See the diagram and explanation in Cunningham, i. 71. •At least in Germany, cf. Hanssen, Agrarhist. Abh.j i. 178. In some districts of England also both systems existed side by side. ' Laws o/Ijie, 42 ^Thorpe, i. 129). « Cunningham, i. 73. 'Seebohm, V. (7., p. 388. THE SAXON PERIOD ^"^^fc^^^ or by men whom the village community as a whole paid, or rather supported, and who did certain work, such as thatching, swine-herding, or ploughing, in return for their keep.^ This common system of agriculture naturally pro- duced only poor results, and prevented improvement by individual enterprise, but it sufficed for the simple re- quirements of those days, and was in harmony with the economic ideas of the age. ^ § 22. Isolation of Villages. Crafts and Trades. Each of the separate communities living in these villages, or in the small towns that were now growing up,^ was on the whole very much cut off from its neighbours. Partly because of the disunion and conflicts that for many years prevailed among the various Saxon conquerors, and partly owing to the difficulties of intercommunication when the Roman roads were no longer kept up, and from many other causes, the villages were very much disinclined for mutual intercourse, and endeavoured to be, as far as possible, each a self-sufficing economic unit, obtaining their food and clothing, coarse and rough though it generally was, from their own flocks and herds and from their own land. Hence only the simplest arts and domestic manufactures were carried on by the people at large, such as the crafts of the iron and coppersmith, the shoemaker, and the carpenter. It is, however, proper to notice the important part which the monasteries played as centres of industrial life. The larger monasteries, such as those of St Edmunds or Glastonbury, were great industrial centres,^ and it was the monks, or the foreign workmen introduced by them, who brought to a high degree of perfection the arts of embroidery and weaving, and of glass and metal work for ornamental purposes.* St. Dunstan,^ among others, is said to have encouraged metal work. But the great mass of the people cared little for such arts. ^ Cunningham quotes instances from Saxon and "Welsh sources on p. 74 of vol i., Growth of English Industry. 2 On the growth of towns, see later, p. 86 et seq. 3 A. L. Smith in Social England, Vol. I. p. 207. ^Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 78. 5 Will, of Mahn., Vita S. Dunstani, ch. ix. p. 262 ; Stubbs' Memorials of St Dunstan {Gd. 1874). 42 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND But however strongly a community may desire — or feel it necessary — to be self-sufficing, it can never be so entirely. Differences of soil, of mineral wealth, and of other advantages cause one community to lack that which another has in abundance. Salt, for instance, was very largely in request (as we have seen) for salting meat for winter use, and some idea of the importance of the salt manufacture of thatj period may be obtained from the fact that in six shires no ■ less than 727 salt works are named in Domesday as paying rent to their lords. But it cannot be universally procured in England, any more than iron and other necessaries of life. Hence internal trade, however limited, was still sure to arise, and we find evidence of its recognised existence in the laws of Ine,^ which require that "chapmen" should trade before witnesses. This proves the existence of a dis-, tinct class of traders, and it is also certain that local markets 1 likewise existed. At first these were always held on the neutral boundaries between the territories of two or more villages or communities,^ the place of the market being marked by a boundary stone, the origin of the later "market cross." Sunday seems to have been the usual \ market day, till the influence of the church altered it to | Saturday.3 Sometimes also, besides these local markets, larger ones were held at stated times during the year in well- known localities, and the shrines of saints were among the most frequented spots for this purpose. These fixed markets often developed into towns. Thus the origin of Glasgow may be traced to the fair held at the shrine of St Ninian (570 A.D.),* and many other instances of the religious origin, not only of fairs but also of towns themselves, might thus be quoted. These markets were productive of great revenue to the lord of the manor in which they were held ; that at Taunton ^ brought in ^ Laws oj Ine, 25 ; Thorpe, i. 118. ^ A good example of this is Moretoa-in-Marsh, an ancient market town situated on the boundaries of the four counties of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Warwick. The fact is recorded by a stone, known as the **four shires' stone," and situated about a mile from the present town along the London road. * Graik, British Commerce, i. 74. * Cunningham, i. 90. 'For Taunton marked dues, qf. Thorpe, Dip. Ang.^ 235; and Social England, 1. 208. THE SAXON PERIOD 43 £2, 10s. a year in fees, and that at Bedford £7, and we shall have occasion to mention them as factors in the growth ot towns in another chapter (pp. 87, 89). It seems that in the early days of the Saxon settlement, trade at the markets and fairs was largely carried on by simple bartering of commodities. Mere barter, however, is tedious and cumbersome ; and although up to a late period of the Saxon settlement a large proportion, though not the whole, of English trade proceeded in this fashion,^ the use of coined money for the purposes of exchange became common in the ninth century, while in 900 A.D. regular money payments are recorded as being made by tenants to their landlord s.^ And when we come to the levy of Danegeld (991 A.D.), it is clear from the very imposition of such a tax that metallic money must have been widely diffused and in general circulation. ^^.^ ' § 23. Foreiqn Commerce and the Danes. Trade of all kinds had suffered a severe blow when the Romans quitted Britain, but even during the Saxon period English merchants still carried on a certain, though limited, amount of foreign commerce. This commerce was greatly stimulated by the Danish invasions and settlements. It is a curious fact that so many of the names of towns and places on our coast have Scandinavian forms, as e.g.y those terminating in -ness, -vick, and -by, and it is said to show that our maritime trade, not only in the Danish dis^ tricts, but even outside them, was mainly in the hands of northern traders.^ But this is not surprising when we remember that the Danes, before ever they came to England, were most enterprising navigators, as is shown by their very early commerce with Russia and the East,* their colonisation of Iceland (874 A.D.), and their discoveries of Greenland (985 A.D.) and the east coast of North America.^ 1 C/. Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 83, 84. Slaves and cattle were used as media of exchange. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 1 12. ^ The point is noted by A. L. Smith in Social England, i. p. 201. * Cunningham, i. 84. '^Cf. fully Mallet's Northern Antiquities, ch. ix., and the supplementary chapter in Bohn's edition, p. 244. 44 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Though they were cruel and savage pirates, they were traders also, and, when they had settled down, as they did in such large numbers in the North and East of England,^ they formed an active industrial and mercantile population, and often became merchants of great importance. To the Danes also we may trace the beginnings of some of our towns,^ since their merchants required fixed centres for their commerce. " The Danes and Northmen," says Professor Cunningham,^ /"were the leading merchants, and hence it was under Danish 'and Norse influences that the villages [which afterwards became towns] were planted at centres suitable for com- merce, or that well-placed villages received a new develop- ment." Besides this they were instrumental in causing English trade to develope with the North of Europe, and, generally speaking, gave a needed stimulus to navigation, which the Saxons for some unaccountable reason neglected as soon as they settled down in England. A sign of their influence is seen in the " doom " or decree, probably of the tenth century, which provided that " if a merchant thrived so that he fared thrice over the sea by his own means, then was he of thegen-right worthy "* — and this thegen-right gave him a comparatively high rank. The settlement of German ^ Their presence is still so clearly perceptible in the place-names, pro- vincial words, and the physique of the population of these districts, that we need not further enlarge upon the abiding nature of their influence. It will be sufl&cient to note briefly the extent of the "Danelagh" (ae given by F. York Powell, Soc. Eng., i. p. 145). Middlesex and Essex, Saxon land chiefly settled by Danes. Norfolk and Suffolk, East English land do. do. Bucks, Northants, \ Land of the English of the March, Herts, Beds, > settled chiefly by Danes, but also by Cambs, Hunts, ) Northmen. Lincoln, Leicester, \ Derby Notts L '^^^'^ ®^ *^® English of the March, settled Stamford district,' ) chiefly by Northmen. Yorks and part of Durham, North English land settled chiefly by Northmen. "^ The five Danish boroughs of Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln Leicester, and Stamford had a most complete municipal constitution. 3 English Industry and Commerce, i. 88. ^ Ranks, 6 ; Thorpe, i. 193. It was probably passed in Athelstan'a reign, Craik, i. 66. THE SAXON PERIOD 45 merchants in London/ pointing to an increasing continental traffic, also dates from the time of Ethelred the Unready (about 1000 A.D.). Much of this foreign trade, such as it was, and it certainly was not very great, lay in the quantities of precious metals and stuff for embroideries which were imported for use in the monasteries (p. 41). A good list of such imports is given by the merchant who is supposed to speak in ^Ifric's Saxon Dialogues.^ He mentions purple, silk, gems, ivory, gold, dyed stuffs, dyes, wine, oil, brass, tin, glass, and sulphur ; while the dangers of the foreign traders calling are pithily expressed in his remark, that "sometimes I suffer shipwreck with the loss of all my goods, scarcely escaping myself" Besides the imports mentioned here we may add furs and skins (which came gradually to be im- ported instead of exported, as wild animals died out in England), weapons of war, and iron-work. The exports which were exchanged for these were chiefly raw products, including wool — which afterwards became more and more important — cattle, and horses,^ with tin, lead, and possibly iron. There was a very large export trade in slaves, and their prices are recorded in the laws of the period.* Bristol was a great centre of this sad traffic,^ and remained so till the twelfth century, and English and Danish slaves formed an important merchandise in the markets of Germany. The devout Gytha, Earl Godwin's wife, is said to have shipped whole gangs, especially of young and pretty women, for sale in Denmark.^ As in many modern instances, her piety was not allowed to prejudice her pocket. As regards the travels of English merchants, we know that they went as far as Marseilles, and frequented the great French fairs of Rouen and St Denis ^ in the ninth century ; while, rather earlier, we have a most interesting document, our iCraik, Hist. Brit. Gomm., i. 68. "^ See Thorpe, Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, p. 101. ^ These are mentioned in a law of Athelstan, Craik, i. 71. ^ Leges Wallice, II. xvii. 30, 31, and II. xxii. 13. The price was one pound of silver, or a pound and a half "if brought from across the sea." ^ William of Malmesbury, Vita Wl/stani, ii. 20, and Craik, i. 71. « Pearson, ffist. of Eng., i. 287, 7 Cunningham, i. 80. 46 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND first treaty of commerce in fact,^ dated 796 A.D., by which Karl the Great, or Charlemagne, as he is sometimes called, grants protection to certain EDglish traders from Mercia. In King Alfred's days, one English bishop is said to have "penetrated prosperously" as far as India,^ bearing the King's gifts to the shrine of St Thomas, on the Malabar coast, but this is an isolated case, and though Alfred tried to encourage navigation by his care for the navy,^ and by his interest in the adventurous voyages of Othere and Wulfstan,* the fact remains that foreign merchants, includ- ing Jews,^ came to England in greater numbers than the English ventured abroad. § 24. Summary of Trade and Industry in the Saxon Period. Taking a general survey of the period between the Saxon and the Norman conquests, we see that crafts and manu- factures were few and simple, being limited as far as possible to separate and isolated communities. The fine arts, and works in metal and embroideries, were confined to the monasteries, which also imported them. The immense mineral wealth of the island in iron and coal was practically untouched. Trade, both internal and foreign, was small, though it developed as the country became more peaceful and united. The great mass of the population was engaged in agriculture, and every man had, so to speak, a stake in the land and belonged to a manor or an overlord. A landless man was altogether outside the pale of social life. Land, in fact, was the basis of everything,^ and it is for this reason that it is so important to understand the conditions of tenure and the whole land system of that age. Hence we must occupy a short time in the discussion of the origin of the manorial system, which at the close of the Saxon period we find in force throughout the country. ^ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 496. ^ So William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif, , ii. 80. ' Cf. Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 65. * In his Orosim. '-" Craik, British Commerce, i. 63, 64. « Stubbs, Gimst. Hist., I. ch. v. pp. 74, 79. CHAPTER IV THE MANOR AND THE MANORIAL SYSTEM § 25. The Interest of the Question as to the Origin of the Manor. The question of the origin of the English manor, however abstract and academic it may at first appear, is in reality one of the most interesting of all social topics. When the manor is clearly distinguished as a social factor in the historical period, it always involves two elements — the seigneurial and the communal, the lord on the one hand, and on the other his dependants, who do their work and hold their land in common. The question, therefore, at once arises as to which of these two elements is the older ? Is the manor the result of the subjection of an originally free community to an overlord, or was there always, even in the beginnings of social life, a dependent and servile population who tilled the land for the benefit of others ? According as history decides one way or the other, it will influence our views on the land question in general, including the discussions even of the present day. From one point of view we shall be inclined to think that the present system of private property in land is the system which, in one form or another, has existed from the beginning, and is the outcome of social forces which have their justification in the earliest pages of history. From another point of view we may hold that property in land did not exist at all in early times, but that the land was held in common for the good of all, while the ownership of it was vested only in the nation, so that the present system of private owner- ship is the degenerate outcome of centuries of appropriation of common 'property by individuals, whose title to it was in many cases more or less doubtful. Hence reformers like Henry George maintain that we ought to revert to common ownership of land as being the only natural condition and 47 48 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND basis of social and economic life, though, on the other hand, so great an authority as Sir Henry Maine has declared that the change from common to private ownership is the sign of an advancing civilisation. Whatever view we hold, it is obvious that the question of the origin of the manor and of property in land is of more than usual interest. § 26. The Mark Theory and the Manor. During the present century, owing to the valuable labours of a number of German and English historians,^ some writers have come to the conclusion (though it is much disputed) that in very early times, before the Germanic tribes, after- wards called English, had crossed over to England, or per- haps even before they had settled down in Europe, all land was held in common by various communities. Each com- munity contained a few families, or possibly a whole tribe. The land occupied by this community had been cleared away from the original forests or wastes where they had settled,^ and was separated from that of other communities by a boundary or mark, a name which in course of time came to be applied not to the boundary but to the land itself thus portioned off.^ Within this mark was the primitive village or township, where each member of the community had his house, and where each had a common share in the land. This land was of three kinds : — (1) The forest and waste land, from which the mark had been originally cleared, useful for rough natural pasture, but quite uncultivated ; (2) The pasture land, including, per- haps, meadows,^ sometimes enclosed and sometimes open, in which each mark -man looked after his own hay, and stacked it for the winter. This land was sometimes divided into allot- ments for each member ; (3) The arable land, which also was divided into allotments for each mark-man. But a man s rights, whether in the allotments or in the common pastures and forests, were of the nature of usufruct only, his title to absolute ownership being merged in the general title of the * Including Kemble, K. Maurer, Stubbs, Freeman, Gneist, Maine, and especially G. F. von Maurer and Hanssen. For a careful summary of the views of each see VinogradofTs able Introduction in his Villeinage in England. ^ Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. p. 49, ch. iii., who gives a good summary of the mark system. ^ Stubbs, Gon^t. Hist. , i. 49, THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 49 ribe, which, however, he of course shared with the rest.^ L'o settle any question relating to the division or use of the and, such as the choice of the meadow, the rotation of jrops, or the allotment of the shares of land, or to decide my other business of common importance, the members of he mark, or mark-7n^, met in a common council called he mark-moot^ — an institution of which relics are said to lave survived for many centuries.^ This council, and the nark generally, formed, it was said, the political, social, md economic unit of the early English tribes, but now this dew is not supported by scholars, except as regards agri- jultural arrangements. The mark probably did not exist n the form just sketched out when these tribes first occupied England, though there may have been some modification of t introduced. It had probably already undergone consider- ible transformation towards what is called the manorial ystem and private ownership.* But those who hold the nark theory maintain that many traces of it still remain jven now. Our commons,^ still numerous in spite of mndreds of enclosures, the manorial courts,® and the names )f places ending in -iTig — a termination which implies a amily settlement^ — are evidences which remain among us ;ven at the close of the nineteenth century. And, of course, t is to the -mor^^system^that the communal element in our jarly and meSiSvalEnglish agriculture is supposed to be due. § 27. Criticisms of the Mark Theory. Leaving for the moment the consideration of the truth or n accuracy of the raa/rk theory, we find, at any rate at the ime when the Saxon settlement in England had been com- )leted, that a very different system prevailed, namely, the nanorial system. The word " manor " is a Norman word or the Saxon " township " or community,^ and it differs * Stubbs, Const. Hint., i. p. 49. ^ Stubbs, i. p. 51. The word mearemot (found A.D. 971) was instanced »y Kemble, but Anglo-Saxon scholars do not think that mark in this con- lexion means more than a "boundary." Cf. Earle, Land Chartersy p. 45. 2 Stubbs, p. 84. 4 76., p. 75. » lb., p. 84. « lb. ' Stubbs, Comt. Hint., I. ch. v. p. 81 ; Taylor, Words and Places, 132. * So Ordericus Vitalis, iv. 7 ; see Stubbs, Const. Hint. , I, ch. v. p. 89, knd ch. ix. p. 273. D so INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND from the TYiark in that the Toark was a group of house- holds or persons organised and governed on a communal and democratic basis, while in the manor we find an auto- cratic organisation and government, whereby a group of tenants (not independent "markmen") acknowledge the superior position and authority of a "lord of the manor." The great feature of the manor is, in fact, this subjection to a lord, who owned absolutely a certain portion of the land therein and had rights of rent (paid in services, food, or money, or in all three) over the remainder. On the other hand the tenants had certain rights as against the lord/ but these and the questions connected with these we must leave till later. Such are the distinctive features of the mark and the manor. The point to be now considered is : how did the one result from the other ? It seems very probable that the manorial system must have been the result of conquest, but if so, who were the conquerors that imposed it upon their subjects ? Were they the Anglo-Saxons, or the Romans, or the pre-Roman invaders of Britain ? If the conquerors were the Saxons, then it follows that they them- selves had already developed beyond the mark system before they came to these islands. It was at one time thought that the manorial system grew up in the later periods of the Saxon conquest, but received the form, with which mediaeval documents make us familiar, only shortly before the Norman rule, and assumed many of its features under Norman influence. But it is now more generally accepted] that the manorial system was in existence as the prevailing] form of social organisation very soon after the Saxon invasion. ^ I ^ Vinogradofif, Villeinage in England, pp. 174, 176. "^ This is the net result of Mr Seebohm's valuable labours. He thinks that the Roman villa presents all the essential features of an English manor, and thus implies that the Saxon lords of the manors merely stepped into the shoes of their Roman predecessors. In an essay more recent than his book on the Village Community, he seems inclined to ante-date the feudal side of the manorial system still further. "The British village community was already a good deal feudalised " before the Saxon conquest ; possibly (under the influence of Belgic Gauls of the S.E.) even before the Roman conquest. See his valuable critique of VinogradoF in t.h« Kngliah ffistorieca Review, Vol. VH., No. 27 (July 1892). THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 51 Certainly we have hardly any satisfactory evidence of the mark itself in England, though, as we noted just above, survivals of its influence are found. And, indeed, many authorities of great weight have gone so far as to deny that the mark Qver had any existence, whether in England or Europe, except in the mistaken theories of Teutonic historians. Those who reject the mark theory do so largely because they argue that the servile and depen-. dent cultivators of the manorial system lead us back, not) to an originally free, but to an originally servile population. They deny that the communal element is ever seen- where it can be proved that the cultivating group are proprietors ; it is only found among dependants or tenants, not among free men. " Where the cultivating group are in any real sense proprietors they have no corporate character, and where they have a corporate character they are not pro- prietors." ^ They combat, moreover, the very facts and quotations from ancient writers upon which advocates of the mark theory base their inferences. Apart from the powerful work of Mr F. Seebohm in his Village Community, perhaps the most concise and certainly the rfiost violent attack upon the holders of the mark theory is that made by Fustel de Coulanges in his essay on the Oingin of Property in Land,^ He first challenges the meaning given to certain passages of Caesar and Tacitus ^ by G. F. von Maurer, and then tries to show that in early German law w^ark means " a boundary " primarily, and secondly a piece of private property, and that private property in land ^ W. J. Ashley, criticising Maine in Note A to his own Introduction to F. de Coulanges' Origin oj Properly in Land, p. xlvii. 2 It first appeared in Revue des Questions Historiques, April 1889, and is published separately in English in Mr Ashley's translation above referred to. ^ The main passages are Caesar, B. G., vi. 21-23, and Tacitus, Germ., c. 26, upon which e.g. our English authority Stubbs bases his remarks in Const. Hist., I. c. ii. But it seems to me that de Coulanges, although he makes out a good case against von Maurer on some points, emphasises unduly Caesar's words cogunt, compel, and jrrincipes, chiefs, in saying they mean "chiefs arbitrarily disposing of the soil of which alone they are owners." But in their natural sense the words merely imply that the people fall in with the arrangements made by their "chief men," and for all we know, the people may merely have deputed certain chief men to carry out the cuBtomary division of land desired by the community. 52 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was the assumption upon which all early German law is based. But M. de Coulanges' criticisms, valuable as they are, do not disprove altogether the existence of some form of common ownership of land in the remoter periods of Teutonic or of British history ; for the proof of this common owner- ship lies more in survivals and customs ^ than in stray references in legal documents. And Professor Lamprecht, a follower of von Maurer, was quite right in pointing out ^ that nothing depends on the word " mark " itself. It matters very little after all whether we find the word in documents or not ; it even matters very little whether the mark ever existed as it is depicted by von Maurer or Stubbs. The fact remains that there are extensive evidences of communal ownership (as well as tenancy) in English manors, and these evidences point back to a state of things which the theory of private property in land and a dependent body of cultivators in the earliest times cannot satisfactorily explain. § 28. Vinogradoff's Evidence on the Manorial Systenfi. The most recent, and certainly one of the most learned, investigators of this difficult question has concluded, as the result of his researches, that " the communal organisa- tion of the peasantry is more ancient and more deeply laid than the manorial order. Even the feudal period shows everywhere traces of a peasant class living and working in economically self-dependent communities under the loose authority of a lord, whose claims may proceed from political sources, and affect the semblance of ownership, but do not give rise to the manorial connection between estate and village." ^ The so-called manorial system con- sists in the peculiar connection of two entirely distinct agrarian bodies or parties * — the community of villagers cultivating their own fields, and the home-estate (some- times loosely called the demesne) of the Iwd " tacked on to " this settlement. This expression " tacked on " gives the key to the solution of the question. The manorial ^ As shown e.g., in Gomme's Village Community. 2 In Le Moyen Age, June 1889, p. 131. 3 Vinogradoff, Villeinage, pp. 408, 409. * lb., p. 404. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 53 system, as we find in late Saxon and Norman times, contains a seigneurial element which has evidently been superimposed upon an originally communal element. Originally there was an independent village community (whether living exactly according to the '* mark " system or not does not matter), but in later times we find a dependent community working for a home-farm, which is the lord's. How did the independent community become subject to this lord ? The holders of the older '' mark " theory seem to have supposed that the subjection was due to political and social causes gradually enhancing the power of some local man of note or authority. " The relation of dependence on a lord may have been entered into by a free landowner for the sake of honour or pro- tection " ; ^ and there are abundant evidences of this " commendation " of weaker men to those who were politically and socially more powerful ^ — though, as a matter of fact, the practice was generally the result of the police organisation, not of the land system.^ " The man who had land judged the man who had not," * and there was a constant assimilation going on between the really servile dependents of a lord and the smaller landowners. But however the practice of commendation arose, it undoubtedly had great effect in reducing the originally free status of many of the smaller landowners. At the same time, the main features of the manorial subjection to a lord are probably due more to the influence of conquest than to that of social or judicial requirements, though these latter cannot be neglected or minimised. The number of servile dependents is too large to be accounted for by peaceful influences. Moreover, it has been till recently overlooked that in many cases the services rendered by dependants were rendered not to a lord living on a horae farm, but to one living at some considerable distance.^ This is specially 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist , vol. I. ch. v. p. 79 ; cf. also p. 273. 2 Especially in Domesday ; see Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, i. 64-66. ^ Stubbs, ut ante, p. 79, note, and p. 189. ^ lb. , p. 189. The landless man was compelled to choose a lord for his surety and protector, ib., p. 153. ^ Vinogradoff, Villeinage^ p. 405. 54 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the case in the furnishing of provisions for the lord's table and other wants, for we constantly find that provisions were sent by the dependents to a castle a long way off. There is also the matter of the fir ma unius noctis,^ as it is called, the payment of "provisions for one night " made to the king's household by a borough or village, which seems to point to a community " standing entirely by itself and taxed to a certain tribute, without any superior land-estate necessarily engrafted upon it." Vinogradoff thinks this implies an over-lordship exacting tribute, but not the close manorial relationships which we see under a later system. Again, the fact that the lord's demesne land is often found in strips, mixed up with the strips of the peasantry (p. 82), seems also to imply a time when the tenants or subject class did not collect to work for the lord upon a separate home farm, as we find them doing later, but merely devoted one part of their labour upon their own ground in the common fields to the use and payment of the lord.^ This shows an intermediate stage between the tribute paid by a practically self-dependent community (as in the case of the firma unius noctis) and the services rendered when the village was linked more closely with a manorial estate.^ Once again, we note the existence of a special class of servants ^ " who collect and supervise the dues and services of the peasants " in early times, but who are not to be found so frequently in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the number of " home farms " was becoming greater. Besides these special servants (radmen, rodknights or riding- bailiffs), we also note that in many cases the " free " tenants or socmen (see p. 75) have a kind of supervision over the rest while they are doing some of the services for the lord, and their position indicates that, though the village is already set to work for the lord, it manages this work as much as possible by itself as a self-dependent community.^ ^ Vinogradoff, Villeinage, p. 405, and see Pearson, Hist, of Eng., vol. I., Appx. D. Thus the community of Badwen in Essex rendered a pay- ment of eight nights, Saham and Fordham in Cambs. gave three nights, and many other instances are found in Domesday. 2 Vinogradoff, Villeinage, p. 406. » Ih., p. 406. 4 /ft., p. 407. ^Ih.,i^.m. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 55 § 29. Evidence from Manorial Courts and Customs. All this seems to imply the subjection of originally free communities to an overlord, a subjection that proceeded first by reducing them to a more or less loose and tribute- paying relationship, and later by the introduction of a resident lord on a home farm (the demesne), or at least of a home farm superintended by a bailiff representing a lord. The internal constitution of the manor gives the strongest evidence for this original freedom. In the manorial courts (p. 80) the tenants were the jurors and suitors, while the lord or his steward was not the judge, but merely the recorder of their decisions. It was the suitors and jurors, the tenants in fact, who constituted the court and pro- nounced the judgments.^ It was not till much later, under Norman influence, that the status of the tenants in their own courts became debased, and the lord or his bailiff was regarded as the judge.^ Another very important piece of evidence, showing that ceremonies, which have been erroneously regarded as prov- ing the original servility of tenants prove in reality their original freedom, is the manorial form of surrender and admittance. When a tenant was admitted into his holding " in base tenure," the steward handed to him a rod. This was till lately thought to symbolise the lord's authority, but Vinogradoff shows ^ that, on the contrary, it was a survival of the old custom, requiring that important transactions should be performed before witnesses and a middleman, and that the steward had taken the place of the middleman and did not really represent the lord at all.* A case like this shows us at once how archaic are the constitutions and customs of the village community, and how easily, when these customs are no longer understood, they may be erroneously construed as evidences of seigneurial power. ^ Vinogradoff, Villeinage^ p. 370. ^ It may be added that the village as a body frequently acts as an or- ganised community in disposing of rights connected with the soil. Of. the case of Brightwaltham, Vinogradoff, p. 359. ^ Villeinage, pp. 372, 373. * Cf. Gomme, Vill. Comm., p. 191, who quotes a similar ttansference of a rod, or twig, in the Malmesbury village community. The twig here (as in the other cases mentioned by Vinogradofif) represents the land itself, certainly not a lord's authority. 56 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 30. The " Customary " Tenants. The position of " free " tenants (p. 75) in the later manors is, again, a matter of some difficulty. It is as erroneous to imagine that at (say) the time of Domesday there was no intermediate grade between the lord and his serfs or villeins, as it is to hold that all the Saxons and those who came over with them were entirely free. In Domes- day we find traces of a large number of tenants of various degrees of freedom, and it is these traces, together with those derived from the legal procedure of the Norman period, that Vinogradoff has explained with masterly insight. It is now pretty evident that the classification of society into villeins and freedholders is comparatively late and artificial,^ and that between these two distinct classes there was a third class, and a very large one, of " customary " ^ freeholders, who had originally formed the great mass of the peasantry.^ The Anglo-Saxon world was ordered and governed by custom to an extent quite unappreciated by the Norman lawyer and surveyor, and hardly to be realised at all by Englishmen of the present day. But this " cus- tomary " life, and all that it implied, was perfectly well understood by the inhabitants of the village who lived under it. The villagers cared nothing for abstract legal definitions of tenure and status, though they all knew the conditions under which they and their forefathers held their land. But the Normans, with their fixed ideas of " free " and " unfree " tenancies, tried to reduce everyone into one of these two sharply-defined categories,* and hence it comes that *' villeinage " must not be taken too literally as a clear definition ot a tenant's status or tenure, but we must remember that it was really " a complex mould into which several heterogeneous elements had been fused." * Hence * Villeinage, pp. 132, 177. 2 The word custumarius is found in Rot. Hundred, y ii. 422, 607a. ' Vinogradoff, p. 220. * The fact that free men in Kent and on the Danish manors of Essex were all classed by Domesday as villani shows what mistakes the Normans made. Vinogradoff, p. 208. ^ Vinogradoff, p. 177 ; cf. also "The life of the villein is chiefly dependent on custom, which is the great characteristic o/mediceval relations and which stands in sharp contrast with slavery on the one hand and freedom on the other." 1 UJINIVERSIT"^ THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM S7 it is certain that many men who in Domesday are classed as " villeins " were for all intents and purposes " free " men, who either merely rendered services, not always necessarily servile, as a condition of holding land, or who, in addition to holding perfectly free land, held also some other land in villeinage, and thus became confused altogether with villeins. There is little doubt that the free holdings in the manors represent, in many cases, free shares in a village community, upon which the manorial structure has been superimposed.^ § 31, The Evidence of Village Communities, We have, therefore, many reasons for believing that the f^ original condition of the subject manorial villages had been at an earlier period that of free communities. But if so, can we not find traces of such communities in England ? Were they all extinct at the time of Domesday ? Recent writers certainly incline to the belief that individually and collec- tively villeins were more free in Saxon than in Norman times,2 but it has been stoutly denied ^ that there are any free village communities to be found later than the Norman conquest, or, indeed, previous to it. Only communities peopled by villeins are mentioned. But we have already seen that Domesday is an unsatisfactory guide in questions of status,* and there is good reason to doubt whether these villein communities were quite so devoid of freedom as the Norman surveyors described them. In the cases of Chippenham and Malmesbury, at least, Mr Gomme ^ gives very remarkable evidence of their being free communities in the time of Domesday, and much later also, and the various other instances which he quotes in his valuable work ^ certainly tend to prove very clearly, by their relics ^ Vinogradoff, p. 353. Cf. Bracton, De Leg., ch. xi. /. 7 (i. p. 53, ed. Twiss). Of course there were also other causes of free tenements, as — e.g. , commutation, but this is one cause which cannot be overlooked. 2 Vinogradoff, p. 135. ' Seebohm, Village Comm., p. 103; Ashley, Econ. Hist., i. 18, and in his introd. to F. de Coulanges. * Vinogradoff, p. 208. ^ Village Comm., pp. 173-200, and see p. 195 specially for the quotation from Domesday. ^ See especially ch. vi. on " Tribal Communities in Britain," ch. vii. 58 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and survivals, that, as Vinogradoff also concludes the free village community existed in these islands, as it did else- where, before the manorial system was superimposed or ** tacked on to " it. § 32. ^ Survey of the Origin of the Manor. Having come to this conclusion, which must necCvSsarily influence any view which we take of the manorial system, we may now venture to set forth a comprehensive though brief survey of the origin of the village community, with its seigneurial and communal elements, which we find in historic times. This I do with considerable diffidence — for I am well aware of the conflicting theories already pro- pounded — but a review of the facts, placed in due per- spective and exhibiting an orderly development, may have its advantages. To begin with, we see, on looking back into the mists of prehistoric antiquity^ that a large ^ non- Aryan population existed in these islands in the Neolithic stage of culture. They had already made some small advances in agriculture, and had passed,^ or were rapidly passing, from the tribal^ to the village community — a transition * which is natural as the development of agri- culture necessitates a closer connection with the soil than the more or less unsettled tribal stage allows. Upon the state of society thus formed, or forming, descended succes- sive waves of Aryan invaders in the shape of the Celtic immigrants to Britain. At first, no doubt, the Aryan tribes, with the pride so characteristic of the earlier Aryan races, took but little part in the cultivation of the land, but preferred to leave it to the conquered and subject Iberians, exercising only a loose overlordship oyer the more remote village communities.^ (This accounts for the sur- vival, centuries later, of the customs already mentioned, that Transitional types of the village community in Britain, ch. viii. The Final type ; also ch. iii. Methods of dealing with British evidence. 1 Boyd Dawkins, Early Man, pp. 290, 306. ^ Elton, Origins, p. 145. ' Boyd Dawkins, Early Man, p. 272. ^ Gf. the similar transition from tribe to village in India ; Tupper, Punjab Customary Law, ii. p, 28. The tribal community persisted longer in Wales; c/. Gomme, V. C, p. 63. "Gomme, F. C, p. 71. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 59 suggest, even in the later manors, a much looser tie between lord and dependants than afterwards existed.) But as time went on we know that the Celtic invaders, especially the most recent of them (p. 13), themselves made very considerable progress in agriculture, and thus the agrarian bond between the subject and the conquering races became closer and closer. Then came the Roman occupation, but we have already seen that, after making full allowance for the undoubted extent of Roman influence in other direc- tions, its effect upon the village community and its agricul- ture can only have been on a level with our own influence upon the villages of India. When the Romans took away their military and administrative forces, the Celtic and non- Aryan communities remained much as they had been before the Romans came.^ The Roman did not enter into the life of the village community as did Celt or Saxon. He was above it and not of it. But when the Saxons came, their influence was felt at once. Terrible as they were in their destruction of the upper classes, especially those of the towns, they did not seek to destroy the peasantry of the rural districts,^ any more than the successive conquerors of India (who could be to the full as cruel as the Saxons ever were) have obliterated the villagers of the Punjab.^ On the contrary, their own agrarian development (p. 39) was much the same as that of the land they invaded. The village community received, therefore, certainly no check from this fresh invasion. What happened was that the Celt and Iberian were debased in status in some cases, where the conquerors made their first settlements, but were left in the remoter parts of the country pretty much as before, though with a continual tendency to fresh debase- ment as time went on and the conquest proceeded. They helped to form the large and mixed class of servile de- pendants whom we find later. The Saxons themselves brought slaves and dependants with them, for it is absurd to suppose them all free and equal. ^ And no doubt the ^ Cf. Gomme, V. G., pp. 60, 63. ^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxviii, -^ Lord Metcalfe, quoted by Gomme, V. C. , p. 60. * There were almost certainly larger and smaller private estates ; Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. I. ch. v. pp. 52, 73. For slaves, cj. p. 78. 6o INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND leaders and their chief followers occupied from the first period of the invasion a high position in the social and economic scale.^ But there were also large numbers of free Saxon soldiers ^ who settled down on the land which they and their chiefs had taken, and it is to this class — and to the Danes who came later — that we owe the numerous " free tenants " of the later manor. It is pretty evident also that the amount of freedom was greater in Saxon times than in Norman,* and consequently greater in the earlier portion of the Saxon period than in the later. Much also was left to custom and tradition in the relations of lord and dependant. Then finally came the Norman conquest, with its stricter feudalism, its inelastic ideas of status and tenure, and its great work of firm organisation and consolidation. The tie between the lord and his dependants had been growing closer, more personal, and, if we may say so, more " residentiary," all through the Saxon period, and the Norman conquest accentuated this develop- ment, raising the lord, debasing the dependant, and fusing into one the numerous varying grades of villeinage. And so we arrive at last at the manor of historic times, with all those various influences and survivals within it that were the heritage of Iberian, Celt, and Saxon, but which history could not record. § 33. The Feudal System, In the next period we shall find this manorial system consolidated and organised under the Norman rule, and may therefore defer a detailed description of a typical manor till then. Here we may add, however, that thov^ manor, especially in its social, judicial, political, and non- y economic relations, is closely connected with the feudal system. ^But it must be remembered that feudalism, and all that it implied, had already begun in England some considerable time before the Norman conquest ; and as the manor afforded a convenient unit, political as well as social, 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., Vol. I. pp. 73, 55, 149. * The division of the land among the conquering host is seen in Stubbs, vi antCy pp. 71, 72. » Vinogradoflf, ViUeinagey p. 135. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 6i for the estimation of feudal duties and services, the lord of the manor tended to become more and more a feudal chief. In the primitive Saxon constitution the political} unit had been the free man, but later, as land passed v| from being public to private property, the sign of freedom | became the possession of land. The landless man had to select a lord, and the " land becomes the sacramental tie of all public relations." ^ The lords of the manors became nominally the protectors, but really the masters, of the free- men around them, who were poor, and only had a small piece of land. The practice of commendation ^ for judicial or defensive purposes, and the granting of judicial powers ^ to the larger landowners, all tended in the same direction, while the frequent incursions of the Danes probably threw the smaller free tenants still more under the influence of the greater local landowners, who would offer them their protection in return for manorial services. When, there- fore, William the Norman conquered England, he did not, as is still often supposed, impose a feudal system upon the people. The system was there already, developed from the manors, and the Norman kings only organised and crystallised it still further.* 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ch. vii. p. 167. ^ Stubbs, i. 79, and the valuable note there relating to the practice in Domesday. ^ E.g., sac and hoc (Stubbs, i. 184). 4 Of. Pearson, Hist. o/Eng., i. 283, 284. CHAPTER V DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS § 34. The Survey ordered by William I. It was very natural that when William the Norman had conquered England he should wish to ascertain the capa- bilities of his kingdom, both in regard to military defence and for purposes^^f_ taxation, and that he should endeavour to gain a comprehensive idea of the results of his conquest. He therefore ordered a grand purvey of the kingdom to be made, and sent commissioners ^to each district to make it. These officials were bidden to make a long list of enquiries about all the estates in the realm, including the following points : — The name of each manor ; who held it in the time of King Edward the Confessor ; how many " hides " there were in the manor,^ or, in other words, the rateable value of the estate ; how many ploughs there were on the estate, whether belonging to the lord or the villeins ; how many villeins, homagers, cottars, or slaves there were ; how many free tenants and tenants in socage (socmen) ; how much wood, meadow, and pasture ; and the number of mills and fish ponds. They were further to enquire what had been added to or taken away from the estate — that is, the depreciations and improvements ; the gross value in the time of King Edward (T.R.E.), the present value in the time of King William (T.R.W.) ; how much each free man or socman had, and whether any advance could be made in the value. The results of this great survey, taken separately in counties, were then sent to Winchester, then the capital city, and there methodised, enrolled, and codified as we now ^ It is almost impossible to fix the value of the hide as a measurement. It was never expressly determined, nor is it so fixed in Domesday ; Ellis, Introd., i. 145 sqq. ; Birch, Domesday, 229. Cunningham (i. 120) puts it at 60 to 80 modem acres under crop, or an area of 120, including land fallow, under the then system of agriculture. K 65 66 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND see them.^ The inquisition was probably commenced in t year 1085, and completed in the year following. It co tains the earliest and most reliable statistics for English i dustrial history, and it is to be regretted that no adequs general table or analysis of this great work has yet be made by a competent economic authority, or that historia do not use it more copiously for gaiuing a knowledge of t social and economic conditions of the time. For this latl purpose it is absolutely unrivalled. § 35. The Population given by Domesday. Before presenting a few main features gathered from t large mass of facts thus recorded, it may be well to rema that of the 40 counties into which England is now divide six are not included in the survey. Those omitted s Monmouth, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorelat Durham, and Lancashire. But of these Lancashire had r yet been made a separate county, and part of it therefc appears in the survey of Yorkshire and Cheshire. Mo mouth was at that time entirely Welsh, and the ott counties — those in the North — were still desolate and wast by the ruthless severity of William's well-known devastati' (1069-70 A.D.). After his march from the Humber to i Tyne, not one inhabited village was to be seen on t road between York and Durham, and many of those whc the sword had spared died of starvation in the nine yea famine which followed this dreadful punishment.^ T more westerly parts of the North were hardly yet co quered at the time of the survey. The statistics of t other 34 counties are, however, pretty full ; and frc them we gather that the total population must have bee in round numbers, rather under two million persons. T population actually given ^ is 283,242, but this oi includes the able-bodied men, and it should be multipli by five to give the general total of actual inhabitan This multiplication gives about 1,400,000, and allowi 1 Birch, Domesday, p. 25 ; Ellis, i. 153. 2 Pearson, Hist. ofEng., i. 361, and Freeman, Norman Conqtiest, iv. 2 V. 42. - See Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, Vol. II. p. 514. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 67 )r omissions or careless enumeration (as e.g. in Yorkshire^), e may say not much more than 1,800,000 for the whole md. Small as this number may seem, it was not greatly icreased for several centuries.^ The population of the different counties is interesting, nd is exhibited in the following tables, first in order of ctual numbers, and secondly in order of density propor- ionate to the area of each county. It will be noticed at nee that the eastern and southern counties were the most opulous at that time, as was to be expected in a period ^hen the number of the population depended, much more losely than it does now, upon the yield of agricultural reduce and the development of agriculture generally. . Table of Actual Population in Different Counties, as given in Domesday. County. Popula- tion.* County. Popula- tion.* 1 Norfolk - 27,087 18 Berks 6,324 2 Lincoln 25,305 19 Notts 5,686 3 Suffolk - 20,401 20 Cornwall - 5,438 4 Devon 17,434 21 Bucks 5,420 5 Essex 16,060 22 Hereford - 5,368 6 Somerset - 13,764 23 Cambridge 5,204 7 Kent 12,205 24 Shropshire 5,080 8 Sussex 10,410 25 Herts 4,927 9 Wilts 10,150 2 6 Worcester - 4,625 10 Hampshire 9,032 27 Surrey 4,383 1 1 Northamps 8,441 28 Bedford - 3,875 12 Gloucester 8,366 29 Staffordshire 3,178 ISYorks 8,055 30 Derbyshire 3,041 1 i Dorset 7,807 31 Huntingdonshire 2,914 15 Oxford - 6,775 32 Cheshire - 2,349 16 Leicestershire - 6,772 33 Middlesex - 2,302 17 Warwick - 6,574 34 Rutland ■ 862 * It must be remembered the figures represent only able-bodied males. ^ ^Qe Domesday, f. 302 A, about the manors "ad Prestune" — "sixteen e cultivated by a few men, but how many men there are is not known." 2 Pearson, Hist, of England, i. 377. 68 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND II. Table of Counties according to Proportionate Density of Population. County. Acres per County. Acres per person.* person. * ■ 1 Suffolk - 46 18 Warwick - 87 2 Norfolk - 50 19 Sussex 89 3 Essex 61 20 Notts 92 4 Middlesex - 66 21 Gloucester 93 5 Lincoln 69 22 Devon 94 6 Oxfordshire 71 23 Hereford - 99 7 Northamps 74 24 Cambs 100 8 Leicester - 75 25 Worcestershire - 102 9 Berkshire - 76 26 Surrey 105 10 Somerset - 76 27 Rutland - 110 11 Bedfordshire 76 28 Cornwall - 158 12 Hunts 78 29 Shropshire 166 13 Kent 79 30 Sta-ffs. 204 1 4 Dorset 81 31 Derby 216 15 Herts 82 32 Cheshire - 279 16 Wilts S5 33 Yorks 497 17 Bucks 86 34 Hants 1011 * Fractions omitted. It is in some respects, perhaps, rather remarkable that the first three most populous counties are Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex; but this seems to have been due to the wool (and other) trade with Flanders and the Continent, for it must be remembered that at that time the eastern counties' ports were much frequented. Next to these in population come the Southern and Midland counties. § 36. The Wealth of various Districts. The distribution of wealth among the various counties is also interesting, as may be seen from the following table of the twenty-one leading counties of that time, with the approximate value of the rents paid by the manors therein, deduced from Domesday. ^ Here the Eastern and Southern ^ This table is compiled from data given (for another purpose) by Pear- son, Hist, of Eng., Vol. I., Appx. D. Though necessarily only approxi- mate, it still seems fairly reliable. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 69 counties rank highest, Kent coming first, then Essex, Norfolk, and Sussex, while Oxford takes rather a higher place, and Middlesex (excluding London) a low one. The table is as follows : — Order. County. Approx. Rental. £ 8. d. 1 Kent - - - - 5717 6 7 2 Essex - 4784 16 8 3 Norfolk .... 4514 11 7 4 Sussex - - . - 3436 12 5 Oxford - - - - 3242 2 11 6 Devon - . . - 3220 14 3 7 Gloucester 2827 6 8 8 Dorset - - - - 2656 9 8 9 Berks - - - - 2460 16 1 10 Northamps 1843 7 11 Bucks ... - 1813 7 9 12 Herts .... 1541 13 11 13 Surrey - - - - 1524 4 9 f 14 Warwick 1359 13 8 1 15 Bedford - 1096 12 2 i 1^ Worcester - . - 991 6 ! 17 Hunts - . - - 864 15 4 18 Middlesex 754 7 8 1 19 Leicester 736 3 20 Cornwall . . - 662 1 4 21 Derby - . - - 461 4 Generally speaking, then, we may say that the east and south of England contained the richest, best tilled, and most populous parts of the country. Their downs and wolds afforded good pasturage for sheep and cattle, while the woods in every district formed excellent fattening grounds for swine, of which large numbers were kept. The hollows at the foot of the downs in the south and west, the river flats of the eastern counties, and the low gravel hills in other parts contained the best and easiest land to work. The chief towns ^ were London, Bristol, Norwich, Lincoln, ^ Curiously enough, London, Bristol, and Winchester do not appear separately in the survey, but are only mentioned casually. For other important towns, c/. p. 89. 70 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Oxford, York, Exeter, and Winchester ; and Dover was also a place of considerable importance. But they were almost insignificant if we compare them with their modem dimensions. York had only some 1600 houses;^ Norwich boasted not more than 1320 burgesses; and it has been estimated that, generally speaking, from 7000 to 10,000 people in all was *' the population of a first class town."^ They were, in fact, trading centres rather than seats of manufactur- ing industry. Although comparatively unimportant at the time of Domesday, they began to increase very much in pros- perity soon afterwards. There are 9250 manors enumerated in Domesday, and all except the towns above mentioned were practically what we should now call villages of no great size. § 37. The Manors and Lords of the Manors. Of course each of these manors, after the Norman Conquest, was held by a " lord," who in turn held it more or less re- motely from the King. It is, in fact, the distinguishing feature of the Conquest, that William the Norman made him- self the supreme landowner of the country, so that all land was held under him.^ He himself also, as a private land- owner, held a large number of manors, which were farmed by his bailiflfs, and for each of these manors he was there- fore in a double sense the lord. But the majority of the manors in the country were held by his followers, the Norman nobles, and nearly all of them had several manors each. Now it was impossible for a noble to look after all his manors himself, even if he had wished it, since by William's cautious policy their lands had been assigned to them in various widely separated districts,* and some of them, again, had so many manors that personal supervision was impossible.^ Nor was it always advisable to leave them merely to the care of bailiffs, and, therefore, naturally the great landowners used to sub-let some of their manors to ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry y i. 166. - Pearson, Hist, of Eng., i. 381. 8 Taswell-Langmead, Const. Hist., ch. ii. p. 49; Stubbs, I. ch. ix. p. 274. 4 Stubbs, i. p. 272. ° Robert of Mortain held the largest number — viz., 793; but Odo of Bayeux had 439, and Alan of Brittany 442. The ancient demesne of the Crown consisted of 1422. Ellis, i. 226, 226. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 71 other tenants — often to Englishmen who had submitted to the Norman Conquest. The nobles who held their land direct from the King were called tenants-in-chief, and those to whom they sub-let it were called tenants-in- rroesne. But when a noble let a manor to a tenant-in- mesne, this tenant then for all practical purposes took his place, and became the " lord " of that manor. Thus, then, we find various kinds of manors — some owned directly by the King, others by the great nobles, and others again held by tenants-in-mesne. For instance, in the Domesday of Oxfordshire,^ we find that one Milo Crispin, a tenant-in- chief, held a large number of manors from the King, but also let many to sub-tenants, that of Cuxham, e.g., being let to Alured, who was therefore its lord. So, too, in War- wickshire, the manor of Estone (now Aston) was one of those belonging to William Fitz-Ansculf, but he had let it to Godmund, an Englishman, who was therefore *' lord of the manor of Estone." In many cases the lordship of a manor was vested to a monastery or abbey; in fact, it is said that the Church held rather more than one-fifth of the whole land of the kingdom.^ § 38. The Inhabitants of the Manor, The lord of the manor was a person of great importance, but of very varying social position. The great nobles, such as Odo of Bayeux, whose rent roll was well over £3000 a year (an enormous sum for those days), or Robert of Mortain, who numbered his manors not by the score but by the hundred, held, of course, a rank equal to the noblest and richest of the Dukes of the present day. But there was a large number of lesser nobles, whose income varied from £300 to £500 a year, and also many county gentle- men, as we should call them, who, though tenants-in-chief and lords of manors, had a comparatively small income.^ } See the survey for Oxfordshire in any reprint. 2 Pearson reckons : the Crown held i, the Church t\, and the barons the remaining ^ ; Hist. ofEng., i. 383. ^ " Five to twenty pounds a year was no uncommon income for a gentle- man" (Pearson, Hist, of Eng., i. 384), but this must be multiplied by 20 at least to give any idea of its value in modern figures. 72 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Besides the lord himself (whether King, noble, or sub- tenant), with his personal retainers, and generally a parish priest or some monks, there were three distinct classes of inhabitants — (1) First came the villani or villeins, who formed about 38 per cent.^ of the total population recorded in Domesday, and were by far the most numerous and widely-spread class.^ Their holdings differed in size, but on the average we may take them as occupying a virgate or yardland, which is equivalent to some 30 acres of arable land, and, of course, their holdings were scattered in plots among the common fields of the manor. The villeins also had a house in the village, and were often called virgarii or yardlingSj from holding a virgate of land. (2) Next to the villeins came the cottars, or hordars,^ a class distinct from and below the former, who probably held only some 5 or 10 acres of land and a cottage, and did not even possess a plough, much less a team of oxen apiece, but had to combine among themselves for the purpose of ploughing. They form 32 per cent, of the Domesday population. Finally came (3) the slaves, who were much fewer in numbers than is commonly supposed, forming only 9 per cent, of the Domesday population.* Less than a century after the Conquest these disappear, and merge into the cottars. They should not be confused with either villeins or bordars, but Ellis is probably right in supposing that the servi correspond to the Saxon theow or esne, while the viUeins correspond to the ceorls or churls, and that under the Norman system there was a continual approximation going on between them, the churls becoming degraded, and the position of the theows being improved, so that both were brought nearer together in the social scale. ^ ^ The percentages are given by Seebohm, Village Community, p. 86. 2 Ellis tabulates 108,407 (Domesday, ii. 511). 3 See Ellis, Domesday, ii. 511, and Birch, Domesday, pp. 141 and 164; also Ashley, Economic History, I. i. p. 18. Ellis tabulates 82,119 bordars, 1749 " coseets," and 5054 cotarii. The terms coseet, cotsedae, coscez, cozets, coteri, cotmanni, cotarii seem to be used more or less of the same class. The exact status of the bordar and cottar has been the subject of much discussion, but probably the real distinction between them was very slight. * In Ellis (ii. 511), 25,156 servi. 5 Cf. Birch, Domesday, p. 170 ; Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xi. p. 428. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 73 § 39. The Condition of these Inhabitants, The chief feature of the social condition of these classes of people was that they were subject to a lord. They each depended upon a superior, and no man could be either lordless or landless, for all persons in villeinage^ which in- cluded every one below the lord of the manor, were subject to a master, and bound to the land, except, of course, " free tenants " (p. 75). But even against their lord the villeins had certain rights which were to be recognised ; ^ and they had, besides, many comforts and little responsibility, except to pay their dues to their lord. Moreover, it was possible for a villein to purchase a remission of his services, and become a " free tenant ; " or he might become such by residing in a town for a year and a day, and being a member of a town gild, as long as during that period he was unclaimed by his lord. 2 And in course of time the villein's position came to be this — he owed his lord the customary services (p. 75) whereby his lord's land was cultivated; but his lord could not refuse him his customary rights in return — " his house and lands, and rights of wood and hay " ^ — and in relation to every one but his lord he was a perfectly free citizen. His condition tended to improve * (at least in an economic sense), and by the time of the Great Plague (1348) a large number of villeins had become actually free, having commuted their services for money-payments.^ What these services were we shall now explain. But, finally, it should be pointed out that the state of villeinage and of serfage was practically the same thing in two aspects ; the first implying the fact that the villein was bound to the soil, the second that he was subject to the master. A serf ^ Vinogradoff, V. in E., pp. 174, 176. The lord could even be fined for not fulfilling his village duties. Gorame, Vill. Comm., p. 117. 2 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ch. xi. p. 421. 3 Stubbs, II. xvi. p. 453. '' Seebohra in £Jng. Hist. Review, July 1892, vol. vii. 27, p. 457, who agrees with Thorold Rogers. Dr Stubbs and others hold a quite contrary view {Const. Hist., i. p. 427), but this is because they take into account only the legal status, not the economic condition of the villein. ^ Rogers, Six CenturieSy p. 253. The process of commutation had probably begun before the Conquest. Ashley, Econ. Hist., I. ch. i. p. 22. 74 . INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was not a slave ; and, as we saw above, slaves became extinct soon after the Norman Conquest. § 40.. Services due to the Lord from his Tenants in Villeinage. Under the manorial system rent was paid in a very different manner from that in which it is paid to-day, for it was a rent not so much of money, though that was employed, as of services. The services thus rendered by tenants in villeinage, whether villeins or cottars, may be divided, although they present much variety, into week- worh^ and boon-days or work on special days.^ The week- work consisted of ploughing or reaping, or doing some other agricultural work for the lord of the manor for two or three days in the week, or at fixed times, such as at harvest ; while boon-day work was rendered at times not fixed, but whenever the lord of the manor might require it, though the number of boon-days in a year was limited.^ When, however, the villein or cottar had performed these liabilities, he was quite free to do work on his own land, or, for that matter, on anyone else's land, as indeed the cottars frequently did, for they had not much land of their own, and, therefore, often had time and labour to spare. It was from this cottar class with time to spare that a distinct wage-earning class,* like our modem labourers, arose, who lived almost entirely by wages. We shall hear more of them later on, but at the time of the Conquest not many such existed. § 41. Money Payments and Rents, It was also usual for a tenant, besides rendering these servile services, to pay his lord a small rent either in money or kind, generally in both. Thus, on Cuxham manor,^ we find a villein (or serf) paying his lord Jd. on November 12th every year, and Id. whenever he brews. He also pays, in ^ " Wic-weorce," Rectitudines, 375 (Schmid). ^ Seebohm, V. C, 41, 78. ' At least by custom ; Seebohm, p. 79. * Thorold Rogers, Hist of Agric, ii. 329, with his customary complete- ness, gives many instances of rates at which these farm servants were hired, including ploughmen, carters, shepherds, gardeners, cowherds, &c. , &c ^ Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 40. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 75 kind, 1 quarter of seed -wheat at Michaelmas ; 1 peck of wheat, 4 bushels of oats, and 3 hens on November 12th ; also 1 cock and 2 hdns, and 2d. worth of bread every Christmas. His 8eTvice\ are — to plough and till |-acre of the lord's land, to giv6 3 days' labour at harvest, and other days when required by the bailift'. This was the rent for about 12 or 15 acres of land (half a virgate), and, upon a calculation of the worth of labour and provisions at that time (end of thirteenth century), it comes to about 6d. an acre for his land and 3s. a year for his house and the land about it (curtilage). § 42. Free Tenants. SoJce-men. So far mention has been made only of tenants in villein- age ; but in the Domesday Book we find another class of tenants, called free,^ who had to pay a fixed rent, either in money or kind, and sometimes in labour. This rent was fixed and unalterable in amount, and they were masters of their own actions as soon as it was paid. They were not like the villeins, bound to the soil, but could transfer their holdings, or even quit the manor if they liked. They were, however, subject to their lord's jurisdiction in matters of law, and hence were called soke-men (from soke or soc = jurisdiction exercised by a lord).^ They also were bound to give military service when called upon, which the villeinage tenants had not to give. If they had any services to render, these were generally commuted into money payments ; and here we may observe that there was a constant tendency ^ from the Conquest to the time of the Great Plague (1348) towards this commutation. Villeins also could, and did frequently, commute their labour rents for money rents. In Domesday we find that the Eastern and East-central counties * were those in which " free " tenants or soke-men 1 Liheri homines, aochemanni ; cf. Seebohm, V. 0., pp. 87, 88. ^ /5_ ' The whole of the services, both week- work and boon-days, are found occasionally commuted as early as 1240 ; Ashley, Econ. Hist. ,1. c. , i. p. 31. Complete commutation became general by the reign of Edward II. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 218, ^ Ellis gives 10,097 liberi homines, of which more than half (5344) were 76 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND were most prevalent. There they form from 27 to 45 per cent, of the inhabitants of those parts, though, taking all England into view, they only form 4 per cent, of the total population.^ It is almost certain that they were of Danish or (later) of Norman origin ; for it is in the Danish districts that they are chiefly found, and their position is exceptional and privileged. The number of free tenants, however, was constantly increasing, even among tenants in villeinage, for the lord often found it more useful to have money, and was willing to allow commutation of services ; or, again, he might prefer not to cultivate all his own land (his demesne), but to let it for a fixed money rent not only to a freeman but to a villein ^ to do what he could with it, and thus the villein became a free man, while the lord was sure of a fixed sum from his land every year, whether the harvest were good or bad. § 43. TJie Distinction between Free and Unfree Tenants. The classification of the inhabitants of the manors which we have just examined is based upon the classification of Domesday. But, like that of Domesday, though clear in its main features, it is rough and even artificial. In fact, being drawn up for the purposes of a fiscal survey, the Domesday inquirers classed the various kinds of tenants under heads " too few and simple to be accurate." In Domesday the demesne land is distinguished from land held " in villeinage," and the Book does not recognise free tenants (lihere tenentes) on land in villeinage, because, for the purposes of the survey, such tenants were practically villeins, and, therefore, '* unfree." But, as a matter of fact, there were in those times many people whom Domesday regarded simply as villani who were really more free than ordinary villeins.^ But this the Norman surveyors, and in Suffolk ; also 2041 lihiri homines commendati (1895 in Suffolk), and no less than 23,072 aochemanni. Introd., pp. 511-514. ^ See also the maps in Seebohm, V. G., p. 86. 2 Ashley, Econ. Hist. , I. i. p. 27, who quotes the case of Ralph de Diceto in Domesday of St PavVs, 114. ^For instance, free men often took, in addition to their own land, a villein holding with the services attached to it, but still preserved their personal freedom. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 77 the Norman lawyers of the same period, could not under- stand.^ They were inclined to follow the theory of Roman Law, which recognised no middle position between freedom and slavery. As a matter of fact, we notice after the Conquest a continual attempt to degrade the villein in the eyes of the law by accentuating all the servile elements in his condition, and ignoring the very numerous elements that betoken some kind of freedom. It is no wonder, then, that we find a persistent tradition, to which modern investigation gives no slight support, to the effect that the freedom of the villein was greater in Saxon than in Norman times.^ It is even held ^ that the privileged socmen represent a state of freedom that at one time was the normal condition of villeins. However this may be, we may arrive with some certainty at the conclusions already indicated * : (1) An analysis of the legal evidence of Norman times shows that the classification of society into villeins (or " unfree " men) and freeholders is comparatively late and artificial.^ (2) For there existed between these two clearly- marked classes a large body of "customary" freeholders,^ and from these customary holders the ranks of the villeins were constantly recruited, as the legal minds of the day tended to debase the condition of freedom which the custom- ary holders possessed. But (3) originally the customary freeholders formed the main bulk of the population. Now, the work of the statesmen and lawyers of Norman times tended to change the " customary " freedom of the villein into an almost complete servitude from the legal point of view.^ But, on the other hand, economic forces were at work which tended inevitably to give the villein more and more practical, if not legal, freedom. The advan- tages of a settled government, the extension of commerce and manufactures, and the prosperity gained thereby under ^ Domesday even regarded the free men in Kent and in Danish manors in Essex as vUlani. Vinogradoff, V. in E. , p. 208. ^ Vinogradoflf, V. in E., p. 135, though Seebohm rather doubts it ; see his criticism in Eng. Hist. Review, July 1892, p. 449. 3 VinogradoflF, p. 136. * P. 56. ® Villeinage in England, pp. 177, 220. ^ See p. 66 above. "^ Cf. Vinogradoff, V. in E. , p. 45, and note. 7^ INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the cover of the law and order established very soon after the Conquest, all gave back to the villein tenants on the economic and industrial side far more than the lawyers took away in legal definitions and status.^ ^The economic efifects of the new industry, commerce, and prosperity became the source of a practical freedom ,2 which existed none the less surely though it was persistently ignored by the lawyers ; and this practical freedom grew greater and greater, till at last, in spite of legal definitions, villeinage became a state more of antiquarian than of actual interest. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 opened the eyes of England to this fact, and from that year the death-knell of villeinage as a practical institution was already sounded. § 44. Rlustrations of Manors from Domesday. But this is greatly to anticipate the story of industrial development. We must return to the manors of Norman days, and it will perhaps be well to give two illustrations drawn from the Domesday Book (eleventh century) and from bailiffs' accounts of a later period (end of thirteenth century). First, we will take a manor in Warwickshire in the Domesday Survey ^ (1089) — Estone, now Aston, near Bir- mingham. It was one of a number belonging to William, the son of Ansculf, who was tenant-in-chief, but had let it to one Godmund, a sub-tenant, or tenant-in-mesne. The Survey runs — " William Fitz-Ansculf holds of the King Estone, and Godmund of him. There are 8 hides.* The arable employs 20 ploughs; in the demesne the arable employs 6 ploughs, but now there are no ploughs. There are 30 villeins with a priest, and 1 bondsman, and 12 bordars (i.e., cottars). They have 18 ploughs. A mill pays 1 This follows the view of Seebohm {cf. his remarks in Eng. Hist. Bev., July 1892, p. 457). 2 A serf or villein could in later days even become a knight, as did Sir Robert Sale, or a bishop, as did Grostete of Lincoln Rogers, Six Cen- turies, p. 32. ^ Domesday of Warwick, q.v. * A hide varied in size, and was (after the Conquest) equal to a carucate, which might be anything from 80 to 120 or 180 acres. See Cunningham, Growth of Enrj. Industry , i. 120, and cf. note 1, p. 65 above. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 79 three shillings. The woodland is three miles long and half-a- mile broad. It was worth £4 ; now 100 shillings." Here we have a good example of a manor held by a sub- tenant, and containing all the three classes mentioned be- fore in this chapter — villeins, cottars, and slaves (i.e., bonds- men). The whole manor must have been about 5000 acres, of which 1000 were probably arable land, which was of course parcelled out in strips among the villeins, the lord, and the priest. As there were only 18 ploughs among 30 villeins, it is evident that some of them at least had to use a plough and oxen in common. The demesne land does not seem to have been well cultivated by Godmund the lord, for there were no ploughs on it, though it was large enough to employ six. Perhaps Godmund, being an Englishman, had been fighting the Normans in the days of Harold, and had let it go out of cultivation, or perhaps the former owner had died in the war, and Godmund had rented the land from the Norman noble to whom William gave it. § 45. Cuxham Manor in the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries. Our second illustration can be described at two periods of its existence — at the time of Domesday and 200 years later. It was only a small manor of some 500 acres, and was held by a sub-tenant from a Norman tenant-in-chief, Milo Crispin. It is found in the Oxfordshire Domesday, in the list of lands belonging to Milo Crispin. The Survey says : " Alured [the sub-tenant] now holds 5 hides for a manor in Cuxham. Land for 4 ploughs ; now in the demesne, 2 ploughs and 4 bondsmen. And 7 villeins with 4 bordars have 3 ploughs. There are 3 mills of 18 shillings ; and 18 acres of meadow. It was worth £3, now £6." Here, again, the three classes of villeins, cottars or bordars, and slaves are represented. The manor was evidently a good one, for though smaller than Estone, it was worth more, and has three mills and good meadow land as well. Now, by the end of the thirteenth century this manor had passed into the hands of Merton College, Oxford, which then represented the lord, but farmed it by 8o INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND means of a bailifif. Professor Thorold Rogers gives us a description of it/ drawn from the annual accounts of this bailiflF, which he examined along with many others from other manors. We find one or two changes have taken place, for the bondsmen have entirely disappeared, as indeed they did in less than a century after the Conquest all through the land. The number of villeins and bordars has increased, for there are now 13 villeins and 8 cottars and 1 free tenant. There is also a prior, who holds land (6 acres) in the manor but does not live in it ; also two other tenants, who do not live in the manor, but hold " a quarter of a knight's fee " (here some 40 or 50 acres) — a knight's fee ^ comprising an area of land varying from 2 hides to 4 or even 6 hides, but in any case worth some £20. As the Cuxham land was good, the quantity necessary for the valuation of a fee would probably be only the small hide or carucate of 80 acres, and the quarter of it, of course, 20 acres or a little more. The 13 serfs hold 170 acres, but the 8 cottars only 30 acres, including their tenements. The free tenant holds 12 J acres, and Merton College as lord of the manor some 240 acres of demesne. There are now two mills instead of three, one belonging to the prior and the other to another tenant There were alto-^ gether, counting the families of the villeins and cottars, but not the two tenants of military fees, about 60 or 70 inhabitants, the most important being the college bailiff and the miller. § 46. ^ Village of the Eleventh Century. Now in both these country manors, as in all others, the central feature would be the dwelling of the lord, or manor- house. It was substantially built, and served as a court- house for the sittings of the court baron and the court leet} * Six Genturies, p. 41. '^It is very difficult to state exactly what a knight's fee really was; Stubbs, Const. Hist, I. xi. p. 431. Cf. Pearson, Early and Middle Ages, i. 375, and ii. 463, who puts it at about 6 hides, or a rental of £20. 2 Manorial Courts. — The court baron was composed of a kind of jury of freeholders, and was concerned with civil proceedings. The court lett was composed of all tenants, both free and serf, who acted as a jury in criminal cases, minor oflFences, and so forth. Both courts were presided DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 8l If the lord did not live in it, his bailiff did so, and perhaps the lord would come occasionally himself to hold these courts, or his bailiff might preside. Near the manor- house generally stood the church, often large for the size of the village, because the nave was frequently used as a town-hall for meetings or for markets.^ Then there would be the house of the priest, possibly in the demesne ; and after these two the most important building was the miU, which, if there was a stream, would be placed on its banks in order to use the water-power. The rest of the tenants generally inhabited the principal street or road * of the village, near the stream, if one ran through the place. The average population of an eleventh century village must have been about 150 persons.^ The houses of these villages were poor and dirty, not always made of stone, and never (tiU the fifteenth century) of brick,* but built of posts wattled and plastered with clay or mud,** with an upper storey of poles reached by a ladder. The articles of furniture would be very coarse and few, being necessarily of home manufacture ; a few rafters or poles overhead, a bacon-rack, and agricultural tools being the most conspicuous objects. Chimneys were unknown, except in the manor- houses, and so too were windows, and the floor was of bare earth. Outside the door was the " mixen," a collection of every kind of manure and refuse,^ which must have ren- dered the village street alike unsavoury, unsightly, and over by the lord of the manor or his bailiflF. Thus local discipline and law was concentrated in the hands of the inhabitants of the parish themselves, and the manorial courts were a very useful means of education in local self-government. Unfortunately their power, utility, and educational influence declined with the decay of the whole manorial system. Gf, Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 63 and 420 ; Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xi. 399 ; Maitland, Select Pleas, I. Ixv. j and VinogradoflF, V. in K, pp. 362, 365, and ch. V. of Essay II. ^Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 66. ^Gomme, Vill. Comm., p. 173. ^We can easily compute this by dividing the Domesday population (283,342) by the number of manors (9250), which gives about 30 able-bodied men per village, or 150 persons if we multiply by five, * Rogers, Econ. Interpretation oj History, p. 279. ^Of. Gomme, Vill. Comm., p. 44. • This is very noticeable in certain villages of the Belgian Ardennes — e.g., Sommifere, near Dinant. F 82 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND unwholesome. But though their life was rude and rough, it seems that the villagers were fairly happy, and, considering all things, not much worse off than their descendants are now.^ Of course it is very difficult to compare the life of different ages, especially of periods so diverse as the eleventh or thirteenth century and the nineteenth. But it would be true to say that a mediaeval labourer was often better off as regards food ^ than the unskilled labourer of to-day, though, on the other hand, he may have been worse clad and worse housed. One thing, perhaps, balances another. Yet probably the social life of the mediaeval village, with its active manor courts and parish councils, was more interesting than that of a nineteenth century country parish, and the villager, though a villein, had a greater voice in parish affairs than his modern repre- sentative, except quite recently, possessed. It is necessary, in order to complete our sketch of the manorial system from the time of the Conquest onwards, to understand how the land was divided up. We may say that there were seven kinds of land altogether. (1) First came the lord's land round about the manor-house, the demesne land, which was strictly his own, and generally cultivated in early times by himself or his bailiff. All other land held by tenants was called land in villeinage. (2) Next came the arable land of the village, held by the tenants in common fields.^ Now these fields were all divided up into many strips, and tenants held their strips generally in quite different places, all mixed up in any order * ^ I am inclined to follow the view of Thorold Rogers in this {cf. Six Cen- turies, pp. 68, 69), with whom Dr Cunningham, after all, practically agrees (Eng. Industry, i. 275). In estimating comparative prosperity, we must regard the possibilities of each age, and how far the villager attained them then or can do so now. Almost certainly he came nearer to such possibilities as there were than his modem brother does. Hasty denials of mediaeval prosperity and comfort only betoken ignorance. '^Cunningham, i. 276. 3 Seebohm, Vill. Gomm. , pp. 1 -27, and the maps there ; Gomme, Village Com- munity, pp. 194, 166 ; Cunningham, Eng. Industry and Commerce, i. 70, 71. * " A single farmer might have to cut his portion of grass from twenty different places, though the tenants frequently accommodated one another by exchanging allotments when it was convenient to do so." Gomme, Vill. Comm., p. 166. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 83 {cf. diagram, where the tenants are marked A, B, C, &c.). The lord ^ and the parson might also have a few strips in these fields. There were at least three fields, in order to allow the rotation of crops mentioned before (p. 40). Each tenant held his strip only till harvest, after which all fences and divisions were taken away, and the cattle turned out to feed on the stubble. (3) Thirdly came the common pasture, for all the tenants. But each tenant was restricted or stinted in the number of cattle that he might pasture,^ lest he should put on too many, and thus not leave enough food for his neighbours' cattle. Sometimes, however, we find pasture without stint, as in Port Meadow at Oxford to this day.2 (4) Then comes the forest or woodland, as in Estone, which belonged to the lord, who owned all the timber. But the tenants had rights, such as the right of lopping and topping certain trees, collecting fallen branches for fuel, and the right of " pannage " — i.e., of turning cattle, especially swine, into the woods to pick up what food they ■could. (5) There was also in most manors what is called the waste — i.e., uncultivated land, affording rough pasture, and on which the tenants had the right of cutting turf and bracken for fuel and fodder. Then near the stream there would perhaps be some (6) Meadow land, as at Cuxham, but this generally belonged to the lord, who, if he let it out, always charged an extra rent (and often a very high one),* for it was very valuable as affording a good supply of hay for the winter. Lastly, if the tenant could afibrd it, and wanted to have other land besides the common fields, where he could let his cattle lie, or to cultivate the ground more carefully, he could occupy (7) a close, or a portion of land specially marked off and let separately.^ The lord always had a close on his demesne, and the chief tenants would generally have one or two as well. The close land was of course rented more highly than land in the common fields. The accompanying diagram shows a typical manor, held by a sub-tenant from a tenant-in-chief, who holds it of the king. It contains all the different kinds of land, though, ^ Vinogradoff, V. in E.y p. 406. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 90. 3 /&., p. 74. 4 lb., p. 73. ° /6., P 89. 84 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of course, they did not always all exist in one manor. It also shows the manor-house, church, mill, and village. The King (supreme landlord). Tenant-in- CHIEF, owning various manors. I A Sub-tenant, or tenant-in-mesne, the lord of the maaor below. Woodland Wtuta Wast9 €■ o"2 Wooduuui '"^V o ^ ^ Common pasture n^ q Common Helda with tenants* strips A Meadow Landh •st* eft' / ? ^ g* (^ Q> § 47. The Decay of the Manorial System. Such, then, was the manorial village and the manorial system generally in the eleventh century, and thus it lasted DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 85 for two or three centuries more. But in course of time it died out, though survivals of it last even to our own day. The decay of this social and economic system begins most clearly and markedly with the changes made by the Black Death (1348), and by the social revolution which followed it, of which the Peasants' Revolt was the first and most startling symptom (c/. ch. xii.). The legisla- tion of Edward I. forms, again, another epoch from which to date the decay of manorial institutions. He laid the foundations of a system of national instead of local regu- lations for industry, and from that time forward the essentially local arrangements of the manors began to lose both their necessity and their utility.^ As Dr Cunningham says — " In regard to commerce, manufactures, and to agri- culture alike, the local authorities were gradually overtaken and superseded by the increasing activity of Parliament, till, in the time of Elizabeth, the work was practically finished." 2 The essentially local and personal relations of the manor gave way to the more general and impersonal relations of national government and national economy. ^ Cunningham, Industry and Commercey i. pp. 241-245. * 76., p. 243. CHAPTER VI THE TOWNS AND THE GILDS § 48. The Origin of the Towns. As in the case of the village, so also the town, in the modem sense of the word, had its origin in the ^primitive settlements of the people. The only differ- ence between a town and a village lay, originally, in the number of inhabitants, and in the fact that the town was a more defensible place than the rural settlement, since it probably had a rampart or a moat surrounding it instead of the mere hedges which ran round the villages.^ It was simply in the Anglo-Saxon period a more strictly organised form of the village community. ^ In itself it was merely a manor or group of manors ; as Professor Freeman puts it, one part of the district where men lived closer together than elsewhere.^ The town had at first a constitution .like that of the primitive village, but its inhabitants had gradually gained certain rights and functions of a special nature.* These rights and privileges had sometimes been received from the lord of the manor on which the town had grown up ^ ; for towns, especially provincial towns, ^ were often at first only dependent manors, which gained safety and solidity under the protection of some great noble, prelate, or the king himself;^ who finally would grant the town thus formed a charter.^ 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. v. 92. The Anglo-Saxons called them " burh'- — i.e., "boroughs." ^ 76. * Norman Conquest, v. p. 470. * Thus Lincoln, Stamford, and other towns had certain rights of juris- diction, sac and soc ; Domesday (Lincoln). '^ In other cases they were probably the inherited rights of a free com- munity. ' Stubbs, Const. Hist., 1. v. p. 93, who quotes examples of the eorles tun, eyninges burh, cyninges tun. ' This charter would give rights of jurisdiction over the citizens, of taking, toll, &c. ; cf. Stubbs, Const. Hist.^ I. v. 106. Such rights were also granted to private individuals. 86 THE TOWNS AND THE GILDS 87 § 49. Bise of Towns in England. Towns first became important in England towards the end of the Saxon period. Saxon England had never been a settlement of towns, but of villages or manors. But gradually towns developed, though differing widely in the circumstances aad manner of their growth. Some grew up in the fortified camps of the invaders themselves/ as being in a secure position ; some arose from a later occupa- tion of the once sacked and deserted Roman towns.^ Many grew silently in the shadow of a great abbey or monastery.^ Of this class was Oxford, which first came into being round the monasteries of Osney and S. Frideswide. Others clustered round the country houses of some Saxon king or earl.* Several important boroughs owed their rise to the convenience of their site as a port or a trading centre. This was the origin of the growth of Bristol, whose rise resulted directly from trade ;^ and London of course had always been a port of high commercial rank.^ A few other towns, like Scarborough and Grimsby,^ were at first only small havens for fishermen. But all the English towns were far less flourishing before the arrival of the Normans than they afterwards became. The influence of the Danes, however, should be noted as ^ Especially in the case of the Danes ; Cimningham, Growth of Industry , i. 91 ; Green, Hist. o/Eng. People, i. 207. ^ Some of the Roman towns never quite lost their continuity of life ; cf. Jessop, Studies by a Recluse, p. 120, who instances London, Chester, Lincoln, and Exeter ; cf. also Green, History, i. 207. ' Stubbs, I. V. 93 ; Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 471 ; Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 103. * Green {History, i. 207) evidently follows Stubbs, «.a. ' From very early times it had an active trade with Ireland ; q/". Cun- ningham, Growth of Industry, i. 89, note ; and Craik, British Commerce, 1.72. * Probably it was originally a hill-fort ; and its name is said to mean the "hill fort by the water." Its importance in Roman times was very great ; Green, Making of England, p. 3. In Saxon times it was left much to itseK, but hedged in with a ring of Saxon agricultural settlements. Gomme, Village Comm., p. 52. ^ A fair attended by foreign merchants was held in Saxon times on Scarborough beach ; Cunningham, i. 82, n. Grimsby merchants are men- tioned in Rymer, Foedera, 11. i. 110, 133. See also Rogers, Six Centuries, 104. 88 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND promoting the growth of towns. Though undoubtedly pirates, the Danish invaders were often also merchants, and often planted villages at centres suitable for commerce, or stimulated by their trade the growth of places which but for their coming might have remained undeveloped.^ More- over, it is the towns of Danish origin that frequently show the most ancient municipal organisation ; as the records of the five " Danish boroughs " — Nottingham, Derby, Lin- coln, Stamford, and Leicester — go to prove.^ Even to-day near the heart of modern London the Church of St Clement Danes reminds us of those rough seafaring men, half pirates half traders, whose patron saint was Clement with his anchor. 2 § 50. Towns in Domesday. If now we once more go back to our great authority, the survey made by William the Norman, we find that the status of the towns or boroughs is clearly recognised, though they are now regarded as held by the lord of the manor " in demesne," or, in default of a lord, as part of the king's demesne.* Thus Northampton at that time was a town in the king's demesne ; Beverley was held in demesne by the Archbishop of York.^ It was possible, too, that one town might belong to several lords, because it spread over, or was an aggregate of, several manors or townships. Thus Leicester^ seems to have included four manors, which were thus held in demesne by four lords — one by the king, another by the Bishop of Lincoln, another by a noble, Simon de Sen lis, and the fourth by Ivo of Grantmesnil, the sheriff. In later times it was held under one lord. Count Robert of Meulan, who had acquired the four portions for himself. Now, in the Domesday Book there is mention made of forty-one provincial cities or boroughs, most of them being ^ Cunningham, i 88. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ch. v. p. 93. For many years these five towns held together in a confederation which was the backbone of Danish power in the Midlands ; cf. Jessop, Studies, p. 126. ^ For Danish influence see York Powell, Eng. Hist. Review, No. XVII. p. 134. * Stubbs, C They produced also a con- siderable redistribution of wealth in England itself, for the knights and nobles that set out for the Holy Land often mortgaged their lands and never redeemed them, or they perished, and their lands lapsed to the crown or to some mon- astery that took the place of a trustee for the absent owner.* As to foreign trade, our chief authority at this time is the old chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, whose history was published about 1155 A.D.^ Like most historians, even of the present day, he says very little about so insignificant a matter as trade, but the single sentence which he devotes to it is probably of as great value as any other part of his book. , From it we gather that our trade with Germany was extensive, and that we exported lead and tin among the metals ; ^ fish and meat and fat cattle (which seems to point to some improvement in our pastoral economy) ; and, most important of all, " most precious wool," though at that time the English could not weave it properly for themselves. Our ^ Cunningham, i. p. 230. ^ Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. p. 522. ' The Crusades opened up routes rather than followed those already- existing ; c/. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. Iviii. ^ Cf. Gibbon, ut supra. ^ Quoted by Craik, Hist, of Brit. Commerce, i. 105. 'It appears from other authorities also that the export of these two metals must have been large. ** The roofs of the principal churches, palaces, and castles in all parts of Europe are said to have been covered with English lead." Craik, ut supra, i. 105. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE loi imports, however, were very limited, comprising none of the necessaries of Jife, and few of its luxuries beyond silver and foreign furs. Other imports were fine woven cloths, used for the dresses of the nobility ; and, after*^the Crusades began, of rich Eastern stuffs and spices, which were in great demand, and commanded a high price. So, too, did iron, which was necessary for agricultural purposes, as Englishmen had not yet discovered their rich stores of this metal, but had to get it from Spain and the lands on the Baltic shore. ^ Generally speaking, we may say that our imports consisted of articles of greater intrinsic value and scarcity than ouri exports, and thus were fewer in number, though there must! have been some balance to be paid in coin or bullion. But this balance must have been comparatively small, as coined money, though, of course, no longer a rarity, was by no means plentiful, and was very precious. The German merchants certainly paid for English wool in silver.^ § 59. The Trading Clauses in the Great Charter. One great proof of the existence of a fair amount of foreign trade is seen in the clauses which were inserted in the Great Charter (1215), by the influence of the trading class. One enactment secures to foreign merchants free- dom of journeying and of trade throughout the realm,^ and another orders an unifojpaity of weights and measures * to be enforced over the whole kingdom. The growth of town life is seen in the enactment which secures to th( towns the enjoyment of their municipal privileges, their free^ dom from arbitrary taxation, and the regulation of theii own trade.^ The amercement of a freeman, even upon con- viction of felony, was never to include his contenement ; nor his wares, if he were a merchant, nor his w^inage if a villein.^ The exaction of forced labour or of provisions and ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 88 and 151. * Henry of Huntingdon, ut supra. ^ John had already promised this at the commencement of his reign. Maitland, Hist, of London, i. 73-76. It was again laid down in Clause 41 of the Charter. * Magna Carta, § 35. This had already been enjoined in an Assize of Richard I., and again by that King in 1194 (Hoveden, iii 263 ; iv. 33). = Magna Carta, § 13. ^ Magna Carta, § 20. I02 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND chattels without payment by the royal officers was also for- bidden/ and this must have been a great boon to the agricul- tural population. On the other hand, it is very noticeable that the royal officers are not to take money in lieu of military service from those who are willing to perform the service in person, ^ a regulation which shows that commutation for services, military and otherwise, was now very common. The general tone of those clauses of the Great Charter which deal with merchants, or with commerce and industry. Vis certainly remarkable in an age when, on the Continent of Europe at least, the merchant and his calling were generally despised by the " upper classes " ; and it is not a little to the credit of the English nobility of that day that they recognised the value of commerce and industry to the nation, and gave them special attention in the agreement which they forced upon King John. Their conduct showed both breadth and liberality, as compared with that of their Cc'atinental fellow -peers, who throughout Europe were accustomed to oppress and pillage the trader ; ^ nor is it the less creditable because it was actuated by a spirit of enlightened self-interest. The merchant class was now becoming a power in the land, and as such was worth recognising, even by the nobility ; and probably some indi- vidual merchants of influence took care that the interests of their class were not neglected in the Charter of the nation. ^ Magna Carta, §§ 28, 30, 31, 23. These clauses raise the whole question of ** purveyance," i.e., the prerogative enjoyed by the crown of buying up provisions and other necessaries for the use of the royal household at an appraised valuation, and even without the consent of the owner ; also of forcibly impressing the carriages and horses of a subject to do the King's business upon a public road on paying a fixed price. The abuses to which this prerogative gave rise were, of course, many and various, nor was the evil completely suppressed till the prerogative was formally re- signed by Charles II. The prerogative was extended to men's labour as well as their goods. Thus Edward III. granted a commission to William of Walsingham to impress painters for the works at St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, " to be at our wages as long as shall be necessary," and all such as refused were to be imprisoned by the Sheriflf. Edward IV. granted a similar impressment of workers in gold for the royal household. Rymer, t. vi. 417 ; t. xi. 852 ; Hallam, Middle Ages, iii. 149 ; Taswell-Langmead, Const. Hist., p. 132. 2 Magna Carta, § 29. ^ Taswell-Langmead, Const. Hist., p. 132. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE 103 § 60. The Jews in England. Among the mercantile community, moreover, there was a distinct class which also has special recognition in the • Charter, for we find clauses ^ which endeavour to restrict usury as exacted by the Jews — a fact which, while point- t ing to a not unfamiliar aspect of the Hebrew race, also shows their growing importance as an economic factor in mediaeval England. We will, therefore, briefly mention the facts concerning them at this period. The first appearance of the Jews in England may practi- cally be reckoned as occurring at the time of the Norman , Conquest, for immediately after 106G they came in large numbers from Rouen, Caen, and other Norman towns.^ They stood in the peculiar position of being the personal \ property, or " chattels," of the King,^ and a special officer I governed their settlements in various towns. These settle- ' ments were called Jewrj.es, of which those at London, Lin- 1 coin. Bury St Edmunds, and Oxford were at one time fairly [ considerable.* They were protected by the King (for, being | royal " chattels," no one dared interfere with them), and, of i course, paid him for their protection. Their general financial skill was acknowledged by all, and William II. employed them to farm the revenues of vacant sees, while barons i often employed them as stewards of their estates. They were also the leading, if not the only, capitalists of that V time,^ and must have assisted merchants considerably in their enterprises, though only upon a heavy commission.^ After the death of Henry I., the security which they had enjoyed was much weakened, in proportion as the royal power declined in the civil wars, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they were in a precarious position. Stephen and Matilda openly robbed them, Henry 11. (in 1187) demanded one-fourth of their chattels, and Richard I. 1 Magna Carta, §§ 10 and 11. 2 CJraik, Hist. British Commerce^ i. p. 94 ; Bourne, Romance of Trader p. 9. 3 Cunningham, i. p. 145. * Bomance of Trade, p. 10. " Craik, British Commerce, i. 95. ' The rate seems to have been 40 per cent. Cf. Anglo-Jewish Exhibition Papers, 207. I04 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND obtained large sums from them for his crusading extrava- gances. From 1144 to 1189 riots directed against them became common, and the Jewries of many towns were pillaged. In 1194 Richard I. placed their commercial transactions more thoroughly under local officers of the crown. John exploited them to great advantage, and levied heavy tallages upon them, and Henry III. did very much the same. They were expelled ^ from the kingdom in 1290, and before this had greatly sunk from their previous position as the financiers of the crown to that of petty money-lenders to the poor at gross usury. What concerns us more im- mediately to notice in this early period of English history is their temporary usefulness as capitalists in trading trans- actions at a time when capital was not easily accumulated or kept in safety, and as a body from whom the crown could obtain money in times of need without appealing to the nation at large. Their expulsion seems to have been due to an outbreak of fanaticism of more than usual virulence. § 61. Manufactures in this Period: Flemish Weavers. We now turn from the subject of trade and finance to that of manufacturing industry. On doing so, we find that the chief industry is that of weaving coarse woollen cloth. An industry so necessary as this, and one, too, that can be carried on in a simple state of society with such ease as a domestic manufacture, would naturally always exist, even from the most uncivilised times. This, as we saw above,^ had been the case in England. But it is noticeable that, although Henry of Huntingdon mentions the export of " fine ^ It appears that this expulsion of the Jews was not absolutely com- plete, and Jewish tradition gives the year 1358 as the date of final expul- sion ; but in 1410 a Jewish physician, Elias Sabot, was certainly allowed to practise in England. There seems to have been a certain immigra- tion of Jews to England when they were expelled from Spain by Ferdi- nand and Isabella (1492), for there are notices of them recovering debts in English law courts. Their presence in this country was, however, only first publicly sanctioned by Cromwell ; and during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II. they came back here in considerable numbers. Cf. Wolf's Anglo-Jetoish Exhibition Papers, p. 67 ; and my own History of Commerce in Europe, p. 99 ; Craik, British Commerce, i. p. 129 ; Cunning- ham, Eng. Ind., i. pp. 266, 267. * Pp. 6 and 8, above. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE wool" as one of the chief English exports, and although England had always been in a specially favourable position for growing wool, her manufacture of it had not developed to any great extent. Nevertheless it was practised as a domestic industry in every rural and urban community, and at this period already had its gilds — a sure sign of growth. Indeed, one of the oldest craft gilds was that of the London weavers,^ of which we find mention in the time of Henry I. In this reign, too, we first hear of the arrival of Flemish immigrants in this country, who helped largely both then and subsequently in the development of the woollen manufacture. Some Flemings had come over indeed in the days of William the Norman, having been driven from Flanders by an incursion of the sea, and had settled at Carlisle. But Henry I., as we read in Higden's Chronicle, transferred them to Pembrokeshire in 1111 A.D. : " Flandrenses, tempore regis Henrici primi, ad occidentalem Walliae partem, apud Haverford, sunt translati." ^ Traces of them remained till a comparatively recent period,^ and the names of the village of Flemingston, and of the road called the Via Flandrica, running over the crest of the Precelly mountains, afford striking evidence of their settle- ment there, as also does the name Tucking Mill (i.e., cloth- making mill, from German and Flemish tvxh, " a cloth ").* Norfolk also had from early times been the seat of the woollen industry, and had had similar influxes of Flemish weavers. Their immigration does not, however, become im- portant till the reign of Edward III., when we shall find that English cloth manufacture begins to develop considerably.^ In this period, all we can say is that England was more famed for the wool that it grew than for the cloth which it manufactured therefrom, and it had yet to learn most of its improvements from lessons taught by foreigners. Indeed, some have gone so far as to state that weaving as a regular craft was first introduced into England by ^ Cunningham, i. p. 181. ^ Higden, in Gale, Scriptores, Vol. III. p. 210. 3 Of. Holinshed's Chronicle, 1107. * Taylor, Words and Places, p. 186. ** Burnley {Hist, of Wool and Woolcomhing, p. 50) says the distinction between woollen and worsted industry cannot be traced with certainty before the Flemish immigration, though it probably existed in Saxon times. io6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND foreigners at the time of the Norman Conquest/ and that the origin of craft gilds is to be found in the need for com- bination to protect each other that was felt by these foreign artisans when they first settled here.^ But while certain points, in the history of weavers especially, tend to confirm this view, it seems unlikely that there were no gilds formed by Englishmen themselves prior to foreign settlement, although we may readily admit that it is largely to foreigners, and especially to the Flemish, that England owes its early progress in the making of cloth. It is noticeable also that Domesday Book gives evidence of a considerable number of artisans of French or other foreign extraction living in England at the time of the Conquest.^ § 6 2. Economic Appearance of England in this Period, Population. The England of the Domesday Book was very different from anything which we can now conceive, nor did its industrial condition change much during the next century or two. The population was probably under 2,000,000 in all; for we saw that in Domesday Book only 283,242 able-bodied men are enumerated. These, multiplied by five, to include women and children, give 1,400,000 of general population, and allowing for omissions, we shall find two millions rather over than under the mark.* Nor, indeed, could the agricultural and industrial state of the country have supported more.^ /This population was chiefly located in the southern am^ eastern counties,^ which were also politically and socially by far the most important, for the north of England, and especially Yorkshire, had been laid waste by the Conqueror in consequence of its revolt in 1068. The whole country between York and the Tees was ravaged, and the famine which ensued is said to have 1 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 179, 180 (but cf. Ashley, Econ. Hist., i. 83). ^Ib. ^ E.g., at Shrewsbury, Domesday, i. 252 a, 1, Gretford, i. 268 a, 1, Cambridge, i. 189 a, 1. * A calculation three centuries later, based on the assessment for the poll- tax of 1377, gives 2^ millions (Topham, in Archceologia, vii. 337). ° Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 119. * See the map in Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. p. 101. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE 107 carried off 100,000 victims. Indeed, for half a century the land "lay bare of cultivation and of men" for sixty miles northward of York, and for centuries more never fully recovered from this terrible visitation.^ The Domesday Book records district after district and manor after manor in Yorkshire as " waste." ^ In the North-west of England, now the most densely populated part of the country, and in the East, all was fen, moorland, and forest, peopled only by wild animals and lawless men.^ Till the seventeenth cen- tury, in fact, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire were the poorest counties in England ; * and the fens of East Anglia were only reclaimed in 1634. The main ports were London for general trade ; ^ Southampton, for the French trade in wines ; Norwich, for the export wool trade with Flanders, and for imports from the Baltic ; and on the west coast Bristol, which had always been the centre for the western trade in Severn salmon and hides.^ At one time, too, it was the great port for the trade of English slaves who were taken to Ireland, but William the Norman checked that traffic,'' though it lingered till Henry II. conquered Ireland. /For internal trade, market towns, or villages, as we should call them, were gradually springing up. They were nearly always held in demesne by the lord of the manor, who claimed the tolls, though in after years the town bought them of him.^ Some of these markets had existed from Saxon times, as is seen by the prefix "Chipping" { — chepinge, A.S, a market), as in Chipping Norton, Chippingham, and Chepstowe ; others date from a later period, and are known by the prefix " Market," as, e.g.. Market Bosworth.^ But these market towns were very small, and, indeed, only some half-dozen towns in the king- dom had a population above 5000 inhabitants. These were London (40,000), York and Bristol (12,000), Coventry and Plymouth (9000), while Norwich, Lincoln, Salisbury, ^ Freeman, Norman Conquest^ iv. 272. 2 /j ^ y^ 42, 3 Sim. Bun., Oest, Regg., 1079, p. 85, Hinde. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 127. ^ lb., pp. 122-124. « Ih. ' Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 625. 8 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xi. 408. • Taylor, TFords and Places, pp. 394, 395 (ed. 1864). io8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Lynn, and Colchester had from 5000 to 7000 each.i But nevertheless the settlement made by the Norman Conquest had the effect of considerably strengthening the growth of towns,* and we shall see more of their importance in the next period. § 63. General Condition of the Period. Speaking generally for the whole period after the Con- quest, we may say that, though the economic condition of .England was by no means unprosperous, industrial develop- ment was necessarily slow. '" The disputes between Stephen and Maud, and the civil wars of their partisans, the enor- mous drain upon the resources of the country caused by Richard I.'s expenses in carrying on crusades when he should have been ruling his kingdom, and the /equally enormous taxes and bribes paid by the worthless John to the Papal See, could not fail seriously to check national industry. It is no wonder that in John's reign, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, we hear of great discontent throughout all the land, of much misery and poverty, especially in the towns, and of a general feeling of revolt. That miserable monarch was only saved from deposition by his opportune death. Yet with all these evils the economic condition of Eng- land, although depressed, was by no means absolutely unhealthy ; and the following reign (Henry III., 1216-72), /with its comparative peace and leisure, afforded, as we shall see, sufficient opportunity to enable the people to regain a position of general opulence and prosperity, An important change was coming over the industrial history of England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for now we begin to I see manufacturing and other industries arising side by side with agriculture as a new phenomenon,^ and the manufac- turer and artisan was making himself felt as a new power by the side of baron and farmer. This time of quiet pro- gress and industrial growth forms a fitting occasion for the marking out of a new epoch. 1 Ashley, Econ. Hist., 11. i. p. 11. " Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 472. 3 Ashley, Econ. Hist., 11. ii., p. 99. PERIOD III FROM THE THIKTEENTH TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. INCLUDING THE GREAT PLAGUE (1216-1500) CHAPTER VIII AGRICULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND § 64. Introductory. Rise of a Wage-earning Class. The long reign of Henry III., although occasionally troubled by internal dissensions among the barons, was, upon the whole, a prosperous and peaceful time for the people in general, and more especially for those whom historians are pleased to call the lower classes. For by this time a remarkable change had begun to affect the condition of the serfs or villeins, a change already alluded to, by which the villeins became free tenants, subject to a fixed money rent for their holdings. This rent was rapidly becoming a payment in money and not in labour,^ for, as we saw, the lords of the manors were frequently in want of cash, and were ready to sell many of their privileges. The change was at first gradual, but by the time of the Great Plague (1348), money rents were becoming the rule rather than the exception, and though labour rents were not at all obsolete, it was an ill-advised attempt to insist upon them unduly that was the prime cause of Wat Tyler's insurrection (1381). Before the Plague, in fact, villeinage in the old sense was becoming almost extinct, and the peasants, both great and small, had achieved a large measure of freedom. The richer villeins had developed into small farmers, while the poorer villeins, and especially the cottars, had formed a separate class of agricultural labourers, not indeed entirely without land, but depending for their livelihood upon wages paid for helping to cultivate the land of others. The rise of this class, which lived by wages and not by tilling their own land, was due to the ^ The entries in the Hundred Rolls show us that at the end of the thir- teenth century the process of substituting money payments for actual ser- vice had gone a long way ; Cunningham, Growth of IndtiMry^ i. 218. ^ 112 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND fact that cottars and others, not having enough land of their own to occupy their whole time, were free to hire themselves to those who had a larger quantity. Especially would they become labourers at a fixed wage for the lord of a manor when he had commuted his rights to the unpaid services of all his tenants for a fixed money rent. Of course this change came gradually, but its effect is seen subsequently in the difficulties as to wages expressed in the Statutes of Labourers, difficulties which first became serious after the Great Plague. At the end of the thirteenth century we can trace three classes of tenants — (1) Those who had entirely commuted their services for a fixed money rent ; (2) those who gave services or paid money according as their lord preferred ; and (3) those who still paid entirely, or almost entirely, in services.^ § 65. Agriculture the Chief Occupation of the People. Throughout the whole of this period the vast majority of the population were continuously engaged in agricultural pursuits, and this was rendered necessary owing tcTthe very low rate of production consequent upon the primitive methods of agriculture. The production of com was only about four,2 or sometimes eight, bushels per acre, and this naturally had the effect of keeping down the population, at this time still only between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000.^ It is a remarkable fact that even the inhabitants of the towns used at harvest-time to go out into the country to get agricultural work, and people often migrated from one district to another for the same purpose,* just as Irish agri- cultural labourers of to-day are accustomed to cross over to England for the harvesting. Some attention was being paid to sheep farming, and noticeable progress in this branch of industry took place later. One order of monks in particular, 1 See the Hundred Bolls; Rot. Hund., ii. 636, ii. 324, and ii 494. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 119. ' But cf. the discussion between Seebohm and Rogers in Fortnightly Review, II., III., IV., where Seebohm seems to think 5,000,000 possible in 1346. * Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 63. AGRICULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 113 the Cistercians/ used to grow large quantities of wool ; and, indeed, England had almost a monopoly of the wool trade with Flanders (p. 120). But the great increase of sheep-farming occurs rather later, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 2 § 66. Methods of Cultivation. The Capitalist Landlord and his Bailiff. The " Stock and Land " Lease. The agriculture of the early part of this period is de- scribed to us by various writers, of whom we may specially notice three — Walter de Henley, Robert Grossteste of Lincoln, and a third author whose name is unknown. The most noticeable of these is certainly Walter de Henley, whose treatise, called " La Dite de Hosbanderie" and written in French, is still preserved in many manuscripts.^ There is little doubt that he wrote in the early part of the thir- teenth century, and his treatise remained the standard work on agriculture till the appearance of Fitzherbert's in 1523. The treatise by Grossteste of Lincoln is called Rentes Seynt Robert, and was written about 1240 A.D., for the guidance of the Countess of Lincoln in managing her estate and also her household.* It consists of twenty-eight practical maxims, but is more concerned with the household than the farm. The anonymous work, called Husbandry,^ seems to have been specially written for landowners, who at this period were beginning to take care that the accounts of their estates were presented to them in writing, and it lays down the proper methods of drawing up and present- ing the accounts, the receipts and outlay necessary on an estate, and the probable returns from both land and stock. It has a special interest, because it was in the reign of Henry III. that the system of keeping accurate agricultural accounts first came into vogue,^ and it is owing to this fact * Cunningham, Growth of Industry , i. 196 and 547. ^More's Utopia, p. 41. ^ E.g., Oxford, Bodleian, Douce, 98 ; Merton, cccxi. ; British Museum, Add. 6159, and several others. * Pegge, Life of Grossteste, 95. ° Several MSS. exist; e.g., Merton, Oxford, cccxxi. ; British Museum, Add. 6159. ^ Cunningham, English Industry, i. 272 ; Rogers, Six Centuries, 48. Of course it is on these accounts that Rogers' unique History of Agriculture and Prices is based. H 114 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that it has been possible to gain a very clear idea of the agricultural economy of England in the Middle Ages. If we look at a typical manor, we shall find that the arable land in it seems to have been divided fairly equally between the landlord and the manorial tenants, and before the Great Plague the landlord appears to have been not merely a rent-receiver, but a capitalist who cultivated his land by the aid of a bailiff, subject very often to his own personal supervision. Now, the business of a manor was very elaborate, and required a great deal of supervision, and we have an account of the various officers on a large estate given in a small work called Senescalcia} We find three officers specially mentioned — the Seneschal, Bailiff, and " Praepositus." The seneschal was employed on large estates, consisting of many manors, to visit the manors in turn and see that the bailiff of each did his duty ; he there- fore had to know the details and customs of each estate, and what it ought to produce, in order that his lord might receive his full dues from it. The bailiff was the repre- sentative of the lord in single manors, and had the responsi- bility of cultivation of the soil of the demesne land and of agricultural operations generally ; while the " praepositus " was the chief man among the villeins, and shared the responsibility of cultivation with the bailiff, as representing the interests of the tenants. The bailiff had to keep accurate accounts to present to his lord or the seneschal, and it is from these accounts, which were kept with wonderful clearness, neatness, and accuracy, that we derive our knowledge of the agriculture of this period. Tenancies were, of course, of various kinds, as we have already seen (pp. 71, 75), but there is one which came into vogue about this time that specially deserves our attention. In many cases, especially on lands owned by monasteries, the land was held on the " stock and land lease " system,^ whereby the landlord let a certain quantity of stock with the land, for which the tenant, at the expiration of his lease, had to account either in money or kind. An instance of this kind of lease was the practice of the landlord letting * Cunningham, i. 222, ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric, and Prices^ i. 26, AGRICULTURE IN MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND 115 cows to dairy farmers.^ In mediaeval times the person to whom cows were leased for dairy purposes was the deye^ i.e.y dairyman or dairymaid.^ The stock and land lease plan 3 was favourable to the tenant, for it supplied his preliminary want of capital, and if he was fortunate, allowed him often to make considerable profits, and even eventually to purchase an estate for himself, § 67. The Tenant's Communal Land and Closes, It must always be remembered, however, that most of the arable land in a manor was " communal," i.e., each tenant held a certain number of furrows or strips in a common field, the separate divisions being merely marked by a piece of unploughed land, where the grass was allowed to grow. The ownership of these several strips was limited to certain months of the year, generally from Lady Day to Michaelmas, and for the remainder of the year the land was common pasture. This simple and rudimentary system was utterly unsuited to any advanced agriculture. The tenants, how- ever, also possessed '' closes," some for corn, others for pasture and hay. The rent of a close was always higher than that of communal land, being eightpence instead of sixpence per acre, which seems to have been the usual annual charge.* Besides the communal arable land and his close, the husbandman also had access to two or three kinds of common of pasture — (1) a common close for oxen, kine, or other stock, pasture in which is stinted both for landlord and tenant ; (2) the open (" champaign " or *' champion ") country, where the cattle go daily before the herdsmen ; (3) the lord's outwoods, moors, and heaths, where the tenants are stinted but the lord is not.^ Thus the tenant had valuable pasture rights, besides the land he actually rented. But the system of holding arable land in strips must have been very cumbrous and have caused many disputes, since often a tenant would hold a short lease on one strip and a longer lease on another, or * Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 330. '-* The rent charged for cows was 6s. per annum. Rogers, Hist. Agric. , i. 25. ^ For an example, see below, p. 186. * Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 96. ^ lb., iv. 93. Ii6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND confusion of ownership would arise, while in many ways tenure was made insecure, and no encouragement was given to advanced agriculture. § 68. Ploughing. As regards the cultivation of the land, it was generally ploughed three times a year.^ Ordinary ploughing took place in the autumn, the second ploughing in April, the third at midsummer. The furrows were, according to Walter de Henley, a foot apart, and the plough was not to go more than two fingers deep. The ploughing and much other work was done by oxen, which are recommended both by Walter de Henley and by Fitzherbert as being cheaper than horses, and because they could also be used for food when dead.2 The hoeing was undertaken by women, who also worked at harvest time in the fields. In Piers the Plowman' 8 Grede (about 1394 A.D.) we have a description of a small farmer ploughing while his wife leads the oxen : " His wife walked by him with a long goad, in a cutted cote cutted full high." ^ An average yield of something more than six bushels per acre is what Walter de Henley thinks necessary to secure profitable farming.* The chief crops seem to have been wheat, barley, and oats.^ § 69. Stock, Pigs, and Poultry. As to stock, the amount kept was generally rather large, and the agriculturist of the thirteenth century was fully alive to the importance of keeping it,^ since most of his profit came therefrom. Oxen, as we saw, were kept for the plough and draft, but not much stock was fatted for the table, especially as it could not be kept in the winter. There was no attempt to improve breeds of cattle, for the scarcity of winter food (winter roots being unknown till much later) ^ and the general want of means for resisting 1 Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 270 n., and 329. "^ Walter de Henley, quoted in Hist. Agric, i. §28; and Fitzherbert, quoted ib., iv. 41. " Line 4.S.3. * Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 270, note. 5 Ih., i. 26. ^ Ih.,\. 36, and 46-69, and p. 21. ' 7?,.^ ,, 52. AGRICULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 117 the severities of the winter helped to keep all breeds much upon the same level.^ On the other hand, swine were kept in large numbers,^ for every peasant had his pig in his sty, and, indeed, probably lived on salt pork most of the winter. Care was taken with the different breeds.^ The whole of the parish swine were generally put in summer under the charge of one swineherd, who was paid both by the tenants and the lord of the manor.* The keeping of poultry, too, was at the time universal, so much so that they were very rarely bought by anyone, and, when sold, were almost absurdly cheap. ^ This habit of keeping fowls, ducks, and geese must have materially helped the peasant in ekeing out his wages, or in paying that portion of his rent which was paid in kind ; as, e.g,, in the case of the Cuxham tenant (p. 75) who had to pay his lord six fowls in all during the year. Indeed, " poultry rents " were almost universal.^ § 70. Shee'p. This animal is so important in English agriculture that we must devote a special paragraph to it alone. For the sheep was, in the earlier periods of English industrial history, the mainstay of the British farmer, chiefly, of course, owing to the quantity of wool required for export. England had, up to a comparatively recent period, almost a monopoly of the raw wool trade, her only rival being Spain. There were, as mentioned before, a great number of breeds of sheep, and much care was taken to improve them.'^ The fleece, however, was light, being only as an average about two lbs., according to Professor Rogers,^ and the animal was small. The reason of this was that the attempts of the husbandman to improve his breeds were baffled by 1 Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. p. 52. 2 7^,,^ j^ 335^ 3 Walter De Henley, quoted in Hist. Agric, i. 336. ^ The same custom has been observed by the author in Swiss mountain villages, where a common goatherd takes care of the goats of the peasants, being paid so much per goat by each villager, and receiving also board and lodging for a night in turn from each. ^ Rogers, Hist. Aqric. , L 339 ; iv. 58. « 76., i. 339. "^ Ih.y i. 333. « lb., i. 53. ii8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the hardships of the mediaeval winter, and by the preval- ence of disease, especially the rot and scab.^ It is probable that the average loss on the flocks was 20 per cent, a year. They were generally kept under cover from November to April, and fed on coarse hay, wheat, and oat straw, or pea and vetch haulm ; ^ but no winter roots were available. § 71. Increase of Sheep-farming. A great increase of sheep-farming took place after the Great Plague (1348), and this from two causes.^ The rapid increase of woollen manufactures, promoted by Edward III., rendered wool-growing more profitable, while at the same time the scarcity of labour, occasioned by the ravages of the Black Death, and the consequently higher wages demanded, naturally attracted the farmer to an industry which was at once very profitable, and required but little paid labour. So, after the Plague, we find a tendency among large agriculturists to turn ploughed fields into permanent pasture, or, at any rate, to use the same land for pasture and for crops, instead of turning portions of the " waste " into arable land. Consequently, from the begin- ning of the fifteenth century we notice that the agricultural population decreases in proportion as sheep farming in- creases, and the steady change may be traced in numerous preventive statutes till we come to those of Henry VIII. about decayed towns, especially in the Midlands, the south, and the Isle of Wight.* The author of a political song of Henry VI. 's reign declared that our enemies sneered at English sheep- farming and thought it lessened our naval power. ^ Another cause that, in Henry VIII.*s time, had a distinct influence in promoting sheep-farming was probably the lack of capital which made itself felt, owing to the general impoverishment of England in his wasteful reign, and which naturally turned 1 Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 31, 334. 2 Walter de Henley, in Rogers, Rist. Agric, i. 334. ^ Cf. Cunningham, English Industry, i. 361. 4 Cf. 6 Henry VIII., c. 6 ; 7 Henry VIII., c. 1 ; 27 Henry VIII., c. 22 j and 32 Henry VIII., cc 18 and 19. ''From YeLihelle of Englishe Policie, vv. 36, 37. AGRICULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 119 farmers to an industry that required little capital, but gave quick returns.^ We should also add as another cause the rise in prices caused by the discoveries of silver in the New World. § 72. Consequent Increase of Enclosures. One consequence of this more extensive sheep-farming was the great increase in enclosures made by the landlords in the sixteenth century. ^ So great were these encroach- ments and enclosures in north-east Norfolk, that they led, in 1549, to a rebellion against the enclosing system, headed by Ket ; ^ but though more marked perhaps in Henry VIII. 's reign, the practice of sheep-farming had been growing steadily in the previous century. Fortescue, the Lord Chancellor of Henry VI. (about the middle of the fifteenth century), refers to its growth and the prosperity it caused in rural districts * — a prosperity, however, that must have been confined only to the great landowners. We receive other confirmation of this from various statutes designed to prevent the rural population from flowing into the towns, as, for example, the Acts of 1 and 9 Richard II. (1377 and 1385), of 17 Richard IL (1394), promoting the export of corn in hopes of making arable land more valuable.^ Another Act was passed in 1489 (4 Henry VII., c. 16) to keep the rural population from the towns. In fact, it is very clear that at this time a great change was passing over English agriculture, and the old agricultural system was becoming seriously disorganised. But the growth of sheep-farming is also connected with a great economic and industrial develop- ment in England — the rise and progress of cloth manu- factures and of the weaving industry generally, and to this we must now devote our next chapter. ^ Gf. Rogers, Six Centuries, 445. 2 Rogers, Hist. Agric. , iv. 109 ; and Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 362. ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric. , iv. 124 ; Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 428. * Sir John Fortescue wrote a treatise called The Comodytes of England before 1451 ; and his works were edited by Lord Clement ; cf. i. 551. '^At the request of the Commons, Richard "granted licence to all his liege people of the realm of England to carry com out of the same realm to what parts they please them, except to his enemies ;" 17 R. II. , c. 7, CHAPTER IX THE WOOLLEN TRADE AND MANUFACTURES § 73. England's 3fonopoly of Wool. The development of the woollen industry in England is interesting and important for two reasons.^ On the one hand it shows us the origin of the peculiar wealth of our ^country both in the middle ages and later, and on the other it illustrates with great clearness the evolution of our industry generally, an evolution that begins with the rude efforts of prehistoric peoples, passes through the stages of family work and gild work in hand-made industry, till in more recent times it reaches the stage of the machine and the factory. It is also particularly associated with our own country, for in the middle ages England was the chief wool-producing country in the North of Europe. Spain grew wool also,^ but it could not be used alone for every kind of fabric,^ and, besides, it was more difficult to trans- port wool from Spain to Flanders, the seat of the manufac- ture of that article,* than it was to send it across the narrow German Ocean, where swarms of light craft plied constantly between Flanders and the eastern ports of England.^ Hence England had a practical monopoly of the wool trade,^ which was due not only to its favourable i climate and soil, but also to the fact that even at the worst periods of civil war — and they did not last for long — our island was incomparably more pea. , p. 455. The lawyers seem to have been against the freedom of villeins ever since the Norman Conquest. Cf. Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, pp. 134, 150, &c., &c. ^ Of course villeinage did not die out all at once ; nor would it be neces- sary for me to say so, were it not for the perversity of certain critics, who imagine that, because I attach great importance to the Plague and the Peasant's Revolt, I maintain that villeinage ceased suddenly. For sur- vivals, see later, p. 171. CHAPTER Xli THE peasants' REVOLT OF 1381, AND THE SUBSEQUENT CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES § 101. The Place of the Revolt in English History. The Revolt to which allusion has just been made has been described by one of our greatest and most careful his- torians ^ as " one of the most portentous phenomena to be found in the whole of our history " ; nor has the criticism ^ of those who have endeavoured to minimise its results suc- ceeded in depriving it of its historical importance. " The extent of the area over which it spread, the extraordinary rapidity with which intelligence and communication passed between the different sections of the revolt, the variety of cries and causes which combined to produce it, the mystery that pervades its organisation, its sudden collapse and its indirect permanent results, give it a singular importance both constitutionally and socially."^ It is therefore of interest to note the various influences which produced such an uprising, and to examine the various grievances which the villeins of the fourteenth century endeavoured to redress by such revolutionary methods. The revolt was undoubtedly serious, and would certainly have had far more sanguinary consequences, had it occurred later than it actually did. Fortunately the working classes of England were not so utterly ground down beneath the heel of their superiors as was the case across the Channel, and they resented their 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. ch. xvi. p. 449. ^ Of. Ashley's criticism of J. E. Thorold Rogers in The Political Science Quarterly, Vol. IV., No. 3, September 1889. Also Cunningham, Growth of English Industry ^ Vol. I. p. 360. But these historians practically admit all that Rogers really wished to prove, as my quotations show. See below, p. 172. ' Stubbs, ut ante, p. 450. T l6i 1 62 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND injuries sooner, otherwise England might have witnessed a few centuries later that volcanic upheaval of a slow peasantry, enraged by ages of seigneurial oppression, which burst with such temfic and long-contained violence over eighteenth century France. Fortunately, also, the upper classes of England seem to have taken warning in time from what happened in 1381, and did not in actual fact, whatever they may have said and thought, proceed to such foolish extremities as would have infallibly endangered both their property and their position. § 102. New Social Doctrines. By no means the least important among the effects of the i^reat Plague was the spirit of independence which it helped to raise in the breasts of the villeins and labourers, more especially as they now gained some consciousness of the power of labour, and of its value as a prime necessity in the economic life of the nation.^ There was, indeed, a revolutionary spirit in the air in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, and the villeins could not help breath- ing it. ^ The social teaching of the author of Piers the Ploivman, with his outspoken denunciation of those who are called the upper classes,^ the bold religious preaching of Wiklif and the wandering friars, and the marked political assertion of the rights of Parliament by the v^ Good Parlia- ment"^ of 1376, were all manifestations of this spirit. It was natural, too, that, feeling their power as they did, the villeins should become restive when they heard from the followers of Wiklif that, as it was lawful to withdraw tithes from priests who lived in sin, so " servants and tenants may withdraw their services and rents from their lords that live openly a cursed life." * ^ Of. Grower, Vox Clamantis, in Stubbs, u. s., ii. p. 454, where he describes hired labourers of the period of the Revolt, and accuses them of wishing to have too much of their own way. ^ See below, p. 167. I have treated this more at length in English Social Reformers^ pp. 5-2o. 8 Stubbs, C(m8t. Hist., II. ch. xvi. pp. 428-433. "It marked the climax of a long rising excitement," p. 428. * Wiklif, English Works (E.E.T.S.), p. 229, Of Lords and Servants. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 163 § 103. The Coming of the Friars. Wiklif. Such, indeed, was the teaching that Wiklif promulgated, and it was carried throughout all England by that great association of wandering friars which he founded under the title of the " poor priests." ^ These men were like the mendicant friars who had come to England a century before ^ to work in the poorer parts of the English towns ; though Wiklif's priests generally wandered out ^ into the isolated and remote country villages, and spread abroad the independent doctrines and the revolutionary spirit of the times. Spend- ing their lives in moving about among the " upland folk," as the country people were called, clad in coarse, undyed, brown woollen garments, they won the confidence of the peasants, and what is more, helped them to combine in very effectual unions.* They served as messengers between those ,in different parts of the country, having passwords and a secret language of their own.^ Their preaching was similar to that of the celebrated priest of Kent, John Ball, who for twenty years before the great rising (1360-80) openly spoke words like these — ''Good people, things will never be well in England so long as there be villeins and gentlemen. By what right are they whom we call lords greater than we ? On what grounds have they deserved it ? Why do they hold us in serfage ? They have leisure and fine houses : we have pain and labour, and the wind and rain in the fields. And yet it is of us and our toil that these men hold their estate." These searching questions as to the rights of the lords, and the bold but true statement ^ Green, History, i. 474. ^ The Black Friars of Dominic came in 1221, and the Grey Friars of Francis in 1224. Jessop, Coming of the Friars, 32, 34. The Dominicans were "trained men of education addressing themselves mainly to the educated classes " ; the Franciscans appealed to the lowest and poorest class, and worked in the slums of the towns of those days. Ih., 28, 21. ^ Friars and *' poor priests " were found everywhere ; cf. Wylie, England under Henry IV., ch. xvi. * These unions or confederacies are complained of and prohibited (uselessly) by the Statute 1 Rich. II., c. 6 (1377). ^ See the message of John Ball (himself, of course, a priest) to the com- mons of Essex, quoted in Skeat's Preface to Piers the Plowman, p. xxvi., and Green's History, i. p. 475. 1 64 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that it was the villeins and labouring classes who supported — and paid for — their high estate, came closely home to the peasants. They were influenced also by the indepen- dent religious views of the Lollards,^ which encouraged inde- pendent thought in other ways. And this independence of social and religious tenets was hardly calculated to make the villeins bear with equanimity the exactions of their lords after the Great Plague. § 104. The Renewed Exactions of the Landlords, For it must be remembered that the Great Plague did not emancipate the villeins, nor cause the landowners to give up farming on their own account immediately. The process, of course, took a few years, and in these few years the landowners made desperate efforts to avoid paying ' higher wages than formerly for labour. As it had now become costly, they insisted more severely upon the per- I formance by their tenants of such labour dues as were not \yet commuted for money payments.^ They even tried to make those tenants who had emerged from a condition of villeinage to a free tenancy return back to villeinage again,^ with all its old labour dues and casual services. ^If a man could not prove by legal documentary evidence that he held his land in a free tenancy, the landowner might pre- tend he was a villein tenant, and subject to all a villein's services, although these services might long ago have been commuted for a money rent without any legal formality.* ^ Note the complaints against Lollard teaching in the Statute 2 Henry v., I. c. 7. * As Stubbs puts it — "The villeins ignored the Statute [i.e., of labourers], and the lords fell back upon their demesne rights over the villeins" {Const. Hist.y II. ch. xvi. p. 455). The point of view of the lords is expressed, plaintively enough, in the Statute 1 Rich. II., c. 6 — * ' The villeins and land-tenants in villeinage who owe services and customs to the said lords have now lately withdrawn and do daily withdraw their services and customs," &c., &c. ^ " The old rolls were searched, the pedigree of the labourer was tested like the pedigree of the peer, and there was a dread of worse things com- ing " (Stubbs, ut ante, p. 455). * This was no doubt the cause of the particular animosity shown against manorial documents, which in many cases the villeins tried to burn ; cf, Walsingham, Hist. Angl.y i. 455. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 165 There is much reason to believe, moreover, that they abused their power of inflicting " amercements," or fines, upon their tenants in the manor courts for trivial breaches of duty.^ So at least Wiklif ^ and the author of Piers the Plow'tnan^ tell us. The villeins naturally resisted this attempt to make a retrograde movement, which would force them back into the old bondage from which they had redeemed themselves ; * the free tenants ^ supported them, for they knew their turn would come next if the serfs failed ; and the labouring classes in the towns — many of whom had kinsmen in the country, or had been villeins once themselves — eagerly joined the movement^ also, in hopes of bettering their position generally. § 105. Social and Political Questions. Meanwhile, other social and political grievances contri- buted to the general uneasiness. The state of the kingdom, instead of allaying, merely increased the undercurrent of discontent among the lower classes. The Statutes of Labourers,^ by their endeavours to reduce the rates of wages to the old level of the days before the Plague, or to keep the multitudes of wandering labourers in search of work tied down to their own particular localities, only succeeded in widening the gulf and increasing the bitterness between rich and poor. Many of Edward's French con- quests had been lost since the Peace of Bretigny ; the Plague had come again with renewed devastations ; the Parliament ^ Of. Ashley, in his essay on Thorold Rogers in the PoUticcU Science Quarterly, Vol. IV., No. 3, p. 399, who mentions this very point, though he criticises severely Rogers' view of the case. Also cf. Ashley, Econ. Hist., II. ii. 265. 2 Wiklif, English Works (E.E.T.S.), 0/ Lards and Servants, p. 233— "Lords many times do wrongs to poor men by unreasonable amerce- ments." 3 Piers Plowman, Passus C, ix. 1. 37 (Skeat's ed., i. p. 197), *' When ye amercyn any man let mercy be taxer." * "With the teaching of Wiklif in the air, it was natural that the villeins should become restive." Ashley, Pol. Science Quarterly, TV., No. 3, p. 399. ** "The irritation spread to the whole class, whether bond or free." Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 455. « /&., p. 456. ' Above, p. 153. 1 66 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND had unwisely (1376 and 1379) sought to enforce the Statutes of Labourers still more stringently ; ^ the king himself was sinking into a premature old age, the victim of his own profligacy and of the designing ministers and avowed mistresses who surrounded him. His debts and the expenses of his French wars had become a fatal burden upon his own country. His continual levies of tenths and fifteenths upon the produce of the kingdom, especially upon wool, and his taxation of exports and imports, were seriously draining the resources of the nation.^ To meet the expendi- l/ture on war abroad, and on luxury at the court, a poll-tax of I a groat a head was ordained among the last acts of the dying *king,8 who passed away at last in June 1377, robbed of his riugs even on his death-bed by his mistress, Alice Ferrers.^ Richard II., who succeeded to the throne, was a child of only eleven years of age. The war with France was still going on, bringing continual disasters and defeats to the English troops even on our own shores ; ^ and at last, to meet its expenses, Parliament, meeting at Northampton on November 5th, 1380, granted the famous poll-tax which was the immediate cause of the Peasants' Revolt.^ The tax was now made 12d. instead of a groat (4d.), as it had been previously/ and was levied on every person above fifteen years of age.^ Although it was graduated, its lowest limit was yet three times the previous tax, and it was col- lected also in the most odious manner, for the troops who had just returned from France, after the conclusion of peace in January 1381, were clamorous for pay, and, to meet 1 Above, p. 153. 2 Rot, Pari., ii. 310 ; Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 424. ' Hot. Pari. , ii. 364. It was granted by Parliament on February 22, 137.7. ^ Green, History, i. 470. ^ In July and August 1377, the French ravaged the Isle of Wight, and burned Hastings and Rye, and in August 1380 they ravaged the whole of the south coast. Annals of England (Parker), sub anno. « Rot. Pari., iii. 88-90. ^ A graduated poll-tax had been granted in 1379, the lowest tax being a groat on every person over sixteen years of age, while earls paid £4. Rot. Pari, iii. 67, 58. ^ Prince, Parallel History, i. 659 (ed, 1842) ; Hume's History of England, iii. 6 (ed. 1818). THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 167 their demands, the ministers borrowed a large sum from foreign merchants, assigning them this tax in return, and allowing them to appoint their own collectors.^ § 106. The Mutterings of a Storm. This new oppression brought the discontent of the people to a climax. But the discontent had long been making itself felt, and was only waiting for a definite opportunity to burst forth into flame. As we saw,^ the poorer villeins and labourers had long since banded together in trades unions of a secret sort, while the "poor priests" of Wiklif and the " begging friars " ^ liad long been wandering from village to village, carrying the messages of the angry peasants from one to another, and preaching social reform, if not social equality. Quaint letters in rude rhyme passed through the peasant ranks — the voice of " Piers the Plow- man " was making itself heard. Here is an epistle * from John Ball, issued from the prison into which he had been thrown, to the people of Essex — " John the Shepherd, sometime St Mary's priest of York and now of Colchester," it ran, " greeteth well John Nameless, and John the Miller, and John the Carter, and biddeth them beware of guile in the town and stand together in God's name ; and he biddeth Piers the Plowman go to his work, and chastise well Hob the Robber ^ ; and take with you John True-man and all his fellows and no more ; and look sharp and go ahead (loke scharpe you to go on heved) and no more." Some rhyme follows, and the letter concludes — " And so biddeth John Truman and all his fellows." It is obvious that this letter contains a message clearly intelligible to those for whom it was meant, but of no meaning to others, while the obscure references to " Piers the Plowman " would be easily interpreted by the proper readers thereof. Another letter runs — * The story of the collectors' alleged misbehaviour is well known. 2 Above, p. 163. » Chron, Angl., p. 312. * Quoted in Skeat's Introduction (p. xxvi.) to Piers the Plowman. ^ This probably meant that the agricultural labourer is to rise against the lord who was " robbing" him of his rights. i68 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND " John Ball Greeteth you all. And doth for to understand He hath rung your bell. Now right and might ! Will and skill ! Grod speed every dele ! " ^ Such were the hidden messages and passwords that were whispered from one villein to another, or carried by wander- ing friars, throughout the length and breadth of the land, till at length the storm broke, and all at once, in Yorkshire and Lancashire, in Suffolk and Essex, in Kent and in Devon, north, west, east, and south,^ the peasantry of England rose as one man against their masters. § 107. The Storm Breaks Out. The simultaneous nature of the rising leaves us no doubt that it was preconcerted.* The collectors of the poll-tax seem to have been openly opposed first in Essex,^ and when Sir Thomas Belknap, a judge, was sent to punish the rioters, he was obliged to flee for his life. Almost at the same time a workman, named Wat or Walter the Tyler,^ killed a collector who, it is said, insulted his daughter. According to documents in the Public Record Office, " a cry was raised that no tenant should do service or custom to the lords as they had aforetime done," ^ and immediately bands of town workmen in some cases, and of rustics in others, assembled together under the leadership of men with assumed names, such as Jack the Miller and Jack Straw. In Kent they burst open the gaols, seized William de Septvanz the Sheriff, and compelled him to deliver up the taxation rolls, which were promptly burnt.^ But these acts were not the immediate object of the villeins. After 1 Part. 2 "Far more rapidly than the news could fly," says Stubbs, II. xvi. 450. 2 Walsingham, i. 454. Stubbs, tU mcpra, 457. * It seems to have been really John Tyler of Dartford who did this, but Wat Tyler of Maidstone is often confused with him. Cf. Stubbs, p. 456, note. 6 Of. Annals of England (Parker, Oxford, 1876), p. 203. ^ Arch. Cant., iii. 76. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 1381 169 releasing John Ball from Maidstone Gaol, they proceeded, as all know, to London, demanding not merely the abolition of the unjust poll-tax, but (what is significant as showing the real nature of the rising) also the relief of the rural popula- tion from the exactions of their lords.^ It is significant also to note how many clergy were in the ranks of the in- surgents, for in indictments made after the rising ^ we find the chaplain of one church, the sacristan of another, and the clerk of a third, charged with heading mobs that sacked stewards' houses and burnt court-rolls.^ The mass of peasants and others assembled at Blackheath on June 12th, 1381, entered London the following day, then seized the Tower, and murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King's Treasurer. On the 14th the men of Essex met Richard at Mile End, and on the 1 5th the men of Kent had a conference with him at Smithfield, when their chief leader, Wat the Tyler, was slain by the Lord Mayor of London.* The details of those meetings are almost too well known to need repetition here. But the demands of the men of Essex prove clearly the real origin of the movement. " We will that you free us for ever, us and our lands," they asked, " and that we be never named or held as villeins." " I grant it," said the King, with regal diplomacy, and the peasants believed him.^ He gave the same promise to the men of Kent, and it was only after receiving his letters of emancipation ^ that the reformers returned to their homes, though the rising was not yet entirely at an end, for one party certainly remained in arms up to July 1st.'' But the peasants learned very soon how vain a thing it ^ They demanded (1) abolition of bondage, (2) a general pardon, (3) abolition of tolls, (4) the commutation of villein services. See Richard II. 's patent revoking manumissions ; Rymer, Foedera, iv. 216. •2 Cf. Annals, p. 204 ; Bot. Pari., iii. 108. 3 These were the records of the manorial courts held by the lords of the manors. Rot. Pari., iii. 116; Walsingham, Hist. Angl., i. 455. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. p. 458. ^ Walsingham, Hist. Angl., i. 459. ^ "We release you from all bondage." Walsingham, i. 466, 467, and cf. 473. ^ Annals of England, p. 204, note. I/O INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was to put their trust in princes. Within a fortnight (on June 30th) Richard issued a proclamation that all tenants, whether villeins or free, should render all accustomed services as heretofore ; ^ and on July 2nd he formally annulled the charters of freedom,^ a step that was sub- sequently sanctioned by Parliament when it met again on November 5th (5 Richard 11. , c. 6). Special commis- sioners were sent into the country to punish the insurgents,^ and it would seem that as many as 1500 persons were executed by their orders.* Everywhere the peasants and their leaders were put down by the severest measures. Richard marched through Kent and Essex with an army of 40,000 men, ruthlessly punishing all resistance.^ "Villeins you were," he cried, as the men of Essex claimed from him his own royal promise ; " villeins you were, and villeins you are. In bondage you shall abide, and that not your old bondage, but a worse ! " ^ At St Alban's John Ball was hanged on July 15th,^ and so, too, was another leader, one Grind-cobbe, as he was called. But as he died Grind- cobbe uttered the words, which, in spite of king and lords, at last came true — " If I die, I shall die for the cause of the freedom we have won, counting myself happy to end my life by such a martyrdom." ^ § 108. The Result of the Bevolt, And, as a matter of fact, the peasants in reality gained their point. They had to shed their own blood, but they won in the end. The landowners in Parliament certainly refused any notion of compromise at first ; they even prayed the King to ordain " that no bondman nor bondwoman (i.e., no villein) shall place their children at school, as had been done, so as to advance their children in the world by their 1 Rymer, Foedera, iv. 126. ^ lb. 8 Richard himself had to interfere to repress their severity. Rymer, Foed., iv. 133. * Annals, p. 205; Stubbs, quoting Mon. Eveah., p. 33, says that in all 7000 insurgents were executed. 5 Green, History, i. 484. • Walsingham, Hist. Angl., ii. 18. ' Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. p. 452, note. ® Green, History, i. 485. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 171 going into the church."^ They even asked that lords might reclaim villeins from the chartered towns,^ but the king had the sense to refuse both petitions. The poor priests, unlicensed preachers, or " Lollards," were ordered to be arrested or held in strong prison "until they justify them- selves according to the law and reason of Holy Church." ^ But after the first year or two, all these efforts fortunately proved abortive. Villeinage rapidly became practically extinct, and commutation of labour services for money rents" became more and more common.^ Evidence of this is seen in the whole tone of the writings of Fitzherbert, the author of a well-known work, *' On Surveyinge" who, about 1530, instead of regarding the surviving instances of villeinage as quite the natural thing, laments over its continuance as a disgrace to the country — a marvellous change of attitude since 'thie fourtsenth century.^ Almost the last cases of survival occurred under Elizabeth,^ who enfranchised the bondmen on royal estates in 1574, though a few later notices of the custom appear. No doubt some traces of the old order remained for centuries ; indeed, it would have been strange if such had not been the case. Although, for instance, the old manorial system is long since dead, its relics survive among us to-day, and courts leet are still held in many places. Yet no one contends that the manor sur- vives as in the fourteenth century. But, speaking broadly, the peasants achieved their object; the labours of John Ball, Tyler, and Grinde-cobbe were not altogether futile ; and the century that followed the Great Revolt was, on the whole, one of considerable prosperity for the English labourer.'^ ^ Rot. Pari, iii. 294, 296. « Ih. 85 Ric. II., St. 2, c. 5. 4 Stubbs, Gomt. Hist., II. ch. xvi. 463. ^ Cf. Cunningham, i. p. 360, who, however, thinks villeinage did not die out so quickly. «Rymer, /'oed,xv. 731. ^ In this account of the Peasants' Revolt I find myself in agreement with the general conclusions of Thorold Rogers, though the careful reader will notice that none of the references in the footnotes refer to his works, but are taken from other authorities. Some modem economic historians have criticised (with more or less severity) the conclusions of this eminent authority, but, curiously enough, when their own theories are looked into. 172 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 109. The Condition of the English Labourer. After this great insurrection came a time of considerable prosperity for the English labourer, and it lasted all through the fifteenth century. Food was cheap and abundant ; wages were amply sufficient. In fact, soon after the Eevolt a statute of 1388 complains of them being " outrageous and excessive." ^ True, the employers of they merely confirm those held by Thorold Rogers, at least in their broad outlines. Professor W. J. Ashley has an elaborate criticism of Rogers' work in general and his theory of the Peasants' Revolt in particular in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. IV., No. 3, and roundly accuses Rogers of belonging to the " cataclysmic school " (p. 400) of history, of seeking after dramatic eflfect rather than absolute truth, and of not being " guided by the idea of gradual, reasonable, undramatic development " in history (p. 407). Unfortunately for this criticism, however, human history, even on its economic side, refuses to be either gradual, undramatic, or even con- sistently reasonable. If it were, it would not be human, though it might be academic — a dubious gain. There have been sudden and dramatic developments often enough, as witness the discovery of the New World, and its conquest by the Spaniards ; or the rise of Napoleon ; or the very dramatic (not to say theatrical) French Revolution. The Industrial Revo- lution in England was rightly called by Toynbee a revolution and not an evolution, for it presents a sudden and by no means gradual development. And the Peasants' Revolt was certainly one of the " dramatic " developments of our social history. It is impossible to read contemporary documents without noticing the important place it took in the minds of those who lived through it, short though it was ; and I am prepared to follow Bishop Stubbs in his estimate of it rather than attempt to minimise its importance. As to the cause of the revolt as set forth by Stubbs and Rogers, Professor Ashley says {P. S. Q., p. 399), "Certainly no evidence has yet been adduced that can be regarded as confirming it." This is utterly to ignore the words of Wiklif, " Piers the Plowman,^' and the preambles to the statutes of the day. As a matter of fact, however. Professor Ashley quotes them himself, and admits from them practically all Rogers' conclusions as to the origin of the Revolt. Dr Cunningham {Growth of English Indiistry, i. 359-360) does the same, and, of course, both declare that the Revolt failed. Dr Cunningham says that in the fifteenth century services were still rendered by villeins (i. 360), and thinks this fact alone proves the failure. Of course services continued to be rendered, but they were on a very difierent footing than in the days before the Revolt. From 1381 onwards we find them no longer flourishing but decaying, and within one hundred years they are practically, and in two hundred almost entirely, extinct. Considering how many relics of the old manorial system survive in the nineteenth century, is it not a little remarkable that villeinage died out so rapidly ? No historian in his senses would say that services ceased immediately after the Revolt, but we need not deny that from that time forward they began to die out more rapidly than before. 1 12 Rich. II., cc. 3-7, preamble — "The servants and labourers will not THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 173 labour still tried, by various petitions and Acts/ to enforce the Statute of Labourers, but they were practically unsuc- cessful, and prosperity seems to have been progressive and continuous till the days of Henry VIII. The wages of a good agricultural labourer, before the Plague, have been calculated at £2, 7s. lOd. per year as an average,^ includ- ing the labour of his wife and child ; after the Plague his wages would be £3, 15s., and the cost of his living certainly not more than £3, 4s. 9d. An artisan, working 300 days a year, would get, say, £3, 18s. l|d. before 1348, and after that date £5, 15s. 7d., which was so far above the cost of maintenance as to give him a very com- fortable position.^ By the day* wages were for agricultural labourers 4d. a day, and for artisans, 6d. His working day, too, was probably not excessive,^ for although the legal day was one of about twelve hours ^ for agricultural labourers, it is pretty certain that, as in other cases, the statutes were generally evaded. Rents were low, and these low rents were one great cause of the prosperity of the new yeoman or tenant farmer class (p. 157) that ha.d arisen after the collapse of the capitalist landowners in conse- quence of the Plague — a class which remained for at least two centuries the backbone of English agi'iculture. Several recent historians, however, have taken a view of the labourer's life in the fifteenth century that by no means agrees with the pleasant condition of things which the statistics of wages seem to indicate. Instead of accepting the fifteenth century as an era of great prosperity, they have endeavoured to paint from various sources a very different serve and labour without outrageous and excessive hire, and much more than hath been given in any time past.'* The Act then goes on to fix wages. Surely this is a sign of the practical success of the Peasants' Revolt. 1 For example, 7 Henry IV., c. 17 ; 23 Henry VL, c. 12 ; 11 Henry VH., c. 22, and others. 2 Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 290, 684, 689, and iv. 757. '^ lb. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 327. •^ Rogers infers from various grounds {Hist. Agric, iv. 755) that the working day was of only eight hours, chiefly arguing from the heavy pay- ments for overtime. Dr Cunningham (1-477) thinks the contrary, and -quotes the Acts of 11 Hen. VII, c. 22, and 6 Hen. VIII., c. 3. * See the two Acts just quoted. 174 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and very gloomy picture. When it is pointed out that wages were high both for artisans and labourers, while the prices of food were particularly low, it is contended on the other hand that the high wages were only those paid by the day, that yearly wages were much lower, and that even for day labourers employment was not constant.^ The bal- ance of advantage is said to lie with the modem artisan.^ If we take the " common servant in husbandry," it is said, we find 3 he is only paid 20s. 8d. a year, and his wife only 14s., though their food is provided; and even the bailiff only gets 26s. 8d. a year, with 5s. extra for clothing, and his food as well. But it must be remembered that the statute which prescribes these rates is, of course, laying down the minimum rates,* and there is not the slightest doubt that far higher wages were habitually paid, not merely for the work of a few days or weeks, but for work extending over a whole year. This, at any rate, is clear enough in the case of artisans, for at Windsor in 1408 we find carpenters getting 6d. and 5d. a day for 365 days in the year,^ which shows that they were paid an annual wage at a daily rate, even including Sundays and holidays. We find similar high wages at York, while at Oxford men were paid full rates and fed by the College as well.^ As for agricultural labourers, it must be noted that the majority of them lived in their master's house,^ when they did not happen to be the sons of small tenants, or tenants themselves,^ who had their land to fall back upon. Those who lived in their master's house would certainly be well fed while there,^ for food was both abundant and cheap. Even the minimum basis of wages just quoted (20s. 8d. per year) cannot be called low, when we remember that it represents between £12 and £13 of our money,^^ in addi- tion to good board and lodging. Many an agricultural 1 (7/!, c.gr., Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, i. 348, 349. '^ Ih., 349. 3 In the 11 Henry VII., c. 22. 4 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 389. ^ lb., 328. " lb., 328. 7 Froude, History of England, i. p. 5. 8 Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 689, 691. » Froude, History, i. 21. 1 ' Taking the now generally admitted multiple of twelve to compare prices of to-day with those of the fifteenth century ; cf. Rogers, Six CeiUurie», p. 539, 172 ; Froude, History, i. 2G. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 175 labourer in the last decade of the nineteenth century would be only too glad to obtain such payment.^ Nor need we be surprised that the bailiff only gets 31s. 8d. (equivalent to some £1 9) a year, always supposing that his employer kept within the statute, though this is unlikely ; for it is charac- teristic of the Middle Ages that superior servants and work- men were paid but little above the average of those whom they superintended.^ But, as a matter of fact, there are plenty of instances of bailiffs getting far higher wages, such as from £3 and £0 to over £9 per annum.^ And when we come to consider that the average income of a country gentleman* was only about £20 per annum in Henry YI.'s days, it is evident that the bailiff was very well paid indeed, and that there was even no such enormous disproportion between the effective incomes of the labourer and the squire as there is to-day. § 1 1 d. Purchasing Power of Wages, But it is useless to mention the rates of wages unless we can estimate at the same time their purchasing power ; and when we do so, we see that they were amply suiB&cient, even taking the statutory rates, to purchase for the labourer and artisan an abundance of good and cheap food. An artisan earning 5d. or 6d. a day, or an agricultural labourer earning 3d. or 4d.,^ could get plenty of bread, beef, and beer at very low prices. For beef was only Jd. a pound, and mutton Jd. ;^ strong beer only Id. a gallon, and table-beer a half- penny.^ The price of corn averaged a little under 6s. a quarter,^ and other kinds of grain were equally cheap ; ^ In Notts from £7 to £16 per annum are wages quoted in Royal Com- mission on Labour Report, Agric. Labourer, I. B. V. 127. 2 It certainly was so with artisans. Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 502-504. ^ See wages quoted from manorial accounts by Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 287, iv. 119 (where the statutory wages are also mentioned). ^ This was the income qualifying a country gentleman to be a J. P. by the 18 Henry VI., c. 11. ^ These wages are those laid down by the 6 Hen. VIII. , c. 3, the lower rates being paid in the winter. ^ Stow's Chronicle, p. 568. '' Assize of Brewers, from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford, quoted by Froude, History, i. 24. 8 The average from 1260-1400 a.d. is 5s. lOfd. a quarter ; from 1401 to 1540 it is 5s. 11 |d. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. .330. 176 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND cliickeos cost Id. or 2d., and a pig or goose only 4d.^ The cheapness of provisions is seen from the fact that 6d. or 8d. a week was an ordinary estimate for the board of a work- man,2 and 2d. a day or Is. a week was liberal.^ Indeed, the good food enjoyed by the " common people " was the wonder of all foreigners. "What common folk in all this world may compare with the commons of England in riches, free- dom, liberty, welfare, and all prosperity ? " is the question in one of Henry VIII. 's State papers;* and chroniclers tell us that the food of "artificers and husbandmen consisteth principally in beef, and such meat as the butcher selleth, that is to say, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, whereof one findeth great store in the markets adjoining " ; ^ while " souse, brawn, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit," and " fowls of sundry sorts " were to be found in most workmen's homes.^ Surely it is sufficient evidence of the prosperity of the working classes when food of this description was so easily within their reach. In fact, it is pretty clear that the close of the fourteenth century witnessed the beginning, and the fifteenth century the con- tinuance, of an era to which the oppressed labourer of later times might well look back with admiration and regret. j Holidays were frequent,^ and if a man lost his wages during / them, there was generally plenty of extra work, well paid, in harvest time ^ to compensate for loss of time elsewhere. The Saturday half-holiday, lost subsequently and only recently restored, seems to have been universal.^ In the leisure time thus falling to his lot, the agricultural labourer could work upon the land which then invariably went with ^ StaflFord, State of the BecUm, quoted by Froude, History, i. 23. 2 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 328. 3 /^,^ p, 329. * State Papers, Henry VIII., Vol. II. p. 10. '' Harrison, Description of England, p. 282. *» Ih. He adds, " in feasting it is incredible what meat is consumed and spent." His book was written in the sixteenth century, but it shows that the condition of the working classes was fairly good even then, after the troubles of Henry VIII. 's reign, and therefore was probably quite as good in the fifteenth century. ^ Froude, History, i. 28, reckons one day in every twenty ; and it is evident that sometimes holidays were paid for. Rogers, Six Centuries, 327. ^ Mowers could then get 8d. a day. Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. (Froude, i. 28). » Mrs Green, Tovm Life in the Fifteenth Century, ii. 133. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 177 his cottage, while in every parish there were large ranges of commons, waste-land and forest, which gave him fuel for nothing, where his pigs might pick up mast and acorns or his geese feed freely, and where, if he had a cow, he might send her to graze. " So important was this privilege considered, that when the commons began to be largely enclosed. Parliament insisted that the working-man should not be without some piece of ground on which he could employ his own and his family's industry." ^ The " allot- ments " of the nineteenth century labourer, with their some- times excessive rentals,^ are a poor recompense for such privileges. In those days, if contemporary evidence goes for anything, England was once in reality " Merrie England," and life, even if unrefined, was coloured with broad, rosy English health.^ § 111. Drawbacks. There were, however, of course, several drawbacks in this pleasant era, as more than one critic has lately told us.* The ordinary hardships of human life were in many respects greater than they are now — disease was more deadly, and the risks of life more numerous ; but from this very fact the extremes of poverty and wealth were less widely dis- tinguished and less acutely felt; and, although it cannot be asserted that people did not occasionally die of want in very bad times, yet the grinding and hopeless poverty, just above the verge of actual starvation, so often prevalent in the present time, did not belong to mediaeval life. The chief ordinary hardships to be encountered were in the winter, for, owing to the absence of winter roots, stock could not be kept except in limited quantities,^ and the ^ By the Act 31 Eliz., c. 7, every cottage was to have four acres of land attached to it. For the points of the above description, cf. Froude, History, i. 28. 2 Rents of 35s. an acre, 22s. 6d. an acre, lis. for one rood, 21s. for nearly half-an-acre, are quoted in Statistics of Midland Villages (1891-2) in the Economic Journal, Vol. III., No. 9. ^ Froude, History, i. 46. * Cf. Denton, Fifteenth Century, 105 ; Jessop, Coming of the Friars, 89, &c. (who, however, seems to refer to the thirteenth century) ; and Cunning- ham, i. 346, 347. " Rogers, Six Centuries, 78. M 178 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND only meat/procurable was that which had been previously salted.^ ^^t is certain that much of mediaeval disease is traceable to the excessive use of salted provisions. The houses, too, were rudely built of mud, clay, or even wattled material, for brickmaking was a lost art, and stone was only used for the manor-houses and the dwellings of the wealthy.^ '' But food, as we saw, was abundant and cheap, and the cost of living was not more than one-tenth of what it is at the present day.^ Nor were the houses quite so poorly furnished as some would have us think. Pictures, hangings, cushions, and feather beds were not unknown in the houses of plain country parsons with a salary of some- thing like £6 a year.* It is probable that even the houses of the peasants were, compared with the degree of luxury and comfort then attainable, no worse furnished propor- tionately than they are now ; and anyone who has seen Ann Hathaway's cottage at Stratford-on-Avon must admit that, as buildings, the dwellings of the labourer of to-day are often no improvement on those of the sixteenth century. But two hardships there undoubtedly were, which per- haps were more severe in mediaeval times than now. ^ They were famine ^ and plague. The accounts of mediaeval famines have no doubt teen much exaggerated,^ and those that occurred were chiefly local, but it is obvious that when means of communication were less perfect than they are now, individual villages might often suffer severely, while in other parts of the country there was plenty. Yet after all it is doubtful whether there was any more real scarcity than there is to-day ; for deaths from sheer starvation are common enough among us even now ; and against the evidence of famine must be set the evidence of general ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, 95. " lb. , 97. * ** A penny in terms of the labourer's necessities must have been nearly equal to the present shilling." Froude, History, i. 26. * See the very valuable quotation in Froude, History, i. 41, of the furni- ture of the Parson of Aldington, Kent, from an MS. in the Rolls House. Of. also Stubbs, Comt. Hist., III. xxi. 555. * See Cunningham, Groivth of Industry, i. 346, who quotes Holinshed and Stow. * This is obvious from a comparison of prices, which rarely show such variations as would correspond with the terrible descriptions of chroniclers. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 138 1 179 plenty as being the normal condition of existence. No one would say that famines occurred regularly in England in the last decade of the nineteenth century, yet if one merely went by depositions at coroners' inquests a very good case might be made out by a critic of our civilisation. On the other hand, pestilence^ was undoubtedly more common than now, and, of course, owing to lack of medical skill, more deadly ; but to talk of " chronic typhoid in the towns and leprosy all over the country " ^ as the normal state of things, is to give a totally wrong impression of the risks of mediaeval life. If our forefathers were more exposed to disease, the rude vigour of their constitutions, and the coarser texture of their nervous system, rendered them more impervious to its ravages. Probably, at least in the rural districts, the risks of life were not much greater than now, and though a great pestilence occasionally swept off its victims with tragic suddenness, there was probably not so much general ill-health and liability to death by easily thrown-off diseases as at the present day. 1 Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, 331, 335-337. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 347, uses these words. Against them msiy be put Rogers' remark {Six Centuries, i. 331) that "if abimdant evidence as to the rate of wages and silence as to loss of life [in manorial accounts] are to go for anything, it did not create a sensible void in the number of labourers." CHAPTER XIII THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES § 112. The Nobility. The period from the Peasants' Revolt (1381) to the first few years of the reign of Henry VIII. (1509-1548) presents many interesting features. In it we come to the close of mediaeval life, and begin the more modern history of our country. There are several important changes going on, yet, on the other hand, the main aspects of social life remain the same ; for the permanence of social features is characteristic of mediaeval times. ^ We may, therefore, take the facts presented in the previous section as giving us the outlines of a picture which, in all important points at any rate, lasted till the first half of the sixteenth century. The lives of the peasants and working classes were probably the same for quite a century. But meanwhile important social and economic changes were taking place. In the fifteenth century, to take the highest ranks first, the great nobles and feudal lords were at the height of V their power and splendour ; but their glory was as that of the sun before it sinks suddenly out of sight amid a bank of stormy clouds. Fierce, ambitious, covetous, and unrelenting, greedy both of power and of land, they were nevertheless the political leaders of a people whom they alternately terrorised and cajoled, and they recognised the circumstances which their position entail ed.^ In their huge fortified houses and castles they kept enormous retinues of officers and servants, all arranged in distinct grades and provided with regular allowances of food and clothing.^ Their households were arranged upon a scale of almost ^ Froude, History, i. p. \. 3 Cf. Stubbs, Constit. Histoi-y, Vol. III. ch. xxi. p. 542. 3/6., p. 538. i8o THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES i8i royal magnificence,^ and yet the most accurate accounts ^ of income and expenditure were duly kept and audited. The baron's castle was both a court for the neighbour- ing squires, smaller nobles and gentry, and a school of knightly accomplishments and culture for their sons, while the huge kitchens and wardrobes afforded a continual market to the agriculturists and tradesmen of the district.^ His progresses from one establishment to another made him known all over the country, and increased his political prestige and popularity. The houses of the Bishops and other great church dignitaries, and some of the larger monasteries, rivalled those of the barons in their magnitude and influence.* The nobility and the great officers of the Church had, in fact, an amount of wealth and power which they have rarely surpassed at any time of their history. That power was also largely increased ^ in the fifteenth century by the practice of enclosing land, to which we shall refer later at greater length. The nobles saw that land meant both power and wealth, and grasped more and more of it as time went on. The Great Plague and the practical freedom of the villeins had indeed tried them sorely at first, but now a new use for land was springing up,® with a new system under which the services of their villeins were no longer required. I refer to the growing demand for wool, not only for foreign export but for home manufacture.'^ The growth of home manufactures encour- aged sheep-farming on a large scale, and sheep-farming led to the change from arable to pasturage which is charac- teristic of the fifte'enth century. So field was added to field, pasture to pasture, enclosure to enclosure, and the great lords rejoiced anew in the wealth derived from theii broad acres. The evils of maintenance and livery were increased ; the power of the nobility grew continually, often 1 Cf. Denton, Fifteenth Century, pp. 265-272. «Stubbs, u. 8., p. 539. ^Ib., p. 541. '^Ib., p. 543. ''S. R. Gardiner, Students* History of England, i. 321. ' It was hardly because of the exhaustion of the soil that landowners turned arable into pasture, as Mr Gardiner {ut supra) seems to suppose. The land got rest under the system of fallow. ^ Cf. Mrs Green, Town Lxfe in the Fijletnth Century, i. 44. 1 82 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND at the expense of their poorer neighbours ; ^ the Crown, till the accession of Henry VII., was far too weak to control the barons that stood round it ; the great families plundered the country ,2 until at last, quarrelling among themselves for place and power, they became their own destruction, and assured their speedy ruin and decay in those suicidal conflicts known as the Wars of the Roses. ^ § 113. The Country Gentry. T^ext to the greater nobility, and constituting in some measure a link between these and the yeomen, came the large body of knights and squires or country gentry,^ allied to the nobility by claims of birth and descent, very often as ancient as those of the haughtiest baron, but by their in- come and rural habits often not far removed from a well-to- do farmer. The income * of a knight might be placed at £200 a year, of a squire £50, and while a substantial yeoman could rarely attain the former sum, he might easily surpass the latter.^ The household of the country gentle- man was modelled on that of his greater neighbour, the noble, and was often in consequence more elaborate than we should have supposed necessary for his rank.^ But food was abundant and cheap, and money wages were not high, while very often the servants were his own poor relations.'^ In the cultivation and management of his estate the knight or squire found occupation and amusement ; and his share of public duty, both in county court and in musters and arrays, was by no means light.^ He was hardly ever merely an " absentee landlord," but " lived of his own " on his own land, while a journey to London was the event of a lifetime, and not an annual occurrence. His life was simple and rough — nay, even, according to our modem ideas, ^ Cf, Pcuton Letters (ed. Arber), Vol. I. 13-15, and Denton, Fifteenth CeiUury. pp. 296-301. 2 Cf. Gardiner, Students' Hist, of England, i. 321 and 323. * Stubbs, Cmist. Hist., III. xxi. p. 544. * From the Blach Book of Edward IV. (Stubbs, u. »., p. 538). ' So we conclude from the well-known case of Latimer's father ; Latimer, First Sermon before King Edward, in the Preface to the Northumberland Household Booh, p. xii. « Stubbs, Cmst. Hist., HI. xxi. p. 648. ' Ih. ^ lb. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 183 coarse ; but he generally did his duty according to his light, and knew pretty thoroughly the needs and the busi- ness of his agricultural neighbours ; and when at last he was laid to rest in the village church where he had worshipped in pious but easy-going fashion all his days, he was probably regretted by the people of the manor far more than many a greater but less useful man. § 114. The Yeomen, ^^^ Next to the country gentry came that large and sturdy class of yeomen who, for some centuries, formed the real strength of English rural life. Their importance begins to be marked from the reign of Henry II. (1154-1189) on- wards,^ but in the fifteenth century they had come more than ever to the front. They are recognised by the election act 2 of 1430 A.D., which conferred the county franchise on ^ every " forty shilling freeholder," though forty shillings by no means represented the income of a substantial yeoman. Their ranks were strengthened, after the economic changes to which I have before alluded, by the newer class of tenant farmers, who now, together with the smaller owners and freeholders, made up what is called the yeomanry.^ In this class there was every gradation of income, from that of the forty shilling freeholder to that of the rich tenant farmer, who rivalled perhaps the squire himself, though of course a freeholder might equally be a rich man and the tenant farmer barely worth a couple of pounds. The yeomanry, by the income and social position of its richer members, was con- nected with the gentry ; by its agricultural occupations, and by the poverty of the smaller tenants and freeholders, with the labourers and poorer tenants in villeinage.* Thus from baron to villein there was a closely-connected gradation of ranks, though the word " villein " had practically lost all its old significance, and after the reign of Eichard II. is never found in the Statute books. ^ Freeholder, tenant, and ^ Stubbs, M. «., p. 552. * The famous statute 8 Henry VI. , c. 7, which was not repealed till the 14 Geo. III., c. 58. 3 Stubbs, C(ymt. Hist., III. xxi. p. 552. * 76., p. 554. ' Froude, Hist, of England, i. p. 12. 1 84 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND villein alike were now merged into the yeomanry, except in those cases where a man had become merely an agricul- tural labourer. Politically, they were a very important element, for the forty shilling franchise must have included nearly all of them, and though the country gentry monopo- lised Parliamentary representation, their election depended on their yeoman constituents.^ It was the yeomanry, too, who served on juries, chose the coroner, attended the sheriflTs court, and assembled with arms which they them- selves provided in the muster of the forces of the shire ^ to follow their King, if need were, across the Channel, and win victory and glory for their leader on the battlefields of France.* § 115. Agriculture and Sheep- farming. The condition of the labourer we have seen already, and we may now therefore turn to the condition of the chief industry with which he was connected. Agriculture, as regards its methods, was still more or less stationary, but important changes were taking place, both among the tillers of the soil and in the uses to which the land was put. We have noticed the growth of the tenant farmer and yeoman and the emancipation of the villein, and now we note the appearance of the sheep farmer on a large scale. For his, appearance in this century there was indeed more than one cause. In the first place, the silent but steady growth of home manufactures * since the days of Edward III.^ had by this time begun to create a considerable home market for wool, in addition to the already existing market among the manufacturers of Flanders. That was no doubt the chief cause. But, besides this, sheep-farming offered to land- lords a cheaper and easier method of using their land than other branches of industry, from the fact that it required 1 Stubbs, «. «., p. 567. ' Stubbs, i«. «., p. 562. * Gf. the remarks on yeomanry in war in Green's History , i. p. 421. * As evidence of this growth we may quote from a treatise by Sir John Fortescue, Commodities of England (written some time before 1451), where he mentions English " woollen cloth ready made at all times to serve the merchants of any two kingdoms." ^ Above, p. 127. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 185 comparatively little labour. This would be a great con- sideration, for labour had now become so dear, and the services of villeins so irregularly and rarely paid ^ since the great Revolt, that landowners were only too ready to turn to any industry where villein labour was not required. Hence we shall not be surprised to find a large increase of sheep-farming in the fifteenth century, an increase which caused foreigners to jest and English rhymers to lament, because (it was said) we cared more for sheep than for the ships of our navy. "Where are our ships, what are our swords become ? Our enemies bid us for a ship set a sheep," 2 was the cry, though, like most political cries, it was doubtless only partially true. Other complaints were uttered as time went on, especially as the enclosures of land made by landowners caused widespread distress in many districts,^ and the wheat-growing interest of that day was sufficiently strong to induce the government to frame enactments which anticipated the Corn Laws of a later date. The wheat-growers, as opposed to the sheep-farmers, declared that their industry required encouragement, and complained that the price of wheat was too low. Whether there was very much truth in this outcry may be doubted, since at no time of our history has cheap bread roused anything but complaint in the British farmer's breast ; but, at any rate, the export of British com was encouraged,* in contradiction of a still earlier policy, while the import of foreign com was prohibited^ unless the price of home- grown wheat was 6s. 8d. a quarter. In justice to the government, however, it should be added that mere pro- tection was not the only object of these Corn Laws, though, ^ We find tenants in villeinage quitting the manor without leave, and tallages refused to the lords (Denton, Fifteenth Century^ p. 113), nor were manorial dues paid: **now they pay nothing" is the complaint; cf. Blomfield's History o/Launton, MS., quoted by Denton, u. s., p. 114. ^ From the politicjal poem (of about 1435) called The Libelle of English Policie, 36, 37. 3 See below, p. 213. * By the 17 Richard 11., c. 7 ; the 4 Henry VI., c. 5 ; and the 15 Henry VI., c. 2. Previously to this the 34 Edward III., c. 20, had prohibited the export. » By the 3 Edward IV. , c. 2. 1 86 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of course, they were passed by a Parliament at that time com- posed almost exclusively of landowners ; but that legislators sought to encourage thereby the growth of tillage as opposed to pasture in order that the rural population might not be compelled to leave the land. Not only for agricultural, but also for military reasons, it was important to prevent the depopulation of rural districts, which, in some cases, sheep- farming seemed to imply ; and therefore it is interesting to notice how " servants and labourers " were directed to practice with the bow and arrow on Sundays and holidays instead of playing football, dice, and skittles, and other unprofitable games.^ § 116. The Stock and Land Lease. Apart from sheep-farming, however, and the consequent |V change from tillage to pasturage,^ things went on much as before in agriculture, and very few changes were made. The " stock and land " lease system was still in operation, and we have a very good example of its working in the middle of the fifteenth century.^ The example is from a farm at Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, in the year 1455 A.D. {The rental was £14, and the "stock" includes corn, and I both live and dead stock. The corn was valued at the 'price of the local market when the tenant took the farm over, being altogether £11, 8s. 6Jd. ; the live stock con- sisted of 5 horses, 1 1 oxen, 3 cows and a bull, 2 heifers and 2 yearlings, 571 sheep, and was valued at £64, 15s. 4Jd. ; and the dead stock came to £3, 15s. 2d., including farm implements and some household utensils. By the terms of the lease the tenant has to restore every article and animal enumerated (or its value) in good condition, though the landlord guarantees his tenant against any loss of sheep amounting to over 1 per cent, of their number. Sometimes this guarantee involved a severe loss to the landlord,* who also was responsible for repairs, trade losses, and "poor years," ^ so that perhaps it is not surprising that land- » 1 Richard II., c. 7. * Stubbs, G., i. p. 122. •Besides his patronage of Cabot (c/. Rymer. Foedera, XII. 595) he granted patents of exploration in 1501 and later to various Bristol mer- chants (ib. XIII. 41 and 37). ' Burrows, Commentaries on the History of England, p. 252, puts it thus. Others are inclined to think Henry might have done more than he did. N 194 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 121. The Close of the Middle Ages. The close of the 15th century brings us to the close of the Middle Ages. Henceforth we are treading on modern ground, and industry also begins to develope under more modern ideas. The old order changes and the new grows gradually into its place, till at length we of the nineteenth century look back upon mediaaval life as upon something not quite akin to ours. We feel ourselves more in touch with the men of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than with those of the fourteenth, and naturally so, for there is perhaps a greater gulf fixed between the days of Edward III. and Elizabeth than between the days of Elizabeth and Victoria. The old manorial and feudal land system was dying out ; the old ideas of regulating crafts, trade, and commerce were giving way to wider and looser methods, more competitive than heretofore, and of more national comprehensiveness. Merchants were begin- ning to look beyond the confines of the narrow seas to the riches of the gorgeous East and to the newly found lands of the mysterious West. Industry was shaking off the bonds and trammels of local regulations ; the labourer of the manor no longer feared the authority of his lord, nor the artisan of the town the censure of his gild. Social life also was changing and with it political life as well. "^The Wars of the Roses had destroyed the great nobles of the past, and now the royal power rested chiefly upon the goodwill of the middle classes.^ The ideal of this class was a king who would act as a superior kind of chief constable ^ who, by keeping the great men in order would allow their inferiors to make money in peace. Such a king was found in Henry VII. It was not perhaps a very high ideal, but it was practically possible, and under Henry VII. the middle classes prospered. Nor were the lower classes as far as we have been able to judge, less fortuDate. Poverty and crime existed, as unfortunately they always will, and there were Poor Laws ^ with penal codes to 1 Cf. Gardiner, Student's History, i. 357. ^Ib., i. 331. 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist., in. xxi., pp. 599 and 600, points out how the ahns-giving of the clergy, the monasteries and the gilds, as well as general THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 195 meet them. But poverty was neither so deep nor so widespread as it is now, nor as it soon became, and the monasteries and gilds (when they did their duty) were possibly quite as efficient as a modem Board of Guardians. On the whole, then, the fifteenth century was a period of prosperity and content, in spite of both civil and foreign wars ; and even the wasteful reign of Henry VI., with its unsuccessful wars with France,^ and huge subsidies to carry them on,2 though it made the Government unpopular and caused widespread national discontent and occasional insur- rections in Kent and Wiltshire,^ did not materially injure the general welfare. The king himself, however, was nearly bankrupt.* The Wars of the Roses which followed (1455-86) do not seem to have affected the country at large very much, being mostly fought in a series of much exaggerated skirmishes by small bodies of nobles and their followers.^ So, at least, one might infer from the small effect they had upon wages and prices.^ They ended in charity sufficed for the necessities of the poor. Most of the legislation on the subject was directed against idleness and random begging. The statutes of 1388, 1495 and 1504 were among the first attempts at a law of settlement and organised relief. But these acts refer only to professional mendicants, (including pilgrims, friars, and even University scholars) and it is probable that for the poor who remained at home and were not vagrants no such legislation was needed {ib. p. 603). It was vagrancy more than unrelieved poverty that was the cause of legislation. ^ For this war cf. the useful summary in Burrows Commentaries on the Hist. o/Bng., pp. 216-221 and Green, History oj the. English People, i, pp. 547-563. ^Cf. Stubbs, Gmst. Hist., iii., pp. 86-125. * This was the rebellion under Cade, in Kent, (June 1450). It was purely political and has no such social significance as the Revolt of 1381. See Stubbs, Const. Hist. , iii. xviii. p. 150. In Wiltshire the Bishop of Salis- bury was murdered. Ib. p. 152. *Ib. pp. 117 and 144. ° *' Happily a war of barons and their retainers rather than of the nation generally. The towns suflFered but little." Burrows, OommerUaries, p. 222. On the other hand, Denton, Fifteenih Century, p. 115, says that the Wars of the Roses were of a most devastating character, and that one- tenth of the population were killed. If so, it is extraordinary that so little effect is noticeable in manorial accounts. The statements of the Chroniclers as to numbers slain must be received in this case, as in that of the Black Death, with the utmost caution. ^Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 332-334. "It had no bearing on work and wages," (p. 334) 196 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the ruin of the majority of the feudal aristocracy,^ and at the same time opened a further path for the influence of the industrial classes, whose favour Henry VII. had the wisdom to court, and in return was supported by them in his policy of weakening the power of the great barons. He encouraged commerce,^ and secured peace for his king- dom while gaining by rather dubious methods consider- able wealth for his treasury.^ In his reign the nation prospered,* and the Middle Ages came to a close in a progressive and industrious England (1500 A.D.). But before the next century was completed great changes had taken place, one class at least had received a severe blow, and some of the worst difficulties of modern days had already begun. * For the mutual destruction of the nobles cf. Gairdner, Lancasttr and York, p. 227. It is quite true, however, as Denton remarks {FifteerUh Century, p. 261) that the wealth of the few who remained was greatly increased, e.g. the peers Buckingham, Northumberland and Norfolk. ^E.g. by his treaties with Denmark in 1490 (Rymer, Foedera, xii. 381 > with Florence (»&. xii. 390) in the same year, and the " Intercursus magnus " with Flanders in 1496, (ib. xii. 578). * He had as much as £1,800,000. Gardiner, Student's History of England, i. 357. * One proof of prosperity is that the nation could never, have stood the burden of the French Wars as it did unless it had been fairly prosperous. Another proof is the growth of sheep-farming, which, as said above, in- dicates growing manufactures. Yet a third is the making of commercial treaties, as mentioned in note 2. SPECIAL NOTE. A study of the map opposite, showing the distribution of wealth in the various counties at the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, will give a clear idea of the general state of the country. The wealthiest counties were, at this period, nearly all agricultural ; while the north and north-western counties, now so rich, were then among the poorest. Compare the maps opposite pp. 263, 350, and 454. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND. I 503. SEA Scale of English Miles O 10 »0 80 40 50 76 100 WEALTH IN ENGLAND IN 1503. This Map is based on the assessment of counties made in 1503 by Henry VII., for a special "aid." The table of counties in order of their assessment will be found in Rogers' Hi&t. Agric, iv. 89. The basis adopted is the number of acres to every £1 of assessment, the richer counties thus having the least number of acres to the £1. 1. Counties with 200— 500 acres, per £1 2. „ „ 500- 700 „ 3 700- 850 „ „ 850—1,150 „ 1,1.50-2,200 „ over 2,200 Dark Brown. Dark Green. Dark Red. Light Brown. Light Red. Light Green, PERIOD IV FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE EVE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1509-1760) CHAPTER XIV THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII., AND ECONOMIC CHANGES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY § 122. Henry VIII '8 Wastefulness. Henry VIII. came to the throne in 1509. He succeeded to a full treasury ^ left by his thrifty but grasping father, who had replenished it by exactions from the general pros- perity of the country at the close of the fifteenth century. But he soon dissipated the whole of these accumulations. He spent a great deal of money, in subsidising the Emperor Maximilian,^ and in interfering in foreign affairs, in which he was not very successful, in the hope of winning for him- self a military reputation and a leading place in the ranks of European powers.^ His continental wars and alliances cost him dear, or rather they cost the English people dear, for he not only exhausted the patience of Parliament by his requests, but had recourse to other exactions in the shape of benevolences and fines.* His apologists have endeavoured to prove that personally Henry VIII. was not extravagant, and that his personal expenses did not greatly exceed those of his somewhat penurious parent^ But the 1 See note 3 above, p. 196. ^ Green, History of English People^ ii. 109. ' It has been pointed out that he realised this ambition and raised Eng- land to *' the first rank among European nations " (Burrows, Commentaries, p. 253), and that his foreign policy connected England with the Continent to the advantage of commerce and the middle classes (p. 257). But no one can deny that he spent money recklessly in so doing, and it may be doubted whether the ultimate result was worth this vast expenditure. * He had exhausted the treasury and subsidies very early by his French wars, 1513-1514 a.d., though at the conclusion he got a large sum of money from the French king, Annals of Englind, p. 288. Cf Green, History, ii. 93. " The millions left by his father were exhausted, his subjects had been drained by repeated subsidies." For the later attempts to obtain money, especially m 1523 and 1525, cf Green, ii. 116, 117, 121, 122. '^ Cf. Froude, History, i. 39, who says Henry VTL's expenses were a little over £14,000 a year, out of which were defrayed the whole cost of the king's establishment, expenses of entertaining foreign ambassadors, main- 199 200 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND fact remains that he managed to spend all his father's accumulations, over a million and three-quarters sterling, before he had been on the throne many years,^ that he had to repudiate his debts,^ that he was addicted to gambling in private^ as well as to spending the nation's money reck- lessly in public, and that he left to his unfortunate young son Edward VI. a treasury not only exhausted of cash but burdened with unpaid debts.* Nor can it be denied that he roused open revolt by his attempts to obtain funds by ordinary methods ;^ and it was probably the difficulties which he found in raising money by taxation that formed a very strong incentive for his spoliation of the monasteries and debasement of the currency. No doubt some excuse is to be found for Henry's enormous expenditure in the necessi- ties of foreign politics and the wars with France and Scot- land, but even in time of peace his expenditure seems to have been extravagant. The cost of his household estab- lishments, and those of his children, was simply enormous ; for the establishments of Mary, Edward, and even Elizabeth were each more costly than the whole annual charge of his father's household.® His extravagance was monumental, tenance of the Yeomen of the Guard, retinues of servants, and all outlay not connected with public business. Under Henry VIII. these expenses were £19,894, 16s. 8d., equal to some £240,000 of our money. But the question remains, where did all the money go that Henry YIII. obtained by various means ? It has never been properly accounted for, «uid these household accounts evidently do not represent his entire expenditure. ^ CJ. Green, ii. 93, where the reference is to 1514 a.d. 2 By the 35 Henry VIII., c. 12, "all loans made to the king were remitted and released," and the creditors got nothing. Froude, iv. 13, is " unable to see the impropriety of this proceeding," apparently regarding it as only another form of taxation. But the creditors must have thought differently. * Cf. the note in Froude, Historyt i. 30, and the Privy Purse Expensta of Henry VIII. * Cf. Froude, History, v. 119-123, who details the exhaustion of the Treasury early in Edward VI. 's reign and Northumberland's desperate attempts to fill it. •* As in the revolts of 1625 in SuflFolk and Kent (Green, History, ii. 122), when a tenth was demanded from all the laity and a fourth from the clergy. The royal demand for money had to be abandoned, Annals of England, p. 293. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 321 ; Hist. Agric, iv. 28. The accounts are preserved in the Record Office. THE REIGN OF HENRY VHI 201 though where his money went he could not himself dis- cover. Wolsey said of him, " Rather than miss any part of his will, he will endanger one half of his kingdom." ^ As a matter of fact he succeeded in impoverishing the whole of it.^ Nevertheless, it is curious to notice that Henry VHI. did not by any means entirely lose the popularity of his subjects. He was certainly feared, but he was also loved, and even remained popular in spite of his treatment of his wives and the debasement of the currency.^ It has shrewdly been remarked that this was because he under- stood his people thoroughly, knowing exactly how far he could go and how much they would bear.* But even with- out this, though it is probably a very true explanation of the matter, his popularity need cause no surprise to any one who understands the relations of king and people and realises the combined ignorance and superficiality of the mass of man- kind. A very cursory glance at history shows us that the best rulers have not always been the most popular ; ^ that even Nero had his supporters ; and that during a prince's lifetime the outside populace have only the very faintest knowledge of what goes on inside a court, while they base their fluctuating affections or dislikes upon the casual public appearances of a monarch and the untrustworthy rumours which, even in the most democratic country, are the utmost that is allowed to penetrate beyond a privileged Court circle. Moreover, after he had seen how his exactions had angered his people in 1525, Henry took care in future to obtain money by means quite as effectual, but more under- hand, and thus avoided another popular outbreak. But the fact of his popularity need not detain us. It does not alter the other facts of his cruelty, selfishness, and robbery. ^ Quoted by Green, History ^ i. 88. ' Even Froude admits this, for he records ** the general distress " at beginning of Edward VI. 's reign (iv. 352) owing to the base money and other causes. He admits that Henry's household expenses had doubled since the beginning of his reign (iv. 251). ' Burrows, Commentaries on the History of England, p. 276. ^ E.g. William IIL of England; but executed by the Protector Somerset. All lands belonging to "colleges, chantries, and free chapels," were in 1547 given to the king,^ and it was professed by the Act that their revenues would be given to the establishment of ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 344. 2 lb., -p. 345; cf. also Froude, History, v. 95. '*The measure of corn that was wont to be sold at 2s. or 3s. was at 6s. 8d. in March 1551, and 30s. in March 1552. A cow that had been worth 6s. 8d. sold for 40s." ^ See Northumberland's letter to the Council ; MSS. Domestic, Edward VI., vol. XV. (Froude), where he speaks of "the great debts wherein, for one great part, he [Edward VI.] was left by his Highnesse's father, and augmented by the wilful government of the late Duke of Somerset, who took upon him the Protectorship and government of his own authority." Of course Northumberland's evidence is not altogether unprejudiced. * In the Act 37 Henry VIII., c. 17. cf. Froude, History, iv., p. 193. 5 By the Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 14. 1^ 2o8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND grammar schools, the maintenance of vicarages, and the support of preachers. Some portion was so applied — pro- bably to salve the consciences of the spoilers — but by far the greater part was shared among the members of the govern- ment or devoted to pay off some of the late King's debts. ^ A portion of the lands so confiscated was the property of the craft-gilds both in town and country, having been acquired partly by bequests from members, and partly by purchase from the funds of the gilds. The revenues derived from them were used for lending, without usury, to poorer members of the gilds, for apprenticing poor children, for widows' pensions, and, above all, for the relief of destitute members of the craft.^ Thus the labourer of that time had in the funds of the gild a kind of insurance money, while the gild itself fulfilled all the functions of a benefit society. Somerset procured the Act for suppressing them on the plea that these lands were associated with superstitious uses. Only the property of the London gilds was left untouched. The effects of this confiscation were felt perhaps indirectly more than directly, but were none the less serious. No doubt the landed property of the gilds was largely devoted to the maintenance of masses for departed members of the society, but assistance was also freely given to members in distress, to enable them to tide over hard times.^ These institutions rather prevented men from falling into pauperism than actually relieved it to any great extent,* but the net result was of course much the same. Their suppression certainly must have helped to swell the number of unto- ward influences that combined at this period to depress the condition of the working classes. Why this abolition was not more generally resented is a point of some interest. In the first place, the lands of the religious gilds and craft gilds were confiscated together on * Annals of England, pp. 316, 317. Froude, History, iv., p. 313, re- marks : — *• The carcase was cast out into the fields and the vultures of all breeds and orders flocked to the banquet." 2 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 347 ; Hist. Agric, iv. 6. * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i., p. 480. */?>., p. 481 ; and cf on the other hand Prof. Ashley's remarks in the Political Science Quarterly, vol. iv., No. 3, p. 402, who rather minimises the usefulness of the gilds. THE REIGN OF HENRY VHI 209 the plea above mentioned, and thus the difference between them was confused in the eyes of the Protestant party then in the ascendant. Then, again, the London gilds were spared because of their power,^ and thus it was made their interest not to interfere with the destruction of their provincial brethren. The nobles were bought off with presents gained from the funds of the gilds. Moreover, the craft gilds in the country towns were becoming close corpor- ations, whose advantages were often monopolised by a few powerful members. This led, as we saw,^ to the manufac- ture of cloth spreading from the towns into industrial villages in the rural districts, where perhaps the mass of the population, not perceiving the full significance of the Act, did not object to a measure which struck a blow at the town " mysteries." ^ But, nevertheless, a great deal of discontent was aroused. Somerset became very unpopular and in- surrections broke out in many parts of the country, the most dangerous being in Cornwall, Devonshire, and Norfolk (1549).* They were caused not only by this spoliation but by agrarian discontent as well, added to religious distur- bances, but German and Italian mercenaries were introduced to put them down,^ and the protests of the people were everywhere choked in their own blood. § 128. Bankruptcy and Bapacity of Edward VI. *8 Government. These insurrections serve to show the anger of the nation at the atrocious rapacity and misgovernment of the nobles who surrounded the boy-king Edward. And indeed the nation had a right to be angry. The government was practically bankrupt,^ and had to resort to the most desper- ate measures to obtain money for immediate necessities. The currency had been so debased that they dare not debase it any further, and it only remained to acknowledge the fact openly, to throw the burden of it upon the country, and ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 6. ^ Above, p. 146. 3 Ashley, in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. iv., No. 3, p. 402. 4 Annals of England, p. 318; Froude, History, iv. 408, 440-453. 5 Froude, History, iv., pp. 445, 447. ^ Froude, History, v. pp. 9, 110. O 210 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to call the existing coinage down to its actual value. ^ " By this desperate remedy every holder of a silver coin lost upon it the difference between its cost when it passed into his hands and its actual value in the market. On the 30th April 1551 the Council passed a resolution that in future the shilling should pass for only ninepence, and the groat (4d) for threepence. 2 At the same time, such was the unabashed audacity of this gang of noble swindlers, they contemplated a fresh issue of base money ; ^ but, postponing this wickedness for a time, they had recourse to the great banking firm of the Fuggers at Antwerp, and raised loans at ruinous rates of interest.* In the month of May, how- ever, they issued £80,000 of silver coin, of which two-thirds was alloy, and in June £40,000, containing no less than three-quarters alloy. " This was the last grasp at the departing prey, and perhaps it transpired to the world : for so profound and so wide was the public distrust that when the first fall in the coin took effect prices everywhere rose rather than declined, even allowing for the difference of denomination."^ Then in August a proclamation was issued by which the shilling passed for no more than six- pence,^ and again the nation had to bear the loss. But the difficulties of the Government were far from being at an end, and fresh means had to be devised for extorting money from an exhausted country. As early as 1549 Commissioners had been appointed to make inven- tories of Church ornaments, jewels, vestments and other pro- perty, even including the Church bells ^ ; but in the autumn and winter of 1552-3 no less than four commissions were appointed with this object, "to go again over the oft- trodden ground and glean the last spoils which could be gathered from the Churches.^ Vestments, copes, plate, even the coins in the poor-boxes were taken from the churches in the City of London. A sweep as complete cleared the 1 Froude, History ^ v. pp. 9-15. 2/6., V. p. 10. ^Ib.y^.ll. * Ib.f-p. 11 and p. 112. They had borrowed from Antwerp Jews before, iv. p. 399. 6 lb., p. 12. « /6., p. 13. ^ In Feb. 1649, AnncUs of England, p. 317. 8 Froude, History, v. p. 119. THE REIGN OF HENRY VHI 211 parish churches throughout the country." ^ Other measures as mean and as desperate were also taken, and a subsidy was granted by the Parliament of 1558 ; ^ but all attempts to fill the treasury were rendered useless by the extraordin- ary rapacity ^ of the ' Council of the Minority/ the nobles who governed during the minority of Edward VI. Estates worth half-a-million sterling in the money of those days, or about five millions in the money of our own time, had been appropriated by these ministers,* and though the Duke of Northumberland accused his rival Somerset of " wilful mis- governance " and waste of treasure,^ he himself obtained the suppression^ of the enormously rich bishopric of Durham, and the whole of its temporalities were granted to him as a Count}^ Palatine. It is no wonder that with ministers such as this the country narrowly escaped ruin, nor could it have passed through this period as well as it did, had it not been for the undercurrent of sound prosperity inherited from the latter end of the fifteenth century. But the situation was most serious, especially in the rural districts, and these now demand our attention. § 129. The Agrarian Situation. Of course, by this time, the symmetry of the old manorial system was almost entirely destroyed ^ by the revolution in agriculture to which we have already alluded, and which was now making itself felt increasingly every day. It was inevitable that such should be the case, and the ultimate benefit was, no doubt, very great, but the immediate effects were productive of considerable hardship to many of the smaller men. It is true, as has been pointed out by a great German economist,^ that, after all, agriculture in this period (apart from the special stimulus of wool-growing) 1 Froude, History, v. pp. 120, 121. 2 ^ct 7 Edward VI., c. 12. ^ Froude, History, iv. 397, mentions * ' the waste and luxury " of Edward VI. 's nobles as ** the preponderating cause " of the pecuniary difficulties of the time. ^ Froude, History, v. p. 128, and MS. Domestic, Edward VI., vol. xix. ^ See preamble to Act 7 Edward VI. c. 12, inspired by Northumberland. « By the Act 7 Edward VI. c. 17. ^ Ashley, Econ. Hist. , ii. ii. , p. 263, ^Roscher, Natioiialoekonomie dea Ackerha/ma^ bk. ii,, ch. ii. 212 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was only passing through the second of the three great stages which mark its economic evolution. In these we may distinguish (1) the old open-field husbandry of early times, so closely associated with the manorial system ; (2) convertible husbandry, wherein the land is used for a few years as pasture and then put under crops, a method which necessitates enclosures in order that it may be properly carried out in a systematic and orderly manner ; and (3) the more modern method of rotation of crops, which begins in England much later than the period with which we are now dealing. But the process of this ^ volution with its r esultin g .enclosures, added to the ever-increasing sheep f arinSr presseB^ hardly upon the smaller cultivators ; and in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. we cannot help being struck with the terrible discontent and misery of the rural districts. The labourers and small husbandmen were becoming more and more separated from the land, while tenant farmers were ruined with high rents exacted by the new nobility.^ The landed gentry and nobility, however, profited by this, and the merchants grew rich by their accumulations in foreign trade.2 But those who depended directly upon the cultiva- tion of the Jaad- for their living suffered severely. There had been for some years past a steady rise in the price of wooH for export, partly because the manufactures of the Netherlands were so flourishing, and partly owing to a general rise of prices on the Continent since the great discoveries of silver in South America. Land-owners saw that it was more immediately profitable to turn their arable land into pasture and to go in for sheep farming on a large scale.* They therefore did three things. They evicted as ^ Cf. Latimer's Sermons (in 1548) in Froude, History, iv. p. 356. '* You landlords, you rent raisers, I may say you steplords ! that which hereto- fore went for 20 or 40 pounds by the year, now is let for 50 or 100 pounds : and thus is caused such dearth that poor men which live of their labour cannot with the sweat of their faces have a living." ^ " Michele, the Venetian, says that many London merchants were worth as much as £60,000 in money ; the graziers and the merchants had made money while the people had starved." Froude, History, vi. 78. 3 Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 718 ; the average from 1401 to 1540 was 68. 2id. per tod, and from 1541-82, it was 178. 4d. per tod, -* Cf, Froude, Ch, History, iv, 349. THE REIGN OF HENRY VHI 213 many as possible of their smaller tenants, so that, as Sir Thomas More tells us, "in this way it comes to pass that these miserable people, men, women, husbands, orphans, parents with little children are all forced to change their seats, without knowing where to go." ^ ^ Then they raised the rents of the larger tenants, the yeomen and farmers, so that, as Latimer mentions, land for which his father had paid £3 or £4 a year, was in 1549 let at £16, almost to the ruin of the tenant,^ Thirdly, the large land-owners took from the poor their common lands by an unscrupulous system of enclosures.^ Wolsey had in vain endeavoured to stop their doing this,* for he had sagacity enough to perceive how it would pauperize the labourers and others who had valuable rights in such land. But enclosures and evictions went on in spite of his enactments, with the inevitable result of the social disorders already alluded to.^ § ISO. The Enclosures of the Sixteenth Century. In speaking of the enclosures made at this time it must be remembered that they were of three kinds.^ (1) There was the enclosing of the lord's demesne, which the lord had a perfect right to carry out if he thought it would improve his laud, and of which no one could very well complain. There was also (2) the enclosing of those strips of land belonging to the lord of the manor which lay intermixed ^ Utopia, p. 64 (Morley's edn. ) : the whole of the first part of the Utopia is well worth reading for a description of the social and industrial troubles of the time. ^ Latimer, First Sermon before Edioard VI. ' Cf. Lever, Sermon in the Shroudes ( Arber's edn. ) 39 ; Russell, Ket^s Rebellion, 50, 51 ; Fitzherbert, Surveyinge, ch. viii. ; Strype, Eccles. Mem., ii. pt. ii. 360 (referring to 1548), and the evidence quoted below, pp. 214-217. "^ Decree in Chancery, July, 1518 (Brewer, Calendar oj State Papers^ ii. 1054, No. 3297). ^ The most important of these risings took place in Norfolk, where en- closures had been made upon a tremendous scale. Ket, a tanner of Norwich, took the lead (in 1549) of a large body of some 16,000 tenants and labourers, who demanded the abolition of the late enclosures and the reform of other local abuses. The Earl of Warwick defeated the petitioners in a battle, put down the rising, and hanged Ket at Norwich Castle. The farmers and peasantry were thus cowed into submission. Cf. full details in Froude, History, iv. 440-453. •Ashley, Econ. Hist., II. ii. p. 285. 214 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND with the strips of the tenants in the open fields. To the enclosing of these was again no legal or moral objection to be made, if properly carried out, though it had always been the custom for them to lie alongside the others and share the common cultivation. The exceedingly scattered character of the several lands in the common fields of manors must have been a serious inconvenience to the landowner, especially if he was non-resident, since he had to employ, in addition to his own labour of supervision, the charge and risk of a collector of rents, and moreover often could not recover arrears unless the precise ground from which the rent issued was known and defined, which often was not accurately done.^ There was therefore considerable inducement to enclose strips and, if possible, to throw them together contiguously. But there was, in so doing, a considerable opportunity of taking a piece of a tenant's land at the same time, and there can be no doubt, from the nature of the complaints made, that this was frequently done.^ But it was (3) the third kind of enclosures that did the , most harm and caused the bitterest outcry ; that is, when the ^ commons and even the tenants' own strips were taken from * them. It is true that by the old statute of Merton ^(1235-()) — a law passed by a parliament of landlords — landowners had been permitted to appropriate portions of the " waste " over which the free, and even the villein, tenants had certain rights of pasturage and turbary, provided that the lord left a " suflScient quantity " of common land for the use of the tenants. But since there was no precise rule as to what constituted a sufficient quantity, it is easy to see that enclosing landlords could do very much as they liked ; and by this time the statute had been forgotten and was entirely neglected. Everywhere complaints are heard of the action of the landowners. But before giving some contemporary evidence upon the subject we will pause for ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 286, 287. 2 More, Utopia, p. 64 (Morley's edn.) says : " when an insatiable wretch resolves to enclose ground, the owners as well as the tenants are turned out of their possessions by tricks or by main force, or being wearied-out by ill-usage they are forced to sell them." 2The20HenryUL,c. 4. THE REIGN OF HENRY Ylll 215 a moment to notice which portion of rural England suffered most from these enclosures. Professor Ashley ^ has given a very complete account of the enclosures which took place between 1470 and 1600 A.D., and from his investigations it seems that they may be divided into five classes, according to their magnitude in various counties — (1) A very large portion of Suffolk, Essex, and Kent was enclosed ; almost two-thirds of Hert- fordshire and Worcestershire, a third of Warwick (chiefly in the west of the county), and almost all of Durham, though this latter was enclosed after the Restoration. (2) The counties of Northampton, Shropshire, the southern half of Leicester, East Norfolk, and the Isle of Wight were enclosed to a large extent, but not quite so much as those first mentioned ; and (3) sporadic or scattered enclosures were made in the rest of Norfolk, the south of Bedford- shire, and north of Wiltshire. (4) The remaining counties were hardly disturbed by the prevailing desire, i.e., the counties of Yorkshire, Oxford, Nottingham, South Wilt- shire, and Buckingham. There remains (5) a group of counties about which not enough information is available (Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Somerset, Stafford, Cheshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland), and we may therefore conclude that enclosures did not take place there to any great extent. It will be seen that it was chiefly the Eastern and South-eastern counties where enclosures were made most largely, probably because they offered the greatest facilities for sheep-rearing and more careful agricul- ture. The progress of enclosures^ spreads itself over four cen- 1 turies, and vitally changed the mediaeval rural economy ; but it was most rapid in the two periods from 1470 to 1530 A.D.,' and, much later, from 1 7 6 to 1 830 A. D. About the former of these two periods we will now give some contemporary evidence. § 131. Evidence of the Results of Enclosing. Such evidence is found both in popular songs and par- liamentary documents. An old ballad of the sixteenth century complains : ^ Ashley, Econ. Hist. , II. ii. p. 286. 2 Cf. Ashley, Eccm. Hist., II. ii. pp. 285, 286. 216 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND " The towns go down, the land decays, Great men maketh now-a-days A sheep-cote in the church " ; * and this points to the growth of sheep-farming, to which all other considerations had to give way. It led also to the " engrossing " of farms, or the occupying of a large number of farms merely for the purposes of pasture. A petition of 1536 complains of the "great and covetous misusages of farms within the realm, which misusages," it says, " hath not only been begun by divers gentlemen, but also by divers and many merchant adventurers, cloth- makers, goldsmiths, butchers, tanners, and other artificers, and unreasonable, covetous persons which doth encroach daily many farms, more than they can occupy, in tilth of corn — ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen farms in one man's hands at once." ^ It goes on to say that "in time past there hath been in every farm a good house kept, and in some of them three, four, five, or six ploughs kept and daily occupied to the great comfort and relief of your subjects, poor and rich. But now, by reason of so many farms engrossed in one man's hands, which cannot till them, the ploughs be decayed, and the farmhouses and other dwellings, so that when there was in a town twenty or thirty dwelling-houses, they be now decayed, ploughs and all the people clean gone, and the churches down, and no more parishioners in many parishes, but a neatherd and a shepherd, instead of three score or four score of persons." I The same complaint is made by Sir Thomas More, who i speaks ^ of the increase of pasture as " peculiar to England," by which " your sheep may be said now to devour men, and to unpeople not only villages but towns." Land-owners, and " even those holy men the abbots," he says, " stop the course of agriculture, destroying houses and towns, reserv- ing only the churches and enclosed grounds, that they may lodge their sheep in them." The result was a terrible in- crease of pauperism, for men " would willingly work, but * Now-a-dayeSy a ballad (Ballad Society) lines 167-160. ^ Rolls House MS. , miscellaneous^ second series, 854 (Froude). ^ Utopia (Morley's edn.), p. 64. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIH 217 can find none that will hire them, for there is no more ^ occasion for country labour, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable ground left." ^ In fact, the evils were so great that attempts were made to deal with them by legislation ; - but they were, of course useless. " It . remains certain," says Froude, speaking of Edward VI. 's reign, "that the absorption of the small farms, the en- closure system, and the increase of grazing farms, had assumed proportions mischievous and dangerous. Leases as they fell in could not obtain renewal ; the copyholder, whose farm had been held by his forefathers so long that custom seemed to have made it his own, found his fines or his rent quadrupled, or himself without alternative ex- pelled. The Act against the pulling down of farmhouses had been evaded by the repair of a room which might be occupied by a shepherd, or a single furrow would be driven across a meadow of a hundred acres, to prove that it was still under the plough. The great cattle-owners, in order to escape the sheep statutes, held their stock in the names of their sons or servants ; the highways and villages were covered in consequence with forlorn and outcast families, now reduced to beggary, who had been the occupiers of com- fortable holdings ; and thousands of dispossessed tenants made their way to London, clamouring in the midst of their starving children at the doors of the courts of law for redress which they could not obtain." ^ A commission was ap-v pointed in 1548 to enquire into this distressing state of; things, and it resulted in a petition which shows a gloomy \ picture of rural England. *' The population was diminished, the farmer and labourer were impoverished, villages were ^ Utopia, p. 65. The preamble to the 25 Henry VIII. , c. 13, recites all the evils here mentioned. "^ Of. Act 7 Henry VIII., c. 1, for reconstruction of farm-buildings, and 27 Henry VIII., c. 22, on same subject ; also 25 Henry VIII., c. 13, that no one shall keep more than 2000 sheep, or occupy more than two farms. 2 Froude, History, iv. p. 353, who quotes as authorities Becon's Jcv;el of Joy ; Discourse of Bernard Gilpin in Strype's Memorials ; Instructions to i.he Commissioners of Enclosures, Ibid ; Address of Mr Hales, Ibid ; and a Draft of an Act of Parliament presented to the House of Commons in 1548, MS. Domestic, Edward VI. State Paper Oflfice ; also Lever's Sermons in Strype's Memorials, 2i8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND destroyed, the towns decayed, and the industrious classes throughout England in a condition of unexampled suiSering." The fault lay in the upper classes, " the nobles, knights, and gentlemen,** who by no means fulfilled their duties as "shepherds to the people, surveyors and overseers to the king's subjects," although, as the petition justly remarks, their position *' had given them sufficient provision that without bodily labour they might attend thereto^" ^ Greed and poverty walked side by side, and while wealth was increasing with the few, the many were suffering terribly from the general change that was passing over both agri- culture and society at large. § 132. Other Economic Changes, The Finances, In fact, it becomes evident that the old mediaeval system of industry was breaking up in England. The new life created by the Renaissance was causing a keener and more eager spirit among all classes of men. Competition began to operate as a new force, and men made haste to grow rich.2 The merchants were becoming bolder and more enterprising in their ventures.^ The discoveries of America by Columbus (1492) and by Cabot (1497), and of the sea- route to India by Vasco di Gama (1498), had kindled a desire to share largely in the wealth of these newly accessible countries. At home the lords of the manors no longer remained in close personal relationships with their tenants, but regarded their estates merely as commercial speculations from which it was their business only to draw as much profit as possible.* The tenants were certainly no longer villeins, but were nominally independent and had certain rights. But the lords of the manors had small respect for rights that were only guarded by custom ; and evicted or stole land from their tenants to such an extent that multitudes of dispossessed aud impoverished villagers flocked to the towns. ^ MS. Domestic, Edward VI., vol. 5, State Paper Office; (Froude, History, iv. p. .367). ^ Of. Froude, History, iv. 510, who shows how the haste for riches caused fraud in the woollen cloth trade. 3 See next chapter. * Froude, History, vi. 109, 110. THE REIGN OF HENRY Vlll 219 " The poor are robbed on every side," said a preacher ^ of the day before the court, " and that of such as have authority; the robberies, extortions, and open oppressions of those covetous cormorants, the gentlemen, have no end nor limits nor banks to keep in their vileness. For turning poor men out of their holdings they take it for no offence, but say the land is their own, and turn them out of their shrouds like mice." Many small tenants and labourers, too, could be found wandering from place to place, begging or robbing. ^ " Thousands in England," says the same preacher, " through such li.e. the landlords] beg now from door to door who have kept honest houses." ^ The old steady village life, with its isolation and strong home ties, was undergoing a violent transition. Constant work and regular wages were becoming things of the past. The labourer's wages would not purchase the former quantity of provisions under the new high prices caused by the debasement of the currency and by the discoveries of silver from 1540 to 1600;* for wages, though they ultimately follow prices, do so very slowly, and not always even then proportionately. At the same time the nation was almost in the throes of bankruptcy. Edward YI.'s ministers were in a chronic condition of financial exhaustion. Money was constantly being raised by loans, by confiscations, and by subsidies, but the universal peculation of everyone connected with the court made it disappear like flowing water. ^ The expenses of the king's household were in 1549 more than one hundred thousand pounds,^ then an enormous sum, and more than five times those of Henry VII. The labourers and artificers of all kinds employed by the Government called in vain for their wages,^ while the daily supplies for ^ Bernard Gilpin, quoted in Froude, History, iv. 359. 2 Hence the very severe Act 1 Edward VI. c. 3, reducing * loiterers ' and vagrants to slavery ; but it was repealed soon as being too harsh, and the Act of 1536 was revived by the 3 and 4 Edward VI. c. 16. ^ Ut supra. * Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 343-345, but also Cunningham English Industry, i. pp. 483-487 ; also Anderson, Commerce, ii. 166. •^ Froude, History, iv. 397. ^ Ih. "^ Ib.,^. 398. 220 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the common necessities of the Government itself were pro- vided by loans at 13 per cent, from Antwerp Jews, the heavy interest on which was paid in the proceeds of the sale of bells and lead robbed from the churches and chantries.^ ''Never before, and never since, has an English Government been reduced to shifts so scandalous." Queen Mary, when she first came to the throne attempted to economise,^ but afterwards her strong religious convictions induced her to strip the already embarrassed treasury of half its remaining revenues in order to re-establish a Roman priest- hood,^ while her misplaced affection for her Spanish hus- band made her force the nation into an unnecessary and expensive war, besides wasting enormous gifts of money upon Philip himself.* When Elizabeth came to the throne she succeeded to what was practically a bankrupt inherit- ance.^ Yet with all this there was wealth in the country, and when we come to speak of Elizabethan England, we shall find that, after all, the nation itself was not quite so poor as the Governments which had done their best to ruin it. § 133. Summary of the Cfhanges of the Sixteenth Century. Such were the circumstances which accompanied and produced so great an economic transition in this period. They resulted in the pauperization of a large portion of the working classes, and in the impoverishment of the small farmers. On the other hand, the new nobles and land- owners gained considerable wealth.^ The merchants also were exceedingly flourishing,'^ and foreign trade was grow- ing. In summing up, then, we may say that the suppres- sion of the monasteries and the creation of a new nobility from the adventurers of Henry YIII.'s court, who obtained most of the monastic wealth ; the debasement of the coinage 1 Froude, Hist., iv. pp. 399, 400. "^ lb. vi. p. 108. 3 lb. ^ lb., pp. 80, 82, 109 note. " See below, p. 234. •^ A correspondent of Sir William Cecil, speaking of their wealth, calls them ** the meaner sort." Tfie Distresses of the Commonwealth, addressed to the Lords of the Council, December 1568. Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. 1. (Froude, vi. 110), c/. also Froude, History, vi. 78. "^ Above, p. 212, note 2. THE REIGN OF HENRY VHI 221 and the exaltation in prices aided largely (1540 — 1600) by the discovery of new silver mines in South America ; ^ the rise in the price of wool both for export and home manufacture, coupled with the consequent increase in sheep farming,^ and the practice of enclosure of land — all produced most important economic changes in the history of English labour and industry. To these we must add, towards the end of the sixteenth century, the great immigration of Flemings, chiefly after 1567, owing to the continual perse- cutions of Alva and other Spanish rulers.^ This gave a great impetus to English manufactures, its effects, however, being chiefly felt in the seventeenth century, when another immigration took place.* Finally, in the sixteenth century were laid the foundations of our present commercial enter- prise and maritime trade, by the voyages of Drake and other great sea-captains of Elizabeth's time.^ Their expe- ditions, it is true, were mainly buccaneering exploits, but they created a spirit of maritime enterprise that bore good fruit in the following reigns. Nor indeed was trade even in the previous centuries entirely insignificant, but had con- siderably developed, as the next chapter will show. But meanwhile the state of society in England gave grave cause for uneasiness to the thinkers and serious statesmen of the day. " They beheld the organisation of centuries collapse, the tillers of the earth adrift without employment, villages and towns running to waste, landlords careless of all but themselves, turning their tenants out upon the world when there were no colonies to fly to, no expanding manufactures ^ offering other openings to labour. A change in the relations between the peasantry and the owners of the soil, which 1 Anderson, Commerce, ii. 166 ; Seebohm, Era of Protestant Reformationy p. 228. 2 Seebohm, p. 49 ; Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 718. ^ The edict which bore in time *' its fatal fruit in the Alva persecutions," was issued by the Emperor on April 29th, 1550 ; and almost immediately Flemings began to emigrate to England. Froude, History , iv. pp. 533-536. ^ See below, p. 241. « See below, p. 231. * Froude is referring to the enormous manufacturing industry of the nineteenth century, beside which, of course, the growing manufactures of the sixteenth sink into insignificance. 222 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND three hundred years have but just effected, with the assist- ance of an unlimited field for emigration, was attempted harshly and unmercifully, with no such assistance, in a single generation. Luxury increased on one side, with squalor and wretchedness on the other as its hideous shadow. The value of the produce of the land was greater than before, but it was no longer distributed."^ In fact, with the growth of modem influences in thought, religion, industry, and trade, there came those modem evils which seem to be their inevitable accompaniment ; and we feel that in very truth, both for good and ill, the genius of the sixteenth century was more akin to that of the nineteenth than to that of any previous age. ^ Froude, History , iv. 360. CHAPTER XV THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE § 134. The Expansion of Commerce. The New Spirit Just as the beginning of the sixteenth century marks what may be called an economic revolution in the home industries of the country, so too it marks the beginning of international commerce upon the modem scale. The economic revolution, of which the new agricultural system and the practice of enclosures were the most striking features, was a change from the old dependent, uncompetitive, and regulated industrial system, to one under which Capital and Labour grew up as separate forces in the form in which we recognise them now. Labour had become virtually independent^ since the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and at the same time it felt consciously that it was in opposition to capitalist and land-owning interests. In its desire for freedom it had also begun to shake off even its self-imposed restrictions, and the power of the gilds had rapidly waned. ^ A new and eager spirit came with the Renaissance and the Reformation, a spirit which on the economic side showed itself in the development of competition, the shaking off of old restraints, and in more daring and far-seeing enterprises. Especially was this the case among the merchants, fired as they were by the great discoveries of the latter end of the fifteenth century,^ and hence we notice, throughout the sixteenth century and especially at its close, that our foreign trade becomes more extensive than it had ever been before, and the foundations of our present international commerce were securely laid. * Of. Seebohm, JEhra of the Protestant Reformation, p. 49. 2 Above, pp. 189, 208, 209. ' Seebohm, Era of the Protestant BeforrruUion, p. 5. »a3 224 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 135. Foreign Trade in the Fifteenth Century, At this point we must look back for a moment at our foreign trade before this new epoch. Although our enter- prises were by no means large, there was yet a fairly con- siderable trade done in the fifteenth century with the countries in the west of Europe, i.e. France, Spain, Por- tugal, and the Baltic lands, and especially with the Low Countries.^ As England was then almost entirely an agri- cultural country,^ our chief export was wool for the Flemish looms to work up ; ^ but the com laws show that there was also other agricultural produce exported ; * and likewise some mineral products. In fact England supplied nearly all Western Europe with two most important metals, tin ^ andjead ; the former coming chiefly from Cornwall and the latter from Derbyshire,' though in neither case exclusively from those counties. Bodmin was the chief seat of the tin trade. Our huge mineral wealth in coal and iron was hardly yet touched, even for home use, and hardly any was exported.^ Our imports were numerous and varied, their number being balanced by the greater bulk and value of our exports of wool and lead. A fair amount of trade was done with Portugal and Spain, which sent us iron and war-horses ; ^ Gascony and other parts of France sent their wines ; ^ rich velvets, linens, and fine cloths were imported from Ghent, Liege, Bruges, and other Flemish manufacturing towns. ^^ The ships of ^ See the preamble to the 12 Henry VII., c. 6 (a.d. 1497), which mentions the trade to all these countries. 2 Seebohm, Era oj Protestant Reformation, p. 229. ^ For its importance, cf. p. 122, and Bacon's History oJ Henry VII. there referred to, * Above, p. 185. ^ The. Libelle of English Policie, about 1436 (fifteenth century), mentions ** cloth, woUe, and tynne " as exports. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151 ; Hist. Agric, i. 599. '' Coal was, however, used to a small extent, and brought by sea to London ; cf. Craik, British Commerce, i. 147 ; it also seems in the sixteenth century to have been exported ; cf. Froude, History, iv. 522, in a quotation from a letter of Wm. Lane, merchant, of London, to Sir William Cecil, MS. Domestic, Edward VI. , Vol. xiii. •* Rogers, Hist. Agric, i. 142, 144. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151, and Hist. Agric, i. 142-144, ^° 76, THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 225 the Hansa merchants brought herrings, wax, timber, fur, and amber from the Baltic countries ; and Genoese traders came with the silks and velvets and glass of Italy. ^ All these met one another, as we saw before, in the great fairs, as at Stourbridge, or in London, the great trading centre of England and afterwards of the Western world. § 136. The Venetian Fleet. But our most important trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries centred round the annual visit of the Venetian fleet to the southern shores of England. This wa-s a great company of trading vessels, which left Venice every year upon a visit to England and Flanders. ^ Our English vessels did not at this time often venture into the Mediterranean, and so all the stores of the Southern Euro- pean countries, and more especially the treasures of the East, came to us through the agency of Venice.^ Laden with silks, satins, fine damasks, cottons, and other then costly garments, together with rare Eastern spices, precious stones, and sweet wines,* this fleet sailed slowly along the shores of the Mediterranean, trading at the ports of Italy, South France, and Spain, till it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, and at length came up the Channel and reached our southern ports. When it had reached the Downs, the fleet broke up for a time, some vessels putting in at Sandwich, Rye, and other towns, and a large number stopping at Southampton, while others went on to Flanders.^ Several days, sometimes weeks, were spent in exchanging their valuable cargoes for English goods, chiefly wool, the balance being paid over in gold ; and then the various portions of the great fleet wpuld re-unite again and set sail ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151 ; and Hist. Agric., i. 142-144. ^ Hence the Venetians themselves called it the ''Flanders Fleet," and it fiist sailed in 1317 ; cf. Cunningham, i. 381, note. ^ Cf. Craik, British Commerce, i. 165. * Cf. Libelle of English Policie : — *' The great galleys of Venice and Florence Be well laden with things of complacence. All spicery and of grocers' ware With sweet wines, all manner of chaffer, ..." &c. " Cunningham, English Industry, i. 381. P 226 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND for Venice, from which city they were often absent for nearly a twelvemonth.^ This annual visit was very convenient for English traders, before our own merchants ventured far away from our coasts. But it is a sign of the increased commercial enterprise of England in the sixteenth century that the visit then became unprofitable, and the last time'* the Venetian fleet came to our shores was in 1587. Besides this annual visit of the Fleet, there was also a large number of Italian merchants residing permanently in London, and engaged apparently in internal as well as foreign trade. They are mentioned in an Act^ of 1484, which enumerates Venetians, Genoese, Florentines, Apulians, Sicilians, and natives of Lucca, complains of their competition with native English merchants, and seeks to impose upon them various restrictions. The Florentines in London were engaged in banking, and had carried on this business since the days of Edward III., if not be- fore ; * the Genoese were skilled in the manufacture of weapons of war, and also imported materials, such as woad and alum, that were used in the English cloth manufac- tures ; ^ while the Venetians were, as we saw, engaged chiefly in the importation of foreign cloths and spices. But in course of time these foreign merchants found that Englishmen were beginning to engage in their own trade themselves, and even, as this trade increased, made voyages to Italy, or actually settled in Italian towns. They had begun to do so in the fifteenth century,^ and had a consul of their own at Pisa, the chief port for English wool ; ^ and early in the sixteenth century we find English merchants visiting the Greek islands ^ and the Levaait.^ Thus the monopoly of the Italian visitors to England was gradually broken through, and English merchants took part in the active traffic of the Mediterranean ports. ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 101. 2 The Fleet was in that year wrecked off the Isle of Wight ; Sir W. Monson (who was an eyewitness), Naval Tracts, iv. ' The 1 Richard III., c. 9 ; c/. also Craik, British Commerce, i. 185. * Cf. Cunningham, English Industry, i. 379. » /6., i. 380. « 76., i. 378. ' Rymer, Foedera, xii. 390 ; and cf. Cunningham, 1. 438. * Rymer, Foedera, xiii. 353 ; xiv. 424. » Ih. , xiv. 389. I THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 227 § 137. The Hanseatic League's Station in London. While our commerce was, however, not yet so greatly de- veloped, there existed in England another important institu- tion carried on by foreign merchants, this time from Germany. The Hansa, or Hanseatic League, originated in very early times among some of the leading trading towns of Germany,^ such as Hamburg and Liibeck ; and after a time these towns ^ formed themselves into a League for mutual protection amid the constant wars and piracy of those early days, and became a sort of federal union.^ In the fifteenth century the League had grown so large and powerful that seventy cities belonged to it, and it had branches or depots in every important town of Northern Europe.^ Of course there was a large branch at London, in the " Steelyard," on which spot the Cannon Street Station now stands.* This branch had existed from very early times, and a warehouse was there in which the German merchants stored their goods. In Richard 11. 's time this building was enlarged, and so it was again in the reign of Edward IV. Round it dwelt the foreign merchants, who formed quite a little colony in the very heart of mediaeval London. Here they held a kind of chamber of commerce, presided over by an alderman, with two co-assessors and nine council-men, and meeting regularly on Wednesday mornings in every week.^ The Steelyard colony existed for some hundreds of years, and taught many valuable lessons in commerce to our English merchants. It provided for us a regular supply of the produce of Russia, Germany, and Norway, especially timber and naval stores, and also corn when our English harvest fell short.^ But as our own merchants grew more ^ The "men of the Emperor" are mentioned in King Ethelred's laws {De Institutis LoncUnie, Thorpe, i. 300) as living in London, but this was probably before the Hansa was formed. 2 The chief authority for the history of the Hansa in England is Lappen- berg's Urkundliche Oeschichte des Hansischen StaMhq/es zu London (Ham- burg, 1851), but a good popular history now exists in English in H. Zimmem's Hansa Towns. ^ Craik, British Commerce, i. 180. * Zimmern, Hansa Towns, p. 187. ^ Werdenhagen, quoted in Bourne's Romance of Traxle, p. 99. * Craik, British Commerce., i. 235. 228 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND prosperous, and their commerce extended, they became jealous of the German colony. Attacks were made upon it by London mobs/ and Edward VI. actually (in 1551) rescinded its charter.^ That was the beginning of the end. Mary restored it for a time,^ but towards the close of Elizabeth's reign (1597) it was finally abolished.* This, too, was another sign of the growth of our own foreign trade. § 138. Trade with Flanders. Antwerp in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. We have mentioned before how the eastern ports and harbours of England used to swarm with small, light craft that plied all the summer through between our own country and Flanders. We have seen, too, that this continuous trade was due to the fact that we supplied the Flemish looms with wool. Up to the fifteenth century the chief, but by no means the only, Flemish emporium to which our English ships plied, was Bruges,^ but in the six- teenth century this town quite lost its former glory, and Antwerp^ took its place. The change was partly due to the action of Maximilian, the Emperor, to whom Henry VIII. was afterwards allied, and who, in revenge for a rebellion in which Ghent and Bruges took part, caused the canal which connected Bruges with the sea to be blocked up at Sluys^ (1482), and thus English and other ships were compelled to direct their course to Antwerp, which was rapidly becoming a great and flourishing port. Antwerp remained without a rival till near the close of the sixteenth century, and every nation had its representatives there.^ Our own consul, to use a modern term, was, at the ^ Craik, Britlsk Commerce, i. 233. 2 76., i. 233-235. s 7^,.^ ^ 234. * Anderson, Chron. Deduct, Commerce, ii. 145. ^ The English merchants at Bruges were organised into a kind of gild or company, and allowed to elect a mayor of their own, Hot. Stap., 27-46 Edward III., m. 11, Tower Becorda, Record Office. This was in 1359. See Appendix C. to Cunningham, English Industry and Commercej vol. i. * The *« mansion " of the English merchants at Antwerp is mentioned by Bacon, Life of Henry VII. (p. 147, ed. Lumby). ^ Anderson, Chron. Deduct, of Commerce, i. 511, 520. * lb., p. 621. It also derived much importance from the trade carried THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 229 close of the fifteenth century, Sir Richard Gresham; and later, in the reign of Henry VIII., his celebrated son, the financier and economist, Sir Thomas Gresham.^ The fact of our having these representatives there is again a proof of the growth of trade in the sixteenth century. An Italian author, Ludovico Guicciardini (who died in 1589), gives in his Description of the Ifetherlands Sb very precise account of our own commerce with Antwerp at this period, and it is interesting to note how varied our commerce had by this time become. This is what he says as to our imports : " To England Antwerp sends jewels, precious stones, silver bullion, quicksilver, wrought silks, gold and silver cloth and thread, camlets, grograms, spices, drugs, sugar, cotton, cummin, linens, fine and coarse serges, tapestry, madder, hops in great quantities, glass, salt-fish, metallic and other merceries of all sorts ; arms of all kinds, ammunition for war, and household furniture." ^ As to our exports, he tells us : " From England Antwerp receives vast quantities of coarse and fine draperies, fringes and all other things of that kind to a great value ; the finest wool ; excellent saffron, but in small quantities ; a great quantity of lead and tin ; sheep and rabbit skins without number, and various other sorts of the tine peltry (i.e. skins) and leather ; beer, cheese, and other provisions in great quantities ; also Malmsey wines, which the English import from Candia. It is marvellous to think of the vast quantity of drapery sent by the English into the Netherlands." ^ This list is sufficient to show an extensive trade, and we shall comment upon one or two items of it in the next chapter. Here we need only remark upon the great growth of English manufactures of cloth, and on the fact that English merchants now evidently traded in the Levant. on by the Portuguese after the discovery of the sea route to India. Cj. Craik, British Commerce, i. 215. ^ The lives of Richard Gresham (1485?- 1549) and of Thomas Gresham (1519?-1579) are well given by Charles Welch in the new Dictionary oj National Biography. ^ Extract in Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, ii. 131. » /6.. ii. 131. 230 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 139. The Decay of Antwerp and Rise of London as the Western Emporium. But the prosperity of Antwerp did not last quite a cen- tury. Like all Flemish towns, it suffered severely under the Spanish invasion and the persecutions of the notorious Alva. In 1567 it was ruinously sacked, and its commerce was forced into new channels, and the disaster was com- pleted by the sacking of the town ^ again in 1585. Antwerp's ruin was London's gain. Even in 1567, at the time of the first sacking, and earlier still,^ many Protestant Flemish merchants and manufacturers fled to England,^ where, as Sir Thomas Gresham promised them, they found peace and welcome, and in their turn gave a great impulse to English commercial prosperity. Throughout Elizabeth's reign, in fact, there was a continual influx of Protestant refugees to our shores, and Elizabeth and her statesman had the sagacity to encourage these industrious and wealthy immigrants.* Besides aiding our manufactures, as we shall see later, they aided our commerce. In 1588 there were 38 Flemish merchants established in London, who sub- scribed £5000 towards the defence of England against the Spanish Armada.^ The greatness of Antwerp was trans- ferred to London, and although Amsterdam^ also gained additional importance in Holland, London now took the foremost position as the general mart of Europe, where the new treasures of the two Americas were found side by side with the products of Europe and the East. ^ Craik, British Commerce, i. 260 ; Anderson, Commerce, ii. 125, 159. 2 In 1560 Philip's envoy reported to his master that *' ten thousand of your Majesty's servants in the Low Countries are already in England with their preachers and ministers." Green, History, ii. 389. Cf. also Froude, History, iv. 535. 3 Anderson, Chron. Deduct, of Commerce, ii. 159 says, "About a tliird part of the manufacturers and merchants who wrought and dealt in silks, damasks, taflfeties, bayes, sayes, serges, and stockings, settled in England, because England was then ignorant of those manufactures." * Letters patent were granted on 5th November 1565, permitting the "strangers" settled at Norwich to manufacture "such outlandish com- modities as hath not been used to be made within this our realm of England." Burnley, Wool and Woolcombing, p. 67. ^ Bourne, Bomance of Trade, p. 115. * Anderson, Commerce, ii. 159. THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 231 § 140. The Merchants and Sea-Captains of the Elizabethan Age in the New World. It is thus of interest to note how the great Reformation conflict between Roman Catholic and Protestant in Europe resulted in the commercial greatness of England. Inter- esting, also, is the story of the expansion of commerce in the New World, owing to the attacks of the great sea cap- tains of those days — Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh — as well as of numberless privateers, upon the huge Catholic power of Spain.^ These attacks were perhaps not much more than buccaneering exploits, but the leaders of them firmly be- lieved that they were doing a good service to the cause of Protestantism and freedom by wounding Spain wherever they could. And possibly they were right. Their won- drous voyages stimulated others, likewise, to set out on far and venturesome expeditions.^ Men dreamt of a northern passage to India, and although Hugh Willoughby's expedition failed, one of his ships under Richard Chancellor reached Archangel,^ and thus opened up a direct trade with Russia ; so that in 1554* a company was formed specially for this trade.* Sir John Hawkins voyaged to Guinea and Brazil, and engaged in the slave-trade between Africa and the new fields of labour in America.^ It was, too, in Elizabeth's reign that the merchants of Southampton^ entered upon the trade with the coast of Guinea, and gained much wealth from its gold dust and ivory. Bristol fishermen sailed across the dreaded Atlantic to the cod-fisheries of Newfoundland,^ and at the close of Elizabeth's reign English ships began to rival those of other nations in the Polar whale-fisheries.^ 1 Gf, Froude, History y ix. pp. 30, 303, 338, 485 ; also Green, History, ii. pp. 422-425, on the " sea-dogs " and Drake. 2 A short summary of the deeds of Frobisher, Drake, and Cavendish is given in Craik, British Commerce, i. 245-256. See also Hakluyt's Voyages. 3 Hakluyt, i. 246. ^ lb., i. 265. ° Craik, Brit. Commerce, i. 243. ^ Craik, British Commerce, i. 222, notes that trading voyages both to Brazil and Guinea become common after 1530. ^ They had done so in Edward VI. 's reign, and the fisheries are mentioned in the 2 and 3 Edward VI. , c. 6. But only fifteen ships from England were engaged in the fisheries in 1577 as compared with 150 from France. Craik (quoting Hakluyt), British Commerce, i. 259. * Craik, British Commerce, i. 259, ii. 29. 232 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND This reign witnessed also the rise of the great commer- cial companies. The company of Merchant Adventurers had indeed existed since 1407, if not before/ having been formed in imitation of the Hanseatic League. The Russian '* Company of 1554 was formed upon the model of this earlier company ; and later came the foundation of the great East India Company. The last was due to the results of Drake's far-famed voyage round the world,^ which took three years, 1577-80. Shortly after his return it was proposed to found " a company for such as trade beyond the equinoctial line," but a long delay took place, and finally a company was incorporated for the more definite object of trading with the East Indies.^ The date of this famous inoorporation was 1600, and in 1601 Captain Lancaster*^ made the first regular trading voyage on its behalf To this modest beginning we owe our present Indian Empire.* § 141. Remarks on the Signs and Causes of the Expansion oj Trade. Now, if we look at the broad features that mark the growth of sixteenth century trade, we shall see that it was closely connected with England's decision to abide by the Protestant cause. It was that which won her the friend- ship of the Flemish merchants ; it was the reli gious disturb- jtnces j n 1^\ and er s that gainedJorLondon the commercial supremac y of Europe ; it was our qTJ3,rrel with~Tloman y, Catholic Spain that inspired the voyages of Drake and Hawkins, and thus caused others to venture forth into new and perilous seas, over which in course of time English mer- chants sailed almost without a rival. And, as we have shown, the sTgyia nf the, eypaT^sif>" ^f Eng1fl.nr[_flTft^^ftftn in events ^ Rymer, Foedera, viii. 464. It was an offshoot of the Mercers Company, which originated from the Brotherhood of St Thomas of Canterbury. Of. 12 Henry VII., c. 6. ^ Of. Fronde, History, xi. pp. 121-158. 2 Craik, British Commerce, i. 251 ; Macpherson, History of the European Commerce with India, pp. 72-82 ; Stevens' Daxvn of British Trade to the East Indies contains a reprint of the minutes of the Company. * For the history of the Company, see ch. xviii., below. THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 233 such as the fall of the Hansa settlement in London, and the cessation of the visits of the Venetian fleet. On the other hand, the rapid growth of the port of Bristol^ in the west witnessed to fresh trade with the New World, and the pro- gress of BostQ]3^ and Hiill^ on the east coast is significant as showing the development of our Northern and Baltic trade, even to the extent of rivalling the great Hansa towns.^ A ^ great stimulus ha d, -arisen, and England was now taking a leading position among the nations of the w^orld. It has been well remarked,* that in the course of the long reign of Elizabeth the commerce and navigation of England may be said to have risen " through the whole of that space which in the life of a human being would be described as intervening between the close of infancy and commencing manhood. It was the age of the vigorous boyhood and adolescence of the national industry, when, although its ultimate conquests were still afar off, the path that led to them was fairly and in good earnest entered upon, and every step was one of progress and buoyant with hope." We will now survey the condition of the country that was thus setting forth upon a new and active career. 1 The Bristol merchants were most active in sending out exploring and trading expeditions ; c/. Cunningham, Eng. Ind., i. 445-448 ; Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 84. 2 They had always been important ; cf. p. 144. 3 In fact a Company for trading in the Baltic, called the Eastland Com- pany, was formed in 1579, and was a competitor of the Hansa, which formerly had had the monopoly in that sea. Of. Macpherson, AnncUs oj Commerce, ii. 164. * Craik, British Commerce^ i. 239. .^ CHAPTER XVI ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND § 142. Prosperity and Pauperism, The reign of Elizabeth is generally regarded as prosper- ous, and so upon the whole it was. But she had" come to the throne with a legacy of debt from her father,^ Henry VIII., and from her fathers counsellors, who guided her young brother, Edward VI. Nor hajl Mary helped to alleviate it. " The minority of Edward," remarks Froude,^ "had been a time of mere thriftless waste and plunder, while east, west, north, and south the nation had been shaken by civil commotions. The economy with which Mary had commenced had been sacrificed to superstition, and what the hail had left the locusts had eaten." This unfortunate Queen, for whom no historian can fail to have a sentiment of the sincerest pity, believing that the spolia- tion of the monasteries by her father had caused the wrath of Heaven to descend upon her realm, stripped the Crown of half its revenues to re-establish the clergy and to force upon the country a form of religion which it had made up its mind to reject. But it is only fair to remark that the religious persecution in Queen Mary's reign has been much exaggerated, for it would appear that not more than three hundred persons were actually burnt at the stake as Pro- testants, and, even including those who died in prison, the total seems not to have exceeded four hundred.* But the power of the Eomish queen was less than her will, and she certainly lost both the confidence and affection of her people. Her treasury was exhausted, the nation financially rained, and in the latter years of her reign famine and plague had added their miseries to other causes of suffering.* Elizabeth ^ Froude, History, vi. 108. * lb. ^ Froude (quoting Burghley), History y vi. 102. ^ Ih.y vi. 109, and (famine), p. 29. «34 ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 235 came to the throne not only with the national purse empty, but with heavy debts owing to the Antwerp Jews/ added to a terribly debased currency and a dangerous under- current of social discontent. It is to her credit as a sovereign that at her death danger from this last source had passed away.^ This was partly due to the growth of wealth and industry throughout the kingdom, to the great gains of our foreign trade, and to the rapid expansion of our manufactures. But pauperism was now a permanent evil, and legal measures had to be taken for its relief.^ One abiding cause of it was the persistent enclosures which still went on, together with the new developments in agri- culture. Nevertheless, before the close of her reign the bulk of the people became contented and comfortable, owing to the prolonged peace which prevailed. The merchants and landed gentry,^ or at least the new owners of the soil, were rich ; the farmers and master- manufacturers were prosperous ; even the artisans and labourers were not hope- lessly poor, especially among the upper working classes. But there was a greater tendency towards the modern con- ditions of continuous poverty among those less fortunately situated. § 143. The Restoration of the Currency. There was, however, one great reform introduced in Elizabeth's reign which benefited the whole nation, and the working classes by no means least of all. The restora- tion of the currency put wages and prices upon an assured basis, and from that time to this both master and man, whether paying or receiviug wages, knew exactly what each was giving and receiving. No measure of Elizabeth's reign has received more deserved praise than the reform of the coinage, though the praise is due not so much to the Queen, who made a considerable profit out of the transaction, but ^ There was about £200,000 owing to the Jews at 14 and 15 per cent. Froude, vi. p. 118. ^ For discontent at the beginning, cf. Froude, vii. p. 9. s See below, p. 260. * The old nobility were scanty and weak, the new were richer ; Froude, vi. 109. 236 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to the people at large, who had the good sense to bear cheerfully the loss and expense it involved in order to obtain a lasting gain. The whole mass of base money was estimated, somewhat ronghly, at some £1,200,000 sterling.^ On the 27th of September 1560, the evils of an uneven and vitiated currency were explained by a proclamation, in which the Queen stated that the crown would bear the cost of refining and recoining the public moneys if the nation would bear cheerfully its share of the loss, and the people were invited to bring in and pay over in every market town, to persons duly appointed, the impure money they possessed. The total amount thus collected was 631,950 pounds in weight, and for this £638,000 in money was paid by the receivers of the Mint. It yielded when melted down 244,416 pounds of silver, worth, under the new coinage system, £733,248 sterling. > After paying for the cost of collection, refining, reminting, and other expenses, there was a balance of over fourteen thousand pounds in favour of the Queen. "Thus was this great matter ended, and the reform of the coin cost nothing beyond the thought expended upon it."^ This important question being now disposed of, we may turn to the condition of the industries of Elizabethan Eng- land, and first we must notice the steady growth of manu- factures in a land hitherto mainly agricultural. § 144. The Growth of Manufacturea, The economic transition before alluded to (p. 131), by which England had developed from a wool-exporting into a wool-manufacturing country, had in Elizabeth's reign been almost completed. The woollen manufacture had become an important element in the national wealth. England no longer sent her wool to be manufactured in Flanders, although much of it was still dyed there.^ It was now ^ Froude, History, vii. p. 6. * For the whole transaction see Froude, Historyy vii. pp. 2-9, and the Luiisdotone MSS., 4 ("Charges of refining the base money received into the Mint, with a note of the provisions and other charges incident to the same "). * This continued till James I.'s reign ; Craik, British Commerce, ii. 33. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 237 worked up at home, and the manufacturing population was not confined to the towns only, but was spreading all over the countr}^;^ and both spinning and weaving afforded direct employment for an increasing number of workmen, while even in agricultural villages they were frequent bye- industries. The worsted trade, of which Norwich was still the centre, spread over all the Eastern counties.^ The broad-cloths of the West of England took the highest place among English woollen stuffs.^ Even the North, which had lagged so far behind the South in industrial develop- 1 ment, ever since the harrying it underwent at the hands of 1 William the Norman, began now to show signs of activity and new life. It had, in this period, developed special manufactures of its own, and Manchester * cottons and friezes, York coverlets,^ and Halifax cloth ^ now held their own amongst the other manufactures of the country. There are several signs of the progress of manufactures in this period, two of which deserve special attention. We find that it was becoming increasingly the practice for a master- manufacturer to employ a number of men working at looms, either in their own houses, or more or less under the master's control. So numerous had such employers become, ^ A well-known historian (Fuller, Church History (ed. 1655), p. 142) has given us a list of the chief seats of the cloth trade and its distribution in the seventeenth century, which will illustrate this period also. In the East of England he mentions Norfolk and the Norwich fustians ; in Suffolk the bayes of Sudbury ; in Essex the Colchester bayes and serges ; and also the broad-cloths of Kent. In the West he notices the Devonshire kersies, Welsh friezes, and the, cloths of Worcester and Gloucester. In the South Somerset was known for the Taunton serges, and Hampshire, Berkshire, and Sussex are all mentioned as havmg manufactures of cloth. In the North the "Kendal Greens" of Westmoreland, and the manu- factures of Manchester and Halifax, in Lancashire and Yorkshire respec- tively, are duly noted. From this list it is evident that the manufacturing industry was very widely spread, and must often have been carried on by agriculturists as a bye-industry in agricultural districts. It had not yet become specialised. 2 Cf. the 14 and 15 Henry VIU., c. 3, and the 26 Henry Vni., c. 16, which show that Lynn and Yarmouth also had manufactures. ^ Fuller, ut supi-a. * Cf. the 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 6. The "cottons" were at that time a kind of woollen manufacture. ^ Mentioned in the 34 and 35 Henry VIII. , c. 10. * Fuller, ut supra. 2 38 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that in the reign of Queen Mary, an "Act touching weavers" was passed/ whereby it was sought to remedy this condition of things. The beginnings of the factory system evidently did not commend themselves to six- teenth-century statesmen. The Preamble to the Act sets forth very clearly the state of things in the manufacturing industry at this time. " The weavers of this realm/' it says, "have, as well in this present Parliament as at divers other times, complained that the rich and wealthy clothiers do in many ways oppress them — some by setting up and keeping in their houses divers looms, and keeping and maintaining them by journeymen and persons unskil- ful, to the decay of a great number of artificers which were brought up in the said science of weaving, with their families and households — some by engrossing of looms in their hands and possession, and letting them out at such unreasonable rents that the poor artificers are not able to maintain themselves, much less to maintain their wives, families, and children — some also by giving much less wages and hire for weaving and workmanship than in times past they did, whereby they [i.e. the workmen] are forced utterly to forsake their art and occupation, wherein they have been brought up." The Statute then goes on to enact that " no person using the feat or mystery of cloth- making shall keep or retain or have in their houses and possession any more than one woollen loom at a time," if they live outside a city, borough, or market town ; nor shall they " directly or indirectly receive or take any manner of profit, gain, or commodity by letting or setting any loom," on pain of a fine of twenty shillings. Weavers who live in the towns are not to have more than two looms. The intention of the Act obviously was to prevent the cloth- manufacture from falling into the power of l arge capitalist - employe rs, such as the millowners of the present day ; and though, of course, such an Act was in the end powerless to arrest the progress of a system which necessarily resulted from the development of industry, it is certainly interesting as showing how far that development had already proceeded. 1 The 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 11. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 239 The time of the factory with its capitalist master and hundreds of " hands " had not yet arrived, but already this glimmer of dawn was announcing the approaching day. § 145. Monopolies of Manufacturing Towns. Another important sign of the growth of manufactures is seen in the fruitless attempts made in the sixteenth century to confine a particular manufacture to a particular town. This is a sure indication that the manufacture of that article was increasing in country districts, and that competition was operating in a new and unexpected way upon the older industries. An example of this may be seen in the monopoly granted by Parliament in Henry VIII.'s reign ^ (1530) to Bridport in Dorsetshire, "for the making of cables, hawsers, ropes, and all other tackling." This monopoly was granted upon the complaint made by the citizens of Bridport, that their town " was like to be utterly decayed," owing to the competition of " the people of the adjacent parts," who were therefore by this monopoly forbidden to make any sort of rope. The only result of this measure, however, was to transfer the rope-making industry from Dorset to Yorkshire, and Bridport was in a worse plight than before. In the same reign (1534) the inhabitants of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, and Bromsgrove, then almost the only towns in Worcestershire, complained ^ that ** divers persons dwelling in the hamlets, thorps, and villages of the county made all manner of cloths, and exercised shearing, fulling, and weaving within their own houses, to the great depopulation of the city and towns." A monopoly was granted to the towns, the only result of which was that they became poorer than before, a great portion of the local industry being transferred to Leeds. A little later (1544) the citizens of York complain ^ of the competition of " sundry evil-disposed persons and appren- tices," who had " withdrawn themselves out of the city into the country," and competed with York in the manufacture 1 21 Henry VIII., c. 12. « Cf. the 25 Henry VIH., c. 18. » Cf. the 34 and 35 Henry Vin., c. 10. 240 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of coverlets and blanketings. York obtained a monopoly, but her manufactures gained nothing thereby. These monopolies granted to towns should not be confused with others granted to individuals for trading purposes. Of this other class we shall speak later. The monopolies of towns here mentioned are, however, interesting as illustrating the growth of manufactures in all parts of the kingdom, and useful as showing the futility of merely protective enact- ments. § 146. Exports of Manufactures and Foreign Trade. Besides these monopolies, we have ample evidence of the growth of our cloth manufactures in the statements made by the historian Guicciardini (1523-89), as to our exports to Antwerp. " It is marvellous," he says,^ " to think of the vast quantity of drapery sent by the English into the Netherlands, being undoubtedly one year with another above 200,000 pieces of all kinds, which, at the most moderate rate of 25 crowns per piece, is 5,000,000 crowns, so that these and other merchandise brought by the English to us, or carried from us to them, may make the annual amount to more than 12,000,000 crowns," which is equivalent to some £2,400,000. The evidence of the Elizabethan writer Harrison ^ on this point is also interest- ing. " The wares that they (i.e. merchants) carry out of the realm are for the most part broad-cloths and kersies of all colours ; likewise cottons, friezes, rugs, tin, wool, our best beer, baize, fustian, mockadoes (tufted and plain), lead, fells, etcetera ; which, being shipped at sundry ports of our coasts, are borne from thence into all quarters of the world, and there either exchanged for other wares or ready money, to the great gain and commodity of our merchants." Here it will be seen how important a place English cloth manufactures take in Harrison's somewhat confused list of exports ; while the other commodities mentioned, such as lead and skins or fells, show that the older staples of our ' Quoted in Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 127. 2 Harrison, Description of England, Book III. ch. iv., edition 1557 ; 10 and 11 in the Camelot Series edition. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 241 trade were still worthy of notice. Harrison also makes a very interesting remark upon the direction as well as the character of our foreign trade, which is well worth quoting. " Whereas in times past/' he says,^ " their chief trade was into Spain, France, Flanders, Danske (Denmark), Norway, Scotland, and Ireland only, now in these days, as men not contented with these journeys, they have sought out the East and West Indies, and made now and then suspicious voyages, not only unto the Canaries and New Spain (i.e., Spanish America), but likewise into Cathay, Muscovy, and Tartaria, and the regions thereabout, from whence, as they say, they bring home great commodities. But alas ! " he adds, "I see not by all their travel that the prices of things are any whit abated." The rise in prices, how- ever, was not due, as Harrison thought it was, to the in- crease of trade, but to other causes upon which we have already commented. One other remark of his is worth attention, as showing not only the growth of commerce but the importance of the merchant class in the social life of the country : " They often change estate with gentlemen, as gentlemen do with them, by a mutual conversion of one into the other." ^ At one time this would have been impossible, but this mention of the fact shows us how far the old order had changed. § 147. The Flemish Immigration. English progress in manufactures and trade was also about this time greatly aided by the arrival of Dutch and Flemish Protestant refugees who fled from the persecutions of Roman Catholic rulers to a more tolerant country. This immigration of foreign Protestants had begun, as we saw,^ some time before the days of Elizabeth, but it increased in numbers soon after Elizabeth's accession, when the death of Mary had relieved England from the fear of Romish persecution. A numerous body of Flemings came over in 1561, and starting from Deal, spread to Sandwich, Rye, ^Harrison, Description of England, Book III. ch. iv., edition 1577; pages 10 and 11 in the Camdot Series edition. ^ lb., p. 9, Camelot edition. ^ Above, p. 221, note 3. Q 242 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and other parts of Kent.^ Another body settled in Norwich, and over Norfolk generally.^ In 1570 there were 4000 natives of the Netherlands in Norwich alone.^ There was also an important settlement in Colchester.* After the sack of Antwerp in 1585, the immigration largely increased. The new arrivals introduced or improved many manufactures, such as those of silk, cutlery, clock-making, hats, and pottery.^ But the greatest improvements they made were in weaving and lace-making. They greatly developed " every sort of workmanship in wool and flax." ^ The lace manufacture was introduced by refugees from Alen^on and Valenciennes into Cranfield (Beds.), and from that town it extended to Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Northamp- tonshire ; while other immigrants founded the manufacture of the well-known Honiton lace in Devon.^ It is interest- ing thus to notice how much we owed to foreign teachers in earlier times, for the reigns of Edward III., Elizabeth, and later of Charles II., were all signalised by large influxes of people from the Low Countries, bringing with them increased skill and often considerable capital An interesting testimony to the influence of these refugees is afibrded by Harrison^ in his Description of England. Speaking about our wool, he remarks : " In time past the use of this commodity consisted for the most part in cloth and woolsteds, but now, hy means of strangers succoured here from domestic persecution, the same hath been employed unto sundry other uses ; as mockados, bays, vellures, grograines, &c., whereby the makers have reaped no small commodity." § 148. Monopolies. The influences above mentioned all tended to promote the ffTowt h of our manufactures, and there was, besides, considerable industrial progress. It is noticeable, however, ^ Romance of Trade^ P' 114 ; Lecky, History of Eighteenth Geniury, i. 191 ; Boys, History of Sandwich, p. 740 ; and Cunningham, Eng. Ind., ii. 36. 2 Moens, The Walloons (Huguenot Society), 18, 79, 264. 2 Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 115. * Cunningham, ii. 37. ■ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 114. ' lb., p. 116. ^ lb. 8 Book III. ch. viii., ed. 1577 ; Camelot series ed., p. 155. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 243 that in the Elizabethan period there arises an eager dis- cussion about monopolies. The fact that this question was now raised is sufficient to indicate the growth of a com- petitive spirit almost unfamiliar to mediaeval industry, and to show that industrial life was growing stronger and more self-assertive. Mercha nts and manufacturers alike were beginning to resent more keenlj^the inter- ference of government with industry, and more especially that form of state interference which took the shape of granting either to individuals or to a corporation the exclusive right of producing or trading in any particular commodity. A strong feeling is manifested against the possessors of monopolies, and in the closing years of Eliza- beth's reign there took place in Parliament that celebrated debate in which both the monopolies and their holders were severely attacked. No doubt there was, as usual, a fiair amount of political exaggeration and partisan statement introduced — for we need not imagine that the Elizabethan members of parliament were other than human — but there is also no doubt that a real grievance imderlay the com- plaints then made. A member spoke of the "burden of monstrous and unconscionable substitutes to the monopolitans of starch, tin, fish, cloth, oil, vinegar, salt, and I know not what — nay, what not ? The principallest commodities of my town and country are ingrossed into the hands of these bloodsuckers of the common-wealth ; " ^ and the general feeling of the House of Commons was so strong, that Elizabeth thought it best to annul the monopolies then existing, though she was almost certainly within the legal limits of her prerogative in originally granting them. Her successor, however, James L, used his prerogative to create so many new monopolies that Parliament again protested in 1609, and he also revoked them alL But after the suspension of Parliamentary government in 1614, they were granted again, till in 1621 their existence was one of the main grievances which the House of Commons then brought before the king.* At a conference with the House ^ D'Ewes, Complete Journal of the Houses of Lords and Commons^ 646. 2 Cf. Craik, British Commerce, ii. 23. 244 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of Lords the Commons offered to prove ** that the patents of gold and silver thread, of inns and alehouses, and power to compound for obsolete laws, of the price of horse-meat, starch, cords, tobacco-pipes, salt, train-oil, and the rest were all illegal ; howbeit they touched not the tender point of prerogative, but, in restoring the subjects' liberty, were careful to preserve the king's honour." ^ Three patents or monopolies were more particularly complained of: (1) that of inns and hostelries, (2) that of alehouses, and (3) that of gold and silver thread.^ The first two were monopolies granting to individuals the power of licensing inns and taverns, and had led to great abuses, though it is said in defence of the patent that the original intention was to place these houses under some kind of supervision in order to check evils that were admittedly rife in them.^ The monopoly of the manufacture of gold and silver thread, granted to Sir Giles Mompesson, was looked upon with disfavour as tending to exhaust the stock of the precious metals in this country.* King James warmly condemned these and all other monopolies, asserting that it made " his hair stand upright" to think how his people had been robbed thereby,^ and, though he waited three years before doing anything decisive, they were all abolished in 1624.^ The evil was not yet, however, by any means entirely suppressed, for it took another shape, monopolies being granted by Charles I. to corporations,'^ though not to individuals. His object was to increase the royal revenue,, to which purpose indeed almost every expedient was applied that had any colour of legality. In this he was certainly successful, for he obtained considerable sums of money, receiving in one year £20,000 for soap alone.^ But great ^ Rushworth, Historical Collections, i. 24. ' Cf. James I.'s speech in Rush worth's Hist. Collections, L 26. ' Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, ii. 158. * Tb.,ii. 159, and Gardiner, History, iv. 18. ' See his hypocritical but amusing speech quoted by Craik, British Commerce, ii. 27, 28. « Statute 21 James I., c. 3. ' See Colepepper's speech below ; and Dowell, Taxation and Taxes in England, i. 244. " Gardiner, History, viii. 75. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 245 discontent was caused by monopolies of such common and necessary articles, and it was seen that the form of a " corporation " was only a cloak for individuals to increase their private gains. In the Long Parliament, Colepepper exclaimed indignantly, after reciting numerous grievances against the "monopolisers" : ^ "Mr Speaker, they will not bate us a pin ; we may not buy our own clothes without their brokerage. These are the leeches that have sucked the commonwealth so hard, that it is become almost hectical. And some of these are ashamed of their right names ; they have a wizard to hide the brand made by that good law in the last Parliament of King James ; they shelter themselves under the name of a corporation ; they make bye-laws which serve their turn to squeeze us and fill their purses." The system, however, of granting these patents to corpora- tions did not cease either then or subsequently under Cromwell and Charles IL, but the government took care only to grant monopolies for such purposes as did not cause an outburst of popular feeling.^ The system has in fact never entirely ceased, for the modern practice of granting patents for a limited time to inventors of new processes is only a modification of the old monopolies, and was pre- valent two hundred years ago as well as now.^ But what is noticeable in the_sfii£3atoiitli^._century is the almost universal acceptance of the principle of monopoly as opposed to competition, except in those cases where monopoly was clearly seen to be injurious to the common welfare. The people might object to a monopoly of soap or salt * because they felt its effects directly ; but they considered it quite just and proper that a company like the East Indian should have a monopoly of Asiatic trade. Even when the Commons came into conflict with the Crown it was to them a question more of constitutional than of economic importance ; they ^ Pari. Hist., n. 656. * Cf. also Cunningham, Growth of Indtistry, ii. 168. * The Act of 1624 abolishing ordinary monopolies yet granted them for twenty-one years to new industries, and to new processes for fourteen years. 21 James I. , c. 3. * For that on salt, cf. Pari. Hist., 1. 1205 ; StraflEbrd's Letters, i. 193 ; and Gardiner, History, viii. 285. 246 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND were trying to regain rights which had been for some time in abeyance, and to check the menacing growth of royal prerogative. As for the Crown, from Elizabeth onwards, there can be little doubt, although historians have sought to excuse its action by suggesting that it had at heart the proper regulation of industry,^ that in most cases all that was aimed at was an increase of royal revenue or a ready and easy means of rewarding royal favourites. ^ There were of course, exceptions ; and occasionally genuine attempts were made to improve some languishing industry^ by the doubtful method of a monopoly, but the requirements of the royal purse were the usual guide in matters of this kind. (Sxad ually , however, the general acquiescence in the monopoly system which marks this^^eriod gave way before the progress of the s pirit ^f ^^mp*^^^^^^", and though it was left to the statesmen of the nineteenth century to perceive that industry is best left as far as possible unhampered by government intervention, we hear but little of this particular form of state regulation as trade and industry expanded. § 149. The Revival of the Graft Gilds. We have mentioned in speaking of monopolies that one lexcuse for them was that the state might seek thereby to regulate or supervise particular industries. Whether the IState actually did so or not, it seems to have been thought necessary to return to some institution such as the old craft-gilds, which had practically been annihilated by the confiscation of their lands under Edward VI.'s guardian, Somerset.* Certainly in Elizabeth's reign the gilds were useless, and powerless to exercise any real influence over the crafts which they were supposed to represent.^ But ^ Cf. Gardiner, Hiatory of England^ iv, 7, and see his whole chapter (xxxiii.) on the monopolies. * The monopoly of sweet wines granted by Elizabeth to Essex was such a case. * E.g.j the patent granted to Cockayne for dyeing and dressing cloth; Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 165. * See above, p. 208. * See the petition in 1571 by fourteen London crafts ; Clode, Early Hist, oj MercharU Taylors, p. 204. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 247 under this queen there came a sort of revival, or at least a reconstruction of the old system. New companies were incorporated for many trades, the ostensible reason being the supervision of the quality of the wares produced in that trade. The real cause, however, was no doubt the exist- ence of such "companies" among the Flemish and other immigrants,^ who, as we saw, came to England in such large numbers at this time. Since these foreigners had their own associations and met in their own " halls " or gild 1 houses,^ it is not surprising that English manufacturers and \ merchants, either from feelings of jealousy or imitation, or both, should wish to have similar and privileged organisations. But these new institutions differed from the old craft-gilds in several ways. They no longer derived their authority from municipalities, but from the Crown or from Parliament4 " They were constituted from outside, not from inside tha town." 3 Moreover, they were associations of capitalists,! or of capitalist employers, rather than of craftsmen, as the old gilds used to be, and were obliged to pay heavily for their patents or charters.* Again, various trades were often combined in one company, and there was often no pretence of supervising the wares of all the trades thus associated,^ though in some few cases the companies were empowered to exercise supervision over the quality of goods. Thus the haberdashers, saddlers, curriers, and shoemakers had supervisory rights, and in London these rights seem to have been exercised with some effect.^ In the rural districts, however, supervision, even when supposed to exist, was very lax. Still, the revival of these companies is interesting as a kind of continuation, though on considerably different lines, of the gilds of mediaeval times. § 150. Agriculture, But we must turn now from manufacturing progress to what was then still the greatest industry of the country, ^ Of. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 47, and the note there. * lb. J quoting Morant, Essex, i. 77. ^ Cunningham, vt supra, q.v. * The upholsterers of London paid £100 to Elizabeth for their charter ; ib., ii. 48. 5 lb. « Cf. Act 5 Eliz., c. 8, § 31, and Cunningham, ii. 48. 248 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and glance at the condition of agriculture in Elizabethan England. Here the advance had been slow, but yet it was substantial, and a proof of progress is to be noticed in the |fact that towards the end of the sixteenth century com- fpetition was making itself felt among tenants for farms. Competitive rents ^ had been hitherto almost entirely unknown in England, but now were becoming more frequent, resulting of course in a rise of rent But the competition itself in this case shows progress,^ and this would also seem to be indicated by the comfortable condition of the yeomanry in this period.^ The growth of our manufactures helped of course to promote sheep-farming, not only (as before) on the part of great landowners, but even of ordinary, moderate farmers. Upon this point Harrison mentions an important fact*: "And there is never an husbandman (for now I speak not of our great sheep-masters, of whom some one man hath 20,000) but hath more or less of this cattle (sheep) feeding on his fallows and short grounds, which yield the finer fleece." The same writer also mentions that sometimes grazing was preferred to tillage, because it required less care and capital, but he does not lay so much stress on this as would lead us to suppose that this change was regarded as so great an evil as it was formerly.^ He seems to think it rather characteristic of a " mean gentle- man " to change arable land into pasture, for he speaks ^ of " a mean gentleman who hath cast up all his tillage because he boasteth how he can buy his grain in the market better cheap than he can sow his land," and adds that " the rich grazier often doth also upon the like device, because grazing requireth a smaller household and less attendance and charge."^ But besides grazing and sheep-farming, which had long since risen into importance, our agriculture had improved in several respects. Here foreign influence, ^ Cf. Norden's Surveyor's Dialogues (first edition, 1607), and Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, v. 42, 43. ^ Ih.yX. 43. * Harrison, Description o/ England, Camelot series edition, p. 12. */6.,p. 156. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 52, thinks the mischief of over- much grazing declined at the close of the sixteenth century. Cf. also Froude, History, vii. p. 10. « Harrison, u. s. , p. 36. ^ lb. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND especially that of the Low Countries/ is again visible. Already a change in the mode of cultivation had been brought about, not so great as that which took place in the two succeeding centuries, but still quite perceptible. A _* larger capital was brought to bear upon the land,^ the breed of horses and cattle was improved,^ and more intelligent use was made of manure and dressings.* It was said that " in Queen Elizabeth's days good husbandry began to take place." ^ In addition to these improvements, the coming of the Flemings and Dutch introduced several new vege- tables. The refugees cultivated in their gardens carrots, celery, and cabbages, which were previously either unknown or very scarce in this country,^ and from the garden these plants were introduced into the farm.^ The most important service to agriculture, however, was the introduction of the >^ hop, which is said to have been brought to England by some Flemish as early ^ as 1524, and later in the century, in Elizabeth's reign, the hop gardens of Kent had already become famous,^ and have remained so ever since. As regards wheat, it is noticeable that its price was now rising considerably, but was subject to remarkable fluctuations, varying from 5s. to 25s. a quarter ^^ in the last half of the sixteenth century. The average price, however (from 1540 to 1582), was 13s. lOJd., a considerable increase upon that of the previous century and a half, when (from 1401 to 1540) it was only a farthing under six shillings. ^^ This may have been due to the Elizabethan corn laws ^* or possibly ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric and Prices, v. 45, 64. He also mentions that this influence was first to be noticed in the eastern counties of England, because they had close business connections with Holland and Flanders. €/. also Harrison, Description of England, p. 26, Camelot edition. 2 Green, History of England, ii. 387. ^ /j^ * Cf. Grervase Markham's works, The English Husbandman (1613), and the Farewell to Husbandry (4th edition, 1649), and remarks in Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 62. ' Dymock, Samuel Hartlib, his Legacy, p. 62 (1651). * Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 57. ^ Ib.,v. 60. ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 29. ^ lb. They were also grown in Norfolk, Suflfolk, and Essex ; Norden, an Rogers, Hist. Agric. , v. 44. i*> Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, iv. 270, 271. " lb.. Tables, iv. 292. 12 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 54, 55. 2 50 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to the increase of population ; but, however that may be, it had the effect of encouraging tillage once more. But the great advance in agriculture had not yet come. That was reserved for the next two centuries. Meanwhile the greater part of rural England was going on in much the same old ways. In spite of numerous enclosures, the primitive common field system was still in vogue among ordinary husbandmen,^ and the innate conservatism of the agricul- turist was only here and there disturbed by the efforts of a few adventurous spirits who were introducing new plants and new methods. § 151. Social Comforts, All this increase of the national wealth in commerce, manufactures, and industry produced important changes in the mode of living. The standard of comfort became higher.2 Food became more wholesome. As agriculture improved and animals could be kept through the winter with greater ease, salt meat and salt fish no longer formed the staple food of the lower classes for half the year. Brickmaking ^ had been re-discovered about 1450, and by the time of Elizabeth the wooden or wattled houses (p. 81) had generally been replaced, at least among all but the poorer class, with dwellings of brick and stone.* The introduction of chimneys and the lavish use of glass also helped to improve the people's dwellings ;^ and, indeed, the houses of the rich merchants, or the lords of the manors, were now quite luxuriously furnished.^ Carpets had superseded the old filthy flooring of rushes ; pillows and cushions were found in all decent houses ; ^ and the ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric.y v. 49, illustrates this from the survey of Gam- lingay (Cambs.), made for Merton College, Oxford, in March 1602. ' See Harrison, Description of England^ Bk. III. eh. i. ed. 1577: *'0f the food and diet of the English." — Camelot edn., pp. 84-106. ' Rogers, Econ. Interpretation of History, p. 279. * See Harrison, Description of England , Bk. II. ch. x. edn. 1577, Camelot edn., p. 117. 5 /&., pp. 116 and 119 of Camelot edn. * /6. "The furniture of our houses also exceedeth, and is grown in manner even to passing delicacy." ^ 76., p. 118, Camelot edn. (for carpets), p. 119 (pillows, etc.). ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 251 quantity of carved woodwork ^ of this period shows that men cared for something more than mere utility in their surroundings. The lavishness of new wealth was seen, too, in a certain love of display, of colour, and of "purple and fine linen," which characterises the dress of the Elizabethan age.2 The old sober life and thought of mediaeval England had been entirely revolutionised by the sudden opening of the almost fabulous glories of the New World, and men revelled joyously in the new prospects of the wealth of the wondrous West. There was, moreover, now far greater security of life and property than of old, and consequently the old fortified castles of mediaeval days had disappeared, as the need for fortification of residences passed away, and the nobility and gentry now sought comfort and magnificence rather than strength and security in their abodes.^ And with this increased security and the growth of wealth we notice also the growth of capitalism* and of a capitalist class, so that the merchant of Elizabeth's days was able to engage in enterprises far larger than those of his predecessors. But yet there were the seeds of pauperism in the land, and all the wealth of the merchants and the adventurers of Elizabethan England did not prevent the sure and inevit- able Nemesis that followed upon the crimes and follies of Elizabeth's father and his court. § 152. The Condition of the Labourers. For it is impossible, in glancing at the condition of labour in the days of Elizabeth, to forget the disastrous economic changes wrought by the actions of Henry VIII. and his followers. Compared with the fifteenth century, the poverty of the wage-earners in Elizabeth's reign wa& often great indeed, though even then not so bad as it sub- sequently became. It was not that the working classes, as a whole, were badly off in the Elizabethan age, for there w^as undoubtedly a fair amount of prosperity; but there * Green, History, ii. 391, notices this, * Harrison, u. s., Bk. III. ch. ii., edn. 1577. Camelot edn„ pp. 107-1 12» » Cf. Green, History, ii. 392. * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 6. 252 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND •were greater extremes amongst them than before, and a larger number of indigent in their ranks. Many of the . petty copy-holders who had been dispossessed of their lands I by the enclosures of previous years had fallen into beggary ',^ the less provident of the labourers had lost their mediaeval curtilages and plots of land in the same way,^ and therefore there was a more numerous class now dependent for their livelihood on wages only.^ Consequently there was often a large number of unemployed wage-earners, and fluctua- tions in employment became more seriously and more acutely felt. Contemporary writers complain that the rich were still often encroaching on the poor man's land,* as they have frequently done since Scriptural times ; and the labouring man was often too poor to buy himself corn ^ — a state of things which did not occur so frequently when everyone had some share in the land and did not depend on wages only. A great loss must also have been felt by the working classes in the abolition of the old gilds and the decay of the old customs associated with them. The merry gild-feast was no longer a feature of village life,^ and holidays and festivals were reduced to a lesser number.^ From this time forward we shall not find much advance in the lot of the labourer. One of his most prosperous periods was fast approaching its close, and on the whole the next two centuries show a steady deterioration. Of course the condition of labour will be best seen by taking -examples of the wages then given. In Elizabeth's reign, then, we may reckon ^ the yearly wages of an agricultural labourer 1 Froude, History, vii. p. 9. 2 Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, iv. 755. ' Cf. the Act 31 Eliz., c. 7. * Harrison, Description of England, Bk. IL ch. 7, ed. 1577 ; p. 19, Oamelot edn. '^ lb,, Bk. in. ch. i. ; page 96, Camelot edn. « lb., Bk. II. ch. v., edn. 1577 ; p. 78, Camelot edn. : "The superfluous numbers of wakes, guilds, fraternities, churchales are well diminished and laid aside." Harrison approved of their abolition, it seems. But cf. Blomfield's Norfolk, iii. 185, who says, '* The poor of the parish always were partakers with them," which shows that they helped to relieve pauperism. 7 Harrison also thought these "very well reduced." But he was a <5lergyman, not a labourer. Description, ut supra. 8 Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, iv. 737, 738. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 253 at about £8, 4s., and the cost of living, which now included house rent, formerly unknown, at £8, thus leaving a very narrow margin for contingencies. Daily wages were^ (in 1463) — for artisans, 8d. a day in winter and 9d. in sum- mer ; for labourers, 6d. in winter and 7d. in summer, and in harvest-time occasionally 8d. or even lOd. This is not very much more than the wages paid at the close of the fifteenth century ^ (viz., artisans 3s. a week and labourers 2s.), but the price of food had risen almost to three times the old average, while wages had only risen ^ in the propor- tion of 1 to 1*72. Moreover, a new system was in this reign introduced for arranging wages. § 153. Assessment of Wages by Justices, The celebrated Statute,* by which this system of the legal arrangement of wages was introduced, has rightly been called a monumental work of legislation.^ " Taken / in conjunction with the Poor Law of the same year, which was, however, subsequently modified, it forms a great system for controlling both the employed and the un- employed ; all the experience of preceding reigns is gathered together, and the principal statute was so well framed that it continued to be maintained for more than two centuries." ^ It certainly had an immense, controlling influence upon the destinies of the working classes, though opinions have differed widely as to whether that influence was beneficial or otherwise. Before discussing this point, however, we will briefly examine the provisions of this famous Act. The preamble is remarkable in that, unlike all previous Statutes of Labourers, it shows a tender concern for the welfare of the labourer, and expresses a fear that his wages may occasionally be too low. It states that " the wages and allowances rated and limited in many of the said ^ From the proclamation of Elizabeth for the county of Rutland in 1563. Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 121. ,. 2 Above, p. 173. ' Rogers, Hisi. Agric, t iv. 757. *The Act 5 Eliz., c. 4 (1563). • Cunningham, Growth of Industry y ii. 38. • lb. 254 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND statutes (i.e., the old Statutes of Labourers) are in divers places too small and not answerable to this time, respecting the advancement of prices of all things belonging to the said servants and labourers," and " the said laws cannot jconveniently, without the great grief and burden of the poor labourer and hired man, be put into good and due execution." This sudden change of attitude on the part of the legislature is most instructive, and even has its humorous side. It shows a complete change of tactics in dealing with the working classes, but one cannot help feeling some lurking doubt as to whether all these honeyed words were genuine. After all, the object of this statute was the same as that of the older ones, namely, to give Vfixity to wages ; and it is so unusual to find one class /legislating in favour of another without some adequate f motive that one cannot help thinking that there was something behind all this generosity. Nor is the motive far to seek. Vlt was to place the regulation of wages not merely in the hands of Parliament, whose methods were necessarily slow and cumbersome, but in the hands of the employers of labour, or at least in the hai^ds of a class who would sympathise with employers. V'Briefly, wages were in future to be fixed by the justices of the peace yin quarter sessions, and both employers and employed were "bound to abide by the assessments thus made. There could be little doubt that the employers would abide by them readily enough, for the local justices of the peace were sure to be either employers themselves or drawn from the same rank in life ; and the severe penalties imposed upon those who disobeyed the assessment were hardly likely to be incurred by any except the working classes. The generous preamble of the Statute thus resulted in an enactment which, if it could only be enforced, was likely to place the workmen entirely at the mercy of their em- ployers. Of course employers might be, and no doubt often were, men of good and honest heart, and wishful to do the best for their labourers; but it was, to say the least, placing a great temptation in their way to give them the authority to fix a rate of wages to which all were ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 255 compelled by law to adhere. It is true that this assess- ment of wages was no hard and fast rule, but was to vary itself with the fluctuations in the prices of provisions ; and the inventors of this kindly scheme expressed a pious hope that *' it might yield the hired person, both in the time of scarcity and in the time of plenty, a convenient proportion of wages." But it is to be noted that they added nothing to the statute to make this hope effectual in practice. All they remark is that the justices should take into account, in fixing wages, the price of food " and other circumstances necessary to be considered " — a some- what vague recommendation ; and the " hired person " had very little voice in the matter. It may be going too far to characterise this assessment scheme — as one outspoken writer does — as " a conspiracy concocted by the law and carried out by the parties inter- ested in its success," ^ and we may give the employers and legislators of Elizabethan days credit for the highest and kindest intentions in a general sort of way ; but no one except a Utopian optimist can shut his eyes to the fact that this ingenious system gave even the best of employers a direct interest in keeping the assessment of wages for his district as low as possible ; and, human nature being what it is, no one can be surprised if his pocket often tended to get the better of his generosity. And, as a matter of fact, this was of course the case. It is absurd to talk about our forefathers as if they were more than human ; and experience of human nature shows that it is liable to succumb to temptations far less than those which the Act of Elizabeth jjlaced before its administrators. § 154. The Working of the Assessment System, Modem historians are nothing if not controversial, and consequently no one need be surprised to find that this Statute is alternately belauded as having been intended to do a real kindness to the working classes and decried as a legal conspiracy to do them an injury. This aspect of the question has been already dealt with sufficiently, but the same ^ Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 398. 2S6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND controversy exists as to whether the Act was ever properly effective. It is amusing to find apologists for it declaring that, after all, it was never really enforced ; ^ and, amid the usual contradictions of economic as of other history, it is occasionally hard to find the truth. But it certainly seems to be the case that, in spite of the continued increase in the price of the necessaries of life, the wages of labour did conform to the justices' assessments, and that these assessments were too low to give the labourer an oppor- tunity of really comfortable subsistence.^ The effect of the Statute was not felt so keenly as long as his wages were supplemented by the ownership of a small plot of land or by rights of common ; but when the enclosures of the eighteenth century took these away from him, the labourer was indeed badly off.^ At any rate, if the intention of the Act of 1563 was really to raise wages, it was a failure in this respect, for " the machinery it created " (as an historian naively remarks * who takes a very favourable view of it) " had not sufficed to raise wages according to the scarcity of the times " in the century following. This is not surprising ; the marvel would have been that wages should have risen when the administrators of the Act were so closely interested in keeping them down. But there can be no dispute that, whether owing to the assessment or not, wages steadily declined in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, taken as a whole, as the following tables ^ will show, though, of course, in so long a time there were naturally periods of slight improvement. The only question that arises is : how was it that for once a Statute of Labourers achieved its object when similar statutes had in previous reigns been so ineffectual ? The reasons for this are several. The labourer had been already weakened (as we saw ^) in the reigns of Elizabeth's father and brother by the debasement of the currency, the change from tillage to sheep-farming, and the ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 199, 200. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 353. * lb. * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 195. * Compiled from Rogers, Six Centuries, ch. xiv. pp. 387-398. « Above, pp. 206-218. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 257 II ■S9 fl u . «1 i 1 3 1 1 It ^ h. 1 ill 1 1^1 s "k* . -^ t> u eW h«hm H?« 05 ^^ =1 ".0> t^ ""^ ^H 3 ^ 3S S3 3 5&&;tS§ >» "35 . ^ _c ^ 1. ■0 -g -— > . '^^ . -^ « 55 1' tit? •< •►3 < ' • ^ -w .:^S {« CO "^ cc CO t- .-I 10 S 00 00 01 US uj uti 10 COCO CO CO CO t^ ^ r-( I— 1 rH i-H 'SoEir'- Saa J'5S"S ^^ -S Ob H-*^ W-^ SB® o §1-^211 I ^2 00 a> fl -S .0 — — «<1 S g-S S'co -IS © t* '1 2 r| S -•-^s -►^ c 1 •*N^ fl ^n3 --. ^u2 o 2-73 ^-^ ©j«j d^>t« § s .a «oo sl-sl-s-^lJ 5See2 -"5 ^ ®w o 6.:^ :; o 055 | r ^ ^ 2 58 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND numerous enclosures of land. These all had their due effect upon his condition. But there were two other causes of equal power operating at the same time. \/(l) The condi- tions of industry had already largely changed ; men were less bound to the land than formerly, having been in some (cases driven off it by sheep-farms and enclosures, and in others attracted from it by the progress of manufacturing industries. There was, therefore, a much larger class than formerly dependent entirely on wages,^ with no land of their own to fall back upon, and consequently compelled to take what they could get from the nearest employer. This was * in itself a source of weakness ; and this weakness was increased by another cause. V (2) The old unions of work- men had decayed, the craft gilds had become obsolete or effete,^ and there was nothing to bind the working-classes together in self-defence. The combined action^ that re- sulted in the Peasants' Revolt of the fourteenth century had become a thing so completely of the past that it had fallen into oblivion ; and not only that, but the law had now been strained into that iniquitous doctrine of " conspiracy " which stamped all efforts of workmen to improve their condition as ipso facto illegal. It was accounted as a "conspiracy," * and, therefore, a legal offence, for workmen to enter into any asso- ciations to raise, or endeavour to raise, the rate of wages ; and workmen who entered into such illegal combinations were punishable by fine or imprisonment Meetings held for similar purposes were punishable in the same way, while every inducement was given to a workman to turn traitor and betray his fellows by the promise of indemnity to offenders who informed against their associates. For centuries ' this tyrannical measure disgraced our statute books ; and yet we are asked to believe that the legislators, who framed this law and invented th# doctrine of conspiracy to supple- ment the scheme of assessment of wages, were actuated only 1 Above, p. 252. « Above, pp. 189, 207-209, and cf. p. 247. s Above, p. 163. * Cf. the Act 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. 15, and the 40 Geo. III., c. 106. The clauses 18, 19, and 20 of the 5 Eliz. , c. 4, were also strained to support this doctrine ; cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 397, 399. 5 Till the 6 Geo. IV., c. 129 ; see below, pp. 416-420. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 259 by their kindly concern for the welfare of the working man. But, leaving intentions and motives out of the question, it is easy to see how powerfully the foregoing causes must have operated in depressing the condition of the labourer, and thus rendering it easy to enforce the Elizabethan code of labour laws. § 155. The Law of Apprenticeship, There are, however, certain clauses in this statute which are noticeable as regulating the apprenticeship system. In agriculture, any person who had half a ploughland in tillage might take a boy to serve as an apprentice in hus- bandry till he was twenty-one years of age. In crafts, a period of seven years was laid down as the time of appren- ticeship ; and in order that apprenticeship might be a reality in its educational aspect, every master who had more than three apprentices was required to have one journeyman t for every apprentice over this number. By this means ^ masters would be prevented from getting work done by apprentices which ought to be done by more qualified work- men. These regulations applied to the whole country, and not merely, as in mediaeval times, to trades which had gilds. It is interesting to note that certain limitations were made which were evidently intended to benefit the agricultural interest ; and once again one cannot refrain from a suspicion that the landed classes, who constituted the majjority in Parliament, were not actuated entirely by motives of pure benevolence to others. We find that persons engaged in agriculture, or in any trades connected therewith (such as smiths, wheelwrights, and also the weavers of linen and household cloth ^) might take any apprentice they could find. But artisans in corporate towns and market towns were more restricted ; they could not take any one who was j not the son of a freeman of such town, and the apprentice taken by them was not to be withdrawn from agriculture ; while merchants and shopkeepers in corporate towns were restricted to the sons of ** forty-shilling freeholders," and ^ See § 23 of the 5 Eliz. , c. 4. This shows how mauf actures and agricul- ture were often combined. See above, p. 237, and note there. 26o INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND those in market towns to the sons of "sixty-shilling free- holders." It has been said that ""as a scheme of technical education the regulations for artisans were admirably suited to the needs of the times " ; ^ and there is no doubt that in many respects these regulations were beneficial. But it is always a suspicious circumstance when legislators belonging to any particular class introduce restrictions that would naturally benefit the interests of their own order ; and it is very obvious that what was sought in these apprenticeship clauses was quite as much the convenience of the agricul- tural interest as the promotion of a scheme of technical education. Neither the landed gentry nor the agriculturists whom they represented need be blamed for their action. Any other class in their position would no doubt have done the same. But it is superfluous, not to say absurd, to imagine that Elizabethan Parliamentarians were actuated, any more than other men, solely by a desire for the welfare of others. It should be added, when considering the effects of the apprenticeship system as thus laid down under Elizabeth, Ithat in after years there grew up a vast number of trades that were never touched by this Act at all, since it only applied to those actually in existence at the time of its passing. The trades which arose in later times were out- side its operations altogether, and were usually known as theV" incorporated trades," because they were regulated not by this Act but under patents granted to those who invented a new manufacture or improved an old one. § 156. The Elizabethan Poor Law. Closely connected with all this industrial regulation, which we have now briefly reviewed, was the new legisla- tion rendered necessary by the steady increase of pauperism — a phenomenon all the more remarkable because it was also accompanied by a rapid growth of national wealth. The spectacle of Dives and Lazarus existing side by side is in our own day so common as to excite little remark ; and the poor-rate is regarded with the same equanimity — or ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 41. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 261 hopelessness — as the charges for water or police. But it was still of sufficient novelty in the reigns of Henry VIII. and his children to cause English legislators con- siderable uneasiness. We have already seen (pp. 195, 205) how it was dealt with in former days, and later, in the last year^ of Edward YL, two collectors were appointed in every parish, whose business it was to obtain from every person of substance a promise of alms for the relief of the poor, to enter such promises in a book and collect the money, and to relieve the poor with it. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign it was found that further pressure was needed to make people give, and therefore in 1563 another Act^ was passed, by which a person who was unwilling to contribute to the re- lief of the poor, and who would not be affected even by the exhortations of his bishop, had to appear before the Justices of the Quarter Sessions and submit to a tax or assessment imposed upon him by them, or be thrown into prison. The provision for the relief of the poor was, in fact, altogether changing in character. It was no longer a free act of Christian charity, but a compulsory contribution towards the mitigation of a social evil, a contribution of the same nature as the nineteenth century poor-rate. There was now " only a step from the process under which a reluctant subscriber to the poor law was assessed by the Justices, and imprisoned on refusal, to a general assessment of all property." ^ This step was taken by the celebrated Poor Law of Elizabeth * in 1601. This famous and long-lived^ Act prescribed the levy of a compulsory poor-rate in every parish, designated the kind of property on which the rate was to be levied, and inflicted penalties on those who disobeyed its provisions. Work was to be provided for those who would or could work, and relief for those who could not ; poor children were to be trained to some craft ; and the idle were to be punished. Such was the remarkable Act with which, as has been so justly pointed out, the history of English labour has been 1 By the 5 and 6 Ed. VI., c. 2. 2 jhe 5 Eliz., c. 3. 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 420. * The 43 Eliz., c. 3. ° It was only meant, however, at first to be temporary, but it was renewed in the next Parliament, and at last made permanent by the 16 Charles I. , c. 4. 262 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND ever since its enactment most intimately associated.^ At this space of time it is liard to look upon it with eyes unprejudiced, either favourably or unfavourably ; but possibly the best comment upon it has been supplied by its own subsequent history, which has never been able to record its success. One of its greatest defects has been the lack of any adequate system of providing employment for the poor, and this has been the weak point of the whole English Poor-Law code. Work was indeed meant to be provided by this Act of 1601, but its local administrators never set themselves seriously to raise a fund and find such work for the unemployed ^ by providing a stock of hemp, wool, iron, and other materials.* The training of children as parish apprentices led to their ill-treatment,* and the system of providing relief from the rates developed into one of the most foolish of abuses.^ With these points we shall deal later, as their full effect becomes more visible ; but there is one which requires notice before we go any further. In the third clause of this historic Act there is a pro- vision, that if a parish is not rich enough to maintain its own poor entirely, the deficiency, if any, in the rates shall be supplemented from the rest of the hundred.^ This seems at first sight a reasonable provision, and was prob- ably inserted by the framers of the Act as requisite in view of a very possible contingency. It was not acted upon at first to any great extent,'^ but subsequently it became a favourite instrument of employers of labour for reducing wages, first by lowering them in their own parish to such a point that it was necessary to give the labourer an enormous amount of relief out of the rates, and then by throwing the burden of this relief upon surrounding parishes.^ The use thus made of this clause in after years was certainly ingenious, for a large proportion of a labourer's wages would thus come out of the pockets of the general public, while a corresponding saving was effected * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 421. For various views see Cxmningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 58-61, and Fowle, Poor Law, p. 58. * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 61. 3 Cf. the 18 Eliz., c. 3. * See below, p. 388. » Below, pp. 412-414. « 43 Eliz., c. 3, § 3. ^ Fowle, Poor Law, p. 68. » Below, p. 412. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND 1636 KOPyTH SEA Scale of English Miles 10 20 so 40 60 75 100 > ■ I 1 1 I — 1- 1 J WEALTH IN ENGLAND IN 1636. This Map is based on the well-known assessment for ship-money,, and gives the per square mile. It should be compared v/ith that opposite page 196. 1. Counties assessed at £6 to £7 per square mile Dark Brown. 2. „ „ £5 to £6 „ „ - Dark Green. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 263 by his employer. The ingenuity of the arrangement is perhaps more conspicuous than its honesty : of that my readers can judge for themselves ; but it merely shows, as has been remarked before, that human nature can rarely resist a temptation which is addressed to its pocket. The action of this apparently innocent clause is seen more clearly in the eighteenth century,^ but it is well to notice it here, in its place, as a weak spot in an Act that was never particularly strong. § 157. Population. "We may now conclude our survey of Elizabethan England with a brief notice of the then existing number of inhabitants. The jaoarked im;^ovement in agriculture and the increase of wealth brought with them, at the close of the sixteenth century, an equally marked increase of population. We saw that at the time of Domesday the population of England was under two millions.^ When the poll-tax of 1377 was levied, in the last year of Edward III.'s reign, it had not much increased, being at most not more than two and a quarter or two and a half millions, according to careful calculations based upon the returns of this tax.^ But by the end of Elizabeth's reign it had risen rapidly to five million souls,* but probably did not increase so quickly during the next hundred and fifty years. The bulk of the population was still in the southern half of the country,* although the north was now becoming more prosperous, owing to the extension of manufactures. It will be seen that England was by no means overcrowded, and yet people were found who complained of the increase of popu- lation. William Harrison,^ in his Description of England, remarks : " Some also do grudge at the great increase of 1 Below, pp. 412-414. « Above, pp. 66, 106. * Topham, in Archaedogia^ vii. 337. * Rogers, Six Ceniuries, 463, says still only 2J millions, but if so it rose very rapidly to 5^ millions by 1688. King, in Davenant's Works, ii. 184. ' This may be easily seen in the assessment made later by Charles I. for ship-money in 1636. See also Rogers' valuable chapter vii. on TJie distribu- tion of wealth in England at different epochs in his Economic Interpretation of History ^ p. 138 sqq. ; and in Hist. Agric.y v. 06-125. « Page 125 (Camelot series edition) ; Bk. IIL, ch. 5, of 1577 edn. 264 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND people in these days, thinking a necessary brood of cattle far better than a superfluous augmentation of mankind. But," he adds, severely, " I can liken such men best unto the Pope or the Devil," and adds that in case of invasion they will find " that a wall of men is far better than stacks of corn and bags of money." Even without the fear of invasion before our eyes, it is well for us to-day not to forget this latter sentence in the modern, international race for wealth. CHAPTER XVII PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES § 158. BMjmid of Progress since Thirteenth Century, It will be remembered that great agricultural changes had taken place since Henry III.'s reign. For a century or so after his death (1272) the landowner was also a cultivator, living upon his land and owning a large amount of capital in the form of stock, which he let out under the stock and land lease system.^ But after the Great Plague (1348) this method of cultivation by capitalist landowners largely ceased, except in the case of sheep-farming; the landowner became generally a mere rent receiver; and agriculture consequently suffered to some extent. Marling, for instance, fell into disuse, and the breed of sheep, it is said, deteriorated somewhat.^ The great feature of the change was the transformation of large tracts of arable land into pasture for sheep, and the growth of enclosures for the sake of the same animal. This process, however, seems to have ceased to some extent about the last decade of the six- teenth century,' and enclosures were afterwards made, as we shall see, for another reason. The landlords, meanwhile, rapidly proceeded to raise their rents, till, in the sixteenth century, extortionate renting became so common that Bishop Latimer,* and Fitzherbert, the author of the useful work on 1 Above, pp. 114, 186. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 442, who quotes Fitzherbert ; and Hist, Agric.y v. 62. * Cunningham, Groioth of Industry^ ii. 52 and 180. He gives 1592 as about the date of cessation, with a slight increase of enclosures again about 1597 (Spedding, Letters atid Life of Bacon, i. 158), but afterwards enclosures for sheep practically stopped. * Latimer's Sermons (Parker Society), p. 99. a65 266 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND surveying,^ complained about it both in sermons and other writings. For all these reasons English agriculture did not improve very materially between the days of Henry III. and of Elizabeth. But in this queen's reign, as we saw, several improvements were made under the influence of foreign refugees. For the inhabitants of the Low Countries and Holland have been our pioneers not only in commerce and finance, but in agriculture also.^ It was these people who now introduced into England the cultivation of winter roots * / (the want of which, it will be remembered, greatly embar- rassed the English farmer in the mediaeval winter), and in the eighteenth century that of artificial grasses.*/ The intro- duction of hops also was of great importance.^ § 159. Progress in James I* a Beign, Infitcence of Landlords. Of course the greatest industrial progress of this period was made in the direction of foreign trade, and in James's reign progress in agriculture was slow as compared with that in commerce, but it was substantial — substantial enough, at any rate, for the landlords to exact an increased competi- tive rent, as we know from Norden's work, The Surveyor's Dialogue (1607).^ Norden also notes ^ that tenants were eager to take land even at high rents, and this shows that they expected to make good profits. Whether they always made them is another question. But this development of competitive, as contrasted with the old customary, ren ts is certainlyVorthy of attention. It was, however, complained that the action of the landlords tended to discourage pro- gress, for when a tenant wished to renew a lease he was threatened with dispossession if he did not pay an increased rent for the very improvements he had made himself^ ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric.y v. 41. ^ HarUih's Legacy y p. 54, and passim. ^ Weston, Discourse of Husbandrie tued in Brabant (1652), p. 25 ; Wor- lidge, Sy sterna AgricuUura, p. 46 ; Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 453. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 453. • Rogers, Hist, Agric,, iv. 67. • Dialogue, p. 9. ' Ih. Norden, by the way, is corroborated by Best, author of Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641, p. 129. Lands (he says) which had let formerly at 2s., then at 2s. 6d., and again at 3s., had now risen to thrice as much. " See the Preface to Hartlib's Legacy, probably by Dymock. PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 267 Still, from the facts given by NordeD, and also by another writer — Markham, the author of The English Hushandtnan (1613) — it is evident that there was considerable improve- ment, development, and variety now shown in English agriculture.^ Arable farming was prosecuted with increased energy,^ and both to farmers as well as to merchants the seventeenth century brought increased prosperity.^ The special, characteristic feature of the seventeenth century is the utilisation of the fallow for roots,* though these had been known in gardens in the previous century .^ The most fertile land was to be found in Huntingdon, Bedford, and Cambridge shires, the next best being in Northampton, Kent, Essex, Berkshire, and Hertfordshire.^ Land was still largely cultivated in common fields,^ and was, of course, much subdivided. But the practice was now increasing of making enclosures, not as before, for the sake of sheep- farming, but in order to carry on an improved method of tillage.^ It was recommended by agricultural writers,^ and their recommendations seem to have been widely adopted, though it is very doubtful whether many of those who enclosed land had personally read their books, for agricul- ture owes but little to literature. The enclosures thus made for tillage certainly conduced to the improvement of agri- culture, though in many cases it is to be feared that the interests of those who had a right to common lands were disregarded, and both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed steady progress. § 160. Writers on Agricvlture. Improvements. Game. One noticeable improvement is the attention now paid to the various kinds of manures,^** on which subject Markham ^ See Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. pp. 40 to 65. * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 185. » Rogers, Six Gentwries, 459. * 76., 468. * Above, p. 249. • Markham, quoted by Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 55. ^ It remained so in numerous instances till after the middle of the eigh- teenth century. Toynbee, Industrial Bevolution, p. 39. ® Cunningham, Growth of Induntry, ii. 181. ^ Hartlib'8 Legacy, p. 54 ; Worlidge, Sy sterna, p. 10 ; Taylor, Common Good, p. 13. ^* Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 185; Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 52. 268 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was the first to write specially, though there are several other authors who have dealt with it^ The fact that agriculture was now made the topic of various treatises proves that important development was taking place. Be- sides the works already mentioned, we have the Systema Agricultures by Worlidge, a farmer of Hampshire, the second edition of which appeared in 1676. He is a strong advo- cate of enclosures, as against the old common field system, on the plea that the former is more conducive to high farm- ing ; but he also is in favour of small holdings thus enclosed.^ Though at first local and somewhat spasmodic, and hindered no doubt by uncertainty of tenure ^ and by the landlord's power of appropriating the results of increased skill on the part of the tenant, under the head of " indestructible powers of the soil," yet the progress made was sufficient to increase very largely the population of England,* an increase aided also by the growth of manufactures. A curious fact in the agriculture of the seventeenth century may be here men- tioned in passing — that is, the existence of a very large amount of waste land, and the use made of it for purposes of breeding game.^ At that time it is evident that killing game was not the exclusive right of the landowners, but was a common privilege. Large quantities of game were sold, and at a cheap price, and " fowling " must evidently have been an important item in the farmer's and labourer's means of livelihood. § 161. Drainage of the Fens. A most important feature in the development of agri- culture in the Eastern counties was the drainage of the fens — i.e., all that large district which extends inward from the Wash into the counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, North- ampton, Huntingdon, Norfolk, and Suffolk. This district "^ ^ Blith, Husbandry y 60 ; Plato, Jetoel House, 21. For an excellent Acoount of these writers on agriculture see Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. pp. 40 to 65, frequently copied by other authors. * Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 62. 3 Plattes, essay on Husbandry, quoted by Rogers, Hist, Agric, v. 56. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 463; Hist. Agric., v. 64, « Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 27. PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 269 had been partly reclaimed by the Romans, and had been for a time a fertile country.^ But in the time of the Domesday Book it was once again a mere marsh, owing to incursions of the sea, which the English at that time had not the ability to prevent. Although even in 1436, and subsequently, partial attempts had been made to reclaim this vast area, the first effectual effort was begun only in 1634, by the Earl of Bedford, who received 95,000 acres of the reclaimed land as a reward for his undertaking. ^ The contract was fulfilled under the superintendence of the engineer Vermuyden, a Dutchman, in 1649, and a corpora- tion was formed to manage the " Bedford level," as it was now called, in 1688. The reclaiming of so much land naturally increased the prosperity of the counties in which it stood, and their agriculture flourished considerably in consequence, Bedfordshire for instance being now the most exclusively agricultural county in the kingdom. Similar operations were effected in Hatfield Chase.^ § 162. Bise of Price of Com and of Bent The price of com, meanwhile, was now steadily rising. From 1401 to 1540 — i.e., before the rise in prices and the debasements of the coinage — the average price had been a farthing under six shillings per quarter ; * after prices had recovered from their inflation, and settled down to a general average once more, taking the price from 1603 to 1702, com was forty-one shillings per quarter.^ The average produce had apparently declined, or, at any rate, had not increased since the fifteenth and before the im- provements of the seventeenth century. In the former period it was about twelve bushels per acre,^ and in 1 See article on Bedford Level in Chambers' JSncydopcedia (ed. 1888), and Denton, Fifteenth Century, pp. 140-141 ; also Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, Vol. I. , p. 10. 2 See more fully Gardiner, History of England, ch. Ixxxiv., Vol. VIII., p. 295. As the rent was, after the draining, about 30s. an acre, the earl's reward was very substantial. 3 Ih. , Vol. VIII. p. 292. This was in 1626, and Vermuyden was knighted for his efforts (1629) ; cf. Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, Vol. I., for Life and Works of Vermuyden. * Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 292. * lb., V. 276. * Rogers, Econ. Interp., p, 53. 270 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the fourteenth century eleven bushels;^ but Gregory King, writing in the seventeenth century, only gives ten or eleven bushels as the average of his time.^ His estimate, however, is doubted.^ At the same time, rent had risen from the sixpence per acre of the fifteenth century to four shillings,* according to Professor Rogers,^ or even 5s. 6d., according to King,^ who says the gains of the farmer of his time were very small, and that rents were more than doubled between 1600 and 1699. We will reserve the topic of the rise of rent, however, for a separate section, and keep to the agricultural developments of the period. § 163. Special Features of the Eighteenth Century. Popularity of Agriculture. As the use of wi nter roots had been the special feature of the seventeenth century, so the feature of the eighteenth was the extension of artificial pasture and the increased use of clover, sainfoin, and rye-grass ; ^ not, of course, that these had been hitherto unknown, but now their seeds were regularly bought and used by any farmer who knew his business. At first, like all other processes of agriculture, the development was very slow and gradual, but it went on steadily nevertheless. A great stimulus to progress was given by the fact that the English gentlemen of the eighteenth ^entury developed quite a passion^lor agriculture as a hobby, and it became a fashionable pursuit for all people of any means, citizens and professional men joining in it as a kind of bye-industry, in addition to the farmers and landowners, who made it their business.^ Arthur Young, the great agri- cultural writer of this century, declares that " the farming tribe is now made up of all classes, from a duke to an apprentice." It should also be added that in the eighteenth ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 476 and 442. ^ In Davenant's Works, ii. 217. ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric, ▼. 783. * Taylor, the author of the Common Good (1652), gives (p. 15) Ss. 4cL per acre as a typical rent in his time. ^ Hist. Agric, Y. 92. * Quoted in Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 92, who gives 4s. l^d. as the average rental of the Belvoir estate. 7 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 468. ^ /6., p. 470. PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 271 century more capital was being applied to the pursuit of agriculture. The wealth gained by the commercial progress of the day was largely put into the land, and the great revolution that now took place in English agriculture was carried on under the influence of men of wealth.^ But two important mistakes were made in the eighteenth century, and they have not ceased to exist in the nineteenth, in- creasing very largely the distress under which English agriculture has for some time (1895) been labouring. They are the mistakes of occupying too much land with insufficient capital, and of not keeping regular and detailed accounts.* Improvements also were not universal, but were often con- fined, at least at first, to scattered parts of the country.^ Progress was to begin with (say from 1700 to 1760)* rather slow, but afterwards became very rapid, and wealthy land- owners made great efforts to improve their estates, succeeding also thereby in raising their rents and increasing their profits.^ They thus became in a way the pioneers of agricultural pro- gress, the principal result of their efforts being seen in the in- creased number and quality of the stock now kept on farms. § 164. Improvements of Cattle, and in the Productiveness of Land. Statistics. The extended cultivation of winter roots, clover, and other grasses naturally made it far easier for the farmer to feed his animals in the winter ; and the improvement in stock followed closely upon the improvement in fodder.^ The abundance of stock, too, had again a beneficial result 1 Cunningham, Orototh of Industry, ii. 362. 2 Arthur Yoting, quoted in Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 471. ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 41. * lb., p. 45. 5 Cunningham, Orototh of Industry, ii. 363, 364, following Young, praises these wealthy landowner! for their eflforts, and expresses surprise that later writers have attacked such men for raising rents and for other reasons. No doubt the landowners are entitled to every praise for their spirited eflforts, but to call a man (ai Young practically does) the greatest of patriots for following the obvious course of enlightened self-interest is little less than absurd. A landlord who makes a profit out of his land by improvements in husbandry deserves such a title as little, or as much, as a manufacturer who derives a handsome profit from a new machine. * Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 475. 272 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND in the production of increased quantities of manure, and the utilisation of fertilisers was more scientifically devel- ^ oped. The useful, though costly, process of marling was again revived, and was advocated by Arthur Young ; soils were also treated with clay, chalk, or lime.^ So great was the improvement thus made, that the productiveness of land in the eighteenth century rose to four times that of the thirteenth century, when five bushels or eight bushels of corn per acre was the average.^ Stock, also, was similarly improved ; an eighteenth century fatted ox often weighed over 800 Ibs.,^ while hitherto, from the fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, the weight had not been usually much above 400 lbs. The weight of the fleece of sheep had also increased quite four times.* Popu- lation being even then small, a considerable quantity of corn was exported, the British farmer being also protected from foreign competition by the com laws (made in Charles 11. 's reign),^ forbidding importation of com, except when it rose to famine prices. Young ^ estimated the cultivated acreage of the country at 32,000,000 acres, arable and pas- ture being in equal proportions, whereas King ^ had put it at only 22,000,000 in the seventeenth century ; its value (at thirty-three aDd one-half years' purchase) was, says Young, £536,000,000. The value of stock he places at nearly £110,000,000, and estimates the wheat and rye crop at over 9,000,000 quarters per annum, barley at 11,500,000 quarters, and oats at 10,250,000 quarters. The rent of land had risen in Young s time to nearly ten shillings an acre.^ ^ Rogers, Six Centuries^ p. 476. 2 Ih., 477 ; cf. also Young, who gives 25 bushels an acre (in 1770), while in France it was only 18 bushels. Travels in France^ i. 354. ' Cf. Eden, State of the Poor, i. 334 ; Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, 44, but Rogers, ^»a: Centuries, p. 477, gives 1200 lbs. */6., p. 477. ''See the 22 Charles II., c. 13, by which a duty of 16s. a qr. was placed on wheat when at or below 53s. 4d. , and a duty of 8s. when it was between 63s. 4d. and 80s. a qr. Other kinds of grain were similarly treated. We have seen that the average price of wheat at this time was 41 s. a qr. : hence the eifect of this law may be easily perceived. ^Northern Tour, iv. 340-341, butc/. Eastern Tour, iv. 455. '' Observations upon the State and Condition of England, 1696 ; printed in Chalmers' Estimate, p. 52. 8 Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 477 ; but also cf. Hist. Agric, v. 29. PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 273 §165. Survivals of Primitive Culture, Common Fields. With all these improvements, however, rural England, even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, retained in its husbandry many traces of a more primitive state of things. Again and again the permanence of ancient institutions and methods surprises us, here as elsewhere, just as Arthur Young was surprised in his tours through his own country. Thus at Boynton (Yorks) Young found remains of extensive culture ; ^ in other cases the old two-field or three-field system was carried on ; as, for instance, near Ecclesfield in Hallamshire, and at Beverley in Yorkshire. 2 Throughout considerable districts, in fact, the agrarian system of the middle ages stiU remained in force ;^ and naturally, compared with the newer methods of agri- culture, it yielded but poor results. " Never," says Arthur Young, " were more miserable crops seen than the spring ones in the common fields ; absolutely beneath contempt" * The causes of this backward state of things were many, but all naturally arose from the difficulties inherent in the common field system when some of those who used it had surpassed their co-workers in agricultural progress.^ For one thing the same course of crops was nearly always necessary, and no proper rotation was feasible, the only possible alteration being to vary the proportions of different white-straw crops. ^ A man of enterprise was therefore greatly hindered ; for if he worked with his neighbours in these open fields he was compelled to follow a traditional but unprogressive course of husbandry against his better judgment. Then, again, much time was lost by labourers and cattle travel- ling to many dispersed pieces of land from one end of the parish to another.'^ There were continuous quarrels among neighbours about rights of pasture in the meadows, ^Northern Tour, ii 7. */&., ii. 1, c/. also i. 126. * Toynbee, Industrial Revclution, p. 39. ^Southern Tour, p. 384 (ed. 1772). ^Cf, Toynbee, Indust. Eevdutiony p. 40, and Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. p. 370. " Toyni)ee, Induct. Revolution^ p. 40. 'Young, Vieto of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 100. S 274 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and in the stubbles after the harvest ; and the question of boundaries was another fruitful source of dispute; for we are told that in some common fields there were no " baulks," or strips of unused land to divide the holdings, and men would plough by night to steal a furrow from their neigh- bours.^ Hence it is not surprising that those who followed the new agriculture also encouraged the practice of enclosures. The old methods had to give way to the new, and these were hardly possible on unenclosed land ; and therefore we note, together with the progress of agri- culture, a simultaneous increase in the amount of land enclosed. § 166. Great Increase of Enclosures. f The abolition of the old system was necessary, but the I manner in which it was carried out was often disastrous. The enclosures made by the landowners were frequently carried on with little regard to the interests of the smaller tenants and freeholders, who, in fact, suffered greatly ; ^ and in the present age English agriculture is, in a large measure, still feeling the subsequent effects of this change, especially in regard to the size of holdings, while many people are ad- vocating a partial return to small farms, cultivated, how- ever, with the improved experience given by modern agricultural progress. Certainly this was not the first occasion on which the landowners had made enclosures and encroached upon the common lands of their poorer neigh- bours, and not merely upon the waste ; ^ but the rapidity and boldness of the enclosing operations at the end of the eighteenth century far surpassed anything in previous '^ Young, View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 239 ; Toynbee, Induct. Rev., p. 40. ^ " Though we cannot pretend to estimate the extent of the evil, there is no reason to doubt its reality. Enclosure was carried on by means of private bills; these were passed through Parliament without sufficient inquiry and when many of the inhabitants were quite unaware of the impending change or powerless to resist it." Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 486. ^ Arthur Young found that out of 37 parishes which had been enclosed there were only 12 in which the labourers had not been injured. AnnaU of Agriculture, xxxvi, 513, PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 275 times. Between l7lO and 1760, for instance, only 334,974 acres were enclosed;^ but between 1760 and 1843 the number rose to 7,000,000.2 § 167. Benefits of Enclosures as Compared with the Old Common Fields. The benefits of the enclosure system were, however, un- mistakable, for the cultivation of common fields under the old system ^ was, as Arthur Young assures us, miserably poor. This system produced results far inferior to those gained on enclosed lands, the crop of wheat in one instance being, according to Young, only seventeen or eighteen bushels per acre, as against twenty-six bushels on en- closures.* Similarly, the fleece of sheep pastured on com- mon fields weighed only 3 J lbs., as compared with 9 lbs, on enclosures.^ It is noticeable, too, that Kent, where much land had for a long time been enclosed, was reckoned in Young's time the best cultivated and most fertile county in England.^ Norfolk, also, was pre- eminent for good husbandry,^ in its excellent rotation of crops and culture of clover, rye-grass, and winter roots, due, said Young in 1770, to the division of the county chiefly into large farms.^ " Great farms have been the ^ Toynbee, Industrial Bevolution, 38, 39. ^ lb. , quoting Shaw Lef evre, The English and Irish Land Question, p. 199. The General Report on Enclosures, p. 46 (Board of Agriculture), gives 4,187,056 as the acreage enclosed from Queen Anne's reign to 1805 only. ^ It may be well to summarise it again briefly. The arable land of each village under this system was still divided into three great strips, sub- divided by "baulks" three yards wide. Every farmer would own one piece of land in each strip — probably more — and all alike were bound to follow the customary tillage ; this was to leave one strip fallow every year, while on one of the other two wheat was always grown, the third being occupied by barley or oats, pease or tares. The meadows, also, were still held in common, every man having his own plot up to hay harvest, after which the fences were thrown down, and all householders' cattle were allowed to graze on it freely, while for the next crop the plots were redistributed. Every farmer also had the right of pasture on the waste. •* At Risby, Yorks ; see Northern Tour, i. 160-162, ° Nwthern Tour, iv. 190. « Eastern Tour, iii. 108-109 ; Northern Tour, i. 292. 7 Eastern Tour, ii. 150. » Th., ii. 160,161. 2/6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND soul of the Norfolk culture." These would have been im- possible without enclosing land, and it is clear that great advantages were derived from this practice. Essex, again, was a county notable for its progressive husbandry, and one of the first in which turnips were introduced as a root crop ; ^ and Essex had been noted for its enclosures for many generations. ^ But, in spite of these advantages, there was one gloomy feature in this new agricultural epoch which cannot be lightly passed over. I refer to the decay of the yeomen, who, at one time, wfiie the chief glory of the agricultural life of mediaeval England. § 168. The Decay of the Yeoonanry. For centuries the yeoman had held an honoured position in English history, and as lately as the reign of Elizabeth, he is alluded to in sympathetic and admiring terms by the descriptive Harrison. " This sort ot people," he says, " have a certain pre-eminence and more estimation than labourers and the common sort of artificers, and these commonly live wealthily, keep good houses, and travel to get riches. They are also for the most part farmers to gentlemen, or at the leastwise artificers; and with grazing, frequenting of markets, and keeping of servants, do come to great wealth, insomuch that many of them are able to, and do, buy the lands of unthrifty gentlemen, and often setting their sons to the schools, to the Universities, and to the Inns of Court, or otherwise leaving them sufficient lands whereon they may live without labour, do make them by those means to become gentlemen. These were they that in times past made all France afraid. And albeit they be not called ' master,' as gentlemen are, or ' Sir,' as to knights apper- taineth, but only ' John ' and ' Thomas,' yet have they been found to have done very good service. The kings of England in foughten battles were wont to remain among them (who were their footmen), as the French kings did ' In 1694. See quotation from Houghton, Collections in HuHhandry and Trade in the Encydopoedia Britannicay a, v. Agriculture, 2 Above, p. 215, PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 277 amongst their horsemen, the prince thereby shewing where his chief strength did consist." ^ The decline of this sturdy body of small farmers forms a sad interlude in the growing prosperity of the country, and is due to a combination of various causes. Among these we may place the "Statute of Frauds," of 1677, not indeed as a primary cause, but as having a weakening effect upon the position of the yeomen, and contributing in some degree to assist other causes which made themselves felt more keenly in the eighteenth century. By this somewhat high- handed Act 2 it was decreed that after July 24th, 1()77, all interests in land whatsoever, if created by any other process except by deed, should be treated as tenancies at will only, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. The intention, apparently, of those who passed this law — an intention which in the end resulted successfully — was to extinguish all those numerous small freeholders who had no written evidence to prove that they held their lands, as they had done for centuries, on condition of paying a small fixed and customary rent.^ This Act certainly succeeded in dispossessing many of the class at which it was aimed ; but there were yet a certain number against whom it was inoperative ; hence, at the end of the seven- teenth century, twenty years or so after it was passed, Gregory King is able to estimate that there were 180,000 freeholders in England, including, of course, the larger owners.* But by the time of Arthur Young these also had disappeared, or at least were rapidly disappearing,^ and he sincerely regrets " to see their lands now in the hands of monopolising lords." ^ This view is the more remarkable as coming firom Arthur Young, because he was an ardent advocate of the new agriculture and large farms ; but as a 1 Harrison, Dofcription of England^ Bk. III. ch. iv. (edn. 1577), page 13, Camelot Series edn. « The 29 Charies II., c. 3. » qy, Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 15, 87. * See Macanlay, History of Englandy ch. iii., who thinks this too high, and suggests 160,000. ^ In 1787 they had practically disappeared in most parts of the country. Young, Travels in France, i. 86, iL 262 (edn. 1793). ' Young, Inquirt/ into the Present Price of Provisions and Size of Farms (1773), pp. 126, 139. 278 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND practical man he could see what a loss the vanished yeoman was to his country. The curious thing about their dis- appearance is its comparative rapidity.^ Of course many yeomen existed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and a few still remain at the end of it ; but there was a sudden and remarkable diminution in their numbers during the century just before Arthur Young wrote (1700-1800), At the close of the seventeenth century a writer on the State of Great Britain^ was able to say that the free- holders of England were " more in number and richer than in any country of the like extent in Europe. £40 or £50 is very ordinary, £100 or £200 in some counties is not rare ; sometimes in Kent and in the Weald of Sussex, £500 or £600 per annum, and £3000 or £4000 stock." The evidence, says an eminent economist,^ is conclusive that up to the Revolution of 1688 the yeomen freeholders were in most parts of the country an important feature in social life. We may therefore well inquire into the reasons of their decay. § 169. Causes of the Decay of the Yeomanry. The cause was parti}?- political and partly social. After ^ the revolution of 1688, the lauded gentry became politically and socially supreme,* and any successful merchant prince — and these were not few — who wished to gain a footing, sought, in the first place, to imitate them by becoming a great landowner; hence it became quite a policy to buy out the smaller farmers,^ who were often practically compelled to sell their holdings. At the same time, the custom of primogeniture and strict settlements prevented y land from being much subdivided, so that small or divided ^ Toynbee, Industrial Bevolution, p. 59, whom see for his special chapter on the decay of the yeomanry. 2 Chamberlayne, State of Great Britain, Part I., Book III. p. 176 (edn. 1737). First published in 1669. ^ Toynbee, u. s. , p. 60. * Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 62. ^ Ih., 63, 64, who quotes Laurence's Drdy of a Steward (1727), p. 36. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 379, says they were not bought out then, but his assertion seems unsupported by any adequate evidence. He admits, however, that "in subsequent years they were forced to sell." PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 279 estates rarely came into the market for the smaller free- holders to buy.^ It is also certain that this result was accelerated by the fact that small farms no longer paid under the old system of agriculture, and the new system involved an outlay which the yeoman could not afford.^ The yeomanry were superseded by capitalist farmers and agricultural labourers.^ Farming on a large scale became more necessary, and this again assisted in extinguishing the smaller men, for large enclosures were made by the landed gentry in spite of feeble opposition from the yeomen,* who, however, could rarely afford to pay the law costs necessary to put a stop to the encroachments of their greater neigh- bours. Later on, at the beginning of the nineteenth century (especially in 1801) the burden of the ever-increasing poor- rates — a direct consequence of the Poor Law and assessment system introduced by the Act of Elizabeth ^ — largely aided in their ruin, for since the labourers were not and could not be maintained by the wages which their employers paid them, it followed that the small holders were taxed for the benefit of the large farmers.^ The finishing stroke to a rapidly decaying class was given by the fall in prices after the great Continental War (1815), following on the inflation of pre- vious years ; ^ and as their small properties came into the market and no holders of their own class appeared to take their place,^ their lands went to swell the large farms that were now the typical feature of British agriculture. Here and there an occasional representative of a once large and worthy body of men still remains (1895), but the English yeoman of the days of Henry V. and Queen Elizabeth, as a class, has disappeared entirely.^ § 170. The Rise in Bent The farmer, meanwhile, was heavily taxed for his land, and though the high prices which he obtained for his corn up to ^ Toynbee, u. s., p. 64; and Lecky, History, i. 196. ^ Toynbee, p. 65, and Cunningham, u. s., ii. 480. 3 Cunningham, ii. 364, 480. ^ Cf. the case of Pickering, Yorks ; Marshall's Yorkshire, p. 54 ; Toyn- bee, Ind. Rev., p. 65. ^ Above, p. 262. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 478. ^ lb., p. 479, ^ lb. ^ Cf. also Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, i. p. 196. 28o INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the repeal of the corn laws enabled him to pay it, his rent was certainly at a very high figure. The rise had begun, as we have seen, after the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century, though in that period it was slow. But Latimer asserts^ that his father only paid £S or £4 for a holding which in the next generation was rented at £16, the increased figure being only partially accounted for by the general rise in prices. In the seventeenth century, according to King,^ rents were more than doubled, and the sixpence per acre of mediseval times must have seemed almost mythical. The Belvoir estate, the property of the Dukes of Rutland, who are spoken of as indulgent landlords, forms a good example of the rise of rent in the two following centuries.^ In 1692 land is found rented at 3s. 9Jd. an acre, and a little later at 4s. l|d. By the year 1799 the same land had risen to 19s. 3fd., with a further rise in 1812 to 25s. 8|d. In 1830 it was at 25s. Ifd., but in 1850 had risen to 38s. 8d., that is about ten times the seventeenth century rent. This enormous rise could not have been due solely to increase of skill in agricultural industry, but was partly derived from artificial conditions imposed by the corn laws, and partly from increased economy in production, this economy often meaning the oppression and degradation of the agricultural labourer. § 171. The Fall in Wages. This degradation was, if not brought about, yet at ^east greatly assisted by the system of assessment of wages which we noticed in Elizabeth's reign, a system under which the labourer was forced by law to accept the wages which the justices (generally the landed proprietors, his employers) arranged to give him. It is not the business of an historian to make charges against a class, but to put facts in their due perspective. Therefore without comment upon the action of the justices in this matter I shall merely refer to one or two of these assessments and show their effect upon the condition of labour, especially of agricultural labour, 1 Above, p. 213. ^ Above, p. 270. * Rogers, Hist. Aaric, v. 29 ; cf. also Six Centuries, p. 479. JfALlhU! PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 281 which occupied, till Arthur Young's time, more than one- third of the working-classes.^ Speaking generally for the end of the sixteenth century, we may quote Professor Rogers' remark, that " if we suppose the ordinary labourer to get 3s. 6d. a week throughout the year, by adding his harvest allowance to his winter wages, it would have taken him more than forty weeks to earn the provisions which in 1495 he could have got with fifteen weeks' labour, while the artisan would be obliged to have given thirty-two weeks' work for the same result." ^ I have already given a table ^ of some of these assessments, and we may take in detail, as an example, the one made by the Rutland magistrates in April 1610. The wages of an ordinary agricultural labourer are put at 7d. a day from Easter to Michaelmas, and at 6d. from Michaelmas to Easter. Artisans get lOd. or 9d. in summer, and 8d. in winter. Now, the price of food was 75 per cent, dearer than in 1564, while the rate of wages was about the same ; and compared with (say) 1495, food was three, or even four, times dearer. Another assessment, in Essex in 1661, allows Is. a day in winter, and Is. 2d. in summer, for ordinary labour. But, in 1661, the price of wheat (70s. 6d. a quarter) was just double the price of 1610 (35s. 2Jd.). The labourer was worse off than ever. Another typical assessment is that of Warwick, in 1684, when wages of labourers are fixed at 8d. a day in summer, 7d. in winter; of artisans at Is. a day. At this period Professor Rogers * reckons the yearly earnings of an artisan at £lb, 13s. ; of a farm labourer at £10, 8s. 8d., exclusive of harvest work ; while the cost of a year's stock of pro- visions was £14, lis. fid. It is true that at this period the labourers still possessed certain advantages afterwards lost, such as common rights,^ which, besides providing fuel, enabled them to keep cows, pigs, and poultry on the waste. Their cottages, too, were often rent free, being 1 That is 2,800,000 out of 8,500,000 in 1769 ; Young, Northern Tour, iv. 417-419, 364. "^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 390. ^ Above, p. 257. * Six Centuries, p. 395. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 487 ; and Young, An7ials of Agri- culture, xxxvi. 516. 282 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND built upon the waste/ while each cottage, by an Act of , /Elizabeth, 2 was supposed to have a piece of land attached to it, though this provision, after being frequently evaded, was finally repealed in 1775. But yet it is evident that, even allowing for these privileges, which, after all, were now being rapidly curtailed, the ordinary agricultural labourer — that is, the mass of the wage-earning population — must have found it hard work to live decently. There was, however, a short interval of higher wages during the Civil War and the commonwealth,^ the rise being due not only to the demand of all sorts of stores for the contending armies, but also to the demand for men to recruit their forces.* Artisans could get 2s. 6d. a day instead of 6d.,^ and the rise thus brought about did not immediately dis- appear. But prices were still rising steadily, and wages did not follow them closely enough to prevent great distress among the working-classes. At the end of the seventeenth century starvation rates of pay are complained of by the well-known Sir Matthew Hale^ (1683), and twenty years before that the increase of pauperism had necessitated the passing of that Act of Settlement which afterwards became so unpleasantly celebrated.'^ There are historians who , maintain that the Elizabethan system of assessment of j wages was not responsible for these evils ; but even if not < responsible it certainly encouraged them ; and not even the most enthusiastic admirers of that unfortunate Act can deny that wages were never affected by it beneficially, but continued to decline with remarkable persistency.^ By the 1 Young, Farmer's Letters, i. 205 (edn. 1771). ^ The 31 Eliz., c. 7. ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 98 ; Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 194. 4 See Pari. Hist. , ii. 10. ^ A quotation from Reasons foi' a Limited Exportation of Wool, 1677, in Smith's Chronicon Rusticum,, i. 257. « Provision for Poor (1683), p. 18. ^ The 13 and 14 Charles II., c. 12. Briefly it gave a parish power to remove a new comer within 40 days, and send him back to the parish where he was legally settled, if he was likely to require relief from the rates. This practically chained the labourer to his native parish. See below, p. 416, and cf. Fowle, Poor Law, p. 64. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 200, remarks : *' During this period there were considerable fluctuations of prices ; the Cambridge wheat rents for 1654-5 are at 24s. 9^d., and those for 1658-59 at 528. 24d. Yet though PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 283 beginning of the eighteenth century the condition of the labourer had sunk to one of great poverty. The ordinary peasant, in 1725, for instance, would not earn more than about £13 or £15 a year; artisans could not gain more than £15, 13s, ; while the cost of the stock of provisions was £16, 2s. Sd.^ Thus the husbandman who, in 1495, could get a similar stock of food by fifteen weeks* work, and the artisan who could have earned it in ten weeks, could not feed himself in 1725 with a whole year's labour.^ His wages had to be supplemented out of the rates ; and there was but little alteration in these wages till the middle of the eighteenth century. But about that time (1750) he had begun to share in the general prosperity caused by the success of the new agriculture and the growth of trade and manufactures. Whereas in the seventeenth century his average daily wages had been lOjd., and the price of corn 38s. 2d., in the first sixty years of the eighteenth century wages had risen to Is., and the price of corn was only 32s.^ The evil, however, had been done, and although a short period of prosperity, chiefly due to the advance made by the new agriculture and manufactures, cheered the labourer for a time, his condition after the Industrial Revolution deteriorated again rapidly, till we find him at the end of the eighteenth century, and for some time afterwards, in a condition of chronic misery. the price of corn was doubled in this brief period, the Bedford justices do not seem to have felt called upon to make any new order or to try to enforce a different rate of wages." This is not surprising; it merely illustrates what I have remarked before about the temptations of the Assessment Act to employers (above, pp. 255, 256). Yet Dr Cunningham seems to think the assessment system had no influence on wages. 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 398. * lb. ^ Toynbee, Industt'iaZ Revolution^ p. 67. CHAPTER XVIII COMMERCE AND WAR IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES § 172. England a Commercial Power. In glancing over the progress of foreign trade in the time of Elizabeth, we noticed that our war with Spain was due to commercial as well as to religious causes. The opening up of the New World had made a struggle for power in the West now almost inevitable among European nations ; the new route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, discovered by Vasco di Gama, made another struggle for commercial supremacy as inevitable in the far East. But England was certainly slow in entering the field. As a matter of fact, she was hardly yet ready either in industry, commerce, or political power. , In the reign of Henry VIII. English sea- men had not yet ventured far into the Mediterranean,^ and even in the last years of Queen Elizabeth England had absolutely no possessions outside Europe, for every scheme of colonial settlement had failed.^ For a century or more after the discoveries of Columbus and di Gama, Spain and Portugal, and a little later on Holland, had practically a monopoly both of the Eastern and Western trade. But now a change had come. "^The Englishmen of the Elizabethan age cast off their fear of Spain, and entered into rivalry with Holland, till their descendants finally made England the supreme commercial power of the modern world. The history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is a continuous record of their struggles to attain this object. I War is, in fact, their characteristic feature, and it had Veverywhere the same purpose.* ^ Cf. above, p. 225. Rogers, Hist. Agric, iv. 146, says they had not ven- tured further than Malaga, quoting a Statute of Henry VIII. (32 Hen. VIIL, c. 14). 2 Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 9. ^ lb., pp. 20, 21. 284 COMMERCE AND WAR 285 § 173. The Beginnings of the Struggle with Spain. In the last quarter of the sixteenth century Elizabeth had entered (1577) into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Holland against Spain. ^ The motive of the alliance was partly religious, but the shrewd queen and her equally shrewd statesmen doubtless foresaw more than spiritual advantages to be gained thereby. After the alliance, Drake and the other great sea-captains of that day began a system of buccaneering annoyances to Spanish commerce.^ The Spanish and Portuguese trade and factories in the East were considered the lawful prizes of the English and of their allies the Dutch. The latter, as all know, were more successful at first than we were, and soon established an Oriental Empire in the Indian Archipelago. But at the very end of her reign England had prospered sufficiently for Elizabeth to grant charters to the Levant Company (1581),^ and its far greater off-shoot, the East India Company (1600).* Then, when a fresh war with Spain was imminent, England wisely began to plant colonies in North America, at the suggestion of Sir Walter Raleigh ; ^ and after one or two other abortive attempts, Virginia was successfully founded by the London Company^ in 1609, and became a Crown colony^ in 1624. After this, as every one knows, colonies grew rapidly on the strip of coast between the Alleghany Mountains and the Atlantic. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world the East India Company was slowly gaining ground, and founding English agencies or " factories," that of Surat (in 1612) being the most important.^ As yet we had not come into open conflict with Spain or Portugal ; and, indeed, we owed the possession of Bombay^ to the marriage of Charles II. with Katherine of Braganza (1662). Then the Company gained from Charles II. the important 1 Green, History, ii. 410. '^ Green, History, ii. 424, 425 ; Froude, History, viii. 440, ix. 337. '^ Craik, History of British Commerce, i. 251, ii. 19. 4 lb., i. 253, ii. 13 sqq. ^ Hakluyt, iii. 243, 263, 280. ^ The first charter given by James I. was in 1606, but the chief settle- ment was made in 1609. Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 144. 7 Ih., ii. 146. ^ Cf Craik, British Commerce, ii. 16. ^ Annals of England, p. 473. The Island was handed over to the Com- pany in 1668, 286 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND privilege of making peace or war on its own account.^ It had a good many foes to contend with, both among natives and European nations, among whom the French ^ were as powerful as the Portuguese. ^ But it is curious to I note how in every part of the colonial world England has been the last to come to the front. In the New World Spain and France, in the*East the Portuguese and Dutch, and later in Africa and Australia the Dutch again — all were before her. For a great colonising power it is re- markable how invariably she has let others lead the way. § 174. CromwelVs Commercial Wars and the Navi- gation Acts. The monopoly of Spain was first definitely attacked as a matter of policy by Cromwell, for the deeds of the Eliza- bethan seamen were not always recognised by the State. James I. had been too timid to declare war, and Charles I. was too much in danger himself to think of trusting his subjects to support him if he did so. ^ But Cromwell was supported both by the religious views of the Puritans and by the desires of the merchants when he declared war against England's great foe.^ fHe demanded trade with the (Spanish colonies, and religious freedom for English settlers in such colonies. Of course his demands were refused, as he well knew that they would be. Thereupon he seized Jamaica (1655), though he failed to secure Cuba ; * and at any rate succeeded in giving the English a secure footing in the West Indies. He seized Dunkirk also (1658) from Spain (then at war with France),^ with a view to securing for England a monopoly of the Channel to the exclusion of her former friends the Dutch. Dunkirk, however, was a useless acquisition, and was sold again ^ by Charles II. Not content with victory in the West, Cromwell, with the full consent of mercantile England, declared war against the • ^ Craik, British Commerce^ ii. 101. - Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 284. ^ Seeley, Expansion, p. 32 ; Cunningham, ii. 150. * Thurloe, State Papers, iv. 40; Annals of England, p. 452. ^ Annals of England, "p. ^b^. « In 1662, October 27th, for five million livres. COMMERCE AND WAR 287 Dutch, who were now more our rivals than our friends. It - would have been perfectly possible for the English and the Dutch to have remained upon good terms ; but the great idea of the statesmen and merchants of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries was to gain a sole market and a monopoly of trade, and therefore they thought the Dutch ought to be crushed. The method adopted was shown in the , famous Navigation Act^ of 1651, which forbade the import or export of any goods between Asia, Africa, America, and England, unless these were carried in English ships manned by English crews. This Act was confirmed by another ^ of 1661, which not only laid down the above conditions, ' but added that the ships must be English built and owned by Englishmen ; and these Acts continued in opera- tion till early in the nineteenth century. As to their effect, there has been great diversity of opinion ; and speaking solely from the point of view of theoretical economics, there would seem no doubt that they were decidedly harmful, as \ being an attempt to maintain for a single country a mono- poly that would naturally be shared by others. A monopoly generally implies an unnecessary tax upon some portion of the community for the benefit of another portion, and it has been complained that these Navigation Laws benefited the shipping interest at the expense of the rest of the nation.^ It has further been pointed out (even by writers of that time) * that our general commerce was injuriously affected by " lessening the resort of strangers to our ports," and also that after all it did not really increase English trade,^ but that the Eastland and Baltic trade had actually diminished. Other objections are that the Colonies and also English producers were restricted in their dealings and unable to obtain the best market for some of their pro- ducts ; ^ and again that, however beneficial their ultimate results may have been, the enormous expenses ^ incurred 1 Act c. 22 of 1651 (Commonwealth). 2 ^^^ 12 Charles II., c. 18. ^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 91. * Roger Coke, Treatise on Trade (1671). 5 Sir Josiah Child, Treatise on Trade (1698). ^ Child, Nev) Discourse, p. 115. "^ Alluded to by Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 110. 288 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND by the wars with the Dutch which followed them counter- balanced for a long time any advantages which they procured. But it has been truly urged that the legislators who made these celebrated laws were perfectly aware of all the dis- advantages they entailed, but considered ^ that the growth of national power would be on the whole fostered, the reserve for the navy strengthened, and the rivalry of the Dutch in course of time annihilated. And, as a matter of fact, all these things came to pass. More especially it has been contended that they helped to defend the country against foreign foes, although they might hamper trade. For this reason Adam Smith,^ speaking as a politician and not as an economist, eulogises these Acts in the concise remark : " As I defence is much more important than opulence, the Act of I Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England." This dictum of so great an economist is worthy of the utmost consideration, for it shows us that there are occasions when economics must give way to politics, and that political economy best bears out its title as a science when it remembers that it is qualified by the attribute "political." On the whole, then, with all their evils, the Navigation Acts were perhaps not so great a mistake as the nineteenth century economist is at first inclined to suppose. At any rate, Cromwell succeeded in his immediate object. The Dutch were provoked into a war in which their prestige was broken and their trade greatly injured ; and before long the contest between them and the English for the mastery of the seas was practically decided. By the end of the seven- teenth century Holland had to own her defeat, and England began distinctly to take the lead in commerce.^ § 175. The Wars of William III. and of Anne. But the wars with Holland were only the beginnings of a larger struggle in which England contended against all * Alluded to by Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 112. ^ Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV. ch. ii. (ii. 38, Clarendon Press edn.). His whole discussion of them should be read. ^ Cf. Seeley, Expansion of England, 86. COMMERCE AND WAR 289 Western Europe — a struggle that was to last with com- paratively brief intermissions til] well into the nineteenth century. The continental wars in which England was engaged after the deposition of James II. were rendered necessary to some extent by the tremendous power of France under Louis XIY. William III. saw it was inevitable for the interests of England that Louis XIY. should be checked, and the war of the Spanish Succession (1702-13) was carried on with the object of preventing that king from joining the resources of Spain to those of his own kingdom. For if he had done so, two disastrous results would have happened. The Stuarts would by his help have been restored to the English throne, and the struggle against absolute monarchy and religious tyranny would unfortunately have been fought over again. Secondly, the growth of English commerce and colonies would have been checked, if not utterly annihilated. Here the real point of conten- tion between England and France was the New World. The Spanish Succession, remote as it seemed, concerned Englishmen, because France threatened by her close alliance and influence with Spain to enter into the Spanish monopoly of the New World and to keep England out of it.^ Hence the most practical results of the war were seen in the ac- quisition of colonial power. ^ We were not only preserved from the Stuarts, but also, when the war was finally over in 1713, found ourselves in possession of Gibraltar, now one of the keys of our Indian Empire, and of the Hudson's Bay Territory, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia (then called Acadia) — the foundations of our present Canadian dominion. England was also allowed by Spain the monopoly of the trade in negroes with Spanish colonies,^ and to send one ship a year to the South Seas. The war, as far as we were concerned, was a commercial success, though we had to pay rather heavily for it, and were involved in further difficul- ties in America afterwards. 1 Seeley, Expansion of England, pp. 32 and 33. 2 /j ^ This is known as the " Assiento " contract (Art. 12 of the Treaty of 1713). The English had the monopoly of the slave trade for 30 years, but practically till war broke out again in 1739. The contract was renewed for 4 years in 1748, but not at the Peace of 1763. T 290 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 176. English Colonies. It will be seen that by this time (1713) Eogland had definitely entered the field as a colonial power, and was anxious to extend her colonial possessions. She had not shown any great desire for them in earlier years ; in fact, we have already remarked that she was then, as she always I has been, the last to enter upon a colonising career. But now England was fired by the example of other nations. The motives, however, for our early schemes of colonisation were rather mixed. It certainly cannot be said that our colonies were a natural " expansion " of the mother country, and the use of this term,^ expansion, is apt to be mis- leading ; for England was certainly by no means over- populated in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. In fact, it was then even complained that colonies would drain away population which we could ill afibrd to spare.^ There can be little doubt that one of the main causes of colonial enterprise, especially in its earlier stages, was the desire to gain some share of the gold and silver ^ which Spain had obtained so freely. This, indeed, is a frequent inducement to open up and to take possession of new countries, as has been exemplified in our own time both in Australia and South Africa. Often, however, those who go out to seek gold find something better and more lasting in the natural . resources of the country ; and it is upon these alone that a ! really stable colony can be founded. The dream of finding Eldorados passed away after a few futile attempts, and men began to realise that America and the Indies — both East and West — offered enormous facilities for a profitable trade. The profits of trade were undoubtedly the real motives of nearly all our subsequent colonial enterprises, with the exception 1 The use of this word seems to me almost the only fault of Prof. Seeley's admirable lectures. It implies a kind of growth which really never took place till late in the nineteenth century. ^ See Britannia Languens (1680), p. 173. 3 Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV. ch. vii. (Vol. II. p. 143, Clarendon Press edn.) ; and Capt. J. Smith, History of Virginia, iii. 3 ( Works, 407), mentions how this hope of gold animated the first settlers in Virginia. So, too, Sir Walter Raleigh hoped to find gold in Guiana, and Frobisher's expedition of 1577 was entirely to seek for gold. Craik, British Commerce, i. 246, 254. COMMERCE AND WAR 291 of those which proceeded (as in the case of some of the North American colonies) from the desire to find a country where men could practise freely the varied forms of a new religion. Later on, when these profits were seen to be considerable, the home Government began to formulate a definite scheme of colonial policy, in the supposed interests of the mother country ; ^ and there seems to have been at one time a clearly-defined scheme in the heads of poli- ticians to raise up a number of agricultural dependencies which would exchange their useful products for the numerous manufactures which were now becoming so predominant at home.2 This scheme approximated more nearly to the relations of England and her colonies — which are all new and hardly yet fully developed countries — in the present day. Such a trading connection is a natural and nearly inevitable state of things, and is almost sure to constitute the normal relationship of colony and parent nation. But in the eighteenth century England very nearly broke off this relationship by ill-judged political action,^ while in the present day her newer colonies are rather foolishly attempt- ing to do the same without having the excuse of political or economic ignorance to shield them, an ignorance which it might have been hoped that the War of American Indepen- dence and other subsequent events would have helped todispel. But leaving the motives for the foundation of colonies, we may notice their remarkable growth in the seventeenth century,* and pass on to consider the vast struggle in which that growth involved England. § 177. Further Wars with France and Spain. All the wars in which England now engaged had some commercial or colonial object in view. People had yet to 1 See all Adam Smith's chapter, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV. ch. vii. ; also the very valuable essay on Colonies and Colony Trade in M'CuUoch's Dictionary of Commerce, edn. 1844. 2 M'Culloch, Dictionary of Commerce {s.v. Colonies), p. 318, edn. 1844, says this is untrue, at least at first. ^ See below, pp. 364-370. ^ See the author's British Commerce and Colonies, ch. iv. This being a history of industry, the subject of our colonies can only be very briefly re- ferred to. Besides the American colonies (p. 295, note) England now had several of the West Indian islands and factories on the Gold Coast. 292 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND learn that the best way to extend a nation's trade is to promote general peace ; but, in default of that, it seemed well to provoke a general war. Mistaken as England's policy was, it was no more so than that of her neigh- bours, for all believed, as many do still, in the sole market I theory, and England was compelled to fight against other nations who wished to have a monopoly of trade and colonisation* Moreover, England was provoked into war by the secret " Family Compact " between the related rulers of France and Spain, by which Philip V. of Spain agreed to take away the South American trade from England, and give it to his nephew, Louis XV. of France.^ The result was a system of annoyance to English vessels trading in the South Seas, culminating in the mutilation of an English captain, one Jenkins,^ and war was declared openly in 1739. This war merged into the war of the Austrian Succession,^ which lasted for eight years (1740-48), a matter with which England was in no way directly con- cerned, but which afforded a good excuse to renew the struggle against the commercial growth of France as well as Spain. We did not gain much by it, except the final annihilation of the hopes of the Stuarts, and a small in- crease of British power upon the high seas, but yet it was undoubtedly necessary to check the power of France. After a few years, however, we entered upon another war, the Seven Years' War* (1756-63), in w^hich England 4 and Prussia fought side by side against the rest of Europe, and attacked France in particular in all parts of the world. The war was largely caused by the quarrels of the French and English colonists in America, and of the rival French and English companies in India.^ We cannot here go into the details of it. It is sufficient to say that, after a bad be- ginning, we won various victories by sea and land, and at ^ Its main object was the ruin of the maritime supremacy of Britain. Green, History , iv. 153. ^ This story is sometimes declared mythical {e.g., by Seeley, Expansion, p. 21), but seems to rest on some foundation. ^ Cf. Green, History, iv. 155. * Green, History, iv. 175-189 ; Lecky, History, ii. 443, iii. 44. '^ Seeley, Expansion, p. 27, points out how many of these conflicts took place when England and France were nominally at peace COMMERCE AND WAR 293 at the close (1763) found ourselves, by the Treaty of Paris, in possession of Canada, Florida, and all the French posses- sions east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans ; and we had also gained the upper hand in India. England held now almost undisputed sway over the seas, and our trade grew by leaps and bounds. Now, the whole of this series of wars is connected to- gether by a necessary cause, and that is the growing com- mercial and industrial power of England. This growth was a cause of the English attempt to take a place among other commercial nations, such as the Dutch and Portuguese, and this attempt in turn necessitated an attack upon the monopoly of Spain and the rival power of France. The successful issue of these wars again caused industry and trade to advance more prosperously than ever, till at length, both politically and industrially, England rose to the front rank of European nations. It has also been well pointed out, that in the three wars between 1740 and 1783, the struggle as between England and France was more especially for the New World. In the first war the issue was fairly joined ; in the second France suffered a fatal fall ; in the third, by assisting the American States, she took a signal revenge.^ " This is the grand chapter in the history of Greater Britain, for it is the first great struggle in which the (British) Empire fights as a whole, the colonies and settlements outside Europe being here not merely dragged in the wake of the mother country, but actually taking the lead." 2 To the history of these colonial dependencies we must now devote a few words, beginning first with India. § 178. The Struggle for India. Since the founding of Surat and the acquisition of Bombay, the East India Company had also founded two forts or stations, which have since become most important cities, namely. Fort St George, now Madras, and Fort William, now Calcutta.^ They had become powerful, and ^ Seeley, Expansion, p. 31. ^ /&., p. 31. 3 Macpherson, History of European Commerce with India, p. 125. 294 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND each of the three chief stations had a governor and a small army. The French, however, had also an East India Company,^ whose chief station was Pondicherry, south of Madras ; and the two companies were by no means on friendly terms. When their respective nations were at war in 174G-46, they, too, had some sharp fighting, but it was only when Dupleix,^ the French Governor of Pondicherry, had gained such remarkable influence in Southern India about 1748, that matters became serious. Dupleix was one of the first Europeans who deliberately involved him- self in native politics in order to further his country's interests, and he conceived the idea of the conquest of India. The English traders feared with justice the loss both of their lives and commerce, and open war broke out. The magnificent exertions of Clive and Lawrence, however, defeated the French ; Dupleix was recalled in 1754, and quiet was for a time restored.^ But two years afterwards the Seven Years' War broke out, and India was disturbed again. Suraj-ud-Daula, the ally of the French, took Calcutta and committed the Black Hole atrocity (1757), and he and his allies did their best to drive the English out of Bengal.* This province, however, was saved by Clive at the battle of Plassey ; ^ Coote defeated the French at Wondiwash or Vandivasu (17 GO); and Pondicherry was captured by the English in 1761.6 Finally, in 1765, the East India Com- pany became the collector of the revenues for Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and thus the English power was acknowledged and consolidated.'' Our future struggles in India were not with the French, but with native princes. So completely did the French power decline that Napoleon, when he was a young and unknown person, so far from dreaming of the conquest of India (as he did later), actually thought of entering the English East India Company's service in order * It was organised by Colbert in 1664, but was very unsuccessful at first; Malleson, French in India, pp. 27, 57. ^ Cf. Lecky, History, ii. 455 ; cf. Seeley, Expansion, p. 30. ^ Lecky, History, ii. 455, 456. ■* Lecky, ii. 456, 497. ^ Lecky, History, ii. 498. « lb., ii. 503. "^ Ib.,i\\. 478. See Lecky's useful summary of the conduct of the Com- pany in India. COMMERCE AND WAR 295 to acquire the wealth of an Anglo-Indian nabob.^ Never- theless, for a long time the English were actuated in all their Indian conduct and politics by fear of the French. "Behind every movement of the native powers we saw French intrigue, French gold, French ambition ; and never, until we were masters of the whole country, got rid of that feeling that the French were driving us out of it, which had descended from the days of Dupleix and Labourdonnais." ^ East and west the duel with France went on, and the underlying cause of the duel was the evergrowing industrial life of England that burst forth into new colonial ventures beyond the seas. § 179. The Conquest of Canada. There was, however, a great struggle for commercial supremacy to be waged against the French in America. It began in 1754. The English had now thirteen flourishing colonies between the Alleghany Mountains and the sea.^ Behind them, above them, and below them, all was claimed ^ Jung, Lucien Bonaparte et ses Memoires, i. 74 (Seeley). ^ Seeley, Expansion, p. 30. ^ The following list may be useful ; and c/. Lecky, History, ii. 18 sqq. COLOSY. Date of Foundation. How Founded. I, Virginia Group — Virginia Maryland N. and S. Carolina Georgia II. New York Group- New York New Jersey Delaware Pennsylvania III. New England Group — New Hampshire Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut 1606 1632 1663 1733 1664 1664 1664 1682 1622 1628 1631 1633 By the London Company Charter given to Lord Baltimore Proprietors By General Oglethorpe rlaken from the Dutch Purchased by Wm. Penn from Charles II. [Colonised by Puritan 1 Settlers 296 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND by France as French territory. It was inevitable that the growth of our colonies should lead to war, and such was actually the case. The French began by driving out English settlers from land west of the Alleghany Mountains; the Eng- lish retorted by driving French settlers out of Nova Scotia, and tried to make a colony in the Ohio valley.^ In this latter object they were foiled by Duquesne, the French Governor of Canada, who built Fort Duquesne there in 1754. Shortly afterwards, the next Governor, Montcalm, conceived the idea of linking together Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Ticonderoga by lesser forts, so as to keep the English in their narrow strip of eastern coast-line. Then the English Government at home took up the matter, and sent out General Brad- dock with 2000 men to help the colonists.^ Braddock was defeated 3 and killed (1755), but when the Seven Years' War broke out in the next year, Pitt sent ammuni- tion, men, and money to help the colonists to attack Quebec and Montreal.* The war was renewed in Canada with fresh vigour; Fort Duquesne was captured in 1758, Quebec in 1759, and Montreal in 1760 ;^ and when peace ^ was made I at Paris in 1763, England had gained all the French pos- sessions in America, and her colonists were enabled to extend i as far as they desired. We unfortunately lost them by a mistaken policy a few years afterwards. § 180. Survey of Commercial Progress during these Wars. We may now make a brief survey of our commercial progress in the seventeenth century. The reign of James I. was noticeable for the rapid growth of the foreign trade which had developed from the somewhat piratical excursions of the Elizabethan sailors. Trading companies were formed in considerable numbers, and among them the Levant Company may be noticed, as making great profits in its Eastern trade.^ The mercantile class was now growing 1 Lecky, ii. 443. 2 /j,^ jj, 444, ^ Ih.,il 446. 4 76., ii. 494. 5 /&., ii. 495. « 76., iii. 46. '' Craik, British Commerce, ii. 19 ; cj. also Mun, Discourse of Trade from Englavd to East India. COMMERCE AND WAR 297 both numerous and powerful, and a proof of their advance in social position and influence is furnished by the new title of nobility, that of baronet, conferred by James I. upon such merchant princes as were able and willing to pay the needy king a good round sum for the honour.^ It is in- teresting, by the way, to notice the figures of trade in his reign. In 1613 the exports and imports both together were about £4,628,586 in value,^ and a sign of a quickly developing Eastern trade is also seen in the fact that James made attempts to check the increasing export of silver from the kingdom.^ At this time English merchants traded not only in the East, but with most of the Mediterranean ports, with Portugal, Spain, France, Hamburg, and the Baltic coasts.* Ships from the north and west of Europe used in return to visit the Newcastle collieries, which were rapidly growing in value. ^ The English ships were also very active in the new cod fisheries of Newfoundland and the Green- land whale fisheries.^ The development of English trade is signalised in this century by the appearance of numerous books and essays on commercial questions, of which the works of Mun, Malynes, Misselden, Roberts, Sir Josiah Child, Sir William Petty, Worth, and Davenant may be mentioned as among the most important.'^ The increase in the wealth of the country is shown by the rapid rebuilding of London after the Great Fire,^ when the loss was estimated at £12,000,000 ; and Sir Josiah Child, writing in 1665, speaks of the great development of the commerce and trade of England in the previous twenty years.^ The East India Company was so flourishing that in 1676 their stock was quoted at 245 per cent.^^ Trade with America was equally 1 Gardiner, History, ii. 112. The sum was £1080. 2 Craik, British Commerce, ii. 33. * Heavy fines were imposed on foreign merchants for doing this in 1619 ; Gardiner, History, iii. 323. * See Lewes Roberts, The MercJiarUs* Map of Commerce : London, 1638 ; passim and especially Pt. ii. p. 257. ^ Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 140. * Craik, British Commerce, ii. 29. ^ See Palgrave's new Dictionary of Pol. Economy for these. ^ Craik, British Commerce (quoting Child), ii. 83. * Child, New Discourse on Trade, written in 1665, and published in 1668. ^^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 101. 298 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND prosperous. New Amsterdam, now New York, was taken from the Dutch ^ in 1664, and in 1670 the Hudson's Bay Company received their charter. But the main commercial /fact of the latter half of the seventeenth century, and of I the eighteenth, was the development of the Eastern trade, ' and, as a consequence, of the home production of articles to be exchanged for Eastern goods.^ English ships went as far as India, to Arabia and to Africa, and traded with the Spanish colonies in the New World. The cloth trade especially was greatly increased,^ and imports of cloth from abroad were almost superseded. This improvement in English manufactures led to increased trade with our colonial possessions, especially in the West Indies.* It was partly, perhaps, this great development of English trade with both the Western and the Eastern markets that stimulated the genius of the great inventors to supply our manu- facturers with machinery that would enable them to meet the huge demands upon their powers of production, for, by 1760, the export trade had grown to many times its value in the days of James I. Then, as we saw, it was only some £2,000,000 per annum; in 1703, nearly a hundred years later, it was, according to an MS. of Davenant's,^ £6,552,019; by 1760 it reached £14,500,000.« The markets, too, had undergone a change. We no longer exported so largely to Holland,^ Portugal, and France, as in the seventeenth century, but instead, one-third of our exports went to our colonies.^ In 1770, for example, America took three-fourths of the manufactures of Man- ^ Anderson, Chron. Deduct. Commerce, ii. 479, and for the Hudson's Bay Co. , c/. Anderson, ii. 514. ^ Rogers, Eccm. Interpretation of History, p. 288. 2 In 1699 the woollen cloth manufacture formed between a half and a third of the total exports (£2,932,292 out of £6,788,166). Davenant, Second Report to Commissioners of Public Accounts; Works, v. 460. ^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 137. ^ Quoted in Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 56, note. Craik, British Commerce, ii. 155, gives £6,644,103, also from Davenant. But the figures are nearly the same. ' The exact figure (Craik, British Commerce, iii. 10) was £15,781,176, but of this £1,086,205 came from Scotland. ^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 155. ^ Toynbee, IndustricU Revolution, 57- COMMERCE AND WAR 299 Chester,^ and Jamaica alone took almost as much of our manufactures as all our plantations together had done in the beginning of the century. ^ § 181. Commercial Events of the Seventeenth Century. This is not a history of Commerce, and, therefore, any mention of commercial facts must here be brief.^ But the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are so marked by commercial progress, and are so crowded with important mercantile events, that we must pause to notice a few of the most remarkable of them. Among these we may place the humble origin of that marvellous system of banking,! which is at once the basis and the apex of the modern' mercantile fabric. Banking first seems to have assumed the importance of a regular business in England early in the seventeenth or late in the sixteenth century. It was carried on especially by goldsmiths,* who often advanced money to the sovereign upon the security of taxes or personal i credit. A pamphlet of 1676, called The Mystery of the Newfashioned Goldsmiths or Bankers Discovered, shows how banking and money-lending had become a regular business, and gives the year 1645 as about the time when commercial men began regularly to put their cash in the hands of goldsmiths. It also states that ** the greatest of them {i.e., of the goldsmiths) were enabled to supply Crom- well with money in advance upon the revenues, as his occasions required, at great advantage to themselves." Similarly the famous goldsmith, George Heriot,^ had fre- quently obliged James I. It is well known how the London goldsmiths advanced Charles II. as much as £1,300,000, at 8 to 10 per cent, interest, upon the security of the taxes; and how (in 1672) he suddenly re- fused to repay the principal, saying they must be content 1 Young, Northern Toitr, iii. 194. 2 Burke, Works, i. 278. ^ I have treated the strictly commercial facts in another volume, British Commerce and Colonies, from Elizabeth to Victoria. ^ See my article on Goldsmiths' notes in Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy. ^ Cf. the excellent note (B) to Sir Walter Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. 300 .INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND with the iuterest, and closed the exchequer, thus causing a serious commercial panic. ^ The unsatisfactory method of obtaining loans from gold- smiths and other private persons was partly the cause of William Paterson's project ^ of founding what is now known as the Bank of England (1694). Paterson offered to pro- vide the Government of William III. with £1,200,000, to (be repaid by taxation on beer or other liquors, and by rates on shipping, while those who subscribed this money were incorporated into a regular company, which was to receive 8 per cent, interest, and also £4000 a year for management^ Thus the matter of loans was first placed upon a proper basis, while the Bank thus formed, and supported by Government credit, took at once a leading position in Eng- lish commerce. The loan just mentioned * was the begin- ning of a regular National Debt, which may be briefly defined as the system of contracting loans upon the security of the supplies or upon Government credit, and of paying them off gradually in succeeding generations.^ 1 The Restoration of the Currency was another event of historical importance. It was due to Montague, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer. Although, as we saw, Elizabeth had reformed the standard of the coinage, yet, up to the time of Charles II., silver money was made by simply cutting the metal with shears, and shaping and stamping it with a hammer. It was thus quite easy to clip or shear the coins again without being detected, and then pass them off to an unsuspecting person for their full amount. So the coins became smaller and smaller, and people often found, on presenting them at a bank or elsewhere, that they were only worth half their nominal value. At first, under ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 223. ^ Cf. Paterson's own Account of Transactions in relation to the Bank of England, 1695; and Craik, British Commerce, ii. 124; also (for Paterson) Macaulay, History, ch. xxiv. ^ Craik, u. s., ii. 125; Anderson, Chron. Comm., ii. 604; also Rogers, First Nine Years of the Bank of England, should be referred to. * Strictly speaking, the money stolen by Charles II. from the goldsmiths was the first debt, but it was not included till later. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 223. ^ Cf. Cunningham, u. s., ii. 403; Rogers, Econ. Interp., 449. COMMERCE AND WAR 301 Charles II. , it was thought sufficient to issue new coins with a ribbed or " milled " edge, but the only result of this was that the good coin was melted or exported, and (as is always the case) the inferior money remained at home. It was then seen, by Montague and Sir Isaac Newton (the Master of the Mint), that the only way was to call in the old coin- age, and issue an entirely new and true milled currency. The expenses of this recoinage, which cost some two and a half millions, were defrayed by a tax on window-panes.^ § 182. Other Important Commercial Events. Among the important commercial events of this period, one ought certainly to include the Darien Scheme and the i/ Union of England and Scotland, although these belong more fitly to a history of Commerce than of Industry. The Darien Scheme was a project originated by William Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England, who pro- posed to colonise the Isthmus of Darien, and use it as " the key of the Indies and door of the world " for commerce.^ English capitalists, however, would not support his scheme, and it was denounced by the English Parliament. Never- theless, a company was formed in Scotland, called " The Scottish African and Indian Company," a charter was given it by the Scotch Parliament in 1695, and a capital of £900,000 was ultimately raised, £400,000 coming from Scotland, then a very poor country, and the rest from English and Dutch merchants. The hostility of the East India Company, the Levant Company, and of the Dutch in general, however, never ceased, and it was owing to their influence that, when the ill-fated colony at last set out for Darien in July 1698, the settlers were left quite unaided against the attacks of the Spaniards, who claimed the monopoly of South American trade. In fact, Spanish attacks and the climate, so utterly unsuited for European colonists, sealed the fate of the expedition, and few who went out ever returned. This failure had the most serious ^ Rogers, Econ. Interp., p. 200 ; Craik, British Commerce, ii. 127. ^ For an account of this Company see Burton's History of Scotland, ch. viii., and Macaulay's History of England, ch. xxiv. 302 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND effect in impoverishing the Scotch, who could then ill afford the loss, but there is little doubt that it greatly helped to bring about the subsequent Act of Union ^ between England and Scotland, in which William Paterson was largely con- cerned (1707). The Union proved of considerable benefit to Scotland, as by it trade between the two countries be- came free, English ports and colonies were thrown open to the Scotch, and Scotland found a large market for woollen and linen goods and cattle in England. The woollen cloth trade had now assumed such proportions as to make it worth while to attempt to help it forward still more by a commercial treaty. This treaty is important mainly because at the time it was regarded as a monument of economic wisdom.2 The date of the Methuen Treaty is 1703, and it was arranged by John Methuen between England and Portugal. It was agreed that British woollen goods should be admitted into Portugal and her colonies, provided that at all times Portuguese wines were admitted into England at two-thirds of the duty (whatever it might be) levied on French wines. The result was a considerable increase of trade with Portugal, but an even greater decrease of trade with France,^ while the wine-drinking of our upper classes took a very different direction, for port, which had hitherto been almost unknown in England, became the typical drink of the English gentle- man, and more port was sent to the United Kingdom than to all the rest of Europe together.* It was not till the time of the commercial treaty of 1860 with France that the heavy duties on light French wines were reduced, and with them the duties on French manufactures.^ Till then, as Gladstone said in his speech on the subject in 1862, " it was almost thought a matter of duty to regard French- men as traditional enemies," not only in politics, but in com- merce. This French treaty was only one among the many and great services of Cobden to the commerce of his country.^ 1 Craik, British Commerce, ii. 183 ; Cunningham, Growth of Indvstry^ ii. 411. 2 Craik, British Commerce, ii. 165. ^ /&., ii. 166. * Bourne, Romance of Trade, 135. 6 The Methuen Treaty itself lasted till 1831. Craik, u. s., ii. 165. • Morley, Life of Cobden, ch. xxvii. COMMERCE AND WAR 303 It is noticeable that in this period commerce takes an entirely modem tone. We have seen this in the case of banking, of national finance, and of commercial policy. We now notice it also in the growth of speculation ; for the eighteenth century is distinguished by its mania for com- mercial gambling. It is the era in which the modern company promoter makes his first appearance. Many companies were started, far too numerous to mention here, their promotion being due partly no doubt to the fact that those who had hoarded their money during the previous wars were, in the early part of the eighteenth century, anxious to make profitable use of it. Of these new companies the most famous was the South Sea Com- pany, formed in 171 1 to trade with South America, but after- v wards partaking more of the nature of a financial company. The directors anticipated enormous profits, and offered to advance the Government £7,500,000 to pay off part of the National Debt.^ Every one knows the story of their col- lapse (1721), and the ruin it brought upon thousands of worthy but credulous shareholders. But though the most famous, it was by no means the only, or even the first, pro- ject of its kind ; ^ for this was a time when all the accumu- lated capital of the country seemed to run riot in hopes of gaining profits. Hundreds of smaller companies were started every day, and an unhealthy excitement prevailed.^ One company, with a capital of £3,000,000, was started " for insuring to all masters and mistresses the losses they may sustain by servants " ; another " for making salt-water fresh " ; a third for " planting mulberry trees and breeding silk-worms in Chelsea Park." One in particular was de- signed for importing " a number of large jackasses from Spain in order to propagate a larger kind of mule in England," as if, remarks a later writer with some severity, there were not already jackasses enough in London alone.* All this mania for investing capital, however, shows how ^ Cf. Craik, British Commerce, ii. 190, and Anderson, Chron. Commerce, ii. 614. 2 Cf. Defoe's Essay on Projects (1697), especially pp. 11 to 13. * Cf. Craik and Anderson, u. s. ^ lb., also Bourne, RoTnance of Trade, 316. 304 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND prosperous England had now become, and how great a quantity of wealth had been accumulated, partly by trade, but also by the growth of manufactures, and by improvements in agriculture. Englishmen now felt strong enough to begin another struggle for the monopoly of trade,^ with the result that fresh wars were undertaken, and the country was heavily burdened with debt. But the wars were, on the whole, a success, though the wish for a monopoly was a mistake. We see, in fact, from this brief review, that the prosperity and development of modern English commerce, as we know it, had now begun. It was due, of course, not to the great wars we had waged for the right of a sole market, but to the fact that we were able to supply the markets of the world with manufactured goods which no other country could then produce.^ How we were able to do so will shortly be seen, when we come to speak of the Industrial Revolution of the last half of the eighteenth century. Meanwhile, we will glance at the state of our manufacturing industries in the period before this great change. ^ On the *' sole market " theory, see Rogers, Econ. IiUerp.^ 323. 2 This was due very largely to the political troubles of other countries Rogers, Econ. Interpretation, p. 289 ; and below, p. 358. CHAPTER XTX MANUFACTURES AND MINING § 183. Circumstances Favourable to English Manufactures. It has been frequently remarked in previous chapters that Flanders was the great manufactory of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the sixteenth century. Her competition would in any case have been sufficient to check much export of manufactured goods from England, though we had by the sixteenth century got^'past the time when most of our imports of clothing came from Flanders. But, at the end of the sixteenth century, Flemish competition was practically annihilated, owing to the ravages made in the Low Countries by the Spanish persecutions and occupa- tion.^ But England did not benefit merely by the cessation of Flemish competition : she received at the same time hundreds of Flemish immigrants,^ who greatly improved our home manufactures, and thus our prosperity was doubly assisted. The result is seen in the fact that our export of wool diminished, while the export of cloth increased, till at the close of the seventeenth century woollen goods formed two-thirds of our total exports.^ § 184. Wool Trade. Home Manufactures. Dyeing. In the reign of James I. the wool trade is even said to have declined,* and certainly we know that little wool can have been exported, for nearly all that produced in England was used for home manufacture. On the other hand, however, the same fact shows that the manufacturing industry was 1 Above, p. 230. ^ Above, pp. 221, 230. 8 Davenant, Of Gain in Trade (1699), p. 47. ^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 34, who thinks the decline partly due to the effects of the monopoly granted to Cockayne. u 305 3o6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND rising in importance, for it required all the home-grown wool that could be got; and, in 1648, and again in 1660, kthe export of British wool was for this reason forbidden,^ and remained so till 1825. The woollen cloth trade was very largely in the hands of the Merchant Adventurers,^ against whose methods serious complaints were sometimes made,^ but the manufacturing industry flourished steadily, and a considerable part of the population was now engaged in it. The usefulness of our climate, too, for this particular manufacture had been discovered, and was now recognised,* while the manufacturing industry was likewise aided by the impetus given to dyeing by the exertions of Sir Walter Raleigh. Previously to James I.'s reign most English goods had to be sent to the Netherlands to be dyed,^ as was ex- plained above ; but Raleigh^ called attention to this fact, and proposed to grant a monopoly for the art of dyeing and dress- ing. It was by his advice that the export of English white goods was^ prohibited (1608), a proceeding which caused considerable discussion and controversy.^ At the same time a monopoly was granted to Sir William Cockayne, giving him the exclusive right of dyeing and dressing all woollen cloths.^ But the Dutch and German cities immediately retaliated by prohibiting the import of any dyed cloths from England, and great confusion arose. " Cockayne was disabled from selling his cloth anywhere but at home, beside that his cloths were w^orse done, and yet were dearer, than those finished in Holland. There was a very great clamour, therefore, raised against this new project by the weavers now employed, so that the king was obliged to 1 Scobell, Acts, i. 138, and the 12 Charles II. , c. 32. ^ Of. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 120, ^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 35. ^ Bishop Burnet remarked this to Davenant ; Davenant, Works, ii. 235. ^ Gardiner, History, ii. 386. ^ Observations concerning the Trade awl Commerce of England with the Dutch and other Foreign Nations ; cf Craik, British Commerce, ii. 9-12 ; Smith, Memoirs of Wool, eh. xxx. , xxxi. ' Craik, British Commerce, ii. 33. ^ ; . * Smith, Memxnrs of Wool, ch. xxxi.-xxxvi. » Gardiner, History, ii^ 386, 387 ; Smith. Memoirs of Wool, ch. xxxi. and notes. It seems doubtftri whether Cockayne's patent was granted in 1608-9 or 1616 ; see Smith, u, s, MANUFACTURES AND MINING 307 permit the exportation of a limited quantity of white cloths ; and a few years after (1615) for quieting the people he found himself under the necessity of annulling Cockayne's patent." ^ Thus the monopoly failed in its object, as such attempts usually do, but still it is worth noticing as an instance of what was then the universal policy of subjecting industry to various regulations, either for the benefit of those con- cerned in the industry itself, or because it was thought that benefit might accrue to the State in general. ^ The regulation of industry was, in fact, regarded as quite right and necessary, either for purely political purposes,^ or to maintain the quality of manufactures ; and though in modern times the tendency has rather been to get rid of State regulation altogether, there are stUI a fair number of cases where industry is more or less supervised by the State for the good of the community.^ § 185. Other Influences Favourable to England. The Huguenot Irn/migration. But other influences were at work in the seventeenth century in favour of our home industries. It becomes more and more apparent that our insular position was specially suitable for the development of manufactures as soon as they made a fair start. Except for the Parliamentary War, which did not disturb the industry of the country very much — for there is no sign of undue exaltation of prices, or anything else that points to commercial distress ^ — England was free from the terrible conflicts that desolated half Europe in the Thirty Years' War. Our own Civil War was conducted with hardly any of the bloodshed, plunder, and rapine that make war so disastrous. But the Thirty Years' War (1619-1648) did not cease till the utter ex- hausti(m of the combatants made peace inevitable, and till every leader who had taken part in the beginning of the ^ Anderson, Chron. Deduct. Commerce, ii. 232. 2 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 157. ^ E.g., the export of bullion was prohibited for political reasons. ^ The Factory Acts of the nineteenth century are an instance of this. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 43'?, says agriculture even progressed. 3o8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND struggle was in his grave. Germany was effectually ruined,^ and with Germany and Flanders laid low, England had little to fear from foreign competition. And just at this moment the folly of our neighbour, the French King Louis XIV., induced him to deprive his nation of most of its skilled workmen by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His loss was our gain. The Edict in question, passed nearly a century previously, had insured freedom of worship to the French Huguenots, who comprised in their ranks the dite of the industrial population. Louis XI V.^ set to work to exterminate the Protestant religion in France, and be- gan by revoking this Edict (1685). Once more England profited by her Protestantism, and, owing to the religious opinions of her people, received a fresh accession of in- dustrial strength. Some thousands of skilled Huguenot artisans and manufacturers came over and settled in this land.^ They greatly improved the silk, glass, and paper trades,* and exercised considerable influence in the develop- ment of domestic manufactures generally. It is said that the immigrants numbered 50,000 souls, with a capital of some £3,000,000.^ Every one knows how they introduced the silk industry into this country, and how Spitalfields long remained a colony of Huguenot silk-weavers.^ Their descendants are to be found in every part of England. § 186. Distribution of the Cloth Trade, From this time forward the cloth trade, in especial, took its place among the chief industries of the country, largely owing to the fresh spirit infused into it, first by Flemish, and afterwards by French weavers. We have already seen where it chiefly flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies, and now it became more and more widely distributed.^ ^ Rogers, Econ. Interpretation of History, 287. ^ See Voltaire, Steele de Louis XIV., ch. xxxii. * Of. Anderson, Chron. Deduct. Commerce, ii. 568. 4 lb., ii. 569. 6 lb., ii. 569. '' Voltaire, Sidcle de Louis XIV., ch. xxxii. ; Lecky, HiMory of the Eighteenth, Century, i. 191. "^ For the following details, cf. Rogers, Hint. Agric, v. 95, and the Act 4 and 5 James I. , c. 2. MANUFACTURES AND MINING 309 The county of Kent, and the towns of York and Read- ing, made one kind of cloth of a heavy texture, the piece being thirty or thirty-four yards long by six and one-half broad, and weighing 66 lbs. to the piece. Worcester, Hereford, and Coventry made a lighter kind of fabric, while throughout the eastern counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex were made cloths of various kinds — plunkets, azures, blues, long cloth, bay, say, and serges ; Suffolk, in particular, made a " fine, short, white cloth." Wiltshire and Somerset made plunkets and handy warps ; Yorkshire, short cloths. Broad-listed whites and reds, and fine cloths, also came from Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Oxfordshire ; and Somerset was famous in the eastern part lor narrow-listed whites and reds, and in the west for " dunsters." Devonshire made kerseys and grays, as also did Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Midlands furnished " Penistone " cloths and " Forest whites " ; while "West- moreland was the seat of the manufacture of the famous " Kendal green " cloths, as also of " Carpmael " and " Cog- ware" fabrics.^ It will be seen that the manufacture was exceedingly extensive, and that special fabrics derived their names from the chief centre where they were made. It may be mentioned here, too, that the value of wool shorn in England at the end of the seventeenth century was £2,000,000, from about 12,000,000 sheep (according to Davenant ^) ; and the cloth manufactured from it was valued at about £8,000,000. Nearly half a century later (1741) the number of sheep was reckoned^ at 17,000,000, the value of wool shorn at £3,000,000, and of wool manufactured at £8,000,000, showing that progress in invention had not done much to enhance the value of the manufactured article. But in 1774, when the Industrial Revolution may be said to have fairly begun, the value of manufactured wool was £13,000,000, the value of raw wool (£4,500,000) being smaller in pro- portion.* ^ Cf. Kogers, Hist. Agric, v. 95, and the Act 4 and 5 James I., c. 2. ^ Davenant, Discourse on the East India Trade ; Works, ii. 146. ^ Burnley, Wool aiid Woolcombing, p. 79. * lb. 310 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND § 187. Coal Mines. Turning now from textile manufactures to mining and working in metals, we find that in the seventeentli and eighteenth ce nturi es England was just upon the eve of the most important ^hanprfiR in thpsp. jprinc^^-ri/ie — changes which, in many places, have entirely transformed the face of the country, and have equally transformed the -onnditinns ofjnduatry, and with them the gggiallife of the working classes. It is no exaggeration to say th^T in its effects, both for good and evil, hardly any other historical event has been A^of so much importance as the modern improvements in coal- mining. But it cannot be too clearly understood that none of our mining and min eral industries attained any propor- tions worth sj^king of till what is known as th ^ Industrial Revolution. Englishmen seem to haveiiad hardly any idea ^ the vast wealth of coal and iron that has placed them in the forefront of Europe as a manufacturing nation. Never- theless we may just glance at the imperfect methods which our forefathers used up till the eighteenth century. Coal - min ing had been carried on fairly extensively by the V Romans, as, for instance, the discovery of coal cinders at Aston ^ and other places testifies. Then, like all our in- dustries, it was almost entirely given up, and it was due to the Norcaan Conquest that coal-mining was revived. That it was practised t3 some extent in the North is seen from an entry in the Boldean Book (a kind of Domesday of the county of Durham, composed in 1183), in which a smith is allowed twelve acres of land for makins: the iron- work of the carts, and has to provide his own coal.^ But collieries were not opened at Newcastle till the thirteenth century,^ in the year 1238. In the next year we find notice of the first public recognition of coal as an article of commerce, and from a charter of Henry III. to the freemen of Newcastle, we may date the foundation of the coal trade.* In 1273 this had become sufiiciently extensive for the use of coal to be forbidden in London, as there was ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 174. ^ Yeats, Technical History of Commerce, p. 171. »/&.,p. 172. ^Ib. MANUFACTURES AND MINING 311 a prejudice against it and in favour of wood as fuel.^ In the fourteenth century, again, the monks of Tynemouth Priory engaged in mining speculation, and (1380) leased a colliery ^ for £5. In the fifteenth century trade was sufficiently important to form a source of revenue, for a tax of twopence per chaldron was placed upon sea-borne coal, and in 1421 an Act had to be passed to enforce this tax.^ In fact, in the f ourteenth and fifteenth centurie s coal-mining, although in a rather primitive fashion, became general in Great Britain. ^ § 188. Development of Coal Trade: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By the seventeenth century it had also become impor- tant — -important enough for the needy Stuart monarch Charles I. to see in it a chance of revenue. This king gave to Sir Thomas Tempest and his partners the monopoly of the sale of Newcastle coal for twenty-one years/ be- ginning in 1637, and next year he allowed a syndicate to be incorporated which was to buy up all the coal from New- castle, Sunderland, and Berwick, and sell it in London for "not more than l7s. a ton in summer, and 19s. in winter" — an extravagant price for those times. The king got a shilling a ton out of this ingenious scheme,^ until the Long Parliament finally put a stop to this outrageous monopoly. Yet the coal trade still formed a favourite so nrcfi of rq venup,, and the charge of re-erecting public buildings was defrayed by an additional custom on coals.^ It was said that early in the seventeenth century the New- castle trade alone employed four hundred vessels.'' But although the coal trade was fairly extensive for that period, it was utterly insignificant compared with its present dimensions, and that for a very good reason. There was no ^ Yeats, Technical History of Commerce, p. 172. Sea-coal is found to have been brought as far south as Dover as early as 1279 ; cf. Rogers, HisL Agric, i. 422, and ii. 394-397. 2 Yeats, Technical History, p. 172. ^ qy ^^^ g Henry V., c. 10. ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 154. ^ lb. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 175. "^ Craik, British Commerce, ii. 32. 312 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND means of pumping water out of the mines, except by the old-fashioned air-pump, which was, of course, utterly inade- quate. Nor was a suitable invention discovered till the very end of the seventeenth century, when Thomas Savery, in 1698, invented a kind of pump, worked by the con- densation of steam.^ This rather clumsy invention, how- ever, was soon superseded in 1705 by Newcomen's steam pump.2 But it was not till after the commencement of the I ndustrial Revolutio n that steam power was scientifically a pplied to c oal-mines by the inventions of Watt and Boulton (1765 andTTTTJTwhich we shall notice in their proper place. ^ Up to that time, also, it was difficult to transport coal into inland districts by road, Newcastle coal being carried to London in ships, and then carried up inland rivers in barges. But these barges could not go high up many rivers at that time, and canals were not yet made. It was difficult, for instance, to get coal to Oxford, for it had first to come to London, then part of the way up the Thames, which was not then navigable so far as Oxford, and then by road. But at Cambridge it was easily pro- curable, for barges could come right up to the town from eastern ports. Hence it was much cheaper at Cambridge than at Oxford.^ § 189. The Iron Trade. As it had been with coal, so with irpn. Only very small quantities of it were mined in the Middle Ages ; it was -gflftglt^itd onl3c ^y wo od,^ as a rule, and was manufactured in a very rude way. We saw that at the great fairs foreign iron, chiefly from the Biscay coast, was much in demand, as our own supply was utterly insufficient.^ It was naturally not until we learnt to mine and use our coal properly that we learnt also how to mine and manufacture our iron. Before learning this, English workmen used wood as fuel, ^ Smiles, Lives of the Engineers {Boulton and Watt), ch. iii. A diagram of Savery's engine is on p. 49. ^ lb., chs. iii. and iv., and diagrams, pp. 61 and 73. 3 Below, p. 352. * Rogers, Hift. Agric, v. 757, 774, 776; vi. 500. " Cf. the 35 Henry VIII,, c. 17 ; and Smiles, Industrial Biography, ch. ii. « Above, p. 143. MANUFACTURES AND MINING 313 and it is to this cause that we owe the destruction of most of the forests which, at the time of Domesday, occupied so large an area. The extinction of the great forest of the Sussex Wealden is an example of this.^ " The waste and destruction of the woods in the counties of Warwick, Stafford, Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Salop by these iron- works is not to be imagined," a speaker said in " Parliament as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century ; 2 and as wood was used as house-fuel also, it will readily be understood what a vast destruction of timber took place. As early as 1581 the erection of iron- works within certain distances from London and the Thames had been prohibited " for the preservation of the woods." ^ But early in the seventeenth century Dud Dudley, son of Lord Dudley, began to make use of sea and pit coal for smelting iron, and obtained (1619) a monopoly "of the mystery and art of smelting iron ore, and of making the same into cast works or bars, in furnaces, with bellows."* Dudley sold this cast iron at £12 a ton, and made a good profit out of it, but at last his works were destroyed by an ignorant mob.^ He actually produced seven tons a week, which was considered a large supply, and shows the com- parative insignificance of the industry then. However, it was only comparatively insignificant, for before the close of the century it was calculated that 180,000 tons of ore were produced in England yearly ; and in the eighteenth century (1719) iron came third in the list of English manufactures, and the trade gave employment to 200,000 people.^ There was, however, still great waste of wood, since a great many iron-masters did not use coal, and therefore the export and even the manufacture of iron was discouraged by legislation to such an extent, that, by 1740, the output had been reduced to 17,350 tons per annum, barely a tenth of the ^ Cf. Rogers, Econ. Interpretation^ p. 287 ; and below, p. 314. ^ Bourne, Homance of Trade, p. 177. ^ M'Culloch, Commercial Dictionary (od. 1844) ; s.v. Iron, p. 753. ^ Of. his book Metallum Martis, or Iron made with pit coale, sea coale, (i;c. (1665) ; and M'Culloch, Commercial Diet, (1844), s.v. Iron ; also Smiles, Industrial Biography, ch. iii. ^ lb. ; also Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 176. * Romance of Trade, p. 177. 314 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND previous amount quoted.^ The waste of timber was most noticeable in the Sussex Wealden, the forests of which owe their destruction almost entirely to the iron and glass manufactures.^ But about this time another inventor, Abraham Darby, of the famous Coalbrookdale Ironworks,^ discovered the secret of the large blast-furnace in which both pit-coal and charcoal were used. He began his experiments as early as 1730, but did not do much for some twenty years. In 1756, however, his works were " at the top pinnacle of prosperity ; twenty and twenty-two tons per week sold off as fast as made, and profit enough." * After Darby came Smeaton, and other inventors, and the Industrial Revolution spread to the iron trade. We shall see it in operation in our next period.^ § 190. Pottery. As with all other manufactures, so, too, the development of pottery was reserved for the Renaissance of industry in the eighteenth century. Of course pottery of a kind had always been made in England, especially where the useful soil of Staffordshire formed a favourable ground for the exercise of this art.^ But the pottery hitherto manufac- tured had been rude and coarse, and its manufacture was a strictly domestic and not very widespread industry.'^ We owe its improvement, as in so many other cases, largely to the efforts of the Dutch and Huguenot ^ immigrants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For the Dutch had been great among the potters of Europe, as the renown of Delft- ware still testifies, while France had the honour of being the land of Palissy. The factories at Burslem, how- ^ Romance of Trade, p. 178, and M'CuUoch, Commercial Diet., a.v. Iron. '^ Norden, in Rogers, Hist. Agric. , v. 44. ^ Smiles, Industrial Biography, ch. v. p. 80. 4 Bourne, Bomance of Trade, p. 179. ^ Below, p. 341, 352. ^ Bourne, Bomance of Trade, p. 169. "^ There were, however, potteries elsewhere than in StaflFs., as e.g. in Essex; Pennant (1801), Journey from London to the Isle of Wight, i. 53; and Lowestoft ware is well known to connoisseurs. 8 Anderson, Chron. Commerce, 11. 569. MANUFACTURES AND MINING 315 ever, owed their origin to the industry of two Germans from Nuremberg, called Elers, from whom an Eoglishman, Astbury, learnt the secret of producing the red unglazed Japanese ware, and the black Egyptian ware.^ Burslem, too, was the birthplace of Josiah Wedgwood,^ born 1730, who first began business in 1752 as manager for a master- potter, but started in business on his own account in 1759, the eve of the Industrial Revolution. His efforts and experiments were magnificent and untiring, and they can be read at leisure in various biographical works. It is sufficient here to say that Wedgwood was the man who first made the art of pottery a science, and before his death, in 1795, he had brought this manufacture to such a pitch of excellence that few improvements have been left for his successors to make, and it rose to be one of the chief industries of the country.^ § 191. Other Mining Industries. There remain one or two industries that require a passing mention, but which were not in the eighteenth century of much importance. As to the jnetal s, the foreign trade in tin and lead has been already mentioned. In the reign of John the tin-mines of Cornwall were farmed by the Jews,* and the tin and lead trade must have attained considerable proportions in the fourteenth century, , for the Black Prince paid his own expenses in the French j wars by the produce of his mines of those metals in* Devonshire^ Copp er, also, was mined in the northern counties, and in a statute of 15 Edward III. (1343) we find grants of mines given at Skeldane, in Northumber- land ; at Alston Moor, in Cumberland ; and at Richmond, in Yorkshire ; a royalty of one-eighth going to the king, and one-ninth to the lord of the manor.^ Keswick was at that time a centre of this industry ; but the art of the coppersmith was developed chiefly in Germany.'^ The mines were also very primitive, the approaches being made, not ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 171 ; Smiles, Self Hdp, p. 88. 2 SmUes, Self Help, pp. 88-93. ' lb., p. 92. ^ Yeats, Technical History of Commerce, p. 172. ^ lb., p. 173. « 76., p. 173. ^ lb., p. IS5. 3i6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND by shafts, but by adits in the side of a convenient hill. Another mineral, which is very abundant in England, especially in Worcestershire and Cheshire, was at this period hardly utilised. Salt was a necessary of life to the English householder, for he had to salt his meat for the winter ; but he did not know how to mine it himself, and t either got it imported from south-west France, or contented himself with the inferior article evaporated on the sea- coast, until the end of the seventeenth century.^ It has been already mentioned that brick-making was a lost art from the fifth to the fifteenth century. The first purchase to be recorded was at Cambridge, in 1449 ; but before the end of the fifteenth century it became a common building material in the eastern counties, and in the six- teenth century was generally used in London and in the counties along the lower course of the Thames.^ § 192. The Close of the Period of Manual Industries. We have now reached a turning-point in English indus- trial history, and are about to study a period that is in every way a violent contrast to the centuries which pre- ceded it. We have come to the time when machinery begins to di splace unaided manual la bfliir. Hitherto all our ^ manufactures, our mining, and, of course, our agriculture, had been performed by the literal 1q1->^i]|- nf Tj^^^n'g hnir^'^i helped but slightly by a few simple inventions. Industry, too, was not organised upon a vast capitalistic basis, though of course capitalists existed ; but it would be more correct to say that hitherto industry had been chiefly carried on by numbers of smaller capitalists who were also manual work- men, even when they employed other workmen under them.^ Only in agriculture had the capitalist class become very far removed from the labourers.* There was certainly no such violent contrast as now exists between a mill-owner and a mill-hand in the realm of manufacturing industry,^ though, ^ Rogers, Econ. Interpretation, p. 277. ^ Ih., p. 279. ^ Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 72, 53. ^ Above, pp. 157, 184, 212, 216, 271. Toynbee (p. 71) is wrong in say- ing "the capitalist farmers were not yet in existence." ^ Toynbee, Indust. Rev., pp. 71, 53. MANUFACTURES AND MINING 317 of course, this contrast existed between the rich landowner, who received rents, and the poor agricultural labourer, whose labour helped to pay them. But, speaking of industry generally, it may be said that the ^absence of machiner y kept employers and workmen more upon a common level ; and as large factories, of course, did not exist, industry was carried on chiefly in the workmen's homes, while the work- man was not merely a unit among hundreds of unknown " hands " in a mill, but a person not hopelessly removed in social rank from his employer, who was well acquainted with him, and, like him, worked with his own hands. But now this old order of things passes away, and a new order appears, ushered in by the whirr and rattle of machinery and the mighty hiss of steam. A complete transformation takes place, and the life of England stirs anew in the great Industrial Revolution. PERIOD V THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND MODERN ENGLAND CHAPTER XX THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION § 193. Indtbstry and Politics. Landowners and Merchant Princes. We are, of course, mainly concerned in this book with industrial facts; but as these underlie all politics and national history, we must pause for a moment to see how the growth of commerce had by this time affected the relations of two great classes : the landowners and their new rivals, the great merchants and the commercial classes generally. Up to the time of the deposition of James IL, or the Whig Revolution of 1688, as it is sometimes called,^ the land-owning class had been practically supreme in social and political influence. But from that time forward, al- though they still held this high position, their influence was heavily counterbalanced by that of the mercantile classes.^ The Revolution may have been aristocratic in its origin,^ but it was certainly democratic in its ultimate results. The capitalists and the commercial magnates were all favoured by the great movement which divided the nation into the two historic parties of Whigs and Tories, for it was that movement which first accentuated their importance in the political life of the nation.* That importance was still further increased by a series of significant economic events,^ already alluded to, which took place shortly after the 1 Lecky, History of the, Eighteenth Century^ i. 171, remarks that the House of Lords wjw chiefly Whig, and that the aristocracy really effected this Revolution. ^ For the mercantile element in politics, cf. Lecky, History , i. 199, 200. ^ Lecky {History, i. 16, 156) shows that it was an aristocratic movement, but does not indicate quite so clearly its results in bringing into prominence the middle (and, later, even the lower) classes. ^ "The political influence of the industrial and moneyed classes was greatly increased by the Revolution." Lecky, History, i. 201. ® Above, pp. 299-304. X 3" 322 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Revolution ; namely, the foundation of the Bank of Eng- land (1694), the new and extended Charter granted to the East India Company in 1693, the beginning of the National Debt in the same year, and the Restoration of the Currency in 1696. The commercial and industrial section of the community was becoming more and more prominent, and the great Whig families who occupied themselves with endeavouring to rule England in the eighteenth century relied for their support upon the middle and commercial classes.^ The old reverence, however, for the position of a landowner had not yet died out, and the men who had gained their wealth by commerce strove for a higher social position by buying land in large quantities. ^ The time had not yet come when a merchant was on equal terms with a landowner. In fact, there has always been an extraordinary senti- mentalism as regards land among all classes of the English people ; and for certain reasons, which, though not entirely baseless, are still somewhat inadequate, a man who has merely inherited a large amount of land (even if he has never attempted to cultivate it) is regarded as superior to one who has amassed a fortune in the industrial or com- mercial world. And this feeling was stronger in the eigh- teenth century than it is at the present time, though it is certainly even now by no means extinct. Hence com- mercial magnates then, as now, or even more than now, bought land, hoping to buy with it social prestige. The James Lowther who was created Earl of Lonsdale in 1784 was the descendant of a merchant engaged in the Levant trade ; ^ and the first Earl of Tilney was the son of that eminent man of business, Sir Josiah Child.* The daughters of merchant princes were even allowed to marry — and maintain — the scions of a needy aristocracy.^ The beginning of this new order of things can be dated with some accuracy by a remark of Sir W. Temple's : "I ^ Locky, History^ i. 187. ' Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 62. ^ Ih. , p. 63. * Defoe, Complete, Tradesman (ed. 1839, Chambers), p. 74. ^ Thus, Child's daughter married the Marquis of Worcester ; qf. Toynbee, fTid. i2er.,p. 63. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 323 think I remember," he wrote in the last quarter of the seventeenth century/ " the first noble families that married into the city for downright money, and thereby introduced by degrees this public grievance, which has since ruined so many estates by the necessity of giving good portions to daughters." Defoe actually discovered the amazing and revolutionary fact that a man engaged in commerce might be a gentleman, though, no doubt, this bold supposition of his was at first looked upon with incredulity. He says : " Trade is so far from being inconsistent with a gentleman that in England trade makes a gentleman ; for, after a generation or two, the tradesman's children come to be as good gentlemen, statesmen, parliament men, judges, bishops, and noblemen, as those of the highest birth and the most ancient families." ^ Dean Swift remarked, " that the power which used to follow land had gone over to money." ^ Dr Johnson announced oracularly that " an English merchant was a new species of gentleman." * This influx of the merchants into the upper classes was not, however, an entirely new thing, though no doubt it became more notice- able at this time ; for Harrison, the well-known describer of Elizabethan England, had long before remarked that, though " citizens and burgesses have next place to gentle- men," yet, " they often change estate with gentlemen, as gentlemen do with them, by a mutual conversion of one into the other." ^ Now, the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century went still further than the political revolution of the seven- teenth to gain social and political influence for the commer- cial classes. It succeeded in destroying the feudal but foolish idea that the landowners alone were to be looked upon as the lea ders of the na tion. It gave the capitalists and manufacturers a new accession of power, by enormously in- creasing their wealth. Moreover, it helped to undermine the landed interest by making the manufactures of England ^ Temple's Miscellanies, quoted in Lecky, History, i. 193. ^ Defoe, Complete Tradesman, u. s. , p. 74. ^ Swift, Examiner, No. 13. ^ Boswell, Life of Johnson (7th edn.), ii. 108. ^ Harrison, Description of England, Book III., ch. iv. (edn. 1577), page 9, Camelot Series edn. 324 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND at first equal, and afterwards superior, to her agriculture, so that a rich mill-owner or iron-master became as important was a large landowner. The monopoly of the landed interest was broken by capital. Nowhere perhaps is the contrast between the^old and^ew classes in the last century .seen more closely than in Sir Walter Scott's novel Roh Boy, where the old Tory squire who held fast to Church and king is contrasted with the new commercial magnate who supported the House of Hanover.^ But already the com- mercial element was coming to the front in politics. In very few periods of English political history was the commercial element so strong as in the early Hanoverian days under the regime of Walpole and Pelham.^ The questions that excited most interest in Parliament were chiefly those connected with commerce and finance.^ Burke, writing in 1752, summed up the requirements of a Member of the House of Commons in a plaintive sentence,* which illustrates the tendency of the time : " A man, after all, would do more by figures of arithmetic than by figures of rhetoric." A rhetorician himself, he meant, in this utter- ance, to be sarcastic ; but it would be well if it were possible for orators to remember that two and two can only make four, and that the figures of arithmetic are safer guides for the statesman than the hyperboles of oratory. The intro- duction of the mercantile element into Parliament, and into the ranks of the aristocracy, though by no means an unmixed blessing, has yet had the healthy effect of keep- ing the English nobility in touch with the mass of the people,^ and of connecting all ranks together in the common interests of the national life. § 194. The Coming of the Capitalists, ij^ Now, although the commercial capitalist was fast coming into prominence as the rival of the landowner,^ he was ^ This illustration is due to W. Clarke, in Fabian Essays, p. 78. 2 Cf. Lecky, History, i. 433. » lb. * Prior, Life of Burke, i. 38. '^ Of. Lecky, History, i. 170 sqq., on the English aristocracy ; and also Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 63. " Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 6, remarks : " From the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards the monied interest has overbalanced the landed interest." This is partially true but the capitalist hardly over- THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 325 becoming still more prominent as the master of the work- men whom he employed. For before the Industrial Re- volution the capitalist had occupied a comparatively sub- ordinate place.^ Of course capitalists existed, as they have always done, but their power was small as compared with^ that of their successors to-day. ^ The vast enterprises of modern industry, such as railways or mills, which often require so large an expenditure of capital before they can begin to be in any way remunerative, were practically un- known a century ago. The industrial system was, more- over, far less complicated, far less international, far less subdivided.^ Instead of the great capitalist manufacturers of to-day, who can control the markets of a nation, England possessed numbers of smaller capitalists,* with far less capital, both individually and in the aggregate, than that which is now required by a man who undertakes even a moderate business. The great capitalists of the last cen- tury were chiefly the foreign trading companies. But home manufactures, although greatly developed,^ were still largely conducted upon the domestic system, and the small capi- talist-artisan was a conspicuous feature of that time, just as the large mill-owner or iron-master is of our own day. Manufactures were carried on by a number of small master- manufacturers,^ who gave out work to be done in the homes of their employes ; and who often combined agricultural with manufacturing pursuits.'^ But, nevertheless, there were signs of the approach of the methods of modern capitalism, and of production upon a large scale. It was becoming in- balanced the landowner yet, though he was becoming on more equal terms with him. ^ Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 52. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 5, dates the rise of the capitalist class **from the time of Elizabeth onwards." This is rather to antedate their coming into prominence. 3 Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. i. , remarks that it is im- possible to collect all the workmen in different branches of a manufacture into the same "workhouse" (i.e., mill). In his time the huge modern factory was unknown. {Cf. Rogers' edition of Smith, Vol. I. p. 6, note.) ^ Toynbee, Indust, Revolution, p. 53. 5 Cf. Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. xi. (Vol. I. p. 260, Clarendon Press edition). 6 Toynbee, Indust. Revolution, 53. ' Cf. Rogers, Hist. Agric, v. 810 326 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND creasingly the custom to employ a large number of workpeople together under one roof, or at least under the direction and supervision of one great manufacturer. Arthur Young, for instance, mentions a silk mill at Sheffield with 152 hands, a large number in the eighteenth century ; a factory at Boynton with 150 hands; and a master-manufacturer at Darlington who ran above fifty looms. ^ Work was also given out by capitalist manufacturers or merchants to work- men to do at home in the villages and towns. These workmen were, like the employes of the present day, entirely dependent upon their employer for work and wages. Thus at Nottingham, in 1750, we find fifty master-manu- facturers who " put out " work in this way for as many as 1200 looms in the hosiery trade.^ § 195. The Glass of Small Manufacturers, But although the coming of the capitalists was now near at hand, the old order of things was not seriously disturbed (till the application of steam power to machinery some years later. There were still many small manufacturers who lived on their own land and worked with their workpeople in their own houses. Defoe, in his Tour through Great Britain (made in 1724-26), gives an interesting account of this class at a time when they were in the height of their pros- perity, before machinery and steam had even begun to cause their disappearance. Speaking of the land near Halifax, in Yorkshire, he says : ^ " The land was divided into small enclosures, from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more, every three or four pieces of land having a house belonging to them ; hardly a house standing out of speaking distance from another. We could see at eveiy house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth or kersie or shalloon. At every considerable house there was a manufactory. Every clothier keeps one horse at least to carry his manu- factures to the market ; and every one generally keeps a cow or two or more for his family. By this means the 1 Young, Northern Tmir, i. 134 ; ii. 8, 467 (ed. 1770). 2 Toynbee, Indust, Revolution, 63 ; Felkin, History of Hosiery, 83. 3 Tour, iii. pp. 144-146. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 327 small pieces of enclosed land about each house are occupied, for they scarce sow corn enough to feed their poultry. The houses are full of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the looms, others dressing the cloths ; the women and children carding or spinning ; being all employed, from the youngest to the oldest." And Defoe adds a remark which is certainly not applicable either to Halifax or to any other manufacturing town of the present day, for he concludes his description with the words : " not a beggar to be seen, 01 an idle person." ^ § 196. The Condition of the Manv/acturing Population, For it is a significant fact that under the old domestic system, simple and cumbrous as it was, the manufacturing population was very much better off than it was for some time after the Industrial Revolution. For one thing, they still lived more or less in the country, and were not crowded together in stifling alleys and courts, or in long rows of bare smoke-begrimed streets, in houses like so many dirty rabbit-hutches. Even if the artisan did live in a town at that time, the town was very different from the abodes of smoke and dirt which now prevail in the manufacturing districts. It had a more rural character.^ There were no tall chimneys, belching out clouds of evil smoke ; no huge, hot factories with their hundreds of windows blazing forth a lurid light in the darkness, and rattling with the whirr and din of ceaseless machinery by day and night. There were no gigantic blast furnaces rising amid blackened heaps of cinders, or chemical works poisoning the fields and trees for miles around. These were yet to come. The factory and the furnace were almost unknown. Work was carried on by the artisan in his little stone or brick house, with the workshop inside, where the wool for the weft was carded and spun by his wife and daughters,^ and the cloth was 1 Tour, iii. p. 146. 2 Cf. Cunningham, Growth of iTidustry, ii. 480. * At Armley "many persons who have small farms also carry on cloth- making, employing their wives, children, and servants." Report from the Committee on the state of the woollen manufacture; Reports, 1806, iii. 602 ; also the quotation from Defoe, just above. 328 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND woven by himself and his sons. He had also, in nearly all cases, his plot of land near the house,^ which provided him both with food and recreation, for he could relieve the monotony of weaving by cultivating his little patch of ground, or feeding his pigs and poultry. The woollen weavers, especially, in all parts of the country appear to have had allotments or large gardens,^ some of which still exist ; and even at the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a large part of the manufacturing population which was not yet divorced from rural employments.^ § 197. Two JExamples of Village Life. The old conditions of life in English villages under this domestic system, with its healthy combination of agricul- V tural and manufacturing industry, and its prevalence of bye -industries, are even yet not entirely forgotten, and may be here ' illustrated by personal testimonies, one from the south and the other from the north of England. A most interesting picture of life in a Hampshire village is thus drawn by the late Professor Thorold Rogers.* *' In my native village [West Meon] in Hampshire, I well re- member two instances of agricultural labourers who raised themselves through the machinery of the allowance system ^ to the rank and fortunes of small yeomen. Both had large families, and both practised a bye-industry. The village was peculiar in its social character, for there was not a tenant-farmer in it, all being freeholders or copyholders. There was no poverty in the whole place. Most of the labourers baked their own bread, brewed their own beer, kept pigs and poultry, and had half an acre or an acre to till for themselves as part of their hire. The rector built extensively parsonage, schools, and finally church, from his own means, and, therefore, employment was pretty general. 1 Arthur Young, Farmer's Letters, i. 205, and cf. Toynbee, Indmt. Rev., p. 68. 2 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 480. I might add from personal observation the case of the place still known as the *' Woolsorters' Gardens" at Heaton, near Bradford, Yorks. 3 Cunningham, w. s., ii. 481. 4 Six Centuries, p. 502. ^ See below, pp. 408, 412-414. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 329 The village mason became a considerable yeoman. But the two labourers of whom I am speaking had their allowances, and lived on their fixed wages, with the profits of their bye-labour . . . and the produce of their small curtilage." Thus the prevalence of bye-industries, combined with allot- ments, gave the labourer and artisan, under the domestic system, a far better chance of gaining a comfortable and healthy livelihood than he possessed in those cases where the factory system had deprived him of these advantages. The other picture is from a writer ^ who derives his ex- perience from the northern counties. Speaking of English village life, " as it existed in the memory of many now living," he remarks ; " The village combined agricultural with industrial occupation ; the click of the loom was heard in the cottages ; the farmyard and the fields, the cottages and the allotment gardens, made a delightful picture of rural life. The land was mainly freehold ; the farmers were of the yeoman class, and not infrequently combined the calling of a clothier or master manufacturer along with that of farming. The farmer's wife, although born with a silver spoon, was industrious and thrifty ; with her own hand she would chum the butter, make the cheese, cure the bacon and ham, or bake the bread ; her daughters would assist in spinning the yam, or knitting the stockings ; and from the cloths woven under their supervision they would, with the assistance of the village dressmaker, make their own dresses. If you entered one of the cottages you would find the master of the house in the 'chamber,' sitting at the loom, busy throwing the shuttle, weaving a piece of cloth ; his daughter would be sitting at the wheel, spinning weft ; and the good wife would be busy with her domestic duties. One son would be out working on the land for the farmer ; another would be working on the weaver's allotment. Down in their little allotment plot they grow their own vegetables, and a little crop of oats, which they have ground into oat- meal for making their porridge ; they also keep a pig or two, and provide their own bacon and ham. They are on good terms with the master-manufacturer — that is, the 1 Thomas lUingworth, DiatribiUion Refrnm (Cassell, London, 1885), p. 81. 330 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND gentleman who gives them warp and weft to weave into cloth. He is also a large farmer, and in the hay-harvest and corn-harvest they all have a fine time in the fields, giving a hand to the cutting, the harvesting, and home- carrying of the crops. . . . Their chief articles of food are produced from the land immediately surrounding them. Their means of subsistence and comfort are not to be com- puted by the amount of their earnings in money- wages, but the produce of their bit of land, and the ease and cheapness with which they can obtain other necessities." ^ It will thus be seen that the old domestic system had, at least for the working-classes, many advantages, some of which have not been even yet perhaps quite compensated by the undoubted benefits of the Industrial Revolution. It is foolish, as well as inaccurate, to imagine that the past must have been necessarily better than the present ; but, on the other hand, it may readily be admitted that there are many single features in it which compare more than favourably with those of to-day, though the general outline of the present may be superior. Work, for instance, was more regular than it often is at present, for there were fewer commercial fluctuations ; ^ fashions did not change so quickly, and the market for homespun fabrics was always steady and assured. The relations between employers and employed were far closer ; even the distribution of wealth was comparatively more equal.* Wages were somewhat less in money value than at present, but, then, prices of food and rent were only about half what they are now. Arthur Young gives 9s. 6d. as the average weekly wages of an artisan in the North and Midland counties, though in some cases they were much higher, while the average rent for a cottage in the same counties he puts at 28s. 2d. a year, or only Gjd. per week.* And it must be remembered that this included ^ The writer means that most of these could be obtamed from their own work, or from their neighbours, who practised other bye-industries ; c/. pp. 82-83 of the book quoted. 2 Cf. Toynbee, Induat. Revolidicm, p. 71. ^ Ih. * Young, Northern Tour, iv. 470-472 (wages), 435-439 (rent) ; ed. 1770. The wages of hand wool combers in 1747 were 12s. to 21s. a week, accord- ing to Burnley, Wool and Woolcombing, p. 159. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 331 a piece of land round the cottage. Meat, also, was cheap, being from 2jd. to 3jd. per pound; and bread Ijd. a pound.^ In fact, we may confidently say that artisans, especially spinners and weavers, were well off about 1760. Adam Smith testifies to this in the Wealth of Nations. " Not only has grain become somewhat cheaper," he says, " but many other things from which the industrious poor derive an agreeable and wholesome variety of food have become a great deal cheaper." ^ And the healthy condition of industry in general is shown by the fact that at the close of the wars with France, by the Peace of 1763, when more than 100,000 men accustomed to war were thrown upon the country, and had to find work or else be sup- ported in some way or other, " not only no great convulsion, but no sensible disorder arose." ^ § 198. Condition of the Agricultural Population. Nor was that convenient plenty which was the lot of the manufacturing portion of the people confined only to that section. The condition of the agricultural labourer, who was generally the worst off of all classes, from being so much under the direct supervision of his master, had considerably improved, together with the general improvement of agri-, culture spoken of in a previous chapter. The price of com had fallen, while wages had risen, though these were less than an artisan's, being, according to Arthur Young's average estimate for the North and Midland counties, about 7 s. a week.* But it was generally 8s. or 10s., while the board of a working man may be placed at about 6 s. or 6 s. a week.^ Cottages were occasionally rent free, or, at any rate, only paid a low rent, never more than 50s. or 60s. per year,^ and generally much less. Moreover, just as ^ Young, Northern Tour, iv. 451 aqq. 2 Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. viii. (i. 82, Clarendon Press edn. ). * Wealth of Nations. Bk. IV. ch. ii. (ii. 43, Clarendon Press edn. ). ^ Northern Tour, iv. 445. The exact average is 7s. Id. He gives board as 8d. a day in the North and lOd. in the South. lb., iv. 441. ^ Of. A Table of Wages and Prices of Commodities during three important Epochs of English Industry, by Thomas lUingworth (Bradford). " lb. 332 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND artisans added to their earnings by agricultural work, so, too, agricultural labourers increased their wages by such bye-industries as spinning and lace-naaking.^ There was an abundance of food, clothing, and furniture.^ Wheat-bread had almost entirely superseded rye-bread. ^ Every poor family now drank tea, which had formerly been a costly luxury.* The consumption of meat was, says Arthur Young, *' pretty considerable," and that of cheese " im- mense." ^ An earlier writer states that the labourers, *' by their large wages and the cheapness of all necessaries, enjoyed better dwellings, diet, and apparel in England than the husbandmen or farmers did in other countries." ^ Cer- tainly Arthur Young was struck with the difference between the agricultural population of England and that of France, which latter country he visited shortly before the Revo- lution,^ when the misery of the labourer was at its lowest depth, owing to the extortions of the privileged noblesse, § 199. Growth of Population. But not only had the condition of the industrial popula- tion improved in the period 1700-1750, but their numbers had, as a consequence, also considerably increased. The figures rose from 5,475,000 in 1700 to 6,467,000 in 1750.^ And now, too, was beginning that great shifting of the centres of population, from the South to the North of England, which is so important a feature in the new industrial epoch. The most suggestive fact of this period is the growth of the population of Lancashire and of the West Riding of Yorkshire,^ which were rapidly becoming * Cf. Davies, Case of Labourers in Husbandry (1795), p. 83 ; Arthur Young, Annals of Agriculture, xxv. 344, 484, and xxxvii. 448. 2 Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. viii. (Vol. I. p. 82). 3 Young, Farmer's Letters, i. 207, 208 (edn. 1771). * lb., pp. 200, 297 ; Eden, State of the Poor, iii. 710. 5 Young, Travels in France, ii. 313 (ed. 1793, Dublin). 8 Chamberlayne, State of Great Britain (1737), p. 177, ' See his Travels in France. ^ See The Statistical Journal, xliii. 462, ® For the migration of population from Devonshire and the *' cider coun- ties" to Yorkshire, cf. Massie's Observations on the New Cyder Tax (1764), THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 333 the seats of the cotton and coarse woollen manufactures. Similarly also Staffordshire and Warwickshire, the pottery and hardware centres, were growing in numbers,^ and so, too, were Durham and Northumberland, whose coal-fields were now far more developed than before. ^ On the other hand, the population of the Western and Eastern counties, still large manufacturing centres, had increased very little.^ But in the North and North-west the increase was enormous. Between 1685 and 1760 the people of Liver- pool had increased tenfold, of Manchester fivefold, of Birmingham and Sheffield sevenfold.'* The total population of England had increased from the five millions or so of the Elizabethan period, to not much less than eight millions in Arthur Young's time,* and far more of these were in the northern portions of the country than was the case even in Defoe's time. Defoe said, in 1725, " the country south of the Trent is by far the largest, as well as the richest and most populous." ^ But forty or fifty years later the shifting towards the North had already made itself felt.^ The cause of the great increase of population between 1700 and 1760 is to be found in the rapid increase of national wealth gained by foreign commerce, and in the progress of home manufactures and of agriculture. These in turn led to a greater demand for labour, and, in consequence, to higher wages. Increased wealth and higher wages mean increased comfort in living, increased command of food, and consequently better chances of survival among children bom of poor parents.® Now, in this period the increase in national wealth was, in spite of foreign wars, enormous 'J for if England had to pay heavily for these wars, othey countries had to pay more heavily still, and were, moreover, No. 4. Cf. also Toynbee's chapter on Population in his Itidustrial Revolu- tion, pp. 32 to 38. 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolutixniy p. 35. 2/6., p. 35. 3 76., p. 35. * See the figures in Toynbee, Ind. Rev. , p. 36. ^ It was 7,428,000 in 1770, and 8,675,000 in 1790. Statistical Journal, xliii. 462. « Tour, iii. 57 (7th edn.). "^ See Toynbee's careful analysis, Indust. Rev. , p. 35. 8 Cf. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch, viii. (Vol. I. pp. 84, 85, Clarendon Press edn.), on " the liberal reward of labour." 334 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the battle-grounds of contending armies, while our own land was at least free from invasion. § 200. England still mainly Agricultural. Of the population of the country at this time the majority were still engaged in agriculture, and the agri- cultural labourers alone formed one-third of the working classes, while a large number even of the manufacturing classes still worked in the fields for a portion of the year, especially in harvest time.^ In 1770 England was still mainly an agricultural country, and Arthur Young estimates that the income of the agricultural portion of the nation was larger than that of all the rest of the community. But it must be remembered that by far the largest portion of this income was in the hands of the great landowners and the farmers, the share of the labourer being, of course, much smaller. Arthur Young's estimates must be taken with a certain amount of caution, but they are probably approxi- mately correct, and are certainly interesting as giving us a very fair idea of the distribution of occupations and national wealth just before the Industrial Revolution. Hence I append a small table, giving in round numbers the figures of his estimates.^ It will be noticed that the number of the population is rather too high, but the pro- portion of one class to another is probably correct. INCOMES OF VARIOUS CLASSES.* IN MILLION POUNDS. 5 ... ... Interest on capital 5 '•'1 ... Paupers 1*5 5 . . . Military and Official 5 5 ... Professions 5 1 > 1 . . . Commercial 10 27 1 ... Manufacturing 27 66 Agricul- tural 66 Total = £119,600,000. ^ Cf. above, p. 330. 2 Cf. Arthur Young, Northern Tour, iv. 543-547 (ed. 1770). ' The lines here are drawn to scale. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 335 POPULATION, IN MILLIONS. Paupers 5 Military and official -5 Professional '2 Commercial '7 Manufacturing 3 Apjicultural 3*6 Total =8,500,000. It will be perceived that the agriculturists, though only about half a million more in numbers than the manufactur- ing classes, had a fair larger proportionate income, in fact, more than double. This was of course partly due to the agricultural improvements of this period, and to the fact, that manufactures were still carried on almost solely by hand, thus giving only a small production from a good raany workmen. But the Industrial Revolution rapidly changed all this, a'nd now agriculture is no longer the staple industry of the country. We may* here refer to what has been previously mentioned in regard to the agricultural development on enclosed land, and to the superiority of the results of enclosures over those of the common fields.^ Those farmers and large owners who understood the best way of raising crops prospered, and more and more land was enclosed every year to grow corn (which, by the way, was rapidly rising in price), clover, turnips, and other root- crops. No less than 700 Enclosure Acts^ were passed between 1760 and 1774. Corn was becoming a more valuable crop owing to the increase of population, and now, for the first time in English history, it became necessary to import it.* The old common fields were beginning to disappear, and the working classes also lost their rights of pasturing cattle on the wastes, for wastes now were en- 1 Above, p. 276. 2 Cunningham, Growth of Inditstiy, ii. 476. ^ The period 1766 to 1773 is said to have been the time when our imports first began to exceed our exports (West, Price of Com (1826), p. 10), but Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, p. 88, says that it was not till 1793 that the imports finally out-balanced the exports. 336 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND closed.^ It must be admitted that the old common-field system produced very poor results,^ but the loss of his common rights was very disastrous to the labourer, for it drove him from the land at the same time as the growth of manufactures attracted him from it,^ and thus the labourer became in a few years completely divorced from the soil. At present attempts are being made to attract him back to it by offering him small strips of inferior land at a high rent.* This is known as the allotment system. It need scarcely be said that, as at present carried out, it is hardly likely to replace the almost universal allotments of previous times. § 201. The Domestic System of Manufacture But in the period we are now speaking of, the period before the great inventions, neither the agricultural labourer [nor the manufacturing operative was quite divorced from the land. The weavers, for instance, often lived in the country, in a cottage with some land attached to it.^ But in other respects there had certainly been changes in the industrial system before 1760. At first the weaver had furnished himself with warp and weft, worked it up, and brought it to the market himself;^ but by degrees this system grew too cumbersome, and the yarn was given out by merchants to the weaver, and at last the merchant got together a certain number of looms in a town or village, and worked them under his own supervision.^ But even yet the domestic system, as it is commonly called, retained ^ Toynbee, Industricd Eevolution, pp. 69, 101. ^ Above, p. 275. ' Or, when they did not attract him away, they took from him to a very great extent his bye-industries of spinning, &c. Of. Cunningham, Orowth of Industry, ii. 483. * The writer was much blamed for this remark when it was first made in 1890. But he cannot see any reason to alter it. Allotment-land is not usually the best in a parish, though labourers often get very good results from it; and the rents charged are certainly far in excess of those on farmers' land. For rents of allotments and results of labour, see the article by Bolton King, Statistics of some Midland VillageSy in the Economic Journal for March 1893. ^ " Manufactures were little concentrated in towns, and only partially separated from agriculture." Toynbee, IndtLst. Bev., p. 53. • Toynbee, u. s., p. 54. "^ lb. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 337 in many if not in most cases the distinctive feature that the manufacturing industry was not the only industry in which the artisan was engaged, but that he generally combined wTEEit a certain amount of agricultural work in the cultivation of his own small plot of land.^ This fact explains to some extent the comparative comfort of the operative in this cottage industry, for that they were fairly well off is the testimony of Adam Smith,^ in 1776. Com- mercial fluctuations were few, and the home market was steady, for manufacturers — which term meant both a master- manufacturer and an ordinary weaver — worked not so much for a comparatively unknown and vague *' market " as for some particular customer, or for some well-known local demand. Instead of the manufacturer going to the mer- chant, the latter often came to the manufacturer, as did the London merchants, who came down to the North- country manufacturers, paid them in cash, and took away their purchases themselves.^ On the other hand, however, we have the picture of the " grass farmers " near Leeds, as late as 1793, who used to buy the wool they worked, and go through the whole process of converting it into cloth, and go to market twice a week to sell it.* This is a good example of the combination of agriculture and manufactures under the domestic system. It is noticeable also that capital, though it existed in smaller amounts, was nevertheless in a larger number of hands.^ The poet's vision of " contentment spinning at the cottage door " was not altogether imaginary, for women and children, as we have seen, shared in the common task brought home by the head of the family. The enormous difference between the 1 This had been the case also in Elizabethan times, for § 23 of the Act 5 Eliz. , c. 4, shows that the weaving of linen and household cloth was often combined with agriculture. For cloth-weaving carried on in the mansions of the nobility and gentry, cf. Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 84. See also W. Radcliffe's interesting evidence in Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 337. 2 Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. viii. (Vol. I. p. 82, Clarendon Press edition). ' Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 55. * Young, Ann/ils of Agriculture, xxvii. 309. * Cf Toynbee, Indust. Revolution, p. 52. Y 338 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND old domestic system and the modem factory methods may be illustrated from the pottery manufacture by a quotation which certainly does not err in affording too bright a view of the former. " In the wilder districts of the moorlands a pot-work would be carried on by the joint exertions of a single man and his son or a labourer. The one dug the necessary clay, the other fashioned and lined the ware, whilst the mother or daughter, when the goods were ready, loaded the panniered asses and took her way to distant town and hamlet till her merchandise was sold. She then returned with shop-goods to the solitary pot- work.*' ^ This was the domestic system in its most elementary form, and is a curious contrast to the conditions which prevail in the present pottery factories of Staffordshire. But, even in this simple state of industry, trade was by no means so restricted and hampered as some writers have seemed to suppose. On the contrary, there was, in spite of bad roads,2 very frequent and considerable internal com- munication for manufacturing purposes, and this was facilitated by means of the local fairs and markets, the importance of which in those days cannot be easily over- rated. Manufacturers would ride a long way to buy wool from the farmers, or at the great fairs already mentioned, such as that of Stourbridge,^ which was suflficiently con- siderable even a hundred years ago, or those of Lynn, Boston, Gainsborough, and Beverley, all four of which were celebrated for their wool-sales.'* This wool was brought home and sorted, then sent out to the hand- combers,^ and on being returned combed was again sent ^ Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 170. 2 On the subject of roads there is somewhat conflicting evidence. Arthur Young constantly refers to the villainous character of the roads he tra- versed, at the very time when Henry Homer (in 1767) was praising the improved character of all means of communication [An Enquiry into the Means of Preserving the Puhlick Roads). The apparent discrepancy is probably due to the fact that there was no uniformity in the country, and some roads were much worse than others ; cf W. C. Sydney, England in the Eighteenth Century ^ ii. 1-43, and Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 374-378. 3 Above, p. 143. * Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 65. ^ Burnley, Wool and Woolcombing, p. 159, mentions how master wool- THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 339 out, often to long distances, to be spun. It was, for instance, sent from Yorkshire to Lancashire, and gangs of pack-horses laden with wool were always to be met plod- ding over the hills between these two counties.^ In the same way silk was sent from London to Kendal and back.^ When span, the tops, or fine wool, were entrusted to some shopkeeper to " put out " among the neighbours.^ Then the yarn was brought back and sorted by the manufacturer himself into hanks, according to the counts and twists. The hand-weavers would next come for their warp and weft, and in due time bring back the piece, which often was sent elsewhere to be dyed. Finally, the . finished cloth was sent to be sold at the fairs, or at the local " piece halls " of such central towns as Leeds or Halifax.* Hence it will be seen that there was a considerable diffusion^ of work "^^^r thfi old °y°^^rY^^ and it was not n'ecessary for great numbers of people to live close together, or to work in factories upon a large scale. Things were done with greater leisure, and more time was taken over them. It was possible, and it seemed even desirable, to regulate the industries of the country in a manner which now would /be regarded as both harmful and futile. For with the /industrial Revolution, English industry outgrew the "various regulations and conditions which had been previously placed upon it.^ The regulations, of apprenticeship, for instance, which were supposed to guarantee to some extent combers would buy wool from the staplers, and give it out to hand wool- combers for combing. 1 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers (Metcalfe and Telford), p. 31. 2 Young, Northern Tour, iii. 171, 173 (ed. 1770). ' So in Huntingdonshire in 1793, A. Young says, ** women and children may have constant employment in spinning yarn, which is put out by the generality of the country shopkeepers." Annals of Agriculture, xxi. 170 ; cf. also Radcliffe in Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 338. * Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 54. ^ *' In 1790 there were thirty cloth factories in Warminster, all busy and prosperous. They were not factories in the present sense, but, rather, clothing shops, in which only the finishing processes were effected, spin- ning, carding, warping, and loeaving being carried on in cottages over a large area in the towns and in the country villages, as fifty or sixty years before in farmhouses.'^ Daniell's History of Warminster (1879), p. 130. ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 258. > 340 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the skill and training of the individual workman, became obsolete, even in those trades to which they had been formerly applied, when the introduction of machinery caused the skill of the workman to become of less import- ance than the delicacy of the machine. The old conditions of industry merely hampered the new factory owners, and, therefore, were rapidly cast aside. An entirely new order of things arose. With the Industrial Revolution came all the hurry and stress of modern manufacturing life, and a complete change took place in the manner and methods of manufacture. And now, having seen how things stood immediately before this great change, we can proceed at once to the means by which it was brought about. CHAPTER XXI THE EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS § 202. The Suddenness of the Revolution and its Importance. The change, which has been briefly sketched in the pre- vious chapter, from the domestic system of industry to the modern system of production by machinery and steam power was sudden and violent. The great inventions were all made in a comparatively short space of time, and the previous slow growth of industry developed quickly into a feverish burst of manufacturing production that completely revolutionised the face of industrial England. In little more than twenty years all the great inventions of Watt, Ark- wright, and Boulton had been completed, steam had been applied to the new looms, and the modern factory system had fairly begun. Of course this system was not adopted by the country immediately or universally. , "^n some trades the old domestic system persisted longer than in others, and weaving by hand-looms, for instance, was still practised as late as the middle of the nineteenth century.^ But on the whole the transition was accomplished with comparative rapidity, and, as a consequence, the change in the industrial system brought great misery as well as great economic advantages. Nothing has done more to make England what she at present is — whether for better or worse — than this sudden and silent Industrial Revolution, for it increased her wealth tenfold, and gave her half a century's start in front of the nations of Europe. The French Revolution took place about the same time, and as it was performed ^ Writing in 1885, a Yorkshire author says, ** as recently as twenty-five i/O thirty years ago the manufacture of heavy woollen cloth was done by hand-weaving." Thomas lUingworth, Distribution Reform, p. 16. This, iiowever, was hardly general so late. 341 342 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND amid streams of blood and flame, it attracted the attention of historians, many of whom have apparently yet to learn that bloodshed and battles are merely the incidents of history. The French Eevolution also succeeded in giving birth to one of the world's military heroes, and a military hero naturally excites the enthusiasm of the multitude. Yet even the French Revolution was the result of economic causes that had been operating for centuries, and which had had their effect in England four hundred years before, at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. These economic causes have been rather kept in the background by most historians, who have preferred to dwell upon the antics of French politicians and revolutionaries, many of whom have gained a quite undeserved importance ; and it was hardly to be expected that writers should recognise the operation of such causes in England, more especially as their effects were not accentuated by political fireworks, but were even partially hidden by subsequent events resulting from these effects. Men were blinded, too, by an increase in the wealth of the richer portion of the nation, not even seeing whence that wealth proceeded, and quite ignoring the fact that it was accompanied by serious poverty among the industrial classes.^ Nor did historians perceive that the world- famous wars in which England was engaged at the close of the last century, and up to 1815, were necessitated by her endeavour to gain the commercial supremacy of the world,^ after she had invented the means of supplying the world's markets to overflowing. Economic causes were at the root of them all. We shall discuss later the connection between our foreign politics and our industry ; and we must not * This is recognised by Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 443, who remarks, ** while the gains of some of the owners of capital were sometimes enormous, the labourers were forced to a lower level of life." Cf. also Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 93. 2 Seeley, Expansion of England, ch. ii., only partially recognises this, though he is pre-eminent for his accurate view of the eighteenth century wars. But he attributes too much weight to colonial expansion, and not enough to industrial and mercantile influences. England was striving almost as much for a market as for colonial power. See Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 323, and the chapter (xv.) on colonial trade and markets and wars. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 343 forget that, besides this revolution in manufactures, there was one equally important in agriculture.^ But with this we must deal afterwards ; at present we must adhere to the subject of the development of industry by the great inventors. § 203. The Great Inventors, The transition from the domestic to the factory system was begun by four great inventions. In 1 7 7 James Hargreaves,^ a carpenter and weaver of Standhill, near Blackburn, patented the spinning-jenny, i.e. a frame with a number of spindles side by side, which were fed by machinery, and by which many threads might be spun at once, instead of only one, as had been the case in the old one-thread hand spinning-wheel.^ Hargreaves first used this "jenny" for some time in his own house, and was at once enabled to spin eight times as much yarn as before by using eight spindles ; but after- wards 16, then 20 and 30 were used, and even 120.* In 1771 Ark Wright^ established a successful mill at Cromford en the Derwent, in which he employed his patent spinning machine, or " water-frame," an improvement upon a former invention of Wyatt's, which derived its name from the fact that it was worked by water-power.^ A few years later (1779) both these inventions were superseded by that of Samuel Crompton, a spinner, but the son of a farmer near Bolton,^ who added domestic spinning and weaving to agri- culture. His machine, the " mule," combined and added to the principles of both the previous inventions, and was called by this name as being the hybrid offspring of its mechanical predecessors.^ It drew out the roving {i.e. the 1 Below, p. 430. * See Dictionary of National Biography (ed. Leslie Stephen) for a concise life. ' The jenny was invented about 1764, but not patented till 12th July 1770 : for a description see Baines, Hist. Cotton Manufacture, pp. 157-8. * Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 159. ° See Diet. National Biography (ed. Leslie Stephen). ^ Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 153, and description, pp. 151-153. He first tried horse-power, but it was too expensive. ^ Diet. Nat. Biography, xiii. 148. ® Baines, Cotton Manf. , p. 197. 344 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND raw material when it has received its first twist) by an adaptation of the water frame, and then passed it on to be finished and twisted into complete yarn by an adaptation of the spinning-jenny.^ This invention effected an enormous increase in production, for nowadays 12,000 spindles are often worked by it at once and by one spinner.^ It dates from the year 1779, and was so successful that by 1811 more than four and a half million spindles worked by " mules " were in use in various English factories.^ Like many inventors, Crompton died in poverty* in 1827. These three inventions, however, only increased the power of spinning the raw material into yarn. What was now wanted was a machine that would perform a similar service for weaving. This was discovered by Dr Edmund Cart- wright, a Kentish clergyman, and was patented as the "power-loom" in April 1785,^ though it had afterwards to undergo many improvements,^ and did not begin to be much used till 1813. But the principle of it was there, and it was one of the most important factors in the destruc- tion of the old domestic system. For at first only spinning was done by machinery, while the weavers could still do their work by hand in the old methods ; and, indeed, they con- tinued to do so till a comparatively recent period, and many aged people in Northern manufacturing districts can still remember the old weaving industry, as carried on in the workmen's own houses.'^ But the improvements on Cart- wright's invention ultimately did away with the hand- weaver, as the others had abolished the hand-spinner, and the old form of industry was doomed. Its death-blow, however, was yet to come. Wondrous as ^ Baines, Cotton Manufacture^ p. 198. * Bomance of Trade, p. 188. » /6., p. 189. * Diet. Nai. Biography, xiii. 160. 'Burnley, Wool and Woolcomhing, p. Ill; Baines, Cotton Manf.,22Q, 230 ; Diet. Nat. Biography, ix. 221. * Cartwright's own attempts to work his invention were unremunerative, and it was not till 1801 that mills were started at Glasgow, where it was worked successfully. Baines, Cotton Manufaeture, p. 231 ; Horrocks of SottthpoEt introduced further improvements in 1805 and 1813. Baines, u. s., pp. 234 and 235-237. ' Cf. previous note on page 341 above. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 345 were the changes introduced by the machines just spoken of, none of them would by themselves alone have revolu- tionised our manufacturing industries. Power of some kind was needed to work them, and water-power,^ though used at first, was insufficient, and not always available. It was the application of steam to manufacturing processes which finally completed the Industrial Eevolution. In 1769, the year in which Wellington and Bonaparte were born, James Watt took out his patent for the steam engine. ^ It was first used as an auxiliary in mining operations, but in 1785 it was introduced into factories, a Nottinghamshire cotton-spinner^ having one set up in his works at Papple- wick, which had previously been run only by water-power. Of course the enormous advantages of steam over water- power soon became apparent ; manufacturers, especially in the cotton trade, hastened to make use of the new methods, and in fifteen years (1788-1803) the cotton trade trebled itself.* It may be here remarked that most of the inventions and improvements were made first in the machinery used for making cotton cloth, and were only subsequently intro- duced into the woollen manufacture. Thus the spinning jenny, patented in 1770, was not used for woollen cloth- making till 1791 or a little later,^ though it seems that machinery was used in the woollen cloth trade for some of the preparatory processes, such as carding, and even spin- ning,^ about 1793. Moreover, in any trade, the introduc- tion of the new inventions was not either simultaneous or unanimous. Manufactures before the Industrial Revolution were, as we have seen, very widely diffused^ throughout the country, and consequently in some districts improve- ^ E.g. in Boulton's works at Soho ; Smiles, Lives of Bovlton and Watt, p. 130. Horses were even used. Ih. 2 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers {Bovlton and Watt), p. 98. ^ Toynbee, Industrial Eevolution, p. 90. * lb. * Spinning jennies were in use at Barnstaple and Ottery St Mary in 1791 (Young, Annals of Agriculture, xv. 494), also machinery at Kendal {ib., XV. 497). Benjamin Gott is said to have first introduced the jenny into the woollen manufacture at Leeds in 1800 ; BischoflF, Woollen Manufactures f i. 315. * Cf. Young, Annals of Agriculture, xxvii. 310. ' Above, page 338, 339. 346 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND ments were introduced which did not come into use m others till several years later.^ Nevertheless the great change proceeded on the whole with remarkable rapidity, and nowhere was it more noticeable than in the cotton trade. The manufacture of cotton cloth is comparatively modem in England, for it was probably not introduced until the early part of the seventeenth century,^ and some confusion is caused in people's minds because "cottons" are heard of before this date,^ But the " cottons " of earlier times were made entirely of wool,* and must have been only a weak imitation of real cotton cloth. In a work^ by Lewis Roberts, a well-known writer on trade, published in 1641, we read, however: "The town of Manchester in Lancashire must also be herein remembered, and worthily, for their encouragement commended ; . . . . for they buy cotton wool in London that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home work the same and perfect it into fustians, vermilions, dimities, and other stuffs, and then return it to London, where the same is vented and sold, and not seldom into foreign parts." Here we have probably the first notice of the making of real cotton cloth ; but even in this case only the weft was cotton thread, while the warp consisted of linen yam, principally imported from Germany and Ireland ; ^ for there was no machinery in use fine enough to weave cotton only, nor had English weavers the inherited skill of the Oriental workmen. Hence the cotton manufacture did not make much progress, and the amount of cotton wool imported annually at the beginning of the eighteenth century was only about a million pounds ; ^ while the entire ^ Cunningham also notes this : Growth of Industry y ii. 450. * See article Cotton in M'CuUoch's Commercial Dictionary^ ed. 1844, p. 430 ; also Baines, Cotton Manufacture, pp. 89-112. ' Defoe was thus misled into thinking the cotton manufacture earlier than the woollen ; Tour^ iii. 246. * This is proved by the Act 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 6 (1552), which was, *'for the true making of woollen cloth," and yet includes "the cloths called Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottons." 5 Treasure of Traffic (1641), p. 32. ' M'CuUoch's Commercial Dictionary, Cotton, p. 430. ^ lb.. Table, p. 432. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 347 value of all cotton goods manufactured in Great Britain at the accession of George III. (1760) was estimated at only £200,000 a year.^ But the progress of the Industrial Revolution in the cotton trade may be seen from the rapid increase of the import of raw cotton from this time onwards. From a little over one million pounds (weight) it rose rapidly to over four million in 1771-75, between six and eleven million from 1776-84*, to eighteen million pounds in 1785, and fifty-six million pounds at the begin- ning of this century (1800).^ § 204. The Revolution in Manufactures and the Factories. But although the Industrial Revolution was at fi rat most marked in the manufacture of. cgtton, it rapidly extended to that of woollen and linen fabrics. It is impossible here, as well as unnecessary, to describe all the various modifica- tions and adaptations that were made in the various machines ; we can only refer to the general features of the great change. The most remarkable of these was the su dden gT(m ili.i)f factories, chiefly, of course, at first for spinning cotton or woollen yarn. The old factories had perforce been planted by the side of some running stream, often in a lonely and deserted spot, very inconvenient for markets and the procuring of labour ; but necessarily so placed for the sake of the water.^ Hence at first there was no reason to concentrate large numbers of mill-hands in towns, as is necessary now. Those of my readers who know Yorkshire or Lancashire fairly well, may remember how frequently, in the course of some long country walk near Bradford, Halifax, Leeds, or Manchester, they come upon the ruins of some old mill, crumbling beside a rushing stream, a silent relic of the old days before the use of steam. How wonderful must the first rude inventions have seemed to the workers in those old factories, as the strange new machinery rattled and shook in the quiet country ^ Estimated by Dr Percival, of Manchester ; M'CuUoch, w. s., p. 430. * Tables in M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, p. 432 (ed. 1844). * Above, p. 345 ; cf. Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 85. 348 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND hollows, and the becks and streamlets ran down to turn the new spindles and looms that were to revolutionise the face of agricultural England. But the old water-mills gave way to others worked by steam power, and now it was no longer necessary to choose any particular site for the works, if only plenty of coal was available. So the new race of manufac- turers made haste to run up steam-factories wherever they could. " Old barns and cart-houses," says Kadcliffe,^ who wrote on the new manufactures, " outbuildings of all de- scriptions were repaired ; windows broke through the old blank walls, and all were fitted up for loom-shops ; new weavers* cottages arose in every direction." The merchants, too, who did not run factories on their own account, but merely purchased yarn, began to collect weavers around them in great numbers, to get looms together in a work- shop, and to give out warp themselves to the workpeople. ^ And now the workers began to feel the difference between the old system and the new. Formerly they often used to buy for themselves the yarn they were to weave, and had a direct interest in the cloth they made from it, which was their own property. They were, in fact, economically inde- pendent. The new system made them dependent upon the merchant or upon the mill-owner. ^ At first, it is true, they gained a rise in wages, for the increase in production was so great that labour was continually in demand, and every family, says Radcliffe,* brought home forty to one hundred and twenty shillings per week. But this did not last very long.^ The new machinery soon threw out of employment a number of those who had worked only by hand ; it enabled women and children to do the work of 1 Quoted by Baines, Cotton Manufacture, pp. 338, 339. W. RadclifFe's book is entitled, "The Origin of the New System of Manufacture, com- monly called ' Power Loom Weaving,' and the purposes for which this system was invented and brought into use fully explained in a Narrative." It was published in 1828. 2 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 91. ^ Ih. " The system meant a change from independence to dependence " col Economy. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 383 sexes were collected together in huge buildings, under no i moral control, with no arrangements for the preservation of \ health, comfort, or decency.^ The enormous extension of trade rendered extra work necessary, and the mills ran all night long as well as by day. There was as yet no legisla- tion as to the hours or conditions of work. The machines made " to shorten labour " resulted in many cases in vastly extending it ; while in others again they took away all the \ means of livelihood from the old class of hand-workers with \ terrible and surprising suddenness. § 22g? Machinery and Hand Labour. The substitution of machinery for hand labour progressed, however, with considerable irregularity. In some cases it took place very rapidly, and caused great distress ; in others it came more slowly and with less misery to the worker. In the hand wool-combing industry, machinery was introduced very slowly, and it was contended that a machine could never accomplish this branch of manufacture with the excellence achieved by manual effort. It was not till 1840 that the wool-combing machine seriously threat- ened the hand-comber, and even then many believed it would never supplant him.^ But this was an exceptional case ; in most branches of manufacture machinery was introduced very quickly, and the workmen bitterly resented its introduction. It was useless for economists to point out , the ultimate advantages it would confer upon labour ; the ^ workman only saw that it threw him out of employment or lessened his wages. From his own point of view he was undoubtedly right. The advantages so praised by economists could not accrue to him immediately, and it was but a poor consolation to reflect that the next genera- tion would reap them, while his own pocket was empty and his cottage bare. Hence came that fierce, but natural, revolt against the new order of things, which found expres- sion in riots and outrage. The labourers sought to destroy ^ Taylor, Modem Factory System, pp. 88 (immorality), 169 (insanitary conditions). 2 Burnley, Wool and Woolcomhing, p. 166. 384 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the new machinery ; and the struggle of what were called " the iron men," against human beings of flesh and blood, long continued to be a source of controversy and complaint, more especially as the workmen saw that the profits ^ made by these iron men went almost entirely into the hands of their masters. In 1812 occurred the Luddite Riots, when much machinery was destroyed in Nottingham and the Midland counties; in 1816 they broke out again, and in 1826 there were riots in Lancashire to destroy the power looms. 2 Besides these there were numerous other acts of violence committed at various times in other parts of the country. But it is a remarkable fact that the greatest of the various riots that occurred at the beginning of this century had a political rather than industrial origin. The agitation for the Reform Bill produced far more violence than the introduction of machinery. The reasons for this are easily perceived; for machines were not introduced I simultaneously in all trades, or in all parts of the country ,3 ! and therefore the introduction of single machines here and i there only affected a small portion of the working-classes at any given time ; whereas the political issues involved in the question of Reform were brought before the country as a whole, and at the same period, and affected everybody equally. Perhaps, also, the half-unconscious good sense, which has at various times been visible among the working classes, led them to perceive that in the end they would gain far more by the acquisition of political power than by the destruction of industrial improvements. This substitution of machinery for manual labour pro- ceeded, as has been noted in wool-combing,* with somewhat unequal steps. It occurred far more rapidly and more markedly in spinning than in weaving ; and, even in spin- ning, the cotton manufacture was affected sooner than the woollen.^ In framework knitting the application of steam- ^ Even Porter (in his Progress of the Nation, iii. 3) remarks how great is the " inequality in the division among the people of the produce of the national industry " ; though he tries to take the most favourable view of the case. 2 qj-^ Taylor, Modern Factory System, pp. 157-158. 3 Cf. above, p. 341, note. * Above, p. 383. *^ Of' generally, Taylor, Modem Factory System, pp. 81, 82. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 385 power was long delayed by the great cheapness of labour in that trade, owing to which manufacturers were slow to adopt machinery worked by steam, since it seemed to them that they could not thereby make more profit than they did already.^ On a general survey of the manufac- turers of the country, we may, in fact, say that machinery was used in all branches for spinning ^ by the earlier part of the century, but not for weaving, and it was not till between 1830 and 1840 that the use of weaving machines seriously threatened the hand-looms.^ The factory system, however, had from the first an indirect influence over the weaver, because the new spinning machines supplied yam so quickly that weavers no longer used the yarn spun by their wives and children, but bought it from the factories. Hence there was a tendency for them to collect round the new mills,* where yam was so readily obtainable, although they did not actually work in them. § 221. Loss of Rural Life and of By e- Industries. Thus from the first there was that tendency towards con- j centration of population which is so marked a feature of j the Industrial Revolution. This implied also two other ^ changes, both of the utmost importance to the working classes. In the first place their life lost that rural char-s acter^ which had distinguished the domestic system of' industry when the weaver worked in his cottage in some village or country town, and varied his manufacturing work with rural occupations. Now he had to live close by the factory, where he and his family worked all day long amid iron machines and stone walls, and the garden and allot- ment were things of the past. The freedom and indepen- dence, too, of the old life were gone, and the sound of the factory bell and the rigidity of the factory hours now formed an unpleasant contrast, which the workers at first ^ Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 620. 2 Reports, 1833, xx. 336. 3 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 635 ; Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 81. * Reports, Miscellaneous, 1806, iii. 577. ^ Above, p. 327. 2 B 386 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND greatly disliked.^ Restraint and regularity were the features of the new system, and though they are undoubtedly con- ducive to increased work, they are not always relished by the workman. That is, however, perhaps only a minor point. The second great effect of the concentration of population under the factory system was the loss of bye- employments. We have seen already how important these were ^ in increasing wages ; but now they were quite cut off. Spinning had been practised by the female members of almost every household, whether the family was engaged in agriculture or manufactures ; but now the agriculturist could no longer find a buyer for his homespun yarn, and the weaver no longer used the produce of his wife's spinning wheel, but bought it from the factory. Conversely the manufacturing artisan no longer went out into the fields for a little harvest work or supplemented his earnings at the loom by the produce of his leisure time in his allotment. .The artisan was now confined strictly to the factory, and ^the agriculturist strictly to the fields.^ There was no over- lapping of employments; the hum of the spinning-wheel grew silent in the cottage, and the weaver no longer breathed the fresh scents of hay and harvest in the country air. The village lost the artisan, and the artisan lost the village, while the workers both of country and of town lost a very real addition to their wages. Their earnings were now only what they actually brought home in money from the mill or farm, and the useful supplements which they had formerly been able to gain by other work no longer helped to fill the family purse. In more ways than one it was a very real loss, and as even money wages were decreasing,* their lot under the new system could not seem to them particularly bright. It is not, therefore, surprising that men showed their discontent by resisting the introduction of new machines. ^ At Ipswich especially, there was a great dislike to factory work ; Reports (1840), xxiii. 196. 2 Above, pp. 328-330. ^ Cf. also Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 92. * From 1811 to 1842 wages declined, it is said, about 35 per cent. ; cf. Reports, 18 to, xv. 51 (Muggeridge's figures). See also Porter, Progress of the, Nation, ii. 252, Tables, where spinners, weavers, and labourers show a marked decrease in wages. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 387 § 222. Contemporary Evidence of the New Order of Things. A very good idea of the effects of the introduction of the factory system upon the operatives may be formed from a re- solution unanimously adopted, after some riots similar to those referred to above, by the magistrates at the quarter sessions of Preston, in Lancashire, and dated November 11th, 1779, wherein it was resolved : " That the sole cause of great riots was the new machines employed in the cotton manufacture : that the county [i.e. the manufacturers] had greatly bene- fited by their erection, and that the destroying them in one county only led to their erection in another ; and that if a total stop were put by the legislature to their erection in Britain it would only tend to their establishment in foreign countries, to the detriment of the trade in Britain." ^ But- better than the cold words of a formal resolution is the description of the country round Manchester, published in 1795 by Dr Aikin.^ He points out what we have already referred to, that *' the sudden invention and improvement of machines to shorten labour have had a surprising influ- ence to extend our trade, and also to call in hands from all parts, particularly children for the cotton mills." He say^ that domestic life is seriously endangered by the extensive employment of women and girls in the mills, for they had become ignorant of all household duties. " The females are wholly uninstructed in knitting, sewing, and other \ domestic affairs requisite to make them frugal wives and ' mothers. This is a very great misfortune to them and to the public, as is sadly proved by a comparison of the labourers in husbandry, and those of manufacturers in general. In the former we meet with neatness, cleanliness, and comfort ; in the latter with filth, rags, and poverty." He also mentions the great prevalence of fevers among employes in cotton mills, consequent upon the utterly in- sanitary conditions under which they laboured. But ^ Quoted in The History of the Factory Movement, i. 11, by *' Alfred" (Samuel Kydd). ^ The full title is A Description of the Country from 30 to 40 miles round Manchester. John Aikin, M.D. (1747-1822), was a brother of Mrs Barbauld. 388 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND nowhere were the evils which accompanied the sudden growth of wealth and of industry so marked as in the case of those miserable beings who were brought to labour in the new mills under the apprentice system. Their life was literally and without exaggeration simply that of slaves. § 223. English Slavery. The A^r entice System. When factories were first built there was a strong re- pugnance on the part of parents who had been accustomed to the old family life under the domestic system to send their children into these places. It was, in fact, considered a disgrace so to do : the epithet of " factory girl " was the most insulting that could be applied to a young woman, and girls who had once been in a factory could rarely find employment elsewhere.^ Perhaps this was due to the shocking immorality (especially of the masters) in the early factories. 2 It was not until the wages of the workman had been reduced to a starvation level that they consented to their children and wives being employed in the mills. But the manufacturers wanted labour by some means or other, and they got it from the workhouses. They sent for parish apprentices from all parts of England, and pretended to apprentice them to the new employments just introduced.^ The miUowners systematically communicated with the overseers of the poor, who arranged a day for the inspection of pauper children. Those chosen by the manu- facturer were then conveyed by waggons or canal boats to their destination,* and from that moment were doomed to slavery. Sometimes regular traffickers would take the place of the manufacturer, and transfer a number of children to a factory district, and there keep them, gener- ally in some dark cellar, till they could hand them over to a millowner in want of hands,^ who would come and examine their height, strength, and bodily capacities, ^ History of the Factory Movement, i. 16. ^ Cf. Gaskell, The Manufacturing Population of Englaiid, ch. iv. '^ The Heads of the Bill permitting this (1796) are given in the History of the Factory Movement, i. 4, 5. *Ih.,\. 17. '^/t., p. 17. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 389 exactly as did the slave-dealers in the American markets. After that the children were simply at the mercy of their owners, nominally as apprentices, but in reality as mere slaves, who got no wages, and whom it was not worth while even to feed or clothe properly, because they were so cheap, and their places could be so easily supplied. It was often arranged by the parish authorities, in order to get rid of imbeciles, that one idiot should be taken by the millowner with every twenty sane children.^ The fate of these un- happy idiots was even worse than that of the others. The secret of their final end has never been disclosed, but we can form some idea of their awful sufferings from the hard- ships of the other victims to capitalist greed and cruelty. Their treatment was most inhuman. The hours of their » labour were limited only by exhaustion, after many modes A of torture 2 had been unavailingly applied to force con- tinued work. Illness was no excuse : no child was accounted ill till it was positively impossible to force him or her to continue to labour, in spite of all the cruelty which the ingenuity of a tormentor could suggest.^ Children were often worked sixteen hours a day, by day and by night.* Even Sunday was used as a convenient time to clean the machinery.^ The author of The History of the Factory Movement writes : " In stench, in heated rooms, amid the constant whirling of a thousand wheels, little fingers and little feet were kept in ceaseless action, forced into unnatural activity by blows from the heavy hands and feet of the merciless overlooker, and the infliction of bodily pain by instruments of punishment, invented by the sharp- ened ingenuity of insatiable selfishness." ^ They were fed upon the coarsest and cheapest food, often with the same as that served out to the pigs of their master.^ They slept by * History of the Factory Movement, i. pp. 17, 43. ^ For ghastly examples see the Memoirs of Robert Blincoe, or, more con- veniently, Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 192. ^ Ih. "■ Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 21 ; and Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 196. s Alfred, i. 21. * Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 21, 22. ' Memoirs of Blincoe, quoted by Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 23 ; also corroborated by other evidence, i. 25. 390 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND turns and in relays, in filthy beds which were never cool ; for one set of children were sent to sleep in them as soon as the others had gone off to their daily or nightly toil. There was often no discrimination of sexes ; and disease, misery, and vice grew as in a hotbed of contagion. Some of these miserable beings tried to run away. To prevent their doing so, those suspected of this tendency had irons riveted on their ankles, with long links reaching up to the hips, and were compelled to work and sleep in these chains, young women and girls,^ as well . as boys, suffering this brutal treatment. Many died, and were buried secretly at night in some desolate spot, lest people should notice the number of the graves ; and many committed suicide.^ The catalogue of cruelty and misery is too long to recite here ; it may be read in the Memoirs of Robert Blincoe,^ himself an apprentice, or in the pages of the Blue-books of the beginning of this century, in which even the methodical and dry language of oflScial documents is startled into life by the misery it has to relate. It is perhaps not well for me to say more about the subject, for one dares not trust oneself to try and set down calmly all that might be told about this awful page in the history of industrial England. I need only remark, that during this period of unheeded and ghastly suffering in the mills of our native land, the British philanthropist was occupying himself with agitating for the relief of the woes of negro slaves in other countries. He, of course, succeeded in raising the usual amount of sentiment, and perhaps more than the usual amount of money, on behalf of an inferior and barbaric race, who have repaid him by relapsing into a contented indolence and a scarcely concealed savagery which have gone far to ruin our * Cf. Alfred, History, i. 17 ; Taylor, Modem Factory System, p. 198 ; cf. also evidence of J. Paterson, overseer, Dundee, before the Sadler Com- mittee, 1832. - Blincoe, quoted in Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, i. 23. ^ lb., i. 24, 25. No inquests were ever held. * These first appeared in Vol. I. of a periodical called The Lion, pub- lished by Richard Carlile, 62 Fleet Street, London, but afterwards issued separately. I have seen a separate copy in the Manchester Free Library ; cf. also No. 21 of The Poor Man's Advocate (Manchester, June 9, 1832) ; there are copious extracts in Taylor and Alfred, u. s. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 391 possessions in the West Indies. The spectacle of England buying the freedom of black slaves by riches drawn from the labour of her white ones, affords an interesting study for the cynical philosopher. All this time the friends of the negro were harrowing the feelings of the inhabitants of the country in which these daily and nightly cruelties were perpetrated with tales of the sufferings of the unfortunate black men. No notice was taken of the horrors going on under the very eyes of the agitators, till at length the miseries of the factories began to avenge themselves upon a callous population in the shape of malignant fevers, bred from the horribly insanitary conditions of the mills in which these wretched creatures worked. ,«^ § 224. The Beginning of the Factory Agitation. The state of things in factories where large numbers of apprentices were employed became, in fact, so bad that at last something had to be done. In 1802 an Act^ was passed, by the influence of the first Sir Robert Peel, " for the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others employed in cotton and other mills." It is a signifi- cant fact that the immediate cause of this bill was the fear- ful spread through the factory districts of Manchester of epidemic disease, owing to the overwork, scanty food, wretched clothing, long hours, bad ventilation, and over- crowding in unhealthy dwellings of the workpeople, especi- ally the children. 2 The hours of work were ' reduced ' to only twelve per day. This Act, however, did not apply to children residing near the factory where they were employed, for they were supposed to be "under the supervision of their parents." The result was that, although the appren- tice system was discontinued, other children came to work in the mills, and were treated almost as brutally,^ though for- tunately they were not entirely in the hands of their master. But the evils of this system of child labour were very great. 1 Act 42 Geo. III., c. 73. ^ Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 27. 3 /&., i. ch. iv., and pp. 53, 79, 183, 278-306, ii. 10. 392 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND During the whole of the period of 1800 to 1820, and even to 1840, the results of their sufferings were seen in the early deaths of many of the children, and in the crippled and distorted forms of the majority of those who survived.^ On the women and grown-up girls the effects of long hours and wearisome work were equally disastrous.^ A curious inversion of the proper order of things was seen in the domestic economy of the victims of this cheap labour system, for women and girls were superseding men in manufacturing labour, and, in consequence, their husbands had often to attend, in a shiftless, slovenly fashion, to those household duties which mothers and daughters hard at work in the factories were unable to fulfil.^ Worse still, mothers and fathers in some cases lived upon the killing labour of their little children, by letting them out to hire to manufacturers, who found them cheaper than their parents. In fact there was, as one investigator expressed it, "a conspiracy insen- sibly formed between the masters and the parents to tax them with a degree of toil beyond their strength." * § 225. Efforts towards Factory Reform, Meantime, however, the Act of 1802 seems to have become, even as regards apprentices, a dead letter. White slaves could be bought and sold in England with as much impunity as in the West Indies, — in fact, with more, for K by 1815, Wilberforce's wishes as regards trading in slaves had long since become law. The fact that such sales took place is attested by the debate in the Commons, on June 6th, 1815, introduced by Sir Robert Peel, in which one speaker (Horner) described the sending away of children to distant parishes, and gave an instance in which, " with a bankrupt's effects, a gang of these children had been put 1 Of. evidence quoted in Alfred, u. «., i. 190, 287, 260, ii. 9. 2 Cf. evidence in Alfred, u. s., i. 181, 300. * Cf. facts quoted by Engels, Condition of the Working Claaaea in 1844 (English edition, 1892), pp. 144, 145. * Assistant Commissioner Power, in the famous 1833 Report. Reports^ 1833, XX. 604 ; also, cf. Oastler's speech quoted in Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 228, and Sadler's speech, p. 158. XVE THE FACTORY SYSTEM 393 up to sale, and advertised publicly as part of the property.^ A still more atrocious instance," he continued, " had been brought before the court of King's Bench two years ago, when a number of these boys, apprenticed by a parish in London to one manufacturer, had been transferred [i.e. sold] to another, and had been found by some benevolent persons in a state of absolute famine." ^ Facts like these, even though negroes were not concerned, could no longer be blinked, and at length, in 1816, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to take evidence upon the state of children employed in the manufactories of the Uuited Kingdom. Terrible evidence of overwork was given before this Committee,^ but the grasp of Mammon was cruel and relentless ; and now that social reformers were in earnest, the inevitable opposition of capitalistic greed rose up in all its power to block the path of humanity. The surest block was the barrier of delay. Further Com- missions were asked for by the opponents of factory reform ; the same kind of evidence as before was repeated in 1819 before a Committee of the Lords ; * and when at last very shame demanded that something should be done, the ineffectual Act, 59 George III., c. 66, was passed.^ This Act, when originally introduced, was meant to apply to all factories, but it was afterwards limited only to cotton factories, so that it had only a very partial effect, and was even then frequently evaded.^ And in any case the worsted and woollen mills were not even touched. § 226. Richard Oastler, So things went on again as badly as ever for year after year, and manufacturers grew rich, while children and * Quoted in Alfred's (Samuel Kydd) History of the Factory Movement, i. 43. ^Ib.,i.4S. * For the nature of the evidence, cf. History of tJie Factory Movement, Vol. L,ch. iv. 4 76., i 77. ^ R. W. Cooke-Taylor in The Factory System and the Factory Acts (1894) remarks, p. 61, "It was generally ignored or evaded." * It provided (1) nine years to be limit of age for child employment. (2) Twelve hours' day for those under sixteen years. (3) Time to be allowed for meals. (4) Ceilings and walls to be washed with quicklime twice a year. 394 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND young people of both sexes were beaten and overworked to make their profits ; and philanthropists riding home late at night from heated meetings, after discussing the wrongs of the black slaves, looked with cheerful and ignorant complacency at the great factory windows blazing with light, and accepted them as signs of prosperity, little heeding or little knowing the misery and cruelty that pre- vailed within their walls. It was, however, one of these friends of the negro, and one who had often had such a midnight ride, who was suddenly aroused to the fact that actual slavery in the most literal sense was going on in England while he was agitating for its abolition abroad. ^Richard Oastler ^ was the man whose eyes were thus opened, a Yorkshireman by birth, and one well acquainted with the industries of the busy West Riding. He was once in 1830 staying at the house of a friend who lived at Horton Hall, near Bradford, and who was a large manufacturer. As Oastler was talking to him one night about his slavery reforms, his friend John Wood remarked to him : ^ " I wonder you have never turned your attention to the factory system." — " Why should IV replied the young abolitionist, " I have nothing to do with factories." — " Perhaps not," was the answer, " but you are very enthusiastic against slavery in the West Indies, and I assure you that there are cruelties daily practised in our mills on little children, which I am sure if you knew you would try to prevent" And then he went on to describe to his astonished hearer the horrors of the factories. Even in his own mill Wood confessed that little children were worked from six in the morning till seven at night, with a break of only forty minutes, while in many other mills no rest at all was allowed ; and that various cruel devices were employed to goad them on to ^ He was bom in 1789, and had succeeded his father as steward to Mr Thornhill on his Yorkshire estates, living at Fixby Hall, near Hudders- field. It is curious that no proper biography of him exists. In Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy, however, I have given a short summary of the main facts of his life ; cf. also Taylor's Biographia Leodiensia, pp. 499-503 ; Hodder's Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, i. 214-216, 304; ii. 189. 211 ; iii. 249; and "Alfred's" History of the Factory Movement,, passim. Oastler died in 1861. 2 See the conversation in Alfred's History, i. 95-97. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 395 renewed labour. They were fined, beaten with sticks and straps and whips ; and the girls were also often subjected to shocking indecencies.^ § 227. Factory Agitation in Yorkshire, For and Against. Oastler, when once he saw what was going on about him in his own country, made no delay in entering upon a war- fare that was to last for many a weary year, and bring many a trial and disaster. The very next day ^ he wrote a long letter to the great Yorkshire daily paper, the Leeds Mercury, in which he took for his text the old, foolish, and utterly untrue statement, " It is the pride of Britain that a slave cannot exist on her soil," and proved very conclusively that slavery could and did exist in a most dreadful form. He pointed out that thousands of children, both male and female, from six to fourteen years of age, and chiefly girls, were compelled to labour thirteen to sixteen hours a day, under the lash of an overseer, in the mills of Bradford, Morpeth, Halifax, Huddersfield, and many other northern towns. This sudden revelation of English slavery created a remarkable sensation, but, of course, called forth a very powerful opposition. The simplest thing was to deny the existence of any such evils, and denials accordingly became remarkably frequent. A keen newspaper correspondence arose, chiefly in the columns of the Leeds Mercury; and from this controversy Oastler emerged triumphant, with all his facts proved over and over again, while confirmation of his statements began to pour in from every part of Yorkshire. Before a month had passed, a meeting of the worsted spinners of Bradford was called by some of the principal firms in that town (November 22nd), in order to promote legislation on the subject, and a petition was drawn up to be forwarded to Parliament. A similar agitation now arose in Lancashire, and a bill was laid before the Commons by Lord Morpeth to reduce the hours of labour and raise the limit of age for work in mills. ^ Hope seemed to be dawn- ^ See the conversation in Alfred's History, i. 96. 2 Cf. The Leeds Mercury : Oastler's letter is dated September 29th, 1830. ^ For all the above, see Alfred's History, i. 104-107. 396 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND ing for the children of the factories, when suddenly the manufacturers of Halifax and district struck the first note of opposition in a counter petition.^ They set forth the " unimpeachable character for humanity and kindness " possessed by manufacturers as a class ; the impossibility of making profits if hours were reduced ; the overpowering force of foreign competition (almost non-existent then as compared with to-day) ; the general hardships of a manu- facturer's lot, owing to taxation and other difficulties ; and finally, " the pernicious tendency of all legislative enact- ments upon, trade and manufactures," or, in other words, the necessity of following the golden rule of laissez faire. I have quoted the arguments of this petition because they are in brief a summary of the arguments which were then employed, are now employed, and probably always will be employed against any interference between master and man. In this case the law had only been invoked to step in between master and child ; but that mattered little ; the "liberty of the subject" and "freedom of contract" were questions too sacred to be trifled with. It was indeed soon seen that these arguments of the millowners and their friends were by no means lacking in cogency, for the pro- posed legislation upon the working of factories was modified to such an extent as to make it almost useless, and, in any case, the measure was to be applied to cotton mills only.^ Oastler felt that the day was lost, and said as much in a public letter to the Leeds Intelligencer of October 20, 1831, a letter which shows cruel disappointment of heart, indeed, but yet is as full as ever of fire and hope for the future.^ Incidentally it is curious to note, from a passage in this letter, that the Factory Reformers of that day were accused of being opposed to the abolition of negro slavery, and were said to be getting up a factory agitation "in order to turn the attention of the nation away from West Indian slavery." * But in spite of calumny, prejudice, and 1 Alfred, History, i. 109 sqq. 2 So the 1 and 2 William IV., c. 39 ; and cf. Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acta, p. 63. ' See it almost in full in Alfred's History^ i. 118. * lb., i. 119. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 397 the savage opposition of vested interests, the words of Richard Oastler rang forth undauntedly to the working classes of Yorkshire : " Let no promises of support from any quarter sink you to inactivity. Consider that you must manage this cause yourselves. Collect information and publish facts. Let your politics be : Ten hours a day, and a time book." ^ § 228. Ten Hours' Day and Mr Sadler. At this time Oastler was living at Fixby Hall, Hudders- field, and from his position as a Tory and a Churchman, as he describes himself, could not at first see his way to working actively among the mill hands, who were mostly " Radicals and Dissenters." But now he saw that no barriers of class, or creed, or politics could be allowed to interfere in this cause, and from henceforth decided to throw in his lot with the factory workers, come what might. He was assisted, from the political side, by men like J. Hobhouse and M. T. Sadler, both Members of Parliament, warmly attached to his cause, and it was decided that Sadler should lead the question in the House of Commons. It would be tedious to go through all the phases of the great Ten Hours' Agitation in and out of Parliament,^ and therefore it must suflSce to mention that Sadler at length introduced a Ten Hours' Bill into the Commons late in 1831, and moved its second reading in March 1832, in. a speech^ of eminent moderation and judgment, i He pointed out the existence of child- slavery in England, and the causes of it, mainly in the poverty, but partly in the inducements to laziness, of the parents. } Many parents were unable to get work them- selves, and thus were compelled to hire out their children to the brutalities and hardships of factory work. Some parents, demoralised by the old Poor Law, selfish and brutalised by custom, purchased idleness for themselves at the cost of their children's health and strength. In some * Alfred's History, i. 122. ^ See Alfred's History , i. 125 sqq. ^ Of. Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts (1894), p. 64. The speech io given in full in Alfred's History, i. 151 ^qq. 398 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND districts, so great was the demand for children's labour, that an indispensable condition of marriage among the working classes was the certainty of offspring,^ whose wages — begin- ning at six years old — might keep their inhuman fathers and mothers in idleness. Well might Sadler exclaim : ^ " Our ancestors could not have supposed it possible — posterity will not believe it true — that a generation of Englishmen could exist, or had existed, that would work lisping infancy of a few summers old, regardless alike of its smiles or tears, and unmoved by its unresisting weakness, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen hours a day, and through the weary night also, till, in the dewy morn of existence, the bud of youth was faded and fell ere it was unfolded." But, to our eternal disgrace as a nation, that generation of Englishmen existed, and Mr Sadler told the House, detail by detail, of the evils and outrages of the whole abominable system. Excessive hours, low wages, immorality, ill-health, — all were enumerated, and then he continued : " Then, in order to keep them awake, to stimulate their exertions, means are made use of to which I shall now advert, as a last instance of the degradation to which this system has reduced the manufacturing operatives of this country. Children are beaten with thongs, prepared for the purpose. Yes, the females of this country, no matter whether children or grown up — and I hardly know which is the more dis- gusting outrage — are beaten, beaten in your free market of labour as you term it, like slaves. The poor wretch is flogged before its companions — flogged, I say, like a dog, by the tyrant overlooker. We speak with execration of the cartwhip of the West Indies, but let us see this night an equal feeling rise against the factory thong in England." * § 229. The Evidence of Facts. Of course, it is needless to say that such an equal feeling did not arise, not, that is, with anything like the cry of horror that arose over negro slavery. The hours of black slaves' labour in our colonies were at that very time carefully » Alfred's History, i. 158. « Ih., i. 161. *Ib.,i. 183. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 399 limited by law^ to nine per day for adults, and six for young persons and children, while night work was simply prohibited. But for white slaves no limit was to be fixed, nor was the arm of the law to interfere. Though Sadler's bill was read a second time, and was referred to a com- mittee, nothing much was done. But the evidence given before this committee at length produced some effect. Oastler's tactics of publishing the facts had now been taken up unwittingly by Parliament itself, and the facts given before Sadler's committee^ were terrible enough to cause a shudder of shame to run through the country. Yet, after all, the shame was only felt by a minority ; the nation, as a whole, was not yet touched. And very soon Mr Sadler lost his seat ^ in the House of Commons, in the election after the great Reform Bill of 1832, and the factory hands were thus left without a Parliamentary advocate of any influence. But now a new leader appeared in the person of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl Shaftesbury, who undertook to bring forward once more the Ten Hours' Bill. Lord Ashley's life may be read elsewhere,* but we may pause to look, though only for a moment, at the revelations of slavery brought to light by the Sadler Committee.^ In the first place the Committee received the satisfactory assurance from one witness that the youngest age at which children were employed was never under five.^ But from five years onwards it was the custom to employ them, from about five o'clock in the morning till as late as ten o'clock at night,^ during the whole of which time they were on their feet, with a short interval for dinner.^ The children were generally cruelly treated, so cruelly that they dare not, for their lives, be too late at their work in a morning.^ One witness stated that he had seen children, whose work it was to throw a bunch of ten or twelve cordings across their hand and take them off, one at a time, so weary as 1 By the Orders in Council of November 2, 1831. 2 Cf. Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts, p. 65. * Ih., p. 65. ^ See the excellent Life, in 3 vols. , by Mr Hodder. ^ See ch. xii. of Alfred's History, Vol. I. «/6. i. 275. 7/^.1.276. * Ih. i. 277 (quotation from evidence). ^ Ih. \. 278. 400 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND not to know whether they were at work or not, and going through the mechanical actions without anything in their hands. ^ When they made mistakes in this state of fatigue they were severely beaten by the spinner whom they helped or by the overlooker. Several cases of deaths, through such beating and blows, were given in evidence. "The children were incapable of performing their day's labour well towards the end of the day ; their fate was to be awoke by being beaten, and to be kept awake by the same method." 2 "At a mill in Duntruin," continued the same man, who gave this evidence,^ "they were kept on the premises by being locked up while at work, they were locked up in the bothies (sleeping-huts) at night ; they were guarded to their work and guarded back again. There was one bothy for the boys, but that did not hold them all, so there were some of them put into the other bothy along with the girls." Sometimes the elder children tried to escape from such miserable and degraded surround- ings. When caught, as they generally were, they were inhumanly flogged, or sent to gaol for breaking their contracts.* A case is given of a young woman who was thus put in prison for a year, " brought back after a twelve- month and worked for her meat ; and she had to pay the expeTises that were incurred. So she worked two years for nothing, to indemnify her master for the loss of her time." ^ § 230. English Slavery. Here, again, is the story of a Huddersfield lad who was lame.® He lived a good mile from the mill, and it was painful for him to move, "so my brother and sister used, out of kindness, to take me under each arm, and run with me to the mill, and my legs dragged on the ground in con- sequence of the pain; I could not walk, and if we were five minutes too late, the overlooker would take a strap and beat us till we were black and blue." The worst of it was 1 Alfred's History, Vol. I. i. 278. ^ Evidence of James Paterson, quoted t6., i. 283. ' Ih. , i. 283, 284. ^Ih.,\. 284. ^ /&., i. 284. ^ Evidence of Joseph Habergam, ih., i. 286. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 401 that the masters in many mills encouraged the overlookers in this kind of brutality. An eye-witness ^ relates : " I have seen them, when the master has been standing at one end of the room with the overlookers speaking to him, and he has said ' look at those two girls talking,' and has run and beat them the same as they beat soldiers in the barrack- yard for deserting." A Leeds girl,^ who began her mill- work at six years old, and toiled then from five in the morning till nine at night, gives similar evidence : " When the doffers flagged a little or were too late, they were strapped, and those who were last in doflSng were constantly strapped, girls as well as boys. I have been strapped severely, and have been hurt by the strap excessively. Sometimes the overlooker got a chain and chained the girls, and strapped them all down the room. The girls have many times had black marks upon their skin." ^ This was in a Yorkshire factory, and not upon a West Indian plantation ; but the slaves were white. That the dreadful exertions, produced by this forced labour, often caused death from exhaustion among children is obvious. A Keighley overseer, in giving evidence, told the story * of a man who came to him, saying : " My little girl is dead." I asked, " When did she die ? " and he said : " In the night, and what breaks my heart is this ; she went to the mill in the morning, but she was not able to do her work. A little boy said he would help her if she would give him a halfpenny on Saturday, but at night when the child went home, perhaps about a quarter of a mile, she fell down several times on the road through exhaustion, till at length she reached her door with diflSculty. She never spoke audibly afterwards ; she died in the night." Tragedies like this, told in such simple, common-place words, hap- pened in not a few homes ; or instead of death, a maimed and miserable life of ill-health and disease was slowly dragged along till the grave gave a merciful release. One might give a long list of such cases, and of various forms 1 Same evidence, i. 287, 288. 2 Evidence of Elizabeth Bentley, ib., i. 297. '/6., i. 298, 299. 4 Evidence of GiUett Sharpe, ib., i. 302. 2 c 402 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of torture inflicted on children not daring to resist, but in this tender age one is not allowed to harrow even the feelings of a reader. Yet we may perhaps be allowed to quote one more example from a speech of Richard Oastler's^: "I will not picture fiction to you," this brave reformer said, in the early days of the factory movement, " but I will tell you what I have seen. Take a little female captive, six or seven years old ; she shall rise from her bed at four in the morning of a cold winter day, but before she rises she wakes perhaps half-a-dozen times, and says. Father, is it time ? Father, is it time ? And at last, when she gets up and puts her little bits of rags upon her weary limbs — weary yet with the last day's work — she leaves her parents in their bed, for their labour (if they have any) is not required so early. She trudges alone through rain and snow, and mire and darkness, to the mill, and there for 13, 14, 16, 17, or even 18 hours is she obliged to work with only thirty minutes' interval for meals and play. Homeward again at night she would go, when she was able, but many a time she hid herself in the wool in the mill, as she had not strength to go. And if she were one moment behind the appointed time ; if the bell had ceased to ring when she arrived with trembling, shivering, weary limbs at the factory door, there stood a monster in human form, and as she passed he lashed her. This," he continued, holding up an overlooker's strap, " is no fiction. It was hard at work in this town last week. The girl I am speaking of died ; but she dragged on that dreadful existence for several years." Such was the terrible nature of the evidence taken before the Sadler Committee of 1833 ; but even yet it was found impossible, for various reasons, to get a Bill passed. ^ The Government appointed yet another Committee, which, however, reported so strongly in favour of legislation, that at length something had to b^ done. The result was the famous Act of 1833. Czr^'-^X "\^— n * Speech at Huddersfield, Dec. 26, 1831, quoted in Alfred's History, i. 226 * C/. Taylor, Factory System cmd Factory Act* (1894), p. 74, THE FACTORY SYSTEM 403 § 231. The Various Factory Acts. But to gain a complete survey of Factory Legislation we must go back a few years. After the Act of 1802, already *^ referred to, for improving the condition of apprentices, an Act ^ for the regulation of work in cotton mills was passed in l§lJt, allowing no child to be admitted into a factory before the age of nine, and placing 12^ hours a day as the limit of work for those between the ages of nine and sixteen. The day was really, one of 13 J or 14 hours, because no meal-times were included in the working day. Then, again, in 1831 ^ Q ^ct ^ was passed forbidding night- '^ work in factories for persons between nine and twenty-one years of age, while the working day for persons under ei ghte en was to be 12 hours a day, and 9 hours on Satur- . days. But this legislation only applied to cotton factoxies ; Ir those engaged in the manufacture of wool were quite un- touched, and matters there were as bad as ever. But a spirit of agitation was fortunately abroad in the country. These were the days of the Reform Bill and of the rise of Trades Unions, The workmen cried out for the restriction of non-adult labour to 10 hours a day, and the Conserva- tive party,^ who were chiefly interested in the land and not in the mills, supported them readily against the manu- facturers, who were mainly Liberals and Radicals. The long struggle against factory slavery was at last successful, and one of the most important Acts to prevent it was passed. The Act* of 1833, introduced by Lord Shaftes- \/^ bury, prohibited night-work to persons under eighteen in both cotton, wool, and other factories ; children from nine to thirteen years of age were not to work more than 48 hours a week, and young persons from thirteen to eighteen years were to work only 68 hours. Provision was also made for the children's attendance at school, and for the, appointment of factory inspectors. Children under nine years of age were not to be employed at all. These re- strictions in the employment of children led to a great 1 The 59 Geo. III., c. 66. ^ The 1 and 2 William IV., e. 39. 3 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revoluti(m, pp. 208, 209, 215. * The 3 and 4 William IV., c. 103. 404 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND increase in the use of improved machinery to make up for the loss of their labour, and it is probable that they accelerated the use of steam instead of water power in the smaller and more old-fashioned mills, where also the worst abuses in children's employment had chiefly prevailed.^ Then, after one or two minor Acts,^ the Infamous Ten Hours* Bill^ was passed in 13^7, which reduced the labour of women and young persons to 10 hours a day, the legal day being between 5.30 A.M. and 8.30 P.M. Manufacturers tried to avoid the provisions of this Bill by working persons thus protected in relays, and making elaborate regulations to nullify the law,* but this was stopped by the fixing of a uniform working day in , 1850, so that young persons and women could only work / between the hours of A.M. and 6 p.m., and on Satur- days only till 2 P.M.^ Since the passing of these Acts many much-needed extensions of their provisions to other industries have been made, especially* in 1864, and in *^1874 the minimum age at which a child could be admitted to a factory was fixed at ten years.'^ The limitation of the labour of women and young persons necessarily involved the limitation of men's labour, because their work could not be done without female aid.^ Thus the Ten Hours' Day fortunately became universal in factories. § 232. How these Acta were Passed. It is curious to notice how these Acts were passed. They all showed the steady advance of the principle of State (interference with labour, a doctrine most distasteful to the old Ricardian school of economists, even when that inter- ference was made in the interests of the physical and moral well-being, not only of the industrial classes, but of the community at large. Hence the economists of the day * Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. pp. 626, 627. -The 7 Victoria, c. 15; Sand 9 Vic, c. 29; and others; see Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts (1894), ch. iv. 2 The 10 Vic, c. 29, and cf. Taylor, ib., pp. 88, 89. * Of. Taylor, u. s., pp. 89 and 78. «* The 13 and 14 Victoria, c. 54. « By the 27 and 28 Victoria, c. 38 ; cf. Taylor, m. s., p. 95. 7 The 37 and 38 Victoria, c 44. 8 qt Taylor, Factory Acts, p. 107. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 405 aided the manufacturers in opposing these Acts to the utmost of their power, and the laws passed were due to the (action of the Tories and landowners.^ Lord Shaftesbury, HFielden, Oastler, and Sadler were all Tories, though they were accused of being Socialists. Tbey were supported by the landed gentry, partly out of genuine sympathy with the oppressed, and partly out of opposition to the rival manufac- turing interest.^ But the millowners had their revenge afterwards when they helped to repeal the Com Laws, in spite of the protest of the landlords, who did not mind the workmen having shorter hours at other people's expense, but objected to their having cheap bread at their own. It has been remarked by an economist,^ who does not hesitate to point out the virtues as well as the vices of the land- owners, that, where their own interests were not touched, they tried to use their power for the good of the people. The remark is so true that it is almost a truism. Most men are benevolent as long as benevolence costs them nothing. The working classes, however, seem to have a suspicion that each political party is their friend only in so far as they can injure their opponents, or at least do no harm to themselves. The Manchester School of Radical' Economists bitterly opposed the [factory Acts, and John Bright especially distinguished himself (February 10, 1847) by his violent denunciation of the Ten Hours' Bill, which he characterised as " one of the worst measures ever passed in the shape of an Act of the legislature." * But when we look back upon the degradation and oppression from which the industrial classes were rescued by this agitation, we can understand why Arnold Toynbee said so earnestly : "I tremble to think what this country would have been but for the Factory Acts." ^ They form one of the most inter- esting pages in the history of industry, for they show how fearful may be the results of a purely capitalist and com- ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 214. ^ ji)^ ' Toynbee, Industrial Revolution {Are Radicals Socialists ?), p. 215. ^ As John Bright was always looked upon as "the people's friend," it may be well to observe that this extraordinary utterance is to be found in the records of Hansard, Third Series, Volume LXXXIX., p. 1148. ^ Industrial Revolution, p. 215. 4o6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND petitive industrial system, unless the wage-earners are in a position to place an effectual check upon the greed of an unscrupulous employer. It may be thought that too large a space has been devoted to them in this chapter, but when we consider the enormous and profound influence which the Factory System has had upon the life of the nation, it must be acknowledged that no outline of industrial history would be at all adequate that does not include a very marked reference both to the system itself and the Acts which now regulate it. The factory has so completely revolutionised the methods of industry in the last hundred years, and has thereby so completely altered the social and industrial life of the majority of the workers in this nation, that it is practically impossible to overestimate its importance as a feature in the national life. How far it has operated for good or for ill must be left to the historians of the future; but no one who has lived for any length of time (as the writer has done) amid the centres of a large manufacturing population, can fail to regard with considerable uneasiness the peculiar developments of life and character which this system has called forth. It has been acutely, if somewhat gloomily, remarked ^ that human progress is after all only a surplus of advantages over disadvantages, and that being so, one must attempt to regard the various disquieting features of the Industrial Revolution with philosophic equanimity. Its advantages have been great, but its drawbacks are great also, and the greatest drawback of all is probably to be *^ found in the concentration of population in large towns, where the mill hand spends his life amid surroundings of repulsive ugliness, and engaged in an occupation of weari- some monotony. The fact that he has grown to like both his occupation and his surroundings is possibly a matter for even greater concern. But whatever we may think of the effects of the factory system, they form a striking example of the truth that the history of mankind is to be found written in the history of its tools, for there are few factors in modern English history more important than the inven- tions of the Industrial Revolution. * Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century ^ vi. 220. CHAPTER XXIV THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES § 233. Disastrous Effects oj the New Industrial System. We have already seen, in various preceding chapters, that the condition of the labourers deteriorated from the time of Elizabeth onwards, but in the middle of the eighteenth century it had been materially improved owing to the increase of wealth from the new agriculture and to the general growth of foreign trade. But then came the great Continental wars and the Industrial Revolution, and it is a sad but significant fact that, although the total wealth of the nation was vastly increased at the end of last century and the beginning of this, little of that wealth came into the hands of the labourers, but went almost entirely into the hands of the great landlords and new capitalist manufacturers, or was spent in the enormous expenses of foreign war.^ We saw, too, that the labourer felt far more severely than any one else the burden of this war, for taxes had been imposed on almost every article of consumption,^ while at the same time the price of wheat had risen enormously.^ Moreover, labour was now more than ever dependent on capital, and the individual labourer was thoroughly under the heel of his employer. This was due to the new conditions of labour, both in agriculture and manufactures, that arose after the Industrial and Agricultural Revolution, and to the extinction of bye-industries.* The workman was now practically compelled to take what his employer offered him, either in the factory or the farm ; for, as a mill-hand, he had nothing to fall back upon except the work offered at the mill, while for the agricultural labourer the increase ^ Above, p. 373. ^ Above, ib.; cf. also Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 489. « Above, p. 376. * Above, p. 380. 407 4o8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of enclosures, both of the common fields and the waste, had deprived him of the resources which he formerly possessed.^ Few labourers had now a plot of ground to cultivate, or any rights to a common where they could get fuel for themselves and pasture for their cattle. Vxhe Assessment of Wages by the justices had indeed become inoperative, for it seems to have practically died out in the south of England at the close of the seventeenth century, and in the north at the beginning of the eighteenth. ^ , But the low rates of pay which had been fixed thereby had become almost tradi- tional,^ and from a variety of causes, already alluded to, pauperism was growing with alarming rapidity. Moreover, it was impossible for the labourer to improve his position by agitating for higher wages, for all combination in the form now known as Trades Unions was suppressed, and his condition sank to the lowest depth of poverty and degrada- tion. § 234. The Allowance System of Relief. This state of things was aggravated by various misfor- tunes, among which the most prominent was the rise in the price of food. At the end of the seventeenth century there had been a succession of bad harvests, and the price of wheat, for the four years ending 1699, was between 64s. and 7 Is. a quarter,* or more than double the average ^ of the four years ending in 1691. This high price was maintained till 17 10, when there was a considerable fall,^ and the price of wheat continued, on the whole, fairly low till about 1751. But after that, and especially from 1765, the seasons were most unsatisfactory, harvests were poor, and the price of wheat rose enormously.^ The latter part of the eighteenth century was marked by almost chronic scarcity,^ and after 1790 wheat was rarely below 50s. a quarter, and often double that price, ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101. ' Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 43. * Ih. * Prothero, English Farming, App. I. (p. 244). ^ Cf. figures in Prothero, w. s. •The prices were, in 1710, 78s. aqr. ; in 1714, 50s. ; in 1720, only 378. 'Tooke, History of Prices, i. 66, 82, and i., eh. iii. generally. ^ Ih. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 409 as it was after the deficient harvest of 1795, when the price was 108s. a quarter.^ The famine was enhanced by the restrictions of the Com Laws. Meanwhile, population was growing with portentous and almost inexplicable rapidity. The factories employed large numbers of hands, but these were chiefly children whose parents were often compelled to live upon the labour of their little ones ; ^ and the introduction of machinery had naturally caused a tremendous dislocation in industry, which could not be expected to right itself immediately.^ Poverty was so widespread that, in May 1795, the Berkshire justices, in a now famous meeting at Speenhamland, near Newbury,* declared the old quarter sessions assessment of wages unsuit- able, besought employers to give rates more in proportion to the cost of living, but added that, if employers refused to do this, they would make an allowance to every poor family in accordance with its numbers. This is the celebrated " S peen- hamland AcLo f Parli a m ent," which never received the sanc- tion of law, but was immediately followed in many counties, and obeyed much more cheerfully than is sometimes the case with the Acts of the Parliament at Westminster.^ It is, therefore, worth while to notice the wording of the resolutions which the Berkshire Justices passed. They resolved (1) that the present state of the poor does require further assistance than has generally been given them ; (2) that it is not expedient for the magistrates to grant that assistance by regulating the wages of day-labourers, according to the directions of the Statutes of the 5 th Elizabeth and 1st James ; but the magistrates very earnestly recommend to the farmers and others throughout the county to increase the pay of their labourers in proportion to the present price of provisions ; and, agreeable thereto, the magistrates now present have unanimously resolved that they will, in their several divisions, make the following calculations and allow- ances for the relief of all poor and industrious men and ^ For prices (average) see Prothero, English Farming, App. I. (p. 244) and for 1795 and 1796 specially, Tooke, Prices, i. 182, 187. 2 Above, p. 397. 3 Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 485. * Fowle, Poor Law, p. 65. «*/&., p. 66. 4IO INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND their families, who, to the satisfaction of the justices of their parish, shall endeavour (as far as they can) for their own support and maintenance — that is to say, when the gallon loaf of seconds flour, weighing 8 lbs. 11 oz., shall cost Is., then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s. weekly, either procured by his own or his family's labour, or an allowance from the poor rates ; and for the support of his wife and every other member of the family. Is. 6d. When the gallon loaf shall cost Is. 6d., then he shall have 4s. weekly for his own support, and Is. lOd. for the support of every other of his family. And so, in proportion, as the price of bread rises or falls, that is to say, 3d. to the man and Id. to every other of his family on every Id. which the loaf rises above Is." ^ § 235. The Growth of Pauperism and the old Poor Law. Such were the celebrated Speenhamland resolutions. The fact that the country justices felt compelled to pass them shows how desperate the case of the labourer had become. His position had grown steadily worse. Pauperism had been slowly increasing in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even when agriculture, manufac- tures, and commerce were improving, when the price of corn was low, and money wages comparatively high ; ^ and we may well ask what was the cause of this curious com- bination of progress and poverty ? The answer is to be found in the conditions which that progress created, and especially in the case of agriculture. It becomes increas- ingly evident that a very powerful cause of pauperism was the system of enclosures,^ accompanied by evictions * of farmers and cottagers by landowners, eager to try new agricultural improvements. Sometimes, also, farmers sent off their labourers on turning their fields into pasture; at others the farmers themselves were ejected, and sank into the condition of ^ See NichoUs, History of the Poor Law, ii. 137. 2 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 100. 3 Eden, State of the Poor, ii. 30, 147, 384, 660. •^ Laurence, Dviy of a Steward, 3, 4 ; Toynbee, u. «., 100. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 411 labourers, or swelled the numbers of the unemployed. ^ The consolidation of farms ^ placed the labourer at the mercy of the capitalist farmer, who ground down his wages to the lowest possible point ; and enclosures, though ulti- mately beneficial, contributed at first rather to the growth than to the removal of pauperism. The Act of Elizabeth, which provided that each new cottage should have four acres of land, was repealed, ostensibly on the ground that it mad^^ it difficult for the industrious poor to procure habitations ; but, in reality, because it did not always suit the selfish interests of the landowners. ^ Its repeal was a great blow, which was further aggravated by the loss of bye-industries, and by the bad harvests already referred to; and the problem of poverty became so acute that the Legislature had to devise some method of dealing with it. Hence we find several Poor Law Acts passed towards the close of the eighteenth century. The most noticeable of these was that known as Gilbert's Act,* in 1782. It alludes to the great increase of expenditure, and the equally great increase of pauperism, and, after blaming the parochial authorities for this state of things, takes away from them the administration of relief. The justices were consti- tuted the guardians of the poor and the administrators of relief, and power was given to form Unions of parishes by voluntary arrangement, and to build a Workhouse for the Union.^ The guardians were expressly forbidden to send any but the " impotent " to the workhouse, and were to find suitable employment for the able-bodied near their own homes. The main result of this well-meaning but fallacious measure was to increase the cost of relief^ome^ 30 per cent. Other Acts, dealing with minor details of administration, were subsequently passed, but the decisive step of legalising out-door relief to the able-bodied and giving it in aid oi wages was not taken till 1796. The old workhouse test of 1722 was hereby^ abolished as inconvenient and oppres- 1 Eden, State of the Poor, i. 329, ii. 30, 384, 650. ^ Ibid., and Toynbee, Indust. Rev., p. 101. 2 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 68. Elizabeth's Act was the 31 Eliz., c. 7. * The 22 Geo. III., c. 83. ^ Fowle, Poor Law, p. 69. «* The Act 36 George III., c. 10 and c. 23. 412 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND sive, and parish authorities were empowered to give relief to any industrious poor person at his own residence. Eefusal to enter a workhouse was not to be a reason for withholding relief. The justices were also authorised to order relief for a certain time to people who were ** entitled to ask and receive such relief at their own houses." By this Act, therefore, an allowance was freely given to every poor person who chose to ask for it, and the labourers' wages were systematically made up out of the rates.^ To complete the history of this old code of Poor Laws, it may be added that in 1801 the Justices were made the rating as well as the relieving authority, while, to make them " more safe in the execution of their duty," the nominal penalty of 2d. only was to be imposed upon a justice who made an illegal decision, unless it was plain that he was actuated by improper motives.^ The reason for this measure is obvious r the landed gentry, from whom the justices were chiefly chosen, were hereby allowed to fix the rates, and even to amend them by altering names and amounts ; in other words, to adjudicate upon a question in which they themselves were the most interested persons present.^ It is, of course, wrong to accuse them of con- sciously yielding to self-interest in their decisions ; but no one can be surprised to learn that the poor-rate was often apportioned so as to fall most heavily upon others than themselves, and upon parishes other than those in which the rating justices had rateable property. Thus, for ex- ample, landowners would sometimes pull down every cottage on their estate,^ so as to compel surrounding parishes to pay the poor-rates allowed to the labourers who worked on their property; in other words, the labourers' wages were paid half by the employer and half by the un- fortunate non-employers in the next parish. § 236. The Poor Law and the Allowance System. The burden upon non-employers was, in fact, sometimes almost intolerable. The poor-rate, when levied upon house 1 Fowle, Poor LaWy 71, 87. =*/&.,?. 71. The Act was the 43 George III. , c. 141. » Ih, ^ Fowle, Poor Law, p. 88. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 413 property, was simply a rate in aid of wages, paid by those who did not employ labour.^ This was the case not only in agricultural districts, but even in manufacturing towns. Thus, at Nottingham, employers deliberately reduced the rate of wages for stocking making, and then gave their men a certificate to the effect that they were only earning (say) 6s. per week ; the men then appUed to the parish, who allowed them 4s. or 5s. more.^ Those manufacturers who employed parish apprentices sometimes even received annual payments from the parish for keeping its paupers at work.^ Meanwhile, the poorer ratepayers, on whom the burden of rates fell most severely, often earned less and worked harder than the paupers whom they helped to support. One witness, before the Poor Law Commission of 1834, summed up their condition in the pregnant sentence : " Poor is the diet of the pauper, poorer is the diet of the small ratepayer, but poorest is that of the independent labourer.^'* Indeed, the independent labourer was in very evil case. Often he could not get work, because he was superseded by paupers, who were set to work by the overseers at the cost of the parish. If an industrious man was known to have saved money, he would be left without work till his savings were all spent, and then he could be employed as a pauper. Sometimes, even, men were discharged by their employers till they were reduced to the desired state,^ so that the burden of maintaining them was cast upon the parish, while the employer had to pay only a nominal wage. The full working of this ingenious plan was seen in the "ticket system." Under this the parish sold "the com- modity of labour" to the farmers, and made up the differ- ence between the labourers' actual wages and the income supposed to be his due out of the rates. In one place there was a weekly sale of labour, at which an eyewitness saw ten men allotted to a farmer for five shillings.^ It was called the "ticket system," because each pauper re- ceived a ticket from the overseer as a warrant for the farmer to employ him at the cost of the parish. It is not 1 Fowle, Po(yr Law, p. 87. "^ Ih.,^. 87. '^ lb., and c/. above, p. 388. * lb., p. 86, "» Jb., p. 87. « 76., p. 82. 414 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND surprising that the farmers supported this system, iniquit- ous though it was, and declared that *' high wages and free labour would ruin them." ^ But in the long run it often caused even the farmer some pecuniary loss, not directly, for he saved more in his wages-bill than he spent in poor- rates, but indirectly, since the work of the labourers thus employed was badly and inefficiently performed.^ Indeed, we may sum up by saying that the allowance system, introduced by the Speenhamland resolutions and ^[made law by the Act of 1796, succeeded in demoralising /both employers and employed alike, taking the responsibility I of giving decent wages off the shoulders of the farmers, and putting a premium upon the incontinence ^ and thriftlessness of the labourers. This method of relief was general from '^ about 1795 to 1834, in fact, until the enactment of the New Poor Law.* Employers of labour, manufacturing as well as agricultural,^ put down wages in many parts of the country to what was simply a starvation point, knowing that an allowance would be made to the labourers, upon the magistrates' orders, out of the poor rates. The wages actually paid to able-bodied men were frequently only five or six shillings a week, but relief to the amount of four, five, six, or seven shillings a week, according to the size of the man's family, was given out of the rates. Such a system could not fail to have a permanently disastrous influence upon the moral and social condition of those who suffered from it, taking from them all self-reliance, all hope, all incentives to improving their position in life. This was soon noticed by Arthur Young, who wrote : " Many authors have remarked with surprise the great change which has taken place in the spirit of the lower classes of the people within the last twenty years. There was formerly found an unconquerable aversion to depend on the parish, insomuch that many would struggle through life with large families never applying for relief That spirit is annihilated ; appli- ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 103. ^ Fowle, Poor Law, p. 89, on The Deterioration of Labour. ^ For the sad facts and for the bastardy laws, cf. Fowle, Poor Law, pp. 89-92, summarising the evidence of the Commission of 1834. * The 4 and 5 William IV., c. 76. » Above, p. 413 (Nottingham). CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 415 cations of late have been as numerous as the poor ; and one great misfortune attending the change is that every sort of industry flags when once the parochial dependence takes place : it then becomes a struggle between the pauper and the parish, the one to do as little and to receive as much as possible, and the other to pay by no rule but the summons and order of the justice. The evils resulting are beyond all calculation; for the motives to industry and frugality are cut up by the roots, whenever a poor man knows that if he do not feed himself the^^rish must do it for him ; and that he has not the most distant hope of ever attaining indepen- dency, let him be as industrious and frugal as he may. To acquire land enough to build a cottage on is a hopeless aim in ninety-nine parisjies out of a hundred." ^ Unfortunately the last sentence of this remark is often true even to-day ; nor have the evil traditions of the Old Poor Law entirely disappeared. 'Down to the reform of 1834, "the public funds were r^ajded as a regular part of the maintenance of the labouring people engaged in agriculture, and were administered by more than 2000 justices, 15,000 sets of overseers, and 15,000 vestries, acting always independently of each other, and very commonly in opposition, quite un- controlled and ignorant of the very rudiments of political economy. The £7,000,000 or more^ of public money was the price paid for converting the free labourer into a slave, without reaping even such returns as slavery can give. The able-bodied pauper was obliged to live where the Law of Settlement placed him, to receive the income which the neighbouring magistrates thought sufficient, to work for the master and in the way which the parish authorities pre- scribed, and very often to marry the wife they found for him." 3 § 237. Restrictions upon Labour. What made the condition of the labourers worse still, was the fact that they could neither go from one place to ^ Young, Amuds of Agricvlturtj xxxvi. 604. ^ For exact sum, cf. Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 82. 3 Fowle, Poor Law, pp. 73, 74. 41 6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND another to seek work, nor could they combine in industrial partnerships for their mutual interests. The Law of Settle- ment effectually prevented migration of labourers from one parish to another. It began with the Statute^ of 1662, thich allowed a pauper to obtain relief only from that ^arish where he had his settlement, " settlement " being defined as forty days' residence without interruption. The reason was that each parish, though ready to pay for its own poor, was not willing to pay for those of other parishes. There were many variations and complications of this Statute made in ensuing reigns, but it remained substan- tively the same ^ till it was mitigated by the Poor Law of 1834. Its main results were seen, as Adam Smith re- marked,^ in the - " obstruction of the free circulation of labour," and consequently in the great inequality in wages which was frequently found in places at no great distance one from another. Nowhere else, he says,* does one " meet with those sudden and unaccountable differences in the wages of neighbouring places which we sometimes find in England, where it is 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 mountains." Again he remarks ^ : " there is scarce a poor man in England of forty years of age, I will venture to say, who has not in some part of his life felt himself most cruelly oppressed by this ill-contrived Law of Settlements." ^ § 238. The Combination Acts. The Law of Settlement was further strengthened by what are called the"^ Combination Laws,^ which forbade workmen to meet together in order to deliberate over their various 1 The 13 and 14 Charles II., c. 12. 2 Although it was nominally repealed. Fowle, Poor Law, 70, 84. For the whole question, see Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I., ch. x. (Vol. I., p. 144, Clarendon Press edn.). 3 Wealth of Nations, u. s„ i. 148. * Ih. « 76., i. 149. • Cf also Toynbee's remarks, Industrial Revolution, p. 186. 7 These date from the 2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. 15, prohibiting "all con- spiracies and covenants not to do their work but at a certain price," under penalty of the pillory and loss of an ear. Other acts were passed, but all were summed up in the famous 40 Geo. Ill, , c, 60. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 417 industrial interests, or to gain a rise in wages. " We have no Acts of Parliament," said Adam Smith,^ with justice, "against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it." For "when masters com- bine together in order to reduce the wages of their workmen, they commonly enter into a private bond or agreerfient, not to give more than a certain wage under a certain penalty. Were the workmen to enter into a contrary combination of the same kind, not to accept a certain wage under a certain penalty, the law would punish them very severely ; and if it dealt impartially ,2 it would treat the masters in the same manner." Elsewhere he describes the inevitable result of a strike as being " nothing but the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders." 3 The legislation of the close of the eighteenth century was all in favour of the masters, and after several acts had been passed regulating combinations in separate trades, the famous Act* of 1800 was applied to all occupations, and strictly forbade all combinations, unions, or associations of workmen for the purpose of obtaining an advance in wages or lessening the hours of work. All freedom of action was taken away from the workmen : " the only freedom,'* remarks an eminent and impartial judge * ** for which the law seems to me to have been specially solicitous is the freedom of employers from coercion by their men." The reason is obvious ; it was because the working classes had no voice in the govern- ment of the state, and were unable to check a measure inspired only by the self-interest of the employers. As yet they had no political influence whatever, except that un-' satisfactory and unconstitutional influence which emanates I from the violence of a riotous mob.^ " The English statute-book was disfigured by laws which robbed the labourer as a wage-earner, and degraded him as a citizen," 1 Wealth 0/ Nations, Bk. L, ch. viii. (Vol. I., p. 70). 2 lb. , Bk. I. , ch. X. (Vol. I. , p. 150). 3 76., Bk. I., ch. viii. (Vol. L, p. 71). ^ The 40 Geo. III., c. 60; see Howell, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 39. ^ Justice Stephen, History of the Criminal Law, iii. 208. ' Cf, Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 186. 2 D A 418 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND for " the power of making laws was concentrated in the hands of the landowners, the great merchant-princes, and a small knot of capitalist-manutacturers, who wielded that power in the interests of their class rather than for the good of the people." ^ No doubt the action of these law- makers was natural, but it is only another example of the fact that no one class, and, for that matter, no single individual, is fit to possess irresponsible and absolute power over another. In spite of Utopian theorists, selfishness is still the predominant factor in human nature ; and the most feasible, if not the most ideal, form of government is that in which the selfishness of one class is counteracted by the selfishness of another. ^But in 1800 the workmen had, of course, no political influence : they could only show their discontent by riots and rick-burnings. Yet the time of their deliverance was at hand. I have already referred to the sympathy between the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The former, it is true, frightened our statesmen and delayed reform, but it gave courage to the working classes, and made them hope fiercely for freedom. The latter Revolu- tion concentrated men more and more closely together in large centres of industry, dissociated them from their em- ployers, and roused a spirit of antagonism which is inevit- able when both employers and employed alike fail to recog- nise the essential identity of their interests. Now, wherever there are large bodies of men crowded together, there is always a rapid spread of new ideas, new political enthusi- asms, and social activities. And in spite of the lack of the franchise, the artisans of our large towns made their voices heard ; fiercely and roughly, no doubt, and often at first in riot and uproar, but they had no other means. There were found some statesmen in Parliament, chiefly disciples of Adam Smith ,2 who gave articulate utterance to the demands of labour, and owing to their endeavours the Combination Laws were annulled ^ in 1824. All previous statutes, so far as they related to combinations of workmen, were ^ Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 186, '76., p. 195. »By the5Geo. IV.,c. 95. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 419 repealed, and those who joined such associations were to be no longer liable to be prosecuted for conspiracy. But the following year proved how insecure was the position of the labourers without definite political influence. The em- ployers of labour were able to induce Parliament in 1825 to stultify itself,^ by declaring illegal any action which might result from those deliberations of workmen which a twelvemonth before they had legalised. But still the workers were allowed to deliberate, strange as it may now seem that permission was needed for this, and their delibera- tions materially aided in passing the Reform Bill of 1832. For as soon as a class can make its voice heard, even though it cannot directly act, other classes will take that utterance into account. § 239. Growth of Trades Unions.^ But the Reform Bill, though a great step forward, some- what belied the hopes that had roused the enthusiasm of its industrial supporters. The workmen found that, after all, it merely threw additional power into the hands of the upper and middle classes.^ Their own position was hardly improved. Therefore they had to make their voice heard again, and, urged on by the misery and poverty in which they were still struggling, they demanded the Charter. The/ Chartist* movement (1838 to 1848) seems to us at the present time almost ludicrously moderate in its demands. The vote by ballot, the abolition of property qualifications for electors, and the payment of parliamentary members, were the main objects of its leaders, though they asked for universal suffrage as well. Nevertheless people were fright- ened, especially when the Chartists wished to present a monster petition at Westminster on April 10th, 1848 ; and 1 In the Act 6 Geo. TV., c. 129. This Act rendered men liable to punish- ment for the use of threats, intimidation, and obstruction directed towards the attainment of the objects of Trade Unions; cf. also Toynbee, u. s., p. 195. 2 For the history of these, cf. G. Howell, Conjlicts of Capital and Labour, and Trades Unionism New and Old. ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 196. * See Gammage, History of the, Chartist Movement generally. 420 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND yth the aid of both military and police was invoked. The rhove- ent collapsed, and finally died away when the repeal of the Corn Laws had restored prosperity to the nation. Many have laughed at the working classes for trying to gain some infinitesimal fraction of political power ; but working men are generally acute, especially where their own interests are concerned, and they saw that this was the ultimate means of material prosperity ; nor has the event failed to justify their belief.^ In the somewhat quieter times which followed the collapse of the Chartists, their influence went on extend- ing, and though the workmen ceased to agitate they were not idle, but continued steadily organising themselves in Trades Unions. A large number of Unions were formed between 1850 and 1860.^ These institutions were not, however, recognised by law till a Commission was appointed, including Sir William Erie, Lord Elcho, and Thomas Hughes, to inquire into their constitution and objects (February 1867). Their Report disclosed the existence of intimida- tion, with occasional outrages — as was natural when the men had no other way of giving utterance to their wishes — but on the whole the Report was in favour of the repeal of the Act of 1825. This Act was accordingly repealed.^ The Unions were legalised by the Trade Union Act of 1871, and this Act* was further extended^ and amended in 1875 and 1876. The old law of master and servant had passed away, and employer and employed were now on an equal political footing. It has remained for the men by the exercise of silent strength to place themselves on an equal footing in other respects. Meanwhile the employers, alarmed at Trades Unionism, had entered into a similar combination by forming the National Federation of Em-/ ployers^ in 1873, and the long struggle of the working' classes for industrial freedom did not result in any lessening * Toynbee points this out very clearly, and shows how political influence led to the legislation of Trade Unions ; Industrial Revolution, p. 196. ^ Howell, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 59. ' By the 38 and 39 Victoria, c. 31 and c. 32. * The 34 and 35 Victoria, c. 31 and 32 ; Howell, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 61. 5 By the 38 and 39 Victoria, c. 86. •■' Of. Webb, History of Trades Unionism, pp. 312, 313. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 421 of the feeling of class antagonism.^ The formation in 1895 of the Industrial Union of Employers and Employed is a recent attempt to bring about better relations between master and man,^ and if its objects were carried out on a wide scale, it would do much good. Apart from the ques- tion of antagonism, Trades Unions have done much to gain a greater measure of material prosperity for the working classes, and to give them a larger share than formerly in the wealth which the workers have helped to create. When we look back upon the last half-century, we are inclined to wonder that trades unionists have been so moderate in their demands, considering the misery and poverty amidst which they grew up. § 240. The Working Classes Fifty Years Ago. For it must continually be remembered that the condi- tion of the mass of the people in the first half of this century was one of the deepest depression. Several writers have commented upon this, and have taken occasion to remark upon the great progress in the prosperity of the working classes since that time. It is true they have pro- gressed since then, but it has hardly been progress so much as a return to the state of things about 1760 or 1770. The fact has been, that after the introduction of the new7 industrial system the condition of the working classes rapidly I declined ; wages were lower,^ and prices, at least of wheat,' were often higher;* till at length the lowest depth of poverty was reached about the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria. Since then their condition has been gradually improving, partly owing to the philanthropic labours of men like Lord Shaftesbury, and partly owing to the combined action of working-men themselves. [To" quote the expression of that well-known statistician, Mr Giffen : ^ 1 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Bevolution, pp. 196-198. 2 See the Report of the Preliminary Industrial Conference held at London, March 16, 1894 (Methuen, London). 3 See the tables in Porter, Progress of the Nation, ii. 252, 253. * Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156 ; Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101. ^ Essays in Finance, Secmd Series (1886), p. 390, on Progress of the Work- ing Classes. 422 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND *' It is a matter of history that pauperism was nearly break- ing down the country half a century ago. The expenditure on poor law relief early in the century and down to 1830-31 was nearly as great at times as it is now. With half the population in the country that there now is, the burden of the poor was the same." The following table will show ^ the actual figures of English pauperism at a time when the wealth of the nation was advancing by leaps and bounds. Yeab. PoptUatlon. Poor Rate raised. Rate per head of population. 1760 7,000,000 £1,250,000 8. d. 3 7 1784 8,000,000 £2,000,000 6 1803 9,216,000 £4,077,000 8 11 1818 11,876,000 £7,870,000 13 3 1820 12,046,000 £7,329,000 12 2 1830 13,924,000 £6,829,000 10 9 1841 15,911,757 £4,760,929 5 llf It will be noticed that the rate was highest in 1818, which was shortly after the close of the great Continental War, but fell rapidly after 1830, and since 1841 the rate per head of population has not been much more than six or seven shillings. But the mere figures of pauperism, significant though they are, can give no idea of the vast amount of misery and degradation which the majority of the working classes suffered.^ The tale of their sufferings may be studied in the Blue-books and Reports ^ of the various Commissions which investigated the state of industrial life in the factories, mines, and workshops between 1833 and 1842 ; or it may be read in the burning pages of Engels** State of the Working Classes in England in 1844, which is little more ^ The first figure is from Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 94 ; others from Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 82, 83 ; ii. 362, 363. ^ ** The fact is," said Toynbee {Ind. Rev., p. 58), " the more we examine the actual course of affairs, the more we are amazed at the unnecessary suffering that has been inflicted on the people." * E.g., Reports on Employment of Children in Factories, 1816, 1833, and (mines) 1842. * This book, though avowedly Socialist, and written in a very one-sided tone, is nevertheless accurate as to facts, which are all taken from the above-mentioned Reports. It forms a convenient book of reference. It was published in German in 1845, and in a new English edition in 1892. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 423 than a sympathetic rdsum6 of the facts set forth in official documents. We hear of children and young people in ^ factories overworked and beaten as if they were slaves ; ^ - of diseases and distortions only found in manufacturing districts ; ^ of filthy, wretched homes, where people huddled together like wild beasts ; ^ we hear of girls and women working underground in the dark recesses of the coal- mines, dragging loads of coal in cars in places where no horses could go, and harnessed and crawling along the subterranean pathways like beasts of burden.* Everywhere we find cruelty and oppression, and in many cases the workmen were but slaves, bound to fulfil their masters' commands under fear of dismissal and starvation. Freedom they had in name ; freedom to starve and die ; but not freedom to speak, still less to act, as citizens of a free state. They were often even obliged to buy their food at exor- bitant prices out of their scanty wages at a shop kept by their employer, where it is needless to say that they paid the highest possible price for the worst possible goods. This was rendered possible by the system of paying work- men in tickets or orders upon certain shops, which were under the supervision of their employers. It was called the '' truck system " ; and was at length finally condemned by the law^ (1887) after many futile attempts had been made to suppress it.^ But though, as a matter of fact, the sufferings of the working classes during the transition period of the Indus- trial Revolution were aggravated by the extortions of employers, and by the partiality of a legislature which 1 See above, pp. 389, 400, 401. « Cf. Engels (ed. 1892), pp. 151-164. 3 Engels (ed. 1892), pp. 23-73, on The, Great Towns, His evidence is really appalling. ■* Engels, pp. 241-260 ; and Report on Employment in Mines, 1842. .5 By the 50 and 51 Victoria, c. 46, amending the 1 and 2 William IV., c. 37. « The 22 Geo. II., c. 27 ; the 57 Geo. III., cc. 115 and 122 ; the 1 Geo. IV., c. 93, were all measures passed against " truck," and all ineflfectual. The system, however, has its apologists {cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 650) as being convenient, and the simplest way of providing workers with provisions in out-of-the-way villages. For a vivid description of a scene at a truck-shop, see Disraeli's novel Sybil, Bk. III., ch. iii. See also note in Rogers' edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of ITations, i. 150^ 424 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND forbade them to take common measures in self-defence, yet there was, in addition to the Revolution itself, one great cause which underlay all these minor causes, namely, the Continental war which ended in 1815. It has been forcibly and accurately expressed by a great economist : " Thousands of homes were starved in order to find the means for the great war, the cost of which was really supported by the labour of those who toiled on and earned the wealth that was lavished freely — and at good interest for the lenders — by the Government. The enormous taxa- tion and the gigantic loans came from the store of accumulated capital which the employers wrung from the poor wages of labour, or which the landlords extracted from the growing gains of their tenants. To outward appearance the strife was waged by armies and generals ; in reality, the sources on which the struggle was based were the stint and starvation of labour, the overtaxed and underfed toils of childhood, the underpaid and uncertain employment of men." ^ § 241. Wages. And, indeed, if we examine some of the wages actually paid at the beginning of this century, and again at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, we shall find that they were excessively low. The case of common weavers was particularly hard in the years of the great war, and affords an interesting example of the decrease of wages in this period. For purposes of comparison I append the price of wheat and of weekly wages in the same years; Ybar Weavers' Wages.a Wheat per qr.s 8. d. 8. d. 1802 13 10 67 9 1806 10 6 76 9 1812 6 4 122 8 1816 6 2 76 2 1817 4 3i 94 ^ Rogers, Six CeiUuries, p. 605. 2 Leone Levi, History of British Commerce, p. 146. " Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156. The prices are averages from the l/QTidon Gotzette, and were frequently far higher in the course of the year. 0^^- ''-^^'^A^ CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES; 425 for the price of wheat forms a useful standard by which to gauge the real value of wages, even when it is not con- sumed in large quantities. It will be seen that wages were at their lowest point just after the conclusion of the war, while, on the other hand, wheat was almost at famine prices. After this, however, and till 1830, the wages of weavers rose again, for the new spinning machinery had increased the supply of yarn at a much greater rate than weavers could be found to weave it, and hence there was an increased demand for weavers, and they gained propor- tionately higher wages, the average for woollen cloth weavers from 1830-1845 being 14s. to I7s. a week, and for worsted stuff weavers lis. to 14s. a week.^ But even these rates are miserably low. The wages of spinners were also very poor, the work being mostly done by women and children, though when men are employed they get fairly good pay. The following table 2 will show clearly the various rates, and it will be seen that here wages sink steadily till 1845, owing to the rapid Spinnbbs. 1808-15. 1815-28. 1828-80. 1830-36. 1836-45. Men Women ... 24/ to 26 13/ to 14/ 24/ to 26/ 13/ to 14/ 24/ to 26/ 11/ to 12/ 24/ to 26/ 8/ to 10/ 24/ to 26/ 7/ to 9/ production of the new machinery. The women's wages exhibit the fall most markedly, the labour of children being already affected to some extent by the provisions of the Factory Acts. As for the agricultural labourer, he, too, suffered from low wages, the general average to 1845 being 8s. to 10s. a week, and generally nearer the former than the latter figure.^ In fact, the material condition of the working classes of England was at this time in the lowest depths of poverty and degradation, and this fact must 1 From a Tahle of Wages and Prices, 1720-1886, by Thomas Illingworth, Bradford (privately printed). ^ Ih. Cf. also Porter, Progress of the Nation, ii. 253, where women's wages decrease from 10s. in 1805 to 8s. 5id. in 1833. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 510. According to the Parliamentary Report of 1822 {Reports, &c., 1822, v. 73) agricultural wages had sunk from 15s. or 16s. a week before 1815 to 9s. a week in 1822. 426 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND always be remembered in comparing the wages of to-day with those of former times. Some people who ought to know better are very fond of talking about the " progress of the working classes " in the last fifty years, and the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 afforded ample opportunity — of w which full advantage was taken — for such optimists to talk statistics. But to compare the wages of labour properly we must go back a hundred years, and not fifty, for fifty years ago the English workman was passing through a period of misery which we must devoutly hope, for the sake of the nation at large, will not occur again. It is interesting to note, though it is impossible here to go fully into the subject, that in trades where workmen have combined, since //the repeal of the Conspiracy Laws in 1825 and the altera- I j tion in the Act of Settlement,^ wages have perceptibly risen. Carpenters, masons, and colliers afford examples of such a rise.^ But where there has been no combination, it is noteworthy how little wages have risen in proportion to the increased production of the modern labourer, and to the higher cost of living, nor does the workman always receive his due share of the wealth which he helps to create. Of the results of labour combinations we shall, however, have something to say in the final chapter of this book. But there was one class of people who happened to obtain a very large share of the national wealth, and who grew rich and flourished while the working classes were almost starving. In spite of war abroad and poverty at home, the rents of the landowners increased, and the agricultural interest received a stimulus which has resulted in a very natural reaction. The rise in rents and the recent depression of modem agriculture will form the subject of our next chapter. ^ Above, p. 416. ^ Thomas Illingworth's table, cited above. Carpenters' wages have risen from 233. or 24s. in 1823-30 to 308. -32s. in 1886; masons from 23s. -26s. to 32s. -348. ; colliers from 16s. -18s. to 22s. -288. CHAPTER XXV THE RISE AND DEPRESSION OF MODERN AGRICULTURE § 242. Services Rendered by the Great Landowners, Although there have been occasions in our industrial history when one is compelled to admit that the deeds of the landed gentry have called for anything but admiration, we yet must not overlook the great services which this class rendered to the agricultural interest in the eighteenth cen- tury. It has been already mentioned that the development and the success of English agriculture in the half- century or more before the Industrial Revolution was remarkable and extensive ; and this success was due to the efforts of the landowners ^ in introducing new agricultural methods. They took an entirely new departure, and adopted a new system. It consisted, as was mentioned before, in getting rid of bare fallows and poor pastures by, substituting root-crops and '^ artificial grasses.^ The fourfold or Norfolk rotation of crops was introduced,^ the landowners themselves taking an interest in and superintending the cultivation of their land and making useful experiments upon it. The number of these experimenting landlords was very considerable, and in course of time, though not by any means immediately, the tenant farmers followed them, and thus agricultural knowledge and skill became more and more widely diffused.* The reward of the landowners came rapidly. They soon found their pro- duction of corn doubled and their general produce trebled.* ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 472-475 ; Prothero, Agriculture in England in Did. Pol. Econ. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 468. * Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 43. * In 1836 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 149, mentions the various improvements in farming in a way which shows that by that time they were very widely employed. * Rogers, Economic Interpretation, 269. 427 428 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND They were able to exact higher rents,^ for they had taught their tenants how to make the land pay better, and, of course, claimed a share of the increased profit. About the years 1740-50 the rent of land, according to Jethro TuU, was 7s. an acre ; ^ some twenty years or more afterwards Arthur Young found the average rent of land to be 10s. an acre, and thought that in many cases it ought to have been more. Before very long it became more, indeed.^ Between 1790 and 1836 rent was at least doubled in every part of the country, and in many cases it was multiplied four or five times. Thus we are told, by a very competent authority,* that in Essex farms could be pointed out which just before the war of the French Revolution let at less than 10s. an acre ; but their rent rose rapidly during the war, till in 1812 it was 45s. to 50s. an acre; and though the rent was subsequently reduced, it remained double the figure of 1790. In Berkshire and Wiltshire, farms let at 14s. an acre rose to 70s. in 1810, and after a reduction were still 30s. in 1836, which gives an advance of no less than 114 per cent, on the first figure.^ In StaflTordshire, again, several farms on one estate are instanced, which in 1790 let at 8s. an acre, and after having advanced to 35s., were afterwards lowered to 20s., an advance of 150 per cent, within less than half a century.^ In Norfolk, Suffolk, and Warwick, the same, or nearly the same, rise was experienced, and it is more than probable that it was general throughout the kingdom. During the same period the prices of most of the articles which constitute the landowners' expen- diture fell materially, so that, this writer remarks, "if his condition be not improved in a corresponding degree, that circumstance must arise from improvidence or miscalculation or habits of expensive living beyond even what would be warranted by the doubling of income which he has experienced and is still enjoying." ^ In fact, it is evident that the employment of the new ^ Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 164, gives some startling instances. ^ Quoted by Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 268. ^ Of. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 477. * Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 164. ^ Ih,,i. 166. ^ lb. ^ lb. MODERN AGRICULTURE 429 methods in agriculture considerably benefited the land- owners, though the rise in rent is not to be attributed solely to this cause.^ It is probable that the landowner would not have done so much for agriculture if he had not expected to make something out of his experiments ; but the fact that he was animated by an enlightened self-interest does not make his work any the less valuable. The pioneers of this improved agriculture came from Norfolk, among the first being Lord Townshend and Mr Coke, the descendant of the great Chief Justice. The former introduced into Norfolk the growth of turnips and artificial grasses, and was laughed at by his contemporaries as Turnip Townshend ; the latter was the practical exponent of Arthur Young's theories as to the advantages to be derived from large farms and capitalist farmers.^ With improvements in cultivation, and the increase both of assiduity and skill, came a corresponding improvement in the live stock. The general adoption of root crops in place of bare fallows, and the extended cultiva- tion of artificial grasses, supplied the farmer with a great increase of winter feed, the quality and nutritive powers of which were greatly improved.? Hence with abundance of fodder came abundance of stock, while at the same time great improvements took place in breeding. This was mainly due to Bakewell (1760-85), who has been aptly described as "the founder of the graziers' art."* He was the first sci entifi c breeder of s beep^ and cattle, and the methods which he adopted with his Leicester sheep and longhorns were applied throughout the country by other breeders to their own animals.^ The growth of population also caused a new impetus to be given to the careful rearing and breeding of cattle for the sake of food, while the sheep especially became even more useful than before, since, in addition to the value of its fleece, its carcase now was more ^ It was due, e.g., also to the rise in the price of com, which came from (1) bad harvests, (2) growth of population, and (3) the great increase in prices during the war. 2 Prothero, Agriculture in England, in Diet. Pol. Econ., and also Pioneers of English Farming (1881), p, 79. ' Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 475. * Prothero, Agriculture in England, in Diet. Pol. Econ. '^ lb. ; cf. also his Pioneers and Progress of English Farming generally. 430 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND in demand than ever for meat. In various ways, therefore, the improvements in agriculture mark a very important advance, and the close of the eighteenth century witnessed changes in the field as great in their way as those in the factory. § 243. The Agricultural Revolution, The new agriculture, indeed, brought with it a revolu- tion as important in its way as the Industrial Revolution. One of the chief features of the change — the enclosures — has been already commented upon.^ The enclosure of the common fields was beneficial,^ and to a certain extent justifiable, for the tenants paid rent for them to the lord of the manor. But it was effected at a great loss to the smaller tenant, and when his common of pasture was enclosed as well, he was greatly injured,^ while the agricul- tural labourer was permanently disabled. Whereas between t 1710 and 1760 only some 300,000 acres had been enclosed, in the period between 1760 and 1843 nearly seven million underwent the same process.* The en- closure system, however, was only part of a great change that was passing over the country ; it was but another sign i of the introduction of capitalist methods into modern in-^ dustry. We have already noted the growth of the capitalist element in manufactures, and have seen how the small manufacturer died out, while his place was taken by the owner of one or more huge factories, who employed hun- dreds of men under him ; and now we see very much the same process in agriculture. The small farmer and the \^ yeoman disappear, and the large capitalist takes his place. [The substitution of large for small farms is, in fact, one of the chief signs of the Agricultural Revolution.^ It was both the cause and the effect of the enclosures; ^ Above, pp. 274, 275 ; also Prothero, Pioneers, pp. 66-74. 2 Above, p. 275 ; and Toynbee, Industrial Bevolution, p. 89. 3/&.,p. 89. * /if)., p. 89 ; cf. Prothero, Pioneers, p. 71, who mentions that from 1777 to 1793 only 599 Enclosure Acts were passed, but from 1793 to 1809 no less than 1052 Acts, involving some four-and-a-half million acres. ^ Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 89. MODERN AGRICULTURE 431 and, of course, as large farms could only be worked by men possessed of large capital, it marks very clearly the growth of capitalist methods.^ It should be noted, however, that the reason for enclosures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was quite different from that which caused them in the sixteenth century. The earlier were for the sake of pasture, and the later to get land for tillage.^ That the changes induced by the new system have been beneficial to agriculture no one will attempt to deny, just as no one can dispute the benefits conferred upon industry by the use of machinery ; but, at the same time, one cannot be blind to the fact that these great industrial changes, both in manufactures and agriculture, brought a great amount of \ ^misg ry with themj^oth to the smaller employers and the mass of tEe'^mployed. " The change in agriculture brought with it a new agricultural and social crisis more severe than that of the Tudor period. The [eighteenth] century closed with the miseries that resulted from enclosures, consolida- ] tion of holdings, and the reditction of thousands of small farmers to the ranks of wage-dependent labourers. The result of the crisis was to consolidate large estates, extin- guish the yeomanry and peasant proprietary, to turn the small farmers into hired labourers, and to sever the con- nection of the labourer from the soil. ' ^ In a comparatively short time the face of rural England was completely changed ; the common fields, those quaint relics of primi- tive times, were almost entirely swept away, and the large enclosed fields of to-day, with their neat hedgerows and clearly-marked limits, had taken their places. There is a far wider difference between the rural England of the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the beginning of the seventeenth or even eighteenth, than between the England of William of Orange and of William of Normandy. * Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 181, remarks how both in England and Scotland " the tendency has been to enlarge the size of farms, and to place them under the charge of men possessed of capital. " 2 Prothero, Pioneers, p. 72. ' Prothero, Agriculture in England, in Did. Pol. Econ., p. 29, and Pioneers of English Farming, p. 73. 432 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND The improvements in agriculture, the enclosures, the consolidation of small into large farms, and the appearance of the capitalist farmer are, then, the chief signs of the Agricultural Revolution. They form an almost exact parallel to the inventions of machinery, the bringing together of workers in factories, the consolidation of small bye-occupations into larger and more definite trades, and the appearance of the capitalist millowner in the realm of manufacturing industry. Concurrently with these changes we notice certain contemporaneous events which, though not first causes,^ were still important factors in the general Revolution. These are the increase of population, the growth of speculative farming by capitalists, and the high prices of grain. Upon the increase of population we have already ^ commented, and it is needless to point out how it encouraged agriculture by enlarging the home market for food products. The second and third facts — speculative farming and high prices of grain — are to some extent con- nected, and were due not only to the scarcity which marked the harvests at the close of the eighteenth century, and the consequent pressure of population upon subsist- ence, but also to the artificial conditions created by the Com Laws.^ Upon the Corn Laws we shall have some- thing to say almost immediately ; here it should be re- marked that the bad harvests of 1765 to 1774, and the irregularity of the seasons from 1775 onwards, caused exceedingly violent fluctuations in the price of corn,^ and these fluctuations were the opportunity of the speculative capitalist farmer. In March 1780, wheat was 38s. 3d. a qr., at Michaelmas of that year 48s., and in March 1781 it rose to 56s. lld.^ Now these violent fluctuations of price gave to those who could hold large stocks of com the opportunity of gaining enormous profits, while the smaller men, who either worked in common fields or had small * It is rathei strange that Dr Cunningham {Growth of Industry, ii. 480) should say that these three minor facts were the chief causes ** whereby the whole chamcter of English agriculture was changed." 2 Above, p. 349. « Cf. Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, p. 83. * Cunninghajptr, Growth of Industry, ii. 476, 477. 5 Tooke, Prices, i. 76. MODERN AGRICULTURE 433 separate holdings, were generally compelled to realise their corn immediately after harvest, and consequently suffered severely when prices were low.^ In 1779, for instance, many farmers were ruined by low prices,^ and yet in other years prices were often excessively high. The nature of these violent fluctuations, caused partly by real scarcity and partly by the Corn Laws, was aggravated during the war by the fact that hardly any foreign supplies of com were available owing to the interruption of commerce ; and in any case there was not as yet that enormous import of foreign grain which to-day serves to steady the prices of the home market. But these alternations of high and low prices caused an amount of speculation which brought farming into the same category as the uncertainties of the Stock Exchange, and while it often brought huge profits to those who had capital enough to wait, led many of the smaller farmers into ruin. Thus the disappearance of small farms, already begun, was largely accelerated, and an important feature of the Agricultural Revolution became still more strongly marked. On the average, however, we find that the prices of grain, apart from these fluctuations, were steadily rising, and grain-growing continued to be very profitable to those who could afford to disregard sudden alterations in prices. The reason for the profits of agricul- ture at this period we can now examine. § 244. The Stimulus caused by the Bounties. The real commencement of the system of imposing heavy protective duties upon the importation of grain from abroad in the interest of the landowners was the Act 22 Charles II., c. 1 3. This Act ^ practically prohibited import except when wheat was at famine prices, as it happened to be in 1662, when it was 62s. 9Jd. a quarter, the ordinary aver- age price being 41s.* But it did not reach this price again for many years afterwards. The Government of 1688, not 1 Cunningham, u. «., ii. 477-479. 2 /j_^ ^i ^^'j'j^ ^ By this law 16s. a qr. was imposed on wheat as long as it was at and below 53s. 4d., and 8s. a qr. when it was between 53s. 4d. and 80s. j Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV., ch. v. (Vol. II., p. 113). jrs, Hist. Agric, v. 276, and c/. ch. vii, of Vol. V, 2 E ■; 434 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND content with the foregoing protective measure, added a bounty of 5s. per qr. upon the export of corn from Eng- land.^ But the effect of this bounty was not felt for several years, for, fortunately, soon after the passing of the Bounty Act, a series of plentiful harvests occurred, and com was very cheap.^ There were consequently loud outcries from the landlords about agricultural distress, which merely meant that the people at large were enjoying cheap food. The aim of the bounty on corn had been to raise prices by encouraging its export, and thus rendering it scarcer and dearer in England.^ As a matter of fact, it had the opposite effect, for it served as a premium upon which the wheat- grower could speculate, and thus induced him to sow a larger breadth of his land with wheat. The premium upon production caused producers to grow more than the market required, and so prices fell.* Thus, happily for the con- sumer, the Corn Laws and the bounty were harmless during the greater part of the eighteenth century,^ for farmers competed one against the other sufficiently to keep down prices, and with a small population the supply was generally sufficient to meet the demand. But the inevitable Nemesis of protective measures came at the end of the century, when population was growing with unexampled rapidity, and required all the corn it could get Then the prices of corn rose to a famine pitch, while the duty upon its importation, even when it was lowered, prevented it coming into the country in sufficient quantities. By a law of 1773, however, the importation of foreign wheat was allowed when English wheat was more than 48s. per qr.^ In 1791 a duty of 24s. 3d. was imposed as long as English wheat was less than 50s. a qr. ;^ if English wheat was over 60s. the duty was 2s. 6d. The landed 1 The 1 William and Mary, § 1, c. 12. ^ Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 377. » Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV., ch. v. (Vol. 11., 115). * Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 378, who instances the similar result in the case of the premium on beet sugar abroad. »/6.,p. 378. • The 13 Geo. IH., c. 43 ; {L,Fpe § 248. The Causes of the Depression, Now it is perfectly obvious, to an impartial observer of economic facts, that an industry, so flourishing as English agriculture was not very many years ago, could not have suffered so severe a collapse unless there had been some great underlying cause, besides the ordinary complaints of bad harvests and foreign competition already referred to. These must have due weight given them, but bad harvests are not peculiar to England, and foreign com- petition, however keen it may be, has first to overstep a very considerable natural margin of protection in the cost of carriage. It costs, for instance, according to a high American authority, 9s. per quarter to transport American wheat from Chicago to London.^ It is clear that besides these, there must have been other influences of consider- able importance to cause English agriculture to have been, in spite of its apparent prosperity, in so insecure a position that it should have sunk to the depressed condition in which it even now remains. We have not to look far for the causes. There are several, and one among them is the| lack of agricultural capital. But how, it may naturally be asked, has it come about that the English farmer, after the very favourable period before the depression, should thus suffer from a lack of capital, a lack which renders it almost impossible for him to work his land properly ? The answer is simple. His capital has been greatly decreased, surely, though not always slowly, by an enormous increase in his rent. The landlords of the eighteenth century, it has been said, perhaps somewhat too severely, made the English farmer the foremost agriculturist in the world, but their successors of the nineteenth have ruined him by their extortions.^ Such, at any rate, is the verdict of eminent agricultural authorities ; and landowners have been compelled, for their own sake, to reduce the exorbitant rents which they ^ Mr David Wells, quoted by Thorold Rogers, in The Relations of Economic Science to Social and Political Action, p. 12. Mr Edward Atkinson puts it at lis. This is about ,^d. per ton per mile. 2 Thorold Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 182. 442 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND received in former years. Unfortunately, too, the attention of other classes of the community has been, till lately, diverted from the condition of our agriculture by the prosperity of our manufactures. But these two branches of industry, the manufacturing and the agricultural, are closely interdependent, and must suffer or prosper together. It is possible, also, that there are certain economic theories which have helped the decline of English agriculture. They are the Ricardian theory of rent, and the dubious " law of diminishing returns." ^ They have made many people think that this decline was inevitable, and have diverted their attention from a very important, though not the only, cause of the trouble — namely, the increase of,, rent. But putting the possible effect of these theories aside, we may employ ourselves more profitably in looking at the facts of the case. It has been mentioned before, that in Tull's time, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the average rent of agricultural land was 7s. per acre, and by Young's time, towards the close of the century, it had risen to 10s. per acre.^ Diffused agricultural skill caused an increase of profits, and the hope of sharing in these profits led farmers to give competitive rents, which afterwards the landlords proceeded to exact in full, and frequently to increase. The farmers were enabled to pay (higher rents by the low rate of wages paid to their labourers,^ a rate which the justices tended to keep down by their assessments. In 1799 we find land paying nearly 20s. an acre; in 1812 the same land pays over 25s. ; in 1830, again, it was still at about 25s., but by 1850 it had risen to 38s. 8d., which was about four times Arthur Young's average.* Indeed, £2 per acre was not an uncommon rent for good land a few years ago (1885),^ the average increase of English rent being no less than 2 6 J per cent, between ^ I have dealt with them in an article in the Westminster RevieWy December 1888, but perhaps their importance is overrated. "^ Both Tull and Young are quoted by Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History y p. 176. 3 76., p. 179 ; and cf. Six Centuries, p. 492. * Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, v. 29. ^ W. E. Bear, The British Farmer and his Competitors, p. 31. The cal- culation as to the increase in rent is Mr James Howard's. MODERN AGRICULTURE 443 1854 and 1879. Now, such rent as this was enormous, and could only be paid in very good years. In ordinary years, and still more in bad years, it was paid out of the farmer's capital.^ This process of payment was facilitated by the fact that the farmer of this century did not keep his accounts properly, a fruitful source of eventual evil frequently commented upon by agricultural authorities,^ and obvious enough to anyone who knows many farmers person- ally ; and, also, by the other fact, that even when the tenant perceived that he was working his farm at a loss, the immediate loss (of some 10 or 15 per cent.^) involved in getting out of his holding was heavy enough in most cases to induce him to submit to a rise in his rent rather than lose visibly so much of his capital.* The invisible process, however, was equally certain, if not so immediate. The result has been that the average capital per acre now employed in agriculture is only about £4 or £5, instead of at least £10, as it ought to be,^ and the farmer cannot afford to pay for a sufficient supply of labour, so that the agricultural population is seriously diminishing. Nothing in modern agriculture is so serious as this decline of the rural population, and we must, further on, devote a few words to a consideration of the agricultural labourer and the conditions of his existence. But before doing so it may be well to point out, for fear of misconception, that the high rent of English agricultural land is not the only cause of 1 Prothero.on Agricultural Depression, in Diet. Pol. Econ., i. 564, points out that even after 1874, "the last of a cycle of prosperous years," rent continued to rise for two years longer, and that farmers have lost their capital. ^ Rogers, Six Centuries, 471, and Rdations of Economic Science, p. 17. 2 Rogers, Rdations of Economic Science, p. 17. ^ The state of the case is very clearly and forcibly put by Thorold Rogers in the pamphlet just quoted, p. 18. ^ Ih., p. 17. Elsewhere Rogers (Six Centuries, p. 471) remarks that Arthur Young, even in his time, set down £6 an acre as the minimum capital necessary for successful agriculture, which is equivalent to more like £12 at the present time. Rogers also mentions that on certain land known to him the capital was (in 1878) under £6 an acre. My own calcula- tions on this head will be found in the Economist of April 28th, 1888, and they coincide closely, though independently, with the statements made by Professor Rogers. 444 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the depression. It is a very important cause, and operates in more ways than are usually seen on the surface, nor is it any argument to say, as some have done, that because land will not pay for the expense of farming, even when it is let rent free, that therefore the former high rent had nothing to do with the matter. For when a farmer has lost all his capital in paying rent when he was not earning it, he is not anxious to continue the experiment even at a reduction of that rent, especially when he knows that, if successful, he will only have to pay more rent again in the future. But, apart from this, the causes of the depression are manifold and various. Almost chief among them may be placed a 1 certain lack of adaptability to changed circumstances which liias characterised the British farmer as compared with his foreign competitors. This is very noticeable in the case of dairy farming, where foreign producers have rapidly over- taken our own countrymen in supplying the British home market. ■ Many an English farmer has gone on growing wheat for years after it was obviously a loss to him, when he might gradually have introduced some other crop. Again, he has neglected dairy farming, or only carried it on on unscientific principles, wffle foreigners have been scientifi- cally perfecting their methods. He has certainly despised the smaller industries of the farm, such as poultry-rearing and egg-producing,^ so that our home market is now largely stocked with fowls and eggs from France, Germany, Den- mark, and even Italy. Again, as a nation, we have paid too little heed to agricultural education, and though so- | called "technical instruction" is now given, it is conducted in many places in a most chaotic manner, and money is lavishly wasted with the minimum of result. Dairy schools are certainly at length being established, but not before they had become familiar to every Danish cowherd and Danish butter was ousting our own from the home market. Here, as elsewhere in our educational system, the State has neglected duties which every other great European nation ^ It is only in the last two years (1895) that the fanners of a certain parish which I know well in Wiltshire have paid attention to their poultry, by placing fowl-houses for them in the stubble after harvest. MODERN AGRICULTURE 445 has long since taken upon itself, so that our British farmers are, like our British mechanics, the most sensible and yet the most ignorant of their kind. But to enumerate all the causes of the present agricul- tural depression would exhaust both the patience of the reader and the industry of the writer, more especially as many of them are inextricably implicated in the general conditions of English industry.^ Those already mentioned — high rents and low prices, foreign competition and domes-l tic carelessness, lack of capital and want of education — arej possibly among the chief. Everyone who knows much about agriculture will add others from his own experience, and those who know but little will add still more. It is, therefore, perhaps better to consider a subject which is closely connected with them, and of dangerous importance to the nation at large. I refer to the serious depopulation of the rural districts. § 249. The Labourer and the Land, It has been previously mentioned ^ that the Industrial Revolution was accompanied by an equally important re- volution in agriculture : the main features of the agrarian revolution being the consolidation of small into large farms, the introduction of new methods and machinery, the en- closure of common fields and waste lands, and discontinu- ance of the old open-field system, and, finally, the divorce of the labourer from the land. The consolidation of farms reduced the number of farmers, while the enclosures drove the labourers off the land, for it became almost impossible for them to exist on their low wages now that their old rights of keeping small cattle and geese upon the commons, of having a bit of land round their cottages, and other privileges, were ruthlessly taken from them.^ They have retreated in large numbers into the towns, and taken up other pursuits, or helped to swell the ranks of English pauperism. Before the Industrial and Agrarian Revolu- See Prothero's excellent article in Vol. I. of Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy. ^ Above, pp. 343, 430. * Above, pp. 335, 408 ; and Prothero, Pioneers, ^The most important of the new measures was the gradual alteration '^ of the old Navigation Laws, finally culminating in their total repeal in IS^A. It was also Huskisson who, in 1823, passed a "Reciprocity of Duties ^ This is for the U. K., but of course the greater part came from Eng- land ; AccoutUs and Papers^ 1830, xxvii. 211, and, for French imports, ., iv. 314 (railways); Leone Levi, British Commerce, p. 310; Pal- grave's Diet. Pol. Econ. , i. 459. * Diet. Pd. Econ., i. 459. ° Diet. Pol. Econ., i. 464 ; Hyndman, Commercial Crises, ch. v. 2 G 466 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND another few years continued to prosper till the cotton in- dustry was for a second time almost ruined by the effects of the Slavery War between the Northern and Southern States of America. A " cotton famine " occurred in Lancashire, when 800,000 wage-earners were deprived of their live- lihood. This caused an increase of cotton-growing in India, which has continued since that time.^ § 260. Commercial Crises since 1865. But once again this industry recovered from what seemed to be a very severe blow, and the close of the American War in 1865 even gave a further impetus to new business, while, at the same time, considerable developments took place in our trade with China, India, and Australia. But the very next year the sudden and unexpected failure of the great bill-broking firm of Overend, Gurney & Co. caused much panic,^ not only in financial but in industrial circles, though the ordinary symptoms of crisis were fortun- ately not apparent in the trade returns, and for some years our prosperity continued to increase, till a crisis ^ of truly international magnitude occurred in 1873. It was felt from New York to Moscow, and affected the trade industry and agriculture of all intervening countries. It was due to some extent to the great financial inflation which took place within the German Empire after the payment of ^200,000,000 indemnity by the French to their con- querors, while a similar inflation prevailed in the United States, owing to the rapid growth of business and the ex- tension of railways after the Civil War. England escaped much of the severity of this international crisis (1873),* but soon afterwards suffered from agricultural depression, and has continued to do so since, from the causes mentioned in a previous chapter. During the last twenty years, the two most severe periods of crisis have taken place in 1882 and ^ Hyndman, Commercial Crises, p. 93. 2/&.,p. 95. «/6.,ch. vii. * Though two great failures — that of Collie & Co., in 1875, and the Glasgow Bank, in 1878 — showed that there was some uneasiness. * Hyndman, Commercial Crises, chs. viii. and ix. MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 467 1890, the former connected with the failure of the Union Oenerale of France, combined with the low prices and general stagnation of trade in Great Britain, which lasted till 1888 ; and the latter due to the extravagant specula- tion, especially in South American securities, which termin- ated in the difficulties experienced by the well-known firm of Baring Brothers, and the panic which followed the discovery of their unsafe situation. More recently still, the increasingly protective M'Kinley tariff adopted by the United States has had a depressing effect upon many British industries. § 261. The Becent Depression in Trade. Still more recently (1895) there has been an outburst of speculative activity in the shares of South African gold- mines, and some derangement has occurred, but we are assured by an eminent authority ^ that there has been no absolute panic since 1866. There has been, however, a very long period of depression, beginning about 1875 and gradually growing worse till 1885, when a Commission was appointed to take evidence on the subject. The peculiarity of this depression has been its gradual growth and con- tinuance, in contrast to the former crises, which occurred after periods of sudden inflation, and passed away with comparative rapidity. The evidence of the Commission of 1885 showed that during this depression wages had, on the whole, remained firm, and that the incomes of those in trades and professions had actually increased, while, on the other hand, profits had been lowered, and the rate of interest reduced. It was agreed by most of the witnesses before the Commission that there had been much over- production, and though this is true to some extent, it would seem, on the whole, that at least one of the main causes of this prolonged depression was a slow but radical change in the relations of labour and capital, causing a closer approximation between the shares of the total product 1 Mr W. Fowler in his article on the Crises of 1857, 1866, and 1890, in Palgrave's Diet. Pol. Econ. , i. 462. The articles on Crises in this Dic- tionary should be compared with Hyndman's views in his book above quoted. 468 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND allotted to each. It is also probable that the term de- pression is only comparative in this case, and only shows a falling-off as compared with the abnormal activity of 1871-74, and also it should be borne in mind that, though English manufacturers have hitherto had a considerable start over their foreign neighbours, this advantage cannot be expected always to continue, as other countries will naturally tread more closely on the heels of our own in the race of international competition. In any case, however, there is no immediate fear for the future of English industry, although individual merchants or manufacturers may suffer, for it has already been seen above (p. 461) that the volume of our trade is by no means yet diminish- ing. But there are certain considerations on this subject of crises and depressions which are of a more general character. The causes of such depressions in trade are various, and not always obvious. They are, so to speak, dislocations of industry, resulting largely from mistaken calculations on the part of those " captains of industry " whose raison d'Mre is their ability to interpret the changing requirements in the great modem market of the civilised world. A failure in their calculations, a slight mistake as to how long the demand for a particular class of goods will last, or as to the number of those who require them, results very soon in a glut of the market, in a case of what is called "over- production," but is in reality merely production of the wjong things ; and this is as inevitably followed by a period of depression, occasionally enlivened by desperate struggles on the part of some manufacturer to sell his goods at any cost. With such a vast field as the inter- national market, it is not to be wondered at that such mistakes are by no means rare, nor does it seem as if it were possible to avoid them under the present unorganised and purely competitive industrial system. They have been aggravated in England by a belief that our best customers are to be found in foreign markets, while the importance of a steady, well established, and well understood home market is not fully perceived. " A pound of home trade," it has MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 469 been said/ "is more significant to manufacturing industry than thirty shillings or two pounds of foreign." The com- parison may not be exact, but it is on the right lines. Now one of the most important branches of our home trade must be the supplying of agriculturists with manufactures in exchange for food. But when the purchasing power of this class of the community has sunk as much as £43,000,000 per annum,^ it is obvious that such a loss of custom must seriously affect manufacturers. Again, no small portion of our home market must consist in the pur- chases made by the working classes, yet it does not seem to occur to capitalist manufacturers that if they pay a large proportion of the industrial classes the lowest possible wages, and get them to work the longest possible hours, while thus obtaining an ever-increasing production of goods, the question must sooner or later be answered ; who is going to consume the goods thus produced ? §262. Tke Present Mercantile System. Foreign Markets. The answer as far as the capitalist is concerned seems to be — foreign customers in new markets. English manufac- turers and capitalists have consistently supported that policy which seemed likely to open up these new markets to their goods. For a considerable time, as we saw, they occupied themselves very wisely in obtaining cheap raw material by passing enactments actuated by Free Trade principles, and removing protective restrictions. Cheap raw material having thus been gained, and machinery having now been developed to such an extent as to increase pro- duction quite incalculably, England sends her textile and other products all over the world. She seems to find it necessary to discover fresh markets every generation or so, in order that this vast output of commodities may be sold. The merchant and manufacturing classes have supported and still support this policy, from a desire, apparently, rather to find new customers than to keep the old ; and, largely for the sake of British trade, wars have been made ^ Thorold Rogers, Relations of Economic Science to Social and Political Action^ p. 10. * Sir J. Lawes, quoted above, p. 451, note 1. 470 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND on China, Egypt, and Burmah, while at the present moment England is scrambling with Germany, Portugal, and other powers for the new markets of Africa. To-day, indeed, the industrial history of our country seems to have reached a point when production under a purely mercantile system is overreaching itself It must go on and on without ceasing, finding or fighting for an outlet for the wealth produced, lest the whole gigantic system of international commerce should break down by the mere weight of its own im- mensity. Meanwhile, English manufacturers are complain- ing of foreign competition in plaintive tones, a complaint which merely means that, whereas they thought some years ago that they had a complete monopoly in supplying the requirements of the world, they are now perceiving that they have not a monopoly at all, but only a good start, while other nations are already catching them up in the modern race for wealth. § 263. Over-production and Wages, With all this, too, we hear cries of over-production, a phrase which economically is meaningless (except in so far as it indicates that production is proceeding in the wrong direction), more especially at a time when very large numbers of people in civilised communities are daily on the verge of starvation, when the paupers of every civilised country are numbered by thousands, and plenty of people who never complain have neither enough clothes to wear nor enough food to eat. Wages are certainly better than they were fifty years ago, but no one who knows the facts of the case will deny that for the average workman — I am not speaking of skilled artisans and the dite of the working classes — it is practically impossible to save anything out of his wages that would form an adequate provision against old age or sickness. It is not the business of a historian to vituperate any particular class, but he may justly point out the mistakes to which classes have as a matter of his- tory been liable. And the great mistake of the capitalist class in modern times has been to pay too little wages. It is an old agricultural saying — quoted, I believe, as Arthur MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 471 Young's — that one cannot pay too much for good land, or too little for bad land. The same remark applies to labour. Capitalist employers rarely make the mistake of paying too much for bad labour, but they have constantly, as a matter of history, committed the worse error of paying too little for good labour. There are, however, signs at present that this state of things is being altered. But at the beginning of this century, as has been shown, the coming of the capitalists and of the capitalist factory system, beneficial as it was ultimately to England, was followed by a time of unprecedented misery and poverty for those whom they employed. The day of the capitalist has come, and he has made full use of it. To-morrow will be the day of the labourer, provided that he has the strength and the wisdom to use his opportunities. § 264. The Power of Labour, Trades Unions and Go-operation. For the labourers of to-day are a very different class from their ancestors of fifty or seventy years ago. They have learnt, at least the most advanced among them, the power of combination, a remedy which at one time was forbidden them, but which is now fortunately once more theirs. The steady growth of Trades Unions and of Co-operative Societies has taught them habits of self-reliance and of thrift, and has made them look more closely into the eco- nomic conditions of industry. These unions and societies do not yet embrace more than a small fraction of English workmen, but they contain the best and worthiest of them, and their members are able to preserve a certain indepen- dence of attitude in treating with their employers. Even as it is, the gigantic power of modem capital finds itself occasionally confronted by the united forces of modern labour. But these occasions are rare, and more often an isolated body of workmen engages in a futile conflict with superior strength. The great Dock Strike of 1889 showed, indeed, what power the union of labour might possess, but the success of that famous conflict was, after all, due to other causes than the solidarity of labour, and many 472 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND subsequent events have shown the weakness of the workmen who enter upon these deplorable struggles. It may be deplored that the relations of employer to employed are such as to necessitate these combinations, but it cannot always be said that it is the fault of the labourer if the relations of labour and capital are somewhat strained. Whether he looks back to the days of assessment of wages and the Law of Settlement ; to the Statutes of Labourers of the Middle Ages, or the Combination Laws of more modern times ; whether he remembers the degradation and horrors of the first factories and mines, or the grinding misery of agricultural life after his common rights had been taken from him, and he and his children worked in gangs not so well cared for as foreign slaves — when he hears of all these things he naturally does not credit the employer of his labour with the best intentions towards him. Nothing is so wasteful and nothing so dangerous as industrial strife ; but before the labourer can fairly be called upon to desist from it he must have some guarantee of his own industrial freedom and safety. This he is rapidly gaining, and when masters and men re- cognise alike the identity of interest and the equal rights of Capital and Labour, the industrial history of England will have entered upon a new era of more solid prosperity. . At present the position of the working-classes has been \/vastly improved in their political relations, and there are Itoiany signs that they are using political means — as other Iclasses have done — to gain economic ends. The spirit of democracy is gaining strength, and the wave of democratic progress is washing down the ancient barriers of privilege and rank. Its advance has been welcomed by thinkers and statemen of no mean order, and the advent of political power is hailed as bringing with it material prosperity. Yet there must remain, even in the minds of many who sympa- ^thise with the industrial classes, grave doubts as to the ultimate benefits of a popular government ; and the gravest doubt of all arises when it becomes increasingly evident that \ the advance of democracy practically involves the acquisition I of irresponsible power by the working-classes, who form already the majority of parliamentary voters. No man, and MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 473 no mass of meD, has yet been found fit to be trusted foi) long with such a power, for it is a weapon which wounds' equally those who use it and those against whom it is directed. And unless the working-classes of England can learn a lesson from the errors of their former rulers in the past, there can be but little hope that they will reach the highest level of national prosperity in the future. § 265. The Necessity of Studying Economic Factors in History, For, hitherto, our prosperity, great as it is, has frequently had its drawbacks, and has passed through many vicissi- tudes. Our ancestors and ourselves have made many mistakes, and till recently, as we have seen, the growth of our national wealth has been slow. But a study of industrial history is not without its uses, if it helps us to-day to understand how we have come into our present position, and what faults and follies we must avoid in order to retain it. Unfortunately, few historians have thought it worth their while to study seriously the economic factors in the history of nations. They have contented themselves with the intrigues and amusements of courtiers and kings, the actions of individual statesmen, or the destructive feats of military heroes. They have often failed to explain properly the great causes which neces- sitated the results they claim to investigate. But just as it is impossible to understand the growth of England with- out a proper appreciation of the social and industrial events which rendered that growth possible, and provided the expenses which that growth entailed, so it will be impos- sible to proceed in the future without a systematic study of economic and industrial affairs. For the great political questions of the day are becoming more and more economic questions. We have only to look round Europe to-day and we may judge from the occurrences of the present how far economic questions are in the forefront of politics. Con- tinental nations are struggling under the double burden of military necessities and protective tariffs, and are trying to find a market for their protected manufactu^s^^h^^Mi ( UNIVERSITY 474 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND aggressive colonisation that is increasingly likely to involve them in international difficulties. France has sought fresh colonies in Madagascar, Africa, and the Far East ; and her interests are continually clashing with those of England. Germany and our own country are face to face in Africa. Both France and Germany are seriously threatened from time to time with violent social movements connected largely with labour troubles, and the same causes arei> operating in Spain and Austria. The agricultural crisis that has long prevailed in Russia only aggravates the general financial difficulties of that much-disturbed and much-disturbing empire. Every foreign power, whether in the Old World or the New, which either has colonies now or intends to have them soon, regards England's colonial empire with an unceasing jealousy, and does not even attempt to conceal its delight when any difficulty arises that may compromise England's position. This jealousy is the natural feeling of the poor towards the rich, and of the debtor towards the creditor. It finds its economic interpretation in the fact that England has planted her flag, sold her goods, and lent her money in every quarter of the globe. Yet at home, with all our riches, we have reasons for anxiety. The agrarian difficulties in Ireland have proceeded largely from economic as well as from national and political causes,, and may lead us into an expenditure which will severely tax our industrial resources. The Eight Hours* Movement has already developed into a political question, and industrial legislature is more and more becoming the order of the day. Our relations with our colonies, and especially with India, require most careful treatment upon an economic basis. vfJommercial and industrial considerations must weigh more and more heavily with us if we are thoroughly to secure our position as a united and stable empire. They are not by any means the only considerations, yet those of us who wish to help in maintaining and in forwarding the progress of modem England must seek to answer clearly the economic questions that are pressing themselves upon us, by looking at them in the light afforded by the industrial history of a great industrial nation. INDEX Aboriginal races of Britain, 6 Accounts, agricultural, 113 Agrarian difficulties (sixteenth cen- tury), 211, 217 Agriculture, Celtic, 13 in Roman period, 25 ; early in- fluences in, 27 ; Saxon, 39 ; later, 99 ; mediaeval, 112 ; (methods of), 113, 116, 185 ; (sixteenth century), 211, 247 ; (seventeenth century), 265 ; writers on, 268 ; (eighteenth century), 270; (agricultural popu- lation), 331, 335; (modem agric), 427, ch. XXV. ; (revolution in), 430 ; (protection in), 435 ; (improve- ments), 436; (depression in), 439- 445 ; (prices of produce), 440 ; (agric. capital), 443 ; (value of land), 451 ; (revival of), 452 Allowance system of relief, 408, 413 Alfred, 46 America, discovery of, 218 ; colonies in, 285, 289, 295, 366 ; war, 367- 370 ; (civil war), 463 Antwerp, 228, 230 Apprentice system, 95 ; (Elizabethan law), 259 ; (in factories), 388 Arch, Joseph, 449 Arkwright, 343 Assessment of wages, 253-259, 281 Assiento contract, 289 Assize, 139 > • » iv . B Bailiff, 114, 174 Bakewell, 429 ■ Banking, 299; (Bank of England), 300, 322, 374 Barter, 43 Bordars, 72 Bounties on com, 433 Brickmaking, 316 Bright, John, on factory acts, 405 Bronze age, 8 Bye-industries, 325, 329 ; (loss of), 885 Cabot, 193, 218 Canada, 295 Canals, 355 Cape Colony, 462 Capitalists, rise of, 324 Capitalist manufacturers, 325, 326, 381 Cattle, ancient, 7 ; improvements in, 271 Cartwright, 344 Celts in England, 5, 8 ; (Pytheas on),, 11-14 Chancellor, Richard, 231 Changes in fifteenth century, 192 in sixteenth century, 220 Charters of towns, 91 Charter, the Great, 101 Chartists, 377 Children in factories, 388-402 Closes, 115 Clothiers, 147 Coal and coal mining, 310-312, 353, 423 Cobbett, 376 Cobden, 460 Cockayne's monopoly, 306 Coke of Holkham, 429 Colonies, 290, 293, 295 ; (policy to- wards), 364 ; (American), 366 ; (war with), 368 ; (trade with), 461 Columbus, 193, 218 Combination Acts, 416 Commendation, 53, 61 Commerce in sixteenth and following centuries, 284-304, and see Trade Common fields, 115, 273 Communal ownership, see Manor Communal land, 115 Communication, improvements in, 354 ; (recent), 458 Co-operative societies, 471 Copyholders, 38 Com laws, 432, 435 Cottars, 72 Cotton manufactures, 346 Counties, population and wealth of, 67-69 475 476 INDEX Crises, commercial, 464-468 Crompton, 343 Cromwell, Oliver, 286 Crusades, 100 Cultivation, methods of (Saxon), 40 Currency (under Henry VIII.), 206 ; (Elizabeth), 235; (WiUiam III.), 300 Customary tenants, 56 Customs tariff, 375 Cuxham Manor, 79 Dairy, 115 Danes, 43-45, 61 Darby, Abraham, 314 Darien scheme, 301 Debasement of currency, 206 Defoe on commercial men, 322 Dock strike, 471 Domesday Book, 65-85 Domestic system of industry, 336 Drainage of fens, 268 ; ' Drainage, agricultural, 436, 437 Drake, 231, 232 Drawbacks of mediaeval life, 177 Dudley and iron trade, 313 Dutch (in agriculture), 249 ; (in trade), 287 ; wars with, 287 Dunstan, St, 41 Dyeing, 131, 305 Early Britain, people of, 10 ; condi- tion of, 11 East India Co., 285, 293, 463 N>^ Economic factors in history, 473 Edward III. and manufactures, 127; and staple, 136 Edward VI., 209 ; his ministers, 209, 234 Elizabethan seamen, 221, 231 Elizabethan England, 234-263 ^Enclosures, 119, 213, 215 ; results of (sixteenth centurv), 216-218 ; (seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies), 274; (benefits of), 275 j (number of), 335 Enumerated articles, the, 366 Exports, early, 15, 32 ; (Norman period), 100 ; (sixteenth century), 240 ; (later), 297, 455, 457 F Factory Acts, 391-406 ; (summary of), 403 Factory, germs of, 146 , early, 347 ; increase of, 348 ; life in, 388 Factory system, results of, 381, 388 ; factory agitation, 391-405 Fairs, 42, 140 Famine, 151, 178 Farmers, see Agriculture Fens drained, 268 Feudal system, 60, 98 Fifteenth century changes, 193 Finances (Ed. VI.), 210, 219, 220 Firma unius noctis, 54 Firma burgi, 90, 188 Fitzherbert, 171 Flanders, trade with, 229 Flemish weavers, 105, 121, 127, 129, Flemish immigrants, 241 Foreign trade (Saxon), 43 ; mediaeval, 223-233 ; (sixteenth century), 240 ; (seventeenth century), 297 ; (later), 455, 457 Forests, 17, 313 France, 291, 293 Frauds, statute of, 277 Free and unfree, 38, 73, 76 Free Trade, 456 Frobisher, 231 Fuggers, the, 210 Gang-labour in agriculture, 449 Geburs, 38 Geneat, 37 Gentry, country, 182 Gilds, 91 ; merchant, 93 ; craft, 94 ; functions of, 95 ; rural, 96 ; in cloth trade, 130 ; and towns, 189 ; lands, confiscation of, 207 ; revival of craft gilds, 246 Greshams, the, 229 Grossteste, 113 Halifax, 237 Hansa, the, 124, 227 Hargreaves, James, 343 Hawkins, 231 Henley, Walter de, 113 Henry VII., 193, 194, 196 INDEX 477 Henry VIII., expenses of, 199 ; popu- larity of, 201 ; and monasteries, 202 ; and coinage, 206 Huguenots, in England, 308 Husbandry (book), 113, and see Agriculture Huskisson, 456 Imports, 16, 32, 45, 101, 143, 224-227, 229, 297, 366, 455, 457 Income of different classes (eighteenth century), 334 Independence, American, 369 India, 285, 293 Industrial History, 3, 473 Industry, Celtic, 12-14 in Roman period, 31 Intercursus Magmis, 123 Inventors and inventions of eigh- teenth century, 343 Iron age, 9 Iron, 15 ; (iron trade), 313, 353 Isolation of villages, 41 Jack of Newbury, 147 Jews, 103 Labourers, statute of, 153, 165 Labourer, condition of (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), 172-179 ; (Elizabethan period), 251 ; (eigh- teenth and early nineteenth cen- turies), 407, 421 ; (agricultural), 447 Land, sentiment about, 322 , kinds of in a village, 82 , labourers and the, 445 Landowners and the Plague, 156, 164 Landowners, services of, 427 Large and small holdings, 157 Lords of the manors, 70 Machinery and hand labour, 383-385 Manchester, 237 ; Manchester Mas- sacre, the, 377 Manor and manorial system, 47-61, 70, 78 ; decay of, 85, 211 Manorial courts, 55, 80 Manual industry, 316 Manufacturers, small, 326 Manufactures, 104, 121, 125; (for- eign), 126 ; (and politics), 132 ; (in Elizabethan period), 237; (later), 305, 309 ; (domestic system), 336 Manufacturing population, 327 Manures, 437 Markets, 42, 107, 138 ; (foreign), 469 Mark theory, the, 48 ; (criticism), 49 Marshes, 18 Mary, Queen, 234 Mayor, 188 Mercantile theory, the, 359-364 Mercantile system, the present, 469 Merchants and politics, 138 Merton, statute of, 214 Methuen treaty, 302 Middle Ages, close of, 180, 194 Migration of population from South to North, 350 Mining (early), 9 ; (Roman), 31 ; (mediaeval), 315 ; (later), 316 ; (eighteenth century), 352 Monasteries, dissolution of, 202-205 Monopolies (of towns), 239 ; (other), 242-246 ; (Cockayne's), 306 Municipal institutions, 189 N Navigation Acts, 287, 456 Neolithic age, 6 Nobles, 181 Norman period, summary of, 108 Norwich, 125, 129 Oastler, 393 Origin of the manor, 58 Over-production, 470 Papal exactions, 123 Paris, Treaty of, 293 Pauperism, 195, 205, 219, 260, 410, 422 Peel, Robert, 459 Physical features of early Britain, 17 Pilgrimage of Grace, 203 Plague, the Great, 151-160 Plagues, 178 Piers the Plowman, 162 Pigs, 39, 116 Piracy, 145 478 INDEX Pole, Wm. de la, 137 ^^^Politics and industry, 321, 358, 376, y 418 Poor Laws, 205, 260, 411, 412 Population (in Domesday), 66, 106, 112 ; (Elizabethan), 263 ; eigh- teenth century), 332, 349-352; (decline of rural), 445, 446 Ports, 89, 107, 144 Pottery trade, 314, 338 Poultry, 116 Prehistoric influences, 4 Productivity of soil, 272 Progress, 149 Prices of provisions (mediaeval), 175 Protection in agriculture, 434, 435 Pytheas, 11-14 Q * Quia Emptores ' Statute, 158 Railways, 458 Raleigh, 231 Reform, parliamentary, 379 Regulation of prices, 139 Rent (in kind), 75 ; rise of, 213 ; (in seventeenth century), 267 ; later, 279 ; (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), 428 Revolt, the Peasants', 161-172 Revolution, the Industrial (eighteenth century), 323, 341 ; (and French), 342, 371, 379 ; (political results of industrial), 378, 418; (in agricul- ture), 430 Richard II., 166, 170 Roads and Rivers, 16 Roads, Roman, 22 , mediaeval, 354 (eighteenth century), 355 Romans in Britain, 21-31 Roses, Wars of the, 132, 195 S Sadler, M. T., 397 Salt, 42 Saxon period, 34, 46 Scotland, Union with, 302 Seebohm, F., referred to, 51 Services of tenants, 74 Settlement, Law of, 415, 416 Shaftesbury, Lord, 399, 403 Sheep, 117 Sheep farming, 118, 185, 216, 248 Silures, 6 Six Acts, the, 377 Sixteenth Century, summary of, 220 Slave trade, 45 Slaves, 72 Social comforts, 250 Sokemen, 75 Somerset the Protector, 209 South Sea Bubble, 303 Spain, wars with, 285, 289, 291 Speculation, 303 Spinning, 6, 14, 425 Speenhamland "Act," 409 Staple, the, 135, 136, 137 Steamboats, 458 Stock and land lease, 114, 186 Stock, 116 Stone age, 6 Stourbridge fair, 143 Supremacy of England, recent, 4 Survival of ancient population, 35 Taxation, 99 ; (on wool), 123 ; (in the Continental War), 373 Telegraphs, 458 Ten hours' day, agitation for, 397, 404 Tenants, classes of, 112 Thegen, 37 Tories, 321 ; (and factory acts), 405 Towns (Roman), 23 ; (Saxon), 42 ; (Domesday), 69 ; later, 86-97 ; origin of, 86 ; privileges of, 89 ; town life (mediaeval), 90, 134 ; decay of, 145 ; constitution of, 187 ; decay of, 190 ; new, 191 Townshend, Lord, 429 Trade, Free, 456 Tiade, early, 15 ; in Roman times, 31 ; foreign (Norman), 100 ; foreign (fourteenth to sixteenth century), 224 ; (sixteenth century), 240 ; (seventeenth century), 297 ; (in 1820), 455 ; (recent), 455, 467, 461 ; (depression in), 467 Trades Unions, 419, 449, 471 Union of Scotland and England, 302 Unions, Trades, see Trades Unions INDEX 479 Venetian fleet, 225 Verulamium, 33 Village life in eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, 328-331 Village, Saxon, 37 ; (in Norman period), 80 Village communities, 57 Villages, industrial, 146 Villeins, 72, 77, 150, 159 ; (revolt of), 168, 171 Vinogradoflf, referred to, 52 Wage-earning class. 111, 150 Wages, (mediaeval), 173, 175 ; (six- teenth century), 253 ; (assess- ment of), 253 ; (in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), 281 ; (in nineteenth century), 424 ; (agri- cultural), 447 ; (recent), 470 War, the Continental, 370, 372 ; cost of, 373, 424 Wars of nineteenth century, 463 Watt, James, 845 Wealth, distribution of (counties), 67, 107 Wealth and wars of England, 356 Weaving, 6, 14; (Flemish), 105; (sixteenth century), 238 ; (inven- tions in), 344 Wedgewood, 315 Whigs and Tories, 321 Wiklif, 163 William III., 289 Willoughby, 231 Winchester fair, 142 Wool and politics, 121 Wool, 113, 120 (and ch. ix), 124, 305, 309 Woollen manufacture and trade, 120; (ch. ix), 305, 309 Working classes, see Labourers Worsted trade, 129 Yeomen, 157, 183 ; decay of, 276 Zealand, New, 462 PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS, EDINBURGH THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. 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