INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND HISTORICAL OUTLINES BY H. DE B. GIBBINS, LiTT.D., M.A. 1MB UNIVERSITY (COBDEN) PRIZEMAN IN POUTICAL ECONOMY, OXFORD AUTHOR or "THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OP ENGLAND" AND "THE HISTORY OP COMMERCE IK EUROPE" WITH MAPS, TABLES, AND A PLAN SEVENTH EDITION, RRVr.ED METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.G. LONDON First Published . . . January 1897 Second Edition . . . November 1897 Third Edition . . . May 1903 Fourth Edition . January 1906 Fifth Edition . . . November 1907 Sixth Edition . . . October 1909 Seventh Edition, Revised . May ' OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY AND SOCIAL REFORM ". . . The Sibyl offer* her books, in which the future is forecast, to the Roman statesman, according to the legend. The price is refused twice, and, after each repulse, she destroys irrevocably one of the volumes, demanding the same price for the third. This is what Bacon called the wisdom of the ancients, and the moral is plain." JAMBS E. THOROLD ROGERS TO MY WIFE PREFACE IN 1890 the author published a small book, entitled The Industrial History of England, 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 social, 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 6 - viii INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND 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 archaBological 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 coursa 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, 1 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 1 As, .., The Peasant*' Revolt, the condition of the Labourer in the fifteenth century, the Poor Law of Elizabeth, the AMeaimcnt of Wages, 4c., Ac. x INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND 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 Industrial History of England) 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 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 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND more or less by that of another, there will always be a tendency to some injustice. 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 CONTENTS PERIOD I EARLY HISTORY, FROM PRE-HISTORIC TIMES TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST CHAPTER I PRR-ROMAN BRITAIN StCTIOH PA.OB 1. Industrial History . J 3 2. The English Nation and Country ..... 3 3. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Britain .... 5 4. Their Social and Economic Condition .... 7 5. The Bronze Age and the Celtic Immigration ... 8 6. Resume" : The Peoples of Early Britain .... 10 7. Their Social and Economic Condition .... 10 8. The Celts in the time of Pytheas 11 9. Foreign Trade of Britain . . . . , . 14 10. Internal Trade : Roads and Rivers . . . 16 11. Physical Aspect of Pro-Roman Britain .... 17 CHAPTER II ROMAN BRITAIN 12. The Roman Occupation . ... 21 13. Roman Roads ....... 22 14. Roman Towns in Britain ...... 23 15. The Romans and Agriculture ..... 25 16. Celtic and Non-Roman Influence in Agriculture ... 27 17. Commerce and Industry in Roman Britain . . ,31 CHAPTER III THE SAXON PERIOD 18. The Saxon Invasions ...... 34 19. The Saxon Village and its Inhabitants . ' . . . 87 20. Village Life ....... 38 21. Methods of Cultivation ...... 40 xiv INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND SECTION PAGB 22. Isolation of Villages. Crafts and Trades. Markets . . 41 23. Foreign Commerce and the Danes .... 43 24. Summary of Trade and Industry in the Saxon Period 46 CHAPTER IV THE MANOR AND THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 25. The Interest of the Question as to the Origin of the Manor . 47 26. The Mark Theory and the Manor . . / : . . . 48 27. Criticisms of the Mark Theory . ... . 49 28. VinogradofFs Evidence on the Manorial System ... 52 29. Evidence from Manorial Courts and Customs . . 55 30. The " Customary " Tenants . . . . . 56 81. The Evidence of Village Communities ... 57 32. A Survey of the Origin of the Manor .... 58 33. The Feudal System . . . . . 60 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. .... 65 35. The Population given by Domesday . . . . 66 36. The Wealth of various Districts . . . . , 68 37. The Manors and Lords of the Manors . , - . , 70 38. The Inhabitants of the Manor ..... 71 39. The Condition of these Inhabitants . . .73 40. Services due to the Lord from his Tenants in Villeinage . . 74 41. Money Payments and Rents ..... 74 42. Free Tenants. Soke-men ...... 75 43. The Distinction between Free and Unfree Tenants . . 76 44. Illustrations of Manors from Domesday .... 78 45. Cuxham Manor in the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries . 79 46. Description of an Eleventh Century Village ... 80 47. The Decay of the Manorial System . . . . 84 CHAPTER VI THE TOWNS AND THE GILDS 48. The Origin of the Towns .... .86 49. Rise of Towns in England . c . 87 50. Towns in Domesday . . V . . .88 CONTENTS xv 0BCTION PAGE 61. Special Privileges of Towns ..... 89 52. How the Towns obtained their Charters ... 90 53. The Gilds and the Towns. Various kinds of Gilds , 91 54. How the Merchant Gilds helped the Growth of Towns . . 93 55. How the Craft Gilds helped Industry .... 94 56. Life in the Towns of this time ..... 96 CHAPTER VII MANUFACTURES AND TRADE : ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES 57. Economic Effects of the Feudal System .... 98 58. Foreign Trade. The 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 63. General Condition of the Penod . . .108 PERIOD III FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, INCLUDING THE GREAT PLAGUE (1216-1600) CHAPTER VIII AGRICULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 64. Introductory. Rise of a Wage-earmiig 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 . V . . . 113 67. The Tenants' Communal Land and Closes . . .115 68. Ploughing . . . . . , . .116 69. 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 . . . . 125 xvi INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND 8ECTIOX PAGB 77. Foreign Manufacture of Fine Goods . . . 126 78. Flemish Settlers teach the English Weavers. Norwich 127 79. The Worsted Industry ...... 129 80. Gilds in the Cloth Trade . . . . . .130 81. The Dyeing of Cloth ...... 131 82. The Great Transition in English Industry . . .131 83. The Manufacturing Class and Politics . . . .132 CHAPTER X THE TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, AND FAIRS 84. The Chief Manufacturing Towns ..... 134 85. Staple Towns and the Merchants . . . .135 86. Markets ........ 138 87. The Great Fairs ....... 140 88. The Fairs of Winchester and Stourbridge . . .142 89. English Mediaeval Ports ...... 144 90. The Temporary Decay of Manufacturing Towns . . . 145 91. Growth of Industrial Villages. The Germs of the Modern Fac- tory System ....... 146 CHAPTER XI THE GREAT PLAGUE AND ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS 92. Material Progress of the Country. . . . .149 93. Social Changes. The Villeins and the Wage-paid Labourers . 150 94. The Famine and the Plague . . . . .151 95. The Effects of the Plague on Wages . . . .152 96. Prices of Provisions . . . . . .155 97. Effects of the Plague upon the Landowners . . . 156 98. Large and Small Holdings : the Yeomen . . .157 99. The Statute of Quia Empiores ..... 158 100. The Emancipation of the Villeins . . . .159 CHAPTER XII THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 1381, AND THE SUBSEQUENT CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 101. The Place of the Revolt in English History . . 161 102. New Social Doctrines ...... 162 103. The Coming of the Friars. Wiklif . . . .163 104. The Renewed Exactions of the Landowners . . .164 105. Social and Political Questions 165 106. The Mutterings of a Storm . . .' . . 167 107. The Storm Breaks Out ...... 168 108. The Result of the Revolt ... .170 109. The Condition of the English Labourer .... 172 110. Purchasing Power of Wages ..... 175 111. Drawbacks . . 177 CONTENTS xvii CHAPTER XIII THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SECTIOK PAGE 112. The Nobility ..... .180 113. The Country Gentry . . ... 182 114. The Yeomen 183 115. Agriculture and Sheep-farming . . . , .184 116. The Stock and Land Lease ..... 186 117. The Towns and Town Constitutions . . . .187 118. The Gilds and Municipal Institutions . . . .189 119. The Decay of Certain Towns ..... 190 120. The Commercial and Industrial Changes of the Fifteenth Century ....... 192 121. The Close of the Middle Ages ..... 194 PERIOD IV FKOM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE EVE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1509-1716) CHAPTER XIV THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII., AND ECONOMIC CHANGES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 122. Henry VIII. 's Wastefulness ..... 199 123. The Dissolution of the Monasteries . .202 124. Results of the Suppression ..... 203 125. Pauperism . . > . . . 205 126. The Issuing of Base Coin ...... 206 127. The Confiscation of the Gild Lands . . . .207 128. Bankruptcy and Rapacity of Edward VI. 's Government . 209 129. The Agrarian Situation . .'*.'. . .211 130. The Enclosures of the Sixteenth Century . . .213 131. Evidence of the Results of Enclosing . . . .215 132. Other Economic Changes. The Finances . . . 218 133. Summary of the Changes of the Sixteenth Century . . 220 CHAPTER XV THE GEOWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 134. The Expansion of Commerce. The New Spirit . . .223 135. Foreign Trade in the Fifteenth Century . . . .224 136. The Venetian Fleet ... 225 137. The Hanseatic League's Station in London . . . 227 xviii INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND SECTION PAOl 138. Trade with Flanders. Antwerp in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries ....... 228 139. The Decay of Antwerp and Rise of London as the "Western Emporium ....... 230 140. The Merchants and Sea-Captains of the Elizabethan Age in the New World ....... 231 141. Remarks on the Signs and Causes of the Expansion of Trade . 232 CHAPTER XVI ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 142. Prosperity and Pauperism ..... 234 143. The Restoration of the Currency . .. * . . 235 144. The Growth of Manufactures ..... 236 145. Monopolies of Manufacturing Towns . , . .239 146. Exports of Manufactures and Foreign Trade . . .240 147. The Flemish Immigration . . . . . 241 148. Monopolies ....... 242 149. The Revival of the Craft Gilds 246 150. Agriculture . . . . '.*.., . . . 247 151. Social Comforts ....... 250 152. The Condition of the Labourers .... t 251 153. Assessment of Wages by Justices. The First Poor Law . 253 154. The Working of the Assessment System . . .255 155. The Law of Apprenticeship . . . . . 259 156. The Elizabethan Poor Law . ; .' .. , . 260 157. Population . . . ,-, . ... . . 263 CHAPTER XVII PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 158. Resume" of Progress since Thirteenth Century . . .265 159. Progress in James I.'s Reign. Influence of Landlords . , 266 160. Writers on Agriculture. Improvements. Game , , 267 161. Drainage of the Fens ; ."",.. . . . . 268 162. Rise of Price of Corn and of Rent .... 269 163. Special Features of the Eighteenth Century. Popularity of Agriculture . . . . .' '< . . . 270 164. Improvements of Cattle, and in the Productiveness of Land. Statistics . . . * . ' . . 271 165. Survivals of Primitive Culture. Common Fields . . 273 166. Great Increase of Enclosures _ . . . 274 167. Benefits of Enclosures as Compared with the Old Common Fields 275 168. The Decay of the Yeomanry ..... 276 169. Causes of the Decay of the Yeomanry .... 278 170. The Rise in Rent ....... 279 171. The Fall in Wages ...... 280 CONTENTS xix CHAPTER XVIII COMMERCE AND WAK IX THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 6KCTIOK PAOB 172. England a Commercial Power . . . . . 284 173. The Beginnings of the Struggle with Spain . . . 285 174. Cromwell's Commercial Wars and the Navigation Acts . . 286 175. The Wars of William III. and of Anne . . . .288 176. English Colonies ....... 290 177. Further Wars with France and Spain . 291 178. The Struggle for India ...... 293 179. The Conquest of Canada ... 295 180. Survey of Cot%ercial Progress during these Wars . . 296 181. Commercial Events of the Seventeenth Century (Banking the Bank of England, 'National Debt, Restoration of the Currency) 299 182. Other Important Commercial Events (Darien Scheme, Union of England and Scotland, Methuen Treaty, Speculation and the South Sea Bubble) . . . . . .301 CHAPTER XIX MANUFACTURES AND MINING 183. Circumstances Favourable to English Manufactures . , 305 184. Wool Trade. Home Manufactures. Dyeing . . .305 185. Other Influences Favourable to England. The Huguenot Im- migration ....... 307 186. Distribution of the Cloth Trade ..... 308 187. Coal Mines ....... 810 188. Development of Coal Trade: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries .' . . . . . . 311 189. The Iron Trade ....... 812 190. Pottery . . . 'V . '!. ' ' .' , 314 191. Other Mining Industries ...... 315 192. The Close of the Period of Manual Industries 316 PERIOD V THE INDUSTRIAL KEVOLUTION 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 . . 327 xx INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND SUCTION PAGB 197. Two Examples of Village Life ..... 328 198. Condition of the Agricultural Population . . .331 199. Growth of Population . 332 200. England still mainly Agricultural .... 334 201. The Domestic System of Manufacture , . , 336 CHAPTER XXI THE EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 202. The Suddenness of the Revolution and its Importance . . 341 203. The Great Inventors ...... 343 204. The Revolution in Manufactures and the Factories . . 347 205. The Growth of Population and the Development of the Northern Districts ....... 349 206. The Revolution in the Mining Industries . 352 207. The Improvements in Communications . . . 354 208. The Nation's Wealth and its Wars . . , ,356 CHAPTER XXII WARS, POLITICS, AND INDUSTRY 209. England's Industrial Advantages in 1763 . . ,358 210. The Mercantile Theory ...... 359 211. The Mercantile Theory in Practice . . . .361 212. English Policy towards the Colonies . . . .364 213. Attempts to raise a Revenue from America . . , 367 214. Outbreak of War . ...... 368 215. The Great Continental War ..... 370 216. Its Effects upon Industry and the Working Classes . . 372 217. Politics among the Working Classes .... 376 218. Political Results of the Industrial Revolution . . .378 CHAPTER XXIII THE FACTORY SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS 219. The Results of the Introduction of the Factory System . . 381 220. Machinery and Hand Labour . . 383 221. Loss of Rural Life and of Bye- Industries . . . 385 222. Contemporary Evidence of the New Order of Things . . 387 223. English Slavery. The Apprentice System . . . 388 224. The Beginning of the Factory Agitation .... 391 225. Efforts towards Factory Reform ..... 392 226. Richard Oastler . 393 227. Factory Agitation in Yorkshire. For and Against . . 395 228. Ten Hours' Day and Mr Sadler ..... 397 229. The Evidence of Facts ...... 398 230. English Slavery ....... 400 231. The Various Factory Act? ..... 403 232. How these Acts were Passed 404 CONTENTS xxi CHAPTER XXIV THK CONDITION OP THE WORKING CLASSES SECTION PAGH 233. Disastrous Effects of the New Industrial System . . 407 234. The Allowance System of Relief ..... 408 235. The Growth of Pauperism and the Old Poor Law . 410 236. The Poor Law and the Allowance System . . . 412 237. Restrictions upon Labour . . .415 238. The Combination Acts . . . . . ,416 239. Growth of Trades Unions ..... 419 240. The Working Classes Fifty Years Ago . . . .421 241. Wages ........ 424 CHAPTER XXV THE RISE AND DEPRESSION OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 242. Services Rendered by the Great Landowners . . . 427 243. The Agricultural Revolution ..... 430 244. Tke Stimulus caused by the Bounties . . . .433 245. Agriculture under Protection ..... 435 246. Improvements in Agriculture ..... 436 247. The Depression in Modern Agriculture .... 439 248. The Causes of the Depression (lack of capital, rents, lack of adaptability, lack of education and scientific methods) . 441 249. The Labourer and the Land ..... 445 250. The Condition of the Labourer ..... 447 251. The Present Condition of British Agriculture . .450 CHAPTER XXVI MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND 252. The Growth of our Industry ..... 454 253. State of Trade in 1820 ...... 455 254. The Beginnings of Free Trade ..... 456 255. Revolution in the Means of Transit .... 458 256. Modern Developments ...... 459 257. Our Colonies ....... 461 258. England and other Nations' Wars . . . .463 259. Present Difficulties. Commercial Crises .... 464 260. Commercial Crises since 1865 ..... 466 261. The Recent Depression in Trade . . . . .467 262. The Present Mercantile System. Foreign Markets . . 469 263. Over-production and Wages ..... 470 264. The Power of Labour. Trades Unions and Co-operation. Labour Politics . ...... 471 265. The Necessity of Studying Economic Factors in History , 473 LIST OF MAPS 1. PHYSICAL ASPECT OF ENGLAND IN SAXON AND NORMAN TIMES . ... To face page 65 2. PLAN OF A TYPICAL VILLAGE . . On page 84 3. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND IN 1503 To face page 196 4. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND IN 1636 263 5. INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND, 1700-1750 (SHOWING POPU- LATION AND MANUFACTURES) 350 6. INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND IN 1895 (SHOWING POPULATION AND MANUFACTURES) . 454 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 l 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 progress 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 change 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, till 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 1 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, I. p. 7. 2 Walpole, Land of Home Rule, p. 15. 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, 1 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 attempt to obtain some slight idea of those early races who 1 Rogers, Econ. Interp. 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." 1 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 modern 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 ; 2 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 Inttdbitants 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 constructors of the pre-historic monuments." 8 Of these three stocks the aboriginal was 1 Elton, Origins, ch. i. 2 Cf. Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 331. * Elton, Origins, p. 93. 6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that of the Iberians or Ivernians, 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. 1 These aborigines were known to the Komans under the name of Silures, 2 and, like the Goidels of the first Celtic immigration, 3 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. 4 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 was enabled "to win his greatest victory over nature," by 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 5 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 6 had pro- ceeded sufficiently to allow of voyages being made [in canoes] from France to Britain and from Britain to Ireland. It is also evideii 4 " that the Neolithic tribes of Britain had 1 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. 2 Cf. Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 213. 4 Early Man in Britain, ch. viii. p. 290. s Ib. , p. 275. 6 /&. , p. 290, PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 7 commercial intercourse one with another, though of course only in the rude and primitive form of barter ; l 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 2 are found in Britain where that material was quite unknown. 4. Their Social and Economic 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 ; 8 but the flocks and herds must have constituted their chief property. From the possession of such property social differences 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," 6 though all were 1 C/. Solinus, c. 24, speaking of the Silures 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." 3 Early Man, p. 281. */&., p. 272. /&., p 297. /ft., 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 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." 1 5. 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. 2 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, 8 or whether these Celts were, like the Iberians, stilt in the stone age of culture when they first came to Britain, 4 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 ; 5 the arts of spinning and weaving both flax and wool were carried on more successfully ; 6 the harvest 1 Early Man, p. 308. 2 Elton, Origins, p. 138. 3 Early Man, p. 342. 4 So Taylor, Origin of the Aryans, p. 128. 5 Early Man, p. 352. Ib.,p. 359. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 9 was now gathered with bronze reaping-hooks; 1 and the smith became an important craftsman with a comparatively large array of tools. 2 Mining was now more easily carried on, and it is probable that Cornish tin, and Irish and Welsh gold, 8 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. Bat the inhabitants of the Britain of this period were possessed of an appreciable degree of civilisation. " It is clear," says Elton, 4 " 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. 6 " 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 ; 6 civilisation becomes much higher, and commerce 1 Early Man, p. 360. 2 /&., p. 385. /&., p. 421. Origins, p. 145. 5 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 Implements, pp. 471, 472. 6 Early Man, p. 426. io 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. 1 It is also probable 2 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 3 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. 4 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 l Taylor, Origin oj Aryans, p. 80. 2 Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 213, and map. 8 B. G., ii. 4, and v. 14. 4 Elton, Origins, p. 102. ' PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN n 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 ; l 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. 2 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 8. The Celts in the time of Pytheas. The condition of the Celtic invaders has already been alluded to in the remarks made above 4 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 1 Elton, Origins, p. 122. 2 Cf. Dion Cassius (Xiphiline), Ixxvi. 12 ; Claudian, B. Getic, 417 ? Solinus, c. 4. 3 Elton, p 165. 4 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 ; l 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 1 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. 3 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 vie>\ 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 bmng in those parts. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 13 be thrashed in " great barns." l 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," 2 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- donius, 8 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, 4 " 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. 6 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. 1 Strabo, iv., v. 5. (Cos. 201). Ib. See Diodorus, v. 21 Elton, pp. 115-116. ' Ib., pp. 116-117. J 4 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, 1 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 Britain 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 2 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, 1 and, as Elton remarks, 2 " the ultimate conquest was doubtless hastened by the dream of winning a land of gold and a rich reward of viotory." 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 Lave 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. 8 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, 6 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 Tan., Agric., 12. 2 Origin*, p. 293. For these imports, see p. 16. 4 Caesar, B. G., v. 12. 8 Martial, Epigram, xiv. 200 ; Claudian, Stil. t 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 Koman 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 2 was sufficient to bear a tax which yielded a small revenue. 3 Ivory, bracelets (and certainly other ornaments), glass, and " such-like petty merchandise," are all mentioned by Strabo 4 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: Hoods and Rivers. The means of communication by which trade was carried on internally were the rivers, the " ridge ways " 5 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 migratiog to early pastures and the savages who followed them. 6 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 Of. Elton, p. 63. 2 They occupied the district near the mouth of the Elbe, though Dr Latham places them further east. 8 Strabo, iv. 278. 4 76. 5 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, 1 and it has been well remarked 2 that the rivers Thames and Severn were of prime importance to the development of early British trade. 8 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. 4 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, 6 were skilful and daring navigators. They traded chiedy with Northern and Western Gaul. 11. Physical Aspect of P -re-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, 6 and though his expression is exaggerated, it is nearer the truth than another writer's fanciful epithet 7 of a "land of sunshine and pearls." Britain was certainly far more rainy then than now, owing 1 So, too, in Europe the main commercial route* followed in France the Rhine, and in Germany the Rhone and Danube; aee my Commerce in Europe, 68, 69. a 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. Cf. Evans. Coins of the Ancient Briton*, for a subject which we cannot discuss properly here. 4 Elton, p. 232. 5 Csesar, B. G., iii. 9, 13. * Origins, p. 218. 7 In Social England, vol. i. p. 80. B 18 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." l 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, 2 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. 3 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. 4 The low-lying parts of Essex, Surrey, and 1 Elton, p. 218. 2 Green, Making 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. 4 Elton, p. 103. PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN 19 Kent below London were then "extensive flats covered with water at every tide," 1 and the Thames estuary invaded a district almost as large as the Wash. The valley of the Stour l 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. 2 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. 8 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. 4 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 1 Airy, in Athenceum, 1683, on the Claudian Invasion of Britain. 2 Making of England, p. 75. "Martial (Epigr., vii. 34), mentions the Scotch bear, and Boyd Dawkins (Cave 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 Ifarope, p. 24), and in Scotland much later. Girald. Cambrensis, Itin. 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 6rst 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 Plautius, and aided by German auxiliaries, again invaded Britain (A.D. 44). But this time they came to stay, and although the conquest proved perhaps more difficult than they had anticipated, it was under successive generals accomplished at last The year 70 AJ). 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. 1 It is difficult to estimate the exact effect of their occu- pation. While some very able writers 2 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 1 Green, Making of England, p. 24. The date 410 A.D. is that of the letter bidding Britain provide for its own defence. 2 As e.g. Coote, in his Romans in Britain. 22 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND in Algeria. 1 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 Mahoinmedan 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, 2 drainage works, and towns which had sprung from camps, are the most important relics of the Roman occupation in Britain. 13. Roman Roads. 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, 8 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 1 Green, Making of England, p. 7, and Pearson, History of England, i. 55. z As at Dover, and the Richborough beacon. 8 Cf. Thorold Rogers, Econ. Interpr. of 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, 1 " 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.) Wailing 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 Wat ling 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. 14. Roman Towns in Britain. Of these, which are commonly called the four Roman ways, the Ikenild Street was almost certainly an ancient 1 Origin*, p. 327, where the military system of roads is fully explained. * Cf. Elton, Origins, p. 326, and Guest, The Four Roman Way*, Archaed. Joiirn., xiv. p. 99, and also Cooper King in Social England, voL i. pp. 49 51, 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 (Rutupise) 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 fortresses and stationary camps, and it is in many cases from these camps that our English towns have grown-up. 1 The towns were divided (constitutionally)^lniEo^ur classes, and the division helps us to understand their relative im- portance. First came the colonice, 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 municipia, 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 right and elected their own magistrates, and lastly came the stipendiary towns, 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. 2 It has been truly said that " the type of every Roman city was the camp," 3 but it is equally true that " a Roman camp was a city in arms," 4 in which the soldiers corresponded to the colonists and settlers of more modern times. " The 1 About 218 Roman stations are known in Britain. Soc. England, vol. i. p. 62. 2 Lingard, Hist, ofEng., i. p. 50; Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon. 3 Pearson, Hist, of Eng., i. 43. * Elton, Origin*, 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." J There were fifty-nine towns 2 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. TJie Romans and Agriculture. It seems doubtful whether the Romans ever settled in 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. 8 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. " 4 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 1 Elton, Origins, p. 311. 2 Marcianus, fferacleota, ii. 14. * Green, Afakiny of England, pp. 7 and 46. 4 Pearson, Hiitory of England, i. f>2 26 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND villas or country houses of the Roman landowners are most thickly planted. 1 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, 2 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 tilled 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." 3 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, 4 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 corn 6 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 1 Green, Making of England, p. 9. 1 Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 243 and pp. 227 sq. 8 Ashley, Introduction to Coulanges 3 Origin of Property in Land, p. xxiv. 4 Professor Ashley mentions this himself, p. xxvi. 6 Of. ib. , p. xxv. ROMAN BRITAIN 27 so small that it could Dot 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, freedmen, and slaves " 1 cannot 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, 2 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, 8 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," 4 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. 6 16. Celtic and Non-Roman 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 6 is forced upon 1 Ashley, as above, p. xxv. 1 E.g. the wheel-plough ; cf. Gomme, Village Community, p. 277. * Seebohm, Village Community, p. 388. 4 Gomme, Village Community, p. 46. 6 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 Roman power was greategJLiri Britain was in the creation, of a national government. It hardly yo UlUgn" unentered the life of the agricultural village communities, 1 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, 2 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. 8 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 1 Of. Gomme, ut supra, p. 133. 8 For a careful investigation of this evidence see Gomme, Village Com- munity, pp. 71 1 83-95. 3 Green, Making of England, p. 8. 4 Garnett, in the Journal of the Philological Society, i. 171. Among others he instances : bran (skin of wheat), cabin, gusset (cf. Welsh, cwyfted, ridge or furrow), threave (a bundle of sheaves, W., drefa), bill, fleam (W., flaim, a cattle lancet), wain, wall, trace, stcok (of corn), gavelock (a fork), park ( = & field), filly, fog ( = fog-grass), 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 -ts, that many rural or " provincial" terms l 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, 8 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. 4 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- guishing 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. 6 We may grain show Celtic origin e.g., windle (Lanes, dialect for a measure, from W., gwynUll, a basket) hoop (Yorks. for a quarter peck), hattock (Yorks. for a shock of corn), peck (cf. W., peg). Also flannen (Hereford for flannel), frieze, brat (Yorks. for "pinafore," cf. W., 6ro/=clout ; rag), mesh (<-/. \V., 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. 1 Besides provincialisms given above, cf. Yorks. toppin, a crest or ridge ; ile, a strainer ; Northern stook, a shock of corn ; Somerset, soc, a plough- share, on which last cj. Schrader, SprachveryUichung (Eng. trans.), p. 288. a Cf. Oomme, 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. 4 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 l 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, 2 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, 8 a considerable power of amal- gamation with other races without entirely losing its dis- tinctive characteristics. They amalgamated as conquerors with the Iberians, 4 and as conquered with the Saxon and Scandinavian, 5 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." 6 Hitherto, certainly, the economic historian has neglected to note his influence 7 upon English agriculture, an influence which, though at first in favour of progress up to a certain point, was probably afterwards rather conservative 1 Elton, u. s. 2 Cf. 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. a As now in the United States. 4 Walpole, '&., p. 14. 5 Strikingly so in the Isle of Man, which affords a very favourable field for ethnological study; cf. Walpole, '&., p. 76. 6 /&., p. 41. 7 Though some admit the survival of many of the Celtic and pre-Celtic population (cf. Ashley, preface to F. de Coulanges' Origin of Property in Land, p. 36), they forget the influence which these must have exercised. ROMAN BRITAIN 31 or even retrogix ssive. If it is true, as Professor Ashley puts it, 1 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," 2 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 Roman Britain. But before proceeding to the Saxon period we must in conclusion give a short glance at trade and industry under the Romans. The pax Romana 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 8 Britain was cer- tainly not a land of poverty. Agriculture went on, as it had done before the Romans came, 4 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. 5 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. 6 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 1 Ashley, preface to F. deCoulangea' Origin of Properly in Land, p. 37. a Cf. also Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxviii. 1 Cf. F. T. Richards in Soc. England, vol. i. p. 93. 4 Of. 0. M. Edwards in Social England, vol. i. p. 87. 6 F. T. Richards in Social England, vol. i. p. 92. 6 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 Kornan 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, 1 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. 2 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, a fixed quantity of corn for the Roman armies in Britain and on the Continent ; and portoria, or import duties. 8 The collection of the last- named was made at the harbours with which our coasts abounded, 4 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. 6 The rivers themselves also formed natural highways into the interior, which were used far more then than now 6 in proportion to the amount of trade carried on. As regards the population, it is impossible to form an exact estimate. Caesar 7 speaks of " an infinite number of people" as living 1 They also knew how to dye these in purple, scarlet, and other colours. Pliny, Hist. Nat., xvi. 8; xxii. 26. 2 The Britons were very fond of these, using brass and iron, if they could not get gold. Social England, vol. i. p. 103. 8 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. 4 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. 5 Social England, vol. i. p. 205. 6 Cf. examples of* their use in Continental traffic in my Commerce in Europe, 68, 69, and cf. 26. 7 Caesar, 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, 1 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., ziv. 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 South-Eastern coast of the island had been harried by pirates of Teutonic race, "the second wave of the Aryans," and a special officer had to be appointed to keep them in check. He was known as the Count (Conies) of the Saxon shore, 1 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 Picts 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 1 I.e., the shore infested by the Saxon pirates, not that colonised by the Saxons, as some think. Of, Stubbs, Const. Hist. , I. c. iv. p. 19, and Free- man, Norman Conquest, I. p. 11. 2 Stubbs, 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 oi 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. 1 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. 2 " The Britons fled from their homes; 8 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 vhat happened to the whole country. 4 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 1 Epping and Hainault forests are its relics now. Cf. Airy, Hist, oj Eng., p. 9. 2 So Stubbs, I. iv. p. 61, who heads one paragraph "general desolation." */&. 4 So Green, whose judgment seems here at fault, Short History, pp. 10, 11 ; and his numerous followers e.g., Airy, Hist, of Eng., p. 10. 36 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND foundation in history " ; l 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." 2 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," 3 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. 4 Women and slaves were sure to have been kept alive rather 1 Pearson, Hist, of Eng., I. p. 99. 2 Decline and Fall, 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 landowners is not inconsistent with the undisturbed residence upon the rural estates of the great body of actual labourers." 4 F. York Powell in Social England, Vol. I. p. 132. On the other hand, Prof. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, settled chiefly by Danes, but also by Cambs, Hunts, ) Northmen. Lincoln, Leicester, , , \ Derby Notts L ^ an( ^ * ^e English of the March, settled Stamford district,' ) chiefly by Northmen. Yorks and part of Durham, North English land settled chiefly by Northmen. 2 The five Danish boroughs of Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln Leicester, and Stamford had a most complete municipal constitution. 3 English Industry and Commerce, i. 88. 4 Hanks, 6 ; Thorpe, i. 193. It was probably passed in Athelstan'a reign, Craik, i. 66. THE SAXON PERIOD 45 merchants in London, 1 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 ^Elfric'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, 8 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. 4 Bristol was a great centre of this sad traffic, 5 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. 6 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 7 in the ninth century ; while, rather earlier, we have a most interesting document, our 1 Craik, Hist. Brit. Comm., i. 68. 2 See Thorpe, Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, p. 101. * These are mentioned in a law of Athelstan, Craik, i. 71. 4 Leges Wallice, IE. 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." 5 William of Malmesbury, Vita Wlfstani, ii. 20, and Craik, i. 71. Pearson, Hint, of Eng., i. 287. 7 Cunningham, i. 80. 46 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND first treaty of commerce in fact, 1 dated 796 A.D., by which Karl the Great, or Charlemagne, as he is sometimes called, grants protection to certain English traders from Mercia. In King Alfred's days, one English bishop is said to have "penetrated prosperously" as far as India, 2 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, 3 and by his interest in the adventurous voyages of Othere and Wulfstan, 4 the fact remains that foreign merchants, includ- ing Jews, 5 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, 6 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. 1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 496. 2 So William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif., ii. 80. * Cf. Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 65. 4 In his Orosius. 6 Craik, British Commerce, i. 63, 64. . Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ch. v. pp. 74, 79. CHAPTER IV THE MANOR AND THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 25. The Interest of the Question as to ttie 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 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, 1 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, 2 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. 2 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 1 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 VinogradofFs able Introduction in his Villeinage in England. 8 Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. p. 49, ch. hi., who gives a good summary of the mark system, * Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 49. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 49 tribe, which, however, he of course shared with the rest. 1 To settle any question relating to the division or use of the land, such as the choice of the meadow, the rotation of crops, or the allotment of the shares of land, or to decide any other business of common importance, the members of the mark, or mark-men, met in a common council called the mark-moot * an institution of which relics are said to have survived for many centuries, 8 This council, and the mark generally, formed, it was said, the political, social, and economic unit of the early English tribes, but now this view is not supported by scholars, except as regards agri- cultural arrangements. The mark probably did not exist in the form just sketched out when these tribes first occupied England, though there may have been some modification of it introduced. It had probably already undergone consider- able transformation towards what is called the manorial system and private ownership. 4 But those who hold the mark theory maintain that many traces of it still remain even now. Our commons, 6 still numerous in spite of hundreds of enclosures, the manorial courts, 6 and the names of places ending in -ing a termination which implies a family settlement 7 are evidences which remain among us even at the close of the nineteenth century. And, of course, it is to the mark system that the communal element in our early and mediaeval English agriculture is supposed to be due. 27. Criticisms of the Mark Theory. Leaving for the moment the consideration of the truth or inaccuracy of the mark theory, we find, at any rate at the time when the Saxon settlement in England had been com- pleted, that a very different system prevailed, namely, the manorial system. The word " manor " is a Norman word for the Saxon " township " or community, 8 and it differs 1 Stubbs, Canst. Hist., L p. 49. 2 Stubbe, i. p. 51. The word mearcmot (found A.D. 971) was instanced by Keinble, but Anglo-Saxon scholars do not think that mark in this con nexion means more than a " boundary." Cf. Earle, Land Charters, p. 45. 8 Stubbs, p. 84. Ib., p. 75. Ib., p. 84. Ib. 7 Stubbs, Con*t. Hist., I. ch. v. p. 81 ; Taylor, Words and Places, 132. 1 So Ordericus Vitalii, iv. 7; see Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. oh. r. p. 89, and ch. ix. p. 273. 50 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND from the mark in that the mark 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, 1 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. 2 1 Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, pp. 174, 176. 2 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 Vinogradoff in the English Historical Review, Vol. VII., 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 ever 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." l 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 most violent attack upon the holders of the mark theory is that made by Fustel de Coulanges in his essay on the Origin of Property in Land* He first challenges the meaning given to certain passages of Csesar and Tacitus 8 by G. F. von Maurer, and then tries to show that in early German law mark means " a boundary " primarily, and secondly a piece of private property, and that private property in land 1 W. J. Ashley, criticising Maine in Note A to his own Introduction to F. de Coulanges' Origin oj Property in Land, p. xlvii. 2 It first appeared in Rww, des Questions Hlstoriqv&i, April 1889, and is published separately in English in Mr Ashley's translation above referred to. 3 The main passages are Caesar, B. G., vi. 21-23, and Tacitus, Germ., c. 26, upon which e.y. our English authority Stubbs bases his remarks in Con-tf. hittt., 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 principe*, 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 customary 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 1 than in stray references in legal documents. And Professor Lamprecht a follower of von Maurer, was quite right in pointing out s 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. Vinogradofs Evidence on the Manorial System. 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." 8 The so-called manorial system con- sists in the peculiar connection of two entirely distinct agrarian bodies or parties 4 the community of villagers cultivating their own fields, and the home-estate (some- times loosely called the demesne) of the lord " tacked on to " this settlement. This expression " tacked on " gives the key to the solution of the question. The manorial 1 As shown e.g., in Gomme's Village Community. 3 InLe Moyen Age, June 1889, p. 131. 3 Vinogradoff, r&einage, pp. 408, 409. /&., 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 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 " ; l and there are abundant evidences of this " commendation " of weaker men to those who were politically and socially more powerful 2 though, as a matter of fact, the practice was generally the result of the police organisation, not of the laud system. 8 " The man who had land judged the man who had not," 4 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 home farm, but to one living at some considerable distance. 6 This is specially 1 Stubbs, Const. HisL, vol. L ch. v. p. 79 ; ., p. 407. 6 76., p. 407. 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 tenant* 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. 1 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. 1 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. 4 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. 1 Vinogradoff, Villeinage, p. 370. s 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 Cf. the case of Brightwaltham, Vinogradoff, p. 359. ' Villeinage, pp. 372, 373. 4 Of. Gomme, VU. Comm., p. 191, who quotes a similar transference of a rod, or twig, in the Malmesbury village community. The twig here (as in the other cases mentioned by Vinogradoff) 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, 1 and that between these two distinct classes there was a third class, and a very large one, of " customary " 2 freeholders, who had originally formed the great mass of the peasantry. 8 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, 4 and hence it comes that " villeinage " must not be taken too literally as a clear definition of 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." 6 Hence 1 Villeinage, pp. 132, 177. 2 The word custumarius is found in Rot. Hundred., ii. 422, 507a. ' Vinogradoff, p. 220. 4 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. 6 Vinogradoff, p. 177 ; cf. also "The life of the villein is chiefly dependent on sustom, which is the great characteristic of mediaeval relations and which stands in sharp contrast with slavery on the one hand and freedom on fche other." THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 5; it IB 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. 1 31. The Evidence of ViUage Communities. We have, therefore, many reasons for believing that the 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 8 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, 4 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 Qomme 6 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 6 certainly tend to prove very clearly, by their relics 1 Vinogradoff, p. 353. Cf. Bracton, De Leg., ch. xi. /. 7 (i. p. 53, ed. Twiss). Of coarse there were also other causes of free tenements, as e.g., commutation, but this is one cause which cannot be overlooked. * Vinogradoff, p. 135. 'Seebohm, Village Comm., p. 103; Ashley, Econ. Hist., i. 18, and in his introd. to F. de Coulanges. 4 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. 8 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 ft tacked on to " it. 32. A Survey of the Origin of the Manor. Having come to this conclusion, which must necessarily 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 1 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, 2 or were rapidly passing, from the tribal 3 to the village community a transition 4 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 over the more remote village communities. 6 (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. 2 Elton, Origins, p. 145. 8 Boyd Dawkins, Early Man, p. 272. 4 Of. the similar transition from tribe to village in India ; Tupper, Punjab Customary Law, ii. p. 28. The tribal community persisted longer in Wales ; cf. Gomme, V. (7., p. 63. 8 Gomme, V. 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. 1 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, 2 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. 3 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. 4 And no doubt the 1 Of. Gomme, V. C. , pp. 60, 63. * Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. ixxviii. Lord Metcalfe, quoted by Gomme, V. C. , p. 60. 4 There were almost certainly larger and smaller private estates ; Stubbft, Const. Hist., vol. I. ch. v. pp. 52, 73. For slaves, e/. p. 78. 60 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. 1 But there were also large numbers of free Saxon soldiers 2 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, 8 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 the manor, especially in its social, judicial, political, and non- 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. 2 The division of the land among the conquering host is seen in Stubbs, ut ante, pp. 71, 72. 3 Vinogradoff, ViUeinage, p. 135. THE MANOR AND MANORIAL SYSTEM 61 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 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." 1 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 2 for judicial or defensive purposes, and the granting of judicial powers 8 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. 4 1 Stubbe, Const. Hist., I. ch. vii. p. 187. 3 Stubbe, i. 79, and the valuable note there relating to the practice in Domesday. E.g., toe and *oc (Stubbs, i. 184). 4 Cf. Pearaon, Hist, of Eng. t i. 283, 284 PERIOD II FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE REIGN OF HENRY III. (1066-1216 A.D.) PHYSICAL ASPECT ENGLAND IN SAXON 8 NORMAN TIMES. Onfy the SO GtuefTotvus are inserA - mils forests Marshes NORTH SEA Scale of EnglishMiles. O 10 SO 30 40 BO 75 1OO 5 LEETT.LrLOMOOK . NOTE. For the ieatures here noted compare the remarks on pages 17, 69 and 107. CHAPTER V DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS ;4. The Survey ordered by William I. IT waa 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 of taxation, and that he should endeavour to gain a comprehensive idea of the results of his conquest He therefore ordered a grand survey of the kingdom to be made, and sent commissioners into 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, 1 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 1 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 ; Kllia, Introd., i. 145 sqq. ; Birch, Domesday, 229. Cunningham (i. 120) puts it at 60 to SO modern acres under crop, or an area of 120, including land fallow, under the then system of agriculture. E 6 5 66 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND see them. 1 The inquisition was probably commenced in the year 1085, and completed in the year following. It con- tains the earliest and most reliable statistics for English in- dustrial history, and it is to be regretted that no adequate general table or analysis of this great work has yet been made by a competent economic authority, or that historians do not use it more copiously for gaining a knowledge of the social and economic conditions of the time. For this latter purpose it is absolutely unrivalled. 35. The Population given by Domesday. Before presenting a few main features gathered from the large mass of facts thus recorded, it may be well to remark that of the 40 counties into which England is now divided, six are not included in the survey. Those omitted are Monmouth, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and Lancashire. But of these Lancashire had not yet been made a separate county, and part of it therefore appears in the survey of Yorkshire and Cheshire. Mon- mouth was at that time entirely Welsh, and the other counties those in the North were still desolate and wasted by the ruthless severity of William's well-known devastation (1069-70 A.D.). After his march from the Humber to the Tyne, not one inhabited village was to be seen on the road between York and Durham, and many of those whom the sword had spared died of starvation in the nine years' famine which followed this dreadful punishment. 2 The more westerly parts of the North were hardly yet con- quered at the time of the survey. The statistics of the other 34 counties are, however, pretty full ; and from them we gather that the total population must have been, in round numbers, rather under two million persons. The population actually given 3 is 283,242, but this only includes the able-bodied men, and it should be multiplied by five to give the general total of actual inhabitants. This multiplication gives about 1,400,000, and allowing 1 Birch, Domesday, p. 25 ; Ellis, i. 153 ; see also Note A. * Pearson, Hist, of Eng. y i. 361, and Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 292, v. 42. * See Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, Vol. II. p. 514. DOMESDAY BOOK AND THE MANORS 67 for omissions or careless enumeration (as e.g. in Yorkshire 1 ), we may say not much more than 1,800,000 for the whole land. Small as this number may seem, it was not greatly increased for several centuries. 2 The population of the different counties is interesting, and is exhibited in the following tables, first in order of actual numbers, and secondly in order of density propor- tionate to the area of each county. It will be noticed at once that the eastern and southern counties were the most populous at that time, as was to be expected in a period when the number of the population depended, much more closely than it does now, upon the yield of agricultural produce and the development of agriculture generally. I. 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 - 20,491 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 26 Worcester - 4,625 10 Hampshire 9,032 27 Surrey 4,383 11 Northamps 8,441 28 Bedford - 3,875 12 Gloucester 8,366 29 Staffordshire 3,178 ISYorks 8,055 30 Derbyshire 3,041 14 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. 1 See Domesday, f. 302 A, about the manors "ad Prestune " " sixteen are 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 person. * COUNTY. Acres per 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 8 Leicester - 74 75 24 Cambs 25 Worcestershire - 100 102 9 Berkshire - 10 Somerset - 76 76 26 Surrey 27 Rutland - 105 110 11 Bedfordshire 76 28 Cornwall - 158 12 Hunts 13 Kent 78 79 29 Shropshire 30 Staffs. 166 204 14 Dorset 15 Herts 81 82 31 Derby 32 Cheshire - 216 279 16 Wilts 85 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. 1 Here the Easter n and Southern 1 This table is compiled from data given (for another purpose) by Pear- eon, 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. i 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 11 Northamps - *>-. Bucks - 1843 7 1813 7 9 12 Herts - *t 1541 13 11 13 U Surrey - Warwick 1524 4 9 1359 13 8 15 Bedford - 1096 12 2 16 "Worcester 991 6 17 Hunts - 864 15 4 18 Middlesex 754 7 8 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 1 were London, Bristol, Norwich, Lincoln, 1 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 modern dimensions. York had only some 1600 houses; 1 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." 2 They ai^linj^tL^^er^inJ:owns was adopted to facilitate the collection of the customs* Besides a number of towns in England, sTaptesr^were fixed at certain foreign ports for the sale of English goods. At onetime Antwerp 4 1 Cunningham, i. 181 n. 2 Craik, Hist, of British Commerce, i. 120. * Cunningham, i. 287. 4 Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 121. 136 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND was selected as the staple town for our produce, at another time Bruges, 1 and afterwards St Omer. 2 A staple was also set up at Calais 8 when we took it (1347), but at the loss of that town in 1558 it was transferred to Bruges. 4 The staple system thus begun by the first two Edwards was altered and reorganised by Edward III. His first in- tention seems to have been to abolish the whole system * of staples, at least abroad; and this he did 5 in 1328.^. But such freedom of trade was not maintained for'tong. After various alterations and changes, it was in 1353 finally decided (by the 27 Ed. III., st. 2, c. 1) to remove the staple from all or any foreign towns, and to hold it only in certain English towns. These were Newcastle, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Exeter, and Bristol in England ; Caermarthen for Wales ; and Dublin, Waterford, Drogheda, and Cork for Ireland. To compensate for the closing of foreign staples, every inducement was held out to foreign merchants to frequent the towns in England, though (with the exception of the years 1353-76) the staple at Calais was allowed to remain. 6 Now, although regulations like these are opposed to our modern ideas of free competition, they were to a certain extent useful in the Middle Ages, because the existence of staple towns facilitated the collection of custom duties, and also secured in some degree the good quality of the wares made in, or exported from, a town. For special officers were appointed to mark them if of the proper quality and reject them if inferior. 7 We might add that each staple was, of course, in accord- ance with the ideas of that time, subject to various regula- > tions, and each staple town had a "mayor of the staple"^ distinct from the mayor of the town, though afterwards the two offices became united. 8 There was also an association of " merchants of the staple," who claimed to 1 Rot. ParL, ii. 149 (5), 202 (13). 2 Rot. Hund., i. 406. 8 " From the time of Richard II. till 1558 the staple was fixed at Calais." Cunningham, i. 372 n. 4 Bouwick, Romance of Wool Trade, 172. 5 2 Ed. III., c. 9. 6 Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 123. 7 Cunningham, i. 258. 8 Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 145. TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 137 date as a separate body from the time of Henry III. 1 Cer- tainly there seems to have been some sort of recognised body of English merchants trading with Flanders as early as 1313 A.D., for their "mayor" is mentioned then. 2 Another association of some importance as a trading com- pany was The Company of Merchant Adventurers, incor- porated in 140 7 8 as a kind of branch of the Mercer's Com- pany. They appear to have had depots in Exeter and Newcastle, besides their chief place in London, 4 and were engaged in the export of cloth as distinct from raw wool and woolfells, which, of course, formed the business of the Alerchants of the Staple. 5 These associations are very inter- esting as forerunners of those great trading companies, which in later centuries did so much to promote our foreign trade. Now, these regulations of the staple, and the growth of these trading associations, show pretty clearly the growing importance of commerce in national affairs, and also the increasing prominence of merchants as a distinct and influ- ential class in the community. Their influence arose, of course, from their wealth, and was increased no doubt by the custom of those days, which recognised them as a class apart from the landowners, who were still, with the clergy, almost the only people who were supposed to count for any- thing in national life. So much were they a special class, that the sovereign often negotiated with them separately. 6 Thus in 1339, when Edward III. was as usual fighting against France, and also, as usual, in great want of money, he was liberally supplied with loans by Sir William de la Pole, a rich merchant of Hull, who acted on behalf of him- self and many other merchants. 7 On one occasion he lent the King no less than 18,500, a most enormous sum for those days. Sir Richard Whittington performed similar services for Henry IV. and Henry V. 8 1 Cunningham, i. 287. 2 Rymer, Foedera, ii. 102. 8 lb., viii. 464. Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 153. 6 Rot. Parl., v. 64 (38), speaks of "their merchandises of wool and woolfell." 6 Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. 191, 192. 7 Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 172. 8 Ib. i. 174. 138 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND The family of Pole, as is well known, rose by their wealth to great rank and power, being created successively Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Suffolk, and took an impor- tant place in the history of the nation. The rise of Pole and other great merchants to the ranks of the nobility marks a most noticeable social development in English history, for it shows how the peerage has been from almost the earliest times recruited from commerce, while in many other European countries it was impossible for anyone connected with trade to become one of the noblesse. By avoiding this irrational exclusiveness, our nation has to some extent also avoided the fatal evils which in other countries have befallen an aristocracy of a more rigid type. 86. Markets Besides the staple towns, another class was formed by the country market towns, many of which exist in agricultural districts to-day in much the same fashion as they did six centuries ago. The control and regulation of the town market was at first in the hands of the lord of the manor, 1 but by this period it had mostly been bought 2 by the Corporation or by the merchant gild, or by both, and was now one of the most valued of municipal privileges. The market-place was always some large open space within the city walls, such as, for instance, exists very noticeably in Nottingham to this day. London had several such spaces, of which the names Cornhill, Cheapside, and the Poultry still remain. The capital was indeed a perpetual market, though of course provincial towns only held a market on one or two days of the week. It is curious to notice how these days have persisted to modern times. The Wednes- day and Saturday market of Oxford has existed for at least six centuries, 8 if not more, and so has that of Nottingham, The control of these markets was undertaken by the cor- poration for various purposes. 4 The first of these was to 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. p. 426, and Rogers, Hist. Agric., i. 141. 2 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xi. p. 408 sqq. implies this. 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 138. 4 Ashley, Econ. Hist., II. i. p. 19 ; also see the Nottingham Borough Records, iii. 62. TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 139 prevent frauds and adulteration of goods, and for this purpose special officers were appointed, 1 as in the staple towns, or like the " aulnager " of Norwich mentioned before. This was possible in a time when industry was limited and the competitive idea was as yet unborn, and one cannot help thinking that it must have been of great use to purchasers, provided only that these officers were incorruptible, which was not always the case. The second object of the regulators of the market was to keep prices at a " natural level," and to regulate the cost of manufac- tured articles. The price of provisions in especial was a subject of much regulation, but our forefathers were not very successful in this point, laudable though their object was. The best example of such regulation is found, per- haps, in the Act 13 Rich. II, st. 1, c. 8 (1389-90), which ordains " Forasmuch as a man cannot put the price of corn and other victuals in certain," the justices of the peace shall every year make proclamation " by their discretion, according to the dearth of victuals, how much every mason, carpenter, tiler, and other craftsmen, work- men, and other labourers by the day shall take by the day, with meat and drink or without meat and drink, and that every man shall obey such proclamations from time to time, as a thing done by statute." Finally, provision is made for the correct keeping of the assize, or assessment from time to time, of the prices of bread and ale. The earliest notice of an " assize " in England is found in the Parliament Rolls for 1203, 2 but the practice is probably much older, and the most ancient law upon the subject is the 51st Hen. III. (A.D. 1266), the"Assisa Panis et Cerevisiae." The assize of bread was in force till the beginning of the nine- teenth century, and was only then abolished in London. 3 The " assize " arranged by statute was, of course, a national matter, but many local regulations were in force. 1 Gilds usually seem to have appointed their own officers, except the gilds of those who were engaged in providing food and drink. In these cases the officers (such as " ale conners " and " flesh conners ") were appointed by the borough authorities. Cf. Ashley, Econ. Hist., II. i. p. 30. 2 5 John ; cf. Craik, Hist. Brit. Commerce, i. 137. 3 76., p. 137. 1 40 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND Strict laws were also made l against the practices of fore- stalling, engrossing, or regrating of provisions, i.e., buying them in such quantities or at such times as to control a future market ; for there seems to have been an idea not perhaps altogether irrational in the minds of our ancestors that it was something unseemly to manipulate the market in the case of commodities of such universal consumption as articles of food. Nor were the laws against these practices finally removed from the Statute Book till towards the end of the eighteenth century. 2 87. The Great Fairs. Now, besides the weekly markets there were held annually in various parts of tEe Tdngdom large fairs, which often lasted many days, and which form a most important and interesting economic feature of the time. They were necessary for several reasons, since the ordinary trader could not and did not exist in the small villages, in which it must be remembered most of the population lived, nor could he even find sufficient customers in a town of that time, for very few contained over 5000 inhabitants; and because the inhabitants of the villages and towns could find in the fairs a - wider market for their goods, . and more variety for their purchases. Moreover, as has been well remarked, 3 since the stream of commerce was too weak in those days to penetrate constantly to all parts of the country, this occasional concentration of trade in fairs was distinctly advantageous for industry. The result was that these fairs were frequented by all classes of the population, from the noble and prelate to the villein, 4 and hardly a family in England did not at one time of the year or another send a representative, or at least give a commission to a friend, to get goods at some celebrated fair. * They afforded an oppor- tunity for commercial intercourse between inhabitants of all parts of England, and with traders from all parts of 1 Of. the Statute De Pistoribus, of 51 Hen. in. (or perhaps 13 Ed. I.) till the 5 and 6 Ed. VI., c. 14 and 15. 2 12 Geo. III., c. 71. 3 W. Roscher, Engl Volkswirthschaftlehre, 133. 4 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 148 TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 141 Europe. They were, moreover, a necessity arising from the economic conditions of a time when transit of goods was comparatively slow, and when ordinary people disliked travelling frequently or far beyond the limits of their own district. The spirit of isolation which is so marked a feature of the mediaeval town or village ! encouraged this feeling, and except the trading class few people travelled about, and those who did so were regarded with suspicion. Till the epoch of modern railways, in fact, fairs were a necessity, though now the rapidity of locomotion and the facility with which goods can be ordered and despatched, have annihilated their utility and rendered their relics a nuis- ance. But even in the present day there are plenty of people to be found in rural districts who have rarely, and some- times never, been a dozen miles from their native village. As late as the eighteenth century several fairs of great importance were still in full vigour, as we may see from a list given by that ingenious compiler, Malachy Postle- thwaite. 2 He mentions " (1) Stourbridge Fair near Cam- bridge, beyond all comparison the greatest in Britain, per- haps in the world ; (2) Bristol, two fairs, very near as great as that of Stourbridge ; (3) Exeter ; (4) West Chester ; (5) Edinburgh ; also several marts, as : Lynn, Boston, Beverley, Gainsborough, Howden, &c. ; (6) Weyhill Fair, and (7) Burford Fair, for sheep ; (8) Pancrass Fair in Staffordshire, for saddle horses ; (9) Bartholomew Fair in London, for lean and Welsh black cattle ; (10) St Faith's in Norfolk, for Scots runts; (11) Yarmouth fishing fair for herrings, the only fishing fair in Great Britain, or that I have heard of in the world, except the fishing for pearl oysters near Ceylon in the West Indies; (12) Ipswich butter fair; (13) Wood- borough Hill near Blandford in Dorset, famous for West country manufactures, Devonshire kersies, Wiltshire druggets, &c. ; (14) two cheese fairs at Atherstone and Chipping Norton; with innumerable other fairs, besides weekly markets for all sorts of goods, as well our own as of foreign growth." 1 Rogers, Econ. Interp., p. 283. 8 Postlethwaite, Diet, of Trade and Commerce (ed. 1774), s. v. Fair. 142 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND 88. The Fairs of Winchester and Stourbridge. Fairs were held in every part of the country at various times of the year. Thus there was a fair at Leeds, 1 which for several centuries served as a centre where the wool- growers of Yorkshire and Lancashire met English and foreign merchants from Hull and other eastern ports, and sold them the raw material that was to be worked up in the looms of Flanders. But there were a few great fairs that eclipsed all others in magnitude and importance, and of these two deserve special mention, those at Winchester and Stourbridge. (1.) That at Winchester was founded in the reign of William Rufus, who granted the Bishop of Winchester leave to holcTa fair on St Giles' HHTfor jma day in^the year. 2 Henry II., however, granted a charter for a fair of sixteen days. It was mainly, though by no means entirely, for wool and woollen goods. During this time the great common was covered with booths and tents, and divided into streets called after the name of the goods sold therein, as, e.g., " The Drapery," " The Pottery/' " The Spicery." Tolls were levied on every bridge and roadway to the fair, and brought in a large revenue to the Bishop. The fair was of importance till the fourteenth century, for in the Vision of Peres the Plowman, Covetousness tells how " To Wye 3 and to Winchester I went to the fair." * But it declined from the time of Edward III., chiefly owing to the fact that the woollen trade of Norwich and other eastern towns had become far more important, while on the other hand Southampton was found to be a more convenient spot for the Venetian 5 traders' fleet to do business. (2.) Stourbridge Fair. But the greatest of all English fairs, and that which kept its reputation and importance 1 Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 62. 2 Kitchin, Winchester (Historic Toums), pp. 63, 161, and Ashley, Econ. Hist., I. ii. p. 100. 3 Probably Weyhill hi Hampshire. * For a very full account of the Fair see Warton's long note on this line in his History of English Poetry, viii. 6 Below, p. 225. TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 143 the longest, was the Fair of Stourbridge, near Cambridge. 1 It was of European renown, and lasted three weeks, being opened on the 18th of September. 2 Its importance was due to the fact that it was within easy reach of the ports of the east coast, such as Lynn, Colchester, and Blakeney, which at that time were very accessible and much fre- quented. 8 Hither came the Venetian and Genoese merchants, with stores of Eastern produce silks and velvets, cotton, and precious stones. The Flemish merchants brought the fine linens and cloths of Bruges, Liege, Ghent, and other manufacturing towns. Frenchmen and Spaniards were present with their wines ; Norwegian sailors with tar and pitch ; and the mighty traders of the Hansa towns ex- posed for sale furs and amber for the rich, iron and copper for the farmers, and flax for the housewives, while homely fustian, buckram, wax, herrings, and canvas mingled in- congruously in their booths with strange far-off Eastern spices and ornaments. And in return the English farmers or traders on their behalf carried to the fair hundreds of huge wool-sacks, wherewith to clothe the nations of Europe, or barley for the Flemish breweries, with corn and horses and cattle also. Lead was brought from the mines of Derbyshire, and tin from Cornwall ; even some iron from Sussex, but this was accounted inferior to the imported metal. All these wares were, as at Winchester, exposed in stalls and tents in long streets, some named after the various nations that congregated there, and others after the kind of goods on sale. This vast fair lasted down to the eighteenth century in unabated vigour, and was at that time described by Daniel Defoe, in a work now easily accessible to all, 4 which contains a most interesting descrip- 1 This Stourbridge or Sturbridge is now almost in Cambridge itself, the relics of the fair being held in a field near Barnwell, about a mile and a half from the city. In ancient times it was very easy for merchants to come up the river Ouse in barges or light boats, as water-transport was much more used then than now, and even the sea-going ships were very light craft. Probably a Flemish merchant would find no difficulty in sail- ing all the way from Antwerp to Cambridge in a light ship. 3 The description which follows is based on Rogers, Hist. Agric. t i. 141-143. 3 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 124. 4 In his Tour through the Eastern Counties (1722) j Tour, i. 91, or p. 164 in Cassell's National Library Edition. 144 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND tion of all the proceedings of this busy month. It is not much more than a hundred years ago that the Lancashire merchants alone used to send their goods to Stourbridge upon a thousand pack horses, 1 but now the pack-horses and fairs have gone and the telegraph and railway have taken their place. 89. English Mediaeval Ports. In the last paragraph mention was made of the east coast having ports of great prominence in this period. It will be convenient here to notice what were the chief ports of Eng- land, and to remark how few of them have retained their old importance. The chief port was of course London, which has always held an exceptional position, and the other principal ports were on the east and south coast. 2 Southampton was from early times the chief southern har- bour, and next to it Dartmouth, Plymouth, Sandwich, and Winchelsea, Weymouth, Shoreham, Dover, and Margate. They were connected with the trade in French and Spanish goods. On the western coast Bristol was almost the only port much frequented, being the centre and harbour for the western fisheries, and also a place of export for hides and the cloth manufactures of the western towns. In the fifteenth century Bristol fishermen penetrated through the Hebrides to the Shetland and Orkney Islands and to the northern fisheries, where they found that the Scarborough men had preceded them. 3 On the eastern coast, indeed, Scarborough was one of the most enterprising ports. 4 Boston, Hull, Lynn, Harwich, Yarmouth, and Colchester were also very flourishing, and were concerned in the Flemish and Baltic trade. 5 Further north Newcastle was the centre for the coasting trade in coal, 6 and Berwick was a fisherman's harbour. But the southern and eastern ports were the most frequented, as being suitable to the light and shallow 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 55. 8 Of. Cunningham, i. 258 ; Rogers, Six Centuries, 122. 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 124. 4 For the making of a pier there, cf. Statute 37 Hen. VIII., c. 14. 6 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 124. 6 76. TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 145 craft that did a coasting trade, or ran across to the Con- tinent in smooth weather. The extent of piracy was, however, a great drawback to the prosecution of trade by sea, and formed a danger which in these days we can only inadequately realise. 1 Organised bands of pirates, called the " Rovers of the Sea," ravaged our coasts in the reign of Henry VI. 2 It was quite a com- mon occurrence for Scarborough to be attacked by Scotch, French, and Flemish pirates 8 ; and even large towns like London and Norwich made plans of defence against possible attacks from such enemies. 4 Merchant vessels had to sail together in fleets for the sake of security ; both Henry IV. and Henry VI. empowered merchants in the coast towns to organise defensive schemes 6 ; and the protection of mer- chant shipping also occupied the attention of Henry VIII. * In fact, for many centuries piracy was the curse of our maritime trade. 90. The Temporary Decay of Manufacturing Towns. We have now noticed the chief markets, fairs, ports, and manufacturing towns of mediaeval England, and it will be seen that commercial prosperity was certainly developing. So, too, were home manufacturing industries, but their growth brought about a curious effect in the decay of certain towns, and the rise of industrial villages in rural districts. To the decay of towns we find frequent reference in the Statutes of Henry VI. , Henry VII., and his successor, i.e.> from 1490 or 1500 onwards. This decay was due to- several causes, among others to the heavy taxation caused by wars with France, 7 to the growth of sheep-farming mentioned above, and also to the fact that the industrial disabilities imposed upon dwellers in towns, in consequence 1 Cf. The Paston Letters, i. 114. a Rot. ParL, iv. 350 (42), 376 (29). Hot. Parl., iii. 162 (46). 4 Den ton, Fifteenth Century, pp. 87, 89. 5 Rymer, Foedera, viii. 438, 439, 455. />., xiii. 326. 7 In 1433 Parliament in voting a tenth and fifteenth had to remit 4000 to poor towns, among which Yarmouth and Lincoln are noted. Rot. Parl. , iv. 425. Cf. also R. P., v. 5 and v. 37 for other remissions. For other evidences of decay see Rot. Parl., vi. 390, 438, and 514; Statutes 27 Hen. VIII., c. 1 ; 32 Hen. VIII., c. 18, and others. K 146 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of the corporate privileges of the gilds, now far exceeded the advantages of residence there. The days of usefulness for the gilds had gone past ; their restrictions, especially as to apprentices and journeymen, 1 were now felt only to cramp the rising manufacturing industries. Hence we find the manufacturers of the Tudor period were leaving the towns and seeking open villages instead, where they could develope their trade free from the vexatious restrictions of old- fashioned corporations. Of course laws were passed to check this tendency, and to confine particular industries to particular towns. Thus, in Norfolk, no one was to " dye, shear, or calendar cloth " anywhere but in the town of Nor- wich 2 ; no one in the northern counties was to make " worsted coverlets " except in York. 8 91. Growth of Industrial Villages. The Germs of the Modern Factory System. Such protective enactments were, however, as protective enactments must generally be, utterly in vain. Henry VII. tried 4 to remedy the supposed evil by limiting the privi- leges of interference of the gilds in causing their ordin- ances to be first approved by the Chancellor or Justices ; but even this step was useless. Manufactures were slowly and surely transferred to country villages, 5 and in several industries a kind of modern factory system can be traced at this time. Master manufacturers, weary of municipal and gild-made restrictions, organised in country places little communities solely for industrial purposes, and so arranged as to afford greater scope for the combination and division of labour. 8 The system of apprenticeship was a powerful element in this scheme, and supplied ready labour for these small factories. The goods were made not as formerly only 1 Of. Statute 28 Hen. VIII., c. 5. 8 Cf. the 5 Hen. VIII., c. 4; 14 and 15 Hen. VIII., c. 3; and 26 Hen. VIII., c. 16. 8 34 and 35 Hen. VIII., c. 10. 4 19 Hen. VII., c. 7. 6 Mrs Green, Town Life, ii. 88, says that this removal was in search of water-power (e.g., in Yorkshire and Gloucestershire). But a more power- ful reason was the tyranny of the gilds ; Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 52. 8 Cf Ashley, Woollen Industry, p. 75, and Gn>ss, u. . TOWNS, INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES, FAIRS 147 for local use, but for the purposes of trade and profit throughout the kingdom. The master was bound to his workmen rather more closely than the mill-owner of the present day to his " hands," for the spirit of personal sympathy and obligation still survived in these small labour communities, nor was there any wide social gulf fixed between master and man. 1 But the germs of the modern system were there; for this new system was not that of mere cottage industry, as had been the rule in previous periods, but a system of congregated labour organised upon a capitalistic basis by one man the organiser, head, and owner of the industrial *village the master clothier. It is, perhaps, interesting to note in this place the exemplification of the four systems or stages through which manufacturing industry usually passes. 2 They may be called (1) The family system, under which each worker produces separately, aided only by his wife and children ; (2) the system of production under the supervision and arrangements of gilds, as we have already seen, and where small " masters " employ a few men to work with them as journeymen and apprentices, while they as manu- facturers sell their own goods to the public ; (3) the domestic system, which is much the same as the one previous, except that the master manufacturer is no longer a merchant to the public, 3 but simply produces, on a large scale, for purchase by dealers ; and lastly (4) we have the factory system of modern times, which is familiar to all. Now the growth of the domestic system and of the great master clothiers may be dated from the middle of the fourteenth century, 4 and it extended through the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. 6 We see now clothiers in a large way of business who buy the wool, cause it to be spun, dyed, and finished, and then sell it to drapers or merchants, who retail it to the public. 6 The great sheep farmers were often clothiers, and made up into cloth the wool they grew. 7 Among these famous "master clothiers" we read of men like 1 Of. Ashley, Woollen Industry, p. 14. 1 qf. Hd4, Z*r social*, Oeschichte Englands, 541 sq. > Ashley, Woollen Industry, p. 73. 76., 81. */&.,73. /&., 81. fib., 80. 1 48 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND John Winchcombe, or " Jack of ISTewbury," as he was called, of whom it is recorded that a hundred looms always worked in his house, 1 and who was rich enough to send a hundred of his journeymen to Flodden Field in 1513. 2 His kerseys were famous all over Europe. 3 It was from communities such as these that the villages of Manchester, Bolton, Leeds, Halifax, and Bury took their rise, and afterwards developed into the great factory towns of to-day. But these work- shops, large though they seemed then, were utterly insig- nificant compared with the huge factories of modern times, where the workmen are numbered in thousands, and are to the capitalist-employer, or joint-stock company that owns the mill, merely a mass of human machines, more intelli- gent though not so durable as other machines, and possessed of an unpleasant tendency to go out " on strike," for reasons that usually appear to their employer insufficient and sub- versive of the whole industrial system. However, the in- dustrial system is not subverted, though the workmen can hardly be said to be upon the same pleasant footing with their employers as they used to be in the old industrial village. But even in those days things did not always go smoothly, and there are traces 4 of the existence of a very badly paid class of workmen in manufacturing towns. 1 Burnley, Wool and Woolcombing, p. 69. In 1549 the English envoy at Antwerp advises the Protector, Somerset, to send to Antwerp for sale a thousand pieces of " Winchcombe's kersies." 2 Bischoff, Woollen and Worsted Manufacture, i. 55. 8 Burnley, ut supra, p. 69. 4 Mrs Green, Toivn Life, ii. 101. The wages were only one penny a .,238. 5 By Jessop, The Black Death in E. Anglia, in The Coming of the Friars, p. 255, who also thinks that the rise in wages had begun before the Plague, and was merely accelerated by it. The "heriot" was a payment from "a dead man to his lord"; the "relief" was paid by the son before he could succeed to his father's lands. See Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. pp. 261 and 24 note, 157. 156 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and " reliefs " which they received consequent upon so many tenants' holdings changing hands through death. But any sums of money thus gained came of course only from a transitory condition of affairs, while the rise of wages and (in some cases) of prices was more permanent. We may, however, legitimately suspect, as an inference from modern cases, that the lords of the manors and the employers made the most of their hardships, in the hopes that arrears of taxation might be lightened by Parliament. 1 97. Effects of the Plague upon the Landowners. The fact that the larger landowners found the cost of working their land doubled or even trebled caused im- portant economic changes. Before the Plague the cost of harvesting upon a certain estate, quoted by Professor Rogers, 2 was 3, 13s. 9d. ; afterwards it rose to 12, 19s. lOd. Moreover, the landlord had to consent to receive lower rents, 3 for many tenants could not work their farms profit- ably with the old rents and the new prices for labour and implements. And, as rent is paid out of the profits of agriculture, it became obvious that smaller profits must mean lower rents. Now, in this state of things the land- lord had two courses open to him. He could turn off the tenant and cultivate all his land himself, or he could try to exist upon the smaller income gained from lower rents. It was obviously impossible for him to cultivate all his land himself, for he would have to employ a large number of bailiffs for his various manors, and trust to their honesty to do their best for him. He therefore decided to allow his tenants to pay him a smaller rent. What is more, he in many cases decided under the circumstances to give up farming altogether, and to let even the lands which he had reserved for his own cultivation. 4 The landlords, in fact, 1 Jessop, ut supra, p. 256. 2 Six Centuries, p. 241. * In the words of Henry of Knigh ton's Chronicle (ut supra, ii. p. 65), the lords had "either entirely to free them, or give them an easier tenure at a small rent, so that homes should not be everywhere irrecoverably ruined and the land everywhere remain entirely uncultivated." 4 This became even more frequent in the next century the fifteenth. Stubbs, Conft. Hist. , iii. 552. The new tenants were known as Jirmarii THE GREAT PLAGUE 157 had not, apparently, either the ability or the inclination tc superintend agriculture under these changed conditions, and ceased trying to work their land themselves. One great result of the Plague, therefore, was that landlords to a 3 extent gave up capitalist farming upon their own unt, and let their tenants cultivate the soil upon the moaern tenant-farming method. There was, in fact, a com- plete change introduced into the agricultural system, the foundations of the modern arrangement of comparatively large farms, 1 held by tenants and not by small owners, were laid, and the present distinction between the farmer and the labourer was more clearly established. 2 98. Large and Small Holdings: the Yeomen. This change in the agricultural situation also operated in other ways. Concurrently with the greater development of the modern system of tenant farmers, there is reason to believe 3 that the Plague caused in many places the con- centration of several estates into one, in cases where numer- ous deaths had resulted in the succession of a single heir to the estates of his stricken relatives, and thus the tendency towards the combination of large estates in few lands was strengthened, and the great landowner became more clearly distinguished from his neighbours. " The gentry became richer and their estates larger." But at the same time there was also an undoubted tendency towards the multi- plication of small holdings, both those in the hands of tenants and of owners, so that the class of peasant-farmers and yeomen greatly increased in numbers. 4 * The circumstances of the time favoured these, for the rise in the price of labour was not so severely felt by this class, since they could and did use the unpaid labour of their families upon their holdings. 5 Then, when they had (i.e., those who paid a firma or fixed rent), "fermors," or "farmers." Ashley, Econ. Hist., H. ii. 267. 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ch. xvi. 400 ; Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, i. 667. 2 Ib. 3 Jessop, The Black Death in East Anglia, in The Coming of the Friars, p. 251. 4 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 241. 5 Ib. 158 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND tided over the immediate results of the Plague, they took larger holdings as they grew richer. They were helped in this by the stock and land lease system already referred to (p. 114), which gave them the use of a larger quantity of agricultural capital than they could otherwise have com- manded. But when the tenant-farmer's wealth increased he found himself able, as a rule, to keep his own stock. 99. The Statute of Quia Emptores. It also would appear that, independently of the effects of the Plague, the number of substantial yeomanry (some of whom helped later to swell the numbers of the country gentry) was increasing from another cause. Little more than half a century before the Black Death, the Crown had thought it necessary to introduce the well-known Statute of Quia Emptores. This enactment 1 was intended to prevent the practice of " subinfeudation," whereby the tenants of the greater lords received other and smaller tenants on condition of their rendering to them feudal services similar to those which they themselves rendered to their original lords. The Statute of Quia JEmptores 2 purposed to check this process by providing that in any case of alienation of land to a sub-tenant, this sub-tenant should hold it, not of the other tenant, but of the superior lord or real owner. The intention undoubtedly was to prevent the alienation of land, but, as so often happens with legislative enactments, the actual result was of a directly opposite character. The tenant who, previously, had been compelled to retain in any case at least so much of his holding as enabled him to fulfil his feudal obligations to his overlord, was now able (by a process similar to the modern sale of " tenant right ") to transfer both land and services to new holders. 3 The estates thus transferred, however large or small they might be, were now held directly of the Crown or superior lord ; and the class of 1 Stubbs, Comt. Hut. , II. ch. xv. p. 180 ; Taswell Langmead, English Const. Hist., pp. 62, 138, 228. 2 The king (Edward I.) enacted this "by the instance of his magnates only" (ad instantiam magnatumregnisu^onJuljSth, 1290(18 Ed. I., c. 1). 8 Green, History, i. 336. THE GREAT PLAGUE 159 small gentry and freeholders grew steadily from this time both in numbers and importance. The Plague assisted the tendency of the Statute, and an important social change was thereby wrought. " The facilities thus given to the alienation and subdivision of lands ; the transition of the serf into the copyholder, and of the copyholder by redemp- tion of his services into a freeholder ; the rise of a new class of ' farmers/ as the lords ceased to till their demesne by means of bailiffs, and adopted instead the practice of leasing it at a rent or ' farm ' (firma) to one of the ' cus- tomary ' tenants ; the general increase of wealth which was telling on the social position, even of those who still remained in villeinage all undid more and more the earlier process which had degraded the free ceorl of the English Conquest into the villein of the Norman Conquest, and covered the land with a population of yeornen, some free- holders, some with services that every day became less weighty and already left them virtually free." 1 The yeomanry of England formed henceforth for several cen- turies an important factor in national life, and their decline was a national misfortune. 2 100. The Emancipation of the Villeins. In fact, the gradual amelioration of the conditions of villeinage or serfage received a forcible impetus from the Great Plague. Those villeins who had not already become free tenants, and especially those who lived on wages, 3 shared in the advantages now gained by all who had labour to sell. Their labour was more valuable, and they were able with their higher wages to buy from their lord a com- mutation of those exactions which interfered with their personal freedom of action, 4 with their right to sell their labour to other employers, or with their endeavours to reach a better social position. Serfage or villeinage gradu- 1 The extract, which gives a good summary of the conclusions of other writers, is from Green, History of the English People, i. 420. 2 For this decline, see below, p. 276. ' Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 242. 4 " Money payments were substituted for service." Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. eh. xvi. p. 454. 160 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND ally became practically a mere form, 1 though the land- owners, supported by the lawyers, 2 interposed many ob- stacles in the path of emancipation, and a great Revolt was necessary to enable the villeins to show their power. This revolt and its result must now engage our atten- tion. 8 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. ch. xvi. p. 254. "It was by a mere legal form that the villein was described as less than free." 2 Ib., 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. 3 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 BUT rivals, see later, p. 171. CHAPTER XII THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF issi, 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 l as " one of the most portentous phenomena to be found in the whole of our history " ; nor has the criticism 2 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." 8 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. 2 Cf. Ashley's criticism of /. E. Tkorold 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. 3 Stubbs, ut ante, p. 450. r 161 162 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 terrific 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 Great jPlague 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. 1 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 Plowman, with his outspoken denunciation of those who are called the upper classes, 2 the bold religious preaching of Wiklif and the wandering friars, and the marked political assertion of the rights of Parliament by the " Good Parlia- ment" 8 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." 4 1 Cf. Gower, Vox Clamantis, in Stubbs, u. ., 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. 2 See below, p. 167. I have treated this more at length in English Social Reformers, pp. 5-25. 8 Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. ch. xvi. pp. 428-433. "It marked the climax of a long rising excitement," p. 428. 4 Wiklif, English Works (E.E.T.S.), p. 229, Of Lords and Servants. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 1381 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." 1 These men were like the mendicant friars who had come to England a century before 2 to work in the poorer parts of the English towns ; though Wiklif s priests generally wandered out 3 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. 4 They served as messengers between those in different parts of the country, having passwords and a secret language of their own. 6 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 1 Green, History, i. 474. 2 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 tne educated classes " ; the Franciscans appealed to the lowest and poorest class, and worked in the slums of the towns of those days. Ib., 28, 21. 3 Friars and "poor priests " were found everywhere ; cf. Wylie, England under Henry IV., ch. xvi. 4 These unions or confederacies are complained of and prohibited (uselessly) by the Statute 1 Rich. H., c. 6 (1377). 5 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., *nd 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, 1 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- formance by their tenants of such labour dues as were not yet commuted for money payments. 2 They even tried to make those tenants who had emerged from a condition of villeinage to a free tenancy return back to villeinage again, 3 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. 4 1 Note the complaints against Lollard teaching in the Statute 2 Henry V., I. c. 7. 2 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., 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. 8 " 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). 4 This was no doubt the cause of the particular animosity shown against manorial documents, which in many cases the villeins tried to burn ; ., p. 45G. 7 Above, p. 153. 1 66 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND had unwisely (1376 and 1379) sought to enforce the Statutes of Labourers still more stringently ; l 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. 2 To meet the expendi- ture on war abroad, and on luxury at the court, a poll-tax of a groat a head was ordained among the last acts of the dying king, 3 who passed away at last in June 1377, robbed of his rings even on his death -bed by his mistress, Alice Ferrers. 4 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 ; 5 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. 6 The tax was now made 12d. instead of a groat (4d.), as it had been previously, 7 and was levied on every person above fifteen years of age. 8 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 Hot. ParL, ii. 310 ; Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 424. * Rot. ParL , ii. 364. It was granted by Parliament on February 22, 1377. 4 Green, History, i. 470. 5 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. 8 Rot. ParL, iii. 88-90. 7 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. ParL, iii. 57, 58. 8 Prince, Parallel History, i. 659 (ed. 1842) ; Hume's History of England, iii. 6 (ed. 1818). THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 1381 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. 1 106. 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, 2 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 " 3 had 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, " greet eth 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 6 ; 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 1 The story of the collectors' alleged misbehaviour is well known. 2 Above, p. 163. * Chron. Angl., p. 312. 4 Quoted in Skeat's Introduction (p. xxvi.) to Piers the Plowman. 6 This probably meant that the agricultural labourer is to rise against the lord who was "robbing" him of his rights. 168 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 ! God speed every dele ! " l 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, 2 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, 3 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, 4 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," 5 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. 6 But these acts were not the immediate object of the villeins. After 'Part. 2 "Far more rapidly than the news could fly," says Stubbs, II. xvi. 450. 3 Walsingham, i. 454. Stubbs, ut supra, 457. 4 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. Cf. Annals of England (Parker, Oxford, 1876), p. 203. 6 Arch. Cant., Hi. 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. 1 It is significant also to note how many clergy were in the ranks of the in- surgents, for in indictments made after the rising 2 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. 3 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 Smith field, when their chief leader, Wat the Tyler, was slain by the Lord Mayor of London. 4 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. 6 He gave the same promise to the men of Kent, and it was only after receiving his letters of emancipation 6 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. 7 But the peasants learned very soon how vain a thing it 1 They demanded (1) abolition of bondage, (2) a general pardon, (3) abolition of tolls, (4) the commutation of villein services. See Richard II. 'a patent revoking manumissions; Rymer, Foedera, iv. 216. 2 Cf. Annals, p. 204 ; Rot. ParL, iii. 108. 3 These were the records of the manorial courts held by the lords of the manors. Rot. ParL, iii. 116; Walsingham, Hist. Angl., i. 455. 4 Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. p. 458. 5 Walsingham, Hist. Angl., i. 459. 8 " We release you from all bondage." Walsingham, i. 466, 467, and ff. 473. 7 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 ; l and on July 2nd he formally annulled the charters of freedom, 2 a step that was sub- sequently sanctioned by Parliament when it met again on November 5th (5 Richard II., c. 6). Special commis- sioners were sent into the country to punish the insurgents, 3 and it would seem that as many as 1500 persons were executed by their orders. 4 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. 5 " 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 ! " 6 At St Alban's John Ball was hanged on July 15th, 7 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." 8 108. The Result of the fievolt. 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. 2 Ib. 3 Richard himself had to interfere to repress their severity. Rymer, Foed., iv. 133. * Annals, p. 205; Stubbs, quoting Mon. Evesh., p. 33, says that in all 7000 insurgents were executed. 5 Green, History, i. 484. Walsingham, Hist. AngL, ii. 18. 7 Stubbs, Const. Hist., ii. p. 452, note. 8 Green, History, i. 485. THE PEASANTS' REVOLT OF 1381 171 going into the church." 1 They even asked that lords might reclaim villeins from the chartered towns, 2 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." 3 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. 4 Evidence of this is seen in the whole tone of the writings of Fitzherbert, the author of a well-known work, " On Survey ., p. 541. */&., p. 543. 6 S. R. Gardiner, Students' History of England, i. 321. 6 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. 7 Cf. Mrs Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, i. 44. 1 82 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND at the expense of their poorer neighbours ; l 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 tha Roses. 113. The Country Gentry. Next 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, 3 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. 5 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. 6 But food was abundant and cheap, and money wages were not high, while very often the servants were his own poor relations. 7 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. 8 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 modern ideas, 1 Cf. Paston Letters (ed. Arber), Vol. I. 13-15, and Denton, Fifteenth Century, pp. 296-301. 8 Cf. Gardiner, Students' Hist, of England, i. 321 and 323. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. p. 544. * From the Black Book of Edward IV. (Stubbs, u. *., p. 538). 6 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 Book, p. xii. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. p. 548. 7 Ib. 8 Ib. 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, 1 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 Freeholder, tenant, and 1 Stubbs, u. a., p. 552. 3 The famous statute 8 Henry VI., o. 7, which was not repealed till the 14Geo. III., c. 58. 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. p. 552. * 76. , p. 554. 5 Froude, Hist, oj 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. 1 It was the yeomanry, too, who served on juries, chose the coroner, attended the sheriffs court, and assembled with arms which they them- selves provided in the muster of the forces of the shire 2 to follow their King, if need were, across the Channel, and win victory and glory for their leader on the battlefields of France. 8 115. 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. 6 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, u. ., p. 557. 2 Stubbs, M. s., p. 552. 8 Cf. the remarks on yeomanry in war in Green's History, i. p. 421. 4 As evidence of this growth we may quote from a treatise by Sir John Fortesoue, 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." 6 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 1 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, 8 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 corn was encouraged, 4 in contradiction of a still earlier policy, while the import of foreign corn was prohibited 5 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, 1 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 of Launton, MS., quoted by Denton, u. s., p. 114. 2 From the political poem (of about 1435) called The Libette of English Policie, 36, 37. 3 See below, p. 213. 4 By the 17 Richard II., 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. 5 By the 3 Ed ward 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 Uie bow and arrow on Sundays and holidays instead of playing football, dice, and skittles, and other unprofitable games. 1 116. The Stock and Land Lease. Apart from sheep-farming, however, and the consequent change from tillage to pasturage, 2 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. 3 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 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. 6 Jd. ; 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, 4 who also was responsible for repairs, trade losses, and "poor years," 6 so that perhaps it is not surprising that land- 1 1 Richard II., c. 7. 2 Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. p. 611. Rogers, Hist. Agric., in. 705-708. 4 See example in Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 285. 5 /&., p. 286. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 187 owners were not eager to give such leases if they could do better, and as time went on they fell into disuse. The value of land rose rapidly in the fifteenth century, 1 and people of good means and position were anxious to buy it for the sake of the social and other advantages it entailed, 2 as well as for the profits derivable from wool growing. Rent, too, rose rapidly, 3 and the smaller tenants and yeomen began to feel the competition of large farmers and sheep breeders. But still the great mass of land was held in the old common fields, with their curiously intermixed strips belonging to different tenants, 4 and the great majority of the rural labourers had a piece of land, 6 either of their own or as a holding, wherefrom to supplement their wages. A landless labourer was not yet the rule, while most men could still feel themselves, in some measure at least, active and real sharers in the life of their village community. The old institutions of primitive days were not yet dead, 6 though enclosures and legislation were soon to do their best to kill them. They were giving way to more modern requirements, but still they retained many relics of the past ; and though, undoubtedly, it is owing to their per- sistence that the slow progress of agricultural methods is due, and though it was necessary they should go, one cannot help regretting that the disintegration of the old village community took much of value and interest from the social side of the labourer's life. 117. The Towns and Town Constitutions. When we turn now from the country to the towns we find that here again the fifteenth century is marked by 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 288. 2 Of. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. pp. 610, 611. Among the advantages of landowners may be mentioned a lower rate of taxation, the county franchise, legal protection from absolute forfeiture. Forfeited lands could be restored to the heirs of the dispossessed, whereas a merchant's property once forfeited was gone for ever. 3 See below, p. 213. 4 The difficulties caused to landlords by this system are shown in mediaeval accounts. Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 286, 287. 5 Above, p. 177. 6 Cf. Gomme, Village Community, ch. viii. , where instances of survivals of much later date are given. 1 88 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND growth and change. It has been already remarked that it was not till the twelfth century that the towns have any independent municipal life as boroughs at all, 1 while even in the fourteenth century this municipal life was on a small scale ; 2 but in the fifteenth century wealth was accumulating 8 and the towns growing more important, till, at the close of the period, they emerge in something very like their modern form as corporations. 4 If we take, for example, the period between the reigns of Henry III (1216-1272) and Henry VII. (1488-1509) we find that the amount of growth is very considerable. In the earlier part of the period 5 the towns had indeed gained their charters, with the rights of holding their own courts under their own officers, the right of compounding for their payments to the crown in the shape of the firma burgi and collecting this among their citizens, and they had gained the recogni- tion of the merchant and craft gilds that had so important a share in their municipal life. But these rights and privileges were only a commencement of a growth towards a larger freedom. In the later years of the period we find that the typical constitution of the town is the modern one of a close corporation of mayor, aldermen, and council, 7 with more or less clearly defined organisation and precise numbers, and certainly with greater and more independent self-governing powers. The " bailiff " has been replaced by the " mayor," and the town constitution gains by the change a unity hitherto unknown ; the merchant and craft gilds have become merged into the corporation and take part in the municipal government; yet exactly how and when these changes took place it is most difficult to say. It is, however, very clear that the growth of towns and of civic constitutions throughout the country was exceeding varied and irregular. 8 There is no marked line of develop- ment ; sometimes the larger towns received their modern constitution long before the smaller ; and altogether there is great diversity of growth. There is not space here to 1 Mrs Green, Town Life, i. p. 11. 2 Ib., i. p. 13. 8 7J., i. p. 15. 4 Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. p. 560. 6 Ib., p. 559. 6 Above, pp. 90, 93. 7 Stubbs, u. ., p. 560. B Ashley, JScon. Hist., II. i. p. 11. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 189 discuss the question fully, nor is it necessary for our pur- pose. It is sufficient to note the development of the towns, and, consequently, of town life, in the fifteenth cen- tury, as the beginning of that tendency towards urban attraction which is, perhaps unfortunately, a necessary characteristic of modern industrial progress. But we may devote a passing mention to the connection of the gilds and municipal life. 1 1 8. The Gilds and Municipal Institutions. The story of the relations of the merchant gilds to the municipal government on the one hand, and to the craft gilds on the other, is exceedingly complex. 1 Sometimes merchant gilds regarded the craft gilds as rivals, and attempted to suppress them, while at others they sought a surer means of regulating them by including them in their own body. 2 But in the fifteenth century the craft gilds were beginning to decay, at least in the older corporate towns, and were ceasing to be really effective institutions for the wellbeing of the crafts which they professed to regulate. 8 Consequently we need not be surprised at their practical destruction by Somerset in the next century (1547). But the merchant gilds had in many cases become identified with the corporation or governing body of the town to which they belonged, and regulated trade in much the same fashion as before, 4 though trade was now assuming so much larger proportions that it was outgrowing the powers of the regulating bodies. In some cases the name of " merchant gild " died out, as at York, but even then the custom of admitting " freemen " as citizens was exercised, as at Leicester, by the corporation in such a way as to show that the admission was a relic of the powers of the ancient gild. 6 In other places, however, the name and idea of the gild was still preserved, and furnished occasions for city pageants of considerable splendour. 6 But for all practical purposes the merchant gilds had now be- 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist. ILL. xxi. p. 562. 8 Stubbs, u. s. t p. 563. * Cunningham, i. p. 464. * Stubbs, u. s., p. 564. 6 Ib. As at Preston ; Stubbs, u. ., p. 565. 190 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND come identified with the town corporations, and even the gild " halls " had become the common hall or " town hall " of the city. 1 The aldermen of the gild became the aldermen of town wards, and the property of the gild became the pro- perty of the town. 2 In London, however, the still existing " City Companies " represent not merchant but craft gilds, of which the twelve most important availed themselves in the fourteenth century of the power to grant livery to their members, and were then, and are still, distinguished as the Livery Companies. 8 119. The Decay of Certain Towns. It will be seen from this short summary, therefore, that it is to the growth of industry that we owe the development of our town life and municipal self-government, and that it is in industrial history that the origin of the towns of to-day must be sought. In later years towns take an important share in political history, as well as industrial, but in the period with which we are now dealing it was not so. They did not play, either in or out of Parliament, an important part in the dynastic struggles of the fifteenth century. 4 Probably they were too much occupied with the anxieties and responsibilities of their own development to care much about outside politics, for we must remember that in mediaeval England the life both of town and village was very self-centred, and neither citizens or villagers had much interest in affairs outside their own boundaries. In any case, many of the English towns at this time seem to have been in a somewhat depressed condition from the industrial point of view, however much they might be advancing municipally and socially. The older corporate towns seem to have decayed 6 towards the end of the fifteenth century, however prosperous they may have been at its beginning, and early in the reign of Henry VIII. 6 it 1 Stubbs, u. 8., p. 565. One might cite the example of the Nottingham "Gild Hall," which is the name still given to the quite modern building used as a town hall. 2 Stubbs, u. *., p. 566. s Ib., pp. 566, 567. 4 Stubbs, u. ., p. 592. 5 This is evident from the remissions of taxation on towns made in 1496. Rot. ParL, vi. 514, 438. Statute 3 Henry VIII., c. 8. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 191 is officially noted that "many and the most part of the cities, burghs, and towns corporate within this realm of Eng- land be fallen into ruin and decay/' At first sight this would seem rather a startling condition of things, and, in fact, one that is almost inexplicable in view of the growth of industry and commerce which we know to have taken place in this age. But the explanation is not far to seek. First of all, we note that the complaint is made only of the old and corporate towns, and that many newer towns were growing up and flourishing with prosperous manufactures. This was certainly the case with Manchester, 1 Birmingham, 2 and (later) Sheffield ; 3 and also with the towns of Leeds, Wake- field, and others in the West Eiding of Yorkshire. 4 The fact is that the restrictions made by the gilds in these older towns rendered them obnoxious 5 to the new manufacturers who were everywhere springing up, and who preferred to leave the old cities and carry on their occupations undis- turbed elsewhere. Then, again, the heavy taxation necessi- tated by the wars of Henry VI. 's reign, and the unnecessary but heavy exactions of the grasping Henry VII., had fallen very hardly on the corporate towns, while others had escaped. 6 But still another cause, and one more powerful than either of these, may be assigned. It is that they were at the close of the fifteenth century no longer necessary as places of security for traders and manufacturers. 7 In the troublous days of the Wars of the Roses, and in the old times before them, when the nobility were constantly engaged in private warfare, it would not have been safe for a merchant or a manufacturer, or for anyone with much property and little power, 8 to have lived outside a walled town, as most 1 Mentioned as a market in the Rot. Part., vi. 182 a, in Edward IV. 's reign, but in 1542 mentioned in a statute of Edward VI. as a flourishing manufacturing town (5 and 6 Ed. VI., c. 6). 2 Described by Leland, Itinerary, iv. 114. 3 A company of cutlers was formed here in Elizabeth's reign. 4 Defoe, Plan of English Commerce, 127, 129, refers to these towns having woollen manufactures under Henry Vil. 5 Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. 452, 455, 461, and above, p. 146 6 Ib., i. 461. 7 Of. Froude's remarks, History, i. 9. 8 For instances of oppression by great nobles, see Denton, Fifteenth Century, pp. 296-301, and the Paston Letters (ed. Arber), Vol. I. 13-15. 192 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of them then were. A master workman could not then have migrated with any safety into a country district, either to obtain water-power or to evade gild-made regulations. But now that the Wars of the Roses were over, and the Crown had proved strong enough to establish peace and security throughout the greater part of the kingdom, one great use of the older towns as centres of security for manufactures and trade had become unnecessary ; they begin to decline in importance, though commerce and industry are progressing ; while newer centres take their place, or urban industrial occupations are spreading even into rural districts. Thus the pacification of the kingdom, which was the work of Henry VII. and the Tudors, and which has lasted with but one serious outbreak into our own times, prevented what might otherwise have happened too prematurely, namely, that con- centration of population into the towns which is one of the greatest difficulties of the present age. 120. The Commercial and Industrial Change of the Fifteenth Century. Meanwhile, as we have hinted, manufactures and com- merce in the fifteenth century, in spite of the decay of certain towns, were certainly progressing. The woollen manufacture received a great impetus from Henry VII. , who, as Edward III. had done, encouraged foreigners to settle in England in order to instruct English artisans. 1 He directed his attention specially to the West Riding of Yorkshire and the towns of Leeds, Wakefield, and Halifax ; and about the same time the export of wool 2 was for- bidden in order that there might be plenty of material for making woollen cloth. In the East of England, Nor- wich and the county of Norfolk 3 generally still remained a flourishing seat of manufactures both of woollen and worsted 1 Defoe, Plan of English Commerce, 127, 129. 8 4 Henry VII., o. 11. The fact that it was again prohibited by the 22 Henry VIII. , c. 2, and the 37 Henry VIII., c. 15, shows that either the prohibition was useless or that it was only temporary. 8 Cf. the information implied in the Statutes 5 Henry VIII., c. 4, and 14 and 15 Henry VIII., c. 3. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES 193 stuffs. There was an active export trade in wool to Italian 1 as well as to Flemish towns, and other foreign commerce was being entered into that was to lead to great develop- ments in the future. 2 In fact, the fifteenth century shows us remarkable progress. It is the beginning in many ways of a new era in more than one branch of industry. For there were at least three great changes that form in them- selves a commercial and industrial revolution, almost as important in some ways, though not so striking, as the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century. This series of developments was : (1) the change in agriculture, already commented upon, 3 from tillage to pasturage for the sake of wool-growing; (2) the change from England being merely a wool-growing to a wool-manufacturing country * ; and (3) the change in foreign commerce, 5 whereby English- men, who in the days of Edward III. had allowed nearly all their foreign commerce to be monopolised by foreign mer- chants, now began to take it into their own hands. Nor should we omit, as factors of considerable importance, the great discoveries made at this time by Columbus and Cabot, though at first these discoveries had but little effect upon English commerce. Henry VII., indeed, seems to have had more foresight in this matter than most of his subjects, for he more than once granted commissions for the discovery and investment of new lands. 6 It was not his fault that England did not take the place of Spain in the New World r ; but Englishmen were not yet ready for such an enterprise, and perhaps it was as well that they were not. Their success was all the greater for its delay. 1 Namely, Pisa, Venice, and Florence ; Rymer, Fosdera, XII. 390. 2 E.g. English merchants are now found (1513) doing business in the Levant, to which they had never traded before. Cf. Cunningham, i. p, 438, which see also for the development of shipping and foreign commerce generally. 8 Above, p. 184. 4 Cf. Mrs Green, Town Life in Fifteenth Century, i. p. 44. 5 /Z>., i. p. 122. 6 Besides his patronage of Cabot (cf. Rymer. Fcedera, XII. 595) h* granted patents of exploration in 1501 and later to various Bristol mer- chants ('&. XIII. 41 and 37). 7 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 mediaeval 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. 1 The ideal of this class was a king who would act as a superior kind of chief constable 2 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 fortunate. Poverty and crime existed, as unfortunately they always will, and there were Poor Laws 8 with penal codes to 1 Cf. Gardiner, Student's History, i. 357. 2 /6., i. 331. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., iii. xxi., pp. 599 and 600, points out how the alms-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 modern 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, 1 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, 3 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. 6 So, at least, one might infer from the small effect they had upon wages and prices. 6 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. 1 For this war cf. the useful summary in Burrows Commentaries on the Hist, of Eng., pp. 215-221 and Green, History of the English People, i. pp. 547-563. 2 Cf. Stubbs, Const. Hist., iii., pp. 86-125. 3 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. 4 Ib. pp. 117 and 144. 5 " Happily a war of barons and their retainers rather than of the nation generally. The towns suffered but little." Burrows, Commentaries, p. 222. On the other hand, Denton, Fifteenth 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) I 9 6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the ruin of the majority of the feudal aristocracy, 1 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, 2 and secured peace for his king- dom while gaining by rather dubious methods consider- able wealth for his treasury. 3 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. 1 For the mutual destruction of the nobles cf. Gairdner, Lancaster and York, p. 227. It is quite true, however, as Denton remarks (Fifteenth 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 (ib. xii. 390) in the same year, and the " Intercursus magnus " with Flanders in 1496, (ib. xii. 578). 3 He had as much as 1,800,000. Gardiner, Student's History of England, i. 357. 4 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. IftlSff SEA DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND. c N Scale of EnglishMiles. O 1O 2O 30 4-O i^O 75 1OO WEALTH IN ENGLAND IN 1503. This Map is based on the assessment of counties made in 1503 by Henry VTI., for a special " aid." The table of counties in order of their assessment will be found in Rogers' Hist. 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 ... ... ... Dark Brown. 500 700 ,, ., ,, Dark Green. 700 850 ,. ,, ,, Dark Red. 8501,150 ,, ,, ,, ... l,ight Brown. 1,1502,200 ,, , Light Red. over 2,200 ,, ,, ,, Light Green. XOTE. This Map should be compared with that opposite page 263. 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. 's Wastefulness. HENRY VIII. came to the throne in 1509. He succeeded to a full treasury x 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, 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 But the 1 See note 3 above, p. 196. 2 Green, History of English People, ii. 109. 8 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. 4 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 England, 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 in 1523 and 1525, cf. Green, ii. 116, 117, 121, 122. 5 Cf. Froude, History, i. 39, who says Henry VIL'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, 1 that he had to repudiate his debts, 2 that he was addicted to gambling in private s 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. 4 Nor can it be denied that he roused open revolt by his attempts to obtain funds by ordinary methods; 6 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. 6 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 VIII. obtained by various means ? It has never been properly accounted for, and these household accounts evidently do not represent his entire expenditure. 1 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. 3 Cf. the note in Froude, History , i. 30, and the Privy Purse Expense* oj Henry VIII. 4 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. 5 As in the revolts of 1525 in Suffolk 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 oj England, p. 293. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 321 ; Hist. Agric., iv. 28. The accounts are preserved in the Record Office. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 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." l As a matter of fact he succeeded in impoverishing the whole of it. 2 Nevertheless, it is curious to notice that Henry VIII. 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. 8 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 ; 6 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. 1 Quoted by Green, History, i. 88. 2 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). 3 Burrows, Commentaries on the History of England, p. 276. *Ib. 6 E.g. William HE. of England; cf. Macaulay's History, ch. xi., and MMIM. 202 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND 123. The Dissolution of the Monasteries. Having wasted the carefully accumulated treasures of his father, Henry sought for further supplies. They were gained at first by increased taxation, but as this money was spent in the French wars, 1 Henry was soon in difficulties again. Then a great temptation came upon him. The monasteries 2 suggested themselves to him as an easy prey, and he knew that an attack upon them would not displease the growing Protestant party in the country. It is possible that he was even animated by reforming zeal, and, if so, it was fortunate that he was able to satisfy his conscience and to fill his purse at the same moment. The religious houses were in many cases certainly not fulfilling their ancient functions properly, 3 and were often far from being the homes of religious virtue. 4 Excuses and even reasons were easily found; in 1536 the smaller monasteries with an income below 200 a year were suppressed, 5 and in 1539 the larger ones were similarly treated. 6 In all, about a thousand houses were suppressed, 7 the annual income of which was some 160,000, equivalent to more than two millions sterling of our present money. 8 Half a dozen bishoprics and a few grammar schools were founded, some fortifications built, and temporary work found for the unemployed out of the proceeds of this spoliation, 9 in order to blind the eyes of the people at large. But with these 1 Green, History, ii. 93. a Reforms had been instituted among the clergy before this, even in Henry VII. 's reign. Of. Froude, History, i. 97-99 3 E.g. The duty of relieving the poor is said to have been neglected. Froude, i. 76. For other charges see ib. ii. 302, sqq. 4 Cf. the state of things at the Lichfield Nunnery, Froude, ii. 319 ; at Foun tains Abbey, where the Abbot kept six women, ib. p. 321, and c. x. generally. 6 By the Act 27 Henry VIII. c. 28. Act 31 Henry VEIL c. 13. 7 Green, History, ii. 101 gives 1021 altogether. Bishop Creighton (Diet. Eng. History, s.v. Monasticism) gives only 616 as the total. " There were 186 Benedictines, 173 Augustinians, 101 Cistercians, 33 of the four orders of friars, 32 Premonstratensians, 28 of the Knights Hospitallers, 25 Gil- bertines, 20 Cluniacs, 9 Carthusians, and a few other orders. The total number of monasteries was 616, and their revenues were approximately valued at 142,914 yearly." 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 322, Hist. Agric. iv. 29. . 9 Green, History, ii. 201 ; Froude, History, ii. 345, iii. 207-10. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 203 paltry exceptions the whole of that vast capital and revenue was granted to courtiers and favourites, sold at nominal prices, or frittered away by the king and his satellites. 1 124. Results of the Suppression. Although the mass of the people did not protest very vigorously against this piece of royal robbery, many of them witnessed with silent dismay the destruction of ancient insti- tutions that had taken at one time an important share in the national life. It is true that the monasteries had, so to speak, worn themselves out and outgrown their usefulness. 2 Some were deeply in debt, some almost deserted, almost all had misapplied their revenues. 3 Some reform, at least, was necessary, perhaps even a total suppression, but undoubtedly the worst feature about the whole transaction was the dis- tribution of the spoil. 4 In any case the country districts, if none other, lost in many instances (though not in all) hospitable and charitable friends ; and discontent, eagerly fomented of course by the dispossessed monks, 5 broke out into open insurrection. The well-known revolt called the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536) was an instance of this, though it had also other causes, connected with the general agrarian change which was then taking place. These causes may be detailed in the words of those concerned in the rebellion, words which give a very clear insight into the grievances that were vexing men's minds in the rural districts : " The poor people and commons," said one, " be sore oppressed by gentlemen because their living is taken away." 6 This is vague, but another witness tells us more explicitly in what the oppression consisted. He mentions " the pulling down of villages and farms, raising of rents, enclosures, intakes of the commons, worshipful men taking yeomen's offices, that is, becoming dealers in farm produce. 7 " One great reason *Many of the new aristocracy of Henry VIII. 's reign owe their riches to this spoliation. " The Russells and Cavendishes rose from obscurity through the grants of church lands." Green, History, ii. 201. 2 Burrows, Commentaries, p. 270. 3 Ib. 4 /&.,p. 271. 8 Ib., 272. Evidence of Geo. Gisborne, Rolls House, MSS., miscellaneous, first series, 132 (Froude). 7 William Stapleton's evidence, ib. 204 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of the discontent is thus clearly seen to be the enclosures, and another was the raising of rents ; and grievances like these, coupled with religious feeling, fear of change, and sympathy for the dispossessed monks, were sufficient to give rise to a very considerable outbreak, which was only suppressed with some difficulty. 1 The economic disturbances which resulted, though not so clearly seen, were far more severe. They were acute enough from the mere fact of so much wealth having suddenly changed hands and being spent with reckless prodigality. It is said that one-fifth, 2 or even one-third, 3 of the land in the kingdom was held by the monasteries, and this was now transferred from the hold of the Church into the hands of a new set of nobles and landed gentry, created from the dependants and followers of Henry's court. 4 These were enriched, but the former tenants of the monasteries and the poorer class of labourers suffered greatly. 5 Hence serious results followed. Many of the monastic lands were held by tenants upon the stock and land lease system, 6 spoken of before ; but, when these monastic lands were suddenly transferred into the clutches of Henry's new and grasping nobility, or were bought by merchants and mauufacturers who only cared for profits, 7 the stock was confiscated and sold off, while the money rent was raised. The new owners did not care for the slow, though really lucrative, system of providing the tenant with a certain amount of stock for his land, but simply wished to get all the money they could without delay. They often evicted the tenantry and lived as absentees on the profits of their flocks. 8 The result was that the poorer tenants were J Annals of England, p. 302, 303. 2 Green, History, ii. 201. 3 Rogers, Hist. Agric., iv. 113; Six Centuries, p. 323, who however seems to think it rather doubtful. 4 Cf. Froude, History, iii. 206, where he mentions the novi homines. 6 Cf. -the contemporary evidence in the Cole, MSS. (Brit. Museum) xii. f ol. 5. The Fall of Religious Houses : ' ' They never raised any rent nor took any incomes or fines of their tenants." Again, "If any poor house- holder lacked seed to sow his land, or bread, corn, or malt before harvest, and came to a monastery, he should not have gone away again without help." Of course, some allowance must be made for the evident friendly bias of the author. 6 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 323. 7 Froude, History, iii. p. 206. . 8 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i. p. 434. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 205 almost ruined, and it seems fairly evident that pauperism was much increased. 125. Pauperism. Whether it is true that the monasteries relieved what poverty there was, or not, or whether in pre-Reformation days the charitable instincts of the general public were more actively encouraged x by their religion, may still be a matter of dispute, but there can be no doubt as to the growth of pauperism in the days of Henry VIII. Of course it had existed before, and measures had been passed for its relief, 2 but henceforth it becomes a more noticeable pheno- menon, and its difficulties increase instead of diminishing. Its growth was due to the agrarian difficulties of the six- teenth century, especially to the enclosures, and perhaps in some measure to that peculiarly modern development of society by which, as the wealth of the nation increases, it seems to become vested in fewer hands, while the numbers of the poor increase with the accumulation of riches. Be that as it may, legislation was found necessary before the suppres- sion of the monasteries, though the suppression must have given an impetus to the other already existing causes of trouble. Two acts were passed in the middle of Henry's reign. The first (1531) mentions the increase of "vaga- bonds and beggars," and the crimes they commit, and en- acts that the justices, mayors, and other authorities " shall make diligent search and inquiry of all aged poor and im- potent persons which live, or of necessity be compelled to live, by alms of the charity of the people " ; that they then shall only allow them to beg, after giving them a proper license to do so, within certain limits, while begging outside such limits, or without permission, was to be punished by imprisonment in the stocks and by whipping. 8 The second Act (1536), evidently framed because the first was unsatis- factory, forbids private persons to give money to beggars, but makes provision for a charity organisation fund, to be col- lected by the church wardens on Sundays and holidays in 1 Froude, History, i. 77, and cf. iv. 355. 2 Above, p. 194, note 3. 3 The 22 Henry VIII., c. 12. 206 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the churches. The parish priest was to keep an account of receipts and expenditure. All idle children, over five years of age, were to be appointed " to matters of husbandry, or other craft or labour to be taught." But for the " sturdy vagabond " there was no mercy ; if found begging a second time, he was to be mutilated by the loss of the whole or part of his right ear ; if caught a third time, to be put to death " as a felon and an enemy of the commonwealth." x So the law remained for sixty years ; unrepealed through the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary; reconsidered, but again formally passed, under Elizabeth. " It was the express con- viction of the English nation that it was better for a man not to live at all than to live a profitless and worthless life." 2 But the simple, if sanguinary, measures of the Tudor age were found in later days to be insufficient to cure an evil of which simplicity is unfortunately far from being a characteristic. 126. The Issuing of Base Coin. A few years after the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry was in difficulties again. He dared not ask his Parliament for further supplies so soon after his last piece of plunder, and therefore he betook himself to a still more underhand kind of robbery. In 1527 he had begun to debase the currency, 3 and now he repeated this criminal action in 1543, 154-5, and 1546.* The process was con- tinued by the guardians of Edward VI., till an almost in- credible amount of alloy was added to the coins. Already, in 1549, the debasement had reached six ounces of alloy in the pound of silver ; but in 1551 there were nine ounces, a pound of this base mixture being coined into seventy-two shillings. 6 This debasement forms a landmark in English industrial history, almost as noticeable as events like the 1 The 27 Henry VIII. , c. 25. 2 Froude, History, i. 88. 3 Cunningham, i. 482. He coined a pound of silver of the old touch into 45s. in 1527. See Dr Cunningham's strong remarks on the iniquity of the Tudor kings. 4 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 342. In 1543 the debasement was 2 ounces of alloy in 12, in 1545 it was 6, in 1546 it was 8. The coinage was re- formed by Elizabeth. Cf. Hist. Agric., iv. 186-200. 5 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 343. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 207 first Poor Law or the Plague. Its effect was not felt im- mediately, but it was none the less real. 1 The chief point that concerned the labourer was that prices rapidly rose, but that, as is always the case, the rise of wages did not coincide with this inflation, and when they did rise, they did not do so in a fair proportion. The necessaries of life rose in proportion of one to two and one-half ; wages, when they finally rose, only in the proportion of one to one and one-half. 2 When too late, it was recognised that the issue of base money was the cause of dearth in the realm, and Latimer lamented the fact in his sermons. Meanwhile, the mischief had been done. The government was almost bankrupt, and when Henry VIII. died he bequeathed to his young son, instead of the magnificent fortune which his own father had amassed, a treasury not only empty, but completely overwhelmed in debt. 8 These debts were augmented by the " wilful govern- ment " of the Duke of Somerset, while the council of nobles who surrounded the youthful Edward only made matters worse by their unpatriotic rapacity. 127. The Confiscation of ike Gild Lands. In the very first year of Edward's reign a fresh piece of robbery was carried out. This was the confiscation of all chantries and gild lands, planned by Henry VIII. 4 but executed by the Protector Somerset. All lands belonging to "colleges, chantries, and free chapels," were in 1547 given to the king, 5 and it was professed by the Act that their revenues would be given to the establishment of 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 344. 2 Ib., 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." 3 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. 4 In the Act 37 Henry VIII., c. 17. cf. Froude, History, iv., p. 193. 5 By the Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 14. 208 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 fai the greater part was shared among the members of the govern- ment or devoted to pay off some of the late King's debts. 1 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. 2 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. 3 These institutions rather prevented men from falling into pauperism than actually relieved it to any great extent, 4 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 1 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. 3 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, i., p. 480. 4 Ib., 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 VIII 209 ihe plea above mentioned, and thus the difference between oh em was confused in the eyes of the Protestant party then in the ascendant. Then, again, the London gilds were spared because of their power, 1 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, 2 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." 8 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). 4 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, 6 and the protests of the people were everywhere choked in their own blood. 128. Bankruptcy and Eapacity 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 iiideed the nation had a right to be angry. The government was practically bankrupt, 6 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 1 Rogers, Hist. Agric., iv. 6. 2 Above, p. 146. 8 Ashley, in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. iv., No. 3, p. 402. * Annals of England, p. 318; Froude, History, iv. 408, 440-453. 6 Froude, History, iv., pp. 445, 447. 6 Froude, History, v. pp. 9, 110. O 2io INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to call the existing coinage down tc its actual value. 1 " 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 ; 3 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. 4 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." 6 Then in August a proclamation was issued by which the shilling passed for no more than six- pence, 6 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 7 ; 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. 8 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. */&., v. p. 10. 3 /Z>.,p. 11. 4 Ib., p. 11 and p. 112. They had borrowed from Antwerp Jews before, iv. p. 399. B Ib., p. 12. e Ib., p. 13. 7 In Feb. 1549, Annals of England, p. 317. 8 Froude, History, v. p. 119. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 211 parish churches throughout the country." l Other measures as mean and as desperate were also taken, and a subsidy was granted by the Parliament of 1553 ; 2 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, 4 and though the Duke of Northumberland accused his rival Somerset of " wilful mis- governance " and waste of treasure, 6 he himself obtained the suppression 6 of the enormously rich bishopric of Durham, and the whole of its temporalities were granted to him as a County 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 7 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, 8 that, after all, agriculture in this period (apart from the special stimulus of wool-growing) 1 Froude, History, v. pp. 120, 121. 2 Act 7 Edward VI., c. 12. 3 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. 4 Froude, History, v. p. 128, and MS. Domestic, Edward VI., vol. xix. 5 See preamble to A 3t 7 Edward VI. c. 12, inspired by Northumberland. 9 By the Act 7 Edward VI. c. 17. 7 Ashley, Econ. Hist., ii. ii., p. 263. 8 Roscher, Nationalcekonomie des Ackerbaues, 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 evolution with its resulting enclosures, added to the ever-increasing sheep farms, pressed 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. 1 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 land for their living suffered severely. There had been for some years past a steady rise in the price of wool 3 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. 4 They therefore did three things. They evicted as 1 CJ\ 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." 2 " 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. * Rogers, Hist. Agric., iv. 718 ; the average from 1401 to 1540 was 6s. 2d. per tod, and from 1541-82, it was 17s. 4d. per tod. 4 Cf. Froude, Ch. History, iv. 349. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 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." x 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. 2 Thirdly, the large land-owners took from the poor their common lands by an unscrupulous system of enclosures. 3 Wolsey had in vain endeavoured to stop their doing this, 4 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. 6 130. 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. 6 (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 land, 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 mar^or which lay intermixed 1 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. 2 Latimer, First Sermon before Edward 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. 4 Decree in Chancery, July, 1518 (Brewer, Calendar oj State Papers, ii. 1054, No. 3297). 5 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. Gf. full details in Froude, History, iv. 440-453. 6 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. 1 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. 2 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 3 (1235-6) 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 " sufficient 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 1 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." "The 20 Henry IIL,c. 4. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 215 a moment to notice which portion of rural England suffered most from these enclosures. Professor Ashley l 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 2 spreads itself over four cen- 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 1760 to 1830 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 soogs and par- liamentary documents. An old ballad of the sixteenth century complains : 1 Ashley, Ec&n. Hist., II. ii. p. 286. 2 Cf. Ashley, Ecvn. Hist., II. ii. pp. 285, 286. 2i6 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND " The towns go down, the land decays, Great men maketh now-a-days A sheep-cote in the church " ; l 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." 2 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." The same complaint is made by Sir Thomas More, who speaks 3 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 1 Now-a-dayes, a ballad (Ballad Society) lines 157-160. * Rolls House MS., miscellaneous, second series, 854 (Froude). 8 Utopia (Morley's edn.), p. 64. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 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." 1 In fact, the evils were so great that attempts were made to deal with them by legislation ; 2 but they were, of course useless. " It remains certain," says Froude, speaking of Edward VI. 'a 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 bis 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." 3 A commission was ap- 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 1 Utopia, p. 65. The preamble to the 25 Henry VIII., c. 13, recites all the evils here mentioned. 2 Cf. 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. 3 Froude, History, iv. p. 353, who quotes as authorities Becon's Jewel of Joy ; Discourse of Bernard Gilpin in Strype's Memorials ; Instructions to the 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 Office ; also Lever's Sermons in Strype's Memorials. 218 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND destroyed, the towns decayed, and the industrious classes throughout England in a condition of unexampled suffering." 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." l 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. 3 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. 4 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 and impoverished villagers flocked to the towns. 1 MS. Domestic, Edward VI., vol. 5, State Paper Office; (Froude, History, iv. p. 367). 2 Cf. Froude, History, iv. 510, who shows how the haste for riches caused fraud in the woollen cloth trade. 3 See next chapter. 4 Froude, History, vi. 109, 110. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 219 " The poor are robbed on every side," said a preacher l 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. 2 " Thousands in England," says the same preacher, " through such [i.e. the landlords] beg now from door to door who have kept honest houses." 8 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 VL'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. 5 The expenses of the king's household were in 1549 more than one hundred thousand pounds, 6 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, 7 while the daily supplies for 1 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. 3 Ut supra. 4 Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 343-345, but also Cunningham English Industry, i. pp. 483-487 ; also Anderson, Commerce, ii. 166. 5 Froude, History, iv. 397. * Ib. "II., p. 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. 1 "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, 2 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, 3 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. 4 When Elizabeth came to the throne she succeeded to what was practically a bankrupt inherit- ance. 5 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 ike Changes 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. 6 The merchants also were exceedingly flourishing, 7 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 VIII. 's court, who obtained most of the monastic wealth ; the debasement of the coinage 1 Froude, Hist., iv. pp. 399, 400. 2 Ib. vi. p. 108. 8 Ib. 4 Ib., pp. 80, 82, 109 note. 6 See below, p. 234. 6 A correspondent of Sir William Cecil, speaking of their wealth, calls them " the meaner sort." The Distresses of the Commonwealth, addressed to the Lords of the Council, December 1558. Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. i. (Froude, vi 110), cf. also Froude, History, vi. 78. 7 Above, p. 212, note 2. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII 221 and the exaltation in prices aided largely (1540 1600) by the discovery of new silver mines in South America ; l the rise in the price of wool both for export and home manufacture, coupled with the consequent increase in sheep farming, 2 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. 3 This gave a great impetus to English manufactures, its effects, however, being chiefly felt in the seventeenth century, when another immigration took place. 4 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. 6 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 6 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 Reformation, 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. 4 See below, p. 241. g ee 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." 1 In fact, with the growth of modern influences in thought, religion, industry, and trade, there came those modern 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. 1 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 modern 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 1 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. 2 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, 3 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. 1 Cf. Seebohm, Era of the Protestant Reformation, p. 49. Above, pp. 189, 208, 209. 8 Seebohm, Era of the Protestant Reformation, p. 5. 323 224 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. 1 , As England was then almost entirely an agri- cultural country, 2 our chief export was wool for the Flemish looms to work up ; 3 but the corn laws show that there was also other agricultural produce exported ; 4 and likewise some mineral products. In fact England supplied nearly all Western Europe with two most important metals, tin 6 and lead ; the former coming chiefly from Cornwall and the latter from Derbyshire, 6 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. 7 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 ; 8 Gascony and other parts of France sent their wines ; 9 rich velvets, linens, and fine cloths were imported from Ghent, Liege, Bruges, and other Flemish manufacturing towns. 10 The ships of 1 See the preamble to the 12 Henry VII., c. 6 (A.D. 1497), which mentions the trade to all these countries. 2 Seebohm, Era of Protestant Reformation, p. 229. 3 For its importance, cf. p. 122, and Bacon's History of Henry VII. there referred to. 4 Above, p. 185. 6 The Libelle of English Politic, about 1436 (fifteenth century), mentions "cloth, wolle, and tynne" as exports. 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151 ; Hist. Agric., L 599. 7 Coal was, however, used to & 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. 8 Rogers, Hist. Agric., i. 142, 144. 9 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151, and Hist. Agric., i. 142-144. w 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. 1 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 was a great company of trading vessels, which left Venice every year upon a visit to England and Flanders. 2 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. 3 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. 5 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 would re-unite again and set sail 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 151 ; and Hist. Agric., i. 142-144. 2 Hence the Venetians themselves called it the " Flanders Fleet," and it fiist sailed in 1317 ; cf. Cunningham, i. 381, note. 3 Of. Craik, British Commerce, i. 165. 4 Cf. Libdk 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. 6 Cunningham, English Industry, i. 381. P 226 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND for Venice, from which city they were often absent for nearly a twelvemonth. 1 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 3 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 3 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 ; 6 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, 6 and had a consul of their own at Pisa, the chief port for English wool ; 7 and early in the sixteenth century we find English merchants visiting the Greek islands 8 and the Levant. 9 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. 1 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. * Ths 1 Richard in., c. 9 ; cf. also Craik, British Commerce, i. 185. 4 Cf. Cunningham, English Industry, i. 379. 5 Ib., i. 380. Ib., i. 378. 7 Rymer, Foedera, xii. 390 ; and cf. Cunningham, i. 438. 8 Rymer, Foedera, xiii. 353 ; xiv. 424. Ib., xiv. 389. 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, 1 such as Hamburg and Lubeck ; 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. 2 In the fifteenth century the League had grown so large and powerful that seventy cities belonged to it, and it had branches or dep6ts in every important town of Northern Europe. 8 Of course there was a large branch at London, in the " Steelyard," on which spot the Cannon Street Station now stands. 4 This branch had existed from very early times, and a warehouse was there in which the German merchants stored their goods. In Richard II. '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. 6 The Steelyard colony existed for seme 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. 6 But as our own merchants grew more 1 The "men of the Emperor" are mentioned in King Ethelred's laws (De Institutis Londinii, Thorpe, i. 300) as living in London, but this waa probably before the Hansa was formed. 2 The chief authority for the history of the Hansa in England is Lappen- berg's Urlcundliche Oeschichte des Hansischen Stahlhqfes zu London (Ham- burg, 1851), but a good popular history now exists in English in H. Zimmern's Hansa Towns. 3 Craik, British Commerce, i. 180. 4 Zimmern, Hansa Towns, p. 187. 8 Werdenhagen, quoted in Bourne's Romance of Trade, 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, 1 and Edward VI. actually (in 1551) rescinded its charter. 2 That was the beginning of the end. Mary restored it for a time, 8 but towards the close of Elizabeth's reign (1597) it was finally abolished. 4 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, 5 but in the six- teenth century this town quite lost its former glory, and Antwerp 6 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 7 (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. 8 Our own consul, to use a modern term, was, at the 1 Craik, British Commerce, i. 233. 8 Ib., i. 233-235. Ib., i. 234. 4 Anderson, Chron. Deduct. Commerce, ii. 145. 6 The English merchants at Bruges were organised into a kind of gild or company, and allowed to elect a mayor of their own, Rot. Stap., 27-46 Edward HI., m. 11, Tower Records, Record Office. This was in 1359. See Appendix C. to Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce, vol. i. 6 The " mansion" of the English merchants at Antwerp is mentioned by Bacon, Life of Henry VII. (p. 147, ed. Lumby). 7 Anderson, Chron. Deduct, of Commerce, i. 511, 520. 8 Ib., p. 521. It also derived much importance from the trade carried THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE 229 slose 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. 1 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 Netherlands a 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." 2 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 fine 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." 3 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. 1 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. 8 Extract in Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, ii. 131. 76., 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 1 again in 1585. Antwerp's ruin was London's gain. Even in 1567, at the time of the first sacking, and earlier still, 2 many Protestant Flemish merchants and manufacturers fled to England, 8 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. 4 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. 5 The greatness of Antwerp was trans- ferred to London, and although Amsterdam 6 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. 1 Craik, British Commerce, i. 260 ; Anderson, Commerce, ii. 125, 159. 3 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 third part of the manufacturers and merchants who wrought and dealt in silks, damasks, taffeties, bayes, sayes, serges, and stockings, settled in England, because England was then ignorant of those manufactures." 4 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. 8 Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 115. 6 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. 1 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. 2 Men dreamt of a northern passage to India, and although Hugh Willoughby's expedition failed, one of his ships under Richard Chancellor reached Archangel, 3 and thus opened up a direct trade with Russia ; so that in 1554 a company was formed specially for this trade. 4 Sir John Hawkins voyaged to Guinea and Brazil, and engaged in the slave-trade between Africa and the new fields of labour in America. 5 It was, too, in Elizabeth's reign that the merchants of Southampton 6 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, 7 and at the close of Elizabeth's reign English ships began to rival those of other nations in the Polar whale-fisheries. 8 1 Of. Froude, History, 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. 9 Hakluyt, i. 246. 4 76., i. 265. 5 Craik, Brit. Commerce, i. 243. * Craik, British Commerce, i. 222, notes that trading voyages both to Brazil and Guinea become common after 1530. 7 They had done so in Ed ward 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. 8 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, 1 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, 2 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. 8 The date of this famous incorporation 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. 4 141. Remarks on the Signs and Causes of the Expansion of 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 religious disturb- ances in Flanders that gained for London the commercial supremacy of Europe ; it was our quarrel with Roman 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 signs of the expansion of England are seen in events 1 Rymer, Foedera, viii. 464. It was an offshoot of the Mercers Company, which originated from the Brotherhood of St Thomas of Canterbury. Cf. 12 Henry VII., c. 6. 2 Cf. Fronde, History, xi. pp. 121-158. 3 Craik, British Commerce, i. 251 ; Macpherson, History of the European Commerce with India, pp. 72-82 ; Stevens' Dawn of British Trade to th* East Indies contains a reprint of the minutes of the Company. 4 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 1 in the west witnessed to fresh trade with the New World, and the pro- gress of Boston and Hull 2 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. 3 A great stimulus had arisen, and England was now taking a leading position among the nations of the world. It has been well remarked, 4 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 ; cf. Cunningham, Eng. 2nd., L 445-448 j 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. Cf. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 164. 4 Craik, British Commerce, i. 239. CHAPTER XVI ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND s \ 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, 1 Henry VIII. , and from her father's counsellors, who guided her young brother, Edward VI. Nor had Mary helped to alleviate it. " The minority of Edward," remarks Froude, 2 "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. 8 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 ruined, and in the latter years of her reign famine aiid plague had added their miseries to other causes of suffering. 4 Elizabeth 1 Froude, History, vi. 108. z 76. * Froude (quoting Burghley), Hiatvry, vi. 102. 4 Ib., 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, 1 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. 2 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. 8 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, 4 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 receiving 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 1 There was about 200,000 owing to the Jews at 14 and 15 per cent. Froude, vi. p. 118. 2 For discontent at the beginning, cf. Froude, vii. p. 9. 8 See below, p. 260. 4 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 roughly, at some 1,200,000 sterling. 1 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." 2 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 Manufactures. 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. 8 It was now 1 Fronde, History, vii. p. 6. 2 For the whole transaction see Fronde, History, vii. pp. 2-9, and the Lansdowne 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 country ; x 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. 2 The broad-cloths of the West of England took the highest place among English woollen stuffs. 3 Even the North, which had lagged so far behind the South in industrial develop- ment, ever since the harrying it underwent at the hands of 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 4 cottons and friezes, York coverlets, 5 and Halifax cloth 6 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, 1 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 having 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 VILE., c. 3, and the 26 Henry VIII. , c. 16, which show that Lynn and Yarmouth also had manufactures. 8 Fuller, ut supra. 4 Cf. the 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 6. The " cottons " were at that time a kind of woollen manufacture. 6 Mentioned in the 34 and 35 Henry VEIL, c. 10. 6 Fuller, ut supra. 238 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND that in the reign of Queen Mary, an "Act touching weavers" was passed, 1 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 falliDg into the power of large capitalist- employers, 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 VIIL's reign 1 (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 2 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 3 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 VIIL, c. 12. 2 Cf. the 25 Henry VIII., c. 18. Of. the 34 and 35 Henry VIIL, 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, 1 " 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 2 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 1 Quoted in Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 127. 2 Harrison, Description of England, Book III. ch. iv., edition 1557 ; pages 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, 1 " 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." 5 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, 8 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, 1 Harrison, Description of England, Book III. ch. iv., edition 1577; pages 10 and 11 in the Camelot Series edition. * Ib. y p. 9, Camelot edition. 8 Above, p. 221, note 3. Q 242 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and other parts of Kent. 1 Another body settled in Norwich, and over Norfolk generally. 2 In 1570 there were 4000 natives of the Netherlands in Norwich alone. 3 There was also an important settlement in Colchester. 4 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. 6 But the greatest improvements they made were in weaving and lace-making. They greatly developed " every sort of workmanship in wool and flax." 6 The lace manufacture was introduced by refugees from Alen9on 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. 7 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 afforded by Harrison 8 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, ly 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 growth of our manufactures, and there was, besides, considerable industrial progress. It is noticeable, however, 1 Romance of Trade, p. 114 ; Lecky, History of Eighteenth Century, i. 191 ; Boys, History of Sandwch, p. 740; and Cunningham, Eng. Ind., ii. 36. 2 Moens, The Walloons (Huguenot Society), 18, 79, 264. 3 Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 115. * Cunningham, ii. 37. * Bourne, Romance of Trade, p. 114. 6 /&., p. 115. 7 /& . 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. Merchants and manufacturers alike were beginning to resent more keenly 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 fair 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 underlay 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 ; " l 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 I., 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. 2 At a conference with the House 1 D'Ewes, Complete Journal of the Houses of Lords and Commons. 646. 2 Of. 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." l 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. 2 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. 3 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 oftfee^ precious metals in this country. 4 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, 5 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, 7 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. 8 But great 1 Rushworth, Historical Collections, i. 24. 2 Cf. James L's speech in Rush worth's Hist. Collections, i. 26. * Cunningham, Growth of English Industry, ii. 158. 4 Ib., ii. 159, and Gardiner, History, iv. 18. 6 See his hypocritical but amusing speech quoted by Craik, British Commerce, ii. 27, 28. Statute 21 James I., c. 3. 7 See Colepepper's speech below ; and Doweil, Taxation and Taxes in- England, i. 244. 5 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 " i 1 " 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-la wa 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 II., but the government took care only to grant monopolies for such purposes as did not cause an outburst of popular feeling. 2 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. 3 But what is noticeable in the seventeenth 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 4 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 l Parl. Hist., ii. 656. 2 Cf. also Cunningham, Growth of Industry, 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. 4 For that on salt, cf. Parl. Hist., i. 1205 ; Stafford'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, 1 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. 2 There were of course, exceptions ; and occasionally genuine attempts were made to improve some languishing industry 3 by the doubtful method of a monopoly, but the requirements of the royal purse were the usual guide in matters of this kind. Gradually, however, the general acquiescence in the monopoly system which marks this period gave way before the progress of the spirit of competition, 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 excuse for them was that the state might seek thereby to regulate or supervise particular industries. Whether the State 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. 4 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. 6 But 1 Of. Gardiner, History of England, iv. 7, and see his whole chapter (xxxiii.) on the monopolies. 2 The monopoly of sweet wines granted by Elizabeth to Essex was such a case. ' E.g., the patent granted to Cockayne for dyeing and dressing cloth; Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 165. 4 See above, p. 208. 6 See the petition in 1571 by fourteen London crafts ; Clode, Early Hist of Merchant 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, 1 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 houses, 2 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 Parliament. " They were constituted from outside, not from inside the town." 8 Moreover, they were associations of capitalists, or of capitalist employers, rather than of craftsmen, as the old gild3 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, 5 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. 6 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, 1 Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 47, and the note there. 2 Ib., quoting Morant, Essex, i. 77. 8 Cunningham, ut supra, q.v. 4 The upholsterers of London paid 100 to Elizabeth for their charter ; &., ii. 48. * Ib. 8 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- petition was making itself felt among tenants for farms. Competitive rents l 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, 2 and this would also seem to be indicated by the comfortable condition of the yeomanry in this period. 8 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 4 : " 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. 6 He seems to think it rather characteristic of a " mean gentle- man " to change arable land into pasture, for he speaks 6 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." 7 But besides grazing and sheep-farming, which had long since risen into importance, our agriculture had improved in several respects. Here foreign influence, 1 Cf. Norden's Surveyor's Dialogues (first edition, 1607), and Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, v. 42, 43. 2 7J., v. 43. 3 Harrison, Description of England, Camelot series edition, p. 12. 4 /&., p. 156. 5 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. 6 Harrison, u. s., p. 36. 7 76. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 249 especially that of the Low Countries, 1 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, 2 the breed of horses and cattle was improved, 8 and more intelligent use was made of manure and dressings. 4 It was said that " in Queen Elizabeth's days good husbandry began to take place." 6 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, 6 and from the garden these plants were introduced into the farm. 7 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 8 as 1524, and later in the century, in Elizabeth's reign, the hop gardens of Kent had already become famous, 9 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 10 in the last half of the sixteenth century. The average price, however (from 1540 to 1582), was 13s. 10d., 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. 11 This may have been due to the Elizabethan corn laws 12 or possibly 1 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. Cf. also Harrison, Description of England, p. 26, Camelot edition. 2 Green, History of England, ii. 387. 3 Ib. 4 Cf. Gervase Markham's works, The English Husbandman (1613), and the Farewell to Husbandry (4th edition, 1649), and remarks in Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 52. 6 Dymock, Samuel Hartlib, his Legacy, p. 52 (1651). 6 Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 57. 7 Ib., v. 50. 8 Bourne, Romance, of Trade, p. 29. 9 Ib. They were also grown in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex ; Nor den, in Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 44. 10 Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, iv. 270, 271. u Ib., Tables, iv. 292. 12 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 54, 55. 250 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, 1 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 s 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. 4 The introduction of chimneys and the lavish use of glass also helped to improve the people's dwellings ; 5 and, indeed, the houses of the rich merchants, or the lords of the manors, were now quite luxuriously furnished. 6 Carpets had superseded the old filthy flooring of rushes ; pillows and cushions were found in all decent houses ; 7 and the 1 Rogers, Hist. Agric., v. 49, illustrates this from the survey of Gam- lingay (Cambs.)j made for Merton College, Oxford, in March 1602. 2 See Harrison, Description of England, Bk. III. ch. i. ed. 1577 : " Of the food and diet of the English." Camelot edn., pp. 84-106. 8 Rogers, Econ. Interpretation of History, p. 279. 4 See Harrison, Description of England, Bk. II. ch. x. edn. 1577, Camelot edn., p. 117. 6 /&., pp. 116 and 119 of Camelot edn. 8 Ib. "The furniture of our houses also exceedeth, and is grown in. manner even to passing delicacy." 7 Ib., p. 118, Camelot edn. (for carpets), p. 119 (pillows, etc.). ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 251 quantity of carved woodwork l 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. 3 And with this increased security and the growth of wealth we notice also the growth of capitalism 4 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 was 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 was undoubtedly a fair amount of prosperity; but there 1 Green, History, ii. 391, notices this. 2 Harrison, u. s., Bk. III. ch. ii., edn. 1577. Camelot edn., pp. 107-112. 8 Cf. Green, History, ii. 392. 4 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 by the enclosures of previous years had fallen into beggary j 1 the less provident of the labourers had lost their mediaeval curtilages and plots of land in the same way, 2 and therefore there was a more numerous class now dependent for their livelihood on wages only. 3 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,f as they have frequently done since Scriptural times ; and the labouring man was often too poor to buy himself corn 5 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, 6 and holidays and festivals were reduced to a lesser number. 7 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 8 the yearly wages of an agricultural labourer 1 Froude, History, vii. p. 9. 2 Rogers, Hist. Agric. and Prices, iv. 755. * Of. the Act 31 Eliz., c. 7. 4 Harrison, Description of England, Bk. IL ch. 7, ed. 1577 ; p. 19, Camelot edn. 6 /&., Bk. III. ch. i. ; page 96, Camelot edn. 8 /&., 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 clergyman, 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 1 (in 1563) 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 2 (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 3 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. 6 " 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." 6 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 aM 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 1 From the proclamation of Elizabeth for the county of Rutland in 1563. Rogers, Hist. Agric., iv. 121. 2 Above, p. 173. 8 Rogers, Hint. Agric., iv. 757. 4 The Act 5 Eliz., c. 4 (1563). * Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 38. * Ib. 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 conveniently, 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 fixity to wages ; and it is so unusual to find one class legislating "In favour of another without some adequate motive that one cannot help thinking that there was something behind all this generosity/ Nor is the motive far to seek. It 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 hands of a class \ who would sympathise with employers. Briefly, wages 1 were in future to be fixed by the justices of the peace j in quarter sessions, and both employers and employed we^re 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," l 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 placed before its administrators. 154. The Working of the Assessment System. Modern 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 1 Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 398. 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 ; 1 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. 2 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. 3 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 6 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 6 ) in the reigns of Elizabeth's father and brother by the debasement of the currency, the change from tillage to sheep-farming, and the 1 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 199, 200. 2 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 353. 8 Ib. 4 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 195. 6 Compiled from Rogers, Six Centuries, ch. xiv. pp. 387-398. Above, pp. 206-218. ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 257 O rt u 5 1 33 i 3^- S S 3 3 S|||;g 333333 S s 2 iB .r a s a 5* t-9 > CO >O ^5 rH rH O^ ^ *O i 1 1C O QO 00 .,p. 173. 7 76., p. 185. 316 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 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. 1 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. 2 192. 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 displace unaided manual labour. Hitherto all our manufactures, our mining, and, of course, our agriculture, had been performed by the literal labour of men's hands, 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. 3 Only in agriculture had the capitalist class become very far removed from the labourers. 4 There was certainly no such violent contrast as now exists between a mill-owner and a mill-hand in the realm of manufacturing industry, 6 though, 1 Rogers, Econ. Interpretation, p. 277. 8 /&., p. 279. 8 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 72, 53. 4 Above, pp. 157, 184, 212, 216, 271. Toynbee (p. 71) is wrong in say- Ing " the capitalist farmers were not yet in existence." 5 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 machinery 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 INDUSTKIAL INVOLUTION AND MODERN ENGLAND CHAPTER XX THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 193. Industry 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 II., or the Whig Revolution of 1688, as it is sometimes called, 1 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. 2 The Revolution may have been aristocratic in its origin, 8 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. 4 That importance was still further increased by a series of significant economic events, 6 already alluded to, which took place shortly after the 1 Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, i. 171, remarks that the House of Lords was chiefly Whig, and that the aristocracy really effected this Revolution. 2 For the mercantile element in politics, cf. Lecky, History, i. 199, 200. 3 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. 4 "The political influence of the industrial and moneyed classes was greatly increased by the Revolution." Lecky, History, i. 201. 5 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. 1 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. 2 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 ; 8 and the first Earl of Tilney was the son of that eminent man of business, Sir Josiah Child. 4 The daughters of merchant princes were even allowed to marry and maintain the scions of a needy aristocracy. 6 The beginning of this new order of things can be dated with some accuracy by a remark of Sir W. Temple's : "I 1 Lecky, History, i. 187. 2 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 62. 3 76. , p. 63. 4 Defoe, Complete Tradesman (ed. 1839, Chambers), p. 74. 5 Thus, Child's daughter married the Marquis of Worcester ; cf. Toynbee, Ind. Rev. , p. 63. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 323 think I remember," he wrote in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, 1 " 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." 2 Dean Swift remarked, " that the power which used to follow land had gone over to money." 8 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." 5 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 leaders of the nation. 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 1 Temple's Miscellanies, quoted in Lecky, History, i. 193. 2 Defoe, Complete Tradesman, u. ., p. 74. 3 Swift, Examiner, No. 13. 4 Boswell, Life of Johnson (7th edn.), ii. 108. 5 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 as a large landowner. The monopoly of the landed interest was broken by capital. Nowhere perhaps is the contrast between the old and new classes in the last century seen more closely than in Sir Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy, 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. 1 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. 2 The questions that excited most interest in Parliament were chiefly those connected with commerce and finance. 3 Burke, writing in 1752, summed up the requirements of a Member of the House of Commons in a plaintive sentence, 4 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, 5 and of connecting all ranks together in the common interests of the national life. 194. The Coming of ike Capitalists. Now, although the commercial capitalist was fast coming into prominence as the rival of the landowner, 6 he was 1 This illustration is due to W. Clarke, in Fabian Essays, p. 78. 2 Cf. Lecky, History, i. 433. 3 Ib. 4 Prior, Life of JBurJce, L 38. 6 Cf. Lecky, History, i. 170 sqq., on the English aristocracy ; and also Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 63. 6 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. 1 Of course capitalists existed, as they have always done, but their power was small as compared with that of their successors to-day. 2 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. 3 Instead of the great capitalist manufacturers of to-day, who can control the markets of a nation, England possessed numbers of smaller capitalists, 4 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. JBut home manufactures, although greatly developed, 5 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, 6 who gave out work to be done in the homes of their employes ; and who often combined agricultural with manufacturing pursuits. 7 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. 1 Of. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 52. 2 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.) 4 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. 7 Cf. Rogers, Hist. Agric.,\v. 810 326 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND creasin-gly 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. 1 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. 2 195. 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 : 8 " 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 every 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 Tour, i. 134 ; ii. 8, 467 (ed. 1770). a Toynbee, Indust. Revolution, 53 ; Felkin, History of Hosiery, 83, * 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." 1 196. The Condition of the Manufacturing 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. 2 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, 3 and the cloth was 1 Tour, iii. p. 146. 2 Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 480. 3 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, 1 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, 2 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. 3 197. Two Examples of Village Life. The old conditions of life in English villages under this domestic system, with its healthy combination of agricul- 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 5 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 c/. Toynbee, Indust. 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, u. 8., ii. 481 * Six Centuries, p. 502. 5 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 1 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 churn the butter, make the cheese, cure the bacon and ham, or bake the bread ; her daughters would assist in spinning the yarn, 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 Illingworth, Distribution jReform (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." 1 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 ; 2 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. 3 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 6jd. per week.* And it must be remembered that this included 1 The writer means that most of these could be obtained from their own work, or from their neighbours, who practised other bye-industries ; cf. pp. 82-83 of the book quoted. 2 Cf. Toynbee, Indust. Revolution, p. 71. * Ib. * 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 lid. a pound. 1 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." 2 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." 3 198. 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 corn 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 7s. a week. 4 But it was generally 8s. or 10s., while the board of a working man may be placed at about 5s. or 6s. a week. 5 Cottages were occasionally rent free, or, at any rate, only paid a low rent, never more than 50s. or 60s. per year, 6 and generally much less. Moreover, just as 1 Young, Northern Tour, iv. 451 sqq. 2 Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. viii. (i. 82, Clarendon Press edn.). 3 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. Ib., iv. 441. 6 Cf. A Table of Wages and Prices of Commodities during three important Epochs of English Industry, by Thomas Illingworth (Bradford). 6 Ib. 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-making. 1 There was an abundance of food, clothing, and furniture. 2 Wheat-bread had almost entirely superseded rye-bread. 8 Every poor family now drank tea, which had formerly been a costly luxury. 4 The consumption of meat was, says Arthur Young, " pretty considerable/' and that of cheese " im- mense." 5 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." 6 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, 7 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. 8 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, 9 which were rapidly becoming 1 Of. 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). 4 /&., pp. 200, 297 ; Eden, State of the Poor, iii. 710. 6 Young, Travels in France, ii. 313 (ed. 1793, Dublin). 6 Chamberlayne, State of Great Britain (1737), p. 177. 7 See his Travels in France. 8 See The Statistical Journal, xliii. 462. 9 For the migration of population from Devonshire and the " cider coun- ties " to Yorkshire, cf. Maesie'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, 1 and so, too, were Durham and Northumberland, whose coal-fields were now far more developed than before. 2 On the other hand, the population of the Western and Eastern counties, still large manufacturing centres, had increased very little. 3 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. 4 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, 5 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." 6 But forty or fifty years later the shifting towards the North had already made itself felt. 7 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 born of poor parents. 8 Now, in this period the increase in national wealth was, in spite of foreign wars, enormous ; for if England had to pay heavily for these wars, other countries had to pay more heavily still, and were, moreover No. 4. Cf. also Toynbee's chapter on Population in his Industrial Revolu- tion, pp. 32 to 38. 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 35. 2 /6.,p. 35. 3 /5., p. 35. 4 See the figures in Toynbee, Ind. Rev. , p. 36. 6 It was 7,428,000 in 1770, and 8,675,000 in 1790. Statistical Journal, xliii. 462. Tour, iii. 57 (7th edn.). 7 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. 1 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. 2 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. 5 INCOMES OF VARIOUS CLASSES IN MILLION POUNDS. Interest on capital 5 s hi K. ... Military and Official 5 5 Professions 5 10 ... Commercial 10 27 1 ... Manufacturing 27 66 "{Agricul- J tural 66 Total= 119,500,000. 1 Cf. above, p. 330. 2 Cf. Arthur Young, Northern Tour, iv. 543-547 (ed. 1770). 3 Th lines here are drawn to scale. THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 335 POPULATION, IN MILLIONS. 5 Paupers -5 . M ... Military and official '5 2 Professional -2 7 ... Commercial *7 Manufacturing 3 J Agricultural 3' 6 (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 far 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 many workmen. But the Industrial Revolution rapidly changed all this, and 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. 1 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 2 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. 8 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. 275. 2 Cunningham, G-rowth of Industry, ii. 476. 8 The period 1766 to 1773 is said to have been the time when our imports first began to exceed our exports (West, Price of Corn (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. 1 It must be admitted that the old common-field system produced very poor results, 2 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, 3 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. 4 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. ic 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. 5 But in other respects there had certainly been changes in the industrial system before 1*760. At first the weaver had furnished himself with warp and weft, worked it up, and brought it to the market himself; 6 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 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 69, 101. 2 Above, p. 275. 3 Or, when they did not attract him away, they took from him to a very great extent his bye-industries of spinning, &c. Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 483. 4 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 Villages, in the Economic Journal for March 1893. 5 " Manufactures were little concentrated in towns, and only partially separated from agriculture." Toynbee, Indust. Rev., p. 53. 6 Toynbee, u. ., p. 54. 7 Ib. 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 with it a certain amount of agricultural work in the cultivation of his own small plot of land. 1 This fact explains to some extent the comparative comfort of the operative in this cottage industry, for that they wejre_jairly_ testimony of Adam Smith, 2 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, thi,. latter often came to the manufacturer, as did the London ^SiercHants, who came down to the North- country manufacturers, paid them in cash, and took away their purchases themselves. 3 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. 4 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. 6 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, c/. 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). 3 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 65. 4 Young, Annals of Agriculture, xxvii. 309. Cf. Toynbee, Indust. Revolution, p. 52. Y 338 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND old domestic system and the modern 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." l 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 Jhave 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, 3 which was sufficiently 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. 4 This wool was brought home and sorted, then sent out to the hand- combers, 5 and on being returned combed was again sent 1 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 Publick Hoods). 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. 8 Above, p. 143. * Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 55. 5 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. 1 In the same way silk was sent from London to Kendal and back. 2 When spun, the tops, or fine wool, were entrusted to some shopkeeper to " put out " among the neighbours. 3 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. 4 Hence it will be seen that there was a considerable diffusion 5 of work under the old system, and it was not necessary 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. 6 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). 3 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. 4 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 54. 5 " 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 weaving being carried on in cottages over a large area in the towns and in the country villages, 05 fifty or sixty years before in farmhouses." Daniell's History of Warminster (1879), p. 130. 6 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. In 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. 1 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 1 Writing in 1885, a Yorkshire author says, " as recently as twenty-five to thirty years ago the manufacture of heavy woollen cloth was done by hand-weaving." Thomas Illingworth, Distribution Reform, p. 16. This, however, 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 Revolution 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. 1 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, 2 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 1 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." Of. 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. 1 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, 2 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 hjmd_spmmng^wjaeel. 3 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. 4 In 1771 Ark wright 5 established u successful mill at Cromford on 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. 6 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, 7 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. 8 It drew out the roving (i.e. the 1 Below, p. 430. 2 See Dictionary of National Biography (ed. Leslie Stephen) for a concise life. 3 The jenny was invented about 1764, but not patented till 12th July 1770 : for a description see Baines, Hist. Cotton Manufacture, pp. 157-8. 4 Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 159. 5 See Diet. National Biography (ed. Leslie Stephen). 6 Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 153, and description, pp. 151-153. He first tried horse-power, but it was too expensive. 7 Diet. Nat. Biography, xiii. 148. 8 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. 1 This invention effected an enormous increase in production, for nowadays 12,000 spindles are often worked by it at once and by one spinner. 2 It dates from the year 1*779, 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. 8 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, 5 though it had afterwards to undergo many improvements, 6 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. 7 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 1 Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 198. 2 Homance of Trade, p. 188. 8 Ib., p. 189. 4 Diet. Nat. Biography, xiii. 150. 8 Burnley, Wool and Woolcombing, p. Ill; Baines, Cotton Manf.,229, 230 ; Diet. Nat. Biography, ix. 221. 6 Cartwright's own attempts to work his invention were unrenmnerative, and it was not till 1801 that mills were started at Glasgow, where it was worked successfully. Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 231 ; Horrocks of Southport introduced further improvements in 1805 and 1813. Baines, u. *.,pp. 234 and 235-237. 7 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, 1 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. 2 It was first used as an auxiliary in mining operations, but in 1785 it was introduced into factories, a Nottinghamshire cotton -spinner 3 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. 4 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, 6 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, 6 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 7 throughout the country, and consequently in some districts improve- 1 E.g. in Boulton's works at Soho ; Smiles, Lives of Boulton and Watt, p. 130. Horses were even used. Ib. 2 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers (Boulton and Watt), p. 98. 3 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 90. 4 Ib. 5 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 ; Bischoff, Woollen Manufactures, i.315. 6 Cf. Young, Annals of Agriculture, xxvii. 310. 7 Above, page 338, 339. 346 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND ments were introduced which did not come into use in others till several years later. 1 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 modern in England, for it was probably not introduced until the early part of the seventeenth century, 2 and some confusion is caused in people's minds because " cottons " are heard of before this date, 3 But the " cottons " of earlier times were made entirely of wool, 4 and must have been only a weak imitation of real cotton cloth. In a work 5 by Lewis Koberts, 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 yarn, principally imported from Germany and Ireland ; 6 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 ; 7 while the entire 1 Cunningham also notes this : Growth of Industry, ii. 450. 2 See article Cotton in M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, ed. 1844, p. 430 ; also Baines, Cotton Manufacture, pp. 89-112 ; see also Note A. 8 Defoe was thus misled into thinking the cotton manufacture earlier than the woollen ; Tour, iii. 246. 4 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 clothe called Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottons." 8 Treasure of Traffic (1641), p. 32. M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, Cotton, p. 430. 7 Ib. t 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. 1 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). 2 204. The Revolution in Manufactures and the Factories. But although the Industrial Revolution was at first most marked in the manufacture of cotton, 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 *" ^' . , -II I' '~~ ' H "*** the great change. The most remarkable of these was the sudden growth of 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. 3 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 1 Estimated by Dr Percival, of Manchester ; M'Culloch, u. s., p. 430. a 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, 1 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. 2 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. 3 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 Eadcliffe, 4 brought home forty to one hundred and twenty shillings per week. But this did not last very long. 5 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. 8 Ib. " The system meant a change from independence to dependence " (p. 91). 4 In Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 339. 6 Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, vi. 205, remarks that the condition of the labourers began to deteriorate about 1792. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 349 grown men ; it made all classes of workers dependent upon capitalist employers ; and it introduced an era of hitherto unheard-of competition. The coming of the capitalists had become an accomplished fact, and with it began also the exploitation of labour. Of this we shall speak in another chapter. 1 Other national changes now demand our attention. , 205. The Growth of Population and the Development of the Northern Districts. Two of the most striking facts of the Industrial Revolu- tion are the great growth and the equally great shifting of the population. These have been already briefly alluded to, but a few further details must now be added. Before 1751 the largest decennial increase of population had been about 5 or 6 per cent. 2 But for each of the next three periods of ten years the increase became rapidly greater, till in 1801 it was 14 per cent, on the previous ten years, and reached even 21 \ per cent. 8 in the period 1801 to 1811. This last was the highest rate ever reached in England, and is more than double that recorded in the census* of 1881 or 1891. The population of England had been under 7,000,000 in 1760 ; 6 by 1821 it had risen 6 to about 12,000,000, and at the present moment it is rather more than double that number. 7 At the same time, the great migration to the North, already begun before the Revolution, was now accelerated and completed. The main cause of it was the utilisation of the coalfields for fuel to turn the new machinery in the factories. Hitherto the counties which contained the vast 1 Below, p. 381 sqq. 2 Gf. the figures for each decennium in the Statistical Journal, xliii. 462 j also cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 87, but he is inaccurate. 3 See the careful tables in M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary (1844), . v. Population ; also Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, vi. 201. 4 It was 10-8 per cent, in 1871-81, and in 1881-91 only 8'2 per cent. (United Kingdom) Census Returns, 1891. 5 Exact figure 6,736,000 (England and Wales). Statistical Journal, xliii. 462. 6 Exact figure 12,000,236. Ib. 7 Exact figure 27,482,104 (England only) in 1891 ; Census Returns. 350 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND coal deposits, to which England owes so much of her pro- gress, had been neglected, but now that the wealth that underlay them was understood, 1 they became the natural home of manufacturing industries. 2 But it may be noticed that, even previously to the utilisation of coal, industry had been attracted to Lancashire and Yorkshire because these counties, with the numerous streams running down from their moors, offered a better supply of water power than the Southern or Eastern districts. There is little doubt also that the rainy climate 3 of the North -West of England offered greater facilities for certain branches of the cotton and woollen trades than the drier Eastern counties, at any rate, possessed. The considerations of physical geography as well as of geology show us that, under the new condi- tions of manufacture, the North- Western counties were obviously fitted for the great industrial part they were now to play in the life of the nation. These districts, which in the Middle Ages and even later had, as we saw, been comparatively deserted, 4 now became and have since remained the most populous and flourishing of all. The centres of the new factory system were now naturally in the North, and thither flocked the workers who had formerly been distributed over England in a much more extensive manner, or who had clustered round the great Eastern and South-Western centres of industry, which before 1760 had excelled the other centre, the West Riding, in prosperity. 6 But now this was changed. Before the Revolution, the Eastern counties, more especially about Norwich and the surrounding districts, had been famous for their manufactures of crapes, bombazines, and other fine, slight stuffs. 6 In the West of England the towns of Brad- 1 Macaulay, History, ch. iii., rightly calls them " a source of wealth more precious than the gold mines of Peru." 2 We may here compare Ramsay's remarks in his Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain, pp. 305, 306 (ed. 1872). 3 For statistics of rainfall, cf. Ramsay, u. s., pp. 197-199. 4 Above, p. 107 ; cf. also Macaulay's well-known but rather exaggerated description of the North of England, History, ch. iii. 5 Defoe's Tour, iii. 57 (ed. 1769). Macaulay, History, ch. iii., " A constant stream of emigrants began to roll northward." 6 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 47, summarises these well-known facts. I70O-50 INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND. of/S^Cenlury; chief 'tciuns, ^fu-res s are NORTH SEA The majority of the population was in the west and south central counties 'ark green) ; but Lanes, and the West Riding of Yorks. were increasing. The aief manufacturing centres in (1) Eastern counties, (2) Wilts., (3) Yorks., &c., are :iown thus V/////////A but it must be remembered that manufactures were very Battered and carried on side by side with agriculture. Several other counties are erefore marked with slanting lines. (Compare the Map opposite page 454.) EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 351 ford-on-Avon, Devizes, and Warminster had been manufac- turing centres noted for their fine serges ; Stroud had been the centre of the manufacture of dyed cloth, 1 and so was Taunton, for even in Defoe's time (1725) it had 1100 looms ; 2 and the excellence of the Cotswold wool, together with the water power derived from its mountain streams, had done much for the industry of the district. 3 These centres and their productions, then, were far more famous than the third, the West Riding, including the towns of Halifax, Leeds, and Bradford, where chiefly coarse cloths were made. 4 The cotton trade of Lancashire, too, had previously been insignificant, for it is only incidentally mentioned by Adam Smith, 5 though Manchester and Bolton were then, as now, its headquarters. In 1760 only 40,000 persons were engaged in it, 8 while in 1764 the value of our cotton exports was only one-twentieth of our woollen, 7 and only strong cottons, such as dimities and fustians, were made. But now the cotton cities of Lancashire, and the woollen and worsted factories of Yorkshire, far surpass the older 8 seats of industry in wealth and population, while the cotton export has risen to be the first in the kingdom, and the vast majority of the industrial population is now found North of the Trent. These great industrial changes were the direct consequence of the introduction of new manufac- 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 47, and see note 5 on p. 339. 2 Tour, ii. 19 (ed. 1769). 3 This is pointed out by Toynbee, Ind. Rev., p. 48. 4 /&., p. 48. 5 Wealth of Nations, Bk. I. ch. x. (Vol. I. 127, Clarendon Press edn.). 6 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 49. 7 Ib. , p. 50. 8 " Woollen cloths, kerseymeres, blankets, etc., formed [in Wiltshire] for a long period a principal manufacture. From the reign of Elizabeth to the close of the eighteenth century, the towns of "Wiltshire lying in the valley of the Avon, on the north-west, and in that of the Wily in the south- west, Malmesbury, Chippenham, Bradford, Trowbridge, Westbury, War- minster, Heytesbury, and Wilton, with all the circumjacent villages, were largely employed in the weaving of various kinds of woollen fabrics, and the clothiers were men of wealth and position. This manufacture declined in Wiltshire very rapidly owing to the general adoption of machinery and the power-loom in the great factories of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and to the increasing consumption, throughout England and the Continent, of cotton and linen textures. John Aubrey held that the clothiers suffered in his day, because * men would take to silk and Indian ware.' " Daniell, History of Warminster (1879), p. 130. 352 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND turing processes. For the use of steam power in mills necessitated the liberal use of coal, and hence the factory districts are necessarily almost coincident with the great coalfields, as will be seen from any geological map. It is also curious to notice that each coalfield has its own par- ticular manufacture closely associated with it. 1 Thus the Yorkshire coalfield contains most of the towns where the woollen industry prevails, while its southern extension, which descends into Nottinghamshire, includes the cutlery and hardware district of Sheffield and the lace and hosiery of Nottingham. The Lancashire coalfield is almost exclusively surrounded by towns engaged in the cotton trade ; the Staffordshire fields are connected chiefly with pottery, and, on their Southern limit, with hardware and machinery ; the South Wales coal district is noted for its smelting and iron- works. Moreover, the coal industry had been developed almost simultaneously with the growth of manufactures, and, indeed, one reacted upon the other. It will be convenient here to mention the improvements made in coal-mining and in the iron trade. 206. The Revolution in the Mining Industries. It has been mentioned in a previous chapter 2 that the development of the vast natural resources of our country as regards coal and iron was retarded by the lack of steam power. But with the steam-engines of Watt and Boulton a new era dawned upon coal-mining. x ln 1774 Watt, after vainly advocating his invention, entered into partnership with Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham man, 3 who devoted all the capital he possessed to the introduction of Watt's engine into practical use. The new engine soon produced a vast change in the manner of pumping water from the mines,* just as it also produced other changes in every 1 This is also noticed by H. R. Mill, Commercial Geography, pp. 44-46 (ed. 1888), and is, of course, obvious. 2 Above, pp. 310 to 312. 3 See Smiles, Lives of the, Engineers (Boulton and Watt), ch. viii, " Their Partnership," p. 146. 4 See diagram of Watt's pumping-engine for mines in Smiles, i*. ., ch. x. p. 180. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 353 manufacture dependent upon the use of coal. Steam-power was used not only to clear the mines of water, but also in sinking shafts, 1 where formerly entrance had often been made only by tunnelling in the side of a hill. It was used, too, in bringing up the coal from the pit, and in many other necessary processes. The result of this application of steam power was soon seen in the general opening up of all the English coal-fields, and the consequent further growth of towns like Newcastle, Sheffield, and Birmingham, 2 whose industries now depend so greatly upon a large supply of coal. With the great output of coal came an immediate revival of the iron trade, which it will be remembered had greatly declined 3 about 1737 and 1740, for as coal was not avail- able wood had to be used as fuel, and the consequent destruction of forests, especially the Sussex Wealden, had caused legislative prohibitions. 4 The scientific treatment of iron ore in the various processes of manufacture had indeed been improved, but nothing much could be done without coal. This was seen, for instance, by an iron-master, Anthony Bacon, in 1755, who obtained a lease, at the trifling rental of 200 per annum, for ninety-nine years, of a district at Merthyr Tydvil, eight miles long and five broad, upon which he erected both iron and coal works. 5 In 1760 Smeaton's invention 6 of a new blowing apparatus at Dr Roebuck's works at Carron, near Falkirk, did away with the old clumsy bellows ; and the other inventions of the Cranages 7 (1766), of Onions 8 (1783), and of Henry Cort* (1784), for which separate treatises must be consulted, brought the manufacture of iron almost to perfection. Whereas about the middle of the eighteenth century we produced only some 18,000 tons of iron annually, 10 and had 1 Bourne, Romance, of Trade, p. 175. 2 Both Sheffield and Birmingham only had between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants about 1760 ; see Toynbee's table, Industrial Revolution, p. 36 ; cf. also Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, vi. 212. 3 Smiles. Industrial Biography, oh. ii. p. 42. 4 J&.ch. ii. pp. 38-42. Ib., ch. vii. p. 130. 6 Ib., ch. viii. p. 137. 7 Ib., ch. v. pp. 86-88. 8 Ib., ch. vii. p. 115. Ib., ch. vii. (all). 10 Ib., ch. v. p. 79. Z X 354 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND to import at least 20,000 tons, 1 we produced in 1788 as much as 68,000 tons, 2 and the production has gone on steadily increasing to the present time, when some five million tons of iron are obtained annually. 8 h 207. The Improvements in Communications. Besides these improvements in mining and machinery, there were also others which, though not perhaps quite so strikingly important, had a considerable influence upon the progress of industry and commerce. These were the improvements made in the internal communications of the country both by land and water. It must not be supposed, however, that because improvements were made the state of the roads was so exceedingly bad as it has been the fashion to describe them. There has been considerable exaggera- tion as to the difficulties of travelling both in mediaeval and later times, and there is plenty of evidence * which goes to show that matters were not invariably so bad as might be imagined from descriptions 5 more picturesque than accurate. It is certain that the cost of carriage in mediaeval times was cheap, and thus, by implication, that the roads were good. But less care seems to have been shown in maintaining them in later centuries, so that it is quite possible that the roads in England were in better repair in the reign of Edward III. than in that of George III. 6 Still, even in the eighteenth century, the evidence of Arthur Young 7 which has been freely misquoted goes to show that the state of the roads was not by any means so bad as we should imagine if we merely took our picture of them from the complaints made of particularly execrable sections. The turnpike roads were 1 Scrivener, History of the Iron Trade, pp. 57, 71 ; Smiles, u. ., p. 79, says four-fifths of it came from Sweden. 2 M'Culloch's, Commercial Dictionary, 8. v. Iron. 8 Tear Book of Commerce. 4 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 135 ; Economic Interpretation of History, p. 483. 6 E.g. in Macaulay, History, ch. iii., which has been so freely copied by his inferiors. 6 Rogers, Economic, Interpretation, p. 484. 7 Cf. itinerary at end of Northern Tow, Vol. IV. EPOCH OF THE GREAT INVENTIONS 355 generally in fairly good repair, and it is obvious that matters cannot have been so bad as is supposed, when we consider that in Defoe's time Manchester merchants would send their goods on horses right across England to Stourbridge, 1 or when waggons took silk from London to Kendal, 2 or when live geese were sent to London markets in cartloads from the Fens. 3 While, however, guarding against receiving an exaggerated impression of the evil state of roads before the end of the eighteenth century, we may notice that about the middle of that period there were great improvements made, insomuch that Henry Homer, writing in 1767, declares (though evidently with rhetorical exaggeration) "there never was a more astonishing Revolution accomplished in the internal system of any country than has been within the compass of a few years in England." * This was due to the erection of turnpikes and levying of tolls under the authority of various Acts of Parliament ; 6 and later on there was great develop- ment owing to the improved methods introduced by the well-known road-makers, Metcalfe, Telford, and Macadam. 6 There were also considerable improvements made in carriage by water. This had been a favourite mode of conveyance in mediaeval times, when the rivers were largely used, 7 and it continued to be so till, in the eighteenth cen- tury, rivers were supplemented or joined by canals. A great impetus to canal-making was given by the success of Brindley's efforts in 1758, when he made a canal for the Duke of Bridgewater's colliery at Worsley to Manchester. 8 The importance of this canal was not due to its length, for it was only seven miles long, but to the fact that its con- struction presented serious engineering difficulties, such as tunnelling through rock and carrying an aqueduct over the 1 Defoe, Tour, i. 94. 2 Young, Northern Tour, iii. 171-173 (ed. 1770). 8 Defoe, Tour, i. 54. 4 Homer, The Enquiry into the Means of Preserving the Publick Roads ; 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 1 Cf. Alfred, History, i. 17 ; Taylor, Modern Factory System, p. 198 ; cf. also evidence of J. Paterson, overseer, Dundee, before the Sadler Com- mittee, 1832. 2 Blincoe, quoted in Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, i. 23. 3 Ib. , i. 24, 25. No inquests were ever held. 4 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. 8. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 39 1 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. / V 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 1 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, 3 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 Act42Geo. HI., c. 73. 8 Alfred, History of the Factory Movement, i. 27. 8 76., i. ch. iv., and pp. 53, 79, 183, 278-306, ii. iu. 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. 1 On the women and grown-up girls the effects of long hours and wearisome work were equally disastrous. 2 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. 3 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 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 (Homer) 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 Cf. evidence quoted in Alfred, u. ., i. 190, 287, 260, ii. 9. 8 Cf. evidence in Alfred, u. a., i. 181, 300. 8 Cf. facts quoted by Engels, Condition of the Working Classes in 1844 (English edition, 1892), pp. 144, 145. 4 Assistant Commissioner Power, in the famous 1833 Report. Reports, 1833, xx. 604 ; also, cf. Oastler's speech quoted in Alfred, History of th& Factory Movement, i. 228, and Sadler's speech, p. 158. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 393 up to sale, and advertised publicly as part of the property. 1 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." 2 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 United Kingdom. Terrible evidence of overwork was given before this Committee, 3 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 ; 4 and when at last very shame demanded that something should be done, the ineffectual Act, 59 George III., c. 66, was passed. 5 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. 6 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 1 Quoted in Alfred's (Samuel Kydd) History of the Factory Movement, i. 43. 2 /&., i. 43. 3 For the nature of the evidence, cf. History of the Factory Movement, Vol. L, ch. iv. 4 /6.,i77. 5 R. W. Cooke-Taylor in The Factory System and the Factory Acts (1894) remarks, p. 61, "It was generally ignored or evaded." 6 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 l 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 : 2 " I wonder you have never turned your attention to the factory system." " Why should I ? " 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 1 He was born 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 JBiographia Leodiensis, pp. 499-503 ; Hodder's Life of the Earl of Shaft esbury, 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, L 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. 1 227. 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 2 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. 3 Hope seemed to be dawn- 1 See the conversation in Alfred's History, i. 96. 2 Cf. The Leeds Mercury: Oastler's letter is dated September 29th, 1830. 3 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. 1 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 mill owners 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. 2 Oastler felt that the day was lost, and said as much in a public letter to the Leeds Intelligencer of October 2< 1831, a letter which shows cruel disappointment of hear indeed, but yet is as full as ever of fire and hope for tht future. 8 Incidentally it is curious to note, from a pass* in this letter, that the Factory Eeformers of that day wei accused of being opposed to the abolition of negro slavery, and were said to be getting up a factory agitation " ii order to turn the attention of the nation away from W Indian slavery." 4 But in spite of calumny, prejudice, anc 1 Alfred, History, i. 109 sqq. 2 So the 1 and 2 William IV., c. 39 ; and cf. Taylor, Factory System at Factory Acts, p. 63. 8 See it almost in full in Alfred's History, i. 118. 4 /&., 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." l 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, 2 and therefore it must suffice 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 8 of eminent moderation and judgment. 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 1 Alfred's History, i. 122. 8 See Alfred's History, i. 125 sqq. 3 Of. Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts (1894), p. 64. The speech is given in full in Alfred's History, i. 15) tqq. 398 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND districts, so great was the demand for children's labour, tl an indispensable condition of marriage among the working classes was the certainty of offspring, 1 whose wages begin- ning at six years old might keep their inhuman fathers and mothers in idleness. Well might Sadler exclaim : 2 " 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 last instance of the degradation to which this system hi reduced the manufacturing operatives of this country. Children are beaten with thongs, prepared for the pui Yes, the females of this country, no matter whether child] or grown up and I hardly know which is the more dis- gusting outrage are beaten, beaten in your free market 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 th< cartwhip of the West Indies, but let us see this night ai equal feeling rise against the factory thong in England." 8 229. 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 oi horror that arose over negro slavery. The hours of bl slaves' labour in our colonies were at that very time careful b 1 Alfred's History, i. 158. 2 /&., i. 161. /&., i. 18& THE FACTORY SYSTEM 399 limited by law 1 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 2 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 3 in the House of Commons, in the election after the great Eeform 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, 4 but we may pause to look, though only for a moment, at the revelations of slavery brought to light by the Sadler Committee. 5 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. 6 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, 7 during the whole of which time they were on their feet, with a short interval for dinner. 8 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. * Cf. Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts, p. 65. 3 Ib., p. 65. 4 See the excellent Life, in 3 vols., by Mr Hodder. 6 8ee ch. xii. of Alfred's History, Vol. I. 'Ib.i. 275. '76.1.276. * fb. i. 277 (quotation from evidence). 9 Ib. i. 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. 1 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, 3 "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. 4 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 expenses 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. 6 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. 2 Evidence of James Paterson, quoted 16. , i. 283. 8 Ib., i. 283, 284. 4 Ib., i. 284. Ib., i. 284. * Evidence of Joseph Habergam, '&., i. 286. THE FACTORY SYSTEM 401 that the masters in many mills encouraged the overlookers in this kind of brutality. An eye-witness l 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, 2 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 doffing 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." 3 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 4 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 difficulty. 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. 8 Evidence of Elizabeth Bentley, '&., i. 297. */&., i. 298, 299. 4 Evidence of Gillett Sharpe, ib. t 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 1 : "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. 2 The Government appointed yet another Committee, which, however, reported so strongly in favour of legislation, that at length something had to be done. The result was the famous Act of 1833. - 1 Speech at Huddersfield, Dec. 26, 1831, quoted in Alfred's History, 1 226 * Cf. Taylor, Factory System and 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 1 for the regulation of work in cotton mills was passed in 1819, 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 an Act 2 was passed forbiolfling night- work in factories for persons between nine and twenty-one years of age, while the working day for persons under eighteen was to be 12 hours a day, and 9 hours on Satur- days. But this legislation only applied to cotton factories ; 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 Keform 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, 3 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 4 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. 2 The 1 and 2 William IV., c. 39. * Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 208, 209, 215. 4 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. 1 Then, after one or two minor Acts, 2 the famous Ten Hours' Bill 3 was passed in 1847, 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 6 A.M. and 6 P.M., and on Satur- days only till 2 P.M. 5 Since the passing of these Acts many much-needed extensions of their provisions to other industries have been made, especially 6 in 1864, and in 1874 the minimum age at which a child could be admitted to a factory was fixed at ten years. 7 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. 8 Thus the Ten Hours' Day fortunately became universal in factories. 232. How these Acts 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 1 Cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. pp. 626, 627. 2 The 7 Victoria, c. 15; 8 and 9 Vic., c. 29; and others; see Taylor, Factory System and Factory Acts (1894), ch. iv. 8 The 10 Vic., c. 29, and cf. Taylor, ib., pp. 88, 89. 4 Cf. Taylor, u. s. , pp. 89 and 78. 6 The 13 and 14 Victoria, c. 54. . By the 27 and 28 Victoria, c. 38 ; cf. Taylor, u. 8., p. 95. 7 The 37 and 38 Victoria, c. 44. 8 Cf. 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. 1 Lord Shaftesbury, Fielden, Oastler, and Sadler were all Tories, though they were accused of being Socialists. They 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. 2 But the millowners had their revenge afterwards when they helped to repeal the Corn 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, 3 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." 5 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- 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 214. 2 Ib. 3 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution (Are Radicals Socialists?), p. 215. 4 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. 5 Industrial Revolution, p. 21 5. ^ 406 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 l 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. 1 Lecky, History of the Eighteenth Century, vi. 220. CHAPTER XXIV THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 233. Disastrous Effects of 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. 1 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, 2 while at the same time the price of wheat had risen enormously. 8 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. 4 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 1 Above, p. 373. a Above, &.; cf. also Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 489. 8 Above, p. 375. * Above, p. 386. 4 o8 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND of enclosures, both of the common fields and the waste, had deprived him of the resources which he formerly possessed. 1 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. The 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. 2 But the low rates of pay which had been fixed thereby had become almost tradi- tional, 3 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, 4 or more than double the average 6 of the four years ending in 1691. This high price was maintained till 17 10, when there was a considerable fall, 6 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. 7 The latter part of the eighteenth century was marked by almost chronic scarcity, 8 and after 1790 wheat was rarely below 50s. a quarter, and often double that price, l Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101. a Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 43. ' 76. 4 Prothero, English Farming, App. I. (p. 244). 6 Cf. figures in Prothero, u. 8. The prices were, in 1710, 78s. aqr. ; in 1714, 50s. ; in 1720, only 37s. 7 Tooke, History of Prices, i. 66, 82, and i., ch. iii. generally. 8 Ib. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 409 as it was after the deficient harvest of 1795, when the price was 108s. a quarter. 1 The famine was enhanced by the restrictions of the Corn 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 ; 2 and the introduction of machinery had naturally caused a tremendous dislocation in industry, which could not be expected to right itself immediately. 3 Poverty was so widespread that, in May 1795, the Berkshire justices, in a now famous meeting at Speenhamland, near Newbury, 4 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 " Speen- hamland Act of Parliament/' 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. 5 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 5th 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 1 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. 8 Of. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 485. 4 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 65. * Ib., p. 66. 4 io 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 Ibs. 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." x 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 ; 2 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, 3 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 1 See Nicholls, History of the Poor Law, ii. 137. 8 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 100. Eden, State of the Poor, ii. 30, 147, 384, 550. 4 Laurence, Duty of a Steward, 3, 4 ; Toynbee, tt. i., 100. CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES 411 labourers, or swelled the numbers of the unemployed. 1 The consolidation of farms 2 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, osteDsibly on the ground that it made it difficult for the industrious poor to procure habitations ; but, in reality, because it did not always suit the selfish interests of the landowners. 3 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, 4 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. 6 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 some 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 of 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, 550. a Ibid., and Toynbee, Indust. Rev., p. 101. 5 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 68. Elizabeth's Act was the 31 Eliz., c. 7. 4 The 22 Geo. HI., c. 83. 6 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 69. 6 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. Refusal 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. 1 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. 2 The reason for this measure is obvious : 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. 3 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, 4 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 Law, 71, 87. a /&., p. 71. The Act was the 43 George III., c. 141. * Ib 4 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. 1 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 applied to the parish, who allowed them 4s. or 5s. more. 2 Those manufacturers who employed parish apprentices sometimes even received annual payments from the parish for keeping its paupers at work. 3 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, 5 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. 6 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, Poor Law, p. 87. a /&., p. 87. * Ib., and cf. above, p. 388. 4 Ib., p. 86. 6 Ib., p. 87. Ib., p. 82. 4U 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." l 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. 2 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 of giving decent wages off the shoulders of the farmers, and putting a premium upon the incontinence 3 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, 6 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- 1 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 103. 2 Fowle, Poor Law, p. 89, on The Deterioration oj Labour. 3 For the sad facts and for the bastardy laws, cf. Fowle, Poor Law, pp. 89-92. summarising the evidence of the Commission of 1834. 4 The 4 and 5 William IV., c. 76. 8 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 parish 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 parishes out of a hundred." l 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. 2 Down to the reform of 1834, "the public funds were regarded 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 3 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." 4 237. Restrictions upon Labour. What made the condition of the labourers worse still, was the fact that they could neither go from one place to 1 Young, Annals of Agriculture, xxxvi. 504. 8 The exhaustive Reports of the Poor Law Commission (1909) bring for- ward far-reaching proposals for dealing with the problems of poverty and unemployment. s For exact sum, cf. Porter, Progress of the Nation, i.82. 4 Fowle, Poor Law, pp. 73, 74. 4i6 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 1 of 1662, which allowed a pauper to obtain relief only from that parish 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 2 till it was mitigated by the Poor Law of 1834. Its main results were seen, as Adam Smith re- marked, 8 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 5 : " 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." 6 238. The Combination Acts. The Law of Settlement was further strengthened by what are called the Combination Laws, 7 which forbade workmen to meet together in order to deliberate over their various The 13 and 14 Charles II. , c. 12. * Although it was nominally repealed. Fowle, Poor Law, 70, 84. Foi the whole question, see Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I., ch. x. (VoL I., p. 144, Clarendon Press edn.). * Wealth of Nations, u. ., i. 148. 4 Ib. 6 Ib., i. 149. * Cf. also Toynbee's remarks, Industrial Revolution, p. 186. '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. in., 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, 1 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 agreement, 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." 8 The legislation of the close ,pf the ^eighteenth century was all in favour of the masters, and after severanftrtsJiad 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 5 "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 from the violence of a riotous mob. 6 " The English statute-book was disfigured by laws which robbed the labourer as a wage-earner, and degraded him as a citizen," 1 Wealth of Nations, Bk. L, ch. viii. (Vol. I., p. 70). 2 /&., Bk. L, ch. x. (Vol. L, p. 150). 8 76., Bk. I., ch. viii. (Vol. L, p. 71). 4 The 40 Geo. III., c. 60; see Ho well, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 39. 6 Justice Stephen, History of the Criminal Law, iii. 208. 6 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 186. 2 D 4 i 8 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-manufacturers, who wielded that power in the interests of their class rather than for the good of the people." x No doubt the action of these law- :ers was natural, but it is only another example of the fa# 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 Fiench Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. The former, it is true, frightened our statesmen and delayed reform, but it _gavfi jcoiirage to the working_laj3ses,^ and made them hope fiercely for freedom. TheJattfir__Revolu- tion wjDLcentrated men more and more closely together in large centres of inJcGitry, 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 Qojnbination JLajvs were annulled 8 in 1824. All previous statutes, so far as they relatecTlo combinations of workmen, were 1 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 186. * /&., 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, 1 by jdeclaring illegal any action^ which might result from-_tkO-Se.^deiibera^ions 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 IJeform 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. 2 But the Reform JBill, though a great step forward, some- what belied the hopesTthat 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. 3 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 4 movement (1838 to 1848) seems to us at the present time almost ludicrously moderate in its demands. The YQte^ by ballot, the abolition nf property quailifi^ations fwp* .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. IV., 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; c/. also Toynbee, u. s., p. 195. 2 For the history of these, cf. G. Howell, Conflicts of Capital and Labour, and Trades Unionism New and Old ; see also Note A. 3 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 196. * See Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement generally. 420 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND the aid of both military and police was invoked. The move- ment collapsed, and finally died away when the repeal of the Com 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. 1 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 Jfcades T7ftjgn.fi, A large number of Unions were formed between 1850 and I860. 2 These institutions were not, however, recognised by law till a Juommission was appointed, including Sir William Erie, Lord Elcho, anoTTEomas 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^&cj^pf_jj325. This AetJwas accordingly repealed. 8 TheJJnions were legalised by the Trade Union Act of 1871, and this Act 4 waslurther extended s anoTamended 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 jiational Federation of Em- ployers 6 in 1873. and the long struggle of the working classes for industrial freedom did not result in any lessening 1 Toynbee points this out very clearly, and shows how political influence led to the legalisation of Trade Unions ; Industrial Revolution^ p. 196. * Howell, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 59. 3 By the 38 and 39 Victoria, c. 31 and o. 32. 4 The 34 and 35 Victoria, c. 31 and 32 ; Howell, Trades Unionism Nev 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. 1 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, 2 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 new industrial system the condition of the working classes rapidly declined ; wages were lower, 8 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 : 6 1 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, 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. 4 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156 ; Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101. 5 Essays in Finance, Second 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 l the actual figures of English pauperism at a time when the wealth of the nation was advancing by leaps and bounds. YEAB. Population. Poor Rate raised. Rate per head of population. 1760 1784 1803 1818 1820 1830 1841 7,000,000 8,000,000 9,216,000 11,876,000 12,046,000 13,924,000 15,911,757 1,250,000 2,000,000 4,077,000 7,870,000 7,329,000 6,829,000 4,760,929 8. d. 3 7 5 8 11 13 3 12 2 10 9 5 11J 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. 2 The tale of their sufferings may be studied in the Blue-books and Reports 3 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 1 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. 4 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 re'sume' 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 ; l of diseases and distortions only found in manufacturing districts ; 2 of filthy, wretched homes, where people huddled together like wild beasts ; 3 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 5 (1887) after many futile attempts had been made to suppress it. 6 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. 4 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. 6 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 ineffectual. The system, however, has its apologists (c/. 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 Nations, 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 uncertaiu employment of men." l 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; YEAB. Weavers' Wages.* Wheat per qr. 1802 . 1806 ... 1812 ... 1816 ... 1817 ... s. d. 13 10 10 6 6 4 5 2 4 3i 8. d. 67 9 76 9 122 8 76 2 94 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 505. 3 Leone Levi, History of British Commerce, p. 146. 8 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156. The prices are averages from th London Gazette, and were frequently far higher in the course of the year. 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 17s. a week, ard for worsted stuff weavers 11s. to 14s. a week. 1 But even these rates are miserably low. The wages of spinners were also very poor, the wotk 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 SPINNEES. 1808-15. 1816-23. 1823-30. 1830-36. 1836-45. Men Women ... 24/ to 26/ 13/ to 14/ 24/ to 26/ 13/ to 14/ 24/ to 26/ ll/ 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. 8 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 Table of Wages and Prices, 1720-1886, by Thomas Illingworth, Bradford (privately printed). 8 Ib. Of. also Porter, Progress of the Nation, ii. 253, where women's wages decrease from 10s. in 1805 to 8s. 5d. in 1833. 8 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 seventy years, and the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 afforded ample opportunity of which full advantage was taken for such optimists to talk statistics. But to compare the wages of labour properly we must go back more than a hundred years, not seventy, for seventy 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- tion in the Act of Settlement, 1 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 modern agriculture will form the subject of our next chapter. 1 Above, p. 416. 2 Thomas Illingworth's table, cited above. Carpenters' wages have risen from 23s. or 24s. in 1823-30 to 30s. -32s. in 1886 ; masons from 23s. -26s. ta 32s. -34s. ; colliers from 16s. -18s. to 22s. -23s. 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 ;he 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 l 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. 2 The fourfold or Norfolk rotation of crops was introduced, 8 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 l skill became more and more widely diffused. 4 The reward ; of the landowners came rapidly. They soon found their pro- duction of corn doubled and their general produce trebled. 5 1 Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 472-475 ; Prothero, Agriculture in England in Diet. Pol. Econ. 2 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 468. 3 Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 43. 4 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. 3 Rogers, Economic, Interpretation, 269. 427 428 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND They were able to exact higher rents, 1 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 Tull, was 7s. an acre ; 2 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. 8 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, 4 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. 5 In Staffordshire, 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. 6 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." 7 In fact, it is evident that the employment of the new 1 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 164, gives some startling instances. 2 Quoted by Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 268. 8 Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 477. 4 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 164. Ib., i. 165. 8 Ib. 7 Ib. 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. 1 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. 2 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. 3 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 scientific breeder of sheep 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. 6 The growth of population also caused a new impetus to be giveii 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 1 It was due, e.g., also to the rise in the price of corn, 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 Pioneer* of English Farming (1881), p. 79. 8 Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 475. 4 Prothero, Agriculture in England, in Diet. Pol. Econ. * Ib. ; 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. 1 The enclosure of the common fields was beneficial, 2 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, 8 while the agricul- tural labourer was permanently disabled. Whereas between 1*710 and 1760 only some 300,000 acres had been enclosed, in the period between 1760 and 1843 nearly seven million underwent the same process. 4 The en- closure system, however, was only part of a great change that was passing over the country ; it was but another sign 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. 6 It was both the cause and the effect of the enclosures; 1 Above, pp. 274, 275 ; also Prothero, Pioneers, pp. 66-74. 2 Above, p. 275 ; and Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 89. /&.,p. 89. 4 76., 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. 8 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. 1 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. 2 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 misery with them, both to the smaller employers and the mass of the employed. " 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 reduction 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." 8 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. 1 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 Diet. 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 Eevolution. 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, 1 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 2 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 Corn Laws. 3 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, 4 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. lid. 5 Now these violent fluctuations of price gave to those who could hold large stocks of corn the opportunity of gaining enormous profits, while the smaller men, who either worked in common fields or had small 1 It is rather strange that Dr Cunningham (Growth of Industry, ii. 480) should say that these three minor facts were the chief causes " whereby the whole character of English agriculture was changed. " * Above, p. 349. * Cf. Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, p. 83. 4 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 476, 477. Tooke, Prices, L 76. MODERN AGRICULTURE 433 separate holdings, were generally compelled to realise their corn immediately after harvest, and consequently suffered severely when prices were low. 1 In 1779, for instance, many farmers were ruined by low prices, 2 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 corn 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 3 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. 4 But it did not reach this price again for many years afterwards. The Government of 1688, not 1 Cunningham, u. ., ii. 477-479. 2 Ib., ii. 477. 3 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. ; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV., ch. v. (Vol. II., p. 113). 4 Rogers, 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. 1 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 corn was very cheap. 2 There were consequently loud outcries from the landlords about agricultural distress, which merely meant that the people atr 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. 8 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 4 Thus, happily for the con- sumer, the Corn Laws and the bounty were harmless during the greater part of the eighteenth century, 6 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. 8 In 1791 a duty of 24s. 3d. was imposed as long as English wheat was less than 50s. a qr. ; 7 if English wheat was over 50s. the duty was 2s. 6d. The landed 1 The 1 William and Mary, 1, c. 12. 2 Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 377. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV., ch. v. (Vol. II., 115). 4 Rogers, Economic Interpretation, p. 378, who instances the similar result in the case of the premium on beet sugar abroad. 6 76., p. 378. 6 The 13 Geo. HI., c. 43; cf. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV., ch. v. (Vol. II., p. 119). 7 By the 31 Geo. HI., c. 30. MODERN AGRICULTURE 435 interest, however, was not satisfied yet. In 1804 foreign corn was practically prohibited l from importation if English wheat was less than 63s. a qr. ; in 1815 the prohibition was extended 2 till the price of English wheat was 80s. a qr. Then came the agitations and riots of 1817-19, after which the country sank into despair till the formation 8 of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1839. During the operation of these laws the landlords received enormous rents, 4 so high, in fact, that with all the aid of artificial legislation, farmers, except in good years, could hardly pay them, and agriculture was often much distressed. 6 But meanwhile the mass of the people was frequently on the verge of starva- tion, and at length the country perceived that things could not be allowed to go on any longer in this way. The manufacturing capitalists of the day supported the leaders of the people in their agitation, for they hoped that cheap food might mean low wages. 6 By their aid the landed interest was overcome, and in 1846 the Corn Laws, by the efforts of Cobden and his followers, were finally repealed. Nevertheless the British farmer and his landlords, forgetting, it seems, the days when they got high prices by the starva- tion of the poor, still frequently clamour for the re-imposition of the incubus of protection. 245. Agricultu/re under Protection. These years of Protection (1812-1845) comprised, in fact, one of the most disastrous periods through which British agriculture has ever had to pass. The inflated prices created by the Continental War not only caused an enormous rise in rent, but also a more luxurious and com- 1 By the 44 Geo. III., c. 109. 2 By the 55 Geo. III., c. 26. By the 3 Geo. IV., c. 60, the price for duty was reduced to 70s. a qr. 3 For this, see Morley's Life of Cobden, ch. vi 4 Porter, quoted above, p. 428. 5 The distress of agriculturists in this period is carefully detailed in various Reports, and the whole subject has been ably dealt with by I. 3. Leadam in his book, What Protection does for the Farmer and Labourer <1893). For the period 1812-1845 see also Prothero, Pioneers of English .Farming, p. 87 sqq. 6 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 207. 436 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND fortable mode of living among the higher agricultural classes ; but when the war was finally brought to a close by the Peace of 1815, there was a sudden fall in prices that caused widespread trouble. The majority of landowners refused to reduce their rents, and many farmers were in consequence ruined. Hence arose the cry for more stringent Protective laws, and these were duly passed. 1 Encouraged by these enactments, farmers went on growing more corn than was necessary, in hopes that the former high prices would now be kept up artificially ; and, of course, they were inevitably doomed to the disappointment that awaits all ill-considered legislation. Rent was paid, but it was paid out of capital, not out of profits ; and agricultural distress grew more and more bitter. Select Committees and Commissions sat to inquire into it in 1814, and in 1821 and 1822 ; they sat again in 1835 and 1836 ; and terrible evidence of the widespread ruin of many farmers was brought before them. 2 It was shown that since 1790 rents had increased some 70 per cent., and yet distress was prevalent in all agricultural districts. 3 The last ten years of this unfortunate period, however, were more prosperous than those which had gone before, partly because of the action of the New Poor Law 4 and the Tithe Commutation Act, 5 but chiefly, no doubt, owing to the marked improvements that were made in farming. Of these improvements it is now time to speak, 246. Improvements in Agriculture. The advance made between the years 1812 and 1845 is remarkable, in view of the great distress which undoubtedly prevailed among agriculturists at the time. 6 The first, and possibly the most important, of these was the greater atten- tion paid to the drainage of agricultural land, a subject 1 Especially in 1815 by the 55 George III., c. 26. 2 This evidence is conveniently summarised in What Protection does for the Farmer and Labourer, by I. S. Leadam, pp. 5, 33, and passim. See also Prothero, Pioneers, p. 87. 8 Prothero, u. *., p. 87. 4 The 4 and 5 William IV., o. 76 (1834). 6 The 6 and 7 William IV., c. 71 (1836). 6 See Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, pp. 95, 96, for the fol- lowing. MODERN AGRICULTURE 437 discussed as far back as 1641 by Blith, and strongly re- commended by Arthur Young. One of the first farmers to appreciate the importance of proper drainage was James Elkington, a Warwickshire man, 1 whose services were so markedly useful to his county that the Government gave him a grant of 1000 in recognition thereof. But it was Smith of Deanston 2 who proceeded in a really scientific manner, and from 1823 and 1834 onwards his suggestions were widely followed. The importance of the subject was recognised by Parliament, and loans for drainage purposes were allowed by the Act 8 of 1846. Next to drainage comes the introduction of science into the use and application of manures. The chemical nature of the various soils, and the fertilisers which are most suit- able for them, were now more carefully studied. From about 1835 nitrate of soda and guano began to be used. 4 In 1840, Liebig, the great German chemist, recommended the use of superphosphate of lime, and Sir J. B. Lawes in England showed how this could be obtained by dissolving bone-dust in sulphuric acid. 5 Then phosphates and am- moniacal manures were gradually introduced ; and marked strides were made by the beneficial action and inter-action of good drainage and suitable fertilising agents. Nor must we omit the advance made in agricultural implements and machines, such as Small's plough, the sub-soil plough, Meikle's threshing machine, and the drilling machine 6 all of which have greatly assisted agricultural operations. More attention was also paid now to the proper cultivation of artificial grasses, agricultural plants, and the selection of seeds. The rearing and breeding of stock was carried on more scientifically, and the oil-cakes and other artificial foods, formerly introduced by Coke of Holkham, 7 were more 1 Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, p. 96. 2 Ib. , p. 97. 3 Ib. , p. 98. 4 Ib. , p. 99. 5 Ib. , p. 100. The value of bones for manure is said to have been dis- covered as early as 1772 by a Yorkshire foxhunter when clearing out his stables (Prothero, Pioneers, p. 80). According to Porter (Progress of the Nation, i. 149), bones were occasionally used for this purpose about 1800, but did not come into general use till 1820. 6 Prothero, Pioneers of English Farming, p. 100. 7 Prothero, Pioneers, p. 80. 438 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND and more widely used for cattle. This general advance in care and skill was greatly assisted by the work of the Royal Agricultural Society, which was founded in 1838, and held its first meeting the following year in Oxford, 1 the home of movements which have usually been of a somewhat dif- ferent character from the operations of agriculture. The greater facilities of transit afforded by the introduction of railways, canals, and steam navigation should also be noted as contributing to the success of the farmer, by enabling him to bring his produce more readily to market, and it became no longer necessary for one parish to starve, while another in a different part of the country had to allow its surplus produce to rot. 2 Altogether, therefore, English agriculture made great strides in the years before the repeal of the Corn Laws (1846) ; and although after that repeal many persons pre- dicted ruin to the farmer, he continued to prosper. The fact was that the enormous development of trade and population, the stimulus given to all kinds of commerce by the use of steam, not only as a locomotive power but also for driving machinery, and the greater interchange of pro- ducts due to modern facilities of transit, all had a beneficial effect upon the farmer. He shared also, in another way, in the general increase of trade and prosperity, for the population of England since 1840 has not only increased in actual numbers, but has taken to eating far more of the farmers' produce than ever it did before. The consump- tion of butter per head of the United Kingdom was only 1-05 Ibs. in 1840, whereas in 1892 it was 614 Ibs. ; of cheese the figures are 0'92 Ibs. in the earlier date, and 5'86 Ibs. in the later ; of bacon O'l Ibs., as compared with 13'11 Ibs. in 1892. 8 Of course large quantities of produce now come from abroad, but, even allowing for this, it will be seen that a tremendous increase must have taken place in the consumption of the produce of British farms. In fact, English agriculture was in a very flourishing condition in the " fifties and sixties," reaching its most favourable point 1 Prothero, Pioneers, p. 101. 8 Ib., 78. Leadam, What Protection does for the Farmer and Labourer, p. 81. MODERN AGRICULTURE 439 about the time of the Franco-German war (1871-73). But after that it began to decline, and has continued to do so for a period of twenty years, though it is to be hoped that now (1895) the depression has passed its most acute stage. 247. The Depression in Modern Agriculture. The causes of this modern collapse in English agriculture are many and varied, and it must be remembered that to a large extent agriculture has only suffered in common with the other industries of the country, from which it is im- possible to separate it altogether. Yet, we may distinguish two causes, which, more than any others, have tended to this depression, and these are, in the first part of the period, unfavourable seasons, and, in the second, low prices and foreign competition. The autumn of 1872 was incle- ment, and the following spring unfavourable, so that the good effects of the fine harvest weather of 1873 were neutralised. 1 The year 1874 was the last of a cycle of prosperous seasons. From 1875 to 1877 the farmer had to contend against a succession of bleak springs and rainy summers, 2 weather that produced short cereal crops of inferior quality, causing mildew in wheat, mould in hops, and blight in other cases, while sheep-rot and cattle disease became very prevalent. The British farmer, thus enfeebled by bad seasons, was further attacked by an alarming increase in foreign competition, due partly to the increase of the wheat area in India and America, and perhaps even more largely to the constantly growing facilities for transport of agricultural produce from distant lands. Meanwhile, his own harvests were going from bad to worse. The summer of 1879, sunless and ungenial, caused the worst harvest of the century ; and though since 1882 the seasons have been less uniformly unfavourable, the effects of the previous lean years have been hard to neutralise. 3 Moreover, the stress of foreign competition has been very 1 Prothero, in Diet. Pol. Econ., a. v. Agricultural Depression, Vol. I., p. 564. 8 Ib. * For the above, see Prothero, u. *. 440 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND severe. Between 1866 and 1883 the values of agricul- tural imports from abroad rose from 77,069,431 to double that figure, i.e., 157,520,797. Again, in 1851, the supply of wheat was 317 Ibs. per head per annum for a population of some 27 millions, and it cost 53,500,000; but in 1885 the supply was 400 Ibs. per head for some 36 million people, and yet the cost was reduced to 43,700,000. No doubt the consumers, as a whole, pro- fited by the low price of bread, but, nevertheless, the agri- culturist was being steadily ruined ; and it has been seriously doubted by some economists whether the wider interests of the nation at large do not suffer when the cheapness of food proves so disastrous to a respectable and important class. 1 The fall in prices may be further seen from the following table 2 : YEAR. Wheat, per qr. Barley, per qr. Cattle, per stone of 8 Ibs. Sheep, per stone of 8 Ibs. 1873 ... 1883 1893 1894 1895 (Sept. 28) 1911 (Sept.) S. d. 58 8 41 7 26 4 22 10 23 31 7 s. d. 40 5 31 10 25 7 24 6 24 8 28 4 8. d. s. d. 5 Ito6 4 4 3,,6 1 2 10 4 9 2 6 ,,4 5 2 9,, 4 6 2 6 5 S. d. 8. d. 5 8 to 6 11 5 6 ,,7 3 3 8 5 5 3 8,,6 1 4 1,,5 9 3 4 5 4 Other produce has fallen in proportion. Thousands of farmers have been ruined, agriculture generally has suffered a severe and prolonged depression, and much arable land has been laid down again as pasture, 8 while some has gone altogether out of cultivation.* Meanwhile political false prophets have been going about with their usual nostrums, and the flags of Protection and even of Bi-metallism are being waved before the bewildered eyes of the British farmer, as if they were signals of salvation. 6 1 Prothero, Diet. Pol. Econ., i. 565, from which the above figures are taken. 2 See Hazell's Annual for 1895, p. 15, and 1896, p. 11. 3 See the Agricultural Returns. The arable land of 1893 was about 2,000,000 acres less than in 1873 (cf. also Hazell's Annual, 1895). 4 Notably in Essex. 8 This sentence was first written in 1890. There is no reason to alter it in 1895. MODERN AGRICULTURE 441 248. 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. 1 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. 2 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 1 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 11s. This is about id. per ton per mile. a Thorold Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 182. 142 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." L 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. 2 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, 3 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. 4 Indeed, 2 per acre was not an uncommon rent for good land a few years-ago (1885), 5 the average increase of English rent being no less than 2 6 \ per cent, between 1 1 have dealt with them in an article in the Westminster Review, December 1888, but perhaps their importance is overrated. 2 Both Tull and Young are quoted by Rogers, Economic Interpretation of History, p. 176. 1 /&., p. 179 ; and cf. Six Centuries, p. 492. . 4 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. 1 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, 2 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. 3 ) 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, 5 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. 2 Rogers, Six Centuries, 471, and Relations of Economic Science, p. 17. 3 Rogers, Relations of Economic Science, p. 17. 4 The state of the case is very clearly and forcibly put by Thorold Rogers in the pamphlet just quoted, p. 18. 6 Ib., 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 certain lack of adaptability to changed circumstances which has 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, while 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, 1 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 1 It is only in the last two years (1895) that the farmers 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. 1 Those already mentioned high rents and low prices, foreign competition and domes- tic carelessness, lack of capital and want of education are 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 ike Land. It has been previously mentioned 2 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. 3 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 oj Political Economy. 2 Above, pp. 343, 430. 3 Above, pp. 335, 408; and Prothero, Pioneers, dec., p. 73. 446 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND tion, Arthur Young, 1 in 1769, estimated that out of a total population of 8,500,000, the agricultural class, '* farmers (whether freeholders or leaseholders), their ser- vants and labourers," numbered no less than 2,800,000 i.e., over one-fourth of the total population and, with others interested in agriculture, the number was 3,600,000. The number of those engaged in manufactures of all kinds he puts at 3,000,000. His figures may be taken as substantially correct, though perhaps not as accurate as a modern census. Now let us look at the agricultural population of more recent years. In 1871 the number of wage-earners in agriculture was just under one million (996,642) in England and Wales. In 1881 it had declined further to 890,174, in 1891 2 to just over three-quarters of a million (798,912), and in 1901 to 689,000. The propor- tion that these wage-earners bear to the class of agricul- turists, as a whole, is 73 per cent., so that they are quite adequately representative of the general rural population. This decline in absolute numbers in twenty years is start- ling enough, but it is still more so when we take the proportion of the numbers to the total population of England and Wales, and find that the percentage of agricultural wage-earners was only 4*34 in 1871, 3*43 in 1881, and as low as 2*75 in 1891. Even if we include, besides wage-earners, the whole class of agriculturists, we shall find that the proportion has sunk from the one person in four employed in agriculture in Arthur Young's time to more like one in twenty -four. There is in these figures much cause for uneasiness, not only for the economist, but for the patriot and for the politician. Nor is that uneasiness lessened by the fact that the same phenomenon of rural depopulation may also be seen in other European countries. 8 The modern rush to the towns is not a healthy sign, nor can any nation rest on a firm and secure basis unless, to use a rustic metaphor, its roots strike deep into its native soil. 1 Quoted above, p. 334. 3 The figures are from the Official Reports of the Census, and are con- veniently summarised in Hazell's Annual for 1895. 3 See E. G. Ravenstein's interesting paper in Vol. LII. (1889), p. 241, of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. MODERN AGRICULTURE 447 250. The Condition of the Labourer. But not only have the numbers of the agricultural popu- lation decreased, but the labourer no longer has, as a rule, any share in the land. Certainly the agricultural labourer, at any rate in the South of England, was much better off in the middle of the eighteenth century than his descendants were in the middle of the nineteenth. In fact, in 1850 or so, wages were in many places practically lower in purchas- ing power, and not much higher in actual coin, than they were in 1750. But meanwhile almost every necessary of life, except bread, has increased in cost, and more especially rent has risen, while on the other hand the labourer, as we have seen, has lost many of his old privileges, for formerly his common rights, besides provid- ing him with fuel, enabled him to keep cows or pigs and poultry on the waste, and sheep on the fallows and stubbles, while he could generally grow his own vegetables and garden produce. All these things formed a substantial addition to his nominal wages. From 1750 or so to about 1800 his nominal wages averaged 7s. 6d. or 10s. a week; in 1850 they only averaged l 10s. or 12s., although in the latter period his nominal wages represented all he actually received, while in the former they represented only part of his total income. Since 1850, however, even agricultural wages have risen, the present average being about 14s. a week. 2 This, of course, represents in rural districts far more than the same amount of wages would in a town, since the agricultural labourer of to-day has been enabled to obtain allotments for his own use in many places, and only pays a low rent for his cottage. But even then it does not represent a large income, and though there is more than one honest South Country labourer who has brought up a family respectably on 10s. a week, 3 it can hardly be 1 Cf. the figures in Rogers, Six Centuries, p. 510. 2 The average weekly wages as based upon thirty-eight estimates of the mean rate for all the districts inquired into by the Assistant Commissioners on Agricultural Labour in the Labour Commission of 1891 was about 13s. 5d. per week. The average rate ascertained by the Richmond Commission of 1879-81 was 13s. Id., and the estimate for 1867-70 was 12s. 3d. per week. * I am speaking from my personal acquaintance with such. 448 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND contended that a higher rate of payment would not have been better both for himself and for his employers. At the same time, it cannot be denied the general condition of the agricultural labourer is far better now than it was twenty, or even fifty, years ago. The hours of work have been lessened, and machinery, although it has caused displace- ment in some cases, has yet relieved the labourer of much of the severe work which he had then to perform. In many counties the wives of the labourers have been entirely emancipated from field work for many years past, though, of course, in many counties also, they do light field work at harvest time. Greater opportunities for education have been given, and the dwellings of rural labourers, with all their defects, are generally better now than they used to be. " The labourer of the present day," it is said, " who is better fed, better clothed, better housed, than his father was, may not be fully conscious of the improvement that has taken place, because his ideas have expanded, and his wants, like those of persons in every other class, have grown ; but none the less he lives in less discomfort, his toil is l*ss severe, his children have a better prospect before them, and opportunities which he himself never enjoyed." l Such is a fair, though not a roseate, statement of the present position, and at first glance it may seem satisfactory. But when we come to consider that, after all, the present tolerable position of the agricultural labourer is an improve- ment only when compared with the depth of degradation reached about the middle of the nineteenth century, and that his condition had till then been steadily declining, we may well stop and ask ourselves whether there is much cause for congratulation in the fact that the agricultural labourer of the end of the nineteenth century is not much worse off than he was a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago. Considering the vast improvement that has taken place in the whole of our social and economic standard of living, and in the opportunities which are now 1 Report of Mr W. C. Little, Assistant Agricultural Commissioner, in hia General Report on the Agricultural Labourer to the Labour Commission (June 20, 1894). MODERN AGRICULTURE 449 opened up by modern culture, it is doubtful whether we can honestly say that the agricultural labourer has had his fair share of them. Statisticians rejoice because he has for some time no longer retrograded, but has even advanced; but this is but a poor advance compared with that of the nation as a whole. However, for whatever advance that has taken place, we shall do well to be thankful, for a sturdy and contented peasantry, where it exists, is the best back- bone for a progressive nation. The rise, such as it is, is due, among other causes, to the formation of Trades Unions, the leader and promoter of which among agricultural labourers was Joseph Arch. This active and energetic man, who has sat in more than one Parliament, was born in 1826, and in his youth and middle age saw the time when agricultural labour was at its lowest depth. Not only were wages low being about 10s. or lls. a week but the evils of the factory system of child labour had been transferred to the life of the fields. Phil- anthropists seem to have overlooked the disgraceful condi- tions of the system of working in agricultural gangs, under which a number of children and young persons were collected on hire from their parents by some overseer or contractor, who took them about the district at certain seasons of the year to work on the land of those farmers who wished to employ them. The persons composing the gang were exposed to every inclemency of the weather, without having homes to return to in the evening, people of both sexes being housed while under their contract in barns, without any thought of decency or comfort, while the children often suffered from all the coarse brutalities that suggested them- selves to the overseer of their labour. 1 Their pay was of 1 For gang labour see the Report (Reports, xii., 1843) of the Committee of 1843 on this subject. The worst evils are said to have been corrected in 1816 by the 56 Geo. HI., c. 139 (Cunningham, Growth oj Industry, ii. 653), but c/. Rogers, Six Centuries, pp. 611, 512. The following extract from one of the Rev. S. Baring- Gould's novels gives some idea of the conditions of gang labour. I am assured by the author that he derived the incident from a reliable authority in the district where it happened : " Twice or thrice the wheat had to be hoed, and the hoers were women. Over them the farmers set a ' ganger ' armed with an ox-goad, who thrust on the lagging women with a prod between the shoulder-blades." Baring-Gould, Cheap Jack Zita, p. 214. 2 F 450 INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND course miserable, though gangs flourished at a time when farmers and landlords were making huge profits. But the degrading practice of cheap gang-labour was defended as being necessary to profitable agriculture ; which means that tenants were too cowardly or too obtuse to resist rents which they could not pay except by employing pauperised and degraded labour. Amid times like these Joseph Arch grew up, and the seed of Trade Unionism was sown, but it was not till 1872 (at which time it will be remembered that British farmers were doing very well) l that the agita- tion was begun which resulted in the formation of the National Agricultural Labourers' Union. The difficulties of organising the down-trodden labourers were enormous, but they were at length overcome by the leaders of the agitation, and their efforts have already done much to improve the material condition of their members. Wages have decidedly risen since the agitation began, but even now they certainly cannot be called high. 251. The Present Condition of British Agriculture. It remains to notice briefly the causes which are still influencing our agricultural industry, and to point out in what direction we may expect a revival from the present state of depression. Besides the fact of the increase of rents up to 1870 or 1875, we notice an increase of the foreign competition already alluded to an increase which is of comparatively recent date. Our competitors are mainly Russia, America, and. last, but by no means least, India. 2 At the time of the Crimean War, and for some years subse- quently, Russian competition ceased to exist. Even when it began again, it was not very serious as long as it stood alone, for America had not yet entered the field, and was prevented from doing so by the sanguinary struggles of the Civil War. High prices for grain 3 prevailed, therefore, till some time after America had ceased her internal conflict, and it was only quite recently that much grain was grown for export in India. But since 1870 or so England has 1 Above, p. 438. 2 See the Agricultural Returns for recent years. * Aided by the discovery of gold in California and Australia. MODERN AGRICULTURE 451 been supplied with grain from these three great agricultural countries, and the English farmer, no longer buoyed up at the expense of the rest of the community by protective measures, has found it impossible to grow wheat at a profit under the old rents. The consequence has been the ruin of many farmers, and a terrible loss of income for all classes in any way connected with agriculture. 1 But at the same time rents have decreased very slowly in spite of the fre- quent stories that are heard of wholesale reductions by sympathetic landlords. This may be seen from the official returns. The annual value of lands assessed under Schedule A in the United Kingdom was highest in 1879-80, when it was 69,548,793. It had decreased to 63,268,679 in 1885-86, and still further 2 declined to 57,694,820 in 1890-91, and to 51,894,826 in 1908-09. But it is sur- prising to find that even this figure is higher than the gross assessment 3 of 1852-53, before the Russian War, while, on the other hand, land is not worth nearly so much to farm as it was then, so that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the fall in rents has not been so great as it should have been in proportion to the fall in the profits of the farmer. In course of time it is certain that the economic action of supply and demand will bring rents down to something like their commercial value, as, indeed, it has been rapidly doing in some places lately (1895) ; meanwhile the English landlords, as an eminent agriculturist remarks, have the choice between allowing their old tenants to be ruined first, and then accepting reduced rents, or granting reductions soon enough to save men in whom they have hitherto had some confidence as tenants. 4 It will be necessary also to make important changes in the laws and customs of land 1 It was estimated by Sir James Caird (Evidence before the Commission on Depression in Trade in 1886) that the loss of the agricultural community as a whole in annual income was 42,800,000 as compared with 1876.