LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class Historical Series EDITED BY G. W. PROTHERO, Lnr.D. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. OUTLINES OF ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OUTLINES OF ENGLISH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY BY W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D. FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND TOOKE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, AND ELLEN A. McARTHUR, LECTURER OF GIRTON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND LECTURER TO THE CAMBRIDGE LOCAL LECTURES SYNDICATE. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1898 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY MACMILLAN AND CO. Set up and electrotyped January, 1895. Reprinted July, 1896; October, 1898. Nortoooto J. S. CushiiiK Si Co. Berwick ft Smith Norwood Mui. U.S.A. PREFACE. THIS book, like the remainder of the series of which it is a part, is intended for the use of any persons who may be anxious to understand the nature of existing political conditions ; but it differs from the other volumes, inasmuch as it fixes attention on English rather than on European history, and sketches, from one special point of view, the course of events over a very long period of time. It has also been thought unnecessary to give any bibliography of this wide subject, as students who desire to procure further guidance will be able to obtain it from the larger work, on the Growth of English Industry and Commerce, published by the Cambridge University Press. No attempt has been made to depict the condition of English industry and trade with the assistance of maps, but a chronological table has been added, based on a suggestion for which the authors are indebted to Mr. Graham Wallas ; it is hoped that this may serve to give a conspectus of the subject, and to present in a graphic 100297 vi Preface. manner in point of time the course of industrial development as treated in the following pages. The book was planned before the General Editor under- took the supervision of the series, but the writers have to thank Dr. Prothero cordially for many suggestions made during the course of their work. W. C. E. A. M. November 1894. TABLE OF CONTENTS, INTRODUCTION. PAGE 1. The scope of industrial history ...... I 2. Man and his surroundings ....... 2 3. Social groups and individuals ...., 3 4. Direction of change ........ 5 5. The present and the past ...... ,5 CHAPTER I. IMMIGRANTS TO BRITAIN. 6. The English Conquest 8 7. The Roman missionaries ....... 9 8. The Danes and Northmen . . . . . . .10 9. Norman soldiers and immigrants . . . . .n 10. The consolidation of the English nation . . . -13 11. Influx of weavers under Edward III, Elizabeth &c. . . 13 12. Effects on industrial life 15 CHAPTER II. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. 13. The relative character of natural resources . . . 17 14. Mineral wealth. Tin, lead, coal, iron . . . .18 15. Suitability for tillage and forestry . . . . 19 1 6. Pasture-farming and grazing ...... 20 : 7. Fisheries and seamanship ....... 20 1 8. Roads, rivers and canals . . . . . ,21 vii viii Contents. PAGE 19. Water power . . 23 20. Insular character and royal power 23 21. Facilities for maritime commerce ... . . 25 22. Physical bases of our prosperity . . ... . 25 CHAPTER III. THE MANORS. 23. Parochial, municipal and national life . . . _ , . 28 24. Manorial organisation 30 25. The early history of the Manor . ... . . . . 34 26. Manors in thirteenth century records . . . . 36 27. The officials and the villeins , ^ . . . . 37 28. Immediate effects of Black Death. Stock and land leases. Sheep-farming . . . . . . . ; . 41 29. The Peasants' revolt . . ..... .... 42 30. Repression of revolt and subsequent decay of villeinage . 43 CHAPTER IV. THE TOWNS. 31. Manors and towns. Fiscal responsibility . .... 46 32. Early England. Monastic and Danish influence in favour of town life .......... 47 33. Domesday towns. Rural character. Conflicting jurisdiction 49 34. The struggle for chartered liberties. Inter-municipal com- merce 50 35. Fiscal contributions and internal administration ... 52 36. Gilds merchant and weavers' gilds . . . . -54 37. Affiliation and representation. National control of com- merce 57 38. Craft-gilds, their relation to municipal authority and to gilds merchant 60 39. The rise of the livery companies 63 40. Fifteenth century difficulties between gilds, and with jour- neymen and apprentices 64 41. Craft-gilds under Henry VII and Henry VIII. National control of industry 66 Contents. ix CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC LlFE. PAGE 42. Personal influence of the kings. Continental connexions . 69 43. Regulation of foreign commerce and progress of internal development 71 44. Edward I. National unity and national institutions . . 73 45. Edward III. Foreign and commercial policy ... 74 46. Aliens in England. The staple . . . . 76 47. New developments under Richard II . . * -78 48. Plenty and power 79 CHAPTER VI. THE VARIOUS SIDES OF NATIONAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE. I. THE FOOD SUPPLY. 49. Migration of the rural population 82 50. Restrictions on sheep-farming .83 51. Maintenance of the high price of corn 84 52. Changed conditions of corn-growing 85 53. Scarcity and the allowance system 85 54. Excuses for and effects of the Corn Law of 1815 . . . 87 55. Political and economic results of its repeal .... 88 CW "Kt*U,^wc& 9 ]4*0 ^ / fd'&l INDUSTRIAL LIFE. 56. Labourers' wages ......... 89 57. Poor relief under Elizabeth 91 58. The Act of Settlement (1662) .92 59. Employment for the poor 93 60. Allowances and the new Poor Law ..... 94 61. Internal communication 95 62. Quality and price of bread and cloth 96 63. Patents and monopolies 98 64. Alien workmen. Incorporated companies .... 98 65. Protection . .. . _ IOO Contents. 66. Economic freedom for individuals . . . . PAGE 101 6 7 . Freedom to emigrate . . . . 102 68. Freedom to change employment . . ... I0 3 69. Freedom to associate 104 70. Laissez faire and philanthropic legislation .... 1 06 71. 108 / III. COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 72. 10 / 77. The perils of the sea . . . . -. . . no / O 74- Commercial treaties. Trading companies . . in 75- The protection of the coasts . ... . ' . " . "3 76. The New World and new routes to the East 114 77- Joint-stock and regulated companies . . . . ; . 114 78. The East India Company ...... . .:-. 117 79. The Navy and joint-stock companies 118 / X IV. ECONOMIC POLICY. 80. Elements of power. Shipping and treasure . . ", . 120 81. Objects and effects of the early navigation acts . 121 82. Effects on Holland, Scotland, Ireland and the colonies 122 83. Subsidiary callings. Fisheries, ship-building and naval stores 124 84. The bullionist policy for treasure . . 126 85, The mercantilists and the East India Company . ^ I2 7 86. The general and particular balance of trade . I2 9 87. The balance of trade as a supposed criterion of the indus- trial prosperity of a nation . . . * . 130 88. Individual interests and national prosperity . ... IJI 89. Colonial interests and national power . . . . 133 90. The West Indian colonies and Virginia . . . 133 91. The Northern colonies. Economic dependence . . . 134 92. Irish competition in the woollen manufacture. The Irish linen trade 135 93- Whig jealousy of Irish prosperity. Irish cattle . . 137 94- English and Irish protection. The Union . . 138 Contents. xi CHAPTER VII. MONEY, CREDIT, AND FINANCE. 95- 96. 97- 98. Barter. Money payment and competition Standard silver, and the debasement of the coinage . Fall in the value of silver and rise of prices Difficulty in finding or applying a standard of values PAGE . I4O . 142 . 144 for 99. The recoinage of 1696 . 146 100. The gold standard H7 101. The Bank of England and bank notes . 148 102. Loans, the Bank rate and the Act of 1844 . 150 103. Payment in kind and by service. Arbitrary and casual taxation 153 104. Tenths and fifteenths. The Tudor subsidies '55 105. Financial difficulties of the Stuarts .... 157 106. Parliamentary and Restoration finance 159 107. Public borrowing. The Bank . 160 108. The incidence and pressure of taxation . 162 109. The advantages of a money economy , 165 CHAPTER VIII. AGRICULTURE. no. Extensive cultivation . 166 III. Diminishing returns . 168 112. Open fields ..... c .. . 169 "3- The two-field and three-field systems .... . 172 114. The Black Death and sheep-farming .... 175 "5- Convertible husbandry. Sixteenth century enclosing . 178 116. Capitalist pasture-farming and rents .... . 181 117. Seventeenth century husbandry / /*! . 182 1 1 8. 185 119. Decay of tMe yeomanry /7 . /, ] . /I . 190 1 20. IQ4. 121. Past and /figure . / . / . / . 1 . /f . _ Sr* 195 / / / / /I / / I i // \J xii Contents. CHAPTER IX. LABOUR AND CAPITAL. PAGE 122. Division of labour in industry and agriculture . . . 198 123. Capital in the cloth trade, and its services to labour . . 201 124. Capital as supplying implements 205 125. Dependence of labour on capital 206 126. Conflicting interests of capital and labour .... 210 127. Moral and physical degradation .. . . . .214 128. The course of the industrial revolution . . . . 219 129. Machinery and the expansion of trade . . 226 130. The proletariat. Stability and progress . , . . . 231 131. Individual and state management 235 CHAPTER X. RESULTS OF INCREASED COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 132. International rivalry and competition between nations . 241 133. Advantages of commercial intercourse to consumers . . 244 134. Commercial intercourse as the solvent of social organisa- tion 246 135. Modern complications and individual duty . . .251 136. Conclusion '; 253 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 256 INDEX . 261 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OUTLINES OF ENGLISH INDUS- TRIAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTION. i. THE industrial history of England is a large subject; it is the story of the material side of the life of The scope a great nation. English agriculture with its' f industrial magnificent breeds of sheep, cattle and horses, and its ingenious implements is the most enterprising in the world. English manufacturing skill both in textile fabrics and in hardware has a high repute in all parts of the globe. English ships traverse the most distant oceans and do the carrying trade for many of our neighbours. Yet all these great developments have come from such very small beginnings that it is not easy to trace the gradual steps by which primitive agriculture, industry and trade have attained their present proportions. Industrial History deals with only one aspect of our national life, but the subject is most important. Material needs cannot be neglected or forgotten with impunity in this world. However high his ideals may be, a man must have bread to eat, if he is to enjoy health and strength and be able to devote himself to intellectual and artistic pursuits. Material prosperity too is necessary for a nation, if it is to be a power among other peoples and to exercise 2 Outlines of English Industrial History. a real influence in the world. Material prosperity need not be aimed at as an end in itself, and it has been and may be misused both by individuals and by nations. Still it is well worth having, because it opens up the opportunity, both to an individual and a nation, of leading a noble and influential life. It does not, in itself, constitute greatness, but it is a condition without which national greatness is impossible. Hence the story of the material progress of England gives us a means of surveying the opportunities which Englishmen have enjoyed in the past, and are enjoying to-day, and also of realising our responsibilities as a nation. 2. The subject is very large and complicated. No Man and his part of it can be fully treated in a volume surroundings. o f Outlines, and some topics can hardly be touched on at all. It is well, therefore, to forewarn the reader at once, as to the method of treating the subject which has been adopted in the following pages. In the opening chapters ( 6 22) attention is called to two ele- ments which are involved in all material progress. There is need, on the one hand, of the skill and energy of human beings, and on the other of appropriate physical conditions for the exercise of these rational powers. We must think of man, and also of his environment, the active worker, and the things with and upon which he works. In tracing English material progress we must go back to the time when the English race was transplanted to this island, and note the different elements which have since been grafted on that stock. It is curious to observe how often and how effectively that race has been replenished with fresh blood and alien elements. (Chapter I.) We must also turn our attention to the surroundings in which and on which this much mingled race has worked Introdttction. 3 Climate and soil have had much to do with our agricul- tural development. Easy internal communications and rich mineral products have been important factors in our in- dustrial progress, while our maritime position and the mere character of the coast-line have favoured our advance as a naval power. (Chapter II.) Human energy and material conditions have co-operated together at every step of prog- ress, and it is by their united working that the whole result has been attained. 3. These elements have not, however, worked casually and blindly. There has been conscious and social groups deliberate effort throughout the whole story, and individuals. Men have set different objects before them ; sometimes an advantage that lay but a little way ahead, sometimes a far- reaching scheme. With these different aims before them, they have seriously set themselves to apply human skill to available conditions, and many of their schemes have in- volved combined effort, and could not be accomplished by individuals singly and alone. If we are to follow out these conscious efforts, we must try to realise the different forms of social organisation which have been employed for eco- nomic purposes in the past. To understand earlier history, and to appreciate the interest of primitive or medieval insti- tutions which survive in our own times, we must divest our- selves of many of our ordinary habits of thought and lay aside the assumptions we usually make in the present day. Not till comparatively recent times has there been complete economic unity in England, or the possibility of a free flow of labour and capital to different parts of the country. Neither the free play of individual enterprise nor of com- petition was possible in primitive society, while State inter- ference was equally unthought of, when there was no effective central government. For centuries each little village was a 4 Outlines of English Industrial tiistory. more or less isolated community which catered successfully for its own wants, and carried on infrequent and occasional intercourse with other places. In examining the history of the manors (Chapter III) we see that the ideal of the prudent man in the thirteenth century was to render his own estate self-sufficing, and thus to keep it apart from the rest of the realm. The towns, as they grew up (Chapter IV), pursued a somewhat similar policy. Under these cir- cumstances it is difficult to say much of the condition or progress of England as a whole until the time of Richard II, when the growth of a national economic life (Chapter V) had so far advanced that we can describe it and trace its subsequent developments in different directions. In the fourteenth and preceding centuries we have to deal chiefly with the condition and progress of different manors, or of towns, each of which was then economically distinct from the rest. From the fourteenth century on- wards these local organisations have come to be of less economic importance; they have long since ceased to be more than subsidiary elements in English economic life. From the time of Richard II we can follow the gradual growth of national organisation until it exercised effective control over all the various developments of industrial life throughout the country (Chapter VI) ; and we can examine the aims which came to be more clearly recognised. In the time of Elizabeth, the period of transition was over. Laws and institutions were devised for the regulation of grazing and tillage, of industry and commerce, and a definite scheme of economic policy was carefully thought out and deliberately pursued. The efforts to modify and maintain it under chang- ing circumstances eventually proved impracticable. Adam Smith showed that such efforts at regulating industry in the national interest were no longer beneficial, and during the Introduction. 5 first half of the present century attempts of the kind were deliberately discarded. 4. The description of the types of organisation which have existed in England, and which have been Direction of superseded in turn, serves to bring out the eco- chan & e - nomic structure of society at different periods. It is also desirable to notice the direction and the nature of the changes which have occurred in the great departments of economic life ; in the use of money and in finance (Chapter VII), in agriculture (Chapter VIII), and in man- ufacturing (Chapter X). The subject of money and the medium of exchange comes in the forefront, and dominates the whole for a very simple reason. The general course of economic change of every kind in England may be most easily summarised by saying that the use* of money and of bargaining has gradually permeated every department of life ; each has been reconstituted under this influence. The changes from natural to money economy are most obviously exemplified in the affairs of state ; but the increased preva- lence of money bargaining has been a most powerful factor in the change from customary to competition prices ; in the introduction first of capitalist pasture farming and then of capitalist tillage (Chapter VIII) ; and in that intervention of capital in industry which made more minute division of labour possible and led the way for the industrial revolution (Chapter IX). In the concluding chapter an attempt is made to show how this thorough-going money economy, exemplified in the freedom of commercial intercourse, has reacted on social institutions and brought into being the anxious problems of the present day. 5. The story of the past is full of varied interest, but there is one aspect in which it appeals with special force. It gives us a clue to unravel much that is strange and 6 Outlines of English Industrial History. difficult in the present day. Our existing society is the The Present outcome of the life of preceding ages. Much and the Past. o f \\% gy^ as we H as m uch of what is best in it, is a heritage from our forefathers. Hence we are forced to turn to the past if we wish to understand how present conditions have arisen. We may often have to go back a long distance in time if we would trace out the factors which have combined to produce the economic regime under which we live. It has been a constant aim, in compiling the following pages, to explain to some ex- tent the genesis of the present by a study of the past. The story has been carried on to a point at which some of the great problems of our own day loom into sight ; and occasionally an opinion on matters in dispute has been hazarded with a view to indicating how closely the experi- ence of the past is connected with the struggles that lie before us. Whether the future shall confirm the opinions here expressed or not, they will at least serve to illustrate the importance of trying to view our new difficulties in the light of experience drawn from bygone times. We may see how the new problems have arisen, and how similar difficulties have been met, while we may also be saved the disappointment of trying a road which has been already proved impracticable. It may be hoped, however, that some readers will not be satisfied with these brief outlines, but will feel the fas- cination of trying to understand the past so strongly, as to wish to advance to a fuller knowledge of the industrial and commercial life of our forefathers. There are many books easily procurable in which they can find additional informa- tion on every one of the subjects touched upon. Professor Ashley's Economic History contains most interesting chapters on the Middle Ages. The Discourse of the Common Weal Introduction. 7 gives a vivid picture of the transition in Tudor times, and this, as the work of a contemporary author, is of peculiar interest. Mr. Rowland Prothero's Pioneers and Progress uf English Farming and Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb's Trade Unions deal with aspects of the recent history of rural and of manufacturing industry. Others may perhaps wish, not so much to extend their reading on particular points as to know the grounds for the various statements made in this volume. Authorities have been rarely mentioned in these pages, because it is easy for any one to find them by referring to the same topics as treated in the Growth of English Industry and Commerce. This larger book gives fuller- information on many points, and will, at any rate, serve as a guide to those who are anxious to get to the solid rock, and to base their knowledge on a study of original authorities. CHAPTER I. IMMIGRANTS TO BRITAIN. 6. ENGLISH HISTORY may be said to begin with the The English invasion of the Roman province of Britain by Conquest. Teutonic bands about 449 A.D. The progress of the English invaders was slow; nearly one hundred and thirty years elapsed before they had cleared the Western Midlands, before, in fact, the land of the English took a definite and, to some extent, a permanent shape. The Romanised Britons, or Welsh, were confined in Wales and Cornwall or were driven back towards the northern part of the island. It is a great question how far the English con- quest was complete, or how far elements of Roman civilisa- tion survived through the period of the barbarian invasions, as was the case in some other parts of Europe. But though some few names and terms were embodied in the new speech, and some groups of inhabitants continued to exist as elements in the new social order, the evidence drawn from language, religion and law combines to show that hardly anything of Roman civilisation survived. This con- clusion is confirmed by other considerations, for archaeo- logical evidence seems to show that the towns were either deserted or destroyed. Where so much was swept away it 8 CHAP, i.] Immigrants to Britain. 9 seems unlikely that agriculture as practised in the Roman vills would survive. We have no sufficient evidence that these vills were the direct ancestors of our English villages, or that there was continuity in rural life from the period of Roman domination to subsequent times. On the whole it appears that the conquest of England was so far complete, that the basis of our civilisation may be said to be Teutonic. Whatever elements of an earlier civilisation were absorbed by the English invaders were very few. There were of course some. In the Forest of Dean and near the Peak of Derbyshire the old inhabitants pro- bably continued to pursue their avocations under new mas- ters. In many households there might be domestic slaves, who maintained some tradition of the old arts, language, and religion, but these elements appear to have been com- paratively slight, and to have had little effect on the growth of the newly transplanted English stock. The completeness of the change from the civilisation of the Roman province to the simple life of the English tribes does not, however, seem so surprising, if we remem- ber that society in the Province of Britain was much disin- tegrated before the English invasion began. Besides this, the conquest of the invaders was so gradual that the Romanised Britons were able to withdraw before the foe, and were thus saved from the necessity of submitting to the alternatives of slavery or death. 7. Although the English settlers seemed to absorb so little from their precursors in Britain, they did The Ro man not long remain unaffected by outside influ- missionaries, ence. The British Christians, who had been ousted or driven to the West, appear to have held aloof from their con- querors; but the missionary zeal of the Columban monas- teries in the North and of the Bishop of Rome himself, was IO Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. soon brought to bear upon the heathen English. It is one of the most striking instances of the manner in which reli- gious and economic progress have been connected. The communication, which was opened with much searching of heart as a dangerous religious duty, came to be of the first importance for trading and other purposes. England, when converted to Christianity, was still insular but was no longer isolated. The monastic houses were centres of learn- ing as well as of religion, for the legal conceptions of the later Roman Empire were introduced, under the influence of the monks, and affected the charters and wills. The frequent communication of churchmen with Rome was combined with opportunities for trade, and did something for the improvement of the arts of life. The very remains which survived from the Roman occupation of Britain were now turned to better purpose ; the ruins of Roman ramparts and towns afforded building materials, while their military roads and bridges were available for internal communica- tion. Under Christian influence the English tribes came to be more definitely organised under kingly rule, while frequent and friendly communication with more civilised neighbours became possible. 8. Very different in character was the next influence which was brought to bear upon the English, and North- They were attacked by their kinsfolk, the men - Danes and Northmen, and at first it appeared as if their settled life and new organisation had unfitted them to hold the land which their fathers had conquered. The Northmen came at first as plunderers to ravage. The coasts were defenceless, for Englishmen seemed to have lost their old skill in seamanship, and the Northmen were even able to sail up the rivers, and to carry on their depredations in the very heart of the country. The English rallied under i.] Immigrants to Britain. II Alfred (871 901), and after a struggle peace was made with the new invaders. Nearly half the country was treated as Danelagh, since it was occupied by Danish rather than by English inhabitants, and was ruled by Danish rather than by English law. Peace was soon followed by a practical amalgamation, and then it became apparent how much the English gained by the infusion of this new element. The English were satisfied with rural life; they were little attracted by the towns which the Romans had built, and they did not devote themselves to commercial pursuits or to manufacturing articles for sale. The Danes, though so closely allied in race, appear to have been men of a different type. They were great as traders and also as seamen. We may learn how great their prowess was from the records of their voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and America, from the accounts of their expeditions to the White Sea and the Baltic, and from their commerce with such distant places as the Crimea and Arabia. Their settlements in this country were among the earliest of the English towns to exhibit signs of activity. Not only were the Danes traders; they were also skilled in metal-work and other industrial pursuits. England has attained a character for her shipping and has won the su- premacy of the world in manufacturing; it almost seems as if she were indebted on those sides of life, on which she is most successful, to the fresh energy and enterprise en- grafted by Danish settlers and conquerors. By the efforts of Roman missionaries she had been brought into contact with remains of Roman civilisation, but by the infusion of the Danish element she was drawn into close connexion with the most energetic of the Northern races. 9. The next great immigration into England was due to men who were closely allied to the Danes, but who had, 12 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. for some time, been settled on the Southern side of the Norman English Channel. With the accession of soldiers and Edward the Confessor, Norman influence immigrants. began to make ^^ fdt in England> Norman fashions were in vogue at court, and Norman or Burgundian artisans apparently settled in considerable numbers on Eng- lish soil, but after Duke William had established his posi- tion as English king, this immigration seems to have taken place on a much larger scale. Domesday Book shows that many English estates were held by Continental barons, and in their households or on their lands there would be em- ployment for many of their followers. We know that a number of Flemings were attracted to the land whither Queen Maltilda had gone, and there can be little doubt that the same sort of tie would lead many to settle on the new estates of the Norman tenants-in-chief. But though this incursion of foreign artisans was impor- tant, it was not the most striking economic result of the Norman Conquest. The Continental possessions of the English kings were so wide that the kingdom came to be one province of a large realm. Her destinies were inextrica- bly involved with European politics, and even when she regained her insular character, by the loss of Anjou and Normandy, she still continued to be a part of the European system. The ecclesiastical connexion with Rome had come to be far closer in regaid to many matters of church gov- ernment and ecclesiastical taxation. The intellectual and religious movements of Europe were felt in our island; the rate of progress was different in this and in other lands, but the course of economic development was similar in many ways. The rise of the religious orders, the influence of the Crusades, the growth of municipalities, the devasta- tions of pestilence, the revival of learning, the discovery of i.j Immigrants to Britain. 13 the new world, the growth of nationalities, were events which affected the whole of Christendom, and produced similar economic results in many lands. And it was with the Norman Conquest that England entered for the first time into the common life of Christian Europe. 10. If the first two centuries of Norman and Angevin rule were important because of the new rela- Theconsoli tions with the rest of Christendom, they were dation of the also marked by great changes within the realm. En 8 hsh na - By the reign of Edward I the new elements introduced subsequently to the Battle of Hastings (1066) had practically coalesced with the English and the Danish immigrants to form one people. This united race had com- mon institutions; there was one Parliament in which the different parts of the country and the different classes of the community were at last represented, and the broad lines of national life and development were clearly defined. This consolidation of national life had its counterpart in the con- solidation of municipal life as well, for during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the various elements which had existed side by side in different towns coalesced, and old internal jealousies gave way to popular municipal govern- ment. The towns, like the nation, thus came to have an organic life and free institutions. 11. The national and town life of Englishmen was thus constituted and organised under Edward I, influx of weavers un- and there has never been since then a large . der Edward incursion of foreign conquerors, or of aliens in, Elizabeth, who came in the train of a conqueror. But for and later< all that the immigration of foreigners has continued time after time. Definite political or economic reasons have attracted settlers to this country, and they have sometimes 14 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. been gladly welcomed by the government as useful, though extraneous, elements. (a) The first of these immigrations was that of the Flemings, who were invited to this country by Edward III. The fact that England was a wool-producing country, and supplied the raw material for the Flemish manufacturers brought England at an early time into close relations with the Low Countries. Edward III, who was keenly alive to commercial considerations in all his political undertakings, appears to have seen that it would be possible, and ultimately profitable, to transplant the manufacture from Flanders to England, while local disturbances rendered many of the artisans willing to come. Though there had, doubtless, been much weaving in this country in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the trade appears to have received an impetus in consequence of this new immigration and to have grown rapidly, so that a very large proportion of the English wool- clip was subsequently retained for manufacture at home. (b) There is some reason to believe that a considerable number of Italians and other aliens were naturalised in this country towards the end of the fifteenth century, but the next great immigration occurred during the Reformation period. In the time of Edward VI some foreign Protestants were established at Glastonbury, and though England ceased to be a refuge for them in the succeeding reign, large numbers came over in the time of Elizabeth. They were settled chiefly in Colchester, Norwich, and in Kent. As the victims of the Duke of Alva they were warmly welcomed by the government. In the towns, where they were allowed to settle, and where they competed effectively with less skilled native workmen, they were regarded with somewhat differ- ent feelings. Their influence on the trade of these places was however soon found to be sufficiently beneficial to allay i.] Immigrants to Britain. 15 the apprehensions with which the new comers had been originally regarded. (c) The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 caused a considerable wave of emigration from France. Many of the Southern silk-workers and of the Northern linen- weavers were Huguenots, and the popular indignation at their expulsion prepared a warmer welcome for them in England than they might otherwise have received. The silk-weavers settled chiefly at Spitalfields, at Coventry and at Macclesfield, and as the trade they practised was but little known in England they do not seem to have given rise to so much local jealousy. The linen-weavers were diffused more widely, and they too found few English com- petitors; their numbers were increased by a similar immi- gration in 1709, when many families from the Palatinate, some of them in the direst distress, found their way to our shores. Some of these destitute aliens were passed on to the colonies, while others were planted as linen-weavers in Ireland and in Scotland, the two parts of the United King- dom where flax was most readily obtained. 12. It is easy to see that English civilisation has gained much from the extraneous elements which Effects on have at various times been absorbed in it. It industrial life, has gained in disposition and character. The curiously mixed race has been able to take advantage of new oppor- tunities and to utilise new physical conditions, but it has also gained in manual skill. Before the age of machinery, success in manufacturing depended on the dexterity, often the inherited dexterity, of artisans. However much Edward III might have desired to improve English workmanship, he could not have done it except by importing more skilful workmen. With each of these successive waves of immigration some 1 6 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP, i.] trade was introduced, or was at all events so much deve- loped that it seemed to be a new thing. From the time of Edward III we have the manufacture of heavy English broadcloth, known as the 'old drapery.' In Elizabeth's reign we find the introduction of the 'new drapery' serges and other light goods, or mixed goods like poplins while, in the seventeenth century, the silk trade and the linen trade took a fresh start. All these were industries which offered employment to large numbers, and gave rise to elaborate organisation; there were also many minor manufactures, such as the making of paper and of earthenware, and im- provements in cutlery, which were introduced by Flemish or Huguenot refugees. Thus it is hardly too much to say that these immigrants laid the foundations of England's indus- trial greatness in more than one department. There is also some reason to believe that they exer- cised an important influence on our industrial institutions. It is in the Danish towns that we find the first germs of municipal self-government. It is shortly after the Nor- man Conquest that we find the first traces of those craft- gilds, which were, in various shapes, such important indus- trial authorities for many centuries. The germs of banking and insurance appear to have come from Italian merchants settled in this country. If we turn to other spheres we see that conscious and deliberate imitation of the Dutch affected English finance in the seventeenth century; while Dutch engineers and drainers had a large hand in recover- ing the Fens. If England has attained to industrial and commercial supremacy, it is, in some measure, because she has succeeded in attracting to herself the most energetic and enterprising, as well as the most highly skilled portions, of the population of neighbouring lands. CHAPTER II. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. 13. IT might seem easy enough to describe the physi- cal features of any portion of the globe, and especially of a little island like ours, but it character of is not quite easy to point out their precise natural re- . . r~i sources. economic importance. The precise economic value of physical advantages depends on the skill and energy which characterises the inhabitants of any particular country. Natural resources are relative to human capa- bilities. There may be much mineral wealth, which is worthless, either because it has never been discovered, or because the inhabitants have not metallurgical skill to work it. In the same way the advantages offered by good harbours, or a fertile soil, are thrown away on any race that does not take advantage of them. It has been the good fortune of Britain that her various conquerors and settlers, as well as the various immigrants who have reinforced them at different times, should have brought together different and fresh kinds of skill, which could find new advantage in the physical conditions of the country. Physical conditions afford opportunities to those who can use them. Physical barriers are obstacles to men who have not the skill and 1 8 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. patience to overcome them. In this country they have served rather to affect the lines on which English civilisa- tion has developed than to call forth its original vigour, or to give it additional impetus. 14. Long before the time of the English settlement, Britain was visited by Phoenician or Car- wealth, Tin, thaginian traders, who came to the Scilly Lead, coal and i s i es an( j Cornwall to procure tin. Of all the mineral products of England this seems to have been the one which was first worked for purposes of trade, and all through the Middle Ages tin, together with lead, was one of the chief articles of the export trade. The lead of Derbyshire was undoubtedly worked by the Romans. They also carried on iron -mining and smelting in the Forest of Dean, and the mineral wealth, thus discovered and util- ised before the English invasion, continued to be utilised throughout the history of the conquering race. More important for English trade than any metals, have been the large beds of coal found in many parts of the country. The Romans used this fuel in the camps on the line of Hadrian's wall, and the Northumberland and Durham seams have been worked time out of mind. The coal was so near the coast that it could be readily shipped, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it came to be the source upon which London relied for a supply of fuel. In the eighteenth century the invention of the blast furnace rendered it possible to use coal for smelting iron, and this led to an enormous expansion of the coal and iron trades. Steam power was first utilised for industrial and commercial purposes about the same time, and the possession of an enormous coal supply gave England an opportunity of taking the lead in the application of machinery to manufacture and to shipping. ii.] Physical Conditions. 19 15. While these mineral products have been of import- ance, English prosperity has been largely due Suitability to the products of the soil. Britain was a for tillage and fertile province, which served as one of the forestry - granaries of the Roman Empire. There have been times when the art of agriculture has progressed but slowly, and when there has been some temporary exhaustion of the soil. On the whole, however, the skill of the farmer has advanced along with the new demands made on it by succeeding ages; and the produce per acre of land under crop is probably larger now than it has ever been in bygone times. Here and there land has gone out of cultivation, but consider- able additions have been made to the cultivable area by embanking the sea and draining the fens, while the nine- teenth century system of thorough drainage has greatly increased the facilities for working the land profitably. Much of the land that is now cultivated was at one time occupied by woods and forests. These had a high economic value while they lasted. They provided a fuel which was easier to work and pleasanter to burn than coal can ever be. In many places wood was the only fuel procurable, until the construction of canals rendered the midland coalfields generally available. The forests also gave a wealth of materials for building the old-fashioned houses, which are so fast passing away, as well as for constructing ships. Though substitutes of various kinds have been found for these materials, it may still be a matter of regret that the forests were so recklessly used up. The chief blame for this extravagance probably rests with the iron manufacturers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The exhaustion of the soil is an evil from which recovery is possible within a comparatively brief period, but the waste or destruction of natural woods and forests cannot be so rapidly replaced. 2O Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. 1 6. England has also been a great wool-growing coun- Pasture- try. This was the case, to some extent, in the farming and period before the Norman Conquest, but it was not until the twelfth century that English sheep-farming became important. This development oc- curred chiefly in the North of England, where land, un- occupied since the devastations of the Conqueror's days (1069), could be easily and profitably used for the breeding of large flocks. The Cistercians, for whom many houses were founded in the twelfth century, devoted themselves more especially to this avocation, and merchants from Lucca and other Italian towns, as well as from the Low Countries, soon afterwards engaged in trafficking for their wool. Pasture- farming continued to increase, and in the sixteenth century such a high price could be obtained for wool, that it led to a great development of sheep-farming at the expense of tillage. With the development of the arts of manufacture, a time came when but little wool was exported in its raw state. English breeds of sheep were highly prized from early times, and the quality of their wool was considered to give England a practical monopoly in certain branches of the clothing trades. The importance of the wool was so great that it has overshadowed and obscured the great advantages which England derived from her pastures by the breeding and rearing of cattle. They were a considerable source of food, and served for the victualling of ships; but, besides this, the leather trades have been an important element in English prosperity from medieval times. Hides, wool, woolfells and lead were staple commodities in the time of Edward III, but cattle farming contributed to our wealth before that period, for butter and cheese appear to have been ordinary exports soon after the Norman Conquest. 17. Even more important, in some aspects, than the ii.] Physical Conditions. 21 products of the land, has been the harvest of the sea. Fish abounds on all the English coasts, but the Fisheries herring fishery off the Norfolk coast has been and seaman- of special value. The take of the herring shlp ' fleet was in early times disposed of on the beach at Yar- mouth, where the town grew up as an adjunct to the fishery. In Tudor times, when serious efforts were made to develop English shipping, special attention was devoted to the fishing trades as a school for seamanship. The aptitude thus fostered was, doubtless, of service in distant expedi- tions, and may help to account for the acknowledged supe- riority, which England obtained, from the first, among the fishing fleets off Newfoundland. 1 8. While England has these various advantages for industries of different kinds, she is also well Roads provided with natural facilities for commerce, rivers, and Throughout the Southern, Eastern, and Mid- canals - land Counties, where the wealth of the country was concen- trated in earlier times, there are no great mountain ranges to offer serious obstacles to intercommunication. Engineer- ing difficulties in the making of roads have, therefore, not been formidable, and the main lines of communication were well served by the great Roman roads, which formed the most important part of the English inheritance from Roman Britain. The maintenance of roads and bridges was one of the strictest obligations, which fell upon all landowners in feudal times, and from this not even the most favoured tenants were exempted. But much was also done by the monastic houses, and by private individuals as acts of piety. In the fifteenth century when there was much local disorgan- isation, the roads fell into a worse condition than had been the case in earlier days. So far as we can judge there was little improvement, despite some occasional efforts, till 22 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. the eighteenth century, when the matter was seriously taken in hand. A general Highway Act was passed (1741) and so successfully enforced that the first twenty years of George Ill's reign showed a remarkable change in the possibilities for intercommunication, not only in good weather, but in bad. The progress then made has been maintained, while the invention of Macadam (1816) and the skill of Telford and other English engineers brought the roads, in coaching days, to a very high standard of excellence. The physical conditions which rendered road-making comparatively easy have given a character to English rivers. They are not rapid torrents, but streams working their way along level plains or in broad valleys towards the sea. Many of them are tidal to a considerable distance inland, thus affording sufficient depth of water for sea-going ships, and providing a current which diminishes the labour of working up the stream. Water traffic gives the easiest facili- ties for the carrying of heavy goods, and more than one of the great fairs of England, like those of Stourbridge and St. Ives, were held near a convenient water-way. Communication with Holland in the seventeenth cen- tury caused Englishmen to turn their attention, especially in the period succeeding the Restoration, to the improve- ment of their water- ways; but not until a hundred years later was much done to improve the rivers or to use them as feeders for canals. The success of the Manchester and Worsley canal was, however, a great encouragement to this kind of enterprise. The chief towns of England were brought into connexion with one another by canals, and communication by water was established between the prin- cipal river-basins. The new facilities for traffic gave oppor- tunity for the profitable working of coal in many districts, from which it could not previously have been conveyed to n.] Physical Conditions. 23 market; and the development of the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire fields followed as the result of these improved methods of transit. 19. In the latter part of the eighteenth century water came to be of new importance, not only in water connexion with internal commerce, but for power, manufacturing as well. Water power had been used from time immemorial for corn-mills, and it was also employed in the fulling and dressing of cloth. But during the last century, with the progress of invention, it came to be ren- dered available for various manufactures, so that there was a migration of industrial enterprise to those districts where abundant water power was obtainable. Both the hardware and the textile trades were susceptible to this attraction. For iron smelting, water power was needed to produce a sufficient blast for the furnaces. It was also found that the power for driving the machinery employed in the processes of prepar- ing the wool and also in finishing and dressing the cloth, gave a fresh advantage to the clothing trades of Gloucester- shire and Yorkshire; business migrated to these districts, and the old-established industries of the Eastern Counties were completely ruined. When power spinning and power weaving came to supersede hand-labour, water was the agent which was first employed to drive the new machines. Steam eventually superseded water power; for it could be easily increased at will, and the constancy of the supply could be reckoned on with certainty. But, though this was the case in later times, the physical distribution of water power did not a little, in the first instance, to determine the locali- sation of the principal English industries. 20. If the course of English history has insular cha- been affected by the nature of her soil and pro- racter and . v . royal power. ducts, and by the facilities for internal communi- 24 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. cation, it is none the less true that her insular position has been of great, though perhaps of indirect, economic importance. The sea has, on the whole, served as a defence against external invasion, and no part of England has been the scene of frequent conflicts such as were but too common in France and Italy for centuries. Security from attack is one of the first essentials for industrial progress; the greatest commercial centres of the old world, Tyre, Rhodes, and Venice, relied on their maritime position for protection. It has been the good fortune of England to have an unexampled history of industrial and commercial development carried on, for several centuries, with entire immunity from suc- cessful invasion by, or subjection to, foreign powers. Political security, the result of her insular position, has reacted favourably upon her industrial life; and a similar indirect influence has been exerted by some other features to which allusion has already been made. The remains of the Roman roads and the navigable rivers of England offered, from very early times, comparatively easy facilities for in- ternal communication and afforded the material conditions which favoured the eventual growth of a strong internal government. It is at all events noticeable that in Norman times the royal power made itself felt in maintaining the king's peace, to the advantage of agriculturists and of traders alike, while private war was still rampant across the Channel. The town life of England grew up in subordination to, and under the patronage of, the central power; while the cities of Germany and Italy were almost independent powers, and those of France were engaged in frequent quarrels with their wealthy neighbours. There was a gradual and har- monious development of constitutional and municipal life in this country, which could not but be favourable to wise fiscal administration and commercial regulation. ii.] Physical Conditions. 2$ 2 1 . Geographical situation has also been highly favour- able tafcEnglish commerce, and the coasts of Facilities for England afford a number of excellent harbours, maritime From a very early period, London has not only commerce - had a part in the export and import trade of this country, but has served as an important commercial depot. The great routes of trade in the early Middle Ages formed a sort of parallelogram, of which Constantinople, Marseilles, Wisby and London may be regarded as the corners. When the discovery of the New World revolutionised the com- merce of the Old, England was in comparatively close proximity to the new region where her great Dominion still stretches, even though the most flourishing of her colonies have thrown off her sway. It was only after contending with many rivals that Englishmen forced their way to the East, and founded and maintained a commercial empire there. Commerce with the New World, however, seemed to lie ready to their hands, and they not only monopolised the trade with their own colonies (1651), but also undertook a large part of the carrying trade for Spain (1713). .22. The most cursory review of the physical advantages which England has enjoyed cannot but raise physical a question as to the stability of her present bases of our prosperity. Commerce depends in many ways p on agriculture or on manufacture. Unless we have wealth to sell, we cannot buy wealth from others. In early times England exported corn to supply some other parts of the Roman Empire, and even as late as the end of the eigh- teenth century she produced corn in sufficient quantities to be able to export a surplus. With the vast growth of our population, we no longer have corn to sell when we enter the market of the world; we need to buy it from abroad. The same has been the case with wool. In the thir- 26 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. teenth and fourteenth centuries wool was our chief article of export and the mainstay of English commerce. >: When the manufacture, in all its various branches, was successfully planted here, our clothing trade held a specially strong position. Abundance of material was supplied at home, and there were many markets abroad where our cloth was in eager demand. But, since the wool famine at the close of the last century, English manufacturers have been forced to look elsewhere for materials to work. The development of sheep-farming in Australia has destroyed the pre-eminence of England as a wool-producing country, and has struck a blow at her practical monopoly in the manufacture of cloth. It is still more obvious that her mineral wealth cannot afford a permanent basis for her commerce. The fuel sup- plied by her woods was often recklessly wasted, and there is little sign of any practical attention being paid to the ap- proaching exhaustion of our coal. The immense accession of wealth which came from these mineral resources enabled us to bear the brunt of the struggle with Napoleon, but our financiers could only do it by mortgaging the future and adding largely to the national debt. It is not easy to see how that burden of indebtedness could be defrayed, without intolerable pressure, if the coal and iron trades were seriously crippled. The industrial foundations on which English commerce has been built up hardly seem sound enough to inspire great confidence in the maintenance of our position, but other commercial realms have prospered as depots, even when their industry was not of first-rate importance. Tyre was a commercial depot; so too was Venice. Their failure came not through a blow to their industry, but through the opening up of better commercial routes, which left them on a siding. England still holds her own in the carrying trade of the world, ii.] Physical Conditions. 27 and London is still pre-eminent as a commercial centre. How far the development of new areas or the opening up of new routes may affect her position we cannot guess; it is, at least, not impossible that history may repeat itself and that, with new political combinations, the centre of gravity of the commerce of the world may be shifted once more. CHAPTER III. THE MANORS. 23. IN modern social life we find that every citizen Parochial, ma y eas ity recognise a number of distinct municipal and interests in which he has a personal part, national Life. He is anxious for the maintenance of the power and prosperity of the country as a whole, even though he may not be able to specify the precise way in which any great national disaster would press upon him personally. He is interested in the good government in the lighting, paving and sanitation, of the town with which he is most closely connected. He probably has a friendly feeling towards one or more country districts, and is glad if the crops are good, and the people comfortable. We have here three distinct types of social life, in each one of which most of us have some sort of interest. But whereas, at the present day, national disaster or national well-being the ebb or flow of trade is generally and widely felt, while local politics and parochial interests seem to be compara- tively trivial, it has not always been so. There was a time when a vast number of Englishmen hardly had reason to look beyond their village or their town, and only came occasionally into conscious contact with the world outside. The prosperity of their own village or their own town was 28 CHAP, m.] The Manors. 2$ all that concerned them then; whereas all of us now, for the very bread we eat, are affected by the state of trade between England and other lands. National life has deve- loped apace, so as to outgrow and overshadow the interests and politics of the village or the town. In the twelfth cen- tury, for almost all the purposes of life, the village or the manor was by far the most important of these social organ- isms, when few towns existed and when national ties were of the slightest. As in course of time towns grew up, they became the important centres of trade and of industry; the stream of progress, instead of flowing along the narrow channels of village life, can be most readily observed in the larger life of the towns. They, in their turn, fell into the background, as national regulation and national institutions became more powerful to watch over and to promote com- mon national interests. Each of these different forms of social organisation has been required to serve different purposes. Their powers have been brought into play (a) to secure the subsistence, (b) to provide for the defence, and (c} to regulate the ac- tivities, of the persons who compose them; and in the dis- charge of each of these functions, they have had to deal with questions that are really economic. This is obvious in regard to the means of human life, whether they are pro- cured by agriculture, by industry or by trade. It is also clear that the necessities of defence involve military obliga- tions or taxation, and that the military system must be taken account of in its fiscal aspects. Similarly, legislative and judicial administration control the conditions under which industry is carried on, and lay down the rules by which it is regulated. All these sides of social life have some economic bearing, and each of them must be at least alluded to in an in- dustrial history which deals with these various groups in turn. 3O Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. 24. When we go back to the earliest times, from which Manorial we have full and clear information about the organisation. soc i a i condition of this country, we find a state of affairs when there were few great towns engaged in industry and commerce, while by far the larger part of the population were directly interested in rural pursuits. Throughout the length and breadth of England there were manors, which we may think of as villages inhabited by men, who differed considerably in status, but all of whom, in a greater or less degree, were responsible or subject to the lord of that manor. Despite the infinite variety of local usages, which prevailed among these manors, it is yet possible to describe a common type to which they approximately conformed. (a) So far as the means of subsistence are concerned, Subsist- we have no difficulty in understanding the household nature of tne policy that was pursued. This management, is clearly brought out in the books on estate management, which were written by Walter of Henley and Robert Grosseteste in the thirteenth century. Each group had an independent life economically. The autho- rities in each manor aimed, so far as possible, at rendering it self -sufficing, although they did not disapprove of the disposal of surplus commodities to outsiders. To supply all the wants of the inhabitants from the resources of the manor was a sign of good management, though it was of course occasionally necessary to buy some articles at markets or fairs, or from travelling chapmen. It is hardly possible to conceive a greater contrast than there is with the present day, when rural districts sell the largest part, if not the whole, of their produce in markets, and depend for their supply of the comforts and some of the necessaries of life on their power of purchasing from the towns. ni.] The Manors. 31 We can best see how completely this was true of the poorer classes, when we notice the system adopted, even in great households, by men who could most easily procure the means of transport. The king and the great magnates who were the owners of many estates, found it simpler to transport the personnel 'of their establishments from place to place than to gather the produce from their estates at any single palace. The great landowner was frequently on the move from one manor to another; and the- practice of making but a brief sojourn on each estate continued, long after the commutation of food rents for money payments had rendered such a course unnecessary. This may, to some extent, account for the curious lack of comfort to which the rich men of Norman and Angevin times submitted. They and their retinues would be shel- tered in a large hall, with one private chamber the solar at the end. There was little or no furniture, as the rough tables on tressels and benches brought out for meals were cleared away, when the company settled themselves to sleep on the straw, with which the unboarded floor was littered. A lack of knives and forks, of glass and china, rendered inevitable habits of eating and drinking which are inconsis- tent with our notions of refinement; while the debris of the banquet was discussed by the dogs on the floor, and was finally removed when a great occasion required that the hall should be strewed with fresh straw. When the food which could be conveniently stored at one centre began to give out, the cavalcade would move on to another estate, each of which was separately managed, and each of which could afford subsistence for a longer or shorter period of residence. (b} Though these manors were thus independent and self-sufficient in this aspect, we may yet see that for pur- 32 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. poses of defence they were closely linked together. From Defence t ^ ie t ^ me * ^ Norman Conquest, at all and fiscal obii- events, each shared in the obligation to con- gations. tribute to the royal treasury for military purposes. The fiscal obligation of each manorial lord to the Crown was a very real tie with the central au- thority, and bound these isolated self-dependent groups into one whole for defence against external foes. This picture of England is put before us with great detail in the wonderful record known as Domesday Book. This book embodies the results of a survey taken by William the Conqueror in 1086. He desired to know, not only the rent obtainable from the Crown estates, but also the amount at which each separate landowner throughout the country was assessed for the payment of Danegeld. This tax, originally levied for the purpose of buying off the Danes, had come to be employed as a means of raising money for military pur- poses. In the earlier Norman reigns it was levied occasion- ally, and not as a regular and annual tax. The sheriffs officials who acted as the king's representatives in the counties were charged with collecting the royal rents and the royal taxes. They made their payments to the Exchequer, and in the records of that court, which exist from the times of Henry II onwards, we get an immense amount of information, in regard to all parts of the country, reflected in the entries of payments, or of remissions of payments, to the central Exchequer. The aspect of the manor which is thus brought under our notice is fiscal. The lord of the manor was responsi- ble for the payment of a certain sum to the sheriff, and he may, therefore, be looked upon as the officer by whom the smaller contributions of taxes were actually collected. On almost every manor some of the tenants seem to have been in.] The Manors. 33 practically independent of the lord in various ways, and free to deal with their own land as they liked, while yet they were not directly responsible to the king for the payment of taxes, since they paid through the lord of the manor. By far the larger number of the inhabitants, however, were bound to the lord by stricter bonds. The lord's chief means of defraying the Danegeld came from the produce of his own estate. This consisted partly of his demesne lands, and partly of the holdings, which were granted to villeins on condition that they should render regular and specified service on the lord's demesne. In this way the villeins were an integral part of the estate, for without them no cultivation was possible and fiscal obligations could not be discharged. Their relation to the lord can hardly be expressed with accuracy in modern terms. It might be said that they were the lord's tenants, who paid their rent not so much in money or kind as in service. Or it might be said that they were the lord's labourers, who received for their work not wages, but a ready stocked allotment, which they could work in their free time. But the precise nature of their obligations at different dates must be more fully considered below. (c) The third aspect of the manor as a judicial or ad- ministrative centre need not be dwelt on at Manorial length, though much of the business that jurisdiction, came before the courts had an industrial bearing. There are many records of manorial courts which show us how much and how varied was the work they had to do. They were much concerned about the weight of bread and the quality of ale. The manorial court was also the place where much business connected with the estate took place. There the tenant took up his holding, and there the villein formally entered on his obligations as a tenant. There too formal complaint was made if any 34 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. villein deserted the village, and thus left the estate short- handed. And since the majority of the labourers were practically astricted or bound to some particular estate, there was no such opportunity of hiring labour or of seeking employment as we are familiar with to-day. Hence, in matters of internal regulation, as in regard to internal economy, the manors were singularly independent. The mutual obligations of the landholder and of the peasantry were settled, less by a general law which held good for the realm, than by the custom of each particular manor. Many small cases, connected with buying and selling or with ordinary police administration, were adjudicated on in the manorial court according to local customs, since there was little statute law on such topics for the whole realm. 25. We can trace these manorial groups as far back as The earl * ne ti me ^ tne Norman Conquest, for Domes- history of the day Book gives us very clear indications of the existence of this social type and of all its different functions. In the forefront of each entry we get a statement of the rate at which each place was assessed for the Danegeld; while at the close of each entry, in most counties, we have estimates of the value of each estate, and these help us to see where taxation pressed most heavily. We also get details of the condition of each estate for subsistence of the stock with which it was worked, of the villeins on whose labour the lord could depend, of its resources in the way of meadow and pasturage, and of any special sources of wealth, such as a market, a fishery, or a mill. Besides these details, there are some indications of the judicial rights, criminal or civil, which the lord of the manor could exercise. The whole is put clearly before us, as it existed eight hundred years ago; but when we try to look behind the Domesday record, and to see how this complex rural institution grew in.] The Manors. 35 up, we find ourselves brought face to face, not so much with positive evidence, as with various conflicting theories, which would trace the development of the manorial organi- sation to royal influence, or derive it from changes in vol- untary associations. Each of these social factors may have contributed some elements to the growth of the whole. In the fiscal and judicial functions of the manorial lord, the influence of royal authority is tolerably clear. There is also much to be said for tracing the organisation of manorial households to a simi- lar source, and for supposing that other households were regulated and organised on the model of the royal establish- ments, as if the manor were organised from above. But in Domesday Book and in later sources there are various traces of communal life, and of communal rights against the lord, which seem to show that the first English settlers were men who voluntarily associated themselves to- gether for combined tillage, and for sharing common re- sponsibilities. This associated and collective organisation of labour is certainly found among the serfs in medieval manors, and though some writers seem to think that it was imposed by masters from above, it seems more likely that it arose, at all events in some cases, from voluntary association. The whole question of the origin and early history of the manors is still in dispute among scholars, but in the mean time it may suffice to put forward two negative conclusions. i. There is no reason to suppose that every centre of rural employment grew up in the same way; some may have originated in a body of serfs and some in a voluntary asso- ciation. There is no reason why the origin of one should not have differed from the origin of another. Instead of disputing whether they were all free or all servile, we might do well to recognise the third alternative that they had, as 36 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. agricultural communities, no special political character at all; but, as soon as any rural group came to have a political character and to be used by the Crown for judicial and fiscal purposes, its main features would resemble those of other social groups which had had a different previous history. ii. There is a temptation to regard the manors or centres of rural employment as survivals from Roman times. This suggestion is at least unproved; in the face of the evi- dence already adduced as to the complete destruction of Roman society in Britain in the fifth century, it does not even seem very probable. There are of course many striking similarities between the vills, of which the remains are found in so many parts of Britain, and the manors described in Domesday Book. There are many points of likeness between a great estate at one time and a great estate at the other, but there are also great differences; while some of the similarities are directly connected with natural condi- tions and give no evidence of historical derivation. Resem- blances must necessarily be found in the cultivation of similar crops on similar land, with similar ploughs and similar oxen; and when we also take count of the manner in which Continental customs and Roman terminology were introduced, subsequently to the conversion of the English, there is but little ground for supposing that Roman vills survived as centres of rural employment. The continued existence of the Roman vill is the last line of defence maintained by those who hold that our English civilisation is directly derived from that which existed in Roman Britain; but it is at present an unproved hypothesis. 26. Though the origin and early history of the manor Manors in are so obscure, we may get a full and detailed the thirteenth description of its working as a centre of rural century. Re- cords, employment in the thirteenth century. At in.] The Manors. 37 that time, a careful system of administration and the render- ing of written accounts had become common on all well- managed estates. We have several handbooks on English estate management, dating from the reign of Henry III; the most celebrated of these treatises continued to be the standard book on the subject for nearly three hundred years. It was written by a Dominican friar named Walter of Henley, who probably had some practical experience in connexion with the estates of the great monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury. We are, besides, able to refer to three different forms of records which were kept on well-managed estates. The extent 'or rental gives us the list of the tenants with a statement of their obligations, whether they were discharged in kind, in services, or in money. It was a sort of survey of the manor, which was made at intervals, and required little modification between times. It gave a statement of the resources of the estate and the legitimate expectations of its owner. The accounts, which were made up each year, not only showed the produce of the demesne farm and the purposes to which it was applied, but enume- rated the live stock on the estate, and showed how far the obligations of the villeins and other tenants, as recorded in the extent, were actually discharged in any particular year. Again, we have the Court Rolls, or records of the manor on its judicial side, which tell us of the changes in the personnel of the tenants, and occasionally of modifica- tions in the character of their obligations. From these sources it is possible to reproduce, in considerable detail, a picture of the life on manorial estates. 27. We may think of the manor in the early years of Edward I as an estate, managed by a bailiff T he officials on behalf of the lord. If the latter were a and the wealthy man with many estates, he would 38 Otit lines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. appoint a higher official or steward to represent him, and to supervise the details of management in his behalf. The bailiff was the responsible official on each estate, who had to account in detail for the stores and the stock each year, and who also had to see that the villeins did the work, and made the payments, required from the holdings they en- joyed. There was also a foreman (praepvsitus) elected by the men; it was his business to represent them in all transac- tions with the lord, while a hayward superintended the actual work and saw to the contributions of seed-corn. The arable land of the lord and of the villeins would often be intermixed (cf. below, 112), but the portion which was directly managed by the bailiff was known as the demesne. The lord himself possessed a good many oxen for work- ing this land, but the villeins were called upon to con- tribute the labour of their stock, as well as their personal services, on the lord's land. The demands of the lord appear in earlier times to have been somewhat indefinite and therefore arbitrary, but by the time of Edward I they were, generally speaking, perfectly certain and precise. The typical villein's holding consisted of a yard-land or virgate, which would, approximately, be thirty acres of arable land. When the villein entered upon the holding at Michaelmas he would find part of his land ready sown, and he would have a couple of oxen assigned to him as the necessary stock for working it. When the holding was delivered up to the lord, as for example at the villein's death, the full stock with which it had been let was returned. For the maintenance of this stock the villein would have a right to the produce of a strip of meadow-land, while he might past- ure his cattle, and perhaps some sheep in addition, on the common waste of the village. In course of time additional portions of land were separated from the waste, to be used m.] The Manors. 39 either as separate crofts or for additional tillage ; but the lord was always bound to see that there was no such reduction of the common waste, as to encroach on the fodder availa- ble for the cattle of the village. This acknowledgment of common rights was enforced by one of the earliest Acts found in our Statute Book, the Statute of Merton passed in 1236. The villein who held a yard-land would be subject to such obligations as the following. He would have to render three days' work a week on the lord's land from Michaelmas till St. Peter ad Vincula (Aug. i), but he was allowed holi- days at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. He had to plough with his own team four acres of the lord's land. He had to carry manure, to weed and mow the lord's meadow, as well as to cut and make and carry the hay. From St. Peter ad Vincula to Michaelmas he was to put in twenty-four days' work, so that he might be kept consecutively busy in the lord's harvest operations. It was clearly defined whether he should have his meat and drink from the lord, at each of these times of obligatory service, or not. The harvest work must have been regarded as specially long and heavy, since he had to pay a penny to be free from one day's labour at that time, whereas a halfpenny was regarded as the equivalent of the day's work at other times of the year. He had, more- over, to pay is. %d. at Easter and a similar sum at Michael- mas-Day, and to present a hen at Christmas time. These were the chief obligations of a tenant in villeinage at Borley in Essex, early in Edward Ill's reign, but they maybe taken as typical of the obligations of villeins generally, although the custom of each manor might vary in some details. On these estates there were groups of men who were of similar status, and liable to similar obligation, and who thus formed a sort of community on the estate. They appear to have been collectively responsible for the work, so that if 40 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. one failed, the others had to make up for his deficiencies. The praepositus was their own elected officer, who ruled them in their own interest, and was their spokesman with the lord or his steward. Though they were, in some ways, in a servile position and astricted to the land, they yet had a definite social status, which they may well have valued. Outsiders, who were dependent on casual employment, and who had little, if any, land to work, were in a certain sense free, as the villeins were not, but it hardly seems that the free labourers were a superior class till after the agri- cultural revolution which followed the ravages of the Black Death in 1349. There was one change which seems to have been going on with more or less rapidity in the fourteenth century. The landlord, apparently, was at liberty to choose whether he would have the actual services rendered, or receive the recognised money equivalent. In some years the accounts of an estate would show a large entry for opera vendita, i.e. for payments made by the villeins in lieu of service. On the whole it was to the interest of the landlords, in the early part of the fourteenth century, to take money instead of reluctant service, and to get the necessary work done by hiring free labourers, or others when they wanted them, instead of find- ing work for the men at stated times. In some cases there was a formal agreement that money payments should be regularly taken in lieu of actual service. In an agreement of this kind, made in 1343 at Granborough in Buckinghamshire, the tenants became collectively responsible for deficiencies in money payments, as they had been, in all probability, in earlier days with respect to service. Even where there was no formal agreement, the practice, if not the binding custom, of taking rents in money and not in service, came more and more into vogue during this period. m.] The Manors. 41 28. The terrible plague known as the Black Death, which swept over England in 1349, had many immediate results on English society. In the rural ^^l^. districts it rendered the old system of bailiff- stock and farming impracticable, and thus brought about s\ n e d ep !f "m- a revolution in the management of manorial ing. estates. The immediate effect of the pestilence, which killed off, roughly speaking, about half the population, was to make labour very scarce. On those estates where the money-system had come into vogue, labour could not be hired on the old terms. In some cases there was reason to fear that the crops would be utterly lost, because the labourers stood out for unprecedented wages ; and a statute was passed, which was several times re-enacted, to compel them to work at the old rates. This Statute of Labourers (1351), however, could not be enforced, and consequently the money-system of estate management, which had been coming in before the Black Death, proved unremunerative. The lord had the necessary stock and the necessary land, but he could not afford to pay for the requisite labour at the new rates. Under these circumstances the simplest expedient was to give up the attempt to farm through his bailiff, and to break up his demesne farm into holdings which could be let, together with the stock necessary to work them, at a regular money-rent. This was the beginning of leasehold farming, and, ere long, it came to assume the modern type. The stock and land lease appears to have been a transitional form, which gradually gave way to an arrangement by which the tenant supplied the stock, while the landlord was responsible for the land and buildings. These leaseholders were pro- bably drawn, not from the villeins who already had holdings, but from the class of free labourers; the new holdings would not, however, differ much from those of the villeins. As the 42 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. leaseholder could not hire extra labour, his holding would be such as could be worked by a man and his family. It would correspond with the virgate, though as the lease- holder would have all his time for himself, he would be able to till a somewhat larger area, or to work a smaller area more thoroughly. In the case of other estates, where this expedient was not open, the landlord found it profitable to take to pasture- farming. Sometimes he might be able to do this without encroaching on the arable holdings of any of his humbler neighbours, or interfering with their pasture. As the change went on, however, there were many landlords, who showed little scruple in this matter; bitter complaints were made of their conduct, but the early history of the large sheep- farms is little known. It need only be pointed out that pasture-farming was a possible expedient which landowners might adopt, when it proved hopeless to carry on bailiff- farming on the money-system, either because so many vil- leins were dead, or because the estate had been depopulated. 29. The problem was somewhat different on those es- The Peasants' tates where the performance of actual services Revolt. was st ju habitual, or was, at least, a recog- nised alternative. On these lands bailiff-farming could be continued. It would be distinctly to the advantage of the lords to obtain services, and not money; and in so far as they could procure servile labour, the land could be worked to great advantage. But, apparently, they only were able to en- force their claims by putting great pressure on the villeins. Those who had been in the habit of buying their freedom from a good deal of work, would resent a refusal to take their money. If, as a consequence of the plague, very few villeins were left alive on an estate, it might be difficult to enforce their collective and communal responsibility with- m.] The Manors. 43 out serious oppression. The comparative freedom and pros- perity of the new leaseholders would also render the villeins dissatisfied with their position, and thus social discontent, coupled with political unrest, brought about the widespread and organised rising of the peasants in 1381. 30. This rising was very widespread, and yet, in some ways, was very local. Norfolk, Cambridge, Therep res- St. Alban's, and Kent are the districts about sion of the which we hear most. The precise cause of ** evolt and the subse- complaint at each of these centres of dis- quent decay turbance was different. The insurrection was, of villeina & e - in the main, directed against the manorial lords and their demands. As the rising took a local colour in different districts, so too it seems that some districts were entirely exempt from its influence. On the manor of Littleport, near Ely, the accounts of the year show no trace of any irregularity, and the services of the villeins appear to have been rendered according to the old routine. Still the villages which felt no effects of the movement must surely have been exceptional; for the rising assumed such propor- tions, that its leaders were able to obtain a temporary success. Charters of manumission were granted ; but these were subsequently set aside, on the ground, apparently, that they had been extorted by force. Before long the old regime reasserted itself, and the villeins returned to nominal servitude, until, owing to the spread of new agricultural methods, their services ceased to be valuable. It seems very probable, however, that the discontent of the villeins, which had broken out so violently, put increasing difficulties in the way of working the land on the old system of bailiff-farming with obligatory labour. The break-up of the demesne farms into leasehold tenancies, or the conversion of the land into sheep-walks, became increasingly convenient. 44 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. In particular, a growing demand for wool rendered sheep- farming highly profitable. The temptation to get rid of the inhabitants and to use the land for pasture only, was strong. In 1459, serious complaints were made at Coventry of the manner in which tenancies had been destroyed, teams broken up, and parishes laid desolate in parts of Warwick- shire; while the current sneer of foreigners about our reliance on sheep, instead of on ships; shows that the change was not confined to a single Midland county. The tendency continued to operate with varying force till the close of the sixteenth century; depopulation was regarded as a serious political danger, and seems to have been carried out in some cases, at least, in a ruthless fashion. Whether the dispossessing of the inhabitants was effected with due regard to their legal rights, and how far they were illegally evicted, are questions of much difficulty, but it is not of much import- ance with respect to the economic effects of the change. As this rural revolution advanced, the manor ceased to be an important centre of employment, while owing to changes in the levying and collection of taxation, it was no longer a unit for fiscal purposes. In many cases its judicial functions had also come to be of subor- dinate importance, as they were being superseded by other agencies. From the time of Richard II onwards we find the increasing importance of justices of the peace; and in the Tudor period the overseers of the poor came to exercise some of the duties of local ad- ministration. In these ways it appears that before the Reformation the manor had ceased to occupy a pro- minent position either as a centre of rural employment or of local administration. The formalities of this juris- diction still survive in many places, where manorial courts are held and copyhold tenures exist; but they seem now in.] The Manors. 45 to be mere anachronisms, not effective instruments of local government. This gradual decay of the manorial organisa- tion on all its sides resulted in the disappearance of serfdom. Such a change is not easy to date, but there is evidence to show that some of the disabilities of the state of villeinage remained, and were felt to be serious grievances as late as the time of Elizabeth. CHAPTER IV. THE TOWNS. 31. A GREAT many of the towns grew up under mano- rial patronage so that their earlier history is Manors and J towns. Fis- really the story of a prosperous manor. In- cai responsi- fa^ some of our most important towns such as Sheffield grew up and flourished under this system, and Manchester had very little of the constitutional character of a town until 1846. A town, in this constitutional sense, was a place where the inhabitants were collectively responsible for the king's taxes, and came, in consequence, to have considerable authority for local self-government, in the assessment of the quota which each householder had to pay for the royal taxes. A group which had attained this fiscal character is easily distinguishable from the manors, in each of which the lord was personally responsible for taxation. During the period of the Cru- sades a very large number of English towns had so far advanced in wealth and importance that they were able to obtain charters, which granted them this direct responsibility and freed them from the interference of the sheriff, as the king's representative, in their internal affairs. It was not until they had attained a considerable amount of prosperity 4 6 CHAP, iv.] The Towns. 47 that they could be trusted in this fashion, and the history of English towns before the time of the Crusades, although verv^ interesting, is very obscure. One of the chief difficulties ut it is, that the occasions of progress and the manner of gress have varied so much in different towns. The story of each one ought to be traced separately and individually, but here, it is only possible to indicate some of the different influences that have been at work, and to illustrate the manner in which they have operated in different places. 32. It scarcely admits of doubt that the Angles and Saxons, when they invaded the deserted Pro- Early Eng _ vince of Britain, were little attracted by the land. Monas- remains of the Roman towns. Some of them ^to^ they burned. Others they allowed to fall into favour of town decay, while they themselves settled in rural llfe> districts and in small self-sufficing groups, which, under these circumstances, offered scant opportunity for internal trade, and few attractions to foreign merchants. A few pedlers may have gone about the country, and occasional fairs may have been held, but there was little regular commerce to favour the maintenance or lead to the revival of town life. Of the fifty-six cities of Roman Britain, there is not one in regard to which it is perfectly clear that it held its ground as an organised centre of social life through the period of English conquest and English settlement. The manor has been spoken of as a centre of rural employment. Towns must be regarded as centres of trade and commerce, and any social gathering or settlement, affording opportunities for trade, supplied a nucleus, which might sooner or later develop into a town. The introduc- tion of Christianity, and the struggle with the Danes, each brought about social conditions which favoured their growth. Opportunities of trade were offered in Christian times at 48 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. places of pilgrimage, especially on the days when the patron saint was commemorated, while the great Benedictine monas- teries formed large establishments, which were often partially dependent on goods brought from a distance. Norwich Canterbury, Bury, Reading, and Worcester are among towns which have thus come into being under the shadow of a great abbey. On the other hand the forts, built by the Danes or erected by Edward the Elder and his sister, the Lady of Mercia, to hold the country against the Danes, were also centres of trade ; and the growth of such towns as Leicester and Tamworth may perhaps be traced to these causes. But so soon as active contest with the Danes had abated, and they were adopted as a constituent element on English soil, the progress of the towns was rapid. The Danes were given to seamanship and trade as the English had ceased to be. They brought England into intercourse with their own settlements on the Baltic, in Iceland, and in Ireland. They seem to have devoted themselves to industrial pursuits and to have furnished some common articles of trade. The importance of the Danish contribution to town life is seen in many ways. Besides the boroughs which had Danish Lawmen to govern them Lincoln, Stamford, and Cam- bridge there were others, like London itself, which reflect the Danish influence in their constitutions. The Husting Court is a Danish term. We can trace them more widely by their religious associations. Just as the origin of different Greek or Phoenician settlements is evidenced by the worship in their temples, so the Danish element in English towns may sometimes be detected from the dedication of a church to a Northern saint. There is a St. Olafs not only at York, but also at Southwark and in Exeter. When we take these various and apparently trivial indications into account, we iv.] The Towns. 49 can realise how deeply the progress of English towns has been affected by the influence of these later settlers. 33. While these influences made it possible for town life to arise, there were various physical con- Domesday ditions which rendered one point or another t wns ' Rural character. especially favourable for the new development, conflicting The English rivers offer facilities for carriage Jurisdiction, far into the country, and more than one town has arisen at the point where the tide served to bring the small seagoing vessels of early days. Perth and Stirling in Scotland, Ipswich, Norwich, and Chester may all be regarded as illus- trations in point. In other cases the great Roman roads remained to offer facilities of communication ; and new towns took their rise in the immediate neighbourhood, or on the very sites, of the Roman ruins. Where social and physical conditions were alike favourable, there was, doubtless, con- siderable opportunity for regular trade. This had led to an increase of settled population, at the time of Domesday Book, in many of the places, which were, even then, called boroughs or towns, though they had but few of the charac- teristics which we associate with urban life. Even in mere external appearances they must have been very different from the towns we know. We are accustomed to streets of shops, in which stores of finished goods are exposed for sale, but of shops in this sense there were probably few, if any, outside of London. Stocks of goods were only exposed for sale at the annual fairs, which were arising in different parts of the country, and the artisan who lived in a town would expect his customers to provide the materials for his work. It is still more strange, according to our ideas, to find that householders in towns were engaged in rural occupations. Thus the sheriff of Cambridge, at the time of the Domesday Survey, was guilty of extortion in requiring too frequent 5O Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. use of the townsmen's teams ; while the inventory of Col- chester in 1296 gives us a picture of a distinctly rural community. A still more curious feature of town life is revealed by the entries in Domesday Book, for even the principal towns show little, if any, trace of common municipal life. We find, instead, abundant evidence of conflicting jurisdictions. In some, it is clear, that there was a large Norman or Flemish population such as the francigence of Shrewsbury and Norwich who did not always pay the same taxes as other townsmen or conform to the same customs. In many places, two or more houses in a town appear to have been attached to and taxed with a neighbouring estate. These conflicting responsibilities and jurisdictions in one thickly inhabited area seem to us very strange ; but it may be well to remember that even the City of London was a curiously composite body, in which each ward had a singular independence as late as the time of Edward I ; while it was only in 1856 that the separate jurisdictions of the boroughs of Canongate, Portsborow and Broughton were merged in the City of Edinburgh. It would be most interesting, if it were possible here, to trace in detail the growth of that common town-life, which gradually found expression in common municipal institutions. 34. In so far as we find traces of its growth, first in one The strug- P^ ace anc * then in another, it is marked by gie for char- the obstacles which the townsmen had to :d llbc encounter, and from which they endeavoured municipal to procure their freedom. Where the town commerce. was a p O p U i ous centre on the lands of a single manorial lord, the inhabitants had a common interest in purchasing their freedom from the interference of his officers. They might desire to be free from the obligation iv.] The Towns. 51 to contribute for the ploughing of his lands, and the men of Leicester obtained this freedom by a charter from Earl Robert in 1190. Many might desire to be free from such a restriction as that of grinding their corn at the lord's mill ; the men of St. Alban's had not obtained freedom to use hand-mills of their own in 1381, and the right was still in dispute at Manchester during the last century. There were all sorts of minor matters of police jurisdiction and of sani- tary regulation, about which the townsmen preferred to be free to legislate for themselves. On all these points they won their freedom, bit by bit, as various rights were con- ceded to them in different charters by the manorial lords. There were other rights which they desired to have, and for which it was necessary that they should approach the king himself. One such privilege was the right of being collectively responsible for the payment of the royal taxes. This freed them from the interference of the sheriff, and enabled them to assess the quota which each inhabitant should pay, as a house-rate, towards the common burdens. They were also glad to exercise powers of jurisdiction among themselves according to their own customs, and thus to be free from judicial interference from without, in the ordinary business of life. And, besides this, they were desirous of being allowed to associate themselves for certain trade matters, and to have their own gild merchant. These various rights were highly coveted ; and they were secured sometimes in larger, sometimes in smaller degree by royal charters, for which a substantial contribution to the royal exchequer had generally to be paid. The era of the Crusades, when the king and the great lords were eagerly endeavouring to raise money, was a period when very many charters were procured, and when some populous places 52 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. attained the status of self-governing towns presided over by their own elected officer, the Mayor. Similar causes were at work over a great part of Christen- dom in the twelfth century, and gave rise in all lands to a new and vigorous urban life. The institutions which grew up at this time are so similar that instructive contrasts can often be drawn in regard to the details of their adminis- tration. This resemblance was so close that intercourse between towns for business purposes was frequent. The mercantile customs and the methods of recovering debt in one town were much the same as those in vogue in another. But though similar in type, each separate borough had well- defined privileges of its own, and heavy burdens which its own inhabitants were called upon to bear. Each had its own documentary history, consisting of a series of charters, by which its special privileges were conceded or confirmed. Each was a self-centred independent body, though it might have frequent relations with other similar bodies. And as these towns were trading centres, the commerce of the day took something of the character of the social groups in which it was carried on, and may be fitly described as municipal or inter-municipal trade. 35. The towns, like the manors, were called upon to Fiscal con- pay for the defence of the realm, and many tributions O f t h em obtained the dignity of this fiscal responsibility about the end of the twelfth tion. century. The inhabitants were collectively re- sponsible for the ferm of the town ; besides incurring a large fine to procure the charter which secured them this right, they were under an obligation to make an annual pay- ment to the Exchequer. The various burgesses contributed a house-rate, and they obtained immunity for their travel- ling merchants from the exactions which were often levied rv.] The Towns. 53 by local authorities in the places they visited. They were very strict in the exaction of their own rates, and very jealous of admitting any one to the advantages of their town, who did not share, as an inhabitant, in its burdens. The earliest town laws show the greatest jealousy of upland men, or of any inhabitant who under the guise of a partner- ship shared the advantages of his position with, and coloured the goods of, an outsider. This jealousy is a striking and rather unpleasant feature in the life of these little communi- ties, but the danger against which they endeavoured to guard themselves was not imaginary. In the time of Edward I we find that the pressure of municipal burdens was suffi- ciently heavy to cause the migration of some of the inhabi- tants of Northampton to more favoured districts. In the fifteenth century it was found necessary to grant remission of taxation to many places, and it is generally admitted that the pressure of their taxes had a good deal to do with the distress of the older towns in the Tudor period, when new commercial centres were rising into prominence. The exclusiveness then, though apparently harsh, was exercised in self-defence ; and it must also be remembered that towns- men were willing to welcome strangers as tensers, if they were willing to take a definite footing in the town, and to contribute to its expenses in a fashion that should corre- spond to the partial privileges to which such non-residents were admitted. But those who tried surreptitiously to evade these obligations aroused keen animosity, and this feeling was extended to such bodies as the Hansards, or the Jews, who lived in a town under royal protection, but were not of it, since they were not at scot and lot with the other inhabi- tants. These settlements of aliens, entirely exempt from local authority and responsible to the king directly, are among the last indications of conflicting privileges among the 54 Outlines of English Industrial History, [CHAP. residents within the City of London ; comparatively little is heard of difficulties affecting them after the time of Edward I. In his reign the internal government of the more advanced boroughs was in the hands of elected officials; the character of their business, the rules they enforced, and the penalties they imposed, may be most clearly seen from the printed records of such towns as London, Ipswich, or Nottingham. But there were also many cases where this internal jurisdiction had not passed out of the hands of the original manorial authorities, and where the desire of the townsmen for a fuller measure of internal self-government gave rise to bitter and sanguinary struggles. These occurred very frequently in the towns which had grown up under the patronage of some great abbey. There is an interesting agreement which closed the era of frequent riot at Reading in 1254. The disturbances at Bury in 1327 seem to have been more serious, but those at Norwich in 1272 were worst of all, and resulted in the burning of the Cathedral and the siege and storm of the city. 36. The town, like other social groups, had not only a fiscal and administrative side, it was also Gilds merchant and concerned with the maintenance of its own weavers* prosperity. It was as centres of commerce that the towns grew, and there is no doubt that the inhabitants especially prized the right, which we find in many Norman and Plantagenet charters, of obtaining freedom to associate themselves for the purpose of regu- lating their commerce. The grant of a hanse or gild merchant gave them the character of an important com- mercial unit, which could enjoy a share of trade, both local and distant. At the same time, it is not easy, despite Dr. Gross's unwearied investigations, to determine the exact functions of these bodies. Though the gilds were so closely connected with the town authorities, that iv.] The Towns. 55 their precise spheres are difficult to discriminate, they do not appear to have had a judicial character in English towns, or to have been in a position to settle disputes between merchants. They were certainly eager to guard against any encroachment on their privileges, but it is not quite clear what these valued privileges were. It appears that they exercised a general regulation over the manner in which trade was conducted. The conditions of buying and selling, and to some extent the quality of goods, as well as the nature of weights and measures, came within their pur- view. They were doubtless able to enforce the methods of dealing, which they believed to be for the interest of the town, upon all their members, and they were also able to prevent persons who were not members from carrying on regular dealing there, although the latter might probably visit the town on market-days and at fairs. But it seems probable that these gilds had also another side, and that they were found useful for the purpose of collective trading. When foreign ships visited a town, it was advantageous for the inhabitants to refrain from bidding against one another, and to make one common purchase, which they could after- wards divide among themselves. The right of cavel or of having a share in these common purchases is more easily traced in the laws of Scotch than of English towns. But there is evidence that a similar right existed at Chesterfield in 1294, and subsequent cases of town trading, whether they are survivals or only accidental revivals of a former practice, throw interesting light upon the conditions which would render such an institution desirable. Town purchases of coal were frequent in Dublin in the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries. Many towns made provision for a food supply by means of granaries in the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, and the town mills of Edinburgh were an 56 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. important part of corporation property until comparatively recent times. But whatever direct pecuniary advantages may have accrued to a townsman from membership of the gild and the gild did not embrace all inhabitants, while it might include non-residents as members it certainly con- ferred a status, which made him a person of credit. There was a substantial body behind him to which appeal could be made in case of default, and the increased security and smoothness of trading transactions would go far to account for the anxiety of many towns to possess their own gild. Besides these town gilds, we hear in the twelfth century of several gilds in different places, composed of men who followed some particular trade, especially that of weaving. It is not a little remarkable that they should occur in a trade which was not a separate business, but a part of the women's household duties during the Early English period ; weaving was, however, already practised with considerable success in Flanders, and many immigrants from that country settled in England within a century of the Conquest. Whatever may have been the origin of the gilds we find that the relations of their members with other townsmen were by no means friendly. It seems more probable that they were separate associations of aliens, authorised and protected by the Crown, than that there was a large class of native English weavers at this time, who found it desirable to develop such institutions on their own account. The story of the weavers' gild in London, of its long independence and eventual submission to the City authorities in 1321, appears to bear out this view of the situation; but it is also noticeable in regard to these early industrial gilds that they occur in trades where authori- tative regulation was enforced. Bakers' gilds are as early, though not so widely diffused, as weavers' gilds. The bakers' gild of Coventry has an unbroken existence from iv.] The Towns. 57 the sixth year of King John. The Assize of Bread and the Assize of Measures are among the oldest English regulations for the weight and size of goods : and it may be questioned whether the origin of these industrial gilds was not due rather to the need of local administrative powers than to the prin- ciple of voluntary association. At any rate, if they were formed by association, we can see one reason why they were favoured and fostered by the central authority. 37. Such, on the whole, was the character of the towns and of their institutions in the time Affiliation of Edward I. The more we read of their *nd represen- ... . 1P tation. Na- intercourse, the more striking is the self-con- tionai control tained character of each borough, and its ex- of Commerce, clusiveness against/vretgners. It is, in itself, strange to find this word used habitually for men who were foreign to the town, whether they were aliens, or Englishmen from other places. The legal position of a trader from Norwich at Stourbridge Fair, near Cambridge, was precisely similar, for business purposes, to that of a trader from Bruges or Rouen. A common Merchant Law was recognised in all these places; and this, rather than the law of the realm, governed transac- tions. In each case the communitas to which he belonged was looked upon as responsible for the good faith of a , merchant, whether he hailed from an English or from a/ Continental town, so that, at first sight, there would seem to have been little connexion or common feeling between English towns as such. But there were, after all, close ties of connexion between the various towns. The customs which each maintained were not an independent creation of its own. Each of the later boroughs obtained privileges in its charter which were not enumerated in detail, but which were described as being precisely similar to those of some other place. In this way 58 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. we can affiliate the various boroughs to one another, and trace their institutions back to a common stock. Thus Derby derived its custom from Nottingham, Nottingham from Coventry, Coventry from Lincoln, and Lincoln from London. In some cases the daughter town might deem it wise to appeal to its mother for advice, as to the interpre- tation of the custom. In some of the Continental cities the filial relation appears to have involved a direct subordination which was not in vogue in England. Still, the filial relation- ship enables us to trace out distinct family trees, which lead back to the several original types of city custom which are found in London, Bristol, York and Hereford. The towns on the Welsh Marches followed the custom of Hereford; those of Ireland that of Bristol; while the custom of London, as adopted at Winchester, was more widely diffused. It was followed, not only by many towns in the South, but also by Newcastle; and from Newcastle it passed to be the common custom of the boroughs of Scotland. In their earlier history and before the Scottish War of Independence, the analogy between Scotch and English boroughs is very close; but, in their later life and institutions, the Northern towns were greatly influenced by French and Flemish usages, and fol- lowed a line of development different from that of munici- palities south of the Tweed. By far the largest number of English towns followed the model of London, which was the source whence a common body of municipal regulations spread to two-thirds of the commercial centres of England. A common custom, which was so generally enforced by municipal authorities, had an influence nearly as great as that exercised by Parliamentary enactments in later reigns. Indeed it may be said that a great deal of the early legisla- tion for trade did not take the form of devising new expedi- ents, but rather of giving wider scope to regulations already iv.] The Towns. 59 recognised in many localities or which formed part of the custom of London. The seven years' apprenticeship enforced in 1563 may be specified as a case in point. The affiliation of their customs connected many of the English towns with one another; but they were also con- nected by a common interest, since each was a large contri- butor to the expenses of the realm. Besides the regular payments which they were bound to make from year to year to the Exchequer, occasional demands were exacted from them in special emergencies, e.g. when war broke out. The most remarkable event of the reign of Edward I was the formation of a Parliament to which the towns sent repre- sentatives, and in which "what concerned all could be approved by all." The summoning of Parliament gave the towns an opportunity of making their united voice felt in regard to the subsidies they could be called upon to pay, as well as in regard to the rates at which customs should be charged on exports like wool, or imports like wine. The organisation of representative government was important in many respects, and certainly had far-reaching effects on English trade. By the time of Richard II, the towns were strong enough to make themselves felt as the principal factors in controlling the commercial policy of the realm. In his reign and subsequently, the regulation and direction of English commerce depended far less on the wisdom shown by separate municipalities, than on the decisions taken for the nation, as a whole, by a national Parliament. From the fifteenth century onwards, the main responsibility, for securing the well-being of English industry and for promot- ing the development of English commerce, was gradually transferred from municipal authorities to the national Parlia- ment and to executive institutions, which, whether localised or not, derived their authority from the central assembly. 60 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. But the growth of Parliamentary power at the expense of municipal authority was very gradual. In the fourteenth century, at all events, the sphere of Parliamentary govern- ment was still so limited that it did not overshadow local powers; and we find new and active developments of munici- pal institutions under the Edwards. Some towns continued to flourish in the fifteenth century, but there were many vicis- situdes in their story; the Black Death must have been a serious blow to the prosperity of many places. Troubles connected with the Peasant Revolt and the Wars of the Roses must have injured others; and we cannot be surprised to find evidence, in Tudor times, that many of them had fallen into great decay, both materially as regards their streets and houses, and socially as regards their institutions. But when English commercial life was reinvigorated in the time of Elizabeth, we can note more distinctly how much Parliament had advanced in power, and how far town insti- tutions had fallen into the background. This general state- ment of the course of the change becomes clearer when we look at one kind of institution in greater detail. 38. The towns had come into being as centres of Craft-gilds commerce; in the fourteenth century we find their relation evidence that they had so far advanced as to be to municipal . . . , , , . authority and centres of industry, and that a corresponding to Gilds Mer- modification of their institutions was becom- ing necessary. This may, perhaps, be most justly described as the specialisation of the gild merchant into several new bodies which were known as craft-gilds. The distinguishing feature of a craft-gild was not merely that its members all practised one and the same craft, but that they had authority to supervise that craft within some definite area. The privilege was sometimes granted by the king, or by some outside power, as in the case of the Exeter iv.] The Tawis^QiFoRML/ 61 tailors; but this was not a wise arrangement, as disagree- ments and disturbances were apt to arise in a town where any body of workers, united under royal patronage, were exempted from municipal authority in regard to all questions connected with the exercise of their calling. By far the most common type of craft-gild was that which derived its authority from the mayor, as chief magistrate of the town; in such cases the rules made by the members could be constantly overhauled by the mayor in the common interest of the townsmen. Thus the cordwainers of Exeter had privileges granted them for one year at a time, and they were unable to enforce rules which had not been previously submitted to, and approved by, the mayor and aldermen. In the case of the bricklayers of Hull, we know of some ordinances which were disallowed by the mayor, and to which he would not agree. But, subject to this supervision, the craft-gilds had very extensive powers for the regulation of their trade. The wardens had the right of search, and exercised it to see that good materials were used, and that the processes of manufacture were properly performed. They also took measures to secure that workmen should be properly trained by serving a regular apprenticeship, and they made rules affecting the hours of labour and the well- being of those who were employed. The purpose of the institution was to insure, in the interests of the public, that work should be properly done by qualified men, and also to secure that such qualified men as did good work should be adequately remunerated. Throughout the four- teenth and the earlier part of the fifteenth century, the gilds appear to have fulfilled these duties successfully on the whole, although it seems probable that a large part of the urban population were unskilled helpers, deriving but little benefit from these industrial institutions, which were mainly 62 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. concerned with the work of skilled men of different grades. The dependence of these craft-gilds upon municipal authority is clear enough. It is the distinguishing feature which separates them alike from the weavers' gilds of the twelfth century, and from the chartered and patented com- panies of later times. But it is far harder to determine their relation to that primitive municipal institution, the gild merchant or hanse, partly because the traces of this body in the fourteenth century are very slight and obscure. According to Dr. Gross's investigations, it would seem that the gilds merchant had almost ceased to take an active part in the management of business in the fourteenth century, although they still continued to have a nominal existence, and were associated with civic pageantry, such as has survived in the gatherings of the Preston gild each twentieth year. At the very time when we hear most of the formation and growth of craft-gilds, we almost cease to find mention of those gilds merchant, which were so promi- nent in twelfth century charters. This serves to show that there was, at least, no violent antagonism between the two bodies in this country. Indeed it is far more probable that the craft-gilds were gradually established, as one or another craft developed, to carry on one part of that trade regulation which had previously been exercised more generally by the gild merchant. We should thus regard the craft-gilds as specialised forms of the gild merchant rather than as its successful rivals. It certainly appears that the men who enjoyed full membership of the craft-gilds in the fourteenth century had a very similar status to that of the members of the gilds merchant in the thirteenth. They were craftsmen and deal- ers. As craftsmen they would have to buy materials and IV .] The Towns. 63 tools; as craftsmen they would wish to sell the results of their labour, and therefore, as craftsmen, they had to take part in trading. There is no reason to believe that in twelfth century towns there was any class of store-keepers or mer- chants who did not practise some kind of manual calling; even the foreign merchant was probably a shipman. The members of gilds merchant in the thirteenth century were, in all probability, craftsmen first and dealers next, as far as the occupation of their time went. The list which Mr. Hibbert gives of the Shrewsbury gild merchant seems to show that the members were not mere dealers. When any town increased so far as to have several men of the same calling, who were empowered by the mayor to form a craft- gild of their own, they would have less interest in the general business of the gild merchant. In some such way as this it would seem that most of the members of the gild merchant were formed into craft-gilds, and that these new bodies took over and carried out in detail the sort of regulation, which had been exercised by the same class, but in a more general way, through the gild merchant. The members of the craft- gild had a more effective instrument at their command, but they did not lose the status of members of the gild merchant, though that larger body had lost its importance. 39. The fourteenth century appears to have been the time when these craft-gilds attained their Theriseof greatest influence and importance. Those in the Livery London were especially famous and enrolled Com P an various princes as love-brothers; but towards the end of the century we find traces in that city of the formation of new bodies on similar lines, and composed exclusively ot men engaged in dealing. They had, of course, skill to judge of the quality of goods, and to blend or sift the commodities sold. But they were store-keepers or ware- 64 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. housemen rather than artisans. The most prominent and powerful of these companies was that of the Grocers, while there were others, like the Merchant Taylors, who were wholesale dealers rather than craftsmen. Similar trading companies, in connexion with the cloth trade, were found in Coventry and other provincial towns in the fifteenth century. Early in the reign of Richard II an attempt was made to insist on a specialisation of callings in London, and to prohibit those who were engaged in industrial crafts and those who were traders, from interfering in one another's business. The formation of these great Livery Companies of traders is of interest in many ways, but chiefly because it shows the rise of a class of merchant burgesses settled in the towns. The trade at fairs was declining, because it was being transferred from occasional to regular centres of com- merce, and was simultaneously passing out of the hands of alien merchants who frequented fairs, into those of burgesses with exclusive town rights. 40. Other aspects of town life were not so satisfactory; Fifteenth there was some difficulty in defining the range cuiues y be iffi " of the autnoritv exercised by each craft-gild, tween gilds, The various branches of the leather trade and neymen^T" th e processes which fell within the purview apprentices. o f the tanners, the cordwainers and the saddlers were not easily kept distinct; and the confusion gave rise to much dispute between these bodies. Similarly, the claim of the woollen weavers to exercise jurisdiction over linen weav- ers was contested in London; and the different trades con- cerned in the manufacture of cloth seem sometimes to have formed separate gilds and sometimes to have been amalga- mated into one, as at Coventry in the fifteenth century. It is difficult at this time to see the reason or to understand the bearing of these changes; but there were other disputes, in iv.] The Towns. 65 connexion with fifteenth century gilds, which present them in an unfavourable light. Journeymen, who had finished their apprenticeship, but who had not set up independent house- holds of their own, appear to have resented their subordinate position, and in several cases formed combinations among themselves for a time. Though the matter has not been very fully investigated, it appears that the journeymen in England were less successful than their brethren on the Continent in forming permanent gilds of their own. But they had some temporary successes, and the struggle between the journey- men and weavers at Coventry appears to have resulted in an arrangement, by which the journeymen's gild was recog- nised as a permanent but subordinate society, which paid a contribution to the main organisation. These journeymen were of course skilled men, though servants, and it is not always easy to distinguish their history from that of unskilled helpers, who were doubtless a larger body in some trades, but of whose grievances little has been put on record. We also hear of difficulties in connexion with the position of apprentices. Many obstacles hindered towns- men from procuring boys for service out of rural districts. The agricultural decay which followed the Black Death and the progress of sheep-farming caused some anxiety lest the area of tillage should be so greatly reduced as to furnish an insufficient food supply. A statute of Richard II and, more obviously, one of Henry IV were intended to prevent the migration of country boys to the towns, so that an available supply of rural labour might be maintained. Nor were these statutes a dead letter. The citizens of Oxford distinctly suffered from the restrictions that were put upon them, and failed to obtain an exemption from this legislation, such as was granted to London and Norwich. 66 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. But when the masters obtained apprentices they did not always do their duty by them. They did not always teach them properly, and there were some justifiable complaints on the part of apprentices about fatvt finding. In Coventry when a master was twice shown to be in fault in this matter, his apprentice was transferred to some other man, and the master was not allowed to supply his place, at any rate not for a time. The apprentice was received.into the master's house as a member of the family, and the latter->was respon- sible for his good behaviour. The system 'thus formed an important element with regard to the police and good order of the town, while it was believed to give opportunities of discipline which were salutary, not only for technical train- ing, but also for the formation of character. In this latter aspect the apprenticeship system was still highly valued in the earlier years of this present century. 41. It appears that the influence of these associations Craft-gilds f r tne maintenance of order had been con- under Henry siderably weakened before the end of the fif- VIIL N^- 11 ^ teenth century. At any rate they did not prove tionai control effective to control the apprentices under the of industry. ngw tem p tat j ons to w hi c h they were then exposed. An incursion of aliens from Italy, who came to settle in this country, was taking place at this time, though it is difficult to assign any special or definite reason for the occurrence. Of the fact, however, there can be no doubt; and with it there was a new bitterness against alien workmen, which showed itself partly in municipal regu- lations and partly in riots fomented by the apprentices. The records of Shrewsbury show that the difficulty was felt far inland, but the most violent outbreak occurred in London in 1517, on what was long remembered as 'Evil May-day.' The City authorities seem to have been quite rv.] The Towns. 67 helpless in the matter, and the populace, incited by a preacher, made an organised attack on the aliens. There were other sides on which the craft-gilds were failing to discharge their public duties. From the accounts which we have of the formation of the gilds in London, it is quite clear that though the members desired to have exclusive powers, they would not have been entrusted with them, had it not seemed probable that these powers would be used in the public interest, and would help to secure a high character of work, and good quality of wares. Early in the time of Henry VI, however, there were complaints of " the unrea- sonable ordinances " passed by the Companies. Whether from lack of power or from lack of will the municipal autho- rities seem to have been unable to control them properly, and in 1504 a statute was passed which did not aim as in 1437 at re-enforcing municipal powers, but rather super- seded them and placed the local craft-gilds directly under national supervision. The judges were to decide on the ordinances which might be allowed, and thus a double check was put on the self-interested action of these gilds, where it became injurious to the public. Even these checks seem to have been insufficient, and complaints became more common and more bitter. In York, in 1519, the Mayor resumed the powers of jurisdiction hitherto exer- cised by the gilds, and reduced them to the position of official informers in his court, while the regulative statutes of Henry VIII show that the grievances, both of appren- tices and of journeymen, continued. To some extent these misdeeds brought their own retri- bution upon the towns. Journeymen who might not set up independently in the towns where they had served their apprenticeship, were inclined to migrate to other places. This tendency was marked among the clothiers of Worcester, 68 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. iv. the rope-makers of Bridport, and the coverlet-makers of York. It may, in part, have been due to the burden of taxation and the pressure of the rates in these towns; but as it continued, the difficulty of making these payments was seriously increased, and an attempt was made, in the fiscal interest of the country, to check the migration. The ten- dency was so strong, however, that the story of urban life in the sixteenth century is rather that of the growth of new industrial centres in suburbs, or on manorial estates, than of any increased prosperity in the towns organised according to the old model. The decay of the older towns reacted unfavourably in turn on their institutions. A statute of Edward VI seems to have limited the powers hitherto enjoyed by the gilds of fixing wages and prices, and the property which they had devoted to religious purposes was confiscated in the same reign : they were not dissolved, but the time had come when they failed to subserve an im- portant economic purpose, and they only survived like the gilds merchant in occasions of hospitality or pageantry. By the reign of Elizabeth, the municipal control of trade and industry had been superseded by institutions which emanated from national authority, even where they chiefly served to protect some locality from the immigration of aliens ( 64). CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC LIFE. 42. IN the preceding pages attention has occasionally been directed to the many signs of a national The personal life among the English; from early times the influence of , the Kings. king was the centre of the nation, around continental whom they rallied in the defence of the realm, connexions. In the Norman period the king and his Exchequer are clearly in view. They provided the centre of the whole social system, and the sheriffs, in rendering their annual ac- counts, formed the connecting link between each separate manor and the authority which ruled over all. The king was also the greatest of all landowners, and all questions of manorial management were of importance to the Crown. He was expected 'to live of his own,' and the royal estates, when well managed, supplied the regular income which was required for administrative purposes in ordinary times. He was also the source of judicial authority, and by the discharge of its fiscal obligations each estate was brought into contact with his officers. Not only was he a typical landlord, but his office was the unifying prin- ciple, which combined the separate isolated independent elements into one whole. The personal character of the 69 7O Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. king and his personal policy made itself felt in all relations of life; if the king was too weak to enforce order, the public suffered from private wars or from the exactions of petty oppressors; if his policy was unwise, he might burden the land with excessive, or too frequent, taxation; if his administration was bad, he might fritter away the royal resources and leave the Crown impoverished. The reign of Henry III is an instance of both these latter forms of mal- administration, which were alike oppressive and wasteful. While there was no side of social life and no place in the realm which was unaffected by the influence of the Crown, there was one department which was most directly within the control of the king. All matters of foreign policy, whether of peace or of war, were in his hands, and there- fore the manner in which communication was conducted between England and Continental countries was especially under his control. Dynastic alliances and foreign ambi- tions brought England from an early time into contact with the Continent. King Offa made our earliest commercial treaty, when he secured privileges for English pilgrims and merchants by his treaty with Charles the Great. At the beginning of the tenth century the daughter of Alfred cemented the connexion between England and Flanders when she granted the manor of Lewisham to the great Benedictine monastery at Ghent. The power of Cnut brought England into closer commercial relationship with Iceland and Norway, as well as with Denmark. The Norman Conquest strengthened the ties with Normandy and Flanders, and the Angevins established a connexion with Gascony. The carefully organised intercourse with the Low Countries was developed through the influence of Matilda of Flanders, while the regular import of wine from the vineyards of Bordeaux seems to have originated in v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 71 Plantagenet times. The enterprise of Richard Cceur de Lion and the part which he took in the Crusades first intro- duced English seamen to the waters of the Mediterranean, and stimulated commerce in the products of the East. John and Henry III are mainly responsible for the firm hold which the Papacy secured in this country and for the heavy taxation which it levied. Thus for good or for evil the royal power was for centuries directly responsible for the economic relations between England and Continental lands. 43. Along with these early trading connexions we find some signs of a definite commercial policy. Regulationof It was desirable to encourage foreign mer- foreign com- chants to import the products and manufac- merceand progress of tures of other countries, so as to make up for internal de- trie deficiencies of our native resources; and vel P ment - the settlement of the men of the Emperor in the Steel-yard in London before the Norman Conquest shows that English kings were glad to give facilities for import trade. Evidence from the same period is forthcoming as to the principle which guided them in regulating the export trade. If the raw products of this realm could be exported at profitable rates, it was desirable to send them abroad. But, from the point of view of the times, there was no object in forcing an export trade unless it was really remunerative; even before the Conquest limits were fixed and a minimum price was settled, at which goods might be exported; if they did not fetch this, it seemed wiser to keep them at home. When we remember that the products of England were the neces- sary materials for food and shelter, and were not of a nature to spoil by keeping, we may be better able to sympathise with the desire to afford Englishmen an opportunity of pro- curing these things on easy terms, and to insist on making foreigners pay a considerable equivalent for them before 72 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. they were sent out of the country. The same principle governed much of Edward Ill's legislation for the wool- trade, and in one form or another affected a good deal of medieval legislation. So far as internal regulation goes, the direct influence of the Crown was less important economically, but there were various ways in which it initiated change. The influence exercised by foreign artisans on the development of our industries has already been alluded to, but it was with royal approval that they settled here, and under royal protection that they obtained privileges. Again, each of the several steps of progress taken by the towns received sanction from the Crown; for it was by means of royal charters that they secured the powers of regulating their own internal economy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In some cases, perhaps, enterprising townsmen seized an opportunity afforded by royal necessities, but the foundation of free towns by Edward I seems to have been directly due to royal initiative. The earliest regulations affecting weights and measures or the quality of goods also seem to have emanated from the Crown. Henry I is credited with the introduction of more definite standards, and with the punishment of the officials who brought the royal honour into discredit by diminishing or debasing the coinage. In the time of Henry II we have an Assize of Bread, based on the experience of the royal bakers, and establishing a sliding scale which fixed the proper weight for a farthing loaf according to different prices of corn. As early as the time of Richard I there was an Assize of Measures, which, among other things, settled the length and breadth of the pieces of cloth exposed for sale, and subsequently an aulnager was appointed to supervise it. This may not im- probably indicate that there was even then some demand v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 73 for English cloth abroad, but at any rate it serves to show that in very early times, when industry was least centralised and local groups were most isolated and self-dependent, the central authority was not indifferent to matters connected with foreign commerce or internal production. From the time of Edward I, however, when Parliament took shape, this central influence became much more striking, and it has gradually superseded manorial and municipal powers in the regulation of affairs of every kind. 44. English national life was carefully consolidated in the time of Edward I. His general policy Edward i. was to abstain from attempts at Continental Nation* 1 unity and aggression and to strengthen the realm of national England. His successes in Wales and his less institutions, successful attempts in Scotland were all parts of the same scheme for making his authority effective over the whole of Great Britain. And as he endeavoured to reduce the whole area to subjection, so he desired to get rid of extraneous and unpliable elements. The constitution of the towns in his day seems to show that most of the foreign settlers were absorbed into the ordinary society of the places where they lived. The Jews, whose religion and habits forced them to maintain an exceptional position, were expelled from the country at a considerable sacrifice to the revenues of the Crown, while Papal authority was repudiated when, as in the case of the alien priories, it interposed to check the royal demands. And while national unity was thus consolidated, national institutions were also improved. The creation of a Parliament, which included representation of the boroughs, was less important for what it immediately effected than for the steady development of national self-government which it rendered possible. But even its immediate work police protection for traders 74 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. was not despicable. The Statute of Acton Burnel (1283) did not create a new machinery for the recovery of debts, but it gave a new character and a national importance to the arrangements which had hitherto existed locally by the custom of various towns. Besides creating these representative institutions, Ed- ward I showed that he possessed real administrative genius. The changes which took place in the constitution of the towns during his reign gave the municipal authorities a more complete control over the various discordant elements within their walls, and diminished the occasions of quarrel with other authorities. He also established a new fiscal system; he specified the definite ports through which trade should flow to and from the realm, and he appointed customers whose business it was to collect the duties which traders had to pay. During his reign the central authority was brought to bear, so as to give immensely improved facilities for internal trade. 45. When the realm was thus consolidated and when its national life was regulated internally, it Edward III. , ... Foreign and became more possible to develop a commer- commerciai c i a } policy, and to make systematic arrange- ments for foreign trade. This change becomes noticeable in the time of Edward III. He had a vigorous foreign policy, and apparently indulged in dreams of conti- nental conquest, while there can be little doubt that trading and commercial considerations helped to determine the form of his contest with the French king. England and Flanders were closely bound together by common industrial interests, as the former supplied the raw wool which the Flemings manufactured, dyed, and dressed; and a consi- derable number of these skilled artisans found it advan- tageous to emigrate to England in 1331 and 1336. Had v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 75 the English king been successful in establishing a claim to the French crown and in obtaining suzerainty over the Flemish towns, the leading burghers would have warmly welcomed the political connexion with England. In a somewhat simi- lar fashion the English provinces in the South of France supplied wine and other products, which England could not produce satisfactorily from her own soil. Edward's desire to be acknowledged king of France becomes more intelli- gible when we see that thus he would have secured a com- plete and independent sovereignty over this wine-growing district. It seems to have been his design to bring the South of France and the manufacturing districts of Flanders into close connexion with England by common subjection to the English king; thus he would have laid the founda- tions of a great commercial empire, each part of which would have supplemented the requirements of the others. To establish and maintain free intercommunication between the different parts of this empire, it was desirable to assert the king's peace upon the sea, and to diminish the risks which traders underwent from the attacks of pirates. On some such grounds Edward III put forward this claim to the sovereignty of the sea, and gave it expression by the issue of the noble a gold coin which was meant to circu- late in Flanders as well as in England. His conduct confirms the view that some such scheme floated before the minds of Edward and his advisers; and the manner in which he asserted his claim to the crown of France, and then failed to press it when the country lay at his feet, seems to show that conquest of additional territory was not, after all, his main object. When the treaty of Bretigni was signed in 1360, circumstances had so far changed that he did not stand out for the scheme described above, in its entirety. He appears to have been satisfied to pur- 76 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. chase immunity from Scotch attacks by sacrificing his pretensions in Flanders; but his schemes appear to have been statesmanlike, and so much progress was made in his reign as almost to justify the appellation which he after- wards received of 'Father of English Commerce.' 46. In so far as this view of Edward Ill's foreign Aliens in policy is correct, it serves to explain the line England. which he pursued in dealing with aliens in The staple. E n gi an( j. Alien merchants had always been welcomed in this country, so long as they furnished the realm with useful products from abroad, and while they confined themselves to wholesale trading and did not com- pete with Englishmen in retail and internal trade. Under Edward III, who desired to encourage frequent intercom- munication with Flanders and Gascony, the privileges of aliens were interpreted in the largest sense, so that the whole of the shipping trade of the country fell into their hands, while they also intruded in much of the internal business. The invitation and encouragement extended to weavers from abroad, and also to men who practised other callings, may all be regarded as part of the same policy. It seems, however, to have awakened among Englishmen a decided jealousy of aliens. This took effect in the following reign, when the reaction against the policy of Edward III made itself felt in many ways, and obtained the support of Parliament and the assent of the Crown. There was one direction, however, in which the influence of Edward III and the legislation of his reign was much more permanent. He revived, and reorganised more com- pletely the institution of staple towns to which all English products should be consigned, and in which the English mer- chants of the staple should do their business with continental traders. Such staple towns had been a common system of v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 77 mercantile policy from the earliest times. Carthage was a staple town for the products of the Western Mediterranean and of a great portion of Africa : the trading cities of Italy, Greece, and the ^gean were forced by Carthaginian fleets to frequent this staple, and prevented from dealing directly with Spain or with the other lands which lay within the sphere of their influence. In a somewhat similar fashion Bergen was a Norwegian staple, whither the products of the Northern Seas were brought, and where other European merchants were forced to buy them, if they wished to enter on this line of trade at all. The concentration of trade at a single point was certainly convenient for the collection of revenue, and the customs derived from the staple commo- dities were, throughout the fifteenth century, a very im- portant item of the royal revenue. But the organisation of staple towns would scarcely have been so general and so long continued if it had not been advantageous from the merchant's point of view as well as in a fiscal aspect. When the streams of commerce were feeble and intermittent there was a real advantage in concentrating them in one channel. Buyers and sellers were each more sure of a good market, while they could hope to sell and to pur- chase goods on satisfactory terms. It was possible too to provide rights and privileges which rendered the mer- chant's goods and warehouse secure from arbitrary exactions, and which gave him the means of recovering his debts by simple legal processes. Though they finally adopted it, there is reason to believe that Edward Ill's advisers were not clear as to the advisability of the institution in the earlier period of the reign. Even after the staple was reorganised in 1353, there was still some doubt as to whether it was wiser to fix on an English or on a Continental town as the depot for English goods. Eventually the problem 78 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. was solved by assigning the position to Calais, an English town across the Channel; and the merchants of the staple formed the first of the great Companies of English merchants who had special privileges assigned them for carrying on one branch of foreign trade. They dealt in the four staple com- modities, wool, wool-fells, hides, and lead all, as may be observed, raw products and they shipped them to be dis- posed of at the staple town of Calais. Their work continued to be of real importance, although it diminished somewhat as the English advanced in the knowledge of industrial arts, and ceased to export raw products so largely, because they worked up these materials within the realm. The loss of the town of Calais put an end to their active trade there, although the merchants continued to have a certain status. The Company, though shorn of its former glory, is not even yet extinct. 47. With the reign of Richard II the national econo- New develop- m * c ^* e * England seems to enter on a new ments under phase. Various causes were at work which Richard ii. were tending to transfer the business of the country from the aliens who carried on the trade at fairs, and to place it in the hands of English merchants who conducted their business at their houses in the towns. A class of wealthy native merchants was coming into notice, and they were powerful enough to make their influence felt in the proceedings of Parliament. Attention has been called in a previous paragraph (p. 69) to the personal influence exercised by the king, but the end of the fourteenth century was the time when an effective public opinion began to influence economic legislation. This maybe noticed in the Good Parliament of 1376, but it seems to have exerted itself more successfully in the reign of Richard II. As time went on there came to be occasions v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 79 of grave difference between the economic policy which com- mended itself to the public opinion of the country and that which was pursued by the king and his advisers. But in the fifteenth century Parliament and the Crown appear on the whole to have co-operated together; though the personal character of the king was no longer of such exclusive import- ance. There are some signs of a real public opinion from the time of Richard II onwards not necessarily the opin- ion of a large public, but one that embodied the common opinion of local aristocracies of wealthy burgesses. By the time of Richard II, too, the process of superseding local by national administration, which has been described above (p. 59), had gone a considerable way. It was much more possible to enforce similar trade regulations in all parts of the country, and even to carry out a similar trade policy, than it would have been in the days of Richard Coeur de Lion. 48. But most important of all, we see that the policy which was pursued by Edward III was defi- plenty and nitely discarded by his grandson; and we Power - find indications of another course, which, when finally adopted and regularly pursued, was known as the Mercan- tile System. There is, however, no evidence that it was consciously thought out and deliberately followed before the time of the Tudors. Probably different parts of the system were introduced under immediate pressure, and because they favoured the aspirations of English merchants. Even when thus fitfully adopted, the new policy amounted to a deliberate rejection of the methods approved by Edward III. In later times, when it was completely systematised, as for example under the Tudors, it is seen to be a commercial policy which aimed not merely at securing plenty of foreign products, 8o Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. since it also tended towards the power of the realm. This, as Bacon saw, was the crucial difference; Edward HI,by favour- ing the easy access of alien merchants, pursued a policy of plenty, since they brought large quantities of foreign goods in their ships; he imperfectly anticipated the free trade policy of England at the present time, which aims at securing plenty of foreign food and foreign materials for English consumers. Those on the other hand who advocated the mercantile policy, aimed at promoting the political power of the realm, and were ready to subordinate the convenience of producers and to sacrifice the comforts and tastes of consumers to this great national object. This was the one great aim which more or less con- sciously dominated our economic policy for centuries; when we bear it steadily in mind, much of the fidgety and petty legislation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries becomes intelligible, even if we still regard it as unwise. The Mercantile System, as completely thought out, rested on the principle, not of fostering industry and commerce for their own sakes, but of trying to guide them into such directions that they should subserve the political power of the realm. Similar schemes were in vogue in different countries, in Spain, France, Holland, and elsewhere, but the special form which economic policy took in our case was due to the special conditions of our national life. An island realm can only be strong either for defence or offence when it is a naval power; and hence, the develop- ment of our shipping and the encouragement of our commerce gradually came to be the most prominent feat- ures in the economic policy of the realm. There are three elements in political strength which may be considered in turn. First, sufficient food must be procurable to provide for the maintenance and rearing of a v.] The Beginnings of National Economic Life. 8 1 well-nourished population from which soldiers and sailors may be drawn : secondly, a sufficient supply of money or treasure must be available in the royal coffers to meet any emergency, and this in a realm that has no mines can only be amassed by the careful regulation of industry and trade; last and not least in the case of England, it has been necessary to develop shipping with its subsidiary em- ployments. Great pains have been taken at different times to strengthen the country on all these sides. It is not possible to separate them altogether from one another, for each factor in our industrial life has had a double bearing, and success in one direction has often reacted favourably on another. Thus (i) the obtaining of an adequate food supply, (ii) the progress of industry, and (iii) the develop- ment of commerce were partly pursued as independent objects, but there was also (iv) an underlying policy, which insisted on treating them with conscious reference to the offensive and defensive strength of the realm. Keeping these main points in view it may be convenient to deal with them in turn, and to indicate the various ways in which the strong hand of the central authority has exercised its influence on each. CHAPTER VI. THE VARIOUS SIDES OF NATIONAL ECONOMIC LIFE. /. The Food Supply. 49. THERE were special circumstances in the time of Richard II and in subsequent reigns which tionof'fhe" g ave r i se to anxiety with regard to our food rural popuia- supply. The disorganisation of rural society and the increase of sheep-farming, which en- sued on the Black Death, seemed to threaten widespread disaster. If the land were allowed to go out of cultivation, it would be impossible to procure sufficient corn for the subsistence of the people; and hence we have a succession of legislative measures which were definitely intended to promote tillage. Among the earlier regulations of this sort were restric- tive laws, which were devised to prevent the migration of the rural population to the towns. This may have been, to some extent, a military precaution, as it was generally believed that an outdoor country life was favourable to the development of a population, which should be physically capable of rendering effective service in time of war; while the depopulation of the coasts was also a military danger, since the sheep and their shepherds could offer no effective 82 CHAP, vi.] The Food Supply. 83 resistance to the landing of a hostile force. But the main object of the measures, which restrained the country people from migrating to the towns, was that of maintaining suffi- cient rural labour to carry on cultivation. Although, in some cases, those who were ready to work were evicted to make room for sheep, yet in the fourteenth century it was a matter of more common complaint that labourers could hardly be obtained in agricultural districts. There is much said in the present day about the flocking of the rural popula- tion to the towns, but it is not a new phenomenon; for active efforts were made to check it nearly five centuries ago. In the time of Richard II legislation only affected adult labourers, but under Henry IV and Henry VI stringent measures were passed to prevent the children of rural labourers from becoming apprentices. Efforts were made to keep the rising generation on the soil; that these measures were not inoperative is shown by the complaints of the men of Oxford as to the decay of their trades, and by their fruitless efforts to obtain exemption. In the great Statute of Apprentices (1563), this principle was incor- porated. Special facilities were given for training boys to those employments which were subsidiary to agriculture, if not to agriculture itself. And the distinction was so far maintained and acted upon that this point was noted as an important factor in the decay of the domestic system, and the growth of factories .as late as I804. 1 50. Another method of favouring tillage and preventing the development of sheep-farming is found in Restrictions the statutes restricting the number of sheep on sheep- which any one man might possess. Two farmin &- 1 Mr. Cookson of Leeds argued before a Committee of the House of Commons that it was desirable to modify the Act of 1563, so as to favour apprenticeship to the Clothing trades in rural districts. 84 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. thousand was regarded as an outside limit in the time of Henry VIII, and Edward VI expressed himself personally in favour of such a course. But it is difficult to see how a statute of this kind could be enforced, since evasion was not difficult. Another series of measures with a similar object was also enacted. These rendered landowners re- sponsible for re-erecting any houses of husbandry that had fallen into decay within a given period. The most celebrated of these measures followed on the official enquiry of 1517, which disclosed a considerable amount of depopulation dur- ing the previous twenty-eight years. Similar measures were passed under Elizabeth when the price of wool was, on the whole, very high. In 1592 it had dropped, and with the low- ered price of wool Francis Bacon thought that the motive to depopulate no longer came into play. In the five following years, with a higher price there was some recrudescence of the tendency, but it appears to have so far ceased to operate in the early part of the reign of James I that such restrictive measures were no longer necessary. 51. Other schemes for the encouragement of tillage Maintenance wcre a ^ so or g an i se d and maintained: the fa- of the high vourite expedient in the Elizabethan time price of corn. a j me( j at securing that the farmer should have a remunerative price for his corn. The traditional method of securing cheap food had been embodied in Solon's legis- lation and prohibited export; but in a country where there was any choice about the kind of cultivation or the extent of cultivation, such restrictions were apt to defeat themselves. A wiser course, suggested as early as the time of Edward VI, was that of giving greater liberty for export, especially when corn was unusually cheap. In this way the farmer could count on getting a remunerative price even in very plentiful years. This line of policy was embodied in the celebrated vi.] The Food Supply. 85 Corn Bounty Law of William ni (1689), which appears to have accomplished its object with wonderful success. Pro- bably corn was not as cheap as it would otherwise have been, especially in plentiful years. But the price was kept ex- ceedingly steady at a moderate level, which yet afforded an ample profit to the agriculturist. Under these circumstances he was encouraged to farm on a larger scale and by im- proved methods; so much land was thus brought into cultivation, that even in unfavourable seasons there was a sufficient supply of native grown corn and the price rose but little. 52. Well adapted to its ends though this policy appears to have been, it could not be indefinitely pur- Chan ed sued. It was only practicable when a large conditions of area of land was available for cultivation at a corn-growing, moderate expense. When population increased, and with it the demand for additional food, this could not be remu- neratively procured from England alone. Till 1773 England was able to supply her own wants entirely, and generally to send some surplus corn to Sweden and other countries. But from 1773 to 1793 there was a period when the demand and the supply were almost equally balanced ; when there was very little export of corn, and when importation was often necessary ( 118). From 1793 onwards the change was complete, and England became permanently and regularly dependent on foreign countries for a supply of food. The problem of national subsistence thus assumed a new form, and the Corn Laws, which had been devised for entirely different circumstances, ceased to serve their purpose. 53. In the last decade of the eighteenth century the difficulty of procuring sufficient food for the English popu- lation made itself felt in the severest fashion. There were 86 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. several successive seasons of exceedingly bad harvests; and Scarcity and during the time of war, it was almost impos- the allowance sible to procure from foreign countries the system. supply of corn which the nation now required, even in fairly good years. The distress of the labouring poor was terrible, and all sorts of expedients were devised to meet it. Some benefit may have accrued from the efforts which were made by the wealthy to restrict the consumption of corn in their households; thus the inhabitants of Ken- sington on one occasion decided to abjure pastry. But, after all, such devices, though testifying to a widespread sympathy for the poor, would add comparatively little to the stock of corn available for their support. There was a general demand, which found favour in many quarters, for the regulation of wages by a sliding scale, so that the working man might have more power of purchasing food; but this scheme, though plausible, was felt to be imprac- ticable as a measure of relief. It would only increase the effectual demand for corn, even at a high price, and thus tend to drive the price higher and higher with each new advance of wages. The way out of the difficulty, which was eventually adopted, was fraught with disastrous consequences in pauper- ising the rural population. This was the system introduced by the Berkshire Justices in 1795 of giving allowances of food to supplement the meagre earnings of the labourer. It seemed to be the common sense way of meeting the diffi- culty, in the most direct manner, with the least dislocation of ordinary trade. It was evidently intended as a temporary expedient, and had it been merely temporary it might have served its purpose in the least costly fashion. But the con- tinuance of war, together with the decay of by-employments in rural districts which followed on the introduction of machine spinning, rendered it impossible to revert to the vi.J The Food Supply. 87 old order; and allowances, with all their demoralising and pauperising effects, came to be an integral part of our in- dustrial system. They served, indeed, to tide over the worst period of distress, but at the cost of a serious deterioration in the character of the rural labourers. 54. Much controversy ensued and many interests were sacrificed before the English Parliament Excuses for determined to accept a position of per- an< j effects of manent dependence for a substantial portion the Corn Law of our national food supply on foreign corn, purchased with the results of national industry and with national mineral wealth. While foreign corn was practically excluded by the war, the rural classes, landlords, farmers, and yeomanry had been very prosperous; and owing to the high price of corn they had not seriously felt the great in- crease of the rates. To them the admission of foreign corn and a sudden fall of price would have meant ruin ( 120); and the ruin of the agricultural interest would surely have been followed by the still deeper misery of the agricultural labourers. The analogy of the earlier part of the eighteenth century seemed to show that an artificial method of ren- dering agriculture remunerative was quite compatible with the prosperity of all rural classes, and with the comfort of the artisans, if only they were sufficiently paid. The analogy was false, for circumstances had greatly changed, and our soil no longer afforded an ample home supply of food with a margin for export. Still, the project was so far plausible that Parliament passed the Corn Law of 1815, which prohibited importation till corn should reach the price of Sos. per quarter. The landed interest had their way, and they were inclined to urge that the distress in the manufac- turing towns should be met by a rise of wages. But this expedient was impracticable. The close of the 88 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. war did not open up any new markets for English goods. They had previously been smuggled into the countries from which they were officially excluded, and the poverty, which followed in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, prevented any active demand from the Continent. Besides this, some of these countries had little but corn with which to pay for Eng- lish goods, and the Corn Law prevented them from purchas- ing with the only commodity that was available to them. With such reduced demands from abroad, English manufac- turers could not give much employment, far less could they raise the rate of pay. Even as regards the home market, the poverty of the working classes and the dearness of food rendered it impossible for them to spend as much as they had previously done on manufactured goods. The Corn Laws interfered with the foreign demand for our commodities, and by causing a high price diminished the home demand. Hence it was that the manufacturers, headed by Cobden and Bright, demanded the repeal of the Corn Laws. They urged that apart from their injurious effects, they were unnecessary, since the prosperity of our manufactures would enable us to purchase a sufficient quantity of food. Thirty-one years after the landed interest had been buttressed by the Corn Law of 1815, the manufacturing interest procured its repeal (1846).^ According to the new policy then entered upon, our national food supply is not wholly produced at home, but is chiefly pur- chased from abroad, and the maintenance of our commercial supremacy, and the success of our manufacturing industry, have come to be essential for procuring national subsistence. 55. When this change was brought about there were Political those who argued that such dependence on and economic food supplies from abroad would be a grave political danger, and that in time of war our enemies might cut off our supplies and starve vi.] Industrial Life. 89 us into complete submission. So far this fear has not been realised; the warning failed to attract much attention, be- cause it was clear, from the experience of the twenty years after Waterloo (1815), that the Corn Law with all its disad- vantages did not render us really self-sufficing, or give us complete immunity from this danger. But apart altogether from the political question, it may be said that our eco- nomic prosperity, if far greater, rests on a less stable basis than it did in earlier days. A countiy, which has its own resources of food and the materials for its own manufactures within itself, is liable to fewer risks and dangers than one which is dependent on outside supplies for the very neces- saries of existence. The sudden collapse of the industrial and commercial greatness of Athens is, at least, a warning of the inherent weakness of any society which can only procure its food and its materials through the efficiency of its marine. II. Industrial Life. 56. When we trace the history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is easy to see that in Labourers' the regulation of industry, as on all other sides wages, of economic life, the promotion of national power was a paramount consideration. Every effort was made to provide employment for the people, so that an effective population might be maintained; and a distinct preference was shown for those kinds of industry which favoured the influx of the precious metals, and thus gave the means of accumulating treasure in the royal coffers. These points may be brought out below; in the mean time it is more important to notice how the national machinery for regulation was slowly formed, and to show what a firm grip it had on every side of indus- trial life. National administrators began to do more effec- QO Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. tively what manorial and civic authorities had hitherto attempted, and to make wise regulations for the quality of goods and the conditions and terms of employment. The Black Death marks the time when these matters were first taken cognisance of by Parliament. So far as questions of the times of work or the reward of agri- culturists arose before that epoch, they were apparently decided in each particular manor in accordance with its custom. The Statutes of Labourers, passed by Edward III, confirmed customary wages in some callings, and entrusted the enforcement of the law to the Justices of the Peace. These officials also possessed discretionary powers to fix wages in a few occupations, but in the reign of Richard II (1389) they were empowered to assess wages more generally, and according to the plenty or scarcity of the time. In subsequent reigns their duties were more commonly limited to the proclamation and enforcement of statutory rates, fixed either absolutely or within certain limits by Parliament. Occasionally they were authorised to assess as well as to proclaim a scale of wages: this latter plan was definitely adopted by Elizabeth in the Statute of Apprentices (1563), and very severe penalties were threatened against those justices who neglected their duty. During a period of one hundred and seventy years there are, however, only some thirty cases when they are known to have acted on their powers at all, and there is only one known case when their decision as to the rates of wage was enforced under penalties. Under these circumstances it is hard to believe that this portion of the statute was ever vigorously carried out. It is obvious that in the earlier part of the eighteenth century it was not in general use, although it was occa- sionally acted on in Shropshire. On the other hand, the attempts, which were made in 1728 and 1756 to enforce vi.] Industrial Life. 91 a similar line of policy in the interests of the clothing trade in Gloucestershire, show that this measure was quite neglected and practically unknown in that county. During the period of great distress at the end of the eighteenth century, when food was so dear and remunera- tion was so inadequate, it was proposed in Parliament to amend the old law and to impose on the justices the duty of fixing a minimum wage. Some of the reasons against this attempt have been indicated in a preceding section (p. 86), but it was also obvious that an attempt to raise wages suddenly might lead to the dismissal of all the aged or inefficient, whose work was not worth a high rate of pay. This seems to have been the last attempt to revive this policy for rural districts; but at a time of terrible distress, the cotton operatives in Lancashire fell back on the pro- visions of this Act as a means of securing the object they had in view the legal determination of 'a living wage,' which should be regarded as a minimum. The employers and the magistrates appear to have been favour- able to the plan, but Parliament pronounced against it, and repealed the clauses by which the justices had been required to regulate wages (1813). This great department of national well-being, which had been regulated in early times by the several customs of distinct manors, was treated as a proper subject for supervision by royally commissioned officials from the time of Edward III till 1813, when the policy of laissez faire triumphed, and this with so much else was left to be adjusted by private bargaining and free competition. 57. We hardly know if there was any definite custom affecting the relief of the poor on medieval p 00 r Relief manors, though some provision was made for under them in certain towns. The charity of which beth ' 92 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. we hear most was that distributed by the monasteries in doles; while a large portion of the rural population were restricted to, and had rights on, the land. The problems of rural pauperism must have been very different from those which we have to face at the present day. In Tudor times, however, the increase of sheep-farming and the diminution of agricultural employment combined with other causes to bring out the necessity for organising a regular system of poor relief. And Parliament encouraged the ecclesiastical authorities to deal with the matter. The old agencies of rural government, such as the manor, were not called upon to undertake the responsibility. The parish, an ecclesias- tical division, was taken as the area to be dealt with, and ecclesiastical officers, the churchwardens, were originally authorised to exercise compulsory powers in gathering money to be used as poor relief, though additional over- seers were subsequently appointed. A new national system was completed to meet this national need (1601), though it was greatly decentralised, and the parish authorities were under little effective control as to the manner in which they discharged their duties. 58. The available resources, in different parishes, dif- The Act of fered greatly, and in the seventeenth century Settlement, vagrants were inclined to fasten themselves on some parish, where the common waste was good, and the parish stock was large. With a view to guarding against this unfairness, an Act of parochial settlement was passed under Charles II (1662), which carefully defined for what poor each parish should be responsible. This measure had many unexpected and disastrous effects. Each parish was able to prevent the ingress of outsiders to reside within its bounds, if there seemed any danger of their becoming chargeable on the rates. And by this means a new obstacle vi.] Industrial Life. 93 was created, which acted almost as serfdom had done, in tying the labourer to his native place and preventing him from seeking better employment elsewhere. The mutual jealousy of parishes and a desire to reduce the pressure of their rates led at times to great harshness in the treatment of the poor, and to a war on cottages on the part of some landlords. In some open parishes, where there were many small proprietors and no common policy among them, many houses were run up, and the cottagers who were ex- pelled from neighbouring parishes resorted thither. Castle Acre in Norfolk was particularly notorious in this re- spect; there a demoralising practice arose in the present century of forming gangs of mere children, who were little better than the slaves of a master, and who were hired in masses to do field labour in thinly populated parishes. This was a serious if exceptional evil to which attention was directed in 1843. 59. There were other evils connected with the admini- stration of poor relief; assistance was given Employment as outdoor relief, and there was a curious forthe P or - alternation between heartless stringency and undue laxity in the method of administration. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was a continual struggle to find some system by which work might be provided, so that the idle might be discriminated from the unfortunate. In the seventeenth century the chief expedient was to teach spinning, and the wide diffusion of this art in the eighteenth century was not improbably due to the efforts of local authorities to popularise it. At the close of the seven- teenth century pauperism increased by leaps and bounds; this gave rise to widespread alarm, and resulted in a number of attempts to institute workhouses, where the adult poor might find employment. There were, however, grave diffi- 94 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. culties in making them remunerative, and the check which pauperism received during the earlier part of the eighteenth century can hardly be ascribed to their influence. It was more probably due to the improved agricultural conditions of that time, which removed some of the causes of poverty, and to the demand which arose for able-bodied labour in the American colonies. These circumstances, together with the general stringency of administration which came into fash- ion, kept down the evil in a somewhat ruthless way, but towards the end of the century, there was a reaction in favour of a more generous treatment of the poor. This found ex- pression in Gilbert's Act in 1 782, and still more in the action of the justices who in 1795 granted allowances from the rates to supplement the income of labouring families. 60. The circumstances which called forth this disas- Aiiowances trous measure have been described above (p. and the new 86), but a wool famine which occurred about the same time threw many spinners out of em- ployment, or forced them to work at unremunerative rates. The allowances seem to have been an expedient for giving a temporary substitute in lieu of the earnings of women and children. But as domestic spinning never revived, this temporary measure came to be a permanent institution, and during the first thirty years of the present century outdoor relief was largely given in forms which tended to foster a pauper class. These various evils were so crying that a drastic measure of reform was rendered necessary in 1834. A central board was created, which exercised wide control and gave a more uniform character to the administration of poor relief in different districts. It was a time of great national distress, both rural and urban, and the new authority carried out its first reforms under adverse circumstances. But it has sue- vi.] Industrial Life. 95 ceeded in abolishing the worst abuses of the old days. If national poor relief is unsympathetically given and unthankfully received, it is at least less harsh and less pauperising than it was at various times in the eighteenth century. 61. National organisation has come into vogue in another direction to provide facilities for in- Interna i ternal communication. This was recognised communica- as a national duty from the earliest times as part of the trinoda nccessitas ; but it had, in all probability, more reference in those days to military than to commercial convenience. Throughout the Middle Ages and indeed until the reign of Queen Mary the repair of the roads appears to have been left to private munificence. It was an object to which the charitable devoted money in their wills, and to which the monasteries in their more prosperous days gave considerable attention. When Parliament took the matter up, it supplemented rather than superseded the action of local authorities. As in the case of poor relief, the ecclesiastical organisation was used as the agent for effecting this important piece of civil work. Each parish was rendered responsible for the care of its roads, while the justices were called upon to exercise a general supervision and to see that the parochial authorities did their duty. Increased prosperity in the eighteenth century rendered improved roads a commercial necessity. A General High- way Act was passed (1741), and the principle was adopted of collecting tolls, so that those who used the roads might contribute to their repair. The immediate effect of this measure was surprising; in the early part of the eighteenth century English roads had been disgracefully bad, but be- fore its close they had attained to a very high standard of excellence. 96 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. 62. From a very early time the central government devoted some attention to the quality of Quality and J price of bread goods and to the regulation of fair prices, and cloth. The necessaries of life first received con- sideration. According to the Assize of Bread already re- ferred to (p. 72), efforts were made to devise a self-acting system, which should prove fair both to producers and to consumers by providing sufficient remuneration for the baker and his men, while it secured that the public should obtain loaves of the right size and weight for their money; the loaf was to be larger or smaller according as corn was cheap or dear. The due execution of this Assize and the effective punishment of those who infringed it was part of the ordi- nary duties of manorial and other local courts. As it was one of the earliest, so also was it a long-continued piece of national regulation. Early in the eighteenth century (1709) it was re-issued in more modern phraseology, and in 1757, when the harvest had failed, the London magistrates tried to carry out this policy stringently. The results were, however, sufficiently disastrous to prove conclusively that the time had gone by when such measures could be advantageously enforced. The next great department in which we hear of national regulation was in regard to clothing. A royal official, the aulnager, was appointed, whose business it was to see that the cloth exposed for sale was of the proper length and breadth. At first his attention was partly given to imported cloth, but there are indications that he was also called upon to supervise the product of English looms. There were various towns which got into trouble for stretching their cloth unduly, and the aulnager's seal was intended to be a guarantee that the cloth was of sufficient size and weight, and to render it acceptable to consumers either at home or abroad. The traditional character and objects of the insti- vi.] Industrial Life. 97 tution are perhaps most easily seen in the time of Charles II, when attempts were made to foster a clothing trade in Ire- land. The appointment of an aulnager in that country in 1665 appears to have been regarded as a step of first im- portance, if there was to be successful competition with the established industries of other lands. And though English economists and politicians took measures to repress this growing industry, the aulnager and his salary survived. With the steady growth of the English cloth manufacture the duties of the aulnager must have become more and more complicated. There are complaints from Norfolk of the exactions of this officer in 1328, and there were special difficulties when Flemish weavers, accustomed to different measurements, settled in this country in the time of Edward III. The variety which had been introduced into the trade is most clearly reflected in the legislation of Edward IV, which enumerates a large number of cloths of different sizes and qualities, made in various parts of the country. From this time, legislation affecting the quality and weight of cloth was very frequent; the various measures are enumerated in the statute of 1809 which repealed them all. At this date all such attempts at regulation were discredited; English- men were pushing their trade in all parts of the world, and it was not desirable to define too rigidly the character of the goods made for so many markets. To have maintained the old rules would have hampered manufacturers in catering for public taste. There was no longer the same necessity to preserve these rules as a security for quality, since a new guarantee was afforded by manufacturers' trade-marks. While cloth was made on the domestic system, such marks could not become a well-known guarantee, but under the system of factory-production, the trade-marks of the large houses came to be widely known, and their reputation 98 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. served, to some extent, to warrant the character of the goods that they supplied. 63. There were, especially during the Stuart period, Patents and various other instances in which the supervi- monopoiies. s i on o f a certain department was entrusted to particular officials; this was attempted in the case of ale- houses, gold lace and gunpowder. A more common expe- dient was that of granting special privileges for this purpose to a body of persons thoroughly acquainted with, and actu- ally engaged in, some trade, who could effectively bring home responsibility for defects to particular persons. Some of the London companies, like the Tanners, acquired an extensive right of search of this kind, while others had reserved to them exclusive rights of production. This method of granting exclusive privileges by patent gave rise to much dissatisfaction in the time of Elizabeth and to gross abuses under James I. In both these cases, however, it might be claimed that the intentions of the Crown were disinterested, but that the public were badly served by the patentees or their agents. Under Charles I the system received a new development, when he granted exclusive patents for the production of some articles of common consumption. Thus he hoped to secure a revenue, similar to an excise, by granting a patent for soap. It was care- fully devised so as to evade the terms of the statute of 1624, but the indignation, which it aroused, rendered it impossible for Charles to proceed, while it brought the whole of this system of national regulation into discredit. 64. National regulation had, however, served a useful Alien work purpose in various ways. English kings were, men. incor- from a very early time, alive to the importance poratedCom- o f trying to plant new industries within the panics. realm. It was under the shelter of royal vi.] Industrial Life. 99 protection that the Dutch Bay makers established their industry at Colchester, and that the Walloons carried out their careful system of trade regulation at Norwich. The benefit, which accrued to the nation from these new trades, was undoubted; but it was not readily recognised in the localities affected, and Crown patents and protection were necessary to give a proper footing to the new-comers. In subsequent times exclusive privileges in a calling were occasionally conferred on individuals by act of Parliament, as in the case of the Kidderminster Carpet weavers and the Sheffield Cutlers. It is noticeable that the companies, specified by Adam Smith as chiefly to be deprecated, were bodies of this type. Though thus used to plant new industries, it appears that the same system of trade regula- tion by charter from the Crown was occasionally used to shelter the inhabitants of certain towns from the incursion and competition of aliens. Exclusive privileges for the carrying on of some industry were granted by charter to local companies, who could then exclude the alien workmen of that craft. In some cases the number of separate callings united in one exclusive company is so large that it is im- possible to believe that there could have been good common supervision over such a varied assortment of wares. In the formation of these exclusive companies in Newcastle, Carlisle, and London, and in their attempted formation at Hull, we may perhaps feel that the regulation of industry was a mere excuse. The maintenance of exclusive rights was, very probably, the real object, which townsmen had in view in procuring the expensive privilege of a royal charter. But whatever their precise object may have been, the accounts of the rapid formation of these industrial companies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries prove that national authority not only took the place of the towns ioo Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. in commercial regulation, but that it also completely super- seded merely municipal organisations for the regulation of industry. 65. These various measures may be regarded as methods for regulating craftsmen, but they Protection. & & J were all intended to be expedients for foster- ing native industry. The policy of protection in some form or other was very old; there are signs of it in the cloth trade in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it developed very rapidly in many employments under the Yorkists and the Tudors. In some of its phases it is hardly to be distinguished from the jealousy of alien workmen, to which allusion has been already made; but in the seventeenth century it was deliberately pursued on care- fully reasoned, if mistaken grounds. Every effort was made to plant new industries, so as to render England, as far as possible, independent of foreign nations for her supplies. As this matter is dealt with more fully below ( 87) it may suffice to indicate here that if we bought few manu- factured goods from foreigners, and had much to sell them, they would be forced to pay us in bullion and thus to augment our treasure. Such was the argument, and even when its unsoundness was becoming apparent to far- seeing men, it yet served to make men eager to plant new industries, to import materials cheap, to open up markets for our surplus wares, and in every way to encourage native industry. The doctrine that labour is the source of all wealth gave additional force to the desire to provide em- ployment for hands at home, and to incur no unnecessary expense in purchasing the results of foreign labour. It was only after the time of Adam Smith, when international eco- nomic jealousy had become less keen, that it was possible for the ordinary politician to regard different nations as co- vi.] Industrial Life. 101 operating for the common advantage, rather than as un- scrupulous traders who were always striving to gain at each other's expense. 66. The general result of the tendencies described in the foregoing paragraphs may, perhaps, be Economic most clearly indicated by noting how great freedom for a change was gradually brought about in the individuals - condition of the individual. He gained freedom in many ways freedom of movement, freedom of employment and freedom to associate. In the earlier Middle Ages, when local authority was a leading influence in economic affairs, freedom of movement was impossible for the industrial classes. In the rural districts the peasant was astricted to the manorial estate (p. 34), and could not attempt to better his condition by seeking for work elsewhere. So too in the towns. The craftsman had his privileged position in the particular community of which he was free, and .would not, generally speaking, desire to effect any change. In some ways Parliamentary authority was used to bolster up these restrictions when they were beginning to break down. Under the Lancastrians, attempts were made to prevent the rural population from migrating to the towns, while the Tudors aimed at hindering artisans from forsaking the impover- ished places in which they dwelt. But, on the whole, national regulation of the labourer's position by the Statutes of Labourers (1350-1), and the more general administration of the law by Justices of the Peace tended to bring about the recognition of a class of free agricultural labourers who worked for wages, and who were not hindered from moving about in search of employment. In the time of Charles II a system of astriction was re-introduced in connexion with the parochial administration of poor relief; the manner in which this Act of Settlement (1662) interfered with the IO2 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. fluidity of labour has been remarked upon above (p. 92). Here it may suffice to say that the evil was soon recognised, and that attempts were made to rectify it. In all probability these had comparatively little result till the whole system was reorganised in 1834, and an effective central control was instituted. 67. Freedom of movement within the realm was not Freedom to easily secured; freedom to leave the realm emigrate. was a b oon which was still longer delayed. It was not to the interest of the country that Englishmen should go abroad, since the Crown would, in that case, be unable to rely upon their services for the defence of the realm. When England had attained an industrial repu- tation it was considered even less desirable than heretofore that Englishmen should emigrate and plant our industries in foreign countries or even in our own colonies. Only under exceptional circumstances did bands of colonists obtain Royal or Parliamentary leave to emigrate to Ireland or to America for the purpose of settling a plantation or of founding a colony. There was, however, no scruple in get- ting rid of unruly elements. The man who was guilty of homicide could escape the punishment of his crime by ab- juring the realm. Disbanded soldiers and other vagrants appear to have been shipped to the New World in consider- able numbers. Still it was not until 1824 that restrictions on emigration were abolished; before that date permission to emigrate had only been accorded as a special favour, ex- cept in cases where it was enforced as the penalty of mis- conduct. In the early part of the present century public opinion underwent a great change through the influence of Mr. E. G. Wakefield, who had studied the subject of colonial development with much care, and who carried on an agita- tion in favour of granting this liberty to all subjects. vi.] Industrial Life. 103 68. Along with increased freedom of movement we may also notice increased freedom in the Freedom choice of employment. Under the manorial to change system this was not possible for the great em P lo y ment - mass of the people, and, as we have seen, the legislature intervened to prevent the rural population from taking up other employments than agriculture. Elizabeth's Statute of Apprentices did something to perpetuate this restriction. But it also imposed a new difficulty, throughout the country generally, in preventing a change of trade by artisans. No one was allowed to work at a craft to which he had not served a seven years' apprenticeship, and this rendered it practi- cally impossible for any one to change his occupation. In the eighteenth century, when England was supplying foreign markets with goods, and the prosperity of different trades depended on variations in foreign demand, it was difficult to make the readjustment necessary to suit new conditions; for this restriction on change of trade combined with the law of settlement to prevent workmen from leaving a district where industry was declining. According to Defoe the cloth trade in Essex had diminished, and some villages, such as Bocking and Braintree, afforded instances of an evil which became more marked as the eighteenth century advanced. On the other hand, it may be said that, apart from the incidental effect of the Poor Law, the Act of Elizabeth gave increased freedom to the skilled artisan by fixing one standard of training and skill for the whole realm. It gave each skilled craftsman a better opportunity of pur- suing his calling in any place which he preferred, instead of restricting him to work in that town of which he had, by serving his apprenticeship, become free. The case of London presents many points of special interest. It was exempted from the operation of the Eliza- IO4 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. bethan Act, and continued its own system of apprenticeship. The custom of the City appears to have permitted a remark- able liberty in the change of occupation. Those who had served a seven years' apprenticeship claimed the liberty to practise a trade other than that to which they had been apprenticed. This liberal custom held its own, but not with- out a struggle. In the time of Richard II an effort was made to insist that every citizen should choose one calling by which he would abide, and that he should not endeavour to practise more than one, even if he was free of more than one company. In the time of Elizabeth a serious contest arose. There was one party which desired to impose a restriction similar to that in the Elizabethan Act, and another which desired to obtain Parliamentary confirmation for liberty of change. Neither could have their way, but in the long run the old custom of freedom of change was able to assert itself. It appears to have been one of the elements which gradually brought about a severance between the various companies and the actual crafts with which they were nominally con- nected. The liberty, thus reasserted in London, was only secured in the country at large by the repeal of the appren- ticeship clauses of the Elizabethan Act in 1814. 69. Unauthorised trade associations have been viewed Freedom to w ith much suspicion from early times, and it associate. i s on iy recently that freedom to combine for trade purposes has been accorded. That there were many advantages in combination was recognised from early times, and authorised associations were formed both by the Crown, by municipal authorities, by manorial lords, and by Parlia- ment. But the unauthorised association of irresponsible persons was viewed very differently. They were at least under the suspicion of being a ring, formed to engross and enhance the price of some commodity, in a way which was vi.] Industrial Life. 105 detrimental to the consumer. Every attempt on the part of a section of the community to get gain at the public expense was strongly condemned. Even authorised associations, such as the craft-gilds under Henry VI or the patentees under James I, might be guilty of misusing their powers. But unauthorised association laid the members open at least to the suspicion of criminal intent, and Henry II imposed heavy fines on the adulterine gilds of his time. The possi- bility of unfair combinations among dealers was kept in view all through the Middle Ages, and there was a cog- nate feeling about combinations of labourers, since wages were the chief element in price; the demand for higher wages seemed but little removed from a conspiracy to raise prices for the benefit of individuals, but at the public ex- pense. This feeling gave rise to the Statutes of Labourers (1350-1) under Edward III and to various subsequent mea- sures, which limited the rates of wages. In the time of Edward VI a combination law was passed (1548), which seems to condemn much that had been commonly done by the old gilds. But it was not until the eighteenth century that the matter assumed much importance. Early in that century the masters in certain trades were suffered to com- bine for certain specific objects, such as that of prosecuting fraudulent workmen. Combinations among workmen were not unknown. They are mentioned by Adam Smith. But their history and objects remain obscure until 1800, when a measure was passed which gave the whole question a new prominence. The government of the country was suffer- ing from a panic about seditious associations. Debating societies and freemasons' lodges were looked upon with grave suspicion, as possible cloaks for treasonable assem- blies, and a Government measure was hurried through the Commons, which treated all associations of workmen as io6 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. criminal bodies. The economic conditions of the times rendered it specially desirable that workmen should be in a position to combine to drive a bargain with their employers. The Act of 1800 compelled them to keep such combinations secret, and gave them the character of the devices of des- perate men. The occasional instances of prosecution for belonging to such associations gave rise to immense bitter- ness, and the injustice was so patent that in 1825 the ob- noxious measure was repealed. It had, however, wrought infinite mischief while it lasted, and its repeal was under- taken with some hesitation. The economists of the day had a decided opinion that unions were powerless to effect any real improvement in the position of the worker, and while they were in favour of removing the criminal character of such associations, they were wholly averse to encouraging the principle of combination. Events have since seemed to falsify the calculations of the time. With the power of combination workmen have succeeded in securing improved conditions, and the existence of unions is now recognised in many trades as a convenient means for making arrange- ments between employers and employed. The precise objects for which combination is allowable, as well as the possible means of enforcing the policy of a combination, have given rise to much discussion and to occasional legis- lation. But since 1825 the existence of unions among labourers has been permitted to an extent which was never possible in older times. 70. The preceding sections have brought out a definite line of progress in favour of economic freedom Laissez faire and phiian- on the part of the individual. This movement iation !C legi8 " attained its g reatest development during the first half of the present century, when the principles of laissez faire were deliberately applied to all vi.] Industrial Life. 107 the institutions of the country. Since the middle of the century, however, there have been signs of a reaction against this attitude of opposing regulation of every kind, and public opinion has come more and more to favour the interference of the State in matters which were once left to individuals entirely. The first signs of this new era of regulation were in connexion with children's labour. It was said that they were too young to fight their own battles and that, as a matter of fact, they did not drive their own bargains. On this account men like Sir Robert Peel, who were uncompro- mising advocates of laissezfaire with respect to adults, were eagerly engaged in promoting measures for the protection of children. The whole of the Factory legislation of 1802 and 1833 rested on the supposition that children were not free agents, and that it was a matter of public interest to secure that they should not be overworked, so that the rising generation should be able-bodied and effective citizens. There was a direct object of national importance in view, and the earlier measures, at all events, were merely con- cerned with the labour of children. Within these limits State interference is readily accepted as advisable by most persons in the present day. Whether it is advisable to do more than this may perhaps be doubtful, and the general tone of feeling has hitherto been that of leaving it to adults, so far as may be, to drive their own bargains and secure for themselves the conditions which are advisable. The first and most definite departure from this principle of freedom for adults has been in the case of mines, where the Government has, by regulation and inspection, insisted upon the use of precautions which would not have been so readily introduced, had it not been for outside pressure. The very risks of the miner's life may sometimes render io8 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. him reckless and inclined to disparage the safeguards which are recommended on scientific grounds. In cases of this sort a public authority may be more far-seeing and careful than any of those whose interests are directly concerned, and it may be possible to give greater security for life and limb by Act of Parliament. A very great deal of the regulation incorporated in more recent Factory and Work- shop Acts is of the same character, while the general approval with which they meet, and the frequent demand that they should be further extended, mark how far public opinion has veered from the laissezfaire principles. 71. Despite this mass of legislation, however, there Trade is still a tendency in some quarters to speak Unions. o f j t as exceptional, to assert the old laissez faire principles, and to argue that it is best to leave adults to fight their own battles and secure advantages for them- selves. But here the difficulty arises that, isolated and alone, the individual artisan has but little real economic freedom. His comparative poverty may render it im- possible for him to stand out for a bargain, and the diffi- culty of moving his home limits the field within which he can seek work. The fluidity of labour is much less than economists sometimes seem to assume; and on this ground the labourer may fairly contend that effective economic free- dom can only be secured to his class by securing him an effective right to combine. This was strenuously denied by the laissezfaire econo- mists at the beginning of the century. During the period before 1825, when the unions were treated as criminal bodies, they were forced to maintain their position by secret and sometimes by violent methods, and the legisla- ture has always been inclined to protect the individual who is satisfied with his independent position from those who vi.] Commercial Development. 109 wish to induce or to force him to throw in his lot with a trade combination. The State, in admitting liberty to com- bine, has been anxious to maintain, on behalf of other workmen, the liberty not to combine. It has been a diffi- cult problem to hold the balance evenly between the two. Wherever the unions have attained such a position as to be really effective economic forces, they have been able to exercise a dominating influence on the conditions of the trade; and the story of their early struggles and of the gradual growth of their organisation is one of supreme in- terest. But it is not clear that their policy has been wiser, or that it has been enforced with less friction and suffering than would have been the case, if serious efforts had been made by public authority to continue to regulate the con- ditions of labour and terms of employment in a fashion similar to that attempted in the Elizabethan labour code. ///. Commercial Development. 72. It has been pointed out above that national regu- lation of industrial life gradually superseded Municipal that which had been undertaken in early times and national by local authorities. But this is much less true re ulation - of commercial affairs. Our shipping and commerce were so little developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that the institutions for fostering and developing them had to be almost entirely created by the Crown or by Parliament. To some extent, indeed, the new system was grafted on to the practice and custom which had prevailed in municipal commerce, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we see the points of transition most clearly. Thus in dealing with internal commerce and the alien merchants who visited English marts, the State was at first no Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. content to enforce, with additional authority, the old muni- cipal arrangements. The Statute of Acton Burnell (1283) at most extended to new centres a system of trading security for the recovery of debts which was already familiar in other localities. But in later commercial legislation there are fewer local limitations, and the facilities for trade, which were organised in the fourteenth century, seem to have been devised with reference to all portions of the realm. The organisation of a great national institution like the merchants of the Staple must have told against the status and importance of local mercantile communities. The nation could also do much for the protection of the person and property of the merchant, which lay beyond the cognisance of any single city. Matters of local police the towns had attended to, but the security of travellers on the roads could only be undertaken by the king or by Parlia- ment. In the time of Edward I we see that the importance of affording to merchants immunity from attack on the king's highway was clearly recognised, and serious efforts were made to secure it in the Statute of Winchester (1285). 73. During the fourteenth century Englishmen were beginning to take some part in foreign trade, and this new de P arture brought to light a new series of responsibilities, which the king and Parliament were forced to undertake. The effort to put down piracy was partly intended to preserve the coasts from attack, but it also served to give immunity to mer- chant vessels on the seas. When Edward III claimed the sovereignty of the sea, he became bound in honour to maintain the king's peace on the sea as well as on the shore. The duty was, indeed, inefficiently done; merchant vessels which paid for a convoy did not always secure an effective escort. When the armaments of Edward III and vi.] Commercial Development. ill Henry V were scouring the Channel merchant shipping may have been fairly well protected; but in the time of Henry VI national energies were severely strained, and no sufficient pains were taken to render the seas secure for traders. Piracy assumed frightful proportions; organised fleets like those of the Victual Brothers and the Rovers of the Sea destroyed our shipping and attacked our coasts. Privateering was not discouraged, and the commercial jealousies of Englishmen and Hansards gave rise to oc- casional quarrels and to bitter reprisals. Towards the close of the fifteenth century a series of treaties rendered trade more secure, and the efforts of different commercial com- munities put down the Northern piracy, from which all suffered in turn. 74. As English trade expanded more widely, it became necessary to deal with the old difficulties on a larger scale. Trade in the Mediterranean t C r e t rcial was seriously interfered with by the pirates of Trading Com- Algiers and Morocco. These petty states be- pan came the resort of desperate characters of all nationalities, and the attempts of James I to obtain Spanish co-operation for the extermination of the evil proved a failure. They did not confine their depredations to merchant shipping. In 1631 the town of Baltimore in the South of Ireland was utterly destroyed, and the surviving inhabitants carried into slavery. When such depredations could be successfully carried out, there was at least some excuse for Charles I's demand for a payment of ship-money to defend the realm. The sailors of the Commonwealth had some temporary success, and the negociations of Charles II were not with- out effect, but it was not until English power was completely established in the Mediterranean that this mischief was really brought to an end and that piracy ceased to be a 112 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. serious danger for merchants to face in European waters (1818). There were several important commercial treaties in the time of Edward IV and Henry VII which not only served to diminish hostilities on the high seas, but also gave a footing to English merchants in foreign countries. In some cases a factory was secured to them, where mer- chants could live on moderate terms, and warehouse their goods. Sometimes a consul or representative was appointed, who was able to look after the interests of any merchant who visited the port. Successive appointments of this kind serve as landmarks to show the gradual expansion of English trade, not only in the Low Countries where the Merchant Adventurers had their factories, but in Pisa, Crete, and Smyrna, where consuls were established in the time of Edward IV and Henry VII. Arrangements of this kind, though of the first importance for commerce, were really political in character. The English cities never aspired to be independent states, and attained neither the wealth nor the position which would have enabled them to procure privileges and to push English trade in these new and distant ports. From this point of view it is clear that many of the mercantile organisations, which seem at first sight to be merely municipal, were really national in character, and could only have been authorised by national authority. So long as the Mercers confined their attention to whole- sale trade in cloth within the realm, they might be satisfied with the sanction they received from the Mayor and Alder- men, though they preferred the additional status conferred by a royal charter. But when some of the brethren devoted themselves to shipping goods abroad, and it was desirable that the trade should be organised and put on a sound vi.] Commercial Development. 113 footing, the Company of Merchant Adventurers was formed with powers of exclusive trading within certain limits, as against other Englishmen. And this could only be granted by national authority. Similarly when the Grocers concerned themselves not only with garbling or sifting spices and dealing in imported goods, but took to shipping them from the Levant, they were organised by royal authority as the Turkey Company. These were both London associations, but there were similar organisations formed by royal au- thority for various branches of foreign trade in other ports. It is only necessary to specify the Merchant Adventurers of Exeter, founded by Queen Elizabeth, and the Merchant Adventurers of Hull. To regulate trade within a city was comparatively easy, but to shield and to organise English- men in their trading with foreign lands was a political duty which could only be undertaken by the highest authority in the realm. 75. The Tudor kings were all interested in maritime affairs, and from their time onwards we find The protec . more systematic efforts to diminish the physi- tion of the cal risks which seamen had to run on our c coasts. There were constant efforts to improve the har- bours; while the Brethren of Trinity House at Deptford were especially encouraged to erect sea marks and light- houses and to concern themselves with the training of pilots. A similar institution with more restricted powers was formed at Hull, and their united efforts resulted in greatly increased safety for our shipping by improving the access to harbours, by rendering harbours more secure, and by marking out the course which it was wise to pursue, or the points it was necessary to avoid. Such work was, in itself, of the highest importance ; and it also serves as an interest- ing illustration of the nationalisation of local institutions, i 1 14 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. when we see how an association of Thames pilots was taken up and employed by royal authority to exercise a guardian- ship over the whole of our coasts. 76. The re-discovery of America (p. n) and the dis- The New covery of f resh routes to the East gave a World and fresh stimulus to the ambition of Englishmen, new routes to When ^ ser iously endeavoured to enter into the East. * * competition with foreign nations in these new directions, they went out under royal patronage and with royal approval. There was, of course, much individual en- terprise, as was shown, for example, in the expedition fitted out by a Bristol merchant in 1480 to seek for the island of Brazil. But a regular trading expedition, which required a valuable cargo, could only be undertaken by the co- operation of several merchants; and they naturally desired to obtain the prestige of a royal introduction in the distant countries which they visited. A Russia Company was organised under Edward VI, which, though it consisted of London merchants, was really a national undertaking. These merchants opened a trade with Archangel, and before long they pushed their way by the Russian rivers and the old caravan routes to Persia. This was the first attempt made by Englishmen to open up communications with the East, and to obtain a share in the profitable trade from which the Portuguese derived so much wealth. The Company's agents were provided with royal letters, written in Hebrew and Greek, which it was thought might prove intelligible to Oriental princes and recommend the subjects of the king of England to favourable consideration. 77. Another such company endeavoured to win for joint-stock Englishmen a share in the direct trade with and regulated India by the Cape of Good Hope. The East India Company was organised by London vi.] Commercial Development. 115 merchants, but was under Court patronage; and at one time the shrewd City men who started it feared lest the influence of the Court should introduce into their ships some gentlemen adventurers, who would be more likely to direct their attention to fighting than to trade. Those who entered the Company did not trade as individuals, but com- bined to take shares in fitting and loading several ships one year, and then formed a new subscription for each subse- quent voyage. The private trading of individual merchants or of the Company's servants was sedulously put down, and each voyage was made upon a joint-stock. There was, however, an unnecessary complication in such a system, especially when the charges of the establishments at home and abroad were considered. In 1612, the charter of the Company was renewed in a different form, and it became a joint-stock company, in which all the partners had larger or smaller shares. Such a joint-stock company, which traded as a single corporation, was in a strict sense a monopoly, since it had the exclusive right of trad ing. Other companies, such as the Russia and Turkey Companies, were composed of men each of whom traded on his own account and com- peted with others, while he recognised some general regula- tions, which were thought to be beneficial to all: such traders also had the advantage of special privileges and conveniences in the towns where they carried on business. Any English subject could belong to these regulated com- panies upon payment of a comparatively small fee for admission, and part of their trade regulation was intended to prevent the richer merchants from concentrating business in their own hands, and to allow younger men to have their chance. Both regulated and joint-stock companies were national institutions for the development and control of foreign commerce. Both obtained their powers by charter Ii6 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. from the Crown, but whereas the joint-stock companies were really monopolies, the regulated companies do not deserve that name. This system of company-trading was, to a large extent, an English institution, and did not develop so fast, or on quite the same lines, either in Holland or in France. There was much doubt in England during the seventeenth century as to whether the system was wise or not. The East India Company was the one most frequently attacked, but even the regulated companies were severely criticised as being injurious to trade. In 1608 the privileges of the Merchant Adventurers were suspended, and at a later date the Russia and the Turkey Company aroused considerable hostility on the part of the interlopers, as those English merchants were called who defied the exclusive claims, and competed in the trade of the Companies. Under James I a special com- mission on trade was appointed, and it was one of their chief duties to consider the policy of allowing companies in trade. The Commissioners did not pronounce against it, and further attacks, made in the time of Cromwell, were successfully resisted. Before the period of the Revolution, however, the constitutional rights of interlopers to trade were upheld, as against the joint-stock companies, in a case which was brought by Sandys against the East India Com- pany (1684). With the Revolution and the Bill of Rights, the position of these bodies, which depended on charters granted by the Stuarts, was weakened, and the rivals of the East India Company seemed likely to get their way. The interloping merchants were empowered to form a new general or regulated East India Company, which seemed likely to supersede the old London or joint-stock company. The two entered on an unseemly and disastrous competition, but eventually their competing interests were reconciled, vi.] Commercial Development. 117 and the two bodies were amalgamated. At this juncture the principles for which the joint-stock company had con- tended may be said to have triumphed, and Parliament appeared to acknowledge that in distant trade with peoples with whom we had no regular diplomatic relations, it was expedient for Englishmen to present a united front. 78. The later history of this great Company, and the steps by which it was transformed from a The East trading body to a political power need not be In d ia Com- detailed here. It continued to pursue the policy of corporate trading, with which it had started, but it did not prevent its servants from engaging in private trade on their own account within India itself. The relations of the Company with its servants and of the Home Board with its officials abroad were compli- cated and often unsatisfactory. Commercial and political interests conflicted, and the common trade of the Company was sometimes said to be sacrificed to the private trade of the servants. The wealth of these servants, when they returned, and the high profits of the Dutch Company, which was managed on different principles, made the shareholders suspicious, and tempted the directors to gratify them by paying extravagant dividends. The Company was brought to the verge of bankruptcy by the middle of the eighteenth century, and when reconstituted it came to be more and more political in character. At the time when the trade to India was formally thrown open (1813), the shipments of the Company had come to be very trivial, but it retained its exclusive trade with China for a longer period (1833). Tea was an article of common consumption of which the Company had the monopoly and could regulate the supply. It is in connexion with this article that we see the last remains of the controversy on the advantages and disadvan- 1 1 8 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. tages of corporate trading. That there were some advantages may be gathered from the strained relations with China, which immediately followed on the abrogation of the trading monopoly and the independent efforts of competing trades- men to push the sale of their wares. 79. In the present day when the British mercantile The Nav marine is so very large, it is strange to recall and joint- the fact that through a long period of our stock com- history we had very little shipping at all, and panics. that our commercial supremacy is of quite recent growth. But it is perhaps more important to remember that our naval power has grown along with our commerce, and that owing to that naval power our commerce is far less fettered than was formerly necessary. In old days the Government was quite unable to protect the mercantile marine effectively from the attacks of pirates, or to secure our merchants due respect in distant lands. But now-a-days our naval power serves to protect our commerce everywhere, and to give our merchants a firm footing in the most distant parts of the globe. We are dependent on our navy for the regularity of our food supply. We are dependent on it too for the protection of our commerce, and for all the industrial success which is bound up with our commerce. In old days, when adventurers could look for little effective support from the home Government, and were forced to provide for their own defence themselves, there was much excuse for conferring a trading monopoly on those who undertook this difficult position. The practice of chartering monopolist companies for distant trades with half-civilised peoples did on the whole justify itself. But now that English political power is more widely and more effectively felt, there is no longer the same excuse for con- vi.] Commercial Development. 119 ferring a monopoly on trading companies that undertake political risks. But even though English subjects all over the globe can look to the Government for protection, the recent formation of the Chartered African and Borneo Companies shows that the old expedient may be conven- ient for pioneer work. But though these companies have not their old political character, the commercial principle on which they were formed still holds good, and has been applied in every sort of way. From very early times, several owners might com- bine to fit out a ship and buy a cargo, when none of them was able, separately, to risk a very large sum in ventures by sea; and this practice received a new application when a permanent joint-stock company, like the East India Com- pany, was formed to undertake the difficult task of opening and maintaining friendly relations with distant peoples, whose civilisation was very different from our own. Such trading connexions could not be permanently maintained by individuals singly, and the risks of trading were minimised for each, when the shareholders acted together as one body. By this means the owner of a comparatively small sum of money can club it with others, so as to share great risks, and, if he is successful, earn large profits. At all events this method of associating for business purposes has been more and more adopted. Adam Smith attempted to discriminate between certain kinds of business which could not be satisfactorily undertaken in this fashion, but since his day enterprises of every possible sort have been carried out on a joint stock. It seems, indeed, that unless this form of conducting business had been generally under- stood, the gigantic undertakings of the present day such as the construction of railways could hardly have been accomplished; there would have been no capital available. I2O Otitlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. But every kind of business financial, commercial, agricul- tural, shipping, mining, manufacturing is now success- fully conducted on this basis. Though there are obvious disadvantages in the system since the management may be lacking in keen personal interest, and the owners of the property deficient in a sense of personal responsibility for the conduct of affairs it is steadily gaining upon private enterprise. Year after year we see private firms reconsti- tuted as joint-stock companies, and there are some lines of business, such as banking, from which the private firms have been almost wholly ousted. IV. Economic Policy. 80. In the preceding paragraphs an attempt has been made to trace out the different sides from Elements of . . . power, ship- which the State interfered with and controlled ping and trea- the development of our industry and com- merce. But it is also worth while to gather these various threads into one, and to show that a common purpose underlay all the efforts at regulation and control. This has been already indicated in connexion with the reign of Richard II, which proved such an important turning-point ( 47, 48); but the whole becomes clearer when it is looked at retrospectively as well as prospectively. The central authority kept a firm hand on all sides of economic life, and it employed them all so as to promote national power, and to render England stronger relatively to other nations. Though there were strokes of good fortune, on which the mercantilists could not have counted, and which aided their efforts, we need not deny them the credit of success in attaining the object they had at heart. In the time of Richard II, England was a small power in Europe, with no marine to speak of. At the beginning of the pres- ~vi.] Economic Policy. 121 ent century, England was strong enough to hold her own against the world, and her fleets guarded a world-wide com- merce. While the Mercantile System was in vogue, the highest ambition of those who designed it was accomplished, and England attained to a position of immense power and prestige among the nations. As already stated, there are some objects which may be regarded as common to all countries that seek to increase in strength. A sufficient food supply is one of them; the means taken by England to attain this end were by no means common and have been sufficiently described above. But two other objects were kept in the forefront by the Mercantilists; one of these was specially thought of by Englishmen the increase of our shipping and the strength- ening of our wooden walls. It was of obvious importance in the case of an island realm, and the efforts to encourage our shipping and seamanship ramified out into all sorts of subsidiary regulations. Further, the providing of a large treasure of the precious metals to meet political emergencies presented a difficult problem in the case of a country which had no mines; in attempting to solve it the Government devised expedients which affected many branches of enter- prise and employment. 81. Deliberate attempts to encourage English shipping are found as early as the time of Richard II. The policy of Edward III had practically and effects of discouraged Englishmen from engaging in the earl y na - trade, and their ships had suffered so much from the requirements of the king's military expeditions that the English mercantile marine was almost destroyed. To remedy this evil, an Act was passed in 1381 which in- sisted on the employment of English ships, although in the following year this was modified into giving a preference to 122 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. English ships. This policy, though politically advantageous, entailed numerous commercial disadvantages; even after the first few years of trial it appeared that shipowners were charging exorbitant rates, so that fewer goods were imported, and, consequently, the prices for imported commodities ranged higher than would otherwise have been the case. The grievance was so great that the navigation Acts were not steadily enforced during the fifteenth century; and in the sixteenth, Wolsey was definitely opposed to a restriction, which, though it might eventually increase shipping and power, in the mean time diminished plenty. He saw that a navigation Act would be likely to involve a reduction in the quantity of wine imported: and a double mischief would ensue to the king from the reduction of the cus- toms on wine, and to the consumer from a diminished supply and a consequent increase of the price. Thomas Cromwell was in favour of a strict navigation policy, but the old difficulties recurred under Edward VI; and the measure which was passed under Elizabeth was discriminating in character and aimed at the encouragement of English ship- ping, while it minimised the evils of restriction. 82. The next great change was in the time of the Effects on Commonwealth, when the commerce of Eng- Hoiiand, scot. j an( j h a( j considerably increased, and when a land, Ireland, and the Colo- stringent policy was re-enforced, not so much nies - for the sake of fostering English shipping, as in the hope of striking a blow at the carrying trade of the Dutch, and bringing the American and West Indian colonies into closer commercial relations with the mother country. The immediate object of the measure, as passed in 1651 and re-enacted in 1660, was fully attained, but at considera- ble expense, not so much to English consumers as to English colonists. They were restricted in their trade with one vi.] Economic Policy. 123 another and with European countries, and if the connexion with the mother country became firmer, it also became more galling. The navigation laws were merely intended to encourage the trade of England, but they told against the progress both of Scotland and of Ireland. The Scotch, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, had supplied the colonial markets with a good deal of coarse cloth which had been exported in Dutch ships. - With the passing of the Naviga- tion Act (1651) this channel of trade was closed, and after the Restoration they were also prevented from using English ships. The restriction was thus a serious blow to the strug- gling industry of Scotland, and the great popularity of the Darien scheme was undoubtedly due to a general belief that it would serve to give Scotch merchants and Scotch manufac- turers a footing in the distant markets, which had recently been closed to them. The Act of Union (1707), by uniting the two nations into one kingdom for commercial purposes, served to include Scotland in the benefits of the Navi- gation Act. Ireland, however, continued to be at a disadvantage through the greater part of the eighteenth century, indeed until after the revolt of the American colonies. She was treated as a dependency, and was excluded from direct trade with the colonies; Galway in particular suffered seriously from this restriction. The victualling of ships was a busi- ness for which Ireland was specially well adapted, and in more than one way her native interests were sacrificed to those of more distant colonies, as in the matter of Virginian tobacco ( 90) and West Indian rum. Commercial disabilities un- doubtedly retarded the development of Ireland, and served to open to the manufacturers of linen in Scotland advan- tageous markets which were closed to Irish linen (p. 137). 124 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. It may thus be said that the interests of consumers in England and of producers in Scotland, Ireland, and the colonies were alike sacrificed by the navigation Acts. That they had this effect was manifest all along; the only defence, and it seemed to those who maintained them a sufficient defence, lay in the fact that they attained their object. Under their influence, and apparently in consequence of them, the mercantile marine of England developed from being merely insignificant till it attained the supremacy of the world. The acquisition and maintenance of power was the end at which the framers of the navigation Acts aimed, and power they succeeded in securing. The marine of England decided the issue of the struggle between France and England in India and America. The mercantile marine of England rendered her superior to all the military strength of Napoleon; she found the sinews of war in a world-wide commerce, which extended over seas where none but the English flag was ever seen. It is easy to show that the system was costly: it is not so easy to be sure that the cost was excessive, considering how completely successful the policy eventually proved. 83. Closely connected with this scheme for the encour- Subsidiary agement of shipping were other measures callings. Fish- affecting (a) the training of seamen, () the buuciing'and development of ship-building, and (y) the naval stores, providing of materials and naval stores. a. The trade which did most to foster a class accus- tomed to a seafaring life was that of fishing; and many curious enactments were passed under the Tudors and in subsequent times for promoting this kind of enterprise. The simplest means was to bring about an increased demand for fish, and with this object a sumptuary measure was passed insisting that a fish diet should be used on two vi.] Economic Policy. 12$ days a week throughout the year as well as during Lent. Serious attempts appear to have been made to enforce this measure for nearly a hundred years. After it fell into dis- use, a new expedient was tried by the granting of bounties in connexion with the herring trade. These gave rise to a immense amount of fraud, and it may be doubted whether there was any equivalent advantage ; at the same time it is noticeable that, whether through this help or apart from it, English fishing developed more and more. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch fished largely in the immediate neighbourhood of Yarmouth, and with vessels of a build superior to anything that Englishmen possessed. By the close of that century, the latter had been so far suc- cessful in outrivalling the Dutch on their own methods as to get the local herring trade entirely into their hands. During the eighteenth century Englishmen also made con- siderable progress in "the pleasant sport of catching the whale"; while all through the long period from the dis- covery of Newfoundland to the present day, they have at least held their own in the recurring contest with French- men in the cod fishery. ft. Englishmen have so long excelled in the art of ship- building that it is interesting to note how much pains had at one time to be spent in fostering this form of skill. Henry V built several large ships of war in imitation of the Genoese vessels, and in the suceeding reign John Taverner of Hull and William Canynges of Bristol showed special enterprise in similar undertakings. Henry VIII and his successors shared this enthusiasm, although they were badly provided with dockyards and arsenals; but some pains were taken to remedy this fault by creating an establishment at Deptford in 1513. The direct encouragement which was given to English shipping under Elizabeth and in subse- 126 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. quent reigns was, of course, an indirect means of encourag- ing ship-building also. y. The policy is still further illustrated by various efforts which were made to ensure that the realm should be amply provided with naval stores. Special pains were taken to insist on the growth of flax and hemp. So far as maintaining a sufficient home supply of wood for ship- building was concerned, the interests of the navy were more or less sacrificed, as regards both England and Ireland, to the exigencies of the iron trade and the demand for fuel. But this seemed of less importance, as there was an abun- dant supply in the American colonies. To some writers it appeared as if the chief advantage derived by England from these dependencies was due to the ample supply of wood and tar which came from them, since this country had hitherto been dependent on Norway and Sweden for such stores. This was, indeed, a dominant element in the scheme of policy pursued towards the colonies. They were restricted in various ways, but they received every encouragement to open up their resources so as to supply those products in which England was deficient. So long as they expended their energies in this direction they would strengthen the mother country, and would certainly not injure her by successful competition. 84. To secure a supply of treasure was another great The bullion- point of economic policy. Without wealth in ist policy for the form of bullion it was not easy to meet any sudden emergency, or to raise and equip an army or a fleet. Treasure was, therefore, an important ele- ment for supplying the sinews of war and for increasing the power of the realm by providing the means of meeting any emergency. Hence we find various measures which were intended to bring a supply of bullion from abroad to this country. vi.] Economic Policy. 127 Such legislative effort can be traced back to the time of Richard II, but no earlier. There had been a good deal of legislation under the Edwards concerning the importation of coin, but these were really mint regulations intended to provide a sufficient currency for the realm and to keep the debased coins of other countries out of circulation in England. From the time of Richard II, however, we find that there was a systematic endeavour to accumulate bullion which might be hoarded as treasure, and thus maintain the power of the realm. As England was a country in which there were no mines, the precious metals could obviously only be procured from abroad, and they were brought in as the result of trade. To this end statutes of employment were passed, which required that those who came to buy English commodities should pay for them, or for a portion of them, in bullion. At the same time the export of bullion from the realm was prohibited, so that while this bullionist policy aimed at forcing merchants to bring gold and silver to this country, it also prevented them from taking it out. This system was followed in many lands, and was specially favoured in Spain by Charles V and his successors. It was not, however, very easy to enforce, as the precious metals, having great value in small bulk, are easily smuggled; and early in the seventeenth century, it gave place to what is more properly spoken of as a mercantile theory. Indications of this are found as early as the time of Richard II, and it was well understood in the days of Edward VI. But it did not come to the front until the time of James I, when it was put forward by the members of the East India Company as a justification of commercial transactions which the bul- lionists condemned. 85. The mercantilists, like the bullionists, aimed at increasing the treasure in the country, but they adopted 128 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. entirely different measures to this end. Instead of trying The Mercan to l e si s l ate directly for the precious metals, tiiists and the they held that, by legislating for the trade in East India commodities, they could induce conditions in which the precious metals would naturally flow to this country. If we sold a large quantity of goods to other lands and bought very few of their products, they would be bound to pay us a balance in bullion. Hence it appeared that by using expedients to limit the quantity and value of our imports, and to increase the quantity and value of our exports, there would be a balance of trade which could only be defrayed by payments in bullion from abroad. As thus recast, the effort to procure treasure ramified out in many directions, but it should not be forgotten that the fundamental reason for desiring bullion was the political one of acquiring treasure. Those who were most decided about the advantage of procuring treasure, were equally clear that gold and silver were only valuable by convention and not in their own nature; and in so far as mere eco- nomics were concerned, there was no tendency to regard bullion as a specially important form of riches or wealth. The practical question over which these two schools of economists, the bullionists and mercantilists, came into collision was of vital importance to the East India Company. The direct trade with India could not be carried on without the export of bullion. There was no market in India for the cloth or other bulky products of this country, and silver had to be exported in order to procure the silks and spices of the East; the bullionists protested against permitting any export of bullion at all. But the champions of the East India Company alleged that, by sending some silver abroad, they were able to drive a trade which enabled them even- tually to procure much more silver on the whole. They vi.] Economic Policy. 129 argued that the silver sent to India was like the seed which seemed to be wasted, but which yielded a plentiful harvest. They held that if London were a depot for East India goods, we could procure silver by selling them to other European countries. Hence they argued that it was unne- cessary to impose restrictions on the export of bullion, so long as an effort was made to ensure that the commodities exported by the country as a whole should exceed the value of the commodities imported. Gold and silver they argued must come in somehow, if the trade in commodities were carried on in this fashion. 86. The triumph of this mercantile policy gave a new importance to the efforts which had been The general made, from time to time, to plant new mdus- and particular tries in this country. In so far as we could balance of manufacture at home any goods which had hitherto been procured from abroad, the amount and value of our imports would be diminished with a corresponding improvement in the balance of trade. It was on this account that attempts were made to foster the silk trade and to discourage the consumption of any foreign commo- dities for which bullion was habitually paid. Authorities began to discriminate between the relative advantages of trade with different nations, and to note the particular balance with each country, as well as to sum up the general balance with the world as a whole. The inter- ramifications of trade are so many that this attempted discrimination between particular trades was probably quite illusory, as was seen by Dr. Barbon in the time of William III. But it took a firm hold on the public mind and gave rise to an immense amount of argument and to some legis- lation. There was a strong desire to cut down intercourse with France to a minimum, as the particular balance seemed OF THE UNIVERSITY 130 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. to be against England in that trade. On the other hand, it seemed desirable to encourage intercourse with Portugal, as the particular balance with that country was in our favour. In this fashion it came to be considered patriotic to drink port rather than burgundy or claret. And the tastes of consumers were treated with scant respect in consideration of the political advantages of fostering such a trade as tended not to diminish, but to increase, our treasure. 87. Besides the legislation which aimed at attaining one The balance or other of these various elements of power, suppled 8 * man y measures were passed with a view to criterion of foster the general prosperity of the country, the industrial , , , . ,, , , f 1*1 prosperity of an( * tnus to g lve a f un d from which revenue a nation. might be drawn for the defence of the realm. It was from this cause that the regulations of the mercantile system had so much vitality; but for this clear recognition of industry as a source of national wealth the mercantile re- strictions might have died out at the end of the seventeenth century. From the time of the foundation of the Bank of England, when public borrowing came to be habitually used for meeting emergencies, the political importance of treasure declined, and thus the whole of the economic system which rested upon it might have been expected to collapse. But it was too firmly founded to be easily broken up. The balance of trade was coming to be regarded in a new aspect, as a criterion of the industrial prosperity of the country and of its growing ability to bear the burden of taxation. If the balance of trade with Portugal was in our favour, it was thought that by our intercourse with that country our native industry received a stimulus. If, on the other hand, we had constantly to pay a debt to France, it appeared as if this intercourse fostered their industry more than it did ours. If the general balance of trade were in \n.] Economic Policy. 131 our favour the whole business of the country was apparently being done at a profit. But if the particular balance with any nation were against us, it seemed to show that they were gaining at our expense, that we offered a better market to them than they offered to us, and it was feared lest in this way they would gradually outstrip us in industrial pro- sperity and consequent wealth. It is here that the close con- nexion of the doctrine of balance of trade with the pursuit of political power makes itself felt. The power of one nation is relative to the power of other nations. If a country increases its armaments, but does not increase them so fast as a rival nation does, it is really becoming less powerful relatively to its possible enemy. And hence, ac- cording to the ideas of the time, political jealousy gave rise directly and immediately to commercial hostility. It was not until the time of Adam Smith that this narrow view of trade was set aside. He regarded wealth as the main object to be pursued; he held that if the wealth of the subjects increased, the sinews of power would be available somehow, and hence he argued that any intercourse between trading nations, since it benefited both in some degree, might be wisely continued. Each was really aiding the prosperity of the other, and since he regarded it as impossible to discrim- inate which gained most, he was prepared to hold that free intercourse between nations would be for the mutual advan- tage of all. 88. Since the desire to promote power lay at the root of the whole system, there was no scruple about . - . . . Individual sacrificing the interests of individual citizens, interests and or of any class of citizens, to what was sup- national pros- posed to tend to the political well-being of the F nation as a whole. On these grounds, as has been noted above, the taste of claret-drinkers was sacrificed, and those 132 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP who were fond of port were the gainers. So, on a larger scale, there was constant interference with the direction in which men employed their capital. The art of the states- man, as conceived by Sir James Steuart, the last of the mer- cantilists, was that of so playing upon the self-interest of individuals that they should devote their energies to those undertakings which fostered national power. It was for this reason that so much attention was directed to fisheries and to distant trades which employed shipping, and that premiums were offered for the encouragement of the Scotch and Irish linen trade. Bounties were also given on the im- portation of raw produce to be manufactured in this realm, as this seemed to be a real though a costly means of stimu- lating certain industries. With this same object, a revision of the tariffs was systematically undertaken by Walpole, who set himself to regulate the taxation of the country, so that manufactures might be directly encouraged. Raw products were imported on easy terms, and foreign manufactures were heavily taxed. Attempts were made to foster English in- dustry on many sides, and under the influence of this policy we became much more independent of foreign nations, and obtained a footing for our manufactures in all parts of the world. But though the result aimed at was attained, it is not certain how far the means employed really contributed to that end. Adam Smith's careful investigation has made it clear that the measures which favoured one industry or interest were very costly to others, and it seems quite pos- sible that the industrial development of the country might have been as rapid, if it had gone on with less interference. Sir James Steuart had recognised that the practical difficul- ties were such as to render it almost impossible to legislate wisely for trade in the public behalf; Adam Smith revolu- tionised the existing system by going one step further. He vi.] Economic Policy. 133 maintained that interference with trade was so sure to entail some mischief that it was practically better to leave it alone. 89. The most disastrous results of this attempt to sub- ordinate particular interests to the public good, followed when it was applied not merely interests and to individual industries, but was also used to national discriminate between areas. None of the colo- nies contributed anything to the general revenue of the realm. The greater number found it difficult to meet the expense of their internal government. Still, the colonists had their trade protected by British fleets, and were depend- ent on the mother country for assistance in the great struggle with their French neighbours. Their political interests were bound up, though not very closely, with those of England, while they took no direct part in contributing to the main- tenance of these defensive powers. Hence it came to be a recognised principle of policy that the resources of the colonies should be developed in such a fashion as to supple- ment the material prosperity of the mother country, but not on lines which would enable them to compete either with British industry or with British trade. British land, British industry and British trade provided the costs of common defence. It seemed fair to subordinate the economic interests of the colonies to the interests of the mother country, so that they might help to increase the fund of wealth from which the expenses of the common defence were defrayed. This broad political principle was so ap- plied as to enforce on the colonies that economic policy which best suited the interest of the mother country, and which thus contributed indirectly to the maintenance of English power. 90. The most favoured group of colonies consisted of those in the West Indies which supplied products entirely 134 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. distinct from those of England. They thus supplemented The west tne resources f the mother country, and ren- indian coio- dered her independent of the supplies which mes, and must otherwise have been obtained from Virginia. French or Spanish possessions. The West Indian colonies also furnished a depot for a profitable trade with Spanish America, while they were conveniently situated for the prosecution of the slave-trade, which employed much English shipping. On these grounds they were specially favoured, and much pains were taken to develop their re- sources and to foster their trade. So clearly was this felt that the trade of the northern colonies on the American mainland was somewhat restricted in the hope of giving additional prosperity to the West Indian islands. Virginia was also favoured to a certain extent. Tobacco had not been grown in England or in Ireland in early times, and when the first attempts at planting it occurred, in the seventeenth century, considerable efforts were made to check the new development. It was regarded as the staple product of Virginia, and the British and Irish tobacco growers were not suffered to compete with the colonists. In all proba- bility this measure was, to some extent, dictated by fiscal considerations, as it was far easier to collect duties on imported tobacco than to levy an excise on any that might be produced in England or Ireland. Still the fact remains that in this one instance a British interest was sacrificed to maintain the prosperity of a colony. Even though it was an exceptional case, it yet seems to illustrate the attitude taken by English statesmen and to set their whole policy in a clearer light. 91. The northern colonies, from their physical and climatic conditions, naturally came into direct competition with the mother country. They had special advantages for vi.] Economic Policy. 135 pursuing some trades, such as the manufacture of beaver hats or the smelting and manufacture of iron. The Northern The former of these industries was, however, colonies stamped out by the home Government, and Economic , . .. dependence. the latter was limited to those preliminary processes which could not be so well conducted in the mother country owing to the increasing expense of fuel. Ship-building was another trade for which the northern colonies were naturally well adapted; but this would have meant direct competition with a British industry, and they were encouraged to send the raw materials for building and fitting ships to England. On somewhat different grounds the policy of confining the colonies to the raising of raw products was pursued alike in regard to the more favoured southern groups, and to the less favoured northern colonies. It was distinctly believed that by rendering the colonists economically dependent on the mother country for manu- factures and other supplies, the political tie was strength- ened. To some extent this may have been the case, but it might be argued that the general result of the policy was precisely the reverse of what had been intended. When the conquest of French Canada diminished the interest of the colonists in the political struggles and ambitions of the mother country, the restrictions upon their trade and manufactures proved a source of constant irritation and led directly to the breach by which these flourishing terri- tories were lost to England for ever. 92. The policy already described receives abundant illustration nearer home, for it was in the case Irish com _ of Ireland that competition with the mother petition in the country was most possible, and that economic "fa cture jealousy was consequently keenest. Ireland The Irish was well adapted for growing wool, and the hnentrade - 136 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. peasants in some parts of the country had long been engaged in the manufacture of a coarse cloth known as frieze. There is some reason to believe that in the fourteenth century there had been a manufacture of finer cloth as well, while in the seventeenth century repeated efforts were made to plant the manufacture of broadcloth an important article of English production. As living was comparatively cheap, and as wool could be obtained in plenty, it seemed as if Ireland would have special advantages for this manufacture. Strafford, who saw that if the project succeeded it must be through successful competition with England, opposed the scheme, and tried to direct the industrial energies of the country into the linen trade. After the Civil War, however, renewed attempts were made, although without much success, until in the time of William III the West of England manu- facturers awoke to the superior advantages which Ireland had to offer, and migrated thither in considerable numbers. But a change of this kind aroused great alarm. England was engaged in a struggle with Louis XIV, which strained all her resources. She had to depend chiefly on the land-tax and the customs for her revenue. In so far as the West of England manufacturers migrated to Ireland the land- owners would lose through a fall in the price of wool, and the customs on the export of cloth would be diverted from the English to the Irish revenue. With the avowed object of preventing this financial difficulty a tax was imposed on Irish cloth, which was calculated to be a countervailing duty. It was, as a matter of fact, so oppressive that, in conjunction with the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Act, it effectually ruined the prospects of an Irish woollen manu- facture, and dispersed the artisans who were carrying it on in Dublin and other Irish towns. As these men emigrated to the Continent, and practised their calling in Germany vi.] Economic Policy. 137 and elsewhere, they set up rival manufactories which com- peted very seriously with those of England. Even the linen trade, which had been fostered by Strafford and in which the Irish were encouraged to find compensation for the loss of the woollen manufacture, was not fairly dealt with. When, by the Union, England and Scotland came to have a common purse, the Scotch linen trade was encouraged, both directly and indirectly, while the Irish manufacture was not. There was even some jea- lousy of this trade on the part of English clothiers. It was said that towns in the Low Countries, which at that time offered a good market for cloth, would be practically closed against us, if we did not buy our linen from them; and thus English politicians were inclined to look askance at the development of this trade, even though it did not directly compete with any established English industry. 93. So far we have considered the effects of the eco- nomic jealousy of Ireland, that is, of sue- Wh . >ea cessful hostile competition by Ireland with lousy of Irish the mother country. But political jealousy P ros P erit y- ' Irish cattle. was also an important factor. Both in the time of Charles I and James II Irish armies had been formed and had been under the sole control of the Crown. They had served at least to threaten the English Parliament and to support schemes of policy which were regarded as unconstitutional. In this way the Whig jealousy of the royal power, from which William III suffered so much, came, indirectly, to be a jealousy of Ireland, as a source from which the king might draw independent resources of men and money without appealing to the English Parlia- ment at all. This gave an additional importance to the hostile competition which has been already described. The migration of industry from the West of England to Ireland 138 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. meant the transference of resources from a region which Parliament could control to a district where they lay directly in the hands of the Crown. This jealousy was expressed in Charles II 's reign on the occasion of an attack which was made on the Duke of Ormond. He was interested in the development of cattle-breeding and grazing farms in Ireland. The English landlords and graziers objected to what they regarded as hostile competition, and Parliament imposed restrictions on the exportation of Irish cattle, which effec- tually stopped the progress of cattle farms in that country. That this was due to political jealousy is shown by the fact that no similar measure was passed against Scotland, although the economic competition of the two smaller king- doms was very similar in regard to this trade. 94. Besides these repressive measures, which were En Hsh and ^ ue P art; ty to economic and partly to political Irish Protec- jealousy, the progress of Ireland was retarded tion. The ^y some o f t h e measures which gave encour- Union. agement to English interests. This was espe- cially noticeable in the case of her agriculture. Pococke, in an account of his tour in 1752, gives a most instructive picture of the backwardness of the country in this respect. The Corn Bounty Act (1689), which did so much to stimulate agriculture in England, rendered it convenient for English farmers to grow so much corn that they had a large surplus to export to Ireland. Dublin and other towns could obtain their food supply from England, and there was far less demand for Irish-grown wheat than would otherwise have been the case. As a consequence, in the eighteenth century, while English tillage was advancing steadily, there was little corn grown in Ireland, even in those parts which were naturally well adapted for it. It thus came about that Parliament, in the interests of the power of the mother vi.] Economic Policy. 139 country, felt justified in repressing the hostile competition of the colonies and Ireland. While they welcomed such development in the West Indies and America as supple- mented the resources of the mother country, they gave no free scope to any Irish industry, and the measures which promoted the prosperity of England were positively inju- rious to its poorer neighbour. When, after the Declaration of Independence by the American colonies, greater freedom was given to the Irish Parliament to manage the commercial affairs of that king- dom, various efforts were made to adopt the various expedi- ents for promoting economic prosperity which had been carried out successfully in England. Some of these like the canals were not well adapted to the condition of the sister Island, though useful in this country for the convey- ance of mineral wealth ; others were of a costly character, and the disciples of Adam Smith denounced them as ruinous. Irish patriots gave expression to a not unnatural hostility to English manufactures; and the measures passed by the Irish Parliament found few defenders on this side of the Channel, while they were important elements in turning public opinion against Irish commercial independence and in favour of a closer union between the two countries. . CHAPTER VII. MONEY, CREDIT, AND FINANCE. 95. FROM the very earliest times of which we have any Barter. Money records the English appear to have been payment and acquainted with the use of money. We cannot go back to any period and say that in it there was no exchange of commodities, or even that goods were only bartered for goods while money was not used at all. Still there has been very great progress made both in regard to the knowledge of the nature of money, and also in applying it to many transactions which were for centuries carried on without it. Some economists speak of the times, or the spheres of life, in which men pro- cure their food and shelter without the intervention of money as instances of natural economy, and those in which money- bargains occur as cases of money economy. There has been a gradual substitution of money economy for natural economy in almost all the relations of life; some of the most difficult problems in economic history arise from our attempts to trace the steps of this change, and to show how it has re- acted, for good or for evil, on social and political life. It is easy to see that the introduction of money renders it much more easy to carry out an exchange. Barter is cumbrous, and it is also unlikely to be fair: it is difficult to 140 CHAP, vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 141 estimate the quality of any goods quite precisely, or to pay for them accurately in cattle or other forms of wealth which are not easily divisible. Close bargaining is only possible when money is in ordinary use, as a means of defining clearly and paying accurately; and so it is a great assistance in rendering bargains fair as between man and man. When there can be such close bargaining, it is possible to readjust the terms of exchange more accurately with every little varia- tion in the plenty and scarcity of goods. So long as barter prevails, there are likely to be customary payments of rent, and wages, and taxes; but as money is introduced, there may be frequent rearrangement of these payments and they come to be settled by competition. The regime of competi- tion is almost impracticable among people to whom barter is the only method of exchange known. When money is first introduced in any sphere, there may be a long period of fixed or assessed money prices which perpetuate the old arrangements in a new form ; but sooner or later compe- tition, with its frequent and precise readjustments of prices, is likely to follow the introduction of the method of reck- oning and of paying in money. Competition is in these days a word of evil omen; its oppressive effects in some sections of society are very sad, and many of us are inclined to look back with regret to the more stable conditions of customary prices and assessed wages. But it is well to remember that competition has come into being as the result of the introduction of money economy; whatever incidental disadvantages there may have been in this change, there are also enormous advan- tages, which we are apt to overlook. These become very apparent when we trace the substitution of a money for a natural economy in connexion with the expenses of government. The intervention of the former renders it 1 42 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. possible for the demands of the Government to be much more precise, and much more regular, and thus to be far less onerous to those who have to defray them. Money can also be levied in smaller sums and from a much larger circle, so as to be less burdensome to special localities; while it is possible to readjust the amounts and alter them in detail, so that the necessary pressure shall fall on those who can bear it best. All these points come out in the fiscal history of the country; but before dwelling on them we must note the principal changes that have been made in regard to money itself and the growth of experience in the employment of silver and gold and other forms of money. 96. In the period before the Norman Conquest and standard indeed long after it, silver was the standard silver, and the meta i from w hi c h money was coined; and debasement of the though there were moneyers in different towns, coinage. they exercised their calling under the control and authority of the Crown. There were, indeed, encroach- ments on this, as on other Crown rights, from time to time ; but during periods of strong and vigorous government, great attention was given to the maintenance of a definite standard of purity and weight. Henry I inflicted severe punishment on dishonest moneyers, and Henry II busied himself about the re-organisation of the Mint; from his time onwards the excellence of the English coin came to be a matter of just pride to the kings whose image and super- scription it bore. Some allusion has been made above (p. 1 2 7 ) to the difficul- ties which arose, during the time of the Edwards, when consi- derable quantities of debased foreign coin were brought into this country by the alien merchants who came to purchase wool. Edward I tried to prevent the introduction of such vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 143 coin, so as to keep up the standard of the English currency; but Edward III took the first step in a downward career, by issuing coins from the Mint of less than the ancient weight. It is almost impossible for good and bad coins to circulate together at the same nominal value; people are apt to pick out the best coins, either because theywish to hoard them, or to melt them down and use the bullion for export or for ornament. The effort to keep up the ancient standard of the currency had not been successful; Edward III probably tried to issue new coins that should be of about the value of those in ordinary circulation. He also seems to have tried to check the influx of debased silver, by coining Rose Nobles of gold, which were to serve the purpose of international trade with Flanders, and which were emblematic of his claim to the sovereignty of the sea. This left less excuse for the importation of corrupt foreign silver, but he did not succeed in excluding it altogether. In many continental countries, during the fourteenth century, the debasement of the coinage was very rapid; there was a slight temporary gain to the Crown, and the ulterior effects were not fully understood, though expounded with great clearness by a French bishop Nicholas Oresme. Event- ually English kings betook themselves to this disastrous method of tiding over temporary necessities. A wholesale debasement of the English coinage took place in the time of Henry VIII and Edward VI, when the coins were not merely reduced in size, but the metal was debased by a very large admixture of alloy. The coins of one issue of Edward VI contained only three parts of pure silver to nine of alloy. The economists and moneyers of the time did not fully realise the mischievous effects of this debase- ment, and much care was needed to reassert sound princi- ples, and to give them effect in the earlier years of Queen 144 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. Elizabeth. In 1561 the silver coinage was restored to its original purity, but the new issues were smaller in size and weight than the statutory coins of Plantagenet times. A pound of silver was not minted into merely twenty but into sixty shillings. That recoinage marks a date when the responsible officers had learned from experience one useful lesson about the nature of money. As the Discourse of the Common Weal shows, public opinion in the time of Edward VI was not clear as to the evils of a debased currency, but, from the time of Elizabeth onwards, no English Government has ventured on the dangerous expe- dient of deliberately tampering with the standard. 97. For alterations in the size or purity of coins neces- sarily bring about alterations in the number The fall in 3 the value of that must be paid for goods of any kind, silver and rise jf t h e q ua iity of the money is worse, it is of prices. ' necessary to pay a greater quantity of coins than before, for any given article. In technical language, if the value of money falls, the prices of commodities of every kind must rise. Prices rose in the time of Edward VI; the coins were so bad, that the buyer had always to pay a greater number of shillings than before to induce the seller to part with his wares. But when the purity of the coins was restored to its ancient fineness, prices did not return to their old level, as people had expected. This was partly due to the fact that the coins were smaller than formerly, but it also arose from another cause that was not obvious until many years after the recoinage occurred. The silver of which the coins were made was much more plentiful, and therefore far cheaper, than it had ever been before. The first half of the sixteenth century was a time when silver was beginning to pour in from the New World, and there was a consequent fall in its value, which prevented prices vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 145 from returning to their old level. In the reign of Elizabeth customers had to pay a larger number of pieces of cheap though pure silver for the purchase of commodities than they would have had to pay for the same goods at the beginning of the reign of Henry VII, when silver had been so much more scarce. This rise of prices, consequent on the in- creasing plenty of pure silver, went on steadily till about the time of Charles I ; and it is generally calculated that during this period the nominal prices of commodities in England rose three or four hundred per cent. 98. These changes in the coins and in the value of silver render it exceedingly difficult to make Difficulty in any satisfactory comparison between money finding or prices during the Middle Ages and at the st^nd^dof present day. For a very long period the value for long price of corn in England was nearly stable. per As, during this period, silver was getting scarcer and scarcer, and steadily rising in value throughout Europe, it appears probable that a deterioration of the coinage was going on slowly, or the rise in the value of silver would surely have been reflected by a fall in general prices. There appears, however, to have been one epoch at which the general range of prices was somewhat disturbed. The booty, pro- cured by English soldiers from the town of Calais and the French campaigns of Edward III, appears to have got rapidly into circulation, and to have been sufficient to cause a slight rise in the general range of prices about 1347 and 1348. This seems to have given real ground for dis- content with the attempt of the legislature, in the Statute of Labourers (1350-1), to force back the rates of payment to those which had been current in the year 1346. But on the whole it may be said that, from the earliest times when accounts are kept until the beginning of the Tudor period, 146 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. the nominal prices of the necessaries of life were practically unaltered, except in so far as the variations of the seasons made corn plentiful or scarce. The changes which occur in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century were owing to the reduction of the coins to less than a third of their former weight, and the reduction of the value of silver to one-fourth of what it had been. As a rough and ready method of comparison it may be said that a shilling of the later part of the seventeenth and succeeding centuries would not go quite so far as a penny in the fifteenth and preceding centuries. But this comparison of nominal prices, rough as it is, only takes us a very little way towards making any intelligent comparison of the standard of comfort. Partly from lack of information about the quality of goods, it is very difficult to compare medieval prices with those of the present day; even if such a com- parison could be had, it must still be borne in mind that many of the comforts of modern life were entirely unknown, and wholly unattainable even by wealthy people in the Middle Ages. 99. From the time of Elizabeth until the Revolution The recoin- there seems to have been comparatively little age of 1696. alteration in the coinage. The throes of the Civil War appear to have made but little difference in the issues of the currency. At the same time there can be little doubt that during this period the coinage was subjected to a very special strain. Money transactions were much more common than they had been in medieval times. The cir- culation of the coinage was more rapid, while there was less desire to hoard, and more encouragement for wealthy men to leave their gold with goldsmiths who lent it out to traders. The facilities which paper money gives were, if not wholly unknown, at least little developed. Exclusive vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 147 reliance on bullion for payments exposed the coinage of the country to wear and tear, while it was also alleged that many of the money-dealers habitually enriched themselves by clipping it. In the time of William III, consequently, English coinage was again in a very unsatisfactory state. The chief practical difficulties which arose were felt in inter- course with other countries. William III had to maintain large armaments abroad ; and to procure the necessary coin for payments in the Low Countries, he had to meet an adverse rate of exchange. One hundred and thirty-three nominal pounds of the clipped silver of this country had to be paid in order to secure a hundred pounds of current silver in Flanders. Hence the burden of taxation was im- mensely increased. As Professor Thorold Rogers has shown, the immediate effect of the recoinage of 1696 was to remedy the serious disadvantage under which England laboured. The adverse rate went gradually backwards, and within a few months the rates were so far equalised that nominal pay- ments in this country exactly corresponded with the money obtained for military purposes from bankers in Flanders. 100. Eighteenth century difficulties about the coinage were of a somewhat different character. They The gold arose from the fact that gold and silver were standard, alike standard coins, and that it seemed impossible to fix and maintain the ratio of one metal to the other. In the time of Charles II guineas had been coined, which were intended to be of the same value as twenty shillings in silver. It was found, however, in practice that the gold was more valuable than had been supposed, and that twenty-one shillings were an approximate equivalent. But this was only approximate. Silver coins were, on the whole, rated somewhat too low, and there was a temptation to melt down silver coins and to sell the bullion for gold. The deficiency 148 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. of silver coins was, in consequence, a matter of frequent complaint, and the inconvenience, which resulted, served to give popularity and vitality to the mercantilist doctrine of legislating to secure a balance of trade. It was not until 1816 that a real attempt was made to get rid of the difficulty altogether by the demonetisation of silver. When gold became the sole recognised standard of value, silver could be coined with such an amount of alloy that it should never be profitable to melt it down; while, when a limit was fixed beyond which payments in silver should not be legal tender, debtors were prevented from endeavouring to discharge their obligations in the less valuable of two standard metals. It may be possible, as bimetallists hope, to arrange by legis- lation and international agreement for a standard that shall be more stable and less fluctuating than gold. This, too, is liable to changes, such as occurred when Europe was flooded with the precious metals obtained in the New World, or there may be an exhaustion of the sources of supply such as was felt during the Middle Ages. It may be that a combined gold and silver standard like a compensating pendulum would serve better than either metal taken independently and by itself; but the experience of centuries seems to show that attempts to use one or other of two metals as a standard is sure to cause grave difficulties either within a realm or in the relations of international trade. 101. The foundation of the Bank of England (1694) The Bank of had verv important effects in popularising the England and use of paper money and other forms of credit. The Bank was a company which lent its capital of ^1,200,000 to Government on condition of receiving ;ioo,ooo permanently as interest. This constant revenue gave it a strong position as a wealthy body, and the Bank was able to circulate its notes, or promises to pay, as if they had vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 149 been actual coins. The public had confidence that these notes could be exchanged for gold on demand, and were therefore willing to take them as the equivalent of gold. The private firms of goldsmiths, with whom the Bank competed, made a serious attempt soon after its formation to discredit its notes by causing a run on the Bank at a time when, owing to the recoinage, there were special circumstances which rendered it difficult to obtain the necessary bullion. The Bank, however, defied this conspiracy; and as it was able to meet the bona fide demands of its ordinary customers, the incident does not appear to have done any serious harm. This was, perhaps, the first instance of a problem which has had to be faced again and again namely, to determine what reserve should be kept in a bank, so that it may be able to meet its engagements and to pay gold for all the notes that are presented. In Scotland where one Bank was started in 1695, and another in 1727, banking was not the monopoly of one great company, such as controlled monetary transactions in London, and a large body of experience on this point was soon formed. At one time an attempt was made to render a sudden run upon the Bank of Scotland impossible, by issuing notes which were con- vertible, not on demand, but only after a definite interval had expired. Owing to this restriction, however, these notes were depredated 'and did not circulate on the same terms as gold, or as notes which could be readily exchanged for gold. In another case, that of the Bank of Ayr, there was a very considerable over-issue of notes, and when the bank failed through the dishonesty of a manager, there was very wide- spread commercial disaster throughout Scotland. In the case of these Scotch banks there were ready tests, if any miscalculation was made; the notes either failed to circulate at their nominal value, or they were repaid with great ra- 150 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. pidity, through the ordinary channels of trade, to the banks which had issued them, and the general range of prices was not greatly affected by their operations. The Bank of England, however, was in a special position, as its notes were guaranteed by Government. When, at the close of the eighteenth century, Pitt made repeated demands for advances from the Bank, the governors were at last unable to meet their notes with gold, and they were forced to suspend cash payments (1797). When this occurred, the ordinary indications with regard to notes ceased to operate. The notes formed an inconvertible paper currency; their value merely depended upon their scarcity, and their scar- city depended upon the wisdom of the directors in not issuing too large a number. But the tests which had served, during the eighteenth century, for judging whether the issues were excessive or the reverse were no longer available (p. 152). There was a general rise of nominal prices, but it seemed as if this might be due to other causes, such as bad harvests or the exigencies of war. Though the Bullion Committee of the House of Commons (1810) detected the real cause, and showed that there had been a depreciation of the currency by an over-issue of inconvertible paper money, still Parliament and the nation were not convinced. It was not until 1819 that the evil was remedied, and that the gold standard was once more restored by the resump- tion of cash payments on the part of the Bank of England. 102. The development of banking, and especially the foundation of the Bank of England, led to Loans ; the Bank rate, some modification in the habits of traders, and the Act They became more and more accustomed to trade on borrowed capital. By means of their credit in the commercial world, they were able to obtain loans from bankers, and to carry on business on a vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 151 far larger scale than would have been possible had they been limited to their own capital. Their credit enabled them to procure capital; and the development of this credit system gave great opportunities for the expansion of trade. In the earlier part of the eighteenth century, when the financial power of credit was generally recognised, people were inclined to exaggerate its importance, and to regard it as a substitute for capital. But the credit of a trading com- pany is not capital; and unless it is so used as to procure the use of capital by borrowing, it does not really help to expand a business largely. The directors of the East India Company and of the South Sea Company were guilty of blunders in this matter. They expended their capital in procuring political advantages, and then got into difficulties through want of sufficient means to carry on their com- mercial undertakings. As time went on, however, larger masses of capital were formed, and commercial men began to count on being able to borrow money from the Bank in the ordinary course of business. When trade was going badly, the Bank was ac- customed to raise the rate at which it granted accommodation to traders; if this was done gradually, the Bank was able to avoid making new loans and thus to strengthen its own financial position, without giving any shock to credit in commercial circles generally. The raising of the rate tended to make prices in England fall, and thus to encourage ex- ports and diminish imports while it also tended to induce foreigners to send money to this country for investment at the higher rate of interest procurable. Thus, in more ways than one, the raising of the Bank rate tended to bring about a favourable state of the exchanges, and a flow of gold to this country which would, sooner or later, find its way to the coffers of the Bank. It could thus strengthen its position 1 52 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. and proceed to lend money on easier terms once more. The Bank was so well managed that in 1763, when the Hamburgh banks failed and there was widespread disaster on the Continent, the crisis did not extend to England. Similar good fortune attended their proceedings in 1782. In 1797, however, when Pitt borrowed so largely, the Bank rate was raised very suddenly, and was practically pro- hibitive to merchants who hoped to get the usual accom- modation. The scare, caused by this action on the part of the Bank at a time of general commercial anxiety, augmented the evil, and very serious results followed in the City from a course which, at this distance of time, it is not easy to defend. During the period when cash payments were suspended and the currency was partly depreciated, the Bank directors were unable to avail themselves of the indications given by the exchanges, and to control the state of credit in the City. But it was a disappointment that when cash payments were resumed, there was not the success which had been hoped for in avoiding financial trouble. There was a very bad crisis in 1825, and nearly twenty years later it was thought necessary to reconstitute the powers of the Bank of England, by what was known as the Bank Charter Act (1844). By this, the department of the Bank which issues notes was absolutely severed from that which makes advances and carries on ordinary banking business. In this way an attempt was made to separate the difficulties connected with the currency from those which arise through the fluctuations of commercial credit. The critics of the Act have complained less of what it has done than of what it has left undone. It has been held by many that the expedients requisite under the Act may sometimes lead to such precipitate action as to aggravate an impending crisis, vii.] Money, Credit^ and Finance. 153 and to diminish the subsequent power of the Bank to grant needed assistance. Other critics are doubtful whether, con- sidering the scale on which business is now done, there is anything like a sufficient reserve to render the Bank as safe as it is habitually supposed to be. The impression that the Government will somehow see it through any period of disaster gives it a status which may enable it to maintain the credit system of the country on a far smaller basis of cash than would otherwise be possible. 103. All these facilities for currency and finance were only gradually utilised by the Government for Payment in public purposes. In the time of the Norman kind and by kings the main support of the Crown came "]i in kind from the royal estates ( 24); the casual taxa- king lived 'of his own,' and much of his own tlon * would be stored for the use of his household as he travelled from one estate to another. Even the taxes which were paid into the Exchequer seem to have been sometimes paid in kind, as late as the time of Henry I; and when we remem- ber that the king relied for his army on personal services rather than on paid forces, we see that money entered to a comparatively small extent into the finances of the realm. The same holds true at first of other demands and of taxes on trade. The king had a recognised right to obtain certain commodities for his personal needs and those of his house- hold, and to receive a share of the imports and exports. It was a real protection to the subjects when these rights ceased to be arbitrary and became definite. Thus the practice of caption gave place to a recognised privilege of pre-emption by the king's purveyors, though, even as late as the time of the Long Parliament, there were many grievances resulting from the manner in which they exercised their powers. It was also a real boon when the customs came to be taken 1 54 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. at understood and definite rates, when the prise of wine was limited, and excessive tolls (malae toltse) on wool were given up. In the last case a rate defined in money set the limit to arbitrary demands : this was a great boon to traders, for the effect of arbitrary taxation on trade is most preju- dicial. With the growth of Parliament under Edward I and Edward II the Commons obtained the power of stopping that arbitrary taxation against which their forefathers had protested in Magna Carta. In Norman and Plantagenet times taxation on land and on personal possessions (1181) was levied in money, and was casual in incidence rather than arbitrary in amount. Different tenants held by differ- ent tenures, and the royal demands came upon them in different forms and on different occasions. In some years there might be demands of aids from tenants on the royal demesne; sometimes there would be a scutage ; sometimes the towns were tallaged, while Henry III and Edward I oc- casionally obtained the right to share in the spiritual taxa- tion which usually went to the Pope. Though taxation in the time of Henry III was very frequent and very heavy, there were no two consecutive years in which similar pay- ments were made by similar persons. The occasional and haphazard nature of taxation must have rendered it very inconvenient to many of those who were called upon to pay; indeed, at this stage, it illustrates some of the evils of a money economy, for these irregular demands gave great opportunity for the operations of Jews and other money- lenders. Hence it is not surprising that when the machinery for collecting taxation came to be organised in Parliament, special care was taken to render taxation regular so far as might be. The taxes which were voted were still occasional, but they were taken as far as possible at a regular rate, and vii.] Money, Credit, and Finance. 155 causes of dispute as to what each man ought to pay were greatly reduced. The most striking inequalities in English taxation in later times seem to have arisen from the instinct of maintaining regularity at any cost and of clinging to the fiscal arrangements once made, even when the circumstances for which they were originally devised have wholly altered. 104. One striking illustration of this tendency to prefer a fixed money payment to variable demands i j ^i . r- i Tenths and may be found in the great financial agreement fifteenths . of 1334. The taxation of moveables before The Tudor this time had been made by means of assess- subs ments of the actual possessions of the persons taxed. In some cases these had granted exemption for the stock and tools of the labourer; in others the tax had been levied more exhaustively. In some cases taxation had been levied at one fractional part and sometimes at another, but in 1334 it was determined that the king's commissioners should agree on a composition which each town or village should pay, as the equivalent of a tenth on moveables within the towns, and a fifteenth on the counties. The terms tenth and fifteenth henceforward meant a sum of about ,39,000, and when Parliament voted two or more tenths and fifteenths there was an understood sum which each district was called upon to pay. This arrangement lasted until the reign of James I, but long before that time various difficulties had arisen. Some parts of the country decayed and were unable to pay their quotas, while other districts prospered without having to pay any additional charges. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, in particular, we read of many towns which obtained exemption. Sometimes a total of four thousand pounds and sometimes no less than six thousand were remitted. Still the expenses of government were apt 156 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. to expand; and, while these remissions were being made, there was need of extra assistance in emergencies, such as occasioned the celebrated poll-taxes of 1377 and 1381; while the defence of land and sea imposed duties on the Crown which it was not easy to fulfil. Convoy money was taken from certain ships, and attempts were made to organise some defence for the coasts. But these things hardly affected the general taxation of the country, as the revenue was levied, so far as possible, from those who benefited directly by the new arrangements. It is extraordinary, too, to see how large a field, covered now-a-days by regular government organisation, was then left to private munifi- cence. The maintenance of roads and bridges was but little attended to except when it was undertaken by the charitable and the pious. Even the burden of defending the realm against the Spanish Armada was largely borne by loyal subjects, who voluntarily came to the aid of their queen. This personal sentiment of loyalty and willingness to make voluntary sacrifices was shown for the last time in the Civil War, as it was an important element in the equipment of the army of Charles I. Under Henry VIII a serious effort was made to read- just the fiscal system of the country to the condition of its material prosperity. The tenths and fifteenths were supple- mented by a general subsidy of 4^. in the pound on the yearly value of land and 2s. 8 Thu ^ j n Qne Cam _ bridgeshire parish, it is said that all the small farms were united in the hands of one man, who lent money to his neighbours and foreclosed when the continued bad harvests had ruined them. But those who were able to pull through this bad time enjoyed exceptional prosperity during the Napoleonic wars. The price of wheat was very high, and even though the burdens on the land poor-rates, tithe and other taxation were heavy, some agriculturists had a most prosperous time. The peasant farmers had their share of the large money returns, or, if they preferred to betake themselves to some other line of life, they were able to viii.] Agrictdture. 193 obtain very high prices for their small farms. It is said that many of them took this latter course, and so escaped the reverses which came on the agricultural interest at the close of the war. It was partly because some were bad at their business, partly because some were ruined in bad times, and also because others were able to take advantage of good times, that the class of small farmers disappeared, and gave place to the modern conditions with which we are familiar. In not a few cases their difficulties were aggravated by the withdrawal of manufactures from rural places. There was less employment for their households, and perhaps for themselves, when spinning and weaving were concentrated in factory districts. There was less local demand for such products as eggs and milk when the weavers and their families deserted the villages. All these tendencies were concomitants in an agricultural revolution, the full impor- tance of which has hardly been yet realised. For whatever may have been the steps in the transition, it seems certain that, with the disappearance Ri ca rdo's of the small farmer, we have the disappear- theory of rent, ance, for the present at least, of subsistence iarming in England. During the nineteenth century and generally speaking during a great part of the eighteenth farming has been a trade, and the success of the farmer depends on the money returns to his business. In the war period when prices were high, it was worth while to extend the area of tillage as much as possible, and to plough up land that was badly suited for corn. When prices fell, this land, which was on the margin of cultivation, was no longer used for tillage. Ricardo was thus able to formulate his celebrated explanation of the changes in rents for corn land. Land which was on the margin and just repaid the expense of 194 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. cultivation would afford no rent for corn; but any land, better suited for growing corn, could do so; and the amount it afforded to the landlord would be the equivalent of the advantages it possessed over such land as was on the margin. Ricardo's explanation of the differences and varia- tions in corn rent was instructive at the time, for it summed up and formulated a condition of affairs which, though familiar to us, was then somewhat of a novelty. The ex- pansion and contraction of agriculture had come to depend on market prices, and the rise and fall of corn rents did not cause high prices, nor even follow them directly; but rents were affected by prices through the effect of the latter on the increase or decrease of tillage. 1 20. Even before the close of the war, it was obvious Permanent ^ at ^ peace were restored, and English ports improve- were open to foreign corn, there must be a sud- den drop in prices, and consequently a great diminution of the area under cultivation, with a subse- quent fall in rents. It seemed as if ruin stared the whole agricultural interest in the face, and the Corn Law of 1815 was a deliberate effort to stave off imminent disaster by trying to keep the price of corn up to Soj 1 . the quarter. The law of William III had been entirely different; it had aimed at making the price stable, whereas this measure was designed to keep it high. The underlying political principle of rendering the country self-sufficing has been already discussed ( 54), but the economic motive was certainly that of preserving the agricultural interest from ruin. The con- demnation of the law lay in this, that it failed to accomplish its purpose. In spite of the special protection which it re- ceived, agriculture went from bad to worse. One committee after another examined into the condition of the country, and from 1815 to 1825 there were reiterated reports of the viii.] Agriculture. 195 miserable plight into which the farmers had fallen. The Corn Law inflicted a great deal of suffering on the manufac- turing interests, but it did not serve to avert very serious misfortune in the rural districts. In so far as English agriculture was able to hold its own and rally, or to maintain itself when the full Draina force of foreign competition was felt after and high 1846, it was because necessity was the farmin *- mother of invention. Every effort was made to secure greater efficiency especially greater economy through the application of capital to land in permanent improvements. The experience of Mr. Smith of Deanston had demonstrated the advantages of thorough draining. Land which was properly drained could be much more easily and more thoroughly worked, so that when this improvement was effected, better crops could be regularly produced. Large areas of bog and marshy ground have been reclaimed through this process, and made available for tillage, while other districts have been rendered far more productive. By the use of new manures and by high farming the general agriculture of the country has been raised to a degree of efficiency that has far outstripped the hopes of eighteenth century improvers. And this result has been chiefly attained by sinking capital in permanent improvements. Landlords and farmers have combined to use their capital to produce this result, and to raise English agriculture to the high degree of excellence and prosperity which it had attained in 1874. 121. The efforts of the agriculturist have been enter- prising, but the greatly increased facilities for past and communication with fertile regions in distant future - continents have seemed, during the last twenty years, to make it hopeless. Whatever fortune is in store for English agriculture in the future this maybe insisted on; we cannot 196 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. hope to succeed by reverting to any method or system that has been already condemned. Extensive culture and the three field system could not compete successfully where the accumulated skill and enterprise of recent years have failed. One hope may lie in saving some of the expense of superintendence. It is argued that on smaller farms the best methods of culture can be organised and carried on with less expense, and that a saving can be effected in this fashion. But to break up the land into smaller holdings is not necessarily to revert to an old condition. The small farms of earlier days were badly managed, and if small holdings are to succeed it will be because they can be better managed than the large ones; and because all the new methods, which have been introduced by wealthy farmers, can be adopted by men with less capital. While the land- lord can sink a good deal of capital, the peasant farmer may supply more efficient labour than he would give under supervision, and it is conceivable that there might thus be some saving in the payment for superintendence. Those who pin their faith to smaller holdings must mean that such farmers can take full advantage of modern improvements; we cannot go back to the small holding of the subsistence farmer or of the man who was half weaver and half grazier. Still it may be doubted whether subsistence farming Gardens and could not be utilised as an adjunct to our allotments. modern system. There maybe produce which it is hardly worth while to take to market, and which yet supplies excellent food. It is conceivable that the labourer might grow for his own use, in a garden or small allot- ment, produce for which he could hardly find a market, but which he would go without if he did not grow it himself. Poultry and pigs are possible adjuncts to a cottage with a garden; although they might not be remunerative as viii.] Agriculture. 197 market speculations, they might be well worth having as aids to the subsistence of a family. A cottager can rarely compete with the capitalist or the foreign producer in the market, but if he has the means and ability to procure some important elements of subsistence, he may live in fair com- fort even if he is not in constant receipt of wages. If the necessary work in his garden is compatible with his farm work, even at times of pressure, so that the two employments can be carried on alternately and justice be done to both, the cottager may possibly live in greater comfort, even if the farmer's payments for labour should be reduced. Whether it is possible to turn attention to products which are not grown at present, and which would pay better than those already cultivated is a difficult speculation. Our temperate climate renders it possible for us to grow many things somehow; but each of these various products will perhaps grow more readily in some other land, which is within easy reach by sea. The command of the sea has brought us into connexion with distant lands and climates unlike our own, and the very success of our commerce seems, year by year, to narrow the range of profitable occu- pations for the landed interest. CHAPTER IX. LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 122. ADAM SMITH, in the opening chapter of the Wealth of Nations, has drawn a contrast between the The division J .,,,,. , , , . M . , of labour in material well-being of a savage and of a civilised industry and people. He ascribes the difference between agriculture. . ... . , . . . the two, in their power of obtaining the neces- saries and conveniences of life, to one main principle the division of labour. It allows of a saving of time and a saving of skill in many directions, and by its means far more work can be accomplished with infinitely less drudgery. The effectiveness of the division of labour has been fami- liarised by the one classical illustration of the making of pins: but its general effects on society are worth a little consideration, especially when we remember that it is com- paratively modern. Combination of employments has ex- isted time out of mind, but the systematic division of labour was not very common before the eighteenth century. In the first place it may be noticed that the prin- ciple cannot be applied equally well in all callings for example, agriculture is not a favourable field for it. The processes of agriculture are dependent on the seasons of the year, and nothing that we can do will serve to hurry them on. Division of labour in industry enables men to 198 CHAP, ix.] Labour and Capital. 199 do more in less time, but agriculture is dependent upon natural operations, and no exertion will make the harvest come prematurely. As a consequence, the agricultural la- bourer has to devote himself to different occupations during each season of the year. The old-fashioned illustrations of the appropriate labours for each month like the bronzes on the doors of S. Zenone at Verona show that this has been the case from time immemorial. There has been great progress in agriculture since primitive times, but it is not nearly so striking as the revolution in our industrial powers : where division of labour is least possible, the change is least complete. From this it follows that the agricultural labourer has a greater variety of occupation than almost any other workman in our present society. If his life is monotonous and dull, this is not due to the deadening effects of me- chanical work which are sometimes ascribed to the divi- sion of labour. Division of employments, combined with the practical convenience of training a son to the occupa- Bag . g of tion of his father, has served as the economic class distinc- basis of the caste system; and the pursuit of tions> hereditary callings seems to have led to the accumulation of inherited skill, so that each new generation has a special aptitude for the work it has to accomplish. In England there has never been such a hard and fast separation as in the East, but the social effects of the division of labour are very noticeable even here. For some kinds of work it is necessary that a man should have a long and careful training as, for example, a surgeon; while the employment of a bricklayer can be picked up easily. It is socially advan- tageous that each should keep to his line: the surgeon would spoil his hands as a bricklayer, while the bricklayer could hardly be trusted with a delicate operation. It is not 2OO Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. advantageous that there should be frequent change on the part of adults from one occupation to another; and if there is division of employments at all, some persons will have higher or better work than falls to the lot of others. Apart from all questions of social importance or remune- ration, it is best for any one to take up such work as affords the widest scope for progress and improvement. The doctor or lawyer is likely to go on learning his business better all his life, while the artisan is at his best from twenty- five to thirty-five. And there is a very great difference in the whole status of those whose powers are constantly im- proving, and of men who have nothing more to learn in their work. This marks a real difference of social grade. In all ranks of life the principle is generally adopted Differences that the most highly skilled and responsible of opportunity. WQrk should be ^ most higWy paid TMs is so obvious and natural that it seems unnecessary to dwell on it. There is, however, some slight indication of a feeling which views the matter from a personal rather than from a social standpoint. It is said that the professional man has pleasanter work to do, and that, therefore, he may be expected to work for less pay than the man who does more disagreeable work. This is a fair principle of adjustment within any social grade, and does take effect in the minor differences of remuneration within the same social class. But so far as society is concerned it is right that the man who, having the opportunity, does what is best worth doing, should get the greatest reward; and from this it follows that he has a better chance, if he desires it, of starting his children in a line of life similar to that which he has adopted, since he can pay for their longer training. However much we endeavour to break down any disabilities that may have hitherto prevented the boy of exceptional ability from ix.] Labour and Capital. 201 rising in the world, there seems to be little prospect of a time when all shall start with equal opportunities. No very satisfactory system of selection in tender years has been devised, and so long as family ties are recognised at all, the son of the successful man will have better opportunities in beginning life than other people, since he has time to be trained for difficult, responsible, and well-paid work. The disabilities to which the medieval serf was exposed have been done away, and obstacles to passing from one social grade to another are far slighter than was formerly the case. The accident of favour from a patron had much to do in the past with the promotion of individuals, even in the most democratic of professions the Church. There has been a conscious effort in our days to create a system which shall offer an opportunity to the most energetic to rise out of their class into a higher grade, by their merits and apart from favour. But the principle of division of employments and division of labour has come into increasing operation since medieval times; and its tendency is to accentuate and perpetuate the severance of classes, by introducing real differences of thought and habit. Class distinctions, if less apparent than they were when marked by special kinds of attire, are no less real. In some respects they are deeper than they used to be when a seven years' apprenticeship was the similar mode of admission into a great variety of different callings. 123. While laying stress on the economic importance of the division of employments and of labour, capital in Adam Smith does not fail to allude to its t hecloth trade and its necessary conditions. "As the accumulation services to of stock," he says, "must, in the nature of labour. " things be previous to the division of labour, so labour can "be more and more subdivided in proportion only as stock 2O2 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. " is previously more and more accumulated " ( Wealth of Na- tions, Book n, introduction). He thus fully recognises that division of labour cannot be introduced spontaneously. It is only under certain conditions that it is possible; only under favourable conditions that it can be carried a step farther. How far labour can be profitably divided, de- pends on the extent of the market, or, to put it otherwise, on the scale on which business can be organised. It cannot be organised on a large scale without capital. This is an essential condition for the minute division of labour in modern times; it is only through the existence of capital that labour obtains its greatest degree of skill and efficiency. Not only is this so, but in the progress of the industrial arts capital has come to take an ever increasing part in the work of production, and to interfere more and more with the unaided efforts of labour. To some extent it has facili- tated them, and to some extent it has superseded them; in fact these two things must go together to render labour more easy is to leave less scope for the exertion of labourers in any given piece of work. If we go back to the time of the Norman Conquest we find a marked contrast with our own day. Industry was then practically altogether independent of capital. The labourer possessed a few tools, as he does now, but this was his only stock in trade, and wealthy men did not use their money in industrial labour so as to procure a revenue. Industrial capital, in the modern sense, was un- known even after economic freedom had made some advance. We may picture the medieval artisan to our- selves in so far as a money economy had come in as a man who had to spend much time in trying to dispose of his wares. Hereward visited William's camp as a potter, and many craftsmen must have been, to some extent, IX .] Labour and Capital. 203 pedlars or have visited fairs, in order that they might dis- pose of their goods. In other cases we may think of them as men who had to wander about in search of custom, as travelling tailors did in the early part of the present century. Under these circumstances there was no capitalist tailor, for the customer supplied the materials, and furnished food while the work was being done. There was no middleman and no employer, in the modern sense, for the artisan was in direct communication with the consumer. But whatever may have been the advantages of this system it certainly had its disadvantages the craftsman who wanted to sell the product of his labour passed much of his time in seeking for custom. He could not devote all his strength to the execution of his work. This must have in- volved much anxiety and waste of time to individuals, and would be a considerable loss to society when there were still few suitable markets for labour and its products. Whatever the disadvantages of present conditions may be, it is at least an advantage that the craftsman can spend his time on the work at which he is really good, while he is not so constantly and habitually diverting his energies to the search for employment. Through the intervention of a middleman between the consumer and the producer, the craftsman is able to concentrate his energies on that for which he is really skilled. The increasing intervention of capitalists in the staple industry of England 'the manufacture of Capitalism cloth has been traced with great clearness in supplying by Professor Ashley. He shows that, in all em P lo y ment - probability, the different branches of labour requisite for turning out a properly finished piece of cloth were carried on as separate industries by independent workmen with apprentices and journeymen in their houses till the middle 2O4 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. of the fourteenth century. The weaver bought wool or yarn, and made the cloth. He sold it to the fuller who worked it into a close fabric ; it was then sold to the shear- man, who smoothed the nap with his heavy shears and turned it out ready for the purchaser. The relations of these trades to one another are not quite clear, and it is probable that they varied, at different times, even in the same place. It is quite likely that the weaver sometimes employed shearmen and fullers for the work they did on the cloth he had made and which he proceeded to sell. But in the middle of the fourteenth century, we find traces of a class called drapers, who seem to have been merchants. They bought cloth from the weavers or fullers, and then supplied it to customers in distant markets. Their inter- vention was only natural when the English began to do a considerable export trade in cloth. The weavers and fullers had no direct access to foreign markets, nor even to those distant English towns to which the draper might send their wares. This system, or something very closely resembling it, appears to have continued in Yorkshire till the present century. The weavers worked on their own account in the country round about the towns, and brought in the cloths to sell to merchants at the Hall in Halifax or the Bridge at Leeds. But in the Eastern Counties and other parts of England the trade had been organised in a different fashion as early as Tudor times. The clothier, in ordinary par- lance, 1 was an employer who arranged the whole trade in its various branches. He delivered wool to the weavers, and employed carders, spinners, dyers, fullers and other workmen. These master clothiers organised the whole 1 According to Yorkshire usage the term clothier was used for a domestic weaver, who sold his goods to a merchant. K.] Labour and Capital. 205 manufacture as a modern employer does. Some of them, like Stump of Malmesbury and John Winchcombe of Newbury, were the owners of establishments which closely resembled factories. They came more and more into pro- minence during the early part of the sixteenth century, and though an attempt was made to put them down in rural districts under Philip and Mary, there were numerous exemptions, and the measure was repealed under James I. From that time it appears that the clothing trade, through- out the greater part of England, was organised on capitalist lines, as the clothier furnished the materials, arranged for the various processes, and sold the finished product. The weaver had neither to busy himself about securing and pre- paring materials, nor about finding customers for his goods when they were woven; he might actually do his work at home, but, so far as economic relations were concerned, he was working for an employer. From Yorkist and Tudor times there is evidence of difficulties between the weavers and the master clothiers. On the one hand there was often doubt as to the honesty of the weavers who were accused of embezzling materials, and on the other, there is a long series of acts against 1 truck,' as the clothiers were apt to pay in goods and not in money. Still, though the domestic system held its ground in Yorkshire till the present century, we can see that it had grave disadvantages, and that the Yorkshiremen must have spent a good deal of their time one day or more a week in getting materials and frequenting the Cloth Hall, while all this was more likely to be saved by workmen elsewhere, who got employment from a master clothier. 124. The next form in which we find the intervention of capital is in supplying implements for doing the work. 206 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. The master clothiers appear to have undertaken this func- Capitai as ^ on * n Tudor times, for they owned looms supplying im- at which their employe's worked, they pos- piements. ses sed fulling mills, and they used gig mills; the latter were condemned under Edward VI as injurious, since they did the work badly. But the whole step be- comes clearer in another trade which was, from the first, a machine industry. Knitting and lace work were carried on by means of frames invented by Mr. Lee, in the time of Elizabeth. Like many inventors he derived little benefit from his ingenuity, but within half a century of his death the trade began to flourish greatly, both in London and Nottingham. The attempts of the Framework Knitters Company to regulate the industry in the interest of the journeymen were not very successful; early in the eighteenth century many abuses began to show them- selves, and the workers were in a most distressed con- dition. One of the chief complaints arose from the large number of apprentices, so that trained workmen were deprived of opportunities of employment; they felt it a bitter grievance that, even while little work was given out to them, they should be charged regularly for frame rents. The frame was an implement worked by hand, and there were few attempts to introduce power, or to modify the organi- sation of the trade till after 1840. But at all periods of bad trade complaints of the same sort were heard. Dissatis- faction broke out in a violent form in 1816, at the time of the Luddite riots, when numbers of frames were broken; the disturbances were skilfully organised and seem to have been carefully directed against those frame owners who were specially unpopular. 125. In this particular instance of framework knitting, the implement, which the capitalists hired out to their ix.] Labour and Capital. 207 workers, did not supersede labour at all. It was an inven- tion which called a new industry into being, The depend . and this may be noted as an early instance of ence of labour a trade that was completely organised on capi- c talist lines. The employer not only found a market for the goods, and supplied materials, 'but he furnished the neces- sary implements as well. Capital had intervened on every side of the labourer's life and furnished the means by which the workman could devote himself exclusively to his proper calling. The division of labour was carried very far under the master clothiers. 1 The steady progress, in favour of this type of organisation, may be said to prove that it has had distinct advantages, that the public are better served by its means than they could ever be by the labour of isolated workmen, each conducting his business, in all its sides, on his own account. But if great advantages have accrued through the intervention of capital, there are also risks of serious danger. New facilities are given for the doing of work, but the workman becomes dependent on his em- ployer, for materials, for the opportunity of employment, and for implements of labour. The period of the industrial revolution showed, on the one hand, the ability of capitalists to take advantage of new powers and new methods, but it also brought into clear light the reality of the dangers which are likely to arise under a system of capitalist production, unless care is taken to guard against them. There is a certain parallel between the changes which have been described in connexion with agri- Comparison culture, and those which occurred through the ^J^J^JJf 1 " capitalist organisation of industry. Medieval industry, tillage was subsistence farming; the modern agriculturist is a trader who looks to the market for his returns. In 1 Reports, &c., 1840, xxiv. 388. 208 Outlines of English Industrial History. somewhat similar fashion, the isolated workman may b* said to have laboured with a direct view to subsistence. This work had direct relation to some customer's wants, and the price he charged was directly calculated from the food, &c. required during the time of labour. Subsistence was recognised as a first charge, and prices followed it. But the drapers, master clothiers and other employers were forced to look directly to the markets. The time of money economy had come in ( 109). Prices settled themselves according to demand and supply. The market might be over-stocked, or owing to some unforeseen accident, buyers might be few. In either case the clothiers had to take what they could get, and the payment which could be afforded to the workmen necessarily depended on prices, and varied with them. The two things must always have been closely con- Reasonabie nected. Doubtless, in medieval times, there andcompe- were ma ny men who were unable to find customers, and who had to submit to forced sales; but the principle on which business was done is quite clear. Every effort was made to prevent the sale of English goods abroad, unless the price obtained was really remunerative. Every effort was made to fix the price of goods so that the artisan might get a 'reasonable ' reward for his trouble. Prices were, so far as possible, adapted to the labourer's requirements, though doubtless the policy was not always successfully applied to practice. But with the intervention of capital, the old relations have necessarily been reversed. The effort, now, is to force a market and to secure a sale by producing cheaply. There is a con- stant tendency to cut prices down, and the reward of the labourer necessarily follows the operations of the capitalist. In old days when wages were practically fixed, the require- ix.] Labour and Capital. 209 ments of the labourer were a first charge, and this must have tended to steady prices; but now that prices fluctuate greatly, the condition of the labourer is directly affected by them. While we may fully recognise all the advantages that have come to the labourer through the introduction of a money economy, we should also take note of the dis- advantages as well. The modern labourer who is econo- mically free ( 66) has many advantages over the medieval serf; he can go where he hopes to improve his position and make his own bargain in definite terms for definite pay ( 1 09) . His relations with his master are very precise as between man and man; but his opportunities of employ- ment and his daily bread are dependent on the changing conditions of trade in distant lands. He has gained in independence, and in the precision of the terms of employ- ment, but he has lost the comparative stability of his former condition ( 130). These two views of the manner in which trade may be most wisely conducted correspond with the Good and different conceptions of the meaning of pros- bad trade, perity in trade. We may have a period of slow and steady development; this means stability in the employment and remuneration of the labourer; and regular, though not large, returns to capital. It is good for both. If, on the other hand, we have, from any cause, a period of rapid fluctuations when prices vary a great deal, the labourer benefits very little, and many capitalists may suffer serious loss : but the far-seeing and successful man, who is able to take advantage of the change, may gain enormously. We may mean by good trade, a time when there is steady and slow development, or a time when the enterprising specu- lator can make his fortune rapidly. The latter is, at all events, a time of apparent prosperity. Sudden accumula- 2IO Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. tions of great wealth strike the public imagination, but they are not always symptoms of a really healthy condition of trade. The fortunes made by the East India Company's servants in India entirely misled the shareholders and the public at home, as to the real character of the trade of the Company. During the Napoleonic wars there were unex- pected facilities and chances for the sale of English goods at monopoly prices all over the world, and this gave an un- exampled opportunity for the making of fortunes. As we look back on that time we may see that it was really a period of unhealthy inflation, followed by a sudden reac- tion, that was very injurious to all persons engaged in trade. 126. Men are never tired of repeating the truism that the interests of capital and labour are really The conflict- * ing interests of one. It is obvious that both gain through Capital and t h e prosperity of trade, and that both lose Labour. when it declines. If ruin overtakes the capi- talist, the labourer is thrown out of employment; if the workmen are ill-fed and incompetent, the capitalist cannot prosper. In the long run, or over a period of years, the interests of the two parties are similar; but at no point of time are they identical. They are always distinct and, at any given moment, the difference may come prominently into view. The immediate interest of the one is not the immediate interest of the other; and there is always danger of conflict when one of the two is called upon to sacrifice his immediate interest in favour of the prospective interest of both. When the element of time is properly introduced, it is a mere paradox to assert that the interests of capital and labour are the same; they are constantly distinct and frequently opposed to each other. The immediate interest of the labourer tempts him to do as little as he can for the money he receives. If wages ix.] Labour and Capital. 21 1 are good, he is able to enjoy the pleasures of pure idleness, and to obtain as much subsistence as he desires by working for half the week. Such a course of action may even appear to be unselfish and commendable; for if employment can be regarded as a constant quantity, and each man does very little, then there will be need for the services of a larger number, and work and pay will be distributed among a greater number of applicants. But irregular and ineffi- cient work is very costly, and is almost certain to increase the expense of production; it is likely to lead to a contrac- tion of trade and to a diminution in the amount of avail- able employment. In a somewhat similar fashion, the im- mediate interest of labourers tempts them to demand a rise of wages in the expectation that prices can be raised without any diminution of demand, or of the field for employment. This may hold good when producers have a monopoly, either temporary or permanent, in an article of general demand; but under ordinary circumstances it cannot take place. A demand for higher wages will probably lead to a contraction of the demand and a diminution of employment, or to a reduction of wages. It is obvious that labourers may pursue their immediate interest so far as to damage a trade and to render a serious loss of wages and of employment inevitable. Similarly the capitalist may pursue his immediate interest so as to damage trade. It is always his im- Ruinous mediate interest to produce as inexpensively competition, as possible, so as to command as large a market as may be. It is always possible to supply a low priced article, by producing an inferior quality, and it is sometimes possible to reduce the cost of production at the expense of the labourer by sweating. Both expedients result in an immediate gain, and both are ultimately disastrous. When 2 1 2 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. masters produce an inferior quality, the reputation of the trade suffers; and sweating tells, sooner or later, on the efficiency of the class who have to submit to it. Either labourer or capitalist may positively injure an industry by the short-sighted pursuit of their immediate interest. Since the immediate interests of capital and labour are distinct and often opposed, it need not be a matter of surprise that men of one class or the other should, in all good faith, make different forecasts as to the best course to be pursued for the good of industry. By the latter part of the last century labour had become, as we have seen, largely dependent on capital. Capitalists were, generally speak- ing, in a position to give effect to their views of what was best for trade. They might well believe that the course they pursued was not a selfish one, but was really for the ultimate well-being of labour. If trade was bad they were inclined to reduce the rates of wages, in the hope that by cheaper production they would be able to secure increased sales. The alternative course, that of reducing the quantities produced in the hope that prices would rise again, meant that machinery would stand idle, and also that workmen would be thrown out of employment. There were immediate and obvious disasters to all parties in the trade; the hardship to the labourers of working at starvation rates might well appear to be a lesser evil than that which must ensue from throwing numbers out of employment altogether. The evil results of the depressed condition of the labourer seemed remote and uncertain, while the bad effects of reducing production were manifest and near at hand. It thus came about that during the uncertainties of the Napoleonic wars and in the terrible depression which followed, workmen, in one trade after another, were forced to submit to very considerable reduc- ix.] Labour and Capital. 213 tions of wages. So long as; it was possible to provide employment, though at starvation rates, the masters be- lieved it to be best to spread work among as many as they could, so that every family should earn something however small. Hence from another side the mistaken philanthropy of the masters resulted in a policy which resembled the short-sighted schemes of the men. The workers have sometimes wished to distribute a (supposed) fixed quantity of work among as many men as possible, so that the aggregate earnings of all might increase; the masters tried to distribute a diminishing quantity of work among a large number, so that no one should be absolutely destitute. The period of depression, with all the poverty that ac- companied it, continued for many years (p. 88). We are apt to rush to the conclusion that this was due to the introduction of machinery, but the more the facts are looked at in detail the less satisfactory does this explanation ap- pear. The celebrated strike of the Bradford wool-combers (1825) occurred in a trade where starvation rates were being paid, but where there was no real competition with ma- chinery till a later time. The framework knitters in 1845 were not suffering from any new reduction, but from con- ditions of trade brought on by reckless competition, and the same may be said of the starvation rates paid to cotton weavers in 1806. They suffered because it appeared from time to time to be necessary to cut down wages, and there was little, if any, subsequent recovery. This line of policy had the approval of the leading economists of the day. They were all extreme Doctrinaire advocates of laissez faire ; they saw that the economists, intervention of capital had been very beneficial to the public at large. And, having a firm belief in the power of 214 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. the capitalist to judge of the prospects of trade, they thought it best that he should have a perfectly free hand. At this juncture the working classes were in a position which rendered it very difficult for them to state their views as a class, or to offer any resistance to the demands made on them. The Combination Law of 1800 had been passed under the influence of political panic. It condemned as criminal the conduct of artisans who took action which might strengthen their position in bargaining with their employers. The labourers were forced to submit, but a sense of the disabilities to which they were exposed and of the gross injustice which might be done them under this one-sided law, made them very bitter, while the employers were not unnaturally suspicious of the influence of illegal associations. The measure was, in all probability, quite ineffective for checking real treason, but it bred an amount of class jealousy and mutual suspicion which has wrought infinite mischief. Under the policy of the employers, approved by doc- trinaire economists and unchecked by effective criticism from the labourers, results came to light which roused public indignation. It became obvious that the course they were pursuing, on laissezfaire principles, was leading to the moral and physical degradation of the English population; and it seemed necessary for Parliament to interfere and to put an effective check on some of the deleterious tendencies which were at work. 127. The great development of machinery in the textile Moral and trades gave opportunity for the employment physical of children on a large scale; numbers of them degradation. W ere engaged in work in every factory. Their condition attracted public attention again and again, and it was, in many ways, very bad. At the same time it may ix.] Labour and Capital. 215 be doubted how far it was really worse than that of other children, who were employed by the domestic weaver at home or as helpers in other trades. So far as it is possible to compare the two in 1816, the factory child was in better sanitary conditions and was better fed than the child em- ployed at weavers' homes. The earnings were better; but the life was rougher, and the regular strain was greater. The worst cases of child suffering were not in factories of any kind, but in connexion with chimney sweeping. The em- ployment was dangerous to life and limb, and rendered the young specially liable to very painful diseases. There must have been an immense amount of cruelty at times in forcing them to undertake such tasks. Still, without laying stress on such comparisons, it is clear that the condition of fac- tory children at the beginning of the century was so bad, that it was wise for government to interfere, and, in the interest of the future well-being of the population, to check the tendencies at work under the influence of free compe- tition. Even the most uncompromising advocates of laissez faire were willing to recognise that this was a legitimate case for intervention. The children did not and could not make their own bargains. They were not free agents in entering into any agreement; they were sent to the factories by their parents, or by parochial authorities. Hence those who argued that each adult ought to make his own bargain for himself, were ready to legislate for the protection of children. The first great measure on behalf of factory children was brought in and carried by a mill owner; Factory it was not the result of outside agitation. Sir apprentices. Robert Peel, father of the great statesman, felt that the con- dition of the apprentice children in his own cotton mills was not what he could desire, and he found himself unable to exercise efficient supervision. He therefore introduced and 2i6 Otitlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. carried, apparently without any difficulty, a bill for the regu- lation of the condition of the apprentices in the cotton trade (1802). The clothes they should receive, the meals they should have, and the conditions of their dormitories were carefully specified; the bill also insisted that adequate opportunities should be given for their instruction. The measure has reference to a state of society when appren- ticeship was not only a time for learning a trade, but also a time for training in regular habits of life under a master's eye; and it was intended to secure that the colonies of children attached to cotton mills should not be deprived of similar advantages. This act had many beneficial results for a time, but there were rapid changes in the condition of the trade which rendered it inoperative before many years had passed. The system of legal apprenticeship was abolished in 1814, and as the children employed in factories were no longer apprentices, the measure designed for their protec- tion ceased to be applicable. In 1816 Sir Robert Peel moved in the matter again; he succeeded in obtaining a mass of interesting evidence on the condition of factories, but no important legislation occurred till 1833. In 1832 the case of the factory children was taken official up by Lord Ashley (afterwards Lord Shaftes- enquiries. bury) and others, and a Select Committee took evidence as to their physical condition. The revela- tions made were shocking in the extreme, and aroused a storm of indignation among philanthropists and the public. There was equal indignation among the mill owners, who had not hacl the opportunity of being heard, and who held that the case brought before the Committee was not merely one-sided, but grossly exaggerated. A Commission was therefore appointed to take evidence on the spot, and though it showed that the statements made before the ix.] Labour and Capital. 217 Select Committee were not trustworthy, it established a very serious need for interference. The physical mischief, resulting from the long hours during which children and women worked, was very noticeable, and there was every reason to fear a serious deterioration in the physique of a large portion of the population, if protection were not extended to the young and to the mothers of the next generation. The special evils differed in different trades. In the woollen trade the processes of sorting and preparing the wool were specially dirty and offensive. In the linen trade the mischief was of a different kind, as flax was spun when wet, and those who worked in the mills were apt to get their clothing thoroughly soaked; even if properly pro- tected, they still had to work in a reeking atmosphere and on sloppy floors. There was a great deal of dust in some of the rooms in cotton mills, though, perhaps, they were hardly so objectionable as those devoted to similar pro- cesses in the linen trade. But, though some mills were well managed and others badly, there were certain points in which all showed room for improvement. Children were employed much too young, and the strain for women of standing and stooping for long hours was very inju- rious. So far as the early age of employment was concerned, the mill owners were not specially to blame; it was no advantage to them to take children very young. The pressure came from parents and poor law authorities, who wished to make the children earn something and to get them off their hands at the earliest possible age. As to the length of hours, the owners also protested that they were not altogether free agents. Competition with foreign countries was very keen; spinning was barely remunerative, and if the hours of labour were shortened, and the output reduced, 218 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAR. they feared that it would be impossible for them to carry on business at all. The expectation of philanthropists that English spinners could raise prices, if they liked, was not justified, but on the other hand there has been such an increase of efficiency that the worst forebodings of the manu- facturers have not been realised. The commissioners hoped it might be possible to organise double shifts, so that the machinery might continue to run for long hours, while the women and children were not overstrained. This system had been adopted in some mills, but there were grave difficulties in the way of carrying it into effect at all generally. The result of the investigation was the Factory Act of 1833, which only allowed the employment of children over nine years of age, and reduced their hours of work to forty-eight in the week. By far the most impor- tant work accomplished by this Act consisted of the new means of administration which it created. There had been difficulties in enforcing previous measures, and by calling into being a body of inspectors, who had authority to see that the act was carried out, an important step was taken towards putting down the worst abuses and for suggesting and securing gradual improvement. These inspectors have, at least, been able to attend Carelessness to one point on which the employers appear about ma- to have been careless the proper fencing of machinery. The number of cripples who had been injured by accidents in mills was a matter which had specially roused public feeling; in this particular Bradford had an unenviable notoriety. Even though there seems to have been some exaggeration in the representations made on this point, there was a considerable foundation in fact. Wherever the blame may have rested, the effects of in- creased care in this respect have been very noticeable. ix.] Labour and Capital. 219 The outcry which had been raised about children in factories was followed by an investigation into children in the conditions of child labour elsewhere. It mines, was, indeed, high time, for the state of things in mines was far more serious than anything that had come out about the factories generally. The new limitations on employment in factories led to some increase of the evils in mines; for parents who had the opportunity of sending children, ex- cluded from factories, to work in mines, were glad to do so. The long hours in the darkness and the heavy work in pushing trucks were very injurious, while the manner in which women were employed was brutalising. The regu- lation and inspection of mines was a necessary develop- ment of the regulation of factories, and could be justified on exactly similar grounds. In all these cases, it seemed to be necessary for the State to interfere to check the moral, physical and social evils which had arisen under the regime of free competition. 128. So far we have considered the capitalist system, and the. evils which arose in connexion with Thecourseof it, when competition was unchecked. It is the industrial pleasanter to turn to the wonderful series of revolution - inventions which were introduced with the aid of capital, and which so greatly increased human powers of catering for human needs. It may, perhaps, be most convenient to sketch the steps in the changes very rapidly, while the results of the introduction of machinery on the employment and remuneration of the labourer may be discussed when we are in a position to review the whole period of the industrial revolution. The first remarkable invention which modified the con- dition of the textile trades was not so much a The flying new machine as a better implement. The shuttle - 22O Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. flying shuttle did not do the work and was not, in any way, a substitute for skilled labour. It was distinctly sub- servient to the old forms of skill, and enabled the good workman to exercise his skill much more rapidly than be- fore. It first came into use in weaving wide breadths of cloth. Hitherto the weavers had needed an assistant to throw the shuttle backwards and forwards across the loom, but with the help of the flying shuttle he could throw it backwards and iorwards by himself. It enabled him to work faster, and just as well, while the work was done at less cost, since there was no need to pay for help. The effect upon the cloth trade was very curious. There was no increase in production, for there was no more wool available than before, and there was no fall in the price of goods. Nor was there any change in the rate at which the weaver was paid per piece. But the best men could work more rapidly than before; they had more to do and earned very high wages, while the inferior workers were hardly employed, and drifted into other occupations, especially into cotton weaving. The benefit from this improvement did not go to the public in the form of cheapness, but to the best workmen who were kept on in full employment. They, as a class, obtained a definite rise in the world, and in the subsequent hard times they seem to have looked back to the last decade of the eighteenth century as the halcyon period of their trade. A whole series of important inventions revolutionised Cotton spinning; they were originally introduced spinning. j nto t h e co tton trade by Arkwright, Cromp- ton, and Hargreaves. Spinning is an art which is specially adapted for machinery, as the chief matter of importance is to obtain a regular and even thread. It is an operation in which a mechanical kind of perfection is specially re- ix.] Labour and Capital. 221 quired. In 1790 Mr. Kelly of Lanark was able to apply water as the motor power for this machinery, and in the latter part of the eighteenth century the business of cotton spinning increased with very great rapidity. It had been a comparatively small affair before, centred chiefly round Manchester. But with mechanical appliances, yarn was produced in vast quantities, and mills were erected in all sorts of places. Derbyshire, Nottingham, Worcestershire and other counties were, for a time at least, centres for this trade. The spinning business flourished exceedingly; and English manufacturers who were unable to meet the foreign demands for cotton cloth sent large quantities of English yarn to the Continent. So rapid was the development of the cotton industry that it was practically a new trade created by the machinery, and the employment, which it afforded, attracted large populations to settle near the mills. So long as water power was used, the employe's were more or less scattered, as the mills were not grouped closely together, but at different points on the same stream ( 19). But when steam power was applied to machinery, the mills were run up close together, and population was attracted to form factory towns. The condition of the children in this newly developed industry has been already described (127); it soon at- tracted the attention of the legislature; but adults also were exposed to much suffering. In the villages which grew up near water power there was often a difficulty about getting supplies; everything was dear; wages went but a little way, and the truck system was soon in full play. Dis- comforts in the towns were chiefly due to the jerry builder; cottages were run up, ill planned and ill built, with a dis- regard of the most elementary sanitary requirements. Not until the visitation of the cholera in 1849 was public attention 222 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. fully aroused to the dangerous neglect which had hitherto attended the housing of factory operatives. The introduction of machinery for cotton spinning Carding and brought about a new and sudden develop- spinning wool. m ent. But there is more interest in tracing the steps by which machinery was introduced into the clothing trade, which had hitherto been the staple industry of the country, and which, in some form or other, continued to be widely diffused throughout a very large area. The machinery for carding wool, which was invented as early as 1748, appears to have been received with general approbation. The spinners were, apparently, glad to be saved the preliminary processes in the preparation of wool, and to rely on the slubbing engine. When attempts were made to adapt the spinning jenny from cotton to wool, there seems to have been wonderfully little interest in the matter. The invention spread but slowly; it was in use in Devonshire in 1791, but seems to have been regarded as quite a new thing in the West Riding, when Mr. Gott intro- duced it some ten years later. Nor does it seem to have created much excitement in the villages. Spinning was very badly paid in the last decade of the eighteenth century, and very difficult to get even at the miserable rates of pay. When allowances were granted in addition to the labourer's wages, the family income was made up from another source, and the household did not feel the loss due to the cessation of spinning. Hence it seems that the allowance system (p. 94) tided over the change, which was made almost in- sensibly. It is only in 1816, when the transference of the industry was practically complete, that we hear of some de- struction of machines for spinning wool; but this seems to have been a quite incidental act of violence in connexion with the bread riots in the Eastern Counties. ix.] Labour and Capital. 223 It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of the change which had thus come into effect. During the eighteenth century, at least, the art of spinning wool had been practised in many cottages throughout many districts of rural England. Spinning had afforded a very remunera- tive by-employment, and the earnings of the women and children had provided a most useful supplement to the wages of the labourer. When spinning was concentrated in factories and carried on as an independent employment, it was entirely diverted from the rural districts, and there has been no means of supplying its place in the domestic economy of the cottage home. Thus the decay of domestic spinning has had very grave effects on the comfort and prosperity of the rural population. The inventions of Boulton and Watt and the appli- cation of steam power to textile machinery Watefpower was another step in advance. The steam and steam engine was first used in a cotton factory in P wer 1785, and for thirty or forty years the contest between water and steam was carried on. Water was undoubtedly cheaper where a good supply could be had; but in many places the mills were liable to long stoppages for want of power. Steam power, though more expensive, was always available, and could be increased at will; and this superior convenience led at length to its general adoption. As has been already pointed out, factory towns arose in con- nexion with the use of steam power. In many ways it was a great boon to the operatives : the chief cases of over- work, through long hours, seem to have occurred in water mills, where the operatives were anxious to make up for time lost through the stoppage of the water. The stories of the harshness of slubbers towards the children who helped them, and who were worn out with working many hours at 224 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. a stretch, all come from mills of this kind. The disuse of water power has been accompanied by a cessation of any valid excuse for working excessive hours. On the other hand it may be said that along with steam power has come the development of new machinery, carrying a very large number of spindles, and involving a far greater strain on the faculties of the worker than was requisite in the old mills. Work goes on at higher speed, and there is increased tension and pressure on the powers of the operative. The last of the great inventions, which it is necessary The power to note here, was the power loom which loom. gradually displaced weaving by hand. It was the invention of a singular man. Dr. Cartwright was a Kentish clergyman who, when visiting Matlock in 1784, entered into conversation with some Manchester men, and made a casual suggestion as to the possibility of a power loom which should follow up the spinning done by power. His friends scouted the idea as impracticable, but he set himself to carry it into effect. After some years he succeeded in producing a loom that was capable of being worked commercially but the invention was hardly taken up during his lifetime. He demonstrated that power weaving was possible, just as he also showed that wool- combing could be done by machinery; but hand loom weaving continued to be the ordinary practice till about 1840. At that time a Commission investigated the con- dition of the hand loom weavers. Power weaving had been introduced for the worsted trade of Bradford, but hand weaving was holding its ground in the woollen manufacture at Leeds. In the cotton trade, power weaving had also come into vogue, but apparently it did not displace hand weaving. The trade had been expanding, and the addi- tional cotton cloth woven by power was sold without ix.] Labour and Capital. 225 interfering with the employment of those who worked on the old system. At the same time the rates of pay for weaving were miser- ably low. This may, conceivably, have been indirectly due to the possibility of having recourse to power weaving, but it was also a reason why the new invention was introduced so slowly. When wages were very low and the expense of production by hand was small, it was not worth while to run the risk of purchasing and setting up expensive machinery. It was not advantageous to do this unless the margin of pro- bable profit was considerable. In 1840 there was reason to doubt whether power weaving would be generally introduced after all. It did not seem likely to be less expensive than poorly paid hand labour for low-class goods, and moreover it had not been so far perfected that it could do the high- class work of the best weavers. The great advantage of machine production in the eyes of the employers was similar to that which Advanta led them to prefer steam to water power. For of the new all trade purposes it was desirable to have s y stem - the organisation of business under control. Water power could not be counted upon, and the hand loom weavers could not always be trusted to work regularly. They could not be depended on to finish a job, so that orders could not be executed for certain by a given day. With power weaving the whole was under the master's eye; he knew both where he stood and what he could undertake. Besides this the difficulties, which arose from time to time from the embezzlement of materials, were far less likely to occur in connexion with power weaving carried on under supervision in a factory. Some of these advantages could be secured by a system which had been adopted before 1840 in the woollen trade Q 226 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. in Scotland, and which was beginning to come into vogue in the cotton trade also, though more slowly. The masters erected sheds in which looms were placed, and the weavers came and executed their work by hand loom but under supervision. Those who worked in this way got much higher wages than the men who preferred the greater free- dom of working at home: but after all, such hand loom sheds were only a transitional form. Weaving organised in this fashion had its advantages, and when thus managed the application of power was particularly easy, especially if it was already employed on the same premises in connexion with spinning. The hand loom weaver was greatly attached to his calling and stuck to it when work was very intermittent and badly paid: but soon after the Commission of 1839 had reported, it became obvious that he was engaged in a useless struggle, and that power weaving must win the day. As it came more and more into use the transformation of the clothing trade became complete. It ceased to be a great industry which gave employment for great varieties of highly specialised skill, and was transformed throughout . into sC, series of processes of production by machinery. 129. During the whole course of the industrial revolu- tion there was a decided feeling among many Machinery, and the of the labourers that machinery was their expansion of enemy, diminishing their opportunities of employment and bringing about a reduction in their wages. This feeling found expression in many ways; sometimes in such riots as those in which the York- shire shearing frames were destroyed, and sometimes in proposals to impose legislative restrictions on the use of machines, so as to bring them to a level with hand work, and prevent them from doing the work more quickly or ix.] Labour and Capital. 227 more cheaply than it could be done by hand. This latter suggestion rested on the old fallacy that employment is a limited quantity, and that efficiency of every kind is an evil, since it leaves less work to be done, and therefore less scope for employment at the old work on the old terms. Under ordinary conditions this is a quite mistaken and, in any case, it would be a narrow-minded policy to pursue. Whatever the interest of a particular trade may be, the interest of the general public is best secured by efficiency. When goods are made more quickly and more cheaply, wants are supplied on easier terms. These are benefits which accrue to consumers generally, and in the case of articles of common consumption like clothing the working classes, collectively and individually, gain by increased efficiency and greater cheapness of production. But this gain is sometimes so very slight and distant, that it is absurd to point it out as a consola- JJisplace- tion to a man who loses employment because ment of his work is done better and more cheaply by a workers - machine. The gain to the community at large may be very great and may be undoubted, but there is serious loss* to the individual who is no longer required to do the only thing he can do thoroughly well. Despite its benefits, the introduc- tion of machinery has meant the displacement of workers possessing special skill as spinners or weavers; and a me- chanical invention, which renders their special attainments useless and valueless, causes them irreparable loss. It seems hard to weigh an infinitesimal gain to a large number of consumers, against the ruin of a skilled artisan whose whole employment is taken away from him by the introduction of a machine which has rendered him use- less. 228 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. But, despite this real and immense loss to the work- man whose skill is specialised, great gain has often resulted to labourers generally, and to the general demand for labour, from the introduction of the machine which supersedes him. By more efficient and less expensive methods, greater quantities can be produced at the same cost as before, with the result that the price can be lowered. The lowering of the price is almost certain to call forth an increased demand, and it is more than likely that, to meet this increased de- mand, a larger number of labourers will be employed to work the machinery than were previously required to do the work without the machine. So far as the effect on the labour market generally is concerned, there will possibly be more employment and a larger sum to distribute in wages, after the introduction of machinery than before. Increased effi- ciency, with consequent cheapness, is the one thing that can be counted on to stimulate demand permanently, and to give additional opportunities for employment. This tendency may be illustrated by two simple cases. The cotton trade was a very small affair before the era of invention. The number of hands employed in spinning and weaving was quite inconsiderable. Good spinners were losers, when their special skill was superseded by machinery; but the expansion of the trade has given far more scope for employment in spinning and weaving than there was before. The factory towns are a conspicuous proof of the way in which the introduction of machinery has opened up additional employment for a large population. Again, the railway system of this country maybe regarded as one huge machine for carrying on the internal traffic of Great Britain. Its introduction was opposed by many persons on the ground that it would supersede the work of and the need for horses, that coachmen, horse-breeders and others would ix.] Labour and Capital. 229 suffer. Undoubtedly the special skill of the mail coach driver is no longer required and he has suffered; but rail- ways, by rendering travelling very cheap, have created an unprecedented demand for means of conveyance, and the total field for employment, as servants, in connexion with railways, as clerks, porters, surfacemen, drivers, guards, &c., must be far greater than was available in coaching days. The invention of railways was prejudicial to one small class, but has, on the whole, opened up immensely increased oppor- tunities of employment. It may, perhaps, at first sight appear as if the destruction of some special kind of skill were an irreparable loss, for which the substitution of an increased number of less highly trained persons does not altogether atone. But it must be remembered that different, and perhaps higher kinds of skill are called forth in connexion with machinery. There may be less need for some one form of manual deftness, but more intelligence is required in working with a machine. It would be difficult to show that the present generation of workers are less intelligent, or more defective as human beings, because of the introduction of machinery, even though they may be destitute of some special form of manual dexterity. On the whole, then, it may be said that labourers, gene- rally speaking, have not suffered by the intro- Gain to con- duction of machinery, but only one class or sum e rs - another, which possessed a kind of highly specialised skill, that is superseded by some machine. This is a real loss; but it is a limited one which must be set off against the general gain to the consumers in cheapness, and to labourers generally through the subsequent expansion of trade. It must be noted, however, that the advantage of increased employment does not arise, if, despite the 230 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. introduction of machinery, there is no subsequent expansion of trade. In the case of an article that is not one of common consumption, it may be doubted if increased cheapness can ever greatly increase the demand. Top boots are but a small element in the cost of hunting, and if top boots were rather cheaper, they would possibly be very little more worn. In other cases no expansion in the trade may be possible because of the limited supply of the materials. Till Australian wool was brought in large quan- tities to the market, this was partially true of all departments of the clothing trade. It could not expand rapidly, as additional supplies of material were not forthcoming. As pointed out above, this limitation told in favour of the skilled weavers at the time when the flying shuttle was invented. But things worked out differently in the case of later inventions which were substitutes for, not subsidiary to, skilled labour in the clothing trade. When shearing was done by machinery, the shearmen, or croppers, were dis- placed. There was little, if any, expansion of trade conse- quent on these changes, and therefore there was a loss to this old-established craft, that was not recouped by labour generally. In the same way, wool-combing was a limited trade, and the introduction of combing machinery displaced skilled workers, without causing expansion, or opening up any new opportunities of employment. The stand that was taken against machinery by the shearmen of Yorkshire an agitation which was closely connected with the Luddite riots had more justification than can usually be alleged on behalf of such outbreaks. Skilled labour was displaced, and there was no further change by which other classes of labourers gained directly; their indirect gain, in so far as they were consumers who could obtain clothing cheaper, need not be taken into account here. ix.] Labour and Capital. 231 130. However interesting it might be, it is extremely difficult to attempt an estimate of the dif- Theproie- ference which the industrial revolution has tariat. stabu made in the general social and moral con- g)g s * nd pr ditions of the labouring class. Before the industrial revolution, the English woollen weaver was, generally speaking, resident in a Industry rural district or had, in some way, an interest divorced from in land. He might have a garden, like the land ' Sheffield Cutlers, or carry on pasture-farming, like the weavers near Leeds. He was not entirely dependent on his trade: in times of industrial depression he still had something to fall back on. He could, at least, tide over a few weeks of bad trade, and even though he might have to 'go short,' still it was possible for him to manage somehow. But with the aggregation of labour in large towns this was no longer feasible. The weaver was spared any waste of time in going for materials or in selling his cloth, but his house was cramped up in a crowded area, where neither he nor his neighbour could have any land. In this way his whole condition came to be directly dependent on the condition of trade. Wages were his sole means of support; if em- ployment was difficult to get, or payment was low, he had no means of eking out his subsistence from any other source. Instead of having two strings to his bow he had only one;j he was, consequently, in a far less independent position. \^A similar loss fell on the agricultural labourer. While spinning was an occupation which was diffused through- out the country, the earnings of his wife and children came in as an additional source of income. He also had two strings to his bow and if he had grazing rights also, he may be said to have had three. It was a position of great economic stability; but with the introduction of 232 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. machine spinning, and the progress of enclosure, he was deprived first of one means of support and then of another. Like the factory operative, the agricultural labourer came to be wholly dependent on wages for the income of his house- hold. His economic condition no longer rested on " the^ stable basis of land but on the fluctuating basis of trade,"* since he was merely a wage-earner, and his whole chance of employment and the rate of his pay had come to depend on the market price of the product. Much is said at present about the desirability of render- Town and ing rural life more attractive, and of pre- country. venting the migration of labour to towns. The gist of the matter really lies in rendering the village household more prosperous. It may be possible to supply allotments, and re-create domestic subsistence farming; but the crucial difference between the past and the present lies in the fact that formerly there were many by-employments available, which have been concentrated, as it were, into distinct trades. The improvement of means of communication may make it possible to start works in villages e.g. printing works, so that the artisan may once again enjoy the advantages of rural life, while still having regular employment at his trade, but it is not so easy to see v any possibility of a revival of cottage industries, which ; might replace the peasant family in the stable position it occupied before the industrial revolution. But, after all, the old condition of economic stability was inconsistent with progress. It passed away because the division of labour has rendered production more efficient, and because the enterprise of English merchants has brought us into commerical communication with all parts of the globe. Thanks to this progress, English artisans and labourers have gained in many ways. Tea drinking was ix.] Labour and Capital. 233 spoken of as a vicious extravagance in the eighteenth century; it has come to be regarded as almost a necessary in the most frugal households. Oranges and other fruit, tobacco and newspapers, are luxuries which are much more generally available than they were. These are distinct additions to the comfort of life, which the labourer could not previously enjoy at all. Besides this, clothing and household utensils of every kind are far cheaper than they were; the industrial revolution has done a great deal to increase the purchasing power of wages. It is not easy to balance the loss and gain in the labourer's material con- dition; the loss of stability is real, but the gain through progress is also real. The problem which faces us is not that of returning to the old circumstances and losing what we have gained, but, if possible, of introducing some new conditions of stability which shall yet be compatible with farther progress. If there is so much difficulty in estimating the pre- cise change in the material well-being of Factories the labourer, it is far harder to trace the and character, effects on morals and character. There is a constant tendency to idealise the past, and to represent each generation as worse than its predecessors; it is easy to make such assertions, and we rarely have the means of testing them or of saying what elements of truth there may be in this view. It is also easy to point out the demoral- ising and degrading elements in town life, and to regret the wholesome influence of rural surroundings. But it is true that rural surroundings do not always make for morality, as the statistics of illegitimacy show. The dilatoriness and dishonesty of the domestic worker were the chief reasons for the progress of that factory system which brought him under effective supervision. The life of the factory opera- 234 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. live is far more regular and disciplined; so that at first there was a real indisposition to submit to the tyranny of the Factory Act, and the better and more independent elements in the population held out against it. But that is a thing of the past, and it can scarcely be said that an influence which has rendered the ordinary habits of artisan life more regular and steady has been other than good. vThe independent workman was also to a great extent isolated : the aggregation of labourers in towns has had an important socialising influence. It has prepared the way for the formation of the great friendly societies, the co- operative societies and other artisan organisations. The formation of such societies and the management of their affairs are in themselves important educative influences, and have called forth remarkable administrative powers. And even if the action of Trades Unions has sometimes been open to criticism for unwisdom, it should not be forgotten that the organisation and disciplining of the army of labour is no mean achievement. The comparative self-restraint and freedom from outrage which characterises recent labour struggles, as compared with those of 1812 or 1816, shows a remarkable progress in effective self-control on the part of the labourers. Here, too, there is progress in morality. Even when the disadvantages of town life are considered Seif-im- * n hi&h renta l s ) foggy a i r an d other evils provement and there can be no doubt as to the superior amusement. attraction which it possesses. The oppor- tunities for self-improvement and for amusement are far greater in the town than in the country. It is impossible to suppose that, with all the influence of education, the standard of intelligence in rural districts has declined during the last century; and the difference between the town-bred artisan and the agricultural labourer in the present day, in all ix.] Labour and Capital. 235 matters of intellectual capacity, is not an unfair measure by which to gauge the progress in intelligence and culture that has synchronised with the industrial revolution. There are good and bad individuals in all classes and at all times. The enumeration of single instances can never be a satisfactory method of reaching a conclusion on this difficult question. But the growth and development of social institutions is a far more satisfactory test, and this seems to bear unimpeachable witness to the moral and intellectual progress of the labourer during the last hundred years. 131. The preceding sections may have served to bring out the steadily increasing importance of Individual capital in the process of manufacture. It and state ma- has intervened to seek markets, to provide na e ement - materials, to organise the different branches of a trade, and to supply implements and tools. Those who are the owners of wealth have gradually come to take an ever increasing share in the work of production. The existence of industrial capital, as a fund devoted to the production of more wealth, has rendered it possible to carry out the division of labour, and to render labour more efficient by supplying implements and machines, while it undertakes the necessary purchase of materials and the sale of the product. The possessors of capital would not apply their wealth to these purposes, or would not continue to do so, unless they saw their way to gain, and this gain is termed profit. Besides the profit which all capitalists expect to get when they undertake the risks of business, the men who manage business and arrange for purchases and sales are paid for their difficult and responsible work, and obtain earnings of management for their trouble. In a private firm, where a man owns the capital and manages the business himself, he may 236 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. not be able to distinguish between the part of his income which comes to him as profit on his capital and the earn- ings which are remuneration for his difficult work : but the two elements are different, whether it is easy or not to separate them, and it is by no means hard to distinguish them in the case of a great limited liability company. The capital of the London and North-Western Railway is owned by the share-holders, and their profits come to them in the form of dividends paid half-yearly. Very few of the share- holders take any active part in the management, and those who are called on to do so, as directors, receive fees for their trouble. The greater part of the work of management is done by salaried officers, who are paid for their trouble, but who may not be share-holders at all. In such a case it is very easy to distinguish the profit on capital from the receipt of wages of management. With the growing complexity and responsibility of Wages of commercial organisation, the difficulty of management. manag e me nt has greatly increased, and there has been a corresponding rise in the salaries paid to efficient men for carrying on business of any kind. The payments for ability of this kind, for showing enter- prise and undertaking responsibility, have greatly increased, and when we consider how much depends on such work being done well, it is difficult to suppose that the great companies, engaged in eager competition and keen to make profits, allow themselves to be wasteful or extravagant in this item. But while the earnings of management are thus high, the payments to the capitalist, who by investing his money in a business enables it to be carried on on modern lines, are by no means so large as they used to be. The profits of capital are steadily falling: the rate of interest, or payment for capital borrowed, serves to indicate the direc- ix.] Labour and Capital. 237 tion of changes in the ordinary rate of business profit. If men see a reasonable probability of making high profits by the investment of their capital they will be unwilling to lend it at a very low rate of interest. The gradual fall in the rate of interest to 2f per cent, since the time of Elizabeth, when the crown had to pay 12 per cent., serves as an index, which shows that there must have been a somewhat similar decline in the rate of profit, and that capitalists now-a-days are willing to invest their money in business for a far smaller reward than they expected two centuries ago. The functions of capital have increased enormously, but the rate at which capital is remunerated has steadily declined. There is, however, a very general impression in many quarters that employers derive an undue share The f unc . of the results of production. When this is tions of em- said we ought to distinguish the two elements in the employers' income, the profit on his capital, and his earnings as a manager. Taking these two separately we may consider whether there is any reason to think that this important and necessary work can be done as well but at a lower rate of pay. Business cannot be carried on without capital, indeed there is an ever increasing need for more and more, as the part played by capital steadily increases. Many under- takings have been starved for want of capital, and the difficulties of the Darien Company or the East India Company at the beginning of the eighteenth century have been a great object lesson as to the need of this factor in carrying on business. Capital is more easily obtainable and on lower terms at the present day than was ever the case in England before. At the same time it is conceivable that Government could borrow money very cheaply and supply it to carry on the 238 Otttlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. business of the country at a still lower rate. To this extent it is possible that some kind of State Socialism might be cheaper than our existing system. But when we come to consider the other item wages of management it is difficult to make out a plausible case for supposing that business would be done in a more thorough and enterprising fashion by Government depart- ments than by private firms. Neither the management of the dockyards nor a comparison of the condition of railways in different countries gives any solid ground for supposing that State management would be less costly, or would in any way be better than that which is afforded by private enterprise. It is absurd to contend that employers are overpaid for the work of management, unless we can show some means of getting their duties done as well and at a cheaper rate. It is plain that they are highly paid, but this high pay is earned by responsible work; and we have no right to grudge high pay, as if it were overpay, unless we know that the work can be done as well and more cheaply. There is also a certain jealousy of the action, rather than of the gains, of employers, which rests on the sus- picion that business is often conducted on lines which do not favour the interests of labour. Hopes are entertained that under democratic government it may be possible to legislate so that industry shall be developed in those direc- tions which suit the labourer, and not primarily in those which are advantageous to the capitalist. Now this suspicion and expectation have some justi- fication in the history of the past century. There have been times when capitalists, by reckless speculation or by spreading work at starvation rates, have injured labour. They have done more; they have injured trade, though ix.] Labour and Capital. 239 they may have succeeded in reaping a temporary gain. But it is also true that if the labourers pursue, or have power to obtain, their own immediate interest in disregard of the future of their trade, loss must fall, not only on capi- tal, but on labour (p. 211). The only interests which the State can be rightly called in to promote are the permanent, not the immediate, interests of labour. In their permanent interests and in the long run, capital and labour are not antagonistic, since each is really interested in securing the greatest possible efficiency. The short-sighted pursuit of immediate interest, either by labour or capital, is disastrous to both; a Efficiency short-sighted policy on one side or the other and mansion, has been the cause of keen antagonism. Sixty years ago doctrinaire economists and capitalists alike denied the impossibility of paying higher rates to the workers, since they looked on the wages fund as a fixed quantity. They had no expectation that trade would expand and argued that starvation rates were inevitable; but an increase of efficiency has increased the product to be divided and wages have risen. The fund is fixed but only for a given moment; it is always capable of expansion. The labourers, too, have fallen into a similar error : they have acted at times as if the field for employment were definitely fixed, and incapable of expansion. They have spoken as if scamping work, idling and 'making work,' were the only modes of providing employment for additional hands. But by so doing they were making business less remunerative, and thus taking a course which tended to reduce the em- ployment available. By increased efficiency work is better done, and a demand is stimulated for more work. In- creased efficiency is the one means by which farther progress can be attained; it is the one security against 240 Outlines of English Industrial History. [Cn. ix. successful foreign competition. It has no immediate reward in deed; it can only be attained through fresh effort and more serious risks, but for all that it is the only expedient by which the permanent interests of capital and labour can be brought to be at one. CHAPTER X. RESULTS OF INCREASED COMMERCIAL INTER- COURSE. 132. IN a preceding chapter attention has been called to the importance of commerce as a support of international the external power of the realm. It was in this rivalry and competition aspect that it has been specially favoured, and between with this object that it has been fostered : but nations - commerce has also played an important part in the internal life of the country. It has reacted, in all sorts of ways, both on agriculture and on industry. This influence has been taken for granted, or alluded to throughout, but a few remarks on it now may serve to bring these scattered hints together into a brief summary. The advantages of commercial intercourse are obvious so far as war products are concerned. There are differences of climate and soil, so that each country gains by intercourse with others. As Hales puts it in his Discourse of the Com- mon Weal, " Surely common reason would say that one region " should help another when it lacketh. And therefore God " hath ordained that no country should have all commodi- ties; but that, that one lacketh another bringeth forth; " and that, that one country lacketh this year, another hath R 241 242 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. "plenty thereof the same year; to the intent that one may "know they have need of another's help, and thereby love "and society to grow amongst all the more " (p. 61). Inter- course with foreign lands has been obviously advantageous to consumers at home, and also advantageous to producers who could find a vent for the surplus which was not required and could not be profitably sold in England. In the four- teenth century there might be keen rivalry between traders, but there was comparatively little room for economic jea- lousy between different nations. With the development of manufactures the case has been somewhat altered. For many kinds of manufacture one country seems to have little, if any, physical advantage over another. Spinning and weaving are simple arts prac- tised in all parts of the globe among peoples who have made but little progress in civilisation. Governments realised in the seventeenth century that by planting new manu- factures, it was possible to do without the import of some commodity, and to provide remunerative employment for labour at home. When commerce came to be concerned as subsidiary to industry, in providing materials or in pushing commodities in foreign markets, there was far more room for international jealousy and for the imposition of hostile tariffs on foreigners, or of restrictions on the natural development of colonies. So long as specialised human skill was the main element Special in successful manufacture, the possession of advantages. a s kju ec i population gave one country a decided advantage over others in certain branches of trade. This long inherited skill could not be easily fostered or acquired. The transference of skilled persons was the only means by which a new trade could be effectively planted. Hence the migration of artisans to England was of the x.] Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 243 highest importance for her subsequent progress ( n). But, in an ordinary way in the eighteenth century, each country could hope to retain its special advantage for par- ticular manufactures almost as completely as it retained its special advantage for particular products. With the intro- duction of machinery, however, there has been a change. Any country can acquire the means of producing ordinary commodities in the best way, and skill in manipulation is not so special, or so difficult to acquire as in the old days of manual labour. As a consequence, economic rivalry between nations is becoming keener in some ways, because there is a reasonable hope of successful competition in production of almost every kind. There may, of course, be special conditions which give one country a physical advantage over another. The climate of Oldham is said to be specially favourable for fine spin- ning. Cheapness of materials gives an advantage to the Bombay mills, as the cotton has to be carried but a little way. Still the cost of carriage is comparatively small for such cargo; on the other hand, abundant supplies of fuel and proximity to the natural centres of the engineering and hard- ware trades are real advantages so far as they go. In the early days of the free trade movement, they were probably regarded as the all-sufficient bulwarks of England's manu- facturing supremacy. The increasing demands on our coal- beds, and the opening up of new fields in other continents, make it doubtful, however, how long this special advantage will continue to rest with us. On every side it is becoming obvious that special physical facilities are being more and more widely diffused : the industrial leadership of the future will lie with that people who shall attain to the greatest efficiency, by the combined excellence of their industrial organisation, and the high intelligence and character of their operatives. 244 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. 133. In so far as any country has a special advantage for any kind of manufacture or product it is Advantages J . . of commercial of course economically desirable for it to spe- intercourse to c i a ii se in that direction, and to supply its consumers. i -11 > i neighbours with what they lack. By this means the consumers of such goods in all neighbouring lands will procure what they require on easier terms than would other- wise be the case. But when this course is considered as a matter of national policy, it becomes important to ask, who are the consumers of imported goods in any given land, and how far is this benefit widely distributed? This may be illustrated from two different periods of English history. Edward III was anxious to encourage frequent and easy communication with the trading centres on the Continent. He was, as we may say, a free trader, who advocated a policy of 'plenty ' or cheapness to the consumer. But the typical article of import at that time was wine, a luxury consumed at court and among the upper classes. The great mass of the population made' very little use of any imported commodity, and the policy of cheap imports scarcely affected them. In the present day, on the other hand, our supplies of bread, eggs, cheese, meat and fruit are very largely brought from abroad. The very poorest are depend- ent on foreign commodities for the means of subsistence, and it is of the greatest importance for the population of England, as a whole, that goods imported from abroad should be plentiful and cheap. Frequent and easy inter- course are a necessity to us in our present condition; we could not reverse the free trade policy, on which we have entered, without causing general and widespread suffering. But this was not the case in old days : it may be said that in a country such as England, in the time of Edward III, the protection of home industries was the preferable x.] Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 245 policy in the interest of the public at large. If the rich paid more for fine cloths and wine, the poor were none the worse off. Protection did serve to create additional em- ployment for English labourers. Where the mass of the people in any country make little or no use of foreign commodities, they do not feel the advantage which results from measures which render imports cheaper to the con- sumer; while they do benefit by having employment opened up or secured to them. Many of the colonies are in a condition somewhat similar to that of England under Edward III, and hence democratic governments are in- clined, by hostile tariffs, to render foreign manufactures dearer, with a view to providing additional employment. Those who consume foreign luxuries are worse served and pay more, but a local industry can be planted and artificially fostered, so that employment may be provided for colonial producers. At the same time it is at least open to doubt whether any country is so well supplied with all the neces- saries of life including say clothes and boots that it is economically wise, in the interests of its public, to adopt a line of policy which is unfavourable to the consumers of foreign goods. In the case of England at the present day, when we are dependent on foreign sources for the ne- Dirert bear _ cessaries of life, this economic consideration ing of free is paramount over all others. In other coun- trade> tries, however, it may be an open question whether it is not wise to sacrifice some economic advantage for a politi- cal or social gain. The less developed countries of the world have their ambitions. They know that opportunities for culture of every kind and possibilities of importance in the world are precluded to a country with a very sparse population. They may prefer to secure an artisan or 246 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. town population, as well as a rural one, and they may be prepared to make an economic sacrifice for this object. It is thus that the question of free trade raises issues which lie outside the scope of economics. There is no doubt where the economic advantage lies in the case of countries which are dependent on other lands for articles of common consumption; but the economic advantage of one course or the other is not so clear in the case of countries which only import luxuries from abroad. And when the economic question is decided, the political result from one course or the other must be weighed, before the matter can be settled. Under the circumstances it is difficult for Englishmen to hope that, though demonstrably the best for themselves, the policy of free trade will be very readily adopted by other countries. At the same time, though the McKinley Bill and other hostile tariffs have raised, in recent times, many new barriers to complete freedom of commercial intercourse, there can be no doubt that it is, on the whole, increasing. The total volume of commerce is greater, and different countries are becoming more and more economically interdependent. Communication is now so easy that a very small amount of advantage renders it possible to drive a profitable trade. The progress that is continually going on, in opening up half-civilised or savage countries, brings about new de- velopments of trade; and there is now regular and frequent intercourse with regions that were wholly unexplored a century ago. 134. If we turn to consider the internal condition of Commercial England, there can be little doubt that the intercourse as development of commerce, with its reaction the solvent of social organi- on industry, has enormously promoted the sation. material well-being of the country. x.] Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 247 When we compare the present condition of England with the state of affairs at the accession of Elizabeth we see how enormously she has increased in material prosperity. From being an insignificant island realm she has come to take her place as one of the great powers; and her political import- ance has come through the wealth obtained by her com- merce. Population, too, is about six or seven times as large as it was, and though the standard of comfort of the lowest class in the community has not been raised, and there is no preventive check to the undue multiplication of the unfit, the great body of artisans have risen to a position where they can command far better housing and clothing than were available in the time of Elizabeth. Commerce gives them certain commodities at lower prices than they can be produced in England. Commerce has opened up opportunities of employment that they could not otherwise have had ; it has contributed in every way to their material prosperity. On this point we need hardly be left in doubt when we read the accounts of the frequent famines of the Middle Ages, or of the almost chronic pestilences of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. There is no need to fear a recurrence of the former evil so long as we can draw our food supplies from a large area; the disappearance of the latter implies the removal of those insanitary conditions which gave it such a firm hold. The death rate, so far as we can get at it, gives us a physical and, therefore, a definite means of estimating the standard of comfort which was available in past centuries. But this improvement in material prosperity throughout the country has gone on simultaneously with seif-suffi- other changes in internal conditions. Com- ciency and in- . , . , . , 1-111 terconnexion. mercial intercourse is a solvent which breaks up industrial organisation. Commerce brings different 248 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. groups or nations into economic interdependence, and is incompatible with the economic self-sufficiency which is favourable for the growth of long-lived institutions. There was a time in England, before the Norman Con- quest, when each manor or village was a self-sufficing group, as there are districts in India where the same thing holds good to-day. They possessed a good deal of collectivist organisation. The wants of the villages seem to have been supplied from its own resources, before anything was sold to outsiders. The swineherd and the beeherd may be re- garded as village officials, who looked after one department and had a claim to support from their neighbours. Village artisans could meet the requirements of the place suffi- ciently. There was but little need for intercourse with the outside world, and there was no need for change in mutual relations within the group. But internal commerce soon broke all this down. The farmer now buys what he needs at the market town, and the village artisan is left unem- ployed, while each man utilises his land as he judges best, and all trace of collectivist organisation within the group disappears. The village, instead of being a small but self- sufficing economic whole, has sunk into being a mere rural element in the life of that larger economic whole the country. Through commerce it comes to specialise in its production, and to buy those things which it has no advan- tage for making. It loses its economic self-sufficiency and the completeness of its economic organisation. In a similar way, if we look back to the condition of Eng- land at the beginning of the reign of George III, we may say that it was, especially if its dependencies are taken into ac- count, a self-sufficing country. At that time there was a cu- riously complete economic organisation of national affairs. Parliament expended an immense amount of care on the x.] Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 249 national direction of enterprise into certain channels which were regarded as advantageous, and which helped to build up the power of the country. Many measures were taken by the nation to plant, foster, and protect such industries as might afford remunerative employment for the population. Special attention was given to the national food supply, and such encouragement was bestowed on agriculture as might ensure a constant and regular supply of corn. The proper training of workmen was provided for, and there was, on paper at least, a machinery for ensuring him suffi- cient remuneration; while those who were unable or unwill- ing to work were kept alive, rather than cared for, by means of the Poor Law. There was a great system of commercial and industrial organisation, which took cogni- sance of every side of the industrial life of the nation. But the increased opportunities afforded by commerce, and the specialisation into a great manufacturing country, which is a very recent development, have broken down this great organisation. Enterprise is no longer controlled; it seeks its own channels. Industry resents fostering care and asks to be let alone. Our food supply comes in the ordinary course of trade. The training of the workman is not systematic, and his wages are allowed to change in accord- ance with market fluctuations. The Poor Law, recast indeed, still remains as the sole surviving element in the great system of national economic organisation. Com- merce has broken down that system, or has, at least, given free play to the special industrial developments which out- grew and superseded it altogether. It would be easy to illustrate this action of commercial intercourse from the changes which are going Fluctuation on in India at the present time. It is enough and organisa- to say that economic interdependence implies tlon> 250 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. fluctuation and changes, while thorough-going organisation has grown most readily in the stable conditions furnished by the self-sufficiency of a given group. There were, of course, institutions for carry ing on commerce in the towns; in these centres of commerce, there has been a strange facility in taking new departures and entering on new developments as the circumstances of trade have changed. But the systematic organisation of economic life is a differ- ent matter. There is an element of instability in the social system wherever commercial intercourse comes in. It has served as a solvent in the past, and any attempts, made at the complete economic organisation of society in the future, must face the problem of how to take account of commerce and the variations which it causes. Can it be excluded and a condition of primitive simplicity secured, or can it be controlled so that it will not react on the social fabric? Is it possible to devise a thorough-going economic organisa- tion of society in countries, which are very diverse in habit and tradition, and are yet economically interdependent on one another? If such organisation is possible, would it rest on a cosmopolitan or a national basis ? These are questions suggested by the breakdown of social organisations in the past. The answers lie hidden in the future. At any rate we may see, when we remember the gradual process which has undermined the social life of the past, that there is little hope of reproducing it successfully. The conditions under which medieval craft gilds or yeomen farmers flourished are gone for ever. We must look forward and frame ideals for the future, which shall take account of all the new powers which have come into man's hands for subduing nature. But we may also do well to turn at times to the past. The better we understand the circum- stances under which economic life has flourished or has x.j Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 251 succumbed, the better shall we be able to forecast the con- ditions, which will be most favourable for the realisation of our aims in time to come. 135. The influence exerted by commercial intercourse in breaking down old social institutions has Modern also reacted curiously on the economic rela- complications tionships and responsibilities of individuals, ^d individual So long as each man was practically restricted to one neighbourhood, or confined within certain definite limits of trade, there was little room for independent action. Within each isolated group each individual stood in known relationships to other persons. The harshness of a lord to his serfs, or the negligence of a master in not finding his apprentice properly, were definite acts which could be easily brought home, and for which the blame could be properly affixed. Similarly, the producer stood in very close relations to the consumer for many purposes, and " fairness as between man and man " could be made to cover ordinary trading transactions, while conventional rules and a privileged position could be used to regulate the conditions of foreign trade and to limit attempts at extortion. The sphere for personal independent action was limited, and hence the discharge of personal duty was comparatively easy. To put it in the simplest way, if wrong were done, it was comparatively easy to make restitution. Each group was comparatively isolated, and economic relations were close and direct. In modern times, on the other hand, when goods go to market and are bought at market, there are many intervening links between the producer and the consumer. The man who does bad work may never know who is the sufferer, nor is the person who buys goods as a great bargain, at a price that must be unremunerative to the producer, able to trace out the person by whose labour and 252 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CHAP. at whose expense he has gained. If he pays more than he is asked, he has no reason to suppose that the person who has been sweated will be the better for it. Hence an un- satisfactory state of affairs arises; economic wrong is done, and those whose action occasions it feel they can neither help it nor make up for it. They have no direct personal responsibility. The intervention of so many markets and so many intermediaries has removed it out of that range of personal action within which it fell in old times. But while the break-down of the old social isolation has Personal reduced the sense of personal responsibility, influence, it has also given a far wider bearing to the economic action of individuals both in time and place. To give to a poor man in times when there was little free- dom of movement was an isolated act. Each case of hard- ship was an individual one about which there might be very full knowledge and which could be treated on its merits. But since the Tudor period, when the vagrant class came into prominence, all this is changed: the indirect and ulterior effects have to be considered as more important than those that are immediate. Open-handed beneficence may tend to create and perpetuate an idle and vagrant class : the very means which have been taken for the relief of the poor may aggravate the evil. Wherever it is possible for a man to count on regular relief, or to obtain indiscriminate charity without working, the motives to shirk the ordinary routine of life are greatly strengthened, and the growth of pauperism is stimulated. Thus it may easily happen that action, intended for the relief of the poor, will ultimately and indirectly increase the very evil it was meant to prevent. This knowledge does not of course diminish the duty of trying to help the poor, it only imposes an additional duty of being circumspect and considerate in our efforts to relieve them. x.] Results of Increased Commercial Intercourse. 253 But commercial intercourse also gives a new character to our relations with distant peoples. We are cosmopoiu brought into contact with them and indirectly tan influence, exercise an influence upon them. So long as trade was confined to special points or to factories this was hardly the case, but the opening up of half-civilised countries to the traders of all nations has led to a sudden influx of European commodities and Western ideas. The sense of duty to native races and to dependent peoples is far stronger than it was a century ago, when national feeling was far more exclusive than it is now, and obscured the sense of humanitarian duties. It is strange to note the indignation expressed by Whitfield at the restrictions placed on the English in Georgia, which prevented them from supplying rum to the natives or from possessing slaves. The ordinary religious conscience is more enlightened now; it has come to recognise that we, as a nation, have a real duty towards all those people whom we influence through our commercial relationships. We are thus brought face to face with more than one economic influence which is so indirect and far-reaching that it cannot be effectively controlled by any single individ- ual. There is need here for collective moral action : within the sphere of direct personal relation, the old moral duties of fair dealing remain. In the larger areas where markets intervene and individual action is powerless, there must be collective action through constituted authority to enforce duty in economic matters. It is easy to say that men can- not be made moral by Acts of Parliament, but it is true to reply that Acts of Parliament can enforce the performance of any duties to which the public conscience is really awake. 136. The differences, which separate the industrial life of the present from that of any earlier cen- conclusion. 254 Outlines of English Industrial History. [CH. x. tury, are so complex as to render it exceedingly difficult to apply the results of historical investigation directly to the practical questions of our time. But though our knowledge may not supply us with cut and dried formulae for the regeneration of society to-day, it will help us to understand our own age more truly. By tracing the origin and growth of existing evils we may discover how deep-seated they are, and how difficult to eradicate: we may be able to make a more accurate diagnosis and to state more clearly the problems which press for solution. History may not repeat itself, but conditions, which are more or less similar, do recur; and we can, at least, glean suggestions from the past as to remedies which may be tried with some prospect of success. We may receive warnings and learn to detect some of the dangers that lurk in many well-meant efforts for improvement; by so doing we may reap a benefit from past disasters and profit by the experience of bygone generations. It is, in some ways, an admirable training to study some burning questions, as they presented themselves to, and were worked out by, former generations of men. Where our personal interests are unaffected, and our private passions remain unroused, we can, perhaps, more easily do justice to both sides of a case; and those, who have learned to be fair in their judgments on the dead, are more likely to be fair also in controversies with the living. Enthusiasts who seek some Utopian scheme, which will heal all disorders, may turn from history in disgust; for them it may have no message. But those, who patiently face the fresh difficulties which each new age presents, will find that they can study them more thoroughly and deal with them more wisely, if they do not altogether disdain such help as may be gained from an impartial study of the past. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Immigrants to Britain. Physical Conditions (Chs. I., II.) Manors. Agriculture (Chs. III., VIII.) 400 500 6OO 700 800 9OO 1OOO 110O 1300 1300 c. 449-600. English Conquest. 597. Roman Mission (Augustine). 635. Columban Mission (Aidan). 787-1042. Danish invasions, settlement, con- quest and rule. 1066-70. Norman Conquest. 1066. Devastation of North. Immigration of Norman artisans. Cistercian monasteries founded. 14OO 1313 90. Regulation of Staple. 1331, 1336, &c. Influx of Flemings. Introduction of ' old ' drapery, c. 1350-9. 1600. Sheep farming at expense of tillage. Encouragement to English shipping. 1492. America discovered by Columbus. 1500 410. Romans leave Britain. 991. Etheldred II. levies Danegeld. 1051. Abolition of Danegeld. 1066-70. Norman Conquest. 1084. Revival of Danegeld. 1086. Compilation of Domesday Book. 1130, 1156- Pipe Rolls. 1175-1253. Grosseteste's Rules. Walter of Henley's Husbandry. 1236. Statute of Merton. 1327. Extent of Barley. 1348-50. Black Death. c. 1350-c. 1600. Sheep farming, depopulatio and enclosures (for pasture). 1351. Statute of Labourers. 1381. Peasants' Revolt. 1561-82. Immigration of Dutch, Flemish and French artisans. Eliz. Introduction of ' new ' drapery. 1459. Complaints at Coventry re enclosures Hen. VII. Convertible husbandry. 1517. Inquisition into enclosures. 1523. Fitzherbert's Treatises. 1574. Commission on villeinage. Towns. Labour and Capital (Chs. IV., IX.) National Economic Life (Chs. V., VI.) Money, Credit, and Finance (Ch. VII.) 597. Introduction of Christianity. 901-925. Edward the Elder fortifies Mercia. 1086. Domesday Survey taken. 1095. First Crusade. Hen. I. Rise of Weavers' gilds. Hen. II. Assize of Bread. 1190. Leicester Charter. 1197. Assize of Measures. Rise of Gilds Merchant. 1205. Coventry Bakers' Gild. 1254. Riot at Reading. c. 1266. Assize of Bread. Edw. I. Migration from North- ampton. 1270. Last Crusade. 1272. Riot at Norwich. 1295. Model Parliament. 1321. Submission of London Weavers. 1327. Disturbance at Reading. 1345. Grocers' Company. 1348-50. Black Death. 1381. Peasants' Revolt. Edw. III. Craft Gilds. Drapers appear as dealers. Rise of Livery Companies. Rural migration checked. 1455-85. Wars of Roses. 1465. Cloth trade regulated on capitalist lines. Struggles between jour- neymen and weavers. Remissions of taxation . 1517. ' Evil May Day.' I 5 I 9- Jurisdiction of Mayor as- serted at York. Hen. VIII. Growth of new towns. 1552. Gig mills condemned. 1 555- Weavers' Act. 1558. Weaving in country check- ed. 1563. Statute of Apprentices. 1589. Lee's knitting frame. S c. 790. Commercial treaty between Offa and Charles the Great. 918. Lewisham granted to Benedic- tine monastery at Ghent. Hen. I., Hen. II. Organisation of Exchequer. Hen. II. Connexion w. Gascony. ,, Assize of Bread. 1197. Assize of Measures. Hen. III. Heavy papal taxation. Edw. I. Mint Regulations. 1277-83. Welsh Wars. 1283. Statute of Acton Burnell. 1285. Statute of Winchester. 1290. Expulsion of Jews. 1295. Model Parliament. 1296- Wars against Scotland. Edw. III. Mint Regulations. 1328. Complaints about aulnager. 1313-90. Organisation of Staple. I 33 I J 336. Immigration of Flemings. 1339-1453. Hundred Years War. 1351. Statute of Labourers. 1353. Ordinance of Staple. 1360. Treaty of Bretigni. 1376. Good Parliament. Ric. II. Attempts to restrict to one calling. 1381. Encouragement to ship- building. 1381. Export of bullion prohibited. 1403. Treaty with Castile. Hen. V., Hen. VI. Encouragement of ship-building. 1429. ' Rovers of Sea.' 1465. Regulation of Cloth trade. 1474. Treaty with Hansards. 1480. Search for Brazil. 1485. Consul at Pisa. 1490. Treaty with Iceland. Treaty with Florence. 1492. Discovery of America by Co- lumbus. 1496. ' Magnus Intercursus.' Rise of Merchant adventurers. Hen. VIII., Edw. VI. Restrictions on possession of sheep. 1513. Arsenal at Deptford. 1514. Incorporation of Brethren of Trinity House. 1517. Inquisition into enclosures. 1548. Combination Law. 1555. Surveyors of highways. 1558. Migration from towns checked. 1562. Almsgiving made compulsory. 1563. Statute of Apprentices. 1563. Act for encouragement of navy. 1565. Walloons at Norwich. 1570. Dutch Baymakers at Col- chester. 1581. Turkey Company incorporated. 1125. Punishment of dis- honest moneyers. Hen. II. Re-organisation of Mint. 1181. Assize of Arms. 1275. Antiqua Costuma. 1292. Statute de Moneta. 1297. Confirmation of Charters. 1299. Statute de falsa Mo- neta. 1303. Nova Custuma. 1334. Financial agreement fixing tenths and fifteenths. 1335. Export of bullion without licence forbidden. 1347, 1348. Rise in prices. 1351. Issue of lighter coins. J 377 J 38i. Poll taxes. 1412, 1464. Debasement of coinage. 1472. Subsidy. Hen. VIII. Debasement of coinage. 1514. General subsidy. American mines. 1551. Further debasement. 1561. Coinage purified. *S7 Immigrants to Britain. Physical Conditions (Chs. I., II.) Manors. Agriculture (Chs. III., VIII.) 1600 Newfoundland fishery. 1634, 1649- Draining of Fens. 1651, 1660. Navigation Acts. 1685. Immigration of French refugees. 1700 1709. Immigration from Palatinate. 1713. Treaty of U trecht and Assiento. 1741. General Highway Act. 1760. Manchester and Worsley canal. 1760. Roebuck's blast furnace. Water power and machinery. 1800 1815. Macadam appointed Surveyor. Advance in theory. Markham, Weston, Plat, etc. write Treatises. Cultivation of root crops. 1649- Vermuiden drains fens. 1689. Cora Bounty Act. Improvements in practice, e.g. rota- tion of crops, cultivation of grasses. 1710- Enclosures (for tillage). 1759. Duke of Bridgewater employs Brindley. 1773-93. Exportation of corn ceases. T 773- Corn Law. 1776. Declaration of Independence. 1793. French and Napoleonic Wars. Decline of yeomanry. 1795. Allowances to labourers. Decline of domestic spinning. Fluctuation of prices. 1812. ' Swing' riots. 1815. Corn Law. 1815-46. Depression of Agriculture. 1832. Reform Bill. 1834. Thorough drainage advocated. 1846. Repeal of Corn Laws. 1846-74. Agricultural revival. Towns. Labour and Capital (Chs. IV., IX.) National Economic Life (Chs. V., VI.) Money, Credit, and Finance (Ch. VII.) Town purchases of coal. 1600. East India Company. 1601. Poor Law. 1601. Saltpetre patent retained. 1612. E. I. Co. charter renewed. 1624. Act of 1558 repealed. 1624. Sheffield Cutlers incorporated. 1624. Patents and monopolies limited. 1631. Baltimore destroyed by pirates. 1634. Ship money writs, c. 1634. Linen manufacture in Ulster. 1634-39. Ship money. Commonwealth. Monthly 1651, 1660. Navigation Acts. assessments. 1662. Settlement Act. " Excise. 1665. Aulnagers for Ireland. 1660. Commutation for feu- Ch. II. Negociations with pirates. 1665-97. Western clothiers in Ireland. dal dues. 1666. Coinage of guineas. 1666. Export of Irish cattle pro- hibited. 1670. Kidderminster Carpet Weavers. 1670. Closing of Exchequer. 1684. Sandys v. E. I. Company. 1689. Bill of Rights. 1689. Corn Bounty Act. 1694. Bank of England founded. 1694. Bank of England 1697. Duties on Irish cloth. founded. 1698. Eddystone lighthouse. 1695. Bank of Scotland 1698-1708. Struggle between Lon- don and General E. I. Co. founded. 1696. Recoinage (Newton). Abuses among Framework England v. France in India Knitters. and America. 1703. Methuen Treaty. 1704. Importation of naval stores favoured. 1707. Act of Union with Scotland. 1709. Re-issue of Assize of Bread. 1721-42. Walpole's ministry. 1720. Failure of South Sea 1723. General Workhouse Act. Scheme. 1733. Kay's flying shuttle. 1748. Paul's wool-carding ma- 1728, 1756. Wages assessed in Shrop- shire. 1721-42. Walpole. Reform of tariffs. chine. 1732. Export of American hats for- 1760. Flying shuttle in the cot- bidden. ton trade. 1741. General Highway Act. 1767. Hargreaves' spinning jen- ny. 1763. Conquest of French Canada. 1776. Declaration of Independence. 1776. A. Smith's Wealth 1769. Arkwright's spinning roll- of Nations. er. 1780. Irish commercial disabilities 1779. Crompton's mule. removed. 1785. Cartwright's power loom. 1785. Boulton and Watt's steam 1782. Gilbert's Act. 1783-1806. Pitt. Simplifi- cation of Taxation. engine at Papplewick. 1790. Cartwright's wool combing 1793-1815. French and Napoleonic machine. Wars. Kelly utilises water power. 1795. ' Speenhamland ' decision. 1797. Triple Assessment. 1793-1815. Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. 1795. ' Minimum ' wage proposed. 1796. Allowances further legalised. 1797. Suspension of cash payments. 1800. Combination Law. 1800. Combination Act. 1802,1819,1833,1847. FactoryActs. 1800, 1808. ' Minimum ' wage proposed 1803. Johnson's dressing machine. 1802, 1816, 1833, 1847. Factory Acts. 1812, 1816. Luddite riots. 1809. Restrictions on Cloth trade re- 1816. Eastern Counties bread riots. moved. 1825. Bradford Wool combers' 1813. Trade with India opened. strike. Stat. of 1563 re wages repealed. 1841. Regulation of Child la- bour in mines. 1814. ,, ,, apprentices 1815. Corn Law. 1816. Demonetisation of sil- c. 1840. Power weaving super- sedes hand work. 1846. Incorporation of Man- chester. 1818. Piracy in Mediterranean ceases. 1824. Emigration permitted. 1824, 1825. Repeal of Combination Laws. ver. 1819. Resumption of cash payments. 1824-28. Hnskisson's re- 1849. Cholera. 1856. Canongate, Broughton, 1846. Repeal of Corn Laws. 1849. Repeal of Navigation Laws. vision of tariffs. 1842-46. Peel's financial Portsborow absorbed in reforms. Edinburgh. ^tfpjT* w *^ /*%rr TLJC 5^4. Bank Charter Act. > ^^V 339 THE UNIVERSITY INDEX. Aberdeenshire, 167 Accounts, manorial 37 Acton Burnell, Statute of 1 10 Advantages, physical 243 Adventurers, 118 Affiliation, 57 Africa, 167 African Company, 119 Agricultural employment, 92 " Revolution, 185, 193 Agriculture, i, 25, 83, 87, 185, 207, 241, 249 committees on 194 " competition in 195 " extensive 166 " improvements in 1 68, 185, 186, 195 intensive 167. See Cultivation, Hus- bandry, Labourers, Tillage Aids, 154 Aldermen, 61 Ale, 33 Ale-houses, 98 Algiers, in Alien merchants, 53, 64, 142 Alien workmen, 56, 98, 99, 100. See Artisans Allotments, 187, 188, 189, 196 Allowances, 86, 87, 94, 188, 222 Alva, Duke of 14 America, 102, 114, 124, 139. See Colonies Angles, 47 Apprentices, 64, 65, 83, 203, 206, 215, 216, 251. Apprenticeship, 59, 61, 103, 104, 201, 216 Archangel, 114 Arkwright, Sir R. 220 Armada, Spanish 156 Arsenal, at Deptford, 125 Artisans, 87, 202, 203, 234, 247, 248 " and Combination law, 214 " Burgundian 12 " dexterity of 15 " Norman 12 " skilled 103 Ashley, Professor 203 Assize, of Bread 56, 96 " of Measures 57 Associations, 214. See Combi- nations Astriction, 101 Athens, 89 Aulnager, 96, 97 Authorities, local 109 " municipal 104. See Government Bacon, Francis 84 Bailiff, 37, 38, 177, 181 " farming 4 1, 42, 43, 175 Bakewell, Mr. 186 Balance of trade, 129, 130, 148 Balks, 170, 1 86 Baltic, 48 Baltimore, in Bank notes, 148 " " depreciation of 149 Bank of Ayr, 149 261 262 Outlines of English Industrial History. Bank of England, 130, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, loi, 162 " Charter Act 1 52 " " rate 151 Banking, 16 Banks, Hamburgh 152 " Scotch 149 Barbon, Dr. 129 Bargaining, 141, 165 Barley, 173, 174, 178 Barter, 140, 141, 165 Battle of Hastings, 13 Baymakers, Dutch 99 Bedford, Duke of 186 Beeherd, 248 Berkshire, 86 Bill of Rights, 116 Bimetallists, 148 Black Death, 40, 41, 42, 60, 65", 82, 90, I75> J 77 Blast furnace, 18 Bocking, 103 Bombay, 243 Boots, 245 Barley, Extent of y) Borneo Company, 119 Boulton, M. 223 Bounties, 162, 164 " on herrings 125 " on raw produce 132 Bradford, 213, 218, 224 Braintree, 103 Brazil, 1 14 Bread, 33, 244. See Assize Bricklayers of Hull, 61 Bridges, 21, 156 Bright, J. 88 Bristol, 58 Britain, as granary 19 " disintegration of society in 9 " English Conquest of 8, 9, 10 " Roman 9, 10, 47 Britons, 8 Broadcloth, 136 Broughton, 50 Bruges, 57 Bullion, 100, 126, 127, 147, 149 Bullion Committee, 150 Bullionists, 127, 128 Burgundy, 130 Bury, 48, 54 Butter, 20 By-employments, 86, 223, 232 Calais, 145 Cambridge, 43, 48, 49 Canada, French 135 Canals, 19, 21, 22, 139, 184 Canongate, 50 Canterbury, 48 Canynges, W. 125 Cape of Good Hope, 114 Capital, 5, 132, 151, 168, 169,202, 207,208,209,213,219, 235, 236, 237, 239, 240 " interest of 210, 211, 212, 239, 240 " profits of 236 Capitalist farming, 175, 180, 181 Capitalists, 197, 207, 210, 211, 212, 214, 235, 237, 238 in cloth trade 203 Carders, 204 Carding machines, 222 Carlisle, 99 Carpet-weavers, 99 Carriage, 176, 243 Carrying trade, 25 Carthaginian traders, 18 Cartwright, Dr. 224 Cash payments, 150, 152 Castle Acre, 93 Cattle, 20, 38, 39, 177, 178, 179 " Irish 138, 1 80 Cavel, 55 Chapman, 30 Charles I, 98, in, 137, 145, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161 Charles II, 101, in, 138, 147, 161, 184 Charles V, 127 Charters, 10, 51, 52, 54, 62 Cheese, 20, 244 Chester, 49 Chesterfield, 55 Index. Children, and poor law authorities, 215, 217 Children, as chimney-sweeps 215 " in factories 107, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221, 223 " in mines 219 Chimney-sweeping, 215 China, 117, 118 Cholera, 221 Christchurch, Canterbury, 37 Christianity, introduction of 47 Christians, British 9 Christmas, 39 Churchwardens, 92 Cistercians, 20 Civil War, 136, 146, 156, 158, 184 Civilisation, English 9, 15, 36 " Roman 8, 9, u, 36 Claret, 130, 131 Class distinctions, 201 Clerks, 229 Closes, 178 Cloth, 64, 96, 123, 136, 203, 204, 220, 231, 245 " dressing of 23 " export of 26 " Irish 97, 136 Clothes, 245 ' Clothiers, 137, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208 Cloth trade, 20, 23, 26, 83, 91, 97, 100, 103, 205, 220, 222, 226, 230 Clothing, 227, 233, 247 Clover, 174, 185 Coachmen, 228 Coal, 1 8, 19, 26, 55 " export of 190 " facilities for working 22 " smelting with 1 8 Coal fields, 23, 243 Coasts, 113, 156 Cobden, R. 88 Coinage, 142, 143, 145, 147 Coins, 127, 144 Colchester, 14, 50, 99 Colonial products, 245 Colonies, 25, 133, 139 Colonies, American 94, 122, 123, 126, 139 " restrictions on 242 " West Indian 122 Colonisation, 102 Colonists, 133 Combinations, 65, 104, 106 Combination Laws (1548) 105 " " (1800) 105, 106, 214 Commerce, 241 " inter-municipal 50, 109 " maritime 25 " with New World 25 Commission, on Factories 216 " on Hand-loom wea- vers 224, 226 Committee, on Bullion 150 " on Factories 216, 217 Commodities, foreign 244, 245 Common rights, 39, 171, 187 Common waste, 38, 39, 92, 170, 171, 178, 179, 1 86 " " evictions from 44 Commoners, and enclosures 187 " and fens 183 Commonwealth, ill, 122 Communication, 195, 244, 246 " commercial 232 " internal 10, 24, 95 with Rome 10 Companies, chartered 62 " incorporated 98, 99 " joint-stock and regu- lated 115, 1 1 6. See African, &c. Competition, 141, 165, 213, 215, 217, 219, 236, 240, 241, 243 Conditions, insanitary 247 Conquest, English 8, 9, 47 " Norman 12, 142, 175, 202, 248 Constantinople, 25 Consuls, 112 Cookson, Mr. 83 Co-operative Societies, 234 Copyhold tenures, 44 264 Outlines of English Industrial History. Cordwainers, 64 of Exeter 61 Corn, 84, 85, 86, 87, 96, 146, 176, 178, 1 80, 249 Corn, export of 25, 138, 190 " grinding of 51 " price of 145, 190, 191 " mills 23 " rent 193, 194 Corn Laws, (1689), 85, 138, 185, 189, 194 " (1773), 190 (1815), 87, 88, 89, 194, 195 " Repeal of 88, 164 Cornwall, 18 Cottagers, 188, 197 Cottages, 93, 190, 221, 223 Cotton cloth, 221, 224 " mills, 215, 216, 217 " trade, 216, 224, 226, 228 " weaving, 220 Court Rolls, 37 Courts, manorial 44, 96. See Manor Coventry, 15, 44, 56, 58, 64, 65 Cows, 178, 187 ' Cow's grass, 188- Craft-gilds, 16, 60, 62, 63, 64, 105, 250 Craftsmen, 62, 63, 64, 202 ^Credit, 148, 151, 152, 160 Crete, 112 Crofters, 180 Crompton, S. 220 Cromwell, O. 116 " T. 122 Croppers, 230 Crops, new 185 " rotation of 169, 174, 185, 1 86, 192 Crown, 102, 104, 109, 116, 137, 138, 142, 153, 156, 157, 159, 165 Crown lands, 157 Crusades, 12, 46, 47, 51 Cultivation, extensive 166, 167, 170, 172, 196 " intensive 167, 169, 170, 172 Currency, 127 Customs, 153 " on cloth 136 Customs, local 34 " mercantile 52 Cutlers, Sheffield 99, 231 Cutlery, 16 Danes, 10, n, 48, 167 " forts of 48 " struggle with 47 Danegeld, 32, 33, 34 Danelagh, n Darien Company, 237 Darien scheme, 123 Debts, 52, no Declaration of Independence, 139, 190 Deer forests, 180 Defoe, D. 103 Demand, 211, 228, 230 Demesne, 38, 170 Depopulation, 44, 82, 84, 177, 184 Depression, industrial 212, 213, 231 Derby, 58 Derbyshire, 23, 221 Devonshire, 222 Diminishing returns, law of 168, 169 Discourse of Common Weal, 144, 241 Distress, agricultural 195 " among Framework Knit- ters 206. See Depres- sion Ditching, 179 Division of labour, 4, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 207, 232, 235 Dockyards, 125, 238 Domesday Book, 12, 32, 34, 35, 36,5 Domesday Survey, 49, 50, 174 Domestic weaving, 205 Drainage, 19, 195 " of fens 19, 183 Drapers, 204, 208 Drapery, 16 Drivers, 229 Index. 26 5 Dublin, 55, 136, 138 Dutch, 159, 184 " carrying trade of 122 " engineers 16 " imitation of 16 Duties, 162, 164 Duty, personal 251 Dyers, 204 Earthenware, 16 East, commercial empire in 25 ., " communication with 114 East India Company, 114, II 6, 117, 119,127,128, 151, 162,237 " Dutch 117 " " " servants of 210 Easter, 39 Eastern Counties, 23, 204 Economic policy, 5 " relations 251 Economists, doctrinaire 214, 239 Economy, money 5, 140, 141, 154, 157, 160, 165, 176, 208, 209 " natural 4, 140, 141, 165 Edict of Nantes, Revocation of 1 5 Edinburgh, 50 " town mills 55 Edward I, 13, no, 142, 154 Edward II, 154 Edward III, 39, 90, 91, 97, no, 121, 143, 145, 161, 244, 245 Edward IV, 97, 112 Edward VI, 84, 105, 114, 122, 127, 143, 144, 179, 1 80, 206 Edward the Confessor, 12 Edward the Elder, 48 Efficiency, 227, 228, 239, 243 Eggs, 193, 244 Elizabeth, 84, 90, 98, 104, 122, 144, 145, 146, 157, 179, 206, 237 2.47 Emigration, 102 Employers, 211. See Division of Labour " functions of 237, 238 Employment, 232, 245, 247 " field for 229, 239 Employment, of children 217, 218. See Children " opportunities for 230 " remunerative 242, 249 Enclosure Acts, 187 Enclosures, 178, 179, 180, 186, 188, 192, 232 Engineering trades, 243 English Conquest. See Conquest Enterprise, 114 Essex, 103, 184 Estate management, 37, 41 Estates, royal 153 Exchange, 140 Exchequer, 32, 52, 59, 153, 161 Excise, 98, 134, 158 " hereditary 159, 160 " on beer 159 Exeter, cordwainers of 61 " merchant adventurers of "3 " St. Olaf's 48 " Tailors of 60 Exportation, of cattle 138 Exports, 128, 151, 153 Extent, 37 Factories, 83, 205, 215, 219, 223, 225 " and character 233 Factories (settlements), 253 Factory Acts, 107, 216, 218, 234 " inspectors 218 system 233 " towns 221, 223, 228 Fairs, 22, 30, 47, 55, 64, 203 " St. Ives 22 " Stourbridge 22, 57 Fallow, 173, 174, 178 Famines, 247 Farmers, 87 " capitalist 191 " small 176, 191, 193 " tenant, 191 " yeoman 185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 250 Farming. See Capitalist, Bailiff, and Sheep-farming 266 Outlines of English Industrial History. Farms, arable 184 " large 196 " small 189 Fens, 1 6, 183 " draining of 19 Ferm, 52 Feudal dues, 159 Fields, common 170, 191 " open 170, 171, 172 " permanent 170, 178 Finance, Dutch 159 Financial policy, of Huskisson 164 " " North 163 Peel 164 " " Pitt 163 Walpole, 162, 163, 164 Fish, 21 Fisheries, 21, 124, 125, 132 " Dutch 125 " herring 21 Fitzherbert, Sir A. 175, 182 Flanders, 143, 147, 182 Flax, 15, 126, 217 Flemings, immigration of 12, 14, 97 Fluctuation, 249 Flying shuttle, 220, 230 Food, dearness of 188, 190 " rents, 31 " supply, 82, 1 1 8, 121, 138, 177, 184, 247, 249 Foreigners, 57 Forest of Dean, 9, 18 Forests, 19 Frame rents, 206 Framework Knitters, 206, 213 France, 116, 124, 129, 130, 163 Francigenae, 50 Freedom, economic 101, 108 " of association 54, 101, 104, 1 08 " of employment 101, 103, 104 " of movement 101, 102 Freeholders, small 191, 192 Free trade, 165, 243, 244, 245, 246 Friendly Societies, 234 Frieze, 136 Fruit, 244 Fuel, 19, 26, 126, 135, 184, 243 Fuller, 204 Fulling mills, 206 Furniture, 31 Galway, 123 Gardens, 196 Genoese, 125 George III, 186, 248 Georgia, 253 Germany, 136 Gig-mills, 206 Gilbert's Act, 94 Gild merchant, 54, 60, 62, 63 1 " at Preston 62 ' " at Shrewsbury 63 ' " privileges of 55, 56 Gilds, 105 ' Bakers' 56 ' of journeymen 65 Glastonbury, 14 Gloucestershire, 23, 91 Gold, 127, 128, 129,142, 147, 149 Gold lace, 98 Goldsmiths, 146, 149, 161 Gott, Mr. 222 Government, local 46 " municipal 13, 16 Granaries, 55 X^_,_i Granborough, 40 Grasses, 185, 192 Graziers, 138 Grazing, 20, 178, 180, 192 " rights, 187, 231 Grocers, 63, 113 Gross, Dr. 54, 62 Grosseteste, Bp. 30 Guards, 229 Guineas, 147 Gunpowder, 98 Hadrian's wall, 18 Hales, J. 241 Halifax, 204 Handloom weavers, 224, 225, 226 Hand-work, 226 Hansards, 53, ill Hanse. See Gild merchant. Index. 26; Harbours, 25, 113 Hardware, 23, 243 Hargreaves, J. 220 Harvest, 39 Hatfield Chase, 183 Hats, 135 Hay ward, 38 Hedging, 179 Hemp, 126 Henry I, 142, 153 Henry II, 105, 142 Henry III, 154, 175 Henry IV, 65, 83 Henry V, in, 125 Henry VI, 83, 105, ill Henry VII, 1 12 Henry VIII, 84, 125, 143, 156, 175 Hereford, 58 Hereward, 202 Herring trade, 125 Hibbert, F. 63 Hides, 20 Highway Act (1741), 22, 95 Holkham, 1 86 Holland, 22, 116, 184 Horses, 228 Horse breeders, 228 Hours of labour, 61, 217, 218 Housing of factory workers, 222 Hull, 99, 113 " Bricklayers of 61 " Merchant Adventurers of "3 Husbandry, 182 " convertible 178, 179, 1 86 " in Brabant 182 Husting Court, 48 Iceland, 48 Immigrants, 13, 17 English 13 Danish 13 " French 15 " Flemish 12, 14, 97 " Normans 12 " from Palatinate 15 " Italian 14 Imports, 87, 128, 151, 153, 245 " cheap 244 Income-tax, 164 India, 124, 129, 166, 210, 248, 249 Industrial Revolution, 5, 207, 2i - - . DEC 3 1*63 -3 P LD '21-50//-