Charge or Contribution, which all other Merchants were fubject unto, fave that in time of Need, they were enjoined to repair and help to keep one of the Gates of London called Bifhopfgate. Now this fingle Circumftance of their paying but one and a Quarter upon the Hundred, accounts for their doing all that was alledged against them, and for their final Diffolution; it accounts for their engroffing a large Share of Trade to themselves, and alfo for their Collufion with other Merchants and colouring their Goods with their Names, to the Injury of the Revenue and of fair Traders.

6. For that they had increased their Exportations from 80 to 44000 Cloths per Ann. was in itself no Crime. But their particular Privileges, in Point of Cuftom beyond other Merchants, both Strangers and Denizens, certainly was an Objection, fuch as the Merchants would be apt to make, and fuch as the State would rea- P. S. But as the Diffolution of this Note. dily give an Ear to. German Company is faid to be, and certainly was, procured by the Merchants Adventurers, fo we may be well affured that they brought it about by means of their Numbers, Riches and Power, and not by their Poverty. But how they could be numerous and rich, as Merchants, and particularly (which profeffedly they were) as ClothMerchants, without exporting largely, is inconceivable.

7. And therefore we muft fuppofe, that either the whole annual Exportation of Woolen Manufacture from England, about the Year 1551, was ordinarily more than to the amount of 45100 Cloths; and that there was fome Management on the Part of the Merchants Adventurers, in witholding their usual Exportations for the Space of that one Year, in order to furnish a better Handle of Complaint against the Stillyard Merchants, for the fake of compaffing their intended Purposes against them; or else the Merchants Adventurers for the faving of Duty, were guilty of colouring their own Goods under the Names of Merchants of the Stillyard; and fo were at the fame Time Complainants and Aggreffars both. And this is not very improbable, altho' it was only - objected to the Merchants of the Stillyard, that they coloured other, Strangers Goods.

8. However that was, whether the Estimate was taken from the known Exportations of that Period upon a Medium,

Burleigh's a Medium, or only from the particular Account which State Pa- had appear'd the Year before: In Burleigh's State Papers we find as follows,

pers.

* P. 127.

a Ch. 12.

Provifions for Payments.

• Uncerten. Imprimis, Of the Merchants Adventurers to be borrowed upon their Cloths 30,000 1. 1 December?

I

For the Devife to pay the Dett at November.

To procure the Preft upon every Cloth now going out of the Realm; which if they come in Nombre to 40000 l. having twenty Shillings upon the Cloth, cometh to 40,000 l, if one Mark, 40,000 Marks,'t

a

P. S. Thus we perceive, contrary to what we fhall §. 6, 8, 10, find frequently afferted by Perfons attempting the Hiftory of 14. the English Woolen Manufacture, that from Edw. III. Chap. 14. it had been a growing Business, and that the Exportation $.9, 12. of Cloth, for fome Ages, had been, and now was, very conNote. fiderable. And here therefore may be noted an Error in Chap. 15. $.20. Note this particular, of two illuftrious foreign Hiftorians, who 5.25.Note. have been quoted by fome of our modern Writers in this Chap. 16. Cafe, $.6. Note. Because the King was to make Payment of 48000 l. Chap. 17. beyond the Seas, and had but 14000/. towards the Sum, ⚫ three hundred of the chief Merchant Adventurers granted to him a Loan of 40,000 l. for three Months, to be levied from the Cloths, which they were then to tranfport, after the Rate of 20 s. for every Cloth. But thefe Adventurers went not upon any Adventure, because at that fhipping 40,000 Broad Cloths were by them tranfported. Sir John Hence it fould feem, that the whole annual Exportations of Hayward, Cloth from England, did about this Time far exceed 45.100 Cloths; and also that the Merchant Adventurers had the Year before with-held their ufual Exportations, as above conjectured (§. 7.)

1552.

Grotius, of the Reigns of King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, fays, At that Time the Paftures of Britain, with the only Produce of their Wool, did almost anfwer all Importations from foreign Parts; although nothing was fetched out of the Island, but RAW WOOL in the FLEECE.'

A Method

in order to re-establish the Woolen Manufacture of England, &c. By Mr. Lowndes. 1745. P. 13, 14.

Cafe, and whofe Authority has probably misled many others; I mean Grotius + and Thuanus . These two eminent Perfons date the Beginning of the English Woolen Trade low as the middle of the fixteenth Century; till which Time, they reprefent the Bulk of the People of England as only Shepherds and Husbandmen, and the English Merchants, as mere Exporters of raw Wool.

СНАР.

+ Grotius fpeaking of the original Differences between the English and Germans, gives for Hiftory as follows:

Originem ejus Certaminis, quando Belgicas partes Grotius de eventu attigit, altius ordiar. Proximis feculis fumma rebus Belg. 'mercaturæ Germanicas penes civitates fuit. Nec tantum lib. 7.

fed & Londini forum pofuere: ubi poftquam fide p. 307, & utilitate claruerant, permiffum à regibus ut modico 308. vectigali res venales commutarent. Sed eo etiam tempore pafcuus Britannia ager prope folo lanitii proventu externis advectionibus refpondebat; nec rudia præter vellera quicquam ex Infula petebatur, DONEC Belge domeftica pertæfi mala, & diverfis de caufis exfules, ut alia alias gentes, ita purganda inficiendæque lana ufum ANGLOs docuere. EDVARDI id principatu contigit, qui intentus novi quaftus partem ad ærarium trahere, fentiebat fe Anfiaticis pactionibus impediri. Quæfitis igitur criminibus queís olim conceffa eriperentur, Britanni cuncta evertere, &c. Hinc Invidia & ad Imperatorem querelæ."

Thuanus,

Thuanus yet wider from the Truth. In Belgio Albanus rebus feliciter bello geftis, ubi initio lib. 46. anni Bruxellas rediit, de novis Epifcopis ubique confti-b 1569. tuendis, & Inquifitionis telo in fufpectos ftringendo cogitare cepit, citatifque ad concilium fanguinarium, quod vocant, plerifque, multos terrore injecto folum vertere coegit; opificibúfque quibus Belgium fupra cunctas orbis provincias abundat ftatim ob placitorum feveritatem dilabentibus, ingens vaftitas ubique & triftis rerum facies apparuit. Britannia proxima illis perfugium fuit, quo exules fecum panorum texturam intulerunt & eam Anglos. 24. antéa agriculturæ & pecuariæ folum deditos magna Belgici Chap. 12. opificii jactura docuerunt, tantoque humero in infulam confluxerunt ut urbes aliquot infrequentes ac pene defola-.10.Note. tas, ac Norvicam præcipue, Colcheftram, Maidftonum, Sanduicham, Hamptonum, & alias inftaurarint.'

Ch. 11.

Chap. 16. §. 1. Note. $.9. Note. Chap. 18. 5.4. Note.

Rapin, vol. 2. p. 36.

Stephens's

CHAP. XVIII.

Queen MARY: PHIL. and MARY.

1.A Subfidy of Tonnage and Poundage. ↑ M. Sest.

2. An Act touching Cloth making in Corporate Towns and Market Towns. Sefs. 3. c. 7. t

3. A. D. 1554. The Queen fufpends the A&t against the German Merchants.

4. An Act for making of Ruffets, Sattins, SattinsReverses and Fuftians of Naples in Norwich. 1, 2 Phil. and Mary, c. 14.

5. An

The Subfidy of Wools therein included, and the fame Hiftory of as in Ed. VI. except as to Denizens made, or to be made, Taxes, who were to pay 31. 6s. 8d. the Sack for Wool; in like manner as Merchant Strangers.

P. 237.

N. B. By this we may conceive, that Merchants of the Staple loft a Privilege as Denizens, which they had enjoyed without Interruption, from Ed. IV. of being, tho' not the fole, yet the chief Exporters of Wool; and that the Cuftom on Wool exported was, in effect, raised to twice as much as before, from Ed.IV. it had been. For while Denizens had it in their Power to export Wool, paying but half the Custom as Strangers did, it is to be imagined, that, excepting what paffed the Streights, the greatest Part of the Wool exported went through their Hands. But the Value of Money being now much altered from what it was in Ed. IV. and the Woolen Manufacture in England being also much increased, this Advance of Custom, on Denizens exporting Wool, became not only more reasonable, but, if it did not amount to a Prohibition, anfwered all beneficial Purposes to the English Woolen Manufacture, as well as, or better than, a Prohibition ever has done, or can do. See c. 26. §. 6.

.4 Ch. 16. + This Act repeals that of 5, 6 Ed. VI. c. 8. By §. 8. Note, which no Perfons were permitted to make broad Cloth, who had not been Apprentices to the Occupation, or &c. for feven Years: and permits the making of fuch Cloth to all Perfons inhabiting Market Towns, provided the fame be fubftantially made, bearing lawful Length, Breadth, &c. according to the Statute 5 Ed. VI. c. 6.

These were certain Sorts of Woolen Goods, which, the Acts fays, Had been used to be made abroad of En

'glifa

5. An Act touching Weavers. 2-3 Phil. and Mary, c. II. t

6. An

glife Wools, and then imported into, and worn within the Kingdom, to the Injury of its Trade and Manufacture, particularly that of the City of Norwich. For Remedy ⚫ whereof certain Perfons, viz. the Mayor and others of that City, to the Number of twenty-one Perfons, had ⚫ been at the Expence of procuring Strangers skilled in that Work, and alfo of making of Looms, and all other Provifions for the fame;' and having made fome Progrefs in the Bufinefs, were hereby made a Fellowship or Company, and Body Corporate, with separate Laws and Privileges.

This Act recites, That the rich and wealthy Clothiers did opprefs the poor Weavers, 1. By fetting up and keeping in their Houfes divers Looms. 2. By engroffing Looms into their Hands, and letting them out at high Rents. 3. By lowering their Wages.' Therefore enact

e

ed, That no Clothier out of a Borough, Market Town, or Corporate Town, fhall have above one Loom. No "Weaver dwelling out of a City, &c. fhall have above two Looms. No Weaver fhall be either Tucker, Fuller, or Ch. 48. Dyer. No Fuller or Tucker fhall keep a Loom. No §. 9, 10. Perfon fhall cause any white broad Woolen Cloths to be made, but in a City, &c. or where fuch Cloths have been made for the space of ten Years before. No Weaver dwelling out of a City, &c. fhall have above two Apprentices at one time. None fhall fet up Weaving, unlefs he have been Apprentice to, or have exercised the 'fame feven Years. This Act fhall not extend to York, 'Cumberland, and Northumberland.'

And what are all these but fo many Evidences of the Trade's Increase, and of the Spirit of Monopoly growing up -along with it?

3

Upon a Creation of Serjeants 16 October, A. D. 1555, Dugdale's 2, 3 Philip and Mary, Mr. Albany. a Draper in Watling- Origines ftreet, was appointed to furnish them with Cloth, viz. JuridicaEvery Serjeant for his Robe of Scarlet, five Yards and a les, p. 129. half, at f33s. 4d. a Yard. See C.14. Of Violet in Grain, for a like Robe, five Yards and an §. 7.half, at 16 o a Yard.

Of brown Blue, for a like Robe, five Yards and an half,

at

Of Muftard and Murrey, for a like

an half, at

H

14 oa Yard. Robe, five Yards and

10 o a Yard.