CHAPTER III.

BRITISH WOOL TRADE.

(37.) _Origin of the Wool Trade._--Wool, since Eden closed its gates on our progenitors has been a current coin, an important material, on which has been employed the skill and industry of almost every tribe, and been the means of raising many a petty people to the hard-won dignity of a nation. Man, at first placed in a comfortable temperature, needed little as a defence against the weather; while fashion, then unthought of, or only as a sport, failed to interest the simple-minded races in the cut or texture of the coverings they wore.

That the first dresses of mankind were formed from vegetable materials, we have the highest authority for believing; and even at present, the garb of the natives of some of our lately discovered islands, consists of a simple girdle formed from rough-cut reeds. But as the dawn of knowledge smiled upon the savage, and animal sacrifice tutored him in the uncouth rudiments of a coa.r.s.e anatomy, the superior comfort, even of the untanned hide would be remarked, and the clumsy mantle of the Caffre hordes welcomed as a change. Time would not long elapse till roving dispositions, and the encounter of unstable climates, would show the wanderer the necessity of a fabric better adjusted by shape and pliancy, to the nature of his wants; while the clinging of lock to lock of woolly fibre would plainly tell the superfluous nature of the supporting skin, and point the way to make an ill-closed cloth.

(38.) _Invention of Weaving._--Weaving is not absolutely necessary for the manufacture of cloth, since wool will felt, though far from evenly, without the preliminary process of being laid in threads, so that cloth may have been almost coeval with mankind without our being required to a.s.sign much mechanical ingenuity to its inventors. But we have tolerably clear evidence in the inspired writings, that weaving was known in the earliest ages, and that it was trusted princ.i.p.ally to the women:--Thus Delilah wove Samson's hair when he slept in her lap; and a short time after, it is written, that the mother of Samuel "made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year." At a later period, Solomon thus describes a good wife:--"She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands."[5] That garments were in those early ages made of several pieces, joined by needle work, is evident on a perusal of Genesis, x.x.xvii. 3; Judges, v. 30; and 2 Samuel, xiii. 13; and this plan is allowed to be even more ancient than the weaving of flax. Job, who flourished, or is supposed to have flourished, before the Israelites left Egypt, shows clearly by his words that flannel clothing was then in vogue: "Let me be condemned if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;" and that the cloth was woven, and not produced by beating, is evident from his saying, when complaining of his sad estate, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle."

[5] The art of weaving was first practised at Arach in Babylonia, and spread thence to neighbouring cities, and in process of time to the most remote parts of the world.--_Bryant's Ancient Mythology_, Vol. v. p. 173.

(39.) _The early progress of the Wool Trade_ is veiled in much obscurity, and only to be discovered by seeking for it in a ma.s.s of fable, which in many instances enabled the old writers to string together the dry details of history, in a manner suited to the taste and habit of their time. The following may be taken as a specimen.

Phryxus, the son of Athamas king of Thebes, fleeing with his sister, h.e.l.le, from their stepmother, and riding upon (carrying with him) a ram which had a golden (valuable) fleece, sought to cross the Dardanelles, when h.e.l.le was drowned, and the sea was ever after called the h.e.l.lespont: but Phryxus arrived safely at Colchis, between the Black and Caspian seas, and having sacrificed the ram to Mars, hung the fleece in a temple dedicated to that G.o.d. By this the ancients no doubt meant to intimate, either that Boeotia, the birth-place of so many talented Greeks, furnished the people of Colchis with sheep, or that they sent them sums of money in exchange for the wool of Caucasus. That the latter is the more probable, is apparent from Ovid's account of the Argonautic expedition, in which he shows the hardships which Jason encountered in his successful endeavours (B.C.

1225) to bring the golden fleece from Colchis back to Greece--implying the value of the article, and leading us to believe, that the Colchians had, by the aid of severe penalties, long monopolized the growth of wool. Moreover, Mount Caucasus and its neighbourhood form the favoured nursery whence the improved fleece-bearing animals have gradually spread over the world; and as such would be looked upon, at the time I speak of, by adjacent tribes with jealousy and hatred; for where is the nation that can calmly behold a compeer engrossing a h.o.a.rd of wealth, without struggling to lower their prices by a market of their own?

Thus one country after another became impressed with the advantages to be derived from the husbandry of sheep. Nation after nation improved its agriculture, by the introduction of the animal, till at last the Romans became pre-eminent for their attention to its culture, and to the manufactures of which it is the fruitful source. Generous even to an enemy, and attacking only to enrich the countries they subdued, England may bless the hour which saw the legions of the world's mistress planting the Imperial Eagle on her sh.o.r.es.

Instead of following the progress of the wool trade among foreign nations in later times, the limits of the present work compel me to confine myself to an outline of the British trade from its origin, at the time of the invasion by the Romans, to the present period.

(40.) _Introduction of Weaving into Britain._--It is evident from ancient history, that the first inhabitants of all the countries of Europe were either naked, or nearly so, owing to their ignorance of the clothing art. Such, in particular, was the uncomfortable condition of the inhabitants of this island, who are supposed to have used the bark of trees, and to have smeared themselves with unctuous matter, after the manner of other savages, to protect themselves from cold.

Some writers are of opinion, that the inner bark of trees alone was employed, and that not till woven into a kind of cloth, such as the South Sea islanders at present make. They continued the abominable practice of anointing their bodies, long after the people of France, Spain, and Germany, were decently clothed, so differently were they situated in regard to intercourse with strangers, and opportunities of acquiring the useful arts. It is impossible to discover with certainty when, or by whom, the custom of wearing clothes was introduced into Britain. Some suppose that the Greeks, and after them the Phoenicians, who visited the Scilly islands, and sometimes the continent of Britain, for trading purposes, first awakened in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of our savage ancestors a desire for comfortable coverings, as both these nations were celebrated for elaborate attention to their attire.

"The Britons," says Caesar, "in the interior parts of the country are clothed in skins." These are supposed not to have been sewed together, but to have been cast over the shoulders as a mantle. Their stiffness, however, rendered them aught but pleasant, as we may guess from their endeavours to make them soft and pliable, by steeping in water, beating them with stones and sticks, and rubbing them with fat. The people of the southern parts are supposed to have been well acquainted with the dressing, spinning, and weaving, both of flax and wool, having been instructed by a Belgic colony, long before the invasion by the Romans. Two kinds of cloth, which they manufactured at this period, were much esteemed by their invaders; the one a thick harsh cloth, worn in cold climates as a sort of mantle, and agreeing in many respects with our Lowland plaids; the other made of fine wool, dyed of different colours, woven into chequered cloth, and corresponding to our Highland tartan. They are also believed to have made felts of wool, without either spinning or weaving, and to have stuffed mattresses with the portions shorn from it in dressing. The Britons must have been well acquainted with the dyeing of wool, as the Gauls were then celebrated, according to Pliny, for the invention of a "method of dyeing purple, scarlet, and all other colours, only with certain herbs." The plant, which they chiefly used for the purpose, was the glastum or woad, and they seem to have been led to the discovery of its value in dyeing cloth, from their former use of it in staining their bodies. A deep blue having been the colour they stained their skins, it long continued a favourite; particularly, with the Caledonians, as a tint for all their dresses. Though the most civilized of the ancient Britons were tolerably versed in the most essential branches of the woollen manufacture, yet that useful art was not diffused over our island till the landing of the Romans, whose soldiers, being almost all drawn from the plough, were well adapted, when settled in the country, to foster the arts of peace. In order to benefit themselves and the island, their emperors were at great pains to discover and procure the best artificers of every description, particularly the best manufacturers of woollen and linen cloths, whom they formed into colleges, or corporations, endowed with various privileges, and governed by a procurator, who was under the direction of that great officer of their empire, the Count of the Sacred Largesses. In this manner it appears that the first woollen manufactory was established at Venta Belgarum, now Winchester, a hundred years after the conquest of the country.

It has been believed, from Britain having been partly peopled from Spain, that our sheep were originally Spanish; and, as Giraldus Cambrensis (Collectan. de Reb. Hibern.) affirms, that the Irish in his time were clothed in black garments, from the wool of their sheep being so coloured, some have supposed the sheep of that island were imported from Spain, a supposition rendered probable by Southey telling us, in his letters from that country, that in the north of the Peninsula the animals are almost all of a black colour.

No mention ever occurs in the ancient writers, of the importation of sheep into Britain, from which it may be supposed, that they had found their way into it long before its forcible separation from the continent by natural convulsions. Cambden, in his work on Britain, quotes from an old orator, part of a beautiful panegyric on the great Constantine, in which the happiness of Britain is eloquently described, and its advantages in regard to sheep graphically depicted.

"Innumerable are thy herds of cattle, and thy flocks of sheep, which feed thee plentifully, and clothe thee richly." So that, even allowing for the high-flown nature of the verbiage, the sheep of the island must have been far from indifferent, and well worthy of any trouble the grasping Romans may have been put to, in the erection of manufactories.

(41.) _Importance of the British Woollen Manufacture._--The history of our wool, and the woollen manufacture, is, at one period and in one point of view, the history of our public revenue, while in a succeeding period it becomes the capital object of our commerce, and the important subject of our political councils. The preserving and supporting it against foreign rivals, the due regulation of its numerous branches, and the proper restrictions deemed requisite to ensure to this country the commercial benefits resulting from it, have occupied our ablest statesmen for many centuries.

The wools of England have always been in the highest repute, and that more abroad than at home. Their fineness and abundance have been ascribed by many to the sweet short gra.s.s on most of our downs and pastures, and to the sheep having the privilege of feeding, all the year round, without being shut in folds; but it cannot be denied, that, though food and climate may have much concern in the matter, the energetic industry and persevering attention with which an Englishman devotes himself to the attainment of an object, have tended more than any other circ.u.mstance to the advancement of our wools, and woollen manufactures, and to the consequent prosperity of our island.

The reason of the existence of so many laws relating to wool is, that it continued for ages to be the princ.i.p.al commodity, meeting all demands for the support of armies, and payment of public revenues, and affording aids to the crown, which were in general granted therein.

The scarcity of money in England before the discovery of America, rendered it necessary to levy taxes frequently in kind, and as wool was abundant, it often figured as the representative of a more portable currency. Part of the 300,000 demanded by the Emperor of Germany as the ransom of Richard I., was raised by a loan of wool.

Edward I., the great reformer of our laws, imposed a duty of 6s. 8d.

on every sack of wool exported, and the like sum on every 300 wool-fells; but soon after, when his necessities demanded a larger income, he laid those additional duties on foreign merchants, which afterwards became the tonnage and poundage, so famous in England's history. Among these additions, the former taxes on wool and fells were increased by forty pence, while at the same time, like other monarchs of the period, he occasionally received subsidies of wool. In the same way Edward III., in attempting, during the twelfth year of his reign, to wrest the crown of France from the house of Valois, procured a grant of half the wool in England, amounting to 20,000 packs, which, taking it as valued by some authors at 40 a pack, must have realized the sum of 800,000.

(42.) _Weavers brought from Flanders._--Commerce and industry were at a very low ebb during the time of Edward III., the princ.i.p.al export being wool, which only brought into the kingdom about 450,000. Edward promoted the woollen manufacture by bringing, in 1331, John Kemp, with seventy Walloon families, weavers, from Flanders, and, owing to the want of native skill in this department, gave every encouragement to foreign weavers. (11 Edward III. cap. 5.)[6] A further encouragement was given to the home manufacture, by the enactment of a law (11 Edward III. cap. 2) which prohibited every one from wearing any cloth not of English fabric. Parliament, however, in an evil hour, thwarted these benefits, by prohibiting the exportation of woollen goods, certainly an injurious step, so long as wool was allowed to be shipped from our ports.

[6] Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, agrees with Bloomfield the historian of Norfolk, that a colony of Flemish weavers settled so early as 1327, at Worsted, a village in that county, and bestowed upon it the name it bears.

On the introduction of the Flemish weavers, Kendal became the metropolis of this branch of industry, and was soon equalled in the extent of its manufactories by many other towns, as Norwich, Sudbury, Colchester, and York; while woollens were spun and wove, though to a less extent, in Devonshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire Suss.e.x, and Wales.

(43.) _Regulations regarding Staples._--The _staple_, or market for wool, was fixed by act of Parliament (27 Edward III.) in particular towns of England, but was afterwards removed by law to Calais, and English merchants were prohibited from exporting any goods from the staple, or, in other words, foreign navigation was abandoned. To the custom of taking subsidies in kind, may be traced the principle of those multifarious regulations which fixed the staple in certain towns, either in England, or more commonly on the continent; and to the fluctuating state of politics may be ascribed the shiftings which those staples so frequently underwent; but it is not easy to see the drift of many of the provisions relating to it, some of which tend to the benefit of foreign, rather than of British, commerce.

(44.) The progress which this manufacture made in a very short period, may be well ill.u.s.trated by the following table of exports and imports in woollen, about the middle of the fourteenth century, or twenty years after the arrival of John Kemp and his establishment.

EXPORTS.

Thirty-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-one and a half of wool, at L.6 value each sack, 189,909 0 0

Three thousand, thirty-six hundred and sixty-five fells, at 40s. value, each hundred at six score, 6,073 1 8

Whereof the custom amounts to 81,624 1 1

Fourteen last, seventeen d.i.c.ker, and five hides of leather, after L.6 value the last 89 5 0

Whereof the custom amounts to. 6 17 6

8,061-1/2 of worsted, after 16s. 8d. value, the price is 6,717 18 4

Whereof the custom amounts to 215 13 7 --------------- Summary of the out-carried commodities in value and custom, 285,635 17 2 ---------------

IMPORTS.

1,832 cloths, after L.6 value each, 10,922 0 0

Whereof the custom amounts to 91 12 0 ---------------

Summary of the in-brought woollens in value and custom, 11,013 12 0

That the imported cloths were much finer than those exported, may be inferred from their comparative value as here stated, and we may conclude pretty justly, that the fabrication of coa.r.s.e cloths exclusively occupied the manufacturers of Britain, while the finer fabrics were still brought from abroad, and that, in fact, the wants of the _ma.s.s_ of the people were the regulators of British industry.

(45.) _Subsidies raised by Edward III._--In 1338, Edward took a fifteenth of all the commonalty of his realm in wool, rating the price of every stone of 14 lbs. at 2s., although, in the previous November, he had sent the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Earls of Suffolk and Northampton, with one thousand sacks of wool, into Brabant, which, being sold at L.40 a sack, procured him L.40,000. Edward was apparently not very sure how far his subjects would submit to so sweeping a taxation, as we find him addressing a letter, dated Berwick-upon-Tweed, March 28th, 1338, to the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, desiring the favour of their prayers, and requesting that they would excuse him to his people, on account of the great taxes he was obliged to lay upon them. During the summer of 1339, the laity granted to the king the one-half of their wools throughout the whole realm, a favour his majesty is reported to have received most graciously; but of the clergy he levied the whole, compelling them to pay nine merks for every sack of the best wool. Knighton, who held an office in the Abbey of Leicester, says that that house alone furnished eighteen sacks. The revenue officers during this reign appear to have exercised their calling with great strictness, and to have interfered in an especial manner with the secret trade of the inhabitants of Bristol, but this was terminated by the king granting a licence, dated Langley, November 25th, 1339, to their weavers, allowing them "to make woollen cloth without being liable to any molestation from the king's officers."

(46.) _Progress of the trade under Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Edward VI._--During the b.l.o.o.d.y and destructive wars of the white and red roses, when success graced the arms alternately of York and Lancaster, commercial enterprise was almost at a stand. This unhappy period brought, however, with all its evils, blessings in its train, and Henry VII. not only did more for the advancement of the wool-trade than his predecessors, but also gave it greater vigour than it could lay claim to at any former period. Fine cloths were much improved in his reign, and luxury began to be attended to in an article, which, till then, had only been rendered amenable to comfort. The ostentatious reign of Henry VIII., gave an additional impulse to the trade, and cloth was sold in 1512 for five merks, which fifty years before would only have brought about forty shillings; while, in consequence of increasing wealth, population, and consumption, the demand was materially increased. A new market was also opened up for the exit of their woollens, by the establishment of an intercourse in 1516 with several islands in the Archipelago, and a few of the towns on the coast of Syria.

Edward VI., or rather his ministers, for he was then a minor, attempted to lay a poll-tax upon sheep, every ewe kept in a separate pasture being charged threepence, every wedder twopence, and all sheep kept on commons three-halfpence; but it was found to be so oppressive, so annoying to the people, and so difficult to collect, that it was repealed during the next year. England made a distinguished figure in this reign as a commercial nation. The manufacture of woollens was raised to a great height. Cloth, besides being exported to Flanders, found its way to Holland, Hamburgh, Sweden, and Russia, whose coa.r.s.e warm stuffs were very much wanted, and the trade wore such an air of affluence, that a tax of eightpence in the pound was laid upon all cloth made for sale in England. This, however, was speedily repealed, a very short time serving to point out, that, though made for an endurance of three prosperous years, the people who were galled by a trifling impost on their sheep, would not, unless under very favourable circ.u.mstances, submit to imposts on the fabrics which they wore.

During the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Edward VI., an undue preference was given to grazing. Acts were framed to put a stop to this mismanagement, which was fast ruining the country, by driving people from it. Henry VII. exempted Norwich from the penalties of the law, on account of the decay of manufactures from the want of hands; and shortly after the whole county of Norfolk obtained a like exemption in regard to some branches of the woollen trade. The practice of depopulating the country, by abandoning tillage, and throwing the lands into pasturage, had run to so great an extent in the time of Henry VIII., that an enactment was made, whereby the king became ent.i.tled to half the rents of the land where any farm-houses were allowed to fall to decay. The number of sheep in a flock was at the same time limited to two thousand. Hume conjectures, in his _History of England_, that unskilful husbandry was probably the cause why the proprietors found no profit in tillage;--thus leading a farmer to keep a flock sometimes of twenty-four thousand as expressed in the statute. This had the effect of increasing the price of mutton, a remarkable coincidence, which parliament attributes to the commodity having gotten into few hands, though Hume ascribes it to the daily increase of money, thinking it almost impossible that such an article could be engrossed. At the commencement of the reign of Edward VI., the people were still sadly deficient in a knowledge of agriculture--a profession, which, as Hume wisely remarks, of all employments, requires the most reflection and experience. A great demand having arisen for wool both at home and abroad, whole estates were laid waste, while the tenants, regarded as a useless burden, were expelled their habitations, and the cottagers deprived even of the commons on which they fed their cows; no wonder there was a decay of the people!

(47.) _Wool Trade encouraged by Elizabeth._--Elizabeth extended her protection to the Protestants who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, and the woollen manufactories became more flourishing than ever--so much so, that, although in 1552, a large quant.i.ty of raw material was exported, yet in less than thirty years, the people of Germany, Poland, France, Flanders, Denmark, and Sweden, were covered with British cloths; two hundred thousand pieces being annually exported, though the price was nearly tripled. At that time the processes by which woollens are rendered beautiful were unknown in England, and as our exports consisted in white undressed cloth, the profits upon dyeing and finishing, amounting to nearly a million a year, were lost. This was attempted to be remedied by prohibiting the exportation of white cloths, but the Dutch and Germans, who benefitted by the dyeing processes, forbade the entrance of any English woollens dyed in the piece, into their territories, and the export consequently fell immediately from 200,000 to sixty pieces.

Then the restriction was taken off. It was at this crisis that the fabrication of medley cloths, or mixtures of wool dyed of different colours and wrought into the same web, was commenced.

(48.) _Woollen Cloth monopolized by the merchant adventurers._--Though nine-tenths of the commerce of the kingdom consisted in the time of James I. of woollen goods, wool was allowed to be exported till the nineteenth year of his reign, when it was forbidden by proclamation, but never strictly enforced. The cloth was very little admired even at home, and though it was the staple commodity of the realm, a company of merchant adventurers were allowed by a patent, to possess the sole disposal of it. Elizabeth at one time attempted to rescue this important trade from the hands of these merchants, but they instantly conspired, and ceased to make purchases of cloth, when the queen was necessitated to restore the patent. A board of trade was brought together by James I. in 1622, and one of the purposes contemplated was to remedy the low price of wool, which was leading the people to complain of the decay of the woollen manufacture; but Hume supposes, and with every appearance of probability, that this fall of prices proceeded from an increase of wool.

(49.) _English consumption of Wool increased._--Till the fifteenth century our wool was sold in the fleece to such as came to buy it.

Among the princ.i.p.al of our customers were numbered the Flemings, and Brabanters, and in particular the merchants of Ghent, and Louvain, who took off vast quant.i.ties for the supply of two manufactories, that had flourished in those cities from the tenth century, and had furnished the greater part of Europe, and even England itself, with every kind of woollen cloth. Thus they might have continued, to the great loss of our island, had not the democratic hands employed in those manufactories repeatedly revolted, owing to their determination to resist a tax on looms, and being at length punished and dispersed, found their way in no long time to Holland. While in the last place, the spirit of sedition still being dominant, certain of their party attacked and killed some of the civil authorities, for which they had to make a precipitate flight to England, where they settled as peaceful citizens, and instructed our people in the working of wool.

This occurred in 1420, from which time neither skill, money, nor enactments, have been spared to enable us to retain so valuable a trade. In the reign of Edward IV., every pack of English wool was liable when exported to a custom of 50s., a goodly sum in those days, and one which brought a yearly revenue of L 250,000. This excessive custom, almost amounting to a prohibition, added to the above mentioned opportunities, in a manner compelled the people to manufacture for themselves, and in this they succeeded so well, that by the time of Elizabeth, the exportation of live sheep and wool was prohibited on pain of having the right hand struck off. It does not appear that this enactment was ever repealed, though supposed to be so by the 12th of Charles II. cap. 32, see. 3, which, without taking away the penalties imposed by former statutes, imposes a new penalty;--20s.

for every sheep exported, or attempted to be exported, together with the forfeiture of the sheep.

(50.) _Severity of prohibitory enactments reprobated._--By the 14th of Charles II. chap. 18 the exportation of wool was deemed felony, and punished accordingly. This tended in no slight degree to the defeat of the ends intended, by hindering all who were not cold-blooded from bringing to justice the actors in so trifling an offence. This was soon however seen through, and corrected, by the 7th and 8th of William III. chap. 28, sec. 4, in which it was declared, that "Whereas the statute of the 13th and 14th of King Charles II., made against the exportation of wool, among other things in the said act mentioned, doth enact the same to be deemed felony, by the severity of which penalty the prosecution of offenders hath not been so effectually put into execution; be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that so much of the said act, which relates to the making the said offence felony, be repealed and made void."

Adam Smith, when commenting in his "Wealth of Nations," on the laws relating to wool, reprobates severely the ill-judged compliance of our government, in yielding to the solicitation of our merchants, and allowing them to sway with iron rule the commerce of the world. "The severity of many of the laws which have been enacted for the security of the revenue, is very justly complained of, as imposing heavy penalties upon actions, which, antecedent to the statutes that declared them to be crimes, had always been understood to be innocent.

But the cruelest of our revenue laws, I will venture to affirm, are mild and gentle in comparison to some of those which the clamour of our merchants and manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies. Like the laws of Draco, these laws may be said to be all written in blood."