4QO SCIENCE PROGRESS 



" I graunt we shouldc for a tyme have a sharpe conflyclc with 

 those stoute cnymes whome we have with oure commodities 

 and treasure enryched " — but he has no doubt that if we have 

 courage we are bound to win in the end, as indeed we did. But 

 the end was far off. 



Industries are necessarily interrelated, and each of our staple 

 manufactures has one or more ancillary industries. We have 

 seen the important place which the process of dyeing takes in 

 the clothing industry ; now in dyeing, a mordant, such as alum, 

 is required to fix the colour in the cloth. The manufacture of 

 alum is ancillary to the great clothing industry. In former times 

 all the alum consumed in the country was imported, and if, on 

 account of continental wars, or from other causes, the supply 

 of this comparatively unimportant material failed, the larger 

 industry languished or came to a standstill. The history of the 

 alum trade affords a good illustration of the struggle for an 

 industry in which finally we succeeded in rendering ourselves 

 independent of foreign sources of supply. 



Up to about the middle of the fifteenth century the bulk of 

 the alum supply of Europe came from Asia Minor. At about 

 this date, however, attempts were made to produce alum at 

 various places in Italy, and notably at Tolfa in the Papal States. 

 The alum mine of Tolfa was discovered in 1462 by Giovanni de 

 Castro, who had been the manager of dyeworks in Constanti- 

 nople, and had become acquainted with the Levantine alum and 

 knew the places where it was found. Giovanni, impressed with 

 the value of his discovery, hastened to inform the Pope, Pius II., 

 and to induce him to take up the matter. The Pope was at first 

 sceptical, but, the reality of the discovery having been confirmed, 

 he " determined to employ the gift of God to His glory in the 

 Turkish War and exhorted all Christians henceforth to buy alum 

 only from him, and not from the Unbelievers." The enterprise 

 was at once embarked upon, and it is said that, in 1463, eight 

 thousand persons were employed, and that it brought a yearly 

 income of 100,000 ducats to the Papal Treasury. 



Paul II., who succeeded Pius II. in 1464, pushed forward 

 the exploitation of the industry and attempted to set up a 

 Papal monopoly of alum in Christendom ; he launched a Bull 

 excommunicating all those merchants who procured alum from 

 the Infidels, the people who bought it from the merchants, 

 and the civil and religious authorities who tolerated within 



