Middlemen in English Business 257 



London, to which each sent its surplus and from which each drew its 

 supply. It was in this respect that the organization of the cloth trade 

 was so permeating, the tentacles of the London factor touching every 

 cloth-producing or -trading center of Great Britain. 



But the particular interest at hand is not the woolen manufactures, 

 but the raw wool — where it was produced and whither distributed. A 

 glance at the Table^ suggests at once that the raising of sheep and 

 wool was wideh' dispersed. However, certain parts of England w^ere 

 more particularly devoted to this industry and were known for either 

 quantity or quality, or both, of their wool. Four districts may be 

 roughly distinguished. One district centered about Wilts and em- 

 braced Sussex, Hants and Somerset on the south, the highlands of 

 Wales on the West, and Berks, Buckingham and Hertford on the 

 East. From very early times the central market for this broad dis- 

 trict was Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, near the Wilts border. 

 Winchcombe, Gloucester, Stroud, and, in fact, practically all the 

 towns of Gloucestershire owed their early prominence to the Cots- 

 wolds.- This county was paying in re\'enue to the crown as early as 

 the thirteenth century 30,000 sacks of Cotswold wool;^ after the intro- 

 duction of the turnip, about 1750, the flocks increased and it was 

 reported that the county had 400,000 sheep.'* The other counties 

 were nearly as productive. Camden described the Isle of Wight as 

 maintaining many sheep "whose wool is reckoned the best after that 

 of Leicester and Cotswold, and is in great recjuest among woolen 

 manufacturers."^ Dorset w^as reported in the eighteenth century to 

 be sending to Smithfield Market, London, some of the largest and 

 finest sheep "both for flesh and wool" and to be producing "surpris- 

 ing quantities of wool." This wool was more and more sent into 

 Somerset and Devon for consumption." Worcestershire was export- 

 ing wool in the thirteenth century; its markets were Worcester, Kidder- 

 minster and Evasham; sales were made to the Flemish and Florentine 

 merchants by the monasteries and abbeys. It appears that it did 

 not produce as much wool as Norfolk, Gloucester or Lincoln, when 

 in 1341 Edward III levied upon the several counties." But its export 



' See Chapter on Corn, Appendix. 



- V. C. H., Gloucester, II, 154. 



5 "The Cotswold Flock Book," Vol. 1. 



^ "County Curiosities," 25. 



5 Camden, Britt., 1587; V. C. H., Hamp. V, 426. 



•^V. C. H., Dorset, II. .361. 



' Cf. Pari. R. (Rcc. Com.) II, 131b. 



