STUDY xni. X15 



Ï could likewife oppofe to the woollen manu- 

 factures of the villages of the County of York, 

 thofe of handkerchiefs, cotton-ftuffs, woollens, of 

 the villages of the Pays de Caux, which are there in 

 a veryflourhhing ftate, and where the peafantry are 

 very rich, becaufe there are no exclufive privileges 

 in that part of the country. The privileged un- 

 dertaker having no competitor in a country, fettles 

 the workman's wages at his own plcafure. They 

 have a thoufand devices befides, to i educe the 

 price of labour as low as it can go. Tney give 

 them, for example, a trifie of money in advance, 

 and having thereby inveigled them inio a Aate of 

 infolvency, which may be done by a loan of a tew 

 crowns, they have them thencef^brward at their 

 mercy. I know a confiderable branch of the falt- 

 water fifhery, almoft totally deftroyed, in cne of 

 our Tea ports, by means of this underhand fpecies 

 of monopoly. The tradefmen of that town, at 

 firft, bought the filh of the fidiermen, to cure ic 

 for fale. They afterwards were at the expenfe of 

 building velTels proper for the trade: they pro- 

 ceeded next to advance money to the fifiiermens* 

 wives, during the abfencecf their hufbmds. Thefe 

 were reduced, on their return, to the neceffity of 

 becoming hired fervants to the merchant, in order 

 to difcharge the debt. The m.erchant having thus 

 become rnafter of the boats, of the fiflierman, and 

 of the commiodity, regulated the conditions of the 



I a trade 



