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From all thefe feveral fads, and particularly from the paf- 

 fage of our author, we may fairly conclude that Ireland was 

 poflefTed of an extenfive trade in woollens at a very early 

 period, and long before that commodity was an article of 

 Englifli export. Manufactures are flow in being brought to 

 that degree of perfedion which may render them an objedl 

 coveted by diftant countries, efpecially where the people of 

 thofe countries have arrived at a high degree of polifh ; and if 

 in the middle of the fourteenth century the ferges of Ireland 

 were eagerly fought after*, and worn with a preference by 

 the poliihed Italians, there can be no doubt that the fabric had 

 been eftablifhed for a very long time before that period. Nay, 

 we may perhaps be allowed to hazard a conjedure, which, how- 

 ever whimfical it may appear, is by no means impolTible, that 

 the wife Edward might have laboured to eftablifh the woollen 

 manufadure among his Englifli fubjeds, in imitation of the 



* If the ferges of Ireland were eagerly fought after by the Italians, and particu- 

 larly by the Florentines, it mufl have been for the peculiar excellence of their 

 quality, and not by any means from the want of home-made woollens, fince we 

 may clearly infer from a paflage in Machiavel's Florentine Hiftory, that about the year 

 1380 the woollen manufafture was, and had long been, eftablifhed at Florence. The 

 hillorian, fpeaking of the trades or guilds of that city, has thefe words — " E di 

 " tutte I'arti che haveva, e ha, piu di quefti fottopofti, era, ed e, quella Mia Lana.^ 

 " L.quale per elTere potentiffima, e la prima per autorita de tutte, con I'induftria fua 

 " la maggior parte de!lr. plcbe e popolo minuto pafceva e pafce." — " And of all the 

 " guilds tkiit had, and have, the mqft of thefe (fubordiiiate trades) under their jurifdiction, 

 «' was, and is, that of the WOOLLEN WEAVERS, which, as being the moji powerful, 

 " and the frji of all in authority, by its indtiftry fed, and fill feeds, the greater part of the 

 "populace, and Imvfl chfi of the people." Now, if in the year 1380 the corporation 

 oi woollen weavers was the greateft and mofl powerful in Florence, containing in it, 

 and prefiding over many fubordinare and ancillary trades, fuch as carders, dyers, &c. 

 we may fairly conclude that the manufacture muft have been eftabliflicd in that citv 

 lone before 1360, abojt whic'i time tlie Dittamondi was written. 



Irifli, 



