A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the same suspicion and are of considerable family the number will soon be accomplished. Some 



interest. there be that weekly set more awork, but of this 



number there are not many. 8 

 First there is made in the said county about 30,000 _ . 

 cloths which are transported every year in Eastland, . Uf the movement which has just been men- 

 Russia, Spain, Barbary, France, Turkey and other tioned towards the consolidation of industrial 

 places, and which are dyed in wool ere they be interests by means of incorporation, Suffolk 

 draped, of which number there are, we will suppose, presents some of the most interesting examples. 

 7,000 coloured blue, 20,000 azures, and 3,000 Although springing out of the progress made by 

 plunkets, all which are dressed in this land, the industry, the movement was marked to a 

 whereof we suppose 20,000 are transported in the considerable extent by a reactionary spirit, and if 

 same colour they received in wool, and 10,000 at jt had achieved more permanent success, it would 

 the least dved in cochineal, in violets, murreyes, _ 1 11 u j j «.l • j _*_j 1 j 1 

 -, , , , , , ,' r n probably have retarded the industrial development 

 silver colour, peach colour, and other colours, for all , , J T ... . , r . , 



which the King's Majesty had custom of the stuff °/ the , natl ,° n - » W,U haVe beCome evldent 



that dyeth them. ' rom tne aDOVe description that the old local 



limitations of the industry had been outgrown. 

 Every vat set with woad and indigo for dyeing A more economical division of labour on a 

 the wool is said to require 4 cwt. of woad national, and to some extent on an international 

 paying 2s. custom and 12 lb. of indigo paying basis, was being rapidly brought about. The 

 4s. 6d. This amount of dye-stuff will dye the fact that the wool could be grown in one county, 

 wool for three blues, six azures or twelve plunkets spun in a second, woven in a third, and finished 

 orwatchets. The custom on the cochineal used in a fourth, while it necessarily involved a decay 

 for those cloths that are dyed after they are of one or another of these occupations in many 

 draped comes to n. 4^. the cloth ; and the total localities, carried with it large possibilities of 

 custom reckoned on this basis is £2,589 in. 8d. increased national production. But this advance 

 The statistician then proceeds to calculate how was dependent on the freedom of capital con- 

 much the ' handicrafts and labouring men ' have stantly to enlarge the scope of its operations and 

 for dyeing the wool and dressing the 30,000 to break through the barriers erected by local 

 cloths, supposing half to be coarse cloths and organization. The first step in this direction, 

 half fine. the control of the town handicrafts by the local 



... , capitalists, the draper or clothier, was achieved 



ror making wood and caring for fire to ., .1 » .. j-rr i A .1 • . r .. 



, . . 5 . , , . 8 , , without great difficulty, since the capitalist was 



dye with and tor burning ashes and . . - . ., r „. 



carriage and for carrying the dved m P osse f on of the town council. The yam 



wools to be washed and dried for each P rotest of the organized weavers of the towns is 



cloth 12a <_ to be heard in every clothing centre throughout 



For grinding the indigo at id. the pound, England during the sixteenth century. The 



each cloth 6d. draper in the town had become practically the 



For shucking the wool of every cloth . \d. employer of spinners and weavers in the sur- 



For dyeing the wool of each cloth to rounding country. But capital could not be 



the setter and wringer 2/. confined" to the towns. With the advent of 



For burling every coarse cloth \zd. every national peace and security, it found more 



necot . . . . • • • ■ • 4'- freedom in the country. And the country 



ror dressing (to rower and shearer) a , ,. . , , , , , ' 



coarse cloth 5,. a fine cloth . . . 12,. producer was not l'™«d to the local market. 



For mantling, foulding, pressing, and As the operat.ons of trade expanded, London 



tilloting each cloth iod. merchants, who were in touch with a much 



wider demand, became acquainted with the best 



The total amount paid in wages is said to be sources of su PP'y> and invaded with their lar g er 



£30,750, to say nothing of the twenty ships em- ca P ,taI what the local dra P er had considered as 



p'loyed in fetching fronTforeign countries woad, h,s own preserve. The vested interests of the 



indigo, cochineal, and other dye-stuffs, < where- local capitalist were now found to be opposed to 



in is maintained 400 mariners continually. 1 ' the free expansion of trade. An attempt was 



In this connexion we may cite a computation made to force the manufacture of several of the 



of almost exactly the same date which is given most 'mportant clothing districts into dependence 



by Reyce in his Breviary of Suffolk, written in on one or more of , the towns of that dlstna - 



1DI g Much Tudor legislation had this object, and 



throughout Elizabeth's reign the corporate towns 



It is reckoned (says Reyce) that he which maketh were busy reorganizing the cloth industry on a 



ordinarily 20 broad cloths every week cannot set as capitalistic basis with the same purpose, 

 few awork as 500 persons for by the time his wool j n the General Assembly Book of Ipswich 



is come home and is sorted saymed what with breakers, c .. , , , ,, .. 



, , . ' 'for the year 1 500 are recorded the ordinances 



dyers, wood-setters, wringers, spinners, weavers, r ,',... Jy r , , , 



burlers, shearmen, and carriers, beside, his own large for establishing a new company of clothworkers, 



' R. Reyce, The Breviary of Suffolk (ed. by Lord 



1 Cott. MS. Titus, B. v, fol. 254. Francis Hervey), p. 26. 



262 



