INDUSTRIES 



but many earned less. At Lavenham caliman- 

 coes were woven. 1 These appear to have been 

 an interesting survival from the old Eastland 

 trade. 



They were made, we are told, for Russia where they 

 were used by the Tartars and other Siberian tribes 

 for sashes. They were of worsted about 1 8 in. wide, 

 30 yards long, and were striped in the warp of 

 various colours in the form of shades beginning at 

 one edge of the stripe with a light tint of colour, 

 and gradually increasing in depth of shade till the 

 other edge of the stripe was almost black." 



In 1840 calimancoes also had disappeared, and 

 the only woollen manufacture that still dragged 

 on a rather miserable existence was that of bunt- 

 ings in the Sudbury district. The yarn of 



which they were spun was produced in the mills 

 of Norwich and Kidderminster, as a woman 

 could not earn above is. 8d. a week by spinning 

 it by hand. A woman or child could weave 

 two pieces of narrow bunting in a week, for 

 which they got is. jd. the piece ; and a man 

 or woman could weave two pieces of broad 

 bunting a week at is. T,d. the piece. There were 

 200 looms employed on buntings in Sudbury of 

 which only twenty were worked by men, these 

 being old men unfit for silk-weaving. A little 

 of this work was given out to weavers in Glems- 

 ford, and there was a manufacturer in Cavendish 

 who employed eight or nine looms. 3 The bunt- 

 ing industry finally became extinct at Sudbury 

 in 1871. 4 



SAILCLOTH AND OTHER HEMPEN FABRICS 



Another textile industry that sprang up in the 

 later half of the sixteenth century was the weaving 

 of sailcloth. Hemp was a plentiful crop in 

 Suffolk on both the north and south borders, and 

 it had probably been long used for making sack- 

 cloth, for which there has always been a large 

 demand at Ipswich. But at the end of Elizabeth's 

 reign the art of making good canvas for sails was 

 said to be still only partially acquired in Suffolk. 

 The French canvas, known as Mildernex, was 

 considered by owners and masters of ships to be 

 the ' best and profitablest ' sailcloth, though it was 

 dearer, and it was only for want of a steady 

 supply of this that the Ipswich sailcloth was 

 taken. These facts are taken from a con- 

 temporary document, but the unusual degree of 

 national modesty which the statement of them 

 seems to indicate is not altogether uncoloured by 

 practical motives. They are adduced in support 

 of an argument for the continued protection of 

 an 'infant industry.' As long, however, as this 

 reservation is made, the account that is given of 

 the organization of the industry is well worth 

 quoting — 



Ipswich sailcloths are like every day to beperfecter and 

 better made than they have been by reason there is one 

 Mr. Barber dwelling upon Tower Hill in East Smith- 

 field who is the only buyer of all Ipswich cloths, and the 

 Ipswich workmen and he by agreement hath two sealers, 

 principal workmen indifferently chosen by themselves, 

 the one by the workmen, the other by the said buyer, 

 to survey seal and mark all true made sailcloths, being 

 all brought to the said buyer's house in Ipswich by 

 agreement, and there straight the workmen receive 

 their money for all cloths that be sealed and marked, 

 and the untrue made cloths rejected and unsealed, the 

 workmen are fain to sell to loss, as they can agree, to 

 the said buyer or otherwise. 



The sealers being very good workmen, tell straight 

 the faults of the cloths refused to be sealed, if the yarn 



1 Young, op. cit. 231-3. 



* Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handhom Weavers, 1840, 

 xxiii, 142. 



lack bucking, pinching, beating, or well-spinning, or 

 otherwise be faulty in workmanship upon the sealing 

 day every week in the presence of all the workmen, 

 whereby every man is made to see his own fault, and 

 is told how to mend it by conference together, and a 

 willingness the buyer keeps among them to teach one 

 another and to win their cloths credit by true work- 

 manship. 



There be some sailcloth makers brought up there 

 and gotten out from thence into Kent and somewhere 

 else that be not under the like survey that make faulty 

 cloths that would be brought home again to Ipswich 

 by reason there is so much good hemp growing there- 

 about, where our sackcloth for coals and for corn hath 

 been used to be made, and so are still of the refuse 

 hemp, and the best yarn there and from Boston, 

 Lincolnshire, and from Lancashire that can be gotten 

 is employed upon sailcloths. Our small ketches and 

 vessels under 100 tons, and the Flemish sailors and 

 Eastland sailors do commonly buy all Ipswich cloths, 

 as they are serviceable enough for their price. So as, 

 may it please her Majesty to continue their privileges 

 to a greater number of years, and in this quiet plain 

 manner of survey, sealing, and marking, I think in 

 time this trade of making sailcloths will serve the realm 

 or the most part of it. 4 



An Act against the deceitful and false-making 

 of 'Mildernix ' and 'Powle Davis,' whereof sail- 

 cloths for the navy and other shipping are made, 

 which was in all probability promoted by Ipswich 

 makers, was passed in the first year of James I. 

 The preamble states that the art of weaving 

 these cloths was not known in England before 

 the thirty -second year of Elizabeth, when it was 

 introduced from France, that many not properly 

 skilled in the art have been weaving cloths 



in likeness and show of Mildernix and Powle Davis, 

 but not of the right stuff, nor so well-driven or weaved, 

 nor of that length and breadth as they ought to be ; 



5 Rep. of Assist. Com. on Handhom Weavers, 1840, 

 xxiii, 294. 



1 White. Direct. Suff. 1874, p. 137. 

 5 Lansd. MS. 108, 78. 



271 



