146 FOREIGN TRADE 



foreign sources, cc e partibus transmarinis," in contrast to the 

 home produce of the Trillek quarries and the Buckingham- 

 shire conglomerates. 



In all likelihood tar, which formed so important, and indeed 

 necessary, a part of agricultural economy, was procured from 

 the Norwegian pine forests. It is doubtful whether any spe- 

 cies of pine is indigenous to England ; and it is probable 

 that the rude method of distilling tar from the bark and roots 

 of the various kinds of fir which flourish on the Scandinavian 

 peninsula was a very early discovery. 



England was not without a cloth and linen manufactory, 

 especially of the coarser kinds. As has been observed before, 

 the great wea ] th of Norfolk was due to the success with 

 which weaving, introduced by Flemish settlers, was carried on 

 in that county. Aylesham seems to have been distinguished 

 in early times for both flaxen and woollen fabrics. But the 

 finer linens and cloths were imported from the Low Countries 

 from Liege and Ghent. Silks and silken stuffs were all of 

 foreign manufacture, and in all likelihood were procured from 

 Italy, and perhaps from the northern coast of Africa a . 



Candles were exported, it seems, from Paris, as well as 

 manufactured at home. These candles, called occasionally 

 white, appear to have been more or less refined. 



But the chief article of foreign produce, for which the de- 

 mand was great and continual, was wine. During the time 

 that Gascony was held by the English crown the trade was 

 exceedingly active, and the price of the produce very low. 

 When, however, the unfortunate expedition of the Black 

 Prince to Spain in aid of Peter the Cruel, and the irritation 

 felt at the taxes levied on the inhabitants of Aquitaine, brought 

 about the severance of this province from the English crowi 

 the trade was interrupted, and the price of the article ros< 

 considerably. We read of Spanish and even Greek wines 



n The importance of ihe foreign linen and woollen trade is proved by the strict polic 

 exercised upon the importation, and the precision of the ulnager's accounts, that is, of 1 

 officer appointed to measure and tax foreign cloths. 



