90 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



1341 



TOWNS AS GIVEN. 



1453 



LONDON 



YORK 



NORWICH 



BRISTOL , 



COVENTRY 

 NEWCASTLE .., 



HULL 



LINCOLN 



SOUTHAMPTON 

 NOTTINGHAM 



1503 



LONDON 1 



BRISTOL 2 



YORK 3 



LINCOLN 4 



GLOUCESTER 5 



NORWICH 6 



SHREWSBURY 7 



OXFORD 8 



SALISBURY 9 



COVENTRY . 10 



14 

 15 

 16 

 17 



HULL 



CANTERBURY 



SOUTHAMPTON 



NOTTINGHAM 



WORCESTER 



SOUTHWARK... 



BATH 



11 



12 

 13 

 14 

 15 

 16 

 17 



I cannot discover in the Rolls of Parliament, in the Public 

 Record Office, or in the Archives of the Lords, any document 

 similar to those given above which can be trusted as statistical 

 evidence of the distribution of industrial wealth in England at 

 later periods. The absence of such information is to be re- 

 gretted, because certain great changes were introduced into Eng- 

 land in the sixteenth century, changes which materially affected 

 its condition. These were the suppression of the monasteries, 

 the creation of a new nobility out of the adventurers who 

 thronged the court of Henry the Eighth and his son ; and the 

 exaltation of prices effected in England as well as in the rest 

 of Europe by the discovery of the New World, and particularly 

 of the mines of Potosi. Minor changes, such as the extra- 

 ordinary rise in the price of wool, and the stimulus given to 

 sheep farming, the migration of the Flemings to England, when 

 the persecutions of Philip the Second were raging, and England 

 had a sovereign who would not quarrel with Philip, but was 



