PREFACE. 



THE period of economical history in England which 

 is comprised in these two volumes begins with the 

 middle of Elizabeth's reign, and concludes with the 

 commencement of Anne's. It has always been a period 

 of profound interest. There is no part of English 

 history on which so much has been written, no part 

 on which so much should have been written ; for it is 

 full of great events, the effects of which survive to 

 our own time, and of great men, whose career is and 

 will be of permanent interest to all Englishmen. My 

 contribution to the history of these eventful hundred 

 and twenty years is, by the very terms of my enquiry, 

 entirely different from that of any person who has 

 hitherto handled the subject. I am dealing with facts 

 which have been utterly neglected by those who lived 

 through those times, and have been undiscovered by 

 those who have treated the circumstances of those times. 

 In the earlier ages of English history, social and 

 economical events have been dwelt on with no little 

 care. At a later period similar events have forced 

 themselves on the attention of contemporaries, and 

 have been made the subject of more or less careful 

 VOL. v. b 



