74 DISTRIBUTION OF M'EAITII IN ENGLAND 



accounted for. The Weald of Sussex abounds in hematite of 

 excellent quality, and at this time was very heavily timbered. 

 There were numerous and prosperous iron-works in Sussex, 

 at which was produced metal of excellent quality. But the 

 rapid exhaustion of the Sussex woods owing to this local 

 manufacture, to which were added several glass-works, was 

 constantly commented on and debated during the time of 

 which I am writing. The activity of the iron manufacture 

 of Sussex was prolonged for little more than a generation, and 

 we shall see that this county rapidly sank back to nearly its 

 old position. 



The rise of Middlesex with London over the next county 

 to it, is almost exactly the same as that recognised between 

 Middlesex and the next county in the contrast of 1453. I* * s 

 nearly 7-7 times more wealthy than Suffolk. On the other 

 hand, the relations of the poorer counties remain almost un- 

 changed, except that Lancashire has taken a slight start. In 

 1636 it was the lowest but one, in 1660 it is fifth from the 

 bottom. 



The next assessment is in 1672. In this year a monthly 

 payment was assessed on all the counties, to be continued for 

 eighteen months, each county contributing the sum set against 

 it in the schedule. Now there is no doubt that during this 

 time the country was making rapid strides, especially in the 

 direction of the East India trade. Besides this, the American 

 plantations were flourishing, and for example, the trade with 

 Virginia for tobacco was becoming a capital factor, as persons 

 at that time thought, in the business of the country. The 

 profits of the East India Company were very large, and the 

 system of circulating instruments of credit under the name of 

 goldsmiths' notes was giving a considerable stimulus to trade, 

 and if we can believe writers of Jhe time, enormous gains to 

 the moneyed men. But on the other hand, London had been 

 decimated by a plague as terrible as that of the fourteenth 

 century, and destroyed by a fire to which there was no parallel 

 in recorded history. 



