FROM 1583 TO 1702. 95 



statutes enacted to maintain the credit of English products, 

 the industry grew rapidly, for we are told that by the end 

 of the century two-thirds of our exports were woollen fabrics, 

 and the secret that the climate of England was peculiarly 

 adapted to the production of woollen goods was discovered and 

 insisted on 1 . 



Woollen cloths were constantly made from wool which had 

 simply been washed on the sheep's back, and were afterwards 

 cleansed, fulled and shorn. The craft of the fuller and the 

 use of the fulling mill was and remained for a long time a 

 distinct industry from that of the spinner and weaver. It 

 seems to have been a practice, and it was conceived to be a 

 dishonest one, to strain woollen cloths on tenters, and by 

 these means to increase the length, diminish the breadth, and 

 weaken the substance of the fabric. Hence the Act referred to 

 is entitled ' An Act for the true making of Woollen Cloths,' 

 and it prescribes the length, breadth, and weight in the pieces of 

 the different kinds or qualities of produce, and inflicts penalties 

 for violations of the law. 



We find that Kent, York, and Reading made one kind of 

 cloth, the piece of which should be from 30 to 34 yards, the 

 breadth 6\ quarters, and the weight, when scoured, milled and 

 dried, should be 66 Ibs. The cities of Coventry, Worcester, 

 and Hereford had another industry of slightly lighter fabric. 

 Plunkets, azures, and blues, long and white cloth, were 

 manufactured in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, besides bay, say 

 and serge. Fine short white and short white were made in 

 Suffolk. Plunkets and handywarps were the produce of 

 Wilts and Somerset. Then there were short Yorkshires. 

 Broad listed whites and reds were made in Wilts, Gloucester, 

 Oxfordshire, and East Somerset, as were also narrow whites 

 and reds. Fine cloth was the produce of Wilts, Gloucester, 

 Somerset and Oxfordshire. Dunsters were made in West 

 Somerset. Narrow Somerset was another product of the 



1 See for a remarkable conversation between Davcnant and Bishop Bumet on 

 subject, Davcnant's Works, vol. ii. p. 235. 



