96 DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND 



county. There were broad and narrow Yorkshire cloths. 

 Kersies or dozens, the former cheap, straits, plain, and greys 

 were made in Devonshire. Ordinary Penistones and forest 

 whites came from the Midlands. Cogware, Kendal, and 

 Carpmael from Westmorland : Kersies called Washers or 

 Washwhites were made in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and else- 

 where. In all these cases the law prescribes length, breadth, 

 and weight, a survey and marking by proper officers, and in 

 many cases, the sending the stuff to Blackwell Hall, the 

 London cloth mart, close to the Guildhall. The value of the 

 wool shorn in England annually at the end of the seventeenth 

 century was set at two millions, and of the cloth manufactured 

 from it at eight millions. It is to be regretted that at this 

 time the English parliament, under the plea or pretence that 

 Lucrum cessans est damnum emergens> stopped the export of 

 Irish woollens. 



Towards the conclusion of the century, calculations were 

 made as to the income of English industry and trade. It was 

 reckoned at 43 millions, that of France at 81 millions, and 

 that of Holland at 18^ millions. It is probable that at the 

 same time the population of France was treble that of Eng- 

 land. From these estimates, and the proportion which taxation 

 bore to income, the publicists of the day made alarming pre- 

 dictions. Before the Revolution the taxation was a twentieth 

 part of the national income. After the Peace of Ryswick, 

 it amounted to one-eighth of the annual resources of the king- 

 dom. But there is much reason to believe that the annual 

 income was greatly underrated. The actual grants made 

 during the first war with France, and after its completion in 

 order to provide for arrears, were calculated to have amounted 

 to about 48^ millions. In 1697 the grants amounted to 

 nearly twelve millions. 



I have constantly noticed that the health of a people has 

 been seriously affected by the miseries or sufferings of neigh- 

 bouring nations. I am therefore disposed to connect the con- 

 stant recurrence of the plague in the seventeenth century with 





