268 History of the English Landed Interest. 



of Aragon, was largely mixed with English, and our merchants 

 no longer retained a monopoly in the foreign markets. A 

 writer to the Gentleman' s Magazine of January 10, 1790, relates 

 how, when once he happened to land at Marseilles, he had 

 the mortification of seeing eighteen ships, just arrived from the 

 Levant, awaiting their cargoes of French wool; and Volney, 

 in his Travels in Syria, writes how he discovered in the far 

 East quite as many foreign trading houses as English.^ 



Yet if we come to consider what the English woollen trade 

 comprehended, we shall find that it was still a large item in 

 our trade revenues. Out of the fleece were made Norwich 

 stuffs, stockings knit and wove, carpeting, camlets, serges, 

 duroys, etc., etc. By it were supported not only the manu- 

 facturer and flockmaster, but the weaver, clothier, merchant, 

 and " scribler." Clothing towns were prevalent in the counties 

 of York, Gloucester, Wilts, Somerset, and Devon ; and it had 

 been estimated by a writer of the times that the wool trade 

 employed £14,000,000 of English capital, and the labour of 

 450,000 individuals,^ while another authority assures us that 

 there were often as much as £60,000 worth of wool at a time 

 in Stourbridge Fair.^ 



The diminution in our foreign custom seems to have been 

 partly due to dishonesty, partly to bad management. Every 

 bale of woollen goods arriving at a Turkish harbour had by 

 law to be opened on landing, its contents compared with the 

 invoice, and if found deficient returned to the port where it 

 was laden. Here in England it was impossible to trace the 

 original offender amidst the various middlemen through whose 

 hands the goods had passed ; but by a very simple process 

 the French Government effected this object, and so put a stop 

 to the malpractice in France. Every piece of goods was com- 

 pelled by law to carry the maker's and stamp-master's name ; 

 so that whenever any article was returned from the most 

 distant parts of Asia as faulty, prompt and severe punishment 

 could be meted out to the real offender. The French manu- 



* Gentleman^ s Magazine, Januar}" 10, 1790. 



"^ Report from Wilts to the Board of Agriculture. 



' Tour through Great Britain, p. 94, 7th ed. Defoe. 



