A. D. 1 1 89. 345 



and cattle innumerable ; fo that filver is even more plenty in England 

 than in Germany ; and all the money of England is made of pure filver. 



In this brief enumeration of goods exported there is no mention of 

 corn ; and indeed there is no reafon to believe that the agriculture of 

 the country was fo far advanced as often to produce more than was ne- 

 ceflary for the home confumption. Some exportation of corn, however, 

 there was ; for in the year ii8r a fine was paid to the king for licence 

 to fhip corn from Norfolk and Suffolk for Norway : but without a li- 

 cence and payment for it, which feems equivalent to a cuftom duty, it 

 appears that it could not be exported. [Madox's H'tjl. of the exchequer, 

 r. 13, § 3, note k; c. 14, § 7, note r, § 15, notes 0, p.'\ 



Lead was exported in great quantities to all parts of Europe, the roof^ 

 of the principal churches, palaces, and caftles, being generally covered 

 with it. [Madox, c. 14, § 15 H?^. lit. del a France, Kix, p. 221.] The ex- 

 portation of tin was alio very confiderable, the mines of Cornwall and 

 Devon-fhire, which for many ages fupplied all Europe, affording a large 

 proportion of the royal revenue. [M. Paris, p. 570. — Foedera, V. i, 

 p. 243.] 



It has been prefumed, with a probability approaching very near to 

 certainty, that wool was a principal article of the exports of this countrv 

 before the Norman conqueft : (See above, p. 288) and the exportation 

 of it appears to have been flill very confiderable, though the home ma- 

 nufadure midoubtedly worked up large quantities of it ; for, according 

 to an hyperbolical account of the commerce of the country, introduced 

 by Mathew of Wefl:minfl:er in his Hifl:ory, [p. 396, ed. 1601] all the 

 nations of the world ufed to be kept warm by the wool of England, 

 which was made into cloth by the Flemifli manufadurers. 



Though I have found no exprefs mention in any Englifh author of 

 the exportation of woollen cloth in this age, there can be little doubt 

 that the Flemings fettled in Wales, who are faid to have poffefled the 

 knowlege of commerce as well as manufactures, exported fome of the 

 cloths they made. The hifl:orian of the Orkneys informs us, that two 

 merchant fliips from England bound for Dublin, loaded with Englijh 

 cloths (probably the manufadure of the Flemings) and other goods of 

 great value, were taken near Dublin, before the conquefi: of Ireland by 

 the Englifli, by an Orkney pirate called Swein *, who on his return 

 home covered his fails with the fcarlet cloths, and therefor called that 

 his fcarlet cruife. {T^orfcei Orcades, L. i, c. 37.] 



The exportation of flaves, notvvithfi:anding feveral laws or canons 



* That man wanted only a more exteniive field nefs and ingratitude fcarctly Iirferior t.) Auguftus ; 



of aAion, and to have his exploits recorded by an- and in letting up, and depofing, his liege lords, the 



thors more generally known, to be as illuftrious a earls of Oikney, he may be compared to the ceb- 



ruffian as ever figured in hiftory. In llratageni and brated king-maker, the earl of Wsrwick. 

 cunning he was fully equal to Ulyiits ; in wicked- 



Vol. I. X X 



