A. D. 1 198. 359 



forty-five facks were this year feized for being (hipped without licence, 

 and fold on account of the king for 225 marks, 01^/^3:6:8 each. 

 [Madox's Hiji. of the excheq. c. 18, § 4.] " 



The forty-five facks feized at Hull may be prefumed to have been 

 but a very fmall part of the wool fhipped at that port ; and fimilar feiz- 

 ures made at other ports (as appears by the fame record) fliow, that the 

 exportation of wool was very confiderable. And as an order of King 

 Henry II, mentioned above, [p. 347] gives reafon to believe, that the 

 wool of England was at this time fuperior to that of Spain, the avidity, 

 wherewith it was bought up for the Flemifh fine manufa6tures, need not . 

 furprife us. Indeed it was not only the principal article of Englifh ex- 

 ports in point of magnitude, but alfo the moft commanding one fiar a 

 fure and ready fale. Accordingly, when King Richard was at Sluys in 

 Flanders on his return from captivity, and wanted to raife money, he 

 found wool the moft acceptable thing he could offer, and he adually 

 received a fum of money from the naerchants on his promife of de- 

 livering to them the wool of the enfuing year's growth belonging to the 

 Ciftercian monks of England, with whofe property he made free on the 

 occafion. \Hemingford, L. ii, c. 72.] We have feen [above, p. 345] an 

 Englifh writer go fo far as to fay, that about this time all the nations in 

 the world were clothed with Englifh wool made into cloth in Flanders : 

 but, independent of rhetorical flourifh, we know from the fober and 

 undeniable authority of the records of the exchequer, that wool, wool- 

 fells (fheep-fkins with the wool on them), and woollen yarn (filetum), 

 were exported, on paying for licences, which mode of raifing money 

 upon the exportation of merchandize feems to have been equivalent to 

 the cuftom duties of modern times. [Madox's HiJl. of the excheq. c. 18, 



In the feventh and eighth years of Richard's reign the fines and dif- 

 mes (or tenths) paid on tin and other merchandize in London, apparent- 

 ly exported, amounted to ;^379 : i ; 6 ; and in the fame years the duties 

 upon woad imported in London amounted to £^^ : 6 : 8. \Madox, c. 18, 

 § 4.] If London alone imported woad to an extent, that could bear 

 fuch a payment, (and it will afterwards appear that but a fmall part of 

 the whole woad imported arrived in London) the woollen manufadure, 

 in which it was apparently moftly confumed, muft have been fomewhat 

 confiderable. 



But there is reafon to believe, that but few /?/?^ woollen goods were 

 made in England, and that the Flemings, who were famous at this time 

 for their fuperior fkili in the woollen manufadure, as is evident from the 

 teftimony of feveral of the Englifh hiftorians of this age *, continued 



* See them adduced in a note in p. 270, and add to tliem Mathcw Paris, [^. 8863 a refpeclabls 

 hiRorian, who flouvifhed in the reign of Henry III, 



