500 A, D. 1327. 



King Edward this year granted a patent in favour of the manufadur- 

 ers of fluffs made of worfted in Norfolk: and foon after an infpedor 

 and meafurer ofthofe fluffs was appointed. \_Rot. pat. fee. 2 Edw. Ill, 

 a tergo, a.nd prim. 3 Ediv. Ill, m. 1.] This is probably the earliefl ex- 

 tant notice of a manufadture which has become an objed: of great im- 

 portance in that part of the country *. 



There is fome difcordance in the various accounts of the introduction 

 of filk-worms and the manufadure of filk in Italy. When the Venetians 

 became maflers of thofe provinces of the Greek empire, which were the 

 chief feats of the filk trade, they furely did not negledl: to tranfport the 

 manufacture at leaft, if not alfo the worms, to their own Italian or Dalma- 

 tian territories : and it is alfo reafonable to fuppofe, that the Genoefe, 

 when they got poffeflion of Galata, did not fail to tranfplant fuch lucrative 

 branches of induftry to their mother country. It is certain, that in the year 

 1306 the bufinefs of rearing filk-worms was fo far advanced in Modena, 

 that it yielded a revenue to the ftate ; and as the filk of Modena was 

 then efleemed faperior to that of the other cities of Lombardy, it is 

 evident, that other cities alfo cultivated that branch of induftry. In 

 1327, whether the filk trade of Modena was then falling off, or the ma- 

 giftrates were defirous of augmenting the revenue derived from it, they 

 made a law, that every proprietor of an inclofure in the city's territory 

 Ihould plant at leaf! three mulberry trees, and that all the cocons fliould 

 be publicly fold in the ftreet, the buyer and the feller paying each one 

 Ihilling to the city. The Bononians (or Bolognians) alone poffeffed the 

 machinery for twitting the filk ; and the Modenefe were obliged to fend 

 their filk to be thrown by ttiem till the beginning of the fixteenth cen- 

 tury, when they acquired the art of fabricating fuch machinery for 

 themfelves ; and from them it has fpread to the other cities of Italy, 

 and in time to other countries. We are told, however, that after the 

 year 1300 the filk manufacture flourilhed chiefly at Florence, where 



dialogue in Petrarch. [Di- rmifJio utrhifjue for- impoitant and imiverfal a revolution tliey have ef- 



tur.t, p. 84. cd. Bafil.'j About tl\e year 1344 fcfted in human alfairs, and that they have in no 



gunners made a part of the military ellahliflimciit i'niall degree contributed to confer upon Europe, 



of Edward III king of England. [^Sfielman, Glcijf. a pre-eminence over the larger quarters of the 



va. Bomiarila.'] And the idea of them was fo fa- world, and efpccially to give the Britidi navy an 



miliar in his reign, that Chaucer (afcribing," as acknowlcged fuperiority upon the Ocean, whence 



then ufual with poets, the manners of his own age the Britilli commerce derives a ptoteilion and 



to antient times) Irjlroduces guns in his defcription fafcty beyond that of every other nation, in every 



of Antony's (lu'p, and alio in his book of Fame, quarter of the globe. 



U^ 200 a, i82 a, ed. IJ9S.] Gun-powder and * Camden fays, that the Dutch, flying from 

 cannons are fuppofed by fome to have been ufed the perfecution of the duke of Alva in the fix- 

 by the natives of India againd Alexander the tcenth ceutury, Jtrjl introduced the mauufadlure 

 Great. But thi» I (liall not pretend cither to af- of light ftufls at Norwicii. l/iri/annia, f>. .547.] 

 firm or deny. ' ,And the prcfident Dc Thou \_Hi/2. Jul temporis, L. 

 Thefc brief hints of fome of the early notices of xlvi] fays the fame. But the teftmiony of both 

 gun-powder and guns, though more ftriftly belong- thole refpeilable writers mull give way to the 

 iiig to military tiiau commercial hillory, will not be furcr evidence of records. 

 tlecxncd imptrtintnt by ^hofe wKo confider how i 



