80 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



prosperity. On it had long depended the commercial prosperity 

 of the country. John Cole, " the rich clothier of Reading " at the 

 end of the thirteenth century, was as famous as his fellow-craftsman, 

 John Winchcomb, the warlike " Jack of Newbury," became in the 

 days of Henry VIII. Wool was the chief source of the wealth of 

 traders and of the revenues of the Crown. It controlled the foreign 

 policy of England, supplied the sinews of our wars, built and 

 adorned our churches and private houses. The foreign trade con- 

 sisted partly in raw material, partly in semi-manufactured exports 

 such as worsted yarns, partly in wholly manufactured broad-cloth. 

 As the manufacture of worsted and cloth goods developed in this 

 country, the demand and consumption rapidly increased at home. 

 According to the purpose for which it was to be used, wool was 

 divided into long and short. In England, long wool was employed 

 mainly for worsted fabrics, but also to give strength and firmness 

 to cloth. Abroad, it was eagerly bought in its raw state for both 

 purposes. In long wool, or combing-wool, England had prac- 

 tically a monopoly of the markets, and to it the export trade of 

 raw material was almost exclusively confined. Short wool, on the 

 other hand, was used for broad-cloth. In its raw state it had a 

 formidable rival abroad in the fleeces of the Spanish merino. Only 

 in the manufactured state did it compete with Flemish and French 

 fabrics on the Continent, and often found itself unable, owing to 

 the excellence of merino wool and the skill of foreign weavers, to 

 maintain its hold on the home market. Wool-staplers were the 

 middlemen. They bought the wool from the breeder, sorted it 

 according to its quality, and sold it to the manufacturer. Dyer, 1 

 two centuries later, describes their work : 



" Nimbly, with habitual speed, 

 They sever lock from lock, and long and short, 

 And soft, and rigid, pile in several heaps. 

 This the dusk hatter asks ; another shines, 

 Tempting the clothier ; that the hosier seeks ; 

 The long bright lock is apt for airy stuffs : 



If any wool, peculiar to our isle, 



Is given by nature, 'tis the comber's lock, 



The soft, the snow-white, and the long-grown flake." 



In the long-wooled class Cotswold wool held the supremacy, with 

 Cirencester as its centre, though the " lustres " of Lincolnshire 

 always commanded their price. Among short-wools, Ryeland had 



1 The Fleece (1757), bk. ii ; 11. 83-88 and 445-47. 



