140 INCREASE OF COIN AND CHAP. XXI. 



modities. The product of the woodlands which had 

 before supplied, the chief part of the fuel, near the 

 districts in which it grew was consumed in the form 

 of wood, and at a distance from those districts, and 

 in the large towns and manufactories, in the form of 

 charcoal. As the woods became exhausted, and the 

 soil devoted to arable or pasturing purposes, the 

 repugnance to fossil coal was gradually removed, 

 and the mines of that substance yielded a commo- 

 dity of great amount, and that amount increased 

 according to the distance from the places of con- 

 sumption. The metallic mines also had been 

 worked more extensively, and iron, copper, lead, 

 and tin had been converted into tools, implements, 

 and domestic utensils, not only sufficient for the 

 internal use, but supplying a surplus which formed 

 a branch of the foreign export trade. The more 

 ancient manufactures of woollen and worsted goods 

 and much linen cloth were woven, though a great 

 portion of the flax was obtained from Flanders, 

 and much of the yarn was spun by the peasants of 

 Germany. As the food, fuel, and clothing of the 

 inhabitants, and their implements, had been in- 

 creased, so also their residences and the furniture 

 had increased in real amount. When Erasmus 

 visited England in the former century, the houses 

 were built of mud and wood, were thatched with 

 straw, and instead of floors the bare earth was 

 covered with rushes or straw ; but in the latter 

 end of the seventeenth century, the dwellings in 



