lyOOIiliEN TRAD 15. J 



SPIEEP, 



[WOOLLEK TRADE. 



lands, and mostof tlie silver, ■were very rapidly 

 finding their way ; and hence they afforded a 

 ready means of r:\ising the ransom of their 

 king from the hands of the freehooter. In 

 the roign of Henry I., another inundation in 

 the Low Countries brought more Flemish 

 weavers to Britain, and gave a new impetus to 

 the cloth manufacture. The Gilda 8ellariorum 

 is of this reign, and is the oldest of the London 

 companies. It possesses a charter of Henry I., 

 which exacts that Eone but members shall 

 have tlie power to intermeddle with their craft 

 within London, South wark, or the parts adja- 

 cent. This ciiarler was confirmed by Henry II. 

 and by Edward I. ; but in the fourteenth of 

 Edward II., the privileges claimed under it 

 were brouglit into question by a writ de quo 

 icarranto. The consequence was, tliat the 

 company had to moderate its pretensions ; but 

 it continued to exercise an important jurisdic- 

 tion for several centuries. During the strug- 

 gles of the barons with tlie monarchy, the 

 woollen trade seems to have become depressed ; 

 and Sir Matthew Hale says, that in the reigns 

 of tlie two first Edwards it was " wholly lost," 

 and the money for wool was made by exporta- 

 tion. The Flemings had again established 

 their manufacture, and beat the English out of 

 the market. The third Edward set about re- 

 storing it by vigorous means. Aware of the 

 impetus given to it before, by the importation 

 of Flemish weavers (or from their present 

 skill in beating out tlie English manufacture), 

 in 1331, he brought John Kemp, with seventy 

 "Walloon families, from Flanders, and an act 

 of parliament was passed to encourage them. 

 Flemish or other foreign goods were also pro- 

 hibited by statute ; and, to crown all, exporta- 

 tion was altogether prohibited; although it 

 had before raised the sum of £53-1— a large 

 sum in these days— equal, perhaps, to £8,000 

 of our money ; and tliis at a period when popu- 

 lation and trade were equally scanty. The 

 promises made by Edward to the Flemings, 

 during his visit to the Duke of Burgundy, 

 were faithlully kept. Part of them were lo- 

 cated in Kent- the seat, no doubt, of woollen 

 manufacture before the Eoman conquest. 

 Some settled in the valleys of the Severn, 

 where they established the celebrated manu- . 

 facture of AVest of England cloths ; while ' 

 others went to the valleys of the Aire, where 

 726 



they found situations and water suited to their 

 requirements. The two latter localities are 

 still the seats of woollen manufactures in this 

 country. " Happy the yeoman's house," says 

 old Fuller, in his characteristic way, " into 

 which these Dutchmen did enter, brino-in"- 

 industry and wealth along with them. Such 

 as came in strangers, soon after went out 

 bridegrooms, and returned sons-in-law, having 

 married the daughters of their landlords who 

 first entertained them ; yea, those yeomen in 

 whose houses they harboured, soon became 

 gentlemen, gaining great estates." Edward 

 strengthened both his purse and his country 

 by these judicious steps. He found that tlie 

 woollen trade he had encouraged, afibrded the 

 sinews of power in his wars with the French; 

 and when English wool again found its way to 

 Flanders, in 1337, it sold for £100 per sack; 

 and 10,000 sacks were sold at that time in 

 Brabant. In 1312, the king exported to 

 Cologne a great number of sacks of wool, in 

 order to redeem Queen Philinpa's crown, 

 which had been pawned there for £2,500 

 sterling. The average of wool at this time, 

 was Is. 3ii. per lb. Previous to this period 

 the wool had been weighed by means of steel- 

 yards, of nearly the same construction as those 

 used in some country places at the present 

 day; and hence the yard in which the mer- 

 chants usually met was designated "steel-vard." 

 In 1352, the weighing by the steel-yard was 

 prohibited, on account of the deception prac- 

 tised with it. and an equal balance was intro- 

 duced. 



The reign of Henry VIII. imparted an im- 

 pulse to cloth manufacture, though his enact- 

 ments appeared calculated to repress it. Still, 

 when one man (John AYinchcombe) could 

 equip sixty soldiers at his own expense, and 

 maintain them at the battle of Flodden Field, 

 it is evident that his one hundred looms had 

 realised him a considerable profit. This was a 

 way in which the manufacturers were able, 

 when willing, to assist their monarch. The 

 privileges to certain cities, for services ren- 

 dered, doubtless had an origin soraewhat in 

 this manner. York had an exclusive monopoly 

 granted in the manufacture of coverlets ; and 

 worsted spinning was limited to ]N"orwich. 

 Another impetus was given to the trade hj 

 Elizabeth ; whilst the severities exercised by 



