Rivers and River Transport 127 



The Exe allowed of Exeter carrying on a considerable 

 foreign trade. Defoe tells of the " vast quantities " of woollen 

 manufactures sent from Exeter direct to Holland, as well as 

 to Portugal, Spain and Italy. The Dutch, especially, gave 

 large commissions for the buying of Devonshire serges, which 

 were made not only in Exeter but at Crediton, Honiton, 

 Tiverton and in all the north part of the county, giving 

 abundant employment to the people. Defoe speaks of the 

 serge-market at Exeter as, next to that at Leeds, " the greatest 

 in England." He had been assured, he says, that in this 

 market from 60,000 to 100,000 worth of serges had been 

 sold in a week. 



In the neighbouring county of Somerset, Taunton was the 

 inland port to which coal conveyed in sea-going vessels from 

 Swansea to Bridgwater was taken in barges along the 

 navigable Parrett. Heavy goods and merchandise from 

 Bristol such as iron, lead, flax, pitch, tar, dye-stuffs, oil, 

 wine, and groceries of all kinds were received there in the 

 same way. From Taunton these commodities were dis- 

 tributed, by packhorse or waggon, throughout the county. 



Whatever the original capacity of rivers naturally navigable, 

 there came a time when, by reason either of their inherent 

 defects or of the use of larger vessels, they required a certain 

 amount of regulation ; and there came a time, also, when it 

 was deemed expedient to render navigable by art many rivers 

 that were not already adapted thereto by nature. In this way 

 the necessity arose for much river legislation, together with 

 much enterprise in respect to river improvement, in the days 

 when the only alternatives to river transport were the de- 

 plorably defective roads. 



