134 History of Inland Transport 



made secure by a general land register. The linen industry, 

 he advised, should be established in the counties of Warwick, 

 Leicester, Northampton, and Oxford, where, among other 

 considerations, navigable rivers would be available for the 

 purposes of transport ; and he goes on to say, in words which, 

 though written more than two and a quarter centuries ago, 

 seem only to have anticipated much that we hear from the 

 tariff reformers of to-day, that by this means, " we should 

 prevent at least two millions of money a year from being sent 

 out of the Land for Linen Cloth, and keep our people at home 

 who now go beyond the Seas for want of imployment here." 



In his references to the iron trade, Yarranton speaks of the 

 " infinite quantities of raw iron " then being made in Mon- 

 mouthshire and the Forest of Dean, and he says that the 

 greatest part of what he calls the " Slow Iron " made in the 

 Forest of Dean " is sent up the Severne to the Forges, into 

 Worcester-shire, Shropshire, Stafford-shire, Warwick-shire and 

 Cheshire, and there it's made into Bar-iron : And because of its 

 kind and gentle nature to work, it is now at Sturbridge, 

 Dudly, Wolverhampton, Sedgley, Wasall, and Burmingham 

 and thereabouts wrought into all small Commodities and 

 diffused all England over, and thereby a great Trade made of 

 it ; and when manufactured sent into most parts of the 

 World " ; though in Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, 

 Warwickshire and Derbyshire there were already great and 

 numerous ironworks in which, he adds, " Much Iron is made 

 of Metal or Iron Stone of another nature quite different from 

 that of the Forest of Deane." 



Having sketched his ideas of such reorganisation of industry 

 as would, in his opinion, help the country both to beat the 

 Dutch without fighting and, also, to provide work for all 

 the poor people in England, he proceeded : " That nothing 

 may be wanting that may conduce to the benefit and in- 

 couragement of things manufactured, as in cheap carriage 

 to and fro over England, and to the Sea at easie rates, I 

 will in the next place shew you how the great Rivers in England 

 may be made navigable, and thereby make the Commodities 

 and Goods carried, especially in Winter time, for half the rate 

 they now pay." 



; The schemes he especially recommended in this connection 

 were for the establishing of communication between the 



