44 



BRITISH WOOL TRADE. 



(48.) Woollen Cloth monopolized by the merchant 

 adventurers. — Though nine-tenths of the commerce of 

 the kingdom consisted in the time of James I. of 

 woollen goods, wool was allowed to be exported till 

 the nineteenth year of his reign, when it was forbidden 

 by proclamation, but never strictly enforced. The 

 cloth was very little admired even at home, and though 

 it was the staple commodity of the realm, a company 

 of merchant adventurers were allowed by a patent, to 

 possess the sole disposal of it. Elizabeth at one time 

 attempted to rescue this important trade from the 

 hands of these merchants, but they instantly conspired, 

 and ceased to make purchases of cloth, when the queen 

 was necessitated to restore the patent. A board of 

 trade was brought together by James I. in 1622, and 

 one of the purposes contemplated was to remedy the 

 low price of wool, which was leading the people to 

 complain of the decay of the woollen manufacture ; but 

 Hume supposes, and with every appearance of proba- 

 bility, that this fall of prices proceeded from an increase 

 of wool. 



(49.) English consumption of Wool increased. — 

 Till the fifteenth century our wool was sold in the 

 fleece to such as came to buy it. Among the princi- 

 pal of our customers were numbered the Flemings, 

 and Brabanters, and in particular the merchants of 

 Ghent, and Louvain, who took off vast quantities for 

 the supply of two manufactories, that had flourished in 

 those cities from the tenth century, and had fur- 

 nished the greater part of Europe, and even England 

 itself, with every kind of woollen cloth. Thus they 

 might have contmued, to the great loss of our island, 



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