PROSPERITY OF THE DUTCH MANUKACTUREBS. 47 



the laws, however, were effectual, not even the one 

 passed in the middle of the seventeenth century, by 

 which the offence was rendered capital. In spite ot 

 the vigilance of our government, a contraband trade in 

 wool was long carried on between the inhabitants of 

 the French and English coasts, especially those of 

 Sussex, by a class of men called Owlers, from their 

 only venturing abroad in the night, and who were 

 tempted to despise the penalty, with an intrepidity 

 astonishing to the rest of Europe, by the high prices 

 that were sure to be afforded to them in the Gallic 

 market. Again, during the first half of the eighteenth 

 century, large quantities of wool were constantly 

 smuggled from Ireland to France, by which our 

 trading interests were considerably injured, and the 

 plans for suppressing exportation shown to be worse 

 than useless. 



(51.) Prosperity of the Dutch Manufacturers. — 

 The woollen manufactures of the Hollanders were first 

 estabUshed in 1636, or 1637, by one hundred and forty 

 English families, who went from Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 to settle at Leyden, and Alkmaer. The Dutch manu- 

 facture of fine woollen cloths was, however, commenced 

 much earlier, or about 1624, at which time they began 

 to interfere with the English trade in the Netherlands ; 

 insomuch that, in the twenty-second year of the reign 

 of James I., a certificate was given to the Parliament 

 of 25,000 cloths having been made that year in Hol- 

 land. Upon this the House of Commons resolved, 

 1st, *' That the merchant adventurers setting impost 

 uoon our cloth, is a grievance, and ought not to be 

 continued ; and that all other merchants promiscuously, 



