A. D. 1534. 77 



The increafe of the woollen manufadure increafmg the demand for 

 wool, gave rife to this praclice of engrofling farms, and turning theni 

 into fheep-walks, which undoubtedly can be managed by fewer hands 

 than tillage farms can be, whereby depopulation neceflruily muft enfue. 



"We have feen the monopolizing law in favour of the town of Brid- 

 port, for engrofling the manufadlure of ropes, exclufive of the villages 

 or open country. We have now fuch another, upon a petition to par- 

 liament from the city of Worcefter, and the' towns of Evefhani, Droit- 

 wich, Kidderminfter, and Bromfgrove, reprefenting, that the faid city 

 and towns were in times pall well and fubftantially inhabited, and em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of woollen cloths, until within a tew years 

 paft, that divers perfons, dwelling in the hamlets, thorps, and villages of 

 the faid Ihire, have not only engrofled and taken into their hands I'un- 

 dry farms, and become graziers and hufbandmen, but alfo make ail 

 manner of cloths, and exercife weaving, fulling, and ihearing, within 

 their own houfes, to the great depopulation of the faid city and towns ; 

 For remedy, it was hereupon enaded, ' that no perfon within Worcef- 



* terfhire Ihall make any cloth but the proper inhabitants of the laid city 

 ' and towns, excepting perfons who make cloths folely for their own 



* and family's wearing.' [25 Henry VlII, c. 18.] 



Thus did the legiflature miftake the true interefl of the public. It 

 is the cheapnefs of the manufadure which enables the merchant to ex- 

 port it, and to underfell foreign competitors ; and confining it thus to 

 towns was the way to make it come dearer to the merchant than it 

 would have done, had it been in the open country, vv-here every necef- 

 fary comes cheaper than in towns ; which point thofe Worcefter mono- 

 polifts well underftood, and that therefore they could not hold the ma- 

 nufacture long, without a rcftridting law to bring it back folely to them- 

 felves. Formerly, the counties of Surry, Berks, &c. nearer to London, 

 enjoyed a confiderable woollen manufadure ; but their nearnefs to Lon- 

 don occafioning all, or moft necelTaries to become dearer than in more 

 remote parts, the weftern and northern counties have beaten them out 

 ot that manufacture. And as the northern counties have necelTaries 

 confiderably cheaper than the weftern ones, it is probable they will in 

 time gain confiderable ground on the latter in. this refped. 



Marvellous was the progrefs made by the Portuguefe afthis time in 

 India. We find Da Cunha in this year had built the fort of Diu, had 

 lent a fleet too leagues up the river Indus, and had invaded the king- 

 dom of Cambaya with his land-army *. 



According to Hakluyt, {V. ii, p. 96.] from about the year 1511 to 

 the year 1534, divers tall Ihips of London, Southampton, and Briflol, 



* Their exploits in India may be found in Stephens's Porlugnefe Afa^ 3 volumes Z^Oy 169^. 



