SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC 



HISTORY 



IN the last two centuries Staffordshire has been transformed from a thinly- 

 populated, poor, and mainly agricultural county, into one which is rich 

 and densely populated, depending chiefly for economic prosperity on 

 its mineral resources and the industries based on these. In the census 

 returns of 1901, Staffordshire stands fourth on the list of English counties, 

 but all the available evidence goes to show that in point of numbers and 

 wealth this county ranked very low till the eighteenth century. 



The Domesday Commissioners of 1085 found but few people dwelling 

 there, and mention many isolated estates all over the county which they 

 describe as ' waste lands.' It is estimated that there was only one villein, 

 boor, or serf, to two hundred and fifty acres of actual surface. 1 



The assessment returns at various dates since give the same result, from 

 the Subsidy Roll of 13323 onwards, including the assessment for a special 

 aid made by Henry VII in 1503.* 



Rather later, in the returns of a muster roll 20 July, 1573, it is said 

 that the county is too poor to support the expense of training a large number 

 of men, 3 and this is the general record till the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. 



It is easy to see why it remained poor for so long, despite its rich stores 

 of mineral wealth, notably iron and coal, for up to the eighteenth century 

 the conditions were unfavourable for the development and expansion of its 

 industry and commerce. 



It was only then that the use of coal for smelting iron became general, 

 though Dud Dudley obtained a patent for his blast furnace for making iron 

 by means of coal as early as 1639.* 



Further, since there was no great demand for Staffordshire coal till the 

 epoch of the Industrial Revolution, the mines were little worked till the 

 eighteenth century, nor could they be worked effectively till the ingenuity of 

 engineers had discovered a means of pumping the water from the pits. 



Another great obstacle to industrial and commercial development was 

 the lack of communication between this county and the rest of England. 

 Nothing indeed is clearer than its isolation in mediaeval times, lying as it 



1 R. W. Eyton, Dom. Studies, Staffs. 1881, pp. 17, zi. 



' The (Pil/. Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. x, 79 ; and Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agric. and Prices, iv, 89. 



1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 465. 



4 See his Metallum Mortis, quoted by Stebbing Shaw, Hist, of Staff. \\, 8. 



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