viil PREFACE. 



pay Ibme attention to them. The fpirit of commerce afterward* 

 arofe in the Netherlands and feme of the cities of Germany, and, 

 after making fome flay in Portugal, has fettled in ovir own fea-girt 

 country, I hope, never to depart. But the principles of commerce 

 were not at all known in this country till of late, as will appear 

 from innumerable fa(5ts and laws to be found in this work. An 

 accurate record of fuch fa<5ls and laws is eflentially neceflary to the 

 enlightened merchant, the political economift, and the philofophic 

 Icgiflator, who may delire to form plans of commercial policy, ad- 

 vantageovis to the nation at large, as well as to the individual merch- 

 ants and manufadurers. 



As agricvilture is the foundation, fo are manufadures and fiflier- 

 ies the pillars, and navigation the wings, of commerce. Agriculture 

 does not come within the plan of this work : and it may be fuffici- 

 ent to obferve, that nations merely agricultural, or agricultural and 

 paftoral, may indeed pofTefs a fufficiency of food, and fome rude 

 kind of clothing ; but they muft be indebted to their more induf- 

 trious neighbours for manufadluring, and alfo bringing to them, 

 every article of comfort and enjoyment, the purchafe of which, by 

 bartering their corn and cattle for them, neceffarily produces the 

 firft rudiments of a paffive trade. 



Of the manufadures of the antients, if we except the fingle ar- 

 ticle of filk, which was introduced in Greece in the fixth century, 

 we have very fcanty information. Of the important woolen manu- 

 fadures of the Netherlands, Catalonia, Italy, and afterwards of our 

 own country, and alfb of the trade in wool, I have endeavoured to 

 give a clear and true account, in order to furnifh an antidote to the 

 mifreprefentations of fome who have written upon that fubjedl 

 without regarding anthorities, as was, and is, cuflomary in writing 

 to ferve particular purpofes. The other principal articles of Britilh 



