and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sheep. 361 



About the year 1197, the 9th of Richard I. woollen cloths were ordered to be 

 all of one breadth, that is, two ells within the lists.* 



In 1198, Hugh de Bosco, Sheriff of Hampshire, stocked the king's lands with 

 12 oxen, each at 35. and 100 sheep, at ^d. each.t A sheep was now, therefore, 

 reduced to one-ninth of tlie value of an ox. Whether this arose from the relative 

 increase of sheep, or diminished demand for wool, it may be difficult to decide; 

 but we find that in this and the following year certain merchants paid fines to the 

 Crown through Gervase de Aldermanbery, Chamberlain of London, for leave to 

 export wool and leather. J This, I think, is the first authentic document of the ex- 

 portation of wool from England. 



From this period the manufacture of cloth seems to have declined, or, at least, 

 is little heard of through several successive reigns. About the year 1272, the 

 number of weavers in Oxford was. from the decay of trade, reduced from upwards 

 of 60, which they had been in the time of Henry I. to less than 15; in con'^equence 

 of which, King Edward I. diminished the annual fine of the. corporation of weavers 

 in that city, from a mark of gold, or 120 shillings, to 42 shillings.^ 



It was not till more than a century after the first declension of the cloth manu- 

 ture in England, or about the year 1301, that, in consequence of various restric- 

 tions on those of Brabant and Flanders, riots of a bloody kind took place, and 

 many workmen emigrated to this country, where they were protected and liberally 

 employed. |[ 



During ihis whole period, wool was sent out of England, chiefly to Italy and 

 the Netherlands, and cloth imported. Of the quantity of the former some notion 

 may be formed from the accounts delivered in to the Exchequer in the year 1281, 

 the 10th of Edward I. by Bonricini Guidiconi and his companions, merchants of 

 Lucca, who were the receivers and bankers of the royal customs on exported 

 wool, wool-fels, and leather. From these it appears, that, at half a mark, or 6s. 8d. 

 per sack on wool, the same for every 300 wool-fels,; and one mark for every last 

 of leather, the sum collected in one year amounted to ;(^8440. igs. ii^d. In 

 Madox, from whom I quote, the proportion of the several articles in this account 

 is specified for the port of Newcastle upon Tyne only; but if that proportion may 



* Anderson's Deduction of Commerce, anno citato, 

 t Madox, Exchequer, page 643. J Ibidem, page 532. 



§ Ibidem, page 232. || Anderson, anno citato, 



vor. V. 3 A 



