552 Dr. Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



serve as a rule for the rest, the custom on wool alone was ^6717.* What the 

 weight of the sack was at this time I do not exactly know. I believe it was not 

 till the reign of Edward III, that it was ordered by law to contain 26 stones of 

 14 lbs. to the stone, or 364 lbs. If we take it at that weight, the number of sacks 

 exported would be 20,151, and the wool 7,334,964 lbs. 



This may seem a large quantity. It must, however, be recollected, that almost 

 all the garments of both sexes in England, and, probably, in other parts of Europe, 

 ■were then made of wool. Now if only 2^ lbs. of wool, as washed on the sheep's 

 back, were required to form a yard of cloth, the number of yards thus made would 

 be 3,259,984 ; and if 5 yards be allowed for the annual clothing of one man, the 

 quantity which I have stated would be only sufficient to clothe 651,997 persons. 



From the writings of De Witt it appears, that the woollen manufacture was 

 established in Flanders as early as the year 959 : t nearly 240 years before we 

 know of any exportation whatever of wool from Britain, and almost 300 before 

 any specific notice of such an exportation to the Netherlands, which did not take 

 place till somewhat before 1252. The Flemings must, therefore, during that long 

 period, have been abundantly stocked with wool, independently of any supply from 

 this island. 



If, before 1252, we furnished foreign countries with Httle wool, much less were 

 Ive able to export cloth. All our efforts to produce that necessary article in suffi* 

 cient quantity for our own consumption were evidently ineffectual. Accordingly 

 we find, that, in the 30th year of Henry III. anno 1245, Simon de Campis, of 

 Douay, is allowed to bring his cloth, duty>free, to any part of the realm. [J; In fact, 

 the superior skill of foreigners, and more especially the Flemings, enabled them to 

 sell in our markets woollen goods of a given quality at a lower price than they 

 could be furnished by our own manufacturers; on which account these foreigners 

 became so obnoxious to our workmen, that, on various subsequent occasions, it 

 became necessary to protect them by the strongest proclamations, $ the violation 

 of which was often followed by the infliction of very severe penalties. So great 

 indeed was the superiority of skill or industry in the Flemings, that it was not 

 counterbalanced either by the original expence of the raw material itself, loaded 

 with the custom payable on it to the Crown, or all the charges of its first transpor- 



• History of the Exchequer, page 634. + Anderson, anno citato, 



t Ibidem, page 526. § Rymer's Fodera, V. 429. 



