and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sheei). 369 



much diminished, comparatively widi what it had been thirty-six years before. 

 The subsidy and custom, making together 46J. 8d. per sack, amounted to ^^ 1 6o,000. ; 

 which shewed the whole export to have been 68,571 sacks, or 103,999 packs. 

 This difference does not seem to have arisen from any increase of our manufac- 

 ture, but is by Knyghton attributed to a prohibition of exporting wool by natives, 

 and to a mandate to them to carry it to twelve places within the realm, in order to 

 its exportation by strangers.* 



In consequence of the improvement in the fabric of cloths, Henry the Fourth in 

 1399, the first year of his reign, prohibited the importation of all foreign cloths jt 

 a prohibition which was afterwards on various occasions relinquished. 



In a treaty made with Flanders in 1408, we find Henry permitting commerce 

 between England and that country, on which, he says, the sustenance of the latter is 

 founded, and more especially on drapery. This benefit is afierwards said to be re- 

 ciprocal ; and must surely have meant much more than the mere export of wool 

 from England. J 



According to an authentic record, the customs on exported wool in 1421, the 9th 

 of Henry the Fifth, amounted 10/^3976. is. ad. the subsidy 10^26,035. ^^s. S^d.§ 

 Now if the custom were 6s. 8d. the sack, the number of sacks exported would be 

 11,928. And if we reckon by the subsidy, which for natives and denizens was 

 probably 435. 4^. and for strangers 535. 40?. with an abatement of 6s. Sd. per sack, 

 in both cases, as in the 6th year of Henry the Fourth, the average will be 41s. Sd. 

 per sack, and the whole number of sacks 12,497. The latter quantity is certainly 

 over-reckoned, because the greater part of the wools of the kingdom were shipped 

 by strangers, on whom the subsidy was greatest. The agreement of the results is, 

 however, sufficient to shew that the quantity exported in that year did not exceed 

 12,000 sacks, or 18,200 packs of 240 lbs. At this time, therefore, though we were 

 at peace with all the world, the exportation of wool appears to have been very much 

 diminished, probably in consequence of the increase of our own manufacture. 



In the year 1424, the 3d of Henry the Sixth, a law was made prohibiting the 

 exportation of live sheep from England without leave of the Crown, except to 

 Calais, for the purpose of victualling that place and its Marches, under pain of 

 forfeiting the sheep. || 



* Knyghton, inter x Scriptores, pag. 2737. f Anderson, 1399. 



X Foedera, VIII. 530. ^ Ibidem, X. 113. || Anderson; 1424. 



VOL. v. 3 B 



