374 ^''- Pariy's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



The account which I have so far given of the progress of the manufacture of 

 cloth, and of the state of the wool, in England, will, 1 believe, be found very ac- 

 curate, and certainly shews that both those commodities were for nearly three cen- 

 turies in considerable esteem through a large part of Europe. What superiority these 

 and other facts tend to establish in our wool over that of Spain, so as to justify the 

 conclusion that the Merino breed of sheep originated in England, we have still to 

 enquire. 



I have related above the mandate of Henry the Second to the Mayor of London 

 in 1172, to burn any cloths made of Spanish wool mixed with English wool. 



The Charta Mercatoria, established in 1302, permits the merchants of Spain, 

 among others, to come to the dominions of the king, and freely to sell their goods. 

 That charter, as I have before observed, was renewed in several successive reigns; 

 and treaties of commerce and friendship between England and one or both of the 

 two kingdoms of Castile and Arragon were agreed on in 1308, 1317, 13-55, 1353, 

 1403, 1404, 1410, 1416, 1418, 1464, 1468, I4ii2, 1483, 1490, 1515.* 



So also in 1337, Edward the Third, then at enmity with the Flemings, entreats 

 Alfonsus the Eleventh, King of Castile, to prohibit his subjects to carry their mer- 

 chandize to Flanders, but rather to send his ships and cargoes to England, where 

 he promises them protection. t 



On none of these occasions is any thing said of the importation of Spanish wool; 

 nay, so little jealousy did we then entertain of that commodity, that, in 1340, the 

 quarrel with the Flemings having been accommodated, Edward granted his protec- 

 tion to the merchants of Spain, Catalonia, and Majorca, coming with their ships, 

 goods, and merchandize, to the ports of Brabant and Flanders. ;j| 



In the treaty of commerce with the King of Arragon, in 1353, his subjects, the 

 Catalonians, are specifically permitted to resort to England, in order to buy wool, 

 leather, and lead, J 



The " Libel of English Policie," quoted above from Hackluyt, has in it an ex- 

 press comparison between the wools of Spain and England, in which the preference 

 is given to the latter, though the former is said to have been always a great export 

 of Spain, and constantly carried to Flanders and manufactured there : 



• Fcedera, passim ; &c. + Ibidem, IV. 736. J Ibidem, V. 179. 



5 Ibidem, V. 762. 



