354 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



Davenant, at the end of the seventeenth century, made the following 

 estimate showing the importance of wool in English trade ^ : — 



Annual income of England ... ;^43,ooo,ooo 



Yearly rent of land 10,000,000 



Value of wool shorn yearly 2,000,000 



„ woollen manufactures ... 10,000,000 



Thus the rents of land formed nearly one-fourth the total income of the 

 country, and wool paid one-fifth of the rents.'^ 



In the eighteenth century a great quantity of wool was smuggled out of 

 England in defiance of the law; in the space of four months in 1754, 

 4,000 tods was * run ' into Boulogne.' 



Foreign and Colonial Wool imported into England.* 



^ Smith, Memoirs of Wool, i. 157. 



^ In 1908 the rental of agricultural land was 3I per cent, of the total 

 income of the country. See The Times, May 13, 1909. 

 ' Ibid. ii. 264. 



* Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, ii. 693. Cf. above, p. 328. 

 " Trusler, Practical Husbandry, p. 153. 



