



WOOL. 51 



the chief revenue of the prince, and the subject of continued 

 exaction on the people. Sometimes the woollen subsidies 

 were paid in kind, but more generally in heavy duties laid 

 upon the sale or exportation of the wool. In these early 

 times the raw material alone was exported. It was carried 

 chiefly to the Low Countries, where it was manufactured into 

 cloths and worsted stuffs by the Flemings, then become the 

 great weavers of Northern Europe. These industrious people 

 maintained their superiority in the woollen manufacture for 

 many ages, and during this period acquired that wealth which 

 enabled them to render their country the most populous and 

 fruitful in Europe. Their chief dependence for the raw mate- 

 rial was on England, which alone could supply them in the 

 due quantity with the wool which their innumerable looms 

 required. They returned the manufactured commodity at a 

 high price ; and yet the trade was mutually beneficial, and 

 calculated to advance the industry of the ruder, as well as the 

 more cultivated, people. But Edward III., soon after his ac- 

 cession to the crown, resolved to wrest the woollen manufac- 

 ture as much as possible from the Flemings, and establish it 

 at home. He encouraged the resort of foreign artisans to 

 England ; and, availing himself of certain discontents in 

 Flanders, he invited over weavers, dyers, fullers, and others, 

 and established them in different parts, affording them pro- 

 tection and privileges. He caused it to be enacted, that all 

 merchant strangers and denizens might buy and sell within 

 the realm, freely and without interruption, and that all foreign 

 clothmakers should be received from whatever foreign parts 

 they came. To encourage the home manufacture, he even 

 resolved to prevent the exportation of English wool, and the 

 importation of foreign cloths. At a parliament held in March 

 1337, it was enacted that no wool of English growth should 

 be transported beyond sea, and that none should wear any 

 cloths made beyond sea. But this statute soon gave way to 

 the exigencies of the exchequer, and the temptation of im- 

 posts, licenses, and fines. 



