52 THE SHEEP. 



This prince has been regarded as the great founder of the 

 manufacturing prosperity of England, with what justice, let 

 the records of his exchequer, and the complaints of his harassed 

 subjects, declare. He bestowed his favour upon the woollen 

 trade, it is true, but merely as an engine for extorting money ; 

 and in no previous reign had the exactions on this part of the 

 industry of the country been more grievous. We are amazed 

 at the sums he drew from forced subsidies, customs, fines, 

 and otherwise. On one occasion having, without the sanction 

 of Parliament, and contrary, accordingly, to Magna Charta, 

 laid a heavy impost on all wool sold within the kingdom, the 

 Commons agree to give him 30,000 sacks of wool for his re- 

 lief, on condition that he should keep to the customs ordained 

 k by law ; and the Lords, after humbly praying " that the great 

 wrong set upon wool be revoked," offer him in return the 

 tenth sheaf of all the corn of their demesnes, and the tenth 

 fleece of wool, and the tenth lamb of their own stores, to be 

 paid within two years. The clergy sometimes assisted him, 

 as, on one occasion, by raising for him 20,000 sacks. When 

 these woollen subsidies were to be levied, care likewise was 

 used that the king's market w r as not interfered with. Pro- 

 clamation was sometimes made, " that no person buy any 

 wools before the king be served, whereunto all customers 

 shall have an eye."* On one occasion, the king having re- 

 solved to export 20,000 sacks on his own account, his ready 

 Parliament enacted that no man before that time should pass 

 over any wool on pain of treble loss, life and member ! 



Such was the protection afforded to the woollen trade on 

 the part of our earlier governments. By the increasing power 

 of the people, the exactions of the prince were better resisted 

 in the following reigns ; but yet we recognise little of just and 

 liberal principles in the legislation of the times. Guilds and 

 corporations with exclusive privileges were multiplied, and 

 thus monopoly crept into all the departments of the woollen 



* Smith's Memoirs of Wool. 



