36 APPENDIX, No. IV. 



" lieniy IS. 6d. for every cloth In which a grain coLur 

 ** is intermixed,, 



** liem, 1 2d. for every cloth without grain *." 



The art of dying graitied colours feems to have been then, 

 well known, though^ in the days of Elizabeth, our manu- 

 faclurers appear to have been ignorant of that branch of 

 the bufinefs. 



From the days of Edward I. to thofe of Charles I. the 

 •woollen manuJcElure^ and the exportation of Englifli cloth and 

 •wooly were the principal objedls of legiflation, in as far as it 

 refpe61s commercial objedls. During all this period, Britifh 

 cloth, made entirely of home materials, was fought for with 

 great avidity by all nations ; and Englifh wool, in particu- 

 lar, was fo much coveted abroad, as to be the object of in- 

 numerable treaties with foreign Princes. The commercial 

 hiftory of this period exhibits, indeed, little elfe than an 

 uninterrupted feries of petitions from various defcrlptions of 

 men for obtaining it, and of treaties and fpecial grants from 

 the Crown for that purpofe. To enumerate thefe in detail 

 would be too long for this effay — But it is alm&fl impofllble 

 to look into Anderfon's Hiftory of Commerce, or to turn 

 up a page of Rymer's Federa, without meeting with them. 

 To thefe authors, therefore, I beg leave here to refer. I 

 iliall only at prefent obferve, that among thefe petitioners 

 are to be found merchants, priefts, cardinals, popes, and 

 kings, too numerous to be particularly named. One of 

 thefe petitions only, from the fingularity of circumftances 

 refpefting it, I fhall mention. It is from Don Duarte 

 King of Portugal, and brother-in-law to the King of 

 Caftile, with whom he lived in the ftri^left friend- 

 iliip and brotherly love. Yet this King of Portugal found 

 it neceflary to apply <' to King Henry VI. of England in 

 <* the^year 1437, for liberty to t,y.-^ort Jixt-^ fachs of Cotfwold 

 " wool, by means of which he was to procure certain cloths 



of 



* Hift. of Com. muio. ij,^^. 



