234 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



century the effects of the various protective measures and of the develop- 

 ing home industry were to be clearly seen. The export of raw wool fell 

 oif , less cloth was imported, and the export of cloth became of considerable 

 importance. 



In the Middle Ages English woollen manufacture was mainly con- 

 centrated in three areas : the West Country — Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, 

 Somerset ; East Anglia, particularly Suffolk and Essex ; and Yorkshire. 

 I regret to say that Yorkshire was not only third in order of quantity, but 

 it was also rather notorious for poor quality, and it was not until the 

 nineteenth century that the West Riding assumed its present eminent 

 position in manufacture. It is interesting to us to-day to know that York 

 played an important part both in the manufacture and in the foreign trade 

 in cloth. From 1164, for more than a century, the city had the monopoly 

 of the manufacture of dyed and striped cloth in the county, and at the 

 beginning of the fifteenth century it was estimated that of about 2,500 

 heads of families in the city, 250 were masters of one or other of the 

 Guilds which regulated the making of cloth. By the sixteenth century 

 York had declined as a manufacturing centre, partly owing to the growing 

 competition of the West Riding, but it still held an important position 

 in the trade, largely as a result of its connections with the Merchant 

 Adventurers, who so largely controlled the export of Yorkshire cloth up 

 to the seventeenth century. 



As regards the production of wool, it is important to note that the 

 developing agriculture of the country, though called upon to provide the 

 food required by the increasing industrial population, was also able to 

 supply the wool needed for the continually expanding manufacture, as 

 well as a certain amount for export. There must, therefore, have been a 

 steady increase in the number of sheep, doubtless accompanied by some 

 improvement in the weight of fleeces. In the main, the country was self- 

 supporting up to the end of the eighteenth century, and, although there 

 were at times considerable imports of wool from overseas, on the other 

 hand we read of agitations for the removal of restrictions on export, so as 

 to enable the British farmer to secure a better price for his wool. These 

 agitations came to a head about the end of the eighteenth century, and the 

 prohibition of the export of wool was removed in 1825. It is possibly not 

 generally known that, although we now import colossal quantities of wool, 

 a large proportion of our home-grown clip is exported. Up to 1927 

 nearly 60 per cent, was sent abroad, principally to the United States and 

 Italy. The weight of home-grown wool exported is such that Great Britain 

 is about eighth on the list of wool-exporting countries. 



On the more definitely agricultural side of the sheep industry, our 

 information of early developments is in many ways very meagre and 

 unsatisfactory. For instance, we know little of the origin of our domesti- 

 cated breeds of sheep, and I do not suppose that anyone would care to 

 express a very definite opinion regarding the character or origin of the 

 sheep in the country at the time of the Norman Conquest. From the 

 Conquest onwards records of various kinds throw some light on the 

 nature of the sheep kept in different parts of Great Britain, though early 

 writings deal much more fully with the wool than with the sheep them- 



