INDUSTRIES 



writer mentions an instance where twenty 

 pieces of ordnance had within the last month 

 been sold to a stranger's ship, and says that 



there be divers and sundry merchants and masters 

 of merchant ships that do find themselves mar- 

 vellously molested and otherwhiles robbed by 

 reason of the great store of ordnance that hath 

 been conveyed and sold to strangers out of this 

 realm, whereby their ships are so well appointed 

 that no poor merchant's ship may pass through 

 the seas. Moreover I do think that this commo- 

 dity of ordnance that is made within this realm 

 and already sold will turn to a discommodity when 

 a time of service shall require. 



He recommends the Council to consider that 

 this ordnance making is a commodity to a few 

 and a ' discommodity ' to the whole common- 

 wealth, and no common merchandise for 

 every private subject to deal with, but more 

 meet for the prince only. 



The long list that follows consists chiefly 

 of works in Sussex and Kent, but there are a 

 certain number in Surrey, whilst some two 

 or three really belong to that county although 

 stated to be in Sussex. Altogether there 

 were in the three counties ' not so few ' as a 

 hundred furnaces and iron-mills. The list 

 would seem to have been constantly referred 

 to by the Coxmcil in its dealings with this 

 industry, for there are two other copies ot it 

 amongst the State Papers^ and another 

 amongst the Stowe MSS. in the British 

 Museum. The Loseley MSS. also contain a 

 list that appears to have been chiefly com- 

 piled from that of Christopher Barker. 



Acting on this information the Council's 

 first course was to summon before it all the 

 owners and farmers of iron-mills in Sussex, 

 Kent and Surrey, and make them enter into 

 bonds not to cast any iron ordnance without 

 special licence from the queen, and then not 

 to sell to foreigners unless their licence should 

 expressly state to whom they might do so, 

 and what amount and kind of ordnance they 

 might sell. The bonds taken, and lists of all 

 those who were warned to appear and of all 

 those who did appear, are amongst the State 

 Papers. We shall have recourse to these 

 various lists and bonds later, when we shall 

 attempt to enumerate all the ironworks that 

 at one time or another were set up in Surrey, 

 The further result of the Council's dealing 

 with the matter was the promulgation of a 

 series of orders in June of the same year.* 

 These permitted all those furnaces which had 

 previously cast ordnance, but had been bound 

 to the contrary, to be again set on work, but 



on condition ot entering into the bonds which 

 had been in the first place required. The 

 founders were ordered to deliver up yearly 

 certificates to the master of the Ordnance of 

 the number of pieces they had cast and to 

 whom they had sold them, whilst in every 

 port a view was to be made of all the pieces 

 of ordnance placed on board of every ship at 

 its departure, and care to be taken that the 

 same number of pieces was in the ship at its 

 return, unless the absence of any piece could 

 be satisfactorily accounted for by loss or 

 damage. 



Such were the means by which the govern- 

 ment of Elizabeth sought to check the foreign 

 trade in a commodity for which the rapidly 

 increasing demand abroad seemed to forebode 

 possible dangers to the State, Throughout 

 the reign we find in the Acts of the Privy 

 Council and in the State Papers the executive 

 dealing with the question on these lines. 

 The same orders are again and again put into 

 force, occasionally with an additional elabora- 

 tion of the machinery to secure their proper 

 execution. On 28 August i S76, Sir William 

 More and Sir Thomas Browne were desired 

 to stop all further casting of iron guns or shot 

 in Surrey, until the queen's pleasure was again 

 known, because the country was already 

 suflSciently supplied, and the manufacture of 

 iron beyond the needs of the country would 

 only lead to the supply of strangers and 

 pirates.^ The attempt by directly prohibitive 

 measures to thwart the natural growth of the 

 industry must have been attended with the 

 usual nugatory results. On 20 December 

 1579 the Council was again moved touching 

 the great quantity of iron ordnance daily 

 transported out of the realm, and directed that 

 the iron forges of Sussex, where the ordnance 

 was especially made, should be stayed for a 

 time. The secretary was required to con- 

 fer with Viscount Montague, himself an 

 owner or important works in Sussex and 

 Surrey, as to the persons who should act as 

 commissioners to see that this order was 

 carried out, and at the same time to report as 

 to the number of forges, the amount of 

 ordnance made at them in recent years and of 

 the way in which this ordnance had been be- 

 stowed.* On 31 October 1588 the Council 

 wrote to Lord Howard of Efllngham, the 

 Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, bidding him to 

 appoint a discreet gentleman to visit the fur- 

 naces and forges of the county, to ascertain 

 the number of pieces lying ready in them, 

 and to enjoin the owners and foremen not to 



» S. P. Dom. Eliz. xcvi. 199 seq. ; cxvii. 39. 

 ' Ibid, xcvii. 17. 



265 



= Loseley MSS. 

 • Acts ofP.C. xi. 345-6. 



34 



