INDUSTRIES 



minions the port was situated. Thus in the 

 reign of Mary we have a list of stores which 

 include both gunpowder and its ingredients 

 saltpetre and sulphur, for whose shipment, 

 presumably from Antwerp, the King of 

 Spain's licence was required.^ It will be 

 readily understood that the peculiarly delicate 

 nature of Elizabeth's diplomatic relations 

 with the diflFerent powers of Europe made 

 such a state of affairs well-nigh intolerable. 

 That she should be dependent upon the good- 

 will of any one European prince for her sup- 

 plies of one of the most necessary muniments 

 of war was a contingency which the best 

 minds of her statesmen were set to avoid. It 

 was from no mere desire to foster a home 

 industry at the expense of a foreign one 

 that the most earnest attention of the govern- 

 ment was called to the problem of securing 

 not only that gunpowder in quantities suffi- 

 cient for the needs of the State and of its 

 merchant vessels should be made at home, but 

 also that its most important ingredient should 

 be produced entirely in this country. 



The most important ingredient of gun- 

 powder is saltpetre or nitre, the nitrate of 

 potash. Six parts of saltpetre to one of sul- 

 phur and another of charcoal became, as we 

 shall see, the accepted proportions for well 

 made powder. Saltpetre however is not a 

 natural product of the continent of Europe, 

 but is found most abundantly in India and 

 Persia and some other eastern countries. 

 Hence there had in early times been a diffi- 

 culty in obtaining it in sufficient quantities, 

 and the attention of European scientists had 

 been directed to its artificial production by 

 imitating the conditions of its natural forma- 

 tion. Long before the reign of Elizabeth 

 this art must have attained almost its full 

 development on the continent, but until that 

 period its secret had been religiously guarded 

 from Englishmen, to whom it would seem to 

 have been entirely unknown. But to the 

 presence in the country at that time of the 

 large number of foreign refugees driven from 

 their own countries through religious persecu- 

 tion or reasons of state policy, Englishmen 

 could look for the discovery of many erst- 

 while industrial secrets. A German captain, 

 one Gerrard Honrick, who could claim a per- 

 fect knowledge of the art of making saltpetre 

 ' in the best fashion and much in use beyond 

 the sea' was before long forthcoming. His 

 services were requisitioned by the govern- 

 ment, and on 13 March 1 560-1 an agreement 

 was made between the queen on the one part 

 and Honrick on the other, by which for a 



1 S. P. Dom. Mary, xiv. 14. 



suni of ^300 the latter agreed to instruct the 

 subjects of the former in the art.' From the 

 date of this agreement may be said to begin 

 the real history of the English manufacture 

 of gunpowder. 



The early history of the Surrey gunpowder 

 industry is so much that of the gunpowder 

 industry of the whole kingdom, and the ques- 

 tion of an adequate supply of the home-made 

 commodity was so largely dependent on a 

 sufficiency of saltpetre, that some account is 

 necessary here of the conditions under which 

 saltpetre was artificially produced or otherwise 

 obtained, before the difficulties which beset 

 the gunpowder trade in England can be pro- 

 perly appreciated. 



With the note of the agreement with 

 Honrick in the state papers is a copy of ' The 

 trew and perfect arte of the making of salt- 

 peter to growe in cellars, barnes, or in lyme 

 or stone quarrees." Although we hear of 

 nothing more of Honrick at this time we 

 may presume that he carried out his bargain, 

 and that this exposition of his art represents 

 the art as it was subsequently pursued in this 

 country. Eighty years later we find that the 

 government's gunpowder-maker had by him 

 a copy of the contract, no doubt because it 

 contained instructions which were still fol- 

 lowed.* The extraordinary process which is 

 here detailed covers four closely written pages, 

 but for our present purpose it is only neces- 

 sary to summarize its general principles. 



Briefly then the artificial development of 

 saltpetre may be said to consist in the mixing 

 together of earth — ' the blacker the better ' — 

 and animal excrement with lime and ashes. 

 The lye had to be exposed to the air in dry 

 and cold places, and watered at intervals with 

 urine. After this had been done a sufficient 

 number of times and the heaps continually 

 turned over, the earth was lixiviated and the 

 salt crystallized. In order that saltpetre enough 

 for the needs of the kingdom might thus be 

 prepared, it is obvious that the supply of animal 

 matter in adequate quantities imposed a task 

 of great difficulty upon those who were charged 

 with the making of saltpetre, unless an undue 

 interference with the liberty of the subject 

 was to be permitted. For the patents of 

 appointment of the saltpetre men strictly en- 

 joined all whom it might concern to allow 

 these men to enter and dig the earth in all 

 dovehouses, barns, stables, stalls, outhouses, 

 empty places in cellars, vaults and warehouses. 

 No other part of any inhabited house was to 



2 Ibid. Eliz. xvi. 30. 



3 Ibid. 29. 



* In 1 641 ; ibid. Chas. I. cccclxxxvii. 75. 



307 



