SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC 



HISTORY 



FROM all that has been discovered of Roman occupation in 

 Lancashire it is beyond doubt that there must have been a very 

 considerable social and economic development during this period. 

 Remains of glass, pottery, and metal work found on the sites of 

 the Roman camps and garrison towns point to the introduction of these 

 industries into Strathclyde. The natural aptitude and quick intelligence of 

 the Celt would easily lend itself to the imitation of Roman wares, and the 

 presence of large military camps would necessitate the employment of smiths, 

 artificers, carpenters, and cloth-weavers. The building of forts and walls, 

 though largely carried out by the legionaries themselves, must have entailed 

 the working of quarries and the hire of such rude local transport as could 

 be obtained, while the provisioning of the soldiery must have given employ- 

 ment to a host of native merchants, sellers of fodder, corn, and wine. All 

 these considerations justify us in regarding the Roman period of occupa- 

 tion as characterized by civilization and economic progress, particularly at 

 Mancunium and round those camps on the Ribble and Lune which were 

 in direct communication with the southern and eastern garrisons of Chester, 

 Aldborough, and York. Tacitus, indeed, tells us how these wild northern 

 warriors were tamed and encouraged in the arts of peace, until they had 

 adopted the fashions of the toga and the bath, and had become almost more 

 Roman than their conquerors.^ 



The degree of British civilization attained under the Romans even in 

 that part of Britain occupied by the Brigantes and afterwards known as 

 Lancashire does not directly affect the later social and economic history of 

 the county, as with the exception of the great military roads the whole 

 superstructure raised by the Romans in Strathclyde, as elsewhere in Britain, 

 was swept away by the invading Saxons, although a large Celtic element 

 persisted in the population of East and North-east Lancashire. 



Until they were disturbed by the Danish inroads it is probable that the 

 Saxons remained in an exclusive, self-sufficient tribal settlement on the lands 

 between the Lune, Ribble, and Mersey, and that when the Northmen landed 

 they were driven further into the interior, while the keen Danish traders 

 established their merchant routes, going along the river banks or turning 

 inland from them. 



Some general idea of the settlement of the Saxons in what we now call 

 Lancashire may be gathered from the Domesday Survey, but this important 



' Tacitus, Agricola. 

 261 



