314 
Wool in Relation to Science with Practice. 
exceeding industrial momentum is certain to excite on endless 
parallel and converging lines an unexpected and often mar- 
vellously rapid progress. 
The four great landmarks in the history of English wool and 
woollens are then unmistakably these : — the Flemish emigration 
in the time of Edward III. ; the Continental endeavours to 
stamp out the Reformation ; the panic caused in France by the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), which Edict tolerated 
Protestants, its revocation diove into this country the most skilful 
spinners and dyers of silk, linen, and wool ; and lastly, the in- 
troduction and multiplication of steam-power and machinery. 
I now proceed to map in practically a few more suggestive 
historical details. Spanish wool Avas introduced into Flanders to 
replace the English wool consumed at home: in 1521-49 home 
wool was in such demand that complaints arose that the country 
was being depopulated to make sheep-walks : some eighty years 
afterwards Spanish wool was in demand all over Europe — the 
wool of the now famous Merino. The Reformation increased the 
manufacturing classes, and the English trade attained the highest 
pitch of prosperity. The Act 8 Elizabeth, c. 6, shows the ex- 
treme jealousy of the English wool-producer ; the export of sheep 
was strictly forbidden : later, an Act of 1616, prohibiting the 
export of " white cloth " — undyed cloth — drove the English 
sheep-farmer from the fleece to the carcass, and gave a new 
impulse to sheep-farming — high feeding, more flesh, more wool — 
but this at the expense of the fineness and softness of the staple. 
In 1672 (12 Charles II. c. 32), exportation of wool was made 
felony. Meanwhile Spanish wool was brought to great perfection 
— a truly "golden fleece" — and was introduced into England. 
In 1665 our export trade was only nominal; many of our best 
hands emigrated : the Plague and the Great Fire made matters 
worse : the law meddled and coddled : and in every direction it 
bound the masters, it tied the hands, it hindered the looms, it 
stinted the raw material, interfered with the clipping, regulated 
the packing, and afterwards it dictated the fabrics into which 
alone the raw material might be woven : and lastly, in 1679, the 
law, as a climax of iibsurdity, insisted upon burying manufacturer 
and craftsman, as well as everybody else, in shrouds of sheep's 
wool. There was a mania for monopoly. So late as 1792 the 
statute-book contained no less than 311 laws relating to wool and 
woollens. In 1680 the Dutch were ransacking the world for 
raw material. The Revolution of 1688 gradually restored pros- 
perity to the English wool trade : the Manchester Act, 1 736 
(9 Geo. II. c. 4), annulled an Act passed 15 years before against 
cotton as opposed to wool, and thus by an Act passed in favour ol 
freedom for cotton, an impetus was actually given to the woollen 
trade. In 1802 the multiplication of machinery caused industrial 
