The English
In our account of the Hanseatic League we have shown how inEngland agriculture and sheep farming have been promoted by foreigntrade; how at a subsequent period, through the immigration offoreign artificers, fleeing from persecution in their native land,and also owing to the fostering measures adopted by the BritishGovernment, the English woollen manufacturing industry hadgradually attained to a flourishing condition; and how, as a directconsequence of that progress in manufacturing industry, as well asof the wise and energetic measures adopted by Queen Elizabeth, allthe foreign trade which formerly had been monopolised by foreignershad been successfully diverted into the hands of the merchants athome.
before we continue our exposition of the development of Englishnational economy from the point where we left off in Chapter 2, weventure here to make a few remarks as to the origin of Britishindustry.
The source and origin of England's industrial and commercialgreatness must be traced mainly to the breeding of sheep and to thewoollen manufacture.
before the first appearance of the Hansards on British soil theagriculture of England was unskilful and her sheep farming oflittle importance.There was a scarcity of winter fodder for thecattle, consequently a large proportion had to be slaughtered inautumn, and hence both stock and manure were alike deficient.Justas in all uncultivated territories -- as formerly in Germany, andin the uncleared districts, of America up to the present time --hog breeding furnished the principal supply of meat, and that forobvious reasons.The pigs needed little care -- foraged forthemselves, and found a plentiful supply of food on the waste landsand in the forests; and by keeping only a moderate number ofbreeding sows through the winter, one was sure in the followingspring of possessing considerable herds.
but with the growth of foreign trade hog breeding diminished,sheep farming assumed larger proportions, and agriculture and thebreeding of horned cattle rapidly improved.
Hume, in his 'History of England,'(1*) gives a very interestingaccount of the condition of English agriculture at the beginning ofthe fourteenth century:
'In the year 1327 Lord Spencer counted upon 63 estates in hispossession, 28,000 sheep, 1,000 oxen, 1,200 cows, 560 horses, and2,000 hogs: giving a proportion of 450 sheep, 35 head of cattle, 9horses, and 22 hogs to each estate.'
From this statement we may perceive how greatly, even in thoseearly days, the number of sheep in England exceeded that of all theother domestic animals put together.The great advantages derivedby the English aristocracy from the business of sheep farming gavethem an interest in industry and in improved methods of agricultureeven at that early period, when noblemen in most Continental statesknew no better mode of utilising the greater part of theirpossessions than by preserving large herds of deer, and when theyknew no more honourable occupation than harassing the neighbouringcities and their trade by hostilities of various kinds.
And at this period, as has been the case in Hungary morerecently, the flocks so greatly increased that many estates couldboast of the possession of from 10,000 to 24,000 sheep.Under thesecircumstances it necessarily followed that, under the protectionafforded by the measures introduced by Queen Elizabeth, the woollenmanufacture, which had already progressed very considerably in thedays of former English rulers, should rapidly reach a very highdegree of prosperity.(2*)In the petition of the Hansards to the Imperial Diet, mentionedin Chapter II, which prayed for the enactment of retaliatorymeasures, England's export of cloth was estimated at 200,000pieces; while in the days of James I the total value of Englishcloths exported had already reached the prodigious amount of twomillion pounds sterling, while in the year 1354 the total moneyvalue of the wool exported had amounted only to 277,000 l., andthat of all other articles of export to no more than 16,400 l.Downto the reign of the last-named monarch the great bulk of the clothmanufactured in England used to be exported to belgium in the roughstate and was there dyed and dressed; but owing to the measures ofprotection and encouragement introduced under James I and CharlesI the art of dressing cloth in England attained so high a pitch ofperfection that thenceforward the importation of the finerdescriptions of cloth nearly ceased, while only dyed and finelydressed cloths were exported.
