DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0025
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL SKILL.
those who could be spared from trade produced merchandize.
The downfall of this trade was due to two causes, almost con-
current. The one was the conquest of Egypt in 1517, and the
consequent block of the only remaining overland route from the
East ; the other was the Spanish Inquisition, begun by Charles V.,
and carried out by Philip and Alva.
Now it will be plain that this remarkable isolation of English
life was a great obstacle to the development of manufacturing
enterprise. In early days all the industries were of the villages
in the eastern counties. One can see this, at the end of the
thirteenth century, in the bailiff's accounts of Bigod's Norfolk
estates. The-principal seats of the woollen and linen industries
were in villages, which grew indeed, but were never gifted with
municipal rights, or even with parliamentary representation,
and that at times when trumpery hamlets were made freely into
boroughs, frequently it appears for political reasons. To be sure,
when the greatest manufacture of these boroughs commenced, at
or near the middle of the fifteenth century, the eastern counties
were firmly attached to the policy of the House of York, and by
consequence to its pretensions.
It is highly probable that the remarkable monopoly which
England possessed, from the thirteenth century till the sixteenth,
may have had a discouraging esfect on English manufactures.
England, as I have said, was emphatically a rural nation, generally
occupied in husbandry. It produced an article of universal
demand, and could control its supply. So completely was it the
master of this market, that it could, though Parliament imposed a
duty of from 100 to 150 per cent, and even more, on wool, without
depressing the price at home, or calling another producer into
existence. But so great a margin rendered the business of wool
producing an exceedingly lucrative one. The landowner or yeoman
could win a greater profit from his sheep than from any other
agricultural operation. People were quite alive to the fact that
a given quantity of wool spun and woven into cloth was worth
weight for weight, many times more than the raw material. But
you will find that communities which derive great profit from
certain callings are slow to enter on new paths, and, if they do
enter on them, are slow to improve them. Povertv, not want,
those who could be spared from trade produced merchandize.
The downfall of this trade was due to two causes, almost con-
current. The one was the conquest of Egypt in 1517, and the
consequent block of the only remaining overland route from the
East ; the other was the Spanish Inquisition, begun by Charles V.,
and carried out by Philip and Alva.
Now it will be plain that this remarkable isolation of English
life was a great obstacle to the development of manufacturing
enterprise. In early days all the industries were of the villages
in the eastern counties. One can see this, at the end of the
thirteenth century, in the bailiff's accounts of Bigod's Norfolk
estates. The-principal seats of the woollen and linen industries
were in villages, which grew indeed, but were never gifted with
municipal rights, or even with parliamentary representation,
and that at times when trumpery hamlets were made freely into
boroughs, frequently it appears for political reasons. To be sure,
when the greatest manufacture of these boroughs commenced, at
or near the middle of the fifteenth century, the eastern counties
were firmly attached to the policy of the House of York, and by
consequence to its pretensions.
It is highly probable that the remarkable monopoly which
England possessed, from the thirteenth century till the sixteenth,
may have had a discouraging esfect on English manufactures.
England, as I have said, was emphatically a rural nation, generally
occupied in husbandry. It produced an article of universal
demand, and could control its supply. So completely was it the
master of this market, that it could, though Parliament imposed a
duty of from 100 to 150 per cent, and even more, on wool, without
depressing the price at home, or calling another producer into
existence. But so great a margin rendered the business of wool
producing an exceedingly lucrative one. The landowner or yeoman
could win a greater profit from his sheep than from any other
agricultural operation. People were quite alive to the fact that
a given quantity of wool spun and woven into cloth was worth
weight for weight, many times more than the raw material. But
you will find that communities which derive great profit from
certain callings are slow to enter on new paths, and, if they do
enter on them, are slow to improve them. Povertv, not want,