DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0068
52 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
to this cause, it was far from being the sole origin of the increase..
The frequent comments made on the unsatisfactory character of
English husbandry are proofs that the growth of agricultural skill
had been local and spasmodic.
The most dominant cause, I do not doubt, was the general
pacification of the Border and the settlement of the northern
counties by weavers. I discovered when I examined the returns
of the hearth tax which were given for the several English
counties, that, Middlesex and Surrey excepted, the population of
the north was as dense as that of the south, and that several of
these northern counties had a more numerous population to the
square mile than those of the southern counties had. It is true
the contribution to taxation which the northern counties made
was a good deal less than that exacted from the south. But this
inequality was a subject of frequent complaint. And again the
charge for maintaining tbe northern poor was far less to the
acreage than that incurred in the south. This was, however,
I believe, due to the fact that during the civil war the population
pressed into the associated counties. The poor law, too, as we see
from the magistrates' assessments, was more severely administered
in the north. But, above all, it was during the seventeenth cen-
tury that weaving, especially woollen weaving, generally migrated
to the north, or grew there rapidly. The anonymous author of
"The Interest of Scotland,'' writing in 1732, speaks of the great
growth of woollen manufactures in Yorkshire, and of linen and
of similar fabrics in Lancashire.
During the eighteenth century population was again nearly
doubled. The cause was threefold—the growth of the towns, in
many cases owing to the immigration of the banished Huguenots,
a body of settlers who were, and continued to be, of the greatest
value to the English nation ; the extension of the new agri-
culture, and, I must add, however unjust was the distribution,
the numerous enclosures made ; andithe rapid growth of invention
of mechanical skill and of trade. On an earlier occasion I have
described to my audience, how this progress was aided by the
singular success of British warfare during the Seven Years' War,
and the sole market which we obtained as a result of that struggle.
It was indeed a brief ascendency, and the sole market was shattered
to this cause, it was far from being the sole origin of the increase..
The frequent comments made on the unsatisfactory character of
English husbandry are proofs that the growth of agricultural skill
had been local and spasmodic.
The most dominant cause, I do not doubt, was the general
pacification of the Border and the settlement of the northern
counties by weavers. I discovered when I examined the returns
of the hearth tax which were given for the several English
counties, that, Middlesex and Surrey excepted, the population of
the north was as dense as that of the south, and that several of
these northern counties had a more numerous population to the
square mile than those of the southern counties had. It is true
the contribution to taxation which the northern counties made
was a good deal less than that exacted from the south. But this
inequality was a subject of frequent complaint. And again the
charge for maintaining tbe northern poor was far less to the
acreage than that incurred in the south. This was, however,
I believe, due to the fact that during the civil war the population
pressed into the associated counties. The poor law, too, as we see
from the magistrates' assessments, was more severely administered
in the north. But, above all, it was during the seventeenth cen-
tury that weaving, especially woollen weaving, generally migrated
to the north, or grew there rapidly. The anonymous author of
"The Interest of Scotland,'' writing in 1732, speaks of the great
growth of woollen manufactures in Yorkshire, and of linen and
of similar fabrics in Lancashire.
During the eighteenth century population was again nearly
doubled. The cause was threefold—the growth of the towns, in
many cases owing to the immigration of the banished Huguenots,
a body of settlers who were, and continued to be, of the greatest
value to the English nation ; the extension of the new agri-
culture, and, I must add, however unjust was the distribution,
the numerous enclosures made ; andithe rapid growth of invention
of mechanical skill and of trade. On an earlier occasion I have
described to my audience, how this progress was aided by the
singular success of British warfare during the Seven Years' War,
and the sole market which we obtained as a result of that struggle.
It was indeed a brief ascendency, and the sole market was shattered