DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0338
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
search after the more valuable metal was not exhaustive as it is
under the modern process with which refiners are familiar, that by
spelter. But it is not impossible that processes were lost after the
cost of reducing English ores was too great for competition with
the new American silver. Now I am persuaded that, in England
at least, the principal source of supply was the lead mines. But
lead during the whole time before the rise in prices, due I am
certain to changes in the currency after 1563, is not dearer, nor is
silver cheaper, and I therefore conclude that, as long as it lasted,
the process and the prices were equally in equilibria. But English
lead was cheap, and was largely exported, for it was used exten-
sively in France and Flanders, at any rate for church building.
There were two articles then—one exclusively of English
produce, the other mainly—wool and silver. The process by which
the former was distributed is well known, and its peculiarities as a
financial instrument, it being solidly taxed on exportation. The
financial annals of this country, not indeed perfectly preserved,
but very fully, and very characteristically, show us how the export
of wool was used for revenue purposes. But there is no record of
the export of silver, and for the sufficient reason, that it was illegal
to export it, as far as paper or parchment Acts of Parliament could
make it illegal. But as every student of early English history
knows, a law was one thing and its efficiency quite a different
thing. The king's exchanger was personally, or by deputy,
present at all the great marts ; his control over trade transactions
was another matter.
There were two great outlets of English wealth, in the form of
currency. The one was the foreign policy of the Plantagenets, a
policy which was continued at intervals from the middle of the
thirteenth to the middle of the sixteenth centuries. The king
who wished to control the export of his subjects' specie, had no
objection to exporting it himself in order to serve the purposes of
his ambition. Considering the times, the drain of treasure for the
military chests of the Edwards and the Henrys must have been
enormous. The English army you will remember was not
collected by conscription as the foreign militias were, but by en-
listment. It was drilled well, and handsomely paid. It was
email, but singularly esficient. The daily pay of an archer was as
search after the more valuable metal was not exhaustive as it is
under the modern process with which refiners are familiar, that by
spelter. But it is not impossible that processes were lost after the
cost of reducing English ores was too great for competition with
the new American silver. Now I am persuaded that, in England
at least, the principal source of supply was the lead mines. But
lead during the whole time before the rise in prices, due I am
certain to changes in the currency after 1563, is not dearer, nor is
silver cheaper, and I therefore conclude that, as long as it lasted,
the process and the prices were equally in equilibria. But English
lead was cheap, and was largely exported, for it was used exten-
sively in France and Flanders, at any rate for church building.
There were two articles then—one exclusively of English
produce, the other mainly—wool and silver. The process by which
the former was distributed is well known, and its peculiarities as a
financial instrument, it being solidly taxed on exportation. The
financial annals of this country, not indeed perfectly preserved,
but very fully, and very characteristically, show us how the export
of wool was used for revenue purposes. But there is no record of
the export of silver, and for the sufficient reason, that it was illegal
to export it, as far as paper or parchment Acts of Parliament could
make it illegal. But as every student of early English history
knows, a law was one thing and its efficiency quite a different
thing. The king's exchanger was personally, or by deputy,
present at all the great marts ; his control over trade transactions
was another matter.
There were two great outlets of English wealth, in the form of
currency. The one was the foreign policy of the Plantagenets, a
policy which was continued at intervals from the middle of the
thirteenth to the middle of the sixteenth centuries. The king
who wished to control the export of his subjects' specie, had no
objection to exporting it himself in order to serve the purposes of
his ambition. Considering the times, the drain of treasure for the
military chests of the Edwards and the Henrys must have been
enormous. The English army you will remember was not
collected by conscription as the foreign militias were, but by en-
listment. It was drilled well, and handsomely paid. It was
email, but singularly esficient. The daily pay of an archer was as