advantage was afterwards so clearly exhibited by Adam Smith, when showing how great was the weight of corn and wool contained in a piece of cloth; and how easily the two could be trangported when they had assumed that form.

Then, as now, distance from market was productive of great unsteadiness in the demand for, and the supply of, the bulky products of the earth—the laborer perishing at one moment for want of food; and the farmer, at the next, being ruined for want of people who required to eat, and were able to pay for the corn he desired to sell. From 1302 to 1317, the price of wheat rose steadily, until from 128. in the first, it had attained £5 18s. in the last; and then, but a few years later, we find it down to 6s., 10s., and £1 7s.* Cultivation was limited everywhere to the superficial soils — the richest lands of the kingdom being then, as for centuries afterwards they continued to be, so covered with wood, or so saturated with moisture, as to render them useless for any of the purposes of man. On the opposite side of the Channel, all was different. Combination of action, resulting from diversity of employment, having brought into activity the richest soils, agriculture had already attained a position higher, probably, than that occupied by any part of England, even at the opening of the eighteenth century. With every day, the people of Holland, and of Flanders, were then obtaining greater power over nature, and greater facilities for the accumulation of further wealth.

§ 2. Such was the state of things in England at the date of the passage of the act prohibiting the export of wool and the import of cloth. It was a measure of resistance, looking to the protection of the English farmer against the monopolies of the Flemish manufacturers; and, as such, tended greatly to the promotion of commerce. In this proceeding, however, the usual error of refor

* These prices are in money of the present time, as given by Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, book 1, chap. xi.

† “Edward III., and others of our princes, incurred no little odium by the judicious protection which they afforded to the foreign manufacturers who took refuge among us." MCCULLOCH: Discourse introductory to the Wealth of Nations, p. xxv.

Mr. McCulloch is, nevertheless, an opponent of the system which looks to extending the same protection in the present time, even where the circumstances are precisely similar.

mers—that of going too far and fast-is clearly obvious. When nature works most beneficially for man, she works slowly; and what is true in the natural world, cannot be other than true in the social one. Man as rarely profits by violent changes in the societary edifice, as he does by earthquakes, or by water-spouts. The difficulty of the English corn and wool growers consisted in the absence of competition for the purchase of their commodities, consequent upon long-continued dependence upon a single and distant market. Its remedy was to be found under a system of alterative treatment looking to the creation of a domestic one while leaving untouched the export of the raw material required for the supply of distant countries.

What was required for giving the producer a choice of markets, was the imposition of such a duty on foreign cloths as would have made it the interest of the foreign weaver to come to him and consume his bulky corn, while converting into cloth his more compact wool. Such a measure might have been fully and promptly carried into effect, and its adoption would have given all the advantages that could have been expected from the other, while unattended by any counterbalancing disadvantages. As it was, however, the nation being poor, and the ability to purchase foreign merchandise, consequently, very small, while the necessities of the king were very great, the latter needed, as far as possible, to retain all the accustomed sources of revenue; among which that afforded by the export of wool stood forth most conspicuous. The prohibition of the trade throwing it chiefly into his own hands, he continued largely to profit by it. The one great measure, however, the establishment of direct commerce between the producer of wool and corn and the consumer of cloth, was, in some degree, accomplished; and from that time forth there was a daily increase in the power of voluntary association, manifested by the building of new towns and enlargement of old ones; by the enfranchisement of serfs; and by the growing power of the Commons to direct the movements of the ship of state. Magna Charta provided for securing the privileges of the aristocracy; but the statute of 1347 laid the foundation of the liberties of the people, by providing for the diversity of their employments and the development of their various individualities; as a consequence of which the change of system was followed by a

rapid increase in the amount of force at the command of the community itself.

§ 3. For centuries. nevertheless, England continued to be an importer of cloth, iron, and other manufactured commodities, and an exporter of raw materials a course of things leading necessarily to the exhaustion of the soil, and to great waste of mental and physical force. That force represented the capital consumed in the form of food, the quantity of which required for the proper nourishment of the population was just as great as it could have been had all the time been profitably employed; but that it could not be, in default of the power to maintain commerce, the condition of whose existence is found in the rapidity of circulation resulting from diversity in the modes of employment. The mass of the force produced being wasted, the people remained poor—requiring laws providing for their compulsory support out of the produce of the land; and hence arose a necessity for establishing a forced circulation by means of poor laws, the commencement of which is found in the act of 43 Elizabeth.

The community continued poor and weak as compared with others across the Channel, in which employments were more diversified; and hence it is that we find the Dutch enjoying almost a monopoly of the privilege of managing the commerce of England with foreign countries. The period of the Protectorate brought with it, however, a successful effort at establishing direct commerce with distant nations, by means of navigation laws, that laid the foundation of British power on the ocean at the present day. For a still later one it was reserved to witness a similar effort for the promotion of commerce at home, by establishing direct intercourse between the producers of food on one hand, and the consumers of shoes and stockings, hats, caps, and bonnets, on the other-between the men who had labor to sell, and those who had corn or wool, cloth or iron, with which to buy it. The distinction of having been the first to suggest the measures that since have led to the manufacturing greatness of England, has recently been claimed for Andrew Yarranton, some extracts from whose work*

* England's Improvement by Sea and Land. To Outdo the Dutch without Fighting. To pay Debts without Moneys. To set at work the Poor of England with the Growth of our own Lands, &c. &c. By ANDrew Yarranton. London, 1677.

will enable the reader to see what was the then position of the English farmer; and why it was that protection was deemed to be required :-*

"From France were imported 'canvases, lockrums, and great quantities of coarse cloths,' so much so, in fact, that it hath almost laid aside the making of linen cloth in England.' Twine and yarn were also imported to make sail-cloth and cordage, 'which hath taken off the labor of multitudes of people in Suffolk and thereabouts, and hath so lessened the trade that it is almost lost.' Narrow coarse cloths were imported from north Germany, 'the cheapness whereof hath beaten out the linen trade formerly made in Lancashire, Cheshire, and thereabouts, about forty years since, a very great trade.' Bed-ticking was also imported, which had almost destroyed that trade in Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, so the spinners are idle, and the lands fall in price.' Yarns were imported from Germany. Formerly, the clothiers made use of linen yarn spun in that country, (the neighborhood of Kidderminster,) to make their lynsey-woolseys, but now the cheapness of the foreign threads hath put them upon making use of German yarn. Great quantities of thread (yarn) also are used at Manchester, Maidstone, and in other parts of England, to mix with woollen; with infinite other commodities; and all the benefit of the labor of these threads is applied to foreigners.""

The remedy for this state of things was, according to Yarranton, to be found in importing the skill, to which end he gave the following advice:

Send for one man from Friburgh, to put you in the true way and method of making the tape, and to bring over two enginesone to weave narrow tape, and the other to weave broad tape, with wheels to spin. (The German wheels were much superior to the English.)

"Send for one man from Dort, in Holland, to put you in the true way of ordering the fine threads.

* The following passages are from a recent work-Dove's Elements of Political Science-in which are given copious extracts from Yarranton's remarkable book. They are here copied at some length, because the facts they record correspond so precisely with those of all other countries of the present day engaged in exporting raw materials and importing manufactured commodities. The difficulties now to be overcome by them are the same that then existed in England, and the, remedial measures now pursued in the advancing countries of the world are the same that are her suggested.

"Send for a spinning-mistress out of Germany, to order and govern the little maids, and instruct them in the art of spinning. 'Send for a man from Harlem, in Holland, to whiten (bleach) your tapes and threads.'”

Regarding the iron manufacture as being, next to linen, of the first importance, he says

"Consider how many iron-works are laid down' (abandoned) 'both in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, and many more must follow. The reason is, the iron from Sweadland, (Sweden,) Flanders, and Spain comes in so cheap, that it cannot be made to profit here. *

*

*

"Now I have showed you the two manufactures of linen and iron, with the product thereof, and all the materials are with us growing; and these two manufactures will, if by law countenanced, set all the poor in England at work, and much enrich the country, and thereby fetch people into the kingdom, whereas now they depart;' (yes, honest Andrew, and now also they depart;) and thereby deprive the Dutch of these two great manufactures of iron and linen. I mean, iron wrought into all commodities, so vastly brought down the Rhine into Holland from Liege, Gluke, Soley, and Cologne, and by them diffused and sent all the world over. And these two trades being well fixed here, will help to beat the Dutch without fighting. I pray, consider the charge England is now at with the poor, and observe what they now cost the public; but, if employed in these two manufactures, what advance by their labor might the public receive! Admit there be in England and Wales a hundred thousand poor people unemployed, and each one costs the public fourpence the day in food, and, if these were employed, they would earn eightpence the day; and so the public, in what might be gained and saved, will advance twelvepence the day by each poor person now unemployed. So a hundred thousand persons will be to the benefit of the public, if employed, one million and a half yearly in these two manufactures of iron and linen. And as these two manufactures are now managed in Saxony, they set all their poor at work. I, travelling aworter and across Saxony, did not see one beggar there; and these two manufactures being prudently and by good laws, there supported and encouraged, they are become two parts in three of the revenue and benefit of that duke; and they are sent into