Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/169

Rh The trade between England and Flanders in particular was so indispensable to the people of both countries, that it was never long interrupted by any quarrel between the two governments.

A very curious general review of the commerce of Europe in the earlier part of the fifteenth century is contained in a poem published by Hakluyt, called 'The Libel of English Policy,' which appears to have been written in the year 1436 or 1437. We will extract the most remarkable particulars that have any relation to England, introducing, as we go along, a few notices from other sources. In the first place, it appears, both from this poem and from other evidences, that the English wool of the finest quality was now superior to any produced even in Spain, which had already long been the greatest wool-growing country in Europe. It is stated that, although the Flemings obtained the greater part of their wool from Spain, they could not make good cloth of the Spanish wool by itself, but were obliged to mix it with the English. In Spain itself, in making the finest cloths, the mixture of any other wool with the English was strictly prohibited by a code of laws drawn up about this time by the magistrates of Barcelona, expressly "for the regulation of the manufacture of cloths made of fine English wool," The cloths of England, however, were still very inferior in fineness of texture to those both of Spain and the Netherlands; so that the fine English wool was sometimes carried to those countries, there to be manufactured into cloth, which was then sent back to the English market. In the coarser fabrics, on the other hand, the English appear to have already attained considerable excellence; for we find imitations of English cloth soon after this mentioned among the products of the looms of Barcelona. According to the poem, whatever trade England had at this time with Spain was all carried on indirectly through the medium of the great Flemish emporium of Bruges,