Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/37

Rh that trade in general was so far out of frame that the merchants and clothiers were greatly discouraged; so that great numbers of people employed by and dependant on them wanted work, farmers wanted the usual means of paying their rents, landlords failed to receive their former incomes, and the crown also suffered by the diminution of the customs and other duties. The remainder of the paper enumerates the points to be more particularly inquired into, and suggests some remedies that might, it was thought, deserve consideration. The commissioners were directed, among other things, to find out what had occasioned the fall in the price of wool; what would be the most effective course to take in order to prevent the exportation of wool and woollen yarn, fuller's-earth, and wood ashes; how to remedy the present unusual scarcity of money, &c. They were also to consider if it might not be behoveful to put in execution the laws still in force which obliged merchant-strangers to lay out the proceeds of the merchandise imported by them on the native commodities of the realm. The commission goes on to complain that the merchants trading into the Eastland countries (that is, the countries lying along the south shores of the Baltic) had neglected of late to bring back corn as they had been formerly wont; and also that, instead of loading their ships, as formerly, with great quantities of undressed hemp and flax, which set great numbers of the people of this kingdom to work in dressing the same and converting it into linen cloth, they now imported hemp and flax ready dressed, and that for the most part by strangers. Much treasure, it is afterwards affirmed, was yearly spent for linen cloth imported from abroad at a high price. It is certain that, before the close of this reign, the Dutch had begun successfully to compete with the English weavers in the manufacture of the finer kinds of woollen cloth, a branch in which this country had till now stood unrivalled. In 1624 a statement was given in to the parliament, by which it appeared that 26,500 pieces of fine woollens had been that year manufactured in Holland; whereupon the House of Commons resolved, first, "That the Merchant