Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/425

 39o ' THE HIST OR Y Book I harbours firft ufed by the Romans, they had all of them cities firft railed by the Romans upon them, .and under the Romans they muft all have become conliderable ports for commerce * 9. And the. articles introduced into the ifland at thefe ports were the many particulars which J have previoufly mentioned to have been introduced into Britain by the Romans., and fugar, pepper, ginger, writing-paper, and other fimilar articles perhaps, befides them. The laccharum or fugar of the Romans, like our own, was .the .extracted honey of a cane, was brought From Arabia pr from India, and was ufed only for medicinal purpofes *°. And all thefe fpices appear plainly from their Roman- Brit ifh appellations •to have been aftually .imported among us by the Romans. And the articles exported from the ifland muft have been partly the iame as before, and partly the additional particulars of gagates .or jet, the Britifh jet being the beft and the moft copious in Europe 31, bears for the foreign amphitheaters, baflcets, fait, r corn, and oyfters Such was the foreign commerce of the ifland in general during .the refidence of the Romans among us. And ' fuch muft have been in part or in whole the foreign commerce of our own port in particular. This was not merely the port of a fingle coun- ty. It was the only commercial harbour along the whole line of the weftern coaft, and had no rival from the Cluyd to thfe LandVEnd. And the exports of the neighbouring region, the lead of Derbyshire and the fait of Cheshire, the corn the cattle and the hides of the whole, muft have been all ihipped at the port of die Ribble. The Britifh dogs in general were a very gainful article of traffic to the Romans * And as all the interi- or countries of Britain, then firft turned up by the plough, muft have produced the moft luxuriant harvefts at firft, fo the whole ifland freighted no lefs then eight hundred veflels with corn every year for the continent J "Thus was a foreign commerce firft introduced in o Lancashire, where it now flourishes in fo vigorous a ftate, and where it has ,now branched out to fo large an extent. And thus was the firft fcenc