Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/80

451] account of the ease of transporting live-stock to market. The consumption of flesh, butter and cheese by the lower classes of the population was proportionally greater than in the present century. Owing to this fact it was only profitable to raise corn in proximity to the London market, where it found a ready sale. The counties lying nearest to the great capital were in a much more advanced state of industrial development on this account than the rest of the country. Only one-fifth of the country was in a state of tillage, and even from this small portion of tilled land a disproportionately large quantity of inferior and coarse varieties of grain was raised. Cattle-raising was everywhere else the most profitable occupation on account of the greater facility of transporting live-stock to market. A great quantity of flesh, butter and cheese was consumed by the lower classes.

The woolen industry was still the sole department in which English manufactures had any significance. Every year two million pounds of wool were sheared. In a manufactured state this was worth eight millions sterling. Of this six millions were used in England; the rest was exported. Even here England felt severely the effect of foreign competition. Especially Holland, Petty tells us, had by improved methods and better workmanship become England's rival in supplying the Continent with woolens.

The second source of national wealth, next to the woolen industry, was from the shipping trade. Here, again, despite England's favorable position, she was in constant competition with the Dutch. The Navigation Act, passed by the Commonwealth in 1651, with its subsequent alterations, all in more rigorous