Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/315

After Limerick by the cheapness of living and labour, and had set up improved woollen manufactures. So, not only the coarser Irish stuffs were made, but all sorts of cloth. The industry spread greatly among the Irish Protestants, and to a smaller extent among the Catholics. In 1698 the woollen manufacture gave work to 12,000 Protestant families in Dublin, and 30,000 over the rest of the country, while we know from petitions presented to the Irish Parliament that the Catholics had one third of the industry in their hands. Altogether Ireland for the first time possessed a fairly flourishing industry. A foreign trade in woollen goods was establishing itself; there was no earthly reason why Ireland like England before her, should not grow rich by means of this industry. Time would give the necessary skill and capital for extending it on a large scale. Irish wool was capable of any increase, and was at this time equal to the best Leicestershire or Northamptonshire wool. But just at this point in the development of the industry, the jealous fears of English traders began to be aroused. Petitions were sent up from various woollen manufacturers to the English Parliament stating that their trade would be ruined unless the woollen industry in Ireland were suppressed, and expressing a fear that it would soon be impos- 303