Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/321

After Limerick working up of them at home. Finally, the Navigation Laws, shut Ireland off from direct trade with the English Plantations. These laws checked the growth of Irish shipping and placed the Irish carrying trade in the hands of British traders. Always only English wealth was considered; that of Ireland was a matter of indifference to English statesmen as long as they were able to get sufficient contributions from her people towards the expenses of England's wars. England only wanted raw material from Ireland, and, with the single exception of some kinds of linen, discouraged the importation of all Irish manufactures, while taking care that the Irish markets should be open to all British goods.

This restrictive policy of England in regard to Irish trade and industry fell in the first instance more heavily upon the Irish Protestants than upon the Catholics. In the years directly succeeding the revolution the greater part of the trade of the country was in the hands of the Protestants, for the Catholics were too poverty-stricken and miserable to be capable of much industrial enterprise. But later on things changed. Many of the more well-to-do Catholics took to trade, debarred as they were by the Penal Laws from making any profit out of land, while the rapid and continuous emigration of the 309