Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/322

After Limerick Protestants from the North naturally threw the industry of the country more into Catholic hands. Both Protestants and Catholics were in fact injured by English commercial policy, and this policy left in Ireland marks which the lapse of well over a century have not effaced.

During the whole of this period Ireland was exceedingly poor, and this poverty was put down by contemporaries to two causes; first of all to the commercial restrictions which have just been mentioned; secondly, to the financial abuses which existed in the country. If we add to these the action of the Penal Laws, which discouraged all thrift and industry and brought the people into violent antagonism to the law, we have the chief causes which made the Ireland of the eighteenth century what she was.

From the beginning of the century the revenue of Ireland fell and remained very low for a considerable time. This was due to a decrease in the yield from customs and excise, the result, of course, of England's commercial legislation. In consequence, the Irish Government was in continual financial difficulties. On certain occasions the Government was nearly bankrupt, and from 1715 the national debt began to be an important feature in the national finances. It is true that according to our modern ideas this debt was very 310