It is matter of surprise to foreigners that a mari. time nation should not have more effectually culti vated this great means of facilitating the support of our population. The ample supply that might have been afforded by the Nymph Bank, on the south-east coast of Ireland, has been avowedly neglected; and it is but very lately (October 1818) that we made the discovery of a Bank of almost equal prodfictive nes, in the vicinity of Orkney. Fish is little known to the mass of the people in our inland counties. While the value of the butcher-meat annually consumed in England exceeds L.30,000,000 Sterling, the value of our fish caught on our coasts and rivers hardly ex ceeds L.2,000,000. Yet its price, with the econo my and improved arrangements attendant on a state of peace, would not exceed 20s. a cwt., while other animal food costs fully three times that sum. It might easily be conveyed in a corned state by light waggons through the interior of the country. The London Association for the Relief of the Poor made, in 1812, some most encouraging experiments in this respect; having forwarded corned cod, in quan tities of one or two tons, to various manufacturing towns. This cod, on being steeped 48 hours in cold water, was found to eat with potatoes almost like fresh fish. And all this was done on an extensive scale at the almost nameless sacrifice of L.55. A spirited imitation of this example would greatly in crease our exports of fish to Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean ; while at home it Would afford the readiest means of supplying a nutritious food to the lower orders ; a considerable proportion of whom must, from the nature of our poor-laws, perhaps from unavoidable causes, continue for a length of time a burden on the community. To accomplish this ef fectually, the duty on salt ought to be entirely taken off. Fishermen living in hamlets or in detached cot t along the sea-side, can never conform to the rules of of the excise, and will never, without their complete removal, be able to fish at any day and hour that may suit their other avocations. Every great fish-market should have beside it a salting-house for curing the fish remaining unsold at a prescribed hour; these might afterwards be sent into the coun try, or put apart for a winter store.' VII.—Manlfactures.
In this great department of our productive indus try, we begin with woollens, which, although no longer the largest of our manufactures in point of export, nor even in the value annually made, is en titled to the first place from the priority of its estab lishment, as well as from the substantial basis on which it rests. England, from the extent of her pastures, abounded in wool from a very remote age, and the inhabitants were, doubtless, capable of ma nufacturing it into rude clothing ; each weaver work ing in his separate cottage, and with very little aid from machinery. In the twelfth and thirteenth cen turies, we appear to have had only the most humble fabrics, and to have imported all cloth of finer tex ture; sending abroad our wool in quantities to Flan ders, a country whose inhabitants were at that pe riod much farther advanced than the rest of Europe, with the exception of Italy. It was in the middle of
the fourteenth century that a better system was in.
troduced. Flemish manufacturers were invited over to England, and improved greatly the quality of our home made woollens. The seats of this branch of industry appear at that time to have been Kent and Essex ; afterwards Gloucestershire, and subsequent ly the West Riding of Yorkshire. It occupied at first the southern and most improved districts, and spread afterwards to the northward, on account of the cheapness of labour, the abundance of coal, and the convenience of waterfalls for the machinery. The general character of the woollen manufacture of England has been that of slow progress, but of little fluctuation ; the latter evidently a consequence of its depending much more on home consumption than on export. It was extended, not like cotton and hardware, by means of discovery and invention, but by the progressive increase of our population ; ha ving been so considerable in the end of the seven teenth century, that the total value of woollens ma nufactured was computed at eight millions sterling, of which five were for home consumption, and three for export. In the long period from 1700 to 1780, the exports experienced a regular, but not rapid rise; amounting in the latter years (after distinguishing between the real and the customhouse value) to an average of six millions sterling, while our home con sumption increased in proportion to our augmenting numbers. After the peace of 1783, woollens par took of the benefit of several of the mechanical dis coveries and inventions of the cotton manufacture, and continued to extend, notwithstanding the com petition of other countries, as appears by the follow ing table : Export of Woollen Manufactures, not official, but real value.t 1790, (peace) . L.7,300,000 1791, - • • • 7,700,000 1792, • • • • 7,700,000 1793, (war) . . . 5,200,000 1794, . . . . 6,600,000 1795, . . . 7,600,000 1796, . . . 9,000,000 1797, . . . . 7,400,000 1798, . . . 9,700,000 1799, . . . . 10,200,000 Of these extensive expOrts, the largest proportion went to the United States ; our shipments thither in 1770 exceeded L.2,000,000, and, increasing re gularly with the capital and population of America, amounted, in 1799, to L.4,000,000. Holland was also a good customer; and to Portugal and Spain our exports were not inconsiderable. From 1800 to 1807, the woollen manufacture was, on the whole, thriving, and our exports were large and steady; but after 1808, the Orders in Bonaparte's pro hibitory decrees, and our unfortunate disputes with America, caused a great fluctuation and diminution in our exports.
The political agitations of these years were pro. ductive of great distress among the woollen manu facturers, particularly in 1811 and 1812, as was but too amply shown by the mass of evidence collected for the repeal of the Orders in Council in the latter year. This distress would have been still greater, had not the large demands of government for army clothing in some degree supplied the blank.