is lward I I f. brought about a great extension of the manufacture by inviting over sonic skilful weavers from the Netherlands. English wool was said to be worked up more successfully in the Netherlands than in England ; and Edward thought that by getting over some of the Flemings to this country, he could improve the native manufacture. This seems to have been done ; and the following distribution of the manufacture, consequent on this immigration, shows how widely this branch of industry became spread—Norfolk, fustians; Suffolk, baize; Essex, says and serges ; Kent, broad-cloth ; Devon, kerseys ; Glouces tershire, cloth ; Worcestershire, cloth ; Wales, friezes; Westmoreland, cloth ; Yorkshire, cloth ; Somersetihire, serges ; Hampshire, Berkshire, and Sussex, cloth.
For several reigns subsequent to that of Edward III., the woollen cloths made in England appear to have been chiefly of a coarse quality; the majority of the manufacturers directing their attention chiefly to worsted fabrics; while the finer broad-cloths were imported from Brabant, a proof that the exertions of Edward, though successful as regards the extent of the manufacture, were not so in respect of quality. By the reign of Henry Viii. the exports of English cloths became very large, insomuch that when, through foreign wars, the markets of Spain and the Netherlands were closed to the English, great complaints arose among the manufacturers, who could not sell the cloth which they sent to Blackwell Hall, a kind of Cloth Hall whence London dealers and merchants were supplied. About this time the manufacture in the counties of Somerset, Gloucester, Wilts, and Wor cester was limited to corporate towns; and the most absurd laws were passed to confine it to those favoured spots. During the reign of Elizabeth, owing partly to many of these restrictions being removed, and partly to the immigration into England of many weavers driven from the Netherlands by tire persecutions of the duke of Alva, a con siderable advance was made in the English manufacture. In the following reign the English dyers succeeded in obtaining a law pro hibiting the export of cloth in the white or undyed state, under the expectation that they would be gainers thereby ; but, like many other monopolies, it defeated its own aim; the Dutch and Germans refused to buy English cloth in the dyed state, and thus the exports fell so enormously that dyers as well as manufacturers lost by the impolitic prohibition.
During the time of the Stuarts a narrow policy almost ruined the manufacture. At one time there was an attempt to get all Spanish wool brought to this country, and to no other countries ; at another time the exportation of English wool, of fuller's earth, and other materials of manufacture, was prohibited ; English clothiers refused to receive Flemings among them, from a feeling of jealousy ; the London merchants procured an act prohibiting all foreigners from buying and selling ; and many other measures were passed, either by parliament or by corporations, tending to cripple the free spread of the trade and manufacture. Ireland suffered severely by this mischievous system; for after being compelled to give up the exportation of cattle to Eng land, on account of the complaints of the graziers, she turned attention to the growth of wool ; but this offended the English wool-growers; and if Irish cloths were sent to England, this roused the opposition of the English clothiers ; so that from about 1640 to the end of the century there was one continuous struggle in Ireland to bear up against the selfish policy of England in respect to wool and its manufactures.
Throughout the greater part of the 18th century the manufacture steadily increased in England, especially in those fabrics made of long or combing wool. When the inventions in spinning-machinery gave an extraordinary impetus to the cotton-manufacture, that of woollen became thrown comparatively into the shade ; but the application of improved machinery has since increased the power of the manufac turers; while the great improvements in the quality of German and Australian wools, combined with the maintenance of a liberal policy in commerce and interchange, have given to the woollen and worsted manufactures in England a more healthy tone.
Woollen Manufactures.—It has been before explained that the woollen manufacture relates to such fabrics as require the use of short or felting wool. This wool undergoes a very large number of processes in the course of the manufacture. If we take a piece of superfine broad-cloth as a representative of this manufacture generally, the following are the successive processes by which it is produced :— More than one-half of these, in the most improved forms of pro. ceeding, are effected by machinery.