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BOOK of the Yorkshire cloth, which is made altogether of English wool, is faid indeed, during the course of the prefent century, to have fallen a good deal in proportion to its quality. Quality, however, is so very disputable a matter, that I look upon all information of this kind as somewhat uncertain. In the clothing manufacture, the divifion of labour is nearly the fame now, as it was a century ago, and the machinery employed is not very different. There may, however, have been some small improvements in both, which may have occafioned fome reduction of price.

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BUT the reduction will appear much more fenfible and undeniable, if we compare the price of this manufacture in the present times with what it was in a much remoter period, towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the labour was probably much less fubdivided, and the machinery employed much more imperfect than it is at present.

IN 1487, being the 4th of Henry VIIth, it was enacted, that "whofoever shall fell by retail a broad yard of the finest scarlet σε grained, or of other grained cloth of the fineft making, above "fixteen fhillings, fhall forfeit forty fhillings for every yard fo "fold." Sixteen fhillings, therefore, containing about the fame quantity of filver as four and twenty fhillings of our present money, was, at that time, reckoned not an unreasonable price for a yard of the fineft cloth; and as this is a fumptuary law, fuch cloth, it is probable, had ufually been fold fomewhat dearer. A guinea may be reckoned the highest price in the present times. Even though the quality of the cloths, therefore, fhould be fuppofed equal, and that of the present times is moft probably much fuperior, yet, even upon this fuppofition, the money price of the fineft cloth appears to have been confiderably reduced fince the end of the fifteenth century. But its real price has been

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much more reduced. Six fhillings and eight-pence was then, CHAP. and long afterwards, reckoned the average price of a quarter of wheat. Sixteen fhillings, therefore, was the price of two quarters and more than three bushels of wheat. Valuing a quarter of wheat in the present times at eight and twenty fhillings, the real price of a yard of fine cloth muft, in those times, have been equal to at least three pounds fix fhillings and fixpence of our prefent money. The man who bought it must have parted with the command of a quantity of labour and subfiftence equal to what that fum would purchase in the present times.

THE reduction in the real price of the coarfe manufacture, though confiderable, has not been fo great as in that of the fine."

IN 1463, being the 3d of Edward IVth, it was enacted, that "no fervant in husbandry, nor common labourer, nor fervant. "to any artificer inhabiting out of a city or burgh, shall use "or wear in their cloathing any cloth above two fhillings the "broad yard." In the 3d of Edward the IVth two shillings contained very nearly the fame quantity of filver as four of our prefent money. But the Yorkshire cloth which is now fold at four fhillings the yard, is probably much fuperior to any that was then made for the wearing of the very pooreft order of common fervants. Even the money price of their cloathing, therefore, may, in proportion to the quality, be fomewhat cheaper in the present than it was in those antient times. The real price is certainly a good deal cheaper. Ten pence was then reckoned what is called the moderate and reasonable price of a bushel of wheat. Two fhillings, therefore, was the price of two bushels and near two pecks of wheat, which in the prefent times, at three fhillings and fixpence the bufhel, would be worth eight fhillings and

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nine-pence. For a yard of this cloth the poor fervant must have parted with the power of purchasing a quantity of fubfiftence equal to what eight shillings aud nine-pence would purchase in the prefent times. This is a fumptuary law too, reftraining the luxury and extravagance of the poor. Their cloathing, therefore, had commonly been much more expenfive.

THE fame order of people are, by the fame law, prohibited from wearing hose, of which the price fhould exceed fourteen-pence the pair, equal to about eight and twenty-pence of our prefent money. But fourteen-pence was in those times the price of a bushel and near two pecks of wheat; which, in the present times, at three and fixpence the bushel, would coft five fhillings and three-pence. We should in the present times confider this as a very high price for a pair of stockings to a fervant of the pooreft and lowest order. He muft, however, in thofe times have paid what was really equivalent to this price for them.

IN the time of Edward IVth, the art of knitting ftockings was probably not known in any part of Europe. Their hose were made of common cloth, which may have been one of the causes of their dearnefs. The firft perfon that wore ftockings in England is faid to have been Queen Elizabeth. She received them as a present from the Spanish ambaffador.

BOTH in the coarfe and in the fine woollen manufacture, the machinery employed was much more imperfect in those antient, than it is in the prefent times. It has fince received three very capital improvements, befides, probably, many smaller ones of which it may be difficult to ascertain either the number or the importance. The three capital improvements are; firft, The exchange of the rock and fpindle for the spinning wheel, which,

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with the fame quantity of labour, will perform more than double the CHAP. quantity of work. Secondly, the use of several very ingenious machines which facilitate and abridge in a ftill greater proportion the winding of the worsted and woollen yarn, or the proper arrangement of the warp and woof before they are put into the loom; an operation which, previous to the invention of those machines, must have been extremely tedious and troublesome. Thirdly, The employment of the fulling mill for thickening the cloth, instead of treading it in water. Neither wind nor water mills of any kind were known in England fo early as the beginning of the fixteenth century, nor, so far as I know, in any other part of Europe north of the Alps. They had been introduced into Italy fome time before.

THE Confideration of these circumftances may, perhaps, in fome measure explain to us why the real price both of the coarse and of the fine manufacture, was fo much higher in those antient, than it is in the present times. It coft a greater quantity of labour to bring the goods to market. When they were brought thither, therefore, they must have purchased or exchanged for the price of a greater quantity.

THE Coarfe manufacture probably was, in those antient times, carried on in England, in the fame manner as it always has been in countries where arts and manufactures are in their infancy. It was probably a household manufacture, in which every different part of the work was occafionally performed by all the different members of almost every private family; but fo as to be their work only when they had nothing else to do, and not to be the principal business from which any of them derived the greater part of their fubfiftence. The work which is performed in this manner, it has already been obferved, comes always much cheaper

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to market than that which is the principal or fole fund of the workman's fubfiftence. The fine manufacture, on the other hand, was not in thofe times carried on in England, but in the rich and commercial country of Flanders; and it was probably conducted then, in the fame manner as now, by people who derived the whole, or the principal part of their fubfiftence from it. It was befides a foreign manufacture, and must have paid fome duty, the antient custom of tonnage and poundage at least, to the king. This duty, indeed, would not probably be very great. It was not then the policy of Europe to reftrain, by high duties, the importation of foreign manufactures, but rather to encourage it, in order that merchants might be enabled to supply, at as easy a rate as poffible, the great men with the conveniencies and luxuries which they wanted, and which the industry of their own country could not afford them.

THE confideration of these circumftances may, perhaps in fome measure explain to us why, in those antient times, the real price of the coarse manufacture was, in proportion to that of the fine, fo much lower than in the prefent times.

CONCLUSION of the CHAPTER.

I SHALL conclude this very long chapter with obferving that every improvement in the circumftances of the fociety tends either directly or indirectly to raise the real rent of land, to increase the real wealth of the landlord, his power of purchasing the labour, or the produce of the labour of other people.

THE extenfion of improvement and cultivation tends to raise it directly. The landlord's fhare of the produce neceffarily increases with the increasfe of the produce.

THAT