In The Middle Of This Century, Irish Linen Yarn Was Used In
Considerable Quantities In The Manchester Manufactures, As We Have Already
Noticed.
The importation into England of fat cattle from Ireland seems to
have been considerable, and to have been regarded as so prejudicial to the
pasture farmers of the former country, that in 1666 a law was passed laying
a heavy duty on their importation.
This statute proving ineffectual,
another was passed in 1663, enacting the forfeiture of all great cattle,
sheep, swine, and also beef, pork, or bacon, imported from Ireland. Sir W.
Petty remarks, that before this law was passed, three-fourths of the trade
of Ireland was with England, but not one-fourth of it since that time. Sir
Jonah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, describes the state of Ireland as
having been much improved by the soldiers of the Commonwealth settling
there; through their own industry, and that which they infused into the
natives, he adds, that Ireland was able to supply foreign markets, as well
as our plantations in America, with beef, pork, hides, tallow, bread, beer,
wood, and corn, at a cheaper rate than England could afford to do. Though
this country, as we have seen, exported linen goods at a very early period,
yet this manufacture cannot be regarded as the staple one of Ireland, or as
having contributed very much to her foreign commerce, till it flourished
among the Scotch colonists in Ulster towards the middle of the seventeenth
century.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 648 of 1007
Words from 177173 to 177423
of 273188
