As Soon As They Entered On It With Spirit, Linen Yarn Was No
Longer Exported To Manchester And Other Parts Of England, But Manufactured
Into Cloth In Ireland, And In That State It Formed The Chief Article Of Its
Commerce.
The woollen manufactures of Ireland, which were always viewed
with jealousy by England, and were checked in every possible manner,
gradually gave way to the restraints laid on them, and to the rising and
unchecked linen manufacture, and of course ceased to enter into the
exports.
The commerce of Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was
kept low, by ignorance and want of industry, by the disturbed state of the
country, by disputes between the king and nobility, and, till the union of
the crowns, by wars with England. The commerce of Ireland had still greater
difficulties to struggle with; among which may be mentioned the ignorant
oppression of the English government in every thing that related to its
manufactures or trade.
The commerce of France, during the sixteenth century, presents few
particulars worthy of notice; that, which was carried on between it and
England, was principally confined to the exportation of wines, fruit, silk
and linen, from France; and woollen goods, and tin and lead, from England.
There seems to have been a great exchange between the woollens of England
and the linens of Bretagne. The French, however, like all the other nations
of Europe at this period, were ignorant of the principles, as well as
destitute of the enterprize and capital essential to steady and lucrative
commerce; and amply deserve the character given of them by Voltaire, that
in the reign of Francis I., though possessed of harbours both on the ocean
and Mediterranean, they were yet without a navy; and though immersed in
luxury, they had only a few coarse manufactures.
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