THE GROWTH OF ENGLISH INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE.* IN this volume,

which is the first instalment of the second edition of his treatise of the same title, published eight years ago, Dr. Cunningham has given us a mostuseful and interesting work on the economic history of England. So great an advance has been made during the interval in this branch of study and research, and in the accumulation of facts and of information, that this part of the work, which extends over the Eatly and Middle Ages, is more than double the size of the corresponding section of the first edition. It is only necessary to call to mind the labours of such writers as Mr. Seebohm, Rev. W. Denton, M. Jusserand, Dr. Gross, and Rev. Dr. Jessopp, or to mention the monumental work of the late Professor Thorold Rogers, which is, alas ! left unfinished, to recognise how keen is the interest taken in this department of history. The present volume is a welcome addition to the literature of the subject. Dr. Cunningham tells us that his endeavour has been so to write that he may be readily followed by readers without any special knowledge of English history or of economic science, whilst the notes will be found of more importance to students at Cambridge and elsewhere. He has been careful to make known the sources of the information from which his own conclusions have been formed, and freely expresses his in- debtedness to other workers in the same field of investigation.

In a valuable introductory essay, Dr. Cunningham points out very forcibly the amazing contrasts between past and present times, both in the industrial and external aspects of society. In early and Norman days, there were no manu- factures, hardly any towns, and a fitful and insignificant commerce. Capital, considered as a store of wealth capable of remunerative employment, did not exist ; whilst the labouring population was not free to move on the land, and later on were surrounded and dominated by Gild regula-

• The Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages. By W. Cunningham, D.D. Cambridge: at the University Press. 1890.

tions. The method of regarding land was quite different from ours, and the income derived from it, in tolls and pay- ments, in place of rents, entirely altered the social structure from that of later times. Hence arise the danger and futility

of attempting to interpret the changes of the past by ascribing them to factors which, potent to-day, then had no existence. That one form of industrial organism has been evolved from and succeeded another because it had more vitality, and was better adapted to the needs of the time, may be readily granted. But the cause of such a change, gradual as it has

always been, is not easy to grasp even when dealing with economic changes of recent date, and infinitely more difficult in considering those of the past, which admit of no cross- examination. It cannot, farther, be too strongly urged that for a right and vivid conception of the past, we must put ourselves in sympathy with the spirit of the age. We must—and this Dr. Cunningham constantly enforces in the body of his work—look at things from a con- temporary standpoint. To condemn mediaaval institutions because they are unsuited to our period, argues the want of historical perception. Men did certain things because they seemed wise and desirable, not because they were endeavouring to be foolish or fantastical. That survivals into our own time should seem gross anachronisms, shows, at any rate, that at the time of their inception they were endowed with real vigour> and fulfilled an actual need, whilst they mark forcibly the difference between the present and the past. Hence the importance of studying the prevalent or growing ideas as well as the events of any particular period. An idea may be a most potent factor in determining the course of events. Witness the idea which started the Crusades. It is probable that it was the idea that "trade follows the flag," which is not entirely unknown, possibly as a survival, some would have us believe as an anachronism, in our own day, and not personal ambition that urged Edward III. into his wars with France. The usury laws, again, unreasonable as they appear to modern ideas, may be defended from a medimval standpoint.

But the changes in the moral and intellectual life of a nation are less clearly marked than those in its political life, and with this side of history, economical history is inseparably con- nected. We are reminded by Dr. Cunningham that " Economic History is not so much the study of a special class of facts, as the study of all the facts of a nation's history from a special point of view." Combating the opinions of some eminent writers in the present day, he refuses to admit that industrial progress is of higher import than political affairs :—

"Economic affairs have indeed modified the course of political events ; time after time industrial changes reacted on political - life and contributed to great constitutional changes,—when the men of London joined in the demand for Magna Carta, when financial changes rendered Charles I. more dependent on Parlia- ment than his predecessors had been, or when the industrial revo- lution and factory system produced a state of affairs in which the First Reform Bill was inevitable. Economic conditions are a factor in such changes ; they set before us the special causes of discontent with an existing regime, but they never directly deter- mine the nature of the changes that are eventually carried through. Our national polity is not the direct outcome of our economic conditions ; whereas time after time, our industrial life has been directly and permanently affected by political affairs. and politics are more important than economics in English History. Industrial changes have been necessarily correlated with changes in the social and political systems ; and the framework of society at each period did much to determine the character of the in- dustrial habits and institutions."

In accordance with these views, Dr. Cunningham has divided this volume into five books, each corresponding with a political period, and has systematically applied the same method of treatment to each. The key-note of the whole volume may be found in the full and frank recognition of the fact that "the

economic institutions and ideas of each age are relative to their political and social environment." In unison with this conviction, each book commences with a short sketch of the social and political conditions prevailing during the period under notice, traces the current course of industry and com: merce, and concludes by reviewing" the contemporary changes in economic opinion and literature." This is an excellent

plan, and it has been admirably carried out.

The first book comprises early times up to the Conquest.

After describing the condition of our English forefathers in Frisia, Dr. Cunningham makes a brief survey of Britain as they found it on their arrival, and of the effects of the Roman occupation and subsequent withdrawal. It was by a succes- sion of advances, no't by sweeping victories, that the Roman civilisation was destroyed, disintegrated, and swept away as though it had never been, and Dr. Cunningham does not admit that "English habits were derived from the Romans, or that our civilisation is other than a native growth." In bold opposition to some of the best authorities, be maintains this opinion by a closely reasoned argument, which may be read with interest, although there is necessarily much that is hypothetical on both sides. During this period the only industry was agriculture, and until the conquest by the Danes, who were a far more vigorous and enterprising race than the English, commerce had been almost confined to slave. dealing. But after that era, we find a great extension of trade, and traces of the beginnings of towns. The questions of the appropriation of land and of the obligations incident to the tenure of property are ably treated. We have a detailed account of a typical manor, and of the method of its cultiva- tion on the open-field system, that "territorial shell" into the convolutions of which the English village community was found so exactly fitted at the time of the Confessor, and of which a living specimen was still among us ten years ago, whilst its marks and remains are to be met with in many districts.

Under the book treating of Feudal times, we find chapters on "Royal Revenues" and "Royal Inquisitions," which naturally lead to a discussion of Domesday-Book, with the manor as a fiscal unit, and of the Hundred Rolls, and by comparing these two we are able to estimate the advance which took place during two centuries. This advance was rapid ; population increased, towns were built, internal trade began to flourish. But the most important results of the Norman Conquest, from a social and economical standpoint, lay in the new intercourse which was established with the Continent and with all that was best in Christendom, from which England had been hitherto almost completely cut off. The Crusades, whilst giving a new outlet to adventure, also opened new routes for trade. Dr. Cunningham's pages under the heads of" Foreign Intercourse," "Royal Charters and the Growth of Towns," and "Royal, Municipal, and Manorial Economy," are excellent, andy taken together, give a lucid and acceptable picture of the social life of the time. Many artisan settlers arrived in the country, and Dr. Cunningham suggests that their associations under Royal protection may have been the first beginnings of Craft Gilds in England. The chief characteristic of Feudalism, which was no foreign importation, was that all social relation- ships were contracts, under which every man took a definite status, and into which he was born. To life and property in- creased protection were given, but within its rigid limits, no man being free to seek a new career, no advance was possible. Hence it was "necessarily only a passing stage of national progress." But while it lasted, the King's personal character exercised extraordinary influence, and formed the key-stone of the social fabric. Dr. Cunningham urges this most strongly :—

" Of all the cant which is current in the present day about history, none is more pernicious than that which despises the story of real personages and real events, and busies itself about abstractions, which tells us that it is not concerned with Kings and battles, but with the life of the people. It is true, indeed, that in modern times the life of the people can be treated apart from the consideration of the personal character of George IV. or William IV. But in the Norman reigns this was not the case ; security for person and property, intercourse with other nations, and commercial advance were directly connected with the personal chara2ter of the King ; the life of the people was most deeply affected in every way by the strength or weakness of his disposi- tion. It would be interesting to try and explain the reasons of this change, and to show why the personality of the King, which was so all-important long ago, is of comparatively little moment now ; but it is merely idle to ignore the fact, or to try to under- stand the history of the Norman reigns without taking it into account."

During the third period, England under the Edwards, we see Feudalism decaying, and a new departure taken. National representation went hand-in-band with attempts to deal with industry and control trade in the interests of the subject. The regulation of industry and commerce was recognised "as a public matter, which concerned the whole State, not as the particular affair of the leading men in, each separate locality." By the centralisation of authority, the freedom of the in- dividual citizen became wider ; the power of the Church was curtailed, and the collection of Customs organised. Great general progress was made, and the zenith of medival prosperity was reached about the year 1300. Edward III., the "father of English commerce," did his utmost to extend the wool trade, and to establish weaving in this country, a manufacture for which England was specially suited. His foreign policy, Dr. Cunningham argues, was largely influenced by his commercial ideas and aims. It was maintained by the Commons, although groaning under the taxation it involved. The economic effects of the Black Death, "that great watershed in economic history," as Mr.

Seebohm calls it, are fully discussed, and a noteworthy effort is made to regard the Statute of Labourers from a contem- porary standpoint ; and this applies also to a very interesting chapter on the economic doctrine of the period.

The fifteenth century opened in gloom and discontent.

Under the Yorkist and Lancastrian Kings, we see mediaeval society breaking up, and the transition to modern society, both in town and country, beginning. The manorial system dis- appeared; with the decline of tillage and the paucity of labour, roads and bridges were utterly neglected, the corporate towns decayed, and fairs suffered. The drain in men and money for the French wars was enormous, and "the hostilities gave opportunity for the pillage which was the curse of commerce, and rendered the sea-coasts insecure." What Dr. Cunningham says on the commercial relationships and the industry and internal trade of this period, and the forcible contrast he draws between media3val and modern ideas, will be found full of interest.

It is the fashion nowadays to speak of the fifteenth century as "the golden age of the English labourer," and much has been written extolling his happy lot at this time. But there is

another side to the picture. That the labourer's daily wage was high, means little unless we know on how many days he was allowed to earn wages, or could get work, and what was the quality of the goods he could purchase with his earnings.

It was a time of "plague, pestilence, and famine," twenty-two visitations of the plague being recorded during the century ; whilst "battle, murder, and sudden death" accompanied the progress of the Civil War. The perusal of Mr. Denton's work on the fifteenth century leaves the general impression that England was a country where the sun never shone, where

no bird sang, and over which the twilight of a thick horror rested. Dr. Cunningham avoids an extreme view on either

side. Writing of the spread of weaving at this time, he says :—

"The development of this trade is the one bright feature in the economic history of the fifteenth century. The most contradictory opinions have been expressed as to the character of this period. On the one hand it is spoken of as marked by unbroken prosperity, on the other hand as one of unrelieved disaster, poverty, and misery. That this last statement is exaggerated we may see for ourselves when we look at the vast number of churches which were built or enlarged during the period of Perpendicular Archi- tecture. In many parts of England, but especially in the eastern counties, the parish churches were reconstructed on a larger scale, if on less beautiful lines ; such building operations would have been impossible if the country had been falling into utter poverty. On the other hand, the decay of tillage and lack of rural employment during this century, rest on unim- peachable evidence, and many of the towns were impoverished too_ The frequent complaints which led to exemption from taxation, the preambles of the Yorkist statutes, as well as the narrative of the gild difficulties, show that there was much suffering in towns in all parts of the country. But while tillage was decaying, and some towns were becoming impoverished, the wealth of the clothiers was increasing ; the rates of payment they offered would suffice to keep up the rates of wages for agriculture, and to render tillage a matter of increased difficulty ; boys and girls who had opportunities of learning some branch of the textile trade were authoritatively forced to labour in the fields. We may thus find in the growth of the clothing trade, a solution of the apparent contradictions spoken of above. For many of the population the fifteenth century was a time of abundance, not because agricul- ture was flourishing, but because they were taking up domestic manufactures ; by way of contrast, we may note that the close of last century was a time of great misery—not merely because agriculture was in difficulties, but because the domestic industries were giving place to the factory system."

The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese, and the subsequent discoveries in the West, were events which affected all Christendom, and in the end completely changed the character of commercial activity. The ancient policy of England was no longer guided, as Bacon expresses it, by "consideration of plenty," but rather by "consideration of power," and power was seen to depend on "the accumulation of treasure, the development of shipping, and the maintenance of an effective population." This was the threefold object of the Tudor Kings. Want of space allows us only to add that Dr. Cunningham's treatment of this period, in his fifth book, provides some of his most readable chapters. It is not to be supposed that in a volume of this kind there are not some pages of dry reading, whilst some repetition is to be found. But the style of the work is admirable and vigorous, and the author's treatment of his subject and handling of facts are masterly, whilst he succeeds in preserving a judicial spirit throughout. A debt of gratitude is due to Dr. Cunningham for this compendious History.