Table Of ContentTHE ECONOMIC HISTORY
OF ENGLAND
BT E. ZiPSOy
THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Yol I. The^VIiddle Ages. ,-Jitwn
VoLS. II & III The Age of Mercwtilism. Fourth edition
THE HISTORY OF THE
WOOLLEN AND WORSTED INDUSTRIES
EUROPE IN THE XIXth CENTURY*
1815-19X4
Senjenth edition
EUROPE, 1914-1939^
Thirdedition
A PLANNED ECONOMY
OR FREE ENTERPRISE
THE LESSONS*?^^HISTORY
Secondedition
*Thesetwoalsomonevolume,Europeinthe
NirneteenthandTwenhethCenturtes
ADAM CHARLES BLACK: LONDON
The UnitedStates
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, NEW YORE
AustraliaandNe*ivZealand
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, MELBOURNE
Canada
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THI; ECONOMIC HISTORY
OF ENGLAND
BY
LIPSON
E.
VOLUME
II
THE AGE OF MERCANTILISM
Fourth edition
petra ndvra
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE LONDON W.i
1947
FIRST EDITION 193I SECOND FDIFION 1934
THIRD EDITION, ENL.VRGED, 1943
FOURTH EDITION 1947
MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN
PRINTED BY R. & R. CLARK LTD EDINBURGH
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
The new features of this revised and enlarged edition com-
prise an Introduction of a hundred and fiftj^ pa^s and
Appendicesofnearlyahundredpages,togetherwithnumerous
changes in the Text and Notes. ^
. The Introduction is designed to provide a synthesis and
ah interpretation of the various aspects of England’s eco-
nomic development from the close of the Middle Ages to
the ' Industrial Revolution At the present day the need
for a Planned Economy has become the subject of much
discussion. It is therefore of more than academic interest
to turn back to the notable period in English History when
there was a sustained effort to make the conception of an
‘ ordered commonwealth ’ a concrete reality and when the
;
principles of a regulated industry, agriculture and trade,
were very far from being abstractions and embodied a
national policy explicitly enunciated and consciously pur-
sued. In the Introduction, as one of its themes, I have
sought to set England’s first Planned Economy in a clear
historical light, and to elucidate the forces which replaced
the ti;aditional economic structure by a regime of Free
Enterprise. Another theme is the revision of conventional
views onthe olderEnglish societyonthebasis ofthematerial
contained in these volumes. I may add that the Introduc-
tion is an expansion of the Lowell Lectures which I had the
privilege of delivering at Boston m the United States. A
few paragraphs are reprinted from an Article on England
in the Age of Mercantilism ” contributed to the Journal of
Economic and Business History (August 1932), which pre-
sents abrief summary of some of my main conclj;isions.
Except in special cases there are in the Introduction no
ECONOMIC HISTORY
yi
cross-references to the Text, since almost every sentence
would Inquire one, but references are indicated where thev
are needed to supplement those embodied in the Text.
The two Appendices furnish additional information
drawn from original sources In them I have taken account
of the work done in recent studies on specialized topics.
The cross-references given in these two volumes to the
fjfst volume, on " The Middle Ages ” have been revised to
bring theni into conformity with the altered pagination of
the enlarged (seventh or subsequent) edition of Volume I.
I have also added a supplementary list of Authorities. For
the frontispiece, a seventeenth-century illustration of t/e
processes of tlie woollen industry, I am indebted to the late
Sir Charles Firth.
The modem historian, in these days when the devoted
labours of scholars are constanfly unearthing new material
or re-interpreting the oldmaterial in afresh light, canhardly
entertain the belief that his work will be “ an everlasting
possession”. He must rest content with the hope tfiat it
may survive, monumentum acre perennius, in the writings of
those who build upon his foundations. Notwithstanding,
“ ifhewho desirestohavebeforehis eyes-afaithfulpicture ”
—
of the evolution—of EngUsh society the fruits of half a life-
time's research " shall pronounce what I have written to
be useful, then [I quote the words of Thucydides] I shall be
satisfied
E. LIPSON
April 1943
INTRODUCTION
The motif of this work is contained in the followpgpassage. Continuity
In the interpretation of the past we must noj: isolate the
different phases of economic growth into water-tight com-
partments. There is no hiatus in economic development,
but always a constant tide of progress and change in which
the old is blended almost imperceptibly with the new
Historians have sometimes shown a tendency to stress only
the points of dissimilaritybetween the ' stages ' ofevolution,
and to leave in the shade the fundamental resemblances
which often lie beneath the surface. Perhaps the most
pregnant conclusion, which emerges from the study of
Ecor||)mic History, is that we must conceive of the economic
system as a living organism which throughout the ages has
functionedand developedbytheprocessof unceasingchange
and adaptation to circumstances. Each generation is the
heir of the past, and in turn bequeathes the setting wherein
its successor may work out its own specific contribution to
human progress. Certainly the main impression conveyed
by the material presented in these two voluipes is a sense
of the continuity of economic development survey ofthe
older English society reveals that the so-caUed ' Industrial
Revolution ' constituted no sudden breach with the existing
order. Mercantilist England had already evolved many of
the capitalist traits associated with Modern England while
;
the beginnings of the free trade movement and the relaxa-
tion of the traditional restraints on freedom of enterprise
were due to the growing influence exerted by the capitalist
classes upon the commercial and industrial policy of the
State, ratherthanto the theoretical considerations advanced
by Adam Smith.
^ Infra, vol. iii. 53.
ECONOMIC HISTORY
11
Synopsis, It^is the purpose ofthis Introduction to review the salient
fcatures^of the economic structure of society, the trend of
economic statesma-Tshir and the phases ofeconomic thought
. —
durii?g the Age of Mercantilism an epoch which covers the
two himdred and fifty years that he between the middle of
the sixteenth and the close of the eighteenth centur3a
(I)
Factorstn Two facjors have contributed to the making of English
society. ^ One is the factor of co-operation ; the other is the
factor of individualism. The Englishmanis generallylooked
upon as an individualist par excellence, accustomed to plough
alonely furrow inthe conduct of his economic affairs and it
;
may therefore seem strange to picture him as a member of
a disciplined community acting in the closest relations with
his fellows. In the England of the nineteenth century the
tide of individualism attained its high-water mark in the
:
England of the present daythe tide is fast receding. Many
branches of the national economy are beginning to a^ume
a corporate aspect ; individualism is not extinguished but
it is being merged in association. A new England is thus
in the process of formation, yet it can be considered new
only if we compare it with the England of the ‘ Industrial
Revolution ’ and the nineteenth century. In reality, it is
an England which is returning to the spirit of an older
regime based on co-operation, where the individual was sub-
ordinated to the village or gild community and all his
pursuits were regulated in collaboration with his peers.
TheAge of ^he Age of Mercantilism was one of transition : it was
battleground in which was fought out the conflict
between two rival conceptions of the social order.*' In the
Middle Ages the individual lived an ordered economic life
as the member of a highly-organized profession in the
:
nineteenth century, when the competitive instinct proved
too strong for the restrainifig hand of the legislature, he
was liberated from the shackles of authority. Mercantilist
England stood at the parting of the ways. A new fabric
was slowly being fashioned out of thg ruins of the old, but
:
INTRODUCTION
ii*i
the transition from 'the mediaeval to the modern worRl was
still incomplete. Let us recall to mind the tradition^J frame-
work of English society, and then we may examine the
influences which were responsible for its disintegration.
The village community of the Middle Ages constituted Thefactm
an agrarian partnership. The occupiers of the soil
m fpeZuon
shareholders an agricultural concern, and their ' shares '
consisted of scattered strips of arable land together with
rights of usage over the waste and meadow »^When tb^e
seventeenth century began its turbulent course, individual-
ism had made great inroads upon the communal system
;
and in many localities the partnership had been dissolved.
Nevertheless a considerable part of the realm was covered
with open fields, where no man was ' truly master of his
own ' and the control w^as vested in an association of share-
holders the course of husbandry, the rotation of crops, the
:
seasons of ploughing, were settled by common agreement
the whole rhythm of village hfe was determined by joint
decisions. England in the Age of Mercantilism was pre-
dominantly a nation of agriculturalists and until the
;
enclolure movement was accelerated under the Hanoverians
theseagriculturalistsinalargemeasureformedaco-operative
commonwealth, in which a detailed code of by-laws was laid
down for their guidance by the village courts. After the
development of to—wn life in this country, it was natural that
theruralelements whousuallycomprisedthenucleusofthe
embryonic municipal bodies in the capacity of artisans and
—
traders should enter into the same relationship with each
other hs they and their forebears had been accustomed to
in an agrarian environment. The instinct of the mediaeval
Englishman was to act in concert with his fellows in his
undertakings, and its strength was fortified by the con-
ditions under which the early towns grew up Exclusive
franchises were conferred upon the boroughs, and for its
grant of concessions the Crown exacted a price : it was
therefore inevitable that the townsmen should seek to con-
fine participation m their privileged position to those who
were willing to bear their share of the fiscal burdens. The
coroorate functions of the urban community found a "Vehicle
