The wools of England have always been in the highest repute, and that more abroad than at home. Their fineness and abundance have been ascribed by many to the sweet short grass on most of our downs and pastures, and to the sheep having the privilege of feeding, all the year round, without being shut in folds; but it cannot be denied, that, though food and climate may have much concern in the matter, the energetic industry and persevering attention with which an Englishman devotes himself to the attainment of an object, have tended more than any other circumstance to the advancement of our wools, and woollen manufactures, and to the consequent prosperity of our island. The reason of the existence of so many laws relating to wool is, that it continued for ages to be the principal commodity, meeting all demands for the support of armies, and payment of public revenues, and affording aids to the crown, which were in general granted therein. The scarcity of money in England before the discovery of America, rendered it necessary to levy taxes frequently in kind, and as wool was abundant, it often figured as the representative of a more portable currency. Part of the £300,000 demanded by the Emperor of Germany as the ransom of Richard I., was raised by a loan of wool. Edward I., the great reformer of our laws, imposed a duty of 6s. 8d. on every sack of wool exported, and the like sum on every 300 wool-fells; but soon after, when his necessities demanded a larger income, he laid those additional duties on foreign merchants, which afterwards became the tonnage and poundage, so famous in England's history. Among these additions, the former taxes on wool and fells were increased by forty pence, while at the same time, like other monarchs of the period, he occasionally received subsidies of wool. In the same way Edward III., in attempting, during the twelfth year of his reign, to wrest the crown of France from the house of Valois, procured a grant of half the wool in England, amounting to 20,000 packs, which, taking it as valued by some authors at £40 a pack, must have realized the sum of £800,000. (42.) _Weavers brought from Flanders._--Commerce and industry were at a very low ebb during the time of Edward III., the principal export being wool, which only brought into the kingdom about £450,000. Edward promoted the woollen manufacture by bringing, in 1331, John Kemp, with seventy Walloon families, weavers, from Flanders, and, owing to the want of native skill in this department, gave every encouragement to foreign weavers. (11 Edward III. cap. 5.)[6] A further encouragement was given to the home manufacture, by the enactment of a law (11 Edward III. cap. 2) which prohibited every one from wearing any cloth not of English fabric. Parliament, however, in an evil hour, thwarted these benefits, by prohibiting the exportation of woollen goods, certainly an injurious step, so long as wool was allowed to be shipped from our ports.