He says nothing of the kind shall occur in Hants., and he hopes that Berks. and Wilts. will be equally well managed[98]. In Kent Sir Henry Guildford obtained a promise that no men should be sent away before harvest[99]. Both Norfolk and Guildford state however that the clothiers cannot hold out much longer, and they ask Wolsey to remedy this by persuading the merchants to buy the unsold cloths in the clothiers' hands[100]. When the king's Council heard of the difficulty, we are told that the Cardinal sent for a great number of merchants, and thus addressed them. "Sirs, the King is informed that you use not yourselves like merchants, but like graziers and artificers; for when the clothiers do daily bring cloths to your market for your ease, to their great cost, and there be ready to sell them, you of your wilfulness will not buy them, as you have been accustomed to do. What manner of men be you?" said the Cardinal, "I tell you, that the King straitly commandeth you to buy their cloths, as before time you have been accustomed to do, upon pain of his high displeasure[101]." The Cardinal further threatened to throw open the cloth trade to foreigners if the English merchants refused to buy as usual. [97] J. S. Brewer's _Reign of Hen. VIII._, II. p. 261. [98] _Letters and Papers of Hen. VIII._, 13 March, 1528, IV. No. 4058. [99] Do. No. 4276; 17 May, 1528. [100] Do. No. 4239; 4 May, 1528. [101] Hall, p. 745, quoted in _Reign of Hen. VIII._, Brewer, II. p. 261. This remedy might be a clumsy one but it was not ineffectual. The cloth trade, in this instance, was restored to its usual course by the conclusion of a truce between England and the Netherlands. The time during which the contraction of the market occurred was short, and the clothiers could and did lessen the evils of this temporary fluctuation in their trade by continuing to find work and purchase cloths, as in more prosperous times, even though it was to their private disadvantage. A course of this kind was dangerous if the trade was permanently affected, but possible and useful under the actual circumstances, and probably saved the country from serious disturbance. The incident illustrates the fact that the difficulty of the relief of the poor was increased by the growth of manufactures on a large scale, because employment was more unstable, and because all the members of a family and most of the inhabitants of a neighbourhood were often out of work at the same time. Under these circumstances the distress of the poor was immediately followed by riots[102], and the action of Wolsey and the Council was occasioned, not only by the sufferings of the poor, but also by danger to the public peace. [102] _Letters and Papers of Hen. VIII._, Nos. 4043, 4058. [Sidenote: 2. Regulations for the supply of the markets with corn, 1527-8.]