Sir W.
Petty remarks, that before this law was passed, three-fourths of the trade
of Ireland was with England, but not one-fourth of it since that time. Sir
Jonah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, describes the state of Ireland as
having been much improved by the soldiers of the Commonwealth settling
there; through their own industry, and that which they infused into the
natives, he adds, that Ireland was able to supply foreign markets, as well
as our plantations in America, with beef, pork, hides, tallow, bread, beer,
wood, and corn, at a cheaper rate than England could afford to do. Though
this country, as we have seen, exported linen goods at a very early period,
yet this manufacture cannot be regarded as the staple one of Ireland, or as
having contributed very much to her foreign commerce, till it flourished
among the Scotch colonists in Ulster towards the middle of the seventeenth
century. 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.
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