JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY Majesty that your Majesty would bi:! :pleased. in the most puibUcik an:d effectual way, that may lbe, to declare to all your subjects of Ireland, that the growtp and increase of the cwoollen manufacture tnere, bath long, .and will ever be looked upon with great }ealousie,_ by all your subjects of thiS' kingdom: And if not timely remedied, may oc·casion very stri·ct laws, totally to . prohibit and suppress the same, and on the other hand if they turn their industry !and skill, t;o the settling and improving the linen manufacture, for which generally the lands of that kingdom ar·e very proper, they shall receive all coun·- tenance, favour, and protection from your royal influence for the encouragement and promoting of the said linen manufacture to all the advantage and profit · that Kingdom can be capable of'." The !Lord Steward reported that the King had anl\Vered in the following terms: "That his· Majesty will take care to do what their Lordships hav.e desired. ASHLEry COWPER, Clerk Parli:amentor." In answer to a similar address from the Commons .the king re·- plied: . "I shall do an that in me lies to discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland, and to encourage the linen manufacture there; and to •promote ~he trade of England." THE FINAL ONS·LAUGHT, 1698 By the Act of 1698 the English woollen manufacturers had their wishes fully realised. It forbade the Irish to send out .any woollen goods to any place except England (from which they were virtuaUy · excluded by prohibitive tariffs) under .penalty of forfeiture of the goods, and ·of the ship that carried them, and £500 fine. · This enactment brought disaster to the country and starvation to 42,000 families, nearly all of whom were Protestants, for the industry had passed from the Catholics 172 years ibefore. In reference to the situation thus ereated !Professor George O'Brien writes·: "The suppression of fae woollen industry was the most important landmark in the whole economic history of Ireland; H did more to shape the course of l'rish economic life in succeeding years than any single event, and was the most 'fruitful source of the dr:eadful distre·ss that characterised: the eighteenth ~entury." 7 DEPARTURE OF WEAVERS England had won a pyrrhic victory. The single competitor had been removed from the :field only to be r.eplaced by competition from Friance, Holland and almost every country in Europe. Much to England's regret thousands of Irish weavers received a hearty welcome from those countries working up their woollen trade, and England's continental market declined frr.1m that hour. SMUGGLING-WOOL ~ND WINE Sheep-rearing was then one of the chief agricultural pursuits. In 1672 it was estimaited that there were 4,000,000 sheep in · Ireland. Since export was pr;ohiibited the disposal of a large quantity of surplus wool presented a difliculty. France and other countries required large quantities of our wool for admixture with the1r own. The result was that the smuggling of Irish wool to the Continent became rif.e. "In one year no less than forty ships left Ireland with wool ostensibly bound for England, but actually bound for France." l\tfany other contraband-laden vesselS of which there was no recm"d glided in and out of secluded creeks !between Donegal and Kerry. A.11 classes of people, merchants, gentry and peasants, .took par't in the work. The country was' soon flooded with French !Wine in payment for the wool, and "the system worked the ·extremity of mischief commercially, socially and poliUcally ." 6 Its one great advantage was that it kept the woollen industry alive, for without it, the Irish farmer would have turned from sheeprearing, and the whole industry
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