research is no less indispensable to the ordinary economist who wishes to be abreast of his subject.

10. It has only been recently achieved.

This understanding has been reached by gradual stages, and hitherto, perhaps, has met with wide rather than universal acceptance. In any case, it is recently that the general historian, on the one hand, has shown any marked inclination to devote attention to those of the conditions and circumstances, the events and the acts, that he narrates, which may be classed as economic; and, on the other, no long time has elapsed since the results of controversy have been shown in the definite. grant by the economist of a sphere of inquiry to historical research. As a separate systematic study, with a recognised position, and a defined area of work, "economic history" is comparatively young. The general study of economics in any form resembling its present shape does not, as we shall see at the conclusion of this history, date back to a time much earlier than that* at which Adam Smith wrote his "Wealth of Nations," and England was entering on her manufacturing supremacy. But, if Economics is thus little more than a century old, Economic History has hardly attained its majority. It is true that writers, discussing economic topics, engaged in historical research in days before Adam Smith; but they were rather unsystematic and unconscious pioneers, anticipating the work of later times. It remains substantially true that economic history is comparatively young. It may display all the vigour, and some of the confidence, of youth; it can scarcely as yet command the ripe experience, the broad wisdom, or the stable judgment of matured age.

* 1776; cf. Chapter X.

II.

Consequently, economic history presents difficulties arising from imperfect knowledge of the material.

From this position certain consequences follow, which deserve and require notice. The economic history of this country alone consists of a mass of material, which has only been partly examined. Laborious research has as yet been unable to accomplish more than a portion of its task. A preliminary survey has been made of the country to be explored, and in some directions the ground has been scrutinised with minute attention. But it is impossible to review even rapidly the results of the work of different investigators without feeling that, while year by year greater certainty is attained on matters of main importance, that which is still uncertain represents a large part of the entire area. Some of the most plausible guesses, and promising theories, of earlier pioneers have been called in question, and proved untenable, by later workers. The student, attempting to examine for himself an economic event, or series of events, will often be surprised, and perhaps discouraged, to find how scanty is the information obtained from any general history, and how ambiguous, and even contradictory, have been the conclusions of economic historians.

12. Especially in the earlier periods.

This uncertainty, as we might expect, attaches in a greater degree to earlier periods. As we advance to later times we are met by more abundant material for forming a judgment, and by more definite, authoritative opinions of its value. On the one hand, the general historian, though he may not recognise the full importance of economic considerations, possesses a more accurate and minute acquaintance with the details of the

period, with which he is dealing, and in giving fuller treatment to events and circumstances generally, is compelled, consciously or unconsciously, to include in his narrative a more ample notice of those, which are of interest for the economic historian. He may still select for emphasis the more stirring and picturesque incidents, or the more familiar and significant movements and forces, as they appear to him; but his principle of selection is likely to prove more liberal, when he finds an abundance, and not a poverty, of material. On the other hand, the later the period, which we are examining, the more probable it is that competent economists should take their place among the authorities, on which we rely. They, indeed, may find their chief interest elsewhere than in collecting economic facts, or studying economic forces, with a single view to historical research. But they are not unlikely to assist such an aim, for they will supply references, many or few, to contemporary conditions and circumstances treated in their economic significance. It is hardly necessary to add that, defective as they may seem, when tried by the later standard of wider knowledge and more scientific attainment, they are likely to prove superior to their own predecessors. From both sides, then-from that of the general historian and that of the ordinary economist-the economic historian is destined to meet with larger, more effective aid in the later than in the earlier periods of history.

13. But also in the later.

Even in these he will still be beset by difficulty arising from the mass of material partly, or wholly, unexplored. He must be content to discover that the efforts of investigators have centred on prominent portions of the

subject rather than been spread over the whole. Certain facts, or institutions, have attracted peculiar, and perhaps disproportionate, attention; and researchers have endeavoured by diligent scrutiny to ascertain their character and measure their significance. This task has absorbed their energies, and forced them, either to postpone to a future occasion the minute study of other conditions, or at least to group round some central fact or institution the circumstances of the times.

14. It is necessary to select some central fact or institution for special attention.

In the successive chapters of this history, in which we shall attempt to give a brief account of the agricultural, industrial, and commercial development of England, we shall conform to this model. We shall follow this course, both because the space at our disposal compels selection and abridgement, and also because we desire, so far as it may be possible, to treat mainly of those parts of economic history which, resting on the most certain and established foundations, seem at the same time to be most calculated to arouse and maintain interest. They have exerted a peculiar attraction for the researcher; they may perhaps serve to transmit some of his enthusiasm to the reader.

15. This course will be pursued in the successive chapters of the present book.

From the dim obscurity, which surrounds the long Roman occupation of Britain, and lingers about AngloSaxon institutions, we shall advance into the fuller light following the Norman Conquest. The Manorial System, under which agriculture was then generally pursued, though its origins, and even in some respects its mature formation, date back into Saxon times, may be treated as

the conspicuous feature of country life, while the development of Gilds was a prominent characteristic of economic activity in the growing towns. From the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries we shall pass to the three which follow. They may be said to embrace the transition from mediæval to modern conditions. In commerce and industry the growth of the Woollen Trade, which, more than any other, deserves the name of being historically the staple industry of the country, may form a convenient centre, around which movements and institutions may be grouped. In agriculture the Black Death, the Peasant Revolt, and the Inclosures overshadow other events. We shall then examine the Mercantile System, founded on the old economics of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, in contrast with that Industrial Revolution, which accompanied the growth and propagation of the new ideas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of the former period the encouragement and regulation of Domestic Trade and Industry and Foreign and Colonial Commerce, in accordance with mercantilist ideas, are outstanding features. But they are not surpassed in importance and prominence by the development of Agricultural Science and Practice, by the rise of the Factory System, and the introduction and adoption of Free Trade, as leading incidents of the later period. In conclusion, we shall attempt to review the progress of that Economic Science which was in a sense "born again" at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and accompanied, and aided, the full recognition of Free Trade.