with which they came into more immediate contact; and outside the towns, and among any but the higher classes, their influence may not have been considerable, and therefore may not have proved enduring. But the growth of those towns, among which London and York, Chester and Lincoln, Gloucester and St. Albans, may be named, the export of grain, largely compulsory, which earned for Britain the title of one of the granaries of Rome, the increased production of minerals-of tin in Cornwall, of lead in Derbyshire, of iron in the Forest of Dean, and even of coal in Northumberland-afford proof of the energy and capacity of the Romans in kindling. economic activity, and turning to advantageous account the natural resources of the country. That the establishment of the "Roman peace" would permit and encourage economic progress is as certain as the raising of revenue from duties on imports and exports points unmistakably to the existence of foreign trade. The revenue levied from this and from other sources, together with the liability to serve in the armies, was probably the most oppressive incident of Roman rule. It must receive serious attention in any attempt to weigh the general advantages and drawbacks of the occupation.

8. The exact effects of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest are doubtful.

410

At the beginning of the fifth century the increasing difficulties, which beset the Empire, led to the withdrawal of the Roman legions, and a period of long disturbance followed. For some time even before that withdrawal Saxon pirates on the southern coast and Picts in the north had harassed the country, and to check incursion threatened from the latter quarter the inhabitants, to their own doom, invited foreign help.

For the strangers, who came in response, first vanquished the Picts, and then turned their arms against those who had asked for their aid. Following on their success, fresh bands of invaders crossed the sea. By a series of conquests extending over many years the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in Britain. From their original homes, where they had apparently been little, if at all, affected by Roman influence, they brought their Teutonic manners and . customs. They forced the Britons gradually westward, and, while it is possible that in some cases they may have adopted or merged in their own institutions particulars of Celtic organisation, it is possible also that fighting peoples, such as they were, preferred to harry the original inhabitants from their dwellings, and to drive them to take refuge in remote districts of the land, to retaining them in immediate servitude. It is possible, again, that in some places and in some respects they may have transferred to later times unaltered in their main characteristics Roman arrangements which they found existing, but it is also possible that throughout the greater portion of the country they erased the Roman civilisation, and substituted their own peculiar customs. From lack of assured knowledge, and the uncertainty of inference drawn from later conditions, our answers to such questions must remain ambiguous, and the authorities are not agreed.

9. But the Saxon period was one of little economic progress.

But that the period was one of little progress, and much of the Roman civilisation vanished, cannot be questioned. The towns fell into decay,* and the rude practices of a primitive agriculture supplied the main

* E.g., Silchester, the site of which has been lately discovered.

activity of economic life. Some simple, necessary handicrafts were no doubt pursued within the villages. The carpenter, blacksmith and shoemaker must have been not the least important inhabitants, apart from those fully engaged in the ordinary work of agriculture, as it recurred with the returning seasons. Each separate village was for the most part independent of its neighbours, and supplied its own simple wants. A notable exception consisted of salt, needed for preserving meat for winter consumption in an age when the cattle must be killed, or starve, for lack of winter feed. The demand for this commodity might cause intercourse with strangers coming from the outside world, and the beginnings at least of markets seem to have arisen. But the means of communication were difficult, and were not abundant. The times were continually disturbed, and no sooner did a settlement of the country, or of some large portion of it, approach completeness, than a fresh quarrel or new invasion caused a repetition of the old turmoil. The mining, which had flourished under the Roman rule, declined; the towns were overthrown, and fell into ruin and decay, and the trade which the Romans had fostered dwindled to comparative insignificance. Some amount of coined money appears to have existed, at any rate in later times, but it was not adequate for its purpose, and any comprehensive judgment of the Saxon period must pronounce that little economic movement was apparent.

10. The incursions of the Danes stimulated fresh activity.

787

During the last two or three centuries before the Norman Conquest the invasions of the Danes added a new disturbance, but they also stirred the stagnant waters. The Danes were an enterprising people, whose

voyages took them to great distances from their own homes. They stimulated foreign commerce, for they were engaged in trading relations with the East. English merchants had before found their way to some of the great Continental fairs, but the arrival of the Danes was followed by the growth of a more adventurous spirit. To resist their incursions Alfred built new ships, reviving the affection for the sea, which, powerful among his subjects once, had afterwards declined. His example was followed by his successors. Its natural consequence was a development of foreign trade, and, as in earlier times, the metals were exported.

897

II. They led to the growth of towns.

A further effect of the Danish invasions was the new growth of towns. These originated from various causes, and in some cases centred round the monasteries, which encouraged artistic industry in the shape of metal-work and gold embroidery. Such articles of refinement made their way abroad, and a systematic traffic in slaves also existed. But, in spite of the stimulus applied by the Danes, the general character of the whole period was unprogressive. The economic historian may justly declare that when the Roman occupation ended the hands on the clock of progress were violently thrust backwards, and that during the succeeding six centuries of the Anglo-Saxon dominion they moved but a little forward, without recovering their old position.

CHAPTER III.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER.

(From William I. to Edward I.)

AGRICULTURE AND THE COUNTRY.-THE MANORIAL

SYSTEM.

I. At the time of the Norman Conquest agriculture was the most important industry.

Agriculture has often been described as the oldest and most important English industry. Whether the latter epithet is or is not now appropriate, of the truth of the former there can be no doubt. "Till nearly the end of the fourteenth century," Professor Ashley remarks, in his "Economic History,"*"England was a purely agricultural country. Such manufactures as it possessed were entirely for consumption within the land, and for goods of the finer qualities it was dependent on importation from abroad. The only articles of export were the raw products of the country, and of these by far the most important was the agricultural product, wool. understand, therefore, the life of rural England during this period is," he continues, "to understand nine-tenths of its economic activity." In the present chapter we shall attempt to gain some acquaintance with the main features of English rural life at the Norman Conquest. * Book i., chap. i., § 1.

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