CHAPTER IV.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST, AND AFTER.

(From William I. to Edward I.)

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, AND THE TOWNS.

THE IN

FLUENCE OF THE KINGS.-THE RISE OF THE GILDs.

I. The reign of Edward I. marks the close of a period of national formation.

"With the reign of Edward," remarks Green in his "Short History of the English People,"*" "begins the England in which we live.'" "From the earliest moment of his reign Edward the First definitely abandoned all dreams of recovering the foreign dominions of his race, to concentrate himself on the administration and good government of Britain itself. We can only fairly judge his annexation of Wales, or his attempt to annex Scotland, if we regard them as parts of the same scheme of national administration to which we owe his final establishment of our judicature, our legislation, our Parliament. The King's English policy, like his English name, are the signs of a new epoch. The long period of national formation has come practically to an end." What is stated in these words of the political importance of the reign of Edward is also true of its * Chapter IV., sec. II.

economic interest. That reign, as we shall see in the following chapter, marks an epoch when in the "ordinary business of life," as influenced by the action of the Government, broader views supplanted narrower interests. In the present chapter we shall study the economic institutions and the movements of the previous period of "national formation" which led to these important changes.

2. Villages and towns were mostly isolated, independent units.

We have examined, with such evidence as might be forthcoming, that manorial system which governed the affairs of rural society, guiding such activity as prevailed in agricultural industry. We may now turn our attention to the towns, and form some idea of the origin, character, and action of institutions which became important as the towns rose in prominence. As in the recurring work of agriculture, so in the exchange of those agricultural products which for long furnished the chief material for business in such trading centres as gained a recognised position, the prevailing note was that of confirmed routine. A permanence begotten of unaltering custom and traditional established privilege was attached to the conditions of life within the towns, where it seemed no less natural or necessary than it did in the villages among which they emerged. The lapse of three centuries did not fail to bring changes of importance to the classes of which rural society consisted, but the separate villages were for a long time self-sufficing. To a great extent they were independent of any need for more than occasional communication with the world outside; for in each case the villagers themselves supplied most of their simple wants. In the

same way we shall notice that the inhabitant of one town seems to have been regarded and treated by that of another as being no less a foreigner than if he had come across the seas. In economic life the unit of importance to the mass of the people did not cease to be their village or their town; and the views and interests of most inhabitants rarely passed beyond these narrow boundaries. But with the reign of Edward I. a national organisation of economic affairs was contemplated by the sovereign. An economic policy was consciously and vigorously directed to securing national aims.

3. The influence of the King was powerful.

From the Norman Conquest onwards the monarchy was an influential factor in economic matters. The Conqueror had indeed to earn his title; 1066-1087 and the reign of Stephen was a period of 1135-1154 long disturbance, due to the weakness of the Crown. But William himself was remembered for the peace he made, "so that a man might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold"; and the reigns of the first two Henries were epochs of vigorous administration, which at once strengthened the Monarchy, and tended to unite into one nation the Norman and the English race. It needs no profound acquaintance with economic principles to see that the maintenance of order by a firm hand was a condition of progress, and neither to the "Lion of 1100-1135 Justice," as the first Henry was sometimes 1154-1189 called, nor to his grandson, the founder of the Plantagenets, Henry II., would the candid critic deny the possession of a resolute will or the exercise of administrative capacity. Both were statesmen of ability gifted with an instinct of orderly govern

ment. The continuous absence of Richard Coeur de Lion from his English dominions did not prove

unfavourable to the economic activity of 1189-1199 the towns, for the same motive, which took

him on Crusades, begat a readiness to grant charters in return for the funds for his expeditions. His example was copied by his followers, who, to satisfy their urgent wants, were willing to surrender the manorial rights, which they possessed over the liberties of the townsmen. To some extent the Crusades seem to have stimulated foreign trade, though they may also have checked it by the warfare which they caused, and by a refusal to have dealings with the infidel. Yet they may have contributed to open traffic to the East. At any rate, the connection of the Norman Kings generally with their Continental dominions, if it distracted their attention from the affairs of their new kingdom, paved the way for intercourse between their English subjects 1215 and foreign traders. In the clauses of Magna Carta, the most enduring memorial of the reign of John, some indications may be found, not

only of the growing independence of the 1199-1216 towns, but also of the increasing influence

of merchants and of traders. The thirteenth century saw, in addition, the rise of craftsmen into distinctive prominence. Economic progress thus reached a new and important stage. A development, which started from conditions where those engaged in agriculture supplied in the moments given to a second occupation such simple wants as they then felt, and advanced with the lapse of time until the growth of fresh desires and provision for meeting them created a demand for the services of merchant traders, entered now on a fresh phase. Crafts

and industries arose, distinct alike from agriculture and from the business of dealing in its products. With this new development the thirteenth century, 1216-1272 over a great part of which the long reign of Henry III. stretched, largely coincided. Norman Conquest brought important

4. The changes.

The close connection of the King with the economic life of the nation may be seen in more than one department of affairs. In his essay on the "Coal Question "* Jevons observed that "almost all the arts we practised in England until within the last century were of Continental origin," and we shall have occasion in later chapters to notice the influence thus exerted at different times on different industries by foreign immigrants. In the period with which we are now dealing a connection has been sought between the rise of the early craftsmen and the protection often given to them by the Crown in a theory that they were largely of foreign origin. In any event, the Norman Conquest itself may be regarded from one standpoint as a conspicuous example of foreign immigration. For some time before the actual Conquest, apparently, Normans found their way into the country, and Freeman has written of the reign of Edward the Confessor, in the middle of the eleventh century, as a "period of struggle between 1042-1065 natives and foreigners for dominion in England." At the Conquest they came in greater numbers. It is true that in some respects, as we have seen, they assumed the control of an

* Page 69.

Cf. Dr. Cunningham, "Alien Immigrants in England," chap. i. ‡ "Norman Conquest," vol. ii., p. 30, quoted by Dr. Cunningham. An English reaction followed.