ing all trade and commerce in their own hands, we find
Irish exports thus enumerated:--

"Hides and fish, salmon, hake, herring,
Irish wool and linen cloth, falding
And masternes good be her marchandie;
Hertes, birds, and others of venerie,
Skins of otter, squirrel and Irish hare,
Of sheep, lambe, and fore is her chaffere,
Felles of kids, and conies great plentie."

It will be observed that this list contains only the natural produce of
the country; and had any attempt been made to introduce or encourage
manufactures, some mention would have been made of them. The silver and
gold mines of the country are alluded to further on, and the writer very
sensibly observes, that if "we [the English] had the peace and good-will
of the wild Irish, the metal might be worked to our advantage." In the
sixteenth century the Irish sent raw and tanned hides, furs, and
woollens to Antwerp,[522] taking in exchange sugar, spices, and mercery.
The trade with France and Spain for wines was very considerable; fish
was the commodity exchanged for this luxury; and even in 1553, Philip
II. of Spain paid[523] L1,000 yearly--a large sum for that period--to
obtain liberty for his subjects to fish upon the north coast of Ireland.
Stafford, in speaking of the capture of Dunboy Castle, says that
O'Sullivan made L500 a-year by the duties which were paid to him by
foreign fishermen, "although the duties they paid were very
little."[524]

Stanihurst has described a fair in Dublin, and another in Waterford,
where he says the wares were "dog-cheap." These fairs continued for six
days, and merchants came to them from Flanders and France, as well as
from England. He gives the Waterford people the palm for commerce,
declares they are "addicted to thieving," that they distil the best
_aqua vitae_, and spin the choicest rugs in Ireland. A friend of his, who
took a fancy to one of these "choice rugs," being "demurrant in London,
and the weather, by reason of a hard hoar frost, being somewhat nipping,
repaired to Paris Garden, clad in one of the Waterford rugs. The
mastiffs had no sooner espied him, but deeming he had been a bear, would
fain have baited him; and were it not that the dogs were partly muzzled
and partly chained, he doubted not he should have been well tugged in
this Irish rug."

After the plantation of Ulster, Irish commerce was allowed to flourish
for a while; the revenue of the crown doubled; and statesmen should