rt of foreign wrought goods was acted upon very
extensively in Edward IV.'s reign.

[586] Stat. 11 E. III. c. 1. Blackstone says that transporting wool out
of the kingdom, to the detriment of our staple manufacture, was
forbidden at common law (vol. iv. c. 19), not recollecting that we had
no staple manufactures in the ages when the common law was formed, and
that the export of wool was almost the only means by which this country
procured silver, or any other article of which it stood in need, from
the continent. In fact, the landholders were so far from neglecting this
source of their wealth, that a minimum was fixed upon it, by a statute
of 1343 (repealed indeed the next year, 18 E. III. c. 3), below which
price it was not to be sold; from a laudable apprehension, as it seems,
that foreigners were getting it too cheap. And this was revived in the
32nd of H. VI., though the act is not printed among the statutes. Rot.
Parl. t. v. p. 275. The exportation of sheep was prohibited in
1338--Rymer, t. v. p. 36; and by act of Parliament in 1425--3 H. VI. c.
2. But this did not prevent our importing the wool of a foreign country,
to our own loss. It is worthy of notice that English wool was superior
to any other for fineness during these ages. Henry II., in his patent to
the Weavers' Company, directs that, if any weaver mingled Spanish wool
with English, it should be burned by the lord mayor. Macpherson, p. 382.
An English flock transported into Spain about 1348 is said to have been
the source of the fine Spanish wool. Ibid. p. 539. But the superiority
of English wool, even as late as 1438, is proved by the laws of
Barcelona forbidding its adulteration. p. 654. Another exportation of
English sheep to Spain took place about 1465, in consequence of a
commercial treaty. Rymer, t. xi. p. 534 et alibi. In return, Spain
supplied England with horses, her breed of which was reckoned the best
in Europe; so that the exchange was tolerably fair. Macpherson, p. 596.
The best horses had been very dear in England, being imported from Spain
and Italy. Ibid.

[587] Schmidt, t. iv. p. 18.

[588] Considerable woollen manufactures appear to have existed in
Picardy about 1315. Macpherson ad annum. Capmany, t. iii. part 2, p.
151.

[589] The sheriffs of Wiltshire and Sussex are directed in 1253 to
purchase for the king 1000 ells of fine linen, lineae telae pulchrae et
delicate. This Macpherson supposes to be of domestic manufacture, which,
how