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THE

HISTORY OF INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

PRE-ROMAN BRITAIN

§ 1. Industrial History.

THE history of a nation's industry must necessarily date back to pre-historic times and to the earliest stages of national life. For the history of industry is the history of civilisation, and a nation's economic development must, to a large extent, underlie and influence the course of its social and political progress. Hence it has been aptly remarked 1 that there is no fact in a nation's history but has some traceable bearing on the industry of the time, and no fact that can be altogether ignored as if it were unconnected with industrial life. "The progress of mankind is written in the history of its tools; "2 and to the economic historian the transition from the axehead of stone to that of bronze is quite as important as a change of dynasty; and certainly, in its way, it is as serious an industrial revolution as the change from the hand-loom to machinery. There are, indeed, few studies more interesting than that in which we watch how a nation developes in economic progress, passing from one stage of industrial activity to another, till at length it reaches the varied and multitudinous complexity of toil that forms our present system of industry and commerce. During this progress the necessities of its trade and manufactures bring it into contact with the politics of other nations in a manifold and often a curious variety of ways, and thus political history gains fresh interest and a clearer light from causes which, in themselves, are often neglected as obscure or insignificant.

§ 2. The English Nation and Country.

Now, in dealing with the history of England, or indeed 1 Cunningham, Growth of Industry, I. p. 7.

2 Walpole, Land of Home Rule,

p.

15.

3

with that of any other nation, there are two fixed data which must always be considered first, namely, the people and their country. So much has been said about the special fitness of the people and country of England for the pursuits of industry and commerce that we are apt to forget that this fitness has only been discovered in very recent times, and that, till the days of Elizabeth, the English were far behind several other European nations, if not in economic development, at any rate in economic supremacy. It is, in fact, useful to remind ourselves that England is not inhabited by a naturally inventive nation,1 and that we owe most of our progress in the arts and manufactures to foreign influences. The causes, moreover, of English supremacy and commerce in the nineteenth century are almost as recent as that supremacy itself, and, with one great exception-the application of steampower to industry-reside more in the natural advantages of the country than in the natural ingenuity of the nation.

But since the dawn of history both people and country have undergone many and remarkable changes, and, indeed, few things are more essential to an adequate understanding of the English people and their economic progress than a recognition of the fact that they consist of an exceedingly mixed population. Like a palimpsest which has been used over and over again, the general surface of English characteristics presents to the historical inquirer, in a more or less blurred condition, the traces of Teutonic, Roman, Celtic, and even pre-historic races, who have each contributed their quota to the economic progress of the nation and to the physical peculiarities of the individual. To take but one instance, the agricultural development of this country was for centuries profoundly affected by the manorial system, and in the village community upon which this was based we can see survivals of each of the waves of conquest which passed over the land, while beneath and below them all remain, as crystallised relics of a pre-historic age, strange customs and habits of a primitive race that lead us back in thought to the earliest dawn of civilised institutions.

It will not, therefore, be altogether out of place if we attempt to obtain some slight idea of those early races who 1 Rogers, Econ. Interp. of History, ch. xiii.

inhabited England long before it had gained its present name, or had even received its Romanised-Celtic appellation of Britannia. For whole races of mankind are rarely, if ever, entirely annihilated; "the blood of the conquerors must in time become mixed with that of the conquered; and the preservation of men for slaves and women for wives will always insure the continued existence of the inferior race, however much it may lose of its original appearance, manners, or language."1 The pre-historic populations of the British Isles left traces for centuries upon our agricultural industry and village customs, so that the more detailed study and wider recognition of their survivals into modern. times are not merely the idle interest of an unscientific curiosity. The strange persistence of early or inferior races and institutions amid the most devastating wars and most overwhelming invasions is one of the most remarkable features of history; 2 and the intelligent recognition of this fact in recent times has done much to enlarge and correct our conceptions of human progress. Many an agricultural labourer of to-day shows in the cast of his features and shape of his head a continuity of descent from the pre-historic inhabitants of his native land beside which the pedigree traced from a Norman noble fades into the insignificance of modernity.

§ 3. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Britain.

Now, at the earliest period to which the written records of classical writers take us back, there seems to have been living in Britain a population originating from no less than three stocks. "The civilised Gauls had settled on the eastern coasts before the Roman invasions began, and were to spread across the island before the Roman conquest was complete. The Celts of an older migration were established towards the north and west, and ruled from the Gaulish settlements as far as the Irish Sea; and here and there we find traces of still older peoples who are best known as the tomb-builders and the constructors of the pre-historic monuments." 3 Of these three stocks the aboriginal was

1 Elton, Origins, ch. i. 2 Cf. Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 331. 3 Elton, Origins, p. 93.

that of the Iberians or Ivernians, the oldest Neolithic race known in Europe, a small, dark-haired, dolichocephalic people. These were already retreating before an immigration of Celtic peoples, but seem to have also amalgamated with the immigrating race to a considerable extent, and, being thus preserved from absolute extinction, have survived to our own day. These aborigines were known to the Romans under the name of Silures, and, like the Goidels of the first Celtic immigration,3 were in the Neolithic stage of culture. Their industry and mode of life has been reconstructed for us with marvellous care and fidelity by the labours of Professor Boyd Dawkins. He concludes that the population was probably large, and divided into tribal communities, who certainly possessed fixed habitations-not only caves, but log-huts and wooden houses-and, though living principally on their flocks and herds and the game of the vast forests, they were by no means unacquainted with the arts of agriculture. The implements by which their building and agricultural operations were carried on were only of stone, but they seemed to have been used very skilfully. Indeed, the use of the stone axe marks a distinct epoch in the history of industry, for by it man was enabled "to win his greatest victory over nature," by cutting down the trees of the vast primeval forests in order to make a clearing for tilling the ground and building his house. The arts of spinning and weaving 5 were also introduced into Europe and Britain in the Neolithic age, and were preserved, in the more remote districts, with but little variation until the quite modern introduction of more complicated machinery. Flint-mining and pottery-making were also carried on, and the art of boat-building had proceeded sufficiently to allow of voyages being made [in canoes] from France to Britain and from Britain to Ireland. It is also evident that the Neolithic tribes of Britain had

1 Cf. Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 275.—“Skulls are harder than consonants and races lurk behind when languages slink away. The lineal descendants of the Neolithic aborigines are ever among us, possibly even those of a still earlier race."

2 Tac., Agric., c. xi.

3 Cf. Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 213. 6 Ib., p. 290.

Early Man in Britain, ch. viii. p. 290. 5 lb., p. 275.

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