An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale.
- George Chalmers
- Date:
- 1782
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
177/210 page 163
![[ ] Allowing however that labour is divided as improvement is in- troduced, that artificers become more ikilful in the progrefs of refine- ment, while machinery is introduced to abridge their toil, we may fafely conclude, that there were many more workmen employed in the woollen manufadlories in the lafl; feries of years, than du- ring the firfl:. And'we ought to recoiled: the fads dated by Davenant in 1699, that wages of every kind were excejively high, and they had not people to carry on the woollen and linen bufnejs to- gether. Yet, we have fince gained the linen manufadure; we have improved the filk and cotton j and v/e have extended the fabrics of hardware, of iron, and of brafs; befides the finer arts. We may determine with regard to the probable amount from the following detail: There were exported, according to an average of the years i6gg—T700—1701, produdfs, exclufvve of the woollens before me7itioned, of the value of f. 3,863,810. Ditto in 1769—70—71 10,565,196. Thus have we demonfiration, that while our wmollen manufado- ries nearly doubled in their extent during feventy years, our other fabrics had more than trebled in theirs. And therefore it is equally demonftrable, that the great body of artills, who were conllantly employed in all thofe manufadories, have increafed near- ly in the fame proportion during the fame bufy period. The body of failors who were found in England, by enumeration, in Ja- nuary 1700-1, amounted to — —• ' — 16,591. By a calculation'', which agreed nearly with the accuracy of the enu- meration, there appeared to have been annually employed in the merchants fervice^ between the years 1764 and 74. —i — 59>5^S‘ The tonnage of Englilh fhipping during King William’s reign, amounted only to —■ — — — 230,441 tons. D® during the prefent reign' — — — 992,754 We may thence certainly determine with regard to the number of ufeful artificers, who were employed during the latter period more than in the former, in building and repairing our Ihips. It Y 2 is ‘ Ibid. See before, p. 29—30.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28757671_0177.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
