THE INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE ON INDUSTRY 495
There were, however, considerable obstacles to the in- 4D 0%
definite expansion of industry; the limit, beyond which it
was difficult to carry the development of any trade’, was set
by the supply of materials. The English clothiers were largely A501 2
engaged in working up English wool; it was because of the for estab
abundance and excellent quality of this product that weavers trades were
had migrated to this country in such large numbers. But Hafod,
the wool-supply could not be largely increased at will,
especially during a period when arable cultivation was
coming more generally into vogue. Similarly the shipbuilders
 and the tanners made use of English-grown materials,
 while the ironworkers were dependent on the amount
of wood available for fuel. It seemed as if each of the staple
trades of the country had almost reached its natural limit
during the early eighteenth century. Efforts were indeed
made to supplement the home production by the import of
Spanish? and Irish® wool, and similar expedients were adopted
in other trades; but the landed interest was inclined to take
exception to such measures. Hence comparatively little
progress resulted from all the care that was lavished on the
staple trades.
There was, however, considerable scope for planting and # seemed
developing exotic trades, which consisted in working up im- to plant
vorted materials; and circumstances favoured the movement Sy
in this direction. The incursion of the Huguenots had, indeed,
been most beneficial, by giving the country the advantage of
new methods and superior skill in making use of its own
materials; the immigrants were still more welcome as adepts
in trades which had not hitherto been practised in Britain
with much success. Of the manufactures to which they

inwhich the
Huguenots
were
skilled,

1 Protection, which maintains a trade after this limit has been reached, is much
less defensible than protection which aims at rendering the utilisation of native
resources as complete as possible. The differences come out in connection with
the protection afforded by the Corn Laws before and after the period 1778 —1791;
see below, p. 730.
2 A treatise of Wool and the Manufacture of st, Brit. Mus. 712. g. 16 (21), 1685,
p. 9; also England's Interest by Trade asserted [Brit. Mas. 1102. h. 1 (8)], »- 22.
James, History of the Worsted Manufacture, p. 206.
3 The Grasier's Complaint, p. 28 (1726), Brit. Mus. 712. g. 16 (37). Defoe,
Plan of the English Commerce (p. 156), estimates that 100,000 Packs of Wool were
ported yearly from Ireland, besides Scotch wool which was said to be worth
£60.000 at the time of the Union.