CAPITAL AND THE PLANTING OF NEW INDUSTRIES 515 
work’. Employers were responsible for guaranteeing the Ab Jose 
excellence of the product, and they were obviously coming 
to have a great deal of power in determining the circum- 
stances and terms under which labour was carried on. 
229. While these changes were occurring in the old 
established industries of the country there was also a con- 
siderable development of new trades. There had been very 
little opening for the planting of new manufactures during 
the greater part of the seventeenth century, but towards its The 
close an opportunity arose of which Charles II. had been Ci ing 
ready to take advantage to the fullest extent®. Parliament J 22P2" 
was also prepared to encourage the religious refugees from phuidfng 
France, though the government did not adopt the same dustries 
measures as had commended themselves to Lord Burleigh 
under similar circumstances’. The legislature did not 
grant the Huguenots exceptional industrial privileges, but 
preferred to pass measures which should serve to foster 
the new industries, in whatever part of the realm they 
might be carried on. The principal expedient adopted 
was that of promoting consumption by legislative enact- 
ment. The policy of insisting that the public should use 
certain wares, when other goods would suit them as well 
or better, is a particularly fussy form of protection. It does 
not obviously encourage the general industry of the country, 
but only stimulates one trade at the expense of others. 
A curious sumptuary law was passed, in 1698, which lays 
down minute regulations in regard to buttons‘ These had 
been the subject of legislation under Charles IL*; in the 
time of Queen Anne? button-holes were also taken into 
consideration; and the substitution of serge for silk in 
covering buttons and working button-holes gave rise to a 
stirring debate in 17387. There was similar legislation in 
which Par- 
liament 
a 
y legis- 
lation for 
promoting 
consump- 
tion at 
home 
1 As Mr Unwin points out, the exceptional condition of the Feltmakers’ trade 
enabled them to maintain an effective system of regulation after the company had 
necome capitalist in character. 
1 See above, p. 328. 
3 See above, pp. 82, 330. 
t 10 and 11 W. IIL e. 10. Cunningham, Alien Immigrants, p. 237. 
5 13 and 14 C. IT. ec. 13. 
3 8 Anne, c. 6. For employing the manufacturers by encouraging the com~ 
winption of raw silk and mohair yarn. T Parl. Hist. x. 787. 
292 9