LAISSEZ FAIRE 
position which she had never attained before. Ireland, however, 
had little or no mercantile marine; the profits of the carrying 
trade, and of the trade with distant countries, were not for 
her. What she could do was to provide for the victualling 
of vessels, as well as to furnish supplies of sail-cloth; the 
Irish salt beef, which ships obtained at Cork, had a high 
reputation, but a certain new activity in these trades was 
almost the only advantage which accrued to Ireland from 
the great commercial monopoly by which England gained so 
much. 
So far as articles of export were concerned too, she was 
not able to supply the goods which were so much sought for 
abroad, and by means of which England was able to force 
by obtain- unwilling nations to purchase her wares. Cloth was needed 
rt for the French and Russian armies, and this cloth was pro- 
factures. ved from English looms; but the Irish woollen trade was 
nnimportant’. The cotton manufacture, which developed so 
enormously in England during the war, had been scarcely 
introduced into Ireland, though much had been spent on if 
in 1784 and succeeding years. Linen, the one department in 
which Ireland excelled, was hardly a fabric for which foreign 
countries looked to England at all, Hardware, in which 
England did such a large business, had ceased to be an Irish 
manufacture, and the sister kingdom was practically debarred 
from all the advantages which came to England during the 
time of war-prices and commercial monopoly. On the other 
hand, Irish industry felt the disadvantages to which English 
manufacturers were exposed. A silk manufacture had been 
galvanised into existence by encouragements similar to those 
which the Spitalfields Act? gave in England ; but the weavers 
were of course dependent on material brought from abroad : 
34.6 
1 So long as water-power was the chief agent employed in manufacturing, 
Ireland offered, in some districts, great attractions to capital, and the woollen 
irade obtained a measure of protection. There was however even a more decided 
objection among Irish than among English workmen to the introduction of 
machinery, and the progress was not very rapid; with the more general adoption 
of steam-power, the advantage which Ireland had possessed was neutralised. 
Martin, Irel@nd before and after the Union, 70, 72, 78. 
! Both the quantities manufactured, and the quality of the goods produced, 
serve to show that the trade was steadily advancing, Martin, op. est. 75. 
3 See above, pp. 519. 795.