The Trade of the United Kingdom with Europe

Abstract

ONE of the most striking features revealed by a study of the trade statistics of the United Kingdom is the importance of the trade with Europe, particularly with the most neighbouring countries. So little is this trade emphasized to-day that it seems surprising at first; yet if the historical development of trade be borne in mind, this fact is quite naturally explained, for the modern trade is but the normal, though modified, continuation of what was, at one time, the only commercial activity of the country. Apart from the small, though highly valuable, overland traffic from the East, all the commodities of trade were of European or Mediterranean origin until the sixteenth century. most important changes in English trade since earliest times have been in the nature of the commodities, rather than in the direction of the traffic, for even during the later Mediaeval period English exports were still mainly of raw materials. Some of the import traffic has continued throughout history right to the modern period, such as the trade in French wines, Baltic timber, and Spanish iron-ore. tin-mining of Cornwall attracted traders from the Mediterranean, and probably from Scandinavia too, at a very early date, whilst copper, lead, and gold (mined in Cornwall and Wicklow) were also important at various periods, such as during the Roman occupation, which has its commercial as well as its military aspects, when there was also a considerable export of corn to other parts of the Empire. In the centuries which follow there was an intermittent though often considerable export of corn, and by the tenth century there are references to a thriving export of wool and to an import of iron-ore from Spain. There were three major raw material exports of the Mediaeval period: tin, coal, and wool, with cloth as a fourth export, though this was only partially manufactured, the dyeing and shearing being done after export. From various sources of evidence, including the lists contained in the 'Libelle of Englyshe Polycye,' I written in I436, probably by Adam de Moleyns, we can see that, though many and diverse, they are almost exclusively of European origin. The geographical area covered by English trade ... was co-extensive with the whole of North Western and Western ... most ancient and most active channel led along a short sea route to the Low Countries, England's nearest continental neighbours, and the commercial hub of Europe. 2 tin export, controlled by Venetians and mainly directed to the Italian pewter trade, revived in the fourteenth century with the passing of the Stannary Laws. A considerable trade in coal had already developed between Newcastle and the Low Countries. But most flourishing of all was the export of wool, which having no European superior was in great demand especially in the Low Countries and in Lombardy, which was usually reached by sea through the Straits of Marrock (or Gibraltar). All the leading towns