young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

641

In 1239 the friars umiliate came to Florence to improve the manufactory of Woollencloth. They made the fined cloths of the age; the belt, of the wool of Spain andPortugal; the feconds, of that of England, France, Majorca, Minorca, Sardinia , Barbary,Apulia, Romana, and Tufcany *. In 1336 there were at Florence more than twohundred (hops, in which woollens were manufactured, which made from feventy toeighty thoufand pieces of cloth yearly, of the value of 1,200,000 zeccbini; of whichthe third part remained in the country for labour ; and employed more than thirtythoufand fouls ; and thirty years before that the number was much greater, even toone hundred thoufand pieces, but coarfer, and of only half the value, becaufe they didnot receive, nor know how to work the wools of England. In 1460 they were aug-mented to two hundred and feventy-three, but the quality and quantity unknown f.From 1407. to 1485 was the period of its greateft profperity. In 1450 Cofmo ofMedicis was the greateft merchant in Europe. From the year 1365 to 1406 the Re-public of Florence , in wars only, expended 11,500,000 zeccbini J.

I was allured at Florence , but I know not the authority, that 1 f a w r eek, on thewages of the woollen manufactures only, built the cathedral; and that at a fingle fair,in the time of the Republic , woollen goods to the amount of 12,000,000 of crownshave been fold.

Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici fent into England Florentine manufacturers ofwool, to exercife their trade, for the account of thofe princes to take advantage of thecheapnefs of wool on the fpot; from which circumftance the Florentine writer infers,that the Englilh thus gained the art of making cloth §.

Thefe particulars, it mult be confelfed, are curious, but I nmft draw one conclufionfrom them, which will militate confiderably with the ideas of thofe perfons, who infillthat the only way of encouraging agriculture is to eftablilh great manufactures. Herewere, for three centuries, fome of the greateft fabrics, perhaps the greateft in Europe ;and Pifa flouriflied equally; and yet the eftablilhment and the fuccefs of a vaft com-merce, which gave the city immenfe riches, the figns of which are to be met with atthis day in every part of it, had fo little effeCt on the agriculture of Tufcany, that noperfon fkilled in hufbandry can admit it to be well cultivated, and yet the improve-ments in the laft twenty years are, I am allured, very great. Here then is a ftrikingproof, that the prodigious trade of the Tufcan towns had little or no effeCt in fecuringa flourilhing agriculture to the country. Thefe great political queftions are not to bedecided by eternal reafonings—it is by recurring to fads alone that fatisfaCtion can begained. No wonder that the rich deep foils of Lombardy and Flanders have been wellapplied ; but the more ungrateful and fteril hills of Tufcany (at leaft what I have feenof them) wild and unimproved.

There is yet a woollen manufacture of fomeconfideration, and they make fine clothsof Vigonia wool; alfo hats, and various fabrics of filk.

The export of woollens from Tufcany in 1757, was one hundred and twenty thou-fand pounds; and in 1762, it was one hundred and eighty thoufand pounds |j.

Among the filk manufactures, here are fome good, and pretty fatins, 18 pauls (thepaid 54 d.) the bracrio (about two feet Englilh), the width one braeclo four inches.

The filk fpun in Tufcany in ten years, from 1760 to 1769 inclufive, amounts to.1,676,745 pounds; or per annum.167,674 ; and in the firft fum is comprized two hun-

'* Ragicmamente Sopra Tofcana, p. 30.

•j- lb. p. 317, from Giovamii Viliam, Francefco Balduccf, Giovanni da Uzzano Benedetto Dei.

J Crijtnfano Landino Apologii dt Dante. § Ragionamentc Sopra 7 ofcano. p. 61. j| /£. p. 183.

vol. iv. 4 N drqd