140

INCREASE OF COIN AND

CHAP. XXI.

modities. The product of the woodlands which hadbefore supplied the chief part of the fuel, near thedistricts in which it grew was consumed in the formof wood, and at a distance from those districts, andin the large towns and manufactories, in the form ofcharcoal. As the woods became exhausted, and thesoil devoted to arable or pasturing purposes, therepugnance to fossil coal was gradually removed,and the mines of that substance yielded a commo-dity of great amount, and that amount increasedaccording to the distance from the places of con-sumption. The metallic mines also had beenworked more extensively, and iron, copper, lead,and tin had been converted into tools, implements,and domestic utensils, not only sufficient for theinternal use, but supplying a surplus which formeda branch of the foreign export trade. The moreancient manufactures of woollen and worsted goodsand much linen cloth were woven, though a greatportion of the flax was obtained from Flanders,and much of the yarn was spun by the peasants ofGermany . As the food, fuel, and clothing of theinhabitants, and their implements, had been in-creased, so also their residences and the furniturehad increased in real amount. When Erasmus visited England in the former century, the houseswere built of mud and wood, were thatched withstraw, and instead of floors the bare earth wascovered with rushes or straw ; but in the latterend of the seventeenth century, the dwellings in