which differed in shape in the various provinces. In the towns the people's dresses were naturally of richer materials, and the attire of some of the chiefs must have been, upon occasion, at least as magnificent as it was in ancient times, or as it is depicted in sculptures upon mediæval remains. In the negotiations carried on between O'Donnell and the Lord Deputy in 1541, St. Leger reports that the Irishman appeared in "a coat of crimson velvet, with aiglets of gold; over that a great double cloak of right crimson satin, guarded with black velvet, a bonnet with a feather set full of aiglets of gold," 3 and in a tailor's bill presented to the Earl of Clanrickarde in 1578, the items include doublets of satin and hose of velvet beside "a cloak of fine puke" and "a pair of ashcoloured sockes (hose)." 4 As the preservation of national dress and manners helped to keep alive the spirit of resistance, they were prohibited upon several occasions by law,5 and though Irish gentlemen at the end of the sixteenth century began to figure in cloaks and ruffs, yellow stockings and silk garters, the social habits of this period lingered on for centuries among the poorer classes, and many traces of them may still be found in various parts of the country.7

Most of the Irish towns were founded either by the Norsemen or by the Anglo-Normans. This accounts for their isolated position as centres of organised trade, and of English law and influence during the political disturbances of the medieval period. The main features of their social life and organisation were similar to those of English towns. Dublin obtained the first of its many charters from Henry II. The Dublin Gild of Merchants, known as the Gild of the Holy Trinity, was probably founded shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion. In the thirteenth century the rolls of the Gild contain the names of physicians, apothecaries and goldsmiths, together with those of representatives of almost every craft or trade from various parts of England, Scotland, Wales, France, Brabant and Flanders. By Elizabeth's reign it comprised all the

1 See Ware's Antiquities, ch. xxiii; J. C. Walker, An Historical Essay on the Dress o, the Ancient and Modern Irish. For illustrations of Irish costume, see Derrick's "Image of Ireland" (1581) in Somer's Tracts, I.; Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain. The dress of the Scottish Highlanders of this period was very similar. Ulst. Journ. Arch. (1858), VI. 316-27. See pp. 167 n. 2, 347-50.

2 Joyce, op. cit., II., ch. xxii.

3 S.P. Hen. VIII, III. 320.

4 Fourn. Roy. Soc. Antiqs. Irel. (1858), IV., 247-8.

5 See pp. 112-14, 166-7.

Walker, op. cit. p. 66.

7 See a description of the people of the Rosses in Donegal at the beginning of the eight eenth century. Walker, op. cit., Appendix.

For the early history of Irish towns, see Gilbert, Hist. and Munic. Docs. of Irel. (1172-1320); Charte, Privilegia et Immunitates (Irish Record Commission); Statutes and Ordinances and Acts of the Parliament of Ireland (ed. Berry); also references given on pp. 355, 362, 365, 368-9.

wealthy wholesale merchants and was able to contribute twothirds of the town cess. The crafts of the tailors, smiths, barbersurgeons, and shoemakers were incorporated in the fifteenth century; the carpenters, millers, masons and heliers (slaters), received their charter in the reign of Henry VII. The other Irish cities received substantial privileges from the Crown before the end of the thirteenth century; in these, too, craft organisations had been formed. The municipal ordinances show the usual economic forces of the period at work. We find regulations to secure the quality of goods, moderate hours of work and suitable conditions for apprenticeship.3 State legislation, always with a view to the maintenance of the royal customs, prohibited forestalling and regrating, regulated wages with regard to the price of victuals and restricted vagrancy.4

In the later Middle Ages, when the central power was weak in Ireland, the large measure of support granted to the towns was given as a matter of policy. "Planted among a crew of naughty and prowling neighbours," 5 they were "the anchor-hold of assurance" in "doubtful and troublesome times." 6 Acting as bulwarks against the feudal encroachments of Irish or Anglo-Irish lords, they took advantage of their functions and of the extensive nature of their privileges to establish themselves as semi-independent republics. They formed confederations for the defence of their interests,7 or made peace and war upon neighbouring rivals at will. 8

As a result of commercial activity during the Middle Ages, at the opening of the sixteenth century, Dublin and the other chief towns were prosperous centres. They were adorned with handsome buildings, and Irish merchants could often compare in dignity and wealth with any in England.9 "Their cities and towns more populous than ever in the memory of man," wrote Sir Henry Sydney to Queen Elizabeth on the 20th May, 1577, "their houses so far exceeding their ancestors, that they be thought rather to be

Consult the index of the Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiqs. Irel. for various papers by H. F. Berry on the Dublin gilds.

A French poem of 1265 describes how the various gilds of New Ross built up the city walls in that year.-G. H. Orpen, New Ross in the Thirteenth Century.

3 Gilbert, Cal. Anc. Records of Dublin ; "Archives of the Municipal Corporation of Waterford," and Archives of the Town of Galway," Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. X. Appendix V.

4 33 Hen. VIII, cc. 2, 9, 15; 11 Eliz. c. 5; 13 Eliz. c. 1. (1786), I. 178, 185, 195, 319, 376.

Irish Statutes,

5 See Stanihurst's description of the town of Ross. Holinshed's Chronicles (ed. 1808),

VI., 30.

6 See p. 371.

7 Such a confederation was formed by Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Drogheda in 1285.-Gilbert, Hist. and Munic. Docs., p. 196.

8 Annuary Kilk. Arch. Soc. (1869), p. 75.

• See pp. 358-60, 365, 368-9, 371.

another and a new people, than descendants of the old." 1 "I do see the Realm mightily increased in substance and wealth," wrote another Englishman in 1591, "rich in plate, rich in all manner of furniture and wares; their houses high-rented, their lands in many places let out for £30 and £40 a year, that at my first coming into Ireland would not have yielded £10." 2 Until well on into Elizabeth's reign the towns prided themselves upon their loyalty.3 At first the general state of disorder produced by the wars worked to their advantage, they sold provisions and munitions to the Irish in the interior 4 and managed to retain their trade with Spain. Their loyalty had, however, always been bound up with their selfinterest, and when the Government tried to curtail the Spanish trade 5 and the towns began to suffer from the depreciation of the currency and the cost of maintaining garrisons, they soon assumed a new attitude. They began to complain of waning prosperity, and their disaffection took shape in riotous attacks upon the garrisons and in open celebrations of Mass on the death of the Queen.7 Now that the central power was stronger and had subdued both the Irish chiefs and the great Anglo-Irish lords, there was no need for the Government to rely upon the towns, and the policy of conciliation was abandoned. Henceforward their privileges were curtailed and the cities became of less political importance.8

Trade between Ireland and the Continent in the sixteenth century was fairly active, though not possibly so extensive as it had been during the Middle Ages.9 The exports were largely raw materials, hides and skins, timber, tallow, fish, flax, leather, wool, finished rugs, linen yarn and frieze. The chief import was wine, 10 which came from France and Spain; other imported commodities were iron and salt, spices, a variety of miscellaneous goods from England, such as pewter-ware, silks, groceries and merceries, II

1 Collins, Letters amd Memorials of State, I. 182.

2 Cal. S.P.I. (1599-1600), p. 353.

4

3 See pp. 167-8, 363.

Where an Englishman dares not to go a quarter of a mile out of any town, but he shall be murdered, the Irish merchant passeth amongst them (the 'traitors") quietly; they will not hurt their best friends and maintainers."-Cal. S.P.I. (1599-1600), p. 476. In his account of the siege of Glyn Castle, a Geraldine stronghold, taken by Carew in 1600, Stafford relates that a merchant of Limerick had taken up his abode there “as a general factor for the city to vend commodities to the rebels."-Pac. Hib. (ed. O'Grady), I. ch. 9. See p. 191.

5 See pp. 192-3.

6 See pp. 361-2, 381-2.

7 Cal. Car. MSS., VI. 278. The influence of the Jesuits on the towns has already been alluded to (p. 33). Fynes Moryson declared that the swarms of priests in Munster far exceeded the number of the King's soldiers.-Itinerary, III. 343.

8 There were at least forty-three walled cities and towns in Elizabethan Ireland. See

a list given by Stanihurst in Holinshed, VI. 35.

9 For trade in the Middle Ages, see Cal. of Docs. Relating to Irel. (1171-1307); H. Wood," Commercial Intercourse with Ireland in the Middle Ages," Studies, (1915), IV. 250; Mrs. Green, Making of Ireland, also references given on p. 66 n. 8.

10 One thousand tuns of Spanish wine were brought yearly into Munster alone.-Cal. Car. MSS., II. 286. See pp. 367, 373-4.

ammunition and arms.1 The spinning and weaving necessary to produce cloth and frieze was certainly carried on in the towns; yarn was bought in remote districts, however, and cloth may have been made throughout the country.

There must have been considerable traffic besides that in arms between the merchants of the seaport towns and the interior, from which the bulk of Irish produce came. There is little evidence

of an extensive money economy in the country districts, however. Ransoms were often reckoned in horses and herds,3 rents were generally paid in cows,4 and some of the greatest of the Irish chiefs are described by Sir John Perrot in a letter to Queen Elizabeth in 1586 as "lords of cattle but not of much money." 5

There is not much evidence of extensive foreign enterprise in Ireland at this period. Some Spanish merchants must have resided in the Munster towns, and the trade of Dublin was of sufficient importance to attract persons from the cities and towns of Brittany, Southern France and the Netherlands. These sometimes acquired the franchise, and thus the right to participate in retail as well as wholesale trade.6 There are indications that the Dutch were monopolising the carrying trade between London and Dublin towards the end of the century, and individual Dutchmen made proposals to the Government for settling Irish land.7

Pirates had haunted the Irish seas from early times, and in the Tudor period they grew to quite considerable numbers. Many of the crews were English or Flemish, some were Irish. In 1600, Sir George Carew described to the Privy Council how some Irish pirates on the Shannon "had blocked up the head of the river and thereby restrained the merchants' traffic of this town (Limerick) altogether." 8 So daring had pirates become by 1608, that Lord Danvers, President of Munster, gave it as his opinion that they would not even leave "the gates of hell unripped-open in hope of gain."9 When peace was restored under James I, Ireland became more settled and prosperous, 10 and as the volume of trade increased the scope for piratical outrages was enlarged. The most Cal. S.P.I. (1611-14), p. 37.

1 See p. 191.

3 Four Masters, V. 1791.

4 See an agreement made between O'Neill and O'Cahan in 1606.-Cal. S.P.I., p. 110. The "bonaghts," or mercenaries of the chiefs, were also often paid in cows. See p. 326

2. I.

5 Perrot requested in the same letter that an allowance of £3,000 (to be balanced by an appropriate number of beeves to be handed over to the Queen's Victualler) might be made to the Earls of Tyrone, Clanrickarde and others, whom he suggested bringing over to England, on a visit to her Majesty, to divert the Spanish purposes."-R. Rawlinson, Life of Sir John Perrot (1728), pp. 248-9. See pp. 316, 320.

6 Cal. Fiants Eliz., Nos. 364, 403, 1058, etc. 11th Rept. Dep. Keeper Public Records, Ireland.

? See p. 377, and Cal. Car. MSS., VI. 153.
8 Cal. Car. MSS., III. 403.

9 Cal. S.P.I. (1608-10), p. 100.

10 See G. O'Brien, Econ. Hist. of Ireland in the Seventeenth Century.

notable exploit in the early seventeenth century by these pirates who haunted the Irish seas was the sack of Baltimore (1631), when a squadron of Algerine corsairs pillaged the colony and carried off at least one hundred inhabitants as captives. The clearing of the Irish Sea of pirates by Strafford was not the least valuable of his reforms. So far as is known, the first difference in the standard of English and Irish money began in 1470, when coins were struck of the proportion of 44s. Irish to 37s. 6d. English. Shortly afterwards, the Irish coinage is found to be one-third under sterling, that is to say, that the Irish shilling valued at 9d. in England passed in Ireland for 12d.3

Henry VIII, who was hard put to it for lack of funds, not only for his Irish campaigns, but for his expeditions to Scotland and France, introduced a considerable depreciation into the Irish coinage, the monies struck towards the end of the reign containing so much alloy that they were little better than brass.4 Under Edward VI and Mary the standard was also low. £10,000 worth of the base monies brought into England by Philip II was recoined for Ireland, and prohibited for use in England.5 In 1560, as a result of the reform of the coinage in England, the Irish currency was restored on the one-third basis.6

Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, owing to the great expenses of the Irish war, it was decided to produce a special coinage to pay the army in Ireland. In this coinage the shilling contained almost three-fourths of alloy. Its real value was 3d. The pound of copper costing 6d. was coined into 16s.7 The new coin was made current by several Proclamations (1601-2),8 and all other coins were ordered to be brought to the exchanges which were established in various English and Irish towns. The avowed

aim of the Government was to weaken the resistance of the Irish rebels, who had hitherto made use of the English currency to purchase arms and ammunition abroad. Foreign trade was certainly damaged, but otherwise the scheme hardly worked as anticipated The Government wishing to facilitate trade with England arranged

1 Cal. S.P.I. (1611-14), p. lxxi.

* For a general account of the Irish coinage at this period, see Ware's Antiquities, ch. xxxii; J. Simon, An Essay towards an Hist. Account of Irish Coins; R. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage; R. Steele, Introd. to Bibliography of Royal Proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns; Preface, Cal. S.P.I. (1601-3).

3 Simon, op. cit. p. 32.

4 L. and P. Hen. VIII, XIX. (i), p. xxxv.; Four Masters, V., 1499. For instances of the distress in Ireland owing to the depreciation of the coinage at this period, see Cal. S.P.I. (1509-73), pp. 116, 122, 124-5.

5 Simon, op. cit., p. 36.

6 Cal. Car. MSS., I. 311.

7" One pound weight of silver of the standard of Ireland costs the Queen 16s. ofd, and the workmanship is. 8d., or in all, 17s. 87d. It makes in Irish money by tale £3. 25. One pound of copper costs the Queen 6d. and the workmanship thereof 1s. 10d., which is in all 2s. 4d. It makes in tale 16s."-Cal. S.P.I. (1601-3), p. 248.

Cal. Car. MSS., IV. 67-9, 409-14; Cal. S.P.I. (1601-3), pp. 407–10.