2651페이지 중 651페이지

The demand for it would be no greater than before. Its price,

therefore, would be the same as before. The whole price of cattle

would fall, and along with it both the rent and the profit of all

those lands of which cattle was the principal produce, that is,

of the greater part of the lands of the country. The perpetual

prohibition of the exportation of wool, which is commonly, but

very falsely, ascribed to Edward III., would, in the then

circumstances of the country, have been the most destructive

regulation which could well have been thought of. It would not

only have reduced the actual value of the greater part of the

lands in the kingdom, but by reducing the price of the most

important species of small cattle, it would have retarded very

much its subsequent improvement.