ABSTRACT
Until the seventeenth century, changes in the character of English foreign trade always left untouched its central feature; from the days of the Angevin kings to the time of the Cromwellian Protectorate, wool or woollen cloth constituted almost the whole of English exports. This chapter examines the trade statistics of the forty years after 1660, analyses the structure of English trade and estimates overall changes. During this period the growing desire to have exact information on foreign trade, which led to the beginning of regular trade returns after 1696, brought also a scattering of information on earlier years. The total of foreign trade was not growing exceptionally fast; but it seems likely that in the years 1660-1701 the rate of new investment in commerce (as contrasted with industry) was abnormally high. The growth of docks and shipping, the great wealth of London merchant families, the preoccupation of writers of the period with problems of trade are familiar.
