[359] Schanz, _Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters_, Band II., p. 18.
[360] Abram, _Social England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 33.
[362] Camden Society (1847), _Italian Relation of England_.
[363] Camden Society (third series, vol. i.), _Cely Papers_. In 1480 the elder Cely writes: "I have not bought this year a loke of woll, for the woll of Cottyswolde is bought by the Lombardys;" and in the following year, "Ye avyse me for to buye woll in Cottyswolde, bot it is at grate prise, 3s. 4d. a tod, and gret ryding for woll in Cottyswolde as was any yere this vii yere."
At the same time, the revolution was probably hastened by a change in commercial policy, which, while encouraging the export trade in woollen cloth, was after 1485 less favourable to the corn-grower. During the greater part of the fifteenth[364] century the Government was forced by the agrarian interests to allow freedom of export for grain except when prices reached a certain height, after which point an export licence was required. But the victory of Henry VII. produced a policy which was less influenced by the traditional object of helping the corn-growing landlords, and more favourable to commerce and the middle classes on which the new monarchy rested. In 1491[365] the export of grain, except with a special licence, was forbidden altogether, and in 1512 the prohibition was repeated by Henry VIII. Though the administration of such a policy must have been difficult, and its exact effect must be a matter of conjecture, the view taken by some contemporaries,[366] that it was a subordinate cause which stimulated the abandonment of old agricultural methods and caused a good deal of land to go out of cultivation, is at any rate intrinsically probable.
[364] Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, Early and Middle Ages, pp. 447-448. The statute sanctioning export without licence when the price was below 6s. 8d. was 15 Hen. VI., c. 2, which was made perpetual by 23 Hen. VI., c. 5. 3 Ed. IV., c. 2, forbade the importation of foreign corn except when the price reached 6s. 8d.
[365] _Ibid._, Modern Times, Part I., p. 85.
[366] _e.g. The Commonweal of this Realm of England_, pp. 54-60.