But English manufactures were still in their infancy and nine-tenths of the English wool went to the looms of Bruges or of Ghent.

We may see the rapid growth of this export trade in the fact that the king received in a single year more than L30,000 from duties levied on wool alone.

The woolsack which forms the Chancellor's seat in the House of Lords is said to witness to the importance which the government attached to this new source of wealth.

A stoppage of this export threw half the population of the great Flemish towns out of work, and the irritation caused in Flanders by the interruption which this trade sustained through the piracies that Philip's ships were carrying on in the Channel showed how effective the threat of such a stoppage would be in securing their alliance.

Nor was this the only ground for hoping for aid from the Flemish towns.