524 TRADING WITH THE ENEMY AND October of sailing to Leghorn, 1 and one of whom succeeded in landing lead at Dieppe. 2 The two last were charged with high treason. If these were extreme cases, it is also clear that among many of the best merchants the standard of patriotism was not too high. 3 A clandestine trade can never, in the nature of things, be estimated by anything like statistical methods, and therefore it cannot be proved that these are not the visible signs of a considerable mass of dealings with the enemy. On the other hand, the general impression conveyed by the records is that no very great propor- tion of British shipping was used in the French trade during the war, 4 that the quantity of British goods that got into France was not important, and that much of the salt, wine, and brandy that were ' run ' into the country were carried by foreign ships. Two branches of the English enemy trade deserve special mention. In 1691, when the whole matter was under discussion at the diplomatic congress in the Hague, the Spanish ambassador complained of an English ship, the Leopard, which was in the habit of lying off Puntales near Cadiz and taking on board French goods from Genoese ships, afterwards putting them on shore in Spain. 5 This shows the impotence of the Spanish government and the lack of police by the allies in Spanish waters. The other example is more important, namely, that of the ' owl- ing ' trade. ' Owling ' was the name used for long after this time for the exporting of wool or sheep. This had been a capital offence, even in times of peace, since the days of Edward III, 6 and it may be called the crowning example of trading with the enemy. The woollen manufacture was the great English staple industry, the most strongly protected, especially against the exporting of raw material to other countries. When David Hume exposed the delusions of the jealousy of trade, he had to pay special attention to the prejudice in favour of protection for such an exceptional industry. 7 In 1689 the old proclamations against the exporting of wool were revived. 8 There was no point in commercial policy more vigilantly watched over in the time of William III. Yet, although it was a time of war, when 1 Trumbull to Kick, 28 June/8 July 1695, and subsequent letters (Foreign Entry Book, 69). 2 Privy Council Register, 13/23 August ; Cal. of State Papers, Bom., 21/31 August 1690. 3 For the divisions of opinion in Bristol on the question of principle see the papers of John Cary, Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 5540, f . 27, and Cal. of State Papers, Dom., 1689-90, pp. 461, 470, 474. 4 Lord Dursley's dispatch of 25 August/4 September 1691 (State Papers, For., Holland, 222) shows the difficulty found by the griffier Fagel in producing evidence to the contrary. 5 Dursley's dispatch, 1/11 September 1691 (ibid.). 6 By 11 Edw. Ill, c. 1 (1337). 7 Philosophical Works (1826), iii. 370. 8 Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, ed. Steele and Crawford, 28 March/7 April 1689.
