SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY IN the last two centuries Staffordshire has been transformed from a thinly- populated, poor, and mainly agricultural county, into one which is rich and densely populated, depending chiefly for economic prosperity on its mineral resources and the industries based on these. In the census returns of 1901, Staffordshire stands fourth on the list of English counties, but all the available evidence goes to show that in point of numbers and wealth this county ranked very low till the eighteenth century. The Domesday Commissioners of 1085 found but few people dwelling there, and mention many isolated estates all over the county which they describe as ' waste lands.' It is estimated that there was only one villein, boor, or serf, to two hundred and fifty acres of actual surface. 1 The assessment returns at various dates since give the same result, from the Subsidy Roll of 13323 onwards, including the assessment for a special aid made by Henry VII in 1503.* Rather later, in the returns of a muster roll 20 July, 1573, it is said that the county is too poor to support the expense of training a large number of men, 3 and this is the general record till the middle of the eighteenth century. It is easy to see why it remained poor for so long, despite its rich stores of mineral wealth, notably iron and coal, for up to the eighteenth century the conditions were unfavourable for the development and expansion of its industry and commerce. It was only then that the use of coal for smelting iron became general, though Dud Dudley obtained a patent for his blast furnace for making iron by means of coal as early as 1639.* Further, since there was no great demand for Staffordshire coal till the epoch of the Industrial Revolution, the mines were little worked till the eighteenth century, nor could they be worked effectively till the ingenuity of engineers had discovered a means of pumping the water from the pits. Another great obstacle to industrial and commercial development was the lack of communication between this county and the rest of England. Nothing indeed is clearer than its isolation in mediaeval times, lying as it 1 R. W. Eyton, Dom. Studies, Staffs. 1881, pp. 17, zi. ' The (Pil/. Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. x, 79 ; and Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agric. and Prices, iv, 89. 1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 465. 4 See his Metallum Mortis, quoted by Stebbing Shaw, Hist, of Staff. , 8. 275
