Trade

• There was a continued rise in cloth exports, though the market for raw wool declined
• Woollen cloth exports almost doubled during Henry VIII's reign
• There were significant increases in the export of hides and tin
• These exports were counterbalanced by an increase in the import of wine, which suggests that the spending power of the more prosperous classes increased
• The profits of the cloth trade did not always find their way into English pockets
• Although 70 per cent of cloth exports were transported by English merchants from the 1550s, much of the trade was in foreign hands before this
• There were certainly profits to be made in cloth, and the woollen industry grew in the first half of the sixteenth century in order to keep pace with increasing demand
• There were serious profits to be made, especially by the rich and the entrepreneurial clothiers who were able not only to acquire wealth but to also enhance their social status
• There was some growth in the mining industries
• Cornish tin remained a prize export
• Blast furnaces produced an increasing amount of iron ore in the Weald of Sussex and Kent
• By middle of the century the number of blast furnaces totalled 26