An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England | Page 3

have been of immense influence on the
destinies of England. Her position was far on the outskirts of the world
as it was known to ancient and mediæval times, and England played a
correspondingly inconspicuous part during those periods. In the
habitable world as it has been known since the fifteenth century, on the
other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open alike to the
eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern and southern lands.
[Illustration: Physiographic Map of *England And Wales*. Engraved
by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
Her situation of insularity and at the same time of proximity to the
Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in early times, but after
she secured a navy made her singularly safe from subjugation. It made
the development of many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same time
gave her the opportunity to borrow and assimilate what she would from
the customs of foreign nations. Her separation by water from the
Continent favored a distinct and continuous national life, while her

nearness to it allowed her to participate in all the more important
influences which affected the nations of central Europe.
Within the mountainous or elevated regions a variety of mineral
resources, especially iron, copper, lead, and tin, exist in great
abundance, and have been worked from the earliest ages. Potter's clay
and salt also exist, the former furnishing the basis of industry for an
extensive section of the midlands. By far the most important mineral
possession of England, however, is her coal. This exists in the greatest
abundance and in a number of sections of the north and west of the
country. Practically unknown in the Middle Ages, and only slightly
utilized in early modern times, within the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries her coal supply has come to be the principal foundation of
England's great manufacturing and commercial development.
The lowlands, which make up far the larger part of the country, are
covered with soil which furnishes rich farming areas, though in many
places this soil is a heavy and impervious clay, expensive to drain and
cultivate. The hard ridges are covered with thin soil only. Many of
them therefore remained for a long time covered with forest, and they
are devoted even yet to grazing or to occasional cultivation only.
The abundance of harbors and rivers, navigable at least to the small
vessels of the Middle Ages, has made a seafaring life natural to a large
number of the people, and commercial intercourse comparatively easy
with all parts of the country bordering on the coast or on these rivers.
Thus, to sum up these geographical characteristics, the insular situation
of England, her location on the earth's surface, and the variety of her
material endowments gave her a tolerably well-balanced if somewhat
backward economic position during the Middle Ages, and have enabled
her since the fifteenth century to pass through a continuous and rapid
development, until she has obtained within the nineteenth century, for
the time at least, a distinct economic precedency among the nations of
the world.
*2. Prehistoric Britain.*--The materials from which to construct a
knowledge of the history of mankind before the time of written records

are few and unsatisfactory. They consist for the most part of the
remains of dwelling-places, fortifications, and roadways; of weapons,
implements, and ornaments lost or abandoned at the time; of burial
places and their contents; and of such physical characteristics of later
populations as have survived from an early period. Centuries of human
habitation of Britain passed away, leaving only such scanty remains
and the obscure and doubtful knowledge that can be drawn from them.
Through this period, however, successive races seem to have invaded
and settled the country, combining with their predecessors, or living
alongside of them, or in some cases, perhaps, exterminating them.
When contemporary written records begin, just before the beginning of
the Christian era, one race, the Britons, was dominant, and into it had
merged to all appearances all others. The Britons were a Celtic people
related to the inhabitants of that part of the Continent of Europe which
lies nearest to Britain. They were divided into a dozen or more separate
tribes, each occupying a distinct part of the country. They lived partly
by the pasturing of sheep and cattle, partly by a crude agriculture. They
possessed most of the familiar grains and domestic animals, and could
weave and dye cloth, make pottery, build boats, forge iron, and work
other metals, including tin. They had, however, no cities, no
manufactures beyond the most primitive, and but little foreign trade to
connect them with the Continent. At the head of each tribe was a
reigning chieftain of limited powers, surrounded by lesser chiefs. The
tribes were in a state of incessant warfare one with the other.