THE ULSTERCONFUCT ing markets for livestock of livestock products - the English market and transatlantic trade. The English market started becoming difficult in 1663when there was an outcry in England against imports of cattle and sheep from Ireland at a time of low prices in England. A seasonal restriction was placed on Irish cattle imports, and in January 1667 a bill was passed into law which excluded Irish cattle, beef, sheep and pork from the English market. 1663 had also seen the introduction by the English parliament of a Navigation Act which required all goods for the English colonies to be shipped from England and Wales. An exception was made, however, for salted provisions (as well as for servants and horses). This was a tacit acknowledgement of the growing importance of Irish salted beef in the feeding of the crews of the rising number of merchant and naval vessels in the Atlantic. A new Navigation Act in 1671 (which lapsed in 1680 but was renewed in 1685) introduced the principle that certain enumerated articles such as sugar, tobacco and indigo must be shipped from the colonies exclusively to England. Although this act still permitted Ireland to import non-enumerated articles from the colonies, that trade too was prohibited in 1696. The most damaging of all English restrictions came with the Woolens Act of 1699 which forbade the exportation of Irish wool or woolens to the colonies or to any foreign country and limited Irish wool exports to England alone. Much has been made, especially by Nationalist economic historians at the turn of this century, of the deleterious effects of this English legislation on the development of the Irish economy, bi;t whilst they did undoubtedly curtail trade to some extent they also served to divert it into different channels, particularly into trade with the French, Dutch and Spanish empires. The Irish mercantile class was as much affected by English wars with these empires, which restricted trade badly, by poor harvests and gluts, and the size of the internal market. Certainly Dublin and Cork expanded rapidly as major ports during the late 17th and early 18th centuries and trade began to be centralised in them because of their extensive hinterlands. Between 1700 and 1765 Irish imports tripled and exports quadrupled with much of the increase being accounted for by the expansion in Irish-British commerce ( the Irish growth rate was higher than the British one for the same period). Te 1680s saw a significant growth in the linen industry in Ulster. It was relatively small in 1665when export of yarn was 63
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