THE ULSTER CONFUCT smaller than it had been in 1641, and no real advance showed until the middle 1680s when there was an influx of Scots and north English into the thinly populated province. Previously Ulster had been the most backward of the four provinces, and rents were lower than elsewhere. This combined with poor conditions in Scotland attracted an influx of emigrants and capital. Low manufacturing costs gave an edge to linen exports. This quickening of economic activity in the province was reflected in the significant role acquired by Belfast in the 1680s. Previously no port in Ulster had been among the first seven Irish. By 1700 Belfast had become the fourth port in Ireland. Although the war between James 2 and William hindered trade and caused some destruction in Ulster, the province ceased to be a theatre of war operations after July 1689 and economic recovery was fairly rapid. Its merchants had made profits out of provisioning the Williamite armies which were used to finance the export trade. The war years enhanced the importance that Belfast had acquired in the preceding decade. Cheap land and a famine in Scotland in 1698-9 attracted great numbers of Scots dissenters, which greatly alarmed the Anglican bishop of the province. The linen industry received a boost in 1705 when pressure from the Irish parliament finally prevailed on the English parliament to make a change in the Navigation Acts allowing the export of Irish linen to the English colonies. This opened up a large market. A previous enactment of 1696 had allowed, Irish linen to enter the English market duty-free and this had undoubtedly aided in the establishment of the industry in the north-east of the country, but the real expansion of linen took place in the 18th century. Exports of linen were less than 500,000 yards in 1698; in the 1790s they were above 40,000,000 yards. There was even a certain amount of government intervention to aid the linen industry. In 1711 a Linen Board was established to regulate the industry, to subsidise various projects and to spread the knowledge of methods and techniques throughout the country; but a more decisive factor in the expansion of the industry was the provision of working capital from Dublin. Although the Irish parliament was only elected by Protestant landowners with the corollary tha most of the M.P.s were «placemen» who only retained their profitable office by the favour of the landowners, it can be seen from the preceding that where the development of the Irish economy was involved they did show an amount of independence from and resistance 64
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