major cause. Population figures indicate that the confederation
consisted of settlements of small or moderate size. Trade figures 'Î demonstrate that involvement in overseas trade was at a relatively J insignificant level by the end of the fifteenth century. However, I it is important to realise that the economy of the confederation was
not uniform throughout all its members, and that towns had individual interests. As a consequence of this, there could be considerable variation within the region, both in terras of the
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level of prosperity enjoyed and In the occupations which dominated the local economy.
The majority of the members of the confederation, particularly “j; the limbs, were, and always had been, relatively small settlements.
Consequently, they had little interest in the major commodities of international trade and the apparent decline in imports and exports was of real significance to only a few of the larger ports. For most of the Cinque Ports, the important factors in their economy were the humbler, but equally important, occupations of fishing
and agriculture.
The dominant maritime pursuit within the confederation was the
fishing industry. It'appears probable that this had always been the Ç •'J case; the establishment of the confederation itself was partly the % result of the common interests shared by the south coast ports in
I
the Yarmouth fishery. The decline of the fishing industry throughout the country as a whole in the sixteenth century would obviously have been a matter of some concern to these ports but, despite this
decline, the surveys conducted in the later part of the century
indicate that fishing was still a major employer of labour at the end of the period under consideration.
Coupled with the fishing industry, agriculture was a major occupation in several areas. The small settlements of the Isle of Thanet, for example, appear to have been largely agricultural in
nature, while the same was true of the region around Romney and Lydd. The frequency of town regulations concerning livestock and the large quantities of grain produced in the fields of Kent suggest that the importance of agriculture as a source of
employment and income was always considerable for many of the members of the confederation. Along with this, most of these settlements would have had a number of local trades concerned largely with supplying the basic needs of the inhabitants and the surrounding area.
The nature of the local economy could undergo change
throughout the centuries, causing fluctuations in the fortunes of a town. At Sandwich, the withdrawal of the Italian trade caused a temporary decline towards the end of the fifteenth century but this was soon compensated for by the influx of Protestant refugees in the sixteenth century and the establishment of the 'new draperies' in the town. The abandonment of the port as a place of trans-shipment for the Italians would also have entailed a fall in coastal
traffic but,in the sixteenth century, there was a resurgence of the coastal trade to London, with grain as the major cargo. The growth of London as a centre of consumption was also of considerable
importance to Rye, Faversham and Folkestone. For most of the ports, however, it seems probable that changes were less dramatic and that, for most of the period under consideration, the economy of such towns was still dominated by the traditional pursuits of fishing and agriculture.
106
It is beyond doubt that the Cinque Ports were of less importance on the national scene that had been the case in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This early importance, however, was not so much due to economic factors as to the role
the ports played in the defence of the nation, a role which had become anachronistic. It was loss of prestige, rather than severe economic decline, which resulted in the ports losing much of their national significance.
The evidence for an economic decline is far from clear. Several towns did decay, but this was balanced to some extent by a growth in others. For the majority of the smaller members, however, it is doubtful whether the centuries had produced any great change since their economy had always been dominated by fishing and agriculture and their importance always of a purely local nature. On a general level, the region cannot be said to have been in severe economic decline; decline was more apparent than real, due largely to the fact that, as the confederation's role in the defence of the nation became anachronistic, the
portsmen refused to accept the new reality and clung to illusions of past grandeur. The decline of the Cinque Ports was not so much a decline in economic terms as a loss of the prestige which had resulted from the ports' special function in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.