Thomas Deloney

“Among all Crafts this [i.e. clothing manufacture] was the onely chiefe, for that it was the greatest merchandize, by the which our Countrey became famous through all Nations. And it was verily thought, that the one halfe of the people in the land liued in those daies therby, and in such good sort, that in the Common-wealth there were few or no beggers at all : poore people, whom God lightly blesseth with most children, did by meanes of this occupation so order them, that by the time that they were come to be sixe or seuen yeares of 20 age, they were able to get their owne bread : Idlenesse was then banished our coast, so that it was a rare thing to heare of a thiefe in those daies”
― Thomas Deloney, His Pleasant Historie of Thomas of Reading And Three Ballads On The Spanish Armada