In the fourteenth century, King Edward III was not satisfied with exporting raw wool to the Continent. Hoping to establish a full-scale domestic textile industry, he dispatched agents to the Netherlands with instructions to sow discontent among over-regulated Dutch craftsmen, and win them over with tales of England’s more liberal economy and higher standard of living.

Edward’s agents held their audiences spellbound with tales of English beef and English maidens, and promised that Edward would allow them to keep more of their profits than their masters did. The Dutch towns barely noticed the emigrants go, but the English economy boomed, and those who welcomed them into their homes and families were rewarded with rising prosperity.

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