Middlemen in English Business 269 



out the stapler the clothier was under the necessity of buying his wool 

 in the fleece, and unless he could work up all sorts of wool, a thing no 

 clothier could do to any advantage, he suffered a loss of those parts not 

 used. This was the condition in Scotland as late as 1738, and with 

 this handicap, due in turn to the smallness of the Scotch manufac- 

 ture, the Scots found great difficulty in competing \\ith the English 

 stapler-supplied clothier. "^ Campbell was so impressed with the im- 

 portance of the wool-stapler that he pronounced him "the Sheet 

 Anchor of Great Britain."- The staplers resided in chief wool-rais- 

 ing and manufacturing districts and markets of wool. They were 

 numerous in Barnaby Street, in Southwark and in Bradford of Dorset- 

 shire, and in Norwich, Lincoln and Leicester.^ 



Cirencester was the seat of the wool-staplers of the West of Eng- 

 land. Its great market for wool was conducted by broggers, merchants 

 and staplers, particularly the staplers. A writer in 1800 said "There 

 are numerous vestiges of the combers' wool- lofts still to be seen in 

 some of their old houses, distinguished by doors in the garret walls, 

 for the conveniency of taking in wool-packs."^ They bought up wool, 

 assorted it, combed it, and got it spun in the cottages roundabout this 

 market.^ 



The value of the assorting of wool done by the staplers is well 

 presented in a description, 1677, of the fel-wool men of Southwark. 

 "This Fell wool they separate into five or six sorts, viz. long fell wooU, 

 head wooU, bay wool, ordinary, middle and tail wooll: Long fell wooll 

 they send to Wells, Taunton, Tiverton, etc., for making worsted 

 stockings; of head wool and bay wool, they make the blankets of 12, 

 11, 10 quarters broad, and sometimes send it, if it bear a good price to 

 Kederminster for making their stuffs, and to Evesham, Parshore, 

 etc. for making yarn stockings; or into Essex for making Bays, whence 

 one sort of them, I suppose, is called bay wool; of the ordinary and 

 middle they make blankets of 8 and 7 quarters broad; and of these 

 mixed with the courser locks of fleece wool) a sort of stuff they call 

 Duffields ... of which Duffields and blankets consists the chief 

 trade of Witney."^ 



' For the advantages of staplers in wool, see Smith, Memoirs of Wool, II, 267-8; 

 "Interest of Scotland considered," 109; "Appeal to Scotsmen," 56. 

 - CampbeU, 199. 

 3 Defoe, Com. Eng. Tr., II, 188. 

 « Hist, of Ciren. & Tewksbury, 175. 

 ^V. C. H., Glouces., II, 162. 

 « Plot, Nat. Hist, of Oxf., 279. 



