422 Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different Localities. 



House of Lords is formed of a wool-pack covered with velvet. 

 A large portion of the revenues of our earlier kings was derived 

 from an export duty on wool and woollen cloths. Smith, in his 

 " History of AVool and the Woollen Manufacture," records the 

 prices of English wools in 1341, for home use and exportation — 

 it is valuable not only as giving the price of u'oo], but the relative 

 value of wools grown in different districts at that period. 



Salop 



Ditto, Stuffs, including 

 Leicester . . , . 



Nottingham . . . . 



York and Rutland . 



Derby 



Cumberland and West- 

 moreland . . . . 



To the Staple for Home use. 



Per Sack. Per Stone. 



For Exportation. 



£. s. d. 



7 6 4 



6 6 8 



5 13 4 



5 10 



4 3 4 



s. d. 

 5 9 



4 11 

 4 4 

 4 21 



3 2 



3 13 4 : 2 10 



£. s. d. 

 9 6 4 



8 6 

 7 13 

 7 10 

 6 3 



5 13 4 



Per Stone. 



d. 



5 m 



9 



81 



Anderson also, in his " Origin of Commerce," gives a nearly 

 similar list of prices of some of the wools in 1343, when exported 

 — Shropshire, 9/. Gs. 8c?. per sack ; Oxford and Staffordshire, 

 8/. 135. 4id. ; and Leicester, Hereford, and Gloucester, 8/., the 

 lowest price being that of Cornwall, which is set down at 4/. 

 In 1342, the king (Edward III.) sent a great number of sacks of 

 wool to Cologne, in order to redeem Queen Philippa's crown, 

 which was pawned there for 2500/ ; the average price of that wool 

 was \s. 3Jc?. per lb. In 1354, the exports had risen to 31,651 

 sacks, equal to 8.356,864 lbs., on which Edward levied duties to 

 the amount of 277,606/. 2s. 9d. 



At this period, the first mention is made of exported manufac- 

 tured goods, viz. : — 4774J cloths, of the value of 405. each, and 

 also 8061 pieces of worsted goods, valued at I65. Sd- the piece; 

 on the other hand, there were imported 1832 cloths of the value 

 of 6/. each. The preceding extracts are important as indicative 

 of the fact that the finest cloths were imported, whilst no worsted 

 goods were needed from abroad ; indeed, the quantity and value 

 of the latter which were exported show that their manufacture in 

 this country had arrived at a very high degree of perfection, as 

 compared with the fine cloth manufacture, and further shows that 

 a large portion of the wools exported were of the fine or short 

 description : in fact, the fine wool of Britain was celebrated in the 

 time of the Romans, and that luxurious people had British wool 

 manufactured into the finest description of cloth, such as robes, 

 &c., which were only used on festive and other celebrated occa- 

 sions : these circumstances, together Vvdth the fact that in 1172, 



