933 



WOOL AND THE WOOL TRADE. 



WOOL AND THE WOOL TRADE. 



094 



London were appointed ports from whence wool might be shipped, and 

 at which customs' officers were authorised to receive'the dues. When 

 the king had terminated some of the wars in which he had been 

 engaged, he lowered the duty from 40. to half a mark per bag ; but 

 the high duty was again imposed at a subsequent period. In 1337 we 

 hear of the first enactment for prohibiting the exportation of British 

 wool, a measure coincident with the attempts of Edward III. to encou- 

 rage the woollen manufacture in England. Subsequently the same king 

 obtained grants of wool as the means of defraying the expenses of his 

 wars ; and the gross absurdity of his former restrictions could not be 

 better shown than by the fact, that while he ostensibly prohibited the 

 export of British wool, he sent his own quota for sale abroad, as he 

 iMiild there obtain a higher price for it than at home. Throughout 

 the remainder of his reign Edward had frequent contests with the 

 < * inimons and the merchants respecting his grants of wool, the duty 

 payable on wool sold, and the prohibition to exportation ; the contests 

 being not between agriculturists and manufacturers, but between the 

 king on one side and all his subjects on the other. By a statute of 

 27 Edw. III., the towns of Newcastle, York, Bristol, Lincoln, Norwich, 

 Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter, Caermar- 

 then, Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda were appointed staples 

 <>1 ; that is, places where alone wool could be sold. Mayors of 

 the staple were appointed to seal every sack of wool sold ; a customs' 

 duty of half a mark per sack was charged to denizens, and of 10*. a 

 sack to aliens ; and the power of exporting was limited to merchant 

 strangers, or to Hanse town merchants. 



During the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. there were repeated 

 grants or subsidies of wool to the king, petitions from towns concerning 

 the places for the staple, alterations in the customs' duty, and licences 

 granted to particular parties in respect of exportation. The same, 

 indeed, may be said respecting the next two reigns ; but by the time 

 of Henry VI. the merchants of the staple appear to have acquired a 

 kind of monopoly, which was often made a subject of complaint. 

 Kilward IV. enacted that no alien should export wool, and that 

 denizens should export it only to Calais ; and in the next three reigns 

 the policy pursued, however mistaken, seems to have arisen rather 

 from a hope of encouraging woollen manufactures in England than to 

 fill the coffers of the king. In the reign of Edward VI., the land- 

 owners of England, Ending the sale of wool profitable, began to inclose 

 common lands as sheep pasturages with so much eagerness as to cause 

 great complaints to be made ; and this may perhaps be taken as the 

 commencement of a new order of proceedings, so far as the cultivators 

 took up a position really or apparently opposed to the interests of the 

 people. It was not, however, till the time of Charles I. that the abso- 

 lute prohibition of exportation was determined on seriously ; and this 

 seems to have been, in the first case, not so much a measure demanded 

 I manufacturers, as a source of revenue to the king by granting 

 licences to favoured persons. After the Restoration, in 1660, however, 

 the prohibition became distinctly enacted. 



From 1660 to 1825, the export of wool was strictly prohibited. The 

 consequences of this prohibition soon showed themselves. The wool- 

 growers, shut out from a foreign market, suffered from diminution of 

 j rice ; all kinds of extravagant expedients were resorted to, to increase 

 nsumption of wool ; a system of wool-running, or smuggling, 

 became very prevalent ; and many pamphlets appeared from parties 

 taking opposite sides of the question at issue. The agriculturists, thus 

 ted in respect to wool, insisted on the prohibition of the import 

 of Irish cattle, as one means of maintaining their rents ; this disturbed 

 the course of trade between England and Ireland ; and the attempts 

 made, at the instigation of the woollen manufacturers, to compel the 

 i woollen goods, excited the hostility of the silk and linen trades ; 

 and thus the whole commercial system became disarranged. Nume- 

 rous pamphlets were published in the last century, of the following 

 il tenor : from English wool-growers, to show that Irish wool 

 might not to be imported into England ; from English manufacturers, 

 to show that IrUh wool ought not to be sent to foreign countries ; 

 fi.nu Irish graziers, to show that both of these restrictions were 

 unjust; and from foreigners, to show that the non exportation of 

 British wool led to retaliative measures on their part. The agricul- 

 tural and manufacturing classes felt that they were by legislative mea- 

 sures thrown into antagonism ; and there arose from time to time 

 '. tints on both sides. A slight sketch of what occurred in 1781 

 w ill convey a correct idea of the usual state of party feeling concerning 

 the wool trade, for a period long subsequent, as well as long previous, 

 to that date. The price of wool being low, meetings were held in 

 Lincolnshire and elsewhere, under the auspices of the great landowners ; 

 at which jx-titi -MIS to parliament were agreed to, praying that British 

 w...,l might be exported, and that Irish wool might be excluded from 

 nd. Thereupon the Yorkshire manufacturers met, and came to 

 that the exportation of wool would be ruinous to the trade 

 nnd manufacturers of England ; that the manufacturers would be 

 obliged to leave the kingdom for want of employment ; and that the 

 importation of Irish woollen yarn ought to be interdicted. The 

 worsted manufacturers were particularly vehement, for they had a 

 flier correct or not, that no other country produced long 

 ted wools equal to that of Lincolnshire ; and that if 

 lie whole of this wool in England, they might perhaps 

 retain a monopoly of the worsted trade. 



ABTS AND SCI. WV. VOL. VIII. 



The union with Ireland, in 1800, was another cause of disagreement 

 iri the wool trade. By one of the resolutions of parliament prepara- 

 tory to that measure, it was determined that the two countries should 

 be placed on an equality as regards bounties, prohibitions, &c , on the 

 natural produce of each. One effect of this would be to legalise the 

 transit of wool from England to Ireland ; and the manufacturers in a 

 body opposed it, but without success. Thus was effected one step in 

 the attainment of increased power on the part of the English wool- 

 growers ; and another step was made in 1802, by the imposition of a 

 duty of 5s. 3d. per cwt. ou the importation of all foreign wool. This 

 latter measure of course enhanced the comparative price of English 

 wool. It had long been urged that foreign wool was indispensably 

 necessary to the manufacture of some kinds of goods, and towards the 

 end of the last century the imports became considerable. Year after 

 year the quantity increased, and by 1800 it reached 4,000,000 Ibs. in 

 the year, being about ^th part of the quantity required in the manu- 

 facture. This alarmed the landowners, who thereupon procured the 

 imposition of a duty of 5s. 3rf. At various times the leading agricul- 

 turists made laudable attempts to improve the quality of English wool, 

 by introducing the Spanish merino sheep ; but they still found that 

 when their wools came into the market with those from Spain and 

 Saxony, the latter, notwithstanding the import duty, commanded a 

 more ready sale for the manufacture of the finer cloths. Hence an 

 increase of the import duty was constantly urged upon the government, 

 and such an increase was made to a small extent in 1813, by fixing 

 the duty at 6s. 8rf. instead of 5s. 3d. per cwt. But this not satisfying 

 the landowners, renewed demands were made; and by the year 1810 

 parties were placed in a curious antagonism, which may be thus 

 represented : 



Landowners' Claims. 

 Restricted imports of wool. ' 

 Unrestricted exports 



Manufacturers' Claims. 

 Unresiiiclcd imports of wool. 

 _ Restricted exports ,, 



The landowners wished to keep out foreign wool, that their own 

 might command a liigher price ; and at the same time wished for an 

 unrestricted foreign market for their own wool. The manufacturers, 

 on the other hand, wished for a free import of foreign wool, because it 

 was best adapted for their work ; and at the same time wished to pre- 

 vent the export of British wool, as a means of monopolising woollen 

 manufactures. Each party argued consistently with liberal policy in 

 one instance, but displayed the narrow spirit of monopoly in the other : 

 there was a right and a wrong on each side a liberal and an illiberal ; 

 and the two parties were so far pretty equally matched. In most of 

 the subsequent measures taken by the two parties in reference to the 

 wool trade, the peers and commoners belonging to Yorkshire generally 

 took the manufacturers' view of the question ; while those in the 

 sheep-rearing counties took the opposite view ; and petitions and reso- 

 lutions were poured forth in abundance by both parties. In 1818 the 

 matter was brought on in parliament by the agriculturists, and lost by 

 only a very small majority ; bnt in the following year the country was 

 taken by surprise by a government proposition, which was carried by a 

 large majority, to increase the import duty on foreign wool from Os. 8rf. 

 to 5C. per cwt. 



The depressed state of the woollen trade, partly consequent ou this 

 impolitic tax, was one of the moving causes to the disturbances in the 

 north between 1819 and 1821 ; and the attention of the government 

 was repeatedly directed to this matter by the opposite statements of 

 different parties. In 1824, Mr. Robinson, after alluding to the peculiar 

 tinge of monopoly shown in the arguments of both parties, proposed 

 to adroit the export of British wool at a duty of one penny per pound, 

 and the import of foreign wool at an equal duty thus showing to 

 both parties the same meed of fairness. Neither party seemed very 

 well pleased with the proposal ; but ministers brought it before parlia- 

 ment, and carried it into a law. In the following year (1825), Mr. 

 Huskisson carried some of his measures, which still further opened the 

 woollen trade. 



In 1828 the wool-growers induced the House of Lords to appoint a 

 Committee of Inquiry ; but the evidence taken before it appears to 

 have convinced the government that it would be wrong policy to re- 

 impose the import duty as a protective measure ; and there has not 

 since then been any renewal of the obnoxious duties. 



Many of the legislative enactments here alluded to depend evidently 

 on some peculiarity in foreign wool which fits it for manufacture ; and 

 this was strikingly illustrated in the evidence before the Lords' Com- 

 mittee, in 1828, where several eminent manufacturers stated that they 

 could scarcely find a sale for any woollen cloths if made wholly of 

 English wool. This led to many laudable efforts to improve the 

 character of both our long and short-woolled sheep. 



We will now briefly trace the progress of the wool-trade, in relation 

 to the produce of English fleeces, and the importation of others from 

 abroad. 



In the year 1SOO Mr. Luccock estimated the quantity of wool pro- 

 duced in England and Wales thus : 



Short wool ...... 202,737 pack?. 



Long wool 131,791 ,, 



Skin wool . . ... 88,705 



