192 History of the English Landed Interest. 



places except to England. In the following year the same 

 Act which recorded the abolition of the export duties on com 

 withdrew also all restrictions of a like nature^ on woollen ex- 

 ports, though those of the raw material were still banned by 

 the legislature. But had the duties been payable during the 

 three years succeeding the enactment of this statute, there 

 would have been an increase of £21,189 over the revenues 

 received from woollen exports during the three previous years. 

 Since the duty was an ad valorem one of five per cent., this 

 estimated increase of it represented an annual addition to the 

 value of these exports of £142,000.^ 



The practice of clandestinely exporting the raw material to 

 France, technically termed " owling," formed the theme of 

 numerous pamphlets from the year 1730 to 1740, Committees 

 of the House of Commons sat repeatedly on the subject, and 

 various bills, some of which became law, were proposed for 

 increasing the penalties on all concerned in this smuggling. 

 The difference between the respective interests of manufac- 

 turing and producing the wool are now evident ; and Parlia- 

 ment, in electing to foster those of the manufacturer at the 

 expense of the flock-master, only carried out its traditional 

 policy. After the American war, during which all manufac- 

 tures had declined — among them that of the woollen factory 

 — the price of the English fleece fell to a minimum, and 

 owling became a lucrative business. So severe a measure 

 was introduced into Parliament in 1786, that it evoked the 

 most sarcastic strictui'es from the outraged Arthur Young. 

 The country gentlemen, he surmised, must have been at dinner, 

 and have left the guardianship of their interests to Messrs, Pitt 

 and Rose, Betrayed by these false friends, they had got up 

 from the repast to find that the " merciless manufacturers " had 

 committed them to a measure which compelled them, on any 

 supposed neglect of certain new-fangled forms and regulations 

 on the part of their pasturage tenants, to countenance their 

 transportation to farms in Botany Bay. Young maintained 

 that wool was being smuggled out of our ports because our 



» 11 and 12 Will. III. c. 20. 



* Craig and Macfarlane, History of England, Bk. IX. ch. iv. 



