68 



BEIXISH WOOL TRADE. 



pursued by Mr Vansittart ; but, even if they had been 

 silent on the subject, the evidence of Mr Bainbridge, 

 before the Committee of the House of Commons, ap- 

 pointed in 1820, to inquire into the state of the foreign 

 trade of the country, might have informed him of the 

 true position of the wool trade, and directed him in so 

 hazardous an undertaking. When Mr B. was asked 

 whether he thought that an increase in the means of 

 paying for our manufactures would produce an increased 

 consumption of them in Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, 

 he replied : — " I believe the woollen manufactures in 

 Prussia are in such a state as to be able to compete 

 with us completely ; I speak of it particularly, because 

 we are in the habit of having transactions with the 

 United States of America ; and I find that a very con- 

 siderable proportion of fine woollens, and stuffs, are 

 absolutely shipped from the Netherlands, and from 

 ports contiguous, part of which I understand to come 

 from the interior of Germany, and from Saxony in par- 

 ticular ; so that a portion of the trade, which we have 

 been in the habit of transacting with the United States, 

 is finding its way from the north of Europe. I, there- 

 fore, conceive, that their manufactures are competing 

 with the manufactures of this country, and, conse- 

 quently, they would not come to us to receive a supply 

 of those articles which they can purchase from their 

 own manufacturers at home.** In 1825, at the earnest 

 and obviously well-founded representations of the ma- 

 nufacturers, Mr Huskisson reverted to the old system : 

 and it was then wisely enacted, that all foreign wooi 

 imported for home consumption, of the value of Is. a- 

 pound and upwards, should pay a duty of Id. a-pound , 



