and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sbeep. 38 1 



by land to Antwerp some very fine cloths of Paris and Rouen, which were highly 

 prized.* It is probable, however, that these cloths were made only of mixed wool. 



In 1582, English cloth was not risen in estimation with the Spaniards. We 

 are told by Werdenhagen, that very little of it was at that time imported into 

 Spain.t 



To abate the patriotic zeal and self-complacency of our countrymen was still no 

 easy task ; for, in the same year, we find that honest Mr. Richard Hackluyt, 

 though. he allows that " Spaine now aboundeth with wools, and the same arc 

 " clothed,"' yet forbeareih not to assert to Master S. whom he addresseth, " You 

 " cannot denie but thatjhis realme yeeldeth the most fine wooU, the most soft, the 

 " most strong wool," &c. &c. J 



Twenty years after this unqualified decision of Hackluyt, occurred the first 

 instance which I can find of any disposition in our writers to acknowledge the 

 superiority of Spanish to English wool. The author of " England's View," 

 printed in 1603, pathetically exclaims, " Great was the loss and hindrance which 

 " the realm received by the licence which King Edward the Third gave unto 

 " King John of Arragon, for to transport into Spain a certain number of Cotes- 

 " wold sheep, both in respect of wools and woolfels. For we see what great 

 " quantity of wools, bettered under their climate, doth continually come from 

 " divers places of the King of Spain's dominions into Fraunce and the Low Coun- 

 " tries; especially into Flanders.'^ At this period, therefore, not only the wool of 

 Spain was better than that of England, but was used in great quantity in France 

 and the Low Countries. 



For many years before, and some after this time, English broad-cloths, as I have 

 before observed, were, for the most part, sent out of England to be dyed and 

 dressed by the Dutch, who refused to receive them when their exportation in that 

 state was no longer permitted. This may be considered as the immediate cause of 

 the great diminution of the export about the year 1616. But though it affected 

 the cloths of our manufacture, it could have had no influence on the wool, the 



• Quelques draps tres fins de Paris et de Rouen, — qui sont denrees fort prisees, p. 189. 

 ■\ Anderson, 1582. 



J Hackluyt II. i6i. This writer was singularly quick-sighted to all the excellencies of that 

 precious commodity j of which he had discovered, " that no wooll is lesse subject to mothes." lb. 

 § Smith I. 51. 



