3S4 •D/'. Parry's Essay on ibe Nature, Produce, Origin, 



It seems that about this time our eyes first began to be opened, v In 1660, the 

 year of the restoration of Charles II. the best Spanish wool was at 4s. j^d. per 

 pound; while the best of ours was at eighteen-pence.* 



In 1665, the 5th of Charles II. a Dutch or Flemish Protestant, named Vanro- 

 bais, was settled by the French king at Abbeville, with great privileges, in order to 

 manufacture cloth of Spanish wool.t 



About this time, from 2000 to 7000 bags of that wool were annually purchased 

 by US.+ ' 



In 1668, the ancestor of Mr. Wansey bought Refina Spanish wool at 2S. 6d. per 

 pound ; and four years before had paid sixteen-pence for the very best English.^ 



The same year, we were first taught to make cloth of superfine Spanish wool, 

 without mixture of that of inferior quality, by one Brewer, who settled in England 

 with about fifty Walloons. () 



About the same time an author of great commercial knowledge and candour. 

 Sir Josiah Child, tells a truth, which must have been in the highest degree ungrate- 

 ful to many of his prejudiced contemporaries: " As to the Turkey, Italian, Spa- 

 " nish, and Portugal trades, though our vent for fine cloths, and some sort of 

 " stuffs, be declined, yet we retain a considerable part, for this reason among 

 " odiers, viz. because the wool of which our middling coarse cloths are made, 

 " is our own." 5 



A similar sentiment is expressed, in 1678, by the writer of " Ancient Trades 

 " decayed," who says, that " without the help of our wool, there could be no or- 

 " dinary low-priced cloth made."** 



A terrible reverse this! — that what, in 1582, was pronounced to be " the most 

 " fine wooll, the most soft, the most strong wooll," should, in less than a century, 

 turn out so inferior, as to afford its possessors no better consolation, than that it 

 was still the best in the world for middling, coarse, and low-priced cloth! 



In 1676, the 17th .of Charles II. Spanish wool was at 2.S. id. and our best at 

 Zd. per pound. The low price of our wool, according to the author of the 

 " Treatise of Wool and Cattle," which I quote, was in part owing " to our wear- 

 " ing so much Spanish cloth ourselves, and a great part of that not manufactured 



• Smith, I. 223. t Idem, II. 173, 174, 175. \ Idem, II. 252. 



§ Practical Observations on Wool, page 6, note. fj Smith, JI. 336. 



f Smith, I, 155. •• Idtm, I. 229. 



