A P P E N D I X, No. IV. 45 



has taken place, in this refpefl, may have been owing t© 

 that caufe. 



Before the days of Charles II. the exportation of wool 

 from Britain, though ilibje(fl at all times to a high duty, 

 and liable to temporary interruptions on monopolizing prin- 

 ciples, was ftill however permitted, in one way or other. 

 Since that time, it has been totally prohibited, under the 

 fevered penalties. This matter has been much mifrepre*^ 

 fented, as might be eafily proved, were it here proper. 



On examining what ought: naturally to be the effect of 

 fuch a prohibition, in a country that had been accuftomed 

 to carry on a confiderable foreign trade in wool, it is evi- 

 dent that the jirjl effedl of it muft have been greatly to 

 lower the price oijlne wool. 



Before the prohibition took place, the difference between 

 the price of fine and of coarfe wool muft have been very 

 great ; becaufe, as the duty on the exportation of wool was 

 the fame in all cafes, it was only that which was very fincy 

 and which of courfe bore a very high price in foreign mar- 

 kets, that could find its way thither. The coarfe wool, 

 which fold at a price in foreign markets not much higher 

 than the duty (which was fometimes L.5 per fack), toge- 

 ther with freight and charges, could never go thither ; 

 great exertions, therefore, would be then made by the wool 

 growers to obtain j^//<? wool fit for the foreign market. No 

 fooner, however, was tliis outlet flopped up than the im- 

 menfe glut of that kind of wool in the home market would 

 lower the price of that fine wool, fo very much as to make 

 it no longer worth the wool growers while to rear it *. — • 

 Regardlefs, therefore, of the quality of his wool any longer, 

 his attention muft now be turned chiefly towards the im- 

 proving 



* For a particular enumeration of the evils that a^ually were experienced 

 from this caufe, fee a treatife of Roger Coke, entitled, The equal Danger 

 of Church, Trade, and State of England, 4/0, printed anno i6oc— and Smith's 

 Menioirs of Wool, fajfun, and 'other pamphlets there referred t.o. 



