APPENDIX, No. IV. 47 



Brkifh manufafturer could have had it for at his door — ■ 

 and this premium ought to have operated greatly in en- 

 abling him to underfeli them in foreign markets. Such 

 would have ftill been the condition of the Englifli cloathier, 

 had the exportation of wool continued to be permitted as 

 in the days of Elizabeth. What is it now ? At prefent no 

 'BritiJIj wool fit for vnzkxne^ fupcrjifie clotli is to be found. \i 

 he muft make^«f cloths, therefore, for foreign markets, he 

 muft buy Spanifti wool at the fame price at leaft with his 

 rival competitors, and thus he is entirely deprived of the 

 whole of the premium he would have had, if Britifli wool 

 had continued to be exported as formerly. Thus is the na- 

 tion at large deprived of a beneficial branch of commerce 

 it might ; eafily have enjoyed, and the King of Britain has 

 loft a confiderable revenue, which would have had this lin- 

 gular advantage over moft fources of revenue, that it wouM 

 have operated at the fame time as a bounty to the farmer % 

 and as a premium to the manufacturer, to enable him to 

 extend his foreign confumption of Britifti manufactures far 

 beyond what ever can take place under the miferable fyftem 

 of pohcy that has prevailed for fome time, which has been 

 adopted through ignorance, and can be continued only 

 through imbecillity of mind. 



This digreffion has led me much farther than was expeCl- 

 ed — ^but it is hoped the importance of the fubjeCl difcufled, 

 and its Intimate connexion with the obje£l of the prefent 

 enquiry, will be a fuflicient excufe. 



The fame legiflative regulations that banlflied fine wool 

 from England, have operated in a fimilar manner in Scot- 

 land — And though It be true that the woollen manufatfturc 

 in Scotland never had rifen to the fame perfection as in 

 England — and though we have had no Madox nor Rymer 

 . to collect together the fcattered facts that ferve to Indicate 



the 



* This muft only be confidered as a bounty to the farmer relati-vely, when 

 compared «rith the prefent fyftem of Icgiflation— not ahjohtdy. 



