6a APPENDIX, No. IV. 



ing, an oppofite conciufion might have been drawn on 

 this fubjeft, before the days of Elizabeth : For, during 

 thot time, it appears that the fine-woolled fort kept their 

 ground, and confequentlj were at lead equally proiitable 

 with the others, though that fine wool, at that time, 

 could not be fold at a foreign market, %vithout being 

 loaded with a high duty : and as it then fold in foreign 

 markets at a price equal at leaft to that of Spain, it mull 

 have been fold in England at a price much below what 

 Spanifh wool could have been afforded for there, had it 

 been brought to this market. But if it was profitable to 

 rear fine wool in this country, when it fold for a lower 

 price than Spanifh wool of the fame quality, it ought to be 

 more profitable to rear it now, when it could be fold at 

 a price equal or fuperior to that of Spain, if its quality 

 fliould be -qual or fuperior to Spainifh wool. 



From this train of arguing, it feems natural to con- 

 clude, that were circumflances the fame in this nation 

 as formerly, and were the fine-woolled and coarfe-woolled 

 breeds of flieep equally eafy to be had, it ought to be 

 now much more profitable to rear the fine than the coarfe- 

 woolled fort: But neither would this conciufion be ftrict- 

 ly jufl. 



We have already traced the caufes of the degeneration 

 of our wool ; but in confequence of that debafement of 

 its quality, it is a certain fa£l, that though the dedruc- 

 tive laws that produced this eifedl were repealed, and 

 things were put upon the fame legal footing as formerly, 

 it will require long and continued exertions, before things 

 could be put into the fame a£lual fituation with refpeft 

 to the farmer, and to enable him to derive the fame 

 profit from his fine-woolled fheep, that he then could 

 eafily have obtained. 



Not only is it difficult for him now to procure the 

 befl breeds of iheep — not only is it difficult, and extremely 



expenfive 



