CHAPTER X. 



PEOSPEOTS AND PEOFITS OF WOOL AND MUTTON 

 PEODUOTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The subjoined table of the Prices of Wool, in one of the 

 )rincipal Wool Markets of the United States,- extending 

 hrough thirty- eight yeai'S — through the most disastrous 

 ■evulsions in the money market and in the prices of all kinds 

 jf property — Under tariffs which have at one period given 

 ixcessive protection to our woolen manufactures, and at 

 )thers abandoned them unaided to the competition of Europe 

 — presents the best proof I possess, nay, the most unan- 

 swerable proof possible, of the steady remunerativeness of 

 srool production. It was prepared for me in 1862, from his 

 jwn books and those of his predecessors in the same firm, by 

 Sreorge Livermore, Esq., of Boston, one of the most -eminent 

 ivool commission merchants ever in the United States — and 

 lis name is an ample guaranty of its accuracy. It has now 

 been published a year, and has ^ circulated throughout the 

 trade without one of its figures being questioned.* I have 

 idded a column to it indicating the tariff laws in force at 

 the different periods, but there is not space here to give 

 even a synopsis of those tariffs.f 



The average and not the extreme prices for each quarter 

 are given, and it will be observed that these are not given 

 strictly by quarters anterior to 1827. 



I have learned, from various reliable sources, that from 

 1800 to 1807, wool bore low prices in our country; that in 

 1807 and 1808 full-blood Merino wool sold for $1 a pound; 

 that in 1809, it rose to about $2 a pound, and so continued 

 through the war against England, commenced in 1812 — some 

 shoice lots fetching $2.50 a poimd; that when our infant 



* It was published in my Eeport on Fine - Wool Husbandry, in 1862 ; and in 

 ;Iie Boston trade publications which would place it in the hands of all the leading 

 irool merchants and mannfiicturers. 



t A complete synopsis of them is given in my Eeport on Fine-Wool Husbandry, 

 1862. 



