WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



for feveral years at the fame rate, when the fliilling was of 

 fomething more than the prefent value, we think it pro- 

 bable that the rate was fixed at the beginning of the year 

 1 J45, wlien the fliilling was at ij-. j^J. of our prefent coin. 

 This wool was, therefore, wortli at lead 5/. i4r. iJ. the 

 fack of iSiilbs., and 11/. 91. 2J. the fack of 364lbs. 



In 1560, in the time of Guicciardini, Spaniih wool in 

 the Netherlands was at a fomewhat lower price. He tells 

 us, " that they ufed formerly to fend annually from Spain to 

 Bruges more than 40,000 facks, but that in this year the 

 Spaniards, having made more cloth at home, had fent only 

 2 j,ODO facks, at zy crowns each." The crown being 45. and 

 the ftiUing is.o^d. of our money, this would be 10/. is. id. 

 the fack of 364 pounds. The depreciation fcems in truth 

 to liave arifen from a diminifhed demand for this wool in the 

 Netherlands. The wools imported into the Netherlands 

 from Spain were the lower or coarfer kinds. 



The fuperfine wools of Spain feem to have been firfl; in- 

 troduced among the Italian ftates. Thus Damianus a Goes 

 in 1541, after having fpecified the 40,000 facks to Bruges, 

 a> before-mentioned, adds, " and alfo to Italy, and other 

 cities of the Netherlands, are annually fent about zo,ooo 

 facks, of which thofe ufed in Italy, being of the choiceft 

 wool, are fold at from forty to fifty gold ducats each." 



From this account, we have a fair opportunity of drawing 

 two important inferences : the firft is, that the Spanifh wool 

 which went to the Netherlands was, as we have before ob- 

 ferved, of the coarfeft kind, being of only half the price 

 of that which was exported to Italy ; fecondly, we can 

 compare the value of the latter with that of our Englilh 

 wool, the belt of which, according to the aft of parliament 

 in 1534, already quoted, did not in England exceed jj. the 

 ftone of 14 pounds, of 61. 10s. the fack of 364 pounds. 

 The (hilling, however, being then equal to is. ^\d. of our 

 coin, increafes the price of the fack 8/. i8j. ^d. ; to which 

 add cuftom and fubfidy, 3/. T3J. 4//. or 5/. os. lod., and the 

 refult will be 13/. igj. ■]d. The additional charges of freight 

 and merchant's profit would fcarcely bring the whole amount 

 to 16/. 16^. On the other hand, according to the teftimony 

 of Damianus a Goes, the Spanifli fack of i8ii pounds was 

 in 1541 worth 14/. 6s. ^\d., and the fack of 364 pounds 

 28/. i/^._6d. of our prefent money. If the author fpeaks 

 only of the value of this wool in Spain itfelf, then a farther 

 addition mull be made of freight, merchant's profit, and 

 probable duty to the crown. On the whole, this calcula- 

 tion is fuflicient to (hew in the llrongeft light the fuperior 

 price of fuperfine Spanilh wool, to that of the very beft at 

 that time produced in Britain. 



Next in order of time to the Italians, the manufafture of 

 fuperfine wool feems to have been adopted by the French, 

 who, according to Guicciardini, in 1560 fent by land to 

 Antwerp fome very fine cloths of Paris and Rouen, which 

 were highly prized. 



It is probable, however, that thefe cloths were made only 

 of mixed wool. 



A ftrong confirmation of the early ufe of the beft Spanilh 

 wool, unmixed with coarfer by the Italian ftates, is furnilhed 

 by Richelieu's Political Teftament, printed in 1 635, in which, 

 fpeaking of the fine woollen manufaftures of France, the 

 author fays, " the Turks prefer the draps de fceau de Rouen 

 to all others, next to thofe of Venice, which are made of 

 Spanilh wool." 



And the author of " England's Safety in Trade's In- 

 creafe," written in 1641, tells us, that «' the greateil part 

 of their (the Venetians) wools from Spain, and the reft 

 from Conftantinople, is commonly brought in Englilh 

 ftiipping." 



In 1646, Nicholas Cadeau and other Frenchmen had let. 

 ters patent for twenty years, for making at Sedan black and 

 coloured cloths, like thofe of Holland, of the fineft Spaiiilh 

 wool. 



The inhabitants of the north of Europe, as before-men- 

 tioned, were not at firft able to manufafture fine Spanilh 

 wool, without the alCftance of that which was longer and 

 coarfer. But what in the beginning was a matter of necef- 

 fity, became afterwards an objeA of choice ; and the more 

 llcilful clothiers, whether in Holland or elfewhere, either 

 carding the finer and dearer Spani(h with the coarfer and 

 cheaper Englifh, or forming a warp of the latter, which they 

 covered with a woof of the former, contrived to make a 

 cheap and ferviceable cloth, which pleafed the eye equally 

 well vsrith the more coftly fabrics of entire Spanilh wool. 

 This though generally concealed with great care at the time, 

 yet is afterwards candidly acknowledged by writers aftually 

 engaged in the commerce of wool, and fufSciently refutes 

 the prejudices which had here prevailed from the middle of 

 the 16th to the middle of the 17th centur)-. Hence it ap- 

 pears that our wool, when placed in conneftion with Spanilh, 

 was chiefly valuable from being well calculated not to im- 

 prove but to adulterate it. 



A treaty between France and Spain in 1659, enabled 

 the former freely to obtain the wool of the latter, and thus 

 to gain great advantage over us in the Levant trade. From 

 the proximity of France to the woollen manufaftures in the 

 north of Spain, it might have been expefted that the French 

 would have earlier engaged in this manufafture ; but owing 

 to their frequent northern wars, and their attention being 

 direfted to the manufafture of filk, the French do not' 

 appear to have commenced the fabrication of woollens for 

 exportation extenfively before the i6th century. About 

 this time, France made great progrefs in her manufaftures of 

 wool, and in fecuring the export trade, particularly that to 

 Tartary, for which (he was better fituated than Holland or 

 England. 



The nature of her trade to warm climates direfted her 

 attention to the fabrication of finer and lighter cloths, 

 than thofe made by her norihern neighbours ; in confe- 

 quence of which (he preferved the greater part of the 

 Turkey trade to the period of the French revolution, and 

 in general fine French cloths had attained a celebrity for 

 their fuperiority, both in texture and dye, over thofe of any 

 other country in Europe. The native breeds of iheep in 

 France were greatly improved by intermixture with (heep 

 imported from Spain. With thefe advantages, France 

 might have nearly fecured a monopoly of the finer branches 

 of the woollen manufafture, had not the abfurd policy of 

 her rulers, in the revocation of the edift of Nantz, driven 

 the manufafturing Proteftants to other countries, where they 

 contributed, by their exertion, their (liill, conneftions, and 

 capital, to form eftablidiments which rivalled thofe of the 

 country from which they were expelled. 



Notwithftanding this, as France fupphed the greater part 

 of her own population of twenty millions with cloth, beCdes 

 her foreign exports, we conceive that the woollens manu- 

 faftured in that country, before the late revolution, equalled 

 in quantity the cloth made in England at the time, and 

 greatly exceeded it in value. Under the emperor Napoleon, 

 the beft Merino flocks were imported in multitudes from 

 Spain, which have fpread over the country, and are equal 

 to fupply extenfively her manufaftures of woollens, when 

 they (hall be again fully eftabhlhed. Confiderable quan- 

 tities of fine wool have been imported from France into 

 England finee the peace of 1 8 1 5. 



The 



