A Treatise on Sheep:: The Best Means for their Improvement, General Management, and the Treatment of their Diseases.Blacklock, Ambrose
Science
A Treatise on Sheep:: The Best Means for their Improvement, General Management, and the Treatment of their Diseases.
Blacklock, Ambrose
Sheep
If any person sent to me for cloth at
7s. or 8s. a-yard, and if it were made of English wool it would be
sent back to me, and I must resort to foreign wool, or foreign mixed
with British, to execute that order." In fine, the British wool could
not be got rid of without a copious importation of foreign wool to aid
the manufacturer in his disposal of it, as fine cloths are so much
better and more durable in their wear than coarse cloths, that they
are coming more and more into demand, to the almost total exclusion of
the latter. Moreover, the good old custom of making home-spun cloth is
reviving among our farmers, and as it is excellently suited for
work-day wear, though necessarily of an inferior gloss, coarse cloths
will, to a considerable extent, cease to be the concern of our
manufacturers. The only cloth, indeed, which the bulk of the people
will require, will be a finer material to form the garb for Sunday and
holiday recreation.
(60.) _Countries from which we derive our Wool._--Our markets are
supplied with foreign wool principally from the following
places:--Australia, Van Dieman's Land, Cape of Good Hope, Peru,
Germany, Spain, and Russia. The Tasmanian fleeces are preferred to the
Australian, and fetch, in general, higher prices, owing to their being
fit for combing, while the latter, though making considerable advances
in fineness, are still of short staple. Both are favourites with our
manufacturers, from their being firm in the pile, a quality resulting
from the constant good health of the animal in those countries. The
German wool takes precedence of the Spanish, and has done so since
1819 or 1820. The King of Spain, about the year 1800, presented the
Elector of Saxony with a small merino flock, and, from that period,
our importations from Spain have diminished, as those from Germany
have increased. From the period of its first introduction into
Germany, till 1814, when peace once more fell to the lot of Europe,
these sheep were gradually spread over the kingdom of Saxony, and
when, by the events of 1815, the continental trade was thrown
completely open, the Saxon dealers, perceiving the value of this new
commercial article, commenced a regular trade in it with England. By
this new supply, the Spanish wool, as here shown, was slowly beaten
from its hold on the British manufacturers.
_Importations into England of Wool from Spain and Germany, at three
separate periods._
1800. 1814. 1827.
Germany, 421,850 lbs. 3,595,146 lbs. 22,007,198 lbs.
Spain and
Portugal, 7,794,758 lbs. 9,234,991 lbs. 4,349,643 lbs.
At these periods the ports of these countries were open to British
merchandize, so that we have here a convincing proof, that the wool
growers of Spain do not owe their losses, as supposed by some, to the
hostile incursions of the French, but to the friendly competition of a
neighbouring state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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