ted in 1337, the great object being to make
the foreigner pay dearly for our staple product: an object which was
certainly effected, for when Queen Philippa redeemed her crown from
pawn at Cologne in 1342 by a quantity of English wool, 1s. 3-1/2d. a
lb. was the price, and it was even said to sell in Flanders at 3s. a
lb., a price which, expressed in modern money, seems fabulous.[719]
However, in the next reign English wool began to decline in price,
owing probably to changes in fashion, but the long wools maintained
their superiority and their export was forbidden by Henry VI and
Elizabeth.[720]

In the reign of James I it was confessed 'that the cloth of this
kingdom hath wanted both estimation and vent in foreign parts, and
that the wools are fallen from their stated values', so that export
was prohibited entirely; and 13 and 14 Car. II, c. 18, declared the
export of wool a felony, though 7 and 8 Will. III, c. 28, says this
did not deter people from exporting it, so that the law was made more
stringent on the subject, and export continued to be forbidden until
1825.[721] In a letter written in 1677 the fall of rents in England,
which had caused the value of estates to sink from twenty-one to
sixteen or seventeen years' purchase, is ascribed mainly to the low
price of wool,[722] owing to the prohibition of export and increased
imports from Ireland and Spain. It was now, said the writer, worth 7d.
instead of 12d., and a great quantity of Spanish wool was being sold
in England at low rates. These 'low rates' were 2s. and 2s. 2d. a lb.
for the best wool, whereas in 1660 the best Spanish wool was 4s. and
4s. 2d. a lb.

We have seen[723] that Spanish wool was imported into England in the
Middle Ages. In 1677, according to Smith,[724] England imported 2,000
bags of 200 lb. each from Spain[725]; in the three years 1709-11,
14,000 bags; in the three years 1713-14, 20,000 bags; and about 1730
some came from Jamaica, Maryland, and Virginia, and down to 1802
imports were free.[726] In that year a duty of 5s. 3d. a cwt. was
imposed, which in 1819 was raised to 56s. a cwt., which, however, was
reduced to 1d. a lb. on 1s. wool and 1/2d. a lb. on wool under 1s. in
1824. In 1825 colonial wool was admitted free, and in 1844 the duty
taken off altogether, and imports from our colonies and foreign
countries soon assumed enormous proportions. Down to 1814 nearly all
our imports of wool came from Spain; after that the greater part came