the value of an article so necessary to many essential manufactures will rise.

If my opinion respecting the price of South Down wool is desired, I should (notwithstanding the average value within the present month throughout the kingdom was 3s. 43d. per lb.) recommend, under all the circumstances, and for the encouragement of the fair, and the dispatch of business, 3s. per lb. for such bargains as may be made this day; but I am satisfied that those to whom it may be convenient, and who wish to reserve their wool, will have a better price; and that in future, when the present stock of foreign wool is disposed of, that our farmers who have attended to the quality of their wool, will never fail to obtain a very good price for it.

REPORT, JULY 26, 1811.

The continued extravagant conduct of the enemy, infinitely more hurtful to the countries under his protection than it is to us, has greatly deranged trade and intercourse among nations; yet the distress which has fallen on this country did not arise merely from the efforts of the enemy; much has been done through precipitate and mischievous speculations, as well as by the dissemination of notions tending to destroy confidence, and to prejudice the credit of the country; for, notwithstanding the asserted decay of the woollen trade, in consequence of the war, I trust I shall be able to prove that the export of woollens has increased, and that the consumption at home must also be greater than ever it has been. It will be necessary to remark at some length on the enormous importations, for several years past, of foreign wool, which, not without reason, has occasioned a great degree of alarm among the wool-growers of the United Kingdom.

The total importation of foreign wool into England, in the year 1808, amounted to 2,353,725 lbs., being only one-fifth of the amount of the import in the preceding year. Most of it arrived before the close of the spring; aud the French, having possessed.

themselves about that time of the principal ports of exportation in Spain, it early became evident that further supplies would not arrive. The staplers and wool-factors immediately began to speculate upon this expectation, which ultimately proved to be correct. The speculators, some of whom already held considerable stocks, part of the extraordinary import of 1807, purchased every bag as it was offered for sale. Previously to those speculations, Spanish wool sold at the following prices; viz. Leonesas 6s. 9d., Segovias 6s. to 6s. 6d., and Sorias 5s. to 5s. 9d., at a credit of eight months; but the prices were rapidly enhanced, and during the first six months of 1809, Leonesas were sold at 25s., Segovias 21s., and Sorias 18s. per lb. It is said that the foreign wools had cost the merchant 10s. per lb., and that they were, for the most part, in the hands of a few men of large capitals. Very many, who had imprudently engaged in the speculation, were ruined; whereas immense profits were made by those who had purchased at the low rates of 1808, and contrived to sell the whole of their stock at very high prices, and then retired from the market. Since that memorable speculation, Spanish wools have gradually declined in price. The manufacturer having no disposition to buy a larger quantity than his immediate necessities required, which was less than usual, in consequence of a considerable suspension of the manufacture, during the latter part of 1809 and beginning of 1810; and the import of wool in 1809 being 6,845,338 lbs., and in the early part of 1810 much greater than at any anterior correspondent period, Spanish wools were at length reduced to their former prices. The total quantity of foreign wool imported in 1810 was 10,936,224lbs., being above one-half more than an average import at the end of the last century, and inferior only to the extraordinary import of 1807, when the Spaniards, under an apprehension of impending political convulsion, sent here all the wool they could collect, to preserve it from the hands of the French. This large importation in 1810, and the embarrassed circumstances of commercial men, produced a still further reduction in the prices, and in January and February last they were very low.-Speculation then re-commenced. The purchases of prime qualities, in the months of May and June last, have been very great, chiefly of last year's import, the spring importation, usually the season when the entries.

are most numerous, not being very considerable. Leonesas have readily sold at from 8s. to 8s. 6d. per lb.; but this advance in prime wools has not much affected the inferior sorts, of which, it is said, there is fully two years' consumption on hand: the price asked for Segovias is 6s. and for Sorias 5s. per lb., and not much is sold even at those prices. As the prime fleeces, however, are now taken out of the market, and in the hands of those who will not sell at low prices, the manufacturers of superfine cloths may resort to the next or inferior qualities, which will probably raise their price.

Prime English sorted wool, previously to 1809, was generally estimated at half the price of the finest Spanish wool; that is, when the latter was selling at 6s. 9d. per lb. the English wool was worth 3s. 4d.; but, in consequence of the late speculations, it sold at 6s. For some time after the great failures among the woolstaplers, comparatively little was sold; but considerable quantities have been disposed of lately, at prices, however, much reduced, and lower than they have been during several years; prime South Down, in the fleece, at from 2s. to 2s. 3d. per lb. The principal growers of English wool, not having sold the growth of last year, there must be a large quantity on hand; there is very little, however, in the hands of the manufacturers, who seldom keep any large stock. Although many of the staplers of English wool are very wealthy, few of them, at present, have money unemployed; their capital is not at command, it is partly locked up in the estates of those who have suspended payment, or become bankrupts; consequently they have not the means of increasing their stock, and the lack of money obliges many of them to sacrifice the stock they have. Nothing has tended more to cripple and distress this description of persons, as well as many others, than the general withdrawing of discounts by all banks, the result of the publication of the Bullion Committee's Report; and the gloom which has pre vailed among commercial men, has induced them to purchase much more sparingly than formerly.

When the prices of wool had been so extravagantly enhanced by speculation, the manufacturer, as usual, laid on his fabrics double the amount of the rise in the cost of the material; and the speculations in wool were closely followed by speculations in cloths. Even 40s. and upwards per yard were demanded by the drapers

for blue cloths, and for a considerable time they obtained for them from 34s. to 36s. per yard. But the high prices of Spanish wool, and of the cloth, after a few months checked the manufacture; there was more economy in the use of it, and inferior cloths were worn. Superfine blue cloths have since been reduced to their former prices, viz. about 24s. per yard. At this time, the manufactures in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and their neighbourhoods, are in general employed, and, as it is called, at fair work, on the finest Spanish wools. The consumption of superfine cloths made of that wool has been almost entirely by British subjects, and no considerable quantity has ever been exported to foreign countries. Superfine woollens are actually scarce, in consequence of the late suspension of the manufacture; and there can be no doubt that this branch of the manufacture will resume its former florishing state, while Spanish wool is at its present moderate price. As to the state of the woollen trade in Yorkshire, I learn that the stock of unsold goods on hand was much greater than usual that the best sorted English wool, which was lately sold at 5s. 5d. per lb., now sells at 3s. 4d. to 3s. 8d. All the lower sorts have fallen in that district; but as their advance was less, their fall has been comparatively not so great. The best Spanish wool, which was once, in that part of the country, at 15s. and upwards, is now at 7s.; but Spanish fleeces by no means form a principal part of the wools worked up in Yorkshire.

The official value of woollen manufactures exported last year, viz. 5,779,214/. exceeds the value of the exports of the year 1809 by 350,000l., and those of that year considerably exceeded the exports of the preceding year. The average exports of the last forty years, which includes the most florishing period of our trade, is 4,662,523l., considerably more than 1,000,000/. below the exports of last year; but these, it should be observed, are the official, not the real values. They, however, answer the purpose of comparison. The real value would probably amount to nearly double. I learn also there is no diminution of the exports of woollen manuFacture in the first quarter of this year. The exports of cloth to America, in the early part of the present year, were very great, probably in anticipation of the American prohibitions being again enforced; but cautious dealers detained their goods, which were

not ready in time to reach America before the 2d of February, and have them on hand, whilst those who ventured to ship in our ports till the 1st of February, succeeded in having them received. The East and West India demands for woollens are the same as usual, but very little business is doing with Germany, Holland, and the North of Europe. It should be observed, that France at no time took a considerable part of our woollen exports.

The average importation of wool in nineteen years, ending 1715, was only 869,727 lbs., and even at that time we considered woollens as our principal and most valuable manufacture. The average importation of eight years, ending 1789, (the commencement of the French revolution,) was 2,660,828 lbs. The average of eight years, ending 1799, was 4,020,000lbs.; and the average of eight years, ending 1810 inclusive, was 7,729,929 lbs. This immense increase since 1789 must of course greatly clash with the essential interests of the landed property of the United Kingdom; for although the prime foreign wools, viz. Leonesas, even at 6s. 9d., cau hardly interfere with English fine wools at from 2s. to 3s.; yet as a great proportion are the lower wools from Spain and Portugal, which, in consequence of the great failures, have often sold of late for less than the freights and insurance, they not only interfere with the first crosses of the Merino with British ewes, but also with the prime clothing wools of English breeds, such as the Hereford and South Down; and the knowledge of the very extraordinary quantity imported, and of the stock of wool in the hands of the growers, has so much prejudiced the sale, that the growers seem entirely at the mercy of the buyers, and the latter are not averse to take advantage of circumstances which tend to keep down the value of wool.

The patriotic endeavours of his Majesty, and of several spirited individuals, to establish a permanent and adequate source of supply of fine wools in the United Kingdom, by the introduction of Spanish sheep, have succeeded more fully, and the object now seems likely to be more rapidly attained than even the most sanguine had expected. There is every reason to believe that the Merino wool of British growth, such as his Majesty, Mr. Tollet, and other gentlemen have raised, if it were washed and sorted in the Spanish mode, might go to market in successful competition with the ave