WOOL TRADE. (Hansard, 1 May 1817)

Mr. Burrell
said, he held in his hand a Petition relating to a very important subject, viz, the laws which regulated the growth, trade, and manufacture of Wool. The petitioners, who consisted of a number of respectable wool growers in the neighbourhood of Bright-helmston, considered themselves much aggrieved that there should be so little restraint on the importation of foreign wool whilst the prohibitions on the export trade gave the manufacturer a monoply of all wool of British growth. He would remind the House, that the price of this article had lately fallen 50 per cent., or from 3s. to 1s. 6d. per pound; and yet he believed that few gentlemen perceived any alteration in their tailors bills. The petitioners remarked, that foreigners paid nothing towards the taxation of this country; and stated their readiness to produce evidence at the bar of the House in support of their allegations.

Mr. Western,
having a similar petition to present from Essex, wished to say a few words on the subject. In the last year, the House having recognized the situation of the agricultural interests of the country as one of great distress, appointed a special committee to investigate the causes, and to endeavour to discover a remedy. In that committee, the state of the wool trade ought to have been a subject of primary consideration. Of the necessity of some measure for the relief of the wool-growers, there was a general impression. Persecuted, on the one hand, by the laws, which inflicted a severe penalty on any attempt on their part to and a foreign market for their wool, and on the 95 other hand, by the permission given to the wool of all Europe to be brought to this country, it was naturally to be expected that they should seek redress. They were, however, not permitted even to be heard before the committee, although the manufacturing interest was fully heard; and this refusal was founded on the assertion, that there was no ground for any inquiry into their case.

§ Lord Lascelles
said, that at the appointment of the committee alluded to, it was found impossible to investigate the whole subject; and the consequence was, a resolution to limit the inquiry in the first instance to the state of the wool trade. The result, was that it appeared that wool had borne a sufficient price up to that period, and had not therefore affected the agricultural interest. The committee sat before Easter, so that there was ample time for hearing the evidence of the wool-growers, but not one attended to make any communication. With regard to the general question of policy, he must oppose the prayer of these petitions at all times, but he thought the distress of the manufacturing interests an unanswerable objection to it at the present period.

Mr. D. Gilbert,
also having a petition to present on the subject, made a few observations on it, the tendency of which was generally in coincidence with the remarks of the noble lord, but at the same time recommending that some restriction should be laid on the importation of the coarser kinds of foreign wool. The wool growers wished, either for a tax on the importation of foreign wool, or a bounty on the exportation of their own wool, but would prefer the former.

§ Mr. Frankland Lewis
complained of the limitation that the committee of last year imposed on their inquiries, and represented that the House owed it to the country and to its own character, to appoint a committee to go into a bona fide investigation of this important subject. If such an inquiry were commenced, it would be proved that the laws regulating our wool-trade were as absurd and anomalous as the laws regulating our general commerce.

§ Mr. Curwen
urged the necessity of an inquiry, but admitted that it would lead to a very wide and important investigation, comprehending not merely our domestic interests but our foreign policy.

§ Mr. Shiffner
observed, that all that the petitioners required was a fair remune- 96 rating price for their commodity, which would be given them by the imposition of a duty on the importation of foreign wool.