Mr. Wilsonpresented a petition from a number of dealers in wool praying for a repeal of the new duty on Foreign Wool. The petitioners set forth, that, in consequence of this tax, the importation of foreign wool had fallen off very materially, the consequence of which was, that certain branches of the woollen manufacture had suffered greatly. He had learned from a letter which was dated so late as the 8th of February last, that in one port of Spain no less than three American vessels were loading with wool, which it was found useless to send here, on account of the high duty with which it was charged. This was a circumstance entirely new in our commercial transactions, and showed the bad effect which the tax produced. A gentleman having 300 bags of wool consigned to him, was compelled on account of the duty to send them abroad; and a merchant at Liverpool having purchased 350 bags, finding that the commodity could not bear the extent of duty, had shipped the wool to the United States. A communication had been made to him, from a respectable house in the city, stating that a demand to the amount of. about 6,000l. annually, for broad-cloths, ordinary cloths, and stuffs, which they were accustomed to ship to the continent, had been transferred, in consequence of the advanced prices, to Bremen and other towns, which were thus encouraged to become our rivals in trade. The raw material was driven from this country; and other states, in consequence of the increased price of the articles they had been accustomed to purchase from us, were compelled to depend on their own manufactures. The old duty produced a considerable revenue, and enabled the manufacturer to carry on a profitable trade; but when a duty of from 25 to 30 per cent was levied on the raw material, it was absolutely forcing the United States whether they would, or not, to become manufacturers.
Mr. Baringsaid, that a more important subject could not possibly be brought under the consideration of that House. He could not help stating his conviction, that if parliament did not listen to the voice of the manufacturers, Great Britain was in danger of losing a large portion of her trade.
§ Mr. Huskissonsaid, as notice of a motion for the repeal of the tax had been given, it would be better to go into a consideration of the question when that motion was made, instead of arguing it on the ex parte statements of certain petitioners. With respect to the tax ruining the import trade, the fallacy of the assertion was proved by the fact, that the tax last year produced 180,000l. and that near 8,000,000lbs. of wool were imported. This showed that the importer did not consider it to be a ruinous speculation.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.