CAPITALIST AND DOMESTIC SYSTEMS IN CLOTHING TRADE 505 
maintained during the whole period of Whig Ascendancy. 4-D. 2689 
As in other cases, the effort to put down a profitable branch ’ 
of commerce led to the development of an illicit trade; the 
great stretch of pasture ground on Romney Marsh offered 
special facilities for the successful running of wool’. This 
policy, which tended towards lowering the price of wool, was 
much favoured by the manufacturers, but it roused the despite 
jealousy of the landed interest, and in all probability it did te 
bo some extent defeat its own ends. Wool-growing became [anded, 
less profitable, almost at the very date when the corn-bounty 
Act was giving a new security to those who devoted them- 
selves to tillage. The landowners in the pasture counties 
were inclined to resent the special favour shown to corn- 
growing, but the experience of depopulation in the sixteenth 
century had left an indelible impression on the public mind, 
and no proposal to develop wool-growing by a system of 
bounties would have had a chance of passing. At the same 
time it can hardly be a matter of surprise that, when rules 
were enforced which tended to keep down the price of wool, 
the supply showed little sign of increase. The West of and the 
England manufacturers had opportunities of obtaining wool he was 
and yarn from Ireland? but even with this assistance, and supple, 
the legal right to the whole of the English clip, the trade from 
fails to show an expansion at all commensurate to the pains 
which were expended on fostering it. 
The low price of wool would have been advantageous to 
all manufacturers, domestic and capitalist alike; but the 
difficulty of transporting a bulky commodity, like wool, gave 
an advantage to the dealer, who was able to organise the 
means of conveying his purchase. The domestic weaver, who The 
bought in small quantities for immediate use, could hardly orice 
hope to compete with the great stapler, who had facilities for i ol 
buying in any part of the country. The mediaeval legisla fage in the 
bion against the regrating of wool was probably designed to of wool. 
English Commerce, pp. 173, 174, and the Contrast (1782), quoted by Bischoff, 
Woollen and Worsted Manufactures, 95, 231. See also Smith, Wealth of Nations, 
tv viii. p. 268. 
i An Abstract of the proceedings of W. Carter (1694) and Excidium Angliae (1727). 
11W.and M.1,c. 82 § 6. The statute only allowed wool from Ireland to be 
sent to Liverpool, Chester, Bristol, Minehead, Barnstaple, Bideford and Exeter, 
and to no other ports.