first edition

The first edition of Samuel Webber's exhortation against wool running — the unlicensed export of raw wool abroad.

Like many of his contemporaries Webber, a trader with 'above forty Years' (p.3) experience in the industry, was motivated by a desire to control the price of wool within England. His argument however was premised on the rather more patriotic grounds that 'The Exportation of our Wool to France is the chief Cause of our Weakness and their Strength. By the Help of our Wool they have been enabled to improve their Manufacturies, and by being able to work cheaper than we can possibly do they have under-sold and supplanted us in Foreign Markets' (pp.iv-v).

First edition; 8vo (20.5 x 12.5 cm); small '4' in pen to title-paged header; later red morocco-backed cloth boards, gilt spine; vii, [1], 3-26pp.

ESTC T48104; Kress, 4479; Goldsmith, 7700.