Wool. The coat of rams, ewes, lambs, and sheep, which for that reason are called wool -bearing animals, and when this coat is cut from their bodies and has not yet been prepared at all, it is called fleece .

Wool is of all the materials the most abundant and the supplest; it combines solidity with elasticity and mobility. It provides us with the surest defense against the weather. For the most flourishing kingdoms it forms the largest part of their manufactures and trade. Everything compels us to deal with this subject to the full extent that it deserves.

The coat which comprises wool yields fibers that are very fine, flexible, and soft. Seen under a microscope, they are so many shafts implanted in the skin by roots [ radicules ]: these little roots [ racines ] which go every which way, form so many canals which carry a nourishing juice, and which circulation deposits in oval follicles composed of two membranes. One is external, made of a fairly strong tissue, like a tendon; the other is internal, enveloping the bulb. In these bulbous capsules we perceive the roots of the hairs bathed in a liquid that is constantly being filtered, in addition to a soft substance that apparently delivers nutrients. As these hairs hold to nervous tufts, they are vascular and take in winding pores the curly configuration that we see on the animal.

But whereas the physicist considers only the structure of the hairs that comprise wool , their origin and their growth, the people care only about the uses they draw from it. This feeling is natural. Wool furnishes man with the material for clothing that joins suppleness to solidity, and whose fabric varies with the seasons, the guarantee successively against the freezing north winds and the searing bolts of a heat wave. These precious coverings, which grow proportionally with the cold, become for the animals that bear them, an uncomfortable weight as spring approaches. The summer, which as it were, ripens the fleece, like the harvest of crops, is the normal time for the harvest of wool .

The specialists in this trade distinguish in each fleece three qualities of wool : 1. The mother wool , which is that of the back and the neck; 2. The wool from the tail and the thigh; 3. That from the throat, from below the belly, and other parts of the body.

There are types of wool whose use is prohibited in manufactures: the wool called pelades , (contributing or overhanging wool), the morelles or wool from sheep that have died of illness, and finally the peignons and the bourres (this is what the wool that remains at the bottom of the combs [ peignes ] is called, and that which hangs down from the spine). All these kinds of wool are given the common name of jettices and rebut . If there are tanners who do not subscribe to this list of reject wools , one must not listen to them.

Wool comes in a variety of colors: whites, yellows, reddish, and blacks. In the past almost all the wool -bearing animals of Spain, except those from Baetica (Andalusia), were black. The natives preferred this color to white, which today is the only one valued in Europe because it can be dyed with brighter, more varied, and deeper colors than those which are naturally colored.

Caring for wool -bearing animals is not a practice based on fashion or whim; history traces it back to the first age of the world. The principal wealth of the ancient inhabitants of the earth consisted in flocks of ewes. The Romans considered this branch of agriculture to be the most essential. When Numa [1] wanted to circulate the coins he invented, he marked them with the footprint of a ewe, as a sign of its utility, pecunia à pecude , says Varro. [2]

What more authentic proof is there of the value placed on wool -bearing animals in Rome than the assiduity with which their preservation was guarded? More than six centuries after Numa, the management of all the flocks of white animals still belonged to the censors, those supreme magistrates whose charge gave them the right to inspect the conduct and morals of every citizen. They levied some kind of fines on those who neglected their flocks and granted awards with the honorable title of ovinus to those persons who demonstrated some industry in contributing to the improvement of their wool . It served them, as it does us, for clothing of all sorts. Interested in those which surpassed the others in terms of silkiness, fineness, softness, and length, they got their best fleeces from Galicia, Apulia (especially Taranto), Attica, and Miletus. Virgil celebrated these last wools in his Georgics and their tints were highly valued.

Pliny and Columella also vaunted the fleeces of Gaul. Spain and England still had nothing in this genre that outweighed the choice of other countries subjected to the conquerors of the world. But the Spanish and the English have since come to establish breeds of wool -bearing animals whose fleeces are of much higher value than anything produced in Europe in Antiquity.

The quality of Spanish wool is to be gentle, silky, fine, and soft to the touch. It cannot be beaten, even though it is terribly dirty when it arrives from Castille. These impurities are removed by washing it in a bath composed of one-third urine and two-thirds water. This operation gives it a solid shine, but the cost is waste of 53%. This wool has the defect of fulling much more than others, in the length and the width of fabrics made entirely from it. When it is blended, this should be done with caution, because being subject to shrinking more than others, it forms small hollows in the fabric and very visible unevenness.

The best wool of Spain comes primarily from Andalusia, Valencia, Castille, Aragon, and Biscay. The area around Saragossa in Aragon and the vicinity of Segovia in Castille, furnish the most esteemed Spanish wools . Among the finest of these two kingdoms, we distinguish the pile of El Escorial, that of Munoz, Mondajos, Orlega, La Torre, El Paular, the pile of the Carthusians, that of the Jesuits, and the grill and resin of Segovia; but we place the pile of El Escorial above all the others. [4]

Wool is the largest part of Spanish commerce; and not only do the French use a considerable amount of it in the fabrication of their fine cloth, but even the English themselves, who have such fine and valuable wools , make frequent use of it in the fabrication of their best fabrics. Wools of Spain are identified according to where they come from, or according to their quality. For example, the general denomination Segovia is given to wools from Portugal, the Roussillon, and Léon, because they are of similar quality.

The wool of Portugal, however, is distinctive in that it is fulled along the length and not across the width of the cloth in which it is used.

The other names for Spanish wools , or those reputed to be Spanish, are: the large and small Albarracin, the ségéveuses from Molina, the Segovian sories and the common sories . The molinian wool that comes from Barcelona, the fleuretonnes from Navarre and Aragon, the cabésas from Extremadura, the small campos from Seville: all these wools constitute so many different categories; the workers know the properties of each one.

The Spanish divide their wools into fine, medium, and inferior. They call the finest primo ; the next one is called segundo , and the third is called tercio . These terms serve to identify the quality of the wool from each canton; and for that purpose they take care to add to these denominations the name of their place of origin; thus, one refers to the primo of Segovia, to designate the best wool from that canton, that of Portugal, Roussillon, etc. That of the second grade is called segundo or reflowered of Segovia; the wool of the lowest order is called the tiercio of Segovia.

England (in which I also include Scotland and Ireland) is, after Spain, the country in which magnificent wools are the most abundant.

The choice wool from England is less fine and less soft to the touch, but longer and more lustrous than the wool from Spain. Its whiteness and its natural sheen make it more appropriate than any other for the best dyes.

The two types of wools that we have just discussed, the wools of England and Spain, are the most valuable used by France in its manufactures, through blending them with its own native ones, but they are not the only ones that it needs for trade and consumption. It is obliged to import a certain amount from the Levant and the northern countries, however inferior these latter may be in terms of quality.

Those from the Levant arrive by way of Marseille; those which come directly from Constantinople and Smyrna are preferred to others; but as the Greeks and the Turks use the best for their own purposes, it is difficult for the good stuff to get to us. The Turks, knowing that the French are connoisseurs of their wool , tart up and disguise their most ordinary stuff as much as they can; and they sell it to the Traders as authentic wools of Constantinople and Smyrna. Those from the area around Alexandria, Aleppo, Cyprus, and Morea are passable; if nothing else is available people take them as they are valued, and our merchants are often fooled, being obliged to stockpile a certain number of bales of it in order to make up their costs.

The wools from the North that are most valued in our manufactures are those from the Duchy of Weimar. We also get some fairly good stuff from Lorraine and the Rhineland. Lastly, our factories use wool from Holland and Flanders, according to their quality.

But it is time to talk about the native wools of the kingdom, their different qualities, how they are used, and the blends that are made in our manufactures with them and foreign wools .

The best wools in France are those from the Roussillon, Languedoc, the Berry, Valognes, the Cotentin, and all of lower Normandy. Picardy and Champagne produce only wools that are inferior to those of other provinces.

The fleeces of the Roussillon, Languedoc, and lower Normandy are without question the richest and the most valuable that are harvested in France, although they are not the only ones that are used. The Dauphiné, the Limosin, Burgundy, and Poitou also supply good fleeces.

Of the whole kingdom, the Berry and the Beauvais are stocked with the largest number of wool -bearing animals; but the fleeces that come from these two regions differ completely in quality. The wools of Sologne and Berry are short and easy to work with, whereas those of Beauvais are very rough and long; fortunately, they soften with washing.

We also get a lot of wool from Gascony and the Auvergne: Bayonne produces two kinds. The wool that grows on the sheep of the region is more similar to long hairs than to true fleece. The breed of Flemish ewes that was established there almost a century ago has succeeded pretty well. They produce fleeces that surpass in quality those that we get from Poitou and the wetlands of the Charente.

All these wools find a way to be used in our manufactures based on their grade. The wool from Roussillon goes into the fabrication of our best cloth, under the name of Segovia. Those from Languedoc, graced with the same name by the Manufacturers’ brokers, serve the same purpose. The wool from the Berry goes into the fabrication of the cloth of Valognes and Vire; and it is also these wools with which the cloth that bears the name of Berry is made, as well as the druggets of Amboise, when it is blended with a small amount of Spanish wool . The wools of Valognes and the Cotentin are used in the fabrics of Valognes and Cherbourg, and in serges, both finettes and razs de Saint-Lô . These wools are blended with the best English ones.

The wools of Caux, prepared properly, are particular to the carders of Champagne, and manufactured with the wools of that province. Coverings and warp threads for several types of fabrics are made out of it for the goods, among others, of Reims and Amiens. The coarse wools of Bayonne are used for the selvage of black cloth when blended with a bit of ostrich and camel hair.

We can already see that every grade of wool has its use based on the merit of each one. Those rejected by the bonnet-maker or the draper as too strong or too coarse are blended by the upholsterer for his own specific products. [5] Let us now reveal how wools of all sorts are used in our different manufactures.

The manufacturers who use wool in their workshops can be divided into three groups: these are the drapers, the bonnet-makers, and the upholsterers.

As is well-known, drapery is the art of weaving woolen fabrics. Under this classification are included serges, twills, and coverings. Drapery, of all the fabrics, generates the most commodities, is the most likely to satisfy the taste and the needs of nations; it also uses the best and the most valuable wools.

The products of the bonnet-maker are made on a loom or by knitting. This last method is the least costly. It provides man with a very complete covering which forms a whole without assembly or sewing.

The Upholsterers make use of wool in a thousand different products. They use it in tapestries, either woven or sewn, in mattresses, in armchairs, in moëtes, etc. They make sewing thread out of it, hats, garters, and a hundred other sorts of merchandise that it would take too long to list here.

Spanish wool enters into the fabrication of our best draperies, with great care taken to blend it with wools that are native to France. I have already said that the most sought-after Spanish wool is that which comes directly from El Escorial. It is used with success virtually unblended in the Gobelins manufactory. The primo from Segovia and Villecassin is usually used for making draperies, ratines, and other similar fabrics in the English and Dutch styles. The Segovian or reflowered is used to make the Elboeuf drapery and others of similar grade. The third grade is used only in common drapery, like that of Rouen or Darnetal. The coverings and stockings of Segovia are in large production because they are fluffy, soft to the touch, and wear very well.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that it is extremely fine, this wool is not appropriate for all sorts of products. There are those that require length in the wool. For example, it would be imprudent to use the magnificent Spanish wool to make warp threads for the tapestries that are made at the Gobelins: the perfection of the product requires that the warp threads with a long range be really tight, and that the fabric, without being thick, be firm enough, elastic enough to withstand the blows and the manipulation of the workers who constantly pull, strike, and stretch them.

English wool is thus the only kind whose length makes it appropriate for this use. What an impact the shine of its whiteness makes on our eyes! It is the only kind that because it is so clean accepts perfectly the colors of fire and the most vivid shades. English wool blends very well with the wool of Valognes and from the Cotentin. It is used in the fabrication of the Valognes drapery, London-style serge, etc. In the hosiery trade they make English stockings and very good coverings with it. [6] It is rarely carded; when combed and spun it is used in all sorts of needlework and on canvas.

The majority of wools from the Levant would not be worth the cost of transport if one took the trouble to cart it all the way to Paris. They are used in the manufactures of Languedoc and Provence based on their particular qualities. Wools from the north are used with the same caveat. The best fleeces from Weimar and the summer wools from Poland are used in the fabrication of the modest cloth of Reims and Champagne.

In a word, there is no type of foreign or French wool that our workers don’t make use of, from the drapery of Julienne, Van-Robais, Pagnon, Rousseau, and the good camlet of Lille in Flanders, to knitted drapery and Poulangis , to the coarse bouracan of Rouen. [7] There is absolutely no grade of wool that we do not use and do not blend in an infinite variety of ways, in muslins, serges, veiling, fine ratines, and products of all kinds.

But, someone will say, there is nothing very marvelous about this pompous and mercantile display that you have just given us of the uses of all sorts of wools in a monarchy where everything is produced — the good, the mediocre, the bad, and the very bad. It would be better to tell us if in our kingdom we could do without the wools from abroad, notably those from Spain and England, by improving the quality and increasing the quantity of our wools in France. These are the topics of discussion that would be worthy of an Encyclopedist. All right, without wasting time on unnecessary discourse, I am going to examine by means of the facts if the reasons that the Spanish and the English are able to produce wools of superior quality are particular to their countries and exclude all others.

Spain had the fate of countries conquered by Roman arms; many colonies were thereby introduced to the taste for labor and agriculture. A rich sharecropper from Cadiz, Marcus Columella (uncle of the famous writer of that name), who lived like him under the empire of Claudius, and who found pleasure in the delights of country life, was struck by the brilliant whiteness of the wools that he saw on the wild sheep that African merchants unloaded for entertainments. Right away he resolved to find out if it was possible to domesticate these animals, and to establish the breed in the Cadiz region. He tried it with success; and carrying his experiments further, he bred some African rams with ordinary ewes. The sheep who survived had, with the delicateness of the mother, the whiteness and the quality of the wool of the father.

However, this ingenious establishment did not have any follow-up, because without the protection of the sovereigns, the best conceived attempts by individuals are almost always sterile speculations.

More than thirteen centuries passed after this period without anyone in Spain daring to renew Columella’s experiment. The Goths, a barbarous people, usurpers of this realm, were not made to dream of it, even less the Muslims of Africa who succeeded them. After them, the Spanish Christians did not improve Agriculture by making constant war against the Moors and the Mohammedans, or in doing so among themselves.

Don Pedro IV, who ascended the throne of Castille in 1350, was the first person since Columella who tried to increase and improve the wools of his land. Informed of the profits that the ewes of Barbary provided their proprietors, he resolved to establish the breed in his states. To this end, he benefitted from the good will of a Moorish prince, from whom he received permission to transport a large number of rams and ewes of the most beautiful kind from Barbary to Spain. He wished, by this means, to win the affection of the Castillians, so that they would support him for the crown against the party of his bastard brothers and against Eleanor, their mother.

Following the most exact economic rules, and following the laws of nature, the judicious project of Don Pedro, cut generously and supported by his power, could not fail to succeed. It was natural to think that by transplanting a malnourished breed of animals from an unfavorable location to pastures of fine and succulent grass, where the sun’s heat is not as intense, shelter is more abundant, and the water cleaner, the transplanted animals would produce large flocks covered with fine, soft, and abundant wool . This prince was not at all mistaken in his conjectures, and in the fourteenth century Castille was rewarded with a hitherto unknown type of wealth.

Cardinal Jiménez, [8] when he became prime minister of Spain at the beginning of the sixteenth century, followed in the fortunate footsteps of Don Pedro, and following his example, benefitted from certain advantages that the troops of Ferdinand had on the Barbary Coast to export from there some ewes and rams of the most beautiful kind. He established them primarily in the region of Segovia, where the most valuable wool of the kingdom is still grown. Now let’s turn to England.

Not only has wool been cultivated there even longer than in Spain, but it has been carried out, encouraged, maintained, and improved with an entirely different level of attention.

If England owes to the temperature of its climate and the nature of its soil the excellent quality of its wools , it began to be beholden for their abundance to the accidental partition of its lands in 830; a partition which naturally invited its inhabitants to cultivate great flocks of all sorts of animals. They had no other means than this to enjoy their rights to the commons, which have continued to this day, and this right was for a long time the sole purpose of the industry of the nation. This great portion of the land, destined for pastures, was increased by the extension of the parks that the nobles had reserved for their hunting, their deer, and their own animals.

At first the English did not understand the full extent of the wealth they possessed. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries they only knew how to feed themselves from the flesh of their flocks, and to cover themselves with the fleece of their sheep; but soon after that they learned the value of their wool through the demand for it by the Flemish, who alone were engaged in manufacturing. An English author, Mr. Daniel Foé, who was very learned about his country, says that under Edward III, between 1327 and 1377, that is, in the space of 50 years, the exportation of English wool rose to more than ten million pounds sterling, or 230 million livres tournois in today’s money. [9]

During this period from 1327 to 1377, Jean Kemp, who was Flemish, was the first to bring to Great Britain the art of working fine cloth; and this art made such rapid progress with the influx of workers from the Low Countries who were persecuted in their own country, that Edward IV, who ascended the throne in 1461, did not hesitate to prohibit the entry of foreign-made cloth into his kingdom. Richard III prohibited any preparation and bad construction that could lower the credit of English cloth by changing its quality. The spirit of commerce began to develop even more under Henry VII and his son, Henry VIII, continued to protect, with all his power, the manufactures of his realm, whose debt to him is incalculable.

He is the one who, in order to procure the precious wool of Castille for his subjects, which they were so interested in having for their workshops, obtained from Charles V the export of three thousand white animals. These animals thrived perfectly well in England and multiplied there in very little time, by means of the care given to raise and preserve this valuable breed. It is not without value to know how they did this.

A commission was established to preside over the maintenance and propagation of this breed. The commission was composed of people who were knowledgeable and of perfect integrity. The distribution of the animals newly arrived from Castille was assigned to them; and the event justified the patience of the king, who had put his confidence in them.

First they sent two of these Castillian ewes, with a ram of the same breed, into each parish whose temperature and pastures seemed to be favorable for these animals. At the same time the most serious prohibitions were put in place against either killing or mutilating any of these animals for seven years. The care of these three animals, rather like those of our studs, was confided to a gentleman [original in English] or at the very least a prominent farmer of the area, to which were attached tax exemptions, whether of material or honorific duties.

But in order to draw the greatest possible advantage from these circumstances, the Spanish rams were made to mount the common ewes. The lambs that emerged from this coupling had about one-third of the strength and fecundity of the father. This ingenious practice, examples of which can be found in Columella, was ably renewed. In England it produced a quantity of Spanish bastards , through which the males transmitted their fecundity to the common ewes. It is for this reason that there are in Great Britain today three types of valuable wool -bearing animals.

This is how Henry VIII contributed to preparing the glory with which Elizabeth was crowned in clearing the path that has conducted the English nation to the wealth that it enjoys today. Appreciating the importance of assuring her country the exclusive possession of its wools , this queen imposed the most rigorous penalties on the export of any live ram, ewe, or lamb. In these statutes it is a matter of confiscation of property, one year of prison, and cutting off a hand for the first offense; in the case of recidivism, the offender is punished with death.

Thus over time the eyes of the English were opened to all the utility they could draw from their fleeces. The Arts produced industry: the commons were cleared. Several locations were made subject to enclosure in order to draw from them even greater profit. Keeping wool -bearing animals on them warmed and fattened them. Thus the pastures were brought to a level of improvement unknown until then; the breed of sheep was itself improved by the study of the feed that best suited it, and by cross-breeding. Finally, the wool became the golden fleece of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

Elizabeth’s successors have continued to make very detailed regulations concerning the manufacture of wool , whether to prevent its degradation, or to advance its progress; but it is said that today these regulations are preserved only as a form of guidance, and that the English, who consider themselves the most accomplished manufacturers in the world, and those most sustained by emulation alone, allow their manufacturers considerable liberty, without having reason any more to notice that their commerce is diminished by it.

The only point upon which they are somewhat severe is on blending poor quality wool in the making of large pieces of drapery. For the rest, in order to encourage manufactures, the government has released drapery and woolen fabrics from export duties. Under the reign of Queen Anne, everything related to the preparation of wool was relieved of a portion of taxes that could drive up the price of this merchandise. At the same time, Parliament prohibited the export of tools used in the fabrication of woolen cloth.

These details prove how the government could favor the workshops, how industry could improve the products of nature; but this industry cannot change their essence. I am not unaware of the fact that nature is generous to those who cultivate it, that it is to men to study it, to follow and embellish it; but they must know the point to which they can enrich it. One protects oneself from the sun’s burning rays, one forewarns of dearth, and one makes up the sterility of some years; one can even, through the force of work, change the course and beds of rivers. But who will make thyme and rosemary grow on the hills of Lapland, which produce only moss? Who can give river water the medicinal and healthful properties they do not have?

Spain and England enjoy this advantage over the other countries of the world, that independently of the breeds of their ewes, the climate, the pastures, and the water there are very healthy for wool -bearing animals. The temperature and the food produce in the animals the same effect as good land does for a tree that one has just uprooted from bad terrain, and transplanted to a favorable soil; it prospers visibly and produces an abundance of good fruit.

In Spain, and above all in Castille, the heat is much less intense than in Africa; the climate is more temperate. The mountains of Castille are so laid out that one enjoys pure and moderately warm air there. The mists that rise from the valleys blunt the sun’s rays; and the winter is not so severe as to make it necessary to bring in the flocks during the three months that it lasts.

Where does one find pastures as perfect as those of Castille and Léon? Aromatic grasses transfer a precious juice to the animal’s blood, which makes an infinite number of threads sprout from his skin, so fluffy, so soft to the touch, that they are appealing to the eyes by their whiteness when they have not yet been sullied by dirt. It is not an exaggeration to say that Spain has waters whose quality is almost unique. One sees there streams and rivers whose water visibly cures diseases to which sheep are subject. Travelers and Geographers cite, among others, the Xenil and the Daro, both of which have their source in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain of Granada. Their waters have an incisive property, which purifies the wool, and restores the health of animals that are languishing; this is why the locals call these two rivers, the restorative bath of ewes.

England brings these same advantages together to a very high degree. Its temperature is as salutary for ewes as that of Spain; and one is much less subject there than in France to the vicissitudes of the seasons. As shelter is widespread in England, and the cold is generally mild, the wool-bearing animals are usually left to pasture night and day on the plains; their fleece does not get salty at all, and is not ruined by bird droppings or by the thick air of the stables. Neither the Spanish nor the French would know how to imitate the English in this regard because of wolves; the race of these voracious animals once driven out of England cannot return there: they were the bane of laborers and shepherds, when King Edgar, in the year 961, managed to destroy them in the course of three years, with not a single one left in the three kingdoms.

Their inhabitants no longer have any need of the advice of the author of the Georgics for guarding their flocks:

The English distinguish among as many sorts of pastures as they have types of wool -bearing animals; each class of sheep has as it were his share and his domain. The fine and succulent grasses that abound on a great number of hillsides and on the moors are suited to the first type of sheep. Don’t ever go leading them into the great pastures, or the quality of the wool will change or the animal will perish; for them it’s a matter of following the advice that Virgil gave to the shepherds of Apulia and Taranto: “Shun rich pastures: Fuge pabula laeta .” [11]

The English still have the good habit of planting fields that are not good for any other crop with rye brome; this grass, which is more delicate than that of common prairies, is an exquisite feed for sheep; it is the common food of the second type, to which I have given the name above of Spanish bastards .

The ancient breed of wool -bearing animals continues in England; feeding them requires less care and fewer precautions than that of the others. The meadows and the riverbanks furnish them with excellent pastures; their wool , although less fine, has its uses, and the meat from these animals is highly valued by the people.

It is for the benefit of this breed, and in order to manage the care of the meadows, that at the beginning of this century the practice was introduced of feeding these livestock turnips; they are planted more or less like the large rye brome in the wastelands, and these sheep, naturally strong, eat them right down to the roots and fertilize the moors on which they are kept.

English waters have approximately the same properties as those of Spain; but they have a much more marked effect there. The English, committed to making their wools as white as possible, have the laudable custom of washing them standing up, that is, on the back of the animal. This practice gives them a double payoff: the shorn wool is easier to clean, it becomes brighter, and it suffers almost no damage in washing. See Wool, preparation of.

Finally, Great Britain, bathed by the sea on all sides, enjoys air that is very favorable to ewes, and which differs, to their advantage, from that which they experience on the continent. The pasturage that they eat, and the air which surrounds them, suffused with salt vapors that the winds carry along constantly, wherever they blow, bring into the lungs and the blood of the white animals an acid that is good for them; in this climate they find naturally everything that Virgil recommends be given them when he says to his shepherds:

It is thus true that the temperate climate of England, the breeds of its ewes, the excellent pastures where they are kept year round, the waters with which they are washed and that they drink, and lastly the air that they breathe, favor uniquely the beauty and quantity of their wool -bearing animals over those of other peoples.

In order to give in passing an idea of the surprising and countless multitude that are raised in the three kingdoms, M. de Foé assures us that the 605,520 pounds that are taken each year from the sheep of Rumney Marsh make up only 2 percent of the kingdom’s output. [13] The sheep of the great breed furnish from five to eight pounds of wool per fleece; the rams from these flocks have been purchased for up to twelve guineas. The wools of the south from the marshes of Lincoln and Leicester live up to their reputation for length, fineness, softness, and brilliance: the most beautiful short wools are those of the mountains of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.

In a word, England, due to several combined factors, possesses in abundance the best wools for the fabrication of all sorts of fabric, with the exception only of superfine drapery, which it can only make with the help of Spanish fleeces. Its workers know how to make everything in wool , from the strongest or warmest sheets to the thinnest and lightest fabric. They make stripes and florals out of it that can take the place of silk fabrics due to their lightness and the vivacity of their colors. They also make very pretty wool lace, ribbons, flannel shirts, scarves, and headpieces of white crepe. Lastly, they sell their woolens abroad, according to some for two or three millions, and according to others, for five million sterling.

But without lingering any further on these tangents, which interest us only indirectly, and without dwelling any longer on the main subject, I believe that the evidence resulting from this discussion of the wools of Spain and England is that three things converge to produce the superior qualities that cannot be obtained elsewhere: the breed, the pastures, and the climate. I would even add as additional of proof, that the sheep of Castille and Andalusia, transported to the beautiful plains of Salisbury, do not produce wools as valuable, quas baticus adjuvat aër [as when the air of Baetica lent its aid]. [14]

In conclusion, I thus concur with the most enlightened people of this kingdom, that it is absolutely impossible for France to do without foreign wools , and that without the help of the rich fleeces it gets from the British Isles and Spain, the manufactures of the Gobelins, Abbeville, and Sedan would soon fall into disfavor, and would not even be able to survive.

However, I am very far from thinking that in France we do not have the ability to improve the quality and increase the quantity of the wools that are produced here; but this time of good fortune is not upon us, and too many obstacles stand in the way for us to flatter ourselves with the hope even of seeing it arrive.

1. Numa Pompilius (753-673, r. 715-673 BCE) was the legendary second king of Rome.

2. “Flocks are the basis of wealth.” The source is Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE), De Re Rustica (On Agriculture), book II, p. 319: “Well, there is a science of assembling and feeding flocks in such fashion as to secure the greatest returns from them; the very word for money is derived from them, for flocks are the basis of wealth.”

3. “About her the Nymphs were spinning fleeces of Miletus.” Virgil, Georgics , book IV, lines 334-335. Virgil, with an English translation by H. Rushton Fairclough (London, 1916-18).

4. “Heaps of wool formed out of wools that are cut from the backs of the animals as they are slaughtered are called piles .” Dictionnaire portatif de commerce (Bouillon, 1770), 3:452. The Dictionnaire ’s discussion the pile of El Escorial begins: “We have promised at the beginning of this memoir to say a word about this pile, which the Spanish place above all the wools that foreigners can get from Spain. El Escorial is altogether one of the most superb palaces of the Kings of Spain, and one of the most magnificent monasteries of that Kingdom. The Hieronymite monks were established there by Philip II, who was its founder; and it was they who are the proprietors of this famous pile, which guarantees them an annual revenue of more than 40,000 pilasters. This pile is usually composed of 350 to 360 bales of wool, including however what are called the agreges , that is, several leagues of the surrounding area that are dependencies of the monastery. It is true that the wools that come from the agreges not of as good quality as those of El Escorial itself, but the good fathers have the custom of selling everything on the same footing [....],” p. 453.

5. The term “bonnet-maker” ( bonnetier ) is somewhat misleading. In the article “Bonneterie,” Diderot describes this trade as “the manufacture of bonnets, stockings, undershirts, petticoats, socks, and other items made of pure wool or a blend of wool and silk.” In other words, bonnet-makers produced undergarments of all sorts out of wool and wool blends. Indeed, the bonnet, from which this trade derived its name, was a night cap.

6. I translate “bas des bouchons” as English stockings based on Diderot’s definition of bouchon: “name ordinarily given to parcels of English wool, and which comes from the way in which they are fashioned.”

7. In a brief article devoted to it, Jaucourt describes Poulangis as “a sort of coarse wool-blend fabric, of wool and flax thread, that is made in Burgundy and Picardy.” In the article Bouracan ou Baracan, Diderot describes this type of fabric as “a type of camlet with a very coarse weave,” woven from wool and flax that cannot be fulled. It was produced primarily in Flanders and Picardy.

8. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517). Serving during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, he is credited with founding the University of Madrid, reforming the Franciscan Order in Spain, forcibly converting the Muslims of Granada, and ordering the public burning of thousands of Arabic manuscripts.

9. This seems to be a reference to Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, 2 vols. (London, 1726-27). He discusses the wool trade at length in volume 2.

10. “Nor let the care of dogs be last in your thoughts, but feed Swift Spartan whelps and fierce Molossians alike on fattening whey. Never, with them on guard, need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves.” Virgil, Georgics , book III, lines 404-407.

11. Virgil, Georgics , book III, line 385.

12. “But let him who longs for milk bring with his own hand lucerne and lotus in plenty and salted herbage to the stalls. Thus they love streams the more, and the more distend their udders, while their milk recalls a lurking savour of salt.”

13. This seems to be another reference to Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, vol. 2.

14. This phrase comes from the Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal (Satire XII, line 42). Here is the full sentence from which it is drawn: "’Overboard with everything!’ shouted Catullus, ready to cast headlong his finest wares; purple garments, such as would have befitted a soft Maecenas, with other fabrics dyed on the sheep's back by the noble nature of the herbage—though doubtless the hidden virtues of the water and air of Baetica also lent their aid.” The Satires of Juvenal, trans. George Gilbert Ramsay. Note that this Latin tag also appears in “Le pouvoir de l’air sur le corps humain prouvé par le caractere des Nations [The power of air on the human body proved by the character of nations],” by the eighteenth-century French critic and academician, Abbé Dubos: “The sheep of Castille and Andalusia transported to other pastures do not produce wool as valuable as those quas Baeticus adjuvat aër .” Jean-Baptiste Dubos, Réflexions critiques sur la poësie et sur la peinture, new ed. (Paris, 1733) 2: 275.