Sheep had gained a strong foothold in the colonies despite England's attempts to keep them out. England's woolen mills made a tidy profit selling cloth around the world and didn't want any competition. Some estimate that as much as 65% of England's economy rested on its cloth production.
The colonists of North America, however, proved to be an independent bunch. They not only smuggled in sheep, they started making their own clothing instead of purchasing England's expensive cloth. To add insult to injury, they did it so well, they quickly built it into an industry. When they dared to export their woolen goods to other ports, King William III issued the Wool Act.
The effect of the Wool Act was that all wool and wool products must be sold to England. And taxed. It was taxed when it left port in the colonies and taxed again when it reached England. Then England would resell it to other countries ... and even back to the American Colonies. That didn't set well with the Colonists.
Because of the Wool Act, wearing homespun, often the combination of linen and wool known as linsey woolsey, was seen as a mark of patriotism more than seventy years before the Revolution.
PeggThomas.com
Wow that is a lot of taxes on their wool! Thanks for sharing Pegg.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Tina
It was incremental things like this that cumulatively led to the Revolutionary War. Often times we think that was just over a tea tax. But the reasons went much deeper than that.
DeleteVery interesting! Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting! It's amazing how much history we don't know until someone else looks it up and tells us.
ReplyDeleteI'm learning a TON about this right now for a book I'm researching. Fascinating stuff ... I have to remind myself to stop researching and WRITE!
DeleteFascinating information. There obviously were a number of reasons why the Revolutionary War was the only way for the colonists to deal with England.
ReplyDeleteIt was a complex issue, no doubt.
DeleteI never knew this....thanks for the History lesson.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
ReplyDeleteI found this post fascinating. Appreciate your research!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it.
DeleteI'm a teacher working with the Jamestown Yorktown foundation right now on some colonial life lessons and stumbled across your site. I think your blog here is true for New England colonies, but not applicable for southern colonies. Imported fabrics were actually much cheaper and of better quality compared to homespun. Most southern plantations and small farms focused on growing cash crops for profit (mainly tobacco). Sheep don't thrive in our climate, and cotton was too labor intensive until the cotton gin in 1793. Few plantations could spare the manpower to devote to the very time consuming process of making their own cloth. Thus only in the western frontier regions was homespun fabric common. It's not really until the 1770s down here in Virginia that an outright rejection of British goods begins to fuel the demand for spinners and weavers.
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