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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 Excerpt:... protection is founded upon a correct appreciation of the effects of a duty on importation, and is consistent with sound policy, will form the subject of this inquiry. " The views of the question taken by the agriculturists are specious enough. During the period of peace which preceded the wars of the French revolution, English wool bore a price, with reference to the price of the present day, in the proportion of 14L to 9d. per lb. for South Down wool, and the same VOL. II. Q ratio for other qualities of clothing wool. During the intervening course of years, as the French plot ripened, and this country became involved in the struggle, the price of wool gradually, and simultaneously with that of all other species of property, rose, until it attained the maximum price of three shillings per pound in 1809, which was a year of unprecedented speculation in wool, and an average price of 2s. lad. per lb. for the eighteen first years of this century; from 1818 forward, it gradually receded to its present price of 9d. per lb. On the other hand, up to the period when the French war terminated, and whilst the prices of English wool ruled highest, the annual imports of foreign wool averaged from 2,284,482 lbs. to 11,487,050 lbs. weight, and gradually increased from the year 1812, until it reached 24,749,570 lbs. in 1818, which was the year preceding that in which the duty was raised to 6d. per lb. This duty continued to operate until 1824, and the quantity of wool imported was considerably less than the average of an equal number of years prior to the high duty, which decrease was undoubtedly in consequence of that duty; although, unfortunately for the agriculturists' arguments, a simultaneous depression took place in the price of English wool, which it has never...