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PROTO -LUDDISM

[WOOLLEN MACHINERY]. Observations on woollen machinery.

Leeds. Printed by Edward Baines, 1803. First edition.
8vo. 24pp. Modern grey paper boards, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece to spine. A fine copy.
The sole edition of an anonymous proto-Luddite pamphlet arguing - in opposition to the findings of a select committee to consider the state of woollen manufacture - that the introduction of mechanical processes into the process of producing spun wool would adversely affect the trade.

'It is plain that what might be very great improvements in some branches of trade, are not so in woollen; because it cannot be increased beyond the quantity of wool grown. It is also plain for the same reason that machinery ought to be applied to wool with great caution, and only when absolutely necessary'.

The work is appended by 'A statement of the quantity of woollen cloth milled in the West Riding of the County of York, within the last ten years' in order to demonstrate an annual decline in production and bolster the author's reasoning that: 'If we wish to produce a good, cheap, and every where marketable woollen article, we must depend much more on cheap raw materials, than on machinery.

OCLC records copies at just nine locations (BL, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Leeds, LSE, UoL, Yale, and York); COPAC adds one further copy (Senate House).
£ 375.00 Antiquates Ref: 26481