Woollen Act

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

Woollen Act (1699), an act of the English parliament banning the export of woollen goods from Ireland to any destination other than England, where they already faced prohibitive import duties. The act remained in force until the granting of free trade in 1779. The assumption of legislative supremacy was contested by Molyneux's Case of Ireland. Though later presented as part of a coherent policy of weakening Ireland's manufacturing economy, the act was in fact promoted, against the wishes of government, by MPs representing English clothing interests. The economic effects are also now seen as limited and localized: the export trade cut off was small, the woollen industry continued to thrive on the basis of an expanding home market, and the supposed increase in wool smuggling was much exaggerated.

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