Wonder why the export of wool was banned. If it was in demand one would expect it to be a valuable and profitable commodity to trade with other countries?
Wool Act 1699
The Wool Act of 1699 (or the Woolens Act) is a former Act of the Parliament of England (11 Will. III c. 13)[1] which attempted to heighten taxation and increase control over colonial trade and production.[2] It opened Britain’s wool industry by limiting wool production in Ireland and forbidding the export of wool from the American colonies. The Act prohibited American colonists from exporting wool, wool yarn, or wool cloth to markets outside the individual colony in which it was produced, and also restricted the import of woolens and linens created in other areas of the British Empire. In effect, it forced all wool and wool products produced by colonies and dependent areas of the United Kingdom to be sold to British markets, and then resold to British citizens in all areas of the empire. Each sale generated taxes on these goods. Shopkeepers had a very hard time during period when the Wool Act was in force. Some colonists opposed this act by buying more flax and hemp. It was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1867.
http://www.themeister.co.uk/hindley/wool.htm
Wool has a long history in England..... they were dyed in the wool, they spun yarns, lost the thread, were crooked, fleeced, cloth eared, and sheepish ... and some were even black sheep. They wrapped themselves in ‘Blanquetts’, fabricated evidence, unravelled plots, dressed mutton as lamb and their broken bones were knitted together. When their arguments were woolly they had the wool pulled over their eyes but they still enjoyed shepherd’s pie and home spun wisdom ... and they were always milked for tax by a Chancellor on the ‘woolsack’ ... and most likely they were ‘buried in wool’ ... no wonder the Campaign for Wool continues today!...........
(Say didn’t Q say something about elite folks who were wrapped in golden fleece or painted in gold?)
Napoleonic wars were 1803-1815. Wool was not the only thing traded....smugglers were bringing lace, brandy and other items cut off by the wars across, including spies. Before that people were being saved from the French Revolution. Smuggling was big business with smugglers caves under several aristocrat houses.