Headnote

Composed c. November 1733; published posthumously, 1789; copy text 1789 (see Textual Account).

Observations Occasioned by Reading the Case of the Woollen Manufacturers is a response to a piece published in November 1733 (see Appendix C, pp. 344– 9), in which seven manufacturers (i.e. merchants) are named and denounced for importing foreign cloth. Swift had always been ambivalent towards the woollen manufacturers: he had written in their support, but had also criticised some of their practices and products, such as the forcing onto sellers of inferior materials at inflated prices, and drawn attention to what he regarded as their economic short-sightedness, particularly with respect to quality and pricing, which he predicted would ensure the use of foreign imports.

Swift's condemnation of the merchants was presumably written shortly after the publication of the Case, though not printed until John Nichols's gathering of fugitive Swift pieces in 1789.

OBSERVATIONS OCCASIONED BY READING A PAPER, ENTITLED, THE CASE OF THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURERS OF DUBLIN, &c.

The paper called The Case of the Woollen Manufacturers, &c. is very well drawn up. The reasonings of the author are just, the facts true, and the consequences natural. But his censure of those seven vile citizens, who import such a quantity of silk stuffs, and woollen cloth from England, is an hundred times gentler than enemies to their country deserve; because I think no punishment in this world can be great enough for them, without immediate repentance and amendment. But, after all, the writer of that paper hath very lightly touched one point of the greatest importance, and very poorly answered the main objection, that the clothiers are defective both in the quality and quantity of their goods.

For my own part, when I consider the several societies of handicraftsmen in all kinds, as well as shopkeepers, in this city, after eighteen years experience of their dealings, I am at a loss to know in which of these societies the most or least honesty is to be found. For instance, when any trade comes first into my head, upon examination I determine it exceeds all others in fraud. But after I have considered them all round, as far as my knowledge or experience reacheth, I am at a loss to determine, and to save trouble I put them all upon a par.