

A medieval English poet exposes the country’s most corrupt industry: wool - diodorus
http://laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/fleeced

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DanBC
Wool was so important at that time that the Lord Chancellor had to sit on the
"woolsack" \- a woolbale and war was fought to protect trade routes.

> In the 14th century King Edward III (1327-1377) commanded that his Lord
> Chancellor whilst in council should sit on a wool bale, now known as "The
> Woolsack", in order to symbolise the central nature and huge importance of
> the wool trade to the economy of England in the Middle Ages.[1][2] Indeed,
> it was largely to protect the vital English wool trade routes with
> continental Europe that the Battle of Crécy was fought with the French in
> 1346.[3] From the Middle Ages until 2006, the presiding officer in the House
> of Lords was the Lord Chancellor and the Woolsack was usually mentioned in
> association with the office of Lord Chancellor. In July 2006, the function
> of Lord Speaker was split from that of Lord Chancellor pursuant to the
> Constitutional Reform Act 2005.[4]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolsack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolsack)

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devindotcom
Unrelated to this particular article, you should all consider subscribing to
Lapham's print edition. Wonderful quarterly magazine that has exposed me to a
huge amount of history and confirmed my belief that the past holds the answers
to many problems today — or at the very least, had similar problems.

Apropos of that, there's a Mother's Day sale going on right now until the end
of May - enter J87MOM to get 20% off any back issues and boxed sets (they're
all good).

