Bidspirit Auktion | WEDGWOOD JOSIAH: (1730-1795) Wedgwood fights

WEDGWOOD JOSIAH: (1730-1795) Wedgwood fights against the Irish Resolutions ´ which certainly bear too hard at present upon the British manufacturer´ - WEDGWOOD JOSIAH: (1730-1795) English potter, entrepreneur and prominent slavery abolitionist. A rare L.S., Josiah Wedgwood, Chairman (of the General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain), one page, folio, Great George Street (London), 6th June 1785, to James Hebden. Wedgwood writes, in full, ´I take the liberty of inclosing a copy of the Reolutions printed so as to shew what is omitted of the original ten Resolutions, and what has been added to them, & how they now stand in the House of Lords. From the first days debate in the house of Lords upon these Resolutions we may, according to appearances, promise ourselves a more impartial hearing than we have hitherto met with; and that their L [ordshi] ps will if applied to, modify some of the resolutions, which certainly bear too hard at present upon the British manufacturer. Indeed it is too evident, that whatever may be the object wished for by government in this treaty, the manufacturing interest is to be the sacrifice and price for that object. The committee will be glad to know if you wish them to continue their communications to you upon any future occasions. They will be glad to receive your instructions in this respect, as they would avoid being either troublesome or expensive where their correspondence may not be acceptable´ . Accompanied by the (now detached) address leaf, incorporating a postscript to the verso by Wedgwood, and signed by him in the third person, ´Be so good to present this to Mr. Clapham with Mr. Wedgwood´s compliments´ , and also dated at Great George Street, 6th June 1785, in his hand. The address panel to the recto appears to be in the hand of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, and signed ( ´Free, Wm. Eden´ ) by him to the lower left corner of the panel. Some light age wear and minor staining, most evident to the address leaf which also has a small area of paper loss caused by the original breaking of the seal. About VG In January 1785 Thomas Walker, a cotton merchant and political radical, and one of his associates were brought before the Committee on Trade and Foreign Plantations and questioned concerning Irish relations, in an effort to secure from them, without their knowledge of the object of the questioning, statements which would commit them to the policy later presented to the public in the form of the Irish Resolutions. Walker and his associate were later repeatedly confronted with quotations from their statements, and cross-examined, and treated in a manner which was characterised by a member of parliament as ´most scandalous´. By such methods the government defeated its own ends with respect to the Irish Resolutions as well as the cotton tax. Manchester manufacturers were needlessly embittered, and were forced to associate the government´s fiscal policy at home with its commercial policy toward Ireland. The Irish question, ever a thorn in the side, was rendered acutely piercing in the case of William Pitt´s government (1783-85). Pitt, recognising Ireland´s newly acquired legislative independence, was at once confronted with the problem of economic reorganisation. His policy, formulated in the so-called Irish Resolutions or Propositions, came from the Irish parliament for consideration in the English House of Commons in February 1785. According to Pitt´s own interpretation, his policy embraced two ´capital points´, namely, the admission of Ireland to participation in England´s colonial and foreign trade (with certain restrictions) and the mutual reduction of tariffs on manufactured goods to the rate in that kingdom where existing duties were the lower. The Irish Resolutions, like the cotton tax, encountered the fierce hostility of the newer manufacturers. Pitt himself, in his private letter of 6th January 1785, to the Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, quite frankly admitted the probability of the shifting to Ireland of certain English industries in consequence of the Resolutions. The most important of the various arguments urged against the Irish Resolutions by the manufacturers was the contrast in the tax policies of the two kingdoms. Pitt himself admitted the force of the argument, first in private, and at length in consenting to the modification of the cotton tax. The vital connection between the Irish Resolutions and the question of taxation, particularly the excise laws, was set forth in the resolutions of Manchester manufacturers on 11th April 1785. Out of this situation, which gave to the manufacturers a feeling of common interest, arose the General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain. This organisation was not limited to the new capitalistic manufacturers, but the initiative and the moving force were with them. The new capitalistic industries consisted in the main of three groups: Wedgwood´s Staffordshire potteries;