Editing Wool (section)

==History==
{{Further|History of clothing and textiles|The medieval English wool trade}}
[[File:Tibetan spinning wool.jpg|thumb|A 1905 illustration of a Tibetan man spinning wool]]
[[Mouflon|Wild sheep]] were more hairy than woolly. Although sheep were domesticated some 9,000 to 11,000 years ago, archaeological evidence from [[statuary]] found at sites in [[Iran]] suggests selection for woolly sheep may have begun around 6000&nbsp;BC,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Sheep and Goat Science, Fifth Edition |last=Ensminger |first=M. E. |author2=R. O. Parker |year=1986 |publisher=The Interstate Printers and Publishers Inc |location=Danville, Illinois |isbn=0-8134-2464-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title =Sheep: small-scale sheep keeping for pleasure and profit |last =Weaver |first =Sue |year =2005 |publisher =Hobby Farm Press, an imprint of BowTie Press, a division of BowTie Inc. |location =Irvine, CA |isbn =1-931993-49-1 }}</ref> with the earliest known woven wool garments having only been dated to two to three thousand years later.<ref>{{cite book |title = Beginning Shepherd's Manual, Second Edition |last1=Smith |first1 =Barbara|last2 =Kennedy |first2 =Gerald |last3 =Aseltine |first3 =Mark |year =1997 |publisher =Iowa State University Press |location= Ames, IA |isbn =0-8138-2799-X}}</ref> Woolly sheep were introduced into Europe from the Near East in the early part of the 4th millennium BC. The oldest known European wool textile, {{Circa|1500 BC}}, was preserved in a [[Bog people|Danish bog]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.woolmark.com/about_education_fibre.php?PHPSESSID=10d80556668ed0847e77b83c64c3c225 |archive-url =https://archive.today/20060828001755/http://www.woolmark.com/about_education_fibre.php?PHPSESSID=10d80556668ed0847e77b83c64c3c225 |url-status =dead |archive-date =2006-08-28 |title =Fibre history|publisher =Woolmark}}</ref> Prior to the invention of shears—probably in the [[Iron Age]] — wool was plucked out by hand or with [[bronze]] combs. In [[Roman Empire|Roman]] times, wool, [[linen]], and leather clothed the European population; cotton from India was a curiosity of which only naturalists had heard, and silks, imported along the [[Silk Road]] from China, were extravagant [[luxury-goods]]. [[Pliny the Elder]] records in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' that the reputation for producing the finest wool was enjoyed by [[Taranto|Tarentum]], where selective breeding had produced sheep with superior fleeces, but which required special care.

In medieval times, as trade connections expanded, the [[Champagne fairs]] revolved around the production of wool cloth in small centers such as [[Provins]]. The network developed by the annual fairs meant that the woolens of Provins might find their way to [[Naples]], Sicily, [[Cyprus]], [[Mallorca]], Spain, and even [[Constantinople]].<ref name=Braudel>[[Fernand Braudel]], 1982. ''The Wheels of Commerce'', vol 2 of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' (New York:Harper & Row), pp. 312–317</ref> The wool trade developed into serious undertaking, a generator of capital.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=Adrian R. |last2=Brooks |first2=Chris |author-link2=Chris Brooks (academic) |last3=Dryburgh |first3=Paul |date=2007 |title=The English Wool Market, c.1230–1327 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521859417 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/englishwoolmarke0000bell }}</ref> In the 13th century, the wool trade became the economic engine of the [[Low Countries]] and central Italy. By the end of the 14th century, Italy predominated.<ref name=Braudel/> The Florentine wool [[guild]], [[Arte della Lana]], sent imported English wool to the San Martino [[convent]] for processing. Italian wool from [[Abruzzo]] and Spanish merino wools were processed at [[Garbo workshops]]. Abruzzo wool had once been the most accessible for the Florentine guild, until improved relations with merchants in [[Iberia]] made merino wool more available. In the 15th century Pisa established a factory "which would export its cloths to the Crimea in exchange for Russian furs".<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Parks
 |first1               = George Bruner
 |year                 = 1954
 |title                = The English Traveler to Italy
 |volume               = 1
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=h64LEYa_cVAC
 |series               = Storia e letteratura, volume 46
 |publication-place    = Rome
 |publisher            = Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura
 |page                 = 407
 |access-date          = 1 February 2025
 |quote                = [...] the establishment at Pisa of a factory [...] which would export its cloths to the Crimea in exchange for Russian furs. [...] Portinari thought of making Pisa a wool centre for the Mediterranean, whence English wool might be dispatched to Florence, Genoa, and Milan for manufacture, and Spanish wool be manufactured in Pisa for export to the east
}} 
</ref>
By the 16th century Italian wool exports to the Levant had declined, eventually replaced by silk production.<ref name=Braudel/><ref>{{cite web |title=Florentine Woolen Manufacture in the Sixteenth Century:Crisis and New Entrepreneurial Strategies |website=THe Business History Conference |url=https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/ammannati.pdf}}</ref>

The value of exports of English raw wool were rivaled only by the 15th-century [[sheepwalk]]s of [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]] and were a significant source of income to the English crown, which in 1275 had imposed an export tax on wool called the "Great Custom". The importance of wool to the English economy can be seen in the fact that since the 14th century, the presiding officer of the [[House of Lords]] has sat on the "[[Woolsack]]", a chair stuffed with wool.

[[Economies of scale]] were instituted in the [[Cistercian]] houses, which had accumulated great tracts of land during the 12th and early 13th centuries, when land prices were low and labor still scarce. Raw wool was baled and shipped from [[North Sea]] ports to the textile cities of [[Flanders]], notably [[Ypres]] and [[Ghent]], where it was dyed and worked up as cloth. At the time of the [[Black Death]] (1346-1353), English textile industries consumed about 10% of English wool production. The English textile trade grew during the 15th century, to the point where the export of wool was discouraged. Over the centuries, various British laws controlled the wool trade or required the use of wool even in burials. The smuggling of wool out of the country, known as [[Owling (legal term)|owling]], was at one time punishable by the cutting off of a hand. After the [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]] of 1660, fine English woolens began to compete with silks in the international market, partly aided by the [[Navigation Acts]]; in 1699, the English Crown forbade its American colonies to trade wool with anyone but England herself.

A great deal of the value of woollen textiles was in the [[dyeing]] and [[finishing (textiles)|finishing]] of the woven product. In each of the centers of the textile trade, the manufacturing process came to be subdivided into a collection of trades, overseen by an [[entrepreneur]] in a system called by the English the "putting-out" system, or "cottage industry", and the {{lang | de | Verlagssystem}} by the Germans. In this system of producing wool cloth, once perpetuated in the production of [[Harris tweed]]s, the entrepreneur provides the raw materials and an advance, the remainder being paid upon delivery of the product. Written contracts bound the artisans to specified terms. [[Fernand Braudel]] traces the appearance of the system in the 13th-century economic boom, quoting a document of 1275.<ref name=Braudel/> The system effectively bypassed the [[guild]]s' restrictions.

Before the flowering of the [[Renaissance]], the [[Medici]] and other great banking houses of Florence had built their wealth and banking system on their textile industry based on wool, overseen by the [[Arte della Lana]], the wool guild: wool-textile interests guided Florentine policies. [[Francesco Datini]], the "merchant of Prato", established in 1383 an ''Arte della Lana'' for that small Tuscan city. The sheepwalks of [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]] were controlled by the [[Mesta]] union of sheep-owners.
They shaped the landscape and the fortunes of the {{lang | es | [[Meseta Central|meseta]]}} that lies in the heart of the Iberian peninsula; in the 16th century, a unified Spain allowed export of [[merino]] lambs only with royal permission. The German wool-market – based on sheep of Spanish origin – did not overtake British wool until comparatively late<!--only at the end of the 19th century [That can't be right if the next sentence is]-->. Later, the [[Industrial Revolution]] introduced mass-production technology into wool- and wool-cloth-manufacturing. Australia's colonial economy came to depend on sheep-raising, and the Australian wool trade eventually overtook that of the Germans by 1845, furnishing wool for [[Bradford]], which developed as the heart of industrialized woolens production.
[[File:Sheep club2.jpg|thumb|A [[World War I]]-era poster sponsored by the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] encouraging children to raise sheep to provide needed war supplies]]

Due to decreasing demand for wool with increased use of synthetic fibers, wool production is much less than what it was in the past. The collapse in the price of wool began in late 1966 with a 40% drop; with occasional interruptions, the price has tended down. The result has been sharply reduced production and the movement of resources into production of other commodities, in the case of sheep growers, to production of meat.<ref>[http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealandInBrief/Economy/10/en "The end of pastoral dominance"] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070819142006/http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealandInBrief/Economy/10/en |date =2007-08-19 }}. Teara.govt.nz (2009-03-03). Retrieved on 2012-08-05.</ref><ref>[http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/90a12181d877a6a6ca2568b5007b861c/3852d05cd2263db5ca2569de0026c588!OpenDocument 1301.0 – Year Book Australia, 2000] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170701015749/http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/90a12181d877a6a6ca2568b5007b861c/3852d05cd2263db5ca2569de0026c588!OpenDocument |date=2017-07-01 }}, Australian Bureau of Statistics</ref><ref>[http://johnhanly.com/blog/the-history-of-wool/ "The History of Wool"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111507/http://johnhanly.com/blog/the-history-of-wool/ |date=2015-04-27 }}. johnhanly.com</ref>

Superwash wool (or washable wool) technology first appeared in the early 1970s, producing wool that has been specially treated so it is machine washable and may be tumble-dried. This wool is produced using an acid bath that removes the "scales" from the fiber, or by coating the fiber with a polymer that prevents the scales from attaching to each other and causing shrinkage. This process results in a fiber that holds longevity and durability better than synthetic materials, while retaining garment shape.<ref>[http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingglossary/g/superwash_wool.htm Superwash Wool] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090309080945/http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingglossary/g/superwash_wool.htm |date =2009-03-09 }} Retrieved on 10 November 2008</ref>

In December 2004, a bale of the then world's finest wool, averaging 11.8 microns, sold for AU$3,000 per kilogram at auction in [[Melbourne]]. This fleece wool tested with an average yield of 74.5%, {{convert|68|mm|in|abbr=on}} long, and had 40 newtons per [[kilotex]] strength. The result was A$279,000 for the bale.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050616181510/http://landmark.com.au/doc_display.asp?id=10296&cat=118&topid=118 World’s Finest Bale Record Broken]. landmark.com.au, 22 November 2004</ref>
The finest bale of wool ever [[auction]]ed was sold for a seasonal record of AU$2690 per kilo during June 2008. This bale was produced by the Hillcreston Pinehill Partnership and measured 11.6 microns, 72.1% yield, and had a 43 newtons per kilotex strength measurement. The bale realized $247,480 and was exported to India.<ref>Country Leader, NSW Wool Sells for a Quarter of a Million, 7 July 2008</ref>

In 2007, a new wool suit was developed and sold in Japan which can be washed in the shower, and which dries off ready to wear within hours with no ironing required. The suit, developed using Australian merino wool, enables woven products made from wool, such as suits, trousers, and skirts, to be cleaned using a domestic shower.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/rural/nsw/content/2006/s2368239.htm Shower suit] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110822082234/http://www.abc.net.au/rural/nsw/content/2006/s2368239.htm |date =2011-08-22 }} Retrieved on 11 November 2008</ref>

In December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2009 to be the [[International Year of Natural Fibres]], so as to raise the profile of wool and of other [[natural fiber]]s.