The essay diagnoses a national decline in trade by identifying private exportation of raw wool and fullers’ earth, illicit imports and smuggling, and fraud among customs officers and lawyers as major drains on manufacturing. It stresses the central importance of the clothing industry and the economic gains from processing wool domestically, cites statutes and examples of foreign competition—especially Dutch practices—that undercut local producers, and links commercial decay to rising poverty, falling rents, and parish burdens. The author reviews enforcement failures, laments ignorance of the law and weak incentives for informers, and closes by posing practical queries and remedies for policymakers.