as the President of the Board of Agriculture and, as a farmer himself, was considered as an authority in matters of land cultivation. He also showed interest in maintaining the wool export. He published a volume on the topic of wool and woolen trading. First, he opposed restraining the exportation of the raw material in his Observations on the Objections made to the Exportation of Wool from Great Britain to Ireland in 1800. And in the next decade, he released a series of pamphlet from 1809 to 1812 On the Trade in Wool and Woollens where he noticed the weakening export to the American states. He then advocated for the importation of sheep from Spain to be bred. The same sentiments re-appeared after a decade in his Report at the Meeting at Lewes Wool Fair between 1818 and 1820. His passion for local economy is also present in maritime industry. In his Strictures on the necessity of inviolably maintaining the Navigation and Colonial System of Great Britain (London, 1804), he pointed out that the suspension of Navigation Laws that rendered England as a free port injures every branch of the British marine. Opening up the port is deemed disadvantageous and discouraging to the seamen, shipbuilders and shipbuilding trade, and in contrary to the interest of their naval force. Despite his opinions being heralded as abreast with time, his views sometimes were considered as short-sighted and insular (Dictionary of Political Economy Volume 3, Palgrave, p. 390). An example is his conservative stance on the abolition of slavery, where he commented on slave trade reformers that "not one of them had the candour to come forward and say, that those whose property was to be sacrificed in this pursuit should have any compensation whatever for their losses." Notes References Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, Jacques-Alphonse Mahul, Annuaire nécrologique, ou Supplément annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnaires historiques, 3e année, 1822, Paris : Ponthieu, 1823, p. 324–331 The Annual Biography and Obituary, Volume 6, London : A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square,1822, page 308-330 Palgrave, Robert Harry Inglis, Sir, Dictionary of Political Economy Volume 3, London : Macmillan 1915–1917, page 390-392 Attribution External links |- |- Sheffield Sheffield Sheffield, John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield Sheffield Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1780–1784