town each week: sometimes far more. But now since the staple of cloth is removed to Shrewsbury, the town is much impoverished, Shrewsbury having now ingrossed the said market..." After the market moved to Shrewsbury on Fridays a clothier from Merioneth had to travel further each way, and could only get home very late on Saturday. In response to a plea from the rector of Dolgelley in 1648 the drapers agreed as a compromise to buy cloth on Thursdays. The Welsh cloth makers, who lacked capital, produced poor quality drapery for which there was relatively low demand. The drapers bought the cloth in semi-finished form, and sold it after it had been finished, or nearly finished. The better Welsh wool was woven into cloth and fulled in Wales, making "plains" or "webs", or the wool was woven and fulled in Shrewsbury or nearby towns such as Wrexham, Denbigh, Oswestry and Chirk. The Shrewsbury drapers brought this cloth and had it cottoned and shorn. Other plains were finished as high friezes, with the upper fibres on one side raised into a rough, curly nap, suitable for cold weather outer clothing. Some cloth was sold as "Shrewsbury" or "Welsh" cottons, mostly destined for London, some of which was exported to France or the Mediterranean. The finished cloth was sent on weekly trains of pack horses to the cloth market in Blackwell Hall in the City of London. Shrewsbury had a large body of craftsmen to finish the cloth, so plains that were bought on Monday could be cottoned and on the way to London by Wednesday. After the English Civil War (1642–51) regulations were made in 1654 "for preventing the Drapers forestalling or engrossing the Welsh flannels, cloths, &c." Many of the drapers supported Parliament during the civil war, and as a consequence the company was not given royal support after the monarchy was restored in 1660 under Charles II (r. 1660–85). The cloth trade went into a gradual decline after this date. The number of drapers had fallen back to 61 in 1665. Decline of trade: 18th–19th centuries The monopoly of the Shrewsbury Drapers was still intact in the middle of the 18th century. Slave owners in the West Indies and the American colonies in the 18th century found that slaves were more productive if they were clothed. William Lee of Virginia stated that "Good Welch cotton seems upon the whole