A Short and True Relation Concerning the Soap-Busines: Containing...
The Great Soap Controversy [Great Britain]. A Short and True Relation Concerning the Soap-Busines. Containing the Severall Patents, Proclamations, Orders, Whereby the Soape-Makers of London, And Other His Majesties Subjects, Were Damnified, By the Gentlemen that were the Patentees for Soape at Westminster, With the Particular Proceedings Concerning the Same. London: Printed for Nicholas Bourne, 1641. 16, [14] pp. Lacking final blank leaf. Quarto (7-1/4" x 5-1/2"). Stab-stitched pamphlet bound in recent calf, blind rules to boards, lettering piece to spine. Front board detached, light rubbing to extremities, somewhat heavier to rear joint. Moderate toning to interior, light soiling to title page, tiny chips to edges of a few leaves, very light foxing to a few pages. $650. * Only edition. In one of many attempts to increase royal revenue, Charles I introduced a ban on foreign soap and granted a monopoly on soap manufacturing to the newly incorporated Society of Soapmakers of Westminster. The new domestic soap, which used vegetable oil instead of imported whale oil, was widely deemed inferior, and both consumers and soapmakers shut out by the Society's monopoly complained bitterly. This pamphlet discusses the controversy from the perspective of the independent soapmakers, who were brought before Star Chamber and imprisoned for continuing to make soap without royal approval. OCLC and the ESTC locate 9 copies of this title in North America, 1 in a law library (Library of Congress). Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature 00724. English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) R22298.
Price: $650.00
Book number 75709