The Exeter Cloth Dispatch Book, 1763-1765

Description

Winner of the Best Books on Devon's History: Academic Award from the Devon History Society

A richly illustrated exploration of the national and international importance of the early modern Exeter cloth trade.

This book reproduces a newly discovered manuscript detailing the exports of Claude Passavant, a Swiss émigré merchant. Passavant's dispatch book comprises the most extensive surviving collection of Devon cloth with 2,475 surviving cloth samples. Thirteen chapters discuss the local and wider contexts of eighteenth-century cloth making. This study explores the quality, range, and vibrancy of cloth that lead to Exeter becoming an internationally renowned centre for the manufacture and trade of woollen cloth.