A looking-glasse for sope-patentees ...

London : printed in the year 1646.

1 volume ; 29 cm (4to)

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Great Britain -- England -- London, -- publication place.

272845

From dealer's description: "(SOAPMAKING.) A looking-glasse for sope-patentees. London, 1646. 4to. Typographic border on title page. 8 pp. Half calf over marbled boards in the style of the period made from early 18th-century calf and paper, spine in six compartments, raised bands, 18th-century paper pastedowns and free endpapers, final page lightly somewhat dirty but legible. FIRST & ONLY EDITION of this “looking-glasse” to reflect upon what has happened after King Charles I changed the regulations around the production of soap. In 1631, hoping to exploit the soap trade as a source of revenue, Charles I granted a monop- oly of soap manufacturing to a Westminster group made up of inexperienced Catholic recusants (staunch Roman Catholics who refused to attend Anglican services). The new patent was justified on the basis of an invention devised by these new soap makers which allegedly made a better, cheaper, white soap without the use of whale oil, which had been the key ingredient in the patent of the original (and now dispossessed) London soap makers. In the current pamphlet, the author is describing the effects of having granted this monopoly to these “divers persons of mean condition” who don’t know what they’re doing, “not having bin Apprentices to that Trade.” The soap they make is described as “deceitfull and unserviceable;” is being made in a way to avoid taxation; and is being sold at a price that is ruining the businesses of the established soap makers who were thriving before the law in 1631 was passed. The pamphlet proposes an increased taxation of potash as the solution. According to our anonymous author, this will rescue the older and more skilled part of the soap trade as well as raise revenue for the state. What then follows are pages describing the grounds for these complaints. This narra- tive is interesting because it reveals information on how soap was made; the quantities being produced in London weekly (“near 700 Barrels of Sope”); the different jobs within soap manufacturing; how some employees are having their hands burnt when handling the lesser soap; and the practicalities of how the taxation works. In good condition. ¶ ESTC: Columbia University, Harvard, Indiana University, Williams College and five locations outside of the United States." Ordered from Ben Kinmont, D9708, 2024-01-30,

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