Politics of Wool & War

While wool has never only been an asset to be exploited for the enterprise of war, the fiber’s physical qualities have always been critical to making extreme weather conditions even somewhat tolerable to soldiers and sailors. As sheep pastoralism and the woolen industry both expanded in the 19th century, so did the scale of many wars. Armies which had once numbered thousands of men began to count in the tens, then hundreds of thousands, then millions of combatants. For most countries with an active woolen textile industry, dependence on foreign sources of wool and extended supply chains remained a significant economic drain—especially in wartime. And the economies of nations create political agendas.

From the 18th century threat of death for smuggling a merino sheep out of Spain, to the 'shoddy scandals' of the American Civil War, to Britian's imposition of compulsory purchase of its Dominion's wool clips in the two World Wars, to American maneuvering to acquire wool during the Korean War, politics and wool have been intertwined.