[SOAP]

The Case of the Soap-Makers Making Green-Soap [caption title].

[London]: [1715]. Broadsheet. [1]p. plus printed docket title on verso. Disbound. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Mild foxing.

An early lobbying leaflet petitioning Parliament to lift the duty on domestic green soap. The authors argue that the soap is being twice-taxed, as the oil and potashes from which it is made amounts to fifty percent of the duty already being paid on the soap itself, and that the resulting high prices have created a black market in soap. The petition is among the earliest examples of commercial lobbying literature, which first began proliferating in the lobby of the House of Commons around the time of the accession of King George I and the British general election of 1715. ESTC and OCLC together record copies at six institutions in Britain and three in the U.S. (Harvard, University of Michigan, and University of Texas at Austin).

Hanson 1723.

Item #21213

Price: $425.00