Two "classic" studies of the economic history of the wool industry
are Herbert Heaton, _The Woollen and Worsted Industries in Yorkshire
from Earliest times through the Industrial Revolution_ and
Arthur Cole, _The Woolen Industry in America_. Richard Goldthwaite
in his _The Economy of Renaissance Florence_ just published (2009) by
Johns Hopkins U. Press provides a long a footnote on the
historiography of the Woolen industry into early modern times (this
is on p.268, fn.4) which includes mention of the Fontana and Gayot
ed. volume on Wool mentioned in Daniele Parisi's post. Goldthwaite
starts his footnote by stating "Virtually every aspect of the [Wool]
industry in its first three phases, down to the sixteenth century is
the subject of what has become a classic study in the historiography
of Florence."
David Mitch