 The dependent sheep typifies the wool trade.In 1715 the first history of Leeds was written by Ralph Thoresby, entitled "Ducatus Leodiensis; or the Topography of the antient and populous Town and Parish of Leedes".Leeds was mainly a merchant town, manufacturing woollen cloths and trading with Europe via the Humber estuary and the population grew from 10,000 at the end of the seventeenth century to 30,000 at the end of the eighteenth.