Woolsack

"About [the year] 1300, of total exports of about 30,000 pounds, all but 20,000 pounds came from wool; and the chancellor today sits on the 'woolsack,' when he presides over the house of Lords, as symbolic of that early economic foundation." (from A History of England and the British Empire) In the picture below the woolsack can be seen facing the throne in the upper foreground.