Quite the same enthusiasm. His highly lucrative monopoly on woolen broadcloth was widely resented as a tax on the poor, while his foppish silks and velvets only served to remind the common folk that much of his wealth had been earned at their expense. Few bothered to disguise their contempt for Ralegh, prompting one courtier to write that ‘no man is more hated than him; none more cursed daily by the poor, for whom infinite numbers are brought to extreme poverty by the gift of cloth to him.’