In November 1887, a meeting of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations held in Oxford passed a resolution calling for Fair Trade (a form of protectionism). The following month, Playfair defended free trade in a speech in Leeds, which was published by the Cobden Club under the title "On Fair Trade and the Depression in Agriculture". He later claimed that this pamphlet sold around 100,000 copies. The veteran free trade campaigner, John Bright, wrote to Playfair and said his speech was "one of the best, if not the best, spoken on the question".