Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	law_n	parliament_n	repeal_v	2,928	5	12.0628	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87609	A discourse consisting of motives for the enlargement and freedome of trade· Especially that of cloth, and other vvoollen manufactures, engrossed at present contrary to [brace] the law of nature, the law of nations, and the lawes of this kingdome. / By a company of private men who stile themselves merchant-adventurers. The first part. Aprill. 11. 1645 Imprimatur, Na. Brent.	Johnson, Thomas, marchant.	1645 (1645)	Wing J849A; Thomason E260_21; ESTC R212472	22,833	55

manner they without hope of comfort or reliefe and the Kings Customes and Subsidies and the Navy of the Land greatly decreased and minished and daily they be like more to decay if out reformation be not had in this behalfe Be it therefore enacted by the King our Soveraigne Lord by the advise and assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by authority of the fame that every English man being the Kings true Leigeman from henceforth have free passage resort course and recourse into the said coasts of Flanders Holland Zealand Brabant and other places thereto nigh adjoyning under the obeysance of the said Archduke to the Marts there her easter to he holden with his or their Merchandizes Goods and wares there to buy and sell and make their exchange freely at his or their pleasure without exaction fine imposition extortion or contribution to be had leavied taken or perceived of them or of any of them to for or by any English person or persons to his or their own use or to the use of the said Fraternity of Fellowship or of any other like except only of ten Mark sterling And that no person English as is afore rehearsed hereafter take to his own use or to the use of the said Fraternity or Fellowship thereof any other English person of what estate degree or condition that he be of so alway that he be the King our Soveraigne Lords true Leige-man any fine exaction imposition or contribution for his liberty or freedome to buy and sell Goods wares or Merchandizes in or at any of the said Marts more or above the said summe of ten Mark sterling only upon paine of forfeiture to our Soveraigne Lord for every time that he doth the contrary of this Act 20. l. and also to forfeit to the parties so grieved in this behalfe tenne times so much as he contrary to this present Act taketh of him And that the parties so aggrieved shall have in this behalfe an Action of debt for the said forfeiture of tenne times in any of the Kings Courts within this Realm by writ Bill Plaint or Information and such processe to be made in the same as is or ought to be made in or upon an Action of debt at the Common Law and the triall thereof to be had in such Shire City or Place where the said Action is commenced or sued and that the Defendant in any Action bee not admitted to wage his Law nor none Essoine or Protection be for such Defendant admitted or allowed in that behalfe This Act of Parliament is in full force and validity to this day for there is none can deny that the vertue of an Act of Parliament is such that no Power can repeale or abrogate it but the same Legislative Power that made it now that a private Charter procured by gratuities favour and other clandestine wayes as shall be proved should have power to suspend and stop the execution of an Act of Parliament we beleeve no Iudge in the Land will affirme especially considering that this Charter doth authorize a few men to exercise both at home and abroad an extrajudiciall sway both over the consciences the bodies and estates of his Majesties leige people by oathes imprisonments amercements and taxes Touching the Oath they use to impose it runs thus being couched in this odde forme YOu sweare by Almighty God to be good and true to our Soveraign Lord the King that now is and to his Heires and Successours Kings of this Realme You shall be obedient and assistant to Mr Governour or his Deputy and Assistants of Merchant-Adventurers in the parts of Holland Zealand Brabant Flanders and within the Townes and Marches of Calais as also in East Freezland or any other Countrey or place on this or that side the seas where the said Company are or shall be priviledged All States and Ordinances not repealed which have beene made or shall he made by the said Governour or his Deputy and Fellowship you shall to your best knowledge truly bold and keep no singular regard to your selfe in hurt or prejudice of the Common wealth of the said Fellowship or else being condemned and or derly demanded shall truly from time to time content and pay unto the Treasurer for the time being all and every such mulcts and penalties which have and shall be limited and set for the transgressors and offenders of the same The secrets and privities of the aforesaid Fellowship you shall heal and not bewray and if you shall know any person or persons that intend any hurt harme or prejudice to our Soveraigne Lord the King or unto his Lands or to the Fellowship aforesaid or the priviledges of the same you shall give knowledge thereof and doe it to be knowne to the said Governour or his Deputy And you shall not colour or free any Forreigners goods which are not free of this Fellowship of Merchant-Adventurers of England So help you God By the words of this extravagant Oath one may see what high illegall and transcendent power they assume to themselves to make Statutes which is proper and peculiar only to Parliaments Moreover they stile themselves a Commonwealth in so much that though they cannot be termed Regnum in Regno they may be well termed Dominium in Dominio Besides this Oath there is another called the purging Oath whereby one is bound to confesse whether he hath offended in such and such particulars and to accuse himselfe which is point blank against Law being a thing abhorring to nature and for which kinde of Oath some of our Courts were lately put down by this present Parliament and touching their Impositions and Fines they lay them ad libitum which they convert afterwards to their owne benefit whereas the King de jure partakes of all Fines but they passed an Order by which to use their owne words they were pleased to allow him the one moity The true copy of which Order shall be inserted here with others by which one may guesse at the rest At a Court holden March 4. 1603. THe Brethren of this Company assembled together doe bold it very requisite for the better carriage of their Trade that suite should be made unto the Kings Majesty by the meanes of my Lord Chancellor to be perferred that in the confirmation of the Companies Charters of Priviledges this also might be added and inserted that the Company in their Courts as well in England as beyond the Seas to bee holden may impose reasonable fines and penalties upon such Subiects of this Realme not free of this Company that shall ship Woollen Commodities into the Countreys and Places where they are priviledged thereby to cause such intruding subiects to desist from that trade which properly appertains to the Company of Adventurers In consideration whereof and in hope of the more favour in some other suites they meane to move hereafter they are pleased that the Kings Maiesty may have and

found and adjudged them so and particularly this Company of Merchant-Adventurers against which there passed also two Votes in full Parliament a little before his late Majesties death extracted out of the Parliament Records as followeth Die Veneris 30. Aprilis 22 Iacobi UPon a Report this day made to the Commons House of Parliament from the generall Committee for Trade concerning the imprest money set by the Company of Merchant-Adventurers of London upon Cloth and after long debate thereof in the House It is resolved and declared by the said House of Commons that the opinion of the House is that such setting of the said imprest money upon Cloth is unlawfull unjust and a grievance to the people and is to bee taken off and no longer to bee continued by them And upon further Report from the said Committee and like debate in the said House It is further declared that the House thinks fit that as well the Merchant Adventurers as all other Merchants promiscuously may transport to all places all Northern and Western Dozens Kersies and new Manufactures H. Elsyng Cler. Dom. Com. Die Lunae 10. Maii. 22. Iacobi UPon a Report this day made to the House of Commons from the grand Committee for Trade concerning the freedome of exportation of died and dressed and all coloured Clothes into the parts of Germany and the Low Countreys by other Merchants besides the Merchant-Adventurers and after long debate thereof in the House It is resolved and declared by the said House of Commons that the opinion thereof is that other Merchants besides the Merchant-Adventurers may freely trade with died and drest and all forts of coloured Clothes into Germany and the Low Countreys H. Elsyng Cler. Dom. Com. But to this they seeme to object the Ordinance of this present Parliament for the continuance of their Company This under correction cannot hold plea for the said Ordinance passed with this proviso and clause of reservation by the wisedom of both Houses That all rights confirmed by Act of Parliament or ancient Charters should be thereby saved so that it is rightly conceived that that Ordinance is not binding nor of a restraining nature Therefore it is most humbly desired that the aforesaid Patent of the Company of Merchant-Adventurers may not be binding to others not free of their Company in regard it is Illegall Vnusefull Prejudiciall Abusive It is illegall because it is repugnant to expresse Acts of Parliaments It is against the naturall right and priviledge of free born Subjects as appeares by Magna Charta and Petition of right It is a meere Monopoly both in the intention and the execution for by paying money the Subject enjoyes his right and denying payment he is debard of it it is a grievance of the highest nature in regard it gives an extrajudiciall power to imprison the Subject without baile or mainprize to take away his goods to contrive and impose oathes to lay and levy taxes without limitations and convert them to private profit to the prejudice of others which is the truest badge of a Monopoly It is grounded upon Prerogative not warranted by Common Law or Act of Parliament but directly opposite to all The pretence of it is the same that all monopolizing Patents have viz. Regularity and Conformity but indeed to usurp a right and liberty and to restore it againe for money The Patent is obtained by some particular men without the knowledge or consent of others and it is a rule that no man is bound to observe that Law which himselfe consents not to bee made against him It is Vnusefull because that this Trade and every other profession in England is subject to regularity either by laudable customes confirmed by Acts of Parliaments or by Statute Lawes and it is strange that a Projector should see a better way for regularity of trade then ever was thought on by Act of any Parliament That other Merchants have no such need of regularity onely they are subject in generall to the Lawes and Customes of the Land yet they flourish and prosper and in Flanders Brabant Artois Henegow and other Provinces under the King of Spaine there hath beene no government by the Company for about fourscore yeares together yet the trade of our Manufactures thrive farre better there then in Holland or Germany where regulation in trade hath beene and our Nation is farre more beloved and respected That those moneys which are leavied are not any wayes employed for the benefit of King or Kingdome or for bettering the Trade but serve only for bribes to perserve the ill-begotten Patent and punish such as endeavour to enjoy their naturall right against the said Patent which ends with this odde clause That every thing in it shall be taken construed and adjudged most strongly against us that is the King our Heires and Successors and most benignly favourably and beneficially for the said Governour Assistants and Fellowship of Merchant-Adventurers The Patent is prejudiciall and abusive for that they have done and doe this Kingdom the greatest detriment that ever befell it in point of trade by instigating the Dutch to make a vertue of necessity by making them fall to the draping of Cloth and other woollen Manufactures out of the hatred they conceive to their Monopoly It is too well knowne what clashings and contestations have happened from time to time betweene them To instance in one amongst others about the yeare 1634 there was such a contention betwixt them and the Dutch about Tare that the Company kept their ware-houses shut up about seven or eight months which made the Dutch in meere despight to set up his looms and to fall a draping and so continueth But were it not for the restraint they make and the power they arrogate to themselves of appointing the place where the proportion what the manner how the time when our woollen Manufactures should be transported the Gentleman would have more Clothiers for his wools the Clothier would have more Merchants for his cloth and the Merchant would have more chapmen for his ware And although the Company receive some Immunities from the Towne where they seat themselves yet are they prejudiciall to the Kingdom in generall for in lieu thereof those Dutch in London and other places who terme themselves members of the Intercourse receive the like Immunities here And observable it is that though the Company have such priviledges both at home and abroad whereby they engrosse the trade of the Kingdome in such a high measure yet are they liable to pay no greater taxes then others that have neither Charter nor priviledge If they will have all the trade it is reason they should pay all the taxes but they are farre from paying more then ordinary taxes although the taxes which the Company receives from their members are extraordinary for as it is extracted out of their owne books that from the yeare 1616 to 1641 they received in taxes 182295. l. and odde moneys besides what they received beyond the seas The Company of Merchant-Adventurers doe keep up their Patent for one of these three reasons Either for the generall good of this Kingdom Either for the benefit of merchants in generall Either for the profit of their particular members To the first if it were good for this Kingdom in generall it is almost impossible but this Company would have beene established by Law the conveniences and inconveniences thereof having been so oft debated in Parliaments as is clearly proved for above 150 yeares past but on the contrary it never was complained of but it still was condemned by the wisedom of the Kingdom and freedom declared for all Merchants to trade To the second if it were for the benefit of Merchants in generall then for a certaine those Merchants of old time and the succeeding ages and the Merchants of these times would not have opposed and complained of them as it appeares they have but they would have soone discerned the benefit which would have been sufficient inducement for Merchants to have joyned with the Company and needed not to have been forced or beaten into that which is for their owne profit nor need the Company constrain Merchants to grow rich against their will especially by indirect meanes To the third if it be for the profit of their particular members as it cannot be otherwise conceived then no doubt but the Company will speed as informer Parliaments which God grant For were there a freedome of Trade it would be the onely meanes to cause the Dutch to desist form making of Cloth and there is nothing that conduceth more to the inlargement of selling any commodity then cheapnesse for the Dutchman alwayes goeth to the cheapest though from a Christian to a lew All the premises impartially considered it is humbly conceived that it will stand with the policie of this Kingdome to disanull and cancell the Patent of those that ascribe unto themselves the sole name of Merchants-Adventurers in regard it is already proved illegall unusefull prejudiciall and abusive To conclude this is not a new Complaint but an old grievance having been petitioned against above 150. yeares agoe and complained of since from time to time and in this present Parliament there are Petitions depending against the Company as a Nationall grievance of Merchants of London the Clothiers of Worcester Essex Suffolke Norfolke Kent Colchester Norwich c. Whereupon it pleased the Honorable House of Commons to appoint a Committee to consider of the Pattent of the said Merchants Adventurers who being permitted to bring in their learned Counsell yet they could not prove the legallity thereof Thus without any aime of particular interest but for the generall welfare of the Kingdome with sincere hearts and out of the deepest sence of sorrow and griefe of mind having long observed their miscarriages we are emboldened to present this generall grievance as being thereunto bound by a two-fold tye of duty First as free-borne Subjects of this Kingdome our birth-right and hereditary Priviledges are neerly concerned and therefore we ought in conscience to endeavour to preserve them for our posterity as they have been transmitted to us Secondly for that by the Protestation and Covenant lately taken by us at command of this Parliament we are againe ingaged so to doe And truly those two vowes if remembred will cause every true-hearted man at least to pray for that which hee is bound to defend and maintaine with the utmost hazzard of his life and fortunes FINIS

prejudiciall in the highest nature to the sale of our commodities for the pettie Shop-keepers and Retailers will not come so farre to buy our Commodities It is too chargeable costly and sometimes dangerous travelling and will not quit cost to travell so farre to buy small quantities Now this inconvenience is fallen upon it that the great traders or buyers of our Cloth which the Dutch call Grossiers and it is a proper name for them because they are engrossers of our Commodities doe come and buy great quantities together and when these men are come to Amsterdam and other remote places then they furnish all those smaller Shopkeepers and other Chapmen with our commodities and these men get a competent gaine thereby which if trade were free our Merchants might gaine so much the more or afford our Cloth so much the cheaper unto the Retailer and by cheap selling we should the sooner beat the Dutch from making But there is a greater harm in it then this for the chief makers of Cloth in Holland and those parts thereabouts be those great buyers or Grossiers who aime at ingrossing our cloth for two reasons first because they get good gaine upon our commodities in selling them as aforesaid to smaller tradesmen but secondly and principally to advance the sale of their owne home-made cloth before our English which is easily done having the sale of both in their owne hands none can hinder them and seeing it is so that the Dutch do make great quantity of cloth and other woollen commodities there is a far greater necessity of a free trade and selling cheape then heretofore when the Hollanders made none or but few for then it was easie to make them give what price we pleased for cloth but now we must not onely endeavour to sell our commodities but should chiefly aime to sell so cheape as might cause the Dutch to desist from making of cloth The greatest bane which ever the commerce of this Kingdome received was that the Hollanders and others fell to the making of cloth and other woollen manufactures and if the Flemming should come to set up woollen Loomes as the Hollander doth to what a low ebbe our trade of cloth would sinke unto it is an easie thing to be a Prophet Therefore there is no one thing that requires the policie of England more then to draw the one and prevent the other from making of cloth and other woollen commodities in that abundance Now there is no way under Heaven to doe it but by devising wayes to sell our Manufactures at cheaper rates and disperse them more up and downe the Countrey which cannot be otherwise effected then by a free Trade and multitude of Merchants and by fitting all places and remote parts with such kind of Manufactures as are most proper for them These reasons no doubt will give good satisfaction to indifferent men who under favour cannot deny but this Company of Merchant-Adventurers is as prejudiciall to this Kingdome as ever the French or Spanish Companies were and to prove they were so it will be requisite here to insert an Act of Parliament in tertio Jacobi by which they were dissolved the Act runs thus VVHereas divers Merchants have of late obtained from the Kings most excellent Majesty under the Great Seale of England a large Charter of Incorporation for them and their Company to trade into the Dominious of Spaine and Portugall and are also most earnest suiters to obtain the like from his said Majestie for France whereby none but themselves and such as they shall thinke fit as being meere Merchants shall take the benefit of the said Charter disabling thereby all others his Majesties loving Subjects of this Realme of England and Wales who during in divers respects greatly charged for the defence of their Prince and Countrey and therefore ought indifferently to enjoy all the benetits of this most happy peace and also debarring them from that free enlargement of common Trafficke into those Dominions which others his Majesties Subjects of his Realmes of Scotland and Ireland doe enjoy to the manifest impoverishing of all owners of Ships Masters Mariners Fishermen Clothiers Tuckers Spinsters and many thousands of all sorts of Handy-crafts men besides the decrease of his Majesties Customes Subsidies and other impositions and the ruine decay of Navigation together with the abatement of the prices of our wools Cloth Corn and such like commodities arising and growing within this his said Majesties Realm of England and the enhancing of all French and Spanish commodities by reason of the insufficiency of the Merchants they being few in number and not of ability to keep the great number of our Ships and Seafaring men a work and to vent the great store of commodities which this his Majesties Dominion of England doth yeeld And by meanes that all Owners and Mariners with divers others if these Incorporations should continue shall bee cut off from their ordinary meanes of maintenance and preserving their estates And finally by reason that all French and Spanish commodities shall be in a few mens hands In respect whereof as for many other manifold inconveniences growing thereby much hurt and prejudice must needs redound to all his Majesties loving Subjects of this his Highnesse Realme of England if reformation for the prevention of so great an evill be not had in due time For remedy whereof be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawfull to and for all his Majesties Subjects of this his Highnesse Realme of England and Wales from henceforth at all times to have free liberty to trade into and from the Dominious of Spaine Portugall and France in such fort and in as free manner as was at any time accustomed sithence the begining of this his Highnes most happy Reign in this his Realm of England and at any time before the said Charter of Incorporation was granted paying to the Kings most Excellent Majesty his Heires and Successors all such customes and other duties as by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme ought to be paid and done for the same The said Charter of Incorporation or any other Charter Grant Act or any thing else heretofore made or done or hereafter to be done to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Provided alwayes that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not be of force to enable or give liberty to any person or persons to goe over Seas without licence who by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme or by any Statute hereafter to be made shall be restrained from going beyond the Seas without licence any thing to the contrary notwithstanding Were there nothing more said then what this Act of Parliament relates it is sufficient to convince any rationall man of the unsufferable wrong the Kingdom receives by such illegall Incorporations severall Parliaments have