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A52447 Observations and advices oeconomical North, Dudley North, Baron, 1602-1677. 1669 (1669) Wing N1286; ESTC R616 31,061 156

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OBSERVATIONS AND ADVICES OECONOMICAL Infelix nimis cujus domicilio ignavia adhaeret LUKE 8. 16. No man when he hath lighted a Candle covereth it with a Vessel c. LONDON Printed by T. R. for John Martyn Printer to the Royal Society at the sign of the Bell without Temple-Bar 1669. The Preface A Short Work needs little Preface and this Work is both short and slender so as it may be easie to make a Gate large enough for the City it self to run out at A Iourney cannot be too little nor the Way too plain for a person of Body tyred and Spirits spent by past travell and I may well professe my self such having in my dayes galopped so many Post-stages In the prime of my youth I past or rather lost some few years at the Vniversity of Cambridge Then I came to have a tast of the Court but my Father soon called me from thence knowing by dear experience the Air of that place to be such as few elder Brothers can long breath there without falling into a Consumption Afterwards I lived with my Parents at their London habitation and having no employment I surfeited of Idlenesse taking my pastime with some of the most corrupt young men of those dayes By Gods grace I quickly found this unfit for continuance and therefore I prevailed with my Father to send me beyond Sea to travel where in lesse then two years I had a view of the best part of Italy France and Spain being present at Madrid and Paris when the several Marriages for our then Prince of Wales were treated on in those Courts and so I became a partial witnesse of the artifices and uncertainty of such Negotiations From thence I was employed as a Soldier in Holland about three years Commanding a Foot Company in our Sovereigns Pay And there I ran hazard again of being lost in debauchery and especially in the Vice-rampant of that People But by Gods grace I came home scot-free though I served under a Scotch Colonel Then I became a Married man and was speedily called to Publick affairs being elected to four successive Parliaments where the Service and approaches were excessive chargeable and of no profit as to my particular One of these was that fatal Parliament which set the whole Kingdom on fire seeking to enervate or unsinue all Government and that it might the better be effected divers of us their Members were by Club-law forced from our station Yet it pleased God even by that Parliament when we were re-admitted to put all again in such a way as the old Government was perfectly restored in a succeeding Assembly Then I made my full retreat into the Countrey which renewed my experience in businesses relating to that course of life and now at last I am come to reside at the chief Mansion-house of our Family where I have no other ambition then to end my dayes with a peaceable and pious dissolution So much of my self tyred and retired which I may well be since the World can scarcely shew me any thing new Now a word or two about my approaches to this little Inventary Being overtaken with old Age and by divers infirmities rendred unfit for action I entertain my self frequently by turning over old Books whereof I have good store in several Languages without any fixed Study and among them I lately perused one consisting of certain politick and prudential Considerations written by three distinct Italian Authors in an articular way and as I was reading it fell into my thoughts that the same might profitably be done in Oeconomicks which is a path not much travelled in Thence I took occasion to turn my meditations that way and having spent same little time therein I put my materials together and so this small Work received being without any further trouble by way of Method As for the Subject though not of any sublime consideration I conceived it fitter for me to embrace then N●tes in Politick Government as not having coversed sufficiently with Sovereign Princes and taking it to be a high presumption for private persons to give them instructions Yet the government of private Families may be considerable even with Princes because their Principalities are composed of Families and they who are known to have well governed their private fortunes are the rather judged fit for Publick Offices Oeconomy is a subject that entertained the Pen of Learned Aristotle himself but it yieldeth little occasion for pleasant conceits or curious terms wherefore I must advise all persons of nimble fancy to forbear reading least it become a kind of torture to them happy it is for this Discourse that it came into the World so seasonably for never was there more need of good menagery then now at a time when Revenues of the Gentry are fallen beyond what could have been imagined of late years and they are most likely to continue so if not to incur a farther diminution I meddle not with small Families which are concerned in the mysteries of Agriculture and petty Huswifery matter 's no way suitable to my mind or experience and there was no need for divers persons of peculiar knowledge in those matters have written of them But it may be demanded why I having been so great a straggler do undertake to give Rules in Oeconomy To which I answer That at times I have been a House-keeper a great part of my dayes and more especially in these my latter years at which time Men are accustomed to take matters into consideration more maturely then when distracted with pleasures of youth Indeed my nature is not so perverse but I receive great contentment in being beneficial to others for In minimis prodesse juvat better do a little good then none at all Neither am I so ill opinioned of this my Brains production as to think it altogether uselesse and therefore such as it is like a Knight errant it shall travel about to seek adventures Perhaps it may yield assistance somewhere and so I leave it to its fortune I expect to be Censured in all and not to escape in this Introduction as having said too much of my Self and too little of Oeconomy our Subject But my Face being masked the blushes cannot appear and therefore I may content my self to be a patient hearer OBSERVATIONS and ADVICES OECONOMICAL I. OUr first Observation shal be touching the importance of Oeconomy wherefore let us bring it to the Balance for tryal Though a Family which is its general object be very small in comparison of the State whereof it is a member yet is it not like an Epicurean atome unexposed to sense but an aggregation capable of Government and the good government is of such Concernment as a State cannot subsist without it for Agriculture Manufactures are dependant upon families and a Nation can neither be fed nor defended without these since publick contributions receive their life from them There were very evident marks of Domestical thrift among the Roman