Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	parliament_n	power_n	1,452	5	5.0027	4	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

receive the one moity of all such fines and penalties as shall be imposed upon such intruders and further they agreed to yeeld to his Maiesty in respect aforesaid an anuuall Rent of 50. l. or 100 Marks per annum As before by the recited Act so likewise by this order it appeares that Merchants would not submit nor come into their Companie as they had just cause so to doe therefore suit must be made to suppresse them but the illegall power which the Companie used begat a Petition for free Trade in Parliament against the Companie in Anno 1606 which was judged in that Supreme Court so just and right that there passed a Bill for a generall libertie of trade with great applause of the House scarce fortie dissenting from it But the Companie finding that the said Bill would have dissolved their Patent they made a crosse presumptuous Order which for that they have dared to doe they may be truly termed Adventurous Merchants At a Court holden April 5. 1606. THe Bill of generall liberty of Trade was now read and this Court hath consented that learned Councell shall be entertained and the enormities of the Bill laid open with a manifestation of the necessity of a government in Trade It is also further agreed that all reasonable charges expended about the crossing of that Bill shall be defrayed by the Treasurer here The transcript of this oath and orders were truly extracted out of their owne Register and is concordant with the originall Touching the first which is a kinde of oath of allegiance unto them and hath touched the consciences of some it is worth the observing how they mention a power they have to make Statutes and it is proper for them so to doe if they be a Commonwealth as they terme themselves in the same Oath And for the orders by these and the following one may finde upon what a tottering foundation their Charter stands and by what indirect meanes they support it being borne by strength of Purse and Court Donatives which in true English are but complementall bribes which dare not appeare among their publique accompts as is obvious by the following order At a Court holden Decemb. 23. 1622. ACcording to the Order of the generall Court this day they tooke into consideration the businesse of the Accompt required by the Commissioners which this Court conceiving to be a matter that may concerne divert occasions presented with gratuities It is not thought meet to give any such accompt as may any way touch the said great Personages but rather to a void the accompt by some good courses to which end it is agreed that Master Governour and Master Deputy or one of them doe take some such course as they shall thinke convenient At a Court holden Novemb. 16. 1623. THe Court had consideration according to the season of the yeare of their yearly presents to such Honourable Personages as they have received favours from and first forasmuch as they have beene extraordinarily bound to the favours of the Lord Treasurer the remembrance is now to be enlarged at Newyeares tide and that they shall present his Lordship with 200. peeces of 22. s. in gold and a peece of Plate as an acknowledgement of his Lordships speciall favours Moreover to the Lord Duke of Buckingham To the Archbishop of Canterbury To the Lord Treasurer To the Lord Keeper To the Lord President To Mr. Secretary Calvert To Mr. Comptroller c. Having made it apparent by the premisses how this fraternity of Ingrossers is repugnant to all Laws both of Nature of Nations and of those of this Kingdome as not being able to produce any municipall right thereunto it remaines now to prove further that this selfe-enriching society derogates from the repute and honors of the English Nation abroad for they are esteemed as indeed they are no other then a Monopoly which being odious every where makes them lose both love and respect as well in Germany as the Netherlands for though they enjoy some immunities where they come for their diet and lodging it is not for any love unto them but for the encrease of Customes and other advantages they bring along with them to that particular place And it is observed that they setled themselves no where yet but there hath beene jarring betwixt them and the Towne at last which hath made them remove their Tents so oft and shift from place to place besides there is commonly ill blood bred and matter of contestation and envie betwixt that Town where they seat themselves and other circumjacent Towns as happened of late yeares betwixt Rotterdam and Amsterdam Out of the precedent discourse and the circumstances thereof this Inference doth necessarily follow That the Company of those who stile themselves Merchants Adventurers in statu quo nunc take them in the condition they are now in is not only against the hereditary priviledges but also a pressure and a grievance of a high nature to the free-borne Subjects of this Realme of England But in regard it is a common laying that one tale is good till the other be told let us examine and answer the arguments they produce for their owne vindication and defence The Arguments which the Merchants Adventurers alledge for their justification may be all reduced to these three heads First they cry up the Antiquity of their Company Secondly the Ability of it Thirdly the Necessity of it 1. Touching the Antiquity thereof they affirme their Charter to have beene granted them above 250. yeares past 2. Touching their Ability they alledge that they are of sufficient wealth to take up and buy all the White Clothes yearly made in this Realme for readie money therefore there is no need to have a greater number added to them 3. Touching the necessitie of their Company they declare how by meanes of the same and by their discreet government the commodities issuing from Wooll have beene highly advanced alledging that Clothes in the time of King H 7. being worth but 3. l. are now sold for twice as much Moreover they say that if libertie should be granted every man to trade as he preaseth the unskilfulnesse of the traders meeting with the subtiltie of the people with whom they are to deale great losse would ensue thereby to the Subjects of this Kingdome besides the confusion that would inevitably follow To the first of these concerning their Antiquitie it is answered that As it is a rule in Divinitie that Prescription cannot priviledge an errour no more can it doe in civill government It is true when Edw. 3. by his extraordinarie wisedome had procured Cloth to be made so plentifully within this Realme he incited and stirred up his subjects to the venting of those Clothes by transportation of them to forraine parts whereby he granted them many favours and Henry the fourth erected them to a Company that went by the name of a Brotherhood of Tho Becket Bp. of Cant. yet with this proviso that any man paying

the Haunce of an old Noble might freely consort and trade with them But in the reigne of Henry the seventh the said Companie out of self-love and desire of lucre sought to appropriate the said priviledges so granted to all soly unto themselves and attempted to exclude their Neighbours and Countrimen from the benefit of that trade contrarie to the freedome and orders of all Mart Townes which being complained of in Parliament that famous Statute before inserted was made by that wise Legislator Henry the seventh whence if one looke backward he will finde that they cannot plead above 100. yeares antiquitie The Staplers were far more ancient yet we know to what a reformation they submitted themselves besides in the carriage of all mundane affaires the quality of the times and the face of things doe alter ever and anon Those Immunities which were granted in the Infancy of trade to incite people to the encrease and improvement of it are not so proper for these times when the Trade is come to that heigth of perfection and that the mystery of it is so well known and it is daily found by experience that what was good and profitable to a State by the alteration of times becomes prejudiciall as for instance it was lawfull for the Company of staplers to transport Woolls but when we attained to the knowledge of making Cloth it was not good and therefore prohibited Touching the second allegation that their ability can extend to buy and vend all the Clothes that are made yearly For the first part of this Argument that concernes their ability it is too well known by what extrajudiciall and monopolizing wayes they have thus enabled themselves to swallow up the market for it hath beene by a constant engrossing of the Trade so many yeares to the impoverishing and prejudice of their fellow Subjects and to the feathering only of their owne nests The strength of a Kingdome consists in the riches of many Subjects not of a few in so much that were this Trade enlarged it would tend to the multiplying of able and wealthy Merchants it would disperse it to a greater latitude and further ennobling the Trade and prevent the encrease of poore men and beggars up and downe the Land for it is one of the maine reasons why there are fewer beggars seene in Commonwealths then in Kingdoms because of community and freedome of trading by which meanes the wealth of the Land is more equally distributed amongst the Natives But suppose they be able to buy all the Clothes is it not against common reason and the Subjects birth-right that therefore they should be permitted so to doe and others debard Concerning the necessity of this Incorporation it is enforced by a twofold reason First they pretend that the sale of our Manufactures is more advanced and the esteeme and price thereof borne up by their guidance and government which is now double from what it was For answer it is true that the rates of our woollen Commodities as of all other sorts of Merchandize are much raised from what they were but this is an act of time as in all other Countreys where Trade is free in so long a tract of time the prizes of all things change especially since the discovery of the West-Indian Mines which have so exceedingly encreased the plenty of money through all parts of Europe There be divers other reasons why the rates are raised as the alteration of value in Coines and exchanges Secondly the raising of Rents Thirdly the endearment of victuals which rise still with the encrease of people And lastly the chiefe reason is because there hath beene such vent for our Cloth abroad and that is the maine cause why our Cloth and other woollen Commodities are so much risen but grant the Company beare up the prices of commodities abroad may they not by the same power and policy keep up the prices of forreign commodities at home by which meanes the Kingdome suffers both wayes Secondly they say that if Trade were free all would suddenly fall to decay both Merchant and Clothier would be beaten out of trade by the Dutch for if our Merchants who transport Cloth were not ordered by the Company they would send such abundance into all parts as they would not be able to gaine thereby and so the Merchant would be discouraged to send any more or if he doe send he will be sure to give the Clothier every time lesse for his Cloth so that the Clothier nor Merchant will bee able to live by it and by this overclogging of the market our Cloth will be brought into dis-esteeme and not so regarded as it is now by this Government This Objection at first sight carrieth a specious shew but if it be cast into the ballance of truth it will beare no weight at all it is rather a conceit then an Argument for they cannot prove it by any act of experience only they imagine such a thing It is confessed that regularity and government is commendable in all things otherwise disorders and a promiscuous kinde of confusion will follow The French and Spanish Companies sang the same note before Tertio Iacobi when they were dissolved There bee generall Lawes to regulate trade and to preserve it from confusion we desire still a government but not a Monopoly that so few should engrosse the whole masse and bulke of the prime trade of England to two Townes only Trade though the comparison be homely is like Dung which being close kept in a heap or two stinks but being spread abroad it doth fertilize the earth and make it fructifie nor need we any forraign hands to spread it wee have enough of our owne were they permitted Touching the over-glutting of the market it might well fall out that if free Traders were confind to two Towns only they would peradventure surcharge them but having the choice of so many Ports and such a variety of places there is no such feare of a glut As touching the esteeme and rates of our Cloth which they pretend would bee prejudiced let them know that it is not the high price but plenty that propagates Trade and for the high rates of our Cloth we may impute that not so much to their Government as the policy of the Dutch themselves who to make Dutch Cloth more vendible hoise up the price of ours and that our Cloth and other woollen Commodities are endeared by the Company here shall be proved afterwards There are two main things that conduce to make a trade flourish plenty of Merchandize and multitude of Merchants Now it can be proved that in the yeare 1633 before that strict Proclamation for restraint came out there were neere upon 600 Traders in those commodities and in the yeare 1639 not above 180 and in Holland before that Proclamation when they made most they made not above two thousand Clothes yearly but since they have made some yeares twentie thousand and they fell also to the making of