upon any expedition by land or sea he was to have out of that Manor twenty shillings to feed his Buzcarles Mariners or Seamen or took for every five hides of land or that then esteemed honorable quantity of land a man with him But howsoever if that of Canutus discharging Pourveyance were a Law neither altered nor repealed it did but like his Laws touching Ordeal and delivering over the Murderer to the Kindred other of his Laws which proved to be unpracticable rather make the matter worse then better by his renouncing Pourveyance in his own Demeasnes for that Law and Resolution of his did meet with so little observance as in the Reign of King William Rufus and a great part of the Reign of his Brother King Henry the First the Kings Servants and Court for want of their former provisions grew to be so unruly as multitudo eorum qui curiam ejus sequebantur quaeque pessundaâ—ent diriperent nulla eos cohibente disciplina totam terram per quam Rex ibat devastarent and a multitude following the Court took and spoiled every thing in the way which the King went there being no discipline or good order taken Et dum reperta in Hospitiis quae invadebant penitus absumere non valebant ea aut ad forum per eosdem ipsos quoruÌ„ erant pro suo lucro ferre ac vendere aut supposito igne cremare â—ut â—i potus esset lotis exinde equâ—rum suorum pedibus residuum illius per terram effundere aut aliquo alio modo disperdere solebant and when they could not consume that which they found in the houses whereinto they had broken made the owners carry it to the Market and sell it for them or else burnt their provisions or if it were drink washed their horses feet with it or poured it upon the ground in so much as quique preâ—ognito regis advenâ—u sua habitacâ—l a fugithant every one hearing before hand of the Kings coming would run away from their houses which probably bringing in a dearth or scarcity of coâ—n might be the cause of the Tenants of the Kings Demeasne Lands bringing in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the First for then it was and not before as it appears by Edmerus and William of Malmsbury who lived in his time to the King their Plowshares instead of Corn to Court on their backs and making heavy complaints of their poverty and misery procured that King to change their Rents which before were used to be paid for the most part in corn cattle and provisions and were wont abundantly to supply his houshold occasions and with which in primitivo regno statu post conquisitionem the Kings of England from the Conquest untill then did plentifully as Gervasius Tilburienâ—is who lived also in his Reign hath related defray the charges of their Courts and Housholds into money with six pence in the pound overplus left the value of the mony should afterwards diminish but whether Canutâ—â— his Law were then in force or not or could be sufficient to abrogate those Jura Majestatis Rights or Prerogatives of our English Kings we find King Henry the first after those disorders in his greatest compliance with the English and his need of their aid to defend him against the pretensions and better Title of his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy and his couâ—ting of them unto it per libertates quas sanctus Rex Edwardus spiritu Dei provide sancivit by the antient Lawes and Liberties of holy King Edward which he had granted them and a promise to grant them any other retaining his Pourveyance and putting it into better order for as William Malmesbury hath recorded it Curialibus suis ubicunque villarum esset quantum a Rusticis gratis accipere quantum quoto praetio emere debuissent edixit transgressores vel gravi pecuniarum mulcta vel vitae dispendio afficiens directing and ordering those of his Court in whatsoever places he should abide what and how much they were to receive from the Country people gratis and without money and at what prices and rates they should buy other things under great penalties of money or punishment by death and was optimatibus venerabilis provincialibus amabilis reverenced by the Nobility and beloved by the common people and in his Charter which was for a gâ—eat part of it the original of our Magna Charta where omnes malas consuetudines quibus regnum Angliae iniuste opprimebatur inde aufert he took away all the evill Customs with which England was oppressed Et quas as the Charter saith in parte hic posuit and which were in part recited and with which the discontented Barons Nobility of England claiming their antient Liberties were so well contented in the 14. year of the Reign of King John when Steven Langton Archbishop of Canterbury produced it unto them as gavisi sunt gaudio magno valdè juraverunt omnes quod pro hiis libertatibus si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem they greatly rejoyced and swore that they would if need were contend unto death for those Liberties there is no mention of any evil in Pourveyance nor any order for the taking of them away And might as justly rationally continue in the Raign of King Henry the second his Grandchild as that custome or usage for the Bishops and dignified Clergy to take their provisions of the Inferior Clergy and their Carriages or Carts which Pope Alexander in a Councel or Synod held at Rome where were present the Bishops of Durham Norwich Hereford and Bath and divers Abbots sent from England did notwithstanding many complaints not against the Pourveyance it self but the immoderate use of it onely limit and restrain them secundum tolerantiam in illis locis in quibus amâ—liores fuerint redditus Ecclesiasticae facultates in pauperibus autem mensura tenenda to be moderately taken in such places as had more large possessions and Ecclesiastical Revenues and less of those who were in a poorer condition and then and long before the Domini hundredorum Lords or great men having the command or jurisdiction of Hundreds uti comes aut vicecomes as the Eaâ—l or Sheriff of the County had multa inde auxilia tributa sectas aliasque praestationes cum ad utilitatem tum ad voluptateÌ„ CerereÌ„ nempe frumentuÌ„ receperunt c and received many aids tributes and Pourveyances aswel conducing to their profit as pleasure cujus hodie nomine Annuum penditur tributum pecuniarum for which now there is a certain rent in mony paid Nor could the rights of Pouâ—veyance Prae-emption be any thing less then denizend in Scotland or the Northern parts of our British Isles when as the Civil and universal Law of the World was there so long ago entertained and yet continues the great Director and Guider of their Justice where in
cujus effectus est necessarius nisi aliunde impediatur could not be so the sole or proper cause of it as if not otherwise hindered it could not want its necessary effect CHAP. VII That the supposed plenty of money and Gold and Silver in England since the Conquest of the West Indies by the Spaniards hath not been a cause of raising the prices of food and victuals in England BUt will upon a due examination be too light in the Ballanee of Truth and Reason and deserve a place in the Catalogue of vulgar Errors For that the rise of Silver in its value or denomination by certain gradations or parts in several Ages from twenty pence the ounce by King Henry the sixth by his prerogative to thirty pence and between his Raign and that of Queen Elizabeth to forty pence and after to forty five pence and after to sixty pence ours being of a finer standard mixture or Allay then that of France the united Belgicque Provinces or the haâ—se or Imperial Cities of Germany and is now as high as five shillings and a penny the ounce comes far short of the now or then enhaunce of victuals and commodities and makes so large a disproportion as the abundance of that could not be probably the cause of the dearth of victuals and all manner of Commodities for that the plenty of those bewitching and domineering mettals of Gold and Silver supposed to be betwixt the Times of the discovery and subduing of the Indian Mines in the Raign of our King Henry the seventh which was about the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and five and the middle of the Raign of King Edward the sixth when as those Irritamenta malorum American riches and the alurements of them did not in the time of Charles the fifth Emperor who out-lived our King Henry the eight amount unto for his account any more then five hunddred thousand Crowns of Gold and with that and what came into Europe to the Spanish Merchants Accompts our English havâ—ng not then learnt the way to the West Indies or to search the unknown passages of the unmerciful Ocean could not have so great an influence upon England which was no neer neighbor to the Indies as to cause that dearth of Victuals all commodities which was heavily complained of in the raign of King Edward the sixth and if it had there would not have been any necessity of King Henry the 8. embasing or mixing with Copper so much as he did the Gold and Silver Coin of the Nation or that the price of the ounce of Silver should be raised betwixt the Raign of King Henry the 7. and the middle of the raign of Queen Elizabeth to sixty pence or five shillings the ounce and though it must be granted that the raising of the ounce of Silver by King Henry the 8. or King Edward the 6. to five and forty pence and afterwards by some of his successors to sixty pence and the making of more pence out of an Ounce then was formerly might be some cause of the enhaunce of the price of victuals and commodities And that some of our Gallants or Gentlemen of these times forgetting the laudable fâ—ugality of their ancestors who had otherwise not have been able to have leâ—t them those Lands estates which do now so elevate their Poles â—ay by coiting their mony from them as if they were weary of it many times ignorantly give out of their misused abundance more mony or as much again as a thing is worth or not having money to play the fools withall in the excess of gluttony or apparel or the pursuite of their other vices may sometimes by taking them upon day or trust give three or four timâ—s more then the commoditys would be sold to another for ready money the seller being many times never paid at all and if he should reckon his often attendance and waiting upon such a customer to no other purpose but to tire himself and never get a peny of his money would have been a greater gainer if he had given him his wares or commodityes for nothing and if after many yeers he should by a chance meet with his money looseth more by his interest then the principal amounted unto Yet if Parliaments which have been composed of the collected wisdom of the Nation and their Acts and Statutes which have been as they are understood to be made with the wisdom and universal consent of the people of England tanta solemnitate and with so great solemnity as Fortescue in the Raign of King H. 6. and the Judges in Doctor Fosters Case in 12. Jac. Regis do say they are may be credited the plenty of Gold and Silver was never alleaged or believed to be a cause of the dearness of Victuals and provisions When as the Statute of Herring made in the thirty fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the third when the Trade of Clothing was in a most flourishing condition such a Trade necessarily inducing conferring some plenty of money declares the cause of the dearness of Herring to be because that the Hostes of the Town of great Yarmouth who lodged the Fishers coming there in the time of the Fair would not suffer the Fishers to sell their Herrings nor to meddle with the sale of the same but sell them at their own will as dear as they will and give the Fishers that pleaseth them so that the Fishers did withdraw themselves to come there and the Herring was set at a greater dearth then there was before and that men outvied and overbid each other For if the many accidents concurring to the enhauncing of the price of any thing or commodity beyond its ordinary and intrinsicque worth value shall be rightly considered as famine the unseasonableness of the year or harvest blasts or Mildews of Corn transportation fear of an approaching famine keeping Corn and provisions from Markets and hoarding them up eâ—ther for the people 's own use or to catch an opportunity of the highest rates the scarcity or surpassing excellency of it obstructions which wars policy or controversies of Princes or neighbor Nations one with or against another may put upon it a general Murrain or Mortality of Cattel Inundations of waters great store of provision or foder for Cattle or a gentle Winter the charge and burden of a new Tolle or Taxe a present necessity to have the thing desired to be bought or had which the crafty and covetous seller hath taken notice of the importunity of an affection to have it although it cost a great deal more then the worth of it or the conveniency for one more then another which may recompence the damage in giving too much for it or more then was otherwise needful making it to be a good bargain for that particular person time or place which would not be so for others and the Market people imitating one anothers high demands
or avarice by taking advantage of some particular persons folly or over-bidding and keeping up the excessive rates of the Market to the same or a more unreasonable price and not being willing to let them fall again to a lower price though there be plenty and reason enough to do it unlawful combinations and confederacies of Trades men to raise their prices or cause their wares to be made Slight or insufficient unconscionable adulterating of Commodities and making them seem what they are not to raise the greater prices evil Artifices of Forestallers of the Markets Ingrossers and Regrators who for their own ungodly gains can make a dearth and scarcity in the midst of plenty and like Caterpillars spoil and devour the Hopes of the years fertility the Landlords racking of rents and the price of all manner of houshold provisions and other things raised by the Tenants to enable them to pay them an universal pride and vanity of the Nation and enhaunce of prices to support them plunder miseries and desolations of War numberless tricks and deceipts of Tradesmen and fraud of the common and Rustick part of the people in the Counties neer London in keeping many of their Cattel half a mile or some little distance from the Fairs untill the Evening or much of the day be spent to make them to sell at greater rates frequent deceits of stocking or Tying up the Udders of Kine a day before hand to make them swell and seem to give great store of Milke And as many other tricks of Trade and deceit as the Devil and deluded consciences can invent And truely looked upon as causes or concurrent parts of the cause of the now grand and most intollerable inhaunce of the rates and pâ—ices of Victuals houshold provisions and other Commodities there will be little or no room for the supposed plenty of Gold and Silver to be either a cause or so much as any part of a cause of it Nor can be well imagined when as notwithstanding that betwixt the middle of the Raign of King Henry the eight and the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the Gold and Silver Mines of the West Indies had by the Spanish cruelty to the Indians and their almost extirpation afforded such quantities of these baites of Satan and temptations as two hundred and sixty millions of Gold did appear by the Records of the Custom house of Sivill to have been brought from the West Indies into Spain all the plenty of that riches either by our Merchants bringing in of Bullion from Spain and its other Kingdomes and Provinces by Commerce or return of Merchandize did not so in England raise enhaunce the rates and prices of Victuals and houshold provisions but that we finde the Parliament of 24. H. 8. ordaining that Beef Pork Mutton and Veal should be sold by the weight called haber dupois no person should take for a pound of Beef or Pork above one half penny nor for a pound of Mutton or Veal above half penny farthing did believe they might be reasonably so afforded And the rates of Victuals and houshold provisions notwithstanding so increasing as in the yeer following It was ordained That Governors of Cities and Market Towns upon complaint to them made of any Butcher refusing to sell victuals by the weight according to the Statute of 24 H. 8. ca. 3. might commit the offenders toward untill he should pay all penalties limitted by the said Statute and were enabled to sell or cause to be sold by weight all such victuals for ready money to be delivered to the owner and if any Grasier Farmer Breeder Drover c. should refuse to sell his fat Cattel to a Butcher upon such reasonable prices as he may retail it at the price assessed by the said Statute The Justices of Peace Maiors or Governors should cause indifferent persons to set the prices of the same which if the owner refused to accept then the Justices c. should binde him to appear the next Term in the Star Chamber to be punished as the Kings Councel should think good And the same Parliament Enacting That upon every complaint made of any enhauncing of prices of Cheese Butter Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance without ground or cause reasonable in any part of this Realm or in any other the Kings Dominions the Lord Chancellor of England the Lord President of the Kings most honorable Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlaine and all other Lords of the Kings most honorable house the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy seal to be one should have power and authority from time to time as the cause should require to set and tax reasonable prices of all such kinde of Victuals how they should be sold in gross or by retail and that after such prices set and taxed Proclamation should be made in the Kings name under the great Seal of the said prices in such parts of this Realm as should be convenient for the same Was not of opâ—nion that the plenty of Gold and Silver were any cause of the enhaunce of the prices or rates of Victuals but did in the preamble of that Act declare That forasmuch as dearth scarcity good cheap and plenty of such kinde of Victuals happeneth riseth and chances of so many and diverse occasions that it is very hard and difficult to put any certain prices to any such things yet nevertheless the prices of such Victuals be many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy covetousness and appetites of the owners of such Victuals by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause to the great damage and impovershing of the Kings subjects Siâ— Thomas Chamberlaine qui mores hominum multorum vidit urbes who by his several Embassages fâ—om England into Foraign Countries in the Raigns of Kiâ—g Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth was not a little acquainted with the customes of other Nations aswell as his own did in the Raign of King Edward the sixth in a Treatise entituled Policies to reduce the Realm of England unto a prosperous wealth and estate dedicated unto the Duke of Somerset then Lord Protector assign the causes of the high prices and dearness of Victuals far less then what is now to be abasing of Coyn and givâ—ng more then Forty pence for the ounce of Silver ingrossing of Commodities the high price of Wooll which caused the Lords and Gentlemen being by the suppressing of the Abbies and liberality of King Henry the eight waxen rich to convert all their grounds into Sheep Pastures which diminished Victuals ten Lordships to the great decay of Husbandry
being sometimes imployed onely to the Pasturage of Sheep and lessened the plenty of Calves Butter Eggs Cheese Chickens Hens Capons Ducks Geese Beef Piggs Porâ— and Bacon the labor of the husbandman wife and servants encreasing more Victuals thorough the whitemeat of one Cow in one year being well pastured and her Calf taken from her at a moneth old then her body being fat amounted unto the dearth of Victuals causing the greatness of price of other Commodities and the overcharging of Commons by raising the Rents of enclosed grounds The very judicious and leaâ—ned Camden doth not believe the plenty of money to be the sole or principal if any cause of the high prices and rates of Victuals but refers it to Politicians to dispute among themselves whether the dearth of all things now very much exceeded which most complain of doth proceed from plenty of Gold and Silver since the discovery of the West Indies or from Monopolies and Combinations of Merchants and Crafâ—smen transportation of grain or from the pleasure of great personages who â—o most highly rate such things as they do most like or excess in private persons or from all these And Gerard Malines a Learned knowing and judicious Merchant is in his learned Tract or Book called Lex Mercatoria written in Anno 1622. of opinion that the General dearth of all things within this Realm where there is no scarcity of provisions for the Back and Belly yet food is dear and there is a dearth proceeds from the Husbandman who lays the fault upon the Noblemen and Gentlemen for raising of their Rents taking of Farms into their hands and making of inclosures Noblemen and Gentlemen alleaging the fault to be in Merchants and Artificers for selling things dearer then in times past which caused every man to make the most of his own and the Artificers and workmen raising their wages when they do buy all things dearer To which the Merchants in their ordinary and lawful course of Trade and Merchandize without those lately practised illegal wayeâ— of Ingrossings when as one having bought up all the Pepper which was in London and recruiting and adding more unto it made thirty thousand pounds clear gain thereof being more to be tollerated then other men in regard of the hazard of Seas Pirates and Imbargoes which many times attends their business and affairs do but very little contribute but the disease and evil is more intrinsicke within our selves and at home and proceeds where it is not upon scarcity as of Corn c. which happeneth not often nor continueth long not from the increase of money or people but of pride selfishness oppressing of one another and the non-execution of many good Laws which are yet in force and unrepealed as may evidently appear to any that will but look back and suâ—vey our Bigone and former times For although money which notwithstanding the opinion of some learned men that pecunia was derived a pecude from the use of Cattle in exchange of other commodities was as anciently in use as the times of Abraham and Jacob be as it hath of long time been in this and many other paâ—ts of the world the exchange rule or measuâ—e in commutations and commerce and should be in some sort the Par in the prices or rates of all Commodities to be bought or exchanged by it yet the avarice and craft of people never satisfied with gaining advantages one upon another the power of some and weakness of others in Estate or Judgements have so far transgressed the rules which ought to be in that measure or the Justice which every man owes one to another anâ— to do as they would be done unto as the plenty or want of money not abased or corrupted is seldom as to the generality the cause of the dearness or cheapness of things and if it could so happen or appear to be so neither of them can be any causa potens an onely or meer cause in it self of the dearth or cheapness or the excessiveness of the prices or rates of provisions to be bought or provided with it It being not to be denyed but that the scarcity or want of money doth many times enforce a Tenant to sell his Corn or Cattle at cheaper rates and prices then he otherwise would do whereby to be able to pay his Landlord his Rent at the time appointed or an Indebted Gentlemen to sell his Lands much beneath the worth or true value of it to avoid greater inconveniences or â—edeem himself out of the Pawes of a Panther like usurer and his biting Interest and that the plenty of mony at the same time in the buyer makes it to be much cheaper unto him then otherwise it would have been and renders the scarcity or want of money in the one and the plenty of it in the other to be a cause of the small rate or price of the commodity or that which is sold and howsoever it be admitted that the prices and rates of commodities or things to be bought with money may sometimes have a respect or regard to the true and intrinsick value of the Coin or money which is to be given for it and that at some times there may be more mony or Coin in a Kingdom then there is or can be at another time yet that grand Witch or Inchantress which insinuates it self into most mens loves and affections the small and contemptible the more is the pitty society of Scholars Philosophers and Vertuosi's onely excepted is so predominant and powerful as Auri sacrafameâ— the greedy appetite of Gold and Silver and the insatiablenes thereof veriâ—ying the long ago experimented saying of the Poet that Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit the love of money increaseth as the money doth will not allow us to believe that there is no hoarding or keeping it from the knowledge or use of others or that there is such an equal distribution of it that every one like the children of Israel gathering their Manna in the Desert might go out and fill their Homers or as much as might be sufficient for their necessary provisions when this age wherein we live hath told us that Sir William Craven an Alderman of London could besides a great estate purchased in Land leave at his death in money four hundred thousand pounds which was more overplus and spare money then all the men in that large County of York from whence originally he came could make or cast into a Treasury That Sir William Cokaine an Alderman of London could within a few yeers after notwithstanding great portions given unto two of his daughters in marriage the one unto a Baron the other unto an Earl dye possessed of a personal Estate worth 200000 l. and seised of such an Estate of Inheritance of his own getting as enabled his son to be made an Irish Viscount which was more then all the men in the County of Bedford from whence he was discended could
rates and prices for victuals and houshold provisions In France the Paysants which are the greatest part of the people will tell us that there is mony little enough and that there would if it were not for their Hydras and multitudes of Taxes and Gabels be cheapness enough of all manner of houshold provisions when their Wines and flesh notwithstanding that or any supposed plenty of money are cheap enough In Scotland the moneys and riches which that Nation gained from England by King James his coming to the English Crown and the bounties of that King and his Son King Charles the Martyr with the three hundred thousand pounds sterling for brotherly assistance given to a factious and Rebellious part of them by a party of Covenanting English Rebels to ruine their King and the race and posterity of their benefactors together with the two hundred thousand pounds sterling far exceeding the pay as well as wickedness of their Master Judas given them to sell their pious and distressed King who in a confidence of their Covenanting pretences Faith and promises had fled to their Army for refuge which with the help of his loyal English subjects might easily have preserved him as well as themselves from the miseries and destruction which afterwards happened never appeared to be any cause of the dearness of victuals and houshold provisions more then ordinary or what proceeded from other accidents or causes In Germany where the Bavarian Silver Mines have of late made a plenty of it and every petty Prince and principality hath a regality and priviledge of coyning their Dollars are much allayed and mixed with a baser mettal and their Hanse and Imperial Cities do enjoy a great commerce by Sea and Land they do not complain of the high rates and prices of victuals and houshold provisions The Kingdom of Sweden whose Copper Mines are their Indies and do furnish plenty of Copper money with a value in its weight and materials as much as their denominations which the coyns of Gold and Silver necessarily requiring an allay and some mixture are never blessed with hath in a plenty of that base money no high rates or prices upon their native commodities but 〈◊〉 reasonable as fish enough may be bought for three pence to dine twenty men Rome which receives the money as well as feet of many strangers is the Mart or Forum for the dispatch of most of the Ecclesiastical and too much of the civil affairs of the Catholike Nations and by her claimed Vicariat or Lieutenancy from Jesus Christ and an Empire in Ecclesiastical affairs hath her Taxes Tenths first fruits Oblations Jubilees Indulgences pardons and other attractions of money large Territories Church Land Revenues and the disposal of many priviledges and principalities and famous Channels cut for the Gold and Silver of the Catholike and most enriched Nations to run into the Ocean of its ever filling and never emptying Treasury can at the same time whilst she fits as Queen and delights her self in the several Magazines and Store-houses of her abundance of riches enjoy a very great plenty and cheapness of houshold provisions The Commonwealth of Venice with her wonderful Amass of Treasurs by which she hath for some years last past made wars with the gâ—and Seignior the Behemoth and Leuiathan of the East doth notwithstanding as she did before those wars bless her inhabitants with a competent cheapness The Kingdom of Naples and Dutchy of Milan who with their Garrisons and Armies of Spaniards to the natives in a forced and unwilling obedience are the expenditors and wasters of much of the King of Spaines incomes from India and other his Dominions do not finde that to be the cause or occasion of any dearth or high prices of victuals amongst them The grand Duke of Florence with his great commerce and riches brought into that Country by granting of great priviledges to his Port of Legorn and the Merchants of other Nations trading thither filling his subjects and people with more then formerly and ordinary plenty of money did not thereby so establish the unhappiness of buying their victuals and provisions at unreasonable prices but that there as well as in other principalities and Provinces of Italy which by the Trade of Legorn and neighborhood of Rome and her Ecclesiastical Merchandize are greatly enriched there is so little reason for an enhaunce of the prices and rates of food or provisions as they can be honest gainers by an easie Banda or Reiglement of what is to be paid for them In Spain where the common people do onely hear of the arrival of many millions of Gold and Silver from the West Indies and have little of that but a great deal of black money or Maravedis their great rates for flesh do not arise from the abundance of their money either of the one kinde or of the other but from the barrenness of the Country and the little use thereof procuring no dearness in their Oranges Olives and Lymmons and other fruits and delicacies of that mountainous Country In the East Indies which is one of the Suns darlings whether our English Merchants carry more mony then they should where their mountains hills bring forth great quantities of precious stones and Jewels Gold and Silver and bestows upon them an abundance thereof enough to adorn themselves and the people of the utmost Isles there are no high rates put upon food or victuals In China where there is no want of money they have Rice and other meat for the sustenance of man very cheap and to be had for almost nothing in the Philippina Islands three Hens were sold not long ago for a Rial which is no more then six pence English mony a Dear for two Rials and a Hogg for eighteen And our Countriman Mr. Gage in his journey in Anno 1625. from St. John de Ulhua to Mexico in the West Indies where the world had as it were laid up its Treasures of Gold and Silver found Beef Mutton Kid Hens Turkies Fowles and Quailes to be so plentiful and cheap as he was astonished at it nor was it any store of money in Virginia which heightened there for some times the prices of all things but the Merchants giving greater sums of money to the Savages then they needed neither in New England in Anno 1636. when a Cow was sold for two and twenty pounds which the next yeer after upon the arrival of more might be had for eight pounds And as little is any supposed plenty of money in old England when three millions of Gold too much of which is since transported were coined here betwixt the yeers 1622. and 1630 and two hundred thousand pounds per annum brought hither from Spain to be coined for some years betwixt that and 1640. now no more coming so long a voyage to our Minâ— the cause or reason of those excessive and intollerable pâ—ices and rates of victuals and houshold provisions even to an oppression of the buyers and
that purpose seene themselves attended in the plenty State and greatest of Royalty of the King or Prince from which they were sent and in the mean time nothing wanting or missing in that of the Kings attendance or magnificence in his Court oâ— Family From whence at all times Carelesnes Profusenes and all manner of wast were so banished as the Porters at the Gates were charged to watch and hinder the carrying out of meat and provision by such as should not the Pastrie rated in their allowances for Spice Sugar Corance c. the servants took an oath of duty and obedience and the Treasurer and Comptroller to make due allowance and payments with favourable demeanings and cherish love betwixt the King and his people In Anno 7 Jac. Rates and orders were made and set touching the Kings Breakfast and his particular fare as to qualities and proportions for Dynner and Supper and Fish dayes for the dyet of the great Officers and all other Officers and Servants having diet and the like on the Queens side Rates for Bouche of Court for Mornings and Evenings Lights and Candles and the Yeomen of the Guards diet and Beefe ordered to be on Flesh dayes for the King Queen and Houshold In anno 16 Jac. by advice of the Earl of Middlesex Sir Richard Weston Knight Sir John Wolstenholme Sir William Pyt Knight and other discreet men very much experienced in the Affairs of the world appointed to lessen as much as might be the charges of his house many good orders were made for the regulation of the Kings Houshold some abatements made in the allowance for his Breakfast by his own order a Limitation and stint of Joynts of Meat to make Jellies and all other compositions the number and names of all Noblemen and Ladies attending the Court to be quarterly presented And that the Prince should pay for his diet at his coming to Court which the most narrow-hearted and frugall of fathers in private Families and Societies have not done and his Countrymen of Scotland and many English could not say he was according to the rates he paid at his own House and that when he should repair to any of the Kings Houses in remote places he should pay for such of the Kings provisions as he should expend there according as they should be worth at the next Market And yet in all that frugality and care to prevent wast and the daily meeting of some of the Officers of the Green-cloth in the Compting house there were 240 gallons allowed at the Buttery Bar per diem three gallons per diem at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six Services or Mess of meat and seven pieces of Beefe per diem as wast and extraordinary for the Kings honour And there was no Sunday or other day of the week but the Tables of the great Officers and Lords entertained many Lords Knights and Gentlemen which were not of the Houshold but came to see the King or make and attend their petitions and suits and few Gentlemen of quality Citizens or other persons of those multitudes whose busines or desires to see the Court brought them thither but were taken in as Guests to dinner with some of those many other Officers of the Court that had diet allowed them it having been an antient custome after the King was set to dinner to search through all the Lodgings and Rooms of the House to find out Gentlemen and Strangers fit for and becoming the invitation of the Kings Servants to the Kings meats and provision for his servants and in all those treatments and largess of house-keeping there wanted not a sober plenty of wine and beer out of the Kings Sellers and an open house-keeping with so much sobriety as if it had not been an open housekeeping wherein no drunkenness or debauchery was to be seen as is too commonly in the now almost out of fashion open or free house-keeping at Christmas or other Festivals 18 Jac. Regis Divers Ordinances were made for the diminution of the charge of the Kings house-keeping the allowances of wast to be given dayly for the Kings honour reduced to a certainty viz. 200 loaves of bread 240 gallons of beer remains of Wax and Torch-lights to be returned the number of Artificers Victualleâ—s and Landresses ascertained number of Carts for Carriages stinted and proportioned to all degrees and Offices the charge of the Stable being almost doubled to what it was in Queen Elizabeths time to be lessened as much as may be none to be sworn Servants before the number of Officers should be reduced to what was formerly no Offices or Places in the Kings House to be sold all other good Orders to be put in Execution yet could at the same time by his especiall grace and favour remit to certain places some of his compositions Nor did those contrivances and endeavors to lessen the Kings charge of house-keeping die with King James but were found to survive to his Son and Successor his late Majesty King Charles the first in the third year of whose Reign half the allowance for houshold diets was abated on fasting nights and the carriages in every office reduced to a certain number and when the composition or Country provision of Oxen or Sheep did by the Courts frugality sometimes exceed or make an overplus they were sold and exactly brought unto an accompt for the defraying of other houshold charges where as his Royal Progenitors used to doe he could in his greatest wants and care of all fitting Espargne in his own diet and houshold cause the Lord High Stewards Table in time of Parliament to be constantly abundantly and extraordinarily kept and furnished to treat and dine the then numerous nobility and persons of honour coming to the Court and Parliament But all that was of Innocency antient legall and just Rights in it backt and seconded by right Reason the Lawes and reasonable Customes of the Land the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy taken by all Magistrates Justices of Peace Officers and many of the better sort of the people and of every Freeman of every Trade and Company in London and ordered to be taken by all men in the Kingdome to defend and maintain the Rights and Jurisdictions of the King and his Crown and the interests concernments good honor safety welfare and happiness of every man in particular being involved in that of their King or Prince were not enough to perswade those who had found the sweetness of ruining him and all which were loyal and well affected to him from pursuing the sinfull and abominable ends and designes of themselves and their great Master of Delusion the Devil to murder him but whilst they hunted him like a Partridge upon the mountains and through more persecutions of mind and body and a longer time then ever the righteous and holy David endured in his greatest afflictions could take all that he had from him his Lands Revenues and Estate and so much as
all their Customers and Inhabitants of London who paying for it in the smalness of their Ale and Beer and of the measure were notwithstanding no loosers by it when as the damage that the poorest sort of house-keepers received thereby came not when their gains were least unto the twentieth penny nor of the richer to the hundreth or two hundreth peny of what they gained by the Kings residence by trade letting of lodgings or the greater rent of their houses and if the Brewer had paid it himself and not laid it upon his Customers might for his priviledge in Brewing in the Cities of London and Westâ—minster and not being removed or punished for the Nuisance have very well afforded so small a sum as four pence in every quarter of Mault containing Berkshire Cheshire Cornewall Devonshire Gloucestershire Hertfordshire Herefordshire Kent Northampton Norfolk Somersetshire Surrey Sussex and London may give the prospect of the rest and how small the proportions were which were charged upon such as were to bear or pay them may make it appear that that so much now of late complained of charge of Pourveyance or Compositions for them will be so little as there will be no cause at all for it when as the yearly charge of buying Babies Hobby horses and Toys for children to spoil as well as play with which costs England as hath been computed near one hundred thousand pounds per annum or of amending the High ways yearly Treatments given to Harvest Folk or the expences of an Harvest Goose and a Seed Cake given yearly to their Plow-men keeping a Wake or Parish Feast every year or the monyes which the good Women in every Parish and County do expend in their Gosshippings at the birth of their Neighbours Children or many other such like trivial and most cheerful and pleasing expences will make the foot of the accompt as to the several kinds of those particulars to be a great deal more then the charge of that necessary duty of Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was so â—asy and petit as in most of the Counties of England it was many times not singly rated or assessed by it self but was joyned with some other Assessements and in Kent where more was paid then in any one County near London it was so little felt and regarded as a Tenant paying one hundred pounds rent per annum for his Land did not think it to be of any concernment for him to reckon it to his Landlord and demand an allowance for it Which caused the people of Oxfordshire Barkshire Wiltshire and Hampshire upon his now Majesties most happy restoration receiving his gracious letters offering them the Election of suffering him to take his Prae-emption and Pourveyance or to pay the Compositions to return answer by their letters which were read before the King in his Compting-house in White-Hall that they humbly desired him to accept of the Compositions And all the other Counties and the generality of the people of the smaller as well as greater Intellectuals to understand it to be so much for the good of the King his People as many of them are troubled and discontented that he hath them not And they who causing the Markets and the prices of things to be so unreasonably dear and excessive by their own raising of prices for their own advantages may when they please make the difference betwixt the Kings rates and theirs to be none at all or much lesser if they would but sell as cheap as they might afford their commodities according to the plenty of Victuals or provisions which is in England The high prices and rates which are now put upon Victuals and Provisions for Food and House-keeping being neither enforced nor occasioned by any plenty of Gold or Silver in England and if there were any such store or abundance of it non causatur effective cujus effectus est necessarius nisi aliunde impediatur could not be so the sole or proper cause of it as if not otherwise hindered it could not want its necessary effect Berkshire Cheshire Cornewall Devonshire Gloucestershire Hertfordshire Herefordshire Kent Northampton Norfolk Somersetshire Surrey Sussex and London may gâ—ve the prospect of the rest and how small the proportions were which were charged upon such as were to bear or pay them That so much now of late complained of charge of Pourveyance or Compositions foâ— them will be so little as there will be no cause at all for it when as the yearly charge of buying Babies Hobby-horses and Toys for children to spoil aswell as play with which costes England as hath been computed near one hundred thousand pounds per annum or of amending the High ways yeerly Treatments given to Harvest Folk or the expences of an Harvest Goose and a Seed Cake given yearly to their Plowmen keeping a Wake or Parish Feast every year or many other such like trivial and most cheerful and pleasing expences will make the foot of the accompt as to the several kinds of those particulars to be a great deal more then the charge of that necessary duty of Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was so easie and petit as in most of the Counties of England it was many times not singly rated or assessed by it self but was joyned with some other Assessements and in Kent where more was paid then in any one County near London it was so little felt and regarded as a Tenant paying one hundred pounds rent per annum for his Land did not think it to be of any concernment for him to reckon it to his Landlord and demand an allowance for it And the people of Oxfordshire Barkshire Wiltshire and Hampshire upon his now Majesties most happy restoration receiving his gracious letters offering them the Election of suffering him to take his Prae-emption and Pourveyance or to pay the Compositions returned answer by their letters which were read before the King in his Compting house in Whitehall that they humbly desired him to accept of the Compositions And all the other Counties and the generality of the people of the smaller as well as greater Intellectuals do understand it to be so much for the good of the King and the people as many of them are troubled and discontented that he hath them not And they who causing the Markets and the prices of things to be so unreasonably dear and excessive by their own raising of prices for their own advantages may when they please make the difference betwixt the Kings rates and theirs to be none at all or much lesser if they would but sell as cheap as they might afford their commodities according to the plenty of Victuals or provisions which is in England The high prices and rates which are now put upon Victuals and Provisions for Food and house-keeping being neither enforced nor occasioned by any plenty of Gold or Silver in England and if there were any such store or abundance of it non causatur effective
have made in overplus and spare money and that Paul Bayning an Alderman of London could about the same time besides an Estate in Land of inheritance of almost six thousand pound per annum make a totall of his personal Estate of about one hundred and fourty thousand pounds which was as much or more then many thousand men in the County of Essex could above their necessary expences make in â—n overplus or sum of money And that if money were in England as plentiful as it was in Jerusalem in the happy Raign of the wise King Solomon when it was said to be in as much abundance as the stones in the streets yet if Corn Cattel and food should be scarce the greatest plenty of money we can imagine would not deliver us from that dearth which was in that Kingdom not many years after when Samaria was besieged making the excessive rates of an Asses head and a Kab of Pigeons Dung and whether money be scarce or plentiful if there should be a famine as it was in Israel when there had been no rain in three years when the heavens were as brass and the fruits of the earth failed no man can with any reason believe that the great rates or prices of Corn Victuals and houshold provisions were because there was plenty of Gold Silver for if there be a scarcity of the thing to be bought it must be the want of that and not the abundance of money that makes the dearness which if it be never so much cannot increase that little that is of the Commodity or thing to be bought nor the want of money make it to be any cheaper the want or plenty of it contributing in such a case nothing at all to the making that to be dear which when there is more of it will be sold at a cheaper rate for a little money whether they that are to buy it have little or more of money the want of money constraining him that sells to sell cheaper and the great store of money sometimes but not often or generally perswading the buyer to give more then one that hath not so much will be dâ—awn to give for it For as it is true that in Virginia where their principal Barter or Exchange is by Tobacco instead of money and is there many times used as their Coyn or money that where any man there is in want of Tobacco and must needs have it he will be willing to give more Beavers Skins or any other commodities which he hath for it then he would otherwise do if Tobacco were more plentiful or easier to be had And as certain likewise that when there is great store of Tobacco and it is in the language of Merchants and Tradesmen but as a Drug and of little price or value there will not be so much of other things or commodities given for it So it will be as true and certain that there is in no Kingdom or Country of Christendom especially in our Brittain and other world where howsoever some Cosmographers and Chartes or Mapps would by a great mistake make Gold to be a Native the Sun is not so amorous as to beget us Mines of Gold nor is there any probability that there ever were any neither is there any Tagus or River bringing any golden Sands along with it And that which we have of Silver is but rarely and seldom intermixed and lurking in our Mines of Lead there can be no ground for our belief or reason that there should be such a disesteem or under valuing of Gold and Silver in regard of any plenty of it as was amongst the Americans or West Indians when they would give great quantities of it for Knives Beads or other Toys which the novelty of them or their desires to have them made to be pretious or that there should ever be such a surfet of Gold and Silver which most of the sons of men do desire to get or keep as to make all things dear which are to be bought with it or to hinder that cheapness of things to be bought with it which will be of necessity where there happens to be an abundance which is the true and never failing cause of cheapness abstracted and altogether a stranger to any supposed plenty of money neither the want of money or plenty of it being generally any sole proper or efficient cause of cheapness or dearness which residing in the commodity to be bought or fold tanquam in subjecta materia as in its matter or subject regulates and makes the price when there are no fraudes or Artifices to disturbe it according as there is a scarcity or plenty of that which is to be bought or sold which is the cause that the scarcity of money hath not in all ages made or enforced a cheapness of commodities or houshold provisions to be bought with it nor a plenty of money made a dearness or enhaunce of prices nor any thing like or within many degrees of that which is nâ—w or â—ath been within forty years last past and they therefore will err toto Caelo who by misplacing thâ— cause would make the plenty or scarcity of the mensura or money to be either the cause of the scarcity or plenty dearness or cheapness of the Mensurata or things to be bought with it as by a retrospect into the course of former times and ages may be plainly manifested Where we may find the Britaines when the Barbarians drave them back to the Sea and the Sea put them back to the Barbarians grievously tormented with a famine and mortality which raged in the Land and with great desolations wrought by that dearth and after they had by repressing their enemies gained some peace and that produced such a plenty and abundance of all things as the like before no age had seen to have faln into great Riots and Excesses plenty of money there being then none or little in the Land not being any cause of the dearth or scarcity nor scarcity of the mony of the plenty of provisions The Saxons being oppressed with the invasion of the Danes and enforced to pay them a Composition of sixteen thousand pounds shortly after twenty thousand pounds afterwards twenty four then thirty and lastly fourty thousand pounds untill all the Land was emptyed of all her Coyne did not find their Victuals to be cheap in regard of their want of money but Victuals and all things to be bought with it to be dear by reason of the spoil of wars and Murrain of Cattel And they having in Anno Domini 1066 met with Talions Law and the Divine vindicta or punishment for their perfidiousness to the Britaine 's hastened by their excess of pride the women wearing as Ordericus vitalis a contemporary of William the Conqueror tells us far longer Trains or Garments then was necessary and the men striving to overtake the pride and vanity of Absolom in his hair or Bush of Excrement and so
he went home into Spain that all the Citizens of London were Booted and ready as he thought to go out of Town and that for many years since all the men of the Nation as low as the Plowmen and meanest Artizans which walked in their Boots aâ—e now with the fashion returned again as foâ—merly to Shooes and Stockings Neither is it plenty of money that maketh Scholars or men of Learning never less regarded more poor and scorned to pay double or many times treble the rates and prices for Books then they did twenty years ago because the rates and prices of books are by the unconscionable Arts and Trade of the Stationers proportioned and kept up to a penny a sheet which of late was usually paid for Pamphlets sold and cryed up and down the streets to publish the madness and rebellion of an hypocritical and wicked part of the people or that causeth China Orenges which at a dearer rate then elsewhere are to be had at the Play-house door five for a shilling but within the house in that which is called the Pit not to be had of the woman that sells them under three for a shilling because for a Monopoly of the only selling of them in the Play-house she gives one hundred pounds Fine and thirty pounds per annum Rent and hath such a power and dominion over some of the peoples purses who take it to be an honor to be foolish and ready upon any terms to part with their money and be their own Pick pockets as they that sit in the eighteen pence Rooms or Galleries may have four for a shilling and those that sit in the twelve penny Rooms or Galleries are seldom denyed five for a shilling It was not the plenty of money but Prodigality which in Holland and the Netherlands not long since made Tulips whose glories are in the varieties of their most excellent Colours and abasements in the want of Odour to accompany them to be at two or three hundred pounds sterling a piece untill those insane and causeless prices were decryed and forbidden by the Edicts or Placaets of the States General and that an hundred or sixty or fifty or fourty pound sterling could be here given for a Root of a Tulip when as now in an abundance or commonness of them one or two hundred of them may be had for five pounds It is not an abundance of money but abundance of Devil sin and vice and all manner of villanies which makes all Commodities to be so dear at London and in its adjacent Counties our Cloth to be as dear again as it was but lately and not half so honestly made the binding or putting an Apprentice to a Draper or Grocer which not long ago could be done for twenty or thirty pounds cannot be now under an hundred or an hundred and twenty pounds and that many which do now come to buy any thing of a Tradesman can hardly escape the temptation of a bribe or some share in the bargain to permit him to sell his sophisticated or adulterated wares at as high a price as he can possibly get for them or that makes house-rents when the undone people in the Countries flock to London to see if they can find a better subsistence one part in three dearer then it was twenty years ago Nor an abundance of money in Spain and other Foraign kingdomes that makes as some ingenious Travilers have well observed provisions of victuals to be much dearer in or under the chief City of a Nation or Country then it is at a distance from it or that makes an Hen Egge to be sold at Madrid for three pence when as twelve may be had for a penny in Gallicia or places more remote Nor that in Ireland whither too much of our money is transported and many peices of Eight which our Merchants have imported into England and being here afforded at three shillings three pence a peice do there yeild the exporter five shillings a peice and makes a greater plenty of money to be there then should be there doth notwithstanding continue such a cheapness of victuals and houshold provisions as it made a Maid-servant when she was lately sent to Market to come home with a complaint that she paid five pence for a Hen and could have but fourteen Eggs for a penny For it is not scarcity of mony that makes victuals to be so cheap in Yorkshire where many of the Gentry do many times want no money for Horse Races and other needless expences but the far distance from London and want of vent for their Commodities And besides the causes above mentioned proceeding from frauds and the peoples oppressing one another it will be ubique semper every where and at all times true that many times sola universaque hominum libido non natura rebus omnibus pretium suum posuerit it is the unruliness of mens appetites which causeth things to be dear And whether our money or Bullion be more or less then it was heretofore or more imported then exported there would not be such a cry and complaint of the want of money if the prudence of our more generous and hospitable Ancestors had not been as it is so much slieghted and thought unworthy our imitation and that our estates had been the rule and measure of our expences of which if an account were taken but in some particulars which since the flight and banishment of our English Hospitalities hath more then formerly wasted the money and Revenues of England it will be found that the laying aside or scorning or seldom usage of the grosses viandes Butchers or course meat as it is now disdainfully termed and the substantial food dyet of Beef and Brewesse Mutton Veal Poâ—k Bâ—con c. and the introducing in stead of them many Foraign quelque choses or fantastically made Dishes Oleos Fricasses and Potages hant gousts and provoking sawces in the steed of a more wholsom Diet with rich Wines and many costly Confections Banquets and perfumes at the disert or end of meals or repasts have spent and cost more then the pious more noble prudent and worthy custom of hospitality building of Castles and the building and endowing of stately Churches and Monasteries ever did and that the money spent in some one vain and costly Dish adorned and enriched with Amber gris making a charge of ten or twelve pounds would in the later end of the Raign of King Henry the eighth have gone a great part of the way in the defraying of the expences of an Oxe or a Beef by a Gentleman or good Housekeeper for in those dayes they were synonimas or Termini convertibiles every day in the Christmas to entertain his friends and Tenants and feed the poor And that if the charges of our delicacies incouragements and incentives of the most mortal sins heaping upon those that use them the dangers of immortal punishments with that which hath within these last century or hundred
or Assessements when they bear a Moiety hath for the most part the Furs of Lapland brought unto him yeerly for the use of himself and such of his Court as he shall please to bestow them giving the Merchants or such as bring them some smal retributions and rewardeth many of his Nobility and sometimes strangers with the vassalage of diverse of the Boors and Husbandmen of the Nation who having few or no liberties of their own can make themselves gainers by invading Germany and pretending to fight for the liberties of other men Doth not do as the Dutch United Provinces and their hoghen Mogen or Corporation of Kings are pleased to do who besides their Schoorsteen gelt or Chimney money yeerly paid and other monies raised upon extraordinary necessities do yeerly exact and leavy de twee honderâ—ste penning two hundreth penny and the thousandth penny of every mans estate towards the charges of the wars and as ordinary payments and Assessements quae semel recepta as some of their own do acknowledge semper exiguntur once crept into a custom are always leavyed de imposteâ— vâ—n de huizen which is an eighth penny paid out of the Rent of every house and a Gulder or our two shillings for every man or Maid-servant which the Master or Mistriss is bound yearly to pay and as much for every Waggon or Boat the Ships or greater Vessels having a rate imposed upon them according to the Tun six gulderen or twelve shillings sterling per annum upon every Coach almost a sixth penny of the Rent of Lands per annum as the Magistrate shall estimate it four Stivers and a half almost our five pence for every Acre of Land sowed with Corn or other things for every moneth from the time of the sowing of it untill the Reaping or Harvest thereof the fourâ—ieth penny and in Amsterdam the eightieth penny as well as the fortieth of all Houses Lands or Ships sold which as to the houses is so often as the State is believed to get in a few years the full price or value thereof den impost van veze gelde brieven which is upon every paper wherein any Contract last Will and Testament Petition or Act in any Court or Assemly or before any Magistrate shall be written to be of any force or validity and to be sealed in the Margin of every leaf of Paper with a small seal two stivers or two pence half penny and with a greater seal if it be of more concernment four stivers or five pence the Impost van ongeâ—on cerde processen for a Fine paid for not making good an Action or Suite for every fifty Guilders or five pounds sued for thirty stivers or three shillings English â—out gelt a certain quantity of salt sold by the Magistrates at a certain rate or price to every Family or Town Excise upon Beer French Spanish Rhenish and Brandewine Oyls Vineger Butter Corn ground at the Mill Pease Fatches Barly Oats Pease dryed or undryed in the Oven Apples Pears Nuts Grapes Herring Salt Fish Candles either Wax or Tallow Turfs English or Scottish Coles Tobacco Sope Pitch Lead Brick Cloth Silk and Cloth of Gold Convoy Gâ—lden Convoy money for guarding Ships at Sea and haven gelden for money to maintain and repair their Ports and Havens a seventh penny of the price of all Beasts or Cattel sold three stivers for every moneth for every young Beast of three years old or above and two for Horses the ninth penny of the price of Sturgeons and Salmons the eighth of the price of Wood and the ninth of Tapestry Hangings and guilt leather their licenten or money to be paid for Passes or Licence to carry Merchandize into the enemies Country or Quarters for every Hog or Pig killed three stivers and a half for every gulder of the value cum multis aliis with many other Taxes and Assessements not here recited the most of which notwithstanding seven or eight years perfect and compleat peace with their potent and long provoked enemy the Spaniard in more then threescore years warres Masses of money expended on both sides can be yet kept on foot and continued upon the pretences of paying of debts incurred or to provide and furnish a Treasury against future contingencies or to keep the government in the hands of the hoghen moghen high and mighty Lords the States who have tasted the sweetness of governing their fellow subjects by laying out of the peoples money and imposing Taxes to maintain that frame of a Commonwealth which pessimo exemplo hath so much troubled Christendom and cost them more blood and money then would have subdued the Turk and sent him from his Ottoman Port to abide the Resurrection of his Mahomet or worthless Progenitor at Mecca and they that thought themselves undone and ruined in the beginning of the Duke of Alvas government if they should pay a tenth for all that was bought or sold and made that to be one of their causes to shake off their obedience and ingage in a war against their lawful Prince could since endure more then ten times greater Taxes and Impositions and can now be content to pay excessive rates and prices for all things that they do buy or use and greater Taxes and Tributes then any the most absolute King or Prince would adventure to impose upon his subjects Et haec omnia teste Grotio tempus majora ferendi assuetudine molliâ—ra fâ—cit which as the learned Grotius saith time and a custome of beaâ—ing such burdens have made more easie and their Magistrates cunningly obseâ—ving the disposition of that people quaestus inhiantem ac magis pecuniae quam gloriae ac honoris to be more greedy of gain and money then of honor or glory for so Meteranus and Strada describes their nature and conditions have put them on and incouraged them to a liberty of gain and enriching themselves aswell as their Commonwealth and made that to be as the sugar to sweeten the bitteâ—ness of their Taxes Quae hic multo graviora Graviora ac in aliis siâ— dictis non liberis Regionibus which are there greater then in other Countries which are said to be not so free Et ex hac Regiones ac urbes seu potius earum Magistratus liberum absolutumque exercent Imperium Imo liberius absolutius quam multis est Regibus in sibi subjectos populus autem eodem respecto multo subjectos servilioris addictioris est conditionis quam ullae aliae in Europa gentes and by this means those Provinces and Cities or rather their Governors or Magistrates do exercise a â—ull and absolute Dominion over them yea a greater and more absolute then many Kings do over their subjects and the people are theâ—eby made to be under a greater vassalage and in a more servile and slavish condition then any other Nation in Europe and it is therefore more then a surmise that lucri faciendi effraenata