SELECT OBSERVATIONS Of the Incomparable Sir Walter Raleigh Relating to Trade Commerce and Coin As it was Presented to KING JAMES Wherein is Proved That Our Money our Sea and Land Commodities serve to Enrich and Strengthen other Countries against Our OWN With other Matters of the highest Moment for the Publick Welfare LONDON Printed for J. S. and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near Oxford-Arms-Inn in Warwick-lane MDCXCVI Preface to the Reader THE Worth and Excellency of these Learned Observations are such that 't is wisht they were treasur'd up in the Breast and Memory of our Grave Senators being a Subject worthy of their profound Consideration and a Jewel of far greater Value in the English Crown than the whole Produce of the Indies The Name of the Author stamps it Standard Proof against all the efforts and false allays of Counterfeits who slily under the Masque of Publick Service have insinuated their gilded Notions and Essayed to make their Sophistical Positions pass for Current Reason 'T is for this cause that now this Incomparable Author interposes whom the World knows to have been free from Partiality and Self-interest and that what he then advised was from unfeigned Sincerity of Heart and the great love he bore to his King and Country and grounded on the unerring Rules of Experience the Truth and Excellency of whose Judgement is further confirmed by demonstration of almost a hundred Years additional Experience and the Non-Observance of these golden Rules have only made us so wise as to know the Nation to be in so much more a worse Condition than it was in his time I write not this from a Belief that any thing I do will or can add an Attom to the Universally Celebrated Memory and Honour of this Admirable Person no I have not that Vanity no more than I believe the greatest Mome can detract from the Truth and Authority of his Positions I have presumed to add some things grounded on the same Hypothesis relating to our present Circumstances wherein if I have Err'd I submit to the censure of better Judgments J. S. May it Please Your MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY ACcording to my Duty I am emboldened to put your Majesty in mind that about Fifteen Years past I presented you a Book of such Extraordinary Importance for the Honour and Profit of your Majesty and Posterity and doubting that it hath been laid aside and not consider'd of I am Encourag'd under your Majesties Pardon to present unto you one more consisting of Five Propositions Neither are they grounded upon vain or idle Grounds but upon the Fruition of those wonderful Blessings wherewith God hath endued Your Majesty's Sea and Land by which means you may not only enrich and fill your Coffers but also encrease such Might and Strength as shall appear if it may stand with your Majesties good liking to put the same in Execution in the true and right Form So that there is no doubt but it will make you in short time a Prince of such Power and so Great as shall make all the Princes your Neighbours as well glad of your Friendship as fearful to Offend you That this is so I humbly desire that Your Majesty will vouchsafe to peruse this Advertisement with that Care and Judgment which God hath given you Most humbly praying your Majesty that whereas I presented these Five Propositions together as in their own Natures jointly depending one of another and so linked together as the Destruction of any one will be an apparent Maim and disabling to the rest That Your Majesty would be pleased that they may not be separated but all handled together jointly and severally by Commissioners with as much speed and secrecy as can be and made fit to be reported to Your Majesty whereby I may be the better able to perform to Your Majesty that which I have promised and will perform upon my Life if I be not prevented by some that may seek to hinder the Honour and Profit of Your Majesty for their own private Ends. The true Ground Course and Form herein mentioned shall make appear how other Countries make themselves Powerful and Rich in all kinds by Merchandize Manufactory and fulness of Trade having no Commodities in their own Country growing to do it withal And herein likewise shall appear how easie 't is to draw the Wealth and Strength of other Countries to your Kingdom and what Royal Rich and plentiful Means God hath given this Land to do it which cannot be denied for support of Traffick and Continual Employment of your People for Replenishing of your Majesties Coffers And if I were not fully assur'd to Improve your Native Commodities with other Traffick Three Millions of Pounds more Yearly than now they are and to bring not only to your Majesties Coffers within the space of two or three Years near Two Millions of Pounds but to encrease your Revenues many Thousands Yearly and to please and greatly profit your People I would not have undertaken so great a Work All which will grow by Advancement of all kind of Merchandizing to the uttermost thereby to bring Manufactory into the Kingdom and to set on Work all sorts of People in the Realm as other Nations do which raise their Greatness by abundance of Your Native Commodities whilst we are Parling and Disputing whether it be good for us or not May it Please Your most Excellent Majesty I Have diligently in my Travels observed how the Countries herein mentioned do grow Potent with abundance of all things to serve themselves and other Nations where nothing groweth and that their never dried Fountains of Wealth by which they raise their State to such an admirable Height as that they are at this day even the Wonder of the World proceedeth from your Majesties Seas and Lands I thus moved began to dive into the depth of their Policies and circumventing Practices whereby they drain and still covet to Exhaust the Wealth and Coin of this Kingdom and so with our own Commodities to weaken us and finally beat us quite out of Trading in other Countries I found that they more fully obtained these their purposes by their convenient Privileges and settled Constitutions than England with all the Laws and super-abundance of home-bred Commodities which God hath vouchsafed your Sea and Land And these and others mentioned in this Book are the urgent Causes that provoke me in my Love and bounden Duty to your Majesty and my Country to address my former Book to your Princely Hands and Consideration By which Privileges they draw multitudes of Merchants to Trade with them and many other Nations to Inhabit amongst them which makes them populous and there they make Store-houses of all Foreign Commodities wherewith upon every Occasion of Scarcity and Dearth they are able to furnish Foreign Countries with plenty of those Commodities which before in time of plenty they Ingrossed and brought home from the same places which doth greatly augment Power and Treasure to
raised it to 8 and lastly to 10 Ounces yet at this day it is worth but 10 s. and one peny notwithstanding Your Majesty's late raising of Your Gold Having thus raised his Gold he then devised to have plenty of Silver brought into his Kingdom and by the same policy raised the Royal of 8 being but two Ounces to 3 s. and 3 d. half peny which caused great plenty of Silver to be brought in and continue in his Kingdom And it were to be wisht that we might follow the good Example of this advantagious Policy in this Juncture when by the same Method we have brought great plenty of Gold into the Kingdom and if we pursue it by advancing the value of our Silver may not only keep what we already have but also cause great plenty to be brought in and kept here when we have it France The English Jacobus goeth for 1 l. 3 s. in Merchandizing The English Crown for 7 s. and 6 d. Also the King hath rais'd his Silver four Sols in the Crown North Holland The Double Jacobus goeth for 1 l. 3 s. Sterling The English Shilling is there 11 Stivers which is two Shillings over in the Pound Poland The K. of Poland raised the Hungarian Ducket from 56 to 77 ½ Polonish Groshes and the Rix-dollar from 36 to 47 and ½ Groshes the Rix-dollar worth in Poland 47 and ½ groshes is by account in Poland 10 s. and 4 d. and in England is worth but 7 s. and 10 d. The Jacobus of England here Current at that time for 1 l. 2 s. in Poland 1 l. 4 s. at the rate of 7 s. 10 d. for the Hungarian Ducket Some additional Remarks and Observations Relating to Coin and Trade 1. That Nation can only be in a prosperous Estate that hath a proportionable quantity of Silver or Gold to ballance the Strength and Trade of its neighbouring Nations 2. That whilst the Current Cash of this Kingdom can be converted into Bullion and so made a trading Commodity as hath been practis'd this hundred Years 't will either be convey'd to the best Market or wrought in to Plate at home notwithstanding the utmost rigour and vigilancy to the great and daily Consumption of the Coin and Detriment of the Nation That it is evident notwithstanding those great Sums coin'd in the two last Reigns 't was no sooner made than converted into a trading Commodity some inconsiderable Sums excepted that hapt not into Hucksters hands and if from the like Causes the same scarcity of Mill'd Mony should happen at any time hereafter which God forbid tho morally 't is not impossible for the reason above alledged and as a part bears to the whole that without raising the value of our Coin the Nation may totally be drain'd of it and may possibly be then at too great a distance to be had for calling for and were there no more Silver now in the Nation than the standard Mony that has past the trading hands of Merchants and Goldsmiths the Nation were in a deplorable and irreparable Condition 3. That what Custom makes the Medium Measure or Reward of Labour Industry and Commerce is universally call'd Money and ought not to be convertible to a trading Commodity to the Publick Damage and diminution of the Species be it what it will For the stamp of Authority on a Brass Farthing for its currency for 12 d. would with Submission better accommodate and suit the conveniency of our Domestick Commerce than the Paucity of our glorious Silver Species as our present Circumstances demonstrate That 't is a Truth beyond Contradiction that the goodness and excellency of the Spanish Coin tho dispersed thro' all parts of the Trading World hath not been a means to enrich that Kingdom nor the little esteem'd value of the current Cash of the Hollanders a means to Impoverish them That raising the value of our Coin is the only certain means to keep it in the Nation to make us a rich and thriving State to recover our lost Trade and the best Bulwark and Defence against all the Attacks of our Enemies That diminishing the quantity or raising the value of our Standard Coin is equivalent but at this Juncture 't is humbly thought more advantagious tolessen the Weight by reason the Nation would be at less Expence to make it good as also being more commodious for Commerce and Tale when even parts of a Pound as before than when Fractional as must be if the value of the ancient Standard Weight be advanced That raising the value of our Coin will be a dishonour to the Nation seems an empty Notion if Profit be join'd with it That our Silver Coin ought to bear a higher Value at home than elsewhere as well to bring it home as we have already done the Gold and to keep it here as also encourage the bringing in of Bullion which is now much wanted That contrary to the Policy of Nations our standard Coin is of greater value in all places than at home Spain only excepted for which reason we bring Spanish Mony hither and for the same Reason our Mony is transported to other places to the great Impoverishment of the Nation That Gold and Silver is the commanding Species and if we Export more than we Import the Nation is so much a loser and tho as a Gentleman observes if we yearly send out Commodities to the value of 400000 Ounces of Silver more than the Commodities we bring home from abroad cost us there is 100000 l. every year clear gain which must come home in Mony or Bullion and be a real encrease of our Wealth and will stay here as he is pleased to think This over ballance of Trade so much talk'd Fallacy and may be a great loss to the Nation for Example if 400000 Ounces of Silver or Commodities be exported and the worth of 800000 Ounces of unprofitable Commodities imported viz. as French and Port Wines Silks and Linen wrought and many other things that are all expended and comsum'd here at home the Nation is so far from gaining 100000 l. that 't is 200000 l. the worse viz. 100000 l. sent out of the Nation and the 100000 l. which is the over ballance is gain'd from the Publick Treasure and Stock of the Kingdom into private hands which will again be sent abroad to the same loss Now the true cause why the Hollanders have acquir'd such great Riches by Trade is as the Excellent Sir Walter observes an over ballance of Trade truly stated that is they Import of Commodities 100 times the quantity of what themselves expend and the rest is again transported to divers Countries and brings them in Gold and Silver to their great and real Profit whereas we scarcely Export the hundredth part of what is Imported and if we should send all the Silver in the Nation abroad and have treble the value return'd in unnecessary Commodities which we spend and consume at home pray what would the Nation get by
we lose the very name of our home-bred Commodities and other Countries get the Reputation and Profit thereof Most deplorable it is that this Kingdom should be deprived of so many Millions above-mention'd and that our Native Commodities of Cloth ordain'd of God for the natural profit and good of your Subjects being so Royal and Rich in it self should be driven to so small advantage of Reputation and Profit to Your Majesty and People and so much improv'd and intercepted by Strangers considering that God hath enabled and given Your Majesty power to advance Dressing and Dying and Transporting of all your Cloths within a Year or two I speak it knowingly to shew it may be done laudably lawfully and approved to be honourable feasable and profitable All the Companies of your Land transport their Cloths drest and died to the good of Your Kingdom except the Merchant-Adventurers whereby the Eastland and Turky Merchants with other Companies do encrease Your Majesties Customs by bringing in and spending Dying Stuffs and setting your People on work by Dressing before they transport them and they might encrease far more Custom to Your Majesty and make much more profit to themselves and this Nation and set many thousands of poor People more on work for dressing and dying and likewise employ more Ships and Mariners for bringing in Dying Stuffs were it not for the Merchant-Adventurers who transport their Cloths white rough undrest and undied into the Low-Countries where they sell them to the Stranger who afterwards dress die and stretch them to such unreasonable lengths contrary to our Law that they prevent and forestall our Markets and cross the just Prohibitions of our State and Realm by their Agents and Factors lying in divers places with our own Cloths to the great decay of this Kingdom in general and discredit of our Cloths in particular If the Accompt were truly known it would be found that they make clear profit only by Cloth transported rough undrest and undied 60000 l. a Year But it is most apparent Your Majesty in your Customs your Merchants in their Sales and Prices your Subjects in their Labours for want of not Dressing and Dying your Ships and Mariners in not bringing in of Dying Stuffs and spending of Allom are hindred yearly near a Million of Pounds so that Trade is driven in to the great damage hindrance of Your Majesty and People by permitting your Native Commodities to pass rough undrest and undied by the Merchant-Adventurer Touching Fishing The great Sea business of Fishing doth Imploy near 20000 Ships and Vessels and 400000 People are imployed yearly upon your Coast of England Scotland and Ireland with 60 Ships of War which may prove dangerous The Hollanders only have about 3000 Ships to Fish withall and 50000 People are imployed yearly by them upon Your Majesties Coasts of England Scotland and Ireland These Three Thousand Fishing Ships and Vessels of the Hollanders do imploy near 9000 other Ships and Vessels and 150000 Persons more by Sea and Land to make provision to cure and transport the Fish they take and return Commodities whereby they are inabled and do build yearly 1000 Ships and Vessels having not one Timber Tree growing in their own Country nor home bred Commodities to lade 100 Ships and yet they have 20000 Ships and Vessels and all imployed King Henry the 7th desirous to make his Kingdoms powerful and Rich by encrease of Ships and Mariners and employment of his People sent unto his Sea Coast Towns moving them to set up the great and Rich Fishing with promise to give them needful Privileges and to furnish them with Loans of Money if need were to encourage them yet his People were slack Now since I have traced this business and made my endeavours known unto Your Majesty your Noble Men able Merchants and others who having set down under their hands for more assurance promised to disburst large Sums of Money for the building up of this great and Rich large Sea City which will increase more Strength to your Land give more comfort and do more good to all your Cities and Towns than all the Companies of your Kingdom having fit and needful Priviledges for the upholding and strengthening of so weighty and needful a business For example 20 Busses built and put into a Sea Coast Town where there was not one Ship before there must be to carry recarry transport and make provision for one Buss three Ships likewise every Ship setting on work 30 several Trades and Occupations and 8000 Persons by Sea and Land insomuch as 300 Persons are not able to make one Fleet of Nets in four Months for one Buss which is no small employment with increase of a Thousand Mariners and a Fleet of 80 Sail of Ships to belong to one Town where none were before to take the Wealth out of the Sea to enrich and Strengthen the Land and this only by raising of 20 Busses Then what good one Thousand or two Thousand will do I leave to Your Majesties consideration It is worthy to be Noted how necessary Fishermen are to the Common Wealth and how needful to be advanced and cherished viz. 1. For taking Gods blessing out of the Sea to enrich the Realm which otherwise we lose 2. For setting the People on Work 3. For making plenty and cheapness in the Kingdom 4. For the encrease of Shipping to make the Land formidable against its Enemies 5. For a continual Nursery for Breeding and the Encreasing of Seamen 6. For making Imployment for all sorts of People as Blind Lame and others by Sea and Land from Ten or Twelve Years and upwards 7. For enriching Your Majesties Coffers for Merchandize returned from other Countries for Fish and Herrings 8. For the encrease and enabling of Merchants which now droop and Decay to the great loss of the Nation Touching the Coin For the most part all Monarchies and free States both Heathen and Christian as Turkey Barbary France Poland and many others do hold for a Rule of never failing profit to keep their Coin at higher rates within their own Territories than it is in other Kingdoms And for these causes 1. To preserve the Coin within their own Territories 2. To bring unto themselves the Coin of Foriegn Princes 3. To enforce Merchant strangers to take their Commodities at high Rates for want of which this Kingdom bears the Burthen For Instance The King of Barbary perceiving the Trade of Christian Merchants to increase in his Kingdom and that the Returns out of his Kingdom were most in Gold whereby it was much enhanced raised his Ducket being then Current for three Ounces to four five and six Ounces nevertheless it was no more worth in England being so raised than when it went for three Ounces This Ducket current for three Ounces in Barbary was then worth in England 7 Shillings and 6 pence and no more being raised to 6 Ounces since which time adding to it a small piece of Gold he hath
necessary that your Native Commodities should receive their full Manufactory by your Subjects within your Dominions 3. Whether it be not sit that Coals should yield Your Majesties and Subjects a better Value by permitting them to pass out of the Land and that they be in your Subjects Shipping only Transported 4. Whether it be not sit Your Majesty presently raise your Coin to as high rates as it is in any parts beyond Seas 5. Whether it be not necessary that the great Sea business of Fishing be forthwith set forward If it please your Majesty to approve of these Con siderations and accordingly to put them in a right course of Execution I assure my self by Gods help in a short time your Majesties Customs and the Continual comings into your Coffers will be exceedingly encreased your Ships and Mariners trebled your Land and wast Towns which are now run out of Gates better replenished and your People employed to the great enriching and Honour of your Kingdom with the applause and to the Comfort of all your Loyal Subjects May it please your Majesty I have rather undergone the pains to look into their Policies because I have heard them prosess they hoped to get the whole Trade and Shipping of Christendom into their own hands as well as for trasportation as otherwise for the Command and Mastery of the Seas to which end I find that they do daily encrease their Traffick augmenting their Shipping multiplying their Mariners Strength and Wealth in all kinds whereat I have grieved the more when I consider how God hath endued this Kingdom above any three Kingdoms in Christendom with divers Varieties of home bred Commodities which others have not and cannot want and induced us with sundry other means to continue and maintain Trade and Merchandizing and Fishing beyond them all whereby we might prevent the Deceivers ingross the Commodities of the Ingrossers enrich our selves and increase our Navigation Shipping and Mariners so as it would make all other Nations Vail the Bonet to England if we would not be still wanting to our selves in imployment of our own People Which People being divided into three parts two of them are meer Spenders and Constiniers of a Common-Wealth therefore I aim at these Points following To allure and encourage the People for their private gain to be all workers and encreasers of a Common-Wealth to enrich and fill your Majesties Coffers by a continual coming in and make your People Wealthy by means of their great end profitable Trading and Imployment To vent our home-bred Commodities to far more reputation and much more profit to the King the Merchant and the Kingdom To return the Merchandizes of other Countries at far cheaper rates than now they are to the great good of the Realm in general To make the Land powerful by increasin of Ships and Mariners To make your Peoples takings in general to be much more every day than now they are which by Gods help will grow continually more and more by the great concourse and Commerce that will come by settled Constitutions and convenient privileges as in other Ports they do by this their great freedom of Trade All this and much more is done in other Countries where nothing groweth so that of nothing they make great things Then how much more mighty things might we make where so great abundance and variety of home-bred Commodities and rich Materials grow for your People to work upon and other plentiful means to do withal which other Nations neither have nor cannot want but of necessity must be furnished from hence And now whereas our Merchandizing is wild utterly Confused and out of frame as at large appeareth a State Merchant will roundly and effectually bring all the premises to pass fill your Havens with Ships those Ships with Mariners your Kingdom full of Merchants their Houses full of out-landish Commodities and your Coffers full of Coin as in other parts they do and your People shall have just cause to hold in happy memory that your Majesty was the beginner of so profitable praise worthy and renown'd a work being the true Philosophers Stone to make your Majesty a rich and potent King and your Subjects a happy People only by settling of a State Merchant whereby your People may have fullness of Trade and Manufactory and yet hold both Honourable and profitable Government without breaking Companies And for that in settling of so weighty a business many things of great Consequence must necessarily fall into Consideration I humbly Pray that Your Majesty may be pleased for the bringing of this great service to light to give me leave to Nominate the Commissioners and Your Majesty give them power to call before them such Men as they shall think fit to Confer with upon Oath or otherwise as occasion shall offer that the said Commissioners with all speed for the better advancement of this Honourable and profitable work may prepare and report the same to Your Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal and true Hearted Subject W. R. FINIS