also those Manners and Dispositions that tend to the Peace Order and Safety of all Civil Societies and Governments among men Nor could I ever understand how those who call themselves and the world usually calls Religious Men come to put so great weight upon those points of Belief which men never have agreed in and so little upon those of Virtue and Morality in which they have hardly ever disagreed Nor why a State should venture the subversion of their Peace and their Order which are certain Goods for the propagation of uncertain or contested Opinions One of the great Causes of the first Revolt in the Low-Countreys appeared to be The Oppression of men's Consciences or Persecution in their Liberties their Estates and their Lives upon pretence of Religion And this at a time when there seemed to be a conspiring-disposition in most Countreys of Christendom to seek the reformation of some abuses grown in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church either by the Rust of Time by Negligence or by Human Inventions Passions and Interests The rigid opposition given at Rome to this general Humour was followed by a defection of mighty numbers in all those several Countreys Who professed to reform themselves according to such Rules as they thought were necessary for the reformation of the Church These persons though they agreed in the main of disowning the Papal Power and reducing Belief from the authority of Tradition to that of the Scripture Yet they differ'd much among themselves in other circumstances especially of Discipline according to the Perswasions and Impressions of the Leading-Doctors in their several Countreys So the Reformed of France became universally Calvinists But for those of Germany though they were generally Lutherans yet there was a great mixture both of Calvinists and Anabaptists among them The first Persecutions of these Reformed arose in Germany in the time of Charles the Fifth and drove great numbers of them down into the Seventeen Provinces especially Holland and Brabant where the Priviledges of the Cities were greater and the Emperor's Government was less severe as among the Subjects of his own Native Countreys This was the occasion that in the year 1566 when upon the first Insurrection in Flanders those of the Reformed Profession began to form Consistories and levy Contributions among themselves for support of their Common Cause It was resolved upon consultation among the Heads of them that for declining all differences among themselves at a time of common exigence The publique Profession of their Party should be that of the Lutherans though with liberty and indulgence to those of different Opinions By the Union of Utrecht concluded in 579 Each of the Provinces was left to order the matter of Religion as they thought fit and most conducing to the welfare of their Province With this provision that every man should remain free in his Religion and none be examined or entrapped for that cause according to the Pacification at Gant But in the year 583 it was enacted by general agreement That the Evangelical Religion should be only professed in all the Seven Provinces Which came thereby to be the establisht Religion of this State The Reasons which seem to induce them to this settlement were many and of weight As first Because by the Persecutions arrived in France where all the Reformed were Calvinists multitudes of people had retired out of that Kingdom into the Low Countreys And by the great commerce and continual intercourse with England where the Reformation agreed much with the Calvinists in point of Doctrine though more with the Lutherans in point of Discipline Those Opinions came to be credited and propagated more than any other among the people of these Provinces So as the numbers were grown to be greater far in the Cities of this than of any other Profession Secondly The Succours and Supplies both of Men and Money by which the weak Beginnings of this Commonwealth were Perserved and Fortified came chiefly from England from the Protestants of France when their affairs were successful and from the Calvinist Princes of Germany who lay nearest and were readiest to relieve them In the next place Because those of this Profession seem'd the most contrary and violent against the Spaniards who made themselves Heads of the Roman-Catholiques throughout Christendom And the hatred of Spain and their Dominion was so rooted in the Hearts of this People that it had influence upon them in the very choice of their Religion And lastly Because by this Profession all Rights and Jurisdiction of the Clergy or Hierarchy being suppressed There was no Ecclesiastical Authority left to rise up and trouble or fetter the Civil Power And all the Goods and Possessions of Churches and Abbies were seized wholly into the hands of the State which made a great encrease of the publique Revenue A thing the most necessary for the support of their Government There might perhaps be added one Reason more which was particular to one of the Provinces For whereas in most if not all other parts of Christendom the Clergy composed one of the Three Estates of the Countrey And thereby shar'd with the Nobles and Commons in their Influences upon the Government That Order never made any part of the Estates in Holland nor had any Vote in their Assembly which consisted only of the Nobles and the Cities and this Province bearing always the greatest sway in the Councils of the Union was most enclined to the settlement of that Profession which gave least pretence of Power or Jurisdiction to the Clergy and so agreed most with their own ancient Constitutions Since this Establishment as well as before the great Care of this State has ever been To favour no particular or curious Inquisition into the Faith or Religious Principles of any peaceable man who came to live under the protection of their Laws And to suffer no Violence or Oppression upon any Mans Conscience whose Opinions broke not out into Expressions or Actions of ill consequence to the State A free Form of Government either making way for more freedom in Religion Or else having newly contended so far themselves for Liberty in this point they thought it the more unreasonable for them to oppress others Perhaps while they were so threatened and endanger'd by Forreign Armies they thought it the more necessary to provide against Discontents within which can never be dangerous where they are not grounded or fathered upon Oppression in point either of Religion or Liberty But in those two Cases the Flame often proves most violent in a State the more 't is shut up or the longer concealed The Roman-Catholique Religion was alone excepted from the common protection of their Laws Making Men as the States believed worse Subjects than the rest By the acknowledgment of a Forreign and Superior Jurisdiction For so must all Spiritual Power needs be as grounded upon greater Hopes and Fears than any Civil At least wherever the perswasions from Faith are as strong as those
best Native Commodities and the other drain all the Treasures of the West-Indies By all this account of their Trade and Riches it will appear That some of our Maxims are not so certain as they are current in our common Politicks As first That Example and Encouragement of Excess and Luxury if employ'd in the consumption of Native Commodities is of advantage to Trade It may be so to that which impoverishes but is not to that which enriches a Countrey And is indeed less prejudicial if it lie in Native than in Forreign Wares But the custom or humour of Luxury and Expence cannot stop at certain bounds What begins in Native will proceed in Forreign Commodities and though the Example arise among idle persons yet the Imitation will run into all Degrees even of those men by whose Industry the Nation subsists And besides the more of our own we spend the less we shall have to send abroad and so it will come to pass that while we drive a vast Trade yet by buying much more than we sell we shall come to be poor Whereas when we drove a very small Traffique abroad yet by selling so much more than we bought we were very rich in proportion to our Neighbours This appear'd in Edward the Third's time when we maintain'd so mighty Wars in France and carri'd our Victorious Arms into the heart of Spain Whereas in the 28 year of that King's Reign the Value and Custom of all our Exported Commodities amounted to 294184 l. 17 s. 2 d. And that of our Imported but to 38970 l. 03 s. 06 d. So as there must have enter'd that year into the Kingdom in Coin or Bullion or else have grown a Debt to the Nation 255214 l. 13 s. 08 d. And yet we then carri'd out our Wools unwrought and brought in a great part of our Clothes from Flanders Another common Maxim is That if by any Forreign Invasion or Servitude the State and consequently the Trade of Holland should be ruin'd the last would of course fall to our share in England Which is no consequence For it would certainly break into several pieces and shift either to us to Flanders to the Hans-Towns or any other parts according as the most of those circumstances should any where concur to invite it and the likest to such as appear to have formerly drawn it into Holland By so mighty a confluence of People and so general a vein of Industry and Parsimony among them And whoever pretends to equal their growth in Trade and Riches by other ways than such as are already enumerated will prove I doubt either to deceive or to be deceived A third is That if that State were reduced to great extremities so as to become a Province to some greater Power They would chuse our Subjection rather than any other or those at least that are the Maritime and the Richest of the Provinces But it will be more reasonably concluded from all the former Discourses That though they may be divided by absolute Conquests they will never divide themselves by consent But all fall one way and by common agreement make the best terms they can for their Countrey as a Province if not as a State And before they come to such an extremity they will first seek to be admitted as a Belgick-Circle in the Empire which they were of old and thereby receive the protection of that Mighty Body which as far as great and smaller things may be compar'd seems the likest their own State in its main Constitutions but especially in the Freedom or Soveraignty of the Imperial Cities And this I have often heard their Ministers speak of as their last refuge in case of being threatned by too strong and fatal a Conjuncture And if this should happen the Trade of the Provinces would rather be preserved or encreased than any way broken or destroy'd by such an alteration of their State Because the Liberties of the Countrey would continue what they are and the Security would be greater than now it is The last I will mention is of another vein That if the Prince of Orange were made Soveraign of their Country though by Forreign Arms he would be a great Prince because this now appears to be so great a State Whereas on the contrary those Provinces would soon become a very mean Countrey For such a Power must be maintain'd by force as it would be acquir'd and as indeed all Absolute Dominion must be in those Provinces This would raise general Discontents and those perpetual Seditions among the Towns which would change the Orders of the Countrey endanger the Property of private men And shake the Credit and Safety of the Government Whenever this should happen The People would scatter Industry would faint Banks would dissolve And Trade would decay to such a degree as probably in course of time their very Digues would be no longer maintain'd by the Defences of a weak People against so furious an Invader But the Sea would break in upon their Land and leave their chiefest Cities to be Fisher-Towns as they were of old Without any such great Revolutions I am of opinion That Trade has for some years ago past its Meridian and begun sensibly to decay among them Whereof there seem to be several Causes As first The general application that so many other Nations have made to it within these two or three and twenty years For since the Peace of Munster which restor'd the quiet of Christendom in 1648 not only Sueden and Denmark but France and England have more particularly than ever before busied the thoughts and counsels of their several Governments as well as the humours of their People about the matters of Trade Nor has this happen'd without good degrees of Success though Kingdoms of such extent that have other and Nobler Foundations of Greatness cannot raise Trade to such a pitch as this little State which had no other to build upon No more than a man who has a fair and plentiful Estate can fall to Labour and Industry like one that has nothing else to trust to for the support of his life But however all these Nations have come of late to share largely with them And there seem to be grown too many Traders for Trade in the World So as they can hardly live one by another As in a great populous Village the first Grocer or Mercer that sets up among them grows presently rich having all the Custom till another encouraged by his success comes to set up by him and share in his gains At length so many fall to the Trade that nothing is got by it and some must give over or all must break Not many Ages past Venice and Florence possest all the Trade of Europe The last by their Manufactures But the first by their Shipping and the whole Trade of Persia and the Indies whose Commodities were brought Those by Land and These by the Arabian-Sea to Egypt from whence they were fetcht by the
tells us the fool said in His And set up with bringing those Wares to Market which God knows have been always in the World though kept up in corners because they used to mark their Owners in former Ages with the Names of Buffoons Prophane or Impudent men Who deride all Form and Order as well as Piety and Truth And under the notion of Fopperies endeavour to dissolve the very Bonds of all Civil Society Though by the favour and protection thereof They themselves enjoy so much greater proportions of Wealth and of Pleasures than would fall to their share if all lay in common as they seem to design for then such Possessions would belong of right to the strongest and bravest among us Vnder favour of such men I believe it will be found at one time or other by all who shall try That whilst Human Nature continues what it is The same Orders in State The same Discipline in Armies The same Reverence for things Sacred And Respect of Civil Institutions The same Virtues and Dispositions of Princes and Magistrates derived by interest or imitation into the Customs and Humours of the people Will ever have the same effects upon the Strength and Greatness of all Governments and upon the Honour and Authority of those that Rule as well as the Happiness and Safety of those that Obey Nor are we to think Princes themselves losers or less entertain'd when we see them employ their time and their thoughts in so useful Speculations and to so glorious Ends But that rather thereby they attain their true Prerogative of being Happier as well as Greater than Subjects can be For all the Pleasures of Sense that any man can enjoy are within the reach of a private Fortune and ordinary Contrivance Grow fainter with age and duller with use Must be revived with intermissions and wait upon the returns of Appetite which are no more at call of the Rich than the Poor The slashes of Wit and good Humour that rise from the Vapours of Wine are little different from those that proceed from the heats of blood in the first approaches of Fevers or Frenzies And are to be valued but as indeed they are the effects of Distemper But the pleasures of Imagination as they heighten and refine the very pleasures of Sense so they are of larger extent and longer duration And if the most sensual man will confess there is a Pleasure in Pleasing He must likewise allow there is good to a man's self in doing good to others And the further this extends the higher it rises and the longer it lasts Besides there is Beauty in Order and there are Charms in well-deserved Praise And both are the greater by how much greater the Subject As the first appearing in a well-framed and well-governed State And the other arising from Noble and Generous Actions Nor can any veins of good Humour be greater than those that swell by the success of wise Counsels and by the fortunate Events of publique Affairs since a man that takes pleasure in doing good to Ten thousand must needs have more than he that takes none but in doing good to himself But these thoughts lead me too far and to little purpose Therefore I shall leave them for those I had first in my head concerning the State of the United Provinces And whereas the greatness of their Strength and Revenues grew out of the vastness of their Trade into which Their Religion their Manners and Dispositions their Scituation and the form of their Government were the chief Ingredients And this last had been raised partly upon an old foundation And partly with Materials brought together by many and various Accidents It will be necessary for the survey of this great Frame to give some account of the Rise and Progress of their State by pointing out the most remarkable occasions of the first and periods of the other To discover the Nature and Constitutions of their Government in its several parts and the motions of it from the first and smallest wheels To observe what is peculiar to them in their Scituation or Dispositions And what in their Religion To take a survey of their Trade and the Causes of it Of the Forces and Revenues which composed their Greatness And the Circumstances and Conjunctures which conspired to their Fall And these are the Heads that shall make the Order and Arguments in the several parts of these Observations The Contents CHap. I. Of the Rise and Progress of their State Chap. II. Of their Government Chap. III. Of their Scituation Chap. IV. Of their People and Dispositions Chap. V. Of their Religion Chap. VI. Of their Trade Chap. VII Of their Forces and Revenues Chap. VIII Of the Causes of their fall in 1672. The Printer to the Reader THE Author having not concerned himself in the publication of these Papers It has happen'd that for want of his Care in revising the Impression several faults are slipt in and some such as alter the sense For which I am to ask the Reader 's pardon and desire his trouble in correcting such as occur to me according to the following ERRATA Page 20. l 20. r. retaining p. 25. l. 26. r executions p. 46. l. 6. r. goes on p. 61. l. 2. r. forming p. 66. l. 9. r. eluded p. 90. l. 23. r. Gecommitteerde p. 91. l. 20. dele either p. 124. l. 28. r. being so much p. 173. l. 17. r. seemed CHAP. I. Of the Rise and Progress of the United Provinces WHoever will take a view of the Rise of this Commonwealth must trace it up as high as the first Commotions in the Seventeen Provinces under the Dutchess of Parma's Government and the true Causes of that more avowed and general Revolt in the Duke of Alva's time And to find out the natural Springs of those Revolutions must reflect upon that sort of Government under which the Inhabitants of those Provinces lived for so many Ages past in the subjection of their several Dukes or Counts till by Marriages Successions or Conquest they came to be united in the House of Burgundy under Philip surnamed The Good And afterwards in that of Austria under Philip Father of Charles the Fifth And lastly in the Person of that great Emperor incorporated with those vast Dominions of Germany and Spain Italy and the Indies Nor will it be from the purpose upon this search to run a little higher into the Antiquities of these Countries For though most men are contented only to see a River as it runs by them and talk of the changes in it as they happen when 't is troubled or when clear when it drowns the Countrey in a Flood or forsakes it in a Drowth Yet he that would know the nature of the water and the Causes of those Accidents so as to guess at their continuance or return must find out its source and observe with what strength it rises what length it runs and how many small streams fall in and feed it to such
mutual trust among private men so it cannot grow or thrive to any great degree without a confidence both of publique and private safety and consequently a trust in the Government from an opinion of its Strength Wisdom and Justice Which must be grounded either upon the Personal Virtues and Qualities of a Prince or else upon the Constitutions and Orders of a State It appears to every mans eye who hath travel'd Holland and observed the number and vicinity of their great and populous Towns and Villages with the prodigious improvement of almost every spot of ground in the Countrey And the great multitudes constantly employ'd in their Shipping abroad and their Boats at home That no other known Countrey in the World of the same extent holds any proportion with this in numbers of people And if that be the great foundation of Trade the best account that can be given of theirs will be by considering the Causes and Accidents that have served to force or invite so vast a confluence of people into their Countrey In the first rank may be placed the Civil-Wars Calamities Persecutions Oppressions or Discontents that have been so fatal to most of their Neighbours for some time before as well as since their State began The Persecutions for matter of Religion in Germany under Charles the Fifth in France under Henry the Second and in England under Queen Mary forced great numbers of people out of all those Countreys to shelter themselves in the several Towns of the Seventeen Provinces where the ancient Liberties of the Countrey and Priviledges of the Cities had been inviolate under so long a succession of Princes and gave protection to these oppressed strangers who fill'd their Cities both with People and Trade and raised Antwerp to such a heighth and renown as continued till the Duke of Alva's arrival in the Low-Countreys The fright of this man and the Orders he brought and Armies to execute them began to scatter the Flock of people that for some time had been nested there So as in very few Months above a Hundred thousand Families removed out of the Countrey But when the Seven Provinces united and began to defend themselves with success under the conduct of the Prince of Orange and the countenance of England and France And the Persecutions for Religion began to grow sharp in the Spanish Provinces All the Professors of the Reformed Religion and haters of the Spanish Dominion retir'd into the strong Cities of this Commonwealth and gave the same date to the growth of Trade there and the decay of it at Antwerp The long Civil-Wars at first of France then of Germany and lastly of England serv'd to encrease the swarm in this Countrey not only by such as were persecuted at home but great numbers of peaceable men who came here to seek for quiet in their Lives and safety in their Possessions or Trades Like those Birds that upon the approach of a rough Winter-season leave the Countreys where they were born and bred flye away to some kinder and softer Climate and never return till the Frosts are past and the Winds are laid at home The invitation these people had to fix rather in Holland than in many better Countreys seems to have been at first the great strength of their Towns which by their Maritime scituation and the low flatness of their Countrey can with their Sluces overflow all the ground about them at such distances as to become inaccessible to any Land-Forces And this natural strength has been improv'd especially at Amsterdam by all the Art and Expence that could any ways contribute towards the defence of the place Next was the Constitution of their Government by which neither the States-General nor the Prince have any power to invade any man's Person or Property within the precincts of their Cities Nor could it be fear'd that the Senate of any Town should conspire to any such violence nor if they did could they possibly execute it having no Soldiers in their pay and the Burgers only being employ'd in the defence of their Towns and execution of all Civil Justice among them These Circumstances gave so great a credit to the Bank of Amsterdam And that was another invitation for people to come and lodg here what part of their Money they could transport and knew no way of securing at home Nor did those people only lodg Moneys here who came over into the Countrey but many more who never left their own Though they provided for a retreat or against a storm and thought no place so secure as this nor from whence they might so easily draw their money into any parts of the World Another Circumstance was the general Liberty and Ease not only in point of Conscience but all others that serve to the commodiousness and quiet of life Every man following his own way minding his own business and little enquiring into other mens Which I suppose happen'd by so great a concourse of people of several Nations different Religions and Customs as left nothing strange or new And by the general humour bent all upon Industry whereas Curiosity is only proper to idle men Besides it has ever been the great Principle of their State running through all their Provinces and Cities even with emulation To make their Countrey the common refuge of all miserable men From whose protection hardly any Alliance Treaties or Interests have ever been able to divert or remove them So as during the great dependance this State had upon France in the time of Henry the Fourth All the persons disgraced at that Court or banisht that Countrey made this their common retreat Nor could the State ever be prevail'd with by any instances of the French Ambassadors to refuse them the use and liberty of common life and air under the protection of their Government This firmness in the State has been one of the circumstances that has invited so many unhappy men out of all their Neighbourhood and indeed from most parts of Europe to shelter themselves from the blows of Justice or of Fortune Nor indeed does any Countrey seem so proper to be made use of upon such occasions not only in respect of safety but as a place that holds so constant and easie correspondencies with all parts of the World And whither any man may draw whatever money he has at his disposal in any other place Where neither Riches expose men to danger nor Poverty to contempt But on the contrary where Parsimony is honourable whether it be necessary or no and he that is forced by his Fortune to live low may here alone live in fashion and upon equal terms in appearance abroad with the chiefest of their Ministers and richest of their Merchants Nor is it easily imagin'd how great an effect this Constitution among them may in course of time have had upon the encrease both of their People and their Trade As the two first invitations of people into this Countrey were the strength of their
of Native and Warlike Subjects which they could draw into the Field upon any War with their Neighbours National quarrels were decided by National Armies not by Stipendiary Forces raised with Money or maintained by constant Pay In the several Kingdoms and Principalities of Europe the Bodies of their Armies were composed as they are still in Poland Of the Nobility and Gentry who were bound to attend their Princes to the Wars with certain numbers of armed men according to the tenure and extent of the several Lordships and Lands they held of the Crown Where these were not proportionable to the occasion The rest were made up of Subjects drawn together by love of their Prince or their Countrey By desire of Conquest and Spoils or necessity of defence Held together by Allegiance or Religion And Spirited by Honour Revenge or Avarice not of what they could get from their Leaders but from their Enemies A Battel or two fairly fought decided a War and a War ended the quarrel of an Age and either lost or gain'd the Cause or Countrey contended for Till the change of Times and Accidents brought it to a new decision Till the Virtues and Vices of Princes made them stronger or weaker either in the love and obedience of their people or in such Orders and Customs as render'd their Subjects more or less Warlike or Esseminate Standing-Forces or Guards in constant pay were no where used by lawful Princes in their Native or Hereditary Countreys But only by Conquerors in subdued Provinces or Usurpers at home And were a defence only against Subjects not against Enemies These Orders seem first to have been changed in Europe by the two States of Venice and Holland Both of them small in Territories at Land and those extended in Frontier upon powerful Neighbours Both of them weak in number of Native Subjects and those less warlike at Land by turning so much to Traffique and to Sea But both of them mighty in Riches and Trade Which made them endeavour to balance their Neighbours strength in Native Subjects by Forreign Stipendiary Bands And to defend their Frontiers by the Arts of Fortification and strength of places which might draw out a War into length by Sieges when they durst not venture it upon a Battel And so make it many times determine by force of Money rather than of Arms. This forced those Princes who frontier'd upon these States to the same provisions Which have been encreast by the perpetual course of Wars upon the Continent of Europe ever since the rise of This State until the Peace of the Pirenees between Princes bordering one upon the other and so ready for sudden Inroads or Invasions The Force therefore of these Provinces is to be measur'd not by the number or dispositions of their Subjects But by the strength of their Shipping and standing-Troops which they constantly maintain even in time of peace And by the numbers of both which they have been able to draw into the Field and to Sea for support of a War By their constant Revenue to maintain the first And by the temporary charge they have been able to furnish for supply of the other I will not enumerate their Frontier-Towns which is a common Theam or the Forces necessary for the Garrisons of them Nor the nature and variety of their Taxes and Impositions Though I have an exact List of them by me expressing the several kinds rates and proportions upon every Province and Town But this would swell a Discourse with a great deal of tedious matter and to little purpose I shall therefore be content only to observe what I have informed my self of their Forces and Revenues in general from persons among them the best able to give that account The ordinary Revenue of this State consists either in what is levied in the conquered Towns and Countrey of Brabant Flanders or the Rhine Which is wholly administred by the Council of State Or else the ordinary Fonds which the Seven Provinces provide every year according to their several proportions upon the Petition of the Council of State and Computation of the Charge of the ensuing year given in by them to the States-General And this Revenue commonly amounts to about One and twenty Millions of Gilders a year Every Million making about Ninety thousand pounds Sterling intrinsick value The chief Fonds out of which this rises Is the Excise and the Customs The first is great and so general that I have heard it observed at Amsterdam That when in a Tavern a certain Dish of Fish is eaten with the usual Sawce above thirty several Excises are paid for what is necessary to that small Service The last are low and applied particularly to the Admiralty Out of this Revenue is supplied the charge of the whole Milice Of all publique Officers of the State and Ambassadors or Ministers abroad And the Interest of about Thirteen Millions owing by the States-General The standing-Forces in the year 70 upon so general a Peace and after all Reformations Were Twenty six thousand two hundred men in Ten Regiments of Horse consisting of Fifty Troops And Nineteen of Foot consisting of Three hundred and Eighty Companies The constant charge of these Forces stood them in Six Millions one hundred and nineteen thousand Gilders a year Their Admiralties in time of Peace maintain between Thirty and Forty Men of War employ'd in the several Convoys of their Merchants Fleets In a Squadron of Eight or Ten Ships to attend the Algerines and other Corsairs in the Mediterranean And some always lying ready in their Havens for any sudden accidents or occasions of the State The common Expence of the Admiralties in this Equipage and the built of Ships Is about Six Millions a year Besides the Debt of the Generalty The Province of Holland owes about Sixty five Millions for which they pay Interest at Four in the Hundred But with so great ease and exactness both in Principal and Interest That no man ever demands it twice They might take up whatever money they desired Whoever is admitted to bring in his money takes it for a great deal of favour And when they pay off any part of the Principal Those it belongs to receive it with tears Not knowing how to dispose of it to Interest with such safety and ease And the common Revenue of particular men lies much in the Cantores either of the Generalty or the several Provinces which are the Registries of these publique Debts Of the several Imposts and Excises Those that are upon certain and immovable possessions as Houses and Lands are collected by the Magistrates of the several places and by them paid in to the Receivers because both the number and value of them are constant and easily known Those which arise out of uncertain Consumptions are all set out to farm And to him that bids most some every three Months some every six and some yearly The Collection Receit and Distribution of all Publique Moneys are made without any