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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60593	The golden fleece. VVherein is related the riches of English wools in its manufactures Together with the true uses, and the abuses of the aulnageors, measurers, and searchers offices. By W. S. Gent.	Smith, W., gent., attributed name.	1657 (1657)	Wing S4255CA; ESTC R221504	43,793	137

Travellers eye seemes to produce nothing towards so vast a maintenance of the body of that People yet are they in all parts of the world a warlike and honoured nation helpfull to all Princes in their Warres and readily upon occasion returning to the assistance of their brethren be their cause good or bad The Dutch are a numerous Nation daily multiplying in a Country which hath in comparison nothing of its own growth to support them either in food or clothing yet they want nothing either in necessaries or wealth because they are industrious what Creeke of the Seas do they leave unvisited And in Shipping are so stored as most parts of the world do love or feare them Now a great encrease of People rests upon the regulation of Trade for it is not the number of workemen but the number of good workmen which encreaseth Families and it is Families which encrease and spread good people the other for want of knowledge and Skill being fixed no where because their labours will not maintain themselves much lesse a family for who will use a workman who hath neither Skill nor Credit when he can employ one that hath both Of principall importance therefore is the regulation of Apprentiships both towards the best encrease of people and to the honest creditable and wealthy manufactures of woolls and especially of clothing for want of which not only the former denoted defaults are daily found in their works but good workmen are undersold and ruined by bad and the whole Nation involved in great dishonour therefore we will resort to the Reformations CHAP. XI Shewing the abuses of those Lawes whereby Clothing ought to be remedyed IUstice which all men cry up and few practice is a vertue both divine and humane Divine Justice is either from God to man wherein his Providence is his Justice by which he governeth the world or it is from man towards God and then it is Piety whereby he returnes to God praise and glory for his numberlesse blessings In Republiques Cities and Townes it is Equity the fruit whereof is Peace and Plenty In Domestique relatitions between man and wife it is unity and concord from Servants to Masters it is good-will and diligence from masters to servants it is humanity and gentlenesse and from a man towards his own body and soule it is health and happinesse There is none of all these relations but is necessary and important to the reformation of the abuses defaults deceptions and grievances committed upon clothing which in this discourse have been in some measure discovered and by which both God and man are justly provoked The justice we are to use to the reliefe of the complaints before exhibited is either distributive or commutative Justice distributive is to give each man according to his deserts whether it be honour or punishment and commutative justice is in bargaining bartering exchanging or in any transactions between man and man to keep promises covenants and contracts and for a man to behave himselfe as he would have others do unto him to receive the innocent into protection to represse and punish offenders without which common intercourse and humane society must necessarily be dissolved and for the preservation whereof amongst the ancient Fathers have not spared their own sonnes The Egyptian Kings to whom antiquity gives the priviledge of making Lawes did engage their Magistrates in an oath that in Iudicature they should resist any unjust Commands even from their Princes themselves The Graecians and Romans deified Iustice and would not violate it towards their enemies so just also were the Lacedemonians and so free from distrusting each other as even for the publique safety they used neither locks nor barres insomuch that one asking Archidamus who those Governours were which so justly happily and gloriously governed the Common wealth of Lacedemon answered that they were first the Lawes and afterwards the Magistrates executing those Lawes for Law is the rule of Justice and Justice is the end of the Law Rectum est index sui obliqui a right Line doth not onely justify it selfe but accuseth the crooked say the Mathematicians by which it may seeme that the ready way to rectify abuses about clothing were to compare them with the Rule of the Lawes provided for them which neverthelesse holds not in all points for instance the Law empowers the Merchants and Drapers to be their own Searchers and to punish the Clothiers purse as they find his works to be faulty and so they do to the no small griefe of the Clothier but cui bono For the retayling buyer is not hereby at all relieved the Draper selling to him those faults for which he was before paid by the Clothier the Merchants do the same by causing their Clothiers to bring their manufactures into the Merchants private Ware houses where their own servants are Judges who upon searching the Clothes do make and marke faults enough for which they have reparable abatements but themselves again do practice all fraudulent wayes they can to barter and exchange those faults away without giving any allowance for them and though sometimes they be detected yet find they means to save their purses whilest their Nation suffers in honour and the Lawes are vilified to Forreigners who stain the Justice of the Nation with weaknes and fraud true it is that in the Netherlands where their cunning is as piercing as their practise is common they even every buyer do search with diligence and make themselves reparations first to the Merchants great losse and so in course to the Clothiers no small dammage but in all this the State remains much dishonoured by the scandall and robb'd of those Fines which the Lawes in punishment do give to the publique Revenue which if they were rightly and legally attended would render a vast gain to the Common wealth As in diseases where the causes are mistaken the remedies are consequently misapplyed whereby a disease in supposition becomes one in fact so in the foregoing instance the remedies being misapplyed are themselves brought to be a disease almost incureable therefore though in finding out the causes why manufacture in clothing becomes so abused there may be good use of the Drapers Merchants knowledge and Skill yet the application of the remedy is a worke of State and Policy in making and executing the Lawes proportionably to the grievance in which instance it doth not hold for though the Merchants and Drapers be able Searchers of the abuses yet they are not competent reformers of the grievances because they are interessed in participating of those gaines which the faults occasion and intend Nor is this all the abuse for in such parts of the world as the buyers are not in ability of knowledge like the Dutch who make Cloths themselves and especially in those parts where the difference in Religion is so great as it is between Christians and Turks there the corrupt Merchant causeth the name of God to be blasphemed for when

wearing that short Thrums opened into wooll and carded again with other wooll which is worse then that of Flocks doth also much embase the thread and yet it is common to put two parts of Flocks and Thrums into a Cloth and but one of good wooll which though it coseneth the eye yet doth it prove so weake in wearing as it will not last a fourth part of that time which a perfect cloth will do These and some others are before recited therefore we will proceed to the Mill whither when a cloth comes it would be there truly searched even by the Mill it self which would lay open the faults but the Millers art prevents it for with tallow pigs dung and urine they keep in the flocks and helpe the thicking and when a cloth proves slender and will not thick kindly in the Mill by reason of the defects then they helpe it with the medicine of oate-meale and the like which remaining in the cloth makes it feell fast and thick in hand untill it come to dressing where all that stopping vanisheth but there the Clothworker useth his art to preserve it from shame When a cloth wanteth of his substance allowance in yarn as hath formerly been observed the defects would soon be discovered being clean scowred thicked and dryed therefore in such a case it shall be scowred by halfes the oyle and seame being left in it in which filth they will thick it up which proves noysome in wearing Then come we to the Tenters which with great penalties are forbidden upon rough cloths yet in the Counties where those cloths are made and ought to be sold rough there are Tenters erected as commonly as in other places and whereas such cloths ought to be left in the same order as they come from the Mill they are neverthelesse brought upon the Tenters the better to conceale the recited abuses in the yarn and weaving which the Mill leaves shamefull in cockles pursinesse and narrower in some places then other these faults they pretend to even out under which colour they straine them beyond the limits allowed for dressed cloths Again because the Clothe thus strained do leave visible marks upon the Lists and ends whereby the abuses offered unto them may be plainly manifested there the Cloth-worker goes to worke who with a wet cloth and a hot Iron runnes over the sides and ends and so smoothly shuts up the tongues of the Tenters as they tell no tales And when by the same tentering the cloth doth prove hollow in hand then is the same wet cloth and hot Iron used again about a span deep from the lists the binding up of the cloth with threads keeping it from further examination and for so much the cloth feels close in hand but the buyer must take the rest as he finds it when any of their clothes fall out much too light then they hang them abroad in an evening and sometimes all night to receive the dew and rather then faile they spout water upon the cloth to weighten it which will give it no lesse then seven or eight pounds in additionall heavinesse besides that it makes it feele more kindly in hand and this is so cunningly done as it shall very hardly be perceived neverthelesse many of them are so over-watered as in their travailes into far parts whil'st they lye long in the hot holds of the Ships they become rotten and are returned Besides these tricks the Cloth-workers have a professed Art or Mysterie of their Trade in dressing clothes For instance the weavers falshood in making up clothes with flocks and thrums would be to litle purpose if the Cloth-worker did not joyne his deceipts for finding those clothes to prove too tender for honest workmanship there he will rowe them dry and worke them with solace and soft liquor to preserve the flocks from the force of the Tessel and yet they will make it rise with a ground to worke upon in shearing and in streining upon the Tenters as hath been said they will so stretch a cloth as they will bring that to thirty yards which being wet again a third part of the length and breadth is quite vanished A Kersey is allowed to be streined but one naile in breadth and halfe a yard and no more in length yet such a Devonshire kersey of onely twelve yards long hath been streined a quarter of a yard in breadth and three yards in length so as in breadth and length the Tenters have lent such a cloth one halfe of the piece which is no sooner come to the water but the moiety flyes invisibly away worse then Hocus Pocus tricks Again if a cloth by much milling do runne in so as it causeth more then ordinary labour to bring it to the length and breadth which they appoint for it then they will use warme water in the Tentering thereof but more after the warmth of the Sunne which they know will make a cloth yield any way in stretching Finally in the finishing their worke of rowing and shearing they will use a deceit with flocks of the same colour of the cloth which they can sheare as small as dust this they mingle with solace spread upon the musters and where the cloth may be seen which makes it to seem much finer then it is and feele more substantiall in hand But if this cloth lye a while after dressing the solace dryeth up and those flocks fly away leaving the cloth in his own nature again CHAP. VIII Of deceits in colours and dying DYing is of great importance and of double concernment towards clothing one in behalfe of the people which use it the other towards the woolls cloths and stuffs which are dyed on the peoples part it is so beneficiall as divers weighty Statutes made for the preservation of it do relate the livelyhood which it doth give to many thousands of people and therefore the Lawes ordained for it do under great penalties oblige the professors of dying in wools that they shall not teach their mystery to a forreign nation yet in late yeares there have severall English-men transported themselves into Holland for no other cause but to inrich themselves with the spoyles of their own Country and have there practised communicated and taught the mysteries of dying colours in wooll so that the reformation hereof may seem to be too late undertaken yet breention of the like false bretheren in time to come may be provided partly by encouraging the Dyers at home which cannot better be done then by care that one do not undermine another by faleness in dying And again by keeping the materials which are especially wools and white cloths from being transported as the Statutes do enjoyne that is to say without License from the State where also the petition ought well to be enquired The other part of importance in dying relates to the woolls cloths and stuffs and therein that the colours be true and well grounded for the truth of the colour is as

the heathens that is the Persians Lacedemonians Romans and Turks have framed Lawes enjoyning Parents to instruct their children and compelling children to obey their Parents on pain of death which the weak and partiall affections of Parents neglecting the Common-wealth it selfe hath undertaken and upon pious foundations have established prudent Lawes to the end Youth may be educated to the competent election of a vocation answering their own genius and inclination yet all this is but to solicite nature to perfect her own work which must be done by Art and Art is a worke of time to which that Youth may bequeath themselves the Lawes of each nation have proportioned a certain number of yeares and that is generally seven It is not without mysticall signification that servitude is so generally fastened upon this number of seven yeares Iacob covenanted for seven yeares service and trebled them rather then he would not enjoy the freedome and purchase of that he so much loved and desired seven times seven yeares must passe before a Jubilee of deliverance could enfranchise offenders the number of seven gave perfection and rest to Gods workes this number also is harmonicall comprising all kinds of proportions Arithmeticall Geometricall and Musicall It is the number of sanctification as may appeare in severall passages of Moses Ceremoniall Law it is the Climaterique and consummation of mans age It is the comparison of the most sacred word of God which David resembles to silver seventimes refined it is also Solomons Pallace of Wisdome supported by seven Pillars and finally to instance our own argument it is the ternary seven of the age of Youth from the second seven which makes fourteen to the third seven which reacheth one and twenty in which time the Braine and Memory best receive and retaine the Institutions which that Party intends to follow in course of his nature and inclination There is a double reason why Youth is almost in all Nations obliged to a seven years Apprentiship before they can obtain a Freedome to practice the Trade to which they are engaged one is to teach the Disciple or Apprentice for such is the dulnesse of mans nature that repetitions and multiplications of one and the same instruction are little enough to fasten doctrines upon the judgment and memory of the learner in matter of Art and Trade The want of instruction and teaching in Clothing is the principall cause that the Manufactures of wooll are so abusively and deceptiously made and teaching is thus wanting because there is no regular or legall course followed either for time or form in working there is not any of the relations to clothing which doth observe this rule of Apprentiship not withstanding it is enjoyned in very strict and penall manner by the Statute Lawes The chiefe inconvenience of which is that a Trade so generall in use and maintenance of even numberless Families doth by its own vast exuberance convert into corruptions and so those great multitudes of People become discredited begger'd and finally ruined to the destruction of themselves and that nation which gave them so great a blessing Another prejudice and not the least is that the nation which hath given them being and invested them with such materials for clothing is dishonoured by false and abusive worke it is not a little scandall to that nation which God hath particularly endowed with those blessings that others want when its people shall divert those good things which God hath bestowed upon it to evill and deceptious practises In this consideration it is very observable how little comparatively is the drunkenesse of those Countries which produce wines and wherein lyes their personall riches and their Nations honour Though their other sinnes may sufficiently swell their ultimate account yet doubtlesly it strengthens their last apology in that they abuse not that endowment which God hath made the originall of their being and subsistence A third consideration is the cheat it puts upon all the world for though every country have not the benefit of the Manufacture in themselves yet are there few of them condemned to such ignorance as not to discerne the Cozenage which false clothing puts upon them in which case to the foresaid dishonour they adde a curse and it was a chiefe care in Iacobs practice for the blessing that he turned it not into a curse how much more is this of consideration when the blessing comes by gift and not by design or procurement And lastly great is the thought of heart when the sinnes of false lucre covetousness are in the ful pursuance of such as have the full plenty to make weight and measure yet make it the art of their practice as wel as the practice of their art to cosen both the wise and weake it can be no great wonder nor without abundance of Presidents if God for sinnes of such wilfullnes remove his blessings with which this nation is peculiarly enriched and dignified and give them to a People which will render him a better and more just and more profitable accompt of his talent and it is no newes that though England be by the Almighty chiefly ordayned to produce the materials yet the manufactures be given to a people which will render a better account All this and much more is expected if the Native people continue to abuse the Native commodity as of necessity they must when they know not how to use it the wisdome of our Ancestors hath been liberally manifested in this particular for more or better Lawes are not ordained in any relation to Trade then that the manufactors be constantly made Apprentises for seven yeares at least in stead of which provident ordination there is not one of a thousand made apprentice at all but entering into Covenant with a workman in that he intends to professe after three or six months at the most he leaps forth a workman for his own account and so brings his worke peradventure to the height of his Skill which height is ignorance and so the abuses are unremediable The other reason and yet untouch'd why Apprentices are generally confined to seven yeares servitude is to theend that in each art professors multiply not beyond the support of their trade which were not to encrease good Subjects but Vagabonds Rogues to furnish prisons the gallowes which was not the intention of King Edw. the third when in his design of bringing clothing into England a chiefe part was so to multiply his People as by his native and alleadgeate Subjects he might securely possesse the Conquests wherewith God had blessed him which were beyond any Christian Prince of his time It is utterly against reason that a nation can be poor whose people are numerous if their industries be compelled and encouraged and their idlenesse be punished and reformed it is not the barrennesse of a Country which can forbid this maxime The Scots are an abounding and numberless people and they have a Soyle which to a