Feast for Rats and Mice And if it hold cheap for Three or Four years the Tenant lays the Key under the Door and then the Wolf is knawing a hole in at the Landlords Door I am sure his head is in already therefore I say timely prevent him from getting in his body For after death there is no redemption Secondly The Landlord seeing his Tenant in this way sending his Corn into the Publick Bank-Granary and there lodging it will know the quantities which must be affixt and set up in a Catalogue in some place of the Granary thereby to be viewed and taken notice by any that think they are or may be concerned therein and such Corn being in Granary the Tenant may transfer it to the Landlord or any part thereof and so the Landlord will always be in such a condition as to preserve himself and to prevent his Farms being thrown upon his hands for if the Landlord feeth his Tenant a good Husband and doth the best he can to live then he will forbear and give him time and no danger because he is able to give his Landlord Bank-Credit in Corn for his Rent and so the Corn is kept and preserved for a good Market and at last the Landlord paid all his Rent and the Tenant enabled to maintain his Family and to Husband his Farm to the best advantage And I think here is no harm done unless the prevention of Law-Suits and the miseries attending them and cheating the Rats and Mice of their large feasts that last commonly Three or Four years be injustice besides the Landlord hath his advantage clearly before him he may fee at all times the condition of his Tenant for if he will not come to the Publique Granary with his Corn whereby the Landlord may be secured upon the Ticket thereof for his Rent but keep it to make the Rats and Mice feasts then he may Command present payment of his Rents or take a new Tenant But I believe many Gentlemen and others will after reading of my Book twice over see it so much their Interest to have Publique Granaries that they will be upon building some in many places in England before any Law passes to put them into a posture and observe when this Corn is in the Publique-bank-Granary in the Countrey immediately it is to be Registred at the Guild-Hall in London So it will be immediately good credit to inliven Trade and fetch out all Moneys now unimploy'd and prevent Law and the trouble of attending it The Tenant Landlord and Trade will have their ends answered and there is no way under Heaven at present to inliven Trade preserve Landlord and Tenant and bring the unimploy'd Moneys out but this way Thirdly The Corn being lodged safe and kept in the Publique Granary will be the occasion immediately of fetching out and bringing forth most of the Cash of England now wholly unimploy'd All people near the Publique-bank-Granaries will immediately be dealing to have some Corn in Bank-credit for that cannot miss of finding an increase and benefit to them in the Rise of Corn. There will also tumble into the Publique-bank for Corn all the Moneys round the Countrey now in the Servants hands both Men and Maids which at present lies dead in their Chests and then John and Joan will make a merry bout when Corn rises praise and pray for the Man that brought the Publique bank to New Brunswick and drink his Health in Burnt-Clarret In Holland and Germany it is thus with all Servants And there is no way that mortal man can invent to fetch the unimploy'd Moneys into Trade with speed but this only way The Titles of Land now are so uncertain and personal security so bad Moneys will grow scarcer and scarcer and Trade deader and deader and our Neighbours beyond the Seas are so linkt and fastned with our Merchants here that the poor Countrey people and Landlords also shall be but Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water unless by this way relieved Consider Into this Corn-bank will be laid all the Moneys of all poor labouring people who keep no Teems for here is their great advantage they laying by Corn when cheap in the Granary there kept safe sweet and good it 's possible and very probable these poor men nor their families never eat dear Bread after in all their lives so here will be no poor in the Parish nor complaining in the Streets for Bread And as I formerly said here is no harm done but cheating the Rats and Mice Fourthly Consider Corn being lodged in cheap times in these Publique Granaries of New Brunswick will cause the Linnen and Thred-Trade upon a sudden to come to perfection for there will be Bread and Drink always cheap and that being so there is sufficient incouragement for men to venture upon any new Trade But if Victuals as Bread and Drink prove dear and uncertain in its Rates and Prises from thence Trade will depart and find out some place that shall fit and please her better For as Honour and Honesty brings Riches and Strength so cheap Victuals and good with all things necessary and cheap to be imployed in the Manufacture will thereby be the occasion of strengthning of the place and making of it Rich and cause Trade in process of time to leave the place where she was formerly and come where she may be better entertained and more advantageously accommodated I find that Mistris called Trade will bow and bend to every just and good thing wherein she may be preserved and not in danger to be famished and therefore I have provided her good Granaries to hold her food which is good Wheat and Malt to make her Bread and Drink I have also given order for the preparing of good Flax to make her fine Linnen I have provided her a fit place with good Merchants to make that delightful Liquor called Mum I have also provided her a Navigable River with Cuts to be made to her Backsides so that Barges may carry and re-carry her Goods and Riches up and down to Sea and from Sea I have travelled to Magdenburgh to see to fit her with Granaries as good if not better than there is I have travelled to Brunswick to find a way to fit her with her dedsires as to good Mum I have travelled into Saxony and Bohemia to see her fine-spun Threds Wheels and Looms that so she may want nothing I have travelled into Holland and Flanders to see her Weaving and Whiteing with all its advantages And now dear Mistress I certainly must court thee in thy flight to fall down into New Brunswick near Stratford upon Avon and into New Harlem in the Mannor of Anilcot and there thou shalt be attended with the Riches of Brunswick as to Mum as also with the Riches of Dantzick as to Corn thou shalt also be attended with the Riches of Saxony as to Flax and fine Threds And to compleat all thou shalt have on the Backside of thy
the Room where the Flax is with Fire in it in all moist times which keeps the Flax dry and prevents Moistness which is another great cause which makes it so fine I have seen Flax in Saxony twenty years old thus hous-wife't which was as fine as the hairs of ones head It is true there what the old saying is here That Wooll may be kept to Dirt and Flax to Silk And as to the Second It is true that their Hollands and Clothes are whitened at Haerlem and by the very sides of the Lake and Cuts are conveniently made and the Lake is much of a height at all times and so it feeds the Cuts with water that with ease they may Sprinkle the Clothes as there is Occasion also it is well fitted with Houses by the sides of the Cuts to boyl the Yarn and prepare it the sooner to be white These are good things and by the situation of the Place and conveniency of the Mere it doth much advance the business Rich Merchants are there seated that drive great Trades and there they have a Bank and their Moneys at three in the Hundred But as to Haerlem Lake it is subject to be mixed with Salt-water which is brought in the Ships daily from Amsterdam and there pumpt out into the Lake And all that can be said for that Water being better than any other Water in Holland is this that it continually stands in a Pool or Lake and by the influence and heat of the Sun is made soft and so very fit for scouring and the like is not in any part of Holland else But in England we have many places very fit and by Nature convenient and with a little Art as good as Haerlem if not better And for Instance take two places one at Stratford upon Avon the other at Coventry At Stratford upon Avon near the Bridge in the Lands of Sir John Clapton by virtue of the Mills pounding high or at a rise of Water he may lead the Water along his own Land until it come so high that no Flood will reach There Cuts may be made in his Land and Houses built with spare pieces to bleech the Cloth on the Water being taken into the Cuts about the end of March and so continued therein whereby the heat of the Sun will more and more soften and fit it for bleeching The second place is Coventry Almost round the City the Lands and Waters lye so convenient that it exceeds Haerlem for Haerlem Lake lyeth but upon one Quarter of the Town and the Waters lye at Coventry about three parts of that Town And I am sure Coventry ought to be the chiefest place of this intended Linen Manufacture and in few years would exceed Haerlem God and Nature having fixed them right for it both as to Land fit to bear Flax good whitening a large City in the very Centre of England and their Woollen Manufacture being now wholly decayed And in this City a Bank by virtue of a voluntary Register is absolutely necessary and then the Gentlemen in the four Counties named may make their Sons Linen Merchants and thereby be a means to help to beat the Dutch without fighting I have been something long upon this Theme because I hope and believe I may see something of the Improvement by the Linen Trade come to pass But some other Questions will here be asked As who incouraged you to make this Discourse of the Linen Improvement and who paid you for your pains in travelling to find the things here writ I answer I was an Apprentice to a Linen Draper and so I knew something of Linen and finding the Poor unimployed I with my Wife did promote the making of much fine Linen with good success And being employed and my Charges born by twelve Gentlemen of England to bring into England a Manufacture out of Saxony and Bohemia made of Iron and Tin there I did see what I here set down and in Holland and Flanders I tryed and observed their way and manner of Trade in the Linen Manufacture All which take you for nothing The second Manufacture to be incouraged to set the poor people at work being the growth and product of our own Kingdom is that of Iron But now I am sure I shall draw a whole Swarm of Wasps about my Ears For say some and many too who think themselves very wise it were well if there were no Iron-works in England and it was better when no Iron was made in England and the Iron-works destroy all the Woods and foreign Iron from Spain will do better and last longer And I have heard many men both Rich and Sober often declare these things and it hath been and is the opinion of nine parts of ten of the people of England that it is so and by no arguments whatever will they be beat from the belief of it although there is not one word true As to the First The Iron works at present in England are of the same value and I believe much more to the publick than the Woollen Manufacture is and is the cause of imploying near as many people and much more Lands for Horses and Oxen to carry and recarry those heavy commodities of which the Iron is made and the Iron and the things made of the Iron Therefore I will take the Kingdom half round and shew you what the Iron works do contribute to the Publick and to the whole Countries And First I will begin in Monmouth-shire and go through the Forest of Dean and there take notice what infinite quantities of Raw Iron is there made with Bar Iron and Wire and consider the infinite number of Men Horses and Carriages which are to supply these Works and also digging of Iron Stone providing of Cinders carrying to the Works making it into Sows and Bars cutting of Wood and converting it into Charcoal Consider also in all these parts the Woods are not worth the cutting and bringing home by the Owner to burn in their Houses And it is because in all these places there are Pit Coals very cheap Consider also the multitude of Cattel and People thereabouts employed that make the Lands dear And what with the benefit made of the Woods and the People making the Land dear it is not inferior for Riches to any place in England And if these Advantages were not there it would be little less than a howling Wilderness I believe if this comes to the hands of Sir Baynom Frogmorton and Sir Duncomb Colchester they will be on my side Moreover there is yet a most great benefit to the Kingdom in general by the Sow Iron made of the Iron Stone and Roman Cinders in the Forest of Dean for that Metal is of a most gentle pliable soft nature easily and quickly to be wrought into Manufacture over what any other Iron is and it is the best in the known World and the greatest part of this Sow Iron is sent up Severne to the Forges into
the ringing of the Bell and pointing the Rod at the Maid that hath spun off her Flax she hath another Distaff given her and her Spool of Thread taken from her and put into a Box unto others of the same size to make Cloth And observe what Advantages they make of suiting their Threads to make Cloth all being of equal Threads First They raise their Children as they spin finer to the higher Benches Secondly They sort and size all the Threads so that they can apply them to make equal Cloaths Whereas here in England one Woman or good Housewife hath it may be six or eight Spinners belonging to her and at some odd times she spins and also her Children and Servants and all this Thread shall go together some for Woof some for Warp to make a piece of Cloth And as the Linen is Manufactured in England at this day it cannot be otherwise And is it not a pity and shame that the young Children and Maids here in England should be idle within 〈◊〉 begging abâ—oâ—d tearing Hedges or robbing Orchards and worse when these and these alone are the people that may and must if ever set up this Trade of making fine Linen here And after a young Maid hath been three years in the spinning School that is taken in at six and then continues until nine years she will get eight pence the day And in these parts I speak of a man that has most Children lives best whereas here he that has most is poorest There the Children enrich the Father but here begger him Joining to this Spinning-School are three more Schools ordered as this spoken of is One is for Maids weaving Bone-lace another for Boys making Toys some cutting the Heads some the Bodies some the Legs the third is for Boys painting the Toys and slit Pictures I know these Questions will be put or asked First Where would you have this Trade settled in England Secondly How shall there be Flax provided for to manage this Trade And Thirdly Where shall be Stock at first and where can we have places to whiten I Answer Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford Shires are the places fit to set up this Manufacture because in these Countries there is at present no Staple Trade and the Land there for Flax is very good being rich and dry wherein Flax doth abundantly delight And I affirm that the Flax that grows in these parts shall do any thing that the German or any other Flax can do provided it be ordered accordingly As to the second and third as to Flax and Stock let each County begin with two thousand Pounds Stock apiece immediately to provide Houses as before set down and employ it as is directed And for places to Whiten near all the great Towns there are Brooks or Rivers where bleeching places may be made in the Lands adjoining as is in Southwark by help of the flowing of the Thames And for Men and Women to Govern the Trade I know in every Country there are Men sufficient to direct and order it I know it will be much inquired into by many why Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford-shires should be the places fixed on for the Linnen Manufacture before all other Counties in England I answer there are no Counties in England so capable of making the Commodity so good and so cheap as these First their Land is excellent good to produce Flax. Secondly they are inland Counties and have no staple Manufacture at present fixt with them whereby their poor are idle and want imployment Thirdly they are Counties the best furnished at all times with Corn and Flesh of any Counties in England and at cheapest Rates Fourthly they are in the heart of England and the Trade being once well setled in these Counties will influence their Neighbouring Counties in the same Manufacture in sending their Flax and threads with ease and cheapness down the Rivers Thames Avon Trent and St Eades all which Navigable Rivers come into these Counties And I affirm it is not possible to set up this Trade in any other part of England with success but in these places because in most part of England there are fixt Manufactures already that do in great measure set the poor at work In the West of England clothing of all sorts as in Glocester Worcester Shropshire Staffordshire and a small part of Warwickshire In Derby Nottingham and Yorkshire the Iron and Wollen Manufacture In Suffolk Norfolk and Essex the Wollen Manufacture In Kent Sussex and Surry some Cloth Iron and Materials for Shipping Then to Counties to raise provisions and to vend them at London to feed that great Mouth are Cambridge Huntington Buckingham Hartford Middlesex and Berks. And if you rightly weigh and consider how England is fixed in all parts as to the Growth Trade Manufacture and vending thereof there are no Counties in England that this desirable gainful improvement of the Linen Manufacture possibly can be managed in with the like success as in the forementioned Counties For as Common Honesty is necessary for Trade and without it Trade will decay so any Manufacture fixed in any place where it may be better accommodated thither it will go and so remove from the place where it was first set up and the discouragments it received there many times keep it from fixing any where else About seven or eight years since there was a Proposal of setting up the Linen Manufacture in and near Ipswich a Town of two hundred void houses to be had for little and near the Sea but I coming to that Town was prest hard to give my Opinion whether the Linen Trade might be there set up with success After I had rid about the Town as far as Cattaway Bridge and observed the Influence that the Colchester Trade had there as also the Stuff and Say Trade whereby the Poor were comfortably supplyed I then found it was impossible to go on with success and gave my reasons upon which all was laid aside and my reasons approved of I did also acquaint one of the Grandees of the Linen Trade at Clarken-well that that Trade would eat out its own Bowels Stock and Block would come to nothing And so it shall do in the Countries I name and in all other places in the World being a new Manufacture unless the Publick Authority take care and cherish it for at least seven years The way how I will set down when I have finished my Discourse of this and the Iron Manufacture for it is as fit to be done for the incouragement of the Iron Manufacture as for the Linen Manufacture And observe I pray you these Counties I now name for the Linen Manufacture employ more hands at work by their growth than any eight Counties of England do by the growth of theirs and all employed abroad in other Counties not in their own And the great cause of Strength and Riches to England are those great quantities of Wool which grow in their
great Pastures and are sent abroad into the West and other parts and there Manufactured where they keep at work infinite quantities of poor people as Spinners Carders Weavers Dressers Dyers Yet I have seen two pieces in Print each making great complaint that by the late Inclosures in these Counties a Dog and a Boy do manage as much Lands as formerly employed ten Teams and kept forty persons at work all the year Never considering that the Land inclosed is treble the benefit to the Owner after the Ministers and Poors part was thrown out over what it was before it was inclosed and that the product of the Wool proceeding from the same Land does set at work five times the number of people in other places of the Kingdom And so it will be with the Linen Manufactures if once well settled in these four Counties and incouraged by a Publick Law Then these Counties will be as Germany is to Holland and Flanders There the Flax will grow and be Manufactured easily and cheap part whitened there and the Thread and part of the Flax sent down the Navigable Rivers to the several Towns to be woven and spun And so there will be employ for the greatest part of the Poor of England And in such Towns where it meets with a settled voluntary Register thence never will it depart But I must now name you some Lands in these Counties very fit for Flax thereby to make you know the fitness of the rest with its quantities as also show you the quantities of Flax that may grow upon one Mannor in Warwickshire and the number of poor people it will employ by which Demonstrations you may judge what may be done in the four Counties named in this Design offered at For this twelve years last past I having my London Road through Warwickshire made my Observations of the Land there and the fitness of it to bear Flax but more particularly of the Mannor of Milcott being the Earl of Middlesex's near Stratford upon Avon Which Mannor is about three thousand Acres and to the value of three thousand pounds a year as I am informed The Land in this Mannor is sound rich dry and good and that is the true Land to bear Flax. And in this Mannor some years there are sown some hundred Acres of Flax But if the whole Mannor were sown with Flax it would employ nine thousand people in the Manufacturing thereof as to sowing weeding pulling watering dressing spinning winding weaving and whitening One part of which labour would be done upon and near the place the other would be done in remote parts the Flax and Thread being carried down the River Avon into Severne and so conveyed with ease to Bristol Wales and other parts to set the Poor at work which want employment and so the small Towns will set their Poor at work by the same Rule as they do in Germany and then there will need no Relief from the Parish for the Poor nor will there be any complaining in the Streets One Acre of Land will bear three hundred weight of Flax. This three hundred weight of Flax well drest and made fine will make four hundred Ells of Cloth worth three shillings the Ell which will be in value when it is manufactured threescore Pounds You must observe the finer the Thread is the less Flax goeth to make it and the more Cloth it will make And so there being the labour of three persons to manufacture the Flax that comes of this one Acre of Land this Mannor will employ nine thousand persons Now there are at least Ten thousand Acres of Land besides this very good for Flax in Warwickshire and no less quantity in any of the three other Counties every way as good Now Reader I pray Answer me whether here be not work sufficient upon the growth and product of our own Land nay in four Counties where no Manufacture is to set the greatest part of the Poor of England at work besides the great advantage it will bring to the Owners of the Lands and the great enriching of the Country by fixing so great a staple Trade there and bringing a multitude of People also which is and ever will be a great enrichment to the place where they are Witness the West of England by the Woollen Manufactures and Buringham Sturbridge Dudly Wassal and thereabout for the Iron Manufactures And I dare affirm take Dudly to be the Center of ten Miles round considering the badness of the Land it is there twice as dear as it is in the four Counties here named And within ten Miles round Dudly there are more people inhabiting and more Money returned in a year than is in these four rich fat Counties I mention And by this Manufacture we should prevent at least two Millions of Money a year from being sent out of the Land for Linen Cloth and keep our people at home who now go beyond the Seas for want of imployment here For where ever the Country is full of people they are rich and where thin there the place is poor and all Commodities cheap I could put something further into the Heads of the Gentlemen of these Counties wherein they may have much more added to this prescribed Linen Trade but then I fear their Neighbouring Gentlemen will fall at Difference why one should have so much benefit and the other so little as they did when I surveyed Trent for them in the year one thousand six hundred sixty five and a Tax shall be laid upon the Stock settled as they did upon mine and Partners as soon as I had made the River Avon Navigable and brought Barges to Stratford I know many will say This is a very good way to imploy the poor but what shall they do for Looms Slayes and Wheels for to spin and weave this Flax and how shall we make our Flax fine so that we may make fine Cloth and what shall we do for places to whiten it at for it is said that no place will do it well but at Haerlem in Holland and that is because of the water in the Mere joining unto the Town As to the first thou mayest have the Looms Wheels and Slayes at first out of Germany and from Haerlem Two Looms Two Wheels and ten Slayes will be sufficient to make others by and all these thou mayest have for twenty pounds As to the Second there is much in preparing and fitting of the Flax so as to make it run to a fine Thread This is the way they do it in Germany and thou mayest write by their Copy Thou must twice a year beat thy Flax well and dress it well and take out of it all the filth and so for as long as thou hast it in thy possession if it be ten years and the longer thou keepest it the finer it will be for beating and often dressing will cause the Harle to open and at last it will be strangely fine There must also be a Stove in