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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33258	A treatise of wool and the manufacture of it in a letter to a friend, occasion'd upon a discourse concerning the great abatements of rents and low value of lands ... : together with the presentment of the grand jury of the county of Somerset at the general quarter sessions begun at Brewton the thirteenth day of January, 1684.; Treatise of wool and cattel	Clarke, George, fl. 1677-1685.	1685 (1685)	Wing C4445_VARIANT; ESTC R10931	17,816	31

not then in most parts of the Kingdom yield the one half especially the Pasture and Meadow Grounds For it is not the having all things of our own growth on the one hand and the saving of our Money on the other can make us Rich neither can our Increase and Plenty in some sence be said to be our Wealth if we have not a suitable Vend and Consumption thereof Besides Nature hath otherwise provided and so furnish'd each particular part of the World with something which the rest want whereby to preserve a Friendship and Commerce together Sir I have hinted at this that the following Discourse might meet with the less Prejudice when the Design of it shall appear that it is not for the prohibiting any Foreign Commodity or for the engrossing all within our own growth but that which we call our own growth and Manufacture may be spent if not by others abroad yet among our selves at home And this I think is so reasonable that no Nation in the World but will allow us that Liberty Let us now proceed to that which is intended in this following Discourse and in the first place to shew how much our Estates and Rents are fallen from their former Value within these few years and what may probably be the Causes thereof with some ways and means that may be conceived necessary to restore them to that value and esteem again First then that our Rents are abated and that the Value of our Lands are fallen most mens particular experience will justifie me in the truth hereof For from twenty years purchase the usual rate not many years since they are now sunk to eighteen at the highest and in some places sixteen or seventeen years purchase is the selling rate and these very same Estates at a low under value so that if we sum up what an hundred pounds a year the Rent well paid was worth thirty or forty years since in the beginning of the late Rebellious Wars we shall find that the real value of our Estates are a third part less than they were then and but two parts of three of what Money they would have yielded then can now be raised where any man hath occasion to sell For Example Let an hundred pound a year be the standard the just value then that this hundred pound a year would have yielded at twenty years purchase is two thousand pound Now there is twenty pound a year with the least and in many places thirty pound a year Abatement in Rent out of this hundred We will touch the Sore as easie as possible and allow but twenty per Annum abatement in Rent so there remains but eighty pound which at eighteen years purchase comes to 1440 pound so that at this rate here is near a third part lost of the real Value what the Lands and Estates of the Kingdom were formerly worth And this we may believe that that Parliament about seven years since were very sensible of Witness their many Debates in their several Sessions about raising Money for his Majesties supplies and the great care the Houses then took in all those Debates that none of those Supplies should be provided for by a Land Tax whilst there could any other way possibly be found out or thought upon and those small helps as the Excise on the Law c. which were so long a raising but a very inconsiderable Sum at last cannot be look'd upon to stand the King and Kingdom in any stead should there be any extraordinary occasion for Money If we should expect any supply from the Merchant and from Trade they will tell you that there is as much Custome and Excise laid upon all sorts of Commodities as the Trade is able to bear This shall be the general Answer of the whole Body of Merchants and the Whole-sale-dealers throughout the Kingdom especially in London so that little help is to be expected from them Have we not reason then to endeavour the Restoring our Lands and Rents to their former value and esteem when we have hardly any other way left for the Preservation of our Lives Estates yea and our Trade too for should there be any extraordinary Occasion for a speedy supply of Money when all Heads and Wits are puzl'd which way to raise it there can be no speedier way possibly found out then by a Land Tax or Subsidy which is much the same provided our Lands and Rents may be raised to their former value and esteem This being then the true state of the Case and the Condition we are fallen into since the beginning of the late Wars let us now proceed to examine the Causes of this great Mischief to make way for remedying the same and these may be sum'd up into these two grand ones to wit Our Wool and Cattel the latter of which was endeavour'd to be provided for by that Irish Act which utterly prohibited the bringing in of any sort of Cattel out of Ireland into this Kingdom upon forfeiture thereof when there was the same Reason at the very same time against the Importation of their Wool to wit to prevent the beating down the Rents of that part of the Kingdom which depended most upon breeding Let us now proceed and enquire into the Reasons of the low Rates and Prices of our Wool and we shall find that we may bring them under these few chief Heads First then The great quantity of Spanish Wool sold here at very low Rates and that made into Cloth and the most part of it to our shame worn by our Selves is a very great Cause of the Abatement and low Price of ours Secondly The not wearing and other ways using the Cloth made of our own Wool both by our selves at Home and by our People in our several Plantations abroad may be look'd upon as another Cause of the great Abatement of the Price of Wool Thirdly The decaying Condition of the Merchant-Adventurers and Hamborough Company who did formerly send away so many of our English Cloths into Germany and all those Eastern Parts of Europe more than now they do may be reckon'd another Cause of the low Price of Wool Fourthly The not making our Cloth of that Size and Substance as it ought to be as by several Statutes to that purpose it may appear and for which the Alnage Office was at first Establish'd And Lastly The great Abuses and Cheats of late years put upon our Clothiers by the Brokers and Factors at Blackwell-Hall to the breaking and undoing of many of our young Clothiers especially if their stocks be small These may be accounted some of the chief Causes of the great Abatement and low Price of our Wool We will Examine them in their Order And first concerning the Spanish Wool If we look no farther back than 1660 the Year of his Majesties happy Restauration We shall find that the Superfine Spanish Wool as they term it was sold for four shillings and four shillings and four pence the

should find some alteration in the price of it in few years and I doubt not but our Clothiers could pick out enough of the finest sort of it to make Cloth very little inferiour to the Spanish And it is easie to be made appear that we spend as much Spanish Cloth in our own Kingdoms and Plantations belonging to the Crown of England and a great part of that too not manufactur'd by our own People as Dutch black as is worn in all the Kingdoms of the World besides and more So that if any shall object against the laying a Duty upon the Spanish Wool I hope they will give us leave to enjoyn our own People to wear no Cloth but what is manufactured by our selves and made of our own Wool and if this Consumption of our Cloth at home be added but to that Trade we have yet left abroad for it we should soon find an Increase in the price of our Wool And I know no reason why any should be offended with us for endeavouring our own Interest and Advantage the general design of all Nations neither can this spending of our own Cloth among our selves hinder any thing of our Trade abroad And that this may appear to be no new or upstart Project the Statutes of 2 Edward the 3. Cap. 1 2 3. may sufficiently satisfie us in which Kings Reign it was that the Manufacture of our Wool began to be our National Employment For among all our Staple Commodities Wool had at that time the Precedency as being the most principal and ancient Commodity of the Kingdom wherein the generality of the People were deeply concern'd and the Manufacture of it though of long use among our selves yet it received but little Encouragement for a Trade into Foreign Parts till these times the Flemmings having the principal Manufacture then by the continual supply of Wool that they received from hence But the Wisdom of this great Prince soon discern'd of what unspeakable value the Manufacture of our own Wool would be to the Trade of this Kingdom who like a provident and careful Father look'd farther than his present time and who beingwell acquainted with the Flemmings Affairs by a joynt Engagement with them in the War with France had therein gain'd so good an Opinion amongst them that he might adventure to change a Complement for a Courtesie the Staples where our Wool was sold being now taken clean away and by the Statute of 2. Edw. 3. Cap. 1. made Felony to carry any Wool out of the Realm He now prosecutes his Design for the setling of the Manufacture at home and represents to those Flemmings the Danger they were in by the bordering Wars with France and the peacable Condition of England and freedom of the People that are Subjects here Propounds an Invitation for them to come over hither wherein he promises them the same Priviledges and Immunities with his own Subjects which they accepted and came over and brought their Manufacture with them which could never after be removed hence So as now the Manufacture and our Wool were joyned together and so long as they agree together both will thrive but if they once part as the Spanish Wool at this time puts fair at it they will both be losers in the Conclusion The Manufacture of our Wool being brought to this Settlement at home this Heroick King Edward the Third makes this other Statue in the same 11th year of his Reign That no Merchant Foreign or Denizon nor any other after the Feast of St. Michael shall cause to be brought privately or apertly by himself nor by any other into the said Lands of England Ireland Wales and Scotland within the Kings Power any Cloths made in any other Places than in the same upon forfeiture of the said Cloth and further to be punished at the Kings Will as is aforesaid But because this Nation formerly had been and still is too much wedded to the wearing of Foreign Manufactures the importing of which did hinder the using of our own home-made Manufactures for too much of them make our own a Drug our Nation Poor and our People to want Work As a Cure for this Disease our own English Cloth is enjoyn'd by a Law to be worn by all Persons under the Degree of a Lord and then the Wisdom of the times thought fit to provide for the true and perfect making of Cloth several Statutes were made in this Kings time Richard the Second and were also confirm'd by Queen Elizabeth and King James but especially in the fifth year of Edward the 6th Cap. 6. For the Length Bredth Weight and Goodness of all sorts of Cloth with several Proviso's to prevent Frauds and Abuses both in the making and selling thereof such care our Ancestors have had in all former and latter Ages for the improvement of this our Woollen Manufacture by which we may plainly see of what absolute Necessity it is to be encouraged and advanced Shall it now by us after so much Care and Industry used by them to settle and bring it to our Doors and into our very Houses be neglected and scarce thought worth the Entertainment for fear of I know not what Jealousies of disobliging some Foreign Nation by putting a Duty on their Wool Shall their Wisdom and Prudence that judg'd this Manufacture and Trade for it the great Support and and Glory of our Nation be call'd in question by our carelesness and shall we suffer our selves to be thus cheated of it when we are as well able to maintain and defend it as they and by Exprience find that it is our chiefest if not only Manufacture and Support of the Strength Honour and Wealth of our English Nation For which way can we continue a Trade long that have no Money of our own growth but only what is brought unto us for Commodities and if we can find nothing of our own to barter and exchange for we must in short time sink our trade abroad if we intend to keep our Money at home our Staple Commodities must therefore of Necessity be advanc'd and encourag'd to enable us by the return thereof to hold a Commerce with those Parts of the World that must supply us for if Trade be maintained barely out of the main Stock the Kingdom in time must needs be decay'd and so brought to Penury it being our Magazin A third Cause of the great Abatement and low Price of our Wool may be this viz. The decaying Condition of the Merchant-Adventure and Hamborough Company within these few years a Company that vended many thousands of our English Cloths yearly for after that our Staples for Wool were taken away and the Manufacture of our Cloth setled among us this Company also had their Motion from Flanders through Holland untill at last it came to be fixed for the conveniency of those Eastern Countries at Hamborough And it would not be needless if the discreetest of them were advised with to know the Reasons they can

give of this loss or decay at least of their Trade in Germany and all those adjoyning Kingdoms For a Trade of so large extent and vast covernment to us ought not thus easily to be parted with And there may possibly upon such an enquiry something appear that a great cause of this decay of that Trade proceeds from our selves which if so there may then be some way found out to recover that Ancient Company of the Merchant-Adventurers their Trade Credit and Esteem again the only Company that transported most part of our English Cloth And we may more then probably guess that the two following and remaining Causes of the low Price of our Wool which I propos'd to wit the not making of our Cloth of that size and substance as it ought to be and as it was order'd in former times to be made as by the several Statutes before recited may appear and the Cheats and Abuses of the Brokers and Factors at Blackwell-hall a sort of People never heard of there before the beginning of the late Rebellion and in those times there setled that their Masters who first granted them their Charter and made them a Corporation might have the more time and leisure to attend their other Imployments of more weightier and publick Concernment might be a great means to help ruin this our Trade But for the regulating a Business of so great a concern I shall not presume to propose the Method there will be Application sufficient from all parts of the Kingdom were there a Committee appointed purposely for this Business whereby we might have some Hopes and Encouragement that our English Cloth may be a Commodity again And upon their Arraignment there will be Bills plenty enough brought in for their Conviction For from Men not worth much when the device began they are now many of them worth 5 and 10000 l. and some of them 40 and 50000 l. a Man while many of the lower Rank of our Clothiers daily break and run away those men by their Wiles and Tricks creeping into their Estates for they have brought the Trade to that pass there shall not now be a Cloth sold in a Market-day at Blackwell-hall by many of our Clothiers if these men have not the selling of it and it would grieve a mans Heart to see how harmlesly the poor Clothier waits at the heels of his Factor all the day long whither he pleases to lead him and when he puts into a Drapers Shop he hears of nothing but of bad Trading uncomfortable News and no Mony stirring for they are both agreed to send the poor man out of Town without selling a Cloth himself neither shall he perhaps hear in a long time what is become of his Cloth whether sold or not untill it be for the Factor's Convenience to give him an account or untill a Draper or a Cloth-Merchant or two break and then 't is ten to one but he may have an account that some of his Cloth is gon that way So that as the Manufacture of our Cloth is now managed wholly by private Interests and Designs were our Trade abroad for it never so good it is not probable lying in such hands it should ever be restored to its ancient Credit and Esteem It therefore begs and that earnestly if we value the Strength Honour and Wealth of our Nation that we should use our utmost Endeavour to advance it to its just Worth and Reputation again by freeing it from this great Monopoly and to set it at that Liberty that the laborious and careful Clothier who not only spends his time but hazards his Stock and that small Fortune he began with for his own Maintenance and those many he doth imploy in his Trade may have so much Favour as to sell his own Cloth himself that what honest Profit can be made thereof he who only deserves and takes pains for it may receive it to the Encouragement of that Manufacture which must help the Price of our Wool which must help the Advancement of our Rents c. And not the lazy Factor whose only Labour is between Blackwell-hall and his Counting-house and who suck the Gains from the honest Clothier through the very Heart of himself his Family and all the Poor therein imploy'd and thereby ruines our Trade the great cause of the Abatement of Rents and the Improverishment of our Kingdom And as these Factors are the greatest Enemies to this Trade in general that either Malice or Envy could possibly set up so if they be but narrowly look'd into they will appear for the most and Richest part of them as to their Principals to the present Government the same with those who first brought them thither and who by the Influence they have upon the Buyers and the Command they have upon the Clothiers are able to draw more People into Faction and Rebellion than any other sort of men in the Kingdom besides There would such another Generation of Men be brought to the Bar from Smith-field too who put as great Injuries and Abuses upon our young Grasiers especially by buying and selling of Cattel there and yet Butchers by their Trade who can either dull or raise the Markets at their Pleasure so that we may see into what hands the two great Commodities of our Kingdom of late years are got but this latter only by the by We will go on with our Woollen Manufacture which being once more retriev'd let the Alnage-Office have a whet and be strictly look into that they should not only receive their Fees but perform their Duty that we may rightly know how far short our English Cloth will come to the Spanish when well and truly made that by this means we may recover it that Credit and Esteem it once had both at home and abroad For methinks we are all asleep we see a Trade snatch'd from us to our Ruine and yet seem to be unconcern'd Nay which is worse we help forward with it our selves and though we are taken notice of sufficiently and jeer'd for the French Apes an English man pictur'd with a piece of Cloth under his Arm to chuse his Fashion yet I thought it had been always understood to be Cloth made of his own Wool Having now given some particulars that may be great causes of the low Price of our Wool with some ways and means for the restoring of it to its former value and use again which each particular carries along with it I shall wind up all with that Act of Parliament made some years since for the burying in Woollen and he that will but read that Act may very well satisfie himself that the Parliament were sufficiently sensible of the great loss we were like to be at if some way or other were not found out to consume our Wool and certainly they were worthy Patriots for their Country that first moved for and afterwards pursu'd it to an Act however it hath not been received or obeyed as it worthily