sell seeing that those nations doe bring their owne Commodities vnto our merchants to the places by them appointed which is in effect as much as VVill you buy And would not this be VVil you buy if in a dispersed and stragling manner our cloth were caried to al markets be yond the seas in seuerall places which would take away the desire of buying for he that buyeth doth it in hope of sale with a gain to the places where he intendeth to carrie the Commoditie Which Commoditie if hee knoweth to be extant in most places to be vented will quench his desire of buying and he that commeth to barter other Commodities for ours hath also the like cōsideration But let vs admit that our cloth would be aduanced in price when men shold by multitudes runne to the markets or into the countrey in all places to buy it what would be the euent of it It would not onely be sold beyond the seas with a smaller gaine and many times to losse wee being naturally inclined to make speedie returnes but we should also pay dearer for the forraine Commodities which we should obtaine by way of permutation or for the billes obligatorie of the Merchants to whom we should sell our cloth And if our merchants were cut off and that other nations should buy the cloth within the realme and so aduaunce the price therof as it hapneth most commonly in Fraunce and Spaine at the vintage time with their wines and raisins then forraine Commodities would be sold dearer vnto vs by them againe For the small gaine had vpon our home Commodities causeth vs and would cause them to seeke a better gaine vpon the forraine Commodities to the generall hurt of the realme and to the exhausting of our monies which to ballance the matter must supply the same So that the enhauncing of the price of cloth in this manner would be but an imaginarie gaine and bring in the end an exceeding losse to the generall Commonwealth whose welfare is to be preferred before any particular Cōmodity of any member therof And it were to be wished that labourers and workmens wages were augmented although our cloth should cost so much the dearer as we haue noted elsewhere and that with great regard the poore people were set on worke and by way of corporation their handiworke were vented which without incurring the compasse of Monopolie is very commendable in all Commonwealths and vsed in many countries Lastly that the Statutes concerning the maintenance of nauigation were duly executed The third cause saith Maister Bodine is the want of things proceeding of the excessiue trade of things or by the wast thereof Touching the trade of any particular Commodities of the realme we may well passe ouer as he doth and make onely our stay with the trade for corne Which if it were guided with that due consideration both for preseruation and transportation as is requisite would make plain the Prouerbe Fraunce cannot be famished to be more incident and proper to the realme of England then to the realme of Fraunce because that proportionably we haue more fertile ground for corne and that in all places of the kingdome then Fraunce hath but in some places For those countries where the vines do grow are vnapt for corne and must haue their prouision from the countries adiacent and many times out of England when our corne is thither transported being with vs too good cheap in regard of their wines and other Commodities The cōparison wherof being made and the goodnesse of our corne regarded will make manifest that to sell our wheate for thirtie shillings the quarter and other grains after the rate is good cheape and that the Prince notwithstanding may impose a great custome or licence for the transportation therof which transportation might be done moderately and according to the quantitie extant and for so much therof as might conueniently be spared if the Magistrate and those that are in authoritie had the rule of the market in such sort as the Venetians haue who by the means of the Iustices of euery prouince do know little more or lesse the quantity of corne in all places whereupon certaine substantiall men are appointed from time to time to haue a consideration of the quantitie or scarcitie therof which quantitie being known and in what places may be a direction to those that are in authoritie to consider what the realme may spare hauing a regard to the season of the yeare and making the price accordingly And when the price of corne is limited and made knowne in writing in certaine publike places on euery Monday of the weeke all ingrossers forestallers or others that buy corne to sell againe are preuented because that the price thereof is not in their owne power but by the direction of those honest men rated at all times according to the quantitie and as the haruest is distant or at hand which is so notified vnto all men as aforesaid Whereby the execution of the law for the making of the loues of bread is duly obserued without any trouble vnto the magistrate For the baker knoweth how to make his loues and of what waight deliuering the same according to the true waight by those men appointed vnto any man that doth call for it which the poore doth so well obserue for that his indigence giueth him cause that without troubling any officer he is sure to haue his penni-worth and if he shold find it wanting of his waight presently with the assistance of an Officer as it were the Constable he doth seaze vpon all the bakers bread then extant and taketh the one moitie for him and the other for the poore of the Hospitals And who would buy corne to sell againe being debarred not to sell at his pleasure or with gain and vncertaine what the price will be made by others And what baker is he that would make his loaues of a lesser waight when he must sell them by waight as aforesaid By these meanes is corne brought to the market and none may be sold but in the market and the Clerke of the market taketh notice therof and what is by licence transported is done vpon due knowledge and without defrauding the Prince of his custome To haue many store-houses in seuerall places of the realme in the principall townes is most conuenient for the preseruation of corn which when need requireth may be prouided from forrain countries when the vnseasonable times cause vs to haue scarcitie or want therof notwithstanding all the industrie and care of man Concerning the immoderate vse of forraine Commodities in wearing and wasting by cutting and putting into seuerall strange new fangled fashions we doe referre the examination thereof vnto those that haue authority to reprehend men of their actions wishing reformation where things are amisse And albeit that gay and sumptuous apparell is a demonstration of pride yet a country clowne may be as proude in a frize coat as a gentleman in a veluet
the realme being conuerted into money as well as he had lost his money before that time M. Bodine doth shew by diuers exāples that there was not so much siluer gold in times past 300 yeares ago as there is now he might wel haue said in 100 yeares and lesse howbeit this generall examination is to smal purpose For euery Cōmonwealth is to make a particular examinatiō whether they do proportionably participate of the general abundance or plentie of gold and siluer found now adaies and not by cōparing the same vnto the quantitie of times past for so should they be deceiued And we neede not to proue that there is now more gold and siluer then in times past for it is cleare in euery mans iudgement And euen of very late yeares we find recorded in our Chronicles of England that during the gouernment of the most victorious king Henry the eight in the 14 yeare of his raigne in a Parliament then holden the whole substance of London was not taken to be worth 20 hundred thousand pounds this citie being the head of the realm where the wealth is heaped vp as the corne of a field into a barne And in the yeare following vpon the demaund of a subsidie of foure shillings of the pound it was proued that the same demaund amounting to 800 thousand pounds was more then all the readie money and plate of the realm came vnto which was out of the kings hands and yet did amount but to about one hundred marke a parish not reckoning so many parishes as Machiauell hath done but only about 12 thousand in the whole realme the spatious countrie of Fraunce containing but 27400 parishes Which readie money and plate of the realme would be now adaies found farre differing and much more and yet not proportionable to the abundance of gold and siluer found in other countries and as we may see that Maister Bodine hath noted of the city of Paris and of the many millions which haue come from the West Indies whereby the realme should be stored with sufficient treasure and wealth For as he called their salt to be a Manna so may we call our cloth lead tinne which be our staple Commodities most necessarie for the behoofe of man And therefore ought this with vs to be the first cause of the increase of the wealth of the realme the rather for that in the second cause which Maister Bodine noteth to be The increase of people we are not proportionably inferiour vnto them as we may iudge by diuerse causes namely First for the mariage of the Cleargie Secondly by the people driuen into the realme for Religion by the wars of other countries Thirdly the seldome plague or mortalitie Fourthly the seldome famine Fiftly the small warres of countries adiacent or forraine warres hauing had no ciuill wars at home And sixtly the vntimely mariages of both men and women now adaies Whereby Colonies might be spared for the inhabiting of other dominions as heretofore was once taken in hand The third cause concerning the trade for Turkie and Barbarie is not onely common with vs for those countries but also with diuers other countries where the French men haue no trade at all And as for their Bankes of money they would rather be preiudicial and impouerish the realme as they are vsed then do any good as is sufficiently declared in our Treatise of Exchanges which other nations will find in time and most especially Princes that haue occasion to vse them and might well auoid them if a due care were had for the accumulating of a standing and yet a running treasure within such bounds as would stil ebbe and flow for the good of Princes and their Commonwealth Concerning Monopolies it is strange that Maister Bodine doth with such breuitie passe ouer thē shewing onely what he meaneth thereby according to the Etimologie true sense and definition of the word when merchants artificers or labourers do assemble themselues to set a price vpon Commodities which one man alone may also count when he buyeth vp all that is to be had of one kind of merchandize to the end he alone may sell the same at his pleasure The engrossing forestalling or incorporating of any Commodities or victuals is intollerable in any Common-wealth vnlesse that the trade of those Cōmodities would decay if a kind of incorporation were not vsed For whē the cōmon-people do buy generally things deare they can generally also sel their Cōmodities dere accordingly but when some particular things are deare they cannot do so Now as the effects of al Monopolies is to make the price of Cōmodities dere so must the price of things in this regard be considered betweene our home Cōmodities the price of forrain which if we will but examine within the cōpasse of 50 years that our monies haue bene without alteration as is before expressed we shall easily procure the great error or malice of those that do accuse the cōpanie of Merchants aduenturers to be a Monopoly which false imputation may be reproued by by this only that all forrain Cōmodities are dearer then our home Commodities which are not risen in price accordingly yet of late years are for the most part amended in the making the other impaired and one sort of cloth is sold at one time beyond the seas by 2 3 4 or more pounds differing in a packe one from another neither haue the merchants aduenturers the trade of cloth onely in their own hands For diuers other cōpanies of merchants are priuiledged and do transport great quantitie of clothes into forraine parts as well as they and it is free for all straungers that are in league with her Maiestie to buy cloth to transport the same at their pleasure Which reasons do concerne the effects of Monopolie Whereas for the manner of their trafficke whereby euery man tradeth particularly and apart with his owne stocke selleth by his own factor or seruant with diuers other reasons we will referre our selues to that which their Secretarie hath written of late in defence of their good orders and constitutions Concluding that as their trade is the most important and as in all traffickes the vniuersall doth gouerne the particular so the dissolution of that societie would be the vndoing of al the trade and bring a great confusion to the Realme For albeit that some would haue other nations to come and buy the cōmodities of vs within the realm for say they there is according to the Prouerbe twenty in the hundred difference betweene VVill you buy and will you sell these men haue no consideration for the maintenance of nauigatiō which is the greatest strength of the realme whose defence next vnder God consisteth most in ships and well experienced mariners that most carefully are to be prouided for Whereas also the transporting of our cloth to certaine places doth cause other nations to resort thither to buy them which may be more properly called to be VVill you
ENGLANDS VIEVV IN THE VNMASKING OF TWO PARADOXES With a replication vnto the answer of Maister Iohn Bodine By Gerrard de Malynes Merchant Opposita iuxta se posita magis apparent ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed by Richard Field 1603. To the right honourable Sir Thomas Sackuile Baron of Buckhurst Lord high Treasurer of England Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and one of the Lords of her Maiesties most honorable priuie Councell G. de M. wisheth all health increase of honour and euerlasting happinesse THESE two Paradoxes right honourable hauing bene presented vnto the French King as a meane to qualifie the generall complaints of the dearth of things in France by prouing that nothing was growne dearer in three hundred yeares were answered by the famous M. Iohn Bodine who dedicated his aunswer vnto the President of the high court of Parliament of Fraunce as a matter of great consequence and considerable in the gouernment of a Common-wealth Hence proceeded that resolution which emboldened me to present vnto your Lordship the substance of both their writings with all their arguments and propounded remedies to the end that in the ballance of your graue wisdome they may be weighed with my Replication thereunto shewing how things are to be considered of for the good of a Common-wealth Your Honors iudgement shall easily perceiue that the Paradoxes are opposite and do contradict one another besides the slender and weake ground of their foundation as also that Maister Bodine hath mistaken the true ground of the matter by comparing the prices of things within themselues in a Common-wealth whereas the comparison must be betweene the home Commodities of one Common-wealth and the forraine Commodities of other nations and that either by way of permutation of Commodities for Commodities or by Commodities for money in specie or by exchange So that a due consideration must be had of the course of Commodities Money and Exchange which are the essentiall parts of all trade and trafficke Wherein must be considered the end of all Merchants which is Gaine and profite at which scope they ayme according to their profession and practise some by Commodities some by Money some by Exchange some by all three or that which yeeldeth them most gaine For as money doth rule the course of Commodities so the exchange for monies doth both rule the course of moneys and Commodities By the disorder wherof it happeneth that the riches of a Common-wealth doth so much decrease as it is not alwayes in the power of the wise that haue the managing of the gouernement thereof to make choice of the best and to banish the worst but must not only obey the tempest and strike sailes but also cast ouer boord some precious things to saue the ship and bring it into a safe port and afterwards by degrees ouercome greater things changing the estate thereof from euill to good and from good to better which otherwise might haue bene preuented in the beginning by remouing the causes thereof To your most honorable iudgement I referre the consideration of all and pray the Almightie to haue your Honor in his diuine protection And so in all humility I take leaue London this 16. of Ianuarie 1603. Your Lordships most humble and in all dutie bounden GERRARD DE MALYNES Englands view A SENTENCE alleaged without application to some purpose is to handle a matter without conclusion and he that will attribute vnto any man the knowledge of the essentiall parts grounds or pillars of any science must make apparant proof therof otherwise his assertion is like cloudes and winds without raine or like an arrow shot at randon Quòd oportet patrem-familias vendacem esse non emacem is a worthie sentence to be duly executed of al good housholders or fathers of families especially of Princes that are the fathers of the great families of Common-weales who as Iustinian saith are to prouide carefully for the two seasons namely the time of warre when armes are necessarie and the time of peace more fitting wholesome lawes in both which it cannot properly be said that the office of a Prince is wholy employed about the gouernment of the persons of men and of things conuenient and fit for the maintenance of humane societie according to the definition of the heathens but rather in the obseruation of Religion towards God and administration of Iustice towards man the one teaching vs especially of the life to come the other how we should liue in this life Religion doth knit and vnite the spirits of men wherby they liue obediently in vnitie peace and concord and Iustice is as a measure ordained by God amongst men to defend the feeble from the mightie Hence proceedeth that the causes of seditions and ciuill warres is the deniall of iustice oppression of the common-people inequall distribution of rewards and punishments the exceeding riches of a small number the extreame pouertie of many the ouer-great idlenesse of the subiect and the not punishing of offenders which bringeth destructiō of Common-weales Religion doth teach the feare of God which maketh a good man and is indeed the beginning of a Prince For sith Princes raigne by wisedome and that the feare of God is the beginning thereof we must conclude that it is the beginning also of a vertuous and wise Prince Now as Princes raigne by God so must they be directed by him yea they raigne best and longest that serue him best and most Serue him they cannot but according to his will and his will is not known but by his word and lawe which made the Prophet Dauid to meditate therein day and night preferring the cause of faith or religion before temporall commoditie And this is properly the first and chiefest point that the Prince is to regard whereunto the other is annexed and doth depend vpon For as iustice is administred and prescribed by lawes and customs so reason requireth that this gradation should be obserued concerning all lawes that euen as the wils contracts or testaments of particular men cannot derogate the ordinances of the Magistrates and the order of the Magistrates cannot abolish customs nor the customes can abridge the generall lawes of an absolute Prince no more can the lawes of Princes alter or chaunge the lawe of God and Nature By iustice properly called Distributiue is the harmonie of the members of a Common-weale maintained in good concord howbeit much hindred where vsurie is tollerated which giueth cause of discord some few waxing thereby too rich and many extreame poore the operations of effects whereof are declared by me vnder certaine Similies or Metaphors in the Treatise of Saint George for England By iustice properly called Commutatiue is the cōmerce and trafficke with other nations maintained obseruing a kind of equalitie which is requisite in euery well gouerned Cōmon-wealth where prouidence and pollicie cause the Prince the Father of the great familie to sell more then he buyeth or else the wealth and treasure of his realme
doth decrease and it were his expences do become greater or surmount his incomes and reuenues This kind of equalitie is interrupted and ouerthrowne by the merchandizing exchange as in the Treatise of The Canker of Englands Common-wealth is declared For as all the trade and trafficke betweene vs and other nations is performed by three simples namely Commodities Money and Exchange so as we haue proued is the course of exchaunge being abused become predominant and ouerruling the course of money and Commodities whereby the wealth of the Realme doth decrease And this wealth cannot properly increase but two manner of wayes namely by bringing of money and bullion into the Realme or any other things which are not bought for our money or bartered by way of permutation for our Commodities and by buying the forraine Commodities better cheape then we sell our home Commodities And so may the father of the great familie become a seller and not a buyer as is before alleaged We haue hertofore noted the propertie of money to be That plentie of mony maketh generally things deare and scarcitie of money maketh likewise generally things good cheape whereas things are also particularly deare or good cheape according to the plentie or scarcitie of the things themselues or the vse of them According to which plentie or scarcitie of money aforesaid things generally became deare or cheape whereunto the great store or abundance of mony and bullion which of late yeares is come from the West Indies into Europe hath made euery thing dearer according to the increase of money which like vnto an Ocean deuiding her course into seuerall braunches in diuerse countries hath caused a great alteration and enhancing of the price of euery thing and most especially because the money it selfe was altered in valuation in most countries So that the measure being altered and made lesser by denomination there went more number to make vp the tale and of necessitie other things went and were named accordingly in price For money must alwayes remaine to be the rule and square to set a price vnto euery thing and is therefore called Publica mensura the publike measure whereby the price of all things is set to maintaine a certaine equalitie in buying and selling to the end that all things may equally passe by trade from one man to another This money must haue his standing valuation onely by publike authoritie of the Prince to whom properly belongeth the disposing thereof as a matter annexed to his Crown and dignitie And as the money doth set a price to the naturall riches of lands so doth it also set a price to the artificiall riches proceeding of the lands And therfore reason requireth a certaine equalitie betweene the naturall riches and the artificiall riches That plentie of money maketh things deare is found by daily experience whether it be in bullion of gold and siluer or the same conuerted into mony But so long as it is in bullion it remaineth in nature of Commoditie which is giuen by way of permutation or barter in exchange for other Commodities Plentie or scarcitie of Commodities doth also alter the price of the things wanting or abounding according to the vse thereof which is grounded vpon estimation by consent after the pleasure and sensualitie of man The Historie of the West Indies maketh mention that during the great quantitie or abundance of gold and siluer that was found about fourscore yeares past and the rarenesse of other things a cloake of cloth was sold in Peru for a thousand duckets a paire of breeches of cloth for three hundred duckets a good horse foure or fiue thousand duckets and other things then in vse and rare accordingly The Romaines after the conquest of the Persians brought such abundance of gold and siluer to Rome that the price of lands did rise aboue two thirds And on the contrarie concerning scarcitie of money Grafton in his Chronicle of England hath recorded that king Edward the third hauing great warres with Fraunce and Scotland and incorporating the money into his handes for the maintenance thereof caused through the lacke of money the price of Commodities so to fall that a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings a fat oxe for a noble a sheepe for sixe pence and other things after the rate The consideration of the premises maketh the two Paradoxes of Maister Malestroit one of the Officers of the French kings Exchequer to be most Paradoxicall that is to say farre differing from the vulgar opinion which Paradoxes vpon complaint of the people of the dearth of things in Fraunce he presented vnto the king thereby to qualifie the cause of their complaint The substance whereof I haue thought most expedient to set downe and the aunswer also which Maister Iohn Bodine the greatest Polititian or Common-wealths man of Fraunce hath made thereunto together with my explication thereof and Replication to his answer whereby the truth wil appeare and how things are to be considered of for the good of the Common-weale The first Paradox To complaine of the generall dearth of al things in Fraunce is without cause seeing that there is nothing growne dearer these three hundred yeares The second Paradox There is much to be lost vpon a Crowne or any other mony of gold and siluer albeit one do giue the same in payment at the price he did receiue the same Since that the auncient Permutation saith he hath bene chaunged in buying and selling and that the first riches of men which did consist of cattel was transferred to the gold and siluer whereby all things haue receiued their estimation and haue bene praised and sold for it followeth that those mettals are the right iudges of the good cheap or dearth of al things We cannot say that any thing is now dearer then it was three hundred yeares ago vnlesse that for the buying thereof we must now giue more gold or siluer then we did then But for the buying of al things we do not giue now more gold or siluer then we did then saith he Therefore since that time nothing is growne dearer in Fraunce To proue this he doth alleadge that during the raigne of king Philip de Valois in the yere 1328. the French Crowne of the Flower-de-luce as good in waight and finenesse as the French Crowne of the Sunne now was then worth but twentie sols tournois which for the better vnderstanding being valued according to the common computation of ten sols for a shilling starling is two shillings In those dayes saith he the French elle or yard of veluet was woorth foure liuers which is foure crowns or 8 shillings starling the said yard of veluet doth now cost ten liuers or twentie shillings and the French crowne which was then valued at two shillings is now valued at fiftie sols or fiue shillings So that foure crownes do make the said 20 shillings yet the said french crownes do containe no more in gold in weight or in finenesse then before wherby there
and siluer of late yeares then is it most requisite for me to procure to participate of that abundance as much as lieth in my power and to accumulate treasure for me and my subiects by importation of gold and siluer and preuention of the transportation of any the rather that the course of commodities in particular hath this property that as by the excessiue exportation of some things the like things do grow deare so by the ouerabundant importation of other commodities things do become better cheape Another remedy against the dearth of things especially victuals is to restore the vse of fish to the ancient credit and estimation and hereupon he taketh occasion to commend our custome of England for obseruing fish-dayes in the weeke And for effecting of the like in Fraunce he propoundeth the example of the Prince and magistrate whom the people will imitate We may wish that both the one and the other were duly executed or obserued whereby fishing would be better maintained and most especially the nauigation and flesh would in some seasons of the yeare be vsed more commodiously and better for the health of man The great number of all sorts and kinds of fish according to the obseruation of the Romaines noted by maister Bodine ought to moue vs thereunto fish being so pure a creature that were it not that we see the same subiect vnto diseases it wold be very doubtfull whether the same amongst other creatures was cursed for mans transgression the Scripture speaking only that the earth was cursed therefore considering also the Prouerbe As sound as a fish and if any be subiect to diseases it is fish of riuers or of standing waters and fish-ponds which may be cured by strawing much parsley into the water And because that flesh and fish are two principall things for the food of man and that our purpose is not to omit any thing that incidently may be handled for the good of the common-wealth therefore will it not be exorbitant the rule of our methode to discourse somewhat thereof The best season of the yeare to eate fish is from September vntill March if we will regard the goodnesse of the fish howbeit that for the increase of beasts we are commanded with great reason and consideration to eate most fish in March and Aprill when he loseth his taste The fresh fish of riuers is of more digestion and better for sicke persons but the sea-fish is of more nourishment All fish being moist and cold of nature is qualified by the addition of salt and being eaten with much bread cannot do any hurt especially vnto cholericke persons with whose complexion it agreeth best And whereas all other creatures do first decay and putrifie in the belly the fish doth first putrifie in the head for no other reason but that hauing only one gut the meate doth easily passe the same without digestion or corruption which by staying long with other ereatures causeth putrifaction an argument that fish is more healthfull then flesh howbeit that through the continuall vse flesh is more agreeable with our nature And whereas maister Bodine saith that it is vnknowne vnto man from whence at one season the infinite millions of herrings do come we are of another opinion For the Herring against the nature of all fish which goeth against the water and tide fearing the lifting vp of his scales commeth from the Northerne seas and goeth to the West Ocean to enioy the temperature of the aire For whereas all the sommer he hath taken his ease and pleasure in the Northerne seas desirous to enioy the water therof as being sweeter then that of other seas he returneth in winter to those places that haue bene most beaten of the Sunne being hotter and deeper as also lesse troubled with the winds and tempests vnto the which the Northerne seas are more subiect where the sands are thereby eleuated and concurring with the water For the Herring aboue all other fishes cannot endure the cold and therfore are they also dead as soone as they be out of the water Aire is the cause of putrification which those that haue studied to preserue flesh long without salt haue found by experience Salt doth bite out the bloud of the flesh which we see will not keepe vnlesse it be couered with brine made of salt yet those that do trauell vnder the line called Aequinoctiall do keepe fresh mutton veale or any other flesh for a long time without salt for they presse out the bloud and hauing well dried the same with linnen clouts they put it into their barrels of meale especially meale of Rie as it commeth from the East contries and so they do closevp the same that no aire can enter which is an easie matter and their meale not the worse for to be vsed Some do also a litle perboile their flesh and keepe it close stopped in vineger but that is not so sauory to be eaten The knowledge hereof is fit for Nauigators But for the good of all the inhabitants of a Commonwealth let vs commend the singular care of those Magistrats which to preuent all corruption and diseases of euill aire and corrupted bloud do commaund that oxen and all other beasts should be fasting a day or two before they should be slaine and then hanged vp for the like time or more as the season of the yeare will permit to let the blod runne out before the Butchers may sell the flesh thereof who knowing the losse of waight by the bleeding and that it doth not shew so well are hasty to sell the same to the great hurt and danger of the health of man This care of the Magistrate therefore tendeth to the preseruation of the health of the subiect And to this purpose we do not hold impertinent to commend a good order obserued in other countries for keeping of their cities and townes cleane without hauing so many scauengers in euery parish as we do to the great charge of the inhabitants For whereas the cleansing of all vaults is brought to certaine places and vsed for dung there are certaine three or foure scauengers which for two or three hundred pounds a yeare take the same and the durt of the streetes to farme and do euery one of them keepe twelue or more horses and carts to cary the durt away which by scattering straw along the streetes from time to time is gathered vp and so caried to the places where the cleansing of the vaults is mingled with it which maketh good dung and is caried all the countrey ouer preuenting hereby corruption of aire bettering their grounds for increase His last point concerning certainty and equality of money which may hold the price of commodities and all other things in a certaine equality by a due course of exchange is a matter of great moment as we haue shewed heretofore which maister Bodine holdeth so difficult to be vnderstood that when any man is sayd to be of experience and to vnderstand
yeares aduanced in price we would exhort many to practise the hauing thereof in regard both of the honny and waxe the rather for that the making of Bees of a Heighfer is naturall Whereupon Plinie hath noted that the flesh of oxē is conuerted into Bees as the flesh of horses into waspes that of man into lice and so of other flesh according to the nature thereof but I will not affirme that the flesh of a Cuckow is conuerted into toads as some do report Touching the price of our commodities which certainly may be known as of tinne lead and certaine knowne sorts of clothes we shall find that when an ounce of siluer was valued at 40 pence tinne was worth as we haue sayd about 40 shillings the hundreth which now maketh 3 pound and the price thereof in regard of veluet silkes and other commodities ought now to be 5 pound a hundreth all circumstances considered Wooll was worth 10 shillings the tod equivalent with the best yeard of veluet colour kentish cloths not of so good making as now were ordinarily sold for 8 and 9 pound the cloth of that mony which is now 12 pound and 13 pound 10 shillings calue skins 5 shillings the dozen Deuonshire kersies and all other cloth accordingly At which time the bale of Venice fustians was sold for 18 pound of horne fustians 15 pound the best blacke Sattine 6 shillings the yeard colour Damaske and Sattine 5 shillings Bolonia Sarcenet 20 pence the yeard all by retaile millian fustians 18 and 19 shillings the peece Messina silke 8 shillings the pound vnwatred Chamblet 13 shillings the peece and all other Italian wares accordingly which although they are now more vsed then in those dayes cannot counteruaile the difference in price being compared together because that the making thereof in Italy and France is also much more increased and on the contrary the making of cloth much diminished since that time And in this place we must not forget to mention of the making of Venice gold thred which might be more practised and made in England then it is to set poore people on worke and so be had farre better cheape For we shall find that whereas the pound of 12 ounces is now ordinarily sold for 3 pound 5 shillings or thereabouts the same being vntwisted doth not cōtaine aboue 4½ ounces or 5 ounces at the most of guilded siluer which may be worth some 25 shillings and all the rest goeth towards some very course silke and the workmanship which is a very easie spinning To say nothing of the Easterlings wares of pitch tar wainscot cables flaxe hempe and such like because these are very necessary commodities and cannot be much ouer-bought we are onely to note that if the Statute for the sowing of hempe were well obserued all manner of cordage might be made within the Realme and thereby be had better cheape of others Howbeit the entercourse and commerce with other nations requireth that euery countrey should haue their peculiar Commodities whereof we are to consider the price and to haue a care not to ouer-buy them and to sell our home Cōmodities too good cheape which generally may be said for all commodities and particularly for Lawnes Cambrickes and such like and most especially when claret wine was sold for 3 and 4 pound the tunne prunes 5 shillings the hundreth ciuill oyle 12 pound the tunne soape of Ciuill 20 shillings the hundreth malmesey 5 pound the But and so the like of diuers other Commodities if we do consider the great abundance thereof found now a dayes and more commodiously and directly brought vnto vs then heretofore as Spices Sugar Currans Raisins Figs and such like are By all which commeth a notable ouer-ballancing of forreine Commodities with our home Commodities in nature before alleaged which doth cōsistin the price not in the quantity This ouerballancing is knowne by the increase of the custome of the goods inwards the decrease of the custome of the goods outwards for which purpose let vs obserue what the custome of wooll did amount in king Edward the third his time as aforesaid Thus finding things to be deare and the price thereof hurtfull to the Commonwealth because we do not sell our home Commodities so deare proportionably as we do buy the forraine commodities we may see that we are become buyers not sellers as the good father of the familie ought to be as is aforesaid Wherfore let vs now consider of the causes of this dearth of forraine commodities ouer and aboue the price of our home cōmodities which maketh vs to giue the treasure of the realm to boote by aduancing the price of the one and abating the price of the other which might be attributed to the ignorance of permutation of commodities for commodities if money did not rule the price of commodities and the course of exchange for mony did not ouer-rule the property of mony wherfore let vs note the causes which are declared in the treatise of the Canker of Englands Common wealth where we may see that our home Commodities are abated in price foure manner of wayes 1 By scarsitie of money with vs which maketh things good cheape 2 By the gaine sought vpon money which otherwise would be sought vpon the commodities 3 By a high course of exchange which draweth the money to be deliuered in nature of exchange onely or by a low price of exchange which is the efficient cause of the exportation of our money 4 By the rash sale of our Commodities by such as haue small stockes Forraine Commodities on the contrary are aduanced in price foure manner of wayes 1 Through plenty of money in other countries which maketh things deare 2 By a high exchange beyond the seas which yeeldeth a losse and by a low exchange which causeth few takers vp of money and driueth men to make returne in forraine Commodities 3 By the aduancing of the price of their money aboue the value 4 For that the principall Commodities are engrossed into rich mens hands The course of this inequalitie may be illustrated by the comparison Suppose that you were a Lord of some Iland that did yeeld great store of corne or graine and also great quantitie of wools and another were Lord of another Iland that did yeeld great abundance of spices and sugar and great quantitie of silke and silke wares being things seruing either for the belly or backe Both of you do desire to liue in the ciuillest manner that you can deuise or imagine and which is pleasing most your mind and wanting the vse of money you are desirous to haue some of his spices sugar and silkes and willing to giue him by way of permutation or barter corne graine or wooll for them whereupon by mutuall conference according to reason both of you do agree what quantitie of each Commoditie one will deliuer for the Commodities of the other and that chiefly in regard of the vse of euery mans Commoditie But because many
vse of melting or transportation and to pay out the light ones especially in siluer Counterfeiters washers and falsifiers of money will be sooner detected and the false money knowne when peeces of one sort shall be of one bignesse and thicknesse and of one sound and fairnesse of stampe with their priuate marke for the time the thicknesse will be seen the waight will be found and the sound will be heard by comparing one peece to another especially when the rednesse or colour of the money doth giue suspition that the same is counterfeited For there is great difference in the lumpe of mettals of equall waight as we may partly perceiue and is exactly found by the last triall made thereof The masse or lumpe of gold to the lumpe of siluer doth differ as much as 9 to 5 that the bodie of siluer is bigger then that of gold which is 1 ⅘ Betweene copper and siluer is as much difference as betweene 11 and 13. Lead to siluer as from 15 to 14 but that will not ioyne with any other mettall then tinne which is lighter then siluer and doth differ from it as 9 to 13 and from the gold as 7 to 18. Iron doth differ from siluer as 4 to 3 and from the gold as 6 to 9 that the bodie of gold is lesser Quicksiluer which is volatile commeth nearer vnto gold and doth differ as 3 to 4 the fixing wherof is difficult Touching the scisell which commeth by the making of monies by mils or engines it is soone made and conuerted into monies and may be lessened by good casting of the mettall into plates proportionate which by degrees may be reformed according to the increase of the quantitie of gold and siluer To which end it will not be amisse to exhort and require all Goldsmiths and others to be vigilant and diligent in bringing of bulliō into her Maiesties mint where they may haue very speedie and assured payment thereof at all appointed times And in this place we must not forget that care may be had that the Moniers which worke by the hammer may be prouided for their lining or be set on worke by the milles or engines Lastly it were very conuenient commodious as also good for the poore to make small monies of copper as halfepence and farthings which might be called Pledges of the poore and would increase charitie towards them Whereby also all leaden tokens vsed in Tauernes and by such as sell small wares would bee taken away and would be very commodious in so populous a kingdome being made exactly to preuent counterfeiting which generally we do hold so difficult to be done as is the counterfeiting of the hand of an excellent writer amongst the ordinarie writings of most men And the making thereof can breede no inconuenience in the Commonwealth in the prices of Commodities wheras some Princes do vse to coyne some monies for to remain within their dominions some other kind of monies for to be transported into other countries reaping a great gaine by the coynage thereof And omitting to shew the important causes and reasons which Princes haue to maintaine a standing treasure we do not hold it impertinēt to reduce to memorie that which is recorded of the treasure of Princes in times past to awaken care in others The greatest meane that the Romaines had to saue their state when Hanniball had almost brought them to ruine was 450 thousand crownes that the treasure did amount vnto which was gathered by the redemption of slaues and neuer touched vntill that time Pope Iohn the 22. left 23 millions of gold Sardanapalus 40 millions of crownes Cirus 50 millions the Athenians 60 millions Tiberius the Emperour 67 millions Alexander the Great found in the treasurie of Darius Occhus the Persian king 80 millions But the greatest treasure mentioned in the Scripture which king Dauid left was 120 millions which did exceede farre the treasure recorded of the Romaines when they flourished most vnder Traian the Emperour which is 74 thousand talents being 44 millions 400 thousand crownes To say nothing of the siluer and gold found vpon the discouerie of the West Indies and the ransomes which were collected when Atabalippa king of Peru gaue onely for his raunsome ten millions 326 thousand duckets Let vs consider what great treasures Princes might haue now adaies when money doth abound whereas it is reported that king Henry the 7 of England left in bullion after his decease 53 hundred thousand pounds starling in those daies when an ounce of siluer was valued but 40 pence And so cōcluding for monies let vs come to the matter of exchaunge which is the third and last meane whereunder the trade is performed But because my Treatise of The Canker of Englands Cōmonwealth doth handle that matter particularly therefore shall it suffice to make mention onely of the Contents thereof As money doth rule the course of Commodities so the exchaunge for monies with vs doth not onely rule both the course of money and Commodities but being abused by the merchandizing thereof is become predominant and doth ouer-rule the course of them both to Englands great and incredible losse whereas the right exchange is most commendable necessarie and conuenient for the maintenance and traffick of entercourse betwixt merchant and merchant or countrie and countries beeing grounded vpon the waight finenesse and valuation of the money of each countrie according to value for value which accordingly should be kept at a certaintie as a measure betwixt vs and other nations For we haue amply declared and proued that when the exchange doth fall or rise in price the same being either high or low it turneth euery way to the losse of the Realme both for the price of our home Commodities and the transportation of our monies and by aduancing the price of forraine Commodities causing an ouer-ballancing in nature before alleaged which to supply draweth or expelleth our treasure For we doe in effect giue the same to boote vnto other nations with our home Commodities to haue their Commodities for it Some men of iudgement haue found my writing to be inuectiue and patheticall against Bankers wherein they are not mistaken For the vse of Bankes is incompatible in any well ordered Commonwealth as time will manifest more and more daily The French kings Lewis the 9 and Philip the Faire did with great cause confiscate the Bankers goods and for the discouerie of their debts ordered their subiects to pay onely the principall money vnto their Treasurers Philip de Valois did the like and indited them as couseners of the Common-wealth For it was found that in a short time with 24 thousand pounds starling they had accumulated and gotten aboue 2 millions 400 thousand pounds Others which through enuie malice or other passions haue the eyes of their iudgment blinded haue censured my writing to be Apologeticall for the erection of a Banke vnder the colour of the restauration of the office of the auncient Kings Exchanger which
gown For pride harboureth in the mind and the difference is onely in the giuing of example vnto others wherein the costly and gorgeous apparell giueth offence which may be handled hereafter Concluding therefore this point with Maister Bodine touching allume whereof abundance is spent with vs we say that there is stuffe sufficient within the realme whereof to make it exceeding good but so long as we be able to affoord the Romish allume for 24 shillings the hundred and other sorts accordingly being brought into English ships it is better for the Common-wealth to bring it from forraine parts then to make it within the realme The fourth cause of the dearth of things being The pleasure of Princes or great men which doth giue a price vnto things is grounded vpon estimation the very ground of the value of all temporall things which things in regard of the behoofe of man are seruing for food houses and apparell and as they say for the backe and belly This estimation is authorised by common consent almost of al men and nations and therefore of such efficacie that some Politicians haue obserued that things that be in d 〈…〉 things that be not in deed b 〈…〉 med to be in deede make n 〈…〉 rence in the course of trafficke 〈…〉 rule the Bankers haue studie 〈…〉 〈…〉 might be made apparant if I we 〈…〉 solued that it would tend to the g 〈…〉 of the Commonwealth But leauing this let vs consider of the second rule obserued by Plato That as the Prince is so are the subiects who by imitation follow his example which sooner entreth into their eyes thē their eares and the greater their authoritie is the more affectionate is their imitation Alexander cast his head aside and all the Court held their neckes awry Denis was purblind and his Courtiers stumbled at euery steppe and iustled each other as if they had bene euill-fighted and so of other Princes whose examples haue bene contagious to their subiects Maister Bodine maketh mention of three great Prin 〈…〉 〈…〉 ne time which did aduaunce 〈…〉 g and pretious stones Tou 〈…〉 〈…〉 arning vnlesse it be accom 〈…〉 with the knowledge how to 〈…〉 r to hauewealth it is litle accoun 〈…〉 whereas a lumpish blocke-head 〈…〉 le without wit or wisedome shall be much made of onely because hee hath money or wealth whereof by aduerse fortune or casualtie being depriued he is then seene in his owne colour and laid open to the world And concerning pearles and precious stones it is not straunge that some men do despise and account them as glistering toyes trifles considering the diuersitie of mens opinions which made the auncient Philosophers to say That the world was gouerned by opinions But if these men should wel consider the pure creation and vertue of the stones they would iudge otherwise and their owne opinion opposite to most men would condemne their errour seeing that a generall estimation doth approue the value of things especially of things that are durable Which was the cause that when Commodities began to abound in the world all mettals as being fit for preseruation were esteemed and the purest mettall most The holy Scripture doth manifest vnto vs in what estimation precious stones gold and siluer haue bene alwaies from the beginning and to what holy vses they haue bene employed and appropriated especially gold and siluer Was not Iericho destroyed with the inhabitants and their goods by Gods commandement as things execrable and would not God haue the gold and other mettals preserued and to be consecrated and kept in his treasurie Was it not gold and siluer wherewith his temple at Ierusalem was adorned and beautified But why should I enter into the enumeration of examples to illustrate and proue the antiquitie of the estimation of gold siluer and precious things seeing that in all Common-weales and countries that onely is decent and of estimation which the custome doth allow or approoue Hence the Prouerbe took beginning Countries fashion countries honour which maketh the Indian and Blacke-moore to dominiere with his glistering beades brasse rings for their eares and armes and to giue vs gold and siluer for them Straunge was therefore the imagination of Sir Thomas Moore in his conceipted Commonwealth of Vtopia where he fained gold to be in such contumelie that they made their chamber-pots and other vessels that serue for most vile vses of pure gold and haue the same in euery mans priuate house And their chaines fetters and gyues wherein they tye their bondmen were all of gold as being the reprochfull badge of infamous persons Their gemmes and precious stones were holden for toyes for yong children to play withall And to proue the estimation of things to be according to the fashion of euery countrie and to giue gold his due commendation we will vse his owne pleasant tale in manner as he hath set downe the same The Ambassadours of the next countries vnto Vtopia which knew the maners and fashions of the Vtopians which giue no honour to sumptuous apparell and hold gold to be infamed and reprochfull came to Amaurote the principall citie of that Ile in very homely and simple array But the Anemolians because they dwell farre thence and had very litle acquaintance with them hearing that they were all apparelled alike and that very rudely and homely thinking them not to haue the things which they did not weare being therefore more proud then wise determined in the gorgiousnesse of their apparell to represent very gods and with the bright shining and glistering of their gay clothing to dazle the eyes of the silly poore Vtopians So there came in foure Ambassadors with a hundred seruants all apparelled in changeable colours the most of them in silkes the Ambassadors themselues for at home in their owne countrie they were Noblemen in cloth of gold with great chaines of gold with gold hanging at their eares with gold rings vpon their fingers with brouches and aglets of gold vpon their caps which glistered full of pearles and precious stones to be short trimmed and adorned with all those things which among the Vtopians were either the punishment of bondmen or the reproch of infamed persons or else trifles for young children to play withall Therefore it would haue done a man good at his heart to haue seene how proudely they displayed their Peacockes feathers how much they made of their painted sheathes and how lustily they set foorth and aduanced themselues when they compared their gallant apparell with the poore rayment of the Vtopians for all the people were swarmed foorth into the streetes And on the other side it was no lesse pleasure to consider how much they were deceiued and how farre they missed of their purpose being contrarie waies taken then they thought they should haue beene For to the eyes of all the Vtopians except very few which had bene in other countries for some reasonable cause all that gorgeousnesse of apparell seemed shamefull and reprochfull Insomuch
that they most reuerently saluted the most vile and most abiect of them for Lords iudging them by their wearing of golden chaines to be bondmen yea you should haue seen children also that had cast away their pearles and precious stones when they saw the like sticking vpon the Ambassadors cappes digge and push their mothers vnder the sides saying thus to them Looke mother how great a lubber doth yet weare pearles and precious stones as though hee were a litle child still But the mother yea and that also in good earnest Peace sonne saith she I thinke he be some of the Ambassadours fooles Some found fault at their golden chaines as to no vse or purpose being so small and weake that a bondman might easily breake them and againe so wide and large that when it pleased him he might cast them off and runne away at libertie whither he would But when the Ambassadours had bene there a day or two and saw so great abundance of gold so lightly esteemed yea in no lesse reproch thē it was with them in honour and besides that more gold in the chaines and gyues of one fugitiue bondman then all the costly ornaments of them three was woorth they beganne to abate their courage for very shame laid away all that gorgeous array whereof they were so proud Which in effect is as much as to accommodate and fashion himselfe to the manner and fashion of the countrie being also grounded vpon estimation although of baser things which is to preferre earthen and glasse vessels wherein they eate and drinke as he saith before gold siluer other precious things But if all the wit and wisdome of man were as yet to deuise what thing would be fittest to set a price vnto all other things and to be as a iust measure and proportion betweene man and man in the trade and traffick of things they could not find any thing more proper then pure gold and other mettals accordingly The foure elements haue such an equall proportion in gold that none is predominant ouer the other whereby all corruption is excluded whether you take the same according to the qualities of hote and drie cold and drie hote and moist and cold and moist with Galen or according to the substance of the elements drawne into salt sulphure and mercurie with Paracelsus For it neuer wasteth or consumeth by fire and the more it is burned the purer it is which cannot be said of any other mettall there is no rust or scurfe that diminisheth the goodnesse or substance thereof it abides the fretting and liquors of salt and vineger without damage which weareth any other thing it needs no fire ere it be made gold for it is gold assoone as it is found it draweth without wooll as it were wooll and it is easily spread in leaues of maruellous thinnesse you may adorne or guild any other mettall with it Neither is it inferiour vnto any other mettall to make vessell and curious workes it defileth not the thing it toucheth as siluer doth wherewith you may draw lines it resembleth in colour the celestiall bodies and it is medicinable and bringeth gladnesse to the hart of man it is fit also to be cut or deuided into many peeces to make mony and goeth into a litle roome being easie and 〈…〉 table to auoide the combersome 〈…〉 age of Commodities from one countrie into another And what thing can be inuented or deuised that for this purpose hath all these qualities and properties With great reason therefore hath gold his due estimatiō aboue other things Also such things wherein the art of man is illustrated as in pictures other curious works are worthie of great commendation and to be preferred before many other things that man doth vse for to liue in the most ciuille maner aboue other nations which liue barbarously In all which the generall care of the Prince must be and the particular regard of the subiect that the same bee done for the good of the Common-wealth so that the expences thereof do not surmount the incomes or reuenues hauing a due consideration of the moderate vse of forraine Commodities and at reasonable rates according as the price and vtteranc 〈…〉 of our home Commodities both 〈…〉 victuals and other wares without studying how to liue without the trafficke and commerce with other nations seeing that God caused Nature to bestow and distribute her benefits or his blessings to seuerall Climates supplying the barrennesse of some things in one countrie with the fruitfulnesse and store of other countries to the end that interchāgeably one cōmon weale should liue with another Concerning the last cause of the dearth of things by the alteration of mony wherein Maister Malestroit had a certaine good purpose if he could haue proued the same to haue bene in France Maister Bodine concludeth that the price of things is not altered by the valuation of monies in sort by him alleaged and yet that things are grown deare which only thē cometh to passe by one cause which he called almost the only cause which is the aundance of gold siluer of late yeares running with vs into these parts of the world For the other causes as we haue noted before make particularly some things deare but not generally all things And for asmuch as we haue spoken hereof in answer of the Paradoxes of Maister Malestroit therefore we passe ouer it and come to the examination of the remedies which Maister Bodine alleadgeth which do onely tend to remedy things in particular being well considered of He saith that the abundance of gold and siluer now a daies more then in times past must partly excuse the dearth of things which being so it followeth that this is not to be taken as a remedy nor yet as a true cause of the dearth of things for what coherence is there to alleage a matter as a remedy against the dearth of things when this remedy as I haue shewed before is the only cause of the dearth it selfe as he saith which must excuse the same which excuse being admitted in defence thereof doth consequently proue that things are not growne deare to our hurt in particular or to the preiudice of the Common wealth in generall because that hauing more gold and siluer then we had heretofore we are made able to giue more then before And if we will say Take away the cause and then the effect will cease that is to say Take away or diminish the abundance of gold and siluer and then things will become better cheape this wold be a very great absurdity For as he is a foolish Phisitian that cannot cure his patients disease vnlesse he cast him in another sicknes so the Prince that cannot gouerne his subiects but by taking from them the wealth and commodity of life must needs graunt that he knoweth not how to gouerne mē A prouident and wise Prince therefore will rather conclude thus Are things growne deare through the abundance of gold