Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	abatement_n	interest_n	orphan_n	24	3	14.1191	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32833	A new discourse of trade wherein is recommended several weighty points relating to companies of merchants : the act of navigation, naturalization of strangers, and our woollen manufactures, the balance of trade, and the nature of plantations, and their consequences in relation to the kingdom, are seriously discussed and some proposals for erecting a court of merchants for determining controversies, relating to maritime affairs, and for a law for transferrance of bills of depts, are humbly offered / by Josiah Child.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Culpeper, Thomas, Sir, 1578-1662. Small treatise against usury.	1693 (1693)	Wing C3860; ESTC R5732	114,526	332

because Customs run only upon our Goods imported or exported and that but once for all whereas Interest runs as well upon our Ships as Goods and must be yearly paid on both so long as they are in being and the Ships in many bulkey Trades and such as are Nationally most profitable are of four times the value of the Goods That old Objection about Widows and Orphans I have I think fully answered in my former Treatise but because I yet sometimes meet with it I shall say a Word more to it here viz. 1. Widows and Orphans are not one to twenty of the whole People and it s the Wisdom of Law-makers to provide for the good of the Majority of People though a Minor part should a little suffer 2. Of Widows and Orphans not one in forty will suffer by the abatement of Interest for these Reasons viz. 1 st Of Widows and Orphans nine of ten in this Kingdom have very little or nothing at all left them by their deceased Relations and all such will have an advantage by the abatement of Interest because such abatement will encrease Trade and in consequence occasion more employment for such necessitous Persons 2 dly Many Widows and Orphans have Ioyntures Annuities Coppy-Holds and other Lands left them as well as Money and all such will be gainers by the abatement of Interest 3 dly For all London Orphans the City gives not now above 5 and to some 4 per cent Interest so the loss to such is not worth speaking of 4 thly Many Executors are so unworthy as to allow Orphans no Interest and yet justifie themselves by Law to such Orphans it will be all one what the legal rate of Interest be 5 thly When the Law for abatement of Interest is past many more Parents will leave their Children Annuities and Estates running in Trade as they do in Holland and Italy whereby the abatement of Interest will become profitable not prejudicial to them And for the few that at first may happen to suffer whereof the number will be very small and therefore not to be named in competition with the common good of the Kingdom they have an easie means within their own Power to prevent their being one Farthing the worse for the abatement of Interest it is but wearing a Lawn-Whisk instead of a Point de Venice and for the meaner sort a Searge Petty-Coat instead of a Silk one and a plain pair of Shoes instead of laced ones And that the Ladies may not be offended with me I dare undertake that this will never spoil but mend their Marriages besides the greater good it will bring to their Country and to their Posterities after them whether they prove to be Noblemen Gentlemen or Merchants c. I have in several places of my ensuing Treatise referred to some Tracts I formerly published upon this subject which being now wholly out of Print I thought fit to Re-print and annex unto this which at first I intended not Some there are who would grant that abatement of Interest if it could be effected would procure to the Nation all the good that I alledge it will bring with it but say it is not practicable or at least not now 1. A needless scruple and contradictory to experience for first a Law hath abated Interest in England three times within these few Years already and what should hinder its effect now more then formerly 2. If a Law will not do it why do the Vsurers raise such a dust and engage so many Friends to oppose the passing of an Act to this purpose The true reason is because they are wise enough to know that a Law will certainly do it as it hath done already though they would perswade others the contrary And if it be doubted we have not Money enough in England Besides what I have said in my former Treatise as to the encrease of our Riches in general I shall here give some further Reasons of probability which are the best that can be expected in this case to prove that we have now much more Money in England then we had twenty Years past Notwithstanding the seeming scarcity at present if I should look further back then twenty years the argument would be stronger on my side and the proportion of the encrease of Money greater and more perspicuous but I shall confine my self to that time which is within most mens Memories 1. We give generally now one third more Money with Apprentices then we did twenty years past 2. Notwithstanding the decay and loss of sundry Trades and Manufactures yet in the gross we Ship off now one third part more of the Manufactures as also Lead and Tin then we did twenty years past which is a cause as well as a proof of our increase of Money If any doubt this if they please to consult Mr Dickins Surveyor of his Majesties Customs who is the best able I know living and hath taken the most pains in these Calculations he may be satisfactorily resolved 3. Houses new built in London yield twice the Rent they did before the Fire and Houses generally immediately before the Fire yielded about one fourth part more Rent then they did twenty years past 4. The speedy and costly buildings of London is a convincing and to Strangers an amazing Argument of the plenty and late encrease of Money in England 5. We have now more then double the quantity of Merchants Shiping we had twenty years past 6. The course of our Trade from the increase of our Money is strangely altered within these twenty years most Payments from Merchants and Shop-keepers being now made with ready Money whereas formerly the course of our general Trade run at three six nine twelve and eighteen Months time But if this case be so clear some may ask me How comes it to pass that all sorts of men complain so much of the scarcity of Money especially in the Country My answers to this Query are viz. 1. This proceeds from the Frailty and Corruption of humane Nature it being natural for men to complain of the present and commend the times past so said they of Old The former days were better then these and I can say in truth upon my own Memory that men did complain as much of the scarcity of Money ever since I knew the world as they do now nay the very same Persons that now complain of this and commend that time 2. And more particularly This complaint proceeds from many mens finding themselves uneasie in the matters of their Religion it being natural for men when they are discontented at one thing to complain of all and principally to utter their discontents and complaints in those things which are most popular Those that hate a man for some one cause will seldom allow of any thing that is good in him and some that are angry with one person or thing will find fault with others that gave them no offence like peevish Persons that meeting discontent

Lastly The lowness of Interest of Money with them which in peaceable times exceeds not three per cent per annum and is now during this War with England not above four per cent at most Some more Particulars might be added and those aforesaid further improved were it my purpose to discourse at large of Trade But seeing most of the former Particulars are observed and granted by all men that make it any part of their business to inspect the true nature and Principles of Trade but the last is not so much as taken notice of by the most Ingenious to be any Cause of the great encrease of the Riches and Commerce of that people I shall therefore in this Paper confine my self to write principally my Observations touching that viz. The Profit That People have received and any other may receive by reducing the Interest of Money to a very low rate This in my poor opinion is the Causa Causans of all the other causes of the Riches of that People and that if Interest of Money were with us reduced to the same rate it is with them it would in a short time render us as rich and considerable in Trade as they now are and consequently be of greater damage to them and advantage to us then can happen by the Issue of this present War though the success of it should be as good as we can wish except it end in the●r total Ruin and Extirpation To illustrate this let us Impartially search our Books and enquire what the state and condition of this Kingdom was as to Trade and Riches before any Law concerning Interest of Money was made The first whereof that I can find was Anno 1545. and we shall be informed that the Trade of England then was Inconsiderable and the Merchants very mean and few And that afterwards viz. Anno 1635. within ten Years after Interest was brought down to eight per Cent there was more Merchants to be found upon the Exchange worth each One Thousand Pounds and upwards then were in the former dayes viz. before the Year 1600. to be found worth One Hundred Pounds each And now since Interest hath been for about twenty Years at six per Cent notwithstanding our long civil Wars and the great complaints of the deadness of Trade there are more men to be found upon the Exchange now worth Ten thousand Pounds Estates then were then of One thousand Pounds And if this be doubted let us ask the aged whether five hundred pounds Portion with a Daughter sixty Years ago were not esteemed a larger proportion then Two thousand pounds is now And whether Gentlewomen in those dayes would not esteem themselves well cloathed in a Searge Gown which a Chamber-Maid now will be ashamed to be se●n in Whether our Citizens and middle sort of Gentry now are not more rich in Cloaths Plate Jewels and Houshold-Goods c. then the best sort of Knights and Gentry were in those days And whether our best sort of Knights and Gentry now do not exceed by much in those things the Nobility of England sixty Years past Many of whom then would not go to the price of a whole Sattin-Doublet the Embroiderer being yet living who hath assured me he hath made many hundreds of them for the Nobility with Canvas backs Which way ever we take our measures to me it seems evident that since our first abatement of Interest the Riches and Splendor of this Kingdom is increased to above four I might say above six times so much as it was We have now almost One hundred Coaches for one we had formerly We with ease can pay a greater Tax now in one Year then our Fore fathers could in twenty Our Customs are very much improved I believe above the proportion aforesaid of six to one which is not so much in advance of the Rates of Goods as by encrease of the bulk of Trade for though some Foreign Commodities are advanced others of our Native Commodities and Manufactures are considerably abated by the last Book of Rates I can my self remember since there were not in London used so many Wharfs or Keys for the Landing of Merchants Goods by at least one third part as now there are and those that were then could scarce have Imployment for half what they could do and now notwithstanding one third more used to the same purpose they are all too little in a time of Peace to land the Goods at that come to London If we look into the Country we shall find Lands as much Improved since the abatement of Interest as Trade c. in Cities that now yielding twenty Years purchase which then would not have sold for above eight or ten at most Besides the Rent of Farms have been for these last thirty Years much advanced and although they have for these th●ee or four last years fallen that hath no respect at all to the lowness of Interest at present nor to the other mistaken Reasons which are commonly assigned for it But principally to the vast Improvement of ●reland since a great part of it was lately possess●d by the Industrous English who were Soldiers in the late A●my and the late great Land-Taxes More might be said but the Premises being considered I judge will sufficiently demonstrate how greatly this Kingdom of England hath been advanc'd in all respects for these last fifty Years And that the abatement of Interest hath been the cause thereof to me seems most probable because as it appears it hath been in England so I find it is at this day in all Europe and other parts of the World Insomuch that to know whether any Country be rich or poor or in what proportion it is so no other Question n●eds to be resolved but this viz. What Interest do they pay for Money Near home we see it evidently in Scotland and Ireland where ten and twelve per Cent is paid for Interest the People are poor and despicable their Persons ill cloathed their Houses worse provided and Money intollerably scarce notw●thstanding they have great plenty of all ●rovisions nor will their Land yield above eight or ten Years purchase at most In France where Money is at seven per Cent their Lands will yield about eighteen Years purchase and the Gentry who may possess Lands live in good condition though the ●easants are little better then Slaves because they can possess nothing but at the will of others In Italy Money will not yield above three per Cent to be let out upon real Security there the People are rich full of Trade well attired and their Lands will sell at thirty five to forty Years purchase and that it is so or better with them in Holland is too manifest In Spain the usual Interest is ten and twelve per Cent and there notwithstanding they have the only Trade in the World for Gold and Silver Money is no where more scarce the people poor despicable and void of Commerce other then such as

English Dutch Italians Iews and other Foreigners bring to them who are to them in effect but as Leeches who suck their Blood and vital Spirits from them I might urge many other Inst●nces of this nature not only out of Christendom but from under the Turks Dominions East-Ind●a and America But every man by his Eperience in Foreign Countries may eas●y inform himself whether this Rule do universally hold true or not For my own part to satisfie my own curiosity I have for some Years as occasion offered diligently enquired of all my acquaintance that had knowledge of foreign Countries and I can truly say that I never found it to fail in any particular Instance Now if upon what hath been said it be granted that defacto this Kingdom be richer at least four-fold I might say eight-fold then it was before any Law for Interest was made and that all Countries are at this day richer or poorer in an exact proportion to what they pay and have usually paid for the I●terest of Mo●ey it remains that we enquire carefully whether the abatement of Interest be in truth the Cause of the Riches of any Country or only the Concomitant or Effect of the Riches of a Country in which seems to lie the Intricacy of this Question To satisfie my self wherein I have taken all opportunities to discourse this point with the most ingenious men I had the Honour to be known to and have searcht for and read all the Books that I could ever hear were printed against the Abatement of Interest and seriously considered all the Arguments and Objections used by them against it All which have tended to confirm me in this opinion which I bumbly offer to the consideration of wiser Heads viz. That the Abatement of Interest is the Cause of the Prosperity Riches of any Nation and that the bringing down of Inte●est in this Kingdom from six to four or three per Cent will necessarily in less then twenty Years time double the Capital Stock of the Nation The most material Objections I have met with against it are as follows Object 1. To abate Interest will cause the Dutch and other People that have Money put out at Interest in England by their Friends and Factors to c●ll home their Estates and consequently will occasion a great scarcity and want of Money amongst us To this I answer That i● Interest be brought but to four pe● Cent no Dutchman will call in his Money that is out upon good Security in England because he cannot make above three per Ce●t of it upon Interest at home But if they should call home all the Money they have with us at Interest it would be better for us than if they did it not for the Borrower is alwayes a slave to the Lender and shall be sure to be always kept poor while the other is fat and full HE THAT USETH A STOCK THAT IS NONE OF HIS OWN BEING FORCED FOR THE UPHOLDING HIS REPUTATION TO LIVE TO THE FULL IF NOT ABOVE THE PROPORTION OF WHAT HE DOTH SO USE WHILE THE LENDER POSSESING MUCH AND USING LITTLE OR NONE LIVE ONLY AT THE CHARGE OF WHAT HE USETH AND NOT OF WHAT HE HATH Besides if with this Law for abatement of Interest a Law for Transferring Bills of Debt should pass we should not miss the Dutch Money were it ten times as much as it is amongst us for that such a Law will certainly supply the the defect of at least one half of all the ready Money we have in use in the Nation Object 2. If Interest be abated Land mus●●ise in purchase and conseque●tly 〈…〉 if Rents then the Fruits of the Land and so all things will be dear and how sha●● the Poor live c. Answ. To this I say If it follow that the Fruits of our Land in consequen●e of such a Law for abatement of Interest grow generally dear ●t is an evident demonstration that our People grow richer for generally where-ever Provisions are for continuance of Years dear in any Country the People are rich and where they are most cheap throughout the World for the most part the People are very poor And for our own Poor in England it is observed That they live better in the dearest Countries for Provisions than in the cheapest and better in a dear year than in a cheap especially in relation to the publick good for that in a cheap Year they will not work above two dayes in a Week their humour being such that they will not provide for a hard time but just work so much and no more as may maintain them in that mean condition to which they have been accustomed Object 3 If Interest be abated Vsurers will call in their Money so what shall Gentlemen do whose Estates are Mortgaged c. Answ. I answer That when they know they can make no more of their Money by taking out of one and putting it in another hand they will not be so forward as they th●eaten to alter that Security they know is good for another that may be bad Or if they should do it our Laws are not so severe but that Gentlemen may take time to dispose of part of their Land which immediately after such a Law will yield them thirty years purchase at least and much better it is for them so to do than to abide longer under that consuming Plague of Usury which hath insensibly destroyed very many of the best Families in England as well of our Nobility as Gentry Object 4. As Interest is now at six per cent the Kings Majesty upon any emergency can hardly be supplied and if it should be reduced to four per cent how shall the King find a considerable sum of Money to be lent him by his People Answ. I answer The abatement of Interest to the People is the abatement of Interest to the King when he hath occasion to take up Money For what is borrowed of the City of London or other Bodies Politick nothing can be demanded but the legal Interest and if the King have occasion to take up Money of private Persons being his Majesty according to good right is above the common course of Law the King must and always hath given more then the legal Rate As for instance The legal Rate is now six per cent but his Majesty or such as have disposed of his Majesties Exchequer-Tallies have been said to give ten and twelve in some cases and if the legal Rate were ten his Majesty might probably give thirteen or fourteen So if Interest be brought to four per cent his Majesty in such cases as he now gives ten must give six or seven by which his Majesty would have a clear advantage Object 5. If Interest be abated it will be a great prejudice to Widows and Orphans who have not Knowledge and Abilities to improve their Estates otherwise Answ. I answer That by our Law now Heirs and Orphans can recover no Interest from their Parents

have engaged me into this unpleasing Controversie wherein I have given unwilling offence to all my nearest Relations and knew at first that I must needs do so most of them being such as Age and Wisdom hath instructed rather to be Box-keepers then Gamesters I have before-mentioned the Judgment of the French King and Court but intended not to recite the Edict being it is at large in Sr Thomas Culpeppers senior his last Treatise yet on second thoughts considering all Men perhaps may not come to a sight of that and finding the said Edict so comprehensive of the whole matter of this Controversie I have here recited it The King by these Edicts had nothing relieved the necessities of the Nobility if he had not provided for Vsuries which have ruined many good and antient Houses filled Towns with unprofitable Servants and the Countries with Miseries and Inhumanities he found the Rents viz. Vsuries consti●uted after 10 or 8 in the hundred did ruin many good Families hindred the Traffick and Commerce of Merchandize's and made Tillage and Handicrafts to be neglected many desiring through the easiness of a deceitful Gain to live Idlely in good Towns of their Rents rather then to give themselves with any pains to liberal Arts or to till or husband their Inheritances For this reason meaning to invite his subjects to enrich themselves with more just Gain to content themselves with more moderate profit and to give the Nobility means to pay their Debts he did forbid all Vsury or Constitution of Rents at an higher rate then six Pounds five Shillings in the hundred The Edict was verified in the Court of Parliament which considered that it was always prejudicial to the Commonwealth to give Money to Vsury for it is a Serpent whose biteing is not apparent and yet it is so sensible that it peirceth the very Hearts of the best Families The whole of this Controversie lies narrowly in these two short Questions viz. Will abatement of Interest improve Trade Secondly Will it advance the price of Land The collective united Bodies of the Government of our own and other Kingdoms expresly say it will do both and Experience cries aloud that so it will do and hath done in all Ages and in all Places and I never yet met with any private person how much soever concerned in Interest that had the ignorance or confidence to deny both For discourse with a Country Vsurer he will affirm and perhaps be ready to swear to it that this abatement of Interest is a Knavish design of the Citizens to advance themselves who are too proud already and that if it go forward it will undo all the Country Gentlemen in England And if one speak with the City Vsurers they will be as ready to affirm that this is a plot carried on only by Noblemen and Gentlemen whose Estates are all in Land for their own advantage and that it will spoil all the Trade of the Kingdom being a project at one instant to take off just one third of all Mens Estates that are personal and add the same proportion to all such whose Estates are real which in effect is to Impoverish all the Younger and Enrich all Elder Brothers in England So that out of the Mouthes of the greatest and wisest Adversaries to this principle it may be justly concluded that though singlely they deny the truth of it yet joyntly they confess it To conclude there is nothing that I have said or that I think any other can say upon this occasion but was said in substance before by old Sr Thomas Culpepper tho●gh unknown to me who had an ampel and clear sight into the whole nature of this Principle and the true effects and consequences of it Truth being always the same though Illustrations may vary nor can any thing now be objected against the making a Law for a further abatement of Interest but the same that was objected in those times wherein the former Statutes past so that why my Opposer should cavil at the doing of that by a Law in England now which he seems to ●ike well if it could be done I know no real cause except it be that in truth he is wise enough to know that a Law in England will certainly do the Work as it hath done formerly and in consequence his own private Gain will be retrenched Before I concluded I think it necessary for caution to my Country-men to let them know what effects these discourses have had on others when I wrote my first Treatise Interest was in the Island of Barbadoes at 15 per centum where it is since by an Act of the Country brought down to 10 per cent a great fall at once and our weekly Gazets did some Months past inform us that the Sweeds by a Law had brought down their Interest to 6 per cent neither of which can have any good effects upon us but certainly the contrary except by way of emulation they quicken us to provide in time for our own Good and Prosperity I have now done with this Controversie and therein discharge my Duty to my native Country and though Ignorance Malice or private Interest may yet for some time oppose it I am confident the Wisdom of my Country-men will at length find their true and general Interest in the Establishment of such a Law which as to my own particular concernments signifies not two Farthings whether they do or not CHAP. II. Concerning the Relief and Employment of the Poor THis is a calm Subject and thwarts no common or private Interest amongst us except that of the common Enemy of Mankind the Devil so I hope that what shall be offered towards the effecting of so universally acceptable a Work as this and the removal of the innumerable Inconveniences that do now and have in all Ages attended this Kingdom through defect of such provision for the Poor will not be ill taken although the Plaister at first essay do not exactly fit the Sore In the Discourse of this subject I shall first assert some particulars which I think are agreed by common Consent and from thence take occasion to proceed to what is more doubtful 1. That our Poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition some Famished for want of Bread others starved with Cold and Nakedness and many whole Families in all the out Parts of Cities and great Towns commonly remain in a languishing nasty and useless Condition Uncomfortable to themselves and Unprofitable to the Kingdom this is confessed and lamented by all Men. 2. That the Children of our Poor bred up in B●ggery and Laziness do by that means become not only of unhealthy Bodies and more then ordinarily subject to many loathsome Diseases whereof very many die in their tender Age and if any of them do arrive to years and strength they are by their idle habits contracted in their Youth rendered for ever after indisposed to Labour and serve only to stock the