is that no person do set up any Shop-keeping Trade unless they be made Free of the same And if any should plead that it might be lawful for one man to use anothers Land as his own for a Livelihood he would presently be accounted a Leveller and a ridiculous Fellow And certainly no less can he be accounted that should argue it might be lawful for one man to use anothers Trade For this Trade is bought with the Parents Money and the Sons Servitude and intended for a future livelihood for the Son in the same manner as Land is bought by the Father and setled upon the Child for his future Livelihood and comfortable subsistence CHAP. XV. Of petty Shop-keepers living in Countrey Villages THis is another thing that as well as Pedlars doth greatly increase and add to to the number of Shop-keepers and doth likewise contribute towards the ruining of the Cities and Market-Towns in England and which was never wont to be formerly for now in every Countrey-Village where is it may be not above ten Houses there is a Shop-keeper and one that never served any Apprentiship to any Shop-keeping Trade whatsoever and many of those are not such that do deal only in Pins or such small Wares but such that deal in as many substantial Commodities as any do that live in Cities and Market-Towns who have no less than 1000 l. worth of Goods in their Shops for which they pay not one farthing of any Tax at all either Parochial or National Certainly all men must needs apprehend that if this and Pedlars be suffered that Cities and Market-Towns must needs be impoverished because then there will be little occasion I say to bring the Countrey people to them the which hath happened in a very great measure already for in some places there is not a fifth part of the money taken by the Shop-keepers as was formerly and in many places not half and in some particular Trades there is as may be made appear 25000 l. stock made use of less than there was heretofore And there are these several reasons following why it is necessary that Market-Towns and Cities should be encouraged and upheld in their Trades 1. Because the People that do live in Cities and Markets-Towns do depend wholly upon a Trade for the maintenance both of themselves and their Families and if their Trade be taken from them by such ways as these are they will be at a very great loss to know what to do because they were never bred to any thing else yet so it is not with those that deal in Villages who have been bred in some other way and they have or may have some other way of living besides the Shop-keeping-Trade 2. Because if Cities and Market-Towns be impoverished then the general part of the People of this Kingdom will lose that necessary conveniency before-mentioned for the preferment of their Children And this one reason that when many Parents have been at great charge in placing forth their Children to Trades in Cities and Market-Towns and the Children have faithfully served out their full time that after all they are but little the better for it because Pedlars and Shop-keepers in Villages such that never served any Apprenticeship to any Shop-keeping-Trade do intercept a very great part of the Trade from coming to them 3. This will be a great means to depopulate not only the Cities and Market-Towns but also the whole Kingdom for when men can find little or no incouragement in their Trades then they will endeavour to transplant themselves into other Countries where they may have better encouragement by which means we shall lose our People whereas in the Opinion of many wise Men we do already want more People in England than now we have there being very great numbers that have gone not only into our own Plantations but into Holland and setled there 4. If Cities and Market-Towns be impoverished and depopulated then there will not be raised out of them that proportion of all manner of Taxes as now there is so that the burthen hereof will be the heavier upon Lands and Revenues in the Countrey And it will be a very great diminution of all those standing Taxes that the Cities and Market-Towns do bear the only or at least the greatest proportion as they do in the Excise of Beer and Ale for little is gathered any where else and the Farmers of the Excise are always sensible of the ebbing and flowing of Trade whose Excise doth ebb and flow accordingly And then if Cities and Market-Towns grow poor the Chimney-money will never increase thereby The gatherers of this Tax are able to give an account what multitudes of Paupers are exempted by Certificates in Cities and Market-Towns in England and yet notwithstanding there be many do pay who had need also to be exempted 5. If Cities and Market-Towns be impoverished and depopulated of their wealth and rich Inhabitants for want of Trade the great and numerous poor that are in most of them will want to be relieved which is a burthen that doth lie very heavy upon them already for in some Market-Towns there are many that are not worth much above a hundred pound stock which do not pay less than ten shillings a year towards the relief of the poor which is such a burthen that if it lay upon the Countrey Farmer it would much weaken him in the paying of his Rent Now if the poor should not be relieved what can be expected but that swarms of them would go into the Countrey for relief as already they do in many places and when the ruder sort cannot get enough by begging they will be pilfering and stealing So that the consideration of these poor and the many younger Brothers that will be out of any way of living with the like contingencies will administer just occasion to any wise and intelligent Person easily to presage the misfortunes and miseries that will hereupon necessarily ensue throughout this Kingdom 6. If Cities and Market-Towns be impoverished and depopulated for want of a Trade then what will the Countrey-man do to have money for all his Commodities as his Butter his Cheese his Cattel his Wool his Corn and his Fruit the Shop-keepers in the Country-Villages will yield but little help in this case and the Pedlers much less It is manifest that the People living in Cities and Market-Towns consume all these Commodities of the Farmers and do help them to ready money for the same by which means they have wherewith to pay their Rent and serve their other occasions and it is impossible for them to subsist but by this way So that in all reason this kindness ought to be reciprocal and when it is so it is the better for both for it cannot be supposed that Tradesmen in Cities and Market-Towns should ever hold out to buy the Farmers Commodities and help them constantly to money for them if they should always go home and lay out little or no
part thereof again with them 7. If Cities and Market-Towns be impoverished and depopulated for want of Trade the Kingdom may then be obnoxious to its Enemies upon all occasions For these use to be the Fence and Bulwarks of a Country insomuch that in some other Countries they are so far from admitting of Tradesmen to live in Villages that their Gentry do not live there but in the great Cities and Towns by which means they have greater Towns than we generally have and most of their Towns are walled and so are not only able to resist an Enemy but also upon all occasions to succour and save those that shall fly unto them Furthermore the Kings of England have been always furnished with men for their Wars out of the Cities and Market-Towns of this Kingdom and the greater Trade there is in any place the more people commonly there are in that place Therefore it concerns this Kingdom to have Trade promoted and encouraged in Cities and Market-Towns that so we might have people enough at all times to resist an Enemy that shall oppose us Besides poor and beggerly Cities and Market-Towns are a very great disparagement to a Country but the contrary is a great honour For what more graceful to a Kingdom than the many rich and wealthy Cities and Towns therein for this reason as well as for all those already mentioned all Persons that are of publick spirits should do all they can to advance them by encouraging of their Trade and no one way can do it more effectually than to suppress those that do take their Trades from them And as Shop-keepers in Villages are a very great injury to Market-Towns in the Country even so are they to the City of London that have since the fire set up in Covent-Garden and on that side of the City by which means many of the Houses and Shops are not tenanted and those which are the Rents of them are exceedingly fallen and all this is for want of the Trade that they had formerly Now considering what a renowned City that is both for Government for Trade and for stately Edifices that it 's thought there is not the like in the whole World and considering the great charge that they have been at in the rebuilding of it it is very requisite that they should be encouraged as much as may be and that their Trade should not be taken may by such ways and means as these are Now there are some Trades whose Commodities are such that it would be very little more trouble for any one to go into the City to buy them than to go to Covent-Garden such as Woollen or Linnen-Cloth Stuffs or Hangings for Rooms or Plate or the like If then all such Trades were prohibited from setting up on that side of the City it would presently fill their Shops and Houses with People and their City with Trade I had thought to have treated here how the Shop-keepers are inconvenienced to get in their small debts which cannot be done any way without putting the People concerned to three times more charges than the debts are which is likewise a great hinderance to the poor as well as unto them but this I shall omit CHAP. XVI Of Pedlars and petty Chapmen THese are such that do proffer Wares to sale by Retail either by crying it in Cities and Market Towns or by offering it from door to door all about the Country and which do greatly add to the number of Shop-keepers for they carry their Shops at their backs and do sell more that way than many Shop-keepers do in their Shops which is not only a prejudice unto them but if they are suffered will in time be the utter ruine of all the Cities and Market Towns in England for of late there is not any Commodity to be named and that can be any way ported but that the Pedlar doth carry all about the Country to sell that people after awhile will have little or no occasion to come to the Cities or Market Towns for any thing This also was not wont to be formerly and ought not to be now as will appear if it be considered how much in these following particulars the Shop-keepers are beneficial to the Commonwealth of this Kingdom and in how few of these the Pedlars are beneficial unto the same 1. The Shop keepers do bear a very great proportion in all the Taxes of this Kingdom whether Parochial or National but the Pedlars do pay but little or no Taxes at all and if in Taxes they were to bear no more proportion than the Pedlars it may be quaeried whether or no Taxes might be so easily gathered 2. The Shop-keepers do bear likewise all manner of Offices whether Parochial or National which are very expensive unto them but Pedlars bear no Offices at all 3. The Shop-keepers do pay great Rents for the houses that they live in which are more certain Rents to the Gentry than their Lands but the Pedlars pay little or no Rent at all for most of them do lye in Barns And if the Rents should fall in Cities and Market Towns in England as they do in most places especially in the City of London they are never like to be rais'd again by Pedlars 4. The Shop-keepers do keep good Houses and do relieve the Poor at their doors spending abundance of meat and other of the Farmers Commodities in their Families for which they do always pay ready money But the Pedlars are so far from being beneficial to the Commonwealth in this particular that they are burthensom unto the same for they beg the most part of their Victuals and the Country people when the men are in the Field and there hath been none at home but Women and Children have been forced to relieve them for fear of being mischieved by them 5. They and their Families do wear out abundance of Cloths which doth promote the Trade of the Nation but it is very little advance of any Trade that the Pedlars do make herein for their Cloths do differ little from Beggars and did they wear better yet they could not wear out much because few of them have Families to do it 6. The Shop-keepers Trade is esteemed creditable enough for the preferment of the best mens Sons in the Kingdom next unto the Nobility but so is not the Pedlars Trade for surely sufficientmen would disdain to have their Sons Pedlars and to wander about the Country like Vagabond Rogues as they do 7. The Shop-keepers being sufficient mens Sons and being soberly and religiously Educated they come to have for the most part of them such principles in them that they detest to use any indirect way in their dealings And if they had not this inward principle yet the consideration how prejudicial any such thing would be unto them in their Trades by reason of their fixed Habitations doth make them to do that which is right and just in their dealings But neither of these can rationally sway
such Victuals as is convenient for the same Feast 4. No Butter shall be sold but according to the Weight for the time of the year allowed 5. No Poulterers shall deceivably occupy the Market to sell any stale Victuals or such as be Poulterers of this City for to stand in strange Cloathing so to do under pain of Forty shillings and the forfeiture of such Victuals Forty shillings 6. No Hucksters shall stand or fit in the Market but in the lower place and the ends of the Market to the intent they may be perfectly known and the Stranger-market-people have the preheminence of the Market under pain of Three shillings four pence if the Hucksters disobey the same 7. No unwholsom or stale Victuals shall be sold under pain of Forty shillings and forfeiture of the same Victuals CHAP. XX. Of the Coal-Market AT the Head of Billings-Gate Dock is a square Plot of Ground compassed with Posts known by the name of Roomland which with the adjacent part of the Street hath been the usual place where the Ship-Masters Coal-Merchants Wood-mongers Lighter-men and Labourers do meet every Morning in order to the buying selling delivering and taking up of Sea-Coals and Scotch-Coals as the principal Market This Coal-Market was kept on Great Tower-Hill in the time of the Cities late Desolation CHAP. XXI Of the Corn-Market UPon Bear-Key between Sab's Dock and Porters-Key is the usual place or chief Market for Corn which is bought and sold there every day but principally Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays which are the Market-days where great quantities of all kind of Grain are bought and sold by small Examples commonly called Samples whether it be lying in Granaries or Ships and it viz. Bear-Key is the principal place where the Kentish and Essex Corn-Vessels do lie CHAP. XXII Of the Fish-Market THe Fresh Fish-Market is kept at Billings-Gate Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays CHAP. XXIII Of the Merchants of LONDON MErchandizing may be said to be an Art or Science Invented by Ingenious Man-kind for the Publick Good and Profit of all supplying as was said the Native wants of one place by the abundance of others that do not consume their own Growths Products or Manufactures Such as Negotiate and Traffick this way are called Merchants The things sold or exchanged are Two First Wares or Goods and Secondly Moneys or Coyn which are usually Contracted or Bargained for three ways First When Goods are Exchanged for Goods that is so much of one Sort for like value of another and this is called Bartering usual here in old times and in many places of America Asia and Affrica in these days but in process of time Men finding it too difficult and troublesom to carry about them all things thus Bargained and Truckt for from place to place invented a common Standard or Measure that should countervail and be in value as all other things and be accounted in Payments Satisfaction and Equivalency to all others and this is called Money of Gold Silver or other Metals This use of Money is as old as Abraham but it was not then Coyned but only in Pieces unstampt and since by Authority of Princes it was divided into great and small Pieces and into several and distinct Parts and Denominations and Stampt or Coyned with several Characters denoting the true Weight and Value of the same This was done first by Servius in Rome of Brass whereon was Imprinted the Image of Sheep and Oxen betokening the Wealth and Riches of those days Ten of those Pieces made a Denier or Penny and were called by Latins Denarii This was the Original of Money which afterward came to be Coyned of Silver and Gold Secondly The second way is of Goods for Money and this is termed Bargaining or Buying and Selling This facilitates Merchandizing and to prevent the Inconvenience and Danger of the Carriage of Money about a Man another Medium was found and that was Thirdly Exchanging which is of the giving of so much Money in one place to one who should cause it again to be repay'd in another place by another for him In all Exchanges there is concluded two Payments two Places and four distinct Persons viz. He that payeth in one place and receiveth in another and he that receiveth in the one place and payeth in the other and so no man can remit except there be another to draw nor can any receive except there be another authorized to pay The first of these ways was taught to Mankind by necessity the Second was sound out to facilitate the First and the Third to facilitate the Second Thus was the Original of Exchanges to accommodate Commerce which was first practised without benefit or loss or any other consideration they using to pay the value of the very Sum received but in time it came to be considered that the Party paying loses time and runs a hazard and therefore it was held reasonable that he should have some benefit Hence Exchanges are converted to an Art or Mystery Moneys being remitted for benefit without so much respect to the end of its Original Institution In the first sort the Merchant ought to know the Commodities delivered and received the present value of both the Quality Viz. whether lasting or perishable the Property viz. whether of Natural growth or Artificial And lastly the Quantity Viz. whether plentiful or scarce and in few Lands In the second sort the same things are necessary and also a knowledge how the Things are Bought and Sold whether by Weight as ponderous Goods by Concave or long Measures as Commodities of Length or such as are Solid or Liquid A knowledge of Weights and Measures of the fineness goodness and currant value of Money c. A Merchant is to know what to bargain for how to bargain when to bargain and with whom which comprehends the knowledge of the Commodity Weights and Measures proper Seasons and Credit of the Party bargained with In the third sort there is necessary a knowledge of the fineness goodness and currant value of the Princes Coyn where the Remitter and Party receiving abide a knowledge of the currant Rate of Exchanging of the Par or value for value both according to the Standard of the Country and according to the Valuation of the currant Coyn there passable Then of the Vsance of the Place and a knowledge of the Drawer and Receiver As also the due manner and form of making of all Legal Intimations Protests and other such needful Instruments Circumstances and Observations as are requisite upon default of payment according to the strict and solemn Rules required in a Bill of Exchange These General Heads are not to instruct Merchants but to give a kind of a view of this Noble Calling to others that are Strangers to it More particularly in this Famous City is a great number of Merchants who for Wealth for Stately Houses within the City in Winter and without in Summer for rich Furniture plentiful Tables honourable Living for great
sufficient Mens Sons put Apprentices to this Trade Secondly Because the Shop-keeping Trade is an easie life and thence many are induced to run into it and there hath been no Law to prevent it or if there be any it hath been very slackly executed which maketh very many like a mighty Torrent fall into it which hath been verified for several years past by many Husbandmen Labourers and Artificers who have left off their Working Trades and turned Shop-keepers And of Quakers great numbers of late years are become Shop-keepers for if a man that hath been very meanly bred and was never worth much above a Groat in all his life do but turn Quaker he is presently set up in one Shop-keeping ' Trade or other and then many of them will compass Sea and Land to get this New Quaking Shop-keeper a Trade And if he be of a Trade that no other Quaker is of in the Town or Village then he shall take all their Money which they have occasion to lay out and expend in his way their custom being to sell to all the World but they will buy only of their own Tribe Insomuch that it is conceived by some wise men that they will in a short time engross the whole Trade of the Kingdom into their hands And then again there are some of the Silk-Weavers but more of the Clothiers that deal in as many it not far more Commodities than any Shop-keeper doth that hath been Apprentice to his Trade for they sell not only the Cloath that they make but Stuffs Linnen and many other things and have such ways to put off their Commodities which the Shop-keeper hath not for they will truck them off for Shoes with the Shoe-maker for Candles with the Chandler and sometimes with the Butcher for Meat and will make their Work-folks to take the same for their Work although there be an express Statute against it and then these Work-folks will fell the same again for money to buy such necessaries which they want And it is not much better with them of the City of London for there are many that do live in a Chamber that do take twice as much money as many Shop-keepers do who pay four times the Rent that they do so that it cannot be imagined what an innumerable company of Shop-keepers are in every place and such practices as these have utterly impaired all Shop-keeping Trades in this Kingdom which are Grievances never suffered in former times being against the common good of the People of this Nation and it 's desired they were speedily redressed for these following Reasons First Because the Shop-keeping Trade is both a convenient and easie way for the Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of this Kingdom to provide for their younger Sons that so the Bulk of their Estates may go to the Eldest For there are few younger Sons who are Tradesmen that have much above one years Revenue of their Fathers Estate for their Patrimony Now these being kept close to business is the time of their youth many of them come to be sober and industrious men and with this small Portion to live a little answerable to the Family from whence they descended being serviceable in their Generation both to their King and Country and many times keep up the Name and Grandeur of their Family when their Eldest Brother by his vitious and intemperate Life hath lost it And oftentimes it proveth advantageous to their Daughters too for it doth frequently happen when the Gentry die that they leave but small Portions to their Daughters scarce sufficient to prefer them to Gentlemen of great Revenues parallel'd to their Families yet nevertheless may be thought worthy and deserving of Tradesmen who are the younger Sons of Gentlemen and by their Matching with such as those do come to live a little suitably to their Birth and Breeding Indeed the Inns-of-Court and the Universities must be acknowledged to be both of them places fit for the preferment of younger Sons but every one hath not a Genius capable of learning those Noble yet abstruse Sciences there taught and profess'd who notwithstanding are capable enough of a Shop-keeping Trade Besides if every one were fit for either of these yet they would not suffice to receive a third part even of this sort of Youth and then what should be done with the rest should they be brought up to no Employment but he left to the Extravagancy of their youthful Lusts to commit such Impieties and Debaucheries which may justly entitle tham to the Compellations given by Augustus Caesar to his lewd Children viz. to be called The Botches and Boyls of their Family As it is observable in those Countries where the Gentry disdain to place forth their Children to Trades who therefore turn very dissolute and vicious and no way serviceable in times of peace in their Generation either to their King or Country where they live Secondly Because Shop-keepers by reason of their Education were never used to labour and should their Trades be destroyed by these means they will not know how to maintain themselves and their Families but they that have been bred to work they may labour in any other Employment if that to which they have been bred will not maintain them Thirdly Because this hath rendred the Shop-keeping Trade to be unprofitable like unto many unstinted Commons that no body is the better for Now where there is no Order or Rule there must be Confusion as it is in Trades at this time and yet there is Order and Rule observed in other Vocations and why not so in this The Minister must not preach until he is Ordained the Lawyer must not plead before he is called to the Bar the Chyrurgeon must not practise before he hath his License neither can the Midwife practise before she hath her License too And therefore why should any set up a Shop-keeping Trade before they have been made free of the same This is one Reason why so few Apprentices after they come out of their time do get into the World or can make any benefit of their Trades wherein it concerneth all whatsoever whether Gentlemen or Clergymen to be very sollicitous for the preservation of this way of life which is so conducing to the preferment of their Children Fourthly Because it will cost a round Sum of Money before a Child can be setled in any Shop-keeping Trade First to breed him at School and to make him fit for the same 2. To place him forth to the said Trade when he is fit which will cost in a Country Market Town not less then fifty or sixty Pounds but in London upwards of an hundred so that these Trades do seem to be purchased and that not only with Money by the Parents but with a Servitude also by the Son Therefore as I conceive they ought to have the properties of their Trades confirmed unto them even as other men have the properties of their Lands confirmed unto them That
is a greater vanity For such think they oblige you in doing you the honour to eat up vour Cheer which to them which fare sumptuously every day is scarce look't upon as extraordinary so that instead of accepting your civility they resent it as an affront that it was no richer and what shall be indeed profusion in you will be lookt upon but as the Wrens pissing in the Sea to them But what I have here said of entertainment I intend not of such as are accidentally Guests Persons that come to visit in kindness For unto such as these entertainment is due and ought to be free and proportioned to the quality of the Persons concerned with that heartiness and plenty as may abundantly speak for you that they are welcome And in very deed such intercourses as these are necessary to preserve a mutual Friendship and keep alive the remembrance or that Kindred and Relation which otherwise like unremoved Legs would grow into the Earth which at first begat them But what House soever you keep when Friends are with you let your ordinary and private fare be never costly but such as though the best in its kind yet plain and wholsome to fortifie Nature and nourish not to tickle the Palate For the Bit that one eats makes no Friend For to please the dainty Tooth is an expensive humour and doubles that charge which House-keeping bringeth while the sauce is more than the Meat and 't is as dear to Cook a Dish as to provide it And verily the vanity of some deserves our wonder who are of that Heliogabalian Stomach to which nothing doth relish which is not dear and fancy Fish most when farthest from shore then onely loving Pease when they are scarce to be had and Cherries when they are ty'd on Sticks In buying provisions be your own Caterer wherein at least you may have this convenience that you may please your self Beside however faithful your Servant may be so that he lets down no gnats without a strain you cannot expect that he should part with your Coyn with that care and difficulty as you would your self whose dayly feeling how mech provision doth pinch makes wary and hard to be drawn to expence But be chiefly advis'd not to run on the Score for you may be assured that with great advantage you may take up Money at Use to pay ready down For there 's none of them all but reckons how they forbear and will be sure to be allow'd not only because they must stay for their Money but trust there being nothing so certain in the World as that which is present You will also find that a true Proverb That the best is best cheap For besides that in flesh there is much the less quantity of Bones for the weight where they are covered almost twice of the thickness in all other things you 'll find much the less waste because that which is the good goes down without Scraps while parings and refuse go a great way in what is not Servants making no scruple to cast that to the Dogs which they are soon apt to think is not good enough for themselves Be you also assur'd that the best of Servants must be over-lookt for it is rare to find those who will not make waste And as it is fit they should have to the full their Meat being a great part of the wages of their work So are there few but do labour under fulness of Bread and none that consider of what they would be glad when they come to keep a poor house of their own In your buying Provisions you 'll find it the best to go to their Fountains for the farther from thence so much the dearer There being no second hand but so licks his own fingers as what while he hath his gains the Commodity is inhanc'd and that which is his livelihood must be what you give more than he paid 'T is also best to buy by the great All Chapmen complying much sooner for much than for a little their gains by so much the more considerable and their put off the greater But then must your Expenditor be wary and so give out the store which you have provided as remembring the place to spare is never at the bottom besides the much more easiness to lurch the greater quantities where a little taken is not discern'd for which cause it is not safe to trust a Servant at an whole heap there being very few of that Integrity as then to keep their hands from picking when none can witness that they did prevaricate or if they be such it is not safe to tempt with opportunity CHAP. VI. Of the Trude of LONDON TO go about to demonstrate the great necessity and benefit of Trade in General in a Common-wealth or City were but In re non dubia uti oratione non necessaria in a matter which is undoubted to use a needless Harangue it being certain that Wealth and Riches which are acquired by Traffick and Industry are Subsidia Belli Ornamenta Pacis the Supports of War and Ornaments of Peace by which the wants of one place are supplyed by the plenty of another and the indigence of the Poor relieved by employments from the Rich there being such a general dependance of one Calling upon another from the highest to the lowest that they cannot well subsist without the mutual aid of each other in which is manifest the infinite Wisdom of the Sovereign Disposer of all things who has order'd Humane Affairs to so due and regular a subordination to each other and so necessary a Concatenation among themselves that by a perfect Symmetry or Simphony of Parts they conclude in a perfect Harmony of general good to Mankind which Superlative Blessing should be improved to mutual Advantage and the Glory of the Supream Author of it CHAP. VII Of the Corporations of London THE other Traders in London are divided into Companies or Corporations who are as so many Bodies Politick Of these there are Twelve called the chief Companies and he that is chosen Lord Mayor must be free of one of these Companies which are 1. Mercers 2. Grocers 3. Drapers 4. Fishmongers 5. Goldsmiths 6. Skinners 7. Merchant-Taylors 8. Haberdashers 9. Salters 10. Ironmongers 11. Vintners 12. Clothworkers And if it happen that the Lord Mayor Elect is of any other Company he presently removes to one of the Twelve All these Companies have Assembly-places called Halls which are so many Basilikes or stately and sumptuous Palaces worthy to be view'd by all Strangers It hath been the Custom of our Kings to Honour some of these Companies by taking their Freedom thereof and the present King was pleased to be made Free of the Company of Grocers and the present Prince of Orange was not long ago made Free of the Company of Drapers Each Company or Mystery hath a Master annually chosen from among themselves and other subordinate Governers called Wardens or Assistants These do exactly correspond
with the general Government of the City by a Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council who are selected out of these several Companies so excellent a harmony there is in this Government These Corporations or Bodies-Politick have all their stately spacious Halls as was said with Clerks and other Ministerial Officers to attend them when they meet to consult about the Regulation of their respective Societies and for promoting publick Good and advancement of Trade and Wealth as also when they meet at their sumptuous and splendid Feasts And in this London surpasseth all other Cities CHAP. VIII The Oath of a Freeman of London YE shall Swear That ye shall be good and true to our Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second and to the Heirs of our said Sovereign Lord the King Obeysant and Obedient ye shall be to the Mayor and Ministers of this City the Franchises and Customs thereof ye shall maintain and this City keep harmless in that which in you is Ye shall be contributary to all manner of Charges within this City as Summons Watches Contributions Taxes Tallages Lot and Scot and to all Charges bearing your part as a Freeman ought to do Ye shall colour no Foreigners Goods under or in your Name whereby the King or this City might or may lose their Customs or Advantages Ye shall know no Foreigner to buy or sell any Merchandize with any Foreigner within this City or Franchise thereof but ye shall warn the Chamberlain thereof or some Minister of the Chamber Ye shall implead or sue no Freeman out of this City whilst ye may have Right and Law within the same City Ye shall take none Apprentice but if he be Free-born that is to say no Bondmans Son nor the Son of any Alien and for no less term than for seven years without fraud or deceit and within the first Year ye shall cause him to be Inrolled or else pay such Fine as shall be reasonably imposed upon you for omitting the same and after his terms end within convenient time being required ye shall make him Free of this City if he have well and truly served you Ye shall also keep the Kings Peace in your own Person Ye shall know no Gatherings Conventicles or Conspiracies made against the Kings Peace but ye shall warn the the Mayor thereof or lett it to your Power All these Points and Articles ye shall well and truly keep according to the Laws and Customs of this City to your power So God you help c. CHAP. IX The Particular Advantages of London with Respect to Trade SOme of the Advantages of this great City is by the goodly River of Thames which opening Eastward towards Germany and France is much more advantageous for Traffick than any other River in England and it may be said without vanity that no River in the World can shew a braver sight of Ships than are commonly to be seen like a floating Forrest from Black-Wall to London-Bridge which in continual Voyages import all sorts of Goods either for need or ornament and Export our Superfluities to the extraordinary Advantage of all sorts of People high or low Another Advantage that London hath is its being situate so far within the Land that iâ— is plentifully supplied with all necessary provision from the Country at easie and indifferent Rates and the Manufactures of the respective Counties which the City disperses to Markets beyond Seas in recompence the Country is supplied by the City with all sorts of necessary Merchandizes wanting there c. Insomuch that London is a large Magazine of Men Money Ships Horses Ammunition of all sorts of Commodities necessary or expedient for the use or pleasure of Mankind It is the mighty Rendezvouz of Nobility Gentry Courtiers Divines Lawyers Physitians Merchants Seamen and all kind of excellent Artificers of the most refined Wits and most excellent Beauties For it is observed that in most Families of England if there be any Son or Daughter that excels the rest in Beauty or Wit or perhaps Courage or Industry or any other rare Quality London is their Pole-Star and they are never at rest till they point directly thither which vast confluence besides being the Kings Chief and Imperial Seat where Parliaments and the Principal Courts of Justice are held where the in as or Colleges of the Municipal Laws are Stated wâ—th the great Houses of the Nobility and Ministers of State must needs bring a vast Advantage and Increase to Trade besides the most Exquisite Ornament and Gallantry that any place in the World can shew CHAP. X. Of the Foreign Trade of London AS to the Trade of London into Foreign Parts we have almost prevented our self by what is delivered before we shall therefore only add that England abounding with many rich and useful Native Commodities as Woolen-Cloths of all sorts Broad and Narrow called by several Names in several Shires also Perpetuanoes Bays Says Serges Cottons Kersies Buffins Mocadoes Grograms Sattins Tabbies Callimancaes Camlets Velvets Piushes Worsteds Fustians Durances Tukes Crapes Flannels and infinite others Furs and Skins as Conney-skins Squirrel-skins Fitches Calve-skins Hides c. Mines as Tin Lead Allom Copper Iron of all sorts Sea-Cole Salt c. All manner of Grain as Oats Pease Barley Rye and Wheat in great plenty c. Also Linnen-Cloth Flax Hemp c. All Iron Wares Tallow Leather Glasseâ— of all sorts and Glass Venice-Gold and Silver Train-Oyl Salmons Pilchards Herrings Hake Conger Haberdine Cod Ling Hops Wood Butter Cheese Beer Syder Saltpetre Gun-powder Honey Wax Alabaster and other Stones Wools Woolfels Yarn Fullers-Earth Saffron Liquoras c. And many other good and rich Commodities too tedious to be enumerated The Merchants of London do yearly Export great quantities of such of these Goods as are not prohibited to Foreign Markets and make good Returns and bring to supply the Kingdom a great deal of Treasure and rich Commodities from all parts of the World to the enriching of themselves unspeakable benefit of the Nation and Credit of the English in genetal who are generally as fair Dealers as any in the World and of as active and undertaking Souls and the principal Seat or Emporium of this great Trade is the great and famous City of London CHAP. XI Of the Trade of London into the Countrey OF this we need say but little it being so universally known to the whole Land the Londoners using to supply all the Trading places of the Kingdom especially on great Fairs to which they resort in great numbers and afford their Goods at the best hand to their own and their Countreys great benefit and in requital the adjacent Counties supply the City with all manner of Necessaries for Food Hay Fuel c. insomuch that Strangers have admired at the prodigious plenty of all sorts that are to be seen in the great and well-furnished Markets of Leaden-Hall Stocks Milk-street New-Gate Clare South-Hampton St. Albans Westminster Hungerford and Brooks with several others so that here