with some that have Tables daily furnished at the Kings charge to feed so many as depend upon it and entertain such men of quality as shall come to his Court about his or their affairs and would much advance their private purses and do well in their own families to have the expences of it turned into a yearly Pension in money wherein the King is like to be as much a saver as King Charles the Martyr was when he allowed Mr. Andrew Pitcarne the Master of his Hawks ten shillings per diem to provide Pigeons Hens and other meat for his Hawks and as he and many of his Progenitors have been in converting allowances or provisions into Salaries And that some of those who advise a Sparing not at all becoming the grandeur and honour of a Prince to make themselves the greater gainers by his bounty to be worse imployed upon themselves may suppose that which might be a fit Espargne in their own lesser Orbes and Oeconomies may serve for the Court and Family of an English King and that the Grandeur and Magnificence thereof would be but little or not at all lessened by some thriftie contrivances and abatements calculated only for their own Meridian and that the Power Authority and Virtue of a Prince can well enough subsist without the prop and support of that due Awe and Reverence which are to attend the Majesty of Kings and that some in their short sighted Policies may reckon such or the like good husbandries to be no small part of Prudence and Providence very laudable and fit to be put in practice Yet the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the state and magnificence of Kings and their Princely Families allowed as well as mentioned in the Book of God and Holy Writ as that of Pharaoh Saul David Solomon and Ahashuerus The State and Magnificence of all the Christian and Heathen Kings and Princes Grecian Magistrates Romane Consuls and Dictators Venetian Doges and Dutch Stadtholders and our laudable customs of England can teach every man who hath not abjured his own reason as well as the Laws of God and Nature and the reasonable customes of England how very necessary the honor and State of Princes are to the obedience and good Government of the people how much they conduce to their well-being how the observance honor and reverence due unto Kings are lessened by the meannesse of their Servants and diminishing their State and Port how unsafe and insipid such new found policies and contrivances would be and that the dishonor of the Prince is the unsafety and dishonor of the people who may easily and every where find a necessity of his Pourveyance or Compositions for it and no reason at all to deny it When the total of the charges of it will be so useful to their Soveraign so becomming his Royal Dignity so necessary to the honor and splendor of his house-keeping and that the parts which shall be charged upon particular men to make up that total will be so petit and inconsiderable as our Laws and the Compositions for Pourveyance had ordered it CHAP. VI. The small charge of the Pourveyance or Compositions for it to or upon such of the people as were chargeable with it AS may evidently and undeniably appear by the Compositions for Pourveyance which were agreed to be paid by the several Counties As For the County of Anglisey in Wales which hath eighty three Parishes but five pounds which is for every Parish not one shilling three pence it being commonly in every County charged onely upon the Lands of inheritance of the greater size or quantity not upon Copyholders or small Freeholders and upon those kind of Lands which were most proper for it and could better afford it as Wheat Malt c. upon Errable Lands and Cattel upon Pasture c. For the County of Mountgomery who weâ—e to provide yearly but twenty Sturks or smaller sized Cattle so called or sixty pounds per annum and had Fifty four Parishes whereof five or six were Borough Towns which made the charge upon every Parish to be little more then twenty shillings per annum All the charge of the Compositions for the Kings provisions being onely of one hundred and eighty Sturks in Wales and its thirteen shires or Counties which costes that Dominion yeerly no more then three hundred and sixty pounds The County of Worcester which hath one hundred and fifty two Parishes paid but four hundred ninety five pounds besides the Kings pâ—ice or rate allowed for provisions served in kinde which is but three pounds and seven shillings or thereabouts to be assessed upon every Parish Derbyshire having one hundred and six Parishes paid but two hundred fifty four pounds two shillings two pence which is something less then fifty shillings upon every Parish Yorkeshire which hath four hundred fifty nine Parishes besides many large Chapelries was charged with no more then four hundred ninety five pounds which was not two and twenty shillings upon every Parish one with another and would not be six pence a year upon every house one with another if no respect were to be had to the real or personal Estates of the proprietors which admits of large differences or proportions more or less then one another The County of Midlesex having seventy three Parishes besides what are in the London Suburbes paid but nine hundred seventeen pound nineteen shillings which by her great benefits by the Kings constant residence in it is in a better condition with her few but vâ—ry plentiful and numerous Parishes then the Counties further distant and by the letting and setting of their Lands Houses and Lodgings and the great rates and prices of all the Commodities which they sell to other people gaineth fourty to one at the least of what they loose by the Kings prices for his Pourveyance or houshold provisions the City of Westminster and the Suburb Parishes of London consisting more of houses then Lands or Pasture and being not at all charged or troubled wiâ—◠〈◊〉 The County of Essex paid for Composition but two thousand nine hundred thirty one pounds two shillings and two pâ—nce and having many of the benefits which Midlesex enjoyeth far exceeding the charge of the Compositions for Pourveyance hath four hundred and fifteen Parishes which is little more then seven pound five shillings upon every Parish chargeable for the Compositions and provisions served in kinde Bedfordshire which hath one hundred and sixteen Parishes paid but four hundred ninty seven pounds eight shillings four pence which was but four pounds five shillings nine pence upon every Parish The County of Buckingham which hath one hundred eighty five Parishes two thousand fourty pounds sixteen shillings and six pence which was but something more then eleven pounds upon every Parish one with another Berkshire having one hundred and fourty Parishes but one thousand two hundred and fifty five pounds seventeen shillings and eight pence which did not charge every Parish with
as they can they doe with Trumpets Drums and Musick by water in their several Barges adorned with the Banners and Arms of their Companies or Gilds conduct and attend their Lord Maior to be sworn at Westminster although the City of London and every Company in London are abundantly or very well endowed with lands of inheritance of a great yearly value and great stocks of money by Gifts and Legacies And no less reason then the imposing of a penny upon every Broad Cloth brought to sale to Blackwell-hall in London to be paid to the Chamberlain of London to the use of the City for Hallage which the Judges of the Kings Bench in Mich. Terme 32 33 Eliz. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case adjudged to be lawfull because it was as they then declared pro bono publico in regard of the benefits which the Subjects enjoyed thereby and for the maintenance of the weal publick and can not be said to be a charge to the Subject when he reaps benefit thereby and resembled it to Pontage Murage Toll and the like which as appeareth by the book of 13 H. 4.14 being reasonable the Subject will have more benefit by it then the charge amounts unto and that the Inhabitants of a Town or Parish may without any Custome make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or High-wayes or any thing which is for the weal publick and in such cases the greater part shall bind all the rest And as much to be approved as the wages of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses coming to Parliaments which are taxed and levied of the Counties Cities and Boroughs some few as those which hold any Lands parcel of an Earldome or Barony only excepted and the charges of the Convocation or Clergy assessed upon the Clergy The Synodals Procurations Proxies and payments made and paid by every Minister to defray the charges of the Arch Deacons in their Visitations every year and the Bishops every three years who are enabled to recover them by the Statute of 34 and 35 of Henry the eighth cap. 19. Oblations Easter and other offerings for the further supply and maintenance of the Ministry Tributes Customes and allowances to Governors of Colonies and Plantations as Virginia New-England Barbados c. or 10 s. or some other rate given by Merchants to the Consuls at Venice Smirna Aleppo Ligorne c. towards their support to assist them in the matter of Trade and procuring Justice from the Superiors of the Territories The Pensions Admissions and Payments in the Universities and the severall Colleges and Halls therein for their support with Taxes also sometimes imposed for publick Entertainments of the King Queen Prince Chancellor of the University or some other Grandees although every Colledge and Hall is endowed with large yearly and perpetuall Revenues in Lands the Admittances yearly Pensions and Payments together with the sale and rent of many Chambers in the Inns of Court Chancery or Colledges or Houses of Law towards the maintenance charges and support of the honour of those Societies and contributions not seldome made and enforced towards publick Treatments and Masques the payments and rates in Parishes for Pews Burialls tolling a passing Bell or ringing him and his companions at Funerals which if not enough to defray the charges of the many Feasts and Meetings of the Church-wardens and Petty States of the Parish repairing of the Church new painting and adorning it buying new Bell-ropes casting one or more Bells building the Steeple something higher or making a sumptuous Diall with a gilded Time and Hour-glass are sure enough to be enlarged by a Parish Rate or Tax more then it comes to Or that which is paid by the poor Tankard or Water-Bearers at the Conduits in London where every one payeth three shillings and six pence at his admittance and a penny a quarter towards the support of that pittifull Society Or those contributions sic magna componere parvis to represent great things by small and the vegetation or manner of the growth of an Oak by that of the lowly Shrubs which are made by a more impoverished sort of people the Prisoners for Debt in Ludgate by Orders and Constitutions so necessary is Government and Order and the support thereof even in misery of their own sorrowfull making in their narrow confinements that the Assistant which is monethly chosen by all the Prisoners to attend in the Watch-hall all day to call down prisoners to strangers which come to speak with them change money for the Cryers at the Grates keep an accompt in writing what money or gifts are every day sent to the Prisoners or given to the Box to charge the Steward with it upon the Accompt day see the Accompts truly cast up the Celler cleared by ten of the clock at night of all Prisoners and the Prisoners to be at their Lodgings quietly and civily hath his share of six pence allowed out of the Charity money every night whereof two pence is to be for the Assistant two pence for the Master of the Box and the other two pence allowed in mony or drink unto him which is the running Assistant or unto the Scavenger for bearing 2 candles before him at nine of the clock at night and rings the bell for Prayers is the Cryer for sale at the Markets for the Charity men of light bread taken by the Lord Maior or Sheriffs chumps of Beefe or any other things sent in by the City Clerk of the Market and unsized Fish by the water Bayliffe with many other small employments for which his Salery is four shillings eight pence per moneth and two pence out of the sixteen pence paid by every Prisoner at his first coming And the Scavenger who is to keep the house clean hath for his standing Salery five shillings eight pence per moneth two pence for every Prisoner at his first coming out of the sixteen pence table-money by him paid and a penny out of every Fine imposed upon offenders for the breach of any orders Every Prisoner paying at his first coming besides many other Fees fourteen pence for entring his name and turning the key five shillings for a Garnish to his Chamber-fellows to be spent in coals and candles for their own use or for a Dinner or Supper and sixteen pence to one of the Stewards of the House for Table-money out of which candles are to be bought for the use of the House every night set up in places necessary c. notwithstanding that it hath above 60 l. per annum belonging unto it charged upon lands in perpetuity and many other considerable and misused Legacies which have been setled and bestowed upon that should be well priviledged Prison And as much and more reasonable as the generall protection and defence is above any particular and the publick benefits do exceed any that are private as those payments and services which being derived from gratitude or retribution for
for his kindness shewed unto him in the Land wherein he had sojourned Araunah bowing himself with his face to the ground before King David when he asked him to buy his threshing floor and being willing not only to have given it him if he would have accepted it as a King and unto the King as the Text saith the Threshing floor but Oxen also for burnt sacrifice And The custome of Strangers much more to be observed by Subjects who are under greater obligations in the Queen of Sheba's presents of an hundred and twenty Talents of gold and of spices very great store and pretious stones which she had before hand prepared and brought with her and gave him at her departure or in acknowledgement of her entertainment And of Naaman the Sirians pressing the Prophet Elisha very hard after he was cured of his leprosie by no long or troublesome medicines to take a blessing of him which may be understood to be no less an offer then a good part of ten talents of silver six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment which he took with him when he began his journey unto him to seek his cure And more expressions of thankfulness then the Royal Pourveyance amounteth unto may certainly be due unto the King who doth not as many great and small Princes or States usually do in Germany and Italy build Forts upon some or many rivers or passages which may streighten incumber or terrifie Merchants with their Merchandize or other men that travail in the day time or at other seasonable times upon their occasions and affairs to enforce a Toll or payments of money nor make a Sundt or Baltick of the Auss or passage from Bristow to Wales or out of Lincolnshire over the Humâ—er to Hull or at Barwick or Newcastle or in the passage betwixt Dover and Calais which might yeild him even of Strangers a benefit or profit as considerable or very neer as much as the Danish King doth of the Sund. Suffers not the people to be troubled in their going to Markets Fairs or passing to fro with their goods or inland Commodities or Merchandize with any such paages payages or monies as are now paid by Passengers through the divers great and small many several Territories of the Nobility or Lords of Manors in France for carriage of Goods or Merchandise some of which payments are called Barrage by reason of a Barre put cross the way or Billets in respect of a Billet which is hung upon a tree to denote the entrance into another Territory or Pontage for the passage over a Bridge or Prevostè for the Customes or Rights due in their passage to the Lord of that Jurisdiction or the Travers which is paid by every one which carrieth any thing to sell out of the Manor Jurisdiction or Territorie and altogether doe make so great a trouble to the Carters Voituriers Passengers or people and the affairs of Merchandise loosing much time in paying their Billets almost in every Parish as they pass finding out and tarrying for those that are to receive it and in some places having Souldiers or some hungry and almost starved companions placed to receive it and Billets hung out many times where they should not and being constrained thereby to seek by-wayes to escape such their too farre extended exactions and hazard themselves if catched to pay une grosse amende more then otherwise they should as the Commonalty and poor People of France who have little more for their hard labours and drudgery to comfort them then a Lenten or slender dyet all the year with Taxes Rags and Apish fashions had rather pay another Tail or Tax to the King or twenty times as much to the Lords in their petites soâ—erainetès little Royalties then to be so much incumbred Which our Traders and Travailers are not at all troubled with but are excused at Markets and Fairs Cities or Towns of Trade by a Toll which is more antient then the Conquest or a few Centuries are now taken by the King where he or his Progenitors have not granted them away unto others at the same or some easie rates which they were at some hundreds of years or long agoe when the price of a fat Sheep or Mutton was but twenty pence and the Toll in some places for they vary according to custome at one half penny a Sheep amounted unto a fortieth part of the then value of a fat Sheep which is now not seldome rated and sold at 20 s. and may therefore be the more contentedly paid and if raised up together with the Pickage and Stallage and for the Pennes to the now rates of victuals and provisions would according to the difference betwixt the then small value of silver and that which is now more then twice as much and at 5 s. and a penny the ounce and setled again in the Crown from whence it first came to many Lords of Manors some of whom doe make 80 l. per annum by it go a great way towards the loss or charges which the Counties doe pretend were laid upon them by the differences betwixt the Market prises and the rates which they did in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth agree by their Compositions to serve in the provisions for her and her Royall Family or if raised up proportionably unto the price which it bears in the Markets and Fairs since those Tolls were first set and imposed which must needs be understood to have a greater respect to the value then the numbers or what they have been enhaunced since the 24. year of the Reign of Henry the eighth after the ounce of Silver was raised to five shillings when a pound of Mutton was by Act of Parliament not to be sold above a half penny farthing and in Anno 34 of Henry the eighth 25 Boards or Stalls in the Stocks Market in London for Fishmongers paid rent yearly to the City 34 l. 13 s. 4 d. and for eighteen Butchers Boards or Stalls one and forty pounds sixteen shillings and four pence or the Reign of King Henry the first which was long after the custome of paying Toll when the rate or price of a Mutton for the Kings provision was secundum constitutâ—m modum according to the then valuation and rate set at no greater a price then four pence so great a difference had two hundred years betwixt that and the Reign of King Edward the second made in the rates and provisions for victuals would make an encrease of the rates for Pickage and Stallage and for Toll as much or more after no greater a rate then twenty shillings for a fat Mutton which is now often exceeded as five to one and come up very near unto the pretended loss or difference in serving in the provisions for the Kings house And if it did not may be well afforded and was abundantly recompenced by the indulgence of his Royall Progenitors King John and King
of the County and enter into Recognizances not to forestall or ingross provided that all Cities and Towns Corporate may assigne and licence Pourveyors for their provisions Which power of regulating weights and measures and reduction of victuals to reasonable prices and rates was no stranger in Ireland whither many if not all of our then Laws were transmitted by King John by exemplification undeâ— his great Seal of England and all our Laws reasonable Customes and Acts of Parliament both before and afterwards were by Act of Parliament called Poynings Act or Law allowed and enacted to be Laws in that Kingdome in the Reign of our King Henry the seventh Nor in Scotland where the assises of weights and measures were ordained by King James the first in Parliament in Anno Domini 1426. And it was also ordained by King James the second in Parliament that Schireffes Bayllies and uther officiars baith to burgh and to land take and inquire at ilk Court that they haldquhat persons within their boundes by is victuall and haldis it till a dearth and punish them which sall be found to offend therein and besides their uther punishment the victuall that they have be escheated to the King All which may declare and give us to understand how unreasonable it would be that the King who by his Oath and Kingly Office is to keep all his people from oppression which being one of the great sins of Sodom as the Prophet Ezekiel tells us in that she strengthened not the hand of the poor and needy caused God to say he would come down nd see the oppressions of his people should take no order to preserve himself from the more then formerly deceipts of his own people and their enhaunce of prises King Edward the second therefore and his Councell after that the Commons of England had in the second year of his Reign granted him in Parliament an aid of the five and twentieth part of their goods upon condition that he would answer and redress their grievances which they in eleven Articles had then presented unto him in some of which they complained that their Corn Victuals Poultrie and Fish as well fresh as salt were taken by those which called themselves the Kings Mâ—nisters and paid nothing for it nor gave them any manner of satisfaction by which they were greatly impoverished And he had answered that there was an Ordinance made of those prises in the time of his Father King Edward which was for the good of the King and his people and willed that it should be kept and observed in all parts did in the fifteenth year of his Reign upon occasion of his being at Cirencester in the County of Gloucester with divers of the Nobility and great men of the Kingdome not think it to be any violation of the Laws formerly made for the regulation of Pourveyance to command and ordain by his Letters Paâ—ents directed to the Sheriffs of Gloucester Worcester and Wiltshire in the words following viz. Rex vic al. ministris de Com. Glouc. Wigorn. Wilts salutem cum sumus in partibus Cirencestr cum pluribus magnatibus pro negotiis c. pro nostra ipsorum sustentatione plura victualia oportet providere plures frumentum habâ—ntes ea penes se retinent non curantes illa vendic expâ—nere nisi excessiva Caristia nos volentes sustentac â—orum providere prout decet assignavimuus Johan Hampton al. ad supervidendum blada in Com. praedict ad emend ubi blada invenerint pro pretio rationabili jam currente de quo ipsi respondeant illa quo pretio emptâ—â—runt ad liberand pistoribus braciatoribus furnend braciand vend dictis magnatibus c. that a reasonable price should according to the ordinary Market rate beset upon Corn. Noâ—â—ere the Writs or Commissions de providentiis pro Rege faciendis to buy and make provisions for the Kings houshold in 7 E. 2. 37 E. 3. 3 R. 2. 1 H. 4. and other Kings Reigns directed to the Sheriffs of several Counties to whose oaths and Offices it belonged by the just and antient Laws and Customes of England to cause men to sell victuals and necessary provisions at reasonable rates and prices or Writs sent to the Sheriffes to make provisions for some of the Kings of Scotland and their Trains in their passage as they came to London to do their homage unto some of our Kings esteemed to be any breach of the peoples Liberties Neither did Queen Elizabeth that delight and love of her people enriching as well as easing and filling them with peace and plenty who was never of the opinion of Oliver Cromwel that grand Master of Iniquity who as carefull as he would seem to be of the peoples ease and liberties in his afterwards counterfeit kindness of taking away the Royal Pourveyance could when he was Lievtenant Generall of an Army of a distempered and disobedient part of the Parliament being moved by a Gentleman of Bedfordshire for some ease of their great Assessements and Burdens answere that he could never believe that the Country-men were poor or not able to bear them as long as they could whistle at the Plow and Cart but so contented them in her happy Government as the 20. day of November the beginning of her Reign is yet though above one hundred years agoe gratefully remembred with the ringing of Bells in many of the Churches of England conceive or understand it to be any grievance to the people for the Soveraign or Lex viva the maker Protector and Preserver of many of those good Laws which they enjoyed to ordain and publish by the advice of her Privy Councel who by the happy and sage conduct of all her affairs were well known by the effects as well as the causes the Mediums as well as the success to be as wise and prudent a Councel as any Prince of Christendome had to attend them That the Clerk of the Market in avoiding of the danger of the loss of his Office and further punishment at her pleasure should duly and substantially put in execution all such things as to his charge appertaineth as well for vittails to be had seasonable good and wholsome in the Towns and places near unto the Court as for the just observing of Weights and Measures assigned and assessed and likewise for setling of convenient and reasonable prises as well upon Meat and Drink Horse-meat Lodging Bedding and other things in such cases accustomed so as the Noblemen attending in the Court and all Suitors others following the same be not compelled in default of the said Clerk to be put unto excessive charges for their expences but such indifferency to be used therein as the plenty or sterility considered should accord with equity And straightly charged that no person of what estate or degree soever should in any wise pay mâ—re for Vittail Horsemeat Lodging or otherways then after the prises that
should be assessed by the said Clerk of the Market in avoiding her Highness displeasure and further punishment at her Graces pleasure Which as to the enforcing of reasonable rates and pâ—ises for victuals and houshold provisions was no more then that which all Maiors and Bailiffs of Cities Boroughs Merchant Towns and others and of the Ports of the Sea and other places are by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. authorised to doe and is to be given in charge and inquired of by the Justices of Peace of every County at their Quarter Sessions For if by the rules of Reason Policie and Prudence it was alwayes adjudged to be necessary and profitable for the people in general that the King or Prince should restrain them from deceiving or oppressing one another or not permit the cunning false or richer part of the people to deceive and put what rates or prises they please or can heighten and invent upon the plain dealing honest simple hearted poor and necessitous part of them but should rather resist the Nimrods Tormentors of them and by putting them into some method of righteousness imitate the care and designs of the Almighty to succour relieve and help the poor and needy And that it can never be for the good of the Nation so to encourage the evils and deceitfulnes of mens hearts one towards another as to suffer every one to hatch or spawn as many cheating and cozening tricks perjuries deceipts and false or aequivocal oathes as they can possibly or under a counterfeit shew of godliness make contrive and invent to blind deceive delude or oppress one another or to be like Cut-purses Jews Bandities Wild Arabs or crafty deceitfull Bannyans to the well-doing as well as well-meaning little part of the people or like Rooks cawing wrangling and making a noyse in the trees make it their perpetual business when they are not asleep to steal and filch away one anothers Nests and provisions and being guilty of as bad themselves to be in a perpetuall watch of keeping as well as they can their own whilest they are busie in stealing from others or to make old England to be a Country of Rooks and Jackdaws It cannot be certainly adaequate to any rule of Justice that the King who is to make it his daily care to provide peace plenty and benefits for all his Subjects regulates by his Magistrates and Officers rates and prices of victuals at Markets and Fairs moderates and abates such as are excessive and unreasonable and by Law may seize as forfeit the Court Leets of Lords of Manors for not providing Pillories to punish offending Bakers and ordaineth by his Laws that every Lord or other having the priviledge of a Market shall forfeit it if he have not a Clerk of the Market to look unto it should provide blessings for every one but himself and partake of none or very little of them and that his Subjects should not be at liberty to cozen and oppress one another and yet every man should be at liberty and make it his designe and business to cozen and lay burdens upon him which would be as little for the good of the body politick as it would be in the body natural to wear the head downward and make it to be subservient to the business and humor of the ignoble and less to be taken care of parts of the body Or to give liberty not only in a Siege or publick necessity like that of Samaria but at all other times unto as many as will like the gain or content of it to be as Bears and Wolves one to another and by hardening of their hearts and oppressing one another make a Wilderness and Desert in our Land of Canaan which if well ordered flows with more then milk and honey and by reason of an universall pride ingrossing enhauncing and cheating to maintain it cause a dearth when there may be a plenty And reducing him thereby into the condition of the King of Israel in that Siege when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a kab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver enforce him to answer as he did the woman which cryed unto him Help my Lord O King if the Lord doe not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the Barn floor or out of the Wine-presse Or that the King when he shall as the King of Israel did in an unseasonable and dry year search the Land for grass to save the peoples horses mules and beasts alive should let his own not pertake of his cares but perish whilst he mittigates unjust and unconscionable rates and prices in the Markets beÌ„ himself exposed to all manner of unconscionable and deceitfull dealings Which his just and alwaies until now allowed right of Praeemption which heretofore made the Kings provision for his houshold when it was bought in the Markets or Fairs to be much cheaper then what were bought upon the vie or endeavours who should give most to purchase it at such unreasonable prices as the Sellers could strain or scrue them unto And the Commissions not seldome made by his Royal Progenitors to the Sheriffs and other Officers and Magistrates which had the delegated power of Assise and Correction of Markets and unreasonable prices and the rating of them to make his houshold provisions and where the Pourveyors and the owners could not otherwise agree were to be rated and ascertained as some Acts of Parliament and Statutes have appointed by Constables and some honest men of their Neighbourhood upon their oaths which cannot be supposed to make or admit them to be high or immoderate together with a due regulation of the Markets by the Clerks of the Markets and that care with the Law enjoyneth the Lords of Manors in their Court Leets the Sheriffs in their Tornes the Justices of Peace of every Countie and the Magistrates of every City and Towns Corporate to take in the supressing of unreasonable prices Forestallers Ingrossers and Regrators which are no small part of the causes of them would have prevented or greatly lessened And the Markets would not have risen to that excess of price which is now heavily complained of and every where to be met with by the sleepiness or sluggishness of Magistrates and Justices of the Peace neglect of their oathes and duties which are too often and easily obliterated or put out of memory by sprinkling or dipping them in the waters of some Lethe or Oblivion or by some unrighteous or unbecoming partialties connivance and kindness to their Neighbours and friends or such as they would make to be their friends a timerousness or unwillingness to displease or irritate such as are or may be their enemies or the allurements and temptation of their own Interests in letting their Lands at the rack or very much dearer then it was when the Kings price or compositions were agreed upon and by tentering the Tenants Rents
Henry the third his Sonne by their Magna Charta Agreement or Accord made with their then powerfull Barons and Church men and a discontented and seditious Commonalty since reduced into Lawes and confirmed by thirty Acts of Parliament wherein the people having many liberties granted them by those Kings the great Lords Prelates and superior part of the Clergy of whom they held which they could not then claim as rights but were to be received as favours and as much to be valued as their pardon and indemnity which was granted unto them by the same Charter King John therein promising them that all those Customes and Liberties quantum ad se pertinet erga suos omnes homines de regno suo tam Laici quam Clerici observent quantum ad se pertinet erga suos as much as belonged to him he would observe towards all men and that all as well Laick as spiritual should as much as belonged to them observe them towards such as held of them And by the late King Charles the Martyr who took but one hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome which was antiently accompted to be but of the yearly value of four hundred pounds per annum the least of which are now three or four thousand pounds per annum very many double as much and some sixteen or twenty thousand pounds per annum when as the hundred pounds was then according to the now value of silver above three hundred pounds And to disburse in houshold provisions according to the difference betwixt the rates and prises of victuals as they were in the Reign of King Edward the second which was above 80 years after the granting and confirming of Magna Charta by King Henry the third when a Capon was sold for two pence and what they are now will not be the fourth part as to some sort of provisions and victuals and as to others not the sixteenth of that hundred pounds for the Relief of an Earldome and so proportionably in other reliefs and the summe of five pounds for the relief of a Knights Fee which is but the fourteenth part according to the difference betwixt the antient and then value of the lands belonging unto a Knights Fee now estimated but at three hundred pounds per annum many of which are four or five hundred pounds per annum and others of a greater yearly value as the lands are lesser or more improved nearer or farther distant from London the grand Emporium of the Trade and Commerce of the Nation and the residence of the King and his superior Courts of Justice And are but the Antiqua Relevia antient Reliefs which King Henry the first in his Charter of Liberties granted to the people did not reduce unto any certain sums but ordered to be justa legitima And but two hundred Marks for the Relief of a Marques and two hundred pounds of a Duke although there were at the time of the making of those great Charters neither Dukes nor Marquesses in England or any such Titles in being and one hundred pounds for the relief of a Baron And if the warres had not hindred him from those and other his dues but 20 s. for every Knights fee according to the Statute in anno 3 E. 1. towards the marriage of his eldest Daughter and making his eldest Son a Knight and no more of every twenty pounds per annum in Socage Did not according to the Equity and Preamble of the Act of Parliament de anno quinto Eliz. cap. 4. which in regard that the wages and allowances limited and rated in former Statutes were in divers places too small and not answerable to that time respecting the advancement of prices of all things belonging unto Servants and Labourers and that the Law could not conveniently without the great grief and burden of the poor Laborers and hired men be put in execution and to the end that there might be a convenient proportion of wages in the times of scarcity and plenty did repeal so much of the said former Statutes as concerning the working and wages of Servants and Labourers and enacted that the wages of Artificers Labourers and Servants should be yearly assessed by the Justices of the Peace and Magistrates in every County City and Town Corporate with respect to the plenty and scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered endeavour to raise them to any higher sums or make them proportionable to the present values of lands and money rates and prices of victuals And by the favour of his now Royal Majesty who delighting in the vestigiis and pathes of his many indulgent and Royall Progenitors though his own very great wants and necessities and their daily importunities might have advised him not to have kept the road of his Ancestors liberality and bounty but to reserve some kindness for himself and his more urgent occasions did not as King Henry the third and several other Kings of England his Successors cause his Taxes Assessements by Parliament to be assessed upon oath according to the full and true value of the peoples Estates or as was done by King Edward the sixth since the Statute of 6 Ed. 3. for restraining the Parliament aids to the old Taxation upon the assistance or relief then so called given unto him by Parliament and make enquiries upon oath of the best values of the substance of such as were to pay that Relief Dismes and Subsidies and by the oaths also of those who were to pay them and caused some to be sworn to value clothes to the end that the King might receive payment of Relief for every cloth or as Queen Mary did cause an enquiry to be made upon oath of the value of the goods and lands of such as were lyable to the payment of Fifteens Dismes and Subsidies in the 2 3 4 and 5 years of her Reign But in his Assessments Aids or Subsidies granted by Parliament did imitate his Royal Father King Charles the first who took and received all his Subsidies at two shillings eight pence in the pound for goods and moveables and four shillings for lands and immoveables with defalcation of debts and consideration of a greater then ordinary charge of children assessed by an express exception without oath and the Commissioners left at liberty to assesse themselves and the Assessors according to the old and easie Taxations Takes and receives his First-fruits or the first years value of Bishopricks Spiritual Promotions and of Benefices not under ten marks per annum and Vicarages not under ten pounds per annum since treble those values as they are said to be in the Kings books and for the Tenths of their Spirituall Promotions after no greater a rate or yearly value which no Act of Parliament ever obliged him to doe then they were long agoe valued with some very small encrease or raising long since in a very few of the Bishopricks but
of the King Arch-Bishops Earls Barons and the most eminent men of the Kingdome with candles or torches burning in their hands in Westminster Hall denouncing excommunication direfull curses and Anathema's against the Infringers thereof by the candles or torches flung upon the ground and wishing that so their souls might burn in hell And the same Magna Charta being by thirty Parliaments since confirmed and accompted to be part of the peoples Birthright It can be no less then the greatest of reason that those his Liberties and Priviledges mentioned and agreed therein should be as well preserved unto him as those of the people unto them and with the greater reason in that his were alwaies his own and many of theirs but newly granted them And that he was not in the confirming of Magna Charta without some care of preserving his own rights and priviledges as appeareth by his Writ or Proclation better in former times then now obeyed sent unto the Sheriff of York in these words Cum probis hominibus nostris libertates concesserimus per Cartas nostras in quibus continetur that which we have of that excellent Law and Charter being by many learned men believed to be but a Transcript quòd nihilomninus salve sint omnibus libertates liberae consuetudines quas prius habuerunt libertates nostras de quibus maxime specialis mentio in Cartis praedictis facta non est nobis volumus inviolabiliter observari unde tibi districtè praecipimus quatenus omnes libertates nostras usitatas tempore domini Johannis Regis patris nostri quas quidem nobis non subtrahimus ex speciali mentione facta in praedictis Cartis nobis facias firmiter observari nullius obstante reclamatione sicut usitatae fuerunt temporibus antecessorum nostrorum maxime tempore predicti patris nostri wherein he having granted that their Liberties which they had before should not be prejudiced commanded him that all his Liberties and Priviledges which were not specially mentioned and granted away in those Charters should be specially observed notwithstanding any allegation to the contrary as they were used and accustomed in the times of his Ancestors and especially in the Reign of his Father King John For the reason which gives Aaron and his Sons the Clergie their Tythes and Pourveyance should perswade the people to think the Composition for Pourveyance to be no burden when as it is as short of the Tithes as one unto a hundred And it should be reason if any thing can be reason and it be not fled after Astraea into the upper Regions and left some counterfeit and false resemblance instead of it that all or many or most of the males and men of England and such as in the Court Leets and elswhere have taken the Oath of Allegiance which all the men of England and their generations are so born under as by the Laws and Customes of England it is and ought to be as Connaturall and Congaeniall unto them and the Oath of Supremacy to maintain and defend the Kings Rights and Jurisdictions and all the Citizens and Freemen of London and other Cities and Corporations of England taking an Oath to the like purpose all the Freeholders of the Kingdome holding of him immediately swearing in their homage and fealty to doe him service and be faithfull unto him all the Copiholders holding of him swearing unto him their Fealty and all the Freeholders and such as hold of their mesne Lords by Knights service or Socage in their homage and fealty unto them excepting their allegiance and duty to the King should have as great a care not to deny him those parts of his Jurisdictions Praeeminences and just rights as they would not to perjure and forswear themselves or bring the curses and woes attending such grievous sins or the breach of that part of Magna Charta upon the heads of them and their posterities which a Kings assent to any Acts of Parliament for the taking away or extinguishing such individua annexa Coronae jure diadematis potestatis atque authoritatis inseparable parts of Majesty and the Rights of his Crown Regal power and Prerogative If any Law or Sanction could enable him to that which all Laws both Civil and Common doe deny will not be sufficient to acquit or discharge for although the dispensation of Oathes by those to whom and for whose benefit they were made be in some cases allowed by the Canon Law and some Roman Casuists doe believe that violation of oathes have been well dispensed withall by those for whose interest and benefit they were made it will not be hard to determine in the greatest veneration of Parliaments which are to be obeyed actively or passively and of whose acts no man is so much as to think evil that Laws of that kind when they shall be by importunities and necessities made or enacted against the Lawes of God and right reason cannot give an absolution for oathes violated nor if they could be excused for the not payment of those most necessary duties to their King and common Parent in foro humano in this world will ever be excused in foro animae in the next And if the Parliament in Anno 18 Eliz. took it to be for the good of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge that the Colleges Halls and Houses for Students therein should receive the third part of their Rents in Corn and Mal◠and ordered them so to doe and that their Tenants who had then have since such comfortable Bargains and Leases under them as every man is glad to purchase or get them and inroll themselves for their Tenants wherein if a deer year comes once in 7 or 10 years and their Bargains happen to be so much the worser as the prises which are to be ruled according as the like was sold the Market day next before the Rent day exceeds the former or cheaper prices the yearly profit notwithstanding of their Lands being alwaies more then the Rent and six or nine cheap years to one may pacifie their complaints or grudgings the King certainly may expect as much or more care to be had of him and his house-keeping as there was of the Universities Colledges and Halls and not to be denied in his particular of Pourveyance or compositions for it that which every man thinks reasonable in his own Nor to be made so great a sufferer under those heaps of mischiefs and inconveniencies which by the great and excessive rates and prises put upon victuals and household provisions daily more and more encreasing doe assault and lessen his too smal a Revenue Neither should be rendred more helpless and in a worser condition then the Lords of Leets Sheriffs in their Turns Justices of Peace in their Counties Magistrates in Cities and Towns Corporate Judges in their Circuits the University of Oxford who hath liberty to punish the breakers of the Assise of Bread Beer and Ale and
the University of Cambridge who may require the Maior of the Town to make the Assise in the presence of the Chancellor of that University and if it be not well observed may himself punish the offenders by the authorities and power only derived from the King Who may with better reason justice and equity claim and keep his Rights of Praeemption Pourveyance and compositions for it then the Stret gavel was in 4. Ed. 1. claimed by the Lord of the Manor of Cholmton in the County of Sussex that every Tenant of that Manor should yearly give two shillings then a good summe of money pro itu reditu for his going out of the Manor or returning into it or as the Town of Maldon in Essex did in the fifteenth year of the Reign of that King claim by antient custome Totteray which was a payment of four pence for every bushel and a half of corn sold there 4 pence for Stallage and a Mark penny viz. 1 d. per illos qui truncos extra domum in vicis ejusdem ville habuerunt for every one which had pipes or gutters laid or made out of their houses into the streets de omnibus pascentibus mariscum de pecoribus of all that had cattel going or feeding in the Marsh for every Horse two pence Oxe two pence Bullock a penny and for every five Sheep two pence quae praestatio vocatur which in the language of the Civil and Common Law was usually understood to be Pourveyance or furnishing of necessary provisions Or as the Town of Yarmouth which was made a Port or Haven by Letters Patents of King Edward the first did antiently and doe now take and receive of the Herring-Fishers a certain Prize of Pourveyance of Fish and Herring towards the maintenance and repair of their Haven Or as the Lord Roos of Hamlake from whom the Earls of Rutland are descended did claim and enjoy as belonging to Belvoir Castle custumam ibidem vocat Palfrey silver quae levari debet annuatim de villis a Custome called Palfrey silver which ought to be levied every year of the Towns of Botelesford Normanton Herdeby Claxton Muston Howes Barkeley Queenby aliis Hamlettis and of other Hamlets Or as King Edward the third had to send his Writ or Comâ—â—ssion to the Magistrates of the Town of Barwick 〈◊〉 Tweed to inquire Si pisces marini Salmones in aqua de Tweed capt usque villam praedictam duci in vico vocat Narrow Gate venditioni exponi de custumis inde Regi solvend if the Sea Fish and Salmons taken in the River of Twede were brought to the Town of Barwick upon Tweed and put to sale in the street called Narrow-gate and of the Customes to be paid for them to the King More especially when the Judges in 11 Hen. 4. did resolve it to be Law as well as reason that the Pourveyor or taker for the King might take victuals or provisions at a reasonable price to the use of the King against the will of the party â—elling them Which unless the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land reasonable Customes Liberties Rights and Priviledges should be all and every thing in the peoples own cases and concernments and nothing at all in the Kings and that the duty of Subjects honor of the King and support and maintenance of him who supports and defends them and all that is theirs in their just and legal Interests should be but as the Astronomers lines and terms of art in the firmament as Zones Tropicks Meridian Zodiack and the Ursa major and minor c. meerly imaginary and undemonstrable may with as much or greater reason be understood to be no burden as the late design if it should take effect of the Petition of the Lord Maior Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London lately presented vnto the House of Common in Parliament in order as they alleage to the honor happiness and prosperity of the Kingdom that the Governor Deputy and Assistants of their desired Company of thâ—â—nglish Merchants trading into Italy and the Dominiâ—â— of the French King and the King of Portugal and of all other Merchants thereafter to be taken into that Association may besides other emoluments to be taken of the Merchants have power for the maintenance of the Government to take and receive upon all goods to be exported and imported not exceeding one twentieth part of the Customes as they are on all goods except Wines and on wines not exceeding one fourtieth part of the Customes as they now are Which twentieth part after no greater a reckoning then four hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Customes which if not too much defrauded are more likely to be eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will be twenty thousand pounds per annum and if eight hundred thousand pounds per annum will come near unto as much as the pretended losses of the Counties in the Compositions for the Pourveyances And the people of England would find the Pourveyance and Compositions for them to be for their own good and profit as well as there is a great and every where to be acknowledged reason for it not denied to be reason in their own cases affairs dealings one with another by the want of greater benefits if the King should shut up all his Ports and forbid all Trade with forreign Merchants inward or outward as some Kings and Princes have commonly and ordinarily done and as Common-wealths and those that call themselves Estates do as well as Kings and Princes in case of hostilities and upon reason of State or some other extraordinary occasions Or put down as God forbid he should or seise as forfeited by misuser which many will be found to have deserved all the Fairs and Markets in the Kingdome or some great part of them or forbid for some time as hath been antiently done all the Markets in two or three Counties and command the people to bring their victuals and provisions to be sold where the Kings or the Publick necessities or occasions wanted them or allow but one or two in a County at the chiefest or greatest of Cities or Towns or as King Henry the third did strictly command the assise of bread wine beer and victuals to be kept in Oxford in debito statu secundum precium bladi sicut in aliis Burgis Villis as it ought according to the price of corn and as was used to be in other Towns and Burrows threatning them that if they neglected to doe it he would seise and take the Town into his own hands and at the same time setting a rate or price upon wines gave the Magistrates of that Town to understand that whoever did otherwise ad corpus suum graviter se caperet omnia vina sua a Vice-comite suo Oxon. in manum suam capi praeciperet should be arrested and
some immunities and priviledges to them their successors and after generations in perpetuity When some families may be forever made happy as one was in a progress of King James when a careful Gentlewoman with her seven young children having too small an estate to educate them being purposely placed in a stand where the King was brought to shoot at a Deer and pleasantly tendred to the King as a Hen with her seven Chicken gave his Princely charity and bounty the opportunity to take them into his care and service when they came to be fit for it and brought either all or most of them to great preferments when poor people or their children being lame or diseased with the sickness called the Kings Evil may be freed from their otherwise tedious journeys and charges in going to London their abode there and returning home which if a Tax were laid upon their Parishes to furnish would come to as much if not more then the charge of Cart taking and Pourveyance did cost them When our Pool of Bethesda shall be Itinerant and the good Angel shall yearly ride his Circuit to bring blessings and cures to those that need it and where a multitude of people shall not be the cause of uncovering the roof of any house to let down the sicke in their beds to be healed All which with many other comforts and benefits which the King by his progress or residence brings to all which are or shall be near it The City of York in the North parts of England and her adjacent and neighbor Provinces would purchase at a greater rate then the Pourveyances or Compositions for them do or did ever yearly amount unto and being like to be gâ—eat and glad gainers by it would be most chearfully willing and ready to carry or remove his travailing goods or utensils from or to any of his Royal houses at his no contemptible or unreasonable rates or Prices Oâ— the City of Worcester or Town of Shrowsbury with their adjacent bordering Shires would in the prospect or certain gain of it be not at all discontented or troubled at the neighboâ—hood of such an enriching staple comfort Which every man may believe when as he must be a great stranger to England as well as to common sense and understanding who cannot apprehend how much relief an old fashioned English Gentlemans house for we must distinguish betwixt rich hospitable good men and those who being weary of Gods long continued mercies and patience do think they are not Gentlemen or well educated if they do not swear as fast as they can God damne me and the devil take me and make themselves and their wives and children their estate and all that they have the prey and business of Taylors Vintners Cooks Pimps Flatterers and all that may consume them is unto two or three Cottages or poor peoples houses near unto it what small Villages and Towns and how mean unfrequented and poor Oxford and Cambridge were before the founding of those famous Universities and the Colledges and Halls in them How many Villages and some Borrough Towns have been founded and built by the warmth and comfort of the Kings Palaces as Woodstock c. how many have been built or much augmented by the neighborhood of Abbies and Monasteries c. as Evesham Reding Bangor St. Albans c. and of Bishops houses as Croydon Lambeth c. though many or most of the Religious Houses in England and Wales were at the first designed intended for solitude How many great Towns and Villages in Middlesex Essex and Kent have been more then in other Counties more remote built or much augmented and increased by the Kings residence at London and the Port Towns and conveniency for Shipping How many Farmers in Berkshire and other Counties near London have more then in those farther distant converted their Barns into Gentlemens Halls or stately houses and began their Gentility with great and plentiful revenues to support it What addresses or suites are often made to Judges in their Circuits to transfer the keeping of the Assizes from some City or Shire Town to some other Town in the County to help or do them some good by the resort and company which comes to the Assizes as to keep it at Maidstone and not at Canterbury in the County of Kent at Woolverhampton not at Stafford in the County of Stafford c. or to keep Terms in a time of Pestilence and adjornment from London to St. Albans Hertford or Reding how like an Antwerp or the Skeleton or ruins of a forsaken City the Suburbs of London now the greatest and beautifullest part of it would be if the residence of the King and his Courts of Justice should be removed from thence or discontinued How many thousand families would be undone and ruined and how those stately buildings would for want of that daily comfort which they received by it moulder and sink down inter rudera under its daily â—uines and give leave to the earth and grass to cover and surmount them and turn the new Troy if that were not a fable into that of the old Which the Citizens of London very well understood when in the raign of King Richard the second and the infancy of those blessings and riches which since have hapned to that City by the Kings of England making it to be their darling or Royal Chamber that King was so much displeased with them as besides a fine of ten thousand pounds imposed upon them for some misdemeanors their liberties seised their Maior committed prisoner to the Castle of Windsor and diverse Aldermen and substantial Citizens arrested he removed his Court from London where not long before at a solemn Justes or Tourney he had kept open house for all comers they most humbly and submissively pacified â—im and procured his return to so great a joy of the Citizens as they received him with four hundred of their Citizens on horseback clad all in one Liveâ—y and pâ—esented the King and Queen with many rich gifts All which and more which may happen by the Kings want of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and keeping him and his Officers and Servants in want of money or streightning him or them in their necessaries and daily provisions may perswade every man to subscribe to these Axioms that the more which the King hath the more the people have That whosoever cozens and deceives the King cozens and deceives the people that the wants and necessities of the King and common parent which is to be supplyed by the people are and will become their own wants and necessities That it cannot be for the good or honor of the Nation that the King who is not onely Anima Cor Caput Radix Reipublicae the Soul heart head and foundation of the Commonwealth but the defender and preserver of it should either want or languish in his honor and estate when as unusquisque subditorum saith Valdesius Regi ut
nine pounds per annum Cheshire having sixty eight Parishes and furnâ—shing but 25. lean Oxen at the Kings price 2l 13s -4d a peice Total 66 l. 13 s. 4 d. at the Market price 6 â— 10 s. Total 162 l. 10 s. 0. Difference 95 l. 16 s. 8 d. was not thereby charged with more then one pound nine shillings upon every parish Cornewall having an hundred sixty one Parishes and furnishing but Ten fat Oxen at the Kings price 4 l. Total â—0 l. Market price 10 l. Total 100 l. Difference 60l did bear not so great a contribution as eight shillings upon every Parish The County of Devon having three hundred ninty four Parishes and furnishing but Ten fat Oxen at the Kings price 4 l. Total 40 l. Market price 10 l. Total 100l Difference 60 l. Muttons fat 150. at the Kings price 6 s. 8 d. Total 50 l. Market price 18 s. Total 135l Difference 85l paid no greater a sum in that yearly Composition then ten shillings upon every parish Gloucestershire which hath two hundred and eighty parishes paid but four hundred twenty two pounds seven shillings eight pence which was not one pound eleven shillings upon every parish Hertfordshire numbering one hundred and twenty parishes paid but one thousand two hundred fifty nine pounds ninteen shillings four pence which laid upon every parish but abouâ— ten pounds ten shillings Herefordshire furnishing but 18. fat Oxen at the Kings price 4 l. Total 72 l. Market price 10 l. Total 180l Difference 108 l. and having one hundred seventy six parâ—shes made every one of them a contributary of no more then about twelve shilâ—ings six pence upon every parish Kent having three hundred ninety eight parishes and being a very great gainer by the Kings so constant abode in his Chamber of London more then its charge of Pourveyâ—nce amounted unto paid but three thousand three hundred thirty four pounds and six shillings which laid upon ever parish for Composiâ—ions for the Pourveyance no more then about eight pounds ten shillings Lincolnshire which hath six hundred and thirty parishes and paid but one thousand one hundred seventy five pounds thirteen shâ—llings and eight pence charged every parish with no more then about nineteen shâ—llings six pence or thereabouts The County of Northampton having three hundred twenty six parishes and being like to be no looser by its gainful vicinity to London and the Royal Residence paid no more towards the Pourveyance and Compositions then nine hundred nineâ—y three pounds eighteen shillings four pence which was for every parish very little more then three pounds The County of Norfolke having six hundred and sixty parishes paid but one thousand ninety three pounds two shillings and eight pence which charged every parish not with one pound eleven shillings Somersetshire which hath three hundred eighty five parishâ—s and paid no more then seven hundred fifty five pounds fourteen shâ—llings eight pence laid no greater a leavy for the Composition for Pourveyance upon every Parish then about fourty shillings The County of Surry having one hundred and fourty parishes and paid no more then one thousand seventy nine pounds three pence rendered every parish a contributer for the Pourveyance of not above seven pounds nineteen shillings The County of Sussex which hath one hundred and twelve parishes and paid no more to that kind of contribution then one thousand and sixteen pounds two shillings six pence makes every Parish to be charged with no greater a sum or proportion then three pounds thirteen shillings six pence or thereabouts And London which is and hath been the greatest gainer by the residence of the King and his principal Courts of Justice at Westminster and by the confluence of the people not onely of this Nation but many Merchants and people from all parts of the Christian word is grown to be the grand Emporium and Town of Trade in England mighty and strong in shipping a Merchant-like Tyrus for many Isles and as great and famous as any City or Mart Town of the World to whom all the Ships of the Sea with their Mariners do bring their Merchandize the most of Nations are her Merchants by reason of the multitude of the Wares of her making and with the multitude of her riches and Merchandize makes all the other parts Counties Cities and Borough Towns of the Kingdom as to riches money and Trade her vassals and retailers doth for all these benefits contribute with the out Ports only for the Kings Grocery ware which if it could be called a contribution did in some years amount according to the full price but unto two thousand pounds per annum and in other years but unto sixteen hundred pounds or there abouts and is raised and charged by way of Impost upon the gross quantites of such kinde of Merchandise and being repayed the Merchant by the retailer and by the buyer to the retailer was no more in the fifth year of the Raign of King Charles the fiâ—st in the Impost or Rates of Composition then as followeth viz. Rates of Composition for Grocery wares for his Majesties House Pepper The hundred pound xviii d. Cloves The hundred pound xviii d. Mace The hundred pound xviii d. Nutmeggs The hundred pound xviii d. Cynamon The hundred pound xviii d. Ginger the hundred pound xii d. Raisons of the Sun the hundred waight iii. d. Raisons great the piece i. d. ob Proyns the Tun xvi d. Almonds the hundred waight v. d. Corrants the Tun ii s. Sweet oyle the Pipe iii. s. Sugar refined the hundred waight viii d. Sugar powder and Mukovadoes the C. waight v. d. The Chest xx d. Sugar corse and paneles the C. waight iii. d. Figges the Barrell i. d. Figges the Piece ob q. Figges the Topnet ob Dates the hundred waight viii d. Rice the hundred waight iiii d. ob Olives the Tun iiii s. Castel and all other hard Soap the C. waight vi d. Anniseeds the hundred waight ii d. Licorish the hundred waight ii d. And so petit as in a pound of Raisins of the Sunne now sold for four pence a pound it falls to be less then the eighth or tenth part of a farthing increase of price in every pound of Raisins of the Sun And as inconsiderable in the charge or burden of it laid upon the Grocers or Retailers as that of their pack-thred and brown paper which in the vent of those commodities and accommodation of Customers are freely and willingly given into the bargain And when the Brewers in London and four miles about did before the granting of the Excise upon Ale and Beer and taking away of the Pourveyances or Composition for them pay four pence in every quartet of Malt which they Brewed the Composition thereof amounting but unto three thousand five hunded pounds per annum being now remitted and not paid by reason of the said Excise that yearly Impost or Composition did not onely lye upon the Brewers but was dispersed and laid upon
cujus effectus est necessarius nisi aliunde impediatur could not be so the sole or proper cause of it as if not otherwise hindered it could not want its necessary effect CHAP. VII That the supposed plenty of money and Gold and Silver in England since the Conquest of the West Indies by the Spaniards hath not been a cause of raising the prices of food and victuals in England BUt will upon a due examination be too light in the Ballanee of Truth and Reason and deserve a place in the Catalogue of vulgar Errors For that the rise of Silver in its value or denomination by certain gradations or parts in several Ages from twenty pence the ounce by King Henry the sixth by his prerogative to thirty pence and between his Raign and that of Queen Elizabeth to forty pence and after to forty five pence and after to sixty pence ours being of a finer standard mixture or Allay then that of France the united Belgicque Provinces or the haâ—se or Imperial Cities of Germany and is now as high as five shillings and a penny the ounce comes far short of the now or then enhaunce of victuals and commodities and makes so large a disproportion as the abundance of that could not be probably the cause of the dearth of victuals and all manner of Commodities for that the plenty of those bewitching and domineering mettals of Gold and Silver supposed to be betwixt the Times of the discovery and subduing of the Indian Mines in the Raign of our King Henry the seventh which was about the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and five and the middle of the Raign of King Edward the sixth when as those Irritamenta malorum American riches and the alurements of them did not in the time of Charles the fifth Emperor who out-lived our King Henry the eight amount unto for his account any more then five hunddred thousand Crowns of Gold and with that and what came into Europe to the Spanish Merchants Accompts our English havâ—ng not then learnt the way to the West Indies or to search the unknown passages of the unmerciful Ocean could not have so great an influence upon England which was no neer neighbor to the Indies as to cause that dearth of Victuals all commodities which was heavily complained of in the raign of King Edward the sixth and if it had there would not have been any necessity of King Henry the 8. embasing or mixing with Copper so much as he did the Gold and Silver Coin of the Nation or that the price of the ounce of Silver should be raised betwixt the Raign of King Henry the 7. and the middle of the raign of Queen Elizabeth to sixty pence or five shillings the ounce and though it must be granted that the raising of the ounce of Silver by King Henry the 8. or King Edward the 6. to five and forty pence and afterwards by some of his successors to sixty pence and the making of more pence out of an Ounce then was formerly might be some cause of the enhaunce of the price of victuals and commodities And that some of our Gallants or Gentlemen of these times forgetting the laudable fâ—ugality of their ancestors who had otherwise not have been able to have leâ—t them those Lands estates which do now so elevate their Poles â—ay by coiting their mony from them as if they were weary of it many times ignorantly give out of their misused abundance more mony or as much again as a thing is worth or not having money to play the fools withall in the excess of gluttony or apparel or the pursuite of their other vices may sometimes by taking them upon day or trust give three or four timâ—s more then the commoditys would be sold to another for ready money the seller being many times never paid at all and if he should reckon his often attendance and waiting upon such a customer to no other purpose but to tire himself and never get a peny of his money would have been a greater gainer if he had given him his wares or commodityes for nothing and if after many yeers he should by a chance meet with his money looseth more by his interest then the principal amounted unto Yet if Parliaments which have been composed of the collected wisdom of the Nation and their Acts and Statutes which have been as they are understood to be made with the wisdom and universal consent of the people of England tanta solemnitate and with so great solemnity as Fortescue in the Raign of King H. 6. and the Judges in Doctor Fosters Case in 12. Jac. Regis do say they are may be credited the plenty of Gold and Silver was never alleaged or believed to be a cause of the dearness of Victuals and provisions When as the Statute of Herring made in the thirty fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the third when the Trade of Clothing was in a most flourishing condition such a Trade necessarily inducing conferring some plenty of money declares the cause of the dearness of Herring to be because that the Hostes of the Town of great Yarmouth who lodged the Fishers coming there in the time of the Fair would not suffer the Fishers to sell their Herrings nor to meddle with the sale of the same but sell them at their own will as dear as they will and give the Fishers that pleaseth them so that the Fishers did withdraw themselves to come there and the Herring was set at a greater dearth then there was before and that men outvied and overbid each other For if the many accidents concurring to the enhauncing of the price of any thing or commodity beyond its ordinary and intrinsicque worth value shall be rightly considered as famine the unseasonableness of the year or harvest blasts or Mildews of Corn transportation fear of an approaching famine keeping Corn and provisions from Markets and hoarding them up eâ—ther for the people 's own use or to catch an opportunity of the highest rates the scarcity or surpassing excellency of it obstructions which wars policy or controversies of Princes or neighbor Nations one with or against another may put upon it a general Murrain or Mortality of Cattel Inundations of waters great store of provision or foder for Cattle or a gentle Winter the charge and burden of a new Tolle or Taxe a present necessity to have the thing desired to be bought or had which the crafty and covetous seller hath taken notice of the importunity of an affection to have it although it cost a great deal more then the worth of it or the conveniency for one more then another which may recompence the damage in giving too much for it or more then was otherwise needful making it to be a good bargain for that particular person time or place which would not be so for others and the Market people imitating one anothers high demands