Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A53052
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The naked truth, in an essay upon trade with some proposals for bringing the ballance on our side : humbly offered to the Parliament.
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Blanch, John, b. 1649 or 50.; England and Wales. Parliament.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing N86; ESTC R10621
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14,454
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21
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England is the Foundation of the Spanish Trade which these late Years hath Inrich'd both France and Holland I am now to shew how our Trade stands at present in point of Profit and Loss to the Publick And I will herein confine my self to the four chief Branches thereof viz. Our East-India-Trade our Straits Trade to Turkey and Leghorn our Trade to Holland Flanders Germany and Hamborough and our Trade to Spain and the West-Indies the two former of these are chiefly managed by our own Subjects and the two latter lie open to the wide World and are chiefly in the Hands of the Dutch Our East-India-Trade is chiefly carried on with Gold and Silver sent from England and taken in at Cadiz when this Company lately enlarged themselves by throwing open their Books for a short time which I suppose was no voluntary Kindness to the publick but rather a touch of their Necessity the Mony then brought in I suppose the lightest of it paid almost Two hundred thousand Pounds in Bills that were drawn upon them from Cadiz The Commodities that we chiefly receive from the East-Indies are Callicoes Muslins Indian wrought Silks Peper Salt-Petre Indigo c. The advantage of this Company is chiefly in their Muslins and Indian Silks a great value in these Commodities being comprehended in a small Bulk in their being become the general Wear in England and this depends upon the cheap Workmanship of the Indians being instructed to humour our English Fancies by Artificers of all kinds sent from England and this Trade being managed by a Joint-Stock that can make what Presents they please as appear'd by a large Article in their Accounts these Commodities are always the high Mode of England a Dress that came under the Satyr of Juvenal when Rome was a parallel of our great City exactly described Tot premit ordinibus tot adhuc compagibus altum Ædificat caput Andromachen a fronte ridebis Post minor est And I think that once in fifteen hundred Years is enough for any such Mode to appear in the World This East-India-Trade hath been chiefly managed by a few Hands that have reaped the Benefit thereof and being a Joint-Stock managed with a great deal of Secresie it gives no advantage to the younger Sons of our Nobility and Gentry and the hotness of the Climate hath wasted a multitude of our English Subjects Papers are always stuck upon all Pillars of the Exchange offering great Rewards to Seamen that will come in to this Company 's Service This Company laid the first Foundation to Stock-Jobbing which of late Years hath received so many new Additions that it is now become a voluminous Employment The extravagant Expence of our Nation in Apparel hath evidently been encouraged by the East-India Trade and which adds to our loss their Commodities are fully Manufactured abroad Many ancient Entails that were carefully contrived by our fore-Fathers for the advantage of their Posterity and to keep up the Monarchy of our English Nation hath been insensibly cut off with Indian Silk And it seems plain to me that our Nation was plagued with their Commodities in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when there was this good Law made to secure our Gentlemens Estates against the Syrenian Charms of these bewitching Commodities that might assault their tender part Whosoever shall Sell or Deliver to any Person having not in Possession Lands or Fees to the clear yearly value of 3000 l. any Foreign Wares not first Grown or first wrought within the Queen's Dominions appertaining to the Cloathing or Adorning of the Body for which Wares or the Workmanship thereof the Seller shall not receive the whole Mony or satisfaction in hand or within Eight and twenty days after the making or delivering thereof the Seller Maker c. shall be without all remedy by order of any Law Custom or Decree to recover any recompence for such Wares or the Workmanship whatsoever assurance he shall have by Bond Surety Promise or Pawn of the Party or any other and all Assurances or Bonds in that case shall be Void Which was a temporary Act and it Expired And I hope I am now addressing my self to many Country Gentlemen who can yet remember how much better it was in the Country when the Kitchin was kept hot in a good hospitable Expence and the Wooll yielded a good Price than it hath been since our Grandeur hath only appeared in the curiosity of a Parlour drest up in Indian Silks and Muzlins like Flower-pots for a show Our Turky or Straits Trade is carried on partly with our Woollen Manufactures and partly with Silver sent from England and taken in at Cadiz and it gives us in return Raw Silks of divers sorts and a very good Staple Grogerom Yarn Druggs in abundance the vent of which hath a great dependence upon our Taverns Gauls c. which are Commodities that are not fully Manufactured and I think that this Trade deserves the favour of our Nation when it is in a flourishing Condition But at present our Coin being low and the ballance of Trade so much against us a Cloth Cloak seems as proper for our Wear as one of Camlet since we run so great a hazard to procure the Latter and our Turky Merchants Estates being brought home at a great Expence to our Nation it appears to me to be of great moment to consider whether this Straits Trade does not yield too great an advantage to the Turks in taking from them their Silks Grogerom Yarn Druggs c. for our Mony and Cloth that are both advantagious Commodities to encourage a War when they are virtually our Enemies as they act against the Emperor and are encouraged by the King of France whilst our Nation is only Impoverish'd with their Commodities and we have quick vent for our Cloth to Flanders and Germany for the use of our own Army and to procure Linnens from those parts that our Nation is in need of at home to be at charge to impoverish our selves is but Tapping our Vessel at both ends which may serve in an Election but not in a War Whilst it is evident that the good success of the War that we are at present engag'd in doth very much depend upon the strength of that side that is like to support it longest Our Expences in the way of living and carrying on our War hath drained our Treasure in ocular Demonstration to a very low Ebb And those Streams that brought in our Treasure from Spain and the West-Indies are evidently diverted into another Channel So that without consideration we must inevitably fall It is not an Indian Dress set forth with Scarlet Ribbons kept warm with a Sable-Tippet or the easie Victories that we obtain over a Glass of Red nor indeed our Paper Credit that will put the French King upon advantagious Offers of Peace but indeed the quite contrary And this leads me to the consideration of the profitable part of our Trade which
into England they have gain'd 25 l. per. Cent. to buy our Bays and Serges for Spain to fetch home more Silver which must be a very gainful Trade to them And this open Trade to Holland in the Channel now it is in must unavoidably destroy our English Merchants in the general The chief Branch of this Spanish Trade that we are interessed in is with the Portugues for Wine who have laid a very high Duty upon our Woollen Manufactures almost to a Prohibition So this must be the purchase of our Mony from Cadiz So that in the West as well as the East-Indies the impoverishing part of Trade falls to our lot and the profitable part of the Dutch And the most encouraging thought that offers to my apprehension in this whole matter is that what we have lost since the Wars hath chiefly fallen into the hands of our Allies who are engaged with us in the War and nearest the Danger who in Gratitude will bear a greater share if need require being as well able to do that as lend us Mony Charity seems now to begin at home and should we Mortgage and Borrow much longer Vulâ—us fit immedicabile pars sincera trahitur And it may be best on both sides to â—ix the foot of our Accounts When a Cure seems a little desperate we are very apt to cry out Ense Recidendum It is true say some English Merchants ought to be Encouraged but it is not a proper Season during the Wars A Man in a deep Consumption applies himself to his Physician in the Autumn and he told him he could do nothing for him until such Spâ—ing-herbs did appear This was but a melancholy Answer but it had been overwhelming had there been no certainty of the Spring And we find a careful Shepherd upon the first notice that a Sheep is seized with Worms instantly bestirs himself to a Cure knowing that they will not only eat on but ingender which is nearest my Simile being upon the Golden Fleece I have now gone through the easie part of my Task and yet the nature of our Distemper bespeaks its own Cure There appears to me but one way to bring the Ballance of Trade upon our side which if dextrously manag'd would soon effect it We have many considerable Traders at present employed in bringing home superfluous Commodities that are purchased with our Bullion to the hindrance of our own Native Commodities Another sort of People that are dronishly employed in Clubbing their Stocks to ingross Commodities under pretence of Banks for the good of the Publick whereby our Nation is Excised at a very ill time A third sort of no inconsiderable number that like Mahomet's Fleas shelter themselves in the Fleece and Charity must be very high to judge some of them by their Actions to be in any other way for Heaven and these like a dead weight hang upon the Master-wheel of our Trade which gives motion to all the rest these live splendidly in a needless Imployment between the Maker of our Woollen Manufacture and the Buyer when at the same we as much want Hands and Stock to Export our Native Commodities to Spain Flanders Germany and Hamborough thereby to bring home a real profit to our Nation in a fair way of Trade and to disingage these Hands from the one and ingage upon the other is what I chiefly offer at which I humbly conceive must be done by sharpness upon one Hand and incouragement upon the other Corruption hath so far prevail'd among us that no Law can be effectual to prevent the Exportation of our Mony when there is a profit to be made thereby and the higher Customs are set upon Commodities that are any way handy the less Mony is brought in to the King The K of France made a Market of us by the prohibition of his Alamodes and Lute-strings they were always plenty and the Custom saved and Fashion is truly termed a Witch the dearer and scacrer any Commodity the more the Mode 30 s. a yard for Muslins and only the shadow of a Commodity when procured This must be effected on this side by Acts of Parliament whose Penalties must force their own Execution strictly prohibiting the Consumption of these superfluous Commodities that drain our Treasure And I am confirmed in this Opinion by the practice of former Days when the same necessity required it In the 5th Year of Richard II. we have this account of the state of the Nation at that time and what was done For the great mischief which the Realm suffereth and long hath done for that Gold and Silver as well in Mony Vessels Plate and Jewels as otherwise by Exchanges made in divers manners is carried out of the Realm so that in effect there is none thereof left which thing if it should longer be suffered would shortly be the destruction of the same Realm which God prohibit it is asserted and recorded and the King enjoineth all manner of People c. The substance of this Act was to prohibit the Exportation of our Mony particularly leveling at the Custom-house Officers in an extraordinary Reward to be given by the King if any of them was found tardy in this Affair And that which was the chiefest care at this time was the setting the price of Wine to be sold in Gross or Retail and the forfeiture of them that sell them dearer and a Power given to the chief Officer of a City or Borough to sell them at the same Prices if the Owner would not and a Subsidy granted to the King so that the Mony that comes thereby may be wholly imploy'd upon the keeping of the Sea I cann't but here observe the good Genius of this time in so ingenuous and frank a Confession of the Truth whilst like the Laodiceans we are Rich in Fancy or Design a multitude of weighty Mony hoarded up which will be brought out The next parallel that I observe of this nature is anno quinto sexto Edw. 6. cap. 19. where it is thus exprest That divers covetous Persons of their own Authorities have of late taken upon them to make Exchanges as well of coined Gold as coined Silver receiving and paying therefore more in value than hath been declared by the Kings Proclamation to be current for within his Realm and other his Dominions to the great hinderance of the Commonwealth of this Realm it was then Enacted That no Person or Persons should receive or pay away any Gold c. at any other price than the same is or shall be declared by the Kings Proclamation to be current for Which seems to imply that the advance price of Gold was then brought down and gradually settled by the King's Proclamation which deserves our present Consideration But the next Year the price of Wine was likewise settled at two Pence a Quart and the number of Taverns reduc'd to forty in the City of London But that which is most considerable to my present purpose