Counsel of Trade if rightly Established will be a Member in the Government and in such the Venetian Policy which seems a good Constitution allows none that are Merchants that hath not been at least Seven Years out of all Trade and Commerce I have been Educated a Merchant and therefore cannot be thought to lessen the Profession though I believe no Man in the Actual Part and Converse of Trade can be equal and different in the Determination of Controverted Matters in Traffick I have often had the like Reflections on our Publick Justice in which at this time I believe we are the most happy People in the World with Great and Just Men on the Bench yet there hath been times when they were fill'd with Men that smelt too much of Barr might it not then add to the Honour of that Robe if there was another step besides that from the Bar to the Bench But this is not my Province I return to the Second Consideration that of the Number in which most agree one of a County and one of every City in the Kingdom besides some of the Ministry This would be a huddle in my Opinion of no signification unless they had Competent Salaryes For Men would not loose their time and spend their Money for nothing and the Charge would be too great for the King to pay without a Fund given by Parliament so then I apprehend this large Committee is lodged here It may now be expected that I should propose and that I think a better part than Controversies though as I alwayes use them where there is least offence for I do not pretend to more than giving my Opinion to be determined by better Judgments and so I shall offer my Thoughts how a Counsel of Trade may be Established for the benefit of the Nation The Number not to exceed Nine of which Three to be such as haue been bread Merchants formerly and of the most Universal Trades used in these Kingdoms and the rest of the Counsel to be compos'd of the Ministry Admiralty and Customs the whole Counsel to sit three times a Week and three of them every day to Receive Examine and Prepare Matters for the General Meeting And because no Man will spend his time for nothing and time so dispos'd is generally valued as nothing that therefore such Sallaryes be given them as may pay for their whole time and give a Reputation to the Commission equal to the Great work to be done by it for so it is if it be rightly understood it is a wonder that in a Kingdom so Fruitful in Offices that which payes them all as Trade doth should be allowed none but it is an untoward Reason that is given for it which therefore I omit and shall only say that by such Men set apart for the Care of Trade France and Sweedland have to a Wonder Inlarged their Trade and Navigation and it is apparent that for want of such a Counsel we have lost great part of ours The several Parts Uses and Manage I shall at large set forth in the Second Part. Of Prohibiting Foreign Commodities IT is the Policy of all Civilized and Trading Countreys to make such Goods counterband as are thought Unnecessary and Expensive to the Inhabitants or hinder their own Manufactories or Native Growth but in doing this they sometimes bring a worse Mischief on themselves than that they design to remove for as soon as a Government find any of their Growth or Manufactory Prohibited by any other they return it with laying a greater Duty or Prohibition on some Commodity that Countrey supplyed them with before To prevent this Consideration should be first had of all their Exports to that Countrey they Intend any Prohibition against and if they find that Countrey can any other wayes be supply'd with the same Commodities they us'd to send them then they should forbear any Prohibition because it is more prejudicial to lessen their own Product and Labour than to Consume that of their Neighbours for that time may abate but the loss of their own Trade and Manufactoryes may never be recovered if the place that us'd them be either fallen into a Trade with another People for that Commodity or the want of them brings them out of use and they are never retrieved I think therefore Prohibition ought never to be made but on some extraordinary occasion or where there cannot be the like done to them I will Instance but one for all in this Kingdom and that is Flanders-Lace though this Prohibition be of Absolute Necessity because of of the great Value this Kingdom spends in that Commodity yet if a due Estimate was made of what this Extravagancy carryes out of the Kingdom it would appear that the Prohibition is the Original and Present Cause of our Excess in that Commodity There is indeed another accidental help to it and that is our Army in Flanders the continual Passing and Repassing of our Men gives opportunity of smugling the Duty and they also coming over with the Fashion about their Necks our Apish Humours soon follows it but yet the Prohibition is that which first Established the Fashion among onr Boas and Boasses for it is not Persons of the first Magnitude as in former Ages that now Introduce a Fashion but such who carry their Fortunes about them and are alwayes in the midst of their Estates these have no wayes to distinguish themselves but by despising our own Manufactory and the Nasty Dress as they term it of a Countrey Lady or a Citizen though the latter is too apt to follow them in Expence and because they can better pay for Extravagancies therefore they believe themselves equally Intituled to them And thus the Vanity runs round to the great Loss of the Nation Now that which to me seems the most Effectual way to Prohibit a Commodity that the Nation finds so Injurious as to make a Law against as in this of Flanders-Lace or any other For I name that Commodity because it stands most in the way I say then to make that or any other Prohibition effectual would be to lay an Imposition on any that uses them If that were done the Mischief would be at an end But to make it forfeiture of them to bring them or placing a high Duty which some think the best Expedient is all Allurements and Perswasive to those whose Vanity and in some cases unhappy way of Living cannot be without them to Covet and Purchase them because they believe Difficulty and hazard the Merchant runs in bringing them will make them too dear for Common Wear But to this it may be objected That in many Cases Prohibitions are made to the end some Commodity of our own of the same Nature might be used and then the laying a Duty on the Consumer would be Troublesome or Impracticable since perchance the Commodities might not be distinguish'd as it is in this of Flanders-Lace which cannot be distinguish'd but in some of the
greater Mischiefs if they be at a distance We hunt a Strange Beggar out of our Parishes and if in time of Scarcity Numbers come into a City from the Country A Common-Council is call'd and their Grave Wisdom set at Work how to get rid of their New Comers and yet at the same time perhaps that very City is breeding up a greater Number of Poor Children than they hunt out to Act the same part in the Common-Wealth that is of Stealing Begging and Idleness as Mankind Naturally would do if Education Improved not Nature The worst of Men would keep if they could that part of Primitive Innocence Eating without Labour and are True Believers of that part in Divine Writ That it is a Curse to eat their Bred by the Sweat of their Brow There needs no other Evidence of this Truth than that of the Oâ—â— Bayly where Numbers are every Sessions of both Sexes made Victims for the Sins of the Parish where they were Born Had they been bred up in Trades they might probably not come to Untimely Ends. There is no Nation I ever read of who by a Compulsary Law raiseth so much Money for the poor as England doth That of Holland is Voluntary and turns to a Revenue to the Common-Wealth as they manage it but our Charity is become a Nusance and may be thought the greatest Mistake of that Blessed Reign in which that Law Passed which is the Idle and Improvident Mans Charter for if Shame or Fear of Punishment makes him Earn his Dayly Bread he will do no more his Children are the Charge of the Parish and his Old Age his Recess from Labour or Care he makes no Provision for it in the time of his Youth and Strength because he hath better Security for his Maintenance than Money of his own Laying up But of this sort of Poor I design a Discourse in the Second Part of Essayes on Trade c. I am now on that of Infant-Poor and besides that of the Parish there is another Provision which for as much as it takes up makes a fine Shew but yet in my Opinion that Charity might be better disposed than to keep Children till they are Thirteen or Fourteen Years of Age without any Labour and then often taken away by Gentlemen that perhaps keep them to wait on them or some other Imployment that is more proper for one that hath been by Misfortune fallen from a Competency and is too far grown to beg in a Manual Education For this reason I think there should not be one taken out of an Hospital but to some Mechanick Art or Navigation I know there are some that tell us It is pity where an Ingenious Boy shall be found but that he should be advanced according to his Genious in Learning If our Nation did want such Men there might be some pretence for this Opinion though perhaps I should be still against it But when we see such Excess of Studients that there is not Preferment for them we have not to the Degree of Clerks for some that perhaps if they had according to their Learning and Parts might deserve Preferment in Church and State but the Stock is too many for the Pasture and that brings many Young Gentlemen to Misfortune who have been well Educated That being all their Fathers could give them and being born Gentlemen not so agreeable to set to Mechanical Labour as it is for the most Ingenious Boy an Hospital can produce his Original must be derived from thence And so a Handicraft Trade cannot be too mean for him and if he be of Extraordinary Understanding let him lay it out in Curious Arts and Manufactoryes such would be of more use to the Nation and of such we cannot have too many And if there were the same Conduct in the Great Community of a Nation as there is in Private Families And I see no reason why there may not there would not be so many Thousands in this Kingdom sent out of their Hives without a Sting and so become Drones Living on the Labour of the Industrious Bee so I think them that are not bred up in some Imployment Now to make a lasting Reformation in this thing I conceive it must be to begin at the Root Manure and Improve the first Sprouts as they come into the World And that brings me to a Proposition that was brought to some of the greatest Ministers in Church and State where it met with so good a Reception that some of them were pleased to say That though they had for several Years been labouring for such a thing and had made some Progress in it yet they could never frame a Scheme but there was some objection to it but in this they saw none and therefore Resolved upon the Kings Return from Flanders to lay it before His Majesty The Late Arch Bishop of Canterbury few Dayes before his Death expressed his Earnest Desires and Intentions to promote so good a Work as he was pleased to call it and said he would loose no time for fear it might be lost if he that was Master of it should die before it was Established there being some things reserved by the Proposer until he had Assurance of His Majesties Approbation As far as I have Liberty to make it Publick I shall shall here set down the Proposition That so if better Heads can Correct or Improve it the Nation may have the Advantage by Inlarging a thing which may be of so Publick a Benefit The Proposition was as followeth That a Charter be Granted to such as shall be willing to Erect Hospitals and Working-Schools through the Kingdom for Poor Children on the Terms following 1. That they shall be obliged to Receive from all the Parishes in England if the Parish think fit such Children as they have at the Charge of the Parish The Parish paying Ten Pound and sending them with Two Suits of Cloaths 2. The Schools and Hospitals taking them in at Seven Years of Age and to teach them to Read and Write and Imploy them chiefly in the Linnen Manufactory and Cordage The Boys to be discharg'd at the Years of Twenty One and the Girls at Eighteen by which time they may be made perfect in the Art of Spinning and Weaving Linnen neither of which are improved to the height in this Nation 3. That forasmuch as it is hoped many Charitable and Well-disposed People will Extend their Bounty to the Poor this way if they might set out a Poor Child so as it may be put in a good way of Subsistance for its whole Life 4. That these Hospitals and Schools be obliged to take in from all Persons Children upon Reasonable Tearms And forasmuch as it may be of a more Universal Benefit to the Kingdom to leave a Latitude to the Governours of these Working Schools to breed up such of the Boys as shall have a Genius to any other Mechanical Art that then they may be so Instructed And also for the
be so much Industry Having past the Throne and such as attend it among which I account Gentlemen of Real Estates I come to those which I think Sumptuary Laws should reach and they are Merchants Artizans and Countrey-Men I leave out Divines and Lawyers the first lye under no Temptation the latter I hope they will pardon me if I say it is the best return they could make to disperse their great Gains among the Poor But to return to those I think properly under Sumptuary Laws Merchants Tradesmen c. And for them there seems a double reason one because they know how to Imploy their Money in Trade and Manufactoryes and therefore should as much as is practicable be kept from wasting their Stock on unnecessary Expences for that their Stock is the Seed Corn of Trade and all Men are careful that they want not Seed for their Ground because it is common therefore not regarded but it is certainly true that the endless Expence of our Artizans and Poor is the Greatest Cause of the Decay of our Manufactoryes There is a Train of Mischiefs that attend one another in the Excess of People that depend on Labour Twenty Shillings may find Materials to keep a Family a Moneth at Work and the want of it not only hinders them but puts them upon farther Expence and perhaps Gaming or Debauchery Shop-keepers arrive to a higher Excess before it Effects them but yet they are often dip'd before they see their Danger and so it is with Merchants that are a Degree above them usually so in every respect by means of their Education and Converse yet these Men are oftner undone by an Insensible way of Expence than by Losses at Sea no Men know how to live better than they I mean that we call fine Eating and good Equipage and there are those among our Merchants can afford it but then it is such as are come into Estates that were not got by Men that understood fine Living I have often reflected on the Gain of Countrey-Farmers that may have a Free-hold of Forty or Fifty Pounds per Annum These Men we see out of their small Income with their Industry in Rural Matters shall be able to give good Portions to their Children have Money alwayes at Command when a Merchant of Ten times his Fund and Appearance of Gain shall hardly be able to keep afloat and for this I can assign no Cause but the difference in Expence and yet the Merchant not accounted Extravagant but the difference lyes in this The Custom of the Countrey where the Countrey-Man lives is to wear plain warm Cloaths his Wife perhaps with good Searge himself with Kersey Twice or Thrice a Weak the Pot boyls and the Spit us'd on Sundays The Merchant he lives in a City where Rich Cloaths Lace c. is Common Wear and a Sett Table every day and to be but in the common Road with his Neighbours he spends Five times as much as the Countrey-man this at a moderate Computation amounts to a great Sum in Twenty or Thirty Years I might Inlarge on this Subject but I submit to better Understandings what I have said and my Opinion that Sumptuary Laws duely Executed would Inrich and Strengthen these Kingdoms We see it doth so among our Neighbours the Dutch and Hamburgers where you seldom hear of a middle sort of Dealer and perhaps never of a Handioraft Man to fail It is certain they sell for less Profit than we do that they loose more in proportion at Sea than we do occasioned by the under-Manning their Ships Yet notwithstanding these disadvantages their Merchants and all sorts of Tradesmen are much Richer than ours for which no reason can be given but their Frugal Living which to me is an undeniable Confutation of the Opinion that the larger our Expence in Cloaths and Food is the better our Artizans and Poor are maintained The true way for Increasing the Riches of the Nation in General and the Artizan in Particular is to Imploy them in Commodities Exported not consumed in the Kingdom If what I have said gain any Acceptation the Modus for putting something in Practice like Sumptuary-Laws may be admitted and it shall be in few words First Negatively I do not think making Laws to Prohibit or Limit any sort of People in their Diet or Apparel practicable it would set the Nation in a Ferment and Heralds must become Judges of others Food and Rayment as Lawyers are of their Freeholds and Properties Those were happy times when pulling off a Shoe was a good Conveyance and a Prince was his own Caterour His Lady the Cook We have an Infallible Authour for it But to return the Method for bringing what hath been discours'd on this Head into Practice I conceive may be to lay a Mulct by the Quarter on all Persons that are Artizans Handicrafts-Men Farmers Victuallers Inn Keepers that shall wear any Silk Gold or Silver This would restrain the Extravagancy of such as Expence doth most hurt unto and be a means to Enable them to Enlarge their Trades and Manufactoryes As I have said before their Money is the Seed of Trade and if we suppose there may be but Five Hundred Thousand such Families in the Kingdom and that by Frugal Living they may lay up but Forty Shillings a Year of their needless Expence in Cloaths it would put a Million a Year more in the Trade and Manufactory of the Nation which besides other Advantages in Humane Probability might save Parishes from the Charge of many Poor But of that the next Chapter will Treat Of Working-Schools and Hospitals THere seems nothing that would be a more Universal Good than a Provision for the Infant Poor of the Nation whose Misfortunes seems not greater in their Being than in the Provision that is made for them by the Parishes where they were born The common Practice in the dispose of them is to pay a Poor Woman by the Year for keeping a Child and as soon or before they are capable of the meanest Service they are turn'd off and seldom put to a Trade by which means as their Entrance into the World is a Charge to the Parish so is their going out in Old Age if they come not to a worse end it being observed that most of the Pilfering and Vagrant People that fill the Streets are such that are not bred to Trades in their Youth This Evil like Original Sin comes into the World with these Miserable People I mean when they are sent out of the Parish without Education in a habit of Idleness which produceth every day worse Conversation and less Shame And if from these Slips comes the greatest part of the most Unfortunate Poor such I mean as come to untimely ends may not this then deserve the Consideration of the most Pious and Politique Heads in the Nation It is strange to see how provident we are to keep off little troubles when they are near and how careless we are of