A PLEA For the bringing in of IRISH CATTEL And keeping out of FISH CAUGHT BY FOREIGNERS TOGETHER With an humble Address to the Honourable MEMBERS of PARLIAMENT of the Counties of Cornwal and Devon about the Advancement of Tin Fishery and divers Manufactures By JOHN COLLINS Accomptant to the ROYAL FISHERY Company E Reg. Soc. Philomath LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford and are sold by Langley Curtis in Goat-Court on Ludgate-Hill 1680. TO THE RAEDER Courteous Reader THE Royal Fishery Company having lost a stock of 11000 l. chiefly by reason Six of their Seven Doggers whereof Three were new built together with their Ladings were taken in 1676 by the French were forced in July last to sell their Vessels and Stores to one Mr. Benjamin Watson Merchant with whom some others of the said Company were induced to adventure by reason of Encouragements like to be obtained in the last Long Parliament and yet hoped for to renew a small Fishery as a Basis to a greater to supply LONDON with Cod from about Michaelmas to Lady-day Now for as much as such Little Fishery is blasted in the Bud with any fresh Loss and cannot thrive without keeping out Foreign Fish which were prohibited by the Irish Act and the said Act is ceased and now under Consideration of the Honourable House of Commons to be renewed it was necessary to offer what concerns the Fishery yea and when the Welfare of a Nation is at Stake it is but seasonable for any one that wisheth its Prosperity especially one that hath been Chief Clerk in His Majesty's late Council of Plantations where Arguments of like kind were winnowed to propound his Sentiments These Considerations begot the following Discourse Which expects to meet with many Opponents But there 's an able Pen in a Treatise now at the Press hath undertook to be an Advocate for the Importation of Irish Cattle And I not knowing what Arguments he insists on nor consulting him and hearing his Book is large and fearing it may come out too late when the Debate is over took the opportunity to offer some sudden Thoughts about the same to prevent if it may be the fatal Subversion of the Trade of England which will thence ensue as is herein shewed by A Well-wisher to its Prosperity JOHN COLLINS A PLEA for the bringing in of Irish Cattle and keeping out of Fish caught by Foreigners c. FOreign Fish are kept out by an Act for the Encouragement of Trade of 15. Reg. Car. 2. the Epitome whereof is That after the first of August 1664. no fresh Herring fresh Cod or Haddock Coal Fish or Gull Fish is to be imported but in English-built Ships or Vessels according to the Certificate the Master and three Fourths of the Mariners to be English and which hath been fished caught and taken in such Ships or Vessels and not bought of Strangers on forfeiture of the Vessel and Fish one Moiety to His Majesty and the other Moiety to the Informer Foreign salt Fish though is to pay as followeth l. s. d. Cod Fish the Barrel 0 5 0 Consequently the Last of 12 Barrels 3 0 0 The Hundred cont 120 0 10 0 Cole Fish the Hundred of 120 0 5 0 Ling the Hundred of 120 1 0 0 White Herring the Last 1 16 0 Haddock the Barrel 0 2 0 Gull Fish the Barrel 0 2 0 By the said Act every Head of great Scotch Cattle imported after the 24 th of August and before the 20 th of December in any year is to pay 20 s. one Moiety to the Informer and the other to the Poor of the Parish This Act is in force and by vertue of it Stock Fish not being caught by our Vessels are barr'd out And by the Act against Importing Irish Cattle 18. Reg. Car. 2. no great Cattle Sheep or Swine or any Beef Pork or Bacon except Sailing Provisions are to be Imported from beyond Sea after the Second of February 1666. hence Westphalia Hams are barr'd out By the said Act no Ling Herring Cod or Pilchard fresh or salted dried or bloated or any Salmon Eels or Congers taken by any Foreigners are to be imported or sold on penalty of losing the same the one half to the Informer the other to the Poor of the Parish and the same Penalty is on Flesh before-mentioned This Act is expired and is now endeavoured to be rendred perpetual The Query may be What Clauses ought to be renewed And with what Exceptions And for what reason Fish or other Commodities ought to be kept out The Reason we take to be this Those Provisions or Wares that England doth or may afford enough good and to spare ought not for our own Expence to be Imported or admitted from abroad The Argument thus limitted is granted with two Cautions The First is Provided one part can supply another without great inconvenience The other is That there be some Grains of Allowance for delight or ornament besides necessity Hence we having no Stock-Fish which being never salted is of great use in East-India and long Voyages that ought to come in As to Cavair or Roes of Sturgeon and Sturgeon it self from the Sound Potargoe's or Roes of Mullets and Anchova's from Italy they were never barr'd and Westphalia Hams being chiefly for the City Treats may be admitted under the Exception of Delight To which I shall not add three Vessels of Eels that usually and yearly come laden from Holland but leave it to the Parties concerned And these being permitted all other Fish caught by Strangers that were not by the former Acts admitted may be kept out Though the Irish Act seems to be built upon the Reason abovesaid yet I have heard of another Motive thereof to wit after His Majesty's Restauration much Money was raised to disband the Army to releive His Majesty and pay his Debts and vast Sums brought out of the Country in Specie to carry on the first Dutch War The Country finding the want of Money the returns whereof were much obstructed by the Plague in 1665. whence also the expence and price of Provisions much fell began to complain we wanted People and to consider by what means it was possible to get the Money to return again into the Country Some alledged there was no better way of doing it than by keeping out all Foreign Flesh and Fish to the end London paying dear for their Provisions the same would not only rise in price but hasten the return of the Money Adding for Reason that as long as Provisions were cheap People would be lazy and forbear work and that the way to raise both Land and Provisions was to reduce Interest of Money to a low rate And these Reasons with the first about England's Plenty prevailing an Act passed prohibiting God's Blessings Others have undertaken to shew the ill Consequences thereof and therefore I shall not engage in it farther than to add two or three Arguments that perchance are not obvious to them as a
take the following instance to wit a Sea Commander Captain Swaine informes that for 5 years past there were seldom less than 20 Irish Ships frequently at Dunkirk Laden with Beef Tallow Hides and Leather much Butter and some Wool And that all the Capers or Privateers during that time were furnished with these Provisions That divers other Irish Ships furnisht Ostend and many of them he hath seen at Nants Burnes Rochel That at Dunkirk the Irish sold their Provisions at the following Rates Tallow and Butter the Hundred Weight from 20 to 22 Livers That is from 30 s. to 33 s. whereas 100 l. of Butter cannot but cost dearer here a Liver may be reckoned at 18 pence and 10 Stivers to a Shilling there is no great disparity in Weight 100 l. there makes 104 l. here A Barrel of Beef Weighing about 2 Hundred and a half from 12 to 23 Livers That is from seven and six pence to thirteen and eight pence the Hundred Weight Tann'd Leather from 14 to 18 Stivers a Pound Weight that is from 16 pence to 21 pence That there was Imported but little Provisions besides Corn from England to wit Butter by which there was no great gain Cod Salmon and Herrings abound most plentifully on the Irish Coasts insomuch that some years there hath been seen at Wexford no less than 200 sail of Ships at a time part English part French but most Dutch taking in Herrings and other Provisions where a mesh of Herrings containing about 500 is commonly sold for Four Shillings often under and sometimes higher and about two mesh fill a Barrel moreover Cod at other places are sold for 4 d. or 5 d. a peece So that if this be permitted and no redress found it will be a folly to catch any Herrings in the Channel in hopes of a profit by sending them to Spain or into the Streights when at Yarmouth the first cost of a Barrel of Herrings is above double the value they cost at Wexford one Mr. Jared Hancock and others will attest the assertion The Third Argument Hence we must either allow Ireland a free Trade with others to the subversion of the Cloth Trade of England and the incredible prejudice of the Fishery and of Trade and Staple Commodities in general or by agreement with them on equitable terms hereafter propounded get so high a Duty of Customs laid on their Commodities as may if exported by Foreigners or by themselves unless to England render them of equal or rather higher value than the like Commodities in England and then take off as many of them as we can and furnish them to others after improvement here at the second hand the latter if we will avoid our own destruction is the choice to be made Hence their Cattel c. ought not to be refused and in what else can they pay England the debt before mentioned and over ballance of Trade The Fourth Argument The prime reason for Barring Foreign Commodities holds not in this case The Irish Cattel in question with their Hides Tallow and Wool are not so much Imported for our expence as to Ship off to furnish Foreign Markets withal and are received in payment of an annual debt which cannot be well otherwise returned from Ireland Lastly If we ought not for our own expence to be furnished with Commodities from abroad that we can supply our selves with at home then ought we to have no Foreign Salt Iron Brass Paper Tapestry-hangings Canvas Linnen Earthen-wares Madders Safflore Smalt hard Soap tinned Plates and divers other Commodities of lesser moment Imported and no Salt Petre from the East Indies nor Sugar from Portugal seeing our own Plantations will afford it And if we admit these great concerns from Strangers 't is more fit his Majesties Subjects should have a free Trade with one another for matters of far less moment As to that straw that unless Provisions be dear the people will be lazy and will not work Answer 't is granted necessity begets industry yet notwithstanding if some will be idle it follows not that all or the Major part will be so Poor people must either work beg or steal If the latter besides saving the Almes of the Parish there are Houses of Correction and punishment Moreover goodness and cheapness are the main inducements to put off any Commodity And it canot be well apprehended how Labour shall be cheap and Work plenty where Provisions are dear where the one riseth the other doth so likewise As at London and in other places where Provisions are dearest Labor is dearest And this assertion is contrary to experience in memory to wit before the year 1640. Provisions were much cheaper than they are now and Labour likwise and work more plentifull for then we had a great Trade And about 60 Ships of about 400 or 500 Tuns burthen employed in the Streights which afterwards in 1659. came to be reduced to 6 or thereabouts as the City represented to Olivers Council Whereas on the contrary at present we have so little work that many thousands of Families of Salt-workers Rope-makers Weavers Dryers Potters Tanners c. have no Employment And to make Provisions dear as a means to make the poor work is the ready way to drive them into Foreign Plantations where they may either have greater Wages for their pains or Ground for Plantations given them by the Law of the Country Those that are for grinding and made the Objection I suppose would not willingly undergo a mean comfortless drudgery themselves As to that Allegation about a low rate of interest to the intent Lands and Provisions may rise in value 'T is granted and affirmed that according to the Laws of Arithmetick for yearly Purchases if Money be at 4 in the hundred Land should be at 25 years Purchase and at 5 in the hundred at 20 years Purchase though the Effect doth not always follow the supposed Cause As in the year 1640. when Money was at 8 per Centum and Land should have been worth but 12 and a half years Purchase yet it was commonly sold for 20 years Purchase Whence take this Sorites If Land rises the Commodities the Land yields must also rise otherwise the Tenant cannot pay his Rent This rising-price must be paid either at home or abroad if neither consequently a low Rate of interest cannot advance the price of Lands Cloth Lead and Tin are our chief Staple Commodities And whether these will bear a considerable Rising price abroad or at home is the Querie 1. As for Cloth I hear the Merchants hazard is great and gain little and it was more formerly This saith Mr. Baker an eminent Merchant in a Book of the Spanish and Smyrna Trade Printed in 1659. page 13. Intituled the Merchants Petition and Remonstrance The Clothiers and others complain against the Merchants in general that they take not off and buy their Cloathes and other their Manufactures nor give them such prices for them whereby they may make a Livelyhood
your Pilchards I have a Treatise of Salt ready for the Press shewing the several ways of making of Salt in England and other Countries and setting forth the Excellency and manner of using our own in curing both Flesh and Fish for the longest of Voyages through the hottest of Climates 2. That you vouchsafe to make use of such opportunity to remove all burthens upon Tin as well Sealing Duty of 4 s. a Hundred weight which may come to 5000 l. per annum except a competent Recompence to the Officers for sealing such as is free from Iron and Dross according to Constitution as also exporting Duty of 7 s. 4 d. a Hundred which may come to 7000 l. a year or more 3. That then a Farm of all the Tin the Mines produce be let to the Turky and Pewterer's Company the one will so regulate the Price abroad and the other at home that we shall not be undermined by the Dutch This done the said Companies may erect a safe Bank and not be damaged albeit they have Tin on their hands to a vast quantity and value The advantages of Banks are great whereof I shall mention but one It enables the Hollanders to Trade with a dead stock to wit when a Laden Ship arrives the goods are appraised deposited in the Bankers Ware-houses and Credit given at home or in Foreign parts for about three quarters of their value which is an incredible advantage in Trade I further humbly represent to you that in the Usurper's time an Excise of a half peny a Gallon brought in 26000 l. per Annum when Fishery-Salt was excepted and paid nothing the which was observed to be a notable back door and a Cloak to many fallacious pretences whereas laying the duty universal the revenue raised by Fishery Salt being employed for the advantage of a Fishery Trade shall much more advance the design than the payment of such duty can hinder it especially seeing our Neighbours cannot be furnisht with Salt for that purpose so good and cheap as we by 12 or 15 per Cent And in case the same be employed in the Royal Fishery Company at London out-parts may complain their Fisheries are discouraged to which may be replied that at London a duty is paid upon Ballast but not the like in the out-ports or most of them where a revenue may be levied on Ballast to promote their respective Fisheries And if such duty be laid universal and well managed it may produce 38000 or 40000 l. a year And such a stock as that Employed to encourage our Manufactures shall enrich the Nation much above a Million a year I offer how and most humbly move you to promote 1. In setting up a Fishery Company to have 10000 l. a year given them to Build Ships and Vessels to encourage Adventurers to undertake the Fishery Trade and the making of Twine Nets Canvas and Cordage at Clerkenwell work-house not only for their own use but also for his Majesties stores as is hereafter propounded And if they be rendred a Council of Trade for which reasons are afterwards given why they are or may be a most proper constitution they will go far in earning such benevolence and doubtless give such advice as followed shall redress the aggreivances of the Nation about Trade and Manufactures 2. There is a new Art of preparing whitening and dressing both of Hemp and Flax that shall render it of a silver Colour so fine that of one pound of it a thread may be made 20 Miles long and in value to 50 s. or 3 l. Hence we want no Foreign Linnen nor Canvas which may be barr'd out by a high duty Of the refuse or Tow thereof of Raggs Old Fishery Netts and Sails may be made Paper whereof we spend in England in Writing and Printing about 1000 Reams a day or to the value of 120000 l. per Annum Good Paper is made in Germany and Holland and the Art thereof is attained in England but to encourage the same here there wants a higher duty on Foreign Paper and a Company with a good stock to undertake the same the which might be the Stationers Company with other Adventurers to whom for encouragement might be allowed the use of 5000 l. per Annum Gratis to be taken out in Stationary Wares for the supply of all his Majesties Offices 3. By the like encouragement the Upholsterers with others might be induced to undertake the Manufacture of Tapistry hangings the benefit of gaining such Manufacture is great viz. 1. It will save an expence of Foreign Wool and beget an expence of our own to the value of One hundred thousand pounds per Annum now imported in Tapestry-hangings 2. It will cause our Cloaths to go off in Turkey in Barter to procure raw Silk to work up with the said Hangings 3. It will in the ballance of Trade save the value of such Hangings yearly to the Nation and in time become a Staple Commodity to Ship off in regard we can have Wool Silk and Provisions much cheaper here than in Flanders and Brabant the sole Provinces where this Manufacture was formerly made the skill whereof is now well attained in England but Encouragement in its Infancy by keeping out Foreign and a Stock to carry it on is wanting 4. It will employ many thousands of poor People in Carding Combing and Spinning besides Dyers Weavers Worsted-workers Drawers and Dâ—signers See the excellent Proposal in Print of Mr. Francis Poyntz His Majesty's Tapistry-maker 5. The Parliament having lately built 30 Men of War 't is hazardous to trust them and many more in the River of Medway and besides their Moorage and Attendance is very chargeable A wet Dock would add much to their safety and prevent much of the constant charge A Proposal may be drawn where to make such a Dock with a Pool behind it wherein to keep Masts sunk and at what Charge which might be defrayed out of the Excise upon Salt Lastly if there be yet a Surplus the Revenue of the Mint craves it the said Revenue was much too short for Coyning any considerable quantity of our Moneys into smaller pieces than Shillings even before the Prohibition of French Wines which paid 10 s. a Tun Coynage-duty and became a notable Abridgment of such Revenue namely 6000 l a year Moreover to Coyn more Moneys small is the best way to accommodate the People and prevent its Exportation Now after a long Digression having shewed that our Commodities will not yeild the intended rising Price abroad it seems ridiculous to suppose they should rise lying on our hands at home I proceed to shew the languishing Condition of our Foreign Trade and that in opposition to those gross ignorant Flatterers that say England was never more thriving our Trade never greater nor safer and so endeavour to beget an Enmity in the Gentry or Country Party against the City the Merchants and Trading part of the Nation As to our ready Money if we have about 7000000
of People in England and Wales as Mr. Graunt Sir William Petty and others on rational grounds suppose and but 1000000 of ready Money as Mr. Mun and others guess these if equally distributed would not be 3 s. a piece As to our Foreign Trade I begin with that of the East-India where the Dutch have not less than 50 or 60 Men of War and such vast numbers of Trading Ships that it 's ordinary to see 140 Sail at a time in Batavia Road from 300 Tuns burthen to 1400 Tuns not to mention 37 Magazines and 20 considerable Forts as we read asserted in the printed Translations of two French Treatises of the East-India Trade How small our number of Trading Ships thither is to wit 15 or 16 and how great our danger I need not to mention As to the West-India Trade they have in a former War got Surinam from us which as the late Lord Brereion affirmed hath sometimes yeilded about 3000 Tuns of Sugar in a year and will yeild as much of that Commodity Tobacco c. as they can get hands to Plant and manage and being on the Main is more free from Hurricanes and more temperate than the Leeward Islands amongst the Westwardmost of which they have one called Curasao the Mart for their Negro's amongst the Eastwardmost they have Tabago and claim two little Islands from us to wit Sabia and Stacia aliàs Eustachia near St. Christopher's which the French took from us in 1666. and by the Treaty of Breda were to restore but baffled us selling them to the Dutch from whom our Governour Collonel Stapleton took them in 1673. and the Dutch under Everson retook them in 1674. he being gone valiant Stapleton retook them the same year and on the Conclusion of the last Peace with the Dutch it not being known as is presumed that they were in our hands we agreed to restore what was taken from them and they what was took from us accordingly they restored to us New York and expect to have Sabia and Stacia from us which if we keep will do us no good but if we restore much hurt for whilst the Dutch had them they framed the Timbers of Sloops in Holland carried them thither in the holds of their Ships and there compleatly built them a Sloop being a Vessel of about 25 or 30 Tuns burthen and with these they went a Trading by stealth to replenish our almost-ruin'd Islands with Negro's in barter for Commodities to wit Cottons Sugar Tobacco Indigo Ginger Fustick and other dying Stuffs and by vertue of such Trade with the French which they allow and with us by stealth or connivance they have some years laden home many Ships as 12 or more of Goods of the growth of those Islands to His Majesty's great loss in the Customs and carrying them home into Holland and thence Exporting most of them to Foreign Markets almost Custom free were capacitated to under-sell us 12 or 15 per cent and 't is their chiefest aim in getting Islands there not so much to Plant as to drive on this kind of Trade How great our loss of Negro's and Inhabitants was in 1666. off the Islands of St. Christophers Montserat and Antego is not so proper to mention as bewail in regard the French have more Islands full Mann'd and a considerable Fleet commonly abroad in those Parts Thus we see the danger of our West-India Trade except that of Newfound-Land for poor Jack in which we are undermined by the French and New Englanders by aid of 1000 of our own Seamen that stay'd there on shoar in 1665. to avoid the Service against the Dutch where in a following years expedition our damage was so much that the Town of Dartmouth alone lost 8000 l. but of this more largely in my Salt Treatise Before I come to our Streights Trade let us consider the Dutch advantages over us at home did they Trade meerly not to export again which are these 1. Their Ships lying for the most part at or near their own Doors or Ware-houses they save Lighterage and Cartage 2. They save Interest of Money not paying Duties there 'till a Sale whereas here we pay Customs upon entry 3. Their 7 Provinces Switzerland and Germany spend more imported Goods than England can spend these Countreys are furnished by Boats and Vessels some of 40 Tuns that go above 500 miles up the Rhine as far as Franckfort which is not now hard to do by aid of towing Engins in Boats The late Lord Brereton affirmed the French make way up the River Rhodanus one of the most rapid hitherto known by a new Invention after the rate of 4 or 5 miles an hour 4. Down these Rivers they are furnished with Rhenish Wines and other German Commodities in large flat-bottom'd Vessels built of great Timber never intended to return out of which they build their Doggers Busses and Fishery Vessels at about half the Rate we can do the like in England 5. Their Bank enables them to borrow Money and to Trade with a dead Stock that is Goods there deposited By aid of such Bank they in former years furnished about 80 Sail of Trading Merchants Ships in the Streights of about 600 Tun and 30 Guns each with a Stock of ready Money to be let out at Bottomree that is to say the Money is lent to Jews upon taking in a Cargo of Goods at one Port at the rate of 10 per cent for Interest and freight less or more according to agreement the Owners to run all hazards whatsoever of Shipwrack Pirates c. and when the Ship arrives at the Port whereto she is bound the Money is received on board before the Goods are delivered on shoar In the mean while the Owners ensure at a moderate rate at home by this means sending out their Ships with East-India and Northern Commodities of Russia the Sound c. they keep them in long Employment abroad I have seen 40 of these kind of Ships at once employed as Men of War in the Venetian Fleet when the English have not had above two or three neither have we the like way of employing our Ships abroad or little practice it 6. The Dutch Trade as Carriers to supply all Foreign Markets with all sorts of Commodities the English Trade chiefly to export their own Goods and furnish Returns for their own Expence And this comes to pass by reason we pay Customs or a Duty when we import Goods and they Excise that is a Duty not paid 'till the Goods are sold for Expence The Disparity is so great that it hath been the prime cause of the greatness of the Dutch Trade Wealth and Power at Sea In 1641. Mr. Lewes Roberts represented to the Long Parliament in his Book called The Treasure of Traffick two Examples thereof to wit suppose two Ships of equal burthen of 300 Tuns each to come out of the River of Bourdeaux laden with Wine the one arrives at London and pays Duties inward the other at