Trade of London and many other parts also The Damage whereof to the City of London Bargemen Country-men and Trade is at least fifty thousand pounds yearly The particulars how I will make out if desired or commanded And it is a misery that the Barges should lye on ground a Month or six Weeks as they did this year and the poor Barge-Masters should be forc't all that time to maintain so many men as of necessity they must besides the Tradesman in London wants the Commodity to sell To the Kings most Excellent Majesty the humble Petition of the Barge-Masters Westward upon the River of Thames and their Servants humbly sheweth THat in the one and twentieth Year of the Reign of King James of blessed Memory there was an Act of Parliament pass'd upon the humble Petition and desire of the City and University of Oxford for making the River of Thames Navigable from the said City to Burcott and for maintaining the same at the charge of the said City and University and by the said Act liberty is given for Bargemen and Water-men to bring Barges and Boats up the said River to carry and recarry all manner of Goods and Merchandises for the good of the City of Oxford and the Publick And of late years the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Windsor and others have made Navigable the River of Avon in the Counties of Worcester Gloucester and Warwick and are about making some other Rivers Navigable which when finished will tend much to the benefit of Trade between Cheshire Shropshire Herefordshire Worcestershire Gloucestershire Staffordshire Warwickshire Oxfordshire Bristol and most part of Wales to London by carrying Commodities down the River Severne and so up the River Avon and from thence to Oxford by Land and so to London by Water whereby the High-ways and Bridges will be preserved and the Goods carried and recarried at two thirds of what they now pay by Land which will be of great advantage to Trade But may it please your Majesty so it is that the River Thames is not as yet made perfectly Navigable as it ought to be and as it was intended by the Act of Parliament whereby the City of Oxford and the rest of your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men are deprived of the benefit intended them by the said Navigation and many times the Barges lye on ground three Weeks or a Month together for want of water which might be prevented by making three Holds for water in the River Sharwell near Oxford to be let down as flushes in dry times as also one Lock to be made at Swift Ditch one pair of Gates at Sutton one Turn-pike a Mile below Sutton with two Flushes to be taken out of the River Kennet with two places to be made for Flushes one near Windsor the other near Chersey all which being done will so plentifully supply the River with water that not only the Barges coming from Oxford and Abington but many other places will have the benefit thereof and bring them clear to London without stay The Premisses considered your Petitioners most humbly pray that your Majeshy will be graciously pleased to appoint Mr. Robert Yarranton a person able in that Affair to survey the defects of the said Navigation and to make Report thereof from time to time to the Commissioners appointed for the same And that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to signify unto the said Commissioners your pleasure that so good a Work may be forthwith perfected according as is directed in the said Act and that your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men may have the benefit of passing and repassing with their Goods and Barges up and down the said River from Oxford to Burcott without paying any Tax or Imposition for the same unless by Law due and that Orders and Rules may be made by the Commissioners for the good and well Governing both of the Navigation Millers and Bargemen as is by the Act directed And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall daily Pray c. When the River Thames is perfectly made Navigable to Oxford as it ought to be then to make the River Sharwell Navigable unto Anslo Bridge will cost about 2500 l. the building of four Granaries each Granary to hold fourteen thousand Quarters of Corn six thousand pounds all Materials being very dear in that place for building of Mills and some Wheels to draw Wire and for other use 500 l. for building of twenty Houses for habitation for persons employed about the Trade and in the Granaries 2000 l. all which is ten thousand pounds which is but one Shilling a piece from each man of the several Companies the Number thereof being two hundred thousand persons as they themselves say If these Granaries were fixt some other Companies may go up the little River to Whitney and build Granaries there and some may go up the Thames as far as Ratcot-bridge and build Granaries there and so the good Corn growing in the heart of England would be applyed to London which will so convenience the people working in the several Manufactures that the Trade will wholly return to the City again for hands being maintained at work with cheap Victuals will make cheap Commodities and cheap Commodities will enlarge Trade I intend to write one Sheet more particularly setting forth the way of bringing the Trade to London again and feeding the Poor with cheap bread and drink which you shall have printed on the one side of a Sheet of Royal Paper and on the other side a Map of the Rivers which will be serviceable to the Design with the places convenient and fit to build Granaries with the Arms of the several Companies in the said Map One of each Map being set in a Frame is intended to be sent to each Hall in London there to receive the opinions of such as the benefit of Granaries is intended for In the multitude of Councellors there is safety Now I must make a step to Westchester and endeavour to find out how the River Dee may be made so Navigable to Bangor-bridge that thereby it may be made communicable with the River Severne In the Month of July 1674. I was prevailed with by a Person of Honour to survey the River Dee running by the City of Chester into the Irish Sea and finding the River choked with the Sands that a Vessel of twenty Tuns could not come to that Noble City and the Ships forc'd to lye at Neason in a very bad Harbour whereby the Ships receive much damage and Trade made so uncertain and chargeable that the Trade of Chester is much decayed and gone to Leverpool and that old great City in danger of being ruin'd if the River Dee be not made Navigable by Act of Parliament and Ships brought to the City I have formerly drawn a Map of the New River to be made to bring up the Ships to the City side which Map was presented to the Duke of York by the Lord Windsor and Colonel Warden and therein
from whence issue these delightful Golden Streams of Banks Lumber-houses Honour Honesty Riches Strength and Trade You may read in Sir William Temples Book of his Observations of the Nether-lands this Expression When the States send to Persons who have lent them Moneys to come and receive their Moneys and Interest saith he they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it longer And the Reason is they know the Security is good And when ever they give Notice they will take up a Sum of Moneys there is great striving who can get in his first But you will say I talk that Gentlemen of England cannot have Moneys for Land It is not so And that I say Lawyers know no Titles I ought to have my pate crackt for money is plentiful and Lawyers are cunning enough to spy out good Titles As to both I would it were true for the sake of the poor Gentlemen and the Lawyers too But as to the greatest part of them that have Thousand pounds a year the World knows they are so far from borrowing Four thousand pounds that they cannot borrow Four hundred pounds and I dare say some Lords also Nay to my knowledge three eminent Lawyers have been put to much charge and trouble in their Estates lately purchased by them in Montgomery Hereford and Worcester Shires by reason of former Incumbrances Now if an Eminent Lawyer cannot purchase an Estate without so much trouble hazard and charge upon a Title settled at least fifty years ago by all the Judges of England and in the Exchequer-Chamber upon what Security can the Bankers be understood to lay out their Money safe And the poor Country-men are yet in a worse condition I will now shoot a Granado into London not to fire them but I hope 't will make them look about them and enquire after the Engineer and demand how such combustible matter can be made and do good and no harm and how it may be fixt so that Lumbard-street and thereabouts may both preserve and encrease their Credit I will now shew you the Condition of London as at present it stands and how it would have been if the Houses new built had been by Law to be Registerd at Guild-Hall Admit the Green Dragon Tavern in Fleet Street were mine and Set at One hundred pounds a year and I owe six hundred pounds and go to the Scriveners and desire them to lend me six hundred pounds upon the Green Dragon Tavern I Shew them the Purchase of the Ground Rent the Patent from the Judges taken in and all other Titles bought I presume I cannot have the Six hundred pounds upon my house but I must give great Security for my Covenants I present such Security as I can get which will not be accepted Now for want of this six hundred pounds on a sudden to pay my Debts I am undone Wife Children and many more whom I owed moneys to my Goods seized my House taken from me and it 's possible a Prison too or a Statute of Bankrupt taken out to the Ruine of all But if it had been foreseen when the Act past for the building the City that there had been put into the Bill these few Lines Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty c. That all Houses which shall hereafter be new built in and near the City of London destroyed by the late dreadful Fire may if they please he Registred by the Owners at the Guild-Hall within the City of London And all such Houses so Registred shall be a good Title to the Party Registring such Houses and shall Barre all persons whatsoever The King not Excepted Provided there be no Claym entred within six Months next after the Registring of such House and Houses And such Clayms as are entred shall be proceeded upon in the said City and no where else in due form as the Law directs And if this had been done I then go to any Scrivener that deals that way and desire to borrow a Thousand pounds on the Green Dragon Tavern in Fleetstreet being Rented at One hundred pounds a year there will be then no more to be done but their Servant is sent to the Guild-Hall to see whose the Green Dragon Tavern is and he brings word it is mine There is no more ado I say but the Thousand pounds is told out and I give Security for it by a Mortgage put into the Register of my House Then I go and pay my Debts prevent Law-suits preserve my self Wife Children and Reputation and all is well And that which is best of all the Party lending the Moneys is safe well and surely secured It is possible great part of the Thousand pounds lent might be the Moneys of poor Widows and Orphans here are both to the Lender and borrower great Advantages To the one there is undeniable Security and to the other present Relief upon all occasions The wanting whereof hath been the ruine of some thousand Families since the firing of London And this is that which will encrease and enliven Trade and the Houses Registred will be equal with ready Moneys at all times according to the value of the Houses And if this we treat on had been done there needed not one House to stand empty and untenanted as now they do nor the Trade to depart out of the City as it hath done since the Fire I desire and heartily wish that the Governours of the City would prepare a Bill against the next Sitting of Parliament to put the new Buildings under a Register I will not Prophesie that a Bank shall rise in London equal with that of Amsterdam London being put under a voluntary Register but I will make it out when ever the Heads of the City please to desire it That if London with the Free Lands of Middlesex Essex Kent and Surrey were under a voluntary Register two of the Ridings of Yorkshire Lincolneshire Suffolk and Norfolk were under another voluntary Register Glocestershire Somersetshire and Monmouthshire under another voluntary Register and Devonshire under another then there would be as great a Bank at London as at Amsterdam and would be able to do much more in Trade Credit and all great things than they can and as great a Bank at Bristol as at Hamburgh and would be able to drive as great a Trade and set up the neglected and I may say decayed Trade of Fishing upon the Coast of Wales and Ireland and as great Banks at the two Towns of Lynne in Norfolk and at Hull in Yorkshire and drive as good a Trade as at Dantzick and enliven the Clothing Trade now brought very low and set on foot that great and desirable Rich Trade of Fishing on their Coasts which so advantageously offers it self O yes O yes O yes what is become of the Moneys given voluntarily for the setting forward this good work of Fishing about twelve years since If any one will help me to the twenty shillings I gave I will give
ever will be of any great Riches or are capable thereof But such will as have these things abounding in them good Ports advantageous Laws for Trade good Wooll and good quantities thereof much and well Wooded with plenty of Iron Stone and Pit Coales with Lands fit to bear Flax with Mynes of Tin and Lead Scotland is a thin and lean Kingdom and wanting in these things England is a fat Kingdom and hath all these things in it Yet the Lothean Lands in Scotland are twenty four years purchase At Edinburgh there is a Grand Register and in each County a particular one and no man can be there deceived in a Purchase unless it be his own fault England is at sixteen years Purchase The reason is obvious why Scotland must be so and why England is so But a voluntary Register in England will cure all and put us six years purchase above Scotland For as I formerly said as our Honour and Honesty is so will be our Riches and Riches bring Trade and Trade brings strength to an Island And for want of good Titles let the world judge what a Condition we are coming into I will give you one small Instance what the poor decayed Trade and Clothiers of England would be able to do in easing themselves and making their Trade comfortable if they had but the Authority of the Law to Register all their Houses and Lands Take it from the City of Salisbury there I make the Precedent and as it would be with them so it would be with all the Towns in England who deal in the Wollen and Iron Manufacture Suppose the Clothiers in and near Salisbury have two thousand pounds a year in free Lands and their Lands were by Law fixt under a Register then the Anchorage and Foundation of a Bank will be at least fifty thousand pounds And immediately tumbles into them all the idle Moneys nay Moneys now under Ground and good part of the plate ten Miles round The Usurer will pray and the Men and Maid-servants will beg to take in their Moneys Immediately one hundred thousand pounds will be brought in and at four in the hundred What will this do to the poor Clothiers Nay what will it do to each Gentleman and all men near Salisbury that have or keep Sheep I say the help and present Credit of this great Bank and Cash will raise the price of Wooll and set the Poor at work Thereby enabling the Tenants to pay their Rents keep the poor of the Parish bring the Clothiers and the City into a Comfortable Condition but most of all it will prevent the Trade departing this Kingdom which of necessity it will do if not timely prevented For the Irish Wooll carried away with their Beef to Holland France and Germany their making Cloth of cheap Wooll with cheap Victuals with Moneys at three in the hundred will out do us and undo us too if 〈…〉 prevented Eight years since I discovered 〈…〉 of the Worse Manufacture and the Reasons which he made publique in his first Book The same that may be done at Salisbury by this way may be done by all the Towns in England that depend upon any of our own Manufactures And in this case here 's nothing desired but that Men thus qualified with Lands may employ it by the Authority of the Law to the good of themselves and mankind and to be justly honest to all Now methinks I hear many of Salisbury say But how may this be done which you say I tell you how desire your Parliament Man to draw you up a Bill and carry it into the House the next sitting But you will say he will not do it Then get your Bishop to do it You will say he is no Lawyer Pray tell him it is easier than making the River Navigable But a Register and the River Navigable together will do rarely well Well if the Bishop will do the one I will do the other I will only tumble over a few papers wherein are my Observations when I surveyed the River The Preamble of the Bill to be carried into the House of Commons for putting the City of Salisbury and the Free Lands within ten Miles thereof under a voluntary Register with some Heads of the said Bill WHereas there past an Act of Parliament in the _____ Year of his Majesties Reign that now is for making the River Avon Navigable from the City of Salisbury to the Town of Christ-Church and so into the Sea so as Boats Barges and Lighters may come up the said River to the City of Salisbury and so down again into the Sea for carrying and recarrying of Wood Coles Corn and all other Commodities to and fro And whereas the said River is begun to be made Navigable and some considerable Sums of Money are laid out about the said Work which if once finished will tend much to the benefit and fur therance of Trade to the said City and Country thereabouts And whereas there hath formerly been a great Trade in the said City and Country adjacent in the making and working in the Wollen Manufacture which is now much decayed and if not timely prevented will be worse the occasion whereof is the want of present Money and Credit for the Clothiers to drive their Trades to be by them had when wanted and that at low and easie Interest And finding that in many places beyond the Seas Trade is much advanted by the Lands being under a Register and in Taunton Dean in England the Town and Mannor there being under a Register hath in a strange manner given life ease and benefit to the Trade there and thereabouts whereupon that place is much enviched And to the end that the River of Avon when made Navigable may answer the Charge of making it so and the wollen Trade in Salisbury and thereabouts may be encouraged Wherefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That from and after the twenty fifth day of June one thousand six hundred seventy and seven all manner of person or persons that shall desire it may and shall have their Free-hold Lands and Houses Registred at the Registers Office within the City of Salisbury which shall lye within the said City and within ten Miles thereof accompting two thousand yards to the Mise Provided such Houses and Lands so to be Registred with their Names Metes and Bounds be first set up and affixed three Lords Days upon the Church Door of the Parish where such Lands are And that the Minister with one of the Church-Mardens and one of the Overseers of the Poor first certifie under their Hands and Seals the doing of the same with a true Copy of the Paper so affixed to the Register with forfeiture of twenty pounds and three Months imprisonment to any person or persons that shall take down or deface the said Writing during the time
Tavern and never Recorded in the Exchequer nor in any Court else yet these Bonds are a Judgment in Law and by virtue thereof will be first served and before all men else And at this day many Gentlemen and others that I know have sold Land since they entred into these Bonds and the Bonds not satisfied I speak this with honour to the King's Prerogative and affirm that it would be more for his Majesty's advantage also if Estates were Registred for he would then see what Security he has for his Money whereas his Majesty himself is many times a loser by trusting upon insufficient Security And it is now a common practice to convey away all Lands before a man becomes bound to the King Besides all these Uncertainties of Titles of Land it is brought so to pass at this day that whatever Moneys is or hath been borrowed by Companies Incorporated or upon the Credit or under the Common Seal of Cities or Corporations none can be recovered by Law I hope now no Gentleman of the Long Robe can pretend to know a good Title from a bad and therefore will be now willing to let the Free-lands of England to be put under a voluntary Register But I hear some say That for all that hath been said in this Discourse they are not satisfied the Dutch will be beat without fighting Well then I will give you some more satisfaction I pray observe what the Dutch and English have been doing for this many years it has been courting and fighting for this Mistress called Trade And observe how the Dutch have fitted her with all that she can desire as with a Register of Lands Banks Lumber-house cut Rivers easie Ports in point of Customs a Court of Merchants And these give her delights and she hath no mind to depart from them And her long continuance hath made her Lovers vastly rich and the Towns where she maketh her abode both populous and great And though in the Three Maritime Provinces they have neither good Water nor good Air yet are their Lands at fifty years Purchase Now observe England lyes within twenty Hours sail of Holland and is stored with many and much better Ports than Holland hath And our Ships by reason of the deepness of our Rivers can go out and come in with much greater Burdens than theirs can and we lye as well to the Baltick as they and much better to the Mediterranean East and West Indies than they do And in England are Noble Seats to be purchased and a good Air. Now Reader dost thou think that the great Dutch Merchants and others rich in Cash would stay there if we had here publick Security for our Lands that they might purchase safely here I say they would come over in Swarms and would willingly give thirty years purchase for Lands here So that the great Merchants coming from thence and buying Estates here will bring away the great Riches from thence and so increase Trade here and thereby the Dutch will decline gradually every year more and more and within very few years their beloved Mistress will depart and will come and settle her self with us And as we are an Island which God and Nature hath fitted for Trade if we once fit our selves with Laws answerable then the greatest part of the Trade of Europe will be with us And if this doth not convince the Reader that hereby we shall beat the Dutch without fighting and pay our Debts without Moneys I have no more to say Beside the Advantages aforesaid let me tell you that I have found out two places one in Ireland the other in England In that in Ireland are great and strange quantities of Timber to build Ships and places to build them and at three fifths of the Rates the King now builds at with convenient places to lay up the Ships and thereby to be ready upon all occasions That in England is convenient to build Ships at and at very easie Rates and is as good a Harbour to lay them up in as any is in England and in the very Eye of France And I desire it may be seriously considered And that the truth may be demonstrated of what I say I have affixed two sheets in Maps to this Book whereby the truth asserted may be made the more clear About two years since I was prevailed upon by some of the Money Bankers and some Gentlemen to go over into Ireland to Survey some Iron works Woods and Lands which they were in proposition for with Sir Robert Clayton and Mr. Morris being Works Lands and Woods lying near the River Slane in the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow and formerly set on Foot by Sir John Cutler Sir Edward Heath Mr. Abbot the Scrivener Docter Yates of Oxford and Mr. Timothy Stamp and from them Conveyed to Sir Robert Clayton and Mr. Morris to advance a sum of Moneys and to manage the Works and to give an Accompt But the Parties differing and some bad Titles made with suits at Law had so unhinged and debased the whole affair that nothing possibly could be done unless we could come upon some new Foundation So my self and servants spent some time in Surveying the Woods Lands and Works in which I did evidently perceive the Design at the first was very rationally laid but unfortunately destroyed I then considered what might be done After I had surveyed the River Slane and the Brooks and Rivulets running into the same and the Woods adjoyning unto them with that noble great and good Wood called Shelela I then did perfectly see what a great shame it was that such quantities of Timber should ly rotting in these Woods and could not be come at the Mountains and Boggs having so lockt them up that they could not be brought to any Sea-port to be imployed in building of Ships But my self and those I employed having spent much time in the surveying the said River Slane and the Rivulets running into it we found that they may be made so Navigable for Ten thousand pounds as all those Woods may with ease and at very cheap Rates be brought down the Slane to Wexford and to other places near thereunto to build Men of War and other Ships And I know in the Woods near unto the Slane that may come down that River if once Navigable there is Timber sufficient to make a hundred Men of War and some hundreds of Busses and as good Timber as any is in England I was going to say better and not one stick wanting that Oak is capable of doing And the first lengths of Masts also and they will serve well for that use And as now these Woods are and as they will for ever be unless by some such way relieved they will never bring the Owners Twenty thousand pounds nor Ten I verily believe But if the Slane were made Navigable and the Rivulets running into it these great quantities of Timber might be employed in building Ships for the Royal Navy and may if
of the Harbour did occasion the decrease of Trade and was of great prejudice to it and the City also I then acquainted the Lord Mayor of my thoughts As to the making a very good Harbour at Rings-end Upon which he did Importune me to bestow some time in a Survey and discovery thereof the which I did and spent about three weeks time in finding out what is here asserted First As to the damage of Trade by reason of the badness of the Harbour Secondly The advantage it will be to Trade if a safe Harbour were made Thirdly The way how a good Harbour may be made with a large Cittadel and a place for all Magazines and Naval Stores And Fourthly What it will cost the doing As to the First The Ships that lye at Anchor a mile below Rings-end lye upon very hard Sands when the Tide is out and thereby much damnifying the Ships if either old or weak built And the goods are littered to and from the Ships and many times the Ships receive very great Damage by Storms and great Winds and so the Ships Crew must always be on Board for fear of foul weather and the Harbour being so bad causes Trade to weaken at Dublin As to the Second If there were a Harbour made at Rings-end as in the Map described this advantage would be gained At present there is at least five hundred pounds per Annum paid to persons that carry and re-carry people in the Rings-end Coaches to and from the Ships all that would be saved And all the labour and pains that is now taken by Merchants Owners and Sea-men going from Dublin to the Ships saved the great charge at present by carrying and re-carrying goods by Litters to and from the Ships prevented much more Trade brought if the new Harbour were made for Ships that cannot lye upon them hard Sands And in the new Harbour the Ships will always be floating the water being by art with Sluces kept to thirteen foot depth and thereby any weak or crazy Ship will lye there safe and receive no damage at all A Boy and a Dog in the new Harbour will look to a Ship And the owner staying any considerable time for Lading will in the mean time permit part of the Ships Crue to go short Voyages to Chester Leverpool Bristol and the West of England which will be for the benefit of Trade and thereby Mariners will not be wanting And all the sad and dangerous perils now suffered by the Ships in the Bay where they now lye prevented And by the Ships coming up boldly to Lasey Hill there Trade will be made easie the Merchant Owner and Ships all being together The wise and knowing people in Dublin say If the new Harbor were made there would be Ten thousand pound per annum advance in the Kings Customs yearly As to the Third There may be made a good Harbor neer Rings-end in the spare piece of Ground that now is every Tide covered with water which lyes betwixt Rings-end and Lasey-Hill And in that piece of Land Cuts may be made as in the Map described and Merchants Houses built in one piece and Houses for the Slaughter-men Sea-men and Fishers in the other piece And in these Cuts all Vessels will lye with that ease and safety that it will be to the owners of great advantage and prevent the present charge they are put unto by Multiplicity of men and so make Trade Easie Cheap and delightful and at the upper end of one of the Cuts there may be made a very strong Cittadel and Houses for all manner of Stores which may prove of great convernment to that Kingdom for there is an old Saying Two strings are better than one For this Cittadel may be made in that place with so great advantage that none can be stronger or better answer the ends for which it is intended then this may do for at present the Castle of Dublin is in a hole in the middle of the Town and so may many ways miss of the ends that it was intended for besides in the Castle there is very little room for any Military Stores which would be here very well supplied And the way for making this Harbor to answer all the ends here prescribed is by making the Cuts as you see in the Map with building two great Stone Locks or Sluces to let down and bring up the Ships and for supplying these Cuts or Trenches with Water the Brook coming from Rofarnham and Robuck must be made use of and the Brook now running by Dublin-Castle must be taken up at the side of the Castle and carried a-cross Georges Lane and so through a waste piece of Land of Sir William Petties and so down to Lasey Hill to help to augment the Trenches in dry times when Water is scarce If this New Harbor were made no place in Holland were answerable to it for its advantage and convenience and as to the Cittadel certainly none would exceed it no not Delfsee that strong Fort being made by the very same advantage as this may be which is by the little River that comes from Groningen to Delfsee As to the Fourth which is the charge of making the Harbor and Cittadel I have taken a great deal of pains when I was there casting up what it might cost and I believee it may be compleated for Twenty thousand pound and certainly as that Harbor now is and as that piece of Land is overflowed with water every Tide and under the very sides of the City it is a very great detriment to Trade and Commerce and of as great dishonour because it 's relating to the Metropolis of a Kingdom and no place possible can offer it self with more advantage as to Harbour and Cittadel with ease and increase of Trade than this place doth if good practicable Art were rightly imployed upon it and well back'd by a good Law well made and fitted to answer so great and noble a design as this would be The Map of the New Harbor with the several Cuts for the Ships to lye in with the Cittadel is hereunto affixt I know writing Books of Trade where present profit is not within the reach of the Readers understanding puts a silence unto the whole History be it never so good for all men are governed by what they understand in matters relating to gain or loss But it shall be my way to come as near as possibly I can to the understandings of the parties I intend to appropriate this Discourse unto Therefore I will now try my Pen to see whether I can get it to beat an Alarm unto all the poor Handicraft People in Three places viz. Herefordshire Worcestershire and London and I question not but if they give attendance and observe the first word of Command which is Silence they shall hear in one hour such things uttered as will send them home rejoycing And first I shall speak of Herefordshire Secondly of VVorcestershire and Thirdly of
and Corn I answer thou maist at any time take up Ten or Twelve pounds or more upon a Mortgage of thy Bank-Corn to buy Materials to work into Manufacture Child I charge thee tell this to thy VVife in Bed and it may be she understanding the benefit that will be to her and her Children by this way she may turn Dutch-VVoman and endeavour to provide some Moneys which she will save to buy Corn And by these two ways of having cheap Bread and Drink and Credit out of the Bank to take up Moneys at any time when wanting certainly here thou wilt have sufficient Revenge of thy former Task-Masters Consider thy fingers and hands are thy own and now they are imployed for thy benefit and advantage and not for others with cheap Bread and Drink with Moneys at all times when wanted and if thou dyest leaving a VVidow behind thee assure thy self my Daughter need not stay long for a Husband for thou leaving her Bank-Corn and good store of hands to work there will be old striving for her as there is for VVidows that have many Children in other parts where this just delightful profitable saving and honourable way is practised Secondly Thou wilt unavoidably ruine Pawn-Brokers and it is high time or else they will by their great Interest ruine all the Poor and to me it is no less then a Miracle that the Pawn-Brokers had not long since ruin'd all the poor People in and about London by high Interest Marshals-VVrits Imprisonments and the dreadful effects now practised Now Children if you will pawn your Clothes and take them out on Saturday Nights and carry them in on Monday-Mornings or pay Thirty or Fourty in the Hundred for your Moneys I shall take no pity of you Thirdly Thou wilt have no occasion for a Lawyer but mayest follow thy business quietly if thou wilt and be in a condition to augment the number of thy Hands and so increase thy Estate and be able to set at work the idle Poor which now Beg and Steal then thy Neighbours will love thee for taking their Poor off them and thou wilt increase in Riches and at last it will be Strive as strive can who shall have the Poor even as now they strive at the Sessions-house for Persons to carry to Barbadoes or Virginia But my Child remember it is thy Corn and Malt in Granary and the Credit which that Corn and Malt gives thee which is the cause of all this I will now leave this subject only I must lay a charge upon all my Daughters whose Husbands work in Mechanick Arts That they force their Husbands to eat good Wheaten-Bread made of Corn that is taken out of the Bank-Granary and also that they force them to drink good Ale and Beer that is made of Malt taken out of the Bank-Granaries But I know many will say Here is a new way which was never heard of before to prevent poverty and the increase of beggary No Friend it is not so there is a great City beyond the VVater in the Civil-VVars was much destroyed where this Rule Order and Government is now practised and it was high time for that place to fall on this way for the VVars had wholly beggar'd them Necessity many times brings good things to pass I pray God this may be the time with us Necessities force hard and decay in Trade comes posting on I must now mind all my Children who labour in the Mechanick Art who are resolved to have Corn for Bank-Credit of a Story being a worthy Mans observation in Holland which the Bank at Amsterdam sends to the Parties who lent them Moneys Sir William Temple to come and fetch their Moneys lent with Interest they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it longer If this Bank-Credit by Corn Granaries were here well fixt the very like would be with the Mechanicks who have Corn in Bank there being no Security at present to be had comparable to what this would be I must desire my Children or some of them which can well spare Moneys to buy a Book of Trade lately set out by a worthy Gentleman wherein you will perfectly see Mr. Roger Cook That all Trades must and will flourish according as the means is used in promoting them and that Rule Order and Policies in Trade by Sea and Land Ease Cheapness with conveniences for Trade have been the means of setting up the Dutch to this great growth and strength they are now at And in Reading that Book you will perfectly see as in a Glass your own condition as now it is as also what it would be if the thing I treat upon were here well fixt by a good Law Now I will take a step to Worcester and Discourse the poor Clothiers there but I know they are all of one Lip a bad Trade and they do not know when it will mend neither do they know which way it may be mended well because they are Neighbours and Countrey-men I will take in the Clothiers of VVorcester vvith the Cap-makers of Bewdley and Stuff-Weavers of Kidderminster and as they are Neighbours in one County and deal all in the VVool so I will fix them all together in One Granary at New Brunswick near Stratford upon Avon And for that they shall have equal benefit in all things relating to the said Granary I have here drawn the form of the Bill to be presented to the Parliament for the building and ordering the Bank-Granary and the Corn at New Brunswick which shall be put therein with all persons thereunto related BE it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Incorporated-companies of Clothiers of the City of VVorcester and Town of Kidderminster with the company of Cappers of the Town of Bewdley in the said County to erect and build one or more Granaries at New Brunswick near the Bridg at Stratford upon Avon in the County of Warwick being the Lands of Sir John Clapton Knight to hold and keep Corn of all sorts for the use and benefit of the said companies of Clothiers and Cappers and that the said companies may have and take Lands sufficient to make a good and sufficient High-way for Carts and other Carriages to come to and from the said Granary or Granaries provided the said companies of Clothiers and Cappers first pay or cause to be paid to Sir John Clapton or his Assigns for so much Land as they shall use or have occasion for not under Thirty years purchase and in case there shall arise any difference about the value of the Land so to be made use of then it shall be in the power of the Mayor of Stratford upon Avon and any two of the Aldermen of the said Town to set down and award how much
supply the Granaries with good Corn and at cheap Rates those Parts being the only places for good Corn and plentiful in England and the Corn may be ground at Mills to be built close by the Granaries upon the River Sharwel and the Meal and Mault carried down by Water to London and there baked and brewed into Bread and Drink and the Corn and Mault taken and put into Granary in times that Corn is cheap will cause the poor Tradesmen never to eat dear Bread or Drink dear Drink and upon the Credit of his Bank Corn he will be able to take up Moneys at all times to drive his Trade And then by vertue of cheap Bread and cheap Drink with Credit out of Bank with the advantage he may have of employing many hands both Children and Servants the Mechanick Artificer must then of necessity if a good husband advance his Fortunes And this way and this way alone is the true way of bringing the Trade again into the City of London And the Granaries being once well settled and Corn therein well fixt happy is he then that can get the Poor of S. Gyles or Cripplegate to be by him employed I will now give you one Instance what this way of Corn and Mault in Granary will do if once well fixt at Anslo Bridge in Oxfordshire with Mills to grind Corn and Engines set up there to go by Water to accommodate Trade Suppose I were to make Pins I know that is the smallest Manufacture that is now made and there are many Poor of that Trade that make hard shift to live I think I could make Pins three pence in the Shilling cheaper than they can now be made in London by the greatest Dealers in that Trade and all done by the Poor People that are now chargeable to the Parish The manner and way of making the Pins so cheap is or may be very obvious if People are not ignorantly blind First the Wyer must be bought at the best hand and sent to Anslo Bridge and there drawn and made sizeable and fit to make all sorts of Pins and this to be done by the force and power of a Water Wheel which will draw more Wire in one day than six men can by the way used by arm labour in the same time Secondly These Poor to make Pins must be fixt and settled near the Granaries at Anslo Bridge there to work by good Rules and strict Orders Thirdly There they must have a publick Brew-house and Bake house then all Bread and Drink will be made very cheap and when the Pins are made they are in the heart of England and may be sent down the River Avon into Severne and so for Bristol Ireland and Westchester and in the way of barter the Pin-Makers may have Cheese from Chester and Bacon from Shrewsbury for Pins and the Cheese and Bacon may be brought down the River Severne and up the River Avon and so to Anslo Bridge by Land to feed the Pin-Makers And all this will be performed at far easier and much cheaper Rates than Cheese and Bacon are sold for at London Now if Bread and Drink may always be had at half the Rate at Anslo Bridge for the Pin-Makers as they pay at London for it and if the Wyer be drawn cheaper at Anslo Bridge than now it is at London and if good Cheshire Cheese and Bacon can be had at Anslo Bridge at cheaper Rates than at London and House Rent at half the Rate as at London all these things being put together will certainly be the means of making Pins three pence in the Shilling cheaper at Anslo Bridge than now they are or can be made in London And for hands to work every Parish abounds in Poor and would willingly be freed of them But observe if bread and drink were always certain and cheap at London for the benefit of the Mechanick Trades and well settled to be at all times delivered to the Members of the several Companies then in London could be no Poor nor want of Trade for then men would strive who should employ most hands he that employed most would get most Suppose you were at this time to begin to put your Corn and Mault into Granary at Anslo Bridge there you may have sixscore Bushels of Wheat and threescore Bushels of Malt for twenty pounds and such quantity being laid in will maintain a Family of seven Persons with bread and drink for three years which is but twenty Shillings per year for each Person And as things are managed in London and near London take three years together one year with another it is not less than three Pounds per year that maintains a man in bread and drink But you will say these are good things but we shall never see them come to pass but if done I confess it would relieve all the Poor in the City and increase the Trade and draw Trade into the City again and would be the great benefit of the Widdows and the Fatherless and prevent the Pawn-brokers from Raking and Screwing the Poor as now they do Well I will acquaint you that there are some Persons that have for some years last past foreseen the Misery that would unavoidably come upon the Mechanick Trades in the City of London and there hath been much Pains taken and some Moneys expended by surveying the River Thames and the Sharwell to find if they might be so made Navigable and Communicable with the River Severne and Avon that thereby a large Trade might be brought to the City of London and all Poor Mechanicks fed with cheap bread and cheap drink and it is very evident that if the River Thames were perfected and made compleatly Navigable as it ought to be and the Sharwel made Navigable as is prescribed only to Anslo Bridge then the great things here mentioned would come to pass for the benefit of the City as to the inlarging of its Trade and accommodating the persons working in the Mechanick-Arts and relieving the whole Mass of Poor that are in and about the City of London who now want not only work but bread also which is a great reproach besides the damage it brings to the Publick You have here a Copy of the Petition which is now in my hands to be delivered to the Kings Majesty for perfecting the Navigation upon the River Thames as it ought to be done with the Water mens Grievances which are many I having this Summer surveyed the River Thames from Oxford to London and my Son twice and the River Sharwel also we find the Water-men much abused being forc't to pay several Taxes at several Sluces betwixt Oxford and Burcot that part of the River being made Navigable in the 21. of King James and by that Law all People and Barges are to pass and repass without Tax And we find that the great defects in not compleating the said River with the charge trouble and delays occasioned thereby is a great hindrance to the