questions do arise and to auoide much cariage of wares vp and downe for the transporting from Iland to Iland you agree by mutuall consent that a thing of mettall because it goeth in least roome and continueth longest without perishing and is caried too and fro with the least charge and is also fittest to be cut and deuided in most peeces without losse shall be deuised to be coyned as the meane in wares to exchange all wares by And to the end there should be alwaies neither more nor lesse wares brought into your Iland then were equiualent with the wares of your Iland and this thing you call Money which is now a measure to set a price or to measure euery thing by it commeth to passe that you haue more then sufficient for the inhabitants of your Iland of corne wools and other Commodities which in this regard may be called Superfluities and because some of them are perishable and cannot keepe long you seeke to vtter and conuert into money whereby you draw great store of money into your Iland Wherupon some of your inhabitants perceiuing the same to be the measure and meane to commaund and obtaine all other things through a couetous desire do practise to be maisters of that measure so that no man can come by it but with their consent and paying well for it and in so doing they make the money to become a merchandise and heape vp much wealth to themselues bring therby a dearth also of all things within your Iland For when one taketh a hundred pounds to pay 10 pounds ouer and more then he borroweth that man in vttering of his ware must sell accordingly whereby the measure between you is become falsified The lord of the other Iland perceiuing this breach doth dissemble the matter knowing that by these meanes he is bereaued of a great part of his readie money and therewithall that the Commodities which hee was wont to haue of you are become dearer and that on the contrarie the price of his Cōmodities is abated through scarcitie of money hee deuiseth a course to draw the mony out of your Iland and to aduance the price of his Commodities you thereupon make a law that no readie money shall be transported but you are contented to admit an exchange for money on both sides grounded vpon the waight and finenesse of his mony and yours and according to the valuation to nominate the same and thereby to make returne of each others Commodities which exchange in nature of trade you suffer to rise and fall in price according to plentie and scarcitie of money By meanes whereof he hath an abilitie giuen him to compasse the rule of this exchange and so doth abuse the same both waies that he draweth all the readie money out of your Iland and doth aduance the price of his Commodities which he thereby selleth the dearer vnto you You do also sell your Commodities dearer but you do not make a proportionable price vnto his neither a due returne of the prouenue of your Commodities For if you make your returne by exchange of money by bils he taketh an aduantage thereby in the price of exchange by ouer-valuing his money and vnder-valuing yours or else you are driuen to make returne in his Commodities at a deare rate whereby of necessitie he doth ouer-ballance your Ilands commodities with his and doth of course expell your readie money to be giuen to boote with your Commodities Where is now become that equiualent proportion of wares for wares or to what purpose serueth the measure of money betweene you and him do not the inhabitants of your Iland pay for all And whence commeth al this was not vsurie the beginning and the merchandizing exchange the efficient cause of all which being taken away will make the effectes to cease and what might be done ex conuerso we leaue to the consideratiō of the wise to determine what may stand with the course of politicke gouernment And to their iudgement we will now propound three meanes for the aduancing of the price of our home Commodities by increase of trade besides the operation of plentie of mony which maketh things deare whereof we shall intreate more hereafter The first is to giue an abilitie vnto Merchants to set ouer or transport their bils obligatorie or bonds which they receiue vpon sale made of their Commodities for other Commodities For whereas they sell most commonly all the forraine Commodities payable at some short time if hauing receiued billes or bonds for their wares they might lawfully set them ouer for other Commodities there would be greater quantities of our Commodities bought from time to time To which end the statutes of Champertie and maintenance might be qualified and the billes might be made payable to the partie or the lawfull bearer or bringer thereof as is vsed in other countries But because the strictnesse of the Common lawe of the realme doth require a greater perfection of formall deedes then the Ciuill lawe of other countries where plaine and sincere dealings haue hitherto excluded Non est factum therfore were it requisite to haue one generall office for all notaries and scriueners as there is in other countries where euery act bill or bond should be registred not onely by the notarie or scriuen or that made the same but also by a Prothonotarie who should keepe register of all and where euery thing should be enrolled vpon a penaltie A matter in reason as well belonging to the Chauncerie as the recording of the deedes of lands Statutes and Recognizances This wold greatly ease the most honourable Court of Starre-chamber of many sutes which daily happen for forgeries and otherwise and disburden also the Court of Common lawes of the like And finally many protractions in law would be abrogated that now are vsed to the hurt both of the partie plaintife and defendant The second is that the citie of London and euery principall towne of a shire or the most part of them would take vpon them to take money casually at the hands of such as will deliuer the same vpon the aduenture of their liues as at Venice where a man for the summe of foure or fiue hundred pounds once giuen shall be sure to haue a hundred pound a yeare during his life whereby a great stocke might be raised for the generall good of all parties and especially to set poore people on worke and by incorporating their manufacture and handiworke to sell the same afterwards with a reasonable gain towards their aduenture Besides that experience hath taught in all places where the like is vsed that the citie becommeth alwaies a gainer by the decease of the parties that do deliuer money in this nature The third meane to aduaunce the price of our home Commodities is as before hath bene noted the example of great personages in the wearing of our Commodities whom the people will imitate and so the more vsed the more aduaunced by the request thereof
rentes leauied vpon the citie of Paris are brought to amount vnto 3 millions and three hundred and fifty thousand pounds tournois yearely And the citie would be much richer if there were a house as at Genes called the house of S. George which taketh al the money that men will bring after the rate of 5 vpon the 100 and doth deliuer out the same to the merchants to trafficke therwith after two and three vpon the hundred like as the great Emperours Antonie and Alexander Seuerus did which did deliuer mony at 4 per 100. And Augustus deliuered mony freely without interest to them that wold giue sureties to restore double the value if they did not pay it at the time limited By these means their subiects got much and Princes were not driuen to borrow or to pill their subiects but did rather diminish their imposts And so he concludeth that the aboundance of gold and siluer is the cause partly of the derth of things The second cause of the dearth of things namely the Monopolies he doth passe ouer as a matter not considerable to the things intreated of which is saith he when merchants artificers or laborers do assemble thēselues to set a price vpon the Commodities or their handiworke with the augmēting of wages For the preuenting whereof hee commendeth the abolishing of their fraternities or companies procured by the meanes of their Chauncelor The third cause of the dearth by the want of things commeth to passe by the excessiue trade of the things and by the wast thereof It is certaine saith he that we haue our corne and wine better cheape during the warres with the Spaniard and Flēming then after the warres when the trade is permitted For the husbandman being driuen to sell and to make money of his wares and the gentleman finding the same perishable when the merchant dare not lade his ships bringeth downe the price of Commodities and maketh the people to liue good cheape which according to the Prouerbe Fraunce can neuer be famished would alwaies continue if by the means of the stranger their storehouses were not emptied The Spaniard doth buy and transport their corn before it is ripe because his countrey except Arragon and Granado is of great sterilitie therfore haue the corn merchants great priuiledges for bringing corne vnto them and are onely licensed to export mony for the same From the Spaniard saith he we haue but their oyles and spices and yet the best drugges come vnto vs from Turkie and Barbarie From Italie we haue their allumes some silkes and other Commodities Oyles we may haue within our dominions of Languedock and Prouence more then we do need and there are as good silkes made with vs as at Florence and Genes Touching allumes if we would cut the veines of the Pireney mountaines we should find an infinite number of allume and copresse as hath bin sufficiently proued whereas France doth spend farre aboue the value of one million thereof yearely and the wast of things is incredible The fourth cause of the dearth of things proceedeth from the pleasure of Princes which do impose a price vnto the things which they affect For it is a generall rule in state matters that Princes do not onely giue lawes vnto their subiects but also as Plato hath noted they do chaunge by their example the maners of men To which purpose he doth vse the example of their king Francis the first who being hurt in the head caused his haire to be cut off wherin the people did presently imitate him as following the will of Princes praising that which they do commend We haue seene at one time saith he three great Princes striuing as it were who should haue the most learned men and best artificers namely the great king Francis the first Henry king of England and Pope Paul the third in such sort that the king of England could neuer haue the learned and reuerend Beda and the French king did pay 72 thousand crownes for a Diamond rather then king Henry should haue had the same Presently the Nobilitie and the people did giue themselues to studie and to buy precious stones and whē king Henry beganne to make litle account of the stones their generall estimation and price was abated wherof there are many examples in like sort for the art of painting The Princes of the East and Alexander the Great had brought them into such credite that a picture of Venus issuing out of the waters which Apelles had made was bought for 60 thousand crownes Alexander gaue for his 200 talents that is 36 thousand pound starling Apelles himselfe made no difficultie to buy a picture of Protogenes for 50 thousand crownes concluding with other examples that the pleasure of Princes maketh things deare as aforesaid And so returning to the wast or consumption of things wherein their example is also imitated he doth reprehend the cutting of silke vpon silke or any other stuffe so that it can serue but once for one person which caused the Turkes to call vs mad men And further he findeth fault that our Lackies and seruants are apparelled therwith and that so much stuffe is put into the apparell disguising with new fangled fashions the proportion of our person or bodie contrarie to the ancient modestie when as the fashion of the apparell will many times cost more then the apparell itselfe To this is linked the desire of costly houshold stuffe and daintie and delicate fare of al sorts of meate and drinke whereof he alleaged examples which are better cōcealed then spoken of for they bring with them all licentiousnesse and excesse as a spring of vices of the calamities and miseries of a Common-wealth If any man shold here obiect saith he that if things did still become dearer partly through the wast and partly also for the abundance of gold and siluer no man should be able to liue because of the dearth it is true But the warres and calamities happening to a Common-wealth do stay the course hereof as we may see that the Romaines haue liued with great scarcitie and to speake properly in great miserie almost fiue hundred yeares when they had but copper monies of a pound waight and without stampe vntill king Seruius and they made no siluer monies but 485 yeares after the foundation of Rome and 62 yeares after they made monies of gold And here he taketh occasion to compare the price of things altered during the gouernment of the Romaines and the lawes made by them for the suppressing of abuses and that all their gold and siluer came vnto them in a hundred and twentie yeares by the spoiles of all the world which was brought to Rome by the Scipions Paul Aemylius Marius Sylla Lucullus Pompey and Caesar especially by the two last For Pompey did conquer so much land as made the reuenue of the Empire to come vnto 8 millions and one halfe of crownes Caesar notwithstanding all his expences prodigalities brought to the
the realme being conuerted into money as well as he had lost his money before that time M. Bodine doth shew by diuers exāples that there was not so much siluer gold in times past 300 yeares ago as there is now he might wel haue said in 100 yeares and lesse howbeit this generall examination is to smal purpose For euery Cōmonwealth is to make a particular examinatiō whether they do proportionably participate of the general abundance or plentie of gold and siluer found now adaies and not by cōparing the same vnto the quantitie of times past for so should they be deceiued And we neede not to proue that there is now more gold and siluer then in times past for it is cleare in euery mans iudgement And euen of very late yeares we find recorded in our Chronicles of England that during the gouernment of the most victorious king Henry the eight in the 14 yeare of his raigne in a Parliament then holden the whole substance of London was not taken to be worth 20 hundred thousand pounds this citie being the head of the realm where the wealth is heaped vp as the corne of a field into a barne And in the yeare following vpon the demaund of a subsidie of foure shillings of the pound it was proued that the same demaund amounting to 800 thousand pounds was more then all the readie money and plate of the realm came vnto which was out of the kings hands and yet did amount but to about one hundred marke a parish not reckoning so many parishes as Machiauell hath done but only about 12 thousand in the whole realme the spatious countrie of Fraunce containing but 27400 parishes Which readie money and plate of the realme would be now adaies found farre differing and much more and yet not proportionable to the abundance of gold and siluer found in other countries and as we may see that Maister Bodine hath noted of the city of Paris and of the many millions which haue come from the West Indies whereby the realme should be stored with sufficient treasure and wealth For as he called their salt to be a Manna so may we call our cloth lead tinne which be our staple Commodities most necessarie for the behoofe of man And therefore ought this with vs to be the first cause of the increase of the wealth of the realme the rather for that in the second cause which Maister Bodine noteth to be The increase of people we are not proportionably inferiour vnto them as we may iudge by diuerse causes namely First for the mariage of the Cleargie Secondly by the people driuen into the realme for Religion by the wars of other countries Thirdly the seldome plague or mortalitie Fourthly the seldome famine Fiftly the small warres of countries adiacent or forraine warres hauing had no ciuill wars at home And sixtly the vntimely mariages of both men and women now adaies Whereby Colonies might be spared for the inhabiting of other dominions as heretofore was once taken in hand The third cause concerning the trade for Turkie and Barbarie is not onely common with vs for those countries but also with diuers other countries where the French men haue no trade at all And as for their Bankes of money they would rather be preiudicial and impouerish the realme as they are vsed then do any good as is sufficiently declared in our Treatise of Exchanges which other nations will find in time and most especially Princes that haue occasion to vse them and might well auoid them if a due care were had for the accumulating of a standing and yet a running treasure within such bounds as would stil ebbe and flow for the good of Princes and their Commonwealth Concerning Monopolies it is strange that Maister Bodine doth with such breuitie passe ouer thē shewing onely what he meaneth thereby according to the Etimologie true sense and definition of the word when merchants artificers or labourers do assemble themselues to set a price vpon Commodities which one man alone may also count when he buyeth vp all that is to be had of one kind of merchandize to the end he alone may sell the same at his pleasure The engrossing forestalling or incorporating of any Commodities or victuals is intollerable in any Common-wealth vnlesse that the trade of those Cōmodities would decay if a kind of incorporation were not vsed For whē the cōmon-people do buy generally things deare they can generally also sel their Cōmodities dere accordingly but when some particular things are deare they cannot do so Now as the effects of al Monopolies is to make the price of Cōmodities dere so must the price of things in this regard be considered betweene our home Cōmodities the price of forrain which if we will but examine within the cōpasse of 50 years that our monies haue bene without alteration as is before expressed we shall easily procure the great error or malice of those that do accuse the cōpanie of Merchants aduenturers to be a Monopoly which false imputation may be reproued by by this only that all forrain Cōmodities are dearer then our home Commodities which are not risen in price accordingly yet of late years are for the most part amended in the making the other impaired and one sort of cloth is sold at one time beyond the seas by 2 3 4 or more pounds differing in a packe one from another neither haue the merchants aduenturers the trade of cloth onely in their own hands For diuers other cōpanies of merchants are priuiledged and do transport great quantitie of clothes into forraine parts as well as they and it is free for all straungers that are in league with her Maiestie to buy cloth to transport the same at their pleasure Which reasons do concerne the effects of Monopolie Whereas for the manner of their trafficke whereby euery man tradeth particularly and apart with his owne stocke selleth by his own factor or seruant with diuers other reasons we will referre our selues to that which their Secretarie hath written of late in defence of their good orders and constitutions Concluding that as their trade is the most important and as in all traffickes the vniuersall doth gouerne the particular so the dissolution of that societie would be the vndoing of al the trade and bring a great confusion to the Realme For albeit that some would haue other nations to come and buy the cōmodities of vs within the realm for say they there is according to the Prouerbe twenty in the hundred difference betweene VVill you buy and will you sell these men haue no consideration for the maintenance of nauigatiō which is the greatest strength of the realme whose defence next vnder God consisteth most in ships and well experienced mariners that most carefully are to be prouided for Whereas also the transporting of our cloth to certaine places doth cause other nations to resort thither to buy them which may be more properly called to be VVill you
and siluer of late yeares then is it most requisite for me to procure to participate of that abundance as much as lieth in my power and to accumulate treasure for me and my subiects by importation of gold and siluer and preuention of the transportation of any the rather that the course of commodities in particular hath this property that as by the excessiue exportation of some things the like things do grow deare so by the ouerabundant importation of other commodities things do become better cheape Another remedy against the dearth of things especially victuals is to restore the vse of fish to the ancient credit and estimation and hereupon he taketh occasion to commend our custome of England for obseruing fish-dayes in the weeke And for effecting of the like in Fraunce he propoundeth the example of the Prince and magistrate whom the people will imitate We may wish that both the one and the other were duly executed or obserued whereby fishing would be better maintained and most especially the nauigation and flesh would in some seasons of the yeare be vsed more commodiously and better for the health of man The great number of all sorts and kinds of fish according to the obseruation of the Romaines noted by maister Bodine ought to moue vs thereunto fish being so pure a creature that were it not that we see the same subiect vnto diseases it wold be very doubtfull whether the same amongst other creatures was cursed for mans transgression the Scripture speaking only that the earth was cursed therefore considering also the Prouerbe As sound as a fish and if any be subiect to diseases it is fish of riuers or of standing waters and fish-ponds which may be cured by strawing much parsley into the water And because that flesh and fish are two principall things for the food of man and that our purpose is not to omit any thing that incidently may be handled for the good of the common-wealth therefore will it not be exorbitant the rule of our methode to discourse somewhat thereof The best season of the yeare to eate fish is from September vntill March if we will regard the goodnesse of the fish howbeit that for the increase of beasts we are commanded with great reason and consideration to eate most fish in March and Aprill when he loseth his taste The fresh fish of riuers is of more digestion and better for sicke persons but the sea-fish is of more nourishment All fish being moist and cold of nature is qualified by the addition of salt and being eaten with much bread cannot do any hurt especially vnto cholericke persons with whose complexion it agreeth best And whereas all other creatures do first decay and putrifie in the belly the fish doth first putrifie in the head for no other reason but that hauing only one gut the meate doth easily passe the same without digestion or corruption which by staying long with other ereatures causeth putrifaction an argument that fish is more healthfull then flesh howbeit that through the continuall vse flesh is more agreeable with our nature And whereas maister Bodine saith that it is vnknowne vnto man from whence at one season the infinite millions of herrings do come we are of another opinion For the Herring against the nature of all fish which goeth against the water and tide fearing the lifting vp of his scales commeth from the Northerne seas and goeth to the West Ocean to enioy the temperature of the aire For whereas all the sommer he hath taken his ease and pleasure in the Northerne seas desirous to enioy the water therof as being sweeter then that of other seas he returneth in winter to those places that haue bene most beaten of the Sunne being hotter and deeper as also lesse troubled with the winds and tempests vnto the which the Northerne seas are more subiect where the sands are thereby eleuated and concurring with the water For the Herring aboue all other fishes cannot endure the cold and therfore are they also dead as soone as they be out of the water Aire is the cause of putrification which those that haue studied to preserue flesh long without salt haue found by experience Salt doth bite out the bloud of the flesh which we see will not keepe vnlesse it be couered with brine made of salt yet those that do trauell vnder the line called Aequinoctiall do keepe fresh mutton veale or any other flesh for a long time without salt for they presse out the bloud and hauing well dried the same with linnen clouts they put it into their barrels of meale especially meale of Rie as it commeth from the East contries and so they do closevp the same that no aire can enter which is an easie matter and their meale not the worse for to be vsed Some do also a litle perboile their flesh and keepe it close stopped in vineger but that is not so sauory to be eaten The knowledge hereof is fit for Nauigators But for the good of all the inhabitants of a Commonwealth let vs commend the singular care of those Magistrats which to preuent all corruption and diseases of euill aire and corrupted bloud do commaund that oxen and all other beasts should be fasting a day or two before they should be slaine and then hanged vp for the like time or more as the season of the yeare will permit to let the blod runne out before the Butchers may sell the flesh thereof who knowing the losse of waight by the bleeding and that it doth not shew so well are hasty to sell the same to the great hurt and danger of the health of man This care of the Magistrate therefore tendeth to the preseruation of the health of the subiect And to this purpose we do not hold impertinent to commend a good order obserued in other countries for keeping of their cities and townes cleane without hauing so many scauengers in euery parish as we do to the great charge of the inhabitants For whereas the cleansing of all vaults is brought to certaine places and vsed for dung there are certaine three or foure scauengers which for two or three hundred pounds a yeare take the same and the durt of the streetes to farme and do euery one of them keepe twelue or more horses and carts to cary the durt away which by scattering straw along the streetes from time to time is gathered vp and so caried to the places where the cleansing of the vaults is mingled with it which maketh good dung and is caried all the countrey ouer preuenting hereby corruption of aire bettering their grounds for increase His last point concerning certainty and equality of money which may hold the price of commodities and all other things in a certaine equality by a due course of exchange is a matter of great moment as we haue shewed heretofore which maister Bodine holdeth so difficult to be vnderstood that when any man is sayd to be of experience and to vnderstand