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A60466
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The trade & fishing of Great-Britain displayed with a description of the islands of Orkney and Shotland. By Captain John Smith.
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Smith, John, Captain, lieutenant under Col. Rainsborough.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing S4097; ESTC R220078
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12,883
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24
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about the Transportation or Exchanging of their Fish for other Commodities So that in all Holland you shall scarce see one Beggar there being so many thousand things or particular Trades or Imployments belonging to the Fishing-Trade out of which they may find a Livelyhood They employ also hereby great store of Ships and in the industrious management hereof make us in England at what rate they please buy our own Fish The great quantity of Herring every year they take they transport to Dantzick Melvin Quinbrough Leghorn and other parts and with the Returns they make of them buy Corn Hemp Flax Pitch Tar Clap-boards and other Commodities and in Holland store them up into a Magazin whence they again disperse them into Italy France Spain yea England and all over Europe Fish and the Fishing-Trade being the onely Stock upon which they continually live and spend putting off most there where they find the best Rates and this hath encreased their Shipping and Wealth that now they have lengthned their power all over the World and in most Countries have a considerable Stock And this growing and encreasing of theirs hath been within the space of 70 or 80 years and yet they are not come to their heighth for every day they glory in some new addition to their Sway. And if care be not taken of this their growth they will within few years not onely be Master of our Seas but of our Trades too His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to take this into his Princely consideration and if it be seconded with the prudent management of those Commissioners he hath already imployed in the carrying it on I dare be bold to say the Hollanders are at their Meridian For first of all England is not inferior to the Netherlands nay we are before them in all the Advantages both of Art and Nature The scituation of our Country is such that for the convenience of all kind of Marts the world hath not the like and being seated between the North and South so that it is fix'd as it were by Art and Nature the fittest Staple for both Northern and Southern Commodities Secondly our Ports and Harbours are fairer and safer having good Anchoring and more in number throughout the three Kingdoms than any Country in Christendom can boast of And then thirdly which exceedeth we have valuable Commodities as to the quantity and quality of them such as are the inriching of all those that trade with them So that if we are not our own Enemies and will but be a little industrious one quarter of that will serve and be enough in England which is but necessary and scarce sufficient in Holland adding thereto providence for the employing our own Shipping and not any Forreigners we shall within few years have the greatest power at Sea and make our selves Master of all Trades and the Hollanders a servant to that Wealth and Power of which at present he is the sole Master But for the quicker advancement of so great and noble a work there is necessary to be a Protection and Favour of his Majesty to all manner of Trades so that they be not carried on by Strangers and acted by them as at present it is in and about the City of London there being thousands of them up and down the Suburbs French and Dutch and others who live as it were upon the ruines of the poor free-born Citizens vending any unmerchantable ware and at lower Rates than any other honest Tradesman can And this I humbly conceive is the reason why Trading hath been so bad and dead in this great City for these late years But the prudence of his Majesty is such and under his prosperous Reign all things so readily begin to run in their old Chanel that we doubt not but in a little time Trading and Merchandize will do so too and not be any longer the burden of the Land for the lack of it but of the Sea in bringing it hither After men comes mony and without this sure Foundation we shall never be able to make any Superstructure to stand There must be a Stock of Shipping Mony and Commodities for Commodities in Traffick will bring in more Mony and Mony commands all Commodities and to attempt this without both or at least one of these two is like a Soldier going to Battel without his Offensive and Defensive Weapons with the one we offend all our Enemies the Engrossers of our Trade and with the other we defend our selves against their most powerful assaults In antient times Merchants and Tradesmen were very careful to provide and lay up a Stock of Mony for the building of Ships and buying of Commodities to Trade with But in these latter years as within 40 or 50 years they have disbursed much mony in purchasing Land and building stately Houses minding pleasure more then profit and have neglected Trade to the undoing of many of them and that great cause of the decaying of Trade Therefore to preserve and uphold Trade I humbly offer unto his Majesty's consideration and His Honorable Council that all Merchants and Tradesmen within the Three Kingdoms may be restrained from purchasing Land above the yearly value in Rent of pounds This being effected and the Fishing-Trade carried on will within few years make the greatest Bank of Mony and the greatest Trade in the three Kingdoms to be equal if not greater than any Trade or Bank of Mony in the world For hereby great and vast sums of mony which are now consumed in continual Purchases will be expended onely in and about Trade and Traffick in general and the best security for this Mony will be a setled Bank which all will of necessity use Having not read any of those Books which are in Print concerning the Fishing-Trade but referring to several Books that I heard of and not knowing the number of Busses allotted or appointed to be bought or built neither how they shall be disposed of as to their Ports or Harbours therefore I make bold to offer my judgment That a certain number of Busses be bought or built as also Dogger-Boats the number of Busses to consist of 1000 or 1500 or thereabouts for that some years 15000 may as soon catch their Lading as 500 and therefore more considerable as to the charges of the three Kingdoms for a small number of Busses will not do the work The Dogger-Boats which Fish onely for Ling and Cod would consist of 400 or thereabouts These Busses and Dogger-Boats being fitted for Sea to proceed in their Fishing that then they be sent or appointed to several Ports or Harbours of the three Kingdoms that lie most convenient for the Fishing And that the Counties or Shires that these Ports do belong to be enjoyned to keep the same number of Busses and Boats perpetually well Rigged and Furnished to Sea for the Fishing as was delivered to them And if by reason that those Counties which have the most and best Harbours and that lie most convenient for the Fishing Trade will bear the greatest burden by reason the greatest number of Busses will be sent to these Ports Then thirdly I humbly offer that the Undertakers of the said Counties have allowance out of the main Stock or Bank of Mony proportionable to their Charges And I do further humbly offer unto consideration that there be a Corporation made of all the Adventurers for the Fishing-Trade and that Merchants and Tradesmen be admitted into this Corporation And that tâ—is Corporation be armed with large Privileges and ample Immunities for the Transportation of the said Fish I might have also told you of the Pilcher-Fishing and for Ling and Cod on the Wâ—st and North-West of England and that great Pilcher-Fishing and Fishing for Cod on the West Coast of Ireland frequented by those of Biscay Galicia and Portugal but they are so well known that I forbear to mention them The Islands that belong to Scotland and lie on the North North-West and West of Scotland which are useful for the Fishing-Trade are in number 94. And whereas it is credibly reported thâ—t above 220 Fisher-Towns are decayed and reduced to extream poverty for want of favour succour and protection On the contrary by diligent endeavouring to make use of so great a blessing as is offered unto us by the Seas we might in a short time repair those decayed Towns and add both Honor Strength and Riches to our King and Country The Premises being taken into serious consideration it maketh much to the ignominy and shame of our Nation that God and Nature offering us so great a Treasure even at our own doors we do notwithstanding neglect the benefit thereof THE CONCLUSION AND to conclude such is the clear and indubitable right of our Soveraign Lord the King to the Superiority of the British Seas that no man can produce clearer evidence for any part of his Estate And as those Seas under God are the principal means of our Wealth and Safety so it doth much concern all his true Subjects who are bound by the Law of Crace and Nature with heart and hand to preserve and maintain the same with the hazard of their Lives Goods and Fortunes FINIS
manner of Provisions Hence they made themselves Lords of all the Trade of the Levant comprehending in it Turkey part of Africk and Italy and by multitude of Ships of their own transported the Commodities of those Countries into France England and the Netherlands They made their way also into the Indies and all over Persia by their Caravans and by Egypt and Aleppo returned thence all kind of Silks and Spices and sold them at their own Rates where ever they found the best vent and so they continued to do at excessive Rates though not without extraordinary Gains by reason of the difficulty of conveyance till the Portingals discovered the passage to the Indies by the Cape of good Hope receiving in Exchange for the Commodities so Bartered the Staple Commodities of all the Countries they Traded to Here in England they had for them Cloth Tin Lead c. and with which we our selves by our own Shipping cheaper and with greater gain might have supplyed Italy Turky and the greatest part of Africk Hence also that State at first confined to a sew scattered Islands on which by degrees they built their City whither before they onely fled for security came to encrease and grow to that heighth in which now it is nay greater in all probability for by the decaying of Trade their Power and Dominion hath sensibly decayed By the greatness of their Trade they enlarged their Jurisdiction both upon the Levant Seas and very high into the Main Land in Lombardy Graecia on the Dukedom of Milan conquered and purchased many considerable Islands in the Mediterranean as Candy Zant Cyprus and other places which lay convenient both for strength and security of the Trade and Navigation of that Republick It would be tedious for me to recount how many Colonies they have dispersed over the world and that fear and jealousie other Kings and Emperors have had of its growing strength how that City was thought to have a design upon the Soveraignty of Italy and the many combinations to prevent And all this to have compassed from so small a beginning onely by the extent of its Trade as its neighbour Rome enjoyed it by strength of Arms. After the Venetians and Genoese the Easterlings or Hance-Towns were Master of the Trade and Commodities transported from Moscovy Poland Germany Sweden Prussia Denmark c. and with them by their abundance of Shipping served England France Spain and the Low-Countries And that in regard of that continual need we had of the Commodities of those parts or people as Hemp all manner of Cordage Sope-Ashes Flax Pitch Tar Masts Corn c. They received in return from us our Staple Commodities which by their own Ships at their own Rates they conveyed all over Europe when we for want of Shipping could not but did see their excessive gains and yet were forced to be content Even here in England they had very great privileges mighty indulgencies and out of that necessity we thought we had of them finding by them the speediest vent for our Commodities we embraced them into our bosom so that by degrees they began to be very potent upon the Northern Seas and upon every occasion were ready to turn our enemies the most dangerous because as it were within our own bowels Hence taking advantage in their Shipping the Saxons Danes and Normans invaded England and the Hance-Towns were grown formidable both to Italy and France But as their Trading decayed so did also their Strength and their Shipping being wasted they have undergone the same necessity that others once famous Cities of Mart have done and have utterly lost all their power and strength by Sea The Portingals discovering the way to the Indies by the Cape of good Hope quickly became Engrossers of the whole Trade thither and by the same stratagem and device undermined at once the the Venetian and all the Hance-Towns whereupon encreasing with the strength of Spain they made themselves the terror of all round about them and a very rich Nation and People within it self This was the first rise of the Portingals who lying so commodiously for Navigation and a no less industrious than a very cautelous people in the management of their affairs proceeded so far that Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory jealous of them fearing lest Spain should joyn with them and of their future greatness continually encreasing by reason of its Traffick into the East and West-Indies for the security of her self and safety of all her good Subjects endeavoured to make her self equal in strength and counterpoise them if possible by the enlargement of the Trade of Great-Britain and this she prosecuted with so much vigour and so successfully that in a little space England had as great a Trade and Power by Sea as either the King of Spain or any Principality of Europe But before her time in the Reign of King Edward the 6th our own Merchants discovered the Trade into Moscovy by the way of St. Nicholas ever since which time in our own Shipping we have thence transported home all the Commodities of that large and vast Country formerly brought in by the Hancâ—-Towns their Agents and Merchants And whereas a great part of those same Commodities as Cavear Tallow Hydes c. are not vendible in England and being Bought must be again Sold or Exchanged Need and Use hath found a better Vent for them in Italy and other parts of the Levant whereupon first began our Trade there a Trade which though it at first appeared very small and inconsiderable increased in a few years to that heighth of Improvement that within 90 or 100 years we have worn the Venetians out of all that mighty Trade they carried from those parts or in Turky and all over Christendom So that by this you easily see how Trade hath flourished and decayed in Genoa Venice the Hance-Towns and Portingal the whole being now fallen betwixt Us and the Hollander either striving who shall use means most effectual for advancing the general Trade of its Country and though the Hollanders hath by Art and Industry better improved his Interest yet that wherein his Interest most liâ—s may obviously appear and wherein in that very particular we may if we please go before them I shall thus endeavour to demonstrate The Hollanders have not at present neither ever had any other means to rise to this greatness of Wealth and Trade but by betaking themselves to Fishing being a People of constant Labour and unwearied Industry a multitude in a Spot of Land which doth not afford them any Commodities sufficient to be the ground even of a mean Trade They first began and all along have drove this Trade of Fishing being their Original of all Trade upon our Coast and the Coast of Scotland on which they employ thousands of poor people besides others of a better Rank making some Mariners and Fisher-men others they keep at work about the making and mending of N ets others they employ as Merchants