Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abate_v	land_n	price_n	31	3	9.2954	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31146	A letter to a friend concerning usury wherein are mentioned all the arguments formerly written for and against the abatement of interest / collected out of four tracts on that subject, one by Sir Thomas Culpeper, Senior, in 1621, another by Sir Thomas Culpeper, Junior, in 1668, the third by Sir Josiah Child in 1668, and the fourth by Mr. Thomas Manley in 1669, by R.C.	R. C.	1690 (1690)	Wing C106; ESTC R35829	9,394	33

to Three or Four per Cent. the Nobility and Gentry may presently in stead of Fifty write One hundred The Merchants who bear the Burden of the Day by trading upon Interest will find their Yoke lighter The Mariners Shipwrights Porters Clothiers Packers and all sorts of Labouring People would be more constantly imploy'd and the Farmers would sell the Product of their Land at better Rates He concludes with answering of several Objections which are the same as are before recited Sir The next Recitals are out of a Book entituled Usury at Six per Cent. c. written by Mr. Thomas Manly in 1669. wherein he designs to answer the two Books before-recited one written by Sir Tho. Culpeper junior and the other by Sir Josiah Child which he does so confusedly and to so little Purpose that I cannot find any thing considerable to take notice of only in the Main his design is to excuse the Usurer and to lay the blame of the decay of Trade from the dearness of the Commodities which he saith doth arise from the high Prises of the Workmen and Labouror Wagges and the Merchants and Traders living too well spending too much of foreign Commodities and drinking too much Wine so that he would have the People to be starved and go in Thredbare Clothes and drink nothing but Water or Small Bear that they might be the better able to pay Interest But because the main Design of his Treatise is to prevent the abating of Interest that I might be impartial to both sides I have recited every one of his Arguments which he devides into Nine He begins The many Mischiefs that will ensue from the abating of Interest are these 1. It will draw the Treasure of the Nation into a few Hands than which nothing can be more pernicious occasion the hoarding of it up in the Misers Chest by which I perceive he thinks the Userers will lock up their Money rather than lend it at Three or Four per Cent. but the Usurers are wiser Men and have learnt the Proverb That it is better to have half a Loaf than no Bread neither is Three or Four per Cent. so contemptable a Gain to be so slighted for many Gentlemen are now contented to Lett out Money at Four per Cent And the East-India Company gives no more than Three per Cent. at this time 2. It will make Money scarce to be borrowed that 's answered before for the Lenders do now put out their Money at Three and Four per Cent. before such a Law is made therefore will not refuse it afterwards 3. It will expose both at present and in the future an infinite number of Widows Orphans and other impotent Persons to great want and extremity This Objection was before answered by Sir Thomas Culpeper 4. It will encourage our Gentry to run into debt by making most of them bolder in borrowing 5. It will oblige the Nobility and Gentry to provide greater Portions for their younger Children 6. It will introduce a thousand tricks amongst the rank Usurers Brokers and Scriveners 7. It will cause the Dutch to withdraw their Money from us 8. It only can retard the Building of London c. But this is no Objection now nor ever would have been if London had not been Built no more than the other are before-recited 9. And lastly It will expose the Gentry who shall be in debt at the passing such a Law to many and great inconveniencies The Reasons are that he thinks the Money will be called for and not lent again by others though the Security be inlarged by the lowring of Interest which raises the value of Land Sir These are his Arguments the Weight of them I 'll leave to you to judge all that I observe from the Four Pamphlets is this First That the Land of England when Sir Thomas Culpeper wrote his Discourse was at Fifteen and Sixteen years Purchase and I see now that it is worth generally Two or three and Twenty which does solely arise from the abating of Interest Second That Interest was at Six per cent in Holland but after it was reduced to Eight in England it was reduc'd to Four in Holland and now being at Six here 't is there at Three So that they have always kept the same advantage in Trade from our over Ballence by Interest well understanding the Profit they have from thence Third That the Dutch sent Money here in England in those days and the lowring of Interest did not cause them to call it home but it were better for this Nation if it would for then they would return their Effects in our Native Commodities and not keep their lean Kine to be made fat by Interest as Sir Josiah expresseth it For if Money had not been then reduc'd every 1000 l. from the Interest of 10 per cent would have been now a Million according to Old Mr. Audley's Observation that One hundred Pound put out at Ten per cent would make a Hundred thousand Pound in Seventy years so long it is since Interest was first lowered Therefore the Memory of Sir Thomas Culpeper ought to be in high Esteem with this Nation being the first by his sagacity that brought down Interest or else perhaps the whole Land of England by this time had been mortgaged if not sold to the Dutch Lastly Sir Thomas his Arguments for abating of Interest from Ten to Eight which were That it would raise the Price of Land and promote Trade c. are the same as are now used to reduce Interest from Six to Four and experience hath shewn their good Effects and therefore we have Reason to expect the like advantage the Objections were the same then as now and therefore can have no greater Force nor worser Effects Sir I have exceeded the Bounds of a Letter which I could not avoid to bring the chief Contents of Twelve Sheets into Two without being unjust to some of the Authors and rendring my Endeavour unacceptable giving you an imperfect Account which was the chiefest of my Care to avoid SIR I am your most Obedient Servant R. C. Lond. Oct. 20. 1690. FINIS

where Money brings Trade as it doth still in Spain But I found the Torrent was not to be stemm'd and so reserved my Purpose for a calmer Season By this time the War with Holland was begun and all Discourses silenced with the Sound of Cannon the Event whereof was neither so good as we sometimes hoped nor so bad as once we feared but compounded of strange Disappointments and Deliverances Of all which the most profitable Use we can make is this That though we prevailed sufficiently by Blows and Booties yet we were first wearied with the Expence And no marvel if we duly consider the vast disproportion of our respective Charges For 3 to 6 or 4 to 8 bears the same Analogy as 30 to 60 or 40 to 80. Now if the States by commanding Money at 4 per Cent. could in Building Rigging Victualling Paying c. do that for 40 l. which must cost His Majesty 80 l. and I wish he had Money so cheap I suppose the Forces being otherwise reasonably ballanced scarce any Goodness of Ships Valour of Seamen or Advantage of Situation and Ports will countervail such Odds. Some Months after the Peace was proclaimed presuming that our late Experience and present Exigence could not but conduce to my Design by disposing many who were averse to receive Impressions contrary to their former Judgments and affording me at least some Illustrations I went to London with full purpose to promote it but found my self happily prevented by one Mr. Child a Merchant of known Abilities in Trade and choice Conversation who rising as it were out of my Father's Dust did by his own Sagacity find out this hidden Vein and lighting afterwards by meer chance upon one of my Father's Treatises modestly reprinted it with its proper Date and annexed it to his own excellent Treatise entituled Brief Considerations concerning Trade and Interest of Money Whose honest Endeavours for his King and Countries Service I am bound to assist with my utmost Skill and Power and in pursuance thereof have composed this Tract which with all humility I present to your Wisdoms In a Post-script he takes notice of this Objection That since the Law of the Land has setled the Rate of Interest the Usurer has a Property by Law to Interest and it would be as much wrong to make a Law to abate Interest as to take away so much of the Rent of every Man's Land And such a Law would be a great Prejudice to Widows Orphans and others who live upon Interest and know not how otherwise to employ their Stock To this he answers That as to Orphans it can be no prejudice because as the Law of England now stands Executors are not obliged to pay Interest Secondly That there is no Property or Right to Interest by the Laws of the Land but the Right doth solely arise by the Covenant and Agreement of the Party Both by Ecclesiastical and Statute-Law Usury was counted unlawful and those Statutes that afterwards limited Interest to 10 8 and 6 per Cent. did only take away the Penalties from the former Statutes but did not make it more lawful By the ancient Canons of the Church the Usurers were in the same Condition with the Excommunicated They were denied the Sacraments disabled to make Wills and not permitted Burial in Church or Church-yard By the Statute of the 3 of H. 7. it was Ordained That all Usury should be extirpated By the 11 of H. 7. He that lendeth his Money upon Usury shall forfeit one half thereof The Statute made in the 3 of H. 8. takes off the former Penalties and limits Interest to 10 per Cent. but in the same Statute declares Usury unlawful In the 5 of E. 6. the Law of H. 8. was Repealed and it was then Enacted That no Person should take Interest upon the Penalties of losing the Principal be Imprisoned and Fined at the King's Pleasure In the 13 of Eliz. the Law of E. 6. was Repealed and that of H. 8. was reinforced But in that Statute Usury is called a Vice and a detestable Sin and provides That it may be punished by the Ecclesiastical Law The Statute in the 21 of King James the First by which Interest was reduted from 10 to 8 relates the great Mischiefs from high Interest and provides That no Words in the said Act should be construed to allow the Practice of Usury as to the Point of Religion The Law made in 1652. being the same with that of the 12th and 13th of Car. 2. which reduced Interest from 8 to 6 takes notice in the Preamble of the great Advantage to the Nation by the bringing down of Interest and restrains under Penalties the taking above 6 per Cent. but gives no more Legal nor Ecclesiastical Right than the former Statutes By this it appears that Usury was accounted a Crime so that the abating of it is but the lessening of the Sin and if there was any Right from those Laws it was very uncertain And how severe soever the Lowering of Interest from 6 to 4 per Cent. may be to Widows Orphans and Younger Brothers yet they will still have as much Rent for their Money as the Gentry and their Elder Brothers have for their Land for the Land of England does not yield more than 4 per Cent. The next Remarks are from Brief Observations concerning Trade and Interest of Money written as is supposed by Sir Josiah Child in 1668. Amongst the several Means which he recites for the promoting of Trade he concludes That a Low Interest is the chiefest and lays down this Position That the Abatement of Interest is the Cause of the Prosperity and Riches of the Nation and that the bringing down of Interest in this Kingdom from Six to Four or Three per Cent. will necessarily in less than twenty Years time double the Capital Stock of the Nation He proves this very clearly by several Arguments which will be too long to recite I shall therefore only mention two of his Instances First That where Interest is high the People are poor and Money scarce as to instance in Spain Scotland and Ireland where Money is at 10 and 12 per Cent. the Inhabitants are poor ill fed and clad though Ireland and Spain are both very fertile Countries and to the latter all the Gold and Silver of the Indies are brought and yet there is seldom any but Brass Money seen in the Country On the contrary in Italy and Holland where Money yields not above Three per Cent. the People are Rich full of Trade and their Land sells from Thirty five to Forty Years Purchase Secondly That by the several Abatements of Interest in England we have so increased in Riches that now 2000 l. is esteemed no greater Portion than 500 l. was Fifty Years ago and a Knight now exceeds a Lord of those days in rich Clothes Plate Jewels c. and that we have almost a hundred Coaches for one we had then And if Interest were lowered