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england_n	abate_v	land_n	woollen_a	14	3	11.5611	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32827	A discourse about trade wherein the reduction of interest in money to 4 l. per centum, is recommended : methods for the employment and maintenance of the poor are proposed : several weighty points relating to companies of merchants, the act of navigation, naturalization of strangers, our woollen manufactures, the ballance of trade, and the nature of plantations, and their consequences in relation to the kingdom are seriously discussed : and some arguments for erecting a court of merchants for determining controversies, relating to maritime affairs, and for a law for transferrance of bills of debts, are humbly offered.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Culpeper, Thomas, Sir, 1578-1662. Small treatise against usury.	1690 (1690)	Wing C3853; ESTC R8738	119,342	350

LICENSED November the 18th 1689. And Entered according to Order A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADE Wherein the Reduction of Interest of Money to 4 l. per Centum is Recommended Methods for the Employment and Maintenance of the Poor are proposed Several weighty Points relating to Companies of MERCHANTS The Act of NAVIGATION NATURALIZATION of Strangers Our WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES The BALLANCE of TRADE And the Nature of Plantations and their Consequences in relation to the Kingdom are seriously Discussed And some Arguments for erecting a Court of Merchants for determining Controversies relating to Maritime Affairs and for a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debts are humbly Offered Never before Printed Printed by A Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane And Sold at the Three Keys in Nags-head-Court Grace-Church-Street 1690. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THE following Sheets were wrote as the Reader will observe by the Contents soon after the dreadful Fire which happened in London in the Year 1666. they fell very accidentally into my Hands in Manuscript as they had ever since continued this last Summer and having in my Conversation in the world heard several of the Propositions therein discussed frequently contrasted I did set my self with some Curiosity to run them over and in doing it discerned as I thought much experimental Truth and Reason and a more then ordinary Life and Spirit for the Publick good in the whole Work I therefore made suite to the Judicious Worthy Author to permit me to the same end for which it appears to have been at the first wrote to hand it over to some of our best Patriots to which he being pleased to concede I began to transcribe it but finding that that would prove a tedious task and that that way would confine this excellent Treatise to too narrow bounds I have presumed thus to emit it to the World I may not divulge the Author's Name but this I may truely say He is no Trader neither pays any Use for Money but receives a great deal yearly and hath to my knowledge a considerable Estate in Lands and therefore the most invidious cannot conceive he had any private or selfish end in the following Discourses I have in my time been privy to and frequently concerned in the buying and selling of much Land and I find every thing he said at that time so true of the then low Rates of Land as was his Prediction of its rising in Purchase so soon as that lazy way of Usury by Bankeering should be broke that I am morally confident if the Parliament should be pleased to abate the Interest of Mony by a Law to 4 l. per Cent. We shall as certainly see Lands in England as generally sell at twenty five years Purchase within five years after such a Law as We did see them about the time the following Discourse was Wrote sell at seventeen years Purchase and as We do now see Lands currently sell at twenty years Purchase and upwards I took occasion in my discourse with the Author to observe to him that though Lands in general were risen in sale as he fore-saw to twenty years purchase or more that yet Marsh and Feeding Grounds were abated in Rent to the Tenants at least 20 or 30 l. per Cent. He granted me to be in the right herein and imputed the cause thereof partly to the Prohibition of Irish Cattle and partly to the late general practice of sowing Clover Saint-foyne Rye-Grass and other Grass-Seeds upon which I ask'd him Whether he thought it would not tend to the publick Good to prohibit by a Law the sowing of those Seeds He said by no means Honest Industry and Invention is never to be obstructed by Laws I queried then why Usury should be checkt by a Law He replyed that in the Trade of Vsury there was neither Industry not Invention but Idleness and Oppression and that all Christian Churches as well as most particular eminent Divines ever since our Saviour Christ's time had condemned Vsury as sinful The fore-going Discourse leads to another great Question Whether Foreign Commodities such as tend to nourish Vice and Luxury ought not for the publick Good to be prohibited by a Law or by loading them with a deep Custom such as VVines Brandy Sugar Tobacco c. And I am humbly of opinion with the most profound submission to all my Superiours whose proper Business it is to agree and constitute Laws that it is not for the publick Good to load even such Commodities with so great a Duty as doth or may ruin our Plantations or totally prevent the English from a possibility of supplying the Eastern and other parts of the World with these Commodities because by so doing We give away the most precious of all our Trades a great part of our Navigation to our wiser Neighbours the Dutch who had rather pay their Twentieth Penny twice a year than loose their Trade to the Baltick with Salt Wine Brandy Tobacco c. I might say too with Chesnuts and VValnuts as inconsiderable as their value is Every thing being to be prized above Gold that encreaseth the Navigation of any Country especially that of this Island of England I have been always an Advocate for Liberty and an Enemy to Persecution for matters of Religion and so I am confident was the Gentleman our worthy Author as the following Tract clearly evinces and by so doing gives the Reason why this admirable Work hath till now lain in obscurity the Policy and Councils of the late Reigns constantly discountenancing that excellent Principle And because Liberty of Conscience is frequently touch'd in this ensuing Discourse and declared to be a principal means to advance the publick Good of this Kingdom viz. Trade Which 't is evident is the real and only design of this Treatise I shall take the freedom to tell my thoughts very plainly in relation to it I remember that greatest Master of Historians Cornelius Tacitus says of the incomparable Roman Emperour Nerva that he did Reconcile Res olim insociabiles things never before adjusted the freedom of all Men with the sole Command of one Such a Prince I hope and verily believe God Almighty in abundant Mercy to this poor Nation hath sent us in his present Majesty our truly good and gracious Soveraign King William the Favourite of Heaven and Delight of Men under whom We may most undoubtedly be the Happiest People upon the Face of the whole Earth if We will but We shall never attain that Happiness and hand it over to Posterity except We all as well Dissenters as Church of England Men do sincerely and cordially endeavour to imitate the Wisdom and Goodness of that Memorable Prince Nerva to reconcile things formerly unsociable viz. Liberty of Conscience to all with the preservation of one entire Vniform National Church in the enjoyment of all the publick Revenues thereof these two things in my most unbiass'd retired thoughts are so far from contradictions that as our People in England are

offended with me I dare undertake that this will never spoil but mend their Marriages besides the greater good it will bring to their Country and to their Posterities after them whether they prove to be Noblemen Gentlemen or Merchants c. I have in several places of my ensuing Treatise referred to some Tracts I formerly published upon this subject which being now wholly out of Print I thought fit to Re-print and annex unto this which at first I intended not Some there are who would grant that abatement of Interest if it could be effected would procure to the Nation all the good that I alledge it will bring with it but say it is not practicable or at least not now 1. A needless scruple and contradictory to experience for first a Law hath abated Interest in England three times within these few Years already and what should hinder its effect now more then formerly 2. If a Law will not do it why do the Vsurers raise such a dust and engage so many Friends to oppose the passing of an Act to this purpose The true reason is because they are wise enough to know that a Law will certainly do it as it hath done already though they would perswade others the contrary And if it be doubted we have not Money enough in England Besides what I have said in my former Treatise as to the encrease of our Riches in general I shall here give some further Reasons of probability which are the best that can be expected in this case to prove that we have now much more Money in England then we had twenty Years past Notwithstanding the seeming scarcity at present if I should look further back then twenty years the argument would be stronger on my side and the proportion of the encrease of Money greater and more perspicuous but I shall confine my self to that time which is within most mens Memories 1. We give generally now one third more Money with Apprentices then we did twenty years past 2. Notwithstanding the decay and loss of sundry Trades and Manufactures yet in the gross we Ship off now one third part more of the Manufactures as also Lead and Tin then we did twenty years past which is a cause as well as a proof of our increase of Money If any doubt this if they please to consult Mr Di●kins Surveyor of his Majesties Customs who is the best able I know living and hath taken the most pains in these Calculations he may be satisfactorily resolved 3. Houses new built in London yield twice the Rent they did before the Fire and Houses generally immediately before the Fire yielded about one fourth part more Rent then they did twenty years past 4. The speedy and costly buildings of London is a convincing and to Strangers an amazing Argument of the plenty and late encrease of Money in England 5. We have now more then double the quantity of Merchants Shiping we had twenty years past 6. The course of our Trade from the increase of our Money is strangely altered within these twenty years most Payments from Merchants and Shop-keepers being now made with ready Money whereas formerly the course of our general Trade run at three six nine twelve and eighteen Months time But if this case be so clear some may ask me How comes it to pass that all sorts of men complain so much of the scarcity of Money especially in the Country My answers to this Query are viz. 1. This proceeds from the Frailty and Corruption of humane Nature it being natural for men to complain of the present and commend the times past so said they of Old The former days were better then these and I can say in truth upon my own Memory that men did complain as much of the scarcity of Money ever since I knew the world as they do now nay the very same Persons that now complain of this and commend that time 2. And more particularly This complaint proceeds from many mens finding themselves uneasie in the matters of their Religion it being natural for men when they are discontented at one thing to complain of all and principally to utter their discontents and complaints in those things which are most popular Those that hate a man for some one cause will seldom allow of any thing that is good in him and some that are angry with one person or thing will find fault with others that gave them no offence like peevish Persons that meeting discontent abroad coming home quarrel with their Wifes Children Servants c. 3. And more especially this complaint in the Country proceeds from the late practice of bringing up the Tax-Money in Wagons to London which did doubtless cause a scarcity of Money in the Country 4. And principally this seeming scarcity of Money proceeds from the Trade of Bankering which obstructs circulation advanceth Usury and renders it so easie that most Men as soon as they can make up a Sum of 50 l. or a 100 l. send it into the Gold-Smith Which doth and will occasion while it lasts that fatal pressing necessity for Money so visible throughout the whole Kingdom both to Prince and People From what hath been last said it appears the matter in England is prepared for the abatement of Interest which as Sr Henry Blunt an honourable Member of his Majesties Council of Trade well said before the Lords at the debate is the Unum Magnum towards the prosperity of this Kingdom It is a generative good and will bring many other good things with it I shall conclude with two or three Requests to the Reader 1. That he would Read and consider what he Reads with an entire Love to his Country void of private interests and former ill grounded impressions received into his mind to the prejudice of this principle 2. That he would Read all minding the matter not the stile before he make a judgment 3. That in all his meditations upon these Principles he would warily distinguish between the Profit of the Merchant and the Gain of the Kingdom which are so far from being always parallels that frequently they run counter one to the other although most Men by their Education and Business having fixed their eye and aim wholly upon the former do usually confound these two in their Thoughts and Discourses of Trade or else mistake the former for the latter from which false measures have proceeded many vulgar errors in Trade some whereof by reason of Mens frequent mistakings as afore-said are become almost Proverbial and often heard out of the Mouths not only of the common People but of Men that might know better if they would duly consider the afore-said distinction Some of the said common Proverbial errors are viz. 1. Vulgar Error We have too many Merchants already 2. The Stock of England is too big for the Trade of England 3. No Man should exercise two Callings 4. Especially no Shop-keeper ought to be a Merchant 5. Luxury and some Excess may be

pounds Portion with a Daughter sixty Years ago were not esteemed a larger proportion then Two thousand pounds is now And whether Gentlewomen in those dayes would not esteem themselves well cloathed in a Searge Gown which a Chamber-Maid now will be ashamed to be seen in Whether our Citizens and middle sort of Gentry now are not more rich in Cloaths Plate Jewels and Houshold-Goods c. then the best sort of Knights and Gentry were in those days And whether our best sort of Knights and Gentry now do not exceed by much in those things the Nobility of England sixty Years past Many of whom then would not go to the price of a whole Sattin-Doublet the Embroiderer being yet living who hath assured me he hath made many hundreds of them for the Nobility with Canvas backs Which way ever we take our measures to me it seems evident that since our first abatement of Interest the Riches and Splendor of this Kingdom is increased to above four I might say above six times so much as it was We have now almost One hundred Coaches for one we had formerly We with case can pay a greater Tax now in one Year then our Fore-fathers could in twenty Our Customs are very much improved I believe above the proportion aforesaid of six to one which is not so much in advance of the Rates of Goods as by encrease of the bulk of Trade for though some Foreign Commodities are advanced others of our Native Commodities and Manufactures are considerably abated by the last Book of Rates I can my self remember since there were not in London used so many Wharfs or Keys for the Landing of Merchants Goods by at least one third part as now there are and those that were then could scarce have Imployment for half what they could do and now notwithstanding one third more used to the same purpose they are all too little in a time of Peace to land the Goods at that come to London If we look into the Country we shall find Lands as much Improved since the abatement of Interest as Trade c. in Cities that now yielding twenty Years purchase which then would not have sold for above eight or ten at most Besides the Rent of Farms have been for these last thirty Years much advanced and although they have for these three or four last years fallen that hath no respect at all to the lowness of Interest at present nor to the other mistaken Reasons which are commonly assigned for it But principally to the vast Improvement of Ireland since a great part of it was lately possessed by the Industrous English who were Soldiers in the late Army and the late great Land-Taxes More might be said but the Premises being considered I judge will sufficiently demonstrate how greatly this Kingdom of England hath been advanc'd in all respects for these last fifty Years And that the abatement of Interest hath been the cause thereof to me seems most probable because as it appears it hath been in England so I find it is at this day in all Europe and other parts of the World Insomuch that to know whether any Country be rich or poor or in what proportion it is so no other Question needs to be resolved but this viz. What Interest do they pay for Money Near home we see it evidently in Scotland and Ireland where ten and twelve per Cent is paid for Interest the People are poor and despicable their Persons ill cloathed their Houses worse provided and Money intollerably scarce notwithstanding they have great plenty of all Provisions nor will their Land yield above eight or ten Years purchase at most In France where Money is at seven per Cent their Lands will yield about eighteen Years purchase and the Gentry who may possess Lands live in good condition though the Peasants are little better then Slaves because they can possess nothing but at the will of others In Italy Money will not yield above three per Cent to be let out upon real Security there the People are rich full of Trade well attired and their Lands will sell at thirty five to forty Years purchase and that it is so or better with them in Holland is too manifest In Spain the usual Interest is ten and twelve per Cent and there notwithstanding they have the only Trade in the World for Gold and Silver Money is no where more scarce the people poor despicable and void of Commerce other then such as English Dutch Italians Iews and other Foreigners bring to them who are to them in effect but as Leeches who suck their Blood and vital Spirits from them I might urge many other Inst●nces of this nature not only out of Chri●●endom but from under the Turks Dominions East-India and America But every man by his Eperience in Foreign Countries may easiy inform himself whether this Rule do universally hold true or not For my own part to satisfie my own curiosity I have for some Years as occasion offered diligently enquired of all my acquaintance that had knowledge of foreign Countries and I can truly say that I never found it to fail in any particular Instance Now if upon what hath been said it be granted that defacto this Kingdom be richer at least four-fold I might say eight-fold then it was before any Law for Interest was made and that all Countries are at this day richer or poorer in an exact proportion to what they pay and have usually paid for the Interest of Money it remains that we enquire carefully whether the abatement of Interest be in truth the Cause of the Riches of any Country or only the Concomitant or Effect of the Riches of a Country in which seems to lie the Intricacy of this Question To satisfie my self wherein I have taken all opportunities to discourse this point with the most ingenious men I had the Honour to be known to and have searcht for and read all the Books that I could ever hear were printed against the Abatement of Interest and seriously considered all the Arguments and Objections used by them against it All which have tended to confirm me in this opinion which I bumbly offer to the consideration of wiser Heads viz. That the Abatement of Interest is the Cause of the Prosperity Riches of any Nation and that the bringing down of Interest in this Kingdom from six to four or three per Cent will necessarily in less then twenty Years time double the Capital Stock of the Nation The most material Objections I have met with against it are as follows Object 1. To abate Interest will cause the Dutch and other People that have Money put out at Interest in England by their Friends and Factors to call home their Estates and consequently will occasion a great scarcity and want of Money amongst us To this I answer That if Interest be brought but to four per Cent no Dutchman will call in his Money that is out upon good Security

and I think my Opposer is not clear sighted if he cannot discern that the latter in a due and regulated proportion must be a consequent of them In the next place the Gentleman finding me at a loss as he says for the reason of our great Trade at present will help me as well as he can I answer Those latter Words as well as he can were well put in for as yet he hath told me no News nor given any shadow of Reason that I knew not before and had maturely considered on many Years before I writ the first Treatise The Reasons he gives for our present greatness of Trade are First Our casting off the Church of Rome Secondly The Statutes in Henry the 7 th's time prohibiting Noble mens Retainers and making their Lands liable to the payment of Debts Thirdly The discovery of the East and West-India Trades pag. 19 20. To his first and second Reasons I answer that Those Statutes of Henry the 7 th and our casting off the Church of Rome did long precede our being any thing in Trade which began not until the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and afterwards encreased in the time of King Iames and King Charles the first as we abated our Interest and not otherwise there being a Person yet living and but 77 Years of Age viz. Captain Russel of Wapping who assures me he can remember since we had not above three Merchants Ships of 300 Tuns and upwards belonging to England Secondly That in Italy where there are no such Statutes for abridgement of Noble men's Retainers nor casting off the Church of Rome there is notwithstanding a very great Trade and Land at from 35 to 40 Years purchase which sufficiently shews that a low Interest is absolutely and principally necessary and that the other particulars alone will not do to the procuring of those ends although a low Interest singly doth it in Italy To his third Reason I answer that There are some men yet living who do remember a greater Trade to East-India and a far greater Stock employed therein then we have now and yet we were so far from thriving upon it that we lost by it and could never see our principal Money again Nor ever did we greatly prosper upon it till our Interest was much abated by Laws nor ever shall mate the Dutch in it till our Interest be as low as theirs The like in a great measure is true in our West-India Trades we never got considerable by them till our last Abatement of Interest from 8 to 6 per Cent. Pag. 21 22. he labours to prove that If we would have Trade to flourish and Lands high we must imitate the Hollanders in their Practices which in matter of Trade I know is most certain so far as they are consistent with the Government of our own Country And the first and readiest thing wherein we can imitate them is to reduce our Interest of Money to a lower rate after the manner of our Fathers and they did it before us which will naturally lead us to all the other advantages in Trade which they now use 1. For If Interest be abated to 4 per Cent who will not that can leave his Children any competent Estate of 1000 or 2000 l. each bring them up to Writing Arithmetick and Merchants Accompts and instruct them in Trades well knowing that the bare use of their Money or the product of it in Land will scarce keep them 2. Must not all Persons live lower in Expence when all Trades will be less gainful to Individuals though more profitable to the Publick 3. Will it not put us upon building as bulky and cheap sailing Ships as they 4. Will it not bring Trade to be so familiar amongst us that our Gentlemen who are in our greatest Councils will come to understand it and accordingly contrive Laws in favour of it 5. Will not nay hath it not already brought us to lower our Customs upon our own native Commodities and Manufactures 6. Will it not in time bring us to transferring Bills of Debt Is not necessity the Mother of Invention and that old Proverb true facile est inventis addere There is in my poor Opinion nothing conduceable to the good of Trade that we shall not by one accident or other hit upon when we have attained this Fundamental point and are thereby necessitated to follow and keep to our Trades from Generation to Generation 7. Do we not see that even as the World now goes dies diem docet scarce a Session of Parliament passeth without making some good Acts for the bettering of Trade and pareing off the extravagancy of the Law for which ends this last Session produced three That about the Silk-Throwsters That about Transportation of Hides c. That about Writs of Error 8. Will not the full understanding of Trade acquired by Experience and never wanting to any People that make it their constant business to follow Trade as we must do when Interest shall be at 4 per Cent quickly bring us to find our advantage in permitting all Stra●gers to co-habit trade and purchase Lands amongst ●s upon as easie terms as the Dutch do Will not the Consequence of this Law by augmenting the value of Land bring us in time to regular and just Enclosements of our Forrests Commons and Wastes and making our smaller Rivers navigable the highest Improvements that this Land is capable of And have not these last 50 Years since the several Abatements of Interest produced more of these profitable Works then 200 Years before Will not the Consequence of this Law discover to us the vanity and opposition to Trade that there seems to be in many of our Statutes yet in force such as these f●llowing viz. 1st The Statutes of Bankrupt as they are now used in many cases more to the Prejudice of honest Dealers then the Bankrupt himself by compelling men often times to refund Money received of the Bankrupt for Wares justl● sold and delivered him long before it was possible for the Seller to discover the Buye● to be a Brankrupt 2dly Such are our Laws limiting the price of Beer and Ale to one Penny per Quart which bar us from all Improvements and Imitation of foreign Liquors made of Corn commonly called Mum Spruce-Beer Rosteker-Beer which may and are made in England and would occasion the profitable Consumption of an incredible quantity of our Grain and prove a great a●dition to his Majestie● Revenue of Excise expend abundance of Coals in long boyling of those Commodities imploy many Hands in the Manufacture of them as well as Shipping in Transportation of them not only to all our own Plantations in America but to many other parts of the World 3dly Our Laws against engrossing Corn and other Commodities there being no Persons more beneficial to Trade in a Nation then Engrossers which will be a worthy Employment for our present Vsurers and render them truly useful to their Country 4thly Such

of that great Trade for Shiping imployed for Importation of Timber Masts Boards and Pipes-Staves into these three Kingdoms to be done only by his Majestie 's Subjects and not by any Strangers would in a very few Years much encrease the Stock of England 5. Prevention of the Exportation of our Wool and encourageing our Woollen Manufactures 6. Encourage and encrease our Fishing Trades which how that is only to be done is before-mentioned 7. To set up the Linnen rather then the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland and give extraordinary encouragement and priviledges to the first Undertakers 8. To encourage those Trades most that vent most of our Manufactures or supply 〈◊〉 with Materials to be further Manufactured in England or else such as furnish us with Commodities for the carrying on of other Trades as the East-India-Company doth eminently 9. If his Majesties Navy Debts c. were all paid and if for the future all his Majesties Payments were made with punctuality it would much encrease the Stock of this Nation in Trade such fatal stops being to the Body politick like great obstructions of the Liver and Spleen to the Body Natural which not only procure ill Habits but sometimes desperate and accute Diseases as well as Cronical 10. Lessening the number of our Holly-Days would encrease the days of our Working and Working more would make us Richer Riches and Stock are the same 11. If our Affairs would permit that the full Custom should be paid back c. not the half only for all Foreign Goods brought hither and afterwards Exported as I am credibly informed the French King hath very lately done in all the parts of his Dominions it would wonderfully encrease our Navigation and in consequence our People as well as our Domestick and Foreign Trade and in my opinion be much better for the Nation in general then particular Free Ports And if only such Foreign Goods as should be Loaden outwards on English Shiping had the benefit of this Indulgence it would be much the more Effications as to our main concern viz. the encrease and improvement of our English Navigation 3 d. General Rule To make Trade easie and necessary and thereby to make it our Interest to Trade 1. To make Trade easie a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debt will do much as before 2. To make Trade easie a Court-Merchant will do much as before in that Chapter 3. Taking of the Burthen of Trade whereof one is the great trouble and delays in receiving back our Impost at the Custom-House and the great Charge of Fees to Searchers Waitors c. 4. Reducing Interest of Money to 4 per cent will make Trade easie to the Borrowers and to make it necessary it is the Onum Magnum as before is said for while we that are Merchants can so easily turn Gentlemen by buying Lands for less then twenty Years purchase let no Man expect that if we thrive we will drudge all our days in Trade or if we would to be sure our Sons will not 5. To make Trade easie and Wool rise which is always aimed at by our Parliaments Nothing will conduce so much in times of War as to appoint sufficient regular Convoys to Merchant Ships which sometimes have been forced to lie full loaden with Draperies five or six Months in the River for want of Convoys with the Interest of 6 per Cent. eating upon them while likewise their Cloth by long lying in the Ships is much damnified and Merchants cannot buy more of the Clothiers until their Goods are at their selling Ports which when there arrived Merchants can value themselves upon them by Exchange and begin a fresh Investment in England 6. To make Trade easie some abatement of that rigorous way of pressing Sea-men which sometimes sweeps away the Officers as well as common men would much conduce it being an insuperable discouragement to Merchants to have their ●hips sometimes manned and unmanned two or three times in a Voyage before they can get them clear into the Sea which is not so in Holland 4 th General Rule To make it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us 1. Being in a good condition of Strength at Home in reference to the Navy and all other kind of Military preparations for Defence and Offence upon just occasion given will render us Wise and Honourable in the esteem of other Nations and consequently oblige them not only to admit us the Freedom of Trade with them but the better terms for and countenance in the course of our Trade 2. To make it the Interest of others to Trade with us we must be sure to furnish them at as cheap or cheaper Rates then any other Nation can or doth and this I affirm can never be done without subduing Vsury especially and doing those other things before-mentioned that will conduce to the encrease of our Hands and Stock for our being in a condition to sell our Neighbours cheaper then others must be when it is principally an effect of many Hands and much Stock Objection But it may be said How shall we profit by this Rule of selling cheap to Foreigners whereas the contrary is said to be the way to Riches viz. to sell dear and buy cheap Answ. I answer in a strict sence it may be so for the private Merchant but in this discourse I am designing how our publick National Trade may be so managed that other Nations who are in Competition with us for the same may not wrest it from us but that ours may continue and encrease to the diminution of theirs if there were no others to wage with us we might as the Proverb saith make our own Markets but as the case now stands that all the World are striving to engross all the Trade they can that other Proverb is very true and applicable All Covet All Lose 3. The well contrivement and management of Foreign Treaties may very much contribute to the making it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us at least to the convincing of Foreign Princes wherein and how it is their Interest to Trade with us 4. Publick Iustice and Honesty will make it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us that is that when any Commodities pass under a publick common Seal which is in a kind the publick Faith of the Nation they may be exact in length breadth and nature according to what they ought to be by their Seals The like care ought to be taken for the true packing of our Herrings and Pilchards formerly mentioned 5. If we would engage other Nations to Trade with us we must receive from them the Fruits and Commodities of their Countries as well as send them ours but it s our Interest by Example and other means not distastful above all kinds of Commodities to prevent as much as may be the Importation of Foreign Manufactures 6. The Venetians being a People that take from us very little of our Manufactures have prohibited our

English Cloth and from whose Territories we receive great quantities of Currance purchased with our ready Money It seems to me advantagious for England that that Importation as well as the Importation of wrought-Glasse drinking-Glasses and other Manufactures from thence should be discouraged it being supposed we can now make them as well our selves in England The Trade for Cannary-Wines I take to be a most pernitious Trade to England because those Islands consume very little of our Manufactures Fish or other English Commodities neither do they furnish us with any Commodities to be further Manufactured here or re-Exported the Wines we bring from thence being for the most part purchased with ready Money so that to my apprehension something is necessary to be done to compel those Islanders to spend more of our English Commodities and to sell their Wines cheaper which every Year they advance in Price or else to lessen the Consumption of them in England I have in this last Discourse of the Ballance of Trade as well as in my former confined my self to write only general Heads and Principles that r●late unto Trade in general not this or that particular Trade because the several Trades to several Countries may require distinct and particular considerations respecting the time place competitors with us and other circumstances to find out wherein our advantages or disadvantages lie and how to improve the former and prevent the latter but as this would be too great a Work for one Man so I fear it would make this too great a Book to be well read and considered But in the Preface to this Treatise I have briefly mentioned many particular Trades that we have lost and are loosing and by what means and many Trades that we yet retain and are encreasing and how it happens to be so which may give some Light to a clearer Discovery and Inspection into particular Trades unto which Ingenious Men that have Hearts to serve their Country in this so necessary Work at this time may add and further improve by the advantage of Abilities to express their Sentiments in a more Intelligible and Pausible Stile but when I and others have said all we can A low Interest is as the Soul to the Body of Trade it is the Sine qua non to the Prosperity and Advancement to the Lands and Trade of England CHAP. X. Concerning PLANTATIONS THE Trade of our English Plantations in America being now of as great Bulk and ●mploying as much Shiping as most of the Trades of this Kingdom it seems not unnecessary to Discourse more at large concerning the Nature of ●lantations and the good or evil consequences of t●em in relation to this and other Kingdoms and the rather because some Gentlemen of no mean Capacities are of Opinion that his Majestie 's Plantations abroad have very much prejudiced this Kingdom by draining us of our People for the confirmation of which Opinion they urge the Example of Spain which they say is almost ruined by the Depopulation which the West-Indies hath occasioned to the end therefore a more particular Scrutiny may be made into this ma●ter I shall humbly offer my Opinion in the following Propositions and then give those Reasons of Probability which presently occur to my Memory in confirmation of each Proposition 1. First I agree That Lands though excellent without Hands proportionable will not enrich any Kingdom 2. That whatever tends to the D●populating of a Kingdom tends to the ●mpoverishment of it 3. T●at most Nations in the civilized Parts of the World are more or less Rich or Poor proportionably to the Paucity or Plenty of their People and not to the Sterility or Fruitfulness of their Land● 4. I do not agree that our People in England are in any considerable measure abated by reason of our Foreign Plantations but propose to prove the contrary 5. I am of Opinion that we ●ad immediately before the late Plague many more People in England then we had before the Inhabiting of Virginia New-England ●●rbadoes and the rest of our American Plantations 6. That all Colonies or Plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms whereof the Trades of such Plantations are not confined by severe Laws and good executions of those Laws to the Mother-Kingdom 7. That the Dutch will reap the greatest advantage by all Colonies issuing from any Kingdom of Europe whereof the Trades are not so strictly confined to the proper Mother-Kingdoms 8. That the Dutch though they thrive so exceedingly in Trade will in probability never endamage this Kingdom by the growth of their Plantations 9. That neither the French Spaniard nor Portugeez are much to be feared on that account not for the same but for other causes 10. That it is more for the advantage of England that New-found-Land should remain Vnplanted then that Colonies should be sent or permitted to go thither to Inhabit with a Governour Laws c. 11. That New-England is the most prejudicial Plantation to the Kingdom of England I. That Lands though in their Nature excellently good without Hands proportionable will not enrich any Kingdom This first Proposition I suppose will readily be assented to by all judicious persons and therefore for the proof of it I shall only alledge matter of Fact The Land of Palestine once the Richest Country in the Vniverse since it came under the Turks Dom●nion and consequently unpeopled is now become the Poorest Andaluzia and Granada formerly wonderful Rich and full of good Towns since dis-peopled by the Spaniard by Expultion of the Moors many of their Towns and brave Country Houses are fallen into Rubbish and their whole Country into miserable Poverty though their Lands naturally are prodigiously Fertil A Hundred other Instances of Fact might be given to the like purpose II. Whatever tends to the populating of a Kingdom tends to the emprovement of it The former Proposition being granted I suppose this will not be denyed and of the means viz. good Laws whereby any Kingdom may be populated and consequently enriched is in effect the substance and design of all my foregoing Discourse to which for avoiding repitition I must pray the Reader 's retrospection III. That most Nations in the civilized parts of the World are more or less Rich or Poor propo●tionable to the paucity or plenty of their People This third is a consequent of the two former Propositions and the whole World is a witness to the Truth of it The seven united Provinces are certainly the most populous tract of Land in Christendom and for their bigness undoubtedly the richest England for its bigness except our Forrests Wastes and Commons which by our own Laws and Customs are bared from Improvement I hope is yet a more populous Country than France and consequently richer I say in proportion to its bigness Ita●y in like proportion more populous than France and richer and France more populous and rich than Spain c. IV. I do not agree that our People in England are in any considerable

Kingdom thereby then the Dutch do by that And that in consequence thereof all Plantations of other Nations must in a few Years sink to little or nothing X. That it is more for the Advantage of England that New found Lands should remain unplanted then that Colonies should be sent or permitted to go thither to Inhabit under a Governour Laws c. I have before discoursed of Plantations in general most of the English being in their nature much a like except this of New-found-Land and that of New-England which I intend next to speak of The advantage New-found-Land hath brought to this Kingdom is only by the Fishery there and of what vast concernment that is is well known to most Gentlemen and Merchants especially those of the West parts of England from whence especially this Trade is driven It is well known upon undeniable poof that in the Year 1605. the English employed 250. Sail of Ships small and great in Fishing upon that Coast and it is now too apparent that we do not so employ from all Parts above Eighty Sail of Ships It is likewise generally known and confessed that when we employed so many Ships in that Trade the current price of our Fish in that Country was Communibus annis seventeen Rials which is eight Shillings six Pence per Qunital and that since as we have lessened in that Trade the French have encreased in it and that we have annually proceeded to raise our Fish from seventeen Rials to twenty four Rials or twelve Shillings Communibus annis as it now sells in the Country This being the Case of England in relation to this Trade it is certainly worth the enquiery 1st How we came to decay in that Trade 2dly What means may be used to recover our antient Greatness in that Trade or a● least to prevent our further diminution therein The decay of that Trade I attribute First and principally to the growing Liberty which is every Year more and more used in Romish Countries as well as others of eating Flesh in Lent and on Fish-days 2. To a late abuse crept into that Trade which hath much abated the expence within these twenty Years of that Commodity of sending over private Boat-keepers which hath much diminished the number of the Fishing-Ships 3. To the great encrease of the French Fishery of Placentia and other Ports on the back-side of New-found-Land 4. To the several Wars we have had at Sea within these twenty Years which have much empoverished the Merchants of our Western Parts and reduced them to carry on a great part of that Trade at Bottumry viz. Money taken upon Adventure of the Ship at twenty per cent per Annum 2. What means may be used to recover our antient greatness in that Trade or at least to prevent our farther diminution therein For this two contrary ways have been propounded 1. To send a Governour to reside there and to encourage people to Inhabit there as well for Defence of the Country against Invasion as to manage the Fishery there by Inhabitants upon the Place this hath often been propounded by the Planters and some Merchants of London 2. The second way propounded and which is directly contrary to the former is by the West-Country Merchants and Owners of the Fishing-Ships and that is to have no Governour nor Inhabitants permitted to reside at New-found-Land nor any Passengers or private Boat-keepers suffered to Fish at New-found-Land This latter way propounded is most agreeable to my Proposition and if it could be effected I am perswaded would revive the decaied English-Fishing-Trade at New-found-Land and be otherwise greatly for the advantage of this Kingdom and that for these following reasons 1. Because most of the Provision the Planters which are settled at New-found-Land do make use of viz. Bread Beef Pork Butter Cheese Clothes and Irish-Bengal Cloth Linnen and Woollen Ireish-Stockings as also Nets Hooks and Lines c. they are supplied with from New-England and Ireland and with Wine Oyl and Linnen by the S●lt Ships from France and Spain in consequence whereof the Labour as well as the Feeding and Clothing of so many Men is lost to England 2. The Planters settled there being mostly loose vagrant People and without Order and Government do keep dissolute Houses which have Debaucht Sea-Men and diverted them from their laborious and industrious Calling whereas before there were settlements there the Sea-Men had no other resort during the Fishing Season being the time of their abode in that Country but to their Ships which afforded them convenient Food and Repose without the Inconveniencies of Excess 3 If it be the Interest of all Trading Nations principally to encourage Navigation and to promote especially those Trades which employ most Shiping then which nothing is more true nor more regarded by the wise Dutch then certainly it is the Interest of England to discountenance and abate the number of Planters at New-found-Land for if they should encrease it would in a few Years happen to us in relation to that Country as it hath to the Fishery at new-New-England which many Years since was managed by English Ships from the Western Ports but as Plantations there encreased fell to be the sole Employment of People settled there and nothing of that Trade left the poor old English-Men but the liberty of carrying now and then by courtesie or purchase a Ship loading of Fish to Bilvoa when their own N●w-English Shiping are better Employed or not at leisure to do it 4. It is manifest that before ther were Boat-keepers or Planters at New-found-land Fish was sold cheaper than now it is by about 40 per Cent and consequently more vented the reason whereof I take to be this The Boat-keepers and Planters being generally at first able Fisher-men and being upon the place can doubtless afford their Fish cheaper then the Fishing Ships from Old England so doubtless they did at first as well at New-England as at New-found-land until they had beat the English Ships out of the Trade after which being freed from that competition they became Lazy as to that laborious employment having means otherwise to live and employ themselves and thereupon enhaunced the price of their Fish to such an excess as in effect proves the giving away of that Trade to the French who by our aforesaid impolitick management of that Trade have of late Years been able to under-sell us at all Markets abroad and most certain it is that those that can sell cheapest will have the Trade 5. This Kingdom being an Island it is our Interest as well for our preservation as our profit not only to have many Sea-men but to have them as much as may be within call in a time of danger Now the Fishing Ships going out in March and returning home for England in the Month of September yearly and there being employed in that Trade two hundred and fifty Ships which might carry about ten thousand Sea-men Fisher-men and Shore men as they usually call the