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 râ—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 â—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 â—lantations and the good or evil consequences of tâ—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 maâ—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 Dâ—populating of a Kingdom tends to the â—mpoverishment of it 3. Tâ—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 Landâ— 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 â—ad immediately before the late Plague many more People in England then we had before the Inhabiting of Virginia new-New-England â—â—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-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 Domâ—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 propoâ—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 Itaâ—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 aâ— 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 Sâ—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 Nâ—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
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 Diâ—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
with a People that speak our own Language strong Motives to draw our People from us and do they not draw more from us then otherwise would leave us to go into foreign Countries where they understand not the Language I Answer 1 st It is not much more difficult to get a passage to Holland than it is to our Plantations 2 dly Many of those that go to our Plantations if they could not go thither would and must go into foreign Countries though it were ten times more difficult to get thither then it is or else which is worse as hath been said would adventure to be hanged to prevent begging or starving as too many have done 3. I do acknowledge that the facility of getting to the Plantaâ—ions may cause some more to leave us than would do if they had none but foreign Countries for refuge But then if it be considered that our Plantations spending mostly our English Manufactures and those of all sorts almost imaginable in egregious quantities and employing near two thirds of all our English Shiping do therein give a constant Sustenance to it may be two hundred thousand Persons here aâ— home then I must needs conclude upon the whole matter that we have not the fewer but the more People in England by reason of our English Plantatioâ—s in America Object 2. But it may be said Is not this inferring and arguing against Sence and Experience Doth not all the World see that the many noble Kingdoms of Spain in Europe are almost depopulated and ruinated by reason of their Peoples flocking over to the West-Indies And do not all other Nations diminish in people after they become possessed of foreign Plantations Ans. 1. I answer With submission to better Judgments that in my opinion contending for Vniformity in Religion hath contributed ten times more to the depopulating of Spain then all the American Plantations What was it but that which caused the expulsion of so many thousand Moores who had built and inhabited most of the chief Cities and Towns in Andaluzia Granada Aragon and oother parts What was it but that and the Inquisition that hath and doth daily expel such vast numbers of rich Iews with their Families and Estates into Germany Italy Turkey Holland and England What was it but that which caused those vast and long Wars between that King and the low Countries and the effusion of so much Spanish Blood and Treasure and the final loss of the seven Provinces which we now see so prodigious rich and full of People while Spain is empty and poor and Flanders thin and weak in continual fear of being made a prey to their Neighbours 2. I answer We must warily distinguish between Country Country for though Plantations may have drained Spain of People it does not follow that they have or will drain England or Holland because where Liberty and Property are not so well preserved and where Interest of Money is permitted to go at 12 per Cent there can be no considerable Manufacturing and no more of Tillage and Grazing than as we Proverbially say will keep Life and Soul together and where there is little Manufacturing and as little Husbandry of Lands the profit of Plantations viz. the greatest part thereof will not redound to the Mother-Kingdom but to other Countries wherein there are more Manufactures and more Productions from the Earth from hence it follows Plantations thus managed prove drains of the People from their Mother-Kingdom whereas Plantations belonging to Mother-Kingdoms or Countries where Liberty and Property is better preserved and Interest of Money restrained to a low rate the consequence is that every person sent abroad with the Negroes and Utensils he is constrained to employ or that are employed with him it being customary in most of our Islands in America upon every Plantation to employ eight or ten Blacks for one White Servant I say in this case we may reckon that for Provisions Clothes and Houshold-Goods Sea-men and all others employed about Materials for building fitting and victualling of Ships Every English man in Barbadoes or Jamaica creates employment for four men at home 3 dly I answer That Holland now sends as many and more people yearly to reside in their Plantations Fortresses and Ships in the East-Indies besides many into the West-Indies than Spain and yet is so far from declining in the Number of their people at home that it is evident they do monstruously encrease and so I hope under the next Head to prove that England hath constantly encreased in People at home since our settlement upon Plantations in America although not in so great a proportion as the Dutch V. I am of Opinion that we had immediately before the late Plague more People in England than we had before the inhabiting of New-England Virginia Barbadoes c The proof of this at best I know can but be conjectural but in confirmation of my Opinion I have I think of my mind the most industrious English Calculator this Age hath produced in publick viz. Captain Graunt in the fore-mentioned Treatise pag. 83. his words are Vpon the whole matter we may therefore conclude that the people of the whole Nation do encrease and consequently the decrease of Winchester Lincoln and other like places must be attributed to other Reasons then that of refurnishing London only 2. It is manifest by the afore-said worthy Author's Calculations that the Inhabitants of London and parts ajacent have encreased to almost double within this sixty Years and that City hath usually been taken for an Index of the whole I know it will be said that although London have so encreased other parts have as much diminished whereof some are named before but if to answer the diminution of Inhabitants in some particular places it be considered how others are encreased viz Yarmouth Hull Scarbrough and other Ports in the North as also Liverpoole Westchester and Bristol Portsmouth Lime and Plimouth and withal if it be considered what great Improvements have been made these last sixty Years upon breaking up and enclosing of Wastes Forrests and Parks and draining of the Fenns and all those places inhabited and furnished with Husbandry c. then I think it will appear probable that we have in England now at least had before the late Plague more People then we had before we first entred upon foreign Plantations notwithstanding likewise the great Numbers of men which have issued from us into Ireland which Country as our Laws now are I reckon not among the number of Plantations profitable to England nor within the limits of this discourse although peradventure something may be pickt out of these Papers which may deserve consideration in relation to that Country But it may be said If we have more People now thâ—n in former Ages how came it to pass that in the times of King Henry the fourth and fifth and other times formerly we could raise such great Armies and employ them in foreign Wars and
yet retain a sufficient number to defend the Kingdom and cultivate our Lands at home I answer first The bigness of Armies is not alwayes a certain Indication of the numerousness of a Nation but sometimes rather of the nature of the Government and Distrubation of the Lands as for instance Where the Prince and Lords are owners of the whole Territory although the People be thin the Armies upon occasion may be very great as in East-India Turkey and the Kingdoms of Fesse and Morocco where Taffelet was lately said to have an Army of one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand men although every body knows that Country hath as great a scarcety of people as any in the World But since Free-holders are so much encreased in England the servile Tenures altered doubtless it is more difficult as well as more chargeable to draw great numbers of men into foreign Wars 2. Since the Introduction of the new Artillery of Powder Shot and Fire-Arms in the World all War is become as much rather an expence of Money as Men and success attends those that can most longest spend Money rather than men and consequently Princes Armies in Europe are become more proportionable to their Purses then to the Numbers of their People VI. That all Colonies and foreign Plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms whereof the Trades of such Plantations are noâ— confined to their said Mother Kingdoms by good Laws and severe Execution of those Laws 1. The practice of all the Governments of Europe witness to the truth of this Proposition The Danes keep the Trade of Izland to themselves The Dutch Surrenham and all their Settlements in East-India The French St Christophers and their other Plantations in the West-Indies The Portugeeze Brazil and all the Coasts thereof The Spaniards all their vast Terriories upon the Main in the West Indies and many Islands there and our own Laws seem to design the like as to all our Plantations in new-New-England Virginia Barbadoes c. although we have not yet arrived to a compleat and effectual Execution of those Laws 2. Plantations being at first furnished and afterwards successively supplied with People from their Mother Kingdoms and people being Riches that loss of people to the Mother Kingdoms be it more or less is certainly a damage except the employment of those People abroad do cause the employment of so many more at home in their Mother Kingdoms and that can never be except the Trade be restrained to their Mother Kingdom which will not be doubted by any that understands the next Proposition viz. VII That the Dutch will reap the greatest advantage by all Colonies issuing from any Kingdom in Europe whereof the Trades are not so strictly confined to their proper Mother Kingdoms This Proposition will readily be assented unto by any that understand the nature of low Interest and low Customs where the Market is free they shall be sure to have the Trade that can sell the best penny-worths that buy dearest and sell cheapest which Nationally speaking none can do but those that Money at the lowest rate of Interest and pay the least Customs which are the Dutch and this is the true cause why before the Act of Navigation there went ten Dutch Ships to Barbadoes for one English VIII That the Dutch though they thrive so exceedingly in Trade will in probability never endamage this Kingdom by the growth of their Plantations 1. In fact the Dutch never did much thrive in planting for I do remember they had about twenty Years past Tabago a most fruitful Island in the West-Indies apt for the production of Sugars and all other Commodities that are propagated in Barbadoes and as I have heard Planters aâ—firm better accomodated with Rivers for Water-Mills which are of great use for grinding of the Canes this Island is still in their possession and Corasoa and some others and about sixteen or seventeen Years past they were so eager upon the Improvement of it that besides what they did in Holland they set up Bills upon the Exchange in London proffering great Priveledges to any that would Transport themselves thither Notwithstanding all which to this day that Island is not the tenth part so well improved as Iamaica hath been by the English within these five Years neither have the Dutch at any other time or in any other parts of the World made any emprovement by Planting what they do in the East-Indies being only by War Trade and Building of Fortified Towns and Castles upon the Sea-Coasts to secure the sole Commerce of the Places and with the people which they Conquer not by clearing breaking up of the Ground and Planting as the English have done This I take to be a strong Argument of Fact to my present purpose 2. The second Argument to prove this Proposition is from Reason I have before-mentioned the several Accidents and Methods by which our Foreign Plantations have from time to time come to be peopled and emproved Now the Dutch being void of those Accidents are destitute of the occasions to emprove Foreign Plantations by diging and delving as the English have done For 1 st In Holland their Interest and Custom being low together with their other Encouragements to Trade mentioned in the former part of this Treatise gives Employment to all their people born and bred amongst them and also to multitudes of Foreigners 2. Their giving Liberty or at least Connivance to all Religions as well Jews and Roman-Catholicks or Sectaries gives security to all their Inhabitants at home and expels none nor puts a necessity upon any to Banish themselves upon that account 3. Their careful and wonderful providing for and employing their Poor at home puts all their People utterly out of danger of Starving or necessity of Stealing and consequently out of fear of Hanging I might add to this that they have not for a long time had any Civil War among them and from the whole conclude that the Dutch as they did never so they never can or will thrive by planting and that our English Plantations abroad are a good effect proceeding from many evil causes IX That neither the French Spaniards or Portugeeze are much to be feared on the account of Planting not for the same but for other Reasons That the French have had footing in the West-Indies almost as long as the English is certain and that they have made no considerable Progress in Planting is as certain and finding it so in fact I have been often exercising my thoughts about enquiry into the reason thereof which I attribute especially to two First because France being an absolute Government hath not until very lately given any countenance or encouragement to Navigation and Trade Secondly and principally because the French Settlements in the West-Indies have not been upon Free-Holders as the English are but in subjection to the French West-India Company which Company being under the French King as Lord Proprietor of the places they settle
younger Persons which were never before at Sea I appeal to the Reader whether such a yearly return of Sea-men abiding at home with us all the Winter and spending their Money here which they got in their Summer-Fishery were not a great access of Wealth and Power to this Kingdom and a ready supply for his Majesty's Navy upon all Emergencies 6. The Fishing Ships yet are and always have been the breeders of Sea-men the Planters and Boat-keepers are generally such as were bred and became expert at the cost of the Owners of Fishing Ships which Planters and Boat-keepers enter very few new or green men 7. By the building fitting victualling and repairing of Fishing-Ships multitudes of English Trades-men and Artificers besides the Owners and Sea-men gain their subsistance whereas by the Boats which the Planters and Boat-keepers build or use at New-found-Land England gets nothing Object But against all that I have said those that contend for a Governour at New-found-Land object 1. That without a Governour and Government there that Country will be alwayes exposed to the surprizal of the French or any Foreigners that shall please to attacque it 2. That the disorders of the Planters which I complain of and some others which for brevities sake I have not mentioned cannot be remedied without a Governour To which I answer first That when we cannot preserve our Colonies by our Shiping or so awe our Neighbours by our Fleets and Ships of War that they dare not attempt them our case will be sad and our Propriety will be lost or in eminent danger not only abroad but at home likewise 2 dly All the Fish that is killed at New-found-Land in a Summer is not sufficient to maintain strength enough on Shore to defend two Fishing Harbours against ten men of War whereas that Country hath more Harbours to defend than are to be found in Old England 3 dly If a Governour be established the next consequence will be a Tax upon the Fishing and the least Tax will encrease the price of Fish and that unavoidably will give the Trade away wholly into the French Hands 4 thly A Government there is already of antient Custom among the Masters of the Fishing-Ships to which the Fishermen are inured and that free from Oppression and adapted to the Trade insomuch that although a better might be wished I never hope to see it XI That new-New-England is the most prejudical Plantation to this Kingdom I am now to write of a People whose Frugality Industry and Temperance and the happiness of whose Laws and Institution do promise to themselves long Life with a wonderful encrease of People Riches and Power And although no men ought to envy that Vertue and Wisdom in others which themselves either can or will not practice but rather to commend and admire it yet I think it is the duty of every good man primarily to respect the well-fare of his Native Country and therefore though I may offend some whom I would not willingly displease I cannot omit in the progress of this discourse to take notice of some particulars wherein Old England suffers diminution by the growth of those Colonies settled in new-New-England and how that Plantation differs from those more Southerly with respect to the gain or loss of this Kingdom viz. 1. All our American Plantations except that of New-England produce Commodities of different Natures from those of this Kingdom as Sugar Tobacco Cocoa Wool Ginger sundry sorts of dying Woods c. Whereas New-England produces generally the same we have here viz. Corn and Cattle some quantity of Fish they do likewise kill but that is taken saved altogether by their own Inhabitants which prejudiceth our New found-land Trade where as hath been said very few are or ought according to Prudence to be employed in those Fisheries but the Inhabitants of Old England The other Commodities we have from them are some few great Masts Furs and Train-Oyl whereof the Yearly value amounts to very little the much greater value of returns from thence being made in Sugar Cotton Wool Tobacco and such like Commodities which they first receive from some other of his Majesty's Plantations in Barter for dry Cod-Fish salt Mackerel Beef Pork Bread Beer Flower Pease c. which they supply Barbadoes Iamaica c. with to the diminution of the vent of those Commodities from this Kingdom the great Experience whereof in our own West-India Plantations would soon be found in the advantage of the value of our Lands in England were it not for the vast and almost incredible supplies those Colonies have from New-England 2. The People of New-England by vertue of their Primitive Charters being not so strictly tied to the observation of the Laws of this Kingdom do sometimes assume a liberty of Trading contrary to the Act of Navigation by reason whereof many of our American Commodities especially Tobacco and Sugar are transported in New-English Shiping directly into Spain and other foreign Countries without being Landed in England or paying any Duty to his Majesty which is not only loss to the King and a prejudice to the Navigation of Old England but also a total exclusion of the old English Merchant from the vent of those Commodities in those Ports where the New-English Vessels trade because there being no Custom paid on those Commodities in New-England and a great Custom paid upon them in Old England it must necessarily follow that the New-English Merchant will be able to afford his Commodity much cheaper at the Market than the Old English Merchant And those that can sell cheapest will infallibly engross the whole Trade sooner or later 3. Of all the American Plntations his Majesty hath none so apt for the building of Shiping as New-England nor none comparably so qualified for the breeding of Sea-men not only by reason of the natural industry of that people but principally by reason of their Cod and Mackerel Fisheries And in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more dangerous to any Mother Kingdom then the encrease of Shiping in their Colonies Plantations or Provinces 4. The People that evacuate from us to Barbadoes and the other West-India Plantations as was before hinted do commonly work one English man to ten or eight Blacks and if we kept the trade of our said Plantations intirely to England England would have no less Inhabitants but rather an encrease of people by such evacuation because that one English man with the ten Blacks that work with him accounting what they eat use and wear would make employment for four men in England as was said before whereas peradventure of ten men that issue from us to new-New-England Ireland what we send to or receive from them doth not employ one man in England To conclude this Chapter and to do right to that most Industirous English Colony I must confess that though we loose by their unlimitted Trade with our Foreign Plantations yet we are very great Gainers
Records against Experience and against Reason to which I doubt not but their Lordships will be able to give a full confutation out of their own Memorials before this be made publick And for the Reason of it will any Man believe that our Fathers were so stupid as to lay out their Money in Land not to see it again in twenty years when at single Interest at ten per cent they might double their Money in 10 years at Interest upon Interest in seven years I have been told by a person of very great Honour that this Gentleman himself in his private discourse confesseth that the Abatement of Interest will advance the value of Land but he questions whether it will encrease Trade certainly a needless scruple to any Man that shall deliberately consider the inseperable affinity that is in all Nations and at all times between Land and Trade which are Twins and have always and ever will wax and wane together It cannot be ill with Trade but Land will fall nor ill with Lands but Trade will feel it But in regard this Gentleman is so miserably mistaken in the Trades of Spain and Portugal which he reckons as lost I think it may be useful to inform him and others better what Trades are really lost and enquire how we came to loose them and what Trades we still retain and why and of both as briefly as I can because I have said something of them in the following Treatise Of Trades lost 1. The Russia Trade where the Dutch had last year 22 Sail of great Ships and the Engilsh but one whereas formerly we had more of that Trade then the Dutch 2. The Green-land Trade where the Dutch and Hamburgers have yearly at least 4 or 500 Sail of Ships and the English but one the last year and none the former 3. The great Trade of Salt from St Vuals in Portugal and from France with Salt Wine and Brandy to the East-lands 4. All that vast and notorious Trade of Fishing for white-Herrings upon our own Coast. 5. The East-Country Trade in which we have not half so much to do as we had formerly and the Dutch ten times more then they had in times past 6. A very great part of our Trade for Spanish-Woolls from Bilvao These Trades and some more I could name the Dutch Interest of 3 per cent and narrow limitted Companies in England have beat us out of 7. The East-India Trade for Nutmegs Cloves and Mace an extraordinary profitable Trade the Dutch Arms and Sleights have beat us out of but their lower Interest gave strength to their Arms and acuteness to their Invention 8. Their great Trade for China and Iapan whereof we have no share is an effect of their low Interest those Trades not being to be obtained but by a long process and great disburstments destitute of present but with expectation of future Gain which 6 per cent cannot bear 9. The Trades of Scotland and Ireland two of our own Kingdoms the Dutch have bereaved us of and in effect wholly engrossed to themselves which their low Interest hath been the principal engine though I know other accidents have contributed thereunto whereof more hereafter 10. The Trade for Norway is in great part lost to the Danes Holsteners c. by reason of some clauses in the Act of Navigation whereof more in due place 11. A very great part of the French Trade for Exportation is lost by reason of great Impositions laid there upon our Draperies 12. A great part of the Plate-Trade from Cadiz is lost to the Dutch who by reason of the lowness of their Interest can afford to let their Stocks lie before-hand at Civil and Cadiz against the arrival of the Spanish Flota who sometimes are expected 3 6 9 and 12 Months before they come especially since the late interruptions that our Iamaica Capers have given them by which means they engross the greatest part of the Silver whereas we in regard our Stocks run at a higher Interest cannot so well afford to keep them so long dead It is true the English have yet a share in this Trade by reason of some after recited natural advantages viz. Woollen-Manufactures Tin Lead Fish c. inseparably annexed by God's Providence to this Kingdom It is true likewise that the Peace at Munster hath much furthered the Dutch in that affair but as true it is that their lower Interest hath enabled them to make a much greater improvement and advantage in Trade by that Peace then ever they could otherwise have done 13. The Trade of Surranham since the Dutch got possession of that Country in the late War is so totally lost to the English that we have now no more Commerce with that Country then we should have if it were sunk in the Sea so severe and exact are the Hollanders in keeping the Trades of their own Plantations intirely to their own People 14. The trade of Menades or New-York we should have gained instead of the former since we got possession of that place in the late War if the Dutch had not bin connived at therein at first which now I hope they are not for if they should be it would not only be to the intire loss of that Trade to England but greatly to the prejudice of the English trade to Virginia because the Dutch under pretence of trading to and from New-York carry great quantities of Virginia Tobacco directly for Holland 15. The English Trade to Guiny I fear is much declined by reason that Company have met with Discouragements from some of our Neighbours Note That most of the afore-mentioned Trades are the greatest Trades in the World for the employment of Shiping and Sea-men 2 dly That no Trades deserve so much care to procrue and preserve and encouragement to prosecute as those that employ the most Shiping although the Commoditities transported be of small value in themselves For first they are certainly the most profitable for besides the gain accrewing by the Goods the Freight which is in such Trades often more then the value of the Goods is all profit to the Nation besides they bring with them a great access of Power Hands as well as Money many Ships and Seamen being justly the reputed Strength and Safety of England I could mention more Trades that we have lost and are in the High-way to loose but I shall forbear at present for fear this Porch should prove too big as also for other Reasons The Trades we yet retain are 1st For Fish the Trade of Red-Herrings at Yarmouth Pilchards in the West-Country and Cod-fish in New-found-land and new-New-England 2dly A good part of the Turkey Italian Spanish and Portugal Trades Our Trades to and from our own Plantations viz. Virginia Barbadoes New-England Iamaica and the Leward Islands If any shall here ask me How it comes to pass that the Dutch low Interest hath not cashered us of these Trades as well as the former I shall answer first generally and
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 Instâ—nces of this nature not only out of Chriâ—â—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 Straâ—gers to co-habit trade and purchase Lands amongst â—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 fâ—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 justlâ— sold and delivered him long before it was possible for the Seller to discover the Buyeâ— 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 aâ—dition to his Majestieâ— 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
a Fine of Fifty Pounds and the success hath been answerable For the first Company settled upon that narrow limitted Interest although their Stock was larger then this decayed and finally came to ruin and destruction Whereas on the contrary this being settled on more rational and consequently more just as well as more profitable Principles hath through Gods Goodness thriven and encreased to the trebling of their first Stock CHAP. IV. Concerning the Act of Navigation THough this Act be by most concluded a very beneficial Act for this Kingdom especially by the Masters and Owners of Shiping and by all Sea-men yet some there are both wise and honest Gentlemen and Merchants that doubt whether the Inconveniencies it hath brought with it be not greater then the Conveniencies For my own part I am of Opinion that in relation to Trade Shiping Profit and Power it is one of the choicest and most prudent Acts that ever was made in England and without which we had not now been Owners of one half of the Shiping nor Trade nor employed one half of the Sea-men which we do at present but seeing time hath discovered some Inconveniencies in it if not Defects which in my poor opinion do admit of an easie Amendment and seeing that the whole Act is not approved by unanimous consent I thought fit to discourse a little concerning it wherein after my plain method I shall lay down such Objections as I have met with and subjoyn my Answers with such Reasons as occur to my memory in confirmation of my own Opinion The Objections against the whole Act are such as these Object 1. Some have told me That I on all occasions magnifie the Dutch policy in relation to their Trade and the Dutch have no Act of Navigation and therefore they are certainly not always in the right as to the understanding of their true Interest in Trade or else we are in the wrong in this I answer I am yet to be informed where the Dutch have missed their proper Interest in Trade but that which is fit for one Nation to do in relation to their Trade is not fit for all no more then the same Policy is necessary to a prevailing Army that are Masters of the Field to an Army of less force then to be able to encounter their Enemy at all times and places The Dutch by reason of their great Stocks low Interest multitude of Merchants and Shiping are Masters of the Field in Trade and therefore have no need to build Castles Fortresses and places of Retreat such I account Laws of limitation and securing of particular Trades to the Natives of any Kingdom because they viz. the Dutch may be well assured That no Nation can enter in common with them in any Trade to gain Bread by it while their own use of Money is at 3 per Cent and others at 6 per Cent and upwards c. Whereas if we should suffer their Shiping in common with ours in those Trades which are secured to the English by Act of Navigation they must necessarily in a few Years for the Reasons above 〈…〉 eat us quite out of them Object 2. The second Objection to the whole Act is Some will confess that as to Merchants and Owners of Ships the Act of Navigation is eminently beneficial but say that Merchants and Owners are but an inconsiderable number of men in respect of the whole Nation and that Interest of the greater number that our Native Commodities and Manufactures should be taken from us at the best rates and foreign Commodities sold us at the cheapest with admission of Dutch Merchants and Shiping in common with the English by my own implication would effect My answer is That I cannot deny but this may be true if the present profit of the generality be barely and singly considered but this Kingdom being an Island the defence whereof hath alwayes been our Shiping and Sea-men it seems to me absolutely necessary that Profit and Power ought joyntly to be considered and if so I think none can deny but the Act of Navigation hath and doth occasion building and employing of three times the number of Ships and Sea-men that otherwise we shouâ—d or would do and that consequently If our Force at Sea were so greatly impared it would expose us to the receiving of all kind of Injuries and Affronts from our Neighbours and in conclusion render us a despicable and miserable People Objections to several Parts of the Act of Navigation Object 1. The Inhabitants and Planters of our Plantations in America say This Act will in time ruin their Plantations if they may not be permitted at least to carry their Sugars to the best Markets and not be compell'd to send all to and receive all Commodities from England I answer If they were not kept to the Rules of the Act of Navigation the consequence would be that in a few Years the benefit of them would be wholly lost to the Nation it being agreeable to the Policy of the Dutch Danes French Spaniards Portugals and all Nations in the World to keep their external Provinces and Colonies in a subjection unto and dependency upon their Mother-Kingdom and if they should not do so the Dutch who as I have said are Masters of the Field in Trade would carry away the greatest of advantage by the Plantations of all the Princes in Christendom leaving us and others only the trouble of breeding men and sending them abroad to cultivate the Ground and have Bread for their Industry Here by the way with entire submission to the greater Wisdom of those whom it much more concerns give me leave to Query Whether instead of the late prohibition of Irish Cattle it would not have been more for the benefit of this Kingdom of England to suffer the Irish to bring into England not only their live Cattle but also all other Commodities of the Growth or Manufacture of that Kingdom Custom free or on easie Customs and to prohibit them from Trading homeward or outward with the Dutch or our own Plantations or any other places except the Kingdom of England Most certainly such a Law would in a few Years wonderfully encrease the Trade Shiping and Riches of this Nation Query 2. Would not this be a good addition to the Act of Navigation and much encrease the employment of English Shiping and Sea-men as well in bringing from thence all the Commodities of that Country as supplying that Country with Deals Salt and all other foreign Commodities which now they have from the Dutch Que. 3. Would not this be a means effectually to prevent the Exportation of Irish Wool which now goes frequently into France and Holland to the manifest and great damage both of England and Ireland Que 4. Would not this be a Fortress or Law to secure to us the whole Trade of Ireland Que. 5. Would not this render that which now diminisheth and seems dangerous to the value of Lands in England viz. the growth of
measure abated by reason of our foreign Plantations but propose to prove the contrary This I know is a controverted Point do believe that where there is one man of my mind there may be a thousand of the contrary but I hope when the following Grounds of my Opinion have been throughly examined there will not be so many Dissenters That very many People now go and have gone from this Kingdom almost every Year for these sixty Years past and have and do settle in our foreign Plantations is most certain But the first Question will be Whether if England had no foreign Plantations for those People to be transported unto they could or would have stayed and lived at home with us I am of Opinion they neither would nor could To resolve this Question we must consider what kind of People they were and are that have and do transport themselves to our foreign Plantations New-England as every one knows was originally inhabitated and hath since successively been replenisht by a sort of People called Puritans which could not conform to the Ecclesiastical Laws of England but being wearied with Church Censures and Persecutions were forced to quit their Fathers Land to find out new Habitations as many of them did in Germany and Holland as well as at New-England and had there not been a New-England found for some of them Germany and Holland probably had received the rest But Old England to be sure had lost them all Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose vagrant People vicious and destitute of means to live at home being either unfit for labour or such as could find none to employ themselves about or had so mis-behaved themselves by Whoreing Thieving or other Debauchery that none would set them on work which Merchants and Masters of Ships by their Agents or Spirits as they were called gathered up about the Streets of London and other places cloathed and transported to be employed upon Plantations and these I say were such as had there been no English foreign Plantation in the World could probably never have lived at home to do Service for their Country but must have come to be hanged or starved or dyed untimely of some of those miserable Diseases that proceed from want and Vice or else have sold themselves for Soldiers to be knockt on the Head or starved in the Quarrels of our Neighbours as many thousands of brave English men were in the low Countries as also in the Wars of Germany France and Sweeden c. or else if they could by begging or otherwise arrive to the Stock of 2 s. 6 d. to waft them over to Holland become Servants to the Dutch who refuse none But the principal growth and encrease of the afore-said Plantations of Virginia and Barbadoes happened in or immediately after our late Civil Wars when the worsted party by the fate of War being deprived of their Estates and having some of them never been bred to labour and other made unfit for it by the lazy habit of a Soldiers life there wanting Means to maintain them all abroad with his Majesty many of them betook themselves to the afore-said Plantations and great numbers of Scotch Soldiers of his Majesty's Army after Worcester Fight were by the then prevailing Powers voluntarily sent in thither Another great swarm or accession of new Inhabitâ—nts to the afore-said Plantations as also to new-New-England Iamaica and all other his Majesties Plantations in the West-Indies ensued upon his Majesties Restauration when the former prevailing party being by a divine Hand of Providence brought under the Army disbanded many Officers dis-placed and all the new purcharsers of publick Titles dispossest of their pretended Lands Estates c. many became impoverished dâ—stitute of employment and therefore such as could find no way of living at home and some which feared the re-establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws under which they could not live were forced to transport themselves or sell themselves for a few Years to be transported by others to the foreign English Plantations The constant supply that the said Plantations have since had hath by such vagrant loose People as I before-mentioned picked up especially about the Streets and Suburbs of London and Westminster and by Malefactors condemned for Crimes for which by the Law they deserved to dye and some of those People called Quakers banished for Meeting on pretence of Religious Worship Now if from the Premises it be duly considered what kind of Persons those have been by which our Plantations have at all times been replenished I suppose it will appear that such they have been and under such Circumstances that if his Majesty had had no foreign Plantations to which they might have resorted England however must have lost them To illustrate the truth whereof a little further let us consider what Captain Graunt the ingenious Author of the Observations upon the Bills of Mortality saith pag. 76. and in other places of his Book concerning the City of London and it is not only said but undeniably proved viz. That the City of London let the Mortality be what it will by Plague or otherwise repairs its Inhabitants once in two Years And pag. 101. again If there be encouragement for a hundred Persons in London that is a way how a hundred may live better then in the Country the evacuating of a fourth or third part of that number must soon be supplied out of the Country who in a short time remove themselves from thence hither so long until the City for want of receipt and encouragement regurgitates and sends them back 1. What he hath proved concerning London I say of England in general and the same may be said of any Kingdom or Country in the World Such as our employment is for People so many will our People be and if we should imagin we have in England employment but for one hundred People and we have born and bred amongst us one hundred and fifty People I say the fifty must away from us or starve or be hanged to prevent it whether we had any foreign Plantations or not 2. If by reason of the accommodation of living in our foreign Plantations we have evacuated more of our People then we should have done if we had no such Plantations I say with the aforesaid Author in the case of London and if that Evacuation be grown to an excess which I believe it never did barely on the account of the Plantations that decrease would procure its own Remedy for much want of People would procure greater Wages and greater Wages if our Laws gave encouragement would procure us a supply of People without the charge of breeding them as the Dutch are and always have been supplied in their greatest Extremities Object But it may be said Is not the Facility of being transported into the Plantations together with the enticing Methods customarily used to perswade People to go thither and the encouragement of living there
upon and taxing the Inhabitants at pleasure as the King doth them it is not probable they should make that succesful Progress in Planting Propriety Freedom and Inheritance being the most effectual Spurs to Industry 2. Though some who have not looked far into this matter may think the Spaniards have made great Progress in Planting I am of opinion that the English since the time they set upon this Work have cleared and emproved fifty Plantations for one and Built as many Houses for one the Spaniards have Built this will not be very difficult to imagine if it be considered First that it is not above fifty or sixty Years since the English intended the Propagating Foreign Plantations Secondly that the Spaniards were Possessed of the West-Indies about our King Henry the 7 th's time which is near two Hundred Years past Thirdly that what the Spaniard hath done in the West-Indies hath been ten times more by Conquest then by Planting Fourtly That the Spaniards found in the West-Indies most of the Cities and Towns ready Built and Inhabited and much of the Ground emproved and cultivated before their coming thither Fifthly That the Inhabitants which they found there and subdued were such a People with whom some of the Spaniards could and have mixed from whence hath proceeded a Generation of People which they call Mestises whereas the English where they have set down and Planted either found none or such as were meer wild Heathen with whom they could not nor ever have been known to mix Sixthly That now after such a long series of time the Spaniards are scarce so Populous in any Part of the West-Indies as to be able to bring an Army of Ten Thousand Men together in a Months time From all which I conjecture 1st That his Majesty hath now more English Subjects in all his Foreign Plantations in sixty Years than the King of Spain hath Spaniards in all his in two Hundred Years 2d That the Spaniards Progress in Planting bears no Proportion to the encrease of the English Plantations 3 d. That seeing the Spaniards in the time of their greatest Prosperity and under so many Advantages have been such indifferent Planters and have made such slow progress in Peopleing those parts of the West-Indies which they possess It is not much to be feared that ever the English will be mated by the Spaniards in their Foreign Plantations or Production of the Native Commodities of those Parts Now the reasons why the Spaniards are so thin of people in the West-Indies I take to be such as these following viz. First and principally because they exercise the same Policy and Governments Civil and Ecclesiastical in their Plantations as they do in their Mother-Kingdom from whence it follows that their People are few and thin abroad from the same causes as they are empty and void of people at home whereas although we in England vainely endeavour to arrive at a Vniformity of Religion at home yet we allow an Amsterdam Liberty in our Plantations It is true new-New-England being a more independant Government from this Kingdom then any other of our Plantations and the People that went thither more one peculiar Sort or Sect then those that went to the rest of our Plantations they did for some Years past exercise some Severities against the Quakers but of late they have understood their true Interest better insomuch as I have not heard of any Act of that kind for these five or six Years last notwithstanding I am well informed that there are now amongst them many more Quakers and other Dissenters from their Forms of Religious Worship then were at the time of their greatest Severity which Severity had no other effect but to encrease the New-English Non-conformists 2 d. A second reason why the Productions of the Spanish West-India Commodities are so inconsiderable in respect to the English and consequently why their Progress in Planting hath been and is like to be much less then the English as also the encrease of their People I take to be the dearness of the Freight of their Ships which is four times more then our English Freight and if you would know how that comes to be so twelve per cent Interest will go â— great way towards the satisfying you although there are other concomitant lesser causes which whosoever understands Spain or shall carefully read this Treatise may find out themselves 3 d. A third reason I take to be the greatness of the Customs in Old-Spain for undoubtedly high Customs do as well dwarf Plantations as Trade 4 th The Spaniards Intense and singular Industry in their Mines for Gold and Silver the working wherein destroys abundance of their people at least of their Slaves doth cause them to neglect in great measure Cultivating of the Earth and producing Commodities from the growth thereof which might give employment to a greater Navy as well as sustenance to a far greater number of people by Sea and Land 5 th Their multitude of Fryers Nuns and other reclust and Ecclesiastical Persons which are prohibited from Marriage 3. The third sort of People I am to Discourse of are the Portugeeze and and them I must acknowledge to have been great Planters in the Brazeils and other Places but yet if we preserve our People and Plantations by good Laws I have reason to believe that the Portugeeze except they alter their Politicks which is almost impossible for them to do can never bear up with us muchless prejudice our Plantations That hitherto they have not hurt us but we them is most apparent for in my time we have beat their Muscovado and Paneal Sugars quite out of use in England and their Whites we have brought down in all these Parts of Europe in price from seven and eight pounds per l. to fifty Shillings and three Pounds per l. and in quantity whereas formerly their Brazeil-Fleets consisted of One hundred to One hundred and twenty thousand Chests of Sugar they are now reduced to about Thirty thousand Chests since the great encrease of Barbadoes The reason of this decay of the Portugeeze Productions in Brazeils is certainly the better Policy that our English Plantatitions are founded upon That which principally dwarfs the Portugeeze Plantations is the same before-mentioned which hinders the Spaniards viz. extraordinary high Customs at home high Freights high Interest of Money Ecclesiastical persons c. From all that hath been said concerning Plantations in general I draw these two principal Conclusions 1 st That our English Plantations may thrive beyond any other Plantations in the World though the Trades of all of them were more severely limitted by Laws and good Execution of those Laws to their Mother-Kingdom of England exclusive to Ireland and New-England 2dly That it is in his Majesties power and the Parliaments if they please by taking off all Charges from Sugar to make it more intirely an English Commodity then white-Herrings are a Dutch Commodity and to draw more profit to this