Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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B03997
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A letter from a merchant in Scotland, to his correspondent in London. Relating to the duty upon Scotch-linnen.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing L1414A; ESTC R179537
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3,607
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16
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Columbia Vniversity in the City of New York LIBRARY THE SELIGMAN LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS PURCHASED BY THE UNIVERSITY 1929 A LETTER From a Merchant in SCOTLAND To his Correspondent in London Relating to the Duty upon SCOTCH-LINNEN SIR I Have your Letter of the Instant wherein you give me an Account That the Parliament of England have Voted to lay an Additional Duty of 1 d. per Ell on Scotch Linnen in order to raise Money to Supply the Deficiency of some Funds Also you are pleased to Inform me That as an Act of kindness to me and the rest of your Friends here you have used all your Interest and engag'd all your Friends against the said Bill for which we suppose you expect our Thanks We think our selves obliged to thank you for your Intention but are very sorry your Good Will should fall under the Unhappiness of a mistake and therefore before we explain our selves we desire you by all means to desist any farther Sollicitation of that Affair unless you will be so kind as to engage all your Interests and Friends on the other hand if it be possible to get the Bill to Pass Possibly you may think this something strange but in order to convince your Judgment that your Friendship may joyn with your Discretion in the Matter I take the liberty to open your Eyes a little and show you what is and what is not the true Interest of our Trade in Scotland First you are to understand Scotland does not gain of England but England gains of Scotland by the General Trade of both Nations I prove this by this Rule of Trade That in Trade that Nation Gains most which Exports most Goods of its own Growth and receives back most Money Now 't is allow'd that we receive from England about 60000 l. per Annum in Goods more than we Export to them the Remainder of which we remit by Bills which is Money and consequently England Gains of Scotland 60000 1. per Annum by the Trade The reason of this is the want of those Manufactures in Scotland which we have from England and which we cannot be without nor be well supplied with elsewhere We who have a true Notion of the English Trade and the great disadvantages we are under in our Trading thither have often Essay'd to supply our selves with those useful Goods sometimes from Ireland sometimes from Holland but finding that either way it still enrich'd the persons who supply'd us and exhausted our Countrey of ready Money and withal in hopes of reaping the advantage of so beneficial a Trade at last we began to enquire why we might not make those Goods at home which we buy so much to our disadvantage from abâ—â—ad On this Enquiry we found we had Wooll enough of our own which with the help of Spanish Wooll would enable us to make Broad-Cloths and Stuffs and what other things of that nature we might want we found we have hands enough of our own Poor to Manufacture it and to Spin Weave Knit c. And in short we have with a Joynt Stock Erected a Company for the carrying on this profitable useful design and we have met with such success in it hitherto as that we doubt not in a short time not only to supply our own Nation but Foreign parts also and to let the World see that Scotland is an industrious Nation and have only hitherto wanted due encouragement to make proof of it Now in order to encourage our Design for the advantage of our Native Country I know nothing in the World cou'd have contributed more to us than some discouragement on the vast Exportation of Linnen The Linnen Manufacture in Scotland is that which our Poor are so vers'd in and so us'd to that we find it difficult to bring them off from it nay though we give them better Wages than they can Earn in the other Our Work seems new to them and they think they are not so secure of constant Employ but now if the English Parliament will lay a Duty on Scotch Linnen by which the Quantity sold may be diminished the Poor will come under some necessity to work for us and we shall soon have our Manufactures flourish Besides If we can but bring our Works to any Maturity against our next Parliament we are in great hopes to get a general prohibition of all English Woollen Manufactures to which the Duty imposed upon our Linnens in England will be a very great Argument and if these Two Points are gain'd we believe you will grant that our Company will be in a very good condition As to the Goods we make we have already very good Broad-Cloths and Serges made here and we do not doubt in a very short time to purchase our Spanish Wooll and Dyers Stuff abroad with our own Goods By this short History of the Undertaking in Scotland you will easily see that it is far from being our interest to oppose the laying a Duty on Scotch Linnen in England We are inform'd the Parliament are considering of Methods also to prevent the Improvement of the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland and that one way they are pleased to think of is to encourage the Linnen Manufacture there It is no question a very proper way and if it can be brought to pass will certainly answer the End and it seem'd strange to us at first sight that the Parliament should not apprehend the very same thing in Scotland but attempt to discourage our Linnen Trade which is the only present hindrance of our falling into the Woollen at as large a rate as ever Ireland can pretend to If ever we in Scotland bring our Woollen Manufacture to such a head as we hope to do we do not question but we may have a Hamborough as well as an East-India Company with Priviledges as great as other Companies enjoy and indeed I cannot see why the English should envy us the Improvement of Trade and the Growth of our own Country since they themselves received the first Instructions in all their Manufactures from their Neighbours the Flemings And yet I acknowledge we ought not to think that the English do envy us at all or that they will at all resent our Setting up the Woollen Manufacture for that If we had been to ask of your Nation what they would do for us to encourage and help us forward in the Infancy of our Undertaking we could have desir'd no greater Favour than they have done us in discouraging our Linnen Work The Making of Linnen in Scotland seems to have been introduced rather by a Necessity than a Profit the Wages to the Poor is very small the Profit to the Merchant much less and the Advantage to the Nation none at all But if we can come to some degree of Improvement in the Woollen Trade we may in time be as Rich and as Populous as England for so many thousands of our People would never have gone abroad if some useful and profitable Manufacture had been settled at home This we are upon and this we hope to accomplish and since so happy a Juncture offers it self to remove the only Obstacle viz. the Linnen Trade we beg of you by no means to hinder it It is needless I suppose to use any Arguments here to convince you that a Duty on Scots Cloth in England will lessen the making of it but you may take a little to demonstrate the General 1. We have no Vent for our Linnen but into England and Ireland our own Expence excepted now the Market in England is secured by our selling Cheaper than the Germany Linnen for our Scots Cloth is rather inferior to the Germany Linnen in its quality and if it be but at the same price the Germany Linnen sells before it but we under-sell them 1 d. per Ell and that secures the Trade Now this Duty which is just a Penny an Ell brings them to an Equality and so the Germans will have all the Trade I appeal to the Drapers and Merchants at London for the truth of this But it may be Objected That we may abate 1 d. per Ell in the Price to that I answer With all my heart for then either the Maker would put none out or the Merchant would buy none and that would do our business as well At present the utmost profit can be made is not above a Halfpenny per Ell and if the Merchant must abate 1 d. he must lose a halfpenny and then he would not deal in it if the Poor must abate it in their Price they Work for so little already that they would leave it and all run to us for Woollen Work Either way will answer our end for it will be a full stop to our Sale of Cloth to England and that would cause our People to want Work and so they may by degrees be brought to the Woollen Manufacture As to our Vent in Ireland the Parliament resolving to Encourage the Making of Linnen in that Kingdom will lessen our Exportation thither also and so in time we may come to make no more Linnen than we use our selves If you ask What advantage this will be to us since we only sink one Manufacture to raise another I answer 1. 'T will save us 70000 l per Ann. which we really lose in the Balance of our Trade to England and which England now actually gets of us in Trade by Exporting so much more value in Manufactures to us than it Imports from us and though to so Rich a Nation as England it is not much 't is very considerable to us 2. 'T will employ a multitude more hands than the Linnen does and so much more advantage and will be a means to keep our People at Home 3. In time we may as is before noted be able to vie with the English themselves and have a Vent abroad which will increase our Shipping enrich our Merchants and improve the whole Kingdom These and many other advantages will be the effect of it and therefore we all earnestly desire you to make no Opposition to the Bill but hope your Answer to this will bring us Word that 't is past into an Act which we pray may never be Repeal'd