to impose upon his Country And now that our Interest is at 6 per cent as the same worthy Author did wisely fore-see I appeal to the Judgment and Experience of my Country Men whether the genuine price of our Lands in England now would not be 20 Years Purchase were it not for accidental Pressures under which it labours at present such as these 1. Our late great Land Taxes 2. And principally the late great Improvement of Ireland mentioned in my former Treatise the consequence whereof is that that Country now supplieth Foreign Markets as well as our own Plantations in America with Beef Pork Hides Tallow Bread Beer Wool and Corn at cheaper Rates then we can afford to the beating us out of those Trades whereas formerly viz. presently after the late Irish War many Men got good Estates by Transporting English Cattle thither And that the Improvement of Ireland is the principal cause why our Lands in purchase rise not as naturally they should with the fall of our Interest appears evidently from the effect the fall of Interest hath had upon Houses in London where the growth of Ireland could have no such destructive influence which hath been so considerable that whosoever will please to inform themselves by old Scriveners or antient Deeds shall find that a House in London about fifty Years past that would sell but for 300 l. at most would readily sell within a short time afâ—er Interest was brought to 8 per cent at 5 or 600 l. and the same Houses to be sold sometime after Interest was brought to 6 per cent viz. before and after the late Dutch War would have yielded without scruple 1000 or 1200 l. The abatement of Interest having had a double effect upon Houses by encreasing Trade and consequently raising Rents as well as encreasing the number of Years purchase 3. A third reason why Land doth not at present bear an exact proportion to 6 per cent which should naturally be twenty Years is the late Plague which did much depopulate this Kingdom 4. The late Fire in London which hath engaged Men in Building in the City who otherwise would have been purchasing in the Country 5. The unusal plenty of Corn which hath been for these three or four Years past in most parts of Christendom the like whereof hath been seldom known it happening most commonly that when one Country hath had great plenty others have had great scarcity 6. The racking up of Rents in the Years 1651. and 1652. which was presently after the last abatement of Interest A seventh accidental Reason why Land doth not sell at present at the rate it naturally should in proportion to the legal Interest is that innovated practice of Bankers in London which hath more effects attending it then most I converse with have yet observed but I shall here take notice of that only which is to my present purpose viz. The Gentlemen that are Bankers having a large Interest from his Majesty for what they advance upon his Majesties Revenue can afford to give the full legal Interest to all Persons that put Money into their hands though for never so short or long a time which makes the trade of Usury so easie and hitherto safe that few after having found the sweetness of this lasie way of emprovement being by continuance and success grown to fancy themselves secure in it can be lead there being neither ease nor profit to invite them to lay out their Money in Land though at 15 Years purchase whereas before this way of private Bankering came up men that had Money were forced oft-times to let it lie dead by them until they could meet with Securities to their minds and if the like necessity were now of Money lying dead the loss of use for the dead time being deducted from the profit of 6 l. per Cent communibus annis would in effect take off 1 l. per Cent per Annum of the profit of Usury and consequently incline men more to purchase Lands in regard the difference between Usury and Purchasing would not in point of profit be so great as now it is this new invention of Cashciring having in my opinion clearly bettered the Vsurers trade 1 or 2 per Cent per Annum And that this way of leaving Money with Gold-Smiths hath had the aforesaid effect seems evident to me from the scarcity it makes of Money in the Country for the Trade of Bankers being only in London doth very much drain the ready Money from all other parts of the Kingdom The second point I am to prove is That it will advance the Rent of Farms To prove that it did so in fact depends on memory and for my own part I and most others I converse with do perfectly remember that Rents did generally rise after the late abatement of Interest viz. in the year 1651. and 1652. The reason why they did so was from the encouragement which that abatement of Interest gave to Landlords and Tenants to improve by Draining Marling Limeing c. excellently made out by the aforesaid two worthy Authors so that I do I think with good Reason conclude that the present fall of Rents is not natural but accidental and to be ascribed principally to the fore-going Reasons given for the present abatement of Land in purchase and especially to the late Improvement of Ireland The third thing I am to prove is That the abatement of Interest will encrease the bulk of foreign Trade which I do thus By evidence of fact it hath been so in England the encrease of our Trade hath always followed the abatement of our Interest by Law I say not preceded but followed it and the Cause doth always go before the Effect which I think I have evidently demonstrated in my former Treatise If any doubt of this and will be at the pains to examin the Custom-house Books they may soon be resolved 2. By Authority not only of that antient Gentleman Sr Thomas Culpepper in his second Treatise and therein of the judgment of the French King and Court in an Edict there recited but likewise of a Parliament of England King Lords Commons in the Act for reducing it to 6 per Cent in the Preamble whereof are these Words viz. Forasmuch as the Abatement of Interest from 10 in the Hundred in former times hath been found by notable Experience beneficial to the Advancement of Trade and Improvement of Lands by good Husbandry with many other considerable Advantages to this Nation especially the reducing of it to a nearer proportion with foreign States with whom we traffick And whereas in fresh memory the like fall from 8 to 6 in the Hundred by a late constant Practice hath found the like success to the general contentment of this Nation as is visible by several Improvements c. 3. By necessary consequence when Interest is abated they who call in their Money must either buy Land or trade with it If they buy Land the many
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
profitable 6. We have people enough and more then we can employ 7. To suffer Artificers to have as many Apprentices as they will is to destroy Trade 8. The admission of Strangers is to call in others to eat the Bread out of our own Mouthes 9. No man ought to Live and Trade in a Corporation that is not a Free-man of the place 10. Nor should any be Free-men that are not the sons of Free-men or have served seven years Apprentiship 11. It s better we Trade but for a hundred pound at 20 per cent profit then for three hundred at 10 per cent profit and so pro rata 12. Our Plantations depopulate and consequently impoverish England with abundance more that might be named but that many of them are occasionally hinted and I hope them and others confuted in the following Discourse By what hath been said and what follows as well as by what most Men observe It is evident that this Kingdom is wonderfully fitted by the bounty of God Almighty for a great Progression in Wealth and Power and that the only means to arrive at both or either of them is to improve and advance Trade and that the way to those Improvements is not hedged up with thorns nor hidden from us in the dark or intrigued with difficulties but very natural and facile if we would set about them and begin the right way casting off some of our old mistaken Principles in Trade which we inherit from our Ancestors who were Souldiers Hunts-men and Herds-men and therefore necessarily unskilful in the Mysteries of and Methods to improve Trade though their natural Parts were nothing inferiour to ours Trade being but a novel thing in England comparatively to other parts of the World and in my opinion not yet advanced to the one fifth part of improvement that this Land is capable of and I think no true English-man will deny that the season â—ries aloud to us to be up and doing before our Fields become unoccupied and before the Dutch get too much the whip-hand of us whom in such a case were they freed from their French fears which they labour under at present I fear we should find as severe task-Masters as ever the Athenians were to the lesser Trading Cities of Greece Neither are the Dutch the only Neighbours we have at this time for corrivals in Trade but the French King and King of Sweeden are now as active circumspect industrious and prospective too in this Affair and have and are ordering things as prudently for promoting thereof as the Dutch themselves When I began to Write this Treatise I intended not to enlarge upon so many particulars and the rather because nothing can be said for publick good but will cross the particular ends as well as the opinions of many private persons and still the more is said the more are disobliged but my Duty to my Country overcoming those doubtful Considerations I have adventured this second time to expose my Conceptions to publick censure with this confidence that after these Principles have suffered the accustomary Persecution of Tongues and Pens naturally and constantly accompanying all new Proposals for a while they will at length the most if not all of them or something very like them come to be generally received and honoured with the publick Sanction by being passed into Laws gradually not at once concerning the time whereof I am not careful but for my Countries sake I could wish it might be shortened THE CONTENTS First A Discourse Concerning Trade c. Chap. I. A short Reply to a Treatise entituled Interest of Money Mistaken p. 1. Chap. II. Concerning the Relief and Employment of the Poor p. 55. Chap. III. Concerning Companies of Merchants p. 80. Chap. IV. Concerning the Act of Navigation p. 90. Chap. V. Concerning Transferrance of Debts p. 106. Chap. VI. Concerning a Court-Merchant p. 112. Chap. VII Concerning Naturalization p. 122. Chap. VIII Concerning Wool and Wollen Manufactures p. 127. Chap. IX Concerning the Ballance of Trade p. 135. Chap. X. Concerning Plantations p. 164. A small Treatise against Vsury p. 205. A DISCOURSE Concerning Trade c. THE Prodigious increase of the Netherlanders in their Domestick and Foreign Trade Riches and multitude of Shipping is the Envy of the present and may be the wonder of all future Generations And yet the means whereby they have thus advanced themselves are sufficiently obvious and in a great measure imitable by most other Nations but more easily by us of this Kingdom of England which I shall endeavour to demonstrate in the following Discourse Some of the said means by which they have advanced their Trade and thereby improved their Estates are these following First They have in their greatest Councils of State and War Trading-Merchants that have lived abroad in most parts of the World who have not only the Theoretical Knowledge but the practical Experience of Trade by whom Laws and Orders are contrived and Peaces with foreign Princes projected to the great Advantage of their Trade Secondly Their Law of Gavel-kind whereby all their Children possess an equal share of their Fathers Estates after their decease and so are not left to wrastle with the World in their youth with inconsiderable assistance of Fortune as most of our youngest Sons of Gentlemen in England are who are bound Apprentices to Merchants Thirdly Their exact making of all their Native Commodities and packing of their Herrings Codfish and all other Commodities which they send abroad in great quantities the consequence whereof is That the repute of their said Commodities abroad continues always good and the Buyers will accept of them by the Marks without opening whereas the Fish which our English make in New-found-Land and New-England and Herrings at Yarmouth often prove false and deceitfully made and our Pilchards from the West-Country false packed seldom containing the quantity for which the Hogsheads are marked in which they are packed And in England the attempts which our Fore-fathers made for Regulating of Manufactures when left to the Execution of some particular person in a short time resolved but into a Tax upon the Commodity without respect to the goodness thereof as most notoriously appears in the business of the AULNAGE which doubtless our Predecessors intended for a scrutiny into the goodness of the Commodity and to that purpose a Seal was invented as a signal that the Commodity was made according to the Statutes which Seals it is said may now be bought by Thousands and put upon what the Buyers please Fourthly Their giving great incouragement and immunities to the Inventors of New Manufactures and the Discoverers of any New Mysteries in Trade and to those that shall bring the Commodities of other Nations first in use and practice amongst them for which the Author never goes without his due Reward allowed him at the Publick Charge Fifthly Their Contriving and Building of great Ships to sail with small charge not above one third of what we are at for Ships
Buyers will raise the price of Land If they trade they encrease the number of Traders and consequently the bulk of Trade and let their Money lie dead by them I think I have fully proved they cannot in an addition I published to my first Observations 4. By reason for first whilst Interest is at 6 per Cent no man will run an adventure to Sea for the gain of 8 or 9 per Cent which the Dutch having Money at 4 or 3 per Cent at Interest are contented with and therefore can and do follow a vast trade in Salt from St Vuall Rochel and other parts to the Baltiquâ— Seas and also their fishing Trade for Herrings and Whale-fishing which we neglect as being not worth our trouble and hazard while we can make 6 per Cent of our Money sleeping For the measure of Money employed in Trade in any Nation bears an exact proportion to the Interest paid for Money As for instance when Money was at 10 per Cent in England no man in his wits would follow any Trade whereby he did not promise himself 14 or 12 per Cent gain at least when Interest was at 8 the hopes of 12 or 10 at least was necessary as 8 or 9 per Cent is now Interest goes at 6 per Cent the Infallible Consequence whereof is that the Trades before recited as well as those of Muscovy and Greenland and so much at least of all others that will not afford us a clear profit of 8 or 9 per Cent we carelesly give away to the Dutch and must do so forever unless we bring our Interest nearer to a Par with theirs and hence in my poor Opinion it follows very clearly that if our Interest were abated one third part it would occasion the employment of one third part more of Men Shiping and Stock in foreign and domestick Trades This discovers the vanity of all our Attempts for gaining of the White-Herring Fishing-Trade of which the Dutch as every body observes make wonderful great advantage though the Fish be taken upon our own Coasts I wish as many did take notice of the reason of it which therefore I shall say something of now though I have touched it in my former Treatise The plain case is this A Dutch-man will be content to employ a Stock of 5 or 10000 l. in Burses materials for Fishing Victuals c. for the carrying on of this Trade and if at the winding up of his Accounts he finds he hath got clear communibus annis for his Stock and Adventure 5 per Cent per Annum he thanks God and tells his Neighbours he hath had a thriving Trade Now while every sloathful ignorant man with us that hath but wit enough to tell out his Money to a Gold Smith can get 6 per Cent without pains or care Is it not monstrous absurd to imagine that ever the English will do aâ—y good upon this Trade till they begin at the right end which must be to reduce the Interest of Money Secondly The depraved nature of man affecting ease and pleasure while use of Money runs at 6 per Cent hath always at hand an easie expedient to indulge that humor and reconcile it to another as considerable viz. his Covetousness by putting his Money to use and if a Merchant through his youthful care and industry arrive to an Estate of 20000 l. in twenty Years trading whilst Money is so high and Land so low he can easily turn Country Gentleman or Usurer which were Interest of Money at 4 per Cent he could not do and consequently must not only follow his Trade himself but make his Children Traders also for to leave them Money without skill to use it would advantage little and purchasing of Lands less when the fall of Interest shall raise them to twenty or thirty Years purchase which I hope yet to live to see Thirdly From this necessity of Merchants keeping to their Trade and Childrens succeeding their Fathers therein would ensue to Merchants greater skill in Trade more exact and certain correspondency surer more trusty Factors abroad those better acquainted concatinated together by the experimental links of each others Humors Stile Estate and Business And whereas it is as much as a prudent man can do in ten Years time after his settling in London to be exactly well fitted with Factors in all parts and those by Correspondency brought into a mutual Acquaintance of each other and honest Work-men and Masters of Ships c. And by that time he hath traded ten Years longer if he succeed well it is six to one but he leaves Trade and turns Country Gentleman or Vsurer and so that profitable Engine the Wheels whereof by Correspondency move one another in many parts of the World which he hath been so long a framing within a few Years after it is brought to work well is broken to pieces and the benefit thereof to the Kingdom which is ten times more then to him that made it is lost whereas in Holland and Italy where Money is at 3 and 4 per Cent and consequently Merchants forc'd to keep and trust to their Trades only their Businesses are and must be so ordered and carried on from the beginning that when a Man dies the Trade is no more disturbed then when the Wife dies in England I am ashamed of the odious Prolixity and Repetition I am contrary to my Nature forced to use but my Opposer doth so often and I think disingenuously upbraid me with begging the Question that I am compelled to it The fourth thing I am to prove is that It multiplies Domestick Artificers If the former be true that it encreases foreign Trade I suppose no man will have the confidence to deny this to be a necessary and infallible consequence of that For we see throughout the World where-ever there is the greatest Trade there are the most Artificers and that since our own Trade encreased in England our Artificers of all sorts are proportionably encreased The building of London hath made multitudes of Bricklayers and Carpenters much use of Shiping will make Ships dear and the dearness of Shiping will make many Shipwrights much foreign Trade will encrease the vent of our Native Manufactures and much vent will make many work-men and if we cannot get and breed them fast enough our selves we shall draw them from foreign parts as the Dutch draw away ours it being a wise and true observation of as I remember Sr Walter Rawleigh That no Nation can want People that hath good Laws The fifth thing to be proved is that It enclines a Nation to thriftiness this is likewise consequent to the former and by experience made good in England for since our Trade encreased though the generality of our Nation are grown richer as I have shewed and consequently more splendid in Clothes Plate Jewels Houshold-stuff and all other outward signs of Riches yet are we not half so much given to Hospitality and good House-keeping
a Knavish design of the Citizens to advance themselves who are too proud already and that if it go forward it will undo all the Country Gentlemen in England And if one speak with the City Vsurers they will be as ready to affirm that this is a plot carried on only by Noblemen and Gentlemen whose Estates are all in Land for their own advantage and that it will spoil all the Trade of the Kingdom being a project at one instant to take off just one third of all Mens Estates that are personal and add the same proportion to all such whose Estates are real which in effect is to Impoverish all the Younger and Enrich all Elder Brothers in England So that out of the Mouthes of the greatest and wisest Adversaries to this principle it may be justly concluded that though singlely they deny the truth of it yet joyntly they confess it To conclude there is nothing that I have said or that I think any other can say upon this occasion but was said in substance before by old Sr Thomas Culpepper though unknown to me who had an ampel and clear sight into the whole nature of this Principle and the true effects and consequences of it Truth being always the same though Illustrations may vary nor can any thing now be objected against the making a Law for a further abatement of Interest but the same that was objected in those times wherein the former Statutes past so that why my Opposer should cavil at the doing of that by a Law in England now which he seems to â—ike well if it could be done I know no real cause except it be that in truth he is wise enough to know that a Law in England will certainly do the Work as it hath done formerly and in consequence his own private Gain will be retrenched Before I concluded I think it necessary for caution to my Country-men to let them know what effects these discourses have had on others when I wrote my first Treatise Interest was in the Island of Barbadoes at 15 per centum where it is since by an Act of the Country brought down to 10 per cent a great fall at once and our weekly Gazets did some Months past inform us that the Sweeds by a Law had brought down their Interest to 6 per cent neither of which can have any good effects upon us but certainly the contrary except by way of emulation they quicken us to provide in time for our own Good and Prosperity I have now done with this Controversie and therein discharge my Duty to my native Country and though Ignorance Malice or private Interest may yet for some time oppose it I am confident the Wisdom of my Country-men will at length find their true and general Interest in the Establishment of such a Law which as to my own particular concernments signifies not two Farthings whether they do or not CHAP. II. Concerning the Relief and Employment of the Poor THis is a calm Subject and thwarts no common or private Interest amongst us except that of the common Enemy of Mankind the Devil so I hope that what shall be offered towards the effecting of so universally acceptable a Work as this and the removal of the innumerable Inconveniences that do now and have in all Ages attended this Kingdom through defect of such provision for the Poor will not be ill taken although the Plaister at first essay do not exactly fit the Sore In the Discourse of this subject I shall first assert some particulars which I think arâ—â—greed by common Consent and from thence take occasion to proceed to what is more doubtful 1. That our Poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition some Famished for want of Bread others starved with Cold and Nakedness and many whole Families in all the out Parts of Cities and great Towns commonly remain in a languishing nasty and useless Condition Uncomfortable to themselves and Unprofitable to the Kingdom this is confessed and lamented by all Men. 2. That the Children of our Poor bred up in Beggery and Laziness do by that means become not only of unhealthy Bodiâ—s and more then ordinarily subject to many loathsome Diseases whereof very many die in their tender Age and if any of them do arrive to years and strength they are by their idle habits contracted in their Youth rendered for ever after indisposed to Labour and serve only to stock the Kingdom with Thieves and Beggars 3. That if all our impotent Poor were provided for and those of both Sexes and all Ages that can do Work of any kind employed it would redound some Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds per annum to the publick Advantage 4. That it is our Duty to God and Nature so to Provide for and Employ the Poor 5. That by so doing one of the great Sins for which this Land ought to mourn would be removed 6. That our fore-Fathers had pious Intentions towards this good Work as appears by the many Statutes made by them to this purpose 7. That there are places in the VVorld wherein the Poor are so provided for and employed as in Holland Hambrough New-England and others and as I am informed now in the City of Paris Thus far we all agree The first Question then that naturally occurs is Question How comes it to pass that in England we do not nor ever did comfortably Maintain and Employ our Poor The common Answers to this Question are two 1. That our Laws to this purpose are as good as any in the World but we fail in the execution 2. That formerly in the days of our pious Ancestors the work was done but now Charity is deceased and that is the reason we see the Poor so neglected as now they are In both which Answers I humbly conceive the Effect is mistaken for the Cause For though it cannot be denied but there hath been and is a great failure in the Execution of those Statutes which relate to the Poor yet I say the cause of that failure hath been occasioned by defect of the Laws themselves For otherwise what is the reason that in our late times of Confusion and Alteration wherein almost every Party in the Nation at one time or other took their turn at the Helm and all had that Compass those Laws to Stear by and yet none of them could or ever did conduct the Poor into a Harbour of security to them and profit to the Kingdom i. e. none sufficiently maintained the Impotent and employed the Indigent amongst us And if this was never done in any Age nor by any sort of Men whatsoever in this Kingdom who had the use of those Laws now in force it seems to me a very strong Argument that it never could nor ever will be done by those Laws and that consequently the defect lies in the Laws themselves not in the Men i. e. those that should put them in Execution As to the second
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-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-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-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-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
and put the whole issue upon this for the French in fact have brought down the Use of Money under 6 per Cent and that to 5 per Cent lately as I have been credibly informed and do believe and if they had omitted this all their bussling in other things would signifie very little in conclusion The Sweeds likewise since they established their Council of Trade and set themselves to the consideration of making themselves considerable by Trade have reduced their Interest from 10 to 6 per Cent. His following Words are Do Italy and Holland owe their Trade and Riches to the lowness of Vsury or to thâ—ir innate Frugality wonderful Industry and admirable Arts c I answer low Interest is the natural Mother of Frugality Industry and Arts which I hope the Gentleman's Eyes will be open enough to see by that time he hath read a little further and considered two or three Years longer But it may be said How can a low Interest be the natural Mother of Frugality when if this Gentleman be to be believed Abatement of our Vse-Money brought in our Drinking which he does not only say but prove as he thinks by an instance of Fact for he says we now spend usually twenty thousand Tuns of French Wine and he believes that a far greater quantity is yearly Imported and that the computation of Spanish Rhenish and Levant Wines far exceeds the former so that by his calculate as he says grounded upon a very good authority viz. a Report to the House of Commons it should seem that there is about the quantity of forty five thousand Tuns of Wine of all sorts Imported annually into England But if it shall appear in Fact that before the last abatement of Interest from 8 to 6 per Cent we did usually import near twice the quantity of Wines annually we now do and that now in all sorts of Wines we do not import above the quantity of twenty thousand Tuns yearly then what will become of his large Structure built upon a Sandy Foundation Reader this is the Case and the matter of Fact truly recited by me which many of the honourable Members of the House of Commons well know and mistaken by him from whence I might with much more reason infer that the abatement of Interest drove out our Drinking so pro tanto it did but I know there were likewise other Causes for it especially the additional Duties that from time to time have been laid upon Wines But before I part with the Gentleman on this point I must note to him another monstrous mistake in Fact or at least in his Inference viz. he says that twenty thousand Tuns of French Wines at 2 s. 8 d. per Gallon amounts to 640000 l. and concludes if I understand him that so much is lost to England whereas were the matter of Fact as he supposeth which it is not so in any measure this inference would be strangely erroneous for by the expence of such quantity we can rationally lose only the first cost which is but about 6 or 7 l. per Tun and that amounts to but 120000 l. or 140000 l. at the utmost all the rest being Freight Custom and Charges paid to the King and our own Country-men and consequently not lost to England To conclude this Head I do agree fully with the Gentleman that Luxury and Prodigality are as well prejudicial to Kingdoms as to private Families and that the expence of foreign Commodities especially foreign Manufactures is the worst expence a Nation can be inclinable to and ought to be prevented as much as possible but that nothing hath or will incline this or any other Nation more to Thriftiness and good Husbandry then abatement of Interest I think I have proved in the following Discourse and that therefore all that this Gentleman hath said about Luxury c. is against himself and for lessening of Interest The Gentleman at the beginning of his Preface saith He will not enquire into the lawfulness of Interest but leave the scrupulous to the several Discourses made publick on that subject For my part I shall agree with him in that likewise And to the intent that what hath been made publick formerly may the better be known I would entreat those that would be throughly satisfied therein diligently to peruse an excellent Treatise entituled The English Vsurer or Vsury condemned being a Collection of the Opinions of many of the learned Fathers of the Church of England and other Divines Printed at London Anno 1634 now about to be Reprinted But upon this occasion I shall humbly presume to say that if by the following Discourses it shall appear that the Interest of England being higher then that of our Neighbour Country it doth render our Lands our common Mother of vile and base esteem doth prevent the cultivation and improvement of our Country as otherwise it might and would be improved doth hinder the growth of Trade and imployment and encrease of the Hands of our Country doth encourage Idleness and Luxury and discourage Navigation Industry Arts and Invention then I make no question but the taking of such an Interest as exceeds the measure of our Neighbours is Malum in se by the light of Nature and consequently a Sin although God had never expresly forbid it But the Vsurer may say suppose the Borrower makes 12 per cent of my Money is it a Sin in me to take 6 per cent of him I answer between them two there may be no commutative Injustice according to my weak Judgment while each retains a mutual Benefit the Vsurer for his Money the Borrower for his Industry but in the mean time if the Rate given and taken exceed the Rate of our neighbour Nations these fatal National evil Consequences will ensue to our common Country by such a practice which therefore I conclude to be Malum in se And peradventure therefore the Wisdom of God Almighty did prohibit the Iews from lending upon Use one to another but allowed them to lend to Strangers for the Enriching of their own Nation and Improvement of their own Teritory and for the Impoverishing of others those to whom they were permitted to lend being such only whom they were commanded to Destroy or at least to keep Poor and Miserable as the Gibeonites c. hewers of Wood and drawers of Water I purpose to do the Gentleman that right as not to omit taking notice of any thing he hath of novelty in relation to the present Controversie whether it be material or no and in order thereunto the next thing I observe new in his Treatise is Page 9. It is saith he Dearness of Wages that spoils the English Trade and abases our Lands not Vsury and therefore he propounds the making a Law to retrench the Hire of Poor mens Labour an honest charitable Project and well becoming a Usurer the Answer to this is easie 1st I affirm and can prove he is mistaken in fact for
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-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
then particularly 1. Generally I say the Dutch low Interest hath miserably lessend us in all Trades of the World not secured to us by Laws or by some natural advantage which over-ballanceth the disproportion of our Interest of Money which disproportion I take to be 3 per cent 2. Particularly the Red-Herring Trade we retain by reason of two natural Advantages one is the Fish for that purpose must be brought fresh on Shore and that the Dutch cannot do with theirs because the Herrings swim on our Coast and consequently at too great a distance from theirs The other is those Herrings must be smoked with Wood which cannot be done on any reasonable terms but in a woody Country such as England is and Holland is not These advantages that God hath given our Land do counterpoize and overpoize the disproportion of Interest viz. 3 per Cent otherwise we might say Farewel Red-Herring as well as White The Pilchards on the West-Coast likewise come to our Shores and must be cured and pressed upon the Land which is impossible for the Dutch to do The New-found-land Fishing is managed by West-Country-men whose Ports are properly scituated for that Country and the Country it self is his Majesty's so the Dutch can have no footing there if they could 3 per Cent would soon send us home to keep Sheep As to the Turkey Italian Spanish and Portugal Trades though our vent for fine Cloth and some sorts of Stuffs be declined yet we retain a very considerable part of those Trades by reason of some Natural and some Artificial or Legal Advantages which preponderates 3 per cent such as these 1 st The Wool of which our midling and course Clothes are made of is our own and consequently cheaper to us then the Dutch can steal it from us paying Freights Commission Bribes and Cousenage and sometimes armed Guards to force it off 2 dly Our Fewel and Victual is cheaper in remote parts from London and consequently our Manufacturers can and do work cheaper then the Dutch whatever Mr Manley erroneously affirms 3 dly The Red-Herring Pilchard New-found-land and new-New-England Fishery by which we carry on much of those Trades are inseparably annexed to this Kingdom as before is demonstrated and by the bounty of God Almighty not by our own Wisdom or Industry 4 thly Our Lead and Tin by which we carry on much of those Trades are Natives with us 5 thly Our Country consumes within it self more of Spanish Wines and Fruit Zant Currans and Levant Oyls then any Country in Europe 6 thly Which is an artificial advantage and due to the wisdom of the Contrivers our Act of Navigation compels us or at least would do if it were justly administred to import none of those Goods but from the proper Ports of their Imbarkation and by English Shiping only The Trades to and from all our own Plantations are likewise secured to us by the Act of Navigation or would be if that Act were truly executed and if it were not for that you should see forty Dutch Ships at our own Plantations for one English To conclude this paragraph the Dutch low Interest through our own supineness hath robbed us totally of all Trade not inseperably annexed to this Kingdom by the benevolence of divine Providence and our Act of Navigation which though it have some things in it wanting amendment deserves to be called our Charta Maritima insomuch as with shame to our selves it may be truly said of us as we Proverbially say to careless Persons They have lost all that is loose When I think of these things I cannot but wonder that there should be found English men who want not Bread to eat or Clothes to wear should be yet so unkind and hard-hearted to their Country as strenuously to endeavour for private Ends the depriving her of so great a good as would be the abatement of our Interest to 4 per Cent by a Law I have lately seen a Treatise writ about thirty Years since by Lewis Roberts Merchant wherein he highly exaggerates and with great Reason the wonderful advantage the Dutch have by the lowness of their Customs but seeing an exact imitation in that respect is not consistant with our Affairs at present though much to be desired in due time I insist not thereupon but think it necessary by the way to make this true Animadversion viz. That 2 per Cent. extraordinary in Interest is worse then 4 per Cent. extraordinary in Customs because Customs run only upon our Goods imported or exported and that but once for all whereas Interest runs as well upon our Ships as Goods and must be yearly paid on both so long as they are in being and the Ships in many bulkey Trades and such as are Nationally most profitable are of four times the value of the Goods That old Objection about Widows and Orphans I have I think fully answered in my former Treatise but because I yet sometimes meet with it I shall say a Word more to it here viz. 1. Widows and Orphans are not one to twenty of the whole People and it s the Wisdom of Law-makers to provide for the good of the Majority of People though a Minor part should a little suffer 2. Of Wâ—dows and Orphans not one in forty will suffer by the abatement of Interest for these Reasons viz. 1 st Of Widows and Orphans nine of ten in this Kingdom have very little or nothing at all left them by their deceased Relations and all such will have an advantage by the abatement of Interest because such abatement will encrease Trade and in consequence occasion more employment for such necessitous Persons 2 dly Many Widows and Orphans have Ioyâ—tures Annuities Coppy-Holds and other Lands left them as well as Money and all such will be gainers by the abatement of Interest 3 dly For all London Orphans the City gives not now above 5 and to some 4 per cent Interest so the loss to such is not worth speaking of 4 thly Many Executors are so unworthy as to allow Orphans no Interest and yet justifie themselves by Law to such Orphans it will be all one what the legal rate of Interest be 5 thly When the Law for abatement of Interest is past many more Parents will leave their Children Annuities and Estates running in Trade as they do in Holland and Italy whereby the abatement of Interest will become profitable not prejudicial to them And for the few that at first may happen to suffer whereof the number will be very small and therefore not to be named in competition with the common good of the Kingdom they have an easie means within their own Power to prevent their being one Farthing the worse for the abatement of Interest it is but wearing a Lawn-Whisk instead of a Point de Venice and for the meaner sort a Searge Petty-Coat instead of a Silk one and a plain pair of Shoes instead of laced ones And that the Ladies may not be
of the same Burthen in England and compelling their said Ships being of small Force to sail always in Fleets to which in all time of danger they allow Convoy Sixthly Their parcimonious and â—hrifty Living which is so extraordinary that a Merchant of One hundred thousand Pound Estate with them will scarce spend so much per annum as one of Fifteen hundred Pounds Estate in London Seventhly The Education of their Children as well Daughters as Sons all which be they of never so great Quality or Estate they always take care to bring up to write perfect good Hands and to have the full knowledge and use of Arithemetick and Merchants-Accounts the well understanding and practice whereof doth strangely infuse into most that are the owners of that Quality of either Sex not only an Ability for Commerce of all kinds but a strong aptitude love and delight in it and in regard the Women are as knowing therein as the Men it doth incourage their Husbands to hold on in their Trades to their dying days knowing the capacity of their Wives to get in their Estates and carry on their Trades after their Deaths Whereas if a Merchant in England arrive at any considerable Estate he commonly with-draws his Estate from Trade before he comes near the confines of old Age reckoning that if God should call him out of the World while the main of his Estate is engaged abroad in Trade he must lose one third of it through the unexperience and unaptness of his Wife to such Affairs and so it usually falls out Besides it hath been observed in the nature of Arithmetick that like other parts of the Mathematicks it doth not only improve the Rational Faculties but inclines those that are expert in it to Thriftiness and good-Husbandry and prevents both Husbands and Wives in some measure from running out of their Estates when they have it always ready in their Heads what their Expences do amount to and how soon by that course their Ruin must overtake them Eightly The lowness of their Customs and the height of their Excise which is certainly the most equal and indifferent Tax in the World and least prejudical to any people as might be made appear were it the subject of this Discourse Ninthly The careful providing for and employment of their Poor which it is easie to demonstrate can never be done in England comparatively to what it is with them while it 's left to the care of every Parish to look after their own only Tenthly Their use of BANKS which are of so immence advantage to them that some not without good grounds have estimated the Profit of them to the Publick to amount to at least one Million of Pounds sterling per annum Eleventhly Their Toleration of different Opinions in matters of Religion by reason whereof many industrious People of other Countries that dissent from the Established Government of their own Churches resort to them with thetr Families and Estates and after a few years co-habitation with them become of the same Common interest Twelfthly Their Law-Merchant By which all Controversies between Merchants and Tradesmen are decided in three or four days time and that not at the fortieth part I might say in many cases not the hundredth part of the charge they are with us Thirteenthly The Law that is in use among them for Transferrence of Bills for Debt from one Man to another This is of extraordinary advantage to them in their Commerce by means whereof they can turn their Stocks twice or thrice in Trade for once that we can in England for that having sold our Foreign Goods here we cannot buy again to advantage till we are possest of our Money which it may be we shall be six nine or twelve Months in recovering And if what we sell be considerable it is a good Man's work all the Year to be following Vintners and Shop-keepers for Money Whereas were the Law for Transferring Bills in practice with us we could presently after sale of our Goods dispose of our Bills and close up our Accounts To do which the Advantage ease and Accommodations it would be to Trade is so great that none but Merchants that have lived where that custom is in use can value to its due proportion Fourteenthly Their keeping up PUBLICK REGISTERS of all Lands and Houses Sold or Mortgaged whereby many chargable Law-Suits are prevented and the securities of Lands and Houses rendred indeed such as we commonly call them REAL SECURITIES Lastly The lowness of Interest of Money with them which in peaceable times exceeds not three per cent per annum and is now during this War with England not above four per cent at most Some more Particulars might be added and those aforesaid further improved were it my purpose to discourse at large of Trade But seeing most of the former Particulars are observed and granted by all men that make it any part of their business to inspect the true nature and Principles of Trade but the last is not so much as taken notice of by the most Ingenious to be any Cause of the great encrease of the Riches and Commerce of that people I shall therefore in this Paper confine my self to write principally my Observations touching that viz. The Profit That People have received and any other may receive by reducing the Interest of Money to a very low rate This in my poor opinion is the Causa Causans of all the other causes of the Riches of that People and that if Interest of Money were with us reduceâ— to the same rate it is with them iâ— would in a short time render us as ricâ— and considerable in Trade as they noâ— are and consequently be of greateâ— damage to them and advantage to us then can happen by the Issue of this present War though the success of it should be as good as we can wish except it end in theâ—r total Ruin and Extirpation To illustrate this let us Impartially search our Books and enquire what the state and condition of this Kingdom was as to Trade and Riches before any Law concerning Interest of Money was made The first whereof that I can find was Anno 1545. and we shall be informed that the Trade of England then was Inconsiderable and the Merchants very mean and few And that afterwards viz. Anno 1635. within ten Years after Interest was brought down to eight per Cent there was more Merchants to be found upon the Exchange worth each One Thousand Pounds and upwards then were in the former dayes viz. before the Year 1600. to be found worth One Hundred Pounds each And now since Interest hath been for about twenty Years at six per Cent notwithstanding our long civil Wars and the great complaints of the deadness of Trade there are more men to be found upon the Exchange now worth Ten thousand Pounds Estates then were then of One thousand Pounds And if this be doubted let us ask the aged whether five hundred
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
above one Thousand Pounds sometimes not two Hundred to begin the World with Instead I say of such young Men and small Stocks if this Law pass we shall bring forth out Sampsons and Goliahs in Stocks subtilty and experience in Trade to coap with our potent Adversaries on the other side there being to every Mans knowledge that understands the Exchange of London divers English Merchants of large Estates which have not much past their middle-Age and yet have wholly left off their Trades having found the sweetness of Interest which if that should abate must again set their Hands to the Plough which they are as able to hold and govern now as ever and also will engage them to train up their Sons in the same way because it will not be so easie to make them Country-Gentlemen as now it is when Lands sell at thirty or fourty years Purchase For the Sufferers by such a Law I know none but idle Persons that lives at as little Expence as Labour Neither scattering by their Expences so as the Poor may Glean any thing after them nor Working with their Hands or Heads to bring either Wax or Honey to the common Hive of the Kingdom but swelling their own Purses by the sweat of other Mens Brows and the contrivances of other Mens Brains And how unprofitable it is for any Nation to suffer Idleness to suck the Breasts of Industry needs no Demonstration And if it be granted me that these will be the effects of an Abatement of Interest then I think it is out of doubt that the Abatement of Interest doth tend to the Enriching of a Nation and consequently hath been one great cause of the Riches of the Dutch and Italians and the encrease of the Riches of our own Kingdom in these last fifty years Another Argument to prove which we may draw from the nature of Interest it self which is of so prodigious a Multiplying nature that it must of necessity make the Lenders monstrous Rich if they live at any moderate Expence and the Borrowers extream Poor A memorial instance whereof we have in Old Audley deceased who did wisely observe That one Hundred Pounds only put out at Interest at ten per cent doth in seventy years which is but the Age of a Man increase to above one Hundred Thousand Pounds And if the Advantage be so great to the Lender the Loss must be greater to the Borrower who as hath been said lives at a much larger Expence And as it is between private Persons so between Nation and Nation that have Communication one with another For whether the Subjects of one Nation lend Money to Subjects of another or Trade with them for Goods the effect is the same As for example A Dutch Merchant that hath but four or five Thousand Pounds clear Stock of his own can easily borrow and have credit for fifteen Thousand Pounds more at three per cent at Home with which whether he Trade or put it to Use in England or any Country where Interest of Money is high he must necessarily without very evil Accidents attend him in a very few years treble his own Capital This discovers the true cause why the Sugar-Bakers of Holland can afford to give a greater price for Barbadoes Sugars in London besides the second Freight and Charges upon them between England and Holland and yet grow exceeding Rich upon their Trade Whereas our Sugar-Bakers in London that buy Sugars here at their own Doors before such additional Freight and Charges come upon them can scarce live upon their Callings ouâ—s here paying for a good share of their Stocks six per cent and few of them employ in their Sugar-works above six to ten Thousand Pounds at most Whereas in Holland they employ twenty thirty to fourty Thousand Pounds Stock in a Sugar-House paying but three per cent at most for what they take up at Interest to fill up their said Stocks which is sometimes half sometimes three quarters of their whole Stocks And as it is with this Trade the same Rules holds throughout all other Trades whatsoever And for us to say if the Dutch put their Money to Interest among us we shall have the advantage by being full and flush of Coin at Home it is a mear Chymera and so far from an Advantage that it is an extream Loss rendring us only in the condition of a young Gallant that hath newly Mortgaged his Land and with the Money thereby raised stuffes his Pockets and looks big for a time not considering that the draught of Cordial he hath received though it be at present grateful to his Pallat doth indeed prey upon his vital Spirits and will in a short time render the whole body of his Estate in a deep Consumption if not wholly consumed Besides whatever Money the Dutch lends us they always keep one end of the Chain at home in their own Hands by which they can pull back when they please their Lean Kine which they send hither to be fatted This makes me conclude that Moses that Wise Legislator in his forbidding the Iews to lend Money at use one to another and permitting them to lend their Money to Strangers ordained that Law as much to a Political as a Religious intent knowing that by the latter they should Enrich their own Nation and by the former no publick Goods could insue the consequence being only to Impoverish one Iew to make another Rich. This likewise takes off the wonder how the People of Israel out of so small a â—erritory as they possessed could upon all occasions set forth such vast and numerous Armies â—lmost incredible as all Histories sacred and prophane report they did which is neither impossible nor strange to any that have well considered the effects of their Laws concrning Vsury which were sufficient to make any barren Land fruitful and a fruitful Land an entire Garden which by consequence would maintain ten times the number of Inhabitants that the same Tract of Land would do where no such Laws were To conclude it is I think agreed on by all That Merchants Artificers Farmers of Land and such as depend on them which for brevity-sake we may here include under one of these general terms viz. Sea-men Fisher-men Breeders of Cattel Gardners c. are the three sorts of People which by their Study and Labour do principally if not only bring in Wealth to a Nation from abroad other kinds of People viz. Nobility Gentry Lawyers Physicians Scholars of all sorts and Shop-keepers do only hand it from one to another at Home And if abatement of Interest besides the general Benefit it brings to all except the Griping Dronish Vsurer will add new Life and Motion to those most profitable Engines of the Kingdom as I humbly suppose will be manifest upon serious consideration of what hath been said then I think it will be out of doubt that Abatement of Interest is the Cause of increase of the Trade and Riches of any Kingdom
Suppliment THE fore-going Discourse I Wrote in the Sickness-Summer at my Country-Habitation not then intending to publish it but only to communicate it to some Honourable and Ingenious Friends of the present Parliament who were pleased to take Copies of it for their own deliberate consideration and digestion of the Principles therein asserted which at first were strange to them as I expect they will be to most others till they have spent some time in thinking on them after which I doubt not but all Men will be convinced of the Truâ—h of them that have not some private Interest of heir own against them external to the general Good of the Kingdom For sure I am they have a Foundation in Nature and that according to the excellent Sr William Petty's Observation in his late Discourse concerning Taxes Res nolune male Administrare Nature must and will have its course the matter in England is prepared for an Abatement of Interest and it cannot long be obstructed and after the next Abatement who ever lives fourty Years longer shall see a second Abatement for we shall never stand on even ground in Trade with the Dutch till Interest be the same with us as it is with them His Majesty was graciously pleased at the opening of the last Session of this Parliament to propose to the Consideration of both Houses the Ballancing of the Trade of the Nation to effect which in my opinion the Abatement of Interest is the first and principal Engine which ought to be set on work which notwithstanding I should not have presumed to expose it to publick censure on my own single Opinion if I had not had the concurrance of much better Judgments then my own having never seen any thing in Print for it though much against it until the latter end of Ianuary last at which time a Friend whom I had often discoursed with upon this subject met with by accident a small Tract to the same purpose Wrote near fifty years ago which he gave me and I have for publick Good thought fit to annex it hereunto verbatim The Author of the said Tract by the stile thereof seems to have been a Country Gentleman and my Education hath mostly been that of a Merchant so I hope that going together they may in some measure supply the defects of each other Another Reason that induced me to to the Printing of them together is because what he Wrote then would be the consequences of the Abatement of Interest from ten to six per cent I have I think fully proved to the Conviction of all Men not wilfully blind have been the real effects thereof and that to a greater proportion then he did premise every Paragraph whereof was Writ by me and Copies thereof delivered to several worthy Members of this Parliament many Months before ever I saw or heard of this or any thing else Writ or Printed to the like purpose What I have aimed at in the whole is the good of my Native Country otherwise I had not busied my self about it for I want not employment sufficient of my own nor have reason to be out of love with that I have The several Particulars in the beginning of this Treatise relating to Trade I have only hinted in general terms hoping that some abler Pen will hereafter be incited for the service of his King and Country to enlarge more particularly upon them Before I conclude though I have studied brevity in the whole I cannot omit the inserting of one Objection more which I have lately met with to the main design of this Treatise viz. Object It is said that the lowness of Interest of Money in Holland is not the EFFECT OF LAWS but proceeds only FROM THEIR ABUNDANCE THEREOF for that in Holland there is no Law limitting the rate of Usury Answ. I answer that it may be true that in Holland there hath not lately been any Law to limit Usury to the present rate it is now at i. e. three or four per cent although most certain it is that many years since there was a Law that did limit it to five or six at most And by consequence there would be a renewing of that Law to a lesser rate were it necessary at this time It having always been the Policy of that People to keep down the Interest of their Money three or four per cent under the rate of what is usually paid in their Neighbouring Countries which being now naturally done it is needless to use the Artificial Stratagem of a Law to Establish Answ. 2. Although they have no Law expresly limitting Interest at present yet they have other Laws which we cannot yet arrive to which do effect the same thing among them and would do the like among us if we could have them One whereof is their ascertaining REAL SECURITIES by their PUBLICK REGISTERS For we see evidently Money is not so much wanting in England as Securities which Men account Infallible a remarkable Instance whereof is the East-India-Company who can and do take up what Money they please for four per cent at any time Another Law is Their constitution of BANKS and LUMBARDS whereby private Persons that have but tollerable credit may be supplied at easie rates from the State A third and very considerable one is Their Law for Transferring Bills of Debt mentioned in the beginning of this Discourse A fourth which is a Custom and in effect may be here to our Purpose accounted as a Law is the extraordinary Frugality used in all their Publick Affairs which in their greatest Extreamities have been such as not to compel them to give above four per cent for the loan of Money Whereas it is said His Majesty in some Cases of exigency when the National Supplies have not come in to answer the present Emergencies of Affairs hath been inforced to give above the usual Rates to Gold-Smiths and that encouraged them to take up great Sums from private Persons at the full rate of six per cent whereas formerly they usully gave but four per cent otherwise in humane probability Money would have fallen of it self to four per cent But again to conclude Every Nation does proceed according to peculiar Methods of their own in the Transactions of their publick Affairs and Law-making And in this Kingdom it hath always been the Custom to reduce the Rate of Interest by a Law when Nature had prepared the matter fit for such an alteration as now I say it hath By a Law it was reduced from an unlimitted rate to ten and afterwards from ten to eight after that from eight to six And through the Blessing of Almighty God this Kingdom hath found as I think I have fully proved and every Mans Experience will witness prodigious success and advantage thereby And I doubt not through the like Blessing of God Almighty but this Generation will find the like great and good effects by the reduction of it from six to four which is now at
was formerly that Money doubles once in seven Years at 10 per Cent according to which rule 100 l. in seventy Years amounts to 102400 l. One Hundred Pounds at Ten Pounds per Cent per Annum at Interest upon Interest encreaseth thus viz.  L. S. D. AT first 100 00 00 At 3 Months it is 102 10 00 At 6 Months 105 1 03 At 9 Months 107 13 9 At 12 Months 110 07 7 At 1 Year ¼ 113 02 9 At 1 Year ½ 115 19 4 At 1 Year ¾ 118 17 4 At 2 Years 121 16 9 At 2 Years ¼ 124 17 8 At 2 Years ½ 128 00 1 At 2 Years ¾ 131 4 1 At 3 Years 134 9 9 At 3 Years ¼ 137 17 0 At 3 Years ½ 141 5 10 At 3 Years ¾ 144 16 6 At 4 Years 148 8 11 At 4 Years ¼ 152 3 1 At 4 Years ½ 155 19 2 At 4 Years ¾ 159 17 2 At 5 Years 163 17 1 At 5 Years ¼ 167 19 0 At 5 Years ½ 172 3 0 At 5 Years ¼ 176 9 1 At 6 Years 180 17 3 At 6 Years ¼ 185 7 9 At 6 Years ½ 190 5 0 At 6 Years â— 4 194 15 5 At 7 Years 199 12 10 Supposing One Hundred Pounds to double in seven Years at Interest upon Interest as aforesaid the encrease is viz.  L. At first 100 At 7 Years 200 At 14 Years 400 At 21 Years 800 At 28 Years 1600 At 35 Years 3200 At 42 Years 6400 At 49 Years 12800 At 56 Years 25600 At 63 Years 51200 At 70 Years 102400 Pag. 13. he saith That I make use of the abuse of Interest which no man pleads for annexing a Discourse against Interest writ in 1621. when it was at 10 per Cent endeavouring thereby to impose a Belief that the Gentleman who writ that Discourse was of my mind whereas it may be supposed the Author of that Book was contented with 8 per Cent because within four Years after it was brought down to that Rate and that otherwise he would have writ further it being probable that he might live till after four Years I answer That through the Mercies of Almighty God and for the good of this Kingdom that Patriot of his Country Old Sr Thomas Culpepper who I have since been assured was the Author of that Treatise did live above twenty Years after the writing thereof and then published a second Treatise which was lately Re-printed by his worthy Son which second Treatise is now to be had at Mr Wilkinson's over against St Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street which I would advise my Opposer to read and then I hope he will be more modest hereafter then to mis-call the most Natural and Rational Conclusions IMPOSINGS But lest he should not meet with the said Treatise I shall here insert a few Lines out of it to the present purpose viz. Old Sr Thomas speaking of the certain good Effects of the Abatement of Interest from 10 to 8 per Cent pag. 19. of his second Treatise saith This good success doth call upon us not to rest here but that we bring the use for Money to a lower rate which now I suppose will find no Oppâ—sition for all Objections which before the Statute were made against it are now answered by the Success most certainly the benâ—fit will be much greater to the Common wealth by calling the Vse for Money down from 8 to 5 or 6 per Cent then it was from calling it down from 10 to 8 per Cent. I shall not Comment upon his Words but only declare that in truth I never heard of this Treatise noâ— of any other to the like effect when I write mine Pag. 13. the Gentle-man bâ—ings up his Battalia and like a stout Champion for the slie and timerous heard-of Usurers plants his main Battery against that part which I confessed to be weakest viz. that the difficulty of this Question is Whether the lowness of Interest be the cause or the Effect of Riches And he positively denies that the lowness of Interest is the Cause affirms it to be only the Effect thereof which he endeavours to prove by four Arguments which I shall particularly answer in a due place in the mean time use my own Method to prove That the Abatement of Interest by a Law in England will be a means to improve the Riches of this Kingdom And I prove it thus 1. Whatever doth Advance the value of Land in Purchase must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 2. Whatever doth Improve the Rent of Farms must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 3. Whatever doth Encrease the bulk of Foreign Trade must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 4. Whatever doth Multiply domestick Artificers must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 5. Whatever doth Encline the Nation to Thriftiness must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 6. Whatever doth Employ the Poor must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 7. Whatever doth Encrease the Stock of People must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches Now that the abatement of Interest will advance the value of Land I prove first by Experience for certainly Anno 1621. the currant price of our Lands in England was twelve Years purchase and so I have been assured by many antient Men whom I have queried particularly as to this Matter and I find it so by purchases made about that time by my own Relations and Acquaintance and I presume that any Nobleman or Gentleman of England by only commanding the Stewards of their Mannors to give them Lists out of the Records of any Mannors or Farms that their Grand-Fathers or Fathers bought or sold fifty Years past will find that the same Farms to be now sold would yield one with another at least treble the Mony and in some cases six times the Mony they were then bought and sold for which I submit still to the single and joynt Judgments of the honourable Members of both Houses of Parliament who being the greatest Owners of our Territory are in their private as well as in their politick Capacities the most proper and experimental Judges of this Case if the Antient of them will please to recollect their Memories and the Younger will please to be informed by their Elder Servants and if this be so it cannot be denied but the abatement of Interest by a Law hath greatly advanced Lands in purchase as well as improved Rents by meliorating the Lands themselves those improvements by marling limeing draining c. having been made since Money was at 8 and 6 per cent which 10 per cent could not bear And to prove that Lands were then at twelve Years purchase I have the written Testimony of that incomparable worthy Person Sr Thomas Culpepper Senior who page 11. of his first Treatise expresly affirms That Land was then at twelve Years Purchase who being himself a grave and antient Parliament Man and dedicating his Book to the then Parliament whereof he was then a Member cannot without horrible uncharitableness be presumed
as it is called as in former dayes when our greatest Expence was upon our Bellies the most destructive Consumption that can happen to a Nation and tending only to nourish Idleness Luxury and Beggary whereas that other kind of Expence which follows Trade encourageth Labour Arts and Invention To which give me leave to add that The abatement of Interest conjoynt with Excises upon our home consumption if the later could be hit upon without disturbance to Trade or danger of continuation are two of the most comprehensive and effectual Sumptuary Laws that ever were established in any Nation and most necessitating and engaging any People to thriftiness the high Road to Riches as well for Nations as private Families The frugal Italians of Old and the provident Dutch of latter times I think have given the World a sufficient proof of this Theorim and if any shall tell me it is the nature of those People to be thrifty I answer all men by nature are alike it is only Laws Custom and Education that differ men their Nature and Disposition and the disposition of all People in the World proceed from their Laws the French Peasantry are a slavish cowardly People because the Laws of their Country have made them Slaves the French Gentry a noble valiant People because free by Law Birth and Education In England we are all free Subjects by our Laws and therefore our People prove generally couragious the Dutch and Italians are both frugal Nations though their Climates and Governments differ as much as any because the Laws of both Nations encline them to Thriftiness other Nations I could name are generally vain prodigal not by Nature nor for want of a good Country but because their Laws c. dispose them so to be The sixth proof of the Proposition is that It employes the Poor which is a ne-necessary Consequence likewise of the encrease of Trade in Cities and Emprovement of Land in the Country which is well and truly demonstrated from Experience by the Elder and Younger Sr Thomas Culpepper to whom to avoid Prolixity I must refer the Reader Seventhly It encreaseth the People of a Nation this also necessarily followeth the encrease of Trade and Emprovement of Lands not that it causeth married men to get more Children But 1 st a trading Country affording comfortable Subsistances to more Families then a Country destitute of Trade is the reason that many do marry who otherwise must be forc'd to live single which may be one reason why fewer People of either Sex are to be seen unmarried in Holland at 25 years of age then may be found in England at 40 years old 2 dly Where there is much Employment and good Pay if we want Hands of our own we shall draw them from others as hath been said 3 dly We shall keep our own People at home which otherwise for want of Employment would be forcd to leave us and serve other Nations as too many of our Sea-men Ship-wrights and others have done 4 thly Our Lands and Trade being improved will render us capable not only of employing but feeding a far greater number of People as is manifest in that instance of the Land of Palestine And if these will be the effects of abating Interest then I think it is out of doubt that the Abatement of Interest is the cause of the encrease of the Riches of any Kingdom for quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Now to answer his four recited Reasons viz. First he saith If a low stated Interest by Law be the cause of Riches no Country would be poor all desiring Riches rather then Poverty and all having it in their power to state their Interest as low as they please by Law I answer first Whatever Nation doth it gradually for so it must be done as it hath been hitherto in England 2 per Cent being enough to abate at one time will find those effects I have mentioned but it is a work of Ages and cannot be done at once For Nec natura aut lex operantur per saltum Secondly It is great Imprudence to imagine that any Country understanding their true Interest so well as by degrees to abate Use-Money will not likewise by the same Wisdom be led to the instituting of many other good Laws for the encouragement of Trade as our Parliaments have still proceeded to do as Interest hath been abated His second Reason is That if the lowness of Interest were not the effect of Riches in Holland they might take as much Vse-Money as they could get there being no Law against it I answer There were formerly Laws in Holland that reduced Interest to 8 and 6 and afterwards to 5 per Cent Anno 1640. and since in the Year 1655. to 4 per Cent the Placart for which I have seen and have been told and do believe they have since reduced it by Placart to 3 per Cent as to their Cantors and all publick Receipts which in Holland is as much in effect as if they had made a general Law for it because the most of their Receipts and Payments are made in and out of the aforesaid publick Offices or else into and out of their Banks for which no Use-Money is allowed which several gradual and succesful Abatements of Interest did occasion their Riches at first and brought their People to that consistency of Wealth that they have since wrought themselves into such an abundance that there are more Lenders now than Borrowers and so I doubt not but it will be with us in a few Years after the next Abatement of Interest is made by Law which I have good reason to conclude not only from the visible operations of nature in all other things and places but from Fact and Experience in this very case being certain that the Gold-Smiths in London could have what Money they would upon their Servants Notes only at 4 l. and 4 l. 10 s. per Cent before the late Emergencies of State which I could demonstrate have very much obstructed the natural fall of Interest with us something more I have said in answer to this in the addition to my former Treatise and this may serve likewise for an answer to his third Reason Fourthly he saith That which I must prove to make good my Assertion is that any Country in the World from a poor and low condition while Interest was at 6 per Cent was made rich by bringing it to 4 per Cent or 3 per Cent by a Law I answer If the instance of Holland and Italy were not sufficient to satisfie him in this point yet that having proved which he cannot deny that our own Kingdom hath been enriched consequently constantly and proportionably to and after our several Abatements of Interest by Law from an unlimitted rate to 10 from 10 to â— and from 8 to 6 per Cent I think it may rationally be concluded that another Abatement of Interest in England would cause a further encrease of
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
Answer to the aforesaid Question wherein want of Charity is assigned for another cause why the Poor are now so much neglected I think it is a scandalous ungrounded Accusation of our Contemporaries except in relation to Building of Churches which I confess this Generation is not so prophense to as former have been for most that I converss with are not so much troubled to part with their Money as how to place it that it may do good and not hurt to the Kingdom For if they give to the Beggars in the Streets or at their Doors they fear they may do hurt by encouraging that Lazy Unprofitable kind of Life and if they give more then their Proportions in their respective Parishes that they say is but giving to the Rich for the Poor are not set on Work thereby nor have the more given them but only their Rich Neighbours pay the less And for what was given in Churches to the visited Poor and to such as were impoverished by the Fire we have heard of so many and great Abuses of that kind of Charity that most Men are under sad discouragements in relation thereunto I write not this to divert any Man from Works of Charity of any kind He that gives to any in Want does well but he that gives to Employ and Educate the Poor so as to render them useful to the Kingdom in my judgment does better And here by the way not to leave Men at a loss how to dispose of what God shall incline their Hearts to give for the Benefit of the Poor I think it not Impertinent to propose the Hospitals of this City and Poor Labouring People that have many Children and make a hard shift to sustain them by their Industery whereof there are multitudes in the out Parts of this City as the best Objects of Charity at present But to return to my purpose viz. to prove that the want of Charity likewise that is now and always hath been in relation to the Poor proceeds from a defect in our Laws Ask any Charitable minded Man as he goes along the Streets of London viewing the Poor viz. Boyes Girles Men and Women of all Ages and many in good Health c. why he and others do not take care for the setting those poor Creatures to Work Will he not readily answer that he wisheth heartily it could be done though it cost him a great part of his Estate but he is but one Man and can do nothing towards it giving them Money as hath bâ—en said being but to bring â—hem into a liking and continuance in that way The second Question then is Question 2. Wherein lies the defect of our present Laws relatiâ—g to the Poor I answer that there may be many but I shall here take notice of one only which I think to be Fundamental and which until altered the Poor in England can never be well Provided for or Employed and that when the said fundamental Error is well amended it is almost impossible they should lack either Work or Maintenance The said radical Error I esteem to be the leaving it to the care of every Parish to Maintain their own Poor only upon which follows the shifting off sending or whiping back the poor Wanâ—erers to the Place of their Birth or laâ—t Abode the practice whereof I have seen many years in London to signifie as much as ever it will which is just nothing of good to the Kingdom in general or the Poor thereof though it be sometimes by accident to some of them a Punishment without effect I say without effect because it reforms not the Party nor desposeth the minds of others to Obedience which are the true ends of all Punishment As for instance a poor idle Person that will not Work or that no Body will Employ in the Country comes up to London to set up the Trade of Begging such a person probably may Begg up and down the Streets seven years it may be seven and twenty before any Body asketh why she doth so and if at length she hath the ill hap in some Parish to meet with a more vigilant Beadle then one of twenty of them are all he does is but to lead her the length of five or six Houses into another Parish and then concludes as his Masters the Parishioners do that he hath done the part of a most diligent Officer But suppose he should yet go further to the end of his Line which is the end of the Law and the perfect Execution of his Office that is suppose he should carry this poor wretch to a Iustice of the Peace and he should order the Delinquent to be Whipt and sent from Parish to Parish to the place of her Birth or last Abode which not one Iustice of twenty through pitty or other cause will do even this is a great charge upon the Country and yet the business of the Nation it self wholly undone â— for no sooner doth the Delinquent arrive at the place assigned but for Shame or Idleness she presently deserts it and wanders dirâ—ctly back or some other way hoping for better Fortune whilst the Parish to which she is sent knowing her a Lazy and perhaps a worse qualited person is as willing to be rid of her as she is to be gone from thence If it be here retorted upon me that by my own confession much of this mischief happens by the non or ill Execution of the Laws I say better Execution then you have seen you must not expect and there was never a good Law made that was not well executed the fault of the Law causing a failure of execution iâ— being natural to all Men to use the remedy next at hand and rest satisfied with shifting the Evil from their own Doors which in regard they can so easily do by threatning or thrusting a poor Body out of the verge of their own Parish it is unreasonable and vain to hopâ— that ever it will be otherwise For the Laws against Inmates and empowering the Parishioners to take Security before they suffer any poor Person to Inhabit amongst them it may be they were prudent constitutions at the times they were made and before England was a place of Trade and may be so still in some Countries but I am sure in Cities and great Towns of Trade they are altogether improper and contrary to the practice of other Cities and Trading Towns abroad The Riches of a City as of a Nation consisting in the multitude of Inhabitants and if so you must allow Inmates or have a City of Cottages And if a right course be taken for the Sustentation of the Poor and setting them on Work you need invent no Stratagems to keep them out but rather to bring them in For the resort of Poor to a City or Nation well managed is in effect the conflâ—x of Riches to that City or Nation and therefore the subtil Dutch receive and relieve or employ all that come to them not enquiring
to my knowledge with very good intents and strenuons endeavours but all that ever I heard of proved vain and ineffectual as I fear will that of Clerken-Well except that single instance of the Town of Dorchester which yet signifies nothing in relation to the Kingdom in general because all other places cannot do the like nor doth the Town of Dorchester entertain any but their own Poor only and Whip away all others whereas that which I design is to propose such a Foundation as shall be large wise honest and rich enough to maintain and employ all Poor that come within the Pale of their Communication without enquiring where they were Born or last Inhabited Which I dare affirm with Humility that nothing but a National or at least such a Provincial Purse can so well do nor any persons in this Kingdom but such only as shall be pickt out by popular Election for the reason before alledged viz. That in my opinion three fourths at least of the Stock must issue from the Charity of the people as I doubt not but it will to a greater proportion if they be satisfied in the Managers thereof But if otherwise not the fortieth I might say not the hundredth part I propose the Majority of the said Fathers of the Poor to be Citizens though I am none my self because I think a great share of the Money to be employed must and will come from them if ever the Work be well done as also because their Habitations are nearest the Center of their Business and they best acquainted with all affairs of this nature by their experience in the Government of the Hospitals Earnestly to desire and endeavour that the Poor of England should be better provided for and employed is a work that was much studdied by my deceased Father and therefore though I be as ready to confess as any shall be to charge me with Disability to propose a Model of Laws for this great Affair yet I hope the more Ingenuous will pardon me for endeavouring to give aim towards it since it is so much my Duty which in this particular I shall be careful to perform though I may be too remise in others as shall appear by more visible and apparent demonstrations if ever this design or any other that is like to effect what is desired succeed Now I have adventured thus far I shall proceed to publish my Thoughts and Observations concerning some other things that have relation to Trade which I do without any purpose or design save only to give occasion to my Country-men to be Discoursing and Meditating upon those things which have a tendancy to publick Good from whence though my Suggestions should be mistakes probably some good effect may ensue and therefore the Ingenuous I know though they may differ from me will not blame me for the attempt CHAP. III. Concerning Companies of Merchants COmpanies of Merchants are of two sorts viz. Companies in joynt Stock such as the East-India-Company the Morea-Company which is a Branch of the Turkey-Company and the Greenland-Company which is a Branch of the Muscovia-Company the other sort are Companies who trade not by a joynt Stock but only are under a Government and Regulation such are the Hambrough-Company the Turkey-Company the Eastland-Company the Muscovia-Company It hath for many Years been a moote case whether any Encorporating of Merchants be for publik Good or not For my own part I am of Opinion That for Countries with which his Majesty hath no Allieance nor can have any by reason of their distance or Barbarity or non-Communication with the Princes of Christendom c. where there is a necessity of Maintaining Forces and Forts such as East-India and Guinia Companies of Merchants are absolute necessary 2. It seems evident to me that the greatest part of these â—wo Trades ought for publick Good to be managed â—y joynt Stock 3. It 's questionable to me whether any other Company of Merchants are for publick good or hurt 4. I conclude however that all restrictions of Trade are naught and consequently that no Company whatsoever whether they Trade in a joynt Stock or under Regulation can be for publick Good except it may be easie for all or any of his Majesty's Subjects to be admitted into all or any of the said Companies at any time for a very inconsiderable Fine and that if the Fine exceed 20 l. including all Charges of admission it is too much and that for these Reasons 1. Because the Dutch who thrive best by Trade and have the surest rules to thrive by admit not only any of their own People but even Jews and all kind of Aliens to be Free of any of their Societies of Merchants or any of their Cities or Towns Corporate 2. Nothing in the World can enable us to coape with the Dutch in any Trade but encrease of Hands and Stock which a general admission will do many Hands and much Stock being as necessary to the Prosperity of any Trade as Men and Money to warfare 3. There is no pretence of any good to the Nation by Companies but only Order and Regulation of Trade and if that be preserved which the admission of all that will come in and submit to the Regulation will not prejudice all the good to the Nation that can be hoped for by Companies is obtained 4. The Eastland besides our Native Commodities spend great quantities of Italian Spanish Portugal and French Commodities viz. Oyle Wine Fruit Sugar Succads Shoomack c. Now in regard our East-Country Merchants of England are few compared with the Dutch and intend principally that one Trade out and home and consequently are not so conversant in the aforesaid Commodities nor forward to adventure upon them and seeing that by the Companies Charter our Italian Spanish Portugal and French Merchants who understand those Commodities perfectly well are excluded those Trades or at least if the Company will give them leave to send out those Goods are not permitted to bring in the Returns it follows that the Dutch must supply Denmark Sweeden and all parts of the Baltique with most of those Commodities and so it is in fact 5. The Dutch who have no Eastland-Companies yet have ten times the Trade to the Eastern parts as we have and for Italy Spain and Portugal where we have no Companies we have yet left full as much if not more Trade then the Dutch And for Russia and Greenland where we have Companies and I think Establisht by Act or Acts of Parliament our Trade is in effect wholly lost while the Dutch have without Companies encreased theirs to above forty times the the Bulk of what the residue of ours now is From whence may be inferred 1. That restrained limitted Companies are not alone sufficient to preserve and encrease a Trade 2. That limitted Companies though Established by Act of Parliament may loâ—se a Trade 3. That Trade may be carried on to any part of Christendom and encreased without Companies 4.
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
Ireland advantagious by encrease of Trade and Shiping and consequently the power of this Kingdom Object 2. The second Ojection to part of the Act of Navigation is usually made by the Eastland and Norway Merchants who affirm that in effect their Trade is much declined since the passing the Act of Navigation and the Danes Sweeds Holsteners and all Easterlings who by the said Act may Import Timbâ—r and other Eastern Commodities have encreased in the number of their Shiping imployed in this Trade since our Act of Navigation at least two third parts and the English have proportionably declined in the number of theirs imployed in that Trade I answer That I believe the matter of Fact asserted is true as well as the cause assigned viz. the Act of Navigation and yet this should not make us out of love with that excellent Law rather let it put us upon contriving the Amendment of this seeming Defect or Inconvenience the Cure whereof I hope upon mature consideration will not be found difficult for which I humbly propound to the Wisdom of Parliament viz. That a Law be made to impose a Custom of at least 50 l. per Cent on all Eastland Commodities Timber Boards Pipe-Staves and Salt imported into England and Ireland upon any Ships but English built Ships or at least such only as are sailed with an English Master and at least three fourths English Marriners And that for these Reasons Reas. First If this be not done the Danes Sweedes and Easterlings will certainly in a few Years carry the whole Trade by reason of the difference of the charge of building a Ship fit for that Trade there or here viz. a Fly-boat of 300 Tuns new built and set to Sea for such a Voyage may cost there 13 or 1400 l. which here would cost from 22 to 2400 l. which is so vast a disproportion that it is impossible for an English man to coape with a Dane in that Navigation under such a discouragement to ballance which there is nothing but the Strangers duty which the Dane now pays which may come to 5 or 6 l per Ship per Voyage at most one with another which is incompitable with the difference of Price between the first cost of the Ships in either Nation And this is so evident to those who are conversant in those Trades that besides the decrease of our Shiping and encrease of theirs that hath already happened ours in probability had been wholly beaten out of the Trade and only Danes and Easterlings freighted had we been necessitated to build English Ships and had not been recruited on moderate Prices by Fly-boats being Ships proper for this Trade taken in the late Dutch War and by a further supply of Scotch Prizes likewise through his Majesties permission and indulgence Reas. 2. Because the number of Strangers Ships imployed in the aforesaid Trade yearly I estimtae to be about two hundred Sail which if such a Law were made must unavoidably be all excluded and the Employment fall wholly into English Hands which would be an excellent Nursery and give constant Maintenance to a brave number of English Sea-men more then we can or do employ at present Reas. 3. The Act of Navigation is now of seventeen or eighteen Years standing in England and yet in all these Years not one English Ship hath been built fit for this Trade the reason whereof is that before mentioned viz. that it is cheaper freighting of Danes and Easterlins and it being so and all men naturally led by their Profit it seems to me in vain to expect that ever this Law will procure the building of one English Ship fit for that employment till those Strangers are excluded this Trade for England and much more improbable it is that any should now be built than it was formerly when the Act was first made because Timber is now at almost double the price in England it was then The consequence whereof is That if timely Provision be not made by some additional Law when our old Stock of Flemish Prizes is worn out as many of them are already we shall have very few or no Ships in this Trade The Objections which I have heard made to this Proposition are viz. Object 1. If such an Imposition be laid on those gross Commodities imported by Strangers Ships that will amount to the excluding all Strangers from this Trade we shall want Ships in England to carry on the Trade and so the Commodity will not be had or else will come very dear to us I answer â—f the Commodity should be somewhat dearer for the present it would be no loss to the Nation in general because all Freight would be paid to English men whereas the freight paid to Strangers which upon thâ—se Commodities is commonly as much or more then the value of Goods is all clear loss to the Nation 2 dly If there should be a present want of Shiping and the Parliament shall please to enjoyn us to build English Ships for this Trade This extraordinary good Effect will follow viz. It will engage us to do that we never yet did viz. To fall to building of Fly-boats gâ—eat Ships of burthen of no force and small charge in sailing which would be the most profitable undertaking that ever English men were engaged in and that which is absolutely necessary to be don if ever we intend to board the Dutch in their Trade and Navigation these Fly-boats being the Milch-Cows of â—olland from which they have suckâ—d manifoldlâ— greater Profit than from all their Ships of force though both I know are necessary But if at first the Parliament shall think fit to enjoyn us only to Ships sailed with an Enlish Master and three fourths English Marriners the Danes and Easterlins being by this means put out of so great an Employment for their Shiping we shall buy Ships proper for this Trade on easie terms of them perhaps for half their cost which under value in purchase will be a present clear profit to England Object 2. If this be done in England may not other Princes account it hard and unreasonable and consequently Retaliate the like upon us To answer this Objection its necesary to enquire what Kingdom and Counâ—ry will be concerned in this Law 1 st Then Italy Spain and Portugal will be wholly unconcerned 2 dly So will France who if they were concerned can take no offence while they lay an Imposition of 50 or 60 per Cent upon our Drapery 3 dly The Dutch and Hamburgers would not by such additional Law be more excluded then now they are and the latter would have an advantage by it in case the Danes should as it may be supposed they will lay a Tax upon our Shiping there for the consequence thereof would be that much of those kind of Commodities we should fetch from Hambrough where they are plentifully to be had though at a little dearer Rate and yet not so dear but that the Dutch fetch Yearly thence 350
or 400 Ships loading of Timber and other wooden Commodities 4 thly The Sweedes would have an apparent benefit by it by turning a great part of the Stream of our Trade for those Commodities to Gottenborrow and divers other parts of Sweeden that are lately opened and now opening where very large quantities of Timber Masts and Boards likewise may be had though some small matter dearer than in Norway Besides if the Sweedes should expect no advantage but rather loss by such amendment of our own Laws they have no reason to be angry because they have lately made so many Laws for encouragement of their own Shiping and Navigation and consâ—quently discouragement of ours that do in effect amount to a prohibition of the English from sending their own Manufactures to Sweeden in English Shiping insomuch that the English Merchants when Sweedish Shiping doth not present are forced many times to send their Goods to Elsâ—nore to lie there till a Sweedish Ship come by to put them aboard of and pay their Factoridge and other charges becausâ— if they should send them on English Ships the Duties are so high in Sweeden that it is impossible for them to make their first cost of them 5 thly The Easterlins or Hans-Towns though they were excluded this Trade for England with their Shiping whereof they have little the greatest share being carried away by the Danes would be gainers by the encrease of our Trade with them for Boards Timber Spruce Deals c. at Dantzick Quinsborough and other places which would be very considerable in case the King of Denmark should impose any considerable extraordinary Tribute on our Shiping which brings me to the third Objection Object 3. If this be done will not the King of Denmark lay a great Imposition upon all our Shiping that Trade into his Dominions and also upon our Drapery and other Native English Commodities I answer That whatever that King may do at first I am perswaded after he hath considered of it he will be moderate in his Impositions because he can hurt none but himself by making them great for as to Drapery and other English Goods his Country spends none worth speaking of and that charged with about 30 or 40 per Cent Custom already nine tenths of all the Timber and Boards we fetch from thence being in my opinion purchased with ready Dollars sent from England and Holland and if he should by a great Imposition totally discourage us from trading with his People we should lay out that Money with the Sweedes Hamburgers Danzickers and others where we may have sufficient supply while the Danes would be exceedingly burthened with the lying of their Goods upon their Hands there being in Norway great quantities of Goods viz. the course Hemlock Timber commonly brought from Larwick Tunsberry Sandyford Oskestrand Hollumstrand and many other parts which no Nation in the World trades with them for or will buy or use but the English only CHAP. V. Concerning Transferrance of Debts THE great Advantage that would accrue to this Kingdom by a Law for Transferring Bills of Debt from one person to another is sufficiently understood by most Men especially by Merchants The difficulty seems not to be so much in making of a Law to this purpose as reducing it to practice because we have been so long accustomed to buy and sell Goods by verbal Contracts only that Rich and Great Men for some time will be apt to think it a Diminution of their Reputation to have Bills under their Hands and Seals demanded of them for Goods bought and meaner Men will fear the loosing of their Customers by insisting upon having such Bills for what they sell which Inconveniency probably may be avoided and the Good hoped for fully attained if it be enacted That all and every Person and Persons Native and Foreign Bodies Politick and Corporate Being or Inhabiting within the Kingdom of England or Dominion of Wales who from and after the day of shall buy and receive any Wares Goods and Merchandize from any others shall immediately on receipt thereof in case ready Money be not paid for the same give unto him or them of whom such Goods Wares and Merchandize shall be bought or to his and their use a Bill or Writing obligatory under the Hand or Seal of him or them so buying the same which shall mention the quality of the said Goods and the neat sum af Money with the time or times of payment agreed upon 2. That all Persons c. may Transfer the said Bills under their Hands to any other by a short Assignation on the back side 3. That every such Assignee may re-assign toties quoties 4. After such Assignment it shall not be in the power of any Assignor to make void release or discharge the Debt 5. No Debts after Assignment to be liable to any Attachments Execution Statute or Commissioâ— of Bankrupt or other Demand as the Estate of him or them that Assigned the same 6. That each Assignment shall absolutely vest the Property into the Assignee to all intents and purposes 7. That such Assignments being received and Receipts or Discharges given for the same shall be deemed good Payment 8. That all Goods sold above the value of 10 l. after the 〈◊〉 day of 〈◊〉 for which no such Bill or Writing obligatory shall be given or tendred as aforesaid to the seller or sellers thereof or to his or their Vse shall be deemed and construed to all Intents and Purposeâ— in the Law as if the same had been contracted for to be paid in ready Money any Concession or verbal Agreement between the said Parties to the contrary notwithstanding This Clause I hope may be effectual to initiate us to a practice and observance of such a Law 6. That the first Assignment of any such Bill or Bills of Debt be to this or the like ffect I A. B. do engage and attest that the Debt within mentioned is a true Debt and no part of it paid to me or to my use or discharged by me and I do hereby Assign over the same to C. D. for his own Account 10. And that the second and all other after Assignations upon any such Bills shall be to this or the like effect viz. I A. B. do attest that no part of the within-mentioned Debt is paid to me or my use or discharged by me and I do hereby Transfer the same to C. D. The Objections I have met with to the making such a Law are viz. Object 1. This would be repugnant to our common Law and some Statutes viz. Maintenance Champarty Bankrupt c. 1. I answer not so repugnant as at first view it seems to be for though by our Laws at present Bonds and Bills cannot be Assigned Mortgages which are but another kind of Security for Money lent may be Assigned 2. If any Laws at present are repugnant to the common good of the Nation and if the making of such a new Law will effectually encrease
the useful Stock of the Nation at least one third part and greatly â—ase the course of Trade as I humbly conceive this will do I hope none will deny but it may consist with the Wisdom of Parliament to create new Laws 3. Most of our Statutes were made in times before we understood Trade in England and the same Policy and Laws that were good then and may yet be good for a Country destitute of Commerce may not be so fit for us now nor for any Nation so abounding with Trade as England doth at present Object 2. May not this occasion many Cheats and Law Suites Answ. 1. I answer no Experience manifests the contrary not only in other Kingdoms and Countries abroad where Transferrance of Bills of Debt is in use but even in our own where we have for many Ages had the Experience of Indorsment on Bills of Exchange and in this present Age of the passing of Gold-Smiths Notes from one Man to another which two practices are very like to the designed way of Transferring Bills of Debt and yet no considerable Cheats or Inconveniencies have arisen thereby Answ. 2. No Man can be Cheated except it be with his own consent and we commonly say caveat emptor no Man is to be forced to accept anothers Bill that himself doth not approve of and no Man will accept of another Mans Bill except he know him or until he hath used means to satisfie himself concerning him no more then he will sell his Goods to a Stranger unless he hath some reason to believe he is able to pay him Object 3. Will not such a Law as this be very troublesom especially in Fairs and Markets and also to Gentlemen and Ladies when they shall be forced for all Goods they buy above the value of 10 l. to give Bills under their Hand and Seals I answer this Law will not at all Incomode Gentlemen as to what they Buy in Shops c. neither those that converse in Fairs and Markets for that which Gentlemen Buy in Shops c. and others in Fairs c. they either pay or promise ready Money or else say nothing of the time or payment which the Law understands to be the same with a promise of present pay so that if they give no Bills there is no penalty attends the neglect or refusal but only that the contract between the Buyer and Seller shall be presumed in the Law to be as if it were made for ready Money CHAP. VI. Concerning a Court Merchant I Have conceived great hope from the late most Prudent and Charitable Institution of that Iudicature for determination of Differences touching Houses Burned by the late Fire in London that this Kingdom will at length be blessed with a happy method for the speedy easie and cheap deciding of Differences between Merchants Masters of Ships and Seamen c. by some Court or Courts of Merchants like those which are established in most of the great Cities and Towns in France Holland and other places the want whereof in England is and hath ever been a great bar to the Progress and Grandure of the Trade of this Kingdom as for instance if Merchants happen to have differences with Masters and Owners of Ships upon Charter-parties or Accounts beyond Sea c. The Suite is commonly first commenced in the Admiralty Court where after tedious Attendance and vast Expences probably just before the Cause should come to Determination it is either removed into the Deligates where it may hang in suspence until the Plantiff and Defendant have empty purses and grey Heads or else because most Contracts for Martain Affairs are made upon the Land and most Accidents happen in some Rivers or Harbours here or beyond Sea are not in alto mari The Defendant brings his Writ of Prohibition and removes the Cause into his Majesties Court of King's-Bench where after great Expences of Time and Money it is well if we can make our own Council being common Lawyers understand one half of our Case we being amongst them as in a Foreign Country our Language strange to them and theirs as strange to us after all no Attestations of Foreign Notaries nor other publick Instruments from beyond Sea being Evidences at Law and the Accounts depending consisting perhaps of an hundred or more several Articles which are as so many Issues at Law the Cause must come into the Chancery where after many Years tedious Travels to Westminster with black Boxes and green Bags when the Plantiff and Defendant have tired their Bodies distracted their Minds and consumed their Estates the Cause if ever it be ended is commonly by order of that Court referred to Merchants ending miserably where it might have had at first a happy issue if it had begun right From whence follows these National Inconveniencies 1. It is a vast Expence to the Persons concerned 2. It takes off Men from following their Callings to the Publick loss as well as the particular Damages of the concerned that time being lost to the Nation that is spent in Law-Suits 3. It makes Men after they have once attained indifferent Estates to leave Trading and for ease to turn Country-Gentlemen whereas great and experienced Men are the only Persons that must mate the Dutch in Trade if ever we do it 4. It is my opinion a great cause of the Prodigality Idleness and Injustice of many of our Masters of Ships in England and consequently a wonderful bar to the growth of our English Navigation who knowing that their Owners cannot legally eject them especially if the Master have a part of the Ship himself but that Remedy to the Owners will be worse then the Disease which occasions Masters to presume to do those things and be guilty of such neglects as naturally they would not if they stood more upon their good behaviour I could say much more of the Damage this Nation sustains by the want of a Law-Merchant but that is so evident to all Mens Experience that I shall not longer insist upon it but proceed humbly to propose some particulars which being duely considered may peradventure by wiser Heads be improved towards the cure of this evil viz. 1. That it be Enacted that there shall be erected within the City of London a standing Court-Merchant to consist of twelve able Merchants such as shall be chosen by the Livery Men of the said City in their common Hall at the time and in the manner herein after limitted and appointed 2. That the said twelve persons so to be Elected or any three or more of them sitting at the same time and place and not otherwise shall be accounted Iudiciary Merchants and Authorized to hear and determine all Differences and Demands whatsoever which have arisen and are not hitherto determined or may any ways arise between Merchants Trades-Men Artificers Masters and Owners of Ships Sea-Men Boat-Men and Freighters of Ships or any other Persons having relation to Merchandizing Trade or Shiping for or concerning any
in the out-parts of London Upon this point of Naturalization many men make a great doubt whether it be for publick good to permit the Iews to be Naturalized in common with other Strangers Those that are against their admission who for the most part are Merchants urge these Reasons 1. They say the Iews are a subtil People prying into all kind of Trades and thereby depriving the English Merchant of that Profit he would otherwise gain 2. They are a penurious People living miserably and therefore can and do afford to trade for less profit then the English to the prejudice of the English Merchant 3. They bring no Estates with them but set up with their Pens and Ink only and if after some few Years they thrive and grow rich they carry away their Riches with them to some other Country being a People that cannot mix with us which Riches being carried away is a publick loss to this Kingdom Those that are for the admission of the Iews say in answer to the aforesaid Reasons viz. 1 st The subtiller the Iews are and the more Trades they pry into while they live here the more they are like to encrease Trade and the more they do that the better it is for the Kingdom in general though the worse for the English Merchant who comparitively to the rest of the People of England is not one of a thousand 2 dly The thriftier they live the better Example to our people there being nothing in the World more conducing to enrich a Kingdom then thriftiness 3 dly It is denyed that they bring over nothing with them for many have brought hither very good Estates and hundreds more would do the like and settle here for their Lives and their Posterities after them if they had the same Freedom and Security here as they have in Holland and Italy where the grand Duke of Tuscanâ—y and other Princes allow them not only perfect Liberty and Security but give them the priviledge of making Laws among themselves and that they would reside with us is proved from the known Principles of Nature viz. Principle 1. All men by Nature are alike as I have before demonstrated and Mr Hobbs hath truly asserted how Erroneous soever he may be in other things Princip 2. Fear is the cause of Hatred and hatred of separation from as well as evil Deeds to the Parties or Government hated when opportunity is offered This by the way shews the difference between a bare connivence at Dissenters in matters of Religion and a toleration by Law the former keeps them continually in Fear and consequently apt to Sedition and Rebellion when any probable occasion of success presents The latter disarms cunning ambitious minded men who wanting a popular discontented Party to work upon can effect little or nothing to the prejudice of the Government And this methinks discovers clearly the Cause why the Lutherans in Germany Protestants in France Greeks in Turkey and Sectaries in Holland are such quiet peaceable-minded-men while our Non-Conformists in England are said to be enclinable to Strife War and Bloodshed Take away the Cause and the Effect will cease While the Laws are in Force against men they think the Sword hangs over their Heads and are always in fear though the Execution be suspended not knowing how soon Councils or Counsellors Times or Persons may change it is only Perfect Love that casts out Fear and all men are in love with Liberty and Security It cannot be denyed that the industrious Bees have Stings though Drones have not yet Bees sting not except those that hurt them or disturb their Hives It is said the Iews cannot Intermarry with us and therefore it cannot be supposed they will reside long amongst us although they were treated never so kindly why not reside here as well as in Italy Poland or Holland they have now no Country of their own to go to and therefore that is their Country and must needs be so esteemed by them where they are best used and have the greatest Security CHAP. VIII Concerning Wool and Woollen Manufactures THat Wool is eminently the Foundation of the English Riches I have not heard denyed by any and that therefore all possible means ought to be used to keep it within our own Kingdom is generally confessed and to this purpose most of our modern Parliaments have strenuously endeavoured the contriving of severe Laws to prevent its Exportation and the last Act made it Felony to Ship out Wool Woolfels c. Notwithstanding which we see that English and Irish Wool goes over so plentifully that it is within a very small matter as cheap in Holland as in England The means to prevent this Evil by additional Penal Laws and alterations of some of those now in being were long under debate by his Majesties command in the Couâ—cil of Trade who according to their duty took great pains therein and since I have been informed the same things were under consideration in Parliament so that I doubt not but in due time we shall see some more effectual Laws enacted to this purpose as well in relation to Ireland from whence the greatest of this mischief proceeds as in England then ever yet have been yet I do utterly despair of ever seeing this Disease perfectly cured till the Causes thereof be removed which I take to be 1st Heighth of Interest in England which an Abatement by Law to 4 per Cent would cure 2dly Want of Hands which an Act of Naturalization would cure 3dly Compulsion in matters of Religion which some relaxation of the Ecclesiastical Laws I hope would effectually cure For while our Neighbours through the cheap valuation of their Stocks can afford to trade and disburse their Monies for less profit then we as hath been I think sufficiently demonstrated by the fore-going Discourse and have more Hands to employ then we by reason of the large Immunities and Priviledges they give both to Natives and Foreigners there is no question but they will be able to give a better Price for our Wool than we can afford our selves and they that can give the best price for a Commodity shall never fail to have it by one means or other notwithstanding the opposition of any Laws or interposition of any Power by Sea or Land of such force subtilty and violence is the general course of Trade Object But some may say and take it as well from what I have writ elsewhere as from their own Observations Will not the well-making of our Woollen-Manufactures contribute much to the keeping of our Wool naturally within our own Kingdom I answer Doubtless it will have a great tendency thereunto but can never effect it till the aforesaid Radical Causes of this Disease be removed which brings me to the next Question viz. What will improve our Woollen-Manufactures in quality and quantity This is a very great Question and requires very deliberate and serious Consideration but I shall write my present Thoughts concerning it
truth in it was ingeniously and worthily started by him that first published it and much good hath accrued to the Kingdom by our Law-makers Noble men and Gentlemen resenting it yet if the difficulty of the Scrutiny whereby to reduce it into practice and the many Accidents that may accrue be seriously weighed it will appear too doubtful and uncertain as to our general Trade and in reference to particular Trades fallible and erroneous That it will not hold as to Foreign Trade in general appears 1. From the difficulty and impossibility of taking a true account as well of the quantity as of the value of Commodities Exported and Imported The general rule for this hath been the Custom-House-Books but that they cannot be in any measure certain will easily be granted for 1. As to the quantity if it be considered that many fine Commodities of small bulk and great value as Points Laces Ribands fine Lennen Silks Iewels c. are Imported by stealth that also in many out-Ports and Creeks of England Wales Commodities of bulk are both Imported and Exported often-times by indirect means that never are Registred besides also of what is entered there may be though not considerable in London yet in other parts much difference in the quantities and qualities 2. As to the value how shall the compute be made seeing the rates of the Customs are in no kind proportinable our own Commodities being some rated very low as Drapery Silk-Wares Haberdashery and all Manufactures of Iron Others high as Lead and Tin and Fish in English Shiping nothing and for Foreign Commodities Imported the rates are yet more unequal so that the value rated for the Customs cannot be a due measure Besides Foreign Commodities Imported by English Shiping should be valued only at their first Cost and Charges aboard and those by Foreign Shiping with the encrease of the home-ward Freight 2. From the many Accidents that fall out in Trade without the true knowledge whereof a right Ballance cannot be made as 1. Accidents that diminish the Stock sent out as losses at Sea bad Markets Bankrupt also Confiscations Seisures and Arrests which fall out often on several occasions Now if by any of these or such like the original Stock comes to be impaired and lessened the value of the Commodities Imported in return may be far less then the value of the Commodities Exported and yet may be the full product and so the Nation no Gainer though the Exports were more in value then the Imports 2. Accidents whereby the Stock sent out comes to be extraordinarily advanced in Sale abroad from whence it may fall out that the Commodities Imported in return may appear to be of a much greater value then the Commodities Exported and yet be no more then the real produce of them and so the Nation no loser but a Gainer thereby although the Imports exceeds the Exports And if the afore-cited Instances suffice not to prove the uncertainty in some cases of this Notion of the Ballance of Trade the following Examples of Ireland Virginia and Barbadoes are so pregnant to this case as I think will convince any Man For those three Countries do without doubt Export Annually a far greater value of the Commodities of their native growth and product then is Imported to them from hence or from any Foreign Country and yet they are not such great Gainers but conâ—inue Poor the true reason whereof as to Ireland is given by the most Ingenious Author of that Treatise of Taxes and Contributions Page 27. where he saith That a great part of Estates both real and personal in Ireland are owned by Absentees and such as draw over the Profits raised out of Ireland refunding nothing so as Ireland Exporting more then it Imports doth yet grow Poorer to a Paradox Here let me glaunce at my old Theme and desire the Reader to consider seriously whether it may not improperly be said of all Kingdoms and Countries where the Interest of Money runs higher then their Neighbours that a part of their Eâ—â—ates are owned by Absentees and consequently they shall be sure to be kept Poor whether their Importations or their Exportations exceed This likewise resolves a Question that was once put to me by an Honourable person concerning the County of Cornwell which notwithstanding the great quantity of Tin and Pilchards which Annually the Inhabitants are sending forth from their two Mines of Land and Sea yet that Country still remains in a poor condition The reason whereof to me seems clearly to be because a great part of the Stock imployed in the aforesaid great Trade is taken up at Interest and consequently owned by Londoners and other Absentees And though it may be hoped that this is not yet the case of England yet it is a demonstration that the notion of takeing the Ballance this way is not absolutely and in all places and under all circumstances without exception true good for in case the Trade of England should be carried on by Absentees then the supposition upon which this Notion is grounded viz. that when the Exports over Baâ—â—ance the Imports the Surplusage is returned into England in Bulloin will prove a mistake and the contrary will be true viz. that the Surplusage will be conveighed into Foreign parts to the places of the residence of such Absentees 2. The second thing I am to Illustrate is that this rule barely considered is fallible and erroneous as to particular and distinct Trades This will appear if it be considered that a true measure of any particular Trade as to the profit or loss of the Nation thereby cannot be taken by the consideration of such Trade in it self singlely but as it stands in reference and is subservient to the general Trade of the Kingdom for it may so fall out that there may be some places to which little of our English Manufactures are Exported and yet the Commodities we have from thence may be so necessary to the carrying on our Trade in general or some other particular Trades that without them the Nation would greatly decline and decay in Trade Now in this case if we should measure such a particular Trade by the aforesaid Notion of the Ballance we should find the Imports abundantly exceed the Exports and so be ready to conclude against such a Trade as destructive whereas notwithstanding it may in truth be a very necessary beneficial Trade and to the very great advantage of the Nation as for instance The Trade of Denmark and Norway the Imports from whence are certainly many times the value of our Native Commodities exported thither and yet it cannot be denied but that Trade is advantagious to the Kingdom not only because it gives or would give employment to two Hundred or three Hundred Sail of English Shiping if we did a little mend our Act of Navigation but principally because the Commodities imported from thence as Timber Pitch Deals and Tar are of such necessary use in
order to the building and supplying our Shiping that without them other Trades could not be carried on It will not be denied by the honourable East-India Company but they import much more Goods into England than they export that to purchase the same they carry out quantities of Gold Silver annually yet no man that understands any thing of the Trade of the World will affirm that England loseth by that Trade The Dutch with good reason esteem the trade of the East-Indies more profitable to them than are the Mines of Gold and Silver in America to the King of Spain and if the English Companies were vested by Act of Parliament with so much Authority as the Dutch have and thereby encouraged to drive as full a Trade thither as the Dutch do I doubt not but it would be so not so much to the private gain of the Members of that Company as the publick profit of this Kingdom in general however as it is it will not be difficult to prove that it is the most beneficial Trade this Nation drives at present For 1 st That trade constantly employes twenty five to thirty Sail of the most War-like Ships in England with Sixty to a Hundred Men in each Ship and may in two or three Years more employ a greater Number and in order to the carrying on that Trade that Company hath lately unconstrained given considerable Encouragements for the building of great Ships which hath had good effect 2 dly It supplies the Nation constantly and fully with that in this Age necessary material of Salt-Petre 3 dly It employs the Nation for its Consumption with Pepper Indico Calicoes and several useful Drugs near the value of 150000 l. to 180000 l. per Annum 4 thly It furnished us with Pepper Cowryes Long-Cloth and other Callicoes and painted Stuffs proper for the Trade of Turkey Italy Spain France and Guiny to the amount of 2 or 300000 l. per Annum most of which Trades we could not carry on with any considerable advantage but for those supplies and these Goods exported do produce in foreign parts to be returned to England six times the Treasure in Specie that the Company exports from hence Now if not only the aforesaid advantages be seriously considered but also what detriment the Nation would sustain if we were deprived of those supplies both in point of Strength and War-like Provisions in regard of Shiping and Salt-Petre but also in respect of the furtherance it gives to many other Trades before-mentioned it will easily appear that this Trade though its Imports exceeds its Exports is the most advantagious Trade to England and deserves all encouragement for were we to buy all our Pepper and Callicoes c. of the Dutch they would raise our Pepper which now standâ— the Nation but about 3 d. per pound in India to or near the proportion which they have advanced on Nutmegs Cloves and Mace which cost the Dutch not much more per pound in India than Pepper since they engrossed the Trade for those Commodities and the use of Callico in England would be supplied by foreign Linnen at greater Prices so that what may be secured from this Nation 's consumption would in probability cost them above 400000 l. per Annum more then now it doth and our foreign Trades for Italy Guiny c. would in part decay for want of the afore-said supplies There is another Notion concerning the Ballance of Trade which I think not impertinent here to take notice of viz. Some are of opinion that the way to know whether the Nation gets or loseth in the general by its fore-going Trade is to take an inspection into the course of the Exchange is generally above the intrinsick value or Par of the Coins of foreign Countries we not only lose by such Exchanges but the same is a demonstration that we lose by the general course of our foreign Trade and that we require more supply of Commodities from abroad than our exports in Goods do serve to purchase And certain it is that when once the Exchaâ—ge comes to be 5 or 6 per Cent above the true value of foreign Monies our Treasure would be carried out whatever Laws should be made to prevent it and on the contrary when the Exchange is generally below the true value of the foreign Coins it is an evidence that our Exports do in value exceed what we require from abroad And so if the Exchange comes to be 5 or 6 per Cent below the true value of the foreign Coins returns will be made for England in the Coins of foreign Countries Now that there is also a great deal of truth in this Notion is not to be denied and that the diligent observance and consideration of the course of the Exchange may be of use and very necessary in many respects and is a very ingeniuous Study for any that would dive into the mystâ—ries of Trade yet because this is likewise subject to vary on many accidents of Emergencies of State and War c. because there is no settled course of Exchange but to and from France Holland Flanders Hambrough Venice Legorn Genoa and that there are many other great and eminent Trades besides what are driven to those Countries this cannot afford a true and satisfactory solution to the present Question Thus having demonstrated that these Notions touching the Ballance of Trade though they are in their kind useful Notions are in some cases fallible and uncertain If any shall ask How shall we then come to be resolved of the matter in Question I answer first The best and most certain discovery to my apprehension is to be made fâ—om the encrease or diminution of our â—rade and Shiping in general for if our Trade and Shiping diminish whatever profit particular men may make the Nation undoubtedly loseth and on the contrary if our Trade and Shiping encrease how small or low soever the profits are to private men it is an infallible Indication that the Nation in general thrives for I dare affirm and that Catagorically in all parts of the whole World where-ever Trade is great and continues so and grows daily more great and encreaseth in Shiping and that for a succession not of a few Years but of Ages that Trade must be Nationally profitable As a Town where only a Fair is kept if every Year the number of People and Commodities do augment that Town however the Markets are will gain whereas if there comes still fewer and fewer Peâ—ple and Commodities that place will decline and decay Discoursing once with a Noble Lord concerning this measure or method of knowing the Ballance of our Trade or more plainly our general National gain or loss by Trade his Lordship was pleased to oppose by asking two very proper Questions viz. Quest. 1. Is there not a great similitude between the Affairs of a private Person and of a Nation the former being but a little Family and the latter a great Family I
answer Yes certainly there is Quest. 2. His Lordships second question was May not a private Merchant be or seem to be owner of much Shiping drive a great Trade receive and send out many Goods and yet decline and grow poorer notwithstanding all his tumbling and busseling I answer Yes certainly he may but this will soon appear either while he lives or at his Death and his great Trade will come to be but a small one or none at all But that man who drives a great Trade and is owner or employer of much Shiping and doth all his dayes continue and encrease in Trade and Shiping and his Son or Successor after him and after him his Grand Son c. this would be an indisputable Evidence that that Person or Family did thrive by their Trade for if they had not thriven their Trade would not have long continued muchless encreased This is the case of Nations and this through God's goodness is the case of England as bad as we are at present The reason of this is as evident as the first for where a great Trade is driven especially where much Shiping is employed whatever becomes of the poor Merchant that drives the Trade Multitudes of People will be certain gainers as his Majesty and his Officers of Custom besides Shipwrights Butchers Brewers Bakers Rope-makers Porters Sea-men Manufacturers Car-men Lighter-men and all other Artificers and People that depend on Trade and Shiping which indeed more or less the whole Kingdom doth But it may be said again If this encrease of Trade depend upon and proceed from our ordinary Importations for which our ready Money goes out it will impoverish us I answer In some cases it may be so and in some cases as I have already demonstrated it may be otherwise but that will best be known by the effects for if we are impoverished our general Trade and our Shiping will necessarily and visibly grow less and less and must rationally and unavoidably do so for that being impoverished we shall lose our Tools our Stock to drive a great Trade with whereas on the contrary if our Trade in the gross bulk of it though we may decline in some do still encrease especially our Shiping for a long tract of Years it is infallible proof of our thriving by our Trade and that we are still getting more Tools more Stock to trade with Some there are would limit this discovery to the encrease and dimunition of our Coin and Bulloin but because that is more secret and indiscernable it cannot I conceive afford so clear a demonstration as the other if any at all for that Money seems to vulgar Observers most plentiful when there is least occasion for it and on the contrary more scarce as the occasions for the employment thereof are more numerous and advantagious according to which we should seem to have most Money when we have the least Trade and yet then certainly the Nation gets least this is apparent to those that will observe that when the East-India-Company have a great sale to make then Money is generally found to be scarce in London not that is so in reality more then at other times but because that extraordinary occasion engageth men to employ quantities which they provide and lay aside for that purpose from the same reason it is that a high rate of Usury makes Money seems scarce because every man then as soon as he can make up a small sum sends it into the Goldsmiths whereof more is said before in the Preface to this discourse I answer that though the Study of the Ballance of Trade in this last mentioned respect be a Study very Ingenious and Commendable yet in my poor opinion the enquiry whether we get or lose doth not so much deserve our greatest pains and care as how we may be sure to get the former being of no use but in order to the latter and this therefore leads to the Consideration of the other Ballance of Trade as most usefull and necessary viz. What is to be done in England to improve the Trade thereof to such a degree as to equalize or over-ballance our Neighbours in our National Profit by our Foreign Trade I answer this is a large and extensive Question and requires to resolve it the greatest Skill and Experience both in affairs of State and Trade and therefore I have only made an Essay towards it which the whole Discourse fore-going is and therefore I hope the Reader will accept of my good Affection to my Country herein though he meet not with that full satisfaction he might expect and wish foâ— The method I propose for the further answering of this great Question is following my own principle that if Trade be great and much English Shiping employed it will be good for the Nation in general whatever it may be for private Merchants First to lay down some general Rules for the enlargement of Trade in England and then some ways of reducing those general Rules into Use and Practice the general Rules for the enlargement of Trade are not many 1. Encrease Hands in Trade 2. Encrease Stock in Trade 3. Make Trade easie and ncessary i. e. make it our Interest to Trade 4. Make it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us 1. To encrease Hands in Trades the following Particulars would much contribute 1st An Act of Naturalization before-mentioned 2. Some enlargement of the Foundations of Societies of Merchants as before-limitted 3. A more easie and free admission of Inhabitants Merchants and Artificers to be Burgers of our Cities and Bouroughs 4. Not to hinder any Man from keeping as many Servants as he can nor Loomes working-Tooles c. 5. To abate the Interest of Money as afore-said 6. Some Relaxation of the Ecclesiastical Laws would keep our own People at Home and invite others to us and consequently encrease the number of our Hands in Trade 7. Employ Educate and Relieve the Poor so as they may neither be Idle nor perish for Want or leave the Land by Reason of their Miseries 8. Giving such Honour and Perferment to Merchants in the Affairs of the Nation as their Experience Education hath fitted them for will doubtless encrease their number Te encrease our Stock in Trade 1. All the six fore-going particulars will very much contribute especially the Abatement of Interest because bringing in of more Stock for that the persons engaged in Trade must necessarily bring in their Stocks with them if they have any and for Artiâ—icers that have none their Labour in consequence will generate Stock to the Nation and encrease that we have already 2. A Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debt as before-mentioned will much and speedily augment our useful Stock 3. The restraining of the Trades of our own Plantations wholly to England and preventing all kind of abuses of that part of the Acts of Trade and Navigation would tend much to the encrease of our Stock in Trade 4. The securing
of that great Trade for Shiping imployed for Importation of Timber Masts Boards and Pipes-Staves into these three Kingdoms to be done only by his Majestie 's Subjects and not by any Strangers would in a very few Years much encrease the Stock of England 5. Prevention of the Exportation of our Wool and encourageing our Woollen Manufactures 6. Encourage and encrease our Fishing Trades which how that is only to be done is before-mentioned 7. To set up the Linnen rather then the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland and give extraordinary encouragement and priviledges to the first Undertakers 8. To encourage those Trades most that vent most of our Manufactures or supply 〈◊〉 with Materials to be further Manufactured in England or else such as furnish us with Commodities for the carrying on of other Trades as the East-India-Company doth eminently 9. If his Majesties Navy Debts c. were all paid and if for the future all his Majesties Payments were made with punctuality it would much encrease the Stock of this Nation in Trade such fatal stops being to the Body politick like great obstructions of the Liver and Spleen to the Body Natural which not only procure ill Habits but sometimes desperate and accute Diseases as well as Cronical 10. Lessening the number of our Holly-Days would encrease the days of our Working and Working more would make us Richer Riches and Stock are the same 11. If our Affairs would permit that the full Custom should be paid back c. not the half only for all Foreign Goods brought hither and afterwards Exported as I am credibly informed the French King hath very lately done in all the parts of his Dominions it would wonderfully encrease our Navigation and in consequence our People as well as our Domestick and Foreign Trade and in my opinion be much better for the Nation in general then particular Free Ports And if only such Foreign Goods as should be Loaden outwards on English Shiping had the benefit of this Indulgence it would be much the more Effications as to our main concern viz. the encrease and improvement of our English Navigation 3 d. General Rule To make Trade easie and necessary and thereby to make it our Interest to Trade 1. To make Trade easie a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debt will do much as before 2. To make Trade easie a Court-Merchant will do much as before in that Chapter 3. Taking of the Burthen of Trade whereof one is the great trouble and delays in receiving back our Impost at the Custom-House and the great Charge of Fees to Searchers Waitors c. 4. Reducing Interest of Money to 4 per cent will make Trade easie to the Borrowers and to make it necessary it is the Onum Magnum as before is said for while we that are Merchants can so easily turn Gentlemen by buying Lands for less then twenty Years purchase let no Man expect that if we thrive we will drudge all our days in Trade or if we would to be sure our Sons will not 5. To make Trade easie and Wool rise which is always aimed at by our Parliaments Nothing will conduce so much in times of War as to appoint sufficient regular Convoys to Merchant Ships which sometimes have been forced to lie full loaden with Draperies five or six Months in the River for want of Convoys with the Interest of 6 per Cent. eating upon them while likewise their Cloth by long lying in the Ships is much damnified and Merchants cannot buy more of the Clothiers until their Goods are at their selling Ports which when there arrived Merchants can value themselves upon them by Exchange and begin a fresh Investment in England 6. To make Trade easie some abatement of that rigorous way of pressing Sea-men which sometimes sweeps away the Officers as well as common men would much conduce it being an insuperable discouragement to Merchants to have their â—hips sometimes manned and unmanned two or three times in a Voyage before they can get them clear into the Sea which is not so in Holland 4 th General Rule To make it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us 1. Being in a good condition of Strength at Home in reference to the Navy and all other kind of Military preparations for Defence and Offence upon just occasion given will render us Wise and Honourable in the esteem of other Nations and consequently oblige them not only to admit us the Freedom of Trade with them but the better terms for and countenance in the course of our Trade 2. To make it the Interest of others to Trade with us we must be sure to furnish them at as cheap or cheaper Rates then any other Nation can or doth and this I affirm can never be done without subduing Vsury especially and doing those other things before-mentioned that will conduce to the encrease of our Hands and Stock for our being in a condition to sell our Neighbours cheaper then others must be when it is principally an effect of many Hands and much Stock Objection But it may be said How shall we profit by this Rule of selling cheap to Foreigners whereas the contrary is said to be the way to Riches viz. to sell dear and buy cheap Answ. I answer in a strict sence it may be so for the private Merchant but in this discourse I am designing how our publick National Trade may be so managed that other Nations who are in Competition with us for the same may not wrest it from us but that ours may continue and encrease to the diminution of theirs if there were no others to wage with us we might as the Proverb saith make our own Markets but as the case now stands that all the World are striving to engross all the Trade they can that other Proverb is very true and applicable All Covet All Lose 3. The well contrivement and management of Foreign Treaties may very much contribute to the making it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us at least to the convincing of Foreign Princes wherein and how it is their Interest to Trade with us 4. Publick Iustice and Honesty will make it the Interest of other Nations to Trade with us that is that when any Commodities pass under a publick common Seal which is in a kind the publick Faith of the Nation they may be exact in length breadth and nature according to what they ought to be by their Seals The like care ought to be taken for the true packing of our Herrings and Pilchards formerly mentioned 5. If we would engage other Nations to Trade with us we must receive from them the Fruits and Commodities of their Countries as well as send them ours but it s our Interest by Example and other means not distastful above all kinds of Commodities to prevent as much as may be the Importation of Foreign Manufactures 6. The Venetians being a People that take from us very little of our Manufactures have prohibited our
English Cloth and from whose Territories we receive great quantities of Currance purchased with our ready Money It seems to me advantagious for England that that Importation as well as the Importation of wrought-Glasse drinking-Glasses and other Manufactures from thence should be discouraged it being supposed we can now make them as well our selves in England The Trade for Cannary-Wines I take to be a most pernitious Trade to England because those Islands consume very little of our Manufactures Fish or other English Commodities neither do they furnish us with any Commodities to be further Manufactured here or re-Exported the Wines we bring from thence being for the most part purchased with ready Money so that to my apprehension something is necessary to be done to compel those Islanders to spend more of our English Commodities and to sell their Wines cheaper which every Year they advance in Price or else to lessen the Consumption of them in England I have in this last Discourse of the Ballance of Trade as well as in my former confined my self to write only general Heads and Principles that 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-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-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-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
by their direct Trade to and from Old England Our Yearly Exportations of English Manufactures Mault and other Goods from hence thither amounting in my opinion to ten times the value of what is Imported from thence which Calculation I do not make at randum but upon mature Consideration and peradventure upon as much Experience in this very Trade as any other person will pretend to and therefore when ever a Reformation of our Correspondency in Trade with that people shall be thought on it will in my poor Judgment require great Tenderness very serious Circumspection FINIS A Small TREATISE Against USURY TO leave the proofs of the unlawfulness of Usury to Divines wherein a number as well Protestants as Papists have learnedly Written here is only set down some Arguments to shew how great the hurt is it doth to this Kingdom which hath no Gold nor Silver Mines but plenty of Commodities and many and great Advantages of Trade to which the high rate of Usury is a great prejudice and decay For proof how much the high rate of Usury decays Trade we see that generally all Merchants when they have gotten any great Wealth leave Trading and fall to Usury the gain thereof being so easie certain and great whereas in other Countries where Usury is at a lower rate and thereby Lands dearer to purchase they continue Merchants from Generation to Generation to inrich themselves and the State Neither are they rich Trades-Men only that give over Trading but a number of Beginners are undone or discouraged by the high rate of Usury their Industry serving but to Enrich others and Begger themselves We also see many Trades themselves much decayed because they will not afford so great a gain as Ten in the Hundred whereas if the rate of Usury were not higher here then in other Countries they had still subsisted and flourished and perhaps with as much Advantage to the Publick as those that do bring more to the private Adventurers Yet are not those the greatest hinderances the high rate of Money brings to Trade our greatest disadvantage is that other Nations especially our Industrious Neighbours the Dutch are therein Wiser then we For with them and so in most Countries with whom we hold Commerce there is not any Use for Money tollerated above the rate of Six in the Hundred Whereby it must of necessity come to pass though they have no other Advantages of Industry and Frugality that they must out-Trade us for if they make return of ten per Cent they almost double the Use allowed and so make a very gainful Trade But with us where ten in the Hundred is so currant it is otherwise for if we make not above ten we are loosers and consequently the same Trade being with them and us equally good for the Publick is to the private Adventurers lossful with us with them very gainful And where the good of Publick and private Mens go not together the Publick is seldom greatly advanced And as they out-Trade so they may afford to under-sell us in the Fruits of the Earth which are equally natural to our and their Lands as to our great shame we see our Neighbours the Dutch do even in our own Country For in most Commodities the Earth brings forth the Stock imployed in Planting and managing of them makes a great in many the greatest part of their Price and consequently their Stock with them being rated at six in the Hundred they may with great Gain under-sell us our Stock with us being rated at ten And as they may out-Trade us and under-sell us so are all Contributions to the War works of Piety and Glory of the State cheaper to them then to us For the Use for Money going with us near double the rate it doth in other Countries the giving the same Sum must needs be double the charge to us it is to them Amongst other things which the King with so much Wisdom delivered to the House of Parliament he committed to their Consideration the Ballancing of Trade and Commerce wherein there is nothing of greater consequence then the rate of Usury which holds no Proportion with us and other Nations to our disadvantage as by Experience we see and feel Neither is the high rate of Usury less hurtful to Commerce within the Land the Gain by Usury being so easie certain and extream great as they are not only Merchants and Trades-men but Landed-men Farmers and men of Profession that grow Lazy in their Professions and become Usurers for the rate of Usury is the measure by which all men Trade Purchase Build Plant or any other ways bargain It hath been the Wisdom and Care of former Parliaments to provide for the preservation of Wood and Timber for which there is nothing more available then the calling down of the high rate of Usury for as the rate of Money now goeth no man can let his Timber stand nor his Wood grow to such years growth as is best for the Common-Wealth but it will be very lossfull to him The stock of the Woods after they are worth forty or fifty Shillings the Acre growing faster at ten in the Hundred then the Woods themselves do And for Shipping which is the strength and safety of thâ—s Land I have heard divers Merchants of good Credit say that if they would Build a Ship and let it to any other to imploy they cannot make of their Money that way counting all charges tear and wear above ten or twelve in the Hundred which can be no gainful Trade Money it self going at ten in the Hundred But in the Low-Countries where Money goeth at six the Building of Ships and Hiring them to others is a gainful Trade and so the Stock of rich Men and the Industry of Beginners are well joyned for the Publick And yet that which is above all the rest the greatest Sin against the Land is that it makes the Land it self of small value nearer the rate of new-found Lands than of any other Country where Laws Government and Peace have so long flourished for the high rate of Usury makes Land sell so cheap and the cheap sale of Land is the cause Men seek no more by Industry and Cost to improve them And this is plain both by Example and Demonstration For we see in other Countries where the Use of Money is of a low rate Lands are generally sold for thirty forty in some for fifty Years Purchase And we know by the rule of Bargaining that if the rate of Use were not greater here then in other Countries Lands were then as good a penny worth at twenty Years Purchase as they are now at sixteen For Lands being the best Assurance and securest Inheritance will still bear a rate above Money Now if Lands were at thirty Years Purchase or near it there were no so cheap Purchase as the Amendment of our own Lands for it would be much cheaper to make one Acre of Land now worth five Shillings by
was our Law against Exportation of Bullion lately repealed 5thly Such is the use of the Law at present which takes not only a Custom but 15 s. per Tun Excise on strong Beer exported being the same Rate it pays when spent at home contrary to the practice of all trading Countries 6thly Such are our Laws which charge Sea-Coals or any of our native Provisions exported with Custom viz. Beef Pork Bread Beer c. for which I think in prudence the Door should be opened wide to let them out 7thly Of the like nature is our Law imposing a great duty upon our Horses Mares and Nags exported 8. Such in my weak Opinion is that branch of the Statute of 5 Eliz. that none should use any manual Occupation except he hath been Appretince to the same 9thly Such in my Opinion is the Law which yet prohibits the Exportation of our own Coin for since it is now by consent of Parliament agreed and found by experience of all understanding men to be advantagious for this Kingdom to permit the free Exportation of Bullion I think it were better for us that our own Coin might likewise be freely exported because by what of that went out we should gain the Manufacture the Coyning besides the great honour and note of Magnificency it would be to his Majesty and this Kingdom to have his Majesty's Coin currant in all parts of the Vniverse 10thly Such are all by-Laws used among the Society of Coopers other Artificers limiting Masters to keep but one Apâ—rentice at a time whereas it were better for the publick they were permitted to keep ten if they could or would maintain or employ them 11thly Such seem to be many of our Laws relating to the Poor especially those against Inmates in Cities trading Towns and those obliging Parishes to maintain their own Poor only Page 23. and 24. the Gentleman makes a large Repetition of what he had said before wherein I observe nothing new but that he saith the East-India-Company have Money at 4. per cent only because Men may have their Money out when they please which is a mistake though a small one for the Company seldom or never take up Money but for a certain time though I doubt not but that Generous Company will and do at most times accommodate any Person with his Money before due that hath occasion to require such a kindness of them although they oblige not themselves to do it In this tenth particular at the latter end of page 24. he saith I am mistaken in my Assertion of the Interest of Scotland which upon further enquiry amongst the Scotch Merchants upon the Exchange I am told is his own mistake So I must leave that being matter of fact to those that know that Country and its Laws more and better then either of us Lastly he concludes that whilst I say the matter in England is so naturally prepared for an Abatement of Interest that it cannot be long obstructed I propound a Law to anticipate Nature which is against Reason I answer it was the Wisdom of our Grand-fathers to bring it to what it would bear in their time and our Fathers found the good effects of that and brought it lower and the benefit thereof is since manifested to us by the success and therefore seeing the matter will now bear further Abatement it is reasonable for us to follow that excellent Example of our Ancestors Laws against Nature I grant would be ineffectual but I never heard before that Laws to help Nature were against Reason Touching the Gentleman's personal Reflections upon me I shall say little it appears sufficiently by what I have writ and his Answer that I am an Advocate for Industry he for Idleness It appears likewise to those that know me in London which are many that I am so far from designing to engrose Trade that I am hastening to convert what I can of my small Estate that is pâ—rsonal into real supposing it to be my Interest so to do before the Use of Money falls which I conclude cannot long suspend and that then Land and Houses must rise and I doubt it will appear when this Gentleman is as well known as I am that he is more an Vsurer then an Owner of Land or Manager of Trade at present my ends have only been to serve my Country which I can with a sincere Heart declare in the Presence of God and Men And that nothing else could have engaged me into this unpleasing Controversie wherein I have given unwilling offence to all my nearest Relations and knew at first that I must needs do so most of them being such as Age and Wisdom hath instructed rather to be Box-keepers then Gamesters I have before-mentioned the Judgment of the French King and Court but intended not to recite the Edict being it is at large in Sr Thomas Culpeppers senior his last Treatise yet on second thoughts considering all Men perhaps may not come to a sight of that and finding the said Edict so comprehensive of the whole matter of this Controversie I have here recited it The King by these Edicts had nothing relieved the necessities of the Nobility if he had not provided for Vsuries which have ruined many good and antient Houses filled Towns with unprofitable Servants and the Countries with Miseries and Inhumanities he found the Rents viz. Vsuries constituted after 10 or 8 in the hundred did ruin many good Families hindred the Traffick and Commerce of Merchandize's and made Tillage and Handicrafts to be neglected many desiring through the easiness of a deceitful Gain to live Idlely in good Towns of their Rents rather then to give themselves with any pains to liberal Arts or to till or husband their Inheritances For this reason meaning to invite his subjects to enrich themselves with more just Gain to content themselves with more moderate profit and to give the Nobility means to pay their Debts he did forbid all Vsury or Constitution of Rents at an higher rate then six Pounds five Shillings in the hundred The Edict was verified in the Court of Parliament which considered that it was always prejudicial to the Commonwealth to give Money to Vsury for it is a Serpent whose biteing is not apparent and yet it is so sensible that it peirceth the very Hearts of the best Families The whole of this Controversie lies narrowly in these two short Questions viz. Will abatement of Interest improve Trade Secondly Will it advance the price of Land The collective united Bodies of the Government of our own and other Kingdoms expresly say it will do both and Experience cries aloud that so it will do and hath done in all Ages and in all Places and I never yet met with any private person how much soever concerned in Interest that had the ignorance or confidence to deny both For discourse with a Country Vsurer he will affirm and perhaps be ready to swear to it that this abatement of Interest is