Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	ireland_n	kingdom_n	3,111	5	6.2619	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33258	A treatise of wool and the manufacture of it in a letter to a friend, occasion'd upon a discourse concerning the great abatements of rents and low value of lands ... : together with the presentment of the grand jury of the county of Somerset at the general quarter sessions begun at Brewton the thirteenth day of January, 1684.; Treatise of wool and cattel	Clarke, George, fl. 1677-1685.	1685 (1685)	Wing C4445_VARIANT; ESTC R10931	17,816	31

deserv'd we will therefore examine and give some Guess how much Wool might have been buried since that Act of Parliament was first made without any Disparagement to the Dead or to the surviving Friends of the Deceased and we shall find that a very great part of the Wool now in the Kingdom I speak as to the quantity out of Cloth had been at this day under Ground In London is buried one year with another when no Plague or other Epidemical Distemper Reigns about twenty thousand which by Observation of some bears a seventh part with the Kingdom so there dayes in England an hundred and forty thousand yearly with the least and we will allow two pounds of Wool for a Shrowd one with another which amounts to two hundred and eighty thousand pound of Wool yearly buried so that in every ten years we shall spend this way about twenty hundred thousand Ponds a good proportion of one years Growth but with this Advantage to our Poor that it is first made into Cloth So that had that Act of Parliament been duely observed as it was our Interest so to do we may plainly perceive what quantity of Wool we had by this buryed in our own Kingdom of England for I have not reckon'd either Scotland Ireland or any of our Plantations into this account but if all could be brought within the compass of this Act and the charge of seeing it punctually performed carefully observed we should not only spend in all these Kingdoms and Islands belonging to the Crown of England a most incredible quantity of our own Wool manufactured by our selves but save above threescore thousand Pounds Sterling a year of our Money which we lay out for Linnen-Cloth purposely for that use as may appear by examining this Charge by the former Rule Equivalent to a Story we have of one of our Kings who finding a great glut of Cloth in the Kingdom beyond their Vent and Trade for it bought it and caused it all to be burnt And the Dutch those subtil Traders as it is generally reported of them when their Ships are fraighted with their Spices in the East-Indies for that years Provision into Europe they return the rest in Smoak by causing the overplus of that years growth to be burnt at their own Factories So that the Consumption of every growth of our Wool is of absolute Necessity towards the Improvement of our Rents and for recovering that third or fourth part of the real Value of our Kingdom now lost since the fall and low price thereof But before I conclude wholly with this Cloth-trade the chief and only Manufacture of this Kingdom I shall premise something by way of Quere as a Remedy to this great Mischief and whether it may prove of advantage to the growth and Manufacture and Trade of this Commodity I shall leave it to far better Judgments to determine Suppose there were a Company of Merchants of this Staple setled by Patent or Charter as such Companies there are the East-India Turkey c. that should buy up in Spain every years growth of the Spanish Wool themselves and thence transport it or as much as they should judge convenient for our Trade hither to be manufactur'd by us where a Duty should be impos'd upon it according as it should be judg'd the Trade would bear in order to the Advancement of our own for there lies the bottom still of the Design I ask the Question Where would the Inconveniencies arise For the Truth is a Business of this Nature is more fit to be discours'd of by a Committee than medled with by any private Person I say if such a Company were set up what would be the Objections against it For first the Spaniard can receive no Prejudice by it we shall by this means rather advance something the Price than any way abate it And secondly for the Hollanders I suppose we should make no scruple of getting the Trade from them for this Cloth Trade is our Ancient Right and did alwayes belong to our Nation and no other People in the World could in reason pretend to the Manufacture of it the Staple growing upon our own Soil And since there is now another sort of Wool started up within these few years which proves to the Prejudice of ours I see no Reason against me if we can compass to make both our own and that too but that we may justly ingross it if we can without offering any Injustice to our Neighbouring Nation and then what is their Growth and Manufacture as Linnen-cloth and the like if they will quietly desist and yield up this to us as it is our Right we may I presume be perswaded I speak only for my self to do the like by theirs But if we examine this Business a little farther we shall find that there may be a necessity for the laying a Duty upon this Spanish Wool and that it will be impossible while the Trade is free and that every man may buy and make what he please of this sort of Cloth that ever our Wool should advance in price for as the Rates now go unless the Spaniard raise the Price our Merchants will not and our Clothiers drive the old Design in buying as cheap as they can so that between them they will keep down the price of ours for one man in a Fair or Market may beat down the Price of what he deals in by under-selling his own Commodity but where is all this Spanish Cloth made that doth us this harm Were it the Manufacture of the whole Nation that kept all the Poor at work there might be something said for it but it is all made I mean the Medlies in the Corners of Two Shires to wit Somerset and Wiltshire and that within the compass of twenty or thirty miles at most and not an hundred I speak with the most Principal Clothiers concern'd in the making of this Spanish Cloth what dammage can the Engrossing then of this Spanish Wool or putting a Duty or Custom upon it do the Nation It is very true there are many that call for the Liberty of the People that every Man may Buy and Sell as he please And it were well if these Men would consider themselves as well in the Relative as in their own Personal Concerns For if every Man were Independant his Liberty were so too but so long as any Man is a Member of a Kingdom his Liberty must likewise depend upon the good of the same Kingdom And if it be not good for a Nation that every man should buy and sell and wear what he paid for as he please he must not think himself injur'd if his Liberty as an English-man be confin'd so long as his Country hath an Interest in his Commodity and Trade for its Safety and Welfare as well as himself So if the Trade for Spanish Wool which is now at Liberty were in the hands of one particular Company it would not then lye in the

A TREATISE OF WOOL AND THE Manufacture of it In a LETTER to a FRIEND Occasion'd upon a Discourse concerning the great Abatements of Rents and Low Value of Lands Wherein is shewed how their Worth and Value may be advanced by the Improvement of the Manufacture and Price of our English WOOL Together with the PRESENTMENT of the Grand JURY of the County of Somerset at the General Quarter Sessions begun at Brewton the Thirteenth Day of January 1684. LONDON Printed for William Crooke at the Green Dragon without Temple Bar. 1685. SIR IT is now seven years since I publish'd a Treatise of this Nature it came forth then accompanied with something concerning Hospitality and the Consumption of our Cattel But the Age at present being not that way inclin'd I have wholly omitted that part and shall only offer in this that which concerns our English Wool and the Manufacture of it For I find that a great many are very busie about this Commodity and the Trade of it But yet I do not find any Proposals offered whereby the Price of our English Wool may be advanc'd I shall therefore lay down this Assertion That the greatest cause of the Abatement of Rents and low Value upon Lands at this day which I suppose every man that hath any is sensible of hath been the great fall and low price of Wool for these few years past Then on the contrary the only way to raise our Rents and to bring our Lands to their former worth and value again must be by advancing the price of our English Wool Now which way this is to be done will be the Subject of this following Treatise which is desired may be accepted as it is freely offered to wit as the real intention of a true English man for the benefit of his Native Country The Occasion of publishing this at this time was meerly accidental for being at White-hall some few Months since I heard of great Complaints made with a Petition to the King and Council setting forth the Transportation of our Wool to the great Prejudice of our Clothing Trade and the ruining of our Poor for want of Work with many dismal Apprehensions of the evil Consequences thereof but not one word offer'd which way either to advance the Trade of this our Woollen Manufacture or to raise the Price of our English Wool But the whole Design I perceived was for the Clothiers Advantage to buy Wool cheap and for the Merchant and Drapers to have Cloth at a low price both very destructive not only to the Kingdom in General but also to the Trade it self as shall hereof be made appear The Complaint I confess was of great Concernment that our Wool and other Materials for the making of Cloth as Fuller's Earth c. ought not to be exported the many Acts of Parliament in all Ages since King Edward the Third for preserving this Trade and Manufacture to our selves and prohibiting under severe Penalties the Transportation of our English Wool is sufficient to convince us of what absolute Necessity the Manufacturing of our Wool was look'd upon to be as to the Wealth and Trade of our English Nation And what Advantage our Ancestors in former Ages even to the times of the late Rebellion made by this Trade of Cloth The Account of the Russia and Turkey Company but especially the Hamborough Company which took off so many thousand Cloths yearly may serve us only to bewail the present Decay of so great a Trade So that our Business now is not only to prohibit the Exportation of our Wool but more chiefly to advance the Trade and Sale of our Cloth whereby the price of our English Wool may be raised again to what it was formerly worth For to what purpose is it to keep all our own Wool at Home and to admit all other Wool to come in Gratis if we have not vent enough for that of our own growth I confess it may sometimes enrich the Clothier by buying cheap but I am sure it will impoverish the Gentlemen and Farmers by selling at so low a price therefore if by the following Discourse our ancient Trade for this Commodity may be restored and our Wool brought to a more considerable price then it now bears whereby the Rents and Revenues of the Kingdom may be increas'd and our Lands brought to their former Worth and Value again I hope this small Treatise may be accepted Sir You may please to remember upon the Discourse we had on this Subject that it was your desire I should give you the Heads and Substance thereof against the next meeting of the Parliament that as you found a convenient Opportunity and compliance with you herein by some of your Fellow-Members with whom you did intend first to advise you would accordingly proceed in it for the Publick good but the Business of the Popish Plot then breaking out all things of this nature were then put off and this also was laid aside But meeting with this Opportunity I thought it a very fit time to retrieve it especially considering that neither our Wool or our Clothing Trade have since advanc'd but on the contrary grown worse and worse even to so low an Ebb that it is impossible to sink lower And that it being at this time more particularly in his Majesties Royal hands to dispose and regulate the sale of Cloth at that great and chiefest Market in the Kingdom for the same at Blackwel-hall in London by appointing such Officers and such Regulation of the sale of Cloth there together with such Rules and Orders to be observed both by the Clothier Merchant and Draper according to the several Laws and Statutes heretofore made for the Encouragement of this great Trade as in his Princely Wisdom shall be thought most fit and convenient And although many offers have been made of late years for England's Improvement which shews that we are sufficiently sensible of our decaying Condition if we could but tell how to help our selves yet it is a very great Question whether several of those Designs might in the end prove for the real Good and Benefit of this Kingdom as to endeavour the planting of several Foreign Commodities whereby to engross the Manufacture of other Nations to our selves for the saving as we alledge many thousands of pounds at home which they cost us abroad and the cutting of so many Rivers to make them Navigable through the very heart of most parts of the Kingdom to London whereby all our Trade and Carriage might pass up and down without Waggons and Horses at far cheaper rates than now they do by them with several other the like Projects that carry with them fair Pretences of Thrift and good Husbandry while on the other hand it might easily be made appear that many of those Designs would prove so disadvantagious to us notwithstanding the specious shew of Profit That our Lands which are already fallen a fourth part of their ancient Worth and Value would

should find some alteration in the price of it in few years and I doubt not but our Clothiers could pick out enough of the finest sort of it to make Cloth very little inferiour to the Spanish And it is easie to be made appear that we spend as much Spanish Cloth in our own Kingdoms and Plantations belonging to the Crown of England and a great part of that too not manufactur'd by our own People as Dutch black as is worn in all the Kingdoms of the World besides and more So that if any shall object against the laying a Duty upon the Spanish Wool I hope they will give us leave to enjoyn our own People to wear no Cloth but what is manufactured by our selves and made of our own Wool and if this Consumption of our Cloth at home be added but to that Trade we have yet left abroad for it we should soon find an Increase in the price of our Wool And I know no reason why any should be offended with us for endeavouring our own Interest and Advantage the general design of all Nations neither can this spending of our own Cloth among our selves hinder any thing of our Trade abroad And that this may appear to be no new or upstart Project the Statutes of 2 Edward the 3. Cap. 1 2 3. may sufficiently satisfie us in which Kings Reign it was that the Manufacture of our Wool began to be our National Employment For among all our Staple Commodities Wool had at that time the Precedency as being the most principal and ancient Commodity of the Kingdom wherein the generality of the People were deeply concern'd and the Manufacture of it though of long use among our selves yet it received but little Encouragement for a Trade into Foreign Parts till these times the Flemmings having the principal Manufacture then by the continual supply of Wool that they received from hence But the Wisdom of this great Prince soon discern'd of what unspeakable value the Manufacture of our own Wool would be to the Trade of this Kingdom who like a provident and careful Father look'd farther than his present time and who beingwell acquainted with the Flemmings Affairs by a joynt Engagement with them in the War with France had therein gain'd so good an Opinion amongst them that he might adventure to change a Complement for a Courtesie the Staples where our Wool was sold being now taken clean away and by the Statute of 2. Edw. 3. Cap. 1. made Felony to carry any Wool out of the Realm He now prosecutes his Design for the setling of the Manufacture at home and represents to those Flemmings the Danger they were in by the bordering Wars with France and the peacable Condition of England and freedom of the People that are Subjects here Propounds an Invitation for them to come over hither wherein he promises them the same Priviledges and Immunities with his own Subjects which they accepted and came over and brought their Manufacture with them which could never after be removed hence So as now the Manufacture and our Wool were joyned together and so long as they agree together both will thrive but if they once part as the Spanish Wool at this time puts fair at it they will both be losers in the Conclusion The Manufacture of our Wool being brought to this Settlement at home this Heroick King Edward the Third makes this other Statue in the same 11th year of his Reign That no Merchant Foreign or Denizon nor any other after the Feast of St. Michael shall cause to be brought privately or apertly by himself nor by any other into the said Lands of England Ireland Wales and Scotland within the Kings Power any Cloths made in any other Places than in the same upon forfeiture of the said Cloth and further to be punished at the Kings Will as is aforesaid But because this Nation formerly had been and still is too much wedded to the wearing of Foreign Manufactures the importing of which did hinder the using of our own home-made Manufactures for too much of them make our own a Drug our Nation Poor and our People to want Work As a Cure for this Disease our own English Cloth is enjoyn'd by a Law to be worn by all Persons under the Degree of a Lord and then the Wisdom of the times thought fit to provide for the true and perfect making of Cloth several Statutes were made in this Kings time Richard the Second and were also confirm'd by Queen Elizabeth and King James but especially in the fifth year of Edward the 6th Cap. 6. For the Length Bredth Weight and Goodness of all sorts of Cloth with several Proviso's to prevent Frauds and Abuses both in the making and selling thereof such care our Ancestors have had in all former and latter Ages for the improvement of this our Woollen Manufacture by which we may plainly see of what absolute Necessity it is to be encouraged and advanced Shall it now by us after so much Care and Industry used by them to settle and bring it to our Doors and into our very Houses be neglected and scarce thought worth the Entertainment for fear of I know not what Jealousies of disobliging some Foreign Nation by putting a Duty on their Wool Shall their Wisdom and Prudence that judg'd this Manufacture and Trade for it the great Support and and Glory of our Nation be call'd in question by our carelesness and shall we suffer our selves to be thus cheated of it when we are as well able to maintain and defend it as they and by Exprience find that it is our chiefest if not only Manufacture and Support of the Strength Honour and Wealth of our English Nation For which way can we continue a Trade long that have no Money of our own growth but only what is brought unto us for Commodities and if we can find nothing of our own to barter and exchange for we must in short time sink our trade abroad if we intend to keep our Money at home our Staple Commodities must therefore of Necessity be advanc'd and encourag'd to enable us by the return thereof to hold a Commerce with those Parts of the World that must supply us for if Trade be maintained barely out of the main Stock the Kingdom in time must needs be decay'd and so brought to Penury it being our Magazin A third Cause of the great Abatement and low Price of our Wool may be this viz. The decaying Condition of the Merchant-Adventure and Hamborough Company within these few years a Company that vended many thousands of our English Cloths yearly for after that our Staples for Wool were taken away and the Manufacture of our Cloth setled among us this Company also had their Motion from Flanders through Holland untill at last it came to be fixed for the conveniency of those Eastern Countries at Hamborough And it would not be needless if the discreetest of them were advised with to know the Reasons they can