Lands To this I answer First That the Dutch do not onely hereby supply themselves plentifully so as the prices of Corn are constant and reasonable and so as whatever happens in other places they never fear a Famine but also upon all occasions supply other places with Corn so as a Famine or scarcity of Corn becomes their enriching whereas we are never at any certainty in the prices of our Corn but if a plentiful year happens whereby Nature has disburthened her self of more than she can renew the future year the Tenants are necessitated to vend it abroad at low prices to pay their Rent and when the dear year succeeds it may be we pay double for the same Corn again And I say also it is Plenty in all things which makes Cheapness and therefore wherever Corn is plentiful in proportion to the people or Market it will be cheaper But in case our Towns in the Mediterrane parts of England were replenished with all sorts of Artificers and the Ports of England abounded with the Dutch Navigation the prices of Corn would bear a proportion to the number of Artificers and Mariners and the means which by their Crafts and Traffick they should be enabled to buy Corn withal We then should not need to fear the Importation of Corn or Irish Cattle And I believe it would be a happiness equal to any Temporal both to the Land-lord and Tenant to have the prices of Corn constant and reasonable and that such stores were preserved in all great and Navigable places so as to prevent a Famine in England and to supply other places which labour under it Queen Elizabeth in the first Parliament of her Reign permitted the English in any Vessels to import Corn paying ordinary and but reasonable Duties which Law stands yet in force Corollary 2. By the same reason the free permission of the English in English-built Ships to export Newcastle-Coals and make Returns into the Ports of England may increase the Navigation of England 22 Pet. 4. For the forrein Trade of Newcastle-Coal by the English is a principle to the Navigation of England 23 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English in English-built Ships to export Newcastle-Coals and make returns into the Ports of England may increase the forrein Trade of it Annot. By free permission here I intend such Duties only as that Newcastle Coal may with regard to the goodness of it be cheaper vended in forrein parts than Scotch-Coal from the Ports of Scotland for whilst the Duties of exporting Newcastle-Coal continue so high Forreigners paying above 16 s. per Chauldron and the English above 8 s. all Nations unless it be in working Iron Manufactures generally take in lading of Coals from Scotland We glory much that the Newcastle-Trade in our home-vent of Coals above all other Trades employs our Shipping and Mariners yet as has been said this Employment is to the loss of the Nation by how much Pitch Tar Cordage and Sails are consumed in it whereas the forrein Trade of it if free to the English for ought I know might employ more Shipping and Mariners and both the outward vent and the Returns may be profitable to the Nation I am sure the Coals under ground are no benefit to the Nation nor need we fear in case the collieries were drained ever to want Coals to supply our selves or Forreigners It is true Forreigners in France Flanders Holland and other places by this permission might work Iron Manufactures cheaper by how much cheaper the English should import Newcastle-Coal But to this I say that all Nations except the English in consuming Wines imported designe some benefit by Goods bought and sold and therefore in Traffick men compare the benefits in buying and selling and it is great Wisdome in any Nation so to establish Trade and Commerce that the Nations Traffick be improved and therefore in case the vending our Coals in forrein Trade and making Returns besides the employment of our Shipping and Mariners be more beneficial to this Nation than cheaper working Iron Manufactures be prejudicial to it this Exportation is to be prefer'd Another Objection against this permission is The King's Revenue will be hereby lessened by how much the Duties are less To this I answer First That the King's Revenue upon Trade is a Consequence to Trade and therefore if the King's Revenue upon Trade be higher than it can bear the Trade will be lost and then necessarily will be the King's Revenue and that it is the height of the Duties upon Coals exported which establishes so great a Trade of Coals in Scotland and makes our forrein vent so inconsiderable Secondly This Revenue upon Newcastle-Coals in the forrein vent of it is Farmed so that though the Duties be very high yet it may be the King's Revenue is not considerable Whereas Thirdly in case the forrein Duties were reasonable the greatness of the Trade might much more increase the King's Revenue than as it stands whenas the greatness of the Duties causes so small a Trade To sum up this Discourse and leave the Progress of so excellent a designe to others whose insight and abilities are better able to improve the Trade and Navigation of the Nation I say that in case we should reserve the East Indie the Turkie Trades and the Trades to our Plantations as also the home-vent and forrein Trade of Newcastle-coals to the Natives of England and again establish the Trade and Navigation to Ireland as it was before the Act against Importation of Irish Cattle and permit all Nations to inhabit and Fish from the Ports of England and import and export freely French Wines Brandies and Salt from France and Timber Pitch and Tar from Norway and Ruff Hemp and Flax from the Ports within the Sound I know not of any Trades or Navigation we should be in danger to lose so as not to employ our Shipping and Mariners but those to France Muscovy and into the Sound For the Trade and Navigation to Muscovy and into the Sound by English ships and Mariners only we have examined it in the Annot. upon the 13th Prop. the Coroll and 14th Prop. of this Treatise and finde it not only prejudicial to the Trade and Navigation of the Nation but dangerous to the conserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England In the French Trade for Wines and Brandies I observe that this Trade above all others impoverishes the Nation not only as we debauch and impoverish our selves in drinking all the Wines good or bad imported but also in the Ware and Tare of the Vessels wherein we import them and the outward freight is with little else than Ballast and the Returns as well as outward Voyage in the most perillous seasons of Navigation of all others wherein we lose more Shipping and Mariners than in all our other Trades Navigation besides Whereas in case we should increase a forrein Trade of Newcastle-coals and restore the Trade we had to Ireland
of Forreign Goods to English-built Ships and Sailed by ¾ English or the Ships and ¾ of the Natives whether they have Ships or Mariners or not 31. The Returns of Forreign Commodities Exchanged for our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to conserve a Forreign Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 32. The Act of Navigation restrains the Importation of Forrein Goods exchanged for our Woollen and other Manufactures to English-built Ships and Sailed by ¾ English 33. The free admission of Forreigners to buy the Woollen and other Manufactures of England will add so much more Money to the Money of England as is expended therein 34. Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other Forrein Commodities may be made more valuable than the Manufactures exchanged for them in building Ships and Houses and in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets Sails and in Dying our Woollen Manufactures as they are more and cheaper 35. The free admission of Forreigners to exchange Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other Forreign Commodities for our Woollen and other Manufactures may make those more and cheaper in England 36. Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other forrein Commodities may be made more valuable by employing our people in Building and Manufactures than the Money paid for them as they are more and cheaper 37. The free Permission of Forreigners to sell Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other forrein Commodities in England may make them more and cheaper 38. Less Treasure will be expended in Norway timber Pitch Tar forrein Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and all other forrein Commodities if they be cheaper vended in England 39. The free permission of Forreigners to import all forrein Goods may make them cheaper vended in England 40. The Importation of Irish Cattle is a mean whereby the Kingdom of Ireland may hold a Trade with us for our Woollen and other Manufactures 41. The Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. makes the Importation of Irish Cattle more into England 41. Goods are Riches 42. The free admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England may add so much more Goods to those of England as the Importation is more free 43. The Exporting forreign Commodities with our Manufactures those of our Plantations and the Fish caught upon our Coasts is a mean to encrease the forreign Trade of them 44. The free Importation of forreign Goods may so much encrease the Exportation of them with our Manufactures those of our Plantations and the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland as the Importation is more free 45. The free Permission of Forreigners to import forreign Goods into England will cause so many greater numbers of people in England as the Forreigners importing Goods are more 46. The Ports of England are more better more conuenient and safe than those of France or the United Netherlands 47. The forreign Trade of forreign Goods with our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to encrease the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 48. The free Importation of forrein Goods into England may make them so much cheaper as the Importation is more free 49. The free Exportation of Money with our Woollen and other Manufactures may cause more Money to be Exported in the forreign Trade of them 50. The Returns of Commodities Exchanged in Forreign Trade for our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to encrease the forrein Trade of them 51. The Returns of forrein Commodities exchanged for our Woollen and other Manufactures may be so much more as the Returns are more free Common Notions or Axioms 1. EVery thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 2. Things may be so much cheaper done as the Principles may be cheaper had 3. If things may be encreased they may be encreased by more Agents 4. Things may be so much cheaper done as done with less charge 5. Things may be more securely done where the Agents are more safe in doing them 6. Things may be so much encreased as the means are more 7. Things may be more conveniently done where the places are more convenient 8. Things will be so much more secure as the means of protecting them are encreased 9. Things will be so much endangered as the means of doing them are restrained 10. Any place will be so much enriched as things are made more valuable than the charge 11. Things will be so much conserved as they are less expended 12. Things may be so much cheaper done as the means are cheaper 13. Things may be so much conserved as the means are encreased 14. If more be added to more the whole will be more ENGLAND's Improvements Prop. 1. Theorem 1. THe Admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will so much encrease the Treasure of England by how much more Money is Expended therein Act. The Admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England Question Whether it will so much encrease the Treasure of England c. I say it will 1 Ax. 3. For every thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 1 Pet. 3. But money is Treasure 2 Pet. 3. And the Admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will add so much Money to that in England as is expended therein Therefore it will so much encrease the Treasure of England which was to be demonstrated Annot. And we retain the Land still and so the Gain is clear to the Nation Mr. Mun in his Excellent Treatise chap. 4. of English Treasure by Forreign Trade affirms it to be the onely expedient to encrease the Treasure of the Nation whereas it is demonstratively apparent that the Admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will encrease it and that more certainly and surely I say this will more certainly encrease the Treasure of England for it necessarily so much encreases it as the Money expended in it does amount to Whereas sometimes the Merchant loses by Forrain Trade whereby the Nation as well as Merchant loses of the Treasure of the Nation And in the Purchasing of Land by Forreigners the Nation ventures nothing and so cannot lose any Treasure or Land by it whereas oftentimes the Ships and all the Lading is lost in Forrain Trade to the loss of the Nation and undoing the Merchant But the Purchasing Lands by Natives does not encrease the Treasure of England but diverts so much Money from carrying on the beneficial Trades of England as is expended therein and many other Inconveniencies accrue to the Nation by it which do largely appear in the Annot. upon the 3d Cor. of the 26 Prop. of the Equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 2. Theorem 2. The Admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will so much encrease the Valuable Trades of England
Sails almost sufficient to supply the Navigation and Fishing upon the Eastern parts of England and the returns of these by the Dutch were chiefly for Clothes and other Manufactures and growths of England But the Act of Navigation not permitting the Dutch to import these and the English having so lost their Trade into the Sound and the Inhabitants of Riga Revel and other places of the Sound from whence the best Hemp and Flax comes little Trading with us into England and the Act of Navigation permitting the Dutch to import the Manufactures of Cordage Nets and Sails Consequences It came to pass that as the Natives lost a great exchange of their Woollen and other Manufactures for Hemp and Flax so did many thousands of poor people their Employment in making Cordage Nets and Sails Even the Town of Yarmouth in Norfolk before the Act of Navigation made yearly 2800 Tun of Cordage now not ten And the fitting up of Ships with Cordage and Sails became so dear that in the year 1650 several persons of good knowledge and experience in building Ships and any self built a Vessel of 100 Tun and fitted her out to Sea for 505 l. Four years after the same Builder built another both for the Newcastle-Trade of 110 Tum and this Ship fitted out to Sea cost above 800 l. And the reason of this dearness the Builder ascribed to the excessive prices of Pitch Tar Cordage and Sails Corollary 3. By the same reason the Act of Navigation endangers a Forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 31 Pet. 3. For returns of Forreign Commodities exchanged for our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to conserve a Forreign Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 32 Pet. 3. And the Act of Navigation restrains the returns of Forreign Goods exchanged for our Woollen and other Manufactures to English-built Ships and sailed by ¾ English Annot. And what are these English-built Ships but neer double as dear built and sailed with neer double the charge of the Dutch and other Nations so as this charge added to the restriction by the Act of Navigation Consequences It comes to pass that it will be impossible to enlarge either the Forreign Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures or the returns of them beyond this Navigation and the Merchant computing the charges he is hereby obliged to findes so much less vent for our Woollen and other Manufactures as the Returns become so chargeable that no profit arises to the Merchant thereby But besides this inestimable loss which the Nation hereby sustains in the Forreign vent of our Manufactures these two mischiefs necessarily attend this restriction and charge of this Navigation One that we impose a necessity of consuming the Forrein Goods returned in Barter of our own Manufactures which is generally in Luxury and Pride or if any of the returns be employed in our Manufactures the dearness of these returns imposes a further dearness upon our own Manufactures both in the Forein and Domestick Trade of them But it is time to proceed to the Expedients by which the Forrein Trade of our Manufactures may be enlarged Prop. 14. Theorem 13. The Repealing the Acts made the 18 and 20 Car. 2. c. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle may encrease the Trades of our Woollen Manufactures and for Beer Hops all sorts of Dying-Stuffs Hides Fruits Sugars Tobacco's all sorts of Silk as well wrought as unwrought Ribbons Gold Silver and Silk-Lace with the Kingdom of Ireland and the Trade of Victualling ships by the Natives of England and Forreigners in the Ports of England 13 Ax. 3. For every business may be so much encreased as the means are more 40 Pet. 3. But the importation of Irish Cattle is a mean whereby the Kingdom of Ireland may hold a Trade with us for our Woollen Manufactures and Hops Beer c. 41 Pet. 3. And the Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may make the importation of Irish Cattle more Therefore it may encrease the Trades of our Woollen Manufactures and of Beer Hops c. with Ireland and of Victualling Ships in the Ports of England Annot. If the Repealing these Acts would encrease the Trades of our Woollen and others Manufactures and growths to 210000 l. per Annum besides Victualling ships as they were before these Acts and are now fallen to less than 20000 l. per Annum as Mr. John Du Boise a worthy Citizen has calculated This would be more beneficial to the Nation than if 170000 l. per Annum were given to the Nation allowing 40000 l. per Annum for Principles than to continue it in the same condition it is in now these Laws stand in force But though the Nation might hope for some relief by the Repealing or Expiration of these Laws it can hope for none by repealing the Act of the 15 Car. 2. cap. 7. Intituled Trade encouraged for all sorts of Wire Hats Ribbons Buttons Gloves Bandstrings Hangings Stools Chairs Knives Sythes Sickles Cizars Sheaths for Knives Stockens Caps course Shifts and Frocks with the Kingdom of Scotland for the Scottish Nation offended by this Law imposed 90 l. per Cent. upon all Goods imported into Scotland from England and making use of opportunities have established these Trades and Manufactures among themselves to our Loss as appears more largely in the Annot. upon the 15th Prop. of the Equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 15. Theorem 14. The repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease the value of the Lands of England 2 Ax. 1. For in every thing the effects will be as the causes are 6 Pet. 1. But Lands are valuable as the Trade of the place is 14 Prop. 3. And the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease the valuable Trades of England with Ireland Therefore it may encrease the value of the Lands of England Annot. Suppose 15000 people before these Acts were employed in those Commodities wherewith this Nation supplied Ireland this Employment enabled them to pay for the Provisions they bought of the Country-Farmor But the Trade of England with Ireland being interrupted by these Laws the employment of these people became proportionally lesned and by consequence the means by which they were enabled to pay for the Provisions they formerly bought of the Farmour and so the Lands of England so much less valuable By the Rule of Contraries then the repealing these Acts will so much encrease the value of the Lands of England as the Trades of England with Ireland are encreased whereby poor people may be employed and so enabled to give the Farmor better prices for Provisions than otherwise they could Corollary 1. By the same reason the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church 7 Pet. 1. For the Revenues of the Church of England are valuable as the
Lands of England are valuable 16 Prop. 3. And the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease the value of the Lands of England Annot. And so the repealing these Laws may encrease the value of the Revenues of the Crown not onely in the value of the Crown-Lands but in repairing the Customs which the King received for the Cattle imported out of Ireland into England which did amount to 30000 l. per Annum for which these Laws make no compensation to the King Prop. 16. Theorem 15. The Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may so much better conserve Peace and Amity between England and Ireland as the Trade between them shall be more 13 Ax. 3. For every business may be so much conserved as the means are more 8 Pet. 1. But Trade is a mean to conserve Peace and Amity 15 Prop. 3. And the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease Trade between England and Ireland Therefore it may so much more conserve Peace and Amity between them Annot. As the Crown of Ireland is a Crown subject to the Crown of England so the mutual Trade and Correspondence between them will strengthen the Obligations so much more as their mutual Interests are hereby united These and many other benefits attend both Kingdoms by Repealing these Laws The Mischiefs and Inconveniencies which have ensued by making them in some measure appear by the Annot. upon the 18 19 and 20 Prop. of the Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 17. Theorem 16. The free Admission of Forreigners to buy the Woollen and other Manufactures of England will so much encrease the Treasure of England as the Money expended in it is more 1 Ax. 3. For every thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 1 Pet. 3. But Money is Treasure 33 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to buy the Woollen and other Manufactures of England will add so much more Money to the Money of England as the Money expended therein is more Therefore it will so much encrease the Treasure of England Annot. By free Admission here I do not mean the Freedom which English men enjoy viz. to buy them at the second hand of the Free-men of Corporations and after they have been charged with Land-carriage to London but at the next Ports or places where they are made Prop. 18. Theorem 17. The free Admission of Forreigners to exchange Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other Forrein Goods for the Woollen and other Manufactures of England may so much enrich the Nation as the Goods exchanged may be made more valuable in the Manufactures by employment of our own people 11 Ax. 3. For any place will be so much enriched as things are more valuable than the charge 34 Pet. 3. But Timber Pitch Tar Salt rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs many other Forrein Goods by employment of our People may be made so much more valuable than the Manufactures exchanged for them in our building of Ships and Houses in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails and in Dying our Woollen and other Manufactures of England as they are more and cheaper 35 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to exchange these for our Woollen and other Manufactures of England may make Timber Pitch Tar c. more and cheaper in England Therefore it may so much enrich the Nation Annot. As the free buying our Woollen and other Manufactures of England will encrease the Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures whereby the Inhabitants will be so much more employed in them so by Exchanging Goods for our Manufactures we to our own enriching add another employment to our People and this so much more valuable than the Money wherewith the Goods are bought as the Goods become more valuable in other Manufactures than the Money And therefore it is an errour in the Act of Navigation to permit all Nations to import Money into the Nation and to restrain the importation of Goods to the English and Natives for if we did too much abound in Money this would be a burthen to the Nation and of ill consequence to the King and Subject For if a man as the case stands may buy that for 100 l. which if Money were five-fold encreased he shall pay 500 l. for it he hath five times the trouble in it And all Commodities being valued according to the plenty of Money the Revenues of the Crown and Leases granted by the Nobility Gentry and Church would be but one fifth of the value if the Money were five times more for they must pay five times more for the Commodities renewed upon their Farms and yet receive but the Rent at first reserved when the Commodities bore but â…• of the Money And therefore it was a prudent Institution of Cardinal Poole who being chosen Chancellor of the University of Cambridge when from the Spanish Indies the Money became so plentiful in England that the Members of the University could scarce buy Bread upon the Rents reserved on their Leases to have one third to be paid in Corn or so much as the prices of Corn should amount to in Cambridge market the Market-day before our Lady day and Michaelmas And therefore if our Treasure were more than our Neighbouring Nations I did not care whether we had one fifth part of the Treasure we now have I have often said in Coffee-houses and I am sorry I could not finde a more convenient place in England to speak it in at the beginning of the War between the French and Dutch That the French Nation would be exceedingly impoverished thereby and to the undoing of many thousands of the French For the French Trade for Wines Salt Paper Linnen and other the Manufactures of France was above all other Nations carried on in Forrein Trade by the Dutch Navigation whereby the Natives were employed and the Kingdom and Natives exceedingly enriched but the Dutch Navigation being removed by reason of the War all these Commodities of France which were Transported by the Dutch Navigation in Forrein Trade finde not like vent and by consequence the Nation loses much of the wealth it gained thereby and the Inhabitants their Employment Nor is it in the power of France to redress this without restoring the Dutch Navigation for admit the French King should take measures by our Act of Navigation as they say he does and endeavour to establish a Forrein Trade of the Commodities of France by his own Subjects and could make ships of Oyster-shells and Shingle and in an instant create Factories and make all the returns the Dutch do of the Commodities of France and without Experience or Instruction make Navigators and Marriners at his will of his Subjects yet so many of his Subjects as he makes Sea-men so many sewet he will leave to plant Vineyards make Paper
the profit of them by forrein Trade And yet we have little else but the forrein Trade of our Woollen Manufactures so Taxed so Restrained and so Endangered as hath been in all the Three precedent Treatises demonstrated to sustain the Loss the Nation receives by the Newcastle-trade the Trade to our Plantations and the Trades to Norway France the Canaries and for Linnen I desire as much as any man that Navigation and Mariners may be encreased by the Natives of England and English Ships so far as the Natives of England in such Shipping can maintain Navigation yet both must be done in time and by such means as God and Nature have ordained viz. by encreasing Trade in England and if both Trade and Navigation cannot be carried on by the Natives alone I see no reason why at least at present Trade which is more excellent than Navigation should not be encreased though upon the account of forrein Navigation And I say it is impossible as the case stands that the forrein vent of our English Manufactures and the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland can be encreased by English Mariners in English-built Ships For the Towns upon the Coast of England generally are become so decayed that they are not neer half Inhabited and so poor that they have no Means to build Ships or to buy our Woollen or other Manufactures or the Fish caught upon our Coast nor have Factories or Correspondence in forrein parts to establish Trade and Commerce yet if they had it is impossible long to continue the Navigation we now possess in English-built Ships therefore less possible to encrease it It 's believed the French Nation before their War with the Dutch gained above 6000000 l. yearly by the English and Dutch trading into their Ports for Wine Salt Brandy Linnen Paper and other Commodities of France Suppose the French King upon the account of encreasing the Navigation and Mariners of France should have excluded the English and Dutch trading into his Ports and by Edict have Commanded that all the Commodities of France vended in forrein Trade should first be brought to Paris there none to buy them but Free-men and Companies if they have any and they only to vend them in French-built Ships and Sailed by ¾ French whether they have Ships or Mariners or not and that the Returns of them should pay the King twenty times the Duties they should in case they were imported into Holland or Hamburg whether the employment of the Shipping and Mariners of France would have countervailed the loss France would have sustained thereby Or Reader consider chainging the places if this be not the Condition of England in reference to the forrein Trade of the Manufactures and the Fish caught upon the Coast of it Coroll 1. By the same reason the free Permission of Forreigners to make Returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and to export them may encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England 1 Pet. 4. For Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle of Navigation to and from the Ports of England 2. Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to make Returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and export them may encrease Trade to and from the Ports of England Annot. As the free permission of Forreigners to work Manufactures in England and export them would encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England so would the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of them into our Ports and export them and so would the Returns of these and the exporting them again and so infinitely whereby Navigation to and from our Ports may be infinitely encreased The Dutch and Hamburger we see have no principles of Trade or Navigation of their own yet from the principles of the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and the Groenland Fishery and the Trades and Navigation depending thereon and the principles they acquire from other places by reason of their free Importation and Exportation employ more Shipping and Mariners than all the Christian Princes and States in all the world besides The seeming Objection against this Permission we hope to avoid in the Annot. upon the Coroll of the 16 Proposition of this Treatise Corollary 2. By the same reason the Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle may encrease the Navigation of England 3 Pet. 4. For Trade is a principle of the English Navigation between England and Ireland 13 Prop. 3. And the Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle may encrease the Trade between England and Ireland Annot. After the Navigation which may arise by the forrein vent of our Woollen and other Manufactures I desire the Navigation of England may be encreased from the Trade between England and Ireland not only as the Crown of Ireland is depending upon the Crown of England but also because the benefits and Security of the English Nation are more interwoven between them than can be expected from any other Country The Navigation which the Trade between England and Ireland before these Acts did maintain was First about one hundred Sail and a proportionable number of Mariners were employed in bringing over Cattle Secondly A considerable number of English Ships and Mariners Mr. John De Boyse can better inform the Reader the number than I were employed in the Trade of the Returns for their Lean Cattle in Beer Hops Hats Stockens Cloath and Stuffs of all sorts all sorts of Dying-stuffs Hides Fruit Sugars Tobaccoes and many other Commodities to Ireland Thirdly The Returns of these in Hides Tallow Wools Yarn c. from Ireland in forrein Trade was generally in English Ships and sailed by English Mariners But all this Navigation depending upon the first Intercourse between England and Ireland for their Lean Cattle the Cause of Importing Cattle ceasing the Navigation which depended upon it ceased and the Trade as well as the Navigation the Nation formerly enjoyed is not only lost to it but established in forrein Nations to the Endangering as well as Impoverishing this and of which you may more largely read in the Annot. upon the 18 19 and 20 Propositions of the Treatise of The Equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 2. Theorem 2. The Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20. Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle will so much more secure the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England as Navigation shall be thereby encreased 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much secured as the means of preserving them are encreased 4 Pet. 3. But the Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Coroll 2. Prop. 1. And the Repealing the Acts against Importation of Irish Cattle may
the Herring from Scotland to Yarmouth whilest the wretched people upon our Coast stand starving and looking on and cannot employ one Vessel or Mariner in it Even in the Herring-fishing before Yarmouth we fish little above one fortnight and in that fishing the Dutch employ above threefold the Vessels we do and above twofold the Mariners Consequences From whence the Dutch are able without Pressing to Man their Men of War against us and at the same time to drive incredible Trades abroad when we by Pressing and Land-Souldiers to boot though we drive no Trade if we had not advantage by the goodness of our Men of War finde it difficult enough to oppose them whereas in case this Fishery and the Trades and Navigation depending thereon were driven by these Dutch-men or any numbers of them from the Ports of England the Dutch would have so much less means to oppose the English and dispute the Sovereignty of the British Seas and the English would have so much more means to defend themselves and bring the Dutch to Reason Prop. 8. Theorem 8. The free permission of the English to buy forrein Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will so much more preserve the Timber of England as the Ships so bought are more 11 Ax. 3. For things will be so much preserved as less of them is expended 12 Pet. 4. But so much less English Timber will be expended in building English Ships for all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades by so many forrein Ships as the English buy in other Trades 13 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy forrein Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cause so many more forrein Ships to be bought as the permission is more free Therefore it may so much preserve the Timber of England Annot. And if it may preserve the Timber of England I am sure it is more than time the English were permitted to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades for by reason the Act of Navigation confines the English to Trade and make Returns into the Ports of England only in English-built Ships the English have not only not been able to build one ship for the Norway-trade for Timber or the forrein Trade of white Herring or Cod caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland since the rump-Rump-Parliament contrived the Act of Navigation but to maintain the niggardly Trades we now drive wherein upon the matter we consume all the Returns of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations The Timber of England is so wasted that in any convenient distances for building Ships there is not ¼ of Timber left standing as was when the rump-Rump-Parliament invented this Law See more hereof in the Annot. upon the 10 11 12 and 13 Propositions of The equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England I have with as much Zeal endeavoured yet without success to represent this to the Parliament and the dire Consequences of it so far as I understood the Timber of England to be wasted upon the Coasts of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex And being last Easter-Eve was twelvemonth at Bristol some Gentleman and I went to see the Oxford Frigat then ready to be Lanched and built by Captain Baily a very Civil person and I believe an excellent Builder After some discourse I asked him if English Timber were plentiful in the West of England and he told me he with great difficulty got Timber to build this Frigat and that in building the Edgar-frigat he bought the Timber twelve miles beyond Worcester which is 50 miles from Bristol I then asked him what he thought of the State of the Nation as it now stands in reference to the Navigation of it in English-built Ships whenas the Ring with such difficulty built one Man of War he told me it was impossible to be continued and that he had more reason than another to know it for besides his long being accqstiomed to build Ships he had order from the King to survey his Western and Southern Forests and to return an Account of it to the King himself I thanked him and told him I was equally sorry with him for the condition of the Nation yet was glad a man of his Knowledge and Experience had the same apprehensions as I had though with all the Sollicitations I could use I was so far from getting relief to the Nation herein as that I could not get the Apprehensions he had herein to be received by the Parliament Prop. 9. Theorem 9. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will more secure them and also the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are more 14 Pet. 4. But the Turkie East-Indie Newcastle-Trades and the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England are more secured by means of ships built of English Timber 8 Prop. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will more preserve the Timber of England Therefore it will so much more secure the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trade and the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. If we consider how much the Newcastle-trade increases as does the East-Indie-trade and how much greater the Dutch War-fleet is than the King 's of England And that as the case stands the Newcastle-trade is necessary and the East-Indie-trade very beneficial to the Nation it may be a question if the growth of these Trades and the necessities of increasing the Navy Royal will not require greater quantities of Timber than for the future can be found in convenient distances in England however to preserve these it is very reasonable the English be permitted to buy Ships in all their other Trades Prop. 10. Theorem 10. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all their other Trades but the Turkie East-Indie and Newcastle-Trades may increase the Navigation of England 3 Ax. 4. For things may be so much increased as the means are increased 22 Pet. 1. But Ships are means in Navigation 15 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle-trade c. may increase the ships of England Therefore it may increase the Navigation of England Annot. So that this permission as it will more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades so it may increase the Navigation of England in our Trades to and from our forrein Plantations the Trades to Hamburg into the Sound Muscovy France and Spain but especially to Norway for Timber Pitch and Tar in which Trade as we never built one ship
ENGLAND's Improvements In Two PARTS In the Former is Discoursed How the Kingdom of ENGLAND May be Improved In STRENGTH EMPLOYMENT WEALTH TRADE By Encreasing The Value of Lands The Revenues of the Crown and Church Peace and Amity with Forein Nations Without any Charge to the Subject In the Latter is Discoursed How the Navigation of ENGLAND May be Increased And the Soveraignty of the British Seas more Secured to the Crown of England TREATISE III. By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1675. To his Highness The most Illustrious Heroick Highborn PRINCE RVPERT Count Palatine of the RHINE AND Duke of BAVARIA and CUMBERLAND c. THe Common Law of England most eminent Prince makes great difference between the Inheritance of the Crown of England and the Estates of Subjects for the next Heir though of half Bloud shall inherit the Crown Thus did Queen Mary inherit the Crown from Edward though but of half Bloud to him So did Queen Elizabeth from Queen Mary yet was but of half Bloud to her But no Subject of half Bloud shall inherit any Estate but for want of an Heir of the whole Bloud it shall Escheat to the King or the Lord upon whom the Estate was held And as the Common Law makes this difference in Bloud so does it in the Inheritance of the Crown and men born out of the Allegeance of the King For no person born out of the Allegeance of the King shall Inherit any Estate from any English Subject but the Heir of the Crown shall Inherit wheresoever he be born Thus did King James your Highness Grandfather and the happy Vniter of the British Monarchy Inherit the Crown of England yet was not born in the Allegeance of it The King of England though born a Forreigner may purchase and hold an Estate in England but no other Forreigner though born of Subjects to the Crown of England shall take an Estate by Purchase but the King shall have it The Reason of these differences I do not understand For as the Law secures the Inheritance of the Crown so doth it make a bar between this Nation and all others who desire to become Subject to it But if there were anciently any reason for this Law it is now ceased since the peopling the American Plantations the repeopling Ireland the Wars and late Great Plague have lost and consumed so many people out of England As the Common Law debars the Nation of any future supply for all these Losses so some Acts of Parliament have put the Nation into a Hostile condition with the World There was a Law made in the 5 of Rich. 2. c. 3. which forbid the English to carry forth or bring in Merchandize but in Ships of the King's Allegeance and the Marriners or more part Subjects but this Law was so intolerable that the next year viz. 6 Rich. 2. c. 8. the English had liberty to Trade in Forrein Vessels where others could not be had But this Law thus qualified by the Authority of the 1 Eliz. cap. 13. caused great displeasure between Forrein Princes and the Kings of this Realm and the Merchants were sore grieved and damaged thereby Therefore for the encrease and Continuation of Amity both the Laws made by Rich. 2. were Repealed and the English had liberty given them to carry out and bring in Merchandize in any Vessels paying Strangers Duties but if there were War or any restraint of English Ships then to pay but ordinary Duties But the English had liberty given them at all times to import Masts Raff Pitch and Tar in any Vessels paying ordinary Duties the former being for the preservation of the Timber of England the latter for the benefit of the Navy But the rump-Rump-Parliament designing a War against the Dutch without any consideration of this Law or of the Statute of 14 Rich. 2. c. 6. whereby the Merchants of England in any Realm might freight forrein Ships to that Realm if the Ships of that Realm would not take reasonable Gains or of the 35 Eliz. 11. for the preservation of the Timber of England or of the 17 Car. 1. for Importation of Gunpowder which themselves had made all which yet stand in force and are unrepealed made a Thing Intituled An Act for encouragement and encrease of Shipping and Navigation commonly called The Act of Navigation whereby the English are forbid to import any forrein Goods unless in English-built Ships whether they can get them or not and Sailed by ¾ English upon penalty of confiscation of Goods Guns Tackle Apparel and Ammunition A War they designed and a War they had with the Dutch which lasted longer than their Government and so they left the Nation engaged in a War abroad and the Laws at War at home But though the Nation be freed from the Tyranny of the Rump yet it still labours under the miserable effects of this Law for with some few alterations it twice received the Royal Stamp viz. 12 Car. 2. 18. and 13 Car. 2. 14. As the terrour of this Law has put this Nation into a Hostile condition with the World so hath it suspended all those good Laws made by Queen Elizabeth and King Charles the first for preservation of the Timber of England and the maintenance and support of the Navy Royal whereby the Nation may be best secured from the danger of a forrein War Your Highness at your leisure may read how many other ways the Trade and Navigation of England have suffered under this Law as well in the former Treatises as these which now implore your Highness Protection In this condition then was the Nation involved in a War with the Dutch under the Glory and Conduct of your Highness who though descended from the Royal Extraction of the first Monarch of Great Britain yet is your Highness a Forreigner born and so not regarded by these Laws and therefore had little reason to expose your self to such imminent danger in defence of them if your innate affection for the Honour and Happiness of the English Nation did not otherways transcend all obstacles against it The Nation as well as his Majesty by a universal suffrage was satisfied with the necessity of your Conduct for the preservation of it I wish it were as well understood that these Laws and some other Grants and Vsages have made the Dutch so powerful to oppose it and the Nation in no better condition to prescribe Laws to them But Sir the vertue of your Noble minde is not circumscribed within the Pale of Military Discipline but extends to an Integrity and Judgement in Counsel equal to your Valour and Conduct in War And the Nation stands not in less need of your Counsel at home than it did of your Conduct abroad for as the Case stands though God should have Crowned your Conduct with such desired success as to have obtained an entire Victory against the Dutch yet could not this
Dutch in so much worse a condition to have made War against either Prop. 3. Theorem 3. Woollen Manufactures may be so much encreased in England as the unwrought Wools of England and Ireland are more Subject Woollen Manufactures Question Whether they may be encreased in England c. I say they may 1 Ax. 3. For things may be so much encreased as the Principles are more than are used 5 Pet. 3. But unwrought Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 6 Pet. 3. And the unwrought Wools of England and Ireland are more than are used in Woollen-Manufactures in England Therefore Woollen-Manufactures may be encreased in England Annot. If we encrease our Woollen-Manufactures in England these Benefits will accrue to the Nation First If one pound of Wooll worth one shilling made into one piece of Cloath or Stuff becomes worth ten shillings then is the Manufacture nine times more valuable to the Nation than the Land on which it is renewed and ten times more people are employed therein than the Shepherds and Clippers of the Wooll are And this Employment not only at one time of the year as the Shearing of Sheep is but always Secondly This would be a great comfort and encouragement to the Country Farmer to pay his Rent and maintain his Family whereas now the Wools of England not being wrought at home and so the Farmer not finding a Market at home becomes undone and not able to pay his Rent and if he seeks a Market abroad with it to sustain his Family and pay his Rent he commits Felony by the Law made 14 Car. 2. 18. Thirdly The working the Wools of Ireland in England would be ninefold more beneficial to England than the Wools to Ireland whereas by Transporting our Wools other places get so much benefit to our loss Corollary 1. By the same Reason the Manufactures of Tin-Plates may be encreased in England 7 Pet. 3. For Tin and Iron are Principles in the Manufactures of Tin-Plates 9 Pet. 3. And the Tin and Iron of England are more than is used in the Manufactures of Tin-Plates Annot. If we wrought the Manufactures of Tin in England the Nation would not only gain so much as the Manufacture becomes more worth than the Principles in Forreign Trade but we might employ many thousands of poor people who are and will be a Burthen to the Nation and also preserve all that Treasure which is expended by buying them of the Dutch and Hamburger Coroll 2. By the same Reason many sorts of Earthen Manufactures may be encreased in England 8 Pet. 3. For Lead and Potters Earth are Principles in many sorts of Earthen Manufactures 10 Pet. 3. And the Lead and Potters Earth of England are more than are used in Manufactures Annot. It is almost incredible what sums of Money are yearly sent into Holland for Earthen-ware though it be evident they have their Lead and Potters Earth from England whereby we do as much inrich them as impoverish our selves by not working them in England But our Manufactures both in Tin and Earthen-ware are so inconsiderable in England that Lead and Tin is Transported paying the King some Duties but by reason of the benefits which accrue to the Nation by Woollen-Manufactures Wooll is totally prohibited to be Transported whereas if the Manufactures of Lead and Tin were established in England the Reason against Exportation of them would be the same as of Wooll Prop. 4. Problem 1. How the Dutch and French may and do work Woollen-Manufactures made of the Wools of Ireland and the Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper than the English at Colchester and Norwich Agents Are the Dutch French and English Question How the Dutch and French may and do work Woollen Manufactures c. cheaper Construction By the 11 Pet. 3. the Dutch and French may have Wools from Ireland the Coast of Lincoln-shire Kent Sussex and Hampshire cheaper than the Woolls of Ireland Derby-shire Nottingham-shire Lincoln-shire c. can be had at Norwich or Colchester by Water and Land-carriage I say the Dutch and French may work the Manufactures cheaper 2 Ax. 3. For things may be so much cheaper done as the Principles may be cheaper had 5 Pet. 3. But Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 11 Pet. 3. And the French and Dutch may have the Wools of Ireland and Lincoln-shire c. cheaper by Water than they can be had at Norwich and Colchester by Land and Water-carriage Therefore the Dutch and French may work the Manufactures cheaper Annot. Though the smalness of the difference of the Prices of Land and Water-carriage from Ireland and the Midland-parts of England to Norwich and Colchester more than the Water-carriage from Ireland Lincoln-shire c. to the Ports of France or the Vnited Netherlands seem inconsiderable yet in the prospect of the consequences of it in reference to the Forrein Trade of them it is very considerable For if it be better as it is for any Nation to earn one thousand pound more or less by the employment of People as in the Vnited Netherlands than to have one thousand pound gotten to a Nation and the People not employed in it as in Spain And if two in the hundred charge in any place more than in another not subject to it may gain the whole hundred pound where otherwise they Trade upon equal terms then the whole hundred pound as it will be lost to that place will be gain'd to this It is true indeed if we had a Monopoly of Vending our Manufactures in Forrein Trade small charges were inconsiderable but now the Swede Silesians the Elector Palatine and other Princes of Germany have established Woollen Manufactures in their Countries and the French Dutch and Venetians have enlarged their Forrein Trades of Woollen Manufactures we are only secure of a Forrein Trade of our Woollen Manufactures so long as we can supply the World cheaper and better than they can Having so often given instances in the former and this Treatise of the Subject Agent Act and Question of every Prop. for the future we shall omit repeating them Coroll By the same Reason the English may work Woollen Manufactures made of Irish wooll in the Western parts of England and Wales and also Woollen Manufactures made of the Wools of the Midland Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper than the French or Dutch 5 Pet. 3. For Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 12 Pet. 3. And the English in the Western parts of England and Wales may have the Woolls of Ireland cheaper than the French or Dutch 13 Pet. 3. So the English may have the Wools of the Midland Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper Annot. And as they have the Wools cheaper so may the Wools of Ireland be wrought in the Port-Towns of the West of England and Wales And the Wools of the Midland Southern and Eastern parts of England may be wrought in Port-Towns or places where the Manufactures without much Land-carriage of the Wools and
an Apprentice to be instructed in the Mystery of Woollen or any other Manufacture by which means he afterwards earns Thirty pounds per Annum this in twenty years becomes six hundred pounds therefore if it be better for a Nation to earn six hundred pound or more or less by employment of People than to have six hundred pound more or less given to a Nation the people not employed this five pounds thus paid for binding out such an Apprentice becomes more valuable to the Nation than if six hundred pound had been given to the Nation and the Apprentice not employed To invite therefore Forreigners to Instruct the Natives of England in Woollen and other Manufactures and freely to admit them in all places to improve Manufactures will be a more certain Revenue to the Nation than can be hoped for by the returns of the Spanish Plate-Fleet where the Fate of Spain depends upon the miscarriage of it It 's believed above twelve thousand of the King's Scottish Subjects yearly go out of Scotland into Poland Sweden Germany France Holland and other places and never after return into Scotland whereby the King not only loses the Soveraignty of them to the diminution of his Grandeur but those places gain great benefits by them If therefore five pound binding out of an Apprentice to any Manufacture may be in twenty years five hundred pounds gain to the Nation the benefit which might accrue to the Nation by imploying them here in twenty years might be above six Millions and this supply will be so much more seasonable by how much the peopling of our American Plantations and the repeopling Ireland has depopulated the Nation of its Inhabitants But as the Law against Naturalization permits not Forreigners to partake equal benefit with the Natives by improving Manufactures in England and instructing the Natives in them So does the priviledges of the Free-men of Corporations exclude all the other Natives of England from encreasing Manufactures in them And the Act of the 5 Eliz. 4. provides that no person shall take an Apprentice for Woollen Manufactures in any Town Corporate except such Apprentice be his Son or else that the Father or Mother of such Apprentice have the clear yearly value of forty shillings Inheritance Nor shall any person in Market-towns or Villages not Corporate take an Apprentice or instruct any in Woollen Manufactures unless he be his Son or the Parents have the clear yearly value of three pound Inheritance Consequences From whence it follows that the Corporations being poor and scarce half Inhabited by not admitting others to supply their number and defects become daily more poor and less Inhabited And the Children of poor people in Villages by the Act of the 5 Eliz 4. not being permitted to be bound Apprentices in Market-Towns and Corporations in the Art or Mystery of Woollen Manufactures and being denied by the Act of 31 Eliz. 7. to erect Cottages when they become more than the Tenements can receive or be employed in Husbandry they necessarily become vagrant Beggars Stealars Canters or at best if they forsake not the Nation to swell the Suburbs of London already too big be Hoâ—â—â—…rs Tapsters Drawers and sellers of Strong waters and the Corporations and Market-Towns by reason hereof declining the Farmor findes less vent for his Commodities and small or no encouragement to employ poor people in Tilling or Improving his Grounds And as the Act of the Eliz. 4. has brought all these mischiefs upon Town and Country so was it a necessary preparative for the Enacting the 43 Eliz. 2. for maintaining Idle and Lazy persons in all the Parishes in England which have produced the very many Inconveniencies complained of in the Annot. upon the 24 and 25 Prop. of the Danger of the Church State and Trade of England and their Corollaries Prop. 10. Theorem 9. The free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in Corporations may more conveniently encrease Trade in England 8 Ax. 3. For things may be more conveniently done where the places are more convenient 22 Pet. 3. But the Corporations of England are the most convenient places in England to encrease Trade 9 Prop. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease Trade in England Therefore it may more conveniently do it in Corporations Coroll By the same reason the free permission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in Corporations may more conveniently encrease Trade in England 22 Pet. 3. For Corporations are the most convenient places in England to encrease Trade Cor. Prop. 10. And the free Permission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures may encrease Trade in England Annot. upon this Prop. and Coroll So as the benefit which would accrue to the Nation by this Admission would begin at the Corporations by reason of their Convenience whereby the people would not only be employed but the Corporations much more peopled the Markets more frequented and better supplied with all sorts of Provisions the Houses repair'd and new ones built It is said that about a year before Queen Eliz. planted the Walloons which could not endure the severity of Alva's Government in Norwich and Colchester that it was propounded in the Council to demolish both those places as Receptacles of vagrant and Idle persons which were burthensome to the Nation and dangerous to the Government whereas now it is said that the weekly returns of Colchester for the Woollen Manufactures of that place amount to neer thirty thousand pound and of Norwich to near twenty thousand pound But these Corporations which might be Seminaries for employment of people to the incredible happiness and enriching of themselves and the Nation by mistaking their own Interest as well as that of the Nation in insisting upon their Priviledges are become so poor and unfrequented that the Governing part have little to do but to Tax one part of the Inhabitants to maintain the other though the Town-lands and other Revenues for maintaining them be very considerable The Tradesmen are generally Retailers who understand little more than that more of them would eat the Bread out of one anothers Mouths and therefore their chief care is to keep out all others These Elbow-men as they are Idle and bred up in no honest Calling so by their Priviledges they impose what Taxes they please upon the labours of the poor Artificers who are the Soul of a Nation take what they please of them and at what prizes they please But then these Lords in their Exempt Jurisdiction put another value upon them to all Forreigners to their Priviledges so that a Gentleman may buy our own Manufactures in Italy or Turky cheaper than of them and if ever a Noble or Gentleman gets into their Books they rarely ever get out unless they sell Lands to cross their Books and these are the Honourable Priviledges these Patriots of Corporations are incorporated
Linnen Salt and other Commodities of France and so much lessen the Manufactures of France as he encreases his Navigation But the Dutch War is but an accident of the time and it is probable when the French King pleases he may make Peace with the Dutch and so restore the Dutch Navigation again to the trade of France But alas who can ever untwist the Treefold Cord of the Law against Naturalization the Act of Navigation and the Freedom of Corporations here in England Each of these is more mischievous to us here in England than the Dutch-War is to France for France as it is a Kingdom above threefold greater than England so in that proportion it is doubly more peopled and therefore may much better endure the Sequestration of the Dutch Navigation and establish it upon the account of the French than we can our Coast being almost desolate and so poor that they can scarce maintain their poor and so have neither Men nor Means to conserve the little Trades they have much less to encrease them and the Country scarce half Inhabited and so the Lands of England not half improved and at this day I believe the Nobility and Gentry have above twenty thousand Farms in their hands and to take these from Husbandry to people our Coast and encrease our Navigation will leave so many fewer in the Country yet to Eternity for ought is known we must continue in this Condition Coroll 1. By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to sell Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax and many other sorts of Forrein Commodities in England may so much enrich the Nation as they may be made more valuable by the employment of our people 36 Pet. 3. For Timber Pitch Tar c. may be made more valuable by employing our people in building and their Manufactures as they are more and cheaper 37 Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to sell these in England may make them more and cheaper Annot. Though Trade where the Commodities are consumed to loss becomes so much more prejudicial and impoverishes any place so much as such consumption is And therefore as all beneficial Trades ought to be made free and by all means encouraged so it may seem reasonable that destructive Trades where things are vainly consumed and the employment of our people hindred thereby as are our Trades to France and Spain for Wines and to France for fine Linnen Lace Points and the importation of Dutch Black Clothes and French Hats and Druggets whereby the employment of our people is hindred and so much of the Treasure of the Nation exhausted as is spent in our consumption of them ought totally to be prohibited yet neerly looking into it such prohibition will prove dangerous to our Trade at home and abroad and also to the Peace of the Nation For first as every man stands in need of being supplied by another so does every place and therefore if we should prohibit the Importation of the Commodities of France though it be evident the Nation consumes them all to loss except Salt and Sails yet we cannot then but expect the French will likewise prohibit the Importation of our Welch Frizes and Exeter Carseys Leather Gloves Ribbons and several other Commodities whereby the employment of all our Artificers in them being taken away they become miserable and the Lands on which the Wools and the Cattle were renewed become less valuable The reason is the same if we prohibit the Importation of Dutch Black Clothes who take off many of our White Clothes and other Manufactures of England Secondly If we prohibit the French Hats Druggets and Dutch Black Clothes we put our selves and the World upon the Monopoly of having only such as the English make who will soon know the prerogative they enjoy hereby and make the English pay more for worse work than they did before and make them so dear and bad that we shall establish the Forrein Trade of such things to the French and Dutch whereas the Importation of these will be an Awe upon the English to make ours so good and cheap as to supply us and the world better or they will lose their employment And Lastly Such Prohibition causes Haâ—red and Heart-burning between Princes whereby oftentimes Wars ensue though under other pretences Therefore if my opinion were worthy to be admitted no Goods of any sort should be Prohibited but if any be imported which are Luxuriously consumed with little or no employment of the people as the Wines imported are they should pay the King the full value in their consumption but little or nothing if they could be again Transported for the importation is beneficial to the Nation by improving the Rents of Houses the employment of People in Lading and Ualading and in vending our Corn and Provision to the Importer But if an employment may happen to the People of the Nation if things were not imported as in fine Linnen Lace Points Blacks and Druggets encouragement should be given to all people to instruct ours in those Manufactures and such duties for some time imposed on the Importation that better hopes might be expected here than otherwise in working them Prop. 19. Theorem 18. The free permission of Forreigners to Import Timber rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and all sorts of Forrein Goods will so much conserve the Treasure of the Nation as they are cheaper sold 12 Ax. 3. For things will be so much conserved as they are less expended 38 Pet. 3. But less Treasure will be expended in Norway-Timber Pitch Tar Forrein Hemp and Flax and all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and all other Forrein Commodities if they be cheaper vended 39 Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Forrein Commodities will make them cheaper vended Therefore it will so much conserve the Treasure of the Nation Annot. Mr. Mun observes in his 4th chap. of England's Improvements by Forrein Trade that as Legorne is the most flourishing part in the Mediterranean in Trade so the Inhabitants have little Trade but for Goods imported by the Dutch and English which they buy for ready Money and that the Great Duke lent him 40000 Crowns for a year gatis though he knew it would be presently sent out of Italy into Turky to buy Commodities the Great Duke well understanding the returns would be profitable to him and his Subjects yet not by Manufactures which is the most profitable by employing people but by vending them and that by Land-carriage to Milan Piedmont and other places in Italy But if by reason of the Freedom of Legorne wrought Goods imported by Forreigners and bought with ready Mony be so profitable to the Duke of Florence and his Subjects I am sure the free Importation of unwrought Goods into England by Forreigners might be much more profitable to the King and his Subjects by employment of the English in their Manufactures And if that Permission which Oliver dispensed to the
English Norway-Traders for Timber had been continued by the King since his Restauration all that Money had been still conserved in the Nation which was expended in dearer buying Norway Timber imported by the Norwegians in building the City and Suburbs of London and other places and in building and repairing the Navy Royal and other ships of the English Navigation and so might all that superfluous dearness of rough Hemp and Flax whereby our people lost their employment yet in all England the King's duties did not amount to little more than 1500 l. per Annum and perhaps 20000 people might have been employed in the Manufactures of Cordage and Sails so we needed not have vainly been necessitated to have bought them of the Dutch and in our Wars with them of the French Prop. 20. Theorem 19. The free Admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will so much encrease the Riches of England as the Goods imported are more 1 Ax. 3. For every thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 41 Pet. 3. But Goods are Riches 42 Pet. 3. And the free admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will add so much Goods to those of England as the Importation is more free Therefore it will so much encrease the Riches of England Annot. I say this free admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will more certainly enrich the Nation than can be reasonably expected by the returns of the Growths and Manufactures of England and our Plantations in Forrein Trade For the Nation is necessarily enriched so much as the value of the Goods imported by Forreigners amounts to Whereas the Merchant in return of Goods by Forrein Trade is not so secure but he may become a loser or if he or the Nation gains by the returns yet the gain is no more than the value of the Goods returned exceed the value of the Goods Exported which if 1 10 is very considerable whereas the Nation entirely gains the value of the Goods imported by Forreigners And in case the Merchant loses the outward Fraught or the returns of the Goods of England or our Plantations the Nation loses so much as the value of the Goods amount to But the Nation ventures nothing by the Importation of Goods imported by Forreigners yet necessarily gains so much as the Goods imported amount to in value And herein I observe that Goods being valuable as they can be vended the places where they are vended generally receive greater benefit by the Intercourse of People and the varieties of Trades and Traders than the places whereon the Goods are wrought and renewed So that though neither London Amsterdam Hamburg Legorne and many other frequented places have little or no Good of their own growth or Manufactures yet by reason of the frequencles of people in many varieties of Trades they receive much greater benefit than the places on which the Goods are wrought and renewed And I see no reason but if the Importation of Goods were as free in England as in Holland Zealand Hamburg Gottenburg Legorne c. but that our Ports might be as rich and flourishing as these and so much more as ours are better and more convenient Whereas by denying the World this freedom we continue the Poverty of the Towns upon the Coast of England which daily decline and even become desolate and necessitate the world to enrich and strengthen other places with those Riches and People which might be much better and securely enjoyed by us Prop. 21. Theorem 20. The free Importation of Forrein Goods into England may better more safely and conveniently encrease Riches in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands 8 Ax. 3. For things may be better more conveniently and safely done where the places are better more convenient and safe 41 Pet. 3. But the Ports of England are more better and more convenient and safe than those of France or the Vnited Netherlands 20 Prop. 3. And the free Importation of Forrein Goods into England will so much encrease Wealth in it as the Goods imported are more Therefore it may better more safely and conveniently encrease Wealth in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands Annot. If the Ports of England were as free as those of the Vnited Netherlands Hamburg or Gottenburg can any man believe the world would pass Falmouth the most excellent Port of the world and the most convenient for the Southern Western South-Eastern and South-western Trades the noble Ports of Plymouth Dartmouth Exmouth Falmouth the famous Ports of Portsmouth and Harwich equal to any other and of all others the most convenient for the Trade of the East and North-East parts of the World to encounter the Sands upon Zealand or the Rocks before Gottenburg or to be conveyed through the Vly and Texel into the Zuyder-Sea where they are so far from safety that 500 Sail have been stranded by one nights Tempest Our Ports and always as open for any Forrein Trade especially to the South or West as safe for Ships to come in Theirs are dangerous in the approach are unsafe within and commonly frozen up three or four Moneths in the year We have no need of the Mould of Genoua nor take care to draw our Ships over any Pampus to secure them from Storms in the Winter Though Hamburg be a mighty Town of Trade yet we have neither Gluestadt or Stoad to give Laws to our Trade in any of our Ports as both those do to Hamburg We have nothing to say for our selves but though God and Nature never did any thing in vain yet we have made our Ports vain to all the World and almost to our selves The King was pleased about the beginning of the late War with the Dutch to Issue out a Proclamation to invite the Dutch to come into the Ports of England and they and their Ships should enjoy as much priviledge as if they were Natural-born English and their ships English-built But then they had incurred the danger of Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Apparel and Ammunition by the Act of Navigation They could not have unladed their Goods in any Port of England because they were not Free-men of Corporations they must have paid the King above twenty times the Duties before they broke Bulk more than at Hamburg or any Port of the Vnited Netherlands whereby they could never hope for any Forrein Trade by them or expect to vend one half of them in England And this must have been much to the detriment of the English Merchant who either had sufficient or expected to supply England in his future Trade so as not one Vessel came in upon that Proclamation The King was also pleased in that Proclamation to invite all sorts of Artificers to come into England and they should enjoy the benefits of Natural-born English but if they had come and had enjoyed them yet all other English-men are Forreigners to the Freedom of Corporations and so these could have
people at home For it is advantageous in Trades which impoverish and debauch the people to have them driven by few and in Companies and those restrained both to managing the Trades and the prices of the things imported as in the Trades for French Wines and Brandies Italian and Spanish Wines and Fruits and all sorts of fine Linnen Lace and Ribbons c. which are consumed among us for by this mean so much cheaper as they are imported and restrained so much more the Nations Wealth and Stock is preserved Before 1641 the Canary Trade was managed by a Company the Prices were set and the Wines imported were in Barter of our Commodities so as the Nation was not considerably damnified by that Trade But aster that Trade by the Company was left the Vintners in London to get the Flowers as they call them of those Wines outbid one another so high that the prices became near double and rather than lose them they would pay in the Canaries ready Money And so we lost the Barter of our Commodities for them to boor but as well in the Beneficial as Hurtful Trades of the Nation we invert the means by which those may be more improved and these rendred less hurtful For almost all the outward Trades of our Growths and Manufactures are managed by Companies clogged with pre-emption of Freemen But the inward Trades of French Italian and Spanish Wines and Fruits and of fine Linnen Ribbons Lace c. and which are all consumed among us are driven at large by any English or other people of those places who will import them And as by our Monopolizing Trade we restrain the Employment of our people and the Wealth and Strength of the Nation to what the Monopolists please so we had better charge Lands 40 per Cent. than the forrein Trade of our Manufactures two For Lands are only valuable as our Trades especially Forrein are valuable and therefore in case we could doubly encrease the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures our Lands would be of double the value whereas in case we charge the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures two per Cent. above another place we endanger the whole and fix the Trade in that other place See more in the Annot. upon the 26 Prop. of this Discourse HOW THE NAVIGATION OF ENGLAND MAY BE ENCREASED AND THE SOVERAIGNTY OF THE British Seas More SECURED TO THE CROWN of ENGLAND TREATISE IV. By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1675. PREFACE TO THE READER TO Introduce a happy Reign Queen Eliz. before she called a Parliament fitted up and repaired her Navy Royal so as it was far superiour to any other this gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad And well knowing how highly the safety of her Subjects did depend upon conserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas though afterwards she protected the Infant Dutch States to give a check to the growing Austrian Greatness yet would she never permit the Dutch to build such Men of War as thereby to be enabled to question her Dominion in the Seas which beat upon the English Shores And it is said that when Henry the great of France after the Peace of Vervins designed to enlarge the Dominion of France as well by Sea as Land she forhad his building great Ships or she would fire them in his Harbours whereupon this great Monarch did desist King James however he loved Peace did rightly judge he could no way secure it so well as by fortifying the strength of his Navy Royal and to that left by Queen Elizabeth he added the Prince Royal the Old James and several others King Charles the first a Prince of Sacred memory not knowing where the swelling Dutch Navigation would end and how much it might tend to the diminution of his Honour and endangering the safety of his Subjects judged it necessary for conservation of both yet further to enlarge his Navy yet was unhappy that his Subjects did not or would not rightly understand him in it This was a Navy so Invincible to any Humane Power that though Sir William Batten in 1648 carried a very considerable part of it to his now Majesty yet with the residue of it and the Speaker and Warwick Frigats one of the third rate the other of the fourth rate conjoyned with some Hired Merchants-ships the Rump-Parliament in 1651 1652 and 1653 without difficulty overcome the Dutch in all Fights and had without doubt subdued them if Oliver had not first turned them out and after in 1654 made an unsetled and dishonourable Peace with the Dutch The Dutch secured by this Peace to prevent the Ruine of their State by another War with the English immediately built much larger and more Men of War than they had which could not be concealed from Oliver who encreased the English Fleot with many more and very considerable men of War And after the King's Restauration before the next Dutch War in 1664 the King added many more so as the English Navy Royal was more than twice as formidable as it was when the Rump Engaged the Dutch But the Dutch having greater quantities and more choice of Timber and many more Builders than could be found in England though the experience the English acquired in Naval fights with the Dutch in the former War were much augmented yet could not the English obtain so easie a Victory as before and at this time it is said the Dutch have above 50 Men of War more than the King has and of equal if not greater Bulk in the main and above 2500 pieces of Cannon The Kings of Sweden and Denmark and much more the French King Alarm'd by this encrease of the English and Dutch Fleets in proportion enlarged theirs so that the French Fleet is in number and bigness Superior to the English but by reason of want of Mariners none of them is comparably so formidable But because Ships without Mariners and Mariners without Ships signifie but little in War let us see from what Causes the Dutch are become so formidable to the English by Sea above the French Dane or Swede After Queen Elizabeth had fitted and repaired the Navy Royal as has been said in the first Parliament of her Reign chap. 13. she enlarged the Trade of the Nation by permitting the English to Trade in any Vessels paying Strangers Duties as this encreased the Trade of the Nation so did it Mariners whereby her Navy might be more and better supplied by them This paying strangers Duties for Goods Imported into England was the principal cause the Dutch found an easie Foundation of their future great Trade and encrease of Mariners above what could be employed from the Ports of England For about fourteen years after the Dutch Government began to Bud in t o States and being pressed in their Wars against the Spaniards permitted all Nations to Import and Export Goods paying
small Duties whereby they became enabled not only to make profitable Returns of the Fishing Trade to many other parts of the World but of French Wines Salt Clothes from England and many other Commodities from Germany and other places and established other Trades upon the returns of these whereas the payment of Strangers Duties upon Goods Imported into England necessitated a Consumption of them here and so the outward Trade and the Returns became impossible to us and by consequence the employment of all those Mariners who depended upon them This Liberty and smalness of Duties upon Goods Imported and Exported by the Dutch in Queen Elizabeth's Reign swell'd the Dutch Trade out of the bounds of Europe into the East and West-Indies which afterwards in the Reigns of King James and Charles the first became incredibly encreased Whereas notwithstanding the Liberty granted to the English by the 1 Eliz. 13. the English being oppressed in the Fishing Trade by reason of paying such great Duties upon Goods imported for Fish vended in forrein Trade above the Dutch and towards the latter end of her Reign the people upon the Coast expecting to reap a greater benefit by the Newcastle-trade deserted the Fishing Trade in forrein parts for white Herring Ling and Cod which being presently possessed by the Dutch they thereby so much encreased their Mariners and Navigation as the English became losers in both And this was so much more pernicious to the English by how much the Fishing Trade was diffused generally from the Eastern Ports of England and all sorts of people employed in it whereas the Newcastle-trade is driven but by few and none but younger men employed in it The Loss of the forreign Trade for Fish from the Ports of England was not sensibly perceived in King James his Reign by reason of the encrease of the Newcastle-trade and of the Spanish Trade whereof the English became upon the matter Proprietors by the Peace the King made with Spain and also about the middle of his Reign the Barbadoes and Virgina-Trade became considerable and the Trade of the English to the East-Indies was much encreased whereby the Nation became incredibly enriched more than it was in Queen Elizabeth's Reign or in any other Prince's before her The Seeds of these Trades thus laid in King James his Reign sprung up exceedingly in King Charles his Reign and the Plantations of Maryland and New-England were added to those of Virginia and Barbadoes But in the mean time the Dutch encreased their Trades to Muscovy into the Baltick up the Elb to Turky and Italy so that I cannot tell whether we employed more Mariners by encreasing our Western Plantations or lost the employment of more in the Trades which the Dutch sought to supplant us in The War breaking out in 1641 between the King and Parliament streightned the English from fully supplying the East-Country and Germany with Woollen Manufactures whereupon the English upon the matter have lost the Trade into the Sound and the Mariners their Employment and the Trade up the Elb is much reduced And the Murther of the King in 1648 extinguished that part of the Trade to Muscovy which the Dutch had left for the English share And as the Act of the 1 Eliz. 13. did so much preserve the English Timber by how many more forrein Vessels were employed and bought by the English and the 35 of Eliz. 11. was purposely made for further preservation of it so the Terrour of the Act of Navigation hath made both these wholsome Laws ineffectual to the Nation and to the charge of Duties upon Goods imported into England added the dearness of Shipping to it of about â…“ so that all those Trades which could not overcome these Charges became lost to the Nation and by consequence the employment of those Mariners which depended upon them The last I may say fatal Acts to the English Navigation and Mariners were those of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. against Importation of Irish Cattle whereby the means of Intercourse between the two Nations being violated all the Trades as well Forreign as Domestick which depended thereon became lost to this Nation and by consequence the employment of all those Mariners which before sought their Living in them I say this to shew that it is the Dutch Navigation and multitude of Mariners as well as greatness and numbers of men of War which makes them so formidable to the English above the French Dane or Swede and in case we take no care to encrease our Navigation and Mariners the English Navy Royal may become as little formidable to them as the French Dane and Swede are to us Especially now the Dutch can build twenty men of War and of equal Dimensions to one the King of England can and in less time and have above tenfold the Mariners the English have whereof fivefold are Mariners whose Interest purely depends upon the Dutch Government whereas the Mariners of England now the Trade between England and Ireland is lost have little or no dependence upon the Nation in all the forrein Trades of it and to our Plantations but in case the Dutch or any other Nation will give them better pay it is our Mariners Interest to serve them In a Book Printed by Authority of the Rump-Parliament 1652 with Mr. Selden's Treatise of the Dominion of the British Seas Intituled The Riches and Commodities of the British Seas Fol. 488. it is affirmed the number of the Dutch Ships Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland to be 8400 and if twenty men be allowed to each Ship the Mariners and Fishers amount to 168000 out of which Number they daily furnish their longer Voyages to all parts of the World for by this mean they are enabled to brook the Seas and instructed in Navigation and Pilotage from whence their Greatest Navigators have had their Education And Mr. Evelyn in his late Book Intituled The Original and Progress of Navigation and Commerce mentions their Number of Mariners and Men sit for Sea-Service in their Wars to amount to 120000. Of the Strength Charge and Number of the English Navy Royal in the times of our late Princes with their Designes as also of the strength of the Navies of our Neighbours the Dutch and French Colonel Thompson a quondam Commissioner of the Navy is said to have very good and large Historical Collections PETITIONS 1. THe forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures is a Principle to the Navigation of them to and from the Ports of England 2. The free premission of Forreigners to make returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and export them may encrease trade to from the Ports of England 3. Trade between England and Ireland is a Principle to the English Navigation between England and Ireland 4. The Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 5. Trade to and from the Ports of England is
of England and Scotland from any of the Ports of England â…“ or half the value of his Vessel the Nation would be â…” or twice so much a Gainer more than if any Native bought such forrein Vessel and for my part as poor as I am I should most willingly Contribute to such a Tax Prop. 5. Theorem 5. The free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland into the Ports of England and to export them may increase the Navigation of England 1 Ax. 4. For business may be so much increased as the principles are increased 5 Pet. 4. But Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle to the Navigation of England 9 Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to make Returns of Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland into the Ports of England c. may increase the Trade of England to and from the Ports of England Therefore it may increase the Navigation of England Annot. And this Navigation may be so much better more conveniently and safely increased as our Ports are better more convenient and safe than those of Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands Which being so I see no reason but that the Groenland Fishing and the returns thereof may be better more conveniently and safely carried on from the Ports of England than from Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands in case the Fishing and Returns were as free here as there As the free Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may increase the Navigation of England so will the forrein vent of Fish and so will the Returns and Exporting them again from the Ports of England c. But as the dearness of Navigation may strangle the forrein vent of our Fish and fix the Trade and Navigation to other places so unless the Returns be as free and cheap in England as other places whereby they may again finde vent in forrein Trade though the outward Trade were as free and cheap as in other places yet it would be impossible to increase the fishing trade beyond the consumption of the Returns in England and the Moneys paid for them Prop. 6. Theorem 6. The free admission of Forreigners to Inhabit in England and to Fish and Trade in any Vessels to Forreign parts for Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are increased 10 Pet. 4. But Navigation is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 3 Prop. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to inhabit Fish and Trade c. may increase the Navigation of England Therefore it may more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Coroll By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and to Export them may more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 10 Pet. 4. For Navigation is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 5 Prop. 4. And the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland into the Ports of England and export them may increase the Navigation of England Annot. upon this Prop. and Coroll Navigation is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England which being so the Navigation which arises from the Fishing-trade and the Returns into the Ports of England and exporting them again c. above all others will more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas For in the Navigation which arises from the forrein Trade of our Manufactures it may be we employ not one Mariner to one thousand of those who are employed in working the Manufactures and it may be not one Vessel to ten thousand whereas even in the catching and curing the Fish we employ Vessels in Navigation and all the Men are Mariners or such as by it become Mariners Besides the Bulkiness of the Fish in forrein Trade employ so many more Vessels and Mariners as they are more Bulky than other Goods and the free Importing and Exporting of the Returns creates a new Trade and by consequence a new Navigation to the further employment of Shipping and Mariners so may the free returns of these and exporting them again and so infinitely whereby the Sovereignty of the British Seas may be infinitely more secured to the Crown of England Prop. 7. Theorem 7. The free admission of Forreigners to Inhabit in England and to Fish and Trade into forrein parts with Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and freely to make returns into the Ports of England and Export them will so much diminish the Navigation of those who may be Enemies to the Crown of England as the Navigation of England shall be thereby increased 2 Ax. 1. For in every thing the Effects will be as the Causes are 11 Pet. 4. But the increase of the Navigation of England by Forreigners will so much diminish the Navigation of others who may be Enemies to the Crown of England 3 Prop. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to Inhabit in England and to fish and trade into forrein parts c. will increase the Navigation of England 5 Prop. 4. So will the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns into the Ports of England and Export them c. Therefore it will so much diminish the Navigation of those who may be Enemies to the Crown of England Annot. It is said in a Treatise Licensed by the Authority of the rump-Rump-Parliament in the additional Evidences p. 488. after Mr. Selden's Mare Clausum that the Dutch in the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland employed 8400 Vessels and 168000 Mariners and Fishers which however it may seem incredible yet if we consider the vast Fleets they yearly send into the Sound to Muscovy France Spain and Italy whose Freight is in a great measure made up of Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland besides the Busses and Mariners employed in the Fishery and the multitudes of Shipwrights Carpenters Smiths and all sorts of people employed in making Ropes Nets and Sails for the Fishery and Trades depending upon it without doubt the employment of people is very considerable and the Navigation even incredible it being the Basis of all the Trades the Dutch drive in the world all their other Trades and Navigation being upon the Principles acquired from other places originally derived from the Fishing-Trade It is a Shame and Scandal then besides the danger of it to the English Nation that it was never in any well-weighed Counsel considered from what Causes the Dutch in numerous Fleets for four Moneths in the year follow
both these Trades would be profitable to the Nation in the outward freight so might the Returns the Trades and Navigation might be constant and in the seasonable Times of Navigation and for ought I know we might constantly employ double the Sea-men and Mariners in these Trades to the Mariners and Navigation we employ for French Wines and Brandies in the Moneths of October November and December For the Importation of Salt I say it may be one Vessel of Salt may with that Commodity supply a hundred Vessels for the Fishing Trade c. And in case Forreigners import Salt cheaper than the English all these hundred Vessels will have the benefit of it And whether we ought to prefer the English Navigation for one Vessel of Salt or the Fishery of a hundred Vessels and the Navigation which depends upon it I leave to any one to judge Besides the cheap Importation of Salt has not onely an Influence upon the forrein Trade of it but upon all the Vessels which take in Provisions of Salt-Beef and Pork c. Prop. 17. Theorem 17. The free permission of the English in English-built ships to export Newcastle-Coals and make Returns into the Ports of England may more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are increased 4 Pet. 4. But the Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the Brittish Seas to the Crown of England 2 Coroll And the free permission of the English in English-built ships to export Newcastle-coals and make Returns into the Ports of England may increase the Navigation of England Therefore it may so much more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. This permission will not only secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England by how many more Mariners are employed in it whereby the King upon all occasions may have them to help to man his Fleet but even Colliers ships make very good Men of War as the Nation found in all the late Wars with the Dutch But if the increase of Mariners and English ships secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England then by the Rule of Contraries the loss of English Shipping and Mariners in Trading for French Wines by English and in English-built ships in the dangerous seasons of Navigation so much more endangers the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England by how many more Mariners and Ships we lose in so fruitless and unnecessary a Navigation EPILOGUE THus have I so well as I can endeavoured to describe the benefits which may arise to my native Country from those Natural Endowments wherewith God has adornâ—d it above any other But as the Law against Naturalization restrains the Improvement of our Native Commodities only to English whereby infinite benefits might accrue to the Nation and the priviledges of Corporations restrains the improvement of very few yet veryer poor Freemen whereby both ways the Navigation as well as the Forein and Domestick Trade of the Nation is hindred So the Act of Navigation restraining the forrein vent of our Commodities and making Returns into the Ports of England not only by the scarcity and dearness of Shipping endangers the Trade and Navigation of the Nation but prohibiting upon terms of Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Ammunition and Apparel all Nations to import Goods into any of the Ports of England unless by the Natives and Ships of the place not only the export of French Wines Salt Brandies and other Commodities with the growths and Manufactures of the Nation becomes impossible to the infinite hindrance of the forrein Trade of them but also by reason of the dearness and scarcity of Pitch Tar Timber Ruff Hemp and Flax and all sorts of Dying stuff the Domestick working of our Manufactures as well as the forrein Trade and Navigation which depends thereon is forely damnified Add hereto the intolerable injuries all the Natives of England suffer unless in the Turkie and East-Indie-Companies by the Masters of all ships in almost all the Trades they now drive in the World nor is it possible to be remedied as the case stands for if the Nation be not content herewith they must have no forrein Trade at all Whereas it hath been always the practice of the Wisest Princes and States by all just means to enlarge the Trades and Navigation of their Countries and where Nature hath not granted them convenient Ports by Art to supply Natures defects With what wonder is the Mole of Genoua founded for reception of Shipping whereby to enlarge Trade to and from it The Pen of Great Yarmouth is a rarity equal to any the Nation can boast of by the benefit whereof this Town after London and Bristol excels all others of England in Trade and Navigation Our King in his Princely Wisdome at great expence endeavours to finish the Mole at Tangier thereby reasonably hoping that that place may become famous for Trade and a secure Harbour for his Men of War and the Merchants of England upon all occasions both in Peace but more in time of War With a diligence and industry equal to his power the French King endeavours to make the Port of Havre de Grace more deep and commodious for Shipping thereby to advance the Trade and Navigation of France especially of Normandy and Britain Even the Act of Navigation with reason prohibits the Trade of our Plantations to Forreigners because thereby though it would enrich them by how much more their Trade would become greater yet this would be so much to the loss of the Nation and permits a free Trade to Tangier because it may enrich the place and make it more frequented I am sure the reason is the same by making the Ports of England free which have no need of the Mole of Genoua or Tangier nor is Trade to and from them interrupted by any Stoad or Gluckstadt the World by Trading to them need not fear to encounter the Rocks before Gottenburg or the Sands before Zealand or the Mouth of the Maze No danger of stranding ships in our Ports as at Amsterdam Harlem Enchuysen and other Ports within the Zuyder-Sea By a benignity peculiar to our Country no where else to be found in the same Climate but in Ireland so gentle a Temper thaws the sharp Frosts so as our Ports are always open and free for any Trade especially to the Western Southern and South-East and South-West parts of the World whereas those upon our opposite Shores are commonly frozen three or four Moneths in the year And though all the Shipping and Goods thus imported by Forreigners were no longer ours than the Merchants and Owners pleased yet by reason of the Intercourse and Commerce the Trade would so much more fix as the Commerce is more free the World would finde the benefit of Traffick from
the Excellency Convenience and Openness of our Ports which in time may invite them to establish their Riches and Trade in our Country and leave them to their Posterities with us in England In the mean time the Country-Farn or would finde vent of his Commodities in Vâ—ctualling the Vssels and poor people employment in mending the Ships and Rigging and in lading and unlading Goods and many thousands of desolate Houses upon the Coast would let for good Rents which now decay and fall down for want of Inhabitants By this free Importation of Goods into the Ports of England we may infinitely improve the benefits which will accure to a'l sorts of Artificers by the plenty and cheapness of all things they need and to the forrein Trades of our Woollen and other Manufactures by their Returns into the Ports of England the multitudes of Shipping and Traders will excite them to seek employment for their Shipping in all sorts of Commodities we can supply them with and they the World This Freedom and Intercourse in our Ports would establish an Interest with all those Nations which hold Trade and Traffick with us so as their Interest would become interwoven with ours in all discords and Wars between us and other Nations And I am not affraid to say that the City of London would equally if not more than any other place enjoy benefit by this freedom of Trade and Navigation for it is the Trade London now enjoys above any other place in England which makes it so eminent above all other places of England which might be so much more increased as the Nation by this Freedom may hold a greater Commerce with it Whereas in case we continue still to Tax and restrain our forrein Trades of all places London will suffer most For the Country of England may subsist though poorly without a forrein Trade or Trade with London But in case the Nation loses the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures and the Country becomes so poor as they cannot hold Commerce with London London cannot subsist But though all Humane Wisdome is Lame and imperfect and without a Blessing by God's Providence upon it cannot reasonably hope to attain the designed end yet no man can reasonably hope for God's Blessing upon business where he designes by forceable means more than the Nature of it to attain his Ends. We have said the height of Duties upon Goods imported into England was the Cause the Dutch are become so powerful in Trade and Navigation above us and that it was the Imposition of 16 per Cent. upon Goods imported which lost the Trade of Genoua to Legorne and at this time we enjoy most infinite advantages above the Dutch as well in our Country as Coast And to these may be added the present Calamities the Dutch now labour under by the terrible Inundation of Waters which they can never securely prevent for the future But as the Dutch in their long Wars with the Spaniards built a Fort called Lillo upon the Scheld to interrupt the Traffick which many parts of the world held with Antwerp thereby to gain that Trade to themselves So the Act of Navigation Freedom of Corporations and the Law against Naturalization are Lillo's upon all the Ports of England yet was there no War between the Ports and Nation to cause them and this not to gain a Trade to the Ports or Nation but to establish it in other places And though the forrein Trade of our Manufactures and the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and the Navigation depending thereon be the Soul of the well-being and safety of the Nation yet in it is not so much as a Council of Trade or any established Power to Govern or Regulate it THE END * Hist An. L. 5. c. 19.
encrease the Navigation of England Therefore it will so much secure the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. I say the Repealing of these Laws may encrease or rather restore the Navigation of England which it formerly enjoyed before them And in truth I am content this Trade and Navigation should so far as it can be carried on only by English yet in such Vessels as the English can manage it to their best benefit whereby only this Nation might be the Store-house of supplying the Irish with all sorts of Commodities they want and that the Nation might have the home-benefit of working their Wools and the forrein benefits of vending their Hides Tallow and Yarn c. for it is as much our Interest the English should enjoy these Trades and Navigation depending thereon as that only the English should have the benefit of the Trade and Navigation to our Plantations or the Dutch Interest alone to have the Spice-Trade and the Navigation which depends thereon But since Navigation is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England the loss of it is as much dangerous to it It is not the number and greatness of the French Navy Royal which makes the French King neer so formidable at Sea as either the English or Dutch but their want of such Trades as might encrease their Navigation and Mariners Prop. 3. Theorem 3. The free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to Fish and Trade into forrein parts with Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may encrease the Navigation of England 1 Ax. 4. For business may be so much encreased as the Principles are encreased 5 Pet. 4. But Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle of the Navigation of England 6 Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish and trade into forrein parts with Fish c. may encrease the Trade of England Therefore it may so much encrease the Navigation of England Annot. After the Navigation which may arise from the Trade of our Manufactures and the free Intercourse between England and Ireland I desire Navigation in England may be encreased by the Fishing Trade especially of the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland not only as the Fish may be more conveniently caught by such as fish from the Ports of England if the King pleases to deny others to dry their Nets or take in Fresh Water in any of his Dominions but also the Freighting of Vessels with Beer and Provisions may be cheaper in the Fishery and forrein vent of Fish from the Ports of England besides the employment of many thousands of our poor people would be of infinite benefit to the Lands of England as the Fishery and forrein Trade of them should be encreased and the Towns upon the Eastern Coast of England which are now even desolate would become rich and populous Moreover it is a Scandal and dishonour to the Crown of England which contains the Sovereignty of the British Seas that the benefits which arise from these Seas should be lost to this Nation and established in others to their enriching and encrease of Navigation I say this free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish and Trade into forrein parts with Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may encrease the Navigation of England for thereby their Interest being planted in the Nation it would enjoy the fruits of their Trade and Navigation Nor do I understand how otherwise at least at present this Nation can hope to enjoy the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland or the forrein Trade of it or any part of it For the Inhabitants upon the Eastern Coast of England are so thin that the Towns upon it except Great Yarmouth are even desolate and so poor that they have no means to build or buy Vessels for this Trade nor have Factors or Agents in forrein parts whereby to entertain Trade and Commerce And also the Timber of England is so destroyed by the niggardly Trades we now enjoy whereby we can do little more than consume in England the Returns of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations that it is not long possible by it to maintain these Trades therefore less possible by it to establish the Fishing Trade which it may be will require more Shipping than we now employ in all the Trades we drive in the World Or in case we had quantities of Timber sufficient for carrying on the Fishing Trade yet would it be of no benefit to us in this Trade for the Fish cost nothing but the catching and the Hull of a Vessel for the Fishing Trade or Fishery may be built for ⅔ of what one of equal dimensions can be built in England and those built of English Timber are so heavy that they require ½ more Sails and Cordage to fit them up and so more Hands to manage them whereby it becomes impossible to the English to Fish and Trade so cheap as the Dutch and Hamburger Nor is this Mischief as the case stands possible to be remedied by Vessels built of forrein Timber in England for by reason of the high Duties upon it and the Advantages the Norwegians have by imposing their own Terms upon us the English at this day pay 30 l. per Cent. more for Timber imported than the Dutch or Hamburgers do Prop. 4. Theorem 4. The free Admission of Forreigners to Inhabit in England and in any Vessels to Fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and to Trade into forrein parts will so much encrease the Riches of England as the Vessels they Fish and Trade in are valuable 1 Ax. 3. For things will be so much encreased as is added to them 7 Pet. 4. But Fishing and Trading Vessels are Riches 8 Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish c. and Trade c. will add so many Vessels to those of England as they Fish and Trade in Therefore it will so much encrease the Riches of England Annot. This Admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England c. as it will so much enrich the Nation as the Vessels they Fish and Trade in are in value in case they bring Vessels into England so will it so much enrich the Nation in case they bought the Vessels here in England and employed them from the Ports of it For then the Nation retains the Vessels still and so much as is expended therein will be added to the Treasure of the Nation Since therefore the Nation will be so much enriched as the Vessels wherein Forreigners Fish and Trade from our Ports are in value I say that in case a Revenue for some time were established to pay every Forreigner who would inhabit in England and Fish upon the Coasts
since the Act of Navigation nor as the case stands can ever hope to do so in time of War between the Dutch and French the Newcastle-ships are so employed in other Trades as the home-vent of Coal is not only not throughly supplied but our Norway-Merchants cannot hire enough to furnish us as at other times especially in our Trades to Dromen Northward of Bergen as Mr. Hammond a Norway-Merchant who affirms that in this Trade he vends more of our English Manufactures than all our Norway Merchants do in all their other Trades to Norway has often complained to me And though the King has been pleased to permit our Norway Merchants to buy about 50 Flyboats yet these with the addition of the Dutch Prizes taken in the late War will not neer supply the defect And I say moreover in case the English be not permitted to buy Ships in this Trade and in our Trades to our Plantations Hamburg Muscovy to France Spain Guiny and into the Sound and other places we shall endanger the loss of these Trades as well as the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades and the Sovereignty of the British Seas And that the Title of the Act of Navigation is a contradiction in affirming it to be for Increase and Encouragement of Navigation and Mariners yet confining them both to English-built Ships and sailed by ¾ English Prop. 11. Theorem 11. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cheaper increase the Navigation of England 4 Ax. 4. For things may be so much cheaper increased as the means are cheaper 22 Pet. 1. But Ships are means in Navigation 16 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cheaper increase ships in England Therefore it may cheaper increase theNavigation of England Annot. May cheaper increase Ships in England I could rarely discourse this point but it would still be objected against me that though forrein ships be cheaper than English-built yet English ships are more strong and durable and this contended with such heat as would not admit of a comparison of the benefits which might accrue by the strength and durableness of ours and the cheapness and convenience of forrein ships I confess for ought I know the strength and durableness of English-built ships may be a reason to have the King's Men of War and ships for the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades built of English Timber so long as the Timber of England can afford it But in our other Trades though we had Timber sufficient and it were my opinion it were better to carry on these Trades in English built ships yet I say no man less conversant in any business understands so well as a man more conversant in it by what means he can best carry on his business and therefore if the English Merchant findes he can better carry on his business in English-built ships no question but he will prefer them before forein But if the English Merchant be confined to English built ships in his trades and can get none or if they be so dear or inconvenient for we do not understand how to build convenient ships for all Trades as not to finde profit not only the Mariners lose their employment but it may be the employment of a thousand other people whose Labours depend upon that Trade will be hereby lost Corollary By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax into England may cheaper increase the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails in England 17 Pet. 4. For Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax are Principal means in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails 18 Pet. 4. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax may so much increase these cheaper in England as the Importation is more free Annot. After the establishing Religion and Justice no greater happiness attends any Nation than the constant imployment of people And I say both Religion and Justice may much better be propagated upon people bred up in honest Professions than upon those who subsist by Pilfering Cheating Stealing Canting and Begging and therefore all those Laws or other means which take away the employment of people in honest Professions do not onely make them miserable and a burthen to the Nation but hinder the growth of Religion and Justice And if the Importation of Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax were permitted to be as freely imported into England as Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands I see no reason but many thousands of poor people in the Suburbs of London and in all the Towns upon the Eastern Ports of England might better and cheaper be employed in making Ropes Nets and Sails than in Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands by how much the Inhabitants may cheaper subsist and be maintained than those in Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands Before the Act of Navigation the English by the 1 Eliz. 13. might import Pitch and Tar in any Vessels and before the year 1640 the English by reason of the goodness of their Trade into the Sound returned such quantities of Ruff Hemp and Flax that the poor people upon the Eastern Coast of England did make sufficient Ropes Nets and Sails for the Fishery and Navigation of it And after the English had for reasons before-said in the former Treatises and this Preface almost lost the Trade into the Sound yet before the Act of Navigation having free liberty to import Pitch and Tar and the Dutch importing Ruff Hemp and Flax upon reasonable terms this employment continued to the incredible support of the poor Inhabitants in the Towns upon the Coast But the Act of Navigation prohibiting the English to import Pitch and Tar unless in English-built ships and the English not being able to build one ship for the Trade of them they were reduced to have it upon such terms as the Norwegians pleased to impose upon them And though Oliver permitted the Norway Traders to import Timber in any Vessels notwithstanding the Act of Navigation yet the Law still was in force against Importation of Pitch and Tar and theDutch not being permitted to import Ruff Hemp Flax and the English Trade into the Sound every day decaying few returns from Riga Revel Narve or Quinborough of Ruff Hemp and Flax was made into England but in English Vessels outward fraught with Ballast and bought with ready Money whereby Ruff Hemp and Flax became so dear that the poor English lost the employment In the Town of Yarmouth before the Act of Navigation the Inhabitants made yearly 2800 Tun of Cordage besides Nets and Sails now for the Reasons aforesaid they make not ten and neither Nets or Sails for the Dutch importing Ruff Hemp and Flax and Pitch and Tar ⅓ cheaper can work these so cheap as the English cannot and then the Act of Navigation
permits the English to buy them and the Dutch to import them but sure this is not made either for employment of our people or for increase of Religion or Justice in England Prop. 12. Theorem 12. The free permission of Forreignes to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax will so much more preserve the Treasure of the Nation as the Importation is more free 11 Ax. 3. For things will be so much more preserved as less is expended of them 19 Pet. 4. But so much less of the Treasure of the Nation will be expended in buying Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax as they are cheaper 18 Pet. 4. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax will make them so much cheaper as the Importation is more free Therefore it will so much preserve the Treasure of the Nation Annot. This permission will not only preserve so much of the Treasure of the Nation by how much Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax are cheaper sold but by how much the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails made of them arise in value above their Principles Therefore the not permitting this Importation both ways Exhausts the Treasure of the Nation and that to such a degree that I remember before the Act of Navigation I was a part-Builder in a Vessel for the Newcastle-trade and about four years after the same Builder and Owners when the poor people upon the Coast had lost their employment in making Cordage and Sails paid above â…“ more in proportion for the fitting out this Vessel than we did for the former Prop. 13. Theorem 13. The free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax and Timber into England may cheaper increase the building and fitting up of Ships in England 4 Ax. 4. For business may be so much cheaper increased as the means are cheaper increased 20 Pet. 4. But Ropes Sails and Timber are means in building and fitting up of Ships Coroll Prop. 11. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax into England may cheaper increase the Manufactures of Ropes and Sails in England 21 Pet. 4. And so this permission may cheaper increase Timber in England Therefore it may cheaper increase the building of Ships in England Annot. Though I desire the Trade and Navigation of the Nation should be increased by permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades yet I had rather all their Trades were carried on by Ships built in the Ports of England for if it be better for a Nation that in any profitable employment the Inhabitants earn 10000 l. or a greater or lesser sum than to have 10000 l. or a greater or lesser sum given them and the people not employed then so much better it is for this Nation to have ships built in the Ports of it than to buy them by how much the Labours of the people in building and fitting up of ships are valuable But to attain to this in England it will not be only necessary freely to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax and Timber but also to permit all forrein Ship-wrights to inhabit and have equal freedom to exercise their Professions in all convenient places in England for building Ships for no man is born an Artificer but it comes to pass by Education Labour and Experience and the English are unacquainted in building Busses for the Fishing Trade and in building ships for the Norway or Groenland Trades and many other The Dutch build ships for all Trades according to the best convenience we only know how to build Men of War and our ships for other Trades are of like figure whether it be convenient or not Consequences From hence it is that the English are not able so to build one Buss or Vessel for the Fishery and forrein Trade of White Herring caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland as to turn to profit or for the Groenland Fishery and forrein Trade of it or for the Norway Trade But Trading in Newcastle-ships to Norway and the ships being dear and Inconvenient for that Trade enables the Norwegians to impose like Rates upon us for Pitch Tar and Timber as the English can import these in those dearer and more inconvenient Ships they are restrained to The King's Duties and employment of English Mariners are opposed to this free Importation of Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp Flax and Timber For the Kings Duties upon an enquiry about four years since I found the King's Duties for Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax imported did amount to about 1600 l. per Annum and if the payment of Searchers and other Officers of the Custom-house were deducted perhaps not 1000 l. per Annum came clear to the King So that if the whole Duties hereof were taken away the Revenue of the Crown would not be hereby much diminished It is true the King's Duties for Timber imported since the burning the City of London are considerable yet not so to the King for it is Farmed out and the Farm to the King is as I am informed 6000 l. per Annum whereas if the inward Freight of these were as cheap as into Holland or Hamburg besides the employment of our people the King's Duties by the greatness of the Trade might be so much more as the Trade is greater and the King save more by the cheapness of Timber in building and repairing his Men of War and Palaces than now his Revenue for Timber amounts to In the employment of our Mariners to import Ruff Hemp and Flax two Considerations arise First The number of Ships and Mariners employed Secondly The Employment The number of ships employed so well as I can learn are about nine whereof two are fraught outward with Cony-skins and Woollen Manufactures the other seven take Bills of Exchange from Hamburg and have no outward Lading but Ballast so that the number of Ships being nine allowing thirteen Men to every ship and the Voyage to Dantzick Queenborough Riga Revel and Narve to be four Moneths the whole amounts to 117 Mariners who being employed but â…“ of the year the constant employment of 39 Mariners is equivalent to it But if we consider the employment the outward Voyage of seven of these ships is lost time to the Mariners and loss to the Nation in the Ware and Tare of the Ships for want of a Freight and so much more as the Hemp and Flax is bought with ready Money for want of Goods to exchange for them So I leave it to any to judge whether the employment of 39 Mariners whereof above 30 are not only in half of their employment idly employed but to the loss and impoverishing the Nation be comparable to the constant employment of it may be above 100000 people by the free importation of Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp Flax and Timber in building ships and in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails Coroll By