of the 76 years mentioned in the Accompt from the Mint many of them within 20 years last SECT XI Particular decays in our Exportations and the beneficial parts of our Trade Instances in the decay of our Foreign-Trade for Woollen Clothing in the several Countries and Ports we Traded to in the sinking of the foreign price of this Manufacture so of exporting Wooll in our foreign victualling Trades for Flesh Butter Cheese c. in our Irish Trade and Scotch Trade for almost all sorts of Commodities Irish Wooll increased The Expiration of the Irish Acts will not now revest that Trade but prejudice us more and in what decays in our several former and late Fishing-Trades in our Foreign-Trade for Stockings and Hats in our exports to the Canaries in the Foreign-Price of our exported Tyn and Lead and the Price and quantity of exported Pewter in our Trade from Port to Port our former and late prejudices in our Plantation-Trade incidently of our Navigation and other things I Shall begin with our Exportations and as I shall pass from one particular to another in this and the next Section shall desire the indifferent Reader to put such an estimation on our losses in Trade as he shall think reasonable and shall first instance in our Woollen Manufactures as being our principal Commodity and certainly of the most general and necessary use and therefore in its nature the best in the World. Before Edward the thirds time the Flemings Manufactured our Wooll and had the Merchandize of it which gave the original Foundation to the former Wealth and Popularity of the Netherlands Edw. 3. observing the great advantages the Flemings made of our Wooll brought over some Flemish Manufacturers who by degrees taught the Manufacture of Cloaths of all sorts Worsted and divers others particularly mentioned in our Statutes of former times and as the English more applied themselves to it and increased ours as soon they did so did that of the Flemings decay For first the English had the materials cheaper than the Flemings not only by the odds in the carriage out of England but because the raw Woolls afterwards exported were charged with great Customs and Duties to the King as appears by the Acts and Writings of those times Secondly Because the Manufacture was continually incouraged and taken care of by Laws for that purpose as also appears by our Statute-Book Thirdly At that time we had none of the present Clogs on our Manufactures which have either become so by the better Methods of Trade first contrived by the Dutch States or have been grafted upon us by private or mistaken interests long since Edw. 3 ds time I do not find that there was any absolute Prohibition of exporting Wooll till the Statute of the 12th of His now Majesty chap. 32. yet the example of our cunning Neighbours now tell us that Prohibitions accompanied with a due Improvement of Trade at home are not to be condemned The Flemish Cloath-trade was long since so far reduced that we had the sole Merchandise of it yet it cannot be denyed but the Flemings kept up a Manufacture of a sort of Stuffs and Sayes but of no great bulk the make whereof the English had not been taught till the Duke of Alva about 100 years since by his Tyranny and Persecution for Conscience drove away their Manufacturers whom Queen Elizabeth like her wise Predecessor Edward the third entertained seating them in Norwich Colchester and Canterbury whereby these Manufactures became incorporated into the English to the great advantage of those parts and of the Nation in general they also taught us the art of making Tapestry Before this the English exported great quantities of our Manufacture into Flanders but doubtless more afterwards for which we kept a rich Staple at Antwerp the Dutch long after they became States were ignorant of this Manufacture whom we therefore wholly supplied exporting vast quantities of our Cloaths thither most Whites which were there dyed and dressed and from these parts transmitted into the Southern and South-east Countries of Germany and many other Nations we had also the sole trade up the Elbe and thereby to the North parts of Germany Jutland and Holsteyne We had the sole Trade into Denmark Norway Swedeland and Liefland and to the great Territory of Poland through Dantzick by our Eastland Company formerly very flourishing and called the Royal Company We had also the sole Trade to the vast Empire of Muscovy All which Trades are sunk to a small matter the Dutch having set up mighty Woollen Manufactures of all sorts and the Flemings renewed or enlarged theirs our exports to those parts are very much reduced Our Hamburgh Company by whom the North parts of Germany Jutland and Holsteyne were supplied do not vend near half what they did the Dutch and other Manufactures having prevailed upon us in those parts both for the Finest and Coursest Cloaths what we now export to Hamburgh are a sort of Cloaths of between 3 and 7 s. a Yard and of those not near the former quantity Then for our Eastland Trade it is sunk more I have heard several Estimates all near concurring with what I find in Mr. Cokes third Treatise of Trade dedicated to Prince Rupert viz. That this Company only heretofore usually exported above 20000 Broad Cloaths 60000 Kerseys and 40000 Doubles yearly but of late years not above 4000 Broad Cloaths 5000 Kerseys and 2000 Doubles To give this worthy Gentleman his due he hath written more materially on the present subject than any man in this Age in which he hath not only demonstrated his deep Judgement but his great sedulity and sincerity in the discovery of the truth professing himself ready to make out whatsoever he hath reported before any Judicature There is too much reason and fact to warrant the great decay of this Eastland Trade when the Dutch Manufacture is arrived to such a degree besides which the Silesian and Polonian Manufactures of Coarse Woolls are mightily increased so that at Dantzick our late great staple we now sell so little that 't is not worth the naming we now trade thither with Treasure whence we used to Import much the like may be said of other Ports this Company formerly traded to Then for Swedeland the Natives have lately set up a Manufacture there of their Coarse Woolls as well as Denmark Liefland and Norway are very much supplied by the Dutch imposing greater Prices and Customs upon us for what they vend and insisting to have Treasure of us where before they bartered for Commodity To which I may add That our late great Muscovy Trade is in a manner lost the same Mr. Coke takes notice that the Dutch send 1500 Sail of Ships into the Sound in a year and 40 to Muscovy we do not send above seven into the Sound in a year of which two are laden with woollen Manufactures the other five with Ballast and are therefore to buy their foreign lading and
thing necessary which is a good and quick Vent and Market for Commodities without which all Manufactures will decay and expire all other Exportations must fail and the Trade from Port to Port can be no longer practicable or valuable For if the Manufacturer cannot sell his Manufacture he hath laboured to his great loss so if a Merchant buy Goods at one Forreign Port which he cannot sell at another Forreign Port he hath at least lost his Voyage and the Charge of it so if the Market be not absolutely closed up yet if it be prejudiced and spoiled to any great degree the Merchant or Manufacturer will either discontinue presently or will Trade less and less and will fling up speedily if the Market doth not mend for if men of Trade cannot sell for reasonable profit but will be forced to live much worse and poorer than other men of the like degree and estate in the same Nation they will not continue long in so unprofitable a Toil. The Home and Forreign Market bear such a Simpathy one with the other that Obstructions in the Market at home may arise from Obstructions in the Forreign Market as well as immediately from Causes at home For if the Forreign Market for Exportable Commodities fail in any degree there must be a less and worse Vent and Market at home for these Commodities if the Forreign Market come to take off a lesser quantity yearly than before or at a lesser price the Natives must sell a lesser quantity and at a lesser price to their Exporters and Merchants who will not buy more than they can Vend again nor so dear that they cannot vend them with sufficient profit Now the course of our English Forreign Merchandize hath begotten an Obstruction in the Forreign Market because our Merchants are liable to greater Charges in their way of Trade than the Merchants of our Neighbour Nations For all necessary Charge of the Merchant in his course of Trade is super-added to the Original Cost of his Commodity so that the Merchant upon sale of the Commodity Exported is under an Obligation to pay himself his Charge and yet to sell so that he may make himself a reasonable gainer besides Then if a Forreign Merchant bring the same Manufacture or Commodity to the same Forreign Port with less charge he will be able to under-sell the English-Merchant as much as his charge is less and yet shall get reasonable profit And if the Merchants of other Nations be able to sell for less they will nay perhaps must supposing that they drive an open Trade and upon their distinct Stock for then being incapable of combining to Impose prizes and desiring a quick Market which is the life of Trade they will be worked down by the Forreign Buyers to take as moderate profit for their Goods as they can afford then at The Consequence of this is that the English Merchant must either forbear Exporting or else must sink his prizes on the English Manuactures whereby the English Manufactures must be stifled or discouraged 'T is true That if Nation hath some rich and necessary Material and Manufacture within it self exclusive to other Nations it hath the Monopoly of this Manufacture to the rest of the World and therefore cannot be under-sold but may vend it so as to pay all extraordinary Charges with sufficient gain to the Manufacturer and Merchant which was heretofore the Case of England in the Woollen Manufacture But if a Manufacture or Commodity be common to England and Holland or England and France and the Hollanders or French can bring this Manufacture or Commodity cheaper to a third Forreign Port than the English the Hollanders or French under-selling the English will beat the English out of the Manufacture It is accompted that the odds of two per cent nay of one per cent will produce this advantage An inequality of Charge on Merchandize must also influence the Trade from Port to Port For if the English and Dutch Merchant coming to the same Port with the same Forreign Commodity the Dutch can ordinarily under-sell the English it must also be of the same Consequence in this sort of Trade This happens to be the Case between the English and Dutch the Dutch being upon their defection from Spain driven into great Exigencies and therefore becoming studious and emulous how to advance their Trade have contrived all imaginable ways how to Trade cheap whose Example other Neighbouring-States and Kingdoms have followed in a great degree and the French amongst the rest whilst the English do not only proceed in their former more chargeable methods of Trade but have clogged their Navigation and Merchants more and more whereof I shall give some Instances and shall leave the Computation of the odds to the Reader First The Dutch have found and long used such a way of building their ordinary Trading Ships and Vessels that they will sail with eight or ten men when an English built Ship of about the same Burthen shall not sail without near thirty men so that the English Merchant must ordinarily be at more Charge for Wages and Victuals by two Thirds than the Dutch. Secondly The English Customs for Forreign Goods Imported and Re-exported though half the Customs paid are returned upon Re-exportation are near twenty times greater than the Dutch Customs and for home Commodities Exported if not for all are greater than the Dutch or French Customs which does work a further Charge on the English Merchants For Thirdly By this means our English Merchants are ordinarily forced to keep near a fourth part of their Stocks dead at home to answer Customs so that a Dutch Merchant may drive the same Trade with a much less Stock Fourthly The late Act of Navigation and the Act of 14 Car. 2. Cap. 11. confining the English Trade to Shipping built with English Timber which is now exceeding scarce and dear The Dutch French Danes Hamburghers c. can have Ship-Timber in Germany France and Denmark for less than half the price of ours So by means of the same Acts of Navigation have the Dutch and French their Cordage Masts Sails Tackle Pitch and Tar being all necessary and chargeable Ingredients of Navigation very much cheaper than the English so that the Hollanders or French or Danes nay almost any other of our Neighbours can build and apparel a Ship or fit up and repair at a less charge by half than the English can do the reason of this is more at large Discoursed by Mr. Roger Cooke in his late Ingenious Treatises Of Trade And Fifthly By means of the late Irish Acts against Importation of Cattel the Dutch and French can and do Victual their Ships cheaper with Irish Victuals than the English can do in England whereas before England could Victual cheaper than any Nation in Europe Sixthly The English pay 6 per Cent. Interest for Money and the Dutch but 3 per Cent. or less which is to our English Merchants of a strange
vent of Manufactures Our Manufacturers liable to be imposed upon by our Merchants and by Ingrossers a disadvantage by the Restitution of half Customs on the Re-exportation IT being natural That the continuance of one inconvenience should beget many others it hath so fallen out in England Our Natives discerning the odds of Charge between our own and Forreign Navigation and being therefore tempted to Trade in Forreign Ships or to deal with Forreign Importers which threatned the subversion of our English Navigation and the Importing Trade of our English Merchants instead of Regulating our Navigation the late Act of Navigation was made whereby and by other Acts our English Exportations are expresly or virtually confined to our own English built Shipping so is the Importation of Forreign Goods or else to the Forreign Natives of whose growths or productions they are which restraint hath begotten or jointly with the other cloggs on our Forreign Merchandize hath heightned these farther Inconveniences First It hath given a Monopoly to our own Merchants upon our Manufacturers and People for our own exportable Manufactures and Commodities Secondly It hath given a Monopoly to our own Merchants upon all the people of England for Goods Imported Thirdly The said Act of Navigation obliging the English to buy Imported Goods only at those Ports or of those Natives of whose growths and productions they are hath given Monopolies to all Forreigners on the English for Goods of their respective growths and productions the Danes for instance taking advantage of it very much raised their Prizes and Customs upon us for Pitch Tar and Timber forcing us to pay near double what we did and to pay them in money where we used to barter with them for Commodity the like may be said of the French those of the Canary-Islands and others particularly the Leiflanders for raw Hemp and Flax at the best we are but at mercy Fourthly This Act hath made our Navigation yet more chargeable than before because the aforesaid Forreign Materials of Pitch Tar raw Hemp and Flax are thereby made very much the dearer It doth also render English Ship-Timber still dearer and dearer which must more and more disable and discourage us in the building of Ships for Trade and gives a great and dangerous advantage to our Neighbours in the building of Ships of War so much cheaper than we Fifthly This dearness of Shipping must the more prejudice the vent of our Manufactures made of our own Materials and disable us in the Trade from Port to Port for the Reasons in the last Section Sixthly The same dearness of Shipping with the other unequal charges on our Forreign Merchandize must render all Forreign materials of Manufacture imported much dearer in England than in other Neighbour-Nations such are Hemp Flax Silk and many others of great consequence and then our Manufacturers buying the Materials dearer are obliged to sell their Manufactures dearer which must hinder their vent at home as well as their Exportation abroad and consequently the rise and growth of all our Manufactures made of Forreign Materials and accordingly we see our Manufactures of Linnen Cables Sails Sea-Nets and Silk of all sorts are some of them in a manner lost the rest much decayed which I the rather mention that this and what I say elsewhere may take off some ignorant and unreasonable Reproaches against the English Manufacturers for not selling some Manufactures so cheap as in other Nations since they are necessitated to it by these and some other difficulties upon them which I shall take notice of in this and the next Section as I shall have occasion Seventhly This restraint to our dear English Navigation and Charges on our Merchandize does by Consequence tend to introduce the Disease of Trade consisting in meer Importation for as our Manufactures expire there is a farther occasion of Importing Forreign Manufactures especially if on this and other Accounts they may be sold cheaper here than our own And hence it is that we have a prodigious increase of Imported Linnens Silks c. and that we are of late forced to buy much more of our Cables Cordage Sails and divers other Manufactures from the Dutch French Germans c. than formerly we did in all which our Merchants must be greater gainers for a time because our occasions for Forreign Goods being greater they Import and sell the more at home and from more and greater Sales must get the more money of our Natives and the rather because of their Monopoly on the rest of the people for Imported Goods which does enable them to sell so at home as to reimburse themselves all their Charges with extraordinary profit Eighthly The said Restraint excluding great numbers of Forreign Ships from our Ports must hinder the vending of great proportions of our Beef Pork Corn Beer Clothing and other Necessaries Ninthly The dearness of the English Timber arising from the scarcity of it the said Act doth oblige us to a kind of impossibility there being not Timber enough in England to support any considerable Navigation at least for any continuance of time which small remnant of Timber we are forced to spend so fast in the building or repairing of ordinary Vessels that we shall soon see the end of it and then in any great Exigence we must seek out for Forreign Timber to build Ships of War for which the Timber now remaining might be reserved Tenthly Whereas the increase and support of Navigation depends on the ordinary Imployment of Ships and Sea-men in Trade of which far the greatest numbers are to be maintained in the Fishing-Trade and Trade from Port to Port the English being by the Acts of Navigation and other difficulties disabled from those Trades can never increase their Navigation and upon a small increase of Shipping must be over-clogg'd Eleventhly The Act of Navigation giving Forreigners election either to sell their Goods to the English at home or to Import them into England is so far from incouraging our Navigation that it hath put it into the choice of Forreigners whether theirs or our Shipping shall be imployed which with the dearness of ours hath already increased the Navigation of our Neighbours but hath reduced ours And lastly As the dearness of our Navigation and course of Merchandize established by this Act does run us into an Excess of Importations our Treasures must be exhausted and then the remnant of our Shipping must be becalmed and our Sea-men will leave us as they already do which I shall more particularly observe in the following Sections In the mean time it must be apparent that if we had disposed our selves to a cheaper way of building and sailing our Trading-Ships being as practicable here as in Holland and had eased our Merchandize and Trade to an equal degree these and all other the aforesaid Mischiefs had been prevented and we might have supported a more swelling and beneficial Navigation than that of the Vnited Provinces who are so far from making
we finde it necessary to export all the Corn we can we eat very little Fish and have made Acts against the importation of Forreign Cattle which by the way gave a Monopoly to a few English and Welch breeding Counties on all the rest of the Nation and yet we thought our markets over-clogged But England is not only prejudiced by the paucity of people but we have another rank of Statutes which hinder very many of those we have from applying themselves to Manufacture one is the Stat. of 43 th Eliz. cap. 2. which according to the intention of it seems necessary now when we have such a vast increase of poor but such is the Arbitrary latitude given by the Act to Over-seers and Justices that many of our Laborious people well able to work by clamour or favour get Parish maintenances choosing rather to live lazily by this means assisted with some pilfering Then we have the Stat. of 5 th Eliz. cap. 4. which though it gratifies the blinde avarice of some of our Corporation men is more prejudicial by restraining our people to work in Manufacture unless they have served an Apprentiship full seaven years which is so long a term of drudgery and slavery before they can reap any fruit of their labors that Parents are deterred from putting their Children Apprentices to Manufacture nor will many of our Youths or young men be brought to it especially the most apt and docile and those of ripeness of years of which many would be more perfect in 3 or 4 years then others in 10 and therefore they betake themselves to other more easy and ready Imployments or else live Idle The same Act does very strangely provide that no man shall take an Apprentice for Woollen Manufacture in any Town Corporate unlesse such Apprentice be his Son or the Father or Mother of such Apprentice have the clear yearly vallue of 40 s. Inheritance nor in any Market-Town or Village unlesse he be his Son or his Father or Mother have the clear yearly value of 3 l. Inheritance which clause apparently shuts out at least 5 parts of the people in 6 from the Woollen Manufacture and by consequence tends to the depopulation of our Inland Towns the increase of Rogues Vagabonds and poor These difficulties on Trade begot the Act of the 43. Eliz. and many others of the like nature and thereby much work for our Justices Which by the way may give occasion to observe how vain it is to make Acts against Rogues Vagabonds or Poor nay against thefts or Murthers how little the Houses of Correction Whipping-posts Pillories or Gallows can prevail whilst our other Constitutions drive our People into necessities nor any prohibitory or penal Law ever have the intended effect unless the Grounds and Causes of the mischiefs be removed of which I shall say more when I come to speak of our late Prohibition of French Goods Amongst the restraints on our English Trade the inclosure of Trade to the Freemen of Corporations and Guilds may be deservedly mentioned as one This Priviledge is claimed by most or all of our ancient Corporations and might be well intended at first by the Donors but as now used is very prejudicial for the Power of admitting Free-men being generally lodged in a Councel or Committee of a few Free-men any Forreigner and such they call all those who are not Sons or Apprentices of seven years standing to a Free-man in the same Town must buy his Freedom before he can exercise any open Trade there for which these Free-men are left at liberty to demand as great and arbitrary Price as they please or if they will may wholly refuse whence it commonly follows that Beginners in Manufacture and other Trades being Forreigners and having but small Stocks can never obtain Freedom and without it are burthened and plagued with by-Laws Penalties Distresses and Seizures nay if a Man be exquisite in his Trade he shall hardly get a Freedom for Money in a Corporation where there are more free of the same Trade for then he is lookt on as a dangerous person and likely to eat the bread out of their mouths as they phrase it in which they will gratifie and influence one another being the common cause and can easily do it The fewer Free-men there are in a Trade they think the rest may get the more and thus are most of our ancient Corporations and Guilds become oppressive Oligarchies excluding or discouraging the English Subjects from Trading in our greatest and best situated Towns where the Markets are and which are therefore the most proper and ready Seats for Manufacture and other Commerce For this and the Act of the 5 th of Eliz. our Corporation-men have only this to say That care ought to be taken that none but persons skilful should exercise any Trade which is true but the Law of necessity common sence and experience provides sufficiently for this since an unskilful Artificer or Trader will not find imployment and therefore must receive due punishment by his own Ignorance 'T is confessed Manufactures may be made deceitfully which may disgrace and prejudice our vent abroad but this fraud is an Act of Skill which cannot be discovered or prevented without the daily scrutinies of Judicious Persons for which our other former Statutes have already made some provision but defective it were to be wished there was a constant Judicature of Men knowing in Trade in every County to supervise the sufficiency of Manufactures In the mean time this Argument for the support of the Act of the 5 th of Eliz. and Freedoms must appear very fallacious since both the Act and the Freedoms serve only to exclude the English Subjects and of those many of the most skilful from Trade and by inclosing Manufactures to a few hinder their growth and make them far dearer A farther inconvenience of these Freedoms is That the pre-emption of our Manufactures and Imported Goods in most of our inferiour Corporations and Cities as well as in London is in a manner inclosed to the Number and Stocks of the Free-men and is very much subject to their pleasures by reason of their union and correspondence in Counsels So that he who would escape the long Land-Carriages to London and London Companies must fall into the hands of these other Free-men these Free-men have generally so brave a time of it that they can live in ease and plenty every Shop resembling an Office whilst the laborious part of our Traders are ready to perish which Priviledges could not have survived the Statute of 21 Jac. against Monopolies but that they are saved by a special Proviso in that Statute so civil were the Burgesses of Corporations at that time Our Trade being thus clogged and the very Avenues to Manufactures so much narrowed and choaked up it doth not a little help to the subverting of our Manufactures and other Trade that the Passages to other Preferments are made so open and easie at present I mean all
those that depend upon Literature in which our Youth are led from step to step by all manner of Incouragements First by the multitude of our late endowed Free-Schools where every ordinary Man's Son is taught Latin Greek and Hebrew for a small matter and then is above Manufacture Then we have two mighty endowed Universities where there will at least be hope of preferment let the throng be never so thick and thence they have farther and more comfortable prospects and in the mean time live easie at little or no charge as Servitors or on small Stipends till they become Scholars of Houses c. others of these Free-Sehool-Boys grow Pen-men of all sorts and all these are a sort of Gentlemen-like ways of living which intitle them to be called Masters which gives a main temptation both to Parents and Children who on the other hand see the contemptible and miserable condition of our poor Clothworkers and other ordinary Artificers who at the best are called Mechanick Fellows and what is yet farther mischievous is that our Youth thus educated never reading any thing of Manufacture Exportation or Importation in Homer and Virgil or their Colledge Notes and being from thence carried to other Studies which have no cognation with Trade can ordinarily have no sensation of the advantages of it like a Bowl which hath a rub at hand the farther they go the more they are divided from it whence it hath unfortunately ensued that our Men of Learning are either generally silent in this matter or else being inclin'd to think it the sole concern of the dirty and servile part of the People speak of it with contempt and some with reflection by whom most others being influenced we are still pretending to be more accurate in Logick and Philosophy which howsoever otherwise useful do not add two-pence a year to the Riches of the Nation we continue to squeeze all the sapless Papers and Fragments of Antiquity we grow mighty well acquainted with the old Heathen-gods Towns and People we prize our selves in fruitless Curiosities we turn our Lice and Fleas into Bulls and Pigs by our Magnifying-glasses we are searching for the World in the Moon with our Telescopes we send to weigh the Air on the top of Teneriffe we invent Pacing Saddles and Gimcracks of all sorts all which are voted Ingenuities whilst the Notions of Trade are turned into Ridicule or much out of fashion In all which we are very short of the Policies of our Neighbours the French Dutch and other trading and wise Nations who on the one hand have no Laws or Constitutions to restrain or exclude their People from Manufacture nor to Ferret them away and on the other do consider Trade as an Honorary and almost Sacred thing and do highly esteem and cherish their Manufacturers as well as their other necessary Traders Now should these restraints and discouragements ono ur own People and Trade be removed it would doubtless much advantage our Trade in some time but would not bring us so sudden an increase of People Manufacturers Ships and Riches as is highly requisite for the carrying on of a mighty Trade or perhaps for our National security nor can these so suddenly be had but from other parts of the World where they are moving Men Ships or Riches do not grow on the Trees nor yet drop out of the Clouds But we have such another rank of Laws against Forreigners that we are not to hope Forreigners will come hither I mean those which disable Forreigners from trading in England therefore we must first have a Law of general Naturalization of Protestant-Forreigners though to the displeasure of many of our own self-interested ignorant Traders nor will that do without a Repeal of the Act of the 5 th Eliz. Cap. 4. and a compleat Regulation of our Trade for neither Manufacturers or Merchants will remove from their own Countries hither to sit idle nor will all this bring us over any great Numbers without some Toleration of their Consciences no not of Forreign Protestants who differ much from us in several Points which they think material all which is demonstrated in Fact by the success of His Majesties Proclamation at the beginning of our last Dutch War by which Forreigners then under the utmost terrors were invited to the Liberties and Plenties of England but we see few or none of them came or stay'd with us on this incouragement In this the Dutch have a further advantage upon us since they allow free Ports free Trade and all other National Freedoms to Forreigners whereby their People of all sorts their Navigation and Stocks in Trade have increased continually So are the most considerable French Ports Free unless for Goods prohibited as in Holland some are no sooner was Dunkirke in the Hands of the French King but he made it a Free Port so hath he invited all Forreign Artificers into France by granting them as great or greater Freedoms than his own Subjects enjoy There are yet others of our Laws which must prejudice our Trade of all sorts and give a farther advantage to the Dutch and French I mean those which inflict Penalties on Protestant Dissenters not only because they may hinder the transplanting of Forreign Protestant Artificers or Merchants but because they disable many of those we have in England already from carrying on any manner of Trades and if so then in effect they are not People since they cannot answer the ends of People but are rather the Trunks and Signs of Men in a Nation their Industries and ingenuities being lock'd up Suppose two or 300000 of our own People disabled it may be presumed more than a Million per Annum loss to the Nation what then may be our loss by the shutting out a far greater number perhaps ten times the number of Forreign Protestants and those of the richest the most mercantile and the best Manufacturers of Europe That this is the Case of dissenting Protestants in England must be very plain to those who shall consider the Statute of 20 l. a month and those Volumes of other Statutes made before and since the King came in against Non-Conformists most of which were intended against Papists and occasioned by former Popish Treasons but reach all Protestant Dissenters who besides the bare Penalties are liable to the daily charge and trouble of Informations Actions and Indictment in our Courts of Law and as many or more Libels and Presentments in our Spiritual Courts our Constables Church-wardens and Grand-Juries are upon their Oaths constantly bound to accuse them if they omit 't is at every other Mans pleasure to inform and some or other will not fail of it thus are Dissenters brought into the hands of the Officers of both Courts whose duty it is to prosecute these may delay for a time whilst they are paid for their favours or until notice be taken of it but no longer and then must follow a Seizure of Dissenters Persons or Estates
to Muscovy we hardly send two in three years during the late War we have sent somewhat more We had also the sole trading for woollen Cloathing into France of which we vended thereto the value of 600000 l. yearly but the French having for these later years set up this Manufacture at home do now supply themselves and as their own hath increased so have they laid greater Impositions upon ours till in 67 the French King set an intolerable Tax of about 50 per Cent. on all our Cloathing imported into France by which our Cloathing-trade to France became in a manner impracticable nor have the French any occasion to open this Trade to us again 000000 We had also the sole Cloathing-Trade into Turkey Spain and its Dominion and it must be confessed that we have supported our Turkey-Trade better than any other much occasioned by our importation of raw Silk from those parts for which we used to barter but of late years the Dutch are great Competitors with us in the Turkey-Trade though the English may have had the advantage whilst the Dutch have been engaged in the late War the French have been long nibling at this Trade and both the French and Dutch largely share with us in the Spanish-Trade 000000 But what is yet more grievous we import much Fine Cloth from the Dutch yearly and till of late great quantities of Stuffs and Druggets from the French which French Importation only amounted to the value of 150000 l. per Annum as Mr. Fortrey in his Book of Trade reports how much of these or other French Goods may be imported for the future may be guessed from what I shall say in the last Section concerning the late Prohibition of French Goods in the mean time it may be observed how far our late Monopoly of the Woollen Manufacture is vanished We had also the sole Trade for Woollen Manufactures to the Kingdom of Portugal which Trade hath been decaying several years because of the Competition of the French and Dutch but of late hath been worse than ever by reason that the Government of Portugal since the year 1660 hath prohibited the wearing of English Cloath having set up this Manufacture of their own Wools we still drive a Trade thither hear the Complaints of these Clothiers who continue in the Manufacture 000000 I may add that our exported Wool is sunk to about a third of its late price 000000 And whereas before the said Irish Acts Foreign Ships did use to victual themselves out of the plenties of England the Irish being since forced to fat their own Cattle at home and by the cheapness of their Lands being enabled to sell cheaper than the English Foreigners do now victual their Ships out of the new stores of Ireland and cheaper than we can in England by which we are beat out of the Trade of Foreign Victualing nay what is yet harder upon us the very English Ships do now ordinarily victual from Ireland this Trade of Victualling is also much prejudiced by our late Art of Navigation which does exclude much Forreign Shipping from our Ports and of what yearly loss this must be to the English Nation and more particularly to the English Land-holders I submit to Judgement 000000 Also the English before the said Irish Acts Exported vast quantities of Butter to France Spain Portugal Flanders Italy and into Ireland it self and Cheese also but the Irish by the Stop of Importation of lean Cattle being put to make another Rent of their Land have set themselves to the making of Butter and Cheese and do not only supply themselves but by the cheapness of their Lands do under-sell us to these Foreigners and have therefore in a manner beaten us out of this Trade and how much this must affect the Dairies and Rents of England and what the yearly loss to England may amount to I also submit to Judgment 000000 So before the said Irish Acts England did furnish Ireland with Hats Stockings Dying Stuffs Hides Fruit Sugars Tobaccoes Silks of all sorts Gold Silver and Silk Lace and Ribbons of all sorts And before the Act of 15 Car. 2. cap. 7. Intituled Trade Incouraged by which the Importation of Scotch Cattle was stopt England did furnish Scotland with wrought Wire of all sorts Haberdashers Ware as Hats Ribbons Gloves Buttons Bandstrings of all sorts Vpholsterers Ware as Hangings Stools Chairs c. all sorts of Cutlers Ware as Knives Scissers Sickles Scithes all sorts of Slop-sellers Ware as Stockings Caps course Shifts and Frocks By all which the English Manufacturers and Nation made considerable Gain But the Commerce between between England and Ireland and England and Scotland being stopt by reason of the said Acts the Irish and Scotch do otherwise supply themselves with these Manufactures partly by the like Manufactures set up at home partly by such other Foreigners with whom they now Trade And the Scots upon occasion of the said Act of 15 Car. 2. imposed a Tax of 90 per Cent. on all English Commodities Imported into Scotland 000000 It is a hard matter to put a just Estimate on these yearly Losses for the present I shall leave it to be computed by our Melancholick English Tradesmen By means of the same Irish Acts we have also lost the Exportation of English Hops and Beer from the Eastern Southern and Western Parts of England into Ireland 000000 And whereas before the said Irish Acts England was the Storehouse of Ireland and did furnish the Irish with Foreign imported Wares of all sorts and our Irish Trade did maintain above 100 Sail of our Ships sailing between besides what were employed outwards with Commodities of the growths of Ireland since the said Acts the Irish are supplied by the Dutch or other Foreign Stores and Navigation and are much increased in Shipping of their own 000000 And as if the mischief of these Acts would never have an end it may be further observed they were the occasion of Increase of Sheep and thereby of a vast Increase of Wool in Ireland by which the French and Dutch Woollen Manufactures are now more plentifully supported and rather cheaper than the English. 000000 And now the Irish for the former Reasons also furnish our Foreign Plantations with very much of their Butter Cheese Clothes and other necessaries of the growth and product of Ireland Considering which and that those of New England of late furnish the rest with Flower Bisket Salt Flesh Fish c. all which were formerly Exported from hence we may expect our Plantation-Trade for Sugar Tobacco c. must e're long be wholly driven with Exported Money or with foreign Goods bought with Exported Money since by this means by the insufficiency of our own home-Manufactures and the growing Luxury of our Planters we are forced to send vast quantities thither already particularly foreign Linnens of all sorts Paper Silks and Wines of all sorts Brandies and other things mentioned in the next Section besides great quantities of
plentys of Ireland have invited over dayly Stat. 39. Eliz. 4th 7. Jacob. 4.14 Car. 2.12 By the Maps of England it is found to contain 29568000. Acres besides that which is allowed for High-ways all the United Provinces are hardly so big as Yorkshire Besides the Common Law these Statutes 1 R. 3.9 21 H. 8.16 22 H 8.13 32 H. 8.16 25 H. 8.9 14 H. 8.3 4 H. 7.23 and many others of former date to which are added 12 Car. 2.16 14 Car. 2.11 and 15 Car. 2.7 See Sir William Temples Book of the Dutch Chap. the 6 th See Sir William Temple Chap. of Religion Mr. Fox Dr. Heylin observes that after the Toleration of Protestants in France the other Party in Religion having the countenance of the State and the Prescription and Possession of so many years to confirm the same is in as prosperous a condition both for Power and Patrimony as any that acknowledgeth the Authority of the Popes of Rome Geogr. 176. See Mr. Mun of Foreign Trade Chap. 12. p. 83 to 92. and that the over ballance of Trade in any particular Country causes the Exchange to be high so that the exporting of money shall save the Merchant 10 l. per Cent. or more as the exchange is Author of the grounds and reasons of the contempt of the English Clergy pag. 141. Plate Coined by the King at Oxon and Parliament at London Pag. 33 34. Pag. 112. This value of our exported Cloathing to France is avouched by our Antient Traders thither and so asserted in the Printed Book in 77 in defence of our East-India Company Mr. Smith cited before reasonably computes other Nations gain 10000000 l. per annum by this Fishing Trade only whereof the Dutch above 5000000 l. Mr. Mun in 63. saith It was found that all our Exported Fish of all sorts amounted to but 140000 l. per annum Pag. 184. See before The Canary Wines are computed at about 13000 Pipes yearly which at 20 l. per Pipe amounts to 260000 l. per Annum and that our Commodities Exported thither do amount to about 65000 l. per Annum In Anno 63 and 73 Mr. Fortrey first Printed his Book in 63 Mr. Mun of Forreign Trade pag. 149. Notes That all the great Losses we receive at Sea in our Shipping either outward or homeward bound ought to be considered in the Ballance for the value of the one is to be Deducted from our Exportations and the value of the other from our Importations Here may be added the vast Sums and Riches which already are and Annually will be Transported by Papists to France and other Parts but principally to France See before in Section the 7 th Pag. Heylin's Geogr. 236. He began his Reign in the year 1589. and Reigned till 1610. Next Lewis 13 th who died 1642. and since the present Lewis the 14 th Pag. 61. As for Mr. Mun's proposal to Export Money in Trade I have spoken to it before and besides he recommends the Reduction of the Customs and easing of Trade which if fully done it might be then convenient Pag. 231 232 234. Pag. 195. Pag. 207. Geogr. 176. Bernard de Gerrard of Finances See before Sect. 7 th French Politicks pag. 108 109. Pag. 67. Pag. 68. See Sir William Temple of the Dutch cap. 1. Note most of that Fleet which the Algerines had which was but small was destroyed by the English at Cape Spartell and Bugia about eight years since They have since Built 40 Men of War from 20 to 50 Guns and upwards besides Brigantines Gallies c. Pag. 162 163. Pag. 165. Pag. 169. Pag. 171. See Sir William Temple of the Dutch Pag. cited before Sect. 12. See The Buckler of State and Justice Printed in 67 by the special Appointment of the Honorable the Lord Arlington Pag. 153. Pag. 154. Beginning Pag. 183. Pag. 186. Pag. 187. Pag. 188. Pag. 189. Pag. 194. Pag. 195. Pag. 189. Pag. 190. See before Pag. The present Lord Chancellour in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament on the 23 d of May 1678. The Gazett for Monday Decemb 29. gives us this Advertisement Hamburgh Dec. 22. The French have hired all the Vessels in this River and the Weser which used to go to France and return with Wines on which they mean to Transport great Quantities of Oats and other Corn which they are therefore buying up in these Parts to Calais Dunkirk and other Places on that Coast. Pag. 192. See the Tryal p. 9. P. 10. P. 11. P. 13. P. 19. P. 27. P. 33. P. 46. (1) A pretty way of expressing plain positive Evidence of several Overt Acts of Treason (2) It might be solemn but could not be counted Religious by any but you whose Religion consists in Lies and Blasphemous Hypocrisie (3) All absolutely false though it might have been the most proper way of Examining such bold young Villains for 't was apparent they did not speak their knowledge but their Masters dictates (4) Another impudent Lie and sure the Jesuits themselves and the Staffordshire Vouchers if they have any shame left will now blush at the story (5) Not the least pretence for this old baffled Scandal (6) O brave Orator sure this Recommendation of such brave service done the Church will hasten Gavens Canonization at least one score or two of years (7) Ay and Soul to boot (8) These four were no less than seven (9) Is he so The honester man he to speak the truth and shame the Devil and the Jesuits But Proh dolor Alas how this grieves you that any one of your Religion should speak Truth when it makes against you (10) And who could forbear to hear how undeniably your Novices were proved to be like their Masters most egregious LIARS Nor yet did the Court laugh but the crowd of people whom the Court took order to silence (11) Better so than that you clap your hands at the murder of the King as some of your Tribe did at that of your Enemy his blessed Father (12) Bravely said Who would confess now To be thus Apostolified would make one venture Purgatory (13) Dear Sir tell us his name he was a Wit undoubtedly unless it were your self A Jury of Turks have done strange things and may acquit any body but these were a Jury of honest Christians and therefore they found them guilty (14) 'T is pity you had not been caught giving the Knaves that Absolution (13) Poor Langhorne not one word of praise for thee methoughts thou lookedst as Apostolically as the best of them but this 't is to be a Lay-man and confess Jesuits Lands See Sir W. Temple of the Dutch Pag. See Josephus of the Siege and Destruction of Hierusalem