understanding and more distempered part of the people should be better and more to be followed and therefore to be taken in and receive as great an entertainment and applause as the Children of Israel did their Golden Calfe with shouts and acclamations whilst Moses as they thought had tarried too long with God Almighty in the Mount for his direction in the making of Laws or as the Romans did the more to be respected twelve Tables of Laws then those of their Mechanick and vulgar Judgements and reasonings which the wiser and more noble not the illiterate and foolisher sort of their Citizens and people had learned well considered and brought home from Athens and other cities of Greece as fit to be observed or imitated When as it might rather be remembred that God in his infinite mercy to the works of his own hands did so early distribute the Beams of his Right Reason and Illumination as the days of old were not without wisdom which being from everlasting and rejoycing afterwards in the habitable parts of the Earth her delights were with the sons of men And therefore Jeremy no Fanatique or man of an Imaginary or self conceited mistaken holiness but inspired by God Almighty and filled with the wisdom from above did not tell us as many of our Novelists and Commonwealth-mongers and the would be wise of the Rota's or Coffee-houses would make us believe that all the succesful experiments which the long lived world had approved to be right reason were either burthensome or oppressive and not to be any longer esteemed or that the paths of wisdom were worne out and not at all to be walked in but with a thus saith the Lord enjoyned us as if there and no where else it were to be found to stand in the ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good way and walk therein But that would have been to their loss and rather then faile of their purpose or forsake their beloved ignorant intermedling in Government they could never think any thing to be well until they had made all things ill and like Children would have liberty to do what they list which would do them as much good as the liberties of their misusing the power of the Sword or in medling in matters too high for them did in these last unhappy Twenty years and as little conduce to the publick or their own good and safetie as for Children to be permitted the use of Swords or Pistolâ— whereby to kill and mischief one another or of fire to burn themselves or set their Parents houses on fire or as they are said to do in Gonzaguas new discovered world in the Moon to govern their parents cannot finde the way to obey Laws and reasonable Customs unless their narrow Capaciâ—ies or small Understandings may apprehend the cause of it the reason of it must like the Lesbian rule be made to be as they whyâ—â—sie or fancie it and obedience to Kings or Laws cut out to their Interest and Conveniencies And will not believe that they have Liberties enough unlesse like Swyne got into a Garden they may foule and root up all that is good and beautifull in it And with their cries and gruntings could never be at quiet until they had trampled upon Monarchy and the majesty and loveliness of it digged up the Gardens of Spices and stopped the streams of our Lebanus And the late blessed Martir King Charles the First was no sooner in the defence of our Magna Charta and the Lawes and Liberties of England murdered but they and their Partisans must frame a Commonwealth and pretend a necessity thereof for avoiding the intollerable as they falsely called them burdens and oppressions of the people amongst which is ranked that great and most notorious piece of untruth that the Cart-taking for the King impoverished many of the people and that the Pourveyance cost the Country more in one year then their Assessments to the Army which with other matters contained in that most untrue and malicious Declaration of the Parliament of England as they then called themselves beraing date the 17. day of March 1648. are more against truth or any mans understanding then the tale of Garagantua's mighty mouth and stomach of eating three hundred fat Oxen at a meal and having five or six men to throw mustard into his mouth with shovels And as false as it was must for an edium to the late King and his Monarchicall Government be translated into Latine and sent and dispersed by their Emissaries into all the parts of the Christian world And from thence or some of the other I may not say causes but incentives or delusions the people too many of whom were inticed or made to believe any thing though never so much against truth reason common sense and their own knowledge must be taught for they could of themselves not find any cause to complain of it to believe that Declaration to be true to the end that whilst they did then bear and had long before endured very great assessements and burdens they might be enabled and be the better in breath to sustein for many years more a seaventy and sometimes a ninty and not seldome one hundred and twenty thousand pounds monethly Taxes and Assessments besides many other greater impoverishments and oppressions obedience must be called a burden every thing but ruining honest men and destroying of Loyaltie an oppression and every thing but vice and cheating to maintain it a grievance for the Truths sake therefore which every good and honest man is bound to submit unto and deâ—end and in vindication of his late Sacred Majesty and the Laws and Honor of my Country the too much abused England by such Tricks and Villanies and upon no other motive byasse or concernment but to make that scandal which only becomes the Father of Lyes and the causelesness of that complaint appear in their Deformities and proper colours I shall by an enquiry and search for the Original and Antiquity of Royal Pourveyance as to the furnishing of several sorts of Provision for the Kings House and Stable at a small or lesser rate then the markets and a praeemption for those or the like purposes used in this and most Nations of the World bring before the Reader the Laws and Acts of Parliament in England allowing it the Legality Reason Necessity and right use of it the small charge and burden of it and the consequences which will inevitably follow the takeing of it away which we hope will remove the ill opinion which some worthy men heretofore by reason of an abuse or misusage only and some very learned men of late misled by them have had of it CHAP. I. The Antiquity of Regal Pourveyance and Praeemption for the maintenance of the Kings Houses Navy Castles Garrisons attended by a Jus Gentium and reasonable Customs of the most or better part of other Nations WHich being not here intended or understood
his Plate for religious uses for his Chappel and Devotion sell the Coats of the Yeomen of his Guard break in scorn his great Seal of England by the hand and hammer of a common Blacksmith which shewed what they intended to the life of the owner drive and engage all men into a monstrous Rebellion a slavery which proved to be the consequence and just reward of it and deprive him as much as they could of the loyalty duty love and obedience of his people and having abundantly enriched themselves and their Godless praying party by the Crown Lands and Revenues of the Church most of the Nobility and Gentry and many other good men and their Families did not think it reasonable to serve their Master for a little but as a further reward and recompence for their care and diligence to oppress and ruine their King and his better Subjects would be sure to make for themselves as good a Pourveyance and Provision as they could upon pretences of some little losses in their own small and necessitous Estates and allow one another besides their gaine of plundering and traiterous and sacrilegious purchases out of the improvements of the Common misery and washing as well as wasting three Kingdomes over in blood some fifty pounds some ten some four pounds a week towards theiâ— support and maintenance and to make their proportions the more plausible and to seem something reasonable would not leave out of the account the well stretched Items of the losses and charges of their Grandchildren married Sons and Daughters and when they had finished their ungodly work murdered the King Monarchy Magna Charta Petition of right and the Lawes and Liberties of the People and converted their own sins into the bloody and unsure foundation of a Common-wealth founded upon the blood and murther of their Soveraign and many thousands of his loyal and religious Subjects and the perjury of themselves and as many as they could perswade or constrain unto it and the greatest of iniquities and made the people who got as much ease by it as the Asse in the Fable who thought to make his burden of Sponges the lighter by lying down in the water with them believe that when two parts in three of the Kingdome were undone to enrich a third and brought under a slavery and arbitrary power of the mechanick and ruder sort of them that their freedome from Pourveyance and Cart-taking was an especial deliverance which amongst other wonderfull things as they called them pretended to be done for them being only to buy Sadles for their reforming Legislators to ride upon their backs and a favour much of kin to that of Pharoahs kind usage of the Children of Israel when he set Task-masters over them to afflict them with burdens made their lives bitter with hard bondage caused them to make bricâ— and double the Taâ—e thereof and gather the straw was recompence sufficient for all their money and sins laid out in that wicked and detestable cause and for all that which they were to endure in this life and the next and in that seeming holy but assured cheating a miserable and strangely deluded Nation continued like the Egyptians in their way to the Red sea and oppressing of Gods people untill their Oliver and grand Impostor and Instrument had out-witted and undermined them and insâ—ead of many Tyrants had set up his single Tyranny and having from an indebted and small Estate made much less by a former drunken and debauched conversation by which he was so streightned as not to be able to buy some oats or pease to sow a small parcel of ground but to borrow some of a friend upon his promise of a Repayment upon his hoped for increase at Harvest did notwithstanding neither then nor after a more plentifull crop of his wicked doings and that great Estate which the sinnes of a factious and wicked part of the people had made him Master of ever find the way to satisfie or repay And having largely pourveyed for himself better then he could do in his Brewhouse put an Excise upon Ale Beer and intoxicated as many as he could seduce with an opinion that Rebellion was Religion and gotten an Arbitrary power with a large Revenue in Lands which was the Kings and other mens an Army of twenty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse and a formidable Navy to be maintained at the peoples charge to continue their misery and three hundred thousand pounds per annum to defray the charges of his tyrannical Government took himself to be a Child of Providence and something more then one of the smallest Branches of Cromwell alias Williams King Henry the eights Barber and therefore in order to a Kingship or something by another name amounting to as much made it his work to disguise and metamorphose the antient Government decry our fundamentall Lawes and every antient constitution dig up by the roots all that was not novel or assistant to his designs fit to make a head out of the Heels and after he had taken an oath to maintain and preserve the Laws and Liberties of the people imprisoned Serjeant Maynard Serjeant Twisden and Mr. Wadham Windam who pleaded in the behalf of a Client for them thought it to be conscience Law and Latin good enough to call our Magna Charta magna Farta and did so order his Convention or thing called a Parliament of England compounded and made up of time-servers and a Medly of Irish and Scottish of the like complexion as they were brought in Anno 1656. by one of their Tooles called an Act of Parliament to ordain that pourveyance or Composition for the Kings house which they were taught to alleage to be a grievance to the people and very chargeable when there was none at all at that time in being in England nor was ever intended by many of the worshipfull Mushrooms to be thereafter should no more be taken under pain of Felony And was as great a kindness and ease to the people as if they had ordained that no more Subsidies which seldome amounted to more then a tenth part of the late yearly Taxes should be imposed by Parliament but Assessments at 70 thousand pounds or one hundred and twenty thousand pounds per mensem as often as long as that which they called the supreme Authority should have or feign a necessity for it or that offenders should be no more sent for by the Kings messengers or tried by Juries and the known Laws of the Land but at Cromwells High Court of Justice or Shambles lined with red or bloody Bayes or that there should be no more use or trouble of the Train Bands but an Army of 30000 domineering Redcoats or Fanaticks with their Bashaws or Major-Generals maintained at the peoples charge to keep or make them quiet under their vassalage or slavery or that there should be no more Coat and Conduct money long agoe remitted by King Charles the Martyr
and prices of Barley and what they made it with and confirmed by Inspeximus of the Ordinances of divers Kings of England the Kings Progenitors which set the assise of Bread and Ale and the making of measures and howsoever stiled a Statute appears not to have been an Act of Parliament but an Exemplification only made of those Ordinances and Orders by King Henry the third at the request of the Bakers of Coventry mentioning that by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of his Reign he had granted that all good Statutes and Ordinances made in the times of his Progenitors aforesaid and not revoked should be still holden in which the rates and assise of bread are said to have been approved by the Kings Bakers and contained in a Writing of the Marshalsey of the Kings House where the Chief Justice and other Ministers of Justice then resided and by an Ordinance or Statute made in the same year for the punishment of the offending Bakers by the Pillory and the Brewers by the Tumbrel or some other correction The Bayliffs were to enquire of the price of Wheat Barley and Oats at the Markets and after how the Bakers bread in the Court did agree that is to wit waistel which name a sort of bread of the Court or Kings House doth yet retain and other bread after Wheat of the best of the second or of the third price also upon how much increase or decrease in the price of wheat a Baker ought to change the assize and weight of his bread and how much the wastel of a farthing ought to weigh and all other manner of bread after the price of a quarter of Wheat which shewes that the Tryal Test Assay or Assize of the true weight of bread to be sold in all the Kingdome was to be by the Kings Baker of his House or Court and that there was the Rule or Standard and that the prices should increase or decrease after the rate of six pence And Fleta an Author planè incognitus as to his name saith Mr. Selden altogether unknown who writ about the later end of the Reign of King Ed. 1. tells us that amongst the Capitula coronae itineris the Articles in the Eyre concerning the Pleas of the Crown which were not then novel or of any late institution enquiries were made de vinorum contra rectam assisam venditoribus de mensuris item de Forstallariis victualibus â—â—nalibus mercatum obviâ—ntibus per quod carior sit inde venditio de non virtuosis cibariis of wine sold contrary to the assize of Measures and Forestallers of the Market to make victualls dearer and of such as sold corrupt food or victuals An. 31 Ed. 1. it was found by inquisition that Bakers and Brewers and others buying their corn at Queen-Hithe were to pay for measuring portage and carriage for every quarter of corn whatsoever from thence to Westcheap St. Anthonies Church Horshoo Bridge to Wolsey street in the Parish of Alhallowes the less and such like distances one ob q to Fleetstreet Newgate Cripplegate Birchoners Lane East-cheap and Billingsgate one penny 17 Ed. 2. By command of the King by his Letters Patents a Decree was made by Hamond Chicwel Maior That none should sel Fish or Flesh out of the Markets appointed to wit Bridge-streat East-cheap Old-Fishstreet St. Michaels Shambles and the Stocks upon pain to forfeit such Fish or Flesh as were sold for the first time and for the second offence to lose their Freedome And so inherent in Monarchy and the royall Praerogative was the power and ordering of the Markets and the rates of provision of victuals and communicable by grant or allowance to the inferior Magistrates as the King who alwayes reserves to himself the supreme power and authority in case of male administration of his delegated power or necessity for the good and benefit of the publick is not thereby denuded or disabled to resort unto that soveraign and just authority which was alwayes his own and Jure coronae doth by right of his Crown and Regal Government belong unto him as may appear by the forfeiture and seising of Liberties and Franchises and many other the like instances to be found every age And therefore 41 King E. 3. without an Act of Parliament certain Impositions were set upon Ships other Vessels coming thither with Corn Salt and other things towards the charge of cleansing Romeland And 3 Ed. 4. the Market of Queen Hithe being hindred by the slackness of drawing up London Bridge it was ordered that all manner of Vessels Ships or Boats great or small resorting to the City with victuals should be sold by retail and that if there came but one Vessel at a time were it Salt Wheat Rye or other Corn from beyond the Seas or other Grains Garlick Onions Herrings Sprats Eels Whitings Place Codds Mackarel c. it should come to Queen-Hithe and there make sale but if two Vessels came the one should come to Queen-Hithe the other to Billingsgate if three two of them should come to Queen-Hithe and if the Vessels coming with Salt from the Bay were so great as it could not come to these Keyes then the same to be conveyed to the Port by Lighters Queen Elizabeth by advice and order of her Privy Councell in a time of dearth and scarcity of corn commanded the Justices of Peace in every County to enforce men to bring their Corn to the Markets limited them what proportions to sell to particular persons and ordered them to cause reasonable prices and punish the Refusers And the like or more hath been legally done by the Kings authority in the Reign of King James and King Charles the Martyr in the beginning of whose Reign by the advice of all the Judges of England and the eminently learned Mr. Noy the then Attorny Generall rates and prices were set by the Kings Edict and Proclamation upon Flesh Fish Poultry and most sort of victuals Hay Oats c. commanded to be observed All which reasonable laws constitutions customes were made confirm'd continued by our Kings of England by the advice sometimes of their lesser and at other times of their greater Councels the later whereof were in those early dayes composed of Bishops Earles and Barons and great and wise men of the Kingdome not by the Commons or universall consent and representation of the people by their Knights of the Shires or Burgesses sent as their Procurators ad faciendum consentiendum to consent unto those Acts of Parliament which should be made and ordained by the King and the Barons and Peers of England for they were neither summoned for that purpose nor represented in Parliament untill Anno 49 H. 3. and in Anno 26 or 31 Ed. 1. were called thither only ad faciendum quod de communi consilio per Comites Barones ceteros Proceres to do those things which by the King and the Barons and
the sellers shall be pleased to put upon him shall for want of his Pourveyance or Compositions be enforced to lay down his Officers and Servants Tables and put all or most of his servants to Board-wages and that the money which shall be intended or assigned to pay them shall afterwards upon some emergencies or necessities of State affairs for the defence or preservation of himself or his people be transferred to other important uses When the wants and cravings of his servants who cannot live by unpaid Arrears may set them to hunt the people for monys which they suppose may by reason of some neglected rights or concealments be due from them to the King their Master or to devise projects and perswade him to strain his Prerogative in the reformation of known abuses in Trade or other dealings wherein many of the people do appear to be very great gainers more then by Law or Conscience they ought to be to the end that he might help his servants who think it to be reasonable enough for them to essay lawful ways and means to support themselves whilst they conceive that they should not have wanted their daily bread or maintenance if the business of the Common-wealth and the Kings care of the people in general had not bereaved or deprived them in their particulars And that their sufferings want of Wages and fitting maintenance was to procure the wel-fare and happiness of their fellow subjects Or if that way which many times galles vexes more in the maner then the things themselves shal not extend unto their relief will at the best after dangerous discontents and commotions in the minds of the people but beget largâ— Taxes and Assessements in exchange of projects or some other necessitated incursions upon the peoples liberties or produce some Artifices of Policies of State to raise money from them as the Crusadoes by the Popes in the Reign of King Henry the third and dispensing for money with such as had engaged to go to the wars in the holy Land and were sick or not able or had a minde to â—arry at home or as some Kings and Princes have done by pretending fears of invasion from some neighbor Princes or a necessâ—ty of transporting the war out of their own into an enemies Country and when they had raised great sums of money and made ready their Armies dismissed all but the money which was gained by them to return home again upon an overture of a peace or a certainty that there was no need or likelihood of wars When it is well known that the people had no just cause to complain of the Pourveyance or Compositions for it nor of the Cart taking as to themselves or their servants when the Masters had two pence a mile allowed them for their Horses and Carts which most commonly went not above twelve miles from their habitations the Horses having no want of Grass Provender or Hey the men had better Beer and Victuals then they had at home And the owners of Carts and Horses within the Virge of the Kings houses or Palaces or in the way of his progress were no loosers by his coming when either for his recreation or refreshment or to visit the several parts and Provinces of his kingdom he should think fit to make his progress to meet with and redress any complaints or grievances which should happen therein So as the fault must needs be in themselves if they would now finde fault with that which they could not do before when as those just and ancient rights of the Kings of England and duties of their subjects were alwayes so necessary and inseparable to the Crown and their Imperial dignity as that if our ancient Kimgs of England had not enjoyed those their just rights which the fury of the Barons waâ—s against King John and his son King Henry the third and those grand advantages which they had over those Kings in so great a commotion of the people which the power and interests of those Barons for all had not laid aside their loyalty had stirred up against them did not in the making and confirming of our Magna Charta think fit to deny them if they paid the antiqua pretia ancient rates and hire they could not without an immense charge which we do not finde they were at have removed so often and so far as they did from London to their several houses and Palaces which their many Forrests Chases and Parks for their disport and Hunting in several Counties and remote parts of the Kingdom will evidence that they did not seldom do and make so many Voyages into Normandy as our Norman Kings William Rufus and Henry the first and their successor Henry the second and he and his son King John and Richard the second did into Ireland or as other of their predecessors did into Wales or as King James did from and into Scotland or King Charles the Martyr his son when he went thither to be Crowned nor keep their Christmas and other Festivals or their Parliaments as many of our Kings and their successors did in several places of the Kingdom which their Letters Pattents dated from thence do frequently testifie or the term as King Edward the first did at York Neither could our late Royal Martyr King Charles the first have made so good a shift as he did to remove himself and his Court Northerly and to York in the yeer 1641. to save himself from the London tumults nor have gathered Forces or had means or time to defend himself and his people if he had released and forbid his Pourveyances by Act of Parliament but must like a Bird without Feathers or with broken wings have been taken with a little running after and been brought back again by the Sheriff of the first County he had escaped into which the Rebellious paâ—ty in the late distempered and fatally unhappy Parliament were confident would have been the consequence of his going away from them without granting unto them his regality and surrendring up the care and protection of his people into their arbitrary way of governing them in his name to their own use and as they pleased by Votes and Ordinances If his officers and servants could not when the Factious party in that Parliament had seised his Rents and Revenues have hired a Cart for his use without an order or provision of Carts and Horses made by the appointment of two of the next Justices of Peace or at a lesser rate then six pence a mile or what more every rich sturdy Clown or his rude unmannerly servants should have demanded of them to be paid before hand and upon refusal of their Carts or Carriages should have had no other remedy but to complain to the Justices of Peace to compell or punish them The want of which part of the Royal Pourveyance as well as his other Pourveyance and Compositions for them hindring his now Majesty in the last Summer 1661. when he
forgot the mercies and wonders of the Almighty or that they would have been brought to any manner of beliefe that ever they should have been able to bear so great and so intollerable as they would have called it a burden And yet now that time and custome like Milo's Calf carryed untill he be a Bull and being a Bull found to be no heavyer then when he was a Calf the burthen is not so heavy at the last as they would have believed it would have been at the first because the people have hitherto made shift to bear it by cheating or impoverishing one another and by laying the burden one upon another will dispendio reipublicae to the not to be avoyded loss and ruine of the Commonwealth be for some time longer able to endure it if the rich may grinde and devour the poor and the King now his Pourveyance is taken away must bear the greater part of the burden That if the King before he had granted the greatest Act of Pardon Bounty and Indempnity that ever any or all the Kings of England had done before him to a company of Factious and Rebellious people who had out done either Sheba or Shimei or any of the sons of Zeruâ—ah and deserved less then any of their forefathers unless the murder of his Royal Father and all the groundless obloquies and reproaches which they could cast upon him the banishing persecuting of himself his brethren murder and ruine of his loyal subjects and dispossessing him of his Estate Kingdoms and Revenues for twelve years togeâ—her and all things endeavoured which might load him or them with scorn and indignities can by any Fanaticks or Factious people be proved which it never can to have been by dispensations or communication with God and a living and walking in the spirit had taken in again to the Crown all those forfeited Rights Franchises and priviledges which had been heretofore too liberally given or granted from it and reserved a ten times greater Pourveyance then is by any now complained of the people of England would have been so glad with their Quailes as they would have blamed themselves for murmuring without a cause either before or after they had them And that those who could adventure to transgress the Laws which by their Idolized Covenant they bound themselves to observe and buy Places and Offices in the Kings houshold the greatest part of the profits whereof were made by the Kings allowance of Dyet may now that many of those Dyets and Tables are taken away come to a better understanding of the necessity and right use of Pourveyance and Compositions for them That the allowance of fifty thousand pounds per annum proposed as a recompence for his losses in the want of his Pourveyance is not to be found in the moyety of the Excise of Ale and Beer settled upon him and his heirs and successors for that the benefit thereof will not make amends for what he lost by his Tenures in the yearly Revenue thereof for as to the honor regality and right use of it that and Ten times more and all that could be given in money or an yearly rent would not have been enough for the purchase That thrice the sum of fifty thousand pounds per annum cannot ballance so great a loss and damage as the King sustains by his remitting of the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them That the splendor and magnificence of the Kings house cannot be so well supported by any certain yearly allowance in money nor the Squeeze and enhance of the Markets be so well escaped as they will be by that most easie laudable and accustomed way and establishment of the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them and that it can be no less then an undenyable truth and reason that it is the duty and should be the care of every good subject to further rather then hinder the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them That the mischiefs and inconveniences of taking away the Royal Pourveyances or Compositions for them have so visibly and often appeared to every unprejudiced eye or judgement as there is scarce an Englishman unless it be Cornelius Holland one of those that helped to kill the heir for his inheritance and would rather have Pourveyance to be a grievance then that he should fail of getting to him and his heirs Creslow Pâ—stures in Buckinghamshire which were appropriate to the fatting of the Kings lean Cattle for the provision of his houshold as every man may well conclude that it will be more for tâ—e good and ease of the people who can never be rich or happy when their Prince is poor or necessitous and if they love themselves are to love and support him that the King should have his Praeâ—emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them then that he should be so much dishonored or oppressed as he is already and like to be more and more for want of it Which should be numbred amongst those ancient and legal priviledges and rights belonging to soveraignty puâ—chased by the cares and labors of our many English Kings and Monarchs with the hazard of their lives fortunes and estates in the preservation of the wel-fare of the people and a Monarchy which is of more then one thousand years continuance and being a duty ought to be more cheerfully submitted unto then any Ordinances By Laws or Customes of any Cities Borough Towns or Corporations or those of the Lords of Mannors by Grant Allowance or permission of Royal Indulgences or those of the City of London that great ingrosser of Liberties and priviledges who besides their Court of Wards and Orphans which yeildeth them very great yearly profits and advantages do receive take amongst many other things not here particularly mentioned by a Grant of King Henry the third of his Tolles at Queen Hithe Belines Gate and Downgate and else where in the City of London for a small Fee Farm Rent of fifty pounds per annum if enjoyed by so good a title which were formerly taken for the Kings use For every Tun of Beer carryed from Billingsgate by Merchant Strangers beyond the Seas four pence out of every hundred of Salmons brought to Queen Hithe by foraigners or such as are not free of the City two Salmons for every thousand of Herrings bought in Shops an haâ—f penny twenty six Mackarels out of every Mackarel Boat one Fish out of every Dosser of Fish not having in it Mullet Ray Congre Turbut c. Two Salmons out of every Bark which bringeth Salmons out of Scotland some Sprats out of every Boat or Barke with Sprats two pence of every Oyster Boat out of every Bark or Boat of Haddocks twenty six Haddocks out of every Ship or Bark laden with Herrings from Yarmouth two hundred Herrings for all kind of Fish brought to London after the same rate as was paid to the King at London Bridge for every Ship Bark or Vessel not belonging to London or
solvat persolvat postea forisfacturam nor to sell or buy any thing for money but within Cities and before three witnesses nor without a Voucher or warranty and if any did otherwise they were to be fined and at last incurre a forfeiture Item nullum mercatum vel forum fieri permittatur nisi in civitatibus regni jus suum commune dignitatis coronae quae constituta sunt a bonis predecessoribus suis deperiri non possunt nec violari sed omnia rite in aperto per judicium â—ieri debent likewise that no Market be kept but in Cities so that the right of the King and the dignity of his Crown as it was constituted in the times of his good predecessors might not be lost defrauded or violated and that all things be rightly and openly done according to right and justice King Henry the 1. his Son saith the Monk of Malmsbury corrected the false Ell or Measure so called of the Merchants brachii sui mensura adhibita omnibusque per Angliam proposita causing one to be made according to the measure or length of his own arm ordered it to be used through all England and in his Laws reckoneth the punishment of false Coiners and prohibiting and punishing of Forestall or forestalling of Markets inter Jura his Rights Royal Prerogatives quae Rex Angliae solus super omnes homines habet in terra sua which belonged to him only as King of England and without an Act of Parliament ordered the rate and value of mony which being the mensura rerum measure guide of all things in commerce and dealings one man with another hath no small influence or power in the heightning or lessening of the price of things and is such a part of Soveraignty as the Parliament in their 19. high and mighty and unreasonable propositions sent unto the late King Charles the Martyr in his troubles in June 1642. never attempted to restrain or take from him In the Reign of King Henry the second when as Ranuphus de Glanvilla Chief Justice of England under him saith in that book which is generally believed to have been written by him the Laws and Customes of England being ratione introductis diu obtentis founded upon reason and long used had arrived to that perfection as pauperes non opprimabantur adversarii potentia nec a limitibus Judiciorum propellabat quenquam amicorum favor gratia the poor were not oppressed by their adversaries power nor did partiality or friendship hinder any from Justice the inquiry and punishment of false measures and all manner of deceipts did appertain Coronae Regis to the King only Justices in Eyre were after the return of King Richard the first from his Captivity sent into all Counties of England to enquire amongst other things de Faeneratoribus vinis venditis contra Assisam de falsis mensuris tam vini quam aliarum rerum of Usurers and of wine sold contrary to the Assize and of false measures as well of wine as other things In Anno quarto of King John being thirteen years before the granting of Magna Charta de Libertatibus Angliae the great Charter of the Liberties of England the King did by his Edict and Proclamation command the Assize of bread to be strictly observed under the pain of standing upon the Pillory and the rates were set the Assise approved per Pistorem as Matthew Paris saith Gaufridi filii Petri Justiciarii Angliae Pistorem R. de Thurnam by the Baker of Jeoffry Fitz Peter Justice of England and the Baker of R. of Thurnam And in the Magna Charta and Liberties granted by him afterwards at Running Munde or Mead near Stanes assented which our Ancestors and Procurers of that Charter believed to be for a publick good that una mensura vini cervisiae sit per totum Regnum una mensura bladi scilicet quarterium Londinense una latitudo pannorum tinctorum russetorum haubergetorum panni genus a kind of Cloth saith Sir Henry Spelman then so called there should be throughout all England one measure of Wine and Beer and the like of Corn and of the breadth of Cloth died and russet or other kinds And was confirmed by King Henry the third his Son in Anno 9. of his Reign who by an Ordinance made by the Kings command and on the behalf of the King howsoever it be stiled a Statute and is placed in our Statute book collected by Mr. Poulton amongst those which he calleth Statutes incerti temporis made in the Reigns of Hen. 3. Ed. 1. or Ed. 2. but cannot assign by whom or in what years or times but in all probability in the Reign of King Henry the third did ordain that no Forestaller which is an open oppresser of poor people and of the Commonalty and an enemy of the whole Shire and Countrey which for greediness of his private gain doth prevent others in buying Grain Fish Herring or any other thing to be sold coming by Land or waters oppressing the poor and deceiving the rich and câ—rrieth away such things intending to sell them more deer should be suffered to dwell in any Town he that shall be convict thereof shall for the first offence be amerced and lose the thing so bought and for the second time have judgement of the Pillory the third time be imprisoned and make Fine and the fourth time abjure the Town And this Judgement to be given upon all manner of Forestallers and likewise upon them that have given them counsel help or favour And providing that his people should not be oppressed with immoderate unreasonable prices in the buying of food and victuals and other necessaries did by his Writ limit the price of Lampreys and had as his Royal Progenitors such a power and just Prerogative of regulating and well ordering of Markets and Fairs as notwithstanding any Charters or Grants of Fairs and Markets to Cities and Towns he did in anno quinto of his Reign upon a complaint of some Merchants of Lynn that when they came to sell their goods and Merchandize at Norwich the Merchants or Tradesmen took away their goods and Merchandise to the value of three hundred marks by his writ give them power to arrest and seize any goods of the Norwich Merchants which should come to any Fairs at Lyn untill that Justice should be done unto them And in anno 49. of his Reign commanded the Barons of the Exchequer that they should inroll and cause to be executed his Letters Patents of a Confirmation to the Citizens of Lincoln of a Charter of King Henry the second his Grandfather that the Sheriff and other the Kings Officers and Ministers of Lincolnschiry should not hinder forraign Merchants to come to Lincoln to trade there ita rationabiliter juste as reasonably and justly as they were wont to do in
have all his wines seised or limit them to such rigorous observances as the Saxon and some of the Norman Kings did command require to have witnesses and Vouchers for all that the people should sell or buy Or if upon that or some other causes or grounds there were no Markets or Fairs to resort unto or vent the plenty or over-plus of the peoples corn cattel fruits fish flesh butter cheese poultrie or other provisions or commodities and that by tarrying at their own houses they could not be informed what rates they would yeild or what some over-lavishly have given for the like or for less or worse then theirs which is usually a great cause of the enhaunce of prices in the endeavours of all people to get as much for their commodities as they finde others have gotten or as much or more as by any pretences or frauds they can procure for them there would be so much and so great a cheapness and plenty of our native commodities as would draw along with them or cause a great abatement in the rates of setting or letting of land and bring us again into some part of that hospitality charity and alms deeds which our pious Progenitors made to be a great part of their cares and business and rescue us from those great sinnes of avarice envie Pride uncharitableness cozening cheating and oppression under which the Land grones and for which Gods judgements like a sword hanging over our heads in a small silk or hair are ready to destroy us And we should quickly find by the want of Fairs and Markets that which our daily experience now tells us to be true that they are the Markets and Fairs which doe make and yeeld a greater price then can be had at home at the peoples own houses that the Markets and Fairs which are a blessing and happiness to the people granted by our Kings and Princes not now to be wanted with a Safety and Protection in viis Regiis aquis Silvis Semitis in or through his high-wayes or by land or water very often denied by private men through their own lands and Jurisdictions which our forefathers not deserving to be called fools by their lesâ— wise generations for obtaining for them so many good Laws Liberties understood to be so much the Kings rights and favours as in the old Grants and Charters made by the King of any lands or liberties unto them they thought themselves never safe enough unless those words and priviledges were specially inserted And it is obvious to all mens experience that by the intercourse and commerce of the people one with another in the accommodation of one anothers wants affection interest present necessities or occasions the prices of all manner of commodities victuals and provisions have been very much raised and heightned more then formerly or when the buyers were not so numerous and that the vie and biddings which are usually found and to be met with at Fairs and Markets doe much raise and enhaunce them farre above the reall worth or for what otherwise they might be had with a reasonable gain and profit for the things themselves or recompence for labour of bringing them thither as is often found in the way of Holland and some other forreign parts now used by our English and other Merchants of Londan in selling goods or merchandise by an inch or small piece of candle set up to burn for a small time with a condition that he that bids most before it be out shall have it in which contest or striving who shall have the commodity the hasty or over-biddings as the candle goes almost out makes the price to be sometimes a fifth and sometimes a tenth more then it is truly worth and if it chance to be no loss or but a small one to him that winns the bargain it is because it may more conduce to some one particular occasion or affair which that party hath for it more then another That the Markets or Fairs in Cities or great Towns of trade where there are more people a larger expence and more delicate way of living brings the sellers or Market people a meliâ—ur marchè or better gain or return then they would or could get by carrying it to some lesser Town or place not so much frequented And that the ground and soyl near those Market Towns are much bettered and impâ—oved by the ordure dirt and dung of Horses or Cattel in the Streets or Stables carried out and laid upon it That the loss supposed by the duty or compositions for the Pourveyance would not come up to the fortieth or fiftieth part of what they would be otherwise loosers in the fall of their rents and prices And be at last assured to their losses that there can be no reason that all or many of the people who can now take or receive advantage by their own heightning and enhaunce of the prices of provisions at home or at the Markets and so greatly improve their estates by it against the minâ— and intent of the King and his Laws should stretch and raise all they can their rates and prises upon him or should in his particular of his Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions for it take advantage or benefit by their own wrongs or breach of the Law which by the rule or maxime of the Civil Law that Nâ—mo ex suo delicto meliorem suam conditionem facere potest no man is to make himself a gainer by his own evil doings is not permitted and our Common Law is not willing to allow a man to take benefit de son tort of his own wrongfull actions Or if that shall not be enough to make the experiment let the most froward and unwilling to that Duty and reasonableness of the Praeemption or Compositions for Pourveyance suppose that which was grown to be almost more then a supposition that Oliver the Cheat as well as Darling of the Factious and Rebellious part of the people and the Patrono of all or many of their wicked doings had as William the Conqueror all the Lands of England in his demeasn power or disposing and given to all the people more then eight parts in nine the Tithes or Tenths being reserved to God and the Clergie with all their Liberties Courts-Leet and Baron Franchises Priviledges of Free-warren Fishing Trade and Commerce Markets Fairs and Tolls with many other Immunities and Freedoms which the bounty and indulgence of our more lawfull Kings and Princes have from age to age and one generation to another given and granted to them and their heirs in perpetuity speciall or generall tail and think but how willing and glad they would have been before they were given or afterwards the late little benevolence being given to the King after the greatest Act of Oblivion or Indempnity which ever Englishmen or any other people had bestowed upon them teaching us the difference betwixt after and before and between a willingness to receive benefits and
understanding and right reason into the ruder sort of the heathen as in some parts of Africk the King thinks he is not beloved of his people unless he doth sometimes feast them and the heads of the Cowes which are killed for that provision are painted and hung up like pictures in his Chamber as for an honor to the King whereby such strangers which did come to his Court might perceive that he was a good King Being like the Agapes or Love Feasts allowed by St. Paul and those which the primitive Christians continued as an excellent Custome and usage when the rich as Tertullian witnesseth brought to those publick feastings meat and provisions and fed and feasted the poor which were so usefull and well-becoming all such as intended or desired the comfort and blessing of it as that thrifty as well as magnificent Commonwealth of Venice doe not only order and encourage yearly Feasts among the several ranks and Classes of their Citizens and people but doe make an allowance to their Duke or shadow of Monarchy for the feasting of the principal of the Senate and to send yearly in the winter to every Citizen a certain petty present of wild foul And if the virtue of charity which St. Paul makes to be the chief or summa totalis of all the virtues and excellencies which humane nature or frailties can be capable of and will not allow that of speaking with the tongues of Angels which certainly is more to be valued then our last twenty years English complement nor the gift of prophecy and understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge neither the having of such a faith as might remove mountains to be any more then nothing in him or a noise or emptiness if charity be not joyned with it be so superlative The people of England as well as their Kings and Princes were not mistaken when they did so heed and thought it necessary to be observed as a good part of the Tythes given by Aethelulph in the year after the birth of Christ 855. not only of his own Lands in demeasne but as most of the Writers which lived nearer that time have as the most learned and judicious Selden rightly observed it extended unto a grant made by the consent omnium Praelatorum ac Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis provinciis totius Angliae praeerant of all the Bishops and Prelates and the Princes and Earles which under him governed in the severall Provinces and whether the Tithes came first to be setled here by that great King Ethelulphus and his Bishops and great men or were assented unto or granted afterwards by the piety and devotion of particular men and the owners of lands and goods of which very many grants doe occurre before they were settled by a very just and binding authority of the Secular Ecclesiastical power and authority in this our Isle of great Britain some part of them may be certainly said to be in the use and application of them to the Church and Ministry and sacred uses dedicated and designed for hospitality Which the People of did so greatly regard and look after as the supposed want of it in the reverend Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury begot a project in the reign of King Henry the eighth as Doctor Peter Heylin that learned and great Champion of the Church of England and the truth even after he was blind hath recorded it Whereby a design was laid by a potent and over-busie Courtier to ruine the Revenues belonging to that Arch-Bishoprick by informing the King that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had fallen much Wood let long Leases for great Fines and made great havock of the Revenues of his Arch-Bishoprick whereby to raise a fortune to his wife and children and with so large a Revenue had kept no Hospitality that it was more meet for Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer then to be incumbred with Temporal Revenues and that the Lands being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual stipends a great yearly Revenue But the King rightly apprehending the device sent the Informer on an errand about Dinner time to Lambeth-house where he found all the Tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully provided the Arch-Bishop himself accompained at Dinner with diverse persons of quality his Table exceeding plentifully furnished and all things answerable to the port of so great a Prelate wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back gave him such a rebuke for his false information and the design which was built upon it as neither he nor any of the other Courtiers duâ—st stir any further in that suite And the common people of England have always with so much reason loved and applauded Hospitality good House-keeping Alms Deeds and works of Charity and in that besides their own benefits and concernments did but delight in the ways of God which he hath commanded and is well pleased with whereby the heretofore famous and greatly beloved Nobility and Gentry of England have gained so much love honor power reverence and well deserved esteem as the greatest part of the respects which are now afforded and paid by them unto their Issues and remaining generations are as unto too many of them more in remembrance of the good and vertuous deeds of their Ancestors then any personal good or vertue is either to be found in them or according to the courses which they now hold is so much as expected from them who think a name or title like some gaudy Sign-post hung out of an empty ill governed and worse furnished house where vice and all manner of sins in their horrid and ugly deformities being treated and entertained do crawle up and down like Toads Frogs and Serpents in some dark and loathsome Dungeon or that a pedigree deriving their discents from some or many Heroes and Worthy Patriots is honor enough for them do scorn all but their own foolries and suppose a witty Drollery and the Friskes and Funambuloes of an ill governed wit or of brains soaked and steeped in drink more to be valued then the wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon hate vice and admonition shun vertue and morality as they would do the burst and fire of a Granado and believe dâ—inkâ—ng Dicing and Drabbing to be a more Gentile and cleanlier way of Hospitality and make the common people whilst they stand almost amazed at their Debaucheries and irregularities ready to swear they are illegitimate or some Changelings crept into the name and estate of their Hospitable and vertuous Progenitors and if any of them should be well affected and inclined to walk in the ways of their Ancestors and keep good houses can never be able to do it by reason of the no Reason of their Ranting and expensive Wives twenty of which sort of new fashioned women for there are some though not so many as should be which are or would be helpers to
or some other sum of money in a Bill of four or five pounds and give an acquittance for it as if they themselves had received it So as all manner of cozening and artificial and newly devised trim ways of cheating under the pretence and colour of Religion honesty and doing of faithful service having like some Epidemick and general contagion infected and spread it self through almost all the ranks and degrees of the people the King who is like to be most abused by it hath now a greater necessity then ever of his Compositions for Pourveyance and of the several Counties serving in their Provisions for that otherwise so great a number of Harpies and Gypsâ—es as his officers and servants shall meet with in the buying of his houshold Provisions will make a great allowance or assignments in money for houshold expences which several Acts of Parliament in the Reign of King H. 7. King H. 8. Queen Elizabeth and King James did in aid of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them limit and appoint to be paid towards the charge of house-keeping out of several parts of the revenue as some out of the profits of the Court of Wards some out of Fee Farm Rents and others out of the Customes yet unrepealed to be but as a very little and render it altogether insufficient and not the one half so much in value as the allowance or money shall seem to be Or if the King had had a yearly sum of money to be yearly charged upon the people and paid by them in lieu of the Pourveyance as it was designed by a Bill for an Act of Parliament thrice read in the house of Peers in Parliament in the first year of the Reign of King James and passed and sent down to the house of Commons and being by them not assented unto but another Bill for an Act of Parliament prepared and sent up in stead of the former and the abolishing of all Pouâ—veyance and fifty thousand pound per annum in recompence thereof granted to be leavyâ—d upon the Lands in every County of England and prosecuted no further then the twice reading of that Bill Such an yearly sum of money being afterwards yearly drawn and forced from those uses by some greater necessities would have left the King to more wants and his people to a greater necessity of supplying him or if it had been then as it is now supposed to be satisfied by a grant of the moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Sider Perry and other compounded drinks to be yearly paid to him his heirs and Successoâ—s those yearly profits would have been under the like fate of being otherwise imployed and whether in that way or by the fifty thousand pound per annum to be charged upon the people would not have been a just and adâ—equate recompence for the yearly loss if no more of seventy three thousand six hundred pounds fourteen shillings and seven pence which the King now sustaineth for want of his prae-emption Pouâ—veyance or Compositions for them by how much the sum of seventy three thousand six hundred pounds fourteen shillings and seven pence per annum if no furâ—her addition of damage should happen exceedeth fifty thousand pounds per annum and by how much the moiety of such an Excise might as it doth now fall a great deal short of the estimate or yearly Income which it was believed to be Nor can come up unto that equality or rule of justice which ought to be in laying of Assessements or Taxes upon the common people for a general and publike good wherein every man being concerned ought to contribute for that such a Tax or Imposition for the Pourveyance will be as wide of it as to lay the burden of the rich upon the poor compell the Aged Lame or Impotent to maintain the young more healthy and able or to enforce a contribution of the County of Oxford towards the See Walls Inning of Marshes or draining of Fennes in Norfolk and Lincolâ—eshire constrain men to fraight out Ships and pay custome for the goods of Merchants when they shall partake nothing of the gains and make all the Counties and people of England to pay a far greater Tax then the Compositions for Pourveyance amounted unto for to purchase a discharge of Compositions for Pourveyance which lay but lightly upon all but twelve or thirteen Shires or Counties which are near adjacent unto London and gave them little or no trouble at all to ease those twelve or thirteen Counties which gained ten times more by the Pourveyance and the Kings residence at London then what they ever paid or contributed towards it And may well miscarry in the hopes ot wishes of the peoples content or approbation when as such a recompence as the King is supposed to have by it and as much again laid upon the people by the fraud and exactions of the Brewers and sellers of Ale and Beer c and the peoples oppressing and cheating of one another by pretence and colour of it and in the Farming or collecting of it shall be extorted or taken out of the necessities or excess of his subjects the groans and complaints of the poorer sort of them and the murmurings and discontents of the rich more able to bear it who will not be perswaded but that it is an Artifice of the Nobility and Gentry to ease themselves of other necessary duties and payments by taking it off their own shoulders and putting it upon theirs And the poorer sort of people who were never used to be troubled with any charge or payments towards Pourveyance and Compositions and by their weakness of Purse and Estate are always more sensible and complaining of any burdens which shall be laid upon them shall as they will finde themselves to be loosers in the rise and heightning of all victuals and provisions to be bought as much or more then the yearly charge of the Kings Pourveyance and Compositions did amount unto for that the Kings price will increase that of the Nobility that of the Nobility will raise the Gentry in their prices and the unreasonable rates and prices which the Gentry must be constrained to give will raise that of the common people and a price once raised and fixed but for a little time is so by the craft and sinful pretences of the sellers kept up and continued as it seldom falls again but riseth higher and higher and as far as they can possibly stretch or strain it so as none will be gainers but the sellers who are not a third part of the people and their gains must be made out of the losses and damage of the King and two parts of the people Who will also be put in a worse condition when the King by a daily waste and consumption in his Revenue by such exactions and prices imposed upon him in buying his houshold provisions at such intollerable rates and prices as the unbounded avarice gnawing and grinding advantages of
cujus effectus est necessarius nisi aliunde impediatur could not be so the sole or proper cause of it as if not otherwise hindered it could not want its necessary effect CHAP. VII That the supposed plenty of money and Gold and Silver in England since the Conquest of the West Indies by the Spaniards hath not been a cause of raising the prices of food and victuals in England BUt will upon a due examination be too light in the Ballanee of Truth and Reason and deserve a place in the Catalogue of vulgar Errors For that the rise of Silver in its value or denomination by certain gradations or parts in several Ages from twenty pence the ounce by King Henry the sixth by his prerogative to thirty pence and between his Raign and that of Queen Elizabeth to forty pence and after to forty five pence and after to sixty pence ours being of a finer standard mixture or Allay then that of France the united Belgicque Provinces or the haâ—se or Imperial Cities of Germany and is now as high as five shillings and a penny the ounce comes far short of the now or then enhaunce of victuals and commodities and makes so large a disproportion as the abundance of that could not be probably the cause of the dearth of victuals and all manner of Commodities for that the plenty of those bewitching and domineering mettals of Gold and Silver supposed to be betwixt the Times of the discovery and subduing of the Indian Mines in the Raign of our King Henry the seventh which was about the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and five and the middle of the Raign of King Edward the sixth when as those Irritamenta malorum American riches and the alurements of them did not in the time of Charles the fifth Emperor who out-lived our King Henry the eight amount unto for his account any more then five hunddred thousand Crowns of Gold and with that and what came into Europe to the Spanish Merchants Accompts our English havâ—ng not then learnt the way to the West Indies or to search the unknown passages of the unmerciful Ocean could not have so great an influence upon England which was no neer neighbor to the Indies as to cause that dearth of Victuals all commodities which was heavily complained of in the raign of King Edward the sixth and if it had there would not have been any necessity of King Henry the 8. embasing or mixing with Copper so much as he did the Gold and Silver Coin of the Nation or that the price of the ounce of Silver should be raised betwixt the Raign of King Henry the 7. and the middle of the raign of Queen Elizabeth to sixty pence or five shillings the ounce and though it must be granted that the raising of the ounce of Silver by King Henry the 8. or King Edward the 6. to five and forty pence and afterwards by some of his successors to sixty pence and the making of more pence out of an Ounce then was formerly might be some cause of the enhaunce of the price of victuals and commodities And that some of our Gallants or Gentlemen of these times forgetting the laudable fâ—ugality of their ancestors who had otherwise not have been able to have leâ—t them those Lands estates which do now so elevate their Poles â—ay by coiting their mony from them as if they were weary of it many times ignorantly give out of their misused abundance more mony or as much again as a thing is worth or not having money to play the fools withall in the excess of gluttony or apparel or the pursuite of their other vices may sometimes by taking them upon day or trust give three or four timâ—s more then the commoditys would be sold to another for ready money the seller being many times never paid at all and if he should reckon his often attendance and waiting upon such a customer to no other purpose but to tire himself and never get a peny of his money would have been a greater gainer if he had given him his wares or commodityes for nothing and if after many yeers he should by a chance meet with his money looseth more by his interest then the principal amounted unto Yet if Parliaments which have been composed of the collected wisdom of the Nation and their Acts and Statutes which have been as they are understood to be made with the wisdom and universal consent of the people of England tanta solemnitate and with so great solemnity as Fortescue in the Raign of King H. 6. and the Judges in Doctor Fosters Case in 12. Jac. Regis do say they are may be credited the plenty of Gold and Silver was never alleaged or believed to be a cause of the dearness of Victuals and provisions When as the Statute of Herring made in the thirty fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the third when the Trade of Clothing was in a most flourishing condition such a Trade necessarily inducing conferring some plenty of money declares the cause of the dearness of Herring to be because that the Hostes of the Town of great Yarmouth who lodged the Fishers coming there in the time of the Fair would not suffer the Fishers to sell their Herrings nor to meddle with the sale of the same but sell them at their own will as dear as they will and give the Fishers that pleaseth them so that the Fishers did withdraw themselves to come there and the Herring was set at a greater dearth then there was before and that men outvied and overbid each other For if the many accidents concurring to the enhauncing of the price of any thing or commodity beyond its ordinary and intrinsicque worth value shall be rightly considered as famine the unseasonableness of the year or harvest blasts or Mildews of Corn transportation fear of an approaching famine keeping Corn and provisions from Markets and hoarding them up eâ—ther for the people 's own use or to catch an opportunity of the highest rates the scarcity or surpassing excellency of it obstructions which wars policy or controversies of Princes or neighbor Nations one with or against another may put upon it a general Murrain or Mortality of Cattel Inundations of waters great store of provision or foder for Cattle or a gentle Winter the charge and burden of a new Tolle or Taxe a present necessity to have the thing desired to be bought or had which the crafty and covetous seller hath taken notice of the importunity of an affection to have it although it cost a great deal more then the worth of it or the conveniency for one more then another which may recompence the damage in giving too much for it or more then was otherwise needful making it to be a good bargain for that particular person time or place which would not be so for others and the Market people imitating one anothers high demands
afterwards by reason of the Murrain of Cattel and a more then ordinary unseasonableness of those years twenty quarters of Corn were furnished for the Kings use and taken by the Sheriff of Kent at eleven shillings the quarter as appeareth by a Tally struck foâ— the payment thereof yet extant in his Majesties Receipt of the Exchequer and although that in the year next following by reason of a peace with France and the great victories before obtained against it by the English when the King was rich and the people rich which makes a Kingdom compleatly rich with the riches and spoiles gained thereby and that great store of Gold and Silver Plate Jewels and rich vestiments sparsim per Angliam in singulorum domibus were almost in every house in England to be found and that in the 23. year of the Raign of the said King so great a mortality of men and Cattle happned ut vix media aut decima pars hominum remaneret as scarce a third parâ— and as some were of opinion not above a tenth part of the people remained alive which must needs have made a plenty of money tunc redditus perierunt saith the Historian hinc terra ob defectum Colonorum qui nusquam erant remansit inculta tantaque miseria ex bis malis est secuta quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem insomuch as Rents or Tenants for Lands were not to be had the Lands for want of husbandmen remained untilled which would necessarily produce a dearth and scarcity of Victuals And so great was the misery as the Kingdom was never like to recover its former condition And that in the 25. year of the Raign of King Edward the third by reason of the Kings coyning of groats and half groats less in value then the Esterling money Victuals were through all England more dear then formerly and the Workmen Artificers and servants raised their Wages yet in Anno 12 R. 2. though there was a great dearth yet Wooll was sold for two shillings a Stone a Bushel of Wheat for thirteen pence which was then thought to be a great rate a Bushel of Wheat being sold the year before for six pence And in Anno 14. of King R. 2. in an account made in the Receipt of the Exchequer by Roger Durston the Kings Bayliff he reckons for three Capons paid for Rent four pence half penny for thirteen Hens one shilling and seven pence for a Pâ—owâ—share paid for Rent eight pence and for four hundred Couple of Conies at three pence a couple one hundred shillings In Anno 2 H. 5. the Parliament understood four pounds thirteen shillings four pence to be a good yearly aâ—lowance or salary for a Chaplain being men of more then ordinary quality so gâ—eat a cheapness was there then of Victuals and other provisions for the livelihood of men and for Parish Priests six pounds per annum for their Board Apparrel and other necessaries and being to provide that Jurors which were to be impanelled touching the life of man Plea Real or Forty Marks damage should be as the Statute of 42 E. 3. c. 5. required men of substance good estate and credit did ordain that none should be Jurors in such cases but such as had fourty shillings per annum in Lands above all charges which was so believed to be a good estate in 5 H. 8. c. 5. which was almost one hundred years after as the Parliament of that year did think it to be an estate competent enough for such kind of men In the Raign of King Henry the sixth after that France a great and rich neighboring kingdom was wholy conquered and possessed by the English who had not then learned their wasteâ—ul Luxuries or Mimick fashions and could not with such an increase of Dominion and so great spoils and riches transported from thence hither but be abundantly and more then formerly full of money the price and rates of Victuals was so cheap as the King could right worshipfully as the Record saith keep his Royal Court which then could be no mean one with no greater a charge then four and twenty thousand pounds per annum and in the 33. year of his raign which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred fifty and five by assent of Parliament granted to his son the Prince of Wales but one thousand pound per annum whilst he had Dirt and Lodging for himself and his servants in his house until he should come to the age of eight years and afterwards no more then 2000. Marks per annum for the charge of his Wardrobe Wages of servants and other necessaâ—y expences whilst he remained in the house of the King his â—ather which was then thought sufficient to support the honor and dignity of the Prince and heir apparent of England though now such a sum of money can by some one that mâ—ndeth his pleasure more then his estate and the present more then the future be thrown away in one night or day at Cards or Dice In Anno 37 H. 6. Meadow in Derbyshire was valued but at ten pence per Acre and errable Land at three pence In the 22. year of the Raign of King Edward the fourth which was â—n the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred eighty and two the price and value of six Oxen was at the highest valuation but ten pounds In the seventh year of the Raign of King H 7. which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred ninety and two Wheat was sold at London for twenty pence the Bushel which was then accounted a great dearth and three years after for six pence the Bushel Bay Salt for three pence half penny Nampâ—wich Salt for six pence the Bushel white Herrings nine shillings the Barrel red Herrings three shillings the Cade in the fifteenth year of his Raign Gascoign Wine was sold at London for fourty shillings the Tun and a quarter of Wheat for four shillings In the 24. year of the Raign of King Henry the 8. a fat Ox was sold at London for 26 s. an half peny a pound for Beef and Pork and a half penny farthing a pound for Veal and Mutton was by Act of Parliament thought to be a reasonable price and with gain enough afforded In the fourth year of the Raign of Queen Mary which was in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred fifty and seven when very many families and multitudes of the people of England had been but a little before greatly monyed enriched by the lands spoil or the Monasteries and other Religious houses and their large possessions Wheat was sold before Harvest for four Marks the quarter Malt at four and fourty shillings the quarter and Pease at six and fourty shillings and eight pence but after Harvest Wheat was sold at London for five shillings the quarter Malt at six
with another to a custome of some little favors or ease in their buyings and bargains as the Baker his one loaf of bread to the dozen the Brewer a Barrel of strong Beer at Christmas the Tallow Chandler his Christmas Candle the London Draper his handful or more then the yard called London measure and that of the hundred and ten pound to some hundred of things sold by weight and one hundred and twenty to others and the Vintners sending some Hippocras at Christmas to their yearly and constant Customers and the like can suppose it fit to save such a petty contribution as the Kings Composition for Pourveyance which throughout England do scarcely amount to so much as those small Civilities and being saved will probably be spent in pride and vanities or for worse purposes Or to weaken the hand of our Moses which they should rather help to sustain and strengthen and when all Nations rejoyce in the power might and Majesty of their Kings shall make it their business to eclipse or diminish it by cutting of our Sampsons locks and that which should promote it For if the men of Israel are said to do well when they perswaded their King Ahab not to hearken to the insolent demands of Benhadad the King of Syria to deliver him his silver and gold c. the people of England must needs be believed to do ill to deny the King so necessary a part of his Regality which was more precious then gold and silver and put him to a treble or very much greater then formerly expences in his houshold provisions when the mercies of God which have hitherto spared our transgressions accomplished our unhappy warfare broken the staffe of the wicked driven them far away that would have swallowed us up and restored our Princes and nobles and mighty men the men of war the Judges and Prophets the prudent and the ancient so as the light hath shined upon them that dwelt in the Land of the shadow of death our Cities have not been laid waste our vallies have not perished nor our habitations been made desolate should put us in mind to be more mindful of his Vicegerent and annointed and remember how much and how often he did threaten his judgements and brought many upon his chosen people of Israel for their ingratitude and how much he was offended with them for not shewing kindness to the house of Gideon and Zerubbaal according to all the goodness which he had shewed to Israel and that as Bornitius saith Quicquid boni homo civisque habet possidet quod vivit quod libere vivit quod bene quod beate omniumque rerum bonorum usu interdum etiam copia ad voluptatem utitur fruitur totum hoc benificium Reipublicae Civilique ordini acceptum est referendum that whatsoever a subject enjoys or possesseth that he lives and lives freely well and happily and abounds wâ—th pleasure and plenty are benefits proceeding from the Commonwealth and good order and government thereof And that omnis homo every man Et res singulorum in Republica conservari nequeant nisi conservetur res publica sive communis adeoque singuli sui causa impendere videntur quicquid conferunt in publicum usum every mans particular estate cannot be in any condition or certainty of safty unless the Commonwealth be preserved so that whatsoever is laid out or expended for the Commonwealth is at the same time laid out and expended for every mans particular and that St. Chrâ—sostom was of the same opinion when he said that ab antiquis Temporibus communi omnium sententia principes a nobis sustentari debere visum est ob id quod sua ipsorum negligentes communes res curant universumque suum otium ad ea impendunt quibus non solum ipsi sed quae nostra sunt salvantur That anciently and by the opinion of all men Princes ought to be supported by their subjects for that neglecting their private affairs they do imploy all their power and care for the good of the Common-wealth whereby not onely what is their own but that which is the subjects are preserved That the King whose Royal progenitor King Edward the third could take such a care of the honor and Pourveyance of the City of London as to grant to the Maior of London who by reason of the wars had not for two years received that great profit which he was wont to receive de mercatoribus Alienigenis illuc confluentibus of Merchants strangers resorting thitheâ— one and twenty pounds per annum de reddit diversorum messuagiorum shoparum ibidem out of the Rents of divers Messuages and Shops in London in relevamine status sui for the maintenance and support of his estate might have as much care taken if duty and loyalty should not be as they ought to be the greatest obligations of his more ancient rights and Pourveyance or Compositions for them And may consider that if such an inseparable right and concomitant of the Crown of England should hereafter appear not to be alienable by any Act or exchange betwixt the King and the people they and their posterities will have but an ill bargain of it if the Pourveyance or Compositions for them should hereafter by any reason or necessity of State be resumed and the Excise or imagined satisfaction granted as a recompence for that and the taking away of the Tenure in Capite and by Knight service should be retained That it cannot be for the good or honor of the English Nation that our King should be reproached as some of a light headed and a light heeled neighbor Nation observing his want of Pourveyance have of late very falsly that he had not wherewithall to buy bread for his Family Or that other Nations should think our English so Fanatick or improved to such a madness by a late rebellion as to embrace the opinion of Arise Evans that pittiful pretender to Prophesie and Revelations who when the men of the Coffee-house Assembly or Rota mongers were with their Quicksilver Brains together with some Rustick or Mechanick nodles framing a new Government or moddel for a Kingdom torn in pieces would likewise shoot his Bolt and publikely in Print advise that the best way would be to Elect some honest pâ—or man of the Nation to be King onely during his life and allow him but one hundred pounds per annum which would be a means to keep off all Plots and Treasons against him or any ambitions or designs to enjoy his Office and when he should die to chose another for the term of his life and so successively one after anothâ—r upon the same and no better terms or allowance Or that we have a minde to do by our gracious King as the Fifth-Monarchy-men do by their King Jesus who notwithstanding all their pretences of setting him upon his Throne are well enough content to gather what they can the while for