Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	year_n	3,756	5	4.9520	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46717	The Argument of the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench concerning the great case of monopolies, between the East-India Company, plantiff, and Thomas Sandys, defendant wherein their patent for trading to the East-Indies, exclusive of all others, is adjudged good.	Jeffreys, George Jeffreys, Baron, 1644 or 5-1689.; Sandys, Thomas.; England and Wales. Court of King's Bench.; East India Company.	1689 (1689)	Wing J526; ESTC R17792	37,073	36

his Reign Lord Chancellour Finch being Attorney and my Lord Keeper that now is Sollicitor he confirms this Charter and grants to the East-India Company other priviledges by an other Charter in the 28th year of his Reign at which time the Lord Keeper was Attorney and Sir William Jones Sollicitor he confirms the former and grants more priviledges and in the 25th year of his Reign by the Charter now in question passed with the approbation of the present Attorney and Sollicitor Men of great Ability in their Professions and of whom were they not present I should say much more the Charter to this Company was confirm'd with additional Priviledges Nor has this Charter passed only the approbation of his Majesty and Council since his happy Restauration but the Parliament has likewise taken notice of it the Statute 14 Car. 2. cap. 24. takes notice of it to be of great advantage to the Publick The Stat. of the 29th of this King for Pole-money Taxes them at twenty shillings for every hundred Pound in stock in the great Case between Skinner and the East-India Company the House of Commons defended them even to an eruption between the two Houses Mr. Jenks and some other Linnen-Drapers and Tradesmen of London taking the advantage of the Heats that too frequently possessed the House of Commons of late years especially against the Point of Prerogative did furiously attack the East-India Company but without any success and this Company was never assaulted in Westminster Hall till this Case at the Bar I cannot help therefore this Observation that as the King by his Charter 1661 takes notice that the Charters granted by Queen Elizabeth and King James remain uninterrupted till the late Rebellion so the Interlopers against the King's Prerogative in this particular and the horrid Conspirators against the King's Life in this last hellish Conspiracy first appeared in Westminster-Hall about the same time As to the Objections I have not yet given answer to I think they are but few my Lord Cokes Opinion cited by Mr. Pollexfen 2 Instit. 540. where my Lord observes new things which with fair pretences prove hurtful to the Commonwealth and amongst them reckons that new Corporations trading into Forein parts and at home which under the fair pretences of Order and Government in conclusion tend to the hindrance of Trade and Traffick and in the end produce Monopolies does not at all concern the Case at the Bar for this Charter that hath continued for one hundred years without any interruption till of late can neither be thought a new Corporation or hindrance of Trade and Sir Edward Coke when he was Attorney General and past this Charter was as learned in the Law as he was when he published that Book and was turned out of being Chief Justice did not think this Charter needed that Caution As to the Case of the Canary Patent between Horn and Ivy that cannot affect the Case at the Bar. I. For first The Judgment in that Case was given upon the point of Pleading and not upon the validity of the Patent II. That Patent was in perfect opposition to that Statute 3. Jac. that opened a free Trade to Spain and therefore could not be restrained by the King's Letters Patents but there is no such Objection to our Case The Councel that argued for the Defendant seemed to allow the Charters to the Virginia Turkey and Eastland Companies which are exclusive of others to be good because they 're managed by a Regulation and not a Joint stock which surely can make no difference for it is a Grant of a sole Trade to them exclusive of others as well as the Case at the Bar and it 's as hard to get into the Turky Company as it is into this and may be more chargeable for you cannot be a Member of the Turkey Company but you must be a Freeman of the City of London and makes you liable to all the great Offices of Charge in that Government but a Freedom of the East-India Company may be purchased at a much easier rate the Members of the East-India Company are as visible as those of the Turkie and though it was said the East-India Company were sometimes invisible yet were the Turky Company infected with so many Interlopers as the East-India Company have they would not appear so glorious and spendid as they now do and as I heartily wish they may long continue But the King by this Charter has reserved to himself a Power to destroy and alter the whole Charter or any part thereof so as to put it into a way of Regulation instead of a Joint-stock in such manner as he shall in his great Wisdom think fit therefore it becomes us in Duty and Modesty to wait till we receive his further Royal Pleasure therein And whereas it was objected at the Bar because the King cannot lay any Imposition upon Forein Trade therefore he cannot restrain it I do not know to what end that Objection was made because it does not affect the Question at the Bar but lest it may obtain the effect that I presume was aimed at I think not amiss to say that even at this day there is much more may be said in the maintenance of the King's Prerogative in Westminster-Hall in that Case than can be offered against his Prerogative in this but in as much as that and several other Objections against the Charter proceeded from unreasonable as well as unmannerly mistrusts they have of the Crown I cannot but remember that his Sacred Majesty was not so mistrustful of them for he since his Restauration has bestowed upon his Subjects more than all his Predecessors put them all together since the Conquest ever did Nay he in a moment frankly bestowed upon us more than ever he desires he shall be trusted with again for by his Act of Indempnity he bestowed upon his Subjects their Lives Liberties and Estates which were all justly and legally forfeited to him by the late Rebellion the consideration whereof will prevent all fears and jealousies and promote in all Loyal hearts a firm resolution to sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes so freely bestowed upon us by him to maintain the Crown and just Prerogatives thereof so that it may have a perpetual continuance in that Royal Family in a lawful Succession which I heartily pray may be so long as the Sun and Moon endures From what hath been said I hope it doth plainly appear that since the Law of this Land and the Law of Nature and Nations allow the Power of making Companies to manage Traffick exclusive to all others to be in the Prince That this is reckoned to be inter Jura regalia That no Act of Parliament does restrain this Prerogative That the practice of all Europe has been accordingly That particularly such Companies have been erected in England and those Companies have been in quiet possession of their Priviledges for such a number of years That they have passed the approbation of

THE ARGUMENT OF THE Lord Chief Justice OF THE Court of King's Bench CONCERNING The GREAT CASE OF MONOPOLIES BETWEEN The EAST INDIA Company Plaintiff AND THOMAS SANDYS Defendant Wherein their Patent for Trading to the East-Indies Exclusive of all others is adjudged good Entred Trin. 35 Car. 2. B. R. Rot. 126. and Adjudged Termino S. Hilar. annis 36 37 Car. 2. Primo Jac. 2. LONDON Printed and are Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCLXXXIX The Publisher to the Reader TO commend this Argument I 'll not undertake because of the Author but yet I may tell you what is told me That it is worthy any Gentleman's perusal for the Subject is of concern to the Publick in general and to every individual Man in the Kingdom either immediately or by Consequence since Trade is the Life of a Nation and all Men are Traders either by themselves or others the Consequences of it are Strength Wealth and Employment to all sorts of People whatsoever And that and nothing but that can secure the Peace of the Country it employing both Rich and Poor and keeping all from Idleness and so prevents Ill Men from disturbing the Government by Treasons or the Subject by Felonies both which are most frequent when Trade is dull and Men are Idle when the Exchange is thin and Shops are empty 'T would be an endless Task to recount the Desolations and Ruins that have happened to States and Kingdoms by Sloth Luxury Idleness and the neglect of Commerce and the prodigious Benefits that have accrued to several Countries by the contrary and to our own in particular and the vigilant Care and Zeal which wise Kings Princes and other Sovereign Potentates have always had and used for the Countenance and Promotion of Traffick within their respective Territories That Foreign Trade is of absolute necessity and infinite advantage to England is as apparent as that we are an Island peculiarly adapted and prepared for it by Nature her self insomuch that Shipping which at first was an Invention of the Deity for the Use of Noah and his Family seems a Blessing design'd most particularly for us to render us sociable with the Inhabitants of Foreign Countries that we might borrow of their Necessities and vent our own Superfluities to them instead ou 't and so maintain a Correspondence with all the habitable World. That Foreign Commerce cannot be advantagiously maintained without Societies instituted for that purpose is sufficiently manifested to all considerate Men from the Policies of other Laws abroad which establish them and from the Provisions of our own which allow and protect them and from the necessity of the thing it self as appears by the vast Charge in Intelligence Factors Castles Forts Men Arms c. and the wise Conduct requisite for the support of such a Commerce which without the united Aid of a considerable number of understanding Merchants upon a considerable Stock must necessarily be obnoxious to the growing Incroachments of neighbouring Countries which use the Policy of setled Companies and to the other mischievous Casualties that may daily happen through the Indiscretion and Rashness and other weakness in Stock or Conduct of particular individual Persons exercising such Traffick As for the East-India Company they support the Crown by the incredible Customs which are yearly paid by it they bear a considerable Proportion of publick and necessary Subsidies they enrich the Nation by their Importations they Convert Infidels or at least civilize them and make them more humane by their Correspondencies they employ vast numbers of Poor People they negotiate vast Sums of private Persons Monies which would otherwise lie dead or useless They educate and breed vast numbers of Sea men for the Services of War they build and employ Vessels of great Burden useful to the Crown and Publick upon emergent Occasions Their Naval Force is part of the Defence of the Kingdom their Trading Fleet is both the Glory and Riches of the Nation they have improved and do maintain the Spirit of Commerce to that degree as preserves the Balance of Trade between us and our Neighbours in its just Proportions which Company were it dissolved their Trade and Strength would increase and ours decay and we should be reduced to our Primitive State of Self-subsistance and our Merchants now the Pride of England and the Envy of the World must become Domestick Pedlers for an home ignoble Traffick from Cities to Towns and from Towns to Villes sic retrorsum For these Reasons is the ensuing Argument published THE ARGUMENT OF THE Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys Concerning the Great CASE of MONOPOLIES PLEA I. DEfendant demands Oyer of the Letters Patents which are set forth in haec verba In which as it hath been observed the penalty of Forfeiture of Ship and Goods one moiety to the King and the other to the Company and Imprisonment is omitted II. There is also a Clause that the Company may License Strangers or others and that the King will not without the consent of the Company give Licences c. III. That none shall have a Vote in the General Assembly but he that hath 500 l. Stock IV. And there is another Clause which hath not been mentioned by the Councel on either side that if it should hereafter appear to his Majesty or his Successors that that Grant or the continuance thereof shall not be profitable to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours or to this Realm that after three years warning under the Privy Seal or Sign Manuel the same should be utterly void For Plea the Defendant says by an Act of Parliament made 15 E. 3. It is enacted that the Sea shall be open for all Merchants to pass with their Merchandizes where they please and that the Defendant by vertue of that Act and according to the Common Law of England did Traffick within those places mentioned in the Declaration without any Licence and against the will of the Company as the Plaintiffs have declared prout ei bene licuit Plaintiff Demurrs In the debate of this Case at the Bar there were several matters discoursed of but at length by the consent of both sides as I apprehend the Case was resolved into these two Points I. Whether these Letters Patents giving or granting Licence or Liberty to the Plaintiffs to exercise the sole Trade to the Indies within the limits of their Grant with prohibition to all others be good in Law. II. Admitting the Grant good whether this Action be maintainable for the Plaintiffs Now to let me into the Debate of these two Points I think not amiss to remember some things that have been mentioned by the Counsel that I think are no ways in Question I. At this time I conceive therefore that whether the King may prohibit his Subjects from going beyond the Seas by Writ or otherwise by his absolute Prerogative without giving any reason is not the Question nor sure was it ever thought a Question till it was lately stirred at

wherever we please Or would not they rather say we have a Pass from the King of England and rely upon that which presumes Treaties Leagues and Truces between Princes and in case that will not prevail the King will see them righted And in the Charter that is now before us there is a particular restriction and limitation of Trade to any Prince in Amity with our King. Now as the constant Usage and practice of other Countries warrants such Societies as these so does ours too for as I said the Hanse Towns were some of the first Corporations of Trade that we read of in History so was it thought the Interest of England to support and encourage them K. H. III. gave them great Priviledges and the Still yards for their Residence which they enjoyed near three hundred years managing their Trade by an Alderman and Council called the Guild of the Hanse engrossing the Trade of England for Grain Cables Masts Pitch Tar c. and under that colour the Jacobsons at this day claim several Priviledges It is observed by many Historians that the most flourishing Trades have been begun by united Stocks and Policies In this Kingdom a Patent was first obtained for the erecting the Staple from E. 3. before any Act of Parliament intermedled in that Trade and proceeded under several Regulations till the time of Queen Eliz. In the Book I cited before Malyns Lex Mercatoria fol. 150. says this Company of Merchants are above four hundred years standing as that Book reckons from 1248. when the said Merchants obtained Priviledges of John Duke of Brabant and were called the Brotherhood of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury which were confirmed by King E. 3. H. 4. H. 5. E. 4. H. 6. R. 3. H. 7. who gave them the Name of Merchant-Adventurers and after him confirmed by H. 8. E. 6. Q. M. Q. Eliz. and King James not without many Enemies and Opposers especially says that Book of late taxing them to be Monopolies and unprofitable to the Commonwealth being that all our Cloaths are not Dressed and Dyed in England yet it still prevailed as being thought for publick good And its observable that Queen Eliz. did not only confirm what was done by her Predecessors but augmented and greatly enlarged the priviledges of this antient Company and confirmed the Charter on the Muscovy Company granted by Philip and Mary and set up several other Companies as that of Exeter mentioned at the Bar the East-India Company the Levant and the East-land Company And although that antient and beneficial Company of Staplers was often opposed by particular Persons and complained of as a Monopoly intrenching upon the liberty of the Subject in several Parliaments in the time of H. 4. H. 7. E. 6. and Q. Mary yet all parties being heard these complaints were fully answered and the Companies priviledges ratified and enlarged Again In Queen Eliz. time the Cloathiers having prevailed against the Company the Cloathing countreys were almost quickly ruined and reduced to that extremity that the 29 Eliz. the Lords of the Council sent for the Members of that Company desiring them to reassume their Priviledges and chearfully to proceed in their Society with assurance of all Countenance and Assistance from the Government And in the Reign of King James after several Interlopers had endeavoured to destroy the Company the King published his Proclamation to restore the Company to its antient Priviledges So did King Charles the First 7. Dec. 34. Reciting Whereas we have taken into our Princely consideration the manifold benefits that redound to this Kingdom and finding how much Order and Government will conduce to the encrease and advancement of the same We have thought fit with the advice of our Privy Councel c. There He gives an establishment to the Company and prohibits any to intrudeupon their priviledges upon pain of such punishments as the Star-Chamber shall inflict Since this it may be worth consideration whether the breaking of this Company has not occasioned the great decay of our Trade in Wool it being agreeable to reason that as no Law can be effectual without Courts of Justice to put them in execution nor a stragling Army subsist without Discipline so a stragling Trade managed by particular persons whilst every one strives to advance his own private Interest will ruine the Trade in general especially such a hazardous Trade as this to the East-Indies which already hath been so chargeable and can onely be prevented by the Conduct and Government of a publick Society and surely to look after and settle these matters properly belongs to the care and prudence of our Governours Now I shall observe how the practice has been both in Qeen Elizabeths time and ever since and that although many Charters like ours at the Bar have been granted and none ever demanded by any Judgment in Westminster-Hall or so much as objected against save onely that of the Canary Patent till this Cause at the Bar and tho several attempts have been made both in Parliament and in the Courts at Westminster-Hall against Monopolies yet this Charter and others of the like nature were never look'd upon under that Character for instance I. A Charter was granted 2. of Eliz. to the Merchants of Exeter for the sole Trade of France excluding all other Merchants of Exeter not of that Company continued undisturbed and prevailed against a great opposition that was made against it in Parliament King Edward VI. and King Philip and Mary having granted a Charter like ours to the Russia Company which continued in peace till the 8. of the Queen when the Parliament taking notice of that Patent thought fit to confirm it with all the commendations imaginable and was so far from thinking it a Monopoly that it says the Commonwealth before that time had received great advantages by it and grants and inflicts greater and other Penalties than were or could be inflicted by the Letters Patents and it is observable that there were some Interlopers upon that Trade in those days and had been liable to the Forfeitures inflicted by those Letters Patents and were therefore forced to apply themselves to that Parliament and did obtain a special Proviso to excuse those Forfeitures which had not that Act of Parliament been made they had been liable to which I take to be an Authority full as to the case at the Bar. Queen Elizabeth during her Reign granted several Charters of the like nature which pass'd the perusal of her Attorney and Sollicitor learned Men in our Profession In the beginning of her Reign my Lord Chief Baron Weston was Sollicitor Sir Gilbert Gerrard Attorney General and pass'd those Patents both to the Russia and Exeter Companies 23 Eliz. my Lord Chief Justice Popham was Attorney and Lord Chancellour Egerton Sollicitor in whose times some few such Charters were also granted like to this at the Bar and then my Lord Cook was Attorney General and my Lord Chief Baron Flemming Sollicitor General who approved thereof

so many learned Men That they have been thought for the publick advantage of the Nation by so many Kings and Princes with the advice of their Council both in and out of Parliament That all Statutes and Authorities of Law that we can meet with in our Books affirm it and none that I can meet with oppose it That the East-India Company have solely run the hazard and been at great Expences In discovering Places Erecting Forts and keeping Forces Setling Factories And making Leagues and Treaties abroad It would be against natural Justice and Equity which no Municipal Law can take away for others to reap the benefit and advantage of all this Especially since all this has been occasioned by an Act of the Publick and by the just Prerogative of the Crown under which they claim So that now supposing the matter had been doubtful at the beginning as yet the contrary is evident yet after so many years undisputed and uniterrupted Prerogative of the King and the possession of the Companies pursuant thereunto and yet the Laws having always been open to any Subjects who conceive themselves grieved that Speech which Josephus records of King Agrippa to those Jews who after many years endeavoured to recover their lost pretence may be applied to these clamorous Interlopers Intempestivum est nunc libertatem concupiscere olim ne amitteretur certatum oportuit Non amantes libertatis dicendi estis sed subditi contumaces And so the Romans answered Antiochus to shew the injustice of his Demands That he required those Cities which his Precessor for so many years had never enjoyed And Queen Elizabeth pleaded against the King of Denmark for the rights of Fishing upon the coasts of Norway and New-Island That neither his Great Grandfather Grandfather nor Father had exacted any thing for it and therefore concluded it to be unjust Cambden Eliz sub Anno 1600. So that I conclude the First and as I conceive the onely Point in this Case that Letters Patents that give Licence and Liberty to the Plaintiffs to exercise the sole Trade to the Indies within the limits of their Grant exclusive of all others is a good Grant in Law. II. I do conceive that the Defendant trading to the Indies contrary to this Charter may be punished by Information at the Suit of the King and that this Action by the Plaintiffs is also well brought but in as much as I have detained you so long upon the first Point I shall trespass upon your patience but a few words to this I. Therefore I conceive the Plaintiff need not alledg any special Damage no more than the Grantee of a Fair Market or any other Franchise II. The Action is brought and grounded upon the Grant of the sole and intire Trade which as I conceive is a Franchise the King may grant and is like the Case of New Inventions upon which Letters Patents Actions are brought by every days experience and the prohibiting Clause is added onely to make the thing more notorious and that Interlopers in case they should be prosecuted at the King's Suit should be more inexcusable and until you can imagine there may be as many East-India Companies as there are Commoners and School-Masters in England Mary's Case Cook 9. can never be thought an Objection As to the Objection in the 11 Rep. 88. Rolls Abridgment part 106. Darcy's Case that admitting the Grant or Disponsation to Darcy had been good for the sole importing of Forein Cards yet that being onely a Dispensation to the Stat. of E. 4. and did only exclude Darcy from the penalty of that Act he could not maintian the Action but if in case that Grant had vested an Interest as our Grant at the Bar does he might have brought an Action as my Lord Rolls says in the next Paragraph may be collected out of Darcy's Case The Case upon Patents of new Inventions are full Authorities in the Case at the Bar and so is that Case of the Abbot of Westminster Re. fol. 107. Wherein upon the Grant of the Market for thirty days exclusive of others is particularly set forth in the Action and the Salisbury man that brought Cloth to London and sold the same contrary to that Charter is prosecuted in an Action of Trespass upon the Case at the Suit of the Abbot and the Writ concludes supposing the Grant good in nostri contemptum praedicti Abbatis grave damnum ac Fr. libertatum suarum praedictarum laesionem manifestam which is an Authority full as to this Point Upon the whole matter I am of the same Opinion with my Brothers and do conceive that that Grant to the Plaintiffs of the Sole Trade to the Indies exclusive of others is a good Grant and that the Action is well brought and therefore let the Plaintiff take his Judgment FINIS Roll 's Ab. 2. fo 214. Commons pray leave to export and import Foreign Goods at their pleasure except Goods of the Staple notwithstanding any Proclamation to the contrary Resp. le Roy voet estre advise parson Councel