Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A37163
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An essay on the East-India-trade by the author of The essay upon wayes and means.
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Davenant, Charles, 1656-1714.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing D307; ESTC R7736
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21,681
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62
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Annual Income of the Kingdom and I think the contrary is capable of no clear Demonstration the Legislative Power ought to proceed with much Caution in any matter relating to it Whatever Country can be in the full and undisputed Possession of it will give Law to all the Commercial World Should we quit the Hold we have in India and abandon the Traffick Our Neighbours the Dutch will undoubtedly engross the whole And if to their Naval Strength in Europe such a Foreign Strength and Wealth be added England must hereafter be contented to Trade by their Protection and under their Banners As War does vary all the Circumstances of Trade alter its Channel give it to one People and take it from another So in seasons of War 't is by no means proper nor adviseable to embrace New Councils in relation to it Nor can we then take any True Measures or make any Right and Sound Judgment about it The Scarcity of Money in a long War makes any Exportation of Bullion thought a great Grâ—evance of which in Quiet Times we should not be sensible In the same manner the Interruption of any Manufacture though never so Prejudicial to the Kingdom is grievous in a Time of War when Business is scarce and Trading dull But in a Time of Peace and full Employment these Hands can shift from one Work to another without any great Prejudice to themselves or the Public There having been for Three Years last past a great want of East-India Goods and there happening of late a great Call for the Woollen Manufactures and indeed for all the Product of England some unthinking Persons grew presently to imagine that the want of East-India Goods and no other Reason had brought the Woollen Manufacture into Request and increased its Consumption from whence very many have began to argue and infer That the East-India Trade is and alwayes was prejudicial to the Kingdom But the sudden Call which was then for all kind of English Commodities as well as the Woollen Manufacture viz. Lead Tin Leather Butter Cheese Tallow c. did not proceed from the want of East-India Goods but indeed from the Posture of the Exchange Abroad the Ill Condition of our Silver Coyn and the High Price Guineas were brought to For we plainly see this great Demand both Abroad and at Home for our Goods does cease now Guineas are lower'd and the Coyn is alter'd My Lord It has been too often the Fault of English Councils to determine Rashly of the most Important Matters And with Submission to better Judgments I doubt it may be of very dangerous Consequence at this Time to meddle with or give any Disturbance to a Settled Traffick The Concern of Wooll is without doubt to be taken care of but not so as upon that account to slight all our Foreign Interest The East-India Company has been for a long time look'd upon with an Evil Eye by some People because there has formerly been Ill Management in their Affairs and for that some of their Goods were thought to hinder the Consumption of our own Manufactures and because it was seen what Silver they really carried out and not enough Consider'd what Bullion their Effects brought hither in Return Some Persons without Doors either Bribed by the Dutch or to flatter that Interest profess themselves Open Enemies to the Traffick in General Others through Inadvertency and for want of Examining the bottom of Things give into their Notions and others joyn with them out of Immoderate Zeal to promote the Woollen Manufacture So that any discerning Man may see that the utter Ruin of this Trade and its intire Loss to England will be compassed unless the King assisted by the Legislative Power out of His Fatherly Love to His People interpose with His Wisdom in the matter One of the principal Dangers now of taking New Councils about it is That in a time of War if by any false Steps and Measures we should lose Ground in India neither our Condition nor the Nature of our Present Alliance with the Dutch will permit us to assert our Right in those Parts by Force of Arms. And if we should come so to lose our Hold in India as not to Trade thither at all or but weakly and precariously I will venture to affirm and I hope Your Lordship will remember hereafter this Prediction of mine that England will thereby lose half its Foreign Business For all Trades have a Mutual Dependance one upon the other and one begets another and the loss of one frequently loses half the rest By carrying to other Places the Commodities brought from India We every where inlarg'd our Commerce and brought Home a great over-ballance either in Foreign Goods or in Bullion In Holland we Exchanged our Wrought Silks Callicoes c. for their Spices By Indian Goods we could Purchase at a better Rate in Germany the Linnens of Silesia Saxony and Bohemia In times of Peace we did and may again Traffick with France for our India Goods against the things of Luxury which will alwayes be brought from thence and thereby we may bring the Ballance more of our side between us and that Kingdom And My Lord there being a Peace now in agitation between Us and France the Wisdom of the State perhaps may think fit to insist as an Article that the Prohibition of our East-India Goods may be taken off in France and if that can be obtain'd it will put the Trade of England with that Kingdom upon much a more equal Foot As to Spain and the Streights and Parts within the Streights c. 't is apparent that a large Share of the Bullion return'd hither from thence did proceed from the Sale there of Callicoes Pepper and other East-India Goods consum'd in those Parts and also bought up by the Spaniards for their own and the Consumption of their Plantations in America 'T is hop'd My Lord the foregoing Arguments have sufficiently prov'd That this Traffick in General is beneficial to the Nation I shall now proceed to deliver my Opinion concerning the Bill for Prohibiting the Wearing all East-India and Persia Wrought Silks Bengals and Dyed Printed or Stained Callicoes which was the Second Point I propos'd to handle They who promote this Bill do it as is presum'd upon the following Grounds and Reasons First They believe such a Prohibition will advance the Consumption of Wooll and the Woollen Manufactures Secondly They think it will advance the Silk and Linnen Manufactures of England Thirdly They Imagin such a Prohibition may be made by Act of Parliament without Ruin to the Traffick in General These Three Points My Lord I shall Endeavour to Examine and State fairly before Your Lordship And I shall discourse of the East-India Trade First as it has Relation to the Woollen Manufacture Secondly as it has Relation to the Silk and Linnen Manufactures And Thirdly I shall show how this Prohibition will affect the East-India Trade in General And First as to the Woollen
in Exchange Abroad for Linnen than to make it here at Home which Trade has been set afoot and prosper'd very much to the great Benefit of this Kingdom since the Prohibition of French Goods during this War But if we provide our selves at Home with Linnen sufficient for our Consumption and do not want that which is brought from Silesia Saxony Bohemia and Poland this Trade must cease For these Northern Countries have neither Money nor other Commodities and if we deal with them we must be contented in a manner to barter our Cloaths for their Linnen And 't is obvious enough to any Considering Man that by such a Traffick We are not Losers in the Ballance In Process of Time when England shall come to be more Peopled And when a long Peace shall have increased our Wealth and Stock perhaps we may be able not only to carry on our old Manufactures to their full height but to embrace new Ones Such as are that of Silk and Linnen but as our Case stands it seems sufficient to let them take their own Natural Course and not to drive them on For too many sorts of Businesses may be as well hurtful in the Publick as they are often to Private Persons If the Nation finds a General Profit from them their own Weight will bear them on but in the mean while it cannot be Adviseable in their Favour to exercise any extraordinary Act of Power and for their sake by Prohibitions to distress embroil and disturb any settled Trade by which beyond all Contradiction the Nation before the War was so great a Gainer My Lord After much Thought upon this Subject I am come to these Conclusions within my self which I submit to Your better Judgment First That our Silk and Linnen Manufactures obstruct Trades more Important and more profitable Secondly That tho' a Prohibition of East-India Goods may advance their present Interest who are engag'd in the Silk and Linnen Manufactures here yet That it will bring no future advantage to the Kingdom Thirdly That Luxury is so deeply rooted in this Nation that should this Prohibition pass it will onely carry us to European Markets where we shall pay perhaps 50 per Cent. dearer may be for the same or for Vanities of the like Nature So that UPON the whole Matter My Lord I am humbly of Opinion that the Importation of wrought Silks Bengals Stain'd Callicoes c. does not so interfere with Our Silk and Linnen Manufactures as to hurt the Publick and bring dammage to the Collective Body of England And Thirdly As to the Effect such a Prohibition will have upon the East-India Trade in General IN all Argumentations 't is requisite to settle and agree upon Principles for which Reason in the beginning of this Discourse I did endeavour to prove That in general the East-India Trade was Profitable to this Kingdom And I dwelt the longer upon that Head because some People are quite of a Contrary Opinion and believe it hurtful to England And I am satisfied that many without Doors promote the Bill in Question in hopes thereby utterly to destroy the Traffick And truly My Lord it seems plain to me that the intended Prohibitions must prove though not a sudden yet a certain destruction to it And that 't is a lopping from this Trade the Branches and taking away some of the Bark and part of the Root The Trunk indeed is left but so maim'd and injur'd that it can never spread and flourish If it can be made appear this Prohibition is no ways to be render'd effectual And if it can be shown that the said Prohibitions will utterly disable the Present East-India Company or any other to be hereafter Erected from Supporting and Carrying on the Trade to the Advantage of England Your Lordship will certainly think the Bill now a foot of dangerous Consequence and not fit to receive a Sanction in the House of Peers No Prohibitions of a Foreign or Domestick Commodity can have any Effect without Sumptuary Laws strictly penn'd and rigorously put in Execution For the Importation of French Wines and Linnen has been forbidden under high Penalties during this War yet the Consumption of those sort of Commodities is not much lessen'd and they are brought in upon us from other Countries at much a dearer Rate For these Three Years last past French Wines have been convey'd hither by the way of Spain and Portugal and the French Silks and Linnens have been all along secretly brought and smuggled upon our own Coast Perhaps if severe Sumptuary Laws had Impos'd a High Duty or Penalty upon the Consumers of French Wine Silks and Linnen the Prohibition might have had its designed Effect But how such Laws could have been made Practicable I shall not pretend to determine In the same manner if a severe Mulct or a High Duty can be laid on such as shall Wear or Use any India or Persia Wrought Silks Bengals c. and if this were superadded to the Prohibition peradventure it might be render'd Effectual But otherwise notwithstanding the Prohibition of Wearing such Goods and the Penalties upon the Retailers that shall vend them their Consumption will be little lessened in this Kingdom for they will be brought in upon us from other Countries Scotland and Holland more especially However though such a Method is peradventure the only way of keeping down this Luxury I am very far My Lord from thinking it Adviseable For the Laws of all Countries must be suited to the Bent and Inclinations of the People And which I am loath to say there is sometimes a Necessity they should be a little accommodated to their deprav'd Manners and Corruptions The People of England who have been long accustom'd to Mild Laws and a loose Administration can never indure that Severity which is needful to make such a Prohibition have Effect Nor can they suffer High Duties or Penalties to be imposed upon their Pleasures or bear a strict Inquisition into their Furniture and Apparel There is no Country without a multitude of Sumptuary Laws but hardly a Place can be instanc'd where they are Observ'd or produce any Publick Good They were somewhat regarded in the Infancy of the Roman Common-wealth before Riches and Pomp had banish'd Vertue and Obedience But their chiefest Strength was alwayes deriv'd from the Sanctity and Veneration in which was held the Office of Censor And in England they would be immediately contemn'd and derided and any Magistrate must become the Publick Scorn that should think to put them in Execution And yet without Strict Sumptuary Laws well Observ'd the Wisdom of the Parliament will find it self eluded when it endeavours to banish Foreign Vanities and Luxury in favour of our own Product and Manufactures For in all probability the Consequence of such a Prohibition will be That Goods of the same kind or Goods applicable to the like use instead of those Imported from India will be brought hither from Abroad and the Consumption will not be