upon the Waste which generally belongs to some Mannor whose different Tenures may be so cross and so otherwise encumbred that even the Lord of those Mannors though they were willing cou'd not Convey them This may be Answer'd in General That an Act of Parliament is Omnipotent with respect to Titles and Tenures of Land and can Empower Lords and Tenants to Consent to what else they cou'd not as to Particulars they cannot be Answer'd till they are Propos'd but there is no doubt but an Act of Parliament may adjust it all in one Head What a Kingdom wou'd England be if this were perform'd in all the Counties of it and yet I believe it is feasible even in the worst I have narrowly observ'd all the Considerable Ways in that unpassable County of Sussex which especially in some parts in the Wild as they very properly call it of the County hardly admits the Countrey People to Travel to Markets in Winter and makes Corn dear at Market because it can't be brought and cheap at the Farmer 's House because he can't carry it to Market yet even in that County wou'd I undertake to carry on this Proposal and that to great Advantage if back'd with the Authority of an Act of Parliament I have seen in that horrible Country the Road 60 to 100 Yards Broad lie from side to side all Poach'd with Cattel the Land of no manner of Benefit and yet no going with a Horse but at every step up to the Shoulders full of Sloughs and Holes and covered with standing-water It costs them incredible Sums of Money to Repair them and the very Places that are mended wou'd fright a young Traveller to go over them The Romans Master'd this Work and by a firm Causeway made a High-way quite through this deep Country through Darkin in Surry to Stansted and thence to Okeley and so on to Arundel its Name tells us what it was made of for it was call'd Stone-street and many visible parts of it remain to this day Now would any Lord of a Mannor refuse to allow 40 Yards in breadth out of that Road I mention'd to have the other 20 made into a Firm Fair and Pleasant Causeway over that Wilderness of a Countrey Or would not any man acknowledge That putting this Country into a condition for Carriages and Travellers to pass would be a great Work The Gentlemen would find the Benefit of it in the Rent of their Land and Price of their Timber the Countrey People would find the difference in the Sale of their Goods which now they cannot carry beyond the first Market-Town and hardly thither and the whole County would reap an Advantage an hundred to one greater than the Charge of it And since the Want we feel of any Convenience is generally the first Motive to Contrivance for a remedy I wonder no man ever thought of some Expedient for so considerable a Defect Of ASSURANCES ASSURANCES among Merchants I believe may plead Prescription and has been of use time out of mind in Trade tho perhaps never so much a Trade as now 'T is a Compact among Merchants It s beginning being an Accident to Trade and arose from the Disease of Mens Tempers who having run larger Adventures in a single Bottom than afterwards they found convenient grew fearful and uneasy and discovering their uneasiness to others who perhaps had no Effects in the same Vessel they offer to bear part of the Hazard for part of the Profit Convenience made this a Custom and Custom brought it into a Method till at last it becomes a Trade I cannot question the Lawfulness of it since all Risque in Trade is for Gain and when I am necessitated to have a greater Cargo of Goods in such or such a Bottom than my Stock can afford to lose another may surely offer to go a Part with me and as 't is just if I give another part of the Gain he shou'd run part of the Risque so it is as just that if he runs part of my Risque he shou'd have part of the Gain Some Object the disparity of the Premio to the Hazard when the Ensurer runs the Risque of 100 l. on the Seas from Iamaica to London for 40 s. which say they is preposterous and unequal Though this Objection is hardly worth Answering to Men of Business yet it looks something fair to them that know no better and for the Information of such I trouble the Reader with a few Heads First They must consider the Ensurer is out no Stock Secondly It is but one Risque the Ensurer runs whereas the Assured has had a Risque out a Risque of Debts abroad a Risque of a Market and a Risque of his Factor and has a Risque of a Market to come and therefore ought to have an answerable Profit Thirdly If it has been a Trading Voyage perhaps the Adventurer has Paid Three or Four such Premio's which sometimes make the Ensurer clear more by a Voyage than the Merchant I my self have Paid 100 l. Ensurances in those small Premio's on a Voyage I have not gotten 50 l. by and I suppose I am not the first that has done so neither This way of Assuring has also as other Arts of Trade have suffer'd some Improvement if I may be allow'd that Term in our Age and the first step upon it was an Ensurance-Office for Houses to Ensure them from Fire Common Fame gives the Project to Dr. Barebone a Man I suppose better known as a Builder than a Physician Whether it were his or whose it was I do not enquire it was settled on a Fund of Ground-Rents to Answer in case of Loss and met with very good Acceptance But it was soon follow'd by another by way of Friendly Society where every one who Subscribe pay their Quota to Build up any Man's House who is a Contributor if it shall happen to be Burnt I won't decide which is the Best or which Succeeded best but I believe the latter brings in most Money to the Contriver Only one Benefit I cannot omit which they reap from these Two Societies who are not concern'd in either That if any Fire happen whether in Houses Ensur'd or not Ensur'd they have each of them a set of Lusty Fellows generally Water-men who being immediately call'd up where-ever they live by Watchmen Appointed are it must be confess'd very Active and Diligent in helping to put out the Fire As to any further Improvement to be made upon Assurances in Trade no question there may and I doubt not but on Payment of a small Duty to the Government the King might be made the General Ensurer of all Foreign Trade Of which more under another Head I am of the Opinion also that an Office of Ensurance Erected to Ensure the Titles of Lands in an Age where they are so precarious as now might be a Project not unlikely to succeed if Establish'd on a good Fund But I shall say no more to that because it seems
Commission of Assessment shou'd be granted to Twelve Men such as His Majesty shou'd be well satisfied of who shou'd go through the whole Kingdom Three in a Body and shou'd make a new Assessment of Personal Estates not to meddle with Land To these Assessors shou'd all the Old Rates Parish-Books Poor-Rates and Highway-Rates also be delivered and upon due Enquiry to be made into the Manner of Living and reputed Wealth of the People the Stock or Personal Estate of every man shou'd be assess'd without Connivance and he who is reputed to be worth a Thousand Pound shou'd be tax'd at a Thousand Pound and so on And he who was an over-grown Rich Tradesman of Twenty or Thirty thousand Pounds Estate shou'd be tax'd so and Plain English and Plain Dealing be practis'd indifferently throughout the Kingdom Tradesmen and Landed men shou'd have Neighbours Fare as we call it and a Rich Man shou'd not be pass'd by when a Poor Man pays We read of the Inhabitants of Constantinople that they suffer'd their City to be lost for want of contributing in time for its Defence and pleaded Poverty to their Generous Emperor when he went from House to House to persuade them and yet when the Turks took it the Prodigious Immense Wealth they found in it made 'em wonder at the sordid Temper of the Citizens England with due Exceptions to the Parliament and the Freedom wherewith they have given to the Publick Charge is much like Constantinople we are involv'd in a Dangerous a Chargeable but withal a most Iust and Necessary War and the Richest and Money'd Men in the Kingdom plead Poverty and the French or King James or the Devil may come for them if they can but conceal their Estates from the Publick Notice and get the Assessors to tax them at an Under-Rate These are the men this Commission wou'd discover and here they shou'd find men tax'd at 500 l. Stock who are worth 20000 l. Here they shou'd find a certain Rich Man near Hackney rated to day in the Tax-Book at 1000 l. Stock and to morrow offering 27000 l. for an Estate Here they shou'd find Sir J C perhaps tax'd to the King at 5000 l. stock perhaps not so much whose Cash no man can guess at And multitudes of Instances I cou'd give by name without wrong to the Gentlemen And not to run on in Particulars I affirm That in the Land-Tax Ten certain Gentlemen in London put together did not pay for half so much Personal Estate call'd Stock as the poorest of them is reputed really to possess I do not enquire at whose door this Fraud must lye 't is none of my business I wish they wou'd search into it whose Power can punish it But this with Submission I presume to say The King is thereby defrauded and horribly abus'd the true Intent and Meaning of Acts of Parliament evaded the Nation involv'd in Debt by fatal Deficiencies and Interests Fellow-Subjects abus'd and new Inventions for Taxes occasion'd The last Chapter in this Book is a Proposal about entring all the Seamen in England into the King's Pay a Subject which deserves to be enlarg'd into a Book it self and I have a little Volume of Calculations and Particulars by me on that Head but I thought them too long to publish In short I am persuaded was that Method propos'd to those Gentlemen to whom such things belong the greatest Sum of Money might be rais'd by it with the least Injury to those who pay it that ever was or will be during the War Projectors they say are generally to be taken with allowance of one half at least they always have their mouths full of Millions and talk big of their own Proposals and therefore I have not expos'd the vast Sums my Calculations amount to but I venture to say I could procure a Farm on such a Proposal as this at Three Millions per Ann. and give very good Security for Payment such an Opinion I have of the Value of such a Method and when that is done the Nation wou'd get Three more by paying it which is very strange but might easily be made out In the Chapter of Academies I have ventur'd to reprove the Vicious Custom of Swearing I shall make no Apology for the Fact for no man ought to be asham'd of exposing what all men ought to be asham'd of practising But methinks I stand corrected by my own Laws a little in forcing the Reader to repeat some of the worst of our Vulgar Imprecations in reading my Thoughts against it To which however I have this to reply First I did not find it easy to express what I mean without putting down the very Words at least not so as to be very Intelligible Secondly Why should Words repeated only to expose the Vice taint the Reader more than a Sermon preach'd against Lewdness should the Assembly for of necessity it leads the Hearer to the Thoughts of the Fact but the Morality of every Action lies in the End and if the Reader by ill use renders himself guilty of the Fact in Reading which I design'd to expose by Writing the Fault is his not mine I have endeavour'd every where in this Book to be as Concise as possible except where Calculations oblig'd me to be particular and having avoided Impertinence in the Book I wou'd avoid it too in the Preface and therefore shall break off with subscribing my self SIR Your most Obliged Humble Servant D. F. Introduction NEcessity which is allow'd to be the Mother of Invention has so violently agitated the Wits of men this time that it seems not at all improper by way of distinction to call it The Projecting Age. For tho' in times of War and Publick Confusions the like Humour of Invention has seem'd to stir yet without being partial to the present it is I think no Injury to say the past Ages have never come up to the degree of Projecting and Inventing as it refers to Matters of Negoce and Methods of Civil Polity which we see this Age arriv'd to Nor is it a hard matter to assign probable Causes of the Perfection in this Modern Art I am not of their melancholy Opinion who ascribe it to the general Poverty of the Nation since I believe 't is easy to prove the Nation it self taking it as one General Stock is not at all diminish'd or impoverish'd by this Long this Chargeable War but on the contrary was never Richer since it was inhabited Nor am I absolutely of the Opinion that we are so happy as to be Wiser in this Age than our Forefathers tho' at the same time I must own some parts of Knowledge in Science as well as Art has received Improvements in this Age altogether conceal'd from the former The Art of War which I take to be the highest Perfection of Human Knowledge is a sufficient Proof of what I say especially in conducting Armies and in offensive Engines witness the new ways of Mines Fougades Entrenchments
Business is not only the easiest but the safest way of executing an Affair of such variety and consequence also I cou'd state a Method for the Proceedings of those private Offices their Conjunction with and Dependance on the General Court of the Directors and how the various Accompts shou'd Center in one General Capital account of Stock with Regulations and Appeals but I believe them to be needless at least in this place If it be Objected here That it is impossible for One Joint Stock to go thorough the whole Business of the Kingdom I Answer I believe it is not either impossible or impracticable particularly on this one account that almost all the Country Business wou'd be Manag'd by running-Bills and those the longest abroad of any their distance keeping them out to the Increasing the Credit and consequently the Stock of the Bank Of the Multiplicity of Banks What is touch'd at in the foregoing part of this Chapter refers to One Bank-Royal to Preside as it were over the whole Cash of the Kingdom But because some People do suppose this Work fitter for many Banks than for One I must a little consider that Head And first allowing those many Banks cou'd without clashing maintain a constant Correspondence with one another in passing each others Bills as Current from one to another I know not but it might be better perform'd by Many than by One for as Harmony makes Musick in Sound so it produces Success in Business A Civil War among Merchants is always the Ruin of Trade I cannot think a Multitude of Banks cou'd so consist with one another in England as to join Interests and uphold one another's Credit without joining Stocks too I confess if it cou'd be done the Convenience to Trade wou'd be Visible If I were to Propose which way these Banks shou'd be Establish'd I answer Allowing a due regard to some Gentlemen who have had thoughts of the same whose Methods I shall not so much as touch upon much less discover My thoughts run upon quite different Methods both for the Fund and the Establishment Every principal Town in England is a Corporation upon which the Fund may be settled which will sufficiently answer the difficult and chargeable work of Suing for a Corporation by Patent or Act of Parliament A general Subscription of Stock being made and by Deeds of Settlement plac'd in the Mayor and Aldermen of the City or Corporation for the time being in Trust to be declared by Deeds of Uses some of the Directors being always made Members of the said Corporation and join'd in the Trust the Bank hereby becomes the Publick Stock of the Town something like what they call the Rents of the Town-House in France and is Manag'd in the Name of the said Corporation to whom the Directors are Accountable and they back again to the General Court For Example Suppose the Gentlemen or Tradesmen of the County of Norfolk by a Subscription of Cash design to Establish a Bank The Subscriptions being made the Stock is paid into the Chamber of the City of Norwich and manag'd by a Court of Directors as all Banks are and chosen out of the Subscribers the Mayor only of the City to be always one to be managed in the Name of the Corporation of the City of Norwich but for the Uses in a Deed of Trust to be made by the Subscribers and Mayor and Aldermen at large mentioned I make no question but a Bank thus settled wou'd have as firm a Foundation as any Bank need to have and every way answer the Ends of a Corporation Of these sorts of Banks England might very well establish Fifteen at the several Towns hereafter mention'd Some of which tho they are not the Capital Towns of the Counties yet are more the Center of Trade which in England runs in Veins like Mines of Metal in the Earth Canterbury Salisbury Exeter Bristol Worcester Shrewsbury Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne Leeds or Halifax or York Nottingham Warwick or Birmingham Oxford or Reading Bedford Norwich Colchester Every one of these Banks to have a Cashier in London unless they cou'd all have a general Correspondence and Credit with the Bank-Royal These Banks in their respective Counties should be a General Staple and Factory for the Manufactures of the said County where every man that had Goods made might have Money at a small Interest for Advance the Goods in the mean time being sent forward to Market to a Warehouse for that purpose erected in London where they shou'd be dispos'd of to all the Advantages the Owner cou'd expect paying only 1 per Cent. Commission Or if the Maker wanted Credit in London either for Spanish Wool Cotton Oyl or any Goods while his Goods were in the Warehouse of the said Bank his Bill shou'd be paid by the Bank to the full Value of his Goods or at least within a small matter These Banks either by Correspondence with each other or an Order to their Cashier in London might with ease so pass each other's Bills that a man who has Cash at Plymouth and wants Money at Berwick may transfer his Cash at Plymouth to Newcastle in half an hours time without either Hazard or Charge or Time allowing only ½ per Cent. Exchange and so of all the most distant parts of the Kingdom Or if he wants Money at Newcastle and has Goods at Worcester or at any other Cloathing-Town sending his Goods to be sold by the Factory of the Bank of Worcester he may remit by the Bank to Newcastle or any where else as readily as if his Goods were sold and paid for and no Exactions made upon him for the Convenience he enjoys This Discourse of Banks the Reader is to understand to have no relation to the present Posture of Affairs with respect to the Scarcity of Currant Money which seems to have put a stop to that part of a Stock we call Credit which always is and indeed must be the most essential part of a Bank and without which no Bank can pretend to subsist at least to Advantage A Bank is only a Great Stock of Money put together to be employ'd by some of the Subscribers in the name of the rest for the Benefit of the Whole This Stock of Money subsists not barely on the Profits of its own Stock for that wou'd be inconsiderable but upon the Contingences and Accidents which Multiplicity of Business occasions As for Instance A man that comes for Money and knows he may have it To-morrow perhaps he is in haste and won't take it to day Only that he may be sure of it to morrow he takes a Memorandum under the Hand of the Officer That he shall have it whenever he calls for it and this Memorandum we call a Bill To morrow when he Intended to fetch his Money comes a Man to him for Money and to save himself the labour of Telling he gives him the Memorandum or Bill aforesaid for his Money this Second Man does