that spread Nets upon the Water shall languish that the great Sea business of Fishing be not forthwith set forward May it please your Majesty P. 203. I have the rather undergone the pains of looking into the Policies of the Dutch and French because I have heard them profess they hoped to get the whole Trade of Christendom into their hands And how near the French had got the Trade and Holland into the Bargain let them judge that best understand the Advantage we have by the present War IV. The French King hath been disciplining a victorious Britannia Languens p. 207. and mighty Army and exhausting us by his Trade with a great addition of loss by his Capers and at last hath as it were forced a General Peace Wherefore in order to our future Safety it is indispensibly 276. and speedily necessary to improve and regulate our Trade to the utmost And a compleat regulation of our Trade would render it prodigiously beneficial perhaps 286. more than all the Trade of Europe besides considering how our Advantages in Trade will reduce the Trade of our Neighbours as ours does improve If our Trade had been regulated 291. the very Dutch would have forsaken those Provinces for England or if they had remained they would have been Carriers for the English as they have been to the French and will rather be so for the future The Trade of the World have long courted England P. 301. but never with so much importunity or with so much advantage as now This great Lady affecting Freedom and security hath no inclination to continue under the Arbitrary Power of the French With France she hath resided only as a Sojourner but is ready to espouse our Interest and Nation and with her self to bestow upon us the Treasure of the World But if we will still continue inexorable and stubborn things are grown to such a Crisis that we may have reason to fear that this is the last time of asking And that she may suddenly turn this kindness for the Kingdom into such a fury as we shall not be able to withstand Shall we then embrace so advantageous overtures or shall we proceed in our present Methods I shall leave it here to be computed P. 279. how near a Million per An. our French over-balance hath been ever since the Prohibition not forgetting the courtesie of our Merchants who hearing of the Prohibition imported of French Goods to the value of about a Million V. Besides those fruitfull Islands Speed 's Chron. P. 1. that dispersedly are scattered about the Main like to beautifull Pearl that incompass a Diadem the Isle of Great Britain does raise itself first to our sight as to the body of that most famous and mighty Empire whereof many other Kingdoms and Countries are Parcels and Members being by the Almighty so set in the Main Ocean as that She is thereby the High Admiral of the Seas and the Terrestrial Globe So seated as that She is worthily reputed both the Garden of Pleasure and the Store-house of Profit opening her Havens every way sit to receive all Foreign Traffick and to utter her own into all other parts and therefore as the Sovereign Lady and Empress of the rest deserves our description in the first place And Mr. Reynell saith thus of Jamaica Jamaica is the place that will turn to a great Advantage to the English on many Accounts English Interest p. 83. as by lying so near the Isthmus of Panama and for several other Advantages which I shall not now mention But the very Situation of the Island is extraordinary remarkable and it was the greatest Blessing imaginable that we left the Enterprize of Hispaniola and set on this Island For if we had studied an Age to fix in a place where we might Center the richest Treasure and Trade of the Indies here it must be For Jamaica is Situated so well for Trade or Conquest of the Main if there be Occasion that no Island in the World lyes like it for Advantage it being the Key of the Indies and naturally the Seat of Riches and Empire So that if they had but a Trade once with the Indies adjoyning they have no way to avoid being the richest Colony in the Indies it being wholly surrounded with the main Land and Islands lying in the very Belly of all Commerce in the In-land Sea of Porto Bell which is in the heart of America and near the Mexican Gulph between Peru and Mexico facing to the South and West the richest Continent in the World from which not distant any where much above 100 Leagues Against it on the North lie the two great Islands of Cuba and Hispaniola and a little behither Eastward are the Caribbee Islands but this lieth in the midst of all as Queen of the Indian Isles and no Ship that comes from the West Indies but must pass by one End of this Isle before they come to the Gulph of Florida which place all Ships must pass that come for Europe And had we but a Trade with the Indies so near Neighbours to us we should vend more Commodities than we could send them and have in Exchange store of Silver 'T were the Spaniards Interest also to let us have a free Trade and share with them of some few Port-Towns on the Continent to maintain a Trade and Neighbourliness between us so should we not endanger them but equally defend the Indies with them and they by our means have twice the Riches yearly come home to Spain that now they have Now saith the same Author in his Preface it is a very hard Case if the Heavenly Bounty shall by Nature thus furnish us with so great Assistances and we should not add to it and give some Advance by our own Art and Industry bringing in whatever Foreign Arts Trades or Husbandry may be profitable to us ☜ For doubtless we may Aggrandize our Trade to an inestimable Account if we would our selves and make our Territories as rich and populous as we please under so Glorious a King and Government as we have had we but that publick Spirit as we ought and gave Countenance to brave Actions and industrious Men and minded the Business of Trade and Populacy as much as we do Pleasures and Luxuries And if we were but Industrious no Nation can exceed us in a home or foreign Trade and for foreign Trade England lies so surrounded with our Neighbour Nations that it seems designed for all manner of Riches and for the Seat of the Empire VI. The Kingdom of Heaven saith my Lord Bacon in his Summary Treatise to King James the First touching the enlarging of the Bounds of Empire is compared not to an Acorn or Nut but to a Grain of Mustard-seed which is one of the least Grains but hath in it a Property and Spirit hastily to get up and spread it self So are there Kingdoms and States in Compass and Territories very
AN ESSAY ON THE Coin and Commerce OF THE KINGDOM Trade and Treasure Which are Twins Being the only SUPPORTERS thereof NEXT TO Religion and Justice For the Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the Gain thereof than fine Gold LONDON Printed and Published for the Consideration of the Present and Future Sessions of Parliament 1695. To the High Court of Parliament and particularly to the Grand Committee of Trade appointed Mart. 19 Feb. 94. to sit every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday in the Afternoon and to the Honourable Committee appointed to receive Proposals for prevention of Clipping and Coining SIRS SInce I expose the following Particulars for the Publick Good and do most humbly submit them to your Honourable Protection I hope no particular Person will be displeased with me for relating only what some others think fit to say c. PART I. I. SOmetimes before the late Revolution I have heard the S AVH of some other Countries compare the English in many parallel respects to the Jews and Greeks Two Nations very honourable and brave in their Ancestry but Ignoble and Base in the Degeneracy of their Descendants for which they now both suffer both under a Heathen and a Christian Yoke from which Good Lord deliver us And it should be the oftner in our Litany because the Wise Venetians more worthily than the others do value themselves on a prospect of futurity at a very great distance and will never in their Senate enact any thing as to day until they consider and see what will come of it to morrow c. II. The Form and State of the Jewish Government was often chang'd its Lustre obscured and its Puissance and Grandeur lessen'd and impair'd according to the Degrees of the People's Transgressions Who drew Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sinned as it were with a Cart-rope For which their Silver was turned into Dross and their Justice into Wormwood their Cities were burned with Fire their Lands Strangers devoured it in their presence the People were oppressed every one by another and the rewards of their own hands were given them And at last they were entirely left without a Sceptre and brought under the Roman Yoke as our Religion had lately been had not the Providence of God protected it by means of his Heroick and most Excellent Majesty and his late most religious and Royal Consort of Famous and Everlasting Memory III. And as the Jews were so were the Greeks who became first so careless of their Honour and afterwards of their Countrey 's minding at last only their private Interest that when they lost Coiro Docastron they laugh'd at it and slightingly said by way of Preface and Introduction to their future Misfortune and Distress That it signify'd but as the words do a Pig-stye But soon after the Turks taught them by woful Experience to understand what it is not to understand and redress Grievances in their prime before they come to an irreparable pass IV. The great Grievances which now we all complain of and not a little but much too late are our Clipp'd Silver and Dross-money and our decay of Treasure and Trade together And since four such sad Calamities have befallen this Kingdom in such a time of War let us first enquire into the Causes of them the knowledge of the Cause being the first step to the Care Now the general Cause of so general a Calamity not altogether unlike that of the Jews and Greeks both in Cause and Effect must needs be first our general Degeneracy and our little regard to Religion Grievances Trade and Justice for which there are appointed four principal Committees at the opening of every Sessions of Parliament V. * And here it may be noted that the Dutch c. have of late Years exhausted both Money and Goods from us and have paid us for both but in our own Coin I mean 〈◊〉 Money as they Coined and Clipped for such kind of Commerce A particular and a very considerable Cause of the decay of our Treasure in general I mean of our Money and Manufacture is the Over balance of Trade which the greatest part of the Wiser World have long since gained from us and whereby they have exhausted our Treasure either in Bills Money Bullyon or Goods which as some of them especially have managed the Matter hath been almost equal gain to them and the like loss to us For if for instance we import one Year with another Goods to the value of Three Millions Sterling and do export Goods but to the value of Two Millions the Nation must yearly lose a Million one way or another and will be in the same State and Condition of a Gentlemen that spends Fifteen hundred Pounds a Year out of a Thousand Pounds per Annum if Matters be not remedied In Edward the Third's time the English had the Over-balance of Trade in their favour and that King having prohibited the Exportation of our Wool ordained new Coin for Conveniency c. having the Advantage of War by that Advantage of Trade and having many Voluntiers for Men's Courage sympathize with their Coin as it is base or noble invaded France with a Valiant and Victorious Army and was the first King that Quarter'd the Arms of France with those of England England under Queen Elizabeth had likewise great Advantages in War with Spain c. by means of the Advantage it then also had in Trade as well as it hath by Nature and Situation But in the four latter Reigns which succeeded hers and preceeded his present Majesty's in a slothful and drowsie Peace as my Lord Bacon calls it in his Advancement of Learning the Princes and their People like one another neglecting first the Reformed Religion next the Justice then the Trade and at last the Treasure of the Nation as well as the State of War which Queen Elizabeth left it in did lose in general not only their Courage but so much of their Coin and other Treasure as would non-plus the Arithmetick of Archimedes who undertook to write the number of the Sands to cast up an Account thereof For the most modest Computations do reckon from Matters of the most Infallible Fact that from the First of King James the First to the last of King James the Second this Nation lost one Year with another above Two Millions Sterling by Trading only with two or three other Nations on unequal and disadvantageous Terms And King Charles the Second was made so sensible by Mr. Fortrey and others of the vast Advantage which the French then had of us by our so disadvantageous Trading with them in particular that he promised the Nation a Council of Trade consisting of some of the Principal Merchants of each Company of some of the best qualified Gentlemen in the Kingdom and for the greater Honour thereof some of His Majesties own Privy Council but he promised like a Merchant c. And if One hundred Pounds As Sir
and we make it here better and cheaper and then we should have it to furnish our selves and our Neighbours and transport abundance to our Southern Plantations and bring for it Silver or such Commodities as we most want or pay ready Money for VII A greater Imposition on Foreign Commodities which come from such Places as have the Over-Balance of Trade in their favour would bring us in or save us a great deal of Money 1. Because it would prevent the great Importation of Foreign Commodities or lower the prices thereof and by consequence prevent the greater Exportation of our Money 2. Because it would encourage the Importation of some Commodities from other Countries that take more of our Commodities from us as Raisins from Spain and Currans from Turkey where they have as good and better and can have in a little time as much and more than they have at Zant c. The Turkey Spanish the Guiny West-India Trade Ditto P. 10. are very good to us but the West-India Trade will be the only Advantage to us if we fix it rightly which will vend not only our own Commodities but bring us store of Silver and Increase of Navigation 3. Because the Places that take so little of our Manufacture c. from us cannot impose upon us as we may upon them unless they do as they often do lay the greater Impositions on their own Commodities the more they find us inclin'd or engag'd to them A People may be undone by some kind of Merchandize Ditto P. 12. for many Merchants so they advantage themselves care not what Injury they may do to the Publick for as they were wont formerly and do still serve those of Guiny to carry them Beads Looking-Glasses and such like things and bring away their Gold so they deal often with their own Country-men For finding us fantastical and voluptuous they tempt us with all sorts of French Toys Indy and Japan Trifles c. which fetch away our Money and solid Wealth c. But it were well if we could manage the East-India Trade as the Dutch do who carry no Silver from Holland but drive the Trade with the Silver they get from Japan in Exchange for other Commodities they bring to them which we may do in a better and speedier way than they can if permitted by means of the West-Indies c. But as things are now we are Losers by most of our Trading Ditto P. 13. especially our French and Canary We import as one Author saith of French Commodities as Silks Laces Linen and the like Sixteen hundred thousand Pounds a-Year more than we export of our own and of Canary Wine One hundred and Fifty thousand Pounds worth more than we export also Sir Josiah Child in his Book aforesaid p. 162. Saith The Trade for Canary Wines I take to be a most pernicious Trade to England because those Islands consume very little of our Manufactures neither do they furnish us with any Commodities to be farther Manufactured here And the Wines we bring from thence are for the most part purchased with Ready Money so that something is necessary to be done to compel those Islanders to spend more of our English Commodities and to sell their Wares cheaper which every Year they advance in Price or else to lessen the Consumption of them in England And p. 161. he saith The Venetians being a People that take from us very little of our Manufactures have prohibited our English Cloth and from whose Territories we receive great Quantities of Currans purchased with our Ready Money It seems to me advantageous for England that that Importation should be discouraged c. I have too great an Honour and Regard for His Majesty's Interest than to speak of prohibiting those Commodities But a greater Imposition on them here would oblige the first Owners thereof to take Commodities for Commodities and to lessen the Prices ☞ and the Impositions in the Places of their growth The Duke of Venice having 12 Dollars a thousand as the King of England hath 14 Shillings a-hundred Custom on the Currans And those Impositions together with the first Cost and all other Charges being to be paid at last by those only who will be pleased to eat Currans a farther Imposition on them for the Reasons aforesaid can be very displeasing to no particular Person And the Publick cannot think any Ill of it especially since his Majesty hath so often recommended to his Parliament the Balance Regulation and Advancement of Trade And since the Venetians will often boast that they have had above Forty Millions Sterling in Money by Bills c. for their Merda as they sometimes take occasion enough to call their Currans without the Common Civility of Sir Reverence VIII All manner of Encouragement to the honest Exporting Merchants and to the most Industrious and most Ingenious Manufafacturers of what Nation soever would bring us in much Money and People For much People create much Community much Community much Commerce much Commerce much Industry much Industry much Ingenuity much Ingenuity much Arts much Arts much Manufacture much Manufacture much Domestick Trade much Domestick Trade by means of Exportation introduceth much Foreign Money and much Money and many People improve both the Value and Price of Land And as it would improve our Wealth and the Revenues of all Ranks of Men so it would prevent the Exportation of our Wool better than any Laws that can be executed here in England whatever might be done in France or elsewhere by which means we should not lose but gain those Advantages which the French and Dutch have had of us and others by making Cloth of our Wool as they made Light of our Weighty Money and sent it us again for other Money or Goods IX An esteemable Encouragement to all Men and Women A great Example would be an Encouragement good and esteemable enough that would wear Cloth and Stuff all the Winter and a general burying in Woollen would save us so much Money as would go a great way towards the Fund and a Peny sav'd being of more value than a Peny got it would advantage us more ways than one For the more we consume of Foreign Commodities True English Interest p. 47. the more we strengthen Foreigners and weaken our selves without we over balance it by our own Exportation for if we have not Manufactures and Home-Productions had we never so many Silver Mines they would be exhausted as we have an Example in the Spaniard who consumes all the Silver he hath from the Indies on Foreign Things he hath occasion for X. An Imposition on all the Wearers of Silk Silver and Gold would bring in Money for the Fund or encourage the Woollen Manufacture or both and the less Gold and Silver is worn as well as Foreign Silks the less will fall to the ground and be loss to the Nation But I believe the more our People were confined to Cloth and
would be easie and acceptable it would amount to above 100000 l. XXVI By Honours P. 195. And that either by Power Legal or Election Of the first it is only in respect of Land whereby every Man is to fine when the King shall require that hath Ability to be made a Knight and is not Of this sort there be plentiful Examples The other out of Choice and Grace as Hugo de Putiaco Bishop of Durham was by King Richard 1. created Earl of Northampton for a great Summ of Money And I doubt not but many of these times would set their Ambition at as high a price And for his Majesty now to make a degree of Honour Hereditary as Baronets next Under-Barons and grant them in Tail taking of every one 1000 l. in Fine it would raise with ease 100000 l. and by a judicious Election be a means to content those worthy Persons in the Common-Wealth that by the confused admission of many Knights of the Bath held themselves all this time disgraced XXVII Kings raise Money by Offices * But if Justice should be sold now we should pay dearer for it than we do And God knows there are Impositions on Justice enough already Thus did King John with the Chancellorship selling it for time of Life to Grey for 5000 Marks In France Aemyliusin vita Lew. 12. Lewis XII called the Father of his Country did so with all Offices not being of Judicature which his Successors did not forbear In Spain it is usual Vasq Cap. 40. Ex Instruct Car. 5. ad Phil. 2. and Vasque the Spanish Advocate defendeth the Lawfulness of it And Charles V. prescribeth it to his Son as a Rule in his last Instruction drawing his ground of Reason and Conveniency from the Example and Practice of the See of Rome And the like might be of all inferiour Promotions whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal and it would honestly raise a great deal of Money XXVIII Taxes were better raised any way ☞ than from the Land True English Interest p. 68.69 c. for that drives the Money out of the Country which seldom returns and is hard to be got to it upon any occasion but it would be great advantage to his Majesty and gratifie his Subjects Infinitely if he could get a considerable Revenue somewhere from without By which means his own People might be eased at home which would bind them to him eternally besides the great Advantage it would be to the Nation by such a Yearly income of Silver continually And questionless the King of England might have five times the Revenue he hath brought Yearly to him from the West-Indies when he pleases besides the vast Trade which would ensue by it to all his Subjects However there might be ways found out that no Taxes might ever be laid on the substantial part of the Nation Country or City Land or Houses but only on the Vices of the People as in all Taverns Ale-houses Foreign needless Commodities and on debauch'd Persons And also double Customs on all such Goods brought over that we might make here as Silk Linen Tapestry Lace Gloves Ribbons Paper and many things more XXIX And to get a considerable Revenue from without a Treble Imposition on all our Consuls and Factors residing in Foreign Countries 1. An Imposition of so much per Cent on every English Consul and Factor according to his Personal Estate and Yearly Commission they having paid nothing towards the War nor do they pay any thing in time of Peace 2. An Imposition of so much per Cent upon all Commodities as they shall send to England for their own Accompt because the more they send the less will be the Gains of our Domestick Merchants who pay all Rates and Taxes when the Factors pay neither tho' their Advantage of fore-stalling c. is very considerable to our Merchants and ruinous to the Kingdom 3. An Imposition after the Property is alter'd upon all Foreign Commodities to be laden by any English or Alien Factors for any English Man's Account for England or any other Nation which Imposition being Foreign would be felt neither by the Factor by the Merchant nor by any English Man and it would be both for the Interest and the Honour of the Nation I. Because it would naturally lower the Foreign Impositions more than if it had been a Domestick Tax which Foreign Impositions are most commonly laid on the English by consent of our Consuls and Factors they being to the English Merchants much as Lawyers and Sollicitors are to their Clients And the other reason why the Alien Impositions are so much greater than ours on Exportation is because we are naturally to our unnatural shame be it spoken more inclined to Alien Commodities than Aliens are to ours though ours are and may be so much better than theirs II. Because this Imposition would naturally lower the Price of Foreign Commodities more than if it had been a Domestick Tax Which Price is most commonly higher or lower the more our Consuls and Factors do agree or disagree to make it so I have known and shall prove it that our Consuls and Factors have paid three times dearer for Foreign Commodities for our Merchants than they might have bought them for And the more they pay the more they and the Aliens with whom they combine do get and so much the more this Nation in general loseth But a general Loss is little felt heard or understood by particular Persons III. This Imposition on the Consuls and Factors would be little felt by them because the Merchants most commonly pay them before they pay for their Commodities or if they do not it is but so much Money laid out which they are to be re-paid again with Interst c. IV. It would be little felt by the Merchants because they pay in a great measure tho' not so great as it should be for what they import by the product of their Exportations which they buy here at Twelve and Eighteen Month's time And because they are come now almost to care not what they pay for foreign Commodities so long as they can have Credit c. from their Factors abroad who make them or rather their Nation pay soundly for it and can be re-imburs'd by their Chapmen at home which is the reason that Foreign Commodities have of later Years so risen to the ruining of this Nation When I lived abroad I thought my self as I was obliged by Oath and Indentures neither to defraud my Master my self nor to suffer any other body so to do without informing my said Master and as I did to him so did I to all my other Friends But when I had suffer'd all that Malice could inflict upon me together with the loss of my Fortune and the Lives of Two or Three Men because I would not combine with our Consul and Factors and their Confederates to cheat my Country and my Friends One of those Friends very kindly wrote
me that he would not have me trouble my self and others so much for them because the dearer they paid abroad the dearer they sold at home c. V. Because our Countrey in general will feel this Imposition abroad less than if it had been laid at home by any means whatsoever and it will be but a little General Excise paid there and received here with a great deal of case and without that plague of the Publicans Now if any one should think that these Impositions on our Factors and on our own Commodities for so they are when the Property is alter'd in other Countries would be a dishonour to our Nation I may say to him that he is as much mistaken both in the Honour and Interest of this Nation as those are who think it a Credit to the Kingdom to have our Coin out-weigh other Countries which in reality is as much a Discredit to us as that their Exportations to us their Impositions especially consider'd should exceed ours to them And I would fain know which is the greatest dishonour for us to lay Impositions on our own Factors and Goods there or to permit Aliens to lay Impositions both on the one and the other as I shall prove they have done sometimes from One to Twenty five per Cent besides what they have made our Factors pay for Contrabanda for which Mr. Thomas Cordell late Factor at Zans paid Ten thousand Crowns at once to the Venetians tho' his Offence was but small and our late Consul Sir Clement Harbye was the Informer of it And besides what they have impos'd on our Merchant-Ships Masters and Mariners Besides our Alien Factors that have been unnaturally and impolitically employ'd by our English Merchants have got such vast Estates as well as Esteem from them and the English Factors that they will often value themselves above their Principals and to make themselves so two of them Celini and Morelli could lately afford to give above Twenty thousand Pound Sterling to be as they now are Noble Men of Venice And all this Money and twenty times more which they and such others have gain'd having been got more from this Nation in general than from their respective Merchants in particular a double or treble Imposition should be laid on all Commodities bought by any Alien Factor for any English Man's Account And the treble Imposition aforesaid upon our English Factors is the more reasonable because it will take off the Taxes which are impos'd upon them and their Merchants and by consequence on this Kingdom in other Countries and because so many of them die in other Nations and do leave or spend such Estates there which this Nation never was nor ever will be the better for Indeed those are Impositions which were never laid by any other Nation but the reason may be because no other Nation could as we can do it they having no such Factories here or any where else as we have in other Countries because they will not spend other Countries Commodities so extravagantly and shamefully as we do And these Impositions would let the World see better how we do resent their imposing upon us as well as upon their own and our Commodities to their great Interest and our Disadvantage and would put them more than otherwise we can or do upon taking our Commodities on the same Terms and after the same rate that we take theirs And whether this takes or not if his Majesty's Consuls abroad should keep an account of all Foreign Exportations for England and send it home to the Counsel of Trade it might do his Majesty some Service because it would prevent the stealing of Customs on which there are greater Impositions for the Publick Good in other Countries than there are in this Kingdom and why should any Man be suffer'd to cheat his King at home who suffers himself and his Country both to be so basely cheated abroad And if those Consuls would likewise honestly keep the like account of the Prices of such Exportations they would do their Merchants and Country also the like Service And I know no reason why it should not be acceptable XXX The Revenues of Princes as they differ much in Quantity according to the Greatness England's Treasure by Foreign Trade p. 151. Riches and Trade of their respective Dominions so likewise is there great diversity used in procuring the same according to the Constitution of the Countries c. Some Kings have Customs Tolls and Imposts upon all Trade to and from Foreign Countries Other Princes and States have Custom upon all new Wares transported from one City to be used in any other City or Place of their own Dominions Customs upon every Alienation or Sale of live Cattel Lands Houses licens'd Money upon all Victualling Houses and Inn keepers Head-money Custom upon all the Corn Wine Oil Salt and the like which grow and are consumed in their Dominions All which seem to be a Rabble of Oppressions serving to enrich those Princes which exact them and to make the People poor and miserable which endure them especially in those Countries where these Burthens are laid at heavy rates as Four Five Six and Seven per Cent. But when all the Circumstances and Distinction of Places are duly considered they will be found not only necessary and lawful to be used in some States but also in divers respects very prositable to the Common-wealth For these heavy Contributions are not so hurtful to the Happiness of the People as they are commonly esteem'd for as the Food and Rayment of the Poor is made dear by Excise so doth the price of their labour rise in proportion whereby the Burthen if any be is still upon the Rich who are either idle or at least work not in this kind yet have they the use and are the great Consumer's of the Poor's Labour Neither do the Rich neglect in their several Places and Callings to advance their Endeavours according to those times which do exhaust their Means and Revenues wherein if they should peradventure fail and therefore be forced to abate their sinful Excess what is all this but Happiness in a Common-wealth when Virtue Plenty and Arts shall thus be advanced all together PART III. I. WE have now seen some of the Causes of the decay of our Coin Treasure and Trade which is as inexcusably scandalous as it is notoriously consumptive to the Common-Wealth in its Effects We have also Collected and Considered hitherto some Ways and Means to raise a Fund or rather Principal Money to remedy this our distracting Disease And In a Paper lately Printed we find these Proposals humbly offered to prevent all manner of Abuses by Clipping Coining Melting Transporting or otherwise debasing the Coin of this Kingdom 1. Let all the Money hereafter Coin'd be Mill'd And let all Persons that shall Clip or any ways Counterfeit or Deface the same be Fin'd Twenty Pounds and Banish'd the Kingdom And let it be Penal for any Person to
Commodity in Money ☞ than in Exchange for other Commodities because the value thereof is less certain and the Transportation more chargeable As touching the Plenty of Money that is as necessary to the Advance of the Trade P. Ditto as of the goodness of it For according to the Plenty thereof ☞ will be the Plenty of the Manufactures because Handy-crafts having no Commodities but their labour cannot work for Exchange nor can Exchange supply rents and maintenance to the greater sort of People To this end therefore it is provided against melting of Money and Exportation of Silver and Gold 6 Edw. 3. cap. 2.3 17 Rich. 2 c 1. And yet to encourage or not discourage importation of Silver and Gold ☞ liberty was given to every man to export so much as they did import provided that what they carry away must be of the New Stamp This is ancient and I take it to be true Policy And see England's Treasure by Foreign Trade p. 34. cap. 4. That the Exportation of our Moneys in Trade of Merchandice is a means to encrease our Treasures or minted in this Nation By this means Bullion came in with probability that much thereof would remain in the Nation in lien of Commodities exported or if not the greater part yet at least the Mint gained and that was some benefit to the Nation And tho' the Mint was settled by the Parliament yet the Exchange was left to the Directory of the King and his Council because the Exchange is an uncertain thing subject to sudden alterations in other Nations and its necessary that in this Country it be as suddenly balanced with the Exchange in other Countries or in a short time the Nation may receive extream Damage And lastly to watch the course of the Exchange in Foreign Parts and to parallel the course thereof in this Land thereunto ☜ for otherwise the Publick must necessarily suffer so long as private Men seek their own particular Interest only in their course of Trade That there be more of Publick Good in Merchandice ☜ and the Confusion of Trade taken away It were well the Mysteries of Exchange were more publickly known and also that there were a Committee of Trade mixed with the chief able Merchants to continue always who should still be on the discovery and study for the Improvement of Trade English Interest P. 16. VII For there are open as well as private Enemies to the publick Good as I find particularly by a Printed Paper Intituled For encouraging the Coyning Silver Money in England and after for keeping is here Which is a parcel of Pretension and all stuff as the short Observations thereon plainly sheweth Pag. 2. 3. and pag. 4. 5. it affirms that the Reason why we have not had more Money come to our Mint is in short this England sending more consumable Commodities to Spain than it receives from thence the Merchants who managed that Trade bring back the Over-plus in Bullion which at their return they sell as a Commodity The Chapmen that give highest for this are as in all cases of buying and selling those who can make most Profit by it and those are the Returners of our Money by Exchange into those Countries where our Debts any way contracted make a need of it For they getting 6.8.10 c. per Cent. according to the want and demand of Money from England there and according to the risk of the Sea buy up this Bullion assoon as it comes in to send it to their Correspondents in those Parts to make good their Credit for the Bills they have drawn on them and so can give more for it than the Mint rate i e. more than an equal weight of Mill'd Money for an equal weight of Standard Bullion they being able to make more Profit of it by Returns Suppose the Balance of our Trade with 〈◊〉 were in all other Commodities equal but that in the last East-India Sale we bought of them of East-India Commodities to the value of a Million to be paid in a Month a Million must be return'd into Holland this presently raises the Exchange and the Traders in Exchange sell their Bills at high rates but the Ballance of Trade being as is suppos'd in the Case equal in all other Commodities this Million can no way be repay'd to their Correspondents on whom those Bills were drawn but by sending them Money or Bullion to reimburse them This is the true Reason why the Bullion brought from Spain is not carried to the Mint to be Coyn'd but bought by Traders in Foreign Exchange ☞ and Exported by them to suppply the overplus of our Expences there which are not paid for by our Commodities VIII In the true English Interest published 1674 1674. and fore-quoted I find pa. 3. and Ca. 2. the following particulars 1. That Nation that values Money most shall have most of it Answ Which as he must mean them are confuted by his own words immediately following 2. Wherefore it is good that the value of Coyn be always somewhat higher than in our Neighbour Nations so can we not fail of having it from them Answ ☞ If we and all Nations should think so the World would to out do one another raise their Coin to the highest value untill to the undoing of themselves they brought it to nothing worth and so to be of no use 3. Also to keep Money in a Nation it is good to allay it a little and to Coin much small Money Answ Providence hath so ordered it for the general good of Mankind that one Nations like one Mans meat may be another Nations Poyson and that which is good Policy in Holland may in England be great Imprudence If then his Majesty shall be pleased Cottoni Posthuma p. 198. 199. by advice of his Council to advantage himself any otherwise by Coynage it will be safer to do it upon a simple Metal than by any Implyant or better sute which well govern'd States both Modern and Ancient used For Rome in her Increase and greatest pitch of Glory ☞ had their Money aere argento oaur puto puro and so have all the Monarchies absolute at this day in Christendom Ditto p. 199. And I believe it may be wrought to his Majesty of good value and to the State of much case if it may be put in practice with discreet caution and constant Resolution for the danger only may be in the venting the quantity which may clog the State with useless Money or extension of the Example which may work in by degrees an Embasement of Bullion And the Form and Figure may with an Engine so subtilly be Milled that the charge will prevent all practice of false play Pa. 200. Besides it cannot but prevent much wast of Silver Pa. 201. that is by the minting Pence and half Pence occasion'd there will be no cause hereafter to cut any Bullion into proportion so apt for
loss And as to our Silver and Gold Money Just so much mischief Mr. Fleet-woods Ser. 〈◊〉 Clipping Pa. 7. 8. 9. and injury must needs be done to every individual Man that takes it as there is wanting of the usual Weight and fineness in each single Piece and so much is stollen from every Man as there is less given him than he should receive And this administers occasion to people either Strangers or Natives to cheat us even with true Silver for they may Coyn a great deal of true Silver and ☞ putting it off under the shelter of clip'd Money may gain thereby at least one third And what one gains another loseth But suppose such a Famine should befall us as befell the Jews Gen. 42. when Jacob sent his ten Sons to buy Corn in Egypt with Moneyfull weight and currant with the Merchant And in this Famine we should be forced to go to Holland to buy food from whence so much of our hedgminted Money comes if we should carry the same back again to them we should have but their peny worth for our peny weight which would be a very slender provision and if we should adventure to put our dross Money upon them as we do upon one another we might chance to be serv'd in allusion to our Money as the Messengers were by Hunun when he shaved off the one half of their Beards and cut off their Garments in the middle even to their Buttocks and sent them away 4. Also to bring in the old Gold again it were well the broad Pieces might go for 24 Shillings and the 22 Shillings for 26 Shillings Answ Whatever Gold is gone out of the Nation hath been drawn from us either by the necessity of War or by the over-balance of Trade and if we should receive our old Gold again as 24 and 26 Shillings we should lose as much by each Piece as each Piece was overvalued For the Importers of them would have Goods in return or Bills of Exchange wherein the rest of the World have the advantage of us as well as in Trade and what this Nation doth lost by Exchange ☞ might be shrewdly guess'd at if our Law was like that excellent Law of Franch which doth oblige all Bankrupts to produce their Books and if it was so in England it would be much for the publick Interest and for the credit of many unfortunate Persons in particular IX It is no small sign of a Bank-rupting Nation ☞ when Silver or Gold in a Kingdom go for more than they are worth And it is the Policy of the Dutch and others added to the necessity of our affairs that make our Guineas go at 25 Shillings which is a considerable Grievance next to that of our light and dross Money for the Nation considering the Nature of our Exchange c. it loseth at least 5 s. a piece In Naples a place that was as notorious as the People that liv'd in it the Coin of the Kingdom was Clipt as ours is and it had fallen into as deep a Consumption c. had it not been for the Marquiss de Carpi of whom Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury gives the following Account And how said he can a Man expect to find his Religion here where the common Maxiâ—s of Justice and Mercy were not so much as known Letters pa. 166. Anâ—â— can never forget the lively reflection that a Roman Prince made to me upon the folly of all those severe oppressions ☞ which as they drive away the Inhabitants so they reduce those are left to a great degeneracy of spirit by their necessities Indeed if Spain had been so happy as to have such Vice-Roys and Governours Pa. 167. as it hath now in Naples their Affairs could not have declined so fast as they have done The Marquiss of Carpi in his youth intended to have taken so severe a revenge of an injury that he thought the late King of Spain did him in an Amour that he designed the blowing him up by Gunpowder when he was in the Council Chamber but that Crime was discovered in time and was not only forgiven him in consideration of the greatness of his Family he being the Son of Don Lewis de Haro but after that he was made for several years Ambassadour at Rome He now is Vice-Roy of Naples and is the only Governour of all the Places through which I passed that is without exception beloved and esteemed by all sorts of People For during the few years of his Ministry he hath redressed such Abuses that seemed past cure and that required an Age to correct them He hath redressed the Insolence of the Spaniards so much at Naples P. 168. that the Natives have no occasion to complain of the haughtiness of their Masters for he proceeds against the Spaniards with no less severity when they give cause for it than against the Neapolitans He hath taken the pay of the Soldiers so immediately into his own care that they who before his coming were half naked ☜ and robbed such as passed on the Streets of Naples in day light are now exactly paid well Disciplin'd and so decently Cloathed that it is a pleasure to see them He examines their Musters also so exactly that he is sure not to be cheated by false Lists He hath brought the Markets and Weights of Naples to a true exactness and whereas the Bread was generally too light ☜ he has sent for Loaves out of the several places of the Markets and weighed them himself and by some severe punishments on those that sold the Bread too light he hath brought this matter to a just regulation He hath also brought the Courts of Judicature ☜ that were thought generally very corrupt to reputation again and it is believed he hath Spyes to watch in case the Trade of Brioes is found to be still going on He hath fortified the Palace which was before his time so much exposed ☜ that it would have been no hard thing to have made descent upon it But the two things that raises his Reputation most P. 169. are his extirpating the Banditti ☜ and the Regulation of the Coin which he hath taken in hand It is well enough known what a plague the Banditti have been to the Kingdom for they going in Troops not only robbed the Country but were able to resist an ordinary body of Soldiers if they had set on them These travelled about seeking for spoil all the Summer long ☜ but in Winter they were harboured by some of the Neapolitan Barons who gave them quarters and thereby did not only protect their own Lands but had them as so many Instruments to execute their Revenge on their Enemies This was well known at Naples ☜ and there was a Council that had a care of reducing the Banditti committed to them who as they catched some few and hanged them so they fined such Barons as gave them harbour and
saith my Lord Bacon in his Essays and if they flourish not a Kingdom may have strong Limbs but it will have empty Veins and nourish little and Mr. Mun in his English Treasure by Foreign Trade calls them the Stewards of the Kingdoms stock by way of Commerce with other Nations A work saith he of no less reputation than trust and ought to be performed with great Skill and Conscience that so the private gain may ever accompany the publick good But the publick good of the Nation can never prosper under the unjust Stewardship and ill managery of Monopolists So long as we are more restrain'd than other Nations and as it were strangled in Trade the face of Albion's State-Affairs cannot but look black and lose its complection of Nature's white Boy and Britannia will be call'd Languent according to the Title of that excellent Book until the GREAT is dwindl'd into Little BBRITAIN But now we have a King that is constantly recommending the Trade of the Nation which is the Nerve and Sinew of War if we would add Art to Nature give Trade its due liberty and property fullness of People Manufacture and Exportation as the French and Dutch do to theirs we should quickly exceed them both in Trade as we have naturally a greater advantage for the over-balance thereof II. England is by Nature and Scituation the Center of Trade but for want of Art and Encouragement thereunto it serves as the Center doth to make the Circumference And had it not been Puteus inexhanstus ubi Multa abundant as Pope Innocent IV. us'd to say of it it might have been drein'd as dry of substantial Treasure as it is of advantageous Trading But our People are of a middle Temper and do still continue so according to their Climate and not as it should now be according to the Temper of their Prince for when the Majesty of a King is most excellent Mediocrity in the Subjects is too mean The Northern Melancholy and the Southern Choler Hist Discr p. 300. meeting in their general Constitution do render them ingenious and active which nourish'd also under the Wings of Liberty inspires a Courage generous and not soon out of breath Active they are and so nigh to pure Act that nothing hurts them more than much quiet of which they had little Experience from their first Transmigration till the time of King James the First who conquering all Enmity spake Peace abroad to his Enemies and sang Lullaby at home to his Friends III. It is apparent saith Sir Walter Rawleigh to the said King James that no three Kingdoms in Christendom can compare with your Majesty 's for support of Traffick Remains p. 185. and continual Employment for your People within themselves having so many means both by Sea and Land to enrich your Majesty's Coffers Which he reckons up and shows the King how many thousand Men they might employ and how many Millions of Money they would get from the World multiply your Navy enlarge your Traffick make your Kingdom powerful and your People rich Yet through Idleness they are poor wanting Employment many of your Land and Coast-Towns much ruinated We have occasion now for such a great Man who could see things in little and in their prime and your Kingdoms in need of Coin Your Shipping Traffick and Mariner's decay'd For when this King set up for an Vniversal Peace he laid up his Men of War and left Merchandise to shift for it self Whilst your Majesty's Neighbours without these means Whilst this King sang Lullaby to his Subjects they slept on but the French and Dutch were vigilant and awake all this whilt which makes us now sleep the less and as it should behove us to think the more abound in Wealth enlarge their Towns encrease their Shipping Traffick and Mariners and find out such Employment for their People that they are all advantageous to their Common Wealth only by ordaining commodious Constitutions in Merchandizing and fulness of Trade in Manufactury God hath bless'd your Majesty with incomparable Benefits of Copper P. 186. Lead Tyn Iron Alum Copperas Saffron Fells and divers other Native Commodities to the number of about 100. and other Manufactures vendible to the number of about 1000. besides Corn c. as also Wool whereof much is shipp'd off ☞ unwrought into Cloth and Stuff and ☞ Cloth and Stuff transported undress'd ☞ and undy'd which doth employ near Fifty Thousand People in Foreign Parts ☞ whilst you Majesty's People want that Employment in England ☞ And see p. 191. and 195. how many Millions this Nation hath lost for want of following the full Trade of Manufacture and Fishery These Inconveniencies happen by Three Causes especially P. 187. I. The unprofitable course of Merchandise 2. The want of full Manufacture III. The undervaluing of our Coin Our Merchant-Adventurers by over-trading upon Credit P. 188. or by Money taken upon Exchange whereby they lose usually 10 and 12 per Cent and sometimes 15 or 16 are forced to make Sale of their Cloths c. at under-rates to keep up their Credit whereby Cloths being the Jewel of the Land are under valued and the Merchants in short time eaten out The West Countrey-Merchants P. 189. that trade in Cloths to France and Spain do usually employ their Servants young Men of small Experience who by the Cunning of the French Our Merchants Servants and Factors do now combine with the Aliens as the Aliens then combin'd with one another to out wit the Principals here and Spanish Merchants are so entrapped that when all Customs and Charges be accounted their Masters shall hardly receive their Principal Money As for our returns out of France Ditto their Silver and Gold is so highly rated ☞ that our Merchants cannot bring it home but to great loss Therefore the French Merchants set higher rates upon their Commodities which we must either buy dear ☜ or let our Money lie dead there a long time until we can conveniently imploy the same Wherefore may it please your Majesty to consider these points following P. 202. 1. Whether it be not fit that a State Merchant be settled in your Dominions which may encounter the policies of Merchant Strangers who now go beyond us in all profitable Merchandizing 2. Whether it be not necessary ☜ that our Native Commodities should receive their full Manufacture by your own Subjects 3. Whether it be not fit for your Majesty presently to raise your Coin to as high rates as it is in the parts beyond Seas 4. Whether it be not necessary We have been since too forward to cheat the World with our Fish insomuch that they have left us much upon that Account and as if the Fish themselves had resented the Injuries done to them they have as much left us also under the like Judgment which befell the Jews Thy Fishers also shall mourn and they
great and yet not so apt to enlarge their Bounds or Command and some on the other hand that have but a small Dimension of Stem and yet are apt to be the Foundation of great Monarchies And in his Considerations touching a War with Spain He saith to King Charles the First then Prince Your Highness hath an imperial Name it was a Charles that brought the Empire first into France a Charles that brought it first into Spain and why should not Great Britain have it's Turn England being by Nature the Emporium of the World is certainly the fittest Seat for the Empire of the Vniverse as well as that of the Ocean which as my Lord Bacon saith Is the principal Dowry of the Kingdom of Great Britain and is of great Import to us because most of the Kingdoms of Europe are not merely in Land but girt with the Sea most part of their Compass and because the Treasures and Wealth of both Indies seems in a great part but an Accessary to the Command of the Sea and what the Command of the Sea is we may see by the Success of the Battle of Lepanto which put a Ring into the Nose of the Turk by that of the Battel of Actium That decided the Empire of the World and by that of our last Sea Fight with the French VII And as we have a Country so fit for the Seat of the Empire so have we a King as fit to be Supream Head and Governour thereof A Man of War from his Touch up and one that is Master of the Four Mistriss and Moral Vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance such a one as Solomon seems to have Prophesied of when he told the World That the Power of the Earth was in the hands of the Lord and he would in due time set over it one that is profitable And since we have such a King and such a Goliah to fight our Battels for us in Person a Man after such a Countries own Heart we cannot but sollicite Heaven and all the Host thereof to send him the Success of David and the Hearts of his Friends as well as the Necks of the Enemies For God hath been pleased in great Pity His Grace the late Archbishop of Canterbury 4 Vol. of Serm. p. 78 79. to this sinful and unworthy Nation to raise him on purpose for it and to that End did in his All-wise Providence lay the Foundation of our Deliverance in that Auspicious Match which was concluded here in England This is that most Illustrious House of Nassaw and Orange which God hath so highly honoured above all the Families of the Earth to give a Check to the two great Aspiring Monarchs of the West and bold Attempters upon the Liberty of Europe To the one in the last Age and to the other in the present As if the Princes of this Valiant and Victorious Line had been of the Race of Hercules born to rescue mankind from Oppression and to quel Monsters The House of Nassaw is without Contradiction Lives of the Princes of Orange p. 9. one of the greatest and ancientest in all Germany For besides its high Alliances the number of its Branches and the Honour of giving an Emperor near Four hundred Years since it has this particular Advantage to have continued ten entire Ages and to boast with the State of Venice as a Learned man saith that it's Government is founded upon a Basis of a Thousand years standing No Age of all Antiquity has produced a more extraordinary Man than William of Nassaw Prince of Orange Speaking of the Life of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange Founder of the Common-Wealth of the united Provinces in the Neitherlands p. 1. Examine all the Heroes of Plutarch and all those great Men who lived since that admirable Historian and it 't will be Difficult to find any upon Record who possessed more eminently all those Vertues and good Qualities that enter into the Composition of a brave Man The Victories and Conquest of Allexander and Caesar do not so much deserve our Admiration the first was Master of all Greece and at the Head of a Warlike and well disciplin'd Army the other absolutely Commanded half the Roman Legions who governed all the World With these great Forces and Advantages they enter'd upon the Stage made their first Victories the Forerunners to the next pursued their Blow and the one overthrew the Empire of the Persians and the other the Roman Commonwealth But Prince William had equall'd the Glory of these great Conquerors by Attacking the formidable Power of King Philip of Spain without any Army or Forces and by maintaining himself many Years against him His Courage was always greater than his Misfortunes and when all the World thought him ruin'd and he was driven out of the Netherlands he entred them again immediately at the Head of a new Army and by his great Conduct laid the Foundation of their Common Wealth A Prince the best qualified for a Throne New State of England p. 122 c. Speaking of his present Majesty being great without Pride true to his Word wise in his Deliberations secret in his Councils generous in his Attempts undaunted in Danger Valiant without Cruelty who loves Justice with Moderation Government without Tyranny Religion without Persecution and Devotion without Hypocrisie or Superstition A Prince undaunted under all Events never puffed up with Success or disheartned with Hardships and Misfortunes always the same tho' under various Circumstances which is the true Symptom of a Great Soul This generous Temper of the King is suitable to his Extraction being descended from an ancient and illustrious Family which seems to have been appointed by Providence ever since the Reformation for the Preservation of God's Church and a Check to Tyranny VIII And this Great King and that Country which is so honoured and happy with him calls to my mind Mr. Quarles's Colloquy with his Soul So now Boanerges and St. Barnabas p. 109. my Soul thy Happiness is entail'd and thy Illustrious Name shall live in thy succeeding Generations Thy Dwelling is establish'd in the Fat of all the Land The best of all the Land is thine and thou art planted in the best of Lands A Land whose Constitutions make the best of Government which Government is strengthened with the best of Laws Good Laws but ill executed A Land of Strength and of Plenty A Land whose Beauty hath surprized the ambitious Hearts of Foreign Princes A Land whose native Plenty makes her the World's Exchange supplying others and able to subsist without supply from them That hath no misery but what is propagated from that blindness which cannot see her own Felicity A Land that flows with Milk and Honey and in brief wants nothing to deserve the Title of a Paradise The Curb of Spain the Pride of Germany the Aid of Belgia the Scourge of France the Queen of Nations and the Empetess of the World And being as he
Factor at Venice not to accept or pay any Bills What must I do then why I must even leave my Profession at Zant and come home to follow a Law-suit in England And what follows then That Sir Josiah Child tells you The want of a Court-Merchant in England is New Disc of Trade p. 112 113 c. and ever hath been a great Barr to the Progress and Grandeur of the Trade of this Kingdom As for instance I. A Merchant happen to have differences with Masters and Owners of Ships upon Charter-parties and Accounts beyond Sea c. The Suit is commonly first commenc'd in the Admiralty-Court where after tedious Attendance and vast Expences probably just before the Cause should come to determination it is either removed into the Delegates where it may hang in suspence until the Plaintiff and Defendant have empty Purses and Gray-heads Or else because most Contracts for Maritime Affairs are made upon the Land and most Accidents happen in some Rivers or Harbours here or beyond Sea are not in Alto Mare the Defendant brings his Writ of Prohibition and removes the Cause into his Majesties Court of King's-Bench Where after great Expences of Time and Money it is well if we can make our own Counsel being common Lawyers understand one half of our Case we being amongst Strangers as in a Foreign Country our Language strange to them and theirs as strange to us After all no Attestations of Foreign Noâ—â—â—ies nor other Publick Instruments from beyond the Seas being Evidences at Law and the Accounts depending 〈◊〉 perhaps of 100 or more several Articles which are as so many Issues at Law the Cause must come into Chancery Where after many Years tedious Travels to Westminster with black Boxes and green Baggs when the Plaintiff and Defendant have tired their Bodies distracted their Brains and consumed their Estates the Cause if ever it be ended is commonly reserred to Merchants ending miserably where it might have had at first a happy Issue if it had been begun a-right The Close These things being so great a Dishonour to so great a King and so great a Disinterest to so great a Country do highly deserve the Consideration of both Houses of Parliament To whom I humbly submit â—â—em POSTSCRIPT I. HAD it not been for the Diversions of Law and some intervening Accidents this Essay or Collection had come sooner out to save some Pains that have been taken to regulaâ—â— the Coin and Commerce of the Kingdom And indeed if our Commerce be not regulated together with our Coin and both supported by pure Religion and undefiled Justice we may stamp our New Coin with this Superscription Secâ—â—ius Bellum Pace Dubia as the Dutch coin'd some Money with the same Motto when the Treaty of Peace at Breda was broken off For the French having still by them the true Ways and Means to gain the Over-balance of Trade in time of Peace and the most excellent Execution of Justice without which there is little Martial-policy and in vain is there any Society and Commerce they being very wise like the Tyrians will heap up Silver like the Dust and Gold like the Mire in the Streets whilst we cast away care and live like the People that dwell at Sechem But nothing hurting the English Nature more than much quiet and peace if we carry on that vigorous War against France which his Majesty hath begun with Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance we may smite their Power in the Sea and they shall be devoured by Fire II. IN the the Votes of the House of Commons Martis 12 Die Martij 1694. I find the following Resolutions of the Committee which it seems were not agreed to by the whole House Resolved That it is the opinion of this Committee That ten hundred Thousand Pounds is a sufficient Summ to make good the Deficiency of the present clipt Coin of this Kingdom But our Silver is turn'd so much into Mixed-Metal Answ and Dross-Money that if Six Millions be necessary to circulate One Million with all Submission I think it will not be enough to make good the deficiency that will be be found for carrying on the Commerce of the Kingdom Wherefore for the present until we can bring in more Bullion by the over balance of Trade some other Metal should with an Eâ—giâ—e so 〈◊〉 be Milled that the Charge should prevent all practice of false Play III. To the third fourth fifth and sixth Resolution That the Crown and Half Crown hereafter to be Coth'd shall be of the present Weight and Fineness That the Crown piece should go for Five Shillings Six-pence c. That the present Mill'd Crown piece go for Five Shillings Six-pence c. I humbly answer 1. That it would be for the Honour of the King and therein for the Interest of the Country to have all the Money new Minted and Mill'd with his Majesty's Image and Superscription which Honour his Majesty most highly merits forasmuch as his Paternal Care for the Commonwealth of the Kingdom hath against his own present Interest and in such a time of War ecommended to his Parliament the Balance of Trade which is the principal Means to bring in Bullion and Plate 2. That to carry on our Commerce with the more ease we should I humbly think as in the time of Edward 3 Coin our Money for conveniency And it would be with submission for the greater conveniency and the easier and better keeping of all Accompts that our Crown-piece should pass but for a Crown and that our new Coin should be as near as possible respecting the charge of Coinage as much in Money as in Mass For we may if we are not wanting to our selves and to the good Nature of our Nation keep it from Exportation and the Melting-Pot by the over-balance of Trade which is also the best Means to maintain a Vigorou War IV. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this Committee That it be Penal on all such Persons on whom Clippings are found But that may sometimes fall hard on some innocent People Answ for lately one Mr. Jarvis a Tobacconist on Cock Hill having sound out a Thief that stole some Tobacco from him the said Thief or some other Body for him convey'd a parcel of Clippings into his House for which his Wife was committed to Newgate and was put to great Trouble and Charge before the could be discharged from thence V. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this Committee That it be Penal on such Persons as shall Import any Clipt or Counterfet Money I believe we have had as many Guinea's and as much Clipt Answ Mix'd and Dross Money Imported upon us as doth now circulate in the Nation And to prevent such Importation for the future the one half upon discovery thereof should go to the Informer and the other to the King For when an Act is just and good they that inform in favour thereof should not lose any Credit by
scandalous Titles or Opinion but should receive all Encouragement imaginable When Rome was in a rising condition those that Informed in her favour were looked on as Men of Honour but as she went to ruin and was exposed by the Soldiers who should preserve her to the Sale of who gave most the Informers were looked upon to be only famous for Infamy as they are now in other declining Countries VI. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this Committee That it be Penal on any Person to Export English Bullion and the proof to lie on the Exporter I was extreamly glad when I read this Resolution for it will by some kind of necessity put us upon gaining the over balance of Trade which is the only thing next to Religion and Justice which we want to gain the Empire of the Vniverse as well as that of the Ocean Religion in Britain hath hitherto been for the most part Hist Disc maintained by immediate Influence from Heaven And the way of Justice and Gentleness hath had more Force in Britain than Arms. Under the wise Government of Aurelius the Emperour mounting into the British Throne crowned Lucius first of all Kings with the Royal Title of a Christian And he was not so much a Vassal as a Friend and Ally to the Romans And perceiving the Empire to be past Noon and their Lieutenants to comply with the Christians began to provide for future Generations and according to the Two grand Defects of Religion and Justice applyed himself to the establishment of both Which Act of Lucius so advanced him in the Opinion of Writers that they knew not when they had said enough of him Whereas before Britain was become a Glut of Wickedness and a Burden that God would endure no longer The Kingdoms of Christendom now in being had their rising from the fall of Rome and Vortigern a Native of this Isle first established here a free Kingdom four hundred and fifty Years after Christ and so left it to the Saxons So England hath a great Precedency in respect of the Antiquity of the Kingdom which as Beda observes was always a Monarch in a Heptarchy So it hath the Precedency likewise in respect of the Antiquity of the Christian Religion Joseph of Arimathea planted the Christian Religion immediately after the Passion of Christ in this Realm And Aristobulus one of them mentioned by St. Paul Dorotheus Rom. 6. was Episc Britannorum and likewise Simon Zelotes yea St. Peter and St. Paul himself as Theodoretus doth testifie The first Christian King in Europe was Lucius Surius And the first that ever advanced the Papacy of Rome was the Emperour Constantine born at York Edward the Third King of England was Anno 1338 created by the Emperour Vicarius Perpetuus Imperii And William the Third King of England may be the greatest Emperour that ever was if we are not wanting to him when he is not to us This Kingdom is held of God alone Cottoni Posthuma p. 87. Hist Disc p. 3. acknowledging no Superiour It was long before the Son of God was enwombed and whilst as yet Providence seem'd to close only with the Jewish Nation and to hover over it as a choice pick'd Place from all the Earth that with a gracious Eye surveying the forsaken condition of all other Nations it glanced on this Island Both Thoughts and Words reflected on Isles Isa 42.4.31.3.60.4.66.19 Isles of the Gentiles Isles afar off as if amongst them the Lord of all the Earth had found out some place that should be to him as the Gem of the Ring of this terrestrial Globe And if the ways of future Providence may be looked upon as a Gloss of those Prophecies we must confess that this Island was conceiv'd in the Womb thereof long before it was manifested to the World No sooner was the Scepter departed from Judah but both it and the Law-giver came hither as if we were the only White that was in God's Aim VII And shall we after all this for the sake of Self-interest be any ways wanting to Albion which God hath so highly honoured and so bountifully bless'd above all the Kingdoms in the World No sure for there is nothing expected from our Gratitude towards God and our Duty towards the Nation but what the Honourable Representatives thereof may make practicable by means of their principal Commitees of Religion Grievances Trade and Justice and the Power they have of sending for Persons Papers and Records VIII And since they are as deeply engaged as they are highly concerned to regulate the Coin of the Kingdom and to turn our Dross into Silver again I hope they will raise no small Fund or Sum of Money for it * In a printed Paper entituled Reasons for not laying any farther Impositions upon Coals there is this Particular Which in things of Choice and Luxury may be tolerable but in Cases of Necessity must be extream grievous especially to many Trades-men out of the Causes and Effects of Extravagancy and Covetousness I mean such Extravagancies for the most part as promote excessive and consumptive Importations And such Covetousness as makes against the Laws of God and the World Twelve and sometimes Twenty per Cent of Money by Interest Procuration Continuation c. It is the Opinion of some others as well as my own That all Masters of English Ships should be Taxed abroad together with the Factors for they are come now to act in half Commissions c. with the Factors And to speak with all Modesty they gain above 12 per Cent. more than the Merchants do by more advantageous Trading And there are a great many concern'd in this Craft that should refund a great deal for the present Occasion IX And if our Trade and Justice be regulated together with our Coin and Religion honestly and 〈…〉 our King 's most excellent Majesty may use a greater Style of Soveraignty than this of King Edgar wherewith and with a few other Words I conclude Ego Edgarus Anglorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnicumque Regum Insularumque Oceani Britannici circumjacentium cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator ac Dominus And now I think from what hath been said or rather shewn it may be seen a little how much God and Nature have done for us more than we endeavour to do for our selves And I wish that any part of this Enterprize may answer the Ends for which the whole was design'd with all Sincerity and Good-will For else I would have robb'd and stollen from the Authorities I have acknowledged transmigrated their Dispensatâ—â—iâ—s into the Wrong Appropriation and made those Doctors Opinions pass for my own who am the most unfit Person to prescribe any thing for the Distempers of State in a Corrupted Time FINIS
England will not cause a Transportation of most of that that is now Currant to be Minted in the Netherlands and from them brought back again whereby his Majesties Mint will fail by the Exported benefit 4. Whether the advancing the Silver Coin if it produce the former Effects will not cause the Markets to be unfurnished of present Coin to drive the Exchange when most of the Old will be used in Bullion 5. Whether the higher we raise the Coin at home we make not thereby our Commodities beyond Sea the cheaper 6. Whether the greatest profit by this Enhaunsing will not grow to the ill Members of the State that have formerly culled the weightiest Pieces and sold them to the Stranger-Merchants to be Transported V. And at the same time these general Rules were Collected out of the Consultations at Court concerning Money and Bullion 1. Gold and Silver have a two-fold Estimation in the Intrinsick as they are Monies they are the Princes Measures given to his People and this is a Prerogative of Kings In the Intrinsick they are Commodities valuing each other according to the plenty or scarcity and so all other Commodities by them and that is the sole Power of Trade 2. The Measures in a Kingdom ought to be constant It is the Justice and Honour of the King for if they be altered all Men 'T is just now so with our Guineas c. at that Instant are deceived in their precedent Contracts either for Lands or Money and the King most of all for no Man knoweth then either what he hath or what he oweth 3. This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of this nature to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death for attempting to put so great a dishonour on the Queen and detriment and discontent upon the People for to alter this publick Measure is to leave all the Markets of the Kingdom unfurnished And what will be the Mischief the Proclamations of 5 Ed. VI. 3 Mariae 5 Edw. VI. 3 Mariaet 4 Eliz. and 4 Eliz. will manifest when but a rumour of the like produced that Effect so far that besides the Faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts they were enforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively to Constrain the People to furnish the Markets to prevent a Mutiny 4. To make this Measure then at this time short is to raise all Prizes or to turn the Money or Measure into Disise or Bullion when it is richer by seven in the hundred in the Mass than the new Monies and yet of no more value in the Market 5. Hence of necessity it must follow that there will not in a long time be sufficient Minted of the New to drive the Exchange of the Kingdom and so all Trade at one Instant at a stand and in the mean time the Markets unfurnish'd which how it may concern the quiet of the State is worthy care 6. And thus far as Money is a Measure 7. Now as it is a Commodity it is respected and valued by the Intrinsick quality And first the one Metal to the other 8. All Commodities are prized by plenty or scarcity by dearness or cheapness the one by the other If therefore we desire our Silver to buy Gold as it of late hath done we must let it be the Cheaper and less in Proportion valued and so contrary for one equivalent Proportion in both will bring in neither We see the proof thereof by the unusual quantity of Gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price for we rate it above all other Countries and Gold may be bought too dear To furnish then this way the Mint with both is altogether impossible 9. And at this time it was apparently proved both by the best Artists and Merchants most acquainted with the Exchange in both the Examples of the Mint-Masters in the Rix Dollar and Real of Eight that Silver here is of equal value and Gold above with the Foreign parts in the Intrinsick and that the fallacy presented to the Lords by the Mint-Masters is only in the Nomination or Intrinsick quality 10. But if we desire both it is not raising of the value that doth it but the balancing of Trade for buy we in more then we sell of other Commodities be the Money never so high prized we must part with it to make the disproportion even If we sell more than we buy the contrary will follow 11. And this is plain in Spain's necessities for should that King advance to a double rate his Real of Eight yet needing by reason of the barrenness of his Country more of Foreign Wares than he can counter vail by Enchange with his own he must part with his Money and gaineth no more by Exhauncing his Coin but that he payeth a higher price for the Commodities he buyeth if his work of raising be his own But if we shall make Improvement of Gold and Silver being the Staple Commodity of his State we then advancing the price of his abase to him our own Commodities 12. To shape this Kingdom to the fashion of the Netherlands were to frame a Royal Monarch by a Society of Merchants Their Country is a continual Fair and so the price of Money must rise and fall to fit their occasions We see this by raising the Exchange at Frankford and other Places at the usual time of their Marts 13. The frequent and daily Change in the low Countries of their Monies is no such injustice to any there as it would be here For being all either Mechanicks or Merchants they can Rate accordingly their Labour or their Wares whether it be Coin or other Merchandise to the present condition of their Money in Exchange 14. And our English Merchants to whose profession it properly belongs do so according to the just Intrinsick value of their Foreign Coin in all Barter of Commodities or Exchange except at usance which we that are ruled and ty'd by the Intrinsick Measure of Money in all our constant Reckonings and Annual Bargains at home cannot do 15. And for us then to raise our Coin at this time to equal their Proportions were but to render our selves to a perpetual incertainty for they will raise upon us daily then again which if we of Course should follow else receive no Profit by this present Change we then destroy the Policy Justice Honour and Tranquility of our State at home for ever If we go on debasing our Money Manufacture and Navigation to make even with the Dutch we may now in a very short time undo the Nation and there is nothing that can recover us at present but the Balance Regulation and Advancement of Trade which the King 's most Excellent Majesty hath so often recommended to his Parliament and by which means Edward III. got that Advantage of invading France and dealing with it as he did to the great Honour and
Interest of England VI. Edward III. having that Game to play with France either he must win or lose it his Spirit was too big to sit still and yet Historical Discourse of the Vniformity of the Government of England from the first times to the Reign of Edward III. Printed 1647. Part 2. p. 64. pre-advising himself about the Poverty of the People and that their Patience would be spent soon after their Supplies if they continually saw much going out and nothing coming in he laid a Plat-form for the augmenting of the Treasure of the Kingdom as well for the benefit of the People as of the Crown By Taxes * P. 65. 1. And altho' it be true that Edward III. was a King of many Taxes above all his Predecessors yet cannot this be imputed as a blot to his Honour or Liberty of the People For the King was not so unwise as either to desire it without evident cause or to spend it in secret or upon his own private Interest nor so weak and irresolv'd as not to employ himself and his Soldiers to the utmost to bring to pass his Intentions nor so unhappy as to fail of the desirable Issue of what he took in hand So as tho' the People parted with much Money yet the Kingdom gained much Honour and Renown and becoming a Terror to their Neighbours enjoy'd what they had in fuller security and so were no Losers by the Bargain in the Conclusion For the People had quid pro quo by the Advance of Trade P. 66. 2. ☜ wherein the King shewed himself the Cape Merchant of the World Certainly Men's Parts in those Times were of vast reach that could manage such Wars settle such a Government and lay such a Foundation of a Treasury by Trade a thing necessary to this Island next unto its own being as may appear not only in regard of the Riches of this Nation but in regard of the Strength thereof and in regard of the maintenance of the Crown The two latter of which being no other than a natural effluence of the former it will be sufficient to touch the same in order to the thing in hand Now as touching that ☞ it is evident that the Riches of any Nation are supported by the Conjuncture of three regards I. That the natural Commodities of the Nation may be improv'd II. That the poorer sort of People be set on work III. P. 67. 3. That the Value of Money be rightly balanc'd 1. For as on the one part tho' the People be never so laborious if the natural Commodities of the Island be not improved by their Labour the People can never grow much richer than barely for Subsistence during their Labour And here let me humbly presume to say ☞ that so long as this Nation is over balanc'd by others in Trade we can get nothing but by one anothers Loss 2. The Endeavour were to advance Manufacture and principally such of them as are made of the staple Commodities amongst all which Wool had the Precedency as being the most principal and ancient Commodity of the KINGDOM and the Manufacture of Wool of long use but had received little Encouragement before these Times For that it formerly had been the principal Flower in the Flemish Garden P. 68. and nourished from this Nation by the continual supply of Wool that it received from hence Which was the principal Cause of the Ancient League between the House of Burgundy and this Crown But Edward III. was too well acquainted with the Flemings Affairs P. Ditto by a joint Engagement with them in the Wars with France ☞ and therein had gained so good an Opinion amongst them that he might have adventured to have chang'd a Complement for a Courtesie The Staples beyond the Sea were now taken away He now inhibiteth the Importation of Foreign Cloths and having gained these two steps onward of his way he represents to the Flemings their unsettled Condition 11. Edw. 3. Cap. 2 3 5. by these bordering Wars with France the peaceable Condition of England and Freedom of the People Then propounds to them an Invitation to come over into England P. Ditto ☜ promiseth them share and share-like with his own People with such other Immunities as they took his offer came over and brought their Manufacture with them which could never after be recall'd So as now the Wool and the Manufacture live together P. Ditto and like to Man and Wife so long as they care for one another both will thrive but if they come to play their Games apart both will be Losers in the Conclusion Another means to advance Trade was the settling of a Rule upon Exportation and Importation P. 70. 3. ☜ which wrought a double Effect I. That Importation brought in more Profit than Exportation disbursed II. That both Exportation and Importation were made by Shipping belonging to this Nation so far as it did consist with the benefit of this Nation III. That the Exportation was regulated to the Over-plus saving the main Stock at home 1. The truth of the first will be evident from this ground P. Ditto ☜ That no Nation can be rich that receives more dead Commodities from abroad than it can spend at home or vend into foreign Parts especially if it be vended in its proper kind and not in Money And therefore the Laws provided 27 Edw. III. ☜ That no Merchant should export more Money than he imported and what he imported must have been of the New Stamp which it seems was inferiour in value to the Old 2. The Second is no less beneficial for as it is in War P. 71. so in all Trades the greater the number is that is employ'd the more effectual the issue will be 3. The Third and Last Consideration is as necessary as any of the former for if Trade be maintained out of the main Stock ☜ the Kingdom in time must be brought to Penury The last means that was set on foot in the Reign of Edward III. for the Advance of Trade was the regulating the Mint P. 74. ☜ and the Currant of Money This is the Life and Soul of Trade for tho' Exchange of Commodities may do much yet it cannot be for all because it is not the Lot of all to have Exchangeable Commodities nor to work for Apparel and Victual Now in the managing of this Trick of Money ☞ Two things are principally looked unto P. Ditto 1. That the Money be good and currant 2. That it should be plentiful As touching the Excellency of the Money several Rules were made 25 Edw. 3. Stat. 5. cap 13. 6 Edw. 3. cap. 2 and 3. as against embasing of Money against Foreign Money not made Currant and against Counterfeit and False Money For according to the Goodness of the Money ☞ so will the Trade be more or less For the Merchant will rather lose in the Price of his