Lost Ships and the Extravagant Profit of what came in to near a Balance and thus you see this Profitable Trade Object 3. This Bill designs the utter Loss of the India Trade Answer Pray Sir give me a good Reason for it he gives several Merchants are sullen the Dutch and Scots will have it and we shall Lose all as we have done Bantum and the Spice Islands for these Dutchmen and Scotch-men are dreadful Fellows As to the sullenness of Merchants I would to God all the Merchants in England that carry out our Silver to promote and set up Forreign Manufacturies were so sullen as to do so no more but would Employ their Stocks in setting up new Species of Manufactures in England in Towns and Places where the Poor have no Employment and I will give them my Assistance to the utmost of my Ability and for their Encouragement there is no Two Cities in Europe if joined together have such a number of Men that understand so many deffering Species of Commodities as London have though now they are despised and reduced to the utmost Penury and are willing to work for bare Bread and cannot get it who would be glad to be their Servants As to the Dutch getting the Spice Trade and Bantum Sir I will tell you what I have heard and believe to be true the East-India Company set themselves so intirely to prosecure Manufacturer and finding the Gentry of England so easie to be deceived and gulled by them they slighted all other Trade in the Indies and six'd wholly to that which was like to turn to private Interest with little respect to publick Good the Dutch took this Opportunity to fall in with those Trades that tended most to a General Advantage and slighted Manufactures till the English Imported upon them and then were forced to do something this way in their own Defence and against their Inclination and are not yet very fond of them as any Man may find by comparing their Cargoes with ours If I remember well the Martha and Sarah two of the last Ships that came to England had much greater quantities of these Goods than the whole Fleet of 12 Ships that came to Holland and I despair of ever seeing our English Merchants endeavour much Trade that is for Real Good to England so long as such vast quantities of Manufactures are allowed And as to the Scots Company I suppose its Original is well known I will tell you my Thoughts of it it was Contrived in London by Stock-jobbers and others that designed only to make a noise or if in earnest it was only to bring these Goods to Scotland Custom-free to Cheat the King by Running them into England by their Pedlers and thereby under-sell our Company and more effectually Ruin our Manufacturies and Sir I assure you I had this Company in my Eye in promoting this Bill as well-knowing it would effectually Cross the Designing-Men in that Company and whenever it is past into a Law there is an end of the Scotch Company Object 4. Against this Bill No Country Manufactures made so Dear as the English and if we would have a Trade we must make our Manufactures Cheaper Answer I thought I should understand the Price of Workmanship as well as this Gentleman and I will venture to Assert the quite contrary Do but consider the Price of Provision in England and the Goodness of our Work and we shall see by examining as to our Cloth who work Cheaper Pray tell me Do not our Cloth-weavers work for Five Shillings per Week in the Country our Cloth-dressers tyed up to a Penny per Hour our Serge and Perpetuary-weavers for the same and often less our Stuff Crape and Fustian and Flannel-weavers for as little and lower according to the Price of Provisions in the Places where they live Nay Sir take our Silk-weavers and do they get more than Ten or Twelve Shillings per Week and pay two Boys out of it unless they make Rich Works which take a Month or Six Weeks time before they get a Penny And is it not reasonable the Price of this sort of Work should answer the Time they lose And how poorly must Families be Maintained with such Wages But these must be Slaves to the Humours of Proud Retailers and Importing Merchants though a Wise Management would make them great Blessings to England Sir what do you think of our English Spinsters and Winsters that work for Three or Four-pence per Day Object 5. We want more an Act to set up Publick Work-houses Answer pray Sir first find Employments for them that are willing to work if they had it Object 6. This Bill tends to make Wooll Dear Answer Pray Sir it is a great mistake that we should have Wooll dear And what do you mean by VVooll being too dear The Merchant never thinks Spanish VVooll too dear or Cotton-wooll too dear Give me leave to tell you we have great quantities of fine long VVooll in England that a Pound of it will run 20 30 40 Thousand Yards in length and make light fine thin strong Stuffs much better than India Cotton and Bengall Silks nay out-do by far for fine thin Goods any Spanish VVooll fit to answer all uses for VVomen and Children and no Nation in the World that ever I heard of had such a quantity and it is a shame to England the Price is so low as had I Time I could evidence fully Sir you call the Price of Wooll unnatural I fear you imagine you are at the Bay of Bengall it is very natural to me to give a just Value to the Product of my Native Country Object 7. The Publick reap no Advantage by Home Consumption Answer Consuming is not a common way of getting but we have a Proverb A Penny saved is as good as a Penny earned and if we spend our own Produce we shall save all our Pence that go to India and by wearing our own that is over-plus we should bring our Commodities into general Repute and by that means Export more and we should save by that And what do we save by paying as dear for India Goods as for our own as I am ready to Evidence we do Object 8. Silk is a Manufactory of Forreign Growth and if the Luxury of wearing Silks were Abolished it would be Beneficial to this Kingdom Answer Pray Sir how do this and your other Arguments hang together What would become of your profitable Trade of Bengall Sir give me leave to try to make the Silk Trade a profitable Trade and since our Nobility and Gentry like Silk let them wear it Sir our Turky and Italian Merchants carry our Cloth and Serges to Turky and Italy and this Cloth being fully Manufactured Employs many Thousands of People and takes off great quantities of Wooll The People spend their Money upon the Lands and so work for more these Merchants bring Home Silk unmanufactured and Employ many Thousands of People more and these also spend
REASONS Humbly Offered for the PASING a BILL FOR THE Hindering the Home Consumption OF EAST-INDIA Silks Bengals c. And an Answer to the Author of several Objections against the said Bill in a Book Entituled An Essay on the East-India Trade By T. S. a Weaver in London who would have the Nobility and Gentry of England have a True Light into that Affair WITH A Postscript containing the French King's Decree concerning India Manufactures London Printed by J. Bradford in New-street without Bishopsgate 1697. REASONS Humbly Offered c. I. THese Goods are directly opposite to the Employment of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Manufactorers and to the Consumption of Sixteen or Eighteen Thousand Packs of Long Fine Wool in one Year of the growth of the largest Sheep that feed in Pasture-Ground which Wool is not used in making of Cloth These number of People are Weavers Throwsters Winsters Yarn-Men Wool-Combers Hot-Pressers Callenders Fullers Spinsters whose Dwellings are in the Cities of London Norwich Canterbury in the Counties of Suffolk Norfolk Cambridgshire Hartfordshire Essex Norhamptonshire some parts of Yorkshire In many places besides in the several Counties of England The Wool grows most in Lincolnshire Leicestershire Norhamptonshire Bedfordshire Rumney Marsh and of Pasture-Sheep in all Counties which by reason of the length of its Staple is not used or can well be used to make Cloth but is generally sold to Norfolk St. Edmondsbury in Suffolk to be made in those and other Counties into Yarn and in Yarn carried to Norwich and London to be wrought up into Stuffs made of all Wool or mixt with Silk one Pound of Silk to eight Pound of Wool II. Employment of these People is the only way left to give a value to the Land in those parts where they inhabit for poor working People spend all or most of what they get by working upon the produce of Land and you will always find according to the number of People and according to what they get so is the Price of Land and it is evident all over the World where the Price of Wages is low the value of Land is little and where many People live Land is most valuable which is the true Reason that Land near London and other Towns where Manufactories are settled is three four six times as valuable as Land of as good a natural soyl where there is few Inhabitants or Navigable Rivers III. These poor People when employed highly conduce to the Happiness and Safety of England If any Person will please to take a view of England before it was a Manufactory they will find that this Island was often insulted over Ravaged and Plundred yea Conquered by Scots Danes Normans Saxons c. But since England hath been a Place of Manufactury no Neighbour hath dared to Insult our Coast or Invade us without our own consent for these poor People are not only themselves ready to oppose but by their Imployment give Incouragement to Navigation and to breeding of Sea man to navigate our Coasting-Vessels to supply their necessities with Coals Corn Malt Cheese Butter c. by which means the King always hath Sea-men ready to furnish his Men of War that are the Bulworks of the Nation and our Merchants are supplyed with Sea-men for longer Voyages IV. I would shew the Opposition between this Trade to India and the English Manufactories and that so it is Detrimental to the Nation The Opposition lies in its Home Consumption and Foreign Exportation The Silks Bingalls c. from India are used for the same Uses our Manufactures are and so discourage Trades-men from driving larger Trade it being uncertain when these Ships will come in and uncertain what sort of Commodities they bring Every Trades-man lies liable to be undone if he venture to inlarge his Trade as is plain by many hundred Instances in twenty Years space And as to the Foreign Exportation these Foreign Manufactures have Spoiled our Foreign Trade for Fine Stuffs made in Norwich and London for Womens wear into many places for Crape c. And for our American Plantations all Persons dealing there know they will imitate the Gentry of England and those Merchant's Commissions run for Fashionable Commodities Now if our Nobility and Gentry wear India Manufactures our West India Plantations will wear the same and it is generally true so far as the Honour of any Nation extends so far what they wear will be in Fashion This was the Policy of France who designing to make themselves Great discouraged the Wear and Consumption of Foreign Commodities and Incouraged the wearing their own both at Home and also in England by Presents to the English Court well knowing what the Court did wear the Cities and Gountries will not be long without And by the way it is my opinion the French King and the Manufacturers of Lions will spend a Hundred Thousand Pounds to keep the Trade of England for Exporting their Allamodes and Lutestrings But this is not all the damage this India Trade doth in respect to the Exportation of our English Manufactures for it greatly hinders our Turkey and Italian Merchants who Export vast quantities of Woollen-Cloth Serges Purpetuanys Stuffs c. and the greatest of their Returns are in Raw and Thrown Silk and Grogrom Yarn which they bring home to London expecting a Market among Throwsters and Weavers But these Trades-men being undone by India Manufactures are not able to buy these Commodities and so these Advantagious Merchant by having their Stocks lie dead upon their hands can buy no more Cloth c. And the Cloathier and Serge-maker and thousands of Families that do depend upon them much Impoverished and many of them reduced to live upon Charity to the great damage of the Landlords and Farmers who by Law are obliged to Relieve them from their Lands V. This Trade to India carries away from England great quantities of Bulloin and Treasure which is not only the Sinews of War but the Medium of Trade and Commerce For Mony in the Body politick is as Blood in the Body natural giving Life to every part as for Instance in an other way of Trade our Exporting-Merchant carries away our Manufactures and for his Returns supposing it be to Spain he brings Spanish Wool and Pieces of Eight these Pieces of Eight or other Bullion made into English Coin go from the Merchant to the Trades-man from him to the Weaver Sherman Spinsters c. From them all to the Farmer from the Farmer to the Landlord and some part sticks every where which go to the Shopkeeper and from him to the Merchant again and the whole Nation is hereby easie but if it go to the East-Indies it never returns again But this is not all the Bulloin in England will not serve this Trade tho' it encourage the Clipping our Coin half away we must go abroad to Holland to Hamborough to Portugal Cadis and where not to take up Silver and thereby run the Nation in Debt and
turn the Ballance of the Exchange against England and our better Merchants and then they murmur against the Goverment I might give many other Reasons for the Bill's passing into a Law but I designing Brevity will pass to give an Answer to some Objections in a Book lately published In answering which I shall enter into the Heart of this Controversie This Book is filled up with Flourish and Rhetorick and Conclusions from false Hypothesis that it is not easie at once Reading to grasp it but my Time allowing no more I shall do it as I can not medling with any thing but what relates to this Bill now depending His Objections are many 1. Objection This Trade carries away our Woollen-Manufactures especially of late to a great value Answer I confess the English Merchants have had a Trade many Years to Persia and Armenia for our Commodities formerly The Turkey Merchant carried Cloth to Scanderoon and so to Aleppo and the Carravans brought great quantities of Raw Silk and sold to our Mechants and for it took our English Cloth Of late Considerable quantities of Cloth and some other Manufactures though I believe not one half what the Company is obliged to carry go by long Sea to India and not finding a vent in that hot Climate it is carried to Persia and Armenia But what is this to our Bill we are not contending which Merchants shall have this Persia Trade but the Question is Whether this be a fit Cover for the great quantities of Wrought Manufactures from the Bay of Bengall and other Places of India that take off little or none of our Woollen-Cloth but is bought with the Money England should have to maintain the War pay our Soldiers and Sea-men and keep our Poor at Work But it may not be insignificant to shew what a Bargain we have made in changing Hands for this Persia Trade the Cloathier hath got well instead of Money for his Cloth of Good Responsable Merchants he credits a publick Seal or he hath a piece of Paper called an East-India Bond which after he has kept it till he is weary he may take East India Silks for it at the Iuch of Candle to cloath his poor Spinners with or else sell his Bond for as much or more loss than he got by his Commodity and the Nation made a very Indifferent Change for whereas the Turkey Merchant did use to bring his Silk home Raw to imploy multitudes of Throwsters Weavers and Sea-mens Wives and all sorts of Poor that spent their Money they got upon the product of Land These East-India Merchants to enrich the Nobility and Gentry of England carry their Raw Persia Silk to the Bay of Bengall c. and work it up that the Money it cost in Workmanship may enrich the Great Mogull and imploy his Poor 2. Obj. Against this Bill The East-India Trade is a Beneficial Trade to England pag. 12. Answ Let us see the Profit Is it the Company that get or he that buys of the Company or the Retailer or the Weaver As to the Company I have heard for what I say is by Hear-say being none of them And therefore take it for Hear-say I have been informed they formerly divided Profit and Principle and Traded upon the Credit of a publick Seal and sould grent quantities of Goods by private Contract and I have heard great Quantities of Guinnies have flowed about the Exchange and Coffe-Houses and little more than are hath come to be esteemed worth three or four Millions and many Honest Gentlemen drawn in to the Ruin of a Good Estate and Family but I do not say the Company that Honourable Company did this the Company say it was the Stock-Jobbers But if so I would willingly know whether this Company might not have put out an Advertisement in some publick Print to hinder such an abominable Cheat But they have now a new Subscription of I have heard 700000 and yet a Man may go upon the Change and buy as I have heard the Stock of this Company for Five or Six Hundred Thousand Pound and no Dividend made this Seven Years Would not any Man wonder where the Profit of this Trade is but still it is a profitable Trade but you must know it is a Mystery and it is not convenient the Nobility and Gentry of England should know the profit of this Trade and indeed I dare not say all I believe to be true but so far as I could ever perceive any profit it is First In buying by private Contract or at the Inch of Candle great quantities of Goods by Persons that understand how things are managed in the Indies and Selling their Goods for 10 20 30 40 per Cent profit to the Wholesale-man this Wholesale man sells them for 10 20 30 per Cent to the Retailer or Country-Chapman the Retailer sells them at 10 20 30 per Cent profit to the Gentry and by this time the Gentry pays as dear always and often much dearer than for our own Manufactures which are much better But pray all this time what doth the Nobleman the Gentleman or Trades-man or poor Farmer or Manufacturer get These Monopolizers and Retailers vye with the Nobleman hector the Gentleman trample upon the Manufacturer and oppose every thing that is for the Nation 's Good if it cross their private Interest But still this is a profitable Trade to England in its Exportation but what is the Bill concerned in the Exportation doth that hinder Exportation I own this may be made a profitable Trade by due Regulation and therefore I am for this Bill for England being the best Mart in Europe for these Commodities no Wise Merchant will carry Goods from the better Market to a worse if he can help it but the Design of this Bill is to oblige the India Merchant to set up Factories to sell Goods in Holland Hamborough Germany Portugal Spain as well as Manufacturies in India to make them and by this means they will truly bring in Bulloin into England as well as carry it to India and till this is done we cannot find such Exportations though for Four or Five Years past I have searched the Bills of Entry with all the Eyes I have I have indeed found some Exports and till this last Sale near as many Imports under pretence of former Exportation But still this would have been a Profitable Trade if the Company had not met with men great Losses by the French and some Ships cast away at Sea As to what was cast away at Sea it is all Merchants Chance and as to what the French took let us consider their first Cost and no Man strictly Loses what he never had and we shall find the prime Cost is 40 Thousand Pound a Ship 8 Ships 320 Thousand Pound but what hath been lost if the more than usual Profit of these Last Ships be consider'd the Charles the Second and the Hawk I believe had I Time I could bring the first Cost of the
the Money they get upon Land the Gentlemen wear the Silk and thereby consume more Wooll and Employ twice as many People as they would do if they wore Woollen Garments Now Sir Is there any false Latin in this way of Trade And as angry as you are with the Silk weaver what would the Turky and Italian Merchants do with their Silk but for them Would you have them carry it to the Bay of Bengall Object 9. Two sorts of Silks come from India and only hinder the French Dutch and Italian Silks Answer Sir I can tell you Twenty sorts of English Stuffs made of Wooll and Silk and VVooll that they are directly opposite to which neither French Dutch or Italians ever did or can pretend to Import upon us though we have done sometimes upon them And as to the Dutch and French except Alamodes and Lute-strings I know of none have come to England for many Years from Italy we have some but nothing comparable to the Woollen Manufactury we carry thither though you are pleased to tell us more Silks are Imported from Holland than from India Sir I know of none but Velvets besides what come by the way of Holland from Italy Object 10. We want Hands to carry on our Manufacturies Answer We want Employment for the Hands we have if we had more Employments we might easily have Hands enough Object 11. The East-India Trade doth not interfere with such Manufactaries as is the Interest of England to promote Answer Doth not this Trade interfere with the Norwich and London and Canterbury Trade and with the Shallone-makers in Essex Suffolk Hampshire and the Makers of Rutteens and the new Manufactury at Kettering in Northamptonshire and at Peterburrough Sir I could compute these to be great numbers and to work up 25 Thousand Packs of English Wooll and when Employed to get two Millions of Money in a Year And though this Money is laid out upon the produce of Land yet the Farmer and Landlord find the Benefit and is it not the Interest of this Nation to incourage these Manufactories What nothing goe down but Cloth I confess I love that Manufactory but what shall we do with Lincolnshire Wooll c. You are against burying of it Object 12. No Laws to render this Prohibition Effectual but summary Laws Answer If it do no good to us it will do you no hurt and since you see so far beyond others you need not oppose the Bill Object 13. A Prohibition is not to be made in time of War Answer I think it a very fit Time when we want Mony to do what we can to get it and the East India Manufactories being bought so Cheap if Exported are very like to fetch us Money or if not Imported will hinder the carrying Money away and we shall be able to hold out the longer Pray Sir is it a fit time for thousands of Families to Starve or run to Ireland or Holland and there set up the English Manufactories Object 14. But the want of Employment proceeds not from East-India Goods but want of Mony Answer That want of Money and Credit is a great Cause of a stop to Trade but there is this difference between the Petitioners for this Bill and other Manufacturers in England others can Trade as far as they can in hope of a Trade at one Time or other we have no such hope we know not but next Month more Ships may come from the Indies though we have enough and too many of their Goods already and what sorts they will bring we know not and they can under Sell us and we cannot be supposed to carry our Silks back again to Turkey Italy or Holland so that if we lose our own Market for English Silk we must take one for India though we know we go for to Ruine our Native Country our Friends and Relations and though happily you may be willing to it I believe the Gentry of England that have taken such Care for the Preservation of the Breed of Cattle will provide for the Subfistence of some of the best of Manufactories that ever England or Europe had This is what of Argument upon first Reading I can find against this Bill in this Book I may take a Time to examine it Paragraph by Paragraph in the mean Time I beg the Lords and Commons of Englands to take one Instance to shew the Profit of this Trade to India Suppose Merchants should carry from hence Clothiers Spinners Weavers Sheermen Fullers to Spain and instead of bringing Spanish Wooll to England to Employ our Poor should carry our Money to Spain to Employ their Poor and then bring the Spanish Cloth to England and under-sell and out-sell our Clothiers and when they are Impoverished and their Poor Starving should come to the Parliament for Relief and these Merchants Cry out Oh! this is a Beneficial Trade to England it is Cramping Trade to touch it the Clothiers are too numerous we will give Money to Ruin them the Spanish Wooll Manufactury is unnatural to England as 't is a Forreign Growth and yet this would be a Tolerable Trade upon many Accompts compared with that of India POSTCRIPT WHereas this Gentleman commends the Prudence of the French King in not allowing these Goods to be Imported upon France by any of his Neighbours but would insinuate that they are allowed to he brought in and consumed if brought from In-India by his own Subjects Therefore to shew his Mistake we have annexed the French Kings Decree by which it appears he allows not of their Consumption in his Country though Imported by his own Merchants or taken by his Men of War or Privateers and so cost him nothing A DECREE of the French King's Councel of State Concerning Callacoes printed in East-India or painted in the Kingdom and other China and India Silks Stuffs and flowred with Gold and Silver given the 26th of October 1686. THE King being informed That the great quantities of Callicoes Printed in East-India or Painted in the Kingdom and other China and India Silks Stuffs and Stuffs flowered with Gold and Silver have not only given occasion of Transporting many Millions but also have diminished the Manufactures of old established in France for making of Silk Woollen Linnen and Hemp-Stuffs and at the same time the Ruin and Destruction of the Working People who by want of Work having no Occupation or Subsistence for their Families are gone out of the Kingdom the which being needful to provide a Remedy for and for that effect to hinder the Trade and Sale in the Kingdom of the said printed Callacoes and India and China Silks and Stuffs nevertheless granting to the Owners a reasonable time to sell them in Having heard the report of Mounsier Pelletier Counseller ordinary of the Kings Royal Council and Comptroller-General of the Finances his Majesty in his Council hath ordered and doth order that from the begining of the day of the Publication of the present Decree all the Manufactures established in the Kingdom for Painting of the white Callicoes shall be abolished and the Moulds serving to the Printing of them shall be broke and destroyed His Majesty doth forbid most expresly the Re-establishing thereof Also to his Subjects the Painting of the said Callicoes and to the Engravers the making of any Moulds serving to the said Impressions under the penalty of loosing the said Callacoes Moulds and other Vtensils and Three Thousand Livers Fine to be paid without diminution one third part to the Informer the second part to the Hospitals of the place the third to the Farmers of the Revenue And as concerning the Painted Callicoes and other China and India Silks Stuffs and Stuffs Flowered with Gold and Silver his Majesty hath granted and doth grant to the last of December 1687 next to the Merchants and others the permission of Selling them as they shall think sit The said time being expired his Majesty doth forbid all Persons of what Quality and Condition whatsoever they are the exposing and selling thereof and to particulars the buying thereof doth order That those found in all Ware-houses and Shops shall be burnt and the Proprietors condemned to the like Fine of three Thousand Livers paid as above said His Majesty doth permit nevertheless the Entry Sale and Retail of the said White Callicoes in his Kingdom paying for them the Taxes according to the decree of the Council the 30th of April last which shall be executed and that of the 15th of the present Month to the last of December 1687 next year His Majesty doth command the Lieutenant of the Policy of the City of Paris and the Intendants and Commissaries of the Provinces and Generalties of the Kingdom to cause the present Decree to be executed being published and affixed in all places where need shall be that no Body should be ignorant thereof Done in the Kings-State-Council held at Fontainbleau Signed COQUILLE FINIS