Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A34886
|
The proverb crossed, or, A new paradox maintained (viz.) that it is not at all times true, that interest cannot lye being a full, clear and distinct answer to a paper of an English gentleman, who endeavours to demonstrate that it is for the interest of England that the laws against transportation of wooll should be repealed.
|
Carter, W. (William)
|
1677
(1677)
|
Wing C676B; ESTC R18389
|
22,868
|
28
|
they might be hearkned unto might soon be effected and made practical through a standing Councel established to no other end than for the Cloathing-Trade with power only to receive such proposals as are to be made by the Clothiers and their respective Factors here relating to each County and to prepare the said Proposals into distinct Acts against the Parliament shall be next convened than which I humbly conceive there is scarse any thing can be instanced that might or would tend more to the General good and advantage of this Nation and to the promoting and recovering of our Manufacture again and consequently for the consumption and advancing the price of our Wool which is the thing mainly my Opponent seems to drive at and in that we shall agree But here my Opponent may perhaps say that after all I cannot deny but there is a surplus of wool which cannot be wrought up by the Clothiers and that I offer ' not one word how it should for the future be disposed of To which I answer First that it appeareth not by any thing which my Opponent hath hitherto said at least not by any thing that he hath hitherto proved That the Clothier either cannot or doth not work up the wool of the proper growth of England to the full of it but if a far greater quantity of wool be brought into England from Ireland then ever before was brought untill of late years as the Clothier cannot be responsible for his not buying up all the wool which is sent into England so neither can he or ought he to be responsible for the glut proceeding from the importation of it or for the cheapness of the said wool by reason of the said glut Secondly If the proper and only way for removing all evil effects be to remove their respective causes and that this is and must be acknowledged by all rational Persons then considering what we have said before and not only said but proved and made it to appear viz. That the cause of that surplus of wool with the cheapness of it at present among us is partly from the Irish Act that prohibiteth the bringing in of Live Cattle and puts that Kingdom upon the breeding of wool whether they will or no and partly by the decay of our manufacture through the supply that we our Selves do make to our Neighbours of our own wool for the promoting of their Manufacture to the ruine of our Selves The proper remedy then for the removing the cheapness of our wool on the one hand and for employing our Poor and recovering our Trade on the other hand must necessarily be the stopping the excessive Growth of it in Ireland and as strictly stopping and restreining the export of it from Ireland and from hence And here I must take the boldness to say again what I have in part said already in my second Argument viz. That where a Nation is not rich in Mines of Gold and Silver it is not capable to be inriched by any other way then by its Manufactures And consequently if it be from our Manufactures alone that the Riches of this Nation comes and if it be from our Manufacture chiefly that our Shipping is employed and our Marriners bred if it be from our Trading alone and from the riches which our Trading brings in that His Majesties Customs are raised and that our Fleet have been hitherto Built and Maintain'd and the Dominion of the Seas hath been preserved than it is must be from our Manufacture only that our Bullion hath been brought in and that the Rents of our Nobility and Gentry doth depend and are sustained And therefore if it must be granted me that there is no higher Interest in the Nation then that which preserves his Majesties Customs and that which sustains the Nobility and Gentries Rents and that which supports our Navy and Shipping Then in regard our manufacture alone doth do all this our manufacture alone and the encouragement of it must necessarily be the greater Interest of the Nation it self and I must crave leave to say that whoever placeth it in any thing else as the circumstances of this Nation stands at present must either mistake the Interest of this Nation or can be no Friend to England Wherefore if it be granted by the wisest of Lawyers that a mischief is better then an inconvenience some private men ought to suffer rather then the whole Nation Which I humbly conceive is a solid and a sufficient answer to my Opponent as to this part of his objection Supposing also that our Manufacture and the encouraging of it is the main and chief if not the sole and only Interest of this Nation then as no Interest besides can or ought in reason to stand in competition with it so much less the Irish Act without the repealing of which nevertheless it is simply impossible that either our Manufacture or that the Trade or Navigation of this Kingdom should be preserved For if there be no reason to make a Law that they must strave in Ireland there can be reason to forbid their breeding of Sheep if we will not let them employ their Lands in the breeding of Live Cattle Admitting also that the Pasture Lands of Ireland are proportionable to the bigness of that Kingdom far larger then the Pasture Lands of England as they are and must necessarily be partly through the smallness of their Tillage their Corn being not capable to be exported and partly through the thinnesse of their Inhabitants and it must necessarily follow that these being converted mostly to the feeding of Sheep must breed a vast quantity of wool and such as must equal if not exceed the quantity breed in England by our Selves Wherefore it must needs be plain to every person that not only the breeding of wool but the disposing of it and the disposing of it to most advantage is now become the Interest of the Nobility Gentry Yeomandry and of all others whatever that have a concern in Ireland which if it were possible to prevent it ought to be allowed to none besides our selves whose whole proper and entire Interest it is to be sole Manufacturers or Workers of it The Breeding Growing Disposing and Improving of wool being now by our selves made the entire Interest of Ireland who desired it not of us and would have been very well content without it if we cannot desire their Nobility or Gentry to burn their wool we cannot then deny them to take all such Lawful and just courses whereby they may improve their wool Wherefore seeing these courses can be but two ways either to send it is where it most wanting and where it will yield the best price which is to our Neighbors to improve and increase their Manufacture or else to keep it themselves and manufacture it up in that Countrey And seeing one of these courses are wholly inevitable and that both one and the other do not only tend but must and will certainly and effectually bring an utter destruction to the Trade Commerce Strength Shipping and Navigation of this Kingdom we have small reason to expect our Neighbours the Dutch or our Neighbours the French should help us or pity us when we do willfully contribute to the Ruin of our selves and may if we will either prevent it or easily Remedy it And indeed if our All be at Stake by reason of the countinuance of that unfortunate Act and if this All I mean the very Interest of the Nation it self will not move us to alter it I think it would be very Impertinent to insist upon Lesser Arguments And therefore though it would be for the Interest of the Nation greatly to Arrest this occasion I mean the Cheapness of the Wooll to beat out our Neighbours in the Forreign Trade of our Manufactures by under-selling them at least abroad And though this might now more easily be done then ever seeing our Manufacture is Improved of late years in the Goodness of it and might soon as we said before be brought to an Absolute perfection And though it be but Equal and Just to forbid the Commodities of those Countreys that are near us who refuse to deal with us for our Commodities or by Exorbitant and Arbitrary Imposition laid upon them do in effect prohibit them and though the doing of this is but agreeable to the Rules of Justice and to the Law of Nations and Law of Commerce Though also it cannot be denied that it must be greatly consistant with the Publick Good of the Nation to make Sumptuary Lawes and to restrain the Excess that is at present among us yet I must humbly crave Leave to say that this is but like the taking much pains to stop the Leaks of a Barrel and let the Liquor run out at the Bung For these are all Petty things to the Main Concern of the Nation which must be Ruined and Ruined as I humbly conceive irrecoverably if the Irish Acts doth stand FINIS
THE PROVERB Crossed OR A new PARADOX Maintained Viz. That it is not at all times true that Interest cannot Lye Being A FULL CLEAR and DISTINCT Answer to a Paper of an English Gentleman who endeavours to demonstrate that it is for the Interest of England that the Laws against Transportation of Wooll should be repealed Printed for Authour In the Year 1677. A FULL and CLEAR Answer to a Paper Intituled Reasons for A Limited Exportation of Wooll BEfore I shall come directly to Answer the said Papers I shall premise some few Considerations And first of all I shall doe my Oponent that Right as to acknowledge two things the one is that though he findes his Design opposed by several Discourses under the Name of W. C. and chiefly by one called Englands Interests yet that he writes like a Gentleman and not as too many do in our dayes in matters of another nature like enemies exposing each other to shame The next thing is this that he doth grant divers things in that Discourse of mine to be true though it be but a handfull of Corn as he calls it amongst abundance of Chaff and to evidence his approbation of them he hath done me the Honour to Front his Discourse with divers Propositions allowed even by himself I shall therefore answerably endeavour to treat the said Authour with all that Civility which a person of Quality doth deserve as I suppose he is though he be unknown to me granting to him what is true Rectifying what I humbly conceive to be mistaken and answering such Objections as are material presuming when after this is done and is maturely considered by my Opponent we may joyn in our endeavours to carry on the general good of the Kingdom supposing that is both our Designs I must needs say that I had no thoughts of appearing in Publick any more and could not easily have been moved thereunto had not my zeal to the Commerce of the Nation which is at present solely maintained by the woollen Manufacture of it Raised my fears so farre as to believe a Ruine is coming upon us and so farre as to doubt also that we may be hastning of it by those very means we would endeavour to prevent it And therefore I cannot now but like the dumb child speak when he saw a knife at his fathers Throat I mean when I consider the Extremity we are like to be in from the French Kings Vigilancy and the great endeavours that he hath of late used to acquire the making of the woollen Manufacture in his own Kingdom and what Artifice and vast Expence he doth use to effect his said design both in France and by his Agents here in England even at this very day notwithstanding his minde is and cannot but be so much engaged in the present warrs and if he doth this in the very midst of his distractions what will he not do or what may we not expect hereafter from him when he is at Peace with all his Neighbours especially having already gotten such quantities of our wooll as he hath And to encourage the Manufacture thereof the said French King for his Interest it is we are about to promote hath even very lately viz. within this few Moneths issued forth his Edict which is their Law for the Erecting Hospitals in many Towns in France both for the setting all sorts of Persons at work that are able in the woollen Manufacture and for the Maintenance of all Indigent persons and not to suffer a beggar there And if the French King how farre soever he pretends a friendship to us be designing by all manner of wayes and means to undermine our Commerce and by it to Ruine us consequently in our Trade and in our shipping and in our strength by Sea I may I hope be pardoned if I am more than indifferently concerned or more than ordinarily warm to think that we our selves should endeavour to perfect the French Kings design by delivering up the foundation of so rich a Manufacture into his hands and by this means delivering up all our Forts Castles and strong holds for that which is moved is moved Principally if not solely for the French Kings advantage and that which is desired if granted tends onely to our own inevitable Ruine and Destruction Seeing the thing desired is that after the French King hath laid all this method in a readiness to Rob us of our Clothing Trade we to the end we may shew our selves not onely his good friends but his obedient Servants and Vassals desire that what wooll our Clothiers cannot work out in Cloth by reason of the French Kings late Imposition upon it to the breach of Commerce and consequently as farre as in him lyeth to the Breach of the Peace with us may for the time to come be sold to his Subjects that we may not hereafter think of so vain and idle a thing as to preserve or recover our woollen Manufacture any more or to preserve the Kings Customs or the strength and shipping of this great Kingdom Upon all which considerations I cannot but humbly entreat our Gentry and more especially such as have the Honour to serve their Country in Parliament seriously to reflect upon the wisdom of that great Prince King Edward 3d. and upon the method which he in his Reign used now so long since to gain the woollen Manufacture out of Flanders into this Countrey and impartially to compare this with the present Practice of the French King before mentioned And then to consider whether we have not reason to do the utmost we may to prevent his design or whether we have reason to do all that we can nay more than he himself doth ask or expect from us by a Law to promote and incourage his design and therefore to consider whether there be Reason upon the supposition that our own people do not steal wooll enough into France sufficient to pleasure the French Kings design fully and in regard the carrying our wooll thither by stealth doth not manifest friendship enough to him to desire therefore that his Majesty and the Parliament will please to make a Law that all the French Kings subjects without any controle may after such a day of the year constantly come and buy what wooll they please here as at a free Mart because it is more for the interest of His Majesty and more for the Advancing the Honour wealth and repute of the Nation in General and consequently more for the enhauncing the price of Lands that the whole woollen Manufacture and Commerce of the Nation together with the strength of our Shipping and all the Forts of the Kingdom be given to the French King and his Subjects and that we be his Servants and Vassals here to breed his wooll for him rather than to carry our woollen Manufacture into France our selves or rather than to suffer so good a design of the French King 's to fall as tends to the utter Ruine of our