outward and inward are run and never come under the Cognizance of those Officers but suppose a more exact Account could be kept since so great a part of the Trade of England is driven by Exchange and such vast quantities of Commodities are imported from the West-Indies and others exported thither for Account of the Inhabitants of those Plantations the Ballances whereof they design to lie here as foundations of a secure Settlement for themselves at home which Commodities are Exported 〈◊〉 to Foreign Nations on the Accounts of its Inhabitants who pay for them here by Bills of Exchange I cannot see how any moderate Computation can be made thereby of our general Trade much less of that we drive with any particular Nation the Commodities which we receive at one place being often carried to another Thus we transport to Italy the Sugars we receive for our Manufactures in Portugal and bring thence Silks and other things to be manufactured here thus we carry to Turky the Money we receive at Cadiz which helps us there in the selling our Manufactures and purchasing Materials more protable to this Nation than the Money would be if Imported in Specie and yet we must not conclude we lose by the Portugal or Spanish Trades because the Returns fall short by the Custom-House Books or that we get more by the Italian Trade because it doth not appear by them how we exported Commodities to pay for those we Import so the thing must still remain doubtful I think it would be a consideration becoming the wisdom of the Nation if a standing Committee of Trade were appointed at the charge thereof made up of Men both honest and discreet and I doubt not such may be found whose only business should be to consider the State thereof as to its Trade to find out ways how it may be improved both in its Husbandry Manufactures and Navigation to see how the Trade with Foreign Kingdoms grows more or less profitable to us how and by what Methods we are outdone by others in the Trades we drive or hindred from enlarging them what is necessary to be prohibited both in Imports and Exports and for how long time to hear Complaints from our Factories setled in Foreign Kingdoms to correspond with our Ministers abroad about Trade and to represent all things rightly to the Government with their advice what Courses are proper to be taken for its Encouragement and generally to study by what Means and Methods the Trade of this Nation may be improved both abroad and at home if this was well setled the good Effects thereof would soon be seen but then great care must be taken that these Places be not fill'd up with Courtiers who know nothing of the Business and so this excellent Constitution become only a Matter of Form and Expence and herein I would propose for Pattern the Members of the Bank of England who wisely foresaw if that project should fall into such Hands 't would soon come to decay therefore the first thing they did was by fundamental Rules to shut out all from having a share in the management who had not a good Interest in its Profits or Losses and next to choose out of that number such for their Officers who being bred up in Business knew how to improve it to the best advantage The French King found this Method very useful in the Management of his War and his Opponents soon saw that Monsieur Colberts Head did them more Mischief than an Army in the Field because the latter only put in Execution abroad what he advised at home and I think there is not more need of Policy in War than in Trade the curious Fibres by which it moves are so fine and thin that if strained by injudicious Hands they are soon broken and yet our Parliaments generally handle it very coursely and usually do more Hurt than Good when they meddle with it not foreseeing the ill consequences of what they do will overballance the Good they intend and that the Methods they use will not answer their ends the reason whereof is because the Conceptions they have of it are too gross for a thing so full of Spirit as Trade is He that will but consider the Irish Prohibition Act the Clogg put on Distilling by the Barly Act and on Navigation by the Tunnage Act will soon see they are in Truth Hindrances to what that Honourable Assembly intended by them the Advancement of Land I cannot close this Discourse without saying something of Insurance the first design whereof was to encourage the Merchant to export more of our Product and Manufactures when he knew how to ease himself in his Adventure and to bear only such a proportion thereof as he was willing but by the irregular Practices of some Men especially since this War the first Intention is wholly obviated who without any Interest have put in early Policies and gotten large Subscriptions on Ships only to make advantage by selling them to others and therefore have industriously promoted false Reports and spread Rumours on the Exchange to the Prejudice of the Ship or Master filling all Mens Minds with Doubts whereby the fair Trading Merchant when he comes to insure his Interest either can get no one to underwrite or at such high Rates that he finds it better to buy the others Policies at great advance by this means these Stockjobbers of Insurance have as it were turned it into a Wager to the great Prejudice of Trade likewise many ill designing Men their Policies being over-valued have it 's to be feared to the Disparagement of honest Traders contrived the loss of their Ships on the other side the Underwriters when a Loss is ever so fairly proved boggle in their Payments and force the Insured to be content with less than their Agreements only for fear of engaging themselves in long and chargeable Sutes Now if the Parliament would please to take these things into consideration they might reduce Insurance to its first Intention by obliging the Insured to run a proportionable part of his Adventure the Premio included and the Insurers to pay their full Subscriptions without abatement and if any differences arise to direct easie ways for adjusting them without attending long Issues at Law or being bound up to such nice Rules in their Proofs as the Affairs of Foreign Trade will not admit and for the better security of the Insured it will be worth consideration whither the Subscriptions of the Insurers should not be of equal force in Law with their Bonds Here I intended to have made an end but being lately present where among other Discourses the question was put by an Ingenious and Worthy Gentleman a true Lover of his Country whither the labour of our Poor in England being so high does not hinder the Improvement of our Product and Manufactures Which having some Relation to the Subject Matter of this Discourse I humbly make bold to offer my Thoughts thereon
AN ESSAY ON TRADE c. AN ESSAY ON THE STATE OF ENGLAND In Relation to its TRADE It s Poor and its Taxes For carrying on the present War against FRANCE By JOHN CARY Merchant in Bristoll BRISTOLL Printed by W. Bonny for the Author and are to be sold in London by Sam. Crouch at the Corner of Popes Head-Alley in Cornhill and Tim. Goodwin at the Queen's Head near the Temple also by Tho. Wall and Rich. Gravett near the Tolzey in Bristoll Novem. 1695. TO THE KING's Most Excellent MAJESTY May it please Your Majesty IT is not a Desire to appear in Print hath made me to write or a fond Opinion of what I have written to affix Your Great Name to these Papers but a true Affection to my Native Country and the Cause Your Majesty is now ng ag'd in A War on whose good Success depends the Security of Religion Liberty and Property both to Your own Subjects and likewise to all the Protestant Interest in Europe A War as it is absolutely necessary and must be carried on with Vigour so it is like to be long and chargeable and so much longer as we abate in Our Vigorous Prosecution A War which may strain the Nerves and Sinews of our Treasure before it be ended and therefore as in Martial Discipline great Wisdom must be used to secure those Posts where the Enemy bends most of his Forces so here 't is Prudence to strengthen our Treasure by advancing and securing our Trade which must bring it in If this was done Taxes would be easily paid and little felt and without it this Nation will at last become Bankrupt when its Expences exceed its Profits The Foundations of the Wealth of this Kingdom are Land Manufactures and Foreign Trade these are its Pillars which ought not to be overshaken they have hitherto borne the Burthen and felt the Smart of the War and 't is time now they should slide their Necks out of the Collar other ways may be found out to raise a greater Summ annually than Your Majesty's Occasions will require without Four Shillings per Pound on the first Excises on the second or a Tunnage Bill on Ships on the last an Act which lighted heavy on the Merchant and left no room to consider whither he gained or lost by the Voyage or whither the Ship returned home full or empty The Methods for Raising Money must be easie when the annual necessary Summs are to be so great therefore it would be Policy in our Law-makers to make use of those which may least hurt any part of our Vitals such as Land and Trade are I mean that part of Trade which is useful to the Publick God not that which is managed only for private Men's Advantage it may be possible to rate the Trader and yet to spare the Trade There are two things which seem to be of great Importance to this Nation and very necessary to be look'd into First The better securing our Plantation Trade so as it may more absolutely depend on this Kingdom than it hath hitherto done this will not only encourage our Navigation when all their Product shall be imported hither but also much advance Your Majesty's Revenues when such quantities of Tobacco shall not be carried thence directly to foreign Markets to prevent which and secure Your Majesty's Duties when Imported plain and practicable Methods may be proposed and the Consequence thereof would be that this Kingdom being the Mistress of that Commodity Your Majesty's Coffers would be filled not only from its Home Expence but also by a Tribute raised from Foreign Nations where it would very much lie in Your Majesty's Power to set its Price I do not think new Imposts upon the Importer will so much advance Your Majesty's Revenue as they will discourage the Merchant 't would be better to take away those already laid and instead thereof to raise a far greater Summ on the Consumer which may be done without the Clog or Oppression of Officers in such a manner that it shall scarce be felt either by the Retailer or Spender The next thing is the securing our Wool at Home and making this a Market for all the Wool of Christendom whereby England would soon become the Queen of Europe and flourishing in its Manufactures grow Rich by the Labour of its People and consequently might better afford to import Commodities to be spent on Luxury I take it to be one great Reason why the Kingdom of Spain still continues poor notwithstanding its Indies because all that the Inhabitants buy is purchased for its full Value in Treasure or Product their Labour adding nothing to its Wealth for want of Manufactures I am apt to think greater Steps may be made in this than have hitherto been done and our Wool may be kept at home not by punishing the Exporter with Death but by apt Methods to prevent his doing it and when a Lock is put on Ireland and Rumny-Marsh Foreign Countrys will more easily be prevailed on to send us theirs These things seem worth the Consideration of the ensuing Parliament a great many Members of the last to my certain Knowledge began to be much in Love with Trade and have often lamented the dark Notions That House had of it for want of being put into a better Light by those who ought to have represented it truly to them Which hath been a great Inducement to me in the writing this Tract that I might set forth the Interest of England in Relation to its Domestick and Foreign Traffick and how both may be better improved to the Advantage of the Nation King Solomon who was pleased to encourage Trade in his Dominions by his Royal Example soon found it to be the weightiest Jewel in his Dyadem bringing him in more Treasure from abroad than all the Tribute he received from Judea The Trade of this Kingdom hath always been a profitable Ornament to the Crowns of Your Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of this Realm and it may be still so to Your Majesty's if the Causes of its languishing were inquired into and apt Methods applyed for its Recovery That it may please God to make this Nation happy by giving Your Majesty a long Life crown'd with Victories over the Enemies of its Peace and Tranquility is the Prayer of Your Majesty's most Faithful And most Obedient Subject John Cary. TO THE HONOURABLE THE Commons of England IN Parliament Assembled May it please Your Honours IT is the greatest Happiness of the People of England that the Laws by which they are govern'd cannot be made without the Consent of their Representatives who as they obtain good Ones from the Favour of their Prince so 't is their own fault if they pass such as are bad Amongst all our Laws none tend more to the promoting the Wealth of this Nation than those which advance its Trade and Manufactures by the latter we not only imploy our Poor and so take off that Burthen which must otherwise
of different Fancies and Stripes and I doubt not our Workmen would exceed the East Indies for Calicoes had they Incouragment with all which we supply Forreign Markets besides the Consumption at home Hemp and Flax are the Grounds for another Manufacture for though Weaving of Linnen is not so much used here as of Woollen yet several Counties are maintained thereby who not only supply themselves but furnish those Bordering on them with such Cloth as answers the ends of French Linnens besides which great Quantities of Ticking of all finenesses Incle Tapes Sacking Girtwhip are daily made thereof also Cordage Twine Nets with multitudes of other Manufactures which Imploy the Poor and bring by their Exports Profit to the Nation Glass is a Manufacture lately fallen on here and in a short time brought to a great Perfection which keeps many at work the Materials whereof its made being generally our own and in themselves of small value costs the Nation little in Comparison of what it formerly did when fetcht from Venice those noble Plate Glases of all sizes both for Coaches and Houses are things of great Ornament and much used which also shew forth the Genius of the English People and for common uses what various sorts of Utensils are made of Flint fit for all the occasions of a Family which look as well as Silver and 't would be better for the Nation they were more used in its stead besides the ordinary Glass for Windows and also Glass Bottles all which find a greater expence both at home and abroad by their cheapness And as for Earthen Ware though the Progress we have made therein is not suitable to the other yet it hath been such as may give us cause to hope that time and Industry will bring it to a perfection equal if not to exceed the Dutch Silk is another Material for a great Manufacture which being brought from abroad Raw we here twist dye and weave into different goodness both plain stript and flowered either by it self or mix'd with Gold and Silver so richly brocadoed that we exceed those from whom at first we had the Art besides great Quantities of Ribbons Silk Stockings and other things daily made not only to serve our selves but also to Export Distilling is an Art so exceedingly Improved in a few Years that had it not met with Discouraging Laws 't would by this time have attained to a great height this brings great profit to the Nation for next to that of making something out of nothing is the making somthing of what is worth nothing therefore this Art ought to have been Handled very chearily to have been trained up with a great deal of gentleness and not loaden with Taxes in its Infancy like the Hen in the Fable we had not Patience to expect its Treasure as Time and Nature could produce it but by our Avarice were like to discourage it in the beginning however it hath still bore up under all the weight laid upon it 'T was a great mistake to appoint Measures by Act of Parliament to the Distillers in their workings Mens knowledge increases by Observation and this is the reason why one Age exceeds another in any sort of Mistery because they improve the Notions of their Predecessors therefore confining Distilling only to Corn was an Error 't is true other things were allowed to be used but on such Terms and Restrictions as were next to a Prohibition had the makers of that Law then Prohibited Coffee and Tea to be drank in Publick Houses it might more probably have answered their ends in advancing the price of Barly by a greater consumption of Ale and by degrees the Distillers would have fallen on that Commodity themselves using it with other mixtures and thereby drawing from it a cleaner Spirit then it doth afford of it self which they might in time have Rectified to such a fineness as to have increased very much its use No Nation can give more incouragement to the Mistery of Distilling then England whose Plantations being many and well Peopled where those Spirits are so necessary and useful for the Inhabitants and these depending wholly on us for all things might have been supplied with them hence only besides the great Quantities used in our Navigation therefore a total Prohibition of their Importation from other Nations who make them generally of such things which are else of little value would be very convenient We have many Materials of our own Product to work on such as are Melasses Cyder Perry Barly c. all which in time they would have used for as the Distillers found their sales increased they would have made new Essays It was a great discouragement both to them and also to the Sugar Bakers and Brewers to hinder Distilling on Mellasses Scum Tilts and Wash a fault the Dutch nor no Trading Nation besides our selves would have been guilty of and proceeded from ill Advice given that Parliament by those who under pretence of advancing Corn designed to discourage Distilling only took it by that handle they thought would be best received in the House which being generally made up of Gentlemen unskilful in Trade lookt no deeper into it than as it answered that plausible pretence whereas were Trading Cities and Towns more careful in chusing Men well Verst in Trade 〈◊〉 't would be much better for the Nation I cannot omit what a worthy Member of the House once told me in private Discourse says he I have always observed that when we have meddled with Trade we have left it worse than we found it which proceeds from want of more Traders in the House the places we depend on for them sending such Members as are able to give us but little Information 〈◊〉 so partial that we can take no true measures of them The truth is great Cities are to blame in this who ought to think none so fit to represent them in Parliament as those who have their Heads fill'd with good Notions of Trade such who can speak well to it and be heard when they speak Trade and Land go Hand in Hand as to their Interest if one flourish so will the other encourage Distilling and it will spend Hundreds of things now thrown away Refining of Sugars hath given Employment to our People and added to their value in Foreign Parts where we found great Sales till the Dutch and French beat us out and this was much to be attributed to the Duty of Two Shillings and Four Pence per Cent lately laid on Muscovado Sugars whereby they were wrought up abroad above Twelve per Cent cheaper than at home and though that Law is now expired yet 't is harder to regain a Trade when lost than keep it when we have it Tobacco also hath employed our Poor by Cutting and Rowling it both for a home Consumption and also for Exportation the latter we decay in every Year but Methods may be offered in Parliament to render those
two Manufactures of Sugar and Tobacco more advantageous to the Nation than ever hitherto they have been Tanning of Leather is an Employment which ought to be encouraged as it furnishes us with a Commodity fit to be manufactured at home and also to be transported into Foreign Countrys I know the Exportation of Leather hath been much opposed by the Shooe-makers and others who cut it at home and represented as attended with ill Consequences one whereof is the making it dear here but would it not be of much worse to confine and limit that Employment to an Inland Expence on the other side would it not naturally follow that when Leather rises to a great Price the Exportation must cease because Ireland would under-sell us and would it not seem an unreasonable Discouragement to Trade if Tobacco Sugar and Woollen Manufactures were debarred from Exportation only because they should be sold cheaper here for suppose the occasions of the Nation could not consume all the Leather that is made to what a low price must Hides be reduced for no other reason but that the Shooemakers may get more by their Shooes 'T is true if they could make out that those Countrys must then have their Shooes from us who now have their Leather I should be of their Minds but it must needs have a quite contrary effect especially whilst Ireland is able to supply them This proceeds from a very narrow Spirit and such as ought not to be encouraged in a Trading Nation Ireland hath already made great Progress in this Mistery occasioned by our Imprudence and should we give Encouragement to other Countrys we might too late repent it A good Export for Leather would cause a great Import of Raw Hides which would be more Advantage to the Nation than if they were tann'd in Ireland and sent abroad thence Nor can I omit Iron which is the great foundation of sundry Manufactures not only used at home but wherewith we supply our Plantations and other Places abroad as Howes Bills Axes Cases Locks Nailes and a thousand such Necessaries the Workmanship whereof adds much to their Value There are many other things which may be and are daily improved amongst us as Clockwork wherein we sell nothing but Art and Labour the Materials thereof being of small value I have seen Watches and Clocks of great Prizes made for the Courts of Foreign Princes Paper-Mills are a Benefit to the Nation as they make that Commodity from things of themselves worth little so are are Powder-Mills also Artificers who bring advantage to the Nation by supplying it with things which must otherwise be had from abroad for its own use as also with others proper to be sent thither for Sales and when Exported are more or less profitable as the labour of the Subject adds to their value In like manner things are cheaper to us when we pay only for the first Materials whereof they are made the rest being work done at home is divided amongst our selves so that on the whole it appears to be the great Interest of England to advance its Manufactures and this I humbly conceive may be doâ—e these several ways 1. By providing Work-houses for the Poor and making good Laws both to force and encourage them to work but designing to speak larger to this before I close this Tract shall referr the Reader to it 2. By discharging all Customs payable on them at their Exportation and also on the Materials used in making them at their Importation for as the one would encourage the Merchant to send more abroad so the other would enable the Manufacturers to afford them cheaper at home and 't is strange that a Nation whose Wealth depends on Manufactures and whose Interest it is to outdo all others especially in the Woollen by underselling them in Foreign Markets should load either with Taxes Here I cannot but mention that of Logwood a Commodity much used in Dying which pays Five Pounds per Tun Custom in and draws back Three Pounds Fifteen Shillings when shipt out by which means the Dyers in Holland use it so much cheaper than ours now if it was Imported Custom Free and paid Twenty five Shillings per Tun at its Export the Dyers there would use it so much dearer than ours here and I think it would be well worth Inquiry whither a Prohibition either total or in part of Shipping out our Manufactures thither and to the Northern Kingdoms undyed or undrest might not be made I am sure it would be of great Advantage to this Kingdom if it might be done without running into greater Inconveniencies which for my part I do not foresee the Dutch discourage their being brought in dyed or drest that they may thereby give Employments to their own People and increase their Navigation by the consumption of great quantities of Dye-stuff and the same reasons should prevail with us to dye and dress them here But this deserves the consideration of a Committee of Parliament to hear what may be said both for and against it 3. By discouraging the Importation of Commodities already manufactured either from our own Plantations or other Places such as clay'd and refined Sugars wrought Silks Calicoes Brandy Glass Earthen Ware Irish Frizes Tann'd Leather Gloves Lace c. and instead thereof we should encourage bringing in the Materials whereof they are made to be wrought up here this may be done by Laws and also by being in love with our Home Manufactures and bringing their Wearing into Fashion 4. By freeing the Manufactures from burthensome Excises which do much discourage small Stocks who are not able to carry on their Trades and make Provision for such great Payments the Distillers have long groaned under them and I fear the Glass-makers now will especially those in and about London who have another load by the Duty of Coals besides the Swarms of Officers to which we lay open the Houses of those Men who deserve all the Encouragement we can give them and ought to have things made as easie to them as may be had the like Methods been used to our Wollen and Leather as was intended we might have repented it at Leisure Taxes when laid on our Manufactures ought to be raised by such easie Methods as shall give least trouble to the Makers Trade ought to be handled gently and he that considers the Expences of this Nation at Five Pounds per Head comes to Forty Millions and the Lands of England but to Twelve will imagine easie Methods may be found out to raise a greater Tax annually then we pay without loading either Land or Trade as now we do a Scheme whereof may be easily drawn up 5. By prohibiting as much as may be the Exportation of things to the Plantations fit to be manufactured there till they are first done here thus ' t vvas better Shooes vvere Transported to the Plantations than Leather so things
made of Iron than Iron it self this vvould employ our People and add to the value of vvhat vve ship out 6. By defending the Merchants in their Trades who export the Manufactures and making it as easie to them as may be To this end good Conveys should be allowed and good Cruisers maintain'd to preserve their Ships it being certain that what-ever is diminishâ—d out of the Merchants Stock doth so far disable him in Trade and then consequently lessen his Exports and Imports Courts of Merchants should be also erected for the speedy deciding all differences relating to Sea Affairs which are better ended by those who understand them than they are in Westminster-Hall where all things are tried by the Nice Rules of Law to whom after much Attendance and Expence they are often referred by the Judges by this means they would see short ends to their differences and not be detained at home to attend long Issues but there can be no general Rules given for these Courts which must be settled according as they best suit the convenience of every Trading City I am of opinion that the Trade of this Kingdom might be secured with no greater Expence to the Government than now 't is at but then better Methods must be taken and Men employed whose Interests it is to see them put in Execution When we first began this War the Nation had many Difficulties to cope with the French seemed to vye with us at Sea whilst their Armies out-number'd ours at Land but now blessed be God the Scale is turned we force their Garrisons and storm their Castles whilst they look on unable to relieve and at the same time our Navy-Royal blocks up theirs whilst our smaller Fleets Bombard their Sea-Port Towns we not only ride Admirals in the British Seas but also in the Mediterranean and yet do now suffer more Loss in our Navigation than formerly we did The French are come to a new way of fighting they set out no Fleet but their Privateers swarm and cover the Sea like Locusts they hang on our Trade like Horse-Leeches and draw from it more Blood than it is well able to spare whilst we still go on as we did without new Methods to countermine them The French King breeds up a Nursery of Seamen at our Charge whilst his Subjects are made Rich by our Losses the Act for Cruisers was well design'd had it been as well put in Execution the Parliament thereby shewed what might secure our Trade but left things so discretionary to the Managers that the Merchant knows not when he receives the Benefit thereof or how to complain if he doth not and by this means is in a worse Condition than he was before the making that Law adventuring larger because he thinks he Trades securer I confess for my own part I value nothing that cannot be reduced to a certainty in its practice things seem difficult to those who do not understand them if we are to Besiege a Town we make use of Soldiers if to storm a Castle Engineers if to build a Ship Carpenters and so in lesser things and yet Gentlemen are thought fit to sit at Helm and steer the Ship wherein is Embarqu'd the Treasure of our Trade who are altogether unskill'd therein on whose good Conduct the Nation 's Weale or Woe depends Thus things do fall into Confusion whilst Men undertake what they do not understand and set the Nation in a flame whilst they injudiciously guide the Chariot of the Sun This makes Foreign Commodities dear and advances the Prizes of Materials used in our Manufactures so that as Trade grows worse Expences grow greater and at the same time no Body is a Gainer The Merchant pays such high Fraights and Insurances that he gets little by Trade tho' he sells his Imports for great Prizes and yet the Insurers complain they lose by underwriting and therefore advance their Premios which is a new advance on Trade and the Owners of Ships get nothing by their Fraights because they pay great Wages to the Saylors and meet with such Delays both at home and abroad that the length of time eats up all their Profiâ—s so that Fraights must rather rise than fall nor do the Saylors get who generally brought home more Money to their Families in the time of Peace at three Years end when they served for Twenty-four Shillings per Month than they now do at Fifty one lost Voyage bringing them more behind-hand than two good ones put them forward Now if Heads well verst in Trade were set at work Methods might be thought on to secure all with little Charge to the Government and hereby the Kingdom might flourish and be supplyed by the Merchant with Commodities cheaper whilst the Insurers underwrote for less Premio Fraights let on lower terms the Wages of Mariners fallen and All got more than now they do our Numbers of Seamen might then be increased and every Ship that goes abroad be a Nursery for the Fleet at home Privateering which is now become a Trade amongst the French must then necessarily sink all concerned therein it s own Weight and Charge would crush it did we prevent their taking Prizes and no doubt the Merchants of England would not oppose such Regulations in their Trades as they saw were to their Advantage or refuse to be at some Charge when they saw those Payments saved Money in their Pockets and that the management of things was put into the Hands of Persons engaged in the common Interest of Trade with themselves This seems to me of great Importance in our Manufactures when the foreign Materials shall be furnished cheaper to the Maker besides if Trade were well secured the War would scarce be felt Losses by Sea discourage the City and the ill Consequences thereof reach the Country whereby both suffer more than by all the Taxes they pay towards carrying it on 7. By falling the Interest of Money this would very much quicken Trade and indeed is the true Measure of it the Merchant would be better able to cope with Competitors abroad in the Manufactures when his Interest did not eat so deep as now it doth and the Maker would be enabled to sell them cheaper at Home if Interest were fallen 't would make all Trades flourish for whilst we stand not on the same Terms with our Neighbours herein we must expect to be undersold every where by them the Dutch pay but Three per Cent and are thereby enabled to Trade so much lower than we can the truth is 't is a shame Money should yield more by being put to Interest than 't would do if laid out either in Land or Trade the first doth not clear Four per Cent the latter will not bring the Borrower Five for all his Pains and Industry when the Userer is paid whilst the other runs little Risque and is a Drone in the Common-Wealth as for Orphans and Widdows which is the main Objection against it let their
Saylors the former are the Sea Waggons whereby we transport and carry Commodities from one Market to another and the latter are the Waggoners which drive or manage them these are a sort of merry unthinking People who make all Men rich save themselves have often more Money than is their own but seldom so much as they know how to spend generally brave in their Undertakings they go through any kind of Labour in their own way with a great deal of chearfulness are undaunted by Storms and Tempests the Sea being as it were their Element and are allowed by all to be the best Navigators in the World they are our Wealth in Peace and our Defence in War and ought to be more encouraged than they are in both but especially in the latter which might be done if better Methods were used to engage them in that Service and better Treatment when there Now I should think if a List were taken of all the Saylers in England and a Law made for every Person who enters himself on that Imploy at the Age of Years to have his Name registred with the place of his Abode and be obliged to appear on Summons left at his House and no Man to be forced into the King's Service till he had been at Sea three Years nor to stay therein above three Years without his free consent and then to be permitted to take a Merchant's Imploy for so much longer and during his being in the King's Service good Provision to be made for his Family at home and a Maintenance for them in case of his death or being disabled This would encourage them to come willingly into the Service which they look on now to be a Slavery whereto they are bound for their Lives whilst their Families starve at home This and the manner of pressing them discourages many and hinders very much the making of Saylors People not caring to put their Hands to an Oar lest the next day they should be halled away to the Fleet though they understand nothing of the Sea I do not think too much Care can be taken for the well manning our Men of War but I would have it also done with able Seamen and not with such who will only stand in the way and are useless when most wanted and this must not be done by pressing but by practicable Methods which shall draw every Man to take his turn at Helm I take Embargoes to be no helps towards it for many Saylors do then lie hid who would appear to serve in Merchant's Ships and might be easily met with at return of their Voyages by this means in a short time there would be a double set of Mariners enough both for the Service of the Fleet and Trade the latter would every year breed more let the Commanders of Merchants Ships on Arrival give in Lists of the Saylors they have brought home for whose appearance their Wages should be Bail and then those whose turn it is to serve in the Fleet should after due time allowed for finishing their Voyages be sent thither and a penalty on every Master of a Ship who carry'd a Saylor to Sea after his three Years Prodict was expired such Laws and Time would bring things into regular Methods This would also prevent great Mischiefs and Inconveniencies which arise from pressing Saylors our of Merchants Ships whilst on their Voyages many of them being thereby lost at Sea and others detained in the West-Indies to the great Discouragement of Trade whereas better ways might be found out of supply the Men of War abroad all Merchants Ships bound to the places where they are might have a proportionable Number of Sailors deliver'd them by the Admiralty to be carried out Gratis for their Use and Service and this would prevent another Mischief too often practised abroad where Captains of Men of War press Saylors from one Merchants Ship only that they may make profit by selling them to another It 's supposed that no Trade raises more Seamen than that of Coals from Newcastle which imploys many Hundreds of Ships to supply the City of London and other Ports of England and being a home Trade doth thereby breed and encourage Saylors more than long Voyages would do To come now to the Trade which England drives with Foreign Countrys here 't is necessary to enquire how each doth encourage our Product and Manufactures how our Navigation what Commodities we receive in Returns and how the Ballance of Trade stands in either among which I esteem none to be so profitable to to us as that we manage to Africa and our own Plantations in America and none so detrimental as that to the East-Indies To begin therefore with the East-India Trade which for many Reasons I take to be mischievous to the Kingdom To clear this we are to consider how a Trade may be advantageous or detrimental to a Nation and then to draw Inferences thence applicable to the above Proposition I shall therefore lay down such general Notions as may without dispute be allowed by all unbyassed Persons which are these 1. That that Trade is advantageous to the Kingdom of England which Exports our Product and Manufactures 2. Which Imports to us such Commodities as may be manufactured here or be used in making our Manufactures 3. Which supplies us with such things without which we cannot carry on our Foreign Trade 4. Which encourages our Navigation and increases our Seamen And consequently that Trade which exports little or none of our Product or Manufactures nor supplies us with things necessary to promote Manufactures at home or carry on our Trade abroad nor encourages Navigation cannot be supposed to be advantageous to this Kingdom especially when it s Imports hinder the consumption of our own Manufactures and more especially when those Imports are chiefly the purchase of our Bullion or Treasure And because I would be rightly understood in my third Proposition I mean those Commodities without which we are not able to fit out our Ships for a Foreign Trade such as are Pitch Tar Hemp Sail-Cloth Masts Timber and such like These are so absolutely necessary that we must have them though purchased for Bullion as being the chief Hinges whereon Trade turns and the Tools by which we Mechannically navigate our Ships those Bulky Mediums of Foreign Trade but for those things which are Imported only in order to be Exported again as Commodities to trade on these cannot be so advantageous to this Kingdom as they may be to the Dutch who having little Land are maintained rather by Buying and Selling than Manufacturing whereas England being a large spot of Ground and having a great Product of its own besides what comes from our Plantations capable to be wrought up or manufactured here gets by the Imployment of its People therefore it would be the great Wisdom of our Government to regulate all Foreign Trades by such Methods as may best make then useful
former failed the last is thought to have gotten little considering the long time they have been a Monopoly and what Advantage the new Fund will make Time must shew the Tricks used to engage Men therein causes me to doubt whither 't will answer the Expectations of the Subscribers On the whole let us consider what Arguments can be offered to the Wisdom of the Nation to limit this Trade to an exclusive Company as was desired or as in truth it is to turn it into a Monopoly by Law a thing very contrary to the Genius of the People of England and seems to barr the Freedom and Liberty of the Subject Were Monopolies to be allowed it must certainly be in One of these three Respects 1. That we might put off our own Commodities to other Nations in Barter for those we received from them 2. That we might keep down the Prices of their Commodities whilst we advanced our own 3. That as the Consequence of these two we might encourage our Manufacturers at home and furnish Foreign Commodities cheap But when a Monopoly shall cause quite different Effects it 's not to be allow'd on any Terms As for the first the East-India Company takes off little of our Manufactures nor do I think the Trade will admit it for I cannot see how that Nation can be supplied with Manufactures hence fit for their Wearing answerable in Price to their own except they were a Luxurious People who cared not what they gave to please their Fancies which I do not take them to be but generally very Provident for if we consider that when the East-India Company hath brought their Calicoes and Silks hither with great Charges and sold them at an extraordinary advance they find vent by their cheapness how can we believe that any of our Manufactures can afford them a profit in India where they must be sold suitable in price to the others first cost and therefore 't would not be amiss if the Government were put on making a narrow Inquiry whither the Company do boná fide export so much of the Product and Manufactures of rhis Kingdom and land them in India as they are obliged to do by their Charter elfe many ways may be found out to evade it and the Nation be deprived of the only Advantage expected from that Monopoly The Dutch and we deal not thither on the same Terms their Manufactures are small and so no Matter what they Trade on besides their Settlements in the East-Indies are so great that what they bring thence may almost be called their own Product whereof by monopolizing that Trade they make greater Prices in Europe which being chiefly spent either in Foreign Markets or by Temporary Residents brings them more Profit They have also great Advantages above us in their East-India Trade being possest of the whole Traffick to Japan whither they carry Cloth Lead and other Commodities from Holland Calicoes Spices c. from India which they sell for Gold and Silver increasing thereby their Bullion as we diminish ours Besides their East-India Company is not settled on such a narrow Foundation as ours which being limited to one City exclusive of all others sells their Commodities for greater Advance than any other Traders whither we consider their Risque or the time they are out of their Money which should be the standing Rules in Trade Nor can it be otherwise whilst they remain a Company the Charges both abroad and at home being much more than when manag'd by private Stocks besides the affected Grandeur in all which must be paid by the Nation whereon I take that Monopoly to be a Tax so far as it might be supply'd with them on cheaper Terms if the Trade were laid more open by a Regulation I know there is much talk'd by the Company about Forts Castles and Soldiers to defend their Interests in India but I cannot see the use of them for either they are thereby defended against the Natives or the Dutch their Competitors the former have no reason to quarrel with them for bringing them a Trade so highly their Advantage as the purchasing their Product and Manufactures with Money especially if they pay for what they buy And as for their Competitors the Dutch if they were not better defended against them by our Fleets at home and the Protection of the Princes they trade with than by all the Force they have there the Trade had been but ill-secured and must have sunk long ago Only those great Words serve to hold us amused whilst their Guineas in the two last Reigns were the Support of their Charter One thing which I aim at in this Discourse is to perswade the Gentry of England to be more in Love with our own Manufactures and to encourage the wearing them by their Examples and not of Choice to give Imployment to the Poor of another Nation whilst ours starve at home We will next proceed to the West-India and African Trades which I esteem the most profitable of any we drive and do joyn them together because of their dependance on each other But before we enter farther I will consider of one Objection it having been a great question among many thoughtful Men whither our Foreign Plantations have been an advantage to this Nation the reasons they give against them are that they have drained us of Multitudes of our People who might have been serviceable at home and advanced Improvements in Husbandry and Manufactures That the Kingdom of England is worse Peopled by so much as they are increased and that Inhabitants being the Wealth of a Nation by how much they are lessened by so much we are poorer than when we first began to settle our Foreign Colonies Though I allow the last Proposition to be true that People are or may be made the Wealth of a Nation yet it must be where you find Imployment for them else they are a Burthen to it as the Idle Drone is maintained by the Industry of the labourious Bee so are all those who live by their Dependance on others as Players Ale-Houses-keepers Common-Fidlers and such like but more particularly Beggars who never set themselves to work It s my Opinion that our Plantations are an Advantage to this Kingdom and I doubt not but 't will appear to be so by the consequence of this Discourse though not all alike but every one more or less as they take off our Product and Manufactures supply us with Commodities which may be either wrought up here or Exported again or prevent fetching things of the same Nature from other Princes for our home Consumption imploy our Poor and encourage our Navigation for I take England and all its Plantations to be one great Body those being so many Limbs or Counties belonging to it therefore when we consume their Growth we do as it were spend the Fruits of our own Land and what thereof we sell to our Neighbours for Bullion or such Commodities as we must pay for
therein brings a second Profit to the Nation These Plantations are either the great Continent from Hudson's Bay Northward to Florida Southward containing New-found-land New-Eugland Virginia Mary-land New-York Pensilvania Carolina c. and also our several Islands the chief whereof are Barbadoes Antigua Nevis St. Christophers Montserat and Jamaica the Commodities they afford us are more especially Sugars Indigo Ginger Cotten Tobacco Piamento and Fustick of their own growth also Logwood which we bring from Jamaica though first brought thither from the Bay of Campeacha on the Continent of Mexico belonging to the Spaniard but cut by a loose sort of People Subjects to this Kingdom Men of desperate Fortunes but of wonderful Courage who by force have made small Settlements there and defend themselves by the same Means besides great quantities of Fish taken the Coasts of Newfound-land and New-England These being the Product of Earth Sea and Labour are clear Profit to the Kingdom and give a double Imployment to the People of England first to those who raise them there next to those who prepare Manufactures here wherewith they are supplied besides the Advantage to Navigation for the Commodities Exported and Imported being generally bulky do thereby imploy more Ships and consequently more Saylors which leaves more room for other labouring People to be kept at work in Husbandry and Manufactures whilst they consume the Product of the one and the Effects of the other in an Imployment of a distinct Nature from either This was the first Design of settling Plantations abroad that the People of England might better maintain a Commerce and Trade among themselves the chief Profit whereof was to redound to the Center and therefore Laws were made to prevent the carrying their Product to other places or their being supply'd with Necessaries save from hence and both to be done in our own Ships navigated by English Saylors except in some cases permitted by the Acts of Navigation and so much as the Reins of those Laws are let lose so much less profitable are the Plantations to us The Interest therefore of this Kingdom being to prevent any practices contrary to the first Design it would be the great Wisdom of the Parliament to frame such Laws as may more effectually do it than any yet made I do not mean Laws whose chief Strength shall be their Penalties but such whose plain Methods being capable to be reduced to Practice may do it without Oppression of Officers for I esteem them so far weak as they need the Support of either the one or the other and it were to be wisht that both our Customs and all other Taxes might be raised with less Charge and Burthen than now they are for which ways might be sound out if it were well considered of and then Multitudes of useless People might be sent into the Vineyards of Husbandry and Manufactures Among these Plantations I look on that of New-England to bring least Advantage to this Kingdom for being setled by an industrious People and affording few Commodities proper to be transported hither the Inhabitants imploy themselves by trading to the rest of the Plantations whom they supply with Provisions and other their Products and from thence fetch their respective Growths which they after send to Foreign Markets and thereby iniure the Trade of England Now as to the first part it 's neither convenient for them nor the Plantations that they should be debarr'd it what they carry thither being for the most part Fish Deal-Boards Pipe-staves Horfes and such like which the others cannot be well supplyed with hence also Bread Flower and Pease but then they should be obliged to make their Imports hither I mean to bring all the Good they load at those Plantations to this Market and from hence let them be supply'd again with what thereof shall be necessary for their Home Expence as they are with all European Commodites by which means England would become the Centre of Trade and standing like the Sun in the midst of its Plantations would not only refresh them but also draw Profits from them and indeed it 's a matter of exact Justice it should be so for from hence it is Fleets of Ships and Regiments of Soldiers are frequently sent for their Defence at the Charge of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom besides the equal Benefit the Inhabitants there receive with us from the Advantages expected by the Issue of this War the Security of Religion Liberty and Property towards the Charge whereof they contribute little though a way may and ought to be found out to make them pay more by such insensible Methods as are both rational and practicable Now the means to render these Plantations more profitable to this Kingdom are by making Laws 1. To prevent as much as conveniently may be the Product of either to be transported from the place of its Growth to any other place save England 2. To prevent its being Imported hither after manufactured there 3. To prevent as much as may be with Conveniency the Exporting hence any simple thing in order to be manufactured there such as Iron Leather c. which 'twere better for this Kingdom were first wrought up here 4. In Lieu of all to lay open the African Trade that the Inhabitants may be supply'd with Negroes on easie Terms These are general Rules but not without some Exceptions for when I say the Commodities of one Plantation should not be carried to another I mean those only which are fit for Trade and may be brought hither and be hence disperst again as Sugars Cotton Indigoe Tobacco Ginger and such like but for Provisions Timber Horses and things of like natures they may and ought to be permitted because this Nation cannot so conveniently supply them hence and therefore the Act of Trade gave leave to transport the former from Ireland which hath laid open a Gapp to that Peoyle who carry the first Beef to those Markets wherein they anticipate us and get the best Prises besides the Charges we are at in sending our Ships thither to load which they save Nor is this all for going to the Plantations without giving Bonds to discharge in England what they take in there as the Law doth require they frequently unload either all or part of their Loadings elsewhere in opposition to the the Act of Navigation therefore if a new Law was made that all Ships Trading to the Plantations from Europe should first give Bonds in England and for default thereof be seized on their Arrival there it would be a great Step towards preventing this abuse and then plain and easie ways may be offered to hinder Landing any part of their Cargoes elsewhere And when things are brought to this State that the Product of our Plantations shall necessarily be center'd here we may put almost what Rates we will on them to our Neighbours it 's true 't is the Interest of England that what is consumed among our selves should be sold at
and Experience make us at last Masters of every thing and tho' the first Undertakers of a Design fall short of answering their private Ends yet they may not the Ends of the Nation by laying open a beaten Path for Posterity to tread in with Success where they miscarry'd when all places in England may freely send Ships and be permitted to the management of their own Affairs this encourages Industry and sets Peoples Heads at work how they may outdo each other by getting first into a new Place of Trade besides the more Traders the more Buyers at Home and Sellers Abroad and by this means our Plantations on that large Continent of America would be better furnished with Negroes for want of which the Inhabitants there could never arrive to those Improvements they have done in the Islands the Company having given them little or no Supply who rather chose to send them to the latter because they were able to make better Pay But the Interlopers have done it tho' under great discouragements from the Company and their Factors who like the Dog in the Fable would neither supply those Plantations themselves nor suffer others to do it As for the other Commodities brought in Returns from Africa Wax and Teeth one serves for a Foreign Trade without lessening the Expence of our own Product the other imploys our Manufacturers at home and is afterwards Exported to other Markets and as for the Gold brought thence I need not mention how much it doth advance our Wealth all agree it to be a good Barter On the whole I take the African Trade both for its Exports and Imports and also as it supplies our Plantations and advances Navigation to be very beneficial to this Kingdom and would be made much more so and better secured were it laid open by being formed into a Regulated Company The next thing we will enter on is the Trade driven to Maderas and here tho' I must confess I am in my own Judgment no Friend to Monopolies and have not yet seen any reason to alter my Opinion yet as that destructive Element of Fire may and often is used to Advantage in its proper place and Poyson with Correction makes good Physick so the ends of a Monopoly being truly answered it may sometimes be very serviceable such as are the vending our own Manufactures at good Rates in Foreign Markets whilst for them we receive in Barter the Product of another Nation at reasonable Prices And this effect cannot be produced by incorporating any Trade into a joynt stock so naturally as that of Maderas where by the late ill management of our Factors things are come to such a Pass that nothing less than this can recover it into a good Method the Inhabitants of that Island by the others Imprudence have gotten so much Advantage of us that they take off little of our Wolen Manufactures whilst on the other side we buy their Wines for Money which heretofore we purchased in Truck a Commodity loaden off thence chiefly by the English Nation for the Dutch ship little the French less the remainer except what is spent on the Island or sent to Brazile is drank in our Plantations and yet we are treated by them not as though they depended on us but rather as if they thought we could not live without their Wines prohibiting sometimes one part sometimes another of our Manufactures instead whereof they supply themselves from Lisbon with things tho' not so good yet such as they content themselves with to promote Manufactures of their own so wise are other Nations to choose rather to wear what is made amongst themselves than what is brought by Strangers tho' better in its kind whilst we preferr any thing that comes from abroad only because it does so But then great care must be taken that the Profit of this Monopoly doth redound to the Nation and not only to the enriching private Persons and that it be continued no longer than it appears to be for the public Good and a fair Account must be given that the quantity of Manufactures carried hence do in some measure equalize the Wines loaden thence also that the Plantations abroad be supply'd at reasonable Rates By this means the English being the only Buyers and they having put the Trade into one Hand may sell their Manufactures for better Prices and set the Rates of the others Wines and consequently afford them cheaper in our Islands Thus whereas those two Monopolies of the East-India and African Companies prey only on their fellow-Subjects this would make its Profits on a Foreign People besides it would as it were create a new Market in a place where our Manufactures are almost disused I confess could it be done any other way I should not advise this but I know none unless those Wines were for some time prohibited to be carry'd to the Plantations which would be very inconvenient for the Inhabitants who cannot well subsist without them the heat of the Climate spends Nature apace which must be supported and nothing hath been found so agreeable to their Constitutions as the Wines brought from that Island We come now to speak of Ireland which of all the Plantations setled by the English hath proved most injurious to the Trade of this Kingdom and so far from answering the ends of a Colony that it doth wholly violate them for if People be the Wealth of a Nation then 't is certain that a bare parting with any of them cannot be its Advantage unless accompanied with Circumstances whereby they may be rendred more useful both to themselves and also to those they left behind them else so far as you deprive it of such who should consume its Product and improve its Manufactures you leffen its true Interest especially when that Colony sets up a Separate and not only provides sufficient of both for its self but by the Overplus supplys other Markets and thereby lessens its Sales abroad This to a Kingdom so much made up of Manufactures as England is must needs be attended with great Disadvantages and yet to maintain a good Correspondence with Ireland is very convenient I shall therefore consider what Topicks may be laid down as general Rules for the Advantage of the former and best agreeable with the true Interest of the latter It was a Question once put by Pilate what is Truth And when he had said this he went out again unto the Jews c. which Question seems to me rather to arise from a Perturbation in his own Mind occasioned by the fluctuating of several Interests than from any Desire he had to receive an answer for we do not find he staid to expect it and the Consequence shew'd 't was so for his being willing to do the Jews a pleasure and fearing lest he should not be accounted a Friend to Caesar made him pass Sentence against his Judgment on an innocent Person of whom he confest he found no fault in him Interest doth
generally biass our Judgments in such a manner that the very supposing a thing to be so makes us uneasie under any Discourse that perswades only to enquire into it but Truth is the same still and the easiest way to discover it is by walking in the Paths of Plainness Falshood wants Sophistry to lacker and set it off therefore Men usually represent their private Interests under the name of a public Good and thereby endeavour to guild the Pill they would have go down The Heads I shall proceed on are these Two 1. To shew that Ireland as things now stand is very destructive to the Interest of England 2. That the Methods which may be used to render it more serviceable to the Interest of this Nation will also render it more serviceable to its own These are plain Propositions understood by every Man and I hope to make them out with the same plainness 1. As to the first that Ireland is now destructive to the Interest of England I think it will admit of little Dispute for as long as that People enjoy so free and open a Trade to Foreign Parts and thereby are encouraged to advance in their Wollen Manufactures they must consequently lessen ours than which they cannot do us a greater Mischief being the Tools whereon we Trade when they sink our Navigation sinks with them Now the Advantage Ireland hath above England in making the Wollen Manufactures will soon give them opportunities of outdoing us therein first as it produces as good or rather better Wool and next as it furnishes all Provisions cheaper to the Workmen which renders them able to live on easier terms than ours can here and this will in short time give Invitation for many more to remove thither 2. But 't is the second Proposition which will not be so easily allowed how the true Interest of Ireland will be advanced by such means as shall be used to promote that of England Here we must consider what is the true Interest of Ireland and wherein it doth consist Whither in Trade and Manufactures or in Improvement of its Lands by a good Settlement And I doubt not but on a strict Scrutiny it will appear to be the latter for indeed till that is made no Trade can be serviceable to any People farther than it doth help towards it Nor is it the Advantage of an ill-peopled Colony whose Riches are to be the Fruits of the Earth to divert any number of the Inhabitants from its Cultivation whilst they can find Vent for their Product and be supply'd with conveniencies another way had our American Plantations done so they had never been well setled but much more of their Lands at this time unimproved and this I take to be one great Reason why the English in Ireland have always lain open to the Insults of the Natives there the Country being slenderly peopled in the more Inland Parts if so then certainly whatever hinders the Peopling and consequently the cultivating and improving the Lands of Ireland doth so far hinder the advancing its true Interest Now nothing doth this more than Trade Abroad and Manufactures at Home 1. As they divert great Numbers of People which cannot be spared from Husbandry 2. As they so far lessen the Strength and Security of that Island The true Interest then of Ireland being Husbandry Trade and Manufactures stand diametrically opposite thereto for Trade being of it self less laborious and the Poor maintained thereby living more easie than such as are employed in the Field doth invite them rather to settle in that way than the other this is the reason why such Multitudes of People daily flock into Cities from the Country if they have either Encouragement themselves or can foresee any for their Children whereas few withdraw from Trade to the Labour of a Country Life of this we have an eminent Example in New England which tho' it was the first peopled and by its Trade hath drawn thither great Numbers of Inhabitants yet that large Colony hath not cultivated so much Ground as far less Numbers have in other Plantations much later setled for whereas in them the Product was thought to be their Wealth and therefore the Setlers disperst themselves and with all the Assistance they could get endeavoured to clear and fit the Ground for breaking up these took another Course and by keeping together chose rather to live on Buying and Selling by which means their Improvements are very small and their Product of no value suitable to their Numbers so that it seems at present rather a Magazine of Trade their chief Imployment being to supply the other American Plantations with Fish catch'd on the Coasts and some other things raised near the Sea-side and in Returns bring thence the Commodities of their Growth which they again barter with us or Ship to Markets themselves and here it is to be noted that the great Ballance of their Ttade is Ships which having plenty of Timber they build on reasonable Rates either for Sale or to be imployed for transporting their own Commodities which being generally bulky such as Timber Mackrill Bread Horses for the Plantations and Codfish for Europe great part of their value arises from their Freights This was indeed their oversight at first and now scarce to be retrieved for had they then began with Planting and followed that closely for some time they might in all probability long since have made themselves Masters of a greater Product which would have laid the foundations of a much larger Trade both to Europe and other places in America they are indeed a thrifty sort of People but want Commodities of their own Product and the Profits of a Nations Trade being very much limited according to that if the Parliament should think fit by new Laws to hinder the Freedom they now enjoy in our American Plantations which I judge absolutely necessary because so much abused by their carrying those Commodities to Foreign Markets without touching first in England to the lessening our Customs and discouraging our Merchants here their Trade must sink and they see their error too late 2. And as Foreign Trade and Manufactures lessen the Number of Husbandmen in Ireland so secondly it lessens the Strength and Security of that Island which lies in a good Number of hardy People enured to Labour who with it defend their own Interests and cannot depart thence without leaving their All whereas Merchants and Traders being but Temporary Residents may and often do leave a place when it most requires their Stay for its Defence an Instance of this we had lately when the trading Part of the Inhabitants thereof who could remove their Effects left it soonest whilst the Men of Land came more uneasily away because they left their Estates behind them and had no Methods of maintaining themselves in England but by living on what they brought with them whereas the others soon fell into Trade here and tho' they changed the place were still in their
Employments now the Security of the Freeholders of Ireland is to engage as many as they can in the same Interest with themselves which may be done by dividing the Lands into particular Farmes in bigness suitable to the Stocks of such as undertake them by this means they fix their Roots in the Ground and bind them with a Band of Iron nor would many of their People if Trade were discouraged return to England again but imploy themselves and their Stocks in improving such Farms as they should purchase either for Lives or Years at easie Rents or making themselves Freeholders And as the security of Ireland is lessen'd at Land by Trade so likewise at Sea for which they depend on the Kingdom of England now can it be thought this Nation will be at continual charges only to raise a People which shall vye with them in their Trade Or that we can be able to do it when our Navigation decays which it must do as the others increases who afford us few Saylers towards Manning our Fleet whilst our own are harrast by continual Presses for let them be sure if the French King could have marched an Army thither as easie as he could to Flanders the Lands of Ireland might long since have had other Landlords maugre all the defence they could have made Nor does the Profit of this Trade and Manufacture redound to the Free-holders but only to the Traders who as I hinted before are a separate Interest and remove at their Pleasures But if the People of Ireland think England is bound to defend them against a Foreign Invasion an Account of its own Interest and Security they must be allow'd to be in the right yer let them consider also that we have power to limit their Trade so as it may be least prejudicial to our own which in my Judgment cannot better be done than by reducing that Kingdom to the State of our other Plantations confining the Exportation of their Product only hither and that also unmanufactured and preventing their being supplied with Necessaries from other Nations this will make Ireland profitable to England and in some measure recompence the vast Charges we have been at for its Reduction and Delivery out of the Hands of Foreign Powers and Popish Cut-throats and that not less than twice in forty Years all paid by the People of England a Gvess whereat may be made by this that the last cost above Three Hundred and Forty Thousand Pounds only in Transport Ships for which we now pay Interest and if the Charge of Transporting our Army thither with their Provisions and Ammunition cost so much what did the pay of the first and Purchase of the latter amount unto Now 't is very reasonable the Nation should some way or other receive Satisfaction for its Expences and none seems more just and equal than this which would only limit the Profits of a few Merchants who carry on a Trade to the Prejudice of England As for the Freeholders they would be supply'd with Necessaries on as cheap terms as now and find Chapmen for their Product which would be bought up by Factories setled from England or they might send them hither themselves if they thought fit and by this means all would be manufactured here and Foreign Markets must be supply'd hence as they are now thence This is the way to prevent transporting their Wool for other Places to the Prejudice of our Manufactures and Importing Tobacco with other of our Plantation Commodities directly thence to the prejudice of our Customs and Merchants this also would imploy our Navigation and by its short Voyages make Multitudes of Seamen In short we cannot imagine the Advantages it would bring to this Kingdom till Experience hath shew'd us But then the Act of Prohibition must be repealed there must be free Liberty to bring in Cattle both alive and dead and all things else which that Land produces and here I must again renew the Question What is Truth 'T will be as difficult to perswade the Gentlemen of England that this is their true Interest as it is those of Ireland that theirs does not consist in Trade and Manufactures one being byassed by the breeding part of this Nation as the others are by their Merchants who represent their private Profits as the Nations and it is not to be wondred they have Success therein when it carries so much the face of a present advantage but that the Gentlemen of England should be still fond of that Act after so many Years smarting under it seems to me very strange than which I know no Law in my time hath been more pernicious to the Traffique of this Kingdom 't was this first put those of Ireland on that Trade which hath since almost eat out ours 't was this set them on Manufactures which were so far advanced before the late troubles that the sales of one Market as I have been informed came to a Thousand Pounds per Week for so long as they had Liberty of Importing their Product hither and found a constant Sale when Imported they were contented therewith but being put on a necessity of finding out Foreign Markets for their Provisions this made their Merchants who were before generally Factors to those of England and are to give them their due an ingenious prying People dive deeper and since we refused to take the Flesh they chose to keep the Fleece and either to Ship it to Foreign Countrys where 't would yield a greater Price or by a Manufacture to render it fit for those Markets wherein they vended the other 'T was this that hath produced such great Quantities of Wool in Ireland as have at least equalled if not exceeded England for the greatest part of the Lands of that Kingdom by reason of the thinness of its Inhabitants being turned rather to pasture than Tillage and this Prohibition discouraging the raising black Cattle put the People on stocking them with Sheep which Overplus would again decrease if Ireland becoming better peopled in its Inland Parts by laying aside Trade fell more on Tillage or by repealing this Act the Inhabitants received Encouragement to betake themselves again to breeding black Cattle now if it be true that not the quantity of a Commodity at Market but the Demand when there makes it bear a Price it will appear that the Makers of that Law were out in their Politiques by not considering that the Product of Ireland must be consumed somewhere and if sent to Foreign parts formerly supplied hence 't would abate the Exportation of ours the Consequence whereof would be the lessening their Expence abroad more than it was increased at home nor did they at the same time take care to put us on any footing equal with the others by abatement in the Customs on Exportation and thereby enabling the Merchants of England to sell suitably with those of Ireland but still continued Three Shillings per Barrel on Beef and Four on Pork whilst the
others paid much less there the same on Butter Bread Flower and other Provisions so that a Stander by would have thought this Law had been contrived for the Advantage of Ireland all which proceeded from the mistaken Interest of one part of the Kingdom which were it true ought not to prevail to the Detriment of a National Trade and the true Interest of the Remainer Nor will it be reasonable unless this Liberty be given to bind up Ireland from a Foreign Trade and consequently to confine the consumption of its Product to a Home Expence except what we shall occasionally fetch from them to carry Abroad This as it will discourage the Free-holders there so will it Industry here and the Trade must be managed by great Funds small Stocks not being able to engage in transporting the Commodities they receive in Barter to Foreign Markets which they might in bringing them to England being a shorter Voyage and so consequently the Product of Ireland would have more Buyers and the Inhabitants be supplyed with Necessaries on cheaper Terms by this free Trade than when their whole Dependance should be on those Monopolizers The next Question will be what effect the taking off this Prohibition will have on our native Product Whither it will lessen its Consumption I am of opinion it will not because our Exports must be increased as theirs from Ireland are lessened unless we do imagine Foreign Markets will not consume the same quantities they did before or will find out new ways to be supplied with them from other places besides by how much more charges are added to the Products of Ireland as those of Freight and other petty Expences on such bulky Commodities will be if brought hither so much will ours be put on the same Footing with them and bear a better price It 's well known that the Exporting our Wool to Foreign Markets hath by the ill Consequences thereof abated its Price at Home This hath been observed by Calculations made by considering Men and the reason was because those Countrys were thereby enabled to work up much larger Quantities of their own into various sorts of Manufactures which both fitted their occasions at Home and supplied Markets abroad where we generally vended ours by this means our Sales growing slack and finding new Competitors in our Trade we were forced to sell our Manufactures cheap and this was done by making them slighter and by lessening the Prices both of Wool and Labour whereas had we kept our Wool at Home these Mischiefs had been prevented and the French and other Nations could not have made such a Progress in Manufactures as they have done their Wool being unfit to be wrought up by its self unless mixt with English or Irish must have sought a Market here and been returned again to them in Manufactures which is the true way to enrich this Kingdom This would have drawn over great Numbers of People to be employed in the Cloathing Trade who would likewise have consumed our Product and as these had increased so also had their Imployment which would have kept up the Price of Wool things being of value in Markets according as they are supply'd by Nation 's standing in competition for Trade and it must be allowed that it was not the Interest of England to fall its Manufactures abroad had we been the only Sellers for according as they yielded there so much is the Wealth of this Nation advanced This our Fore-fathers knew when they made Laws not only to prohibit the Exportation of Wool hence but also from Ireland which Laws cannot be too strong on whose due observation depends our Wealth or Ruin now if the Trade of Ireland was reduced to that of our other Colonies and the same Care taken about the Commodities of its growth our danger from that Kingdom in Relation to this would be at an end when Methods may also be used to prevent its being Exported hence Nor is there any reason to be offered why Ireland should have greater Liberty than our other Plantations the Inhabitants whereof have an equal Desire to a free Trade forgetting that the first design of their Settlement was to advance the Interest of England against whom no Arguments can be used which will not equally hold good against Ireland 1. As it was settled by Colonies spared from England 2. As it hath been still supported and defended at the Charge of England 3. As it hath received equal Advantages with the other Plantations from the Expence England hath been at in carrying on Wars Abroad and Revolutions at Home And on this last there is greater Reason against Ireland than any of the rest we having lately paid more Money for the Purchase of that Trade than the Profits thereof may bring to us and our Posterities for many Generations so that 't would be a piece of great Ingratitude for the Free-holders of Ireland unwillingly to submit to any thing whereby the Interest of England may be advanced to the Inhabitants whereof they are indebted for their Lands who have laid down their Lives and spent their Treasures to reinstate them in their Possessions As for Corn Fish and Horses whither a Liberty may not be allowed to transport them thence direct for other Markets on Ships first entring here in England is a point worth serious Consideration But the main objection as to England is yet behind a great part of the Gentlemen of this Kingdom thinking it will sink the Rents of their Lands if Irish Cattle are admitted to be brought over alive others that the Importation of Provisions thence will fall the Price of our own and though in the former they do not so generally agree differing according as their Lands are Scituated and proper for Breeding or Feeding yet in the latter they more unanimously consent and cry out This is the great Diana of the Ephesians the less Provisions are brought in the more our own will be expended whereas if they did impartially consider they would find it an empty Idol Nothing will advance their Lands like Trade and Manufactures therefore what-ever turns the Stream of these elswhere lessens the Number of Inhabitants who should consume their Provisions and when those increase so do the others which besides a home consumption by People engaged in Imployments distinct from Husbandry doth always invite many Foreigners hither who being Temporary Residents spend our Product it being a sure Maxim that where the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together Besides when the Irish Provisions are broughr hither those Markets which were supply'd with them thence before will then have them hence tho' perhaps at dearer Rates and with them great Quantities of our own No Man can imagine what Expence there would be of English Cattle were we once fallen into the Trade of making Provisions here England as well in its Beef as Manufactures exceeding all other Countrys with this farther Advantage that the former for Goodness and Price cannot be
supplied from any other place save Ireland nor do I suppose it so much the Interest of this Kingdom when Provisions are advanced only by a Home Expence as when 't is done by a Foreign Export the first makes particular Men grow Rich by preying on their Neighbours but the Nation grows Rich by the latter when we vend them abroad at good Prices nor would our Plantations which now take off the greatest part of the Cattle slaughter'd in Ireland spend one Barrel less if kill'd here All Trade had a beginning occasioned by some lucky Accident which put People on new Projects and why England which hath so many Plantations depending on it should suspect a consumption for its Cattle I cannot imagine we might then set the Rates of Provisions there and the Merchants afford to give better Prices for them here when they shall load them at Home and save the Charges of going to Ireland without fear of having their early Markets forestall'd thence and the Planters being now grown rich are likewise able to give greater Rates for them than they could at their first Settlement England had never a fairer Opportunity of making an Entry on this Trade than now it hath which would soon consume great Numbers of Cattle and consequently give Encouragement to our Breeding Countrys as well as the Feeding But if a Manufactury is thought fit for Ireland and its Circumstances will admit thereof let that of Linnen be encouraged this may draw over Multitudes of French Resuges and put them upon an Imployment wherewith they were formerly acquainted which we must assist by the benefit of Importation Custom free and the Advantage of Fashion and then these two Kingdoms encouraging different Manufactures will be serviceable to each other for which Stocks would not be wanting even from the People of England who would delight to see Ireland thrive when their Manufactures crost not ours This would in time alter the Ballance of our Trade with France when we shall send thither more Woollen and receive thence less Linnen If the wisdom of the Parliament shall think fit by these or any other Methods to make Ireland more serviceable to the Trade of England it will advance both the Lands and Traffick of this Kingdom and so make us all better able to pay the Charge of this long and expensive War I shall next say something to the Trade of Scotland which hath formerly consumed more of our Woollen Manufactures than now it doth since that Nation is fallen on making them there which they do out of their own Wool with the help of what they get from us also of Spanish both from hence and from Holland But their chief Manufactures are Linnen Butter and Herrings 't were to be wish'd the former was more encouraged by this Government with Liberty to bring it hither Custom free provided they would send us also their Wool and then our Manufactures would not justle with each other King James the II. limited their Trade to his Pleasure by Act of Parliament which I take to be a great reason why that People were so much at his Devotion but the Liberty of a free Trade was made one of the Terms whereon his present Majesty received the Crown who hath since given them Encouragement to settle Plantations abroad such as they shall either plant or buy from Foreign Princes which he hath promised to enfranchise with the same Rights and Priviledges he doth grant in like Cases to the Subjects of his other Dominions They have also fallen lately on the thoughts of Codd-Fishing whereof they have great shoals about their Coasts which formerly they used to pickle and send away in Casks but now intend to cure after the manner 't is done in Newfoundland And doubtless these three things would much encourage Trade had they Stocks to manage them but those they want I have heard it discours'd that the Cash of that Kingdom amounted to One Million of Pounds Sterling but I scarce believe it does to One Half perhaps not one Third which properly belongs to its Inhabitants therefore they propose to carry on the Woollen Manufactures Plantations and Fishery by English Stocks the two last by Companies which will consist chiefly of Londoners who first promoted the Designs and will furnish Monies for managing them Now I cannot think any Nation can settle Plantations abroad to advantage which wants Stock and Manufactures of its own to supply them the great Profit of Plantations being to encourage Manufactures at Home and the means to settle them is by giving long Credits to the Planters abroad and when this is done by Money taken up at Interest from another Nation the whole Profit will redound to the Lenders so that the Scotch may make Settlements abroad but if neither the Stock nor Manufactures are their own they will have only the name of being Proprietors whilst others carry away the Profits like a Gentleman who pays as much for Interest yearly as the Rents of his Lands bring in he may have the Possession but the Userer has the Income of his Estate so for their Fishing which being managed on English Stocks will bring them only so much as shall pay for the labour of those imployed about it The same for their Woollen Manufactures On the other side if the Trade to these Plantations is driven by an English Corporation the Scotch indeed will get Imployments for their Saylors but all the Product will be other Men's who will take care for their own advantage to keep the Planters poor abroad and the Inhabitants from inspecting into it at home Besides that Kingdom being now supplied from England with West-India Commodities at cheaper Rates than they can expect to raise them will want vent for their new Product when brought Home unless absolutely prohibited to be imported thither from hence which will be a new Tax on the Spender paid only to a Foreign Monopoly neither can they Export them to sell on equal Terms with the English so that on the whole I cannot see what advantage the Scotch can make at this time of day by setling Plantations which if they do attempt we must besure to take care of Ireland and by reducing it to the terms of a Colony prevent their selling the Product there which I am apt to think is the main thing they aim at The Canary Trade brings us nothing but what we consume and takes from us little of our Product or Manufactures we chiefly purchase those Wines for Money therefore if it was reduced to the same Terms I have proposed for Maderas it would do very well By this means we should at least buy Wines cheaper there and then their Prices must be limited at Home both on the Importer and Retailer 't will be convenient to regulate this Trade but not to discourage it for since we must drink Wines 't were better we had them from the Spaniard than the French the first takes off much of our Manufactures the other
little and tho' perhaps the Canary Islands may not yet I am apt to think those Wines are paid for out of what we send to the Continent of Spain This brings me to the Spanish Trade which I take to be very profitable to this Kingdom as it vents much of our Product and Manufactures and supplies us with many things necessary to be used in making the latter I shall divide it into three parts Spain Biscay and Flanders To begin with Spain by which I mean that part from the Bay of Cadiz Eastward into the Streights of Gibralter whither we send all sorts of Woollen Manufactures Lead Fish Tin Silk and Worsted Stockings Butter Tobacco Ginger Leather Bees-Wax and in Returns we have some things fit only for Consumption such as are Fruit and Wines others for our Manufactures such as are Oyl Cochineal Indigo Anato Barilia with some Salt but the greatest part is made in Bullion both Gold and Silver with which this part of the Kingdom abounds being supplied therewith from their large Empires on the Main of America whither they again Export much of the Goods we carry thither The Spaniards are a Stately People not much given to Trade or Manufactures themselves therefore the first they drive on such Chargeable and Dilatory terms both for their Ships and Ways of Navigation that other trading Nations such as the English French Dutch and Genoese take advantage thereby only that to the West-Indies is on strict Penalties reserved to themselves but having no Manufactures of their own the Profit thereof Returns very much to those who furnish them indeed of late they have made a small beginning on Bayes but will not be able to hold it when the War is ended Nor have they so well secured the West-Indies but that it is very plentifully supply'd by us with Manufactures and many other things from Jamaica which is accompanied with greater Advantage than when sent first to Cadiz for whereas we generally sold them there at Twenty per Cent advance we do by this Means make at least Cent per Cent all paid for in Bullion which adds to the Wealth of the Nation this I take to be the true Reason why our Vent for them at Cadiz is lessened because we supply New-Spain direct with those things they used to have thence before By Biscay I mean all that part under the Spanish Government which lies in the Bay of that Name the Commodities we send thither are generally the same likewise formerly great Quantities of Refined Sugars till we gave the French and Dutch leave to undermine us partly by the Advantages they had by the late Imposition on Muscovadoes and partly by the Imprudence and ill Management of our Sugar-Bakers who would not take Pains to comply with the humours of that People as the others did but I hope if due care be taken that profitable Trade may be recovered again The Commodities we have thence are very advantageous such as Sheeps Wool Iron and Bullion whereof the first is the best as being the subject Matter of a great Manufacture which could we secure wholly to our selves tho' it cost all Bullion 't would be of great Advantage to the Nation but both the Dutch and French come in for their Shares The third part of our Spanish Trade is that to Flanders whereby I mean all that part of the low Countrys now under its Government whither we send Commodities much of the same nature with those we send to the other Parts tho' not in so great Quantities and among our Woollen Manufactures more course Medlys also Coals from Newcastle but not so much Leather being supplied freely with raw Hides from Ireland which are tann'd there This might be prevented were that Kingdom reduced to the State of a Colony and the Profit thereof would then return hither We have thence Linnens Thread and other things which are used at home and shipp'd off to the Plantations The next is the Trade we drive to the Kingdom of Portugal where we vend much of our Product and Manufactures little different in their Kinds from what is sent to Spain and from thence we have in Returns Bullion Salt Oyl Woad and Wines of the latter we have lately imported great Quantities which as they take well with the People of England so it s more our Interest than to have them from France whence our Imports are more than our Exports and to this Kingdom our Exports are greater than the Product thereof can make us Returns especially since we have desisted from bringing home their Sugars a Commodity wherewith we are more advantageously supplyed from our own Plantations and did before the War furnish Foreign Markets cheaper than they could This People were formerly the great Navigators of the World to whom we are indebted for their many Discoveries both in the East and West-Indies besides the several Islands of the Azores Cape de Verde and also Maderas to these Islands they admit us a free Trade but their remoter Settlements on the Continent of America they reserve more strictly to themselves whither they Export many of the Commodities we send them and in Returns have Sugars Tobacco with some other things which are again Transported to the European Markets tho' little of them hither Their Islands we supply direct from England with our Manufactures and from the Azores load Corn Woad some Sugars Wines and Bullion all received in Barter for them but chiefly the first which we carry to Maderas where 't is again Barter'd for Wines shipp'd thence to our Plantations in America in all these the Inhabitants live well and are very rich but those residing on the Cape de Verd Islands are generally a poor despicable People made up of Negroes Molattoes and such like who having but little Product to give in Returns are therefore but meanly supplyed with Commodities and those very ordinary so that they have scarce wherewith to cover themselves much less for Luxury Asses Bieves and Salt being all we have from them which we generally carry to our Plantations in America Beife might be made very cheap there could it be saved being purchased for little and Salt for less but the Climate will not admit it the chief of which Islands is St. Jago very rich well governed and a Bishops Sea where they are well supplied because they have Money to pay for what they buy The Portugueze as they are now become bad Navigators so they are not great Manufacturers some sorts of course Cloth they do make and did once attempt Bayes for which they drew over some of our Workmen but it soon came to an end and they returned home again by Encouragements given them hence so prudent a thing it is to stop an Evil in the beginning Since this War they have had great Advantages in their Navigation for being engaged on neither side they have by that means drawn Imployments from all Lisbon hath also been as it were a free Port for
viz. That both our Product and Manufactures may be carried on to advantage without running down the labour of the Poor As for the first our Product I am of opinion that the running down the Labour of the Poor is no advantage to it nor is it the Interest of England to do it nor can the People of England live on such low Wages as they do in other Countrys for we must consider that Wages must bear a Rate in all Nations according to the prices of Provisions where Wheat is sold for One Shilling per Bushel and all things suitably a labouring Man may work for Three Pence per diem as well as he can for Twelve Pence where it is sold for Four Shillings and this price of Wheat must arise from the Rates of Land it cannot be imagined that the Farmer whose annual Rent is Twenty Shillings per Acre can afford it as low as he who pays but Half a Crown and hath the same Cropp nor can he then expect labour so cheap as the other This is the case of England whose Lands yielding great Rents require good Prices for their Product and this is the Freeholders advantage for suppose Necessaries were the currant Payment for Labour in such case whither we call a Bushel of Wheat One Shilling or Four Shillings it is all one to him for so much as he pays but not for the Overplus of his Cropp which makes a great difference into his Pocket you cannot fall Wages unless you fall Product and if you fall Product you must necessarily fall Land And as for the second our Manufactures I am opinion that they may be carried on to advantage without running down the labour of the Poor for which I offer 1. Observation or Experience of what hath been done we have and daily do see that it is so the Refiners of Sugars lately sold for Six Pence per Pound what yieled twenty Years since Twelve Pence The Distillers sell their Spirits for one third part of what they formerly did Glass-Bottles Silk-Stockings and other Manufactures too many to be enumerated are sold for half the Prices they were a few Years since without falling the labour of the Poor or so little as not to stand in Competion with the other But then the question will be how this is done I answer It proceeds from the Ingenuity of the Manufacturer and the Improvements he makes in his ways of working thus the Refiner of Sugars goes thro' that operation in a Month which our Forefathers required four Months to effect thus the Distillers draw more Spirits and in less time from the Simples they work on than those formerly did who taught them the Art the Glass-maker hath fonnd a quicker way of making it out of things which cost him littie or nothing Silk-Stockings are wove instead of knit Tobacco is cut by Engines instead of Knives Books are printed instead of written Deal-Boards are sawn with a Mill instead of Men's Labour Lead is smelted by Wind-Furnaces instead of blowing with Bellows all which save the labour of many Hands so the Wages of those imployed need not be lessened Besides this there is a Cunning crept into Trades the Clockmaker hath improved his Art so high that Labour and Materials are the least part the Buyer pays for The variety of our Woollen Manufactures is so pretty that Fashion makes a thing worth both at Home and Abroad twice the Price it is sold for after the humour of the Buyer carrying a great sway in the value of a Commodity Artificers by Tools and Laves fitted for different Uses make such things as would puzzle a Stander by to set a price on according to the worth of Mens Labour The Plummer by new Inventions casts a Tun of Shott for Ten Shillings which an indifferent Person could not guess worth less than Fifty The same Art is crept into Navigation A Tun of Sugars which cost a few Years since from Six to Eight Pounds Freight from the Plantations was commonly brought home before the War for Four Pounds Ten Shillings and whereas it then weighed but Twenty-five Hundred ' taws increased to Forty-five and yet Saylors Wages were still the same Ships are built more for Stowage and made strong enough to carry between Decks Wool is steeved into them by Skrews so that three or four Baggs are put where formerly one would scarce lie Cranes and Blocks draw up more for One Shilling than Men's Labour could do for Five New Projections are every day set on foot to render the making our Manufactures easie which are made cheap by the Heads of the Manufacturers not by falling the Price of poor Peoples Labour cheapness creates Expence and Expence gives fresh Imployments so the Poor need not stand idle if they could be perswaded to work The same for our Product Pits are drained and Land made Healthy by Engines and Aquaeducts instead of Hands the Husband-man turns up his Soil with the Sullow not digs it with his Spade fowes his Grain not plants it covers it with the Harrow not with the Rake brings home his Harvest with Carts not on Horse-backs and many other easie Methods are used both for improving of Land and raising its Product which are obvious to the Eyes of Men verst therein though do not come within the Compass of my present Thoughts all which lessen the number of Labourers and make room for better Wages to be given those who are imploy'd Nor am I of opinion with those People who think the running down the Prises of our Growth and Product that so they may buy Provisions cheap is an advantage to the Inland Trade of this Kingdom but on the contrary I think 't would be beter for it if they were sold higher than they are which may seem a Paradox at first till the thing be rightly stated suppose then the common and usual price of Beef to be Two Pence half-penny per Pound and Wheat Three Shillings and Six Pence per Bushel and all Flesh and Grain suitable 't would be better for our Inland Trade if the former yielded Four Pence and the latter Five Shillings and other things in Proportion To prove this let us begin with the Shop-keeper or Buyer and Seller who is the Wheel whereon the Inland Trade turns as he buys of the Importer and Manufacturer and sells again to the Country suppose such a Man spends Two Hundred Pounds per Annum in all things necessary for his Family both Provisions Cloaths House-Rent and other Expences the Question will be what proportion of this is laid out in Flesh Corn Butter Cheese c. barely considered according to their first cost in the Market I presume we shall find Fifty or Sixty Pounds per Annum to be the most and suitably the advance thereon will be about Twenty-five to Thirty Pounds per annum but the Consequence thereof in the Profits of his Trade will be much more for by this Means the Farmer may give a better Rent
more proper for younger People than for those of elder Years As for such who will rather choose to beg than work let them be forced to serve the King in his Fleet or Merchants on board their Ships the Sea is very good to cure sore Legs and Arms especially such as are counterfeit through Sloath against which the Capster accompanied with the Taunts of the Saylors is a certain Remedy Next for Ale-Houses Coffee-Houses and such like Imployments let them be kept only by aged People or such who have numerous Families and tended by Youth before they are fit to be put abroad And as for Maid-Servants let them be restrained from Excess in Apparrel and not permitted to leave their Services without Consent nor be entertained by others without Testimonials this will make them more orderly and governable than now they are No Servant should be permitted to wear a Sword except when Travelling and if all People of mean Qualities were prohibited the same 't would be of good consequence for when once they come to this they think themselves above Labour 'T would likewise be of great use to the Nation if Masters of Ships were obliged to carry with them some Land-men every Voyage which would much increase our Seamen therefore the Justices should have power to force them to enter such as were willing and to settle the Rates of their Wages I mean by Land-men those who have not been above three Voyages at Sea Young People should be prohibited from Hawking about the Streets and from selling Ballads if these things must be allowed they are fitter for the Aged Stage-Plays Lotteries and Gaming should be more strictly look'd after Youth in this Age of Idleness and Luxury being not only drawn aside by them but more willing to put themselves on such easie ways of living than Labour These and such like Methods being improved by the Wisdom of a Parliament may tend not only to the introducing a habit of Vertue amongst us but also to the making Multitudes of People serviceable who are now useless to the Nation there being scarce any one who is not capable of doing something towards his Maintenance and what his Labour doth fall short must be made up by Charity but as things now are no Man knows where 't is rightly placed by which means those who are truly Objects do not partake thereof And let it be also considered that if every Person did by his Labour get one Half Penny per diem to the Publick 't would bring in Six Millions Eighty Three Thousand Three Hundred Thirty Three Pounds Six Shillings and Eight Pence per Annum accounting Eight Millions of People to be in the Kingdom which would pay the Charge of the War so vast a Summ may be raised from the Labours of a Multitude if every one paid a little Nor is the sending lazy People to our Plantations abroad who can neither by good Laws be forced or by Rewards encouraged to work at Home so Prejudicial to the Nation as some do dream they still serve it in one of its Limbs where they must expect another sort of Treatment if they will not labour 't is true they give no help to the Manufactures here but that is made up in the Product they raise there which is also Profit to the Nation besides the Humours and other Circumstances of People are to be inquired into some have been very useful there who would never have been so here and if the People of England are imployed to the advantage of the Community no matter in what part of the King's Dominions it is many Hundreds by going to those Plantations have become profitable Members to the Common-Wealth who had they continued here had still remained idle Drones now they raise Sugar Cotten Tobacco and other things which imploy Saylors abroad and Manufacturers at Home all which being the Product of Earth and Labour I take to be the Wealth of the Nation The Imployment of Watermen on the River Thames breeds many Saylors and it were good to keep them still fill'd with Apprentices also the Imployment of Bargemen Lighter-men and Trow-men both on that and other Rivers does the same who should be encouraged to breed up Land-men and fit them for the Sea Confining the Importation of Sugars from the Plantations to Muscovadoes would give Life to our Refining Houses at Home so would prohibiting as much as may be the Shipping thither things unwrought give Encouragement to our Manufactures both which would imploy the Poor Idleness is the Foundation of all those Vices which prevail amongst us People aiming to be maintained any way rather than by Labour betake themselves to all sorts of Villanies the ill Consequences whereof cannot be prevented but by encouraging Youth in an early Delight of Living by Industry which would keep up a true English Spirit in them and create a Desire to secure a Property in what they have whereas a sloathful Dependance on another's Bounty makes Men slavishly give up all at the Will of their Benefactors and having no Properties of their own to secure are easily perswaded to part with their Liberties this a former Reign knew well when the Ministers of that Court found an Inclination in the People to sell their Priviledges for Luxury and ease And certainly nothing hath so much supported the Rights and Priviledges of the Commons of England as making so many of them Free-holders whereby they are encouraged to make Improvements where they have Properties and to defend them when made Estates raised by their own Industry and Labours which likewise stirrs up Tenants to endeavour by the same means to attain the same ends a Spirit great where-ever it is tho in the meanest Peasants when they rather desire to live of their own than by Dependance on others this puts them on honest Endeavours these get them Credit and Reputation which gives Opportunities of advancing their Fortunes and if this Emulation went through the Kingdom we should not have so many lazy Beggars or Licentious Livers as now there are nor is God more honoured among any than He is among these industrious People who abhor Vice on equal Principles of Religion and good Husbandry Labour being usually a Barrier against Sin which doth generally come in at the Doors of Idleness The third Consideration is what Methods may be used to provide for those who either are not able to work or whose Labours cannot support their Charge Here I take Alms-Houses to be good Gifts where they are designed to relieve Impotent old Age or educate Youth not to maintain idle Beggars or ease rich Parishes but to provide for those who have been bred up in careful Imployments though notable to stem the Current of a cross Fortune Such a one is magnificently built and suitably endowed by a certain Gentleman near a great City for which he deserves to be truly honoured though perhaps he may scarce be imitated Another way to provide for those who are true
must be eased and what is laid on the latter must be done with great Caution and Consideration things must be well weighed and the Principles whereon we proceed must be sure and solid and then a thinking Man may improve them by well-digested Notions Trade like the Camel will stoop to take up its Burthen but the weight thereof must not be greater than it can chearfully rise under otherwise we destroy it and shall by our inconsiderate Covetousness lose those Golden Eggs it every day would bring us Another thing to be consider'd in the laying a Tax is that the Poor bear little or none of the Burthen their Province being more properly to labour and fight than pay He that gets his Money by the Sweat of his Bt ows parts not from it without much Remorse and Discontent and when all is done 't is but a little they pay therefore Taxes that light heavy on them such as Chimney-Money and oftentimes a Poll tend rather to unhinge than assist the Government by disgusting such a number of robust and hardy Men as carry a great personal Ballance in the Kingdom and may be apt when they think themselves opprest to joyn with any for a present Relief not being well able to foresee the Consequences of things at a distance Great Care should also be taken of our Manufactures and Manufacturers that they be not opprest A general Excise cannot do well for besides the great Charge and Oppression of Officers it shews no Respect to the Poor but they pay more than the Wealthiest of their Neighbours suitable to what they have for though a rich Man spends more in excisable things than a poor Man doth yet it is not his All whereas the other's Poverty gives him leave to lay up nothing but 't is as much as he can do to provide Necessaries for his Family out of all which he pays his Proportion Much like this is a general Poll where 't is very difficult to tax People equally But out of all these something may be taken which may be both easie and practicable and a Project may be fram'd which may raise annually enough to carry on the Charge of the War on equal and easie Terms with little or no Anticipation In the well laying whereof these following Rules seem fit to be considered 1. That what is laid on Trade be so weighed that where the Trader pays he may see an apparent Advantage 2. That the charge of Collecting be on such easie Terms as not to eat up a great part of what is raised 3. That the Poor bear little or none of the Burthen 4. That the Manufacturers be not discouraged 5. That that Summ be not raised by many Acts which may be raised by One. 6. That the Consequence of a Tax be either to remove a Publique Grieviance or to make it pay towards the Charge of the War 7. That it be chiefly laid on those who have hitherto least felt former Taxes have least suffer'd by the War and whose Imployments tend more to their own Private Advantages than the Support of the Government 8. That ways be found out to make all People pay their Shares for carrying on the Expence of the War who are protected by it whither they live in England or elsewhere 9. That the Lands of England be eased 10. That the Revenue suffer not by Anticipations But after all is done when Money is raised with Ease and Equality to the Subject yet if great Care be not taken to see it well laid out 't will fall short of answering the end designed good Methods are as necessary in this as the former and the Nation will be more willing to give chearfully when it shall see the Publick Treasure managed to Advantage 't will be no difficult Task to make its Credit equal with private Merchants and its Penny pass as far this will be done when its Payments are as punctual but then things must not be begun in the middle but at the right end we quarrel in vain with a Collonel for not paying an Hundred Pounds to his Regiment when perhaps he receives but Seventy to do it with nor can the Captains pay their Soldiers to the full when the Money grows less in every Hand through which it passes Labour is spent to no purpose about the Conduit Pipes when the Water stops in the Spring Errors in the Foundation are most fatal when things are set right at the Fountain Head then 't will be time to enquire into the defects of the several Currents Payments punctually made according to agreement would encourage all Men to sell their Commodities cheap and put an end to the Abuses of Agents Cloathiers of the Army and Ticket-Buyers who do now prey on the Publick the King would then have his Money well laid out and those who serve him be paid without dilatory and chargeable Attendances and when the Nation comes to be satisfied that what Money is raised for carrying on the War is justly applyed to its use and managed with good Husbandry the Parliament will give more readily and the People pay more chearfully this will render his Majesty the Terror of his Enemies and the delight of his Friends who will then strive to outdo each other in their forwardness to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes especially when they shall see that due Care is also taken to secure their Trade which must enable them to pay their Taxes And thus I have given my thoughts of these three Subjects I shall only add that what I have done hath not proceeded from an Itch of Writing but purely from the Love I bear to my Native Country whose Good and Welfare I delight in and should be glad to see it flourish and though perhaps I may be thought mistaken in some particulars of this Discourse yet I believe few will disagree with me in the Foundation that the Interest of England doth consist in Improving its Trade Product and Manufactures What I have imperfectly treated on I should be well pleased to see a better Pen undertake great things have often risen from small Beginnings perhaps this may stir up some abler Head without Reflections to handle the Subject â—uller which as it may be useful to the 〈◊〉 so I should read it with great Deâ—â—â—â—â— for if the Trade of England thrives it answers my end and I care not who proposes the Methods FINIS Trade in general It s Original The Trade of England Inland Trade Buying Selling. Husbandry Feeding Tillage Fish Minerals Manufactures Sheeps Wool Cotton Wool Hemp and Flax. Glass Earthen Wares Silk Distilling Sugar-baking Tobacco Tanning Iron Clock-work Paper-Mills Powder-Mills Artificers Methods to improve our Manufactures By imploying the Poor By freeing the Manufactures from Customs Logwood dying and dressing 〈◊〉 Woollen Manufactures at home By not importing things manufactur'd By freeing the Manufactures from Excises By not exporting Materials till Manufactured By securing 〈◊〉 Foreign Trade Courts of Merchants By lowering the Interest of Money Banks Lombards By Rectifying the Currant Coin By discouraging Stockjobbing By taking away Priviledged Places By preventing Exportation of Wool 〈…〉 By making Bonds and Bills assignable By confining to a method in Trade By managing Treaties of Peace to the Advantage of Trade Liberty of Conscience The Quakers in respect to Oaths The Importation of Materials to be manufactured will encourage Trade Navigation Manning our Ships of War Pressing Saylors Embargoes Inconvenience of pressing Saylors from Ships on their Voyages Short Voyages breed Saylors Outland Trade East-Indies How England may be said to be enricht by Trade West-Indies Methods to render the Plantations more profitable to England Africa Made as Ireland Act of Prohibition Scotland Canarys Spain Portugâ—â— Turky Italy Holland Hamburgh Poland Russia Sweden Denmark and Norway France What Foreign Trades are profitable and what are not to our Manufactures The Ballances of Foreign Trades What Nations do chiefly cope with us in our Manufactures Difference between imploying our own Ships and those of other Nations Whither the Ballance of Foreign Trade may be truly judged A Committee of Trade would be of great advantage to the Kingdom Insurance Whither the Price of Labour discourages our Manufactures or hinders Improvements in our Product Cheapness of our Product no Advantage to our Inland Trade The Poor Mr Edw. Colâ—on near Bristoll Taxes to carry on the War Conclusion
Objects of Charity is by taking care that the Poor's Rates be made with more equality in Cities and Trading Towns than now they are especially in the former where the greatest number of Poor usually residing together in the Suburbs or Out-Parishes are very serviceable by their Labours to the Rich in carrying on their Trades yet when Age Sickness or a numerous Family makes them desire Relief their chief Dependance must be on People but one step above their own Conditions by which means those Out-Parishes are more burthened in their Payments than the In-Parishes are tho' much Richer and is one reason why they are so ill inhabited no one careing to come to a certain Charge And this is attended with another ill Consequence the want of better Inhabitants makes way for those Disorders which easily grow among the Poor whereas if Cities and Towns were made but one Poor's Rate or equally divided into more these Inconveniencies might be removed and the Poor maintained by a more impartial Contribution And that a better Provision may be made for the Relief of Saylors who having spent their Labours in the Service of the Nation and through Age or Disasters no longer fit for the fatique of the Sea ought to be taken care for at home let a small Deduction be made from Seamen's Wages and Freights of Ships to be collected by a Society of honest Men in every Sea Port This with what addition might be made by the Gifts of worthy Benefactors would be sufficient to raise a Fund capable to maintain them in their old Age who in their Youth were our Walls and Bulwarks but it must be setled by Law and no Man left at his Liberty whither he will pay or no These are generally the most Laborious People we have I do not mean those Scoundrel Rascals who often creep in amongst them but the true old Saylor who can turn his Hand to any thing rather than Begging and I am troubled to see the miserable Conditions they and their Families are many times reduced to when their Labours are done Alms-Houses raised for them are as great Acts of Piety as building of Churches Age requires Relief especially where Youth hath been spent in Labour so profitable to the Publique as that of a Saylor and not only themselves but their Widows and young Children ought to be provided for In this the Worshipful Society of the Merchants Adventurers within the City of Bristoll are a Worthy Pattern And as for those who lose their Lives or Limbsfighting against the Enemy themselves or Families ought to be rewarded with a bountiful Stipend which if raised by a Tax would be chearfully paid 't is attended with sad Thoughts when a Woman sees her Husband prest into the Service and knows if he miscarrys her Family is undone and she and they must come on the Parish whereas if this Provition were made the Fleet would be more easily mann'd our Merchant-Ships better defended Saylors more ready to serve in both and their Wives to let them go but great care must be taken that this Charity of the Nation be not abused nor put into the Pockets of those appointed to dispose of it Confiscation of their Estates should be made a Penalty to detert them from such ill Practices We will next consider the State of the Nation with regard to its Taxes When I consider the necessity of the War we are now engaged in and the Consequences of its Event the Liberties of Christendom and the Security of the Protestant Religion depending on the Success thereof I think it the Duty of every good Subject to offer his advice in a matter of this Importance Money we know to be the Sinews of War it is that which doth strengthen the carrying it on and I believe there are few Men who do not by this time see that not the longest Sword but the strongest Purse is most likely to come off Victor we are too far engaged to look back and if we do not go on with Vigour it will encourage our Enemy and make him think better of his own Strength we cannot preserve at too high a Rate those inestimable Jewels of Liberty and Property which if we miscarry in this War we are very likely to lose therefore how unpleasant soever Taxes may seem Money must be raised till the French King can be brought to such Terms whereon a safe and lasting Peace may be concluded but great Prudence ought to be used in the Methods of raising it lest the People be thereby disgusted against that happy part of our Constitution Parliaments when they see their only work is to find out new Methods for raising Taxes to whom every such Act seems a new Arrow levied at them by these it is they are discontented and think themselves shot thro' and thro' because that under different names they hit the same Persons again and again besides the great chargeâ— the Crown is at in those small Collections as any Man will see who considers particularly that of the Hackny-Coaches whereof near one quarter part goes away for its management and indeed few of the Projects I have yet seen seem to be the effects of a considering Head or to be so weighed as to support themselves against common Objections their greatest Foundation was Necessity besides many of them cannot be renewed their Income being anticipated for many Years so that for the future new Projects must be thought on and what this will at last tend to no Man can foresee I am apt to think most Men would agree with me in this that if a Method could be found out whereby Four or Five Millions might be raised Yearly with little Charge and great Ease and Equality it must be much better than now it is and this to be a Fund out of which the Parliament to appropriate what Summs they see necessary for every use so that then they would have Leisure to spend much of their time on other Affairs which is now wholly taken up about Ways and Means besides when the People knew there was no new Tax to be raised they would more chearfully look upon the opening of a Sessions and the French King must be exceedingly discouraged when he shall see that after so great Expences we come on with new Vigour and have provided a Fund for carrying on the War till he can be brought to such Terms as will establish a safe and lasting Peace which by the Means hitherto used we cannot expect every Tax we have given being like the Gasps of a Man labouring for Life whereby he concluded we could not subsist a Year longer and doubtless his Emissaries in England have not failed to represent things to him in their worst Colours but I hope both He and They will find that the People of England to defend their Religion Liberties and Properties neither want Money nor a Will to give it The Taxes of this Kingdom are chiefly to be raised on Land or Trade the first