was visible during the whole Infancy of the present French King though he had a Mother and so faithful and wise a Minister as Mazarine The high Animosities of the French Princes and Nobles carried them into continual Distractions and Civil Wars so that had the English or any other Neighbour Nation then been in a Condition to have supported the Male-contents they might have Subverted the French Empire which mischiefs are totally or in a high measure avoided by the Constitution of Parliaments without whose consent Laws cannot be altered or Publick Innovations made and who by their course of Impeachments are a continual Check and Awe upon men of indirect and Ambitious designs So that according to the excellent Motto of our own Sacred Prince it may be truly said of such a Monarchy and its Parliaments that they are to each other Decus Tutamen what would have become of the French Monarchy when their King John was Prisoner in England had it not been for their Estates or Parliaments we have reason to believe That were that Crown and Nation brought into great Exigencies and Distresses by any Forreign Power they would be convened again the Constitution being not there absolutely dissolved as the said De Gerrard Observes nothing can be fatal to such a Government but a disunion between the Prince and Parliament and therefore a great part of the transcendent Policy of this our Form of Government consists in the high Obligations and means of a Vnion the Prince being invested with the mighty Prerogatives of making War and Peace Calling Prorogueing and Dissolving Parliaments and as many others as fill Volumes hath such a Controll on the Parliament that it is generally to be presumed they will ever gratifie him in whatsoever is any way consistent with that Trust they are under on the other side the Parliament being the great and High Council and their Consent requesite to all new Taxes whensoever the Prince on any Emergency desires their Advice or a Supply of Money the People must necessarily have time to represent their true grievances to him whose Princely favour and occasions will then equally call upon him to redress what is really amiss in which Commutation he must have a far greater advantage than any bare Tax he receives since as it appears the true strength of all Monarchies and Governments depend upon well-being Abilities and Increase of the Populacy which no other Prince hath Comparably so certain a means to understand and Improve as he that hath a Parliament To all which may be added that mutual Affection which must naturally follow these Endearments and which must render the Prince and Nation much the stronger never to be hoped for in any other kind of Monarchy There are yet farther Obligations to this Vnion between the Prince and People from a just sense of those fatalities which must follow a disunion we need not resort farther than to the Fable where we have an Accompt of a quarrel between the several Limbs of the Body Natural whereof the Consequence was that every part grew presently Languid and Impotent and ready to yield it self a Feast to the Ravens If then there be the utmost Advantages on the one side and Mischiefs on the other this is all humane Prudence can provide God himself hath done no more in those Divine Institutions which he hath projected for the Support Felicity and Security of Mankind against which it hath never yet been accounted any Objection that they have been violated nor is it any against the form of our Government that it hath fallen into some Convulsions as long as Men are Men there will be pravity and irregular Appetites amongst them which in some Ages and Circumstances may be able to give greater Disturbances than in others if in any Society of Men unreasonable and destructive Propositions are insisted upon or reasonable and necessary ones refused disunions are inevitable This I say in general 't is no part of my design to Rub up old Sores nor will it I presume be expected I should embroil the present Subject by vindicating Sides or Parties let the Consequences of former disunions be remembred But why should I dwell longer upon Arguments to evince the admirable Frame of our Government when it is so unanswerably demonstrated by its former Splendid continuance for near 100 years by the glory of our Princes who in Conjunction with their Parliaments ever were and thought themselves the greatest and happiest in Europe by their stupendious Atchievements in War and by the former ready Adherence and large Contributions of our Parliaments in what tended to the Advantage or Honour of England we had no other form of Government in our Edward the Third or Henry the Fifth's time who Successively found Supplies of English Treasure and Courage enough to Conquer France our Queen Elizabeth since baffled the Despotick and then tremendous Monarchy of Spain which continuing absolute is notwithstanding its vast extent of Territory one of the weakest in Europe had our Henry the Seventh entertained the Overtures of Columbus or our Councils in the Reign of King James or since the wise Observations of Sir Walter Raleigh or followed the example of France and other Neighbouring Nations in easing and improving our Trade there is no doubt but the English Treasures and Power had far surmounted both the Spanish and French at this day It is notorious that the Subjects of the late Dukes of Burgundy under the Constitutions of Estates or Parliaments for many succeeding Ages drove a mighty Trade which gave those Dukes a long Superiority over the Absolute French King till the Dukedom became annexed to Spain and the Spaniards by their Persecution for Conscience and Tyrannous Attempts after Arbitrary Government lost both the Trade and Traders and Seven of the Provinces whom they forced into a Republick Treasures are those Vehicles which carry out men of daring Spirits mighty Thoughts and Abilities into the Conquest of Forreign Countries there is no Nation but hath a breed of People naturally more fit for these great Performances than any other who growing Generals or other Commanders at Land or Sea or Intendants in the greatest Negotiations might this way prove highly Serviceable to the Publick and find business for Pen-men to write their Memoirs as in France they do whereas by the want of a sufficient home-Treasure the more Couragious sort must either be Hackneys to Forreigners or degenerate into Hectors or Thieves at home and are killed in Brawles or are hanged for Murthers or Robberies The more Deliberative generously regarding the common Exigencies more than their own may lie under the frowns of Fortune and great Men and be thought burthensom and dangerous there are many other Disadvantages which follow a National Poverty as hath been noted before which ought not to be ascribed to this or that mere Form of Government or temper of the People That a speedy and Compleat Regulation of our English Trade may yet further appear highly
prevent our great forreign Importation of Hemp and Flax. These being things of so great Importance to the Nation may deserve a full Examination and remedy whatsoever the particular interests of some Incumbents of Churches may suggest to the contrary Lastly we have a farther complaint from the Traders of all sorts of the tedious and chargeable proceedings in some Courts of Justice occasioned by Writs of Error and Suits in Chancery in which last Court many are hung up for seven years and more and are forced to expend much more than the money they justly sue for Our little Courts especially about London are as destructive to poor Seamen Manufacturers and other laborious people where in a Suit for a disputable Groat or meer malice they are easily lead in or forced to spend three or four pound if but thirty or forty shillings 't is enough to ruine such poor wretches and their Families which hath caused many thousands to perish in Goal or fly from their Habitations and Countrey since the erection of several new inferior Jurisdictions Here again we may look back and observe the mischievous effects of private and mistaken Interests pride and humor which I shall not recapitulate but should here conclude this Section but that having mentioned the greatness of our Customs amongst the incumbrances on our Trade I am willing to clear my self from insinuating or wishing any Diminution of His Majesties Revenue nor would the moderation of the Customs work any such effect at least in the Judgments of wise men who have considered it were the other obstructions on our Trade regulated of this Sir Walter Raleigh took notice of very early in his Observations upon Trade presented to King James in these words Of this their smallness of Custom meaning in Holland Hamburgh c. inwards and outwards we have daily experience for if two English Ships or two of any other Nation be at Burdeaux both laden with Wine of 300 Tun apiece the one bound for Holland or any other the Petit States the other for England the Merchant shall pay above 900 l. here and other duties when the other in Holland or any other Petit State shall be cleared for 50 l. and so in all other Wares and Merchandizes accordingly which draws all Nations to traffick with them and although it seems but small duties which they receive yet the multitudes of all kind of Commodities and Coin that is brought there and carryed out by themselves and others is so great that they receive more Customs and Duties to the State by the greatness of their Commerce in one year than England doth in two years for the 100 th part of the Commodities are not spent in Holland but vented into other Countries which make all the Country-Merchants to buy and sell and increase Ships and Mariners to transport them My travels and meaning is not neither hath been to diminish your Majesties Revenues but exceedingly to increase them c. All Nations may buy and sell freely in France and there is free Custome outwards twice a year at which times our Merchants do there make their Sales of English Commodities and do buy and lade their Bulk with French Commodities to serve for the whole year and in Rochel in France and in Brittain free Custom all the year long except some small Toll which makes free Traffick and makes them flourish To this he adds an Instance in Genoua formerly the Store-house of Italy But after they had set a Custom of 16 per Cent. all Nations left trading with them but that on the other side the Duke of Florence by setting a small Custom at Leghorn had brought all the Trade thither Thus did this great Man of his time express himself But admitting that by the moderation of our Customs Rates our present publick Revenue in Customs should be somewhat sunk yet how easily might this Revenue be made good by a Land-Tax or by some Excise upon Extravagancies and Forreign consumptive Commodities spent at home without the least prejudice to Trade Thus do the Dutch raise far more than the Revenue of our Customs and if by this means the private Revenue of our Land must universally rise and the People better be enabled to pay any other Taxes why should the Land-holders or any on pretence of Service to His Majesty oppose it Suppose His Majesty had a Custome of 5 s. in the Pound on all the English Treasure exported would any Man for the sake of the Custom and out of zeal to His Majesties Interest promote the Exportation of all the English Treasure How much this is the Case of the present English Customs doth and more largely will appear Certainly it was very unfortunate for England That when Sir Walter Raleigh wrote these and other his excellent Observations on Trade our Councels were under an earnest pursuit of the Plantation-Trade on which great Customs were projected for so it hath hapned that whilst our Neighbour Nations have been vigilant to ease and facilitate their ways of Trade the Trade of England hath continued under the former disadvantage and is incumbred with new charges and difficulties of later years all which in Conjunction have worked us out in all the Particulars mentioned before and in divers others and in recompence of these losses our Plantation-Trade hath robbed and prevented us of some Millions of our People amongst which very many being or might have been Manufacturers the Nation hath also lost many more Millions of Pounds in the loss of their Manufactures SECT VIII That a Nation may grow poor by Forreign Trade viz. by an excess of meer Importations illustrated by some Observations this facilitated by exporting Money or Bullion the fatal Consequences and Symptoms of a Consumptive Trade decay of Manufactures other ways of living over-stocked fall of Rents general Poverty an increase of Criminals of all sorts Depopulation some Application to the present Case of England and amongst others the occasion of the new Buildings about London of Incontinency Cunning c. AS a Nation may grow Rich and Populous and consequently strong by Forreign Trade so may a Nation grow poor and dispeopled and consequently weak by Forreign Trade nor is there any possible or practicable way for the Treasure of a Nation in peace to be exhausted and exported into another Nation to any considerable and sensible degree but by Forreign Trade This must necessarily happen by the excess of meer Importation viz. when the Commodities imported from abroad and spent at home do cost more than the National gain by Trade amounts to as suppose such yearly Importations into England should cost two Millions and the National gain by Exportations or otherwise should amount but to 1500000 l. the Nation of England must yearly lose 500000 l of its Treasure by Trade because so much must yearly be exported by the English Merchants to satisfie the over-ballance That the English Trade might fall into such a Consumption is easily and highly credible For suppose
the utmost neat gain of our former English Trade amounted to but 300000 l. per An' one year with another then if the Exportations and beneficial Merchandize of England should become worse by 400000 l. per An' one year with another than before the Nation of England must lose 100000 l. per An' of its National Treasure though our yearly Importations be no more in value than before whence it appears that by this means the same Importations may become excessive So though our Exportations and the beneficial part of our Merchandize continue as valuable as before yet if our yearly Consumptive Importations grow to be more in value by 400000 l. per An' than before the Nation must also in this case lose 100000 l. per An' by Trade But what if both the beneficial part of the Trade grow worse and also the Importations increase Certainly this must cut deepest on the National Stock and must soonest grind it out for then if the beneficial part grow worse by 400000 l. and the Importing part be increased 400000 l. per An' value the Nation must then lose 500000 l. per Annum or suppose but to half those values in each the Nation must lose 100000 l. per Annum To accommodate these Hypotheses to England first we may conclude that the beneficial part of our Trade hath grown much less and worse yearly by reason of the unequal cloggs and difficulties on our Home and Forreign Trade And that on the other side our Importations must as necessarily be increased both by the decay of our own former Manufactures at home and by our modern gawd'ry and affectation of foreign Goods and as our Trade from Port to Port hath become more impracticable to any advantage the Exporters of our remaining Manufactures and other home-Commodities must either come back empty or else must freight themselves homewards with such consumptive foreign Commodities as for Gawdry Novelty Cheapness or Lyquorishness will dazle tempt and bewitch our People to buy them in which course of Trade our Merchants may gain considerable proportions of our remaining Treasures as long as there is any in the Nation Nay rather than sit idle they will and do freight themselves outwards with meer Ballast and Bills of Exchange by which the Importation of foreign Bullion or money is prevented or if Bills of Exchange cannot reasonably be had as they usually cannot to those Countries where we are overballanced in Trade then they export Mony and Bullion and buy and import Consumptive Goods which are spent at home which kind of Trade deserves rather to be called Foreign Pedling than Merchandise It may partly be remembred here how much the beneficial part of our Trade may be prejudiced by the loss of 100000 of our Manufactures and what odds the same loss may produce in our Importations since if they get but 6 l. per Ann. a peice it must sink the former gain by Trade no less than 600000 l. per Ann. And on the other side that if a Million of Families or Persons in a Nation do one with the other consume to the value of 20 s. a piece more yearly in foreign Manufactures Drinks c. than before this must increase our Importations to the value of a Million per Ann. which I observe here to shew how imperceptibly an over-ballance of Importation may creep upon a Nation and that the Reader may with the less difficulty conjecture at the late and present ballance of Trade in England It must also much assist this Importing Trade if the Merchants shall export Mony or Bullion especially in such a Nation as England where a Trade from Port to Port is not ordinarily practicable to any advantage for in that Case the Goods Imported being spent at home the Treasure Exported must be lost to the Nation and as long as the English Merchant can have Bullion or Mony to Export and can have a vent for his Importations at home his private gain will never oblige him to complain of the want of Exportable home-Manufactures or the Clogs upon Trade especially in England where our Merchants have such a Monopoly of their Importations on the rest of the People This Consumptive Importing Trade must be of very fatal Consequence in its Nature for first whilest the National Stock is greater it will exhaust the Treasure almost insensibly but as the Treasure grows less and less it will work more palpably and grievously because it will consume more and more of that little which remains And as the National Treasure comes to be more and more diminished the People must generally have less and less which must cause the price of all home-Commodities and consequently Land-Rents to fall continually the home Manufactures must be choaked and stifled by Importations so that both the Farmers and Manufacturers must fling up the values of their Stocks must be contracted and will be eaten out by Rent Wages and other standing charges before they are aware men cannot provide against misfortunes which have unseen Causes and as home trade grows worse and worse Industry it self must be tired and foiled to the great amazement as well as affliction of the People For at the same time Liberty and Property may remain inviolated many Merchants shall grow rich and shall be well satisfied as long as there is Vanity and Money at home so shall their Retailers and Salesmen of foreign Wares such are Mercers Lacemen Linnen-Drapers Exchange-men Grocers Vintners and most others there may seem to be the same Navigation for a time the Customs must also necessarily much increase as the Importations increase especially in England where the Customs on Importations are so high and by that means may cause a reputation and sound of Trade amongst many when indeed such a swelling of the Customs does only denounce their growing poverty and ruine It may be these ranks of men who stand not in the direct Channel of Trade may seem to flourish for a time as Officers Lawyers Physitians and others nay perhaps some Officers may have greater opportunities of gain during the first Convulsions of a growing Poverty since the necessities of men obliging them to be more Criminous it may for a while occasion greater and more frequent gratuities and a more absolute subservience so may many Lawyers get more than ever whilst mens Estates are rending to pieces as doubless did some Bricklayers get Estates by the burning of the City So perhaps sickly men whilst they can may strain hard to secure the Faith and Care of their Physitians with as good Fees as before so some Clergy-men Scriveners and Pen-men of all sorts Usurers and such others may seem to stem the torrent better than the Landholders and Manufacturers whose Revenues immediately depend on the home-market and who make up the gross body and strength of a Nation many of these former rankes of men being at ease themselves may seem insensible of the Common Afflictions but must be gradually involved with the rest And
put on no other Employment had those Millions of People which we have lost or been prevented of by the Plantations continued in England the Government would long since have been under a necessity of Easing and regulating our Trade the common Wants and Cryes of our People would infallibly have obliged it but much of the Industry of the Nation being turned this way and the Plantations affording room and hopes for Men of necessitous and uneasie Conditions and our Lawes mentioned in the Seventh Section posting them away they have deserted the Nation Continually and left us intricated and fettered in private Interests and destructive Constitutions of Trade And thus whilest we have been projecting the Increase of Customs we have fed our selves with the Shadows of Trade and suffered other Nations to run away with the Substance I am assured that the English at Jamaica are now near if not fully treble what they were when Sir Thomas Muddiford was Governour there and then they were at least 20000 whence some Conjecture may be made at the rest SECT XII Instances in late Increases and Excesses of our Forreign Importations and therein of the Decay of some other of our own Manufactures which supplyed our Home-Vses viz. in Linnens of all sorts more dear fine Linnens used incidently of the late and present Huswifery of English Women In Ticking in Imported Woollen Manufactures from Holland France and Ireland In Cordage Cables Sayls and Sea-Nets in Iron in Brandy in Wines of all sorts these risen in price the particular odds in our former and present Canary-Trade in Coffee in Earthen Ware Pitch Tarre Hemp Flax and Forreign Timber bought dearer and far more Timber Imported In Imported Silks of all sorts in Laces and many other things and thereupon our late French Overballance Considered To which Added our late losses by the French Capers and Money Exported to France by our Travellers c. The National Overballance inferred this cleared by a Deduction of our Trade with Relation to the Dutch and French and therein of their gradual Increase and our Decay in Trade Whence the Growth of the French and Dutch Revenues and Strengths observed a farther Calculation of our late and present Overballance incidently of some farther Advantages in Trade Forreigners have upon us IN order to take a right Measure of the Overballance it is observed in the Eighth Section That if the beneficial part of our Trade become worse the Consumptive Importations increase it will sooner induce an Overballance and will cut deepest on the National Stock of Treasure Now it will much evidence the Increase of our Importations if any of our own Manufactures which are of necessary Use at home are lost or impaired in any Considerable degree of later Years because the People must be then supplyed by the like Forreign Goods to a greater degree than before I shall first instance in Linnen lately a Considerable Manufacture in Cheshire Lancashire and the Parts adjacent it was also the Huswifery of our English Ladies Gentlewomen and other Women which general Employment of our Women although most designed for the private Uses of Families did keep very many Thousands of Linnen Looms at work in England and did supply the greatest part of our National occasion for Houshold and Course Linnens of all sorts But all this Manufacture of Linnen in Cheshire Lancashire and elsewhere is now in a manner expired and the Huswifely Women of England now employ themselves in making an ill sort of Lace which serves no National or Natural Necessity most of the rest spend their times much worse or are idle bringing a Scandal on themselves and their Families so that there is hardly a working Linnen Loom left in a County which Idleness and Unprofitable living of our Women gives the Dutch a farther great Advantage upon us whose Women are mainly serviceable in Trade And hence hath followed a great Increase of Forreign Imported Linnens from Holland and Germany Dantzick c. much of which since the Decay of our Cloth-Trade into those Parts we buy for Money Bullion or by Bills of Exchange besides a prodigious Increase of Imported Linnens from France which of later Years hath been estimated to cost the Nation at least 500000 l. per Annum which must now be supplyed from other Forreign Parts and dearer if our new Prohibition be observed It hath also occasioned a far greater Home-Consumption of Indian Callicoes c. bought with Money and the rather because the English of all sorts use more Linnen than ever in their Apparel Beds Curtains Hangings c. 000000 This Importation of Linnen is also become far more chargeable by the more general Use of Dear Fine Hollands and other fine Forreign Linnens of great Value which till of later Years were only worn by some People of Quality and by them very sparingly 000000 Thus also is our Manufacture of Ticking in Devonshire and Somersetshire much impaired and much more Forreign Ticking Imported Such is our Importation of Linnen that at this day an English Linnen-Draper who deals for 80000 l. per Annum in Linnen doth hardly sell 200 l. per Annum English of all sorts Suppose 000000 all the People in England one with another bestow 5 l. a piece more in Forreign Linnen Yearly than they used to do what a Vast Summe must this amount to And this being of so Universal Use how soon may the Increase of this Importation alone turn the Ballance of the English Trade There is hardly any Nation in Europe but hath a Manufacture of Linnen at least for Home-Uses except England from Scotland we have much and in Ireland it is a growing Manufacture much encouraged To this may be added the New Importation of Woollen Manufactures viz. Cloths Stuffs and Druggets from Holland and France of a great yearly value mentioned in the Eleventh Section but proper to be remembred here 000000 And it ought not to be forgotten that no sooner had the Irish learned to make Frize but presently Irish Frize became a great fashion in England 000000 Our Manufactures of Cordage for Ships Cables and Sea-Nets are also much decayed from what they were much occasioned by the late dearness of Imported Hemp and Flax as hath been intimated before and we are therefore forced to import much more of these Commodities from the Dutch and French the Act of Navigation not Prohibiting the Manufacture which is worthy to be observed 000000 There hath been a great Increase of imported Iron from Swedeland Flanders and Spain by this means many Iron-Works are laid down already in Kent Sussex and Surrey and elsewhere and the rest must suddainly follow if the Importation continue which will bring at least 50000 Families in England on the Parish-Charge and must sink the price of all the Woods now employed for Iron-Works to little or nothing Imported Wire hath already beat out our home-Manufacture of Wire 000000 Our English Distillations of Strong Waters of all sorts did formerly serve the National Uses
but of late years our People at home and Mariners abroad have been supplied with Imported Brandy from France and Germany which being hardly known in England within less than 20 years hath of late cost the Nation above 100000 l. per Annum 000000 So hath the Importation of all sorts of Foreign Wines vastly increased of later years especially out of France We have also bought French Wines dearer than formerly and have bought them with our Money Bullion or by Bills of Exchange but formerly with our Exported Commodity 000000 Besides which we have vast quantities of Imported Spanish Wines which till of later years we also Purchased with our exported Commodities at the rate of 10 l. per Pipe but now at about 20 l. per Pipe and mostly with Money Bullion or Bills of Exchange so that 't is Computed that of later years it hath cost England near 200000 l. per Annum in Imported Spanish Wine over and above the value of our Commodities Exported to the Canaries 000000 So even before the stop of French Wines we had very much more Portugal and Rhenish Wines Imported and consumed at home than ever besides Italian Greek and Smyrna Wines if the Importation of French Wines continue prohibited we must expect as much more of these and Spanish Wines as will answer our present General Debauchery many of these Wines were hardly known in England of late years and the rest far more sparingly drunk but our Imported Wines do now in the Whole cost the Nation the greater part of a Million per Annum 000000 Thus do we swallow and piss out inestimable Treasures and contemn our own excellent and more wholsom Drinks which might be improved to a much greater Perfection both for our Use at home and Trade abroad and whilst every one is an Ambitious Pretender to a Critical Palate in Wine and is ready to impeach the Guilty Drawers for Mixtures Molossus and Arsenick we are contented to let our Brewers abuse our own Liquors as they please And as if the English could affect every thing because it is Foreign we have also a new chargeable Importation of Coffee which of all others seems to be most useless since it serves neither for Nourishment nor Debauchery 000000 We have also had a vast Increase of imported earthen Ware from Holland most of it made of our own Earth and Lead 000000 To these ought to be added such other Importations as are now bought much dearer than formerly spoken of before but fit to be remembred here Such are Pitch Tar Hemp Flax and Timber from Norway and Liefland being also mostly bought with Money since the decay of our Cloth-Trade into those Parts and of these the yearly quantity of imported Timber of all sorts is vastly increased of later years by reason of the Decay of our English Timber so that we are over-ballanced in our Trade for these Commodities several 100000 l. per Annum 000000 Nay our so much boasted Turkey Trade is so far infected by the general Disease that we now yearly Export almost as much Treasure to Turkey as the value of our Cloth Exported thither amounts to Of late years we Exported little or no Treasure thither Nay I have heard that formerly we Imported Treasure thence In Exchange for the Treasure and Cloth now Exported the principal Commodity we Import is raw Silk this serves our own Silk Manufactures most consumed at home except Silk-Stockings for which our chief remaining Foreign Markets are Cales and Hamburgh This Cloth-Trade depending on the vent of Imported Silk at home is already considerably checked by the continual Increase of Imported raw Silk from the East-Indies where our India Company buy it with Exported Treasure this year they here Imported more than ever This last Sale they exposed to be sold no less than 563 Bales of Raw Silk 000000 The English formerly wore or used little Silk in City or Countrey only Persons of Quality pretended to it but as our National Gaudery hath increased it grew more and more into Mode and is now become the Common Wear nay the ordinary Material for Bedding Hanging of Rooms Carpets Lining of Coaches and other things and our Women who generally govern in this Case must have Foreign Silks for these have got the Name and in truth are most curious and perhaps better wrought as being most encouraged Of the same humour are their Gallants and such as they can influence and most others Our ordinary People especially the Female will be in Silk more or less if they can though never so plain stained or tattered Whence hath followed a vastly greater Importation and home-Consumption of the dear Silk-Manufactures from Venice Florence Genoa France and Persia and of late from Holland where they have improved their Silk Manufacture to a considerable bulk and perfection This our Affectation and Use of foreign Silks having apparently much increased within about Twenty or Thirty years past must produce a great Odds in the Ballance and besides hath much contracted the home-vent of our Woollen Stuffs and Cloths and Beggered our own Silk-Weavers And it may be here taken notice of as one of the mischievous Consequences of our present Importing Trade That our Merchants to preserve their only home-Market must bring in such curious and serviceable Foreign Manufactures as will beat out our own This Importing Trade agrees well with our Shop-keepers who can get more by Foreign Commodities of which few or none know the Prices but themselves and the Merchants 000000 We have also of late a very chargeable Importation of Laces from Venice and Genoa but most of later years from France all which are commonly called Points de Venice amounting to a vast Sum yearly 000000 Of All others our late Overballance in the French Trade hath been most Prodigious and such have been the Arts to attain it that it would require a particular Treatise by it self But it will be necessary to what I have undertaken to give some brief Accompt of it and in what it did consist and the rather that something of the Variety of the French Exportable Manufactures and other Goods may Appear I shall begin with what Mr. Fortrey reports in his Book twice Printed and Dedicated to his now Majesty and therefore I presume of good Authority He tells us That upon a Jealousie the French King had conceived of the Ballance of the English Trade there was an Estimate thereof given in to the French King whereby it appeared that there was yearly Exported of French Goods by the English to the value of 2500000 l. Viz. 1. In Velvets plain and wrought Sattins plain and wrought Cloth of God and Silver Armosynes and other Merchandizes of Silk which are made at Lions of a great value 2. In Silk-Stuffs Taffeties Poudesoys Armosyns Clothes of Gold and Silver Tabbies plain and wrought Silk Ribbands and other such like Silk-Stuffs as are made at Tours 3. In Silk Ribbands Galloons Laces and Buttons of Silk which are
Britannia Languens OR A DISCOURSE OF TRADE SHEWING That the present Management of Trade in England is the true Reason of the Decay of our Manufactures and the late great Fall of Land-Rents and that the increase of Trade in the Method it now stands in must proportionably Decay England Wherein is particularly demonstrated That the East-India Company as now Managed has already near destroyed our Trade in those Parts as well as that with Turky and in short time must necessarily beggar the Nation Humbly offered to the Consideration of this Present PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily 1689. TO THE READER IT is a Truth beyond all Dispute and Controversie sad Experience having too evidently made out the Proof and Certainty of it that the Trade of England for many Years last past hath been so impolitickly and ill manag'd for the Nations Good and Benefit that it hath been the true Cause of the fall of the value of Lands the decay of Farmers and Graziers and almost the utter ruin and destruction of the choisest and best Manufactories of this Kingdom and the more the Trade of the Nation shall be enlarged in the Methods we now Traffick in the more mischievous and ruinous it must prove to the Nation and unless some speedy Care be taken by wise and prudent Laws to prevent this growing Destruction upon us we shall most insensibly fall to the greatest Penury and Want perhaps of any Nation in Europe tho this Kingdom otherways by its Scituation and the fruitfulness of its Soil and by its brave Harbours for Shipping the choisest and cheapest Materials for the stanchest Manufactories that are used throughout Europe This Kingdom might be improv'd not only to doubling the value of Lands but by advancing our Manufactory so as to command the Trade of the Known World and the Design of the ingenious Author of this Book is to demonstrate the above Assertions by shewing most unanswerably the fatal Mischief that attends this Nation by the Methods of Trade that it is at present ingaged in and giving also the true Notions of Trade as to Interest and Advantage of their Majesties and all their Subjects and that with so much Demonstration and Clearness that the Author would not have probably toiled in so ingenious Inquiries but that he believed could he intelligibly make out the Truths above whenever the great Assembly of Parliament should meet they would take it into their Wise Consideration Themselves as well as the whole Kingdom being concerned in the Affairs and Interest hereof THE Introduction IT hath been the Common Design and Business of Individual Men in England as elsewhere to obtain sufficient Revenues in Money to the end they may secure themselves from Necessities and Shifting and live plentifully And yet it may be undeniably and uncomfortably observed That whilst every one hath eagerly pursued his private Interest a kind of Common Consumption hath crawled upon us Since our Land-Rents are generally much fallen and our Home-Commodities sunk from their late Price and Value Our Poor are vastly increased and the rest of our People generally more and more feel the Want of Money This Disease having grown upon us in times of Peace when no Forreigners have Exhausted us by War-like Depredations may very justly amuse us and the more when at the same time we observe that some of our Neighbour-Nations lately our Equals or much our Inferiors are become so prodigiously Rich and Powerful on a sudden I mean the French and Dutch Certainly these mighty Productions must have some great and vigorous Causes which have been very furiously working of later years and such as have not fallen under Common Observation The Nations and Races of People are the same and the Countries of England France and Holland stand where they did they are not removed an Inch nor do the English seem to have lost their Vnderstandings they are as cunning in their private Contracts as ever and appear nothing inferior to the French and Dutch in most parts of Literature I question not but that they know all the Ancient Languages and Histories as well that our Academicks are as subtile in all the Criticismes of Aristotle that they have travelled as far into the most abstruse parts of his Logick Physicks and Metaphysicks and yet have we still grown poorer and poorer So have we excelled in divers necessary parts of Learning We have had as Able Eloquent and Eminent Lawyers and Clergy-men as ever and as Notable Physitians and the Nation seems to have grown more Learned and therefore Wiser than before by the late vast increase of these Ranks of men The present Disadvantages we are under are therefore commonly attributed to Accidents of divers kinds as mens present particular Fancies dictate in which the greatest part are contented to rest satisfied without farther enquiry whilst they have some Prospects of Gain in the Imployments they are severally Educated to Some ascribe the fall of Rents to an over-great increase of Corn by the ploughing up of Parks Others to the modern Parsimony in House-keeping the lessening of Gentlemens Retinues and leaving off the old laudable Custom of plentiful Suppers which they suppose occasions a less Consumption of Victuals others attribute this and the want of Money in the Country to the great resort of People to London and quarrel at the New Buildings as the Hires and Receptacles which draw them thither others to the banking up of Treasures in the Coffers of some unknown Grandees Church-men Lawyers or Citizens of which they are highly confident for else they say what is become of the money then for the late Progress and Trophies of the French many look upon them as the meer effects of the Despotick or Arbitrary Power of that Monarchy or of the personal cunning of some men now living in France I remember I heard one Gentleman say that the French Genius was up wherewith he gave himself and others good satisfaction Others will have it that the late Enemies of the French wanted Valor and Conduct but that if the French had the English to contend with their Glory would soon be laid in the Dust For the Dutch there are those who will argue their Riches and Populacy to proceed from the peculiar Industry of that Nation and that such an Eternal Toil is not supportable by any other Others to their small Expence in Diet and Habit others to particular Circumstances in the time and manner of their Defection from Spain to their Register of Titles and Contracts and their cheap and easie decision of Law-Suits Of all other things we seem to be most secure in the matter of Trade we have many who taking themselves to be born or intitled to so much a year in Land do consider Trade as no otherwise necessary in a Nation than to support younger Brothers and are ready to thrust all Publique Taxes upon Trade that they may ease the Land Others who pretend to
it in times of Peace but by Forreign Trade And if such a Nation be not enriched by Imported Treasure its Home Trade can only be managed by Exchange of Goods for Goods But if Treasure be Imported then may its Home Trade be managed by buying and selling for money And from hence may the Lands in such a Nation come to yield a money Rent which is the produce or profits of Land sold for money In which Case the price of Home Commodities and consequently the yearly Rent of Lands in a Nation which hath populacy and property will hold proportion with the quantity of the National Treasure and will rise or fall as the Treasure does increase or diminish For where there is an increase of Treasure in a Nation which hath property this will ordinarily diffuse amongst the people by the necessity and succession of Contracts and then the people having universally more money than before the Seller will not be so necessitous for money as before and will have a greater choice of Chapmen who will be more able and ready to buy These numbers of Chapmen will inevitably raise the Market one upon the other as is demonstrable by common and undeniable Experience and Fact And therefore I shall lay it as a ground in Commerce That the plenty of Chapmen who have plenty of money will cause a higher and quicker Market for any desireable Commodity especially if the Seller be not so necessitous for money as to be forced to snap at the first offer And that on the other side where there be fewer Chapmen who have less money and the Sellers themselves are more necessitous they must and will sell lower This must inevitably happen in a Nation where there is little money For instance If there were but 500 l. Sterling in England an Ox could hardly be worth a peny nor could the Revenue of all England be 500 l. per annum or not above It follows then that a Forreign Trade by increasing the National Treasure will advance home Markets and the value of Lands in England I shall admit that if a Nation can be Victorious in War and can plunder the Conquered some Treasures may happen to be Imported this way But certainly those who consider it will rather desire to be enriched by Trade than by War since in the Course of Trade far mightier Treasures may be gotten with Peace Innocence Security and Happiness to the People who cannot be Victorious in War without Bloodsheds Rapines Violences and Perpetrations of all kinds they also must be subject to perpetual difficulties and hazards in the hardships and event of War which will disturb or subvert the Home Trade nor can the Treasure of a People so imployed circulate in the Markets to any advantagious degree or should we have any such Bravoes or Knights Errant as would rather purchase Wealth by Fighting than by Industry yet are these imaginary Conquests absolutely impracticable at this day without the assistance of Forreign Trade as will be shewn But first upon the former grounds I shall add that a Forreign Trade if managed to the best advantage will yet further advance the values of Lands by necessitating a vast increase of people since it must maintain great multitudes of people in the very business of Trade which could not otherwise be supported as will also further appear All which having the Rewards of their Labours in their hands will still enlarge the choice of Chapmen to the Sellers and there being so many more persons to be fed and cloathed there must be a far greater home Consumption of all the products of Land. And hence must arise a kind of Competition amongst the people who shall farm or purchase Land when the Revenue of Land is certain and grows higher daily as the Treasure and People increase which must cause Land to rise as well in the years purchase as in the years value nay the very Earth must receive an inevitable Improvement by their Industrious numbers whilst every one will be able and willing to possess and manure a greater or lesser part according to his occasions there is hardly any Land in England but may be improved to double the value and very much to treble and more This necessary Improvement of Rent and Land is verified in the Forreign instance of Holland and in such of our English Lands as lie near great and populous Corporations And on the other side we see that in Spain and Turky and also in such parts of England and Ireland where there is little Trade and fewer people there lie great quantities of Land which yield little or no profit and hence I conclude That the Revenue and Value of Land will simpathize with the National Trade There are indeed certain Ranks of Men of honourable and necessary Imployments and Professions in every Nation whose Revenues do not so immediately arise from Trade such are Officers greater and less Lawyers Physicians and such like But though these are not placed in the direct Channel of Trade yet 't is very plain they derive their Revenues from it being supported in their Grandure and Gains at the cost of the Land-Holders and Traders who will be more capable and willing to give them greater Gratuities and Fees when their own pockets are fuller and as the People Trade and Contracts do increase there will be more Law-Suits and Diseases and ordinarily more Fees and Gratuities so will there be more Houses built more Apparel made and more Imployment of all sorts for Masons Carpenters Taylors and men of all other middle and inferior Callings And from hence it also follows That a Forreign Trade managed to the best advantage will make a Nation vastly stronger than naturally it was because money and people do ordinarily make National strength Money is necessary for the purchasing of many Provisions for War by Land or Sea as Arms Victuals Ammunition materials for Shipping and many others which being gotten yet neither Souldiers nor Sea-men will now adventure themselves at the mouths of Cannon and Musket without pay whereof the further Consequence is that the Prince and Nation which hath the greatest Treasure will finally have the Victory and probably with little or no fighting For being enabled by their Treasure to keep themselves in a posture of War they will oblige their Enemies to the like Expence till their Enemies Treasures are exhausted and then their Armies and also their Councils will dissipate This shews the difference between the ancient and present Course of War for anciently the event of War was tried by frequent Battels and generally succeeded as one Nation was Superior to the other in personal Strength and Roughness But since the Wealth of the Indies came to be discovered and dispersed more and more Wars are managed by much Treasure and little Fighting and therefore with little hazard to the richer Nation And hence also doth it appear that in the present condition of the World it is in a manner impossible for
diminish from that due respect which ought to be given to Men of Place There is no question but they are highly necessary for the Regulation of the Body-Politick and the Body-Natural so are the Clergy for the Information of Mens Consciences and therefore in every Nation convenient numbers of the people ought to be set apart for these purposes But as far as they are Imployments and intended for private gain 't is plain they add no Treasure to the Nation but only enable the persons so imployed to share and heap up the Treasures already Imported The like may be said of all other ways of living by meer Literature and the Pen and some inferior In-land Imployments mentioned before It must therefore be of dangerous Consequence if the Trade of a Nation run into over-much Shop-keeping or if too many of the people withdrawing themselves from Manufactures and the beneficial parts of Trade should throng themselves into the Clergy Law Physick Literature and such other Professions as bring no increase of National Riches And the rather because these Imployments and Professions are narrow and can support but a few Families in a Nation with convenience so that it may endanger Depopulation and by their numbers will prejudice one another Whereas Manufacture and a great Forreign Trade will admit of and oblige an increase of people even to infinity And the more the Manufacturers increase they will the more enrich one another and the rest of the people It may then be proper to inquire how the Manufactures of a Nation may be increased and improved This may be done either by enlarging former Manufactures or by introducing new ones New Manufactures must be first taught and then encouraged and if made of Forreign Materials the Materials must be Imported after which as the people find the sweet of their Labours it is not to be questioned but that they will throng into the Imployment they that want Bread Cloathes and other necessary Comforts will be glad to obtain them honestly Thus our King Edward the Third a Wise and Victorious Prince invited over the Flemmings to teach his Subjects the Woollen Manufacture And thus have the French Policies invited over the most Exquisite Manufacturers into France from all parts of the World these with their Schollars were first imployed at the Charge of the Government But the Manufactures soon afterwards diffused into the gross Body of the people Without these primary Encouragements and Superintendence of the Government it will be hard to nourish up any new Manufacture or to enlarge any old ones at least suddenly to any great degree Amongst the Exportations the Fishing-Trade ought not to be forgotten since according to modern Calculations the meer Fishing-Trade for Herring and Cod on the Coasts of England and Scotland imploys above 8000 Dutch Ships or Vessels 200000 of their Sea-men and Fishers And the Herrings and Cod sold by the Dutch in Forreign Countries do bring an Annual profit of about 5000000 l. per annum Sterling to that Nation besides which 't is accounted that there are at least 25000 people more imployed and maintained at Home about this particular Navigation making of Fishing-Nets and the curing ordering and preparing of the Fish c. besides the Island Newfound-Land and Green-land fishings of very great advantage But the ordinary Exportation of Corn out of the Annual increase hath been accounted most dangerous and of all others the most unprofitable because of the possibility of a dearth which besides the hardships of it will give opportunity to Forreigners of drawing away vast Treasures in a trice But if a Nation doth store up Corn in cheap years the people will be secure against a Dearth and yet when Corn is excessive dear in Neighbour-Nations may then take their time to furnish them and by that means will make much greater Advantages than by ordinary Exportation And for this reason have the modern Policies of some wise Nations in Trade contrived and erected publick Store-houses or Conservatories for Corn. I shall conclude with the words of Sir Walter Rawleigh in his excellent Observations upon Trade presented to King James Amsterdam is never without 700000 quarters of Corn a dearth in England France Italy or Portugal is truly observed to enrich Holland for seven years after For example the last Dearth six years past the Hamburghers Embdeners and Hollanders out of their Storehouses furnished this Kingdom and from Southampton Excester and Bristol only in a year and half carried away near 200000 l. Then what great quantities of Corn did they Transport from round about the Kindgom from every Port-Town from the City of London and other Cities it cannot be esteemed less than two Millions to the great decay and impoverishment of the People discredit to the Merchants dishonour of the Land c. Suppose then a Dearth or Scarcity of Corn happen once in twenty or thirty years the Annual Labours of the People in the produce of the exported Corn are lost 't is also a bulky Commodity and makes but a small yearly Return and the Forreign price and vent of it is very casual and incertain for which Reasons of latter years the ordinary exporting of Corn is used only by some poor Nations who have little other Trade 't is said the French King hath Ordered publick Stores and Conservatories of Corn. SECT IV. Of Forreign Trade from Port to Port the Nature and Advantage of it differs from meer Carriage and meer Importation the necessity of a Home Storehouse The ordinary Exporting of Money or Bullion of dangerous Consequence how to be avoided The Fishing-Trade and Trade from Port to Port are the Nursery and Support of Sea-men and Sea-Towns The Condition of Ours The National Advantages of England for all sorts of Trade yet hath the least share SInce the Trade from Port to Port will cause a great Navigation and also bring in very much Treasure and therefore if it be added to the Trade of Exportation must render a Nation the Miracle of Riches and Power I shall next consider what this Trade from Port to Port really consists in and by what methods it may be driven most advantagiously to a Nation A Trade from Port to Port may be most properly so called when a Merchant of one Nation buying Goods in another the Property becomes his and he carries them to a third Forreign Market on his own account thus the Dutch buy up Export and sell the French Manufactures and Commodities But if a Dutch-man carry French Goods to be sold in a Forreign Market on a French mans account taking a certain Rate for the Hire of his Ship this is not properly a Trade from Port to Port but is meer Carriage which sort of Imployment though it may seem least Reputable may increase the National Treasure as the Navigation used in it is more or less and may imploy many Sea-men A Trade from Port to Port doth also differ from meer Importation which is when the Merchant does
Import Consumptive Commodities which are spent at Home in which case if the Importations are excessive it may truly be called The Disease of Trade since it must cause an Exportation of the National Stock of Treasure and thereby may soon ruine a Nation as will be shewn But so cannot a Trade from Port to Port truly so called because the Goods bought being sold or bartered off at other Forreign Ports must be ultimately converted into more and more money and thereby increase the home Treasure This Trading from Port to Port does not wholly consist in the Carriage of a Commodity from one Port directly to another nor can be so driven to any great or ordinary Advantage for the Merchants thus Imployed must either Trade little or else must glut the Ports they go to with an over-great quantity of Goods of the same kind and therefore for the full Improvement of a Trade from Port to Port it is generally necessary That the Merchants should first unlade at Home which will inevitably render a Nation so Trading a compleat and mighty Storehouse of all Forreign Manufactures and Commodities and then from this infinite Miscellany of Goods as the Merchants observe their time for a Market and the Ports they go to they may freight their Ships with such sortible Commodities and Cargoes as are proper and vendible to advantage Thus are the Dutch Provinces become the mighty Storehouse of the World the Plenties of the World do grow and increase in other Countries but there are the Stores and thence do their Merchants furnish themselves for all sorts of Voyages Thus they Transport the Merchandizes of France Spain Portugal Italy Turky the East and West Indies to the East and North-East Countries of Pomerland Sprusland Muscovy Poland Denmark Norway Liefland Swedeland Germany and the Merchandizes of the last mentioned Kingdoms they transport into the Southern and Western Nations as Sir Walter Raileigh long since noted nor is a Trade from Port to Port practicable or can be improved to any considerable or valuable degree unless the Nation be made an universal Storehouse In the Trade from Port to Port there must be some kinds of Original Exportation because the Merchant cannot purchase Forreign Goods in a Forreign Port for nothing And one would think it should hardly be a question whether in this way of Trade it be most profitable to a Nation to Export Manufacture or other home Commodities or Money or Bullion But of late years many of our Merchants very much contend for a Liberty to Export Money or Bullion as advantagious to the Trade of the Nation and have gotten an Act of Parliament to Legitimate the exporting of Bullion contrary to many other former Statutes and now Bullion and Money also are become our usual exportable Commodities But I shall oppose the ordinary Exporting of Money or Bullion in Trade especially as the Constitution of our Trade now is for the Reasons following First I shall admit that the exporting of Treasure in the Trade from Port to Port may increase Treasure provided that the Merchant makes wise Bargains and his Ships return safe neither of which is altogether certain But supposing the Merchant be both so wise and fortunate yet 't is very plain that in this way of Trade the Merchant cannot bring more new Treasure to the Nation than the Merchant by his judicious and prosperous dealing and Voyage can Add to the Original Sum he carried out But had the Merchant taken off and exported to the same value in home Manufacture or Commodity 't is as plain that the very vending or bartering of that Manufacture or Commodity would have been a farther Gain to the Nation to the full value of the Manufacture or Commodity exported since the Manufacture or home Commodity sold would finally resolve into Treasure nay though the Merchant gain but little or nothing in this case yet the Nation must be a Gainer to the value of the Manufacture or other Commodity exported As suppose a Dutch or English Ship go with exported Treasure to France where the Merchant buys French Wine for 1000 l. which afterwards he carries into the Sound and there sells it for 1300 l. the Merchant hath brought but 300 l. new Treasure or Credit to the Nation But had the Merchant Exported Herrings or home Manufacture and by Sale or Barter of his Fish or Manufacture had purchased the same quantity of Wines which afterwards he sold for 1300 l. the Nation must presently have a new Addition of Treasure or Credit for the whole 1300 l. In which last Case the Nation gets a new 1000 l. by the labours of the Fishers or Manufacturers besides the 300 l. got by the Merchant if the Merchant had got nothing yet the Nation had gained 1000 l. Secondly In this last Case great numbers of Manufacturers Fishers c. are kept and well maintained at Home whereas the ordinary Exportation of Money must make them idle and useless whereof the further Consequence is that the ordinary Exportation of Money must inevitably depopulate a Nation if it be of any great extent of Territory so must the Exportation of Bullion be attended with the same mischiefs for the same reasons The Exportation of Bullion does also open a way for the Exporting of Coined Treasure without any hazards of Seizure by melting down the most valuable Coin into Bullion But I expect to be told that Hamburgh and Holland c. do allow of and use the Exportation of Treasure To which I Answer That there is no parallel between such Countries as these and England For these are little Territories much consisting of Merchants their Agents Factors and Dependents who live by meer Merchandize that the rest of the people being but few in Comparison of what are necessary to people so great and fertile a Nation as England may be supported with much fewer and lesser Manufactures and home Employments and therefore that the Exporting of Treasure must be less dangerous and perhaps may be the more necessary there because by the fewness of people and consequential restraint of Manufactures their Merchants may be confined in the bulk and variety of home Commodities to Export If it be said that no Nation can be so stored with home Commodities as to Answer all Forreign Ports and Markets and therefore that it may be sometimes necessary to Export Treasure in every trading Nation This perhaps may be true in some degree But this is another question and in the mean time it remains that it is most profitable to a Nation to Export home Commodities where it may be done rather than Money or Bullion and therefore that the Merchants ought to be restrained from it as much as it is possible Then as to the other question how far it may be necessary in a Nation to Export Money in Trade It must depend upon the greater or lesser Improvement of the National Trade For as a Nation hath a more universal Manufacture and
Fishery more Drinks Fruits Curiosities and Delicacies of its own its Merchants will be more and more enabled to Fraight themselves outwards with home Commodities These mighty Stores of home Commodities can only be had in great fertile and populous Nations But suppose a Nation be not or cannot be so fully stored with home Commodities as to Answer all Forreign Markets yet its Merchants first Exporting home Commodities to Ports where they are Vendible may by a Barter Sale or Exchange of these and an eternal Succession of Voyages and Contracts make the Nation where they live a Storehouse to Perfection and will then have the choice of all Merchandizes on the Earth to Export and therefore may ordinarily and beneficially Trade to any Forreign Port without exporting Treasure And if they may they will because else they will loose the benefit of the Market for the goods they may Export Thus even the Dutch originally Exporting Herring Cod Earthen Wares Woollen Cloth Linnen and of late Silks and other home Commodities and having by the Barter or Sale of these compleated their home Storehouse can ordinarily buy at Foreign Markets without Exporting Treasure By this means are the Dutch enabled to Trade as they do to Swedeland Liefeland and Norway where by selling or bartering of their own and Forreign Commodities they provide themselves with the materials of Pitch Tar Hemp and Flax necessary for Navigation and with Timber and other Commodities for their use at Home and Trade abroad whilst the same Commodities cost the English some 100000 l. per annum since the decay of our Cloth-Trade into those Ports which kind of Trade is doubtless advantagious to some Merchants else they would not continue it But does help to drain the Nation of its Treasure I do not say they Dutch never Export Treasure but that by reason of their Forreign Storehouse they are under no such ordinary necessity to do it and in fact Export little or none to many other Countries where the English Trade with much whereof I shall have occasion to say more I shall conclude that where the Home and Forreign Trade of a great and populous Nation is duly Regulated and sufficiently Improved there will be little necessity to Export Treasure To which I shall add That the Exporting of Treasure in a Nation having ill methods of Trade must be yet more dangerous because it facilitates meer Importation and in England is chiefly serviceable to it as will appear If a Trade from Port to Port be Improved to any great degree it must necessarily very much increase the National Treasure and numbers of people especially Sea-men If 20000 Trading Vessels add 300 l. per annum a piece to the National Stock yearly the yearly National Gain must amount to 6000000 l. per annum and so in any greater or lesser proportion as the Navigation or Gain is greater or less of which we have a plain Example in the Dutch who in about Ninety years time have arrived to a wonderful Wealth and Strength by it though they have been always forced to buy much of their Victuals and Materials of Clothing all their Materials of Shipping and many other chargeable Necessaries from Forreigners which must be a prodigious Annual Expence A Fishing-Trade is one great and certain Nursery of Sea-men and brings Wealth and Comfort to Sea-Towns But a Flourishing Trade from Port to Port will make better and more Sea-men inrich Sea-Towns more and will Imploy very considerable numbers of people at Land in Building Manufacturing Repairing and other ordering of the Shipping Tackle and Goods Imported and Exported besides the Merchants and their more immediate Dependants Thus do we see the Towns upon our opposite Shores abound in Riches and People whilst our own Sea-Towns languish more and more And from hence it may appear that for the utmost advance of this Trade it is necessary there should be very much Shipping in a Nation multitudes of Sea-men great Stocks continually imployed in Merchandize great numbers of Merchants and lastly safe Ports and Harbours I shall end this with some retrospect to the last Section by observing that no Nation in the World is naturally so adapted for a mighty Trade of all sorts as England First Because it hath more excellent Native Commodities than any one Nation in the World as Copper Lead Iron Tin Allome Copperas Saffron Fell the mighty Commodity of Wooll Corn convertible into Beer and Transportable besides near 100 others which are capable of near 1000 sorts of Manufactures as Sir Walter Rawleigh observes That it is one of the most Fertile of Kingdoms and therefore out of its own Stores might support almost infinite numbers of people both for Manufactures at home and Trade abroad especially as the Island might be improved That it hath more and safer Ports and Harbours than almost all the Nations in Europe put together That it is better scituated for the Northern Eastern Southern and Western Trades than any other Nation That the Herring and Cod with which the Dutch drive so mighty a Trade are caught in our English Seas upon our own Coasts and Shores and may be managed with more ease and advantage by the English than by any other Nation And to conclude That our People are strong and able for Work at Home generous and adventurous abroad and such as all the rest of the World have most coveted to commerce with and naturally as ingenious industrious and willing to labour as any part of Mankind so long as they can have a reasonable fruit of their Labours which hath been evidenced by many former undeniable Experiences Notwithstanding all which Advantages England hath had very few considerable Manufactures some of which are lost and the rest decaying nor have we any considerable remaining Trade from Port to Port or Fishing-Trade of which there are doubtless some Reasons and Causes very fit to be understood and regulated since the Wealth Strength Happiness and Safety of England immediately depend upon it I shall therefore in the three next ensuing Sections give an Account of such particular Obstructions in our Trade as have fallen under my notice SECT V. That our Home and Forreign Market is Incumbred and prejudiced by extraordinary and unequal Charges and Cloggs in our Merchandize above what are in our Neighbour-Nations viz. In the building and furniture of our Ships Victuals Sea-mens Wages Customs Interest-Money c. with the Consequences in our Manufactures and Forreign Trade more particularly of the decay of our Woollen Manufacture our Exportations now confined to our Importations and Imported Treasure how to be enlarged our casual dependence on the Trade of Spain SUpposing this or any other Nation had all the aforesaid Grounds of Trade viz. All sorts of Home and Forreign Materials of Manufacture sufficient numbers of People and those instructed in Manufacture supposing them never so industrious that there were no want of Ships Sea-men or Stocks of Money Ports or Plenties at home yet there is another
vent of Manufactures Our Manufacturers liable to be imposed upon by our Merchants and by Ingrossers a disadvantage by the Restitution of half Customs on the Re-exportation IT being natural That the continuance of one inconvenience should beget many others it hath so fallen out in England Our Natives discerning the odds of Charge between our own and Forreign Navigation and being therefore tempted to Trade in Forreign Ships or to deal with Forreign Importers which threatned the subversion of our English Navigation and the Importing Trade of our English Merchants instead of Regulating our Navigation the late Act of Navigation was made whereby and by other Acts our English Exportations are expresly or virtually confined to our own English built Shipping so is the Importation of Forreign Goods or else to the Forreign Natives of whose growths or productions they are which restraint hath begotten or jointly with the other cloggs on our Forreign Merchandize hath heightned these farther Inconveniences First It hath given a Monopoly to our own Merchants upon our Manufacturers and People for our own exportable Manufactures and Commodities Secondly It hath given a Monopoly to our own Merchants upon all the people of England for Goods Imported Thirdly The said Act of Navigation obliging the English to buy Imported Goods only at those Ports or of those Natives of whose growths and productions they are hath given Monopolies to all Forreigners on the English for Goods of their respective growths and productions the Danes for instance taking advantage of it very much raised their Prizes and Customs upon us for Pitch Tar and Timber forcing us to pay near double what we did and to pay them in money where we used to barter with them for Commodity the like may be said of the French those of the Canary-Islands and others particularly the Leiflanders for raw Hemp and Flax at the best we are but at mercy Fourthly This Act hath made our Navigation yet more chargeable than before because the aforesaid Forreign Materials of Pitch Tar raw Hemp and Flax are thereby made very much the dearer It doth also render English Ship-Timber still dearer and dearer which must more and more disable and discourage us in the building of Ships for Trade and gives a great and dangerous advantage to our Neighbours in the building of Ships of War so much cheaper than we Fifthly This dearness of Shipping must the more prejudice the vent of our Manufactures made of our own Materials and disable us in the Trade from Port to Port for the Reasons in the last Section Sixthly The same dearness of Shipping with the other unequal charges on our Forreign Merchandize must render all Forreign materials of Manufacture imported much dearer in England than in other Neighbour-Nations such are Hemp Flax Silk and many others of great consequence and then our Manufacturers buying the Materials dearer are obliged to sell their Manufactures dearer which must hinder their vent at home as well as their Exportation abroad and consequently the rise and growth of all our Manufactures made of Forreign Materials and accordingly we see our Manufactures of Linnen Cables Sails Sea-Nets and Silk of all sorts are some of them in a manner lost the rest much decayed which I the rather mention that this and what I say elsewhere may take off some ignorant and unreasonable Reproaches against the English Manufacturers for not selling some Manufactures so cheap as in other Nations since they are necessitated to it by these and some other difficulties upon them which I shall take notice of in this and the next Section as I shall have occasion Seventhly This restraint to our dear English Navigation and Charges on our Merchandize does by Consequence tend to introduce the Disease of Trade consisting in meer Importation for as our Manufactures expire there is a farther occasion of Importing Forreign Manufactures especially if on this and other Accounts they may be sold cheaper here than our own And hence it is that we have a prodigious increase of Imported Linnens Silks c. and that we are of late forced to buy much more of our Cables Cordage Sails and divers other Manufactures from the Dutch French Germans c. than formerly we did in all which our Merchants must be greater gainers for a time because our occasions for Forreign Goods being greater they Import and sell the more at home and from more and greater Sales must get the more money of our Natives and the rather because of their Monopoly on the rest of the people for Imported Goods which does enable them to sell so at home as to reimburse themselves all their Charges with extraordinary profit Eighthly The said Restraint excluding great numbers of Forreign Ships from our Ports must hinder the vending of great proportions of our Beef Pork Corn Beer Clothing and other Necessaries Ninthly The dearness of the English Timber arising from the scarcity of it the said Act doth oblige us to a kind of impossibility there being not Timber enough in England to support any considerable Navigation at least for any continuance of time which small remnant of Timber we are forced to spend so fast in the building or repairing of ordinary Vessels that we shall soon see the end of it and then in any great Exigence we must seek out for Forreign Timber to build Ships of War for which the Timber now remaining might be reserved Tenthly Whereas the increase and support of Navigation depends on the ordinary Imployment of Ships and Sea-men in Trade of which far the greatest numbers are to be maintained in the Fishing-Trade and Trade from Port to Port the English being by the Acts of Navigation and other difficulties disabled from those Trades can never increase their Navigation and upon a small increase of Shipping must be over-clogg'd Eleventhly The Act of Navigation giving Forreigners election either to sell their Goods to the English at home or to Import them into England is so far from incouraging our Navigation that it hath put it into the choice of Forreigners whether theirs or our Shipping shall be imployed which with the dearness of ours hath already increased the Navigation of our Neighbours but hath reduced ours And lastly As the dearness of our Navigation and course of Merchandize established by this Act does run us into an Excess of Importations our Treasures must be exhausted and then the remnant of our Shipping must be becalmed and our Sea-men will leave us as they already do which I shall more particularly observe in the following Sections In the mean time it must be apparent that if we had disposed our selves to a cheaper way of building and sailing our Trading-Ships being as practicable here as in Holland and had eased our Merchandize and Trade to an equal degree these and all other the aforesaid Mischiefs had been prevented and we might have supported a more swelling and beneficial Navigation than that of the Vnited Provinces who are so far from making
new adventure whereby they work down one another to as low a prize as the Commodity can be afforded at of all which we have an undenyable example in the present Affrican Company who were no sooner Constituted but they raised the price of imported red-wood which before was sold at 26. and 28 l. per Tun to 80 l. per Tun which must make our exported dyed Cloaths of all sorts so much the dearer and being an intolerable rate put our Dyers upon finding out the use of Saunders which they still continue and as a farther confirmation of this and what I said before I shall add that after the Election of this Company all goods proper for that Trade only sunk at least 15 l. per Cent. nor would the 10 th part of the same goods be vended to the said Company as there was before to our Merchants driving an open Trade Thirdly For the same reason such a Company must be as injurious to the Trade from port to port For having also a Monopoly in selling they may and will impose Arbitrary prizes on the buyers and then the Merchants or Re-exporters who buy goods so dear must be undersold by any other Nation which drives a free and open Trade to the same place from whence they are Imported this is self-evident and therefore I should not instance in Fact but that I have it on good Authority that even in the East-India Trade which is Alledged to be out of the common Rules of Trade whilst the Trade was open viz. In the Years 54 55 and 56. our Merchants sold the Indian Commodities so low that they furnished more parts of Europe then since we have done nay Holland and Amsterdam it self and that this very much sunk the Actions of the Dutch East-India Company a thing which stands with reason and which therefore recommends an open Trade to India if it may be so driven with long continuance whereof I shall farther consider Fourthly These Companies having also Monopolies on these Forreign Natives with whom they Trade may set Arbitrary prizes upon them for our home-Manufactures exported and will get more by selling a little very dear then by selling much more at moderate profit and though the Joynt-stock imployed be not sufficient to manage the Trade any thing near the full advantage yet those interested in it will have reason to be satisfyed with the returns they make since in proportion to the Stock they may be very great and for the same reason may be well contented to Trade to a few Ports where they can have great rates 5 ly The industry courage and ingenuity of all the rest of the Natives by which as much as by stock all Trade is improved are shut out which must not only be a prejudice to the Trade in general but is a hardship put on the rest who by their birth rights are equally intituled to all Trade upon all which accompts the Legality of sole importing sole buying and sole vending hath been formerly brought in question and denyed in our greatest Judicatures and should it be generally admitted by the same reason the rest of our Forreign Trade might be inclosed to two or three more Companys and then we should have but three or four Chapmen or Shops for all Exported and Imported Commodities nay the whole might be granted or reserved to one Company or one man in any of which Cases what would become of property Such is the Case of the general body of our Merchants already that having in a manner lost the Eastland and Northern Trades they are shut out of the Affrican Indian and Persian Chinese and other mighty Trades within those Patents since this out of the French trade and therefore are thronged into the Streights and other narrow remnants and yet is this the usual preferment of most of the younger Sons of the Gentry of England Sixthly Though our other Merchants on their single accompts export much treasure yet cannot it so easily be done or not in so great Quality as by such a Company whose Joint stock having a great credit can take up as much ready money as they want whereas those who will not trust a single trader with a 100 l. in mony will trust him with 500 l. worth of Commodity as common exerience shews and 't is affirmed that during our trade in 54. and 55. we exported more Commodities viz. cloth other things then since we have done To this is Objected that the East-India trade so far differs from others that it cannot be supported or not with so much advantage and security which I admit to be all one without a Joint stock which if true there is no doubt but it ought to be so managed This then is one great Question in the mean time I hear nothing of this so much as alledged for the Affrican Company the reasons given depend upon pretended Facts in India viz. the necessity of great common charges in gratifying and corresponding with the Indian Princes and keeping Forts and Forces for the defence of our Factories there which they say could never be supported but out of a Joint stock in Trade To which others answer 1 st that it may be true great common charges are necesssary much greater then our Company are at but that common charges may be rais'd by a regulated company on Goods imploy'd in Trade or on other parts of the Traders Estates if the Company are Impower'd to make Levies which is no more then every Parish are enabled to do for Church-Poor and other things and that 't is the same thing for a man to be assubjected to Levies out of that part of his distinct stock which is not in trade as 't is to make good any publick charge or loss out of his Joint-stock Or Secondly they say that if this Trade be taken into the protection of the Government it will have the Joint stock of the Kingdom to secure it the same by which we are all secured they offer what we were able to do in our open Trade in 1654.55 and 56. But as a demonstration urge the example of the Portuguese who in an open Trade I do not mean in an Anarchy nor without conduct and order made near or full as great a progress in this Trade as the Dutch whilest their Government gave sufficient assistance which they say also answers what hath been objected from the supposed disorder of our Trade in those parts should it lye open and the capacity the Natives would be then in of setting the dice upon the English and as a further answer to this they say the same thing may be objected against all other open Trade in the World. But then those for our Company object the Example of the Dutch who being a Nation so wise in Trade successfully manage the East-India Trade by a Company on a Joint stock which being matter of fact is beyond all the Argument in the World. To which is answered that this Example proves
their Pattent by a Clause therein under penaltys of Imprisonment Seizures and Confiscations frequently and severely exempted by the Company how legally I leave to be examined That upon this accompt even those few Seamen or others whom they permit to deal for themselves can make little profit being charged with great Mulcts made payable to the Company at their discretion for all the Commodities they export or import Whereas the original Stock of the Dutch company was 600000 l and this in the year 1602. and the Number of the Sharers in the Dutch Company of all sorts and of those considerably concerned are vastly more then in our English Company proved by their Ordinary Councils or Chambers of Curators of this their Company in each Province besides their Superiour Assemblies amounting to great Numbers all which are but Deputies of far greater Numbers that besides their Navigation Trade Judicature and War in the Indies let in Multitudes of others into very profitable imployments so that in effect they make up another potent Government for the aid of their Nation in all exigencies I have been the more copious on this particular Subject first because of the apprehensions or pretences of some that our stupendious advantage in this Trade gives us a kinde of National security so that no sooner can others mention any defect in our Trade but they are presently told of our Trade to the Indies the wealth of the Indies and our Navigation to and in the Indies And yet I shall admit though with little reputation to the rest that our East-India Trade such as it is seems the most flourishing branch of the whole and therefore that the Gentlemen concerned in this Company have evidenced their conduct in the present way of Trade 2 ly I shall not much contest but that the Indian Commodities consumed at home and re-exported may as the rest of our Trade is now managed prevent the exportation of near as much money to our Neighbouring Nations viz. by the use of Callicoes instead of other Linnens by a Barter of these and the rest of our Indian Commodities in France and other parts for other Consumptive goods in which there is an advantage because the less money we part with to our Neighbours they will be in the less capacity to hurt us but this does not prove the Indian goods re-exported bring in the Treasure exported to India since the whole or a great share of it may be and is by the circulation of forreign contracts finally resolved into other consumptive Importations of so dangerous a consequence it is to export money But suppose the Indian goods re-exported bring us in more Treasure yet is it evident from such Facts as I have mentioned before as are admitted by the Company and such as are indisputable that this part of our Trade which before 1654. was managed by the like Company was never improved to any great or considerable degree in comparison of the progress made by all other Nations which have undertaken it whereof there must be causes and reasons highly necessary to be examined and regulated I shall add that for those other Facts relating to the present debate which seem of less notority they are such as to my knowledge were affirmed by many credible witnesses and by them intended to be proved before a Committee of the House of Commons upon the occasion of a Petition there formerly exhibited by the Clothyers but having attended several days were never heard because the Parliament was engaged in other things and afterwards Prorogued but I doubt not they are all ready to attest the same and more before that Judicature which I say that it may not be thought that I have highly or officiously reported any of the aforesaid allegations to the same Judicature I shall leave it to be determined by what expedients to enlarge this Trade being in a matter of this Importance contented to have opened some questions and Facts relating to it I am so free from any malice to the Company or any man so much as concerned in it or envying their gains that for a more easy Composure of things I hartily wish there may be found some more beneficiall Nationall and comprehensive way of Managing this Trade by a Joynt stock that thereby the present Interests of the Gent. of this Company may be secured nay and improved if this cannot be done then submit it to farther consideration how just and reasonable it is that these Gent. should have compensation for what they shall really lose by the Dissolution of the Company I shall conclude this with remarking First that the Dutch East-India Company Trading on a Joynt-stock and therefore with as much disadvantage to their re-exporting Merchants as the English hath been a means to preserve us this Limb of Trade from Port to Port in Callicoes Pepper c. and probably the rather because our Trading in Money hath so far debosh'd the Indian Market that the Dutch are not over-ready to deal for these Commodities and therefore principally apply themselves to their richer Spice Trade whereof they have the Monopoly This restraint of our Market to our own Merchants and Companies hath yet brought a farther mischief upon our Manufactures because our Companies being seated in London our Natives are forced to bring their Manufactures thither by Land Carriages some of of which are so long that they are as chargeable as a Voyage to Spain or Turky Quantity for Quantity all which is superadded to the originall charge of the Manufacture our Clothiers have also complained that when they have brought their Cloaths to London they have been frequently and long delayed before they have been able to vend them which whether it hath proceeded from any correspondence or Intelligence between the Companies their Committees or Agents their want of Stocks or universall Trade or from the dearness of our course of Merchandize and the consequentiall obstructions in the forreign Market or from all together I shall not positively undertake to say But certain it is that in this case our Clothiers for want of a quick Market lose the Interest of so much of their Stocks as lyes dead which also is superadded to the first cost of their Manufacture but yet being made necessitous by delay and confined to the London Market are forced to sell cheap and then are the poor Manufacturers most miserable when on the one hand the charges they are at oblige them to sell dear but yet are confined in their just demands It may be remembred here that the odds in Interest of Money between England and Holland and England and France where none is allowed to be taken under the highest penaltys must as much prejudice our Manufactures as our forreign Trade by the unequall charge it brings on our Manufacturers which charge is still increased as they are longer delayed The freedom of the Market being of so great importance it must also follow that the like Cloggs and incumbrances put
at home and abroad So must we else they will beat us out What then are we to expect whilest our neighbouring Forreigners continue to have the aforesaid advantages upon us in course of Forreign Merchandize when also the home-vent of their Manufactures is not confined to the Merchants of one Nation nor Compnyes of one Town when their Manstfacturers are not obliged to the charge of long Land-carriages nor opprest with delays but can sell when and where they please and to all Merchants Aliens aswell as to their own and therefore have an unlimitted and most profitable market The odds in Populacy must also produce the like odds in Manufacture plenty of people must also cause cheapnesse of wages which will cause the cheapnesse of the Manufacture in a scarcity of people wages must be dearer which must cause the dearnesse of the Manufacture But this populacy I speak of must not be understood of those people which the Extent of Territory makes necessary for the meer tilling of the ground keeping of Cattle c. for in this sence there is no doubt but the grand Seigniors or Spanish Dominions are more populous then Holland The populacy I intend and which only can be serviceable to Manufacture are those exuberant numbers which cannot find Imployment in husdandry nor otherwise but in Trade in which sence France and the Vnited Provinces are most Populous their Trade and people have grown up together having nourished one another the like may be said of some parts of Germany and Italy But on the other side England never was so populous as it might have been and undenyably must now be far lesse populous then ever having so lately peopled our vast American Plantations and Ireland the decay of our Manufactures hath much depopulated our Inland Corporations of the Villages Adjacent the decay of our Fishing Trade our Sea-Towns I know this want of people is hardly credible with many who see no farther then their own ease and gain they will tell us we have so many people already that we know not what to do with them which is true and so they have in Spain where their Villages are in a manner forsaken and many of their great Cities and Towns lie half empty most of their ordinary people having no employment at home are gone to America those that remain chiefly consisting in Gentlemen Lawyers Officers and Shopkeepers with their necessary men of husbandry and servants I must not omit Priests and beggars since to the honour and comfort of Spain they make about a fourth or fifth part of the whole there is little or no support for other ranks of men how near this we are in England let any man judge or how soon we shall come to it through the decay of our Manufactures What an uproar have we already in an English Parish if a poor young couple happen to marry or a man with Children chance to get into a house how they are tossed from Justice to Justice and from pillar to post by vertue of the several Acts for settlement of poor And what joy there is when these clogs are removed which acts and prosecutions regularly and daily force many out of the Nation and in effect banish them by Act of Parliament 'T is like that besides the Inquisition the proud Spaniards had some such expedients as these to be rid of this kinde of lumber they would be now glad of those laborious drudges to encounter the populous French. Being upon this Subject I cannot omit to observe the bad consequences of some others of our late Laws made to raise the prizes of Victualls which doubtless were projected for the raising Land Rents viz. the Acts for Transportation of Corn and the Acts against the Importing Irish and Scotch Cattle which had they the full effects intended must much assist both in depopulating the Nation and Subverting our remaining Manufactures For if the Manufacturers buy his Victualls at excessive rates at what rates must he sell his Manufacture or how shall he live especially in a time when his Manufactures fall upon his hands daily but this will mainly dissatisfy some who will have no Manufacture or Trade if the price of the Victualls must not be excessive for then say they how can the vallue of Lands be raised to which I answer First that the products of Lands do not wholly consist in Victualls and that much Land is to be applied to many other as profitable and perhaps more profitable ways then for meer Victualls especially in a Nation abounding in Trade and People for this I shall refer to our Copious Books of Husbandry which then may do us much good but little or none before Secondly That though Victualls be not at a very excessive price yet if there be a quick and great market at a midling price it will raise and hold up the vallue of Lands as experience hath proved of late years But Thirdly It is impossible the vallue of Lands can be much raised by the meer raising of the price of Victualls especially in a Nation but thin of people nor would such a Revenue endure or be tollerable perhaps the Spanish Dons did once raise the prizes of Victualls or suppose they should do it now what weighty effect would it have unless to drive all the rest of the Spaniards into America But that which will most certainly and durably raise the Revenue of Land must be the encrease of Treasure and Trading people suppose the people of England were trebled 't is plain that the Land must yield treble the produce in meer Victualls else the people must starve but these people will not starve especially trading people nor will they live needily or scarcely if they can help it and will therefore set themselves and others to the improving of all corners of Land in the Nation till our Lands produce more then treble the Victualls they now do a thing very practicable and then supposing Victualls as cheap and cheaper then now Land will ordinarily be treble it 's present vallue especially if we consider how much may be then applyed to raise Hemp Flax and other necessary and profitable things with the increase of Wool Hides Tallow c. And as the people increase so will the vallue of the Land there is no doubt but England upon the utmost improvement might maintain 6 times its present number of people nay 10 times with an indifferent use of that mighty plenty of Fish our own Sea affords us there is as little doubt but upon a great increase of people and mony Victualls will be rather too dear and that Laws may be then requisite to restrain the price Such was the ancient populacy of England that we had formerly Statutes made in restraint of the exportation of Corn our Flesh also found vent though our people kept Lents Ember-weeks and Fasting days wherein they fed on Fish and white meats and yet we read of Famines in those days whereas now
remain in the form now used in our present Church and all Church preferments inclosed to the Clergy of the same Church which Priviledges being consistent with a Toleration may continue secured to our Church by our present Penal Laws in force for that purpose with an addition of such others as may be thought necessary whence it will follow first that it will be more for the ease and convenience nay and Interest of the Laicks to conform rather than to seek farther for Dissenting Conventicles whose Ministers they must help to maintain which Convenience with the Countenance of Authority given to the National Church is a great matter since it will bring in all those who being good Christians in the main are yet little affected with the Points in difference which are the generality as may be seen by their equal resort to the Parish Churches before and since His Majesties Restoration But secondly it will then be yet more the interest and advantage of all Clergy-men to conform by the great and Honourable preferments they may this way hope for which they cannot otherwise obtain The other grand Objection against a Toleration of Protestants is the danger of the Temporal Government which seems yet stranger than the other if we consult our Reasons which must tell us that Men at ease will be better satisfied than when in pain that Men who are kept innocently and profitably busie who by their Industry can live well support their Families and gain Estates will be less apt to study or do mischief to the Publick than those who being disabled from all such Imployments are daily goaded with penal Laws a condition which perhaps may be thought more grievous in England than the like hardships in Turky and Muscovy where all suffer alike when in England our Protestant Dissenters hear much of Magna Charta and see others enjoy the full fruit of it but are precluded themselves and this for meer differings in Religions belief But why should I labour to evince that which Experience hath demonstrated we have the great Instance of France and the like in the Kingdom of Poland in Holland Switzerland Hamburg and other parts of Germany All which Nations have been at peace at least about Religion ever since the Tolerations given as some of them could never be before particularly France which must appear to proceed from the pacifique virtue of Toleration not from the coercive power of Standing Forces or despotick Monarchy as some would have it because that of Poland is regulated and the rest are Republicks 'T is notorious that before the French Toleration many of that National Church had or pretended to have as fearful Apprehensions of the effects of it but we see what Councils did prevail even amongst the Popish Party and what hath followed We find France the most powerful of Nations and the French King so confident of his Protestants that he long intrusted his mighty Armies in the hands of Monsieur Turenne a Protestant till near his death On the other side we have the Example of Spain whose execrable and inexorable Cruelties towards dissenters hath mainly Assisted in the present poverty and weakness of that Nation We may then conclude that Persecution is a stale piece of policy which perhaps might have born a debate in Harry the 8 th's time but is now tryed to our hands And let any man judg whether the French or Spanish Church be now most flourishing or most likely to continue the French Church and Church-men will certainly get ground with the French Victories for which they are as much beholding to the French Protestants as to the rest Let us not therefore be wholly insensible that the Church of England may fall under the worst circumstances of danger otherwise than from Protestant Dissenters as suppose England should ever be reduced to such a condition as to be no longer able to bear up against foreign Powers what then would become of our present Church what sort of men would then push into our Bishopricks Deaneries and other Church-Preferments a Fatality which we ought therefore to provide against by a Union of Protestant interests and affections and increase of Traders as far as safely we may in which Foreigners are grown so nicely vigilant that not long ago we might observe the policies of the great French King and the great Duke of Tuscany curiously Angling for the Jews for when the French King had made Marseilles a free Port which was about 12 years since the Jews planted at Leghorn induced by an offer of protection at Marseilles and a sweeter situatâ—on of that place resolved to transplant which the Great Duke discovering applyed his utmost endeavours to prevent it which he did by making an Edict That if any Christian bought a Jews house it should be forfeit In England a Jew cannot buy a house I am no Advocate for Dissenters or Jews but for the Common Interest of England by which that of the Church of England must stand or fall And being now speaking of somewhat that concerns Religion there occur to my memory two plain Texts of Scripture one is that of two evils we are to choose the least and another that a Kingdom divided cannot stand I shall desire the Reader to couple these considerations with what I shall say in the following Sections concerning the present posture of this and our Neighbour Nations and then he will not accuse me of having made an unnecessary digression Whilst we are calculating the best expedient to bring in forreign Protestant Artificers and forreign Manufacture it is fit that notice should be taken of that Clause in the Act of 21 of King James chap. 3. which leaves the Inventers of new Manufactures at liberty to obtain Patents for Monopolies for one and twenty years which Statute being in construction extended to all Manufactures already used by Foreigners that are not used here hinders the introducing or growth and perfection of any new forreign Manufactures and makes it the business of our more observant Travellers to hauk after Monopolies This is no question but several other obstructions to the Trade of England might be observed particularly that the carrying on of Elections in Corporations of latter years with so much drinking is very prejudicial to our Manufactures for men upon this or any other occasion being once debauched hardly ever retrieve themselves and therefore lost to Manufacture and the Nation Our Fishers have complained that in several parts they are forced to pay Tyth for the Fish they catch on their own Coasts in which the Dutch and other Fishermen have the advantage to the value of the Fish and must therefore disable our Trade of Fishery in those parts It hath also been noted that the payment of Tyth out of our Hemp and Flax does as much disable the increase of Hemp and Flax in England the rest being made so much the dearer to the owner that it is not vendible as otherwise it would be and thereby
of the 76 years mentioned in the Accompt from the Mint many of them within 20 years last SECT XI Particular decays in our Exportations and the beneficial parts of our Trade Instances in the decay of our Foreign-Trade for Woollen Clothing in the several Countries and Ports we Traded to in the sinking of the foreign price of this Manufacture so of exporting Wooll in our foreign victualling Trades for Flesh Butter Cheese c. in our Irish Trade and Scotch Trade for almost all sorts of Commodities Irish Wooll increased The Expiration of the Irish Acts will not now revest that Trade but prejudice us more and in what decays in our several former and late Fishing-Trades in our Foreign-Trade for Stockings and Hats in our exports to the Canaries in the Foreign-Price of our exported Tyn and Lead and the Price and quantity of exported Pewter in our Trade from Port to Port our former and late prejudices in our Plantation-Trade incidently of our Navigation and other things I Shall begin with our Exportations and as I shall pass from one particular to another in this and the next Section shall desire the indifferent Reader to put such an estimation on our losses in Trade as he shall think reasonable and shall first instance in our Woollen Manufactures as being our principal Commodity and certainly of the most general and necessary use and therefore in its nature the best in the World. Before Edward the thirds time the Flemings Manufactured our Wooll and had the Merchandize of it which gave the original Foundation to the former Wealth and Popularity of the Netherlands Edw. 3. observing the great advantages the Flemings made of our Wooll brought over some Flemish Manufacturers who by degrees taught the Manufacture of Cloaths of all sorts Worsted and divers others particularly mentioned in our Statutes of former times and as the English more applied themselves to it and increased ours as soon they did so did that of the Flemings decay For first the English had the materials cheaper than the Flemings not only by the odds in the carriage out of England but because the raw Woolls afterwards exported were charged with great Customs and Duties to the King as appears by the Acts and Writings of those times Secondly Because the Manufacture was continually incouraged and taken care of by Laws for that purpose as also appears by our Statute-Book Thirdly At that time we had none of the present Clogs on our Manufactures which have either become so by the better Methods of Trade first contrived by the Dutch States or have been grafted upon us by private or mistaken interests long since Edw. 3 ds time I do not find that there was any absolute Prohibition of exporting Wooll till the Statute of the 12th of His now Majesty chap. 32. yet the example of our cunning Neighbours now tell us that Prohibitions accompanied with a due Improvement of Trade at home are not to be condemned The Flemish Cloath-trade was long since so far reduced that we had the sole Merchandise of it yet it cannot be denyed but the Flemings kept up a Manufacture of a sort of Stuffs and Sayes but of no great bulk the make whereof the English had not been taught till the Duke of Alva about 100 years since by his Tyranny and Persecution for Conscience drove away their Manufacturers whom Queen Elizabeth like her wise Predecessor Edward the third entertained seating them in Norwich Colchester and Canterbury whereby these Manufactures became incorporated into the English to the great advantage of those parts and of the Nation in general they also taught us the art of making Tapestry Before this the English exported great quantities of our Manufacture into Flanders but doubtless more afterwards for which we kept a rich Staple at Antwerp the Dutch long after they became States were ignorant of this Manufacture whom we therefore wholly supplied exporting vast quantities of our Cloaths thither most Whites which were there dyed and dressed and from these parts transmitted into the Southern and South-east Countries of Germany and many other Nations we had also the sole trade up the Elbe and thereby to the North parts of Germany Jutland and Holsteyne We had the sole Trade into Denmark Norway Swedeland and Liefland and to the great Territory of Poland through Dantzick by our Eastland Company formerly very flourishing and called the Royal Company We had also the sole Trade to the vast Empire of Muscovy All which Trades are sunk to a small matter the Dutch having set up mighty Woollen Manufactures of all sorts and the Flemings renewed or enlarged theirs our exports to those parts are very much reduced Our Hamburgh Company by whom the North parts of Germany Jutland and Holsteyne were supplied do not vend near half what they did the Dutch and other Manufactures having prevailed upon us in those parts both for the Finest and Coursest Cloaths what we now export to Hamburgh are a sort of Cloaths of between 3 and 7 s. a Yard and of those not near the former quantity Then for our Eastland Trade it is sunk more I have heard several Estimates all near concurring with what I find in Mr. Cokes third Treatise of Trade dedicated to Prince Rupert viz. That this Company only heretofore usually exported above 20000 Broad Cloaths 60000 Kerseys and 40000 Doubles yearly but of late years not above 4000 Broad Cloaths 5000 Kerseys and 2000 Doubles To give this worthy Gentleman his due he hath written more materially on the present subject than any man in this Age in which he hath not only demonstrated his deep Judgement but his great sedulity and sincerity in the discovery of the truth professing himself ready to make out whatsoever he hath reported before any Judicature There is too much reason and fact to warrant the great decay of this Eastland Trade when the Dutch Manufacture is arrived to such a degree besides which the Silesian and Polonian Manufactures of Coarse Woolls are mightily increased so that at Dantzick our late great staple we now sell so little that 't is not worth the naming we now trade thither with Treasure whence we used to Import much the like may be said of other Ports this Company formerly traded to Then for Swedeland the Natives have lately set up a Manufacture there of their Coarse Woolls as well as Denmark Liefland and Norway are very much supplied by the Dutch imposing greater Prices and Customs upon us for what they vend and insisting to have Treasure of us where before they bartered for Commodity To which I may add That our late great Muscovy Trade is in a manner lost the same Mr. Coke takes notice that the Dutch send 1500 Sail of Ships into the Sound in a year and 40 to Muscovy we do not send above seven into the Sound in a year of which two are laden with woollen Manufactures the other five with Ballast and are therefore to buy their foreign lading and
Wines sent from the Madera's paid by Bills of Exchange drawn on our Merchants in Lisbon The consequence of the Whole is that the loss of the Irish Trade and the consequences thereof have much assisted in the Impoverishment of the English who bear almost all the Charge of the Government and will eat upon us more and more daily and on the other side the Irish who lately dealt so cruelly by us and are a Conquered People are made far richer on a suddain and that the Irish Lands do much rise in Rent whilest the English sink 000000 Having given this Accompt of our direct and Consequential Losses by the Irish Acts I expect to be Answered by some That howsoever these Acts may have prejudiced us for the time past they are now expired and that by Consequence we shall now be let into all the advantages we had before the Acts made This I shall examine before I go further and with that Impartiality as I think becomes an English-man without being byassed by the Situation of my Lands which if any man does this Consequence must appear mistaken For first The Manufactures set up in Ireland will still Continue to the same prejudice of ours and 't is highly probable if not certain that they will Improve by the cheapness of their Provision and Wages Secondly Having now long used to fatt their Cattle with which they do not only continually Victual all sorts of Ships but Forreign Towns Armies and Nations particularly the French and those of the United Provinces besides the Return they make by the Vent of their Hides and Tallowes it is not to be Imagined that they will be so mad as to give up this far more profitable Trade Thirdly They will breed manufacture and Export as much Wooll Butter Cheese c. as before Fourthly These Exportations obliging them to Commerce with the French and Dutch as before it must be expected that they will generally still buy such Commodities as they want of the Dutch and French and much the rather because the Dutch and French for Reasons before mentioned can and will afford them much cheaper than the English. What Advantages shall we then have by the expiring of the Irish Acts 't is confessed that their Territory being large most Fruitful and now plentifully stored with Cattle they may carry on their other Trades and yet furnish us with abundant Stores of Cattle for our Money which they already do sending many of their Cattle near or altogether fatt supposing them lean yet will not this Nation get 3 d. a year by it but will be a yearly loser For the meer Importing of Irish Cattle did never advantage this Nation otherwise than as it secured the Irish in that base way of Trade and from turning their National Industry into a Competition with the English in other Trades during which time what Money they received for their Cattle they generally laid out in London or elsewhere in England for the Commodities I mentioned before and others by which Ireland was stored But now I do not see how it can be avoided but that they will carry out all or the greatest part of the Money they receive in Specie which may probably be little less than 100000 l. per Annum I conceive much more than double that Sum Considering what Victuals and other Commodities we freight from thence in our Voyages Yearly so that the Importing of these Cattle will not only 000000 greatly sink the Welch and Northern Rents but all other Rents in a little time which must demonstrate the further necessity of Easing and regulating our Trade equal to the Dutch or French who will otherwise thrust us out of this Trade and all other and will give a greater Vent to the Irish Commodities daily In the mean time we may observe that we ought not to be governed by such narrow Principles as the Situation of our English Lands but by the National Interest Lastly I shall add That should we suppose a Compleat restitution of our losses in and by the Irish Trade Yet Considering our other defalcations in Trade and our present Poverty it would not restore the Ballance of our Trade or not to any such degree as to secure the Nation Our Fishing Trade hath decayed continually of later years we formerly supplied France Spain Muscovy Portugal and Italy with great quantities of White Herring Ling and Cod-fish which Trade is now lost to the Dutch French c. We have only the Trade of Red Herrings which we retain because before the Dutch can bring their Herrings upon their own coasts they grow too stale to be cured for Red Herrings and what a miserable thing is it for our poor starving Natives to see the Dutch and other Foreigners draw such Inestimable Treasures out of our own Seas and at our Doors This Fishing Trade bringing in no Custom was insensibly lost in the pursuit of our Plantation-Trade on which great Customs are Imposed 000000 So is our Iseland Fishing very much decayed where we have not a fourth part of the Trade we had twenty or thirty years since the like may be said of our Newfound-Land Fishing and our Groenland Fishing where we had the sole Trade is quite lost the Dutch had far beaten us out of these Trades but the French of later years have struck into a good share of the Whole beating out the English more more And by the loss of our Fishing Trade our National Gain must not only be vastly sunk but our Sea Coasts are generally impoverished to a lamentable and almost incredible degree and our Nation is deprived of this great and necessary Nursery of Seamen 000000 Our Foreign Trade for Woven Silk-Stockings and Knit Woollen Stockings is much decayed by reason that these Manufactures are set up in divers foreign Countries which though perhaps they are not nor for Woollen Stockings can ever be so good as ours yet they greatly hinder our Foreign Vent and our late great Trade and Exportation of English Hats to Spain is in a manner lost being now mostly supplied by the French. 000000 Our Exportations to the Canary Islands are vastly sunk in quantity and value from what they formerly and lately were of which I shall speak more particularly in the next Section 000000 Amongst many other Excellent Materials we have in England great store of Tyn and Lead capable of rich and mighty Manufactures in mixture and otherwise as appears by our Imported Tynned Plates from Germany which are computed to cost England near 100000 l. per Annum and then what does that Manufacture bring into Germany from other Countreys This Art the English were never taught but have had a Manufacture of Pewter made of our Tyn and Lead of which we made and exported far greater quantities to Spain than of late Years we have done since the Dutch and others came to share with us in that Trade so did we export more of it into France and Holland in which Countreys
't is now prohibited We now Manufacture very little of our Tyn and Lead but export these materials to be Manufactured in other Nations to whom we are little better than the Miners and though some Forreigners have lately taught us to make better Pewter than before yet the bulk and exportation of it is much less Our exported Tyn is sunk more than half its former forreign Price and our exported Pewter above a third as is also our exported Lead 000000 Perhaps more instances might be given of decayes in our Exportations of late Years though it may be considered that we never had many Exportable Manufactures of very great bulk and value nor in truth any but that of our Wooll so that if we so much fail of our former gain in this Commodity it must strike deep on our former Ballance But much more if we also fail in so many other Exportations and Beneficial Trades And after these losses in our Exporting Trade a further Estimate ought to be made of the decay in our Trade from Port to Port for though the English never were nor since the Dutch began to trade could be considerably Masters of this kind of Trade Yet may it be presumed that whilst we kept the Monopoly of Cloth our Merchants by the Barter and Vent of this Commodity had then more advantagious Opportunities of Buying and Selling Forreign goods in Forreign Ports and the rather because it not only gave the English an extraordinary Reputation but a real preference in those Parts they then principally Traded to besides the former Privileges the English long enjoyed in Muscovy enabled them to so much of this kind of Trade as related to that Empire which advantage we have lost by the resumption of those Priviledges whereof I shall say more But perhaps I may be told That all our before mentioned Defalcations in the beneficial parts of our Trade have been made good by the Accession of the Plantation-Trade in the Reign of King James being within the Compass of the 76 Years mentioned in the Accompt from the Mint and by the Increase of it since and I the rather expect this Objection because this Trade remaining inclosed to the Subjects of the Crown of England who for Want of other Trade are thrust into it it makes a great noise amongst us I shall therefore speak more particularly to it than yet I have that I may leave no Holes for Starters It may be Alledged and must be Confessed That this Trade hath imployed a good number of Ships and hath brought in great Customs but nothing of this is to the present question being only Whether it hath advantaged the Nation in its Annual gain of Treasure which I conceive this Trade hath not if ballanced with the losses the Nation hath received by it All the Gain England can or ever could receive by this Trade must be in the Return and Result of those Commodities we import from the Plantations viz. Sugars Tobaccoes Dying Stuffs c. in Exchange for so much of our Butter Cheese Beer Woollen Cloaths Hats Shoes Iron-work and other home-Commodities as we Export thither Now that the Labours of the same People in Fishing or Manufactures at home did and would have produced a greater Profit to the Nation than these Plantation-Commodities I think no man considering what hath been said before can so much as make a question In fact our Fishing for White Herring and Cod was deserted for this Trade and the Continual transplanting of multitudes of our Manufacturers and other people hath inevitably more and more sunk and disabled us in all Manufactures and home-Employments Then for the supposed advantage we have in the Vent of our home-Commodities to the Plantations 't is plain they are but our own People and it must be undeniable that had the same People stayed in England they would have taken off a far greater Quantity for whereas we now furnish them with some small part of their Victuals we should then have supplyed them with All viz. with Bread Flesh Fish Roots c. which now we do not and they would have taken off far more of our Butter Cheese Cloathing Drink and other home Commodities when they had them at hand and had been put to no other shifts But our infelicity is yet greater for our Plantation-Trade though at the best far less valuable to the Nation than the same People and their Labours at home is yet grown much worse than it was 20 or 30 Years since and must grow worse and worse Continually This must notoriously appear by what hath been said in this Section when by means of the late Irish Acts and for other Reasons there mentioned we are forced to Export unto and furnish these our Plantations with so much less quantities of our own and so much greater quantities of Forreign Goods than formerly and lately we did Besides which by a further Improvidence we have lost other advantages in this Trade Our Re-exporters being to receive back half the Customs which in this Trade are very mighty it hath followed that the Dutch coming to be furnished with our Sugars and Dying Stuffs much cheaper than the English as being charged not with half the Customs have been by that means able to set up and beat us out of the Forreign Trade of baked Sugars of which they bake and vend above 20 times the quantity the English do so do they now use far the greatest part of our Dying Stuffs gaining near as much if not more by these Manufactures than the raw materials yield the English Then if this Trade did originally subvert or weaken several better Trades and besides is now less valuable than it was instead of an Improvement it ought to be reckoned amongst the defalcations in our present Trade 000000 And though it be not so direct to the present question I shall adde That we have little reason to boast of our Navigation in this Trade when it was the occasion of the loss of a more certain and beneficial Nursery of Seamen and Shipping in our Fishery when at the same time the Strength and Business of the Nation have been so much contracted by the loss of our People when our Planters of New England having gotten a Considerable Navigation of their own do Trade from Port to Port in America and have in a manner beaten us out of that kind of Imployment in those Parts and when the Irish Shipping together with the growing Plenties of Ireland and New-England threaten the like in the Trade of Exportation and Importation To all which may be added what we ought to expect in case the Dutch may retain and Cultivate Surinam as far as 't is capable since it will produce as good Sugars and Tobaccoes as any part of America and as much as will serve the greatest part of the World if not all Nay these Plantations may be Considered as the true Grounds and Causes of all our present Mischiefs for had our Fishers been
five Millions Sterling without a great Importation of Treasure which does not grow on the Peoples backs like Wooll the advance of the French Trade and Treasure being the true Reason we may believe the Revenue of Lewis the 13 th was raised to more than double this viz. Ten Millions Sterling and that since it is doubled again viz. Twenty Millions as good Judges of it as I can meet with say 't is now above Twenty Millions Sterling For the Treasures of the World being drawn into France as into a Gulf must answerably advance that King's Revenue and diminish the Treasures of other Nations which 't is probable is partly the Cause that the Price of most Commodities in Europe are sunk since according to the former Maxims if there be less Money in the hands of other Trading Nations than before they must and will buy for less Having thus far pursued the Growth of the French Trade and Power I shall now return to the English as they were invested with the several Trades before mentioned in the time of our two last Kings viz. King James and King Charles the First and shall endeavour to shew First how we come to lose the Monopoly of the Woollen Manufacture which was the Effect of many Concurring Causes the Dutch were generally vigilant after all Trade and particularly this so much they shared with us long before that they Dyed Dressed and Vended vast quantities of our white Cloaths Exported thither by which they made an incredible Gain Sir Walter Raleigh about 60 years since in his Observations on Trade presented to King James proves England in 55 years had lost 55 Millions of Pounds by the Dutch Dyeing and Dressing our white Cloaths But withal the Dutch by their vast Navigation and Universal Trading gave them a greater vent than we otherwise could do unless by an equal Regulation of our Trade the English had been made as Capable without any thing of that this course was taken one Sir William Kokayne and other Merchants hoping to make an advantage to themselves got a Patent for the Dyeing and Dressing of our Cloaths with Power to hinder the Exportation of our white Cloaths wherein we have our two usual Expedients in Trade viz. a Restraint to a Company and a Prohibition by which our Vent was lessened and the Dutch the more provoked to attempt this Manufacture at home to which they had great encouragement by their Situation for the Trade of Germany and the rather because our Hamburgh Company who by their Patent have the sole Trade on that Coast for about six or seven hundred Miles kept but two Staples viz. at Hamburgh and Dort remote from each other and from many of those Countries which they supplied So as many of those who come to our Markets must pass and repass through several Principalities with much Danger and Payments of Tolls and Taxes and besides we raised our Prices and set such terms on the Buyers that others as well as the Dutch were much disaffected whereupon an Opportunity was offered For about the year 1636. Two hundred Families of our Manufacturers being about to forsake Norfolk and Suffolk and Transport themselves to our Plantations by reason of the then Persecution of Dissenters the Dutch invited them into Holland where the Dutch did not only entertain them but in Leyden Alkmaer and other places planted them Rent-free and Excise-free seven years After these went more and more Colonies which setled at Rotterdam Middleburgh and Flushing where a fourth part of the Inhabitants are English or of English Extraction Besides vast numbers of English dispersed elsewhere in those Provinces The Dutch having gotten the Manufacturers had half done their work they wanted nothing but Wool which if they might have on any tolerable Terms their Advantages in the way of Trade must enable them to out-doe us this they Imported from Spain England and Ireland and elsewhere falling a main upon the Woollen Manufactures of all sorts so that about the year 1640. they pretended to something of a Cloth Trade in Germany and soon afterwards took occasion to supply our Eastland and Northern Markets more and more especially with fine Cloth getting ground upon us continually they bought our Woolls dearer at first but have gradually sunk the Prices our Vigilant Neighbours the French started with them or soon followed their Example as did the Flemmings the Silesians Polanders and some others mentioned before by all which these and other Parts of the World were as much supplied with coarse Cloths Druggets and Stuffs but the Dutch would not rest here Trade was their business and they observed the virtue of ours such as we had depended wholly on Accidents and particularly that of Muscovy on our Privilege which therefore they found ways to evacuate by bestowing Money amongst the Grandees of that Court and furnishing them with an Objection against our Merchants as being Londoners and therefore as they insinuated must be concerned as Actors in the horrid Murther of His late Sacred Majesty which it was in vain for our Merchants to dispute when the Judges were Fee'd on the other side this powerful Metal whereof the Dutch are never sparing on such occasions and therein have a farther advantage upon us had so radicated their Interests with the Boyars that notwithstanding all Applications in an Honourable Embassy to the Great Czar from his now Sacred Majesty by the Earl of Carlisle our Privilege could never be regained Soon after this there followed two things convenient to be taken notice of for the prevention of misapprehensions on either side one was that between the year 50 and 60 we had an Accidental Opportunity of increasing our Treasure with the loss of our People viz. by the Stocking Ireland with Inhabitants and Cattle after the Reduction of the Irish Rebels and by furnishing it with all sorts of Goods and Necessaries then much consumed or spoiled by the Wars and Disorders there which on a sudden brought us almost all the Treasures of Ireland which supposing but a Million and an half or but a Million was considerable Another which prevented us of as much Money as we thus got if not of more and doubtless exhausted us of some In the year 1654. the late Usurper Oliver Cromwell whose guilty fears made him Jealous of the English and seek a support from France did in Conjunction with France make a fatal War upon Spain which besides the seisure of our Spanish effects and our vast Losses at Sea in that War interrupted our Trade with Spain and gave the Dutch better footing but opened our French Trade at once weakning the Ballance of our Trade and the Ballance of all Europe Thus it was before the year 1660. But in regard our Imports were then of far less quantity and value than they were after 't is presumeable that our Trade might be yet beneficial especially considering our then Irish Trade but our Importations increasing we find what Mr. Mun a Principal English Merchant
there was a far greater plenty of Money in all our inferiour Cities Corporations and Villages when our Farmers had their Rents before hand and had Stocks for every Farm when they and our Manufacturers got Estates and when vast Taxes could be readily raised and therefore are the most proper Judges of the odds who feel the present Scarcity and want of Money they cannot conspire in a Falsity of this Nature but in so general and near a Concern The Voice of the People hath been taken to be like the Speech of God. Those that find their Stocks wasted or much Contracted their late Revenues sunk their home-Commodities yield much less value their labours in Manufactures turn to less Profit or to none at all the poor and their Maintenances vastly increased the Nation involved in Debts Money very hard to be gotten or raised in the way of home-Trade with other Common hardships cannot be argued out of their Senses Crede quod habes habes is no Logick in matters of Interest but amongst Fools and Madmen or let Men be never so good at perswading or believing yet when their Estates and Stocks are thus sunk they cannot answer the Publick Emergencies by Payment of as great Taxes as before I should not say more to prove our National Treasure is much diminished taking it to be indisputable and being sensible that the over-labouring a Truth may bring it in question but having something to offer by which as it seems to me some nearer Conjecture may be made of the Quantity of Money thus exhausted I shall present it to the Reader desiring his Excuse if he think it unnecessary So great was the Quantity of our late Harp and Cross Money before the year 60 that according to the best Estimate I can make or meet with it made about 10 or 15 per Cent. of our Common Money in tale in the Countrey and more in London which I do not take to be the meer Effect of our extraordinary Exports in Trade for the years then last preceding but partly of the Plate then lately Coined and our Stocking Ireland but more than either from our far less yearly Imports of all kinds several years before 1660. I must refer it to the Memory or other Information of the Reader whether he can comply with me in the aforesaid late quantity of our Harp and Cross Money whatsoever it were this Money being taken in to be recoined in the year 60 must when recoined produce the like Quantity of His Majestie 's Coin besides which according to the said Accompt in November 75 there had then been 2238997 l. more Coined since His Majestie 's Restoration and since the said Accompt there hath been yet more Coyned which supposing to be but 600000 l. had the Money so Recoyned and since Coyned with His now Majestie 's Impression continued in the Nation and the new Money under His Majestie 's Impression must have been much above Three Millions I conceive near Four Millions and then supposing we had Twelve Millions in the Nation it would have been above 30 per Cent. of our currant Money in Tale of more were our whole Treasure less than Twelve Millions Whereas we see at this day that the new Money of His now Majestie 's Impression does not amount to above 5 per Cent. of the currant Money in the Countrey taking one Payment with another especially in such Counties as lye any thing remote from London I think not so much 'T is true that in London where the Mint and Merchants are there is some greater quantity of new Money and perhaps somewhat more of late than usually because that by occasion of the late Forreign Wars we have had somewhat a better Vent for our English Cloths and a greater Exportation of our Annual produce of Corn But yet in London it does not make near 30 per Cent. taking one Payment with another nor I conceive more than equal the quantity of our late Harp and Cross Money Now if the Money in His now Majesties Impression be less in quantity than the Harp and Cross Money it must follow that notwithstanding all the Money since Coyned we have less Money in the Nation than we had in 59 if our present new Coyn but equal the Harp and Cross Money it follows that we have now no more Money than in 59 And in either Case that as much of our new Coyn as amounts to the said whole 2238997 l. and all the other Money Coyned since November 75 is also Exported For though we may still have some Coyn of each of the succeeding years since 59 yet if all of it put together amounts to no more than the quantity of the Harp and Cross Money we had in 59 our Stock of Treasure cannot be more than it was in 59 if less then our present Stock is less And if Millions of our new Money Coyned since 59 be gone as I take it 't is evident they are we may reasonably Collect that as much or more of our old Coyn is also Exported by the old Coyn I mean such as was Coyned in the Reigns of King James and King Charles the First and before of which we had lately a mighty Store almost all of it valuable and unclipped especially the Gold whereof we had an abundance commonly passing in home-Trade and Payments there is no reason why these Coyns being as valuable or more should not be as good a Commodity in Trade as the new And accordingly we may to our Comforts observe that this late mighty Store of old Gold is in a manner totally vanished those few pieces which remain being almost taken as Medals never to be parted with If it be said that part of our old Gold is Coyned into Guinnies this will not alter the Case since our whole new Coyn is no more in proportion to the old than before is noted So of our old Silver Coyn there is very little remaining but what is much Clipped or worn and therefore not valuable for Exportation We have those yet alive who can remember what a flowing Treasure we had in all Parts of England before we had any Harp and Cross Money and are now sensible of the general scarcity and Want of it This does let in a further Presumption that our new Coyn is diminished to a much greater degree than it appears to be For suppose we have now but a moiety of all the old Coyn we had in the year 59 'T is plain that a moiety of the Harp and Cross Money had it remained would now hold the same proportion to the old as the whole did in 59 and so will a moiety of our new Coyned Money and thus will it be in any lesser proportions If the new Coyn come to be less in proportion to the old than it was before it is an infallible evidence of the Diminution of our Treasure because the old Coyn could not increase But if the new Coyn come to be more in proportion
to the old Coyn than before this is no manner of Demonstration of the increase of Treasure since the decrease of the old Coyn may produce this Odds. Thus after the Consumption of our old Gold we have more than Twenty Guinneys to one Broad Piece but I think no body will press it as an Argument of more Gold in the Nation than we lately had so having lost so great a part of our valuable old Silver Coyn 't is no Wonder if our new Silver Coyn seems so much as it doth especially about London perhaps it hath been a kind of Providence that we have had so much Clipt and worn Money since otherwise we might have had as little old Silver as we have old Gold and might have been reduced to our present Store of new Silver Coyn as we are to our Guinneys which might have afforded a weighty Argument of the Increase of our Treasure Upon these Grounds and upon the common Wants Necessities and Decays mentioned before it may reasonably be concluded That besides the loss of most of those Millions Coyned since His Majestie 's Restauration we have lost many more Millions of the old Coyn in Silver and Gold I shall leave the quantity to be computed by the indifferent Reader Those who set out the said Accompt from the Mint taking notice of the great consumption of our Treasure by reason of its being Exported did by the same Paper then estimate it to be reduced to about four or five Millions and by the Nature of that Accompt they seem no unfit Persons to make some competent Judgment of this Matter Whatsoever our Coyned Treasure was when this Accompt was made 't was plainly much less then than it would have been had none been Exported and though it must be admitted that our late Exportation of our Annual Corn and what other advantages we had during the late War may have somewhat helped us yet we have reason to think it farther diminished now especially considering our losses at Sea by the Dutch and others before we dis-engaged from the late War and since by the French and Algiers Pirates and the mony lately and daily exported by Papists departed hence to which may be added what we must now further export by the expiration of the Irish Acts and the dear buying of these goods we imported from France already added to the former Overballance of our Importations Then let the Reader judg what we are to hope for in our private and publick Revenues I shall only endeavour to put him into a method of conjecturing leaving the compute to his greater ingenuity and leisure Suppose we have now 5 6 or 7 Millions of Treasure in the Nation let him consider how much of this must constantly lye in the hands of Traders to attend the payment of Customs and the buying up of our vast importations how much always is and must be actually collected in Taxes and either lies in the Exchequer or in the hands of Officers and how much does and always will lye dead in Banks and other private hands and then how much will at the same time I say at the same time be employed in the home-Markets to buy of the annual Produce of Lands perhaps it will not be half of the Whole Then recollecting that we have 29568000 Acres of Land in England what Rent can they yield one with the other Admitting this whole Treasure at the same time stirring in the home-Markets our whole Land-Revenues could not be much all the help we have is that we have many great wasts which yielding little or nothing a great quantity of this floating money is applicable to the rest and yet to our sorrow we have found that our Rents are mightily sunk which having not abated so much or speedily as was requisite our Yeomanry are generally impoverish't Then for our publick Revenue 't is as plain it must be confined to the stock of Treasure be it greater or less We have many who seem to resent the narrowness of his Majestie 's Revenue and Supplies and are ready to expostulate why they should not be equal to the French King 's let them consider what may possibly be paid out of our Land Revenues thus contracted and constantly charged with the maintenance of our numerous poor and besides that the English having by the constitutions of the Government an undoubted liberty and property are accustomed to live well and their Representatives being a part of themselves in whose disposition it lies to give supplies or not will have regard to their own and the peoples abilities should they give extravagantly it would be like Diego's Will and must induce many of those sad consequences mentioned before what then if we should be involved in any long Foreign War or obliged to any great extraordinary publick Charge in time of Peace whilst we remain under a consumptive Trade which I intimate once more to shew the necessity of improving our Trade I shall now answer some common Objections The most usual is That there is now as much money to be let on good Securities in England as there are Securities or rather more from whence some infer that there is as much or more money than ever in England To this I answer That on the contrary it only proves the scarcity of Securities and therein the poverty of the Nation for personal Security for money being in a manner lost all the floating money to be let out at interest is thrust upon Land-Securities which were they all good would take off much less money than was let out at interest when both Land and Personal Securities stood But as the National Poverty hath subverted Personal Security so hath it crept into the Land for mens estates are already so entangled with Debts that there is not one Land-Security in twenty that is good as dear experience hath now taught us Then the Securities being grown so scarce and narrow 't is no wonder that there is now as much money to be let out as there are Securities and more Thus if a man had 1000 l. in the Isle of Shetland he would there hardly find any Security for it which at this rate of arguing would prove the Isle of Shetland richer than the Isle of Great Britain And upon this occasion I shall add That there is no possible way for restoring the Securities and Credits of England but by restoring its Riches no Register can do it at least comparable to the other we may Register our common Poverty but nothing will make an ill man value his credit or able to satisfie for a Cheat but his own private wealth nothing can make a man who is honestly inclined to do a foul thing but Poverty and Necessity Another Objection partly answered before is That there is still as much money in and about London as ever from whence they would argue as much money in the Nation as before I cannot admit this fact if I did the consequence is lame and
I am told is also so ordered by an Edict Handicrafts-men and Artificers are no less useful for besides that Manufactures do keep men at work and engage them they are the Cause that the Silk the Wool the Skins the Flax the Timber and the other Commodities that grow in France are made Use of and that Countrey People have the means to Barter these things and put them off especially being wrought into Wares not made in Forreign Parts we shall grow further Principal Manufacturers as we already are of Hats for Spain and Stuffs for all Europe a Matter of exceeding great Consequence All this quickens Trade and makes Money pass to and fro which promoteth the Publick and therewith at once every one's private advantage There must be Merchants also for without their Industry the Artificers Shops would be Stores never emptied the Granaries would remain full of Corn and the Cellars of Wines c. In the Chapter of General Orders Usury is thought fit to be Prohibited which is accordingly suppressed by an Edict I shall leave it to Enquiry whether most of the rest of these Politicks relating to matters at home are not established by other Edicts if the Reader would further observe how curious the French Politicks are to provide for the Increase and true Use of Populacy I shall refer him to the Thirteenth Chapter of this Admirable Tract directing the Education of Children and when 't is fit to Marry them and to the Chapter of Commerce or rather to the whole piece By all I have said it appears that although the French Kings have assumed an Arbitrary Power the French Politicks have not rested upon this as a Security but for the Aggrandizing of that Monarchy have found it necessary to relax and retire from the severity of this Power and to resort to popular Principles a Matter which may deserve the Consideration of our New Polititians the Hobbists who place all the virtue of the French Governvernment in its absoluteness In the mean time I shall add that notwithstanding what I have said I do not pretend that the Condition of the French People though made tolerable to the French is comparable to the happiness of those whose greater Freedoms and Enjoyments are secured by Fundamental Laws and Constitutions But this I shall observe That whereas formerly when this People were wretchedly poor almost every small new Imposition begot an Insurrection in France as the said De Gerrard takes notice the French now pay twenty times greater Taxes with much more Satisfaction because they are enabled so to do and besides can live far more plentifully than before many of the Traders splendidly and gain considerable Estates To all which may be added another particular in which the late French Politicks deviate from the usual Jealous Maxims of Arbitrary Government which is a general care to instruct the Plebeians of all sorts in the Discipline of Arms. The late swelling Power of Spain after the Suppression of the Spanish Cortes or Estates derived from the accidental Discovery of the Indian Mines and the present Power of France after the Suppression of the French Estates from as accidental an Improvement of their Trade have been the occasion that some out of mistake or design have much applauded that Form of Government when it must be Confessed that the same Indian Treasure and Trade would have rendred the same Nations under the continuance of the Estates or England under its present Government much stronger and more secure and this by the advantages in this Form of Government Despotick or Arbitrary Monarchy was for many Ages as great a Stranger in this Part of the World as Republican Government As the European Nations by degrees cast off the Roman Yoke they had before their eyes the Example of their former Mistress the Common-wealth of Rome which became Vassalized to her own Servants by the unlimitted Power committed to Dictators and Generals these assuming the Empire by force and without title were uncontrollable by Law and therefore did not only gratifie their own Lusts and just Fears of being supplanted by all manner of Cruelties but their Masters the Soldiers also by the Spoils of the Provinces nay and of Italy and Rome it self and yet were they very frequently killed deposed and changed by the same force which set them up To avoid the Mischiefs on each side as the Members of this Empire resumed their National Rights they universally cemented into a third Form of Government much the same with ours which if we truly consider it appears purposely and wisely Calculated to prevent the Inconveniencies of the other two and yet to take in all that is excellent in either For first we have a fixt Royal Legal Sovereignty which filling the seat of Majesty frustrates the Ambitious hopes of others from stepping into it Then we have the Constitution of Parliaments by whose Intervention Liberty and Property are preserved Thus Revolutions and Oppressions at home are prevented Then for the strength of this Government outwards upon Forreign Nations it must in the Nature of it equal if not exceed any other especially absolute Monarchy not only because its greater freedoms capacitate the People to Trade with more advantage as I shall yet more particularly shew but because the same freedoms beget a kind of Generosity and Bravery even in the common sort when Absoluteness of Government debases their Spirits and reconciles them to the Ignominy of being beaten at least till they acquire a kind of insolence by long Service in War which can hardly be called Courage All Experience hath warranted this odds between Freemen and Slaves but there is yet a farther odds when the Quarrel is National especially if espoused both by the King and Parliament for then the individual Animosities of the Whole being engaged the People do not meerly fight for Pay but out of Principle and in defence of those greater Enjoyments they have at home when the Vassals of Absolute Monarchy are driven on by the fear of their Despotical Power which they would be glad to see subverted and themselves delivered In an Absolute Monarchy the Fate of the Whole depends upon the Prudence of the Monarch be his Empire never so flourishing he may by one temerarious Edict or other Act bring all into Confusion How great must the Danger then be when the wisest of Mortal men are often transported by Passions and otherwise liable to Mistakes The voluntary Councils of such a Monarch must gratifie his Power by Applauding or Complying with his Resolutions and Sentiments But what if there come a weak Prince against which there is no Security Or suppose the King be left an Infant then all goes to wrack those Armies which were the support of the last Predecessor wanting Business and Conduct fall into Mutinies all are working their Ambitious ends many contending for the Tuition and Publick Administration those that have it not supplanting those that have whereby the Government is endangered all which
necessary I shall briefly observe what have been the more Modern Effects of this mighty Trade in France This may too plainly be seen by the great performances of the French in these last Wars in which the French King hath been able to maintain above 250000 Men in Arms whom he hath duly paid and yet such have been his Treasures That he hath not been obliged to put the event of the War to the push of a Battel but wearies out his Enemies with Expence from year to year and being able to lay up mighty Stores can keep the Fields in the Winter when his Adversaries though as valiant People as any on the Earth are fain to lye at home Thus watching his Advantages he hath Taken and Burnt many strong Towns laid many Provinces wast breathing out Death and Devastations as he goes This he hath done in the face of the world in a War with near 20 Princes and States whose lamentable Sufferings with the Cries of their People have long pierced our ears whilst the French King grows more Vigorous and Powerful and his Armies grow better Disciplined continually and hath at last reduced the Dutch and Spaniards to the Terms of a dishonourable Peace by exposing their Allies to the French Power which hath obliged the rest to a Complyance on his own Terms and now he gives the Law to them All keeping mighty Armies on foot to Invade whom he pleases But that which is yet more Prodigious is that even during this War he hath been able to carry on the Building of his present great Fleet consisting of about 200 Ships of War plentifully Armed with Brass Guns and accurately built for Service he hath also furnished himself with abundant of Naval Provisions of all sorts at an immense Charge every Ship having its distinct Stores and Storehouse and therefore may be made ready on a suddain At the same time he hath imployed multitudes of Men in cutting of Canals through Rocks and Mountains in making cleansing and securing Havens upon the Coasts opposite or near to England whither by degrees in these two or three years past he hath drawn down the greatest part of his Navy and at the same time hath answered mighty Annual Pensions to the Swedes and Swisses whose lives he buys with his Money besides all the other vast private Pensions Gratuities and Aids he bestows in the Courts and Countreys of other Princes by which perhaps he hath made as great Advantages as by his Arms and yet 't is probable that in all this he hath not exceeded the bounds of his ordinary Revenue That which most threatens the Trade of England is his Naval Force which none of his Predecessors ever had and were checked if they pretended to it Queen Elizabeth forbad Henry the 4 th of France on a suddain called the Great Building great Ships else she would fire them in his Harbours Since which the French have desisted till about the year 1664. as may appear by that excellent Treatise intituled A free Conference Printed in 1667. by the special Appointment of the truly Honourable the Lord Arlington where Pag. 49. we find these words Not above three years ago France was hardly able to set out 20 Ships that is to say Men of War now they have 60 large Vessels ready furnished and well Armed and do apply their Industry in every part to Augment the number c. I shall forbear repeating some sharp Reflections which next follow And that the French King might want no Seamen of his own and might at least share in the Gain of Navigation he hath for several years past endeavoured by all Imaginable Encouragements to establish a mighty Navigation in France so that for one Trading French Ship there was 20 or 30 years since there are now 40. For this purpose he hath Propagated a Sea-Fishery to a very great degree which Improves daily to the prejudice of our remaining English Fishery and besides hath yearly educated Supernumerary Seamen on Board the French Trading Ships at his own Charge so that 't is to be feared he will stand in little need of Forreign Seamen for his Ships of War or if he do the Dutch have Store which perhaps he may have for his Money as 't is probable he may the Fleets of Swedeland Portugal and Algiers these his Allies of Algiers as 't is said by the assistance of his Money upon a a general Redemption of French Slaves are on a sudden gotten from 10 to above 40 Men of War and as soon as our Applications in France had prevailed with the French to desist from taking our Ships these Algiers Pyrats fell upon us and have continually pick't up our Merchantmen and Vassalized our Seamen and other People ever since they now do it before our faces in our Channel finding Harbour in the French opposite parts which makes a great Addition to our late Losses and which is yet worse hath so terrified our Seamen and Merchants that many already think it necessary to trade in Dutch and French Bottoms a Consequence which 't is probable might be foreseen by some of our Neighbors who wish we had neither Ships nor Seamen At the same time our Gazetts weekly tell us of great Squadrons of French Men of War proudly ranging in all Quarters of the World in the Mediterranean in the East and West Indies and in our own Seas viewing the Strengths and Weaknesses and Sounding and Commanding the Harbours of other Nations We find it said in the Free Conference That France is our Hereditary Enemy and hath so often tryed what we are able to do against the enlarging of their Empire who have graven it deep on their hearts the injury of the Title which to their shame England bears in all Publick Treaties and her Trophies in reference to that Crown This very France hath no greater desire than to take the Dominion of the Sea from us c. If we look into the before-mentioned French Politicks they assure us of the same of which piece because I so often cite it I shall first give the Reader some present Accompt and farther when I have done with it The English Preface tells us the Author was a Person bred up under Monsieur Colebert and to shew his Abilities writ this Treatise and in Manuscript presented it to the French King which was favourably received but afterwards Vanity prompting him to publish it in Print the King look't upon him as one that had discovered his Secrets and turning his favour into frowns caused him to be Imprisoned in the Bastile where he continued a long time and afterwards was Banished c. 't is like to some place where he should not be able to aver the same or disclose more Secrets what opportunities he might have of learning Secrets by his Attendance on Monsieur Colebert whether he might over-hear the Debates and Results of the French Councils or whether Casually or by order he had a View of the Papers and
with Langhorne were sentenced to be hang'd drawn and quartered Mr. Corker and Mr. March are close Prisoners and have been so this eight months with whom I have been God has fitted and is still fitting them as Sacrifices for himself They are very well disposed and resigned to Gods holy will. Mr. Rumbly hath the liberty of the Prison with whom is Mr. Heskett all chearful and expect the good hour On Thursday the day before the five Jesuits were executed my Lord Shaftsbury was with Turner and Gaven promising them the Kings Pardon if they would acknowledge the Conspiracy Mr. Gaven answered He would not murther his Soul to save his Body for he must acknowledge what he knew not and what he did believe was not On Friday the 20th of June Mr. Whitebread on one Sled with Mr. Harcourt Mr. Turner and Mr. Gaven upon another Sled and Mr. Fenwick in a Sled by himself were drawn from Newgate to Tyburn Mr. Langhorne is for a time reprieved and promised Pardon if he will as 't is reported discover the Estates of the Jesuits he was their Lawyer 'T is certain my Lord Shaftsbury has been often with him In the way they comported themselves seriously and chearfully Mr. Gaven had smug'd himself up as if he had been going to a Wedding When they arrived at Tyburn they each made a Speech 1. Assevering their ignorance of any Plot against his Majesty 2. Pardoning their Accusers 3. And heartily praying for them Mr. Gaven in his Speech made an ful to all especially Laborious men and is necessary for Victualling of Ships Both in France and Holland are great Excises on most or all ordinary Meats and Drinks in England on part of our Drink only viz. That in Alehouses and Publick Brewings I hope there never will be any such as shall burthen Trade Our great Wasts and void Lands which are our present Grief and Scandal may on the Regulation of our Trade prove highly beneficial to us since they will afford present room for a vast Increase of People whether Forreign Planters or others in the Vnited Provinces or France none such are to be found And lastly England is far better situated for the Fishing Trade and other Forreign Trade than either France or the Vnited Provinces and its People are naturally far more Adventurous and Valiant than theirs as Experience hath shewn which makes no small odds upon National Contests between Nations emulous in Trade when they fight upon equal Terms of Treasure and Warlike Preparations and there is no question but our National Industry in Trade would be also more Vigorous and Successful were it put into suitable Methods but otherwise can no more Exert it self than a generous Courser in a Horse-Mill From all which it must be evident that were our Trade eased as in Neighbour Nations England would have the Superiority since the same Causes must produce greater Effects in England being invigorated with these our National Advantages which no other Nation doth or can enjoy The present Power of the French King would infallibly much Contribute to it which being arrived to such a swelling and tremendous height does not only intimidate all men of Trade and Wealth in France especially Protestants but all the adjacent Provinces and People on the Continent who either already groan under the insupportable Oppressions and Insolencies of the French or are under deep and Continual Apprehensions of being wasted by his numerous Troops grown Proud and Wanton with Success and ready to make irresistable descents upon any private Order in which these his Neighbours can never think themselves secure because of his late suddain Invasion of Flanders and would therefore flye to our English World as a blessed and safe Asylum were it put into a posture of being so Then if the suddain Populacy Treasures Trade and strength of the small Dutch Provinces were the Effects of the then Spanish Tyranny in the Low-Countreys what might we not hope for from far greater Confluences of the richest and most Mercantile and Industrious Protestants or such as would be so even from Holland and France as well as from many other parts of Europe whose Stocks being transported by Bills of Exchange and their Manufactures with their Persons and this on a suddain would give the odds of Srength and Treasure to the English who no longer need to trust to the fallible Security of Leagues which are so often obstructed and broken by the humour or perfidie of particular men or frustrated by incapacity and accidents And therefore this patching and piecing a Strength together by Leagues is the dependance of small and weak Estates such as those of Italy and Germany where they are always tricking and betraying one another yet at this time Leagues though not to be wholly rested upon may be of great and good consequence to England Had the French Monarchy never over-awed the rest of Europe as it now does it must be evident that if our Trade had been regulated and eased equally with the Dutch all those Merchants and People which have setled in Holland would have planted here where besides the former advantages the extent of our Territory renders the Burthen of Taxes far easier on particular men than in Holland where they are also at a much greater necessary charge for Garrisons on their Frontiers nay the very Dutch would have forsaken those Provinces for England or if any had remained they would have been Carriers for the English as they have been to the French and will rather be so for the future if our Shop were sufficiently furnished because they will more willingly transfer the wealth of the World to a Countrey where they themselves may securely share in it when they please than to an Arbitrary Power which may in a moment swallow it up and oppress those that brought it to any the most barbarous degree from all which these things are most manifest First That nothing does or can so formidably threaten the Trade and by Consequence the Monarchy of France as the Modern Freedoms of the English and some other Neighbouring Countreys Secondly That the English Freedoms are at this day so great an advantage to his most Sacred Majesty of England that they are a Weapon left in his hands with which and a Concurrent Regulation of our Trade he may with ease and assurance attain a Superiority over all the Monarchs and Powers of Europe put together he will cut the Grass under their Feet and draw away their Treasures and People notwithstanding all the Policies can be used no mere Prohibition can stop those whose Interests quiet and safety shall oblige them to depart In which besides a sufficient Guard at Sea to use the words of the French Politicks there would need almost no War to be made nor His Majestie 's Forces hazarded Thirdly That for these Reasons it is most evident that it doth highly import the French Monarchy that the Freedoms of the English and all others in these parts
Nation If then these Excellent Ends appear obstructed by a sort of antient or Innovated Laws or Usages who can speak of them without much Resentment In which I hope I am Excusable These are the Spells by which our innocent People are inevitably lead into Courses destructive to the Publick How can our Merchants or Shop-keepers now avoid Trading in Forreign Consumptive Goods Have they any sufficient Stores of Home-Manufactures Can our Merchants Trade from Port to Port as the Dutch and others do or must Men that are bred up to these Gentile professions that are Men of Family Industry and Fortune fling up live lazily or poorly Who doth not know how many generous and intelligent Men are to be found amongst our Merchants and Shop-keepers of all sorts Such as bear a true affection to their Country and are an honour to the Nation and such as wish for a Regulation of our Trade and would be ready and capable to give all farther assistances were they called to it This I wish to see being not so conceited as to think I have said all that is material on this Subject but on the contrary apprehend That there are very few Paragraphs of what I have written but may admit of farther Informations In the mean time from what hath been already said it must be apparent to these and others That as an open and free Trade would be far more profitable to the generality of Merchants so would it be far more honourable to all That the Consequential Increase of People and Wealth would better support our great Increase of Shop-keepers Lawyers Solicitors Pen-men c. of which the present Numbers would then hardly be sufficient That the benefits of our Clergy must receive an inevitable Improvment by it And that our great and famous City of London which is the Seat Royal where our National Courts of Justice are which is contiguous to our most secure Harbour for Ships which hath the sweetest and most Commodious situation of any City in Europe and is so vastly peopled already must by these advantages for ever have the greatest resort and Trade of the Nation even under the utmost Improvments of our Trade which must then be incomparably more than now Besides the vast advantage our Gentry would infallibly reap by the continual Rising of their Rents even such of these as desire more business or gain will then have other and farther daily opportunities by putting Stocks into Manufactures or Forreign Trade and projecting and solliciting the Improvement of either or both In Florence the very Nobility and great Duke himself are Traders hence might our Members of Parliament be continually prepared to make the most suitable Laws for the facilitating of Trade Lastly Nothing can so effectually and certainly secure the peace of the Nation as the Regulating of our Trade since it will set all Mens heads and hands at work in all manner of Innocent and Profitable Imployments and introduce a general satisfaction and Harmony Then and never 'till then shall we make up that invincible Phalanax which must not only be terrible to all Forreign Nations but to all Enemies of the Government at Home when they find it supported by the solid Pillars of Trade and Treasure and a Consequential swelling Populacy and Navigation which will deter Men of sence from Treasonable Machinations and of Fools there needs no fear Whereas the defect of these Supports must continually administer temptation to all such as by reason of their particular circumstances can hope for any greater advantage or security by the general ruin The Body Politick being in this like the Natural more subject to new Distempers when it is infirm before but when stanch in every part easily bears off the Corruption or Acidity of any malevolent humours The Trade of the World hath long courted England but never with so much importunity or with so much advantage as now This great Lady affecting Freedom and Security hath no Inclination to continue under the Arbitrary Power of the French nor the Vncertain fate of the Dutch with these she hath resided only as a Sojourner but is ready to espouse our Interest and Nation and with her self to bestow upon us the Treasures of the World but if we still continue inexorable and stubborn things are grown to such a Crisis That we may have reason to fear this is the last time of her asking and that she may suddenly turn this Kindness into such a Fury as we shall not be able to withstand Shall we then embrace so advantagious Overtures or shall we still proceed in our present Methods I have heard it was a hard matter to reclaim the Irish from drawing with their Horses Tails shall the Irish now beat us out of our Trade Shall we continue rolling in Forreign Silks and Linnens or be still sotting in Forreign Wines whilest they pick our pockets Shall we be Curious in Trifles sneaking after our private interests or like the blind Sodomites groping after our filthy Pleasures whilest the Wrathful Angels of God stand at our elbows Shall we like the Reprobated Jews be under continual Demications within whilest our Enemies are at the Gates Shall those of the High City those of the Low City and those in the Temple be picking out one anothers Eyes to facilitate the Aggressions of more powerful Forreigners or shall we be hunting or grasping after false Shadows and Imaginary Forms and Ideas and neglect that most valuable substance which we have already in our Mouths and which would turn into the most solid Nutriment would we take the pains to chew it Which leads me to say There is yet a farther Requisite to our happy procedure in the Whole of greater importance than any other viz. a general Humiliation of our selves towards God accompanied with an abhorrence of our past Intemperances Corrupt Passions Pride Avarice Lusts Prophaneness mutual Oppressions Perfidies and other Impieties with such a Christian Meekness Charity Purity Truth Holy Zeal and Resolution as may render us Capable of his Mercy and Protection perhaps one false step at this time may be more Irreparable than ever 't is certain we shall never be able to make a true one whilest we are under the displeasure of the Almighty It is as undeniable that the Laws which obstruct our Trade cannot be Repealed or new ones requisite for its Improvement or Security be made otherwise than by a Parliament Whether therefore upon this and other important Considerations the Convening and Holding of a Parliament be not under God who does not work by Miracle a necessary means to prevent the Ruine of this Nation and how Long it may now with any security be deferred is that which I most humbly submit to the Determination of Authority FINIS The CONTENTS The Introduction Pag. 1 SECTION I. Trade National or Private Home or Forreign Treasures Imported by Trade thence Land-Rents Popularly increased the Revenues of all Ranks of Men depend upon Trade People and Treasure