ENGLAND'S Improvement BY SEA and LAND TO Out-do the Dutch without Fighting TO Pay Debts without Moneys To set at Work all the POOR of England with the Growth of our own Lands To prevent unnecessary SUITS in Law With the Benefit of a Voluntary REGISTER Directions where vast quantities of Timber are to be had for the Building of SHIPS With the Advantage of making the Great RIVERS of England Navigable RULES to prevent FIRES in London and other Great CITIES With Directions how the several Companies of Handicraftsmen in London may always have cheap Bread and Drink BY ANDREW YARRANTON Gent. LONDON Printed by R. Everingham for the Author and are to be sold by T. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheap-side and N. Simmons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVII LICENSED Octob. 4. 1676. Roger L'estrange TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ARTHUR Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy-Seal And to the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir THOMAS PLAYER Knight Chamberlain of the City of London Right Honourable and Right Worshipful THat I here not only present you with these my weak Endeavours for the vigorous Improvements of those unparallel'd Advantages which the situation of our Climate the Nature of our Soil and the Constitution of both our People and Government affords us in order to the making us every way great beyond any Nation in the World but have also at their peeping abroad into the severe light taken the boldness to seek their shelter under the secure umbrage of your joint Protections your own real worth which has deservedly purchased each of you such great Honour and Esteem in the Breasts of all the Nation is the only Argument that I shall plead for this presumption it being sufficient security for my Pardon I could not imagine which way what I lay down in my Book as matter of Fact should in this unsteady Age ever come to be put into Practice without the favour and encouragement of those who might not only obtain for it a free Access to his Majesty but such also whose very smilings on its Design might be a sufficient Shield to guard it against all the Arrows of Obloquy and Envy that are usually shot at the Projector be the Undertaking never so Noble My humble Address therefore to both your Honours is That as one may be an Advocate for it to the Prince whose increase of Wealth Strength and Honour are the chief things aimed at in this Undertaking so the other may procure for it a favourable Reception amongst those honourable Gentlemen of the City whose Wealth and Grandeur are the chief support of Trade and consequently of England the Improvement of which hath been my whole study for many years and which I now make publick meerly out of a real love to my Country whose future flourishing is the only Reward I ever hope to see of all my Labours Might I once but see our Titles to Lands and Houses secured our Rivers made communicable the Poor provided for by Bank Granaries the Manufactures of the Land incouraged and as the result of all our Trade upon the Increase I should not doubt then in few years to see this Kingdom enricht above Ten Millions per An. which is but a moderate Account of what Profit must inevitably arise from a due Execution of these Reasonable Proposals I have chalkt out the Way and given a fair Prospect of the whole and I hope clearly Evidenced that it is all feasible and matter of Fact That God may therefore give his blessing on your Pious Endeavours for the promotion of so Glorious a Work as it is the unanimous Prayer of the Nation in General it is also and always shall be the humble Petition of Your most obedient Servant A. Y. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS Lord WINDSOR My Lord FRom the great Incouragement your Lordship hath been pleased to afford me in those indefatigable Pains you have taken in the Survey of several Rivers and contriving with me effectually which way these might be rendred so far Navigable that the Publick might thereby receive a general Advantage I am emboldened to make my humble return of Thanks in this small Dedication in which should I as the usual Custom is enumerate your Lordships Favours wherewith you have been pleased to honour me beyond my Desert although in so doing I should only discharge my Duty yet the captious Reader would be apt to mis-interpret my grateful Acknowledgments for crafty Insinuations as if design'd only to court your Noble Protection And by declaring to the World how far your Lordship hath dived into these Mysteries of Navigation and what a fair Prospect you have given your Country of the great Profit necessarily arising from those Vndertakings I should give my Adversaries occasion to suspect that I make use of so unquestionable a Testimony for one part of my Book meerly in design to wheedle them into an easier credence of the whole But I hope Your Lordship is assured that I have a greater veneration for your Honour than to make a Stale of either your Name Favour or Authority or that I should presume to abuse them on any occasion as young Swimmers do their Bladders with which they too too often boldly adventure beyond their depth I know indeed some speculative Gentlemen have of late plunged themselves so far into the deep that they have not only sunk in their Vndertakings to their everlasting reproach but their Ignorance buoyed up with Pride being the only thing that hath been able to keep above water they have given the World sufficient Tests of the vast difference betwixt Speculative Notions and Practical Experiments But what I here Present Your Lordship hath been for the most part already experienced in Neighbour Nations and the rest sufficiently proved by such undeniable Demonstrations that I doubt not in some few Years to see England in spight of my Opposers a flourishing Kingdom Which together with Your Lordships pardon for this rude Address and the continuance of your Favour to protect me in this bold Vndertaking is all that is aimed at or desired by My Lord Your Honours faithful and most humble Servant Andrew Yarranton To Sir Walter Kirtham Blount Baronet Sir Samuel Baldwin Sir Timothy Baldwin Knights Thomas Foley Philip Foley Esquires Thomas Smith Esquire Joseph Newbrook Samuel Whyle Nicholas Baker John Finch and Nicholas Harrison Gent. My Noble Patriots THat I have not return'd you an earlier Account of those Travels in which out of a pure love to your Country you were pleased some years since to employ me I had rather in few words submit to your just Reprehension than by making a tedious Apology tell my Readers a long story that little or nothing concerns them It is I hope sufficient that I acquaint them that if from the Remarks I have made on the Ballance of Europe or my studious prying into the curious intreagues of Trade and the thriving Politicks of our Neighbour Nations any Advantage shall arise unto us in
work besides And for ten years there will be more Law than ever to clear up Titles to make them fit to come into this voluntary Register The benefit of all these things certainly will be much more to the Lawyers Advantage than what they get by their present practice As to the Second The Gentlemen in debt will be against it I say no they will not for it will pay their debts without Moneys and that is their Interest the undeniable truth of that you have at large in this discourse As to the Third you say The Lawyers and Gentlemen in the house of Commons in debt will be against it My answer to that is That two worthy Members of the house of Commons whose estates are encumbred say they are wholly convinced of the absolute necessity and the advantage of a Register and will carry the Bill into the House when a fit opportunity offers it self And I question not but before that time all the People of England especially those poor Cities and Towns that depend upon Trade and want Credit and Stock will discourse their Parliament Men in these things hinted at who thereby will see the necessity of a Register As to the Fourth Objection and indeed it was a string that the Lawyers held hard at That it would undo thousands of Families because that by producing their Writings holes would be pickt in their Titles and Gentlemen would not Let their Estates be discovered I say here is a Salve to cover all this Sore that is the Register is voluntary not compellable so he that will Register may and he that will not may chuse and there will be Lands Registred sufficient to encourage Trade upon a sudden And those that will make use of the Lawyers and the Charge attending the Law may pursue their old way and I will promise them the persons that have Registred will not be angry with them But I will plainly shew you how the person Registring who possibly owes Ten thousand pounds and hath made three or four Mortgages of a Thousand pounds a year will pay his Debts without Moneys and will then see the Lawyers Objections are only made for their own good that they may pick some more Feathers off him Now suppose the Mayor of Warwick having a Thousand pounds a year owes Ten thousand pounds he comes and Registers his Lands and when the Law saith it shall be a good Title no man having entred a Claim then the Mayor of Warwick's Land is a good Title By this Credit the Mayor shall have his Land rise price within six Months to six and twenty years Purchase The Mayor sells off so much Land as pays the Ten thousand pounds and hath as much in value left as he had before and his Debts paid and hath then freed himself from all the Charge that attends the Law and is also able to provide for his Family and be an Instrument for the good of the publick and place where he lives Whereas before having but a Thousand pounds a year and owing Ten thousand pounds he was valued worth nothing his Family neglected and not provided for and all his business was to fence with the assistance of Lawyers to keep off and prolong the Consumption which his Estate was then liable to Then suppose the Mayor of Coventry hath One thousand pounds a year and oweth Ten thousand pounds and hath mortgaged his Lands to four several persons one knowing not of the Mortgage to the other He observing what the Mayor of Warwick hath done that he hath paid his Ten thousand pounds and freed himself from all Incumbrances and hath as good an Estate as before what do you think he will do I tell you what he will do he will go to all persons he hath mortgaged his Land to and confess the truth and desire them to come with him and all Register their Titles when the Law saith that these Titles shall be good Then the Mayor of Coventry by virtue of these Registred Lands doth the same thing that the Mayor of Warwick did before And I wish that the Members of Parliament for Warwick Worcester and Hereford Shires would seriously consider of what is here asserted and if they are convinc't of the truth hereof let them pursue the ends for the obtaining of it and they will quickly find the benefit thereof All Scotland is under a Register and worth twenty four years Purchase and on the other side in the North of Ireland although but three Hours Sail is worth but eight years Purchase and in England on this side Twede it is worth but sixteen years Purchase the Register is the Cause The Mannor of Taunton Dean in Somersetshire is under a Register and there the Land is worth three and twenty years Purchase although but a Copy-hold Mannor and at any time he that hath One hundred pounds a year in the Mannor of Taunton may go to the Castle and take up Two thousand pounds upon his Lands and buy Stuffs with the money and go to London and sell his Stuff and Return down his moneys and pay but five in the hundred for his moneys and discharge his Lands This is the Cause of the great Trade and Riches in and about Taunton Dean O happy Taunton Dean What Gentleman can do thus with Free-lands No it is not worth sixteen years Purchase all England over one place with another and if not timely put under a Register it will come to twelve years Purchase before long Now you see a Register is practicable in Scotland and also in England And if it were so by Act of Parliament in these particular places I have formerly mentioned in this Treatise there would be no Complaint for want of People or Trade in England Methinks I hear some object and say Although Scotland be under a Register yet that is a very poor Country There are many reasons to be given wherefore Scotland might be very poor And if it were not under a Register the Land would not be worth eight years purchase But being under a Register you see how much it exceeds the Lands in England in purchase Scotland is ruled by a Commissioner and there you cannot expect that which you may where the Monarch keeps his Court. For here the Merchants have access with speed and ease to have their grievances heard and redressed But in tributary Kingdoms there ever were and ever will be self-interest Parties to keep as much as in them lyes the Peoples grievances from the Princes knowledge provided they can thereby feather their own Nests Witness Flanders and the Vice-roys that have been sent by the Spaniard to govern there But Scotland is not under half the Improvement or ever will be as England is For in England there are large Rivers and well scituated for Trade great Woods Mynes good Wooll and large Beasts In Scotland very little Woods few Iron Mynes course Wooll and often great part of the Sheep are starved And no Northern Kingdom is or
the Room where the Flax is with Fire in it in all moist times which keeps the Flax dry and prevents Moistness which is another great cause which makes it so fine I have seen Flax in Saxony twenty years old thus hous-wife't which was as fine as the hairs of ones head It is true there what the old saying is here That Wooll may be kept to Dirt and Flax to Silk And as to the Second It is true that their Hollands and Clothes are whitened at Haerlem and by the very sides of the Lake and Cuts are conveniently made and the Lake is much of a height at all times and so it feeds the Cuts with water that with ease they may Sprinkle the Clothes as there is Occasion also it is well fitted with Houses by the sides of the Cuts to boyl the Yarn and prepare it the sooner to be white These are good things and by the situation of the Place and conveniency of the Mere it doth much advance the business Rich Merchants are there seated that drive great Trades and there they have a Bank and their Moneys at three in the Hundred But as to Haerlem Lake it is subject to be mixed with Salt-water which is brought in the Ships daily from Amsterdam and there pumpt out into the Lake And all that can be said for that Water being better than any other Water in Holland is this that it continually stands in a Pool or Lake and by the influence and heat of the Sun is made soft and so very fit for scouring and the like is not in any part of Holland else But in England we have many places very fit and by Nature convenient and with a little Art as good as Haerlem if not better And for Instance take two places one at Stratford upon Avon the other at Coventry At Stratford upon Avon near the Bridge in the Lands of Sir John Clapton by virtue of the Mills pounding high or at a rise of Water he may lead the Water along his own Land until it come so high that no Flood will reach There Cuts may be made in his Land and Houses built with spare pieces to bleech the Cloth on the Water being taken into the Cuts about the end of March and so continued therein whereby the heat of the Sun will more and more soften and fit it for bleeching The second place is Coventry Almost round the City the Lands and Waters lye so convenient that it exceeds Haerlem for Haerlem Lake lyeth but upon one Quarter of the Town and the Waters lye at Coventry about three parts of that Town And I am sure Coventry ought to be the chiefest place of this intended Linen Manufacture and in few years would exceed Haerlem God and Nature having fixed them right for it both as to Land fit to bear Flax good whitening a large City in the very Centre of England and their Woollen Manufacture being now wholly decayed And in this City a Bank by virtue of a voluntary Register is absolutely necessary and then the Gentlemen in the four Counties named may make their Sons Linen Merchants and thereby be a means to help to beat the Dutch without fighting I have been something long upon this Theme because I hope and believe I may see something of the Improvement by the Linen Trade come to pass But some other Questions will here be asked As who incouraged you to make this Discourse of the Linen Improvement and who paid you for your pains in travelling to find the things here writ I answer I was an Apprentice to a Linen Draper and so I knew something of Linen and finding the Poor unimployed I with my Wife did promote the making of much fine Linen with good success And being employed and my Charges born by twelve Gentlemen of England to bring into England a Manufacture out of Saxony and Bohemia made of Iron and Tin there I did see what I here set down and in Holland and Flanders I tryed and observed their way and manner of Trade in the Linen Manufacture All which take you for nothing The second Manufacture to be incouraged to set the poor people at work being the growth and product of our own Kingdom is that of Iron But now I am sure I shall draw a whole Swarm of Wasps about my Ears For say some and many too who think themselves very wise it were well if there were no Iron-works in England and it was better when no Iron was made in England and the Iron-works destroy all the Woods and foreign Iron from Spain will do better and last longer And I have heard many men both Rich and Sober often declare these things and it hath been and is the opinion of nine parts of ten of the people of England that it is so and by no arguments whatever will they be beat from the belief of it although there is not one word true As to the First The Iron works at present in England are of the same value and I believe much more to the publick than the Woollen Manufacture is and is the cause of imploying near as many people and much more Lands for Horses and Oxen to carry and recarry those heavy commodities of which the Iron is made and the Iron and the things made of the Iron Therefore I will take the Kingdom half round and shew you what the Iron works do contribute to the Publick and to the whole Countries And First I will begin in Monmouth-shire and go through the Forest of Dean and there take notice what infinite quantities of Raw Iron is there made with Bar Iron and Wire and consider the infinite number of Men Horses and Carriages which are to supply these Works and also digging of Iron Stone providing of Cinders carrying to the Works making it into Sows and Bars cutting of Wood and converting it into Charcoal Consider also in all these parts the Woods are not worth the cutting and bringing home by the Owner to burn in their Houses And it is because in all these places there are Pit Coals very cheap Consider also the multitude of Cattel and People thereabouts employed that make the Lands dear And what with the benefit made of the Woods and the People making the Land dear it is not inferior for Riches to any place in England And if these Advantages were not there it would be little less than a howling Wilderness I believe if this comes to the hands of Sir Baynom Frogmorton and Sir Duncomb Colchester they will be on my side Moreover there is yet a most great benefit to the Kingdom in general by the Sow Iron made of the Iron Stone and Roman Cinders in the Forest of Dean for that Metal is of a most gentle pliable soft nature easily and quickly to be wrought into Manufacture over what any other Iron is and it is the best in the known World and the greatest part of this Sow Iron is sent up Severne to the Forges into
two great Manufactures of Iron and Linen I mean Iron wrought into all Commodities so vastly brought down the Rhine into Holland from Leige Gluke Soley and Cologne and by them diffused and sent all the World over And these two Trades being well fixed here will help to beat the Dutch without fighting I pray consider the charge England is now at with the poor and observe what they now cost the Publick but if imployed in these two Manufactures what advance by their Labour might the publick receive Admit there be in England and Wales a hundred thousand poor people unimployed and each one costs the publick four pence the Day in food and if these were imployed they would earn eight pence the day and so the publick in what might be gained and saved will advance twelve pence the day by each poor person now unimployed So a hundred thousand persons will be to the benefit of the publick if imployed one Million and a half yearly in these two Manufactures of Iron and Linen And as these two Manufactures are now managed in Saxony they set all their poor at work I travelling aworter and a-cross Saxony did not see one begger there and these two Manufactures being prudently and by good Laws there supported and encouraged they are become two parts in three of the Revenue and benefit of that Duke and they are sent into England at this time in great quantities all paying Customs in ten several places before they come here And that the Linen and Iron Manufactures may be so incouraged here by a publick Law as that we may draw these Trades solely to us which now foreign Nations receive the benefit of there ought in the first place to be a Tax or Custom at least of four shillings in the pound put on all Linen Yarn Threads Tapes and Twines for Cordage that shall be imported into England and three shillings in the pound upon all Linen Clothes under four shillings the Ell and this Law to be and continue for seven years And by vertue of this Tax or Imposition there will be such advantage given to the Linen Manufacture in its Infancy that thereby it will take deep rooting and get a good Foundation on a sudden the consequence whereof will do and bring to pass the great things formerly mentioned And as to the Incouragement of the Iron and Iron Manufactures there should be three pound a Tun Custom laid on all foreign Barr Iron imported and six pounds the Tun on all the Manufactured Iron imported into England and by these two ways namely by a Tax being laid upon the imported Barr Iron Iron Wares and Thread Tape Twine and Linen Cloth of all sorts all the Trade of these things will be here and all the Poor set at work the Dutch robbed of one of their greatest Flowers and to the King and people in general at least six Millions a year advantage The reasons how and upon what grounds it will be so as also the reasons why the Commons in the Countries afore mentioned ought to be inclosed for Wood and Timber you may expect in the second part But I know there will be a parcel of at least eight Anchor Smiths near London that will make a great Noise against laying a Tax upon foreign Iron and give many wise reasons for it and at last endeavour to knock all on the head urging that it will be of great prejudice to the King for it will cause him to pay dear for all his Iron that shall be made use of for his Naval Force But the King need not fear that for he may if he please have sufficient of his own at half the rates he pays now for it and good quantities to sell to others and made at the place before mentioned near Christ-Church in Hampshire But there is something that may be of worse consequence than ordinary if the Iron Manufacture be not incouraged At present most of the Works in Sussex and Surry are laid down and many in the North of England and many in other parts must follow if not prevented by inclosing Commons to supply them with Wood. And when the greatest part of the Iron-works are asleep if there should be occasion for great quantities of Guns and Bullet and other sorts of Iron Commodities for a present unexpected War and the Sound happen to be lockt up and so prevent Iron coming to us truly we should then be in a fine case Therefore if the Iron Design at Christ-Church go on it may do well for Store will be no sore I hope now I have plainly made it appear that by the two Manufactures of Iron and Linen being incouraged as is set down all the poor People of England may be set at work But I hear some say You projected the making Navigable the River Stoure in Worcestershire what is the reason it was not finished I say it was my projection and I will tell you the reason why it was not finished The River Stoure and some other Rivers were granted by an Act of Parliament to certain persons of Honour and some progress was made in the work but within a small while after the Act passed it was let fall again But it being a Brat of my own I was not willing it should be Abortive therefore I made offers to perfect it having a third part of the Inheritance to me and my heirs for ever and we came to an agreement Upon which I fell on and made it compleatly Navigable from Sturbridge to Kederminster and carried down many hundred Tuns of Coales and laid out near one thousand pounds and there it was obstructed for want of Money which by Contract was to be paid Rules to prevent Fires in the City of London and in the great Cities of England taken exactly from the Method that is used in Saxony and many other parts of Germany THere Masons Carpenters Brick-layers and Joyners at their making Free are put into the List with the rest to be alwayes ready to help to quench and prevent the spreading of Fires Fifteen of the Substantial Citizens Commissionated for to look to the well ordering of all things relating thereunto an Engineer and his Assistants made and setled two Sentinels appointed with Houses built for to hold the Water Engins in and to put in the Engineers Ingredients and Goods taken from all Houses on Fire or to be blown up Sleds and Copper Tubs made These things being made and done then the Sentinel hath a Place on the top of the highest Steeple whereby he may look all over the Town one is by Day the other by Night and every two Hours in the Night he plays half an hour upon a Flagelet being very delightful in the Night and he looks round the City if he observes any Smoak or Fire or danger of Fire he presently sounds a Trumpet and hangs out a bloody Flag towards that Quarter of the City where the Fire is Immediately all the people which are for
it had been Five hundred Nobles in my way and my Fathers Now we shall make cheap-Cloth pay nothing to the poor set all a-work and carry our Cloth to Christ-Church by Water and so for Sea and pay nothing to Lawyers and have Moneys when we want it We will agree quarterly with the Parrator that will be but little Come Boys a brave Trade again Come here 's three Healths in good SACK here is our Countrey-mans Health Here 's a Health to the Man that makes the Wind-Mill and a Health to him that brings this Voluntary Register to Town Come Landlady to pay and to Bed a good days work I trow Dr. Nay hold Old Friend I must be gone early in the Morning therefore let us agree where to meet in London to set forward the good things we now so warmly have treated upon for if we do not follow it close all this will come to nothing Interest will not lie every Man will be for his own Interest Cl. I am glad you say Interest will not lie Then I am sure you Clothiers and we Drapers and all the Gentlemen in England their Interest is to set the poor at work to have their Lands rise Rents and be at Thirty years purchase and to have a great Trade Well we will meet at the Booksellers house that prints our Discourse and then draw up what is fit to be done So farewel honest Countrey-man for to night Dr. Good morrow good morrow Gentlemen I hope you have slept well to Night Cl. Slept well no for I did not sleep at all for I have abundance of Wind-Mills in my Noddle now sufficient to send all the Clothiers in our Town and many more to Holland and Germany whither as I understand several of them are packing already but that way will never do our business to carry cheap Wool and cheap Victuals into Germany and Holland out of Ireland and there make it into Cloth and sell it there to whom they please and a Register and a Bank and Moneys at Four in the hundred and Mills in Barges to thicken the course Cloths by the very Town-side and Wind-Mills to thicken and full our fine Clothes nor will it do our work to sort and chuse out the best Wool in Ireland and send it to Holland and Germany with good Beef Butter and Cheese Irish-Tongues and Tallow to light us to work by Nights and to have good part of the course Wool spun in Ireland and brought over to us in Yarn ready to Weave and to set on Foot on the out-sides of our Town the making of Beudley-capes for they are made of Irish-Wool and then sent into Holland to be Sold and I hope Wool from Ireland and cheap Victuals with it will do that business well there and all the Stuffs that are for hangings now made at Kidderminster shall be made in Holland with Irish-Wool and spun Linnen-Yarn out of Saxony and Bohemia for they make these Stuffs of Irish-Wool and German-Yarn and I am sure some of the people of these Towns will quickly go away Another trick there is of carrying Fullers-earth from Woborne to Lynn in Norfolk as they pretend and then Ship it to be carried to the Clothiers in the West And when at Sea a West-wind blows the Ship into Flushing in Zealand And we will have more Fullers-earth carried from Arundel in Sussex to Portsmouth or to Chichester and there Ship'd to secure the Clothiers in the North of England And when that Ship is over against Hull a West-wind shall blow her over to the Brill or into the Texel into Holland And these two Ladings of Earth with a little that shall be brought over for Ballast for Ships will do mischief enough For Trade will go where it is most encouraged and where the Merchant and Clothier can get most by it Dr. True old Friend these tricks there are and there are bad men enough that will be apt enough to leave the Land where they were born but let us see to help these matters For if you should be one of them all the Poor of the Countrey will be bound to curse you and so will the Rich too for we have had men bad enough of our own Trade but it will not become me to name Persons who have provoked many Clothiers to sell their estates and Transport themselves into the lower Palatinate and other parts of Germany and there set up the Clothing-Trade which hath already quite spoiled our Course-Cloth-Trade Eastward and the Trade at Hamborough too for if their Trade be spoil'd in England they must try if they can make it out somewhere else as in Ireland Holland and Germany c. Cl. Well Friend for the conclusion of this Discourse we have no more to do but to endeavour the redress of these grievances as far as in duty we may and humbly to represent to Authority the great advantage it may be to the publick to prevent the carrying of Fullers-earth out of the Land To provide that all Factors Packers and Drawers may be put in their proper places That the illegal Transportation of Wools may be hindred and the Trade of Ireland regulated It would be of great ease and advantage if our Western Clothes might be Transported from Plymouth beyond the Seas to save the charge of carrying them to London Many other particulars might be added but this for the present till we meet next NOW I have discovered to you the way manner and method of setting all the Poor in England at work with the growth and product of our own Nation with the particular means for bringing the same to pass And Places assigned for the doing thereof with the scituation and conveniences that are by God and Nature fixt in these Counties Next I will shew you That by the means and ways hereafter prescribed all the poor people that are imployed in these Manufactures shall be in the same Counties fed with Bread sufficient without any charge to the Publick and thereby the Commodities will be Manufactured cheap The like benefit and advantage infinite of the poor People of England in other parts will receive by the way here-after set down taken exactly from the same things done in other places whereby they work cheap and send infinite of their Manufactured Commodities into many parts of the World And were they not fixt in these places beyond the Seas in those Manufactures and Policies the Princes of those Countries and their subjects would be strangely poor My design now is to speak of Granaries to hold Corn and to be fill'd in the time of plenty and the advantage they are of being well fixt in convenient places with the benefit the Poor will receive by them and the Rich also And where ever Trade and Manufacture is intended to be set on foot so as to bring it to perfection Granaries must be made and built in places convenient to answer the ends designed The Great Duke of Saxony hath three great Manufactures
one of Iron Tinn and Copper another of Linnen and spun Threds of all sorts the third of Sawed Timbers of all sorts He hath convenienced them thus As to his Iron Tinn and Copper he hath fixt these works in the Valley running from Segar-hutton clear a-long by the Cities of Anaburgh Sneburgh and Mareauburgh and down as far as Awe and in the Hills and Mountains are his Minerals In the Valleys are the Rivers whereon are set the Works The Hills and Mountains and at least Ten Miles round are full of Woods to supply his Works not one Acre of common-Land lyes waste At the descent of the Hills are infinite of Saw-Mills that go by Water which Saw all manner of Firr and Oak and in the Summer-time it is dragged to the River Elb and so sent down to Hamborough And things being thus fixt with all advantages that Trade can desire that Place is strangely populous and vastly Rich and yields to the Duke a great Revenue And it lies as Wales and as the Forest of Dean doth to England Next to these Wood-land Countries lies the delightful Plain Countrey wherein is the famous City of Lepsick very Rich in Corn and Flax and so it holds to Dresden upon the Left-hand of Myson with some Vineyards And in these delightful Countries there is no waste Lands but all under improvement In all the great Towns there are great Granaries for Corn and in the Time of Plenty they lay up for a Rainy-day And so there is sufficient for the Poor at easie rates at all times whereby the Manufacture is always cheaply done and thereby hath the advantage of sending it to foreign Markets and under-sell others The next Country joyning to Saxony is the Prince of Hainaults the Prince of Parmburghs with the Bishoprick of Hall wherein stands the Cities of Salts Wadell Shenibank and that brave old City of Magdenburgh destroyed by Fire and Sword by Count Tilly These Countreys for Corn as to Rye and Wheat are so plentiful that no part of Europe can go before them there being much Corn to spare In the Two Cities of Shenibank and Magdenburgh are many Granaries they lying upon the side of the Elbe And in the City of Magdenburgh I was credibly informed being Twice in that City that there were Three hundred Granaries of all sorts wherein Corn is kept sweet and safe from vermin to admiration The manner of the Granaries built with the way of ordering of the Corn and the benefit which is received thereby you shall have when I speak of Granaries setting up in England From hence the Brunswick People fetch their Wheat they make there Mum of and down the Elb to Hamborough is sent infinite of Corn out of the Granaries and from thence to all parts that stand in need thereof In these Countreys there is very little Manufacture only some course Linnen and Linnen-yarn These Granaries preserve the Corn Six Eight or Ten years as good and sweet as when it was first put in There are great Merchants for Corn and the Farmers lay up their Corn at easie Rates and so have the benefit of their Straw yearly and not Rick it up as we do in England to be devoured by Rats and Mice There Men and Maid-servants and all other persons that have Monies buy Corn when it is cheap and lay it up till it be dear And in these publick Granaries the Corn is kept safe sweet and well a whole year for a Half-peny a Bushel and the Granary-Man gets by it The like may be done in England and that which now feeds Rats and Mice and otherways consumed will supply the greatest part of the poor People of England with Bread being preserved in Granaries Now I am for saving the Corn in England and keeping it safe and sweet in Granaries which is consumed at present by Rats and Mice until there shall be want and necessity for it to be delivered to the Poor In the Four Counties I name for the Linnen Manufacture Oxford Warwick Leicester and Northamptonshire there ought to be Granaries to lay up Corn these Counties being great Corn-Counties And at the head of the Navigable Rivers are the places fit for such Granaries and first Wellinborough in Northamptonshire or thereabouts Secondly some Town in Leicestershire within Four Miles of Kings-Mills unto which Place Trent is Navigable Thirdly Banbury if the River Sharwell be made Navigable to Banbury or else about Bleckington the Earl of Angleses Land near Anslo-Bridg And fifthly Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire If Granaries were built in those Places to hold Corn there it would be brought in with ease and when want and scarcity of Corn comes it is then ready to be sent down the Navigable Rivers or to be disperst for the benefit of the Poor in the Countrey Leicestershire is abounding in Corn and when plenty there it is very cheap having no Navigable River near to carry it away the like is Northamptonshire But if Granaries were well setled in these Places near Trent and St. Ives River then it is ready for a Market when it offers it self Lechload at the Head of the River Isis Ten Miles above Oxford will be a very fit place for a Granary for in thither will come great quantities of Corn out of Oxford Glocester and Berkshire And there it will be ready upon all occasions when wanted either for the Poor or to be transported down the River to London and other parts Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire will be a very good place to build Granaries to receive Corn and I will affirm if there were Three or Four large Granaries built in the Lands of Sir John Clapton near the Bridg at Stratford and well managed for the good of the Poor and Linnen Trade That on that side the River there would be in a very short time as great a Town built as Stratford now is and there have as great a Trade as any City in those parts of England Bristol only excepted And these are my Reasons First the River Avon being made Navigable to Stratford the Barges that come up with Coles and Merchants goods by them Corn will be taken back to Bristol and up the River Severn as far as the Welsh-Pool And Secondly the Country near Stratford as far as Banbury Ayno-Dedinton Bister and so to Brakley and round ot Daventry is very full and abounds with good Corn and the Carts that come to Stratford for Coles would never come empty down but bring Corn with them if there were Granaries sufficient to receive it So you see all things would be fitted for sore and back carriage And I will affirm No place in England can expect the benefit or advantage by any such Granaries as Stratford upon Avon may for that great and vast quantities of Corn is raised in those parts and when cheap they cannot tell what to do with it the ways being so dirty and deep But the advantage of the Navigation will send it to serve
for building the Granaries which is 80 l. So the charge will be yearly 200 l. Now observe if the Countrey Man pay 6 d. a Quarter yearly for keeping his Corn safe and sweet in the Granary Fourteen thousand Quarters will come to 350 l. for Granary-Rent yearly The Pattern of the Granary to be built you shall have in the Map of New Harlem and New Brunswick taken exactly from one built in the City of Shenibank in the Vale of Parinburgh upon the River Elb which is a Store-house for Wheat to be sent to Brunswick whereof Mum is made Serious Reader Here is a way plainly lined out to cheat the Rats and Mice to feed the Poor to preserve the Tenant to pay the Landlord to bring to us several Manufactures to prevent Law-Suits to fetch out all Moneys now unimployed into Trade and it will be if done as the Blood in the Body it will so circulate in a few years that Corn will be to England better than ready Moneys and to have this so is undoubtedly every Mans interest in the Kingdom Therefore Corn Registred in the Publick Granary in each Countrey and so entred in the general Register at the Guild-hall will bring to pass these things now Treated of and many more most strange advantages to the People of England which you may expect in the Second Part. 7. Consider what great quantities of Iron-Reads Wrought and Cast is brought into England from foreign parts which might be made and cast here thereby imploying the same number of People here as are imployed in other parts in making thereof and all of Materials of our own A Tax laid upon all wrought Iron would bring and force this Trade to us 8. Consider there are few Gentlemen in England but out of their Woods make some considerable revenue yearly and many of them by selling it to the Iron-works thereby have certain Rents for their Land And whatever is of our own growth ought to be cherished and countenanced and then we shall reap the benefit Considerations of the benefit of a Register and the disadvantage of not having one First Consider He that hath Two hundred pound a year in Free-land and Eight hundred pound a year in other Land his Two hundred pound a year will be as ready Money at all times to supply his just occasions to Marry his Sons and Daughters and to help to manage his Eight hundred pounds a year to the best advantage in Planting Watering and in all other good Husbandry his Land is capable of Secondly Consider For want of Three or Four thousand pounds at command by many men that have One thousand pound a year how they are tossed and tumbled Procurator and Continuator Usurer and Lawyer Under-Sherifs and Baylifs his Land unimproved his Wives heart sorrowful Children want education grow disobedient and head-strong Tenants and Baylifs take unjust and unlawful advantages by reason of the Landlords necessities Thirdly Consider what Credit and Reputation the Gentleman is in that can at any time take up Four thousand pounds and what advantage he may take either of a good Bargain when it is offered or to prefer a Child when he seeth it convenient Fourthly Consider That he that hath but One hundred pound a year and of that Twenty pound a year Free-land what that will do to his benefit it will support him at any time to take up Four hundred pounds to manage his affairs to the best advantage But as things are now he must go to Councel with his Writings but it is possible he dare not produce them and may stay Twelve Months or longer before he gets Moneys and in the mean time Suits are multiplyed with charges and loss of time his Family distracted and many times undone Fifthly Consider the great Cruelty that is now used to Men that have not ready Moneys to pay their Debts by Attorneys and under-Sherifs Baylifs and their Creatures as though Man was made to be torn in pieces alive and what ruins come to one Friend from another by being Bail and bound for his relations even the ruine of infinite numbers of Families in England every year Sixthly Consider The comfort of this way of having ready Money upon Land doth administer to the Wife content to the party safety and safety to all related to him and thereby a Man may upon his death-bed justly provide for his Wife and Children and it will be safe and good Seventhly Consider at this day the Land-security being not good many Gentlemen pay Eight Nine and Ten in the Hundred for the Moneys they take up and go upon the Tick for all Commodities and when they pay it is double the value as if bought with ready Moneys The very bane of many estates Eighthly Consider that no great thing can be done without ready Moneys or Credit Lands Registred will be both and Land will rise purchase and Trade incouraged Ninthly Consider it will pay the poor Gentlemans Debts without Moneys a thing just now wanting Tenthly Consider A Register will set on foot the Noble business of Fishing about England and Wales and inable persons to make the great Rivers of England Navigable and thereby raise great numbers of Sea-men which may be wanting and all persons receiving the general benefit that will come thereby will be of Ten times more to the Government than these Rats and Mice that are now privately devouring all that 's good Twelfthly Consider of what sad consequence it is with us in England at this day that we cannot have Bonds and Bills Transferred by Assignments so as the Property may go a-long with the Assignment thereby one Bond or Bill will go in the nature of Bills of Exchange And so A. owing Two hundred pounds to B. he Assigns him the Bond of C. who owed him Two hundred pounds and C. owing D. Two hundred pounds Assigns him the Bond of E. who owed him Two hundred pounds and so one Bond or Bill would go through Twenty hands and thereby be as ready Moneys and do much to the benefit of Trade and prevent infinite vexatious Suits and prevent the ruin of some hundreds of Families For as the Law now is practised at this day although the word Assign be in the Bond yet the Property of the Bond passes not but the party Assigning his Heirs Executors or Administrators may discharge the Bond by a Release And pray observe the miserable calamity that the poor People lye under for want of this being not done now A. owes B. Two hundred pounds the Bond being Four hundred pounds for the payment of Two hundred pounds B. sends a Writ into the Countrey and arrests A. he cannot get such Bayle as the Sherif will accept So perhaps lieth a Month or longer in Prison his Wives heart almost broke Children and Friends sorrowful At last the Wife importunes Friends of hers to be bound for his appearance but he cannot get special Bayle above then the Attorneys and Sherifs harvest comes in they
presently make three Suits of one and fall on the poor Security At last Bayle is put in above then Common-Law-Tryals Demurrers Writs of Error Chancery So Plantif and Defendant many times ruine one the other Whereas if a Bond were Transferable and the property to pass it being a Bond and good Men bound in it this Bond would run from Man to Man from Hand to Hand from one Tradesman to another and so one Bond would pay twenty Men for people at this day would be glad to have payments made them in such Paper rather than go to Law for their own and often undo their Creditor and sometimes themselves to It would be a mighty benefit to Trade and Commerce to have Bonds transfer'd A poor man in England that hath a Thousand pounds in Bonds with good Sureties bound cannot pay one hundred pounds of his Debts with them Our Free-lands being put under a Voluntary Register and the property of Bonds being made Transferable by assignment will be a great profit to the Nation As things are now we have not one fourth part of Moneys sufficient to drive the Trade of England and set up the neglected Fishery improve our own Manufactures and to answer peoples just honest and lawful occasions But if the Free-lands were Registred and Bonds Transferable then we should have three parts in four more Cash than we should have occasion to use For the Land Registred will do what Money now doth and this is credit equal to Moneys and then we shall do what the DVTCH now do never want Moneys to do any great thing But we must submit our selves in all things to his Majesties Gracious Pleasure and Authority Twelfthly It will by its credit be the cause of setting at work all the poor of England in the Linnen and Iron-Manufacture and so convenience the Woollen-Manufacture that it will be as one that were risen from the dead Thirteenthly Consider That the want of a Register will make us in few years like unto a Wheat-rick that hath stood many years when it is opened all the Corn is consumed by Rats and Mice and nothing left but the Straw and Clothings It would be well if those worthy Virtuosoes that intend the good of the Publique and have real intentions to improve Mecanick Arts that they and all such Lords and Gentlemen that wish well thereto with speed would advance a Sum of Moneys to build an University for the Improvement of Art in England and to maintain Six persons continually Travelling to find out such Improvements and the way of bringing them to pass as may be for the real good of the Publique the pattern how to settle such a University for Art they may have from one long since setled near Newringburg in Germany The consequence whereof hath so imyroved the Mecanick-Art in Germany that no place in the World comes near them for Art Considerations upon the advantages and disadvantages of the Manufacturies of Linnen Thred Tape and Twine for Cordage 1. COnsider what quantities of fine Linnens are made in Holland and Flanders and here worn and consumed and how many hands it imploys in work to manufacture it and the great benefit the Dutch gain being the great Masters of that Trade 2. Consider that if these fine Clothes were made here how it would imploy the Poor raise the price of Land and keep our Moneys at home for the Dutch take nothing from us in exchange wherein the benefit is any way considerable to the publick 3. Consider of all course Linnens brought from France as Canvases Lockrums and great quantities of coarse Clothes which have of late years so crouded upon us that it hath almost laid aside the making of Linnen Cloth in England and thereby the people are unimploy'd and the Land lyeth idle and waste 4. Consider the French take nothing of any value from us but it is ready money for their Linnens so we keep their people at work and send them our moneys to pay them for it and our own Poor are unimploy'd But if a Tax were laid upon their coarse Linnen Clothes then what is brought out of France into England would be made here of our own growth to the Nations great enriching 5. Consider the Twine and Yarn ready wrought and brought out of the East-Country to make Sail-Cloth and Cordage which hath taken off the labour of multitude of people in Suffolk and thereabouts and hath so lessened that Trade that it is almost lost But if a Tax were laid upon the threds brought over ready wrought then the labour of all such things would be here to supply our Poor at work and raise the price of our Lands 6. Consider what vast quantities of narrow coarse Clothes come out of Germany down the Elbe Weser and Emes and transported into England and here vented and worn the cheapness whereof hath beaten out the Linnen Trade formerly made in Lancashire Cheshire and thereabouts and carried and sold at London about forty years since it was a very great Trade and tended much to the relief of the Poor in them parts A Tax being laid upon these Easterling Clothes would occasion the reviving of that coarse Cloth-Trade again with us which would set multitudes at work 7. Consider the Foreign Bed-ticking coming hither cheap hath almost destroyed that Trade in Dorcetshire and Somersetshire and so the Spinners are Idle and the Land falls price and in this as in other things we send our Moneys into Foreign parts to keep their Poor at work and support them and here we starve our own and lose that Trade A Tax upon Foreign Bed-ticking would prevent all this 8. Consider the vast and infinite quantities of Thred ready spun that comes down out of Germany into England and here made use of and all the labour of such Threds are there done the Government and People there have the advantage of it and here we make use of them in many of our Commodities It is of late discovered that the cheapness of these Threds will eat out the very Spinning in most parts of England Consider and take this president at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Formerly the Clothiers made use of Linnen-Yarn Spun in that Countrey to make their Lynsey-woolseys but now the cheapness of the Foreign Threds hath put them upon making use of Germany-Yarn in which Town there is One hundred pound a Week in Yarn made use of great quantities of Thred also are used at Manchester Maidstone and in other parts of England to mix with Woollen with infinite other Commodities and all the benefit of the labour of these Threds is applied to Foreigners a Tax being put upon the Threds would put the Wheel to work in England again This is of great consequence to the Publick to be taken into consideration for in this very thing of Spun-yarn no less than Thirty thousand People would be here employed if by Law it were encouraged Considerations upon the Iron Manufacture 1. COnsider That the best
have forc'd Trade out of your City some of them are not within the power either of the Law or your Magistrates to prevent but some are and these which may be done with ease I question not but your Magistrates will use their endeavours to bring them to pass The which are putting all the New Buildings in the City of London under a Register and procuring a Law to pass to enable the several Companies of Handicraft Tradesmen in London hereafter mentioned to have power to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury to build Granaries to hold Corn with Mills or any other Engines to go by Water to be made use of for the good and benefit of the several Companies whereby Art will be incouraged and Trade convenienced The Names of the Companies are as followeth and the Copy of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the accomplishing of the same follows after The Company of Weavers the Company of Pin-Makers the Company of Turners the Company of Water-men the Company of Silk-Throwers the Company of Felt-Makers the Company of Pavers the Company of Cloth-Workers the Company of Plasterers the Company of Joyners the Company of Embroiderers the Company of Brick-Layers the Company of Smiths the Company of Armourers and the Company of Carpenters The Form of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the making of the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and for building Publick Granaries near the said River with liberty to set up Mills and Engines to go by Water for the use and benefit of the several Companies of the Handicraft Trades in the City of London called by the Names of Weavers Pin-Makers Turners Water-men Silk-Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Workers Plasterers Joyners Embroiderers Brick-Layers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters WHereas it is evidently made appear That all Manufactures in England may by the advantage of having constantly good and cheap Uictuals as also ready Moneys at all times to drive their several Trades live comfortably and thereby provide plentifully for their Wives and Children And whereas it is lately found out and discovered that the said Benefits may with much ease be made applicable unto several of the Companies of Handicrafts within the City of London and the way for the doing thereof is to have liberty to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and to set up publick Granaries and Engines near the said River for the use of the said Companies Therefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Incorporated Companies of Meavers Pin-Makers Turners Mater-men Silk Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Morkers Plasterers Ioyners Embroiderers Bricklayers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters to make the River Sharwell Navigable from the City of Oxford to the Town of Banbury in the County of Oxford and to build Granaries for holding of Corn with liberty for making of Mills for grinding thereof with Licence and leave to set up Engines to go by Mater for the use and benefit of the several Trades mentioned in this Act. And for that it shall not be any ways prejudicial to the Owners of any Land which shall be Cut or made use of for making the said River Navigable or building the said Granaries Hills or Engines Therefore be it Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellor of England to grant a Commission under the Great Seal of England thereby Authorising Fifteen of the knowingest able Gentlemen of the County of Oxford to be Commissioners to set down and settle what and how much shall be paid for the Lands so to be Cut or made use of and the Moneys to be paid before there is any act or thing done in cutting any of the said Lands so to be made use of And it is further Enacted That any Seven of the said Commissioners shall be sufficient to make or do any act according to Iustice and good Conscience and all Rules Orders Decrees being so made done shall bind all Parties concerned their Heirs all other Persons whatsoever And be it further Enacted That all the Benefit of the said River Sharwell and the Barges and Boats employed thereupon with the Granaries Hills and Engines to be built shall be and enure to the several Companies named in this Act and to their Successors for ever And be it further Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Companies and their Successors to put Corn in the said Granaries and the same to be Registred with the Clark of each Company as to the time it was put in and the nature kind and quantities of the said Corn And from and after such time the said Corn is in Granary no Sale Mortgage or Conveyance shall be good but such as is Entered with the Clark of the particular Companies and at the Guild-Hill with the Register there employed for that purpose And in case any of the said Parties dye having Corn in Bank it shall go and enure one Third part to the Midow of the Party deceased the other two Third parts thereof to be dirided share and share like amongst all the Children of the Party deceased only the youngest Child excepted which shall have one share and a half being in most necessity the better to help to breed him or her up And that the Husband is and shall be for ever disabled to make any Incumbrance upon the said Corn in Bank without the consent of his Wife and she joining with him under her Hand and Entred in the Clark of the Companies Book and with the Register at the Guild-Hall then the property of the said Bank Corn shall be legally altered and not otherwise any Law Statute Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding In reading my Book of England's Improvement by Sea and Land you will see the Causes laid open and plain of the decay of Trade and Manufactures in England and the Reasons of the low Rates the things must of necessity be sold for I have already set and appropriated the Clothiers of Worcester the Weavers of Kidderminster and the Cappers of Bewdley to have the benefit of a Granary near Stratford upon Avon Now I am for fixing the several Companies of London who work in the laborious Arts in Granaries upon the River Sharwel near Anslo Bridge in the County of Oxford about seven Miles from Oxford The Arms of the several Companies are in the Map of Rivers in this Book affixed wherein you may plainly see That if the River Sharwel were once made Navigable from Oxford to Anslo Bridge and the Granaries built in that place for the several Companies then all the Rich Corn Countries toward Banbury and Brackley would be on the Back-side of the Granaries and would at all times
this Kingdom they must with me return their Acknowledgments wholly to you whose Generous Souls not only engaged me at first in the Undertaking but also wholly maintained both me and my Interpreter throughout my Travels in the quest of such things as my own Fortune would have proved too slender to have otherwise acquired But that I may not be condemned with the Sluggard for laying up my Talent in a Napkin I herewith present you also an account of my choicest Observations and Practice for this twenty five years in Trade in which such Secrets as the benefit of your Moneys gave me the advantage of finding out abroad are at length by great pains and study rendred all practicable here at home and so adapted to our own Climate and Constitutions that nothing but Sloth or Envy can possibly hinder my Labours from being crown'd with their wisht for Success Our habitual fondness of the one hath already brought us to the brink of Ruine and our proneness to the other almost discouraged all Pious Endeavours to promote our future Happiness People confess they are sick Trade is in a Consumption the whole Nation languishes and the Physick prescribed is very proper and good but some like not the Season and fain would put it off like Repentance still a little longer until at length it be too late Others fancy not the Doctor and so resolve not to like it because his Advice All that I shall say to both these is That the Obstructors of our Happiness will purchase to themselves as many hard Thoughts from their ruin'd Posterity for hindring the increase of Wealth Honour and Honesty amongst us as your Wisdom will create you Blessings for your study care and liberal Expences to promote so Noble a Design And if by what I here present you you find I have discharged my Trust like a faithful Steward your Approbation as it will be the best Security against the Captious it is likewise the highest Ambition of Gentlemen Your sincere and most humble Servant Andrew Yarranton THE EPISTLE TO THE READER REader thou must take notice that all Kingdoms and Common-wealths increase in Strength and Riches according as they are situated for Trade and do convenience themselves with just and equal Laws and Customs whereby they out-do the rest of their Neighbours We see of late years what great Contests and bloody Wars have been betwixt England and Holland and all to obtain the Mistress called Trade Sometimes the English Merchants complaining how the Dutch out-trade them and that they are not able to live And so in process of time they and others under pretence of ascertaining the Merchants Rights blow up a War betwixt England and Holland which hath seldom been composed with a Peace but the Merchant goeth by the worst and the People of England seldom bettered or the Trade advanced And it being my fortune to be travelling and at Draysden the Duke of Saxony's Court when the sad News came of the Dutch burning our Ships at Chattam I made it then my business amongst other things I was employed in to observe as far as I could how and which way the Trade of England might be improved and advanced And when I had made my Observations of the Trade there and how far it was to be taken notice of in order to the establishing of the like in England to set the Poor on work which was the Linen Thread Tape and Tin-plates I came for Holland being the time the Treaty was at Breda where the Triple League was concluded viz. between England Holland and Swetheland And there spending some time in the observations of their Laws Customs publick Banks Cut Rivers Havens Sands Policies in Government and Trade with their Natural Fortifications both by Sea and Land weighing and considering all things I was then satisfied we could not beat the Dutch with fighting And by long studying and weighing every part of their Condition and also knowing some of our failings in the advance of Trade and our weak Laws conducing thereunto I did see that all was out of joint and pursuing the Causes thereof in a small time it appeared to me that although we could not beat them with fighting yet on the other hand it was as clear to me that we might beat them without fighting that being the best and justest way to subdue our Enemies My fancy growing higher and higher and knowing it might be acceptable service to the Publick Good of the Kingdom I discoursed all parts and points now writ some hundreds of times with some Lords some Judges Lawyers Gentlemen Merchants Sea Officers and Courtiers and upon all that I could hear and receiving all that could be said against it I was the more confirmed it might be done upon which I was incouraged by many and some of them Lawyers who offer'd me their assistance and help to make it ready for the Press which I was preparing for But before I could compleat my intentions I received a Letter from a Friend in Flanders wherein he acquainted me that there would be Wars between France and England and Holland and that the Dutch would be in great danger and in process of time Flanders also and that France and England would join against Holland Vpon which I made a Map and put the English in two Squadrons at half Sea and the French in one Squadron with them and I put the Dutch in three Squadrons within their Sands and natural Holds and did in the same Map underwrite the Reasons here set down in this Treatise why we might beat them without fighting which Map was done three Weeks before the Breach was which is ready to be produced if by any desired And I did then at Whitehall and in many other places shew by discourse the little fruits we might expect and the great danger might ensue in breaking the Ballance of Europe it being then so indifferently settled But the Ballance being now broke and understanding the Dutches preparations as to build Great Ships I am satisfied they aim at a larger Trade than ever when opportunity offers it self and will endeavour to carry the Flag in the Eastern Seas and it 's possible some where else if not prevented by the English Therefore these few Sheets are set abroad to shew the World how they may be Beat without Fighting and by no other ways than the Free Lands of England being put under a Voluntary Register by Act of Parliament From the Credit whereof spring Banks Lumber-houses with all Credits necessary to drive Trade Cut Rivers the Fishery and all things else that Moneys are capable of and it will drive away the great fears and complaints rooted in the hearts of the People as the decay of Trade the growing Power of the French and much more ENGLAND'S Improvement BY SEA and LAND The true way to beat the Dutch at Sea without Fighting TO Beat the Dutch with Fighting is difficult by reason of the great Advantages they have by their Sands
and Holds all along the German Shore from the Mouth of the Texel and other Holland Rivers unto the Mouth or Influx of the Elbe And within these Sands and Holds they lye close and safe as long as they please and we cannot come at them with our Ships the Reason is we draw five Foot Water with our Ships more than the Dutch do with theirs and we must lye beating at Sea and receive all Storms and Accidents that the Seas and our Ships are lyable to while the Dutch are at Anchor within their defensible Sands and Holds and upon their own Coasts and there with ease may take in and be supplyed with all manner of Ammunition Provision and Men with all other things they stand in want of And when the wind blows strong at East we must bear away and cannot keep our Station The same wind that blows our Ships off blows the Dutch out and if they have a mind to follow us they may and when we are within some of our Bays they may come at us with ease And as I said before the reason is we draw five Foot Water more with our Ships than the Dutch do with theirs They build for their Shores and Harbours and we build for ours and we see by experience they make their Sea War only defensive and so will do untill they find themselves strong enough to venture to fight at half Sea And what a comfort is it to the Dutch to see their Fleet lye safe at Anchor near their own Shores and their Enemies blown off by Storms and great Winds and their Coasts in two hours time free clear and safe from any Enemies And when such an Accident falls out they may immediately put to Sea their several trading Fleets Now that they have such Natural defenses by reason of their Holds and Sands was very difficult to make Gentlemen of great parts and knowledge believe But these Natural fortifications and I may say preservations are not only the protection of the Dutch but of like benefit to all the People Inhabiting the German Shore from the Mouth of the Texel and other Holland Rivers unto the Mouth of the Elbe And the Dutch may now and at all times by the help of these Sands and Holds sail with their Smacks and small Vessels of which they have great numbers forth of the Texel clear along the Friezland and Bremen Shore into the Emes Weser and Elbe to fetch in all manner of Provisions for Holland which may be had plentifully down the Emes Weser and Elbe and from Hamburgh all manner of Naval Stores while the English or French must look on and cannot possibly come at them And if their Men of War are so secured by their Sands and Holds and that the Smacks and small Vessels may creep Eastward by help of them and fetch in Provisions and Naval Stores uninterrupted Then it is very clear and evident they are not to be beat War being made upon them they acting their parts only defensive I could say something of their Natural and Artificial fortifications in Holland Zealand and Friezland having Surveyed many of their great Towns For it is of great advantage to the Naval Power of Holland that their three Maritime Provinces are so strengthned by Art and Nature And it is of like great advantage to the three Maritime Provinces that their Naval powers and force are so defensively secured by the Sands and Holds upon theirs and the German Shores I have several years in Publick in the hearing of some hundreds of Gentlemen given the same reasons which now I here put in Print And I have often heard many Gentlemen say and swear they might be fetched forth and destroyed and such discourse was only by Persons Dutchify'd Some of which Persons as they since have told me did intend to get me secured for setting but the strength of the Dutch and speaking of a Publick Register as they then thought was speaking against the Laws But since those Gentlemen are my Converts and have pressed me hard several times to know what was the reason applicable unto the German Shores than to the English I promised them that it should come forth in Print for their and all other Gentlemens satisfaction and I am sure it is worth the knowing And it is as necessary to be perfectly known by all Ministers of State in Europe as it is for them to know where the Ballance of Europe is best to be lodged for their Princes good And I affirm that this ought by many Princes who intend a Sea War to be the first thing taken into consideration For whosoever will make a Sea War must not promise himself success against all Reason In discovering to you the true Reasons of these Sands and Holds I must shew you the length of the Rivers of Germany and England with the nature of the Land and Soyl the Rivers run through with the advantage the Winds give in making these Holds and Sands and how the Winds clear our Sands and help to deepen our British Rivers Most People think it very strange That in our three great Rivers in England viz. Thames Humber and Severn we should have five Foot Water more at the Mouth or Influx than is at the Influx of the Texel Rhine Emes Weser or Elbe upon the German Coast none of our Rivers running above one hundred and fifty Miles and some of the German Rivers running one thousand Miles And it stands to Reason the farther the Rivers run and the more Water is in them the deeper they should be at the Influx First you must observe how the Winds blow and how the Rivers lye to be Commanded by them And secondly you must consider from whence the Rivers come and whither they run either through Clay Gravelly or Sandy Lands The Winds blow at South and West two Thirds of the year and these Winds are great and strong and have their Gusts and force upon the Mouths of the German Rivers and when there are great Rains in Germany and upon the Borders of Poland where are great Sands it brings them down into the Elbe and so down to the Mouth or Influx therof where often it meets with a South or West Wind and the Tide and Wind coming in both together force the Sands into Beds which by degrees increase to great Banks and so alter the Channel and in process of time work themselves by new Freshes down the Elbe into the Sea and then the Winds and Tide trouls them and give them a settlement along the Shores And the like it doth at the Mouth or Influx of all the great Rivers on the German and Holland Shores And as long as the Winds blow and the Rivers run as now they do these Natural fortifications and preservations by Sea shall be to the People inhabiting the German and Dutch Coasts The true Reasons now being made plain I desire the Reader to consider if this I have said be true which is more adviseable an
hazardous War by Sea or to bring to pass the things that will beat the Dutch without fighting The Reason wherefore the British Rivers draw five Foot Water more than the German Rivers do at the Mouth or Influx is because they run not above one hundred and fifty Miles and through Clay and Gravelly Land which sort of Soyl sends but little quantity of Sand down into the great Freshes And our South and West Winds being great and blowing as I said before two parts in three in the year at those Points force out the Sands and send them into the Ocean And upon some certain Tides force them over to help to augment the Holds on the German Shore Observe but the Mouth of the River Dee that runs by Chester which lyes in the Face of the South and West Winds and there you will find the Winds and Tides have done the like By which at this present a Vessel of twenty Tuns cannot come loaded to that Old Noble Town of Chester But now it is time to begin to shew you how we may beat the Dutch without fighting To beat the Dutch with fighting so as to force them from their beloved Mistriss and delight which is Trade and Riches thereby hath been the design of most of their Neighbours for this forty years last past who thought thereby to bring that Mistress of Trade to leave that People and betake her self to a place of better Ports and healthfuller Air. To which purpose upon the end of War betwixt England and Holland many advantageous Articles have been agreed upon and some good Laws made to encourage Trade and the Merchants But I see although we get this Mistresses Love it is but for a short time she is still endeavouring to be gone and seat her self in that dull and flegmatick Air. And the Reasons wherefore she doth so and will do so I will here discover unto you All Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the World that depend upon Trades common Honesty is as necessary and needful in them as Discipline is in an Army and where is want of common Honesty in a Kingdom or Commonwealth from thence Trade shall depart For as the Honesty of all Governments is so shall be their Riches And as their Honour Honesty and Riches are so will be their Strength And as their Honour Honesty Riches and Strength are so will be their Trade These are five Sisters that go hand in hand and must not be parted All people that know any thing of Holland know that the people there pay great Taxes and eat dear maintain many Souldiers both by Sea and Land and in the three Maritime Provinces have neither good Water nor good Air And that in some of the Provinces they pay Fifty years Purchase for their Lands and are many times subject to be destroyed by the devouring waves of the Sea's overflowing their Banks And notwithstanding all these strange and unheard Inconveniences yet they will not quit their Station and remove to places of more safety and less Taxes though never so civilly treated The Reason whereof is First They have fitted themselves with a Publick Register of all their Lands and Houses whereby it is made Ready Moneys at all times without the charge of Law or the necessity of a Lawyer Secondly By making Cut Rivers Navigable in all places where Art can possibly effect it thereby making Trade more Communicable and Easie than in other places Thirdly By a Publick Bank the great Sinews of Trade the Credit thereof making Paper go in Trade equal with Ready Money yea better in many parts of the World than Money Fourthly A Court of Merchants to end all differences betwixt Merchant and Merchant Fifthly A Lumber-house whereby all poor people may have Moneys lent upon Goods at very easie Interest As I have shewed you their Strength before now in these five Particulars you may see their Policie upon which lies all their Happiness and Welfare By these Policies of the Dutch and the want of our Lands being put under a Register One hundred pounds a year in Holland at this present time will raise a Family sooner and drive a better and more profitable Trade than a man can do of a Thousand pounds a year in England But if we write by their Copies we shall do the great things they now do and I dare say out-do them too Now I will demonstrate to all men unbiassed the truth of what I assert and shew them the Condition the Gentlemen and People of England are in at this day and also the Condition the Dutch are in at this day in all their Provinces Let a Gentleman now in England that hath a Thousand pounds a year Land that owes Four thousand pounds come to a Money Scrivener and desire Four thousand pounds to be lent him on all his Land and produce his Writings and the Estate hath been in the Family Two hundred years I know at this day the Answer will be that by the Law of England as it is now practis'd no man can know a Title by Writings there being so many ways to incumber the Land privately And therefore the Answer commonly is Bring us Security for the Covenants and we will lend you the Moneys The Gentleman gets such Friends as he can procure to be bound for his Covenants whom if they accept then the Procurator and Continuator have their Game to play But if he bring not such Security as they like he goeth without this Four thousand pounds which is a sad and lamentable case he having Lands worth a Thousand pounds a year And now he is put to his shifts his Creditors come upon him the charge of Law-suits comes on all his Affairs are distracted his Sons and Daughters want Money to set them into the World At last it is possible he gets Two thousand pounds a piece of two several Persons of one at York and of the other at London and Mortgages all his Lands to each man This continues private for some years The while the Gentleman strives what he can to be honest and prepare Moneys to pay off one of the Mortgages But it commonly falls out otherwise either through bad Times or decay of Tenants great Taxes or the Eldest Son matching contrary to his Father's will or oftentimes it is worse he is so debaucht no one will match with him Now the Gentleman's miseries come on and what must he then do for the persons that have the Lands Mortgaged will not stay because by this time it is discover'd the Land is twice mortgaged I tell you the Lawyers Harvest is now come in and the Estate torn to pieces and the Gentleman his Wife and Family and it may be Creditors too undone For seeing all is in danger to be gone the Friends of the Wife Trump up a former Title to the two Mortgages and fence to get all the Estate that Sheriff Bayliffs Sollicitors and Lawyers leave to be to the Uses intended or pretended in the Private Settlement
him nineteen for his pains And as great a Bank at Exeter as at Noremberge and give life and strength to the great Wollen Manufacture in all the West of England For no great things can be done without a Bank and no Bank can be of any benefit to Trade and the Publick but where there is a Register And I would have the mistaken world know that a Bank is as safe and practicable in a Kingdom as in a Common-wealth and particularly in an Island that is convenient for Trade And the Reason why it is so is because it is a Bank of Credit not of Cash as is the Chamber of London and the East-India Company whose Treasures are abroad in Trade and increasing and only the Books in the Offices I say it is impossible to keep a Bank from rising in this Kingdom nay many Banks if we were under a voluntary Register But now the Land Credit and the City Bank Credit are both disparaged therefore it is impossible that Trade can any way be secured or bettered And for persons behind-hand and in debt they must expect misery Of late years the monied Men in England sent their Moneys into Lombard-street and there received a Note from a Goldsmiths Boy which was all they had to shew for their Moneys And certainly there was a Reason wherefore the great monied men did take such slender Security for their Moneys The Reason was because the Land Security was so uncertain and bad and it was so troublesome and chargeable getting their Moneys again when they had occasion to use it that forc't them to Lombard-street For two parts in three that put their Moneys into these uncertain Banks know better how to lay their Moneys out in Land Security than any of the banking Goldsmiths or Merchants either But the Land Security being not good the Moneys tumbled into the wrong Channel And all persons that have designs to get considerable Sums of Moneys into their hands for intended designs or hazardous adventures apply themselves to the Money-Bankers and there make their approaches by noble Treats great Offers with large Interest with Country Baronets Knights Esquires and it 's possible some Citizens also for Security and at last creep into the credit of borrowing great Sums of Money upon Land Mortgaged twice or thrice before for in the Country none could be borrowed At length the Banker calls for his Moneys but none can be paid The Banker dares not adventure to sue but all that he dare do is to employ a Lawyer only to whisper not to make a noise or give him some private Duns for if he sues or falls on that would cause the person that credited the Banker to call in his Moneys and so the Banker's Credit would be spoiled therefore all is to be silent and hush The Banker by this time seeth and knoweth his condition now he casts about how to preserve himself from the Storm approaching and it is possible some considerable Creditor by this time spies some bad Bargains made by the Banker and calls in his Moneys His earnestness puts on others to do the like and then all his Creditors crowd to him as Pigs do through a hole to a Bean and Pease Rick Now the Banker stands upon his guard speaks fair to some prevails with others to have patience a while and in the mean time he advises not his Creditors but his own interest Now by the importunity of his Wife and Friends he secures perhaps Two or Three Thousand pounds free from all Peoples approaches Then you shall have him make Offers and prays Time proffers his Books to be surveyed and saith that he will be just and hath husbanded the Moneys with justice and honesty The Books are presented the major part of the Creditors proclaim that there is Estate sufficient to pay all So the minor Creditors must be concluded And then Time is given to pay by degrees and Bond is given for the Payment But by whom Even by the Bankers themselves A brave Security but if their Books were surveyed by Persons that know Men and the Securities that are given it is not to be questioned but Sir Foplin Flutter and Esquire Nipp have good part of the Moneys upon the Mortgages of Lands Mannors and Tenements and great part as easie to be recovered as it is to bring Penmenmoor and Gore Agoluath together being the two great Mountains in North Wales And it is possible that great part of those Moneys are ventured to Sea by Merchants and rather than their Friend the Goldsmith shall suffer he shall shut up Shop and go to Sea with his Merchant and bring home the supposed lost Estate and at his return pay God knows what It is probable that any man that sends his Moneys into any of these Banks will conclude it impossible to employ so great Cash as they are intrusted with any other way than by lending upon Land Security or to Merchants to venture to Sea or to Citizens and others upon Personal Security And if the Cash can be employed no other way then the Lender must conclude the Banker is not able to secure the Moneys but must run the hazard of bad Security by Land and such hazards at Sea as attend Merchants with the badness and uncertainty of Personal Security And it is not to be imagin'd there being such great Cash put into the Bankers hands that they should stand to the loss of all moneys misventur'd by trusting and bad Securities And it must be madness for the Bankers to keep the moneys in their Chests by them unless they intend to keep part for themselves and pay part and then lay the Key under the Door I beg this one question of such Country Gentlemen as have put their moneys into the Bankers hands Whether they do not know better how to lay out their moneys on Land Security than the Bankers do Yes I know they do ten to one better for they partly know Titles that may be indifferent certain and know the Reputations of the Persons better than the Bankers as I have set down before And if there can be no Security given to the Bankers more than I have set down then in the name of God let them that have a mind to proceed further with them go on and prosper if they can But it will be Objected That I am no Friend to the way of Banking as now it is I do profess it and have been of the same mind this ten years last past and have declared before some of the Bankers and many Persons of Quality besides that this way of banking would endanger the Kingdom And when I saw it convenient which was in January last I gave Reasons in Publick Coffee-houses for my Opinion some of the Bankers being present Their way of Dealing I knew and what Security they took which was impossible should run long And as the Land and Personal Security is at this day no living man although never so knowing in the Laws
or in Men can take a great Cash into his hands and pay six in the hundred for it Is it not a sad thing that a Banker's Boy should take up more moneys upon his Notes in one day than two Lords four Knights and eight Esquires in twelves months upon all their Personal Securities Unless we are cutting off our Legs and Arms to see who will feed the Trunk We cannot expect this from any of our Neighbours abroad whose interest depends upon our loss Were it not much better that those Lords Knights and Esquires that now pay eight nine and ten pounds in the Hundred for their moneys and are contented to sell their Lands at sixteen years Purchase after Law-suits and troubles attending the Law have destroyed the one half should bring up their Lands to thirty years Purchase and Moneys down to three and a half in the Hundred and redeem the old Credit paid by the People to them And I must here beg the Gentlemens pardon that wear the Gold Chains in the City of London if I Petition them to take into their Care the true interest of that Ancient Noble City which is by using such means as may bring it under a voluntary Register where a Bank will suddenly rise and such a Bank as will be for the benefit and advantage of the whole Kingdom and Trade Universal Suppose all the houses in Lombard-street be put into a Register the title thereby safe and secure let them be the Credit Anchorage Fund and Foundation to build your Bank upon Then admit the houses in Lombard-street are worth ten thousand pounds a year and valued at twenty years purchase which they will go at and much more Then the Bank credit that is to secure the Lender will be 200 thousand pounds I say this being lyable to make good all Moneys the Bankers shall receive and take up then there is no fear but the Lender will have his ends answered and his Moneys well secured And it is certain such an Anchorage Fund and Foundation being once laid will mount that Bank within Two Months to six hundred thousand pounds and higher it ought not to go Then out comes the Moneys unimployed from all persons in or near London Even Servants Men and Maids will tumble in their Moneys as fast at one end of the Bank as it can be told out And at the other end it is tumbled out again into Trade to Merchants and such as stand in need of ready Moneys and thereby Trade is made easie and much convenienced And then it will be true with us what Sr. William Temple saith of the Dutch in his Book of his Observations of the Nether-lands That when the Bankers there send to the people that have lent them Moneys to come and fetch their principal and interest then saith he they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it But in England many times Men may cry out their Eyes before they get either principal or interest What a comfort would this be to Widdows and Orphans and all such as know not how or dare not set out their Moneys at interest their Moneys now lying dead on their hands if this were done And by this Bank and it's Credit will spring up a Lumber-house nay many in the City of London to force Trade to give to people one Commodity for the other the things now offer'd at by many Gentlemen at Devonshire house But they having no Fund Anchorage and secure Foundation it can come to nothing these Lumber-houses grow out of the sides of the grand Banks which are in all parts and ever shall be the Anchor and Cable of all smaller Banks If it shall please God once to raise a Bank in London of six hundred thousand pounds Fund and Anchorage out of such a Bank will sprout out many Lumber houses and smaller Banks to quicken Trade And certainly then the Moneys will be lent at four in the hundred and ready Moneys at all times upon unperishable Commodities even to three parts of four of the Value as doth the King of Swetheland with his Iron and Copper at Hamburgh I could write a whole Volume of the advantage it would be to our English Trades the growth and manufactures of our own Kingdom But you shall have a touch or two When I speak of putting all the poor of England at work with the growth of our own Country here to be manufactured I do know four persons in England the Father and three Sons that are in a great Trade and I believe they Return more moneys in Trade than any two Merchants or Traders in England which have their moneys at five in the Hundred And I have heard many say that they had rather let them have their moneys at four in the Hundred than any others at six because it was safe and they could have it again when they pleas'd But the Reason of all this is the Anchorage is safe they having a great real and personal Estate And thus it will be with any Bank that shall be settled upon a good secure and unperishable foundation into which moneys will be tumbled at small Interest Now I have shewed you what the Credit and Advantage of a Bank well settled will be of one Street in London but what will the Credit of a Bank be if once all the new buildings in and near the City of London destroyed by the late Fire come under a Register O you with Gold Chains I will tell you half the Houses in the City cannot miss coming into the publick Bank to build and help to lay a Foundation to that rich that desirable that just beneficial and honourable thing And the other half of the Houses will be good Security to the Owners to take up moneys upon them to serve their occasions and drive their Trades with ease Then the Houses will rise in their Rents the Trade will return to the City the Rats and Mice will leave the Houses now only inhabited by them Honour and Honesty will return I have met with many that make these Objections First The Lawyers will be against it Secondly All Gentlemen in Debt will be against it Thirdly All the Lawyers in the House of Commons and Gentlemen in the House in Debt will be against it And Fourthly It will undo thousands of People for in producing their Writings holes will be pickt in their Titles As to the first If the Lawyers Estates will rise in Purchase from sixteen to thirty years then certainly his Family will be better provided for by that way and I was saying more justly than now practised And if I do not mistake it will make Trade much more large in the Kingdom than now it is which makes more for the Lawyers And let the Lawyers and all others consider the Free Lands of England are not the one fifth part and so all that is desired is but two Feathers out of their Goose and there will be sufficient plucking and picking
Tavern and never Recorded in the Exchequer nor in any Court else yet these Bonds are a Judgment in Law and by virtue thereof will be first served and before all men else And at this day many Gentlemen and others that I know have sold Land since they entred into these Bonds and the Bonds not satisfied I speak this with honour to the King's Prerogative and affirm that it would be more for his Majesty's advantage also if Estates were Registred for he would then see what Security he has for his Money whereas his Majesty himself is many times a loser by trusting upon insufficient Security And it is now a common practice to convey away all Lands before a man becomes bound to the King Besides all these Uncertainties of Titles of Land it is brought so to pass at this day that whatever Moneys is or hath been borrowed by Companies Incorporated or upon the Credit or under the Common Seal of Cities or Corporations none can be recovered by Law I hope now no Gentleman of the Long Robe can pretend to know a good Title from a bad and therefore will be now willing to let the Free-lands of England to be put under a voluntary Register But I hear some say That for all that hath been said in this Discourse they are not satisfied the Dutch will be beat without fighting Well then I will give you some more satisfaction I pray observe what the Dutch and English have been doing for this many years it has been courting and fighting for this Mistress called Trade And observe how the Dutch have fitted her with all that she can desire as with a Register of Lands Banks Lumber-house cut Rivers easie Ports in point of Customs a Court of Merchants And these give her delights and she hath no mind to depart from them And her long continuance hath made her Lovers vastly rich and the Towns where she maketh her abode both populous and great And though in the Three Maritime Provinces they have neither good Water nor good Air yet are their Lands at fifty years Purchase Now observe England lyes within twenty Hours sail of Holland and is stored with many and much better Ports than Holland hath And our Ships by reason of the deepness of our Rivers can go out and come in with much greater Burdens than theirs can and we lye as well to the Baltick as they and much better to the Mediterranean East and West Indies than they do And in England are Noble Seats to be purchased and a good Air. Now Reader dost thou think that the great Dutch Merchants and others rich in Cash would stay there if we had here publick Security for our Lands that they might purchase safely here I say they would come over in Swarms and would willingly give thirty years purchase for Lands here So that the great Merchants coming from thence and buying Estates here will bring away the great Riches from thence and so increase Trade here and thereby the Dutch will decline gradually every year more and more and within very few years their beloved Mistress will depart and will come and settle her self with us And as we are an Island which God and Nature hath fitted for Trade if we once fit our selves with Laws answerable then the greatest part of the Trade of Europe will be with us And if this doth not convince the Reader that hereby we shall beat the Dutch without fighting and pay our Debts without Moneys I have no more to say Beside the Advantages aforesaid let me tell you that I have found out two places one in Ireland the other in England In that in Ireland are great and strange quantities of Timber to build Ships and places to build them and at three fifths of the Rates the King now builds at with convenient places to lay up the Ships and thereby to be ready upon all occasions That in England is convenient to build Ships at and at very easie Rates and is as good a Harbour to lay them up in as any is in England and in the very Eye of France And I desire it may be seriously considered And that the truth may be demonstrated of what I say I have affixed two sheets in Maps to this Book whereby the truth asserted may be made the more clear About two years since I was prevailed upon by some of the Money Bankers and some Gentlemen to go over into Ireland to Survey some Iron works Woods and Lands which they were in proposition for with Sir Robert Clayton and Mr. Morris being Works Lands and Woods lying near the River Slane in the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow and formerly set on Foot by Sir John Cutler Sir Edward Heath Mr. Abbot the Scrivener Docter Yates of Oxford and Mr. Timothy Stamp and from them Conveyed to Sir Robert Clayton and Mr. Morris to advance a sum of Moneys and to manage the Works and to give an Accompt But the Parties differing and some bad Titles made with suits at Law had so unhinged and debased the whole affair that nothing possibly could be done unless we could come upon some new Foundation So my self and servants spent some time in Surveying the Woods Lands and Works in which I did evidently perceive the Design at the first was very rationally laid but unfortunately destroyed I then considered what might be done After I had surveyed the River Slane and the Brooks and Rivulets running into the same and the Woods adjoyning unto them with that noble great and good Wood called Shelela I then did perfectly see what a great shame it was that such quantities of Timber should ly rotting in these Woods and could not be come at the Mountains and Boggs having so lockt them up that they could not be brought to any Sea-port to be imployed in building of Ships But my self and those I employed having spent much time in the surveying the said River Slane and the Rivulets running into it we found that they may be made so Navigable for Ten thousand pounds as all those Woods may with ease and at very cheap Rates be brought down the Slane to Wexford and to other places near thereunto to build Men of War and other Ships And I know in the Woods near unto the Slane that may come down that River if once Navigable there is Timber sufficient to make a hundred Men of War and some hundreds of Busses and as good Timber as any is in England I was going to say better and not one stick wanting that Oak is capable of doing And the first lengths of Masts also and they will serve well for that use And as now these Woods are and as they will for ever be unless by some such way relieved they will never bring the Owners Twenty thousand pounds nor Ten I verily believe But if the Slane were made Navigable and the Rivulets running into it these great quantities of Timber might be employed in building Ships for the Royal Navy and may if
his Majesty please be kept either in an Admiralty at Wexford or in some Port near or in Milford Haven and there they will be ready to sail upon any occasion either to preserve the West India Trade or into the Mediterranean and thereby give great comfort to all Trade that is used in those Seas as also incourage the People and drive away their present fears And I am very well satisfied that Ships of all Rates will be built at Wexford or thereabouts at three fifths of what the King now pays for building and there they may be also Gun'd and Victualled The Woods are the Earl of Angleseys the Lord Baltimores Sir Laurence Esmonds the Lord Arons and Shelela the Earl of Straffords with many other small Woods Here you have the Map of the River and Rivulets with some small Signs of the Woods before mentioned The Third great advantage is that there the King may have all his Iron made and Guns cast at very cheap Rates There is the Iron Stone in the Sea by the Harbour mouth and the King hath vast quantities of Woods decayed in New Forest of which at this time Charcoal is made and Shipt away to Cornwall and other parts If two Furnaces be built about Ringwood to cast Guns and two Forges to make Iron and the Iron Stone be brought from the Harbour mouth out of the Sea up the River to the Furnaces and the Charcole out of New Forest to the works there being sufficient of decayed Woods to supply four Iron-works for ever by these means the King makes the best of every thing and builds with his own Timber being near and convenient whereas now the charge and carriage makes the Timber 07 of no use to him And having Iron Stone of his own for gathering up and Wood of his own for nothing he will have very cheap Guns and Iron And all these things set together this is a business befitting a King to have And as I said this Fort will be made and answer the ends I here lay down for two thousand pounds and the Iron works built and Docks to build three Ships at one time for eight thousand pounds The discovery more particular of the place of the deep Water and Fort to be made and the Harbour within with a description of the Camp adjoyning is here in the Map affixed Now Reader I hope I have made good my promise of discovering two places convenient to build Ships in and at easie Rates and also to lay them up safe and in places that are eminently convenienced for quick getting out and could say much more of these two places as to publick benefit but it may be and it is not to be questioned I shall meet with Enemies for saying so much for I know now almost all men are Sacrificing all things to their own Nets and Drags or to such Great ones as they lye under However if his Majesty please to Command me I will go to Christ-Church with any knowing person and there upon the place shew him all that is here affirmed and the Reasons the like I will do as to the Slane in Ireland and the Woods I so commend joyning thereunto and upon the place demonstrate and make out how the River Slane and Rivulets running into the same may be made Navigable and shew the great quantities of Timber that may thereby be brought down to build Men of War the places convenient for building them and that no King or Prince in Europe hath such an advantage to build Ships as the King of England may have with that Timber in Ireland The Way to employ and set at Work all the Poor of England both Man Woman and Child that are capable and able to work and all to be done by improving two of our own Manufactures the growth whereof is all of our own Island the one the Linen the other the Iron Manufacture AS to Linen Cloth of all sorts what vast quantities are yearly brought into England and here made use of and by us sent unto our Islands and to many other places the making of which sets at work abundance of People in other Nations as also Threads Tapes Twine for Cordage and wrought Flax Now who makes the fine Linen Clothes and where have they the Materials I say the fine Linens are made in Holland and Flanders that is woven and whitened there but the Thread that makes them comes out of Germany from Saxony Bohemia and other parts thereabouts and is brought down the Elbe and Rhine in dry Fat 's for Holland and Flanders and there the Merchants have at this day and so will ever have a vast Trade in these Commodities unless that Trade of Linen be advanced in England and incouraged as I shall set down But First Observe that the People of Holland eat dear and pay great Rents for their Houses and so they do in Flanders but the weaving and whitening of the Cloth is not above the tenth part of the labour For the great labour is in preparing the Flax as pulling watering dressing spinning and winding and all this is done in the upper parts of Germany and thereabouts there Victuals are cheap and in all these parts there is no Beggar nor no occasion to beg and in all Towns there are Schools for little Girls from six years old and upwards to teach them to spin and so to bring their tender Fingers by degrees to spin very fine which being young are thereby easily fitted for that use Whereas People overgrown in age cannot so well feel the Thread Their Wheels go all by the foot made to go with much ease whereby the action or motion is very easie and delightful And in all Towns there are Schools according to the bigness or multitude of the poor Children I will here shew you the way method rule and order how they are Governed First There is a large Room and in the middle thereof a little Box like a Pulpit Secondly There are Benches built round about the Room as they are in our Play-houses upon the Benches sit about two hundred Children spinning and in the Box in the middle of the Room sits the Grand Mistress with a long white Wand in her hand If she observes any of them idle she reaches them a tap but if that will not do she rings a Bell which by a little Cord is fixt to the Box and out comes a Woman she then points to the Offender and she is taken away into another Room and chastised And all this is done without one word speaking And I believe this way of ordering the young Women in Germany is one great cause that the German Women have so little of the twit twat And I am sure it would be well were it so in England And it is clear that the less there is of speaking the more there may be of working In a little Room by the School there is a Woman that is preparing and putting Flax on the Distaffs and upon
the ringing of the Bell and pointing the Rod at the Maid that hath spun off her Flax she hath another Distaff given her and her Spool of Thread taken from her and put into a Box unto others of the same size to make Cloth And observe what Advantages they make of suiting their Threads to make Cloth all being of equal Threads First They raise their Children as they spin finer to the higher Benches Secondly They sort and size all the Threads so that they can apply them to make equal Cloaths Whereas here in England one Woman or good Housewife hath it may be six or eight Spinners belonging to her and at some odd times she spins and also her Children and Servants and all this Thread shall go together some for Woof some for Warp to make a piece of Cloth And as the Linen is Manufactured in England at this day it cannot be otherwise And is it not a pity and shame that the young Children and Maids here in England should be idle within 〈◊〉 begging abâ—oâ—d tearing Hedges or robbing Orchards and worse when these and these alone are the people that may and must if ever set up this Trade of making fine Linen here And after a young Maid hath been three years in the spinning School that is taken in at six and then continues until nine years she will get eight pence the day And in these parts I speak of a man that has most Children lives best whereas here he that has most is poorest There the Children enrich the Father but here begger him Joining to this Spinning-School are three more Schools ordered as this spoken of is One is for Maids weaving Bone-lace another for Boys making Toys some cutting the Heads some the Bodies some the Legs the third is for Boys painting the Toys and slit Pictures I know these Questions will be put or asked First Where would you have this Trade settled in England Secondly How shall there be Flax provided for to manage this Trade And Thirdly Where shall be Stock at first and where can we have places to whiten I Answer Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford Shires are the places fit to set up this Manufacture because in these Countries there is at present no Staple Trade and the Land there for Flax is very good being rich and dry wherein Flax doth abundantly delight And I affirm that the Flax that grows in these parts shall do any thing that the German or any other Flax can do provided it be ordered accordingly As to the second and third as to Flax and Stock let each County begin with two thousand Pounds Stock apiece immediately to provide Houses as before set down and employ it as is directed And for places to Whiten near all the great Towns there are Brooks or Rivers where bleeching places may be made in the Lands adjoining as is in Southwark by help of the flowing of the Thames And for Men and Women to Govern the Trade I know in every Country there are Men sufficient to direct and order it I know it will be much inquired into by many why Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford-shires should be the places fixed on for the Linnen Manufacture before all other Counties in England I answer there are no Counties in England so capable of making the Commodity so good and so cheap as these First their Land is excellent good to produce Flax. Secondly they are inland Counties and have no staple Manufacture at present fixt with them whereby their poor are idle and want imployment Thirdly they are Counties the best furnished at all times with Corn and Flesh of any Counties in England and at cheapest Rates Fourthly they are in the heart of England and the Trade being once well setled in these Counties will influence their Neighbouring Counties in the same Manufacture in sending their Flax and threads with ease and cheapness down the Rivers Thames Avon Trent and St Eades all which Navigable Rivers come into these Counties And I affirm it is not possible to set up this Trade in any other part of England with success but in these places because in most part of England there are fixt Manufactures already that do in great measure set the poor at work In the West of England clothing of all sorts as in Glocester Worcester Shropshire Staffordshire and a small part of Warwickshire In Derby Nottingham and Yorkshire the Iron and Wollen Manufacture In Suffolk Norfolk and Essex the Wollen Manufacture In Kent Sussex and Surry some Cloth Iron and Materials for Shipping Then to Counties to raise provisions and to vend them at London to feed that great Mouth are Cambridge Huntington Buckingham Hartford Middlesex and Berks. And if you rightly weigh and consider how England is fixed in all parts as to the Growth Trade Manufacture and vending thereof there are no Counties in England that this desirable gainful improvement of the Linen Manufacture possibly can be managed in with the like success as in the forementioned Counties For as Common Honesty is necessary for Trade and without it Trade will decay so any Manufacture fixed in any place where it may be better accommodated thither it will go and so remove from the place where it was first set up and the discouragments it received there many times keep it from fixing any where else About seven or eight years since there was a Proposal of setting up the Linen Manufacture in and near Ipswich a Town of two hundred void houses to be had for little and near the Sea but I coming to that Town was prest hard to give my Opinion whether the Linen Trade might be there set up with success After I had rid about the Town as far as Cattaway Bridge and observed the Influence that the Colchester Trade had there as also the Stuff and Say Trade whereby the Poor were comfortably supplyed I then found it was impossible to go on with success and gave my reasons upon which all was laid aside and my reasons approved of I did also acquaint one of the Grandees of the Linen Trade at Clarken-well that that Trade would eat out its own Bowels Stock and Block would come to nothing And so it shall do in the Countries I name and in all other places in the World being a new Manufacture unless the Publick Authority take care and cherish it for at least seven years The way how I will set down when I have finished my Discourse of this and the Iron Manufacture for it is as fit to be done for the incouragement of the Iron Manufacture as for the Linen Manufacture And observe I pray you these Counties I now name for the Linen Manufacture employ more hands at work by their growth than any eight Counties of England do by the growth of theirs and all employed abroad in other Counties not in their own And the great cause of Strength and Riches to England are those great quantities of Wool which grow in their
great Pastures and are sent abroad into the West and other parts and there Manufactured where they keep at work infinite quantities of poor people as Spinners Carders Weavers Dressers Dyers Yet I have seen two pieces in Print each making great complaint that by the late Inclosures in these Counties a Dog and a Boy do manage as much Lands as formerly employed ten Teams and kept forty persons at work all the year Never considering that the Land inclosed is treble the benefit to the Owner after the Ministers and Poors part was thrown out over what it was before it was inclosed and that the product of the Wool proceeding from the same Land does set at work five times the number of people in other places of the Kingdom And so it will be with the Linen Manufactures if once well settled in these four Counties and incouraged by a Publick Law Then these Counties will be as Germany is to Holland and Flanders There the Flax will grow and be Manufactured easily and cheap part whitened there and the Thread and part of the Flax sent down the Navigable Rivers to the several Towns to be woven and spun And so there will be employ for the greatest part of the Poor of England And in such Towns where it meets with a settled voluntary Register thence never will it depart But I must now name you some Lands in these Counties very fit for Flax thereby to make you know the fitness of the rest with its quantities as also show you the quantities of Flax that may grow upon one Mannor in Warwickshire and the number of poor people it will employ by which Demonstrations you may judge what may be done in the four Counties named in this Design offered at For this twelve years last past I having my London Road through Warwickshire made my Observations of the Land there and the fitness of it to bear Flax but more particularly of the Mannor of Milcott being the Earl of Middlesex's near Stratford upon Avon Which Mannor is about three thousand Acres and to the value of three thousand pounds a year as I am informed The Land in this Mannor is sound rich dry and good and that is the true Land to bear Flax. And in this Mannor some years there are sown some hundred Acres of Flax But if the whole Mannor were sown with Flax it would employ nine thousand people in the Manufacturing thereof as to sowing weeding pulling watering dressing spinning winding weaving and whitening One part of which labour would be done upon and near the place the other would be done in remote parts the Flax and Thread being carried down the River Avon into Severne and so conveyed with ease to Bristol Wales and other parts to set the Poor at work which want employment and so the small Towns will set their Poor at work by the same Rule as they do in Germany and then there will need no Relief from the Parish for the Poor nor will there be any complaining in the Streets One Acre of Land will bear three hundred weight of Flax. This three hundred weight of Flax well drest and made fine will make four hundred Ells of Cloth worth three shillings the Ell which will be in value when it is manufactured threescore Pounds You must observe the finer the Thread is the less Flax goeth to make it and the more Cloth it will make And so there being the labour of three persons to manufacture the Flax that comes of this one Acre of Land this Mannor will employ nine thousand persons Now there are at least Ten thousand Acres of Land besides this very good for Flax in Warwickshire and no less quantity in any of the three other Counties every way as good Now Reader I pray Answer me whether here be not work sufficient upon the growth and product of our own Land nay in four Counties where no Manufacture is to set the greatest part of the Poor of England at work besides the great advantage it will bring to the Owners of the Lands and the great enriching of the Country by fixing so great a staple Trade there and bringing a multitude of People also which is and ever will be a great enrichment to the place where they are Witness the West of England by the Woollen Manufactures and Buringham Sturbridge Dudly Wassal and thereabout for the Iron Manufactures And I dare affirm take Dudly to be the Center of ten Miles round considering the badness of the Land it is there twice as dear as it is in the four Counties here named And within ten Miles round Dudly there are more people inhabiting and more Money returned in a year than is in these four rich fat Counties I mention And by this Manufacture we should prevent at least two Millions of Money a year from being sent out of the Land for Linen Cloth and keep our people at home who now go beyond the Seas for want of imployment here For where ever the Country is full of people they are rich and where thin there the place is poor and all Commodities cheap I could put something further into the Heads of the Gentlemen of these Counties wherein they may have much more added to this prescribed Linen Trade but then I fear their Neighbouring Gentlemen will fall at Difference why one should have so much benefit and the other so little as they did when I surveyed Trent for them in the year one thousand six hundred sixty five and a Tax shall be laid upon the Stock settled as they did upon mine and Partners as soon as I had made the River Avon Navigable and brought Barges to Stratford I know many will say This is a very good way to imploy the poor but what shall they do for Looms Slayes and Wheels for to spin and weave this Flax and how shall we make our Flax fine so that we may make fine Cloth and what shall we do for places to whiten it at for it is said that no place will do it well but at Haerlem in Holland and that is because of the water in the Mere joining unto the Town As to the first thou mayest have the Looms Wheels and Slayes at first out of Germany and from Haerlem Two Looms Two Wheels and ten Slayes will be sufficient to make others by and all these thou mayest have for twenty pounds As to the Second there is much in preparing and fitting of the Flax so as to make it run to a fine Thread This is the way they do it in Germany and thou mayest write by their Copy Thou must twice a year beat thy Flax well and dress it well and take out of it all the filth and so for as long as thou hast it in thy possession if it be ten years and the longer thou keepest it the finer it will be for beating and often dressing will cause the Harle to open and at last it will be strangely fine There must also be a Stove in
Worcester-shire Shropshire Stafford-shire Warwick-shire and Cheshire and there it 's made into Bar-Iron And because of its kind and gentle nature to work it is now at Sturbridge Dudly Wolverhampton Sedgley Wasall and Burmingham and thereabouts wrought and manufactured into all small Commodities and diffused all England over and thereby a great Trade made of it and when manufactured sent into most parts of the World And I can very easily make it appear that in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts and about the Materials that come from thence there are employed and have their subsistence therefrom no less than sixty thousand persons And certainly if this be true then it is certain it is better these Iron-works were up and in being than that there were none And it were well if there were an Act of Parliament for inclosing all Commons fit or any way likely to bear Wood in the Forest of Deane and six Miles round the Forest and that great quantities of Timber might by the same Law be there preserved for to supply in future Ages Timber for Shipping and Building And I dare say the Forest of Deane is as to the Iron to be compared to the Sheeps back as to the Wollen Nothing being of more advantage to England than these two are And if Woods are not preserved in and near the Forest to supply the Works for future Ages that Trade will lessen and dye as to England and betake her self unto some other Nation or Country And now in Worcester-shire Shropshire Stafford-shire Warwick-shire and Derby-shire there are great and numerous quantities of Iron-works and there much Iron is made of Metal or Iron Stone of another nature quite different from that of the Forest of Deane This Iron is a short soft Iron commonly called Cold-shore Iron of which all the Nails are made and infinite other Commodities In which work are employed many more persons if not double to what are employed in the Forest of Deane And in all those Countries the Gentlemen and others have Moneys for their Woods at all times when they want it which is to them a great benefit and advantage and the Lands in most of these places are double the rate that they would be at if there were not Iron-works there And in all these Countries now named there is an infinite of Pit Coals and the Pit Coals being near the Iron and the Iron Stone growing with the Coals there it is manufactured very cheap and sent all England over and to most parts of the World And if the Iron-works were not there the Woods 〈◊〉 all these Countries to the Owners thereof would not be worth the cutting and carrying home because of the cheapness of the Coals and duration thereof I could say something as to Notingham and York-shire 〈◊〉 to Kent and Sussex but I leave that to some other â—en that knows the Countries better than I do And in these Countries now mentioned there are many and vast Commons very natural and fit to bear Wood which at present are of very little use to the publick And for that in these parts there never will be any want of Pit Coals to work and manufacture the Iron when once made into Bars but Woods do much decay and this being a thing of such great benefit to the publick and in the setting of the Poor at work it were well that a Law might pass for inclosing all Commons fit and apt to bear wood which are and lye within twelve Miles of the Town of Sturbridge in the County of Worcester and that in such inclosed Copices there may be provision made to preserve Timber now much wanting in those parts The next Objection is That it was better when there was no Iron made in England But when that was neither I nor the Objector knows For in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts the Iron is made at this day of Cinders being the rough and offal thrown by in the Romans time they then having only foot-blasts to melt the Iron Stone but now by the force of a great Wheel that drives a pair of Bellows twenty foot long all that Iron is extracted out of the Cinders which could not be forced from it by the Roman Foot-blast And in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts and as high as Worcester there are great and infinite quantities of these Cinders some in vast Mounts above ground some under ground which will supply the Iron-works some hundreds of years and these Cinders are they which make the prime and best Iron and with much less Charcoal than doth the Iron Stone And certainly this being so it will be great policy for the Government timely to consider and weigh the great benefit Iron-works are to these plaâ—â—â— and to the Kingdom and People in general and therefore to begin to countenance them in preserving Woods for their continuation and duration The next thing is Iron-works destroy the Woods and Timber I affirm the contrary and that Iron-works are so far from the destroying of Woods and Timber that they are the occasion of the increase thereof For in all parts where Iron-works are there generally are great quantities of Pit Coals very cheap and in these places there are great quantities of Copices or Woods which supply the Iron-works And if the Iron-works were not in being these Copices would have been stocked up and turned into Pasture and Tillage as is now daily done in Sussex and Surry where the Iron-works or most of them are laid down And in Glocester-shire Worcestershire Warwick Salop and Stafford Shires are vast and infinite quantities of Copices wherein there are great store of young Timber growing and if it were not that there could be Moneys had for these Woods by the Owners from the Iron Masters all these Copices would be stocked up and turned into Tillage and Pasture and so there would be neither Woods nor Timber in these places And the Reason is Pit Coal in all these places considering the duration and cheapness thereof is not so chargeable to the Owner of the Woods as cutting and carrying the Woods home to his House And as to making Charcoal with Timber in those parts so much talked of it was and is most notoriously false for Timber in all these parts is worth thirty shillings a Tun and a Tun and three quarters of Timber will but make one Coard of Wood. So let all rational men consider whether an Iron Master will cut up Timber to the value of fifty shillings to make one Coard of Wood when he pays for his Wood in most of these places but seven shillings a Coard Now I have shewed you the two Manufactures of Linen and Iron with the product thereof and all the materials are with us growing and these two Manufactures will if by Law countenanced set all the poor in England at work and much inrich the Country and thereby fetch people into the Kingdom whereas now they depart and thereby deprive the Dutch of these
the quenching of the Fires with the Commissioners and Engineers or as many as are in Town run to the place and presently the Commissioners or any two of them with the Engineers give the necessary orders for the suppressing of the Fire either by pulling down or blowing up the Houses All the Labourers obey in assisting to pull down carrying the goods that must be removed to the Houses appointed fetching the Water being ready filled in Copper Tubs upon Sleds which is quickly done for that the Sleds Tubs and Water with the place where they stand are order'd so a Horse may come at them and there are two Cocks to supply with Water one upon the one side of the space where the Tubs are and the other on the other side so the Empty Tubs are filled as they return whereby no Water can be wanting And one side of the square are the Houses for the Water Engins the Rooms at the end of the square are for the Engineers Ingredients and the other side of the square is Rooms to put such goods in as they take from the Houses that are blown up or pulled down or preserved from the Fire The Copper Tubs are fixed upon the Sleds in the open square and all the Doors of the buildings are made outwards by which the people may come to the Tubs of Water with Horses backwards and forwards uninterrupted And all other persons may come to the several Rooms one not interrupting the other And this is a square piece of Land in some convenient place in the City And things being thus fitted and ordered upon breaking out of Fire immediately every man is at work according to order and it is very seldom that above three Houses are ruined by Fire in any of these Cities And if this prevention Rule and Order were not it 's impossible but upon the breaking out of Fire the greatest part of the Cities would be destroyed for that many Cities are built of Fir which is very full of Turpentine Now with us in England upon the breaking out of great Fires all the Rable runs crying Fire Fire to the great affrightment and amazement of most people near where the Fire is and makes it worse than really it is which causeth the remove of goods to their great loss and detriment Besides these sorts of sudden Frights cost many Poor Women their Lives and sometimes it goeth near the Man too And another sort of people run to Rob and Steal and it 's feared to increase the Fires into the Bargain that they may better bring to pass their wicked ends Then one cries Pull down and another cries Blow up this House another cries Blow up that House So grows a confusion not to be parallel'd One stands in the way of another Many Poor Souls do their best to prevent the spreading abroad of the Fire and for want of Judgment are many times destroyed Then comes some person in Authority or other and he cries Fetch Powder to blow up this House or that House and no Powder at present is to be had at last when the Fire hath got great head then the Powder comes Blow up this House saith the Gentleman the multitude cry no no Blow up that House There they are as it were at the building of Babel all in confusion But pray you write by this copy here set you and then the Fires may be prevented the peoples fears allay'd and their minds quieted the great and miserable Calamities that Fires occasion prevented and all people lye quiet in their Beds except those imployed And then in such a great City as London is many Fires would be over and quenched before the twentieth part of the people in the City did know there were any Fire at all And certainly if ever such a thing as this take place it is high time now it were done I have here annexed the Houses built Tubs upon the Sleds and if you would have me to do more I cannot Only I can tell you for London and the Suburbs this Rule would do well in three places Viz. in St. Martins Steeple in the Fields one Sentinel in St. Sepulchres Steeple another and in the Monument another And all things done as is here prescribed your fears would be quickly gone the Houses would raise Rents and men would purchase Houses that would now sell those they have if they could Houses for the Goods Houses for the Water Engines â—â—â—ses for the Engineers Materials You will ask me by what Authority this shall be done and who shall pay the charge I say it must be done by Act of Parliament and the several Cities and great Towns must bear their own charges in providing Houses and setting all in order But you will say Our Parliament men will not do it for us I cannot help that but if they will not in my second part I will draw the form of the Bill which shall fit the purpose A Dialogue betwixt a Clothier a Woollen-draper and a Country-Yeomen at Supper upon the Road. Dr. WHat News from London old Friend Cl. There 's no News but the old news A bad Trade still Dr. It is impossible it should be otherwise for you Clothiers and we Drapers are both betwixt one and the same pair of Milstones Cl. What do you mean by that Friend Dr. Why do you not know I mean the Factors Drawers and Packers are now turned Merchants and the Trade is ruined by them Formerly it was you Clothiers and we Drapers â—â—d now it is another thing Cl. Indeed Sir you say true it is so and I have been often thinking of it and speaking too as loud as I durst to my Neighbour Smith concerning it Dr. What do you mean by saying you speak as loud as you durst Are you afraid of them Cl. Indeed Sir they are now become to us as the Lawyer is to his Client we dare not say what we know Dr. Why I know you are a rich Man and need not fear and by telling the truth you may relieve many a Man and do good to the Trade Cl. I would be willing to do what good lieth in my power but men of our Trade are so much divided and the poorer sort are so afear'd of the Factors if they should offer to relieve themselves and seek out any other way the Factors would joyn stock together and set up our Trade in some other place and so undo our Town Dr. No no that 's impossible surely no Men will be so base especially those that have been your Servants Cl. But what I say is true And in a Town in Worcestershire this present time I know it is their condition Dr. I pray what Town is that Cl. It is Kidderminster in Worcestershire where they make the Stuffs for Hangings Dr. I know the Factors that belong to that Town they are very honest men and will not do any such thing Cl. It is true what I say for lately some friends of the Clothiers of Kidderminster
Iron in the known World is in the Forest of Dean and in the Clay-Hill in Shropshire and the Iron made of these minerals will work most easiest and quickest into Commodities of any Iron and at present let there be one Tun of this Bar-Iron made of Forest-Iron-Stone and one Tun of Spanish Iron delivered to a Smith to work into Sythes Sickles and other Commodities he will work the Forest-Iron and give Twenty pounds the Tun for it but will not give Twenty shillings for the Tun of Spanish-Iron to work into Commodities The Forest-Iron works easie plyable and soft the Spanish works tough churlish and dogged 2. Consider If there be not timely course taken by the Parliament to provide for the inclosure of the Commons in these parts which lye convenient to these Iron Mines and Works to encrease Woods in a very small time the Manufacture will be much lessened and will prove the great impoverishing of the Countreys where now they are and of much damage to the Kingdom in general 3. Consider that in Worcestershire Stafford and Darbyshire there are great Mines of Iron-stone that makes Iron not very good for use for all things but of excellent use for Nails and many small Commodities The benefit of which Trade is of great advantage to all the Countrey round about And in these Countreys there are great quantities of Pit-Coals which are in all places near the Iron-works and by the help of the Coal the Iron is Manufactured with ease cheapness and advantage whereby we have the Trade of good part of Europe for these Commodities And so set infinite of poor People to work 4. Consider the Woods in these parts decay and look thin and will not last long and when gone the Iron-Stone and Coles will be there of no value the People unimployed the Trade lost therefore the vast Commons in these parts inclosed for Woods would prevent all As the Duke of Saxony hath done near Anaburgh and Sneburgh where this politick preservation of Woods in Lands joyning to his Iron Tin Silver and Copper-Mines hath made them a very great branch of his Revenue and all the Countrey round about by the multitude of People imployed are become very Rich and there things in point of convenience as to Iron-works Tin-works with Mines and Woods to supply the works are so ordered that there are at present Manufactured many Commodities in Iron and sent into England If these Woods had not been preserved by a politick Law all his Mines had been nothing worth and the Iron Trade and Works would have continued near Newringburgh from whence they now are departed and that great benefit is now wholly enjoyed by the Duke of Saxony The like it will do in few years if the Commons are not inclosed for Woods in the Countreys I name where there is Iron-Stone and Pit-Cole plentiful are as the Breast is to the Child let that cease all dies 5. Consider A Tax being laid upon barr Iron and wrought Iron will encrease the Iron Manufacture here whereby the Prices of VVoods will be encreased the Lands rise price and the Poor imployed and all Materials both Mine Pit-Cole and VVoods are of our own growth and product 6. Consider how many Iron-Works are laid down both in Kent Sussex and Surrey and many more must follow The Reason is the Iron from Sweadland Flanders and Spain comes in so cheap that it cannot be made to profit here and observe how the Gentlemen and others in the Countreys for want of Moneys for their Woods are forced to Stock up their Copices and turn them into Tillage and Pasture the People unimployed and their Lands fall Rents To prevent all a Tax upon Foreign Iron is absolutely necessary Considerations upon Bank-Granaries 1. COnsider that the Corn carried into Bank-Granaries and there kept safe for several years for one penny a year for each Bushel will be for Landlord and Tenant of great benefit the Landlord in all likelihood hath his Rent then secured the Tenant his credit preserved the Husbandry in a good and Regular way 2. Consider the Landlord may at any time have moneys upon Bank-Corn transferred from his Tenant to him for Rent and thereby inable the Landlord upon that Credit to take up moneys at all times to answer his just occasions and the Corn being Registred in the County and also at the Guild-Hall in London will infinitely enliven Trade and Bills for Corn in Banks will be as good as ready moneys and thereby prevent infinite of mischiefs that attend want of present moneys 3. Consider that Bank-Granaries will prevent the poor peoples miseries for want of food in some wet and unseasonable years and will be the occasion of taking infinite poor people off the Parish and prevent others falling upon the Parish 4. Consider it is the true interest of all Gentlemen that have many Tenants in great Corn-Countreys to build Granaries upon their charges and take in their own Tenants and Neighbours Corn and receive from them payment for keeping thereof And if this comes to be put in practice by the Gentlemen the next thing they will then be at Is to set their Sons upon Imploy in the Linnen Manufacture for it will be then perfectly discovered that Bank-Corn may always be delivered out to the poor in payment for their work As now Iron Wool Silk Threads any Wier is delivered out to the Smith Clothier Weaver Pin-maker in part of payment for the Manufactured Commodities for at this time most payments are made to the poor Handicraft-man part Moneys and part such Materials as the Commodity was made of which he sells and he is forc'd to take the Materials at such Rates as his Chapman pleaseth to impose or put upon it 5. Consider These Bank-Granaries will bring out all the Moneys now unimployed and at present out of Trade and prevent the keeping of such quantities of Plate which is now made use of by many People for the Bank-Corn being ready Moneys at all times there will be no occasion of such quantities of Plate as most People keep by them which at present is made use of by many persons for their immediate Credit I being at Dublin in the Month of November One thousand six hundred seventy four there happened a great Storm which very much shattered the Ships lying in the Harbor and blew one to Sea where Ship and Men perished and blew another upon the Rocks near the point of Voth where she was staved and broke to pieces her lading and part of the Men perished at which time I heard many and frequent complaints by Merchants and Seamen of the badness of that Harbor and the danger that attended the Ships lying there at Anchor by reason of hard Sand low Water and the continual hazard the Ships were in when the Winds blew hard there being no Hill or Promontory to defend them from great winds I also found by discourse with the Lord Mayor Brewster and many others that the badness
staple Trade of that part of England and Wales and no place as to cheap Victuals of all sorts with multitude of hands unimployed exceeds those parts we treat of And the thing we now treat of will be no laborious business but may in time prove of great advantage for the younger Sons of Gentlemen to fall to and prevent the idle habit that many are now accustomed to And this Trade must be of great benefit to the Publick for at present they are Foreign Trades and the whole benefit does accrew to them and the consumption and loss to us This Tape and Thred-Trade to be fixt is of much more difficulty to be brought to perfection than if there were some small Trade in the place already but the comfort of that place may be if they once fix well in that Manufacture then they will deter all others setting up the same and so consequently be at last the great Masters of it as Manchester is of all things it Trades in I must acquaint the Gentlemen of Herefordshire that the River Wy must be mended and made more convenient than now it is that so Barges may pass and repass with ease and without hazard for Trade will not admit of such delays as of necessity there must be if the River be not timely mended and Herefordshire must never pretend to come under a great improvement if that River be not fully compleated and the River Lugg made Navigable as high as Hampton Court or one Mile or two further And if that were done then Hereford would be to great part of Radnor Brecknock Cardigan and Moumouthshire as Shrewsbury is to North Wales Shrewsbury lying upon the Navigable River hath all things brought up to the Town and thereby invites North Wales by the way of Barter and otherwise to trade with them The like will be at Hereford to those Welsh Countreys I name if once Hereford were setled in a constant Trade and that may be with ease done when the River Wy is compleated for then it will have the advantage of joyning its communication with other Rivers As for Example it will have all its goods and Siders carried to London and Goods from London back by Water to Hereford and so the charge of Carriage will be much lessened and Trade much more improved for at the Head of Navigable Rivers there must and will be Trade provided the River carriage comes once to be made certain and cheap You may observe in the Map of Rivers in the Book there is a kindness intended to Hereford for it is taken into the association of the Rivers and why it should be so there are many Reasons may be given First Hereford will suck in all Trade of the Welsh Counties before named and there are vast quantities of Sider to come for London provided the way take of making the Rivers of England communicable as in the Book and Map directed Then Hereford will have a great benefit for the Barges at Hereford may be in a constant motion carrying and re-carrying Goods and all such commodities the Countrey sends out or hath occasion to want and at very easie Rates and I am sure it is a pity and next unto a shame that a Countrey that hath the best of Wool the best of Sider the best of Fruit the best of Wheat and the best of Rivers should until this time be unimproved But so it must for ever be unless these things be done A voluntary Register Publick Granaries your River Wy compleatly made Navigable Schools as in Germany for young Maids to Spin Bake-house and Brew-house to supply all People that are in the Manufacture for Trade will go where she is most courted and best provided for witness Holland Legorn Hambrough and Dantzick So much for Hereford I am now for demonstrating the benefit that may come unto the poor decayed Clothiers of Worcester and Kidderminster as also to the Cappers of Bewdley in their several Trades provided they had Granaries to hold Corn in time of plenty and that such Granaries were fitted and setled as in my Book is directed And I shall discover the great miseries each of these Trades now groan under for want of certain and cheap Victuals at all times as Bread and Drink with Moneys at low interest when they need it to drive their Trades And first as to the Trade of making Caps at Bewdley it is grown so low that great part of the Ancient Cap-makers in that Town are wholly decayed and the rest at this present are in a very low condition and the great poverty that is upon them renders them to be at the mercy of the London-Factors which deal for Caps that Trade being got into two or three Factors hands and thereby force the makers to accept of such Rates as they please to give whereby that Trade is much decay'd in that Town and like in few years to fall to the ground And at present there are but Two ways to relieve the People that make Caps in Bewdley The one is to get themselves Incorporated by Act of Parliament and therein get such a Law made as may be for the benefit of the Trade in all particulars and the Bill must be so drawn that the Traders and Makers of Caps may come under such a Regulation as may conduce to the benefit of the Trade in general If they prepare their Parliament-Man to be their Friend to carry in the Bill next sitting of Parliament it will do well The second way to do that Trade good is by their joining together and procuring part of a Granary at Stratford upon Avon to put in Corn and Malt when it is cheap and there to remain for food at all times when they have occasion to use it and at Stratford or thereabouts is always the best and cheapest Wheat and Malt in all them parts of England and from Stratford to Bewdley it will be carried for one Peny the Bushel they having free passage through the Locks and Sluces upon Avon without paying any Tax for the same the which shall be granted provided I can prevail with my Partners in that River to remit their shares And when there is Corn in Bank there is a Joseph in Egypt and Corn and Malt being taken into Granary when cheap as this year is then the Capper and his Family cannot possibly eat dear Bread nor drink dear Drink and thereby he will be able to drive his Trade with ease and Comfort But I must tell the poor Cap-makers not only the benefit of the Corn in Granaries laid up in cheap times but I must also tell him because he is my Neighbour That there is another piece of good Husbandry to be used after the Corn is fixt in the Bank and that is a material thing to Trades-men and to poor men that work in all sorts of Handicrafts at first you will look upon it as a slight thing but when you have well weighed and considered of the Reasons you will
say it must be And when you once have it in use neither you nor any that come after you will let it fall You must have a Bake-house and Brew-house of your own appropriated for your Trade which must be fixt and set up both together with some small Granaries to hold your Corn and Malt and from this Bake-house and Brew-house at all times you will receive such Bread and Drink as you have occasion to use or as your part of Corn and Malt comes unto which you have in Granary and the benefits of this Bake-house and Brew-house will be many First The Corn out of the Granary at Stratford will be brought and lodged in Granary at the Bake-house as there is occasion to make use of it and thereby prevent the loss and damage that it would be lyable to being taken into every Mans private House Secondly All Bread and Drink being made and provided in this Publick Bake-house and Brew-house will cause the Trades-mans Wife and Servants to be at much more leisure to attend their Trades for great part of the Womans time is taken up in providing Bread and Drink getting Fewel running about to get Yeast or Barm as they call it and sometimes stay to crack a Pot or two with the good Host that allows them Yeast Thirdly This way of a Bake-house and Brew-house to be used for the benefit of the Trade will prevent all the charge that Trades-men in the Countrey are put unto in buying and providing all things wanting for these purposes as also the Trades-men will not be necessitated for so great a House as now he must of necessity have nor to sit at so great a Rent as now he doth But I know this Publick Brew-house and Bake-house will meet with a smart objection from most of the Cappers Wives that now Brew their own Beer and that is this Sir we Brewing our own Beer we have Grains for our Pigs and we cannot be without a Hog or Two My answer is That from the Publick Brew-house they will have their proportion of Grains according as they put in their quantities of Malt and if you Brewed your Beer your self you could have no more But I know I can please the Cappers Wives in telling them what will come to pass if they have Corn in these Bank-Granaries and Publick Brew-houses 1. The Malt Brewed in great quantities makes much more and better Drink than if Brewed in many and small parcels 2. When you have Corn and Malt in Granaries neither you nor your Family need to eat or drink dear Bread or Drink 3. Bank-Corn will alway be ready Moneys in your Purses it being a thing that you may Transfer and so alter the property by entring it with the Clerk of your Company Thirdly When there is good store of Corn and Malt in Bank if the Man dies leaving Five or Six Children the Widow shall not want for a Husband for there being sufficient Bread and Drink for Three years in Bank the Children and Apprentices will be a great benefit to the party that Marries the Widow and so go on comfortably in their Trades But let a Man as things now are leave his Wife a Hundred pounds and dye and leave her Six Children she may stay long enough for a Husband for this Hundred pound possibly is at interest and as things are now with us a Man cannot get one Debt in Three without a Lawyer and not one in Three to be had without apparent hazard Now this Bank-Corn Credit will never be questioned so the Man being sure of that as undeniably his own he will be the easier induced to take the Widow if she hath a few faults but to take a Widow with indifferent conditions many Children and her Husbands Estate very hazardous and uncertain to be recovered is not prudence Fourthly Your Corn in Bank is free from all incumbrances and so frees you from Lawyers or the charge attending it and thereby it will give you credit of taking up Moneys at all times to drive your Trades Corn in Bank is Money in Purse nay better I will give you one instance suppose Mr. Wowen of Bewdley hath One thousand quarters of Wheat in the Bank-Granary at Stratford upon Avon which now is worth but One thousand pound Mr. Women hath occasion for Moneys to drive his Trade he gives notice in Town he wants Five hundred pounds and will give Bank-Credit in Corn for it immediately tumbles out the Moneys unimployed and is lent to Mr. Wowen and the property of Corn by way of Mortgage is Transferred to Five Persons that lent the Moneys one of the Persons that lent Mr. VVowen one of the Hundred pounds ows Mr. Simon VVood One hundred pounds Mr. Wood calls for his Moneys his debtor saith he hath no Moneys he must stay No saith Mr. Wood I will not I will sue you for it Then the Debtor proffers his Ticket of Bank-Corn to Mr. VVood Mr. VVood accepts of the security and Transfers the same to his Creditor in London whom he owes Money to the Creditor accepts of it Why because he finds it Registred at the Guild-hall and it is to him ready Moneys any hour in the day if he want Moneys but if he doth not want Money then he suffers it to go on increasing in Bank until he hath occasion to use it And I hope here is no harm done But I will drive this Nail a little further Suppose this Creditor in London of Mr. Simon VVoods Marries a Daughter Do you think that this Bank-Ticket of Corn in Granary will not pay part of the portion Or suppose Mr. VVoods Creditor dies and leaves to his Wife and Children a Thousand pounds in Tickets of Bank-Corn in Granary do you not think it is the best visible security extant Yea it is Do you not think that his Widdow may Marry again to a better advantage than if this Thousand pounds were owing by several Persons by Book-Debts I pray do you think this security by Bank-Corn in Granary would not of a sudden enliven Trade and make it quick I say it will and will be the only security of England And if ever any such thing were desirable just now is the time for all Trades are in a consumption all securities of Lands uncertain and personal-security very difficult and Suits of Law daily multiplied with great charges and miserable spectacles Prisons full and many near perishing Now good Reader observe what benefits and advantages are here received by this way of Bank-Corn in Granary The poor Handicraft Man Wife Children and Servants are always fed with cheap Bread and Drink and may be at leasure if they please to follow their Trades the closer because the whole trouble of buying Corn Grinding Brewing Baking and getting Fuel is taken off their hands It also prevents the laying out Moneys in many things which otherwise they must have done if this Publick Brew-house and Bake-house had not been provided for them it doth also give him
ease in his Rent for now a small House will serve his turn and so a small Rent paid Observe how the party that hath this Bank-Credit in Corn doth convenience himself with Moneys when he wants it and how the Ticket of his Bank-Corn pays the Country Mercer and with the same Ticket the Mercer pays the London Haberdasher and with the same Ticket the Haberdasher takes up Moneys at any time if he pleaseth or if he thinks fit he Marrieth his Daughter and gives Bank-Corn in lieu of a Portion or if he dies it is a good firm setled maintenance for his Wife and Children and One thousand pound thus setled may prove better to the poor Widow and her Children than Five thousand pounds of any other of her Husbands Credits that lies out And here would rise a Miracle if the Cappers of Bewdley should turn Bankers What the poorest Trade of England Yes they may and prove a truer and possibly a better Bank than ever was seen in England for all Banks which have good Anchoridg and Foundation into such Banks will tumble all unimployed Cash If the Cappers come once to have Corn in Bank to the value of Two thousand pounds immediately their Neighbours will desire to come into their association And I know there are some near Bewdley that have Moneys good store What is here set down for the Cap-makers of Bewdley is also intended for the Weavers of Kidderminster who are in great fear of the Factors as they say but I will tell no tales But this I know if the poor Weavers of Kidderminster had a propriety in a Granary at Stratford upon Avon and a Brew-house and Bake-house at Kidderminster and Corn and Malt in time of plenty laid up Then I am and so they may be satisfied that it was impossible for that Trade ever to depart from that Town for cheap Drink and cheap Bread at all times will make cheap Commodities And then the poor at Kidderminster need not fear being crushed or kept under by such as have great Stocks for in England at this day in many places the Richer sort of Men in the handicraft way who have great Stocks do so order their affairs that it 's impossible for a poor Man to raise or advance his fortunes or get any thing to leave his Wife at his decease or Portions for his Children because he that hath the great Stock buys all his materials at the best hand and is able to keep his Goods for the best Market but the poor Man is forced many times to buy his Materials he makes his Commodity with of some of his own Trade and is thereby forced to buy dear and sell cheap and certainly that way must make them poor and very poor I have heard several times many of these great Dealers in the Handicraft-way wish that some-body or other would take their Poor off their Hands and seemingly bemoan the sad condition they were in I have enquired into those mens estates and I have often found that they were Merchants as well as Mechanicks some of them buying Silks at the best hand and selling it to the poor Weavers others buy Wire and then sell it to the poor of their own Trades to make Pins and afterwards take off the Commodity when Manufactured and give them part Commodities unwrought and part Moneys by which way the poor Handicraft Man is forc'd to let part of that which is gained in the Commodity go to one of his own Trade and the cause of all this is want of present Money or Credit with cheap Bread and Drink But I have heard of the other hand great complaints by the labouring Mechanick that the great Dealers of their own Trades did undo them I will believe both parties and take all for truth that is said of both hands but seeing the great Masters of the Mechanick Trades desire their Poor may be off their hands I am resolved to take them at their words And now all you poor Men in England that work or labour in Mechanick Arts you are mine I know now I shall have many questions asked me and amongst the rest What will you do with all these poor People which you say shall be yours My answer is I will make them all rich and happy and their Families also I will now begin to shew them the way but when they are Reading my Project as most will call it I order them to act like Soldiers and command Silence Suffer not your Wives to use any Twit-twat nor ask questions by the way but Read it over and over again and then lay all your Heads together Wife Children and Servants and it 's possible the younger Fry may live to see it Crown'd with a beautiful Blazing-head as the Monument near London-Bridg is with the Urn. Now my Children for so I must call you for I now will take care for you all I will begin Art thou for Revenge I know thou art for thou knowest where thy Shoo hath pinch'd thee long Well in this case I think Revenge is lawful because I know what thou wilt be at but I ask thee this question What is the Revenge that will best fit thy temper and by thee is most desired Sir I desire to be revenged of some of the great Men of our Trade but it is no further than I may have some part of the benefit of the Trade as well as they for it is not fit that some should have so much and others so little for it is we poor Men that have most Fingers My Child thou shalt have thy desire if it be not thy own fault I know you and such as you with your Families are the Persons that work labour and toyl to make others Rich Now let me intreat thee to do the same for thy self as thou didst for others then believe me the work is done Now Child I charge thee be a good Husband for without that all will be in vain and that being performed by thee here will be thy condition when thou comest to have in thy possession Twenty pounds either from thy Friends or by thy own labour then lay it into the Bank-Granary some for Wheat some for Malt admit thou wast now to begin for thy Twenty-pounds thou shalt have Six-score Bushels of Wheat and Three-score Bushels of Malt This Corn and Malt shall serve thee Three years being Seven in Family thy Self Wife a Man a Maid and Three Children Now my dear Child here is Bread and Drink sufficient and that is a comfort and thy self Wife Servants and Children at perfect liberty to follow your several and respective imploys and certainly thou art a very bad Husband if thou dost not on a sudden advance thy estate and get Moneys in Bank-Corn because thou hast nothing to pay for Bread and Drink But here lies a great objection to be answered VVhat shall I do for Moneys to buy some Materials to set our fingers at work for now all is in Malt
the Reasons are inserted how it may be done and the advantage it will be to Trade and the City also The Map is now at Chester in the keeping of the Mayor His Highness the Duke of York was pleased to promise the recommending of it to the Parliament for the making it Navigable And if it were made to Chester Navigable by a new Cut as is in the Map prescribed there would be three thousand Acres of Land gained out of the Sea and made rich land besides the Coles from Aston will be brought to the City of Chester by Water which now are brought by land and all Goods and other things carried and recarried from England to Ireland and from Ireland into England with much less charge than now it is And Dee being made Navigable to Bangor-bridge will be a means to make the River Severne helpful to convey all Goods to London by sending it down the River Severne and up the River Avon and so down the Thames to London whereby much moneys will be saved and Trade advanced The River Dee must be taken up with a very strong Wear over against the Water Gate of the City of Chester and so the River Dee must be carried in a large Cut or Trench through the lands below Alderman Wrights House along the Sands as far as Flint Castle and then dropt by a large Cut into the Deep Water below the Brewhouse There must also be a Cut drawn along the welch shore and so from Aston Pits and dropt into the Main Trench thereby the waste water that comes from the Hills and Mountains will be voided and the Coles that are now carried by Land to Chester will then be carried by water and at least 1000 l. per Ann. saved in Carriage This Trench must be very large that two Ships may Sail one by the other and the Sea Banks must be made very Firm and Strong not upright but very much sloaping There must also be made five very strong Locks or Sluces of Stone which is there very necessary at the end of the Trench This will be done for 15000 l. The River Dee being let down upon a sudden through the great Trench will cause the Sands to fly and deepen the Channel and thereby make the Harbour safe and help to open and deepen the Bar. But it must be done when the Tyde is going out and when the Wind bloweth hard at East with a strong fresh of Water coming off the Mountains The Map discovering the whole Design is hereunto Affixed REader I beg thy pardon if I have kept thee long in reading this Discourse but I hope thou wilt not be angry for when I put Pen to Paper I intended to be brief I know there are many before they have well weighed the Contents of this Book will think that it may much shake their Interests and so will be enquiring after the Compiler and of his Education And how it is possible that one man should know all that is in this Book asserted and will say these are notions of a hot Brain I know others whose Sores are great and Wounds dangerous and desire a cure thereby to live at peace both in their Estates and Persons will be apt to ascribe more to the Compiler than is due For in this Age most of the present humours are to detract and abuse where Interest is pinched or laid open to the World and on the other hand too much to cry up and extol those that expect benefit and relief As to both sorts of Inquisitors I will save them a labour and give them a short Account of my Education and Improvement I was an Apprentice to a Linnen Draper when this King was born and continued at the Trade some years But the Shop being too narrow and short for my large mind I took leave of my Master but said nothing Then I lived a Countrey-life for some years and in the late Wars I was a Soldier and sometimes had the Honour and Misfortune to lodg and dislodg an Army In the year One thousand Six hundred Fifty two I entred upon Iron-works and pli'd them several years and in them times I made it my business to survey the three great Rivers of England and some small ones and made two Navigable and a third almost compleated I next studied the great weakness of the Rye-lands and the Surfeit it was then under by reason of their long Tillage I did by Practick and Theorick find out the reason of its defection as also of its recovery and applyed the remedy in putting out Two Books which were so fitted to the Countrey-mans capacity that he fell on Pell-Mell and I hope and partly know that great part of Worcestershire Glocestershire Herefordshire Shropshire and Staffordshire have doubled the value of the Land by the Husbandry discovered to them See my Two Books Printed by Mr. Sawbridg on Ludgate-hill Entituled Yarranton's Improvement by Clover and there thou maist be further satisfied I also for many years served the Countreys with the Seed and at last gave them the knowledg of getting it with ease and small trouble and what I have been doing since my Book tells you at large And as to any that are my enemies upon the account of this Subject or of such as speak or assert my pains to be to them acceptable both parties are to me a-like I only wish and pray that what is here treated upon may by the Powers above us be seriously considered of and if it be found it tends to the benefit of this present Age and for the good of the Generations to come then let them pursue the ends to bring it to pass If any Gentleman or other please to put Pen to Paper in opposition to what is here asserted I shall give him a Civil return bound up with the Second part where these Seven Heads shall be Treated on 1st Demonstrate and make it appear That England and Ireland are the only Northern-Kingdoms unimproved 2dly Discover That it is a great and wonderful providence of God it is so at this time 3dly Shew how England may be improved in all its parts to Thirty years purchase and how things may be fitted for the doing thereof as also how Ireland may be brought to Twenty years purchase and made as useful to England and of as great strength as Norway is to Denmark 4thly Where Manufactures may be fitted and where setled and how they must be ordered for the benefit of the Kingdom and Trade Universal 5thly Shew how and where all manner of Naval-Stores are to be had and provided at Three fifths they now cost the King with the way means and manner of accomplishing them 6thly How to imploy Six thousand young Lawyers and Three thousand Priests for the good of the Publick and mankind vvho novv have neither practice nor cure of Souls 7thly VVith Observations of the Balance of Europe and of the Publick Banks therein vvith their Use Order Rule and Riches FINIS