Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	charles_n	france_n	king_n	15,695	5	4.4057	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33258	A treatise of wool and the manufacture of it in a letter to a friend, occasion'd upon a discourse concerning the great abatements of rents and low value of lands ... : together with the presentment of the grand jury of the county of Somerset at the general quarter sessions begun at Brewton the thirteenth day of January, 1684.; Treatise of wool and cattel	Clarke, George, fl. 1677-1685.	1685 (1685)	Wing C4445_VARIANT; ESTC R10931	17,816	31

power of any private Persons to sink the Trade and Manufacture of our Wool as now they can For certainly a Liberty for a Private Trade in some cases may bring that Mischief upon the Publick Concern of a Nation not easily to be removed again I will only instance one Passage which may be fresh in every man's memory that had then any Concern in Wool to shew what command the great Clothiers Factors and others have of that Commodity and the Trade for it When the Peace was last made with the Dutch about ten years since by the Mediation of the Spanish Ambassadour and the French left wholly out in that Agreement the price of our Wool in less than a Months time did rise from 18 s. and 19 s to 25 s. and 26 s. the weight that is a quarter part more than it would yield a Week before the News of that Agreement with Holland But the Scene quickly shifted for the Parliament being soon after Prorogued our Wool did not so fast advance before but now it came tumbling down so that it return'd not only in a Week or Fortnights time to its former price but pass'd by without any stay or stop until it was almost impossible to run lower even to 12 and 13 s. the weight What should be the reason of this was there more Wool now discover'd or was there like to be less Trade Certainly there was as much Wool in the Kingdom of our own growth an hundred years ago as now We have no increase of Sheep for all those Lands that now feed to wit our Downs and Sheep-Pastures could never be employ'd to other Use Then it must be in the Trade And if so then we may see where the Command of that lyes as those Dealers like the Motions of the Times they shall either advance or sink it at their pleasure for the Trade lies sullen and must be rows'd it hath been so long manag'd by some particular Persons that they now look upon it not so much the Staple Manufacture and chief Commodity we have to support the Wealth and Honour of our Nation as a Business only for some few men to gain Wealth and Estates by But to proceed Now what quantity of this Spanish Wool is brought yearly into this Kingdom and here made into Cloth and how much of it is transported when made is worth our Enquiry And upon this Enquiry I doubt it will appear that there is as much Spanish Cloth spent and worn among our own People as the Spanish Wool will make that is imported for in lieu of those few Medlies we send abroad in Trade we have a supply of Blacks c. brought out of Holland to us and here sold at double the rate of that made in our own Kingdom of the same goodness For at this day the very Servants and Mechanicks especially in Towns and Cities will scorn to wear any Cloth but Spanish if their Purses can but reach the price It is not many years since that Spanish Cloth of the same goodness they now make was sold for 23 s. and 24 s. the yard by the Clothier which he now sells for 15 s. and 16 s. the yard and so long as it can be bought at this low price there is scarce a Cobler but will have his best Suit of it In a word all the Ruine that hath happen'd to our Clothing Trade by the low price of our Wool cannot be imputed to the Exportation of our English Wool but to the Importation of the Spanish and other Foreign Wool without paying any Duty or Custom for the same And this among other Grievances attending the Clothing Trade the Grand Jury of the County of Somerset at their General Quarter Sessions presented as the Grievance and Complaint of the whole County the which I have here set down verbatim as it was to have been presented to the late Kings most Excellent Majesty in Council Somerset At the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Brewton in and for the Country aforesaid on the Thirteenth day of January in the Thirty Sixth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King c. The Presentment of the Grand Jury there was as followeth viz. HEARING the daily sad and lamentable Complaint of the greatest part of the Clothiers of this Country concerning the great Decay of their Trade whereby many of them with in few years last past have been ruin'd and undone And finding by sad experience the great fall that is happened of late on the price of English Wool that Commodity now yielding but little more than the one half the Value of what it was wont to be sold for at the beginning of the late unhappy Rebellion in this Kingdom And having seriously considered these things do humbly conceive the Causes of these great Evils to be the Importation of Spanish and other Foreign Wools without paying any Custom or Impost for the same And the great Abuses that have been put upon the Clothiers at the Principal Mart for Cloth in this Kingdom by a sort of People called Factors Men first set up in the late Times of Distraction and increasing ever since in Number and Power till now at length they have gotten the sole Command and Sale of most mens Cloth brought thither to be sold And have thereby advanc'd themselves from little or nothing to be Men of great Estates and as much impoverished their Masters who sadly complain of these Abuses and are left without prospect of a Remedy The Consideration of which Mischiefs growing more and more upon us and if not timely prevented being likely in the end to prove the Ruine of this ancient Staple Commodity and Manufacture of our Kingdom hath caused us at this time to make this following Presentment First That the Wool of this County in particular as well as of the whole Kingdom in general is the greatest Staple we have And that which adds more to the Rents and Improvement of the Real Value of the Lands and Revenues thereof than any one Commodity whatsoever And that it is as much our Interest if not more to improve the Rents and Revenues of the Lands and Estates of this Kingdom as to Maintain the Trade without which Improvement we shall in no case be able to raise any considerable Sum of Money by a Land-Tax if any sudden or extraordinary occasion should require it We Present therefore That the Importation of Spanish and other Foreign Wools without paying any Duty or Custom for the same is a very great prejudice to the price of English Wool and so consequently contributes much to the Abatements of the Rents and Profits issuing from Lands We Present That the making of Woollen Cloth is the greatest Manufacture of this Kingdom and that wherein many thousands of poor People are employed and set to work and thereby Relieved and Maintained and that since the time that the Art of Clothing was first known amongst us it has continued free untill the beginning of the late Rebellion there sprung up a sort of People who under the name of Factors of Blackwell-Hall have gotten into their Power the Management and Disposal of most of the Cloth that is sold there And besides are grown to be the greatest Merchants of Oyl and Dying-stuffs but chiefly of Spanish Wool all goods belonging to the Clothing Trade of whom the Clothier is forced to buy the Factor having his Stock both of Cloth and Money in his own hands And therefore We present that these Factors of Blackwell-Hall are a Publick Nusance and Prejudice to the Clothing Trade and to have been the Ruine of many poor Clothiers and the Causes of many other Mischiefs and Inconveniencies that now lye heavy upon us Item We farther Present that this Honourable Bench will be pleased to implore the Royal Power and Prerogative of His Sacred Majesty for convenient Remedies to these great Abuses And that this Presentment may be with all Submission presented to His Majesty as the Grievance and Complaint of the whole Country Thomas Ludwell Joseph Gappy Barnard Russ William Ridcut Thomas Pitman John Bradny John Mulford Sen. Thomas Gapper Jun. Thomas Field William Lewis Thomas Biging Thomas Harvye John Mabz Wor. Brice Henry Strode Gabriel Iveleife Robert King Vera Cop ' Ex ' per Ph. Bennet Cl. Pac. This is a true Copy of the Grand Juries Presentment which we agree to and desire it may be presented to His Majesty in Council by Mr. Clarke Weymouth Fitzharding Fra. Powlett E. Phelipps John Hunt Ed. Berkeley Tho. Wyndham Fra. Warre Will. Basset Geo. Clarke Jo. Harington

should find some alteration in the price of it in few years and I doubt not but our Clothiers could pick out enough of the finest sort of it to make Cloth very little inferiour to the Spanish And it is easie to be made appear that we spend as much Spanish Cloth in our own Kingdoms and Plantations belonging to the Crown of England and a great part of that too not manufactur'd by our own People as Dutch black as is worn in all the Kingdoms of the World besides and more So that if any shall object against the laying a Duty upon the Spanish Wool I hope they will give us leave to enjoyn our own People to wear no Cloth but what is manufactured by our selves and made of our own Wool and if this Consumption of our Cloth at home be added but to that Trade we have yet left abroad for it we should soon find an Increase in the price of our Wool And I know no reason why any should be offended with us for endeavouring our own Interest and Advantage the general design of all Nations neither can this spending of our own Cloth among our selves hinder any thing of our Trade abroad And that this may appear to be no new or upstart Project the Statutes of 2 Edward the 3. Cap. 1 2 3. may sufficiently satisfie us in which Kings Reign it was that the Manufacture of our Wool began to be our National Employment For among all our Staple Commodities Wool had at that time the Precedency as being the most principal and ancient Commodity of the Kingdom wherein the generality of the People were deeply concern'd and the Manufacture of it though of long use among our selves yet it received but little Encouragement for a Trade into Foreign Parts till these times the Flemmings having the principal Manufacture then by the continual supply of Wool that they received from hence But the Wisdom of this great Prince soon discern'd of what unspeakable value the Manufacture of our own Wool would be to the Trade of this Kingdom who like a provident and careful Father look'd farther than his present time and who beingwell acquainted with the Flemmings Affairs by a joynt Engagement with them in the War with France had therein gain'd so good an Opinion amongst them that he might adventure to change a Complement for a Courtesie the Staples where our Wool was sold being now taken clean away and by the Statute of 2. Edw. 3. Cap. 1. made Felony to carry any Wool out of the Realm He now prosecutes his Design for the setling of the Manufacture at home and represents to those Flemmings the Danger they were in by the bordering Wars with France and the peacable Condition of England and freedom of the People that are Subjects here Propounds an Invitation for them to come over hither wherein he promises them the same Priviledges and Immunities with his own Subjects which they accepted and came over and brought their Manufacture with them which could never after be removed hence So as now the Manufacture and our Wool were joyned together and so long as they agree together both will thrive but if they once part as the Spanish Wool at this time puts fair at it they will both be losers in the Conclusion The Manufacture of our Wool being brought to this Settlement at home this Heroick King Edward the Third makes this other Statue in the same 11th year of his Reign That no Merchant Foreign or Denizon nor any other after the Feast of St. Michael shall cause to be brought privately or apertly by himself nor by any other into the said Lands of England Ireland Wales and Scotland within the Kings Power any Cloths made in any other Places than in the same upon forfeiture of the said Cloth and further to be punished at the Kings Will as is aforesaid But because this Nation formerly had been and still is too much wedded to the wearing of Foreign Manufactures the importing of which did hinder the using of our own home-made Manufactures for too much of them make our own a Drug our Nation Poor and our People to want Work As a Cure for this Disease our own English Cloth is enjoyn'd by a Law to be worn by all Persons under the Degree of a Lord and then the Wisdom of the times thought fit to provide for the true and perfect making of Cloth several Statutes were made in this Kings time Richard the Second and were also confirm'd by Queen Elizabeth and King James but especially in the fifth year of Edward the 6th Cap. 6. For the Length Bredth Weight and Goodness of all sorts of Cloth with several Proviso's to prevent Frauds and Abuses both in the making and selling thereof such care our Ancestors have had in all former and latter Ages for the improvement of this our Woollen Manufacture by which we may plainly see of what absolute Necessity it is to be encouraged and advanced Shall it now by us after so much Care and Industry used by them to settle and bring it to our Doors and into our very Houses be neglected and scarce thought worth the Entertainment for fear of I know not what Jealousies of disobliging some Foreign Nation by putting a Duty on their Wool Shall their Wisdom and Prudence that judg'd this Manufacture and Trade for it the great Support and and Glory of our Nation be call'd in question by our carelesness and shall we suffer our selves to be thus cheated of it when we are as well able to maintain and defend it as they and by Exprience find that it is our chiefest if not only Manufacture and Support of the Strength Honour and Wealth of our English Nation For which way can we continue a Trade long that have no Money of our own growth but only what is brought unto us for Commodities and if we can find nothing of our own to barter and exchange for we must in short time sink our trade abroad if we intend to keep our Money at home our Staple Commodities must therefore of Necessity be advanc'd and encourag'd to enable us by the return thereof to hold a Commerce with those Parts of the World that must supply us for if Trade be maintained barely out of the main Stock the Kingdom in time must needs be decay'd and so brought to Penury it being our Magazin A third Cause of the great Abatement and low Price of our Wool may be this viz. The decaying Condition of the Merchant-Adventure and Hamborough Company within these few years a Company that vended many thousands of our English Cloths yearly for after that our Staples for Wool were taken away and the Manufacture of our Cloth setled among us this Company also had their Motion from Flanders through Holland untill at last it came to be fixed for the conveniency of those Eastern Countries at Hamborough And it would not be needless if the discreetest of them were advised with to know the Reasons they can