to our having the same freedom of Trade by which but a little time before the wisest and most leading Men of that Nation thought it their Interest to have secured our Affection And that this was the sence of the Court of England at that time needs no further Evidence than His Majesty's two successive Speeches to both Houses of His First Parliament wherein the consideration of an intire Union with Scotland was seriously recommended In order to which some Schemes were prepared and consulted by certain Noble Patriots of both Nations But no sooner had we in the interim solemnly consummated in manner aforesaid all that England could have either wish'd or fear'd from us on that Occasion but of a sudden all thoughts of such Union fell to the ground so that being left to chew our Cud upon that melancholy Proverb Post est occasio calva which in our Dialect may be render'd A True Scotchman is Wise behind-hand our next and only Remedy was to make the best of a bad Market In order to which we then Resolved to think of framing such wholsom and advantagious Lawes for the Advancement of our poor Trade as might not only rouze up and animate the depressed and often-disappointed Genius of our fellow-Natives but also invite and enduce Strangers more experienced in Trade to embarque upon the same bottom with us and to that end We did in the Third Session of this current Parliament Anno 1693 Pass a Preliminary Act conceived in general Terms for the Encouragement of Foreign Trade which you see narrated in the beginning of this last Act By the gracious and necessary Concessions of which we have a plain Demonstration through the Vertue of those Noble and worthy Patriots whom His Majesty's discerning Eye singled out of the Crowd of Pretenders to the Offices of State That our present King is not only Pater Patriae but Pater Patriarum and like the true Emblem of that Immense Deity whose Anointed he is diffuseth his Favours with a more unconfined and universal Influence than any of our late Kings of Britain Their natural Easiness of Temper giving many fatal Opportunities to the mercenary Ministers of those Times both to impose on their Masters and prey upon the Liberties of their fellow-Subjects whereas our present King doth not only penetrate into what is Just but hath also a Nobleness of Soul to execute with an impartial Hand what to him seemeth to be so And that the giving his Royal Sanction to this Act was the effect both of his Justice and Gratitude is plain from the natural Regard which in Reason we must needs suppose him to have had to our frank and seasonable Services when in themselves they were most Valuable and when indeed he stood most in need of them Obj. But you say the Out-cry is That these are such unprecedented Concessions and Exceptions as never were or ought to be granted by a Prince to any Society or Company of Traders in the World Ergo Hah Is the Hue and Cry got up then I am glad of it For certainly the Great the Grave and Wise Men of the Nation do never joyn in that Chorus But to be more serious 'T is true that these Concessions may seem somwhat strange to a People whose Wealth Capacity Naval Strength Foreign Possessions Plantations Forts and Universal Settlements want no more to carry on what Trade soever they please than to will and to execute But on the other hand if they look upon Scotland and consider it as in it self it is deficient to a degree of Extremity in all the necessary Qualifications of Trade above-recited they must own of course that nothing less than these Concessions and Exemptions could give this New Company a prospect of so much as a Possibility of ever grappling with such infinite and almost insuperable Difficulties as they and indeed all other Beginnings must necessarily encounter with so that if such Exemptions had not been granted we had as good have erected no Company And as to these Concessions being without Precedent I will not pretend to give an Instance of any that are exactly the same with the Privileges contained in this Act but if I let you see much greater I hope that may serve the turn Nor to do that need I go so far from hence as to search into the Records of other Nations such as France Holland Denmark and others who have given illimited Powers and vast Encouragements to their respective Tradeing Companies but even in Scotland when we could not be presumed to have had any great Notions of Trade about Thirty five Years past upon the Restauration of King Charles II. in his First Parliament and the several Sessions thereof before the French King had time to plant his Janizaries in the Court of England there were several Acts Pass'd in favour of Trade and Manufactories with Privileges and Exemptions far exceeding any in this Act with respect to the Purposes for which they were granted Mutatis Mutandis And that I may not seem to speak altogether without Book I shall give you an Instance of one for all namely the Act Pass'd in the Year 1661 for the Fishings and Erecting of Companies for Promoting the same which being too long to be transcribed I send you by way of Postscript a short Abstract of the most considerable Privileges and Exemptions therein contained as they stand in order in the Act it self and all these were Granted for Perpetuity Whereas all the most Important Concessions in this late Act are limited some to Ten some to Twenty one Years in which time God knows we must run very fast to come up with any of all our neighbouring Nations who have started so long before Us. Now let us further compare both the said Acts and the Purposes for which they were severally intended and then with respect to this last we must think of going we know not whither undergo the Danger of boysterous Storms and long Voyages with which we are not acquainted tye up our Stomachs to strict regular and unaccustomed Diets prepare against the Effects of quite contrary Climates and there purchase Plantations Collonies Settlements and build Forts c. Yet as to the Time when all this will happen he must be a wiser Man than I that can tell But as to the former Act for the Fishing c. all Matters thereunto relating were to be transacted in view of our own Doors and in our own Power But then you 'll ask me How it came to pass that this excellent Constitution for our Fishings has had no better Effect Why truly I 'll tell you For the very same Reason which may possibly prove the Overthrow of this New Undertaking which God forbid if we have no better luck in getting honester Men at the Head of it For the Dutch who have got most of their Wealth by Fishing in other Mens Waters looking upon us then with a jealous Eye found a way as it was then believ'd to
a possibility of Cavilling But there 's none so blind as they who will not see and by what you write I find had there been any thing in our Act that could not bear the Tryal of the strictest Enquiry on the aforesaid Heads it had certainly been long e're now ript up and printed in Capital Letters by those who were at the Trouble and Expence of Reprinting the Act at London in several shapes and under a new Title of their own framing of design to adapt it more properly to the Notion of Rivalship and Emulation which you say they so industriously preach in Coffee-houses Obj. Oh! but say they Tho' there be nothing in the Act that at present may seem to interferr with yet in the Consequence it may prove pernicious to the Interest of England In Answer to which give me leave to observe That as this Act was calculated for a Common and Publick Good so though it be a received and standing Maxim That No Evil is to be done that Good may come of it yet no reasonable Man will urge from thence the Alternative That we ought to forbear doing an apparent Publick Good because of a remote possibility of an imaginary Evil Consequence And before I step further pray let us take a short View of what Prospect there may be of this bug-bearing Consequence Why truly Scotland proposeth an Advantage by Foreign Trade and leaves it at England's door to accept or refuse being concerned for one Moiety of all the Profits Emoluments and Advantages arising from such Trade and by the bye England's embracing that Offer seems to me an auspicious Prognostick of future Success Now should we happen to be frustrate in our Expectation by this Trade then all the vain Jealousies of Rivalship and Competition fall of course But if it should as I hope it may answer our Wishes by a plentiful and prosperous Harvest in return to our Honest and Infant-Undertaking England sure would be mightily hurt to reap One Half of all the Profits thereof which I pray God may prove the happy Consequence so much fear'd by your Monopoly-men Yet all this you say cannot please them that are resolved to be implacable for that there are a certain sort of such good-natur'd Christians in the World as would chuse rather to lose a certain Benefit and Advantage to themselves than endure the very thoughts of seeing their Neighbours in any tolerable degree of equal Prosperity In allusion to which 't is no new thing to tell you That ever since the Reformation of Religion the Jesuits in their various shapes have left no means unessayed to propogate the several Sects and Schisms which during the last Age have like a general Contagion overspread this Island and undoubtedly gave the first rise to all the sad Catastrophe and dismal Consequences of the late bloody Civil Wars And even so since the Union of both Kingdoms under one Monarchy we have too too manifest and pregnant Proof of how far the Matchevilian Maxims of Policy have by the means of French Pensioners and Emissaries gain'd credit enough at the Court of England to improve the Remnants and Dregs of the ancient Feuds of both Kingdoms into an almost avowed Reason of State though a much mistaken one That it was the Interest of England to suppress and keep Scotland poor Which was indeed chiefly intended and contrived with design to leave England in the lurch and carry on the real Interest of France where this Maxim had its birth by regaining Scotland into their ancient League For the Sting and hidden Poyson of the Serpent lay in this That the People of Scotland from the natural consideration they must needs have of any severe Treatment or unreasonable and intollerable Exactions imposed upon them by their domineering Neighbours might in time be tempted like the Israelites in the Wilderness to murmur and look back into the Onions Melons Garlick and Flesh-pots of their old acquaintance Yet by the Influence of this Jesuitical Barbarous and Hellish Principle together with the general Corruption of such colleaguing and self-designing Ministers as have to the grief of these Nations been at the Helm of Affairs during those latter Reigns this poor Nation in particular hath been most unmercifully crampt and fetter'd in its natural Liberties both as to Religion Property Trade and indeed all the real Badges of a Free and independent Kingdom other than in shadow till the late Providential and Happy Revolution gave us not only a fair opportunity of reassuming all our ancient Freedoms and natural Liberties but also of extending the same in point of Trade far beyond those Limits which some of our Neighbours seem now unwilling to allow Us. And I would gladly offer it to the serious Consideration of any Honest Unbyass'd and Free-thinking English-man Whether upon His present Majesty's Accession to the Crown of England when Ireland was in a manner quite lopp'd off France making mighty Preparations for War all Europe invelop'd in almost unquenchable Flames and England it self not free from Intestine Divisions and Bosom Enemies who flatter'd themselves with the Hopes that Scotland would from the consideration of its being so long kept at Arm's-length be tempted to act by an Interest separate from that of England Whether I say upon condition of assurance then that we would follow England's Example in placing the Crown of this Realm upon the Heads of our present Gracious Sovereign and and His late Royal Consort of Blessed Memory when they fear'd our Demurring upon it England would not have willingly fulfilled and put us in possession of the long promis'd Union of both Nations and settled the same upon such an equal and lasting Foundation as that we might have freedom of Trading into the very Heart of their Plantations For how little soever the apparent Proportion be which our Nation may at present seem to bear on the Theatre of Publick Action as being in a manner wholly eclypsed by the refulgent and radiant Beams of England's more resplendent Greatness I may without Hyperbole justly say That as Matters then stood We had the Ballance of Europe in our Hands Yet all the Considerations we had in view of our own particular Interest and the Advantages which we might have made of that Opportunity soon gave way to the irresistible Zeal and Affection which we had for the Restorer of the Protestant Religion and common Liberties of Britain For lest that by any Delays in our Proceedings the Measures of England might be protracted We did in almost One Breath Declare the Throne Vacant our Selves a Free Independent State Their Royal Highnesses King and Queen of this Realm and war against all Their Majesty's Enemies as not in the least doubting but that such our generous and frank Proceeding with respect to our Neighbours at so critical a Juncture of Affairs might in due time reasonably plead for a grateful Resentment from the King and Parliament of England by an equally generous Condescension on their side
grease a certain Great Man in the Fist who thereupon embarqued himself and all his Friends with all his Might on our Bottom and who being once at the Head of all thwarted all over-rul'd all and ruin'd all For the Honest and Well-meaning Men finding themselves no other than Cyphers grew wearied and so gave up the Cudgels By all which you have a plain Demonstration and Proof That what may do in one Nation will not do in another But I 'm resolv'd to wait with Patience and hope for the best Exitus acta probat the meaning of which is in English The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating Obj. But then you say The unanswerable and thundering Dilemma which these Grumblers would seem and do actually boast to fasten upon His Majesty is That either he must retract what he has done by some publick Mark of his Discountenancing this New Company or otherwise he cannot in reason deny the like Concessions to the several Tradeing Companies of England who have so largely contributed towards the Expence of this present War Answ. This is truly the most plausible Difficulty of all that 's offer'd and such a Noose as may readily catch Larks but will never gravel the judicious part of Mankind more than any of the former as being all of one piece The better to obviate which I shall give you a plain easie just and adequate Parallel in the like Case As for Example Supposing me Lord of a considerable Mannour producing abundance of Corn Hay Fruit and having all the marks of a fertile and well-cultivated Soil which I have Lett to Farm for a certain Annual or Yearly Rent which Rent I have by Contract of Marriage appropriated to the Payment of my Wife's Joynture in the interim there comes to me an Undertaker with a Proposal That whereas I am also Proprietor of a certain piece of unprofitable waste Ground together with some Acres of Land quite under Water both which yield me no Rent he will engage at his own Hazard Labour and Expence to cultivate the one and drain the other providing I grant him a Lease thereof free of all Rent for Twenty one Years to which I readily and reasonably assent as foreseeing the Advantage that must thereby accrue if not to my self immediately yet to my Heirs and Successors Upon the executing of which Lease should he who Farm'd my Principal Mannour in manner aforesaid come and tax me of being an exacting and partial Landlord if I would not also let him sit Rent-free as well as his new Neighbour-Undertaker Pray what Regard do you think I ought to observe to any Demand that were grounded only upon such a Reason The Application whereof is so easie and natural that it were calling your Judgment into question to expatiate any more upon that Head Yet lest you may say that omne simile est dissimile and think this to be only an indirect Answer to all the Parts of your Objection I shall touch them severally And First As to any publick Mark of His Majesty's Discountenance to this New Company which would be the doing and undoing of a thing with the same breath is so tender a Point that the very Thoughts of it is attacking and wounding His Majesty at once in two of his most peculiar Attributes Wisdom in Council and Stedfastness of Resolution Then as to what Concessions may be advisable to be given to all or any of the Tradeing Companies of England I must suspend my weak Judgment therein the King and ensuing Parliament being the only proper Judges thereof only thus far I 'll venture to judge That whoever audaciously dare pretend to anticipate the Sence of so Great and August an Assembly by Dictating in Coffee-houses what his Arrogance thinks forsooth they ought to do may likewise think himself well come off at last if he escape with only a Reprimand And then as to the last Branch of the Objection which seems to point at our not contributing so largely as they have towards the Expence of the War let us consider whether they think Us equally concerned and whether We may expect a proportionable share of the Glory and Advantage If not then we are but Auxiliaries and ought not to undergo any narrow scrutiny on that head For A given Horse ought not to be examin'd in the Mouth But supposing as indeed I think We are equally concern'd in the same Common Cause it must be confess'd That we cannot boast of any great store of Wealth for which we may partly thank those Familiar Spirits of France who by a Legerdemain Trick of Hocus Pocus have too often assumed the shapes of Court-Cards in the most considerable Games which have till of late Years been play'd on the English Stage yet in Proportion to what our Strength was in any tollerable measure able to bear we have always signified our good Inclination by giving such Supplies from time to time as have not only rais'd very considerable Numbers of excellent Troops but also Maintain'd the same till call'd out of the Nation by His Majesty and then we successively rais'd others to be a constant Nursery for the English Army This was all we could do and could we have done more we stood in need of no Spurr to do it The Widow's Mite in the Gospel was more acceptable to Our Saviour than all the large Offerings of those who gave only out of the Abundance of their Superfluities Of them to whom much hath been given much shall be required And if His Majesty should question us upon this head we can justly answer him with a Scripture Phrase Silver and Gold have we none but such as we have we give unto him True Hearts and Valiant Hands Brave Trusty Lads arm'd with Natural Buff who dare encounter Fire and Smoke and whose Undaunted Resolution and Valour upon all Occasions of Tryal have to the Diminution of their Number given at least some small Addition to the Advancing Glory of the English Arms which if we had not given an equal Number of equal Troops from any of our most entirely beloved Confederate Princes if any such they had to spare would certainly be good Meat but must needs have cost England very dear Sauce And since I now treat of our Usefulness to England how little soever they may value it I shall beg leave to look back again upon the further Motives that induced us to be forward in Passing this Act and take also a further view of the Advantages that may probably arise not only unto our Selves but to England in general by it As to the First of these we observed That the Customs Fashions and Luxury of other Nations having bewitch'd our Travelling Nobility and Gentry had introduced a certain kind of Necessity among us of using and consuming many more and greater quantities of Foreign Commodities than were so much as ever known almost to the honest Simplicity of our plain and wise Fore-Fathers and more truly than we had
Miscarriages of their numerous Agents and Instruments imployed in the managing part and it is to be noted that this Company to which I believe we have nothing like in Story if considered in all its preposterous Designs and Machins hath not the Advantage of Companies that trade by Sea for they by a Joint Stock make great Adventures in one Bottom and so are in many things at no more Charge with the Management of Ten thousand pounds in Trade than a private Man may be with One But here with our Company it is not so but on the contrary the Company must be at more Charge than a private Man in their several Cheques and Controlers upon their Servants whereas every private Man doth his own Work and as it is always done so to most Advantage so most especially in this of the Linnen Manufactory where there must be a particular Eye to every pound of Thread Weaving Whitening and a multitude of other things all which extraordinary Charge and Difficulty the Company must lie under more than private Men can no other way be raised but by lessening the Wages of the Poor that make the Linnen and raising the Price on the Rich that wear it Our Laws provide well against Forestallers in Markets and tho not so well as it might be yet there is some care taken that Men have the fair buying of the Victuals they eat This I have sometimes thought is like Tithing Mint and Rue neglecting the more weighty things of the Law we provide Men should not be cheated in buying a pennyworth of Eggs but make no provision to secure them from the same Abuse in a hundred pounds laid out in Cloaths The poor Artizan shall not be oppressed in laying out his penny to one poorer than himself but he is without Remedy shortened by a Company in his Penny as it comes in I have heard Complaints of this Nature in greater matters of the publick Sales of the East-India Company perhaps if due Consideration were had of these great Ingrossers there would be sound more Reason to restrain them than a poor Woman that travels in the Country to buy up and sell in a Market a few Hens and Chickens But to return to our Corporation for Imaginary Linnen Manufactory I shall now lay down what offers to me that if it were possible to introduce it in this Kingdom that yet it would not be for the Interest of the Nation to have a Linnen Manufactory set up as a Trade in the Kingdom Divine Providence that appoints to every Nation and Country a particular Portion seems to allot that to England which was the first acceptable Sacrifice to his Omnipotency that of the Flock the Produce of which is the most universal Covering of all the civilized Countries of the World our Woollen Manufactory a Talent which no Nation hath to that perfection as we have This hath been for many Ages the Support of the Nation imploying the poor at home our Men and Ships at Sea Now to decline this and set up another Manufactory looks like an extravagant Mechanick who by his Improvidence hath lost his own Art and thinks to retrieve his Misfortune by taking up that of another Mans. This is condemned in particular persons and to be feared in a Community But it will be said there is not Imployment for the Hands of the Nation in the Woollen Manufactory and since Linnen carries away so much of our Money it seems the Interest of the Nation to imploy idle Hands in that which will keep Money in the Kingdom Now tho both these Assertions have too much Truth in them yet neither of them have Weight enough to enforce the Conclusion that the Linnen Manufactory is the only Remedy If we search into the Bottom of our Distemper we shall find another Cause of our Disease It is not because there is less Woollen Manufactory used in the World than formerly that our Trade declines nor yet because we make more than formerly for it is demonstrable that from the year 1673 to the year 1680 there was much more Wooll wrought up in England than in eleven years since Nor is it altogether to be assigned to the present War for that our Trade decayed in the latter part of King Charles the Second and all the Reign of the late King The Reasons then for our Decay in the Woollen Manufactory seem to be these 1. The Growth of course Woollen Manufactory in Germany with which the Venetians trade to Turkey 2. The Prohibition of our Woollen Manufactory into France 3. The Increase of the Woollen Manufactory by our Neighbours with the help of our Wooll so that in some things they out-do us in the price they can sell at 4. By the great Wear of East-India and other Silks and the use of Calicoes which was formerly supplied by our Tammies and Sayes 5. The want of the Consumption of Ireland which abated all the Reign of the late King There is yet a Cause as valid as any of the former which for some Reasons I forbear to mention Now to me it seems possible to Counterpoise all these and to retrieve our Manufactory and that by two ways First By preventing the Transporting of Wooll which if done the French and others that now furnish Markets abroad would not be able to supply their own Expence It may be thought a vain Assertion after all Attempts that have been made to prevent the Exportation of our Wooll to say there is yet a way that may effectually do it Yet I am morally sure it may be done both in England and Ireland and if this were done there is another thing that might oblige the French when there is a Peace to take off their Prohibitions on our Manufactory The other way to bring our Woollen Manufactories into esteem abroad is to make them so cheap as to undersell the German Coarse Manufactories and that may be done with ease which I can make out upon occasion These two things if practicable as I persuade my self they are will set the Woollen Manufactory on so good a Foot as together with a Consumption not yet practised in England will find Imployment for the meanest Hand in England So that there will be rather Want than Superfluity of Hands in the Woollen Manufactory Now if there be any thing in all I have said it seems reasonable to consider well before the Nation gives up its Staple and long continued Trade for a Shadow as I take the Linnen Manufactory to be for although I believe it can never come to effect yet so far it may go as to injure that of the Woollen by diverting some that are now in iâ— and so raise the price of Spinning than which nothing can be more prejudicial for as I mentioned before nothing can retrieve our lost Trade abroad but underselling our Competitors so then we must labour to make ours as cheap as we can and not set up another Manufactory to bid who gives most for