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
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
now passing for the Fishing of Ireland there may with as much Reason be another for Plowing And why not some publick spirited Projector have a Patent for a more excellent way of cutting Turf a Fuel much used in Ireland This way of appropriating the Trade of Ireland is happily of worse Consequence to England than at first sight appears Perhaps it will not be thought a Prejudice to England that a Patent is granted for a Fishing in Ireland when it shall be in the Name of Men of England But when this Patent is transferred to Foreigners and they with their Men and Ships manage this Fishing what will England or Ireland get by it Several Small-Crafts that use to come from England to the West of Ireland will be beat out of their Trade and in conclusion Ireland made a Province for Trade to any Foreigners that will buy from our projecting Patentees As I said before Ireland is no more than one of our Foreign Plantations only I think it will be allowed the first place and more than any other in nearness of Blood and that of our Nobles there being many Familes in that Kingdom descended from the ancient Families of this and most of the Estates in Ireland held by the Descent from our Brethren who purchased it with their Blood These Reflections may prevail for our Care of them at least equally to any Colony abroad and we never think it our prejudice to have them thrive nor would the Growth of Ireland if rightly disposed or understood And here give me leave to make a Digression if it may be call'd so but you may think it not foreign to the Discourse I find it generally believed that Ireland is as mischievous to our Trade in time of Peace as it is destructive to our Men and Treasure in time of War And tho this Opinion never went far with me yet something I did doubt was in it until I met with that which gave plain Demonstration to the contrary and it was this I fell into an entire acquaintance with a Gentleman of Ireland whose Experience and long Continuance in all the Foreign Trade of that Kingdom furnished him with Arguments I could not answer to prove that England was a great Gainer by the Trade of Ireland When I could not confute him nor he prevail with me he told me he would shew me that which carried Authority with it and so he did being as he assured me the Work of some years as he could spare time to compose it The whole Discourse takes up many Sheets upon the Trade of Ireland to all parts and particular Remarks upon every Commodity exported and imported into that Kingdom and where and how it affects England Some other things he reserved as Secrets from me as he doth the rest to others for it was never seen by any but one beside my self Out of the whole he hath extracted an exact Account of the Exports and Imports for one year in a Medium out of six and then distinguished what related to England by what Ships brought in and out then computed the Value of each Commodity and to what they were improved being manufactored in England and then what Money in Specie or Bills of Exchange which is the same was returned from Foreign Parts to England out of the Proceed of Goods sent from Ireland all which being brought to a Sum it appeared that England gained by Ireland more than two Millions Sterling per annum It seemed to me an incredible thing but being as he affirms Matter of Fact for which he hath the Account of the Customs it is not to be denied the Breviat is drawn in so plain and intelligible a Method as renders it easie to any Understanding and therefore to mine I would fain have prevailed with him to Print the whole Matter but he thinks it may be made better use of another way and affirms that as great as this looks yet it might be improved to much more if the Trade of Ireland were disposed as it might be to the Advantage of England But he said that Kingdom was in no Reign since the first Conquest of Ireland consulted in its Trade but left to its self or treated like an Enemy all the use made of it was for Courtiers Men of Projection and Necessity to traffick and dispose it into Grants Imployments and Offices and so made it rather a Forest for Game than a Plantation of Trade and Commerce and that which continued it so in the Reign of Charles the Second was the Jealousies and Mistakes of England believing it grew too fast and incroached on their Trade tho it is demonstrable Ireland doth us no hurt but where we by our own Laws force it and that act pardon the Expression like Lunaticks that strive to suppress their Shadows for fear they should assault them None will say England would be the worse if it were double the Acres it now is and tho the Sea part us from Ireland may not Laws make us one in our Interest and Trade and so that Ireland may be more profitable to England in general than Wales or any County in England is to the whole in its proportion There never was so fair an Opportunity for inriching this Nation by Ireland as now it is by Divine Providence once more put a Blank in our Hands in which his Majesty may stamp what he pleases and we have Reason to believe that he who ventures His Royal Person so freely for the Preservation of these Kingdoms will not deny us any thing that can contribute to our Growth in Trade and Treasure One thing I must not omit which I had from this Gentleman of Ireland that to me seems valid for Confirmation of all he asserts That Ireland neither insures nor gains on England for that in the last twenty years of Ireland's greatest Prosperity not one Man of England purchased in Ireland but numbers of Ireland have in that time purchased in England as they of that Kingdom I mean the English always do as they increase their Fortunes This being so Ireland is to England a Mine of Treasure and affects us tho in a much larger Proportion as Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay whatever is gain'd in them terminates in England I shall close this Discourse with the Complaint I have heard from the Generality of Merchants that when all the Governments of Europe have for more than twenty years past been consulting their Interest in Trade and how they might improve it we of England make no Provision for ours but leave it to the Ravage of Strangers and the worse Confusions of an ungovern'd Multitude in Trade whereas if we had a Council of Trade composed of Merchants from all parts of the Kingdom set apart for searching into the several Practices of Trade and Miscarriages therein England would have grown beyond any part of the World in Trade and Navigation and might thereby have prevented the wonderful Rise of France whose prodigious Advance in
Navigation and Commerce is assign'd to the Experience and Conduct of Colebert that was originally bred a Merchant of whom it is said that when he was prime Minister of France he would say he did his Master better Service in a Committee of Merchants than at the Council-Board We have much greater Funds for Trade than France can pretend to and tho we may want Coleberts yet lesser Men with greater Helps than he had might at least retrieve if not increase our lost Trade which in several Branches are decayed almost to a total Loss as that of Muscovy Greenland Newfoundland and others And if Fame be true we are in the ready way to lose what we have left the Exchange being filled with Projects Wagers Stock Jobbing upon imagnary Wrecks Pharee Companies of Manufactories c. all which bode ill and is a Green Sickness in Trade when Men are taken up with Rubbish like Maids feeding on Chalk and Cinders rejecting wholsome Food This Evil looks like a spreading Leprosie over the Nation when Merchants and Tradesmen live like Gamesters on the Spoil of each other setting up Projects instead of Merchandize which cunning Men cut into Shares and so manage their Designs as to fix their Ignis fatuus at last on innocent and well meaning Men to the Ruin of them and their Families I name not Men or Things to avoid Reflections but wish those that are faulty in this matter would consider that such Artifices however the Hand of Justice in this World cannot reach yet the Cries of Widows and Fatherless ascend a Tribunal that brings all things to Judgment Those Frauds are of a new Stamp not known in former Ages and therefore want a Law to restrain them which it is hoped the Great Council of the Nation will look into and that there may never more appear amongst us any of these Syrens that a Council of Trade may be the standing Probationers of all new Inventions and Expedients for Trade that so Quacks in Trade may be suppress'd and honest Industry and ingenuous Discoveries incouraged By which means a Stop may be put to those Men who like Cadmus's Serpents Teeth sowed in the Ground bring up Men in Armour killing one another I wish the Moral prove not truer than the Fable we see Losses between private Men in Gaming often end in Blood and National Gaming Projects and Deceits with Wagers on the Success of Companies taking Cities and Success of Monarchs must needs alienate the Affections of the Subject one from the other and some from the King This to me seems not an accidental Misfortune but an Artifice of France to raise Divisions amongst us and bring our Trade to Confusion for the French have as well Jesuits in Trade as in Religion to distract us But we have not such invincible Champions for the first as blessed be God we have for the latter In my weak Judgment and Reflection on the present Condition of this Nation nothing hath a worse Aspect than the Trade Navigation and Manufactories of it and all for want of publick Spirited Men that would like our Ancestors who whatever they were at home every Man when in Parliament was no less than a County or Burrough and spake not himself but them If this Bravery of Mind were in our Senators now the Commerce of England would not look like a Scramble for want of due Regulation which cannot properly be without Men of practical Heads in Trade appropriated to the Work nor is the present War a valid Pretext for the Neglect since there seems as much Reason to provide for Trade in Time of War against Times of Peace as there is for Armies in Time of Peace against a Time of War which God in his due time put an End unto FINIS SOME Considerations Humbly Offered to Demonstrate How prejudicial it would be to the English Plantations Revenues of the Crown the Navigation and general Good of this Kingdom that the sole Trade for Negroes should be granted to a Company with a Joynt-Stock exclusive to all others THe great and unspeakable Advantage the West-India Plantations are to England is so well known that it needs no demonstration to prove it The only thing Necessary is to endeavour to improve and increase this mighty advantageous Trade by securing them from the Insults of their Enemies and enabling them to make larger quantities of the Commodities of those Colonies Now the means most conducive thereunto will be to make the Trade to Affrica open and free for all the Native Subjects of England which Trade for Slaves is chiefly from Acra to Angola and contains about 1200 Miles Sea-cost in which extent the present Affrican Company have neither Fort Castle nor Factory so that they have not the least colour for a Pretence to an exclusive Right of Trade into those Parts It is well known that the Riches of the Plantations consists in Slaves chiefly by whose strength and labour all their Commodities as Tobacco Sugar Cotton Indigo Ginger c. are produced and the more Slaves those Plantations are supplyed with the more Commodities are made and the stronger they are to defend themselves against any Insults Neither can there be any more danger of being over-stockt with Negroes than there is that too much Tobacco Sugar c. should be sent to England for it is a plain consequence the more Negroes the more Goods will be produced the more Goods the more Custom paid and all those Commodities rendered here at home so cheap as will enable this Nation to send them abroad cheap also to the great discouraging of the Plantation-Trade of all other Nations Wherefore it is very plain that a large supply of Negroes will not only bring great Riches to this Kingdom but will also greatly Increase our Navigation Whereas on the contrary should the Affrican Trade be inclosed and confin'd to the Wills and Powers of a Company the consequence would prove as fatal to the Plantations as a Power given to one Person in England to supply the Gardners with Servants and the Farmers and Carriers with Horses It is not to be doubted that the one would be constrained to pay yearly for his Servants as much as his Years product would amount to and the other for his Team as much as the Rent of his Farm which would prove great Discouragements to their Labour and Industry This may we reasonably suppose would be the Case of the Planters in the West-Indies were there but one Person that must supply them with Slaves they being so extreamly Necessary that it is impossible to live without them every Man being rich or poor according to his Stock in Slaves A Man that may be Proprietor of 10000 Acres of Land would still be poor had he no stock of Negroes to employ upon it It might be fairly Objected That the present Affrican Company have carryed on their Trade but very imperfectly as to their own Advantage notwithstanding that was all the Design they aimed at
THE LINNEN and WOOLLEN MANUFACTORY DISCOURSED With the Nature of Companies and Trade in general And particularly that of the COMPANYS FOR The Linnen Manufactory OF ENGLAND and IRELAND With some REFLECTIONS HOW The TRADE of Ireland hath formerly and may now affect England Printed at the Request of a PEER of this Realm LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Thomas Mercer at the Half-Moon joining the East-Corner of the Royal Exchange Cornhil 1691. The Linnen and Woollen MANUFACTORY Discoursed SIR THE Deference I bear to your Integrity and great Judgment subjects me to the least of your Commands and that brings before you my Thoughts on those several Heads you proposed to me 1. My Opinion of Companies in Trade by Authority of the Great Seal in general 2. Of the present Company in England for the Linnen Manufactory 3. Of that for the same in Ireland I doubt you may judge of my Sense in this Discourse as Men do of Minerals that when they appear near the day as they phrase it and are easily come at that the Vein is not good So may you judge of my forward Opinion in the following Lines however you that command can pardon and by your better Judgment supply my Defects I shall begin with that of Companies in general These I take to have been very common in the early days of Trade when Navigation was judged a Mystery next to that of the Black Art and such as would venture their Persons and Estates into the New World as they termed new found Countries Heroes equal to Alexander and Caesar Aes triplex circa pectus erat Horace In these Times Kings could not exceed in their Grants and Privileges that by them Adventurers might be increased and Trade brought to their Dominions we see how fond Princes were of Merchants by the great Privileges our Kings gave to the Easterlings as they then called the Flemings the Still-Yard is a lasting Monument of their Grandure and our Chronicles tell how boldly they would upon any Distaste bear on our Kings So were our Companies in following years courted by Foreign Princes and States to settle their Trade in their Dominions but as Trade and and Commerce became familiar in the World the Wisdom of Government made the Privileges of Trade universal to their Subjects and so by degrees Companies were abated and only such continued as were thought useful for preserving some particular Trades that if left at large might become less profitable to the Kingdom There is another Reason for Companies in Foreign Parts which some bring to strengthen their Opinion for them here They tell us Companies are frequent in France Holland Swedeland and likewise in most small Princes Dominions but in all these Places there may be Reasons which hold not here some of them have but little Trade and Navigation the People not affected with Trade but content themselves with the Product of their own Country Now in this Case there is Reason for the Government to encourage Companies even to the seeming loss of the People in general that is by placing such Duties and Prohibitions on Foreigners as to keep them out that so their own Subjects may set their own Rates on what they import otherwise they would not be able to manage a Trade that Foreigners could undersel them in and so their Country would become a Province to other Princes I take them to be not better who govern not their own Trade but are beholding to Strangers Companies in Countries under these Circumstances seem absolutely necessary to preserve some Trade of their own but we in England are not under these Necessities France and other Countries before mentioned have Inducements much of the same Nature for tho they may drive considerable Trades in the World yet they come after us in their Foreign Plantations and Trade and where they are so nothing but Companies can introduce them but had they an open and secure Trade they would soon throw down the Inclosure and make their Trade common to all their own Subjects There is yet another reason for Companies and that is all I can find which carries a pretence for any in England that is where there wants a Force and Government to secure Ships and Men whilst they are imployed in the Trade of the Country among Savages and so have not the Protection of the Country as in other more civilized Nations Here if the Government of the Kingdom do not at the publick Charge set up and maintain Forts and Garrisons for the security of their own People that trade there the Trade can be no other way carried on but by a Company and Joint-stock and that Trade appropriated to them as a Fund and Recompence for their Charge of maintaining a Force and Government But this seems to proceed rather from the Mistakes or Neglect in Government than a good Expedient for Trade that any Society of private Men should have a Regal Power to make War or Peace give Commissions c. may be thought an Indication of Weakness in the National Power they derive from and is a Creature within a Creature that wants a Name and however this Management may secure a Gain to the Company yet at the same time it may be a Loss to the Nation to which they belong As that of the African Company which by the best Judgment is depricated as the Bane of our Foreign Plantations Something of which is touched upon by Mr. Dalby Thomas in his Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies a more Rational and Mercantine Discourse I have not met with Now it might be thought more Honorable for the Nation to secure every part of their Trade at the publick Charge than to leave it to the Conduct of private Men and so set up a Common-Wealth within a Monarchy that for any Miscarriages are not called to account like other Offenders but treated like an Ally I know not how better to distinguish Men that seise Ships and Goods where they find them without Process of Law By this Account you will believe me no Friend to Companies and I must confess my Judgment and Experience as far as it goes is against them but still with a Reserve to such as by a long Descent from their Predecessors that purchased it by signal Service to the Nation have in a manner a Freehold as that of the Turkey Hamburg and some other Companies in being But that Projectors and Courtiers should be inspired with New Lights and out of Love to the Nation create new Methods in Trades that none before found out and by inclosing Commons the Liberty of Trade into Shares in the first place for themselves and then for such others as will pay for both is I must confess to me a Mystery I desire to be a Stranger unto And this brings me to the second part of your Enquiry my Thoughts of the present Linnen Manufactory in England You know my Aversion to the Sin of this Age
superfluous Money to pay for especially at such exorbitant Rates as are impos'd upon us at the third fourth fifth and possibly sixth hand by our own Pedlars and the exacting Broakers of all other Countries about us This we see a growing Evil and such as we could not justly answer for to our Constituents who were equally concerned if we had not taken it into our most serious Consideration and with all expedition apply'd the most effectual Remedy we could think of which after all our Consultations and the best Advice we could have terminated in this Act as hoping thereby that at some time or other we may by degrees come to have at first Hand and upon an equal Lay such Foreign Commodities as are now palm'd upon us By all which you may plainly see we had no sinister Design we meant no harm to any other Kingdom State or Company Evil to them that Evil think We had no thoughts of drowning our Neighbour's Garden but of watering our own and I have no reason to doubt but that the Simplicity and Honesty of our Intention therein will upon all occasions meet with a sutable Return And as to what further Advantages England may probably reap from this Act I think with submission that of all sorts of Men the English East-India Company hath least reason to murmur at it and I am glad to hear the Wisest of them do not nor indeed any of them I believe at their Heart For whatsoever Concessions Exemptions or Establishment the Wisdom of the ensuing Parliament may think fit to grant to that Company they have reason enough from the consideration of their own Mismanagement which I humbly presume occasion'd the late Treatment some of them had at Westminster to ground the best part of their Hopes for better Treatment there at this time upon the Emulation which Our Act hath seemingly entitl'd them to raise in the Hearts of their Friends in Parliament whom I heartily wish to be many Salvo Jure cujuslibet For I am sure the World is spacious enough to contain both Them and the Scotch Company for more Efforts than either one or other or both of them are able to put in execution They may in time be serviceable each to the other Manus Manum fricat and as I hope the English Company may have reason before the Determination of the ensuing Session to Thank the King and Parliament They will at the same time be pleas'd to remember that they owe us a Day in Harvest that is some seasonable piece of Friendship Now if the ensuing Parliament do as I believe they will take the East-India Company into their Care whether out of a particular Regard to the said Company or with respect to the Interest of the whole Nation or out of Emulation from a mix'd Consideration of both I shall have infinite Satisfaction to find that we are so far useful to our Neighbours as to let them see that to be their Interest now which for some Years past they at least seem'd to have overlooked till we put them in mind of it And my Hopes are That if Emulation will once enter within the Doors of that Noble Assembly they will raise their Thoughts upon the very Wings of Emulation and take the right Sow by the Lugg that is cast their Eyes about them and point at Objects worthy of such Noble Efforts as They only are able to put in Practice by curbing the Enemies of Britain and putting some stop to the Career and overgrown Greatness of its Rivals in Trade of whose Affection or Friendship England can be no longer secure than they are sure of Gaining by England Whereas We poor Mortals must at all times look upon our selves as in the State of Matrimony For better for worse So that if we are not allowed some reasonable measure of Due Benevolence that Essential Part of Conjugal Duty the World will certainly look upon Us as the more excusable if at some time or other we should venture to peep abroad Object But still these Grumblers you say do urge that this New Company will Steal vast Quantities of Goods both by Sea and Land into England and over-stock the Markets there with Indian Goods to be Sold at Under-rates to the apparent loss of the English East-India and Affrican Companies This is truly a very wide supposition yet supposing it all to be true as I believe it cannot pray wherein is England hurt by it For over all England there must be a vast many more Buyers than Sellers of any one particular Commodity and as Of two Evils the least is to be chosen so Of two interferring Interests the most publick and universal good of these two is always preferrable to the other then beyond dispute the Buyers of such particular Commodity whom I take to be the Body of the Nation will find it their Interest at all times to beat down the Market-price especially of Forreign Goods otherwise our Forefathers of both Nations were very much overseen to make so many Laws which stand yet Unrepealed against the Forestalling of Markets and the Engrossing of Commodities into few hands So that if all Restrictions Limitations and Prohibitions upon Trade between both Nations were wholly abrogated the great and natural ends of Trade would in my humble opinion be more universally and much better answered Now upon summing up the Evidence on both sides I find we must reckon upon many Enemies beyond-Sea But I hope I may modestly conclude That after a true Scrutiny is made this Act will meet with no Enemies within the Isle of Britain but who may be comprehended in one or other of two sorts and these Two some say very near related The first are such who may seemingly grumble at this Act for no other reason but to make a Scaling-ladder of it to a Wall which without it they were past all hopes of ever getting over The others are a certain sett of Men who like Water-men row one way and look another From both which I hope the Legislative Power and Government of both Nations will protect this Orphan To Conclude then As Almighty God in his All-wise Providence often revealeth and brings to pass his Great and Excellent Purposes by ordinary and unexpected Means who knows but that the harmonious Unity which I hope will appear in the Equal Just and Impartial Management and Administration of this New Scotch-English or English-Scotch Indian Company may in good time be a happy Motive and Inducement to at least all the Wise Men of either Nation to lay aside misplaced Passion the Prejudices of Infancy and Education Reason justly for their Own and Publick Interests sake obliterate and bury in oblivion the distinguishing Names of Scotch and English and then voluntarily list themselves under the United Banner of Undivided Britain to be one in Interest and Inclination in Offence and Defence From the Consequences of which happy Day we may date the Aera of BRITAIN's being Truly GREAT And pray what should hinder it Nature seems to have intended Us for One People as having concentered us within the same Liquid Walls we are the Subjects of One King we speak the same Language differing only in Dialect as most Counties do we profess the same Religion differing only in some Forms which may or may not be our Lawes point at the same End to distribute Justice and defend Liberty and Property All which may be soon reconciled if the Wisdoms of both Nations should once heartily set about it No Man alive can have greater Veneration for the Government and People of England or be more tender of giving them any the least umbrage of Offence than my self But if any particular Person will from the Light within him apply to his own Breast any Expression herein that may seem harsh that 's his fault and not mine In which case I 'd advise him like a Friend to lie still and be quiet expiate for any former Escapes in his Life by a better Regulation of his Actions in time to come submit to all Laws and Ordinances of such as are put in Authority over us and let the Wisdom of the Nation Rule the Nation If herein I have not answered your Expectation yet you have an Instance of my hearty and sincere good Wishes to the Interest of Britain and of my readiness to comply with your Desire whensoever you are pleas'd to Command EDINBURGH Novemb. 14. 1695. SIR Your Humble Servant PHILONAX VERAX An Abstract of the Privileges contained in An Act mention'd pag. 7. for the Fishings c. SAlt Cordage Hemp Cork Pitch Tarr Clapboard Knapple Skewhoops and Nets free of all Custom or other Imposition whatsoever All Herring and White Fish taken and prepared therewith free of any manner of Taxation or Burden in the Exportation of the same All Strangers concerned therein Naturaliz'd of course and also free of all Taxation upon their other Effects for the space of Seven Years next after such their Naturalization All Beer Ale Strong-waters and other Provisions for Out-reeking of any Vessel for the said Fishings free of all manner of Impositions whatsoever All Lords and Proprietors of Land in all Places throughout the Kingdom where such Fishing is carried on to protect maintain and defend the same and all Masters of Ships Fishers and others whatsoever thereunto belonging from all harm and trouble otherwise to refund and satisfie respectively all Loss and Damage sustained upon their Land All Ships Boats and other Vessels in the exercise of the said Trade of Fishing and their employment therein no ways Arrestible by any Creditor The Fishers Masters and Servants in the said Vessels during the whole time and season of such Fishing and their employment therein free from all Actions of Debt and no ways conveenable before any Judge or Judicature whatsoever for any Cause or Causes Civil which might be intended against them and generally all the said Persons Masters and Servants free of all Captions Arrestments or other Attachments on their Persons or against their Materials and Instruments of Fishing they being actually serving therein allanerly The Stock and Profits thereof free of all Stents and Taxations FINIS ERRATA Page 6. l. 39. for Exceptions r. Exemptions pag. 7. l. 23. for hence r. Home