Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	great_a	king_n	year_n	21,498	5	5.0090	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58252	Reasons humbly offered against the passing of a bill, intituled, A bill for regulating and encouraging the art of weaving		1695 (1695)	Wing R529B; ESTC R222077	5,871	4

to Sell a pattern for a Suit or Gown he must not sell this before he goes to the Hall and waits no man knows how long there for a Seal by means whereof he is hindred in his work and before he can return the Mercer or his Customer is gone to some other Shop by which both Weaver and Mercer are greatly prejudiced besides the prejudice that a man shall sustain in discovering his inventions and patterns too early IIII. As to the pains and penalties upon Counterfeiters of Seals and Stamps and Sealing of Foreign Commodities as Home-made if the Seal be not established the penalties fall if the Seals be established the Law ought to be obeyed But it is prayed that consideration may be taken of the severity of the penalty imposed V. As to the desire that all Merchants in London or within _____ Miles thereof having any Silks or Stuffs by them should before _____ day of _____ bring in each Piece containing ten Yards or ●bove to the Custom-house or to Weaver-Hall t● be Sealed without paying any thing for Sealing Th●● is the most mischievous and unreasonable thing that can be imagined very hazardous and chargeable and the greatest inconvenincy that can be invented to fall upon Tradesmen For every man pays with a witness for Sealing who shall be forced to send his goods out of his Shop to Weavers-Hall or the Custom-house and pay for carrying of them and bringing them back and for Servants attending there till they can be Sealed besides the hazard and which will be almost impossible to prevent the loss of many Odd Remnants and disfurnishing his Shop losing his Trade for the time the goods are out of his possession and perhap's his Customers for not having goods at home to furnish them with when they have occasion besides the damage that will come to their Wares by tumbling dirtying sullying and otherwise as aforesaid it may prove greatly prejudicial to the Creditors of such Tradesman who may of late have had great losses and are ready to fail for how glad would such be of having an opportunity under colour of carrying their Wares to be Sealed to carry them and themselves where they shall be out of their Creditors reach VI. The next thing desired which relates to Canterbury Norwich Exeter Manchester c. their sealing their Wares and Workmen that live far distant in the Countries to bring their Wares to the next Corporation to be sealed How unreasonable and impracticable this will be is left to Consideration And further it is humbly offered that it is utterly to destroy the poor Weaver who lives remote from a Corporation for now the Merchant or his Factor come to their houses take their Silks or Stuffs from them as they make them and bring their money home to their doors but for the future either the Weaver must be without money till he hath made a good number of pieces or else ride to a Corporation-Town with each piece he makes there to be sealed which may cost him a days journey forward and another backward the Consequence is his ruine by the loss of time from Work the expence and charges of horse and man and the danger of lighting into Company which such poor men are too much addicted unto and spending his money before he come home to the impoverishing of his Family which by such means may at last come to be maintained by the Parish VII As to the prohibition desired from the use of the broad great Tape-loom on pretence it hinders many people from Working which used to be employed in single Loom and make the Work the slighter to the abusing and defrauding of the Buyer It is humbly conceived the Parliament of England will never pass an Act to discourage Ingenuity hinder Invention or to prohibit a man from making use of such Invention when found out to confine one man that he shall do no more Work than another or that if a man can make 16 pieces of Tape or Ribbon together he shall make but one whereby a young man that hath no charge shall earn as much as he that hath a Wife and 12 Children to maintain This seems unreasonable the rather for that by this Invention the Commodity may be made as good and yet much cheaper and enable England to furnish foreign parts cheaper than they can make them And with these Looms all Yarn from the Indies is wrought off here which otherwise must be sent into Holland to be manufactured from whence it would be returned at cheaper Rates then without these Engines the same can be manufactured in England These Looms have been used above 60 years many Families bred up to the use of them that can use no other If now put down they and their Families are ruined and great quantities of the Yarn imported must be exported to the great damage of the King in his Customs And which is worse the English cannot transport the Manufactures thereof by reason they will be undersold by Foreigners When Printing was invented did it not put an end too or take much from Writers employments was Printing therefore prohibited Doth not the Weaving of Silk-stockings take off from Knitting is it therefore 〈◊〉 down VIII As to what is desired that a power may be put into any persons hand suspe●●ing any French Lace or Ribbon in any House Shop or Warehouse that trades in these Commodities by a Warrant from a Justice with a Constable in the day-time to come into s●●●h House Shop or Warehouse seise and take away such Goods deliver them to the Custom-house there to be detained till the Owner proves them made in England which if he do he shall have double Costs if he do not the Goods to be forfeited If this should be granted it would put a power into every Weaver or other person that hath any prejudice to a Shop-keeper Mercer Milliner or Haberdasher to ruine him at pleasure come into his House upon suspicion onely and without proving any thing against them seise his Goods carry them out of his Shop lodge them where it may not be in his power in four or five months to have them back because the Term may not come sooner nay perhaps incapacitate him from ever having them or being in a condition to prosecute his right by dis-furnishing his Shop and thereby occasioning the loss of his Trade and of his Customers for want of them and when he doth recover them they may be out of fashion and so lie dead on his hand And it may go further namely to ruine him in his Credit and Reputation and be the occasion that many a man that lives by his Credit his having all his Creditors fall upon him to his and his Families utter ruine It will be very hard to put this power into the hands of every Weaver or Handicrafts Tradesman in London and for their encouragement to give them two third parts of the Penalties and Forfeitures and the King onely one howbeit it may have formerly been judged meet to be given to the Farmers and Commissioners of His Majesties Customs persons of Credit and Reputation that cannot be imagined will do any ill thing out of prejudice to any particular person And further this seems the harder because 't is put upon the Owner to prove the Goods to be home-made so that now every Shop-keeper whenever he buys a piece of Tape or Ribbon must put the Seller to prove and give Security that it is not foreign-made and if he should do so that will not serve the turn unless he prove it so when it is seized Suppose the Seller and the Buyer dead and the Commodities come to an Executor how can they prove it Milliners and Haberdashers buy their Wares at their doors of the Weavers and Lace-men Suppose a Merchant employ English Weavers to sell French Goods the Weaver affirms them to be English Goods the Shop-keeper buys them they are afterwards seized the Shop-keeper proving them to be bought of an English Weaver will not make them English Goods the Weaver may be dead or if alive he may upon his Oath swear they are French the Buyer knew not of it for that he told 〈…〉 ●●king this to be the truth of the Case must the Owner of those Goods forfeit them This seems unreasonable and will tend to the destruction of Trade to the great disquiet of Tradesmen and there can no way be found out how a Shop-keeper shall deal safely with any Weaver or Lace-man for any of those Commodities if the Act desired shall be passed The pretence in the preamble of the Bills is that Weaving is of great use to the Kingdom and so in truth it is And that by frequent importation of foreign-wrought Silks and Stuffs most of which are conveyed in without paying of duty English Artists are impoverished and the King of his duty defrauded This is a great mistake for neither so many pieces of Silk or so good or of such sorts as are worn here can be made in England And that the King is not defrauded will evidently appear by the Customs-books of London Dover and the Out-Ports If there be any discouragement to the Weavers they are the occasions of it themselves in that notwithstanding they neither can make so good Silks or Stuffs or such sorts as are made beyond the Seas yet they will live higher and have double the Wages and after all die poor whilst Foreigners by living upon hard Fare with half the Wages grows rich and this is the onely reason that wrought Silk from beyond Seas are afforded cheaper then home-made So that upon ill these Accompts it is humbly hoped the Bill will not pass

Reasons humbly offered against the passing of a Bill Intituled A Bill for Regulating and Encouraging the Art of Weaving I. IT is humbly offered that this Sealing of Foreign Silks and Stuffs as proposed tends to the destruction of Trade and in it self is Impracticable For can it be imagined that the owner of every Ship wherein such Silks or Stuffs are imported if compell'd to come to London to have them Sealed before their going to the Port to which they were bound shall not receive great damage thereby inasmuch as Freight-mens Wages and Victuals must be paid for which with demurrage will necessarily inhance the price of the Commodity Besides such Sealing considering the great quantities that are commonly imported together and belonging to several Persons and bound for several Ports must necessarily take up a vast length of time and tend to the vast prejudice of those which stay last for their Seals First By occasioning the loss of their Market which will be supplied by those who are first dispatcht Secondly By the great damage that such Silk must necessarily receive by lying at the Custom-house and being cut open and unfolding each Piece without which they cannot come to the ends to Seal them whereby such Silks and Stuffs will be much cress's sullied and tumbled which will much hinder the Sale And Thirdly It may occasion the losing of the Fabricks by which the Merchants can only discover the length and quality of his goods and what they Cost and thereby judge at what price to Sell. Fourthly This may occasion great damage to the Merchant by the loss of several Pieces of Silks and Stuffs which may amount to more than the advantage he can reasonably expect by the Cargoe Imported And Fifthly The charge of maintaining of Servants and others who must be imployed to attend such Sealing and the damage the Merchant sustains by his Servants absence all such time from his imploy at home must without doubt be great considering the vast time that the unfolding and folding up every Piece of Silks and Stuffs will take up II. Next consider the inconveniencies that may happen by the making of every Piece forfeited that shall be found unsealed Suppose the Merchant shall cause every Piece to be Sealed such Seal is affixt but at one end and may by accident be lost off or the Merchant afterwards sells to the Mercer whose Customer makes choice to take some Yards from off that end to which the Seal is affixt or suppose a Countrey Chapman will buy half a Piece of Silk and make choice of that end which is Sealed either the Mercer must as often as the Seal is cut off the Piece carry the remainder to be new Sealed at the Custom-house or at Weavers-Hall or else he is liable to have the same seized by any person who under pretence of Searching for French Ribbons and Laces by the power in the seventh Paragraph of the Bill desired shall come into his House Shop or Warehouse and to his great trouble and damage unfold all his Silks and Stuffs and if he find any Pieces unsealed seize and carry them away as forfeited although but Remnants This will beget multiplicity of Suits occasion vast expences greatly discourage Trade hinder the importation of great quantities of those Commodities which are the product of our manufacture of Wooll put the King to a great charge to maintain Officers to Seal Stamp and Mark such Silks and Stuffs and instead of advancing the King's Revenue which at present he hath will prejudice the same above 20000 li. per annu● by hindering the importation of so great quantities of Silks and Stuffs as at present are imported and consequently the carrying 〈◊〉 great quantities of Cloth Stuffs Searges Fish Lead and Tin and oth●● Commodities of the growth of our own Countrey now exported and which ●●ay the King a duty of Custom upon their going out the product of which 〈◊〉 Silks and Stuffs imported as aforesaid are Whilst all foreign Princes are contriving to facilitate and encourage Trade it is humbly hoped nothing will be done in England to render the same burthensom and difficult if not altogether impossible to be carried on III. As to the Weavers desires That all Silks and Stuffs made in London or within ten M●les be brought to their Hall there to be viewed and Sealed and to pay for each Seal and if any Piece be sold before Sealed the Offerer or Putter to Sale or the Buyer if a Trader in that Commodity shall forfeit for each Piece This as is humbly conceived is under colour and pretence of doing a publick good a design of the Weavers to create to themselves a Monopoly by Act of Parliament The end proposed by them is to distinguish between foreign and our home-made Silk and Stuffs and to encourage the English to make better Work Will not every man make it his business to advance his own Interest and Trade by striving to make his Wares as good as he can and if possible to exceed the foraign-made that so they being brought out of repute he may himself have a greater Trade The rather for that if he make not good Ware he cannot sell then must the Silk-man never be paid and what follows but his Trade is thereby destroyed But they do not propose that the Seals shall not be affixed to any Pieces of Stuffs or Silks that do not hold out the true length and breadth or that is otherwise deceitfully made No be they as false made as slight as short as narrow as they will bring them but to Weavers-Hall and pay for a Seal and then a Stamp shall be put upon them equall to the best And it is to be feared that in a short time the Weavers Seals and Marks if set up will be sold by the like measures and at as easie rates as the Aulnagers Seals are which at this day give a greater disturbance unto Countrey people and discouragement to the Woollen Manufacture then any thing that is on foot in England It is to be observed That least the Weavers designs should be discovered and their intended Monopoly prevented they have subtilly taken off the Merchants Objections by providing that all Foreign Stuffs and Silks shall be Sealed at the Kings charge but the home-made Silk made by poor men that can hardly earn bread for their Families the sealing of these must be paid out of their labours which design they had on foot in 1640. and having then got a Patent demanded six-pence a Piece for Seals but that soon came to nothing It is humbly offered that the inconveniency charge and loss of time in coming to the Hall with every Piece to be Sealed will be great and tend to the poor Weavers utter Ruine For if this be granted then let their Customer as frequently now they are forced to do come to them for a Remnant of Stuff or Silk before the Piece be fully wrought off to match with any old Silk or Stuffs or