into Prop. 11. Theorem 10. The free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Land of England 2 Ax. 1. For in every thing the Effects will be as the Causes are 6 Pet. 1. But Lands are valuable as the Trade of the place is 6 Prop. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease Trade in England Therefore it may encrease the value of the Lands of England Coroll 1. By the same reason the free Admission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Lands of England 6 Pet. 1. For Lands are valuable as the Trade of the place is Coroll 3. Prop. 10. And the free Admission of the Natives of England to work Wollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease Trade in England Annot. upon this Prop. and Coroll So that though the Benefits which the Nation will reap by the free Admission of Forreigners and the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures would begin at Corporations yet would they not end there For Lands are onely valuable as the Crop or feeding Cattle on them finde a Market and therefore no man will Plow Sow or seed Cattle when he cannot hope for a Market and by consequence Lands are of little or no value where the people are few or none or if the people be poor they are of a poor value But both ways the free Admission of Forreigners and the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures will not only encrease the Markets with more people but also enable them to give the Farmor so much better prices for his Commodities as their Employments are better and therefore the Interest of the King Nobility Gentry and others who are owners of Lands are so much concerned herein as the value of their Lands would be hereby improved Coroll 2. By the same reason the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church 7 Pet. 1. For the Revenues of the Church of England are valuable as the Lands of England are valuable Prop. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Lands of England Coroll 3. By the same reason the free Admission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Revenue of the Church of England 7 Pet. 1. For the Revenues of the Church of England are valuable as the Lands of England are valuable Coroll 1. And the free Admission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the value of the Lands of England Annot. upon the 2d 3d Corollaries As this free admission would encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church of England in reference to the Glebe-Lands and the Tythes of the Crops renewed upon the Lands in Villages so would it encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church in Corporations by how much the places would be better and more built and inhabited by a richer and better sort of Inhabitants And as this Admission may encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church so it may the Revenues of the Crown not only in the value of the Lands of the Crown but in the consumption of Beer Ale and all other Exciseable Commodities in England which will be so much more as the Forreigners by this Admission are more and may be so much more as the Natives by this mean may be better enabled to eat and drink more and better Coroll 4. By the same reason the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the strength of England 4 Pet. 1. For greater numbers of People encrease strength 23 Pet. 3. And the free admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England will cause so much greater numbers of People in England as the Forreigners are more Annot. Though Tradesmen and Artificers make not so good and hardy Souldiers as those who live in the Country and are of more robust lives yet I am sure they are better than none and the late King found by woful experience that the Companies made up of the Apprentices and Tradesmen of London were very good Souldiers and by good experience found that both were very serviceable to him Prop. 12. Theorem 11. The free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England may more secure the Crown Church State Laws and Liberties of England 9 Ax. 3. For things will be more secure as the means of Protecting them be encreased 24 Pet. 3. But the Crown Church State Laws Trade and Liberties of England are protected by the strength of England Coroll And the free admission of Forreigners to work Wollen and other Manufactures in England may encrease the Strength of England Therefore it may more secure the Crown Church State Laws Trade and Liberties of England Annot. Though I could not give particular instances hereof in England yet I am as well assured of the reason in this Proposition as if I could Sure I am it was the errour of Christian Princes especially of Spain by first imposing upon their Subjects in their Religion and neglecting to take care of preserving them in their native Countries which hath so encreased the Dutch strength by Sea and Land that they are not only able to protect their own Trade Church State Laws and Liberties but to give Laws to very many of the Princes in Christendom and to most of the Mahumetan Princes in the East-Indies Besides this free admission of Forreigners to work Woollen Manufactures as it will encrease the strength of England so much more as the Forreigners are more and so much more secure the Crown Church State Laws Trade and Liberties of England so it will so much weaken those places from whence the Forreigners come as the residue will be less able to endanger the Crown Church c. of England But all these benefits as they receive their birth by the free admission of Forreigners and the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England so will they necessarily be strangled in their future growth if with equal freedom they finde not vent in Forrein Trade whereby the Nation may be as well supplied with Forrein Commodities whereof it stands in need as also other parts of the World enabled to hold Traffique and Commerce with us by mutual Exchange for our Manufactures whereof they stand in need But before we proceed herein it is requisite to introduce this Proposition and Corollaries which though more proper for the Treatise of The Danger of the Church State and Trade of England yet not being said there it is convenient they be inserted here Prop. 13.
Lands of England are valuable 16 Prop. 3. And the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease the value of the Lands of England Annot. And so the repealing these Laws may encrease the value of the Revenues of the Crown not onely in the value of the crown-Crown-Lands but in repairing the Customs which the King received for the Cattle imported out of Ireland into England which did amount to 30000 l. per Annum for which these Laws make no compensation to the King Prop. 16. Theorem 15. The Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may so much better conserve Peace and Amity between England and Ireland as the Trade between them shall be more 13 Ax. 3. For every business may be so much conserved as the means are more 8 Pet. 1. But Trade is a mean to conserve Peace and Amity 15 Prop. 3. And the repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. may encrease Trade between England and Ireland Therefore it may so much more conserve Peace and Amity between them Annot. As the Crown of Ireland is a Crown subject to the Crown of England so the mutual Trade and Correspondence between them will strengthen the Obligations so much more as their mutual Interests are hereby united These and many other benefits attend both Kingdoms by Repealing these Laws The Mischiefs and Inconveniencies which have ensued by making them in some measure appear by the Annot. upon the 18 19 and 20 Prop. of the Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 17. Theorem 16. The free Admission of Forreigners to buy the Woollen and other Manufactures of England will so much encrease the Treasure of England as the Money expended in it is more 1 Ax. 3. For every thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 1 Pet. 3. But Money is Treasure 33 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to buy the Woollen and other Manufactures of England will add so much more Money to the Money of England as the Money expended therein is more Therefore it will so much encrease the Treasure of England Annot. By free Admission here I do not mean the Freedom which English men enjoy viz. to buy them at the second hand of the Free-men of Corporations and after they have been charged with Land-carriage to London but at the next Ports or places where they are made Prop. 18. Theorem 17. The free Admission of Forreigners to exchange Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and many other Forrein Goods for the Woollen and other Manufactures of England may so much enrich the Nation as the Goods exchanged may be made more valuable in the Manufactures by employment of our own people 11 Ax. 3. For any place will be so much enriched as things are more valuable than the charge 34 Pet. 3. But Timber Pitch Tar Salt rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs many other Forrein Goods by employment of our People may be made so much more valuable than the Manufactures exchanged for them in our building of Ships and Houses in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails and in Dying our Woollen and other Manufactures of England as they are more and cheaper 35 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to exchange these for our Woollen and other Manufactures of England may make Timber Pitch Tar c. more and cheaper in England Therefore it may so much enrich the Nation Annot. As the free buying our Woollen and other Manufactures of England will encrease the Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures whereby the Inhabitants will be so much more employed in them so by Exchanging Goods for our Manufactures we to our own enriching add another employment to our People and this so much more valuable than the Money wherewith the Goods are bought as the Goods become more valuable in other Manufactures than the Money And therefore it is an errour in the Act of Navigation to permit all Nations to import Money into the Nation and to restrain the importation of Goods to the English and Natives for if we did too much abound in Money this would be a burthen to the Nation and of ill consequence to the King and Subject For if a man as the case stands may buy that for 100 l. which if Money were five-fold encreased he shall pay 500 l. for it he hath five times the trouble in it And all Commodities being valued according to the plenty of Money the Revenues of the Crown and Leases granted by the Nobility Gentry and Church would be but one fifth of the value if the Money were five times more for they must pay five times more for the Commodities renewed upon their Farms and yet receive but the Rent at first reserved when the Commodities bore but â…• of the Money And therefore it was a prudent Institution of Cardinal Poole who being chosen Chancellor of the University of Cambridge when from the Spanish Indies the Money became so plentiful in England that the Members of the University could scarce buy Bread upon the Rents reserved on their Leases to have one third to be paid in Corn or so much as the prices of Corn should amount to in Cambridge market the Market-day before our Lady day and Michaelmas And therefore if our Treasure were more than our Neighbouring Nations I did not care whether we had one fifth part of the Treasure we now have I have often said in Coffee-houses and I am sorry I could not finde a more convenient place in England to speak it in at the beginning of the War between the French and Dutch That the French Nation would be exceedingly impoverished thereby and to the undoing of many thousands of the French For the French Trade for Wines Salt Paper Linnen and other the Manufactures of France was above all other Nations carried on in Forrein Trade by the Dutch Navigation whereby the Natives were employed and the Kingdom and Natives exceedingly enriched but the Dutch Navigation being removed by reason of the War all these Commodities of France which were Transported by the Dutch Navigation in Forrein Trade finde not like vent and by consequence the Nation loses much of the wealth it gained thereby and the Inhabitants their Employment Nor is it in the power of France to redress this without restoring the Dutch Navigation for admit the French King should take measures by our Act of Navigation as they say he does and endeavour to establish a Forrein Trade of the Commodities of France by his own Subjects and could make ships of Oyster-shells and Shingle and in an instant create Factories and make all the returns the Dutch do of the Commodities of France and without Experience or Instruction make Navigators and Marriners at his will of his Subjects yet so many of his Subjects as he makes Sea-men so many sewet he will leave to plant Vineyards make Paper
Turkie we have the benefit of compounding Freights with Pepper and Callico's better than they and if we please may have as much benefit above them in Ballasting Ships with Coals and with compounding Freights of Lead Tin Leather Calve-skins of Sugars and Chocoletta Tobacco's and other products of our Plantations as the Dutch have over us in their Spice-trade which takes up but little lading in these Trades and Navigation Coroll By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of Goods exported into the Ports of England and to export them may increase Navigation to and from the Ports of England 1 Pet. 4. For Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle of Navigation to and from the Ports of England 2 Pet. 4. And the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of Goods exported into the Ports of England and export them may increase Trade to and from the Ports of England Annot. This permission will increase Navigation to and from the Ports of England so will the Returns of these and exporting them again and so infinitely And in all these Trades and Navigations the forrein Trades of our Manufactures and Growths and Fish caught upon our Coasts will receive this benefit that if any part of the World wants any of these Goods and but in a little measure stand in need of our Goods these Goods of ours may finde forrein vent which otherwise would not of themselves pay the charge of the Voyage This permission also would create a constant Trade and Navigation to and from the Ports of England whereby the people upon the Coast and from all parts of England would finde a constant employment infinite other benefits would accrue hereby to the Country and Lands of England in Victualling Ships c. which can neither be foreseen or enumerated This King's Duties and the employment of English Ships and Mariners are usually opposed to this Permission But the Opposition is without consideration of the nature of Trade the King's Revenue or Navigation For Trade being a principle to the King's Revenue and Navigation which depends upon it both the King's Revenue and Navigation may be infinitely increased as the forrein Trades of the Nation or the forrein Trade of other Commodities driven from the Ports of England are increased But if men begin at the Consequences viz. the King's Revenue and Navigation and Tax Trade higher than it can bear or restrain it only to such Ships so that Trade hereby becomes lost so does the King's Revenue and the Navigation But because of the Importance of it we will therefore more intently compare the Loss the King shall receive by this Permission and what will be the damage of our English Navigation and Mariners and if any be to either whether it may not be otherways over-ballanced Herein I say that this permission of Forreigners to inhabit and Fish from the Ports of England and to vend their white Herring in forrein Trade and to import and export all sorts of forrein Commodities and make Returns into the Ports of England will not diminish the Kings Revenue though they paid no Duties nor the employment of English Ships and Mariners for we employ no Shipping or Mariners in it nor hath the King any Revenue thereby whereas by it the King's Revenue would be hereby so much increased as the consumption of Beer Ale and all other Exciseable Commodities are more and our English Mariners in all outward and inward Voyages may finde employment I do not believe unless it be for French Wines imported and consumed in England the King's Duties imported and exported out of Harwich-Haven from whence all the Trade the Dutch drive in the East and North-East might be better driven than from all the Ports of the Vnited Netherlands amount to 300 l. per Annum Nor do we employ one Vessel or Mariner to any part of the World from thence upon the forrein Trade of Goods imported Even the Town of Tarmouth which we so much boast of is so far from carrying on any Trade upon this account that I am told they cannot supply any part of the World with a piece of Norwich-stuff though the Navigation between Norwich and them be very commodious Is it not a shame then that such prodigious Trades and Navigations upon this account should from the other side of the Water be driven from worse and more incommodious Harbours whilest we employ not one Vessel or Mariner in any of them And what is affirmed of Yarmouth and Harwich I believe is as true of all the other Ports of England except London As Harwich is of all others the most opportune and excellent Harbour for the East and North-East parts of Europe so is Falmouth for the South South-East West and South-West parts of the World I cannot tell what the King's Duties for Goods imported there yearly arise to nor whether within the Harbour there be any good Towns for reception of Merchants and Storehouses for Goods But I think I may safely affirm that in all Christendom is not so healthful and delicate a place for Warehouses and reception of Merchants as Ipswich is the Town so clean though an even Level that after the greatest Rains in the depth of Winter a man in Slippers may walk the Town over without wetting his Feet And though Ships of 200 Tun burthen may come up to the Key yet every Street is watered with the purest and sweetest Water of any place I ever came in To these may be added that standing in the Bosome of the most Fertile County of Suffolk which conjoyns with the no less Fertile County of Essex it is or I am sure might be supplied with all sorts of Provisions by Land equal to any other And if these two Ports were made free for Importation and Exportation of Goods by all Nations and the same Revenue continued to the King and that it were free for all people to inhabit in England and to Fish and Trade with Fish into forrein parts and make Returns into England I should be content the rest of the Ports of the Nation should enjoy their Priviledges so long as they pleased The King of Sweden made Gottenburgh free but for seven years which has made it the most flourishing Town for Trade in the North-East So did the Duke of Florence Legorne whereby it excels all other Ports in the Mediterranean yet neither of these any ways comparable in any respect to Falmouth or Ipswich But if this cannot be had I must submit yet I hope it will not be urged it will be to the detriment of the King's Revenue or hinder the English Navigation or employment of our Mariners Another Objection made against the free permission of Forreigners to import Goods is that the greatest Returns which the Dutch make from Dantzick is in Corn whereby they supply their own necessities which in case it were imported into England would make a glut here and bring down the prices of our
both these Trades would be profitable to the Nation in the outward freight so might the Returns the Trades and Navigation might be constant and in the seasonable Times of Navigation and for ought I know we might constantly employ double the Sea-men and Mariners in these Trades to the Mariners and Navigation we employ for French Wines and Brandies in the Moneths of October November and December For the Importation of Salt I say it may be one Vessel of Salt may with that Commodity supply a hundred Vessels for the Fishing Trade c. And in case Forreigners import Salt cheaper than the English all these hundred Vessels will have the benefit of it And whether we ought to prefer the English Navigation for one Vessel of Salt or the Fishery of a hundred Vessels and the Navigation which depends upon it I leave to any one to judge Besides the cheap Importation of Salt has not onely an Influence upon the forrein Trade of it but upon all the Vessels which take in Provisions of Salt-Beef and Pork c. Prop. 17. Theorem 17. The free permission of the English in English-built ships to export Newcastle-Coals and make Returns into the Ports of England may more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are increased 4 Pet. 4. But the Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the Brittish Seas to the Crown of England 2 Coroll And the free permission of the English in English-built ships to export Newcastle-coals and make Returns into the Ports of England may increase the Navigation of England Therefore it may so much more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. This permission will not only secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England by how many more Mariners are employed in it whereby the King upon all occasions may have them to help to man his Fleet but even Colliers ships make very good Men of War as the Nation found in all the late Wars with the Dutch But if the increase of Mariners and English ships secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England then by the Rule of Contraries the loss of English Shipping and Mariners in Trading for French Wines by English and in English-built ships in the dangerous seasons of Navigation so much more endangers the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England by how many more Mariners and Ships we lose in so fruitless and unnecessary a Navigation EPILOGUE THus have I so well as I can endeavoured to describe the benefits which may arise to my native Country from those Natural Endowments wherewith God has adornâ—d it above any other But as the Law against Naturalization restrains the Improvement of our Native Commodities only to English whereby infinite benefits might accrue to the Nation and the priviledges of Corporations restrains the improvement of very few yet veryer poor Freemen whereby both ways the Navigation as well as the Forein and Domestick Trade of the Nation is hindred So the Act of Navigation restraining the forrein vent of our Commodities and making Returns into the Ports of England not only by the scarcity and dearness of Shipping endangers the Trade and Navigation of the Nation but prohibiting upon terms of Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Ammunition and Apparel all Nations to import Goods into any of the Ports of England unless by the Natives and Ships of the place not only the export of French Wines Salt Brandies and other Commodities with the growths and Manufactures of the Nation becomes impossible to the infinite hindrance of the forrein Trade of them but also by reason of the dearness and scarcity of Pitch Tar Timber Ruff Hemp and Flax and all sorts of Dying stuff the Domestick working of our Manufactures as well as the forrein Trade and Navigation which depends thereon is forely damnified Add hereto the intolerable injuries all the Natives of England suffer unless in the Turkie and East-Indie-Companies by the Masters of all ships in almost all the Trades they now drive in the World nor is it possible to be remedied as the case stands for if the Nation be not content herewith they must have no forrein Trade at all Whereas it hath been always the practice of the Wisest Princes and States by all just means to enlarge the Trades and Navigation of their Countries and where Nature hath not granted them convenient Ports by Art to supply Natures defects With what wonder is the Mole of Genoua founded for reception of Shipping whereby to enlarge Trade to and from it The Pen of Great Yarmouth is a rarity equal to any the Nation can boast of by the benefit whereof this Town after London and Bristol excels all others of England in Trade and Navigation Our King in his Princely Wisdome at great expence endeavours to finish the Mole at Tangier thereby reasonably hoping that that place may become famous for Trade and a secure Harbour for his Men of War and the Merchants of England upon all occasions both in Peace but more in time of War With a diligence and industry equal to his power the French King endeavours to make the Port of Havre de Grace more deep and commodious for Shipping thereby to advance the Trade and Navigation of France especially of Normandy and Britain Even the Act of Navigation with reason prohibits the Trade of our Plantations to Forreigners because thereby though it would enrich them by how much more their Trade would become greater yet this would be so much to the loss of the Nation and permits a free Trade to Tangier because it may enrich the place and make it more frequented I am sure the reason is the same by making the Ports of England free which have no need of the Mole of Genoua or Tangier nor is Trade to and from them interrupted by any Stoad or Gluckstadt the World by Trading to them need not fear to encounter the Rocks before Gottenburg or the Sands before Zealand or the Mouth of the Maze No danger of stranding ships in our Ports as at Amsterdam Harlem Enchuysen and other Ports within the Zuyder-Sea By a benignity peculiar to our Country no where else to be found in the same Climate but in Ireland so gentle a Temper thaws the sharp Frosts so as our Ports are always open and free for any Trade especially to the Western Southern and South-East and South-West parts of the World whereas those upon our opposite Shores are commonly frozen three or four Moneths in the year And though all the Shipping and Goods thus imported by Forreigners were no longer ours than the Merchants and Owners pleased yet by reason of the Intercourse and Commerce the Trade would so much more fix as the Commerce is more free the World would finde the benefit of Traffick from
ENGLAND's Improvements In Two PARTS In the Former is Discoursed How the Kingdom of ENGLAND May be Improved In STRENGTH EMPLOYMENT WEALTH TRADE By Encreasing The Value of Lands The Revenues of the Crown and Church Peace and Amity with Forein Nations Without any Charge to the Subject In the Latter is Discoursed How the Navigation of ENGLAND May be Increased And the Soveraignty of the British Seas more Secured to the Crown of England TREATISE III. By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1675. To his Highness The most Illustrious Heroick Highborn PRINCE RVPERT Count Palatine of the RHINE AND Duke of BAVARIA and CUMBERLAND c. THe Common Law of England most eminent Prince makes great difference between the Inheritance of the Crown of England and the Estates of Subjects for the next Heir though of half Bloud shall inherit the Crown Thus did Queen Mary inherit the Crown from Edward though but of half Bloud to him So did Queen Elizabeth from Queen Mary yet was but of half Bloud to her But no Subject of half Bloud shall inherit any Estate but for want of an Heir of the whole Bloud it shall Escheat to the King or the Lord upon whom the Estate was held And as the Common Law makes this difference in Bloud so does it in the Inheritance of the Crown and men born out of the Allegeance of the King For no person born out of the Allegeance of the King shall Inherit any Estate from any English Subject but the Heir of the Crown shall Inherit wheresoever he be born Thus did King James your Highness Grandfather and the happy Vniter of the British Monarchy Inherit the Crown of England yet was not born in the Allegeance of it The King of England though born a Forreigner may purchase and hold an Estate in England but no other Forreigner though born of Subjects to the Crown of England shall take an Estate by Purchase but the King shall have it The Reason of these differences I do not understand For as the Law secures the Inheritance of the Crown so doth it make a bar between this Nation and all others who desire to become Subject to it But if there were anciently any reason for this Law it is now ceased since the peopling the American Plantations the repeopling Ireland the Wars and late Great Plague have lost and consumed so many people out of England As the Common Law debars the Nation of any future supply for all these Losses so some Acts of Parliament have put the Nation into a Hostile condition with the World There was a Law made in the 5 of Rich. 2. c. 3. which forbid the English to carry forth or bring in Merchandize but in Ships of the King's Allegeance and the Marriners or more part Subjects but this Law was so intolerable that the next year viz. 6 Rich. 2. c. 8. the English had liberty to Trade in Forrein Vessels where others could not be had But this Law thus qualified by the Authority of the 1 Eliz. cap. 13. caused great displeasure between Forrein Princes and the Kings of this Realm and the Merchants were sore grieved and damaged thereby Therefore for the encrease and Continuation of Amity both the Laws made by Rich. 2. were Repealed and the English had liberty given them to carry out and bring in Merchandize in any Vessels paying Strangers Duties but if there were War or any restraint of English Ships then to pay but ordinary Duties But the English had liberty given them at all times to import Masts Raff Pitch and Tar in any Vessels paying ordinary Duties the former being for the preservation of the Timber of England the latter for the benefit of the Navy But the Rump-Parliament designing a War against the Dutch without any consideration of this Law or of the Statute of 14 Rich. 2. c. 6. whereby the Merchants of England in any Realm might freight forrein Ships to that Realm if the Ships of that Realm would not take reasonable Gains or of the 35 Eliz. 11. for the preservation of the Timber of England or of the 17 Car. 1. for Importation of Gunpowder which themselves had made all which yet stand in force and are unrepealed made a Thing Intituled An Act for encouragement and encrease of Shipping and Navigation commonly called The Act of Navigation whereby the English are forbid to import any forrein Goods unless in English-built Ships whether they can get them or not and Sailed by ¾ English upon penalty of confiscation of Goods Guns Tackle Apparel and Ammunition A War they designed and a War they had with the Dutch which lasted longer than their Government and so they left the Nation engaged in a War abroad and the Laws at War at home But though the Nation be freed from the Tyranny of the Rump yet it still labours under the miserable effects of this Law for with some few alterations it twice received the Royal Stamp viz. 12 Car. 2. 18. and 13 Car. 2. 14. As the terrour of this Law has put this Nation into a Hostile condition with the World so hath it suspended all those good Laws made by Queen Elizabeth and King Charles the first for preservation of the Timber of England and the maintenance and support of the Navy Royal whereby the Nation may be best secured from the danger of a forrein War Your Highness at your leisure may read how many other ways the Trade and Navigation of England have suffered under this Law as well in the former Treatises as these which now implore your Highness Protection In this condition then was the Nation involved in a War with the Dutch under the Glory and Conduct of your Highness who though descended from the Royal Extraction of the first Monarch of Great Britain yet is your Highness a Forreigner born and so not regarded by these Laws and therefore had little reason to expose your self to such imminent danger in defence of them if your innate affection for the Honour and Happiness of the English Nation did not otherways transcend all obstacles against it The Nation as well as his Majesty by a universal suffrage was satisfied with the necessity of your Conduct for the preservation of it I wish it were as well understood that these Laws and some other Grants and Vsages have made the Dutch so powerful to oppose it and the Nation in no better condition to prescribe Laws to them But Sir the vertue of your Noble minde is not circumscribed within the Pale of Military Discipline but extends to an Integrity and Judgement in Counsel equal to your Valour and Conduct in War And the Nation stands not in less need of your Counsel at home than it did of your Conduct abroad for as the Case stands though God should have Crowned your Conduct with such desired success as to have obtained an entire Victory against the Dutch yet could not this
Nation the Trade and Navigation of it being restrained to Companies and English-built Ships and Marriners but others reap the benefit from it Your Highness is doubly qualified so as the Nation may be happy in your Counsel as your Highness is a Privy-Councellor to the King and a Member of the House of Peers And if the Nation by your Counsel shall partake of those benefits which the Enemies of it enjoy this will be so much more an Eternal Monument of your never-dying Fame by how much the difficulty of overcoming these Laws and the prejudice of the times is more To the vertues of your Noble Minde is added your being born free from Subjection to these Laws and so with more indifference your Highness may better judge between them and the Interest of the Nation than another born in Subjection and who by a long habit hath wonted to them Vnder all these Attributes of your Highness Excellencies do these Humble Treatises implore your Protection of all which they stand in need For though one end designed by them is to procure Peace abroad yet will they have a War at home with three sorts of people the Ignorant Prejudiced and Partial I do not God knows sully your High Name with Flattery or private designe of mine own nor could a less excitation than the Honour and Happiness of the Nation have invited me to make this Humble Address to your Highness With a sincere Heart then so well as I am able from causes before known from which all the Consequences are inferred I submit these Treatises to your Censure If I fail in my end yet I do not understand how otherways I could have so well attain'd it and therefore hope it will in some measure plead a Pardon for this Presumption in Most Eminent Prince Your Highness most devoted and obedient Servant ROGER COKE APOLOGY TO THE READER ALL men naturally desire to know By Knowledge here I do not mean Intellective Memorative or Sensitive which God without any Humane Assistance endues man with and can never be learned or taught but Rational which never comes to pass but by Education Experience and Conversation And although all men naturally thus desire to know and to be accounted Rational men yet rarely do they submit to those Anxieties of minde which ever attend it From whence it comes to pass that Books Rationally written are restrained to few Readers and are commonly more beholden to subsequent Ages than the present Times Whereas Books which please theheat and humour of the Times though they contain neither Truth Learning or Reason are not therefore least esteemed but Swarms of them are admired and devoured in an instant but these like the Ephemeris which if you believe Aristotle is be gotten of the Fire too do die and are forgotten in a day As all Learning and Reasoning is ever attended by careful consideration and Method so Ignorance neglecting these abounds in Pride and Suspition in both which she claims such a prerogative that ignorant men so much more censure and suspect by how much less they understand They Triumph as Victorious in every Censure and think they have prevented some designe by each suspition So that I do not question but if Socrates out of the Dust could behold this present Age he would perceive a generation of men who less knowing seem more wise than the Athenians did in his time Since the publishing of the Reasons of the decay of the Strength Wealth and Trade of England and the encrease of the Dutch Trade though I never heard or read one Proposition confuted or the method of Reasoning contradicted yet from several parts I have been censured for designing to undermine the Church and Academical Learning and to introduce a Commonwealth which is only capable of admitting Freedom of Trade and Religion without which Trade can never be encreased I will add one more which in some sense is true that I may be accounted a busie-body in medling with other mens business which is a signe I have little of mine own and that I contend against many opponents and have but few or none who will second me or know I endeavour theirs or the Nations Interest and therefore none but Fools will assert such an Interest For the last I say it may be the Fate of many hundred Younger Brothers as well as my self that even Conscience in the late times would not permit them to take any Employment and it was too late to begin when the King was restored yet it may be none but one in my Condition could have spent so much time in enquiring into the present State of England compared with other Countries as I have done for mens business generally relates to their Individual persons which is either Mechanical where from unknown Causes men by a habit in doing things get a Livelyhood or by Learning in some Art or Science to excel other men in Fortune and Reputation These they so intend that their whole life is too little to answer the necessities of the one or the desires of the other so that it is necessary for a third person to undertake a business of this nature For my endeavouring to undermine Academical Learning I say it is as free for me to oppose it as it is for any man to defend it and observe the method of Reasoning I propound And I say moreover that if any asserter of Aristotle or the Logick taught in our Universities can give any one instance that from the Authority or Learning of either ever any progress of Learning in any Art of Science was propagated in any one Proposition I will yield the Cause I acknowledg I was by Gods Grace baptized a Christian in the Church of England and have ever been so constant an observer of it that in all the persecutions of it I never Communicated with any other and I say that all men are more obliged in Conscience as well as Gratitude to give God publick praises with other men who alike partake publick Benefits with them than to give him private thanks for the private benefits they enjoy for these are contained in the publick So that if Religion be a Communion of giving God publick Thanks which must be prescribed by publick Authority by many men for publick benefits they all alike enjoy as that they are alike Christians and are protected by the King and Laws in their Lives and Fortunes which differing in divers places it is necessary the Religion or publick Worship of God should be different But though all Nations be not of the same Religion yet all Nations subsist in Society and Commerce and as every man stands in need of being supplied by another so does every Country To restrain therefore the Society and Commerce of Nations to those of the same Religion is to violate an Institution of God in the conservation of Humane Society and to deny the benefits which places mutually receive from one another Every man when he comes into
any forrein Government becomes subject to the Government of it not to the Religion of it and though God often punished the Jews for not observing the Religion and Ceremonies he prescribed them yet for conservation of Society and Commerce does he often pronounce great Judgments to them if they oppressed the Stranger in the Land though perhaps in less than paying Strangers duties Nor did I ever read of any forrein people who in any Country where they enjoyed a Religion they were bred in did make any disturbance upon the account of it But suppose which I do not grant that liberty of Religion to the Natives of a place be necessary for inlarging Trade and Commerce yet is this more tolerable in a Monarchy than a Commonwealth For Monarchy is one and Indivisible and therefore diversities or Factions in Religion can make no Confusions in it whereas Popular Governments being compounded of many are easily obnoxious to both Nor is it necessary that Trade and Commerce should only flourish in Popular Governments but within such places where it is more free and men are more secure their Interests may be better advanced This is evident in that the State of Genoua imposing 16 per Cent. upon goods imported made the Trade uneasie and the Duke of Florence who is as absolute a Prince as any with whom the Pope has to do taking the advantage of this Imposition by the States of Genoua did make Legorne a free Port whereby it is now under a Prince become the most flourishing place of Trade within the Streights And I have it from a good hand that when the French King about seven years since made Marseilles a free Port the Jews in Legorne considering that Marseilles was a better Harbour and France a nobler Country for Trade than Italy resolved to leave Legorn and establish themselves at Marseilles The Duke of Florence hereupon made an Edict That in case any Christian bought a Jews house it should be forfeit and this kept the Jews constant to Legorne where as in England if a Jew buys a house it is forfeit to the King I now desire my Reader to consider me in manifold respects and to bear with the Imperfections which I or it may be any other man may be subject to in a work of much less moment than one of this kinde For the Introduction of any business is more difficult than the progress And I do not know of any which has made an attempt upon this Subject in the differing parts of it before me I am also assured these Treatises will encounter many difficulties and discouragements Difficulties in being opposed by the Ignorant and Interessed for many particular persons may be interessed to the publick Detriment and these are known and many whereas in contending for the Publique I know not one who will be my Second Besides no man can so establish any Humane Action or Learning but he must submit the ends he designes to Gods Blessing which in a Luxurious and Effeminate Age cannot reasonably be expected yet I am assured no man can justly accuse me of any private designe of mine or reward I propound to my self other than if it pleases God now or hereafter to bless me so that these Treatises or any part of them may be useful to my Country or any one in it I may thank God I have not spent all my life in vain PETITIONS 1. MOney is Treasure 2. The Admission of forreigners to purchase Lands in England will add so much money to that of England as is expended therein 3. The admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will cause so much greater numbers of people in England as the Purchasers are more 4. The admission of Forreigners to purchase Lands in England will cause so many less numbers of those in other places who may be Enemies of England as the Purchasers are more 5. Vnwrought Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 6. The unwrought Wools of England and Ireland are more than are wrought in Woollen Manufactures in England 7. Tin and Iron are Principles in the Manufactures of Tin-plates 8. Lead and Potters Earth are Principles in many sorts of Earthen Manufactures 9. The Tin and Iron of England are more than is used in the Manufactures of Tin Plates 10. The Lead and Potters Earth of England are more than are used in Manufactures in England 11. The French and Dutch may have the Wools of Ireland Lincoln-shire Kent Sussex and Hampshire cheaper than the Wools of Ireland Derby-shire Nottingham-shire and other Midland Countries of England can be had at Colchester and Norwich 12. The free admission of Forreigners to work Woollen Manufactures in England will add so many more Agents therein as the Forreigners are more 13. The free admission of Foreigners to work Tin Plates in England will add so many more Agents in them as the Forreigners are more 14. The free admission of Forreigners to worke Earthen Ware in England will add so many Agents therein as the Forreigners are more 15. Forreigners may work Woollen and other Manufactures in England with less charge than in France or the United Netherlands viz. by the height of the Kings Duties upon Salt and Wine c. and the height of the Excise upon all sorts of Commodities consumed in the United Netherlands 16. Forreigners are more safe in working Woollen Manufactures in England than in France or the United Netherlands 18. The free admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England will cause so many more people in England as the Forreigners are more 19. Employment of people is a mean to encrease Trade 20. The free admission of Forreigners to instruct the Natives of England in Woollen and other Manufactures may more instruct the Natives of England 21. The free permission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in the Corporations of England may so much more Employ the Natives of England as the Permission is more free 22. Corporations are the most convenient places in England to increase Trade 23. The free admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England will cause so much greater numbers of people in England as the Forreigners are more 24. The Crown Church State Laws Trade and Liberties of England are protected by the strength of England 25. The buying the Woollen and other Manufactures of England is a mean to vend them in forreign Trade 26. The Pre-emption of Freemen of Corporations restrains the buying our Woollen and other Manufactures to the Free-men of Corporations 27. Freedom in Trade is a mean to vend our Woollen and other Manufactures in forrein Trade 28. Trading in Companies exclusive to other men restrains the freedom of Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures to such Companies 29. Exchanging forrein Goods for our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to have a Domestick Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 30. The Act of Navigation restrains the Importation
Dutch in so much worse a condition to have made War against either Prop. 3. Theorem 3. Woollen Manufactures may be so much encreased in England as the unwrought Wools of England and Ireland are more Subject Woollen Manufactures Question Whether they may be encreased in England c. I say they may 1 Ax. 3. For things may be so much encreased as the Principles are more than are used 5 Pet. 3. But unwrought Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 6 Pet. 3. And the unwrought Wools of England and Ireland are more than are used in Woollen-Manufactures in England Therefore Woollen-Manufactures may be encreased in England Annot. If we encrease our Woollen-Manufactures in England these Benefits will accrue to the Nation First If one pound of Wooll worth one shilling made into one piece of Cloath or Stuff becomes worth ten shillings then is the Manufacture nine times more valuable to the Nation than the Land on which it is renewed and ten times more people are employed therein than the Shepherds and Clippers of the Wooll are And this Employment not only at one time of the year as the Shearing of Sheep is but always Secondly This would be a great comfort and encouragement to the Country Farmer to pay his Rent and maintain his Family whereas now the Wools of England not being wrought at home and so the Farmer not finding a Market at home becomes undone and not able to pay his Rent and if he seeks a Market abroad with it to sustain his Family and pay his Rent he commits Felony by the Law made 14 Car. 2. 18. Thirdly The working the Wools of Ireland in England would be ninefold more beneficial to England than the Wools to Ireland whereas by Transporting our Wools other places get so much benefit to our loss Corollary 1. By the same Reason the Manufactures of Tin-Plates may be encreased in England 7 Pet. 3. For Tin and Iron are Principles in the Manufactures of Tin-Plates 9 Pet. 3. And the Tin and Iron of England are more than is used in the Manufactures of Tin-Plates Annot. If we wrought the Manufactures of Tin in England the Nation would not only gain so much as the Manufacture becomes more worth than the Principles in Forreign Trade but we might employ many thousands of poor people who are and will be a Burthen to the Nation and also preserve all that Treasure which is expended by buying them of the Dutch and Hamburger Coroll 2. By the same Reason many sorts of Earthen Manufactures may be encreased in England 8 Pet. 3. For Lead and Potters Earth are Principles in many sorts of Earthen Manufactures 10 Pet. 3. And the Lead and Potters Earth of England are more than are used in Manufactures Annot. It is almost incredible what sums of Money are yearly sent into Holland for Earthen-ware though it be evident they have their Lead and Potters Earth from England whereby we do as much inrich them as impoverish our selves by not working them in England But our Manufactures both in Tin and Earthen-ware are so inconsiderable in England that Lead and Tin is Transported paying the King some Duties but by reason of the benefits which accrue to the Nation by Woollen-Manufactures Wooll is totally prohibited to be Transported whereas if the Manufactures of Lead and Tin were established in England the Reason against Exportation of them would be the same as of Wooll Prop. 4. Problem 1. How the Dutch and French may and do work Woollen-Manufactures made of the Wools of Ireland and the Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper than the English at Colchester and Norwich Agents Are the Dutch French and English Question How the Dutch and French may and do work Woollen Manufactures c. cheaper Construction By the 11 Pet. 3. the Dutch and French may have Wools from Ireland the Coast of Lincoln-shire Kent Sussex and Hampshire cheaper than the Woolls of Ireland Derby-shire Nottingham-shire Lincoln-shire c. can be had at Norwich or Colchester by Water and Land-carriage I say the Dutch and French may work the Manufactures cheaper 2 Ax. 3. For things may be so much cheaper done as the Principles may be cheaper had 5 Pet. 3. But Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 11 Pet. 3. And the French and Dutch may have the Wools of Ireland and Lincoln-shire c. cheaper by Water than they can be had at Norwich and Colchester by Land and Water-carriage Therefore the Dutch and French may work the Manufactures cheaper Annot. Though the smalness of the difference of the Prices of Land and Water-carriage from Ireland and the Midland-parts of England to Norwich and Colchester more than the Water-carriage from Ireland Lincoln-shire c. to the Ports of France or the Vnited Netherlands seem inconsiderable yet in the prospect of the consequences of it in reference to the Forrein Trade of them it is very considerable For if it be better as it is for any Nation to earn one thousand pound more or less by the employment of People as in the Vnited Netherlands than to have one thousand pound gotten to a Nation and the People not employed in it as in Spain And if two in the hundred charge in any place more than in another not subject to it may gain the whole hundred pound where otherwise they Trade upon equal terms then the whole hundred pound as it will be lost to that place will be gain'd to this It is true indeed if we had a Monopoly of Vending our Manufactures in Forrein Trade small charges were inconsiderable but now the Swede Silesians the Elector Palatine and other Princes of Germany have established Woollen Manufactures in their Countries and the French Dutch and Venetians have enlarged their Forrein Trades of Woollen Manufactures we are only secure of a Forrein Trade of our Woollen Manufactures so long as we can supply the World cheaper and better than they can Having so often given instances in the former and this Treatise of the Subject Agent Act and Question of every Prop. for the future we shall omit repeating them Coroll By the same Reason the English may work Woollen Manufactures made of Irish wooll in the Western parts of England and Wales and also Woollen Manufactures made of the Wools of the Midland Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper than the French or Dutch 5 Pet. 3. For Wools are Principles in Woollen Manufactures 12 Pet. 3. And the English in the Western parts of England and Wales may have the Woolls of Ireland cheaper than the French or Dutch 13 Pet. 3. So the English may have the Wools of the Midland Eastern and Southern parts of England cheaper Annot. And as they have the Wools cheaper so may the Wools of Ireland be wrought in the Port-Towns of the West of England and Wales And the Wools of the Midland Southern and Eastern parts of England may be wrought in Port-Towns or places where the Manufactures without much Land-carriage of the Wools and
may be Transported to Forrein parts by Water As if Staples of Woollen-Manufactures were erected at Nottingham Gainsborough Lincoln Boston Stamford Bedford Cambridge Lyn Oxford or Abbington Ware or Hartford Windsor and Winchester whereas the bringing the Wools of Gloucester-shire Lincoln-shire Leicester-shire Oxford-shire Warwick-shire Northampton and Rutlandshire c. being by a tedious Land-carriage and commonly in the depth of Winter to Colchester and Norwich the charge by Land is above treble to the Water-carriage from Lincoln-shire to Holland or from Kent Sussex Hampshire or Dorset-shire into France This is one Reason to many more which makes our people more miserable in working them than the Dutch or French Prop. 5. Theorem 4. The free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen-Manufactures in England may encrease them in England 3 Ax. 3. For if things may be encreased they may be encreased by more Agents 3 Prop. 3. But Woollen-Manufactures may be encreased in England 12 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen-Manufactures in England will add so many more Agents as the Forreigners are more Therefore it may encrease Woollen-Manufactures in England Annot. By free Admission here I mean in all places of England where these Manufactures may be most conveniently wrought and the Wools cheapest bought and if hereby Forreigners would be invited to work them these benefits would among many others accrue to the Nation First Every Forreigner which improves Woollen-Manufactures tenfold more or less above the value of the Wooll in Forreign Trade gains so much to the Nation but if he so instruct our Youth that more be so instructed in any Manufacture this will be infinitely so much more as the Youth instructed is more The Walloons whom Edw. 3d invited into England and taught our English the Mystery of working the Manufactures of Cloath were very inconsiderable in numbers to those who now work them so were the Walloons Queen Elizabeth permitted to work in Norwich Colchester and places thereabout the Stuffs Bayes and Sayes c. which are now wrought in them And if this permission obtained by Jumps in the Reigns of these two Princes as prudent as any who ever swayed the English Scepter had been constantly continued the Dutch and French would not have supplied so many other places and themselves with Woollen-Manufactures our Wools Fullers-Earth and all things else conducing to the Instruments of Woollen-Manufactures being so much cheaper and better here in England As the Improvement of Woollen or any other Manufacture would thus be infinitely beneficial to the Nation as the Improvement is more so the losing of Woollen or any other Manufacture in England will be equally mischievous to it In the years 1636 37 and 38. when Ecclesiastical discipline was so severely exacted about two hundred Families left the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places of Holland where they instructed the Dutch in the Woollen-Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk And I have heard Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forrein as well as the Interest of this Nation say that if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not neer compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby Coroll By the same Reason the free Admission of Forreigners to work the Manufactures of Tin-Plates may encrease them in England 1 Cor. Prop. 3. For the Manufactures of Tin-plates may be encreased in England 13 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Tin-plates in England will add so many more Agents in them as the Forreigners are more Annot. If Forreigners by this freedom or further encouragement could be invited to work the Manufactures of Tin here in England the benefits which would redound to the Nation hereby would be the same as in the increasing our Woollen Manufactures Herein this difference happened that those most Excelling Princes Edward 3d and Queen Elizabeth gave encouragement to Forreigners to instruct our Natives in Woollen-Manufactures but no King of England ever did it to Forreigners in the Manufactures of Tin whereby though we have Tin in England in greater aboundance than any other place has and as I am told the Iron made in England is more temperate and pliable than any other for making Tin-plates yet to this day we know not how to make one Coroll 3. By the same Reason the free Admission of Forreigners to work all sorts of Earthen ware may encrease the Manufactures of them in England Cor. 2. Prop. 3. For Earthen Manufactures may be encreased in England 14. Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Earthen Ware in England will add so many more Agents as the Forreigners are more Annot. As no Prince ever permitted or gave encouragement to any Forreigner to instruct the Natives in the Manufactures of Tin so neither have they in the Manufactures of Earthen Ware though our Lead and Potters-Earth be more plentiful here in England than elsewhere And the Dutch have little Lead or Potters-Earth for all those incredible quantities of Earthen Ware which they vend here and in other Countries and also supply themselves with but what they have from us So that we are but their Drudges to seek Mines and work them for their enriching and employment of their people Nor do we more enrich them hereby than impoverish our selves for we pay above sixfold to them for the Manufactures more than we receive for the Principles In this Discourse I desire the Improvement of the Manufactures which proceed from our own Principles more than those which proceed from Forrein as of fine Linnen and Silks c. for these Reasons First We may cheaper employ our people on them than Forreigners can be in other Countries so much as the Principles are cheaper had here whereas we must have the Forrein Principles dearer Secondly We are more secure of our Employments having the Principles in our own power whereas in cases of War or Interest it is in the power of other Princes whether our People shall be employed or not in any Manufacture whose Principles are in their power Even here in England though we be at Peace with all the world yet we permit not our Woolls to be exported to any part of the world And how mischievous it must be to any place to have People bred to an Employment and to want matter to work on I leave it to others to judge Prop. 6. Theorem 5. Forreigners may cheaper encrease Woollen Manufactures in England than France or the Vnited Netherlands 1 Ax. 3. For things will be so much cheaper done as done with less charge 3. Prop. 3. But Forreigners may encrease Woollen Manufactures in England 15 Pet. 3. And Forreigners may work Woollen Manufactures in England with less charge than in France or the Vnited Netherlands Therefore they may cheaper encrease them Annot. If Forreigners did cheaper encrease the Woollen Manufactures in England which the Dutch supply Hamburg
Sweden Poland Muscovy Spain Italy and Turky with and which the French supply Spain Italy and Turky with and with which the French and Dutch cloy our Markets here in England we might then so far as the Woolls of England and Ireland would permit not onely cheaper supply all those places which the French and Dutch do but also so much better as our Woolls and Fullers-Earth is better in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands And also conserve all that Treasure in the Nation which is expended in buying the Dutch Blacks French Druggets and other Woollen Manufactures of those Countries An ingenious Gentleman not long since said that the Dutch supplied Sweden with course Woollen Clothes for the Souldiery and poor people of Sweden and that by order of the Councel of Trade there I wish such a thing might ever be heard of in England many people attempted without Success and much loss to make these Clothes in Sweden But about four years since the Lord Landscroone of a Merchant made one of the Nobility of Sweden and a Member of the Council of Trade propounded the working these Manufactures in Sweden in case the Council would represent it to the King when he came to his Majority as an acceptable service and that for some time the Council would take of the Manufactures at the same terms the Dutch supplied them The Council assented to both and a piece of those Clothes was divided and the Arms of Sweden and of the Lord Landscroone stamped upon both that the Goodness of the future Cloath to be made in Sweden might be compar'd with the Dutch Hereupon Landscroone at his own charges hires Artificers from England and Holland who so well plied their business that last year Sweden was supplied with these Clothes by the work of the Natives and upon the same terms the Dutch supplied them And for the future the Lord Landscroone expects to be a considerable gainer as he well deserves I am sure the Kingdom of Sweden will be much more Prop. 7. Theorem 6. Forreigners may more securely encrease Woollen or any other Manufacture in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands 5 Ax. 3. For things may be more securely done where the Agents are more safe in doing them 6 Prop. 3. But Forreigners may encrease Woollen Manufactures in England 16 Pet. 3. And Forreigners are more safe in working them in England than France or the Vnited Netherlands Therefore they may more securely encrease them in England Annot. After mens Interest they consult their Security and herein as Forreigners may encrease Woollen Manufactures cheaper and better in England than France or the Vnited Netherlands so are they more secure in working them than in either or any other place upon the Continent by reason they are more secure from the Invasion of Forreign Princes and States It is true indeed that one great reason of the encrease of the Strength and Trade of the Vnited Netherlands was the security men apprehended there as well as Freedom For the great Power of the Dutch by Sea was such as was not to be controuled by any or all other Princes except the King of England and the weakness of the bordering Princes by Land was such as the States gave Laws to them at pleasure But the terrour of the French Invasion in 1672 has much abated the opinion the World had of their Security in the Vnited Netherlands And now the Marquiss of Brandenburg the most powerful of all the Princes in Germany has recovered the Dominion of Wesel Rees Emrick and Orsoy which Commands the Rhine and is possessed of Skinkersconce which Commands the Rhine and Wael the opinion of this Security is not only much abated but the Dutch Trade to Germany and other places up and down the Rhine must be precarious as the Marquiss pleases Nor will the Dutch easily free themselves from the Neighbourhood of the French in Maestricht Maseike and other places Prop. 8. Theorem 7. The free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen or other Manufactures in England will so much encrease Trade in England as the Forreigners are more 2 Ax. 1. For in every thing the effects will be as the causes are 4 Pet. 1. But greater numbers of People encrease Trade 18 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to work Woollen and other Manufactures in England will cause so many more People in England as the Forreigners are more Therefore it will so much encrease Trade in England Annot. This is evident as hath been said in that every one of these must wear Hats Shooes Clothes and many other necessaries whereby Trade and Employment of other people would be so much more as these Forreigners by this free Admission shall be more Prop. 9. Theorem 8. The free Admission of Forreigners to instruct the Nation of England in Woollen and other Manufactures may so much encrease Trade in England as the Natives Instructed in those Manufactures are more 7 Ax. 3. For things may be so much encreased as the Means are more 19 Pet. 3. But Employment of People is a mean to encrease Trade 20 Pet. 3. And the free Admission of Forreigners to Instruct the Natives of England in Woollen and other Manufactures may so much employ the Natives as the Natives instructed are more Therefore it may so much encrease Trade in England Annot. So that this Admission of Forreigners to work and instruct the Natives of England in Woollen and other Manufactures doubly encreases Trade in England viz. In the persons of the Forreigners but much more by instructing the Natives whereby they may be enabled better to maintain themselves and Families with all sorts of Conveniencies than if they were worse employed or not employed which is worst of all for then they become a Charge and Burden to the Nation The numbers of the Walloons which Edw. the 3d and Queen Eliz. invited and permitted in England and who first instructed the English in Woollen Manufactures were very inconsiderable to the numbers of the Natives of England who are now employed in them and by that means only are enabled to provide for themselves and Families to the encrease of Trade to those people from whom they are supplied So that that saying That there is but such a Trade in the world is only true by accident not necessarily for many thousands of people might encrease Trade in the world if they had means which being denied they cannot do Corollary By the same reason the free admission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in Corporations in England may so much encrease Trade in England as the Natives so Admitted are more 19 Pet. 3. For Employment of People is a mean to encrease Trade 21 Pet. 3. And the free admission of the Natives of England to work Woollen and other Manufactures in the Corporations of England may so much more employ the Natives as the admission is more free Annot. If five pounds given with
Theorem 12. The pre-emption of Freemen of Corporations endangers the vent of Woollen and other Manufactures in Forrein Trade 10 Ax. 3. For things will be so much endangered as the means of doing them is restrained 25 Pet. 3. But the buying our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to vend them in Forrein Trade 26 Pet. 3. And the pre-emption of Freemen of Corporations restrains the buying our Woollen and other Manufactures to the Freemen of Corporations Therefore it endangers the Forrein Trade of them Annot. So long as this pre-emption is continued the best the Nation can hope for is that the Inhabitants of the Nation cannot expect any further Employment than the abilities of these Freemen can arise to So that it will be impossible to enlarge our Forrein Trades of Woollen and other Manufactures beyond their abilities or to conserve the Forrein Trades we now enjoy of them if by War or other accident their abilities become less And as the Retailers in Corporations neither Labour nor take care in labouring for the production of our Woollen and other Manufactures but only how to impose upon the labourer and those they sell to So these pre-emption-men neither labour take care in Labouring or to bring the Manufactures of England to their Corporations yet not only the Artificer must be at their mercy in buying but all the world in selling No question then but these men will thrive though the Nation and all the world suffer Yet I would be glad to be instructed in any one particular what need the Nation or World hath of any one of these men I cannot tell for France but am confident not one of this kinde of men can be found in the Vnited Netherlands In truth I have often admired the German Empire and Kingdom of Poland should give protection to Hamburg and Dantzick for no member of the Empire or Kingdom is permitted to be supplied with Forrein Commodities or to vend the Commodities of Germany or Poland in either place but as they buy of or sell to the Burgers of them which are Impositions as injurious as can be imposed upon a Conquered Nation And though Hamburg be otherwise a great Trading place to many places of the world by Navigation and very considerable in the Groenland-fishing yet the Town of Dantzick hath little or no Trade but their pre-emption of all sorts of Forrein Commodities wherewith the Dutch and other Nations supply them and they Poland and by pre-emption of all the Commodities of Poland which these Burgers sell again to the Dutch and other Nations For my part as I esteem the City of London to be a great ornament to the Nation and equally with any man desire the Grandeur and Prosperity of it so I wish the Grandeur and Prosperity of it were otherwise founded than by pre-emption of the Commodities of the Nation and such other means whereby the Nation necessarily becomes impoverished which must of necessity be more dangerous to the City than Country For the Country may subsist though poorly without a Forrein Trade or a Trade with the City But if the City loses the Forrein Trade of our Commodities and if the Country by its poverty cannot entertain a Commerce with the City the City cannot subsist at all Whereas if by reason of the cheapness and freedom of vending our Commodities the Country be enriched though this pre-emption were taken away the City being the Head of a Noble Nation and having the residence of the King's Court and all the Supream Courts of Judicature and the best Navigable River of Christendom or perhaps of the World to supply it with Forrein Commodities and to vend our Native it may hold a much better Trade with the Nation than now it does Corollary 1. By the same reason the Trading in Companies exclusive to other men endangers the Forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 27 Pet. 3. For freedom in Trade is a mean to vend our Woollen and other Manufactures in Forrein Trade 28 Pet. 3. And Trading in Companies exclusive to other men restrains the freedom of Trade of our Woollen Manufactures to such Companies Annot. As the pre-emption of Freemen of Corporations restrains the Forrein vent of our Woollen and other Manufactures by Forreiners to what these pre-emption-men please to sell and at what prices they please to impose So this Trading in Companies restrains the Forrein vent of our Woollen and other Manufactures by the Natives of England to what these Companies please and at what terms they please So that it will be impossible to encrease the Forrein Trade of our Wollen and other Manufactures beyond their pleasures and abilities or to conserve the Trade the Nation now has under them if by War or other accident their abilities become less whereby the Nation loses all the inestimable benefits which might accrue to it by the Forrein Trade of its Manufactures and the wretched People whose Livelyhoods depend upon the Forrein Trade become undone for want of Employment And as by this kinde of Trading we endanger our own Forrein Trade of our Manufactures so we make room for the Dutch and other industrious Nations who are not subject to the charges and restrictions we lie under and fix and establish Trades by these Commodities in other Countries so much more as we charge or restrain ours Heretofore the East-Country-Company above all others was the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first termed The Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantageous returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckats and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely enjoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it But it fell out unluckily that in the years 1636 37 and 38. about two hundred Families of zealous people in Norfolk and Suffolk who would not endure the severe Injunctions of Ecclesiastical Discipline forsook their Habitation and being bred up in the Woollen Manufactures wherewith those East-Countries were supplied from England and planted themselves in Holland they there instructed the Dutch in those Manufactures so that we returned the Dutch a kindness with another sort of people the Dutch did us Afterwards the Fatal Civil Wars ensued so that the East-land-company not so fully supplying the East Country as formerly Consequences The Dutch found an opportunity of encreasing their Trade of Woollen Manufactures and the Polanders giving encouragement to the Silesians who bordered upon them and then only made course Sleses to work Woollen Manufactures in Poland and the Wools of Poland being much finer than those of Silefia these Silesians by themselves and much more by instructing the Polanders have in a great measure so supplied Poland with Woollen Manufactures that whereas before the year 1640 the East-land Company
vended yearly 20000 broad Clothes they now do not 4000 of 60000 Kerseys now not 5000 of 40000. Doubles now not 2000. About the middle of King James his Reign the State of that part of Suffolk and Essex was in so flourishing a condition by reason of the East-land Trade that Sir Edward Coke at the request of the Inhabitants of Ipswich built Fulling Mills at Bourn-Bridge a mile from Ipswich When they were built the Town proffered him 240 l. per Annum in case he would let them to the Town but Sir Edward told them at their request he built them for a publick benefit and so he would continue them In his Grandson Sir Edw. Coke's time these Mills fell to 80 60 and 40 l. per Annum and of late in his Son Sir Robert Coke's time they fell to six pounds per Annum though the Mills cost above 2000 l. the building and at last the Rent would not pay the sixth part of the charge of Repairing them so as now they are thrown up for want of Work Nor is the Fate of the Hamburg-Company much better than that of the East land and from the same cause for after the Civil Wars broke out here in England and the City of London zealously affecting the Cause and preferring it before any Temporal Interest the Company either out of Zeal Necessity or both did not so well supply Hamburg as before which the Dutch took the benefit of and have so well managed that advantage that as before we supplied Jutland Holstein and the North and North-west parts of Germany with Woollen Manufactures we now scarce go halves with the Dutch in that Trade and this Company is become so poor that they can hardly maintain their half in it Even the Turky-Company which we so much glory in by their Monopoly of vending our Woollen Manufactures once in two years to Turky and exposing the West-Country-Clothiers to bring up their Clothes to London before they please to buy them a charge equal to Turky from Bristol or other Western parts and then to send them as far East and then through the Channel makes but room for the French Dutch and Venetians to establish Trades of Woollen Manufactures in Turky and so much better by how much this Company charges and restrains ours Coroll 2. By the same reason the Act of Navigation endangers a Domestick Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures 29. Pet. 3. For Exchanging Forrein Goods for our Woollen and other Manufactures is a mean to have a Domestick Trade of Woollen and other Manufactures 30. Pet. 3. And the Act of Navigation restrains the Importation of Forreign Goods to English-built Ships and sailed by ¾ English or the Ships and ¾ of the Natives whether they have Ships or Marriners or not Annot. No creature endewed with less Prescience than Omniscience can foresee the mischiefs the Act of Navigation brings upon the Nation by this restriction For as every man stands of need of being supplied by another so does every Country No man shall ever be well supplied by another who will be only supplied by those men who immediately do things he needs or by his own Servants for the men who do the things I stand in need of it may be are out of distance or have no means to convey them to me But when things are made convenient for Humane use they are commonly sent to the most probable place where they may finde a Market and there men resort to be supplied and to sell or exchange other things for them For my part I am no Merchant and therefore cannot give those instances which Merchants can hereof in the Trade of the Nation yet am I as morally assured of the reason of this Gorollary as if I could give a Thousand particular instances of it 1. It was prov'd before a Committee of the House of Commons the 12 of Feb. 1668. That before the Rump-Parliament contrived the Act of Navigation the Trade to Norway for Timber Pitch and Tar was generally driven by the English in Barter of our Manufactures but then by Dollars and the Treasure of the Nation and those Manufactures which were exported into Norway were rarely exported but by Norwegians 2 That the Prices of Norway-Timber was become neer double 3. That our own Timber was much wasted by reason of the Dearness of the Norway-Timber 4. That we had not built one Ship for that Trade since the Law nor could ever hope to do so long as it stood in force because a Forreign Ship might be built for half the price and be more free for Trade whereas the Norwegians had doubled their Ships and built them twice as big and encreased their Marriners from 600 to 6000 and yet Traded to no place but England whereby the English in a short time would necessarily be excluded the Trade of Norway unless they drive it by Norwegians and in Norway Bottoms 5. That the English were then almost wholly laid aside the Trade of Norway being generally driven by the Norwegians and in Norway Bottoms 6. That the English were wholly left to the King of Denmark's disposing whenever he pleased to impose any further abuses than were then complained of which were that the English ever since 1646 and by a Treaty made between the Kings of England and Denmark 1660 paid ⅘ of a Rixdollar per Lasts for the growths of Norway except the Town of Bergen but since the late War with the King of Denmark they paid for Timber a Rixdollar and half per Last for other growths a Rixdollar and ⅘ others 2 and ⅖ and for others 3 Rixdollars and in measuring the Lastage the same Ships which before the War had their Measures adjusted were raised some 35 others 40 Lasts 7. That it was the Interest of the King of Denmark to make the Trade of Norway insupportable to the English for thereby the Act of Navigation did reduce the whole Trade to the Norwegians As this success attended this restriction by the Act of Navigation in reference to the Trade of Norway both for our Manufactures and the Commodities of Norway So did it not much better succeed in the Trades of our Manufactures and of the Hemp and Flax imported by the Dutch in exchange of them For the English from the reasons in the first Coroll upon this Prop. having lost so inestimable a Trade into the Sound and by consequence the beneficial returns of Ruff Hemp and Flax from Riga Revel and other places within the Sound before the year 1640 and the Dutch by reason of the greatness of their Trade into the Sound not of Woollen Manufactures only but of Fish Salt Wines Brandies Spice and other Commodities returned such vast quantities of Ruff Hemp and Flax and by reason of the cheapness of their Navigations and smalness of Duties supplied the English so cheap with Hemp and Flax that the poor people upon the Eastern Coast of England and here in London were able to make Cordage Nets and
Linnen Salt and other Commodities of France and so much lessen the Manufactures of France as he encreases his Navigation But the Dutch War is but an accident of the time and it is probable when the French King pleases he may make Peace with the Dutch and so restore the Dutch Navigation again to the trade of France But alas who can ever untwist the Treefold Cord of the Law against Naturalization the Act of Navigation and the Freedom of Corporations here in England Each of these is more mischievous to us here in England than the Dutch-War is to France for France as it is a Kingdom above threefold greater than England so in that proportion it is doubly more peopled and therefore may much better endure the Sequestration of the Dutch Navigation and establish it upon the account of the French than we can our Coast being almost desolate and so poor that they can scarce maintain their poor and so have neither Men nor Means to conserve the little Trades they have much less to encrease them and the Country scarce half Inhabited and so the Lands of England not half improved and at this day I believe the Nobility and Gentry have above twenty thousand Farms in their hands and to take these from Husbandry to people our Coast and encrease our Navigation will leave so many fewer in the Country yet to Eternity for ought is known we must continue in this Condition Coroll 1. By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to sell Timber Pitch Tar Rough Hemp and Flax and many other sorts of Forrein Commodities in England may so much enrich the Nation as they may be made more valuable by the employment of our people 36 Pet. 3. For Timber Pitch Tar c. may be made more valuable by employing our people in building and their Manufactures as they are more and cheaper 37 Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to sell these in England may make them more and cheaper Annot. Though Trade where the Commodities are consumed to loss becomes so much more prejudicial and impoverishes any place so much as such consumption is And therefore as all beneficial Trades ought to be made free and by all means encouraged so it may seem reasonable that destructive Trades where things are vainly consumed and the employment of our people hindred thereby as are our Trades to France and Spain for Wines and to France for fine Linnen Lace Points and the importation of Dutch Black Clothes and French Hats and Druggets whereby the employment of our people is hindred and so much of the Treasure of the Nation exhausted as is spent in our consumption of them ought totally to be prohibited yet neerly looking into it such prohibition will prove dangerous to our Trade at home and abroad and also to the Peace of the Nation For first as every man stands in need of being supplied by another so does every place and therefore if we should prohibit the Importation of the Commodities of France though it be evident the Nation consumes them all to loss except Salt and Sails yet we cannot then but expect the French will likewise prohibit the Importation of our Welch Frizes and Exeter Carseys Leather Gloves Ribbons and several other Commodities whereby the employment of all our Artificers in them being taken away they become miserable and the Lands on which the Wools and the Cattle were renewed become less valuable The reason is the same if we prohibit the Importation of Dutch Black Clothes who take off many of our White Clothes and other Manufactures of England Secondly If we prohibit the French Hats Druggets and Dutch Black Clothes we put our selves and the World upon the Monopoly of having only such as the English make who will soon know the prerogative they enjoy hereby and make the English pay more for worse work than they did before and make them so dear and bad that we shall establish the Forrein Trade of such things to the French and Dutch whereas the Importation of these will be an Awe upon the English to make ours so good and cheap as to supply us and the world better or they will lose their employment And Lastly Such Prohibition causes Haâ—red and Heart-burning between Princes whereby oftentimes Wars ensue though under other pretences Therefore if my opinion were worthy to be admitted no Goods of any sort should be Prohibited but if any be imported which are Luxuriously consumed with little or no employment of the people as the Wines imported are they should pay the King the full value in their consumption but little or nothing if they could be again Transported for the importation is beneficial to the Nation by improving the Rents of Houses the employment of People in Lading and Ualading and in vending our Corn and Provision to the Importer But if an employment may happen to the People of the Nation if things were not imported as in fine Linnen Lace Points Blacks and Druggets encouragement should be given to all people to instruct ours in those Manufactures and such duties for some time imposed on the Importation that better hopes might be expected here than otherwise in working them Prop. 19. Theorem 18. The free permission of Forreigners to Import Timber rough Hemp and Flax all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and all sorts of Forrein Goods will so much conserve the Treasure of the Nation as they are cheaper sold 12 Ax. 3. For things will be so much conserved as they are less expended 38 Pet. 3. But less Treasure will be expended in Norway-Timber Pitch Tar Forrein Hemp and Flax and all sorts of Dying-Stuffs and all other Forrein Commodities if they be cheaper vended 39 Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Forrein Commodities will make them cheaper vended Therefore it will so much conserve the Treasure of the Nation Annot. Mr. Mun observes in his 4th chap. of England's Improvements by Forrein Trade that as Legorne is the most flourishing part in the Mediterranean in Trade so the Inhabitants have little Trade but for Goods imported by the Dutch and English which they buy for ready Money and that the Great Duke lent him 40000 Crowns for a year gatis though he knew it would be presently sent out of Italy into Turky to buy Commodities the Great Duke well understanding the returns would be profitable to him and his Subjects yet not by Manufactures which is the most profitable by employing people but by vending them and that by Land-carriage to Milan Piedmont and other places in Italy But if by reason of the Freedom of Legorne wrought Goods imported by Forreigners and bought with ready Mony be so profitable to the Duke of Florence and his Subjects I am sure the free Importation of unwrought Goods into England by Forreigners might be much more profitable to the King and his Subjects by employment of the English in their Manufactures And if that Permission which Oliver dispensed to the
English Norway-Traders for Timber had been continued by the King since his Restauration all that Money had been still conserved in the Nation which was expended in dearer buying Norway Timber imported by the Norwegians in building the City and Suburbs of London and other places and in building and repairing the Navy Royal and other ships of the English Navigation and so might all that superfluous dearness of rough Hemp and Flax whereby our people lost their employment yet in all England the King's duties did not amount to little more than 1500 l. per Annum and perhaps 20000 people might have been employed in the Manufactures of Cordage and Sails so we needed not have vainly been necessitated to have bought them of the Dutch and in our Wars with them of the French Prop. 20. Theorem 19. The free Admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will so much encrease the Riches of England as the Goods imported are more 1 Ax. 3. For every thing will be so much encreased as is added to it 41 Pet. 3. But Goods are Riches 42 Pet. 3. And the free admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will add so much Goods to those of England as the Importation is more free Therefore it will so much encrease the Riches of England Annot. I say this free admission of Forreigners to import Goods into England will more certainly enrich the Nation than can be reasonably expected by the returns of the Growths and Manufactures of England and our Plantations in Forrein Trade For the Nation is necessarily enriched so much as the value of the Goods imported by Forreigners amounts to Whereas the Merchant in return of Goods by Forrein Trade is not so secure but he may become a loser or if he or the Nation gains by the returns yet the gain is no more than the value of the Goods returned exceed the value of the Goods Exported which if 1 10 is very considerable whereas the Nation entirely gains the value of the Goods imported by Forreigners And in case the Merchant loses the outward Fraught or the returns of the Goods of England or our Plantations the Nation loses so much as the value of the Goods amount to But the Nation ventures nothing by the Importation of Goods imported by Forreigners yet necessarily gains so much as the Goods imported amount to in value And herein I observe that Goods being valuable as they can be vended the places where they are vended generally receive greater benefit by the Intercourse of People and the varieties of Trades and Traders than the places whereon the Goods are wrought and renewed So that though neither London Amsterdam Hamburg Legorne and many other frequented places have little or no Good of their own growth or Manufactures yet by reason of the frequencles of people in many varieties of Trades they receive much greater benefit than the places on which the Goods are wrought and renewed And I see no reason but if the Importation of Goods were as free in England as in Holland Zealand Hamburg Gottenburg Legorne c. but that our Ports might be as rich and flourishing as these and so much more as ours are better and more convenient Whereas by denying the World this freedom we continue the Poverty of the Towns upon the Coast of England which daily decline and even become desolate and necessitate the world to enrich and strengthen other places with those Riches and People which might be much better and securely enjoyed by us Prop. 21. Theorem 20. The free Importation of Forrein Goods into England may better more safely and conveniently encrease Riches in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands 8 Ax. 3. For things may be better more conveniently and safely done where the places are better more convenient and safe 41 Pet. 3. But the Ports of England are more better and more convenient and safe than those of France or the Vnited Netherlands 20 Prop. 3. And the free Importation of Forrein Goods into England will so much encrease Wealth in it as the Goods imported are more Therefore it may better more safely and conveniently encrease Wealth in England than in France or the Vnited Netherlands Annot. If the Ports of England were as free as those of the Vnited Netherlands Hamburg or Gottenburg can any man believe the world would pass Falmouth the most excellent Port of the world and the most convenient for the Southern Western South-Eastern and South-western Trades the noble Ports of Plymouth Dartmouth Exmouth Falmouth the famous Ports of Portsmouth and Harwich equal to any other and of all others the most convenient for the Trade of the East and North-East parts of the World to encounter the Sands upon Zealand or the Rocks before Gottenburg or to be conveyed through the Vly and Texel into the Zuyder-Sea where they are so far from safety that 500 Sail have been stranded by one nights Tempest Our Ports and always as open for any Forrein Trade especially to the South or West as safe for Ships to come in Theirs are dangerous in the approach are unsafe within and commonly frozen up three or four Moneths in the year We have no need of the Mould of Genoua nor take care to draw our Ships over any Pampus to secure them from Storms in the Winter Though Hamburg be a mighty Town of Trade yet we have neither Gluestadt or Stoad to give Laws to our Trade in any of our Ports as both those do to Hamburg We have nothing to say for our selves but though God and Nature never did any thing in vain yet we have made our Ports vain to all the World and almost to our selves The King was pleased about the beginning of the late War with the Dutch to Issue out a Proclamation to invite the Dutch to come into the Ports of England and they and their Ships should enjoy as much priviledge as if they were Natural-born English and their ships English-built But then they had incurred the danger of Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Apparel and Ammunition by the Act of Navigation They could not have unladed their Goods in any Port of England because they were not Free-men of Corporations they must have paid the King above twenty times the Duties before they broke Bulk more than at Hamburg or any Port of the Vnited Netherlands whereby they could never hope for any Forrein Trade by them or expect to vend one half of them in England And this must have been much to the detriment of the English Merchant who either had sufficient or expected to supply England in his future Trade so as not one Vessel came in upon that Proclamation The King was also pleased in that Proclamation to invite all sorts of Artificers to come into England and they should enjoy the benefits of Natural-born English but if they had come and had enjoyed them yet all other English-men are Forreigners to the Freedom of Corporations and so these could have
from this one Port of London And if two in the hundred charge in any Trade in one place above another endangers the loss of the Trade to that other I wish it were calculated with how many two's in the hundred we besides the Restrictions vainly charge all the forrein Trades we drive in the world upon the account of Woollen and other Manufactures Prop. 27. Theorem 25. The free permission of Forreigners to Import forrein Goods into England will so much more conserve peace abroad as the Goods imported are more 15 Ax. 3. For things may be so much more conserved as the means are encreased 8 Pet. 1. But Trade is a mean to conserve Peace 44 Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods will so much encrease Trade in England as the Goods imported are more Therefore it will so much conserve Peace abroad Annot. So that to this Plenty Wealth and Employment of our people at Home this permission will establish forrein Trades which we are strangers to and also add the blessing of Peace abroad The Interest of Princes and their Subjects employed in this Trade will have the same Influence on any other who would endeavour to interrupt it as our jealousies are upon any who should attempt to invade our Properties in our Lands and Goods In case of War their Interest would be involved with ours Hereof you may more largely read in the Annot. upon the 11 Prop. of the Reasons of the encrease of the Dutch Trade Whereas when the State of the Nation was much more free in reference to Trade than it now stands by the Act of Navigation yet by the Authority of the 1 Eliz. 13. this caused great displeasure between the Kings of this Realm and forrein Princes as well as the Merchant and people were sore damaged and agrieved thereby Prop. 28. Theorem 26. The free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods into England will so much encrease the valuable Trades of England as the Forreigners importing Goods are more 2 Ax. 1. For in every thing the Effects will be as the Causes are 2 Pet. 1. But greater numbers of people encrease Trade 45. Pet. 3. And the free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods into England will cause so much greater numbers of people in England as the Forreigners importing Goods are more Therefore it will so much encrease the valuable Trades of England Annot. They would for the many reasons heretofore said encrease Trade in themselves and also enable many poor people to Trade and procure a livelyhood by lading and unlading their Vessels by mending and trimming their Vessels Sails and Rigging and more other benefits would accrue to poor people which can neither be well foreseen or enumerated Coroll 1. By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods into England will so much encrease the value of the Lands of England as the Forreigners importing Goods are more 6 Pet. 1. For Lands are valuable as the Trade of the place is valuable Prop. And the free admission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods into England will so much encrease the valuable Trades of England as the Forreigners importing Goods are more Annot. If this number of Ships now employed in the Ports of England makes Lands of such value by victualling these Ships and employing people in them then if the number of Shipping be encreased so would be the employment of the people who thereby would be enabled to buy the Farmors Commodities and the Farmor too would finde so much more vent for his Commodities in victualling Ships as the Ships are more By means whereof not only the wast and untill'd Grounds upon the Coast might be improved but even those in Mediterrane places might finde encouragement and vent for their Commodities the Houses in the Towns upon the Coast would let better to receive the Goods imported and new ones would be built for the same purpose Coroll 2. By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods into England will so much encrease the value of the Revenues of the Church as the Forreigners importing Goods are more 7 Pet. 1. For the Revenues of the Church of England are valuable as the Lands are valuable Coroll 1. And the free permission of Forreigners to import forrein Goods will encrease the value of the Lands of England Annot. And so they would encrease the Revenues of the Crown not only by the comsumption of all sorts of forrein Commodities which pay the King Duties but also of all the Beer Ale and all other Domestick Exciseable Commodities which they consume and freight their Vessels with EPILOGVE THus by freedom of working our Woollen and other Manufactures and by the benefit of free Importing and Exporting Forrein Commodities with them in Forrein Trade the Reader may understand how many ways the Nation may be Strengthened Enriched and poor people employed whereas by restraining and unnecessary charging these we weaken and impoverish the Nation condemn many thousands of people to Misery and Poverty and establish all the benefits we might enjoy in other places to the endangering the Trade and Employment of people we now possess I know nothing worse resented in our Parliaments or in ordinary Discourse than Monopolies and that deservedly for they render the Ingenuity and Industry of many people useless and the Improvement of any new Invention for the publick more difficult whilst the Monopolists do things dearer and worse Therefore I wish that encouragement were given to Inventors of any beneficial Mystery any other way than by Patent of the sole use for fourteen years for by that means the use of it becomes less and dearer to us and may be more useful and cheaper to other Nations who do not Monopolize it whereby they may enjoy more benefit by it than can be hoped for by us But if a Monopoly be the restraining the doing or vending things exclusive to other men I do not understand but the restraining the benefit of the Improvement of the Growths and Manufactures of England to the Natives is a Monopoly to all the world besides And the restraining the free exercife of Arts and Mysteries in any Manufacture to the Freemen of Corporations is a Monopoly to all the Nation befides so is the forrein Trade by Companies of our Growths and Manufactures exclusive to other men a Monopoly to the World as well as Nation and the pre-emption of Freemen a Monopoly and grievous to both And the restraining the vending the Growths and Manufactures of England in forrein Trade and to make returns into England only in English-built Ships and Sailed by ¾ English is a Monopoly to both Trades So is the vending Cattle to the Eastern and Southern parts of England by the Scots Northern and Western people of England exclusive to the Irish a Monopoly I speak this only in reference to Trades which are beneficial especially those which more depend upon Employment of
people at home For it is advantageous in Trades which impoverish and debauch the people to have them driven by few and in Companies and those restrained both to managing the Trades and the prices of the things imported as in the Trades for French Wines and Brandies Italian and Spanish Wines and Fruits and all sorts of fine Linnen Lace and Ribbons c. which are consumed among us for by this mean so much cheaper as they are imported and restrained so much more the Nations Wealth and Stock is preserved Before 1641 the Canary Trade was managed by a Company the Prices were set and the Wines imported were in Barter of our Commodities so as the Nation was not considerably damnified by that Trade But aster that Trade by the Company was left the Vintners in London to get the Flowers as they call them of those Wines outbid one another so high that the prices became near double and rather than lose them they would pay in the Canaries ready Money And so we lost the Barter of our Commodities for them to boor but as well in the Beneficial as Hurtful Trades of the Nation we invert the means by which those may be more improved and these rendred less hurtful For almost all the outward Trades of our Growths and Manufactures are managed by Companies clogged with pre-emption of Freemen But the inward Trades of French Italian and Spanish Wines and Fruits and of fine Linnen Ribbons Lace c. and which are all consumed among us are driven at large by any English or other people of those places who will import them And as by our Monopolizing Trade we restrain the Employment of our people and the Wealth and Strength of the Nation to what the Monopolists please so we had better charge Lands 40 per Cent. than the forrein Trade of our Manufactures two For Lands are only valuable as our Trades especially Forrein are valuable and therefore in case we could doubly encrease the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures our Lands would be of double the value whereas in case we charge the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures two per Cent. above another place we endanger the whole and fix the Trade in that other place See more in the Annot. upon the 26 Prop. of this Discourse HOW THE NAVIGATION OF ENGLAND MAY BE ENCREASED AND THE SOVERAIGNTY OF THE British Seas More SECURED TO THE CROWN of ENGLAND TREATISE IV. By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by J. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1675. PREFACE TO THE READER TO Introduce a happy Reign Queen Eliz. before she called a Parliament fitted up and repaired her Navy Royal so as it was far superiour to any other this gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad And well knowing how highly the safety of her Subjects did depend upon conserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas though afterwards she protected the Infant Dutch States to give a check to the growing Austrian Greatness yet would she never permit the Dutch to build such Men of War as thereby to be enabled to question her Dominion in the Seas which beat upon the English Shores And it is said that when Henry the great of France after the Peace of Vervins designed to enlarge the Dominion of France as well by Sea as Land she forhad his building great Ships or she would fire them in his Harbours whereupon this great Monarch did desist King James however he loved Peace did rightly judge he could no way secure it so well as by fortifying the strength of his Navy Royal and to that left by Queen Elizabeth he added the Prince Royal the Old James and several others King Charles the first a Prince of Sacred memory not knowing where the swelling Dutch Navigation would end and how much it might tend to the diminution of his Honour and endangering the safety of his Subjects judged it necessary for conservation of both yet further to enlarge his Navy yet was unhappy that his Subjects did not or would not rightly understand him in it This was a Navy so Invincible to any Humane Power that though Sir William Batten in 1648 carried a very considerable part of it to his now Majesty yet with the residue of it and the Speaker and Warwick Frigats one of the third rate the other of the fourth rate conjoyned with some Hired Merchants-ships the Rump-Parliament in 1651 1652 and 1653 without difficulty overcome the Dutch in all Fights and had without doubt subdued them if Oliver had not first turned them out and after in 1654 made an unsetled and dishonourable Peace with the Dutch The Dutch secured by this Peace to prevent the Ruine of their State by another War with the English immediately built much larger and more Men of War than they had which could not be concealed from Oliver who encreased the English Fleot with many more and very considerable men of War And after the King's Restauration before the next Dutch War in 1664 the King added many more so as the English Navy Royal was more than twice as formidable as it was when the Rump Engaged the Dutch But the Dutch having greater quantities and more choice of Timber and many more Builders than could be found in England though the experience the English acquired in Naval fights with the Dutch in the former War were much augmented yet could not the English obtain so easie a Victory as before and at this time it is said the Dutch have above 50 Men of War more than the King has and of equal if not greater Bulk in the main and above 2500 pieces of Cannon The Kings of Sweden and Denmark and much more the French King Alarm'd by this encrease of the English and Dutch Fleets in proportion enlarged theirs so that the French Fleet is in number and bigness Superior to the English but by reason of want of Mariners none of them is comparably so formidable But because Ships without Mariners and Mariners without Ships signifie but little in War let us see from what Causes the Dutch are become so formidable to the English by Sea above the French Dane or Swede After Queen Elizabeth had fitted and repaired the Navy Royal as has been said in the first Parliament of her Reign chap. 13. she enlarged the Trade of the Nation by permitting the English to Trade in any Vessels paying Strangers Duties as this encreased the Trade of the Nation so did it Mariners whereby her Navy might be more and better supplied by them This paying strangers Duties for Goods Imported into England was the principal cause the Dutch found an easie Foundation of their future great Trade and encrease of Mariners above what could be employed from the Ports of England For about fourteen years after the Dutch Government began to Bud in t o States and being pressed in their Wars against the Spaniards permitted all Nations to Import and Export Goods paying
small Duties whereby they became enabled not only to make profitable Returns of the Fishing Trade to many other parts of the World but of French Wines Salt Clothes from England and many other Commodities from Germany and other places and established other Trades upon the returns of these whereas the payment of Strangers Duties upon Goods Imported into England necessitated a Consumption of them here and so the outward Trade and the Returns became impossible to us and by consequence the employment of all those Mariners who depended upon them This Liberty and smalness of Duties upon Goods Imported and Exported by the Dutch in Queen Elizabeth's Reign swell'd the Dutch Trade out of the bounds of Europe into the East and West-Indies which afterwards in the Reigns of King James and Charles the first became incredibly encreased Whereas notwithstanding the Liberty granted to the English by the 1 Eliz. 13. the English being oppressed in the Fishing Trade by reason of paying such great Duties upon Goods imported for Fish vended in forrein Trade above the Dutch and towards the latter end of her Reign the people upon the Coast expecting to reap a greater benefit by the Newcastle-trade deserted the Fishing Trade in forrein parts for white Herring Ling and Cod which being presently possessed by the Dutch they thereby so much encreased their Mariners and Navigation as the English became losers in both And this was so much more pernicious to the English by how much the Fishing Trade was diffused generally from the Eastern Ports of England and all sorts of people employed in it whereas the Newcastle-trade is driven but by few and none but younger men employed in it The Loss of the forreign Trade for Fish from the Ports of England was not sensibly perceived in King James his Reign by reason of the encrease of the Newcastle-trade and of the Spanish Trade whereof the English became upon the matter Proprietors by the Peace the King made with Spain and also about the middle of his Reign the Barbadoes and Virgina-Trade became considerable and the Trade of the English to the East-Indies was much encreased whereby the Nation became incredibly enriched more than it was in Queen Elizabeth's Reign or in any other Prince's before her The Seeds of these Trades thus laid in King James his Reign sprung up exceedingly in King Charles his Reign and the Plantations of Maryland and new-New-England were added to those of Virginia and Barbadoes But in the mean time the Dutch encreased their Trades to Muscovy into the Baltick up the Elb to Turky and Italy so that I cannot tell whether we employed more Mariners by encreasing our Western Plantations or lost the employment of more in the Trades which the Dutch sought to supplant us in The War breaking out in 1641 between the King and Parliament streightned the English from fully supplying the East-Country and Germany with Woollen Manufactures whereupon the English upon the matter have lost the Trade into the Sound and the Mariners their Employment and the Trade up the Elb is much reduced And the Murther of the King in 1648 extinguished that part of the Trade to Muscovy which the Dutch had left for the English share And as the Act of the 1 Eliz. 13. did so much preserve the English Timber by how many more forrein Vessels were employed and bought by the English and the 35 of Eliz. 11. was purposely made for further preservation of it so the Terrour of the Act of Navigation hath made both these wholsome Laws ineffectual to the Nation and to the charge of Duties upon Goods imported into England added the dearness of Shipping to it of about â…“ so that all those Trades which could not overcome these Charges became lost to the Nation and by consequence the employment of those Mariners which depended upon them The last I may say fatal Acts to the English Navigation and Mariners were those of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. against Importation of Irish Cattle whereby the means of Intercourse between the two Nations being violated all the Trades as well Forreign as Domestick which depended thereon became lost to this Nation and by consequence the employment of all those Mariners which before sought their Living in them I say this to shew that it is the Dutch Navigation and multitude of Mariners as well as greatness and numbers of men of War which makes them so formidable to the English above the French Dane or Swede and in case we take no care to encrease our Navigation and Mariners the English Navy Royal may become as little formidable to them as the French Dane and Swede are to us Especially now the Dutch can build twenty men of War and of equal Dimensions to one the King of England can and in less time and have above tenfold the Mariners the English have whereof fivefold are Mariners whose Interest purely depends upon the Dutch Government whereas the Mariners of England now the Trade between England and Ireland is lost have little or no dependence upon the Nation in all the forrein Trades of it and to our Plantations but in case the Dutch or any other Nation will give them better pay it is our Mariners Interest to serve them In a Book Printed by Authority of the Rump-Parliament 1652 with Mr. Selden's Treatise of the Dominion of the British Seas Intituled The Riches and Commodities of the British Seas Fol. 488. it is affirmed the number of the Dutch Ships Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland to be 8400 and if twenty men be allowed to each Ship the Mariners and Fishers amount to 168000 out of which Number they daily furnish their longer Voyages to all parts of the World for by this mean they are enabled to brook the Seas and instructed in Navigation and Pilotage from whence their Greatest Navigators have had their Education And Mr. Evelyn in his late Book Intituled The Original and Progress of Navigation and Commerce mentions their Number of Mariners and Men sit for Sea-Service in their Wars to amount to 120000. Of the Strength Charge and Number of the English Navy Royal in the times of our late Princes with their Designes as also of the strength of the Navies of our Neighbours the Dutch and French Colonel Thompson a quondam Commissioner of the Navy is said to have very good and large Historical Collections PETITIONS 1. THe forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures is a Principle to the Navigation of them to and from the Ports of England 2. The free premission of Forreigners to make returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and export them may encrease trade to from the Ports of England 3. Trade between England and Ireland is a Principle to the English Navigation between England and Ireland 4. The Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 5. Trade to and from the Ports of England is
a Principle of Navigation to and from the Ports of England 6. The free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to Fish and Trade into forrein parts for Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may encrease the Trade of England 7. Fishing and Trading Vessels are Riches 8. The free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and to trade into forrein parts will add so many Vessels to those in England as they fish and trade in 9. The free admission of Forreigners to make returns of Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and to export them may encrease the trade of England to and from the Ports of England 10. Navigation is a mean of preserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 11. The encrease of the English Navigation by Forreigners will so much diminish the Navigation of others who may be Enemies to the Crown of England 12. So much less English Timber will be expended in building ships for all other trades but the Newcastle East-Indy and Turky by how many forrein ships the English buy in those other Trades 13. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other but the East-Indie Newcastle and Turky Trades may cause so many more forein ships to be bought as the permission is more free 14. The Newcastle East-Indie and Turky Trades and the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England â—â—â—…e more secured by Ships built of English Timber 15. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turky Trades may encrease Ships in England 16. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turky Trades may cheaper encrease Ships in England 17. Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax are principal means in the Manufactures of Cordage Nets and Sails 18. The free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax may encrease these cheaper as the Importation is more free 19. So much less of the Treasure of the Nation will be expended in buying Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax as they are cheaper 20. Ropes Sails and Timber are means in building and fitting up of Ships 21. The free permission of Forreigners to import Timber may cheaper encrease Timber in England 22. The forrein Trade of Newcastle-Coal is a Principle to the Navigation of England 23. The free permission of the English in English-built Ships to export Newcastle-Coal and make returns into the Ports of England may encrease the forrein Trade of it Axioms 1. Business may be so much encreased as the Principles are encreased 2. Things may be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are encreased 3. Things may be so much encreased as the means are encreased 4. Things may be so much cheaper encreased as the means are cheaper 5. Things may be so much more and cheaper encreased as the means of preserving them are cheaper encreased HOW THE NAVIGATION Of England May be INCREASED c. Prop. 1. Theorem 1. THe free Importation of Forrein Goods into England may encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England 1 Ax. 4. For every business may be so much encreased as the Principles are encreased 1 Pet. 4. But the forrein Trade of the Woollen and other Manufactures of England is a Principle of the Navigation of them to and from the Ports of England 21 Prop. 3. And the free Importation of forrein Goods may encrease a forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures Therefore it may encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England Annot. Britain being an Island and so as another World divided from the Continent the encrease of Navigation and Mariners is more proper to it and desirable than where the Sea lies but on part of the bounds of the Country and this Encrease is so much more desirable by how much the Coast abounds with many Excelling and Noble Ports and the Country Naturally watred with Rivers more apt for Navigation than any other and which through those lose themselves in the Ocean But Navigation and Marriners cannot be otherwise encreased than from such Principles as God and Nature has ordained Trade therefore being a Principle to Navigation is superiour and more excellent than it and may subsist without Navigation but Navigation never without Trade A Nation may be rich and flourishing by Trade yet upon the Navigation of other Countries The great Riches which France lately enjoyed did arise chiefly from the English and Dutch Trading into their Ports So Legorne and Florence grow rich by the Trade which the English French and Dutch Navigation bring into Legorne So it is in the Turkie East Indie and Muscovy Trades by the English French Dutch and Venetians whereby those Countries grow vastly rich yet employ no Shipping or Navigation to procure it Trade being a principle to Navigation Navigation may be infinitely encreased as Trade is encreased I desire therefore Navigation to and from the Ports of England might be encreased by the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures rather than by the Newcastle-trade or the Trade to our Plantations For the home-vent of the Newcastle-trade employs few of the Natives but Miners and Manners and those but half the year and is driven to the loss of the Nation for we consume the Coals and besides the Consumption of our Timber in the Shipping in this Trade we generally buy the Pitch Tar Cordage and Sails employed in it of the French Dutch Swedes and Norwegians Add hereto that this Trade has caused vast destruction of the Wood-land-Grounds of the Eastern Southern and Midland parts of England which by reason of the plenty and cheapness of Newcastle-Coals can finde no vent Whereas Navigation which would arise from the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufacturers would so much enrich the Nation as the value of the Manufactures is more than the Principles of them are in value And I prefer the Navigation which may arise from encreasing our Manufactures at home before that Navigation which arises from our Trades to our Plantations because the Nation hereby would be more and better peopled and the Lands of the Crown Church Nobility Gentry and others of England would become so much more valuable as Trade and Navigation would be hereby encreased whereas the Plantations rob us of our people to the weakning the Nation and diminishing the value of the Lands of it and that besides Mariners few people in England except Retailers Sugar-Bakers Porters and Car-men are employed in the Trades of them And the Riches which arise by the Trade of them accrews to few but the King Merchant Sugar-bakers and Retailers And I do not question but the value of the Consumption of the Commodities of the Plantations here in England is much more than
the profit of them by forrein Trade And yet we have little else but the forrein Trade of our Woollen Manufactures so Taxed so Restrained and so Endangered as hath been in all the Three precedent Treatises demonstrated to sustain the Loss the Nation receives by the Newcastle-trade the Trade to our Plantations and the Trades to Norway France the Canaries and for Linnen I desire as much as any man that Navigation and Mariners may be encreased by the Natives of England and English Ships so far as the Natives of England in such Shipping can maintain Navigation yet both must be done in time and by such means as God and Nature have ordained viz. by encreasing Trade in England and if both Trade and Navigation cannot be carried on by the Natives alone I see no reason why at least at present Trade which is more excellent than Navigation should not be encreased though upon the account of forrein Navigation And I say it is impossible as the case stands that the forrein vent of our English Manufactures and the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland can be encreased by English Mariners in English-built Ships For the Towns upon the Coast of England generally are become so decayed that they are not neer half Inhabited and so poor that they have no Means to build Ships or to buy our Woollen or other Manufactures or the Fish caught upon our Coast nor have Factories or Correspondence in forrein parts to establish Trade and Commerce yet if they had it is impossible long to continue the Navigation we now possess in English-built Ships therefore less possible to encrease it It 's believed the French Nation before their War with the Dutch gained above 6000000 l. yearly by the English and Dutch trading into their Ports for Wine Salt Brandy Linnen Paper and other Commodities of France Suppose the French King upon the account of encreasing the Navigation and Mariners of France should have excluded the English and Dutch trading into his Ports and by Edict have Commanded that all the Commodities of France vended in forrein Trade should first be brought to Paris there none to buy them but Free-men and Companies if they have any and they only to vend them in French-built Ships and Sailed by ¾ French whether they have Ships or Mariners or not and that the Returns of them should pay the King twenty times the Duties they should in case they were imported into Holland or Hamburg whether the employment of the Shipping and Mariners of France would have countervailed the loss France would have sustained thereby Or Reader consider chainging the places if this be not the Condition of England in reference to the forrein Trade of the Manufactures and the Fish caught upon the Coast of it Coroll 1. By the same reason the free Permission of Forreigners to make Returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and to export them may encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England 1 Pet. 4. For Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle of Navigation to and from the Ports of England 2. Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to make Returns of our Woollen and other Manufactures into the Ports of England and export them may encrease Trade to and from the Ports of England Annot. As the free permission of Forreigners to work Manufactures in England and export them would encrease Navigation to and from the Ports of England so would the free permission of Forreigners to make Returns of them into our Ports and export them and so would the Returns of these and the exporting them again and so infinitely whereby Navigation to and from our Ports may be infinitely encreased The Dutch and Hamburger we see have no principles of Trade or Navigation of their own yet from the principles of the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and the Groenland Fishery and the Trades and Navigation depending thereon and the principles they acquire from other places by reason of their free Importation and Exportation employ more Shipping and Mariners than all the Christian Princes and States in all the world besides The seeming Objection against this Permission we hope to avoid in the Annot. upon the Coroll of the 16 Proposition of this Treatise Corollary 2. By the same reason the Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle may encrease the Navigation of England 3 Pet. 4. For Trade is a principle of the English Navigation between England and Ireland 13 Prop. 3. And the Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20 Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle may encrease the Trade between England and Ireland Annot. After the Navigation which may arise by the forrein vent of our Woollen and other Manufactures I desire the Navigation of England may be encreased from the Trade between England and Ireland not only as the Crown of Ireland is depending upon the Crown of England but also because the benefits and Security of the English Nation are more interwoven between them than can be expected from any other Country The Navigation which the Trade between England and Ireland before these Acts did maintain was First about one hundred Sail and a proportionable number of Mariners were employed in bringing over Cattle Secondly A considerable number of English Ships and Mariners Mr. John De Boyse can better inform the Reader the number than I were employed in the Trade of the Returns for their Lean Cattle in Beer Hops Hats Stockens Cloath and Stuffs of all sorts all sorts of Dying-stuffs Hides Fruit Sugars Tobaccoes and many other Commodities to Ireland Thirdly The Returns of these in Hides Tallow Wools Yarn c. from Ireland in forrein Trade was generally in English Ships and sailed by English Mariners But all this Navigation depending upon the first Intercourse between England and Ireland for their Lean Cattle the Cause of Importing Cattle ceasing the Navigation which depended upon it ceased and the Trade as well as the Navigation the Nation formerly enjoyed is not only lost to it but established in forrein Nations to the Endangering as well as Impoverishing this and of which you may more largely read in the Annot. upon the 18 19 and 20 Propositions of the Treatise of The Equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England Prop. 2. Theorem 2. The Repealing the Acts of the 18 and 20. Car. 2. cap. 1. against Importation of Irish Cattle will so much more secure the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England as Navigation shall be thereby encreased 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much secured as the means of preserving them are encreased 4 Pet. 3. But the Navigation of England is a mean of preserving the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Coroll 2. Prop. 1. And the Repealing the Acts against Importation of Irish Cattle may
encrease the Navigation of England Therefore it will so much secure the Soveraignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. I say the Repealing of these Laws may encrease or rather restore the Navigation of England which it formerly enjoyed before them And in truth I am content this Trade and Navigation should so far as it can be carried on only by English yet in such Vessels as the English can manage it to their best benefit whereby only this Nation might be the Store-house of supplying the Irish with all sorts of Commodities they want and that the Nation might have the home-benefit of working their Wools and the forrein benefits of vending their Hides Tallow and Yarn c. for it is as much our Interest the English should enjoy these Trades and Navigation depending thereon as that only the English should have the benefit of the Trade and Navigation to our Plantations or the Dutch Interest alone to have the Spice-Trade and the Navigation which depends thereon But since Navigation is a mean of preserving the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England the loss of it is as much dangerous to it It is not the number and greatness of the French Navy Royal which makes the French King neer so formidable at Sea as either the English or Dutch but their want of such Trades as might encrease their Navigation and Mariners Prop. 3. Theorem 3. The free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to Fish and Trade into forrein parts with Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may encrease the Navigation of England 1 Ax. 4. For business may be so much encreased as the Principles are encreased 5 Pet. 4. But Trade to and from the Ports of England is a principle of the Navigation of England 6 Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish and trade into forrein parts with Fish c. may encrease the Trade of England Therefore it may so much encrease the Navigation of England Annot. After the Navigation which may arise from the Trade of our Manufactures and the free Intercourse between England and Ireland I desire Navigation in England may be encreased by the Fishing Trade especially of the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland not only as the Fish may be more conveniently caught by such as fish from the Ports of England if the King pleases to deny others to dry their Nets or take in Fresh Water in any of his Dominions but also the Freighting of Vessels with Beer and Provisions may be cheaper in the Fishery and forrein vent of Fish from the Ports of England besides the employment of many thousands of our poor people would be of infinite benefit to the Lands of England as the Fishery and forrein Trade of them should be encreased and the Towns upon the Eastern Coast of England which are now even desolate would become rich and populous Moreover it is a Scandal and dishonour to the Crown of England which contains the Sovereignty of the British Seas that the benefits which arise from these Seas should be lost to this Nation and established in others to their enriching and encrease of Navigation I say this free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish and Trade into forrein parts with Fish caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland may encrease the Navigation of England for thereby their Interest being planted in the Nation it would enjoy the fruits of their Trade and Navigation Nor do I understand how otherwise at least at present this Nation can hope to enjoy the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland or the forrein Trade of it or any part of it For the Inhabitants upon the Eastern Coast of England are so thin that the Towns upon it except Great Yarmouth are even desolate and so poor that they have no means to build or buy Vessels for this Trade nor have Factors or Agents in forrein parts whereby to entertain Trade and Commerce And also the Timber of England is so destroyed by the niggardly Trades we now enjoy whereby we can do little more than consume in England the Returns of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations that it is not long possible by it to maintain these Trades therefore less possible by it to establish the Fishing Trade which it may be will require more Shipping than we now employ in all the Trades we drive in the World Or in case we had quantities of Timber sufficient for carrying on the Fishing Trade yet would it be of no benefit to us in this Trade for the Fish cost nothing but the catching and the Hull of a Vessel for the Fishing Trade or Fishery may be built for ⅔ of what one of equal dimensions can be built in England and those built of English Timber are so heavy that they require ½ more Sails and Cordage to fit them up and so more Hands to manage them whereby it becomes impossible to the English to Fish and Trade so cheap as the Dutch and Hamburger Nor is this Mischief as the case stands possible to be remedied by Vessels built of forrein Timber in England for by reason of the high Duties upon it and the Advantages the Norwegians have by imposing their own Terms upon us the English at this day pay 30 l. per Cent. more for Timber imported than the Dutch or Hamburgers do Prop. 4. Theorem 4. The free Admission of Forreigners to Inhabit in England and in any Vessels to Fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and to Trade into forrein parts will so much encrease the Riches of England as the Vessels they Fish and Trade in are valuable 1 Ax. 3. For things will be so much encreased as is added to them 7 Pet. 4. But Fishing and Trading Vessels are Riches 8 Pet. 4. And the free admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England and in any Vessels to fish c. and Trade c. will add so many Vessels to those of England as they Fish and Trade in Therefore it will so much encrease the Riches of England Annot. This Admission of Forreigners to inhabit in England c. as it will so much enrich the Nation as the Vessels they Fish and Trade in are in value in case they bring Vessels into England so will it so much enrich the Nation in case they bought the Vessels here in England and employed them from the Ports of it For then the Nation retains the Vessels still and so much as is expended therein will be added to the Treasure of the Nation Since therefore the Nation will be so much enriched as the Vessels wherein Forreigners Fish and Trade from our Ports are in value I say that in case a Revenue for some time were established to pay every Forreigner who would inhabit in England and Fish upon the Coasts
the Herring from Scotland to Yarmouth whilest the wretched people upon our Coast stand starving and looking on and cannot employ one Vessel or Mariner in it Even in the Herring-fishing before Yarmouth we fish little above one fortnight and in that fishing the Dutch employ above threefold the Vessels we do and above twofold the Mariners Consequences From whence the Dutch are able without Pressing to Man their Men of War against us and at the same time to drive incredible Trades abroad when we by Pressing and Land-Souldiers to boot though we drive no Trade if we had not advantage by the goodness of our Men of War finde it difficult enough to oppose them whereas in case this Fishery and the Trades and Navigation depending thereon were driven by these Dutch-men or any numbers of them from the Ports of England the Dutch would have so much less means to oppose the English and dispute the Sovereignty of the British Seas and the English would have so much more means to defend themselves and bring the Dutch to Reason Prop. 8. Theorem 8. The free permission of the English to buy forrein Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will so much more preserve the Timber of England as the Ships so bought are more 11 Ax. 3. For things will be so much preserved as less of them is expended 12 Pet. 4. But so much less English Timber will be expended in building English Ships for all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades by so many forrein Ships as the English buy in other Trades 13 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy forrein Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cause so many more forrein Ships to be bought as the permission is more free Therefore it may so much preserve the Timber of England Annot. And if it may preserve the Timber of England I am sure it is more than time the English were permitted to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades for by reason the Act of Navigation confines the English to Trade and make Returns into the Ports of England only in English-built Ships the English have not only not been able to build one ship for the Norway-trade for Timber or the forrein Trade of white Herring or Cod caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland since the Rump-Parliament contrived the Act of Navigation but to maintain the niggardly Trades we now drive wherein upon the matter we consume all the Returns of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations The Timber of England is so wasted that in any convenient distances for building Ships there is not ¼ of Timber left standing as was when the Rump-Parliament invented this Law See more hereof in the Annot. upon the 10 11 12 and 13 Propositions of The equal Danger of the Church State and Trade of England I have with as much Zeal endeavoured yet without success to represent this to the Parliament and the dire Consequences of it so far as I understood the Timber of England to be wasted upon the Coasts of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex And being last Easter-Eve was twelvemonth at Bristol some Gentleman and I went to see the Oxford Frigat then ready to be Lanched and built by Captain Baily a very Civil person and I believe an excellent Builder After some discourse I asked him if English Timber were plentiful in the West of England and he told me he with great difficulty got Timber to build this Frigat and that in building the Edgar-frigat he bought the Timber twelve miles beyond Worcester which is 50 miles from Bristol I then asked him what he thought of the State of the Nation as it now stands in reference to the Navigation of it in English-built Ships whenas the Ring with such difficulty built one Man of War he told me it was impossible to be continued and that he had more reason than another to know it for besides his long being accqstiomed to build Ships he had order from the King to survey his Western and Southern Forests and to return an Account of it to the King himself I thanked him and told him I was equally sorry with him for the condition of the Nation yet was glad a man of his Knowledge and Experience had the same apprehensions as I had though with all the Sollicitations I could use I was so far from getting relief to the Nation herein as that I could not get the Apprehensions he had herein to be received by the Parliament Prop. 9. Theorem 9. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will more secure them and also the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England 2 Ax. 4. For things will be so much more secured as the means of preserving them are more 14 Pet. 4. But the Turkie East-Indie Newcastle-Trades and the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England are more secured by means of ships built of English Timber 8 Prop. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades will more preserve the Timber of England Therefore it will so much more secure the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trade and the Sovereignty of the British Seas to the Crown of England Annot. If we consider how much the Newcastle-trade increases as does the East-Indie-trade and how much greater the Dutch War-fleet is than the King 's of England And that as the case stands the Newcastle-trade is necessary and the East-Indie-trade very beneficial to the Nation it may be a question if the growth of these Trades and the necessities of increasing the Navy Royal will not require greater quantities of Timber than for the future can be found in convenient distances in England however to preserve these it is very reasonable the English be permitted to buy Ships in all their other Trades Prop. 10. Theorem 10. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all their other Trades but the Turkie East-Indie and Newcastle-Trades may increase the Navigation of England 3 Ax. 4. For things may be so much increased as the means are increased 22 Pet. 1. But Ships are means in Navigation 15 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle-trade c. may increase the ships of England Therefore it may increase the Navigation of England Annot. So that this permission as it will more secure the Sovereignty of the British Seas the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades so it may increase the Navigation of England in our Trades to and from our forrein Plantations the Trades to Hamburg into the Sound Muscovy France and Spain but especially to Norway for Timber Pitch and Tar in which Trade as we never built one ship
since the Act of Navigation nor as the case stands can ever hope to do so in time of War between the Dutch and French the Newcastle-ships are so employed in other Trades as the home-vent of Coal is not only not throughly supplied but our Norway-Merchants cannot hire enough to furnish us as at other times especially in our Trades to Dromen Northward of Bergen as Mr. Hammond a Norway-Merchant who affirms that in this Trade he vends more of our English Manufactures than all our Norway Merchants do in all their other Trades to Norway has often complained to me And though the King has been pleased to permit our Norway Merchants to buy about 50 Flyboats yet these with the addition of the Dutch Prizes taken in the late War will not neer supply the defect And I say moreover in case the English be not permitted to buy Ships in this Trade and in our Trades to our Plantations Hamburg Muscovy to France Spain Guiny and into the Sound and other places we shall endanger the loss of these Trades as well as the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades and the Sovereignty of the British Seas And that the Title of the Act of Navigation is a contradiction in affirming it to be for Increase and Encouragement of Navigation and Mariners yet confining them both to English-built Ships and sailed by ¾ English Prop. 11. Theorem 11. The free permission of the English to buy Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cheaper increase the Navigation of England 4 Ax. 4. For things may be so much cheaper increased as the means are cheaper 22 Pet. 1. But Ships are means in Navigation 16 Pet. 4. And the free permission of the English to buy ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades may cheaper increase ships in England Therefore it may cheaper increase theNavigation of England Annot. May cheaper increase Ships in England I could rarely discourse this point but it would still be objected against me that though forrein ships be cheaper than English-built yet English ships are more strong and durable and this contended with such heat as would not admit of a comparison of the benefits which might accrue by the strength and durableness of ours and the cheapness and convenience of forrein ships I confess for ought I know the strength and durableness of English-built ships may be a reason to have the King's Men of War and ships for the Newcastle East-Indie and Turkie Trades built of English Timber so long as the Timber of England can afford it But in our other Trades though we had Timber sufficient and it were my opinion it were better to carry on these Trades in English built ships yet I say no man less conversant in any business understands so well as a man more conversant in it by what means he can best carry on his business and therefore if the English Merchant findes he can better carry on his business in English-built ships no question but he will prefer them before forein But if the English Merchant be confined to English built ships in his trades and can get none or if they be so dear or inconvenient for we do not understand how to build convenient ships for all Trades as not to finde profit not only the Mariners lose their employment but it may be the employment of a thousand other people whose Labours depend upon that Trade will be hereby lost Corollary By the same reason the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax into England may cheaper increase the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails in England 17 Pet. 4. For Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax are Principal means in the Manufactures of Ropes Nets and Sails 18 Pet. 4. And the free permission of Forreigners to import Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax may so much increase these cheaper in England as the Importation is more free Annot. After the establishing Religion and Justice no greater happiness attends any Nation than the constant imployment of people And I say both Religion and Justice may much better be propagated upon people bred up in honest Professions than upon those who subsist by Pilfering Cheating Stealing Canting and Begging and therefore all those Laws or other means which take away the employment of people in honest Professions do not onely make them miserable and a burthen to the Nation but hinder the growth of Religion and Justice And if the Importation of Pitch Tar Ruff Hemp and Flax were permitted to be as freely imported into England as Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands I see no reason but many thousands of poor people in the Suburbs of London and in all the Towns upon the Eastern Ports of England might better and cheaper be employed in making Ropes Nets and Sails than in Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands by how much the Inhabitants may cheaper subsist and be maintained than those in Hamburg or the Vnited Netherlands Before the Act of Navigation the English by the 1 Eliz. 13. might import Pitch and Tar in any Vessels and before the year 1640 the English by reason of the goodness of their Trade into the Sound returned such quantities of Ruff Hemp and Flax that the poor people upon the Eastern Coast of England did make sufficient Ropes Nets and Sails for the Fishery and Navigation of it And after the English had for reasons before-said in the former Treatises and this Preface almost lost the Trade into the Sound yet before the Act of Navigation having free liberty to import Pitch and Tar and the Dutch importing Ruff Hemp and Flax upon reasonable terms this employment continued to the incredible support of the poor Inhabitants in the Towns upon the Coast But the Act of Navigation prohibiting the English to import Pitch and Tar unless in English-built ships and the English not being able to build one ship for the Trade of them they were reduced to have it upon such terms as the Norwegians pleased to impose upon them And though Oliver permitted the Norway Traders to import Timber in any Vessels notwithstanding the Act of Navigation yet the Law still was in force against Importation of Pitch and Tar and theDutch not being permitted to import Ruff Hemp Flax and the English Trade into the Sound every day decaying few returns from Riga Revel Narve or Quinborough of Ruff Hemp and Flax was made into England but in English Vessels outward fraught with Ballast and bought with ready Money whereby Ruff Hemp and Flax became so dear that the poor English lost the employment In the Town of Yarmouth before the Act of Navigation the Inhabitants made yearly 2800 Tun of Cordage besides Nets and Sails now for the Reasons aforesaid they make not ten and neither Nets or Sails for the Dutch importing Ruff Hemp and Flax and Pitch and Tar ⅓ cheaper can work these so cheap as the English cannot and then the Act of Navigation