Englands Glory BY THE Benefit of Wool Manufactured therein from the Farmer to the Merchant and the Evil Consequences of its Exportation Unmanufactured Briefly Hinted With Submission to better Judgments THere is no King nor Prince in the World known by experience or upon Record that hath such means to support their Splendour and Greatness as his Majesty of great Britain nor has any Country or Nation such variety of staple Commodities within it self and in such abundance as hath the Kingdom of England which are said by some to be a Hundred Native Commodities which produceth a Thousand sorts of Manufactures So that if those advantages were duly improved England might be a general Mart for the whole World and then by consequence be the glory thereof That those advantages are not improved is too too obvious to all that look into it by the sore complaints that are frequently made of the great proverty and decay thereof and indeed which is worst of all by that general desperation of spirit which will not put forth a hand to help support or prevent the total desolation of our Country upon a prepossest opinion that all endeavours will be rendred fruitless and abortive The consideration whereof hath greatly prompted me who must confess my self the meanest of Thousands more concerned to use the utmost of my little skill and unwearied diligence though but as the Womans mite to the right management of so great an undertaking that the threatned ruine of all may be prevented and of possible some good part of what is lost may be recovered And whereas many have taken in hand to set forth these things some treating of one thing and other of another which if all was collected and harmonized it might very much conduce to the promoting of this weighty affair of so publick a value I shall confine my self to those things only whereof I have had not only credible information but a considerable though a sad experimental knowledge and in a more particular and especial manner that of Wool and of its Manufacture and Consequences which amongst many is the Richest Treasure in his Majesties Dominions the flower strength and sinews of this Nation a Land uniting the People into Societies for their own Utility it is the Milk and Honey to the Grazier and Country Farmer the Gold and Spices of the East and West Indies to the Merchant and Citizens the continued supply of Bread to the Poor and in a word the Exchequer of wealth and staple of protection to the whole both abroad and at home and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance defence and encouragement for the most advantageous improvement thereof The Wools of England before it was manufactured within it self have ever been of great account and esteem abroad sufficiently testified unto by the great amity which it begat and for many Hundred Years inviolably maintained between the King of England and Dukes of Burgundy only for the great benefit that from that Commodity did accrew to that People insomuch that the English Wools they receiv'd at 6 d. per Pound they returned again through their industrious manufacture thereof in Cloth at 10 s. per Yard to the great inriching of that State both in the advancement of the Revenues of their Soveraign and in a full employment thereby continued among the People whereby the Merchants of this Nation were occasioned as a People unwilling to be wholly dispriviledged of so great a benefit to transport themselves with their Families in great numbers into Flanders from whence they held a constant Commerce with most parts of the World this continued without intermission between England and Burgundy until King Edward the 3d. made his mighty Conquests over France Scotland and as a suitable improvement of so great a mercy did wisely project and also accomplish the manufacture of Wools within the Bowels of this Kingdom to the great inriching of his own People and also to the Peopling of his new Conquered Dominions the memory of whose wisdome and care for his People is worthy to be had in remembrance by English Men unto the Worlds end The said King having thus setled the manufacture of Wools within the Kingdom of England confined it by a penal Statute which at first reached not only to Goods Chattels and Land but also to Members and Life it self but in a short time repealed the two latter thereof continuing the other in its full force to remain to future Generations which exceeding great advantage to the prosperity of the English Trade hath now continued these Three Hundred Years by the vigilancy of the Kingdoms Monarchs and the protection of its Laws in the continued careful execution thereof upon offenders with more than a little diligence to provide against the thirsting desires of Foreiners to wrest this Native priviledge of so great a moment out of English hands which by the providence of God through the great care of our Ancestors has been for many Ages enjoyed by the Nation as it is indeed its proper right But so it is that for some years past the diligence of Foreiners to enrich themselves upon us has so much exceeded our care to preserve our selves that it 's now come to if not beyond a question Who have the greatest benefit of the manufacture of English Wools they who have no right unto it or they to whom of right it doth belong That this is indeed so will appear by considering that not only Holland Flanders and Zealand have long sucked the sweetness of the sinews of our Trade but France is likewise learning to be too hard for us as is manifest by the great quantities of Wools that of late years have been transported from England and Ireland thither how injurious it must be to us is also unquestionable if we consider the consequence thereof which was without question much in the Eye of our Ancestors as appeares by what is above hinted in Edward the 3ds time and in several Kings Reigns since Every Pack of Wool sent to France doth prevent us not only of the benefit of the manufacture thereof but of two Packs more besides it self viz. Thus it being combing and combed Wool for the most part exported thither the French having no Wools of their own but such as are very course are not able to make Cloth or fine Stuff without the conjunction of ours therewithall there being none to my best information fit for that purpose in all the World but ours only all other being likewise course but Spanish and that much too fine especially for Worsted Stuffs and not in any wise fit for combing so that without English or Irish Wools there can be no fine Worsted Stuffs nor a middle sort of Cloth made in the whole World neither will any Wools be well mixed together but English and Spanish only for Cloth because the Spanish is with the English of one nature being formerly English Sheep though now much finer from the
alteration of the Climate and the nature of the Land whereon it is fed as by good experience appeareth here in England both neer and at a farther distance Wherefore the exportation of English Wools into France must of necessity be greatly prejudicial to this Nation not only in the quantity sent over but also in the advantage which is thereby given them to manufacture a double portion of their own Wool which formerly was little worth into such commodities as spoyls us of the a vantage of our proper Trade not only thither but also into other parts viz. in these three respects First The combed of the English Wool makes Wooffe for the Warpes of the French Wool and so takes up it may be as much as the quantity above specified to every Pack of English Wool without which they can only with their Wool make Rugs and at the best Cloth for Sea-men and the like 2dly Their combings or pinnions viz. the short Wool that 's combed out of the Worsted serves for their Linnen warp to make some of their Druggets because their Linnen being fine spun and coloured is not discernable to all Persons to be that we call Linsie Woolsie 3dly The finest short English Wool is mixed with the lowest of Spanish Wool called short Wool for some of their best Druggets that is woove for Worsted Chanies and also for a middle sort of Broad-cloth about 10 s. or 12 s. per Yard This is the cause I judg that short Spanish Wool is so scarce here in England Now if we consider these things together the dammage of the exporting of this one Pack from England to France at about 10 l. or 12 l. Sterling preventing the manufacturing of two Packs more in England which would be worth one 100 l. Englands loss in the whole by the exportation of a Pack of Wool is little less than 90 l. in its first exportation moreover considering the Custom paid when exported if manufactured in England with the Frait and Custom where it is imported the product of all these charges augmenting the 100 l. when sold there laid out in another commodity beyond Sea the Custom whereof being paid there with Frait and Custom when imported in England it 's much if it do not more than double the first principal Now if it be so that the exportation of one Pack of English wool exported at 10 l. or 12 l. be neer 200 l. dammage to the King and Kingdom in general is the consequence what will be the loss in the exporting of 10. or 15 Thousand Packs into France in two Years time is easily accounted by such as are concerned in the affaires And although this evil is almost incredible to many yet it is too manifest to such as have made something their business to look into it and not only so but these further inconveniences must by this means arise upon us First The spoyling of our Trade with France in all our Woollen manufactures as doth already appear by the Impost put upon the same there from 20. to 40. per Cent. since so great quantitie of our VVools is exported thither whereunto woful experience may be a sufficient witness And secondly In time it will capacitate the French as well as the Dutch if not much better to under-sell our English Merchants in Forrein Parts nay possibly in our own Country to this I shall only mention the words of a Merchant in Flanders by Letter to another here treating on this matter thus We English have our throats cut with our own Weapons wondering at the stupidity of the English here that they should so long omit to possess the King's Majesty with this deplorable and dangerous case in respect to the present and future inconveniences thereof by reason whereof as in time the French will not only prevent our English woollen manufactures to be sold in France as before minded and also in other Forrein Parts but also bring theirs into England and sell them for four times the value here to the great inriching of themselves and to the impoverishing of the English only by new fantastick sopperies for which the English pay not less than some hundred thousands in a year to get themselves into the French mode So much indeed have we been deceived in this matter to our shame as well as to our apparent loss that whereas in time of the late War with the Dutch and French those French Druggets were thereby much prevented many English striped broad-cloths rent through into three parts about 10 s. per Yard price being put into the form of French Druggets were sold in each part at 8 s. per Yard and so in the whole came to 1 l. 4 s. per Yard So likewise it is certainly true that many of those Druggets made here in England goe for French and in order thereunto directed to French Men in some of our Southern parts have from thence been conveighed unto London and there sold for French Goods to have coloured the business with the Custom-house Officers to save the Custom of French Druggets And this continued long before the cheat could be discovered but being once found out by the Clothier who could not to his own private advantage conceal such an apparent injury to his Country it was soon prevented whereby we may come to see with clearness the advantage that that People makes upon our English fansies by over-selling us in the same kind of commodities that they make out of our English Wools joyned as before minded with their own having also an advantage thereunto by the cheapness of the manufactures thereof beyond what we can do the French being very populous and living harder than we can in England as is evident by their Linnens that Paying Fraight and Custom with profit to the Merchant yet can be afforded cheaper than can be made in England But so it is that the advantage we give them besides in the mixture of our Wools with theirs is such that whereas their Wool of it self is not worth above 4 l. per Pack being mixed with ours becomes so fit for Worsted Stuffes as that it comes to be worth no less than 12 l. per Pack So that all those things considered it becomes obvious to every Eye that doth not wilfully close it self that the exportation of Wool from England and Ireland is of a dangerous and destructive nature to the very being of the Trade of this Kingdom Whatever objections have been made with respect to the Graziers present advantage thereunto whose loss may possibly be supposed by prohibiting exportation to be about 20 s. in every Pack of Wool that 's so exported In answer whereunto I have this to say That though it may be granted it will be so for a time in this one particular commodity yet such will thereby be the spoyl of the general Trade of the Nation that what is gotten in one will be lost in every other commodity as Corn Beefs and Muttons on each of which
with the Wools the Farmers and Graziers advantage doth much more than equally depend besides the inevitable danger of the ruine of our Trade and so consequently the starving of our Poor without some extraordinary means for their support who while the priviledge of our Trade is kept inviolate with other Nations we have money plentifully to expend for the advancement of the Farmers and the Graziers for that is that which chiefly advanceth the Grazier and Farmer which is Flesh and Corn and not the quantity of Wool as afterwards will more fully appear And it hath always been observed in former and latter times hitherto that when the Clothiers have had the best Trade at London the Farmer did not loose his share in the advantage thereof in the Country according to the dispose of providence who hath ordered Nations but more especially the People of every Nation in matters of this kind to depend upon each other and so to rise or fall together as they are designed to mercy or to judgment by the hand of God These things considered with a little deliberation it will manifestly appear that the exporting of our English Wool will not only prove the spoyl of our Merchants and Clothiers Trade and so consequently expose the Poor to desperate straits for subsistence but in short time must of necessity make the Country-mens imployments of every kind to come to little and so make them uncapable of paying Rent For if it be so that while we have but a little Trade we can hardly live one by another What may be expected if our Trade should be taken away which is now more in danger by the French than it hath been these 300. Years past And then we may consider what the price of Wool may be in England when we by our remisness shall lose our Trade by the skill and circumventing practices of Foreiners and we helping forwards for a supposed profit For there was not more art and skill in our Ancestors to bring home the work at first to the Wool and prohibiting the exportation thereof and setling the manufacturing in England than is now to export the materials thereof unmanufactured The necessary consequence will be to bring the Price of Wool as it was 300. Years agon when most was exported to 6 d. per Pound as appears in a little Piece called The Golden Fleece written by W. S. Gent. in the Year 56. although the Cloth made in Flanders of our Wools at 6 d. per Pound was then sold here in England at 10 s. per Yard when at this Day the Cloth made in England of Wool worth 12 d. per Pound will hardly yield 7 s. per Yard which is above 30. per Cent. worse to the English Trade now than it was to the Flemmings formerly And though for the present the price of Wool be risen by its exportation yet if the quantity lately exported being no less than 20. Thousand Packs had been kept in England the quantity if not with 10. Thousand Packs more would in time have been exported in the particular manufactures For if the Wool was not exported to those places beyond the Seas there to be manufactured they must of necessity have our Woollen manufacture and then could not have those advantages as before hinted by our Wools to improve the French wool and short Spanish wool and their fine-spun Linnens By all which it is so obvious that in time to come the VVools in England would be much cheaper because by the aforesaid means less Wool would be used in England and besides that which would be used the manufacture would be so low that it could not bear up any price as is begun already in France and will suddenly follow in England for it is generally reported that Wool is as cheap in France at this Day as it is in some parts where it is used in England And if it be so now what in reason can be expected as the effects of these two things viz. The first when the great quantity that is lately exported to France with those three additions before hinted that the 20. Thousand Packs helps to work out and especially most making VVorsted Stuffs which goes as far by that means as 40. Thousand Packs of Wool would if used in England because it would be made more into substantial Cloaths which consumes more Wool than those light and thin Stuffes do which is a sufficient Answer to that Objection that the great quantity of any commodity that is exported must be of scarcity and so consequently raise the price which I must confess if it was a consumptive commodity but it is quite contrary in this For as our experience is when the VVool was all used in England or very little exported then it was 18 d. per Pound and when all or the greatest part was exported it was at 6 d. per Pound The wise Man saith What is hath been and what hath been may be again and so no new thing I shall conclude with a short review of the Graziers and Farmer present loss In the greatest Commodity which pays his Rent 〈◊〉 was formerly hinted Suppose through want of Trade Mutton be sold but at 6 d. per Quarter which is but little being 2 s. per Sheep and there being some Sheep that one 100. will but produce a Pack of Wool though some less that comes to 10 l. which is the worth of the Pack of Wool and so proportionably as to Beefs which is wholly lost to the Grazier And for the Corn as I suppose there may be about 50 ls worth as far as I can judge in my travels to One Hundred Sâ—â—â—p throughout the Nation which for want of a Trade it may 〈◊〉 at some seasons come to Thirty or Forty at most and if a 〈◊〉 Trade it may be worth Sixty or Seventy By which means 〈◊〉 easily be demonstrated how the Farmers come to be impovrished The advantage of the Tenant consists in the advance of the greatest Commodity that pays his Rent which is not in Wool but in Corn and it is a necessary consequence that there being so many Thousand Families depending upon the Cloathing Trade which as before hinted was instrumental to advance the price of Corn that where-ever Trade is there People are most populous and when those Persons are deprived of their Trade depending wholly upon it they must unavoidably come to the Parishes which is in many Places begun already and Daily increasing and feared in time will so increase that the Poor will be expecting more than there will be to contribute to them And as there be in many Country Parishes Ten that live on the Trade for One that can live of himself VVhat will become of those Parishes when the Trade is gone So that it may easily be concluded that the Farmers loss for want of Trade is four-fold greater than the Pack of VVool by the lowness of the price of Corn. And this is the true reason for those
of wealth coming from the Levant Seas And how the other of them hath established the rich Trades of Silks Spices Jewels c. In the Southern parts of the world is by all Admired though by none to be valued and what strength of shipping these two Companyes have produced as they have been wonderful so they have been formedable to all Nations what Contribution the Cloathing Trade with Spain and France hath given to Englands maritin power is by those Countrys themselves feared as well as by England found to its great security And as these unvaluable blessings have befallen England by the Trade of Cloathing politickly and providently drawn into Societies Companyes and Corporations so the loose Transactions of Trade in other for the Countreys have rendered them so poor at Sea as were it not shipping of England and Holland the very life of Commerce would perish would return to the same Wilderness uselessness as it is now in Greenland and the West-Indies where civil Government hath not once been heard of Again If comparison be made for richness of Trade between Cloathing and any or all other substances of Merchandises whereby any Nation but more especially England may be enriched neither the Silks nor Furs nor Wines nor Spices nor Bullion it self or all other Countreys can render that account of its own or can in proportion equalize England in Cloathing Food Shipping Strength of people and wealth of money About the Manufactureing of Wool THat this rich Treasure in it self of far more worth than the Golden Mines of India to England is so much degenerated or adulterated in the Manufactureing thereof by many of the Manufactors some of which wanting skill others principles of honesty the Laws in that case being so much neglected in England and want of some new Laws for the new Drapers hath occasioned the woollen Manufacture to be rendered contemptible both at home and abroad and so much the more or the rather because the Dutch Flemins and it is feared in time the French also do by care and industry indeavour to excel our English the consequence is to loose our English Trade and this principally by a liberty taken so that honest and conscientious persons come to dammage by some others false way of gains according to Mr. Childes third head in that of Trade and Interest that the Advantage the Dutch have of us in all their Native Commodities is their exactness by which meanes their creat is so that it is taken by its contents and ours not which is very advantageous which is done by the qualifications of those persons that have the oversight and are intrusted in that affair which is not done in England but generally the contrary In general all States and Common-wealths are supported by two providential works viz. Reward and Punishment for as no Law can compel men to be corporally laborious or studious in knowledge literature unless rewards be annexed to all such compulsion so no providence can attend the preservation of profitable designes either in Learning or Trade unless such punishments be enjoyned This opinion that profound Senator Cicero alledgeth from Solon one of the seven wise Graecians and the only man of them which gave Lawes and this is the weak and frail Estate of men and Nations that unless they be as well encouraged in their endeavours as punished in their misdemeanors they will speedily become Libertines and ruin all as is too too much feared in this case in England at this day and as before about the Wool so the working for the greatest part hath been confined to England this three hundred years and untill these late years has been so preserved by the diligence of such Officers as have been ordained and impowered carefully to see the Manufactures kept under those rules which the Laws have provided for their perfection and seeing this Nation is by God peculiarised in these two blessings viz. Wools and Manufactures and through the vigilancy of its Monarches safe guarded by Laws that the native Manufactures might not be undermined by the practices of Foreiners their ancient providence exacts from the present age the same preservation as before in the Wool that the Dutch do not undermine us out of all Again we may be taught by their diligence who though they have few or no native Commodities yet are rich and thriving and we who have all are poor and decaying at least the Country who spare no attendance in overseeing and searching the true makeing of their Manufactures as above for their exactness giving therefore power and Commissions to persons of more than ordinary worth amongst them whom they call cure or care Masters to see every thing according to the Law and wherever they find a defect they make a default upon the Cloath which first is recompensed by a fine to the State for abusing the Laws and afterward remains to admonish the buyer who thereby may guard his purse and in case the Cloathier be abused by any of his Work folks he checks his dammage upon the true offender in his wages Now in England there is so much the contrary that many persons take liberty for want of a regular or legal course followed either for time or forme in working there is not any of the Relations to Cloathing which doth observe such an exact rule of Apprentiship which is not the least cause that the Manufactures of Wool are so abusively and deceptiously made in England notwithstanding it is enjoyned in very strict and penal manner by the Statute Lawes the chief inconveniences of which is that the Trade so general in use and maintenance of even numberless Families doth by its own vast exorbancy convert into Corruptions and so those great multitudes of people become discredited beggered and finally ruined to the destruction of themselves and the Nation which gave them so great a Blessing Another prejudice and not the least is that the Nation which hath given them being and invested them with such materials for Cloathing is dishonered by false and abusive works And it is not a little scandal to that Nation which God hath perticularly endowed with those blessings which others want when its people shall divert those good things which God hath bestowed upon it to evil and deceptious practises In this consideration it is observable by some how little comparitively is the Drunkenness of those Countrys which produce Wines and wherein lies their personal riches and their Nations Honour though their other sins may sufficiently swell their ultimate account yet doubtless it strengthens their last Apology in that they abuse not that endowment which God hath made the original of their Being and Subsistance Another consideration is the Cheat it puts upon all the world for though every Country hath not the benefit of the Manufacture in themselves yet are there few of them condemned to such ignorance as not to discern the Couzenage which false Cloathing puts upon them in which case to the aforesaid
dishoner they add a curse and it was a chief care in Jacobs practise for a Blessing that he turned it not into a Curse how much more is this of consideration when the blessing comes by gift and not by design or procurement And further great may be the thought of heart when the sins of false Lucre and Covetuousness which is Idolatry are in full pursuance of such as have the full plenty to make weight and measure yet make it the Art of their practises as well as the practise of their Art to Cozen both the wise and weak It can be no great wonder nor without abundance of presidents if God for sins of such wilfulness remove his blessings with which this Nation is peculiarly enriched and dignified and give them to a people which will render him a better more just and more profitable account of his Talent and it s no news that though England be by the Almighty chiefly ordained to produce the Materials yet the Manufactures be given to a people which will render him a better Account all this and much more is expected if the Native people continue to abuse the Native Commodity as of necessity they must when they know not how to use it The wisdome of our Ancestors hath been liberally manifested in this particular First That the Manufactors be constantly made Apprentices for seaven years at least the contrary is one great reason that by ignorance so many abuses are that are unremidable Another reason why Apprentices are generally confined to seaven years servitude is to the end that professors in each Art multiply not beyond the support of their Trade which were not to increase good Subjects but Vagabonds which doubtless was not the intention of King Edward the 3d. ever to be remembered by an English man when in his design in bringing Cloathing to England a chief part was to multiplie his people as by his Native and Alleageant Subjects such as by and by you will understand he might securely possess the Conquests wherewith God had blessed him which were beyond any Christian Prince's in his time It is utterly against reason that a Nation can be poor whose people are numerous if their Industry be compelled and incouraged and their Idleness be punished and reformed It is the opinion of some that it 's not the barrenness of a Countrey which can forbid this Maxim The Scots are an abounding and numerous people and they have a soyle which to a Traveller eye seems to produce nothing towards a so vast maintenance of the body of that people yet are they in all parts of the world a warlike and honoured Nation helpful to all Princes in their Wars and ready upon occasion to return to the Assistance of their Brethren be their case good or bad The Dutch are a numerous Nation daily multiplying in a Country which hath in comparison nothing of its own growth to support them either in Food or Cloathing yet they want nothing neither in necessaries or wealth because they are industrious What Crick of the Seas do they leave unvisited and in shipping are so stored as most parts of the world do love or fear them Now a great increase at least of good people as above hinted in King Edward rests upon the regulation of Trade for it s not the number of workmen but number of good workmen which increaseth Families and it's Families which increaseth and spreadeth good people the other for want of knowledg and skill being fixed no where because their labours will not maintain themselves muchless Families For who will use a workman who hath neither skill nor credit when he can imploy one that hath both Of principle importance therefore is the Regulation of Apprentiships both to the best increase of people and to the honest creditable and wealthy Manufactures of Wool and especially of Cloathing being the Antient'st Manufacture for want of which not only the former denoted faults are daily found in their works but good work-men are undersold and ruined as formerly hinted by bad and the whole Nation involved in great dishonour as after you will hear Now Justice which all men cry up and few practise is a vertue both divine and humane Divine Justice is either from God to man wherein his Providence is his Justice by which he governeth the world or it is from man towards God and then its piety whereby he returns to God prayse and glory for his numberless blessings in Republicks Cityes and Towns its Equity the fruit whereof is Peace Plenty in domestick relations between Man Wife it 's Vnity and Concord from Servants to Masters good Will and Diligence from Masters to Servants its Humanity and Gentleness and from a man to his own body health and happiness There is none of all these Relations but is necessary and important to the Reformations in the abuses defaults deceptions and grievances committed upon Cloathing which in this discourse have in some measure been discovered and by which both God and man are justly provoked The Justice we are to use to relieve the complaints before exhibited is either distributive or Commutative Justice distributive is to give each man his deserts whether it be honour or punishment And Commutative Justice is in bargaining bartering exchanging or in any transactions between man and man to use all means to keep Promises Covenants and Contracts and for a man to be have himself as he would have others do to him to receive the Innocent into protection to repress and punish offenders without which common intercourse and humane society must necessarily be dissolved and for preservation whereof I have read that in Antient times the Fathers have not spared their own Sons The Aegyptian Kings to whom Antiquity gives the priviledg of makeing Laws the Graecians and Romans deified Justice and would not violate it towards their Enemies so just also were the Lacedemonians and so free from distrusting each other as even for the publick safety they used neither Locks nor Barrs insomuch that one asking Archidamus who those Governours were which so justly happily and gloriously governed the Common-wealth of Lacedemon he answered that they were first the Laws afterwards the Magistrates executing those Lawes for Law is the rule of Justice and Justice the end of the Law which indeed is the Life of all The ready way to rectifie abuses about Cloathing were to compare them with the rules of the Law provided for them for which there is Law and new Laws where they are wanting nevertheless holds not in all points For instance the Law empowers the Merchants and Drapers to be their own Searchers and to punish the Cloathiers Purse as they find his works to be faulty and so they do to the no small grief of the Cloathier but the Retayling-Buyer is not hereby at all relieved the Draper selling to him these faults for which he was before paid by the Cloathier the Merchants do the same by causing their Cloathiers to