Labour ought to be countenanced and encouraged and Magistrates and Gentry would do well to give Examples thereof to those amongst whom they live If all the Poor now maintained in their Idleness were set at work and paid out of the Money raised as aforesaid those that now have two Shillings or three Shillings a Week might by their Work earn so much or suppose they could earn but one Shilling sixpence a week and nevertheless receive three Shillings it is half in half saved so that a Moyety of what now is collected from the people might be spared to them and yet the Poor be as well or better maintained than now But if Men Women and Children were set at work few Families that now receive two or three Shillings a week but in all probability would and might earn four or five Shill a week help to Manufacture the Staple-Commodities of the Kingdom at cheap Rates and thereby bring down the Wages of Handicrafts-men which now are grown so high that we have lost the Trade of Foreign Consumption because abroad Wool and Leather and the Manufactures thereof are sold at lower Rates than we can afford ours at This Mischief of high Wages to Handicrafts-men is occasioned by reason of the Idleness of so vast a number of people in England as there are so that those that are Industrious and will work make men pay what they please for their Wages but set the Poor at Work and then these men will be forced to lower their Rates whereby we shall quickly come to sell as cheap as Foreigners do and consequently engross the Trade to our selves There are many ways to set the Poor at work both old and young Women and Children by Spinning of Linnen Woollen and Woolsted Carding Combing Knitting Working Plain-Work or Points Making Bone-Lace or Thred-or Silk-Laces Brede and divers other things The Linnen-Trade if well regulated would employ some hundred thousands of People and if brought to perfection might save vast Sums of Money within the Kingdom which now are sent out for the same The Woollen and Leathern-Manufactories would employ Multitudes of Men and young youths and vast quantities of Wooll might be manufactured and consumed in England more than now is if all the Tapestry we now use were made here which is now imported from beyond the Seas Also if the Act for Burying in Flannel as ridiculous as men make it were put in Execution seeing Flannel would be as good for that use as Linnen abundance of our Poor would be employed in making these things And the Money now paid for these Foreign Manufactures would be kept in England and defray the Charge of the Manufacturing of them at home It is not to be imagined how many thousands of Men Women and Children the Fishing-Trade which is that I principally aim at would keep in employment The making of the Nets Sayls Cordage and other Materials for that use the Building of Fishing-Vessels and the Catching and Curing of the Fish when catch'd would find work for above two hundred thousand People and would encrease the number of Sea-men Ship-wrights and many Handicrafts-men A great Revenue if well managed would thereby arise to the Publick and the Fish taken would be as good to us as so much Ready-Money and be taken off beyond Seas in Exchange for such Goods as we necessarily want and have from Foreign Parts and now pay Ready Money for To conclude Were the things Proposed as aforesaid done as desired Trade would be encouraged and encreased the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom be in far greater quantities consumed both at home and abroad the Price of Lands would be raised Tenants be enabled to pay their Rents the Kingdom would be greatly enriched and in a few years the Publick Debts of the Kingdom might be discharged without Imposing any considerable Tax upon the People FINIS
THE Grand Concern Of ENGLAND EXPLAINED IN SEVERAL PROPOSALS Offered to the Consideration of the PARLIAMENT 1. For Payment of Publick Debts 2. For Advancement and Encouragement of Trade 3. For Raising the Rents of Lands In Order whereunto It is proved Necessary I. That a Stop be put to further Buildings in and about London II. That the Gentry be obliged to live some part of the Year in the Countrey III. That Registers be setled in every County IV. That an Act for Naturalizing all Foreign Protestants and Indulging them and His Majestie 's Subjects at home in Matters of Conscience may be passed V. That the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel may be Repealed VI. That Brandy Coffee Mum Tea and Chocolata may be prohibited VII That the Multitude of Stage-Coaches and Caravans may be suppressed VIII That no Leather may be Exported Vn-manufactured IX That a Court of Conscience be setled for Westminster and all the Suburbs of London and in every City and Corporation in England X. That the Extravagant Habits and Expence of all Persons may be curbed the Excessive Wages of Servants and Handicrafts-men may be Reduced and all Foreign Manufactures may be prohibited XI That it may be made lawful to Assign Bills Bonds and other Securities and that a Course be taken to prevent the Knavery of Bankrupts XII That the Newcastle-Trade for Coals may be managed by Commissioners to the Ease of the Subjects and great Advantage of the Publick XIII That the Fishing-Trade may be vigorously prosecuted all poor People set at work to make Fishing-Tackle and be paid out of the Money Collected every Year for the Poor in the several Parishes in England By a Lover of his Countrey and Well-wisher to the Prosperity both of the King and Kingdoms London Printed in the Year 1673. PROPOSALS humbly offered to consideration of the Parliament c. 1. For discharging the Publick Debts of the Kingdom 2. For Encouraging and Advancement of Tradc 3. The Increase of the Rents of Lands THE Honour Interest and Safety of a Kingdom lies in maintaining the Grandure and Dignity of their KING and the Prerogative of his Crown The which can no way be better secured than by providing him a plentiful Revenue wherewith to defray the Publick Expences of the Kingdom encourage and help all his Friends and Allies maintain Forces for his Own his Subjects and the Kingdoms Safeguard at home and a sufficient Fleet at Sea for the Security of Trade abroad and Defence of his Kingdom against all Forreign Princes and Potentates and wherewith also to discharge such Publick Debts as are justly owing to any person upon valuable Consideration If the payment of Publick Debts were provided for the rest would be easily secured without any great Charge to the People and the King be freed from the necessity of calling for fresh Supplie every year from his Subjects which now comes very hard and makes Parliaments uneasie to themselves as well as to those whose Representatives they are The vast Debt contracted by his Majesty when beyond the Seas the great Summs he hath since his happy Restauration given to relieve some of the many poor yet Loyal Subjects that served him and his Royal Father faithfully and lost their Limbs and Estates in their Service The great Debts he found the Kingdom in to the Army and Navy when he came first home which are all paid off excepting about 150000 l. that hath been under consideration of the Parliament which if not paid will be the ruine of many thousands of poor Families who advanced the same for his Majesties Service and it was all employed for the bringing him home The great charge of the last and this present Dutch War both which his Majestie hath been necessitated unto for the preservation of the dignity of his Person which they so basely scorn'd and contemn'd the Honour of his Kingdom and the interest and security of Trade these together with the Money 's expended in the reparations of his Ruined Houses repurchasing his own Goods and others for furnishing his Royal Palaces and many other publick affairs have called for frequent and great Supplies Which howbeit the Parliament have thought fit freely to grant when the King hath desired the same and passed several Acts for Pole-money Benevolence-money Subsidies Hearth-money additional Excise Taxes upon the Law poundage upon Rents and Land-Taxes yet the publick Debts are very great and the reason of it is plainly because whatever hath been given excepting Land-Taxes was so overvalued in the granting thereof the Grants so uncertain the Collecting so troublesom and chargeable the Payment so vexatious to the People that the end of the Parliament hath not been answered the King hath not had the Supply intended nor the Subjects the benefit or ease designed but the quite contrary events have hapned So that it 's humbly conceived there 's nothing can be more for the Interest and advantage of the King and Kingdom than for the Parliament to examine what the publick Debts really are how contracted and when and to see where the King has been well or ill used where Persons have made usurious or advantageous Contracts and taken advantage of the King's necessities to impose ill Commodities and at unreasonable rates upon him and there to reduce the Debt to such a preportion as the Commodity sold was at the time of such Sale really worth and to see where the King hath been justly dealt with which done and the Accounts being brought to Balance and the Debt stated and known then at once to raise so much Money as may discharge the whole and appoint Persons to see the money so to be raised disposed to that and no other use allowing them indifferent Salaries for their pains that so they may mind the work and recieve no manner of Fees or advantage from the Creditor whereby the publick Debts may be lessened for whoever hath trusted the King had a respect in setting his price on the Commodities fold to the time he thought he should stay for his Money the uncertainty of ever receiving it the vast Charge he must be at in Exchequer Fees Gratuities c. when ever he should have obtained the same insomuch that publiek Debts were and are frequently sold at sixty or seventy pounds per cent And so what hinders but that if this Business be prudently mannaged by Persons to be intrusted for that purpose the publick Debts may be lessened and the more easily paid which done the Subjects may reasonably expect and hope for the future to be at quiet and freed from the fears they are now under of a Parliaments meeting lest still there should be fresh supplies for the purposes aforesaid demanded and given and no end be known of such Gifts and yet to his Majesty and the Kingdoms great dishonour both at home and abroad the publick Debts still remain undischarged And if Money for this purpose shall be by the Parliament thought fit to be given It
last are brought to sell their Estates and being reduced to such necessities by the Subtilties of these persons are forced to be beholden to them to procure purchasers which when they perceive they usually play their game as followeth the seller is by them perswaded that they can get no purchaser but such as doth object against their Title or their persons using many frivolous delayes till they drive them to such distress that they must sell at any rate And then their living remote in the Country or being under protections as Parliament-Men or Courtiers or their Estates lying far from London or the uncertainty of what Incumbrances may be thereupon are Objections which they raise pretending that all Men they propose their Estates unto upon these or such-like accounts are afraid to deal with them unless such as wait for good bargains and will not purchase except they can buy below the Market-price By which means they so contrive the matter with the Venders that they enforce them to sell that for thirteen fourteen or fifteen years purchase which really is worth twenty And out of that Contract their manner is to bargain for a good Gratuity for themselves although they at the same time have agreed with the Purchaser that is to have the Land for one or two years purchase more than they are to pay to the Sellers And the better to manage their Designs the Buyers are concealed and the Land-Brokers and Jobbers of Land find other persons to personate the Purchaser so that the Vender is never suffered to know or see them till the Writings be drawn wherein the Considerations are frequently exprest to be a year or two's Purchase more than the Vender is to receive for the same Which when they question the Reason of they are informed that it is done only to enable the Purchasers to demand better prices when they sell the same and to keep up the reputed value thereof Thus do they enrich themselves by imposing upon Gentlemen in extremity through an artificial debasing the value of their Estates exacting great Gratuities from the Purchasers also This is the common Practice of your Land-Brokers and Jobbers and their Confederates But if Registers were setled and all Incumbrances registred so that men might be secure no dormant Securities after they have lent their Money upon Mortgages or purchased for valuable Considerations could be started up to defeat them of their Interests and then Gentlemen that have Money lying dead by them would be as glad to lend it at easie rates to honest Gentlemen upon good Security as those that want it would be to be supplied therewith And Lands undoubtedly would come to be worth as formerly twenty years purchase if Men could but be secured in their Titles So that all persons that either have or suppose they ever may have any Estate to sell or Money to borrow understand not their own Interest if they oppose the setling of the Registers proposed The last sort of people that I presume may be agriev'd at this Registry are such who having lived high and spent their Estates extravagantly and perhaps entred into Judgments Statutes and Recognizances to double the value thereof and have mortgaged their Lands over and over and then get Protections whereby they keep off Suits or abscond themselves so that they cannot be found by their Creditors and are wont thereby to keep their Estates in possession and can no way for the future live but by doing further acts of dishonesty which whilst their Estates remain in their possession they have opportunity to do Such unrighteous Actions will for the future be prevented and the present Designs of this nature be defeated if Registers be setled So that such persons are concerned to oppose the same But I hope such Creatures as these are and their Designs will easily be seen through and have little respect given them by Parliament In short Were the Registry as desired setled and the Profit arising thereby brought into the Exchequer the Work may be done good Allowances appointed for those that shall be imployed therein and but a small sum would be imposed upon the Subjects for Registring their Claim and yet by computation at least 50000 l. per annum be brought into the Treasury which would be an additional help towards payment of the Publick Debts IV. THe Fourth Thing Proposed is That an Act be passed for a general Naturalization of all Foreign Protestants and for granting Liberty of Conscience to such of them as shall come over and Inhabit amongst us and that the like Liberty be given to his Majesties Subjects at home There is nothing so much wanting in England as People and of all sorts of People the Industrious and Laborious sort and Handycraft-men are wanted to Till and Improve our Land and help to Manufacture the Staple-Commodities of the Kingdom which would add greatly to the Riches thereof The two last great Plagues the Civil Wars at Home and the several Wars with Holland Spain and France have destroyed several hundred thousands of Men which lived amongst us besides vast numbers have Transported themselves or been Transported into Ireland and other our Foreign Plantations who when they were living amongst us did Eat our Provisions Wore off our Manufacturies imployed themselves in some Calling or other beneficial to the Nation the want of which calls for a supply of People from some place or other and it is in my judgment worthy our Observation That the Men thus lost from amongst us are of greater consideration and the loss more mischievous to the Kingdom than meerly the death or removal of so many Persons considering that they were Men in the prime of their years in perfect strength such who had they not dyed or been killed or removed might every year have begotten Children and thereby encreased the World So that three times the number of Children might have been better spared than they For instance Say there be but 100000 Men by these means gone from amongst us and instead of them 300000 Children had been taken away and the Men left it would have been much better for they in two years and a half or three years time might have gotten so many Children again but the Men dying or being gone and the Children living it may be ten or twenty years before they come to Marry and beget Children And notwithstanding the great mischief this Nation hath sustained by the loss of these Men yet so inconsiderate are the Inhabitants thereof concerning their own Interest which if possible is to have the Kingdom full of People that they are taking up another way to prevent the peopling thereof for the future there being almost all over England a Spirit of Madness running abroad and possessing Men against Marrying rather chusing to have Mistresses by whom very few ever have any Children And many Marryed Women by their lewd Conversations prevent the bringing forth many Children which otherwise they might have had These Humours and
travels on Horseback No for this manner of travelling hinders the Sale of those Commodities they deal in of which much more would be consumed than is if such Coaches were down and by the Sale whereof they would get much more than they save by confining themselves to travelling as aforesaid so that plainly it is their interest to promote that way of travelling that tends to the greatest Consumption of the Manufacturies or Commodities wherein they deal 3ly The Husbandmen who live by the sweat of their Brows in manuring the Estates of the Gentry they are undone by this easie carriage for it hinders their selling their Corn Hay and Straw and other the products of their Farms and brings down the price of what they sell thereby rendring them unable to pay their Rents or to hold their Farms without considerable abatements which if not given them their Lands are thrown up into the Landlords hands and little or no benefit made by them 4ly The Grasiers they complain for want of a Vent for their Cattel which they had before these Coaches were erected Not that I do imagine Coaches to be the only reason of the want of that Consumption though it be evident they go far in the promoting that mischief for the want of People in England the loss of many thousands from amongst us of late years and the leaving of eating off Suppers by those that are left alive go a great way therein But these two may be easily remedied The former by the General Act of Naturalization and Liberty of Conscience proposed before which would bring all Foreigners in amongst us The latter by mens spending less in Taverns Playes and Balls and keeping up in lieu thereof the ancient laudable Customes of England of good House-keeping and thereby relieving the Poor Half the Money that Gentlemen idly spend in Taverns upon French Wines for which the Coin of the Kingdom is exhausted or upon Playes Bills treating Mistresses fine Clothes Toyes from France or other Foreign parts would defray the charges of having good Suppers every night whereby the product of our own Lands would be consumed and that would raise Rents Nay I am verily perswaded if it were duly considered and that all men as formerly would fall to eating of Suppers at least to dressing of them and when drest if they eat not themselves would give them to the Poor the increase of the Consumption would raise the Rents of Lands as much above what now they do go at at least in most places of England as would defray the charges of those Suppers If so would it not then be of great advantage to Men in their Estates and to the Kingdom in general But to proceed If the Gentlement the Tradesmen the Husbandmen the Grasier be not benefited by this travelling I am sure the last sort of Travellers To wit The Poor they cannot be profited thereby For Waggons or the Long Coaches first invented and still in use would be most for their interest to travel in being far less expensive than the other so that these Running Coaches are not most beneficial to every sort of Travellers Secondly Men do not travel in these Coaches with less expence of Money or Time than on Horseback For on Horseback they may travel faster and if they please all things duly considered with as little if not less charges For instance From London to Exeter Chester or York you pay 40 shillings apiece in Summer time 45 shillings in Winter for your Passage and as much from those places back to London besides in the Journey they change Coachmen four times and there are few Passengers but gives 12 pence to each Coachman at the end of his Stage which comes to 8 shillings in the Journey backward and forward and at least 3 shillings comes to each Passengers share to pay for the Coachmens Drink on the Road so that in Summer time the Passage backward and forward to any of these places costs 4 l. 11 s. in the Winter 5 l 1 s. and this only for eight dayes riding in the Summer and 12 in the Winter Then when the Passengers come to London they must have Lodgings which perhaps may cost them five or six shillings a week and that in fourteen dayes amounts unto 10 or 12 s. which makes the 4 l. 11 s. either 5 l. 1 s. or 5 l. 3 s. or the 5 l. 1 s. 5 l. 11 s. or 5 l. 13 s. besides the inconveniency of having Meat from the Cooks at double the price they might have it for in Inns. But if Stage-Coaches were down and men travelled again as formerly on Horseback then when they came into their Inns they would pay nothing for Lodgings And as there would excellent Horses be bred and kept by Gentlement for their own use so would there be by others that would keep them on purpose to Lett which would as formerly be let at 10 or 12 s. per week and in many places for 6 8 or 9 s. per week but admitting the lowest price to be 12 s. if a Man comes from York Exeter or Chester to London be five dayes a coming five dayes going and stay twelve dayes in London to dispatch his business which is the most that Countrey Chapmen usually to stay all this would be but three weeks so that his Horse-hire would come but to 1 l. 16 s. his Horse-meat at 1 s. 2 d. a day one with another which is the highest that can be reckoned upon and will come but to 1 l. 5 s. in all 3 l. 1 s. so that there would be at least 40 or 50 s. saved of what Coach-hire and Lodgings will cost him which would go a great way in paying for Riding-Clothes Stockings Hats Boots Spurs and other Accoutrements for riding and in my poor opinion would be far better spent in the buying of these things by the making whereof the poor would be set at work and kept from being burthensom to the Parish than to give it to those Stage-Coachmen to indulge that lazy idle habit of Body that men by constant riding in these Coaches have brought upon themselves Besides if thus their Money were spent they would save a great deal which now if Men of any Estates they pay for relief of those poor who for want of the work they had before those Coaches were set up and might have again if they were put down are fallen upon the several Parishes wherein they live for maintenance which charge would be quickly taken off if they were restored to their work Thus in proportion may a Man save from all longer or shorter Stages For instance from Northampton men pay for passage in Coach to London 16 s. and so much back from Bristol 25 s. from Bath 20 s. from Salisbury 20 or 25 s. from Redding 7 s. the like sums back and so in proportion for longer or shorter Stages Judge them whether men may not hire Horses cheaper than 5 s. a day I am sure they
of the Kingdom by the manufacturing whereof great profit doth arise to the Publick Yet of these if occasion require it will be made appear above 100000 with their Families are in great measure ruined by them And I pray you who are advantaged thereby what persons are imployed or set at work by them save only a few Servant-Coachmen Postilions and Hostlers whom they pretend they breed up and make fit for the service of the Nobility and Gentry of the Land a most incomparable School to train men up in and to fit them for the Gallows more likely than to live in sober Families but in the mean time while these are breeding up the Price and Rents of Lands are so brought down by hindrance these Coaches do make of the Consumption of Provisions and Manufactures that in a short time few Gentlemen will be in a capacity to keep Coaches so that if all Running Stage-Coaches and Caravans were supprest it would do well But if some few Coaches were continued to wit one to every Shire-Town in England to go once a week backwards and forwards and to go through with the same Horses they set forth with and not travel above 30 miles a day in the Summer and 25 miles in the Winter and to shift Inns every Journey that so Trade might be diffused these would be sufficient to carry the Sick and the Lame that they pretend cannot travel on Horseback and being thus regulated they would do little or no harm especially if all be suppressed within 40 or 50 miles of London where they are no way necessary and yet so highly destructive But this as well as the rest I submit to judgment VIII THe Eight Thing Proposed is That the Act for Transportation of Leather unmanufactured may be repealed or at least not renewed after the expiration thereof There would never have been any necessity for this Act had it not been that vast quantities of Hides are Iimported from Ireland which brings down the price of our English Hides And for the Stage-Coaches their hindering the Consumption of that Leather in England which before they set up was used for Boots Saddles Portmantues Hat-eases Holsters Belts Girts Reins Stirrup Leathers and many other things now become almost useless The making whereof for Home-service and Foreign-Consumption employed about 100000 Families whose Livelihood depended upon the manufacturing of Leather whereby they got Money with which they maintained their Families spent five or six good Joints of Meat in a week in their Houses and wore good Clothes thereby occasioning the Consumption of great quantities of the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom more than now are consumed Till this Act passed it was felony to transport Leather unmanufactured and then France Spain Germany and other parts who could not be without our Leather had vast quantities of Boots Shoes and Saddles with their Appurtenances Portmantues Hat-Cases Holsters Trunks c. from England by the making whereof many thousands of Families got a handsom subsistance and grew rich but Stage-Coaches hindring the Consumption at home as aforesaid and Irish Hides being Imported into England and also great quantities from Ireland exported to Foreign Parts our Hides fell in their price in England The Question then arose how to raise them to their ancient value and it was by the Parliament conceived that giving a liberty to transport the same unmanufactured might answer the end proposed therefore an Act for that purpose was passed But sad hath been and yet is the consequence thereof for ever since that liberty given the best of our Leather is constantly bought up and transported beyond Seas unmanufactured Foreigners who formerly were supplyed with Leather wrought here will not buy or carry over a penny-worth that is manufactured so that all those poor people who served Apprentiships to learn their Trades and whose Trade depended upon manufacturing for Foreign Consumption are undone they that kept 20 or 30 Journey-men at work every day cannot now though eminent men of their own Trades keep two by means whereof upon computation at least 50000 Men and their Families Livelyhoods are wholly taken away and they so impoverished that they are ready to receive Alms of the several parishes wherein they live whilst in the mean time Foreigners grow rich by manufacturing one of the Staple Commodities of this Kingdom and whereas till this Act passed all our old Boots and Shoes were bought up mended here and then sent beyond the Seas and there worn The case is now otherwise for the best of our Leather is not onely bought up and transported unmanufactured and wrought beyond Seas but when it is wrought it is then imported back and vended here to the great prejudice and discouragement of Manufacturers in England who have many of them been forced as great a want of People as there is in England to transport themselves beyond the Seas for want of work at home and there have taught their Art to Foreigners What then doth naturally follow all these things What Consequence can be drawn from hence but this that instead of 500 ls worth of Leather formerly sent beyond Seas manufactured we send now as much Leather but it is not worth above 100 l. because the same is carried over unwrought by which means our Manufacturers lose 400 l. which they should have gotten if the Leather had been Cut and Wrought in England and so thereby we grow poor and Foreigners grow rich by gaining that 400 l. which our Manufacturers lose But this is not all for most of our Leather that is exported goes into France with whom we never were able to keep up a Ballance of Trade but have traded with them for ready Money they taking little or none of the Manufactures of England in exchange for their Commodities By a moderate computation from the best intelligence I can get France receives from England 30000 ls worth of our Leather every year which they cannot be without for our Leather-Manufacture was the only Manufacture that they were forced to be holden unto us for 30000 ls worth of our Leather manufactured was worth in France 120000 l. then at least 70000 l. of that went into our Manufacturers Pockets the rest to the Merchants and what our Manufucturers got was spent in the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom which being consumed bare a better rate than now and helpt to keep up the Rents of Lands This Money we not only now lose to our Impoverishment and the French get to their Inriching but considering that we now import as much nay far more of French Goods into England than we did formerly and taking it for granted that when we transported the most that ever we did yet could not a ballance of Trade be kept up between the two Kingdoms but our ready Money went for a great part of the Goods imported then must it naturally follow that by sending our Leather unmanufactured which formerly was mannfactured we must send over nigh 100000 l.