Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	wool_n	worth_a	yard_n	90	3	10.9757	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52642	England's advocate, Europe's monitor being an intreaty for help in behalf of the English silk-weavers and silk-throsters : shewing their misery, and the cause thereof, and what will only cure both them and the evils England's trade groans under, and other English manufacturers, from the like desolation : in a letter to a member of the Honourable House of Commons.	A. N.	1699 (1699)	Wing N2; ESTC R474	26,289	58

of their Numbers and Poverty they have secur'd them in their Trade and that much to the Advantage of the Turkey Merchants And though their numbers at Macklesfield and Sherbourn and the adjacent Countrey are great yet I am confident I could name one Parish in London wherein not many years since before this sad decay of Trade the Weavers Throsters and their dependents exceeded them all How Numerous then would they be if computed in all places But the Button-makers may thank God that they had not an East-India Company to cope with and I am perswaded that could the Weavers be secured against only the English consumption of Figur'd Stich'd and Strip'd East-India Silks and Stuffs they would be contented and might be a Happy Prosperous People again and both the Turkey and Italian Merchants Twenty times more benefitted than by the Button Bill and the Blessing would go round for the Woollen Manufacture would feel the good effects of it and less than this can never preserve them from total Ruine in a short time 21 And to say the Truth our Weavers some years since were but little beholding to some back Friends who when they found they had too good a cause and the Prohibiting Bill had pass'd the House of Commons perswaded some to gain a total Prohibition of all European Foreign-wrought Silks for not having cause good enough fairly to Try it out with them they devised this way to hug them to Death with that pretended kindness and destroyed the Bill by insisting on what is Unreasonable For if the English VVeaver cannot vie in Frugal Living and Cheap Working with those Countreys that purchase their Raw Silks and Necessaries of Living much at the same Rate themselves do they will then deservedly suffer but to oblige them to contend with a numerous multitude of Salvages that have their Silk to work upon for almost nothing and want neither Fire nor Cloathing while Two pence in Rice will sustain a Family of four or five for a week is very hard measure and unmerciful doings unless such methods are taken as may reduce the value of Lands and all its Productions to such low Rates here that they may work on an equal foot But how cheap soever the East-India Company may buy these Goods England and all its Ladies shall and will pay dear enough for them rather than go without them so that unless they are by some means or other effectually Restrain'd England must be Vndone to gratify a humour of vanity and enrich a few who care not who nor how many they Ruine so they may but Grasp all into their own hands for otherwise one would think that the Productions of the Growth and Soil of India such as Pepper Salt-Peter Rice Cotton-wool and Yarn and numbers more together with what Wrought Silks they may export might be sufficient Gain to content Reasonable Men and as for Persian Taffaties and Plain Silks the Weavers would not contend the matter 22 But to Prohibit the Wearing any thing that may be Cheap Bought which if the East-India Company do the Gain is to England though they sell never so dear to those who Wear and Consume it which I take to be in the Body Politick like overgorging with Meat and Drink in the Natural Body which is weak and languid and thrives not with it unless in some great Wen Excressency or other Deformity and if this be all we are to regard it may as well hold good in other instances and then let us suppose that when our India-Sbips freight Bullion from Holland or Spain they should also there take in a good quantity of Spanish Wooll and so save the Charge of bringing it to England and then be sure not to forget to take along with them a few Worcester-shire Cloth-weavers and Cloth-workers to instruct and all sorts of Work and Labour being performed in India twelve times as Cheap as in England and four Shillings worth of spanish-Spanish-wool making a yard of Cloth worth Fifteen Shillings which at this Rate will stand them but in Five Shillings then there will be Ten Shilling saved for their Navigation and Profits and so England's the Gainer and the Silver they may send to Bengal and Persia for Raw Silk to employ the Mogul's Subjects in other parts to work up as they already do and so return back both the Cargoes of Silk and Cloth together and at once disband all both our Needless Clothiers and Silk Weavers this will do the work effectually and leave us nothing to do at home which must certainly make us a Rich and Industrious People or no People at all considerable in a very little time For I am sure the project is not more ridiculous nor less pernicious in one respect than the other And where we are likely to find this Market they talk of for our own Manufactures is little less than a Miracle and looks more like what the Vulgar call a Vertuoso-fancy than any possibility For can we be so besotted as to imagine that the World should be become so fond of us who are so Careless of our selves that in spight of our Teeths they should be studiers of and industriously provide for our Good by becoming Customers for our Manufactures which we our selves slight and cont●mn or can it be thought reasonable to believe that when we have brought our own Plantations the Spaniards and other Places to the use of East-India Silks Cotten Cloths and Stuffs which our own great Preference and Esteem not only tends to but effects we shall still have the better Markers abroad in some Newfound-Lands or Countreys to be found out where we may vend our Silks Cloths Bays Serges Perpetuana's Norwich-Stuffs and the like Commodities and it would be worth any Mans while to get Information what Market in this World is not already fully stored and cloy'd with these Commodities whether those prepar'd by the East-India Traders must go to the Prejudice of other more Excellent and Beneficial Merchants unless they know how to carry them to the World in the Moon 23. And if our Common Prints do not Prevaricate Flanders and Venice have lately declared their sense of this Evil by a Prohibition of Indian Manufactures and though the French King for many years past hath driven away so many thousands of his poor Subjects to seek their Bread in other Countreys of which England hath entertained the greatest part and the most of those that were Manufacturers were no other way capable of earning their Living but by the Weaving Trade yet he hath manifested his constant care to support and afford a good Maintenance to those that remain as may appear by his Edict of October 26. 1686. whereby he not only Prohibits the wearing of all sorts of East-India Silks and Callico's but also under a severe Mulct Prohibits the Imitation of their own made figured and flowred Silks by Printing and commands their Prints and Tools to be Broke and Vtterly Destroy'd And in the last War when they

in order to their Relief to request 1. That the Company would put their By-Laws in execution 2. That they would give them leave to prosecute according to the Laws of England those that had not served seven years an Apprentiship to the Trade 3. That they would admit no more Foreigners to work on the Trade To all which the Company gave all those that appeared full satisfaction That they lay under an Obligation neither to do nor to abet or suffer any thing to be done contrary to the Agreement made with their Church but that they would endeavour so to represent their case that there might be Relief both for them and the Strangers also but for acting thus the Company is sharply upbraided and warmly reflected upon by the poor mistaken Multitude For tho' this hath been some small cause of their Poverty by accident as hath been before mentioned yet cannot cure the Evil they labour under But if I might I would Advise or Perswade for it is unreasonable in this case to talk of Forcing or Prohibiting People of all Qualities Age or Sex to the wearing of Garments and Ornaments of Silk or Grograin Yarn of English make for this is the return of English Woollen Cloth and nothing could conduce more to the advantage of the English Merchants Trading to Turkey Spain Italy and other European Parts and is double advantage to England The truth of which may be further demonstrated in one small but fresh instance by which I believe more than one Merchant have been no small Sufferers I mean the great and sudden disuse of Mohair Fringes together with the decay of the Weaving and Button-making Trade by which means some thousand pounds worth of Mohair Yarn which otherwise might have been sold for ready Money at a Price so sunk and fell in its value that it is since sold for one third of what might then have been had for it and I believe that reckoning the decay by the Worm eating into it and the loss of Interest even that third part was likewise consumed which had otherwise been laid out again in Cloth and Tin and sent to Turkey as the Proprietor can tell by woful Experience And I am sure that our Womens great esteem for Thread Fringes was a great occasion thereof and a great kindness to the Dutch And therefore I intreat and beg of you that you will use your utmost Interest and Rhetorick to perswade and prevail that Camblet Cloaks Coats and Gowns Silk Mohair and Mohair Fringes and Buttons and Manufactures here made of Silk and Grograin Yarn may be the Wearing preferr'd and encourag'd For this is the true Interest of the Turkey Trade and in it the great Interest of England 27. From what hath been said I think it may plainly appear That no less than a Prohibition or stop of the Home-Consumption of all sorts of East-India Silks and Stuffs except plain Persian Taffaties and such-like of plain make can preserve the Silk-Weavers and Throsters of England and those great Numbers that depend upon them the good consequence whereof hath been already fully demonstrated For if this be not granted those Trades must utterly decay and sink for as matters now stand by reason of the fore-mentioned Dangers few Men that had an Estate would for the three years last past adventure it the loss being so certain and as for such as have and do trade upon Credit they are forc'd to such miserable shifts as at last ends in extream Poverty And the cause it self I mean England's Interest is almost totally yielded up deep despair together with disability having so dis-spirited and sunk the Minds of the English Silk Manufacturers that there is not Silk provided to supply the Mercers Shops tho' they should be willing to buy all stand at gaze and are only concern'd to see what the Parliament would do with them they are falling into extream despair in vain contriving to find out New Employments And therefore I beg of and beseech you good Sir for GOD's ●ake for your Countrey 's sake and for the sake of those Numberless Multitudes of Poor before menrioned that you would employ all your Interest to gain some effectual Prohibition of wearing any flower'd spotted or strip'a Silk of Indian Make and then I doubt not but such a good Act with example would not only gain the preferrence at home but also afford an opportunity not only to our own Plantations but also to many Neighbouring Countreys to follow the Example our Factors in most places commonly sending their orders for such Commodities as our selves most prefer and use Nor let any think that such a Prohibition would be impracticable if resolved upon for the firm Resolution of an English Parliament is of force sufficient to prevail in any good Cause which they shall heartily espouse as may be seen in the Business of Burying in Woollen and the French Al-a-modes and Lustrings which I believe to be totally supprest And I am confident the East-India Company themselves would not attempt the breach of such a Law if it were once obtain'd and the Interlopers or private Traders might be easily prevented and such Rules propos'd as might deter any other parts from imposing them upon us under the notion of their own Manufactures But if the greatest Evils must meet with no good Endeavours of Redress we must be of all People most miserable Therefore Dear Sir endeavour that something may be done by the Parliament before they Rise that may at least give hopes that their Cause shall in due time be throughly Consider'd Such a Promise or Vote wou'd give New Life to as many as can struggle out another season and hopes of good in time to the rest but the contrary Vtter Despair For I think I may truly say what looks like a Prophecy in one of their Papers about three years since when contending for this Bill in Parliament That if it were granted is wou'd in a small time so invigorate the Minds of all Fabricators both in Silk Wooll and Grograin Yarn that they would contend with all other Difficulties tho' Money shou'd continue as scarce as at present and that the contrary wou'd discourage those of greatest Ability to that degree that the Out-Parishes of London the Tower Hamblets and the Wool-Manufacturing Towns of England would not be able to support their Poor And whether the Truth of this last part hath not been verified to purpose I dare appeal to the Ministers Church-VVardens and Overseers of the Poor And I am sure all the Inhabitants of those Places must and will give a sad Testimony both to the Truth of this and what will be the only Remedy we can hope for and that is the Prohibition requested For had that Act then passed it had saved the Lives of many who have since perished and preserved the Trade both of Weavers and Throsters above double the Number they now are 28. And for your further Conviction it may not be unseasonable here