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 hear 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 Farmers present loss In the greatest Commodity which pays his Rent as 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 Sheep throughout the Nation which for want of a Trade it may not at some seasons come to Thirty or Forty at most and if a good Trade it may be worth Sixty or Seventy By which means it may easily be demonstrated how the Farmers come to be impoverished 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
ENGLAND'S Interest Asserted IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF ITS NATIVE COMMODITIES And more especially the Manufacture of WOOL Plainly shewing its Exportation Un-manufactured amounting unto Millions of Loss to His MAJESTY and Kingdom With some Brief Observations of that worthy Author Sir WALTER RAWLEY touching the same All Humbly presented to His MAJESTY and Both Houses of PARLIAMENT By a true Lover of His Majesty and Native Country Licensed by Roger L'estrange LONDON Printed for Francis Smith and are to be sold at the Elephant and Castle without Temple-Bar and by Henry Mortlock at the White Horse in Westminster-Hall 1669. 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 complaint that are frequently made of the great poverty 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 if 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 3 d. 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 3 ds 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 aâ—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 2 dly 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 3 dly 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 fopperies 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
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 Persons that formerly when there was a Trade could lay out Ten Shillings in Corn have now but Five Shillings which being multiplyed by Hundreds of Thousands in the Nation it will be no difficult point to see which way the Grazier and Farmer come to be undone and so are forced to give up their Lands into their Landlords hands For it is not so much the super-abounding Crops that lessens the price of Corn but the want of Money For I have known as much Corn grow Yearly formerly as is now when Trade was good to be 20. or 30. per Cent. dearer than now SInce the foregoing papers were printed I met with an Objection against what was asserted page the 4th viz. The French having that advantage of our English Wool to help work up theirs being worsen and likewise that according to my best Information there was none fit for such purposes in all the world viz. for fine Worsteds or a middle sort of Cloath but English and Irish which is all one The Objection were that there was Wools in most parts of the world therefore why not proper for those purposes Answer that there is Wools was never gainsaid but that there is such Wool for fineness and substance in all the world except Spanish I cannot as yet ever receive as before I hinted any satisfactory accompt For the better satisfaction of the Reader I shall give some account of the natures of Wools in England but first of Spanish Wools They are the finest in all the world for Cloath but not so fit for Worsted being too fine and short and those Wools also are one in nature with our English being at first from Sheep that were English Transported thither and though that be much finer by reason of the Climate yet is it still one in nature next to it is Lempster Wool almost as fine as Spanish then next part of Shropshire and Stafford-shire part of Glocester-shire Wilts Dorset Hampshire part of Sussex and part of Kent Summerset Devon and Cornwall most part for Cloath some small parts for Worsteds Amongst all these Counties there is 9. d. per pound difference in the prises of one place viz. Lempster from some other parts but then again part of Sussex and Surrey Middlesex Hertfordshire and some other Counties 2. d. 3. d. per pound cheaper then the lowest of the abovementioned Counties but then for Barkeshire Buckingham Warwick Oxford Leicester Nottingham Northampton and Lincoln part of Kent called Rumney Marsh most part of the last mentioned Counties and part of Irish Wools is so proper for Worsted Stuffs that all the world cannot be compared with it And hence it is that the cares of our Ancestors have been such ever since King Edward the 3d. in most Kings Reignes there have been some Lawes made or altered and in some Kings Reigns altered three or four times to make it effectual and for a memorial to future Generations are the Wool-packs in the Lords House in Westminster for Seats to put them in mind of what is the foundation of the Riches of the Kingdome that it is by the various streams of the Manufactures thereof as formerly in the Front briefly hinted from the Farmer to the Merchant I shall now endeavour to give some particular account how all are conserved And before I do this give me leave to insert the Observation of a worthy Author Sir Walter Rawleigh that I have met withal since the former Papers were Written who saith That then which was in King James's Reign about fourscore thousand undrest undyed Cloaths yearly were Transported whereby it was evident that the Kingdome hath been yearly deprived of about 400000. l. which in fifty five years is near 20 Millions that would have been gained by the labour of poor Workmen in that time with the Merchants gains for bringing in dying Stuffs and returns of Cloaths drest and dyed with other benefits to the Realm besides exceeding inlargeing of Traffick and increase of Ships and Mariners There would have been gained in that time about three Millions by increase of Customs upon Commodities returned for Cloaths drest and dyed and for dying Stuffs which would have been more plentifully brought in and used for the same There hath been also Transported in that time yearly by Bayes Northern and Devonshire Kerzyes white about 50000. Cloaths counting three Kersyes to a Cloath whereby hath been lost about five Millions by those sorts of Cloaths in that time which would have come to poor Work-men for their labour with Customs for dying Stuffs and the peoples profit for bringing them in with returns of other Commodities and Fraights for shipping Bayes are Transported white into Amsterdam and being there dyed and drest are shipped into Spain Portugal and other Kingdomes where they are sold in the name of Flemish Bayes setting their own Town Seals upon them so that we lose the very name of our home-bred Commodities and other Countrys get the Reputation and Credit thereof Lamentable it is that this Land should be deprived of so many above-mentioned Millions as that our Native Commodities of Cloath ordained of God for the natural Subjects being so Royal and rich in it self should be driven to so small advantage of Reputation Profit to your Majesty and People and so much improved and intercepted by Strangers considering that God hath enabled and given your Majesty power to advance dressing and dying and Transporting all your Cloaths within a year or two I speak it knowingly to shew how it may be done laudibly lawfully and approved to be Honourable feaseable and profitable He observes also the increase of his Majesties Customs by bringing in and spending of dying Stuffs as also strength in shipping setting so many thousands of poor on work also noting that in the Low-Countrys where these Cloaths are drest and dyed they stretch them to such unreasonable length contrary to our Law that they prevent and forestale our Markets and cross the just prohibition of our State and Realm by their Agents and Factors lying in divers places with our own Cloaths to the great decay of this Kingdome in general discredit to our Cloaths in particular Again he adds that if the accounts were truly known it would be found that they make not clear profit only by Cloath Transported rough undrest and undyed sixty thousand pounds a year but it is
most apparent your Majesty in your Customs your Merchants in their Sales and Prizes your Subjects in their Labours for lack of dressing and dying your Ships and Mariners in not bringing in of dying Stuffs spending of Alum if not Copper as are hindered yearly near a Million of pounds So that Trade is driven to that great hinderance of your Majesty and People by permitting your Native Commodities to pass rough undrest and undyed Thus Sir Walter Rawleigh Now if it was thus with England so long agoe when the Wool was spun and made here into substantial Cloath and that for want only of dressing and dying many Millions were lost to the King and Kingdom What then hath been the loss of so many thousand Packs of Wool exported without any improvement especially that to France the consequence of which is more prejudicial as hath been demonstrated than can be imagined accounting but one hundred pounds dammage by one Pack of Wool of which there are no less than ten thousand yearly if not much more exported by which there is dammage a Million of pounds sterling yearly to this Kingdome besides the suffering of the Poor for want of Imployment out of which his Majesties dammage cannot be less then 100000. pound yearly The lessening of Shipping and discouragement of Mariners the Walls of this Kingdome hereby deserve also to be considered Next then to his Majestyes loss is that of the Merchant and Cloathier after which must follow detriment to all other persons depending on Trade there being such a Connexion of Trades one to another and the whole of Trade being enlarged by the abounding of Laborious People Those supply the Farmers and Graziers with money for you to supply the Gentry They again scatter it amongst the Tradesmen as may be witnessed by the building of the City of London how Provision and all Consumptive goods are advanced by it by which circulation all degrees are either imployed enriched or both and hence naturally comes Content Harmony and Pleasure one in another the Poor being by Imployment delivered from fear of want the Gentry Merchant and Tradesmen by the establishment of Trade therein This Rationally is the strength of any People Poverty and Idleness brings their shame and Ruine which would unavoidably follow want of Trade And so much the more where the greatest Trade hath been if it fails the greater Poverty is and will be And to instance as here in London the Trade in Provision is the more so by Consequence it must be dear and so best for all so of the other hand if the City should be forced to keep so many thousands when all their work is done as is now in the Building it would be a great burden so the case is in England in this particular where great Trade have been formerly kept and drawn several Families thither and have raised Commodities there but when it fails it is a miserable state and condition those places are in To return in short there is such Connextion and dependency one upon another in England that if one fail all the rest more or less either more near or remotely are concerned as in the natural body when any member fails the whole suffers thereby and as all Trades and degrees of men may suffer by one mistake in Trades and in none more probably I will say then this of Wool as Merchants Artificers Farmers Sea-men Fisher-men being the people which by their study and labour do principaly if not only bring in or give occasion to the bringing in of wealth to the Nation and other kind of people viz. Nobility Gentry Lawyers Physicians Schollars of all sorts Shop-keepers are they that receive from these and distribute it again and all are consequently concerned in this rich Treasure of Wool because this being a Manufacture at home sets more hands at work than half the Nation May I not with modesty and within Compass say three parts of Laborious and Industrious people considering that most of the shipping is imployed in this affair and also so many Trades that depend immediatly upon this of Cloathing that most of other Trades are but for Provision either in Food or Conveniencies for Cloathing and so from his Majesty to the meanest all are more or less concerned The King mostly not only in that his People are by that most imployed and provided for nor in that such a Staple Trade the like whereunto the world hath not with good Advantage thereby is maintained but because so great a Revenue comes directly into him upon the Trade occasioned thereby Thus as the King gains or suffers most so the persons that have the greatest Estates or Trades and so all proportionably to the Beggar And also considering that an accustomary thing begets such an habit that is hard to reduce as in our rough and undrest Cloath to Holland so it will be with all our Manufactures in France nay I am informed that the French hath not only imposed a great Tax upon our Woollen Manufactures from twenty to forty per cent but have also as is affirmed beside that their imposition absolutely prohibited our Cloaths coming there I am the more large in the demonstration of this affair not only because this hath cost me many years labour and study to consult all sorts of concerned persons besides mine own experience about it nor because it is so hard to convince people of the meanst capacity but some of the wiser sort how to cure this dismal malady which some despairing of have rather thoughts of setting up some other Manufacture in Lieu of endeavours to prevent the exportation of Wool and Manufacturing of that at home looking thereon as a thing not to be overcome as that of Linnens in some capable parts of England and a better improvement in the product of forrein plantations which may also be set upon together herewith as an addition so as several sorts of persons may be set better on work not capable of this employment and yet no prejudice to this of Cloathing for all other Countryes have the advantage of England or are equal to us in other Manufactures proper to their Countreys but not in this of Cloathing and it will be found that all Trades in England wholly distinct from this of Cloathing bring not the tythe of advantage that this doth Since men cannot rationally believe the effects to be greater than the cause the most of other Manufactures either is in being or brought to use by the Manufactures of Wool even from the Farmer to the Merchant all are concerned in this of Wool as may hereafter more appear It now remains that we sum up Englands loss by the exportation of our Wools to Forrein Parts not only in the advantage we might have by the Manufactureing thereof here in England as formerly noted but also in the importing af Dutch Cloath and more in French Manufactures because England improves not their own Wools and of the humour of English people in putting
such a value upon French fancies when themselves are in a better capacity if improved to produce the like or better and save the following sums 1. One Million of pounds Sterling yearly in the Exportation of our Wool 2. Five hundred thousand pounds in rough Cloath which is but half what Sir Walter Rawleigh observes in his time 3. One hundred thousand pound yearly in Importing French Manufactures superfluous 4. Many thousand pounds in Importing Dutch Cloath 5. And lastly the evil consequences thereof in loseing our Shipping which would be encouraged thereby are the strength or Walls of our Kingdome as more particularly doth appear hereafter Having now discovered the dammage it is to England in the Transportation of Wool from the King to the meanest I shall endeavour also to discover the methods how it is done and before I shall prescribe Remedy for it is not enough to know distempers especially such that are so Consumptive it is requisite to know the cause of those distempers or else the supposed Remedies will in time come to be a disease as it is too much in this case at this day in England where the causes are mistaken the Remedies are consequently misapplyed whereby a disease in supposition becomes one in effect the methods or ways of this evil are First in Rumny Marsh in Kent where the greatest part of rough Wooll is exported from England put aboard French Shallops by night ten or twenty men well armed to guard it some other parts there are as in Sussex Hampshire and Essex the same methods may be used but not so conveniently The same for coombed Wool from Canterbury they will carry it ten or fifteen miles at night towards the Sea with the like guard as before but for other parts it must be done partly by the Remisness of the Officers of his Majesties Customs and easie Composition for the forfeitures of the Bonds as more shall appear anon And then for coombed Wool in other parts some is shipped off from London for Bales of Drapery nay some at Lime and also at Exon where there is ten thousand pounds Sterling weekly laid out in the woollen Manufactury which is most for Workmens wages I know no place clear and then another reason why persons are not detected is because all the wools that have been taken in those parts where most hath been exported have been suffered to go off at the same places after Judgments past and by the Officers to the same persons at a low rate being under rated to those very men that intended to ship it at first so that the evil is never like to be avoyded that way only that which is taken happily may be a little the dearer to keep the Trade going for I have enquired and cannot understand but of two parcels of wool that have been seased on in Kent that have been used in England but all sent away and so his Majesties providence is cheated who keeps Servants at great wages to prevent such abuses And then another cheat is under a pretense of wool from Hampton to the Islands of Jersey and Gernsey sometimes from other parts which is against the Law for there is no wool to be exported to those Islands but only from Hampton and that by Law should be by weight but now it goes by gross by the pack when it should be weighed but I believe not one pack in ten is weighed for three packs is put into one Then from Ireland which is the greatest mischief of all to England and much increased since the Act was in force against Cattel the Irish wool can be sold as cheap in France Holland and Flanders as it is in those places where wool is used in England which is a great augmentation to us of prejudice for Foreiners to have our wool so cheap as we in England having other conveniencies to underwork us as formerly hinted The wayes there must be by the carelessness of the Officers in not taking solvant security and exactness in the weight of wool and true examination of the returns of their Certificates and partly by easie compositions if not before bonds are forfeited and happily much combed Wool there packt up as before as bailes of Cloath or barrels of Beef and shiped as Irish Cloath and in all points so cunningly carryed as they are seldome discovered and never sealed as the Statutes in that case made and provided do strictly require Here see what W. S. saith Now to shew you more particularly these abuses how the Laws are crossed and daily obstructed to such as endeavour to serve their Country by such as ought to encourage the prosecutors sure there will be very many practises of evil consequents discovered for first in the Custom-House where bonds are taken to the intent that these prohibited Commodities pass not by means of Mariners out of the Nation but only from Port to Port for accommodation of such parts as want such Commodities they are very Remiss and careless in taking of the Sea-mens discharge of their Obligatory Conditions where also it is usual with the Sea-men to bring fradulent Certificates and so to cheat the Kings Providence who keeps Servants at great wages purposely to prevent such abuses or if there be a regular return of there Bonds yet there is commonly a fraudulency in giving them for the Masters of ships will so continue their designe as he who is Master at giving the Bonds and is legally bound shall immediatly pass his Interest to another man who taking charge of the Vessel and Voyage is notwithstanding not engaged in the Poart Bond and therefore neither is he accomptahle for breach of their condition again when the Port bonds are justly taken and as justly returned yet to prevent the true and real detection of the offender and to dishearten the legal prosecutor some friends of the offender will clap an information against him purposely to hinder and divert others and soon after will let the Prosecution fall at his pleasure nay it hath been said and peradventure not unjustly that such preventing informations have been antidated to the over-throw of the regal information but when all is granted and a full and formal hearing and decree passed to the just condemnation of the offender Yet when judgments and inquieries are granted and do without errours of the Clarks which is not always impower the Sheriff's and their Bayliffs to see Execution thereof made it is familiar with those Officers to return a non est inventus or a mortus est viz. Not to be found or dead even then when the Offenders and the Officers have been known to be drinking together at that very time when the Writ should have been executed After all this one step farther will shew how charrety it self abuseth Justice for let all the former proceedings be granted and be candid and clear and that the Law be indeed justly and legally executed the offender in custody and nothing remaining but that he
honestly discharge hi as self with money seeing Bail will not be admitted nevertheless upon a lamentable Petition and urging a great charge of Children to the Bench the Offender is usually admitted to compound for Ten in the Hundred or less when by his offence he hath gained a Hundred for Ten or more and peradventure hath undone a hundred Famelies or more in so doing Yet all this while the honest Prosecutor the only man that appears for the good of his Country who ought by the Law to have the full benefit and advantage of the Law gratis it being enough that he spend his time for the promotion of the publick Weal after it hath cost him seral great sums of money large expense of time to bring the Offender to Tryal and Conviction is dismissed with little or no satisfaction unless he be rewarded with the brand of an informing Knave Surely they who made these Lawes for the benefit of themselves and their own Country did intend a more current and just passage towards them than thus to be obstructed and baffeled Such abuses as these made Theodosius say as it is Recorded that a wise man did himself injustice by hazarding his Wisdome and Estate for the benefit of his Nation and therefore some have not spared to urge that Customs and Impost and Toles and Taxes might be taken away from honest laborious hazardous Trades and Adventurers and be put upon litigious Suits at Law and such as make benefit of their corrupt breath that is to say upon such Lawyers as abuse their Clyents and such malicious Clyents as abuse the name of a just innocent Defendent Nor is the Loss in these by their Transportation all the injury but when honest men well affected to the good of their Country do detect these Caterpillers of the Common-wealth who make so vast gain as hath been denoted upon the materials so carefully prohibited when they do endeavour by due course of Law to make stoppage thereof and to have the offenders punished so many are the evasions such combinations and interest in the Officers who ought to punish the Offenders such favour have they in Courts of Justice and deceptions in the Return of Writs and in general such affronts and discouragements as the dearest Lover of his Country or most intrusted in Trade dares not attempt to prevent that mischief which his eyes behold to fall upon his Nation or which his own person feels to pick his pocket Thus far Mr. W. Smith To prevent all these inconveniences it cannot be done without some alteration of some Laws which is an Act of State and I do presume his Majesty doth already and the Parliament will also consider of it as to accept of any helps that may be contributed to them In short I am of opinion that if four things were done there would be in a few moneths such an alteration which if I should now insert would be Incredible yet I shall hint it 1. To revive some former Act made in Parliament for a certain season as in the 4th of Hen. 7. and revived thrice afterwards which was done upon the same complaint as now is which if in force with some alteration would be one stop A second is for all persons to be accomptable for their wool because there is time after it is bought to be wayed up and fetched away out of those Countreys where the danger is for to get acquaintance for those persons and to give security as it is from Port to Port then being the same danger near the Sea Thirdly for Ireland to have it confin'd to convenient Ports both in Ireland and England And when all is done there must be some persons of known Integrity and not mercenary men that must have the care and inspection over all Fourthly In those Countreys where no Cloathing is it would be requisite for a Store-house for small parcels of Wool and a Bond given that none be sold to Foriners which is of so eminent advantage as is by some said to the Dutch to be profit to the publick Millions of pounds Sterling per annum and to instance one case Sir Walter Rawleigh accounts by this in his remains page the 173 and 174. that in one year and half was drawn to the Hollanders Hamburgers and Embdenors at the least two Millions of pounds Sterling from England for Corn in a time of scarcity in England And if a Bond is so advantageous for such Commodities that are liable to he much impared in long lying it 's doubtless abundantly more advantagous in such a stable Commodity as wool is and if practised would be of such a use to England that I think would enrich England more than I will now stand to account I may add a fifth which is that there may be a short and quick Tryal of Offenders and that in such place as the Offender may have least oppertunity for Evasions We will conclude the whole with a short survey of some particular Immunities which Cloathing hath conferred upon England with which the glory of it extends to the very utmost inhabited parts of the world and without which the Ark of Gods mercy and the glory of this Land is like to depart First the reducing of Cloathing to England in Manufacture as well as in Materials which must a thousand times repeat Englands gratitude to the memory of that ever renowned King Edward the Third hath produced such opulent and magnificent societies of Merchants as the whole world cannot again demonstrate that is to say first the Merchant Adventurers Company whose Governours President Consults and the like chief Officers are not of less esteem where they please no seat themselves then are the Residentiaries of the greatest Princes and so much the more Cordial is their welcome as each mans profit leads his affection beyond his Reverence to publick Embassies because Proximity to a mans personal interest sits nearer in his thoughts then when he is involved in the publick concernment This Company hath by their Policy and Order supplanted those societies of the Hance Towns as they are called who vending an inconsiderable number of Cloaths and at low rates did never the lesss account England obliged to them for their Markets and Shipping Whereas at this day the Merchant Adventurer do utter ten times as many Cloaths Annually in the same Markets at far better prices And in answer to the shipping which England had in those times from those Countreys at dear entertainment this Trade of Cloathing and this particular Company of Merchants have furnished the Navy Royal from time to time and upon all occasions with such strengths as they have not feared if they have not awed the greatest Naval Forces sayling upon the Ocean he that may have the favour to peruse their Records shall find what oppertune Service they did for their Country in the year Eighty-Eight and since upon all military occasions wherein this Nation hath been embroyled with any other Next the East-Land
Company hath planted the Trade of Cloathing all about the Baltick Seas which at this day imployes many Warlike Ships and gives at great increase of Marriners to the no small growth of Englands strenth at Sea The Muscovia Company have discovered the passage by the North Cape and the great Trade of Greenland what wealth occurs to England by the Turky and East-India Company is not easie to be numbered their shipping also being as strong and rich as any that swim upon the Seas How one of them hath by the trade of Cloathing only engrossed all manner 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 of 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 credit 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
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 bring their Manufactures into the Merchants private Ware-Houses where their own Servants are Judges who upon searching the Cloath do make and marke faults enough for which they have reparable abatements but themselves again do practise all fraudulent wayes they can to barter and exchange those faults away without giving any allowance for them I speak not of all but some and though sometimes they be detected yet find they means to save their purses whilst their Nation suffers in honour and the Laws are vilified to Foreiners who stain the Justice of the Nation with weakness and fraud True it is that in the Netherlands where their cunning is as piercing as their practice is common they even every buyer do search with diligence and make themselves reparations first to the Merchants great loss and so in course to the Cloathiers no small dammage But in all this the State remains much dishonoured by the scandal and rob'd of those Fines which the Lawes in punnishment do give to the publick Revenue which if they were rightly and legally attended would render a vast gain to the Common-wealth by a general Reformation Now in finding out the causes why Manufacture in Cloathing becomes so abused there may be good use of the Drapers and Merchants knowledg and skill yet the application of the remedy is a work of State and Policy in making and executing the Laws proportionable to the grievance in which instance it doth not hold for though the Merchants and Drapers be able Searchers of the abuses yet they are not competent reformers of the grievances because they are interested in participating of those gaines which the faults occasion and intend Therefore it is requisite that both Cloathiers Merchants and Drapers may be joyned by the Magistrates approbation Nor is this all the abuse for in such parts of the world as the Buyers are not in ability of knowledg like the Dutch who make Cloaths themselves and especially in those parts where the difference in Religion is so great as it is between Christians and Turks there the corrupt Merchant causeth the Name of God to be Blasphemed for when those people whose eye and judgment gives them not so good information as doth their proof and wearing do find themselves cheated in their Garments they presently conclude that there is no fear of God in that place nor obedience to their Rulers for Conscience which must assuredly procure much scandal to Christian Religion It hath been noted that the original of money was from sheep affirming that the Antient Signature upon money was a Sheep and its further observed that Mercandizes were the cause of money and there being no greater Merchandize than are from the Sheep it is evident that there is nothing more requisite towards the enriching this Nation whose peculiar blessing rests in Sheep than strictly to hold the Manufactures to the letter and rule provided for their just making and that the Laws be unpartially executed and it being apparent that this Nation cannot be rich without a constant utterance of Cloathing nor can that be done without a perfect reformation in the particulars of the works It doth undeniably follow that Cloathing must be purged from its Corruption or England must be poor It is therefore the Manufactors which abuse the Wool and thereby improvidently give advantage to the Dutch whereas a perfection in the making of Cloaths in England will capacitate the English to undersel the Dutch Now for a true Reformation and Regulation of those dammages that have befallen England by the false and deceptious Manufacturing of Wools and to bring the Trade to its primitive worth we must rightly understand the cause of those defects or else we can never prescribe suitable remedies as before but the contrary the supposed remedy will be worse than the disease The principle or grand cause of all our misery in all these things formerly spoken to both in Transportation of Wool and the bad Manufacturing thereof is by that division in Trade both in Merchant and Cloathier by which meanes it falls out that by the consequence of one mans single Act a thousand persons may be undone this I have observed in several persons in this Kingdome and I know no way so profitable to prevent at least some of that mischief as by incorporating the Manufactures and faithfulness therein as witness Norwich and Colechester the misery is the liberty taken in that which is of necessity a Union as before by a Law and more liberty by a Law for some in matters of Conscience for compulsion can never make that unity as the Law of that Relation doth require in this as in all others things to do to others as we would have others do unto us which is the Royal Law of Heaven The great and main inducement to these two things as good reason if we will have Trade to observe the Dutch in both these things as not the least cause of their riches having nothing of their own growth comparatively with England yet are a Rich people and much by our Commodities whilst we are disputing whether it be good for us And I cannot pass by what I have heard of the Follies of the Indians that will part with a rich Treasure for a Trifle so we are to the Dutch and French by their policies and circumventing practices which draw from us and still covet to exhaust the Wealth and Coyne of this Kingdome and so with one Commodity as formerly the Wool to weaken us and finally beat us out of our Trades in other Countreys and thus they do especially the Dutch more fully obtain their purposes by their convenient priviledges and settled constitutions by which they draw multitudes of Merchants to Trade with them and many other Nations to inhabit amongst them which makes them populous and there they make Store-Houses of all Forein Commodities wherewith upon every occasion of Scarcity and Dearth they are able to furnish Foreiners with plenty of those Commodities which before in time of plenty they Engrossed brought home from the same places which doth greatly augment Power and Treasure to their Stocks besides the Common Good in setting the Poor on work as in several particulars mentioned by Mr. Child 1. By having in their greatest Councils of State and Warr. Tradeing Merchants that have lived abroad in most parts of the world who have not only the Theoretical knowledg but the Practical
ever could be heard of in the World is upon the coasts of England Scotland and Ireland but the great Fishery is in the Low-countries and other petty States wherewith they serve themselves and all Christendom as it shall appear in four Towns in the East Kingdoms within the Sound Quinsbrough Elbing Statten and Dantzick there are carried and vented in a year between thirty and fourty thousand last of Herrings sold but at fifteen or sixteen pounds the Last is about 620000. and we none besides Denmark Norway Sweden Leifland Rye Nevil the Nerve and other Port-towns within the Sound therâ— is carried and vented above 10000. Last of Herrings sold at fifteen or sixteen pounds the last is 170000. pounds more yearly in such request are our Herring there that they are often times sold for 20 24 30 and 36. pounds the Last and send not one barrel into all those East-Countries The Hollanders sent into Russia near fifteen hundred Last of Herrings sold about 30. shillings the barrel amounteth to 27000. pounds and we but about 20 or 30. Lasts to Stoad Hambourgh Breamen and Embden upon the River of Elve Weafer and Embs are carried and vented of Fish and Herrings about 6000. lasts sold about fifteen or sixteen pounds the Last is 100000. l. and we none Cleafland Gulickland up the River of Rhine to Cullen Frankford or the Main and so over all Germany is carried and vented Fish and Herrings near 12000. sold at 20. pounds the Last is 44000 pound and we none Up the River of Maze leight Mastricht Vendloo Sutphen Deventer Campen Swool and all over Lukeland is carried and vented 7000. Last of Herrings sold at twenty pounds the Last is 140000. pounds and we none To Gilderland Artois Henault Brabant Flanders up the River of Antwerpe all over the Arch-Dukes Countreys are carried and vented between eight and nine thousand lasts sold at 18. pounds the last is 171000. pounds and we none The Hollanders and others carried of all sorts of Herrings to Roan onely in one year besides all other parts of France 50000. last of Herrings sold at 20. pound the last is 100000. pounds and we not one hundred last thither they are sould oftentimes there for 20 and 24 and 30. pounds the last between Christmass and Lent the duties for Fish and Herrings came to 15000. Crowns at Roan onely that year the late Queen deceased Sir Thomas Parrye was Agent there then and S. Savors his man knows it to be true who handled the business for pulling down the Impositions then what great sums of money came to all in the Port-towns to inrich the French Kings Coffers and to all the Kings and States throughout Christendom to inrich their Coffers besides the great quantity vented to the Straights and the multitude spent in the Low-Contries which is there likewise sould for many a hundred thousand pounds more yearly is necessary to be remembred and the stream to be turned to the good of this Kingdom to whose Sea-coasts God onely hath sent and given these great blessings and multitude of riches for us to take However it hath been neglected to the hurt of this Kingdom that any Nation should carry away out of this Kingdom yearly great masses of money for Fish taken in our Seas and sold again by them to us which must needs be a great dishonour to our Nation and hindrance to this Realm from any Port-Town of any Kingdom within Christendom the Bridgemasters or the Wharfmasters for twenty shillings a year will deliver a true note of the number of lasts of Herrings brought to their Wharf and their prices commonly they are sould at but the number brought to Danske Cullen Rotterdam and Enchusen is so great as it will cost three four or five pounds for a true note the abundance of Corn groweth in the East Kingdoms but the great Store-houses for grain to serve Christendom the heathen Countries in time of dearth is in the Low-countries wherewith upon every occasion of scarcity and dearth they do inrich themselves seaven years after imploy their people and get great straights for their Ships in other Countries and we not one in that course the mighty Vineyards and store of Salt is in France and Spain but the great Vintage and staple of Salt is in the Low-countries and they send near one thousand sail of Ships with Salt and Wine onely into the East Kingdoms yearly besides other places and we not one in that course the exceeding Groves of Wood are in the East Kingdoms but the huge piles of Wainscore Clapboard Fir Deal Masts and timber is in the Low-Countrys where none grow wherewith they serve themselves and other parts and this Kingdom with those commodities they have five or six hundred great long Ships continually using that Trade we none in that course the Wool Cloth Lead Tin and divers other commodities are in England but by means of our Wooll and Cloth going out ruffe undrest and undyed there is an exceeding Manufactury and Drapery in the Low-Countries wherewith they serve themselves and other Nations and advance greatly the imployment of the people at home and Traffick abroad and put down ours in Forreign parts where our Merchants trade unto with our own commodities we send into the East Kingdoms yearly but one hundred Ships and our Trade cheifly dependeth upon three towns Elbing Kingsborough and Danske for making our sails and buying their Commodities sent into this Realm at dear rates which this Kingdom bears the burthen of The Low-Contries send into the East Kingdoms yearly about three thousand Ships trading into every City and Port-town taking the advantage and venting their Commodities to exceeding profit and buying and lading their Ships with plenty of those Commodities which they have from every of those Towns 20. per Cent. better cheap then we by reason of the difference of the Coyn and their Fish yields ready money which greatly advanceth their Traffick and dacayeth ours they send into France Spain Portugal Italy from the East Kingdoms that passeth through the Sound and through your narrow Seas yearly of the East-Country commodities about two thousand Ships and we none in that course they Trade into all Cities and Port-towns in France and we cheifly into five or six they Traffick into every City and Port-town round about this Land with five or six hundred Ships yearly and we cheifly but to three Towns in their Countrey and but with fourty Ships notwithstanding the Low Countries have as many Ships and Vessels as eleven Kingdoms of Christendom have let England be one and build every year near one thousand Ships and not a Timber-Tree growing in their own Countrey and that also all their home-bred commodities that grow in their Land in a year less then one hundred good Ships are able to carry them away at one time yet they handle the matter so for setting them all on work that their Traffick with the Haunce-Towns exceeds in Shipping all Christendom We have
all things of our own in superabundance to increase Traffick and Timber to build Ships and Commodities of our own to lade about one thousand Ships and Vessels at one time besides the great Fishing and as fast as they have made their voyages might re-lade again and so year after year all the year long to continue yet our Ships and Marriners decline and Traffick and Merchants dayly decay the main bulks and mass of Herrings from whence they raise so many millions yearly that inrich other Kingdoms Kings and States Coffers and likewise their own people proceedeth from your Seas and Lands and the return of the Commodities and Coyn they bring home in exchange of Fish and other commodities are so huge as would require a large discourse apart all the amends they make us is they beat us out of Trade in all parts with our own commodities for instance we had a great Trade in Russia about seventy years and about fourteen years past we sent store of goodly Ships to Trade in those parts and three years past we set out but four and this last year but two or three but to the contrary the Hollanders about twenty years since traded there with two Ships onely yet now they are increased to about thirty or fourty and one of their Ships is as great as two of ours and at the same time in their troubles there that we decrease they increased and the Cheifest commodities they Carry with them thither is English Cloth Herrings taken in our Seas English Lead and Pewter made of our Tin besides other commodities all which we may do beter then they and although it be a cheap Country the Trade very gainful yet we have almost brought it to nought by disorderly trading joynt-stock and the Merchants banding themselves one against the other and so likewise we used to have 8. or 9. great Ships to go continually a Fishing to Wardhouse and this year but one and so Per rato they out-go us in all kind of Fishing and Merchandizing in all Countries by reason they spare no cost nor deny no Priviledges that may incourage advancement of Trade and Manufactury Now if it please and with your Majesties good liking stand to take notice of these things which I have conceived to be fit for your Majesties consideration which in all humbleness as duty bindeth me I do tender unto your Majesty for the unfeigned zeal I bear to the advancement of your honour and profit and the general good of your subjects it being apparent that no three Kingdoms in Christendom can compare with your Majesty for support of Traffick and continually imployment of your people within themselves having so many great means both by Sea and Land to inrich your Coffers multiply your Navy enlarge your Traffick make your Kingdoms Powerfull and your people rich Yet through idleness they are poor wanting imployment many of your Land and Coast-towns much ruinated and your Kingdom in need of Coyn your Shipping Traffick and Marriners decayed which your Majesties Neighbour Princes without these means abound in Wealth inlarge their Towns increase their Shipping Traffick and Marriners and find out such imployment for their people that they are all advantageous to their Common-wealth onely by ordaining commodious Constitutions in Merchandizing and fulness of Trade in Manufactury God hath blest your Majesty with incomparable benefits As with Copper Lead Iron Tin Allum Copperas Saffron Fell and divers other native Commodities to the number of about one hundred and other Manufacturies vendible to the number of about a thousand as shall appear besides Corn whereof great quantity of Beer is made and most transported by Strangers as also Wooll whereof much is shipped forth unwrought into Cloth or Stuffs and Cloth transported undrest and undyed which doth imploy and maintain near fifty thousand people in Forreign parts your Majesties people wanting the imployment in England many of them being inforced to live in great want and seek it beyond Seas Coals which do imploy hundreds of strangers Ships yearly to transport them out of this Kingdom whilest we do not imploy twenty Ships in that course Iron Ordnance which is a Jewel of great value far more then it is accounted by reason that no other Countrey could ever attain unto it although they have assayed with great charge your Majesty hath Timber of your own for building of Ships and Commodities plenty to lade them which Commodities other Nations want yet your Majesties people decline in Shipping Traffick and Mariners These Inconveniences happen by three causes especially 1. The unprofitable course of Merchandizing 2. The want of course of full Manufactury of our Home-bred Commodities 3. The undervaluing of our Coyns contrary to the Rules of other Nations For instance The Merchant Adventurers by over-trading upon Credit or with money taken up upon Exchange whereby they lose usually ten or twelve and sometimes fifteen or sixteen per Cent. are enforced to make sale of their Cloths at under-rates to keep their Credit whereby Cloths being the Jewel of the Land is undervalued and the Merchant in short time eaten out The Merchants of Ipswich whose trade for Elbing is chiefly with fine Cloths and some few sorting Cloths all dyed and dress'd within our Land do for the most part buy their fine Cloths upon time and by reason they go so much upon Credit they are enforced not being able to stand upon their Markets to sell giving 15 or 18 months day of payment for their Cloths and having sold them they then presently sell their Bills so taken for Cloth allowing after the rate of fourteen or fifteen and sometimes twenty per Cent. which money they imploy forthwith in Wares at excessive prices and lose as much more that way by that time their Wares be sold at home Thus by over-running themselves upon Credit they disable themselves and others enhancing the prices of Foreign Commodities and pulling down the rates of our own The West-Country Merchants that trade with Cloths into France or Spain do usually imploy their Servants young men of small experience who by cunning combining of the French and Spanish Merchants are so entrapped that when all Custom and Charges be accompted their Masters shall hardly receive their principal Moneys As for returns out of France their Silver and Gold is so highly rated that our Merchants cannot bring it home but to great loss therefore the French Merchants set higher rates upon their Commodities which we must buy dear or let our moneys lye dead there a long time untill we may conveniently imploy the same The Northern Merchants of York Hull and Newcastle trade only in white Kerzies and coloured Dozzens and every Merchant be his Adventure never so small doth for the most part send over an unexperienced youth unfit for Merchandizing which bringeth to the Stranger great advantage but to his Master and Commonwealth great hindrance for they before their Goods be landed go to the Stranger and buy such quantities of Iron
very evil consequence concerning which I have endeavoured to my power to undeceive his Majesties Subjects and of which I shall be ready to give further accompt But by the working of jealousies and animosities of this kind Trade is very much obstructed and decayed For if one particular person upon mis-representation be but prosecuted that hath so many hundreds depending upon him First Those persons are undone and come to ruine nor is that all but 2 ly This begets jealousie and murmurings in all those concern'd and the same with farther fears on all persons lyable to suffering upon the same ground as far as the report thereof goes Thus is Trade quietness and confidence prejudic'd for want of assurance in that point of Liberty c. From the whole these necessary Conclusions may be drawn 1. That it is necessary for the good of his Majesty and People to secure the Wool in England being the matter or foundation of such a rich Manufacture to work upon by effectual Laws and faithfulness in the execution 2. The regulation of the Manufacturies thereof be consulted for Reformation 3. If yet the hands of many and the chief of those persons capable of managing the Manufacturies thereof be weakened for want of assurance in that tender point of conscience and so consequently they withdraw their Stocks and Trade not to half the height they would for fear they should suddenly be exposed to remove into other Countries or do worse which is still much feared by some if in this they be not eas'd the Trade of this Nation can never be compleated nor brought to its primitive lustre and glory My observation upon his Majesties Speech to the Parliament in the year 1667. including some indulgence to his Majesties Protestant Subjects did much quicken Trade in all the Nation insomuch that severall thence took encouragement that before had been contracting their Trades to begin to lay out themselves and Estates to raise up Manufactury expecting a full concurrance by the Parliament But when the same persons saw themselves disappointed therein they forthwith took up thoughts of retiring themselves and withdrew their Trade which was then much to my own particular damage depending upon those persons then in dealings and yet these are persons to my knowledge very loyal to his Majesty I cannot understand what persons have advantage by his Majesties great damage and the Kingdomes so great impoverishment as I have demonstrated or why those persons be they what they will upon such very costly terms to say no more should be gratified neither have the Councels and ends propounded by the chief Agents and Factors of that severity been succesfull either in bringing forth that which may countervail these losses or decrease the number or alter the nature of them that alone for conscience they should suppress but rather provokes many that before concern'd not themselves by proceeds of that kind against men peaceable and so beneficial in their Stations to examine the causes for which they are exposed to suffer which also prevails with many to a participation with them nor can what they would have be done to those they would suppress in places depending much upon these Trades without almost desolating many parts of his Majesties Kingdomes for should so many be removed that imployed so many poor those Tradesmen that remain would not be able to manage Trade sufficient to set on work the poor for their Stocks would not reach thereunto how fearfull then is that which must unavoidably follow Suffer one word more of my knowledge in this business as to matter of fact in a small Parish where I was born where there is 15. Cloathiers or thereabouts of those 15. there is 12. dissenters in matters of worship which I know are as to the Government as peaceable as any and in another little Cloathing-Town there is 24. Cloathiers amongst those 24.20 are dissenters and by this measure I might go through most parts of the West of England viz. Hampshire Wilts Dorset Devon Sommerset Gloucestershire and part of Monmouthshire in Wales most of all those said Counties I have traded with and am therefore experienced in what I say Now suppose that those Laws now and formerly in force against such persons should have been rigorously executed what would have been the consequence To give instance the Case of but one Man Thomas Pearce of Westdome in Devonshire near Barnstable who was prosecuted upon the 20th Moneth and had 15. Servants in his own House besides many Parishes depending upon him yet was forc't to leave his Calling and Habitation about 3. or 4. years since to the utter ruine of those persons so depending till he was releas'd And many other such instances might be given for it must necessarily follow when a Tradesman that imploys a great part of a Countrey is violently and suddenly run down and opprest so as his Trade must fail that the Countrey must suffer with him for what sober person will step into his place and take up his Trade while he is for such Causes suffering if men to fill up such vacancies were to be found FINIS