his Majesty please be kept either in an Admiralty at Wexford or in some Port near or in Milford Haven and there they will be ready to sail upon any occasion either to preserve the West India Trade or into the Mediterranean and thereby give great comfort to all Trade that is used in those Seas as also incourage the People and drive away their present fears And I am very well satisfied that Ships of all Rates will be built at Wexford or thereabouts at three fifths of what the King now pays for building and there they may be also Gun'd and Victualled The Woods are the Earl of Angleseys the Lord Baltimores Sir Laurence Esmonds the Lord Arons and Shelela the Earl of Straffords with many other small Woods Here you have the Map of the River and Rivulets with some small Signs of the Woods before mentioned The Third great advantage is that there the King may have all his Iron made and Guns cast at very cheap Rates There is the Iron Stone in the Sea by the Harbour mouth and the King hath vast quantities of Woods decayed in New Forest of which at this time Charcoal is made and Shipt away to Cornwall and other parts If two Furnaces be built about Ringwood to cast Guns and two Forges to make Iron and the Iron Stone be brought from the Harbour mouth out of the Sea up the River to the Furnaces and the Charcole out of New Forest to the works there being sufficient of decayed Woods to supply four Iron-works for ever by these means the King makes the best of every thing and builds with his own Timber being near and convenient whereas now the charge and carriage makes the Timber 07 of no use to him And having Iron Stone of his own for gathering up and Wood of his own for nothing he will have very cheap Guns and Iron And all these things set together this is a business befitting a King to have And as I said this Fort will be made and answer the ends I here lay down for two thousand pounds and the Iron works built and Docks to build three Ships at one time for eight thousand pounds The discovery more particular of the place of the deep Water and Fort to be made and the Harbour within with a description of the Camp adjoyning is here in the Map affixed Now Reader I hope I have made good my promise of discovering two places convenient to build Ships in and at easie Rates and also to lay them up safe and in places that are eminently convenienced for quick getting out and could say much more of these two places as to publick benefit but it may be and it is not to be questioned I shall meet with Enemies for saying so much for I know now almost all men are Sacrificing all things to their own Nets and Drags or to such Great ones as they lye under However if his Majesty please to Command me I will go to Christ-Church with any knowing person and there upon the place shew him all that is here affirmed and the Reasons the like I will do as to the Slane in Ireland and the Woods I so commend joyning thereunto and upon the place demonstrate and make out how the River Slane and Rivulets running into the same may be made Navigable and shew the great quantities of Timber that may thereby be brought down to build Men of War the places convenient for building them and that no King or Prince in Europe hath such an advantage to build Ships as the King of England may have with that Timber in Ireland The Way to employ and set at Work all the Poor of England both Man Woman and Child that are capable and able to work and all to be done by improving two of our own Manufactures the growth whereof is all of our own Island the one the Linen the other the Iron Manufacture AS to Linen Cloth of all sorts what vast quantities are yearly brought into England and here made use of and by us sent unto our Islands and to many other places the making of which sets at work abundance of People in other Nations as also Threads Tapes Twine for Cordage and wrought Flax Now who makes the fine Linen Clothes and where have they the Materials I say the fine Linens are made in Holland and Flanders that is woven and whitened there but the Thread that makes them comes out of Germany from Saxony Bohemia and other parts thereabouts and is brought down the Elbe and Rhine in dry Fat 's for Holland and Flanders and there the Merchants have at this day and so will ever have a vast Trade in these Commodities unless that Trade of Linen be advanced in England and incouraged as I shall set down But First Observe that the People of Holland eat dear and pay great Rents for their Houses and so they do in Flanders but the weaving and whitening of the Cloth is not above the tenth part of the labour For the great labour is in preparing the Flax as pulling watering dressing spinning and winding and all this is done in the upper parts of Germany and thereabouts there Victuals are cheap and in all these parts there is no Beggar nor no occasion to beg and in all Towns there are Schools for little Girls from six years old and upwards to teach them to spin and so to bring their tender Fingers by degrees to spin very fine which being young are thereby easily fitted for that use Whereas People overgrown in age cannot so well feel the Thread Their Wheels go all by the foot made to go with much ease whereby the action or motion is very easie and delightful And in all Towns there are Schools according to the bigness or multitude of the poor Children I will here shew you the way method rule and order how they are Governed First There is a large Room and in the middle thereof a little Box like a Pulpit Secondly There are Benches built round about the Room as they are in our Play-houses upon the Benches sit about two hundred Children spinning and in the Box in the middle of the Room sits the Grand Mistress with a long white Wand in her hand If she observes any of them idle she reaches them a tap but if that will not do she rings a Bell which by a little Cord is fixt to the Box and out comes a Woman she then points to the Offender and she is taken away into another Room and chastised And all this is done without one word speaking And I believe this way of ordering the young Women in Germany is one great cause that the German Women have so little of the twit twat And I am sure it would be well were it so in England And it is clear that the less there is of speaking the more there may be of working In a little Room by the School there is a Woman that is preparing and putting Flax on the Distaffs and upon
Worcester-shire Shropshire Stafford-shire Warwick-shire and Cheshire and there it 's made into Bar-Iron And because of its kind and gentle nature to work it is now at Sturbridge Dudly Wolverhampton Sedgley Wasall and Burmingham and thereabouts wrought and manufactured into all small Commodities and diffused all England over and thereby a great Trade made of it and when manufactured sent into most parts of the World And I can very easily make it appear that in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts and about the Materials that come from thence there are employed and have their subsistence therefrom no less than sixty thousand persons And certainly if this be true then it is certain it is better these Iron-works were up and in being than that there were none And it were well if there were an Act of Parliament for inclosing all Commons fit or any way likely to bear Wood in the Forest of Deane and six Miles round the Forest and that great quantities of Timber might by the same Law be there preserved for to supply in future Ages Timber for Shipping and Building And I dare say the Forest of Deane is as to the Iron to be compared to the Sheeps back as to the Wollen Nothing being of more advantage to England than these two are And if Woods are not preserved in and near the Forest to supply the Works for future Ages that Trade will lessen and dye as to England and betake her self unto some other Nation or Country And now in Worcester-shire Shropshire Stafford-shire Warwick-shire and Derby-shire there are great and numerous quantities of iron-Iron-works and there much Iron is made of Metal or Iron Stone of another nature quite different from that of the Forest of Deane This Iron is a short soft Iron commonly called Cold-shore Iron of which all the Nails are made and infinite other Commodities In which work are employed many more persons if not double to what are employed in the Forest of Deane And in all those Countries the Gentlemen and others have Moneys for their Woods at all times when they want it which is to them a great benefit and advantage and the Lands in most of these places are double the rate that they would be at if there were not Iron-works there And in all these Countries now named there is an infinite of Pit Coals and the Pit Coals being near the Iron and the Iron Stone growing with the Coals there it is manufactured very cheap and sent all England over and to most parts of the World And if the Iron-works were not there the Woods 〈◊〉 all these Countries to the Owners thereof would not be worth the cutting and carrying home because of the cheapness of the Coals and duration thereof I could say something as to Notingham and York-shire 〈◊〉 to Kent and Sussex but I leave that to some other â—en that knows the Countries better than I do And in these Countries now mentioned there are many and vast Commons very natural and fit to bear Wood which at present are of very little use to the publick And for that in these parts there never will be any want of Pit Coals to work and manufacture the Iron when once made into Bars but Woods do much decay and this being a thing of such great benefit to the publick and in the setting of the Poor at work it were well that a Law might pass for inclosing all Commons fit and apt to bear wood which are and lye within twelve Miles of the Town of Sturbridge in the County of Worcester and that in such inclosed Copices there may be provision made to preserve Timber now much wanting in those parts The next Objection is That it was better when there was no Iron made in England But when that was neither I nor the Objector knows For in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts the Iron is made at this day of Cinders being the rough and offal thrown by in the Romans time they then having only foot-blasts to melt the Iron Stone but now by the force of a great Wheel that drives a pair of Bellows twenty foot long all that Iron is extracted out of the Cinders which could not be forced from it by the Roman Foot-blast And in the Forest of Deane and thereabouts and as high as Worcester there are great and infinite quantities of these Cinders some in vast Mounts above ground some under ground which will supply the Iron-works some hundreds of years and these Cinders are they which make the prime and best Iron and with much less Charcoal than doth the Iron Stone And certainly this being so it will be great policy for the Government timely to consider and weigh the great benefit Iron-works are to these plaâ—â—â— and to the Kingdom and People in general and therefore to begin to countenance them in preserving Woods for their continuation and duration The next thing is Iron-works destroy the Woods and Timber I affirm the contrary and that Iron-works are so far from the destroying of Woods and Timber that they are the occasion of the increase thereof For in all parts where Iron-works are there generally are great quantities of Pit Coals very cheap and in these places there are great quantities of Copices or Woods which supply the Iron-works And if the Iron-works were not in being these Copices would have been stocked up and turned into Pasture and Tillage as is now daily done in Sussex and Surry where the Iron-works or most of them are laid down And in Glocester-shire Worcestershire Warwick Salop and Stafford Shires are vast and infinite quantities of Copices wherein there are great store of young Timber growing and if it were not that there could be Moneys had for these Woods by the Owners from the Iron Masters all these Copices would be stocked up and turned into Tillage and Pasture and so there would be neither Woods nor Timber in these places And the Reason is Pit Coal in all these places considering the duration and cheapness thereof is not so chargeable to the Owner of the Woods as cutting and carrying the Woods home to his House And as to making Charcoal with Timber in those parts so much talked of it was and is most notoriously false for Timber in all these parts is worth thirty shillings a Tun and a Tun and three quarters of Timber will but make one Coard of Wood. So let all rational men consider whether an Iron Master will cut up Timber to the value of fifty shillings to make one Coard of Wood when he pays for his Wood in most of these places but seven shillings a Coard Now I have shewed you the two Manufactures of Linen and Iron with the product thereof and all the materials are with us growing and these two Manufactures will if by Law countenanced set all the poor in England at work and much inrich the Country and thereby fetch people into the Kingdom whereas now they depart and thereby deprive the Dutch of these
presently make three Suits of one and fall on the poor Security At last Bayle is put in above then Common-Law-Tryals Demurrers Writs of Error Chancery So Plantif and Defendant many times ruine one the other Whereas if a Bond were Transferable and the property to pass it being a Bond and good Men bound in it this Bond would run from Man to Man from Hand to Hand from one Tradesman to another and so one Bond would pay twenty Men for people at this day would be glad to have payments made them in such Paper rather than go to Law for their own and often undo their Creditor and sometimes themselves to It would be a mighty benefit to Trade and Commerce to have Bonds transfer'd A poor man in England that hath a Thousand pounds in Bonds with good Sureties bound cannot pay one hundred pounds of his Debts with them Our Free-lands being put under a Voluntary Register and the property of Bonds being made Transferable by assignment will be a great profit to the Nation As things are now we have not one fourth part of Moneys sufficient to drive the Trade of England and set up the neglected Fishery improve our own Manufactures and to answer peoples just honest and lawful occasions But if the Free-lands were Registred and Bonds Transferable then we should have three parts in four more Cash than we should have occasion to use For the Land Registred will do what Money now doth and this is credit equal to Moneys and then we shall do what the DVTCH now do never want Moneys to do any great thing But we must submit our selves in all things to his Majesties Gracious Pleasure and Authority Twelfthly It will by its credit be the cause of setting at work all the poor of England in the Linnen and Iron-Manufacture and so convenience the Woollen-Manufacture that it will be as one that were risen from the dead Thirteenthly Consider That the want of a Register will make us in few years like unto a Wheat-rick that hath stood many years when it is opened all the Corn is consumed by Rats and Mice and nothing left but the Straw and Clothings It would be well if those worthy Virtuosoes that intend the good of the Publique and have real intentions to improve Mecanick Arts that they and all such Lords and Gentlemen that wish well thereto with speed would advance a Sum of Moneys to build an University for the Improvement of Art in England and to maintain Six persons continually Travelling to find out such Improvements and the way of bringing them to pass as may be for the real good of the Publique the pattern how to settle such a University for Art they may have from one long since setled near Newringburg in Germany The consequence whereof hath so imyroved the Mecanick-Art in Germany that no place in the World comes near them for Art Considerations upon the advantages and disadvantages of the Manufacturies of Linnen Thred Tape and Twine for Cordage 1. COnsider what quantities of fine Linnens are made in Holland and Flanders and here worn and consumed and how many hands it imploys in work to manufacture it and the great benefit the Dutch gain being the great Masters of that Trade 2. Consider that if these fine Clothes were made here how it would imploy the Poor raise the price of Land and keep our Moneys at home for the Dutch take nothing from us in exchange wherein the benefit is any way considerable to the publick 3. Consider of all course Linnens brought from France as Canvases Lockrums and great quantities of coarse Clothes which have of late years so crouded upon us that it hath almost laid aside the making of Linnen Cloth in England and thereby the people are unimploy'd and the Land lyeth idle and waste 4. Consider the French take nothing of any value from us but it is ready money for their Linnens so we keep their people at work and send them our moneys to pay them for it and our own Poor are unimploy'd But if a Tax were laid upon their coarse Linnen Clothes then what is brought out of France into England would be made here of our own growth to the Nations great enriching 5. Consider the Twine and Yarn ready wrought and brought out of the East-Country to make Sail-Cloth and Cordage which hath taken off the labour of multitude of people in Suffolk and thereabouts and hath so lessened that Trade that it is almost lost But if a Tax were laid upon the threds brought over ready wrought then the labour of all such things would be here to supply our Poor at work and raise the price of our Lands 6. Consider what vast quantities of narrow coarse Clothes come out of Germany down the Elbe Weser and Emes and transported into England and here vented and worn the cheapness whereof hath beaten out the Linnen Trade formerly made in Lancashire Cheshire and thereabouts and carried and sold at London about forty years since it was a very great Trade and tended much to the relief of the Poor in them parts A Tax being laid upon these Easterling Clothes would occasion the reviving of that coarse Cloth-Trade again with us which would set multitudes at work 7. Consider the Foreign Bed-ticking coming hither cheap hath almost destroyed that Trade in Dorcetshire and Somersetshire and so the Spinners are Idle and the Land falls price and in this as in other things we send our Moneys into Foreign parts to keep their Poor at work and support them and here we starve our own and lose that Trade A Tax upon Foreign Bed-ticking would prevent all this 8. Consider the vast and infinite quantities of Thred ready spun that comes down out of Germany into England and here made use of and all the labour of such Threds are there done the Government and People there have the advantage of it and here we make use of them in many of our Commodities It is of late discovered that the cheapness of these Threds will eat out the very Spinning in most parts of England Consider and take this president at Kidderminster in Worcestershire Formerly the Clothiers made use of Linnen-Yarn Spun in that Countrey to make their Lynsey-woolseys but now the cheapness of the Foreign Threds hath put them upon making use of Germany-Yarn in which Town there is One hundred pound a Week in Yarn made use of great quantities of Thred also are used at Manchester Maidstone and in other parts of England to mix with Woollen with infinite other Commodities and all the benefit of the labour of these Threds is applied to Foreigners a Tax being put upon the Threds would put the Wheel to work in England again This is of great consequence to the Publick to be taken into consideration for in this very thing of Spun-yarn no less than Thirty thousand People would be here employed if by Law it were encouraged Considerations upon the Iron Manufacture 1. COnsider That the best
Trade of London and many other parts also The Damage whereof to the City of London Bargemen Country-men and Trade is at least fifty thousand pounds yearly The particulars how I will make out if desired or commanded And it is a misery that the Barges should lye on ground a Month or six Weeks as they did this year and the poor Barge-Masters should be forc't all that time to maintain so many men as of necessity they must besides the Tradesman in London wants the Commodity to sell To the Kings most Excellent Majesty the humble Petition of the Barge-Masters Westward upon the River of Thames and their Servants humbly sheweth THat in the one and twentieth Year of the Reign of King James of blessed Memory there was an Act of Parliament pass'd upon the humble Petition and desire of the City and University of Oxford for making the River of Thames Navigable from the said City to Burcott and for maintaining the same at the charge of the said City and University and by the said Act liberty is given for Bargemen and Water-men to bring Barges and Boats up the said River to carry and recarry all manner of Goods and Merchandises for the good of the City of Oxford and the Publick And of late years the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Windsor and others have made Navigable the River of Avon in the Counties of Worcester Gloucester and Warwick and are about making some other Rivers Navigable which when finished will tend much to the benefit of Trade between Cheshire Shropshire Herefordshire Worcestershire Gloucestershire Staffordshire Warwickshire Oxfordshire Bristol and most part of Wales to London by carrying Commodities down the River Severne and so up the River Avon and from thence to Oxford by Land and so to London by Water whereby the High-ways and Bridges will be preserved and the Goods carried and recarried at two thirds of what they now pay by Land which will be of great advantage to Trade But may it please your Majesty so it is that the River Thames is not as yet made perfectly Navigable as it ought to be and as it was intended by the Act of Parliament whereby the City of Oxford and the rest of your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men are deprived of the benefit intended them by the said Navigation and many times the Barges lye on ground three Weeks or a Month together for want of water which might be prevented by making three Holds for water in the River Sharwell near Oxford to be let down as flushes in dry times as also one Lock to be made at Swift Ditch one pair of Gates at Sutton one Turn-pike a Mile below Sutton with two Flushes to be taken out of the River Kennet with two places to be made for Flushes one near Windsor the other near Chersey all which being done will so plentifully supply the River with water that not only the Barges coming from Oxford and Abington but many other places will have the benefit thereof and bring them clear to London without stay The Premisses considered your Petitioners most humbly pray that your Majeshy will be graciously pleased to appoint Mr. Robert Yarranton a person able in that Affair to survey the defects of the said Navigation and to make Report thereof from time to time to the Commissioners appointed for the same And that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to signify unto the said Commissioners your pleasure that so good a Work may be forthwith perfected according as is directed in the said Act and that your Majesties Subjects and Barge-men may have the benefit of passing and repassing with their Goods and Barges up and down the said River from Oxford to Burcott without paying any Tax or Imposition for the same unless by Law due and that Orders and Rules may be made by the Commissioners for the good and well Governing both of the Navigation Millers and Bargemen as is by the Act directed And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall daily Pray c. When the River Thames is perfectly made Navigable to Oxford as it ought to be then to make the River Sharwell Navigable unto Anslo Bridge will cost about 2500 l. the building of four Granaries each Granary to hold fourteen thousand Quarters of Corn six thousand pounds all Materials being very dear in that place for building of Mills and some Wheels to draw Wire and for other use 500 l. for building of twenty Houses for habitation for persons employed about the Trade and in the Granaries 2000 l. all which is ten thousand pounds which is but one Shilling a piece from each man of the several Companies the Number thereof being two hundred thousand persons as they themselves say If these Granaries were fixt some other Companies may go up the little River to Whitney and build Granaries there and some may go up the Thames as far as Ratcot-bridge and build Granaries there and so the good Corn growing in the heart of England would be applyed to London which will so convenience the people working in the several Manufactures that the Trade will wholly return to the City again for hands being maintained at work with cheap Victuals will make cheap Commodities and cheap Commodities will enlarge Trade I intend to write one Sheet more particularly setting forth the way of bringing the Trade to London again and feeding the Poor with cheap bread and drink which you shall have printed on the one side of a Sheet of Royal Paper and on the other side a Map of the Rivers which will be serviceable to the Design with the places convenient and fit to build Granaries with the Arms of the several Companies in the said Map One of each Map being set in a Frame is intended to be sent to each Hall in London there to receive the opinions of such as the benefit of Granaries is intended for In the multitude of Councellors there is safety Now I must make a step to Westchester and endeavour to find out how the River Dee may be made so Navigable to Bangor-bridge that thereby it may be made communicable with the River Severne In the Month of July 1674. I was prevailed with by a Person of Honour to survey the River Dee running by the City of Chester into the Irish Sea and finding the River choked with the Sands that a Vessel of twenty Tuns could not come to that Noble City and the Ships forc'd to lye at Neason in a very bad Harbour whereby the Ships receive much damage and Trade made so uncertain and chargeable that the Trade of Chester is much decayed and gone to Leverpool and that old great City in danger of being ruin'd if the River Dee be not made Navigable by Act of Parliament and Ships brought to the City I have formerly drawn a Map of the New River to be made to bring up the Ships to the City side which Map was presented to the Duke of York by the Lord Windsor and Colonel Warden and therein
him nineteen for his pains And as great a Bank at Exeter as at Noremberge and give life and strength to the great Wollen Manufacture in all the West of England For no great things can be done without a Bank and no Bank can be of any benefit to Trade and the Publick but where there is a Register And I would have the mistaken world know that a Bank is as safe and practicable in a Kingdom as in a Common-wealth and particularly in an Island that is convenient for Trade And the Reason why it is so is because it is a Bank of Credit not of Cash as is the Chamber of London and the East-India Company whose Treasures are abroad in Trade and increasing and only the Books in the Offices I say it is impossible to keep a Bank from rising in this Kingdom nay many Banks if we were under a voluntary Register But now the Land Credit and the City Bank Credit are both disparaged therefore it is impossible that Trade can any way be secured or bettered And for persons behind-hand and in debt they must expect misery Of late years the monied Men in England sent their Moneys into Lombard-street and there received a Note from a Goldsmiths Boy which was all they had to shew for their Moneys And certainly there was a Reason wherefore the great monied men did take such slender Security for their Moneys The Reason was because the Land Security was so uncertain and bad and it was so troublesome and chargeable getting their Moneys again when they had occasion to use it that forc't them to Lombard-street For two parts in three that put their Moneys into these uncertain Banks know better how to lay their Moneys out in Land Security than any of the banking Goldsmiths or Merchants either But the Land Security being not good the Moneys tumbled into the wrong Channel And all persons that have designs to get considerable Sums of Moneys into their hands for intended designs or hazardous adventures apply themselves to the Money-Bankers and there make their approaches by noble Treats great Offers with large Interest with Country Baronets Knights Esquires and it 's possible some Citizens also for Security and at last creep into the credit of borrowing great Sums of Money upon Land Mortgaged twice or thrice before for in the Country none could be borrowed At length the Banker calls for his Moneys but none can be paid The Banker dares not adventure to sue but all that he dare do is to employ a Lawyer only to whisper not to make a noise or give him some private Duns for if he sues or falls on that would cause the person that credited the Banker to call in his Moneys and so the Banker's Credit would be spoiled therefore all is to be silent and hush The Banker by this time seeth and knoweth his condition now he casts about how to preserve himself from the Storm approaching and it is possible some considerable Creditor by this time spies some bad Bargains made by the Banker and calls in his Moneys His earnestness puts on others to do the like and then all his Creditors crowd to him as Pigs do through a hole to a Bean and Pease Rick Now the Banker stands upon his guard speaks fair to some prevails with others to have patience a while and in the mean time he advises not his Creditors but his own interest Now by the importunity of his Wife and Friends he secures perhaps Two or Three Thousand pounds free from all Peoples approaches Then you shall have him make Offers and prays Time proffers his Books to be surveyed and saith that he will be just and hath husbanded the Moneys with justice and honesty The Books are presented the major part of the Creditors proclaim that there is Estate sufficient to pay all So the minor Creditors must be concluded And then Time is given to pay by degrees and Bond is given for the Payment But by whom Even by the Bankers themselves A brave Security but if their Books were surveyed by Persons that know Men and the Securities that are given it is not to be questioned but Sir Foplin Flutter and Esquire Nipp have good part of the Moneys upon the Mortgages of Lands Mannors and Tenements and great part as easie to be recovered as it is to bring Penmenmoor and Gore Agoluath together being the two great Mountains in North Wales And it is possible that great part of those Moneys are ventured to Sea by Merchants and rather than their Friend the Goldsmith shall suffer he shall shut up Shop and go to Sea with his Merchant and bring home the supposed lost Estate and at his return pay God knows what It is probable that any man that sends his Moneys into any of these Banks will conclude it impossible to employ so great Cash as they are intrusted with any other way than by lending upon Land Security or to Merchants to venture to Sea or to Citizens and others upon Personal Security And if the Cash can be employed no other way then the Lender must conclude the Banker is not able to secure the Moneys but must run the hazard of bad Security by Land and such hazards at Sea as attend Merchants with the badness and uncertainty of Personal Security And it is not to be imagin'd there being such great Cash put into the Bankers hands that they should stand to the loss of all moneys misventur'd by trusting and bad Securities And it must be madness for the Bankers to keep the moneys in their Chests by them unless they intend to keep part for themselves and pay part and then lay the Key under the Door I beg this one question of such Country Gentlemen as have put their moneys into the Bankers hands Whether they do not know better how to lay out their moneys on Land Security than the Bankers do Yes I know they do ten to one better for they partly know Titles that may be indifferent certain and know the Reputations of the Persons better than the Bankers as I have set down before And if there can be no Security given to the Bankers more than I have set down then in the name of God let them that have a mind to proceed further with them go on and prosper if they can But it will be Objected That I am no Friend to the way of Banking as now it is I do profess it and have been of the same mind this ten years last past and have declared before some of the Bankers and many Persons of Quality besides that this way of banking would endanger the Kingdom And when I saw it convenient which was in January last I gave Reasons in Publick Coffee-houses for my Opinion some of the Bankers being present Their way of Dealing I knew and what Security they took which was impossible should run long And as the Land and Personal Security is at this day no living man although never so knowing in the Laws
the ringing of the Bell and pointing the Rod at the Maid that hath spun off her Flax she hath another Distaff given her and her Spool of Thread taken from her and put into a Box unto others of the same size to make Cloth And observe what Advantages they make of suiting their Threads to make Cloth all being of equal Threads First They raise their Children as they spin finer to the higher Benches Secondly They sort and size all the Threads so that they can apply them to make equal Cloaths Whereas here in England one Woman or good Housewife hath it may be six or eight Spinners belonging to her and at some odd times she spins and also her Children and Servants and all this Thread shall go together some for Woof some for Warp to make a piece of Cloth And as the Linen is Manufactured in England at this day it cannot be otherwise And is it not a pity and shame that the young Children and Maids here in England should be idle within 〈◊〉 begging abâ—oâ—d tearing Hedges or robbing Orchards and worse when these and these alone are the people that may and must if ever set up this Trade of making fine Linen here And after a young Maid hath been three years in the spinning School that is taken in at six and then continues until nine years she will get eight pence the day And in these parts I speak of a man that has most Children lives best whereas here he that has most is poorest There the Children enrich the Father but here begger him Joining to this Spinning-School are three more Schools ordered as this spoken of is One is for Maids weaving Bone-lace another for Boys making Toys some cutting the Heads some the Bodies some the Legs the third is for Boys painting the Toys and slit Pictures I know these Questions will be put or asked First Where would you have this Trade settled in England Secondly How shall there be Flax provided for to manage this Trade And Thirdly Where shall be Stock at first and where can we have places to whiten I Answer Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford Shires are the places fit to set up this Manufacture because in these Countries there is at present no Staple Trade and the Land there for Flax is very good being rich and dry wherein Flax doth abundantly delight And I affirm that the Flax that grows in these parts shall do any thing that the German or any other Flax can do provided it be ordered accordingly As to the second and third as to Flax and Stock let each County begin with two thousand Pounds Stock apiece immediately to provide Houses as before set down and employ it as is directed And for places to Whiten near all the great Towns there are Brooks or Rivers where bleeching places may be made in the Lands adjoining as is in Southwark by help of the flowing of the Thames And for Men and Women to Govern the Trade I know in every Country there are Men sufficient to direct and order it I know it will be much inquired into by many why Warwick Leicester Northampton and Oxford-shires should be the places fixed on for the Linnen Manufacture before all other Counties in England I answer there are no Counties in England so capable of making the Commodity so good and so cheap as these First their Land is excellent good to produce Flax. Secondly they are inland Counties and have no staple Manufacture at present fixt with them whereby their poor are idle and want imployment Thirdly they are Counties the best furnished at all times with Corn and Flesh of any Counties in England and at cheapest Rates Fourthly they are in the heart of England and the Trade being once well setled in these Counties will influence their Neighbouring Counties in the same Manufacture in sending their Flax and threads with ease and cheapness down the Rivers Thames Avon Trent and St Eades all which Navigable Rivers come into these Counties And I affirm it is not possible to set up this Trade in any other part of England with success but in these places because in most part of England there are fixt Manufactures already that do in great measure set the poor at work In the West of England clothing of all sorts as in Glocester Worcester Shropshire Staffordshire and a small part of Warwickshire In Derby Nottingham and Yorkshire the Iron and Wollen Manufacture In Suffolk Norfolk and Essex the Wollen Manufacture In Kent Sussex and Surry some Cloth Iron and Materials for Shipping Then to Counties to raise provisions and to vend them at London to feed that great Mouth are Cambridge Huntington Buckingham Hartford Middlesex and Berks. And if you rightly weigh and consider how England is fixed in all parts as to the Growth Trade Manufacture and vending thereof there are no Counties in England that this desirable gainful improvement of the Linen Manufacture possibly can be managed in with the like success as in the forementioned Counties For as Common Honesty is necessary for Trade and without it Trade will decay so any Manufacture fixed in any place where it may be better accommodated thither it will go and so remove from the place where it was first set up and the discouragments it received there many times keep it from fixing any where else About seven or eight years since there was a Proposal of setting up the Linen Manufacture in and near Ipswich a Town of two hundred void houses to be had for little and near the Sea but I coming to that Town was prest hard to give my Opinion whether the Linen Trade might be there set up with success After I had rid about the Town as far as Cattaway Bridge and observed the Influence that the Colchester Trade had there as also the Stuff and Say Trade whereby the Poor were comfortably supplyed I then found it was impossible to go on with success and gave my reasons upon which all was laid aside and my reasons approved of I did also acquaint one of the Grandees of the Linen Trade at Clarken-well that that Trade would eat out its own Bowels Stock and Block would come to nothing And so it shall do in the Countries I name and in all other places in the World being a new Manufacture unless the Publick Authority take care and cherish it for at least seven years The way how I will set down when I have finished my Discourse of this and the Iron Manufacture for it is as fit to be done for the incouragement of the Iron Manufacture as for the Linen Manufacture And observe I pray you these Counties I now name for the Linen Manufacture employ more hands at work by their growth than any eight Counties of England do by the growth of theirs and all employed abroad in other Counties not in their own And the great cause of Strength and Riches to England are those great quantities of Wool which grow in their
the Room where the Flax is with Fire in it in all moist times which keeps the Flax dry and prevents Moistness which is another great cause which makes it so fine I have seen Flax in Saxony twenty years old thus hous-wife't which was as fine as the hairs of ones head It is true there what the old saying is here That Wooll may be kept to Dirt and Flax to Silk And as to the Second It is true that their Hollands and Clothes are whitened at Haerlem and by the very sides of the Lake and Cuts are conveniently made and the Lake is much of a height at all times and so it feeds the Cuts with water that with ease they may Sprinkle the Clothes as there is Occasion also it is well fitted with Houses by the sides of the Cuts to boyl the Yarn and prepare it the sooner to be white These are good things and by the situation of the Place and conveniency of the Mere it doth much advance the business Rich Merchants are there seated that drive great Trades and there they have a Bank and their Moneys at three in the Hundred But as to Haerlem Lake it is subject to be mixed with Salt-water which is brought in the Ships daily from Amsterdam and there pumpt out into the Lake And all that can be said for that Water being better than any other Water in Holland is this that it continually stands in a Pool or Lake and by the influence and heat of the Sun is made soft and so very fit for scouring and the like is not in any part of Holland else But in England we have many places very fit and by Nature convenient and with a little Art as good as Haerlem if not better And for Instance take two places one at Stratford upon Avon the other at Coventry At Stratford upon Avon near the Bridge in the Lands of Sir John Clapton by virtue of the Mills pounding high or at a rise of Water he may lead the Water along his own Land until it come so high that no Flood will reach There Cuts may be made in his Land and Houses built with spare pieces to bleech the Cloth on the Water being taken into the Cuts about the end of March and so continued therein whereby the heat of the Sun will more and more soften and fit it for bleeching The second place is Coventry Almost round the City the Lands and Waters lye so convenient that it exceeds Haerlem for Haerlem Lake lyeth but upon one Quarter of the Town and the Waters lye at Coventry about three parts of that Town And I am sure Coventry ought to be the chiefest place of this intended Linen Manufacture and in few years would exceed Haerlem God and Nature having fixed them right for it both as to Land fit to bear Flax good whitening a large City in the very Centre of England and their Woollen Manufacture being now wholly decayed And in this City a Bank by virtue of a voluntary Register is absolutely necessary and then the Gentlemen in the four Counties named may make their Sons Linen Merchants and thereby be a means to help to beat the Dutch without fighting I have been something long upon this Theme because I hope and believe I may see something of the Improvement by the Linen Trade come to pass But some other Questions will here be asked As who incouraged you to make this Discourse of the Linen Improvement and who paid you for your pains in travelling to find the things here writ I answer I was an Apprentice to a Linen Draper and so I knew something of Linen and finding the Poor unimployed I with my Wife did promote the making of much fine Linen with good success And being employed and my Charges born by twelve Gentlemen of England to bring into England a Manufacture out of Saxony and Bohemia made of Iron and Tin there I did see what I here set down and in Holland and Flanders I tryed and observed their way and manner of Trade in the Linen Manufacture All which take you for nothing The second Manufacture to be incouraged to set the poor people at work being the growth and product of our own Kingdom is that of Iron But now I am sure I shall draw a whole Swarm of Wasps about my Ears For say some and many too who think themselves very wise it were well if there were no Iron-works in England and it was better when no Iron was made in England and the Iron-works destroy all the Woods and foreign Iron from Spain will do better and last longer And I have heard many men both Rich and Sober often declare these things and it hath been and is the opinion of nine parts of ten of the people of England that it is so and by no arguments whatever will they be beat from the belief of it although there is not one word true As to the First The Iron works at present in England are of the same value and I believe much more to the publick than the Woollen Manufacture is and is the cause of imploying near as many people and much more Lands for Horses and Oxen to carry and recarry those heavy commodities of which the Iron is made and the Iron and the things made of the Iron Therefore I will take the Kingdom half round and shew you what the Iron works do contribute to the Publick and to the whole Countries And First I will begin in Monmouth-shire and go through the Forest of Dean and there take notice what infinite quantities of Raw Iron is there made with Bar Iron and Wire and consider the infinite number of Men Horses and Carriages which are to supply these Works and also digging of Iron Stone providing of Cinders carrying to the Works making it into Sows and Bars cutting of Wood and converting it into Charcoal Consider also in all these parts the Woods are not worth the cutting and bringing home by the Owner to burn in their Houses And it is because in all these places there are Pit Coals very cheap Consider also the multitude of Cattel and People thereabouts employed that make the Lands dear And what with the benefit made of the Woods and the People making the Land dear it is not inferior for Riches to any place in England And if these Advantages were not there it would be little less than a howling Wilderness I believe if this comes to the hands of Sir Baynom Frogmorton and Sir Duncomb Colchester they will be on my side Moreover there is yet a most great benefit to the Kingdom in general by the Sow Iron made of the Iron Stone and Roman Cinders in the Forest of Dean for that Metal is of a most gentle pliable soft nature easily and quickly to be wrought into Manufacture over what any other Iron is and it is the best in the known World and the greatest part of this Sow Iron is sent up Severne to the Forges into
and some Upholsterers consulted how to bring the Kidderminster Trade to be good to both it being a Trade that is much debased and spoiled by the Factors and having brought it near to pass the best of the Factors sent Letters to the Clothiers and acquaints them that the Stuffs may be made elsewhere as well as there and much more which did so affright the Clothiers that they durst not agree to fix their Trade in two hands although it might have been Five or six thousand pounds a year in the Trades way Dr. Doth any one know this besides you Cl. Yes all the Town will tell you it is so and I can bring you to a Man in London can tell you the whole Story who treated the Upholsterers and got two Merchants to lend the Trade Five or six thousand pounds to help to drive the Trade that so it might be done with profit and ease Dr. Well old Friend I do believe you for Kidderminster Factors have spoiled the Weavers and the Upholsterers Trade as our Blackwell-hall Factors Packers and Drawers have spoiled your Trade and ours Cl. Indeed Sir it is even so and what can such a one as I do seeing a whole Town stand in fear of Three or four Factors Dr. Friend you know when you and I dealt together first when I. A. was a good Clothier and I. of Leck a good Wool-man it was not so then the Factors were your Servants and the Packers and Drawers were ours Will you Clothiers joyn with us Drapers to see if we can reduce the Trade to the old good condition it was in formerly Cl. I will with all my heart and so will all the Clothiers in our Country too I will undertake for them for we are almost at Beggars-bush and we cannot tell how to help our selves And our Trade grows worse and worse we make no profit of our Commodities Coun. Gentlemen I understand you are discoursing of your Trade of making Cloth and selling Cloth as I have club'd with you for Supper so I pray let me club a little with you in Discourse for I am as highly concerned in the thing you Discourse of as you are for every Acre of my Land rises price according as the Woollen Manufacture flourishes If Wool be dear my Tenants Wife and Children have work in Spinning and Carding and Rent's paid at the day and none left in arrears And then we have a merry Sheep-sheering and with Two years Wool I can Marry Jugg or Bess Dr. Sir You speak like one that hath a Fellow-feeling in our misery I shall be and am very heartily glad of your good company and shall with this old Friend of mine joyn in any thing that may be for all our goods so as the publick good of the Wool Cloth and Trade may be advanced Coun. Sir I shall do as much as I can but you must know we in the Countrey are ignorant men and do not know how to do much but we know where the Shooe pinches us My Brains shall go with yours a Wool-gathering this one bout Cl. Friend I am glad we have so happily met with this honest Country-man I hope we may amongst us Three consider after one Bottle more is off how things may be mended what say you Country man will you make one with us in so good a work Coun. Pray what Country-man are you I live at Salisbury Indeed a fine Town of Trading in the Woollen Manufactures but much decayed of late years What Country-man is this Gentleman your Friend He lives at London Well must he Dr. Come Country-man what say you will you make one with us Coun. I will not joyn with the Salisbury Clothier for I thought all Clothiers had of late removed to Tanton-Dean and there-abouts because that place is under a Register and Moneys may be had at Five in the Hundred at any time to drive their Trades with ease comfort and profit Dr. Sir I confess they are at a loss and yet they have the wisest Bishop of late that hath been there a great while and some good things have been doing of late for that City as making the River Avon Navigable and they are preparing to come under a Register and all the Free-land within Ten miles of the City likewise Cl. Look you there Country-man you talk of Tanton-Dean under a Register you see Salisbury and Ten miles round is to be under a Register likewise Coun. Now I am well satisfied with corresponding with the Clothier Salisbury hanging Register fashion that is a bit I love Dr. Come come now let us fall too and consider of some good things to advance the Woollen Manufactures I will acquaint the Drapers and you must the Clothiers and you the Country-men and so every one use his interest with the Authority to amend what is amiss Coun. Hold hold you drive too fast there is a snake in the Bush although I live in the Country yet I come to London sometimes and at the Coffee-houses I heard strange News which made me stare And now we are to set forward so good a work let us see how to clear the foundation and take away the Rubbish Dr. Pray Sir what is the strange News you hear at Coffee-houses It is generally idle Twit twot Discourse not worth ones minding Coun. I heard at the Rainbow Coffee-house That the people in and near London have of late years lent about One hundred thousand pounds without Interest for Four years to be imployed in the Woollen Manufacture near Conmell in Ireland and by the strength of that Moneys to carry away our people out of the West of England into Ireland and there make Cloth and Stuffs and when made then carried to Spain France Holland and Germany And there with cheap Wool and cheap Victuals Manufactured and so do mighty things Cl. You live in London and you know whether there be any such thing as this is if it be so we Clothiers may go hang our selves Moneys without Interest for Four years cheap Wool and cheap Beef carried to Holland together and made Cloth there If this be so I 'le never weave more I will burn my Beam and run away by the Light Dr. No no Old Friend our Country-man is under a mistake be not in such a passion he told you he heard so in a Coffee-house Cl. I pray Sir is there any thing like it for there cannot be such a smoke as this is and no fire Dr. I will tell you what the thing is he means There are a certain number of persons who they say have imployed some such Sum as is spoken of to set up the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland and indeed now it comes into my mind I remember I have heard of their taking over many People out of the West of England and sending the Cloth and Stuffs when made to Holland and Germany and also Wool and Beef with it Cl. I pray had they the Moneys without interest for Four years to do
it had been Five hundred Nobles in my way and my Fathers Now we shall make cheap-Cloth pay nothing to the poor set all a-work and carry our Cloth to Christ-Church by Water and so for Sea and pay nothing to Lawyers and have Moneys when we want it We will agree quarterly with the Parrator that will be but little Come Boys a brave Trade again Come here 's three Healths in good SACK here is our Countrey-mans Health Here 's a Health to the Man that makes the Wind-Mill and a Health to him that brings this Voluntary Register to Town Come Landlady to pay and to Bed a good days work I trow Dr. Nay hold Old Friend I must be gone early in the Morning therefore let us agree where to meet in London to set forward the good things we now so warmly have treated upon for if we do not follow it close all this will come to nothing Interest will not lie every Man will be for his own Interest Cl. I am glad you say Interest will not lie Then I am sure you Clothiers and we Drapers and all the Gentlemen in England their Interest is to set the poor at work to have their Lands rise Rents and be at Thirty years purchase and to have a great Trade Well we will meet at the Booksellers house that prints our Discourse and then draw up what is fit to be done So farewel honest Countrey-man for to night Dr. Good morrow good morrow Gentlemen I hope you have slept well to Night Cl. Slept well no for I did not sleep at all for I have abundance of Wind-Mills in my Noddle now sufficient to send all the Clothiers in our Town and many more to Holland and Germany whither as I understand several of them are packing already but that way will never do our business to carry cheap Wool and cheap Victuals into Germany and Holland out of Ireland and there make it into Cloth and sell it there to whom they please and a Register and a Bank and Moneys at Four in the hundred and Mills in Barges to thicken the course Cloths by the very Town-side and Wind-Mills to thicken and full our fine Clothes nor will it do our work to sort and chuse out the best Wool in Ireland and send it to Holland and Germany with good Beef Butter and Cheese Irish-Tongues and Tallow to light us to work by Nights and to have good part of the course Wool spun in Ireland and brought over to us in Yarn ready to Weave and to set on Foot on the out-sides of our Town the making of Beudley-capes for they are made of Irish-Wool and then sent into Holland to be Sold and I hope Wool from Ireland and cheap Victuals with it will do that business well there and all the Stuffs that are for hangings now made at Kidderminster shall be made in Holland with Irish-Wool and spun Linnen-Yarn out of Saxony and Bohemia for they make these Stuffs of Irish-Wool and German-Yarn and I am sure some of the people of these Towns will quickly go away Another trick there is of carrying Fullers-earth from Woborne to Lynn in Norfolk as they pretend and then Ship it to be carried to the Clothiers in the West And when at Sea a West-wind blows the Ship into Flushing in Zealand And we will have more Fullers-earth carried from Arundel in Sussex to Portsmouth or to Chichester and there Ship'd to secure the Clothiers in the North of England And when that Ship is over against Hull a West-wind shall blow her over to the Brill or into the Texel into Holland And these two Ladings of Earth with a little that shall be brought over for Ballast for Ships will do mischief enough For Trade will go where it is most encouraged and where the Merchant and Clothier can get most by it Dr. True old Friend these tricks there are and there are bad men enough that will be apt enough to leave the Land where they were born but let us see to help these matters For if you should be one of them all the Poor of the Countrey will be bound to curse you and so will the Rich too for we have had men bad enough of our own Trade but it will not become me to name Persons who have provoked many Clothiers to sell their estates and Transport themselves into the lower Palatinate and other parts of Germany and there set up the Clothing-Trade which hath already quite spoiled our Course-Cloth-Trade Eastward and the Trade at Hamborough too for if their Trade be spoil'd in England they must try if they can make it out somewhere else as in Ireland Holland and Germany c. Cl. Well Friend for the conclusion of this Discourse we have no more to do but to endeavour the redress of these grievances as far as in duty we may and humbly to represent to Authority the great advantage it may be to the publick to prevent the carrying of Fullers-earth out of the Land To provide that all Factors Packers and Drawers may be put in their proper places That the illegal Transportation of Wools may be hindred and the Trade of Ireland regulated It would be of great ease and advantage if our Western Clothes might be Transported from Plymouth beyond the Seas to save the charge of carrying them to London Many other particulars might be added but this for the present till we meet next NOW I have discovered to you the way manner and method of setting all the Poor in England at work with the growth and product of our own Nation with the particular means for bringing the same to pass And Places assigned for the doing thereof with the scituation and conveniences that are by God and Nature fixt in these Counties Next I will shew you That by the means and ways hereafter prescribed all the poor people that are imployed in these Manufactures shall be in the same Counties fed with Bread sufficient without any charge to the Publick and thereby the Commodities will be Manufactured cheap The like benefit and advantage infinite of the poor People of England in other parts will receive by the way here-after set down taken exactly from the same things done in other places whereby they work cheap and send infinite of their Manufactured Commodities into many parts of the World And were they not fixt in these places beyond the Seas in those Manufactures and Policies the Princes of those Countries and their subjects would be strangely poor My design now is to speak of Granaries to hold Corn and to be fill'd in the time of plenty and the advantage they are of being well fixt in convenient places with the benefit the Poor will receive by them and the Rich also And where ever Trade and Manufacture is intended to be set on foot so as to bring it to perfection Granaries must be made and built in places convenient to answer the ends designed The Great Duke of Saxony hath three great Manufactures
from whence issue these delightful Golden Streams of Banks Lumber-houses Honour Honesty Riches Strength and Trade You may read in Sir William Temples Book of his Observations of the Nether-lands this Expression When the States send to Persons who have lent them Moneys to come and receive their Moneys and Interest saith he they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it longer And the Reason is they know the Security is good And when ever they give Notice they will take up a Sum of Moneys there is great striving who can get in his first But you will say I talk that Gentlemen of England cannot have Moneys for Land It is not so And that I say Lawyers know no Titles I ought to have my pate crackt for money is plentiful and Lawyers are cunning enough to spy out good Titles As to both I would it were true for the sake of the poor Gentlemen and the Lawyers too But as to the greatest part of them that have Thousand pounds a year the World knows they are so far from borrowing Four thousand pounds that they cannot borrow Four hundred pounds and I dare say some Lords also Nay to my knowledge three eminent Lawyers have been put to much charge and trouble in their Estates lately purchased by them in Montgomery Hereford and Worcester Shires by reason of former Incumbrances Now if an Eminent Lawyer cannot purchase an Estate without so much trouble hazard and charge upon a Title settled at least fifty years ago by all the Judges of England and in the Exchequer-Chamber upon what Security can the Bankers be understood to lay out their Money safe And the poor Country-men are yet in a worse condition I will now shoot a Granado into London not to fire them but I hope 't will make them look about them and enquire after the Engineer and demand how such combustible matter can be made and do good and no harm and how it may be fixt so that Lumbard-street and thereabouts may both preserve and encrease their Credit I will now shew you the Condition of London as at present it stands and how it would have been if the Houses new built had been by Law to be Registerd at Guild-Hall Admit the Green Dragon Tavern in Fleet Street were mine and Set at One hundred pounds a year and I owe six hundred pounds and go to the Scriveners and desire them to lend me six hundred pounds upon the Green Dragon Tavern I Shew them the Purchase of the Ground Rent the Patent from the Judges taken in and all other Titles bought I presume I cannot have the Six hundred pounds upon my house but I must give great Security for my Covenants I present such Security as I can get which will not be accepted Now for want of this six hundred pounds on a sudden to pay my Debts I am undone Wife Children and many more whom I owed moneys to my Goods seized my House taken from me and it 's possible a Prison too or a Statute of Bankrupt taken out to the Ruine of all But if it had been foreseen when the Act past for the building the City that there had been put into the Bill these few Lines Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty c. That all Houses which shall hereafter be new built in and near the City of London destroyed by the late dreadful Fire may if they please he Registred by the Owners at the Guild-Hall within the City of London And all such Houses so Registred shall be a good Title to the Party Registring such Houses and shall Barre all persons whatsoever The King not Excepted Provided there be no Claym entred within six Months next after the Registring of such House and Houses And such Clayms as are entred shall be proceeded upon in the said City and no where else in due form as the Law directs And if this had been done I then go to any Scrivener that deals that way and desire to borrow a Thousand pounds on the Green Dragon Tavern in Fleetstreet being Rented at One hundred pounds a year there will be then no more to be done but their Servant is sent to the Guild-Hall to see whose the Green Dragon Tavern is and he brings word it is mine There is no more ado I say but the Thousand pounds is told out and I give Security for it by a Mortgage put into the Register of my House Then I go and pay my Debts prevent Law-suits preserve my self Wife Children and Reputation and all is well And that which is best of all the Party lending the Moneys is safe well and surely secured It is possible great part of the Thousand pounds lent might be the Moneys of poor Widows and Orphans here are both to the Lender and borrower great Advantages To the one there is undeniable Security and to the other present Relief upon all occasions The wanting whereof hath been the ruine of some thousand Families since the firing of London And this is that which will encrease and enliven Trade and the Houses Registred will be equal with ready Moneys at all times according to the value of the Houses And if this we treat on had been done there needed not one House to stand empty and untenanted as now they do nor the Trade to depart out of the City as it hath done since the Fire I desire and heartily wish that the Governours of the City would prepare a Bill against the next Sitting of Parliament to put the new Buildings under a Register I will not Prophesie that a Bank shall rise in London equal with that of Amsterdam London being put under a voluntary Register but I will make it out when ever the Heads of the City please to desire it That if London with the Free Lands of Middlesex Essex Kent and Surrey were under a voluntary Register two of the Ridings of Yorkshire Lincolneshire Suffolk and Norfolk were under another voluntary Register Glocestershire Somersetshire and Monmouthshire under another voluntary Register and Devonshire under another then there would be as great a Bank at London as at Amsterdam and would be able to do much more in Trade Credit and all great things than they can and as great a Bank at Bristol as at Hamburgh and would be able to drive as great a Trade and set up the neglected and I may say decayed Trade of Fishing upon the Coast of Wales and Ireland and as great Banks at the two Towns of Lynne in Norfolk and at Hull in Yorkshire and drive as good a Trade as at Dantzick and enliven the Clothing Trade now brought very low and set on foot that great and desirable Rich Trade of Fishing on their Coasts which so advantageously offers it self O yes O yes O yes what is become of the Moneys given voluntarily for the setting forward this good work of Fishing about twelve years since If any one will help me to the twenty shillings I gave I will give