Englands Glory BY THE Benefit of Wool Manufactured therein from the Farmer to the Merchant and the Evil Consequences of its Exportation Unmanufactured Briefly Hinted With Submission to better Judgments THere is no King nor Prince in the World known by experience or upon Record that hath such means to support their Splendour and Greatness as his Majesty of great Britain nor has any Country or Nation such variety of staple Commodities within it self and in such abundance as hath the Kingdom of England which are said by some to be a Hundred Native Commodities which produceth a Thousand sorts of Manufactures So that if those advantages were duly improved England might be a general Mart for the whole World and then by consequence be the glory thereof That those advantages are not improved is too too obvious to all that look into it by the sore complaints that are frequently made of the great proverty and decay thereof and indeed which is worst of all by that general desperation of spirit which will not put forth a hand to help support or prevent the total desolation of our Country upon a prepossest opinion that all endeavours will be rendred fruitless and abortive The consideration whereof hath greatly prompted me who must confess my self the meanest of Thousands more concerned to use the utmost of my little skill and unwearied diligence though but as the Womans mite to the right management of so great an undertaking that the threatned ruine of all may be prevented and of possible some good part of what is lost may be recovered And whereas many have taken in hand to set forth these things some treating of one thing and other of another which if all was collected and harmonized it might very much conduce to the promoting of this weighty affair of so publick a value I shall confine my self to those things only whereof I have had not only credible information but a considerable though a sad experimental knowledge and in a more particular and especial manner that of Wool and of its Manufacture and Consequences which amongst many is the Richest Treasure in his Majesties Dominions the flower strength and sinews of this Nation a Land uniting the People into Societies for their own Utility it is the Milk and Honey to the Grazier and Country Farmer the Gold and Spices of the East and West Indies to the Merchant and Citizens the continued supply of Bread to the Poor and in a word the Exchequer of wealth and staple of protection to the whole both abroad and at home and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance defence and encouragement for the most advantageous improvement thereof The Wools of England before it was manufactured within it self have ever been of great account and esteem abroad sufficiently testified unto by the great amity which it begat and for many Hundred Years inviolably maintained between the King of England and Dukes of Burgundy only for the great benefit that from that Commodity did accrew to that People insomuch that the English Wools they receiv'd at 6 d. per Pound they returned again through their industrious manufacture thereof in Cloth at 10 s. per Yard to the great inriching of that State both in the advancement of the Revenues of their Soveraign and in a full employment thereby continued among the People whereby the Merchants of this Nation were occasioned as a People unwilling to be wholly dispriviledged of so great a benefit to transport themselves with their Families in great numbers into Flanders from whence they held a constant Commerce with most parts of the World this continued without intermission between England and Burgundy until King Edward the 3d. made his mighty Conquests over France Scotland and as a suitable improvement of so great a mercy did wisely project and also accomplish the manufacture of Wools within the Bowels of this Kingdom to the great inriching of his own People and also to the Peopling of his new Conquered Dominions the memory of whose wisdome and care for his People is worthy to be had in remembrance by English Men unto the Worlds end The said King having thus setled the manufacture of Wools within the Kingdom of England confined it by a penal Statute which at first reached not only to Goods Chattels and Land but also to Members and Life it self but in a short time repealed the two latter thereof continuing the other in its full force to remain to future Generations which exceeding great advantage to the prosperity of the English Trade hath now continued these Three Hundred Years by the vigilancy of the Kingdoms Monarchs and the protection of its Laws in the continued careful execution thereof upon offenders with more than a little diligence to provide against the thirsting desires of Foreiners to wrest this Native priviledge of so great a moment out of English hands which by the providence of God through the great care of our Ancestors has been for many Ages enjoyed by the Nation as it is indeed its proper right But so it is that for some years past the diligence of Foreiners to enrich themselves upon us has so much exceeded our care to preserve our selves that it 's now come to if not beyond a question Who have the greatest benefit of the manufacture of English Wools they who have no right unto it or they to whom of right it doth belong That this is indeed so will appear by considering that not only Holland Flanders and Zealand have long sucked the sweetness of the sinews of our Trade but France is likewise learning to be too hard for us as is manifest by the great quantities of Wools that of late years have been transported from England and Ireland thither how injurious it must be to us is also unquestionable if we consider the consequence thereof which was without question much in the Eye of our Ancestors as appeares by what is above hinted in Edward the 3ds time and in several Kings Reigns since Every Pack of Wool sent to France doth prevent us not only of the benefit of the manufacture thereof but of two Packs more besides it self viz. Thus it being combing and combed Wool for the most part exported thither the French having no Wools of their own but such as are very course are not able to make Cloth or fine Stuff without the conjunction of ours therewithall there being none to my best information fit for that purpose in all the World but ours only all other being likewise course but Spanish and that much too fine especially for Worsted Stuffs and not in any wise fit for combing so that without English or Irish Wools there can be no fine Worsted Stuffs nor a middle sort of Cloth made in the whole World neither will any Wools be well mixed together but English and Spanish only for Cloth because the Spanish is with the English of one nature being formerly English Sheep though now much finer from the
of wealth coming from the Levant Seas And how the other of them hath established the rich Trades of Silks Spices Jewels c. In the Southern parts of the world is by all Admired though by none to be valued and what strength of shipping these two Companyes have produced as they have been wonderful so they have been formedable to all Nations what Contribution the Cloathing Trade with Spain and France hath given to Englands maritin power is by those Countrys themselves feared as well as by England found to its great security And as these unvaluable blessings have befallen England by the Trade of Cloathing politickly and providently drawn into Societies Companyes and Corporations so the loose Transactions of Trade in other for the Countreys have rendered them so poor at Sea as were it not shipping of England and Holland the very life of Commerce would perish would return to the same Wilderness uselessness as it is now in Greenland and the West-Indies where civil Government hath not once been heard of Again If comparison be made for richness of Trade between Cloathing and any or all other substances of Merchandises whereby any Nation but more especially England may be enriched neither the Silks nor Furs nor Wines nor Spices nor Bullion it self or all other Countreys can render that account of its own or can in proportion equalize England in Cloathing Food Shipping Strength of people and wealth of money About the Manufactureing of Wool THat this rich Treasure in it self of far more worth than the Golden Mines of India to England is so much degenerated or adulterated in the Manufactureing thereof by many of the Manufactors some of which wanting skill others principles of honesty the Laws in that case being so much neglected in England and want of some new Laws for the new Drapers hath occasioned the woollen Manufacture to be rendered contemptible both at home and abroad and so much the more or the rather because the Dutch Flemins and it is feared in time the French also do by care and industry indeavour to excel our English the consequence is to loose our English Trade and this principally by a liberty taken so that honest and conscientious persons come to dammage by some others false way of gains according to Mr. Childes third head in that of Trade and Interest that the Advantage the Dutch have of us in all their Native Commodities is their exactness by which meanes their creat is so that it is taken by its contents and ours not which is very advantageous which is done by the qualifications of those persons that have the oversight and are intrusted in that affair which is not done in England but generally the contrary In general all States and Common-wealths are supported by two providential works viz. Reward and Punishment for as no Law can compel men to be corporally laborious or studious in knowledge literature unless rewards be annexed to all such compulsion so no providence can attend the preservation of profitable designes either in Learning or Trade unless such punishments be enjoyned This opinion that profound Senator Cicero alledgeth from Solon one of the seven wise Graecians and the only man of them which gave Lawes and this is the weak and frail Estate of men and Nations that unless they be as well encouraged in their endeavours as punished in their misdemeanors they will speedily become Libertines and ruin all as is too too much feared in this case in England at this day and as before about the Wool so the working for the greatest part hath been confined to England this three hundred years and untill these late years has been so preserved by the diligence of such Officers as have been ordained and impowered carefully to see the Manufactures kept under those rules which the Laws have provided for their perfection and seeing this Nation is by God peculiarised in these two blessings viz. Wools and Manufactures and through the vigilancy of its Monarches safe guarded by Laws that the native Manufactures might not be undermined by the practices of Foreiners their ancient providence exacts from the present age the same preservation as before in the Wool that the Dutch do not undermine us out of all Again we may be taught by their diligence who though they have few or no native Commodities yet are rich and thriving and we who have all are poor and decaying at least the Country who spare no attendance in overseeing and searching the true makeing of their Manufactures as above for their exactness giving therefore power and Commissions to persons of more than ordinary worth amongst them whom they call cure or care Masters to see every thing according to the Law and wherever they find a defect they make a default upon the Cloath which first is recompensed by a fine to the State for abusing the Laws and afterward remains to admonish the buyer who thereby may guard his purse and in case the Cloathier be abused by any of his Work folks he checks his dammage upon the true offender in his wages Now in England there is so much the contrary that many persons take liberty for want of a regular or legal course followed either for time or forme in working there is not any of the Relations to Cloathing which doth observe such an exact rule of Apprentiship which is not the least cause that the Manufactures of Wool are so abusively and deceptiously made in England notwithstanding it is enjoyned in very strict and penal manner by the Statute Lawes the chief inconveniences of which is that the Trade so general in use and maintenance of even numberless Families doth by its own vast exorbancy convert into Corruptions and so those great multitudes of people become discredited beggered and finally ruined to the destruction of themselves and the Nation which gave them so great a Blessing Another prejudice and not the least is that the Nation which hath given them being and invested them with such materials for Cloathing is dishonered by false and abusive works And it is not a little scandal to that Nation which God hath perticularly endowed with those blessings which others want when its people shall divert those good things which God hath bestowed upon it to evil and deceptious practises In this consideration it is observable by some how little comparitively is the Drunkenness of those Countrys which produce Wines and wherein lies their personal riches and their Nations Honour though their other sins may sufficiently swell their ultimate account yet doubtless it strengthens their last Apology in that they abuse not that endowment which God hath made the original of their Being and Subsistance Another consideration is the Cheat it puts upon all the world for though every Country hath not the benefit of the Manufacture in themselves yet are there few of them condemned to such ignorance as not to discern the Couzenage which false Cloathing puts upon them in which case to the aforesaid
alteration of the Climate and the nature of the Land whereon it is fed as by good experience appeareth here in England both neer and at a farther distance Wherefore the exportation of English Wools into France must of necessity be greatly prejudicial to this Nation not only in the quantity sent over but also in the advantage which is thereby given them to manufacture a double portion of their own Wool which formerly was little worth into such commodities as spoyls us of the a vantage of our proper Trade not only thither but also into other parts viz. in these three respects First The combed of the English Wool makes Wooffe for the Warpes of the French Wool and so takes up it may be as much as the quantity above specified to every Pack of English Wool without which they can only with their Wool make Rugs and at the best Cloth for Sea-men and the like 2dly Their combings or pinnions viz. the short Wool that 's combed out of the Worsted serves for their Linnen warp to make some of their Druggets because their Linnen being fine spun and coloured is not discernable to all Persons to be that we call Linsie Woolsie 3dly The finest short English Wool is mixed with the lowest of Spanish Wool called short Wool for some of their best Druggets that is woove for Worsted Chanies and also for a middle sort of Broad-cloth about 10 s. or 12 s. per Yard This is the cause I judg that short Spanish Wool is so scarce here in England Now if we consider these things together the dammage of the exporting of this one Pack from England to France at about 10 l. or 12 l. Sterling preventing the manufacturing of two Packs more in England which would be worth one 100 l. Englands loss in the whole by the exportation of a Pack of Wool is little less than 90 l. in its first exportation moreover considering the Custom paid when exported if manufactured in England with the Frait and Custom where it is imported the product of all these charges augmenting the 100 l. when sold there laid out in another commodity beyond Sea the Custom whereof being paid there with Frait and Custom when imported in England it 's much if it do not more than double the first principal Now if it be so that the exportation of one Pack of English wool exported at 10 l. or 12 l. be neer 200 l. dammage to the King and Kingdom in general is the consequence what will be the loss in the exporting of 10. or 15 Thousand Packs into France in two Years time is easily accounted by such as are concerned in the affaires And although this evil is almost incredible to many yet it is too manifest to such as have made something their business to look into it and not only so but these further inconveniences must by this means arise upon us First The spoyling of our Trade with France in all our Woollen manufactures as doth already appear by the Impost put upon the same there from 20. to 40. per Cent. since so great quantitie of our VVools is exported thither whereunto woful experience may be a sufficient witness And secondly In time it will capacitate the French as well as the Dutch if not much better to under-sell our English Merchants in Forrein Parts nay possibly in our own Country to this I shall only mention the words of a Merchant in Flanders by Letter to another here treating on this matter thus We English have our throats cut with our own Weapons wondering at the stupidity of the English here that they should so long omit to possess the King's Majesty with this deplorable and dangerous case in respect to the present and future inconveniences thereof by reason whereof as in time the French will not only prevent our English woollen manufactures to be sold in France as before minded and also in other Forrein Parts but also bring theirs into England and sell them for four times the value here to the great inriching of themselves and to the impoverishing of the English only by new fantastick sopperies for which the English pay not less than some hundred thousands in a year to get themselves into the French mode So much indeed have we been deceived in this matter to our shame as well as to our apparent loss that whereas in time of the late War with the Dutch and French those French Druggets were thereby much prevented many English striped broad-cloths rent through into three parts about 10 s. per Yard price being put into the form of French Druggets were sold in each part at 8 s. per Yard and so in the whole came to 1 l. 4 s. per Yard So likewise it is certainly true that many of those Druggets made here in England goe for French and in order thereunto directed to French Men in some of our Southern parts have from thence been conveighed unto London and there sold for French Goods to have coloured the business with the Custom-house Officers to save the Custom of French Druggets And this continued long before the cheat could be discovered but being once found out by the Clothier who could not to his own private advantage conceal such an apparent injury to his Country it was soon prevented whereby we may come to see with clearness the advantage that that People makes upon our English fansies by over-selling us in the same kind of commodities that they make out of our English Wools joyned as before minded with their own having also an advantage thereunto by the cheapness of the manufactures thereof beyond what we can do the French being very populous and living harder than we can in England as is evident by their Linnens that Paying Fraight and Custom with profit to the Merchant yet can be afforded cheaper than can be made in England But so it is that the advantage we give them besides in the mixture of our Wools with theirs is such that whereas their Wool of it self is not worth above 4 l. per Pack being mixed with ours becomes so fit for Worsted Stuffes as that it comes to be worth no less than 12 l. per Pack So that all those things considered it becomes obvious to every Eye that doth not wilfully close it self that the exportation of Wool from England and Ireland is of a dangerous and destructive nature to the very being of the Trade of this Kingdom Whatever objections have been made with respect to the Graziers present advantage thereunto whose loss may possibly be supposed by prohibiting exportation to be about 20 s. in every Pack of Wool that 's so exported In answer whereunto I have this to say That though it may be granted it will be so for a time in this one particular commodity yet such will thereby be the spoyl of the general Trade of the Nation that what is gotten in one will be lost in every other commodity as Corn Beefs and Muttons on each of which
with the Wools the Farmers and Graziers advantage doth much more than equally depend besides the inevitable danger of the ruine of our Trade and so consequently the starving of our Poor without some extraordinary means for their support who while the priviledge of our Trade is kept inviolate with other Nations we have money plentifully to expend for the advancement of the Farmers and the Graziers for that is that which chiefly advanceth the Grazier and Farmer which is Flesh and Corn and not the quantity of Wool as afterwards will more fully appear And it hath always been observed in former and latter times hitherto that when the Clothiers have had the best Trade at London the Farmer did not loose his share in the advantage thereof in the Country according to the dispose of providence who hath ordered Nations but more especially the People of every Nation in matters of this kind to depend upon each other and so to rise or fall together as they are designed to mercy or to judgment by the hand of God These things considered with a little deliberation it will manifestly appear that the exporting of our English Wool will not only prove the spoyl of our Merchants and Clothiers Trade and so consequently expose the Poor to desperate straits for subsistence but in short time must of necessity make the Country-mens imployments of every kind to come to little and so make them uncapable of paying Rent For if it be so that while we have but a little Trade we can hardly live one by another What may be expected if our Trade should be taken away which is now more in danger by the French than it hath been these 300. Years past And then we may consider what the price of Wool may be in England when we by our remisness shall lose our Trade by the skill and circumventing practices of Foreiners and we helping forwards for a supposed profit For there was not more art and skill in our Ancestors to bring home the work at first to the Wool and prohibiting the exportation thereof and setling the manufacturing in England than is now to export the materials thereof unmanufactured The necessary consequence will be to bring the Price of Wool as it was 300. Years agon when most was exported to 6 d. per Pound as appears in a little Piece called The Golden Fleece written by W. S. Gent. in the Year 56. although the Cloth made in Flanders of our Wools at 6 d. per Pound was then sold here in England at 10 s. per Yard when at this Day the Cloth made in England of Wool worth 12 d. per Pound will hardly yield 7 s. per Yard which is above 30. per Cent. worse to the English Trade now than it was to the Flemmings formerly And though for the present the price of Wool be risen by its exportation yet if the quantity lately exported being no less than 20. Thousand Packs had been kept in England the quantity if not with 10. Thousand Packs more would in time have been exported in the particular manufactures For if the Wool was not exported to those places beyond the Seas there to be manufactured they must of necessity have our Woollen manufacture and then could not have those advantages as before hinted by our Wools to improve the French wool and short Spanish wool and their fine-spun Linnens By all which it is so obvious that in time to come the VVools in England would be much cheaper because by the aforesaid means less Wool would be used in England and besides that which would be used the manufacture would be so low that it could not bear up any price as is begun already in France and will suddenly follow in England for it is generally reported that Wool is as cheap in France at this Day as it is in some parts where it is used in England And if it be so now what in reason can be expected as the effects of these two things viz. The first when the great quantity that is lately exported to France with those three additions before hinted that the 20. Thousand Packs helps to work out and especially most making VVorsted Stuffs which goes as far by that means as 40. Thousand Packs of Wool would if used in England because it would be made more into substantial Cloaths which consumes more Wool than those light and thin Stuffes do which is a sufficient Answer to that Objection that the great quantity of any commodity that is exported must be of scarcity and so consequently raise the price which I must confess if it was a consumptive commodity but it is quite contrary in this For as our experience is when the VVool was all used in England or very little exported then it was 18 d. per Pound and when all or the greatest part was exported it was at 6 d. per Pound The wise Man saith What is hath been and what hath been may be again and so no new thing I shall conclude with a short review of the Graziers and Farmer present loss In the greatest Commodity which pays his Rent 〈◊〉 was formerly hinted Suppose through want of Trade Mutton be sold but at 6 d. per Quarter which is but little being 2 s. per Sheep and there being some Sheep that one 100. will but produce a Pack of Wool though some less that comes to 10 l. which is the worth of the Pack of Wool and so proportionably as to Beefs which is wholly lost to the Grazier And for the Corn as I suppose there may be about 50 ls worth as far as I can judge in my travels to One Hundred Sâ—â—â—p throughout the Nation which for want of a Trade it may 〈◊〉 at some seasons come to Thirty or Forty at most and if a 〈◊〉 Trade it may be worth Sixty or Seventy By which means 〈◊〉 easily be demonstrated how the Farmers come to be impovrished The advantage of the Tenant consists in the advance of the greatest Commodity that pays his Rent which is not in Wool but in Corn and it is a necessary consequence that there being so many Thousand Families depending upon the Cloathing Trade which as before hinted was instrumental to advance the price of Corn that where-ever Trade is there People are most populous and when those Persons are deprived of their Trade depending wholly upon it they must unavoidably come to the Parishes which is in many Places begun already and Daily increasing and feared in time will so increase that the Poor will be expecting more than there will be to contribute to them And as there be in many Country Parishes Ten that live on the Trade for One that can live of himself VVhat will become of those Parishes when the Trade is gone So that it may easily be concluded that the Farmers loss for want of Trade is four-fold greater than the Pack of VVool by the lowness of the price of Corn. And this is the true reason for those
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 LONDON Printed by T. M. in the Year 1669. 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 worser 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 3 d. 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 prosit 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 prosit 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 Copperas 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
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 setched 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
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 deceptions 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 that 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 Experience of Trade sby whom Laws Orders are contrived and Peace with Forein Princes projected to the great advantage of their Trade 2. Their Law of Gavel-kind whereby all their Children possess an equal share of their Fathers Estates after their Decease and so are not left to wrastle with the World in their Youth with inconsiderable assistance of Fortune as most of our youngest Sons of Gentlemen in England are who are bound Apprentices to Merchants 3. Their exact making of all their Native Commodities 4. Their giving great encouragement and immunities to the inventors
of new Manufactures and the discoverers of any new Mysteries in Trade and to those that shall bring the Commodities of other Nations first in use and practice amongst them for which the Author never goes without his due reward allowed him at the publick charge 5. Their contriving and building of great Ships to sayle with small charge not above one third of what we are at for Ships of the same burthen in England And compelling their said Ships being of small force to sayle alwayes in Fleets to which in all time of danger they allow a Convoy 6. Their parcimonious and thrifty living which is so extraordinary that a Merchant of one hundred thousand pound Estate with them will scarce spend so much per annum as one of fifteen hundred pounds Estate in London 7. The Education of their Children as well Daughters as Sons all which be they of never so great quality or Estate they always take care to bring up to write perfect good hands and to have the full knowledge and use of Arithmetick and Merchants Accounts 8. The lowness of their Customs and the height of their Excise which is certainly the most equal and indifferent Tax in the world and least prejudicial to any people as might be made appear were it the subject of this discourse 9. The careful providing for and imployment of their poor which it is easie to demonstrate can never be done in England comparitively to what it is with them while it 's left to the care of every Parish to look after their own only 10. Their use of Banks which are of so immense advantage to them that some not without good grounds have estimated the profit of them to the publick to amount to at least one Million of pounds Sterling per annum 11. Their toleration of different opinions in matters of Religion by reason whereof many industrious people of other Countreys that dissent from the established Government of their own Churches resort to them with their Families and Estates and after a few years co-habitation with them become of the same Common Interest 12. Their Law-Merchants by which all controversies between Merchants and Tradesmen are decided in three or four dayes time and that not at the fortieth part I might say in many cases not the hundreth part of the Charge they are with us 13. The Law that is in use among them for Transference of Bills for debt from one man to another 14. Their keeping up publick Registers of all Land and Houses Sold or Mortgaged whereby many chargeable Law-Suits are prevented and the securities of Lands and Houses rendered indeed such as we commonly call them Real Securities 15. The lowness of Interest of money with them which in peaceable times exceeds not three per cent per annum To Conclude with a short Survey of those things in General seeing my time will not permit to enlarge upon it particularly according to my purpose nor so to Correct the former Papers for want of time being exposed to much Travel I must humbly beg the Reapers pardon for some Errors passing the Press in my absence The first thing observed in the Dutch is to have experienc'd persons in all Councels skil'd as Wel Practical as Theoretical knowledge which is without all peradventure of such advantage that nothing but experience of it can put the value The second I shall not touch The third I have at large to eated viz. of the advantage in exactness in all Commodities of which we have sufficient experience at home as well as abroad that one and the same Commodity for goodness yet if one have the reputation more than the other it shall not only have a quick Market but shall yield 10 or 15 per cent more than the other I speak this of what is matter of Fact in the woollen Manufacture in my own knowledge The fourth is the Incouragement to those that are any way beneficial to the Publick which is contrary in England to its shame as well as to its apparent Losse hence it is that those persons that are imployed in publick affairs that have not principles of honesty are liable to those temptations of Bribery and 〈◊〉 being beyond my speare Time permits me not to make any further recapitulation But for my Language in the whole the Ingenuous peruser will I trust rather value my serious Intentions while I write to matter of Controversy but what may redound to the Honour and Advantage of his Majesty and Kingdoms than criticize upon my defect of Scholastick phrase or Logical method who being never enriched with opportunities of education thereto yet have so much of a Christian and true English-man as to wish every Reader Happiness both here and hereafter FINIS ERRATA Page 2 l 15 for Land r â—aâ—d p 5 l 27 for is r by p 10 l 16 insert Advantage of a p 1â— r 18 for you r them p 19 l. 15 for Regâ—l r real l 28 sâ—aâ— hiâ—self himself p 21 l 8 for then r there l 15 foâ—â—â—â—d he giâ—â—n that 〈◊〉 be solâ— to Forâ—iâ—â—â— r Bank l 2â— for Bond r Bank p 24 l 7 for Dâ—apers r Draperles p 25 l 15 â—oâ— Manufactures r Manufactors