Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	acquire_v	employ_v	great_a	30	3	2.0809	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63456	Taxes no charge in a letter from a gentleman, to a person of quality, shewing the nature, use, and benefit of taxes in this kingdom, and compared with the impositions of foreign states : together with their improvement of trade in time of war.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1690 (1690)	Wing T258; ESTC R18037	23,116	38

as in that of France already insisted upon many I was like to say too many have acquired great Estates by Now all the hands empl●y'd in that Trade were no better than Robbers of the Kingdom in carrying away our Treasure as we use the Moors giving us Gold for Glass-●eads There is another sort of Trade that though it may not immediately carry away any of the Stock of the Kingdom yet it does hurt in taking off Hands that might be employ'd to the advantage of the Kingdom Now in both these the Trade of Taxes for so I will call it for the future has the advantage for that it carries nothing out of the Kingdom nor yet takes off hands that would be better employ'd but on the contrary takes away the disease of the Country idlers and makes 'em at least so profitable as to spend Mony which they would not be able to do if the Publick Revenue were not their Stock Fourthly The poor are employed by Taxes and are by that means taken off from being a Charge to the Kingdom many Men of broken Fortunes are brought into the Hospital of the Revenue which may be so accounted since 't is generally fill'd with persons that are reduc'd to such necessities as qualifie them for Charity This is one way that Taxes employ the Poor but not the main thing I mean which is That the Trade of Taxes employs the poor Artizans and Mechanicks and that in a greater measure than our Virginia and Plantation-trade we with so little reason so much boast of in these Kingdoms By the Observations I have always made in my Traversing the World I find that those parts have been most opulent and the People safest that filled their own Hives and kept their Swarms at home That little Commonwealth of Luca to me seems a pattern for all the Princes of Europe and is as practicable in the greatest Dominions as that little Sp●t whose Land and Cities having Luna joyned to it are all circumscribed within the limits of Six or Seven Miles square yet in that compass they are able to raise about Twenty thousand Horse and Foot a thing almost incredible but known by all that have travelled that way and were curious into such Enquiries These People are of wonderful Industry and enrich themselves by their Manufactories which they go not abroad to seek a Market for but mind their Work at home and so become more considerable than those that spend their time in Travels being by their settl'd living able to afford their Commodities they make cheaper than the Genoese and Florentines their Neighbours When I see in Foreign Parts how rich and powerful a little Siegniory Commonwealth or State is made by husbanding their People I often lament the misfortunes of my Native Country that might certainly abound with the greatest and most formidable People in Europe if they followed their Steps I have taken up some of your time in this Discourse of Trade which may seem Foreign to my Subject of Taxes yet I must be obliged to do it in all my future Arguments because Taxes both arise out of Trade and maintain Trade To return then to where I left off That the poor are employed by them in their several Occupations how many Thousands of Tradesmen have we that are supported by our Land and Sea-forces which could have no vent for their Commodities if they were not taken off at home Saddles Bridles Sword● Guns c. have no Foreign Market yet these employ Thousands of Hands who are pay'd by Taxes Fifthly There is a Set of Men who like Rats in a Cieling live upon Prey and do no good in a Commonwealth which these Taxes ferret out of their Holes Those impositions I mean which our Parliament has with great Wisdom now laid on Stocks by Pole for nothing but Land-taxes will reach Vsurers and Misers who spend nothing but for the supply of the necessities of Nature Now these Men are the Moths of the Country it being more mischievous to the Kingdom in general to hoo●d up Money than for Robbers to take it by force and though the Law protects these silent Thieves yet they are real Criminals that lock up the Tools of the Industrious many suffering through want that could be profitable both to themselves and others had they but Mony to set them at work Usurers are by too many thought a Vermin in the Commonwealth I cannot but have a better opinion of them and think that the Pest and Plague of the Nation is a sort of pious Extortioners who declaim against Usury as unlawful Gain but will Buy for half Value any thing they can meet with from a Person in Extremity and next unto these are such as adore their Bags and will upon no Terms part with these Deities their Bags are no Thorough-fair only a way in but none out These Men are by Taxes made against their wills small Benefactors to their Country and it were to be wished that our great and wise Council of the Nation would yet pursue them farther and lay a double imposition upon Mony locked up in Chests more than what is out at Vsury which being employed is on the duty it was made for but the other is in Captivity and the Paltroon should be punish'd for his Cruelty Sixthly Taxes especially in time of War are the only preservation of all Men employ'd in Trades and Manufactories and perhaps not much inferiour to Foreign Trade if in all respects considered for as to what is spent in the Kingdom if it bring nothing in yet it carries nothing out and so far Taxes are profitable in that the Kingdom is not the poorer for Mony so raised and so spent and in times of War and prohibition of Trade abroad if Money were not raised by Taxes and that employed among our Mechanicks and Manufactories Men would be forc'd to seek their bread abroad and the loss of Men is the greatest misfortune that can befal a● Kingdom The practice of the Dutch in burning their Spices when they have such quantities as would lower the Price might be something of direction in this case and seems a better Government to employ all our hands in time of War as fully in their Manufactories as ever they were in a Free Trade though when they were made they were burnt it being of dangerous consequence to discontinue Trade There is no adjourning labour and Mechanical Arts in a few Months will either lose the Men or they their Trade by some other course of Life Seventhly That Taxes make the Kingdom rich and in time of War disperse as much Mony in the Nation as Trade does in time of Peace Here I must touch again upon Trade and enquire what Trade brings us in Bullion Gold or Coin for we have some of all though considering the Value of our Native Commodities 't is wonderful that we should have so little and that of those numerous Trades which our Navigation entitles us to that we should by

Trade is improved by Taxes IV. That the Poor are imployed by them V. That a Sett of Men of no use in the Kingdom are by Taxes made profitable in the Common-wealth VI. That Taxes especially when Trade is stopped by War is the only Remedy to keep the Trading and Mechanick hands of the Kingdom employed VII That Taxes will enrich the Nation and disperse in it as much Treasure when there is no Foreign Trade as when 't is open To begin then with the First Head Who it is that pay most of the Taxes They are the worst Members in the Common-wealth viz. The Extravagant and Debauch'd The greatest Duties are or should be laid upon Commodities for Pleasure and Sumptuousness as Silks Gold and Silver Lace c. Now these are wore in the greatest Excess by the Extravagant of the Kingdom both Men and Women A D●b●shee shall spend more out of an Estate of a Thousand pounds a year than a regular man will from the annual Income of five times that proportion and a Miss lay out more on Clothes than a Countess So in the Excess to indulge the Belly as well as providing for the Back The vast consumption of Wines and strong Liquors is by this sort of Men nay the poorest Debauch that can rise no higher than to Beer and Tabaco pays ten times as much in the year in proportion to his Income as the greatest Peer 'T will hardly gain belief that there is many of the meaner People Labourers and Mechanicks that by their Expence when they are as too many be extravagant pay to the publick Taxes above one tenth of their daily profit As supposing that a labouring man may earn Sixte●n pounds a year he will expend though not very extraordinarily profuse one half of it in Drink and Tabaco upon which the Duty of Customs and Excise is at least two pounds of the eight which he lays out in idle Expences Now it would be vehemently decried and exclaimed against as the greatest Oppression upon the Poor imaginable if by a Poll or Land-Tax this man that vertually pays Forty Shillings should actually and above-board pay so many pence by the year Thus we see that most of the Duties and Impositions on the Kingdom light upon such as do least good with their Substance and since they imprudently fling it away upon their Extravagancies 't is certainly a Benefit to the Kingdom that there are Taxes to catch something out of it for the improvement of better disposed men as we shall see in the next Paragraph The Second Particular is What use is made of these Taxes and how they circulate in the Kingdom In order to which there are but two waies in which they are employed one is for the King's Court the other for Provisions of War in the maintenance of Naval and Land Forces Now both these are as well the Employment of Trade and Artizans as they resolve into the Security of the Kingdom and the preservation of the Publick Peace There is no Money which circulates so fast as that which comes into the hands of Seamen and Souldiers Other men that get Money frequently lay it up and so it becomes of no use or benefit in the Kingdom But Men that live by their Pay generally spend it faster than it comes in by which means the Money of the Kingdom like the Blood in the Veins has its regular circular motion and every Member in the Body is warm'd and refreshed by it which gives Life and Motion in the whole And thus I presume this Second Instance of the Use of Taxes proves That they are of Advantage and Profit to the Kingdom Thirdly How Trade is improved by Taxes Upon this Head there is much to be said and first It will be requisite to say something of the nature of Trade how it affects the Kingdom for that Trade may in some Cases prejudice a Nation and make it poor as the Trade of Spain does that Kingdom Trade may also effeminate and debauch a Country as it does Italy Now 't is certain that we are not free from both these publick Mischiefs and Inconveniencies in England though our Fortune is such that being Islanders and Masters of one Commodity which no Kingdom has in that perfection as our selves which is Wool that hath put our People upon Manufactories which is the Treasure of this Nation and keeps our Exports to a ballance with our Imports otherwise this Kingdom would have been as Poor as Spain and as effeminate as Italy but the Employment of our milder sort in Manufactories at home and the more robust at Sea abroad keeps us a People in action and so preserv'd from the Luxury and Effeminateness of Italy and the Poverty of Spain I need not spend time to prove how far we are tainted with the Mischiefs before mentioned Our Trade with France in all Ages past sufficiently proves That a Kingdom may be made poor by Trade as we should have been by the vast treasure their Linnens Wine Silks Toys and Salt drew from this Kingdom if our other Commerce in the World had not ballanced our loss there Nor are we free from the Effeminateness of Italy which I take to be the Returns of our Gentry's travels a mischief to be lamented rather than expected a Reformation of since we are arriv'd to that height of Vanity as to think that man not accomplished who is not become Master of the Delicacies of Italy and extravagant Modes of France But to return to my Province How Trade is improved by Taxes for the Proof of which Assertion it seems plain That some Trade may impair a Kingdom and such Taxes and Impositions may abate by imposing such Duties as they cannot bear So far then it will be allowed that they improve Trade as we commonly say Saving is Gain so if we keep out a destructive Trade by Duties we may allow that an Improvement of our own But to come nearer to the matter Taxes improve Trade by employing numbers of idle Men in Naval and Land-service that would otherwise be of no use but on the contrary a Pest and Charge to the Commonwealth We seldom see any inlisted into the Army that are Men of Industry or Labour such persons are the Wens and Excrescencies of the Commonwealth that de●orm but not strengthen the Body and these being paid by the Taxes of another sort of Creatures as before I mention'd are of no use in the State but to throw abroad the Treasure left them by their Fathers is virtually an improvement of Trade for that all like the Rivers in the Sea terminate in the hands of Industry and Trade and perhaps if duly con●idered more Men and with more certain profit make Voyages within this Island upon this Fund than there do to most of our Foreign Trades And in this place I must touch again upon the nature of Trade to shew that private hands may raise their Fortunes by a Trade that may yet be a loss to a Kingdom