Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	acre_n	charge_n	shilling_n	1,302	5	11.1459	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32827	A discourse about trade wherein the reduction of interest in money to 4 l. per centum, is recommended : methods for the employment and maintenance of the poor are proposed : several weighty points relating to companies of merchants, the act of navigation, naturalization of strangers, our woollen manufactures, the ballance of trade, and the nature of plantations, and their consequences in relation to the kingdom are seriously discussed : and some arguments for erecting a court of merchants for determining controversies, relating to maritime affairs, and for a law for transferrance of bills of debts, are humbly offered.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Culpeper, Thomas, Sir, 1578-1662. Small treatise against usury.	1690 (1690)	Wing C3853; ESTC R8738	119,342	350

the Year to be worth ten Shillings or being worth ten to be worth twenty Shillings and so in Proportion then to purchase an other Acre worth five or ten Shillings And in every Acre thus purchased to the Owner by the amendment of his own there were another purchased to the Common-Wealth And it is the Blessing of God to this Land that there are few places of it to which he hath not given means by reasonable Cost and Industry greatly to amend it in many to double the value so as in time if for their own good mens Industry were compelled that way the Riches and Commodities of this Land will near be doubled Then would all the wet Lands in this Kingdom soon be drained the barren Lands mended by Marle Sleech Lime Chalk Sea-sand and other means which for their profit mens industry would find out We see with how great industry and charge our Neighbours the Dutch do drain and maintain their Lands against the Sea which floweth higher above them then it doth above the lowest parts of our drown'd Lands I will admit a great deal to their Industry but I should very unwillingly grant that they are so much more ingenuous and industrious then we as that all the odds were therein Certainly the main cause of it is that with us Money is dear and Land cheap with them Land is dear and Money cheap and consequently the Improvement of their Lands at so great a charge with them is gainful to the Owners which with us would be lossful for Usury going at ten in the Hundred if a man borrow five Pounds and bestow it on an Acre of Ground the amendment stands him in ten Shillings the Year and being amended the Land is not worth above fifteen Years purchase But if the Use of Money went at no more with us then in other places then five Pound bestowed upon an Acre of Gound would stand a man but in five or six Shillings a Year and the Acre of Land so amended would be worth as hath been shewed six and twenty or thirty years purchase Whereby it appeareth that as the rate of Use now goeth no man but where the Land lieth extraordinarily happily for it can amend his Land but to his own loss whereas if Money were let as it is in other Countries he might bestow more then double so much as now he may and yet be a great gainer thereby and consequently as was before remembred should to his own benefit purchase Land to the Common-wealth Neither would such purchase of Land to the Common-wealth be the benefit to the Landed men only the benefit would be as much to the poor Labourers of the Land For now when Corn and other Fruits of the Land which grow by labour are cheap the Plough and Mattock are cast into the Hedge there is little work for poor men and that at a low rate whereas if the mendment of their own Lands were the cheapest purchase to the Owners if there were many more people then there are they should more readily be set a work at better rates then they now are and none that had their Health and Limbs could be poor but by their extreamest laziness And as the high rate of Usury doth imbase Lands so it is as great a hindrance to Discoveries Plantations and all good undertakings making it near double as chargeable to the Adventu●ers Money being at ten in the hundred as it is in other Countrie● where the Use of Money is so much lower Now let us see by the contrary and conceive if Usury were tollerated at fifteen or twenty in the hundred and I fear many Borrowers all things considered pay above ten what the condition of things would then be and if it appear how desperate the hurt would be which that would bring it may at least upon good reason perswade us how great the good would be of calling it down Certainly it must of necessity come to pass that all Trades would in a short time decay For few or none and reckon the hazard at nothing yield so great a gain as twenty in the hundred and all other Nations might with so great gain out-trade and under-sell us that more than the Earth would of her self bring forth we should scarce raise any thing from it even for our own use within the Land and Land would be so much imbased as men might afford without loss to themselves to carry the Compost out of their Closes upon their next adjoyning Lands to mend them so far should we be from Marling Liming Draining Planting and any other works of Cost or Industry by which Lands are purchased to the Common-wealth So far from building making of Havens Discoveries new Plantations or any other actions of Vertue and Glory to the State for private gain is the Compass men generally sail by And since we cannot without extraordinary diligence Plant Build Drain or any other way amend our Lands but it will be dearer to us than the purchase of others Money being at ten in the Hundred if Money then should go at twenty in the Hundred the charge of mending our Land would be doubled and the Land abased to seven or eight Years purchase and consequently all works of Industry and Charge for improving of Lands would be quite neglected and given over We should only eat upon one another with Usury have our Commodities from other Nations let the Land grow barren and unmanured and the whole State in short time come to beggary Against this perhaps may be objected That before the 37 of H. 8. there was no limitation of Vsury and how did we then To this may be answered That in those times there was a stricter Band in that point upon Mens Consciences So far forth as Usurers were in the same case as Excommunicate Persons they could make no Wills nor were allowed Christian Burial Therefore let us for our Fore-fathers sake hope that the tie upon their Consciences then was a greater Restraint of Usury than the Statute of ten in the Hundred is now I fear Fornication is too frequent among us yet thanks be to God not so much used as where there is allowance of Curtizans and Stews The Objections likely to be made against the calling down of Money are First That general Objection of Ignorance against all Changes be they never so necessary and apparently good that it hath been so a long time and been well enough what will become of the alteration we cannot tell why then should we make any change Secondly That as in Bodies Natural so in Politique great and sudden Changes are most commonly dangerous Thirdly That Money will be suddenly called in and so all Borrowers greatly prejudiced Fourthly That Money will be harder to come by and thereby Commerce greatly hindred Lastly That much Money of Foreigners by Reason of the high rate of Usury is brought over here to be managed at Interest which would be carried away again if the Rate of Usury

by their direct Trade to and from Old England Our Yearly Exportations of English Manufactures Mault and other Goods from hence thither amounting in my opinion to ten times the value of what is Imported from thence which Calculation I do not make at randum but upon mature Consideration and peradventure upon as much Experience in this very Trade as any other person will pretend to and therefore when ever a Reformation of our Correspondency in Trade with that people shall be thought on it will in my poor Judgment require great Tenderness very serious Circumspection FINIS A Small TREATISE Against USURY TO leave the proofs of the unlawfulness of Usury to Divines wherein a number as well Protestants as Papists have learnedly Written here is only set down some Arguments to shew how great the hurt is it doth to this Kingdom which hath no Gold nor Silver Mines but plenty of Commodities and many and great Advantages of Trade to which the high rate of Usury is a great prejudice and decay For proof how much the high rate of Usury decays Trade we see that generally all Merchants when they have gotten any great Wealth leave Trading and fall to Usury the gain thereof being so easie certain and great whereas in other Countries where Usury is at a lower rate and thereby Lands dearer to purchase they continue Merchants from Generation to Generation to inrich themselves and the State Neither are they rich Trades-Men only that give over Trading but a number of Beginners are undone or discouraged by the high rate of Usury their Industry serving but to Enrich others and Begger themselves We also see many Trades themselves much decayed because they will not afford so great a gain as Ten in the Hundred whereas if the rate of Usury were not higher here then in other Countries they had still subsisted and flourished and perhaps with as much Advantage to the Publick as those that do bring more to the private Adventurers Yet are not those the greatest hinderances the high rate of Money brings to Trade our greatest disadvantage is that other Nations especially our Industrious Neighbours the Dutch are therein Wiser then we For with them and so in most Countries with whom we hold Commerce there is not any Use for Money tollerated above the rate of Six in the Hundred Whereby it must of necessity come to pass though they have no other Advantages of Industry and Frugality that they must out-Trade us for if they make return of ten per Cent they almost double the Use allowed and so make a very gainful Trade But with us where ten in the Hundred is so currant it is otherwise for if we make not above ten we are loosers and consequently the same Trade being with them and us equally good for the Publick is to the private Adventurers lossful with us with them very gainful And where the good of Publick and private Mens go not together the Publick is seldom greatly advanced And as they out-Trade so they may afford to under-sell us in the Fruits of the Earth which are equally natural to our and their Lands as to our great shame we see our Neighbours the Dutch do even in our own Country For in most Commodities the Earth brings forth the Stock imployed in Planting and managing of them makes a great in many the greatest part of their Price and consequently their Stock with them being rated at six in the Hundred they may with great Gain under-sell us our Stock with us being rated at ten And as they may out-Trade us and under-sell us so are all Contributions to the War works of Piety and Glory of the State cheaper to them then to us For the Use for Money going with us near double the rate it doth in other Countries the giving the same Sum must needs be double the charge to us it is to them Amongst other things which the King with so much Wisdom delivered to the House of Parliament he committed to their Consideration the Ballancing of Trade and Commerce wherein there is nothing of greater consequence then the rate of Usury which holds no Proportion with us and other Nations to our disadvantage as by Experience we see and feel Neither is the high rate of Usury less hurtful to Commerce within the Land the Gain by Usury being so easie certain and extream great as they are not only Merchants and Trades-men but Landed-men Farmers and men of Profession that grow Lazy in their Professions and become Usurers for the rate of Usury is the measure by which all men Trade Purchase Build Plant or any other ways bargain It hath been the Wisdom and Care of former Parliaments to provide for the preservation of Wood and Timber for which there is nothing more available then the calling down of the high rate of Usury for as the rate of Money now goeth no man can let his Timber stand nor his Wood grow to such years growth as is best for the Common-Wealth but it will be very lossfull to him The stock of the Woods after they are worth forty or fifty Shillings the Acre growing faster at ten in the Hundred then the Woods themselves do And for Shipping which is the strength and safety of th●s Land I have heard divers Merchants of good Credit say that if they would Build a Ship and let it to any other to imploy they cannot make of their Money that way counting all charges tear and wear above ten or twelve in the Hundred which can be no gainful Trade Money it self going at ten in the Hundred But in the Low-Countries where Money goeth at six the Building of Ships and Hiring them to others is a gainful Trade and so the Stock of rich Men and the Industry of Beginners are well joyned for the Publick And yet that which is above all the rest the greatest Sin against the Land is that it makes the Land it self of small value nearer the rate of new-found Lands than of any other Country where Laws Government and Peace have so long flourished for the high rate of Usury makes Land sell so cheap and the cheap sale of Land is the cause Men seek no more by Industry and Cost to improve them And this is plain both by Example and Demonstration For we see in other Countries where the Use of Money is of a low rate Lands are generally sold for thirty forty in some for fifty Years Purchase And we know by the rule of Bargaining that if the rate of Use were not greater here then in other Countries Lands were then as good a penny worth at twenty Years Purchase as they are now at sixteen For Lands being the best Assurance and securest Inheritance will still bear a rate above Money Now if Lands were at thirty Years Purchase or near it there were no so cheap Purchase as the Amendment of our own Lands for it would be much cheaper to make one Acre of Land now worth five Shillings by