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	shilling_n	worth_a	1,731	5	10.0348	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32833	A new discourse of trade wherein is recommended several weighty points relating to companies of merchants : the act of navigation, naturalization of strangers, and our woollen manufactures, the balance of trade, and the nature of plantations, and their consequences in relation to the kingdom, are seriously discussed and some proposals for erecting a court of merchants for determining controversies, relating to maritime affairs, and for a law for transferrance of bills of depts, are humbly offered / by Josiah Child.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Culpeper, Thomas, Sir, 1578-1662. Small treatise against usury.	1693 (1693)	Wing C3860; ESTC R5732	114,526	332

Market than the Old English Merchant And those that can sell cheapest will infallibly engross the whole Trade sooner or later 3. Of all the American Plntations his Majesty hath none so apt for the building of Shiping as New-England nor none comparably so qualified for the breeding of Sea-men not only by reason of the natural industry of that people but principally by reason of their Cod and Mackerel Fisheries And in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more dangerous to any Mother Kingdom then the encrease of Shiping in their Colonies Plantations or Provinces 4. The People that evacuate from us to Barbadoes and the other West-India Plantations as was before hinted do commonly work one English man to ten or eight Blacks and if we kept the trade of our said Plantations intirely to England England would have no less Inhabitants but rather an encrease of people by such evacuation because that one English man with the ten Blacks that work with him accounting what they eat use and wear would make employment for four men in England as was said before whereas peradventure of ten men that issue from us to New-England Ireland what we send to or receive from them doth not employ one man in England To conclude this Chapter and to do right to that most Industirous English Colony I must confess that though we loose by their unlimitted Trade with our Foreign Plantations yet we are very great Gainers 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 Considerat on 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 this 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 b●ar 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 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 L●nds 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 Countries 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 he 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

because Customs run only upon our Goods imported or exported and that but once for all whereas Interest runs as well upon our Ships as Goods and must be yearly paid on both so long as they are in being and the Ships in many bulkey Trades and such as are Nationally most profitable are of four times the value of the Goods That old Objection about Widows and Orphans I have I think fully answered in my former Treatise but because I yet sometimes meet with it I shall say a Word more to it here viz. 1. Widows and Orphans are not one to twenty of the whole People and it s the Wisdom of Law-makers to provide for the good of the Majority of People though a Minor part should a little suffer 2. Of Widows and Orphans not one in forty will suffer by the abatement of Interest for these Reasons viz. 1 st Of Widows and Orphans nine of ten in this Kingdom have very little or nothing at all left them by their deceased Relations and all such will have an advantage by the abatement of Interest because such abatement will encrease Trade and in consequence occasion more employment for such necessitous Persons 2 dly Many Widows and Orphans have Ioyntures Annuities Coppy-Holds and other Lands left them as well as Money and all such will be gainers by the abatement of Interest 3 dly For all London Orphans the City gives not now above 5 and to some 4 per cent Interest so the loss to such is not worth speaking of 4 thly Many Executors are so unworthy as to allow Orphans no Interest and yet justifie themselves by Law to such Orphans it will be all one what the legal rate of Interest be 5 thly When the Law for abatement of Interest is past many more Parents will leave their Children Annuities and Estates running in Trade as they do in Holland and Italy whereby the abatement of Interest will become profitable not prejudicial to them And for the few that at first may happen to suffer whereof the number will be very small and therefore not to be named in competition with the common good of the Kingdom they have an easie means within their own Power to prevent their being one Farthing the worse for the abatement of Interest it is but wearing a Lawn-Whisk instead of a Point de Venice and for the meaner sort a Searge Petty-Coat instead of a Silk one and a plain pair of Shoes instead of laced ones And that the Ladies may not be offended with me I dare undertake that this will never spoil but mend their Marriages besides the greater good it will bring to their Country and to their Posterities after them whether they prove to be Noblemen Gentlemen or Merchants c. I have in several places of my ensuing Treatise referred to some Tracts I formerly published upon this subject which being now wholly out of Print I thought fit to Re-print and annex unto this which at first I intended not Some there are who would grant that abatement of Interest if it could be effected would procure to the Nation all the good that I alledge it will bring with it but say it is not practicable or at least not now 1. A needless scruple and contradictory to experience for first a Law hath abated Interest in England three times within these few Years already and what should hinder its effect now more then formerly 2. If a Law will not do it why do the Vsurers raise such a dust and engage so many Friends to oppose the passing of an Act to this purpose The true reason is because they are wise enough to know that a Law will certainly do it as it hath done already though they would perswade others the contrary And if it be doubted we have not Money enough in England Besides what I have said in my former Treatise as to the encrease of our Riches in general I shall here give some further Reasons of probability which are the best that can be expected in this case to prove that we have now much more Money in England then we had twenty Years past Notwithstanding the seeming scarcity at present if I should look further back then twenty years the argument would be stronger on my side and the proportion of the encrease of Money greater and more perspicuous but I shall confine my self to that time which is within most mens Memories 1. We give generally now one third more Money with Apprentices then we did twenty years past 2. Notwithstanding the decay and loss of sundry Trades and Manufactures yet in the gross we Ship off now one third part more of the Manufactures as also Lead and Tin then we did twenty years past which is a cause as well as a proof of our increase of Money If any doubt this if they please to consult Mr Dickins Surveyor of his Majesties Customs who is the best able I know living and hath taken the most pains in these Calculations he may be satisfactorily resolved 3. Houses new built in London yield twice the Rent they did before the Fire and Houses generally immediately before the Fire yielded about one fourth part more Rent then they did twenty years past 4. The speedy and costly buildings of London is a convincing and to Strangers an amazing Argument of the plenty and late encrease of Money in England 5. We have now more then double the quantity of Merchants Shiping we had twenty years past 6. The course of our Trade from the increase of our Money is strangely altered within these twenty years most Payments from Merchants and Shop-keepers being now made with ready Money whereas formerly the course of our general Trade run at three six nine twelve and eighteen Months time But if this case be so clear some may ask me How comes it to pass that all sorts of men complain so much of the scarcity of Money especially in the Country My answers to this Query are viz. 1. This proceeds from the Frailty and Corruption of humane Nature it being natural for men to complain of the present and commend the times past so said they of Old The former days were better then these and I can say in truth upon my own Memory that men did complain as much of the scarcity of Money ever since I knew the world as they do now nay the very same Persons that now complain of this and commend that time 2. And more particularly This complaint proceeds from many mens finding themselves uneasie in the matters of their Religion it being natural for men when they are discontented at one thing to complain of all and principally to utter their discontents and complaints in those things which are most popular Those that hate a man for some one cause will seldom allow of any thing that is good in him and some that are angry with one person or thing will find fault with others that gave them no offence like peevish Persons that meeting discontent

Executors except it be left fully and absolutely to the Executors to dispose and put out Money at the discretion of the Executors for the profit and loss of the Heirs and Orphans And if it be so left to the Exccutors discretion they may improve the Monies left them in Trade or purchase of Lands and Leases as well as by interest Or when not the damage such Heirs and Orphans will sustain in their minority being but two per cent is inconsiderable in respect of the great advantage will accrew to the Nation in generel by such abatement of ●nterest Besides when such a Law is made and in use all Men will so take care in their Life to provide for and educate their Children and instruct their Wives as that no prejudice can happen thereby as we see there doth not in Holland and Italy and other places where Interest is so low Having now offered my thoughts in answer to the aforesaid Objections it will not be amiss that we enquire who will be advantaged and who will receive prejudice in case such a Law be made First His Majesty as hath been said in answer to that Objection will when he hath occasion take up Money on better terms Besides which He will receive a great Augmentation to his Revenue thereby all his Lands being immediately worth after the making such a Law double to what they were before his Customs will be much increas'd by the increase of Trade which must necessarily insue upon the making such a Law The Nobility and Gentry whose Estates lie mostly in Land may presently upon all they have instead of Fifty write one Hundred The Merchants and Tradesmen who bear the Heat and Burthen of the Day most of our Trade being carried on by young Men that take up Money at Interest will find their Yoak sit lighter upon their Shouldiers and be incouraged to go on with greater alacrity in their Business Our Marriners Shipwrights Porters Cloathiers Packers and all sorts of Labouring People that depend on Trade will be more constantly and fully employed Our Farmers sell the product of their Lands at better rates And whereas our Neighbours the Netherlanders who in regard of the largeness of their Stocks and Experiences the Sons continually succeeding the Fathers in Trade to many Generations we may not unfitly in this case term Sons of Anach and Men of renown against whom we sight Dwarfs and Pigmies in Stocks and Experience being younger Brothers of Gentlemen that seldom have above one Thousand ●ounds sometimes not two Hundred to begin the World with Instead I say of such young Men and small Stocks if this Law pass we shall bring forth out Sampsons and Goliahs in Stocks subtilty and experience in Trade to coap with our potent Adversaries on the other side there being to every Mans knowledge that understands the Exchange of London divers English Merchants of large Estates which have not much past their middle-Age and yet have wholly left off their Trades having found the sweetness of Interest which if that should abate must again set their Hands to the Plough which they are as able to hold and govern now as ever and also will engage them to train up their Sons in the same way because it will not be so easie to make them Country-Gentlemen as now it is when Lands sell at thirty or fourty years Purchase For the Sufferers by such a Law I know none but idle Persons that lives at as little Expence as Labour Neither scattering by their Expences so as the Poor may Glean any thing after them nor Working with their Hands or Heads to bring either Wax or Honey to the common Hive of the Kingdom but swelling their own Purses by the sweat of other Mens Brows and the contrivances of other Mens Brains And how unprofitable it is for any Nation to suffer Idleness to suck the Breasts of Industry needs no Demonstration And if it be granted me that these will be the effects of an Abatement of Interest then I think it is out of doubt that the Abatement of Interest doth tend to the Enriching of a Nation and consequently hath been one great cause of the Riches of the Dutch and Italians and the encrease of the Riches of our own Kingdom in these last fifty years Another Argument to prove which we may draw from the nature of Interest it self which is of so prodigious a Multiplying nature that it must of necessity make the Lenders monstrous Rich if they live at any moderate Expence and the Borrowers extream Poor A memorial instance whereof we have in Old Audley deceased who did wisely observe That one Hundred Pounds only put out at Interest at ten per cent doth in seventy years which is but the Age of a Man increase to above one Hundred Thousand Pounds And if the Advantage be so great to the Lender the Loss must be greater to the Borrower who as hath been said lives at a much larger Expence And as it is between private Persons so between Nation and Nation that have Communication one with another For whether the Subjects of one Nation lend Money to Subjects of another or Trade with them for Goods the effect is the same As for example A Dutch Merchant that hath but four or five Thousand Pounds clear Stock of his own can easily borrow and have credit for fifteen Thousand Pounds more at three per cent at Home with which whether he Trade or put it to Use in England or any Country where Interest of Money is high he must necessarily without very evil Accidents attend him in a very few years treble his own Capital This discovers the true cause why the Sugar-Bakers of Holland can afford to give a greater price for Barbadoes Sugars in London besides the second Freight and Charges upon them between England and Holland and yet grow exceeding Rich upon their Trade Whereas our Sugar-Bakers in London that buy Sugars here at their own Doors before such additional Freight and Charges come upon them can scarce live upon their Callings ours here paying for a good share of their Stocks six per cent and few of them employ in their Sugar-works above six to ten Thousand Pounds at most Whereas in Holland they employ twenty thirty to fourty Thousand Pounds Stock in a Sugar-House paying but three per cent at most for what they take up at Interest to fill up their said Stocks which is sometimes half sometimes three quarters of their whole Stocks And as it is with this Trade the same Rules holds throughout all other Trades whatsoever And for us to say if the Dutch put their Money to Interest among us we shall have the advantage by being full and flush of Coin at Home it is a mear Chymera and so far from an Advantage that it is an extream Loss rendring us only in the condition of a young Gallant that hath newly Mortgaged his Land and with the Money thereby raised stuffes his Pockets and looks big