Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A27535
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An account of the French usurpation upon the trade of England and what great damage the English do yearly sustain by their commerce, and how the same may be retrenched, and England improved in riches and interest.
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Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing B2062; ESTC R19600
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16,883
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28
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of State the better to prevent all revolts and mutinies which in most populous Cities are of greatest danger for as they are pronest unto Factions and Seditions so is the consequence fatal both in it self and the example Certainly Sir too great a City in a Nation is like a bad Spleen in the Body natural which swells so big as it makes all the other parts of the Body lean And to deal plainly with you a great City is the fittest Engine to turn an old Monarchy into a new Common-wealth Therefore some considerate persons have conceived that it would be more Prudence for a State to have three great Cities in it of equal power that in case one should rebel the other two might ballance and give Law to the third And I pray Sir let me tell you if you invite Strangers into this Nation if you do not give them encouragement I doubt whether they will come for the Spaniard to enrich the City of Antwerp and other Cities in the Low-Countreys by the access and traffick of this Nation with them freed us from divers Impositions which his own natural Subjects usually paid And indeed if the Customs even as to the English were somewhat abated it would much advance Trade I do not speak this to lessen his Majesties Revenue for I heartily wish it were more than it is yet I think his Majesty would be no loser thereby for a small Custom upon a great Trade would answer a great Custom upon a small Trade and it 's more prudence to take little out of much than much out of little Where the Customs upon Merchants Goods are small it easily draweth all Nations to trade with them but where great Impositions are laid the Traffick of that place will soon decay Two Ships laden at Bourdeaux of equal Burden viz. of 300 Tuns the one goeth for England the other for Holland that which cometh into England payeth for Custom Price-edge Butler-edge and other Charges thereon by Book of Rates 1200 l. and upwards before she be discharged and the other going for Holland is discharged for 60 l. sterling or thereabouts and after the Duties paid and Wine sold the buyer may transport them into any Countrey but in England they cannot be transported but the Merchant must be a great loser by them for the Hollander can still under-sell him and be a gainer thereby It would greatly advance the Interest of England if by Act of Parliament all persons of Honour and Quality only such persons as attend his Majesty and the Courts of Justice or such as should have his Majesties special Licence excepted to live upon their Estates in the Countrey and not to reside here constantly in Town for thereby all their Rents are drawn up hither where they are vainly spent to say no worse to the impoverishing of the Countrey decay of their Tenants and subversion of their Families Here they change their old Seats and Castles the illustrious monuments of their Honour into new Coaches and Trains some of them carry their Mills in their heads and their Retinue their Woods and Lands on their backs Sir I pray consult the Speech and Proclamation of the Solomon of his Age King James he was very earnest with the Nobility and Gentlemen to live in their Countrey-houses and not in London and would often say that Gentlemen in London are like Ships in the Sea which shew like nothing but in Countrey-Villages they are like Ships in the River which look like great things And by the Edict of Henry the Great of France made 1598. after the Peace of Vermin the Nobility and Gentry were commanded to go and live every man upon his own Estate improve their Lands and take care for the well-government and peace of their Countrey But many persons living here in luxury they are become so effeminate and degenerated from the true English Gallantry and so little known to their Tenants but by their oppression and exacting of their Rents that if there should be any disturbance in their Countrey they are of no more use than a Sun-Dial in the Grave nay many of them are so unfit to serve their King and Countrey that if there should be any disquiet their presence there would prove but as Oyl to the Fire only to inflame it Sir There is one thing more which would restore the ancient Prudence of this Nation and add much Honour to you and that is to establish sumptuary Laws amongst us as to Apparel and superfluous Expences according to the several degrees and qualities of persons which would in a short time recover this Nation which is no other than a wise and laudable parsimony which the Romans and other well-governed States have used Augustus Caesar inforced the Romans to yield an account of their Lives a course full of health and wisdom in a State idleness being the root of all private vices and publick disorders I cannot but commend the laudable Practice of the Great Duke of Russia who doth constantly prescribe what Habit his People shall wear for matter and fashion suitable to their condition That wise Prince Edward the III. in the ninth and one and thirtieth year of his Reign caused sumptuary Laws to be ordained to prevent riot and excess the hectick Feaver of a State both for Apparel and Diet appointing every degree of Men from the meanest Subject to the Prince the Stuff and Habits they should wear prohibiting the adornments of Gold and Silver Silks and rich Furs to all excepting eminent Persons whereby foreign Superfluities were shut out and home Commodities only used By this means these spreading Evils which have since dif-fashioned and effeminated the English Nation were prohibited Yet with submission to your great Judgement I think the vanity of the excess of Apparel may be permitted under these restrictions First So as the expence doth not depend on such Commodities as have too much of the substance of Gold Silver or Silk whereby the publick Treasure is wasted Secondly That we impoverish not our selves to inrich Strangers by preferring foreign Commodities though worse before our own which are better Thirdly That the excess of the expence consist chiefly in the Art Manufacture and Workmanship of the Commodities made in our own Countrey whereby Ingenuity would be encouraged the People imployed and our Treasure kept at home so as the Prince would be nothing damnified by the excess for the ruine of one would raise as much another of his Subjects and Money would be more moving which would be a great satisfaction to the People and peradventure the conceit of the Spaniard may have some truth in it that the excess and luxury of the Nobility makes much for the Princes advantage and renders his State more secure because those which are given to rioting and luxury are never gatherers and hoarders up of vast sums of money which may prove the Instruments of Rebellion Then Sir all the Vanities Toys and Fripperies which Madam la Mode shall bring us