hazardous War by Sea or to bring to pass the things that will beat the Dutch without fighting The Reason wherefore the British Rivers draw five Foot Water more than the German Rivers do at the Mouth or Influx is because they run not above one hundred and fifty Miles and through Clay and Gravelly Land which sort of Soyl sends but little quantity of Sand down into the great Freshes And our South and West Winds being great and blowing as I said before two parts in three in the year at those Points force out the Sands and send them into the Ocean And upon some certain Tides force them over to help to augment the Holds on the German Shore Observe but the Mouth of the River Dee that runs by Chester which lyes in the Face of the South and West Winds and there you will find the Winds and Tides have done the like By which at this present a Vessel of twenty Tuns cannot come loaded to that Old Noble Town of Chester But now it is time to begin to shew you how we may beat the Dutch without fighting To beat the Dutch with fighting so as to force them from their beloved Mistriss and delight which is Trade and Riches thereby hath been the design of most of their Neighbours for this forty years last past who thought thereby to bring that Mistress of Trade to leave that People and betake her self to a place of better Ports and healthfuller Air. To which purpose upon the end of War betwixt England and Holland many advantageous Articles have been agreed upon and some good Laws made to encourage Trade and the Merchants But I see although we get this Mistresses Love it is but for a short time she is still endeavouring to be gone and seat her self in that dull and flegmatick Air. And the Reasons wherefore she doth so and will do so I will here discover unto you All Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the World that depend upon Trades common Honesty is as necessary and needful in them as Discipline is in an Army and where is want of common Honesty in a Kingdom or Commonwealth from thence Trade shall depart For as the Honesty of all Governments is so shall be their Riches And as their Honour Honesty and Riches are so will be their Strength And as their Honour Honesty Riches and Strength are so will be their Trade These are five Sisters that go hand in hand and must not be parted All people that know any thing of Holland know that the people there pay great Taxes and eat dear maintain many Souldiers both by Sea and Land and in the three Maritime Provinces have neither good Water nor good Air And that in some of the Provinces they pay Fifty years Purchase for their Lands and are many times subject to be destroyed by the devouring waves of the Sea's overflowing their Banks And notwithstanding all these strange and unheard Inconveniences yet they will not quit their Station and remove to places of more safety and less Taxes though never so civilly treated The Reason whereof is First They have fitted themselves with a Publick Register of all their Lands and Houses whereby it is made Ready Moneys at all times without the charge of Law or the necessity of a Lawyer Secondly By making Cut Rivers Navigable in all places where Art can possibly effect it thereby making Trade more Communicable and Easie than in other places Thirdly By a Publick Bank the great Sinews of Trade the Credit thereof making Paper go in Trade equal with Ready Money yea better in many parts of the World than Money Fourthly A Court of Merchants to end all differences betwixt Merchant and Merchant Fifthly A Lumber-house whereby all poor people may have Moneys lent upon Goods at very easie Interest As I have shewed you their Strength before now in these five Particulars you may see their Policie upon which lies all their Happiness and Welfare By these Policies of the Dutch and the want of our Lands being put under a Register One hundred pounds a year in Holland at this present time will raise a Family sooner and drive a better and more profitable Trade than a man can do of a Thousand pounds a year in England But if we write by their Copies we shall do the great things they now do and I dare say out-do them too Now I will demonstrate to all men unbiassed the truth of what I assert and shew them the Condition the Gentlemen and People of England are in at this day and also the Condition the Dutch are in at this day in all their Provinces Let a Gentleman now in England that hath a Thousand pounds a year Land that owes Four thousand pounds come to a Money Scrivener and desire Four thousand pounds to be lent him on all his Land and produce his Writings and the Estate hath been in the Family Two hundred years I know at this day the Answer will be that by the Law of England as it is now practis'd no man can know a Title by Writings there being so many ways to incumber the Land privately And therefore the Answer commonly is Bring us Security for the Covenants and we will lend you the Moneys The Gentleman gets such Friends as he can procure to be bound for his Covenants whom if they accept then the Procurator and Continuator have their Game to play But if he bring not such Security as they like he goeth without this Four thousand pounds which is a sad and lamentable case he having Lands worth a Thousand pounds a year And now he is put to his shifts his Creditors come upon him the charge of Law-suits comes on all his Affairs are distracted his Sons and Daughters want Money to set them into the World At last it is possible he gets Two thousand pounds a piece of two several Persons of one at York and of the other at London and Mortgages all his Lands to each man This continues private for some years The while the Gentleman strives what he can to be honest and prepare Moneys to pay off one of the Mortgages But it commonly falls out otherwise either through bad Times or decay of Tenants great Taxes or the Eldest Son matching contrary to his Father's will or oftentimes it is worse he is so debaucht no one will match with him Now the Gentleman's miseries come on and what must he then do for the persons that have the Lands Mortgaged will not stay because by this time it is discover'd the Land is twice mortgaged I tell you the Lawyers Harvest is now come in and the Estate torn to pieces and the Gentleman his Wife and Family and it may be Creditors too undone For seeing all is in danger to be gone the Friends of the Wife Trump up a former Title to the two Mortgages and fence to get all the Estate that Sheriff Bayliffs Sollicitors and Lawyers leave to be to the Uses intended or pretended in the Private Settlement
or in Men can take a great Cash into his hands and pay six in the hundred for it Is it not a sad thing that a Banker's Boy should take up more moneys upon his Notes in one day than two Lords four Knights and eight Esquires in twelves months upon all their Personal Securities Unless we are cutting off our Legs and Arms to see who will feed the Trunk We cannot expect this from any of our Neighbours abroad whose interest depends upon our loss Were it not much better that those Lords Knights and Esquires that now pay eight nine and ten pounds in the Hundred for their moneys and are contented to sell their Lands at sixteen years Purchase after Law-suits and troubles attending the Law have destroyed the one half should bring up their Lands to thirty years Purchase and Moneys down to three and a half in the Hundred and redeem the old Credit paid by the People to them And I must here beg the Gentlemens pardon that wear the Gold Chains in the City of London if I Petition them to take into their Care the true interest of that Ancient Noble City which is by using such means as may bring it under a voluntary Register where a Bank will suddenly rise and such a Bank as will be for the benefit and advantage of the whole Kingdom and Trade Universal Suppose all the houses in Lombard-street be put into a Register the title thereby safe and secure let them be the Credit Anchorage Fund and Foundation to build your Bank upon Then admit the houses in Lombard-street are worth ten thousand pounds a year and valued at twenty years purchase which they will go at and much more Then the Bank credit that is to secure the Lender will be 200 thousand pounds I say this being lyable to make good all Moneys the Bankers shall receive and take up then there is no fear but the Lender will have his ends answered and his Moneys well secured And it is certain such an Anchorage Fund and Foundation being once laid will mount that Bank within Two Months to six hundred thousand pounds and higher it ought not to go Then out comes the Moneys unimployed from all persons in or near London Even Servants Men and Maids will tumble in their Moneys as fast at one end of the Bank as it can be told out And at the other end it is tumbled out again into Trade to Merchants and such as stand in need of ready Moneys and thereby Trade is made easie and much convenienced And then it will be true with us what Sr. William Temple saith of the Dutch in his Book of his Observations of the Nether-lands That when the Bankers there send to the people that have lent them Moneys to come and fetch their principal and interest then saith he they come with Tears in their Eyes desiring them to continue it But in England many times Men may cry out their Eyes before they get either principal or interest What a comfort would this be to Widdows and Orphans and all such as know not how or dare not set out their Moneys at interest their Moneys now lying dead on their hands if this were done And by this Bank and it's Credit will spring up a Lumber-house nay many in the City of London to force Trade to give to people one Commodity for the other the things now offer'd at by many Gentlemen at Devonshire house But they having no Fund Anchorage and secure Foundation it can come to nothing these Lumber-houses grow out of the sides of the grand Banks which are in all parts and ever shall be the Anchor and Cable of all smaller Banks If it shall please God once to raise a Bank in London of six hundred thousand pounds Fund and Anchorage out of such a Bank will sprout out many Lumber houses and smaller Banks to quicken Trade And certainly then the Moneys will be lent at four in the hundred and ready Moneys at all times upon unperishable Commodities even to three parts of four of the Value as doth the King of Swetheland with his Iron and Copper at Hamburgh I could write a whole Volume of the advantage it would be to our English Trades the growth and manufactures of our own Kingdom But you shall have a touch or two When I speak of putting all the poor of England at work with the growth of our own Country here to be manufactured I do know four persons in England the Father and three Sons that are in a great Trade and I believe they Return more moneys in Trade than any two Merchants or Traders in England which have their moneys at five in the Hundred And I have heard many say that they had rather let them have their moneys at four in the Hundred than any others at six because it was safe and they could have it again when they pleas'd But the Reason of all this is the Anchorage is safe they having a great real and personal Estate And thus it will be with any Bank that shall be settled upon a good secure and unperishable foundation into which moneys will be tumbled at small Interest Now I have shewed you what the Credit and Advantage of a Bank well settled will be of one Street in London but what will the Credit of a Bank be if once all the new buildings in and near the City of London destroyed by the late Fire come under a Register O you with Gold Chains I will tell you half the Houses in the City cannot miss coming into the publick Bank to build and help to lay a Foundation to that rich that desirable that just beneficial and honourable thing And the other half of the Houses will be good Security to the Owners to take up moneys upon them to serve their occasions and drive their Trades with ease Then the Houses will rise in their Rents the Trade will return to the City the Rats and Mice will leave the Houses now only inhabited by them Honour and Honesty will return I have met with many that make these Objections First The Lawyers will be against it Secondly All Gentlemen in Debt will be against it Thirdly All the Lawyers in the House of Commons and Gentlemen in the House in Debt will be against it And Fourthly It will undo thousands of People for in producing their Writings holes will be pickt in their Titles As to the first If the Lawyers Estates will rise in Purchase from sixteen to thirty years then certainly his Family will be better provided for by that way and I was saying more justly than now practised And if I do not mistake it will make Trade much more large in the Kingdom than now it is which makes more for the Lawyers And let the Lawyers and all others consider the Free Lands of England are not the one fifth part and so all that is desired is but two Feathers out of their Goose and there will be sufficient plucking and picking
and some Upholsterers consulted how to bring the Kidderminster Trade to be good to both it being a Trade that is much debased and spoiled by the Factors and having brought it near to pass the best of the Factors sent Letters to the Clothiers and acquaints them that the Stuffs may be made elsewhere as well as there and much more which did so affright the Clothiers that they durst not agree to fix their Trade in two hands although it might have been Five or six thousand pounds a year in the Trades way Dr. Doth any one know this besides you Cl. Yes all the Town will tell you it is so and I can bring you to a Man in London can tell you the whole Story who treated the Upholsterers and got two Merchants to lend the Trade Five or six thousand pounds to help to drive the Trade that so it might be done with profit and ease Dr. Well old Friend I do believe you for Kidderminster Factors have spoiled the Weavers and the Upholsterers Trade as our Blackwell-hall Factors Packers and Drawers have spoiled your Trade and ours Cl. Indeed Sir it is even so and what can such a one as I do seeing a whole Town stand in fear of Three or four Factors Dr. Friend you know when you and I dealt together first when I. A. was a good Clothier and I. of Leck a good Wool-man it was not so then the Factors were your Servants and the Packers and Drawers were ours Will you Clothiers joyn with us Drapers to see if we can reduce the Trade to the old good condition it was in formerly Cl. I will with all my heart and so will all the Clothiers in our Country too I will undertake for them for we are almost at Beggars-bush and we cannot tell how to help our selves And our Trade grows worse and worse we make no profit of our Commodities Coun. Gentlemen I understand you are discoursing of your Trade of making Cloth and selling Cloth as I have club'd with you for Supper so I pray let me club a little with you in Discourse for I am as highly concerned in the thing you Discourse of as you are for every Acre of my Land rises price according as the Woollen Manufacture flourishes If Wool be dear my Tenants Wife and Children have work in Spinning and Carding and Rent's paid at the day and none left in arrears And then we have a merry Sheep-sheering and with Two years Wool I can Marry Jugg or Bess Dr. Sir You speak like one that hath a Fellow-feeling in our misery I shall be and am very heartily glad of your good company and shall with this old Friend of mine joyn in any thing that may be for all our goods so as the publick good of the Wool Cloth and Trade may be advanced Coun. Sir I shall do as much as I can but you must know we in the Countrey are ignorant men and do not know how to do much but we know where the Shooe pinches us My Brains shall go with yours a Wool-gathering this one bout Cl. Friend I am glad we have so happily met with this honest Country-man I hope we may amongst us Three consider after one Bottle more is off how things may be mended what say you Country man will you make one with us in so good a work Coun. Pray what Country-man are you I live at Salisbury Indeed a fine Town of Trading in the Woollen Manufactures but much decayed of late years What Country-man is this Gentleman your Friend He lives at London Well must he Dr. Come Country-man what say you will you make one with us Coun. I will not joyn with the Salisbury Clothier for I thought all Clothiers had of late removed to Tanton-Dean and there-abouts because that place is under a Register and Moneys may be had at Five in the Hundred at any time to drive their Trades with ease comfort and profit Dr. Sir I confess they are at a loss and yet they have the wisest Bishop of late that hath been there a great while and some good things have been doing of late for that City as making the River Avon Navigable and they are preparing to come under a Register and all the Free-land within Ten miles of the City likewise Cl. Look you there Country-man you talk of Tanton-Dean under a Register you see Salisbury and Ten miles round is to be under a Register likewise Coun. Now I am well satisfied with corresponding with the Clothier Salisbury hanging Register fashion that is a bit I love Dr. Come come now let us fall too and consider of some good things to advance the Woollen Manufactures I will acquaint the Drapers and you must the Clothiers and you the Country-men and so every one use his interest with the Authority to amend what is amiss Coun. Hold hold you drive too fast there is a snake in the Bush although I live in the Country yet I come to London sometimes and at the Coffee-houses I heard strange News which made me stare And now we are to set forward so good a work let us see how to clear the foundation and take away the Rubbish Dr. Pray Sir what is the strange News you hear at Coffee-houses It is generally idle Twit twot Discourse not worth ones minding Coun. I heard at the Rainbow Coffee-house That the people in and near London have of late years lent about One hundred thousand pounds without Interest for Four years to be imployed in the Woollen Manufacture near Conmell in Ireland and by the strength of that Moneys to carry away our people out of the West of England into Ireland and there make Cloth and Stuffs and when made then carried to Spain France Holland and Germany And there with cheap Wool and cheap Victuals Manufactured and so do mighty things Cl. You live in London and you know whether there be any such thing as this is if it be so we Clothiers may go hang our selves Moneys without Interest for Four years cheap Wool and cheap Beef carried to Holland together and made Cloth there If this be so I 'le never weave more I will burn my Beam and run away by the Light Dr. No no Old Friend our Country-man is under a mistake be not in such a passion he told you he heard so in a Coffee-house Cl. I pray Sir is there any thing like it for there cannot be such a smoke as this is and no fire Dr. I will tell you what the thing is he means There are a certain number of persons who they say have imployed some such Sum as is spoken of to set up the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland and indeed now it comes into my mind I remember I have heard of their taking over many People out of the West of England and sending the Cloth and Stuffs when made to Holland and Germany and also Wool and Beef with it Cl. I pray had they the Moneys without interest for Four years to do
have forc'd Trade out of your City some of them are not within the power either of the Law or your Magistrates to prevent but some are and these which may be done with ease I question not but your Magistrates will use their endeavours to bring them to pass The which are putting all the New Buildings in the City of London under a Register and procuring a Law to pass to enable the several Companies of Handicraft Tradesmen in London hereafter mentioned to have power to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury to build Granaries to hold Corn with Mills or any other Engines to go by Water to be made use of for the good and benefit of the several Companies whereby Art will be incouraged and Trade convenienced The Names of the Companies are as followeth and the Copy of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the accomplishing of the same follows after The Company of Weavers the Company of Pin-Makers the Company of Turners the Company of Water-men the Company of Silk-Throwers the Company of Felt-Makers the Company of Pavers the Company of Cloth-Workers the Company of Plasterers the Company of Joyners the Company of Embroiderers the Company of Brick-Layers the Company of Smiths the Company of Armourers and the Company of Carpenters The Form of the Bill to be carried into Parliament for the making of the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and for building Publick Granaries near the said River with liberty to set up Mills and Engines to go by Water for the use and benefit of the several Companies of the Handicraft Trades in the City of London called by the Names of Weavers Pin-Makers Turners Water-men Silk-Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Workers Plasterers Joyners Embroiderers Brick-Layers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters WHereas it is evidently made appear That all Manufactures in England may by the advantage of having constantly good and cheap Uictuals as also ready Moneys at all times to drive their several Trades live comfortably and thereby provide plentifully for their Wives and Children And whereas it is lately found out and discovered that the said Benefits may with much ease be made applicable unto several of the Companies of Handicrafts within the City of London and the way for the doing thereof is to have liberty to make the River Sharwell Navigable from Oxford to Banbury and to set up publick Granaries and Engines near the said River for the use of the said Companies Therefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Incorporated Companies of Meavers Pin-Makers Turners Mater-men Silk Throwers Felt-Makers Pavers Cloth-Morkers Plasterers Ioyners Embroiderers Bricklayers Smiths Armourers and Carpenters to make the River Sharwell Navigable from the City of Oxford to the Town of Banbury in the County of Oxford and to build Granaries for holding of Corn with liberty for making of Mills for grinding thereof with Licence and leave to set up Engines to go by Mater for the use and benefit of the several Trades mentioned in this Act. And for that it shall not be any ways prejudicial to the Owners of any Land which shall be Cut or made use of for making the said River Navigable or building the said Granaries Hills or Engines Therefore be it Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellor of England to grant a Commission under the Great Seal of England thereby Authorising Fifteen of the knowingest able Gentlemen of the County of Oxford to be Commissioners to set down and settle what and how much shall be paid for the Lands so to be Cut or made use of and the Moneys to be paid before there is any act or thing done in cutting any of the said Lands so to be made use of And it is further Enacted That any Seven of the said Commissioners shall be sufficient to make or do any act according to Iustice and good Conscience and all Rules Orders Decrees being so made done shall bind all Parties concerned their Heirs all other Persons whatsoever And be it further Enacted That all the Benefit of the said River Sharwell and the Barges and Boats employed thereupon with the Granaries Hills and Engines to be built shall be and enure to the several Companies named in this Act and to their Successors for ever And be it further Enacted That it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Companies and their Successors to put Corn in the said Granaries and the same to be Registred with the Clark of each Company as to the time it was put in and the nature kind and quantities of the said Corn And from and after such time the said Corn is in Granary no Sale Mortgage or Conveyance shall be good but such as is Entered with the Clark of the particular Companies and at the Guild-Hill with the Register there employed for that purpose And in case any of the said Parties dye having Corn in Bank it shall go and enure one Third part to the Midow of the Party deceased the other two Third parts thereof to be dirided share and share like amongst all the Children of the Party deceased only the youngest Child excepted which shall have one share and a half being in most necessity the better to help to breed him or her up And that the Husband is and shall be for ever disabled to make any Incumbrance upon the said Corn in Bank without the consent of his Wife and she joining with him under her Hand and Entred in the Clark of the Companies Book and with the Register at the Guild-Hall then the property of the said Bank Corn shall be legally altered and not otherwise any Law Statute Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding In reading my Book of England's Improvement by Sea and Land you will see the Causes laid open and plain of the decay of Trade and Manufactures in England and the Reasons of the low Rates the things must of necessity be sold for I have already set and appropriated the Clothiers of Worcester the Weavers of Kidderminster and the Cappers of Bewdley to have the benefit of a Granary near Stratford upon Avon Now I am for fixing the several Companies of London who work in the laborious Arts in Granaries upon the River Sharwel near Anslo Bridge in the County of Oxford about seven Miles from Oxford The Arms of the several Companies are in the Map of Rivers in this Book affixed wherein you may plainly see That if the River Sharwel were once made Navigable from Oxford to Anslo Bridge and the Granaries built in that place for the several Companies then all the Rich Corn Countries toward Banbury and Brackley would be on the Back-side of the Granaries and would at all times
ever will be of any great Riches or are capable thereof But such will as have these things abounding in them good Ports advantageous Laws for Trade good Wooll and good quantities thereof much and well Wooded with plenty of Iron Stone and Pit Coales with Lands fit to bear Flax with Mynes of Tin and Lead Scotland is a thin and lean Kingdom and wanting in these things England is a fat Kingdom and hath all these things in it Yet the Lothean Lands in Scotland are twenty four years purchase At Edinburgh there is a Grand Register and in each County a particular one and no man can be there deceived in a Purchase unless it be his own fault England is at sixteen years Purchase The reason is obvious why Scotland must be so and why England is so But a voluntary Register in England will cure all and put us six years purchase above Scotland For as I formerly said as our Honour and Honesty is so will be our Riches and Riches bring Trade and Trade brings strength to an Island And for want of good Titles let the world judge what a Condition we are coming into I will give you one small Instance what the poor decayed Trade and Clothiers of England would be able to do in easing themselves and making their Trade comfortable if they had but the Authority of the Law to Register all their Houses and Lands Take it from the City of Salisbury there I make the Precedent and as it would be with them so it would be with all the Towns in England who deal in the Wollen and Iron Manufacture Suppose the Clothiers in and near Salisbury have two thousand pounds a year in free Lands and their Lands were by Law fixt under a Register then the Anchorage and Foundation of a Bank will be at least fifty thousand pounds And immediately tumbles into them all the idle Moneys nay Moneys now under Ground and good part of the plate ten Miles round The Usurer will pray and the Men and Maid-servants will beg to take in their Moneys Immediately one hundred thousand pounds will be brought in and at four in the hundred What will this do to the poor Clothiers Nay what will it do to each Gentleman and all men near Salisbury that have or keep Sheep I say the help and present Credit of this great Bank and Cash will raise the price of Wooll and set the Poor at work Thereby enabling the Tenants to pay their Rents keep the poor of the Parish bring the Clothiers and the City into a Comfortable Condition but most of all it will prevent the Trade departing this Kingdom which of necessity it will do if not timely prevented For the Irish Wooll carried away with their Beef to Holland France and Germany their making Cloth of cheap Wooll with cheap Victuals with Moneys at three in the hundred will out do us and undo us too if 〈…〉 prevented Eight years since I discovered 〈…〉 of the Worse Manufacture and the Reasons which he made publique in his first Book The same that may be done at Salisbury by this way may be done by all the Towns in England that depend upon any of our own Manufactures And in this case here 's nothing desired but that Men thus qualified with Lands may employ it by the Authority of the Law to the good of themselves and mankind and to be justly honest to all Now methinks I hear many of Salisbury say But how may this be done which you say I tell you how desire your Parliament Man to draw you up a Bill and carry it into the House the next sitting But you will say he will not do it Then get your Bishop to do it You will say he is no Lawyer Pray tell him it is easier than making the River Navigable But a Register and the River Navigable together will do rarely well Well if the Bishop will do the one I will do the other I will only tumble over a few papers wherein are my Observations when I surveyed the River The Preamble of the Bill to be carried into the House of Commons for putting the City of Salisbury and the Free Lands within ten Miles thereof under a voluntary Register with some Heads of the said Bill WHereas there past an Act of Parliament in the _____ Year of his Majesties Reign that now is for making the River Avon Navigable from the City of Salisbury to the Town of Christ-Church and so into the Sea so as Boats Barges and Lighters may come up the said River to the City of Salisbury and so down again into the Sea for carrying and recarrying of Wood Coles Corn and all other Commodities to and fro And whereas the said River is begun to be made Navigable and some considerable Sums of Money are laid out about the said Work which if once finished will tend much to the benefit and fur therance of Trade to the said City and Country thereabouts And whereas there hath formerly been a great Trade in the said City and Country adjacent in the making and working in the Wollen Manufacture which is now much decayed and if not timely prevented will be worse the occasion whereof is the want of present Money and Credit for the Clothiers to drive their Trades to be by them had when wanted and that at low and easie Interest And finding that in many places beyond the Seas Trade is much advanted by the Lands being under a Register and in Taunton Dean in England the Town and Mannor there being under a Register hath in a strange manner given life ease and benefit to the Trade there and thereabouts whereupon that place is much enviched And to the end that the River of Avon when made Navigable may answer the Charge of making it so and the wollen Trade in Salisbury and thereabouts may be encouraged Wherefore be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That from and after the twenty fifth day of June one thousand six hundred seventy and seven all manner of person or persons that shall desire it may and shall have their Free-hold Lands and Houses Registred at the Registers Office within the City of Salisbury which shall lye within the said City and within ten Miles thereof accompting two thousand yards to the Mise Provided such Houses and Lands so to be Registred with their Names Metes and Bounds be first set up and affixed three Lords Days upon the Church Door of the Parish where such Lands are And that the Minister with one of the Church-Mardens and one of the Overseers of the Poor first certifie under their Hands and Seals the doing of the same with a true Copy of the Paper so affixed to the Register with forfeiture of twenty pounds and three Months imprisonment to any person or persons that shall take down or deface the said Writing during the time
Eastern In the Eastern-Seas the Climate is cool until May but in the Western-Seas the Climate is warm in March and as the different heat of the Climate is so the Liquor shall ripen and grow quick and fit to drink And in that particular New Brunswick will infinitely out-do Old Brunswick But if there be not Granaries built at New Brunswick to take in Wheat when cheap and all other things well setled the benefit proposed must not be expected for it must be made of cheap Wheat and such Wheat for a Stock must be taken into the Granaries in a cheap time and when it is cheap at least three years Wheat Malted before-hand fit to make Mum. The older the Wheaten-Malt is for that purpose the better it will be and the more profit will be made of it Now I leave this to the serious consideration of that worthy Person Sir John Clapton in whose Lands New Brunswick will be built As also to Mr. Brishop and my Friend the Town-Clerk of Stratford upon Avon seriously to consider what a great thing it will be to the Publique and to the Countrey near Stratford if the Linnen and Mum-Trade be setled there No part in Europe is comparable as to scituation materials and soil to that place And you may observe me in my whole Discourse now Printed that I shew you that Trade will go to the place where it can be made cheapest and soonest at Market For you may observe my Maxim Honour and Honesty brings Riches And these three bring Strength and Trade So places made by Art convenient as there is by Avon being made Navigable gives the advantage to this great and rich design of setting forward the Mum and Linnen-Trade at New Brunswick I pray observe before you had that River Navigable you were lockt up in the Inlands and could not come to any Navigable River under twenty Miles And in all times when Corn was plenty the ways being very deep in VVinter and in some Summers it was there very cheap whereby the Tenants could not pay Rents to the Landlords and the Lands put to keep Sheep So all improvements were wholly out of their Power But see now how the case is altered by this new River coming to your Town Now all Improvements offer themselves to you as the Mum-Trade the Linnen and Thred-Trade Nay you will be to the West of England Wales Shropshire and Cheshire as Dantzick is to Poland you will serve all those Parts when Corn is wanting you have the advantage of your Navigable River to send down your Corn and so by the help of Severn it will be carried into all Parts that stand in need thereof At New Brunswick Granaries may be built for the holding of Corn and there to be stored up as in Germany and there all things being done by the same way method rule and order as it is at Marenburgh all the Countrey-round for Thirty Miles will have many and great advantages and to the Publick no Tongue can express the several and strange benefits it will administer As first It will preserve the Corn from Rats and Mice and what was formerly destroyed by them now will be kept to feed the Poor Secondly It gives the Husbandman a great advantage for he may Thrash out his Corn and carry it to be kept safe in the Granaries until he hath occasion to sell it and so the Consumption occasioned by Rats and Mice is wholly prevented and that which fed Rats and Mice and other Vermine and which other accidents destroyed will be preserved and kept to feed the Poor which is at least the third part of the Wheat of England if kept Four years in Ricks Stacks Barns Houses and Lofts Also the Husbandman will by having a place always ready to lay up his Corn safe have the benefit of his Straw to feed his Cattel and make Muck Chaff for his Horses and light Corn for his Pigs and Poultry and his Husbandry will be in a regular motion and answer his just and laborious ends whereas if his Corn be Rickt up Three or Four years his Husbandry is out of order sometimes nothing for his servants to do his Pigs half famished his Cattel lean want of Muck that this Straw should produce to bring his Husbandry about as it ought to be done The poor Farmer nay Free-holder looks upon his Ricks with sighs and a heavy heart he seeth there are Vermin in them which are not to be prevented some owe Moneys upon Interest some to their Landlords but Men will not stay long the Tenant prays patience Time is given but still a Plenty is continued and the Ricks not pulled down but at last neither Userer nor Landlord will stay longer Then the Lawyer is set at work Suits are brought and there is no standing but trouble and misery all ruined and into Prison he must if the Moneys be not paid immediately and a large and long Lawyers Bill into the bargain I pray where is now the poor Farmer and many Free-holders also what must they do what shift must they make Shall they fly to the Kings-Bench or run away something must be done I tell thee what immediately pull down their Ricks and Thrash without doors and within as fast as they can send the Corn to Market although never so cheap and the doing thereof at that time never so much to their damage and at Market part of the Moneys made of this Corn paid for charges at Law great part of the Corn before the Ricks were pulled down eaten and consumed by Rats and Mice Now observe the consequences of these things The poor honest Laborious Countrey-man being thus pursued by Suits in Law Rats and Mice devouring his Corn when in Ricks and sold cheap and at unseasonable times Servants seeing his necessity raise price of their Labours This forsthast puts his Teams to carry his Corn to Market and that causeth the neglect of that years Husbandry and truly the end of all this is no more than this The Lawyer is paid his Bill for he will or else no Team nor Master neither must come to Market the Servants wages paid that Thrashed out the Corn the Userer paid what the Farmer owes him but you will say what shall the Landlord have I will tell you what he will be sure of his Farm thrown upon his hands and that present years profit lost nay and when he comes to stock it himself he may possibly lose his Rent and the interest of his stock put upon the Land and when he sets it again lose Twenty in the Hundred and glad to get a Tenant to take it so But that which is worse The Tenant and Landlord are then in the worst condition and their Families and Estates out of order Moneys is most wanting and Trade most dead in times when Corn is very cheap and the Reason is That the Corn lies in Ricks and no Man can or is benefited or secured by it only there is a merry
Towns places to Bleach and Whiten thy fine Linnen being the Lands of the Earl of Middlesex equal to Harlem in Holland for all conveniences if not better Fifthly I call all those People to be Judges who have great quantities of Corn and are forced to keep it Two or Three years in Ricks whether it loseth not at least one fourth part of the Corn by Vermin Rats Mice and other accidents and if kept Four or Five years many times the one half is consumed besides the miseries before spoken of that attend the Landlord Tenant and Creditor Now this Publick Granary is the cause of preserving all this Corn that otherwise would have been consumed by Rats and Mice and as I said in my Book That we may beat the Dutch without fighting now I say and affirm That all the poor People of England will be fed with Bread sufficient without being chargeable to the Publick for any thing For they have the Corn to supply them for Bread which the Rats and Mice did destroy Now Reader I pray thee seriously consider whether the Seed of a Voluntary Register is not convenient to be with all speed sowed upon this surfeited English Field all People that know any thing know that Seed long sowed on the same Land over and over brings the Farmer at last to Beggery I question not but thou art convinc'd this Publick Granary well ordered with the Corn put into it will feed all the poor People of England taking nothing but what would be eat and destroyed by Rats Mice and other accidents All you that Read this consider what cheap Victuals and certain will do to most Manufactures and the cheapness will preserve it with us So here is good Corn and cheap and much Plenty here is excellent good Land to bear Flax and great quantities of it here a covenient place may be made to draw Water out of Avon River to supply the Bleaching and Whiting Here is at present no settled Trade or Manufacture nor any settled within Fifteen Miles of the place here you are in an excellent plentiful Countrey of Flesh and all other provisions but that which crowns the design you are at the Head of a Navigable River by which you will have with ease and cheapness all the Flax Cloth Thred Tape and other things sent down the River Avon into Severn and so for Sea Bristol Wales Shropshire and many other places and all things you stand in need of will be brought up the River Avon to New Brunswick And I say God and Nature with the River Avon being made Navigable hath so strangely accommodated New Brunswick and New Harlem and fitted it for this Linnen nay I say fine Linnen Trade that certainly no part in Europe can compare with it As to the Third That which is to be the Publick Granary to keep the Corn for all Gentlemen Merchants and Farmers that please to send it thither that so the destruction and damages occasioned by Rats and Mice may be prevented I say in this Granary Corn at all times shall be taken in from all persons that please to send it and the Corn so sent must be preserved sweet safe and in good order for one Peny the Bushel for a whole year and the owner at liberty to take it out at his own will and pleasure or to sell transfer or assign any part of the said Corn to any Person or Persons for the payment of his Debts or in Mortgage to pay his Landlord his Rent and the Granary-keepers to give good security that all things should be faithfully done and discharged Now the Corn being brought into the Publick Granary and there Registred in the Register Book to be kept for that purpose and the Person that hath put in the said Corn taking a Note under the Hand and Seal from the Granary-Register of the quantity of Corn brought into the Granary with the time it was delivered with the Matter and kind of the Corn Then these advantages will ensue First The Farmer will have all the advantages I spoke of before as preservation from Rats and Mice Straw to supply his Cattel the Chaff for his Horses and the light Corn to feed his Pigs and Poultry and the Muck-hill in a regular constant quantity his Husbandry Managed with rule and order to his advantage no forc't-hast but Thrashing and carrying the Corn to the Granary in times wherein his Servants have leasure so in Seeding-time and Harvest all People are freed for that and only that imploy The Corn being in the Granary prevents the misery of Law and the charge attending it the Landlord secured his Rent or part thereof by receiving a Ticket from the Granary-Register of a certain quantity of Corn there lodged the property being Transferred from the Tenant to the Landlord and entred in the Register this Corn in Granary gives the Tenant Credit to take up Moneys to furnish his occasions so as he may manage his affairs and Husband his Land to the best advantage and prevent the sad effects that commonly attends the want of present Moneys for his necessary occasions and for want of Credit many times the laborious honest Countrey Farmer is undone and forc't to come and live upon the Parish and the Land he was Tenant to must now help to maintain him whereas if prevention had been timely found out against the Rats with Two Legs that so charge of Law-Suits had been prevented the Corn kept safe in a Granary and preserved from the Rats and Mice with Four Legs then the Landlord had been paid his Rents the Tenant preserved the Userer paid the charge and trouble of Law avoided and all miseries now upon Landlord Tenant and Creditor not so much as heard of And for that all these sort of Miseries may for the future be prevented and sufficient means and remedies prescribed for the doing thereof I shall here give you the ways means rules orders methods directions and policies whereby they certainly will be with ease accomplished for they are exactly so done in Germany and have most strange advantages in these parts in the advance of Trade and procuring of Riches And it will be with us if once accomplished as if one were raised from the dead I propose and hope to see Three large Granaries built at New Brunswick one whereof to be appropriated to the Persons that set up Brewing of Mum one to be appropriated to and for the keeping of Corn for a stock for the poor of the Countrey and for to supply the People that work in the Linnen Manufacture and one to be a publick Granary for all Gentlemen and Farmers to send their Corn into when Thrashed to prevent the destruction which is made by Rats and Mice when it is in Ricks Barns Chambers and Lofts And of the advantage that these Granaries will be I will speak particluarly First The Granary built to take in Corn for the use of the Brewers of Mum will be the life of that Trade
for building the Granaries which is 80 l. So the charge will be yearly 200 l. Now observe if the Countrey Man pay 6 d. a Quarter yearly for keeping his Corn safe and sweet in the Granary Fourteen thousand Quarters will come to 350 l. for Granary-Rent yearly The Pattern of the Granary to be built you shall have in the Map of New Harlem and New Brunswick taken exactly from one built in the City of Shenibank in the Vale of Parinburgh upon the River Elb which is a Store-house for Wheat to be sent to Brunswick whereof Mum is made Serious Reader Here is a way plainly lined out to cheat the Rats and Mice to feed the Poor to preserve the Tenant to pay the Landlord to bring to us several Manufactures to prevent Law-Suits to fetch out all Moneys now unimployed into Trade and it will be if done as the Blood in the Body it will so circulate in a few years that Corn will be to England better than ready Moneys and to have this so is undoubtedly every Mans interest in the Kingdom Therefore Corn Registred in the Publick Granary in each Countrey and so entred in the general Register at the Guild-hall will bring to pass these things now Treated of and many more most strange advantages to the People of England which you may expect in the Second Part. 7. Consider what great quantities of Iron-Reads Wrought and Cast is brought into England from foreign parts which might be made and cast here thereby imploying the same number of People here as are imployed in other parts in making thereof and all of Materials of our own A Tax laid upon all wrought Iron would bring and force this Trade to us 8. Consider there are few Gentlemen in England but out of their Woods make some considerable revenue yearly and many of them by selling it to the Iron-works thereby have certain Rents for their Land And whatever is of our own growth ought to be cherished and countenanced and then we shall reap the benefit Considerations of the benefit of a Register and the disadvantage of not having one First Consider He that hath Two hundred pound a year in Free-land and Eight hundred pound a year in other Land his Two hundred pound a year will be as ready Money at all times to supply his just occasions to Marry his Sons and Daughters and to help to manage his Eight hundred pounds a year to the best advantage in Planting Watering and in all other good Husbandry his Land is capable of Secondly Consider For want of Three or Four thousand pounds at command by many men that have One thousand pound a year how they are tossed and tumbled Procurator and Continuator Usurer and Lawyer Under-Sherifs and Baylifs his Land unimproved his Wives heart sorrowful Children want education grow disobedient and head-strong Tenants and Baylifs take unjust and unlawful advantages by reason of the Landlords necessities Thirdly Consider what Credit and Reputation the Gentleman is in that can at any time take up Four thousand pounds and what advantage he may take either of a good Bargain when it is offered or to prefer a Child when he seeth it convenient Fourthly Consider That he that hath but One hundred pound a year and of that Twenty pound a year Free-land what that will do to his benefit it will support him at any time to take up Four hundred pounds to manage his affairs to the best advantage But as things are now he must go to Councel with his Writings but it is possible he dare not produce them and may stay Twelve Months or longer before he gets Moneys and in the mean time Suits are multiplyed with charges and loss of time his Family distracted and many times undone Fifthly Consider the great Cruelty that is now used to Men that have not ready Moneys to pay their Debts by Attorneys and under-Sherifs Baylifs and their Creatures as though Man was made to be torn in pieces alive and what ruins come to one Friend from another by being Bail and bound for his relations even the ruine of infinite numbers of Families in England every year Sixthly Consider The comfort of this way of having ready Money upon Land doth administer to the Wife content to the party safety and safety to all related to him and thereby a Man may upon his death-bed justly provide for his Wife and Children and it will be safe and good Seventhly Consider at this day the Land-security being not good many Gentlemen pay Eight Nine and Ten in the Hundred for the Moneys they take up and go upon the Tick for all Commodities and when they pay it is double the value as if bought with ready Moneys The very bane of many estates Eighthly Consider that no great thing can be done without ready Moneys or Credit Lands Registred will be both and Land will rise purchase and Trade incouraged Ninthly Consider it will pay the poor Gentlemans Debts without Moneys a thing just now wanting Tenthly Consider A Register will set on foot the Noble business of Fishing about England and Wales and inable persons to make the great Rivers of England Navigable and thereby raise great numbers of Sea-men which may be wanting and all persons receiving the general benefit that will come thereby will be of Ten times more to the Government than these Rats and Mice that are now privately devouring all that 's good Twelfthly Consider of what sad consequence it is with us in England at this day that we cannot have Bonds and Bills Transferred by Assignments so as the Property may go a-long with the Assignment thereby one Bond or Bill will go in the nature of Bills of Exchange And so A. owing Two hundred pounds to B. he Assigns him the Bond of C. who owed him Two hundred pounds and C. owing D. Two hundred pounds Assigns him the Bond of E. who owed him Two hundred pounds and so one Bond or Bill would go through Twenty hands and thereby be as ready Moneys and do much to the benefit of Trade and prevent infinite vexatious Suits and prevent the ruin of some hundreds of Families For as the Law now is practised at this day although the word Assign be in the Bond yet the Property of the Bond passes not but the party Assigning his Heirs Executors or Administrators may discharge the Bond by a Release And pray observe the miserable calamity that the poor People lye under for want of this being not done now A. owes B. Two hundred pounds the Bond being Four hundred pounds for the payment of Two hundred pounds B. sends a Writ into the Countrey and arrests A. he cannot get such Bayle as the Sherif will accept So perhaps lieth a Month or longer in Prison his Wives heart almost broke Children and Friends sorrowful At last the Wife importunes Friends of hers to be bound for his appearance but he cannot get special Bayle above then the Attorneys and Sherifs harvest comes in they
Iron in the known World is in the Forest of Dean and in the Clay-Hill in Shropshire and the Iron made of these minerals will work most easiest and quickest into Commodities of any Iron and at present let there be one Tun of this Bar-Iron made of Forest-Iron-Stone and one Tun of Spanish Iron delivered to a Smith to work into Sythes Sickles and other Commodities he will work the Forest-Iron and give Twenty pounds the Tun for it but will not give Twenty shillings for the Tun of Spanish-Iron to work into Commodities The Forest-Iron works easie plyable and soft the Spanish works tough churlish and dogged 2. Consider If there be not timely course taken by the Parliament to provide for the inclosure of the Commons in these parts which lye convenient to these Iron Mines and Works to encrease Woods in a very small time the Manufacture will be much lessened and will prove the great impoverishing of the Countreys where now they are and of much damage to the Kingdom in general 3. Consider that in Worcestershire Stafford and Darbyshire there are great Mines of Iron-stone that makes Iron not very good for use for all things but of excellent use for Nails and many small Commodities The benefit of which Trade is of great advantage to all the Countrey round about And in these Countreys there are great quantities of Pit-Coals which are in all places near the Iron-works and by the help of the Coal the Iron is Manufactured with ease cheapness and advantage whereby we have the Trade of good part of Europe for these Commodities And so set infinite of poor People to work 4. Consider the Woods in these parts decay and look thin and will not last long and when gone the Iron-Stone and Coles will be there of no value the People unimployed the Trade lost therefore the vast Commons in these parts inclosed for Woods would prevent all As the Duke of Saxony hath done near Anaburgh and Sneburgh where this politick preservation of Woods in Lands joyning to his Iron Tin Silver and Copper-Mines hath made them a very great branch of his Revenue and all the Countrey round about by the multitude of People imployed are become very Rich and there things in point of convenience as to Iron-works Tin-works with Mines and Woods to supply the works are so ordered that there are at present Manufactured many Commodities in Iron and sent into England If these Woods had not been preserved by a politick Law all his Mines had been nothing worth and the Iron Trade and Works would have continued near Newringburgh from whence they now are departed and that great benefit is now wholly enjoyed by the Duke of Saxony The like it will do in few years if the Commons are not inclosed for Woods in the Countreys I name where there is Iron-Stone and Pit-Cole plentiful are as the Breast is to the Child let that cease all dies 5. Consider A Tax being laid upon barr Iron and wrought Iron will encrease the Iron Manufacture here whereby the Prices of VVoods will be encreased the Lands rise price and the Poor imployed and all Materials both Mine Pit-Cole and VVoods are of our own growth and product 6. Consider how many Iron-Works are laid down both in Kent Sussex and Surrey and many more must follow The Reason is the Iron from Sweadland Flanders and Spain comes in so cheap that it cannot be made to profit here and observe how the Gentlemen and others in the Countreys for want of Moneys for their Woods are forced to Stock up their Copices and turn them into Tillage and Pasture the People unimployed and their Lands fall Rents To prevent all a Tax upon Foreign Iron is absolutely necessary Considerations upon Bank-Granaries 1. COnsider that the Corn carried into Bank-Granaries and there kept safe for several years for one penny a year for each Bushel will be for Landlord and Tenant of great benefit the Landlord in all likelihood hath his Rent then secured the Tenant his credit preserved the Husbandry in a good and Regular way 2. Consider the Landlord may at any time have moneys upon Bank-Corn transferred from his Tenant to him for Rent and thereby inable the Landlord upon that Credit to take up moneys at all times to answer his just occasions and the Corn being Registred in the County and also at the Guild-Hall in London will infinitely enliven Trade and Bills for Corn in Banks will be as good as ready moneys and thereby prevent infinite of mischiefs that attend want of present moneys 3. Consider that Bank-Granaries will prevent the poor peoples miseries for want of food in some wet and unseasonable years and will be the occasion of taking infinite poor people off the Parish and prevent others falling upon the Parish 4. Consider it is the true interest of all Gentlemen that have many Tenants in great Corn-Countreys to build Granaries upon their charges and take in their own Tenants and Neighbours Corn and receive from them payment for keeping thereof And if this comes to be put in practice by the Gentlemen the next thing they will then be at Is to set their Sons upon Imploy in the Linnen Manufacture for it will be then perfectly discovered that Bank-Corn may always be delivered out to the poor in payment for their work As now Iron Wool Silk Threads any Wier is delivered out to the Smith Clothier Weaver Pin-maker in part of payment for the Manufactured Commodities for at this time most payments are made to the poor Handicraft-man part Moneys and part such Materials as the Commodity was made of which he sells and he is forc'd to take the Materials at such Rates as his Chapman pleaseth to impose or put upon it 5. Consider These Bank-Granaries will bring out all the Moneys now unimployed and at present out of Trade and prevent the keeping of such quantities of Plate which is now made use of by many People for the Bank-Corn being ready Moneys at all times there will be no occasion of such quantities of Plate as most People keep by them which at present is made use of by many persons for their immediate Credit I being at Dublin in the Month of November One thousand six hundred seventy four there happened a great Storm which very much shattered the Ships lying in the Harbor and blew one to Sea where Ship and Men perished and blew another upon the Rocks near the point of Voth where she was staved and broke to pieces her lading and part of the Men perished at which time I heard many and frequent complaints by Merchants and Seamen of the badness of that Harbor and the danger that attended the Ships lying there at Anchor by reason of hard Sand low Water and the continual hazard the Ships were in when the Winds blew hard there being no Hill or Promontory to defend them from great winds I also found by discourse with the Lord Mayor Brewster and many others that the badness