themselves and thereby keeping their Money at home and also to export and vend abroad to others and by that means to draw Bullion and Cash into the Kingdom from those Countries where their Indian Goods come to be disposed And they have the more reason to to fall upon all the Methods and to use all the Ways they can to increase their Coin seeing neither Nations for Persons are now valued as antiently they were by their Ingeny Fortitude and moral Worth but according to their Wealth and the Proportion of Silver that they weigh at in the Scale of Quantity the Scarcity whereof in Scotland through want of Trade which in the Source and Fountain of its being any where plentiful has given occasion to some of their opulent Neighbours whom Wealth hath made haughty and disdainful to fasten upon them the Character of beggarly Scots and the which as it appears by their neglect of Trade they have hitherto born with a Tameness as if they were not ashamed of the Reproach And truly were the Estimate of Kingdoms and Persons made now as formerly it was wont to be and as it really ought Poverty where it is compensated by true intrinsick Moral and Intellectual Worth is not such an Ignominy as it is meant both by those that charge it upon others and as it is commonly taken by them upon whom it is fastned seeing as there may be sound Kingdoms that are poor and indigent in Coin which nevertheless are valorous noble and generous and Nations on the contrary vastly rich who can never emerge from being Rustick and Boorish so there is nothing more apparent tho less acknowledged than that some Persons with a very light Purse may be genteel meritorious and honourable while others of twenty and forty thousand Pound Capital do deserve to be as much reckoned in the Number of the Mob as they who sell Brooms or cry Small Coal But then Sir allow me to add in the second place that the Scots were for many Years after the English and they came under One Soveraign treated with that Equality and Indulgence with reference to the mutual Traffick of the Kingdoms or at least with that Respect and Fairness that the Scots had not that Cause and Occasion administred unto them of establishing and pursuing Trade upon a separate and distinct Bottom of their own as they have had for these several late Years and still have in that upon the two Nations first coming to be the Subjects of one and the same King besides the Prospect which the Scots had and the Hopes that were given them that the two Kingdoms should be so cemented and united as to become equally interested and vested in the same civil and political Liberties Rights and Privileges they had in the mean time immediately granted unto them by the Concession and Adjustment of the Commissioners of both Nations who soon after King James the First had attained to the Crown of England were called and authorized to meet and sit about the debating and perfecting a compleat Vnion between the two Kingdoms that the Scots should be under no Restrictions in matter of Trade more than the English were save that they were to stand prohibited from the Exportation of Wool and a few other English Productions And as this Privilege was not envied or denied them by the English for many Years So the Scots had no reason all that while of complaining that they were unkindly or unequally dealth with or of falling under the Temptations of erecting Trading Societies with larger Immunities than were granted in England But on the contrary they lay under all the friendly Obligations imaginable of acquiescing in that Share and Proportion of Traffick that was so chearfully allowed them Nor was the Trade of England to the East-Indies and to the American Plantations and much less to Africk which have since proved the Occasion of the English entering upon other Measures of Commerce and of laying those Restraints and Inhibitions upon the Scots in the Matter of Trade that were not formerly dreamed of arrived at that Maturity and Perfection as to be the Mine of Wealth for the enriching those that were licensed to pursue it and by Consequence it would create no great Emulations and much less Envy or Discord between the Kingdoms about being interested in it And as there was not any considerable Alterations made from what I have mentioned through the Conduct of the English towards the Scots in the Business of Trade during the Reigns of James I. and Charles I. So every one knows that these Privileges during the Administration of the Parliament 1641 and of Oliver Cromwell's Usurpation were rather enlarged towards the Scots Nation than any ways diminished and abridged So that except the Diversion given to the Scots from following Trade with Application which the War begot that Scotland was for several Years engaged in sometimes for and sometimes against England they had no Cause given them of Offence or Complaint by reason of those Preclusions Restrictions and Hardships which have been put upon them in Matter of Trade since the Restauration 1660. And I am sorry to say it considering that they had both suffered so much for King Charles and cooperated with General Monk to the Degree they did towards his Reestablishment upon his Thrones that they were soon after not only put out and debarred from all the Privileges in Traffick which they had formerly enjoyed but were in all Particulars that respect Trade put into the perfect State and Condition of Aliens tho the doing so was directly repugnant to all the Laws and judged Cases relative to the Postnati For by several Acts of the Parliaments of England immediately or soon after the Restauration particularly by that 12 Car. 2. stiled An Act for the encouraging and increasing Shipping and Navigation and by another 15 Car. 2. called An Act for the Encouragement of Trade the Scots are not only treated distinguishingly worse than any other of the Subjects of the King of Great Britain but they are placed in the same Circumstances as to Traffick with French and Hollanders which as the Scots think could be designed for no other End than the putting them into a worse Condition than that both of a Province and a Conquered People which Ireland is to which they grant the Privileges which they refuse to Scotland You will not thereupon be amazed or think it strange if the Scots have been endeavouring all along since to vindicate themselves from that Dishonour as well as to relieve themselves from that Loss and Damage by settling their Nation on a Basis and Foot of Trade that may not leave them obnoxious to be so easily contemned as they have been nor continue them exposed to those Dependences upon the Grace and Favour of the English which are meerly precarious and may be withdrawn and denied when they please Which leads me to the third Thing which I am to lay before you on the Head that I am
upon concerning the Neglect which the Scots seem guilty of in their failing to countenance and advance Trade namely that the Act of the late Session of the Parliament of Scotland for the Erecting an East-India and African Company is not the first since the Year 1660 in which the Foundation of their being disabled and crippled in Traffick was laid that they have passed and enacted with large Immunities for the settling encouraging and promoting Trade in their Country For besides the Act for encouraging a Foreign Trade made by the present Parliament of Scotland Anno 1693 wherein there are divers Concessions for the raising and quickning the Genius of the Kingdom to an Outlandish Traffick and which was only designed to be preparatory and introductive to this latter Act and to pave the way for it there were divers other Acts granting great Liberties and Immunities enacted in the first Parliament of Charles II. immediately after the many severe Preclusions and Restrictions laid upon the Scots by the Parliament of England for debarring them from all share in the Trade which the English drive either with Foreigners or with the American Plantations Among which other Acts and Statutes of the Scots Nation subservient hereunto that Act is in a special manner worthy of Remark which they past in the Year 1661 for Fishings and for promoting of the same in which as the Privileges and Immunities vouchsafed by it are both many and very considerable so they were all granted and ordained to continue for ever Whereas the Concessions of the late Act which do make so much noise in World are confined to a certain Term of Years some of them being limited to Tin and those of the longest Duration circumscribed to One and Twenty And the Reasons why that Act produced not better Effects nor more signally answered the End it was designed for are so obvious that they need not be insisted upon but only to be hinted at namely that the said Act was not so much designed to be put in execution as it was projected to try what could be procured in behalf of Scotland from the Grace and Favour of our Princes and thereby to gain a Precedent of their Mercy and Justice in order to something that might be more conducible in Point of Trade to the Honour and Interest of that Kingdom To which may be added that it was enacted rather to alarm England and to reduce the English from the unkind and severe Methods they were upon towards Scotland than that any firm Resolutions were taken by the Scots for the pursuing of it I may likewise subjoin That a main Reason of its failing in the Execution was the Scarcity of Money then in Scotland to support and promote it to the Degree that was necessary against our Holland Rivals and the not inviting Foreigners to have a Portion in the Profit upon their bearing a Share in the Expence Nor in the 4 th place is it improbable but that our Opulent Neighbours the Dutch who do in a manner wholly subsist as well as gain so much by fishing on our Seas might bribe some one or more great Men imploy'd in the Head of that Concern secretly to supplant and clandestinely to overthrow it And to conclude this Paragraph it may be farther added That as the Genius of the Nation was not so much excited towards Trade then as it is now So the Business of Fishery was not a Game that a People otherwise habituated could be gained so easily to sly at nor a Quarry they would be prevailed upon so industriously to dig in as a Trade to the Indies and Africa is the prosecution whereof will both bring more Reputation and Gain than the catching of Herring and Cod could be supposed either by Undertakers Merchants or Mariners to do But suffer me Sir to add That upon the unequal Terms which England and Scotland stand together in matter of Traffick it were better for Scotland that the two Nations should be under distinct Kings as they are distinct Kingdoms than that under one and the same Soveraign their Interests in point of Commerce should be made so inconsistent with and repugnant to one another as the English will have them to be For were Scotland a Nation subdued by the People of England it were neither prudent nor safe for them to treat the Scots with the Rigour and Severity which they do by excluding them from all other Share in the Commerce of England or with it save what they do in a manner allow to all sorts of Aliens and Foreigners Nor is it unworthy of Remark that the Romans of old carried for the most part better and behaved themselves both more generously and gently to those States and Nations which they conquered than the English are willing to do to the Kingdom of Scotland which besides its being under the same King as they are is as free a Nation as England it self and altogether independent upon it For whensoever the Romans subdued any People unless they were such as had often revolted from and rebelled against them they not only left them in the enjoiment of all the Rights and Liberties which they had possessed before but they both commonly enlarged and increased them and many times admitted those they had subdued to a Share and Participation of all the Privileges of Rome and of the Roman Republick And the more tenacious they found any People to be of their Liberty and the greater Estimate they observed them to set upon it the more Favour and Honour they judged that People worthy of Whereof tho it were very easy to give a multitude of Examples yet for brevity's sake I shall assign only but one Instance which is that of their dealing with the Privernates whom having upon a Revolt again subdued and having brought some of them into the Senate-House to receive and hear their Destiny they asked of them in what manner they would keep Peace with the Romans for the future in Case they should forgive them And being as Livy tells us answered Si bonam dederitis fidam perpetuam si malam haud diuturnam That If the Terms were good they would perpetually observe it but if they should be bad they would in that case keep it no longer than they should find themselves in a Condition with security to break it With which Reply some of the wisest of the Roman Senators were so ravished as well as pleased That they cried out Viri liberi vocem auditam esse nec ullum populum aut hominem in ea conditione cujus eum paeniteat diutius quam necesse sit mansurum That they had heard the Language of a brave People and just Valuers of Freedom adding that no Nation or particular Person would be willing to remain longer in any State or Condition that was disgustful to them than until they were able to rescue and deliver themselves And if this was the Opinion of the wise Romans in reference to a People
blame this Conduct of the Scots considering what they have so often done themselves for the advancing their own Traffick and Wealth not only without respecting whether the Methods in which they did it might not be prejudicial to the Scots Nation but both under an apparent prospect that it would infallibly be so and upon the Influence of those Motives which directly imported that what they did should unavoidably be to the Damage of Scotland by depressing it and keeping it impotent and indigent And so justifiable as well as lawful the English judged this manner of procedure towards the Scots to be that they have adapted it for one of the Maxims of the Politicks of England that in order to render this Kingdom Honourable Potent and Wealthy Scotland must by all imaginable Means be kept Weak and Poor and thereupon contemptible Nor hath this been less the Consequence and Effect than it was the projected and designed End of those English Laws bearing the Titles which I have formerly mentioned So that upon Supposition that the late Scots Act was made not only under View but out of Intention of lessening and abridging the Trade of England by means of extending and enlarging the Traffick of Scotland yet it is no more but meting to the English as they have measured to the Scots and it is but drawing them a Copy of what was an Original of their own To which I shall only add on this Head that there never was a Nation that was independent upon another under whatsoever Incorporations Confederacies and Unions they might otherwise be that did ever neglect depart from or forbear the endeavouring the Advancement of its own Benefit and Reputation in the World meerly because the Consequence and Effect thereof might be the lessening the Profit and obstructing the growing and menacing Power and Opulency of another Nation by which it was overshadowed and depressed Which conducteth me Sir to the next thing which I shall presume to lay before you namely how much many of your great People through denying themselves liberty to think as well as of your forty thousand Pound Men of the Mob at Garraways to whom God hath given Riches for denying them Vnderstanding and good Nature are mistaken first in believing themselves and then in attempting to impose their belief upon others that the Scots Act for the Erecting of a Company to trade to Africa and the East-Indies will be of prejudice to the Kingdom of England and to the Commerce and Traffick thereof Whereas upon the Use of all the Sense I have and after the outmost exercise of that reasonable Faculty which God hath given me I am so far from being of their Mind that I do judg nothing to be more calculated and adapted for the Advantage of this Kingdom than the Establishment of that Company is and that the obstructing the Execution of that Scots Act will be of fatal Consequence to England and especially to their Societies trading to Africa and the East-Indies seeing this Company which the Scots are establishing is not to drive a Traffick with some little Island or diminutive Place where all the Trade is already preoccupy'd engross'd and monopolized but it is to carry on a Commerce on two vast Continents and all their adjacent Islands where besides what is already entered upon and possessed by the English there are many large Territories for others to occupy and found a Traffick in and these no less fertile in Productions and Manufactures fit to be imported into Europe and there vended and disposed to great Profit than they are willing inclinable and prepared to take of what we can export unto them of both Kinds of our own Indeed were the Scots Act framed and intended to worm and supplant the English out of those Shares of the Indian and African Trades of which they are possessed or to drive them from their Forts and Factories I do think he should not have English Blood in his Veins who would not warmly resent the Design and endeavour not only to prevent the Execution of it but to revenge the Attempt upon those that have projected it But as the Scots have no intention of making the least Encroachments upon the English in any of those particular Places where they have established a Commerce So it will be both for the Honour of Great-Britain and prove exceeding contributory to the Opulency of England as well as of Scotland to get a larger Share of the African and East-India Trades into their joint and associated Hands than the two Companies of England of those Denominations trading thither have been hitherto able to compass and obtain or can be in a Condition singly to carry on and support Seeing as it may be done without the one 's encroaching upon or interfering with the other there so there is Vent in Europe for more East-India Goods than both the Nations can import and bring from thence were the Stocks of each of them larger and their Trades more flourishing than that of the one ever was or than there is any prospect that either of them will at any time hereafter come to be And while several other Nations betwixt whom and England there are none of the Obligations of Friendship mutual Aid and Assistance which are between the English and the Scots are endeavouring to establish promote and support Trades both to Africa and the East-Indies it is matter of Wonder and Surprize that the English should rather desire to have the French Danes Brandenburgers c. become Partakers and Sharers in those Trades and with as large Privileges and Immunities as any mentioned in the Northern Act than that the Scots should have any Portion in them which would provoke some that are not very ready to entertain Jealousies to think that notwithstanding the two Kingdoms have been so long under the same Soveraign and have lived in the mutual Exercises of many Offices which had an exterior shew of Friendship that yet after all there remaineth too much of the antient National Pique And God grant that it arrive not at last to a Rupture and thereupon to such an Enmity as useth to be the Effect of Strife and Discord when those that have been Friends and supposed to lie in one anothers Bosom come to quarrel and fall out Nor is it unworthy of Remark how that in Edward the Confessor's Days the Amity between these two Nations was so warm and seemingly indissoluble that notwithstanding their being under different Monarchs that good King would not suffer the Scots to be stiled nor accounted Aliens and much less to be treated as such as some of late in Contempt as well as Neglect of their being under one Soveraign have been endeavouring they should which yet soon after upon Motives which I shall not now mention not only grew cold but became exchanged into that mutual Hatred which many Ages could not allay nor those Seas of Blood shed in their Wars against one another totally and finally extinguish until
whom they had subdued can any that are Masters of common Sense imagine and believe that a free unconquered and independent People will be contented to be depressed by a neighbouring Nation without seeking to relieve themselves in all the just and lawful Methods that lie within their Circle To which I might add that there are many and fatal Examples of the Discords that have arisen between Nations under the same Monarch when the one of them has endeavoured to ingross and monopolize either the foreign or the home Trade of that Soveraign's Dominions and to preclude the rest from having a due and equal Share in it witness the Revolt of Portugal from the Crown of Spain because the Castilians debarred them from all Share in their Trade to the West-Indies For that was the principal Reason tho there were likewise some others of a different kind why the Portuguise struck off the Government of the King of Spain and set up the Duke of Braganza to be their King Nay I might also subjoin how that it hath often come to pass that through a Nation 's precluding even foreign States and Kingdoms from a Share in Traffick to its own peculiar Plantations there hath been formed as it were an universal Conspiracy of all those Nations that have been thus shut out and debarred either for the wresting of that Trade from it or for making it unprofitable and useless to it The first whereof is verified in the Portuguise who are in a manner wholly beaten out of their vast East-India Trade through the Provocation they gave to other Nations by their striving to ingross it And as to the latter the Spaniards are now sunk under the Experience of it in relation to their Traffick to their own West-Indies whose Trade thither instead of continuing to be beneficial to them is turned and improved to their Prejudice by those whom they excluded from all Participation in it How much less then will free and independent Nations patiently endure that one or two Kingdoms or States should monopolize to themselves all the Trade to Africa India and America as likewise in effect to several Places of Europe Yea should the Scots tamely acquiesce in this all they would gain by their being under one and the same Monarch with the English would be to become involved in all the foreign Wars and Troubles in which the English may be at any time ingaged but to have little or no Share in the Blessings and Benefits of its Prosperity and Peace And seeing most of the Trade of Scotland lieth with neighbouring Nations and especially those which England hath oftnest Provocation to quarrel with and the Scots driving very little Traffick with Countries far remote it consequently follows that upon the Commencement of a War with those adjacent States and Kingdoms the Scots do become in a manner shut out from and deprived of all foreign Trade while in the mean time the English do continue to carry on a vast and Beneficial Trade to Turky Africk and the East-Indies as well as to and from their own American Plantations Of which as the Kingdom of Scotland has had oftner than once the woful Experience upon any Rupture that hath hapned between the Crown of England and the States of Holland with whom as most of the Scots Trade lieth both as to the Exportation of their Superfluities and the Importation of what they want and need so the most of their Traffick hath in those Cases been wholly interrupted and in a manner entirely ceased while at the same time the English have kept up a large and beneficial Trade to other places in which the Scots are by several English Acts of Parliament debarred and precluded from all dealing Yea the present War with France doth caeteris paribus more affect Scotland in point of Traffick than it doth England because as those Productions and Commodities which the Scots used to export thither must necessarily lie upon their hands through their having no other Place to which to carry them so they must be contented to want those French Goods which they were accustomed to bring home in Lieu and Exchange of their own while in the interim the English make a shift both to vend their Productions elsewhere and to supply themselves in other Places with what may answer those Commodities they used to import from France To which may be added that if Scotland remain not only under those Exclusions Limitations and Restrictions in matter of Trade to which it is stak'd down and consined by the Acts of the Parliament of England for the encouraging and encreasing of Shipping and Navigation and for the Encouragement of Trade and against the Importation of foreign Cattel but be withal discouraged envied depressed and counteracted when to prevent the Violation of and out of respect to those English Acts they apply themselves to a new Method and Course of Traffick and endeavour to settle themselves on another Basis and Bottom of Trade than they were formerly accustomed to I say if these be the Circumstances they must abide under the Scots instead of being Gainers are great Losers by the two Kingdoms coming to be united under one Soveraign In reference whereunto tho I could assign several Particulars wherein they are thereby come to be endamaged yet I shall only give an Instance in one namely that by their Incorporation with England under one and the same King their antient long and firm Alliance with France is entirely dissolved issued and come to a final Period Which as it had been many times of singular advantage both to France and Scotland so it was of great Profit as well as Honour to the Scots through the many signal Privileges arising from that Confederacy which the Scots in Contradistinction from all other Nations peculiarly enjoy'd but are now totally lost to them Upon which Sir it were not difficult to make those just and natural Reflections which would shew that the present Conduct of the Kingdom of England towards Scotland is not if we will take the Opinion of the Scots so temperate prudent and discreet as might be expected from a People that are so grateful generous and wise as the English have been always charactered to be But to prevent giving Offence I shall supersede and wave them all and satisfy my self in that I have by the bare mention of the last Particular started Matter worthy of the maturest Thoughts of those of the greatest Penetration either in our Senate or out of it And therefore I shall only on this Topick of Discourse further subjoin that upon the Terms on which the Scots stand with relation to all the beneficial Trade in which the English are concerned they are not only in as bad but in a worse Condition than the Subjects of any foreign Prince are because that as they of a foreign Kingdom or State may for and upon their being excluded from Trading into the English American Plantations c. make Reprizals upon
SOME Seasonable and Modest THOUGHTS Partly occasioned by and partly concerning the Scots East-India COMPANY Humbly offered to R. H. Esq a Member of the present PARLIAMENT By an unfeigned and hearty Lover of ENGLAND Printed in the Year 1696. Some seasonable and modest Thoughts partly occasioned by and partly concerning the Scots East-India Company SIR THIS Paper would not come addressed to you if I knew any in your House to whom for all intellectual and moral Qualities it might more justly be inscribed and dedicated Your admirable Knowledg steady Vertue unstained Honour and unwearied Application which do so well qualify you at all times and especially at this critical Juncture to be an useful Member of the Great Senato and which do so singularly adapt you to co-operate with such others there as are guided by Love to their Couutry and the old Maxims of English Policy to save this Nation from menacing and impending Ruin to recover it to Honour abroad and preserve it in Peace at home and to retrieve our Traffick and render it safe and prosperous do make you the worthy Object of all honest Mens Love and Esteem and do conciliate all those to be your Servants as well as your Friends who do either respect themselves or their Posterity Nor could any thing have entitled you to be thus applied unto by an unknown Person save the Opinion which I have of your Wisdom and Justice and that as you are able to judg of what is here represented that you will likewise do it with an Equity becoming the Merit of the Cause and not under the Biass either of antient Piques or of supposed present Emulations between these two British Kingdoms SIR I shall not now dispute whether the World might not have been happier by its continuance under Consinement and stak'd down to Agriculture and those Mechanick Arts that are needful to the Conveniences of Life without purveying for our Pride and Sensuality than it is by launching out into that measure and degree of Mercantile Commerce which has excited our Lusts as well as fed them and given provocation to Vice by yielding Fewel to it But some Nation having departed from the antient simplicity of Living concented with the Productions of their own Countries and having by Navigation and Trade raised themselves to Wealth Power and increase of Inhabitants it thereupon grew necessary for other Nations to fall into the like Methods lest otherwise they should have been a Prey as well as a Derision to them whom Trade had rendred Mighty and Opulent So that now the Application unto and the Encouragement and Protection of Trade is not a Matter of meer Choice and Discretion but of indispensible Necessity for every Kingdom that is qualified by their Situation for it and would not be contemned and insulted and lie continually exposed to be conquered by any ambitious and encroaching Neighbours whom Trade hath made Wealthy and Powerful For as Trade is a richer and more durable Mine than any in Mexico or Peru and whence a Nation may constantly derive an Increase of Bullion and Coin so in proportion to its plenty of Money will it flourish at Home and be terrible Abroad and answerable to the Measures that any Country or Kingdom arriveth at in Foreign Commerce and Traffick will it proportionably grow not only in Naval Strength but in Military Force by Land Of which not only the Phenicians and Carthaginians of old and long after them the Venetians Genouese and Portuguese are famous instances but whereof the Dutch are in a special manner an amazing and illustrious Example who tho they have narrow and scanty Territories live under a bad Air dwell upon a watery and unhealthy Soil and have scarce any native Productions of their own but are forced to fetch their Bread their Drink their Raiment from elsewhere yet through the meer pursuit of and application to Trade they not only rival the greatest Kings and most potent Kingdoms in powerful Navies and warlike Armies but they give Laws to several mighty Monurchs and States in all the known Parts of the World And forasmuch as Money will always procure Men they do in the Virtue thereof supply themselves from time to time with vast Numbers of Souldiers from divers parts of Europe and without imploying any or at least very few of their own People they do by their Acquisitions in way of Trade muster and keep up large Armies both for their own Defence in times of Peace as well as of War which their living upon a Continent surrounded with Neighbours who envy their Prosperity and are jealous of their Power rendereth necessary and also for the Offence of those that seek to encroach upon or insult them So that by their meer Money which is the Result and Product of Trade they purchase Men to shed their Blood and to lose their Lives in defending them against and in the making Conquests for them upon others And the Nature of War being changed from what antiently it was when Courage and Bravour often decided a Quarrel between States and Kingdoms in a Day and seldom missed putting an End to a War either by Victory or Accommodation within the Circle of one Campaign the Success of it now is come to depend upon the largest Purse and not the bravest Troops and they who have most Money tho not always the valiantest Men will have the better in the War though they may sometimes have the worst in a Battel So that no poor Nation can in the way that War is now managed carry an Offensive War against a Wealthy tho it may possibly through some Advantages peculiar to it be in a condition to maintain a Defensive as the Switzers who through plenty of brave Men and by reason of the situation of their Countrey may continue a Defensive War at least for a time against any Nation that shall have the boldness to attack them But I do say that no necessitous and indigent Nation can make an Offensive War against a wealthy Kingdom or State unless they can make their Enemies Country the Seat of it and by the Plenty and Riches thereof both subsist and pay their own Army Whereas the Dutch through their being wealthy by reason of Trade have heretofore lived many Years in War without growing weary of it and tho they have seldom made great Acquisitions yet they have as seldom sustained any considerable Losses yea they have been able by their Money which is the Product of their Commerce to prevail upon others to assist them when the Subversion of their State has been most menaced and their Country in the greatest Jeopardy tho they have also to be restored to the free and quiet following of their Traffick purchased sometimes their own Peace at their Friends Expence and have abandoned those Allies that came in to succour them NOR need I tell you Sir that Trade is like a nice and coy Mistress which you must not only industriously court to get possessed
and Just in it self and congruous to the Undertaking which they would give Being unto However as the offering and granting less would have left them under an imputation of Folly and Weakness in proposing to compass mighty Ends by feeble Means so they will be more fortunate than others have been if the Success upon those Encouragements do either answer the Wishes they have or the Hopes they entertain AND Sir instead of its giving any just Occasion of Surprize that the Parliament of Scotland should endeavour at last to excite their People to a Share in Trade somewhat proportionable to what other Nations have attained unto it is rather matter of Astonishment and Wonder that their Nobility Gentry and Burgesses who constitute their Senate being generally Men of equal Wit with those of the like Qualities in neighbouring Countries and being also most of them so well acquainted with the World as to understand the Advantages which redound to Kingdoms by Traffick and that the Figure which one Nation maketh above another proceedeth caeteris paribus from Wealth which is the Result and Product of Trade they should have so long omitted the giving those Encouragements to it which they might and which other Nations have done For tho the Biass of their People seems generally to lie another way as I have already said yet that is meerly the effect of Custom and not of Nature and as it would not have been difficult at any time heretofore to have diverted and turned their Inclination and Humour from Souldiery to Commerce so it is not to be doubted but that upon their being once brought to apply unto it they would be found as ingenious and diligent in Trade as they have had the Character to be skilful and brave in War nor are they worse qualified by their Indian and African Traffick than their Neighbours are but if any will in that pretend to an Advantage above another it indisputably falls to the Lot of the Scots in that they have neither long and dangerous Channels to pass before they arrive at their Ports from an Indian or African Voyage nor yet a tedious and perillous Course to run about the North of Ireland and Scotland but that they may immediately out of the Ocean enter into safe and convenient Harbours And then as for convenient Numbers of Men fit to be imployed in Navigation they are by reason of the Populacy of their Country answerable to the Dimensions of it and that there are proportionably more of them of the inferiour Rank than are elsewhere as well furnished with Persons capable to be Mariners as any Country whatsoever and those generally who through the Strength of their Constitution and the Hardiness and Frugality of their Education are not only as able as any to undergo long Voyages with all the Incidents of Heat Cold and sometimes scarcity of Provisions for Subsistence that do attend them and who through an Obedience they are bred to from their Youth are not so liable to mutiny as some others may be but who can equally with if not better than most endure Foreign Climates and with less despondency of Mind and fee bleness of Body encounter those Diseases which Strangers are obnoxious unto upon their first Arrival in Africa and the East-Indies So that considering all the natural Advantages which the Scots have to encourage their Application to Trade it would strangely reflect upon the Wisdom of the Parliament of that Kingdom and greatly detract from the Love which they ought to bear to their Country and from the Care as well as Zeal which they ought to express for the Honour and Prosperity of it in their having so long neglected to establish cultivate and promote Trade with a greater Vigour and more extensively than they have done were there not some Reasons which tho they may already lie under the View of a Person of your Penetration I shall nevertheless for the sake of others represent them unto you that may serve in some measure to excuse though possibly they may not wholly justify their Conduct in this matter Whereof take this for the first namely That it is not long since the African and East-India Trades grew into that Reputation in Europe of Profitableness or came so to flourish through the Industry of these Northern Nations as to raise Emulation in their Neighbours of obtaining a Share in them For as 't is within less than thirty or forty Years that this part of the World grew so fond of many of the Productions of those Places or that trading Societies to them being established had outwrestled and conquered the Difficulties that attend Beginnings of that kind or had brought them to answer the Dangers and Expence which those Companies were forced to be at in laying the Foundations of their Traffick thither and in rendring it first safe there and then advancing it to be gainful and profitable here So that it is no wonder if Scotland that is a Kingdom inferiour to England in Power and Opulency should suspend and delay Attempts of endeavouring to settle a Commerce thither until they should see what success would ensue upon the Care and Industry of those English Companies which were erected for the Cultivation and Management of those two respective Trades Nor did the Conduct of Scotland in this matter differ much from the Behaviour of other Kingdoms and particularly of France with which Scotland pretends not to compare it self in largeness of Territories numbers of People or greatness of Treasure And the adverse Fortune which the English long wrestled with with the Difficulties and Losses which they encountered to the weakning if not almost ruining of the Vndertakers before they could bring the Trade to India to be either profitable to themselves and the Kingdom or honourable to the Government might well discourage the Scots from being forward in embarking in a Course of Traffick under the Discouragements and Arduousness whereof their richer and more powerful Neighbours were ready to succumb whereas having now seen that the establishing and carrying on of that Trade both with Credit and vast Profit is not only practicable but that by reason of the Humour that is now grown predominant in Europe of preferring the Productions of those Countries to any of the Fruits of Nature or the Manufactures of Art which Nations nearer home do afford the Money of those States and Kingdoms who are not immediately interested in that Trade is drawn away from them and comes into the Possession of those who deal in the Original importing of the Commodities of the East-Indies first into their own Countries and then in vending them to other Nations and the Scots being as ready to run into the Fashion of the World as other Nations about them are tho they cannot spare so much Money to be drawn out of their Country as the gratifying their Vanity in Expences of that kind will require have therefore found it necessary to erect an East-India Company both for supplying
by the Wise and Gracious Providence of God they became the Subjects of one and the same King and instead of continuing to be distinguished by the Titles of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland which had been the Badges of their Variance they grew so far united into one Monarchy as to be denominated by the stile of Great-Britain which is equally applicable unto and comprehends both To which allow me to add that the Dutch having already possessed themselves of the most beneficial Parts of the African as well as of the East-India Trades and having not only raised themselves to wonderful Grandure and Opulency in the Indies but attained to that Soveraignty of Power as both to give Laws to most of the Princes of those Eastern Dominions and to make Depredations and Encroachments upon and subdue and dispossess whom they please it is matter of great Amazement that the English should not be willing to admit the Scots to establish a Trade to the East-Indies if it were but that by their joining and uniting their Force and Power with that of the English the Dutch may be resisted and withstood in those Invasions and Rapines which they are inclinable enough to commit upon the English And there is reason to expect that England even through the Advice of their own East-India-Company should encourage the Scots in what they are attempting rather than to obstruct and dishearten them considering what the Dutch by Force as well as Fraud have wrested from and dispossessed the English of and that chiefly through their want of sufficient Numbers of Men in the East-Indies to protect and defend their Forts Factories and Plantations with which Scotland can both easily and abundantly furnish them if the late Act of that Kingdom for erecting an East-India Company obtain and have the Success that is designed by it and meet not with Opposition from those whose true Interest it is to further and promote it Concerning which Act and Company it was enacted to give an Establishment unto I will assume the liberty further to say that the one seems framed and the other erected under view and with an Intention of as much Advantage to accrue to England as what Scotland it self proposeth to gain or can have any prospect of For as a full Moiety if not two Thirds designed to be raised upon the Encouragement and in the Execution of that Act will or at least may be the Money of English-men continuing to live and reside in this Kingdom So the Profit that ariseth from the management of the Scots Stock will in proportion thereunto fall to the English and become a Part of their Capital So that besides the Satisfaction which by this Means will be given to many English who have been discontented through their want of Shares in the East-India Company of England and have therefore run upon Interloping which this will also put a Period to most of all the Gain arising by the Trade of the Scots Company will center in England and in time add greatly to the Treasure of this Kingdom Which Benefit being National and Universal may be accounted more than a Compensation for any Damage that the Scots East-India Company can be supposed to do to the English Corporation of that Denomination And forasmuch as the Northern Society cannot prejudice their Southern Neighbours in the Vent of their Commodities either as to what the Scots themselves used to take off nor in what they used to dispose elsewhere seeing that as the greatest Part if not the whole Indian Goods that have been consumed in Scotland were usually brought in and imported from Holland where they are purchased cheaper than they can be in England So the English Company can be no ways prejudiced in relation to those Indian Commodities which they have hitherto disposed elsewhere in any Parts of Europe Because that as these Foreign Countries are ready to take off and consume more than both the English and Scots Companies can furnish them with it will likewise be many Years before the Scots Company by reason both of the vast Charge they must be at in settling their Trade and the many Difficulties and Losses incident to Beginners can be in a Condition to under sell the English which is the only way they can be imagined to have of worming the English out of the Vent and Sale of their Commodities So that the whole Prejudice which can be supposed to befal the English East-India Company through the Execution of the Scots Act resolves it self into the Immunity of the Scots from paying Customs for 21 Years while the English remain all that while under such a Tribute Tax and Imposition which Sir suffer me to say is not a Matter of that Importance as to deserve all the Noise that is made about the Scots Company And tho I be not so much a Philosopher as either to smile at the seeing an Ass eat Thistles or at the beholding a Gown-man of 70 reading a Madrigal with his Spectacles on yet I can hardly forbear laughing to find a Nation that is called Wise and which really is so to fill both the Kingdom and the adjacent Parts of the World with Clamour and Twattle because the English East-India Company pays Customs for all it imports from thence while the Scots are for a few Years to be exempted from it but who are during that time to be at the Expence of double the Value of that Imposition in the necessary Charges they must be at in the erecting Forts and establishing Factories and towards the settling of their Trade to make it practicable as well as safe Which if they prove so fortunate as to compass and effect they will not only after the Expiration of that Term of Years be contented to be liable to pay Customs but that Kingdom may in that time by the Means of their acquired and improved Trade be in a Condition to contribute more both to the Support of the Civil Government of these Nations and to the defraying of the Charges of any War which the Kingdoms may come to be engaged in than they have hitherto been in a Capacity to do and thereby lessen the Expenses of England greatly beyond what they are for 21 Years to be excused from in Customs Sir before I ease you of the Trouble which I have given you I should lay under your View the several Ways and Methods which your House as well as the House of Peers are taking to defeat the Design of the Scots Act and should make those Reflections upon them which are just and natural as well as obvious But the whole Procedure in that Matter being somewhat extraordinary I shall not venture upon it seeing it cannot be done as it ought with that Respect and Reverence which is due to such awful and august Bodies And therefore all I will say shall be only these two Things First That the two Houses seem to contribute fully as much to the Interest and Reputation of the Scots Company as the Parliament of that Kingdom has done in giving it being by thinking it worthy of so much of their Notice Time and Debate as they have bestowed upon it especially at this Season when their whole Time and utmost Abilities are little enough to be imployed in the redressing the Grievances of their own Country and in finding out Ways and Means for carrying on the War against France and for enabling the King to touch that Foreign Monarch in the sensible Part. For believe me Sir the generality of Mankind have conceived a greater Esteem for the Scots East-India Company and have entertained more favourable Thoughts of its Success than otherwise they would meerly from the Jealousies you have exprest and the Opposition you are giving unto it And then secondly That all the Ways and Methods you have hitherto fallen upon for the obstructing the Execution of the Scots Act and the giving Discouragement to their Trade to Africa and the East-Indies is perfectly a Conspiracy against your selves and the carrying on a Plot to endamage and mischieve England For do you think Sir that by forbidding any of the Subjects of England to build Ships for or to sell to the Scots such as are built already you will disable and incapacitate them from proceeding in their Undertaking seeing they may buy of the Hollanders as many as they will and of what Bulk they please and at cheaper Rates than they could do here So that this instead of being an Obstruction to the Scots will only injure your selves and benefit the Dutch And then as for the prohibiting any of the Subjects of England to become Partners in the Scots Stock as it will tempt many of your wealthy People to leave England and to withdraw to Scotland which few Men out of meer fondness to their Country will forbear to do when their Interest tempts them to it so the Scots cannot want enough of other Nations to become Partners in their Stock and Trade upon the English declining of it And as hundreds of the Dutch particularly will both greedily and thankfully embrace the Proposal so I dread to mention the Consequences which may ensue upon such a Conjunction between the Scots and them Nor will I call over the other Methods you have been upon for frustrating the Scots Attempt in the Erection of an East-India Company because the very mentioning of them would be to expose them which the great Honour that I bear for those Assemblies at Westminster will not admit me to do And therefore I will here end and only assure you that tho I be a Stranger to you yet the very taking the liberty to address this Paper to you sheweth how Ambitious I am and how much I do value my self upon the obtaining any Occasion of testifying with what Sincerity I am SIR Jan. 1. 1695-96 Your most humble and most obedient Servant C. K.
the English in debarring them from the Liberty and Benefit of Traffick to such Places as are under the Power and Jurisdiction of those respective Kingdoms and States and from and with which they drive and pursue their most useful and enriching Commerce so the Subjects of foreign Princes and States are through the alone Countenance Concession and Authority of their own proper and respective Soveraigns always at liberty to erect and establish what Trade they please to Places either unpreocoupied or where freedom of Commerce is allowed promiscuously to those of all Countries that shall think fit to deal with them Wherein as Foreigners fall not under the Controul of the English nor are discouraged by their Menaces so in reference to those Princes and Rulers under whom those Foreigners live there is no room to make impression upon them to withdraw from countenancing their own People by the little Arts and the various means of Influence which the English are in a Condition to use and are supposed sometimes to practise for diverting the Kings of Great Britain from giving that equal Encouragement to the Scots in matter of Trade which the People of England think they have a Right both to demand and to expect and which through the Favour of the Common Soveraigns of both Nations has been distinctively vouchsafed them Which leads me to the next thing that I do crave the liberty to lay unpartially before you Which is that the Kingdom of Scotland is as much a free and independent Kingdom as the Kingdom of England is That it is neither a Subdued nor a Tributary Nation nor in the quality of a Province peopled by a Swarm and Colony from hence For tho it may and doth acknowledg England to be a more large more populous opulent and powerful Kingdom than it self yet it is far from owning any Subjection or Inferiority to it For as to all the mutual Duties and Offices which may only argue the Esteem and Respect which one Independent Nation yieldeth to another these it both confesseth to be due and is ready to pay unto England But to receive Laws from it or yield an Obedience to its Authority it neither ought to do it nor will And of how near Affinity and Alliance soever the two Kingdoms may be to one another with respect to Identity of Language Similitude of Manners Analogy of Customs and Agreeableness of Essential Rights and Liberties and by reason of their being under one and the same King Yet they do nevertheless preserve and maintain distinct and different Jurisdictions and Authorities have separate and independent Parliaments and are governed by their own proper peculiar and respective Laws as if they were the Subjects of several Kings and each of them ruled by a distinct Monarch Nor are the Parliaments of Scotland less the Representatives of that Kingdom and People or under less Obligations of consulting for and promoting the Welfare and Prosperity of their Country than the Parliaments of England are Neither can the latter comptrol or supersede the Acts of the former more than the former can the Acts of the latter For it is not with the Parliament of Scotland as it is with that of Ireland in that the Irish Parliament have not so much as a Consultative Power about a Bill and much less are they cloth'd with a Right and Authority so far to pass it as to offer it prepared and agreed upon for the Royal Assent unless it hath previously received the Approbation of the Privy Council of England and hath been transmitted thither under the Stamp and Impression of the Broad-Seal of England granting them Liberty and Permission so to do Whereas the Parliament of Scotland hath both a full and plenary as well as the sole Right of introducing moulding preparing and passing whatsoever Bills it judges to be subservient to the King's Honour adapted to the preservation of the Publick Peace and conducible to the advancing the Trade and Prosperity of that Kingdom without being obliged to have the least antecedent regard to what Opinion the Privy Council or the Kingdom of England either in its Great Senate or in its Inferiour Courts may have of those Bills which the Scots bring in debate and vote in order to their being enacted into Laws Nor is the King of Great Britain under less Obligation both by the Duty of his High and Sovereign Station and by his Regal Oath to seek and promote the Good and Welfare of Scotland than he is bound by the like Ties to contrive and pursue the Prosperity and Happiness of England And as England doth not allow it to fall within the Circle and Verge of the Royal Authority to supersede vacate and dispense with Laws once enacted So the Scots do no less disclaim such a Prerogative in the Soveraign especially with respect to beneficial Laws and such as are of a civil and political Nature Yea they have as much blamed and withstood all Pretensions of their Monarchs of dispensing with Laws that are penal and about Religious and Ecclesiastical Matters as the English themselves have done tho possibly they have both withstood that Claim of their Kings as much to their own Damage and the Prejudice of their true Interests as to the Restraint upon and Diminution of the Regal Prerogative And then as for that Right commonly granted to be resident in the Kings of Great Britain and to be an Incident inseparable from the Soveraignty of putting a Negative whensoever they judg it necessary on Parliamentary Bills it is the same in whosoever is King of these two Kingdoms in reference to England that it is to Scotland And whatsoever Limitations are conceived by the English to lie upon the Prerogative of our Monarchs as to their giving a Negative to Bills of Right and such as are of a National Vtility the Scots do plead the same Restrictions to be upon the Soveraign Power in reference to Bills claiming either the Confirmation of antient Legal Privileges or containing and making Provision of such greater or lesser National Benefits which without extream Prejudice to their publick and general Interest they cannot be without nor account themselves either Happy or Easy through the want of their passing into Laws So that Sir this being the Nature Frame and Constitution of the Government of Scotland and a true and just Account of the Jurisdiction Power and Authority of the Parliaments of that Kingdom I do not see why the Scots while they do nothing that interferes with their Allegiance to the King or that doth lie in the least repugnancy to the two Kingdoms remaining united under one Monarch or that importeth so much as Shadow of Hostility against England may not consult contrive and enact Laws for the promoting their own Good and Prosperity without regarding whether such Laws do either immediately or in the remote Consequences of them lessen and prove somewhat prejudicial to the Trade and Opulency of England Nor can the English justly complain of or