turn the Ballance of the Exchange against England and our better Merchants and then they murmur against the Goverment I might give many other Reasons for the Bill's passing into a Law but I designing Brevity will pass to give an Answer to some Objections in a Book lately published In answering which I shall enter into the Heart of this Controversie This Book is filled up with Flourish and Rhetorick and Conclusions from false Hypothesis that it is not easie at once Reading to grasp it but my Time allowing no more I shall do it as I can not medling with any thing but what relates to this Bill now depending His Objections are many 1. Objection This Trade carries away our Woollen-Manufactures especially of late to a great value Answer I confess the English Merchants have had a Trade many Years to Persia and Armenia for our Commodities formerly The Turkey Merchant carried Cloth to Scanderoon and so to Aleppo and the Carravans brought great quantities of Raw Silk and sold to our Mechants and for it took our English Cloth Of late Considerable quantities of Cloth and some other Manufactures though I believe not one half what the Company is obliged to carry go by long Sea to India and not finding a vent in that hot Climate it is carried to Persia and Armenia But what is this to our Bill we are not contending which Merchants shall have this Persia Trade but the Question is Whether this be a fit Cover for the great quantities of Wrought Manufactures from the Bay of Bengall and other Places of India that take off little or none of our Woollen-Cloth but is bought with the Money England should have to maintain the War pay our Soldiers and Sea-men and keep our Poor at Work But it may not be insignificant to shew what a Bargain we have made in changing Hands for this Persia Trade the Cloathier hath got well instead of Money for his Cloth of Good Responsable Merchants he credits a publick Seal or he hath a piece of Paper called an East-India Bond which after he has kept it till he is weary he may take East India Silks for it at the Iuch of Candle to cloath his poor Spinners with or else sell his Bond for as much or more loss than he got by his Commodity and the Nation made a very Indifferent Change for whereas the Turkey Merchant did use to bring his Silk home Raw to imploy multitudes of Throwsters Weavers and Sea-mens Wives and all sorts of Poor that spent their Money they got upon the product of Land These East-India Merchants to enrich the Nobility and Gentry of England carry their Raw Persia Silk to the Bay of Bengall c. and work it up that the Money it cost in Workmanship may enrich the Great Mogull and imploy his Poor 2. Obj. Against this Bill The East-India Trade is a Beneficial Trade to England pag. 12. Answ Let us see the Profit Is it the Company that get or he that buys of the Company or the Retailer or the Weaver As to the Company I have heard for what I say is by Hear-say being none of them And therefore take it for Hear-say I have been informed they formerly divided Profit and Principle and Traded upon the Credit of a publick Seal and sould grent quantities of Goods by private Contract and I have heard great Quantities of Guinnies have flowed about the Exchange and Coffe-Houses and little more than are hath come to be esteemed worth three or four Millions and many Honest Gentlemen drawn in to the Ruin of a Good Estate and Family but I do not say the Company that Honourable Company did this the Company say it was the Stock-Jobbers But if so I would willingly know whether this Company might not have put out an Advertisement in some publick Print to hinder such an abominable Cheat But they have now a new Subscription of I have heard 700000 and yet a Man may go upon the Change and buy as I have heard the Stock of this Company for Five or Six Hundred Thousand Pound and no Dividend made this Seven Years Would not any Man wonder where the Profit of this Trade is but still it is a profitable Trade but you must know it is a Mystery and it is not convenient the Nobility and Gentry of England should know the profit of this Trade and indeed I dare not say all I believe to be true but so far as I could ever perceive any profit it is First In buying by private Contract or at the Inch of Candle great quantities of Goods by Persons that understand how things are managed in the Indies and Selling their Goods for 10 20 30 40 per Cent profit to the Wholesale-man this Wholesale man sells them for 10 20 30 per Cent to the Retailer or Country-Chapman the Retailer sells them at 10 20 30 per Cent profit to the Gentry and by this time the Gentry pays as dear always and often much dearer than for our own Manufactures which are much better But pray all this time what doth the Nobleman the Gentleman or Trades-man or poor Farmer or Manufacturer get These Monopolizers and Retailers vye with the Nobleman hector the Gentleman trample upon the Manufacturer and oppose every thing that is for the Nation 's Good if it cross their private Interest But still this is a profitable Trade to England in its Exportation but what is the Bill concerned in the Exportation doth that hinder Exportation I own this may be made a profitable Trade by due Regulation and therefore I am for this Bill for England being the best Mart in Europe for these Commodities no Wise Merchant will carry Goods from the better Market to a worse if he can help it but the Design of this Bill is to oblige the India Merchant to set up Factories to sell Goods in Holland Hamborough Germany Portugal Spain as well as Manufacturies in India to make them and by this means they will truly bring in Bulloin into England as well as carry it to India and till this is done we cannot find such Exportations though for Four or Five Years past I have searched the Bills of Entry with all the Eyes I have I have indeed found some Exports and till this last Sale near as many Imports under pretence of former Exportation But still this would have been a Profitable Trade if the Company had not met with men great Losses by the French and some Ships cast away at Sea As to what was cast away at Sea it is all Merchants Chance and as to what the French took let us consider their first Cost and no Man strictly Loses what he never had and we shall find the prime Cost is 40 Thousand Pound a Ship 8 Ships 320 Thousand Pound but what hath been lost if the more than usual Profit of these Last Ships be consider'd the Charles the Second and the Hawk I believe had I Time I could bring the first Cost of the
REASONS Humbly Offered for the PASING a BILL FOR THE Hindering the Home Consumption OF EAST-INDIA Silks Bengals c. And an Answer to the Author of several Objections against the said Bill in a Book Entituled An Essay on the East-India Trade By T. S. a Weaver in London who would have the Nobility and Gentry of England have a True Light into that Affair WITH A Postscript containing the French King's Decree concerning India Manufactures London Printed by J. Bradford in New-street without Bishopsgate 1697. REASONS Humbly Offered c. I. THese Goods are directly opposite to the Employment of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Manufactorers and to the Consumption of Sixteen or Eighteen Thousand Packs of Long Fine Wool in one Year of the growth of the largest Sheep that feed in Pasture-Ground which Wool is not used in making of Cloth These number of People are Weavers Throwsters Winsters Yarn-Men Wool-Combers Hot-Pressers Callenders Fullers Spinsters whose Dwellings are in the Cities of London Norwich Canterbury in the Counties of Suffolk Norfolk Cambridgshire Hartfordshire Essex Norhamptonshire some parts of Yorkshire In many places besides in the several Counties of England The Wool grows most in Lincolnshire Leicestershire Norhamptonshire Bedfordshire Rumney Marsh and of Pasture-Sheep in all Counties which by reason of the length of its Staple is not used or can well be used to make Cloth but is generally sold to Norfolk St. Edmondsbury in Suffolk to be made in those and other Counties into Yarn and in Yarn carried to Norwich and London to be wrought up into Stuffs made of all Wool or mixt with Silk one Pound of Silk to eight Pound of Wool II. Employment of these People is the only way left to give a value to the Land in those parts where they inhabit for poor working People spend all or most of what they get by working upon the produce of Land and you will always find according to the number of People and according to what they get so is the Price of Land and it is evident all over the World where the Price of Wages is low the value of Land is little and where many People live Land is most valuable which is the true Reason that Land near London and other Towns where Manufactories are settled is three four six times as valuable as Land of as good a natural soyl where there is few Inhabitants or Navigable Rivers III. These poor People when employed highly conduce to the Happiness and Safety of England If any Person will please to take a view of England before it was a Manufactory they will find that this Island was often insulted over Ravaged and Plundred yea Conquered by Scots Danes Normans Saxons c. But since England hath been a Place of Manufactury no Neighbour hath dared to Insult our Coast or Invade us without our own consent for these poor People are not only themselves ready to oppose but by their Imployment give Incouragement to Navigation and to breeding of Sea man to navigate our Coasting-Vessels to supply their necessities with Coals Corn Malt Cheese Butter c. by which means the King always hath Sea-men ready to furnish his Men of War that are the Bulworks of the Nation and our Merchants are supplyed with Sea-men for longer Voyages IV. I would shew the Opposition between this Trade to India and the English Manufactories and that so it is Detrimental to the Nation The Opposition lies in its Home Consumption and Foreign Exportation The Silks Bingalls c. from India are used for the same Uses our Manufactures are and so discourage Trades-men from driving larger Trade it being uncertain when these Ships will come in and uncertain what sort of Commodities they bring Every Trades-man lies liable to be undone if he venture to inlarge his Trade as is plain by many hundred Instances in twenty Years space And as to the Foreign Exportation these Foreign Manufactures have Spoiled our Foreign Trade for Fine Stuffs made in Norwich and London for Womens wear into many places for Crape c. And for our American Plantations all Persons dealing there know they will imitate the Gentry of England and those Merchant's Commissions run for Fashionable Commodities Now if our Nobility and Gentry wear India Manufactures our West India Plantations will wear the same and it is generally true so far as the Honour of any Nation extends so far what they wear will be in Fashion This was the Policy of France who designing to make themselves Great discouraged the Wear and Consumption of Foreign Commodities and Incouraged the wearing their own both at Home and also in England by Presents to the English Court well knowing what the Court did wear the Cities and Gountries will not be long without And by the way it is my opinion the French King and the Manufacturers of Lions will spend a Hundred Thousand Pounds to keep the Trade of England for Exporting their Allamodes and Lutestrings But this is not all the damage this India Trade doth in respect to the Exportation of our English Manufactures for it greatly hinders our Turkey and Italian Merchants who Export vast quantities of Woollen-Cloth Serges Purpetuanys Stuffs c. and the greatest of their Returns are in Raw and Thrown Silk and Grogrom Yarn which they bring home to London expecting a Market among Throwsters and Weavers But these Trades-men being undone by India Manufactures are not able to buy these Commodities and so these Advantagious Merchant by having their Stocks lie dead upon their hands can buy no more Cloth c. And the Cloathier and Serge-maker and thousands of Families that do depend upon them much Impoverished and many of them reduced to live upon Charity to the great damage of the Landlords and Farmers who by Law are obliged to Relieve them from their Lands V. This Trade to India carries away from England great quantities of Bulloin and Treasure which is not only the Sinews of War but the Medium of Trade and Commerce For Mony in the Body politick is as Blood in the Body natural giving Life to every part as for Instance in an other way of Trade our Exporting-Merchant carries away our Manufactures and for his Returns supposing it be to Spain he brings Spanish Wool and Pieces of Eight these Pieces of Eight or other Bullion made into English Coin go from the Merchant to the Trades-man from him to the Weaver Sherman Spinsters c. From them all to the Farmer from the Farmer to the Landlord and some part sticks every where which go to the Shopkeeper and from him to the Merchant again and the whole Nation is hereby easie but if it go to the East-Indies it never returns again But this is not all the Bulloin in England will not serve this Trade tho' it encourage the Clipping our Coin half away we must go abroad to Holland to Hamborough to Portugal Cadis and where not to take up Silver and thereby run the Nation in Debt and
Lost Ships and the Extravagant Profit of what came in to near a Balance and thus you see this Profitable Trade Object 3. This Bill designs the utter Loss of the India Trade Answer Pray Sir give me a good Reason for it he gives several Merchants are sullen the Dutch and Scots will have it and we shall Lose all as we have done Bantum and the Spice Islands for these Dutchmen and Scotch-men are dreadful Fellows As to the sullenness of Merchants I would to God all the Merchants in England that carry out our Silver to promote and set up Forreign Manufacturies were so sullen as to do so no more but would Employ their Stocks in setting up new Species of Manufactures in England in Towns and Places where the Poor have no Employment and I will give them my Assistance to the utmost of my Ability and for their Encouragement there is no Two Cities in Europe if joined together have such a number of Men that understand so many deffering Species of Commodities as London have though now they are despised and reduced to the utmost Penury and are willing to work for bare Bread and cannot get it who would be glad to be their Servants As to the Dutch getting the Spice Trade and Bantum Sir I will tell you what I have heard and believe to be true the East-India Company set themselves so intirely to prosecure Manufacturer and finding the Gentry of England so easie to be deceived and gulled by them they slighted all other Trade in the Indies and six'd wholly to that which was like to turn to private Interest with little respect to publick Good the Dutch took this Opportunity to fall in with those Trades that tended most to a General Advantage and slighted Manufactures till the English Imported upon them and then were forced to do something this way in their own Defence and against their Inclination and are not yet very fond of them as any Man may find by comparing their Cargoes with ours If I remember well the Martha and Sarah two of the last Ships that came to England had much greater quantities of these Goods than the whole Fleet of 12 Ships that came to Holland and I despair of ever seeing our English Merchants endeavour much Trade that is for Real Good to England so long as such vast quantities of Manufactures are allowed And as to the Scots Company I suppose its Original is well known I will tell you my Thoughts of it it was Contrived in London by Stock-jobbers and others that designed only to make a noise or if in earnest it was only to bring these Goods to Scotland Custom-free to Cheat the King by Running them into England by their Pedlers and thereby under-sell our Company and more effectually Ruin our Manufacturies and Sir I assure you I had this Company in my Eye in promoting this Bill as well-knowing it would effectually Cross the Designing-Men in that Company and whenever it is past into a Law there is an end of the Scotch Company Object 4. Against this Bill No Country Manufactures made so Dear as the English and if we would have a Trade we must make our Manufactures Cheaper Answer I thought I should understand the Price of Workmanship as well as this Gentleman and I will venture to Assert the quite contrary Do but consider the Price of Provision in England and the Goodness of our Work and we shall see by examining as to our Cloth who work Cheaper Pray tell me Do not our Cloth-weavers work for Five Shillings per Week in the Country our Cloth-dressers tyed up to a Penny per Hour our Serge and Perpetuary-weavers for the same and often less our Stuff Crape and Fustian and Flannel-weavers for as little and lower according to the Price of Provisions in the Places where they live Nay Sir take our Silk-weavers and do they get more than Ten or Twelve Shillings per Week and pay two Boys out of it unless they make Rich Works which take a Month or Six Weeks time before they get a Penny And is it not reasonable the Price of this sort of Work should answer the Time they lose And how poorly must Families be Maintained with such Wages But these must be Slaves to the Humours of Proud Retailers and Importing Merchants though a Wise Management would make them great Blessings to England Sir what do you think of our English Spinsters and Winsters that work for Three or Four-pence per Day Object 5. We want more an Act to set up Publick Work-houses Answer pray Sir first find Employments for them that are willing to work if they had it Object 6. This Bill tends to make Wooll Dear Answer Pray Sir it is a great mistake that we should have Wooll dear And what do you mean by VVooll being too dear The Merchant never thinks Spanish VVooll too dear or Cotton-wooll too dear Give me leave to tell you we have great quantities of fine long VVooll in England that a Pound of it will run 20 30 40 Thousand Yards in length and make light fine thin strong Stuffs much better than India Cotton and Bengall Silks nay out-do by far for fine thin Goods any Spanish VVooll fit to answer all uses for VVomen and Children and no Nation in the World that ever I heard of had such a quantity and it is a shame to England the Price is so low as had I Time I could evidence fully Sir you call the Price of Wooll unnatural I fear you imagine you are at the Bay of Bengall it is very natural to me to give a just Value to the Product of my Native Country Object 7. The Publick reap no Advantage by Home Consumption Answer Consuming is not a common way of getting but we have a Proverb A Penny saved is as good as a Penny earned and if we spend our own Produce we shall save all our Pence that go to India and by wearing our own that is over-plus we should bring our Commodities into general Repute and by that means Export more and we should save by that And what do we save by paying as dear for India Goods as for our own as I am ready to Evidence we do Object 8. Silk is a Manufactory of Forreign Growth and if the Luxury of wearing Silks were Abolished it would be Beneficial to this Kingdom Answer Pray Sir how do this and your other Arguments hang together What would become of your profitable Trade of Bengall Sir give me leave to try to make the Silk Trade a profitable Trade and since our Nobility and Gentry like Silk let them wear it Sir our Turky and Italian Merchants carry our Cloth and Serges to Turky and Italy and this Cloth being fully Manufactured Employs many Thousands of People and takes off great quantities of Wooll The People spend their Money upon the Lands and so work for more these Merchants bring Home Silk unmanufactured and Employ many Thousands of People more and these also spend