or thereabouts a little more or less sold by the Quintal or Hundred weight price ordinarily thirty two thirty and twenty eight Rials per Quintal It is transported by Ships that do come to buy it to Bilboa when we had peace with Spain the refuse Fish and Maycrils go to the Western and Caribbe Islands here is a beginning to make Barrel Cod and Corr-fish for France Fraight ordinarily three pounds from London back three pounds ten shillings and some Goods four pounds per Tun and 3 l. to 3 l. 10 s. to Barbado's and Western Islands little or no Inland carriage Here is no discouragement given to any Foreiner to hinder Trade but may freely come and behaving themselves civilly and have as free liberty to sell and buy as any Inhabitant the more is the pity I think Here is no Office of Assurance nor scarce any that mâ—ke any private Contract in that respect What is that way done is done in England by advice Bank here is none neither are here men capable of it but were here those of ability and understood it and resolved upon it it would draw all the profit of those poor parts into it Maryland an English Colony upon the main Continent of America beginning at the Degree of 38 and ending in the Degree 40 Northerly Latitude bounded on Virginia on the South New-England on the North the great Ocean on the East and the Meridian-line of the first Fountain of the great River of Pattowmeck on the West begun to be planted in the year 1633. The Religion is Christian and a Law established there for Liberty of Conscience to all that profess to believe in Jesus Christ The Countrey is under the right Honourable Caecilius Lord Baltemore as the absolute Lord and proprietor of it with all the Jurisdictions anciently belonging to the Count Palatine of Durham which Lord Baltemore holds it to him and his heirs of the Crown of England as of the Castle of Windsor in free Soccage by the yearly rent of two Indian arrows to be delivered at the said Castle on Easter Tuesday The place abounds with great Navigable Rivers as Pattowmeck Pattuxent Anne Arundel by some called Severn Patapsco River Bolus Sasquehannough River Elk River Choptanck Nantacoke or Bever River Pokemoke and divers others in which are multitudes of convenient Ports capable of great numbers of Ships of any burthen There is little Money by reason Barter for Commodity is more profitable to the Merchant and Inhabitant But generally all the dealing with the English one with another is with Tobacco upon Accompt till the Crop They use generally the Weights and Measures of England and without any Tret The Commodities of the Country for Trade to be Exported are generally Tobacco and Beaver Otter Martin and several other Furs purchased from the Indians but they are projucting to fall upon the making of Silk and the Country naturally yields store of Mulberry-Trees to that end and generally it hath all the Commodities that Virginia affords There are nine or ten Ships laden there yearly with Tobacco's for Europe Custom there is none nor any Tax upon Commodities paid by the Subjects of England The abuses and defects are if the Tobacco's be packed up too dry or too wet or not close pack'd or that with good leaves be mixt ground-leaves or suckers The way to discover them is by knowledge of what is good and sound Tobacco and good packing a Hogs-head well packed will hold 400 weight or thereabouts or not less than 300. Of Forein Commodities the place vents whatsoever is needful for Clothing or Houshold-stuff Nails and other Iron-ware for building Wine and Hot-waters for the use of the English the quantities such as may be guessed at for the accommodation respectively of about four or five thousand Planters And for the use of the Indians a certain shagged course Dutch Cloth called Duffeilds or an English Cloth called Hogbays the colours of both which most vendible and in most esteem with the Indians are bright red and dark blue Shipping pertaining to the Inhabitants there is none but small Vessels trading to and fro to Virginia or sometimes to New-England There is no Prohibition of any Commodities to be Exported or Imported and the Trade of the Plantation is free to all Subjects of England and those only New-Netherland There is a Dutch Plantation in the Latitude of 41 Degrees in a River called by the English Hudson's River by the Indians called Monahaton and by the Dutch who have intruded into that place being within the New-England Patent called New-Netherland they have in this place divers Towns New-Amsterdam their chief Town Grave-Saint Flushing and Middleborrough also Fort-Orania situate 40 miles up Hudson's River Their Religion is like the Religion in Old-Amsterdam in Holland Their Government subjected to the Holland West-India Company They have usurped there a great Trade of Bever from the English Nation notwithstanding the late King Charles in the year 1631. did declare to the States of Holland his discontents for such Intrusion whereupon the States of Holland did disclaim the owning or countenancing of that Plantation imputing it to the particular Acts of some private Merchants and so left them to their own Protection and to be ejected at the King's Pleasure They have also lately thrust the English out of a Plantation in Delaware Bay called New-Haven where they were seated within the bounds of Maryland about the Degree of 40 North Latitude The Trade there with the Indians is like that of New-Amsterdam and Fort-Orania for Bever-skins And in all their said Plantations they seize the English and their Goods if they take them Trading with the Indians for Bever-skins or other Furs The yearly Trade that these Dutch hold with the Natives is at the least 60000 Bever-skins and as many more of Otter and Elk-skins besides Bear and Dear-skins They Barter with the Natives for these Commodities Axes Hoes and a shagged course Cloth called Duffeilds the colours of the Cloth most esteemed by the Indians are bright red and dark blue but the chief Commodity by which the Dutch engross and draw the said Trade from the neighbouring English Plantations is Guns Powder Shot and Rapier-blades which Instruments of War have been twice fatal to themselves by two Massacres committed by the Indians upon them with the help of those weapons to the destruction of half their people at each time And hath been also dangerous to the adjoyning Plantations of Maryland Virgania and New-England There are good Navigable Ports at New-Amsterdam and New-Haven and no worm to eat the Ships Though they permit none of the English Nation to Trade with the Indians yet they permit them to Trade with themselves exacting a great Custom at pleasure for all Goods Imported and Exported as a Recognition enforced from all Merchants to their West-India Company and is never less than 15 in the Hundred The most vendible Commodities to be brought them are Guns Powder and Shot the
the inquisitive As for the general present Trade of this Country I shall comprise it with the Trade of the Netherlands in the 181 Chapter following The first Earldom accounted one of the Seventeen Provinces is Flanders so called peradventure à flando as lying open to the Winds divided into Imperialem Gallicam and Tâ—…tâ—nicam Gaunt The chief City of Trade therein is first Gaunt whose Wall is seven Miles in Compass the two Rivers of Scheld and Ley running through the same and makes in it 26 Islands which are joyned together by an hundred Bridges and had not her often Seditions ruinated her Beauties she might have been Queen of all the Cities of Europe and here John Duke of Lancaster was born commonly in Histories called John of Gaunt Bruges The second City is Bruges once the most famous Mart-Town of Europe where sundry Nations for many years kept both their Magazines and Factors for the sale and providing of all the principal Commodities of the World now much decayed of its former Splendour by reason of the removal of the English Merchant Adventurers and of other Nations to Antwerp about the year 1503. It is seated about three Leagues from the Sea upon a fair and deep artificial Channel filled with the Waters of all the neighbouring and adjoyning Streams and Fountains which Channels in this Country are very frequent by reason of the level of the ground in general which doth both further the Traffick of the Cities and enricheth the Inhabitants There is in this Country accounted four principal Sea-Ports which giveth entrance by Sea into this part of Flanders Dunkirk The first is Dunkirk the Inhabitants whereof do in times of War infest the Seas by the name of Freebooters and because most of their Wars are with the Dutch whom they account Hereticks the Jesuits and other the Romish religious rabblement of this place joyn with these Pirats and bestow thus the Charity of the ignorant Secular towards the Ruin and Rapine of their fellow Countrymen and Christians an evident testimony of the goodness and zeal of their devout Orders Possessed by the English and fortified Anno 1657 and 58. Commanded by Lockhart who published his Declaration as followeth Old Jacobus's at 15 Guilders The new ones or Carolus's 14 Guilders English Shillings 13 Stivers or Pence half Crowns 32 Stivers and 1 half Gold Spanish Pistols 11 Guilders Gold Rials 8 Guilders Gold Soveraigns 18 Guilders Gold double Ducates 12 Guilders Gold French Crowns 5 Guilders 10 Stivers or Pence Gold Hungary Ducates 6 Guilders Gold Albertine 7 Guilders 10 Stivers Gold Reinis-Guilders 3 Guilders 15 Stivers Gold Riders of Zealand 7 Guilders 10 Stivers The double ones and half accordingly Gold Flemish Crowns 4 Guilders 16 Stivers Italian Pistols 9 Guilders 12 Stivers Gold Crown of Liege 3 Guilders 10 Stivers Silver Ducatoons 3 Guilders 15 Stivers Flemish or sealed Pattacoons 3 Guilders Silver Lewis's 3 Guilders Holland Rix-Dollars 3 Guilders The half c. accordingly Cardicues of weight 1 Guilder French Testoons of weight 19 Stivers French Silver Franks or Livres of weight 1 Guilder 7 Stivers The half and quarter accordingly Flemish Shillings 7 Stivers and ½ the ½ Shilling accordingly Zealand Shillings 7 Stivers Flemish Stooters 2 Stivers and ½ Flemish ten Stuyvers 12 Stivers Flemish 5 Stuyvers 6 Stivers Flemish Stivers and marked pieces at 1 Stiver or 4 Farthings As also all Flemish and French Farthings are hereby declared to be good but those of Liege and all others for Bullion provided that no Man be obliged to take more of the said Flemish and French Farthings than after the proportion of five Pence in ten Shillings or six Guilders And whosoever shall presume either to pay out or receive the fore-mentioned pieces of Monies at higher rates than those here exprest shall forfeit the said pieces of Monies and four times the value thereof Scluse The second is Scluse seated at the Mouth of the Channel of Bruges commanding a fair Haven capable of 500 Sail of good Ships and is now subject to the States and was taken from the Arch-Duke Anno Dom. 1604. with whose welfare it cannot stand to suffer the King of Spain to enjoy any safe and large Harbour in those Seas or adjoining Coasts Nieuport The third Port is Nieuport famoused in these our days by the great Battle fought near it Anno Dom. 1600. between the Arch-Duke Albertus and the States the Victory being acknowledged to be gotten next under God by the Valour and Courage of the English and their valiant Commanders Ostend The fourth Sea-Port of this Country is Ostend which held out a Siege against the Arch-Duke of three Years and three Months which hath made it for ever famous to Posterity Lisle In this Country of Flanders properly belonging to the French and whose Language is therein still used is found the Cities of Lisle accounted the third Town of Traffick in all the Netherlands and to the Inhabitants thereof some infer the first Invention of laying of Colours with Oil of making of Worsted-Says and many other Stuffs which to this day are seen to come thence Next is Doway an University Tournay Then Tournay which was surprized and taken by our Henry VIII Anno Dom. 1513. to whom the Citizens paid 100000 Crowns for their Ransom and it was restored afterward to the French for the same 600000 Crowns and from him finally taken by Charles V. Besides these there are accounted in Flanders 35 Towns and 1178 Villages of lesseâ— note which I willingly pass over briefly as intending to comprehend the Trade thereof in a Chapter by it self Artois The second Earld om is Artois containing twelve Towns of consequence and 750 Villages the chief whereof is The Town of Arras whence our Tapestry and Cloths of Arras have had their Invention and first Original S. Paul Then Saint Paul the Earl thereof Lewis of Luxenburg played so often fast and loose with Lewis XI of France with Edward IV. of England and with Charles of Burgundy that he kept them for many Years at continual strife which Duke Charles at length requited with the loss of his Head and Earldom Heinault The next Earldom is Heinault comprehending 950 Villages and 24 Towns of Note Cambray The most eminent being Cambray taken by the Spaniards from the French by the Earl of Fuentes Anno 1595. accounted a Free Town Then Mons. Beauvais The next is Beauvais at a Pillar whereof begin all the ways leading into France made all of paved Stone by Brunhault the French Queen Namure The next Earldom is Namure containing 180 Villages and but 4 Towns of Note Namure is the Principal this Country hath for Merchandize great store of Grain of all sorts and is inriched with Mines of Jasper and all sorts of Marble and so abundant in Iron that it is incredible making the Inhabitants thereby both Wealthy and Laborious and it is found moreover to produce
Our Human actions ought especially to be considered in their ends Thus may we plainly see that when this weighty Business is duly considered in its end as all our Humane Actions ought well to be weighed it is found much contrary to that which most Men esteem thereof because they search no further than the beginning of the VVork which missinforms their Judgments and leads them into Error For if we behold the Actions of the Husbandman in the Seed-time when he casteth away much good Corn into the Ground we will rather account him a Madman than a Husbandman but when we consider his Labours in the Harvest which is the end of his Endeavours we find the VVorth and Plentiful Increase of his actions CHAP. V. Forein Trade is the only means to improve the Price of our Lands IT is a common saying That Plenty or Scarcity of Mony makes all things Dear or Good or Cheap and this Mony is either gotten or lost in Forein Trade by the over or underballancing of the same as I have already shewed It resteth now that I distinguish the seeming Plenties of Mony from that which is only substantial and able to perform the VVork For there are divers VVays and Means whereby to procure plenty of Mony into a Kingdom which do not Enrich but rather Empoverish the same by the several Inconveniencies which ever accompany such Alterations As first if we melt down our Plate into Coin which suits not with the Majesty of so great a Kingdom except in cases of great Extremity it would cause Plenty of Mony for a time yet should we be nothing the Richer but rather this Treasure being thus altered is made the more apt to be carried out of the Kingdom if we exceed our means by excess in Forein Wares or maintain a War by Sea or Land where we do not Feed and Cloath the Soldiers and supply the Armies with our own Native Provisions by which disorders our Treasure will soon be exhausted Again if we think to bring in store of Mony by suffering Forein Coins to pass current at higher rates than their intrinsick value compared with our Standard or by debasing or enhancing our own Monies all these have their several Inconveniences and Difficulties which hereafter I will declare but admitting that by this means plenty of Mony might be brought into the Realm yet should we be nothing the Richer neither can such Treasure so gotten long remain with us For if the Stranger or the English Merchants bring in this Mony it must be done upon a valuable Consideration either for Wares carried out already or after to be Exported which helps us nothing except the Evil occasions of excess or VVar afore-named be removed which do exhaust our Treasure for otherwise what one Man bringeth for Gain another Man shall be forced to carry out for necessity because there shall ever be a Necessity to ballance our Accounts with Strangers although it should be done with loss upon the rate of the Mony and Confiscation also if it be intercepted by the Law How we must get Treasure to make it our own The Conclusion of this Business is briefly thus That as the Treasure which is brought into the Realm by the Ballance of our Forein Trade is that Mony which only doth abide with us and by which we are enriched so by this Plenty of Mony thus gotten and no otherwise do our Lands improve For when the Merchant hath a good dispatch beyond the Seas for his Cloth and other VVares he doth presently return to buy up the greater Quantity which raiseth the Price of our VVools and other Commodities and consequently doth improve the Landlords Rents as the Leases expire daily And also by this means Mony being gained and brought more abundantly into the Kingdom it doth enable many Men to buy Lands which will make them the Dearer But if our Forein Trade come to a Stop or Declination by neglect at home or injuries abroad whereby the Merchants are impoverished and thereby the VVares of the Realm less issued then do all the said Benefits cease and our Lands fall of Price daily CHAP. VI. The Spanish Treasure cannot be kept from other Kingdoms by any Prohibition made in Spain ALL the Mines of Gold and Silver which are as yet discovered in the sundry Places of the World are not of so great Value as those of the West-Indies which are in the Possession of the King of Spain Who thereby is enabled not only to keep in Subjection many goodly States and Provinces in Italy and elsewhere which otherwise would soon fall from his Obeisance but also by a continual War taking his Advantages doth still enlarge his Dominions ambitiously aiming at a Monarchy by the Power of his Monies which are the very Sinews of his Strength that lies so far dispersed into so many Countries yet hereby united and his Wants supplied both for War and Peace in a plentiful manner from all the parts of Christendom which are therefore Partakers of his Treasure by a Necessity of Commerce wherein the Spanish Policy hath ever endeavoured to prevent all other Nations the most it could The Policy and Benefit of Spain by the Trade to the East-Indies For finding Spain to be poor and barren to supply itself and the West-Indies with those Varieties of Forein Wares whereof they stand in need they knew well that when their Native Commodities come short to this purpose their Monies must serve to make up the reckoning whereupon they found an incredible Advantage to add the Traffick of the East-Indies to the Treasure of the West For the last of these being employ'd in the first they stored themselves infinitely with rich Wares to barter with all the parts of Christendom for their Commodities and so furnishing their own Necessities prevented others for carrying away their Monies Which in Point of State they hold less dangerous to impart to the remote Indians than to their Neighbour Princes lest it should too much enable them to resist if not offend their Enemies And this Spanish Policy against others is the more remarkable being done likewise so much to their own Advantage for every Ryal of Eight which they sent to the East-Indies brought home so much Wares as saved them the disbursing of five Ryals of Eight here in Europe at least to their Neighbours especially in those times when that Trade was only in their hands but now this great Profit is failed and the Mischief removed by the English Dutch and others which partake in those East-India Trades as ample as the Spanish Subjects It is further to be considered that besides the Disability of the Spaniards by their Native Commodities to provide Forein Wares for their Necessities whereby they are forced to supply the want with Mony they have likewise that Canker of War which doth infinitely exhaust their Treasure and disperse it into Christendom even to their Enemies part by Reprisal but especially through a necessary Maintenance of
and Duty I owe to my native Country England L. ROBERTS THE MERCHANTS MAP OF COMMERCE CHAP. I. The Description of Countries conducible to the Description of Cities and Towns of Traffick The Description of Countries conduceth to the Description of Cities and Towns of Traffick BEFORE I descend to the particular parts of this Treatise and before I describe the Situations of these Towns and Cities of Traffick which here I intend to handle I must of necessity for Method-sake first by a cursory draught describe the Countries Kingdoms and Provinces wherein the same are found to be situated and placed and to do the same orderly and as the Subject requireth it is fit I should survey the means whereby the same is or may be performed which according to the opinion of the Learned is noted only to be done by the knowledge of Geography which in it self is esteemed to be a knowledge so needful and requisite for a Merchant Factor or any other active person whose occasions may draw him to see or abide in forein parts that it may not be neglected nor omitted Neither is it held only necessary to such as manage private affairs by Merchandizing as Merchants or Factors who are led thereto by the Motive profit but also such persons as are more eminent and such as are of greater quality whose motives are the publick affairs of Princes as Ambassadors or pleasure and delight by Travelling as Gentltmen whose motive may be properly termed curiosity of mind and search of novelty whicd last by observing the Fashions and Manners of divers Nations and the Government and Policies of those Kingdoms do dot only very much benefit themselves but better their udnerstandings thereby making their knowledge more capable of either publick or private imployment when they return to their native houses The like I conceive the ingenious Merchant or Factor may if he please do for being in his younger years imployed abroad in merchandizing he may by well husbanding his merchantile imployment and time join a future benefit of Mind to a present profit of Estate and by a provident judgment and a judicious Providence so manage his idle hours and vacant time that he fit his capacity not only wisely to undertake and discreetly to undergo but also skilfully to perform the greatest imployments that are incident to the service of a State or Kingdom neither is it a rare or extraordinary thing to find those that have had their education thus to have proved not only good Comman-wealths-men but also excellent States-men our own Country hath afforded some examples in all ages but in other Countries many more are daily found for it must be acknowledged that from this School those ripe and mature judgments have sprung up that in many Countries abroad have given sufficient testimony to the World of their excellent abilities this way and that the Art of Merchandizing together with the frequenting of forein Countries at the first to that end hath afterward rather furthered than any way backwarded their abilities to undertake and judiciously to perform the same Merchandizing the first School of the present Government of many Common-wealths The ancient policies and present flourishing continuance of the State of Venice the politick and rich Estates of the Netherlands the opulent and eminent quality of the Duke of Tuscany the wealthy well-governed Hans-Towns in Germany and many more which I could nominate make good this Assertion for in all these Merchandizing is found to be the School from whence they gather their first Principles and indeed the chief Foundation upon which their Fabrick of political Government is raised the Scale by which their Counsels are framed and the Pillars by which the same is seen to be supported and maintained How excellent is it then for a Merchant that hath another proper and peculiar end of his travels so to imploy his time and spend his hours as that he may at pleasure without cost or charges reap that benefit to himself which others purposely come to learn and painfully labour for with great expence of time and money and yet for all this are peradventure destitute of those helps and furtherances which Merchants and Factors by reason of their abode or vocation do continually enjoy and who return as ignorantly home perchance as they went out or happily furnished with some such cursory speculations as reach not into the depth of such policies of Government as the real intent of their travel doth truly require whereas the Merchant that comes thither not purposely to that end but to benefit himself as a Merchant may gather and lay up those his Observations obtained as Pastimes and collected as Recreations which will further and furnish him afterward either by discourse for pleasure or by necessity for profit and commodity when he shall please to publish his secret treasure and put the same in practice Geography delightful profitable and necessary to the Merchant Geography by what hath been said being then granted to be both a profit and a pleasure to all and specially to the Merchant it must necessarily be granted to be useful also for though we living in this Island acknowledge none for Merchants but such as adventure their Estates at Sea and are by this means accounted for real Merchants yet those that are versed in this Profession and seen in this Art know also that there be Merchants likewise that have their residence in Continents where neither Seas are known nor yet Navigable Rivers sound yet for all this supply with Land-Carriages of Horses Mules and Camels by industry and labour what Nature and our Habitation doth freely afford unto us by the commodity of the incompassed Seas in Shipping and these are observed and found to travel by Land in Companies and Caravans with their Merchandize from one Country to another as we do by Sea in Ships and Fleets paying their Duties Customs and Tolls upon the entry and confines of every several Princes Dominions The commodity of this knowledge to Merchants How then shall this Land-travelling Merchant know whose Kingdom he is in what Prince commands or who is Lord of that ground he treads upon but by a speculation herein Whereby shall he know what way he hath rid and travelled where neither miles nor Leagues are accounted or in use but by this How shall he know which way his course lies where neither paths nor high-ways are found to direct him nor guide to inform him or how far he hath yet to go in that Princes Dominion but by this How shall he know what Rivers run in his way what Straits or Mountains he hath to pass over but by this Nay hereby he is instructed whether those streams be great or small and whether passable by Boat Bridge or Foord and by this also what Plains Woods and Hills with their extent fertility and confinement the better to provide for his accommodation and the necessaries of his Journey as also what Cities and Towns
32 l. per Rove which at Lisbon is 5 Quintals great 480 Aracoles Whereby it may be discerned that as Sevil hath given the weight to the West-Indies discovered by the Spaniard so hath not Lisbon but in part given the weight to the East-Indies who had amongst themselves there an eminent Trade and consequently their Weight and Measure peculiar to themselves before the Portugal discovered the same Measures of Spain reduced to 100 yards in London As for the Measures of both these Kingdoms as I have done with the Weight in reducing it to the London 100 l. suttle so will I reduce the Measures thereof to the 100 yards of London which rendereth in The 100 Yards of London is in Castilia 111 Vares of 4 quartos and every quarte 2 Palms Toledo 111 Vares Cades 108 Vares  Ditto for Silk 148 Ells.  Andalusia 109 Vares  Aragon 57 Canes  Saragosa 44 Canes  Morocco 181 Covad Both these of 12 to oâ—… Cove Cap dalgier 141 Covad Sivilia 109 Vares  Granado 109 Vares  Barcelona 57 Canes  Valentia 97 Canes  Lisbon 82 Vares  Ditto for 109 Vares  Ditto for Silk 96 Covades  CHAP. CXXI Of the Trade in general of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain Of the Trade in general of Portugal and Spain THE Navigations and discoveries of the Spaniards and Portugals into the East and West-Indies though they carried to the world at first the specious colours of Piety and Religion by planting their Superstition in these Heathen Countreys yet Ambition and Profit was doubtless the secret design of their intendments Portugal whose Kings first sought those unknown Regions of the East-Indies and seeking discovered and discovering in part conquered presently made strict Laws and Prohibitions for any of his Subjects to trade for certain the richeâ— Commodities thereof but himself and thereupon settled his Contrataction-house in Lisbon where those Commodities should be sold weighed and delivered and these bargains being made by Commissioners appointed by him were first from them called Royal Contracts and thus for a long time it continued till his Subjects having made further and ampler discoveries of those Regions for their better incouragement and to induce his People to those Navigations be permitted them afterward an ampler and larger liberty of that Trade reserving certain particâ—lar Commodities only to his own use and benefit neither did it otherwise appear in the camage of those who were discoverers of the West-Indies which we find to be the Spaniards see though there wanted not fair and plausible demonstrations of winning the Souls of those pooe People yet by millions they were slaughtered butchered and slain making a devastation in thâ— Countrey of those innocent Inhabitants as if there had been no way to the eternal life of the Soâ— but by a present death of the body aiming thereby as may be conjectured particularly at the possession only of their Estates which by many deaths and torments was drawn from theâ—… and converted to their own and their Soverains Treasury as appears to the scandal of their Religion and of their King in sundry of their own Authors published in many Languages These two Countreys then thus discovered and thus by rapine gotten and settled and since united together under one King have afforded the present matter of Trade of all Spain and Portugal which before that time afforded not any Commodities almost whereby Trade might be as much as discerned much less maintained and now Lisbon for the East and Sevil for the West-Indies is become the Staple for all the rich Commodities those two Countreys do afford and so continued till England and Holland by their late Navigation shared with them in the â—…fick and riches thereof which yet are seen to be but as petty branches coming from the principal channel but the West-Indies affording to them great quantity of Silver by the Mines thereof which now is found so abundantly plentiful in the world may be called indeed and in effect their best Commodity which ever since its first coinage they have maintained in its prime weight and sineness which many of their Politicians have gone about at several times to inhanse as if it would have proved a great benefit to their Common-wealth but wiser judgments have discovered that the raising of these moneys in Spain would prove altogether prejudicial to that State for all these Commodities that are brought to them which for the most part they stand in great need of being necessary either for back or belly would soon vanish did not these their moneys allure and attract them and contrariwise it may be hence imagined and I think granted that what other Princes soever doth inhanse his Silver or the moneys of his Countrey it must needs prove to his own proper prejudice and the Spaniards gain because they raise and inhanse a Commodity which is not theirs really but transported to them at second hand by Merchants and others and of which though happily possessing some small Silver Mines of their own yet the gross is still his so far forth as his quantity and abundance exceedeth theirs As for the other Commodities which those Countreys afford ours and many other Nations were with the same from Alexandria and Venice at first supplyed and then hence but now having found the way to the Spring head we daign not to buy of them at the second hand except such of which their Princes reserve to themselves a peculiar interest either by farming the same to their Subjects or keeping the same in their own hands or by excluding all other Nation from the Trade thereof and these we and others are constrained to have from them in which number may be accounted Sugars Tobacco Ginger and some other Drugs and the Commodities of the West-Indies in general Now for the Inhabitants both of Spain and Portugal they are in general lovers of Merchandizing and Traffick neither so much despising it as the French nor yet so much addicted thereto as the Italians yet more willingly adventuring their Estates at Sea than them who herein are found to distrust the Providence of Almighty God in a lawful calling and prefer their own wisdom and providence on Land before the protection of the Almighty at Sea And as they are well-wishers to Trade so are they found in a large measure to practise it in such Cities as occasion and Commodities do either present or permit for both in Sevil and Lisbon are found Merchants of great eminency but yet are such as for the most part bend their Traffick into both the Indies and no where else except peradventure a little to Antwerp in Flanders and into Naples and Sicilia in the Mediterranean Seas and which seldom are noted to adventure their estates or have any Factors resident but where their King is Chief and Sovereign The Raw Silks Wines and Fruits of this Kingdom are the prime Commodities of import it now yields as also Olives Raisins Figs Almonds
lastly Senâ—… at home governing the Commonwealth but their worth being in it self sufficiently known to the World I shall descend to the subject in hand This City then hath for many years had the sole Commerce and Traffick of all the Mediterâ—nean Seas and not content therewith have made that City the common Mart of all the Conmodities of Arabia Persia India and those Eastern rich Countries by their great Trade to Alexandria and Cairo which continued for many years and when the Grecian Empire was both in its heighth and in its descent they managed the sole Trade thereof till the State of Genoa did look thereinto and by their Power and Might at Sea shared with them therein but the Pâ—tugal finding the way to India by the Cape of Bona Speransa and the English and Dutch Mochants following those Leaders now bring those rich Commodities that way straight to their own homes which in former times they were constrained to have from this City at a far dearer rate and at a second hand since which times their Customs have been decayed their Ships rotted and their Mariners the pride of their Commonwealth were all become Poltrones and the worst accounted in all those Seas until the Turks Wars with Candy have made them again expert in Sea Affairs as may appear by the many Fights and several considerable Overthrows given to the Grand Seignior's Navies as lately in the year 1656 and their keeping of the City and Port of Candy for the space of so many years against all the Opposition the Turk hath made against it This City now serves in matters of Trade for an Inlet into Austria and Upper Germany which this way it yet fits with some Spice Drugs and other Arabian Commodities which in part is brought thither from Alexandria Aleppo and Constantinople where they still have Consuls and Factors and partly by a second hand from England now thereby bringing to them those Commodities which a few years past we had and fetched from them as from the only City and prime Merchants of Europe Commodities of Venetia The Commodities here found and afforded are not many nor of much worth as some Cloth of Gold and Silver Corns Wines Oyls Rice VVoollen-Cloth Paper Anniseeds Argal Glasses for looking and for drinking Quick-Silver which they have from Germany some Silks raw and wrought The Commodities sent hither from England is Lead Tin Baies Furrs Perpetuanos Serges Saies and some Cleth Indico Pepper Ginger Maces Cloves Nutmegs c Herrings white and red Pilchards Newland Fish salted Salmon and such like It serves in these days for a Mart for the Commodities of Istria Dalmatia Sclavonia Austria Upper Germania and the Adriatick Seas and serves these Parts again with such Commodities as are either brought hither by the English Dutch and French from their several Countries or from Alexandria Aleppo Smyrna the Archipelago and Constantinople where they also drive a considerable Trade Weights of Venetia There is found to be in Venetia four kinds of Weights which thus are distinguished and found to accord The greatest is called the Gross Pound and 100 l. wherewith all Wooll Brass Metals Fish Flesh and other gross Goods are weighed The second is the Gold Weight used for Gold Silver and Jewels only called the Mark which contains 8 Ounces every Ounce contains 144 Carats every Carat is 4 Grains The third is used in Gold and Silver Thread and in nothing else The fourth is the Pound and the 100 l. suttle wherewith all Silks Spices Drugs Cottons Cotton yarn and such like fine Goods are weighed by which thus are amongst them found to accord and agree 100 l. gross is 158 suttle 633 l. gross is 1000 l. suttle 100 l. suttle is 63â…“ gross 1000 l. gross is 1580 l. suttle 1 l. gross is suttle 1 l. 6 Ounces 5 Sazi 18 Carats 1 l. sotile is gross 7 Ounces 2 Sazi 16 Carats 1 l. sotile is 12 Ounces the 1 Ounce is 6 Sazi and 1 Sazi is 1½ Dram which is 3 Sec. 100 l. of Silver or Gold Thread is suttle 116 l. 8 Ounces 1 Mark of Gold is suttle 9 Ounces Sazi 2. Where note That a Mark of Gold is 8 Ounces 1 Ounce is 4 Quarters 1 Quarter is 36 Carats and 1 Carats is 4 Grains so that 144 Carats is 1 Mark. Also note That in Venetia there is bought and sold divers Commodities some by Balance and some by Stalero as well in the gross as in the suttle Weight and that the Balance Weight is greater than the Stalero Weight 2 l. per Cent. by the Hundred more than by the Pound and the suttle Weight of the Balance is greater than of the Stalero suttle two Pound per Cent. by the Hundred than by the Pound Weight Weights of Venetia agreeing with other Countries Now let us observe how these two Weights the sotile and gross respond with the Weight of other Countries The 100 l. suttle have been observed to make the first Row to the left hand and the 100 l. gross the next Row The 100 l. suttle makes in the first row and the 100 l. gross makes in the second row thus Alexandria Zera 31 Rot. 50 Rot. Alexandria Forf 71 R. 112 R. Aleppo 14 R. 21 R. Archipelago 77 l. 121 l. Anvers 64 l. 102 l. Almeria 55 R. 90 R. Ancona 86 l. 136 l. Bergamo 90 l. 145 l. Bollonia 83 l. 132 l. Baruti 13 R. 20 R. Cyprus 13½ R. 21 R. Constantinople 56 R. 84 R. Candia l. l. Corfu 75 l. 117 l. Cremona 96 l. 151 l. Damascus 16â…” R. 26â…“ R. Ferrara 102 l. 139 l. Florence 87 l. 138. l. Lions 70 l. 110 l. London 64 l. 106 l. Lisbon 59 l. 92 l. Millan 92 l. 150 l. Mantua 93 l. 150 l. Marselia 70 l. 112 l. Malleca 57 l. 90 l. Naples Rema 94 l. 149 l. Naples Romania 78 l. 121 l. Parma 90 l. 148 l. Placentia 92 l. 150 l. Paris 70 l. 112 l. Roma 84 l. 132 l. Ravenna 84 l. 133 l. Ragusa 83 l. 131 l. Scio and Smyrna 62 R. 98 R. Sevilia 63 l. 98 l. Tripoli Barbaria 59½ R. 93½ R. Turin 92 l. 148 l. Verona 90 l. 145 l. Zant 63 l. 100 l. How far these may come near to truth I must refer to trial therefore I deliver them haâ—… as I received them upon trust Measures in Venetia of length The Measures of Venetia are two and both called the Brace The first is the Silk Brace by which is measured all Stuffs of Silk Damasks Sattins Clothed Gold of Silver c. The second is the Cloth-Brace by which is measured all Cloths and Stuffs made of Wâ—… which is greater than the former 6¼ per Centum Upon which last Braces 100 hath been made this Concordance with the Measures of other Countries 100 Braces in Venice London 55½ Ells. Antwerp 92½  Frankford 115¾  Dantzick 76â…˜  Vienna 80½  Lions 56½ Aulns Paris 52¾  Rouen 48¼  Lisbon 55½ Var. Sevil
late levied aâ— Imposition of ten Ducates upon every thousand of Currans bought and shipped from the said Islands and of later times have also inforced the payment of the said Impost at Venice which formerly and at first was free and have discharged their own Subjects thereof to the special damage and prejudice of the English 2. Secondly they have to burthen the Trade of the English thither or rather seeing aâ— the Trade of that Fruit wholly sought out and coveted by the English to which end they use to vent in those Islands some few English Commodities they have I say of late burthened the Native Commodities of England brought into these Islands with new Impost a levying upon an English Cloth 7 Ducates upon 100 weight of Tin 2 Ducates and upon a Kersey 2 Ducates and so upon all other English Commodities thereby to inforce all Commdities of England to be brought into the City of Venice and though sometimes English Merchants find it necessary in those Seas to transfer some English Goods out of one English Vessel into another and yet not land the same when as Ships do happen to meet together and to be bound for several Ports yet the same is not permitted them unless they pay the said Impost abovementioned as if the said Goods were there really landed and sold contrary to the common Custom of the Mediterranean Seas 3. Thirdly they have prohibited that any Turkey Commodities should be landed their out of English Shipping or any other Commodities that are afterward to be shipped for the Kingdom of England which for the conveniency of English Shipping the English Merchaâ—… Trading in those Seas have often occasion of but they do compel the English first to send such Goods and Wares to the City of Venice purposely there to pay the duty of Custom and the duty of Cottimo before they will suffer them to ship the same for England 4. They have made an Act for the imployment of their own Shipping and Mariners and for the restraint of all Foreiners that no Commodities of the parts of Turkey may be brought into any the Seigniory of the State of Venice but only in Venetian Shipping wherein they have been found to have been so strict and severe that if any English Ships happen to be Fraighted either by their own Subjects or by the Merchants of any other Nation when any of their own Shipping are in Port or happen to come into the Port or within the space of twenty days after upon the firming of a bare Protest against the said Ship so Fraighted they have no law nor remedy left them in Law to recover any Fraight-Money due for the said Goods so laden by them 5. Fifthly they will not permit nor suffer any English Ship to relade at Venice except they come first fully laden thither neither will they suffer freedom of Trade from Venice to any parts of the Levant for the English Nation neither in their own nor yet in the Shipping belonging to the Venetians but do straightly prohibit and forbid it as also they do prohibit the bringing of some particular Commodities by any whatsoever themselves and their Subjects only excepted 6. To these I might add some others but I will conclude it with this last point of slight and fallacious subtilty some years past when as the Seigniory of Venice had here a permission from His Majesty of England to contract with divers Merchants for their Ships to serve against the Spaniards in the Gulf of Venice when the said service was performed and that they came to receive their contracted payment they raised their Moneys 12 per centum above the rate of the same at the time of their agreement by which rate His Majesty's Subjects came to lose a great Sum of Money by the said service to their great prejudice and to the great dishonour of that so Honourable Seigniory Having by these few particulars given the ingenious Reader a taste of these present policies Enacted by this State of late for the support of their decaying Trade and also given a touch of the Subtilties used by them to preserve that little that is yet remaining and their Endeavours to augment the same I will now in a word view the State of the present Traffick of this City The present Trade of Venice surveyed It is not to be questioned but that this City hath in all Ages afforded many eminent Merchants and hath not been ashamed to make Merchandizing a prop and supportation to their Nobility who amongst them are intitled Clarissimi so that this their School of Commerce hath afforded such apt Scholars and which have so notably profited therein that they have with as much honour worn the Gown as valiantly handled the Sword and he that shall heedfully peruse their Histories shall find that not a few of them have with general approbation both of their Subjects and Neighbours struct the principal stroke in the Government of that Dukedom The fit situation of their City the large extent of their maritim Coasts the common aptness and addiction of the Citizens have much furthered the great Traffick of the same what it hath been in times past when their Potency and Opulency was at the highest and when they set out and gave imployment both in War and Peace to 300 Sail of Gallies besides all other sort of Vessels I refer to their own Histories Their then rich Trade to Egypt for the Commodities of India Arabia and to Constantinople and Aleppo for the Commodities of Grecia Armenia and Persia to Germany France Flanders and England for the Commodities of those Countries must needs make this City famous for the Traffick thereof but their covetous Appetite that could not be satisfied with this Fame and the great Wealth each in particular drew thereby envied to themselves that Honour which all other Cities of the World was constrained to give them for their great Customs imposed joyned with the accidents of that age and time brought them to the present State of Traffick wherein now they are found to be which is at present comprehended within a narrow scantling for their Trade to Egypt is vanished and seen only in the relicks thereof for tho' in Alexandria and Cairo they maintain Consuls serving in outward appearance for the protection of their Merchants yet indeed they serve to little purpose as having lost the former famous Trade of Alexandria and Cairo in Sidon Acria Smyrna and other places of Turkey they have their Consuls as also their Agent in Constantinople and Consul in Aleppo which now are the principal who give Life to their Designs as indeed the places where their Trade is of greatest Eminency yet it is not so great but may be fathomed within a small Line and as many things have notably concurred in the loss of their former Traffick abroad and in other Kingdoms as the discovery of India by the Portugal the subversion of the Greek Empire by the Turks and the favourable Countenance
competent amends and their Merchandize being altogether gross cannot give them therefore the attribute of Eminent Merchants CHAP. CCXXXIV Of Hungary and the principal Cities thereof Hungary and the Cities thereof HUngary is bounded on the East with Transilvania and Valachia on the West with Austria on the North with Poland on the South with Sclavonia c. This Kingdom now stands divided between the Grand Seignior and the Hungarians Buda the Great Turk enjoys Buda seated on Danubius once the Metropolis of this Kingdom and Court of the Kings also Guilia Pest Alba Regalis called by them Wesenberg next quinque Ecclesiae Rab and others of lesser note In the Hungarians possessions are these principal Cities Presberg Presberg the present Metropolis of this Country 2. Strigonium 3. Agraria 4. Comara in an Island of that name 5. Tertax 6. Cimista 7. Segith before which Solyman the Great Turk ended his days and some others of lesser consequence Commodities of Hungary This Country doth much abound in Cattel sufficient to feed all Germany the Store is so great that they yearly sell to their Neighbours 80 or 100 Thousand Oxen they have also some Copper and Tin some quantity of Corn Honey Wax and such like Commodities and from hence to Constantinople I have seen Hides Butter and Cheese that in great abundance have come out of these parts through the Black-Sea Further matter of Trade hath not remarkably faln into my hands therefore for the current Coins of this Country with their Weights and Measures in use I must refer to the better experienced and hence travel to Dacia and the rest of those Provinces comprehended within that circuit CHAP. CCXXXV Of Dacia and the Provinces and Cities thereof Dacia and the Cities thereof DAcia is bounded on the East with the Euxine on the West with Hungary on the North with the Carpathian Mountains on the South with Hemus dividing it from Greece The Rivers that inrich this Country are Danubius 2 Alata 3. Salvata 4. Cockle 5. Morâ—… and some others Commodities of Dacia The Commodities that this Country affordeth for Merchandize is Butter Cheese Honey Wax Hides Oxen Tallow and Warlike Horses of great worth The Provinces are these and are all under the command of the Grand Seignior Transilvania 1. Transilvania the chief Towns thereof are 1 Wisenberg 2. Clasenberg 3. Bristitia 4. Fogarâ—… and others and now in possession of Bethlem Gabar the Vaivode thereof Moldavia 2. Moldavia is the next the chief Cities are Saccania the second is Falsing 3. Kilim 4. Chermon c. under a Vavoide who is Tributary to the Great Turk Valachia 3. Valachia is the third Province the principal Towns whereof are 1. Salnium 2. Pracklabs 3. Tergovista the Vavoides Seat who is Tributary to the Turk This Country abounds in Mines of Gold Silver Salt-pits Wines Cattle and Brimstone and esteemed the richest of these Provinces Servia 4. Servia is the fourth and hath these Cities 1. Stoneburg the Seat of the Despot Tributary to the Turk 2. Samandria 3. Belgrade a famous Town which cost the Great Turk much Blood and Money the getting and was accounted before the Bulwark of Christendom on this side Rasia 5. Rasia is the fifth the chief City is Bodin a famous Mart. Bulgaria Bulgaria is the next wherein is found Sophia the Seat of the Beglerbeg of Greece who hath under him 21 Sansacks Next is Nicopolis and some others of lesser note Bosna Bosna is the last Province wherein is Casachium and Jasiga the residence of their former Despots All which afford not further matter of Trade for where the Great Turk once commandeth Traffick is accounted very rare and is seldom found of import and being ignorant in that little there is I am constrained to omit it CHAP. CCXXXVI Of Sclavonia and the Provinces and Cities thereof Sclavionia SClavonia hath on the East the River of Drinus and a line drawn from thence to the Sea on the VVest part of Italy on the North Hungary and on the South the Adriatick Sea Commodities The Commodities that this Country doth afford for Merchandize are Horses for Service Cattel Oxon Hides Tallow Butter and Cheese and hath some Mines of Silver and Gold now in the Great Turk's possession The Provinces and Cities of note in Sclavonia are these Illyria Illyria now by the Turks called Windismark hath in it Zatha seated upon Danâ—… 2 Zackaoes 3. Windisgreets and others Dalmatia Dalmatia is the second Province the chief City is Ragusa situated on the Adriatick Sea formerly a Town of great Traffick and Riches and now tributary to the Turk next is Sciâ—… 3. Zara both seated on the Sea-shore and subject to the Venetians 4. Spalatta a Sea-Town from whence to Venice that State keepeth many Gallies for transportation of Merchant Goods and by reason of an unreasonable Fraight by them taken they stand to the hazard and adventures thereof which they did to their Cost in Anno 1619. my self being in Nayle when as the Duke d' Ossuna then Vice-King took two of these their Galley grosses laden with a rich Booty as was reported to the import of 300000 Crowns which the State of Venice were enforced to make good principally to Merchants Turks of Constantinople to whom the greatest part thereof did at that time appertain and who are found at this day to be the greatest Traders this way The next Town is Scodra famous for the Resistance it made against the Turks and last Lissa famous here for the Sepulchre of Scanderbeg whose Bones were digged up and worn by the Turks at the taking of this City as conceiving them to be of excellent Vertue to make them partake of his good Fortunes This Province being now divided between the Venetians and the Turk Croatia Croatia is the next the chief Towns are Cardisca seated on the River Savus 2. Brumon 3. Nivograde 4. Sisgith and lastly Petrovia this Country is now subject in part to the Venetians and in part to the Austrians of the Trade of the most principal of this in brief and first of Ragusa and Spallatta CHAP. CCXXXVII Of Rhagusa and Spallatta and the Trade thereof THE Trade of Sclavonia is at this day but of small Account and little to our Mation the two Cities of Spalatta and Rhagusa seated therein merit the principal consideration Rhagusa and the Trade thereof Rhagusa then formerly called Epidaurus being situated on the Adriatick Sea a Common-wealth of great Traffick and Riches was in times past of far greater Fame and Name both in Trade and Navigation than now it is for from hence was the Original of those great Ships here built and in old times famous as then vulgarly called Argoses properly * Rhaguses Rhaguses the last which they were noted to have they lent Philip the Second King of Spain in 1588 to invade England and hath her burial in our British Seas and may
all others so thrive that envy the Prosperity of England since which I hear not of any they have of any consequence They now pay 12000 Ducats yearly to the Turk for Tribute of that Trade and Liberty they now enjoy which notwithstanding is of no great consequence The Country affords not any Commodities of moment for our Nation and we only send thither some blue Hampshire Kersies some Lead Tin and little else Moneys current in Rhagusa The Moneys thereof are such as pass current through the State of Venice and Turkey their Neighbours and their own being in correspondence therewith and accompted by Grosses Grosses 6 is a Livre Grosses 59 is a Hungar Grosses 38 is a Rial â…œ Grosses 1 is 2 Gassets A Gasset  is 2 Saldes Grosses 62 is a Venice Chicquin Grosses 40 is a Naples Ducat Grosses 59 is also a Sultain accounted in England for 8 s. sterl Weights of Rhagusa The Weight is a pound of â„¥ and 100 l. is the Quintal The 100 l. is English 80 l. and is Venice suttle 120 l. and is Venice gross 76 l. 1 l. Rhagusa is 9 â„¥ gross Ven. 1 l. Rhagusa is 14 â„¥ sac 2â…” suttle Measures of Rhagusa The Measure is the Brace which agreeth with the Brace of Venice thus the 100 Cloth Braces is in Rhagusa 124 and of Silk 116 Braces and is in England inches Spallatta Note that the Weights and Measures of Spallatta do wholly agree with those in Venetia therefore I need not to say further thereof in this place and by the way note that for the Weights of Rhagusa I find this observation made the 100 Rot. of Alexandria Zero is in Rhagusa 260 l. the 100 l. Forfori is in Rhagusa 116 l. the 100 Rot. Laidin is in Rhagusa 165 l. the 100 Rot. of Damietta is in Rhagusa 120 l. the 100 Rot. of Roma is in Rhagusa 666 l. the 100 Rot. of Baruti is in Rhagusa 625 l. the 100 Rot. Damasco is in Rhagusa 600 l. the 100 Rot. of Tripoli in Soria is in Rhagusa 500 l. the 100 Rot. of Aleppo is in Rhagusa 600 l. the 100 Rot. of Rhodes and Gasa is in Rhagusa 666â…” l. the 100 Rot. of Cyprus is in Rhagusa 625 l. the 100 Rot. of Bursie in Natolia is in Rhagusa 146 l. the 100 Rot. of Constantinople is in Rhagusa 146 l. and the 100 l. in Rhagusa doth make as followeth In Puglia 39 Rot. Puglia 110 l. Roma 101  Florence 105  Perosa 95  Siena 108  Acquilla 107  Lansano 166  Urbino 106  Crema 111  Piemont 101  Forli 111  Faensa 110  Cesena 106  Ricanati 107  Camerino 108  Bollonia 110  Lucca 106  Millana 111  Verona 108  Bressia 111  Ferrara 106  Modena 109  Genoua 114  Fanno 106  Further matter worthy mentioning that concerns either the Weight Measure or Trade of this place I have not observed therefore I pass it over and hence take my Journey to Greciâ— the next place which challengeth my survey CHAP. CCXXXVIII Of Greece and the Provinces thereof Greece and the Cities thereof GReece accounted the Mother of Arts and Sciences is bounded on the East with the Egean Sea the Hellespont Propontis and Thracian Bosphorus on the West with Italy and the Adriatick Sea on the North with the Mountain Hemus and on the South with the Ioniâ—… Sea and is now entirely subject to the Grand Seignior Commodities The general Commodities found here and transported hence are Wines Oyls Copper Vitriol Brimstone Silks raw and wrought as into Velvets Damasks Grograms of Goats-hair or Wooll Cute Anniseeds Cominseeds Currans Soap Carpets Cottons c. Rivers in Greece The chief Rivers navigable are Cepheus rising in Epirus and setting in the Egean Sea Erigâ—… and Alicmon rising both in Maccdonia and issuing in Thermasius sinus then Sirmon in Migdâ—… Alicus and Nissus in Thracia and some others Peloponnesus or Morea The principal Provinces are seven and the Cities therein are as followeth Peloponnesâ— is the first dividing it self into six lesser parts wherein is found the Cities of Eliz Olympia now ruined though once famous then the Cities of Corona and Modena the now flourishing Towns of this Province here was also in times past Thebes Lacedemon Sparta Argos Nâ—…s Corinth now a little Village called Crato all now gone and ruined and here is now of note in matter of Traffick in this circuit found only Modena Corona before named and Petrâ—… and some others of lesser consequence whereto Merchants do frequent for Traffick sake Of the Trade whereof a word CHAP. CCXXXIX Of Modena Corona and Petras and the Trade thereof Modena Corona and Petras and the Trade thereof THese three Cities are situated on the same Shores and subject to the same Customs and found abounding in Corn Wines and Currans Galls Anniseeds Silk and such like which I have thought good to put into one Member to abbreviate my Task Petras In Petras there hath been of many years a Trade maintained by the endeavours of the English who here by Authority of the Grand Seignior have a protecting Consul resident who hath the Title of the Consul of the Morea Exchange and here is vended from England some Cloths of Suffolk Serges Tin Lead c. In exchange whereof they transport hence these Commodities afore-named Corn and Oyl being by their Laws prohibited Transportation but by the connivance of Officers found permitted notwithstanding Moneys of Morea The Moneys of these places is current with those of Turkey and those of Venetia as Possessors and Borderers which they account by the Turkish Coins as in Dollars and Aspers Aspers 80 accounted to a Dollar or Rot. â…œ which is the best Commodity Aspers 120 accounted to a Sultany Hungary or Checquin which Coins are found to rise oftentimes 10 20 or 30 per Cent. in Aspers as the occasion of Trade or Misgovernment too oftentimes doth permit Weights of Morea The Weight of Petras is the Pound of 12 Ounces ordinarily making 11 Drams to an Ounce 3 l. making their Oak which is 4 l. 2 Ounces English or 400 Drams here 132 l. makes their Quintal which is 117 l. London but their Silk is sold by a Pound of 15 Ounces which is 1½ Pound abovesaid and it hath been found that 112 l. English have made in Petras 126 l. the Sack of Currans commonly weighing of their Weight 140 l. which is Zant hath produced incirca 118 l. 100 l. of Petrus hath been found to make in Venice sotile 130 l. and in the gross Weight of Venice 83½ l. which thus computed may be 88 in 90 l. Averdupois of London Measures of Morea The Measures of these places are two for distinction of length first the Silk Pico is found to be 25 inches English and the Cloth Pico 27 inches by the Rule in England Of Oyls Oyls are
Trade As it is very commendable to know what is to be done by others in their Places So it were a great shame to be ignorant in the Duties of our own Vacations THE Love and Service of our Country consisteth not so much in the Knowledge of those Duties which are to be performed by others as in the skilful Practice of that which is done by our selves and therefore my Son it is now fit that I say something of the Merchant which I hope in due time shall be thy Vocation Yet herein are my Thoughts free from all Ambition although I rank thee in a Place of so high estimation for the Merchant is worthily called The Steward of the Kingdom 's Stock by way of Commerce with other Nations a Work of no less Reputation than Trust which ought to be performed with great Skill and Conscience that so the Private Gain may ever accompany the Publick Good And because the Nobleness of this Profession may the better stir up thy Desires and Endeavours to obtain those Abilities which may effect it worthily I will briefly set down the excellent Qualities which are required in a perfect Merchant 1. He ought to be a good Pen-man a good Arithmetician and a good accomptant by that Noble Order of Debtor and Creditor which is used only amongst Merchants also to be expert in the Order and Form of Charter-parties Bills of Lading Invoices Contracts Bills of Exchange and Policies of Ensurance 2. He ought to know the Measures Weights and Monies of all Forein Countries especially where we have Trade and the Monies not only by their several Denominations but also by their Intrinsick Values in Weight and Fineness compared with the Standard of this Kingdom without which he cannot well direct his Affairs 3. He ought to know the Customs Tolls Taxes Impositions Conducts and other charges upon all manner of Merchandize Exported or Imported to and from the said Forein Countries 4. He ought to know in what several Commodities each Country abounds and what be the Wares which they want and how and from whence they are furnished with the same 5. He ought to understand and to be a diligent Observer of the Rates of Exchanges by Bills from one State to another whereby he may the better direct his Affairs and remit over and receive home his Monies to the most advantage possible 6. He ought to know what Goods are prohibited to be Exported or Imported in the said Forein Countries lest otherwise he should incur great Danger and Loss in the ordering of his Affairs 7. He ought to know upon what Rates and Conditions to Freight his Ships and Ensure his Adventures from one Country to another and to be well acquainted with the Laws Orders and Customs of the Insurance-Office both here and beyond the Seas in the many Accidents which may happen upon the Damage or Loss of Ships or Goods or both 8. He ought to have Knowledg in the Goodness and in the Prices of all the several Materials which are required for the Building and Repairing of Ships and the divers Workmanships of the same as also for the Masts Tackling Cordageâ— Ordnance Victuals Munition and Provisions of many kinds together with the ordinary Wages of Commanders Officers and Mariners all which concern the Merchant as he is an Owner of Ships 9. He ought by the divers Occasions which happen sometimes in the Buying and Selling of one Commodity and sometimes in another to have indifferent if not perfect Knowledg in all manner of erchandze or Wares which is to be as it were a Man of all Occupations and Trades 10. He ought by his Voyaging on the Seas to become skilful in the Art of Navigation 11. He ought as he is a Traveller and sometimes abiding in Forein Countries to attain to the speaking of divers Languages and to be a diligent Observer of the ordinary Revenues and Expences of Foreign Princes together with their Strength both by Sea and Land their Laws Customs Policies Manners Religions Arts and the like to be able to give account thereof in all occasions for the Good of his Country 12. Lastly Although there be no necessity that such a Merchant should be a great Scholar yet is it at least required that in his Youth he learn the Latin Tongue which will the better enable him in all the rest of his Endeavours Thus have I brieflly shewed thee a Pattern for thy Diligence the Merchant in his Qualities which in truth are such and so many that I find no other Profession which leadeth into more wordly Knowledge And it cannot be denied but that their Sufficiency doth appear likewise in the excellent Government of State at Venice Luca Genoua Florence the Low-Countries and divers other Places of Christendom And in those States also where they are least esteemed yet is there Skill and Knowledg often used by those who sit in the highest Places of Authority It is therefore an Act beyond rashness in some who disenable their Counsel and Judgment even in Books printed making them uncapable of those Ways and Means which do either Enrich or Empoverish a Common wealth when in truth this is only effected by the Mystery of their Trade as I shall plainly shew in that which followeth It is true indeed that many Merchants here in England finding less encouragement given to their Profession than in other Countries and seeing themselves not so well esteemed as their Noble Vocation requireth and according to the great Consequence of the same do not therefore labor to attain unto the Excellency of their Profession neither is it practised by the Nobility of this Kingdom as it is in other States from the Father to the Son throughout their Generations to their great increase of their Wealth and maintenance of their Names and Families There is more Honour and Profit in an Industrious Life than in a great Inheritance which wasteth for want of Vertue Whereas the Memory of our richest Merchants is suddenly extinguished the Son being left rich scorneth the Profession of his Father conceiving more Honour to be a Gentleman although but in Name to consume his Estate in dark Ignorance and Excess than to follow the Steps of his Father as an Industrious Merchant to maintain and advance his Fortunes But now leaving the Merchant's Praise we will come to his Practice or at least to so much thereof as concerns the bringing of Treasure into the Kingdom CHAP. II. The Means to enrich this Kingdom and to encrease our Treasure ALthough a Kingdom may be Enriched by Gifts received or by Purchase taken from some other Nations yet these are things uncertain and of small Consideration when they happen Forein Trade is the Rule of our Treasure The ordinary Means therefore to increase our Wealth and Treasure is by Forein Trade wherein we must ever observe this Rule to sell more to Strangers yearly than we consume of theirs in value For suppose that when this Kingdom is plentifully
served with the Cloth Lead Tin Iron Fish and other Native Commodities we do yearly Export the Overplus to Forein Countries to the Value of Twenty two hundred thousand pounds by which means we are enabled beyond the Seas to buy and bring in Forein Wares for our Use and Consumptions to the value of Twenty hundred thousand Pounds By this Order duly kept in our Trading we may rest assured that the Kingdom shall be Enriched yearly two hundred thousand Pounds which must be brought to us in so much Treasure because that part of our Stock which is not returned to us in Wares must necessarily be brought home in Treasure For in this case it cometh to pass in the Stock of a Kingdom as in the Estate of a private Man who is supposed to have One thousand Pounds yearly Revenue and Two thousand Pounds of ready Mony in his Chest If such a Man through Excess shall spend One thousand five hundred Pounds per An. all his ready Mony will be gone in four years and in the like time his said Mony will be doubled if he take a Frugal Course to spend but Five hundred Pounds per Annum which Rule never faileth likewise in the Common-wealth but in some cases of no great moment which I will hereafter declare when I shall shew by whom and in what manner this Ballance of the Kingdom 's Account ought to be drawn up yearly or so often as it shall please the State to discover how much we Gain or Lose by Trade with Forein Nations But first I will say something concerning those Ways and Means which will Increase our Exportations and Diminish our Importations of VVares which being done I will then set down some other Arguments both Affirmative and Negative to strengthen that which is here declared and thereby to shew that all the other Means which are commonly supposed to Enrich the Kingdom with Treasure are altogether Insufficient and meer Fallacies CHAP. III. The particular Ways and Means to increase the Exportation of our Commodities and to decrease our Consumption of Forein Wares THE Revenue or Stock of a Kingdom by which it is provided of Forein Wares is either Natural or Artificial The Natural Wealth is so much only as can be spared from our own Use and Necessities to be exported unto Strangers The Artificial consists in our Manufactures and industrious Trading with Forein Commodities concerning which I will set down such Particulars as may serve for the Cause we have in hand First Although this Realm be already exceeding Rich by Nature yet might it be much increased by laying the waste Grounds which are infinite into such Employments as should no way hinder the present Revenues of other manured Lands but hereby to supply our selves and prevent the Importations of Hemp Flax Cordage Tobacco and divers other things which now we fetch from Strangers to our great Impoverishing 2. We may likewise diminish our Importations if we would soberly refrain from excessive Consumption of Forein Wares in our Diet and Rayment with such often change of Fashions as is used so much the more to increase the Waste and Charge which Vices at this present are more Nototious amongst us than in former Ages Yet might they easily be amended by enforcing the Observation of such good Laws as are strictly practised in other Countries against the said Excesses where likewise by commanding their own Manufactures to be used they prevent the coming in of others without Prohibition or Offence to Strangers in their mutual Commerce 3. In our Exportations we must not only regard our own Superfluities but also consider our Neighbours Necessities that so upon the VVares which they cannot want nor yet be furnished therewith elsewhere we may besides the vent of Materials gain so much of the Manufacture as we can and also endeavour to sell them dear so far forth as the high Price cause not a less vent in the Quantity But the Superfluity of our Commodities which Strangers use and may also have the same from other Nations or may abate their vent by the use of some such like VVares from other Places and with little Inconvenience we must in this case strive to sell as cheap as possible we can rather than to lose the Utterance of such VVares For we have found of late Years by good Experience that being able to sell our Cloth cheap in Turky we have greatly increased the vent thereof and the Venetians have lost as much in the Utterance of theirs in those Countries because it is dearer And on the other side a sew Years past when by the excessive Prices of VVools our Cloth was exceeding dear we lost at least half our Clothing for Forein Parts which since is no otherwise well near recovered again than by the great fall of Price for VVeols and Cloth The State in some Occasions may gain most when private Men by their Reventles get least VVe find that Twenty five in the Hundred less in the Price of these and some other VVares to the loss of private Mens Revenues may raise above Fifty upon the Hundred in the Quantity vented to the Benefit of the Publick For when Cloth is dear other Nations do presently practice Clothing and we know they want neither Art nor Materials to this Performance But when by Cheapness we drive them from this Employment and so in time obtain our dear Price again then do they also use their former Remedy So that by these Alterations we learn that is in vain to expect a greater Revenue of our Wares than their Condition will afford but rather it concerns us to apply our endeavours to the Times with Care and Diligence to help our selves the best we may by making our Cloth and other Manufactures without Deceit which will increase their Estimation and Use 4. The Value of our Exportations likewise may be much advanced when we perform it our selves in our own Ships for then we get not only the Price of our Wares as they are worth here but also the Merchant's Gains the Charges of Insurance and Freight to carry them beyond the Seas As for Example If the Italian Merchants should come hither in their own Shipping to fetch our Corn our Red-Herrings or the like in this Case the Kingdom should have ordinarily but 25 s. for a Quarter of Wheat and 20 s. for a Barrel of Red Herrings whereas if we carry these Wares our selves into Italy upon the said Rates it is likely that we shall obtain Fifty shillings for the First and Forty shillings for the Last which is a great Difference in the Utterance or Vent of the Kingdom 's stock And although it is true that the Commerce ought to be free to Strangers to bring in and carry out at their pleasure yet nevertheless in many Places the Exportation of Victuals and Munition are either prohibited or at least limited to be done only by the People and Shipping of those Places where they abound 5. The Frugal expending
likewise of our own Natural Wealth might advance much yearly to be exported unto Strangers and if in our Rayment we will be prodigal yet let this be done with our own Materials and Manufactures as Cloth Lace Embroderies Cut-works and the like where the Excess of the Rich may be the Employment of the Poor whose Labours notwithstanding of this kind would be more profitable for the Commonwealth if they were done to the use of Strangers 6. The Fishing in His Majesty's Seas of England Scotland and Ireland is our Natural Wealth and would cost nothing but Labour which the Dutch bestow willingly and thereby draw yearly a very great Profit to themselves by serving many places of Christendom with our Fish for which they return and supply their Wants both of Forein VVares and Mony besides the multitude of Mariners and Shipping which hereby are maintain'd whereof a long Discourse might be made to shew the particular Manage of this Important Business Our Fishing Plantation likewise in New-England Virginia Greenland the Summer Islands and the Newfoundland are of the like Nature affording much VVealth and Employments to maintain a great number of Poor and to increase our decaying Trade How some States have been made Rich 7. A Staple or Magazine for Forein Corn Indico Spices Raw-silks Cotton VVool or any other Commodity whatsoever to be Imported will increase Shipping Trade Treasure and the Kings Customs by Exporting them again where need shall require which course of Trading hath been the chief Means to raise Venice Genoa the Low-Countries with some others and for such a purpose England stands most commodiously wanting nothing to this Performance but our own Diligence and Endeavour 8. Also we ought to esteem and cherish those Trades which we have in remote or fax Countries for besides the Increase of Shipping and Mariners thereby the VVares also sent thither and receiv'd from thence are far more profitable unto the Kingdom than by our Trades near at hand As for Example suppose Pepper to be worth here two shillings the Pound constantly if then it be brought from the Dutch at Amsterdam the Merchant may give there twenty pence the Pound and gain well by the Bargain The Traffick to the East-Indies is our most prefitable Trade in its proportion both for King and Kingdom We get more by the Indian Wares than the Indians themselves A Distinction between the Kingdoms Gain and the Merchant's Profit but if he fetch this Pepper from the East-Indies he must not give above three pence the Pound at the most which is a mighty Advantage not only in that Part which serveth for our own use but also for that great Quantity which from heence we transport yearly unto divers others Nations to be sold at a higher Price whereby it is plain that we make a far greater Stock by Gain upon these Indian Commodities than those Nations do where they Grow and to whom they properly appertain being the Natural VVealth of their Countries But for the better understanding of this Particular we must ever distinguish between the Gain of the Kingdom and the Profit of the Merchant for although the Kingdom payeth no more for this Pepper than is before supposed nor for any other Commodity bought in Forein Parts more than the Stranger receiveth from us for the same yet the Merchant payeth not only that Price but also the Freight Ensurance Customs and other charges which are exceeding great in these long Voyages but yet all these in the Kingdoms account are but commutations among our selves and no Privation of the Kingdom 's Stock which being duly considered together with the Support also of our other Trades in our best Shipping to Italy France Turky the East-Countries and other places by Transporting and Venting the Wares which we bring yearly from the East Indies It may well stir up our utmost Endeavours to maintain and enlarge this Great and Noble Business so much importing the Publick Wealth Strength and Happiness Neither is there less Honour and Judgment by growing Rich in this manner upon the Stock of other Nations than by an industrious Increase of our own Means especially when this Latter is advanced by the Benefit of the Formers as we have found in the East-Indies by sale of much of our Tin Cloth Lead and other Commodities the Vent whereof doth daily increase in those Countries which formerly had no use of our Wares 9. It would be very beneficial to Export Mony as well as Wares being done in Trade only it would increase our Treasure but of this I write more largely in the next Chapter to prove it plainly 10. It were Policy and Profit for the State to suffer Manufactures made of Forein Materials to be exported Custom-free as Velvets and all other wrought Silks Fustians Thrown Silks and the like it would employ very many poor People and much increase the Value of our Stock yearly issued into other Countries and it would for this Purpose cause the more Forein Materials to be brought in to the Emprovement of His Majesties Customs I will here remember a notable Increase in our Manufacture of Winding and Twisting only of Forein raw Silk which within 35 years to my knowledg did not employ more than 300 People in the City and Suburbs of London where at this present time it doth set on work above fourteen thousand Souls as upon diligent Enquiry hath been credibly reported unto His Majesties Commissioners for Trade And it is certain that if the said Forein Commodities might be Exported from hence free of Custom this Manufacture would yet increase very much and decrease as fast in Italy and in the Netherlands But if any Man alledge the Dutch Proverb Live and let others live I answer that the Dutchmen notwithstanding their own Proverb do not only in these Kingdoms encroach upon our Livings but also in other Forein Parts of our Trade where they have power they do hinder and destroy us in our lawful course of Living hereby taking the Bread out of our Mouth which we shall never prevent by plucking the Pot from their Nose as of late Years too many of us do practise to the great Dishonour of this Famous Nation We ought rather to imitate former times in taking sober and worthy Courses more pleasing to God and suitable to our ancient Reputation 11. It is needful also not to charge the Native Commodities with too great Customs lest by endearing them to the Strangers use it hinder their Vent And especially Forein Wares brought in to be Transported again should be savoured for otherwise that manner of Trading so much importing the Good of the Commonwealth cannot Prosper nor Subsist But the Consumption of such Forein Wares in the Realm may be the more Charged which will turn to the Profit of the Kingdom in the Ballance of Trade and thereby also enable the King to lay up the more Treasure out of his yearly Incoms as of this Particular I intend to write more
is before declared It is not then possible but that all the Over ballance or Difference should return either in Mony or in such Wares as we must Export again which as is already plainly shewed will be still a greater Means to increase our Treasure The Proverb saith He that hath Ware hath Mony by the Year For it is in the Stock of the Kingdom as in the Estates of Private Men who having store of Wares do not therefore say that they will not venture out or Trade with their Mony for this were ridiculous but do also turn that into Wares whereby they multiply their Mony and so by a continual and orderly Change of one into the other grow Rich and when they please turn all their Estates into Treasure for they that have Wares cannot want Mony Neither is it said that Mony is the Life of Trade as if it could not subsist without the same for we know that there was great Trading by way of Commutation or Barter when there was little Mony stirring in the World The Italians and some other Nations have such remedies against this Want that it can neither decay nor hinder their Trade for they transfer Bills of Debt and have Banks both Publick and Private wherein they do assign their Credits from one to another daily for very great Sums with Ease and Satisfaction by VVritings only whilst in the mean time the Mass of Treasure which gave foundation to those Credits is employed in Forein Trade as a Merchandize and by the said means they have little other use of Mony in those Countries more than for their ordinary Expences It is not therefore the keeping of our Mony in the Kingdom but the Necessity and Use of our VVares in Forein Countries and our want of their Commodities that causeth the Vent and Consumption on all sides which makes a quick and ample Trade If we were once Poor and now having gained some store of Mony by Trade with resolution to keep it still in the Realm shall this cause other Nations to spend more of our Commodities than formerly they have done whereby we might say that our Trade is Quickned and Enlarged No verily it will produce no such good effect but rather according to the alteration of times by their true causes we may expect the contrary for all Men do consent that Plenty of Mony in a Kingdom doth make the Native Commodities dearer which as it is to the Profit of some Private Men in their Revenues so is it directly against the Benefit of the Publick in the Quantity of the Trade for as Plenty of Mony makes VVares dearer so dear VVares decline their Use and Consumption as hath been already plainly shewed in the last Chapter upon that particular of our Cloth And although this is a very hard Lesson for some great landed Men to learn yet I am sure it is a true Lesson for all the Land to observe lest when we have gained some store of Mony by Trade we loose it again by not Trading with our Mony I knew a Prince in Italy of Famous Memory Ferdinando the first Great Duke of Tuscany who being very rich in Treasure endeavoured therewith to enlarge his Trade by issuing out to his Merchants great Sums of Mony for very small Profit I my self had Forty thousand Crowns of him gratis for a whole Year although he knew that I would presently send it away in Specie for the Parts of Turky to be employed in VVares for his Countries he being well assured that in this Course of Trade it would return again according to the Old saying with a Duck in the Mouth This Noble and Industrious Prince by his Care and diligence to countenance and favour Merchants in their Affairs did so increase the Practice thereof that there is scarce a Nobleman or Gentleman in all his Dominions that doth not Merchandize either by himself or in Partnership with others whereby within these thirty Years the Trade to his Port of Leghorne is much increased that of a poor Little Town as I my self knew it it is now become a Fair and Strong City being one of the most Famous Places for all Christendom And yet it is worthy our Observation that the multitude of Ships and VVares which come thither from England the Low-Countries and other places have little or no means to make their returns from thence but only in ready Mony which they may and do carry away freely at all times to the incredible Advantage of the said great Duke of Tuscany and his Subjects who are much enriched by the continual great concourse of Merchants from all the States of the Neighbour Princes bringing them plenty of Mony daily to supply their wants of the said Wares And thus we see that the Current of Merchandize which carries away their Treasure becomes a flowing Stream to fill them again in a greater measure with Mony There is yet an Objection or two as weak as all the rest that is if we Trade with our Mony we shall issue out the less Wares as if a Man should say those Countries which heretofore had occasion to consume our Cloth Lead Iron Fish and the like shall now make use of our Monies in the place of those Necessaries which were most absurd to affirm or that the Merchant had not rather carry out Wares by which there is ever some gains expected than to Export Mony which is still but the same without any increase But on the contrary there are many Countries which may yield us very profitable Trade for our Mony which otherwise afford us no Trade at all because they have no use of our Wares as namely the East-Indies for one in the first beginning thereof although since by industry in our Commerce with those Nations we have brought them into the use of much of our Lead Cloth Tin and other things which is a good Addition to the former Vent of our Commodities Again some Men have alleged that those Countries which permit Mony to be carried out do it because they have few or no VVares to Trade withal but we have great store of Commodities and therefore their Action ought not to be our Example To this the Answer is briefly that we have such a quantity of VVares as doth fully provide us of all things needful from beyond the Seas why should we then doubt that out Monies sent out in Trade must not necessarily come back again in Treasure together with the great Gains which it may procure in such manner as is before set down And on the other side if those Nations which send out their Monies do it because they have but few VVares of their own how come they then to have so much Treasure as we ever see in those Places which suffer it freely to be Exported at all times and by whomsoever I answer Even by Trading with their Monies for by what other means can they get it having no Mines of Gold or Silver
and fall together In the next Place We hear our Lawyers much condemned the Vexation and Charges by multiplicity of Suits do exceed all the other Kingdoms of Christendom but whether this proceed from the Lawyer 's Covetousness or the Peoples Perverseness is a great Question And let this be as it may I will enquire not farther therein than our present Discourse doth require concerning the Decay of our Trade and Impoverishing of the Kingdom Sure I am that Suits in Law make many a Man Poor and Peniless but how it should make us Trade for less by one single Peny I cannot well conceive For although amongst the great number of them who are Vexed and Undone by Controversies there be ever some Merchants yet we know that one Man's Necessity becomes another Man's Opportunity I never knew as yet a Decay in our Trade and Treasure for want of Merchants or Means to employ us but rather by excessive Consumption of Forein Wares at home or by a Declination in the Vent of our Commodities abroad caused either by the ruinous Effects of Wars or some alterations in the times of Peace whereof I have spoken more fully in the Third Chapter But to conclude with the Lawyers I say that their Noble Profession is necessary to all and their Cases Quillets Delays and Charges are mischievous to many these things indeed are Cankers in the Estates of Particular Men but not of the Common-wealth as some suppose for one Man's Loss becomes another Man's Gain it is still in the Kingdom I wish it might as surely remain in the right Places Lastly All kind of Bounty and Pomp is not to be avoided for if we should become so Frugal that we would use few or no Forein Wares how shall we then vent our own Commodities What will become of our Ships Mariners Munitions our poor Artificers and many others Do we hope that other Countries will afford us Mony for All our Wares without Buying or Battering for Some of theirs This would prove a vain Expectation it is more Safe and Sure to run a middle Course by spending moderately which will purchase Treasure plentifully Again the Pomp of Buildings Apparel and the like in the Nobility Gentry and other able Persons cannot impoverish the Kingdom if it be done with curious and costly Works upon our Materials and by our own People it will maintain the Poor with the Purse of the Rich which is the best Distribution of the Common-wealth But if any Man say that when the People want Work the then Fishing Trade would be a better Employment and far more Profitable I subscribe willingly For in that great business there is means enough to employ both Rich and Poor whereof there hath been much said and written It resteth only that something might be as well effected for the Honour and Wealth both of the King and his Kingdoms CHAP. XVI How the Revenues and Incoms of Princes may justly be raised NOw that we have set down the true Course by which a Kingdom may be enriched with Treasure In the next Place we will endeavour to shew the Ways and Means by which a King may justly share therein without the Hurt or Oppression of his Subjects The Revenues of Princes as they differ much in quantity according to the Greatness Riches and Trade of their respective Dominons so likewise is there great diversity used in procuring the same according to the Constitution of the Countries the Government Laws and Customs of the People which no Prince can alter but with much difficulty and Danger Some Kings have their Crown-Lands the first Fruits upon Ecclesiastical Livings Customs Tolls and Imposts upon all Trade to and from Forein Countries Loans Donations and Subsidies upon all necessary occasions Other Princes and States leaving the three last do add unto the rest a Custom upon all new Wares transported from one City to be used in any other City or Place of their own Dominions Customs upon every alienation or sale of live Cattel Lands Houses and the Portions or Marriage Mony of Women Licence-mony upon all Victualing-Houses and Innkeepers Head-mony Custom upon all the Corn Wine Oyl Salt and the like which Grown and are Consumed in their own Dominions c. All which seem to be a Rabble of Oppressions serving to enrich those Princes which exact them and to make the People Poor and Miserable which endure them especially in those Countries where these Burdens are laid at heavy rates as 4 5 6 and 7 per Cent. But when all the Circumstance and Distinction of Places are duly considered they will be found not only necessary and therefore lawful to be used in some States but also in divers respects very profitable to the Common-wealth First there are some States as namely Venice Florence Genoua the Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countries and others which are singular for Beauty and excellent both for Natural and Artificial Strength having likewise rich Subjects yet being of no very great Extent nor enjoying such Wealth by ordinary Revenues as might support them against the sudden and powerful invasions of those mighty Princes which do inviron them they are therefore enforced to strengthen themselves not only with Confederates and Leagues which may often fail them in their greatest need but also by massing up store of Treasure and Munition by those extraordinary courses before-written which cannot deceive them but will ever be ready to make a good Defence and to offend or divert their Enemies Neither are these heavy Contributions so hurtful to the Happiness of the People as they are commonly esteemed For as the Food and Rayment of the Poor is made dear by Excise so doth the Price of their labour rise in proportion whereby the Burden if any be is still upon the Rick who are either idle or at least work not in this kind yet have they the Use and are the great Consumers of the Poors Labour Neither do the Rich neglect in their several Places and Callings to advance their Endeavours according to those times which do exhaust their Means and Revenues wherein if they should peradventure fail and therefore be forced to abate their sinful Excess and idle retainers what is all this but happiness in a Common wealth when Virtue Plenty and Arts shall thus be advanced all together Nor can it be truly said that a Kingdom is impoverished where Loss of the People is the Gain of the King from whom also such yearly Incoms have their annual issue to the Benefit of his Subjects except only that part of the Treasure which is laid up for the Publick Good wherein likewise they who suffer have their safety and therefore such contributions are both Just and Profitable Yet here we must confess that as the best things may be corrupted so these taxes may be abused and the Common wealth notoriously wronged when they are vainly Wasted and Consumed by a Prince either upon unworthy worthy Persons such as deserve neither Rewards nor Countenance
maintain his Estate and defend his Right that will not run himself into Poverty Contempt Hate and Danger must lay up Treasure and be thrifty for further proof whereof I might yet produce some other Examples which here I do omit as needless Only I will add this as a necessary Rule to be observed that when more Treasure must be raised than can be received by the ordinary Taxes it ought ever to be done with equality to avoid the Hate of the People who are never pleased except their Contributions be granted by general consent For which purpose the Inventions of Parliaments is an excellent Policy of Government to keep a sweet Concord between a King and his Subjects by restraining the Insolency of the Nobility and redressing the Injuries of the Commons without engaging a Prince to adhere to either Party but indifferently to favour both There could nothing be devised with more judgment for the common Quiet of a Kingdom or with greater care for the Safety of a King who hereby hath also good means to dispatch those things by others which will move Envy and to execute that himself which will merit Thanks CHAP. XVIII How much Treasure a Prince may conveniently lay up Yearly THus far we have shewed the Ordinary and Extraordinary incomes of Princes the Conveniency thereof and to whom only it doth necessarily and justly belong to take the Extraordinary Contributions of their Subjects It resteth now to examin what proportion of Treasure each particular Prince may conveniently lay up yearly This business doth seem at the first to be very Plain and Easie for if a Prince have Two Millions yearly Revenue and spend but one why should he not lay up the other Indeed I must confess that this Course is ordinary in the Means and Gettings of Private Men but in the Affairs of Princes it is far different there are other circumstances to be considered for although the Revenue of a King should be very great Forein Trade must give proportion to a Princes Treasure which is laid up yearly yet if the Gain of the Kingdom be but small this Latter must ever give Rule and Proportion to that Treasure which may conveniently be laid up yearly for if he should mass up more Mony than is gained by the Over-ballance of his Forein Trade he shall not Fleece but Flea his Subjects and so with their ruin overthrow himself for want of future Sheerings To make this Plain Suppose a Kingdom to be rich by Nature and Art that it may supply itself of Forein Wares by Trade and yet advance yearly 200000 l. in ready Mony Next Suppose all the King's Revenues to be 900000 l. and his Expences but 400000 l. whereby he may lay up 300000 l. more in his Coffers yearly than the whole Kingdom gains from Strangers by Forein Trade who sees not then at all the Mony in such a State would suddenly be drawn into the Prince's Treasure whereby the Life of Lands and Arts must Fail and Fall to the ruin both of the Publick and Private Wealth A Prince whose Subjects have but little Forein Trade cannot lay up much Mony So that a King who desires to lay up much Mony must endeavour by all good means to maintain and increase his Forein Trade because it is the sole way not only to lead him to his own ends but also to enrich his Subjects to his farther Benefit For a Prince is esteemed no less powerful by having many rich well affected Subjects than by possessing much Treasure in his Coffers But here we must meet with an Objection which peradventure may be made concerning such States whereof I have formerly spoken which are of no great Extent and yet bordering upon mighty Princes are therefore constrained to lay extraordinary Taxes upon their Subjects whereby they procure to themselves very great incomes yearly and are richly provided against any Forein Invasions yet have they no such great Trade with Strangers as that the Over ballance or Gain of the same may suffice to lay up the one half of that which they advance yearly besides their own Expences To this the Answer is that still the Gain of their Forein Trade must be the Rule of laying up their Treasure the which although it should not be much yearly yet in the time of a long continued Peace and being well managed to advantage it will become a great Sum of Mony able to make a long Detence which may End or Divert the War Neither are all the Advances of Princes strictly tied to be massed up in Treasure for they have other no less necessary and profitable Ways to make them Rich and Powerful by issuing out continually a great Part of the Mony of their yearly Incomes to their Subjects from whom it was first taken as namely by employing them to make Ships of War with all the Provisions thereunto belonging to build and repair Forts to buy and store up Corn in the Granaries of each Province for a Years use at least aforehand to serve in occasion of Dearth which cannot be neglected by a State but with great Danger to erect Banks with their Mony for the Increase of their Subjects Trade to maintain in their Pay Colonels Captains Soldiers Commanders Mariners and others both by Sea and Land with good Discipline to fill their Storehouses in sundry strong Places Munition for War ought to be kept in divers Places of the State to prevent the Loss of all by Treachery in one Place and to abound in Gun-powder Brimstone Salt-petre Shot Ordnance Musquets Swords Pikes Armours Horses and in many other such like Provisions fitting for War all which will make them to be feared abroad and loved at home especially if care be taken that all as near as possible be made out of the Matter and Manufacture of their own Subject which bear the Burden of the yearly Contributions for a Prince in this Case is like the Stomach in the Body which if it cease to digest and distribute to the other Members it doth no sooner corrupt them but it destroys itself Thus we have seen that a small State may lay up a great Wealth in Necessary Provisions which are Princes Jewels no less precious than their Treasure for in time of need they are ready and cannot otherwise be had in some places on the sudden whereby a State may be lost whilst Munition is in Providing So that we may account that Prince as poor who can have no Wares to buy at his need as he that hath no Mony to buy Wares for although Treasure is said to be the Sinews of the War yet this is so because it doth provide Unite and Move the Power of Men Victuals and Munition where and when the Cause doth require but if these things be wanting in due time what shall we then do with our Mony The Consideration of this doth cause divers well-governed States to be exceeding provident and well furnished of such Provisions especially those
Estate they seem not the same People Those Princes which willingly support the Dutch would as resolutely resist the Spaniard for who knows not that the Condition of those Provinces was mean and Turbulent under the Spaniards Government which brought rather a greater Charge then a further Strength to to their Ambition neither would it prove over difficult for the Neighbour Princes in short time to reduce those Countries to their former Estate again if their own safety did require the same as certainly it would if the Spaniard were sole Lord of those Netherlands but our Discourse tends not to shew the Means of those Mutations otherwise than to find out the chief Foundation of the Hollander's Wealth and Greatness For it seems a wonder to the World that such a small Country not fully so big as two of our biggest Shires having little natural Wealth Victuals Timber or other necessary Ammunitions either for War or Peace should notwithstanding possess them all in such extraordinary Plenty that besides their own wants which are very great they can and do likewise serve and sell to other Princes Ships Ordnance Cordage Corn Powder Shot and what not which by their industrious Trading they gather from all the Quarters of the World Much Policy but little Honesty In which courses they are not less injurious to supplant others especially the English than they are careful to strengthen themselves And to effect this and more than hath been said which is their War with Spain they have little Foundation besides the Fishing which is permitted them in His Majesty's Seas being indeed the Means of an incredible Wealth and Strength both by Sea and Land as Robert Hichcock Tobias Gentleman and others have published at large in print to them that list to read And the States-General themselves in their Proclamation have ingeniously set out the Worth thereof in these words following Part of the States Proclamation dated in the Hague 19. July 1624. The great Fishing and catching of Herrings is the chiefest Trade and principal Gold Mine of the United Provinces whereby many Thousands of Households Families Handicrafts Trades and Occupations are set on work well maintained and prosper especially the Sailing and Navigation as well within as without these Countries is kept in great estimation Moreover many returns of Money with the Increase of the Means Convoys Customs and Revenues of these Countries are augmented thereby and prosper with other words following as is at large expressed in the said Proclamation set forth by the States-General for the Preservation of the said Trade of Fishing without which it is apparent that they cannot long subsist in Sovereignty for if this Foundation perish the whole Building of their Wealth and Strength both by Sea and Land must fall for the multitude of their Shipping would suddenly decay their Revenues and Customs would become small their Countries would be Depopulated for want of Maintenance whereby the Excise must fail and all their other Trades to the East-Indies or elsewhere must faint So that the Glory and Power of these Netherlands consisteth in this Fishing of Herrings Ling and Cod in his Majesty's Seas It resteth therefore to know what Right or Title they have thereunto and how they are able to Possess and Keep the same against all other Nations The Answer to these two Questions is not difficult For first It is not the Netherlandish Author of Mare Liberum that can intitle them to Fish in His Majesty's Seas For besides the Justice of the Cause and Examples of other Countries which might be alledged I will only say that such Titles would be sooner decided by Swords than with Words I do believe indeed that it is free for the Fish to come thither at their Pleasure but for the Dutch to carry and carry them away from thence without His Majesty's Licence I harbour no such Thought There may be good Policy to connive still and so long to permit them this Fishing as they are in perfect league with England and in War with Spain But if the Spaniards were Masters of the United Provinces as heretofore it would nearly concern these Kingdoms to claim their own Right and carefully to make as good use thereof for Increase of their Wealth and Strength to oppose that Potent Enemy as now the Netherlanders do and are well enabled for the same Purpose By which particular alone they are ever bound to acknowledge their strong Alliance with England above all other Nations for there is none that hath the like good Means to lend them such a Powerful maintenance Fishing and Money compared Nor were it possible for the Spaniard if he had those Countries again to make a new Foundation with the Power of his Money to increase his Strength either by Sea or Land to offend these Kingdoms more than he is now able to perform with the Conveniency of those Provinces which he hath already in his Possession for it is not the Place but the Employment not the Barren Netherlands but the Rich Fishing which gives Foundation Trade and Subsistence to those multitudes of Ships Arts and People whereby also the Excises and other publick Revenues are continued and without which Employment all the said great Dependences must necessarily disbandon and fail in very short time For although I confess that store of Mony may bring them Materials which they altogether want and Arts-men to build them Shipping yet where are the Wares to Freight and Maintain them If Mony then shall be the only means to send them out in Trade what a poor number of Ships will this employ Or if the uncertain Occasions of War must support them will not this require another Indies and all too little to maintain the Tenth Part of so many Ships and Men as the Hollanders do now set on work by the Fishing and other Trades thereon depending But if it be yet said that the Spaniard being Lord of all those Netherlands his Expence of the present War there will cease and so this Power may be turned upon us The Answer is that when Princes send great Forces abroad to invade others they must likewise increase their Charge and Strength at Home to defend themselves and also we must consider that if the Spaniard will attempt any thing upon these Kingdoms he must consume a great Part of his Treasure in Shipping whereby the Means of his invading Power of Money and Men to land will be much less than now it is in the Low-Countries Nor should we regard them but be ever ready to beard them when our Wealth and Strength by Sea and Land might be so much increased by the Possession and Practice of our Fishing of which particular I will yet say something more where occasion shall be offered in that which followeth And here in this Place I will only add that if the Spaniard were sole Lord of all the Netherlands he must then necessarily drive a great Trade by Sea to supply the
common Wants of those Countries whereby in occasion of War we should have means daily to take much Wealth from him whereas now the Spaniard using little or no Trade in these Seas but employing his Ships of War to the uttermost of his power he only takes and we lose great matters continually Now concerning the second Question Whether the Hollanders be able to Possess and Keep this Fishing against all other Nations It is very probable that although they claim now no other right than their own freedom in this Fishing seeming to leave the like to all others yet if the Practice of any Nation should seek either to Fish with them or to supplant them they would be both ready and able to maintain this Golden Mine against the strongest Opposition except England whose Harbours and In-lands with other daily reliefs are very needful if not absolutely necessary for this Employment and whose Power also by Sea is able in short time to give this Business disturbance and utter Ruin if the Occasion should be so urgent as afore supposed Neither is it enough for any Man to contradict all this by saying the Hollanders are very strong by Sea when both Sea and Land encounter them with a greater Power We must observe from whence their strength grows and if the Root be once spoiled the Branches soon will wither and therefore it were an Error to esteem or value them according to the present Power and Wealth which they have obtained by Trade or Purchase for although this were far greater than indeed it is yet would it soon be consumed in a chargeable War against a Potent Enemy when the Current of those Accidents may be stopâ— and turned by preventing the substance itself which is the Fishing in His Majesty's Seas that gives foundation and is the very Fountain of their strength and happiness The United Provinces we know are like a fair Bird suited with goodly borrowed plumes but if every Fowl should take his Feather this Bird would rest near naked Nor have we ever seen these Netherlands as yet in their greatest Occasions to set forth near so many Ships of War at once as the English have often done without any hindrance of their ordinary Traffick It is true indeed they have an infinite number of weak Ships to fish with and fetch Corn Salt c. for their own Victualling and Trading the like to setch Timber Plank Boards Pitch Hemp Tar Flax Masts Cordage and other Ammunitions to make those multitudes of Ships The Netherlands Ploughs which unto them are as our Ploughs to us the which except they stir the People starve their Shipping therefore cannot be spared from their Traffick as ours may if occasion require no not for a very short time without utter ruin because it is the daily maintenance of their great multitudes which gain their living but from hand to Mouth upon which also depends the great Excises and other publick Revenues which support the State itself Neither indeed are those Vessels strong or fit for War and in their proper use of Fishing and Trade they would become the Riches or the Purchase of a Potent Enemy by Sea as they partly find by one poor Town of Dunkirk notwithstanding their great charge of Men of War strong Convoys and other commendable diligence which continually they use to prevent this Mischief But if the Occasion of a more powerful Enemy by Sea should force them to double or treble those Charges we may well doubt the Means of their continuance especially when by us their Fishing might nevertheless be prevented which should procure the Maintenance Men who speak by Affection or Tradition not from reason The Hollanders main supportance is England's good Alliance These and other circumstances make me often wonder when I hear the Dutch vain-gloriously to brag and many English simply to believe that the United Provinces are our Forts Bulwarks Walls Out-works and I know not what without which we cannot long subsist against the Spanish Forces when in truth We are the main Fountain of their happiness both for War and Peace for Trade and Treasure for Munition and Men spending our blood in their Defence whilst their People are preserved to conquer in the Indies and to reap the Fruits of a rich Traffick out of our own Bosoms which being assumed to our selves as we have Right and Power to do would mightily increase the Breed of our People by this good means of their Maintenance and well enable us against the strongest Enemy and force likewise great multitudes of those Netherlanders themselves to seek their living here with us for want of better maintenance Whereby our many decayed Sea-Towns and Castles would soon be re-edified and Populated in more ample manner than formerly they were in their best Estate And thus these forces being united would be ever more ready sure and Vigorous than a greater Strength that lies divided which is always subject to Delays Diversion and other Jealousies of all which we ought not to be ignorant but perfectly to know and use our own strength when we have occasion and especially we must ever be watchful to preserve this Strength lest the Subtilty of the Dutch under some fair shews and with their Mony prevail as peradventure they lately practised in Scotland to have had a Patent for the Possessing Inhabiting and Fortifying of that excellent Island of Lewis in the Orcades whose Situation Harbours Fishing Fertility Largeness and other advantages would have made them able in short time to offend these Kingdoms by sudden Invasions and to have defended the aforesaid Fishing against His Majesty's greatest Power add also to send out and return home their Shipping prosperously that way to and from the East and West-Indies Spain and Streights and other Places without passing through His Majesty's narrow Seas where in all occasions this Kingdom now hath so great advantage to take their Ships and prevent their best Trades which would soon bring them to ruin whereby as they well know we have a greater Tie and Power over them than any other Nation And howsoever the said Island of Lewis might have been obtained in the Name of Private Men and under the fair pretence of bringing Commerce into those remote Parts of Scotland yet in the end when the Work had been brought to any goad Perfection the Possession and Power would no doubt have come to the Lords the States-General even as we know they have lately gotten divers places of great Strength and Wealth in the East-Indies in the Names and with the Purse of their Merchants whereby also their actions herein have been obscur'd and made less notorious unto the World until they had obtained their Ends which are of such consequence that it doth much concern this Nation in particular carefully to observe their proceedings for they notoriously follow the Steps of that Valiant and Politick Captain Philip of Macedon Where Force fails yet Mony prevails thus hopes the Hollanders whose
Maxim was That where Force could not prevail he always used Bribes and Mony to corrupt those who might advance his Fortune by which Policy he gave Foundation to a Monarchy and what know we but that the Putch may aim at some such Sovereignty when they shall find their Indian attempts and other subtil Plots succeed so prosperously Do we not see their Lands are now become too little to contain this sweling People whereby their Ships and Seas are made the Habitations of great multitudes And yet to give them further breed are they not spared from their own Wars to enrich the State and themselves by Trade and Arts Whilst by this Policy many thousands of Strangers are also drawn thither for performance of their Martial Employments whereby the great Revenue of their Excises is so much the more increased and all things so subtilly contrived that although the Forein Soldier be well paid yet all must be there again expended and thus the Wealth remains still in their own Countries nor are the Strangers enriched which do them this great Service I have heard some Italians Wisely and Worthily Discourse of the Natural Strength and Wealth of England which they make to be matchless if we should but in part apply our selves to such Policies and Endeavours as are very commonly used in some other Countries of Europe and much they have admired that our Thoughts and Jealousies attend only upon the Spanish and French greatness never once suspecting but constantly embracing the Netherlands as our best Friends and Allies when in truth as they well observe there are no People in Christendom who do Undermine Hurt and Eclipse us daily in our Navigation and Trades both abroad and at home and this not only in the rich Fishing in His Majesty's Seas whereof we have already written but also in our In-Land Trades between City and City in the Manufactures of Silks Wools and the like made here in this Kingdom wherein they never give Employment or Education in their Arts to the English but ever according to the Custom of the Jews where they abide in Turky and divers places of Christendom they live wholly to themselves in their own Tribes So that we may truly say of the Dutch that although they are amongst us yet certainly they are not of us no not they who are Born and Bred here in our own Country for still they will be Dutch not having so much as one Drop of English Blood in their Hearts More might be written of these Netherlanders Pride and Ambitious Endeavours whereby they hope in time to grow Mighty if they be not prevented and much more may be said of their cruel and unjust Violence used especially to their best Friends the English in matters of Blood Trade and other Profits where they have had Advantage and Power to perform it but these things are already published in Print to the View and Admiration of the World wherefore I will conclude and the Sum of all is this That the Vnited Provinces which now are so great a Trouble if not a Terror to the Spaniard were heretofore little better than a Charge to them in their Possession and would be so again in the like Occasion the Reason whereof I might yet further enlarge but they are not pertinent to this Discourse more than is already declared to shew the different Effects between Natural and Artificial Wealth The first of which as is most Noble and Advantageous being always ready and certain so doth it make the People Careless Proud and given to all excesses whereas the Second enforceth Vigilancy Literature Arts and Policy My wishes therefore are that as England doth plentifully enjoy the one and is fully capable of the other that our Endeavours might as worthily conjoyn them both together to the Reformation of our vicious Idleness and greater Glory of these Famous Kingdoms CHAP. XX. The Order and Means whereby we may draw up the Ballance of our Forein Trade NOw that we have sufficiently proved the Ballance of our Forein Trade to be the true Rule of our Treasure It resteth that we shew by whom and in what manner the said Ballance may be drawn up at all times when it shall please the State to discover how we prosper or decline in this Great and Weighty Business wherein the Officers of his Majesty's Customs are the only Agents to be employed because they have the Accounts of all the Wares which are issued out or brought into the Kingdom and although it is true they cannot exactly set down the Cost and Charges of other Mens Goods bought here or beyond the Seas yet nevertheless if they ground themselves upon the Book of Rates they shall be able to make such an estimate as may well satisfie this Enquiry For it is not expected that such an account can possibly be drawn up to a just Ballance it will suffice only that the Difference be not over great How we must value our Exportations and Importations First therefore concerning our Exportations when we have valued their first cost we must add Twenty five per Cent. thereunto for the Charges here for Freight of Ships Insurance of the Adventure and the Merchant's gains and for our Fishing Trades which pay no Custom to His Majesty the Value of such Exportations may be easily esteem'd by good Observations which have been made and may continually be made according to the Increase or Decrease of those Affairs the present Estate of this Commodity being valued at One Hundred and Forty Thousand Pounds issued yearly Also we must add to our Exportations all the Monies which are carried out in Trade by License from His Majesty 2 dly For our Importations of Forein Wares the Custom-Books serve only to direct us concerning the Quantity for we must not value them as they are rated here but as they cost us with all Charges laden into our Ships beyond the Seas in the respective Places where they are bought For the Merchanâ—'s Gain the Charges of Insurance Freight of Ships Customs Imposts and other Duties here which do greatly indear them unto our Use and Consumption are notwithstanding but Commutations amongst our selves for the Stranger hath no part thereof Wherefore our said Importations ought to be valued at Twenty Five per Cent. less than they are rated to be worth here And although this may seem to be too great allowance upon many rich Commodities which come but from the Low-Countries and other Places near hand yet will it be found reasonable when we consider it in gross Commodities and upon Wares laden in remote Countries as our Pepper which cost us with charges but Four pence the Pound So that when all is brought into a Medium the Valuation ought to be made as afore-written And therefore the Order which hath been used to multiply the full Rates upon Wares inwards by Twenty would produce a very great Error in the Ballance The Trade to the East-Indies is not only great in it self but
it doth also make our other Trades much greater than they were for in this manner the Ten Thousand Bags of Pepper which this Year we have brought hither from the East-Indies should be valued at very near Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds whereas all this Pepper in the Kindom's Accompt cost not above Fifty Thousand Pounds because the Indians have had no more of us although we paid them extraordinary dear prices for the same All the other Charges as I have said before is but a Change of effects amongst our selves and from the Subject to the King which cannot impoverish the Common-wealth But it is true That whereas Nine Thousand Bags of the said Pepper are already Shipp'd out for divers Forein Parts These and all other Wares Forein or Domestick which are thus transported Outwards ought to be cast up by the Rates of His Majesty's Custom-mony Multiplyed by Twenty or rather by Twenty Five as I conceive which will come nearer the Reckoning when we consider all our Trades to bring them into a Medium 3 ly We must remember that all Wares Exported or Imported by Strangers in their Shipping be esteem'd by themselves for what they carry out the Kingdom hath only the first Cost and Custom And what they bring in we must rate it as it is worth here the Custom Impost and petty Charges only deducted Lastly There must be good notice taken of all the great Losses which we receive at Sea in our Shipping either Outward or Homeward bound For the Value of the one is to be deducted from our Exportations and the Value of the other is to be added to our Importations for to Lose and to consume doth produce one and the same Reckoning Likewise If it happen that His Majesty doth make over any great Sums of Mony by Exchange to maintain a Forein War where we do not Feed and Cloath the Soldiers and provide the Armies we must deduct all this Charge out of our Exportations or add it to our Importations for this Expence doth either carry out or hinder the coming in of so much Treasure And here we must remember the great Collections of Mony which are supposed to be made throughout the Realm yearly from our Recusants by Priests and Jesuits who secretly convey the sâ—me unto their Colleges Cloysters and Nunneries beyond the Seas from whence it never returns to us again in any kind Two Contraries which are both pernicious therefore if this Mischief cannot be prevented yet it must be esteem'd and set down as a clear Loss to the Kingdom except to Ballance this we will imagine that as great a Value may perhaps come in from Forein Princes to their Pensioners here for Favours or Intelligence which some States account good Policy to purchase with great Liberality the Receipt whereof notwithstanding is plain Treachery There are â—et some other petty things which seem to have reference to this Ballance of which the said Officers of His Majesty's Customs can take no notice to bring them into the Accompt As namely the Expences of Travellers the Gifts to Ambassadors and Strangers the Fraud of some Rich Goods not entred into the Custom-House the Gain which is made here by Strangers by Change and Re-change Interest of Mony Insurance upon Englishmens Goods and their Lives Which can be little when the Charges of their living here is deducted besides that the very like Advantages are as amply ministred unto the English in Forein Countries which doth counterpoize all these things and therefore they are not considerable in the drawing up of the said Ballance CHAP. XXI The Conclusion upon all that hath been said concerning the Exportation or Importation of Treasure THE Sum of all that hath been spoken concerning the Enriching of the Kingdom and the Increase of our Treasure by Commerce with Strangers is briefly thus That it is a certain Rule in our Forein Trade in those Places where our Commodities exported are over-ballanced in value by Forein Wares brought into this Realm there our Mony is under-valued in Exchange and where the contrary of this is performed there our Mony is over-valued in Exchange and where the contrary of this is performed there our Mony is over-valued But let the Merchant's Exchange be at a high Rate or at a low Rate or at the Par pro Pari or put down altogether Let Forein Princes enhance their Coins or debase their Standards and let His Majesty do the like or keep them constant as they now stand Let Forein Coins pass current here in all Payments at higher Rates than they are worth at the Mint Let the Statute for Employments by Strangers stand in force or be repealed Let the meer Exchanger do his worth Let Princes Oppress Lawyers Extort Userers Bite Prodigals Wast and lastly Let Merchants carry out what Mony they shall have occasion to use in Traffick Yet all these Actions can work no other Effects in the course of Trade than is declared in this Discourse For so much Treasure only will be brought in or carried out of a Common-wealth as the Forein Trade doth Over or Under-ballance in value And this must come to pass by a Necessity beyound all resistance So that all other Courses which tend not to this End howsoever they may seem to force Mony into a Kingdom for a time yet are they in the End not only fruitless but also hurtful They are like to Violent Floods which bear down their Banks and suddenly remain dry again for want of Waters Behold then the true Form and Worth of Forein Trade which is The great Revenue of the King The Honour of the Kingdom The Noble Profession of the Merchant The School of our Arts The Supply of our Wants The Employment of our Poor The Improvement of our Lands The Nursery of our Mariners The Walls of the Kingdoms The Means of our Treasure The Sinews of our Wars The Terror of out Enemies For all which great and weighty Reasons do so many well governed States highly countenance the Profession and carefully cherish the Action not only with Policy to Increase it but also with Power to protect it from all Forein Injuries Because they know it is a Principle in Reason of State To Maintain and Defend that which doth Support them and their Estates FINIS These Books following are Sold by Tho. 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