first of which was formerly answered by the private Bankers, who received
and paid out Money in the same Manner that the Bank now does, and their
Notes generally were as current; but being founded on their own Credits,
great Losses often happened, which gave great Shocks to Trade; ’tis
true, this Mischief is now guarded against, by the Fund which the Bank of
_England_ hath in the Hands of the Government, yet Widows, Orphans, and
others out of Trade, are not provided for; which might be done, if the
Bank did take in what Money might be tendred to them, for such People who
are not able to manage it themselves, and to allow an Interest of ###
_per Cent. per Annum_, whilst it continued in their Hands; which tho’
it may be below the common Rate, yet by Reason of the Security and
Readiness of Payment, ’twould be preferrable to a greater, attended
with Hazard and Uncertainties; by this Means none of the Money would lie
dead and useless; and on the other Hand, the Bank might have Liberty to
lend any Sums at the legal Interest, on this Condition, that the Borrower
may repay it by such Parts as he can spare it, and be discharged of the
Interest of what he so pays in, from the Time of its Payment, and from
thenceforward be chargeable with no more, than doth arise from the Money
that remains unpaid.
[Sidenote: Remittances.]
Nor is there such a safe and settled Course of Remittances from Place to
Place as Trade, and the other Occasions of the Nation do require; Men
oftentimes paying their Money for Bills which are not punctually
discharged, and sometimes never, tho’ they give a _Præmio_ to the
Drawer, which obliges the travelling with so much Money, and gives
Encouragement to Robbers; but this also might be prevented, if the Bank
of _England_ (that is now settled in _London_) did appoint Chambers in
other Places of the Kingdom, at such Distances as might best suit the
Occasions of the Country, and that their Notes given out for Money,
either at _London_, or in any one of those Chambers, should be demandable
in any other; or by drawing Bills at one Chamber payable in another, the
Receiver allowing for such Returns after the Rate of ### _per Cent._ in
the Chamber where he receives his Money.
If the Bank was thus regulated, the Nation would soon see its good
Effects; Trustees might place out Orphan’s Money with good Security,
and Widows and others, whose Maintenance depends on their Interest, would
have it duly paid to answer their Occasions; the whole Cash of the
Kingdom would be in a continual Circulation, and not lie dead, as too
much of it now does; the Gentry and Traders, who are obliged on many
Occasions to take up great Sums at Interest, would have it made easy to
them, when they might pay in by such Parts, as they could conveniently
spare it; and on the other Hand, it would be no Inconvenience to the Bank
to receive it, which will by this Means never want Borrowers, and their
Notes passing in Payment, will circulate instead of Money.
These Methods will prevent many Cheats and Losses, which are often
occasioned by fraudulent and insufficient Drawers, and abate the
excessive _Præmio_’s which are demanded by Remitters, when they can
take Advantages of Men’s Necessities; and the Taxes received in the
Country might be quicker and safer paid into the Treasury. And if the
Bank was likewise extended to _Ireland_, it would be an Advantage to both
Kingdoms, which I shall speak farther to, when I come to discourse of the
Trade we drive to that Kingdom.
[Sidenote: By increasing the Silver Coin.]
7. By increasing the Silver Coin of this Kingdom, which are the Tools
wherewith the Trader works: It may at first seem strange, that our Silver
Coin should grow scarcer, at a Time when we are at Peace with all
Nations, our Trade open, and vast Quantities of Bullion yearly imported;
but he that considers how much thereof is carried away to the
_East-Indies_, and how little Encouragement the Importer hath to send it
to the Mint, when he can sell it for more to export, than it will come
too when coined, will cease to wonder; and except some Care be taken in
this Matter, we shall soon be reduc’d to such Straits, that the
Manufacturers must stand still: for tho’ Gold may serve for large
Payments, yet it can’t answer the Occasions of the Manufacturers, who
are to make their Payments among the Poor.
Now if these, or such like Methods, were made use of, they might very
much encrease our Silver Coin; as,
1. Let the _East-India_ Company be Limited in the Quantity of Bullion
they shall ship out yearly, whether the Number of Ships they send be few
or many; and let them be oblig’d to carry to the Mint such a suitable
Proportion according to what they send away, as to the Wisdom of the
Parliament shall seem meet.
2. Let Encouragement be given to all Persons, who shall voluntarily bring
Plate or Bullion to be coined.
3. Let the Plate of Orphans be brought into the Mint, which will tend to
their Advantage as well as to the Nations, whereas now great Quantities
lie dead, and grow out of Fashion before they come to use it, which will
by this Means be turned into ready Money, and being put into the Bank,
the Interest thereof may be employ’d for their better Maintenance, and
the Trade of the Nation will also receive a Benefit thereby: If it be
objected, that ’tis now sold to Goldsmiths, I think this make the
Argument for sending it to the Mint much stronger, because it is much
better that it were turn’d into the Coin of the Kingdom, then disposed
of in any other Way.
As for Gold, there is no need to give Encouragement to bring it to the
Mint, ’tis only a Commodity, and not the Standard, as Silver is;
besides, ’tis generally worth more here than in any other Country; and
’tis apparent from the great Quantity thereof which is coined yearly
more than of Silver, that it is every one’s Interest to send it thither.
[Sidenote: By discouraging Stock-jobbing.]
8. By discouraging Stock-jobbing: This hath been the Bane of many good
Designs, which began well, and might have been carryed on to Advantage,
if the Promoters had not fallen off by selling their Parts, and slighted
the first Design, winding themselves out with Advantage, and leaving the
Management to those they had decoyed in, who understood nothing of the
Business, whereby all fell to the Ground; which may be prevented (I mean,
so far as concerns incorporated Stocks) by Laws framed for that end, or
by Clauses in their Charters.
[Sidenote: By preventing the Exportation of Wool.]
9. By strengthening the Laws against the Exportation of Wool, by such
Practicable methods as may prevent its being done: For seeing the Nations
Interest so much depends thereon, no Care can be too great, nor Methods
laid too deep: Laws concerning Trade, whose sole Strength are Penalties,
rarely reach the thing aimed at; but practicable Methods, whereby one
thing may answer another, and all conspire to carry on the same Design,
hanging like so many Links in a Chain, that you cannot reach the one,
without stepping over the other, these are more likely to prevent
Mischiefs: ’Tis one thing to punish People when a Fact is committed,
and another to prevent their doing it, by putting them as it were under
an Inability; Now where the Welfare of the Kingdom lies so much at Stake,
certainly it cannot be thought grievous to compell submission to good
Methods, tho’ they may seem troublesome at first.
[Sidenote: The ill Consequences of shipping out our Wool.]
And that we may the better perceive the Mischiefs that attend the
carrying abroad of Wool unwrought to other Nations, let us consider the
Consequences thereof in what is shipt to _France_; whose Wool being very
coarse, and fit only for Rugs and Blankets, and such ordinary Cloth, is
by mixture with ours and _Irish_, used in the making of many Sorts of
Stuffs and Druggets, whereby the Sales of our Woollen Manufactures are
lessened, both there, and in other Places whither we export them; and by
this Means, every Pack of Wool sent thither, works up two besides itself,
being chiefly combed, and combing Wool, which makes Wool for the _French_
Wool, and the Pinions thereof serve with their Linnen to make coarse
Druggets, like our Linsey-Woolsey, but the Linnen being spun fine, and
coloured, is not easily discerned; also our finest short Wool, being mixt
with the lowest _Spanish_, makes a middling Sort of Broad-cloth, and
being woven on Worsted Chains, makes their best Druggets, neither of
which could be done with the _French_ Wool only, unless in Conjunction
with ours or _Irish_, _Spanish_ Wool being too fine and too short for
Worsted Stuffs, and unfit for combing, so that without one of those two
Sorts, there cannot be a Piece of Worsted Stuff, or middle Broad-Cloth
made; no other Wool but _English_ or _Irish_ will mix well with _Spanish_
for Cloth, being originally raised from a Stock of _English_ Sheep, the
Difference, arising from the Nature of the Land whereon they are fed; of
this we have Experience in our own Nation, where we find, that _Lemster_
Wool is the finest, next, Part of _Shropshire_ and _Staffordshire_, Part
of _Gloucestershire_, _Wilts_, _Dorset_ and _Hampshire_, Part of
_Sussex_, _Kent_, _Somerset_, _Devon_, and _Cornwall_, these are proper
chiefly for Cloth, some Part for Worsted; _Sussex_, _Surry_, _Middlesex_,
_Hertfordshire_, and some other Counties, produce Wool much coarser and
cheaper: But then _Berkshire_, _Buckingham_, _Warwick_, _Oxon_,
_Leicester_, _Nottingham_, _Northampton_, _Lincoln_, and Part of _Kent_
called _Rumney_ Marsh, the Wool in most of these Counties is so proper
for Worsted, that all the World (except _Ireland_) cannot compare with
it, therefore requires our greater Care to prevent its Exportation; and
more particularly from _Ireland_, whence it is exported to our
Neighbouring Nations, and sold cheap.
As for the Wool of _North-Britain_, I am not sufficiently verst therein,
to give a true Account of the Nature of it.
[Sidenote: Methods to prevent the Exportation of Wool.]
I know many Methods have been thought of to prevent this pernicious
Mischief, but all the Laws I have yet seen, seem to reach but half Way,
they depend too much on Force and Penalties, and too little on Method; we
must begin deeper, and secure the Wool from the Time of its growing, till
’tis wrought up into Manufactures, and I think nothing less Than a
Register, to be kept in every County, will do it.
Nor will this be attended with so much Trouble and Charge to the Nation
in general, or to private Persons in particular, as may at first be
thought: The Time of Sheering being once a Year, those who keep Sheep may
give Notice to the Officer appointed for that District, of the Number of
Sheep they have to sheer, and the Day whereon they intend to do it, that
so he may be present to see the Fleeces weighed, and to charge them
therewith; which Charge must remain upon them till they sell their Wool,
and give Notice thereof to the Office, when the next Buyer must be
charged, and so _toties quoties_, till it comes into the Hands of him
that works it up; and all this may be done by the Officers of the Excise,
in such a manner, as may cost the Nation little.
And to prevent Frauds, let no parcel of Wool above such a Weight as the
Parliament shall think fit, be carried from place to place, but in the
day time, nor without a Letpass, or Cocket, setting forth from whence it
came, and whither it is going; and the same Method must also be extended
to _Ireland_, till it is either used there, or shipt thither; and if the
Wool of both Kingdoms by these or any other Methods could be secured from
being carried abroad, our Manufactures would find a surer Vent in foreign
Markets, and yield better Prices: And the Wool of _France_ would lye on
their Hands, and become almost useless; the Credit of the Nation would be
raised, and our Factories abroad courted as much as formerly they have
been, because the Manufactures we ship out are such, as no Nation can be
without, nor can they then be well supplied elsewhere; they are not
things only for Pleasure, but for Use, and both the Rich and the Poor
stand in need of them; whilst the Profit of this pernicious Practice of
Shipping out the Wool, is sunk in the Pockets of private Men, who former
Laws accounted Felons, and cannot be thought to deserve any favour from
the Nation.
Besides ’tis well known, that the exporting our Wool hath by the ill
Consequences thereof abated its Price at Home: This hath been observed by
Calculations made by considerate Men; and the Reason is, because those
Countries whither it is shipt; being thereby enabled to work up much
larger Quantities of their own, the Sale of our Manufactures are grown
slack abroad, and we have been forced to sell them cheaper, which beat
down the Prices both of Wool and Labour; whereas if we had kept our Wool
at Home, this had been prevented; and it must be allowed, that it was not
our Interest to fall our Manufacturers, if we had been the only Sellers;
for according as they yield in Price, so is the Wealth of the Nation
advanced, which our Forefathers well knew, when they made Laws to
prohibit the Exportation of Wool, which cannot be too much strengthned,
or strongly put in Execution.
[Sidenote: By managing Treaties of Peace to the Advantage of Trade.]
10. By taking Care, that in all Treaties of Peace, and other Negotiations
with foreign Princes, due Regard be had to our Trade and Manufactures;
that our Merchants be well treated by the Governments where they reside;
that all things be made easy to them, and both their Liberties and
Properties secured; that our Manufactures be not prohibited, or burthened
with unreasonable Taxes, which is the same in Effect; that speedy Justice
be done in recovering Debts contracted amongst the Natives, and punishing
Abuses put on our Factories by them: These are Pressures our Trade hath
formerly groaned under, whereby the Merchants abroad, and Manufacturers
at home, have been much discouraged, and the _English_ Nation hath been
forced to truckle under the _French_ in some foreign Parts, only because
that King sooner resented Injuries done to his trading Subjects, and took
more Care to demand Reparation than some former Reigns have done; but
Thanks be to God, we have both Power and Opportunity to do the same; and
there is no Cause to doubt His Majesty’s Royal Inclinations, to make
use of both for the Good of his Merchants, when things are duly
represented to him.
[Sidenote: Navigation.]
[Sidenote: Manning our Ships of War.]
And thus I have run through the several Parts of our Inland Trade, and
shewed, that the Profit thereof arises chiefly from our Product and
Manufactures: Before I proceed to our Foreign Trade, I shall speak
something of Navigation, which is the Medium between both: This is
carried on by Ships and Sailors, the former are the Sea-Waggons, whereby
we transport and carry Commodities from one Market to another, and the
latter are the Waggoners who drive and manage them: These are a Sort of
jolly Fellows, who are generally bold in their Undertakings, and go
thro’ any Kind of Labour in their own way, with a great deal of
Chearfulness, are undaunted by Storms and Tempests, the Sea being as it
were their Element, and are allowed by all to be the best Navigators in
the World; they are our Wealth in Peace, and our Defence in War, and
ought to be more encouraged than they are in both, but especially in the
latter, which might be done, if better Methods were used to engage them
in the Service, and better Treatment when they are there: Now I should
think, if no Man was forced into the King’s Ships till he had been
three Years at Sea, nor to stay there above that Time without his free
Consent, and then to be permitted to take a Merchant’s Employment so
much longer, and so _toties quoties_, ’twould encourage them to come
willingly into the Service, which they look upon now to be a Slavery,
whereto they are bound for their Lives: This, and the Manner of pressing
them, hinders very much the making of Sailors, Landmen not caring to put
their Hands to the Oar, least the next Day they should be halled away to
the Fleet, tho’ they understand nothing of the Sea: By this Means our
Men of War would be mann’d with able Seamen, and not with such who only
stand in the Way, and are useless, when they are most wanted; nor do I
take Embargoes to be any Helps towards it, for many Sailors do then lie
hid, who would appear to serve in Merchant Ships, and might be easily met
with at the return of their Voyages: By these Means in a short Time three
would be a double Set of Mariners, enough both for the Service of the
Fleet and of Trade, the last of which would every Year breed more.
This would also prevent great Mischiefs, which arise from pressing
Sailors out of Merchant Ships whilst on their Voyages, many of them being
thereby lost at Sea, and others have been detained in the _West-Indies_,
to the Discouragement of Trade; and it would also prevent another
Mischief, too much practiced abroad, where Captains of Men of War press
Sailors from one Merchant Ship, only to make Advantage by selling them to
another.
[Sidenote: Foreign Trade.]
I come now to the Trade we drive with Foreign Countries.
[Sidenote: How this Kingdom may be said to be enriched by our Foreign Trade.]
Here ’tis necessary to enquire, how each encourages our Product and
Manufactures, how our Navigation, what Commodities we receive in Return,
and how the Ballance of our Trade stands with either, that so we may be
the better able to know, which of them we ought to encourage, and which
to discourage; I shall therefore lay down such general Rules, as I
presume will be allowed by all Unbiassed Persons; as,
1. That Trade is an Advantage to this Kingdom, which takes off our
Product and Manufactures.
2. Which supplies us with such Commodities as we use in making our
Manufactures, and encreases our Bullion.
3. Which incourages Navigation, and breeds up Sailors.
And consequently, any Trade which Exports little or none of our Product
or Manufactures, nor supplies us with things necessary for the latter,
nor incourages Navigation, cannot be supposed to be profitable to the
Kingdom in general, though perhaps it may be so to particular Persons;
especially if it carries away our Bullion.
[Sidenote: East-Indies.]
I shall begin with the _East-India_ Trade, which I take to be very
prejudical to us, as ’tis now driven; because it exports our Bullion,
spends little of our Product or Manufactures, and brings in Commodities
perfectly manufactured, which hinder the Consumption of our own, and
discourage the wearing such as are purchased with them; the chief Profit
thereof arising from Underselling the Labour of our Poor, because ’tis
bought there cheaper, than by reason of the Value of our Lands, and the
prices of Provisions, they are able to work here. But having spoken fully
of this in a former Discourse, and the Parliament having since been
pleased, by an Act made in the 10th and 11th Years of his late Majesty
King _William_, to prohibit the wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, Stuffs
mixt with Silk or Herba, of the Manufacture of _Persia_, _China_, and
_India_, and all Callicoes painted, dy’d, printed or stained there. The
Reason of which, is in the said Act set forth to be, The great Detriment
the Nation received as the Trade was then managed, by exhausting the
Treasure thereof, and taking away the Labour of the People, whereby very
many of the Manufacturers were become excessively burthensome and
chargeable to their respective Parishes, and others compelled to seek for
Employment in foreign Parts, I shall not now repeat what I then wrote,
but will consider how far the Remedy they then provided hath answered the
End.
The making this Law, gave a new Life to our Manufactures, and would have
given more, if the true Intent of the Parliament had been answered: But
we have since found that it has not; for it neither keeps our Treasure at
home, nor prevents those Commodities from being worn here, which they
design’d it should; and I very much question, whether any thing less
than a total Prohibition of their Importation will do it; for though they
are directed to be exported again, yet there is great Reason to believe,
that they are privately brought back, both from _Ireland_, our
Plantations, and other Places to which they are sent, to the Loss of his
Majesty’s Customs, and the Prejudice of the Stainers and Painters her,
besides the Injury to our Manufactures: Otherwise, how come such great
Quantities to be worn and used here, when the Stock in hand hath been so
long since spent?
There are other Commodities, which the Company may trade in, and the
Tract of Land within their Charter is large enough to afford an
advantagious Commerce there, the Profits whereof might be returned
hither, in things no way injurious to our Manufactures, such as Raw-Silk,
Indigo, Pepper, Salt-Peter, Spices, Drugs, China-Wares, Coffee, Tea, and
many other Things, if they were industrious to make Discoveries, as
private Merchants would do, if the Trade lay open; and I believe it will
not be disputed, that great Quantities of Raw-Silk, have been brought
thence since the Making of that Law, than were used to be done before.
I know it hath been alleadg’d, That by the Exportation of those
Manufactures again, more Bullion in _specie_ is brought into this
Kingdom, than is carry’d out for the buying them in _India_; but this
was never yet made out, and it would be much to the Satisfaction of the
People, who daily see that Bullion carried away, and also for the Honour
of the Company, that it was done; which if it be really so, might be set
forth in this, or any other Method that the Parliament shall think fit.
1. Let them give an Account what Quantities of Bullion they export on
every Ship they send abroad, and on what Commodities ’tis laid out.
2. Let them set forth, how and in what manner, these prohibited
Manufactures do, on their being Exported again, bring in as much Bullion
in _specie_, as was carry’d out to pay for them in the _Indies_.
And I think it a proper Work for a Committee of Trade, to receive these
Accounts from time to time, and after a just Examination, to lay them
before the Parliament at every Meeting, with their Opinions thereon.
But if they only mean, that the Exportation of those Manufactures is a
help to us in the Ballance of our Trade, which must otherwise be paid in
Bullion, I answer, that our own Product and Manufactures always have, and
are still sufficent to support the Ballance of our Trade.
As for white Callicoes and Muslins, they have beat out the wearing of
Lawns, Cambricks, and other thin _German_ and _Silesia_ Linnens, which
has been the Occasion of turning many of those Looms to the Woollen
Manufactures there, that were formerly employed in the weaving them, and
hath abated the Exportation of great Quantities of Cloth; besides the
hinderance Callicoes give to the consumption of _Scots_-Linnens, which
being thin and soft, are as proper for dying, printing, and staining, as
they are, and may be made as white.
The _East-Indies_ is a bottomless Pit for our Bullion, which can never
circulate hither again; whereas, if it was sent to any Part of _Europe_,
there might be some hopes, by the Ballance of our Trade, to bring it back
again; and when our Bullion fails, that Trade must cease of course, which
it will soon do, if the Company continue to carry out yearly as much as
our other Trades brings us in.
I wish the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom would be in Love with our
own Manufactures, and those which are purchased with them, and that they
would by their Examples encourage the using them, which would be attended
with the Prayers of the Poor, besides the Advantage it would bring to
their Estates.
And as to Navigation, I think it will not be disputed, that long Voyages
rather use Sailors than make them, both the Employers, and the Employed,
chusing rather to make their first Experiments on short ones.
[Sidenote: West-India and Africa.]
I will next proceed to the _West-India_ and _African_ Trades, which I
esteem the most profitable we drive, and join them together, because of
their dependance on each other.
[Sidenote: Whether Settling of Plantations hath been an Advantage.]
But before I enter farther thereon, I will consider of one Objection, it
having been a great Question among many thoughtful Men, whether the
settling our Plantations Abroad has been an Advantage to the Nation; the
Reasons they give against them are, That they have drained us of
Multitudes of our People, who might have been serviceable at Home, and
advanced Improvement in Husbandry and Manufactures; that this Kingdom is
worse peopled, by so much as they are increased; and that Inhabitants
being the Wealth of a Nation, by how much they are lessened, by so much
we are poorer, than when we first began to settle those Colonies.