_10 Eliz., Part V_], 1568.
Elizabeth by the Grace of God, etc. To all unto whom these presents
shall come, greeting.
Whereas we ... have ... given and granted full power, license and
authority to Thomas Thurland, clerk, ... and to Daniel Houghsetter, a
German born ... to search ... for all manner of monies or ores of gold,
silver, copper, or quicksilver, within our counties of York, Lancaster,
Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire and
Worcestershire, and within our principality of Wales, or in any of them,
and the same to try out, convert, and use to their most profit and
commodity....
And whereas our pleasure, intent, and meaning in our said Letters Patent
was that, for the better help and more commodity of the said Thomas
Thurland and Daniel Houghsetter and their several assignees, they ...
might ... grant ... parts and portions of the said licenses ... and
thereupon their several assignees have ... granted ... to ... William,
Earl of Pembroke, and Robert, Earl of Leicestershire, and to ... James,
Lord Mountjoy, and to Sir William Cecil, knight, our principal
secretary, and John Tamworth and John Dudley, esquires, Leonell Duchet,
citizen and alderman of London, Benedict Spynola, of London, merchant,
John Lover, William Winter, Anthony Duchett, of the County of
Westmoreland, gentlemen ... Daniel Ulstett, a German born [and ten
others], divers parts and portions of the licenses, powers, authorities,
privileges, benefits and immunities aforesaid;
By force whereof the said Thomas Thurland and Daniel Houghsetter ...
have travailed in the search, work and experiment of the mines and ores
aforesaid ... and have now brought the said work to very good effect,
whereby great benefit is like to come to us and this our Realm of
England, which also will the rather come to pass if the persons ...
having interest in the privileges aforesaid might by our grant be
incorporated and made a perpetual body politic; ...
Know ye, therefore, that we ... do give and grant to the aforenamed
William Earl of Pembroke [and the others as above] that they by the name
of Governor, Assistants, and Commonalty for the Mines Royal shall be
from henceforth one body politic in itself incorporate, and a perpetual
society of themselves both in deed and name....
And, further, we ... will and grant ... that they ... shall and may not
only admit into the said corporation and society such and as many
persons as by the statutes ... shall be prescribed ... so that every
such person ... shall ... have for the term of his life at the least the
benefit of a quarter of one four-and-twenty part of the licenses,
powers, authorities, privileges, benefits and communities aforesaid, ...
but also shall and may minister to every such person to be admitted an
oath tending to the due performing and keeping of the rules, statutes,
and ordinances in form aforesaid to be made ...
[Footnote 308: Printed by the Selden Society, Vol. 28, pp. 4-15.]
10. AN ACT FOR THE INCREASE OF TILLAGE [_13 Eliz. c. 13. Statutes of the
Realm, Vol. IV, Part I, pp. 547-48_], 1571.
For the better increase of tillage, and for maintenance and increase of
the navy and mariners of this realm, be it enacted, that from and after
the feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist next coming, it shall be
lawful to all and every person and persons being subjects of the Queen's
Majesty, her heirs and successors, and inhabiting within her highness'
realms and dominions, only out of such ports and creeks where are or
shall be resident a customer or collector of subsidy of tonnage and
poundage, or one of their deputies, and not elsewhere, to load, carry or
transport any wheat, rye, barley, malt, peas or beans into any parts
beyond the seas, being in amity with this realm, and not prohibited by
any restraint or proclamation, only to sell as a merchandize in ships
carriers or other vessels bearing cross sails, whereof any English born
subjects inhabiting within her Highness' realms and dominions then shall
be the only owners, at all such times as the several prices thereof
shall be so reasonable and moderate in the several counties where any
such transportation shall be intended as that no prohibition shall be
made, either by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, by
proclamation to be made in the shiretown or in any port towns of the
county, or else by some order of the lord president and council in the
north, or the lord president and council in Wales, within their several
jurisdictions, or of the justices of assizes at their sessions in other
shires out of the jurisdiction of the said two presidents and councils,
or by the more part of the justices of the peace of the county at their
quarter sessions, in this manner following; that is, the said lord
president and councils of the shires within their jurisdiction, the
justices of assize at their several sessions in other shires out of the
said jurisdictions belonging to the said councils in the north and in
Wales, yearly shall, upon conference had with the inhabitants of the
country of the cheapness and dearth of any the said kinds of grain
within the countries within jurisdictions of the said councils, or in
the other countries within the limits of the said justices of assize, by
their discretion determine whether it shall be meet at anytime to permit
any grain to be carried out of the realm by any port within the said
several jurisdictions or limits, and so shall in writing under their
hands and seals cause and make a determination either for permission or
prohibition, and the same cause to be by the sheriff of the counties
published and affixed in as many accustomed market towns and ports
within the said shire as they shall think convenient, and in such manner
as the Queen's Majesty's proclamations are usually published and
affixed; which determination of the said presidents and councils in
their jurisdictions, and of the justices of assize in their limits,
shall continue in force for the time, place, and manner therein
expressed until the said presidents and councils shall otherwise order,
or until the justices of assize at their being in their said circuits in
every of the said counties shall alter or otherwise order the same,
except the same shall be otherwise in the mean time altered or
countermanded by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, or by
some order of the justices of the peace in the counties situated out of
the jurisdictions of the said two councils in their quarter sessions to
be holden in the meantime, or the greater part of them, shall find the
same determination of the justices of assize to be hurtful to the
county by means of dearth, or to be a great hindrance to tillage by
means of too much cheapness, and shall by their writings under their
hands and seals make any determination to the contrary, either for
permission or prohibition of carrying of any kind of grain out of the
realm; ...
... Provided nevertheless, that neither any of the said presidents and
councils, nor the said justices of assize nor the said justices of peace
above mentioned, shall publish any their determinations above mentioned
until the same shall be first by writing notified to the Queen's Majesty
or to her privy council, and by her Majesty or her privy council shall
be liked and allowed.
Provided also, that the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall
have and receive by the customers and officers of her ports for the
custom or poundage of every quarter of wheat to be transported by force
of this statute, twelve pence, and of every quarter of any other grain,
eight pence, and of every quarter of wheat that shall be by any special
licence hereafter to be granted transported out of the realm, and not by
force of this statute, two shillings, and of every quarter of other
grain, sixteen pence, notwithstanding any manner of words that shall be
contained or inserted in any licences to the contrary; which said
several sums, so to be had or taken as custom or poundage, to be in full
satisfaction of all manner of custom or poundage for the said corn or
grain by any constitution, order, statute, law or custom heretofore
made, used, or taken for transporting of any such manner of corn or
grain.
Provided also and be it enacted by the authority of this present
parliament, that the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, may at
all times by her writ of proclamation to be published generally in the
whole realm, or in the counties of this realm where any port towns are,
command that no person shall by virtue of this act transport or carry
out any manner of grain to any parts out of her dominions, either
generally out of any port in the realm, or particularly out of any
special ports to be in the same proclamation named; and that it shall
not be lawful for any person to carry out any such grain contrary to the
tenor of the same proclamation, upon such pains as by the laws of the
realm are and have been provided.
11. INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN ENGLISH FACTOR IN TURKEY [_Hakluyt. The
Principal Voyages of the English Nation_], 1582.
... And for that of many things that tend to the common benefit of the
State, some tend more and some less, I find that no one thing, after one
another, is greater than clothing, and the things incident to the same.
And understanding that you are of right good capacity, and become a
factor at Constantinople, and in other parts of Turkey, I find no man
fitter of all the English factors there than you. And therefore I am so
bold to put you in mind and to tell you wherein with some endeavour you
may chance to do your country much good, and give an infinite sort of
the poor people occasion to pray for you here throughout the realm. This
that I mean is in matter of cloth, etc.
1. First, you cannot deny but that this realm yieldeth the most fine
wool, the most soft, the most strong wool, the most durable in cloth,
and most apt of nature of all others to receive dye, and that no island
or any one kingdom so small doth yield so great abundance of the
same....
2. There is no commodity of this realm that may set so many poor
subjects on work, as this doth, that doth bring in so much treasure, and
so much enrich the merchant, and so much employ the navy of this realm,
as this commodity of our wool doth.
Ample and full vent of this noble and rich commodity is it that the
commonweal of this realm doth require.
Spain now aboundeth with wool, and the same are clothed. Turkey hath
wools, and so have divers provinces of Christendom and of heatheners,
and cloth is made of the same in divers places.
1. But if England have the most fine and the most excellent wools of the
world in all respects (as it cannot be denied but it hath). 2. If there
may be added to the same excellent artificial, and true making, and
excellent dyeing. 3. Then no doubt but that we shall have vent for our
cloths, though the rest of the world did abound much more with wool than
it doth....
But if foreign nations turn their wools, inferior to ours, into truer
and more excellent made cloth, and shall dye the same in truer, surer,
and more excellent and more delectable colours, then shall they sell
and make ample vent of their cloths, when the English cloth of better
wool shall rest unsold, to the spoil of the merchant, of the clothier,
and of the breeder of the wool, and to the turning to bag and wallet of
the infinite number of the poor people employed in clothing in several
degrees of labour here in England.
Which things weighed, I am to tell you what things I wish you in this
realm, and after in Turkey, to endeavour from time to time, as your
leisure may permit the same.
Before you out of the realm, that you learn:
1. To know wool, all kinds of cloth made in this realm, and all other
employments of wool, home or foreign.... All the deceits in clothmaking
... The faults in weaving. The faults in walking, rowing, burling, and
in racking the cloth above measure upon the tenters....
2. Then to learn of the dyers to discern all kinds of colours, as which
be good and sure, and which will not hold; which be fair, and which
not....
3. Then to take the names of all the materials and substances used in
this city or in the realm in dyeing of cloth or silk....
4. These things superficially learned in the realm before you go, you
are fitter in foreign parts to serve your country....
What you shall do in Turkey, besides the business of your factorship.
1. Forasmuch as it is reported that the woollen cloths dyed in Turkey be
most excellently dyed, you shall send home unto this realm certain ...
pieces of shred, to be brought to the Dyers' Hall, there to be shewed,
partly to remove out of their heads the too great opinion they have
conceived of their own cunning, and partly to move them for shame to
endeavour to learn more knowledge, to the honour of their country of
England and to the universal benefit of the realm.
2. You shall devise to amend the dyeing of England, by carrying hence an
apt young man brought up in the art, or by bringing one or other from
thence of skill, or rather to devise to bring one for silks, and another
for wool and for woollen cloth....
3. Then to learn to know all the materials and substances that the Turks
use in dyeing, be they of herbs, simple or compound, be they plants,
barks, wood, berries, seeds, grains, or mineral matter....
5. And in any wise, if anile that coloureth blue be a natural commodity
of those parts, and if it be compounded of an herb, to send the same
into this realm by seed, or by root in barrel of earth, with all the
whole order of sowing, setting, planting, replanting, and with the
compounding of the same, that it may become a natural commodity in this
realm, as woad is, to this end, that the high price of foreign woad
(which devoureth yearly great treasure) may be brought down....
8. The wools being natural, and excellent colours for dyeing by this
means here also natural, in all the art of clothing then we want but one
only special thing. For in this so temperate a climate our people may
labour the year throughout ... and the people of this realm by the great
and blessed abundance of victual are cheaply fed, and therefore may
afford their labour cheap. And where the clothiers in Flanders, by the
flatness of their rivers, cannot make water-mills for their cloths, but
are forced to dress and thicken all their cloths by the foot and by the
labour of men, whereby their cloths are raised to an higher price, we in
England have in all shires store of mills upon falling rivers.... Then
we have also, for scouring our cloths, earths and clays.... Then also
have we some reasonable store of alum and copperas here, made for
dyeing.... Then we have many good waters apt for dyeing, and people to
spin and to do the rest of all the labours we want not. So as there
wanteth, if colours might be brought in and made natural, but only oil;
the want whereof if any man could devise to supply at the full with
anything that might become natural in this realm, he, whatsoever he were
that could bring it about, might deserve immortal fame in this our
commonwealth....
10. And if you shall find that they make any cloth of any kind not made
in this realm, that is there of great use, then to bring of the same
into this realm some "mowsters,"[309] that our people may fall into the
trade, and prepare the same for Turkey. For the more kinds of cloth we
can devise to make, the more ample vent of our commodity we shall have,
and the more sale of the labour of our poor subjects that else for lack
of labour become idle and burdenous to the commonweal, and hurtful to
many. And in England we are in our clothing trade to frame ourselves
according to the desires of foreign nations, be it that they desire
thick or thin, broad or narrow, long or short, white or black.
11. But with this proviso always, that our cloth pass out with as much
labour of our people as may be, wherein great consideration ought to be
had. For (if vent might so admit), as it were the greatest madness in
the world for us to vent our wool not clothed, so were it madness to
vent our wool in part or on the whole turned into broad cloth, if we
might vent the same in kersies; for there is a great difference to our
people between the clothing of a sack of wool in the one and the like
sack of wool in the other, of which I wish the merchant of England to
have a great care as he may for the universal benefit of the poor; and
the turning of a sack of wool into bonnets is better than both, etc. And
also not to carry out of the realm any cloth white, but dyed, if it may
be, that the subjects of this realm may take as much benefit as is
possible, and rather to seek the vent of the cloths dyed with the
natural colours of England than such as be dyed with foreign colours.
Thus giving you occasion, by way of a little remembrance, to have desire
to do your country good, you shall, if you have any inclination to such
good, do more good to the poor ready to starve for relief than ever any
subject did in this realm by building of almshouses, and by giving of
lands and goods to the relief of the poor. Thus may you help to drive
idleness, the mother of most mischief, out of the realm, and win you
perpetual fame, and the prayer of the poor, which is more worth than all
the gold of Peru and of all the West Indies.
[Footnote 309: _i.e._ Samples.]
12. THE ADVANTAGES OF COLONIES [_A True Report of the late Discoveries
and Possession Taken in the Right of the Crown of England of the
Newfound Lands by ... Sir Humfrey Gilbert_[310]; _Hakluyt's Principal
Voyages of the English Nation_], 1583.
... The fourth chapter sheweth how that the trade, traffic, and planting
in these countries is likely to prove very profitable to the whole realm
in general.
Now to show how the same is likely to prove very profitable and
beneficial generally to the whole realm. It is very certain that the
greatest jewel of this realm, and the chiefest strength and force of the
same, for defence or offence in martial matter and manner, is the
multitude of ships, masters, and mariners ready to assist the most
stately and royal navy of her Majesty, which by reason of this voyage
shall have both increase and maintenance. And it is well known that in
sundry places of this realm ships have been built and set forth of late
days for the trade of fishing only; yet, notwithstanding, the fish which
is taken and brought into England by the English navy of fishermen will
not suffice for the expense of this realm four months, if there were
none else brought of strangers. And the chiefest cause why our English
men do not go so far westerly as the especial fishing places do lie,
both for plenty and greatness of fish, is for that they have no succour
and known safe harbour in those parts. But if our nation were once
planted there or thereabouts, whereas they now fish but for two months
in the year, they might then fish for so long as pleased themselves ...
which being brought to pass shall increase the number of our ships and
mariners.
Moreover, it is well known that all savages ... will take marvellous
delight in any garment, be it never so simple, as a shirt, a blue,
yellow, red, or green cotton cassock, a cap, or such like, and will take
incredible pains for such a trifle, ... which being so, what vent for
our English cloths will thereby ensue, and how great benefit to all such
persons and artificers, whose names are quoted in the margin, I leave to
such as are discreet....
To what end need I endeavour myself by arguments to prove that by this
voyage our navy and navigation shall be enlarged, when as there needeth
none other reason than the manifest and late example of the near
neighbours to this realm, the Kings of Spain and Portugal, who, since
the first discovery of the Indies, have not only mightily enlarged their
dominions, greatly enriched themselves and their subjects, but have
also, by just account, trebled the number of their ships, masters and
mariners, a matter of no small moment and importance?
Besides this, it will prove a general benefit unto our country, that,
through this occasion, not only a great number of men which do now live
idly at home, and are burdenous, chargeable, and unprofitable to this
realm, shall hereby be set on work, but also children of twelve or
fourteen years of age, or under, may be kept from idleness, in making of
a thousand kinds of trifling things, which will be good merchandise for
that country. And, moreover, our idle women (which the realm may well
spare) shall also be employed on plucking, drying, and sorting of
feathers, in pulling, beating, and working of hemp, and in gathering of
cotton, and divers things right necessary for dyeing. All which things
are to be found in those countries most plentifully. And the men may
employ themselves in dragging for pearl, working for mines, and in
matters of husbandry, and likewise in hunting the whale for trane, and
making casks to put the same in, besides in fishing for cod, salmon and
herring, drying, salting and barrelling the same, and felling of trees,
hewing and sawing of them, and such like work, meet for those persons
that are no men of art or science.
Many other things may be found to the great relief and good employment
of no small number of the natural subjects of this realm, which do now
live here idly, to the common annoy of the whole State. Neither may I
here omit the great hope and likelihood of a passage beyond the Grand
Bay into the South Seas, confirmed by sundry authors to be found leading
to Cataia, the Moluccas and Spiceries, whereby may ensue as general a
benefit to the realm, or greater than yet hath been spoken of, without
either such charges or other inconveniences, as, by the tedious tract of
time and peril, which the ordinary passage to those parts at this day
doth minister....
I must now, according to my promise, show forth some probable reasons
that the adventurers in this journey are to take particular profit by
the same. It is, therefore, convenient that I do divide the adventurers
into two sorts, the noblemen and gentlemen by themselves, and the
merchants by themselves. For, as I do hear, it is meant that there shall
be one society of the noblemen and gentlemen, and another society of the
merchants; and yet not so divided, but that each society may freely and
frankly trade and traffic one with the other.
And first to bend my speech to the noblemen and gentlemen, who do
chiefly seek a temperate climate, wholesome air, fertile soil, and a
strong place by nature whereupon they may fortify, and there either
plant themselves or such other persons as they shall think good to send
to be lords of that place and country:--To them I say that all these
things are very easy to be found within the degrees of 30 and 60
aforesaid, either by south or north, both in the continent and in
islands thereunto adjoining, at their choice ... and in the whole tract
of that land, by the description of as many as have been there, great
plenty of mineral matter of all sorts, and in very many places both
stones of price, pearl and chrystal, and great store of beasts, birds,
and fowls, both for pleasure and necessary use of man are to be
found....
And now for the better contemplation and satisfaction of such
worshipful, honest-minded and well-disposed merchants as have a desire
to the furtherance of every good and commendable action, I will first
say unto them, as I have done before to the noblemen and gentlemen, that
within the degrees aforesaid is doubtless to be found the most wholesome
and best temperature of air, fertility of soil, and every other
commodity or merchandise, for the which, with no small peril, we do
travel into Barbary, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Muscovy and
Eastland, and yet, to the end my argument shall not altogether stand
upon likelihoods and presumptions, I say that such persons as have
discovered and travelled those parts do testify that they have found in
those countries all these things following, namely:--[a list of beasts,
birds, fishes, trees, minerals, etc.] ...
Now for the trial hereof, considering that in the articles of the
society of the adventurers in this voyage there is provision made that
no adventurer shall be bound to any further charge than his first
adventure, and notwithstanding keep still to himself, his children, his
apprentices and servants, his and their freedom for trade and traffic,
which is a privilege that adventurers in other voyages have not; and in
the said articles it is likewise provided that none other than such as
have adventured in the first voyage, or shall become adventurers in this
supply, at any time hereafter are to be admitted in the said society,
but as redemptionaries, which will be very chargeable; therefore,
generally, I say unto all such, according to the old proverb. "Nothing
venture, nothing have" ...
The sixth chapter sheweth that the traffic and planting in those
countries shall be unto the savages themselves very beneficial and
gainful....
... First and chiefly, in respect of the most happy and gladsome tidings
of the most glorious gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, whereby they
may be brought from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from the
highway of death to the path of life, from superstitious idolatry to
sincere Christianity, from the devil to Christ, from hell to heaven. And
if in respect of all the commodities they can yield us (were they many
more) that they should but receive but this only benefit of
Christianity, they were more than fully recompensed.
But hereunto it may be objected that the Gospel must be freely preached,
for such was the example of the apostles.... Yet for answer we may say
with St. Paul: If we have sown unto you heavenly things, do you think it
much that we should reap your carnal things? And withal, The workman is
worthy of his hire. These heavenly tidings which those labourers our
countrymen (as messengers of God's great goodness and mercy) will
voluntarily present unto them, do far exceed their earthly riches....
[Footnote 310: Gilbert was drowned in the "Squirrel" on September 9th,
1583. The above document purports to have been written after the return
of the "Golden Hind," but before the loss of the "Squirrel" was
certainly known.]
13. LORD BURGHLEY TO SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON ON THE STATE OF TRADE [_Sir
H. Nicholas, Memoirs of Sir Christopher Hatton, pp. 470-2_], 1587.
TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
My Lord,
I am sorry that my pains are such as I cannot attend on you to-day in
the Star Chamber, having yesterday, by more zeal of service in the
Exchequer Chamber than of regard to my harms, so weakened and pained my
leg, as I cannot stir it out of my bed; but this my declaration of my
state is to no purpose to occupy your Lordship withal. This great matter
of the lack of vent, not only of clothes, which presently is the
greatest, but of all other English commodities which are restrained from
Spain, Portugal, Barbary, France, Flanders, Hamburgh, and the States,
cannot but in process of time work a great change and dangerous issue to
the people of the realm, who, heretofore, in time of outward peace,
lived thereby, and without it must either perish for want, or fall into
violence to feed and fill their lewd appetites with open spoils of
others, which is the fruit of rebellion; but it is in vain to remember
this to your Lordship, that is so notorious as there need no repetition
thereof. The evil being seen and like daily to increase beyond all good
remedies, it is our duties that are Councillors to think of some
remedies in time, before the same become remediless; and briefly the
best means of remedy must follow the consideration of the causes of this
evil, and so _contrariis contraria curare_. The original cause is
apparently the contentions and enmities betwixt the King of Spain and
his countries, and her Majesty and her countries. The reduction hereof
to amity betwixt the Princes, and to open traffic according to the
ancient treaties of intercourse, would be the sovereign remedy; but this
may be wished sooner than speedily effectuated. But yet, seeing there is
a signification notified of the good inclination of both the Princes,
and a great necessity to press them both thereto for the suagement of
their people, it were pity any course should be taken either to hinder
this or not to hasten it, which surely in the Low Countries would be
done, with whatsoever a reasonable cost may be, to keep the enemy from
victuals, and to withstand his enterprises against our friends until
this next harvest; and by this proceeding against him, there is no doubt
but he will yield to all reasonable conditions meet both for her Majesty
and her protected friends; otherwise, if the good fortune of our friends
do decay, and the enemy recover that which he now lacketh, that is store
of victuals, he will either underhand make peace with our friends, whom
he shall find both weak and timorous, and leave her Majesty in danger
for recovery of all that she hath spent, and in greater charges to
maintain her two cautionary towns against the whole Low Countries than
two Boulognes were, or else he will, being puffed with pride, make a
very Spanish conquest of Holland and Zealand,--a matter terrible to be
thought of, but most terrible to be felt. But to insist upon this remedy
is as yet in vain, and therefore such other poor helps are to be thought
of as may somewhat mitigate the accidents present, and stay the increase
thereof, whereof when I do bethink myself, I find no one simple remedy,
but rather compounded of divers simples, and to say truly they are but
simple remedies, until peace may ensue, which is the sovereign sole
medicine of all. To have vent increase, there must be more buyers and
shippers than there are, and seeing our merchants say that they cannot
have sales sufficient,
1. It were good that the Steelyard men were licensed to trade as they
were wont to do, with condition upon good bonds that our merchants
adventurers shall have their former liberties in Hamburgh;
2. These Steelyard merchants must also have a dispensation to carry a
competent number of unwrought cloths that are coarse, which are the
cloths whereof the great stay is in the Realm.
3. Beside this, the merchant strangers might have a like dispensation
for the buying and shipping of a competent number of like white coarse
cloths.
4. And if her Majesty, for some reasonable time, would abate only 2s.
upon a cloth, I think there would grow no loss to her Majesty, having
respect to the multitude of the cloths that should be carried, whereas
now the strangers carry few, but upon licences, for which her Majesty
hath no strangers' customs, but English.
5. The strangers also must have liberty to buy in Blackwell Hall, or
else there may be a staple set up in Westminster, out of the liberties
of the City of London, which, rather than London would suffer, I think
they will grant liberty to strangers in respect to the hallage money
which they shall lease. Notwithstanding all these shows of remedies, I
could wish that our merchants adventurers were made acquainted herewith,
and to be warned, that if they shall not amend the prices to clothiers
for their coarse cloths, whereby the clothiers may be reasonably
apparent gainers, and that to be put in practice this next week, that
then her Majesty will give authority to put the former helps in
practice. Thus, my good Lord, because I understand you are to go to the
Court this afternoon, I have thought good to scribble, as I do (lying in
pain) these few cogitations, submitting them to a more mature
disquisition.
Your Lordship's most assured,
W. BURGHLEY.
14. A LIST OF PATENTS AND MONOPOLIES [_Lodge. Illustrations of British
History, Vol. III, pp.. 159,[311] ff._]
33. Eliz.--A grant to Reynold Hopton only, and no other, to make
flasks, touch-boxes, powder-boxes, and bullet-boxes, for 15 years.
34 Eliz.--A grant to Simon Farmer and John Craford only, and no other,
to transport list shreds of woollen cloth, and all manner of horns, for
21 years.
35 Eliz.--A grant to Bryan Annesley, solely, and no other, to buy and
provide steel beyond sea and sell the same within this realm for 21
years.
36 Eliz.--A grant to Robert Alexander only, and no other, to buy and
bring in anise-seeds, sumach, etc., for 21 years.
39 Eliz.--A grant to John Spillman only, and no other, to buy linen
rags, and to make paper.
40 Eliz.--A grant to Ede Schetts, and his assignees only, and no other,
to buy and transport ashes and old shoes for 7 years.
36 Eliz.--A grant to [_blank_] only, and no other, to provide and bring
in all Spanish wools for making of felt hats, for 20 years.
34 Eliz.--A grant that Sir Jerome Bowes, and no other, shall make
glasses for 12 years.
42 Eliz.--A grant made to Harding and others only, concerning saltpeter.
41 Eliz.--A grant that Brigham and Wimmes shall only have the
pre-emption of tin.
Other Monopolies for one man only and no other--
To register all writings and assurances between merchants, called
policies.
To make spangles.
To print the Psalms of David.
To print Cornelius Tacitus.
To sow woad in certain numbers of shires.
To print grammars, primers, and other school books.
To print the law.
To print all manner of songs in parts.
To make mathematical instruments.
To plainish and hollow silver vessels.
That one man and no other shall make writs of _subpoena_ in Chancery,
Sir Thomas George.
To write all writs of supplication and _supersedeas_ for the peace and
good behaviour, and all pardons of outlawry, George Carew.
To draw leases in possession made by the King, Sir Edward Stafford.
To engross all leases by the great seal.
Licenses and Dispensations to one man only, of the Penalty of Penal
Laws, and Power given to license others--
[18] Eliz.--A license to Sir Edward Dyer, to pardon and dispense with
tanning of leather, contrary to the statute of 5 Eliz., and to license
any man to be a tanner.
30 Eliz.--A patent to Sir Walter Raleigh, to make licenses for keeping
of taverns and retailing of wines throughout England.
31 Eliz.--The grant to John Ashley and Thomas Windebank, to have all
forfeitures and penalties for burning of timber trees to make iron,
contrary to the statute of 1 Eliz.
36 Eliz.--A license to Roger Bineon, and others, to take the whole
forfeiture of the statute of 5th and 6th of Edw. VI, for pulling down
gig-mills.
37 Eliz.--A license to William Smith only, and no others, to take the
benefit of the statute of 5 Eliz. for gashing of hides, and barking of
trees.
38 Eliz.--A license to Thomas Cornwallis only, and no other, to make
grants and licenses for keeping of gaming-houses, and using of unlawful
games, contrary to the statute of 33 Henry VIII.
39 Eliz.--A license to William Carre, for nine years, to authorize and
license any person to brew beer to be transported beyond sea.
40 Eliz.--A license to Richard Coningsby, to give license for buying of
tin throughout England.
41 Eliz.--A license to Richard Carnithen only, to bring in Irish yarn
for seven years.
_Impositions._
41 Eliz.--A grant to Bevis Bulmer to have an imposition of sea-coal,
paying £6,200 rent for 21 years.
36 Eliz.--A grant made to John Parker, Esq., to have twelve-pence for
filing of every bill in Chancery in respect whereof the subject is to be
discharged of payment of anything of search.
41 Eliz.--A license to trade the Levant Seas with currants only, paying
£4,000 per annum.
Particular licenses to transport certain numbers of pelts of sheep-skins
and lambskins.
Certain numbers of woollen cloths.
Certain numbers of dickers of calf-skins.
_New Inventions._
Only and no other, so as they were never used in England before.
To inn and drain [_blank_] grounds.
To take water fowl.
To make devices of safe-keeping of corn.
To make a device for soldiers to carry necessary provisions.
[Footnote 311: Quoted, _English Patents of Monopoly_, Appendix c, W.H.
Price, 1603.]
15. INSTRUCTIONS TOUCHING THE BILL FOR FREE TRADE [_Journals of the
House of Commons, Vol. I, p. 218_], 1604.
The Committees from the House of the Commons sat five whole afternoons
upon these Bills; there was a great concourse of clothiers and
merchants, of all parts of the realm, and especially of London; who were
so divided, as that all the clothiers, and, in effect, all the merchants
of England, complained grievously of the engrossing and restraint of
trade by the rich merchants of London, as being to the undoing, or great
hindrance, of all the rest; and of London merchants, three parts joined
in the same complaint against a fourth part; and of that fourth part,
some standing stiffly for their own company, yet repined at other
companies. Divers writings and informations were exhibited on both
parts; learned Counsel was heard for the Bill, and divers of the
principal Aldermen of London against it; all reasons exactly weighed and
examined; the Bill, together with the reasons on both sides, was
returned and reported by the Committees to the House; where, at the
third reading, it was three several days debated, and in the end passed
with great consent and applause of the House (as being for the exceeding
benefit of all the land) scarce forty voices dissenting from it.
The most weighty reasons for the enlargement of trade were these:
_Natural Right._--All free subjects are born inheritable, as to their
land, so also to the free exercise of their industry in those trades,
whereto they apply themselves and whereby they are to live. Merchandize
being the chief and richest of all other, and of greater extent and
importance than all the rest, it is against the natural right and
liberty of the subjects of England to restrain it into the hands of some
few, as now it is; for although there may be now some five or six
thousand persons, counting children and prentices, free of the several
Companies of the Merchants, in the whole; yet apparent it is, that the
Governors of these Companies, by their monopolizing orders, have so
handled the matter, as that the mass of the whole trade of all the realm
is in the hands of some two hundred persons at the most, the rest
serving for a shew only, and reaping small benefit.
_Judgement of Parliament._--The law stands for it; and a law made 12th
of Henry the Seventh, never repealed by Parliament, only restrained
since by charters, unduly, or by untrue suggestions, procured (by which
means all other monopolies have had their original) and the first of
those charters since the making of that statute (which was purchased in
the end of the reign of Henry the Seventh, at what time Empson and
Dudley were instruments of so much wronging and oppressing the people)
yet doth in no wise restrain this liberty of free trade, but expressly
allow it (with a reverence unto that very act in the 12th of this reign)
and so continued till the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
_Examples of Nations._--The example of all other nations generally in
the world, who avoid in themselves, and hate in us, this monopolizing
way of traffic; for it cannot be otherwise counted than a monopoly, when
so large a commodity is restrained into the hands of so few in
proportion, to the prejudice of all other who by law and natural right
might have interest therein. And whereas some allege that there are like
Companies in other countries, as of the East Indies in Lesbone, the
House of Contraction there, the Fontego at Venice, the Travesana at
Noremberg, these allegations are either untrue or unproper. There are
places of assembly for merchants, and to consult for good orders in all
other countries, but without restraint of trading from any man; and how
traffic, by this freedom, doth flourish in other countries, and
principally in the Low Countries, far more than in ours, is apparent to
all the world.
_Wealth._--The increase of the wealth generally of all the land by the
ready vent of all the commodities to the merchants at higher rate; for
where many buyers are, ware grows dearer; and they that buy dear at
home, must sell dear abroad: this also will make our people more
industrious.
_Equal Distribution._--The more equal distribution of the wealth of the
land, which is a great stability and strength to the realm, even as the
equal distributing of the nourishment in a man's body; the contrary
whereof is inconvenient in all estates, and oftentimes breaks out into
mischief, when too much fullness doth puff up some by presumption, and
too much emptiness leaves the rest in perpetual discontent, the mother
of desire of innovations and troubles: and this is the proper fruit of
monopolies. Example may be in London, and the rest of the realm: The
custom and impost of London come to a hundred and ten thousand pound a
year, and of the rest of the whole realm but to seventeen thousand
pound.
_Strength._--The increase of shipping, and especially of mariners, in
all ports in England. How greatly the mariners of the realm have decayed
in all places of latter times, and with how great danger of the state in
these late wars, is known to them who have been employed in that kind of
service; who do also attribute the cause thereof to this restraint of
trade; free traffic being the breeder and maintainer of ships and
mariners, as by memorable example in the Low Countries may be seen.
_Profit of the Crown._--The increase of custom and subsidy to the King,
which doth necessarily follow the increase of foreign traffic and
wealth. And they which say otherwise, will dare to say anything. These
reasons are in great part set down in the Act of the 12th of Henry
VIIth; other particular reasons there are, which this present time doth
not yield.
_Opportunity Abroad._--Under our gracious Salamon, a Prince of wisdom
and peace, we are like to be in league or amity with all nations;
whereby, as there will be greater freedom abroad to trade to all places,
so fit to have greater at home for all persons to trade. This alteration
of times may make that fit now, which in times of hostility might have
seemed unfit.
_Necessity at Home._--And as there will be greater opportunity abroad,
so also much greater necessity at home; for what else shall become of
gentlemen's younger sons, who cannot live by arms when there is no wars,
and learning preferments are common to all and mean? So that nothing
remains fit for them, save only merchandize (and such is the use of
other politic nations) unless they turn serving men, which is a poor
inheritance.
The general reasons to continue the restraint of trade, and the answer
to them, were these:
_Imputation of the State._--It is a taint to the King and State, that
these restrained companies should be called or counted monopolies; and
by this Act we insist and strengthen the complaint of the Haven Towns
and other nations against the State for suffering such companies.
_Answer._--The same reason doth justify all the monopolies that ever
were. It is no touch to the State if abuses creep in, but if
reformation, desired by parliament, be denied. But surely this taint
doth no ways attaint his Majesty, who hath declared himself a just enemy
to all these unjust monopolies.
_Not Monopolies._--These Companies are not monopolies; for a monopoly
is, when liberty of selling, due to all men by right, is restrained to
one, with prejudice of all others.
_Answer._--The name of monopoly, though taken originally for personal
unity, yet is fitly extended to all improportionable paucity of the
sellers in regard of the ware which is sold. If ten men had the only
sale of all the horses in England, this were a monopoly; much more the
Company of Merchant Adventurers, which, in effect not above two hundred,
have the managing of the two third parts of the clothing of this realm,
which might well maintain many thousand merchants more. And with how
great prejudice this is sundry ways to all the land, let example
suffice; let the cry of all the clothiers of England testify, and the
utter overthrow of infinite poor persons, which live by them and their
works. For the clothiers having no utterance of their cloth but to the
merchant adventurers, they, by complot among themselves, will buy but at
what time, what quality, and what price themselves list; whereby the
clothiers are fain often to return with loss, to lay their cloths to
pawn, to slack their trade, to the utter ruin of their poor workmen,
with their wives and children.
_Keeping up our Commodities._--These Companies keep up the price of our
commodities abroad, by avoiding an over-glut of our commodities in
places whereto they trade. And this experience doth witness; for our
cloth is of late years much dearer than in former times; whereas
contrarywise, when trade is free, many sellers will make ware cheap and
of less estimation.
_Answer._--It is true that all monopolies keep up their commodities for
their own private lucre; but they do it unjustly, and to the discontent
of all other men; which hath been the cause of so many edicts of the
Empire against the Company of Merchant Adventurers, which hath driven
them so often to shift their marts; and is the cause, that our merchants
are so generally hated, no other nation Christian either using or
enduring such restrained Companies in matter of merchandizes. Howbeit
both by reason and experience we may conjecture that there is no greater
[_blank_] that if trade be made free, our commodities will much abate
their price abroad; for the merchants must first buy their commodities
at home; and where many buyers are, wares will grow dearer; and buying
dear at home, he must sell dear abroad. For it is not true that there
will be a greater glut of our commodities in foreign parts; the sellers
will be more, but the wares sold will be much the same, especially in
those principal commodities, which grow out of the land. It is the store
of the merchandize, not the multitude of merchants, which doth make
things cheaper. Besides, when trade is free, it is likely that many
young men will seek out new places, and trade further for great benefit;
whereby the glut in the former places will be less.
The weakness of their argument of experience is plain; for not cloth
only, but all other things in the world are risen greatly in price; and
in France, where there is no Companies, our kerseys are sold at
exceeding good price, and as dear, in proportion, as broad cloths by the
Merchant Adventurers. But if it were so, that they kept up our
commodities abroad, so do they, by the same skill, foreign commodities
at home: so a few rich men do gain by their out-going, and the whole
land doth lose much more by their return. They say that they gain little
by return of foreign commodities. There lieth a mystery, for it is true,
and will be avowed upon certain knowledge, that upon the arrival of the
Merchant Adventurers' fleet, the commodities, on the other side, are
ordinarily raised at least twenty in the hundred; for so do they quit
one wrong with another. But hereby the loss still falls heavy on the
subject, who is damnified now again in the commodities returned, as he
was before in the engrossing of those which were issued.
_Venting all Now._--The Companies that now are, do vent all the
commodities of the land, and yet are they hardly able to live one by
another.
_Answer._--It is not all vented, which the land might spare; and that by
reason of the courses held by these Companies, to their own excessive
gain, and certain loss of all other men: besides, when traffic shall
flourish with us, as doth in other countries, where trade is free, and
namely in the Low Countries, who thereby have supported the huge charge
of their long wars, things merchantable will increase daily by this
encouragement to the subjects' industry, even as there they do; for
natural commodities are more than trebled by access of art and industry;
and howsoever, yet the division of wealth will be more equal; for now,
by the plotting of the governor of these Companies, some few overgrown
men devour the wealth, and make merry, whilst the rest, even of their
own Companies, do want and weep.
_Prenticeship Necessary._--This Act makes it lawful to become merchants
without prenticeship; which is an injury to them which have served, and
hurt to them that serve not; who, venturing unskilfully, shall be sure
of loss.
_Answer._--The loss of new merchants, it may be, is as much the desire,
as fear of the objectors; but they that have served, have their skill
for their labour; and they that serve not, must be at charge of a
factor, or join with their friends, and learn skill by them; or at least
wise men adventure their stocks with other men, after the fashion of the
Low Countries, and other places, where trade doth flourish. By the same
reason young gentlemen might be kept from their lands, for want of skill
to govern them.
_Dissolving Companies._--This Act, by enlarging the Companies, and
giving free access to all men, doth in effect dissolve them; for hardly
are they able to govern those that are in already; and where government
faileth, there will be certain confusion.
_Answer._--This Act dissolveth no Company, taketh away no good
government. Those orders in Companies, which tend to monopoly, it
abrogateth: orders for necessary contribution to public charges it
establisheth; the rest it leaves as it found them, neither in worse
state, nor better. It is weakness to say, that a greater multitude
cannot be governed; for so neither Kings in their Dominions and
subjects, nor cities in their amplitude should increase. If for matter
of merchandize there were no such government at all, nor more than there
is for our merchants in France, or hath been at Stade, for divers years
past, or than there is in the Low Countries, where are the best
merchants in the world; yet provident men would consult and join
together in that which were for their common benefit, ease, and safety.
Such Companies there are in other countries, but no such monopolies as
ours are.
_Joint Stock Necessary._--This Act is against trading in a joint stock
together, which in long and dangerous voyages (as to Musco, and
especially the East Indies) is necessary; for in that voyage one alone
will not adventure; besides the merchants must keep some port there
amongst the infidels.
_Answer._--It is true that it is fit to trade to the East Indies with a
joint stock, and so do the Hollanders; this Act therefore doth not
forbid men to trade in a joint stock, if they list, and see it fit; only
forbiddeth to constrain men to trade so against their wills; which
heretofore in other trades, and at this day in the Muscovie trade, doth
turn to the great damage both of the Commonwealth and of the particular
persons so constrained to trade. The Muscovie Company, consisting of
eight score, or thereabouts, have fifteen directors, who manage the
whole trade; these limit to every man the proportion of stock which he
shall trade for, make one purse and stock of all, and consign it into
the hands of one agent at Musco, and so again, at their return, to one
agent at London, who sell all, and give such account as they please.
This is a strong and a shameful monopoly--a monopoly in a monopoly--both
abroad and at home. A whole Company, by this means, is become as one
man, who alone hath the uttering of all the commodities of so great a
country. The inconveniences, which have ensued thereof, are three
apparent.
First, by this means they vent less of our commodities; for, by reason
of the one agent, they vent all through his hands; by which means the
Hollanders have come in between us; who, trading thither in several with
our own English commodities (which are most proper for that country)
utter much more than our own merchants, and make quicker return; which
has occasioned many Englishmen to join in trade with the Hollanders, to
the detriment of the King's Majesty in his customs. And by this means
that trade is like utterly to decay; for the Hollanders have grown in
short time from two ships to above twenty; this spring they are gone to
Muscovie with near thirty ships, and our men but with seven. The like
fell out in the Turkie Company, when they constrained men to a joint
stock; since the breaking of which combination, there go four ships for
one.
Secondly, in their return with Muscovie commodities, they greatly
prejudice the Commonwealth and State. Example in cordage, which they
bring home in such scarcity, and sell so dearly, as that they have
raised it in short time from twenty to thirty shillings; yea, to sell
their ware dear, they have contracted with the buyer not to bring any
more of that commodity within three years after.
Thirdly, this is hurtful to all the young merchants of their own
Company, who cannot forbear their stock so long as now they do, and
desire to employ their own industry in managing it, and having
oftentimes been all damnified by the breaking of that general factor.
_Public Charges._--In divers places, as namely, in Turkey and Muscovy,
the merchants are at charge of sending presents, maintaining
ambassadors, consuls, and agents, which are otherwise also necessary for
the service of his Majesty, and of the State; these charges are now
defrayed by these Companies.
_Answer._--This matter is expressly provided for by this Act, that all
that trade to those places shall be contributory to those charges.
_The New Merchants will give over._--The like attempt for free trade was
in Anno 1588, at what time liberty being given to all men to buy cloths
at Westminster, the Merchant Adventurers gave over to trade at all;
whereby the cloth of the land lying on the clothier's hands, they were
forced, by petition, to get the former restraint restored.
_Answer._--This is true, and the same mischief were likely to ensue
again; for it is said, that the same policy is now in speech in their
Company. But the times being well altered from war to peace, this
mischief would be but short, and other merchants soon grow to take their
places, if they should, as (being rich) they may, forsake them. But it
were to be trusted that this stomachness, being to their own loss, would
not long continue. Howsoever, it doth not stand with the dignity of
parliament either to fear or favour the frowardness of any subject.
_The Rich will eat out the Poor._--If poor merchants should trade
together with the rich, the rich beyond the seas would buy out the poor,
being not able to sell at the instant, to make themselves savers; and so
there would grow a monopoly _ex facto_.
_Answer._--This reason sheweth thus much, that a crafty head, with a
greedy heart, and a rich purse, is able to take advantage of the need of
his neighbour (which no man doubteth of); but if the difficulties and
dishonesties should deter men from action, and not rather increase their
diligence and wariness, then should there be no trading at all in any
sort.
_Strangers will eat out the English._--If all men may be merchants, the
sons of strangers denized will, in time, eat out the natural merchants
of this kingdom.
_Answer._--If the sons of strangers become natural English, why should
they not [have] a subject's part? And more they cannot reap. If any
further mischief should grow, it might at all times by a new Act be
easily remedied.
_All Men may go out of the Realm._--If trade be free for all men, then
all may become merchants, and under that pretext any may go out of the
realm; which will be good news for the papists.
_Answer._--This conceit is weak; for so it may be said that all men may
become mariners, and so quit the kingdom; and it is provided by express
words of the bill that they may not go out of the realm but for their
present traffic.
_Against London._--This Act is against London, and the wealth thereof,
which is necessary to be upheld, being the head city of the kingdom.
_Answer._--Nay, it is for London, unless we will confine London into
some two hundred men's purses; the rest of the City of London, together
with the whole realm, sue mainly for this bill; and they cry, they are
undone, if it should be crossed.
_Hurt to the King's Customs._--It will be prejudicial to the King's
customs, who in other parts will easier be deceived than here in London.
_Answer._--Nothing can be more clear than that if transport and return
of merchandize will increase by this Act, also the King's customs, which
depend thereon, must withal increase: And if this Bill may pass, if the
King be pleased to let his custom to farm, to give 5,000l. a year more
than, _communibus annis_, hath been made these last years. The deceiving
of the King is now, when, for want of this freedom, men are enforced to
purchase the vent of their commodities out of creeks, because they
cannot be admitted to public trade; whereas otherwise they should have
no reason to hazard their whole estate, for the saving of so reasonable
a duty. As for faults in officers, they may as well happen in London, as
in any other place.
_Decay of Great Ships._--During freedom of trade, small ships would be
employed to vent our commodities, and so our great ships, being the
guard of the land, would decay.
It is war, more than traffic that maintaineth great ships; and
therefore, if any decay grow, it will be chiefly by peace, which the
wisdom of the State will have a regard of; but for as much depends of
traffic, no doubt the number of smaller ships will grow by this freedom,
and especially mariners, whereof the want is greatest, and of whom the
smallest vessels are the proper nurseries. But that the great ships will
decay, doth not necessarily follow; for the main trade of all the white
cloth, and much of other kind, is shipped from the Port of London, and
will be still, it being the fittest Port of the kingdom for Germanie and
the Low Countries, where the Merchant Adventurers' trade only lieth; who
shall have little cause to alter their shipping. Then the Levent Sea,
Muscovy, and East Indies, whither we trade with great ships, the
employing of them will be still requisite in the merchants' discretion;
for otherwise both the commodity of the returned will be less, and the
adventure too great in so rich lading not to provide for more than
ordinary assurance against the common hazard at sea.
Other particular reasons there are, for restraint of trade in favour of
certain Company.
_Merchant Adventurers._--The Company of Merchant Adventurers is very
ancient, and they have heretofore been great credit to the Kings, for
borrowing money in the Low Countries and Germany.
_Answer._--The Company indeed is as ancient as Thomas of Beckett, their
founder, and may still continue. Their restraining of others, which this
Bill doth seek to redress, is not so ancient, and was so disallowed by
parliament in the twelfth year of Henry the seventh; which Act stands
impeached by particular charter, but never by consent of the realm
repealed. But in truth this Company, being the spring of all monopolies,
and engrossing the grand staple commodities of cloth into so few men's
hands, deserves least favour. The credit of the King hath been in the
cloth (not in their persons) which will be as much hereafter, as
heretofore.
_Muscovy Company._--The Muscovy Company, by reason of the chargeable
invention of that trade two and fifty years since, and their often great
loss, was established by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen
Elizabeth.
_Answer._--The chargeable invention hath been a reason worthy of respect
thirty or forty years ago, when the inventors were living, and their
charge not recompensed by counter-vailable gain; which since it hath
been their loss, hath been their own fault, in employing one factor, who
hath abused them all. Private Acts for favour, when the cause thereof is
ceased, are often revoked. Howbeit this Bill dissolveth no Company, only
enlargeth them, and abrogateth their unjust orders for monopolies.
_An Argument Unanswerable._--Another argument there is, not to be
answered by reason, but by their integrity and love of their country,
who shall be assaulted with it. In sum, the Bill is a good Bill, though
not in all points, perhaps, so perfect as it might be; which defects may
be soon remedied and supplied in future parliament.
* * * * *
Sir Edward Sandys proceeded in the report, and delivered in the two
Bills for free trade; the first (being the principal Bill) with
amendments; which were twice read; and the Bill, upon question, ordered
to be ingrossed.
16. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMPANY TO EXPORT DYED AND DRESSED CLOTH, IN
PLACE OF THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS[312] [_Pat. Rolls, 13 James I, p. 2_],
1616-17.
James by the Grace of God, etc.:
We have often and in divers manners expressed ourselves ... what an
earnest desire and constant resolution we have that, as the reducing of
wools into clothing was the act of our noble Progenitor King Edward the
Third, so the reducing of the trade of white cloths, which is but an
imperfect thing towards the wealth and good of this our Kingdom, unto
the trade of cloths dyed and dressed, might be the work of our time,
To which purpose we did first invite the ancient Company of Merchant
Adventurers to undertake the same, who upon allegation or pretence of
impossibility refused.
Whereupon nevertheless not discouraged but determined to maintain our
princely resolution against impediments and difficulties in a work so
excellent, We did find means to draw and procure divers persons of good
quality within our City of London and elsewhere with great alacrity and
commendable zeal to give a beginning to this our purpose,
In respect whereof, for that above all things We were to take a princely
care that between the cessation of the old trade and the inception and
settling of the new there should not be any stand of cloth nor failing
or deadness in the vent thereof, whereby the work which is so good for
the future might prove dangerous in the entrance thereof, we were
inforced to grant several licences under our Great Seal unto the said
persons for a trade of whites to be temporary and in the interim until
this work by due and seasonable degrees without inconvenience of
precipitation might be happily accomplished, giving them likewise some
powers of assembling, keeping of Courts and the like, but yet without
any actual incorporation of them,
But notwithstanding, having evermore in contemplation our first end, We
have still provoked and urged on the said persons unto whom the trade is
now transferred to some certainty of offer and undertaking concerning a
proportion of cloths dressed and dyed to be annually exported, and the
same proportion to increase and multiply in such sort as may be a
fruitful beginning of so good a work and also an assured pledge of the
continuation thereof in due time.
Whereupon the said persons or new Company have before the Lords of our
Privy Council absolutely condescended and agreed at a Court holden the
seventeenth day of June one thousand six hundred and fifteen, that
thirty-six thousand cloths shall be dressed and dyed out of such cloths
white as were formerly used to be shipped out by the old Company
undressed and undyed....
... And did further promise and profess with all cheerfulness to proceed
as it shall please God to give ability and the trade encouragement to
the settling of the whole trade of cloths dressed and dyed, which is the
end desired.
Wherefore We, in our princely judgement foreseeing that as long as the
said new Company shall remain not incorporated it doth much weaken both
the endeavour and expectation which belongeth to this work, as if it
were a thing but only in deliberation and agitation and not fully and
thoroughly established, have thought it now a fit time to extend our
princely grace unto them for their incorporation and to indue and invest
them with such liberties and privileges as the old Company formerly had,
with such additions and augmentations as the merit of concurrence to so
good an end may require, with this, nevertheless, that because the
nature of the present liberties and privileges must of necessity differ
from those which shall be fit and requisite when the whole trade shall
be overcome and settled, there be therefore a power in Us to revoke or
alter the same.
Know ye therefore that We ... by these presents have given, granted and
confirmed, and for Us our heirs and successors do give, grant and
confirm, unto our right trusty and right well beloved Cousin and
Counsellor Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer of England [and
others named], and to every of them, and to all and every such person
and persons whatsoever our loving subjects as shall, between this and
the feast of St. Michael the Archangel next ensuing come in, subscribe,
and be admitted of their Society, That they and every of them, their and
every of their sons and apprentices according to the constitutions and
ordinances hereafter by the Company to be made and presented, shall be
one Fellowship and Commonalty and one body corporate and politic in
deed and in name, by the name of Governor, Assistants, and Fellowship of
the King's Merchants Adventurers of the New Trade of London.
[Power to have common seal, etc.]: [There shall be one Governor, William
Cokayne, Alderman of our City of London, to be the first and present
Governor, to continue till June 24 next] and from thence until the said
William Cokayne or some other of the said Fellowship or Company shall in
due manner be chosen and sworn to the said office according to the
ordinances and provisions hereafter in these presents expressed and
declared, if he the said William Cokayne shall so long live:
[And further] there shall be from henceforth for ever hereafter one or
more, not exceeding the number of six, of the said Company or Fellowship
to be elected and chosen, which shall be called the Deputy or Deputies
of the said Company or Fellowship: ...
And furthermore We for Us, our heirs and successors, do by these
presents grant and confirm to the said [Fellowship] and their successors
that it shall and may be lawful to and for them and every of them, and
their successors for ever, hereafter to trade, traffic, and occupy and
use the trade and feat of merchandise unto, from and with the Town of
Callice in the Realm of France and the marches thereof, and into, from
and with all and every the countries of Holland, Zeland, Brabant,
Flaunders, West Frizeland and all other the countries nigh thereunto
adjoining heretofore under the obeisance of the Dukes of Burgundy, or
into East Frizeland and Hamborough and the Territories of the same, and
into from and with the countries of Germany and all the Territories,
Provinces, Cities and Towns thereof with all manner of woollen cloths,
kersies, wares, commodities and merchandises whatsoever not prohibited,
without any let contradiction or interruption of Us, our heirs or
successors, or of any other person or persons whatsoever:
And our will and pleasure is, and We do hereby for Us, our heirs and
successors, grant and confirm unto the said [Fellowship &c.], that the
said Governor or Deputy and the said Assistants or the more part of them
for the time being, being at least thirteen, shall from henceforth for
ever have, use and exercise full jurisdiction, power and authority
lawfully to rule and govern the same Company or Fellowship and their
successors, and all and every merchants and members of the same, in all
their private causes, suits, quarrels, misdemeanours, offences and
complaints among them touching the said trade, as well here in England
as beyond the seas in Callice and the marches thereof, and also in the
Countries and Towns of Holland [etc. Germany, etc., as above] rising,
moved and to be moved....
And moreover We ... do by these presents grant unto the said
[Fellowship, etc.] that the said Governor, Deputy and Assistants, or
thirteen of them at the least, and their successors for the time being
from time to time and at all times from henceforth, shall and may enact,
establish, allow and confirm, and also revoke, disannul and repeal all
and every act and acts, laws, and ordinances heretofore had or made by
the said [Fellowship, etc.] or by what name or names or additions
soever, and also shall and may from henceforth from time to time and at
all times hereafter for ever enact, make, ordain and establish acts,
laws, constitutions and ordinances [for the good government of the
Fellowship] and of every merchant and peculiar member of the same
Fellowship or body corporate [and also of all our subjects]
intermeddling exercising or using the feat or trade of the said
[Fellowship] by any means, as well here in England as in the said
countries towns and places beyond the seas, so that the said acts laws
[etc.] be not hurtful to any the rights of our Crown, honour, dignity
royal or prerogative, or to the diminution of the common weal of this
our Realm or contrary to any our laws and statutes.... And that the said
[Fellowship, or thirteen as aforesaid] shall and may take order with
every the subject or subjects of Us our heirs and successors, not being
of the said Company and trading or haunting the said countries or places
beyond the seas or any of them for merchandise, and compel every of them
by fines, forfeitures, penalties, imprisonments or otherwise to obey,
hold and perform all such orders, acts and ordinances that hereafter
shall be ordained, made, allowed or confirmed by the said [Fellowship or
majority as above] for the good government, rule, order and condition of
the said subject or subjects, so as the state of the said Company be not
by them impeached or hindered but by all means and ways maintained and
continued. And that all such forfeitures fines [etc.] so as aforesaid to
be levied and taken shall be for evermore to the use and behoof of the
said [Fellowship, etc.]
... And also We will, and for Us, our heirs and successors, by these
presents do grant to the said [Fellowship] that the said [Fellowship or
a majority, thirteen at least, as above] shall have full and whole power
and authority to impose and lay, and also to take and levy, all
reasonable impositions and sums of money whatsoever as well upon all
persons trading into the said countries as also upon the merchandise to
be transported and carried into the countries, towns, provinces and
territories before rehearsed or any of them either by water or land....
And, for the better encouragement of the said Company or Fellowship ...
We do hereby for Us our heirs and successors straitly charge and command
all and singular the customers, comptrollers, searchers, surveyors,
waiters and all others the officers and ministers of Us our heirs and
successors for the time being in all every or any of our ports, havens,
creeks and the members of the same within our Realms and Dominions ...
that they and every of them ... shall not at any time or times hereafter
wilfully permit or suffer any of the subjects of Us our heirs or
successors or any aliens denizens or strangers to freight, lade or ship
out in any ship, crayer, lighter or other vessel whatsoever any goods
wares or merchandises whatsoever (being native commodities of this
Realm) for any of the said territories, countries and towns
before-mentioned wherein the said [Fellowship etc.] according to the
intent of these presents are to trade and traffic, but such goods, wares
and merchandises only whose entries shall be subscribed and allowed by
the Governor or Deputy of the said Company for the time being by bill or
writing subscribed with his or their hand or hands, or such other person
or persons as by the said Governor or Company shall be thereunto named
and appointed, and in such ship or ships or other vessel or vessels only
as shall be named in such bills or writings....
And for the better encouragement of the said [Fellowship] to proceed in
exportation of cloths dressed and dyed here in this our Realm, which
will tend so much to the common weal of the same, and which by the said
Company or Fellowship cannot as yet in such full manner be perfected as
that they can have sufficient vent for the said dressed and dyed cloths
in foreign parts without a temporary liberty to export cloths white,
until by continuance of time they shall be further enabled and
encouraged, We do by these presents ... give and grant unto the said
[Fellowship etc.] full and free liberty, licence, power, privilege,
authority and immunity that they or any of them, by themselves or by
their or any of their servants, factors or agents, at their or any of
their liberties and pleasures yearly and every year shall and may
provide and buy, or cause to be provided and bought, within this our
Realm of England and other our Dominions for their or any of their
proper use or uses the number of thirty thousand woollen cloths unrowed
unbarbed and unshorn and not fully and ready dressed and wrought, of
which said number of thirty thousand cloths yearly five and twenty
thousand shall be every cloth above the value or price of six pounds of
lawful money of England, and the number of five thousand cloths residue
of the said yearly number of thirty thousand cloths uncoloured or white
above the value or price of four pounds of lawful money of England, or
of any higher or greater prices whatsoever, ... and the same from this
our Realm of England into the towns of Callice and the marches thereof
in the Realm of France and into the countries and towns of Holland
[etc., as above] to transport, send, convey, ship and carry over or
cause to be transported, sent, shipped, conveyed and carried over there
to be by them unladen, discharged, vented, sold ... or otherwise
disposed ... and from thence to freight, lade, ship, return, import and
bring back into this our said Kingdom or into any part thereof all such
wares, commodities, goods and merchandises already not prohibited as to
them or any of them their servants, factors or agents shall seem good,
paying to Us our heirs and successors our duties and customs due and to
be paid for the same, and further paying unto our trusty and
well-beloved Cousin the Earl of Cumberland, his executors or assigns,
for every white unwrought or undressed woollen cloth so to be by them or
any of them shipped or transported out of this Realm under the warrant
of his present licence over and above the said thirty thousand cloths
two shillings and eight pence....
And our will and pleasure is, and We do hereby declare our Royal intent
and meaning to be, and the said [Fellowship, etc.] do covenant, promise
and agree to and with Us our heirs and successors by these presents,
that they and their successors shall from time to time and at all times
do their utmost endeavours that after the end and expiration of the
said three years ensuing, during which the proportion of thirty-six
thousand cloths are undertaken to be exported as is before in these
presents expressed, that their trade of exporting and merchandising into
the foresaid countries, provinces, towns and places aforesaid of woollen
cloths may be wholly reduced unto the venting of such cloths only as
shall be dyed and dressed here within this our Realm and other our
Dominions, so far forth as it shall please God to give them and their
successors ability and the trade encouragement, anything in these
presents contained to the contrary notwithstanding: ...
... Provided also that these our Letters Patents or any matter or thing
therein contained shall not extend to give authority or power to the
said [Fellowship of the King's Merchants, etc.] or to any member or
person of the said Company to transport or carry out of the realm any
cloths, kersies, wares, commodities or merchandises whatsoever, which by
the laws and statutes of this Realm are restrained or prohibited to be
transported or carried over the seas, otherwise than according to the
true intent and meaning of these presents, unless they shall obtain and
procure licence for the same.
[Footnote 312: Printed in the publications of the Selden Society, Vol.
28, pp. 78-98.]
17. SIR JULIUS CAESAR'S PROPOSALS FOR REVIVING THE TRADE IN CLOTHS
[_Lansdowne MSS._,[313] _clii. 56, f. 271_], 1616.
Means to avoid the present stand of cloth--
(1) Commissioners honest and substantial and sufficient for skill to be
presently appointed for the view of the cloth weekly to Blackwell Hall,
and the faulty cloth to be returned upon the clothier with imprisonment
till he put in security to answer it in the law; and the good to be
justly valued, according to the usual prices for these two years past,
and the new Merchant Adventurers enforced to buy the same.
(2) So many of the new Merchant Adventurers as shall refuse to lay out
for cloth such sums as they have subscribed for to be presently
committed, to abide the censure of the Star Chamber for abusing of his
Majesty and the State in so desperate and dangerous a case as this is.
(3) The fines of them to be employed in the buying of cloth for the
riddance of the market.
(4) So many in London as are thought worth 10,000l. to be moved by my
Lord Mayor to buy up clothes for 1,000l. at the least; especially all
woollen drapers of half that worth, viz., 5,000l.
(5) Express commandment and present example of King's Counsellors and
Courtiers and all their servants to wear nothing but broad cloth in
their gowns, cloaks, girths, robes or breeches till Easter next, to the
end that woollen drapers may be encouraged to buy the cloth made or to
be made before that day; or else on pain of imprisonment not to come
into Court....
(10) And if it be doubtful whether these proceedings agree with law, the
answer is that they do, for the law giveth place to parlous cases of
State and leaveth them to be provided for by the wisdom of the King and
his Counsellors; and _Salus reipublicæ suprema lex est_, which is a
sufficient answer to all cavillers and peevish lawyers.
[Footnote 313: Quoted, Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries_, pp. 192-3.]
18. THE GRANT OF A MONOPOLY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP [_W.H. Price,
The English Patents of Monopoly, Appendix W._], 1623.
James, by the grace of God, etc., to all to whom these presents shall
come, greeting.
Whereas We, by our letters patents ... did give and grant unto our
well-beloved subjects Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors,
administrators, and assigns, full and free liberty, license, power,
privilege, and authority that they, ... and none other, by themselves,
their deputies, servants, factors, or workmen, should or might at all
and every time and times thereafter, and from time to time, during the
term of twenty and one years next ensuing the date of the said letters
patents, ... use, exercise, practice, and put in use ... the mistery,
art, way, means, and trade of "making of hard soap with the material
called barilla, and without the use of any fire in the boiling and
making thereof, and also of the making of soft soap without the use of
fire in the boiling thereof," with such privileges and clauses as in
said letters patents are contained and may more at large appear: And
whereas since the granting of the said letters patents the said Roger
Jones and Andrew Palmer, and such others, their assistants, as by great
expense and travail have aided and assisted them in perfecting the said
invention, have found out and added to their former invention many
particulars conducing much to the profitableness and perfection of the
work, both in the use of native and home commodities of this kingdom in
the working and composition of the said soaps, and thereby in sparing
and saving many thousands yearly which are now expended on foreign
commodities bought and brought from beyond the seas, and employed here
in the making of soap, in the manner now ordinarily used; ... Forasmuch
as such profitable inventions are not at once and at the first brought
to their full perfection, We hold it fit in justice and honour to give
all encouragement to such our loving subjects as shall employ their
travails, industries, and purses to the furthering of the common good,
and to reward them to the full with the fruits of their own labours; and
forasmuch also as the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer have now
approved their inventions and skill to be such as deserveth
encouragement, their soap, made (_blank_) the material of our kingdom
only, being found to be as sweet and good as the best soft soap now
already made, and to extend further in the use thereof, as they in the
behalf of themselves and their assistants have also made offer unto us
to respect our own particular profit, in such measure as that the loss
we may receive in our customs and other duties by the not importing of
foreign commodities for the making of soap as in former times, shall by
their industries be recommended unto us, our heirs, and successors, in
certainty with good advantage; and our loving subjects, who have long
complained of the bad and stinking soap now ordinarily in use, shall
have good, sweet, and serviceable soap for their money, and yet shall
not have the price thereof raised upon them above the usual rate of the
best sweet soap now made and sold by the soap-boilers.
Know ye, that We, for the considerations aforesaid, of our especial
grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and
by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant
unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer on the behalf of themselves
and their assistants, full and free liberty, license, power, privilege
and authority that they, the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their
executors, administrators, and assigns, by themselves or their deputies,
servants, factors, or workmen, and none other, shall and may at all and
every time and times hereafter, and from time to time during the term of
twenty and one years next ensuing the date of these presents, at their
own proper costs and charges, use, exercise, practice, and put in use,
within our said realms of England and Ireland and dominion of Wales, and
our town of Berwick, at their liberty and pleasure, the mistery, art,
way and means of making of hard soap and soft soap, as well with the
materials and in such manner as in the said former letters patents are
expressed, as also of burning and preparing of bean-straw, pea-straw,
kelp, fern, and other vegetables to be found in our own dominions, into
ordinary ashes or into potashes, and with the said materials of the
ashes of bean or pea straw, and kelp, fern, and all other vegetables
whatsoever not formerly and ordinarily used or practised within these
our realms and dominions to make soap hard or soft, at their will and
pleasure, and in such way or form as they have invented or devised; and
also of the using of the assay glass for trying of their lye and making
of hard and soft soap by their said new inventions, in the way of making
of the said soaps by sundry motions, and not boiling of the same with
the expense of much fuel, in such sort as was formerly accustomed by
such as now usually make soap in and about our city of London and
elsewhere in our said dominions; ... and to the end that this our
pleasure may be the better effected, and the said Roger Jones and Andrew
Palmer may the more fully enjoy the benefit of this our grant, We will,
and for us, our heirs and successors, do straightly charge, inhibit, and
command, and do also of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere
motion, for us, our heirs and successors, grant to the said Roger Jones
and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, that no
person or persons whatsoever born within any our realms or dominions,
nor any other person or persons whatsoever, either denizens or strangers
born in any foreign realm or country whatsoever, of what estate, degree,
or condition soever he or they be or shall be, other than the said Roger
Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns or
such as shall by them or some of them be set on work or authorised,
shall or may, at any time or times during the said term of one and
twenty years hereby granted or mentioned, or intended to be granted,
practice, use, exercise, or put in use the said mistery, art, way,
means, or trade of making the said hard or soft soaps with any the
materials aforesaid, ... And to the end it may the better appear when
any such soap shall be made contrary to the true intent and meaning of
these presents, for us, our heirs, and successors, give and grant full
liberty, power, and authority unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew
Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, that a stamp or
stamps, seal or seals, to be engraven with a rose and crown, shall be
stamped, sealed, or marked on all the soaps by them or any of them to be
made in manner and form before declared, the better to distinguish their
said soap from all counterfeit soap, either hard or soft, made or to be
made by any person or persons contrary to the true intent and meaning of
these presents or of the letters patents before recited, which seal or
stamp so to be made as aforesaid We do by these presents will and
command be set upon the hard soap, and upon the firkins, barrels, and
other vessels containing the said soft soap so to be made, and shall not
be set upon soaps hard or soft made by any other person or persons
whatsoever contrary to the true intent of these presents, but shall be
set and fixed only upon such soap as shall be from time to time made by
the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators,
or assigns, according as is herein before setdown, and no other; and
further, We do by these presents grant that it shall and may be lawful
to and for the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors,
administrators, or assigns, or any of them, by himself or themselves, or
by his, their, or any of their deputies, factors, or servants, at any
time or times convenient, and from time to time during the said term of
one and twenty years, with assistance of a constable or some other
officer, to enter into all and every place and places, house and houses,
where they or any of them shall have any just cause to suspect any such
hard soap or soft soap, or soap-ashes, or potashes, to be made or
endeavoured to be made or stamped or sealed, or to be sold or uttered or
set to sale, contrary to the true intent and meaning of these presents
or of the letters patents before recited, or any vessels, engines, or
instruments to be erected, framed, or used contrary to the true meaning
hereof, ... and finding any such, to seize the hard soaps and soft
soaps, and potashes, and other ashes hereby granted so made to the use
of us, our heirs, and successors: ... And forasmuch as the public having
an interest herein, which by the enhancing of the prices of the
commodities aforesaid may be prejudiced and damnified, our will and
pleasure is, and we do hereby straightly charge and command, that they
the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators,
and assigns, or any other person or persons by them to be authorised for
the making of the said hard soap or soft soap, shall not, at any time
during the said term of one and twenty years, sell, or cause to be sold,
the said hard soap or soft soap, by them or any of them to be made as
aforesaid, at any higher or dearer rates and prices than hard soap and
soft soap of the best sorts and kinds were most usually sold for, within
the space of seven years now last past before the date of these
presents. And further, We do hereby charge and command all and singular
justices of peace, mayors, sheriffs, constables, headboroughs,
comptrollers, customers, searchers, waiters, and all other officers and
ministers to whom it shall or may appertain, to be aiding and assisting
in all lawful and convenient manner unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew
Palmer, their executors, administrators, deputies, and assigns, in the
due execution of these our letters patents, as they tender our pleasure
and will avoid our indignation and displeasure in the contrary....
19. THE STATUTE OF MONOPOLIES [_21 James I, c. 3, Statutes of the Realm,
Vol. IV, Part. II, pp. 1212-14_], 1623-4.
Forasmuch as your most excellent Majesty, ..., did, in the year of our
Lord God one thousand six hundred and ten, publish in print to the whole
realm and to all posterity, that all grants of monopolies and of the
benefit of any penal laws, or of power to dispense with the law, or to
compound for the forfeiture, are contrary to your Majesty's laws ...;
and whereas your Majesty was further graciously pleased expressly to
command that no suitor should presume to move your Majesty for matters
of that nature: yet nevertheless upon misinformations and untrue
pretences of public good, many such grants have been unduly obtained
and unlawfully put in execution, ...; for avoiding whereof and
preventing of all the like in time to come, may it please your Majesty,
at the humble suit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons
in this present Parliament, that all monopolies and all commissions,
grants, licenses, charters, and letters patents heretofore made or
granted to any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate
whatsoever, of or for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or
using of anything within this realm or the dominion of Wales ... are
altogether contrary to the laws of this realm, and so are and shall be
utterly void and of none effect, and in no wise to be put in use or
execution.
II. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid
that all monopolies and all such commissions, grants, licenses,
charters, letters patents, proclamations, inhibitions, restraints,
warrants of assistance, and all other matters and things tending as
aforesaid and the force and validity of them and every of them ought to
be, and shall be forever hereafter examined, heard, tried, and
determined by and according to the common law of this realm and not
otherwise.
III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that all
person and persons, bodies politic and corporate whatsoever, which now
are or hereafter shall be, shall stand and be disabled and incapable to
have, use, exercise, or put in use any monopoly or any such commission,
grant, license, charters, letters patents, proclamations, inhibition,
restraint, warrant of assistance, or other matter or thing tending as
aforesaid, or any liberty, power, or faculty grounded or pretended to be
grounded upon them or any of them.
IV. [Persons aggrieved by monopolists to recover at Common Law treble
the damages incurred.]
V. Provided nevertheless, and be it declared and enacted that any
declaration before mentioned shall not extend to any letters patents,
and grants of privilege, for the term of one and twenty years or under,
heretofore made of the sole working or making of any manner of new
manufacture within this realm, to the first and true inventor or
inventors of such manufactures which others at the time of making of
such letters patent and grants did not use, so they be not contrary to
the law nor mischievous to the state, by raising of the prices of
commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient, but
that the same shall be of such force as they were or should be if this
act had not been made, and of none other: and if the same were made for
more than one and twenty years, that then the same for the term of one
and twenty years only, to be accounted from the date of the first
letters patents and grants thereof made, shall be of such force as they
were or should have been if the same had been made but for the term of
one and twenty years only, and as if this act had never been had or
made, and of none other.
VI. Provided also, and be it declared and enacted, that any declaration
before mentioned shall not extend to any letters patents and grants of
privileges for the term of fourteen years or under, hereafter to be made
of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within
this realm, to the true and first inventor and inventors of such
manufactures which others at the time of making such letters patents and
grants shall not use, so as also they be not contrary to the law nor
mischievous to the state, by raising prices of commodities at home, or
hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient, the said fourteen years to be
accounted from the date of the first letters patents or grants of such
privilege hereafter to be made, but that the same shall be of such force
as they should be if this act had never been made and of none other.
VII. [This Act not to be prejudicial to grants conferred by Act of
Parliament.]
VIII. [This Act not to extend to warrants directed to judges to compound
for forfeitures under penal statutes.]
IX. Provided also, and it is hereby further intended, declared, and
enacted that this act or anything therein contained shall not in any
wise extend or be prejudicial unto the city of London, or to any city,
borough, or town corporate within this realm, for or concerning any
grants, charters, or letters patents to them or any of them made or
granted, or for or concerning any custom or customs used by or within
them or any of them or unto any corporations, companies, or fellowships
of any art, trade, occupation, or mistery, or to any companies or
societies of merchants within this realm, erected for the maintenance,
enlargement, or ordering of any trade of merchandise, but that the same
charters, customs, corporations, companies, fellowships and societies,
and their liberties, privileges, powers and immunities shall be and
continue of such force and effect as they were before the making of
this act, and of none other: anything before in this act contained to
the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
X. [This Act not to extend to grants relating to printing, the
manufacture of saltpetre or gunpowder, the casting of ordnance or shot,
or to offices other than those created by royal proclamation.]
XI. [This Act not to extend to grants relating to alum or alum-mines.]
XII. [This Act not to extend to the fellowship of the Host-men of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or to grants or commissions relating to the
licensing of taverns.]
XIII. [This Act not to extend to any grant or privilege concerning the
manufacture of glass given to Sir Robert Mansell, or to a grant for the
transportation of calf-skins made to James Maxwell.]
XIV. [This Act not to extend to a grant concerning the making of smalt
made to Abraham Baker, nor to a grant concerning the melting and casting
of iron ore made to Edward, Lord Dudley.]
20. AN ACT FOR THE FREE TRADE OF WELSH CLOTHES,[314] [_2 James I, c. 9,
Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part II, pp. 1218-19_], 1623-4.
Whereas the trade of making of Welsh clothes, friezes, linings and
plains within the principality and dominion of Wales, is and hath been
of long continuance, in the using and exercising whereof many thousands
of the poorer sort of the inhabitants there in precedent ages have been
set on work in spinning, carding, weaving, fulling, cottoning and
shearing, whereby they (having free liberty to sell them to whom and
where they would) not only relieved and maintained themselves and their
families in good sort, but also grew to such wealth and means of living
as they were thereby enabled to pay and discharge all duties, mizes,
charges, subsidies and taxations which were upon them imposed or rated
in their several counties, parishes and places wherein they dwelled, for
the relief of the poor, and the service of the King and the
commonwealth; and whereas also the drapers of the town of Shrewsbury, in
the county of Salop, have of late obtained some orders of restraint,
whereby the inhabitants of Wales find themselves much prejudiced in the
freedom of their markets for buying and selling of their clothes, to
their great damage, as was verified by the general voice of the knights
and burgesses of the twelve shires of Wales and of the county of
Monmouth: for remedy whereof, be it declared and enacted by the King's
most excellent Majesty, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in
this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same,
that it shall and may be lawful to and for all and every his Majesty's
subjects inhabiting or dwelling, or which at any time shall inhabit or
dwell within the said dominion of Wales, or any part thereof, freely to
sell by way of barter or otherwise, all or any their Welsh clothes,
cottons, friezes, linings or plains, at their wills and pleasures, to
any person or persons who lawfully by the laws and statutes of this
realm may buy the same; and that it shall and may also be lawful for any
person and persons who by the laws or statutes of this realm may
lawfully buy such clothes, and other the premises, freely to buy the
same of any person or persons inhabiting or dwelling, or which hereafter
shall inhabit or dwell, within the said dominion of Wales: any charter,
grant, act, order or any thing else heretofore made or done, or
hereafter to be made or done, to the contrary notwithstanding.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall and
may be lawful to and for any person or persons using or which shall use
the trade of merchandize, to transport into any the parts beyond the
seas any of the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings and
plains, out of any ports or havens within this realm of England or
dominion of Wales, or out of any the members thereof, where his majesty,
his heirs or successors, have or shall then have officers attending to
search, view and control the same, and to receive the King's Majesty's
customs and other duties due and payable for the same; so as always the
customs and other duties payable for such clothes and other premises so
to be transported, shall be justly and duly paid for the same; and so as
always the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings and plains,
before the transporting thereof, shall be fulled, cottoned and sheared
as in former times they have used to be; and that no person shall
transport the said clothes in other manner than as aforesaid, upon pain
to forfeit the whole value of such clothes so to be transported contrary
to the true meaning of this act....
Provided always, that this act or anything therein contained, shall not
give power or authority to any foreigner or foreigners to buy and sell
by way of retail any the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings
or plains within the town of Shrewsbury, or in any other corporate town
or privileged place, contrary to any lawful charter, grant, custom,
privilege or liberty in the same town or place now being or used.
[Footnote 314: This Act should be read in connection with the Statute of
Monopolies (No. 19) and with the Instructions touching the Bill for Free
Trade (No. 15), as representing the ideas of parliament as to the
desirability of Free Trade within the country.]
21. THE ECONOMIC POLICY OF STRAFFORD IN IRELAND [_Knowler, Letters and
Despatches of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, Vol. II, pp. 19, 20,
Letters of Strafford to the Master of the Rolls, July 25, 1636_], 1636.
The last of my generals was that of trade, which I discoursed in this
manner; I let them see how the merchants trading thither had been
spoiled by the pirates before my coming, as well in his Majesty's
harbours, as at sea, a ship fired in the port of Dublin, in sight of His
Majesty's Castle, and there continued burning, and the pirate lading and
returning from the ship two days together to the mighty scandal of the
State; that the shipping for want of money came so late in the year,
that all the mischief was done before they came, which commonly was not
before the latter end of July, but that now the monies duly answered
unto the Exchequer here, the ships had been for these two last years
upon the coast by the beginning of March, five or six of the
_Biscayners_ taken within the Channel, imprisoned, and after released
upon their promise not to exercise any hostility hereafter within the
Channel; a great ship of the Duke of _Macqueda_ taken on the west coast,
and thereby so discouraged them, that the merchant hath not lost
anything since my arrival there, nor were so much as heard of a
_Biscayner_ these last two summers. This hath been a means that Trade
hath increased exceedingly, and so will still (if we have peace), to the
honour of his Majesty, and the enriching of his people.
That the trade here was not only much greater, but rightly conditioned,
the native commodities exported being in value at least a third, if not
double, the value to the foreign commodities imported; a certain sign
that the Commonwealth gathers upon their neighbours.
That there was little or no manufacture amongst them, but some small
beginnings towards a clothing trade, which I had and so should still
discourage all I could, unless otherwise directed by his Majesty and
their lordships, in regard it would trench not only upon the clothings
of England, being our staple commodity, so as if they should manufacture
their own wools, which grew to very great quantities, we should not only
lose the profit we made now by indraping their wools, but his Majesty
lose extremely by his customs, and, in conclusion, it might be feared
they would beat us out of the trade itself, by underselling us, which
they were well able to do. Besides in reasons of State so long as they
did not indrape their own wools, they must of necessity fetch their
clothing from us, and consequently in a sort depend upon us for their
livelihood, and thereby become so dependent upon this Crown as they
could not depart from us without nakedness to themselves and children.
Yet have I endeavoured another way to set them on work, and that is by
bringing in the making and trade of linen cloth, the rather in regard
the women are all naturally bred to spinning, that the Irish earth is
apt for bearing of flax, and that this manufacture would be in the
conclusion rather a benefit than other to this Kingdom. I have therefore
sent for the flax seed into Holland, being of a better sort than we have
any, sown this year a thousand pounds worth of it (finding by some I sew
the last year, that it takes there very well), I have sent for workmen
out of the Low Countries and forth of France, and set up already six or
seven looms, which, if please God to bless us this year, I trust so to
invite them to follow it, when they see the great profit arising
thereby, as that they shall generally take to it and employ themselves
that way, which if they do I am confident it will prove a mighty
business, considering that in all probability we shall be able to
undersell the linen cloths of Holland and France at least twenty in the
hundred.
My humble advice in the conclusion for the increase of trade was, that
his Majesty should not suffer any act of hostility to be offered to any
merchants or their goods within the Channel, which was to be preserved
and privileged, as the greatest of his Majesty's ports, in the same
nature and property as the Venetian State do their Gulf, and the King
of Denmark his Sound, and therefore I humbly besought his Majesty and
their lordships that it might accordingly be remembered and provided for
in all future treaties with foreign princes.
Upon the summing up of all which, I did represent that Kingdom to his
Majesty and the lords as a growing people that would increase beyond all
expectation if it were now a little favoured in this their first spring,
and not discouraged by harder usage than either English or Scotch found.
The instances I gave were the imposition upon coals, wherein the Irish
were not treated as English, but as foreigners, by imposing four
shillings upon a tun, which was full as much as either French or Dutch
paid; next, that excessive rate set upon a horse or mare to be
transported forth of this Kingdom, so as I did not know how the army
should be provided for the King's service, there not being in that
Kingdom of their own breed to furnish those occasions; and lastly
eighteenpence set upon every live beast that comes thence, all which
will be a great discouragement for any to transplant themselves and
children into a country where they shall presently be dealt withal as
aliens, be denied the favours and the graces afforded to other subjects,
and utterly quell and cut off any increase of trade by nipping it and
overburdening it thus in the bud.
22. REVOCATION OF COMMISSIONS, PATENTS AND MONOPOLIES GRANTED BY THE
CROWN [_Soc. Ant. Proc. Coll._,[315] _April 15, 1639_].
Whereas divers grants, licenses, privileges, and commissions have been
procured from his Majesty,.., which since upon experience hath been
found prejudicial and inconvenient to his people, contrary to his
Majesty's gracious intention in granting the same; And whereas also upon
like suggestions, there hath been obtained from his Majesty, the lords
and others of his Privy Council, divers warrants and letters of
assistance for the execution of those grants, licenses, privileges, and
commissions according to his Majesty's good intention and meaning
therein.
Forasmuch as his most excellent Majesty (whose royal ear and providence
is ever intent on the public good of his people) doth now discern that
the particular grants, licenses, and commissions hereafter expressed,
have been found in consequence far from those grounds and reasons
wherefore they were founded, and in their execution have been
notoriously abused, he is now pleased of his mere grace and favour to
all his loving subjects (with the advice of his Privy Council) by his
regal power to publish and declare the several commissions and licenses
hereafter following, whether the same have passed his great seal, privy
seal, signet, and sign manual, or any of them, to be from hence utterly
void, revoked, and hereby determined.
That is to say:--
A commission for cottages and inmates touching scrivenors and brokers.
A commission for compounding with offenders touching tobacco.
A commission for compounding with offenders touching butter.
A commission for compounding with offenders touching logwood.
A commission for compounding with sheriffs for selling under-sheriffs'
places.
A commission for compounding with offenders for destruction of woods for
iron-works.
A commission for concealments and encroachments within 20 miles of
London.
A license to transport sheep and lambskins.
A commission to take men bound to dress no venison, pheasants, or
partridges in inns, alehouses, ordinaries, and taverns.
A commission touching licensing of wine-casks.
A commission for licensing of brewers.
A license for sole transporting of lamperns[316] and all proclamations,
warrants, or letters of assistance for putting in execution of the said
commissions or licenses be from henceforth declared void, determined,
and hereby revoked to all intents and purposes.
And his Majesty in like favour and ease to his subjects is further
pleased to declare his royal will and pleasure to be, that the
particular grants hereafter mentioned (upon feigned suggestions,
obtained from him, to public damages) whereby the same have passed his
Majesty's great seal, privy seal, signet, or sign manual or any of them,
shall not hereafter be put in execution, viz.:
A grant for weighing of hay and straw in London and Westminster and 3
miles compass.
An office of register to the commission for bankrupts in divers counties
of the realm.
An office or grant for gauging of red herrings.
An office or grant for the marking of iron made within the realm.
An office or grant for sealing of bone lace.
A grant for making and gauging of butter casks.
A grant of privilege touching kelp and seaweed.
A grant for sealing of linen cloth.
A grant for gathering of rags.
An office or grant of factor for Scottish merchants.
An office or grant for searching and sealing of foreign hops.
A grant for sealing of buttons.
All grants of fines, penalties, and forfeitures before judgment granted,
or mentioned to be granted, by letters patents, privy seals, signet,
sign manual, or otherwise.
All patents for new inventions not put in practice within 3 years next
after the date of the said grants.
And the several grants of incorporation made unto--
Hatband-makers.
Gutstring-makers.
Spectacle-makers.
Comb-makers.
Tobacco-pipe-makers.
Butchers and Horners.
And his Majesty doth further require and command that there shall be a
proceeding against the said patentees by _quo warranto_ or _scire
facias_ to recall the said grants and patents, unless they will
voluntarily surrender and yield up the same: and also all proclamations,
warrants, or letters of assistance obtained from his Majesty or the
lords and others of his Privy Council for execution thereof, from
henceforth utterly to cease and be determined, and are hereby absolutely
revoked and recalled.
And his Majesty doth further expressly charge and command all and
singular the patentees, grantees, or others any ways interested or
claiming under the aforenamed grants, licenses, or commissions, or any
of them and their deputies, that they or any of them do not at any time
hereafter presume to put in use or execution any of the said grants,
commissions, or licenses, or any thing therein contained, or any
proclamations, warrants, or letters of assistance obtained in that
behalf, upon pain of his Majesty's indignation, and to be proceeded
against as contemners of his Majesty's royal commands, whereof he will
require a strict account. Given at our Manor of York the 9th of April in
the 15th year of our reign, 1639.
[Footnote 315: Quoted, W.H. Price, _English Patents of Monopoly_,
Appendix B.]
[Footnote 316: _i.e._ lampreys.]
23. ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING AN EXCISE [_Firth and Rait, Acts and
Ordinances of the Interregnum, Vol. I, pp. 202-14_], 1643.
An ordinance for the speedy raising and levying of monies, set by way of
charge or new impost, on the several commodities mentioned in the
schedule hereunto annexed; as well for the securing of trade as for the
maintenance of the forces raised for the defence of the King and
Parliament, both by sea and land, as for and towards the payments of the
debts of the commonwealth, for which the public faith is, or shall be,
given.
The Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament, taking into their
serious consideration the great danger that this kingdom lyeth under,
through the implacable malice and treachery of Papists and other wicked
persons; ... And forasmuch as many great levies have been already made
... which the well-affected party to the Protestant religion have
hitherto willingly paid, to their great charge, and the malignants of
this kingdom have hitherto practised by all cunning ways and means how
to evade and elude the payment of any part thereof; By reason whereof
the Lords and Commons do hold it fit that some constant and equal way
for the levying of monies for the future maintenance of the Parliament
forces ... may be ... established, whereby the said malignants and
neutrals may be brought to and compelled to pay their proportionable
parts of the aforesaid charge....
I. Be it therefore ordered, ordained and declared by the said Lords and
Commons, that the several rates and charges in a schedule hereunto
annexed and contained shall be set and laid ... upon all and every the
commodities in the said schedule particularly expressed....
II. Be it further ordained ... that ... an office ... shall be ...
erected ... in the City of London, called ... by the name of the Office
of Excise or New Impost, whereof there shall be eight Commissioners to
govern the same....
V. That the like office and so many of such officers shall be ...
erected ... in all the counties of the realm of England, dominion of
Wales, and town of Berwick, and all other the cities ... as the said
eight Commissioners ... think fit to nominate....
VII. That the said office in all places where it shall be placed shall
be kept open in the week days from eight ... till eleven, and from two
till five ..., for the entering and registering the names and surnames,
as well of the sellers, buyers and makers of all and every the
commodities in the said schedule mentioned, and of the several qualities
thereof, as for the receiving of all monies as shall be due upon the
sale....
XI. That if any of the sellers of the said commodities shall refuse or
neglect to make a true entry of the said commodities ... that then he or
they ... shall forfeit to the use of the commonwealth four times the
true value of the goods and commodities so by him or them neglected to
be entered or delivered....
XV. That this ordinance shall begin to take place and effect from the
25th of July, 1643, and from thence to continue only for three years
then next ensuing, unless both Houses of Parliament, during that time,
shall declare that it shall continue for any longer time....
In this schedule is contained the charge and excise which ... is set and
imposed, to be paid on the several commodities hereafter mentioned.
[Here follows schedule of rates and commodities.]
PART III: 1660-1846
SECTION I
INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
1. Defoe's Account of the West Riding Cloth Industry, 1724--2.
Defoe's Account of the Woollen Trade, _temp._ George II.--3. Defoe's
Account of the Corn Trade, _temp._ George II.--4. Defoe's Account of
the Coal Trade, _temp._ George II.--5. A Description of Middlemen in
the Woollen Industry, 1739.--6. Report on the Condition of Children
in Lancashire Cotton Factories, 1796--7. The Newcastle Coal Vend,
1771-1830--8. The old Apprenticeship System in the Woollen Industry,
1806--9. A Petition of Cotton Weavers, 1807--10. Depression of Wages
and its Causes in the Cotton Industry, 1812--11. Evidence of the
Condition of Children in Factories, 1816--12. Change in the Cotton
Industry and the Introduction of Power-loom Weaving, 1785-1807--13.
Evidence by Factory Workers of the Condition of Children, 1832--14.
Women's and Children's Labour in Mines, 1842--15. Description of the
Condition of Manchester by John Robertson, Surgeon, 1840.
The documents in this section are intended to illustrate changes in
industry and their effects on social conditions between 1660 and 1846.
Eight extracts illustrate the condition of industries in the period,
their structure, organisation and methods (Nos. 1 to 5, 7, 8 and 12).
The first five refer to the early part of the eighteenth century and
have a double interest. They record the old conditions in the woollen
industry and the wool, corn and coal trades, and enable us to estimate
the completeness of the change which was coming (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
They show also how far advanced already was the organisation of markets
and middlemen, and vertical control. A description of the conditions of
the old apprenticeship system in the woollen industry is added (No. 8).
Evidence before Committees on the Coal Trade gives an account of the
important monopoly agreements and limitations of output which the
peculiar conditions of the industry produced (No. 7). An example of the
mechanical inventions which revolutionised industry at the close of the
period is taken from an autobiographical pamphlet by a pioneer in
power-loom cotton weaving (No. 12).
The pressure of industrial change on human life had been felt for some
time before the application of new motive-power to machinery took full
effect. The fluctuations of the cotton weaving industry and the
depression of wages, aggravated by the French wars and trade
restrictions, are illustrated by a petition of weavers (No. 9) and by
evidence before a committee on the Orders in Council (No. 10). The rest
of the extracts refer chiefly to the employment of children under the
new industrial conditions. The report of Dr. Perceval in 1796 (No. 6)
helped to produce the original Factory Act (See Pt. III, Section III,
No. 9). The evidence of Peel and Owen before the committee of 1816 is
given as the testimony of exceptional employers (No. 11). It supplements
the picture painted by children, parents and overseers before Sadler's
committee (No. 13). The Commission of 1842 (No. 14) supplies evidence of
the conditions under which women and children worked in the coal mines.
A brief description by a surgeon of the condition of Manchester in 1840
is added as giving some indication of the part played by housing
conditions in the Industrial Revolution (No. 15).
AUTHORITIES
On Industrial Organisation the principal modern writers are Unwin,
_Industrial Organisation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_;
Cunningham, _English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times_; Mantoux,
_La Révolution Industrielle_; Toynbee, _The Industrial Revolution_;
Marx, _Capital_, Vol. II; Hobson, _The Evolution of Modern
Capitalism_, _Social England_ (edited Traill); H. Levy, _Monopoly and
Competition_. Consult also Smiles, _Lives of the Engineers_, _Lives
of Boulton and Watt_, _Industrial Biography_; Meteyard, _Life of
Wedgwood_; Chapman, _The Cotton Industry_; Galloway, _Annals of
Coalmining_; Boyd, _History of the Coal Trade_; Lloyd, _The Cutlery
Trades_; Leone Levi, _History of British Commerce_; Porter, _The
Progress of the Nation_, and _The Victoria County History_, _passim_
(articles on social and economic history and on industries). For
social conditions and changes consult Mantoux, Cunningham, Marx, and
other writers above-mentioned, and Hutchins, _The Public Health
Agitation_; Cooke Taylor, _The Factory System_ and _Introduction to
the Factory System_; Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_.
Bibliographies are given by Cunningham, _op. cit._, Part II; Unwin,
_op. cit._; Mantoux, _op. cit._; _Social England_; Hutchins and
Harrison, _History of Factory Legislation_; Webb, _op. cit._;
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. X.
_Contemporary._--(1) The chief printed documentary evidence is to be
found in the numerous reports of Committees and Commissions. For
children's employment see the following Reports: on the State of
Children in Manufactories, 1816 (III); on the Bill to regulate the
labour of Children, 1832; on Children in Factories, 1833 (XX and
XXI); on Children in Mines and Manufactories, 1842 (XV, XVI, XVII);
on Children's Employment, 1843 (XII-XV). On conditions of wages and
employment see Reports on Petitions; of Framework Knitters,
1778-1779; of Woolcombers, 1794; of Calico Printers, 1804 (V) and
1806 (III); of Hand-loom Weavers: 1834 (X) and 1835 (XIII), 1839
(XIII) and 1840 (XXII and XXIV); also Reports on the Apprenticeship
Laws, 1813 (IV); on the Woollen Manufacture, 1806 (III); on Silk and
Ribbon Weavers, 1818 (X). The organisation of the Coal Industry is
described in Reports on the Coal Trade. See also the Letter Books of
Holroyd and Hill (ed. Heaton, Halifax Bankfield Museum Notes, Series
II, No. 3).
(2) Contemporary literary evidence for the earlier part of the period
is to be found in Defoe, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great
Britain, and The Complete English Tradesman; Smith, Memoirs of Wool
(a collection); Young, Tour through the North of England, gives a
brief survey of the Country in 1770. The changes in industrial
methods are described in W. Radcliffe, Origin of the New System of
Manufacture, commonly called Power-loom Weaving, Memoir of Edmund
Cartwright, and Histories of the Cotton Manufactures by Ure and
Baines. Life under the new conditions is described by Gaskell, The
Manufacturing Population, and Artizans and Machinery, and Owen,
Observations on the Manufacturing System. See also G. Dyer, The
Complaints of the Poor People of England; C. Hall, The Effects of
Civilisation; J. Brown, Memoir of Robert Blincoe (a child
factory-worker); and, for public health, Kay, Moral and Physical
Condition of the Working Classes; Richardson, The Health of Nations
(Chadwick's writings); Reports 1800 (X) and 1830 (VII); Sanitary
Conditions in large towns are described in Reports on Health of
Towns, 1840 (XI) and 1845 (XVIII), and on Sanitary Conditions, 1844
(XVII).
1. DEFOE'S ACCOUNT OF THE WEST RIDING CLOTH INDUSTRY [_D. Defoe, A Tour
Through Great Britain, Vol. III, pp. 144-146, Ed. 1769_], 1724.
From Blackstone Edge to Halifax is eight miles; and all the way, except
from Sowerby to Halifax, is thus up hill and down; so that, I suppose,
we mounted up to the clouds, and descended to the water-level, about
eight times in that little part of the journey.
But now I must observe to you, that after we passed the second hill, and
were come down into the valley again; and so still the nearer we came to
Halifax, we found the houses thicker, and the villages greater in every
bottom; and not only so, but the sides of the hills, which were very
steep every way were spread with houses; for the land being divided into
small inclosures, from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more,
every three or four pieces of land had an house belonging to them.
In short, after we had mounted the third hill we found the country one
continued village, though every way mountainous, hardly an house
standing out of a speaking distance from another; and as the day cleared
up, we could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a
piece of cloth, kersie, or shalloon; which are the three articles of
this country's labour.