occasion’d by fraudulent and insufficient Drawers, and abate the
excessive _Præmio_’s which are demanded by Remitters, when they
can take Advantages of Men’s Necessities; and the Taxes receiv’d
in the Country might be quicker and safer paid into the Treasury. And
if the Bank was likewise extended to _Ireland_, it would be an
Advantage to both Kingdoms, which I shall speak farther to, when I
come to discourse of the Trade we drive to that Kingdom.
[Sidenote: By increasing the Silver Coin.]
7. By increasing the Silver Coin of this Kingdom, which are the Tools
wherewith the Trader works: It may at first seem strange, that our
Silver Coin should grow scarcer, at a Time when we are at Peace with
all Nations, our Trade open, and vast Quantities of Bullion yearly
imported; but he that considers how much thereof is carry’d away to
the _East Indies_, and how little Encouragement the Importer hath to
send it to the Mint, when he can sell it for more to export, than
’twill come to when Coined, will cease to wonder; and except some
Care be taken in this matter, we shall soon be reduced to such
Streights, that the Manufacturers must stand still: For though Gold
may serve for large Payments, yet it can’t answer the Occasions of
the Manufacturers, who are to make their Payments among the Poor.
Now if these or such like Methods were made use of, they might very
much encrease our Silver Coin; as
1. Let the _East-India_ Company be limited in the quantity of Bullion
they shall Ship out Yearly, whether the Number of Ships they send be
few or many; and let them be obliged to carry to the Mint such a
suitable Proportion according to what they send away, as to the
Wisdom of the Parliament shall seem meet.
2. Let Incouragement be given to all Persons, who shall Voluntarily
bring Plate or Bullion to be Coined.
3. Let the Plate of Orphans be brought into the Mint, which will tend
to their Advantage as well as to the Nations; whereas now great
Quantities lye dead, and grow out of Fashion before they come to use
it, which will by this means, be turned into ready Money, and being
put into the Bank, the Interest thereof may be Imployed for their
better Maintenance, and the Trade of the Nation will also receive a
Benefit thereby: If it be objected, that ’tis now Sold to
Goldsmiths, I think this makes the Argument for sending it to the
Mint much stronger, because it is much better that it were turned
into the Coin of the Kingdom, then disposed of in any other way.
As for Gold, there is no need to give Encouragement to bring it to
the Mint, ’tis only a Commodity, and not the Standard, as Silver
is; besides, ’tis generally worth more here than in any other
Country; and ’tis apparent from the great Quantity thereof which is
Coined yearly more than of Silver, that it is every ones Interest to
send it thither.
[Sidenote: By Discouraging Stock-jobbing.]
8. By discouraging Stock-jobbing; This hath been the Bane of many
good Designs, which began well, and might have been carry’d on to
Advantage, if the Promoters had not fallen off by selling their
Parts, and slighted the first Design, winding themselves out with
Advantage, and leaving the Management to those they had decoy’d in,
who understood nothing of the Business, whereby all fell to the
Ground; which may be prevented (I mean, so far as concerns
Incorporated Stocks) by Laws framed for that end, or by Clauses in
their Charters.
[Sidenote: By preventing the Exportation of Wool.]
9. By strengthening the Laws against the Exportation of Wool, by such
Practicable Methods as may prevent its being done: For seeing the
Nations Interest doth so much depend thereon, no Care can be too
great, nor Methods laid too deep: Laws concerning Trade, whose sole
Strength are Penalties, rarely reach the thing aimed at; but
Practicable Methods, whereby one thing may answer another, and all
conspire to carry on the same Design, hanging like so many Links in a
Chain, that you cannot reach the one, without stepping over the
other, these are more likely to prevent Mischiefs: ’Tis one thing
to punish People when a Fact is committed, and another to prevent
their doing it, by putting them as it were under an Inability; Now
where the Welfare of the Kingdom lies so much at Stake, certainly it
cannot be thought grievous to compel submission to good Methods,
tho’ they may seem troublesome at first.
[Sidenote: The ill Consequences of shipping out our Wooll.]
And that we may the better perceive the Mischiefs that attend the
carrying abroad of Wool unwrought to other Nations, let us consider
the consequences thereof in what is Shipt to _France_; whose Wool
being very coarse, and fit only for Rugs and Blankets, and such
ordinary Cloath, is by mixture with ours and _Irish_, used in the
making of many sorts of Stuffs and Druggets, whereby the Sales of our
Woollen Manufactures are lessened, both there, and in other places
whither we Export them; and by this means, every Pack of Wool sent
thither, works up two besides it self, being chiefly Combed, and
combing Wool, which makes Wool for the _French_ Wool, and the Pinions
thereof serve with their Linnen to make coarse Druggets, like our
Linsey-Woolsey, but the Linnen being Spun Fine, and Coloured, is not
easily discerned; also our Finest Short Wool, being mixt with the
lowest _Spanish_, makes a middling sort of Broad-Cloth, and being
Woven on Worsted Chains, makes their best Druggets, neither of which
could be done with the _French_ Wool only, unless in conjunction with
ours or _Irish_, _Spanish_ Wool being too fine and too Short for
Worsted Stuffs, and unfit for Combing, so that without one of those
two Sorts, there cannot be a Piece of Worsted Stuff or middle
Broad-Cloth made; no other Wool but _English_ or _Irish_ will mix
well with _Spanish_ for Cloth, being originally Raised from a Stock
of _English_ Sheep, the difference, arising from the Nature of the
Land whereon they are Fed; of this we have experience in our own
Nation, where we find, that _Lemster_ Wool is the finest, next, part
of _Shropshire_ and _Staffordshire_, part of _Gloucestershire_,
_Wilts_, _Dorset_ and _Hampshire_, part of _Sussex_, _Kent_,
_Somerset_, _Devon_, and _Cornwall_, these are proper chiefly for
Cloth, some part for Worsted; _Sussex_, _Surry_, _Middlesex_,
_Hertfordshire_, and some other Counties, produce Wool much coarser
and cheaper: But then _Berkshire_, _Buckingham_, _Warwick_, _Oxon_,
_Leicester_, _Nottingham_, _Northampton_, _Lincoln_, and part of
_Kent_ called _Rumney_ Marsh, the Wool in most of these Counties is
so proper for Worsted, that all the World (except _Ireland_) cannot
compare with it, therefore requires our greater care to prevent its
Exportation; and more particularly from _Ireland_, whence it is
exported to our Neighbouring Nations, and sold cheap.
As for the Wool of _North-Britain_, I am not sufficiently verst
therein, to give a true Account of the Nature of it.
[Sidenote: Methods to prevent the Exportation of Wooll.]
I know many Methods have been thought of to prevent this pernicious
Mischief, but all the Laws I have yet seen, seem to reach but half
way, they depend too much on Force and Penalties, and too little on
Method; we must begin deeper, and secure the Wool from the time of
its Growing, till ’tis wrought up into Manufactures, and I think
nothing less than a Register, to be kept in every County, will do it.
Nor will This be attended with so much Trouble and Charge to the
Nation in General, or to private Persons in particular, as may at
first be Thought: The time of Sheering being but once a Year, those
who keep Sheep, may give notice to the Officer appointed for that
District, of the Number of Sheep they have to Sheer, and the day
whereon they intend to do it, that so he may be present to see the
Fleeces Weighed, and to charge them therewith; which charge must
remain upon them till they sell their Wool, and give notice thereof
to the Office, when the next Buyer must be charged, and so _toties
quoties_, till it comes into the hands of him that works it up; And
all this may be done by the Officers of the Excise, in such a manner,
as may cost the Nation little.
And to prevent Frauds, let no parcel of Wool above such a Weight as
the Parliament shall think fit, be carried from place to place, but
in the Day time, nor without a Letpass, or Cocket, setting forth from
whence it came, and whither it is going; and the same Method must
also be extended to _Ireland_, till it is either used there, or Shipt
thither; And if the Wool of both Kingdoms by these or any other
Methods could be secured from being carried abroad, our Manufactures
would find a surer Vent in Foreign Markets, and yield better Prices:
And the Wool of _France_ would lye on their Hands, and become almost
useless; the Credit of the Nation would be raised, and our Factories
abroad courted as much as formerly they have been, because the
Manufactures we Ship out are such, as no Nation can be without, nor
can they then be well supplied elsewhere; they are not things only
for Pleasure, but for Use, and both the Rich and the Poor stand in
need of them; whilst the Profit of this pernicious Practice of
Shipping out the Wool, is sunk in the Pockets of private Men, who
former Laws accounted Felons, and cannot be thought to deserve any
favour from the Nation.
Besides, ’tis well known, that the Exporting our Wool hath by the
ill Consequences thereof abated its Price at Home; This hath been
observed by Calculations made by considerate Men; and the Reason is,
because those Countreys whither it is Shipt, being thereby enabled to
Work up much larger Quantities of their own, the Sale of our
Manufactures are grown slack abroad, and we have been forced to Sell
them cheaper, which beat down the Prices both of Wool and Labour;
whereas, if we had kept our Wool at Home, this had been prevented;
And it must be allowed, that it was not our Interest to fall our
Manufactures, if we had been the only Sellers; for according as they
yield in Price, so is the Wealth of the Nation advanced, which our
Forefathers well knew, when they made Laws to prohibit the
Exportation of Wool, which cannot be too much strengthned, or
strongly put in Execution.
[Sidenote: By managing Treaties of Peace to the Advantage of Trade.]
10. By taking Care, that in all Treaties of Peace, and other
Negotiations with Foreign Princes, due Regard be had to our Trade and
Manufactures; That our Merchants be well treated by the Governments
where they reside; That all things be made easy to them, and both
their Liberties and Properties secured; That our Manufactures be not
Prohibited, or Burthened with unreasonable Taxes, which is the same
in Effect; That speedy Justice be done in recovering Debts contracted
amongst the Natives, and punishing Abuses put on our Factories by
them; These are pressures our Trade hath formerly groaned under,
whereby the Merchants abroad, and Manufacturers at home, have been
much discouraged, and the _English_ Nation hath been forced to
truckle under the _French_ in some Foreign Parts, only because that
King sooner resented Injuries done to his Trading Subjects, and took
more care to demand Reparation, than some former Reigns have done;
But Thanks be to God, we have both Power and Opportunity to do the
same; and there is no cause to doubt His Majesties Royal
Inclinations, to make use of Both for the Good of his Merchants, when
things are duly represented to Him.
[Sidenote: Navigation.] [Sidenote: Manning our Ships of War.]
And thus I have run through the several Parts of our Inland Trade,
and shewed, that the Profit thereof arises chiefly from our Product
and Manufactures; Before I proceed to our Foreign Trade, I shall
speak something of Navigation, which is the Medium between both: This
is carried on by Ships and Sailors, the former are the Sea-Waggons,
whereby we Transport and carry Commodities from one Market to
another, and the latter are the Waggoners who drive and manage them;
These are a sort of Jolly Fellows, who are generally Bold in their
Undertakings, and go through any Kind of Labour in their own way,
with a great deal of Cheerfulness, are undaunted by Storms and
Tempests, the Sea being as it were their Element, and are allow’d
by all to be the best Navigators in the World; they are our Wealth in
Peace, and our Defence in War, and ought to be more encouraged than
they are in both, but especially in the latter, which might be done,
if better Methods were used to engage them in the Service, and better
Treatment when they are there; Now I should think, if no Man was
forced into the Kings Ships till he had been Three Years at Sea, nor
to stay there above that time without his free Consent, and then to
be permitted to take a Merchants Imployment so much longer, and so
_toties quoties_, ’twould Encourage them to come willingly into the
Service, which they look upon now to be a Slavery, whereto they are
bound for their Lives; This, and the manner of Pressing them, hinders
very much the making of Sailors, Landmen not caring to put their
hands to the Oar, lest the next Day they should be halled away to the
Fleet, tho’ they understand nothing of the Sea; By this Means our
Men of War would be Man’d with able Seamen, and not with such who
only stand in the way, and are useless, when they are most wanted;
Nor do I take Embargoes to be any helps towards it, for many Sailors
do then lye hid, who would appear to serve in Merchant Ships, and
might be easily met with at the return of their Voyages; By these
means in a short time there would be a double set of Mariners, enough
both for the Service of the Fleet and of Trade, the last of which
would every Year breed more.
This would also prevent great Mischiefs, which arise from pressing
Sailors out of Merchants Ships whilst on their Voyages, many of them
being thereby lost at Sea, and others have been detained in the
_West-Indies_, to the discouragement of Trade; And it would also
prevent an other Mischief, too much Practiced abroad, where Captains
of Men of War press Sailors from one Merchant Ship, only to make
Advantage by Selling them to another.
[Sidenote: Outland Trade.]
I come now to our Outland Trade, or the Trade we drive with Foreign
Countries.
[Sidenote: How this Kingdom may be said to be enrich’d by our
Outland Trade.]
Here ’tis necessary to enquire, how each doth encourage our Product
and Manufactures, how our Navigation, what Commodities we receive in
Returns, and how the Ballance of our Trade stands with either, that
so we may be the better able to know, which of them we ought to
encourage, and which to discourage; I shall therefore lay down such
general Rules, as I presume will be allowed by all Unbiassed Persons;
as,
1. That Trade is an Advantage to this Kingdom, which takes off our
Product and Manufactures.
2. Which supplies us with such Commodities as we use in making our
Manufactures, and encreases our Bullion.
3. Which Incourages Navigation, and breeds up Sailors.
And consequently, any Trade which Exports little or none of our
Product or Manufactures, nor supplies us with things necessary for
the latter, nor Incourages Navigation, cannot be supposed to be
profitable to the Kingdom in General, tho’ perhaps it may be so to
particular Persons; especially if it carries away our Bullion.
[Sidenote: East-Indies.]
I shall begin with the _East-India_ Trade, which I take to be very
prejudical to us, as ’tis now driven; because it exports our
Bullion, spends little of our Product or Manufactures, and brings in
Commodities perfectly Manufactured, which hinder the Consumption of
our own, and discourage the Wearing such as are purchased with them;
the chief Profit thereof arising from Underselling the Labour of our
Poor, because ’tis bought there cheaper, than by reason of the
Value of our Lands, and the Prices of Provisions, they are able to
work here. But having spoken fully of this in a former Discourse, and
the Parliament having since been pleased, by an Act made in the 10th
and 11th Years of his late Majesty King _William_, to prohibit the
Wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, Stuffs mixt with Silk or Herba, of
the Manufacture of _Persia_, _China_, and _India_, and all Callicoes
Painted, Dy’d, Printed or Stained there. The Reason of which is in
the said Act set forth to be, The great Detriment the Nation received
as the Trade was then manag’d, by exhausting the Treasure thereof,
and taking away the Labour of the People, whereby very many of the
Manufacturers were become excessively burthensome and chargeable to
their respective Parishes, and others compell’d to seek for
Employment in Foreign Parts, I shall not now repeat what I then
wrote, but will consider how far the Remedy they then provided hath
answer’d the End.
The making this Law gave a new Life to our Manufactures, and would
have given more, if the true Intent of the Parliament had been
answered: But we have since found that it has not; for it neither
keeps our Treasure at home, nor prevents those Commodities from being
worn here, which they design’d it should; and I very much question,
whether any thing less than a total Prohibition of their Importation
will do it; for though they are directed to be Exported again, yet
there is great Reason to believe, that they are privately brought
back, both from _Ireland_, our Plantations, and other Places to which
they are sent, to the Loss of his Majesty’s Customs, and the
Prejudice of the Stainers and Painters here, besides the Injury to
our Manufactures: Otherwise, how come such great Quantities to be
worn and used here, when the Stock on hand hath been so long since
spent?
There are other Commodities, which the Company may trade in, and the
Tract of Land within their Charter is large enough to afford an
advantagious Commerce there, the Profits whereof might be returned
hither, in things no way injurious to our Manufactures, such as
Raw-Silk, Indigo, Pepper, Salt-Peter, Spices, Drugs, China-Wares,
Coffee, Tea, and many other things, if they were industrious to make
Discoveries, as private Merchants would do, if the Trade lay open;
and I believe it will not be disputed, that greater Quantities of
Raw-Silk, have been brought thence since the Making of that Law, than
were used to be done before.
I know it hath been alleadg’d, That by the Exportation of those
Manufactures again, more Bullion in _specie_ is brought into this
Kingdom, than is carry’d out for the buying them in _India_; but
this was never yet made out, and it would be much to the Satisfaction
of the People, who daily see their Bullion carried away, and also for
the Honour of the Company, that it was done; which if it be really
so, might be set forth in this, or any other Method that the
Parliament shall think fit.
1. Let them give an Account what Quantities of Bullion they export on
every Ship they send abroad, and on what Commodities ’tis laid out.
2. Let them set forth, how and in what manner, these prohibited
Manufactures do, on their being Exported again, bring in as much
Bullion in _specie_, as was carry’d out to pay for them in the
_Indies_.
And I think it a proper Work for a Committee of Trade, to receive
these Accounts from time to time, and after a just Examination, to
lay them before the Parliament at every Meeting, with their Opinions
thereon.
But if they only mean, that the Exportation of those Manufactures is
a help to us in the Ballance of our Trade, which must otherwise be
paid in Bullion, I answer, That our own Product and Manufactures
always have, and are still sufficent to support the Ballance of our
Trade.
As for White Callicoes and Muslins, they have beat out the Wearing of
Lawns, Cambricks, and other thin _Germany_ and _Silesia_ Linnens,
which hath been the Occasion of turning many of those Looms to the
Woollen Manufactures there, that were formerly employ’d in the
weaving them, and hath abated the Exportation of great Quantities of
Cloth; Besides the Hinderance Callicoes give to the Consumption of
_Scots_-Linnens, which being thin and soft, are as proper for dying,
printing, and staining, as they are, and may be made as white.
The _East Indies_ is a bottomless Pit for our Bullion, which can
never circulate hither again; whereas, if it was sent to any Part of
_Europe_, there might be some hopes, by the Ballance of our Trade, to
bring it back again; and when our Bullion fails, that Trade must
cease of course, which it will soon do, if the Company continue to
carry out yearly as much as our other Trades bring us in.
I wish the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom would be in Love with
our own Manufactures, and those which are purchased with them, and
that they would by their Examples encourage the using them, which
would be attended with the Prayers of the Poor, besides the Advantage
it would bring to their Estates.
And as to Navigation, I think it will not be disputed, that long
Voyages rather use Saylors than make them, both the Employers, and
the Employed, chusing rather to make their first Experiments on short
ones.
[Sidenote: West-India and Africa.]
I will next proceed to the _West-India_ and _African_ Trades, which I
esteem the most profitable we drive, and joyn them together, because
of their dependance on each other.
[Sidenote: Whether Settling of Plantations hath been an Advantage.]
But before I enter farther thereon, I will consider of one Objection,
it having been a great Question among many thoughtful Men, whether
the settling our Plantations Abroad has been an Advantage to the
Nation; The Reasons they give against them are, That they have
drained us of Multitudes of our People, who might have been
serviceable at Home, and advanced Improvements in Husbandry and
Manufactures; That this Kingdom is worse Peopled, by so much as they
are increased; And that Inhabitants being the Wealth of a Nation, by
how much they are lessened, by so much we are Poorer, than when we
first began to settle those Colonies.
To all which I answer; That tho’ I allow the last Proposition to be
true, that People are the Wealth of a Nation, yet it can only be so,
where we find Imployment for them, otherwise they must be a Burthen
to it: ’Tis my Opinion that our Plantations are an Advantage to
this Kingdom, tho’ not all alike, but every one more or less, as
they take off our Product and Manufactures, supply us with
Commodities, which may be either wrought up here, or exported again,
or prevent fetching things of the same Nature from other Places for
our Home Consumption, employ our Poor, and encourage our Navigation;
For I take this Kingdom, and all its Plantations, to be one Great
Body, those being as so many Limbs or Counties belonging to it;
therefore when we consume their Growth, we do as it were spend the
Fruits of our own Land; and what thereof we Sell to our Neighbours,
brings a second Profit to the Nation.
These Plantations are either the great Continent from Hudsons-Bay
Northward to _Florida_ Southward, containing _Nova Scotia_,
_New-England_, _New-Jersy_, _New-York_, _Pensilvania_, _Virginia_,
_Mary-Land_, _Carolina_; and also our Islands, the Chief whereof are,
_Newfoundland_, _Barbadoes_, _Antegoa_, _Nevis_, St. _Christophers_,
_Montserat_, and _Jamaica_; the Commodities they afford us are more
especially, Sugars, Cotton, Tobacco, Piamento and Fustick, of their
own Growth; also Logwood, which we bring from _Jamaica_ (but first
brought thither from the Bay of _Campechia_ on the Continent of
_Mexico_, belonging to the _Spaniards_, but cut by the Subjects of
this Kingdom, who have made small settlements there) besides great
Quantities of Fish taken on the Coasts, both of _Newfoundland_ and
_New-England_; These being the Product of Earth, Sea and Labour, are
clear Profit to the Kingdom, and give a double Employment to our
People, first to those who raise them there, next to those who
prepare Manufactures here, wherewith they are supplied, besides the
Advantage they afford to our Navigation; for the Commodities Exported
thither, and those Imported thence hither, being generally bulky, do
thereby Imploy more Ships, and consequently more Sailors, which
leaves more Room for other Labouring People to be kept at Work in our
Husbandry and Manufactures, whilst they consume the Product of the
one, and the Effects of the other, in an Imployment of a distinct
Nature from either.