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A33690
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Reflections upon the East-Indy and Royal African Companies with animadversions, concerning the naturalizing of foreigners / by Roger Coke.
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Coke, Roger, fl. 1696.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing C4980; ESTC R18371
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11,668
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28
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that he will be more constant of it afterward for in the Parliament in the Eighteenth Year of his Reign no less than 37 Monopolies were Voted Grievances and damned and as the Father laid the Foundation so his Son built upon it for in the Year 1640. when King Charles marched to York against the Scots who then had Invaded England upon the the Complaint of the Northern Gentry he recalled by Proclamation thirty one Monopolies and then declared he did not know how Greivous they were to his subjects because he was Governed by such I cannot say Counsels that no man durst before complain of them From Monopolies granted by these two Kings we proceed to that of Oliver Cromwel in his erecting this now East-Indy Company An. 1657. to Trade to the East Indies exclusive to all others of the Nation but before a further view be taken of this Patent its fit to see the Extent of it under the Title of the East Indies and if I mistake in it it is in the power of the Company to correct me Their Patent extends from Cape Bon Sperance to the North of China taking in the Eastern Coast of Asia with the Eastern Coast of China together with all the Islands which lie between the Cape of Good Hope and the North of China which I say is more if you compute the Coast on both sides of the Red Sea and the Gulph of Persia than half the circumference of the Globe of the Earth and that their Power may be as unlimited as the Extent of their Dominion they doubly impose an Oath upon every Member to be true to the Company How Oliver was endued with such a Prerogative needs not be disputed because he would have his Will to be Law but I do not find any King of England ever assumed such a Power nor any other but the Convocation which imposed the Oath Ex Officio without Consent in Parliament An. 1640. However Oliver would in his Zeal have the Pope to be Anti-Christ in exalting himself above God and in disposing the Kingdoms upon Earth wherein the Pope and he were Simeon and Levy but herein the Pope and he differed The Pope would have all his own Tribe to Partake of his Blessings whereas Oliver by this Patent excluded all the rest of the English Nation in this Trade but permitted the Dutch French Portuguese Hamburgers c. to Trade in it It may be because he could not help it yet I do not find he or his Company ever made War upon them for so doing though his Company has upon the rest of the English Nation and that with such Barbarity as was never Practised by Turks Jews or any other Infidels upon them It s too long to recite them here this Parliament has heard thereof sufficiently and are particularly set forth by Mr. White in his Account of the Trade to the East Indies But though the Company have not been pleased to make War upon any other Nation but the English for Trading to the East Indies yet they were pleased to make War without any Declaration or Cause upon the King of Syam and the Mogull and rob the Mogul's Subjects to carry on the War as Mr. White Observes and whilest the Company have thus rent themselves from the rest of the English Nation they patiently submit to the Dutch in forcing Poloroon from them caused by their own neglect and avarice from which the Dutch are become the sole Proprietors in the Spice Trade and also from the Trade to Bantam for Pepper whereby they are forced to Trade for it to the most unhealthful parts of Sumatra which Queen Elizabeth forbid whereby we lose more English Men than the Trade is worth which is little regarded by this Company and whilest they are making their Causeless Wars upon the King of Syam and the Mogul they permit the Sophy of Persia whose Predecessor An. 1621. granted the English the half Duties of all Nations Trading into the Gulph of Persia and which in the year 1672 came to 80000 l. per An. I would know by what Right this Company Claim these to reduce them to 3000 l. per An. And is it not strange this Company should exclude the rest of the Nation from trading to the East Indies because of the Charges of their Forts and yet for 15 years receive more from the Sophy of Persia than the value of the Stock they traded thither with For the further Frauds which this Company exercises over the rest of the Nation in the Returns of Commodities from the East Indies and how being a Monopoly in the whole they Monopolize the Sales by private Contract among themselves to the farther Grievance of the Subject I referr the Reader to Mr. White 's Account of the East Indy Trade too long to be here inserted CHAP. II. Reflections upon the Royal African COMPANY AS Oliver established this present East Indy Company and excluded the rest of the Nation from trading into that half of the World which the Company call the East Indies So King Charles the 2 d. erected this present African Company excluding all others of the English Nation from trading to Africa from the Country of Susa to the Cape of Good-Hope so that if you take the extent of this part of the Coast of Africk its little less than a Quadrant of the Globe being above 80 Degrees so that the prerogative which these two Companies claim against the rest of their fellow Subjects in these two Trades extend to two thirds of the circumference of the Globe of the earth and herein both are at peace with all the world besides and only in a state of War with the rest of their fellow Subjects in Case any of them presume to trade to either Here let 's see first the Consequences of this Restraint upon the Nation in the foreign vent of our domestick manufactures Secondly in reference to our American Plantations and Thirdly in reference to the returns which this Company imports into England from that part of Africa wherein they Trade I am not sure of the Companies Patent for this Trade they know better nor will I take notice how far the export of our woollen manufactures have been restrained in other Countries of England I shall only take notice of it from the County of Suffolk Before this African Company was Incorporated the Cloathiers in Suffolk yearly vended 25000 Cloths to Africa but about two years after this Company were Incorporated the Clothiers in Suffolk as they did before endeavoured to have vented their Cloths in the African Trade but they were not permitted and the Company would take off but 500 and those at scarce half the Prizes they were sold before Hereupon both the Great Inquest of Suffolk the Guildalle and the Franchise of Bury at their next Assizes presented this as a Grievance and Imployed Sir Jervais Elvais who is now Knight of the shire for Suffolk and some others to represent this to the King and
As the Law against Naturalizing Foreigners debars the Nation from a Supply for the exhausting the Nation in peopling Ireland and our American Plantations so the Priviledges of Corporations exclude all the rest of the Nation but the Freemen from Trading in them whereby these Men Ignorant of their own Interest from the poor Estate they are thereby reduced to daily decline to worse whereby it becomes impossible to encrease the Strength and Trade in them beyond the power of these men in them To supply this Defect the Commons in the third Westminster-Parliament the 3d. of December 1680. Gave Liberty to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of all Alien Protestants and allowing them Liberty to Exercise their Trades in all Corporations So did the Commons last Session And is not there as much Reason all Native English should have the same Liberty But why must this Liberty be permitted only to Protestant Artificers and Traders For my part I understand but little Benefit can accrue to the Nation by it now the French King has expelled these out of France for as the Case stands Holland Flanders and France are the places from whence we can expect any benefit by this Liberty In Holland Artificers and Traders are as free as they can expect to be in England but in Flanders though they be an industrious and honest sort of People yet they are all Popish and I am confident if they might enjoy the exercise of their Religion in England multitudes of them would seek an Asilum here to be freed from the Insults they are always subject to from the French and it s not unlike but Multitudes would free from the Tyranny and Oppressions of the French in their New Conquests if they might use their Religion here The English pretend to love English-men above all others and it becomes them so to do but in our practise this Love is both partial and unreasonable I say it is partial by the Freemen in Corporations excluding the rest of their fellow Subjects from working and Trading in them which is a prime Cause of their Poverty and I say it is unreasonable to exclude Foreigners from being a Supply for those sent out of England into our American Plantations and Ireland Suppose a Man is so in love with his Family that he will not imploy any other in managing his Farm whereby half of it lies wast Is it not unreasonable that he will not imploy none of his Neighbours to help him to improve it to the best Advantage or if by Fire or Rapine he cannot by his Family preserve his House or Goods yet would it not be prudence in him in such Case to make use of his Neighbours Is not the Case ours Have not the French and Dutch upon the matter got from us all the Fisheries upon the Coasts of England and Scotland to Iseland Westmony Greenland and the Newfoundland and are our poor Port-towns by excluding the Natives and all other in a Condition to Oppose them herein much less to retrieve these Fisheries from them Suppose any one of these Corporations should lose one half more or less of their Ships and Freight Would not this be so much a Loss and Weakning to it Convert the Proposition and admit like number of others Ships and Freight should set Up and Trade in that Corporation Would not this be as much an Enriching and Strengthing to it And therefore if in this Conjunture of time if it please God so to bless his Majestys Arms that the French could not or without great hazard trade in the Newfoundland Fishery and to Green-land and the French might more surely manage these Fisheries from our Ports whereby many of the French should buy fish from our Ports would be as much a strengthing and Inriching to this Nation as it would be an impoverishing and weakning to the French If we should permit Foreigners to purchase Lands in England the Nation without any hazard would get so much Treasure as the Purchase-money is more which had it not before and retain the Lands still which it had before and be so much more strengthened as the Purchasers are more whereas a Merchant in acquiring Wealth runs hazards of being Undone and gets no new Inhabitants Ambitious Princes venter their own Dominions to acquire New by War and that by Oppression Rapine Murder Desolation and making Men miserable whereas by permitting Foreigners the Freedom of English Native we Conquer without a War run no hazard and Enrich and strengthen the nation and all this in double proportion for so much as the Nation hereby gains and is strengthned so much are those which may be Enemies to us impoverished and weakned Xenophon in Cyropoedia Says That by reason of the Goodness and justice of Cyrus his Reign many nations became Subject to him and was Cyrus the less Great and Glorious by it why then should this Law debar she Nation the benefit which it might enjoy by Naturalizing Foreigners whereby the Nation would be so much more enriched and strengthened as this Admission of these Foreigners shall be more Objection If we should admit popish Foreigners the Freedom of English-Men it might endanger the Peace of our Church and State Answer For my Part if I thought so I would never Plead for it for I do as much abhor the popish Superstition as any Man and am as fearfull of the Usurpation which the Pope Arrogates over princes and the Consciences of Men yet I apprehend no danger of either by permitting popish Artificers to work and trade in England as well as Holland For it is one thing for popish Priests and Jesuits to make it their business to pervert Men to their Sentiments and another thing for poor People to make it their business how to Subsist which will take up their whole time especially where they are in a strange place and strangers to the People unless by accident in their Dealings for their support and also to the Language of the People where they live I would know what inconvenience has followed from permitting Brewer in the Year One Thousand Six hundred and sixty seven and his Followers which were all Papists to instruct our Natives in making and Dying Fine Cloths and in all the Tumults and Wars in the late times after the Year One Thousand Six hundred and forty let any shew any one Instance wherein the Walloons or their Descendents planted in London Norwich Canterbury and Colchester Contributed to either of them however they had been provoked thereto by the Bishops Laud and Wren Besides if these Men cannot be prevailed upon in their Persons to alter their Sentiments in their Religion their Posterity may if our Church-men will make it their business Can any man believe that all Sciences and Arts or the improvement of them is circumscribed within our English Pale or would it become us as the Romans and Grecians did to esteem all the World besides to be barbarous Or is any Science or Art