THE Golden Fleece VVherein is related the Riches of English Wools in its Manufactures Together with The true Uses and the Abuses of the Aulnageors Measurers and Searchers Offices By W. S. Gent. Pecunia à Pecude Guic. Plin. lib. 33. Omnes veterum divitiae in re pecuniari â consistebant LONDON Printed by J. G. for Richard Lowndes at the white Lyon in S. Pauls Church-yard neere the Little North-doore 1657. A Preface to the Reader THere is neither House nor City nor Country nor the universall Being of Mankind nor the course of Nature nor the World it selfe which can subsist without Government saith Cicero in his Discourse upon Lawes which Government intends and includes these two Fundamentals or corner stones Povver and Obedience by which as the Regiment of every Common-wealth doth stand so the flourishing Trade of England under Societies and Companies doth manifest the same to the whole world Neverthelesse as in generall all men cry up Liberty so in particular each respective man desires that freedome gratis though it cannot be granted without those contributary services which maintain that Government The Seas exhale their Vapours to the Heavens from whence they descend in Showers upon the earth which being impregnated by their fertility doth gratefully dismisse them again to the Ocean Natures Store-house for the like coursary services Alterius sic altera poscit opem et conjurat amice The regulated government of Merchandice performeth all this by which it beautifies the Earth and Seas giving intercourse and combination supplies and riches to each industrious part of the world It procures Amities Leagues Confederacies Conjugall and Consanguinary Alliances between Princes and all by the necessary productions which one Nation wants of anothers abundance the purchase whereof to each others occasions nourisheth and beautifies each others People How then should not Merchants be of principall renowne to themselves and their Country which with great hazards both of person and estate they do so faithfully and profitably serve We have a Record which doth worthily recite the ingenious expressions of a young Florentine Gentleman called Cosimo Ruchelli who dying about the age of two and twenty years bewayled not his departure from his Kindred and Friends nor from the riches of his Family or pleasures of the world but because he was summoned by Death before he had done his Country that retributary service which to it was due for his Being or had gratified his Friends by reciprocall benefits for that they had bestowed upon him nourishment and education Another Author gives us a quite contrary opinion of one Theodorus who thought and taught it to be great injustice that a wise man should in any case hazard himselfe for the good or benefit of his Country which he said was to endanger his wisdome for Fooles now though each of these mens fancies had a rationall foundation upon their respective principles one to gratify and serve the world the other to despise and reject its vanities yet Natures positive doctrine to all her Children is Non nobis solum nati sumus God made the world in number weight and measure because he would have it so preserved and by that President he appointed man to govern both it and himselfe for as in Order there is beauty and continuance each part in its proportion so supporting another as with comlines it hath durance so in government amongst men that which we call Justice is in its distribution the glorious preservation of the whole which it intends to govern and that is Honeste vivere alterum non laedere suum cuique tribuere and this is the worke of every honest and wise man so it is to follow the primitive un-erring pattern of Number Weight and Measure which was observed by God himselfe Prima sapientiae pars est bene numerare saith Plato and well to number a mans dayes is the ready way to wisdome saith David both these were excellent Divines though not comparatives yet without numbers we cannot so distinguish but that Plato's heathen may claim as great esteeme as Davids heavenly wisdome this gives to one the most excelling finite and to the other the super-excellent infinite measure of his prudence one of them fulfilling the first of the morall and the other of the divine Vertues and from these the equality of measuring between men takes being and is the life-blood of Trade As without a common certainty of measure there can be no intercourse nor transaction of trade between men or Nations so in this of Clothing The glory of England there can be no indifferency rule or continuance without such an establishment of measure and proportion as may satisfy every man in his bargaining bartering buying or exchangeing In the following discourse will appeare a great deviaton from the determined rules of Justiice provided in this case and such a necessity of reformation as Clothing cannot be freed from open or underhand abuses without it nor can this peculiarised blessing of Woolls in its streames of Manufacture answer to the cleareness of the fountaine from whence it springs There are now a Trinity of officers relating to the regulation of Clothing all which were anciently comprised in the Vnity of one mans person these beare the distinct names of Searcher Measurer and Aulnageor which last though it be a tautologicall expression Aulnage and Measure being the same worke denoted in two languages yet the long vsage and custome have brought them to be distinct offices and that which anciently was called Aulnage from whence the Aulnageor takes his name who was no more but measurer in signification is now become Collector of the Subsidy granted to the State by many precise Laws in that case ordained still holding the name of Aulnageor because the collection of that Subsidy was by King Edward 3. committed to the charge of the Aulnageor and he neverthelesse not abridged of his measuring and searching till by his own wilfull neglect they became separated and that by distinct Lawes Insomuch as there is a peculiar Measurer who ought to know and allow the Assize of length and breadth to every Particular Cloth which is made in England and Wales And because the Subjects of this Land should not be abused their grave Senators in Parliaments have also established an office of searching whose Officer ought by his Seales judiciously and diligently affixed to denote the defaults and casuall abuses which each particular Cloth doth contain In the following discourse it will appeare that these offices were all of them under the cognizance of the Aulnageor until they shall be again restored unto his care and that he be as well under strict termes obliged as by competent Salaries enabled to see the duty discharged Clothing in England will be so farre short of recovering its pristine worth and honour as it will undoubtedly run utterly to decay through necessity the materials now forbiden to be transported under the penalty of life and limb must be licenced to
but these soon met with an expedient For the cloath in time to come must needs yield a far greater custome upon that which was to pass into all parts of the World from England then it could do upon that small return which came onely to the service of England and for the wooll which from that time forward was to be wrought in England with prohibition under penalty of life and limb at the Kings pleasure that none in any sort without the Kings especial licence should be transported the Parliament gave unto the King that Subsidy of a Noble upon a sack the Collection of which Subsidy the King entrusted with his Aulnageor and this was the original and is the continuance of that money which at this day is collected and ought to be paid upon all wools wrought into any sort of manufacture and is called though most improperly The Aulnage money from whence many inconveniences will presenly appear CHAP. II. Concerning the Aulnageor and the legality of his office THough Aulnage is an office of this Nation which is of as great antiquity as Traffick for the very Title which comes from Ulna in Latine and Aulne in French either of them signifying an Ell shews that the Aulnageors office was to provide that all such measurable commodities as came into England should be of lawful assise in length and breadth And from the ancient Records it may be gathered that in measuring the Aulnageor had the same charge upon all forreign measurable Merchandizes from the finest Silk Gold or Tissue to the coursest Hemp as may be found granted to several persons of worth in the first the fourteenth and the seventeenth years of King Edward the second which was before Clothing was made in England as hath been said when that Subsidy upon all manufactures of wooll was granted to him and his successours which he entrusted with his Aulnageor who was nevertheless to continue his attendance upon the searching and measuring as anciently he had done And accordingly he did attend both offices for many years but finding that the clothing so increased as it became scattered all over the Land notwithstanding that it was by divers Statutes confirmed to Towns Corporate insomuch as the Aulnageor finding the collection of the Subsidy to be of far greater profit and less trouble then the sallary which related to the searching and measuring he neglected those and betook himself wholly to his collection after which through the misbehaviour of Weavers and other handy-crafts relating to the making and accomplishing of Clothing such and so many grew the abuses to be as the Cloathiers themselves became Petitioners to the King to be incorporated into Fraternities and Societies and to have officers distinct from the Aulnageor to search and measure their cloathing nevertheless the Aulnageor continued his office of collecting the said Subsidy and was enjoyned upon receipt of his moneys to affix a seal of Lead whereon was to be stamped some part of the Kings Armes which is now become a justification to that cloath or else that cloath is a great dishonour to the Nation which bears that seale throughout the World and this seal was to be annexed after the measurers and searchers seals were on to the end that those seals denoting what faults those cloaths contained the cloath was seized if it were not vendible or else the faults were discovered to the buyer and for this purpose the Aulnageor was to keep a book of his Receipts and Seizures and once yearly to present the same to the Lord Treasurer or Barons of the Exchequer who were to assign the Aulnageor his reward and this course continued till the Aulnage was made Farmable which was Enacted by Parliament in the seventeenth year of King Edward the fourth This relation shews that all the officers Aulnageor Searcher and Measurer were to be knowing men as the Statutes also do deliver more at large for want of which the Trade of cloathing is almost quite lost in England and daily encreaseth in Holland by the help of English wooll and Fullers earth the prevention of whose exportation is provided by more ancient and severe Laws then any other Laws then any other Laws relating to Trade all which is grown originally from the neglect of the Aulnageor who hath detained the Title from the other officers and neglected his own thereby confounding the duties of their works as though the Aulnageor was then made Collector yet now the Collector is not either in propriety of name or execution of office to be called Aulnageor yet so he accounts himself to be to the no small prejudice of cloathing Again since the Aulnageor left his other works of measuring and searching his Subfidy money hath in all times declined for he wilfully neglecting to survey the clothing taught the Collectors to convey many from his sight in point of the Subsidy insomuch as they have practised to put on counterfeit Seals or else to procure the Seals to be cut from such cloths as have been sold and delivered out of the market of which to this day there is a common trade between the Clothiers and their Chapmans Apprentices or their Drawers which deceptions are generally used at this day as shall be made more apparent Again by the Aulnageor's onely neglect the Clothiers have through the help of some incendiary Attorneys who would burn their neighbours house to rost their own eggs found an invention to make a difference between old and new Draperies a distinction not once thought upon in the Primitive Statutes for Clothing by which they endeavour to work a division in payment of the Aulnage for the old Draperies they allow to be paid but the new which are Perpetuanoes Serges Sayes and all other Stuffs though made of wool they deny to pay because say they these are not mentioned in the Statute Now if the answer to this ill grounded exception be well weighed it may appear more agreeable to the Law that the new Draperies have transgressed the Statute even in the letter it self for whose benefit they do so much quarrel For the Law sheweth the precise length breadth and weight of all Manufactures contained in the Statute and saith that whatsoever shall be made contrary or defective to those ordinations shall be seized without any clause or reservation to the new inventions which is a chief part of their Plea nor doth it once name new Draperies either in point of Aulnage nor any other consideration till about the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign and in the beginning of King James where because the exception runs to new Draperies the Statute saith That payment shall be made of the Subsidy or Aulnage upon cloath and all other sorts of manufactures of Wooll and one of the most learned Judges of his time hath set down a positive interpretation this doubt for more it is not that even in mixtures where the major part is wool the Aulnage ought to be paid which conclusion the wisdome of the
now proceed to shew you wherein their illegal carriages are manifest and the execution of their office may be reformed CHAP. IV. Shewing the illegal execution of the Aulnageors office THe legality of the Aulnage or Subsidy is by that which hath been said visible to all who will not be blind but the illegality in the execution is carried with a far greater secrecy When the Aulnageor whose ancient duty enjoyned him to search and measure all Trade which came into England was by King Edward as hath been said commanded to receive that Subsidy which the Parliament had granted unto him upon all such Woolls as in time to come should be wrought into any kind of manufacture in England and Wales he was also still engaged as formerly to visit search and measure all such cloths as were to be made in England but finding that the dispersing of the Manufactures was of much more difficulty pains and charge to him in visiting the several Countreys and respective Towns wherein clothing was placed then it was when the clothing which was made in forreign parts came onely to the Custome houses where by casting a line of seven yards in length four times over the cloth his measuring office was performed but now the clothing was become scattered all over the Land He considered with himself that his Collectorship was of more gains and far less pains then his former office of Aulnage which consisted of searching for the truth in making and of measuring for the assize of lengths and breadths and that of these two works there were many branches both of charge and trouble and that the Reward by Law established was very small he contented himself with the execution of that which had most ease and most profit whereupon clothing speedily corrupted into many abuses as being in a manner lest without Survey each man doing what pleased or profited himself without any reverence to the Law or fear of punishment The Clothiers therefore coming to London to their general Market and there conferring their grievances and complaining each to other of their abusive servants false Weavers and the like they applied themselves to the State for remedies and so became incorporated into Societies and Fraternities and to have the works which were made in and about them brought into their Hals there to be searched measured and sealed which order doth in some kind continue to this day and this also pleased the Aulnageor who by a Deputy with seals placed in such a Town dispatched his work with ease In which times also the Aulnageor having the custody and use of the Kings money was answerable for the same to the State but once every year and then passed his Accounts with great favour from the Lord Treasurer to whom he also at the same time presented a book containing the relation of the moneys he had in that year received for the Subsidy and of the seizures he had made upon the defective clothes which being done he had his quietus and his reward for the year past which he received sometimes by the appointment of the Lord Treasurer and sometimes from the Barons of the Exchequer for from one or some of them he likewise received his commission to seize into his hands all such cloths as were not statutable in assise and substance as also such as were put to sale without the Subsidy seal It was no longer since then in King James his Reign that the Mayor of one of the most eminent Cities in England for clothing was compelled by the Aulnageor nolens volens to seize his own cloths which were taken in offence to the Kings use which Mayor afterwards compounded with the Aulnageor for no less then an hundred pounds The same power also hath the Aulnageor over cloths which are not of assise though in the presence of any Mayor Bayliff or other Magistrate which argues that there is great credit and trust reposed upon the Aulnageor Besides the Statute doth allow him an half penny upon a cloth for his pains in affixing his said seal which half penny in those times was in value worth two pence in these days yet his pains were not then so much by a tenth part as now they are as also the faults were few and easily supprest But the abuses herein soon increased to such height as they begot him great trouble and therefore he neglected measuring and searching offices but still kept the name of Aulnageor under which Title he doth to this day execute the office of Collecting the Subsidy calling that the Aulnage when indeed the true Aulnage is the measuring onely and of antiquity established by Laws far more ancient then any Parliament in England of which we shall speedily say more when we speak of measuring The Aulnageor is by the Statute required to be a person qualified to the place with knowledge and a responsible estate as also for the execution of the place he is to be an English-man but for receiving the profits and revenue there hath ever been some person of honour and principal dignity thereto deputed which office some Queens and Princes have not been ashamed to undergo And further it is observable to the credit of the Aulnageor that in all Parliaments where Statutes were ordained in order to Clothing the Aulnageors power and priviledges were ever preserved which gracious providence ought much to work upon his care as it is evidently a signature to all men of his honour In the seventeenth year of the Reign of King Edward the fourth the Aulnage was made Farmable and then the Aulnageors Fee was established soon after the Counties were farmed out some to one some to another as pleased the King reigning In the beginning of King James his reign this office was by him Farmed to Lodowick late Duke of Richmond and Lennox for the term of about sixty years whereof many were expired with the revertion of a considerable Rent the reversion of which Lease after the Duke Lodowick his decease descended upon his most Honourable Brother Esme Duke of Lennox who disposing the profits thereof to his younger children the possession of the whole is now in right descended upon the Right Honourable the Lord D'Aubigny as onely Survivor and Heir to his Father and Uncles who being in minority of age the execution of the place is by his Honourable Guardians disposed to such persons as to them seems meet who again for their best improvement of its profits do grant Leases and Deputations to others with a clause and penalty of re-entry upon non-payment of their Rents by which means many controversies do grow for amongst the diversity of Tenants such suits and troubles do arise as in the interim the Clothiers not knowing whom to obey do pass without any seal or paying any Subsidy to the great detriment of the State and the Honourable Aulnageor whose rights failing his rents also to the State must necessarily so do All this while the cloth wants the
go to such places as will more justly discharge the manufactures and then will be found the irrecoverable want of those two great blessings which our Ancestors so much endeavoured to increase which are Wealth in generall and Strength in numbers of People both of which have within these last 300. yeares so multiplyed under the Monarchs of England as by the Trade of Clothing they have been loved or feared of all Nations How those Officers stand now directed by the Lawes and how unable the people therein employed are to discharge those duties will in the following worke be found to be expressly and according to the Lawes delivered Insomuch as every man of judgment who will vouchsafe to read the relation will by his naturall affection to his Country be induced to endeavour a timely reformation lest as the most illuminating Tapers of Religion and Learning are through the provocations of a sinful People whelm'd under a Bushell of Obstinacy and Ignorance so the Riches and Glories of this Lands peculiarized endowments in wooll and clothing will not so much be carried away by an invading enemy as forced to be transplanted by its own People who dayly worke so industriously in that Mine as a very short time will bring the Stranger under the Walles of our safety which God forbid and whereto every true English-man will say Amen THE GOLDEN FLEECE CHAP. I. About Wooll and Clothing THere is nothing in this flourishing Nation of England so universally good and beneficial to the people thereof as is the conversion of Wooll into its several Manufactures wherein it answers the Invention of Man the consequences whereof relate as well to the Soveriegn as to the subject to the Noble as well as to the Ignoble comprising all conditions of men women and children For as in Man the Brain and Liver assisting the Heart do no more but preserve themselves and are chief in their own contemplation though they seem onely to complement and attend the Heart and as the peoples readiness to obey doth seem to ingratiate them to their supreme powers yet do they indeed pursue their duty wholly to their own interest Thus and no otherwise it is with the profits of Wooll The State gives safety and protection to the peoples works and the people give wealth and Revenue to the States subsistence but each of them to each of them chiefly for their particular benefit Wooll is the Flower and Strength the Revenue and Bloud of England It is a Bond uniting the people into Societies and Fraternities for their own Utility It is the Milk and Honey of the Grasier and Countrey-man It is the Gold and Spices of the West and East India to the Merchant and Citizen In a word it is the Exchequer of Wealth and Scepter of protection to them all as well at home as abroad and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance defence and encouragement The Wools of England have ever been of great honour and reception abroad as hath been sufficiently witnessed by the constant amity which for many hundred years hath been inviolably kept between the Kings of England and the Dukes of Burgundy onely for the benefit of Wool whose subjects receiving the English Wool at six pence a pound returned it through the manufacture of those industrious people in Cloath at ten shillings a yard to the great enriching of that State both in Revenue to their Sovereign and in imployment to their subjects which occasioned the Merchants of England to transport their whole Families in no small numbers into Flanders from whence they had a constant Trade to most parts of the world And this intercourse of Trade between England and Burgundy endured till King Edward the third made his mighty Conquests over France and Scotland when finding fortune more favourable in prospering his atchievements then his alledgeate subjects were able to maintain he at once projected how to enrich his people and to people his new conquered Dominions and both these he designed to effect by means of his English commodity Wooll All which he accomplished though not without great difficulties and oppositions for he was not onely to reduce his own subjects home who were and had long been setled in those parts with their whole families many of which had not so certain habitations in England as in Flanders but he was also to invite Clothiers over to convert his woolls into clothing and these were the subjects of another Prince or else the stoppage of the stream would soon choke the Mill and then not onely clothing would every where be lost but the materials resting upon his English Subjects hands would soon ruine the whole Gentry and Yeomanry for want of vending their wools Now to shew how King Edward smooth'd these rough and uneven passages were too tedious to this short Narration though otherwise in their contrivance they may be found to be ingenious pleasing and of great use which relation must await another opportunity By this it must be granted that King Edward was Wise as well as Victorious in both he was fortunate which last was much nourished by his bounty for upon a visitation made by himself to the Duke of Burgundy during his residence there he employed such able Agents amongst the Flemish Clothiers as barely upon his promises he prevailed with great numbers of them to come into England soon after him where he most Royally performed those promises in giving not onely a free Denization to them but he likewise invested them with Priviledges and Immunities beyond those of his native subjects which peculiarities their posterities enjoy to this day Surely the seasonable bounty of a Prince rightly placed will not be found the weakest instrument to his atcheivements of honour and success The liberality of Alexander amongst his Macedonians brought three parts of the world under his Dominion because amongst other his valuable considerations towards that rich purchase he summoned by Proclamation the Creditors of all his souldiers and discharged their Debts wherein afterwards divers of the Roman Emperours as Julius Caesar Pertinax and others followed his great example by other bounteous actions in which ranke of wise and indulgent Princes we place this Royal and true Lover of his native Nation King Edward But for the more sure establishment and before these preparations came into effect King Edward upon his return called a Parliament and that in the beginning of his Reign where he so wrought with the Commons-House who had not the least knowledge that the King had moulded the design as after long debate which all motions in that House ought to undergo it was presented to the Lords and so to the King who amongst other objections urged the loss which must necessarily befall his Revenue as well in respect of the outward Subsidy of a Noble upon each sack of wooll which was to be transported as of the inward Custome which the cloath paid upon return according to the rates then established
materiall as the goodness of the cloth because oftentimes a good cloth is spoyled by a bad colour and as oftentimes doth a good colour mend and preferre a meane cloth Such as intend to give beauty to false colours as colours do to evil complexions do practice with that so much prohibited ingredient called Logwood which though forbidden by the Statute under severe penalties is neverthelesse as commonly used as colours yet it is known to be a cheat as bad as picking a pocket for it barely gives a vading glosse to the thing dyed which changeth with the Sun or Fire blowes away with the wind and alters with the aire in a word this abuse is intollerable though common and gives great discredit to the commodity so dyed The ground of good and durable colours is substantiall Woading without which divers colours cannot perfectly be made that is to say Blacks Russets Tawneys Purples Greenes and the like many of these colours in late yeares are made without the justifiable foundation of woading which though they appeare beautifull to the eye by the helpe of Logwood as hath been said yet in use and wearing they prove very false and disgracefull to some colours they give a flight ground of Woad though farre too weake to the depth of the colour it beares nevertheless they have the art to set up a a true woad-marke or woad-rose upon the piece at a far richer depth then the cloth is woaded throughout and some have yet a more neat and subtill art to set a woad-mark upon a cloth with a little Indico when there is no sort of woad at all upon the cloth such as will do justly must set a woaded seale upon woaded colours which is better and more justifiable then the Rose marke so much abused There be five especial degrees in woading that is to say a Huling a Plounket a Watchet an Azure and a Blew every one of these exceedeth another in value yet is every one of them fit for some colours it is therefore very requisite that each of these degrees be truly expressed upon the woad-seale that the buyer may know the truth of that colour which he hath for his money by which reformation those intolerable abuses would be prevented which cause such numbers of cloths and stuffs to passe beyond the Seas and there to be dressed and dyed to the exceeding great prejudice and detriment of the good people of this Nation who might live and very plentifully increase maintaining themselves as happily as any other people upon those imployments The Aulnageor of England hath also the intuition of colours in a double capacity one is to provide that the cloths be truly dyed and for that purpose to have them truly marked to the end the people who buy them be not defrauded by such practises as are before recited the other is his care to see that the Subsidy be duely paid according to the Statute for the Lawes do give unto the State a Subsidy of six pence five pence foure pence three pence according to the colours put upon the cloths as also the moiety of those rates upon the halfe cloths the same also is proportionably allowed upon stuffs it is therefore apparent how necessary it is for the Aulnageor and his deputies to be knowingly conversant in colours also and in the truth of dying for as upon false made and false assized cloths his seale gives a great abuse to the buyers be they natives or forreigners so the granting the States Armes to justifie false colours cheats the Chapmen whilest both of them do dishonour the Nation CHAP. IX Of abuses in exporting Wools and Fullers earth THe whole world cannot produce such accommodations for accomplishing the worke of clothing as can the nation of England for though most Countries do afford woolls and those of Spain are finer then in any other part of the world yet will not those of Spain sort in worke with any other Nations unlesse it be these of England a reason whereof may peradventure be because the Spanish woolls are grown originally from the English sheep which by that soyle resemblant to the Downs of England and by the elevation of the Pole for warmth are come to that fineness yet keep they a natural conjunction as it were affection with these from whom they are descended so we see the Wines of Canary which are planted from the grape of the Rhine though they become much richer then those of their naturall Climate yet retain they the same flavor as the Vintners call it with the Rhenish and before all other do hold best with it in mixture but to let passe comparisons the wools of England are superlatives to all the world for fineness except that of the Spanish which neither by it selfe nor by the incorporation with the wools of any other Nation will be wrought into any cloth without the help and mixture of English wools which being carded together as by the English Clothiers they are they produce the richest manufactures in clothing which the whole world can shew Again there is another materiall without which clothing cannot be perfected which also in the excellency of it is onely appropriated to England that is Fullers earth without which clothing cannot be scowred from the Seame and Oyles wherewith they must necessarily be wrought It is possible and probable that other parts of the world may produce Fullers earth but neither in such finenesse nor abundance as this in England which approbation is highly confirmed by the appraisment which the Hollanders make of it who spare not upon occasion to give ten pounds sterling a Tun for it which any man may have in such places as it growes for three shillings the same quantity surely this is a great temptation to breake a commandement or Statute of Parliament and so they do familiarly as presently shall appeare First therefore to returne to the wools of this nation such as shall be pleased to peruse the Statutes made in the beginning of King Edward the third his Reign to prohibite the transportation of raw wooll white-Cloths and Fullers earth after that clothing was confined to be made in England shall find that the penalty which those Lawes did inflict upon such as should break them did extend to life or limb at the Kings pleasure which of them he would please to take for it is no more likely to make clothing if the materials be carryed away then it is to preserve life without food or government without power true it is that after clothing was setled and that wools multiplyed beyond the Manufactures then with license from the State wools were permited to be transported and by the like license they have continued to be exported yet for the most part the State did strictly regard the restraint and in the chiefe liberty of exportation the Grant was permitted onely upon the meaner sort of wools and those commonly from Ireland where clothing might not be grieved But the
the heathens that is the Persians Lacedemonians Romans and Turks have framed Lawes enjoyning Parents to instruct their children and compelling children to obey their Parents on pain of death which the weak and partiall affections of Parents neglecting the Common-wealth it selfe hath undertaken and upon pious foundations have established prudent Lawes to the end Youth may be educated to the competent election of a vocation answering their own genius and inclination yet all this is but to solicite nature to perfect her own work which must be done by Art and Art is a worke of time to which that Youth may bequeath themselves the Lawes of each nation have proportioned a certain number of yeares and that is generally seven It is not without mysticall signification that servitude is so generally fastened upon this number of seven yeares Iacob covenanted for seven yeares service and trebled them rather then he would not enjoy the freedome and purchase of that he so much loved and desired seven times seven yeares must passe before a Jubilee of deliverance could enfranchise offenders the number of seven gave perfection and rest to Gods workes this number also is harmonicall comprising all kinds of proportions Arithmeticall Geometricall and Musicall It is the number of sanctification as may appeare in severall passages of Moses Ceremoniall Law it is the Climaterique and consummation of mans age It is the comparison of the most sacred word of God which David resembles to silver seventimes refined it is also Solomons Pallace of Wisdome supported by seven Pillars and finally to instance our own argument it is the ternary seven of the age of Youth from the second seven which makes fourteen to the third seven which reacheth one and twenty in which time the Braine and Memory best receive and retaine the Institutions which that Party intends to follow in course of his nature and inclination There is a double reason why Youth is almost in all Nations obliged to a seven years Apprentiship before they can obtain a Freedome to practice the Trade to which they are engaged one is to teach the Disciple or Apprentice for such is the dulnesse of mans nature that repetitions and multiplications of one and the same instruction are little enough to fasten doctrines upon the judgment and memory of the learner in matter of Art and Trade The want of instruction and teaching in Clothing is the principall cause that the Manufactures of wooll are so abusively and deceptiously made and teaching is thus wanting because there is no regular or legall course followed either for time or form in working there is not any of the relations to clothing which doth observe this rule of Apprentiship not withstanding it is enjoyned in very strict and penall manner by the Statute Lawes The chiefe inconvenience of which is that a Trade so generall in use and maintenance of even numberless Families doth by its own vast exuberance convert into corruptions and so those great multitudes of People become discredited begger'd and finally ruined to the destruction of themselves and that nation which gave them so great a blessing Another prejudice and not the least is that the nation which hath given them being and invested them with such materials for clothing is dishonoured by false and abusive worke it is not a little scandall to that nation which God hath particularly endowed with those blessings that others want when its people shall divert those good things which God hath bestowed upon it to evill and deceptious practises In this consideration it is very observable how little comparatively is the drunkenesse of those Countries which produce wines and wherein lyes their personall riches and their Nations honour Though their other sinnes may sufficiently swell their ultimate account yet doubtlesly it strengthens their last apology in that they abuse not that endowment which God hath made the originall of their being and subsistence A third consideration is the cheat it puts upon all the world for though every country have not the benefit of the Manufacture in themselves yet are there few of them condemned to such ignorance as not to discerne the Cozenage which false clothing puts upon them in which case to the foresaid dishonour they adde a curse and it was a chiefe care in Iacobs practice for the blessing that he turned it not into a curse how much more is this of consideration when the blessing comes by gift and not by design or procurement And lastly great is the thought of heart when the sinnes of false lucre covetousness are in the ful pursuance of such as have the full plenty to make weight and measure yet make it the art of their practice as wel as the practice of their art to cosen both the wise and weake it can be no great wonder nor without abundance of Presidents if God for sinnes of such wilfullnes remove his blessings with which this nation is peculiarly enriched and dignified and give them to a People which will render him a better and more just and more profitable accompt of his talent and it is no newes that though England be by the Almighty chiefly ordayned to produce the materials yet the manufactures be given to a people which will render a better account All this and much more is expected if the Native people continue to abuse the Native commodity as of necessity they must when they know not how to use it the wisdome of our Ancestors hath been liberally manifested in this particular for more or better Lawes are not ordained in any relation to Trade then that the manufactors be constantly made Apprentises for seven yeares at least in stead of which provident ordination there is not one of a thousand made apprentice at all but entering into Covenant with a workman in that he intends to professe after three or six months at the most he leaps forth a workman for his own account and so brings his worke peradventure to the height of his Skill which height is ignorance and so the abuses are unremediable The other reason and yet untouch'd why Apprentices are generally confined to seven yeares servitude is to theend that in each art professors multiply not beyond the support of their trade which were not to encrease good Subjects but Vagabonds Rogues to furnish prisons the gallowes which was not the intention of King Edw. the third when in his design of bringing clothing into England a chiefe part was so to multiply his People as by his native and alleadgeate Subjects he might securely possesse the Conquests wherewith God had blessed him which were beyond any Christian Prince of his time It is utterly against reason that a nation can be poor whose people are numerous if their industries be compelled and encouraged and their idlenesse be punished and reformed it is not the barrennesse of a Country which can forbid this maxime The Scots are an abounding and numberless people and they have a Soyle which to a