a possibility of Cavilling But there 's none so blind as they who will not see and by what you write I find had there been any thing in our Act that could not bear the Tryal of the strictest Enquiry on the aforesaid Heads it had certainly been long e're now ript up and printed in Capital Letters by those who were at the Trouble and Expence of Reprinting the Act at London in several shapes and under a new Title of their own framing of design to adapt it more properly to the Notion of Rivalship and Emulation which you say they so industriously preach in Coffee-houses Obj. Oh! but say they Tho' there be nothing in the Act that at present may seem to interferr with yet in the Consequence it may prove pernicious to the Interest of England In Answer to which give me leave to observe That as this Act was calculated for a Common and Publick Good so though it be a received and standing Maxim That No Evil is to be done that Good may come of it yet no reasonable Man will urge from thence the Alternative That we ought to forbear doing an apparent Publick Good because of a remote possibility of an imaginary Evil Consequence And before I step further pray let us take a short View of what Prospect there may be of this bug-bearing Consequence Why truly Scotland proposeth an Advantage by Foreign Trade and leaves it at England's door to accept or refuse being concerned for one Moiety of all the Profits Emoluments and Advantages arising from such Trade and by the bye England's embracing that Offer seems to me an auspicious Prognostick of future Success Now should we happen to be frustrate in our Expectation by this Trade then all the vain Jealousies of Rivalship and Competition fall of course But if it should as I hope it may answer our Wishes by a plentiful and prosperous Harvest in return to our Honest and Infant-Undertaking England sure would be mightily hurt to reap One Half of all the Profits thereof which I pray God may prove the happy Consequence so much fear'd by your Monopoly-men Yet all this you say cannot please them that are resolved to be implacable for that there are a certain sort of such good-natur'd Christians in the World as would chuse rather to lose a certain Benefit and Advantage to themselves than endure the very thoughts of seeing their Neighbours in any tolerable degree of equal Prosperity In allusion to which 't is no new thing to tell you That ever since the Reformation of Religion the Jesuits in their various shapes have left no means unessayed to propogate the several Sects and Schisms which during the last Age have like a general Contagion overspread this Island and undoubtedly gave the first rise to all the sad Catastrophe and dismal Consequences of the late bloody Civil Wars And even so since the Union of both Kingdoms under one Monarchy we have too too manifest and pregnant Proof of how far the Matchevilian Maxims of Policy have by the means of French Pensioners and Emissaries gain'd credit enough at the Court of England to improve the Remnants and Dregs of the ancient Feuds of both Kingdoms into an almost avowed Reason of State though a much mistaken one That it was the Interest of England to suppress and keep Scotland poor Which was indeed chiefly intended and contrived with design to leave England in the lurch and carry on the real Interest of France where this Maxim had its birth by regaining Scotland into their ancient League For the Sting and hidden Poyson of the Serpent lay in this That the People of Scotland from the natural consideration they must needs have of any severe Treatment or unreasonable and intollerable Exactions imposed upon them by their domineering Neighbours might in time be tempted like the Israelites in the Wilderness to murmur and look back into the Onions Melons Garlick and Flesh-pots of their old acquaintance Yet by the Influence of this Jesuitical Barbarous and Hellish Principle together with the general Corruption of such colleaguing and self-designing Ministers as have to the grief of these Nations been at the Helm of Affairs during those latter Reigns this poor Nation in particular hath been most unmercifully crampt and fetter'd in its natural Liberties both as to Religion Property Trade and indeed all the real Badges of a Free and independent Kingdom other than in shadow till the late Providential and Happy Revolution gave us not only a fair opportunity of reassuming all our ancient Freedoms and natural Liberties but also of extending the same in point of Trade far beyond those Limits which some of our Neighbours seem now unwilling to allow Us. And I would gladly offer it to the serious Consideration of any Honest Unbyass'd and Free-thinking English-man Whether upon His present Majesty's Accession to the Crown of England when Ireland was in a manner quite lopp'd off France making mighty Preparations for War all Europe invelop'd in almost unquenchable Flames and England it self not free from Intestine Divisions and Bosom Enemies who flatter'd themselves with the Hopes that Scotland would from the consideration of its being so long kept at Arm's-length be tempted to act by an Interest separate from that of England Whether I say upon condition of assurance then that we would follow England's Example in placing the Crown of this Realm upon the Heads of our present Gracious Sovereign and and His late Royal Consort of Blessed Memory when they fear'd our Demurring upon it England would not have willingly fulfilled and put us in possession of the long promis'd Union of both Nations and settled the same upon such an equal and lasting Foundation as that we might have freedom of Trading into the very Heart of their Plantations For how little soever the apparent Proportion be which our Nation may at present seem to bear on the Theatre of Publick Action as being in a manner wholly eclypsed by the refulgent and radiant Beams of England's more resplendent Greatness I may without Hyperbole justly say That as Matters then stood We had the Ballance of Europe in our Hands Yet all the Considerations we had in view of our own particular Interest and the Advantages which we might have made of that Opportunity soon gave way to the irresistible Zeal and Affection which we had for the Restorer of the Protestant Religion and common Liberties of Britain For lest that by any Delays in our Proceedings the Measures of England might be protracted We did in almost One Breath Declare the Throne Vacant our Selves a Free Independent State Their Royal Highnesses King and Queen of this Realm and war against all Their Majesty's Enemies as not in the least doubting but that such our generous and frank Proceeding with respect to our Neighbours at so critical a Juncture of Affairs might in due time reasonably plead for a grateful Resentment from the King and Parliament of England by an equally generous Condescension on their side
THE LINNEN and WOOLLEN MANUFACTORY DISCOURSED With the Nature of Companies and Trade in general And particularly that of the COMPANYS FOR The Linnen Manufactory OF ENGLAND and IRELAND With some REFLECTIONS HOW The TRADE of Ireland hath formerly and may now affect England Printed at the Request of a PEER of this Realm LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Thomas Mercer at the Half-Moon joining the East-Corner of the Royal Exchange Cornhil 1691. The Linnen and Woollen MANUFACTORY Discoursed SIR THE Deference I bear to your Integrity and great Judgment subjects me to the least of your Commands and that brings before you my Thoughts on those several Heads you proposed to me 1. My Opinion of Companies in Trade by Authority of the Great Seal in general 2. Of the present Company in England for the Linnen Manufactory 3. Of that for the same in Ireland I doubt you may judge of my Sense in this Discourse as Men do of Minerals that when they appear near the day as they phrase it and are easily come at that the Vein is not good So may you judge of my forward Opinion in the following Lines however you that command can pardon and by your better Judgment supply my Defects I shall begin with that of Companies in general These I take to have been very common in the early days of Trade when Navigation was judged a Mystery next to that of the Black Art and such as would venture their Persons and Estates into the New World as they termed new found Countries Heroes equal to Alexander and Caesar Aes triplex circa pectus erat Horace In these Times Kings could not exceed in their Grants and Privileges that by them Adventurers might be increased and Trade brought to their Dominions we see how fond Princes were of Merchants by the great Privileges our Kings gave to the Easterlings as they then called the Flemings the Still-Yard is a lasting Monument of their Grandure and our Chronicles tell how boldly they would upon any Distaste bear on our Kings So were our Companies in following years courted by Foreign Princes and States to settle their Trade in their Dominions but as Trade and and Commerce became familiar in the World the Wisdom of Government made the Privileges of Trade universal to their Subjects and so by degrees Companies were abated and only such continued as were thought useful for preserving some particular Trades that if left at large might become less profitable to the Kingdom There is another Reason for Companies in Foreign Parts which some bring to strengthen their Opinion for them here They tell us Companies are frequent in France Holland Swedeland and likewise in most small Princes Dominions but in all these Places there may be Reasons which hold not here some of them have but little Trade and Navigation the People not affected with Trade but content themselves with the Product of their own Country Now in this Case there is Reason for the Government to encourage Companies even to the seeming loss of the People in general that is by placing such Duties and Prohibitions on Foreigners as to keep them out that so their own Subjects may set their own Rates on what they import otherwise they would not be able to manage a Trade that Foreigners could undersel them in and so their Country would become a Province to other Princes I take them to be not better who govern not their own Trade but are beholding to Strangers Companies in Countries under these Circumstances seem absolutely necessary to preserve some Trade of their own but we in England are not under these Necessities France and other Countries before mentioned have Inducements much of the same Nature for tho they may drive considerable Trades in the World yet they come after us in their Foreign Plantations and Trade and where they are so nothing but Companies can introduce them but had they an open and secure Trade they would soon throw down the Inclosure and make their Trade common to all their own Subjects There is yet another reason for Companies and that is all I can find which carries a pretence for any in England that is where there wants a Force and Government to secure Ships and Men whilst they are imployed in the Trade of the Country among Savages and so have not the Protection of the Country as in other more civilized Nations Here if the Government of the Kingdom do not at the publick Charge set up and maintain Forts and Garrisons for the security of their own People that trade there the Trade can be no other way carried on but by a Company and Joint-stock and that Trade appropriated to them as a Fund and Recompence for their Charge of maintaining a Force and Government But this seems to proceed rather from the Mistakes or Neglect in Government than a good Expedient for Trade that any Society of private Men should have a Regal Power to make War or Peace give Commissions c. may be thought an Indication of Weakness in the National Power they derive from and is a Creature within a Creature that wants a Name and however this Management may secure a Gain to the Company yet at the same time it may be a Loss to the Nation to which they belong As that of the African Company which by the best Judgment is depricated as the Bane of our Foreign Plantations Something of which is touched upon by Mr. Dalby Thomas in his Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies a more Rational and Mercantine Discourse I have not met with Now it might be thought more Honorable for the Nation to secure every part of their Trade at the publick Charge than to leave it to the Conduct of private Men and so set up a Common-Wealth within a Monarchy that for any Miscarriages are not called to account like other Offenders but treated like an Ally I know not how better to distinguish Men that seise Ships and Goods where they find them without Process of Law By this Account you will believe me no Friend to Companies and I must confess my Judgment and Experience as far as it goes is against them but still with a Reserve to such as by a long Descent from their Predecessors that purchased it by signal Service to the Nation have in a manner a Freehold as that of the Turkey Hamburg and some other Companies in being But that Projectors and Courtiers should be inspired with New Lights and out of Love to the Nation create new Methods in Trades that none before found out and by inclosing Commons the Liberty of Trade into Shares in the first place for themselves and then for such others as will pay for both is I must confess to me a Mystery I desire to be a Stranger unto And this brings me to the second part of your Enquiry my Thoughts of the present Linnen Manufactory in England You know my Aversion to the Sin of this Age
to our having the same freedom of Trade by which but a little time before the wisest and most leading Men of that Nation thought it their Interest to have secured our Affection And that this was the sence of the Court of England at that time needs no further Evidence than His Majesty's two successive Speeches to both Houses of His First Parliament wherein the consideration of an intire Union with Scotland was seriously recommended In order to which some Schemes were prepared and consulted by certain Noble Patriots of both Nations But no sooner had we in the interim solemnly consummated in manner aforesaid all that England could have either wish'd or fear'd from us on that Occasion but of a sudden all thoughts of such Union fell to the ground so that being left to chew our Cud upon that melancholy Proverb Post est occasio calva which in our Dialect may be render'd A True Scotchman is Wise behind-hand our next and only Remedy was to make the best of a bad Market In order to which we then Resolved to think of framing such wholsom and advantagious Lawes for the Advancement of our poor Trade as might not only rouze up and animate the depressed and often-disappointed Genius of our fellow-Natives but also invite and enduce Strangers more experienced in Trade to embarque upon the same bottom with us and to that end We did in the Third Session of this current Parliament Anno 1693 Pass a Preliminary Act conceived in general Terms for the Encouragement of Foreign Trade which you see narrated in the beginning of this last Act By the gracious and necessary Concessions of which we have a plain Demonstration through the Vertue of those Noble and worthy Patriots whom His Majesty's discerning Eye singled out of the Crowd of Pretenders to the Offices of State That our present King is not only Pater Patriae but Pater Patriarum and like the true Emblem of that Immense Deity whose Anointed he is diffuseth his Favours with a more unconfined and universal Influence than any of our late Kings of Britain Their natural Easiness of Temper giving many fatal Opportunities to the mercenary Ministers of those Times both to impose on their Masters and prey upon the Liberties of their fellow-Subjects whereas our present King doth not only penetrate into what is Just but hath also a Nobleness of Soul to execute with an impartial Hand what to him seemeth to be so And that the giving his Royal Sanction to this Act was the effect both of his Justice and Gratitude is plain from the natural Regard which in Reason we must needs suppose him to have had to our frank and seasonable Services when in themselves they were most Valuable and when indeed he stood most in need of them Obj. But you say the Out-cry is That these are such unprecedented Concessions and Exceptions as never were or ought to be granted by a Prince to any Society or Company of Traders in the World Ergo Hah Is the Hue and Cry got up then I am glad of it For certainly the Great the Grave and Wise Men of the Nation do never joyn in that Chorus But to be more serious 'T is true that these Concessions may seem somwhat strange to a People whose Wealth Capacity Naval Strength Foreign Possessions Plantations Forts and Universal Settlements want no more to carry on what Trade soever they please than to will and to execute But on the other hand if they look upon Scotland and consider it as in it self it is deficient to a degree of Extremity in all the necessary Qualifications of Trade above-recited they must own of course that nothing less than these Concessions and Exemptions could give this New Company a prospect of so much as a Possibility of ever grappling with such infinite and almost insuperable Difficulties as they and indeed all other Beginnings must necessarily encounter with so that if such Exemptions had not been granted we had as good have erected no Company And as to these Concessions being without Precedent I will not pretend to give an Instance of any that are exactly the same with the Privileges contained in this Act but if I let you see much greater I hope that may serve the turn Nor to do that need I go so far from hence as to search into the Records of other Nations such as France Holland Denmark and others who have given illimited Powers and vast Encouragements to their respective Tradeing Companies but even in Scotland when we could not be presumed to have had any great Notions of Trade about Thirty five Years past upon the Restauration of King Charles II. in his First Parliament and the several Sessions thereof before the French King had time to plant his Janizaries in the Court of England there were several Acts Pass'd in favour of Trade and Manufactories with Privileges and Exemptions far exceeding any in this Act with respect to the Purposes for which they were granted Mutatis Mutandis And that I may not seem to speak altogether without Book I shall give you an Instance of one for all namely the Act Pass'd in the Year 1661 for the Fishings and Erecting of Companies for Promoting the same which being too long to be transcribed I send you by way of Postscript a short Abstract of the most considerable Privileges and Exemptions therein contained as they stand in order in the Act it self and all these were Granted for Perpetuity Whereas all the most Important Concessions in this late Act are limited some to Ten some to Twenty one Years in which time God knows we must run very fast to come up with any of all our neighbouring Nations who have started so long before Us. Now let us further compare both the said Acts and the Purposes for which they were severally intended and then with respect to this last we must think of going we know not whither undergo the Danger of boysterous Storms and long Voyages with which we are not acquainted tye up our Stomachs to strict regular and unaccustomed Diets prepare against the Effects of quite contrary Climates and there purchase Plantations Collonies Settlements and build Forts c. Yet as to the Time when all this will happen he must be a wiser Man than I that can tell But as to the former Act for the Fishing c. all Matters thereunto relating were to be transacted in view of our own Doors and in our own Power But then you 'll ask me How it came to pass that this excellent Constitution for our Fishings has had no better Effect Why truly I 'll tell you For the very same Reason which may possibly prove the Overthrow of this New Undertaking which God forbid if we have no better luck in getting honester Men at the Head of it For the Dutch who have got most of their Wealth by Fishing in other Mens Waters looking upon us then with a jealous Eye found a way as it was then believ'd to