we lose the very name of our home-bred Commodities and other Countries get the Reputation and Profit thereof Most deplorable it is that this Kingdom should be deprived of so many Millions above-mention'd and that our Native Commodities of Cloth ordain'd of God for the natural profit and good of your Subjects being so Royal and Rich in it self should be driven to so small advantage of Reputation and Profit to Your Majesty and People and so much improv'd and intercepted by Strangers considering that God hath enabled and given Your Majesty power to advance Dressing and Dying and Transporting of all your Cloths within a Year or two I speak it knowingly to shew it may be done laudably lawfully and approved to be honourable feasable and profitable All the Companies of your Land transport their Cloths drest and died to the good of Your Kingdom except the Merchant-Adventurers whereby the Eastland and Turky Merchants with other Companies do encrease Your Majesties Customs by bringing in and spending Dying Stuffs and setting your People on work by Dressing before they transport them and they might encrease far more Custom to Your Majesty and make much more profit to themselves and this Nation and set many thousands of poor People more on work for dressing and dying and likewise employ more Ships and Mariners for bringing in Dying Stuffs were it not for the Merchant-Adventurers who transport their Cloths white rough undrest and undied into the Low-Countries where they sell them to the Stranger who afterwards dress die and stretch them to such unreasonable lengths contrary to our Law that they prevent and forestall our Markets and cross the just Prohibitions of our State and Realm by their Agents and Factors lying in divers places with our own Cloths to the great decay of this Kingdom in general and discredit of our Cloths in particular If the Accompt were truly known it would be found that they make clear profit only by Cloth transported rough undrest and undied 60000 l. a Year But it is most apparent Your Majesty in your Customs your Merchants in their Sales and Prices your Subjects in their Labours for want of not Dressing and Dying your Ships and Mariners in not bringing in of Dying Stuffs and spending of Allom are hindred yearly near a Million of Pounds so that Trade is driven in to the great damage hindrance of Your Majesty and People by permitting your Native Commodities to pass rough undrest and undied by the Merchant-Adventurer Touching Fishing The great Sea business of Fishing doth Imploy near 20000 Ships and Vessels and 400000 People are imployed yearly upon your Coast of England Scotland and Ireland with 60 Ships of War which may prove dangerous The Hollanders only have about 3000 Ships to Fish withall and 50000 People are imployed yearly by them upon Your Majesties Coasts of England Scotland and Ireland These Three Thousand Fishing Ships and Vessels of the Hollanders do imploy near 9000 other Ships and Vessels and 150000 Persons more by Sea and Land to make provision to cure and transport the Fish they take and return Commodities whereby they are inabled and do build yearly 1000 Ships and Vessels having not one Timber Tree growing in their own Country nor home bred Commodities to lade 100 Ships and yet they have 20000 Ships and Vessels and all imployed King Henry the 7th desirous to make his Kingdoms powerful and Rich by encrease of Ships and Mariners and employment of his People sent unto his Sea Coast Towns moving them to set up the great and Rich Fishing with promise to give them needful Privileges and to furnish them with Loans of Money if need were to encourage them yet his People were slack Now since I have traced this business and made my endeavours known unto Your Majesty your Noble Men able Merchants and others who having set down under their hands for more assurance promised to disburst large Sums of Money for the building up of this great and Rich large Sea City which will increase more Strength to your Land give more comfort and do more good to all your Cities and Towns than all the Companies of your Kingdom having fit and needful Priviledges for the upholding and strengthening of so weighty and needful a business For example 20 Busses built and put into a Sea Coast Town where there was not one Ship before there must be to carry recarry transport and make provision for one Buss three Ships likewise every Ship setting on work 30 several Trades and Occupations and 8000 Persons by Sea and Land insomuch as 300 Persons are not able to make one Fleet of Nets in four Months for one Buss which is no small employment with increase of a Thousand Mariners and a Fleet of 80 Sail of Ships to belong to one Town where none were before to take the Wealth out of the Sea to enrich and Strengthen the Land and this only by raising of 20 Busses Then what good one Thousand or two Thousand will do I leave to Your Majesties consideration It is worthy to be Noted how necessary Fishermen are to the Common Wealth and how needful to be advanced and cherished viz. 1. For taking Gods blessing out of the Sea to enrich the Realm which otherwise we lose 2. For setting the People on Work 3. For making plenty and cheapness in the Kingdom 4. For the encrease of Shipping to make the Land formidable against its Enemies 5. For a continual Nursery for Breeding and the Encreasing of Seamen 6. For making Imployment for all sorts of People as Blind Lame and others by Sea and Land from Ten or Twelve Years and upwards 7. For enriching Your Majesties Coffers for Merchandize returned from other Countries for Fish and Herrings 8. For the encrease and enabling of Merchants which now droop and Decay to the great loss of the Nation Touching the Coin For the most part all Monarchies and free States both Heathen and Christian as Turkey Barbary France Poland and many others do hold for a Rule of never failing profit to keep their Coin at higher rates within their own Territories than it is in other Kingdoms And for these causes 1. To preserve the Coin within their own Territories 2. To bring unto themselves the Coin of Foriegn Princes 3. To enforce Merchant strangers to take their Commodities at high Rates for want of which this Kingdom bears the Burthen For Instance The King of Barbary perceiving the Trade of Christian Merchants to increase in his Kingdom and that the Returns out of his Kingdom were most in Gold whereby it was much enhanced raised his Ducket being then Current for three Ounces to four five and six Ounces nevertheless it was no more worth in England being so raised than when it went for three Ounces This Ducket current for three Ounces in Barbary was then worth in England 7 Shillings and 6 pence and no more being raised to 6 Ounces since which time adding to it a small piece of Gold he hath
their State besides the Common Good in setting their Poor and People on Work To which Privileges they add sinallness of Custom and liberty of Trade which maketh them flourish and their Country so plentiful of all kind of Coin and Commodities where little or nothing groweth and their Merchants so flourish that when a loss cometh they scarce feel it To bring this to pass they have many advantages of us the one is by their fashioned Ships called Boyers Hoy-barks Hoys and others that are made to hold great bulk of Merchandize and to sail with a few Men for profit for Example tho' an English Ship of 200 Tuns and a Holland Ship or any other of the States of the same burthen be at Dantzick or any other place beyond the Seas or in England they do serve the Merchant better cheap by one hundred pounds in his Freight than we can by reason he hath but nine or ten Mariners and we near thirty thus he saveth twenty Mens Meat and Wages in a Voyage and so in all other Ships according to their Burthen by which means they are Freighted wheresoever they come to great profit whilst our Ships lye still and decay or go to New-Castle for Coals Of this their smallness of Custom inwards and outwards we have daily experience For if two English Ships or two of any other Nation be at Burdeaux both laden with Winc of 300 Tuns apiece the one bound for Holland or any other of the States the other for England the Merchant shall pay about 900 l. Custom here and other Duties when the other in Holland or any other of the States shall be Cleared for less than 50 l. and so in all other Wares and Merchandizes accordingly which draws all Nations to Traffick with them And altho' it seems but small Duties which they receive yet the multitudes of all kind of Commodities that is brought in by themselves and others and carried out by themselves and others is so great that they receive more Custom and Duties to the State by the greatness of their Commerce in one Year than England doth in two Years for the one hundredth part of Commodities are not spent in Holland but vented into other Countries which maketh all the Country Merchants to buy and sell and encrease Ships and Mariners to transport them My Travels and Meaning is not to diminish neither hath been Your Majesties Revenues but exceedingly to encrease them as shall appear and yet please the People as in other Parts they do Notwithstanding their Excizes bring them in great Revenues yet whosoever will adventure to Burdeaux but for six Tun of Wine shall be free of Excize in his own House all the Year long and this is done on purpose to animate and encrease Merchants in their Country And if it hap pen that a Trade be stopt by any Foreign Nation which they heretofore usually had or hear of any good Trading which they never had they will hinder others and seek either by Favour Money or Force to open the Gap of Traffick for Advancement of Trade amongst themselves and Employment of their People And when there is a New Course or Trade erected they give free Custom inwards and outwards for the better Maintenance of Navigation and Encouragement of the People to that Business Thus They and Others glean the Wealth and Strength from us to themselves and these Reasons following procure them this Advantage of us 1. The Merchant-Staplers which make all things in abundance by reason of their Store-Houses continually replenish'd with all kinds of Commodities 2. The Liberty of free Traffick for Strangers to Buy and Sell in Holland and other Countries and States as if they were Free-born maketh great Intercourse 3. The small Duties levied upon Merchants draw all Nations to trade with them 4. Their fashion'd Ships continually freighted before ours by reason of their few Mariners and great Bulk serving the Merchant cheap 5. Their Encouragement to further all manner of Trading 6. Their wonderful Employment of their Busses for Fishing and the great Returns they make 7. Their giving free Custom inwards and outwards for any new erected Trade by means whereof they have already engrossed almost the sole Trade of Europe into their hands and have daily since this Worthy Author made these Observations made further Encroachments to the great enriching of their State Furthermore all Nations may buy and sell freely in France and there is free Custom outward twice or thrice in a Year at which time our Merchants themselves do make their great Sales of English Commodities and do buy and lede their great bulk of French Commodities to serve for the whole Year and in Rochel in France and in Britany free Custom all the Year long except some small Toll which makes great Traffick and makes them Flourish In Denmark to encourage and enrich the Merchants and to encrease Shipping and Mariners grant free Custom all the Year long for their own Merchants except one Month between Bartholomew-Tide and Michaelmass The Haunce Towns have advantage of us as Holland and other States have and in most things imitate them which makes them exceeding Rich and Plentiful of all kind of Commodities and Coin and so strong in Shipping and Mariners that some of their Towns have near one Thousand Sail of Ships The Merchandizes of France Portugal Spain Italy Turky East and West Indies England and Ireland are transported most by the Hollanders and other States into the East and North-East Kingdoms of Pomerania Spruceland Poland Denmark Norway Sweedland Leifland and most places of Germany Russia c. And the Merchandizes brought from these Kingdoms and Provinces being wonderful many are likewise by the Hollanders and the other States most Transported into the Southern and Western Dominions as France Spain Italy Portugal England Ireland c. and yet the Situation of England lieth far better for a Store-House to serve the South-East and North-East Kingdoms than theirs doth and hath far better Means to do it if we will apply our selves to it No sooner a Dearth of Fish Wine or Corn here and other Merchandize but forthwith the Embdeners Hamburgers and Hollanders out of their Stores and Magazines lade one or two hundred Ships or more dispersing themselves round about this Kingdom and carry away great store of Coin and valuable Wealth as is our Lead and Tin c. for little Commodity in those Times of Dearth by which means they drain our Kingdom of their Riches cut down and under-sell our Merchants and decay our Navigation but not with Commodities of their Native Growth but the Merchandizes of other Countries and Kingdoms Therefore 't is far more easie for Your Majesties Kingdom to serve our selves and others to Encourage our Merchants in their profitable Trading encrease our Shipping and Mariners and strengthen Your Kingdom and not only keep our Money in our own Realm which other Nations still rob us of but bring in theirs who carry ours away and make the Bank
of Coin and Magazines of all Stores to serve other Nations as well and far better cheap than they Amsterdam is never without Seven Hundred Thousand Quarters of Corn besides the Plenty they daily vent and little or none of this groweth in their own Country A Dearth in England France Spain Italy Portugal and other Places is truly observed to enrich Holland Seven Years after and likewise the petty States For Example the last Dearth six Years past the Hamburgers Embdeners and Hollanders out of their Store Houses furnished this Kingdom and from Southampton Exeter and Bristol in a Year and half they carried away near Two Hundred Thousand Pounds from these Parts only Then what great quantity of Coin was Transported round about Your Kingdom from every Port-Town and Your City of London and other Citties cannot be esteemed so little as two Millions to the great Detriment of Your Kingdom and Impoverishment of Your People discredit to the Company of Merchants and great Dishonour and Shame of the Nation that a State that hath little or no Corn in it of their own Country Growth should serve this Famous and Plentiful Kingdom which God hath so blest and enabled for the Support of it self and others They have a continual Trade into this Kingdom with five or six hundred Ships yearly but now augmented to a far greater Number with Merchandizes of other Countries and Kingdoms and store them up in their Magazines till the prices rise to their Minds and we Trade not with fifty Ships into their Country in a Year and not much encreased at this time and the same Number are about this Kingdom every Easterly Wind for the most part to lade Coals and other Merchandize Unless there be a Scarcity or Dearth or high Prices all Merchants do forbear that Place where great Impositions are laid upon the Merchandize and those Places are slenderly shipt ill served and at dear Rates and oftentimes in Scarcity and want Employment for the People and those petty States finding truly by Experience that small Duties imposed upon Merchandize draw all Traffick unto them and free Liberty for Strangers to buy and sell doth make continual Mart therefore what Excises or Impositions are laid upon the Common People yet they still easily uphold and maintain the Merchants by all possible means of purpose to draw the Wealth and Strength of Christendom to themselves whereby it appeareth though the Duties be but small yet the Customs for Exportation and Importation do so abound that they greatly encrease their Revenues and make Profit Plenty and Employment of all sorts by Sea and Land to serve themselves and other Nations to the Admiration of the whole World And likewise the great Commerce which groweth by the same means enableth the Common-People patiently to bear their Burthen laid on them who by their constant Employ and Commerce grow Rich even in a time War of by their convenient and encouraging Privileges and commodious Constitutions There was an Intercourse of Traffick to Genoa and there was the Flower of Commerce as appeareth by their ancient Records and their sumptuous Buildings for all Nations Traded with Merchandize to them and there was the Store-house of all Italy and other places but after they had set a great Custom of 16 per Cent. all Nations left Trading with them which made them give themselves wholly to Usury and at this day we have not three Ships go thither in a Year but on the contrary the Duke of Florence built Legorn and set small Customs upon the Merchandize and gave them great and pleasing Privileges which hath made a rich and strong City with a flourishing State Furthermore there are some Particulars needful to be consider'd that the greatest Fishing the World has produced is on the Coast of England Scotland and Ireland Nevertheless the great Fishery is in the Low-Countries and other petty States wherewith they serve themselves and all Christendom as shall appear In four Towns in the East Kingdoms within the Sound viz. Quinbrough Elbing Stetten and Dantzick there are carried and Vented in a Year between Thirty or Forty Thousand Last of Herrings fold but at fifteen or sixteen Pounds the Last is about six hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds and we none Besides Denmark Norway Sweden Leifland Rie Nevil the Narve and other Port Towns within the Sound there is carried and vented above Ten thousand Last of Herrings sold at fifteen or sixteen Pounds the Last is a Hundred and sixty Thousand Pound more Yearly In such request are our Herrings there that they are often Sold for 20 24 30 and 36 Pounds the last and we send not one Barrel into all those East Countries The Hollanders send into Russia near fifteen hundred Lasts of Herrings Sold at about 30 Shillings the Barrel amounteth to Twenty seven Thousand Pounds and we but about Twenty or Thirty Lasts To Stroad Hambrough Breamen and Embden upon the River Elbe VVeaser and Embs are carried and vented of Fish and Herrings about six Thousand Lasts Sold at about fifteen or sixteen Pounds the Last or more is a Hundred Thousand Pounds and we none at all Cleaveland Gulickland up the River Rhine to Collen Frankfort on the Maine and so over all Germany is carried and vended Fish and Herrings near Twenty two Thousand Lasts Sold at 20 Pounds the Last is Four Hundred and Forty Thousand Pounds and we none Up the River Maze to Leige Mastricht Vendlow Zutphen Davanter Campen Swoole and all over Liefland is carried and vented Seven Thousand Lasts of Herrings Sold at Twenty Pound the Last is a Hundred and Forty Thousand Pounds and we none To Gilderland Artois Hanault Brabant Flanders up the River of Antwerp all over the Arch Dukes Countries are carried and vended between Eight or Nine Thousand Lasts Sold at eighteen Pounds the Last is a Hundred and Sixty Thousand Pounds and we not a half Penny worth The Hollanders and others carried of all sorts of Herrings to Roan only in one Year besides all other parts of France Fifty Thousand Lasts of Herrings Sold at 20 Pounds the Lasts is one Million of Pounds and we not one Hundred Last thither They are sold often there for 24 and 30 Pound the Last Between Christmas and Lent the Duties for Fish and Herrings came to Fifteen Thousand Crowns at Roan only that Year the late Queen deceased Sir Thomas Parrie was then Agent there and S. Savors his Man knows it to be true who handled the business for pulling down the Impositions Then what great Sums of Money came the Duties to of all his Port Towns to the great enriching the French Kings Coffers and to the great enrichment of many other Kings and States throughout Christendom and the great quantities vended in the Streights besides what is spent in the Low Countries amounting to many a Hundred Thousand Pounds Yearly ought not to be forgot and the Stream to be turn'd to the Good of this Kingdom to whose Sea-coasts God only hath
sent and given these great Blessings and multitude of Riches for us to take however it hath thus long been neglected to the great Damage and dishonour of this Kingdom that any Nation should yearly carry away out of this Realm great Masses of Mony for Fish taken in our own Seas and Sold again by them to us which must needs be a great loss and hinderance to this Nation From the Port Town of any Kingdom in Christendom the Bridgemaster or the Whafsinger for Twenty Shillings a Year will deliver a true Note of the Number of Lasts of Herrings brought to their Wharfs by us and the Prices they are Sold at but the Number brought to Danzick Collen Rotterdam and Enchusen c. is so great as it will cost more than three four or five Pounds for a true Note The abundance of Corn groweth in the East Kingdoms but the great Store-houses for Grain to serve all Christendom and the Heathen Countries in time of Dearth is in the Low Countries wherewith upon every occasion of Scarcity and Dearth they do inrich themselves seven Years after employ their People and get great Freights for their Ships in other Countries whilst we have none in that Course The mighty Vineyards and store of Salt is in France and Spain but the great Vintage and Staple of Salt is in the Low Countries and they send yearly near One Thousand Sail of Ships with Salt and Wine only into the East Kingdoms yearly besides other places and we not one in that Course or Trade The exceeding Groves of Wood are in the East Kingdoms but the huge Piles of Wainscot Clapbord Fir-deal Masts and Timber is in the Low Countries where none grow wherewith they serve themselves and other parts and this Kingdom with those Commodities They have five or six hundred great long Ships continually using that Trade and we but a few The Wool Cloth Lead Tin and divers other Commodities are in England but by means of our Wool and Cloth going out ruff undrest and undy'd there is an exceeding Manufactory and Drapery in the Low-Countries wherewith they serve themselves and other Nations and advance greatly the Imployment of their People at home and Traffick abroad put down ours in foreign Parts where our Merchants Trade unto with our own Commodities We send into the East Kingdoms yearly but one hundred Ships and our Trade chiefly depends upon three Towns viz. Elbing Kingsborough and Dantzick for making our Sails and buying their Commodities sent into this Realm at dear Rates which this Kingdom bears the burden of Our Trading to these parts and some others is much improved since but still may bear nigh the same Proportion The Low-Countries send into the East Kingdoms yearly about 3000 Ships trading into every City and Port-Town taking the Advantage and venting their Commodities to exceeding profit and buying and lading their Ships with plenty of those Commodities which they have from every of those Towns 20 per Cent. better cheap than we by reason of the difference of Coin and their Fish yields ready Money which greatly advanceth their Traffick and decayeth ours They send into France Spain Portugal Italy from the East Kingdoms that passeth through the Sound and through Your Narrow Seas yearly of the East Country Commodities about 2000 Ships and we none in that Course They Trade into all Cities and Port-Towns in France and we chiefly but to five or six They Traffick into every City and Port now round about this Land with five or six Hundred Ships yearly and we chiefly but to three Towns in their Country and but with Forty Ships Notwithstanding the Low-Countries have as many Ships and Vessels as Eleven Kingdoms of Christendom have let England be one and Build every Year near 1000 Ships and not a Timber Tree growing in their own Country and that all their home-bred Commodities that grow in their Land in a Year less than one Hundred good Ships are able to carry them away at one time yet they handle the matter so well for setting them all on Work that their Traffick with the Hanse-Towns exceeds in Shipping all Christendom We have all things of our own in Superabundance to increase Traffick and Timber to build Ships and Commodities of our own to lade about 1000 Ships and Vessels at one time besides the great Fishing and as fast as they have made their Voyages might relade again and so Year after Year and all the Year long to continue and yet our Ships and Mariners decline and Traffick and Merchants daily decay The main Bulk and Mass of Herrings from whence they raise so many Millions yearly that inrich other Kingdoms Kings and States Coffers and likewise their own People proceedeth from Your Majesties Seas and Lands and the return of the Commodities and Coin they bring home in Exchange of Fish and other Commodities are so great as would require a large discourse apart all the amends they make us is they beat us out of Trade in all parts with our own Commodities For instance we had a great Trade in Russia Seventy Years and about 14 Years past we sent Store of goodly Ships to Trade in those Parts and three Years past we sent out but Four and this last Year two on three But on the contrary the Hollanders about twenty Years since Traded thither with two Ships only yet now they are increased to about Thirty or Forty and at this time to many more and one of their Ships is as big as two of ours and at the same time in their Troubles there that we decreased in Trade they greatly increased the same may now fitly be applyed to the present Circumstances that the War hath not improverisht them but their Trade greatly increased thereby and the great advantage they have of us in the East-India Trade and others is obvious but the chiefest Commodities they carry with them to Russia is English Cloth Heilings taken in our Seas English Lead and Pewter made of our Tin besides other Commodities all which we may do better and cheaper than they if we knew the value of our own Commodities and would apply our selves to do it And altho' it be a cheap Country and the Trade very gainful yet we have almost brought it to Naught by disorderly Trading joint Stocks now called Stock-jobbing and the Merchants banding themselves one against an other So likewise we used to have eight or nine great Ships to go continually a Fishing to Ward house and this Year but one and so pro rata they out do us in all kind of Fishing and Merchandizing in all Countries by reason they spare no Cost nor deny any Priviledges that may Incourage the advancement of Trade and Manufactory Now if it please and with Your Majesties good liking stand To take notice of these things which I have Conceived to be fit for Your Majesties consideration which in all humbleness as duty bindeth me I do tender unto Your Majesty for the unfeigned Zeal
I bare to the advancement of Your Honour and Profit and the general good of Your Subjects it being apparent that no three Kingdoms in Christendom can compare with Your Majesties for Support of Traffick and the continual imployment of Your People within themselves having so many great means both by Sea and Land to enrich Your Coffers multiply Your Naval strength enlarge Your Traffick make Your Kingdoms powerful and Your People Rich yet through Idleness they are Poor wanting imployment many of your Land and Coast Towns much ruinated and your Kingdom in great need of Coin your Shipping Traffick and Mariners decay whilst Your Majesties neighbouring Princes without these means abound in Wealth inlarge their Towns increase their Shipping Traffick and Mariners abound in Coin and find out such imployment for their People that they are all advantagious to their Common Wealth and this only by ordarining Commodious Constitutions in Merchandizing and fullness of Trade in Manufactory and the Effectual keeping their Coin at home God hath Blessed Your Majesty with incomparable Blenefits As with Copper Lead Iron Tin Allum Copperas Saffron Fells and divers other Native Commodities to the Number of about one Hundred and other Manufactories vendible to the number of about one Thousand besides Corn whereof great quantity of Beer is made and most transported by Strangers as also Wool whereof much is Shipped forth unwrought and Cloth and Stuffs transported undrest and undied which doth employ and maintain near Fifty Thousand People in Foreign Parts Your Majesties People wanting the Imployment in England many of them being inforced to live in great want and seek it beyond Seas Coals which do imploy Hundreds of Strangers Ships yearly to transport them out of this Kingdom which we only ought to do whilst we do not Employ Twenty Ships in in that Course Iron Ordinance which is a Jewel of great value far more than it is accounted by reason that no other Country could ever attain unto it altho they have assayed with great charge Your Majesty hath Timber of your own for building of Ships and Commodities plenty of your own growth and Manufactories to lade them which Commodities other Nations want nor cannot well be without and yet Your Majesties People decline in Shipping Mariners Traffick c. These Inconveniences happen by three Causes especially viz. 1. The unprofitable course and Method of Merchandizing 2. The want of compleat and full Manufactory of our home bred Commodities 3. And chiefly the undervaluing of our Coins contrary to the Rules of other Nations For instance The Merchant Adventurers by overtrading upon Credit or with Money taken upon Exchange whereby they lose usually Ten or Twelve and sometimes Fifteen or Sixteen per Cent. are inforced to make Sale of their Cloths at under rates to keep their Credit whereby Cloths being the Jewel of the Land are undervalued and the Merchant in short time eaten out The Merchants of Ipsovich whose Trade for Elbing is chiefly for fine Cloths and some few sorting Cloths all died and drest within our Land do for the most part buy their fine Cloths upon Time and by reason they go so much upon Credit they are enforced not being able to Stand upon their Markets to sell giving fifteen or eighteen Months time of payment for their Cloths and having Sold them they then presently sell their Bills so taken for Cloth allowing after the Rate of fourteen or fifteen and sometimes twenty per Cent which Mony they imploy forthwith in Wares at excessive prices and lose as much more that way by that time their Wares be Sold at home Thus by over-running themselves upon Credit they disenable themselves and others inhanceing the price of Foreign Commodities and pulling down the Rates of our own The West Country Merchants that Trade with Cloths into France or Spain do usually employ their Servants young men of small experience who the by cunning Combining of French and Spanish Merchants are so entrapped that when all Customs and Charges be accompted for their Masters shall hardly receive their Principal Moneys As for Returns one of France their Silver and Gold is so highly valu'd that our Merchants cannot bring it home but to great loss therefore the French Merchants set higher rates upon their Commodities which we must either buy dear or let our Money lie dead there a long time until we may conveniently employ the same The Northern Merchants of York Hull and Newcastle trade only in White Kersies and colour'd Dozens and every Merchant be his Adventure neverso great doth for the most part send over an unexperienc'd Youth unfit for Merchandizing which bringeth to the Stranger great advantages but to his Master and Common-wealth great loss and hindrance for they before their Goods be landed go to the Stranger and buy such quantities of Iron Flax Corn and other Commodities as they are bound to lade their Ships withal which Ships they engage themselves to re-lade within three Weeks or a Month and do give the price the Merchant-Stranger asketh because he gives them Credit and lets them Ship away their Iron Flax and other Commodities before they have sold their Kersies and other Commodities by which means extraordinary dear Commodities are return'd into this Realm and the Servant also inforc'd to sell his Cloths under rate and often times to loss to keep his Credit and to make Payment for the Goods before shipt home having some twenty days or a Months respit to sell the Cloths and to give the Merchant Satisfaction for his Iron Flax and other Wares by which Extremities our home-bred Commodities are abased Touching Manufactory There have been about 80000 undrest and undied Cloths yearly transported It is therefore evident that the Kingdom hath been yearly deprived of 400000 Pound within this five and fifty Years which is near twenty Millions that would have been gain'd by the Labours of poor Workmen in that time with the Merchants gains for bringing in of Dying Stuffs and return of Cloths drest and died with other Benefits to the Kingdom besides the exceeding encrease of Traffick Ships and Mariners There would have been gained in that time about three Millions by encrease of Custom upon Commodities return'd for Cloths drest and died and for dying Stuffs which would have more plentifully been brought in and used for the same There hath been also transported in that time yearly by Bays Northern and Devonshire Kersies white about fifty thousand Cloths counting three Kersies to a Cloth whereby hath been lost about five Millions by those sorts of Cloths in that time which would have come to poor Workmen for their Labour with the Customs for Dying Materials and the Merchants profit for bringing them in with returns of other Commodities and Fraighting of Ships Bays are transported white into Amsterdam and being there drest and died are shipe into Spain Portugal and other Kingdoms where they are sold in the name of Flemish Bays setting their own Town Seal upon them so that
raised it to 8 and lastly to 10 Ounces yet at this day it is worth but 10 s. and one peny notwithstanding Your Majesty's late raising of Your Gold Having thus raised his Gold he then devised to have plenty of Silver brought into his Kingdom and by the same policy raised the Royal of 8 being but two Ounces to 3 s. and 3 d. half peny which caused great plenty of Silver to be brought in and continue in his Kingdom And it were to be wisht that we might follow the good Example of this advantagious Policy in this Juncture when by the same Method we have brought great plenty of Gold into the Kingdom and if we pursue it by advancing the value of our Silver may not only keep what we already have but also cause great plenty to be brought in and kept here when we have it France The English Jacobus goeth for 1 l. 3 s. in Merchandizing The English Crown for 7 s. and 6 d. Also the King hath rais'd his Silver four Sols in the Crown North Holland The Double Jacobus goeth for 1 l. 3 s. Sterling The English Shilling is there 11 Stivers which is two Shillings over in the Pound Poland The K. of Poland raised the Hungarian Ducket from 56 to 77 ½ Polonish Groshes and the Rix-dollar from 36 to 47 and ½ Groshes the Rix-dollar worth in Poland 47 and ½ groshes is by account in Poland 10 s. and 4 d. and in England is worth but 7 s. and 10 d. The Jacobus of England here Current at that time for 1 l. 2 s. in Poland 1 l. 4 s. at the rate of 7 s. 10 d. for the Hungarian Ducket Some additional Remarks and Observations Relating to Coin and Trade 1. That Nation can only be in a prosperous Estate that hath a proportionable quantity of Silver or Gold to ballance the Strength and Trade of its neighbouring Nations 2. That whilst the Current Cash of this Kingdom can be converted into Bullion and so made a trading Commodity as hath been practis'd this hundred Years 't will either be convey'd to the best Market or wrought in to Plate at home notwithstanding the utmost rigour and vigilancy to the great and daily Consumption of the Coin and Detriment of the Nation That it is evident notwithstanding those great Sums coin'd in the two last Reigns 't was no sooner made than converted into a trading Commodity some inconsiderable Sums excepted that hapt not into Hucksters hands and if from the like Causes the same scarcity of Mill'd Mony should happen at any time hereafter which God forbid tho morally 't is not impossible for the reason above alledged and as a part bears to the whole that without raising the value of our Coin the Nation may totally be drain'd of it and may possibly be then at too great a distance to be had for calling for and were there no more Silver now in the Nation than the standard Mony that has past the trading hands of Merchants and Goldsmiths the Nation were in a deplorable and irreparable Condition 3. That what Custom makes the Medium Measure or Reward of Labour Industry and Commerce is universally call'd Money and ought not to be convertible to a trading Commodity to the Publick Damage and diminution of the Species be it what it will For the stamp of Authority on a Brass Farthing for its currency for 12 d. would with Submission better accommodate and suit the conveniency of our Domestick Commerce than the Paucity of our glorious Silver Species as our present Circumstances demonstrate That 't is a Truth beyond Contradiction that the goodness and excellency of the Spanish Coin tho dispersed thro' all parts of the Trading World hath not been a means to enrich that Kingdom nor the little esteem'd value of the current Cash of the Hollanders a means to Impoverish them That raising the value of our Coin is the only certain means to keep it in the Nation to make us a rich and thriving State to recover our lost Trade and the best Bulwark and Defence against all the Attacks of our Enemies That diminishing the quantity or raising the value of our Standard Coin is equivalent but at this Juncture 't is humbly thought more advantagious tolessen the Weight by reason the Nation would be at less Expence to make it good as also being more commodious for Commerce and Tale when even parts of a Pound as before than when Fractional as must be if the value of the ancient Standard Weight be advanced That raising the value of our Coin will be a dishonour to the Nation seems an empty Notion if Profit be join'd with it That our Silver Coin ought to bear a higher Value at home than elsewhere as well to bring it home as we have already done the Gold and to keep it here as also encourage the bringing in of Bullion which is now much wanted That contrary to the Policy of Nations our standard Coin is of greater value in all places than at home Spain only excepted for which reason we bring Spanish Mony hither and for the same Reason our Mony is transported to other places to the great Impoverishment of the Nation That Gold and Silver is the commanding Species and if we Export more than we Import the Nation is so much a loser and tho as a Gentleman observes if we yearly send out Commodities to the value of 400000 Ounces of Silver more than the Commodities we bring home from abroad cost us there is 100000 l. every year clear gain which must come home in Mony or Bullion and be a real encrease of our Wealth and will stay here as he is pleased to think This over ballance of Trade so much talk'd Fallacy and may be a great loss to the Nation for Example if 400000 Ounces of Silver or Commodities be exported and the worth of 800000 Ounces of unprofitable Commodities imported viz. as French and Port Wines Silks and Linen wrought and many other things that are all expended and comsum'd here at home the Nation is so far from gaining 100000 l. that 't is 200000 l. the worse viz. 100000 l. sent out of the Nation and the 100000 l. which is the over ballance is gain'd from the Publick Treasure and Stock of the Kingdom into private hands which will again be sent abroad to the same loss Now the true cause why the Hollanders have acquir'd such great Riches by Trade is as the Excellent Sir Walter observes an over ballance of Trade truly stated that is they Import of Commodities 100 times the quantity of what themselves expend and the rest is again transported to divers Countries and brings them in Gold and Silver to their great and real Profit whereas we scarcely Export the hundredth part of what is Imported and if we should send all the Silver in the Nation abroad and have treble the value return'd in unnecessary Commodities which we spend and consume at home pray what would the Nation get by