the Trade and â—â—le in the Kingdom of the said Printed Callicoes and India and China Silks and Stuffs nevertheless granting to the Owners a reasonable Time to sell them in Having heard the Report of Mounsieur Pellitier Counseller Ordinary of the King 's Royal Council and Comptroller General of the Finances his Majesty in his Council hath ordered and doth order that from the beginning of the Day of the Publication of the present Decree all the Manufactures established in the Kingdom for Painting of the White Callicoes shall be abolished and the Moulds serving to the Printing of them shall be broke and destroyed His Majesty doth forbid most expresly the re-establishing thereof Also to his Subjects the Painting of the said Callicoes and to the Engravers the making of any Moulds serving to the said Impressions under the Penalty of losing the said Callicoes Moulds and other Utensils and Three Thousand Livres Fine to be paid without Diminution one third part to the Informer the second part to the Hospitals of the Place the third to the Farmers of the of the Revenue And as concerning the Painted Callicoes and other China and India Silks Stuffs and Stuffs flower'd with Gold and Silver his Majesty hath granted and doth grant to the last of December 1687. next to the Merchants and others the permission of selling them as they shall think fit The same Time being expired his Majesty doth forbid all Persons of what Quality and Condition whatsoever they are the exposing and selling thereof and to particulars the buying therof doth order That those found in all Ware-houses and Shops shall be burnt and the Proprietors condemn'd to the like Fine of Three Thousand Livres paid as abovesaid His Majesty doth permit nevertheless the Entry Sale and Retail of the said White Callicoes in his Kingdom paying for them the Taxes according to the Decree of the Council the 30th of April last which shall be Executed and that of the 15th of the present Month to the last of December 1687. last year His Majesty doth command the Lieutenant of the Policy of the City of Paris and the Intendents and Commissaries of the Provinces and Generalties of the Kingdom to cause the present Decree to be executed being published and affixed in all Places where need shall be that no Body should be ignorant thereof Done in the King's State-Council held at Fountainbleau Signed Coquille Note Several of the French Printers since this Edict are come over hither and set up and follow the same Employment Query Whether the Printing of the Silks and Callicoes in England is not as prejudicial to us as it was to the French Suitable to this may be well Observed some Observations of that once Famous Sir Josiah Child viz. THat Wool is eminently the Foundation of English Riches and that the ways to equalize or over-ballance our Neighbours in our National Profit by our Forreign Trade are To prevent the Exportation of our Wool and encourage our Wollen Manufactures To encourage those Forreign Trades most that vend most of our Manufactures and that supply us with Materials further to be manufactured in England Discourse of Trade p. 127 156. That it s our Interest by Example and other Means not distasteful above all kind of Commodities to prevent as much as may be the Importation of Forreign Manufactures Pag. 161. That it is multitudes of People and such Laws as cause an Encrease of People which principally enrich any Country Preface That Lands tho' excellent without hands proportionable will not enrich any Kingdom That whatever tends to the Depopulating any Kingdom tends to the Impoverishment thereof Page 165 and 167. That it is our Duty to God and Nature to provide for and employ the Poor That such as our Employment is for the People so many will our People be Page 56. 174. That it's the Interest of a Kingdom the Poors Wages should be high for wherever Wages are high throughout the whole World it is an infallible Evidence of the Riches of that Country and where-ever Wages for Labour runs low it s a Proof of the Poverty of that place That the Expence of Forreign Commodities especially Forreign Manufactures is the worst Expence a Nation can be inclinable to and ought to be prevented as much as possible To which may be added a Note of the Observation of the Author of the Essay on Ways and Means viz. T IS evident that our Wollen Goods are sold in several Countries namely Holland Hamburgh Germany the Hans Towns and all the East Countries many of which Places will not be able to take off our Wollen Goods unless we deal for their Linnens And in Fact and by Experience it has been seen in the Case of the East-India Trade since there has been imported from thence vast Quantities of Linnens such as Callicoes Muslins Romals for Handkerchiefs which answered the ends of Lawns Cambricks and other Linnen Cloth we have not exported that vast Quantity of Drapery to those Northern Parts of which Sir Walter Rawleigh makes mention As our Call for their Linnens had diminished their Call for our Draperies has proportionably decreas'd and not only so but these People have been compelled by Necessity to fall upon making course Wollen Cloth by which they supply themselves and other places which we were wont to furnish Note That there has been exported to the East-Indies in about 2 Years almost one third part as much silver as has been coined in England since the Recoining our Money Query Whether it be not as reasonable to send our Money to the East Countries to buy up Corn which is very cheap to feed us as 't is to send it to the East-Indies for Garments to cloath us Query Whether it be not as necessary to restrain the Trade to the East-Indies as it was to put a stop to the Exportation of Wollen Manufacture from Ireland Query Whether the East-India Traders if not restrain'd may not in a short time bring over vast Quantities of Stuffs for Mens Wear since they have laâ—ely imported fine Cotton Druggets very fit for that pâ—rpose and sold at Cheap Rates Query Whether the sending above two Miâ— the East-Indies to make our wearing Apparel our own Poor starve for want of Employment be 〈◊〉 Consideration of great weight and deserve some 〈◊〉 Remedy I shall therefore from the whole Matter â—clude that if it be from our Manufacture thaâ— Riches of this Nation come and if it be 〈◊〉 from thence that our Shipping is employed 〈◊〉 our Marriners bred if it be from our Traâ— alone and from the Riches which it brings 〈◊〉 his Majesties Customs are raised and that 〈◊〉 Fleets have been hitherto built and maintaiâ— and the Dominion of the Seas preserved theâ— is and must be from our Manufactures that 〈◊〉 Bullion has been brought in and that our Trâ— hath been encreased and by which the Remâ— the Nobility and Gentry have been advancedâ— And therefore it may be easily granted 〈◊〉 there is no higher Temporal Interest in this â—tion than that which sustains the Nobilities 〈◊〉 Gentries Rents that which preserveth the 〈◊〉 venues of the Crown and encreases our Nâ— and Shipping Then in regard our Manufacture doth this 〈◊〉 Encouragement of it must necessarily be the gâ—est Interest of the Nation to preserve it 〈◊〉 whoever pretents the contrary tho' under nâ— so fair Disguises do either greatly betray Iâ—rance of what is England's Interest or plâ— prove to be a Promoter of a Forreigners câ— FINIS
This in my Judgment being impartial viz. not concern'd in Interest must in reason be the main Occasion at least a Foundation for Germany and Flanders to encourage the Wollen Manufactury in those parts And it 's well Observ'd by the Author of a little Tract Intituled The Interest of England consider'd Printed in the Year 1694. viz. The fine Linnens of Flanders and Germany have come in competition these many Years with the Calicoes and Muslings of the East-Indies and the fine Dowlace and Gauses of France one the Effect of our Manufactory the other of our Bullion and yet you will find upon the Book of Rates if I mistake not all the Linnen of Flanders charged with about three pence an Ell Custome and the fine Dowlace of France not at one half penny and the Callicoes of the East-Indies but at two pence a piece Now as that unequal Trade was carried on all the time almost of the two Late Reigns so the Necessity in the late War in doubling the Duties upon Flanders Linnen which is almost half the Value of much of their said Linnen and the unseasonable timing of the Lace Act which did as was lately affirm'd in a Committee c. occasion a Flanders Merchant then in London dealing much in Lace to go over to Flanders and put the States upon the prohibiting our Wollen Manufacture And tho' this occasion'd the said Prohibition yet considering the Little Quantity of Lace at least visibly brought into England in comparison of the Linnen imported formerly from Flanders cannot be the Original tho' it may be the Instrumental Cause as before hinted Hereby it may appear how we have lost our Trade and how insensibly our Treasure was exhausted and our Nation beggar'd whilst we neglected our own Interest and Strangers such as proved our great Enemies were diligent to make their Advantage by us but most of those Evils might have been prevented had we really assum'd our Ancestors regard to our Wealth and Grandeur But leaving Particulars let us be more general for tho' we are agreed that Trade is the main Spring from whence Riches flow yet we do as much differ in the Method of acquiring thereof and there is certainly as much need of Regulation in Trade as of Laws to secure one Man's Right from being invaded by another for it 's now become as necessary to preserve Government as it is useful to make Men rich And notwithstanding the great Influence that Trade now hath in the Support and Welfare of States and Kingdoms yet there is nothing more unknown or at least that Men differ more in their Sentiments than about the true Causes that raise and promote Trade The Merchant and other Traders who should understand the true Interest of Trade do either not understand it or else lest it might hinder their private Gain will not discover it Some Writers about Trade do in their Treatises better set forth the Rule to make an Accomplish'd Merchant than how it may be most profitable to the Nation And those Arguments every day met with from the Traders seem byassed with private Interest and run contrary to one anothers as their Interest are opposite And how fair and convincing soever their Premises may appear for the Enlarging and Advancement of Trade the Conclusions of their Arguments are directly opposite The Reasons why many Men have not a true Idea of Trade is Because they apply their Thoughts to particular Parts of Trade wherein they are chiefly concern'd in Interest and having found out the best Rules and Laws for forming that particular Part they govern their Thoughts by the same Notions in forming the great Body of Trade and not reflecting on the different Proportion betwixt the Body â—nd Parts have a very disagreeable Conception and like those who having learnt to draw well an Eye Ear Hand and other Parts of the Body being unskilful in the Laws of Symmetry when they join them together make a very deformed Body Therefore whoever will make a true Representation of Trade must draw a rough Scetch of the Body and Parts together which though it will not entertain with so much Pleasure as a well finish'd Peice yet the agreableness of the Parts may be as well discern'd and thereby such Measures taken as may best suit the Shape of the Body The Reason why I use this similitude is from the Experience we have of the miserable Effects we now and may more hereafter feel of this separate Trades that have been carried on in this Kingdom viz. that some few Persons gain great Estates when the Nation in general decays as in many Particulars may be instanc'd viz. the French Trade all the Time of the two late Kings that such Merchants who imported vast Quantities and some that run their Goods and paid no Customs of such Commodities that were purchased with Money and tended to debauch the Nation then the East-India by both those Countries this Nation hath lessen'd the Employment of near Five Hundred Thousand Persons for by such a Number of Persons out of Employ or double that Number but half Work it 's all one the Nation must be greatly impoverished thereby For before that time when People were fully imployed some Families could earn in the Cloathing Trade by spinning and weaving Twenty and some Thirty Shillings per Week tho' some less others more which was most spent by them and laid out with the Farmer and Grasier who was thereby better able to pay their Rents to the Nobility and Gentry by which means the Value of Lands were kept up but when such a Number of Persons beforementioned had no Employment it 's not probable the Commodities can be sold which necessarily sunk the Rents of Lands and this was the Occasion of the Irish Act as that before of Corn to prohibit the Importation of Cattle supposing that would be a means to support the Value of Lands in England But the Mistake is now so manifest that we have by it lost a great part of our Trade and laid a Foundation to loose all and it was well Observed by Mr. Tho. Manly a Justice of Peace in Kent shortly after that Act past upon another Occasion about the Exportation of Wool viz. If the Irish Wool enables the Forreigners to carry on that Manufacture hurtful to us we have small reason to assist them further least we imitate those good Men who break the Pot because their Wives break the Pitcher and ruin our selves because Ireland hurts us For if it be true as is by some affirm'd and by Demonstrations made good that England gain'd by the Trade with Ireland before and in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Second Two Millions per Annum It is plain that Act laid the Foundation of our ruin for before that Act was in force the Irish contented themselves with Trading only with England by which Trade we received so great an Advantage but since the Irish have been necessitated to seek for a
of Silk the Foundation of which Trade was laid in the time of Queen Elizabeth when the Nobility and Gentry of England were in earnest to advance the Nation when the Trades of Norwich Colchester London Exon and Canterbury had their Original and greatly encouraged And this of Canterbury I shall particularly mention what fell out betwixt the Years 1697 and 1698. The Traders in Canterbury upon some prospect of Trade provided Quantities of Goods for the English and West-India Markets but the coming in of Indian Damask in the Fleet Frigot the said Canterbury Men were ruined unless they could have metamorphosed their Tabbies made of very rich Italian Silk that came in Exchange for English Serge into Indian Silk they must leave Trading or sell at 30 or 40. per Cent. loss By which means half the Workmen of that Town of the weaving Trade are now running up and down the Nation seeking Bread and their Families left to the Parishes to maintain and the Trade by which that Town hath been upheld for an Hundred Years come to nothing These are some of the past Effects of the East-India Trade with respect to the English Manufactury and who shall pay the Damage The next Thing to be consider'd is what further Mischief this Trade may do to the other Manufactures of England and this is to be Evidenced upon what they have begun and tryed upon and partly upon this Supposition that whatever Commodity is made in England of Wool may be imitated and in many respects exceeded in Cotton manufactured in India and be afforded cheaper than our English Tradesmen can afford theirs and be New and Odd and so pleasing that it will be the Interest of the Indian Traders to encourage such Trades They have already brought over great Quantities of double Callicoes used in the room of English Flannels for Shifts and other Uses besides great Quantities of Cotton Stockings which are both worn here and exported to the West-Indies As for Stuffs they have brought already great Quantities of Cotton Stuffs dyed stripped plain mixed Colour in the directest opposition to Wollen Stuffs As for Silk and Cotton mixed it were almost Endless to give an Account how many sorts of Norwich and London Stuffs that are made of Silk and English Wool they have imitated and outdone as to Price in Silk and Cotton but we may Note that the New-Drapery so called is much more than Old But suppose all those Manufactures should be ruin'd sure they cannot hurt the Cloth Trade say the Agents of the East-India Company In Answer Why may not a Commodity made of Cotton put down Cloth Cotton is as fine and soft as Wool it may be spun as small or as large it may be mill'd and dress'd dyed and stained and when the English Merchant shall send over Cloth-weavers c. I question not but we shall have Cotton Cloth and Knaves to make it a Fashion and Fools enough to wear it and though those Calamities are upon us and many more in view though nothing but employing our People can preserve this Nation yet that Trade must be free tho' it brings the Nation in Bondage whereas formerly a Million at least were employed in the Wollen Manufacture who were Instrumental in distributing near Four Millions per Annum for Bread and other Necessaries which the Graziers and Farmers Tennants to the Nobility and Gentry received which Persons also did bear part of the Taxes which supported the Government and therefore in all reason one would think deserves Consideration and the greatest Encouragement Yet on the contrary we find by sad Experience that many are more fond of the East-India Commodities than ever so that that is encreasing as may more evidently appear by a Printed List which was this Year given to the Parliament of the Number of Ships sent out and return'd in Two Years last past with several Remarks and Queries and Observations thereupon an Abstract of which I have here recited and is as followeth viz. That there hath sailed for the East-Indies and China 52 Ships since the 10th of February 1697. the Account of their Cargo of 26 of their Ships amounts to 1 114 933. The Cargoes carried out by the Captains c. 111 993. Total of 26 Ships amounts to 1 226 426. Note By the Rule of Proportion 52 Ships must carry out besides what is taken in at Cadiz which is very considerable 2 452 852. Note Of this great Sum not a 40th part consists of our Wollen Manufacture and that they send out does prevent a greater Quantity which would be sent out by the Turkey-Company which would return raw Silk to carry on that Manufacture in England Note That according to the usual Account of the Sales by the Candle the Goods amount to treble the first Cost if so the whole Cargoes brought in will come to 7 388 556. These sold by the whole sale Buyer to the Retailers allowing 10 per Cent. Profit to such Whole-sale Buyers comes to 738 855. Total Value in the Retailers Hands 8 127 411. Memorandum When the Profit the Retailer makes of this great Sum paid for by the Consumer must of course encrease the said Sum which is a Loss to the Nation Note That by a Computation of our Wollen Manufacture made in England in one Year comes to but and the East-India Goods comes to near that Sum by the Rule of Proportion according to their present Trade 4 850 558. Memorandum That in the London-Gazette of the 25th of January last that a Ship belonging to the French-India Company is arriv'd at Diep from Surrat 't is said her Cargo is worth near 200000 Crowns and that great part of her Cargo consists in Gold and Silver which she brought from the Isle of Bourbon Note The Difference of this Ships Cargo ours bring over Wrought Goods to the Destruction of our Manufactures at the Expence of our Silver the French brings over Gold and Silver to support their Government and Trade Query Whether the Difference may not proceed from the Discouragement that the French put upon the East-India Manufacture some Years since as appears by the Decree which followeth A Decree of the French King's Council of State concerning Callicoes printed in East-India or printed in the Kingdom and other China and India Silks Stuffs and Flowered with Gold and Silver Given the 26th of October 1686. THE King being informed That the great Quantities of Callicoes printed in East-India or painted in the Kingdom and other China and India Silks Stuffs and Stuffs flower'd with Gold and Silver have not only given Occasion of Transporting many Millions but also have diminished the Manufactures of Old Established in France for making of Silk Wollen Linen and Hemp-stuffs and at the same time the Ruine and Destruction of the Working People who by want of Work having no Occupation or Subsistence for their Families are gone out of the Kingdom the which being needful to provide a Remedy for and for that Effect to hinder