Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	great_a	keep_v	king_n	2,594	5	3.5237	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43823	The prevention of poverty, or, A discourse of the causes of the decay of trade, fall of lands, and want of money throughout the nation with certain expedients for remedying the same, and bringing this kingdom to an eminent degree of riches and prosperity ... / by R.H.	Haines, Richard, 1633-1685.	1674 (1674)	Wing H203; ESTC R3538	14,848	30

necessary for Shipping of which sufficient may be made at home without being beholden to our Neighbours for a Commodity so important for Navigation parting with our Money to Strangers for it as we usually do to a very great yearly value Obj. If any alledge that this planting of Hemp and Flax imploying a great part of the best Lands will create an Inconvenience by causing both Corn and Cattel to be less plenty Ans I answer that I apprehend no grounds for such fear For as for Corn great quantities of rich Lands being broken up to be planted with Flax may after Flax be most properly sown with Corn and that to great advantage so that on the contrary Corn will be hereby the more plenty Then as for the decrease of Cattle it is easily cured for Land kind for Corn when by long sowing 't is impoverished so that 't will bear Corn no longer may be sown with Trefoil or Clover and then one Acre shall produce as much Hay or pasture as two or three Acres did before and as soon as that is decayed the Land will bear Corn more kindly than before provided it be plowed up before the Couch-grass gets in it for Clover and Trefoil I know by Experience prepares the Ground for Wheat as much as a good Crop of Tares or French-wheat otherwise called Buck-wheat can do Besides if Cattel should fail the remedy is easie and cheap for when the King and Parliament please Ireland is ready and will be glad to supply us speedily A second thing to be prohibited coming over is the growing trade of that outlandish robbing and by reason of its abuse Mankilling-Liquor called BRANDY which will promote the Consumption of our own Commodities as Beer and Ale or if such a Liquor be thought necessary for Seamen or the like then to raise some Commodity of the like nature and strength at home for as I am credibly informed by persons well experienced that way as good and as strong Liquor may be made with what doth abound at home Which if so the Profit will not be inconsiderable since Three hundred thousand Pounds that Brandy now costs us every year will be kept at home A Third thing to be prohibited may be Bay-salt from beyond the Seas for it is well known that Salt for all occasions and as good for all intents and purposes may be made at home and that not only to the great Improvement of much Land on the Sea-Coast which now lyeth wast and is of no profit either to King or Subject but will also preserve in the Nation Fifty thousand Pounds per annum to the great enriching of the Kingdom and may be done with very much ease and as little difficulty A Fourth commodity to be prohibited may be Salt-petre of which we might make and raise in our Nation sufficient for all occasions A Fifth Improvement which I conceive may be made is in Iron which most certainly might as well now as heretofore be raised at home the benefit whereof would be very great because some Hundred thousand Pounds might hereby every year be saved or otherwise improved and many Thousands of His Majesties Subjects imployed which now is expended in that Commodity Obj. But if it be supposed that such Iron works would too much consume our Woods I must so far beg leave to think otherwise that I conceive and many well skill'd in those works are of opinion That the neglect of Iron-work has been a main Cause that our Woods are so much decayed and so many Coppices grubb'd up and converted into Tillage For when Iron-works were carried on both Wood and Coals would yeild ready Moneys which incouraged the Owners not only to preserve the Coppices and Woods from destruction but also to plant and promote more whereas now without doubt in a few years our Oak-Timber deservedly accounted the best in the world and a great strength and ornament to the Kingdom will be so far destroyed that little will be to be had and the reason is because the only Nurse that maketh the Oak and other Timber to flourish is Vnder-woods and where Vnder-woods are not there cannot or very rarely is any good Timber so that although great quantities of Wood may be consumed by Iron-works yet Woods becoming thereby more carefully preserved they grow again and consequently there is no less plenty but for want of Iron-works they are destroyed both Wood and Timber Root and Branch and that more and more every year And this the rather and more to the destruction of Timber because people in diverse Countries have got a mischievous Trick to elude and avoid that wholsom Statute whereby it is Enacted That on every Fall of Under-woods they should leave so many Standels Tellows or young Trees to grow for Timber which indeed they will do but then at the next Fall of the same Wood viz. about nine or ten years after they will cut those very Standels or Tellows lest before so that they never become Timber and then they leave new ones and this successively whereby the Intention of the Statute is unworthily defeated Obj. But if it be objected that Iron sufficient for the whole Nation cannot be made except much Land be turned from Arable and Pasture to Woods which will cause Depopulation and Dearth Sol. I Answer that there are Woods sufficient in the Nation already growing to compass the work without planting any more provided they were improved and not needlesly consumed otherwise as they are now in too many places Besides it would encourage the planting of Woods in places which are now otherwise of little or no use And doubtless it might be convenient and advantageous for the whole Kingdom if all the Inhabitants who live within some few Miles of the Sea and navigable Rivers were prohibited burning of Wood for any general use as Kitching-Service brewing of Beer or the like whereby many hundred thousand Loads of Wood would be spared every Year and that to the great advantage of the Nation for the use aforesaid Nor will such Inhabitants have any just cause to complain since they might be supplied with Sea-Coal upon cheaper terms and those vessels which bring Sea-Coal may in many places carry away their Charcoal to places of use for such Iron-works and so Boats Ships and Seamen will be increased and imployed to the great advantage and safety of the Kingdom and the Nation will abound with this necessary Commodity of Iron which now costs us at least five hundred thousand Pounds per annum whereas otherwise for want of Iron and Timber we shall in short time be reduced to such a kind of condition as the children of Israel truckling under Philistin slavery were in they were forced to go into another Nation to sharpen every man his Share his Coulter and his Axe only with this difference They had Iron but no Smiths by reason of the oppression of an Enemy we have Smiths and Carpenters enough yet shall have no Iron and

but the contrary is notorious wherefore I conclude that according to the present course Money every year must unavoidably decrease amongst us to the great impoverishing of the whole Nation Obj. If it be alledged that I mistake the Cause of this National Consumption and that the great Taxes and many Impositions laid upon the Nation obliging us to part with so much Money for his Majesties uses ought to be assigned as the grand Cause of this great scarcity of Money Sol. I humbly Answer that this cannot be the Cause for this Reason because what Moneys are given by the Representatives of the Nation to his Majesty are but like the Moistures drawn up by the Beams of the Sun from the Earth which soon return down again in showers to refresh the Ground or like the Blood in its Circulation for what is carried out of the Countrey goes but into the City and is there expended again and forasmuch as it goes not beyond the Seas soon returns again So that in the Nation there is not one Groat the less to be bestowed on what the Farmer or any others have to spare wherefore and for that the Publick Coffers do not hoard or keep up any extraordinary Sums I humbly hope I may conclude That this is not the proper Cause why the Nation is so empty of Money and that general want of this necessary thing which beneath Grace and Glory and what is conducing thereunto is most to be desired But doubtless it is the many Hundred thousnd Pounds which our bad Husbandry and ill Conduct sends every year beyond the Seas which we see again no more this is the grand Cause of our Miseries wasting thus our noblest spirits that hath brought the Body Politick into this pining Consumption and makes us so loudly complain of bad Trade and empty Pockets and that the Nation is become thus indigent and discontented But alas what advantage is it only to complain Diseases are not cured with Out-cries but rather increased let us then wipe our Eyes and make use of our Heads and our Hands to get out of this quagmire of Necessity wherein we are unhappily plunged Too true it is that we are very poor and as I conceive 't is no less plain that the reason of it is the necessity of parting every year with vast Sums of Money to make the Ballance of Trade even because we Import much more than we Export and therefore I humbly apprehend the best means to prevent this growing Evil must be First to raise new Manufactures whereby to improve what doth or may arise of our own English Growth by which means our Lands may some other way be imployed besides that of Corn and Cattle And secondly to shut the door of Importation against those new imported Goods especially such as are superfluous and injurious to the well-being of the Kingdom Thus the first Manufacture to be prohibited that may be made of our own Growth and most advantageous to the general Good and Profit of perfons of all Estates is Linnen Cloth for it is most certain that our English Ground will produce Hemp and Flax in such abundance as may make Linnen-Cloth susicient for all occasions whence feverall great Conveniences of much advantage to the Publick will arise As First it will improve the Lands which are proper for Hemp and Flax to that degree that what before was worth but twenty shillings per Acre for Corn or Pasture by this means will be worth forty or fifty sillings the. Acre per annum Secondly great numbers of poor Families who have little to do from the beginning of the Year to the end there of unless some few of them in the Countrey in time of Harvest might hereby most profitably be set to work constantly by raising a continual stock of Imployment not only for Men but alfo Women Boyes Girles that can do little thing besides it whereas for want thereof most of them now are trained up in Idleness and live by the labours of others whose number by computation after the rate of threescore in each Parish throughout the Kingdom doth amount unto five Hundred and Eighty Thousand people and upwards Thirdly by this means every Parish which by reason of Poverty is not able to set up a Manufactory for the imployment of their Poor in making of Wolen Cloth according to the Statute in that case made and provided may easily provide Imployment for them in making of Linnen whereby many thousands that now wholly rely on the Parish wherein they live for maintenance might very well support themselves Fourthly some thousands of wandring persons that go from door to door to the great dishonour disadvantage of the Nation might by this means become Instruments for the enriching of the same And though there be very wholsom Laws in being for preventing this intolerable Inconvenience of Vagrants yet Officers are generally too remiss and to avoid trouble or the imputation of being over-busie and the ill effects thereon depending seldom put the same in execution For this to my knowledge is true that several Officers who willingly would do their Office and put the Laws in Execution have told me that the number of them were so great and dangerous that they were afraid that their Houses and Barns might be set on fire whilst themselves were asleep or that some personal mischief should be done them And indeed no small cause there is for these Jealousies their confidence is so very great for no longer ago than the last Assizes holden for the County of Sussex so impudent they were as to appear in the very face of the Court insomuch as to stand in the sight of the Lord Twisden one of his Majesties Justices of Nisi prius for that Circuit whilst he was giving his Charge and although upon this occasion his Lordship sufficiently and loudly prest for the putting the Laws in execution with severity against them yet notwithstanding the Town was still haunted by numbers of them all the time the Assizes lasted For remedy whereof it might possibly be convenient to propose a sufficient encouraging Reward to be paid every such poor person or persons that shall seize any such Vagrants by the Overseers of the poor of that Parish where they are taken and that a severe Penalty be imposed on Constables and other Officers neglecting their duties when any persons so apprehended are brought to them by which means those many thousands which are idle may be imployed to their own good and the Nations advantage so that in six Months time there might not be a Beggar in the Kingdom if such Enconragement were given Lastly besides all these Advantages several hundred thousand Pounds which are now expended and sent out of the Nation for Linnen might hereby be kept at Home or better Improved to the great advantage of His Majesties Subjects Besides a farther advantage by this planting of Hemp c. will accrue towards making of Sails Cables and other Cordage