England will not cause a Transportation of most of that that is now Currant to be Minted in the Netherlands and from them brought back again whereby his Majesties Mint will fail by the Exported benefit 4. Whether the advancing the Silver Coin if it produce the former Effects will not cause the Markets to be unfurnished of present Coin to drive the Exchange when most of the Old will be used in Bullion 5. Whether the higher we raise the Coin at home we make not thereby our Commodities beyond Sea the cheaper 6. Whether the greatest profit by this Enhaunsing will not grow to the ill Members of the State that have formerly culled the weightiest Pieces and sold them to the Stranger-Merchants to be Transported V. And at the same time these general Rules were Collected out of the Consultations at Court concerning Money and Bullion 1. Gold and Silver have a two-fold Estimation in the Intrinsick as they are Monies they are the Princes Measures given to his People and this is a Prerogative of Kings In the Intrinsick they are Commodities valuing each other according to the plenty or scarcity and so all other Commodities by them and that is the sole Power of Trade 2. The Measures in a Kingdom ought to be constant It is the Justice and Honour of the King for if they be altered all Men 'T is just now so with our Guineas c. at that Instant are deceived in their precedent Contracts either for Lands or Money and the King most of all for no Man knoweth then either what he hath or what he oweth 3. This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of this nature to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death for attempting to put so great a dishonour on the Queen and detriment and discontent upon the People for to alter this publick Measure is to leave all the Markets of the Kingdom unfurnished And what will be the Mischief the Proclamations of 5 Ed. VI. 3 Mariae 5 Edw. VI. 3 Mariaet 4 Eliz. and 4 Eliz. will manifest when but a rumour of the like produced that Effect so far that besides the Faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts they were enforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively to Constrain the People to furnish the Markets to prevent a Mutiny 4. To make this Measure then at this time short is to raise all Prizes or to turn the Money or Measure into Disise or Bullion when it is richer by seven in the hundred in the Mass than the new Monies and yet of no more value in the Market 5. Hence of necessity it must follow that there will not in a long time be sufficient Minted of the New to drive the Exchange of the Kingdom and so all Trade at one Instant at a stand and in the mean time the Markets unfurnish'd which how it may concern the quiet of the State is worthy care 6. And thus far as Money is a Measure 7. Now as it is a Commodity it is respected and valued by the Intrinsick quality And first the one Metal to the other 8. All Commodities are prized by plenty or scarcity by dearness or cheapness the one by the other If therefore we desire our Silver to buy Gold as it of late hath done we must let it be the Cheaper and less in Proportion valued and so contrary for one equivalent Proportion in both will bring in neither We see the proof thereof by the unusual quantity of Gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price for we rate it above all other Countries and Gold may be bought too dear To furnish then this way the Mint with both is altogether impossible 9. And at this time it was apparently proved both by the best Artists and Merchants most acquainted with the Exchange in both the Examples of the Mint-Masters in the Rix Dollar and Real of Eight that Silver here is of equal value and Gold above with the Foreign parts in the Intrinsick and that the fallacy presented to the Lords by the Mint-Masters is only in the Nomination or Intrinsick quality 10. But if we desire both it is not raising of the value that doth it but the balancing of Trade for buy we in more then we sell of other Commodities be the Money never so high prized we must part with it to make the disproportion even If we sell more than we buy the contrary will follow 11. And this is plain in Spain's necessities for should that King advance to a double rate his Real of Eight yet needing by reason of the barrenness of his Country more of Foreign Wares than he can counter vail by Enchange with his own he must part with his Money and gaineth no more by Exhauncing his Coin but that he payeth a higher price for the Commodities he buyeth if his work of raising be his own But if we shall make Improvement of Gold and Silver being the Staple Commodity of his State we then advancing the price of his abase to him our own Commodities 12. To shape this Kingdom to the fashion of the Netherlands were to frame a Royal Monarch by a Society of Merchants Their Country is a continual Fair and so the price of Money must rise and fall to fit their occasions We see this by raising the Exchange at Frankford and other Places at the usual time of their Marts 13. The frequent and daily Change in the low Countries of their Monies is no such injustice to any there as it would be here For being all either Mechanicks or Merchants they can Rate accordingly their Labour or their Wares whether it be Coin or other Merchandise to the present condition of their Money in Exchange 14. And our English Merchants to whose profession it properly belongs do so according to the just Intrinsick value of their Foreign Coin in all Barter of Commodities or Exchange except at usance which we that are ruled and ty'd by the Intrinsick Measure of Money in all our constant Reckonings and Annual Bargains at home cannot do 15. And for us then to raise our Coin at this time to equal their Proportions were but to render our selves to a perpetual incertainty for they will raise upon us daily then again which if we of Course should follow else receive no Profit by this present Change we then destroy the Policy Justice Honour and Tranquility of our State at home for ever If we go on debasing our Money Manufacture and Navigation to make even with the Dutch we may now in a very short time undo the Nation and there is nothing that can recover us at present but the Balance Regulation and Advancement of Trade which the King 's most Excellent Majesty hath so often recommended to his Parliament and by which means Edward III. got that Advantage of invading France and dealing with it as he did to the great Honour and
Stuff the more Silk Silver and Gold they would wear If Shimei when he was confined to Jerusalem had the greater mind to go to Gath if he had been confined to Gath he would have had a greater mind to go to Jerusalem And we are observed to drink more Wine now it is raised to Eighteen Pence the Quart and Two Shillings the Bottle by Act of the Vintners than when we were more confin'd to Six Pence a-Quart by Act of Parliament XI An Imposition upon all prohibited Goods It being no impolicy to take off the Prohibition since it prevents not the Importation which has been very prejudicial to the Nation in general whatever it hath been to particular Persons XII An Imporsition on all Foreign Lace Imported and on all our Wearers thereof XIII * The more Money Men paid upon this Account themore it would be for their Honour and the less they paid the better husbands they would be both for themselves and their Country For the less Silver would liedead and the more Coin would be Currant in the Kingdom towards the advancement of the value of Lands and the promotion of Manufacture and the more Agriculture and Manufacture do flourish the farther a Nation is from failing An Imposition upon all such as serve themselves in Private and Publick Houses in Plate and the more upon Publick Houses because they may bring in their Plate at so much on Ounce towards the re-minting the Money or to have New Money for it XIV An Imposition on the Money-Changers they having been Principals to the Clippers as much as Demetrius was to Diana's Silver Smiths And had their Tables been over thrown by our Justice as the Money-Changers were by Jesus Matth. 21. When the Jews Silver was turning into Dross the Den of those Thieves had not done us so much Mischief XV. A different Imposition of so much a-Year upon all Taverns Inns Coffee-Houses Ale-Houses Brew-Houses and Bake-Houses XVII An Imposition by way of Fine and License on all those that at first enter upon those Professions that are unprofitable or rather destructive to the Nation which would put our Folk the more upon Manufacture XVII An Imposition on all dilatory Defendants in Law and Equity that by staving and Tailing with Writs of Error Reverse of judgment and Demurrer have plagued the Plaintiffs above a Year and a Day which is as long as any Suit should last in Law or in Equity And the more Years they have delayed our Justice and made it a true and constant Friend to all that regularly offend the more and more Impositions should be laid upon them and upon some others which I humbly think as I am an honest Subject is more reasonable and seasonable than XVIII For Letters of Favours Either for mitigation or for dispatch of Justice Cottoni Posthuma p. 193. Of Manner and Means c. Of the first sort there be many found in Henry VI. and Edward IV's time sometimes of Protection sometimes freeing Men from Arrests by calling them up to appear before the King's Council Sometimes in Cases highly Criminal relieving the Prisoner in commanding the Judges to make stay of all Proceedings upon supposal of indirect Practices until the King was better informed Of the second sort there are many in Henry VII's time where the King hath taken Money for writing to the Judges of Assize his Letters of Favour XIX For maintenance of Religion and the Church P. 172. As in the Year 1166. to Henry II. was given 12 d. in the Pound and the 18 Edward 1. a Fifteenth was granted to expel the Jews And Anno 4 Richard II. a Tenth to the Clergy and a Fifteeenth to the Commons for his help to suppress the Wicklivian Heresie XX. For Support of the Laws and the Liberties of the Common-Wealth P. 173. For Redress of Aggrievances XXI Particular Grants of the Subject by Loan Compulsive P. 177. So were the Merchants of Florence Venice and Luka compelled by an Order in Council 3 Hen III. because they had grace sufferance du Roy Graunts priviledges reportants grand lucre pourle Exercise de leur Merchandre en le Angliterre And the Persons that refused to lend were committed to the Fleet neither were the English more free in Anno 30 Henry VI. divers being enjoined to attend the Council-Table or else to pay the demanded Loan In the time of Henry VIII Anno 14 of his Reign he exacted by way of Loan Ten pounds in the hundred on all Goods Jewels Utensils and Land and according to the extremest rate revealed by Oath of the Possessors notwithstanding there is a Law 2 Richard II. that none shall be denied in demand of any Loan his reasonable Excuse XXII Kings raise Money P. 184. 1. By Trading themselves Thus did Edward I. Anno 22. seize into his Hands all the Wool in the Kingdom c. Thus did Edward III. Anno 12. with all the Tin XXIII Kings raise Money P. 185. By Licensing others to Trade in Commodities Lawful or Unlawful 1. Lawfully but solely Thus did Henry VI. by Approbation of Parliament with all the Trade of Allom for Two Years granted to the Merchants of Southampton for 8000 l. and again for the like Sum to those of Genoa 2. Unlawful or prohibited Thus did many of the Kings c. P. 186. To divers Citizens of Londin Henry IV. dispensed for great Quantities of Tin for Seven Years paying 400 l. Yearly above the usual Custom XXIV Kings raise Money P. 187. By 1. Farming out of Ships 2. Raising the Book of Rates 3. Farming the Customs 1. Farming of Ships To the Merchants and taking security of them either to bring in or carry out Yearly as much Commodities as shall yield the King in Customs on or else to make it up out of their own Money 2. Raising the Book of Rates This was in some sort done Consensu Mercatorum by Edward I. and Edward III. and again in Henry VIII's time lindx of which the House of Burgundy complained But we seldom complain of the breach of our Capitulations and Treaties of Commerce in other Countries as against the Treaty of Intercourse The like did Edward III. Anno 1. Confirming Anno 2. the great Charter for Free Traffick c. And thus it continued all his Reign being a time of great Necessity and Expence by reason of his Wars he sometimes taking an Advantage either to raise an Imposition or else to gain Aid from the People in discharge thereof XXV Kings raise Money c. P. 191. 1. By Liberties P. 193. And this was one of the usuallest and easiest means to raise Money from the People because it lighteth only upon the best Abilities And if there were now but 20 l. taken of every Corporation of every Person that hold by Charter his Liberties 5 l. for renewing them and of every one that claimeth by Prescription 10 l. for Purchase of a Charter All which
would be easie and acceptable it would amount to above 100000 l. XXVI By Honours P. 195. And that either by Power Legal or Election Of the first it is only in respect of Land whereby every Man is to fine when the King shall require that hath Ability to be made a Knight and is not Of this sort there be plentiful Examples The other out of Choice and Grace as Hugo de Putiaco Bishop of Durham was by King Richard 1. created Earl of Northampton for a great Summ of Money And I doubt not but many of these times would set their Ambition at as high a price And for his Majesty now to make a degree of Honour Hereditary as Baronets next Under-Barons and grant them in Tail taking of every one 1000 l. in Fine it would raise with ease 100000 l. and by a judicious Election be a means to content those worthy Persons in the Common-Wealth that by the confused admission of many Knights of the Bath held themselves all this time disgraced XXVII Kings raise Money by Offices * But if Justice should be sold now we should pay dearer for it than we do And God knows there are Impositions on Justice enough already Thus did King John with the Chancellorship selling it for time of Life to Grey for 5000 Marks In France Aemyliusin vita Lew. 12. Lewis XII called the Father of his Country did so with all Offices not being of Judicature which his Successors did not forbear In Spain it is usual Vasq Cap. 40. Ex Instruct Car. 5. ad Phil. 2. and Vasque the Spanish Advocate defendeth the Lawfulness of it And Charles V. prescribeth it to his Son as a Rule in his last Instruction drawing his ground of Reason and Conveniency from the Example and Practice of the See of Rome And the like might be of all inferiour Promotions whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal and it would honestly raise a great deal of Money XXVIII Taxes were better raised any way ☞ than from the Land True English Interest p. 68.69 c. for that drives the Money out of the Country which seldom returns and is hard to be got to it upon any occasion but it would be great advantage to his Majesty and gratifie his Subjects Infinitely if he could get a considerable Revenue somewhere from without By which means his own People might be eased at home which would bind them to him eternally besides the great Advantage it would be to the Nation by such a Yearly income of Silver continually And questionless the King of England might have five times the Revenue he hath brought Yearly to him from the West-Indies when he pleases besides the vast Trade which would ensue by it to all his Subjects However there might be ways found out that no Taxes might ever be laid on the substantial part of the Nation Country or City Land or Houses but only on the Vices of the People as in all Taverns Ale-houses Foreign needless Commodities and on debauch'd Persons And also double Customs on all such Goods brought over that we might make here as Silk Linen Tapestry Lace Gloves Ribbons Paper and many things more XXIX And to get a considerable Revenue from without a Treble Imposition on all our Consuls and Factors residing in Foreign Countries 1. An Imposition of so much per Cent on every English Consul and Factor according to his Personal Estate and Yearly Commission they having paid nothing towards the War nor do they pay any thing in time of Peace 2. An Imposition of so much per Cent upon all Commodities as they shall send to England for their own Accompt because the more they send the less will be the Gains of our Domestick Merchants who pay all Rates and Taxes when the Factors pay neither tho' their Advantage of fore-stalling c. is very considerable to our Merchants and ruinous to the Kingdom 3. An Imposition after the Property is alter'd upon all Foreign Commodities to be laden by any English or Alien Factors for any English Man's Account for England or any other Nation which Imposition being Foreign would be felt neither by the Factor by the Merchant nor by any English Man and it would be both for the Interest and the Honour of the Nation I. Because it would naturally lower the Foreign Impositions more than if it had been a Domestick Tax which Foreign Impositions are most commonly laid on the English by consent of our Consuls and Factors they being to the English Merchants much as Lawyers and Sollicitors are to their Clients And the other reason why the Alien Impositions are so much greater than ours on Exportation is because we are naturally to our unnatural shame be it spoken more inclined to Alien Commodities than Aliens are to ours though ours are and may be so much better than theirs II. Because this Imposition would naturally lower the Price of Foreign Commodities more than if it had been a Domestick Tax Which Price is most commonly higher or lower the more our Consuls and Factors do agree or disagree to make it so I have known and shall prove it that our Consuls and Factors have paid three times dearer for Foreign Commodities for our Merchants than they might have bought them for And the more they pay the more they and the Aliens with whom they combine do get and so much the more this Nation in general loseth But a general Loss is little felt heard or understood by particular Persons III. This Imposition on the Consuls and Factors would be little felt by them because the Merchants most commonly pay them before they pay for their Commodities or if they do not it is but so much Money laid out which they are to be re-paid again with Interst c. IV. It would be little felt by the Merchants because they pay in a great measure tho' not so great as it should be for what they import by the product of their Exportations which they buy here at Twelve and Eighteen Month's time And because they are come now almost to care not what they pay for foreign Commodities so long as they can have Credit c. from their Factors abroad who make them or rather their Nation pay soundly for it and can be re-imburs'd by their Chapmen at home which is the reason that Foreign Commodities have of later Years so risen to the ruining of this Nation When I lived abroad I thought my self as I was obliged by Oath and Indentures neither to defraud my Master my self nor to suffer any other body so to do without informing my said Master and as I did to him so did I to all my other Friends But when I had suffer'd all that Malice could inflict upon me together with the loss of my Fortune and the Lives of Two or Three Men because I would not combine with our Consul and Factors and their Confederates to cheat my Country and my Friends One of those Friends very kindly wrote
elegantly goes on begirt with Walls whose Bullder was the hand Heaven whereon there daily rides a Navy Royal whose unconquerable Power proclaims her Prince invincible and whispers sad despair into the fainting heart of Foreign Majesty Het Prince might say to us concerning the Empire as Joshua did to the Children of Israel concerning Canaan How long are you slack to go to possess the Land which the Lord God of your Fathers hath given you IX But there are three principal things which in Martial as well as civil Policy are first to be better regarded than they are viz. Religion Trade and Justice By Religion I mean that which so effectually provides for all those advantages to Mankind Dec. of Piet. P. 2. which the wisest of Men's Laws have in vain attempted That Christ came to introduce Religion which consults not only the co-eternal Salvation of Men's Souls Sermon on Luke 9. v. 55 56. but their temporal peace and security their comfort and happiness in this World and as Mr. Fleetwood saith in his Sermon against Clipping if there appears but little Christianity in such a Sermon it will be to such as consider not how great a Part Justice and Honesty and fair and righteous dealing make up of Divine Religion Sir Walter Rawleigh saith In his Rules for preserving the State that The first and principal Rule of Policy is the practice of Religion and the Cardinal de Richlien in his Political Testament calls it the Establishment of the Reign of God By Trade I mean such a free and full manufactured Trade which the Romans by all possible Arts ascended to e'er they ascended to the heighth of Empire whose Steps the French lately endeavoured to follow by all means imaginable and for the self same end and not such a Trade for which this Nation became so renowned as Glaucus is in Homer for changing Armour with Diomedes with such palpable disadvantage that Proverbs came of it And by Justice I mean not summum jus summa Injuria but * the Policy of English Government Prol. to Hist Disc which so far as is praise worthy is all one with Divine Providence Such Justice as honours the Religion and advanceth the Interest and Trade of the Nation that is such Righteous Judgment as God Almighty himself at first commanded Judges and Officers shalt thou make such as shall judge the People with righteous Judgment The summum jus of this Nation is of Humnut and I think of Norman Institution and it is yet known and perhaps may never be forgotten that from the fury of the Normans was added to our Ancestor's Common-Prayer against Plague Pestilence and Famine William the Conquerour Jehu like drove out the Laws of King Edward then in use Bak. Chron. Pag 28. contrary to his Coronation Oath and in their stead brought in the Laws of Normandy commanding them to be written in French as also that all Causes should be pleaded and all matters of Form disputized in French upon a pretence to dignifie the French Tongue but it was with a purpose to intrap Men through the Ignorance of the Language as indeed it did And whereas before P. 29. the Bishop and the Aldermen were the absolute Judges to determine all business in every Shire and the Bishop in many Cases shared in the benefit of the Mulct with the King he confined the Clergy within the Province of their own Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And whereas the Causes of the Kingdom were before determined in every Shire and by a Law of King Edward in a Conventicle held Monthly in every Hundred he ordained that four times in the Year for certain days the same business should be determin'd in such places as he should appoint And finally he ordained his Council of State his Chancery and his Exchequer X. But Edward III. the most Generous Magnanimous Honourable and Heroick Prince of all his Race and Predecessors having due regard to Religion Grievances Trade and Justice and therein to Martial Policy and Discipline ordain'd and in some Respects contrary to his Interests That no Peter pence should be paid to the Pope of Rome that the Service of God being perfect freedom his People of England might say their Pater-noster without paying the Penny for it That no Wool growing within this Realm should be transported but that it should be made into Cloth in England That the Walloons should be permitted to Live Work and Trade amongst us and be naturalized against the Act. That 〈…〉 which weâ—â— before in French should be made in English that the Cliche might understand the Course of the Law A blessed Act saith my Author and worthy so great a King who if he could thereby render it also perspicuous plain easie and short it would be a Work of Eternal Honour to him and everlasting Interest to the Nation XI But our People being a Rebellious People and undeserving of such excellent Princes as Edward III. Henry V. and Queen Eliz. by the Providence of God took from them as it did from Judah and Jerusalem the Mighty Man the Man of War the Prudent the Elegant Orater the Cunning Artificer the Counsellor and the Judge so that the People were oppressed every one by another and every one by his Neighbour and their Tongues and their doings being against the Lord the Reâ—â—â—â—d of their own hands was given unto them XII Yet still the Providence of God espousing us as it did the Jews or rather as Dr. Soâ—â—â— saith as Socrates espoused Xantippe to exercise his Patience without He hath now sent us a King of Kings who at his first coming to the Imperial Crown of England proposed against his own present and private Interest the Balance of the Trade of this Nation well knowing the nature of this Kingdom for advantageous Commerce and that a good Father of his Country as well as of his Family will be Vendacem and not Emâ—cem as Sir Robert Cotton saith of him And indeed so much and much more were in Civil Opinion and Martial Policy to be expected from such a Puissant Prince whose Godly Generous Noble and Resolute Race especially from William I. to William III. hath been a successful Series of essential Sincerity towards Religion Grievances Trade and Justice XIII His late Princely and Pious Consort now a Queen of Heaven was an enamoured Lover of Religion and Justice to the eternal Honour of her Majestick and Immortal Memory And since she had laid such excellent Designs for both I hope the Omnipotence of God Almighty will see them finished by means of her Royal and most excellent Survivor for his Name sake XIV The Seat of Government is upheld by the Two great Pillar thereof Rawl Remark P. 153. Civil Justice and Martial Policy which were framed out of the Husbandry Merchandise and Gentry of this Kingdom They say that the goodliest Cedars which grow on the high Mountains of Libanus thrust their Roots between the Cliffs of hard Rocks the better