younger Persons which were never before at Sea I appeal to the Reader whether such a yearly return of Sea-men abiding at home with us all the Winter and spending their Money here which they got in their Summer-Fishery were not a great access of Wealth and Power to this Kingdom and a ready supply for his Majesty's Navy upon all Emergencies 6. The Fishing Ships yet are and always have been the breeders of Sea-men the Planters and Boat-keepers are generally such as were bred and became expert at the cost of the Owners of Fishing Ships which Planters and Boat-keepers enter very few new or green men 7. By the building fitting victualling and repairing of Fishing-Ships multitudes of English Trades-men and Artificers besides the Owners and Sea-men gain their subsistance whereas by the Boats which the Planters and Boat-keepers build or use at New-found-Land England gets nothing Object But against all that I have said those that contend for a Governour at New-found-Land object 1. That without a Governour and Government there that Country will be alwayes exposed to the surprizal of the French or any Foreigners that shall please to attacque it 2. That the disorders of the Planters which I complain of and some others which for brevities sake I have not mentioned cannot be remedied without a Governour To which I answer first That when we cannot preserve our Colonies by our Shiping or so awe our Neighbours by our Fleets and Ships of War that they dare not attempt them our case will be sad and our Propriety will be lost or in eminent danger not only abroad but at home likewise 2 dly All the Fish that is killed at New-found-Land in a Summer is not sufficient to maintain strength enough on Shore to defend two Fishing Harbours against ten men of War whereas that Country hath more Harbours to defend than are to be found in Old England 3 dly If a Governour be established the next consequence will be a Tax upon the Fishing and the least Tax will encrease the price of Fish and that unavoidably will give the Trade away wholly into the French Hands 4 thly A Government there is already of antient Custom among the Masters of the Fishing-Ships to which the Fishermen are inured and that free from Oppression and adapted to the Trade insomuch that although a better might be wished I never hope to see it XI That new-New-England is the most prejudical Plantation to this Kingdom I am now to write of a People whose Frugality Industry and Temperance and the happiness of whose Laws and Institution do promise to themselves long Life with a wonderful encrease of People Riches and Power And although no men ought to envy that Vertue and Wisdom in others which themselves either can or will not practice but rather to commend and admire it yet I think it is the duty of every good man primarily to respect the well-fare of his Native Country and therefore though I may offend some whom I would not willingly displease I cannot omit in the progress of this discourse to take notice of some particulars wherein Old England suffers diminution by the growth of those Colonies settled in New-England and how that Plantation differs from those more Southerly with respect to the gain or loss of this Kingdom viz. 1. All our American Plantations except that of New-England produce Commodities of different Natures from those of this Kingdom as Sugar Tobacco Cocoa Wool Ginger sundry sorts of dying Woods c. Whereas New-England produces generally the same we have here viz. Corn and Cattle some quantity of Fish they do likewise kill but that is taken saved altogether by their own Inhabitants which prejudiceth our New found-land Trade where as hath been said very few are or ought according to Prudence to be employed in those Fisheries but the Inhabitants of Old England The other Commodities we have from them are some few great Masts Furs and Train-Oyl whereof the Yearly value amounts to very little the much greater value of returns from thence being made in Sugar Cotton Wool Tobacco and such like Commodities which they first receive from some other of his Majesty's Plantations in Barter for dry Cod-Fish salt Mackerel Beef Pork Bread Beer Flower Pease c. which they supply Barbadoes Iamaica c. with to the diminution of the vent of those Commodities from this Kingdom the great Experience whereof in our own West-India Plantations would soon be found in the advantage of the value of our Lands in England were it not for the vast and almost incredible supplies those Colonies have from new-New-England 2. The People of new-New-England by vertue of their Primitive Charters being not so strictly tied to the observation of the Laws of this Kingdom do sometimes assume a liberty of Trading contrary to the Act of Navigation by reason whereof many of our American Commodities especially Tobacco and Sugar are transported in New-English Shiping directly into Spain and other foreign Countries without being Landed in England or paying any Duty to his Majesty which is not only loss to the King and a prejudice to the Navigation of Old England but also a total exclusion of the old English Merchant from the vent of those Commodities in those Ports where the New-English Vessels trade because there being no Custom paid on those Commodities in New-England and a great Custom paid upon them in Old England it must necessarily follow that the New-English Merchant will be able to afford his Commodity much cheaper at the Market than the Old English Merchant And those that can sell cheapest will infallibly engross the whole Trade sooner or later 3. Of all the American Plntations his Majesty hath none so apt for the building of Shiping as New-England nor none comparably so qualified for the breeding of Sea-men not only by reason of the natural industry of that people but principally by reason of their Cod and Mackerel Fisheries And in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more dangerous to any Mother Kingdom then the encrease of Shiping in their Colonies Plantations or Provinces 4. The People that evacuate from us to Barbadoes and the other West-India Plantations as was before hinted do commonly work one English man to ten or eight Blacks and if we kept the trade of our said Plantations intirely to England England would have no less Inhabitants but rather an encrease of people by such evacuation because that one English man with the ten Blacks that work with him accounting what they eat use and wear would make employment for four men in England as was said before whereas peradventure of ten men that issue from us to New-England Ireland what we send to or receive from them doth not employ one man in England To conclude this Chapter and to do right to that most Industirous English Colony I must confess that though we loose by their unlimitted Trade with our Foreign Plantations yet we are very great Gainers
Suppliment THE fore-going Discourse I Wrote in the Sickness-Summer at my Country-Habitation not then intending to publish it but only to communicate it to some Honourable and Ingenious Friends of the present Parliament who were pleased to take Copies of it for their own deliberate consideration and digestion of the Principles therein asserted which at first were strange to them as I expect they will be to most others till they have spent some time in thinking on them after which I doubt not but all Men will be convinced of the Truâ—h of them that have not some private Interest of heir own against them external to the general Good of the Kingdom For sure I am they have a Foundation in Nature and that according to the excellent Sr William Petty's Observation in his late Discourse concerning Taxes Res nolune male Administrare Nature must and will have its course the matter in England is prepared for an Abatement of Interest and it cannot long be obstructed and after the next Abatement who ever lives fourty Years longer shall see a second Abatement for we shall never stand on even ground in Trade with the Dutch till Interest be the same with us as it is with them His Majesty was graciously pleased at the opening of the last Session of this Parliament to propose to the Consideration of both Houses the Ballancing of the Trade of the Nation to effect which in my opinion the Abatement of Interest is the first and principal Engine which ought to be set on work which notwithstanding I should not have presumed to expose it to publick censure on my own single Opinion if I had not had the concurrance of much better Judgments then my own having never seen any thing in Print for it though much against it until the latter end of Ianuary last at which time a Friend whom I had often discoursed with upon this subject met with by accident a small Tract to the same purpose Wrote near fifty years ago which he gave me and I have for publick Good thought fit to annex it hereunto verbatim The Author of the said Tract by the stile thereof seems to have been a Country Gentleman and my Education hath mostly been that of a Merchant so I hope that going together they may in some measure supply the defects of each other Another Reason that induced me to to the Printing of them together is because what he Wrote then would be the consequences of the Abatement of Interest from ten to six per cent I have I think fully proved to the Conviction of all Men not wilfully blind have been the real effects thereof and that to a greater proportion then he did premise every Paragraph whereof was Writ by me and Copies thereof delivered to several worthy Members of this Parliament many Months before ever I saw or heard of this or any thing else Writ or Printed to the like purpose What I have aimed at in the whole is the good of my Native Country otherwise I had not busied my self about it for I want not employment sufficient of my own nor have reason to be out of love with that I have The several Particulars in the beginning of this Treatise relating to Trade I have only hinted in general terms hoping that some abler Pen will hereafter be incited for the service of his King and Country to enlarge more particularly upon them Before I conclude though I have studied brevity in the whole I cannot omit the inserting of one Objection more which I have lately met with to the main design of this Treatise viz. Object It is said that the lowness of Interest of Money in Holland is not the EFFECT OF LAWS but proceeds only FROM THEIR ABUNDANCE THEREOF for that in Holland there is no Law limitting the rate of Usury Answ. I answer that it may be true that in Holland there hath not lately been any Law to limit Usury to the present rate it is now at i. e. three or four per cent although most certain it is that many years since there was a Law that did limit it to five or six at most And by consequence there would be a renewing of that Law to a lesser rate were it necessary at this time It having always been the Policy of that People to keep down the Interest of their Money three or four per cent under the rate of what is usually paid in their Neighbouring Countries which being now naturally done it is needless to use the Artificial Stratagem of a Law to Establish Answ. 2. Although they have no Law expresly limitting Interest at present yet they have other Laws which we cannot yet arrive to which do effect the same thing among them and would do the like among us if we could have them One whereof is their ascertaining REAL SECURITIES by their PUBLICK REGISTERS For we see evidently Money is not so much wanting in England as Securities which Men account Infallible a remarkable Instance whereof is the East-India-Company who can and do take up what Money they please for four per cent at any time Another Law is Their constitution of BANKS and LUMBARDS whereby private Persons that have but tollerable credit may be supplied at easie rates from the State A third and very considerable one is Their Law for Transferring Bills of Debt mentioned in the beginning of this Discourse A fourth which is a Custom and in effect may be here to our Purpose accounted as a Law is the extraordinary Frugality used in all their Publick Affairs which in their greatest Extreamities have been such as not to compel them to give above four per cent for the loan of Money Whereas it is said His Majesty in some Cases of exigency when the National Supplies have not come in to answer the present Emergencies of Affairs hath been inforced to give above the usual Rates to Gold-Smiths and that encouraged them to take up great Sums from private Persons at the full rate of six per cent whereas formerly they usully gave but four per cent otherwise in humane probability Money would have fallen of it self to four per cent But again to conclude Every Nation does proceed according to peculiar Methods of their own in the Transactions of their publick Affairs and Law-making And in this Kingdom it hath always been the Custom to reduce the Rate of Interest by a Law when Nature had prepared the matter fit for such an alteration as now I say it hath By a Law it was reduced from an unlimitted rate to ten and afterwards from ten to eight after that from eight to six And through the Blessing of Almighty God this Kingdom hath found as I think I have fully proved and every Mans Experience will witness prodigious success and advantage thereby And I doubt not through the like Blessing of God Almighty but this Generation will find the like great and good effects by the reduction of it from six to four which is now at
as it is called as in former dayes when our greatest Expence was upon our Bellies the most destructive Consumption that can happen to a Nation and tending only to nourish Idleness Luxury and Beggary whereas that other kind of Expence which follows Trade encourageth Labour Arts and Invention To which give me leave to add that The abatement of Interest conjoynt with Excises upon our home consumption if the later could be hit upon without disturbance to Trade or danger of continuation are two of the most comprehensive and effectual Sumptuary Laws that ever were established in any Nation and most necessitating and engaging any People to thriftiness the high Road to Riches as well for Nations as private Families The frugal Italians of Old and the provident Dutch of latter times I think have given the World a sufficient proof of this Theorim and if any shall tell me it is the nature of those People to be thrifty I answer all men by nature are alike it is only Laws Custom and Education that differ men their Nature and Disposition and the disposition of all People in the World proceed from their Laws the French Peasantry are a slavish cowardly People because the Laws of their Country have made them Slaves the French Gentry a noble valiant People because free by Law Birth and Education In England we are all free Subjects by our Laws and therefore our People prove generally couragious the Dutch and Italians are both frugal Nations though their Climates and Governments differ as much as any because the Laws of both Nations encline them to Thriftiness other Nations I could name are generally vain prodigal not by Nature nor for want of a good Country but because their Laws c. dispose them so to be The sixth proof of the Proposition is that It employes the Poor which is a ne-necessary Consequence likewise of the encrease of Trade in Cities and Emprovement of Land in the Country which is well and truly demonstrated from Experience by the Elder and Younger Sr Thomas Culpepper to whom to avoid Prolixity I must refer the Reader Seventhly It encreaseth the People of a Nation this also necessarily followeth the encrease of Trade and Emprovement of Lands not that it causeth married men to get more Children But 1 st a trading Country affording comfortable Subsistances to more Families then a Country destitute of Trade is the reason that many do marry who otherwise must be forc'd to live single which may be one reason why fewer People of either Sex are to be seen unmarried in Holland at 25 years of age then may be found in England at 40 years old 2 dly Where there is much Employment and good Pay if we want Hands of our own we shall draw them from others as hath been said 3 dly We shall keep our own People at home which otherwise for want of Employment would be forcd to leave us and serve other Nations as too many of our Sea-men Ship-wrights and others have done 4 thly Our Lands and Trade being improved will render us capable not only of employing but feeding a far greater number of People as is manifest in that instance of the Land of Palestine And if these will be the effects of abating Interest then I think it is out of doubt that the Abatement of Interest is the cause of the encrease of the Riches of any Kingdom for quicquid efficit tale est magis tale Now to answer his four recited Reasons viz. First he saith If a low stated Interest by Law be the cause of Riches no Country would be poor all desiring Riches rather then Poverty and all having it in their power to state their Interest as low as they please by Law I answer first Whatever Nation doth it gradually for so it must be done as it hath been hitherto in England 2 per Cent being enough to abate at one time will find those effects I have mentioned but it is a work of Ages and cannot be done at once For Nec natura aut lex operantur per saltum Secondly It is great Imprudence to imagine that any Country understanding their true Interest so well as by degrees to abate Use-Money will not likewise by the same Wisdom be led to the instituting of many other good Laws for the encouragement of Trade as our Parliaments have still proceeded to do as Interest hath been abated His second Reason is That if the lowness of Interest were not the effect of Riches in Holland they might take as much Vse-Money as they could get there being no Law against it I answer There were formerly Laws in Holland that reduced Interest to 8 and 6 and afterwards to 5 per Cent Anno 1640. and since in the Year 1655. to 4 per Cent the Placart for which I have seen and have been told and do believe they have since reduced it by Placart to 3 per Cent as to their Cantors and all publick Receipts which in Holland is as much in effect as if they had made a general Law for it because the most of their Receipts and Payments are made in and out of the aforesaid publick Offices or else into and out of their Banks for which no Use-Money is allowed which several gradual and succesful Abatements of Interest did occasion their Riches at first and brought their People to that consistency of Wealth that they have since wrought themselves into such an abundance that there are more Lenders now than Borrowers and so I doubt not but it will be with us in a few Years after the next Abatement of Interest is made by Law which I have good reason to conclude not only from the visible operations of nature in all other things and places but from Fact and Experience in this very case being certain that the Gold-Smiths in London could have what Money they would upon their Servants Notes only at 4 l. and 4 l. 10 s. per Cent before the late Emergencies of State which I could demonstrate have very much obstructed the natural fall of Interest with us something more I have said in answer to this in the addition to my former Treatise and this may serve likewise for an answer to his third Reason Fourthly he saith That which I must prove to make good my Assertion is that any Country in the World from a poor and low condition while Interest was at 6 per Cent was made rich by bringing it to 4 per Cent or 3 per Cent by a Law I answer If the instance of Holland and Italy were not sufficient to satisfie him in this point yet that having proved which he cannot deny that our own Kingdom hath been enriched consequently constantly and proportionably to and after our several Abatements of Interest by Law from an unlimitted rate to 10 from 10 to â— and from 8 to 6 per Cent I think it may rationally be concluded that another Abatement of Interest in England would cause a further encrease of
Riches as it hath done in Holland From Italy I have endeavoured to gain a certain accompt of their legal Interest but am advised that no taking of Use-Money is allowed by their Pontificial Laws the Interest now taken there which is generally 4 per Cent is done only by dispensation of Pope Paul the fifth and that notwithstanding no man can recover Interest of Money there if the party who should pay it can prove he hath no gained the value of the Interest demanded Now let the Reader judge whether that practise of Holland and this of Italy where the Romish Church-men have so great power who are to take Cognizance and may by their Auricular Confessors of all Offences of this kind the Laws concerning the use of Money in those Countries being Pontificial do not amount in effect to a low stated Interest by Law in England But to deal more ingenuously with my Opposer then he hath done with me I will grant him that much Riches will occasion in any Kingdom a low rate of Interest and yet that doth not hinder but a low stated Interest by Law may be a cause of Riches For if Trade be that which enricheth any Kingdom and lowering of Interest advanceth Trade which I think is sufficiently proved then the Abatement of Interest or more properly restraining of Usury which the antient Romans and all other wise and rich People in the world did always drive at is doubtless a primary and principal cause of the Riches of any Nation it being not improper to say nor absurd to conceive that The same thing may be both a Cause and an Effect Peace begets Plenty and Plenty may be a means to preserve Peace Fear begets Hatred and Hatred Fear The diligenâ— Hand makes rich and Riches makes men diligent so true is the Proverb Crescit amor Nummi quantum ipsa pecunia erescit Love we say begets Love the fertility of a Country may cause the encrease of People and the encrease of People may cause the further and greater fertility of a Country Liberty and Property conduce to the encrease of Trade and Emprovement of any Country and the encrease of Trade and Emprovements conduce to the procuring as well as securing of Liberty and Property Strength and Health conduce to a good digestion and a good digestion is necessary to the preservation of Health and encrease of Strength and as a Person of very great honour pertinently instanced at a late debate upon this Question An Egg is the cause of a Hen and a Hen the cause of an Egg. The incomparable Lord Bacon in his History of Henry the 7th saith pag. 245 of that Prince as well as other men That his Fortune worked upon his Nature his Nature upon his Fortune the like may be said of Nations The Abatement of Interest causeth an encrease of Wealth and the encrease of Wealth may cause a further Abatement of Interest But that is best done by the Midwifery of good Laws which is what I plead for the corrupt Nature of man being more apt to decline to Vice then incline to Vertue Folio 15. he affirms Lands are not risen in Purchase nor Rents improved since the Abatement of Interest That I shall say no more to it is matter of Fact and Gentlemen who are the Owners of Land are the best Iudges of this case only I would entreat them not to depend upon their Memories alone but to command particular accompts to be given them what sum or sums of Money were given 40 or 50 Years past for any intire Farms or Mannors they now know and I doubt not but they will find that most of them will yield double the said sums of Money now notwithstanding the present great pressures that Land lies under which ought maturely to be considered of when this judgment is made I rather desire the enquiry to be made upon the gross sum of Money paid then the Years purchase as being less fallible because many Farms have been of late Years so rackt up in Rents that it may be they will not yield more Years purchase now according to the present Rents then they would many years past and yet may yield double the Money they were then bought or sold for because the Rents were much less then Fol. 15. he impertinently quarrels at my instance of Ireland saying I quote it sometimes to prove the benefit of a low Interest pag. 8. And sometimes the mischief of high Interest pag. 9. Which seems to me to be an unfriendly way of prevaricating For pag. 8. I mention the late great improvement of Ireland only as an accidental cause why our Rents at that present fell and in this it appears I was not much mistaken for within a few Moneths after I first writ that Treatise the Parliament took notice of it Pag. 9. I mention that place among others that pay a high Interest and are consequently very poor if there be any contradiction in this let the Reader judge Pag. 16. the Gentleman puzleth himself about finding Mistakes in my Calculation of the encrease of Merchants Estates but discovers none but his own so I shall not trouble the Reader further about that all Merchants granting me as much as I design by it though some of them have not or care not to observe the Abatement of Interest to have been the principal cause thereof Fol. 17. Because he cannot answer that large and pregnant instance of the effects of a low Interest which I gave in the case of the Sugar-Bakers of London and those of Holland which was but one of a hundred which I could have mentioned he endeavours to set up another of a contrary effect which is a weak rediculous Instance and nothing to his purpose for that Commodity that I mentioned viz. Sugar is a solid bulky Commodity always in fashion not consequent to humor as is that of Silk-Stockings 1000 l. worth whereof may be with less charge carried to Italy then 30 l. worth of Barbadoes Sugar can be sent to Holland Besides the reason why we of late sent Silk-Stockings thither is accidental not natural only happening by means of an Engin wâ— have to weave them whereof they have not yet the use in Italy Besides wearing things being more esteemed through Fancy then Judgment the Italians may have the same Vanity which is too much amongst us to esteem that which is none of their own making as we do French Ribonds and the French-men English ones besides he is mistaken in saying we bring the Silk we make them of from Italy for the Silk of which we make that Commodity is Turky not Italian Silk Fol. 18. The Gentleman begins to be kind and finding me out of the way pretends to set me right viz. to instruct me as first what will bring down Interest 1st Multitude of People 2dly A full Trade 3dly Liberty of Conscience I Answer That I have I think proved that the Abatement of Interest will effect the two former
was our Law against Exportation of Bullion lately repealed 5thly Such is the use of the Law at present which takes not only a Custom but 15 s. per Tun Excise on strong Beer exported being the same Rate it pays when spent at home contrary to the practice of all trading Countries 6thly Such are our Laws which charge Sea-Coals or any of our native Provisions exported with Custom viz. Beef Pork Bread Beer c. for which I think in prudence the Door should be opened wide to let them out 7thly Of the like nature is our Law imposing a great duty upon our Horses Mares and Nags exported 8. Such in my weak Opinion is that branch of the Statute of 5 Eliz. that none should use any manual Occupation except he hath been Appretince to the same 9thly Such in my Opinion is the Law which yet prohibits the Exportation of our own Coin for since it is now by consent of Parliament agreed and found by experience of all understanding men to be advantagious for this Kingdom to permit the free Exportation of Bullion I think it were better for us that our own Coin might likewise be freely exported because by what of that went out we should gain the Manufacture the Coyning besides the great honour and note of Magnificency it would be to his Majesty and this Kingdom to have his Majesty's Coin currant in all parts of the Vniverse 10thly Such are all by-Laws used among the Society of Coopers other Artificers limiting Masters to keep but one Apâ—rentice at a time whereas it were better for the publick they were permitted to keep ten if they could or would maintain or employ them 11thly Such seem to be many of our Laws relating to the Poor especially those against Inmates in Cities trading Towns and those obliging Parishes to maintain their own Poor only Page 23. and 24. the Gentleman makes a large Repetition of what he had said before wherein I observe nothing new but that he saith the East-India-Company have Money at 4. per cent only because Men may have their Money out when they please which is a mistake though a small one for the Company seldom or never take up Money but for a certain time though I doubt not but that Generous Company will and do at most times accommodate any Person with his Money before due that hath occasion to require such a kindness of them although they oblige not themselves to do it In this tenth particular at the latter end of page 24. he saith I am mistaken in my Assertion of the Interest of Scotland which upon further enquiry amongst the Scotch Merchants upon the Exchange I am told is his own mistake So I must leave that being matter of fact to those that know that Country and its Laws more and better then either of us Lastly he concludes that whilst I say the matter in England is so naturally prepared for an Abatement of Interest that it cannot be long obstructed I propound a Law to anticipate Nature which is against Reason I answer it was the Wisdom of our Grand-fathers to bring it to what it would bear in their time and our Fathers found the good effects of that and brought it lower and the benefit thereof is since manifested to us by the success and therefore seeing the matter will now bear further Abatement it is reasonable for us to follow that excellent Example of our Ancestors Laws against Nature I grant would be ineffectual but I never heard before that Laws to help Nature were against Reason Touching the Gentleman's personal Reflections upon me I shall say little it appears sufficiently by what I have writ and his Answer that I am an Advocate for Industry he for Idleness It appears likewise to those that know me in London which are many that I am so far from designing to engrose Trade that I am hastening to convert what I can of my small Estate that is pâ—rsonal into real supposing it to be my Interest so to do before the Use of Money falls which I conclude cannot long suspend and that then Land and Houses must rise and I doubt it will appear when this Gentleman is as well known as I am that he is more an Vsurer then an Owner of Land or Manager of Trade at present my ends have only been to serve my Country which I can with a sincere Heart declare in the Presence of God and Men And that nothing else could have engaged me into this unpleasing Controversie wherein I have given unwilling offence to all my nearest Relations and knew at first that I must needs do so most of them being such as Age and Wisdom hath instructed rather to be Box-keepers then Gamesters I have before-mentioned the Judgment of the French King and Court but intended not to recite the Edict being it is at large in Sr Thomas Culpeppers senior his last Treatise yet on second thoughts considering all Men perhaps may not come to a sight of that and finding the said Edict so comprehensive of the whole matter of this Controversie I have here recited it The King by these Edicts had nothing relieved the necessities of the Nobility if he had not provided for Vsuries which have ruined many good and antient Houses filled Towns with unprofitable Servants and the Countries with Miseries and Inhumanities he found the Rents viz. Vsuries constituted after 10 or 8 in the hundred did ruin many good Families hindred the Traffick and Commerce of Merchandize's and made Tillage and Handicrafts to be neglected many desiring through the easiness of a deceitful Gain to live Idlely in good Towns of their Rents rather then to give themselves with any pains to liberal Arts or to till or husband their Inheritances For this reason meaning to invite his subjects to enrich themselves with more just Gain to content themselves with more moderate profit and to give the Nobility means to pay their Debts he did forbid all Vsury or Constitution of Rents at an higher rate then six Pounds five Shillings in the hundred The Edict was verified in the Court of Parliament which considered that it was always prejudicial to the Commonwealth to give Money to Vsury for it is a Serpent whose biteing is not apparent and yet it is so sensible that it peirceth the very Hearts of the best Families The whole of this Controversie lies narrowly in these two short Questions viz. Will abatement of Interest improve Trade Secondly Will it advance the price of Land The collective united Bodies of the Government of our own and other Kingdoms expresly say it will do both and Experience cries aloud that so it will do and hath done in all Ages and in all Places and I never yet met with any private person how much soever concerned in Interest that had the ignorance or confidence to deny both For discourse with a Country Vsurer he will affirm and perhaps be ready to swear to it that this abatement of Interest is
a Knavish design of the Citizens to advance themselves who are too proud already and that if it go forward it will undo all the Country Gentlemen in England And if one speak with the City Vsurers they will be as ready to affirm that this is a plot carried on only by Noblemen and Gentlemen whose Estates are all in Land for their own advantage and that it will spoil all the Trade of the Kingdom being a project at one instant to take off just one third of all Mens Estates that are personal and add the same proportion to all such whose Estates are real which in effect is to Impoverish all the Younger and Enrich all Elder Brothers in England So that out of the Mouthes of the greatest and wisest Adversaries to this principle it may be justly concluded that though singlely they deny the truth of it yet joyntly they confess it To conclude there is nothing that I have said or that I think any other can say upon this occasion but was said in substance before by old Sr Thomas Culpepper though unknown to me who had an ampel and clear sight into the whole nature of this Principle and the true effects and consequences of it Truth being always the same though Illustrations may vary nor can any thing now be objected against the making a Law for a further abatement of Interest but the same that was objected in those times wherein the former Statutes past so that why my Opposer should cavil at the doing of that by a Law in England now which he seems to â—ike well if it could be done I know no real cause except it be that in truth he is wise enough to know that a Law in England will certainly do the Work as it hath done formerly and in consequence his own private Gain will be retrenched Before I concluded I think it necessary for caution to my Country-men to let them know what effects these discourses have had on others when I wrote my first Treatise Interest was in the Island of Barbadoes at 15 per centum where it is since by an Act of the Country brought down to 10 per cent a great fall at once and our weekly Gazets did some Months past inform us that the Sweeds by a Law had brought down their Interest to 6 per cent neither of which can have any good effects upon us but certainly the contrary except by way of emulation they quicken us to provide in time for our own Good and Prosperity I have now done with this Controversie and therein discharge my Duty to my native Country and though Ignorance Malice or private Interest may yet for some time oppose it I am confident the Wisdom of my Country-men will at length find their true and general Interest in the Establishment of such a Law which as to my own particular concernments signifies not two Farthings whether they do or not CHAP. II. Concerning the Relief and Employment of the Poor THis is a calm Subject and thwarts no common or private Interest amongst us except that of the common Enemy of Mankind the Devil so I hope that what shall be offered towards the effecting of so universally acceptable a Work as this and the removal of the innumerable Inconveniences that do now and have in all Ages attended this Kingdom through defect of such provision for the Poor will not be ill taken although the Plaister at first essay do not exactly fit the Sore In the Discourse of this subject I shall first assert some particulars which I think arâ—â—greed by common Consent and from thence take occasion to proceed to what is more doubtful 1. That our Poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition some Famished for want of Bread others starved with Cold and Nakedness and many whole Families in all the out Parts of Cities and great Towns commonly remain in a languishing nasty and useless Condition Uncomfortable to themselves and Unprofitable to the Kingdom this is confessed and lamented by all Men. 2. That the Children of our Poor bred up in Beggery and Laziness do by that means become not only of unhealthy Bodiâ—s and more then ordinarily subject to many loathsome Diseases whereof very many die in their tender Age and if any of them do arrive to years and strength they are by their idle habits contracted in their Youth rendered for ever after indisposed to Labour and serve only to stock the Kingdom with Thieves and Beggars 3. That if all our impotent Poor were provided for and those of both Sexes and all Ages that can do Work of any kind employed it would redound some Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds per annum to the publick Advantage 4. That it is our Duty to God and Nature so to Provide for and Employ the Poor 5. That by so doing one of the great Sins for which this Land ought to mourn would be removed 6. That our fore-Fathers had pious Intentions towards this good Work as appears by the many Statutes made by them to this purpose 7. That there are places in the VVorld wherein the Poor are so provided for and employed as in Holland Hambrough New-England and others and as I am informed now in the City of Paris Thus far we all agree The first Question then that naturally occurs is Question How comes it to pass that in England we do not nor ever did comfortably Maintain and Employ our Poor The common Answers to this Question are two 1. That our Laws to this purpose are as good as any in the World but we fail in the execution 2. That formerly in the days of our pious Ancestors the work was done but now Charity is deceased and that is the reason we see the Poor so neglected as now they are In both which Answers I humbly conceive the Effect is mistaken for the Cause For though it cannot be denied but there hath been and is a great failure in the Execution of those Statutes which relate to the Poor yet I say the cause of that failure hath been occasioned by defect of the Laws themselves For otherwise what is the reason that in our late times of Confusion and Alteration wherein almost every Party in the Nation at one time or other took their turn at the Helm and all had that Compass those Laws to Stear by and yet none of them could or ever did conduct the Poor into a Harbour of security to them and profit to the Kingdom i. e. none sufficiently maintained the Impotent and employed the Indigent amongst us And if this was never done in any Age nor by any sort of Men whatsoever in this Kingdom who had the use of those Laws now in force it seems to me a very strong Argument that it never could nor ever will be done by those Laws and that consequently the defect lies in the Laws themselves not in the Men i. e. those that should put them in Execution As to the second
the more in regard of our present Differences in Religion but I shall answer it as well as I can In general I say They must be such as the People must have ample satisfaction in or else the whole Design will be lost For iâ— the universality of the People be not satisfied with the Persons they will never part with their Money but if they be well satisfied therein they will be miraculously charitable Quest. 5. This begets a fifth Question viz. What sort of men the people will be most satisfied in I answer I think in none so well as such only as a common Hall of the Livery-men of London shall make choice of it being evident by the experience of many Ages that the several Corporations in London are the best Administrators of what is left to charitable Vses that have ever been in this Kingdom which is manifest in the regular just and prudent management of the Hospitals of London and was wisely observed by Doctor Colleâ— Dean of St Paul's that prudent Ecclesiastick when he left the Government of that School and other great Revenues assigned by him for charitable Uses unto the disposition of the Mercers Company Object But here it may be objected That Country-Gentlemen who have power in places of their Residences and pay out of their large Estates considerable sums towards the Maintenance of their Poor within the afore-limited Precincts may be justly offended if they likewise have not a share in the distribution of what shall be raised to that purpose Answ. I answer the force of this objection may be much taken off if the City be obliged to choose but a certain number out of the City as suppose seventy for London ten out of Southwark for that Burrough twenty for Westminster this would best satisfie the People I think do the work But if it be thought too much for the City to have the choice of any more then their own seventy the Iustices of Peace in their Quarter-Sessions may nominate and appoint their own number of Persons to assist for their respective Jurisdictions and so to supply the vacancy in case of Death c. But all must be conjunctive but one Body politick or the work will never be done Quest. 6. The sixth Question is What will be the advantage to the Kingdom in general and to the Poor in particular that will accrue by such a Society of men more than is enjoyed by the Laws at present I answer Innumerable and unspeakable are the Benefits to this Kingdom that will arise from the Consultations and Debates of such a wise and honest Council who being men so elected as aforesaid will certainly conscionably study and labour to discharge their trust in this service of God their King and Country 1st The Poor of what quality soever as soon as they are met with will be immediately relieved or set on work where they are found without hurrying them from place to place and torturing their Bodies to no purpose 2. Charitable-minded-men will know certainly where to dispose of their Charity so as it may be employed to right purposes 3. House-keepers will be freed from the intolerable incumbrance of Beggars at their Doors 4. The Plantations will be regularly supplied with Servants and those that are senâ— thither well provided for 5. The said Assembly will doubtless appoint some of their own Members to visit and relieve such as are sick as often as there shall be occasion together with poor labouring Families both in City and Suburbs 6. Poor Children will be instructed in Learning and Arts and thereby rendred serviceable to their Country and many other worthy Acts done for publick good by the joynt delibaration of so many prudent and pious men assisted with such a Power and Purse more then can be fore-seen or expressed by a private Person Quest. 7. The seventh Question may be What shall all the Poor of these Cities and Countries being very numerous be employed about This question will be answer'd best by the said Assembly themselves when they have met and consulted together who cannot be presumed defficient of Invention to set all the Poor on work especially since they may easily have admirable Presidents from the practice of Holland in this particular and have already very good ones of their own in the orders of their Hospitals of Christ-Church and Bridewell in London the Girles may he employed in mending the Clothes of of the Aged in Spinning Carding and other linnen Manufactureâ— and many in Sowing Linnen for the Exchange on any House-keepers that will put out Linnen to the Matrons that have the Government of them The Boys in picking Okam making Piâ—s rasping Wood making Hangings or any other Manufacture of any kind which whether it turns to present profit or not is not much material the great Business of the Nation being first but to keep the Poor from Begging and Starving and enuring such as are able to Labour and Discipline that they may be hereafter useful Members to the Kingdom But to conclude I say the wisest Man living solitarily cannot propose or imagine such excellent ways and methods as will be invented by the united Wisdom of so grave an Assembly The sitting of the said Assembly I humbly conceive ought to be De die in diem the Quorum not more then thirteen whether they shall Yearly Monthly or Weekly choose a President how they shall distribute themselves into the several quarters of the Communication what Treasurers and other Officers to employ and where and how many will best be determined by themselves and that without difficulty because many that will probably be Members of the said Assembly have already had large experience of the Government of the Hospitals of London The manner of Election of the said Fathers of the Poor I humbly suppose cannot possibly be better contrived then after the same way which the East-India-Company choose their Committee which will prevent the Confusion Irregularity and Incertitude that may attend the Election of Voices or holding up of Hands especially because the persons to be elected at one time will be very many the said manner proposed is every Elector viz. every Livery-Man to bring to Guild-Hall at the appointed day for Elections a List of the whole number of Persons such as he thinks fit that are to be Elected and deliver the same openly unto such Persons as the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council-Men shall appoint to make the Scrutiney which Persons so entrusted with the said Scrutiney seven or ten days after as shall be thought fit at another common Hall may declare who are the Persons Elected by the Majority of Votes If it be here objected to the whole purpose of this Treatise that this work may as well be done in distinct Parishes if all Parishes were obliged to Build Work-Houses and Employ their Poor therein as Dorchester and some others have done with good success I answer that such attempts have been made in many places
a Fine of Fifty Pounds and the success hath been answerable For the first Company settled upon that narrow limitted Interest although their Stock was larger then this decayed and finally came to ruin and destruction Whereas on the contrary this being settled on more rational and consequently more just as well as more profitable Principles hath through Gods Goodness thriven and encreased to the trebling of their first Stock CHAP. IV. Concerning the Act of Navigation THough this Act be by most concluded a very beneficial Act for this Kingdom especially by the Masters and Owners of Shiping and by all Sea-men yet some there are both wise and honest Gentlemen and Merchants that doubt whether the Inconveniencies it hath brought with it be not greater then the Conveniencies For my own part I am of Opinion that in relation to Trade Shiping Profit and Power it is one of the choicest and most prudent Acts that ever was made in England and without which we had not now been Owners of one half of the Shiping nor Trade nor employed one half of the Sea-men which we do at present but seeing time hath discovered some Inconveniencies in it if not Defects which in my poor opinion do admit of an easie Amendment and seeing that the whole Act is not approved by unanimous consent I thought fit to discourse a little concerning it wherein after my plain method I shall lay down such Objections as I have met with and subjoyn my Answers with such Reasons as occur to my memory in confirmation of my own Opinion The Objections against the whole Act are such as these Object 1. Some have told me That I on all occasions magnifie the Dutch policy in relation to their Trade and the Dutch have no Act of Navigation and therefore they are certainly not always in the right as to the understanding of their true Interest in Trade or else we are in the wrong in this I answer I am yet to be informed where the Dutch have missed their proper Interest in Trade but that which is fit for one Nation to do in relation to their Trade is not fit for all no more then the same Policy is necessary to a prevailing Army that are Masters of the Field to an Army of less force then to be able to encounter their Enemy at all times and places The Dutch by reason of their great Stocks low Interest multitude of Merchants and Shiping are Masters of the Field in Trade and therefore have no need to build Castles Fortresses and places of Retreat such I account Laws of limitation and securing of particular Trades to the Natives of any Kingdom because they viz. the Dutch may be well assured That no Nation can enter in common with them in any Trade to gain Bread by it while their own use of Money is at 3 per Cent and others at 6 per Cent and upwards c. Whereas if we should suffer their Shiping in common with ours in those Trades which are secured to the English by Act of Navigation they must necessarily in a few Years for the Reasons above 〈…〉 eat us quite out of them Object 2. The second Objection to the whole Act is Some will confess that as to Merchants and Owners of Ships the Act of Navigation is eminently beneficial but say that Merchants and Owners are but an inconsiderable number of men in respect of the whole Nation and that Interest of the greater number that our Native Commodities and Manufactures should be taken from us at the best rates and foreign Commodities sold us at the cheapest with admission of Dutch Merchants and Shiping in common with the English by my own implication would effect My answer is That I cannot deny but this may be true if the present profit of the generality be barely and singly considered but this Kingdom being an Island the defence whereof hath alwayes been our Shiping and Sea-men it seems to me absolutely necessary that Profit and Power ought joyntly to be considered and if so I think none can deny but the Act of Navigation hath and doth occasion building and employing of three times the number of Ships and Sea-men that otherwise we shouâ—d or would do and that consequently If our Force at Sea were so greatly impared it would expose us to the receiving of all kind of Injuries and Affronts from our Neighbours and in conclusion render us a despicable and miserable People Objections to several Parts of the Act of Navigation Object 1. The Inhabitants and Planters of our Plantations in America say This Act will in time ruin their Plantations if they may not be permitted at least to carry their Sugars to the best Markets and not be compell'd to send all to and receive all Commodities from England I answer If they were not kept to the Rules of the Act of Navigation the consequence would be that in a few Years the benefit of them would be wholly lost to the Nation it being agreeable to the Policy of the Dutch Danes French Spaniards Portugals and all Nations in the World to keep their external Provinces and Colonies in a subjection unto and dependency upon their Mother-Kingdom and if they should not do so the Dutch who as I have said are Masters of the Field in Trade would carry away the greatest of advantage by the Plantations of all the Princes in Christendom leaving us and others only the trouble of breeding men and sending them abroad to cultivate the Ground and have Bread for their Industry Here by the way with entire submission to the greater Wisdom of those whom it much more concerns give me leave to Query Whether instead of the late prohibition of Irish Cattle it would not have been more for the benefit of this Kingdom of England to suffer the Irish to bring into England not only their live Cattle but also all other Commodities of the Growth or Manufacture of that Kingdom Custom free or on easie Customs and to prohibit them from Trading homeward or outward with the Dutch or our own Plantations or any other places except the Kingdom of England Most certainly such a Law would in a few Years wonderfully encrease the Trade Shiping and Riches of this Nation Query 2. Would not this be a good addition to the Act of Navigation and much encrease the employment of English Shiping and Sea-men as well in bringing from thence all the Commodities of that Country as supplying that Country with Deals Salt and all other foreign Commodities which now they have from the Dutch Que. 3. Would not this be a means effectually to prevent the Exportation of Irish Wool which now goes frequently into France and Holland to the manifest and great damage both of England and Ireland Que 4. Would not this be a Fortress or Law to secure to us the whole Trade of Ireland Que. 5. Would not this render that which now diminisheth and seems dangerous to the value of Lands in England viz. the growth of
Ireland advantagious by encrease of Trade and Shiping and consequently the power of this Kingdom Object 2. The second Ojection to part of the Act of Navigation is usually made by the Eastland and Norway Merchants who affirm that in effect their Trade is much declined since the passing the Act of Navigation and the Danes Sweeds Holsteners and all Easterlings who by the said Act may Import Timbâ—r and other Eastern Commodities have encreased in the number of their Shiping imployed in this Trade since our Act of Navigation at least two third parts and the English have proportionably declined in the number of theirs imployed in that Trade I answer That I believe the matter of Fact asserted is true as well as the cause assigned viz. the Act of Navigation and yet this should not make us out of love with that excellent Law rather let it put us upon contriving the Amendment of this seeming Defect or Inconvenience the Cure whereof I hope upon mature consideration will not be found difficult for which I humbly propound to the Wisdom of Parliament viz. That a Law be made to impose a Custom of at least 50 l. per Cent on all Eastland Commodities Timber Boards Pipe-Staves and Salt imported into England and Ireland upon any Ships but English built Ships or at least such only as are sailed with an English Master and at least three fourths English Marriners And that for these Reasons Reas. First If this be not done the Danes Sweedes and Easterlings will certainly in a few Years carry the whole Trade by reason of the difference of the charge of building a Ship fit for that Trade there or here viz. a Fly-boat of 300 Tuns new built and set to Sea for such a Voyage may cost there 13 or 1400 l. which here would cost from 22 to 2400 l. which is so vast a disproportion that it is impossible for an English man to coape with a Dane in that Navigation under such a discouragement to ballance which there is nothing but the Strangers duty which the Dane now pays which may come to 5 or 6 l per Ship per Voyage at most one with another which is incompitable with the difference of Price between the first cost of the Ships in either Nation And this is so evident to those who are conversant in those Trades that besides the decrease of our Shiping and encrease of theirs that hath already happened ours in probability had been wholly beaten out of the Trade and only Danes and Easterlings freighted had we been necessitated to build English Ships and had not been recruited on moderate Prices by Fly-boats being Ships proper for this Trade taken in the late Dutch War and by a further supply of Scotch Prizes likewise through his Majesties permission and indulgence Reas. 2. Because the number of Strangers Ships imployed in the aforesaid Trade yearly I estimtae to be about two hundred Sail which if such a Law were made must unavoidably be all excluded and the Employment fall wholly into English Hands which would be an excellent Nursery and give constant Maintenance to a brave number of English Sea-men more then we can or do employ at present Reas. 3. The Act of Navigation is now of seventeen or eighteen Years standing in England and yet in all these Years not one English Ship hath been built fit for this Trade the reason whereof is that before mentioned viz. that it is cheaper freighting of Danes and Easterlins and it being so and all men naturally led by their Profit it seems to me in vain to expect that ever this Law will procure the building of one English Ship fit for that employment till those Strangers are excluded this Trade for England and much more improbable it is that any should now be built than it was formerly when the Act was first made because Timber is now at almost double the price in England it was then The consequence whereof is That if timely Provision be not made by some additional Law when our old Stock of Flemish Prizes is worn out as many of them are already we shall have very few or no Ships in this Trade The Objections which I have heard made to this Proposition are viz. Object 1. If such an Imposition be laid on those gross Commodities imported by Strangers Ships that will amount to the excluding all Strangers from this Trade we shall want Ships in England to carry on the Trade and so the Commodity will not be had or else will come very dear to us I answer â—f the Commodity should be somewhat dearer for the present it would be no loss to the Nation in general because all Freight would be paid to English men whereas the freight paid to Strangers which upon thâ—se Commodities is commonly as much or more then the value of Goods is all clear loss to the Nation 2 dly If there should be a present want of Shiping and the Parliament shall please to enjoyn us to build English Ships for this Trade This extraordinary good Effect will follow viz. It will engage us to do that we never yet did viz. To fall to building of Fly-boats gâ—eat Ships of burthen of no force and small charge in sailing which would be the most profitable undertaking that ever English men were engaged in and that which is absolutely necessary to be don if ever we intend to board the Dutch in their Trade and Navigation these Fly-boats being the Milch-Cows of â—olland from which they have suckâ—d manifoldlâ— greater Profit than from all their Ships of force though both I know are necessary But if at first the Parliament shall think fit to enjoyn us only to Ships sailed with an Enlish Master and three fourths English Marriners the Danes and Easterlins being by this means put out of so great an Employment for their Shiping we shall buy Ships proper for this Trade on easie terms of them perhaps for half their cost which under value in purchase will be a present clear profit to England Object 2. If this be done in England may not other Princes account it hard and unreasonable and consequently Retaliate the like upon us To answer this Objection its necesary to enquire what Kingdom and Counâ—ry will be concerned in this Law 1 st Then Italy Spain and Portugal will be wholly unconcerned 2 dly So will France who if they were concerned can take no offence while they lay an Imposition of 50 or 60 per Cent upon our Drapery 3 dly The Dutch and Hamburgers would not by such additional Law be more excluded then now they are and the latter would have an advantage by it in case the Danes should as it may be supposed they will lay a Tax upon our Shiping there for the consequence thereof would be that much of those kind of Commodities we should fetch from Hambrough where they are plentifully to be had though at a little dearer Rate and yet not so dear but that the Dutch fetch Yearly thence 350
the useful Stock of the Nation at least one third part and greatly â—ase the course of Trade as I humbly conceive this will do I hope none will deny but it may consist with the Wisdom of Parliament to create new Laws 3. Most of our Statutes were made in times before we understood Trade in England and the same Policy and Laws that were good then and may yet be good for a Country destitute of Commerce may not be so fit for us now nor for any Nation so abounding with Trade as England doth at present Object 2. May not this occasion many Cheats and Law Suites Answ. 1. I answer no Experience manifests the contrary not only in other Kingdoms and Countries abroad where Transferrance of Bills of Debt is in use but even in our own where we have for many Ages had the Experience of Indorsment on Bills of Exchange and in this present Age of the passing of Gold-Smiths Notes from one Man to another which two practices are very like to the designed way of Transferring Bills of Debt and yet no considerable Cheats or Inconveniencies have arisen thereby Answ. 2. No Man can be Cheated except it be with his own consent and we commonly say caveat emptor no Man is to be forced to accept anothers Bill that himself doth not approve of and no Man will accept of another Mans Bill except he know him or until he hath used means to satisfie himself concerning him no more then he will sell his Goods to a Stranger unless he hath some reason to believe he is able to pay him Object 3. Will not such a Law as this be very troublesom especially in Fairs and Markets and also to Gentlemen and Ladies when they shall be forced for all Goods they buy above the value of 10 l. to give Bills under their Hand and Seals I answer this Law will not at all Incomode Gentlemen as to what they Buy in Shops c. neither those that converse in Fairs and Markets for that which Gentlemen Buy in Shops c. and others in Fairs c. they either pay or promise ready Money or else say nothing of the time or payment which the Law understands to be the same with a promise of present pay so that if they give no Bills there is no penalty attends the neglect or refusal but only that the contract between the Buyer and Seller shall be presumed in the Law to be as if it were made for ready Money CHAP. VI. Concerning a Court Merchant I Have conceived great hope from the late most Prudent and Charitable Institution of that Iudicature for determination of Differences touching Houses Burned by the late Fire in London that this Kingdom will at length be blessed with a happy method for the speedy easie and cheap deciding of Differences between Merchants Masters of Ships and Seamen c. by some Court or Courts of Merchants like those which are established in most of the great Cities and Towns in France Holland and other places the want whereof in England is and hath ever been a great bar to the Progress and Grandure of the Trade of this Kingdom as for instance if Merchants happen to have differences with Masters and Owners of Ships upon Charter-parties or Accounts beyond Sea c. The Suite is commonly first commenced in the Admiralty Court where after tedious Attendance and vast Expences probably just before the Cause should come to Determination it is either removed into the Deligates where it may hang in suspence until the Plantiff and Defendant have empty purses and grey Heads or else because most Contracts for Martain Affairs are made upon the Land and most Accidents happen in some Rivers or Harbours here or beyond Sea are not in alto mari The Defendant brings his Writ of Prohibition and removes the Cause into his Majesties Court of King's-Bench where after great Expences of Time and Money it is well if we can make our own Council being common Lawyers understand one half of our Case we being amongst them as in a Foreign Country our Language strange to them and theirs as strange to us after all no Attestations of Foreign Notaries nor other publick Instruments from beyond Sea being Evidences at Law and the Accounts depending consisting perhaps of an hundred or more several Articles which are as so many Issues at Law the Cause must come into the Chancery where after many Years tedious Travels to Westminster with black Boxes and green Bags when the Plantiff and Defendant have tired their Bodies distracted their Minds and consumed their Estates the Cause if ever it be ended is commonly by order of that Court referred to Merchants ending miserably where it might have had at first a happy issue if it had begun right From whence follows these National Inconveniencies 1. It is a vast Expence to the Persons concerned 2. It takes off Men from following their Callings to the Publick loss as well as the particular Damages of the concerned that time being lost to the Nation that is spent in Law-Suits 3. It makes Men after they have once attained indifferent Estates to leave Trading and for ease to turn Country-Gentlemen whereas great and experienced Men are the only Persons that must mate the Dutch in Trade if ever we do it 4. It is my opinion a great cause of the Prodigality Idleness and Injustice of many of our Masters of Ships in England and consequently a wonderful bar to the growth of our English Navigation who knowing that their Owners cannot legally eject them especially if the Master have a part of the Ship himself but that Remedy to the Owners will be worse then the Disease which occasions Masters to presume to do those things and be guilty of such neglects as naturally they would not if they stood more upon their good behaviour I could say much more of the Damage this Nation sustains by the want of a Law-Merchant but that is so evident to all Mens Experience that I shall not longer insist upon it but proceed humbly to propose some particulars which being duely considered may peradventure by wiser Heads be improved towards the cure of this evil viz. 1. That it be Enacted that there shall be erected within the City of London a standing Court-Merchant to consist of twelve able Merchants such as shall be chosen by the Livery Men of the said City in their common Hall at the time and in the manner herein after limitted and appointed 2. That the said twelve persons so to be Elected or any three or more of them sitting at the same time and place and not otherwise shall be accounted Iudiciary Merchants and Authorized to hear and determine all Differences and Demands whatsoever which have arisen and are not hitherto determined or may any ways arise between Merchants Trades-Men Artificers Masters and Owners of Ships Sea-Men Boat-Men and Freighters of Ships or any other Persons having relation to Merchandizing Trade or Shiping for or concerning any
desiring those Gentlemen's pardon from whom I may differ in Opinion having this to say for my self that I do it not rashly this being a business that I have many Years considered of and that not solitarily but upon converse with the most skilful men in our several English Woollen Manufactures 1. Then I say Those three fore-mentioned Particulars which will naturally keep our Wool at home will as naturally encrease our Woollen-Manufactures 2. Negatively I think that very few of our Laws now in force to this purpose though our Statute-Books are replenished with many have any tendency thereunto nor any thing I have yet seen in Print For 1 st All our Laws relating to the Aulnegeors duty every body knows signifie nothing to the encrease or well-making our Manufactures but are rather chargeable and prejudicial 2 dly All our Laws that oblige our People to the making of strong substantial and as we call it Loyal Cloth of a certain length breadth and weight if they were duly put in Execution would in my opinion do more hurt than good because the Humors and Fashâ—ons of the World change and at sometimes in some places as now in most slight cheap light Cloth will sell more plentifully and better than that which is heavier stronger and truer wrought and If we intend to have the Trade of the World we must imitate the Dutch who make the worst as well as the best of all Manâ—factures that we may be in a capacity of serving all Markets and all Humors 3 dly I conclude all our Laws limitting the number of Loomes numbered or kind of Servants and Times of working to be certainly prejudicial to the cloathing of the Kingdom in general though they be advantagious to some particular Men or Places who first procured those Laws of Restriction and Limitation 4 thly I think all those Laws are Prejudicial that prohibit a Weaver from being a Fuller Tucker or Dyar or a Fuller or Tucker from keeping a Loome 5 thly I conculde that stretching of Cloth by Tentors though it be sometimes prejudicial to the Cloth is yet absolutely necessary to the Trade of England and that the excess of straining cannot be certainly limitted by any Law but must be lâ—ft to the Sellers or Exporters discretion who best knows what will please his Customers beyond the Seas besides if we should wholly prohibit straining of Cloth the Dutch as they have often done would buy our unstrained Cloth and carry it into Holland and there strain it to six or seven Yards per piece more in length and make it look a little better to the Eye and after that carry it abroad to Turkey and other Markets and there beat us out of Trade with our own Weapons But some may then ask me Whether I think it would be for the advantage of the Trade of England to leave all men at liberty to make what Cloth and Sâ—uffs they please how they will where and when they will of any lengths or sizes I answer Yes certainly in my judgment it would be so except such Species only as his Majesty the Parliament shall think fit to make Staples as suppose Colchester Bayeâ— Perpetuanoes Cheanyes and some other sorts of Norwich Stuffs to be allowed the honour of a publick Seal by which to be bought and sold here and beyond Seas as if it were upon the publick Faith of England and where-ever such Seal is allowed or shall be thought fit to be affixed to any Commodity I would desire the Commodity should be exactly made according to the Institution and always kept to its certain length breadth and goodness But in case any shall make of the said Commodities worse then the Institution I think it would be most for the publick advantage to impose no Penalty upon them but only deny them the benefit and reputation of the publick Seal to such Bayes or Stuffs as shall be so insufficient which in my opinion would be punishment 〈…〉 those that should make worse than thâ— Standard and advantage enough to those that should keep to it 2. For all Cloth and Stuffs not being made Staples I think it would be of very great use that the Makers did weave in their Marks and affix their own Seals containing the length and breadth of the Pieces as hath been provided in some Statutes and that no Maker under severe Penalties shall use another Mark or Seal with such Penalty to every marker or seller whose Cloth or Stuffs shall not contain the length and breadth set upon the Seal as his Majesty and the Parliament shall think sit 3. If the makers of all Stuffs whatsoever for Exportation whether Sâ—aples or not which are commonly sold by the Piece and not by the Yard or Ell were obliged to make them no shorter than antiently they have been made the particular lengths of each sort whereof might be provided for and expressed in the Act this good effect would follow upon it viz. At all foreign Markets where we pay a great Custom by the Piece according to the Books of Rates currant in the several Countries we should pay but the same Custom abroad for a piece of full length which now we do for one that iâ— shorter Notwithstanding I conceive it would be expedient to leave it to the makers discretion to make their pieces as much longer as they please CHAP. IX Concerning the Ballance of Trade THat the Greatness of this Kingdom depends upon Foreign Trade is acknowledged and therefore the Interest of Trade not unbecoming Persons of the highest Rank and of this Study as well as others it may be said there 's an infinite in it none though of the largest Intelects and Experience being able to fathom its utmost depth Among other things relating to Trade their hath been much discourse of the Ballance of Trade the right understanding whereof may be of singular use and serve as a Compass to Stear by in the Contemplations and Propagation of Trade for publick Advantage The Ballance of Trade is commonly understood two ways 1. Generally something whereby it may be known whether this Kingdom gaineth or loseth by Foreign Trade 2. Particularly something whereby we may know by what Trades this Kingdom gaines and by what Trades it loseth For the first of these It is the most general received opinion and that not ill grounded that this Ballance is to be taken by a strict Scrutiny of what proportion the value of the Commodities exported out of this Kingdom bear to those Imported and if the Exports exceeds the Imports it is concluded the Nation gets by the general course of its Trade it being supposed that the over-plush is Imported in Bulloin and so adds to the Treasure of the Kingdom Gold and Silver being taken for the measure and standard of Riches 2. This Rule is not only commonly applyed to the general course of Foreign Trade but to particular Trades to and from this Nation to any other Now although this notion have much of
English Cloth and from whose Territories we receive great quantities of Currance purchased with our ready Money It seems to me advantagious for England that that Importation as well as the Importation of wrought-Glasse drinking-Glasses and other Manufactures from thence should be discouraged it being supposed we can now make them as well our selves in England The Trade for Cannary-Wines I take to be a most pernitious Trade to England because those Islands consume very little of our Manufactures Fish or other English Commodities neither do they furnish us with any Commodities to be further Manufactured here or re-Exported the Wines we bring from thence being for the most part purchased with ready Money so that to my apprehension something is necessary to be done to compel those Islanders to spend more of our English Commodities and to sell their Wines cheaper which every Year they advance in Price or else to lessen the Consumption of them in England I have in this last Discourse of the Ballance of Trade as well as in my former confined my self to write only general Heads and Principles that râ—late unto Trade in general not this or that particular Trade because the several Trades to several Countries may require distinct and particular considerations respecting the time place competitors with us and other circumstances to find out wherein our advantages or disadvantages lie and how to improve the former and prevent the latter but as this would be too great a Work for one Man so I fear it would make this too great a Book to be well read and considered But in the Preface to this Treatise I have briefly mentioned many particular Trades that we have lost and are loosing and by what means and many Trades that we yet retain and are encreasing and how it happens to be so which may give some Light to a clearer Discovery and Inspection into particular Trades unto which Ingenious Men that have Hearts to serve their Country in this so necessary Work at this time may add and further improve by the advantage of Abilities to express their Sentiments in a more Intelligible and Pausible Stile but when I and others have said all we can A low Interest is as the Soul to the Body of Trade it is the Sine qua non to the Prosperity and Advancement to the Lands and Trade of England CHAP. X. Concerning PLANTATIONS THE Trade of our English Plantations in America being now of as great Bulk and â—mploying as much Shiping as most of the Trades of this Kingdom it seems not unnecessary to Discourse more at large concerning the Nature of â—lantations and the good or evil consequences of tâ—em in relation to this and other Kingdoms and the rather because some Gentlemen of no mean Capacities are of Opinion that his Majestie 's Plantations abroad have very much prejudiced this Kingdom by draining us of our People for the confirmation of which Opinion they urge the Example of Spain which they say is almost ruined by the Depopulation which the West-Indies hath occasioned to the end therefore a more particular Scrutiny may be made into this maâ—ter I shall humbly offer my Opinion in the following Propositions and then give those Reasons of Probability which presently occur to my Memory in confirmation of each Proposition 1. First I agree That Lands though excellent without Hands proportionable will not enrich any Kingdom 2. That whatever tends to the Dâ—populating of a Kingdom tends to the â—mpoverishment of it 3. Tâ—at most Nations in the civilized Parts of the World are more or less Rich or Poor proportionably to the Paucity or Plenty of their People and not to the Sterility or Fruitfulness of their Landâ— 4. I do not agree that our People in England are in any considerable measure abated by reason of our Foreign Plantations but propose to prove the contrary 5. I am of Opinion that we â—ad immediately before the late Plague many more People in England then we had before the Inhabiting of Virginia new-New-England â—â—rbadoes and the rest of our American Plantations 6. That all Colonies or Plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms whereof the Trades of such Plantations are not confined by severe Laws and good executions of those Laws to the mother-Mother-Kingdom 7. That the Dutch will reap the greatest advantage by all Colonies issuing from any Kingdom of Europe whereof the Trades are not so strictly confined to the proper Mother-Kingdoms 8. That the Dutch though they thrive so exceedingly in Trade will in probability never endamage this Kingdom by the growth of their Plantations 9. That neither the French Spaniard nor Portugeez are much to be feared on that account not for the same but for other causes 10. That it is more for the advantage of England that New-found-Land should remain Vnplanted then that Colonies should be sent or permitted to go thither to Inhabit with a Governour Laws c. 11. That New-England is the most prejudicial Plantation to the Kingdom of England I. That Lands though in their Nature excellently good without Hands proportionable will not enrich any Kingdom This first Proposition I suppose will readily be assented to by all judicious persons and therefore for the proof of it I shall only alledge matter of Fact The Land of Palestine once the Richest Country in the Vniverse since it came under the Turks Domâ—nion and consequently unpeopled is now become the Poorest Andaluzia and Granada formerly wonderful Rich and full of good Towns since dis-peopled by the Spaniard by Expultion of the Moors many of their Towns and brave Country Houses are fallen into Rubbish and their whole Country into miserable Poverty though their Lands naturally are prodigiously Fertil A Hundred other Instances of Fact might be given to the like purpose II. Whatever tends to the populating of a Kingdom tends to the emprovement of it The former Proposition being granted I suppose this will not be denyed and of the means viz. good Laws whereby any Kingdom may be populated and consequently enriched is in effect the substance and design of all my foregoing Discourse to which for avoiding repitition I must pray the Reader 's retrospection III. That most Nations in the civilized parts of the World are more or less Rich or Poor propoâ—tionable to the paucity or plenty of their People This third is a consequent of the two former Propositions and the whole World is a witness to the Truth of it The seven united Provinces are certainly the most populous tract of Land in Christendom and for their bigness undoubtedly the richest England for its bigness except our Forrests Wastes and Commons which by our own Laws and Customs are bared from Improvement I hope is yet a more populous Country than France and consequently richer I say in proportion to its bigness Itaâ—y in like proportion more populous than France and richer and France more populous and rich than Spain c. IV. I do not agree that our People in England are in any considerable
yet retain a sufficient number to defend the Kingdom and cultivate our Lands at home I answer first The bigness of Armies is not alwayes a certain Indication of the numerousness of a Nation but sometimes rather of the nature of the Government and Distrubation of the Lands as for instance Where the Prince and Lords are owners of the whole Territory although the People be thin the Armies upon occasion may be very great as in East-India Turkey and the Kingdoms of Fesse and Morocco where Taffelet was lately said to have an Army of one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand men although every body knows that Country hath as great a scarcety of people as any in the World But since Free-holders are so much encreased in England the servile Tenures altered doubtless it is more difficult as well as more chargeable to draw great numbers of men into foreign Wars 2. Since the Introduction of the new Artillery of Powder Shot and Fire-Arms in the World all War is become as much rather an expence of Money as Men and success attends those that can most longest spend Money rather than men and consequently Princes Armies in Europe are become more proportionable to their Purses then to the Numbers of their People VI. That all Colonies and foreign Plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms whereof the Trades of such Plantations are noâ— confined to their said Mother Kingdoms by good Laws and severe Execution of those Laws 1. The practice of all the Governments of Europe witness to the truth of this Proposition The Danes keep the Trade of Izland to themselves The Dutch Surrenham and all their Settlements in East-India The French St Christophers and their other Plantations in the West-Indies The Portugeeze Brazil and all the Coasts thereof The Spaniards all their vast Terriories upon the Main in the West Indies and many Islands there and our own Laws seem to design the like as to all our Plantations in new-New-England Virginia Barbadoes c. although we have not yet arrived to a compleat and effectual Execution of those Laws 2. Plantations being at first furnished and afterwards successively supplied with People from their Mother Kingdoms and people being Riches that loss of people to the Mother Kingdoms be it more or less is certainly a damage except the employment of those People abroad do cause the employment of so many more at home in their Mother Kingdoms and that can never be except the Trade be restrained to their Mother Kingdom which will not be doubted by any that understands the next Proposition viz. VII That the Dutch will reap the greatest advantage by all Colonies issuing from any Kingdom in Europe whereof the Trades are not so strictly confined to their proper Mother Kingdoms This Proposition will readily be assented unto by any that understand the nature of low Interest and low Customs where the Market is free they shall be sure to have the Trade that can sell the best penny-worths that buy dearest and sell cheapest which Nationally speaking none can do but those that Money at the lowest rate of Interest and pay the least Customs which are the Dutch and this is the true cause why before the Act of Navigation there went ten Dutch Ships to Barbadoes for one English VIII That the Dutch though they thrive so exceedingly in Trade will in probability never endamage this Kingdom by the growth of their Plantations 1. In fact the Dutch never did much thrive in planting for I do remember they had about twenty Years past Tabago a most fruitful Island in the West-Indies apt for the production of Sugars and all other Commodities that are propagated in Barbadoes and as I have heard Planters aâ—firm better accomodated with Rivers for Water-Mills which are of great use for grinding of the Canes this Island is still in their possession and Corasoa and some others and about sixteen or seventeen Years past they were so eager upon the Improvement of it that besides what they did in Holland they set up Bills upon the Exchange in London proffering great Priveledges to any that would Transport themselves thither Notwithstanding all which to this day that Island is not the tenth part so well improved as Iamaica hath been by the English within these five Years neither have the Dutch at any other time or in any other parts of the World made any emprovement by Planting what they do in the East-Indies being only by War Trade and Building of Fortified Towns and Castles upon the Sea-Coasts to secure the sole Commerce of the Places and with the people which they Conquer not by clearing breaking up of the Ground and Planting as the English have done This I take to be a strong Argument of Fact to my present purpose 2. The second Argument to prove this Proposition is from Reason I have before-mentioned the several Accidents and Methods by which our Foreign Plantations have from time to time come to be peopled and emproved Now the Dutch being void of those Accidents are destitute of the occasions to emprove Foreign Plantations by diging and delving as the English have done For 1 st In Holland their Interest and Custom being low together with their other Encouragements to Trade mentioned in the former part of this Treatise gives Employment to all their people born and bred amongst them and also to multitudes of Foreigners 2. Their giving Liberty or at least Connivance to all Religions as well Jews and Roman-Catholicks or Sectaries gives security to all their Inhabitants at home and expels none nor puts a necessity upon any to Banish themselves upon that account 3. Their careful and wonderful providing for and employing their Poor at home puts all their People utterly out of danger of Starving or necessity of Stealing and consequently out of fear of Hanging I might add to this that they have not for a long time had any Civil War among them and from the whole conclude that the Dutch as they did never so they never can or will thrive by planting and that our English Plantations abroad are a good effect proceeding from many evil causes IX That neither the French Spaniards or Portugeeze are much to be feared on the account of Planting not for the same but for other Reasons That the French have had footing in the West-Indies almost as long as the English is certain and that they have made no considerable Progress in Planting is as certain and finding it so in fact I have been often exercising my thoughts about enquiry into the reason thereof which I attribute especially to two First because France being an absolute Government hath not until very lately given any countenance or encouragement to Navigation and Trade Secondly and principally because the French Settlements in the West-Indies have not been upon Free-Holders as the English are but in subjection to the French West-India Company which Company being under the French King as Lord Proprietor of the places they settle
Kingdom thereby then the Dutch do by that And that in consequence thereof all Plantations of other Nations must in a few Years sink to little or nothing X. That it is more for the Advantage of England that New found Lands should remain unplanted then that Colonies should be sent or permitted to go thither to Inhabit under a Governour Laws c. I have before discoursed of Plantations in general most of the English being in their nature much a like except this of New-found-Land and that of New-England which I intend next to speak of The advantage New-found-Land hath brought to this Kingdom is only by the Fishery there and of what vast concernment that is is well known to most Gentlemen and Merchants especially those of the West parts of England from whence especially this Trade is driven It is well known upon undeniable poof that in the Year 1605. the English employed 250. Sail of Ships small and great in Fishing upon that Coast and it is now too apparent that we do not so employ from all Parts above Eighty Sail of Ships It is likewise generally known and confessed that when we employed so many Ships in that Trade the current price of our Fish in that Country was Communibus annis seventeen Rials which is eight Shillings six Pence per Qunital and that since as we have lessened in that Trade the French have encreased in it and that we have annually proceeded to raise our Fish from seventeen Rials to twenty four Rials or twelve Shillings Communibus annis as it now sells in the Country This being the Case of England in relation to this Trade it is certainly worth the enquiery 1st How we came to decay in that Trade 2dly What means may be used to recover our antient Greatness in that Trade or aâ— least to prevent our further diminution therein The decay of that Trade I attribute First and principally to the growing Liberty which is every Year more and more used in Romish Countries as well as others of eating Flesh in Lent and on Fish-days 2. To a late abuse crept into that Trade which hath much abated the expence within these twenty Years of that Commodity of sending over private Boat-keepers which hath much diminished the number of the Fishing-Ships 3. To the great encrease of the French Fishery of Placentia and other Ports on the back-side of New-found-Land 4. To the several Wars we have had at Sea within these twenty Years which have much empoverished the Merchants of our Western Parts and reduced them to carry on a great part of that Trade at Bottumry viz. Money taken upon Adventure of the Ship at twenty per cent per Annum 2. What means may be used to recover our antient greatness in that Trade or at least to prevent our farther diminution therein For this two contrary ways have been propounded 1. To send a Governour to reside there and to encourage people to Inhabit there as well for Defence of the Country against Invasion as to manage the Fishery there by Inhabitants upon the Place this hath often been propounded by the Planters and some Merchants of London 2. The second way propounded and which is directly contrary to the former is by the West-Country Merchants and Owners of the Fishing-Ships and that is to have no Governour nor Inhabitants permitted to reside at New-found-Land nor any Passengers or private Boat-keepers suffered to Fish at New-found-Land This latter way propounded is most agreeable to my Proposition and if it could be effected I am perswaded would revive the decaied English-Fishing-Trade at New-found-Land and be otherwise greatly for the advantage of this Kingdom and that for these following reasons 1. Because most of the Provision the Planters which are settled at New-found-Land do make use of viz. Bread Beef Pork Butter Cheese Clothes and Irish-Bengal Cloth Linnen and Woollen Ireish-Stockings as also Nets Hooks and Lines c. they are supplied with from New-England and Ireland and with Wine Oyl and Linnen by the Sâ—lt Ships from France and Spain in consequence whereof the Labour as well as the Feeding and Clothing of so many Men is lost to England 2. The Planters settled there being mostly loose vagrant People and without Order and Government do keep dissolute Houses which have Debaucht Sea-Men and diverted them from their laborious and industrious Calling whereas before there were settlements there the Sea-Men had no other resort during the Fishing Season being the time of their abode in that Country but to their Ships which afforded them convenient Food and Repose without the Inconveniencies of Excess 3 If it be the Interest of all Trading Nations principally to encourage Navigation and to promote especially those Trades which employ most Shiping then which nothing is more true nor more regarded by the wise Dutch then certainly it is the Interest of England to discountenance and abate the number of Planters at New-found-Land for if they should encrease it would in a few Years happen to us in relation to that Country as it hath to the Fishery at New-England which many Years since was managed by English Ships from the Western Ports but as Plantations there encreased fell to be the sole Employment of People settled there and nothing of that Trade left the poor old English-Men but the liberty of carrying now and then by courtesie or purchase a Ship loading of Fish to Bilvoa when their own Nâ—w-English Shiping are better Employed or not at leisure to do it 4. It is manifest that before ther were Boat-keepers or Planters at New-found-land Fish was sold cheaper than now it is by about 40 per Cent and consequently more vented the reason whereof I take to be this The Boat-keepers and Planters being generally at first able Fisher-men and being upon the place can doubtless afford their Fish cheaper then the Fishing Ships from Old England so doubtless they did at first as well at New-England as at New-found-land until they had beat the English Ships out of the Trade after which being freed from that competition they became Lazy as to that laborious employment having means otherwise to live and employ themselves and thereupon enhaunced the price of their Fish to such an excess as in effect proves the giving away of that Trade to the French who by our aforesaid impolitick management of that Trade have of late Years been able to under-sell us at all Markets abroad and most certain it is that those that can sell cheapest will have the Trade 5. This Kingdom being an Island it is our Interest as well for our preservation as our profit not only to have many Sea-men but to have them as much as may be within call in a time of danger Now the Fishing Ships going out in March and returning home for England in the Month of September yearly and there being employed in that Trade two hundred and fifty Ships which might carry about ten thousand Sea-men Fisher-men and Shore men as they usually call the
LICENSED November the 18th 1689. And Entered according to Order A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADE Wherein the Reduction of Interest of Money to 4 l. per Centum is Recommended Methods for the Employment and Maintenance of the Poor are proposed Several weighty Points relating to Companies of MERCHANTS The Act of NAVIGATION NATURALIZATION of Strangers Our WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES The BALLANCE of TRADE And the Nature of Plantations and their Consequences in relation to the Kingdom are seriously Discussed And some Arguments for erecting a Court of Merchants for determining Controversies relating to Maritime Affairs and for a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debts are humbly Offered Never before Printed Printed by A Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane And Sold at the Three Keys in Nags-head-Court Grace-Church-Street 1690. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THE following Sheets were wrote as the Reader will observe by the Contents soon after the dreadful Fire which happened in London in the Year 1666. they fell very accidentally into my Hands in Manuscript as they had ever since continued this last Summer and having in my Conversation in the world heard several of the Propositions therein discussed frequently contrasted I did set my self with some Curiosity to run them over and in doing it discerned as I thought much experimental Truth and Reason and a more then ordinary Life and Spirit for the Publick good in the whole Work I therefore made suite to the Judicious Worthy Author to permit me to the same end for which it appears to have been at the first wrote to hand it over to some of our best Patriots to which he being pleased to concede I began to transcribe it but finding that that would prove a tedious task and that that way would confine this excellent Treatise to too narrow bounds I have presumed thus to emit it to the World I may not divulge the Author's Name but this I may truely say He is no Trader neither pays any Use for Money but receives a great deal yearly and hath to my knowledge a considerable Estate in Lands and therefore the most invidious cannot conceive he had any private or selfish end in the following Discourses I have in my time been privy to and frequently concerned in the buying and selling of much Land and I find every thing he said at that time so true of the then low Rates of Land as was his Prediction of its rising in Purchase so soon as that lazy way of Usury by Bankeering should be broke that I am morally confident if the Parliament should be pleased to abate the Interest of Mony by a Law to 4 l. per Cent. We shall as certainly see Lands in England as generally sell at twenty five years Purchase within five years after such a Law as We did see them about the time the following Discourse was Wrote sell at seventeen years Purchase and as We do now see Lands currently sell at twenty years Purchase and upwards I took occasion in my discourse with the Author to observe to him that though Lands in general were risen in sale as he fore-saw to twenty years purchase or more that yet Marsh and Feeding Grounds were abated in Rent to the Tenants at least 20 or 30 l. per Cent. He granted me to be in the right herein and imputed the cause thereof partly to the Prohibition of Irish Cattle and partly to the late general practice of sowing Clover Saint-foyne Rye-Grass and other Grass-Seeds upon which I ask'd him Whether he thought it would not tend to the publick Good to prohibit by a Law the sowing of those Seeds He said by no means Honest Industry and Invention is never to be obstructed by Laws I queried then why Usury should be checkt by a Law He replyed that in the Trade of Vsury there was neither Industry not Invention but Idleness and Oppression and that all Christian Churches as well as most particular eminent Divines ever since our Saviour Christ's time had condemned Vsury as sinful The fore-going Discourse leads to another great Question Whether Foreign Commodities such as tend to nourish Vice and Luxury ought not for the publick Good to be prohibited by a Law or by loading them with a deep Custom such as VVines Brandy Sugar Tobacco c. And I am humbly of opinion with the most profound submission to all my Superiours whose proper Business it is to agree and constitute Laws that it is not for the publick Good to load even such Commodities with so great a Duty as doth or may ruin our Plantations or totally prevent the English from a possibility of supplying the Eastern and other parts of the World with these Commodities because by so doing We give away the most precious of all our Trades a great part of our Navigation to our wiser Neighbours the Dutch who had rather pay their Twentieth Penny twice a year than loose their Trade to the Baltick with Salt Wine Brandy Tobacco c. I might say too with Chesnuts and VValnuts as inconsiderable as their value is Every thing being to be prized above Gold that encreaseth the Navigation of any Country especially that of this Island of England I have been always an Advocate for Liberty and an Enemy to Persecution for matters of Religion and so I am confident was the Gentleman our worthy Author as the following Tract clearly evinces and by so doing gives the Reason why this admirable Work hath till now lain in obscurity the Policy and Councils of the late Reigns constantly discountenancing that excellent Principle And because Liberty of Conscience is frequently touch'd in this ensuing Discourse and declared to be a principal means to advance the publick Good of this Kingdom viz. Trade Which 't is evident is the real and only design of this Treatise I shall take the freedom to tell my thoughts very plainly in relation to it I remember that greatest Master of Historians Cornelius Tacitus says of the incomparable Roman Emperour Nerva that he did Reconcile Res olim insociabiles things never before adjusted the freedom of all Men with the sole Command of one Such a Prince I hope and verily believe God Almighty in abundant Mercy to this poor Nation hath sent us in his present Majesty our truly good and gracious Soveraign King William the Favourite of Heaven and Delight of Men under whom We may most undoubtedly be the Happiest People upon the Face of the whole Earth if We will but We shall never attain that Happiness and hand it over to Posterity except We all as well Dissenters as Church of England Men do sincerely and cordially endeavour to imitate the Wisdom and Goodness of that Memorable Prince Nerva to reconcile things formerly unsociable viz. Liberty of Conscience to all with the preservation of one entire Vniform National Church in the enjoyment of all the publick Revenues thereof these two things in my most unbiass'd retired thoughts are so far from contradictions that as our People in England are
the Dutch with whom we principally contend in Trade give generally more Wages to all their Manufacturers by at least two Pence in the Shilling then the English 2 dly Where-ever Wages are high universally throughout the whole World it is an infallible evidence of the Riches of that Country and where-ever Wages for Labour runs low it is a proof of the Poverty of that place 3 dly It is multitudes of People and good Laws such as cause an encrease of People which principally Enrich any Country and if we retrench by Law the Labour of our People we drive them from us to other Countries that give better Rates and so the Dutch have drained us of our Sea-men and woollen Manufacturers and We the French of their Artificers and Silk Manufacturers and of many more we should if our Laws otherwise gave them fitting encouragement whereof more in due place 4 thly If any particular Trades exact more here then in Holland they are only such as do it by vertue of Incorporations Priviledges and Charters wherâ—of the cure is easie by an Act of Naturalization and without Compulsitory Laws It is true our great Great Grand-Fathers did exercise such a Policy of endeavouring to retrench the price of Labour by a Law although they could never effect it but that was before Trade was introduced into this Kingdom we are since with the rest of the Trading World grown Wiser in this matter and I hope shall so continue The next new Objection the Gentleman hath is Page 13. If we abate Interest said he will not the Hollander take the same course while we like Children wink and think no body sees us Yes certainly the Dutch will take the same course except they leave their old wont for we never yet abated our Interest but they soon abated theirs but what if they do We having brought our Interest to 4 per cent shall have them against a Wall we know the length of their Tedder they cannot run much farther from us so that if we wink it is not like Children as the Gentleman supposeth but if we take his Advice we shall wink like Children while other Nations strike us by abating their Interest 2. If we cannot gain all we would of them presently we shall gain the more from other Parts of the World that cannot suddenly abate their Interest to any proportion with ours 3. Why shall we absolutely conclude that other Nations will do it May we not think that some Parts or People in the World may be as un-fore-seeing as this Gentleman pretends to be and not know it is for their Advantage to lower their Interest though we know it to be ours 4. Why may we not think that Corruption Avarice and Usurers may be so prevalent in some parts of the World as to obstruct so good and National a Work as this I omit several other Errors in fact that the Gentleman is guilty of in the course of his Writing and must needs be so having taken up his notions for want of Experience upon trust from others who perhaps understand as little as himself viz. Page 16. he saith Our vent into Spain and Portugal is greatly lessened and consequently he reckons them two Trades among others lost in whole or in part so great a mistake that I dare affirm and appeal to the Record of the Custom-House Books for a judgment in this case that those two Trades as to our native Exportations are more then treebled within less then 30. years Page 21. he saith that If Wages c. were as cheap and Vsury as low with us as in Holland yet if our Merchants live at so great a rate as now they do how is it possible we should thrive on as easie Gains as those who spend so much less and Trade so much more I answer there is nothing in the World will engage our Merchants to spend less and Trade more than the Abatement of Interest for the subduing of Interest will bring in multitudes of Traders as it hath in Holland to such a degree that almost all their People of both Sexes are Traders and the many Traders will necessitate Merchants to Trade for less Profit and consequently be more frugal in their Expences which is the true reason why many considerable Merchants are against the lessening of Interest whereof I have said somewhat more in the following Treatise Page 43. he propounds another remedy fâ—r the advance of our Trade and the keeping our Coin at Home and enlargeth much upon it in his Appendix which is To diminish the intrinsick value of our Coin If the Gentleman had understood Trade half so well as he is said to do Mortgages Bonds and Bills certainly he would not have mentioned this old thred-bare and exploded Project which is a trick hath been tried so often in Spain till it hath left them more black Money as they call it then white or yellow notwithstanding their Silver Mines in Peru and Mexico and that their Laws make it Death to export Gold or Silver This Conceit I have known three times experienced likewise in Portugal within this 24 or 25 years at first the piece of 8 Rials went at 400 Ries after that was brought to 480 after that to 520 and now to 600 Ries and yet still we bring their Money from them as heretofore and sell our Commodities to them for as much Silver as ever The reason is evident suppose for example a Hat that was usually sold to them for 4 pieces of 8 when the piece of 8 was at 400 Ries we then sold such a Hat for 1600 Ries when they raised the piece of eight 80 Ries per piece more we sold the same Hat at 2000 Ries and so rising in proportion as they raised their Coin the Merchant still observing what the intrinsick value of the Money is not the name it is called by and so it would be in England or any part of the World I have now done with all I can find of novelty in this Gentlemans Treatise to meddle with old and stale matter which in other words hath been often said and as often answered would be but to trouble the Reader with Impertinencies so would it likewise to use opprobrious calumniating Reflections as he doth covertly in a business of that seriousness weight and publick concernment as this is I understand not the World so little as not to know that he that will faithfully serve his Country must be content to pass through good Report and evil Report neither regard I which I meet with Truth I am sure at last will vindicate it self and be found by my Country-men Yet before I conclude this Preface I must needs take notice of one thing to be wondred at viz. That some had the Confidence publickly to assert before the Lords when this Controversie was debated before their Lordships that when Interest was at 10 per cenâ— Land was sold at 20 years Purchase a strange presumptious and incredible Assertion against
offended with me I dare undertake that this will never spoil but mend their Marriages besides the greater good it will bring to their Country and to their Posterities after them whether they prove to be Noblemen Gentlemen or Merchants c. I have in several places of my ensuing Treatise referred to some Tracts I formerly published upon this subject which being now wholly out of Print I thought fit to Re-print and annex unto this which at first I intended not Some there are who would grant that abatement of Interest if it could be effected would procure to the Nation all the good that I alledge it will bring with it but say it is not practicable or at least not now 1. A needless scruple and contradictory to experience for first a Law hath abated Interest in England three times within these few Years already and what should hinder its effect now more then formerly 2. If a Law will not do it why do the Vsurers raise such a dust and engage so many Friends to oppose the passing of an Act to this purpose The true reason is because they are wise enough to know that a Law will certainly do it as it hath done already though they would perswade others the contrary And if it be doubted we have not Money enough in England Besides what I have said in my former Treatise as to the encrease of our Riches in general I shall here give some further Reasons of probability which are the best that can be expected in this case to prove that we have now much more Money in England then we had twenty Years past Notwithstanding the seeming scarcity at present if I should look further back then twenty years the argument would be stronger on my side and the proportion of the encrease of Money greater and more perspicuous but I shall confine my self to that time which is within most mens Memories 1. We give generally now one third more Money with Apprentices then we did twenty years past 2. Notwithstanding the decay and loss of sundry Trades and Manufactures yet in the gross we Ship off now one third part more of the Manufactures as also Lead and Tin then we did twenty years past which is a cause as well as a proof of our increase of Money If any doubt this if they please to consult Mr Diâ—kins Surveyor of his Majesties Customs who is the best able I know living and hath taken the most pains in these Calculations he may be satisfactorily resolved 3. Houses new built in London yield twice the Rent they did before the Fire and Houses generally immediately before the Fire yielded about one fourth part more Rent then they did twenty years past 4. The speedy and costly buildings of London is a convincing and to Strangers an amazing Argument of the plenty and late encrease of Money in England 5. We have now more then double the quantity of Merchants Shiping we had twenty years past 6. The course of our Trade from the increase of our Money is strangely altered within these twenty years most Payments from Merchants and Shop-keepers being now made with ready Money whereas formerly the course of our general Trade run at three six nine twelve and eighteen Months time But if this case be so clear some may ask me How comes it to pass that all sorts of men complain so much of the scarcity of Money especially in the Country My answers to this Query are viz. 1. This proceeds from the Frailty and Corruption of humane Nature it being natural for men to complain of the present and commend the times past so said they of Old The former days were better then these and I can say in truth upon my own Memory that men did complain as much of the scarcity of Money ever since I knew the world as they do now nay the very same Persons that now complain of this and commend that time 2. And more particularly This complaint proceeds from many mens finding themselves uneasie in the matters of their Religion it being natural for men when they are discontented at one thing to complain of all and principally to utter their discontents and complaints in those things which are most popular Those that hate a man for some one cause will seldom allow of any thing that is good in him and some that are angry with one person or thing will find fault with others that gave them no offence like peevish Persons that meeting discontent abroad coming home quarrel with their Wifes Children Servants c. 3. And more especially this complaint in the Country proceeds from the late practice of bringing up the Tax-Money in Wagons to London which did doubtless cause a scarcity of Money in the Country 4. And principally this seeming scarcity of Money proceeds from the Trade of Bankering which obstructs circulation advanceth Usury and renders it so easie that most Men as soon as they can make up a Sum of 50 l. or a 100 l. send it into the Gold-Smith Which doth and will occasion while it lasts that fatal pressing necessity for Money so visible throughout the whole Kingdom both to Prince and People From what hath been last said it appears the matter in England is prepared for the abatement of Interest which as Sr Henry Blunt an honourable Member of his Majesties Council of Trade well said before the Lords at the debate is the Unum Magnum towards the prosperity of this Kingdom It is a generative good and will bring many other good things with it I shall conclude with two or three Requests to the Reader 1. That he would Read and consider what he Reads with an entire Love to his Country void of private interests and former ill grounded impressions received into his mind to the prejudice of this principle 2. That he would Read all minding the matter not the stile before he make a judgment 3. That in all his meditations upon these Principles he would warily distinguish between the Profit of the Merchant and the Gain of the Kingdom which are so far from being always parallels that frequently they run counter one to the other although most Men by their Education and Business having fixed their eye and aim wholly upon the former do usually confound these two in their Thoughts and Discourses of Trade or else mistake the former for the latter from which false measures have proceeded many vulgar errors in Trade some whereof by reason of Mens frequent mistakings as afore-said are become almost Proverbial and often heard out of the Mouths not only of the common People but of Men that might know better if they would duly consider the afore-said distinction Some of the said common Proverbial errors are viz. 1. Vulgar Error We have too many Merchants already 2. The Stock of England is too big for the Trade of England 3. No Man should exercise two Callings 4. Especially no Shop-keeper ought to be a Merchant 5. Luxury and some Excess may be
above one Thousand Pounds sometimes not two Hundred to begin the World with Instead I say of such young Men and small Stocks if this Law pass we shall bring forth out Sampsons and Goliahs in Stocks subtilty and experience in Trade to coap with our potent Adversaries on the other side there being to every Mans knowledge that understands the Exchange of London divers English Merchants of large Estates which have not much past their middle-Age and yet have wholly left off their Trades having found the sweetness of Interest which if that should abate must again set their Hands to the Plough which they are as able to hold and govern now as ever and also will engage them to train up their Sons in the same way because it will not be so easie to make them Country-Gentlemen as now it is when Lands sell at thirty or fourty years Purchase For the Sufferers by such a Law I know none but idle Persons that lives at as little Expence as Labour Neither scattering by their Expences so as the Poor may Glean any thing after them nor Working with their Hands or Heads to bring either Wax or Honey to the common Hive of the Kingdom but swelling their own Purses by the sweat of other Mens Brows and the contrivances of other Mens Brains And how unprofitable it is for any Nation to suffer Idleness to suck the Breasts of Industry needs no Demonstration And if it be granted me that these will be the effects of an Abatement of Interest then I think it is out of doubt that the Abatement of Interest doth tend to the Enriching of a Nation and consequently hath been one great cause of the Riches of the Dutch and Italians and the encrease of the Riches of our own Kingdom in these last fifty years Another Argument to prove which we may draw from the nature of Interest it self which is of so prodigious a Multiplying nature that it must of necessity make the Lenders monstrous Rich if they live at any moderate Expence and the Borrowers extream Poor A memorial instance whereof we have in Old Audley deceased who did wisely observe That one Hundred Pounds only put out at Interest at ten per cent doth in seventy years which is but the Age of a Man increase to above one Hundred Thousand Pounds And if the Advantage be so great to the Lender the Loss must be greater to the Borrower who as hath been said lives at a much larger Expence And as it is between private Persons so between Nation and Nation that have Communication one with another For whether the Subjects of one Nation lend Money to Subjects of another or Trade with them for Goods the effect is the same As for example A Dutch Merchant that hath but four or five Thousand Pounds clear Stock of his own can easily borrow and have credit for fifteen Thousand Pounds more at three per cent at Home with which whether he Trade or put it to Use in England or any Country where Interest of Money is high he must necessarily without very evil Accidents attend him in a very few years treble his own Capital This discovers the true cause why the Sugar-Bakers of Holland can afford to give a greater price for Barbadoes Sugars in London besides the second Freight and Charges upon them between England and Holland and yet grow exceeding Rich upon their Trade Whereas our Sugar-Bakers in London that buy Sugars here at their own Doors before such additional Freight and Charges come upon them can scarce live upon their Callings ouâ—s here paying for a good share of their Stocks six per cent and few of them employ in their Sugar-works above six to ten Thousand Pounds at most Whereas in Holland they employ twenty thirty to fourty Thousand Pounds Stock in a Sugar-House paying but three per cent at most for what they take up at Interest to fill up their said Stocks which is sometimes half sometimes three quarters of their whole Stocks And as it is with this Trade the same Rules holds throughout all other Trades whatsoever And for us to say if the Dutch put their Money to Interest among us we shall have the advantage by being full and flush of Coin at Home it is a mear Chymera and so far from an Advantage that it is an extream Loss rendring us only in the condition of a young Gallant that hath newly Mortgaged his Land and with the Money thereby raised stuffes his Pockets and looks big for a time not considering that the draught of Cordial he hath received though it be at present grateful to his Pallat doth indeed prey upon his vital Spirits and will in a short time render the whole body of his Estate in a deep Consumption if not wholly consumed Besides whatever Money the Dutch lends us they always keep one end of the Chain at home in their own Hands by which they can pull back when they please their Lean Kine which they send hither to be fatted This makes me conclude that Moses that Wise Legislator in his forbidding the Iews to lend Money at use one to another and permitting them to lend their Money to Strangers ordained that Law as much to a Political as a Religious intent knowing that by the latter they should Enrich their own Nation and by the former no publick Goods could insue the consequence being only to Impoverish one Iew to make another Rich. This likewise takes off the wonder how the People of Israel out of so small a â—erritory as they possessed could upon all occasions set forth such vast and numerous Armies â—lmost incredible as all Histories sacred and prophane report they did which is neither impossible nor strange to any that have well considered the effects of their Laws concrning Vsury which were sufficient to make any barren Land fruitful and a fruitful Land an entire Garden which by consequence would maintain ten times the number of Inhabitants that the same Tract of Land would do where no such Laws were To conclude it is I think agreed on by all That Merchants Artificers Farmers of Land and such as depend on them which for brevity-sake we may here include under one of these general terms viz. Sea-men Fisher-men Breeders of Cattel Gardners c. are the three sorts of People which by their Study and Labour do principally if not only bring in Wealth to a Nation from abroad other kinds of People viz. Nobility Gentry Lawyers Physicians Scholars of all sorts and Shop-keepers do only hand it from one to another at Home And if abatement of Interest besides the general Benefit it brings to all except the Griping Dronish Vsurer will add new Life and Motion to those most profitable Engines of the Kingdom as I humbly suppose will be manifest upon serious consideration of what hath been said then I think it will be out of doubt that Abatement of Interest is the Cause of increase of the Trade and Riches of any Kingdom
was formerly that Money doubles once in seven Years at 10 per Cent according to which rule 100 l. in seventy Years amounts to 102400 l. One Hundred Pounds at Ten Pounds per Cent per Annum at Interest upon Interest encreaseth thus viz.  L. S. D. AT first 100 00 00 At 3 Months it is 102 10 00 At 6 Months 105 1 03 At 9 Months 107 13 9 At 12 Months 110 07 7 At 1 Year ¼ 113 02 9 At 1 Year ½ 115 19 4 At 1 Year ¾ 118 17 4 At 2 Years 121 16 9 At 2 Years ¼ 124 17 8 At 2 Years ½ 128 00 1 At 2 Years ¾ 131 4 1 At 3 Years 134 9 9 At 3 Years ¼ 137 17 0 At 3 Years ½ 141 5 10 At 3 Years ¾ 144 16 6 At 4 Years 148 8 11 At 4 Years ¼ 152 3 1 At 4 Years ½ 155 19 2 At 4 Years ¾ 159 17 2 At 5 Years 163 17 1 At 5 Years ¼ 167 19 0 At 5 Years ½ 172 3 0 At 5 Years ¼ 176 9 1 At 6 Years 180 17 3 At 6 Years ¼ 185 7 9 At 6 Years ½ 190 5 0 At 6 Years â— 4 194 15 5 At 7 Years 199 12 10 Supposing One Hundred Pounds to double in seven Years at Interest upon Interest as aforesaid the encrease is viz.  L. At first 100 At 7 Years 200 At 14 Years 400 At 21 Years 800 At 28 Years 1600 At 35 Years 3200 At 42 Years 6400 At 49 Years 12800 At 56 Years 25600 At 63 Years 51200 At 70 Years 102400 Pag. 13. he saith That I make use of the abuse of Interest which no man pleads for annexing a Discourse against Interest writ in 1621. when it was at 10 per Cent endeavouring thereby to impose a Belief that the Gentleman who writ that Discourse was of my mind whereas it may be supposed the Author of that Book was contented with 8 per Cent because within four Years after it was brought down to that Rate and that otherwise he would have writ further it being probable that he might live till after four Years I answer That through the Mercies of Almighty God and for the good of this Kingdom that Patriot of his Country Old Sr Thomas Culpepper who I have since been assured was the Author of that Treatise did live above twenty Years after the writing thereof and then published a second Treatise which was lately Re-printed by his worthy Son which second Treatise is now to be had at Mr Wilkinson's over against St Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street which I would advise my Opposer to read and then I hope he will be more modest hereafter then to mis-call the most Natural and Rational Conclusions IMPOSINGS But lest he should not meet with the said Treatise I shall here insert a few Lines out of it to the present purpose viz. Old Sr Thomas speaking of the certain good Effects of the Abatement of Interest from 10 to 8 per Cent pag. 19. of his second Treatise saith This good success doth call upon us not to rest here but that we bring the use for Money to a lower rate which now I suppose will find no Oppâ—sition for all Objections which before the Statute were made against it are now answered by the Success most certainly the benâ—fit will be much greater to the Common wealth by calling the Vse for Money down from 8 to 5 or 6 per Cent then it was from calling it down from 10 to 8 per Cent. I shall not Comment upon his Words but only declare that in truth I never heard of this Treatise noâ— of any other to the like effect when I write mine Pag. 13. the Gentle-man bâ—ings up his Battalia and like a stout Champion for the slie and timerous heard-of Usurers plants his main Battery against that part which I confessed to be weakest viz. that the difficulty of this Question is Whether the lowness of Interest be the cause or the Effect of Riches And he positively denies that the lowness of Interest is the Cause affirms it to be only the Effect thereof which he endeavours to prove by four Arguments which I shall particularly answer in a due place in the mean time use my own Method to prove That the Abatement of Interest by a Law in England will be a means to improve the Riches of this Kingdom And I prove it thus 1. Whatever doth Advance the value of Land in Purchase must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 2. Whatever doth Improve the Rent of Farms must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 3. Whatever doth Encrease the bulk of Foreign Trade must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 4. Whatever doth Multiply domestick Artificers must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 5. Whatever doth Encline the Nation to Thriftiness must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 6. Whatever doth Employ the Poor must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches 7. Whatever doth Encrease the Stock of People must be a procurâ—ng cause of Riches Now that the abatement of Interest will advance the value of Land I prove first by Experience for certainly Anno 1621. the currant price of our Lands in England was twelve Years purchase and so I have been assured by many antient Men whom I have queried particularly as to this Matter and I find it so by purchases made about that time by my own Relations and Acquaintance and I presume that any Nobleman or Gentleman of England by only commanding the Stewards of their Mannors to give them Lists out of the Records of any Mannors or Farms that their Grand-Fathers or Fathers bought or sold fifty Years past will find that the same Farms to be now sold would yield one with another at least treble the Mony and in some cases six times the Mony they were then bought and sold for which I submit still to the single and joynt Judgments of the honourable Members of both Houses of Parliament who being the greatest Owners of our Territory are in their private as well as in their politick Capacities the most proper and experimental Judges of this Case if the Antient of them will please to recollect their Memories and the Younger will please to be informed by their Elder Servants and if this be so it cannot be denied but the abatement of Interest by a Law hath greatly advanced Lands in purchase as well as improved Rents by meliorating the Lands themselves those improvements by marling limeing draining c. having been made since Money was at 8 and 6 per cent which 10 per cent could not bear And to prove that Lands were then at twelve Years purchase I have the written Testimony of that incomparable worthy Person Sr Thomas Culpepper Senior who page 11. of his first Treatise expresly affirms That Land was then at twelve Years Purchase who being himself a grave and antient Parliament Man and dedicating his Book to the then Parliament whereof he was then a Member cannot without horrible uncharitableness be presumed
to impose upon his Country And now that our Interest is at 6 per cent as the same worthy Author did wisely fore-see I appeal to the Judgment and Experience of my Country Men whether the genuine price of our Lands in England now would not be 20 Years Purchase were it not for accidental Pressures under which it labours at present such as these 1. Our late great Land Taxes 2. And principally the late great Improvement of Ireland mentioned in my former Treatise the consequence whereof is that that Country now supplieth Foreign Markets as well as our own Plantations in America with Beef Pork Hides Tallow Bread Beer Wool and Corn at cheaper Rates then we can afford to the beating us out of those Trades whereas formerly viz. presently after the late Irish War many Men got good Estates by Transporting English Cattle thither And that the Improvement of Ireland is the principal cause why our Lands in purchase rise not as naturally they should with the fall of our Interest appears evidently from the effect the fall of Interest hath had upon Houses in London where the growth of Ireland could have no such destructive influence which hath been so considerable that whosoever will please to inform themselves by old Scriveners or antient Deeds shall find that a House in London about fifty Years past that would sell but for 300 l. at most would readily sell within a short time afâ—er Interest was brought to 8 per cent at 5 or 600 l. and the same Houses to be sold sometime after Interest was brought to 6 per cent viz. before and after the late Dutch War would have yielded without scruple 1000 or 1200 l. The abatement of Interest having had a double effect upon Houses by encreasing Trade and consequently raising Rents as well as encreasing the number of Years purchase 3. A third reason why Land doth not at present bear an exact proportion to 6 per cent which should naturally be twenty Years is the late Plague which did much depopulate this Kingdom 4. The late Fire in London which hath engaged Men in Building in the City who otherwise would have been purchasing in the Country 5. The unusal plenty of Corn which hath been for these three or four Years past in most parts of Christendom the like whereof hath been seldom known it happening most commonly that when one Country hath had great plenty others have had great scarcity 6. The racking up of Rents in the Years 1651. and 1652. which was presently after the last abatement of Interest A seventh accidental Reason why Land doth not sell at present at the rate it naturally should in proportion to the legal Interest is that innovated practice of Bankers in London which hath more effects attending it then most I converse with have yet observed but I shall here take notice of that only which is to my present purpose viz. The Gentlemen that are Bankers having a large Interest from his Majesty for what they advance upon his Majesties Revenue can afford to give the full legal Interest to all Persons that put Money into their hands though for never so short or long a time which makes the trade of Usury so easie and hitherto safe that few after having found the sweetness of this lasie way of emprovement being by continuance and success grown to fancy themselves secure in it can be lead there being neither ease nor profit to invite them to lay out their Money in Land though at 15 Years purchase whereas before this way of private Bankering came up men that had Money were forced oft-times to let it lie dead by them until they could meet with Securities to their minds and if the like necessity were now of Money lying dead the loss of use for the dead time being deducted from the profit of 6 l. per Cent communibus annis would in effect take off 1 l. per Cent per Annum of the profit of Usury and consequently incline men more to purchase Lands in regard the difference between Usury and Purchasing would not in point of profit be so great as now it is this new invention of Cashciring having in my opinion clearly bettered the Vsurers trade 1 or 2 per Cent per Annum And that this way of leaving Money with Gold-Smiths hath had the aforesaid effect seems evident to me from the scarcity it makes of Money in the Country for the Trade of Bankers being only in London doth very much drain the ready Money from all other parts of the Kingdom The second point I am to prove is That it will advance the Rent of Farms To prove that it did so in fact depends on memory and for my own part I and most others I converse with do perfectly remember that Rents did generally rise after the late abatement of Interest viz. in the year 1651. and 1652. The reason why they did so was from the encouragement which that abatement of Interest gave to Landlords and Tenants to improve by Draining Marling Limeing c. excellently made out by the aforesaid two worthy Authors so that I do I think with good Reason conclude that the present fall of Rents is not natural but accidental and to be ascribed principally to the fore-going Reasons given for the present abatement of Land in purchase and especially to the late Improvement of Ireland The third thing I am to prove is That the abatement of Interest will encrease the bulk of foreign Trade which I do thus By evidence of fact it hath been so in England the encrease of our Trade hath always followed the abatement of our Interest by Law I say not preceded but followed it and the Cause doth always go before the Effect which I think I have evidently demonstrated in my former Treatise If any doubt of this and will be at the pains to examin the Custom-house Books they may soon be resolved 2. By Authority not only of that antient Gentleman Sr Thomas Culpepper in his second Treatise and therein of the judgment of the French King and Court in an Edict there recited but likewise of a Parliament of England King Lords Commons in the Act for reducing it to 6 per Cent in the Preamble whereof are these Words viz. Forasmuch as the Abatement of Interest from 10 in the Hundred in former times hath been found by notable Experience beneficial to the Advancement of Trade and Improvement of Lands by good Husbandry with many other considerable Advantages to this Nation especially the reducing of it to a nearer proportion with foreign States with whom we traffick And whereas in fresh memory the like fall from 8 to 6 in the Hundred by a late constant Practice hath found the like success to the general contentment of this Nation as is visible by several Improvements c. 3. By necessary consequence when Interest is abated they who call in their Money must either buy Land or trade with it If they buy Land the many
to my knowledge with very good intents and strenuons endeavours but all that ever I heard of proved vain and ineffectual as I fear will that of Clerken-Well except that single instance of the Town of Dorchester which yet signifies nothing in relation to the Kingdom in general because all other places cannot do the like nor doth the Town of Dorchester entertain any but their own Poor only and Whip away all others whereas that which I design is to propose such a Foundation as shall be large wise honest and rich enough to maintain and employ all Poor that come within the Pale of their Communication without enquiring where they were Born or last Inhabited Which I dare affirm with Humility that nothing but a National or at least such a Provincial Purse can so well do nor any persons in this Kingdom but such only as shall be pickt out by popular Election for the reason before alledged viz. That in my opinion three fourths at least of the Stock must issue from the Charity of the people as I doubt not but it will to a greater proportion if they be satisfied in the Managers thereof But if otherwise not the fortieth I might say not the hundredth part I propose the Majority of the said Fathers of the Poor to be Citizens though I am none my self because I think a great share of the Money to be employed must and will come from them if ever the Work be well done as also because their Habitations are nearest the Center of their Business and they best acquainted with all affairs of this nature by their experience in the Government of the Hospitals Earnestly to desire and endeavour that the Poor of England should be better provided for and employed is a work that was much studdied by my deceased Father and therefore though I be as ready to confess as any shall be to charge me with Disability to propose a Model of Laws for this great Affair yet I hope the more Ingenuous will pardon me for endeavouring to give aim towards it since it is so much my Duty which in this particular I shall be careful to perform though I may be too remise in others as shall appear by more visible and apparent demonstrations if ever this design or any other that is like to effect what is desired succeed Now I have adventured thus far I shall proceed to publish my Thoughts and Observations concerning some other things that have relation to Trade which I do without any purpose or design save only to give occasion to my Country-men to be Discoursing and Meditating upon those things which have a tendancy to publick Good from whence though my Suggestions should be mistakes probably some good effect may ensue and therefore the Ingenuous I know though they may differ from me will not blame me for the attempt CHAP. III. Concerning Companies of Merchants COmpanies of Merchants are of two sorts viz. Companies in joynt Stock such as the East-India-Company the Morea-Company which is a Branch of the Turkey-Company and the Greenland-Company which is a Branch of the Muscovia-Company the other sort are Companies who trade not by a joynt Stock but only are under a Government and Regulation such are the Hambrough-Company the Turkey-Company the Eastland-Company the Muscovia-Company It hath for many Years been a moote case whether any Encorporating of Merchants be for publik Good or not For my own part I am of Opinion That for Countries with which his Majesty hath no Allieance nor can have any by reason of their distance or Barbarity or non-Communication with the Princes of Christendom c. where there is a necessity of Maintaining Forces and Forts such as East-India and Guinia Companies of Merchants are absolute necessary 2. It seems evident to me that the greatest part of these â—wo Trades ought for publick Good to be managed â—y joynt Stock 3. It 's questionable to me whether any other Company of Merchants are for publick good or hurt 4. I conclude however that all restrictions of Trade are naught and consequently that no Company whatsoever whether they Trade in a joynt Stock or under Regulation can be for publick Good except it may be easie for all or any of his Majesty's Subjects to be admitted into all or any of the said Companies at any time for a very inconsiderable Fine and that if the Fine exceed 20 l. including all Charges of admission it is too much and that for these Reasons 1. Because the Dutch who thrive best by Trade and have the surest rules to thrive by admit not only any of their own People but even Jews and all kind of Aliens to be Free of any of their Societies of Merchants or any of their Cities or Towns Corporate 2. Nothing in the World can enable us to coape with the Dutch in any Trade but encrease of Hands and Stock which a general admission will do many Hands and much Stock being as necessary to the Prosperity of any Trade as Men and Money to warfare 3. There is no pretence of any good to the Nation by Companies but only Order and Regulation of Trade and if that be preserved which the admission of all that will come in and submit to the Regulation will not prejudice all the good to the Nation that can be hoped for by Companies is obtained 4. The Eastland besides our Native Commodities spend great quantities of Italian Spanish Portugal and French Commodities viz. Oyle Wine Fruit Sugar Succads Shoomack c. Now in regard our East-Country Merchants of England are few compared with the Dutch and intend principally that one Trade out and home and consequently are not so conversant in the aforesaid Commodities nor forward to adventure upon them and seeing that by the Companies Charter our Italian Spanish Portugal and French Merchants who understand those Commodities perfectly well are excluded those Trades or at least if the Company will give them leave to send out those Goods are not permitted to bring in the Returns it follows that the Dutch must supply Denmark Sweeden and all parts of the Baltique with most of those Commodities and so it is in fact 5. The Dutch who have no Eastland-Companies yet have ten times the Trade to the Eastern parts as we have and for Italy Spain and Portugal where we have no Companies we have yet left full as much if not more Trade then the Dutch And for Russia and Greenland where we have Companies and I think Establisht by Act or Acts of Parliament our Trade is in effect wholly lost while the Dutch have without Companies encreased theirs to above forty times the the Bulk of what the residue of ours now is From whence may be inferred 1. That restrained limitted Companies are not alone sufficient to preserve and encrease a Trade 2. That limitted Companies though Established by Act of Parliament may loâ—se a Trade 3. That Trade may be carried on to any part of Christendom and encreased without Companies 4.
in the out-parts of London Upon this point of Naturalization many men make a great doubt whether it be for publick good to permit the Iews to be Naturalized in common with other Strangers Those that are against their admission who for the most part are Merchants urge these Reasons 1. They say the Iews are a subtil People prying into all kind of Trades and thereby depriving the English Merchant of that Profit he would otherwise gain 2. They are a penurious People living miserably and therefore can and do afford to trade for less profit then the English to the prejudice of the English Merchant 3. They bring no Estates with them but set up with their Pens and Ink only and if after some few Years they thrive and grow rich they carry away their Riches with them to some other Country being a People that cannot mix with us which Riches being carried away is a publick loss to this Kingdom Those that are for the admission of the Iews say in answer to the aforesaid Reasons viz. 1 st The subtiller the Iews are and the more Trades they pry into while they live here the more they are like to encrease Trade and the more they do that the better it is for the Kingdom in general though the worse for the English Merchant who comparitively to the rest of the People of England is not one of a thousand 2 dly The thriftier they live the better Example to our people there being nothing in the World more conducing to enrich a Kingdom then thriftiness 3 dly It is denyed that they bring over nothing with them for many have brought hither very good Estates and hundreds more would do the like and settle here for their Lives and their Posterities after them if they had the same Freedom and Security here as they have in Holland and Italy where the grand Duke of Tuscanâ—y and other Princes allow them not only perfect Liberty and Security but give them the priviledge of making Laws among themselves and that they would reside with us is proved from the known Principles of Nature viz. Principle 1. All men by Nature are alike as I have before demonstrated and Mr Hobbs hath truly asserted how Erroneous soever he may be in other things Princip 2. Fear is the cause of Hatred and hatred of separation from as well as evil Deeds to the Parties or Government hated when opportunity is offered This by the way shews the difference between a bare connivence at Dissenters in matters of Religion and a toleration by Law the former keeps them continually in Fear and consequently apt to Sedition and Rebellion when any probable occasion of success presents The latter disarms cunning ambitious minded men who wanting a popular discontented Party to work upon can effect little or nothing to the prejudice of the Government And this methinks discovers clearly the Cause why the Lutherans in Germany Protestants in France Greeks in Turkey and Sectaries in Holland are such quiet peaceable-minded-men while our Non-Conformists in England are said to be enclinable to Strife War and Bloodshed Take away the Cause and the Effect will cease While the Laws are in Force against men they think the Sword hangs over their Heads and are always in fear though the Execution be suspended not knowing how soon Councils or Counsellors Times or Persons may change it is only Perfect Love that casts out Fear and all men are in love with Liberty and Security It cannot be denyed that the industrious Bees have Stings though Drones have not yet Bees sting not except those that hurt them or disturb their Hives It is said the Iews cannot Intermarry with us and therefore it cannot be supposed they will reside long amongst us although they were treated never so kindly why not reside here as well as in Italy Poland or Holland they have now no Country of their own to go to and therefore that is their Country and must needs be so esteemed by them where they are best used and have the greatest Security CHAP. VIII Concerning Wool and Woollen Manufactures THat Wool is eminently the Foundation of the English Riches I have not heard denyed by any and that therefore all possible means ought to be used to keep it within our own Kingdom is generally confessed and to this purpose most of our modern Parliaments have strenuously endeavoured the contriving of severe Laws to prevent its Exportation and the last Act made it Felony to Ship out Wool Woolfels c. Notwithstanding which we see that English and Irish Wool goes over so plentifully that it is within a very small matter as cheap in Holland as in England The means to prevent this Evil by additional Penal Laws and alterations of some of those now in being were long under debate by his Majesties command in the Couâ—cil of Trade who according to their duty took great pains therein and since I have been informed the same things were under consideration in Parliament so that I doubt not but in due time we shall see some more effectual Laws enacted to this purpose as well in relation to Ireland from whence the greatest of this mischief proceeds as in England then ever yet have been yet I do utterly despair of ever seeing this Disease perfectly cured till the Causes thereof be removed which I take to be 1st Heighth of Interest in England which an Abatement by Law to 4 per Cent would cure 2dly Want of Hands which an Act of Naturalization would cure 3dly Compulsion in matters of Religion which some relaxation of the Ecclesiastical Laws I hope would effectually cure For while our Neighbours through the cheap valuation of their Stocks can afford to trade and disburse their Monies for less profit then we as hath been I think sufficiently demonstrated by the fore-going Discourse and have more Hands to employ then we by reason of the large Immunities and Priviledges they give both to Natives and Foreigners there is no question but they will be able to give a better Price for our Wool than we can afford our selves and they that can give the best price for a Commodity shall never fail to have it by one means or other notwithstanding the opposition of any Laws or interposition of any Power by Sea or Land of such force subtilty and violence is the general course of Trade Object But some may say and take it as well from what I have writ elsewhere as from their own Observations Will not the well-making of our Woollen-Manufactures contribute much to the keeping of our Wool naturally within our own Kingdom I answer Doubtless it will have a great tendency thereunto but can never effect it till the aforesaid Radical Causes of this Disease be removed which brings me to the next Question viz. What will improve our Woollen-Manufactures in quality and quantity This is a very great Question and requires very deliberate and serious Consideration but I shall write my present Thoughts concerning it
measure abated by reason of our foreign Plantations but propose to prove the contrary This I know is a controverted Point do believe that where there is one man of my mind there may be a thousand of the contrary but I hope when the following Grounds of my Opinion have been throughly examined there will not be so many Dissenters That very many People now go and have gone from this Kingdom almost every Year for these sixty Years past and have and do settle in our foreign Plantations is most certain But the first Question will be Whether if England had no foreign Plantations for those People to be transported unto they could or would have stayed and lived at home with us I am of Opinion they neither would nor could To resolve this Question we must consider what kind of People they were and are that have and do transport themselves to our foreign Plantations new-New-England as every one knows was originally inhabitated and hath since successively been replenisht by a sort of People called Puritans which could not conform to the Ecclesiastical Laws of England but being wearied with Church Censures and Persecutions were forced to quit their Fathers Land to find out new Habitations as many of them did in Germany and Holland as well as at New-England and had there not been a New-England found for some of them Germany and Holland probably had received the rest But Old England to be sure had lost them all Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose vagrant People vicious and destitute of means to live at home being either unfit for labour or such as could find none to employ themselves about or had so mis-behaved themselves by Whoreing Thieving or other Debauchery that none would set them on work which Merchants and Masters of Ships by their Agents or Spirits as they were called gathered up about the Streets of London and other places cloathed and transported to be employed upon Plantations and these I say were such as had there been no English foreign Plantation in the World could probably never have lived at home to do Service for their Country but must have come to be hanged or starved or dyed untimely of some of those miserable Diseases that proceed from want and Vice or else have sold themselves for Soldiers to be knockt on the Head or starved in the Quarrels of our Neighbours as many thousands of brave English men were in the low Countries as also in the Wars of Germany France and Sweeden c. or else if they could by begging or otherwise arrive to the Stock of 2 s. 6 d. to waft them over to Holland become Servants to the Dutch who refuse none But the principal growth and encrease of the afore-said Plantations of Virginia and Barbadoes happened in or immediately after our late Civil Wars when the worsted party by the fate of War being deprived of their Estates and having some of them never been bred to labour and other made unfit for it by the lazy habit of a Soldiers life there wanting Means to maintain them all abroad with his Majesty many of them betook themselves to the afore-said Plantations and great numbers of Scotch Soldiers of his Majesty's Army after Worcester Fight were by the then prevailing Powers voluntarily sent in thither Another great swarm or accession of new Inhabitâ—nts to the afore-said Plantations as also to New-England Iamaica and all other his Majesties Plantations in the West-Indies ensued upon his Majesties Restauration when the former prevailing party being by a divine Hand of Providence brought under the Army disbanded many Officers dis-placed and all the new purcharsers of publick Titles dispossest of their pretended Lands Estates c. many became impoverished dâ—stitute of employment and therefore such as could find no way of living at home and some which feared the re-establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws under which they could not live were forced to transport themselves or sell themselves for a few Years to be transported by others to the foreign English Plantations The constant supply that the said Plantations have since had hath by such vagrant loose People as I before-mentioned picked up especially about the Streets and Suburbs of London and Westminster and by Malefactors condemned for Crimes for which by the Law they deserved to dye and some of those People called Quakers banished for Meeting on pretence of Religious Worship Now if from the Premises it be duly considered what kind of Persons those have been by which our Plantations have at all times been replenished I suppose it will appear that such they have been and under such Circumstances that if his Majesty had had no foreign Plantations to which they might have resorted England however must have lost them To illustrate the truth whereof a little further let us consider what Captain Graunt the ingenious Author of the Observations upon the Bills of Mortality saith pag. 76. and in other places of his Book concerning the City of London and it is not only said but undeniably proved viz. That the City of London let the Mortality be what it will by Plague or otherwise repairs its Inhabitants once in two Years And pag. 101. again If there be encouragement for a hundred Persons in London that is a way how a hundred may live better then in the Country the evacuating of a fourth or third part of that number must soon be supplied out of the Country who in a short time remove themselves from thence hither so long until the City for want of receipt and encouragement regurgitates and sends them back 1. What he hath proved concerning London I say of England in general and the same may be said of any Kingdom or Country in the World Such as our employment is for People so many will our People be and if we should imagin we have in England employment but for one hundred People and we have born and bred amongst us one hundred and fifty People I say the fifty must away from us or starve or be hanged to prevent it whether we had any foreign Plantations or not 2. If by reason of the accommodation of living in our foreign Plantations we have evacuated more of our People then we should have done if we had no such Plantations I say with the aforesaid Author in the case of London and if that Evacuation be grown to an excess which I believe it never did barely on the account of the Plantations that decrease would procure its own Remedy for much want of People would procure greater Wages and greater Wages if our Laws gave encouragement would procure us a supply of People without the charge of breeding them as the Dutch are and always have been supplied in their greatest Extremities Object But it may be said Is not the Facility of being transported into the Plantations together with the enticing Methods customarily used to perswade People to go thither and the encouragement of living there
with a People that speak our own Language strong Motives to draw our People from us and do they not draw more from us then otherwise would leave us to go into foreign Countries where they understand not the Language I Answer 1 st It is not much more difficult to get a passage to Holland than it is to our Plantations 2 dly Many of those that go to our Plantations if they could not go thither would and must go into foreign Countries though it were ten times more difficult to get thither then it is or else which is worse as hath been said would adventure to be hanged to prevent begging or starving as too many have done 3. I do acknowledge that the facility of getting to the Plantaâ—ions may cause some more to leave us than would do if they had none but foreign Countries for refuge But then if it be considered that our Plantations spending mostly our English Manufactures and those of all sorts almost imaginable in egregious quantities and employing near two thirds of all our English Shiping do therein give a constant Sustenance to it may be two hundred thousand Persons here aâ— home then I must needs conclude upon the whole matter that we have not the fewer but the more People in England by reason of our English Plantatioâ—s in America Object 2. But it may be said Is not this inferring and arguing against Sence and Experience Doth not all the World see that the many noble Kingdoms of Spain in Europe are almost depopulated and ruinated by reason of their Peoples flocking over to the West-Indies And do not all other Nations diminish in people after they become possessed of foreign Plantations Ans. 1. I answer With submission to better Judgments that in my opinion contending for Vniformity in Religion hath contributed ten times more to the depopulating of Spain then all the American Plantations What was it but that which caused the expulsion of so many thousand Moores who had built and inhabited most of the chief Cities and Towns in Andaluzia Granada Aragon and oother parts What was it but that and the Inquisition that hath and doth daily expel such vast numbers of rich Iews with their Families and Estates into Germany Italy Turkey Holland and England What was it but that which caused those vast and long Wars between that King and the low Countries and the effusion of so much Spanish Blood and Treasure and the final loss of the seven Provinces which we now see so prodigious rich and full of People while Spain is empty and poor and Flanders thin and weak in continual fear of being made a prey to their Neighbours 2. I answer We must warily distinguish between Country Country for though Plantations may have drained Spain of People it does not follow that they have or will drain England or Holland because where Liberty and Property are not so well preserved and where Interest of Money is permitted to go at 12 per Cent there can be no considerable Manufacturing and no more of Tillage and Grazing than as we Proverbially say will keep Life and Soul together and where there is little Manufacturing and as little Husbandry of Lands the profit of Plantations viz. the greatest part thereof will not redound to the Mother-Kingdom but to other Countries wherein there are more Manufactures and more Productions from the Earth from hence it follows Plantations thus managed prove drains of the People from their Mother-Kingdom whereas Plantations belonging to Mother-Kingdoms or Countries where Liberty and Property is better preserved and Interest of Money restrained to a low rate the consequence is that every person sent abroad with the Negroes and Utensils he is constrained to employ or that are employed with him it being customary in most of our Islands in America upon every Plantation to employ eight or ten Blacks for one White Servant I say in this case we may reckon that for Provisions Clothes and Houshold-Goods Sea-men and all others employed about Materials for building fitting and victualling of Ships Every English man in Barbadoes or Jamaica creates employment for four men at home 3 dly I answer That Holland now sends as many and more people yearly to reside in their Plantations Fortresses and Ships in the East-Indies besides many into the West-Indies than Spain and yet is so far from declining in the Number of their people at home that it is evident they do monstruously encrease and so I hope under the next Head to prove that England hath constantly encreased in People at home since our settlement upon Plantations in America although not in so great a proportion as the Dutch V. I am of Opinion that we had immediately before the late Plague more People in England than we had before the inhabiting of New-England Virginia Barbadoes c The proof of this at best I know can but be conjectural but in confirmation of my Opinion I have I think of my mind the most industrious English Calculator this Age hath produced in publick viz. Captain Graunt in the fore-mentioned Treatise pag. 83. his words are Vpon the whole matter we may therefore conclude that the people of the whole Nation do encrease and consequently the decrease of Winchester Lincoln and other like places must be attributed to other Reasons then that of refurnishing London only 2. It is manifest by the afore-said worthy Author's Calculations that the Inhabitants of London and parts ajacent have encreased to almost double within this sixty Years and that City hath usually been taken for an Index of the whole I know it will be said that although London have so encreased other parts have as much diminished whereof some are named before but if to answer the diminution of Inhabitants in some particular places it be considered how others are encreased viz Yarmouth Hull Scarbrough and other Ports in the North as also Liverpoole Westchester and Bristol Portsmouth Lime and Plimouth and withal if it be considered what great Improvements have been made these last sixty Years upon breaking up and enclosing of Wastes Forrests and Parks and draining of the Fenns and all those places inhabited and furnished with Husbandry c. then I think it will appear probable that we have in England now at least had before the late Plague more People then we had before we first entred upon foreign Plantations notwithstanding likewise the great Numbers of men which have issued from us into Ireland which Country as our Laws now are I reckon not among the number of Plantations profitable to England nor within the limits of this discourse although peradventure something may be pickt out of these Papers which may deserve consideration in relation to that Country But it may be said If we have more People now thâ—n in former Ages how came it to pass that in the times of King Henry the fourth and fifth and other times formerly we could raise such great Armies and employ them in foreign Wars and
upon and taxing the Inhabitants at pleasure as the King doth them it is not probable they should make that succesful Progress in Planting Propriety Freedom and Inheritance being the most effectual Spurs to Industry 2. Though some who have not looked far into this matter may think the Spaniards have made great Progress in Planting I am of opinion that the English since the time they set upon this Work have cleared and emproved fifty Plantations for one and Built as many Houses for one the Spaniards have Built this will not be very difficult to imagine if it be considered First that it is not above fifty or sixty Years since the English intended the Propagating Foreign Plantations Secondly that the Spaniards were Possessed of the West-Indies about our King Henry the 7 th's time which is near two Hundred Years past Thirdly that what the Spaniard hath done in the West-Indies hath been ten times more by Conquest then by Planting Fourtly That the Spaniards found in the West-Indies most of the Cities and Towns ready Built and Inhabited and much of the Ground emproved and cultivated before their coming thither Fifthly That the Inhabitants which they found there and subdued were such a People with whom some of the Spaniards could and have mixed from whence hath proceeded a Generation of People which they call Mestises whereas the English where they have set down and Planted either found none or such as were meer wild Heathen with whom they could not nor ever have been known to mix Sixthly That now after such a long series of time the Spaniards are scarce so Populous in any Part of the West-Indies as to be able to bring an Army of Ten Thousand Men together in a Months time From all which I conjecture 1st That his Majesty hath now more English Subjects in all his Foreign Plantations in sixty Years than the King of Spain hath Spaniards in all his in two Hundred Years 2d That the Spaniards Progress in Planting bears no Proportion to the encrease of the English Plantations 3 d. That seeing the Spaniards in the time of their greatest Prosperity and under so many Advantages have been such indifferent Planters and have made such slow progress in Peopleing those parts of the West-Indies which they possess It is not much to be feared that ever the English will be mated by the Spaniards in their Foreign Plantations or Production of the Native Commodities of those Parts Now the reasons why the Spaniards are so thin of people in the West-Indies I take to be such as these following viz. First and principally because they exercise the same Policy and Governments Civil and Ecclesiastical in their Plantations as they do in their Mother-Kingdom from whence it follows that their People are few and thin abroad from the same causes as they are empty and void of people at home whereas although we in England vainely endeavour to arrive at a Vniformity of Religion at home yet we allow an Amsterdam Liberty in our Plantations It is true New-England being a more independant Government from this Kingdom then any other of our Plantations and the People that went thither more one peculiar Sort or Sect then those that went to the rest of our Plantations they did for some Years past exercise some Severities against the Quakers but of late they have understood their true Interest better insomuch as I have not heard of any Act of that kind for these five or six Years last notwithstanding I am well informed that there are now amongst them many more Quakers and other Dissenters from their Forms of Religious Worship then were at the time of their greatest Severity which Severity had no other effect but to encrease the New-English Non-conformists 2 d. A second reason why the Productions of the Spanish West-India Commodities are so inconsiderable in respect to the English and consequently why their Progress in Planting hath been and is like to be much less then the English as also the encrease of their People I take to be the dearness of the Freight of their Ships which is four times more then our English Freight and if you would know how that comes to be so twelve per cent Interest will go â— great way towards the satisfying you although there are other concomitant lesser causes which whosoever understands Spain or shall carefully read this Treatise may find out themselves 3 d. A third reason I take to be the greatness of the Customs in Old-Spain for undoubtedly high Customs do as well dwarf Plantations as Trade 4 th The Spaniards Intense and singular Industry in their Mines for Gold and Silver the working wherein destroys abundance of their people at least of their Slaves doth cause them to neglect in great measure Cultivating of the Earth and producing Commodities from the growth thereof which might give employment to a greater Navy as well as sustenance to a far greater number of people by Sea and Land 5 th Their multitude of Fryers Nuns and other reclust and Ecclesiastical Persons which are prohibited from Marriage 3. The third sort of People I am to Discourse of are the Portugeeze and and them I must acknowledge to have been great Planters in the Brazeils and other Places but yet if we preserve our People and Plantations by good Laws I have reason to believe that the Portugeeze except they alter their Politicks which is almost impossible for them to do can never bear up with us muchless prejudice our Plantations That hitherto they have not hurt us but we them is most apparent for in my time we have beat their Muscovado and Paneal Sugars quite out of use in England and their Whites we have brought down in all these Parts of Europe in price from seven and eight pounds per l. to fifty Shillings and three Pounds per l. and in quantity whereas formerly their Brazeil-Fleets consisted of One hundred to One hundred and twenty thousand Chests of Sugar they are now reduced to about Thirty thousand Chests since the great encrease of Barbadoes The reason of this decay of the Portugeeze Productions in Brazeils is certainly the better Policy that our English Plantatitions are founded upon That which principally dwarfs the Portugeeze Plantations is the same before-mentioned which hinders the Spaniards viz. extraordinary high Customs at home high Freights high Interest of Money Ecclesiastical persons c. From all that hath been said concerning Plantations in general I draw these two principal Conclusions 1 st That our English Plantations may thrive beyond any other Plantations in the World though the Trades of all of them were more severely limitted by Laws and good Execution of those Laws to their mother-Mother-Kingdom of England exclusive to Ireland and New-England 2dly That it is in his Majesties power and the Parliaments if they please by taking off all Charges from Sugar to make it more intirely an English Commodity then white-Herrings are a Dutch Commodity and to draw more profit to this
should be called down To the First That Money hath long gone at Ten and things been well enough It is answered That it is not long that the practice of Usury hath been so generally used without any sence or scruple of the unlawfulness of it for mens Consciences were hardened to it with example and custom by degrees and not upon the sudden And as the beginning of many dangerous Diseases in healthful Bodies so the beginning of many Inconveniencies in a State are not presently felt With us after that with long Civil Wars the Land was half unpeopled so as till of late Years it came not to his full stock of People again there being the same quantity of Land to half the number of People the surplusage of our In-land Commodities must needs be so great that though Trade were not equally ballanced with us and other Nations we could not but grow rich Besides France and the Low-Countries were for many Years half laid waste with Wars and so did trade but little nor manage their own Lands to their best advantage whereby they did not only not take the Trade Market from us which now they do but they themselves were fed and cloathed by us and took our Commodities from us at great high great Rates Whereas now we see the Dutch do every where out-trade us and the French feed us with their Corn even in plentiful Years So as now our Land being full stocked with People our Neighbours industrious and subtle in Trade if we do not more equally Ballance Trade and bring to pass that we may afford the Fruits of our Land as cheap as other Countries afford the same of the same kind we must though we leave a number of our superfluities as God forbid but we should in a short time grow Poor and Beggarly And in this condition ten in the Hundred in a little more time will as well serve to do it as if Money were at twenty For as was before remembred in most of the Commodities the Earth bringeth forth the Stock employed in Planting and managing of of them makes a great part of their Price and consequently they may with great Gain to themselves under-sell us our Stock with us going at double the rate that theirs goes with them And this we see and feel too well by Experience at this present for having a great surplusage of Corn we can find no vent for it the French with their own the Dutch with the Corn of Poland every where supplying the Markets at cheaper rates than we can afford it And even our Cloaths which have hitherto been the Golden Mine in England I have heard many Merchants say That except it be in some few of the finest sort of them which is a Riches peculiar to this Nation other Countries begin to make them of their own Wool and by affording them cheaper then we may so to take our Markets from us And this I hope may in part serve for Answer to the next Objection that all great and sudden Changes are commonly dangerous for that Rule holds true where the Body Natural or Politick is in perfect state of Health but where there is a declining as I have some cause to fear there is or may soon be with us there to make no alteration is a certain way to Ruin To the Third That Money will be suddenly called in and so all Borrowers greatly prejudiced For that there may be a clause in the end of the Statute whensoever it shall be made That it shall be lawful for all that have lent Money at ten in the Hundred which is now forborn and owing to take for such Money so lent and owing during two Years after this Session of Parliament such Use as they might have done if this Act had not been made Whereby Borrowers shall be in less danger of sudden calling in of their Money then now they are for where the Lenders upon continuance of their old Security may take ten in the Hundred upon new Security they may be content with less so the calling in of their Money will be to their own prejudice And if there be any Borrower to whom this giveth not sufficient Satisfaction if such Borrower have Lands of value to pay his debt the worst condition he can fear is to have at the least twenty Years Purchase for his Land wherewith to clear his Debts for as I said before Land being the best Security and securest Inheritance will still bear a rate above Money And so there being no Use allowed for Money above the rate tollerated in other Countries Land will as readily sell at twenty Years Purchase as it doth now at twelve And I think there is no Borrower that hath Land of value to pay his Debts doth doubt if he will now sell his Land at ten Years Purchase he might soon be out of Debt To the fourth Objection That Money will be hard to be borrowed and so Commerce hindred I answer That it were true if the high rate of Usury did increase Money within this Land but the high rate of Usury doth enrich only the Usurer and impoverish the Kingdom as hath been shewed and it is the plenty of Money within the Land that maketh Money easie to be borrowed as we see by the Examples of other Countries where Money is easier to be borrowed then it is with us and yet the rate tollerated for Use is little more then half so much It is the high rate of Use that undoeth so many of the Gentry of the Land which maketh the number of Borrowers so great and the number of Borrowers must of necessity make Money the harder to be borrowed whereas if Use for Money were at a lower rate Land as hath been shewed would be much quicker to be sold and at dearer rates and so the Nobility and Gentry would soon be out of Debt and consequently the fewer Borrowers and so to Trades-men and Merchants Money easie to be had Further let us consider if Money were called down what Usurers would do with their Money they would not I suppose long be sullen and keep it a dead stock by them for that were not so much as the safest way of keeping it They must then either imploy it in Trade purchase Land or lend for Use at such rate as the Law will tollerate If it quicken Trade that is the thing to be desired for that will enrich the Kingdom and so make Money plentiful And yet need not any Borrower fear that Monâ—y will so be imployed in Trade as that there will not be sufficient of Money to purchase Land where the Purchaser may have as much or near so much Rent by the purchase of Land as he can by putting his Money to Use For a great number of Gentlemen and other in the Country know not how to imploy any stock in Trade but with great uncertainty and less satisfaction to themselves then the letting of their Money at a lower rate or