Selected quad for the lemma: money_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A63134
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An essay to the restoring of our decayed trade wherein is described the smugglers, lawyers, and officers frauds, &c. / by Joseph Trevers.
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Trevers, Joseph.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing T2130; ESTC R23763
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38,985
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66
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of the Land directly nor indirectly but lay it out in the goods and wares of England their necessary expences excepted according to the true intent and meaning of the said Statute Whether it be not worthy to be taken into consideration concerning the fineness and weight of our English Coin above Quere 20. and beyond the Coin of our neighbouring Nations and whether that be not the cause of its Exportation out of the Land a broad twenty shillings peice of Gold being worth in France Flanders and Holland twenty seven shillings and a Crown piece of silver worth six shillings so that I suppose we may cease wondring what is become of the money of the Kingdome considering it is such profit to the Merchant to transport it beyond Sea Whether it would not very much increase Trading and be highly advantageous to the King's Majesty to have money Quaere 21. plentiful in the Land and greatly benefit the Common-Weale if money in England was in some measure made sutable or equal to the weight and fineness of money in other Lands and whether this would not be a great means of bringing in money from other Lands and then keep it in the Kingdome being brought in by such means the King would be sure to have a speedy supply on all demands for his occasions and it is granted on all hands that good Treasures of Money are the principal Sinews of War Whether we in England ought not in reason to take the Quere 22. same care for the preservation and advancement of our Native Commodities as every other Kingdome and Countrey doth for theirs as in Spain the labour of the people is in their Vineyards for the Production of Wine and Fruit concerning which they take great care that they make the ulmost and spend little of these things themselves that they may make money of them to furnish their needs with what is sutable and many times they will not part with these their goods for Barter or Exchange for other goods but will have ready money and at dear rates too as I have heard by those that have traded into those parts some have given to the Spaniards at the Canaries 100 peices of Eight for an ordinary Pipe of Wine in ready money which 100 Peices of Eight are well worth twenty two pounds Sterling with us and likewise in France concerning their Wines Salt Brandy c. what care is by them taken to make the best of them that may be and what vast quantities of French-Wines Brandy Vinegar c. do come over into England in a year to pay for which I doubt there goes a great deal of ready money and if so in other Countries why should not the same care be taken in England for the advancement of our Manufactures endeavouring thereby to imploy our Poor and so to inrich the Kingdome especially considering the far greater advantages of so doing that we have in England than any other Nation hath as hath been already at large set forth Why should the humour of our people in England so far Quere 23. engage them to an old custome of burying the dead in Linnen as to contradict and disobey so good a Law as was lately made by Act of Parliament for the burial of our dead in Woollen doubtless there was reason enoug then produced in Parliament to sway with the King and those two Honourable Houses for the Enacting the same and whether it be not as decent to cover the dead Corps in Flannel as it is with Linnen beside the burial of the dead in Flannel will greatly advance the Manufacture of the Nation and in reason advance the prizes of all other Woollen wares and this Woollen Cloth is of our own production and when we bury our people in Linne that causeth so much expence for the generality of the goods of other Countries and whether it ought not to be considered that the Law provided in this case ought to be re-inforced Now to draw towards an end I have met with an Objection to this Treatise that it may be judged Superflous because several Books are errant concerning this Subject to which I Answer Though I have reason to beleive them that told me so yet I do beleive that the Reader will find a great difference between this and any other if they be compared together and that in many respects And again I Answer that the more Complaints are made of the Abuses and great Losses to the Kingdome so much the more ought all good men to enquire into the truth of those Complaints and endeavour for sutable Remedies in Tendency whereto I have presented something here by way of Quaere c. And now methinks I hear some wise men say that it is Reason that such abuses should be punished and that severely if any should presume to act such things as are here complained of or any waies vindicate those that do them to the which I answer that I wish that I were called to prove my knowledge of those things without too much charge or Attendance before any that should be appointed to enquire into and to regulate the same for I do not make it my business to set forth in this discourse the perticuler abuses of those Countrey Atturneys Under-Clerks Under-Sheriffs in their returns and the abuses of their Officers and the Assistance that some great Smugglers have from some Magistrates and Justices of the Peace in the Countrey together with the affronts that have been offered to our good Lawes of which I have had a large and sad experience And although our Lawes are good and our Judges are just yet the corruption in the practice of the Law by under-Officers is so exceeding bad and destructive to the Trade and publique good of the Kingdome that in case I should perticularly recite those abuses that I my self have met with among the Practicers of the Law I should fill a Book many times bigger than this And now I shall conclude with the true and hearty wishes of an Englishman that all our Ministers of State may so agree especially in this juncture of time that they may unanimously joyn together as one intire body against all Intruders upon our Trade and Priveledges both at Sea and Land that the Walls of this Kingdome may be built up and preserved and our Tradeing may encrease and flourish so that no cunning Usurpers may rob us of our old Prerogatives of the Seas or the Manufacture of our native Trade upon the Land FINIS In Laudem Authoris Subjecti HAd I but lived in Ben. Johnsons dayes I would have learn't of him to speak the Praise Of Native English Wooll and to set forth It 's real Excellency and it's worth The Poets tell us of the Golden Fleece That Jason undertook to fetch to Greece But that 's a Fiction ours a real thing Which to the Kingdome doth great Riches bring So that no Nation to us might compare If diligent in working
Judicious consider And if I should adventure to give my opinion freely touching the matter in hand I am very much induced to believe that were it not for the Cloathing-trade which imploys so many Ships and Men into several other Countries and for the value of our Cloaths bring their Goods by which means the poor also are set on work that a great part of the Traffick and Commerce of the world would fail and this Trade as formerly intimated is and may be most readily roundly and advantagiously driven in England were we but so pollitique and carefully as to keep our Wooll to our selves and within the King's Dominions of England and Ireland and to set the people closly to their work again And before I do leave the Argument I have ingaged in let there be considered the good quantities of Cloath and Stuffs English Cloath and Stuffs serve all the world that did go over continually to Holland and Flanders and by them there dispersed otherways the large quantities of Stuffs and Bays that are sent over to Portugall and thence Transported to Brazilia c with a very considerable number of Cloaths and Stuffs that go to Spain and by the Spaniards Transported to the West-Indies all over the good quantities of Perpetuanies and such like Stuffs that are carried out for Guinea together of late days with the large stores of Broad-cloaths Kersies Sarges Cottons Pennistons Duffels or Hogs Transported to our own Plantations of New-England and Virginia with what also must supply Barbadoes Jamaica and our other Islands in the West-Indies and forreign Plantations all which are the manufacture of Wooll Clothing more worth to England The Premises considered I hope I may make bold to say that setting aside all the rest of the Rich and Staple commodities of England which nevertheless are as good as any Country can parrallel in the world as Tinn Lead Iron c. this very commodity produced from our Wooll is of than the commodity of any Country whatsoever more worth and value to England that is to say will bring in more profit to the Kingdom of England than all the Silks or rich commodities of any Country whatsoever Yea doubtless more than all the Spices of the South-Seas yea I do believe and I have reason enough to lead me so to do than all the Spaniards Gold and Silver Mines in America for none of these I am throughly perswaded can any way equallize that yearly Revenue that doth or may come into the Kingdom of England by this one commodity diversly made up of our Wooll Neither doth any Nation in the world get so much by any of their Goods as England doth by this to the great enriching and advancement of the Merchant and the Companies Stocks trading and adventuring in these goods to Sea Encrease of Seamen the enriching of His Majesty the encrease of our strength in Shipping and consequently the breeding and training up of Seamen and increase of them wherein as before intimated a great part of the welfare safety of the Kingdom doth consist in these our days and the incouragement of whom is of great concernment to the Kingdom as the case now stands with England and her neighboring Nations or as the case may hereafter fall out to be for our Land is an Island as is known well enough not only to its Inhabitants but to all Europe and we have not nor cannot have Castles and Garrisons round about the whole kingdom by the Sea-side to beat off a forreign Enemy and to keep him from landing and invading our Nation for in fair weather in Summer The King's care for the Security of the Nation time there may be landing in hundreds of places about the Kingdom where there is neither Town nor Castle neer but such is His Majesties great prudence and care for the safety of his Land and People that he doth highly esteem and promote the affairs of Shipping more than ever any of his Royal Predecessors have done well knowing that his Ships and Seamen are the strength and security next to the protection of the Almighty of his whole kingdom I shall now endeavor to give some particular account but very briefly of the Profits arising to England by working up our Wooll into Cloth every two pounds of Wooll which is worth about twenty pence will make a yard of Karsey worth five or six shillings and every four pounds of Wooll worth about three shillings four pence will make a yard of broad-cloth worth eleven or twelve shillings so Profit by working up wooll that two thirds is the least profit that doth arise by putting our Wool into Manufactures which doth amount to above 230 pounds sterling profit in every Tun of Wooll so wrought up accounting twenty hundred English wait to the Tun so that if we should suppose but an hundred Tuns of Wooll transported out of the Kingdome in a year to France unwrought it will amount to 22400ll sterling which is so much clear loss to the Kingdome and trebble so much profit to France by their working up three times so much of their own with ours as hath been formerly intimated besides it is worthy of consideration that so many of our poor lye Poor idle idle and lose their imployment being ready to perish for want of necessary food notwithstanding the great plenty in the Land and no Kingdome hath the like advantages for the imployment of the poor in any Trade or occupation within doors whatsoever as we have for the poor in his Majesties dominion of England about the old and new Drapery and yet those poor that had their hands full of work in one kind or another according to what they were most accustomed either by sorting of wooll mixing breaking carding spinning spoling quilling weaving making of cards picking of â—esels and many other imployments concerning the working up wooll into cloth which have kept many thousands of men women and children at work who knew not how to get a penny another way but by this way Poor get Money if Imployed of working could in some comfortable manner live When the trade of clothing was driven roundly one family that doth not get twelve pence a week now have then received twelve fifteen or eighteen shillings a week which money went round to the Farmer for provision or to the Shopkeeper for necessaries for their Families and this again to the Merchant or to the Landlords according to each man's Trade and correspondence So that the profit arising by the working up of our Wooll into cloth or Stuffs here in England by our own people is almost unspeakable and is the great and chief wheel in the Kingdome to set all others at work as hath been already in several Trades mentioned and more do attend upon it when it is made into cloth as the Clothworkers Drawers Dyers Fullers Packers Merchants and Seamen But then to enter into the consideration of the contrary what an