Hides and that all their Ports are well stored with Shipping whereby they supply all those Parts with Provision and make their returns with those Commodities the Kingdom can vend which they can have much cheaper than from England and the Surplus plus they return in Money This I take out of a Sheet printed with Allowance by J.B. in 1677. The Particulars following are taken out of a Letter from Ireland printed in 1677. viz. Pag. 8. We find more advantage by Victualling Foreigners than we had formerly by a whole Sale in England Pag. 9. You were provided by a sufficient Act of Parliament to be the only Mart for Wool it being made Felony to transport it into Foreign Parts and Confiscation to import it to you otherwise than crude and unmanufactured Pag. 20. This is not to be exported neither without License paying both the King's Duty and that to the Lord Lieutenant Pag. 9. Which is at least 2 s. a Stone besides Freight Factorage and Market Charges Pag. 20. All exported must be first entred for England and pay these Duties though afterwards it loseth its way at Sea Pag. 11. An Account is given of their Progress in setting up the Woollen Manufacture Much Provisions also and Goods they Ship off to our Plantations from whence 't is probable in time we must export Money for our own supply Against this whole Discourse may be raised the following grand Objection to wit an Opponent may insist that the admission of Irish Cattel causeth Rents of breeding Grounds exceedingly to fall contrary to the Interest of the Owners and Farmers thereof and this is the reason why Cattel in themselves a Blessing are called a Nusance Answ The Objection is granted and comes to pass because we cannot Victual our Neighbours and their Shipping nor most of our own nor is the sale of Flesh much hindred by Fish or Izeland Cod for of late years little or none hath been spent in His Majesty's Navy-Royal But a remedy is propounded On the other side the Owners of feeding Grounds the Merchandizing and Trading part of the Nation or Corporations who bear above two Third parts of the Charge of the Government sustain the greater wrong which in the event will be very prejudicial if not ruinous to the whole I my self have my life in Lands in Marshland in the County of Norfolk which tell from 32 l. to 17 l. a year but is of late risen to 21 l. a year I know some Gentlemen Owners of feeding Grounds in our Midland Counties whose Rents are fallen above one quarter of what they usually made before the Irish Act had a being they know not to what other cause to impute it and I have not liberty to mention particulars Also there is a London Minister who hath Lands in Gloucestershire which fell from 60 l. to 30 l. per annum and both he and somâ— of the Gentlemen aforesaid are forced to stock their Grounds and keep them in their own hands committing the management to Bayliffs The Author of the Irish Letter pag. 7. saith That if the business were now to tell Counties he hath been lately assured from some in England that those Counties that find not themselves benefitted and those that are really aggreived by this Act do by this time upon Experiment and second thoughts make up the greatest Party And pag. 5. he saith That when it passed it was not without some repugnance at first in His Majesty The Reason is obvious His Majesty could not but foresee some of the ill consequences thereof as namely that it would cause his Duty of Customs to fall lessen our Navigation much increase the charge of Victualling his Navy and disoblige all his British Subjects in Ireland which might be of dangerous Consequence But to restore an Union with them and at home suppose they consent to the terms Propounded in pag. 9 23. Then there will be a considerable Accession made to His Majesty's Revenue in Ireland to wit near the value of all the Commodities exported out of that Kingdom that come not to us and this will help to maintain a Navy there or in the Channel and such help is but highly necessary for one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty was pleased to inform me that 300000 l. a year supposing the same constantly allotted and paid to that use would but defray the ordinary annual Harbour Charges of Repairs Yards Moorage the Wages of Workmen and Labourers the Salaries of Officers and 14 Men of War at Sea Whereas to furnish Stores build a necessary supply of Ships from time to time and maintain a competent Fleet abroad will require a far greater Sum as hath been represented to the late Long Parliament So that I hope if the Irish Act pass it shall not be perpetual and that in the interim our Grandees will propose and receive terms of Accommodation with Ireland If the former Measures take these must be the Consequences 1. The Poor will obtain Employment in other Nations they have been their Renown Wealth and Strength but here on the contrary our Shame Improverishment and Burthen hence to employ the Poor and to render idle beggarly Persons profitable Members to the Kingdom to reclaim Vice and encourage Industry by proper Expedients cannot but be Subjects that may always deserve and expect due encouragement from Authority but more especially now when too too long empoverishments make us groan for Redress which if obtained will be a bitter potion to our too powerful Neighbours abroad 2 Navigation and strength will encrease and if we can be either happy or safe without Navigation and maintain it without a Fishery and mannage it without Pilots 't is well but if not the Fishery is of an absolute and indispensible necessity to the welfare both of King and People 3. The Merchants and Trading part of the Nation will be encouraged and are they not as Writers denominate them The great Revenue of the King the honour of the Kingdom a noble Profession a School of Skill the supply of our Wants the source of Employments the improvement of our Manufactures and cause of our Exportation the Nursery of our Mariners the Walls of the Kingdom the means of our Treasure the sinew of our Wars and the terrour of our Enemies 4. I my self hope through Divine Bounty to obtain a good Employment to sustain a numerous Family having met with great Losses in publick Affairs however if not I have cast in my Mite and I hope a Person whose business and study hath been the Argument of Trade may have as much if not a greater liberty as others to propound how to remove the Encumbrances thereof to the advantage I hope of all Interests Hence if His Majesty and the Nation reap any benefit I have in a great measure obtained my END POSTSCRIPT THis Discourse hath been all penn'd and printed in great hast to wit in about a Fortnight's time and therefore could not be so well digested as were to be
means to occasion better measures to be taken than to pass this Act at least for any long time or perpetual The First Argument The Right Honourable the Lord Brereton lately deceased lent me a Paper to peruse that was a Copy of A Report of the Irish Council of Trade intended to be presented to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland dated March 26 1673. in Obedience to An Order of Council of Jan. 20 1672. concerning the Trade and State of that Kingdom what were its Aggreivances and the Remedies Amongst other Articles I find divers relating to England which are inserted at large into this Discourse to wit in Article 15. it is alledged That Ireland pays a yearly Debt to England of about 200000 l. In Article 16. 't is said That while the Cattel-Trade for live Oxen and Sheep was open the value of all the Cattel exported to England never exceeded 140000 l. per Annum whereof 60000 l. per annum was Commodity to wit Hides Tallow Wool and Freight so we had but 80000 l. in Flesh In lieu whereof they had Goods from England to about three or four times the value that is 280000 l. And Article 17. the Customs between England and Ireland in the freest Trade are said to come to 32000 l. per annum as appears by their Custom-house Books And therefore after a Harangue of some hard Measures in Article 13. come to a result in these words Article 17. That about one third of all the imported Manufactures might be made in Ireland and that about two Thirds of the Remainder might be more conveniently had from Foreign Parts than out of England And Consequently it is scarce necessary at all for Ireland to receive any Goods out of England and not convenient to receive above one Fourth from thence of the whole which it needeth to Import the value whereof is under 100000 l. per Annum The Case being thus 't is highly our Interest to admit not only Irish Cattel but all their Commodities to keep them by Agreement on equitable terms hereafter propounded from furnishing Foreigners their Hides were formerly wrought into Shoes and exported to the Plantations as also Tallow And as to their Wool if they are permitted to export it either manufactured or unmanufactured it will in time ruine all the Wool and Cloth Trade of England for now they feed on their lean Cattel export their fat and increase their Flocks of Sheep In sum Ireland can and doth sell to Foreigners Wool Hides Tallow Flesh and Fish at about one Moiety of what England can afford them at and seeing our Lead and Tin are also in a very declining condition as is hereafter shewed it follows that this must be redressed or our Commodities lie on our hands The Merchants in their humble Remonstrance in 1659. to the then pretended Parliament represented it as their judgment That for as much as the Ground of Ireland was of far less value than that of England an Acre there nor being worth 4 s. which is here worth 40 s. and Provisions so much cheaper and consequently the Labours of Men they might afford their Commodities one half cheaper than the English can do So that in time if this were not redressed Ireland would get all the Trade from England but if not 't is better to Trade with them on an Over-Ballance than not at all and better to lessen their Markets abroad than quite to obstruct our furnishing the same Whence the Query resulting is this Have we or is it fit we should have a Power over Ireland to hinder them from selling their Commodities in Foreign Parts when we will not have them our selves If we have it is not well observed of which take the following Narrative Mr. Euclid Speidell a Custom-house Officer informs that in the year 1678. there were 40 Ships lading of Wool Shipp'd off from Ireland that according to Cockets ought to be unladen in England but none of it arrived here the Contents he certainly knew not But according to a moderate supposition Mr. Poyntz His Majesty's Tapestry-maker hath given the following Calculation to wit 40 Ships or Vessels at 40 Tuns each is 1600 Tuns which will employ 29458 Men Women and Children for a year allowing 3 Persons to a pound of Wool for a day in some of the faculties of Carding Spinning Combing Weaving Dying and Dressing which at 6 d. each per diem comes to 268804 l. per annum And according to Mr. Poyntz all these Faculties may be estimated to employ 96000 Persons for a year who may earn in that time at moderate rates 750000 l. which if wrought beyond Sea is not only so much loss to His Majesty's Native Subjects but as much gain to Foreigners besides the loss of Navigation and Money if the same should come in upon us The Second Argument Secondly Suppose that Act pass and Irish Cattel are barr'd out and this in favour to the Western and Northern Parts or breeding Grounds I say His Majesty and the Eastern and Southern Parts are for the present the losers and in the event the Nation shall have no Fishery nor by consequence be able to contest the Dominion of the Sea Of each severally 1. His Majesty loseth most of the Customs of 32000 l. a year before-mentioned and also much by the over-dearness of Provisions for His Navy which are twice as dear at home as our Neighbours over the Water are furnished with them from Ireland as followeth in so much that if another War at Sea should happen the Nation in this respect must soon groan under it as an unsupportable burthen 2. The Kingdom loseth the Navigation between England and Ireland and consequently the Employment of three or four hundred Sail of Ships and Vessels and the breeding of Mariners to manage them whereof alas we have too few 3. The Eastern and Southern Parts have lost their Victualling of the Dutch and of our own Merchant-men as may be plentifully proved from the Searchers Office at the Custom-house and 't is already asserted in Print that our Ships for the most part Westerly or Southerly bound Victual here but for six Weeks and take in the rest of their Provisions in Ireland or Irish Provisions in Spain according to contract made for the same Whereupon I put this Querie Shall English Ships be permitted to Victual in Ireland or not If yea then our Provisions are not spent at home contrary to the Hypothesis in keeping Cattel out and our Money must be returned to purchase them there If the English shall not be allowed to Victual there I further Enquire shall the Irish be permitted to carry their Provisions abroad or sell them to strangers at home or both Have we power to impose upon them If they shall be permitted to carry them abroad our Provisions cannot obtain Foreign vend as being much dearer than theirs And when they Export their Provisions they will also Export their Commodities and furnish their returns Of this
and Forreign parts where the prices of these Manufactures would otherwise be lessen'd And consequently the Wools by how much they should make and Export from Ireland c. This occasions me to say that Carolina is a Plantation that yields Wines Oyles Silks As Sir Peter Colliton and others proved before his Majesties late Council of Plantations The Council of Trade aforesaid in the 12 Article are desirous of an Accommodation and thus urge If the Titles of Estates in Ireland be the more hazardous and expensive for that England and Ireland are not under one Legislative Power If Ireland till now hath been a continued charge to England If the reducing the last Rebellion did cost England three times more in Men and Money than the substance of the whole Country when reduced was worth If it be just that men of English birth and Estates living in Ireland should be represented in the Legislative power And that the Irish should not be judged by those who they pretend usurp their Estates it then seems just and convenient that both Kingdomes should be United and Governed by one Legislative Power nor is it hard to shew how this may be made practiable nor to satisfie repair or silence those who are interested or affected to the contrary ARTICLE 13. Articles of the Council of Trade before mentioned at large IN the mean time 't is wonderfull that men born in England who have Lands granted to them by the King for Service done in Ireland to the Crown of England when they have occasion to reside or Negotiate in England by their Countrey men Kindred and Friends should be debarred to bring with them Food whereupon to live Nor suffered to carry money out of Ireland Nor to bring such Commodities as they fetch from America directly home but round about by England with extream hazard and loss and be forced to Trade only with strangers And become unacquainted with their own Countrey especially when England gaineth more than it losses by a free Commerce as Exported hither above 3 times more than it receiveth form hence Insomuch as 95 l. in England was worth about 100 l. of the like mony in Ireland in the free time of Trade ARTICLE 15. The value of the Estates in Ireland of such persons as do usually live in England the Interest of the Debts of Ireland due and prayable to England The pay of the Forces of Ireland now in England The Expence and Pensions of Agents and Sollicitors commonly residing in England about Irish Affairs the expence of Irish and English Youths now upon their Education beyond the Seas And lastly the supposed profit of the two great Farmes now on Foot do altogether make up more than two Hundred Thousand Pounds a Year As a Debt payable to England out of Ireland ARTICLE 16. The value of the Cattel viz. Live Oxen and Sheep Beef and Mutton carryed out of Ireland into England was never more than 140 Thousand Pounds per an The Freight Hides Tallow and Wooll of the said live Cattel were worth about 60 Thousand Pounds of the said 140 Thousand And the value of the goods imported out of England into Ireland when the Cattel Trade was free Was between Triple and Quadruple the Net value of the Oxen and Sheeps Flesh transported from hence into England Concerning the New Art of Preparing Flax and Hemp before mentioned it hath formerly been imparted to divers Members of Parliament in the Words following The Proposers name being Franciscus Strick a Flemming 1. HE hath an Art to Dissolve it and make it extraordinary Fine Soft and of a Silver Colour so that both the Flax and Tow may be Spun to an extraordinary fineness and even Thread 2. The Flax dressers that dresses Flax the ordinary way in all places cannot produce more than One Pound and a Quarter out of a stone of Flemish Flax which stone ways Six Pounds And the Proposer can produce Four Pounds and a half fine out of the said Six Pounds that shall Spin as fine a Thread as theirs and shall bear a price currant with the same 3. In the dissolving he takes nothing from the Flax but the Earthy ponderous and unprofitable substance which they must of necessity take out at last after the great charges in the Hackling and Spinning of the said Flax. 4. They must Boyl or Scoure their Thread or Twine after it is Spun to take out that filthiness which the Proposer takes out before And in so doing they lose out of every Pound of Twine one quarter of a Pound which is more worth than the whole stone of Flax before it was prepared 5. The Proposers Twine or Yarn needs not to be Boyled after it is Spun or any other thing done to it Onely given to the Weaver or Throwster to be Woven or Twined into fine Thread 6. It will be an evener Thread and the Weaver needs not to stiffen it with size as they do their own Thread by which means it will be much easier and more speedily Twined and will be much stronger thereby the stock will have more speedy returnes The Proposer's charge being but small in the preparing of it 7. The Tow may be spun as well as the Flax and the reason is because of its extraordinary fineness before it is hackled For in the Hackling it is onely drawn together and in the spinning is easily drawn out again And it is appraised or rated according to the fineness thereof 8. Of Three Pounds or less of this Yarne there may be pieces of Holland Woven cantaining 50 Ells flemish or 30 Ells English measure Or fine Sewing Thread from Ten Shillings a Pound weight to Three or Four Pounds Sterling the Pound weight 9. What is affirmed concerning Flax is common to Hemp. It being prepared the same way And there may be made of it all sorts of died Thread fine Tykes for Beds all sorts of Fringes may be and commonly are Woven of the Hempen Yarn And thereof better Linnen Cloth may be made than is generally made of Flax in England as hitherto practised 10. Also a way will be found to draw the Negotiation of the French Sail Cloth and all kind of Tackle concerning Ships in as small or big Cordage as all other Nations afford a Third part lighter stronger and lesser stowage to more profit to the English Nation and Companies of Merchants as well as particular Trades Thus far the Proposer Others add that the Hurds offall refuse or Tow of Flax and Hemp will serve to make a weaker or a worser sort of Linnen or a good Printing and Writing Paper here in England some Tryals of all sorts whereof have been lately and never before made by Mr. Henry Million Stationer in the Old Bayley who deserves well of the whole Nation for his indefatigable pains in promoting the Paper Woollen and Linnen Manufactures and well understands the Art of preparing of Hemp and Flax. And whereas it is objected that English Hemp even that which is dew wet
the trading People of the Nation about Aggreivances concerning Trade and the improvements of Manufactures and the amendments of Acts relating thereto and thence to draw up all that can reasonably be said pro or con Former Councils have not prescribed this which ought to be the main work of the Officers and such Councils have been so slow or ill paid that little of this kind could be expected whereas it is supposed the Royal Fishery will be so well paid by Effects in their hands that there will be no failure of the like kind hereafter And doubtless it is very material to encourage the writing on Arguments of Trade as here propounded 8. A Royal Fishery Company well constituted with a good Stock may furnish the Sound with Herrings before the Dutch by using the Islands of Lewis and Shetland yea also Portugal Spain and the Streights by fishing in the Irish Seas where Herrings and Cod arrive six weeks sooner than in the Channel yea also with Cod and Ling caught about Anglesey To which besides the advantage of time may be added the propinquity of Situation yea such Company may also have a Trade to New England for building of Vessels and returning with Cod Salmon and Sturgeon if it prove good and well-cured and with poor Jack from Newfound-Land whence it may be reasonably presumed such Company by reason of its Foreign vent and returns may have a greater insight in Foreign Trade than any other constitution 9. The planting of Hemp and Flax and the Manufactures thereof as also the furnishing of materials for Paper if not undertaking that Manufacture and consequently employing the Poor and many Trades will much depend upon the example and directions of this Company whence they may be judged a better constitution for Inland Affairs than any other and are like to afford more Parliament-men to speak to matters of this nature Since the writing of this Treatise there came to my hands a printed Paper of the learned and most renowned Sir William Peâ—â—y of the Royal Society about Irish Cattel A Copy of it followeth Some of the OBSERVATIONS made by W.P. upon the Trade of IRISH CATTEL 1. THat the value of the Oxen and Sheep their Hides Tallow and Skins deducted which were ever imported in one year out of Ireland into England were never worth above 80000 l. nor above the hundredth part of the Rents of Land in England nor above the hundredth part of the Butchers meat yearly spent in England 2. That Ireland never yet did nor could spare as many Sheep and Oxen alive or dead as would maintain a fifth part more People than now it hath that is to say than would maintain about 1300000 People of which number there are about 1100000 now in Ireland 3. Whereas Ireland contains three quarters as much Land as England and Wales and there be above 6000000 of People in England it follows that if Ireland can furnish Flesh meat but unto 1300000 that Eâ—gland cannot with equal plenty furnish meat unto said 6000000. 4. The Owners of breeding Lands have since the Prohibition not gotten above 10 s. per Head more for their Cattel than before it which the Owners of the feeding Lands have paid them and lost Moreover the Mariners of England have lost the getting of 9 s. 6 d. per Head for Freight and Primage and the People of England have lost 4 s. 6 d. per Head more for driving and grazing the King hath lost 3 s. 6 d. per Head for Custom on both sides besides Officers Fees and the Traders in Hides and Tallow have lost what they might have gained out of 15 s. per Head and the Merchants and Artizans of England have lost yearly what they might have gained by 140000 l. worth of English Manufactures the Wool-growers of England have lost as much as their Wool is fallen by reason of the extraordinary Sheep-walks now in Ireland the Landlords of Ireland resident in England have lost 5 percent extraordinary for exchange of Money Lastly the Bulk of the People of England have losts one Half-peny for every pound of Flesh meat they have spent amounting for all England unto about 2000000 per annum of which great sum the Owners even of breeding Lands have paid three times more in the enhansement of Wages and Manufactures than they got by the raised price of their Cattel above-mentioned 5. Since this Prohibition the Papists in Ireland who are 800000 in number have gotten a Dispensation from Rome to eat Flesh five days in the week whereas formerly they did but four in which extraordinary day of Indulgence there is as much meat spent by the Papists in a year as ever was brought into England 6. Although a Beast worth 40 s. might be brought out of Ireland even to London for about 20 s. yet the Land of England generally taken is worth five times as much Acre for Acre as the Lands of Ireland generally taken neither can the Lands of Ireland rise up to a level of value with those in England without the Mission of some millions of People more into Ireland than now are there nor without the expence of more Millions in buildings and improvements than all Ireland now is worth nor can the Lands of England fall down to a level with those in Ireland without vast Depopulations and Devastations preceding Every of the before-mentioned particulars can be readily proved from grounds of Sense known granted or Authentique Here it is not improper to acquaint the Reader that Ireland before the Rebellion was planted with Native Irish and the Lands were in their possession but now after so great a Desolation and Destruction as the Wars made most of the Lands were planted and peopled by the English and Scotch who adventured their Lives and Fortunes in reducing it who carried over with them the best Cattel Horses and Sheep England could afford where they have raised such a Breed as will compare with the best in England for largeness and fatness and the Wool Butter and Cheese there raised is not inferiour to what is made in England for goodness and yet notwithstanding they have many lean Cattel to spare but their Sheep need no fattening The Laws there are made by a Parliament consisting of most English and Scotch with aim especially to encourage the making of Cloth and Woollen Manufactures to the end they may supply Foreign Markets which they doubt not to effect ere long at half the price English Cloth goes at And they do by their Laws discourage the bringing of their Wool into England and have laid a great Custom upon all Cloth Stuffs Stockings and Hats that shall be imported out of England This they do acknowledge in Print and that they have furnished Holland Flanders France Portugal Spain and the Streights plentifully with Provisions namely Beef at 9 or 10 s. the hundred weight confessing that not only English but other Nations have their Factors residing in Ireland to buy up Beef Fish Tallow and