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A55623
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An essay on the coin and commerce of the kingdom trade and treasure (which are twins) being the only supporters thereof next to religion and justice.
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Praed, John.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing P3163A; ESTC R221798
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53,333
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71
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that spread Nets upon the Water shall languish that the great Sea business of Fishing be not forthwith set forward May it please your Majesty P. 203. I have the rather undergone the pains of looking into the Policies of the Dutch and French because I have heard them profess they hoped to get the whole Trade of Christendom into their hands And how near the French had got the Trade and Holland into the Bargain let them judge that best understand the Advantage we have by the present War IV. The French King hath been disciplining a victorious Britannia Languens p. 207. and mighty Army and exhausting us by his Trade with a great addition of loss by his Capers and at last hath as it were forced a General Peace Wherefore in order to our future Safety it is indispensibly 276. and speedily necessary to improve and regulate our Trade to the utmost And a compleat regulation of our Trade would render it prodigiously beneficial perhaps 286. more than all the Trade of Europe besides considering how our Advantages in Trade will reduce the Trade of our Neighbours as ours does improve If our Trade had been regulated 291. the very Dutch would have forsaken those Provinces for England or if they had remained they would have been Carriers for the English as they have been to the French and will rather be so for the future The Trade of the World have long courted England P. 301. but never with so much importunity or with so much advantage as now This great Lady affecting Freedom and security hath no inclination to continue under the Arbitrary Power of the French With France she hath resided only as a Sojourner but is ready to espouse our Interest and Nation and with her self to bestow upon us the Treasure of the World But if we will still continue inexorable and stubborn things are grown to such a Crisis that we may have reason to fear that this is the last time of asking And that she may suddenly turn this kindness for the Kingdom into such a fury as we shall not be able to withstand Shall we then embrace so advantageous overtures or shall we proceed in our present Methods I shall leave it here to be computed P. 279. how near a Million per An. our French over-balance hath been ever since the Prohibition not forgetting the courtesie of our Merchants who hearing of the Prohibition imported of French Goods to the value of about a Million V. Besides those fruitfull Islands Speed 's Chron. P. 1. that dispersedly are scattered about the Main like to beautifull Pearl that incompass a Diadem the Isle of Great Britain does raise itself first to our sight as to the body of that most famous and mighty Empire whereof many other Kingdoms and Countries are Parcels and Members being by the Almighty so set in the Main Ocean as that She is thereby the High Admiral of the Seas and the Terrestrial Globe So seated as that She is worthily reputed both the Garden of Pleasure and the Store-house of Profit opening her Havens every way sit to receive all Foreign Traffick and to utter her own into all other parts and therefore as the Sovereign Lady and Empress of the rest deserves our description in the first place And Mr. Reynell saith thus of Jamaica Jamaica is the place that will turn to a great Advantage to the English on many Accounts English Interest p. 83. as by lying so near the Isthmus of Panama and for several other Advantages which I shall not now mention But the very Situation of the Island is extraordinary remarkable and it was the greatest Blessing imaginable that we left the Enterprize of Hispaniola and set on this Island For if we had studied an Age to fix in a place where we might Center the richest Treasure and Trade of the Indies here it must be For Jamaica is Situated so well for Trade or Conquest of the Main if there be Occasion that no Island in the World lyes like it for Advantage it being the Key of the Indies and naturally the Seat of Riches and Empire So that if they had but a Trade once with the Indies adjoyning they have no way to avoid being the richest Colony in the Indies it being wholly surrounded with the main Land and Islands lying in the very Belly of all Commerce in the In-land Sea of Porto Bell which is in the heart of America and near the Mexican Gulph between Peru and Mexico facing to the South and West the richest Continent in the World from which not distant any where much above 100 Leagues Against it on the North lie the two great Islands of Cuba and Hispaniola and a little behither Eastward are the Caribbee Islands but this lieth in the midst of all as Queen of the Indian Isles and no Ship that comes from the West Indies but must pass by one End of this Isle before they come to the Gulph of Florida which place all Ships must pass that come for Europe And had we but a Trade with the Indies so near Neighbours to us we should vend more Commodities than we could send them and have in Exchange store of Silver 'T were the Spaniards Interest also to let us have a free Trade and share with them of some few Port-Towns on the Continent to maintain a Trade and Neighbourliness between us so should we not endanger them but equally defend the Indies with them and they by our means have twice the Riches yearly come home to Spain that now they have Now saith the same Author in his Preface it is a very hard Case if the Heavenly Bounty shall by Nature thus furnish us with so great Assistances and we should not add to it and give some Advance by our own Art and Industry bringing in whatever Foreign Arts Trades or Husbandry may be profitable to us ☜ For doubtless we may Aggrandize our Trade to an inestimable Account if we would our selves and make our Territories as rich and populous as we please under so Glorious a King and Government as we have had we but that publick Spirit as we ought and gave Countenance to brave Actions and industrious Men and minded the Business of Trade and Populacy as much as we do Pleasures and Luxuries And if we were but Industrious no Nation can exceed us in a home or foreign Trade and for foreign Trade England lies so surrounded with our Neighbour Nations that it seems designed for all manner of Riches and for the Seat of the Empire VI. The Kingdom of Heaven saith my Lord Bacon in his Summary Treatise to King James the First touching the enlarging of the Bounds of Empire is compared not to an Acorn or Nut but to a Grain of Mustard-seed which is one of the least Grains but hath in it a Property and Spirit hastily to get up and spread it self So are there Kingdoms and States in Compass and Territories very
saith my Lord Bacon in his Essays and if they flourish not a Kingdom may have strong Limbs but it will have empty Veins and nourish little and Mr. Mun in his English Treasure by Foreign Trade calls them the Stewards of the Kingdoms stock by way of Commerce with other Nations A work saith he of no less reputation than trust and ought to be performed with great Skill and Conscience that so the private gain may ever accompany the publick good But the publick good of the Nation can never prosper under the unjust Stewardship and ill managery of Monopolists So long as we are more restrain'd than other Nations and as it were strangled in Trade the face of Albion's State-Affairs cannot but look black and lose its complection of Nature's white Boy and Britannia will be call'd Languent according to the Title of that excellent Book until the GREAT is dwindl'd into Little BBRITAIN But now we have a King that is constantly recommending the Trade of the Nation which is the Nerve and Sinew of War if we would add Art to Nature give Trade its due liberty and property fullness of People Manufacture and Exportation as the French and Dutch do to theirs we should quickly exceed them both in Trade as we have naturally a greater advantage for the over-balance thereof II. England is by Nature and Scituation the Center of Trade but for want of Art and Encouragement thereunto it serves as the Center doth to make the Circumference And had it not been Puteus inexhanstus ubi Multa abundant as Pope Innocent IV. us'd to say of it it might have been drein'd as dry of substantial Treasure as it is of advantageous Trading But our People are of a middle Temper and do still continue so according to their Climate and not as it should now be according to the Temper of their Prince for when the Majesty of a King is most excellent Mediocrity in the Subjects is too mean The Northern Melancholy and the Southern Choler Hist Discr p. 300. meeting in their general Constitution do render them ingenious and active which nourish'd also under the Wings of Liberty inspires a Courage generous and not soon out of breath Active they are and so nigh to pure Act that nothing hurts them more than much quiet of which they had little Experience from their first Transmigration till the time of King James the First who conquering all Enmity spake Peace abroad to his Enemies and sang Lullaby at home to his Friends III. It is apparent saith Sir Walter Rawleigh to the said King James that no three Kingdoms in Christendom can compare with your Majesty 's for support of Traffick Remains p. 185. and continual Employment for your People within themselves having so many means both by Sea and Land to enrich your Majesty's Coffers Which he reckons up and shows the King how many thousand Men they might employ and how many Millions of Money they would get from the World multiply your Navy enlarge your Traffick make your Kingdom powerful and your People rich Yet through Idleness they are poor wanting Employment many of your Land and Coast-Towns much ruinated We have occasion now for such a great Man who could see things in little and in their prime and your Kingdoms in need of Coin Your Shipping Traffick and Mariner's decay'd For when this King set up for an Vniversal Peace he laid up his Men of War and left Merchandise to shift for it self Whilst your Majesty's Neighbours without these means Whilst this King sang Lullaby to his Subjects they slept on but the French and Dutch were vigilant and awake all this whilt which makes us now sleep the less and as it should behove us to think the more abound in Wealth enlarge their Towns encrease their Shipping Traffick and Mariners and find out such Employment for their People that they are all advantageous to their Common Wealth only by ordaining commodious Constitutions in Merchandizing and fulness of Trade in Manufactury God hath bless'd your Majesty with incomparable Benefits of Copper P. 186. Lead Tyn Iron Alum Copperas Saffron Fells and divers other Native Commodities to the number of about 100. and other Manufactures vendible to the number of about 1000. besides Corn c. as also Wool whereof much is shipp'd off ☞ unwrought into Cloth and Stuff and ☞ Cloth and Stuff transported undress'd ☞ and undy'd which doth employ near Fifty Thousand People in Foreign Parts ☞ whilst you Majesty's People want that Employment in England ☞ And see p. 191. and 195. how many Millions this Nation hath lost for want of following the full Trade of Manufacture and Fishery These Inconveniencies happen by Three Causes especially P. 187. I. The unprofitable course of Merchandise 2. The want of full Manufacture III. The undervaluing of our Coin Our Merchant-Adventurers by over-trading upon Credit P. 188. or by Money taken upon Exchange whereby they lose usually 10 and 12 per Cent and sometimes 15 or 16 are forced to make Sale of their Cloths c. at under-rates to keep up their Credit whereby Cloths being the Jewel of the Land are under valued and the Merchants in short time eaten out The West Countrey-Merchants P. 189. that trade in Cloths to France and Spain do usually employ their Servants young Men of small Experience who by the Cunning of the French Our Merchants Servants and Factors do now combine with the Aliens as the Aliens then combin'd with one another to out wit the Principals here and Spanish Merchants are so entrapped that when all Customs and Charges be accounted their Masters shall hardly receive their Principal Money As for our returns out of France Ditto their Silver and Gold is so highly rated ☞ that our Merchants cannot bring it home but to great loss Therefore the French Merchants set higher rates upon their Commodities which we must either buy dear ☜ or let our Money lie dead there a long time until we can conveniently imploy the same Wherefore may it please your Majesty to consider these points following P. 202. 1. Whether it be not fit that a State Merchant be settled in your Dominions which may encounter the policies of Merchant Strangers who now go beyond us in all profitable Merchandizing 2. Whether it be not necessary ☜ that our Native Commodities should receive their full Manufacture by your own Subjects 3. Whether it be not fit for your Majesty presently to raise your Coin to as high rates as it is in the parts beyond Seas 4. Whether it be not necessary We have been since too forward to cheat the World with our Fish insomuch that they have left us much upon that Account and as if the Fish themselves had resented the Injuries done to them they have as much left us also under the like Judgment which befell the Jews Thy Fishers also shall mourn and they