If the Bank was thus regulated, the Nation would soon see its good Effects

If the Bank was thus regulated, the Nation would soon see its good Effects; Trustees might place out Orphan’s Money with good Security, and Widows and others, whose Maintenance depends on their Interest, would have it duly paid to answer their Occasions; the whole Cash of the Kingdom would be in a continual Circulation, and not lie dead, as too much of it now does; the Gentry and Traders, who are obliged on many Occasions to take up great Sums at Interest, would have it made easy to them, when they might pay in by such Parts, as they could conveniently spare it; and on the other Hand, it would be no Inconvenience to the Bank to receive it, which will by this Means never want Borrowers, and their Notes passing in Payment, will circulate instead of Money.

These Methods will prevent many Cheats and Losses, which are often occasioned by fraudulent and insufficient Drawers, and abate the excessive Præmio’s which are demanded by Remitters, when they can take Advantages of Men’s Necessities; and the Taxes received in the Country might be quicker and safer paid into the Treasury. And if the Bank was likewise extended to Ireland, it would be an Advantage to both Kingdoms, which I shall speak farther to, when I come to discourse of the Trade we drive to that Kingdom.

7. By increasing the Silver Coin of this Kingdom, which are the Tools wherewith the Trader works: It may at first seem strange, that our Silver Coin should grow scarcer, at a Time when we are at Peace with all Nations, our Trade open, and vast Quantities of Bullion yearly imported; but he that considers how much thereof is carried away to the East-Indies, and how little Encouragement the Importer hath to send it to the Mint, when he can sell it for more to export, than it will come too when coined, will cease to wonder; and except some Care be taken in this Matter, we shall soon be reduc’d to such Straits, that the Manufacturers must stand still: for tho’ Gold may serve for large Payments, yet it can’t answer the Occasions of the Manufacturers, who are to make their Payments among the Poor.

Now if these, or such like Methods, were made use of, they might very much encrease our Silver Coin; as,

1. Let the East-India Company be Limited in the Quantity of Bullion they shall ship out yearly, whether the Number of Ships they send be few or many; and let them be oblig’d to carry to the Mint such a suitable Proportion according to what they send away, as to the Wisdom of the Parliament shall seem meet.

2. Let Encouragement be given to all Persons, who shall voluntarily bring Plate or Bullion to be coined.

3. Let the Plate of Orphans be brought into the Mint, which will tend to their Advantage as well as to the Nations, whereas now great Quantities lie dead, and grow out of Fashion before they come to use it, which will by this Means be turned into ready Money, and being put into the Bank, the Interest thereof may be employ’d for their better Maintenance, and the Trade of the Nation will also receive a Benefit thereby: If it be objected, that ’tis now sold to Goldsmiths, I think this make the Argument for sending it to the Mint much stronger, because it is much better that it were turn’d into the Coin of the Kingdom, then disposed of in any other Way.

As for Gold, there is no need to give Encouragement to bring it to the Mint, ’tis only a Commodity, and not the Standard, as Silver is; besides, ’tis generally worth more here than in any other Country; and ’tis apparent from the great Quantity thereof which is coined yearly more than of Silver, that it is every one’s Interest to send it thither.

8. By discouraging Stock-jobbing: This hath been the Bane of many good Designs, which began well, and might have been carryed on to Advantage, if the Promoters had not fallen off by selling their Parts, and slighted the first Design, winding themselves out with Advantage, and leaving the Management to those they had decoyed in, who understood nothing of the Business, whereby all fell to the Ground; which may be prevented (I mean, so far as concerns incorporated Stocks) by Laws framed for that end, or by Clauses in their Charters.

9. By strengthening the Laws against the Exportation of Wool, by such Practicable methods as may prevent its being done: For seeing the Nations Interest so much depends thereon, no Care can be too great, nor Methods laid too deep: Laws concerning Trade, whose sole Strength are Penalties, rarely reach the thing aimed at; but practicable Methods, whereby one thing may answer another, and all conspire to carry on the same Design, hanging like so many Links in a Chain, that you cannot reach the one, without stepping over the other, these are more likely to prevent Mischiefs: ’Tis one thing to punish People when a Fact is committed, and another to prevent their doing it, by putting them as it were under an Inability; Now where the Welfare of the Kingdom lies so much at Stake, certainly it cannot be thought grievous to compell submission to good Methods, tho’ they may seem troublesome at first.

And that we may the better perceive the Mischiefs that attend the carrying abroad of Wool unwrought to other Nations, let us consider the Consequences thereof in what is shipt to France; whose Wool being very coarse, and fit only for Rugs and Blankets, and such ordinary Cloth, is by mixture with ours and Irish, used in the making of many Sorts of Stuffs and Druggets, whereby the Sales of our Woollen Manufactures are lessened, both there, and in other Places whither we export them; and by this Means, every Pack of Wool sent thither, works up two besides itself, being chiefly combed, and combing Wool, which makes Wool for the French Wool, and the Pinions thereof serve with their Linnen to make coarse Druggets, like our Linsey-Woolsey, but the Linnen being spun fine, and coloured, is not easily discerned; also our finest short Wool, being mixt with the lowest Spanish, makes a middling Sort of Broad-cloth, and being woven on Worsted Chains, makes their best Druggets, neither of which could be done with the French Wool only, unless in Conjunction with ours or Irish, Spanish Wool being too fine and too short for Worsted Stuffs, and unfit for combing, so that without one of those two Sorts, there cannot be a Piece of Worsted Stuff, or middle Broad-Cloth made; no other Wool but English or Irish will mix well with Spanish for Cloth, being originally raised from a Stock of English Sheep, the Difference, arising from the Nature of the Land whereon they are fed; of this we have Experience in our own Nation, where we find, that Lemster Wool is the finest, next, Part of Shropshire and Staffordshire, Part of Gloucestershire, Wilts, Dorset and Hampshire, Part of Sussex, Kent, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, these are proper chiefly for Cloth, some Part for Worsted; Sussex, Surry, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and some other Counties, produce Wool much coarser and cheaper: But then Berkshire, Buckingham, Warwick, Oxon, Leicester, Nottingham, Northampton, Lincoln, and Part of Kent called Rumney Marsh, the Wool in most of these Counties is so proper for Worsted, that all the World (except Ireland) cannot compare with it, therefore requires our greater Care to prevent its Exportation; and more particularly from Ireland, whence it is exported to our Neighbouring Nations, and sold cheap.

As for the Wool of North-Britain, I am not sufficiently verst therein, to give a true Account of the Nature of it.

I know many Methods have been thought of to prevent this pernicious Mischief, but all the Laws I have yet seen, seem to reach but half Way, they depend too much on Force and Penalties, and too little on Method; we must begin deeper, and secure the Wool from the Time of its growing, till ’tis wrought up into Manufactures, and I think nothing less Than a Register, to be kept in every County, will do it.

Nor will this be attended with so much Trouble and Charge to the Nation in general, or to private Persons in particular, as may at first be thought: The Time of Sheering being once a Year, those who keep Sheep may give Notice to the Officer appointed for that District, of the Number of Sheep they have to sheer, and the Day whereon they intend to do it, that so he may be present to see the Fleeces weighed, and to charge them therewith; which Charge must remain upon them till they sell their Wool, and give Notice thereof to the Office, when the next Buyer must be charged, and so toties quoties, till it comes into the Hands of him that works it up; and all this may be done by the Officers of the Excise, in such a manner, as may cost the Nation little.

And to prevent Frauds, let no parcel of Wool above such a Weight as the Parliament shall think fit, be carried from place to place, but in the day time, nor without a Letpass, or Cocket, setting forth from whence it came, and whither it is going; and the same Method must also be extended to Ireland, till it is either used there, or shipt thither; and if the Wool of both Kingdoms by these or any other Methods could be secured from being carried abroad, our Manufactures would find a surer Vent in foreign Markets, and yield better Prices: And the Wool of France would lye on their Hands, and become almost useless; the Credit of the Nation would be raised, and our Factories abroad courted as much as formerly they have been, because the Manufactures we ship out are such, as no Nation can be without, nor can they then be well supplied elsewhere; they are not things only for Pleasure, but for Use, and both the Rich and the Poor stand in need of them; whilst the Profit of this pernicious Practice of Shipping out the Wool, is sunk in the Pockets of private Men, who former Laws accounted Felons, and cannot be thought to deserve any favour from the Nation.

Besides ’tis well known, that the exporting our Wool hath by the ill Consequences thereof abated its Price at Home: This hath been observed by Calculations made by considerate Men; and the Reason is, because those Countries whither it is shipt; being thereby enabled to work up much larger Quantities of their own, the Sale of our Manufactures are grown slack abroad, and we have been forced to sell them cheaper, which beat down the Prices both of Wool and Labour; whereas if we had kept our Wool at Home, this had been prevented; and it must be allowed, that it was not our Interest to fall our Manufacturers, if we had been the only Sellers; for according as they yield in Price, so is the Wealth of the Nation advanced, which our Forefathers well knew, when they made Laws to prohibit the Exportation of Wool, which cannot be too much strengthned, or strongly put in Execution.

10. By taking Care, that in all Treaties of Peace, and other Negotiations with foreign Princes, due Regard be had to our Trade and Manufactures; that our Merchants be well treated by the Governments where they reside; that all things be made easy to them, and both their Liberties and Properties secured; that our Manufactures be not prohibited, or burthened with unreasonable Taxes, which is the same in Effect; that speedy Justice be done in recovering Debts contracted amongst the Natives, and punishing Abuses put on our Factories by them: These are Pressures our Trade hath formerly groaned under, whereby the Merchants abroad, and Manufacturers at home, have been much discouraged, and the English Nation hath been forced to truckle under the French in some foreign Parts, only because that King sooner resented Injuries done to his trading Subjects, and took more Care to demand Reparation than some former Reigns have done; but Thanks be to God, we have both Power and Opportunity to do the same; and there is no Cause to doubt His Majesty’s Royal Inclinations, to make use of both for the Good of his Merchants, when things are duly represented to him.

And thus I have run through the several Parts of our Inland Trade, and shewed, that the Profit thereof arises chiefly from our Product and Manufactures: Before I proceed to our Foreign Trade, I shall speak something of Navigation, which is the Medium between both: This is carried on by Ships and Sailors, the former are the Sea-Waggons, whereby we transport and carry Commodities from one Market to another, and the latter are the Waggoners who drive and manage them: These are a Sort of jolly Fellows, who are generally bold in their Undertakings, and go thro’ any Kind of Labour in their own way, with a great deal of Chearfulness, are undaunted by Storms and Tempests, the Sea being as it were their Element, and are allowed by all to be the best Navigators in the World; they are our Wealth in Peace, and our Defence in War, and ought to be more encouraged than they are in both, but especially in the latter, which might be done, if better Methods were used to engage them in the Service, and better Treatment when they are there: Now I should think, if no Man was forced into the King’s Ships till he had been three Years at Sea, nor to stay there above that Time without his free Consent, and then to be permitted to take a Merchant’s Employment so much longer, and so toties quoties, ’twould encourage them to come willingly into the Service, which they look upon now to be a Slavery, whereto they are bound for their Lives: This, and the Manner of pressing them, hinders very much the making of Sailors, Landmen not caring to put their Hands to the Oar, least the next Day they should be halled away to the Fleet, tho’ they understand nothing of the Sea: By this Means our Men of War would be mann’d with able Seamen, and not with such who only stand in the Way, and are useless, when they are most wanted; nor do I take Embargoes to be any Helps towards it, for many Sailors do then lie hid, who would appear to serve in Merchant Ships, and might be easily met with at the return of their Voyages: By these Means in a short Time three would be a double Set of Mariners, enough both for the Service of the Fleet and of Trade, the last of which would every Year breed more.

This would also prevent great Mischiefs, which arise from pressing Sailors out of Merchant Ships whilst on their Voyages, many of them being thereby lost at Sea, and others have been detained in the West-Indies, to the Discouragement of Trade; and it would also prevent another Mischief, too much practiced abroad, where Captains of Men of War press Sailors from one Merchant Ship, only to make Advantage by selling them to another.

I come now to the Trade we drive with Foreign Countries.

Here ’tis necessary to enquire, how each encourages our Product and Manufactures, how our Navigation, what Commodities we receive in Return, and how the Ballance of our Trade stands with either, that so we may be the better able to know, which of them we ought to encourage, and which to discourage; I shall therefore lay down such general Rules, as I presume will be allowed by all Unbiassed Persons; as,

1. That Trade is an Advantage to this Kingdom, which takes off our Product and Manufactures.

2. Which supplies us with such Commodities as we use in making our Manufactures, and encreases our Bullion.

3. Which incourages Navigation, and breeds up Sailors.

And consequently, any Trade which Exports little or none of our Product or Manufactures, nor supplies us with things necessary for the latter, nor incourages Navigation, cannot be supposed to be profitable to the Kingdom in general, though perhaps it may be so to particular Persons; especially if it carries away our Bullion.

I shall begin with the East-India Trade, which I take to be very prejudical to us, as ’tis now driven; because it exports our Bullion, spends little of our Product or Manufactures, and brings in Commodities perfectly manufactured, which hinder the Consumption of our own, and discourage the wearing such as are purchased with them; the chief Profit thereof arising from Underselling the Labour of our Poor, because ’tis bought there cheaper, than by reason of the Value of our Lands, and the prices of Provisions, they are able to work here. But having spoken fully of this in a former Discourse, and the Parliament having since been pleased, by an Act made in the 10th and 11th Years of his late Majesty King William, to prohibit the wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, Stuffs mixt with Silk or Herba, of the Manufacture of Persia, China, and India, and all Callicoes painted, dy’d, printed or stained there. The Reason of which, is in the said Act set forth to be, The great Detriment the Nation received as the Trade was then managed, by exhausting the Treasure thereof, and taking away the Labour of the People, whereby very many of the Manufacturers were become excessively burthensome and chargeable to their respective Parishes, and others compelled to seek for Employment in foreign Parts, I shall not now repeat what I then wrote, but will consider how far the Remedy they then provided hath answered the End.

The making this Law, gave a new Life to our Manufactures, and would have given more, if the true Intent of the Parliament had been answered: But we have since found that it has not; for it neither keeps our Treasure at home, nor prevents those Commodities from being worn here, which they design’d it should; and I very much question, whether any thing less than a total Prohibition of their Importation will do it; for though they are directed to be exported again, yet there is great Reason to believe, that they are privately brought back, both from Ireland, our Plantations, and other Places to which they are sent, to the Loss of his Majesty’s Customs, and the Prejudice of the Stainers and Painters her, besides the Injury to our Manufactures: Otherwise, how come such great Quantities to be worn and used here, when the Stock in hand hath been so long since spent?

There are other Commodities, which the Company may trade in, and the Tract of Land within their Charter is large enough to afford an advantagious Commerce there, the Profits whereof might be returned hither, in things no way injurious to our Manufactures, such as Raw-Silk, Indigo, Pepper, Salt-Peter, Spices, Drugs, China-Wares, Coffee, Tea, and many other Things, if they were industrious to make Discoveries, as private Merchants would do, if the Trade lay open; and I believe it will not be disputed, that great Quantities of Raw-Silk, have been brought thence since the Making of that Law, than were used to be done before.

I know it hath been alleadg’d, That by the Exportation of those Manufactures again, more Bullion in specie is brought into this Kingdom, than is carry’d out for the buying them in India; but this was never yet made out, and it would be much to the Satisfaction of the People, who daily see that Bullion carried away, and also for the Honour of the Company, that it was done; which if it be really so, might be set forth in this, or any other Method that the Parliament shall think fit.

1. Let them give an Account what Quantities of Bullion they export on every Ship they send abroad, and on what Commodities ’tis laid out.

2. Let them set forth, how and in what manner, these prohibited Manufactures do, on their being Exported again, bring in as much Bullion in specie, as was carry’d out to pay for them in the Indies.

And I think it a proper Work for a Committee of Trade, to receive these Accounts from time to time, and after a just Examination, to lay them before the Parliament at every Meeting, with their Opinions thereon.

But if they only mean, that the Exportation of those Manufactures is a help to us in the Ballance of our Trade, which must otherwise be paid in Bullion, I answer, that our own Product and Manufactures always have, and are still sufficent to support the Ballance of our Trade.

As for white Callicoes and Muslins, they have beat out the wearing of Lawns, Cambricks, and other thin German and Silesia Linnens, which has been the Occasion of turning many of those Looms to the Woollen Manufactures there, that were formerly employed in the weaving them, and hath abated the Exportation of great Quantities of Cloth; besides the hinderance Callicoes give to the consumption of Scots-Linnens, which being thin and soft, are as proper for dying, printing, and staining, as they are, and may be made as white.

The East-Indies is a bottomless Pit for our Bullion, which can never circulate hither again; whereas, if it was sent to any Part of Europe, there might be some hopes, by the Ballance of our Trade, to bring it back again; and when our Bullion fails, that Trade must cease of course, which it will soon do, if the Company continue to carry out yearly as much as our other Trades brings us in.

I wish the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom would be in Love with our own Manufactures, and those which are purchased with them, and that they would by their Examples encourage the using them, which would be attended with the Prayers of the Poor, besides the Advantage it would bring to their Estates.

And as to Navigation, I think it will not be disputed, that long Voyages rather use Sailors than make them, both the Employers, and the Employed, chusing rather to make their first Experiments on short ones.

I will next proceed to the West-India and African Trades, which I esteem the most profitable we drive, and join them together, because of their dependance on each other.