A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to It

Part 1

DISCOURSE

TRADE,

AND

Other Matters Relative to it.

VIZ.

Of Trade in general: Of the Trade of England: Of Husbandry, Feeding, Tillage, Corn, Fruit, Fish, Minerals, Trees, Manufactures, Sheep-Wool, Cotton-Wool, Hemp and Flax: Glass, Earthen-Ware, Silk, Distilling: The great Advantages of a universal National Bank demonstrated: Sugar-baking, Tobacco, Tanning, Clock-Work, Paper-Mills, Powder-Mills: Method to improve our Manufactures, by imploying the Poor: Of Courts of Merchants, Silver Coin: An effectual Method to prevent the Running of Wool: Of our Trade to the East and West-Indies, Africa, the Plantations, Iceland, the Canaries, Spain, Portugal Turkey, Italy, Holland, Hamburgh, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, France, South-Sea, &c. What foreign Trades are profitable, and what not. An Essay on National Credit, and the Irish Linnen Manufacture, &c. &c. &c.

Wrote at the Request of several Members of Parliament And now Published for universal Benefit.

By JOHN CARY, Esq; Merchant of Bristol.

LONDON:

Printed for T. OSBORNE in Gray’s-Inn,

MDCCXLV.

The Right Honourable

Spencer Compton, Esq;

SPEAKER.

And to the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, of this Present Parliament of Great-Britain, Assembled.

May it Please your Honours,

THE First Edition of this little Tract, Relating to Trade, the Poor, &c. was Humbly Dedicated to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, when Governor of the South-Sea Company, which I then thought, as I still do, might be of Service to the Nation, by alluring the Heir to the Crown, into an Early liking of Trade, and Setting before him the Advantages that Accrue from it, with the Methods whereby it may be Improved; and therefore I Contracted it into a narrow Compass to Encourage his Reading it.

THIS second Edition, whereto I have added some sure and practicable Methods, for Discharging the Public Debts of the Nation, with most Ease to the People, I humbly Present to this Honourable House; If it may be Usefull in your Debates, I shall think myself very Happy.

’TIS the Ballance of our Trade, that supplies us with Bullion; if That be in our Favour, it brings it to us, if otherwise, it must be carried away.

THIS Ballance is supported by our Manufactures, which keep our People at Work, and enable them to Maintain themselves by their own Labour, who must else stand still, and become a Charge on our Lands; and therefore I humbly conceive it to be our Interest, First, to encourage their being worn at Home, and then to give a Preference to such Things, as are Purchased for them abroad, rather than to those, which are bought for Bullion; and if our Trade was well regulated, we should soon become the Richest, and consequently the Greatest, People in Europe.

I have made some Essay at such Methods, as I doubt not, being Improved by your Wisdoms, and strengthened by your Authority, may Tend very much to the Effecting this great Work; And I humbly Offer the six Propositions following, as so many Fundamentals, necessary, for the better Ordering of our Trade, the Discharging of our public Debts, and Supporting the Credit of the Kingdom, whereby His Majesty will be rendred more Glorious, both at Home and Abroad.

THE First is, a Committee of Trade, made up of such Men as are well verst in the true Principles whereon it is Founded, and thereby enabled to make right Representations of such things, as shall be referred to them by the Parliament; who, Holding their Places, according as they are thought capable of performing them, will be careful to execute those Trusts with Judgment, Honour and Honesty.

THE second is, a due Inspection into the Affairs of the Poor, and putting an End to that Pernicious Trade of Begging, which I can assure this Honourable House, from the Experience we have had in their Regulation at Bristol, may be done, and that the Poor may be trained up to an early Delight in Labour; the Means and Methods whereby That was Accomplished, though at first Thought Impracticable, I have set forth in the Appendix. pag. 167.

THE Third is, the Keeping of our own Wool at home, and preventing the Wool of Ireland from being Transported any where else except to this Kingdom; which I am persuaded can never be done, by any other Method, but by a Register, and that That will effectually do it; towards which I have made an Essay in the following Treatise.

THE Fourth is, the Encouraging the Linnen-Manufacture of Ireland; ’Tis not easy to comprehend the Advantages that will thence arise to both Kingdoms, when each of them shall be fully employed, on a Distinct Manufacture: the Hands that are now kept at Work there, on the Spinning of Wool, might be then turned to Linnen, and a great Part of their Lands would be taken up, in raising Flax and Hemp, for which they are very proper; and then a Stop might be put to the Importation of those great Quantities of Worsted and Woollen Yarn thence, so pernicious to the Poor of this Kingdom, the Spinning whereof, if Imported in Wool, would amount to many Thousand Pounds per Annum, to be divided among them; and it is certain, that Spinning is the most profitable Part of the Woollen Manufacture, because it is done by Women and Children, who can no otherwise be employed.

IN the Year 1704, I was desired by the Ministry to give my Thoughts of such an Undertaking, which I then did, and printed some Considerations relating thereto, adapted for that Time, which I have added in the Appendix, pag. 158.

NOR can this be any Prejudice to the Linnens of North-Britain, being of quite different Sorts; which should also for many Reasons be Encouraged, by such Means and Methods, as on due Consideration may be thought proper.

THE Fifth is, the carrying on the Fishery, which deserves all the Encouragement the Legislature can give it; and I think the readiest way to do it, is, by incorporating such Societies, as are witting to set upon it with joint Stocks, but not exclusive to any others, which will promote Industry, and shut out Stock-jobbing, the Bane of so many good Undertakings.

Part 2

THE sixth, and indeed the Foundation of all the rest, is, the establishing a substantial Credit, large enough to answer all the Occasions of the Nation, both public and private, which is the Wheel whereon all the rest must turn, and whereby, not only the Trade of the Kingdom, but also the Occasions of the Government may be supplied, and the public Debts gradually sunk, by a good Management; and This, I humbly Conceive, cannot be settled any other way, but on a parliamentary Foundation, any Thing less will be too narrow.

IN the Year 1696, I made some Essay towards such a Credit, which I then presented to both Houses of Parliament, and have now incerted it in the Appendix, pag. 174. But the Bank of England having about that time furnished his Majesty with a considerable Sum of Money, then very much wanted, for the present payment of the Army, which the Ministry could not otherwise have raised, tho’ they approved of the Projection, were unwilling to disoblige at that Juncture, by setting up any thing like theirs, and so that Matter slept then, as it had ever done, if I had not observed that the famous Mr. Laws had drawn a Scheme from it, for the Service of France, as near as the Constitution of that Kingdom will admit; not that I think it can be lasting, the Foundation being laid on Sand; Yet it hath served the present Occasion, to pay off the Debts of that Nation, by an incredible Stock-job, which must in all probability, end in Confusion and Discontent.

NOTHING can support a National Credit, but a steady Government, where the arbitrary Will of a Prince cannot withdraw, or lessen the Security at his Pleasure; and had such a one been then establish’d here, in all probability, we bad been several Millions less in Debt, and not felt that heavy load of Taxes, which hath opprest our Lands, and injur’d our Trade; nor do I think those Debts can be discharged by any other way, private Men now carrying off those Profits, which should sink them by degrees.

THE Advantages of a National Bank, and the good Effects it will have, in this Free Government, towards the Lessening our national Incumbrances, will plainly appear, when it is considered, that one hundred Pounds borrowed, will circulate two, besides it self, and thereby reduce the Interest, to one third Part of what is paid to the Lender; but if it circulates three, then to a Quarter, and it may be, to much less, according as a Bank hath Credit, and is found Useful.

BY this Rule, if the Public pays Four per Cent. for Interest, it may by Circulation be reduced to one, and there is no doubt, but that a Well-constituted Bank, will be soon fill’d with Money at that Rate; the great Ground of Buying and Selling Stock being, the vast Sums of Money which lie dead on Mens Hands, who hope thereby to make some Profit, but would be glad to dispose of it, on a substantial Security, at a moderate Interest; besides the Advantage it will be to Widows and Orphans, whose Money would be safely lodged, and bring them in a certain Income, for their Maintenance; and here will be no room left for Stock-jobbing, which hath now got such a Footing, even into our public Affairs, that the Parliament doth not give a Land-Tax or a Lottery, where the Subscriptions to it are not Ingrost, by those who have not Money, in order to make an Advantage, by selling them to such as have, besides the vast Charge in the management of Lotteries.

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