Part 7

The third Part of our Spanish Trade is that to Flanders, whereby I mean all those Provinces that were formerly under its Government, but are now under the Emperors, whether we send Commodities much of the same Nature as those we send to the other Parts, tho’ not in so great Quantities, and among our Woollen Manufactures more coarse Medleys; also Muscovado Sugars and Coals, but not so much Leather as we have formerly done, being supplied with raw Hides from Ireland, which are tann’d there: We have thence Linnens, Thread, and other Things, which are used both at Home, and also shipp’d to our Plantations.

The next is the Trade we drive to the Kingdom of Portugal, and its Islands, where we vend much of our Product and Manufactures, little different in their kinds from what are sent to Spain; and from thence we have in Return, Salt, Oil, Woad, Fruit, and Wines, besides Gold and Silver: We have, since the Wat with France, increased our Importation of their Wines, which is more our Interest to do, than to have them from France, whence our Imports have been always more than our Exports would pay for, and to this Kingdom our Exports are greater than their Products can make us Returns, especially since we have desisted from bringing hither their Sugars and Tobacco, Commodities wherewith we are more advantageously supplied from our Plantations in America, and are now able to furnish foreign Markets cheaper than they can.

These People were formerly the great Navigators of the World, as appears by their many Discoveries, both in the East and West-Indies, besides the several Islands os the Azores, Cape de Verd, and also Maderas, where they have settled Colonies; to these they admit us a free Trade, but reserve their remoter Settlements on the Continent of Brazil more strictly to themselves, whither they export many of the Commodities we send them, and in Return have Sugars and Tobacco, which are again exported to the European Markets, though little of them hither: Besides which, they have of late brought from thence great Quantities of Gold; their Islands we supply directly with our Manufactures, and from the Azores load Corn, Woad, and some Wines, which we receive in Barter for them, and are the Product of those Islands; the first we carry to Maderas, where ’tis again bartered for the Wines of the Growth of that Island, which are shipt thence to our Plantations in America: In these Settlements the Inhabitants live well, and are plentifully supplied, because they have wherewith to pay for what is brought them; but those residing on the Cape de Verd Islands, being generally made up of Negroes, Molattoes, and such like People, and having little Product to give in Returns, are but meanly furnished, and have scarce enough to serve their Necessities, much less to please their Luxuries, Asses, Beeves, and Salt, being all we have from them, which we generally carry to our Plantations in America: some Salt we bring home; Beef might be made there very cheap, could it be saved, being purchased for little, and Salt for less, but the Climate will not allow it; only the Island of St. Jago is rich, well governed, and a Bishop’s See, where they are well supplied with Necessaries, because they have Money to pay for what they buy.

The Portugueze, as they are now become bad Navigators, so they are not great Manufacturers; some Sorts of coarse Cloth they do make, which is often shipp’d to the Islands of Maderas and the Azores, where ’tis worn with great Delight, and preferred before any other of the like Goodness, because its made in Portugal; and they did once attempt the making Bays, for which they drew over some of our Workmen, but it soon came to an End, and they returned Home again by Encouragement given them here, so prudent a Thing it is to stop an Evil in the Beginning.

The Trade driven to Turkey is very profitable, as it affords us Markets for great Quantities of our Woollen Manufactures, together with Lead, and other Product, shipp’d hence to Constantinople, Scandaroon, and Smyrna, and from thence disperst all over the Turkish Dominions, as also into Persia. The Commodities we have thence in Return are, Raw Silk, Cotton-Wool and Yarn, Goat’s-Wool, Grogram-Yarn, Cordivants, Gauls, Pot-Ashes, and other Things, which are the Foundations of several Manufactures different from our own, by the Variety whereof we better suit Cargoes to export again; and tho’ this Trade may require some Bullion to be carried thither, yet there is a great Difference between buying for Bullion, Commodities already manufactur’d, which hinder the Use and Consumption of our own, such as those brought from the East-Indies, or Things to be spent on Luxury, such as Wines and Fruit, buying therewith Commodities to keep our Poor at Work; these must be had, tho’ purchased with nothing else.

To the several Parts of Italy we send great Quantities of Lead and other our Product, and many Sorts of Woollen Manufactures, but chiefly those made of Worsted; also Fish, and Sugars, both white and brown, the last principally to Venice; We bring thence raw and thrown Silk, and Red-Wooll; also Oyl and Soap, (of the latter we now make a great deal in England,) both used in Working up our Wool, some Paper, Currants, and other things.

Both Venice and Genoa have made some Attempts on a Woollen Manufacture, being furnished with Wool from Alicant, and those Eastern Parts of Spain; wrought Silks and Glass are not so much imported thence as the formerly were, since we have fallen on making them here.

The Dutch likewise Buy many of our Manufactures, and much of our Product, as Coals, Butter, Lead, Tin, besides things of smaller Value, such as Clay, Redding, &c. which are exported to Holland, not only for their own use, but being a Mart of Trade for Germany, they disperse them for the Expence of those Countries; among whom they also Vend our West-India Commodities, such as Sugar, Tobacco, Indigo, Logwood, Fustick, Ginger, Cotton-Wool, besides what they use themselves; they are an industrious People, but having little Land, want Product of their own to Trade on, except what they raise by their Fisheries, or bring from the East-Indies, whereof Spices and Salt-Petre are many times admitted to be brought hither, tho’ contrary to the Act of Navigation; indeed the Trade of the Dutch consists rather in Buying and Selling than Manufactures, most of their Profits arising from that, and the Freights they make of their Ships; which being Built for Burthen, are imployed generally in a Home-Trade, for bulky Commodities, such as Salt from St. Ubes to the Baltick, Timber, Hemp, Corn, Pitch, and such sorts of Goods thence to their own Country, which Ships they Sail with few Hands; and this, together with Lowness of Interest, enables them to afford those Commodities at such Rates, that they are often fetcht from them by other Nations, cheaper then they could do it from the Places of their Growth, all charges considered: ’Tis strange to see how these People Buz up and down among themselves, the Greatness of whose Numbers causes a vast Expence, and that Expence must be supplied from Abroad, so one Man gets by another, and they find by Experience, that as a Multitude of People brings Profit to the Government, so it creates Imployment to each other; besides they Invent new ways of Trade, by selling, not only Things they have, but those they have not, great Quantities of Brandy and other Commodities being disposed of every Year, which are never intended to be delivered, only the Buyer and Seller get or loose, according to the Rates it bears at the time agreed on to make good the Bargain; such a Commerce to this Kingdom would be of little Advantage, and would not advance its Wealth more than Stock-jobbing, our Profits depending on the improving our Product and Manufactures; but that Government raising its Income by the Multitude of its Inhabitants, who pay on all they eat, drink and wear, and almost on every thing they do, cares not so much by what Methods each Person gets, as that they have People to pay; which are never wanting from all Nations, for as one goes away, another comes, and every temporary Resident advances their Revenue; therefore to increase their Numbers, they make the Terms of Trade easy; contrary to the Customs of Cities and private Corporations with us, the Narrowness of whose Charters discourages Industry, and hinders Improvements both in Handicrafts and Manufactures, because they exclude better Artists from their Societies, unless they purchase their Freedoms at unreasonable Rates.

HAMBURGH is another Market for our Manufactures; this City vends great Quantities of our Cloth, as also Tobacco, Sugars, and other Plantation Commodities, together with several of our Products, which are also thence sent into Germany; from whence we have in Return Linnens, Linnen-yarn, and other Commodities, very necessary both for the Use of our selves and of our Plantations, and little interferring with our own Manufactures.

POLAND also takes off many of our Manufacturers, wherewith it is supplied chiefly from Dantzick, whither they are first carried, and thence disperst into all Parts of that Kingdom, which hath but little Wool of its own, and that chiefly in Ukrania; but the Expence of our Cloth hath been lessened there, since Silesia, and the adjoining Parts of Germany, have turn’d their Looms to that Commodity, occasioned by our disusing their Linnens, and wearing Callicoes in their Room; we have thence some Linnens, also Potashes.

RUSSIA is likewise supplied by way of St. Angelo, with our Woollen Manufactures, and other Things, also with some Tobacco; but the Sale of the latter is decreased, occasioned (as I am informed) by the Indiscretion of our Merchants that imported it; who putting an excessive Price thereon, caused the Czar to encourage the Planting it in his Dominions, which being very large, and reaching from the Mare Album Northward, to the Caspian Sea Southward, besides its vast Extent from East to West, affords Climates enough proper for it; by which means, we are in danger of losing the Sale of that Commodity, so profitable to the Nation, which we might have continued, if they had not been too covetous at first: We have in Return from thence, Hemp, Potashes, Russia Hides, with some Linnen, and other Commodities, both useful at Home, and fit to be carried abroad.

SWEDEN and its Territories, takes off great Quantities of our Manufactures, both fine and coarse, and some of our Product, besides Tobacco and Sugars, and other Plantation Goods; but the Sale of our Cloth hath been lessen’d there, occasion’d by their loading it with great Duties, on purpose to encourage a Manufacture of their own; their Wool is coarse, so consequently the Cloth made thereof must be ordinary; however, the late King encouraged the Wearing it, by his own Example, and thought it the Interest of his Kingdom so to do: Yet all sorts of Serges, Stuffs, and Perpets are carried thither, and I think as freely as before; from thence we have Copper, Iron, and some other Things.

DENMARK is supplied from us with Woollen Manufactures, yet takes no great Quantities, and Norway less, the People of the latter being generally poor; some Tobacco and Sugar is also shipp’d hence and spent amongst them.

From these three last Northern Kingdoms we are furnished with Pitch, Tar, Hemp, Masts, Baulks, and Deal boards, all very useful to us, and without which, we can’t carry on our Navigation, and therefore we must have them, though purchas’d with Money; but the Parliament having encouraged the Importation of some of them from our Plantations on the Continent of America, our Dependence on them for those Things, will in all probability be lessened every Year: I look on any thing that saves our Timber, to be an Advantage to the Nation, which Baulks and Boards do.

The French Trade hath every Age grown less profitable to our Woollen Manufacturers, as the Inhabitants make wherewith to supply, both themselves and other Nations, which they could not do, were they not furnished with Wool from hence and Ireland, their own being unfit to work by it self: Nor doth France spend much of the Growth and Product, either of this Kingdom, or of our Plantations, and furnishes us with nothing to be manufactured here, so that the Trade we drive thither, turns only to their Advantage; which being generally for Things consumed among ourselves, and our Imports exceeding our Exports, must needs be Loss to the Kingdom; but if the Linnen Manufacture can be settled in Scotland and Ireland, Paper, Distilling, and Silk Manufactures, encouraged here, the Ballance will soon be altered, especially since the Portuguese have made such Improvements in their Wines; only their Salt we shall still want for our Fisheries.

As to the South-Sea Trade, I cannot undertake to say much to it, being but lately entered upon, and limited by Act of Parliament to an exclusive Company, according to whose Management it may prove more or less Advantagious to the Nation; only in this I believe we may be certain, that they will never carry away our Bullion, as the East-India Company does, but in all Probability, will bring us more.

And thus I have run through the Foreign Trades driven from this Kingdom, and shew’d how they advance its Interest, by taking off our Product and Manufactures, and supplying us with Materials to be manufactured again; wherein ’tis a certain Rule, that so far as any Nation furnishes us with things already manufactured, or only to be spent amongst our selves, so much less is our Advantage by the Trade we drive with them; especially if those Manufactures interfere with our own, and are purchased with Bullion. Therefore I think the East-India Trade to be unprofitable to us, hindering by its Silks, Muslins, and Callicoes, the Consumption of more of our Manufactures in Europe, than it takes from us. The Spanish, Turkey, and Portugal Trades, are very advantagious, as they vend great Quantities of our Manufactures, and furnish us with Materials to be wrought up here, and disperse our Commodities to other Places, where we could not so well send them ourselves; this Spain doth to its Settlements in America; Turkey to all its Territories, both in Europe and Asia, and also to Persia; Portugal doth the same to Brazil. The Dutch, Hamburgh, and Dantzick Trades are very useful, as they supply Germany, Poland, and some Parts of Russia, with our Manufactures, and little interfere with us in theirs. Sweden and Denmark are profitable, both in what they take from us, and in what we have from them again. Italy takes off much of our Worsted Manufactures, and sends us little of its own, save wrought Silks, whereof we shall every Year import less, as we increase that Manufacture at home; but above all, I esteem the African and West-India Trades to be most profitable to the Nation, as they imploy more of our People at Home, and give greater Incouragement to our Navigation by their Product; but the French Trade is certainly our Loss, France being like a Tavern, with whom we spend what we get by other Nations; and ’tis strange, we should be so bewitcht to that People, as to take off their Growth, which consists chiefly of things for Luxury, and receive a Value only for the Esteem we put on them, whilst at the same Time, they prohibit our Manufactures, in order to set up the like among themselves, which we encourage, by furnishing them with Wool.

The Ballance of that and the East-India Trade, is always against us, from whom we have in Goods more than we ship them, and therefore must lessen our Bullion; the Ballance of Spain and Portugal is always in our Favour, and therefore must encrease it; as for the Dutch, Germany, and Hamburgh, their Ballances are not yet agreed on; some think we ship them most, others, that we receive most from them; I incline to the former: The Northern Crowns supply us with more than they take from us, but they are Commodities we can’t be without, at least, till we can be better furnish’d with them from our Plantations in America; Turkey may require some Bullion, yet the Trade we drive thither is very beneficial to us; Italy will grow more and more in its Ballance on our Side, as the Importation of wrought Silks is lessen’d, and turn’d into raw and thrown. Now considering, that almost the whole World is supplied by our Labour, and that our Plantations do daily bring us such Incomes, ’tis strange, if this Nation should not grow rich, which doubtless it would do above all our Neighbours, were our Trade rightly looked after.

Those who cope with us in our Manufactures, are chiefly the French; but let due Care be taken to prevent their being supplied with Wool from hence, and from Ireland, and we shall soon see an Alteration therein: ’Tis true, they have Wool of their own, but they cannot work it without ours or Irish: The Commodities they make, are generally slight Stuffs, wherein they use a great deal of Combing Wool; and these they not only wear themselves, but send them to Portugal, and other Parts, with good Success; to countermine which, We have fallen on making them, by Assistance of the French Refugees; I wonder at the Fancies of those Men, who are always finding Fault, that we do not make our Manufactures as strong as formerly we did, wherein I think they are to be blamed, for we must fit them to the Humours of the Buyers, and slight Cloth brings as much Profit to the Nation as strong, and the same Employment to the Poor; yet where Seals and other Marks are set, let them be certain Evidences to the Truth of what they certify, either as to the Length of the Piece, or that the Inside is suitable to the Outside, or that ’tis truly wove, and without Flaws; the same with respect to the Colour, that ’tis woaded, or madder’d, or the like: But there is a great deal of Difference between this, and obliging the Manufacturer to make his Cloth or Stuff to a certain Weight and Thickness, without respect to the Buyer, or the Climate to which it is sent. As for the Dutch, as I take them to be no good Planters, so likewise no good Manufacturers, their Heads are not turned that Way, but rather to Traffic and Navigation. The Flanderkins were once famous in the Art of Cloth-making, which they carried on by the Wool they fetch’d hence: But King Edward the Third, by keeping our Wool at home, put a stop to that Manufacture. If therefore the prohibiting our Wool to be carried out, had at that Time so good an Effect and Consequence against those People, why should not our Care to prevent its being carried out now, have the same against the French? We cannot indeed hinder them from Spanish, but we may from our own and Irish. As for Sweden, I am apt to think their Manufactures will come to little. And as for Germany, the Woollen Manufacture is not so natural to them as the Linnen, which they would keep close to, if we gave them Encouragement, by wearing it here, and sending it to our Plantations, which would be more advantagious to us, than by the use of Muslins and Callicoes, to put them on fencing with us at our own Weapons, which they very unwillingly undertake. The Woollen Manufactures in Italy are but small, and those chiefly among the Venetians, something among the Genoese; these we cannot hinder, being supplied with Wool from those Parts of Spain which are near them, except we could promote a Contract with the Spaniard for all he hath; and if it should be objected that we should then have too much, ’tis better to burn the Overplus at the Charge of the Public (as the Dutch do their Spices) than to have it wrought up abroad, which we can’t otherwise prevent, seeing all the Wool of Europe is Manufactured somewhere; and if the Act for burying in Woollen did extend to our Plantations in America, ’twould be of great use towards the Consumption of our Wooll; thus, when the Nation comes to see, that the Labour of its People is its Wealth, ’twill put us on finding out Methods to make every one Work that is able; which must be done, by hindring such swarms from going off to idle and useless Employments, and by preventing such Multitudes of lazy People from being maintained by begging.

And this is farther to be noted in our Trade with Foreign Nations, that where they fetch from us our Product and Manufactures, and make their Imports to us, in their own Ships, we get less by the Trade we drive with them, than if we did it in ours, because that doth also encourage our Navigation; and Freights are a great and profitable Article in Trade; therefore we get more by the Spanish Trade, because we generally drive it in our own Bottoms; and we lose more by the French Trade, when they bring us their Wines and Brandy, than when we fetch them ourselves; and accordingly we may take our Measures in judging of all other Trades.

It hath been a great Debate how the Ballance of our Foreign Trade shall be Computed, and what Methods we should take whereby to know it, and it has been thought, that the most proper way to make a true Judgment therein is, by taking an Account from the Custom-house Books of our Exports and Imports; but if this Method would do, yet I do not think there can be any Certainty, either of the one or the other, drawn from thence; for, as for our Imports, the Bullion, and such Things of Value, are not entered there, and seldom presented; and as to the Exports, seeing our Woollen Manufactures go out Custom-Free, the Entries there made of them cannot be depended on; but suppose a more exact Account of our Exports and Imports could be had, yet, since so great a part of the Trade of this Kingdom is driven by Exchange, and such vast Quantities of Commodities are Imported from our Plantations for Account of the Inhabitants there, the Produce whereof they leave here as a stock at Home, and that they are supply’d hence with so many Things for their own Consumption, I cannot see how any moderate Computation can be this way made of our general Trade, much less of that we drive with any particular Nation, the Commodities which we receive at one place, being often carried to another; thus we transport to Italy the Sugars we receive for our Manufactures in Portugal, and bring thence Silk and other Things to be manufactured here, and yet we must not conclude we lose by the Portugal Trade, because the Returns thence fall short by the Custom-House Books, or that we get more by the Italian Trade, because it doth not appear by those Books how we exported Commodities to pay for what we Import thence; and as to the Profits we make by the Freights of our Ships, it doth not at all appear from them, nor at what Rates our Product and Manufactures are sold Abroad, or our Plantation Goods to Foreigners at home; so the Thing must still remain doubtful; and I know no more certain way to Judge of it, than by the Increase the Nation makes in its Bullion, which always arises from the over Ballance of our Foreign Barter and Commerce.

And for the better Encouraging the Trade of this Kingdom, I think it well worthy the Thoughts of a Parliament, whether a standing Committee, made up of Men well verst therein, should not be appointed; whose sole Business it should be to consider the State thereof, and to find out Ways to improve it; to see how the Trades we drive with Foreign Kingdoms, grow more or less profitable to us; how, and by what Means we are out-done by others in the Trades we drive, or hindered from enlarging them; what is necessary to be prohibited, both in our Exports and Imports, and for how long Time; to hear Complaints from our Factories Abroad, and to correspond with our Ministers there, in Affairs relating to our Trade, and to represent all Things rightly to the Government, with their Advice, what Courses are proper to be taken for its Encouragement; and generally to study by what means and Methods the Trade of this Kingdom may be improved, both abroad and at home.

If this was well settled, the good Effects thereof would soon be seen; but then, great Care must be taken, that these Places be not fill’d up with such who know nothing of the Business, and thereby this excellent Constitution become only a Matter of Form and Expence.

In the Management of Things of much less moment, we employ such who are supposed to understand what they undertake, and believe they cannot be carryed on without them; whilst the general Trade of the Nation (which is the support of all) lies neglected, as if the Coggs that direct its Wheels did not need skill to keep them true: Trade requires as much Policy as Matters of State, and can never be kept in a regular Motion by Accident; when the Frame of our Trade is out of Order, we know not where to begin to mend it, for want of a set of experienced Builders, ready to receive Applications, and able to judge where the Defect lies.

Such a Committee as this, will soon appear to be of great Use and Service, both to the Parliament in framing Laws relating to Trade, and also to the Government in the Treaties they make with Foreign Nations.

As to the first, it hath sometimes been thought, that when that great and glorious Assembly hath medled with Trade, they have left it worse than they found it; and the Reason is, because the Laws relating to Trade, require more time to look into their distant Consequences, than a Session will admit; whereof we have had many Instances.

To begin with the French Trade; in the 22d Car. II. a new Import was laid on Wines, viz. Eight Pounds per Ton on the French, and Twelve Pounds per Ton on Spanish and Portuguese: This Difference (with the low Subsidies put on their Linnens by former Acts, in respect to those of other Places) was a great Means of bringing the Ballance of that Trade so much against us, that the Parliament in the 7th and 8th of Gul. III. thought fit to make an Act, (and is continued by this present Parliament for a longer time) which in Effect, prohibited all Trade with that Nation for One and Twenty Years, by laying a great Duty on the Importations thence, in order to prevent a Correspondence, till the Trade should be better regulated.

In the 14th Car. II. Logwood was permitted by Act of Parliament to be imported, paying five Pounds per Ton Duty; the same Act repeals two Statutes of Queen Elizabeth against Importing and Using it in Dying here, and sets forth the Ingenuity of our Dyers, in finding out Ways to fix the Colours made with it; and yet at the same time gave a Draw-back of three Pounds fifteen Shillings per Ton on all that should be Exported, whereby Foreigners use it so much cheaper in their Manufactures than ours can here; which proceeded from a too hasty making that Law, and being advised, or rather abused, by those, who regarded more their own Interest, than that of the Nation.