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.
By increasing the Silver Coin.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.
By discouraging Stock-jobbing.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.
By preventing the Exportation of Wool.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.
The ill Consequences of shipping out our Wool.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.