South Sea.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.
What Foreign Trades are profitable to our Manufactures, and what are not.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 each Trade.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.
What Nations chiefly cope with us in our Manufactures.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.
Difference in Employing our own Ships and those of other Nations.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.
Whether a true Judgment may be made of the Ballance of Foreign Trade.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.
Committee of Trade.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.