A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to it

by John Cary

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.

By an Act made 1 Ja. II. an Impost of Two Shillings and Four Pence per Cent. was laid on Muscovado Sugars imported from the Plantations, to be drawn back at Exportation; the Traders to the Plantations stirr’d in this Matter, and set forth, That such a Duty would discourage the Refining them here, by hindering the Exportation of refined Sugars, which was then considerable, and carry that Manufacture to Holland and Flanders; but the Commissioners of the Customs prevailed against them, and the Bill past; the fatal Consequences whereof soon appear’d; for the Exporters of Muscavado Sugars, drawing back two Shillings and Four-pence per Cent. by that Act, and Nine-pence per Cent. by the Act of Tunnage and Poundage, foreign Markets were supplied with refined Sugars from other Places cheaper, by about Twelve per Cent. than we could furnish them hence, by which means we were beat out of that Trade: and though the Duty of two Shillings and Four-pence per Cent. was not continued on the Expiration of that Act, by the Parliament 2d W. and M. (as they did the Three-pence per Pound on Tobacco) the bad Effects thereof being then apparent, yet ’tis Difficult to retrieve a lost Trade, trading Nations being like expert Generals, who make Advantages of the Mistakes of each other, and take care to hold what they get.

By a Statute 4th and 5th W. and M. twenty Shillings per Ton was laid on Lapis Caliminaris dug here and Exported, on an Information given to the House of Commons, that it was not to had any where else; the Merchants concerned in exporting that Commodity, made Application, and set forth, that such a Duty would bring in nothing to the Crown, but be a total Bar to its Exportation; yet the Act past, and we were like to have made a fatal Experiment; for till the Statute of the 7th and 8th of the same King, which reduced the Duty to two Shillings per Ton, the Exportation ceased; and in the mean Time, those Places which had been discouraged from digging, and calcining it, because we undersold them, set again to work, and supplied the Markets where we vended ours.

What Injury was done by the Act made in the 9th and 10th W. III. for the more effectual preventing the Importation of Foreign Bonelace, &c. doth sufficiently appear by the Preamble of that made in the 11th and 12th of the same Reign, for repealing it three Months after the Prohibition of our Woollen Manufactures in Flanders (which was occasioned by it) should be there taken off; but I don’t understand that is yet done, and it may prove an irrecoverable Loss to the Nation.

I mention these Things with great Submission to the Judgment of that glorious Assembly, the Wisdom and Strength of the Nation; to whom I only presume with all Humility to offer my Thoughts, that it would very much tend to the putting Matters of Trade into a true Light before them, if they were first referred to a Body of Men, well versed in the true Principles thereof, and able to see through the Sophistical Arguments of contending Parties, to be by them considered, and well digested, before they received the Sanction of a Law.

And as to foreign Treaties; I do not think our Trade hath been so much bettered by them as it might have been, for want of such a Committee; the Representations made by private Merchants, (who generally differ according as their Interests clash with each other) tending rather to distract, than to inform the Government; which would not be, if their first Applications were made to an experienced Committee, who had Judgment enough to substract out of them what was proper to be offer’d; by which means, our Demands might be rendered short and comprehensive.

We have natural Advantages in Trade above other Nations, besides the Benefit of our Situation, the Foundation of our Woolen Manufactures being as it were peculiar to our own Growth, and may be retained amongst ourselves; an Advantage the French have not, whose Wealth arising chiefly from the Exportation of their Wines, Brandy, Salt, Paper, Silks, and Linnens, both we and other Nations, have made such a Progress in them all since the War began, as to render theirs less sought for; whereas, nothing but our own Neglects, and ill Managements, can let our Neighbours into our Manufactures, which we may soon put a stop to, by securing our Wool at Home.

Insurance.I cannot close this Discourse without speaking something of Insurance. The first Design whereof, was to encourage the Merchants to export more of our Product and Manufactures, when they knew how to ease themselves in their Adventures, and to bear only such a Proportion thereof as they were willing and able to do; but by the Irregular Practices of some Men, this first Intention is wholly obviated; who without any Interest, have put in early Policies, and gotten large Subscriptions on Ships, only to make Advantage by selling them to others; and therefore have industriously promoted false Reports, and spread Rumours, to the Prejudice of the Ships and Masters, filling Mens Minds with Doubts, whereby the fair Trading Merchant, when he comes to insure his Interest, either can get no one to underwrite, or at such high Rates, that he finds it better to buy the others Policies at advance; by this means these Stock-Jobbers of Insurance, have, as it were, turn’d it into a Wager, to the great Prejudice of Trade: likewise many ill-designing Men, their Policies being over-valued, have (to the Abhorence of honest Traders, and to the Scandal of Trade itself) contriv’d the Loss of their own Ships: On the other Side, the Underwriters, when a Loss is ever so fairly proved, boggle in their Payments, and force the Insured to be content with less than their Agreements, for fear of engaging themselves in long and chargeable Suits.