By lowering the Interest of Money.7. By falling the Interest of Money; this would very much quicken Trade, and indeed is the true Measure of it, the Merchant would be better able to cope with Competitors abroad in the Manufactures when his Interest did not eat so deep as now it doth, and the Maker would be enabled to sell them cheaper at Home; if Interest were fallen 'twould make all Trades flourish, for whilst we stand not on the same Terms with our Neighbours herein we must expect to be undersold every where by them; the Dutch pay but Three per Cent, and are thereby enabled to Trade so much lower than we can; the truth is 'tis a shame Money should yield more by being put to Interest than 'twould do if laid out either in Land or Trade; the first doth not clear Four per Cent, the latter will not bring the Borrower Five for all his Pains and Industry when the Userer is paid, whilst the other runs little Risque, and is a Drone in the Common-Wealth; as for Orphans and Widdows, (which is the main Objection against it) let their Expences be lessened suitable to its Fall, and for all other People, let them employ their Money in Trade if they think 'twill yield more; And here I judge it not amiss to mention Banks and Lumbards,Banks & Lombards. which I take to be so many Shops to let out Money, for which they receive such Security, and for such time, as stands most for the conveniency of Trade, and therefore the more the better, because every one will endeavour to underdo another.
By rectifying the Currant Coin.8. By rectifying the Currant Coin of this Kingdom, which is now so debased that Men rather truck than sell for Money, not knowing whither the next Man they deal with will take what they just before received for their Goods; this makes Payments precarious, and Trade uneasie, mony rising and falling on Men's Hands daily, so that now nothing is more uncertain than that which should be the Rule of certainty in the value of all other things.
I do not think it convenient to advance our Coyn, but let Bullion be of the same value when coined as it was before, else we have not the true worth of the Commodity we sell for it, but are deceived by the Stamp, which may be counterfeited by the Dutch and other Nations for the profit of the Overplus, besides it will seem ridiculous for a Man to give Twenty Shillings worth of Silver for Eighteen Shillings of the same specie, only because it is medall'd; this will necessarily be followed by the advance of Silver suitable, the consequence whereof will be the selling our Manufactures abroad cheaper, as we receive less Bullion for them, and the whole Profit redound to the King of Spain, whose Indies by the advance of his Bullion will be worth more than they were before; nor will this hinder its being carry'd abroad, perhaps it may keep our Coin at home, but not our Silver, which will be still carried out in Specie; not that I am of their Opinions who think the advance of Money would raise the price of Foreign Commodities among us, our own Experience shews it will not, we buy and sell as much for Twenty Shillings in Farthings as for so much Silver Coin; nor will their comparison with the Portugal Trade hold here, for when that King advanced the value both of Peeces of Eights, and also of his own Coin, the Importer was obliged to advance the Price of his Goods, because Silver was the Specie wherein he was to make Returns, which he received not as it was worth in Coin but in value by the Ounce, whereas had he laid it out in Commodities the Case had been otherwise, I make a great difference between Money as it is the Medium of Trade, and as it is the Commodity we make returns in; there are better Reasons than this why Coin should be kept up to its true value.
And for the more easie calling it in when the Parliament shall see fit, I think 'twere best to cry down all clipt Money at once, only to be received for six Months by the King in his Taxes, who may send it into the Mint, and if the Computation be allowed that we have about six Millions of Coined Silver Money in the Kingdom, suppose four of it to be clipt, the Taxes of Customs, Excise, Aids, &c. which we pay in six Months will require near that Summ; and if there remain Two Millions unclipt, it will serve the ordinary Expence till so much new Money can come abroad, at the end of which time let all the rest be called in by the same Method; This will bring forth the Broad Money, which is now hoarded up, and during this Scarcity both the King's occasions and those of Trade will be very much answer'd by Gold and Bank Notes; and for better preserving our new-coined Money, let none for the future exceed Shillings, or at most Half Crowns, and those be made broad and thin, with the Ring on the Extent of the Circumference, which will prevent both Clipping and Drilling, and if the Stamp be not deep 'twill prevent casting.
As for the Iron and Counterfeit-Money, (which is supposed to be about a Million) it must be lost to those who have it; and I suppose a Tax of about Fifteen Hundred Thousand Pounds will make good the other.
By discouraging Stockjobbing.9. By discouraging Stockjobbing; This hath been the Bane of many good Manufacturies, which began well, and might have been carry'd on to Advantage if the Promoters had not fallen off to selling Parts, and slighted the first Design, winding themselves out at Advantage, and leaving the Management to those they decoyed in, who understood nothing of the thing, whereby all fell to the Ground; This may be prevented (I mean so far as concerns Corporations) by Laws framed for that end, or by Clauses in their Charters.
By taking away Priviledged Places.10. By taking away all Priviledged Places, and making it easier for Creditors to recover of their Debtors; Men now betake themselves to Sanctuary, and spend what they have at defiance with those to whom they owe it; on the other side if Laws were made for the more equal Distribution of the Estates of those who fall to decay, with a Reserve of some part thereof to themselves on a fair Discovery, and a force on the minor part of the Credits to agree with what Composition should be made by the major, so many People would not then be necessitated to such Methods, or be ruined by lying in Goals, as now there are, but be enabled to put themselves again into ways for a future Maintenance; Misfortunes may and often do befal industrious Men, whose Trades have been very beneficial to the Nation, and to such a due Regard ought to be had; but for those who design under the shelter of a Protection or Priviledge to spend all they have, and thereby cheat their Creditors, no Law can be too severe.
By preventing Exportation of Wool.11. By strengthening the Laws against Exportation of Wool by such practicable Methods as may prevent its being done; and such may be thought on; for when a Nation's Interest doth so much depend thereon, no Care can be too great, or Methods laid too deep; Laws concerning Trade whose sole Strength are Penalties (and especially such as end in Death) rarely reach the thing aimed at; but practicable Methods, whereby one thing answers 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; Its one thing to punish People when a Fact is done, and another to prevent the doing it by putting them as it were under an impossibility; now where the Welfare of the Kingdom lies so much at Stake, certainly it cannot be thought grievous to compel a submission to good Methods, though they may seem troublesom at first.
Thus there have been severe Laws made against carrying the Plantation Commodities directly thence to Foreign Markets, and stealing the Customs when brought home, and what effect these have had we all know, thousands of Hogsheads of Tobacco being yearly Ship'd to Spain, Scotland, and Ireland, both from New-England, and other Places; whereas Sound and Practicable Methods may and are ready to be laid down to prevent both, with few Officers, and fewer Penalties.
The ill consequences of sending our Wool.And that we may better see the Mischiefs which attend the carrying abroad our Wool unwrought to other Nations, let us consider the Consequences thereof in what is Shipp'd to France, whose Wool being very course of its self, and fit only for Ruggs and ordinary Cloth, is by mixture with ours and Irish used in the making of many sorts of pretty Stuffs and Druggats, 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 it self, being chiefly combed and combing Wool, which makes Woofe for the French Wool, and the Pinions thereof serve with their Linnen to make course Druggats like our Linsey-Woolsey, but the Linnen being spun fine and coloured is not easily discerned, also the finest short English Wool being mix'd with the lowest Spanish makes a middling sort of Broad Cloth, and being woven on Worsted Chains makes their best Druggats, neither of which could be done with the French Wool only, unless in Conjunction with ours or Irish, Spanish Wool is 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 fine Worsted Stuff or middle Broad Cloth made, no other Wool but English or Irish will mix well with Spanish for Cloth, being originally of the same kind, raised from a Stock of English Sheep, the difference in fineness coming from the nature of the Land whereon they feed; of this we have Examples in our own Nation, where we find that Lemster Wool is the finest, next, part of Shropshire and Staffordshire, part of Glocester-shire, Wilts, Dorset, and Hampshire, part of Sussex, and part of Kent, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, these are most proper for Cloth, some small part for Worsted; Sussex, Surry, Middlesex, Hartfordshire, and some other Counties produce Wool much courser and cheaper; But then Barkshire, Buckingham, Warwick, Oxon, Leicester, Nottingham, Northampton, Lincoln, and part of Kent called Rumny-Marsh, the Wool in most of these Connties 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 especially from Ireland, whence it is often Exported to our Neighbouring Nations, and sold as cheap as in England.