By making Bonds and Bills Assignable.12. By making Bonds and Bills assignable, and being Assigned and Transferred from one to another, the Assignee to be capable in his own Name to Prosecute the Debtor whose Bond or Bill it is, without using the Name of the Assignor, or any Letter of Attorney from him to require or recover the same; by this means young Men of small Stocks and Credits may on sale of their Goods and taking Bills for Payment return to Market again, and purchase with those Bills such Commodities as they want to carry on their Trades; this also will produce a great Punctuality amongst Traders, for all Men to keep up the Reputation of their Bills will endeavour to be exact in their Payments, that so they may be currant, and freely accepted in Commerce, every One's Credit will then be esteemed according as he is punctual in the payment of his Bills; Besides, this Punctuality will produce another good effect, those Bills will be bought up by mony'd Men for the Advantage of their discount, and it will by degrees lessen the Extortion of Usurers.
By confining to a method in Trade.13. By prohibiting Persons from following several Trades at once, viz. The Merchant from being a Shopkeeper or Retailer, and the Shopkeeper from being a Merchant or Adventurer at the same time; hereby each Trade would be better managed, and with more Advantage to both, for whilst the Merchant employs his Stock abroad in Exporting the Commodities of the Kingdom, and supplying it with others, the Retailer would keep his at home, ready to buy up those Imports, and disperse them into the Country, and both would go on unanimously in their Trades, because neither would interfere in the others Business.
My managing Treaties of Peace to the Advantage of Trade.14. By taking Care that in all Treaties of Peace and other Negotiations with Foreign Princes a due Regard be had to our Trade and Manufactures; that our Merchants be respected, and not affronted by the Governments among whom they reside; that all things be made easie to them, and both their Liberties and Properties secured; that our Manufactures be not prohibited, or burthened with unreasonable Taxes, which is the same in effect; that speedy Justice be done in recovering Debts contracted amongst the Natives, and punishing Abuses put on our Factories by them; These are pressures our Trade hath long groaned under, whereby the Merchants abroad and Manufacturers at home have been much discouraged, and the English Nation hath been forced to truckle under the French in Foreign Parts (especially in Portugal, and the Islands belonging to it) only because that King sooner resented Injuries done to his Traders, and took more Care to demand Reparation, than our last Reigns have done; but blessed be God we have now both Power and Opportunity to do the same, and there is no cause to doubt His Majesty's Royal Inclinations to make use of both for the Good of his Merchants when things are duely represented to him.
Liberty of Conscience.I should in the last place have added Liberty of Conscience, but that being already settled by Law I need not mention it, only this, that it were to be wisht some way might be found out to make Methods of Trade more easie to the Quakers than now they are;The Quakers in respect to Oaths. I am apt to think that he who appears in the Face of a Court to give Evidence on his word if he be a Man of Couscience looks on himself equally obliged to speak the Truth as if he was sworn, and nothing will deter a dishonest Man like she fear of punishment.
The Importation of Materials to be manufactured will encourage Trade.Nor will the prohibiting things already manufactured be any way a hindrance to Foreign Trade, but rather an Incouragement; more Ships will be fraighted, and more Saylors imployed by the Importation of Materials, besides the great Advantage to the Nation in the ballance of its Trade, which must then be returned in Bullion by so much more as they cost less abroad than the others; and this will enable us to afford a greater Consumption of Foreign Commodities spent on our Palates, such as Wines, Fruit, and the like, all which fill our Ships, and are fit Subjects for Trade when the Profits of a Nation enable it to bear their Expence.
Navigation.And thus I have run through the several Parts of our Inland Trade, the Profit whereof depends on our Product and Manufactures; Before I proceed to our Outland or Foreign Trade I shall speak something of Navigation, which is the Medium between both; This is carried on by Ships and Saylors, the former are the Sea Waggons, whereby we transport and carry Commodities from one Market to another, and the latter are the Waggoners which drive or manage them; these are a sort of merry unthinking People, who make all Men rich save themselves, have often more Money than is their own, but seldom so much as they know how to spend, generally brave in their Undertakings, they go through any kind of Labour in their own way with a great deal of chearfulness, are undaunted by Storms and Tempests, the Sea being as it were their Element, and are allowed by all to be the best Navigators in the World; they are our Wealth in Peace, and our Defence in War, and ought to be more encouraged than they are in both, but especially in the latter, which might be done if better Methods were used to engage them in that Service, and better Treatment when there; Now I should think if a List were taken of all the Saylers in England,Manning our Ships of War. and a Law made for every Person who enters himself on that Imploy at the Age of Years to have his Name registred, with the place of his Abode, and be obliged to appear on Summons left at his House, and no Man to be forced into the King's Service till he had been at Sea three Years, nor to stay therein above three Years without his free consent, and then to be permitted to take a Merchant's Imploy for so much longer, and during his being in the King's Service good Provision to be made for his Family at home, and a Maintenance for them in case of his death or being disabled, This would encourage them to come willingly into the Service, which they look on now to be a Slavery whereto they are bound for their Lives, whilst their Families starve at home;Pressing Saylors. This and the manner of pressing them discourages many, and hinders very much the making of Saylors, People not caring to put their Hands to an Oar lest the next day they should be halled away to the Fleet, though they understand nothing of the Sea; I do not think too much Care can be taken for the well manning our Men of War, but I would have it also done with able Seamen, and not with such who will only stand in the way, and are useless when most wanted, and this must not be done by pressing, but by practicable Methods which shall draw every Man to take his turn at Helm; I take Embargoes to be no helps towards it,Embargoes. for many Saylors do then lie hid, who would appear to serve in Merchant's Ships, and might be easily met with at return of their Voyages; by this means in a short time there would be a double set of Mariners, enough both for the Service of the Fleet and Trade, the latter would every year breed more; let the Commanders of Merchants Ships on Arrival give in Lists of the Saylors they have brought home, for whose appearance their Wages should be Bail, and then those whose turn it is to serve in the Fleet should after due time allowed for finishing their Voyages be sent thither, and a penalty on every Master of a Ship who carry'd a Saylor to Sea after his three Years Prodict was expired; such Laws and Time would bring things into regular Methods.
Inconvenience of pressing Saylors from Ships on their Voyages.This would also prevent great Mischiefs and Inconveniencies which arise from pressing Saylors our of Merchants Ships whilst on their Voyages, many of them being thereby lost at Sea, and others detained in the West-Indies, to the great Discouragement of Trade; whereas better ways might be found out of supply the Men of War abroad, all Merchants Ships bound to the places where they are might have a proportionable Number of Sailors deliver'd them by the Admiralty to be carried out Gratis for their Use and Service; and this would prevent another Mischief too often practised abroad, where Captains of Men of War press Saylors from one Merchants Ship only that they may make profit by selling them to another.
Short Voyages breed Saylors.It's supposed that no Trade raises more Seamen than that of Coals from Newcastle, which imploys many Hundreds of Ships to supply the City of London and other Ports of England, and being a home Trade doth thereby breed and encourage Saylors more than long Voyages would do.
Oytland Trade.To come now to the Trade which England drives with Foreign Countrys; here 'tis necessary to enquire how each doth encourage our Product and Manufactures, how our Navigation, what Commodities we receive in Returns, and how the Ballance of Trade stands in either; among which I esteem none to be so profitable to to us as that we manage to Africa and our own Plantations in America, and none so detrimental as that to the East-Indies.
East-Indies.To begin therefore with the East-India Trade, which for many Reasons I take to be mischievous to the Kingdom.