To clear this we are to consider how a Trade may be advantageous or detrimental to a Nation, and then to draw Inferences thence applicable to the above Proposition; I shall therefore lay down such general Notions as may without dispute be allowed by all unbyassed Persons, which are these:
1. That that Trade is advantageous to the Kingdom of England which Exports our Product and Manufactures.
2. Which Imports to us such Commodities as may be manufactured here, or be used in making our Manufactures.
3. Which supplies us with such things, without which we cannot carry on our Foreign Trade.
4. Which encourages our Navigation, and increases our Seamen.
And consequently that Trade which exports little or none of our Product or Manufactures, nor supplies us with things necessary to promote Manufactures at home, or carry on our Trade abroad, nor encourages Navigation, cannot be supposed to be advantageous to this Kingdom; especially when its Imports hinder the consumption of our own Manufactures, and more especially when those Imports are chiefly the purchase of our Bullion or Treasure.
And because I would be rightly understood in my third Proposition, I mean those Commodities without which we are not able to fit out our Ships for a Foreign Trade, such as are Pitch, Tar, Hemp, Sail-Cloth, Masts, Timber, and such like; These are so absolutely necessary, that we must have them though purchased for Bullion, as being the chief Hinges whereon Trade turns, and the Tools by which we Mechannically navigate our Ships, those Bulky Mediums of Foreign Trade; but for those things which are Imported only in order to be Exported again as Commodities to trade on, these cannot be so advantageous to this Kingdom as they may be to the Dutch, who having little Land are maintained rather by Buying and Selling than Manufacturing, whereas England being a large spot of Ground, and having a great Product of its own, (besides what comes from our Plantations) capable to be wrought up or manufactured here, gets by the Imployment of its People, therefore it would be the great Wisdom of our Government to regulate all Foreign Trades by such Methods as may best make then useful in the promoting our Manufactures.
How England may be said to be enrich't by Trade.Here it will not be amiss to consider again how and in what manner a Nation may be said to be enrich'd by Trade; for there must be a difference made between a Nations growing rich and particular Mens doing so by it, and I humbly propose that it may be possible for private Men to be vastly improved in their Estates, and yet at the Years end the Wealth of the Nation not to be a whit greater than at the beginning, and this both in an Inland and an Outland Trade; for whilst the thrifty Shopkeeper buys at one Price, and sells at another to the prodigal Beaux, and the industrious Artificer vents his Labour to the idle Drone, and the politick Contriver outwits the unthinking Bully, one raises his Fortunes on the other's decay; the same for our Outland Trade, if we Export the true Riches of the Nation for that which we consume on our Luxury, tho' private Men may get by each other, yet the Wealth of the Nation is not any way encreased: For suppose by one Hundred Butts of Wines the Importer gets Five Hundred Pounds, yet when drank among our selves, the Nation is not thereby Richer but Poorer, and so much poorer as those Wines cost at first; for if Imported by English Men in English Ships we loose but the first Purchase, the rest being Freights, Customs, and Profits, are divided amongst our selves, but if they are brought in by Foreigners, the Nation loses all but the Customs; I take the true Profits of this Kingdom to consist in that which is produced from Earth, Sea, and Labour, and such are all our Growth and Manufactures.
To apply this now to the East-India Trade, we will first consider what are its Exports and Imports, and then inquire Cui Bono? whither the Contest for this Trade doth proceed from a design to serve the Nation, or from Principles of Self-Interest? or whither the Members of that Company who strive so much about it, would if in other Circumstances still be of the same Mind? for Principles that are in themselves true are always so, we may change our Opinions, but they do not change their Certainty; I confess as the state of a Nation alters so must our measures in Trade, but then it must appear that the State of the Nation and not our private Interests makes us to alter them; Now when I find that it is not the true Interest of this Nation to advance the Product and Manufactures thereof I shall change my Opinion.
First then to begin with their Exports; and here I need not say much, it's generally allowed by the Traders themselves that our Product and Manufactures are the least part thereof, consisting chiefly in Gold and Silver.