Nor will it be reasonable unless this Liberty be given to bind up Ireland from a Foreign Trade, and consequently to confine the consumption of its Product to a Home Expence, except what we shall occasionally fetch from them to carry Abroad; This as it will discourage the Freeholders there, so will it Industry here, and the Trade must be managed by great Funds, small Stocks not being able to engage in transporting the Commodities they receive in Barter to Foreign Markets, which they might in bringing them to England, being a shorter Voyage; and so consequently the Product of Ireland would have more Buyers, and the Inhabitants be supplyed with Necessaries on cheaper Terms by this free Trade, than when their whole Dependance should be on those Monopolizers.
The next Question will be what effect the taking off this Prohibition will have on our native Product? Whither it will lessen its Consumption? I am of opinion it will not, because our Exports must be increased as theirs from Ireland are lessened, unless we do imagine Foreign Markets will not consume the same quantities they did before, or will find out new ways to be supplied with them from other places; besides, by how much more charges are added to the Products of Ireland (as those of Freight and other petty Expences on such bulky Commodities will be if brought hither) so much will ours be put on the same Footing with them, and bear a better price.
It's well known that the Exporting our Wool to Foreign Markets hath by the ill Consequences thereof abated its Price at Home; This hath been observed by Calculations made by considering Men, and the reason was, because those Countrys were thereby enabled to work up much larger Quantities of their own into various sorts of Manufactures, which both fitted their occasions at Home, and supplied Markets abroad where we generally vended ours; by this means our Sales growing slack, and finding new Competitors in our Trade, we were forced to sell our Manufactures cheap, and this was done by making them slighter, and by lessening the Prices both of Wool and Labour; whereas had we kept our Wool at Home these Mischiefs had been prevented, and the French and other Nations could not have made such a Progress in Manufactures as they have done; their Wool being unfit to be wrought up by its self (unless mixt with English or Irish) must have sought a Market here, and been returned again to them in Manufactures, which is the true way to enrich this Kingdom; This would have drawn over great Numbers of People to be employed in the Cloathing Trade, who would likewise have consumed our Product; and as these had increased so also had their Imployment, which would have kept up the Price of Wool, things being of value in Markets according as they are supply'd by Nation's standing in competition for Trade, and it must be allowed that it was not the Interest of England to fall its Manufactures abroad had we been the only Sellers, for according as they yielded there, so much is the Wealth of this Nation advanced; This our Fore-fathers knew when they made Laws not only to prohibit the Exportation of Wool hence, but also from Ireland, which Laws cannot be too strong, on whose due observation depends our Wealth or Ruin; now if the Trade of Ireland was reduced to that of our other Colonies, and the same Care taken about the Commodities of its growth, our danger from that Kingdom in Relation to this would be at an end, when Methods may also be used to prevent its being Exported hence.
Nor is there any reason to be offered why Ireland should have greater Liberty than our other Plantations, the Inhabitants whereof have an equal Desire to a free Trade, forgetting that the first design of their Settlement was to advance the Interest of England, against whom no Arguments can be used which will not equally hold good against Ireland.
1. As it was settled by Colonies spared from England.
2. As it hath been still supported and defended at the Charge of England.
3. As it hath received equal Advantages with the other Plantations from the Expence England hath been at in carrying on Wars Abroad and Revolutions at Home; And on this last there is greater Reason against Ireland than any of the rest, we having lately paid more Money for the Purchase of that Trade than the Profits thereof may bring to us and our Posterities for many Generations; so that 'twould be a piece of great Ingratitude for the Free-holders of Ireland unwillingly to submit to any thing whereby the Interest of England may be advanced, to the Inhabitants whereof they are indebted for their Lands, who have laid down their Lives and spent their Treasures to reinstate them in their Possessions.
As for Corn, Fish, and Horses, whither a Liberty may not be allowed to transport them thence direct for other Markets on Ships first entring here in England is a point worth serious Consideration.
But the main objection as to England is yet behind, a great part of the Gentlemen of this Kingdom thinking it will sink the Rents of their Lands if Irish Cattle are admitted to be brought over alive, others that the Importation of Provisions thence will fall the Price of our own; and though in the former they do not so generally agree, differing according as their Lands are Scituated, and proper for Breeding or Feeding, yet in the latter they more unanimously consent, and cry out, This is the great Diana of the Ephesians, the less Provisions are brought in, the more our own will be expended, whereas if they did impartially consider, they would find it an empty Idol; Nothing will advance their Lands like Trade and Manufactures, therefore what-ever turns the Stream of these elsewhere lessens the Number of Inhabitants who should consume their Provisions, and when those increase so do the others, which (besides a home consumption by People engaged in Imployments distinct from Husbandry) doth always invite many Foreigners hither, who being Temporary Residents spend our Product, it being a sure Maxim that where the Carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered together.
Besides, when the Irish Provisions are broughr hither, those Markets which were supply'd with them thence before will then have them hence, tho' perhaps at dearer Rates, and with them great Quantities of our own; No Man can imagine what Expence there would be of English Cattle were we once fallen into the Trade of making Provisions here, England as well in its Beef as Manufactures exceeding all other Countrys, with this farther Advantage, that the former for Goodness and Price cannot be supplied from any other place save Ireland; nor do I suppose it so much the Interest of this Kingdom when Provisions are advanced only by a Home Expence, as when 'tis done by a Foreign Export, the first makes particular Men grow Rich by preying on their Neighbours, but the Nation grows Rich by the latter, when we vend them abroad at good Prices; nor would our Plantations which now take off the greatest part of the Cattle slaughter'd in Ireland spend one Barrel less if kill'd here.