CONSIDERATIONS
Relating to
The Linnen Manufacture
In the Kingdom of
IRELAND.
THE Linnen Manufacture in Ireland, being a Subject so much discours’d of the last Sessions of Parliament, I humbly presume to offer some Thoughts how it may best be carried on.
But before I enter upon it, I will Consider the State of that Kingdom, with respect to its Foreign Trade; the Ballance whereof I take to be against them, and must therefore be Supplied, by carrying out their Coin, which is already grown so Scarce, that ’tis to be fear’d, in a short time there will be little left.
To explain this, I will lay down some of those steps, by which the Ballance of Trade, daily Alters to their Prejudice.
Ist, The great fall of their Products, viz. Wool, Tallow, Hides, Beef, &c. which are abated in their Prices above one Third of what they yielded before the War; so that should the same Quantities of those Commodities be bought up for Exportation, as formerly there were, yet they would not amount to the Value they then did.
IIly, The Ports of Spain, France, and Flanders, which were their Great Markets, being now shut against them, the Profits which they made by their Foreign Trade in the times of Peace, over and above the first value of the Commodities exported, are also lost to the Kingdom.