XIV. [This Act not to extend to a grant concerning the making of smalt made to Abraham Baker, nor to a grant concerning the melting and casting of iron ore made to Edward, Lord Dudley.]
20. An Act for the Free Trade of Welsh Clothes,[314] [2 James I, c. 9, Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part II, pp. 1218-19], 1623-4.
Whereas the trade of making of Welsh clothes, friezes, linings and plains within the principality and dominion of Wales, is and hath been of long continuance, in the using and exercising whereof many thousands of the poorer sort of the inhabitants there in precedent ages have been set on work in spinning, carding, weaving, fulling, cottoning and shearing, whereby they (having free liberty to sell them to whom and where they would) not only relieved and maintained themselves and their families in good sort, but also grew to such wealth and means of living as they were thereby enabled to pay and discharge all duties, mizes, charges, subsidies and taxations which were upon them imposed or rated in their several counties, parishes and places wherein they dwelled, for the relief of the poor, and the service of the King and the commonwealth; and whereas also the drapers of the town of Shrewsbury, in the county of Salop, have of late obtained some orders of restraint, whereby the inhabitants of Wales find themselves much prejudiced in the freedom of their markets for buying and selling of their clothes, to their great damage, as was verified by the general voice of the knights and burgesses of the twelve shires of Wales and of the county of Monmouth: for remedy whereof, be it declared and enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that it shall and may be lawful to and for all and every his Majesty's subjects inhabiting or dwelling, or which at any time shall inhabit or dwell within the said dominion of Wales, or any part thereof, freely to sell by way of barter or otherwise, all or any their Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings or plains, at their wills and pleasures, to any person or persons who lawfully by the laws and statutes of this realm may buy the same; and that it shall and may also be lawful for any person and persons who by the laws or statutes of this realm may lawfully buy such clothes, and other the premises, freely to buy the same of any person or persons inhabiting or dwelling, or which hereafter shall inhabit or dwell, within the said dominion of Wales: any charter, grant, act, order or any thing else heretofore made or done, or hereafter to be made or done, to the contrary notwithstanding.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall and may be lawful to and for any person or persons using or which shall use the trade of merchandize, to transport into any the parts beyond the seas any of the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings and plains, out of any ports or havens within this realm of England or dominion of Wales, or out of any the members thereof, where his majesty, his heirs or successors, have or shall then have officers attending to search, view and control the same, and to receive the King's Majesty's customs and other duties due and payable for the same; so as always the customs and other duties payable for such clothes and other premises so to be transported, shall be justly and duly paid for the same; and so as always the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings and plains, before the transporting thereof, shall be fulled, cottoned and sheared as in former times they have used to be; and that no person shall transport the said clothes in other manner than as aforesaid, upon pain to forfeit the whole value of such clothes so to be transported contrary to the true meaning of this act....
Provided always, that this act or anything therein contained, shall not give power or authority to any foreigner or foreigners to buy and sell by way of retail any the said Welsh clothes, cottons, friezes, linings or plains within the town of Shrewsbury, or in any other corporate town or privileged place, contrary to any lawful charter, grant, custom, privilege or liberty in the same town or place now being or used.
[314] This Act should be read in connection with the Statute of Monopolies (No. 19) and with the Instructions touching the Bill for Free Trade (No. 15), as representing the ideas of parliament as to the desirability of Free Trade within the country.
21. The Economic Policy of Strafford in Ireland [Knowler, Letters and Despatches of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, Vol. II, pp. 19, 20, Letters of Strafford to the Master of the Rolls, July 25, 1636], 1636.
The last of my generals was that of trade, which I discoursed in this manner; I let them see how the merchants trading thither had been spoiled by the pirates before my coming, as well in his Majesty's harbours, as at sea, a ship fired in the port of Dublin, in sight of His Majesty's Castle, and there continued burning, and the pirate lading and returning from the ship two days together to the mighty scandal of the State; that the shipping for want of money came so late in the year, that all the mischief was done before they came, which commonly was not before the latter end of July, but that now the monies duly answered unto the Exchequer here, the ships had been for these two last years upon the coast by the beginning of March, five or six of the Biscayners taken within the Channel, imprisoned, and after released upon their promise not to exercise any hostility hereafter within the Channel; a great ship of the Duke of Macqueda taken on the west coast, and thereby so discouraged them, that the merchant hath not lost anything since my arrival there, nor were so much as heard of a Biscayner these last two summers. This hath been a means that Trade hath increased exceedingly, and so will still (if we have peace), to the honour of his Majesty, and the enriching of his people.
That the trade here was not only much greater, but rightly conditioned, the native commodities exported being in value at least a third, if not double, the value to the foreign commodities imported; a certain sign that the Commonwealth gathers upon their neighbours.
That there was little or no manufacture amongst them, but some small beginnings towards a clothing trade, which I had and so should still discourage all I could, unless otherwise directed by his Majesty and their lordships, in regard it would trench not only upon the clothings of England, being our staple commodity, so as if they should manufacture their own wools, which grew to very great quantities, we should not only lose the profit we made now by indraping their wools, but his Majesty lose extremely by his customs, and, in conclusion, it might be feared they would beat us out of the trade itself, by underselling us, which they were well able to do. Besides in reasons of State so long as they did not indrape their own wools, they must of necessity fetch their clothing from us, and consequently in a sort depend upon us for their livelihood, and thereby become so dependent upon this Crown as they could not depart from us without nakedness to themselves and children. Yet have I endeavoured another way to set them on work, and that is by bringing in the making and trade of linen cloth, the rather in regard the women are all naturally bred to spinning, that the Irish earth is apt for bearing of flax, and that this manufacture would be in the conclusion rather a benefit than other to this Kingdom. I have therefore sent for the flax seed into Holland, being of a better sort than we have any, sown this year a thousand pounds worth of it (finding by some I sew the last year, that it takes there very well), I have sent for workmen out of the Low Countries and forth of France, and set up already six or seven looms, which, if please God to bless us this year, I trust so to invite them to follow it, when they see the great profit arising thereby, as that they shall generally take to it and employ themselves that way, which if they do I am confident it will prove a mighty business, considering that in all probability we shall be able to undersell the linen cloths of Holland and France at least twenty in the hundred.