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• Preface.
• A Select Collection of Early English Tracts On Commerce
• Thomas Mun, a Discoverse of Trade From England Vnto the East-indies: Answering to Diuerse Obiections Which Are Vsually Made Against the Same.
• Lewes Roberts, the Treasure of Traffike, Or a Discoourse of Forraigne Trade.
• Thomas Mun, England’s Treasure By Forraign Trade. Or. the Ballance of Our Forraign Trade Is the Rule of Our Treasure.
• Chap. I.: The Qualities Which Are Required In a Perfect Merchant of Forraign Trade.
• Chap. II.: The Means to Enrich This Kingdom, and to Encrease Our Treasure.
• Chap. III.: The Particular Ways and Means to Encrease the Exportation of Our Commodities, and to Decrease Our Consumption of Forraign Wares.
• Chap. IV.: The Exportation of Our Moneys In Trade of Merchandize Is a Means to Encrease Our Treasure.
• Chap. V.: Forraign Trade Is the Only Means to Improve the Price of Our Lands.
• Chap. VI.: The Spanish Treasure Cannot Be Kept From Other Kingdoms By Any Prohibition Made In Spain.
• Chap. VII.: The Diversity of Gain By Forraign Trade.
• Chap. VIII.: The Enhansing Or Debasing Our Moneys Cannot Enrich the Kingdom With Treasure, Nor Hinder the Exportation Thereof.
• Chap. IX.: A Toleration For Forraign Coins to Pass Currant Here At Higher Rates Then Their Value With Our Standard, Will Not Encrease Our Treasure.
• Chap. X.: The Observation of the Statute of Imployments to Be Made By Strangers, Cannot Encrease, Nor Yet Preserve Our Treasure.
• Chap. XI.: It Will Not Increase Our Treasure to Enjoyn the Merchant That Exporteth Fish, Corn Or Munition, to Return All Or Part of the Value In Money.
• Chap. XII.: The Undervaluing of Our Money Which Is Delivered Or Received By Bills of Exchange Here Or Beyond the Seas, Cannot Decrease Our Treasure.
• Chap. XIII.: The Merchant Who Is a Mere Exchanger of Money By Bills Cannot Increase Or Decrease Our Treasure.
• Chap. XIV.: The Admirable Feats Supposed to Be Done By Bankers and the Merchants Exchange.
• Chap. XV.: Of Some Excesses and Evils In the Commonwealth, Which Notwithstanding Decay Not Our Trade Nor Treasure.
• Chap. XVI.: How the Revenues and Incomes of Princes May Justly Be Raised.
• Chap. XVII.: Whether It Be Necessary For Great Princes to Lay Up Store of Treasure.
• Chap. XVIII.: How Much Treasure a Prince May Conveniently Lay Up Yearly.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Some Different Effects, Which Proceed From Naturall and Artificiall Wealth.
• Chap. XX.: The Order and Means Whereby We May Draw Up the Ballance of Our Forraign Trade.
• Chap. XXI.: The Conclusion Upon All That Hath Been Said, Concerning the Exportation Or Importation of Treasure.
• Samuel Fortrey, Englands Interest and Improvement.
• England’s Great Happiness; Or, a Dialogue Between Content and Complaint.
• Britannia Languens, Or a Discourse of Trade
• The Preface.
• The Introduction.
• Section I.: Trade National Or Private, Home Or Forreign Treasures Imported By Trade, Thence Land-rents, Populacy Increased, the Revenues of All Ranks of Men Depend Upon Trade, People and Treasure Make National Strength, Particular Advantages In Treasure,
• Sect. II.: The Several Kinds of Forreign Trade, of Trading With Home Or Forreign Navigation, Some General Application.
• Sect. III.: Of Forreign Trade Consisting In Exportation, of the Advantages of Home Manufactures, and Manufactures, Incidently Other Home Trades, and Imployments Are Considered; and Which of Them Enrich a Nation; of the Fishing-trade, and the Annual Export
• Sect. IV.: Of Forreign Trade From Port to Port, the Nature and Advantage of It, Differs From Meer Carriage, and Meer Importation; the Necessity of a Home Storehouse: the Ordinary Exporting of Money Or Bullion, of Dangerous Consequence; How to Be Avoided:
• Sect. V.: That Our Home and Forreign Market Is Incumbered, and Prejudiced By Extraordinary and Unequal Charges, and Cloggs In Our Merchandize Above What Are In Our Neighbour-nations, Viz. In the Building and Furniture of Our Ships, Victuals, Sea-mens Wa
• Sect. VI.: Other Cloggs On Our Trade, Viz. the Late Acts of Navigation, Which, With the Other Difficulties, Have Begot Monopolies; Made Our Navigation Yet Dearer, So Forreign Materials of Manufacture Cause Meer Importations, Hinder Our Forreign Vent of
• Sect. VII.: Forreigners Eased In Trade; Other Clogs and Difficulties Upon Ours; Want of Populacy, Incidently of Extream Prizes of Victuals, and How the Duration of Land-rents May Be Secured, Our People Restrained From Manufactures; the Abuse of the Act
• Sect. VIII.: That a Nation May Grow Poor By Forreign Trade, Viz. By an Excess of Meer Importations, Illustrated By Some Observations: This Facilitated By Exporting Money Or Bullion; the Fatal Consequences and Symptoms of a Consumptive Trade, Decay of Ma
• Sect. IX.: That a Consumptive Trade Must Render a Nation Still Weaker and Weaker: How Far the Meer Establishment of Absolute Power, Or Meer Liberty and Property, May Alter the Case.
• Sect. X.: Further Presumptions of Our Late National Overballance In Trade; an Account From the Mint In November 75. and Thence Our Former Ballance of Trade Estimated.
• Sect. XI.: Particular Decays In Our Exportations, and the Beneficial Parts of Our Trade; Instances In the Decay of Our Foreign-trade For Woollen Clothing, In the Several Countries and Ports We Traded To, In the Sinking of the Foreign Price of This Manufac
• Sect. XII.: Instances In Late Increases and Excesses of Our Forreign Importations, and Therein of the Decay of Some Other of Our Own Manufactures Which Supplyed Our Home Uses, Viz. In Linnens of All Sorts, More Dear Fine Linnens Used; Incidently of the
• Sect. XIII.: That a Considerable Part of Our Late Treasure Is Exhausted: Application to Our Publick and Private Revenues: Objections Answered, Viz. the Plenty of Money to Be Let On Securities, Stores of Money In London, Stocks In Merchandize, the Over
• Sect. XIV.: People and Treasure the True Pillars of the National Strength: the Odds In the Different Vse and Imployment of People. the Absoluteness of the French Monarchy No Cause of the Present French Grandure: the Late Application of the French Co
• Dudley North, Discourses Upon Trade
• The Preface.
• A Discourse Concerning the Abatement of Interest.
• A Discourse of Coyned Money.
• Postscript. Upon Farther Consideration of the Foregoing Matters, I Think Fit to Add the Following Notes.
• Considerations On the East-india Trade
• To the Reader.
• Chap. I.: The Objections Against the East-india Trade; Viz. the Exportation of Bullion For Manufactures to Be Consum’d In England; the Loss of the Labourer’s Employment; the Abatement of Rents Are Enforc’d.
• Chap. II.: The Exportation of Bullion For Indian Manufactures, Is an Exchange of Less For Greater Value.
• Chap. III.: A More Open East-india- Trade, Is More Profitable to the Kingdom.
• Chap. IV.: The East-india Trade Does Not So Much Diminish the Riches of Some Private Persons, As It Increases the Riches of the Kingdom.
• Chap. V.: The East-india Trade Is the Way to Increase Our Bullion.
• Chap. VI.: The East-india Trade Must Increase Our Exportations.
• Chap. VII.: Notwithstanding the Idleness of the Mint, the Money and the Bullion Are Increas’d.
• Chap. VIII.: The Increase of Paper Money Is to Be Ascrib’d to the Increase of Real Money, Rather Than the Apparent Plenty of Money to the Increase of Current Paper.
• Chap. IX.: The Kingdom Is Not More Impoverish’d By the Consumption of Indian Than of English Manufactures.
• Chap. X.: The East-india Trade Destroys No Imployment of the People Which Is Profitable to the Kingdom.
• Chap. XI.: The East-india Trade Is the Most Likely Way to Inlarge the Business In the Present Manufactures.
• Chap. XII.: By Being the Cause of the Invention of Arts and Engines, of Order and Regularity In Our Manufactures, the East-india Trade, Without Abating the Wages of Labourers, Abates the Price of Manufactures.
• Chap. XIII.: The East-india Trade Is the Most Likely Way to Set On Foot New Manufactures For Imployment of the People.
• Chap. XIV.: The East-india Trade Does Not Abate the Rents, By the Exportation of Bullion, By the Diminution of Consumers, By the Abatement of Wages; the Importation of Indian Manufactures Is Less Likely to Abate Rents Than the Importation of the Unwro
• Chap. XV.: The Importation of Indian Manufactures Abates Only the Price of Labour, But Raises the Price of the Produce of the Estate.
• Chap. XVI.: And This Is Confirm’d By Examples.
• Chap. XVII.: The East-india Trade Does Not Abate the Rents of the Landholder By Destroying His Monopoly.
• Chap. XVIII.: The Fishing-trade Is Not So Profitable As the Importation of Irish Cattel, Or of Indian Manufactures; and Is More Likely Than Either to Abate the Rents of England.
• Chap. XIX.: The Herring-fishery Not Practicable In the Present Circumstances of England; the Dutch Can Sell Cheaper.
• Chap. XX.: The Way to Bring England to Be Contented With As Little Profit In the Fishing-trade As Holland.
• Chap. XXI.: That the Way to Enable England to Catch and Cure Their Herrings As Cheap As Holland, Is, First to Have Materials For That Trade As Cheap: and That This Is Most Likely to Be Done, By Discharging the Customs Upon Such Things, By Making the T
• Chap. XXII.: The Way to Make English Labour In the Fishing-trade As Cheap As That of Holland; That the People Here Must Cohabit As Close Together; and the Most Probable Methods For Effecting This, Are to Erect a Free-port, to Impower Parishes to Send

CHAP. I.

The Objections against the East-India Trade; viz. The Exportation of Bullion for Manufactures to be consum’d in England; the loss of the Labourer’s Employment; the Abatement of Rents are enforc’d.

IT is generally objected against the East-India Trade, That it carries great quantities of Bullion into India, and returns chiefly Manufactures to be consum’d in England; there are also particular Complaints against this Trade by the Labourer, That he is driven from his Employment; by the Landholder, That his Rents must be abated. I shall endeavour to give as much Force to every one of these Objections, as if I believ’d ’em all my self.

To begin with the first,The general Complaint, that Bullion, and most general Complaint against this Trade, The Bullion must needs be exported into India, for Manufactures to be consum’d in England. The cheapest things are ever bought in India; as much Labour or Manufacture may be had there for two Pence, as in England for a Shilling. The Carriage thence is dear, the Customs are high, the Merchant has great Gains, and so has the Retailer; yet still with all this Charge, the Indian are a great deal cheaper than equal English Manufactures. Every Man will buy the best Penyworth; if this is to be had from India, the Bullion will be carried thither.

There is no reason to believe,and not Manufactures, that the Indians will take off any of our Manufactures, as long as there is such a difference in the Price of English and Indian Labour, as long as the Labour or Manufacture of the East-Indies shall be valued there at but one sixth Part of the Price of like Labour or Manufacture here in England; an English Manufacture worth a Shilling, after the Charge of so long a Voyage, will be seldom sold for more than two Pence, the Returns of this will be seldom sold for twelve Pence here; and of this a great deal must be paid to Freight and Customs. Such a Trade will soon undo the Merchant; and therefore, unless now and then for Curiosities, English Manufactures will seldom go to India.

Without the help of Laws,must be chang’d for Manufactures we shall have little reason to expect any other Returns for our Bullion, than only Manufactures, for these will be most profitable; for the Freight of unwrought things from India is equal to the Freight of so much Manufacture; the Freight of a Pound of Cotton is equal to the Freight of so much Callico, the Freight of raw Silk to that of wrought Silk; but the Labour by which this Cotton or raw Silk is to be wrought in England, is a great deal dearer than the Labour by which the same would be wrought in India. Therefore of all things which can be imported thence, Manufactures are bought cheapest; they will be most demanded here, the chief Returns will be of these, little then will be return’d from India, besides Manufactures.

And when these shall be imported,to be consum’d in England. here they will be likely to stay: in France, Venice, and other Countries, Indian Manufactures are prohibited, the great consumption must be in England. It has been prov’d by Arguments, that Bullion, and chiefly Bullion, is carried into India, that chiefly Manufactures must be return’d, and that these must be consum’d in England; But instead of all other Arguments, is Matter of Fact; Cargo’s of Bullion are every Year carried into India, while almost every one at home is seen in Indian Manufactures. And this is thought sufficient to make good the first Charge against this Trade, That it carries great quantities of Bullion into India, and returns chiefly Manufactures to be consumed in England.

The next Complaint against this Trade,The Labourer’s Complaint, is of the Labourer, That he is driven from his Employment, to beg his Bread; by the Permission of Indian Manufactures to come to England, English Manufactures must be lost; Indian Manufactures are imported with less labour, they do not employ so many People, they must therefore starve for want of Business so many as wou’d be employ’d to make the English Manufactures more than are necessary, to procure the like things from the East-Indies.

And first,That Indian Manufactures are procur’d by Labour of less Price, to shew how much more labour is necessary to make an English Manufacture, than to procure a like thing from the East-Indies, all that need be done, is to compare the Prices both of the one, and the other Labour. Of an East-India Manufacture, a small part of the Price is the Price of the Labour by which it is procur’d, of a piece of Muslin of the price of six Pounds, perhaps two thirds of this Price go either to the King for Customs, or to the Merchant’s and Retailer’s Gains; if this be so, then not above one third of this Price goes to pay the labour of fitting and providing a Ship and Cargo of Bullion out to India, of conducting and returning the Ship and Manufactures thence: Whether this be exactly true or no, a great part of the Price of an Indian Manufacture is to pay the Customs of the King, the Merchant’s, and the Retailer’s Gains; and consequently, so much less of the Price must pay the Labour by which it was procur’d. But now of a piece of Cloth of the price of six Pounds, almost all the six Pounds are divided to Carders, Spinners, Weavers, Dyers, Fullers, and other Labourers; of an equal English Manufacture the King has no Customs, the Merchant has no Gains, almost the whole price is the price of Labour by which the same was made; a less part of the price of an equal Indian Manufacture suffices to pay the Labour by which the same was procur’d. Wherefore Indian Manufactures are procur’d by Labour of less price than equal English Manufactures.

The Labour here in England bears proportion to the Wages that are given for it,And therefore by less Labour than English Manufacture it must be measur’d by the price, so that Labour of less price must be accounted less Labour; Indian Manufactures are procur’d by Labour of less price, and therefore by less Labour than equal English Manufactures.

The Manufactures of this Kingdom by so many hands perform’d,And therefore must starve the People. yet do not find imployment for all the People in it; many are already upon the Parishes, many for want of imployment, are forc’d every Year to sell themselves to the Plantations: The East-India Trades does not reduce the Manufactures into fewer hands, it procures them by less Labour, by the Labour of fewer People than are necessary to make the like in England; wherefore it must bring still more upon the Parishes, it must drive still more out of England to seek for imployment in other Countries.

The reason of the Thing is plain, and yet ’tis confirm’d by Matter of Fact. Norwich and Canterbury are imploy’d in the same kind of Manufactures that are imported from the East-Indies: As the East-India Trade has increas’d, so have the poor of those Cities; of late the Trade has been driven so very close, that both those Cities are almost reduc’d to Beggery. We need not for our instruction, resort to the Cries of the Weavers; the Rates to the Poor of every Parish, are sufficient Evidence how many Beggars are made by the East-India Trade. Wherefore we are very safely come to the conclusion which was propos’d before, The East-India Trade starves for want of imployment, so many as would be imploy’d to make the English Manufactures more than are sufficient to procure the like from the East-Indies.

The last is the Complaint of the Landholder against this Trade,The Landholder’s Complaint, That Rents must be abated by. that his Rents must be abated by it. The value of the Produce of the Estate must be lessen’d, by the exportation of Bullion; by the diminution of Consumers; by the abatement of Wages; by letting the Produce of India into all the English Markets.

It cannot be imagin’d,Exportation of Bullion. that if there were but one Million Sterling to buy the same quantity of Meat, or Corn, or Cloaths, or other Produce of the Estate, that as much can be given for every Pound of Meat, or for every Bushel of Corn, or for every Yard of Cloth, as if the Sum were doubled. An hundred and fifty Years since, seldom more than Five Shillings were given for a Quarter of Wheat, in our Age seldom less than Forty Shillings; the proportion of Money to the conveniences of Life, is greater now than so many Years ago: Hence it is certain, the less the Proportion of Money to the Produce of the Estate, the less must needs be given for it: By the Exportation of Bullion into India, the Proportion of Silver to the Produce of the Estate must needs be lessen’d, consequently the Value of it must be abated.

And so it must,Diminution of Consumers. by the diminution of Consumers, the price of the Produce of the Estate cannot be so great when the number of Buyers shall be lessen’d: The East-India Trade, by doing the same Work with less labour; by imploying fewer hands; must needs remove great numbers of People from their Business; must force many out of England; must disable many of those that stay behind; the Buyers must be diminish’d, so consequently must the value of the Produce of the Estate.

Also the Wages of People will be abated by this Trade;Abatement of Wages. by this they will be disabled to give the Landholder so much for the Produce of his Estate. The Wages of all Men will be abated by the free Allowance of Indian Manufactures; some English Manufactures will be intirely lost by the importation of the like, at less prices from India; some that were imploy’d in those, will betake themselves to other Manufactures, and (as it always happens in a great increase of Labourers,) they will be forc’d to work at less Wages, and by taking less Wages themselves, they will force down the Wages of other People; the abatement of Wages will be universal: And thus English Labourers, that is, the Body of the People, will have less to give the Landholder for the Produce of his Estate, and so the price of it must be abated.

But if there is never the less Bullion in England for what is carried into India,Destruction of the Landholder’s Monopoly. if Buyers are still as many, Wages as high as ever; yet without an increase of Money and Buyers, the value of the Produce of English Estates must be lessen’d, by letting the Produce of India into all the English Markets, by the increase of Sellers, and of like things for Sale beyond the former Proportion of Money and Buyers.

The same Money and Buyers are not so much in proportion to the Corn of Dantzick and England, as to English Corn alone; nor to the English Cattel, Irish Beef, and Dutch Herrings, as to only English Cattel, nor to the Woollen and Indian Manufactures as to only Woollen Manufactures; consequently an increase of Sellers, and like things for Sale, without an increase of Money and Buyers, is an increase of them beyond the former Proportion of Money and Buyers: The East-India Trade exports the Bullion, lessens the number of Consumers, at least it increases neither Money nor Buyers; but for the increase of Sellers and like things for Sale, the East-India Merchant is become a Seller as well as the Landholder of England, the Produce of India is brought to the same Markets with the Produce of English Estates; wherefore the East-India Trade increases the Sellers, and like things for Sale against the English Landholders, and the Produce of their Estates beyond the former Proportion of Money and Buyers.

Lastly, If Money and Buyers shall not be increas’d, can the Landholder demand as high a price for his Corn in a Market stock’d with Corn from Dantzick, or for his Beef and Mutton in a Market full of Dutch Herrings and Irish Cattel, or for his Wooll in a Market, full of the Manufactures of India and other Countries, as if all these things were prohibited, and he might have all the Market to himself? Wherefore, by the increase of Sellers and of like things for Sale, beyond the former Proportion of Money and Buyers, the Landholder is disabled to demand as good a price for the Produce of his Estate: The East-India Trade is very guilty of this, of increasing Sellers and like things for Sale, against the Landholder and the Produce of his Estate, beyond the former Proportion of Money and Buyers; consequently by this Trade, by letting the Produce of India into all the English Markets, the value of the Produce of English Estates must be lessen’d.

Thus, by the Exportation of Bullion, by the Diminution of Consumers, by the Abatement of Wages, by letting the Produce of India into English Markets, the price of the Produce of English Estates, that is, Rents are abated.

And therefore all the Objections against this Trade are maintain’d, the Bullion is exported for Manufactures to be consum’d in England, the Labourer is driven from his Imployment, the Rents are abated.