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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. X.

The East-India Trade destroys no imployment of the People which is profitable to the Kingdom.

AND thus I think,People imploy’d to make Manufactures that might be imported from India, are imploy’d to no profit of the Kingdom. I have remov’d the first great Charge against the East-India Trade. The next is, That Manufactures are procur’d from thence by the labour of fewer hands than the like, or as good can be made in England; that therefore, many must stand still at home for want of imployment.

To which is answer’d, That the East-India Trade cannot destroy any profitable Manufacture, it deprives the People of no business which is advantagious to the Kingdom; contrary, it is the most likely means to make full employment for the People.

The East-India Trade destroys no profitable English Manufacture; it deprives the People of no imployment, which we shou’d wish to be preserv’d. The foundation of this Complaint is, That Manufactures are procur’d from the East-Indies by the labour of fewer People, than are necessary to make the like in England; and this shall be admitted. Hence it follows, that to reject the Indian Manufactures that like may be made by the labour of more Hands in England, is to imploy many to do the work that may be done as well by few; is to imploy all, more than necessary to procure such things from the East-Indies, to do the work that may be done as well without ’em.

A Saw-mill with a pair or two of Hands, will split as many Boards as thirty Men without this Mill; if the use of this Mill shall be rejected, that thirty may be imployed to do the work, eight and twenty are imploy’d more than are necessary, so many are imploy’d to do the work that may be done as well without ’em. Five Men in a Barge upon a Navigable River, will carry as much as an hundred times so many Horses upon the Land, and twenty times as many Men; if the Navigation of this River shall be neglected, that the same Carriage may be perform’d by Land, nineteen in twenty of these Men, and all these Horses, are more than are necessary to do the work, so many are imploy’d to do the work that may be done as well without them. So, if by any Art, or Trade, or Engine, the labour of one can produce as much for our consumption or other use, as can otherwise be procur’d by the labour of three; if this Art, or Trade, or Engine, shall be rejected, if three shall rather be imploy’d to do the work, two of these are more than are necessary, so many are imploy’d to do the work that may be done as well without ’em; so in all cases, all that are imploy’d more than are necessary to do any work, are imploy’d to do the work that may be done as well without ’em: Wherefore, the People imploy’d to make Manufactures here, more than are necessary to procure the like from India, are People imployed to do the work that may be done as well without ’em, so many are imploy’d to no profit of the Kingdom. For, if the Providence of God wou’d provide Corn for England as Manna heretofore for Israel, the People wou’d not be well imploy’d, to Plough, and Sow, and Reap for no more Corn than might be had without this labour. If the same Providence wou’d provide us Cloaths without our labour, our Folly wou’d be the same, to be Carding, Spinning, Weaving, Fulling and Dressing, to have neither better nor more Cloaths than might be had without this labour. Again, if Dantzick wou’d send us Corn for nothing, we shou’d not refuse the Gift, only that we might produce the same quantity of Corn by the sweat of our Brows. In like manner, if the East-Indies wou’d send us Cloaths for nothing, as good or equivalent of those which are made in England by prodigious labour of the People, we shou’d be very ill imploy’d to refuse the Gift, only that we might labour for the same value of Cloaths which might be as well obtain’d by sitting still. A People wou’d be thought extravagant and only fit for Bedlam, which with great stir and bustle shou’d imploy it self to remove Stones from place to place, at last to throw ’em down where at first they took ’em up. I think the Wisdom of a People wou’d be little greater, which having Cloaths and Victuals, and other necessaries of Life already provided sufficient for their use, shou’d nevertheless abstain from the use of these things, till after the Penance of having carry’d them seven Miles upon their Shoulders; so in no case are any number of People well imploy’d, or to any profit of the Kingdom, who only do the work which might be done as well without ’em, who with great pains and labour provide for their own, or for the use of other People, the same or no better things than might be had without this pains and labour. Wherefore, to imploy to make Manufactures here in England, more People than are necessary to procure the like from India, to imploy so many to do the work which might be done as well without them, is to imploy so many to no profit of the Kingdom.

Then Manufactures made in England, which, or the like of which, might be procur’d by the labour of fewer Hands from the East-Indies, are not profitable to the Kingdom; wherefore, to procure such things from India by the labour of fewer Hands, to spare a great many Hands which wou’d be imployed in England to do the same things, is not to deprive the People of any imployment which we shou’d wish to be preserv’d, is not to lose any profitable Manufacture; still the same things are done, only the labour of doing them is a great deal less than it was before.

To imploy to make Manufactures here,To imploy People to make Manufactures which might be imported from India, is a loss to the Kingdom. more Hands than are necessary to procure the like things from the East-Indies, is not only to imploy so many to no profit, it is also to lose the labour of so many Hands which might be imploy’d to the profit of the Kingdom. Certainly, every individual Man in England, might be imploy’d to some profit, to do some work which cannot be done without him; at least, the contrary is not evident, as long as England is not built, beautify’d, and improv’d to the utmost Perfection, as long as any Country possesses any thing which England wants, Spain the Gold and Silver of America, Holland the Fishing and other Trades, France the Wines, as long as Campagne and Burgundy are not drunk in every Parish; some of these things might be appropriated to England; English Labour might be exchang’d for others; these things wou’d be imployment enough for all, and a great many more than all the People of the Kingdom, tho’ every one were imploy’d to the best advantage, tho’ not the labour of any Hand in England were thrown away; whence it may very well be concluded, that every individual Man in England, might be imploy’d to some profit of the Kingdom.

Then to imploy to Manufacture things in England, more Hands than are necessary to procure the like from India, is to imploy so many to no profit, which might otherwise be imploy’d to profit, is the loss of so much profit. If nine cannot produce above three Bushels of Wheat in England, if by equal Labour they might procure nine Bushels from another Country, to imploy these in agriculture at home, is to imploy nine to do no more work than might be done as well by three; is to imploy six to do no more work than might be done as well without them; is to imploy six to no profit, which might be imploy’d to procure as many Bushels of Wheat to England; is the loss of six Bushels of Wheat; is therefore the loss of so much value. So, if nine by so much Labour, can make in England a Manufacture but of the value of 10s. if by equal Labour they can procure from other Countries, thrice as much value of Manufactures, to imploy these Men in the English Manufacture, is to imploy to no profit six of the nine which might be imploy’d to procure twice as much value of Manufactures from abroad, is clearly the loss of so much value to the Nation. Thus Idleness, vain Labour, the unprofitable imployment of the People, which might be imploy’d to profit, is the loss of so much profit. Wherefore, to imploy in English Manufactures more Hands than are necessary, to procure the like from the East-Indies, and Hands which might be imploy’d to profit, is the loss of so much profit to the Nation.

Manufactures made in England, the like of which may be imported from the East-Indies, by the labour of fewer Hands, are not profitable, they are a loss to the Kingdom; the Publick therefore loses nothing by the loss of such Manufactures.

We are very fond of being restrain’d to the consumption of English Manufactures,The consequences of prohibiting Indian Manufactures. and therefore contrive Laws either directly or by high Customs, to prohibit all that come from India; By this time, ’tis easie to see some of the natural Consequences of this Prohibition.

It is to oblige the things to be provided by the Labour of many, which might as well be done by few; ’tis to oblige many to labour to no purpose, to no profit of the Kingdom, nay, to throw away their Labour, which otherwise might be profitable. ’Tis to oblige us to provide things for our own Consumption by the labour of many, when that of few wou’d be sufficient. To provide the conveniences of Life at the dearest and most expensive Rates, to labour for things that might be had without. ’Tis all one as to bid us refuse Bread or Cloaths, tho’ the Providence of God or Bounty of our Neighbours wou’d bestow them on us; ’tis all one as to destroy an Engine or a Navigable River, that the work which is done by few may rather be done by many. Or, all these things may be comprehended in this, to prohibit the consumption of Indian Manufactures, is by Law to establish vain and unprofitable Labour.

Again, instead of making work, ’tis the direct way to lessen the business of the People; to imploy more Hands than are necessary, is the way to make our Manufactures too dear for Foreign Markets. By having less to do in Foreign Markets, we shall have so much the less imployment for our People here at home. If to make work for the People, a Law is made this Year to destroy the Trade of the East-Indies, some other such Law will be wanted the very next. We may well hope, that in time the Navigation of the Thames, of every other River, will be destroy’d, that many may be imploy’d in the Carriage, which is now perform’d by few. By degrees, not an Art or Engine to save the labour of Hands, will be left in England. When we shall be reduc’d to plain Labour without any manner of Art, we shall live at least as well as the Wild Indians of America, the Hottantots of Africa, or the Inhabitants of New Holland.

As often as I consider these things, I am ready to say with my self, that God has bestowed his Blessings upon Men that have neither hearts nor skill to use them. For, why are we surrounded with the Sea? Surely that our Wants at home might be supply’d by our Navigation into other Countries, the least and easiest Labour. By this we taste the Spices of Arabia, yet never feel the scorching Sun which brings them forth; we shine in Silks which our Hands have never wrought; we drink of Vinyards which we never planted; the Treasures of those Mines are ours, in which we have never digg’d; we only plough the Deep, and reap the Harvest of every Country in the World.