The great necessity and advantage of preserving our own manufacturies being an answer to a pamphlet intitul'd The honour and advantage of the East-India trade, &c. / by N.C., a weaver of London. N. C., weaver of London. 1697 Approx. 22 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A35602 Wing C88 ESTC R7438 11899245 ocm 11899245 50576 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A35602) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50576) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 18:10) The great necessity and advantage of preserving our own manufacturies being an answer to a pamphlet intitul'd The honour and advantage of the East-India trade, &c. / by N.C., a weaver of London. N. C., weaver of London. Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699. Great honor and advantage of the East-India trade. [8], 30 p. Printed for T. Newborough ..., London : 1697. Reproduction of original in Columbia University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Trade regulation -- Great Britain. Great Britain -- Commerce. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-01 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-02 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2004-02 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE GREAT Necessity and Advantage of PRESERVING OUR OWN Manufacturies ; BEING An ANSWER TO A PAMPHLET , INTITUL'D , The Honour and Advantage of the East-India Trade , &c. By N. C. a Weaver of London . LONDON , Printed for T. Newborough at the Golden-Ball in St. Paul's Church-Yard , 1697. To the HONOURABLE The Commons of England in Parliament , Assembled . May it please Your Honours , THE reason that hath emboldened me to address the following Discourse to this Honourable House , is because of a Bill now depending , to restrain the wearing of East-Indian and Persian wrought Silks , Bengalls , &c. I having met with a Book , ( newly come forth ) that seems purposely designed to elude the necessity of . It is not because I think it answer'd here with that Accuracy that it might have been , nor do I pretend to be able so to do ; but because I conceive that Truth ought to be Vindicated , and Error Detected , rather meanly , than not at all ; but what is wanting in my Ability , is abundantly supply'd in the Justness of the Cause , and the Plainness of the Truth , here pretended to be Vindicated . That Manufacture is one of the chief procuring Causes of Riches , and of improving the Land where it is , is so plain a Truth , that I think can scarce be deny'd , and therefore ought to be promoted by us rather in England than in India . That there are many Towns in England and Wales that may be improved , by having Manufactories set up in them , besides what have already , I do not question ; and the Advance that it gives to Land that lies near them , is visible . The extreme and pressing Necessities of the poorer sort of People that uses to be employ'd in those Manufactories , cannot but afflict them that hear their daily Complaints , and hath been a great Motive to induce me to this Undertaking . That it hath pleased God Almighty to preserve our Laws , Liberties , and Parliamentary Constitutions to this day , is a mercy that every Englishman ought to acknowledge with Thankfulness , and that the frequent rise of Grievances of one kind or another , make a Necessity of frequent Parliaments is evident to Experience , and that we do not only need , but enjoy them is our Comfort . That the God of infinite Wisdom and Goodness may continually direct and bless your Councels and Endeavours to his Glory ; to the Honour and Safety of the King's Majesty , and to the Welfare and Prosperity of the Nation , is , and shall be the Prayer of Your Honours most Humble , And truly Devoted Servant , N. C. THE GREAT Necessity and Advantage Of Preserving Our own Manufactories . THAT there is a Controversie between the Manufacturers of England and the East-India Traders , I conceive to be generally well known , but the true State of the Case , I suppose , is not so well understood : the Author of a Pamphlet very lately come forth , intituled , The great Honour and Advantage of the East-India Trade , &c. applies the cause of this difference wholly to the mistaken Prejudices of those , who being , as he says , no Philosophers , don't know where to fix the reason of their misery by the Decrease of their Trade , but have blindly stumbled upon this as the next in their way ; I shall therefore endeavour to set this case in its true light , thereby to discover whether it be a meer chymerical Fancy , or a real Evil , that they complain of ; and to that end , that it may appear more clear , I shall lay down both negatively and positively ; First , What it is that they do not complain of ? Secondly , What it is that they conceive they have just reason to complain of and desire Relief ? As to the first , they do not desire to hinder the Trade and Commerce of the Nation , but are so far from it , that they desire the Encrease of all our own Manufactures , as one of the best means of Increase in it ; nor do they desire the hinderance of any Merchandise that tends to the good of the Nation ( as he seems to suggest ) but if that men will say , That their trading Genius is discouraged , because they are hindered from freely exporting the Native Product of the Land to be manufactured beyond Sea , as in the case of the Owlers , or because they are hinder'd from bringing in all sorts of Provision to serve instead of the Product of our own Land , or because they are hinder'd from sending out the Treasure of the Nation to bring n Lieu thereof such manufactured Goods , as shall serve instead of our own greatest Manufactures , which used to employ the largest numbers of our Poor : in all these cases , and and other such like , it is evident , that whatever cry such men make of the great loss and damage it is to the Nation to hinder their Trade and Commerce ; yet there is nothing more at the bottom of their design , than their own private Gain , to enrich themselves in particular , though it be to the extremest Damage and Prejudice of the Nation in general ; for as it is possible for the Nation to get by that Trade the Merchant loseth by , as the afore-mention'd Author relates and exemplifies ; so it was not for want of Wit ( he is so much a Philosopher ) that he did not tell us , that it is as possible for a Merchant to get much , and grow very rich by that Trade which the Nation loses and is impoverished by . As for example , Suppose a Merchant send 10000 l. to India , and bring over for it , as much wrought Silks and painted Callicoes , as yield him here 70000 l. if they be all worn here in the room of our own Silk and Woollen Manufactures , the Nation loses and is the poorer 10000 l. notwithstanding the Merchant has made a very profitable Adventure , and so proportionably the more and oftner he sends , the faster he grows rich , and the more the Nation is impoverished . Secondly , It is not any suppression of the East-India Trade in general that they desire , it is possible that a very considerable Trade may be carried on , in such Commodities , as may make that Trade very profitable , not only to private Men but to the Nation . There are many very usefull Commodities brought from thence , as Pepper , Salt Petre , raw Silk , several Drugs , and many other things that do not interfere with or hinder the Growth or Manufacture of England , and such was the Indian Trade , generally speaking , till within thirty Years last past , since which time they have laboured to encrease their Trade to their utmost power in those Manufactures , and finding the Advantage they had of having their Goods cheap wrought by the wretched Poverty of that numerous People , have used sinister Practices to betray the Arts used in their Native Country , such as sending over Artificers and Patterns to instruct them in the way of making Goods , and Mercers to direct them in the Humour and Fancy of them , to make them fit our Markets , a Practice so inconsistent with the Love , and contrary to the interest of their Native Country , that it is reckoned in some Countries a capital Crime , and this brings me to the second general , that is , Secondly , What it is that they conceive they have just reason to complain of , and desire relief against . And that is , that great Import of Foreign Manufactures that are spent here in the room and stead of our own , and that in such vast quantities , as seems very likely to extinguish the English Manufactury , which is as it were quite born down by that mighty Torrent and Inundation of Forreign Manufacturies ; and this sending out of our Treasure to bring in this abundance of wrought Goods , is like drawing out the pure and spirituous Blood of a Man's Veins , and filling them with Hydropick Humours . But the Author of that Pamphlet says , That this Foreign Commerce is the only way to procure us Treasure : If he means so much of it as is spent here ( and that is all we contest about ) it must needs be a great mistake , for that is so far from supplying us with Gold and Silver , that it is more like a Quick-sand to devour that we have already . As for his Comparison , That the Worsted Weavers of Norwich may as well complain against the Silk Weavers of London , it is altogether false and illusive ; for London and Norwich are Members of the same Body , and therefore what is laid out with One or Other is still within the Nation , and will circulate like Blood in the Veins ; but all the Treasure laid out with the Indians for their Manufactures to wear here , is as intirely lost for ever to this Kingdom , as the Blood , that by cutting the Veins , being shed upon the Ground , is to the Body : But since he says we have no Mines of Gold or Silver , we can tell him of something else to supply that ; our vast quantity of Sheeps Wool , which is improv'd from 6 or 7 Pence per pound by the Labour of our own People to 6 or 7 Shillings per pound ; this thus improv'd by Manufacture , if worn at home , is Money sav'd to the Nation from Foreign Expence , because it costs the Nation nothing ; but if sent abroad , the Product is all clear gain to the Nation ( provided it be by English Shipping ) and if the Produce be manufacturable Commodities , as in the Turky Trade Raw Silk , Hair , &c. then they are improv'd again by the labour of our own People to double or treble the value ; and if this may justly be compar'd to Mines for the encrease of our Treasure , then the sending out of our Silver or Gold to India to bring over wrought Silks , Bengalls , &c. to be worn here , may as justly be called Quick-sands to decrease our Treasure by devouring or swallowing it up . What he starts and pretends to answer , That the made goods seem particularly to injure the Broad Silk Weavers , by putting them by or beside their trade and way of living , is illusive , false and foolish ; for he cannot but know ( if he know any thing of this matter ) That the Norwich and other Worsted Weavers were as much and as early in their Sence of and Complaints against the great damage they receiv'd by these made Goods ; and I cannot well tell , whether the Folly or Dishonesty be greater of comparing against both these numerous People , and the vast Multitudes that are Dependents on both , a few People employ'd about the Indian made Goods ; and to say that the latter is much more to the benefit of the Nation in general . But the boldest stroke lies behind , That it is not true in fact ( i. e. ) ( that the made Goods injure the Weavers ) and this is indeed the true Paradox . Now matter of fact we conceive must be made good by Evidence , we are willing to hear it ; then 't is his Experience , testifies , that the scarcity of Indian Goods doth them no kindness , but that rather the plentiful Importation of these made Goods sets them at work : now in opposition to his Experience , we can bring in the Testimony of many thousands that have experienced quite contrary , and the sence of it is too fresh upon them , to be easily perswaded , that 't is but a Dream , and therefore such lame proof of fact is of no value ; he might as well have said , That when a Man hath eat his Belly full of Westphaliaham , it fits him presently with a better Stomach for English Bacon ; or when a Gentlewoman hath just bought French Alamode or Flanders Lace , it makes her the more earnest presently to furnish her self with English Lace and Alamode ; and 't is an easie matter to say , That 't is Prejudice hinders , when People will not assent to such Contradictions : But he says , The bringing in of these made Goods will make Silk cheap , and that sets them to work ; if he had said , they will bring in more raw Silk , and by that means make Silk cheap , and set them to work , it had been to the purpose ; but the bringing in of the made Goods , takes off the great occasion of their working , viz. ( the supplying the Market ) and so sets them to play ; and this is plain and visible . But that I may not suspected of Partiality , or be said to abound in mine own Sense , I shall bring in the Testimony of the Judicious Sir Josiah Child , who lays down these solid Principles of Truth and Reason in the 43d Page of his Discourse of Trade , That Whatever doth 1 Advance the Value of Land in Purchase , 2 Improve the Rent of Farmes , 3 Encrease the Bulk of Foreign Trade , 4 Multiply Domestick Artificers , 5 Encline the Nation to Thriftiness , 6 Employ the Poor , 7 Encrease the Stock of People , must be a procuring Cause of Riches . I conceive that it is self-evident , that there is no one thing more adapted to all these ends , than the Use and Encouragement of our own Manufactories ; nor any thing more contrary , than the Use and Expence of foreign Manufactures , as that judicious Author observes , That the Expence of foreign Commodities , especially foreign Manufactures , is the worst Expence a Nation can be inclinable to , and ought to be prevented as much as possible . And though the pernicious Effects of the use and wear of foreign Manufactures , doth first reach those concerned in Manufactory here , yet its ill Influences will as sure reach the Gentry and Proprietors of Land , ( if not timely prevented ) for as the said judicious Author says , Land and Trade are Twins , and have always , and ever will wax and wain together ; it cannot be ill with Trade , but Land will fall ; nor ill with Lands , but Trade will feel it . And therefore it must needs be , that the promoting the use and wear of Indian Manufactures here , tend to the sinking of the Value of Land in England , after the Pattern of India , for there must be always a Symmetry and Proportion between the price of Labour and the value of Land , for he that works for 2 Pence a day , cannot give 50 Shillings per ann . Rent , nor can he give 3 or 4 Pence per l. for Meat , nor for any other Provision sutable : and 't is as sure , that if the Husbandman must sell his Provision for a quarter part of what he now sells it , he cannot pay his Landlord much more than a quarter part of what he now pays , but these are so plain Truths , that it seems , as needless to spend many words about it , as it is to bring Arguments to prove that two is more than one , or that the whole is more than a part , or any other most certain Maxim. But ere I conclude , it will be necessary once more to look back to the fore-mention'd Pamphlet , stiled , The Great Honour and Advantage , &c. where that Author brings in the profit the Dutch make , and the Scotch promise themselves by the East-India Trade , as a sure token of its Goodness , because no man courts a Mischief . I answer , 't is not true nor pertinent : 't is not true in the sense we are treating of , for too many men court that which is a publick Mischief , for their own private Gain , as I suppose will be generally own'd in the case of those that bring in Alamodes and other French Commodities against Law , now we are engaged in a Waragainst them , and many other cases were easie to name , wherein men do court that which is a Mischief to the Publick for their own private 2. Nor is it pertinent ; for it is not the East India Trade in general that is complain'd of , nor that we seek Relief against ; but only such of the made Goods as interfere with our own Manufactures ; and yet but so much of them neither , as only are worn here : and as to this , 't is well known , That though the Dutch Trade to the E. Indies be so much superior to ours , yet as to these Goods , that are the mischievous part of that Trade , two of our last Ships , brought over much more than their twelve Ships brought ; and yet that Trade would not be so pernicious to the Dutch , as to us , because they have not so large a tract of Land , no such Fund as our Sheeps-wooll , nor such vast numbers of People employ'd in Manufactories ; but as they have a smaller spot of Ground , so their People are mostly employ'd about Merchandise and Shipping . He might have told us , what reception the French , that have a large tract of Land , and many Manufactorers , do give to Foreign wrought Goods , especially Indian ( if he had thought it his interest : ) Some are of Opinion , and not without reason , That if the French King had suffered his People to export the Treasure of his Country , to bring in foreign made Goods , as freely as our Indian Traders now do , his own Merchants would have helpt so effectually to humble him , that he had been brought to Reason before now . But that Author hath a special knack of confounding one thing with another , to the end , that he might make one thing pass for another , ( a trick very necessary for those that do not intend to clear up Truth , but stifle it . ) Thus he would make Trade and Commerce in general , and the whole E. India Trade , to be understood for this part of it , which we only oppose , ( and some of themselves have counted a small part formerly . ) Thus he would have the particular gain of that Company , in advancing their Actions treble , pass for a sign of the Profit it was to the Nation , and the greatest part of his Book , upon strict examination , will fall under this Head. As for our Scotch Friends , whatever they promise themselves from this Trade , that we contest about , ( and if that Bill now depending before the Honourable House of Commons , for restraining the wear of Indian Silks , &c. ) do pass into a Law , they will be little the better for it , if they come to bring in their Callico's in any considerable quantities to be worn in Scotland , in lieu of their own Linen Manufacture ; a few years will teach them ( whatever some private persons may get by it ) that they have made but an ill bargain of it for their Countrey ; but if it should not pass into a Law , no doubt but they will be peddling them all over England , and then they may well promise themselves to be great gainers , but poor England must pay for all , and suffer the fate of Issachar , to couch under two Burdens . I have now done for the present with the aforesaid Author and the Trade he pleads for ; if any desire to inform themselves , both in our East Indian and other Foreign Trades , what benefit each is to the Nation , they may please to read a Book , called , An Essay on the State of England in relation to its Trade , &c. written about a Year since , by the Ingenious Mr. John Cary , Merchant of Bristol . I shall now state briefly , Whether the People , and their Employ , ( for whose sake I have made these faint Essays ) be a real benefit to the Kingdom in general , or only to some few persons in particular , under the severe Administration of the Duke of Alva , in the Netherlands : Many Families came over into England , and brought over with them this Trade of weaving broad Silks and Stuffs made of Wooll and Silk and Wooll mix'd : These were graciously received , by that great and wise Princess Queen Elizabeth , of blessed Memory ; and were so encouraged , that through the succeeding Reigns , they came to more thousands than they were Families : that this hath been one of those means , that hath advanced Land both in Rent and Purchase so considerably since that time , were easie to demonstrate , not only from Experience , but from the nature of the thing , as a Cause that must naturally produce such an Effect ; and when all is said that can be , we shall never be enrich'd by an Ignis fatuus , but by such Trades as have a natural tendency thereunto . To conclude , Solomon faith , The honour of a King is the multitude of his Subjects , but in the want of People is the destruction of the Prince . Now this Trade hath not only brought a Livelihood to such great Multitudes of our own People , but entertain'd also many thousands of French Protestants fled hither for Refuge , which will be much to the Honour and Advantage of this Kingdom , if our Manufactures be so incouraged , that there may be a sufficient employ flor them all , and our Poor ( whom God and Nature requires us to take care of ) be so employ'd , as to be an useful part of the Nation . Much more might be said ; but I shall only add , That no one thing under the Divine Providence , and the Care of our Governours , contributes more to the Riches and Safety of the Nation , than incouraging our own Manufactures . FINIS .