A REPLY TO AN ANSWER FROM A FRIEND, TO THE APOLOGY FOR THE English Nation, That the TRADE TO THE East-Indies and Africa Should be FREE.  
LONDON, Printed, in the Year, 1692.   

A Reply to an Answer from a Friend, to the Apology for the English Nation; that the Trade to the East-Indies and Africa should be free.  
SIR,  
WHen I desired your Opinion of the Apology for the English Nation, etc. I expected you would have first answered where I began; viz. That all Nations, as well as the Inhabitants of Nations, by Equal Right or the Law of Nature, may entertain Trade and Commerce with one another: and if in Times of Peace Humane Laws shall debar Subjects of this Right, this is practising Iniquity by a Law: And that you would have Objected against the Reasons, which the Parliament gave 3 Jac. C. 6. for the freedom of the English in the Spanish Trade; or that these Reasons did not hold in the East-India Trade, but of these you say not one word▪  
You say when you were in London, all Men Agreed the East-India Trade could not be driven, without a Company, because of the Power of the Dutch in those Seas.  
I suppose you mistake me in contending against a Company Exclusive to all others▪ for it is not a Company I contend against; but the Exclusion of all others: For your seeming Reason of the Dutch power in the East-Indies, to necessitate a Trade by the English in a Company, it will not hold; unless you can make an English Company to be equal to the Dutch in power, which can never be hoped for; but if it could▪ it could never be by Excluding others, which might contribute to the Increase of it.  
For the Instance you give of the Turkey Trade; it hath no resemblance to the Trade in the East-Indies: For our Trade to Turkey, is upon the Matter, but to one place, viz. Smyrna; whereas that which the Company call the East-India Trade, is to all the Parts on the East of Africa, and the Southern Parts of Asia, to the North of China, with all the Islands which lie in that vast Ocean; so that for aught is known Tenfold the Trade might be managed by the English there, if the Trade were free, than to Turkey; which is impossible to be done by one Company exclusive to all others; in the numerous and vast Dominions in those parts of the World.  
Besides the Objection which you make of the Dutch power in those Seas, to exclude all others but a Company is a Topick set up only by the Favourers of the East-India Company; for unless you suppose the Dutch power to he more than that of all the Princes of afric, Asia, and all the Islands in the vast Ocean, these cannot give Laws to them, all; and this is an Argument which the Company, themselves do not believe, for if granted, Interlopers could never Trade to the East-Indies, which is the greatest fear the Company have.  
But suppose all the Princes in afric and Asia could not protect the English in their Trade with them; yet sure a King of England is not so fallen from power, but that he is able to protect his Subjects in all their Just Trades from the Violences and Oppressions of the Dutch.  
You say the Commons had reason to refer the Business of the Erecting a new East-India Company to the King, they having so little time to Sit.  
The Commons had busied themselves above four Months in Establishing this Company, more than in any thing else, and then threw it upon the King, who in the Circumstances he is in, cannot attend it four days.  
But you say you doubt not but the Commons upon their next Sitting, will assume this Business again, and then will undoubtedly Blow up the present Company. But this will be more strange than to Vote an East-India Company exclusive to all others, to be Established by Act of Parliament; and then to throw it upon the King; and after to take it out of the power of the King.  
But here you may see how Industriously Men pursue their Interest, without any regard to Justice or Prudence: For all this time in propagating an East India Company exclusive to other Men, no regard is had how the English might be secured from the Violences and Injuries of the Dutch in it; nor how it can be carried on by the English in the miserable and distracted state, the now Company have brought it to, with the Mogul, Sophy of Persia, and King of Syam.  
The Dutch power in the East-Indies is vastly more than the English, yet to maintain this, they are at as vast Charges in maintaining it, so that where the English and Dutch Trade, with all the other Princes of the Indies, Persia, or China, the English Trade is so much cheaper, as they are at less Charges in maintaining their Dominions, nor can it be ever hoped the English, with or without a Company can expel the Dutch out of their Dominions in the East-Indies.  
It's true, the Dutch have been as Injurious to this present Company (if Injuries can be done to such a Company of Men) as the Company has been to the rest of the English Nation: For besides the Business of Amboyna; which was not in this Companies time; they Outed the Company from Polloroon, where the Natives could not protect them, and was a principal cause of the second Dutch War in King Charles the Second Reign: And by falsehood kept the Company from Trading to China and Japan, alleging the English were Christians; and the King had Married the King of Portugal's Daughter: (the Portuguez of all Nations being most detestible to the Chiness;) and now by joining with the young King of Bantam against his Father; they keep the King Prisoner, and make use of his Name, to expel the English from their Trade to Bantam for Pepper, so as the English are forced to Trade to the West of Sumatra for Pepper, a most unhealthful place, where more English lose their Lives, than ten times the Trade is worth, of which the Company have no regard, so as they could purchase a Pound of Pepper by the loss of ten English Men: The unhealthiness of this place being represented to Queen Elizabeth, she forbidden her Subjects Trading to Sumatra.  
In the second Dutch War, the French joined with King Charles against the Dutch; and thereby the Dutch were reduced so low, as they were in the War with the Rump Parliament; but the Parliament dreading the Consequences, Petitioned the King to make a separate Peace with the Dutch, without including the French; but this prevailed but little, till the Spanish Ambassador, the Marquis Del Fresno interposed, threatening other ways, Spain would break with England, and then the King made a separate hasty Peace with the Dutch, whereby a Regulation of Trade was agreed to be settled, and adjusted in the East-Indies, by certain Commissioners on both sides.  
Persuant hereto, the 9th. of Feb. 1673. six Commissioners named by the King, entered into a Treaty, with Six sent by the Dutch, at London, who were to settle the Regulations and adjust the Trade to the East-Indies in three months' time; and what was not settled in that time, was to be referred to the Queen Regent of Spain, who was to Name Eleven Commissioners, the Major part whereof was to determine what was not settled; provided they gave their Judgement within Six Months to be computed from the time they met; which was to be within three Months after the Queen had taken this Award upon her. But tho' these Commissioners set more than three times the time limited for Adjusting the East-India Trade; viz. till the first of Dec. 1674. yet they concluded nothing in it, nor was ever any further Reference to the Queen Regent of Spain.  
Thus this Prince Charles the Second having joined with the French in a War against the Dutch, to the Disturbance of the peace of Christendom, because of the Dutch Oppressions and Wrongs done the English in their Trades in the East Indies. Now to get 800000 Pantaloonss of the Dutch, and a round Sum of Money from the Parliament, makes a separate Peace with the Dutch, and leaves the English in their Trades to the East-Indies in the same state it was before: And sure the cosideration hereof had been more worthy the wisdom of the Commons, than their Debates Four Months together to Establish an East-India Company exclusive to all others.  
Nor can I imagine how this Intended Exclusive Company by the Commons, or any of the English Nation, can Trade to the Moguls or King of Syam's Dominions, before the Differences made by this Companies War with them be Adjusted; you cannot believe we have a true Representation of them from the Company; nor do I believe the Company themselves understand them: And do you think the Mogul or King of Syam, will sit down by the Loss? Or that it is reasonable, the Kings other Subjects, which the Company have denied the Benefit of the Trade to the East Indies, should be liable to pay their Debts there; and make Restitution for all the Violences and Depradations the Company have committed.  
But admit the Company be in a condition to pay the Expense of this War, and their Debts contracted in it, which Mr. White computes to be Seventeen Hundred Thousand Pounds; its probable the Company having spent all the Money there, must return it thither out of England; and I think at this time the Nation is not in a condition to part with such a Sum; and s●●● when these things had been Adjusted, it had been time enough to have debated, whether the East India Trade might been better carried on by a Company exclusive to all others, or that it should be free.  
So I leave it to you to judge, whether it be not more to be wished, that the King will please to Adjust and Regulate thee Trade of the East-Indies; especially concerning the Trades to Amboyna, Poll●●o●n and Bantam; and send Ambassadors to the Mogul and King of Syam, to vindicate the rest of the English Nation from the Violences and Rapines which the Company have committed upon their Subjects; and to inspect the state of Affairs in the East-Indies, as they now stand; and to enter into a Treaty of Commerce with the Sophy of Persia, Mogul, the Emperor of China, and other Princes of the East-Indies, with whom the English shall Trade; before he Erect any Company to Trade to all these Princes, and be thereby Liable to the Violences of the Dutch, and to make satisfaction for all the Debts and Depradations of the n●w Company.  
I agree with you that the Company have no Right to the Half Customs of Goods vended in the Gulf of Persia; nor that they ever paid any thing for them, yet more than double the worth of all the Joint-stock the Company employed in this Trade to the East-Indies: And that these Customs ought to be employed in Building Forts in proper places for securing the English Traffic in those Seas: And that when these Moneys are not so Employed, they are due to the King.  
We agree too, that the African Company is Injurious to the Nation in the Vent of our Native Commodities; and in our Trades to the Plantations; nor is this Company less injurious to the Nation in their returns: For a Worker in Ivory assured me within three days, that the Company has raised the prizes of Elephants Teeth, threefold more than when the Trade was free; and what is this but to impose a dearness upon all Ivory Manufactures at Home, and to Establish the Foreign Vent of them to the Dutch, French, and other Nations to our Loss, and undoing of Thousands of people, who other ways might be employed in them. Ex ungue Leonem; by this you may judge of the rest?  
FINIS.