A REPLY to a Paper delivered to the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, Entitled, The Linendrapers' Answer to that part of Mr. Cary's Essay on Trade that concerns the East-India Trade.  
THE Arguments therein used against prohibiting the wearing East-India wrought Silks and Calicoes in England, may be reduced to these Heads.  
That plenty of Calicoes is a certain Expedient to moderate the Prizes of all our Woollen Manufactures, and thereby to preserve and increase the Foreign Trade, and regulate the home; and that the use of Calicoes in England is a more effectual way to beat Germany out of making Woollen Manufactures, than our disusing their Linens would be.  
That the prohibiting the use of the Commodities of other Nations will make them do the same by ours.  
That there will be a great abatement in the King 's Customs if Indian Silks and Calicoes be prohibited to be worn in England.  
That a Home-Consumption is no advantage to a Nation, but that a Foreign Consumption is clear profit; therefore we were better use Indian Silks and Calicoes at home, which are cheaper than our own Manufactures, and send them abroad to Foreign Markets.  
That Trade or Commerce being the Riches of this Nation, aught to be free, sheltered against all Prohibitions; That this hath been the Practice of Holland, whose Example we should follow in taking off all Restraints from Commerce.  
That the Dutch did once prohibit the use of Calicoes, which gave England advantage to beat them out of that Trade, but that they soon found their Error, and therefore recalled their Placeat, but could never retrieve their Trade.  
That the prohibiting these Commodities to be worn in England, will either settle that noble Trade (as they call it) on the Scotch, or divide it between them and the Dutch.  
That this will prejudice our Woollen Manufactures, inasmuch as it will advance their Prices at home, and thereby lessen their Sales aborad, because Foreign Markets will be supplied cheaper elsewhere.  
That it will hinder Navigation.  
The Force of these Arguments, I confess, I do not understand, or how they should prevail on a Nation, whose Wealth arises from the Labour of its People, to encourage the Importation of Foreign Manufactures to be worn here, and thereby prevent the use of its own.  
England is happy in a People who of their own Natures incline to Labour, and though some idle Vagrants herd among them, yet the Generality delight to be employed. We are able to make Woollen Manufactures enough to supply not only our Home Expense, but all Europe, and have Thousands of People, who either do nothing, or follow Employments altogether unprofitable to the Nation, but might be advantageously set at work on our Manufactures; we need not wear India Silks and Calicoes at Home, that we may thereby have Manufactures enough to carry abroad, or lest by supplying both Expenses they should become too dear for a Foreign vent, if our People were set at work: Nor should we want Wool to make them, having large Tracts of Land unoccupied whereon great Flocks of Sheep might be fed, had we a suitable Expense; but instead thereof we have generally great quantities lying on the Growers hands, who encourage the sending it to France, because they cannot find vent at-home; by which means greater quantities of Manufactures are made with it abroad than the same Wool would make here; for being mixed with the Wool of that Country, which could not else be wrought up of itself, those Markets are supplied, which must otherwise be furnished hence; now if the wearing our Woollen Manufactures were encouraged, our Wool would be wrought up here, and so the Expense increased, and France, not being able to work up its own Wool by itself, must desist in its Manufactures, and so our Foreign Trade would be increased; for this is certain, that there is not a piece of Broad-cloath or New Drapery made in France without the help of our Wool. I cannot here omit a Discourse I once had with a Gentleman of Rumney Marsh about the damage sustained by the Nation in its Manufactures by their selling their Wool to France: He agreed the Matter of Fact, and told me the only Reason was want of a vent at home, many of their Tenants having Three years' Wool on their hands; now saith he, find out a way how we shall have Money for our Wool once a year, and we will soon rid you of that Evil. If this be true, I know no better than by working it up; and this can never be promoted by disusing the Commodities made of it, and wearing Indian Silks and Calicoes in their room: If this was done, and the Manufacture in France discouraged, 'twould exceedingly add to the value as well as the vent of our Manufactures.  
The City of Bristol hath within Seven years' last passed increased their Stuff-making from Sixty pounds per Week to one Thousand, by the help of the French Refugees settled there; which shows, that if we can find Sales for our Manufactures, we shall want neither Men nor Materials to make them.  
'Tis an Artifice to say that the Germans abated their making of Linen because our Woollen Manufactures were dear; for 'tis well known they have not advanced, but fallen in their Prices since the growth of Calicoes upon us: but had they been ever so cheap, if we refuse to barter them for their Linens, and encourage the wearing Calicoes here in their steads, as their Sales grew slack, so their People must either stand idle, or employ themselves in something else, and they thought nothing so proper as Woollen, by which means they paid us in our own Coin, and found a way to supply themselves with our Manufactures as cheap, as when purchased from us in Barter for their Linens.  
The Spaniards would wonder to see us come clothed in Calicoes to sell them our Woollen Manufactures; I am sure they could not think we much encouraged their wearing them by our own Examples.  
I agree that it is not wisdom for us to prohibit the use of the Commodities of other Nations who take off ours in their stead; but how this Argument will hold to encourage the wearing Indian Silks and Calicoes in England, I cannot see, unless 'tis made out that they are the Returns of our Product and Manufactures, and not of our Money; which the Linen Drapers do not offer to prove.  
As to the loss on the King's Customs, by denying the use of those two Commodities which pay so much at their Importation, seems an Argument made up rather of Shadow than Substance; this being only a Modus, of raising Money, which still comes out of the Subject's Pockets, and if not done this way may another, for by the same reason an Argument may be framed for the Exportation of Wool; but how this would be England's Advantage, I leave the Gentlemen who use the Argument to judge.  
'Tis true, that the Profits of a Nation do not arise from its Home Consumption; but how this should be an Argument for the use of Foreign Manufactures instead of our own, whilst our People stand still for want of Employment, I cannot imagine; if it be affirmed that Indian Silks and Calicoes are cheaper than our own Manufactures, 'tis a great Error: The last costs us nothing but Labour, above the Materials whereof they are made; and since our People must be maintained though they be idle, that is all profit to the Nation: And therefore German and Scotch Linens when purchased for our Manufactures, are much cheaper to us than Calicoes, though bought for Bullion in the East-Indies at one third part they are sold for here, one pound of Wool by the Labour of the People added to it, yielding in Manufactures from four to twenty times what it cost first penny to the Grower, which Wool being also the Product of Earth and Labour is all gain to the Nation.  
As to the Proposition that Trade should be free, I allow, if 'tis thereby meant that Trade should not be monopolised by Joint Stocks; but if the Linen Drapers mean that no Restraint must be used in regulating Foreign Trade, 'tis a Maxim they cannot defend; What do they think of the Act of Navigation? the Prohibition laid on French Goods, where the Balance of Trade went always against us? the Act for Regulating the Importation and Exportation of Corn? and many other Statutes, which have been by all adjudged England's Advantage? But more especially, what do they think of the Acts against Exportation of Wool, and Importation of Woollen Cloth, made by King Edward the third, who in his Voyages to Flanders and Brabant, observing that the People of those Countries were maintained by manufacturing English Wool, by prohibiting it to be carried out, and encouraging the Manufacturers to settle here, laid the Foundation of the Greatness of this Kingdom; for by these Manufactures we grow rich, and gather the Wealth of the Indies, whilst the Spaniard is unable to support the Charge of his Government, though the first Proprietor of this Treasure, because all he buys is purchased, either for Silver, or bare Product, without adding any value to the latter by the Labour of the People.  
The Example offered of the Dutch in this Case is not to be followed, their Modus of Trade is adopted to their Constitution, which will not at all agree with ours; the same Trade by which the Dutch grow rich, would soon ruin England; the Interest of Holland in Trade is but one single Interest, they live by buying and selling, and this Trade of Commerce does well enough there, because being a great Number of People met together on a small spot of Land, and having no Product of their own, they furnish each other with what they want, which being all fetched from abroad, employs great Numbers of bulky Ships, which they sail cheap, and are thereby also enabled to supply other parts of Christendom with such Commodities, whereof they have an Overplus above their own Consumption; so that Holland is now become a Magazine of Trade or Commerce, and therefore they raise their Taxes by Methods which shall oblige all Temporary Residents to pay towards support of their Government; for which Reason they give greater Freedoms and Immunities in Trade than the Circumstances of England will admit, to encourage a Concourse of People, who pay out of what they eat, drink, or wear, whilst they are there; so that that Government leaves every Man at Liberty as to the Modus of his Trade, provided he pays the Taxes laid on him, and is not of ill Example, such as Dice-Players, Cheats, and the like; these rather discouraging People from living among them, they punish with severity: Holland having no Lands to improve the Governors and Governed live by Commerce and Navigation; but it is not thus in England, we have two Interests, that of the Freeholder, and that of the Trader, and these are in themselves of different Natures: Now it hath always been the Wisdom of Your Lordship's most Noble Progenitors, to regulate the Foreign Trade of England, by such Laws as might best tend to uniting these two Interests, and making them serviceable to each other: Thus the Freeholder raises a Product, whilst the Trader manufactures or exports it to Foreign Markets; the former furnishes Provisions, whilst the others are employed in Commerce, and by a mutual Harmony both live happily: But if once these two Interests jar with each other, and such a Freedom should be granted to the Trader, that he should cease to depend on the Freeholder, and the Freeholder to be encouraged by him, the Lands of England must fall; a Free-Liberty to import Corn would supply it cheaper from other Countries than the Rents of England can afford; should a free Liberty be granted to export Wool and import the Manufactures made thereof, 'twould be all one to the Trader, whose Profits would arise from both, but whether this Freedom of Commerce would be the Interest of the Freeholder, and consequently the Interest of England, I leave to an impartial Judge: Nothing advances the Lands of England like Manufactures, which makes their Products valuable; but notwithstanding this, the Linendrapers' are for allowing a perfect Freedom of Commerce, and Indian Silks and Calicoes must not be prohibited to be worn in England, lest they should not have so much Money with Apprentices, whilst the Mercers who sell our own Manufactures must shut up their Shops, and thousands of poor People starve who are employed in making them, and the Wool of England lie on the Growers Hands, or be shipped to France for a Market, and all to promote the wearing of Indian Silks and Calicoes, that the Linen Drapers may get more Money by selling them: I confess 'tis a new thing to me to see Arguments drawn against the promoting our own Manufactures from the private Interests of Buyers and Sellers, and I believe 'tis the first time such were ever offered to this Honourable House; had the Vintners petitioned against the discourageing the Importation of French Wines, only because they found them profitable in their Draughts, 'twould have seemed a strange Argument; Buying and Seling is the most unprofitable part of the Trade of England; transferring of Properties adds nothing to the Wealth of this Nation; 'tis Husbandry, Manufactures, and Foreign Trade which make us Rich, the last of which is always to be regulated as it may best advance the the Interest of the Two former; but why they should be discouraged only to fill the Linen-drapers' Pockets, I know no just Reason; a poor labouring Man that works at the Clothing Trade brings more Profit to the Nation at the Years end, than he that sells Ten Thousand pounds' worth of Indian Silks and Calicoes to be worn in England.  
But 'tis objected, That if we do not use them here, the Dutch will get the Trade, who lost it to us by the same Error. This though (not proved) seems very strange; for, did the Dutch ever issue out a Placeat against carrying Indian Silks and Calicoes to England, I thought our Acts restraining Trade had denied them that Liberty, else I am apt to think they would have brought them hither, and sold them much cheaper than the East-India Company have done, which would have more effectually answered the Ends of the Linendrapers' Argument: But if 'tis meant that the Dutch prohibited those Commodities from being used in Holland, and have since recalled that Placeat, but could not again fall into the Calico Trade; so that thereby we got the Advantage of furnishing them and other Foreign Markets: I do not see how this Bill doth hinder that Trade; for to make use of their own Argument, as the disuse of our own Manufactures in England would make them cheaper, and thereby fit for Foreign Markets, so the disuse of Indian Silks and Calicoes here by wearing our own Manufactures, will make them cheaper, and thereby fittter for a Foreign Trade.  
But all this is a Jest: The Dutch use little of them, and know not what to do with them when brought home, except we give them Liberty to import them hither; Germany takes few; France hath prohibited their being worn many Years since; Spain and Portugal buy Calicoes only when cheaper than other Linens, and not out of Fancy; Scotland consumes little of either; there are no Quantities spent in Europe, save what is spent in England and Ireland, and what we send to our Plantations, so that if this Act passes to disuse them here, they are at the same time banished out of Europe, and there is an end of the Scotch East-India Company.  
This is the way to make the East-India Trade to become profitable to this Kingdom, when the Traders thither shall import Materials instead of Manufactures; and this will more encourage Navigation, when Ships shall be filled with bulky Commodities; Salt-Peter, Raw-Silks, Cotton-Yarn, Pepper, and many such things may be found to load bigger Vessels than wrought Silks and Calicoes can, one Ship of Six Hundred Tons filled with the latter is worth Twelve Hundred Thousand Pounds, and consequently Six such Ships per Annum would soon ruin this Nation, whereas, promoting our own Manufactures by passing this Act, will make it Rich, and divide the Profits more equally, than when cubed up into a few Hands; 'twill be accompanied with the Prayers of the Poor for your Lordships, and the Honourable House of Commons, who will thereby cut them out new Employments; 'twill advance the Lands of England, and keep the People at home, who must else go where Manufactures are encouraged, and Ireland is ready to receive them; 'twill unite the People of England to his Majesty's Interest, and enable them to pay their Taxes for support of this present War, which would not be felt, if their Trade was secured Abroad, and their Manufactures encouraged at Home.  
JOHN CARY.