A PROPOSAL FOR Regulating and Advancing THE Woollen Manufacture, AND TO Make it more Profitable TO THE Merchant and Maker, Than formerly.  
Humbly offered, to the Honourable, Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled:  
By One who hath had 30 Years Experience in that Trade, and in Importing of Wool from Ireland.  
Printed in the Year 1698.   

The Contents.  

I. A Description of the Manufacture in General.  
II. The Occasion of the supposed Decay of Trade.  
III. Sundry Regulations which will make it profitable both to Merchant and Maker.  
IV. The Way to prevent the Exportation of wool from England and Ireland to foreign Parts.  
V. How much in the Pound weight the Cloths can be made and afforded cheaper in Ireland than in England, if they had our Experience in Trade.  
●I. How to settle the Trade, that Ireland may not injure England, and yet export their Cloths without Prohibition.    

A Description of the Woollen Manufacture under these five Heads, viz.  

Broadcloths,  
kerseys,  
Perpetuana'es,  
Bays,  
Stuffs.   
Broadcloths are white, dyed, or mixed; white and dyed are most Exported, mixed are about half Exported, and half worn at home.  
kerseys, as many Exported as worn at home.  
Perpetuana'es or Serges are white dyed and mixed, white and dyed are most exported; mixed, about five Exported and one worn at home.  
Bays, Cottons, and Pennystones are white and dyed, and most Exported.  
Stuffs are innumerable for sorts, and many Exported.   

The Occasion of the supposed decay of Trade.  
THE multitude of hands in the Manufacture produce such vast quantities of Goods, as glut all foreign Markets, and the Makers dealing beyond their Stocks do force their Cloths upon the Merchant faster than they can be sold, by which means the Merchant beats down the price.  
Our wool is also exported both from England and Ireland, without which other Countries cannot make a good piece of Cloth, but with one Pack of ours they work up four Packs of their own, and do help to fill up foreign Markets.  
The Merchant drawing Bills at disadvantageous Exchange before his Goods are sold, the Factor to honour the Bills, sells the Cloth at any price, by which means our Drapery is sold in foreign Markets for little Profit, and in ours many times for none at all, so that we drive a great Trade with little advantage.  
The deceitful making of our Broad Cloths, kerseys and Stuffs will infallibly ruin the Trade if not prevented. If the Merchant abates 6 d. on a Piece of long Ell, against the next Market the Maker hath left out a beer of his Pieces, which is so many Threads of the Warp, and renders the Piece one or two Shillings worse, and the Merchant many times perceives it not presently, but sends them after for the same sorts.  
Another remarkable occasion of the Discredit of our Drapery, is our not half scouring them out of the oil or Grease, by which means the Colour looks dull, and they are not half milled. But the greatest mischief, and that which will infollibly ruin all, if not prevented, is the Scea, being a strong stick with Tenterhooks, to which they fasten one end of the Serge, and the other end they fasten in the Rack or Tenter, and 3 or 4 men with all their might stretch the Serge while it is wet, and so stretched fix it in the Rack, by which means they either break the heart of the Cloth or Serge, and make it often longer than it was in the Loom: but if the heart be not broken, it will shrink so when it comes into a Garment and takes wet, as will absolutely render the Garment useless.  

For Remedy of all these Abuses in the Trade, and to make it profitable to the Nation in General.  
THE Merchants are so used to the Scea, that an Act of Parliament alone will not regulate it, unless some small Fine be imposed, and an Inspector appointed for every County, to look after the deceitful making and dressing of the said Cloths; and to keep up the Standard in making, every long Ell Man, and such others as shall be thought fit, may be enjoined to put the number of the Warp of his Cloth in the Forrel, this will keep up the price when they keep up the goodness, and the Cloths will sell by the number without seeing them, and there may be a little Fine upon a miss Number, and the Inspector should be to see such Cloths numbered as are appointed to be so, and to look after the Dressing, that a Serge be not stretched but by one Man, and that they are perfectly washed out of the Grease, for which he may be allowed six Pence on a Pack, to be paid for him by the Exportors at the Custom-house and at the Clerks to the carriers or Wagons, who shall be accountable for it.  
The next main Point is to prevent glutting the Markets abroad; and if we do this, our Goods will yield our own Price there.  
For Remedy hereof, let us follow the good example of Norwich, and prohibit all Makers from weaving any Piece of Cloth, Bays, Serge, or Stuff, from the tenth Day of July to the twentieth Day of August, which shall be in every Year; this may also be the work of the said Inspector. This being observed, the Weavers will be helpful in saving the Hay and Corn Harvest, and the glut of Goods will be the better consumed abroad, so that a quick Trade will follow all Winter, and the Weaver will be better able to live in time of Harvest than in Winter, for now they often want work in Winter, which this will prevent.   

Another way to prevent glutting the Markets abroad, is to consume what we can of the Manufacture at home without prejudice.  
And first, 'tis observable, that we have no wool from Spain in any other than wollen Pack Cloths.  
If no wool be Imported from Ireland, or carried to any Market or place of Sale in England in any other than Wollen or Linsey woolsey Pack-Cloths upon Forfeiture. If no Woollen Manufacture be packed or sent abroad in any other than Woollen or Linsey-woolsey Pack-Cloths, these will be as strong and as cheap as those now used, and will consume above thirty thousand Packs of wool every Year, and prevent so much Goods from coming into foreign Markets, by which means, though we sand less Goods abroad, we shall have better and speedier Returns than now; the looking after this also may be the work of the same Inspector. Our Drapery will then sell at any Price, but if the Markets are still crammed with Goods they will not sell at all, but as hunger is the best sauce, so it will procure any Price, for when our Vessels are stopped, as they are often by the Frost abroad; as soon as they come, the People take the Goods at what price the Merchant puts upon them.  
Another way to improve our Manufacture, is effectually to hinder the Exportation of wool.  
For preventing of which, from England and Ireland, let there be provided and secured to the Informers a Reward of fifty Pounds for every Person which on their Discovery shall be convicted of being aiding or asisting in the Exportation of wool; and one hundred Pounds for each Merchant, Imployer or Master of a Vessel, which Money may be paid them out of the Exchequer, and may be levied again upon the Persons convict, who shall also stand outlawed from the time of their Conviction, during Life; and if they cannot pay their respective Fines, the Merchant shall pay it for them. Let the Informers be secure of Pardon, Protection, and Reward, and it will be impossible for any Man to export wool, for they employ 20 or 30 Men to ship it by Night, and he that employs them must ever after be a Slave to every Man he employs, and if he gives them not at any time what they ask, they presently inform, and get 1000 or 1500l. so that if this be but enacted, the Money will never come to be paid, for no Man will ever attempt to export wool again; there may be also with it a Pardon for all past Offences.   

Another way to hinder Exportation of wool from Ireland.  
It is high Treason in Ireland to export any wool out of that Kingdom, so that we take Licences from the Lord Deputy, which are granted only for a thousand ston, and run after this manner, viz. Suffer A. B. to export a thousand ston of wool, on his giving Security to land it in England, and paying 4 d. ½ the ston Custom. To discharge this Bond and Security, we bring a Return from the Customhouse in England, that such wool was landed, such a Day, out of such a Vessel; and for want of this Return in 6 Months, the Bond is forfeited  
The Forfeitures of these Bonds were given by King Charles the Second, to 〈…〉 by Patent, bearing date  
I have been informed by a worthy Gentleman at Kells, that the Merchants who have shipped wool, and given Security to land it in England, have, in a public Coffee-house, agreed for the Forfeitures of their Bonds before the Vessels have sailed.  
This Information is likely to be true, for that wool is often Exported and the Bonds seldom prosecuted, is most apparent.  
To prevent which mischief, the said Patent being prejudicial to the Nation in general, ought to be declared voided by the Exceptions therein, or else the Patentee should give Security for due Prosecution.  
Also the Collector or some other Officer of such Port as any Vessel shall enter wool in for England should be required immediately upon such Entry, to advice the Officers of the Port, for which the wool is entered, of the Name and burden of the Vessel, the Name and Habitation of the Master, the Names and Number of his Men and Boys, the Marks and Numbers of the Bags of wool, and the Number of ston which he hath entered; so that if he come not to the said Port in a reasonable time, the Officers may look after him, and when found, if the wool be not on board him, or Certificate, that by Stress of Weather, he hath landed it in some other Port of England, his Vessel may be seized and condemned to the Officer; and the Seal of the Custom-house where he took in the wool, with all the chief Officers hands to it, may be allowed to be evidence against him, for the Officers cannot come viva voice, to leave their places to condemn him; he may also be liable to a hundred Pound Forfeiture, and be out-lawed during Life.   

To balance the Trade with Ireland, that Ireland may Trade without Prohibition and not injure England.  
How much in the Pound Weight Cloths may be made and afforded cheaper in Ireland than in England, if they had our skill and settlement of Trade.  
Every ston of wool containing sixteen Pound Imported from Ireland to England, pays for Licence 1 s. 4 d. for Duty 4 d. ½, for fraught 4 d. ½, Commission 4 d. Bags 3 d. Carriage from Bitheford to Exon 4 d. in all 3 s. and the Merchant or Importor will usually get 1 s. the ston by it, which is 4 s. and is 3 d. the Pound Weight; and there must be allowed a Pound and half of wool in the Fleece to make a Pound Weight of Cloth, which is 4 d. ½ on a Pound of Cloth. Then if I buy a hundred Pounds worth of Cloth in Ireland for 84 l. in England, I receive 100 l. in Ireland, which is 4 d. ½ more on a Pound of Cloth, so that had they our experience in Trade, we could buy Bays and ordinary Goods 9 d. on a Pound weight cheaper in Ireland than in England; but if the best Maker in England did set up Trade in Ireland, he could not work up his Cloth so cheap, nor so well in Ireland as in England by 3 d. the Pound, for if he drives a considerable Trade, he must employ a thousand Hands, and they are not so enured to Trade as in England, though they grow daily; for the planting of a Trade, is as the planting of an Orchard, which is more profitable to the Son, than to the Father that planted it.  
It may be modestly accounted, that if six Pence the Pound weight be put upon the Manufacture of Ireland over and above what is or shall be in England; they might also Trade with little or no Prejudice to England, which Duty might be appropriated to England for Support of the Government; and this I humbly conceive will prove no Prohibition.   

The Case of the City of Exon, in respect of the Prohibition of Irish Wool from that Port.  
First, The Trade of that City depends mainly upon Irish wool. All the wool thereabouts will not maintain the Trade one Month, and they can land the Irish wool no nearer than Bitheford or Minehead, the nearest of which is 30 Miles, and the ways are so bad, that no Horse can travail half the Winter.  
Secondly, Since the Memory of Man, it hath not been proved, that any Man of that City did export wool, and as to others transporting it under pretence of bringing it about by Land for Exon; I hope the methods I have proposed will prevent, if not, why may not a Vessel bound for Bitheford or Minehead, after they are at Sea out of sight of Land, as well go for France, as they might if bound for Topsham?  
Thirdly, The City of Exon is a City of as fine Trade, as any City in England of its bigness, and this Prohibition was designed in favour to the City of Exon; but seeing it plainly appears, that, if continued, will be the ruin of that City, it ought to be taken into the serious consideration of this Honourable House.   
FINIS.