CONSIDERATIONS HUMBLY OFFERED To the Honourable House of Commons, ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT, CONCERNING PROHIBITING the Exportation of WOOL.  
I Am against an absolute or unlimited Exportation of WOOL as much as any Person whatsoever, but then there ought to be found out a way for a full Consumption of it within ourselves, or else,  
I. First, Let it be considered, whether the making of such an Act of Parliament as shall and will inevitably occasion the Fall of RENTS of most of the Gentleman's and Free-holder's Estates all over England (those of the Inland Counties as well as others) only to gratify Three or Four Hundred particular Persons of the Hamborrow-Company, East-India-Company, etc. Let all the Members of the Inland Counties, and others, I say, consider, Whether such an Act can be for the General and Public Good of the Kingdom?  
II. Then Consider, If when the Price of our WOOL was brought down from Twelve Pence a Pound to Nine Pence and Eight Pence a Pound, your RENTS did then fall a Quarter part, whether your RENTS will not proportionably fall, if you bring WOOL from Eight Pence to Four Pence a Pound, that is half in half, (or proportionably, be it what it will;) so as that several Gentlemen, who are now worth Four Hundred Pound per Annum, (and Twenty years ago were worth Five or Six Hundred Pound per Annum) in good Land, may not be worth in Two or Three Years time above Two Hundred and Fifty or Three Hundred Pound per Annum, and only by the fall of their RENTS, without any thing of bad Husbandry, but occasioned by your Act.  
How such a general loss of the real value of our Estates should be for the common Good of the Kingdom, I know not, except you will say Ireland is in a better condition, and able to bear greater Taxes than England, because Land is as yet but of half the value there that it is here, and therefore that you would bring your Lands down to be only equal in value to those in Ireland.  
III. Consider, Whether upon all emergent occasions and necessities of the Government, you do not constantly fly to a Land-Tax, as the most sure and certain to preserve the King and Kingdom; How can it be the Interest of England then to pull down and sink our own RENTS thus? Can we (either Landord or Tenant) bear and pay as much out of Two Hundred or Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Year, as we can out of Four or Five Hundred Pounds, proportionably to what it falls, it will hold, be it what it will.  
When that Estate of ours which brought us in Six Hundred Pounds a Year, will now bring us in but Four Hundred Pounds a Year, and sometimes hardly that, don't we pay a Tax with a vengeance in the fall of our RENTS?  
iv Consider, That if the PARLIAMENT do not take some care, or make some Provision in their Act, for the better Consumption of WOOL, you must needs lower and fall the Price of all your WOOL thereby.  
First, We have seen and found this by Experience, ever since the Prohibition, all the time of Charles the II. and James the II. it hath continued Falling more and more every Year.  
Secondly, It stands to Reason, for if any way or method of the Vending or Consumption be stopped or obstructed, and no other way Substituted in the room thereof, that shall make away with as much, it must necessarily lower the Price.  
And who is it that gets by this lowering of the Price of WOOL? Certainly you will all say, not the Landlord nor the Tenant, no nor yet the Carder, the Spinner, nor the Worker, the Clothier nor the Dyer, for they are forced to sell their Clothes low accordingly to them that Buy them; Who then? Chief a few Factors and particular Persons of the Hamborrow-Company and other Companies, who do and will beat down the Prices of our Cloth here at home, and Buy it at the lowest Rates, (nay, and under the Rate that the Clothier can many times well afford it) and then sell it beyond Sea at their own Rates; and thus, this which the whole Country loses, they put into their own private Pockets.  
Let them keep up a moderate Price for our Cloth here, and that will keep up the Price of our WOOL, and then they need not fear the Exporting of it, For if we could have a reasonable Price for it here, without hazard, so as to pay our RENTS, none would be so foolish or mad, to venture their Necks to Transport it: But it is the necessity that is put upon them, that now enforces them to it, when the Clothier will or can not Buy their WOOL, at such an indifferent Rate as will enable them to Pay their Landlords, because the cunning BUYERS of our Cloth endeavour still to beat down the Prices at home.  
V Therefore I inquire, and let it be Considered, in such a Case, what shall the COUNTRY do, or what would you have them do with the overplus of their WOOL, (who at this time have Two Years WOOL lying on their hands) which our own Clothiers are not able or willing to Buy at such reasonable Rates as aforesaid?  
VI Let it be considered, Whether it can be for the Interest of England, when we have more WOOL of our own, than we can or at least do consume in Manufactures, to suffer the Importation of great quantities of Irish WOOL, which also helps to bring down the Prices of our own; and 'tis certain that they have all along for these many Years brought in great Quantities of Irish WOOL into London, Barnstable, and other places in the West, which serves every jot as well as our own WOOL for their use; must not that then hinder the Consumption of so many Pounds of our own WOOL, and that being so much cheaper than ours, bring down the Price of ours?  
VII. Let it be considered, Whether the lowness of the Price of our WOOL, hath not some influence on the lowness of the price of Corn? and so consequently doth affect all the Lands of England: It is most certain it does, which is easily demonstrated; for when WOOL is low, and bears but a small price, so that the Tenant cannot live and raise his RENT by that, than he turns more to Tillage, breaks up and sows more Land, which brings down the Price of Corn; but if WOOL bears a good Price, than they will run more into breeding Sheep and grazing, and so let more of their Land lie, till Corn grows so dear again, as sufficient to answer the honest Husband-man's Labour and Charge, which now it is not.  
Therefore to keep up the Price of our WOOL, is one certain way to keep up the Prices of our Corn; and how necessary that is, you are all sensible, by making so many Acts for the Exportation of it.  
Thus then upon the whole, let it be duly Considered; whether it is not most advisable, 

I. Either that the PARLIAMENT should set or fix, from time to time, such reasonable Price or Prices upon WOOL, as shall be thought indifferent and convenient betwixt Buyer and Seller, Landlord and Tenant, and continue an absolute Prohibition, as now it is, for Three Years; I dare say less WOOL will be Exported then, than hath been for many Years before, notwithstanding the late Prohibition, and that the higher the Price is put on it, the higher it will advance the Price of Corn, both which are now so low, and have been for some time, that all are sensible, Farmers are not able long to hold it at those Rates, much less pay Taxes.  
II. Or that the Parliament make the Prohibition conditional, as it is for Wheat, etc. (though Bread is the staff of the Poor and all men's Lives,) viz. when it is not above such or such a Price at the place of Exportation, or at London, (to be duly certified) then to be Exported, and not else. Nay, Further, That the Prohibition may be made absolute for Six or Seven Months in the Year, as from the First of May or June to the First of December, or more, That no WOOL shall be Exported within those Months (upon the severest Penalties that can be invented) that so our own people shall and may have the opportunity and benefit of pre-emption if they please; and this way I conceive there will be less WOOL openly Transported, than is now done secretly by stealth.  
III. Or that the Parliament direct Work-houses to be set up in every Market-Town in England, for the working out of all our WOOL, with such Regulations as shall be thought fit, which might be so constituted, as in some measure to ease the burdensome Parish-Charge of the Poor, which gins to grow too heavy for us to bear already in many places; or direct some other way for the Buying up, destroying or consumption of it at home by Sumptuary Laws, ordering such and such Degrees of Men and Women to wear only our Woollen Manufactures, &c  
iv Or that the Parliament give free liberty to all Persons (being our own Freeborn Subjects) to Export our own Woollen Manufactures to any part or places beyond the Seas whatever; and that the several Companies be Regulated, as to the Trade in Woollen Manufactures and their Exporting our Bullion, and also as to what Goods they Import, which hinders the Consumption of our own Manufactures at home.  
V And that they Prohibit the Importation of Irish WOOL, as strictly in all respects as they Prohibit the Exportation of our own; or else that Ireland be prevented as strictly from Exporting any of their WOOL into France, Flanders, Holland, or any other Foreign Parts, as well as we are prevented: For there's no Reason we should impoverish ourselves, and the greatest part of the Nation, to make the Irish in general Rich, or some private Persons and particular Companies of our own, to the prejudice and damage of Five Hundred times as many.    
I know nothing can hardly be Proposed, which may not be attended with some Inconveniency, (and we own most of it to the making of the unfortunate Irish Act,) but that which we ought now to consider, is, which will be the less, and the greater Inconveniency.  
I know also there are two vulgar Objections, to this, commonly made; but if they be throughly and rightly considered, are very small, or indeed no Objections at all.  
Object. I. That this will be a great loss and hindrance to the setting our own Poor at Work.  
Answer. It can be no loss at all, for whether the Price of WOOL be at Ten Pence, Eight Pence, or Six Pence a Pound, the Work of the Poor is all one and the same about it, neither more nor less, nor have they more or less for it, and now much is stolen over, which they do not Work out at all; which if a good Price was fixed on it, would remain here to be worked out.  
But I will make it apparent, that this is merely a bare Pretence in these Objectors, more than any thing else.  

1. Then let it be considered, Why the Hamborrow-Company send over so many White Clothes, to the great loss and hindrance of the Poor Dyers here?  
2. But if they indeed consult the good of the Poor, why do the East-India Company import so many WROUGHT Indian Silks, to the prejudice and hindrance of so many Thousand Silk-Weavers of our own? and why do they, (or are they suffered to) Import many other such Goods as hinder the Sale of our own Manufactures both at home and abroad?  
3. And why do the French Merchants Import (〈◊〉 by stealth, as well as otherwise) so great quantities of Wrought Silks from France, (and 'tis no small shame, as well as loss to the Kingdom in general, they are suffered to Import so much any ways) both to the over balancing of their Exporting Trade with France, and to the great prejudice, damage, and impoverishing of Ten Thousand of poor Weavers, and Others of our Poor, that might be employed in working and making the same Silk Manufactures here at home? And thus many Thousands more of our Poor might be set to Work than now are by them.   
Besides, if these Objectors were in good earnest for the good of the Poor why do they not Buy up all our WOOL, (and not put any for want of vent, upon a necessity of Exporting any of it) and so employ more of our Poor; but instead of that, they leave a Year or Two Years WOOL upon our hands, and let the Poor want so much Employment.  
Object. II. That then they beyond Sea, if they have our WOOL, would make Cloth, and under-sell us at our Markets, and so we should lose the whole Manufacture.  
Answer. This Objection doth indeed concern such as were the first makers of the Irish Act, and Prohibited the bringing in of live Sheep from Ireland with their WOOL on their backs, into England, whereby their WOOL became our own growth; but now it can have no weight with us, so long as they beyond Sea have had, and can have WOOL from Ireland, which is as good as ours; besides from Spain, which is better.  
Therefore, so long as they have Irish WOOL at a much cheaper Rate than ours, they might under-sell us, though they had not a Pound of ours. And the Irish (since the Irish Act) have set up Woollen Manufacturies, and can and will serve Foreign Markets cheaper than us, let us now do what we can.  
Thus then, unless you, or those that make the Objection, can Buy up or Destroy all the WOOL of the growth of Ireland, the Objection proves altogether insignificant: Certainly we ought not be so weak to destroy ourselves, and let Ireland have liberty to advance itself, that they may make the best of their Market for their Growth, whilst we Prohibit and Retrench our own; giving them leave to supply those Markets, that We ourselves might and formerly did; and so we wisely raise the Rents of Lands in Ireland, and fall our own, which certainly (one would think) cannot suit well with our right Policy, or true Wisdom for the Public Good.  
Besides, there may be such a Toll and Custom put upon all such WOOL, as shall happen so to be Exported, as shall render it so dear to them beyond Sea, that they shall never be able to under-sell us at our Markets; whereas now the Price of WOOL is so low here, 'tis certain that it causes such as steal it over, to sell it so much the lower to them in France, than they would do, if it did bear a good price here at home.  
So that, I say, it will be found by experience, the lowering the Price of WOOL so much here, does certainly cause so much the more WOOL to be stolen over, or Transported, notwithstanding all the Prohibitions that ever can be made.  
The Conclusion of all is this, Let there be some way found out for a full Consumption at home, and then let not a lock of WOOL be Exported; otherwise, without that, it will prove unreasonable, it will fall our RENTS, and never will have the desired Effect.  
All which is humbly submitted to the mature Consideration of This Honourable HOUSE.