I Am againſt an abſolute or unlimited Exportation of WOOLL as much as any Perſon whatſoever, but then there ought to be found out a way for a full Conſumption of it within our ſelves, 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 Gentlemen'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, &c. Let all the Members of the Inland Counties, and others, I ſay, conſider, Whether ſuch an Act can be for the General and Publick Good of the Kingdom?

II. Then Conſider, If when the Price of our WOOLL 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 WOOLL 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 WOOLL, you muſt needs lower and fall the Price of all your WOOLL 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 ſtopp'd 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 WOOLL? 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 forc'd to ſell their Clothes low accordingly to them that Buy them; Who then? Chiefly 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 Countrey 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 WOOLL, 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 WOOLL, 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 COUNTREY do, or what would you have them do with the over-plus of their WOOLL, (who at this time have Two Years WOOLL 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 WOOLL of our own, than we can or at leaſt do conſume in Manufactures, to ſuffer the Importation of great quantities of Iriſh WOOLL, 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 WOOLL into London, Barnſtable, and other places in the Weſt, which ſerves every jot as well as our own WOOLL for their uſe; muſt not that then hinder the Conſumption of ſo many Pounds of our own WOOLL, 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 WOOLL, 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 WOOLL is low, and bears but a ſmall price, ſo that the Tenant cannot live and raiſe his RENT by that, then he turns more to Tillage, breaks up and ſowes more Land, which brings down the Price of Corn; but if WOOLL bears a good Price, then they will run more into breeding Sheep and Graſing, and ſo let more of their Land ly, 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 WOOLL, 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 WOOLL, 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 WOOLL 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, &c. (though Bread is the ſtaff of the Poor and all Mens 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 WOOLL 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 WOOLL openly Tranſported, than is now done ſecretly by ſtealth. III. Or that the Parliament direct Work-houſes to be ſet up in ev'ry Market-Town in England, for the working out of all our WOOLL, with ſuch Regulations as ſhall be thought fit, which might be ſo conſtituted, as in ſome meaſure to eaſe the burthenſome Pariſh-Charge of the Poor, which begins 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 Free-born 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 WOOLL, 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 WOOLL into France, Flanders, Holland, or any other Foreign Parts, as well as we are prevented: For there's no Reaſon we ſhould impoveriſh our ſelves, 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 dammage of Five Hundred times as many.

I know nothing can hardly be Propoſed, which may not be attended with ſome Inconveniency, (and we owe 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.