A Comparison of the Duties payable on the Four Species excepted out of the Rule of the Tariff of 1664▪ with what they are now liable to, by several subsequent Ta­riffs; and how they will stand charg'd by the Tariff of 1699.

IT will be necessary to enter a little into the History of our Trade with France, for the last 40 or 45 Years: And because some Period of Time is proper in all such Cases to take a Rise from, it shall be placed at the Year 1660. If any think that Time is not sufficiently remote, they shall be fairly followed, let them go back as far as they please: In the mean while, I must take Notice to the Reader, that the Particulars are too copious and exten­sive, and especially their Numbers so pressing; that no Time or Room can be spar'd for Preambles, and Introductions.

About the Year 1660, the general Book of Rates was made in England, according to an Act of Parliament, whereby a Subsidy of Tonnage was laid on Wines and Bran­dies, and a Subsidy of Poundage after the Rate of 5 l. per Cent. upon all Goods and Mer­chandizes Imported.

In Imitation of this, in the Year 1664, the French made a General Tariff or Book of Rates, wherein they followed us in Rating all Goods and Merchandizes at a Tax of about 5l. per Cent. ad Valorem, except that, for the Encouragement of their own People to improve in Trade and Manufactures, all the Manufactures of Silk, Gold, Silver, Hair, Thread, and Wool, were Rated at 10 per Cent. according to their Value. This Tariff [Page 4] was es [...]eemed by all the Nations in these parts of Europe, to be very easy, and not the least Interruption to their Trade with France.

That the Reader may see at once what was paid upon our English Manufactures by that Tariff, and what has been laid on in France since that time, the foregoing Table is plac'd at the begining of this Paper; and also, as what there will be Occasion often to mention, and refer to: Out of which the Whale-bone, Fins, and Oyl, might have been omitted; because we have no Share of that Trade: But as it may be useful for the Information of some People, the whole is above Incerted.

All our Woollen Manufactures Exported from England to France, are reduced to the old Duties payable by the Tariff of 1664. Except Broad-Cloth and Serges, which are to pay, (as by the Tariff of 1699) (that also being capable of being moderated by Com­missioners) thus:

Broad-Cloth, which from the Year 1667, paid 80 Livres, will now pay only 55 Livres.

Mill'd Serges, which paid 15 Livres, now 11 Livres.

All other wollen Goods pay after the Tariff of 1664, (as aforesaid,) when their Wines paid Duty here but 7 l. 10 s. per Ton, and Brandy but 1 l. 10 s.

This part being thus stated, let us turn the Tables, and view the other side of the Trade, (viz.) Our Import from France, where the Particulars will be very surprizing; and this following Conclusion is most natural there from, (viz.) That if we Traded with France to our Advantage before, much more must we do so now; for the State of the Trade between England and France stands thus.

An Account of the several Duties which were payable upon French Goods Imported into England from France at the Year 1664, and of the Duties payable upon the same Goods after [...]he Peace.

Every True Britain, whose Concern is for his Countries Interest [...] must look upon this Table of Duties with great Satisfaction.

The setting this Account against the former, clears up the Treaty of Commerce so ef­fectually, that farther Enlargements must seem unnecessary: Nevertheless, since, Mat­ters of Fact concur, it shall next be shewed what Regard Her Majesty has had to the other Trading-Interest of Her Subjects: How the Ports of France are opened to Them upon equal Terms with the French Subjects themselves, and that even in some things prejudicial so themselves, as in the Levant Trade in particular.

The Hudsons Bay Company Pray, that the French may surrender all the Forts and Set­tlements in Hudsons Bay and Straight, and be obliged to renounce all Right and Pre­tensions thereto for the Future.

Granted.

And that they make Restitution of Damages to the Value of 108, 514l. Sterl.

Granted. The Quantum only being referr'd to Comm [...]ssioners.

[Page 5] The Turky or Levant Company Pray, that They may have the [...]ame [...]i [...]erty of Trade in France as the French themselves, and not to pay higher Duties than by the Tariff of 1664.

Granted.

And that They be allowed to carry Goods to all Parts of France from the Levant di­rectly, or the Goods of the Levant (viz.) Raw Silks, &c. from Great-Britain.

Granted, as in 1664.

The East-India Company Pray, that the Prohibitions and high Duties laid in France on East-India Goods sent from England may be taken off, and to be on the same foot as in the first of King Charle [...]'s Reign.

Granted. And yet the Prohibition in England of East-India Goods from any Place but the East-Indies, continues.

The Virginia Merchants Pray, That the Tobacco of the English Plantations be Impor­ted into France under a reasonable Duty, and the Importers to sell it without Subjection to the Farmers.

Granted. Under the same-Duty which other Nations pay, as to the Farm, referr'd to the Commissioners.

Lyme Regis Prays, The Prohibition of Woollen Manufactures, and the high Duties laid in France, may be taken off, and the said Goods be Imported into France, as formerly,

Granted,

The Merchants of Bristol Pray, The same as above from Lyme; as also that Tonage of Ships be abolished on both Sides.

Granted,

And that all our Merchants be permitted to Buy and Sell Tobacco in France under moderate Customs, without being subjected to the Farmers.

Referred to the Commissioners.

That nothing might be wanting to secure to Great Britain a compleat Freedom of their Trade to France; all the Advantages of the Treaties France has made with other Na­tions, are contained in this Treaty, and all the Privileges stipulated for them, are by her Majesty's Care for her Subjects Profit made our own, as by the Eighth and other Article [...]; whereby it is stipulated, that her Majesty's Subjects shall be Treated in France in the same manner as the Nations they most favoured, and even as the French King's own Subjects.

The Ninth Article adds, And all Prohibitions, Tariffs, Edicts, Declarations, Decrees made in France since the said Tariff, of 1664 contrary thereunto, in Respect of the Goods and Mer­chandizes of Great Britain, shall be repealed.

As to this it is objected; that it is not said Goods and Merchandizes of the Subjects of Great Britain, but Goods and Merchandizes of Great Britain, which implyes (say they) the Manufactures of Great Britain only. But the Absurdity here is so gross, that it is strange the Wisdom of the Turkey Company should fall into it: For (1.) if it had been meant of the Manufactures of Great Britain, only, it would have been said, The GROWTH and PRODUCE, not the Goods and Merchandizes. By Growth and Produce, indeed the Manufactures had been understood; but by the Goods and Merchandizes of Great Britain must be understood, the Goods and Merchandizes, which the Subjects of Great Britain TRADE IN. But (2.) it is out of Question, That if the taking off the Prohibitions, &c. of the Goods and Merchandizes of Great Britain was meant only of the Manufactures, then was the whole Levant Trade prohibited still; which the Gentlemen do not pretend to.

Thus it appears, that the Construction the Company would have put on▪ the Words of the 9th. Article, (viz.) Goods and Merchandizes of Britain, would be the Ruin of that very Trade which they Petition to support, and would Prohibit all their Levant Goods in France. Such People, like Children, must be dealt with by the Nature of things, and must have given them not always what they DO ask, but what they WOULD ask.

[Page 6] Some Considerations might be offered here, upon the Turkey Companies desiring the Liberty to carry their Raw Silk from England to France; and yet at the same time Pe­tition that the Silk Manuf [...]ctures here should receive Encouragement, as if carrying the Silk abroad (which is a means to keep up the Price of Silk) should at the same time be a means to encourage the Weavers and Manufacturers of Silk in this Kingdom. This Mystery is referr'd to them to unfold. Also the Consistency of their desiring to supply France with Raw Silk, at the same time that they desire the Silk Manufactures of France should not be encouraged.

In general, all the Memorials, Petitions, and Representations given in, as well from publick Bodies of Men, as from private Merchants, do allow, that if the Priviledges, Advantages, Abatements of Duties, &c. which they request, or represent as needful▪ may be obtained, there will be a great and beneficial Trade driven from England to France.

To make it plain then, that all those Priviledges, Advantages, Abatements, &c. are real­ly obtain'd by the Treaty; the Contents of those Memorials are here sum'd up▪ (the Memorials themselves being too long) and most of them demanding the same thing with but little Variation.

[Page 7] It would be reasonable here to desire those People who insist so much upon this Re­serve of Cloths and Serges out of the Tariff of 1664, to consider what the exception amounts to, and how far it may hurt the Trade, that they may Judge whether the Damage is equal to the Complaint: To this purpose the Difference in the Serges is set down again here; (viz.) That the Serges which paid 10 Livres in 1664, and were af­terwards brought to 15, and then to 24, and after that prohibited, may now be freely Im­ported into France paying only 11 Livres, that is to say, one Livre advance upon a piece of 15 Ells; and the Difference upon Cloths is, that the Piece which paid 40 Livres before, in 1664, must pay now 55, being 15 Livres upon about 31 Yards English Measure.

To make this Estimate more plain, it is to be noted, that the Ell [...] mention'd in all these Cases is to be understood the French Ell containing 5 Quarters of the English Yard, and so the Account of the Exception of Cloths, and Cloth Serges, may be read thus.

Cloths per piece containing 25 Ells, that is, 31 English Yards and a Quarter, to pay 15 Livres more than by the Tariff of 1664.

Cloth Serges per piece containing 15 Ells, that is 18 Yards and 3 Quarters, to pay 1 Livre more than by the Tariff of 1664.

Considering Men, when they come to weigh this, will be apt to wonder what it is the Trading part of this Nation have been so much allarm'd at in the Treaty with France, and will hardly be brought to believe that the Complaints which have been made of ruining our Manufactures and encouraging the French, should all be raised from these small Differences.

Would these People turn the Tables, and make the Case of France here the [...]r own, what loud Complaints would they make in England, if any Manufactures which our own Peo­ple were endeavouring to make at home, should have been admitted by the Treaty from France, with alike small Advance on the French Goods more than they paid in 1664. Whereas every body is sensible that the French are to pay here upon all their Goods 2, 3, 4 or 500l. per Cent higher Duties than they paid in 1664, and in some Goods much more. Had these advanced Duties been taken off, how would they alledge that Foreigners were encouraged; that the Bread was taken out of the Mouths of our own Peo­ple; that the Importing Manufactures from abroad, which we could make at Home, was taking away the Employment from our own Poor to give to the French: Yet this is the Case here. The French have given all the Encouragment they could to their Peo­ple to fall upon the making the Woollen Manufactures of Great Britain; it is supposed none can blame them for that; some steps they have taken in it which promised them Success, while the Duties of 80 Livres and 120 Livres were laid on English Cloths; and yet even then, great Quantities of English Cloth were carried into France, which obli­ged the King of France at last, to make a Prohibition of English Woollon Manufactures in general, (viz) in the Year 1701.

But after all these Advances in the Woollen Manufactures, the French King being obli­ged by the Necessity of his Affa [...]rs to make a Peace, has yielded to such a Peace as opens the Door into France for the Woollen Manufactures of Great Britain, at the same Rate of Custom and Duties as they paid 49 Years ago, long before his own People m [...]de any considerable Attempt that way; having excepted or reserved but two species of Manufactures, and upon them has only advanced about 2 or 3 per Cent.

There is ha [...]dly a Manufacture Erected by us in Britain in the memory of Man, but that if the high Duties laid upon Forreign Goods of the same kind were taken off, or within 2 or 3 per Cent. of what they were before, would be ruin'd, and the Un­dertakers thereof must lay them down: If the Manufacturers of Paper, Linnen Cloth, Canvas, or Sail Cloth, and many other things were heard to this, it is believed they would all acknowledge the Truth of it.

[Page 8] But the French King is obliged by this Treaty, what Discouragement soever it may be to his own Subjects and their Manufacture [...] to take off all his Prohibitions and high Duties, and give all the English Manufactures a free Entrance into his Country, upon the same easy Duties they paid in the Year 1664, except two sorts only, (viz.) Cloth, and Cloth Serges.

That this may admit of no Dispute, the Affirmative leads to the particular sorts of our Woollen Manufactures, which by this Treaty may be carryed into France by the Rule of the Tariff of 1664, viz.

Spanish Cloths, Serges, not Cloth-Serges, Double Bays, Single Bays, Says, Perpetuana's, Spanish Draggets, all sorts of Norwich Stuff [...], Linsey-Woolseys, Kiderminster Stuffs, Shalloons, Chenys, Peny­ [...]es, half Thicks, Cottons, plain double and single Dozens, i. e. Yorkshire Cloths, Kersies, Duffels, Tammies, Plaids, Blankets, Rugs, [...]lannels, Worsted Hose, Woollen Hose, Knit-Caps, Knit-Wa [...]c [...]ats, Knit-Petticoats, Friezes, Camtalogns, and whatever other things are made of Wool, and wrought in Great Britain, all are reduced by this Tariff to the Duties paya­ble in 1664.

What has been said of the Liberty of Commerce obtained by the Treaty with France, the Reduction of the Duties in France to the Tariff of 1664, and the Reserve or Limi­tation of two Species of our Manufactures only, (viz) of Broad Cloths and Serges, to a small Advance of Duty; has been more than sufficient to explain those things to any Mens Understandings, which are not politically dull: Unless these People expected that her Majesty should have made a Condition with the French King, that his Subjects should make no Woollen Cloth, or that when they had made it, they should not export it to Turkey, for fear of prejudicing our Levant Trade.

If the French Merchants in Turkey hold their Cloths up to equal Price with the English, no Buyer will take them, except when a sufficient Quantity of English Cloth cannot be had to supply the Market.

The French Cloths being inferiour to the English in Quality, are for that Reason, and no other, Sold in Turkey at a lower Price.

It is evident that the French want the Materials, (viz) the Wool, especially in those parts of France where their Cloths for the Turkey Trade are made; and whither the English or Irish Wool which they get by Stealth, cannot be carried without very great Expence; and that the Wool they make use of instead thereof, and to mix with the Spa­nish Wool, is of an inferiour Quality to the English Wool, they themselves will not deny. But if these were not so, and they were to make Cloth wholly of Spanish Wool, or of English and Spanish Wool mixt, yet the general Way of Workmanship of the French Na­tion, is known to be slighter and looser in all their Manufactures, than the Manufa­ctures of the like kind made here, and that our Workmen perform almost all kinds of Work-firmer and more sub [...]antial, not only than the French, but also than any other People. So that our Cloths, and even all our Woollen Manufactures, will Sell for a better Price, than Manufactures of the same Denomination from other Countries.

As to the Silk Manufactures, they have such a sufficient Provision, made for them, and such Encouragement given them already by the high Duties on Foreign wrought Silks, as well of France as of any other Country, that as they stood in no need of Pro­hibitions during the War, so they stand in need of no farther Assistance during the Peace.

For this Reason, as they have nothing to ask but that those Duties should remain; so the Treaty of Commerce has taken none of them away; and if the Silk Manufacture [...] cannot subsist with that Difference upon them which those Duties have laid, neither would they subsist with a Total Prohibition.

It is observable, that during the said high Duties, particularly upon Alamodes, and Lustrings, none of them have been Imported here, that is, legally Imported; as for Clandestine Importation, or Running of Goods, that can be no Argument, because nei­ther [Page 9] can the Quantity be great, or is it possible entirely to prevent those things either in this Country or in any other. The Difference between the Manufactures of Silk at home, and those imported, stands thus:

Foreign wrought Silks of all kinds, pay for every 20 pound Weight, L. 12. 3. 7. Netts Duty.

Alamodes and Lustrings, pay for every 20 pound Weight, L. 31. 17. 3. Nett Duty.

Now if the Foreign wrought Silks pay above 12 Shillings per Pound Weight, Duty up­on Importation, all Discounts taken off; the Disadvantage which they must lie under, must exceedingly lessen that Importation, and seems sufficient not only to encourage, but to quicken the Industry of our own Weavers.

But since the Encouragement of the Silk Trade, and Employment of the Weavers is spoken of as a thing of such extraordinary Weight, it may be very necessary to state the Case of Manufacturing in general, that our Opinion of things may be rightly bal­lanc'd.

It is an undoubted Rule of Trade, that the Employment of our own Poor, and Con­sumption of our own Growth, is the first Principal of Commerce, and should be the last End of all our National Improvement.

As Great Britain is stated in Matters of Trade, this Concern for the General Inte­rest of that Trade, centers upon our Woollen Manufacture: There is a just Concern due to every Branch of Trade, but to that most, which most contributes to, and is most essential, in the two great Ends of Trade above-mentioned; (viz) Employment of the People, and Consumption of the Produce. This the Woollen Manufacture is so far supe­rior in, to all other Branches of our Commerce, as admits of no Comparison; and therefore the principal Concern of the Nation is, and ought to be the Woollen Manufacture.

It is true, Prudence may so guide, as that this Concern for the Woollen Manufacture, tho' it be with a Preference to all our other Goods, yet may not be in Opposition to them; there being a manifest Difference between, shewing a peculiar Regard to one, and injuring the other; as a Man having many Children, may shew a peculiar Affection to his eldest, without injuring the rest: But then, on the other hand, neither must any of the other Branches of Trade claim or expect such a Regard or Concern to be shewn to them, as should be injurious to the Woollen Manufactures.

The Silk Trade is useful and advantageous, but Silk is a modern Manufacture, and is useful and advantageous, as it is a Return for, and encourages the Exportation of the Woollen Manufactures, and no otherwise: The Woollen Manufacture is the Eldest Child of the Nation's Commerce: The Silk Trade is a Foster-Child taken into the Family, made useful and meriting to be encouraged, but always with a Subserviency to the Good of the Heir.

If the Turky Merchants drive any considerable Trade to France with raw Silk, whe­ther from England by Re-Exportations, or from the Levant directly; the Silk they car­ry, it is allowed, must be the Product of English Manufactures; so that by that Method, not only our own Silks, but, even the French Silks also, as to the Materials they are made of, are the Product and Return of the English Woollen Manufactures. The next Difference is the Workmanship, which lies thus, that one is perform'd by the French, whom we ought to have no Regard to in Trade; the other is perform'd by our own People, whom we ought to support.

But granting this; if on the other hand, a Bale of wrought Silks should be brought from France, bought there with a Bale or Bales of Spanish Cloth, or other Woollen Goods, it is easy to prove that it is more our Interest to bring over that Bale of wrought Silk; and that the said wrought Silks are more our own Manufacture, than if they had been wrought in Spittle-Fields; because the Woollen Manufactures which were first sent to Turky to purchase the raw Silk, which this Bale of Silks was wrought from, and the Spanish Cloths or other Woollen Goods sent to France to purchase the said Silks, [Page 10] when wrought, not only consumed the Growth of England, but employed above Six­teen times the Number of People in their making, &c. more than the Bale of wrought Silks would have done, if they had been made in Spittle-Fields.

On the other hand, this implies no Danger at all to the English Manufactures of Silk, because tho' the Humours and Fancies of some expensive People may run them upon buy­ing Foreign wrought Silks, yet while the high Duties here remain as they are to do by the Treaty, the Difference of Price will be always such as will lessen the Demand of Foreign Silks, restrain the Humour aforesaid to a few People, and preserve the Bulk of the Manufacture in our hands.

It is objected by some, That the Difference is not sufficient; that notwithstanding 12 l. 3 s. 7 d. to be paid upon the Importation for every 20 Pound Weight of wrought Silks, yet that the French will bring in their Silks. But this amounts to no more than this (viz) That they will bring in some few: Which is what as above, may be to our Advantage. But they will not pretend, that the Difference of the said Duty shall not lessen that Importation, and reduce it to a small Quantity, and that the Gross of the Trade shall remain in our own hands.

The Substance of the Petitions of the Silk Weavers, and of others who pretend to ap­pear in their Behalf, is in short this, That the Importation of French wrought Silks may be prevented: The Pretence to make their Petitioning national, is the Danger, they say appears, that French wrought Silks will now, by Virtue of the Treaty of Com­merce, be imported in great Quantities into Britain, and the French being able to un­der-work us, will also Under-sell us, and the Weavers thereby be ruin'd.

What Foundation there is to support these Things, will appear, upon making a few Enquiries into matters of Fact; and some just Calculation of the Proportions of one to the other.

The Affairs of the high Du [...]ies upon wrought Silks Imported, is given in Answer to the Weavers, and seems to make their Apprehensions appear very irrational: Above 31s. per Pound Duty on the Importation must be paid upon Alamodes and Lustrings, and above 12s. per Pound upon all other wrought Silks; except Italian Silks Imported in En­glish Ships, which pay Duty 10 s. 6 d.

The Force of Reason prevailed in the first, and the Weavers have given it up, owning at the Bar of the House of Commons, that the Difference is sufficient in the A­lamodes and Lustrings, and that the French can do them no harm there; but it seems they think 12 s. or 10 s 6 d. per pound too little upon the other wrought Silks: But they ei­ther did not know, or omitted to take notice, that the Raw Silk which those French Goods are made of, pays Sixteen Livres per pound Duty at the first Importation into France; that the wrought Silks, when shipp'd again to be brought hither, pay 5l. per Cent. Custom ad Valorem upon their Exportation, both by the Tariff of 1664; and that the other Charges, such as Transportation by Land-Carriage to the Ports they are shipp'd at, Commission for Buying, Fraight, Risque of the Sea, &c. cannot be so little as 5 per Cent. more. So that here is about 12 per Cent. more upon the Value of the Goods to be added to the Difference of 12s. or 10s. 6 d. per pound; all which put together, makes such a Weight upon the Foreign wrought Silks, and gives such an Advantage to the English Weavers, that it is wonderful to think they should complain.

To add to the Conviction of these Things, it shall be a little examin'd, what effect this Difference has already had upon the Silk Trade; from whence may be Estimated some thing of what may be expected for the time to come.

The Weavers said Themselves, at the Committee of the House of Commons, that they make to the Value of Three hundred thousand Pounds every Year, in Black Silks only; whether it be Truth or not, is not easy to be examined: But in this Case, if they al­low it, we are not to question it, for if it be an Error, it is against themselves; their [Page 11] Quantity of other Silks they spake of as prodigiously great. It cannot be amiss to observe then, what Quantity of Foreign wrought Silks have been imported here from all parts of Europe, under our high Duties, and see what Proportion they bear to the Quantity which these People say they make at Home, whether these Foreign wrought Silks have been French or no, is not the Case; The Duties are near the same; and as they are Imported from Countries to which France had an open Trade, it is not improbable many French Silks have been among them, and if more has not come in, the Difference made by the Duties have been the apparent and only Reason, and the same Reason must hold good still, as long as the same Duties remain.

All that can be alledged against this is, to beg the Question and say, That There will be more Imported now; but before that can be allowed, they should shew a good Reason why more was not Imported in these Years above-stated, being the Quantity from I­taly was always much greater, before the raising the Duties here; and that Reason which is good for preventing the Importation from Italy, will be good for preventing it from any other Country.

What has been said against the Reason of this, is so little to the Purpose, and with such little Force, that it is worth no Notice, the Facts are so clearly made out, that they amount even to Demonstration: The high Duties have effectually check'd the im­portation of wrought Silks, and will do so still. If the French had their raw Silks chea­per than we have it, how comes it to pass, that so much weight has been put upon the Levant Company's obtaining a Liberty of Exporting Raw Silk from England to France? which is obtain'd for them by the Treaty, and which the Company are now fully sa­tisfied, is settled to their advantages. If the French had raw Silks cheaper than the English, it would be absur'd to spake of our sending raw Silks from England to France. Goods [Page 12] are shipped from Port to Port, to mend their Market, not to lessen their Value; if our Merchants did not advance the Price, they would never send their Goods abroad.

Not only the French have not their raw Silk Cheaper than England; but on the con­trary, England has their raw Silks cheaper than all the World; those Countries excep­ted, who have it of their own; and this will appear, by the great Quantity of raw Silk Exported from England to other Countries; as also of Mohair Yarn, which is equal­ly concern'd in the Argument; and the following Abstract of One Year may give a specimen.

It would be an unaccountable Trade, if it should be true, that other Nations had Raw Silk cheaper than we have it, when at the same time they should buy such Quan­tities of it every Year from us.

If any Nation in the World can have Raw Silk cheaper than England, Italy may be thought to be the Place, because they have great Quantities (Sicily included) of Silks of their own Growth. It will be hard to assign a Reason why Italy, who have Silk of their own, and with whom our Trade has been always open, should by our high Duties be obstructed from sending their wrought Silks to England, and France, who buy great Quantities of Silk from us, should not.

As the like Arts have been made use of to possess the People with an Opinion, that the Interest of Britain has been neglected with respect to the Portugal Trade, which were before employ'd in that of the French; so it will easily be made appear, it has been done with the like Weakness, and 'tis hop'd it shall be with the like Success.

It is alledged, That the Treaty with France, and the Treaty formerly made with Por­tugal, and no [...] subsisting, are inconsistent with one another; That the Effect of the Treaty with France will be the [...]ess [...]ing the Importation of Portugal Wines, by Lower­ing the Duties on the French; that this will lessen the Consumption of our Woollen Ma­nufactures in Portugal, that our Trade there will be en [...]irely lost by a Prohibition of all our Woollen Manufactures in Portugal as it was before the War: And the like.

It is needful to go back and look into the former State of the Portugal Trade, before the late Treaty, and enquire into the Nature and Reason of the Alterations, Additions and Encreases, which have been Accidents to that Trade, and which have brought it from what it was, to what it now is; in which, if the Causes assign'd for it's Encrease are mistaken, the Notions we entertain of such and such things endangering its Decrease, will appear equ [...]ly groundless.

Two general and Vulgar Errors, or Mistakes, are entertained among us relating to the first part of the Portugal Trade; (viz) what it was before the Treaty with Portugal; and two more relating to what it now is, or will be by reason of the Peace. The Mi­stakes about what it was, are (1) That the Portuguese had prohibited all our Woolllen Ma­nufactures. (2) That the Encrease of our Trade or Export to Portugal, was occasioned by, and depended upon the Encrease of our Demand for Their Wines. Our Mistakes about what the Portugal Trade is now, or is like to be, are, (1) That upon our reducing the Duties of French Wine by the Treaty of Commerce with France to an Equality with the Portuguese Wines, the Wine Trade from Portugal will be ruined, and we shall import no more. [Page 13] (2) That upon this, the Portuguese will immediately prohibit our Woollen Manufactures; and so that great Trade which it is alledged, tho' falsly too, Exports two Millions Year­ly in the Growth and Manufacture of Great-Britain, will be lost.

If every one of these may be clearly proved to be Mistakes, and that neither the things suggested, or the Consequences drawn from them, can be supported by Truth or Reason, then all our Uneasiness about this Portugal Trade; will appear causeless and ill grounded. To do this, there needs no more than to state Matters of Fact; and give such Proofs of every thing as the Case will admit.

1. That all our Woolen Manufactures were Prohibited before the War, is a Mistake; and truly this is a Mistake of such a Nature, so obvious, and so easy to be confuted, that it is wonderful it should be expected by any body to do their Arguments any Service. It is well known upon the Exchange, and no Portugal Merchants of any long standing, can be ignorant that the Prohibition was ONLY of our Medley Cloths, which were forbidden not only to be imported there, but to be worn; the Reasons whereof also were assigned, (viz.) Not that they set about the making them there, as some alledged, but because they found their People forward to run into the French way of Clothing and Dressing themselves, which the Court for many Reasons thought fit to prevent. But no Man who has any competent Knowledge of the Portugal Trade, will pretend that the Bays, Says, Perpets, Serges, Stuffs, Stockings, Cotions, Plains, Kerseys, &c. which were always the Gross of the English Exportations to Portugal, were ever under any Prohibition there, or any other of our Woollen Manufactures, the Woollen Cloths as above only excepted.

That what is said here may, as it is Resolved all things in this Paper shall, carry it's Evidence along with it, the Words of the late Treaty with Portugal may be produced for Proof: In the Second Articles after the Proportion between the Customs of Por­tuguese Wines and the Custom of French Wines is settled, follow these Words; Butt if this Abatements of Customs as is presumed to be made, shall be after any manner prejudiced or Abo­lished, shall be just and lawful for his Sacred Royal Majesty of Portugal, again to forbid the WOOLLEN CLOTHS.

From he [...]ce may be noted also, that this part of the Agreement was not so abso­lutely and [...] laid down, as an Essential of the Treaty between England and Portugal, without which the Peace of the two Nations could not subsist, but Provision was expresly made in the very Article, that if it should be ABOLISHED, yet the Peace should r [...]main entire; only the King of Portugal would then be at Liberty if he thought [...] make himself Amend [...] upon England, by prohibiting the English WOOL­LEN CLOTHS.

The next vulgar Error, or Mistake, which we are led into about the Portugal Trade, is, that the Encrease of our Exports of the Woollen Manufactures of Great Britain to Portugal, is occasion'd by, and depends upon the Encrease of our Demand for their Wines: This, however absurd, and in its Nature contrary to the Truth of Fact, is the thing on which the Argument is made to turn; from which they would infer, that as our Demand for Portugal Wine decreased, so will their Demand for our Manufa­ctures decline: And in short, that if by the coming in of French Wines, the Portugal Wine shall be wholly left off, as they vainly suggest, so will also the Demand for our Woollen Manufactures in Portugal cease, and that Trade be lost.

The People who argue thus, confute themselves in their own Calculations: For First to magnify the Portugal Trade, they tell us that we export thither Annually the Value of Two Millions Sterling, most of it in the Woollen Manufactures of Great Bri­tain against this, give them leave to make their own Estimates of the Wine we Im­port from thence, and take the largest Year and the highest Price they can reasonably suppose, the Quantity will not amount to above 8 or 9000 Ton, which Account there [Page 14] will in the pursuit of this Article, appear Reason to make great Abatement of too; but were it so, and account the Wines prime Cost one with another, at 15 l. per Ton, or, to please them, at 20 l. per Ton, which is much above the true Cost in in Portugal, they will not amount to 200,000 l. which by their own Account, is less than one Tenth part of the Demand for our Manufactures. This will very ill make it out that their Demand for our Manufactures is occasion'd by, and depends upon our Demand for their Wines; by which they must make it appear, that the Nine parts of the Trade de­pend upon the Tenth, and the greater is occasioned by the less, which is an Absur­dity in the very Nature of the thing.

But the matter of Fact is evident, and known to all that have any tolerable Know­ledge of the Portugal Trade, (viz) That the Encrease of the Trade to Portugal, has been occasion'd by the Discovery within these few Years of the Gold Mines of St. Paul in the Brazils, by which an immense Treasure is gain'd yearly to the Portugueze Nation, as well as to their King; that by th [...]s means the People in Brazil are so in­creas'd in Wea [...]th, and the Trade to Brazil are so increased as a Consequence, that the [...]leets which about twelve Years ago, were usually Twenty-three to Twenty-Eight Sail of Ships from Lisbon to Brazil, are now Seventy, Eighty, to a hundred Sail, and the Exports of English Goods to Portugal are increased in Proportion.

This is the true and the only Reason of the Encrease of their Demand for English Manufactures; and th [...]s has no more Dependance upon, or is occasion'd by our De­mand for their Wines, than it depends upon any thing that has no Relation at all to it.

It is very strange to find the Opposers of any Argument lay the whole Stress and Weight of what they have to say upon any thing which they are not very sure they can support the Truth of. But it is perfectly surprizing to see Men value themselves and their Cause upon Accounts and Calculations which are fraudulent and errone­ous, known by Themselves to be so, and which they might be sure, in an Age like this, when Men take nothing upon Trust, would by inquiring Heads be soon detect­ed and exposed.

Nothing of this kind can be more wonderful, than what we see practised just now by some People, in handing about a Paper call'd, A SCHEME of the Trade between England and France, in order to make the Trade between England and France look with an Aspect to please them, and to answer all the Romantick things they have said of it; which Paper or SCHEME, was Printed in 1674, and said to be Sign'd by several eminent Merchants of the City of London.

Something might be said to the Design of that Paper, when it was first published, and to the Persons who Sign'd it (viz.) That it was Calculated for a Design then on foot, to expose the Publick Management, and divide the People against the Court.

It may be proper than for the detecting the Fraud of this Scheme, to enter into an Exa­mination of some of the Particulars wherein it differs from the true Account of that Year; which shall be done by giving a brief Abstract of the said Scheme, and likewise of the true Account from the Custom House, as it is now laid before the Honourable House of Commons by the Commissioners.

By both which it will appear, that the Design of this Paper, call'd A SCHEME, was then, and the making it publick is now, to lessen in the publick Opinion the Va­lue of our Exp [...]rtations to France, and to encrease or heighten the Value of our Im­portations from France; a Design in it self dishonest, but much more so from the man­ner of doing it, as will appear by what follows.

Our Exportat [...]ons to France from Michaelmas to Michaelmas 1668-9, are made by the Scheme to amount to l. 171, 021. 06. 08, and all the species of Goods are restrated to these few, (viz.) Woollen Cloths, Dozens, Kerseys, Rashes, Pennystones, Cott [...]ns, Flannels, Hose, Bays, Stuffs, Serges, and Perpets, with some Petties, which are Crowded toge­ther at the Value of 20000 l.

[Page 15] Two Observations shall contain what is sufficient to say to this part of it, and nothing can be desired to expose it more.

1: That here is not half of the species of Goods named which are every Year Expor­ted to France, and which, as appears by the Custom-house Books were actually Exported to France that Year.

2. That of the species of Goods which they have named, they have not set down the true quantities which were really Exported to France that very Year.

These are such Tokens of a design'd Collusion and Prevarication, that nothing of that kind can be more corrupt.

But to descend to a few Particulars of this Fraud, that the People may see in how gross a manner they are Imposed upon.

1. Take a few of the Articles mention'd by the SCHEME of Goods Exported to France, 1668-9, as aforesaid, and when Compared with the real Entries of that Year in the Custom-House Books, from the Port of London, according to the Account given in by the Commissioners, and now lying before the House of Commons.

And any one, upon Casting up the following Particulars, will see to what a Mag­nitude this Part will amount.

2. Add to this, That to lessen the Appearance of our Trade to France, they have wholly omitted all the Fish, such as Herrings, Pilchards, Salmon, and White Fish; all our Plantation Goods, and all the Goods of other Countries Re [...]exported by us to France; of which the Quantities Exported that very Year were very great and are so every Year: The Particulars are too long to set down here, but may be guess'd at by these few.

Besides prodigious Quantities of other Goods Exported to France that Year; as may be seen by the said account from the Custom-House, now lying before the House of Commons.

[Page 16] The remaining Particulars are so many, as makes it plain, that the Value of our Ex­portations to France for that Year exceeded the Value of our Importations from France very considerably, as by the Custom-House Books will appear.

The Errors in the Account of the Importations, are no less unfairly Stated than these, and the Fraud is extended to a much greater Value; Nay, even the manner of Stating it, discovers a design of Imposing upon the Publick. For First the Export is confine [...] to the Port of London, only with an allowance of one Third more for the out Ports, whereas the Import is said to be for the whole Kingdom, let them take it which way they Please.

If their Imports are for the Ports of London only, then they have committed a Fraud in the Quantities to the Value of above 721,796 Pounds, as will be prov'd by the Custom-House Books.

If their Imports take in the whole Kingdom, then they have committed two Frauds instead of one (1.) In the Quantities: And (2.) In offering to state the Debtor side of the Account upon the Port of London, with a Guess at one Third more of the Out-Ports, AGAINST all that they say was Imported in the whole Kingdom.

If they had design'd a fair and just Account, They ought to have stated the Ex­ports and Imports exactly for the Port of London, and have made the Addition of one Third for the out Ports equal to both sides; and have stated both sides upon the Im­ports and Exports of the whole Kingdom; For if the Exports exceed the Imports for the Port of London only, as appears by the Custom-House Books: It would have been much more so for the Out-Ports, because many of our Out-Ports, which lye in or near those Countries where the Woollen Manufactures are made, Fish cured, &c. Export much greater Quantities to France, than they could consume the Value of in French Goods, as Exeter, Colchester, Yarmouth, and many other Ports.

But the Prevarications are yet more gross, and the Value greater; As one part makes the Exportations to France seem less; so the other as dexterously makes the Importa­tions from France seem more: Nor will their making a Guess or Wholsale Al­lowance of one Third for the Out-Ports on one side answer for it, unless they had either made the same allowance serve on both sides, or extended the Account to the same period of Time on both sides without it; but acting fairly did not seem to suit the Design.

Those who would support the Paper call'd A Scheme, produce a Paper, said to be Signed by the Farmers of the Customs, containing an Account of the Importations of Wines, Brandies, and Linnen from France, from Michaelmas 1667, to Michaelmas 1669, which they make to be very large, and from whence they would argue, that one half thereof must be the Rule of the Year 1669. Had this been a meer Guess, or had it been at any other time, the Calculation might have been less suspected. But there lies so just an Exception against the Year 1667, and it was so well known to them, that it cannot be any thing but a meer Design.

It is well known, the Plague had in the Year 1665 put an universal stop to all Trade, except such as Necessity forc'd the People to, for meer Provisions. The next Year the Fire of London happen'd; and as the Fire began near the water side, and a­mong the Warehouses and Cellars of the Merchants, the Quantities of Wines as well as of other Goods which were spoil'd or destroy'd, were very great. Add to this a War with France and Holland; by which the Trade with both was stop'd, and which War was not ended till the Treaty at Breda in July 1667.

These Things might well suppose England to be so Exhausted of French Goods, as that the Importation of the next Year, (viz) 1667, must be prodigious great; and no ratio­nal Judgment can be made of the Trade to or from France by the Accounts of that Year. This is farther demonstrated by the Article of the Brandies which the Account [Page 17] of the Farmers aforesaid makes for the said Two Years to be but 3775 Ton. But by an Account of the same Farmers for the last Five Quarters of the said two Years, (viz.) from Michaelmas 1668, to Michaelmas 1669, the whole Quantity of Brandy Imported, amounts to no more than 680 Ton; and yet the SCHEME affirms, there was 4000 Ton of Brandy Imported from Michaelmas 1668, to Michaelmas 1669. And this is of­fer'd as one undeniable Evidence of the Fraud of that SCHEME.

There may be a parallel Case found out to illustrate this, and that is of the Expor­tation of Lead from England to France in the Year 1662, which amounts to, as by the Custom-House Books, a most prodigious and unusual Quantity (viz.) From Michaelmas 1662, to Michaelmas 1663, there was Exported from England to France, 21,757 Fod­der of Lead, which at 12 l. per Fodder, as the Scheme allows the Price to be, amounts to 261,084 l. It would be acknowledged very unfair, that this should be given in as an Article of our usual Export of Lead to France; for, as an extraordinary Year is no just Rule to take a Medium of Calculation from, so no more is the Year 1667, to be taken as a proper time to Calculate our Importation of Wine from France; the prece­ding Accidents of a Plague, the Fire, and the War, joining together to make the De­mand for Wines that Year extraordinary great.

Perhaps it is a Fate upon us, that the Inconveniencies and Ill-Consequences of re­jecting a Trade so evidently Beneficial to England, must be discovered by our Experi­ence, and must be felt before they will be known; in which Case this Paper will have Occasion not only to mention those Inconveniencies before hand, but to remind you of them when they happen.

This Paper shall also, in its Course, be adapted to the several Trading Counties and Towns of Great Britain, to make appear, that now the War is ended, all the Goods and Commodities of France may be Imported into this Kingdom, especially such as are to be Re-exported, as Brandies, Linens, Silks, Paper, Laces, &c. Since upon such Re-exportation all the additional Duties are drawn back; when at the same time not one Yard of the Woollen Manufacture of Great Britain, which are all prohibited in France, nor of our Fish and other material Commodities, can be Imported into France, the Articles not being made effectual.

The Instances of this, shall be hereafter especially applyed to the particular Trading places of Great Britain, who will thereby be able to judge whether this is not the true State of their Case, and whether the Dutch or Flemings will now have the Im­portation of our Manufactures into France, as they have had for above 20 Years last past, and reserve to themselves the Dressing, Dying and Finishing of those Goods; whereby the Manufacturers of Great Britain will become Slaves to Foreigners, who will either set their own Price upon our Manufactures, or set up Fabricks of their own in Imitation of them, all which might have been avoided, by having an open and direct Trade with France.

This Paper shall not suggest so much Unhappiness to Great Britain, whose general Good it is design'd to promote, as to propose that the Articles of Commerce shall not in time to come be farther consider'd. The Parliament of Britain who are the true Judges of their Countries Good, cannot be supposed to omit any thing that shall be apparently for the publick Advantage; and therefore when it shall appear to them which we will not question, that these Articles are proper to be Re-consider'd, they will no doubt, act therein, as Reason and Justice requires.

In the mean time, seeing we are to carry on our Trade without the Advantages which were expected from the Treaty, let us enquire upon what Terms we are to carry it on, and how we shall Trade with France for the time coming.

The Tariff of 1664 is now no more to be mentioned in this Affair: The low Du­ties which our Goods would have paid in France, are out of the Question. The Edict of 1701 must now be the Rule of our Trade in France: And that this may be un­derstood [Page 18] without any Difficulty, and be as little subject to Mistakes as possible, the E­dict it self may be its own Exposi [...]or; of which the following is a faithful Abstract.

An Arrest of the King's-Council of State, containing a Rule for the Importation of Goods and Merchandizes of the Manufactures of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging. September 6th, 1701.

HIS Majesty continuing his Application for the Profit and Advantage of his Subjects in matters of Trade, &c. and being in his Council, has forbidden and Prohibi­ted, and does hereby Forbid and Prohibit, from the Day of the publication of these pre­sents, the Importation into this Kingdom of the several Merchandizes hereunder speci­fied, being of the Growth and Manufactures of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. whither coming directly, or from other Countries, on the Penalty of Confiscation of the Goods and of the Ships bringing them, of whatever Nation they are, and of 3000 Livres Fine upon the Merchants who shall Receive or Import them.

All sorts of Stockings, and Caps of Wooll, Silk or Thread, whither Knit or Woven.

All sorts of Wollen Cloths, R [...]ines, Bays, Serges, Norwich Stuffs, Camlets, Mohairs, Ta­faties, Plush, or other Stuffs, whither of Wooll, Silk or Hair, or mingled with Wooll, Silk, Hair, Thread, or Cotton.

All sorts of Hats, of what sort, or of what Materials soever they are made.

All sorts of Leather, Tann'd, Curry'd or Dress'd.

All sorts of Gloves. all sorts of Buttons, and Ribbands, whither of Silk, Gimp, Worsted, Thread, or of any thing else. All sorts of Cutlers, Ironmongers, or Brasiers Wares;

All Watches, Pendulums, and other kinds of Clockwork.

All sorts of W [...]es and Liquors. All sorts of Tin, Wrought or Unwrought.

All sorts of Lead, whither in Pigs or otherwise.

Also His Majesty forbids, and prohibits all Haberdashery, Drugs, and Spices, to be brought into any part of his Dominions, from England, Scotland, or Ireland, or the Do­minions thereto belonging, or from any other Countries in English Shipping.

His Majesty Ordains and Appoints also, that the particular Goods hereunder specified coming from the said Countries of England, Scotland, or Ireland or the Dominions thereunto belonging, in whatsoever Ships or Vessels they shall come, upon their Impor­tation into his Majesty's Dominions, shall pay the following Duties, That is to say,

[Page 19] This is a strict View of the present State of the English Commerce in France, and these are but part of the Burthens and Incumbrances of our Trade there, which her Majesty, by the Treaty of Commerce with France, and in her just Concern for the good of her Kingdoms, had procured to have her Subjects delivered from; But the Arti­cles being not made Effectual, they are now to continue, so that our Trade is to re­main in general prohibited there, till some Act shall be passed here, to render Effe­ctual the Provisions made for a Freedom of Commerce, and till Two Months after, all which time the Profits of an advantageous Trade are lost to this Nation.

It is also to be observed, that while all these high Duties and Prohibitions remain upon our Trade into France, most of the French Goods are still at Liberty to be Im­ported here, paying the high Duties; the Case of which will be, that for all of those which may be Re-exported whither to our Plantations, the Spanish West-Indies, or o­ther Parts, those high Duties will be all drawn back, and the French Goods be so far prejudicial to our Manufactures without our having any Share of the Advantage from the Trade to France.

In like manner, the Wines and Brandies which may be used at Sea, or in Foreign Parts, will draw back all the high Duties; and for the other part (viz) the Home Consumption, they will be brought in as Spanish and Portugal Wines and Brandies or else smuggled upon the Coast: The Silks, Linnen, Paper, &c. will come in as Dutch and Flemmish; by which means the French will have the Benefit of the Peace as to their Part of the Trade, and Britain will be entirely shut out, or be subservient to Foreigners, who shall carry it on for their own Benefit, as they have done for 20 Years last past. [...] There have been divers Representations made to the King of France himself, by his own Subjects, as well Merchants and Manufacturers as others, all against the Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, and especially against the Eighth and Ninth Articles, the same which our People are offended with; Complaining, and with great Ear­nestness too, against admitting the English Woollen Manufactures into France upon the low Duties of 1664, as what will be ruinous to the Manufactures set up with so great Suc­cess in France; For that the English will now bring in all their Woollen Manufactures upon them, in such great Quantities, that those made in Languedoc in Porton, in Pi­cardy, and other Places will be Ruined; That the English make those Goods so much better than they can be made in France, and they will be so Cheap, the high Duties which his Majesty had laid on, not so much to enrich his Treasury, as to encou­rage the Industry of his own Subjects, being taken off, even as far back as the Ta­riff of 1664, that the French Goods will find no Sale; but that the English Goods will in proportion to their Goodness, be sold much cheaper than any can be made in France. Farther, these Representations go on in very pressing, tho' humble Terms, it being spoken to their King, to Complain, that an open Trade with England will al­ways be to the great Damage and Loss of the French; for, say they, the French Na­tion has very few Goods to send to the English, but whereof other Nations have the like kinds, and do also Import the same into England; But the English have divers Goods to send to France, of which no other Nation can send the like; That is to say, Lead, Tin, Leather, Allum, Coal, Pilchards, Salmon, and several other kinds; whereas the Wines of France are supplied to the English by Portugal, the Brandy by Spain, the Wrought Silks by Genoa and the Dutchy of Milan, the Fruits and Perfumes by Italy, and the Linen and Paper by Hamburgh and Holland.

For these Reasons they repres [...]nt, that the Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, as it is now fixed, would be Dist [...]uctive, and an entire Ruin to the Trade of the French Nation; concluding, that France can never recover it's Wealth and Greatness, if such a Treaty of Commerce should be permitted to take place, and unless some way be found out to continue the high Duties, and thereby to keep out the English Manufactures from being permitted to come into France.

[Page 20] These Representations seem to rally the English, for what they call a Stupidity incre­dible, that they prohibit Trading with France, at the begining of the first War, By which (say they) the Manufactures of France, have arrived to a great Height, which it was impossible should have been, if the English Woollen Manufactures had continu'd to have been sent into France; and insinuate, that it should have been the Most Christian King, not the late King William, who should have caused a Prohibition of Trade to have been publish'd; for that the English Trade was the only Destructive thing to the Industry of the French Nation.

These Arguments are so pungent, and carry with them so much Weight, that it makes a most pointed Satyre upon the French King, that he should not comply with their Desires; but it must be acknowledged, that if their Reasons are just on the French side, it will be hard to find that our Complaints of this Trade can be reasonable on the o­ther side; for it is hardly Rational to suggest, that the Trade between these Two Na­tions can be to the Disadvantage and Loss on both sides

Many Delusions have been spread about to amuse and deceive the People in this Matter of the Treaty of Commerce with France; some of which have been Detected and duly Exposed, and many who have been Deceived by them begin to recover their Judgments, and to find that the Treaty which they have been prevail'd upon to Reject and Contemn, is really a Foundation of the most advantageous Commerce that Britain can be engaged in; That the French must Trade with us under the most disadvan­tageous Conditions imaginable; That our Export will be easy to us, their Imports here hard and Loaden with Burthens to them; and we begin to see these People now repent the Opposition they have all along made to their Countries Good, and would undo what others have done if it was in their Power to do so.

But there are still Mistakes behind, which must be removed, and Objections which however they may be ill-grounded, yet require some Notice of them; as especially this (viz) That there are but three Ports in France at which our Manufactures are ad­mitted to be Imported, (viz.) St. Vallery on the Soame, Roan, and Bourdaux. It is won­derful to reflect how much this prevails in the Minds of the People, considering it is evident that the limiting the Ports for Entry, concern only the two Species, (viz.) the Cloths and Cloth-Serges, which is plain by the Specifications of the Treaty, and not all the rest of our Woollen Manufactures. But as to all our other Woollen Manufactures, Bays, Says, Serges, Perpets, Stuffs, Druggets, Dozens, Kersies, Stockings, &c. All our Re-exported Goods, such as Cottons, Indicoes, Sugars, East-India and Turky Goods, and all other, they are f [...]eely allow'd by the Treaty to be Imported into all the Ports of France; and before this Treaty, the said two species of Manufactures were confined to but Two Ports, (viz.) Calais, and St. Vallery on the same.

It has been said, that the Reason why the French Confined our said Woollen Manufa­ctures to certain Ports for their Importations was, that the Land Carriage and Local Duties of the said Goods should rise so h [...]gh upon them, that the Price should thereby be made too great for the Buyer, and give the advantage to their own Manufactures. Let such People but look Back upon their Own Arguments, they are not only false in them­selves, but inconsistent with one another; for if this were true, then it must be true also, that their own Manufactures stood in need of those Helps; that their own Manu­factures were so Inferiour to the Eng [...]ish that if the utmost Discouragements were not put upon the English Goods, the French Manufactures would not be told, that the English Ma­nufactures so excelled the French, in the real intrinsick Value, that if these were ad­mitted, tho' upon the hardest Terms to be Imported into France, yet they would gain Ground there; and to be brief, would Sell before the French, albeit the Difference made by the Burthen of Duties there, was at that time above 40 per Cent. and these things they will not allow, having on many Occasions published that the French Ma­nufactures are as good as Ours, and if permitted to come into England, would ruin our own.

[Page 21] But on the other hand, this suggestion cannot in general be True; for had it been so that the limiting the Importation of the Woollen Manufactures of Britain to a few cer­tain Ports, was contriv'd to Load the said Goods with the farther Burthens of Land-carriage, &c. Why then should the Ports they were limited to, be chosen out upon the greatest Navigable Rivers in France, nearest to the Place where the Centre of their Trade lay, and where the chief Consumption of our Manufactures was to be expect­ed. For Example; Roan and Bourdeaux. The City of Roven lies on the River Sein, and is to Paris as Gravesend is to London: From thence the Navigation of the Sein conveys every thing by Water upon Five great Rivers, (viz) by the Oyse and the Aisne into the Isle of France and the lower Champain to the City of Rhiemes, the Rhe­telois and the Edge of the Dutchy of Bar; by the River Maza through the whole Pro­vince of Champain, by the Yonne into Burgundy and Nivernois, and by the River Loyng and the Canal de Briare into the great River Loyre to the Cities of Orleans, Nevers, Blais Tours, Angers, &c. even down to the Occean, and through the very Heart of France: Again the City of Bourdeaux is the Centre of the English Commerce in France, and where the greatest Number of our Ships resort for the Wine and Brandies which are brought from thence, Therefore appointing Bourdeaux as one of the Ports for the Import of our Manufactures, was rather making the Trade easy than difficult to the English, and so far from a design of making our Goods dear, and encreasing the Charges upon them, that it was rather giving Ease to it by opening that only Port to which the English could bring them upon the easiest Terms of Fraight, and where the greatest Demand for those Goods was to be found; where the principal Consumption of them might be excepted, and where the greatest Convenience of Ireland Navigation was to be had, in order to convey the said Manufactures to all Parts of the Kingdom of France: For the City of Bourdeaux stands on the Garonne, from whence they have a Navigation by other Rivers; (viz.) the Dordonne quite through Perigott and Limosin into Auvergne; by the River Lot through Quercy and Rovergne even to the Sevennes, and by the Royal Canal from the City of Thoulouse on the Garonne quite through the Province of Lan­guedoc to Narbonne, and into the mediterranean Sea; supplying the whole Provinces of Gascoign, Guienne, and Languedock with British Manufactures by Water Carriage.

This rather seems to intimate to us, that the French King finding it convenient on other Accounts to limit the Importation of these Goods to certain Ports, yet appoin­ted those Ports so, as that his Subjects might have the Goods brought with the great­est Ease and the least Charge that could be to those Markets, where the greatest Con­sumption of them was, and where the Principal Traders in those Goods were settled; who from thence supplyed the whole Kingdom by the Convenience of Water-Carriage: As to the Reason of naming particular Ports and Places for the Importation of these Goods, it is known to those who are acquainted with the Affairs of France, That it was occasioned by the differing Circumstances of the Contracts with the Farmers, and was a thing practised in other Cases in France as well as in this of the Woollen Manufactures, as particularly the Drugs and Spices which are limited in almost the same manner.

Also this limiting the Importation of Goods to certain Ports, is not a new Practice or peculiar to France only; the like is done in England, particularly the Alamodes and Lustrings, are confined to the Port of London; and the Importation of Wooll from Ireland is limited to Three or Four Ports only, but however is so ordered, not that the Irish Wooll should by Reason of Land-Carriage be made dearer to our Manufactures than the English, in order to discourage the Importation of it; But for other particular Reasons, drawn from the Circumstances of the thing it self; and therefore the Towns to which the Importations of Irish Wooll is limited are such, as are not only nearest and most con­venient by their Situation for the coming from Ireland, but nearest and most conveni­ent to those parts of England where the Manufacturers live, who make use of Irish Wooll, [Page 22] and are the principal Buyers and Consumers thereof; as Mi [...]e [...]ead for the Serge-Ma­kers of Ta [...]ton; are Biddiford or Ba [...]stable for the Serge-Makers of Exeter, Tiverton, &c. at L [...]verpool for the Clothiers of Yorkshire and Lancashire: And the like.

Had not the Convenience of the Manufacturers been consulted in this Limitation, but on the contrary, had it been contrived or appointed on purpose to add the Burthen and Expence of Land-Carriage to the Price of the Wooll, Bristoll might have been na­med, Milford-Ha [...]e [...], or any Port in Wales, which tho' lying as wel [...] for the Naviga­tion of the Irish Vessels, would yet have greatly encreased the Price of the Wooll to the Manufacturers, by the Charges of carrying it on Horseback after it was landed; in like manner had the King of France limited the Importation of the English▪ Manufactures with Design, as it is alledged, to Enhance the Price by Land-Carriage, he would have chosen such Ports for their Importation as were most remote from those Parts, where the principal Consumptions of them was known to be, and most remote from the Conveniences of Water-Carriage: This was very easy for him to have done, had he [...]amed the Cities of Rochell and St. Mall [...] for Example, instead of Roan and Bourdeaux, the Case had been qui [...]e altered, there being no River Navigable near them; and then it would have been difficult to have assigned any other Reason for such Limitation, than that of Discouraging and Burthening the Trade: But as it is now, there is no room for any Supposition of that kind.

Further it might be demanded why the French King should not rather lay still high­er D [...]ties on the said Woollen Manufactures, than study to raise their Price by the Diffi­culties of their Importation; the former being the readiest Method of Discour [...]ging their Market, and which would at the same time have brought in some Gain to the Crown, which is an Article they are far from being forgetful of in France.

Much has been said in Discoursing on this Subject, about the Ballance of the French Trade being against England: That the Ballance formerly against England has been Dispu­ted, and that with good Reason; the contrary in many Particulars evidently appearing; But that the Ballance will be against England NOW, is too evident; for it is impossible to be otherwise: the Nature of the Trade will not permit it to be otherwise; The French will bring in great Quantities of their Goods here, of which some will always be consumed at home, what Price soever they cost; and all that we want for Re-Expor­tation, whether to our own Colonies or other Parts will go abroad, drawing back the high Duties, which, as it is alledged, are to hinder our Trading in them. So that still all our Foreign Commerce, so far as these Kind of Goods are Demanded, will be French.

Against this, it is demanded, how must Payment be made? [...]all our Trade to France is in some Respect prohibited, as has been shewn by the Edict of 1701, published MERCATOR (No. 13.) and what is not prohibited is loaded with such high Duties, as are almost equal to a Prohibition: We have been told that we pay for all the Goods we buy in France with ready Money, whether we did or no BEFORE may be debated another time, but it is evident that we shall buy NOW; the Articles not being made Effectual, must be paid for with Money, or not paid for at all; for the French will take nothing of us. So that they having formerly shut the Door of Commerce against En­gland, we have bolted it now on the wrong side, and will not suffer them to open it again, altho' they are willing to do it.

If the Ballance of Trade by this means runs against Britain, which before always ran against France, we cannot blame them, but must blame our selves, who have been wil­ling to have it so, and have so blamed our Party-Interest with our Trading-Interest, as to ruin the one, in order to carry on the other.

The Objection upon which all this Matter seem'd to turn, has been, that the French have NOW all kinds of Woollen Manufactures of their own making, and have no need of our Trade; this is carryed such a Length by some, that they insist, that the [Page 23] French make all the sorts of our Woollen Manufactures as good as the English, and much cheaper than they can be made here; that they are able not only to supply themselves but other Countries, nay all Countries says one Author; and Britain too, says another Author: But it would be ask'd of these warm People, Why then do they so strictly and carefully Exclude, Prohibit, or Load with Duties, all the English Woollen Manufactures? If their own are better and cheaper than the English, their Quality would be a Prohibition as effectual as an Edict or Arrest du Conseil, and much more, and other Prohibitions would be needless.

But whatever we are pleased to say, the French know better, and as they have good Reason to be most sensible of the Defects of their own Manufactures, so they are very careful to keep the English Goods out, that the Goodness of one against the Meanness of the other, may not be discovered by the Trade it self: Nothing can be a more un­deniable Proof of the Mistake of those People who talk so warmly of the Goodness and Cheapness of the French Manufactures, than the French King laying such repeated Bur­thens upon the English Goods; and after this was done, and several times encreased, yet, when the Manufacturers there found, that notwithstanding their high Duties and Burthens, the English Goods would be bought by their People, whatever they cost, be­ing recommended so effectually by their own Worth and Goodness, that all the French could do in the meer way of Trade would be of no Signification to it, They Petitioned the French King to grant a Total Prohibition of Woollen Manufactures, which he did: And this was all done during a Time of Peace; so that the War is not the Reason of this Case, but the meer Nature of the Trade, and it is easy to be discovered that it had been to small Purpose to go about making Woollen Manufactures in France, if the English Woollen Manufactures were not effectually Prohibited.

Her Majesty, on the other hand, has so effectually secur'd to her Subjects all the Advantages of the French Trade, that she has not only obtain'd the Revocation of all that the King of France had been doing for 50 Years, for the Encouragement of his Subjects in the Woollen Manufactures, by which she gives her own People a full Oppor­tunity to extend their Trade into all parts of France with Advantage, but on the con­trary, has continued upon the French Importations hither, all those Inequalities and extraordinary Duties which were needful to exclude them from any prejudicial Ex­cesses in England to the Disadvantage of her own People: By both which the Ballance of that Trade is effectually secured to be on the English side, and we are in a fair way to recover all the Injury done to our Commerce by the last impungent Prohibitions.

Would these People turn the Tables and make this Case their own, what may we suppose they would say if the Queen of Great Britain had, in Her Majesty's Treaty of Commerce, Consented to take off the high Duties laid on the Importation of those French Manufactures, which our People have been Encouraged by those high Duties to make here, and given Permission by this New Treaty to the French, to Import the said Goods upon the low Duties, which the same Goods paid here before the Year, 1664. For Example, Should the Duties on French Alamodes and Lustrings have been reduced to 6 s. per l. which they paid before the War, instead of 31 s. 10 d. which they are to pay now; should the Duties on French Brandy, which by this Treaty is to remain at a­bove 51 l. per Ton, have been reduced to 30 s. as it was before the Revolution; May we not suppose the Distiller of Corn and Mollasses, the Weavers of Alamodes and Lustrings, and the Dealers under them all, would have made Representations and Complaints of their Trade being ruin'd and given up to the French, their Families Impoverish'd, &c. like as we find the French Merchants and Manufactures in France have done on their side to their King, and for which we must acknowledge they have very good Reason.

It is scarcely worth while to mention here, much less to give an Answer to a Re­port very Confidently spread about, and which some people are weak enough to take [Page 24] upon Trust, viz. That by the Treaty of Commerce, leave was to be given to Export our Wooll unwrought into France: But as it is certain, that such a R [...]port is industriously spread about, where it is thought there is Ignorance enough to suffer so great a De­ [...]sion, it is reasonable to observe from it, what Endeavours are us'd by some among us, to Impose upon the people of this Nation in the grossest manner, for the carrying on other Designs, equally Destructive to the publick safety.

But to return to what was mention'd, viz. of the real abatement of Duties, which is obtain'd by this Treaty; it may be a profitable Explanation of the present Treaty of Commerce, and may prevent the prejudices which some Entertain against this Treaty, should a brief Account be given them of the Difference between the present State of our Trade with France, and what it has been at several times; when it has neverthe­less been carried on by us to Advantage; and what it was to have been by the Trea­ty, or would have been, had the Articles been made Effectual: And as this shall be done in brief Tables, referring to the several Heads of our Exportation, as they now lye before us; so they may afterwards be brought down one by one, to the particular Trading Towns and Counties of Britain, where those Branches of our Manufactures are carried on:

To begin with our Woollen Manufactures, all which now stand Prohibited, and must do so till the said Articles are made Effectual, the following Table will shew what Du­ties are taken off by this Treaty, and upon what low Duties they would have been admitted into France by this Treaty, had it been made Effectual, as well as what Pro­hibitions and high Duties the Trade now labours under.

The following is an Account of several Goods and Woollen Manufactures of Great Bri­tain, now Prohibited in France, the Time when the high Duties were laid upon them before the said Prohibition; with what they were to pay by the Tariff of, 1664, which was to take place, if the Eighth and Ninth Articles of the Treaty had been made Effe­ctual.

They must be no Manufacturers themselves, nor much concern'd for those who are, or for the Woollen Manufactures of Britain in general, who can read this Table with­out [Page 25] being sensible of the Disadvantage our Trade lyes under in the present situation of our Commerce with France: When they shall Read the Word Prohibited continually before every Article of our Woollen Manufacture, and shall remember, that for Twelve Years past, none of all those Goods have been admitted into France but by way of Holland; whereas very great Quantities of Woollen Manufactures were Yearly Expor­ted thither before, besides other Goods of the Growth and Production of our own Country, or of our Plantations, which is the same thing, and ought so to be esteem­med.

When the QUEEN, who always had the Good of Her Subjects, and the Prosperity of their Commerce at Her Heart, found it was in Her Power to open such a Door of Trade to Her People, on Terms so much to the Loss and Disadvantage of France, and so evident­ly to the Advantage of Her own Kingdoms; it could not but be with great Satisfaction, that Her Majesty gave in Charge to Her Ministers and Plenipotentiaties, to Conclude a Treaty, which took off all the Burthens and Prohibitions, which the Mistakes of former Years had brought upon the Trade, and by which Her Enemies were obliged to make deep Wounds in their own Trade, to comply with those Demands.

But, it must be very disobliging to the QUEEN, as well as very surprizing to her Faithful Subjects, to see in what manner some People receive, and how disingeniously they Construe all Her Majesty's Endeavours to shew Her affectionate Concern for the Welfare of Her Subjects, and the Prosperity of Their Commerce; as if that very Care, which Her Majesty has so Eminently express'd, for Their Good, was a Contrivance of Her and their Enemies, to betray us to the French, and to give up the British Interest in Trade, to the most dangerous Rivals they have in the World.

Certainly Mankind cannot be so far carried away with the stream of their Passions, as to deny this general Maxim; That nothing ought to be believed in such publick Debates as these, but what is proved. This Paper has from its beginning, taken this for a Rule, and therefore brings Authentick Proofs with it, of every Thing it says, yet these Men say it is all Lies; on the contrary, they bring no Proof at all of what they say, and yet they expect to be believed.

To shorten the Dispute, the MERCATOR shall as modestly as the Case will allow make a fair Challenge to all Opposers; which if they do not Answer, they can but ill Justify any of their future Objections against the Truth of what is alledg'd in this Pa­per.

The Challenge is▪ That whereas they charge this Paper with Lying, they ought to de­scend to Particulars; and stating it truly, let the World know what ONE THING it is the MERCATOR has Affirm'd, Asserted, made Publick as Truth, which is not so: If this cannot be done, the charge of Lying will turn back upon them, with great Disad­vantage to themselves.

One Condition only must be desir'd of them, (viz.) That they will not expect any thing should be taken upon Trust on one side more than on the other; and therefore that they will be careful, as the MERCATOR has always done, to quote their Authorities for all they shall say; the Validity of which, when Confronted with those of this Paper, may be easily examined, and the Readers may judge whether are in the Right; if they do not think fit to do this, as the MERCATOR will not think it worth while to take any Notice of them, so neither can they expect it of any one else.

That their Scheme of which they [...]oasted, is it self one general Complication of Fraud; and false Representations has been made appear, even to both Houses of Par­liament; The MERCATOR in that, as in every other Case of like Nature, says no­thing from himself, but spakes the Language of the Custom House Books, gives exact Copies of the Commissioners Reports, sign'd under their Hands, and proves every thing in particular by Authentick Papers; if these are false, the MERCATOR would be [Page 26] very willing to see the Proof of it; if any mistake has happened, whether wilful or by the negligence of Clerks, the Books are remaining, and may be referr'd to: Why do not these People tell us where these Mistakes lye? why do they not prove that the MERCATORS has made false Draughts of those Accounts and Reports? omitted any thing or added any thing to make his Arguments appear the Better; as on the other Hand has been proved to be their practice, even in a most scandalous manner, in their late SCHEME, under the hands of the Commissioners of the Customs, and by them Laid before both Houses of Parliament.

All the use this Paper shall make of this unfair Usage, is only to proceed with the same Caution in all that it shall make publick, still taking care to offer nothing but what is sufficiently confirm'd by such Authorities, as shall always stand the Test of the strictest Examination; taking no notice of any thing which shall be said in Opposition to it, unless it comes likewise supported by such Proofs as may give a due Weight, and make it reasonable to be Inquired into.

But to return to the Subject of Trade, from which as few Digressions as possible, shall be made in this Paper.

The last MERCATOR gave a true Prospect of the State of one Branch of our Trade in France as it now stands, and as it might now have stood, had the Treaty taken place, that is to say, the Branch of Trade which concerns our Woollen Manufactures in particular. The Manufacturers of Great Britain may there see what Circumstances they are now in as to Trade, and what their unnatural Joy is built upon which they have so publickly shewn at the Delay of the Advantages which they might by this time have rafted of in their Trade.

Next to the said Exportation of our Woollen Manufacture, the Fishing Trade is our im­mediate Concern, and that more especially since our Union with Scotland: The Northern Parts of Britain have a peculiar Interest in the Fishery, and the securing a Market in France for the great Quantities of Fish that are or may be Cured in Scotland, and in the North, and West parts of England, is of so great Consequence to this Nation, that it can­not be omitted in a Treaty of Commerce.

The French had not forgotten this part, or to encourage their own Subjects to launch into the Fishery as well as into the other Branches of our Trade: The high Duties in France laid upon Fish from Great Britain, were an effectual Support to the French Projects of Fishing, and a Bar to the Fishing of Great Britain: For Scotland by the Union being brought into the same Prohibitions, and being esteemed as the same Nation, came thereby also under the same Inconveniencies of Trade, and lost the Advantage of their Trade to France, which before was very considerable, especially in Fish; Scotland having al­ways before the Union, Exported to France yearly, a very great Quantity of Herring, Salmon and white Fish.

It cannot but be grateful to all those Parts of Britain which are sensible of the Benefit of the Fishery, and who depend upon the Exportation of the Fish when taken, to understand That the Importation of our Fish into France is now, by this Treaty, left open upon very easy Terms, and particularly, upon the same Terms with the Dutch; which could never be ob­tained before.

The just Care and Concern which Her Majesty has shewn for the Interest of Her own Subjects, and the Extent of their Commerce, has been seen in removing that Inequality, and providing that our Fishery shall now be upon the same Foot with that of the Dutch, and have the same Encouragement of an open Trade to France; a thing which however the Dutch have Taught us to reject here, they always took care to secure for themselves, and found no little advantage in it.

The Merchants and Gentlemen of the North-part of Britain, and of the West also, have frequently express'd to the Government their great Concern for the obtaining [Page 27] this Liberty of Commerce; and the great Advantages which it would be to them, if obtain'd; as may be seen by the Representation of the Royal Buroughs in Scotland, for­merly sent up to the Lords Commissioners of Trade; and of others also: And unless we could suppose them to Act in Contradiction to themselves, it must be a particular Satisfaction to them all, to see what provision Her Majesty has made for the said Fi­shing-Trade by this Treaty; and it must be impossible, without an Infatuation, which it would be rude to suggest, that the Merchants and Trading People of Scotland, of the North of England, of the Coasts about Y [...]mouth and Loest [...]ff, or the Counties of Corn­wall and Devon, can be drawn into say, they are pleas'd that the Articles of this Treaty re­main Ineffectual.

Having thus often mention'd Scotland, and the Fishing-Trade, it is proper also to take notice how, by the present Treaty, Her Majesty made it Her especial Care, in behalf of Her Scots Subjects as well as English, to have all those new Burthens which were laid upon the British Fishing Trade only, and which gave that Trade away from us to the Dutch, taken away in France; and as it is very surprizing, that the Power of any Party-Influence, should make us in England insensible of such advantages. So the next Paper shall let you see what those Advantages are, and that they are not equally dis­regarded in Scotland, as they are here.