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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32384-h.zip b/32384-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..537f82c --- /dev/null +++ b/32384-h.zip diff --git a/32384-h/32384-h.htm b/32384-h/32384-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dce4cb --- /dev/null +++ b/32384-h/32384-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1803 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Humble Proposal to the People of England, for the Increase of Their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures..., by Daniel Defoe. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Humble Proposal to the People of +England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures, by Daniel Defoe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Humble Proposal to the People of England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures + Whether the Present Uncertainty of Affairs Issues in Peace or War + +Author: Daniel Defoe + +Release Date: May 15, 2010 [EBook #32384] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HUMBLE PROPSAL *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h3>AN HUMBLE PROPOSAL</h3> +<h4>TO THE</h4> +<h3>PEOPLE OF ENGLAND,</h3> +<h4>For the Increase of their</h4> +<h2>TRADE,</h2> +<h4>And Encouragement of their</h4> +<h2>MANUFACTURES;</h2> +<h4>Whether</h4> +<h4>The present uncertainty of Affairs</h4> +<h4>issues in</h4> +<h4>Peace or War.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4>By the Author of the <span class="smcap">Complete Tradesman</span>.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4><i>LONDON</i>:</h4> +<h4>Printed for <span class="smcap">Charles Rivington</span>, at the <i>Bible</i> and<br /> +<i>Crown</i> in St. <i>Paul’s</i> Church-Yard: 1729.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4>(<i>Price One Shilling.</i>)</h4> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<h4>TO THE</h4> +<h3>PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.</h3> + +<p>It deserves some notice, that just at, or soon after writing these sheets, +we have an old dispute warmly revived among us, upon the question of our +trade being declined, or not declined. I have nothing to do with the +parties, nor with the reason of their strife upon that subject; I think +they are wrong on both sides, and yet it is hardly worth while to set them +to rights, their quarrel being quite of another nature, and the good of +our trade little or nothing concerned in it.</p> + +<p>Nor do they seem to desire to be set right, but rather to want an occasion +to keep up a strife which perhaps serves some other of their wicked +purposes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> better than peace would do; and indeed, those who seek to +quarrel, who can reconcile?</p> + +<p>I meddle not with the question, I say, whether trade be declined or not; +but I may easily show the people of England, that if they please to +concern themselves a little for its prosperity, it will prosper; and on +the contrary, if they will sink it and discourage it, it is evidently in +their power, and it will sink and decline accordingly.</p> + +<p>You have here some popular mistakes with respect to our woollen +manufacture fairly stated, our national indolence in that very particular +reproved, and the consequence laid before you; if you will not make use of +the hints here given, the fault is nobody’s but your own.</p> + +<p>Never had any nation the power of improving their trade, and of advancing +their own manufactures, so entirely in their own hands as we have at this +time, and have had for many years past, without troubling the legislature +about it at all: and though it is of the last importance to the whole +nation, and, I may say, to almost every individual in it; nay, and that it +is evident you all know it to be so; yet how next to impossible is it to +persuade any one person to set a foot forward towards so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> great and so +good a work; and how much labour has been spent in vain to rouse us up to +it?</p> + +<p>The following sheets are as one alarm more given to the lethargic age, if +possible, to open their eyes to their own prosperity; the author sums up +his introduction to it in this short positive assertion, which he is ready +to make good, viz., That if the trade of England is not in a flourishing +and thriving condition, the fault and only occasion of it is all our own, +and is wholly in our own power to mend, whenever we please.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>SEASONABLE PROPOSAL, &c.</h2> + +<p>As by my title I profess to be addressing myself to Englishmen, I think I +need not tell them that they live by trade; that their commerce has raised +them from what they were to what they are, and may, if cultivated and +improved, raise them yet further to what they never were; and this in few +words is an index of my present work.</p> + +<p>It is worth an Englishman’s remark, that we were esteemed as a growing +thriving nation in trade as far back as in the reigns of the two last +Henries; manufactures were planted, navigation increased, the people began +to apply, and trade bringing in wealth, they were greatly encouraged; yet +in king Henry VIII.’s reign, and even towards the latter end of it, too, +we find several acts of parliament passed for regulating the price of +provisions, and particularly that beef and pork should not be sold in the +market for more than a halfpenny per pound avoirdupoise, and mutton and +veal at three farthings.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>As the trading men to whom I write may make some estimate of things by +calculating one thing by another, so this leads them to other heads of +trade to calculate from; as, first, the value of money, which bore some +proportion, though I think not a full and just equality to the provisions, +as follows:—silver was at 2s. 4d. per ounce, and gold at 2<i>l.</i> 5s. to +2<i>l.</i> 10s. per ounce; something less in the silver, and more in the gold +than half of the present value.</p> + +<p>As for the rate of lands and houses, they bore a yet greater distance in +value from what they produce now; so that indeed it bears no proportion, +for we find the rent of lands so raised, and their value so improved, that +there are many examples where the lands, valued even in queen Elizabeth’s +days at 20<i>l.</i> to 25<i>l.</i> per annum, are now worth from 200<i>l.</i> to 300<i>l.</i> +per annum, and in some places much more.</p> + +<p>It is true, this advance is to be accounted for by the improvement made of +the soil, by manuring, cultivating, and enclosing; by stocks of cattle, by +labour, and by the arts of husbandry, which are also improved; and so this +part is not so immediately within my present design; it is a large +subject, and merits to be spoken of at large by itself; because as the +improvement of land has been extraordinary great, and the landed interest +is prodigiously increased by it, so it is capable of much more and greater +improvement than has been made for above a hundred years past. But this I +say is not my present design; it is too great an article to be couched in +a few words.</p> + +<p>Yet it requires this notice here; viz., that trade has been a principal +agent even in the improvement of our land; as it has furnished the money +to the husbandman to stock his land, and to employ servants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> and labourers +in the working part; and as it has found him a market for the consumption +of the produce of his land, and at an advanced price too, by which he has +received a good return to enable him to go on.</p> + +<p>The short inference from these premises is this: as by trade the whole +kingdom is thus advanced in wealth, and the value of lands, and of the +produce of lands, and of labour, is so remarkably increased, why should we +not go on with vigour and spirit in trade, and by all proper and possible +methods and endeavours, increase and cultivate our commerce; that we may +still increase and improve in wealth, in value of lands, in stock, and in +all the arts of trade, such as manufactures, navigation, fishery, +husbandry, and, in short, study an improvement of trade in all its +branches.</p> + +<p>No doubt it would be our wisdom to do thus; and nothing of the kind can be +more surprising than that it should not be our practice; and thus I am +brought down to the case before me.</p> + +<p>If it should be objected that the remark is needless, that we are an +industrious and laborious people, that we are the best manufacturers in +the world, thoroughly versed in all the methods and arts for that purpose; +and that our trade is improved to the utmost in all places, and all cases +possible; if it should, I say, be thus argued, for I know some have such a +taint of our national vanity that they do talk at this rate,—</p> + +<p>My answer is short, and direct in the negative; and I do affirm that we +are not that industrious, applying, improving people that we pretend to +be, and that we ought to be, and might be. That we are the best +manufacturers I deny; and yet at the same time I grant that we make the +best manufactures in the world; but the reason of that is greatly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> owing +not to our own skill exceeding others, so much as to our being furnished +from the bounty of Heaven with the best materials and best conveniencies +for the work, of any nation in the world, <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'of I which I'">of which I</ins> shall take notice in +its place.</p> + +<p>But not to dwell upon our capacities for improving in trade, I might clear +all that part without giving up the least article of my complaint; for it +is not our capacity to improve that I call in question, but our +application to the right methods; nay, I must add, that while I call upon +your diligence, and press you to application, I am supposed to grant your +capacities; otherwise I was calling upon you to no purpose, and pressing +you to do what at the same time I allowed you had no power to perform.</p> + +<p>Without complimenting your national vanity, therefore, I am to grant you +have not only the means of improvement in your hands, but the capacity of +improving also; and on this account I must add, are the more inexcusable +if the thing is not in practice.</p> + +<p>Indeed it is something wonderful, and not easy to be accounted for, that a +whole nation should, as if they were in a lethargic dream, shut their eyes +to the apparent advantages of their commerce; and this just now, when +their circumstances seem so evidently to stand in need of encouragement, +and that they are more than ordinarily at a kind of stop in their usual +progression of trade.</p> + +<p>It is debated much among men of business, whether trade is at this time in +a prosperous and thriving condition, or in a languishing and declining +state; or, in a word, whether we are going backwards or forward. I shall +not meddle with that debate here, having no occasion to take up the little +space allowed me in anything remote from my design. But I will propose it +as I really believe it to be:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> namely, that we are rather in a state of +balance between both, a middle between the extremes; I hope we are not +much declined, and I fear we are not much advanced. But I must add, that +if we do not immediately set about some new methods for altering this +depending condition, we shall soon decline; and on the contrary, if we +should exert ourselves, we have before us infinite advantages of improving +and advancing our commerce, and that to a great degree.</p> + +<p>This is stating it to the meanest understanding; there is no mystery at +all in the thing; if you will apply, you will rise; if you will remain +indolent and inactive, you will sink and starve. Trade in England, at this +time, is like a ship at sea, that has sprung a leak in sight of the shore, +or within a few days’ sail of it; if the crew will ply their pump and work +hard, they may not only keep her above water, but will bring her safe into +port; whereas if they neglect the pump, or do not exert their strength, +the water grows upon them and they are in apparent danger of sinking +before they reach the shore.</p> + +<p>Or, if you will have a coarser comparison, take the pump room in the +rasp-house, or house of correction, at Amsterdam; where the slothful +person is put into a good, dry, and wholesome room, with a pump at one +side and a spring or water-pipe at the other; if he pleases to work, he +may live and keep the water down, but if he sleeps he drowns.</p> + +<p>The moral is exactly the same in both cases, and suits with the present +circumstances of our trade in England most exactly, only with this +difference to the advantage of the latter; namely, that the application +which I call upon the people of England to exert themselves in, is not a +mere labour of the hand; I do not tax the poor with mere sloth and +negligence, idly lying still when they should work, that is not our +grievance at present; for though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> there may be too much of that sort too, +among a few of the drunken, loitering part of mankind, and they suffer for +it sufficiently in their poverty, yet that, I say, is not the point, +idleness is not here a national crime, the English are not naturally a +slothful, indolent, or lazy people.</p> + +<p>But it is an application proper to the method of business which is wanting +among us, and in this we shall find room for reproof on one hand, and +direction on the other; and our reader, I dare say, will acknowledge there +is reason for both.</p> + +<p>It must in the first place be acknowledged, that England has indeed the +greatest encouragement for their industry of any nation in Europe; and as +therefore their want of improving those advantages and encouragements, +lays them more open to our just reproof, than other nation’s would be, or +can be who want them, so it moves me with the more importunity to press +home the argument, which reason and the nature of the thing furnishes, to +persuade them. Reason dictates that no occasion should be let slip by +which England above all nations in the world should improve the advantages +they have in their hands; not only because they have them, but because +their people so universally depend upon them. The manufactures are their +bread, the life, the comfort of their poor, and the soul of their trade; +nature dictates, that as they are given them to improve, and that by +industry and application they are capable of being improved; so they ought +to starve if they do not improve them to the utmost.</p> + +<p>Let us see in a few words what nature and providence has done for us; nay, +what they have done for us exclusive of the rest of the world. The bounty +of Heaven has stored us with the principles of commerce, fruitful of a +vast variety of things essential to trade, and which call upon us as it +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> in the voice of nature, bidding us work, and with annexed +encouragement to do so from the visible apparent success of industry. Here +the voice of the world is plain, like the answer of an oracle; thus, dig +and find, plough and reap, fish and take, spin and live; in a word, trade +and thrive; and this with such extraordinary circumstances, that it is as +if there was a bar upon the neighbouring nations, and it had been spoken +from Heaven thus: These are for you only, and not for any other nation; +you, my favourites, of England; you, singled out to be great, opulent, +powerful, above all your neighbours, and to be made so by your own +industry and my bounty.</p> + +<p>To explain this, allow me a small digression, to run over the detail of +Heaven’s bounty, and see what God and nature has done for us beyond what +it has done for other nations; nature, as I have said, will dictate to us +what Heaven expects from us, for the improving the blessings bestowed, and +for making ourselves that rich and powerful people which he has determined +us to be.</p> + +<p>Our country is furnished, I say, with the principles of commerce in a very +extraordinary manner; that is to say, so as no other country in Europe, or +perhaps in the world, is supplied with.</p> + +<p>I. With the product of the earth. This is of two kinds: 1. That of the +inside or bowels of the earth, the same of which, as above, the voice of +Heaven to us, is, dig and find, under which article is principally our +lead, and tin-coal; I name these only, because of these this island seems +to have an exclusive grant; there being none, or but very small quantities +of them, found in any other nation; and it is upon exclusive benefits that +I am chiefly speaking. 2. We have besides these, iron, copper, <i>lapis +calaminaris</i>, vulgarly called callamy, with several other minerals, which +may be said to be in common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> to us and the rest of the world, of which the +particulars at large, and the places where they are found, may be fully +seen in a late tract, of which I shall have frequently occasion to speak +in this work, entitled, A Plan of the Commerce of Great Britain, to which +I refer, as indeed to a general index of the trade and produce of this +whole island.</p> + +<p>II. The product of the surface, which I include in that part, plough and +reap; and though this is not indeed an exclusive product, yet I may +observe that the extraordinary increase which our lands, under an +excellent cultivation, generally yield, as well in corn and cattle, is an +uncommon argument for the industry of the husbandmen; and I might enter +into a comparison with advantage, against almost any countries in Europe, +by comparing the quantity produced on both sides, with the quantity of +land which produce those quantities.</p> + +<p>You may find some calculations of the produce of our own country in the +book above mentioned, viz., The Plan of the Commerce of Great Britain, +where the consumption of malt in England is calculated by the value of the +duties of excise, and where it appears that there is annually consumed in +England, besides what is exported to foreign countries, forty millions of +bushels of malt, besides also all the barley, the meal of which is made +into bread, which is a very great quantity; most of the northern counties +in England feeding very much upon barley bread; and besides all the barley +either exported or used at home in the corn unmalted; all which put +together, I am assured, amounts to no less than ten millions of bushels +more.</p> + +<p>The quantity of barley only is so exceeding great, that I am told it +bears, in proportion to the land it grows on, an equality to as much land +in France, as all the sowed land in the whole kingdom of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> England; or take +it thus, that fifty millions of bushels of barley growing in France, would +take up as much ground as all the lands which are at any time sowed in +England with any corn, whether barley, oats, or wheat.</p> + +<p>N. B. I do not say all the arable lands of England, because we know there +are a very great number of acres of land which every year lie fallow +(though in tillage) and unsowed, according to the usage of our husbandry; +so they cannot be reckoned to produce any corn at all, otherwise the +quantity might be much greater.</p> + +<p>This is a testimony of the fertility of our soil; and on the other hand, +the fertility is a testimony of the diligence and application of our +people, and the success which attends that diligence.</p> + +<p>We are told that in some parts of England, especially in the counties of +Essex, Hertford, Cambridge, Bedford, Bucks, Oxford, Northampton, Lincoln, +and Nottingham, it is very frequent to have the lands produce from seven +to ten quarters of barley upon an acre, which is a produce not heard of in +the most fruitful of all those we call corn countries abroad, much less in +France. On the contrary, if they have a great produce of corn, it is +because they have a vast extent of land for it to grow upon, and which +land they either have no other use for, or it may be is fit for no other +use; whereas our corn grounds are far from being the richest or the best +of our lands, the prime of our land being laid up, as the ploughmen call +it, to feed upon, that is, to keep dairies of cows, as in Essex, Suffolk, +and the fens; or for grazing grounds, for fatting the large mutton and +beef, for which England is so particularly famed. These grazing countries +are chiefly in Sussex, and in the marshes of Romney, and other parts in +Kent; also in the rich<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> vales of Aylesbury, and others in Bucks and +Berkshire, the isle of Ely, the bank of Trent, the counties of Lincoln, +Leicester and Stafford, Warwick and Chester, as also in the county of +Somerset, Lancaster, north riding of Yorkshire, and bank of Tees, in the +bishoprick of Durham.</p> + +<p>When this product of England is considered, the diligence and success of +our husbandry in England will be found to be beyond that of the most +industrious people in Europe. But I must not dwell here, my view lies +another way; nor do the people of England want so much to be called upon +to improve in husbandry, as they do in manufactures and other things; not +but that even in this, the lands not yet cultivated do call aloud upon us +too; but I say it is not the present case.</p> + +<p>I come in the next article to that yet louder call of the oracle, as +above, namely, fish and take. Indeed this is an improvement not fully +preserved, or a produce not sufficiently improved; the advantages nature +offers here cannot be said to be fully accepted of and embraced.</p> + +<p>This is a large field, and much remains to be said and done too in it, for +the increase of wealth, and the employment of our people; and though I am +not of the opinion which some have carried to an unaccountable length in +this case, viz., that we should set up the fishery by companies and +societies, which has been often attempted, and has proved abortive and +ill-grounded; or that we ought by force, or are able by all our advantages +to beat out the Dutch from it; yet we might certainly very much enlarge +and increase our own share in it; take greater quantities than we do; cure +and pack them better than we do; come sooner to market with them than we +do; and consume greater quantities at home than we do; the consequence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +which would be that we should breed up and employ more seamen, build and +fit out more fishing-vessels and ships for merchandise than we do now, and +which we are unaccountably blameable that we do not.</p> + +<p>And here I must observe, that the increasing the fishery would even +contribute to our vending as well as catching a greater quantity of fish, +and to take off the disadvantage which we now lie under with the Dutch, by +the consequence of trade in the fishery itself. The case is this: the +chief market for white herring, which is the fishery I am speaking of, is +the port of Dantzic and Konigsberg, from which ports the whole kingdom of +Poland, and great duchy of Lithuania, are supplied with fish by the +navigation of the great river of the Vistula, and the smaller rivers of +the Pragel and Niemen, &c.</p> + +<p>The return brought from thence is in canvass, oak, and spruce, plank and +timber, sturgeon, some hemp and flax, pot ashes, &c., but chiefly corn.</p> + +<p>Here the Dutch have an infinite advantage of us, which is never to be +surmounted or overcome, and for which reason it is impossible for us ever +to beat them out of this trade; viz., the Dutch send yearly a very great +number of ships to Dantzic, &c., to fetch corn; some say they send a +thousand sail every year; and I believe they do send so many ships, or +those ships going so many times, or making so many voyages in the year as +amounts to the same number of freights, and so is the same thing.</p> + +<p>All these ships going for corn for the Dutch, have their chief supply of +corn from that country; it follows, then, that their herrings are carried +for nothing, seeing the ships which carry them must go light if they did +not carry the fish; whereas, on the other hand, our fish must pay freight +in whatever vessel it may go.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>When our ships, then, from Scotland, for there the fishery chiefly lies, +and from thence the trade must take its rise; I say, when they have +carried their fish to the ports above-named, of Dantzic and Konigsberg, +how must they come back, and with what shall they be loaded?</p> + +<p>The only answer that can be given is, that they must bring back the goods +mentioned before, or, in shorter terms, naval stores, though indeed not +much of naval stores neither, except timber and plank, for the hemp and +tar, which are the main articles, are fetched further; viz., from Riga, +Revel, Narva, and Petersburg. But suppose after delivering their fish, +some of the ships should go to those ports to seek freight, and load naval +stores there, which is the utmost help in the trade that can be expected.</p> + +<p>The next question is, whither shall they carry them, and for whose account +shall they be loaden? To go for Scotland, would not be an answer; for +Scotland, having but a few ships, could not take off any quantity +proportioned to such a commerce; for if we were to push the Dutch out of +the trade, we must be supposed to employ two or three hundred sail of +ships at least, to carry herrings to Dantzic, &c.</p> + +<p>To say they might take freight at London, and load for England, would be +no answer neither; for besides that even England itself would not take off +a quantity of those goods equal to the number of ships which would want +freight, so if England did, yet those ships would still have one dead +freight, for they would be left to go light home at last, to Scotland, +otherwise how shall they be at hand to load next year? And even that one +dead freight would abate the profit of the voyage; and so still the Dutch +would have the advantage.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, take it how and which way we will, it will for ever be +true, that though our fish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> were every way equal to the Dutch, which yet +we cannot affirm, and though it came as soon to market, and carried as +good a price there, all which I fear must a little fall short, yet it +would still be true that the Dutch would gain and we should lose.</p> + +<p>There is yet another addition to the advantage of Holland, viz., in the +return of money; that whereas when our fish shall be sold, we shall want +to remit back the produce in money; that is to say, so much of it as +cannot be brought back in goods. And the difference in the exchange must +be against us; but it is in favour of the Dutch; for if they did not send +their herrings and other fish to Dantzic, they must remit money to pay for +their corn; and even as it is, they are obliged to send other goods, such +as whale oil, the produce of their Greenland fishery, English +manufactures, and the like; whereas the Scots’ merchants, having no market +for corn, and not a demand for a sufficient value in naval stores, &c., +viz. the product of the country, must bring the overplus by exchange to +their loss, the exchange running the other way.</p> + +<p>It is true, this is a digression; but it is needful to show how weak those +notions are, which prompt us to believe we are able to beat the Dutch out +of the fishing trade by increasing our number of busses, and taking a +larger quantity of fish.</p> + +<p>But this brings me back to the first argument; if you can find a way to +enlarge your shipping in the fishery, and send greater quantities of fish +to market, and yet sell them to advantage, you would by consequence +enlarge your demand for naval stores, and so be able to bring more ships +home loaden from thence; that is to say, to dispose of more of their +freight at home; and indeed nothing else can do it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>N. B. This very difference in the trade is the reason why a greater +quantity of English manufactures are not sent from hence to Dantzic, as +was formerly done; viz., not that the consumption of those goods is +lessened in Poland, or that less woollen manufactures are demanded at +Dantzic or at Konigsberg; but it is that the Dutch carry our manufactures +from their own country; this they can do to advantage; besides their +costing nothing freight, as above, though they are sold to little or no +profit, because they want the value there to pay for their corn, and must +otherwise remit money to loss for the payment.</p> + +<p>As these things are not touched at before in any discourses on this +subject, but we are daily filled with clamours and complaints at the +indolence and negligence of our Scots and northern Britons, for not +outworking the Dutch in their fishing trade, I think it is not foreign to +the purpose to have thus stated the case, and to have shown that it is not +indeed a neglect in our management, that the Dutch thrive in the fishing +trade, and we sit still, as they call it, and look on, which really is not +so in fact, but that the nature of the thing gives the advantage to the +Dutch, and throws the trade into their hands, in a manner that no industry +or application of ours could or can prevent.</p> + +<p>Having thus vindicated our people where they are really not deserving +blame, let us look forward from hence and see with the same justice where +they are in another case likewise less to blame than is generally +imagined; namely, in the white fishing, or the taking of cod-fish in these +northern seas, which is also represented as if it was so plentiful of fish +that any quantity might be taken and cured, and so the French, the Scots, +and the Portuguese, might be supplied from hence much cheaper and more to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +advantage than by going so long a voyage as to the banks of Newfoundland.</p> + +<p>This also is a mistake, and the contrary is evident; that there is a good +white fishing upon the coast, as well of the north part of the British +coast as on the east side of Scotland, is very true; the Scots, to give +them their due, do cure a tolerable quantity of fish, even in or near the +frith of Edinburgh; also there is a good fishery for cod on the west side, +and among the islands of the Leuze, and the other parts called the western +islands of Scotland; but the mistake lies in the quantity, which is not +sufficient to supply the demand in those ports mentioned above, nor is it +such as makes it by far so easy to load a ship as at Newfoundland, where +it is done in the one-fifth part of the time, and consequently so much +cheaper; and the author of this has found this to be so by experience.</p> + +<p>Yet it cannot be said with justice that the Scots’ fishermen are +negligent, and do not improve this fishing to advantage, for that really +they do kill and cure as many as can be easily done to make them come +within a price, and more cannot be done; that is to say, it would be to no +purpose to do it; for it will for ever be true in trade, that what cannot +be done to advantage, may be said not to be possible to be done; because +gain is the end of commerce, and the merchant cannot do what he cannot get +by.</p> + +<p>It may be true that in the herring fishery the consumption might be +increased at home, and in some places also abroad, and so far that fishery +is not so fully pursued; but I do not see that the increase of it can be +very considerable, there being already a prodigious quantity cured more +than ever in Ireland on every side of that kingdom, and also on the west +of England; but if it may be increased,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> so much the more will be the +advantage of the commerce; of which by itself.</p> + +<p>But from this I come to the main article of the British trade, I mean our +wool, or, as it is generally expressed, the woollen manufacture, and this +is what I mean, when I said as above, spin and live.</p> + +<p>In this likewise I must take the liberty to say, and insist upon it, that +the English people cannot be said to be idle or slothful, or to neglect +the advantages which are put into their hands of the greatest manufactures +in Europe, if not in the whole world.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the people of England have run up their manufactures to +such a prodigy of magnitude, that though it is extended into almost every +part of the known world, I mean, the world as it is known in trade; yet +even that whole world is scarce equal to its consumption, and is hardly +able to take off the quantity; the negligence therefore of the English +people is not so much liable to reproof in this part, as some pretend to +tell us; the trade of our woollen manufacture being evidently increased +within these few years past, far beyond what it ever was before.</p> + +<p>I know abundance of our people talk very dismal things of the decay of our +woollen manufacture, and that it is declined much they insist upon it; +being prohibited in many places and countries abroad, of their setting up +other manufactures of their own in the room of it, of their pretending to +mimick and imitate it, and supply themselves with the produce of their own +land, and the labour of their own people, and indeed France has for many +years gone some length in this method of erecting woollen manufactures in +the room of ours, and making their own productions serve instead of our +completely finished manufacture: but all these imitations are weak and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +unperforming, and show abundantly how little reason we have to apprehend +their endeavours, or that they will be able to supplant our manufacture +there or any where else; for that even in France itself, where the +imitation of our manufactures is carried on to the utmost perfection; yet +they are obliged to take off great quantities of our finest and best +goods; and such is the necessity of their affairs, that they to this day +run them in, that is, import them clandestinely at the greatest risk, in +spite of the strictest prohibition, and of the severest penalties, death +and the galleys excepted; a certain token that their imitation of our +manufactures is so far from pleasing and supplying other parts of the +world, that they are not sufficient to supply, or good enough to please +themselves.</p> + +<p>I must confess the imitating our manufactures has been carried further in +France than in any other part of the world, and yet we do not see they +have been able so to affect the consumption as to have any visible +influence upon our trade; or, that we abate the quantity which we usually +made, but that if they have checked the export at all, we have still found +other channels of trade which have fully carried off our quantity, and +shall still do so, though other nations were able to imitate us to, and +this is very particularly stated and explained by the author of the book +above mentioned, called the Plan of the English Commerce, where the +extending our manufactures is handled more at large than I have room for +in the narrow compass of this tract, and therefore I again refer my reader +thither, as to the fountain head.</p> + +<p>But I go on to touch the heads of things. The French do imitate our +manufactures in a better manner, and in greater quantity than other +nations; and why do we not prevent them? It is a terrible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> satire upon our +vigilance, or upon the method of our custom-house men, that we do not +prevent it; seeing the French themselves will not stick to acknowledge, +that without a supply of our wool, which is evident they have now with +very small difficulty from Ireland, they could do little in it, and indeed +nothing at all to the purpose.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is not so with France in regard to their silk +manufactures, in which although we have not the principles of the work, I +mean the silk growing within our dominions, but are obliged to bring it +from Italy, yet we have so effectually shut out the French silk +manufactures from our market, that in a word we have no occasion at all +for them; nay, if you will believe some of our manufacturers, the French +buy some of our wrought silks and carry them into France; but whether the +particular be so in fact or no, this I can take upon me from good evidence +to affirm, that whereas we usually imported in the ordinary course of +trade, at least a million to twelve hundred thousand pounds’ value a year +in wrought silks from France; now we import so little as is not worth +naming; and yet it is allowed that we do not wear less silk, or silks of a +meaner value, than we usually did before, so that all the difference is +clear gain on the English side in the balance of trade.</p> + +<p>The contemplation of this very article furnishes a most eminent +encouragement to our people, to increase and improve their trade; and +especially to gain upon the rest of Europe, in making all the most useful +manufactures of other nations their own.</p> + +<p>Nor would this increase of our trade be a small article in the balance of +business, when we come to calculate the improvement we have made in that +particular article, by encroaching upon our neighbours, more than they +have been able to make upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> us; and this also you will find laid down at +large in the account of the improvement of our manufactures in general, +calculated in the piece above mentioned, chap. v. p. 164.</p> + +<p>If then the encroachments of France upon our woollen manufactures are so +small, as very little to influence our trade, or lessen the quantity made +here, and would be less if due care was taken to keep our wool out of +their hands; and that at the same time we have encroached upon their trade +in the silk manufactures only, besides others, such as paper, glass, +linen, hats, &c., to the value of twelve hundred thousand pounds a year, +then France has got little by prohibiting the English manufactures, and +perhaps had much better have let it alone.</p> + +<p>However, I must not omit here what is so natural a consequence from these +premises, viz., that here lies the first branch of our Humble Proposal to +the People of England for Increase of their Commerce, and Improvement of +their Manufactures; namely, that they would keep their wool at home.</p> + +<p>I know it will be asked immediately how shall it be done? and the answer +indeed requires more time and room to debate it, than can be allowed me +here. But the general answer must be given; certainly it is practicable to +be done, and I am sure it is absolutely necessary. I shall say more to it +presently.</p> + +<p>But I go on with the discourse of the woollen manufactures in general; +nothing is more certain, than that it is the greatest and most extensive +branch of our whole trade, and, as the piece above mentioned says +positively, is really the greatest manufacture in the world. Vide Plan, +chap. v. p. 172. 179.</p> + +<p>Nor can the stop of its vent, in this or that part of the world, greatly +affect it; if foreign trade abates its demand in one place, it increases +it in another; and it certainly goes on increasing prodigiously every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +year, in direct confutation of the phlegmatic assertions of those, who, +with as much malice as ignorance, endeavour to run it down, and depreciate +its worth as well as credit, by their ill-grounded calculations.</p> + +<p>We might call for evidence in this cause the vast increase of our +exportation in the woollen manufactures only to Portugal; which, for above +twenty-five years past, has risen from a very moderate trade to such a +magnitude, that we now export more woollen goods in particular yearly to +Portugal, than both Spain and Portugal took off before, notwithstanding +Spain has been represented as so extraordinary a branch of trade. The +occasion of this increase is fully explained, by the said Plan of the +English Commerce, to be owing to the increase of the Portuguese colonies +in the Brazils, and in the kingdoms of Congo and Angola on the west side +of Africa; and of Melinda and the coast of Zanguebar on the east side; in +all which the Portuguese have so civilized the natives and black +inhabitants of the country, as to bring them, where they went even stark +naked before, to clothe decently and modestly now, and to delight to do +so, in such a degree as they will hardly ever be brought to go unclothed +again; and all these nations are clothed more or less with our English +woollen manufactures, and the same in proportion in their East India +factories.</p> + +<p>The like growth and increase of our own colonies, is another article to +confirm this argument, viz., that the consumption of our manufactures is +increased: it is evident that the number of our people, inhabitants of +those colonies, visibly increases every day; so must by a natural +consequence the consumption of the cloths they wear.</p> + +<p>And this increase is so great, and is so demonstrably growing every day +greater, that it is more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> than equal to all the decrease occasioned by the +check or prohibitions put upon our manufactures, whether by the imitation +of the French or any other European nation.</p> + +<p>I might dwell upon this article, and extend the observation to the East +Indies, where a remarkable difference is evident between the present and +the past times; for whereas a few years past the quantity of European +goods, whether of English or other manufactures, was very small, and +indeed not worth naming; on the contrary, now the number of European +inhabitants in the several factories of the English, Dutch, and +Portuguese, is so much increased, and the people who are subject to them +also, and who they bring in daily to clothe after the European fashion, +especially at Batavia, at Fort St. George, at Surat, Goa, and other +principal factories, that the demand for our manufactures is grown very +considerable, and daily increasing. This also the said Plan <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'of of'">of</ins> the +Commerce insists much on, and explains in a more particular manner.</p> + +<p>But to proceed: not only our English colonies and factories are increased, +as also the Portuguese in the Brazils, and in the south part of Africa; +not only the factories of the English and Dutch in the East Indies are +increased, and the number of Europeans there being increased call for a +greater quantity of European goods than ever; but even the Spaniards, and +their colonies in the West Indies, I mean in New Spain, and other +dominions of the Spaniards in America, are increased in people, and that +not so much the Spaniards themselves, though they too are more numerous +than ever, but the civilized free Indians, as they are called, are +exceedingly multiplied.</p> + +<p>These are Indians in blood, but being native subjects of Spain, know no +other nation, nor do they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> speak any other language than Spanish, being +born and educated among them. They are tradesmen, handicrafts, and bred to +all kinds of business, and even merchants too, as the Spaniards are, and +some of them exceeding rich; of these they tell us there are thirty +thousand families in the city of Lima only, and doubtless the numbers of +these increase daily.</p> + +<p>As all these go clothed like Spaniards, as well themselves as their wives, +children, and servants, of which they have likewise a great many, so it +necessarily follows that they greatly increase the consumption of European +goods, and that the demand of English manufactures in particular increases +in proportion, these manufactures being more than two-thirds of the +ordinary habit or dress of those people, as it is also of the furniture of +their houses; all which they take from their first patrons, the Spaniards.</p> + +<p>It will seem a very natural inquiry here, how I can pretend to charge the +English nation with indolence or negligence in their labouring or working +their woollen manufactures; when it is apparent they work up all the wool +which their whole nation produces, that the whole growth and produce of +their sheep is wrought up by them, and that they buy a prodigious quantity +from Ireland and Scotland, and work up all that too, and that with this +they make such an infinite quantity of goods, that they, as it were, glut +and gorge the whole world with their manufactures.</p> + +<p>My answer is positive and direct, viz., that notwithstanding all this, +they are chargeable with an unaccountable, unjustifiable, and, I had +almost said, a most scandalous indolence and neglect, and that in respect +to this woollen manufacture in particular; a neglect so gross, that by it +they suffer a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> manifest injury in trade. This neglect consists of three +heads:</p> + +<p>1. They do not work up all the wool which they might come at, and which +they ought to work up, and about which they have still spare hands enough +to set to work.</p> + +<p>2. They with difficulty sell off or consume the quantity of goods they +make; whereas they might otherwise vend a much greater quantity, both +abroad and at home.</p> + +<p>3. They do not sufficiently apply themselves to the improving and +enlarging their colonies abroad, which, as they are already increased, and +have increased the consumption of the manufactures, so they are capable of +being much further improved, and would thereby still further improve and +increase the manufactures. By so much as they do not work up the wool, by +so much they neglect the advantage put into their hands; for the wool of +Great Britain and Ireland is certainly a singular and exclusive gift from +Heaven, for the advantage of this great and opulent nation. If Heaven has +given the wool, and we do not improve the gift by manufacturing it all up, +so far we are to be reproached with indolence and neglect; and no wonder +if the wool goes from Ireland to France by whole shiploads <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'at at'">at</ins> a time; for +what must the poor Irish do with their wool? If they manufacture it we +will not let them trade with those manufactures, or export them beyond +sea. Our reasons for that prohibition are indeed very good, though too +long to debate in this place: but no reason can be alleged that can in any +sense of the thing be justifiable, why we should not either give leave to +export the manufactures, or take the wool.</p> + +<p>But to speak of the reason to ourselves, for the other is a reason to them +(I mean the Irish). The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> reason to ourselves is this: we ought to take the +wool ourselves, that the French might not have it to erect and imitate our +own manufactures in France, and so supplant our trade.</p> + +<p>Certainly, if we could take the whole quantity of the Irish wool off their +hands, we might with ease prevent it being carried to France; for much of +it goes that way, merely because they cannot get money for it at home.</p> + +<p>This I charge therefore as a neglect, and an evident proof of indolence; +namely, that we do not take effectual care to secure all the wool in +Ireland; give the Irish money for it at a reasonable market price, and +then cause it to be brought to England as to the general market.</p> + +<p>I know it will be objected, that England does already take off as much as +they can, and as much as they want; and to bring over more than they can +use, will sink the market, and be an injury to ourselves; but I am +prepared to answer this directly and effectually, and you shall have a +full reply to it immediately.</p> + +<p>But, in the mean time, this is a proof of the first proposition; namely, +that we do not work up all our own wool, for the Irish wool is, and ought +to be, esteemed as our own, in the present debate about trade; for that it +is carried away from our own dominions, and is made use of by those that +rival our manufactures to the ruin of our own trade.</p> + +<p>That the Irish are prohibited exporting their wool, is true; but it seems +a little severe to prohibit them exporting their wool, and their +manufactures too, and then not to buy the wool of them neither.</p> + +<p>It is alleged by some, that we do take off all the wool they bring us, and +that we could and would take it all, if they would bring it all. To this I +answer; if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> the Irish people do not bring it all to us, it is either that +it is too far for the poor people who own the wool to bring it to the +south and east coast of Ireland, there being no markets in the west and +north-west parts of that island, where they could sell it; and the farmers +and sheep-breeders are no merchants, nor have they carriage for so long a +journey; but either the public ought to appoint proper places whether it +shall be carried, and where they would receive money for it at a certain +rate; or erect markets where those who deal in wool might come to buy, and +where those who have it to sell would find buyers.</p> + +<p>No doubt but the want of buyers is the reason why so much of the Irish +wool is carried over to France; besides, if markets were appointed where +the poor farmers could always find buyers at one price or another, there +would be then no pretence for them to carry it away in the dark, and by +stealth, to the sea side, as is now the case; and the justice of +prohibitions and seizures would be more easily to be defended; indeed +there would be no excuse for the running it off, nor would there want any +excuse for seizing it, if they attempted to run it off.</p> + +<p>But I am called upon to answer the objection mentioned above; namely, that +the manufactures in England do indeed already take off a very great +quantity of the Irish wool, as much as they have occasion for; nay, they +condescend so far to the Irish, as to allow them to manufacture a great +deal of that wool which they take off; that is to say, to spin it into +yarn, of which yarn so great a quantity is brought into England yearly, as +they assure us amounts to sixty thousand packs of wool; as may be seen by +a fair calculation in the book above mentioned, called the Plan; in a +word, that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> English are not in a condition to take off any more. Now +this is that which leads me directly to the question in hand; whether the +English are able to take off any more of the Irish wool and yarn, or no. I +do not affirm, that, as the trade in England is now carried on, they are +able, perhaps they are not; but I insist, that if we were thoroughly +resolved in England to take such wise measures as we ought to take, and as +we are well able to do, for the improvement and increase of our +manufactures, we might and should be able to take off, and work up the +whole growth of the wool of Ireland; and this I shall presently +demonstrate, as I think, past doubt.</p> + +<p>But before I come to the scheme for the performance of this, give me leave +to lay down some particulars of the advantage this would be to our +country, and to our commerce, supposing the thing could be brought to +pass; and then I shall show how easily it might be brought to pass.</p> + +<p>1. By taking off this great quantity of wool and yarn, supposing one half +of the quantity to be spun, many thousands of the poor people of Ireland +who are now in a starving condition for want of employment, would be set +immediately to work, and be put in a condition to get their bread; so that +it would be a present advantage to the Irish themselves, and that far +greater than it can be now, their wool which goes away to France being all +carried off unwrought.</p> + +<p>2. Due care being then taken to prevent any exportation of wool to France, +as, I take it for granted, might be done with much more ease when the +Irish had encouragement to sell their wool at home, we should soon find a +difference in the expense of wool, by the French being disabled from +imitating our manufactures abroad, and the consumption of our own would +naturally increase in proportion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> First, they would not be able to thrust +their manufactures into foreign markets as they now do, by which the sale +of our manufactures must necessarily be abated; and, secondly, they would +want supplies at home, and consequently our manufactures would be more +called for, even in France itself, and that in spite of penalties and +prohibitions.</p> + +<p>Thus by our taking off the Irish wool, we should in time prevent its +exportation to France; and by preventing its going to France, we should +disable the French, and increase the consumption of our own manufactures +in all the ports whither they now send them, and even in France itself.</p> + +<p>I have met with some people who have made calculations of the quantity of +wool which is sent annually from Ireland to France, and they have done it +by calculating, first how many packs of wool the whole kingdom of Ireland +may produce; and this they do again from the number of sheep which they +say are fed in Ireland in the whole. How right this calculation may be I +will not determine.</p> + +<p>First, they tell us, there are fed in Ireland thirty millions of sheep, +and as all these sheep are supposed be sheared once every year, they must +produce exactly thirty millions of fleeces, allowing the fell wool in +proportion to the number of sheep killed.</p> + +<p>It is observable, by a very critical account of the wool produced annually +in Romney marsh, in the county of Kent, and published in the said Plan of +the English Commerce, that the fleeces of wool of those large sheep, +generally weigh above four pounds and a half each. It is computed thus; +first he tells us that Romney marsh contains 47,110 acres of land, that +they feed 141,330 sheep, whose wool being shorn, makes up 2,523 packs of +wool, the sum of which is, that every acre feeds three sheep, every sheep +yields one fleece, and 56 fleeces make one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> pack of wool, all which comes +out to 2,523 packs of wool, twenty-three fleeces over, every pack weighing +two hundred and forty pounds of wool. Vide Plan, &c. p. 259.</p> + +<p>I need not observe here, that the sheep in Ireland are not near so large +as the sheep in Romney marsh, these last being generally the largest breed +of sheep in England, except a few on the bank of the river Tees in the +bishoprick of Durham. Now if these large sheep yield fleeces of four +pounds and a half of wool, we may be supposed to allow the Irish sheep, +take them one with another, to yield three pounds of wool to a fleece, or +to a sheep, out of which must be deducted the fell wool, most of which is +of a shorter growth, and therefore cannot be reckoned so much by at least +a pound to a sheep. Begin then to account for the wool, and we may make +some calculation from thence of the number of sheep.</p> + +<p>1. If of the Romney marsh fleeces, weighing four pounds and a half each, +fifty-six fleeces make one pack of wool; then seventy fleeces Irish wool, +weighing three pounds each fleece, make a pack.</p> + +<p>2. If we import from Ireland one hundred thousand packs of wool, as well +in the fleece as in the yarn, then we import the wool of seven millions of +sheep fed in Ireland every year.</p> + +<p>Come we next to the gross quantity of wool; as the Irish make all their +own manufactures, that is to say, all the woollen manufactures, needful +for their own use, such as for wearing apparel, house furniture, &c., we +cannot suppose but that they use much more than the quantity exported to +England, besides that, it is too well known, that notwithstanding the +prohibition of exportation, they do daily ship off great quantities of +woollen goods, not only to the West Indies, but also to France, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> Spain, +and Italy; and we have had frequent complaints of our merchants from +Lisbon and Oporto, of the great quantity of Irish woollen manufactures +that are brought thither, as well broadcloth as serges, druggets, duroys, +frieze, long-ells, and all the other sorts of goods which are usually +exported from England; add these clandestine exportations to the necessary +clothing, furniture, and equipages, of that whole nation, in which are +reckoned two millions and a half of people, and we cannot suppose they +make use of less than two hundred thousand packs of wool yearly among +themselves, which is the wool of fourteen millions of sheep more.</p> + +<p>We must, then, allow all the rest of the wool to be run or smuggled, call +it what you please, to France, which must be at least a hundred to a +hundred and twenty thousand packs more: for it seems the Irish tell us +that they feed thirty millions of sheep in the whole kingdom of Ireland.</p> + +<p>If, then, they run over to France a hundred thousand packs of wool yearly, +which I take to be the least, all this amounts to twenty-eight millions of +fleeces together; the other two millions of fleeces may justly be deducted +for the difference between the quantity of wool taken from the sheep that +are killed, which we call fell wool, and the fleece wool shorn.</p> + +<p>Upon the foot of this calculation, there are a hundred thousand packs of +wool produced in Ireland every year, which we ought to take off, and +which, for want of our taking it off, is carried away to France, where it +is wholly employed to mimick our manufactures and abuse our trade; +lessening thereby the demand of our own goods abroad, and even in France +itself. This, therefore, is a just reproach to our nation, and they are +certainly guilty of a great neglect in not taking off that wool, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> more +effectually preventing it being carried away to France.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed, that unless we do find some way to take off this +wool from the Irish, we cannot so reasonably blame them for selling it to +the French, or to anybody else that will buy, for what else can they do +with it, seeing you shut up all their ports against the manufacturers; at +least you shut them up as far as you are able; and if you will neither let +them manufacture it, for not letting them transport the manufacture when +made is in effect forbidding to make them; I say, if you will neither let +them manufacture their wool nor take it off their hands, what must they do +with it?</p> + +<p>But I come next to the grand objection; namely, that we cannot take it +off, that we do take off as much as we can use, and a very great quantity +it is too; that we are not able to take more, that is to say, we know not +what to do with it if we take it; that we cannot manufacture it, or if we +do, we cannot sell the goods; and so, according to the known rule in +trade, that what cannot be done with profit or without loss, we may say of +it that it cannot be done; so in the sense of trade, we cannot take their +wool off, and if they must run it over to France, they must, we cannot +help it.</p> + +<p>This, I say, is a very great mistake; and I do affirm, that as we ought to +take off the whole quantity of the Irish wool, so we may and are able to +do it. That our manufacture is capable of being so increased, and the +consumption of it increased also, as well at home as abroad; that it would +in the ordinary course of trade call for all the wool of Ireland, if it +were much more than it is, and employ it profitably; besides employing +many thousands of poor people more than are now employed, and who indeed +want employment.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Upon this foundation, and to bring this to be true, as I shall presently +make appear, I must add, that a just reproach lies upon us for indolence, +and an unaccountable neglect of our national interests, in not +sufficiently exerting ourselves to improve our trade and increase our +manufactures; which is the title, as it is the true design, of this whole +work.</p> + +<p>The affirming, as above, that we are able to increase our manufacture, and +by that increase to take off more wool, may, perhaps, be thought an +arrogance too great to be justified, and would be a begging the question +in an egregious manner, if I were not in a condition to prove what I say; +I shall therefore apply myself directly to evidence, and to put it out of +doubt:—</p> + +<p>By increasing our manufacture, I am content to be understood to mean the +increasing the consumption, otherwise, to increase quantity only, would be +to ruin the manufacturers, not improve the trade. This increasing the +consumption is to be considered under two generals.</p> + +<p class="poem">1. The consumption at home.<br /> +2. The exportation, or consumption abroad.</p> + +<p>I begin with the last; namely, the consumption abroad. This is too wide a +field to enter upon in particular here, I refer it to be treated at large +by itself; but as far as it serves to prove what I have affirmed above, +namely, that the consumption of our manufactures may be improved abroad, +so far it is needful to speak of it here; I shall confine it to the +English colonies and factories abroad.</p> + +<p>It is evident, that by the increase of our colonies, the consumption of +our manufactures has been exceedingly increased; not only experience +proves it, but the nature of the thing makes it impossible to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> be +otherwise; the island of St. Christopher, is a demonstration beyond all +argument; that island is increased in its product and people, by the +French giving it up to us at the treaty of Utrecht. Its product of sugar +is almost equal to that of Barbadoes, and will in a very few years exceed +it; the exports from hence to that island are increased in proportion; why +then do we not increase our possessions, plant new colonies, and better +people our old ones? Both might be done to infinite advantage, as might be +made out, had we room for it, past contradiction.</p> + +<p>We talk of, and expect a war with Spain; were the advantages which new +settlements in the abandoned countries of America, as well the island as +the continent considered, we should all wish for such a war, that the +English might by their superiority at sea, get and maintain a firm +footing, as well on the continent as the islands of America: there the +Spainards, like the fable of the dog in the manger, neither improve it +themselves, nor will admit others to improve; I mean in all the south +continent of America, from Buenos Ayres to port St. Julien, a country +fruitful, a climate healthful, able to maintain plentifully any numbers, +even to millions of people, with an uninterrupted communication within the +land, as far as to the golden mountain of the Andes or Cordilleras, where +the Chilians, unsubdued by any European power, a docible, civilized +people, but abhorring the Spaniards, would not fail to establish a +commerce infinitely profitable, exchanging gold for all your English +manufactures, to an inexpressible advantage.</p> + +<p>Among the islands, why should not we, as well as the French, plant upon +the fruitful countries of Cuba and Hispaniola, as rich and capable of +raising sugars, cocoa, ginger, pimento, indigo, cotton, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> all the other +productions usual in that latitude, as either the Barbadoes or Jamaica.</p> + +<p>Our factories, for they cannot yet be called colonies, on the coast of +Africa, offer us the like advantages. Why are they not turned into +populous and powerful colonies, as they might be? Why not encouraged from +hence? And why is not their trade espoused and protected as our other +colonies and factories? but left to be ravaged by the naked and +contemptible negroes; plundered, and their trade ravished by the more +unjust and more merciless interlopers, who, instead of thieves, for they +are no better, would be called separate traders only, though they break in +by violence and fraud upon the property of an established company, and rob +them of their commerce, even under the protection of their own forts and +castles, which these paid nothing towards the cost of.</p> + +<p>Why does not England enlarge and encourage the commerce of the coast of +Guinea? plant and fortify, and establish such possessions there as other +nations, the Portuguese for example, in the opposite coast on the same +latitude? Is it not all owing to the most unaccountable indolence and +neglect? What hinders but that we might ere now have had strong towns and +an inhabited district round them, and a hundred thousand Christians +dwelling at large in that country, as the Portuguese have now at Melinda, +in the same latitude, on the eastern coast?</p> + +<p>And what hinders, but that same indolence and neglect, that they have not +there growing at this time, the coffee of Mocha, as the Dutch have at +Batavia; the tea of China, the cocoa of the Caraccas, the spices of the +Moluccas, and all the other productions of the remotest Indies, which grow +now in the same latitude, and which cost us so much treasure yearly to +purchase, and which, as has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> tried, would prosper here as well as in +the countries from which we fetch them?</p> + +<p>What a consumption of English manufacture would follow such a plantation? +and what an increase of trade would necessarily attend an increase of +people there?</p> + +<p>I have not room to enlarge here upon these heads; they are fully stated in +the said Plan of English Commerce, and in several other tracts of trade +lately published by the same author, and to that I refer. See the Plan, +chap. iii. page 335. and chap. v. page 363.</p> + +<p>I come next to the consumption at home, and here indeed the proof lies +heavy upon ourselves; nothing but an unaccountable supreme negligence of +our own apparent advantages can be the cause of the whole grievance; such +a negligence, as I think, no nation but the English are, or can be guilty +of; I mean no nation that has the like advantage of a manufacture, and +that has a hundred thousand packs of wool every year unwrought up, and a +million of people unemployed.</p> + +<p>N. B. All our manufactures, whether of wool, silk, or thread, and all +other wares, hard or soft, though we have a very great variety, yet do not +employ all our people, by a great many; nay, we have some whole counties +into which the woollen, or silk, or linen manufacture, may be said never +to have set their feet, I mean as to the working part; or so little as not +to be worth naming; such in particular as Cambridge, Huntingdon, Hertford, +Bedford; the first three are of late indeed come into the spinning part a +little, but it is but very little; the like may be said of the counties of +Cheshire, Stafford, Derby, and Lincoln, in all which very little, if any, +manufactures are carried on; neither are the counties of Kent, Sussex, +Surry, or Hampshire,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> employed in any of the woollen manufactures worth +mentioning; the last indeed on the side about Alton and Alresford, may be +said to do a little; and the first just at Canterbury and Cranbrook. But +what is all they do compared to the extent of four counties so populous +that it is thought there are near a million of people in them?</p> + +<p>Seeing then, I say, there are yet so many people want employ, and so much +wool unwrought up, and which for want of being thus wrought up, is carried +away by a clandestine, smuggling, pernicious trade, to employ our enemies +in trade, the French, and to endanger our manufactures at foreign markets, +how great is our negligence, and how much to the reproach of our country +is it, that we do not improve this trade, and increase the consumption of +the manufactures as we ought to do? I mean the consumption at home, for of +the foreign consumption I have spoken already.</p> + +<p>It seems to follow here as a natural inquiry, after what has been said, +that we should ask, How is this to be done, and by what method can the +people of England increase the home consumption of their woollen +manufactures?</p> + +<p>I cannot give a more direct answer to this question, or introduce what +follows in a better manner, than in the very words of the author of the +book so often mentioned above, as follows, speaking of this very thing, +thus:—</p> + +<p>“The next branch of complaint,” says this author, “is, that the +consumption of our woollen manufacture is lessened at home.</p> + +<p>“This, indeed,” continues he, “though least regarded, has the most truth +and reason in it, and merits to be more particularly inquired into; but +supposing the fact to be true, let me ask the complainer this question, +viz., why do we not mend it?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> and that without laws, without teazing the +parliament and our sovereign, for what they find difficult enough to +effect even by law? The remedy is our own, and in our own power. I say, +why do not the people of Great Britain, by general custom and by universal +consent, increase the consumption of their own manufacture by rejecting +the trifles and toys of foreigners?</p> + +<p>“Why do we not appear dressed in the growth of our own country, and made +fine by the labour of our own hands?” Vide Plan of the English Commerce, +p. 252.</p> + +<p>And again, p. 254; “We must turn the complaints of the people upon +themselves, and entreat them to encourage the manufactures of England by a +more general use and wearing of them. This alone would increase the +consumption, as that alone would increase the manufacture itself.”</p> + +<p>I cannot put this into a plainer or better way of arguing, or in words +more intelligible to every capacity.</p> + +<p>Did ever any nation but ours complain of the declining of their trade and +at the same time discourage it among themselves? Complain that foreigners +prohibit our manufactures, and at the same time prohibit it themselves? +for refusing to wear it is the worst and severest way of prohibiting it.</p> + +<p>We do indeed put a prohibition upon our trade when we stop up the stream, +and dam up the channel of its consumption, by putting a slight upon the +wearing it, and, as it were, voting it out of fashion; for if you once +vote your goods out of wear, you vote them out of the market, and you had +as good vote them contraband.</p> + +<p>With what an impetuous gust of the fancy did we run into the product of +the East Indies for some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> years ago? How did we patiently look on and see +the looms empty, the workmen fled, the wives and children starve and beg, +the parishes loaded, and the poor’s rates rise to a surprising height, +while the ladies flourished in fine Massulapatam, chints, Indian damasks, +China atlasses, and an innumerable number of rich silks, the product of +the coast of Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bay of Bengal, and the poorer +sort with calicoes? And with what infinite difficulty was a remedy +obtained, and with what regret did the ladies part with that foreign +pageantry, and stoop to wear the richest silks of their own manufacture, +though these were the life of their country’s prosperity, and those the +ruin of it?</p> + +<p>When this was the case, how fared our trade? The state of it was thus, in +a few words:—</p> + +<p>The poor, as above, wanted bread; the wool lay on hand, sunk in price, and +wanted a market; the manufacturers wanted orders, and when they made +goods, knew not where to sell them; all was melancholy and dismal on that +side; nothing but the East India trade could be said to thrive; their +ships went out full of money and came home full of poison; for it was all +poison to our trade. The immense sums of ready money that went abroad to +India impoverished our trade, and indeed bid fair to starve it, and, in a +word, to beggar the nation.</p> + +<p>At home we were so far from working up the whole quantity or growth of our +wool, that three or four years’ growth lay on hand in the poor tenants’ +houses, for want of which they could not pay their rent.</p> + +<p>The wool from Scotland, which comes all to us now, went another way, viz., +to France, for the Union was not then made, and yet we had too much at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +home. Nor was the quantity brought from Ireland half so much as it is now.</p> + +<p>Was all this difference from our own wearing, or not wearing the produce +of our own manufacture? How unaccountably stupid then are we to run still +retrograde to the public good of our country, and ruin our own commerce, +by rejecting our own manufacture, setting our people to furnish other +nations with cloths, and recommending the manufacture to other countries, +and rejecting them ourselves?</p> + +<p>If the difference was small, and the clothing of our own people was a +thing of small moment, that it made no impression on the commerce, or the +manufacture in general, it might be said to be too little to take notice +of.</p> + +<p>If our consumption at home is thus considerable, and the clothing of our +own people does consume the wool of many millions of sheep; if the silk +trade employs many thousands of families; if there is an absolute +necessity of working up if possible all the growth of our wool, as well of +Ireland as of England, or that else it would be run over to France, to the +encouragement of rival manufactures, and the ruin of our own; in a word, +if our own people, falling into a general use of our own manufacture, +would effectually do this, and their continuing to neglect it would +effectually throw our manufacture into convulsions, and stagnate the whole +trade of the kingdom; if our wearing foreign silk manufactures did +annually carry out 1,200,000<i>l.</i> sterling per annum for silks, to France +and Italy, and above 600,000<i>l.</i> per annum for the like to India, all in +spices, to the impoverishing our trade, by emptying us of all our ready +money, as well as starving our poor for want of employment.</p> + +<p>Again, if these grievances were very much abated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> and indeed almost +remedied by the several acts of parliament, first to prohibit East India +silks, then to lay high duties, equal to prohibition, upon French silks; +and, in the last place, an act to prohibit the use and wearing of printed +calicoes; I say, if these acts have gone so far in the retrieving the +dying condition of our woollen manufacture, and encouraging the silk +manufacture; that in the first, we have wrought up all the English growth +of wool, and that of Scotland too, which was never done before; and in the +last have improved so remarkably in the silk manufacture, that all that +vast sum of 1,800,000<i>l.</i> per annum, expended before in French and Indian +silks, is now turned into the pockets of our own poor, and kept all at +home, and the silks become a mere English manufacture as was before a +foreign.</p> + +<p>If all this is true, as it is most certainly, what witchcraft must it be +that has seized upon the fancy of this nation? What spirit of blindness +and infatuation must have possessed us? that we are in all haste running +back into the old, stupid, and dull unthinking state, and growing fond of +anything, nay of everything that is injurious to our own commerce, and be +it as ruinous as it will to our own poor, and to our own manufactures; +nay, though we see our trade sick and languishing, and our poor starving +before our eyes; and know that we ourselves are the only cause of it, are +yet so obstinately and unalterable averse to our own manufacture, and fond +of novelties and trifles, that we will not wear our own goods, but will at +any hazard make use of things foreign to us, the labour and advantage of +strangers, pagans, negroes, or any kind of people, rather than our own.</p> + +<p>Unhappy temper, unknown in any nation but ours! The wiser pagans and +Mahometans, natives of India,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Persia, China, Japan, Siam, Pegu, act +otherwise; wherever we find any people in these parts, we find them +clothed with their own manufacture, whether of silk, cotton, herba, or of +whatever other materials they were made; nor to this day have our nicest +or finest manufactures, though perfectly new to them, (and novelties we +see take with us to a frenzy and distraction) touched their fancies, or so +much as tempted them to wear them; all our endeavours to persuade them +have been in vain; but with us, any new fancy, any far-fetched novelty, +however antick, however extravagant in price, nay the dearer the more +prevailing, presently touches our wandering fancy, and makes us cast off +our finest and most agreeable produce, the fruit of our own industry, and +the labour of our own poor, making a mode of the foreign gewgaw, let it be +as wild and barbarous as it will.</p> + +<p>But I meet with an objection in my way here, which is insisted upon with +the utmost warmth; namely:—</p> + +<p>Objection: you seem to acknowledge that the prohibition of India silks and +the duties upon French silks, have effectually answered the end as to +silks; and that the late act against the use and wearing of printed or +painted calicoes has likewise had its effect on the woollen manufacture. +There is nothing now left to support your complaint but the printed linen; +which, though it is become a general wear, yet is our own product and +growth, and the labour of our own poor; for the Scots and Irish, by whom +the linen is manufactured, are our own subjects, and ought as much to be +in our concern as any of the rest, and that linen is as much our own +manufacture as the silk and the wool.</p> + +<p>Nothing could, in my opinion, be more surprising of its kind, than to hear +with what warmth this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> very argument was urged to the parliament, and to +the public, by not the Scots and Irish only, but even by some of our own +people, possessed and persuaded by the other, at the time the act against +the printed calicoes was depending before the parliament; as if an +upstart, and in itself trifling manufacture, however increased by the +corruption of our people’s humour and fancy, could be an equivalent to the +grand manufacture of wool in England, which is the fund of our whole +commerce, and has been the spring and fountain of our wealth and +prosperity for above three hundred years; a manufacture which employs +millions of our people, which has raised the wealth of the whole nation +from what it then was to what it now is; a manufacture that has made us +the greatest trading nation in the world, and upon which all our wealth +and commerce still depends.</p> + +<p>I insist upon it that no novelty is to be encouraged among us to the +prejudice of this chief and main support of our country, let it be of what +kind it will; nor is it at all to the purpose to say such or such a +novelty is made at home, and is the work of our own people; it is to say +nothing at all, for we ought no more to set up particular manufactures to +the prejudice of the woollen trade in general, which is the grand product +of the whole nation, and on which our whole prosperity depends, than we +would spread an universal infection among us, on pretence that the +vegetable or plant from whence the destructive effluvia proceeded, was the +growth of our own land; or than we should publish the Alcoran and the most +heretical, blasphemous, or immodest books, to taint the morals and +principles of the people, on pretence that the paper and print were our +own manufactures.</p> + +<p>I am for encouraging all manufactures that can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> be invented and set up +among us, and that may tend to the employment of the poor and improvement +of our produce; such things having a national tendency to raising the rent +of our lands, assisting the consumption of our growth, and, in a word, +increasing trade in general; I say I am for encouraging new manufactures +of all sorts, with this one exception only, namely, that they do not +interfere with, and tend to the prejudice of the woollen manufacture, +which is the main and essential manufacture of England.</p> + +<p>But the woollen manufacture is the life and blood of the whole nation, the +soul of our trade, the top of all manufactures, and nothing can be erected +that either rivals it or any way lessens it or interferes with it, without +wounding us in the more noble and vital part, and, in effect, endangering +the whole.</p> + +<p>To set up a manufacture of painted linen, which, touching the particular +pride and gay humour of the ordinary sort of people, intercepts the +woollen manufacture, which they would otherwise be clothed with, is so far +wounding and supplanting the woollen manufacture for a paltry trifle, and +though it is indeed in itself but a trifle, yet as the poorer sort of +people, the servants, and the wives and children of the farmers and +country people, and of the labouring poor, who wear this new fangle, are a +vast multitude, the wound strikes deeper into the quantity than most +people imagine, makes a large abatement of the consumption of wool, +lessening the labour of the poor manufacturers very considerably; and on +this account, I say, it ought not to be encouraged, though it be our own +manufacture.</p> + +<p>Do we not, from this very principle, prohibit the planting tobacco in +England, though our own land would produce it? Do we not know there are +coals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> in Blackheath, Muzzle-hill, and other places, but that we must not +work them that we may not hurt the navigation? The reason is exactly the +same here.</p> + +<p>This consideration is so pungent in itself, and so naturally touches every +Englishman that has the good of his country at heart, that one would think +there should be no occasion for an act of parliament to oblige them to it; +but they should be moved by a mere concern of mind, and generous endeavour +for the public prosperity, not to fall in with or encourage any new +project, any new custom or fashion, without first inquiring particularly +whether it would not be injurious to the prosperity of the main and grand +article of the English Commerce, the woollen manufacture.</p> + +<p>Were this public spirit among us, we need fear no upstart manufacture +breaking in upon us, whether printed linen or anything else; for no people +of sense, having the good of their country at heart, would touch it, much +less make it a general fashion. But, as the Plan of English Commerce +observes, our people, the ladies especially, have such a passion for the +fashion, that they have been the greatest enemies to our woollen +manufacture; and I must add that this passion for the fashion of printed +linens at this time is a greater blow to the woollen manufacture of +England than all the prohibitions in Germany and Italy, of which we may +have formed such frightful ideas in our minds; or even than all the +imitation of our manufactures abroad, whether in France, or any other part +of Europe.</p> + +<p>And yet, to conclude all,</p> + +<p>How easy, how very easy is it for us to prevent it; which, by the way, +deserves a whole book by itself.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>FINIS.</strong></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Humble Proposal to the People of +England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures, by Daniel Defoe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HUMBLE PROPSAL *** + +***** This file should be named 32384-h.htm or 32384-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/3/8/32384/ + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Humble Proposal to the People of England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures + Whether the Present Uncertainty of Affairs Issues in Peace or War + +Author: Daniel Defoe + +Release Date: May 15, 2010 [EBook #32384] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HUMBLE PROPSAL *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + AN HUMBLE PROPOSAL + TO THE + PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, + For the Increase of their + TRADE, + And Encouragement of their + MANUFACTURES; + Whether + The present uncertainty of Affairs + issues in + Peace or War. + + + By the Author of the COMPLETE TRADESMAN. + + + _LONDON_: + + Printed for CHARLES RIVINGTON, at the _Bible_ and + _Crown_ in St. _Paul's_ Church-Yard: 1729. + + (_Price One Shilling._) + + + + +PREFACE TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. + + +It deserves some notice, that just at, or soon after writing these sheets, +we have an old dispute warmly revived among us, upon the question of our +trade being declined, or not declined. I have nothing to do with the +parties, nor with the reason of their strife upon that subject; I think +they are wrong on both sides, and yet it is hardly worth while to set them +to rights, their quarrel being quite of another nature, and the good of +our trade little or nothing concerned in it. + +Nor do they seem to desire to be set right, but rather to want an occasion +to keep up a strife which perhaps serves some other of their wicked +purposes, better than peace would do; and indeed, those who seek to +quarrel, who can reconcile? + +I meddle not with the question, I say, whether trade be declined or not; +but I may easily show the people of England, that if they please to +concern themselves a little for its prosperity, it will prosper; and on +the contrary, if they will sink it and discourage it, it is evidently in +their power, and it will sink and decline accordingly. + +You have here some popular mistakes with respect to our woollen +manufacture fairly stated, our national indolence in that very particular +reproved, and the consequence laid before you; if you will not make use of +the hints here given, the fault is nobody's but your own. + +Never had any nation the power of improving their trade, and of advancing +their own manufactures, so entirely in their own hands as we have at this +time, and have had for many years past, without troubling the legislature +about it at all: and though it is of the last importance to the whole +nation, and, I may say, to almost every individual in it; nay, and that it +is evident you all know it to be so; yet how next to impossible is it to +persuade any one person to set a foot forward towards so great and so +good a work; and how much labour has been spent in vain to rouse us up to +it? + +The following sheets are as one alarm more given to the lethargic age, if +possible, to open their eyes to their own prosperity; the author sums up +his introduction to it in this short positive assertion, which he is ready +to make good, viz., That if the trade of England is not in a flourishing +and thriving condition, the fault and only occasion of it is all our own, +and is wholly in our own power to mend, whenever we please. + + + + +SEASONABLE PROPOSAL, &c. + + +As by my title I profess to be addressing myself to Englishmen, I think I +need not tell them that they live by trade; that their commerce has raised +them from what they were to what they are, and may, if cultivated and +improved, raise them yet further to what they never were; and this in few +words is an index of my present work. + +It is worth an Englishman's remark, that we were esteemed as a growing +thriving nation in trade as far back as in the reigns of the two last +Henries; manufactures were planted, navigation increased, the people began +to apply, and trade bringing in wealth, they were greatly encouraged; yet +in king Henry VIII.'s reign, and even towards the latter end of it, too, +we find several acts of parliament passed for regulating the price of +provisions, and particularly that beef and pork should not be sold in the +market for more than a halfpenny per pound avoirdupoise, and mutton and +veal at three farthings. + +As the trading men to whom I write may make some estimate of things by +calculating one thing by another, so this leads them to other heads of +trade to calculate from; as, first, the value of money, which bore some +proportion, though I think not a full and just equality to the provisions, +as follows:--silver was at 2s. 4d. per ounce, and gold at 2_l._ 5s. to +2_l._ 10s. per ounce; something less in the silver, and more in the gold +than half of the present value. + +As for the rate of lands and houses, they bore a yet greater distance in +value from what they produce now; so that indeed it bears no proportion, +for we find the rent of lands so raised, and their value so improved, that +there are many examples where the lands, valued even in queen Elizabeth's +days at 20_l._ to 25_l._ per annum, are now worth from 200_l._ to 300_l._ +per annum, and in some places much more. + +It is true, this advance is to be accounted for by the improvement made of +the soil, by manuring, cultivating, and enclosing; by stocks of cattle, by +labour, and by the arts of husbandry, which are also improved; and so this +part is not so immediately within my present design; it is a large +subject, and merits to be spoken of at large by itself; because as the +improvement of land has been extraordinary great, and the landed interest +is prodigiously increased by it, so it is capable of much more and greater +improvement than has been made for above a hundred years past. But this I +say is not my present design; it is too great an article to be couched in +a few words. + +Yet it requires this notice here; viz., that trade has been a principal +agent even in the improvement of our land; as it has furnished the money +to the husbandman to stock his land, and to employ servants and labourers +in the working part; and as it has found him a market for the consumption +of the produce of his land, and at an advanced price too, by which he has +received a good return to enable him to go on. + +The short inference from these premises is this: as by trade the whole +kingdom is thus advanced in wealth, and the value of lands, and of the +produce of lands, and of labour, is so remarkably increased, why should we +not go on with vigour and spirit in trade, and by all proper and possible +methods and endeavours, increase and cultivate our commerce; that we may +still increase and improve in wealth, in value of lands, in stock, and in +all the arts of trade, such as manufactures, navigation, fishery, +husbandry, and, in short, study an improvement of trade in all its +branches. + +No doubt it would be our wisdom to do thus; and nothing of the kind can be +more surprising than that it should not be our practice; and thus I am +brought down to the case before me. + +If it should be objected that the remark is needless, that we are an +industrious and laborious people, that we are the best manufacturers in +the world, thoroughly versed in all the methods and arts for that purpose; +and that our trade is improved to the utmost in all places, and all cases +possible; if it should, I say, be thus argued, for I know some have such a +taint of our national vanity that they do talk at this rate,-- + +My answer is short, and direct in the negative; and I do affirm that we +are not that industrious, applying, improving people that we pretend to +be, and that we ought to be, and might be. That we are the best +manufacturers I deny; and yet at the same time I grant that we make the +best manufactures in the world; but the reason of that is greatly owing +not to our own skill exceeding others, so much as to our being furnished +from the bounty of Heaven with the best materials and best conveniencies +for the work, of any nation in the world, of which I shall take notice in +its place. + +But not to dwell upon our capacities for improving in trade, I might clear +all that part without giving up the least article of my complaint; for it +is not our capacity to improve that I call in question, but our +application to the right methods; nay, I must add, that while I call upon +your diligence, and press you to application, I am supposed to grant your +capacities; otherwise I was calling upon you to no purpose, and pressing +you to do what at the same time I allowed you had no power to perform. + +Without complimenting your national vanity, therefore, I am to grant you +have not only the means of improvement in your hands, but the capacity of +improving also; and on this account I must add, are the more inexcusable +if the thing is not in practice. + +Indeed it is something wonderful, and not easy to be accounted for, that a +whole nation should, as if they were in a lethargic dream, shut their eyes +to the apparent advantages of their commerce; and this just now, when +their circumstances seem so evidently to stand in need of encouragement, +and that they are more than ordinarily at a kind of stop in their usual +progression of trade. + +It is debated much among men of business, whether trade is at this time in +a prosperous and thriving condition, or in a languishing and declining +state; or, in a word, whether we are going backwards or forward. I shall +not meddle with that debate here, having no occasion to take up the little +space allowed me in anything remote from my design. But I will propose it +as I really believe it to be: namely, that we are rather in a state of +balance between both, a middle between the extremes; I hope we are not +much declined, and I fear we are not much advanced. But I must add, that +if we do not immediately set about some new methods for altering this +depending condition, we shall soon decline; and on the contrary, if we +should exert ourselves, we have before us infinite advantages of improving +and advancing our commerce, and that to a great degree. + +This is stating it to the meanest understanding; there is no mystery at +all in the thing; if you will apply, you will rise; if you will remain +indolent and inactive, you will sink and starve. Trade in England, at this +time, is like a ship at sea, that has sprung a leak in sight of the shore, +or within a few days' sail of it; if the crew will ply their pump and work +hard, they may not only keep her above water, but will bring her safe into +port; whereas if they neglect the pump, or do not exert their strength, +the water grows upon them and they are in apparent danger of sinking +before they reach the shore. + +Or, if you will have a coarser comparison, take the pump room in the +rasp-house, or house of correction, at Amsterdam; where the slothful +person is put into a good, dry, and wholesome room, with a pump at one +side and a spring or water-pipe at the other; if he pleases to work, he +may live and keep the water down, but if he sleeps he drowns. + +The moral is exactly the same in both cases, and suits with the present +circumstances of our trade in England most exactly, only with this +difference to the advantage of the latter; namely, that the application +which I call upon the people of England to exert themselves in, is not a +mere labour of the hand; I do not tax the poor with mere sloth and +negligence, idly lying still when they should work, that is not our +grievance at present; for though there may be too much of that sort too, +among a few of the drunken, loitering part of mankind, and they suffer for +it sufficiently in their poverty, yet that, I say, is not the point, +idleness is not here a national crime, the English are not naturally a +slothful, indolent, or lazy people. + +But it is an application proper to the method of business which is wanting +among us, and in this we shall find room for reproof on one hand, and +direction on the other; and our reader, I dare say, will acknowledge there +is reason for both. + +It must in the first place be acknowledged, that England has indeed the +greatest encouragement for their industry of any nation in Europe; and as +therefore their want of improving those advantages and encouragements, +lays them more open to our just reproof, than other nation's would be, or +can be who want them, so it moves me with the more importunity to press +home the argument, which reason and the nature of the thing furnishes, to +persuade them. Reason dictates that no occasion should be let slip by +which England above all nations in the world should improve the advantages +they have in their hands; not only because they have them, but because +their people so universally depend upon them. The manufactures are their +bread, the life, the comfort of their poor, and the soul of their trade; +nature dictates, that as they are given them to improve, and that by +industry and application they are capable of being improved; so they ought +to starve if they do not improve them to the utmost. + +Let us see in a few words what nature and providence has done for us; nay, +what they have done for us exclusive of the rest of the world. The bounty +of Heaven has stored us with the principles of commerce, fruitful of a +vast variety of things essential to trade, and which call upon us as it +were in the voice of nature, bidding us work, and with annexed +encouragement to do so from the visible apparent success of industry. Here +the voice of the world is plain, like the answer of an oracle; thus, dig +and find, plough and reap, fish and take, spin and live; in a word, trade +and thrive; and this with such extraordinary circumstances, that it is as +if there was a bar upon the neighbouring nations, and it had been spoken +from Heaven thus: These are for you only, and not for any other nation; +you, my favourites, of England; you, singled out to be great, opulent, +powerful, above all your neighbours, and to be made so by your own +industry and my bounty. + +To explain this, allow me a small digression, to run over the detail of +Heaven's bounty, and see what God and nature has done for us beyond what +it has done for other nations; nature, as I have said, will dictate to us +what Heaven expects from us, for the improving the blessings bestowed, and +for making ourselves that rich and powerful people which he has determined +us to be. + +Our country is furnished, I say, with the principles of commerce in a very +extraordinary manner; that is to say, so as no other country in Europe, or +perhaps in the world, is supplied with. + +I. With the product of the earth. This is of two kinds: 1. That of the +inside or bowels of the earth, the same of which, as above, the voice of +Heaven to us, is, dig and find, under which article is principally our +lead, and tin-coal; I name these only, because of these this island seems +to have an exclusive grant; there being none, or but very small quantities +of them, found in any other nation; and it is upon exclusive benefits that +I am chiefly speaking. 2. We have besides these, iron, copper, _lapis +calaminaris_, vulgarly called callamy, with several other minerals, which +may be said to be in common to us and the rest of the world, of which the +particulars at large, and the places where they are found, may be fully +seen in a late tract, of which I shall have frequently occasion to speak +in this work, entitled, A Plan of the Commerce of Great Britain, to which +I refer, as indeed to a general index of the trade and produce of this +whole island. + +II. The product of the surface, which I include in that part, plough and +reap; and though this is not indeed an exclusive product, yet I may +observe that the extraordinary increase which our lands, under an +excellent cultivation, generally yield, as well in corn and cattle, is an +uncommon argument for the industry of the husbandmen; and I might enter +into a comparison with advantage, against almost any countries in Europe, +by comparing the quantity produced on both sides, with the quantity of +land which produce those quantities. + +You may find some calculations of the produce of our own country in the +book above mentioned, viz., The Plan of the Commerce of Great Britain, +where the consumption of malt in England is calculated by the value of the +duties of excise, and where it appears that there is annually consumed in +England, besides what is exported to foreign countries, forty millions of +bushels of malt, besides also all the barley, the meal of which is made +into bread, which is a very great quantity; most of the northern counties +in England feeding very much upon barley bread; and besides all the barley +either exported or used at home in the corn unmalted; all which put +together, I am assured, amounts to no less than ten millions of bushels +more. + +The quantity of barley only is so exceeding great, that I am told it +bears, in proportion to the land it grows on, an equality to as much land +in France, as all the sowed land in the whole kingdom of England; or take +it thus, that fifty millions of bushels of barley growing in France, would +take up as much ground as all the lands which are at any time sowed in +England with any corn, whether barley, oats, or wheat. + +N. B. I do not say all the arable lands of England, because we know there +are a very great number of acres of land which every year lie fallow +(though in tillage) and unsowed, according to the usage of our husbandry; +so they cannot be reckoned to produce any corn at all, otherwise the +quantity might be much greater. + +This is a testimony of the fertility of our soil; and on the other hand, +the fertility is a testimony of the diligence and application of our +people, and the success which attends that diligence. + +We are told that in some parts of England, especially in the counties of +Essex, Hertford, Cambridge, Bedford, Bucks, Oxford, Northampton, Lincoln, +and Nottingham, it is very frequent to have the lands produce from seven +to ten quarters of barley upon an acre, which is a produce not heard of in +the most fruitful of all those we call corn countries abroad, much less in +France. On the contrary, if they have a great produce of corn, it is +because they have a vast extent of land for it to grow upon, and which +land they either have no other use for, or it may be is fit for no other +use; whereas our corn grounds are far from being the richest or the best +of our lands, the prime of our land being laid up, as the ploughmen call +it, to feed upon, that is, to keep dairies of cows, as in Essex, Suffolk, +and the fens; or for grazing grounds, for fatting the large mutton and +beef, for which England is so particularly famed. These grazing countries +are chiefly in Sussex, and in the marshes of Romney, and other parts in +Kent; also in the rich vales of Aylesbury, and others in Bucks and +Berkshire, the isle of Ely, the bank of Trent, the counties of Lincoln, +Leicester and Stafford, Warwick and Chester, as also in the county of +Somerset, Lancaster, north riding of Yorkshire, and bank of Tees, in the +bishoprick of Durham. + +When this product of England is considered, the diligence and success of +our husbandry in England will be found to be beyond that of the most +industrious people in Europe. But I must not dwell here, my view lies +another way; nor do the people of England want so much to be called upon +to improve in husbandry, as they do in manufactures and other things; not +but that even in this, the lands not yet cultivated do call aloud upon us +too; but I say it is not the present case. + +I come in the next article to that yet louder call of the oracle, as +above, namely, fish and take. Indeed this is an improvement not fully +preserved, or a produce not sufficiently improved; the advantages nature +offers here cannot be said to be fully accepted of and embraced. + +This is a large field, and much remains to be said and done too in it, for +the increase of wealth, and the employment of our people; and though I am +not of the opinion which some have carried to an unaccountable length in +this case, viz., that we should set up the fishery by companies and +societies, which has been often attempted, and has proved abortive and +ill-grounded; or that we ought by force, or are able by all our advantages +to beat out the Dutch from it; yet we might certainly very much enlarge +and increase our own share in it; take greater quantities than we do; cure +and pack them better than we do; come sooner to market with them than we +do; and consume greater quantities at home than we do; the consequence of +which would be that we should breed up and employ more seamen, build and +fit out more fishing-vessels and ships for merchandise than we do now, and +which we are unaccountably blameable that we do not. + +And here I must observe, that the increasing the fishery would even +contribute to our vending as well as catching a greater quantity of fish, +and to take off the disadvantage which we now lie under with the Dutch, by +the consequence of trade in the fishery itself. The case is this: the +chief market for white herring, which is the fishery I am speaking of, is +the port of Dantzic and Konigsberg, from which ports the whole kingdom of +Poland, and great duchy of Lithuania, are supplied with fish by the +navigation of the great river of the Vistula, and the smaller rivers of +the Pragel and Niemen, &c. + +The return brought from thence is in canvass, oak, and spruce, plank and +timber, sturgeon, some hemp and flax, pot ashes, &c., but chiefly corn. + +Here the Dutch have an infinite advantage of us, which is never to be +surmounted or overcome, and for which reason it is impossible for us ever +to beat them out of this trade; viz., the Dutch send yearly a very great +number of ships to Dantzic, &c., to fetch corn; some say they send a +thousand sail every year; and I believe they do send so many ships, or +those ships going so many times, or making so many voyages in the year as +amounts to the same number of freights, and so is the same thing. + +All these ships going for corn for the Dutch, have their chief supply of +corn from that country; it follows, then, that their herrings are carried +for nothing, seeing the ships which carry them must go light if they did +not carry the fish; whereas, on the other hand, our fish must pay freight +in whatever vessel it may go. + +When our ships, then, from Scotland, for there the fishery chiefly lies, +and from thence the trade must take its rise; I say, when they have +carried their fish to the ports above-named, of Dantzic and Konigsberg, +how must they come back, and with what shall they be loaded? + +The only answer that can be given is, that they must bring back the goods +mentioned before, or, in shorter terms, naval stores, though indeed not +much of naval stores neither, except timber and plank, for the hemp and +tar, which are the main articles, are fetched further; viz., from Riga, +Revel, Narva, and Petersburg. But suppose after delivering their fish, +some of the ships should go to those ports to seek freight, and load naval +stores there, which is the utmost help in the trade that can be expected. + +The next question is, whither shall they carry them, and for whose account +shall they be loaden? To go for Scotland, would not be an answer; for +Scotland, having but a few ships, could not take off any quantity +proportioned to such a commerce; for if we were to push the Dutch out of +the trade, we must be supposed to employ two or three hundred sail of +ships at least, to carry herrings to Dantzic, &c. + +To say they might take freight at London, and load for England, would be +no answer neither; for besides that even England itself would not take off +a quantity of those goods equal to the number of ships which would want +freight, so if England did, yet those ships would still have one dead +freight, for they would be left to go light home at last, to Scotland, +otherwise how shall they be at hand to load next year? And even that one +dead freight would abate the profit of the voyage; and so still the Dutch +would have the advantage. + +Upon the whole, take it how and which way we will, it will for ever be +true, that though our fish were every way equal to the Dutch, which yet +we cannot affirm, and though it came as soon to market, and carried as +good a price there, all which I fear must a little fall short, yet it +would still be true that the Dutch would gain and we should lose. + +There is yet another addition to the advantage of Holland, viz., in the +return of money; that whereas when our fish shall be sold, we shall want +to remit back the produce in money; that is to say, so much of it as +cannot be brought back in goods. And the difference in the exchange must +be against us; but it is in favour of the Dutch; for if they did not send +their herrings and other fish to Dantzic, they must remit money to pay for +their corn; and even as it is, they are obliged to send other goods, such +as whale oil, the produce of their Greenland fishery, English +manufactures, and the like; whereas the Scots' merchants, having no market +for corn, and not a demand for a sufficient value in naval stores, &c., +viz. the product of the country, must bring the overplus by exchange to +their loss, the exchange running the other way. + +It is true, this is a digression; but it is needful to show how weak those +notions are, which prompt us to believe we are able to beat the Dutch out +of the fishing trade by increasing our number of busses, and taking a +larger quantity of fish. + +But this brings me back to the first argument; if you can find a way to +enlarge your shipping in the fishery, and send greater quantities of fish +to market, and yet sell them to advantage, you would by consequence +enlarge your demand for naval stores, and so be able to bring more ships +home loaden from thence; that is to say, to dispose of more of their +freight at home; and indeed nothing else can do it. + +N. B. This very difference in the trade is the reason why a greater +quantity of English manufactures are not sent from hence to Dantzic, as +was formerly done; viz., not that the consumption of those goods is +lessened in Poland, or that less woollen manufactures are demanded at +Dantzic or at Konigsberg; but it is that the Dutch carry our manufactures +from their own country; this they can do to advantage; besides their +costing nothing freight, as above, though they are sold to little or no +profit, because they want the value there to pay for their corn, and must +otherwise remit money to loss for the payment. + +As these things are not touched at before in any discourses on this +subject, but we are daily filled with clamours and complaints at the +indolence and negligence of our Scots and northern Britons, for not +outworking the Dutch in their fishing trade, I think it is not foreign to +the purpose to have thus stated the case, and to have shown that it is not +indeed a neglect in our management, that the Dutch thrive in the fishing +trade, and we sit still, as they call it, and look on, which really is not +so in fact, but that the nature of the thing gives the advantage to the +Dutch, and throws the trade into their hands, in a manner that no industry +or application of ours could or can prevent. + +Having thus vindicated our people where they are really not deserving +blame, let us look forward from hence and see with the same justice where +they are in another case likewise less to blame than is generally +imagined; namely, in the white fishing, or the taking of cod-fish in these +northern seas, which is also represented as if it was so plentiful of fish +that any quantity might be taken and cured, and so the French, the Scots, +and the Portuguese, might be supplied from hence much cheaper and more to +advantage than by going so long a voyage as to the banks of Newfoundland. + +This also is a mistake, and the contrary is evident; that there is a good +white fishing upon the coast, as well of the north part of the British +coast as on the east side of Scotland, is very true; the Scots, to give +them their due, do cure a tolerable quantity of fish, even in or near the +frith of Edinburgh; also there is a good fishery for cod on the west side, +and among the islands of the Leuze, and the other parts called the western +islands of Scotland; but the mistake lies in the quantity, which is not +sufficient to supply the demand in those ports mentioned above, nor is it +such as makes it by far so easy to load a ship as at Newfoundland, where +it is done in the one-fifth part of the time, and consequently so much +cheaper; and the author of this has found this to be so by experience. + +Yet it cannot be said with justice that the Scots' fishermen are +negligent, and do not improve this fishing to advantage, for that really +they do kill and cure as many as can be easily done to make them come +within a price, and more cannot be done; that is to say, it would be to no +purpose to do it; for it will for ever be true in trade, that what cannot +be done to advantage, may be said not to be possible to be done; because +gain is the end of commerce, and the merchant cannot do what he cannot get +by. + +It may be true that in the herring fishery the consumption might be +increased at home, and in some places also abroad, and so far that fishery +is not so fully pursued; but I do not see that the increase of it can be +very considerable, there being already a prodigious quantity cured more +than ever in Ireland on every side of that kingdom, and also on the west +of England; but if it may be increased, so much the more will be the +advantage of the commerce; of which by itself. + +But from this I come to the main article of the British trade, I mean our +wool, or, as it is generally expressed, the woollen manufacture, and this +is what I mean, when I said as above, spin and live. + +In this likewise I must take the liberty to say, and insist upon it, that +the English people cannot be said to be idle or slothful, or to neglect +the advantages which are put into their hands of the greatest manufactures +in Europe, if not in the whole world. + +On the other hand, the people of England have run up their manufactures to +such a prodigy of magnitude, that though it is extended into almost every +part of the known world, I mean, the world as it is known in trade; yet +even that whole world is scarce equal to its consumption, and is hardly +able to take off the quantity; the negligence therefore of the English +people is not so much liable to reproof in this part, as some pretend to +tell us; the trade of our woollen manufacture being evidently increased +within these few years past, far beyond what it ever was before. + +I know abundance of our people talk very dismal things of the decay of our +woollen manufacture, and that it is declined much they insist upon it; +being prohibited in many places and countries abroad, of their setting up +other manufactures of their own in the room of it, of their pretending to +mimick and imitate it, and supply themselves with the produce of their own +land, and the labour of their own people, and indeed France has for many +years gone some length in this method of erecting woollen manufactures in +the room of ours, and making their own productions serve instead of our +completely finished manufacture: but all these imitations are weak and +unperforming, and show abundantly how little reason we have to apprehend +their endeavours, or that they will be able to supplant our manufacture +there or any where else; for that even in France itself, where the +imitation of our manufactures is carried on to the utmost perfection; yet +they are obliged to take off great quantities of our finest and best +goods; and such is the necessity of their affairs, that they to this day +run them in, that is, import them clandestinely at the greatest risk, in +spite of the strictest prohibition, and of the severest penalties, death +and the galleys excepted; a certain token that their imitation of our +manufactures is so far from pleasing and supplying other parts of the +world, that they are not sufficient to supply, or good enough to please +themselves. + +I must confess the imitating our manufactures has been carried further in +France than in any other part of the world, and yet we do not see they +have been able so to affect the consumption as to have any visible +influence upon our trade; or, that we abate the quantity which we usually +made, but that if they have checked the export at all, we have still found +other channels of trade which have fully carried off our quantity, and +shall still do so, though other nations were able to imitate us to, and +this is very particularly stated and explained by the author of the book +above mentioned, called the Plan of the English Commerce, where the +extending our manufactures is handled more at large than I have room for +in the narrow compass of this tract, and therefore I again refer my reader +thither, as to the fountain head. + +But I go on to touch the heads of things. The French do imitate our +manufactures in a better manner, and in greater quantity than other +nations; and why do we not prevent them? It is a terrible satire upon our +vigilance, or upon the method of our custom-house men, that we do not +prevent it; seeing the French themselves will not stick to acknowledge, +that without a supply of our wool, which is evident they have now with +very small difficulty from Ireland, they could do little in it, and indeed +nothing at all to the purpose. + +On the other hand, it is not so with France in regard to their silk +manufactures, in which although we have not the principles of the work, I +mean the silk growing within our dominions, but are obliged to bring it +from Italy, yet we have so effectually shut out the French silk +manufactures from our market, that in a word we have no occasion at all +for them; nay, if you will believe some of our manufacturers, the French +buy some of our wrought silks and carry them into France; but whether the +particular be so in fact or no, this I can take upon me from good evidence +to affirm, that whereas we usually imported in the ordinary course of +trade, at least a million to twelve hundred thousand pounds' value a year +in wrought silks from France; now we import so little as is not worth +naming; and yet it is allowed that we do not wear less silk, or silks of a +meaner value, than we usually did before, so that all the difference is +clear gain on the English side in the balance of trade. + +The contemplation of this very article furnishes a most eminent +encouragement to our people, to increase and improve their trade; and +especially to gain upon the rest of Europe, in making all the most useful +manufactures of other nations their own. + +Nor would this increase of our trade be a small article in the balance of +business, when we come to calculate the improvement we have made in that +particular article, by encroaching upon our neighbours, more than they +have been able to make upon us; and this also you will find laid down at +large in the account of the improvement of our manufactures in general, +calculated in the piece above mentioned, chap. v. p. 164. + +If then the encroachments of France upon our woollen manufactures are so +small, as very little to influence our trade, or lessen the quantity made +here, and would be less if due care was taken to keep our wool out of +their hands; and that at the same time we have encroached upon their trade +in the silk manufactures only, besides others, such as paper, glass, +linen, hats, &c., to the value of twelve hundred thousand pounds a year, +then France has got little by prohibiting the English manufactures, and +perhaps had much better have let it alone. + +However, I must not omit here what is so natural a consequence from these +premises, viz., that here lies the first branch of our Humble Proposal to +the People of England for Increase of their Commerce, and Improvement of +their Manufactures; namely, that they would keep their wool at home. + +I know it will be asked immediately how shall it be done? and the answer +indeed requires more time and room to debate it, than can be allowed me +here. But the general answer must be given; certainly it is practicable to +be done, and I am sure it is absolutely necessary. I shall say more to it +presently. + +But I go on with the discourse of the woollen manufactures in general; +nothing is more certain, than that it is the greatest and most extensive +branch of our whole trade, and, as the piece above mentioned says +positively, is really the greatest manufacture in the world. Vide Plan, +chap. v. p. 172. 179. + +Nor can the stop of its vent, in this or that part of the world, greatly +affect it; if foreign trade abates its demand in one place, it increases +it in another; and it certainly goes on increasing prodigiously every +year, in direct confutation of the phlegmatic assertions of those, who, +with as much malice as ignorance, endeavour to run it down, and depreciate +its worth as well as credit, by their ill-grounded calculations. + +We might call for evidence in this cause the vast increase of our +exportation in the woollen manufactures only to Portugal; which, for above +twenty-five years past, has risen from a very moderate trade to such a +magnitude, that we now export more woollen goods in particular yearly to +Portugal, than both Spain and Portugal took off before, notwithstanding +Spain has been represented as so extraordinary a branch of trade. The +occasion of this increase is fully explained, by the said Plan of the +English Commerce, to be owing to the increase of the Portuguese colonies +in the Brazils, and in the kingdoms of Congo and Angola on the west side +of Africa; and of Melinda and the coast of Zanguebar on the east side; in +all which the Portuguese have so civilized the natives and black +inhabitants of the country, as to bring them, where they went even stark +naked before, to clothe decently and modestly now, and to delight to do +so, in such a degree as they will hardly ever be brought to go unclothed +again; and all these nations are clothed more or less with our English +woollen manufactures, and the same in proportion in their East India +factories. + +The like growth and increase of our own colonies, is another article to +confirm this argument, viz., that the consumption of our manufactures is +increased: it is evident that the number of our people, inhabitants of +those colonies, visibly increases every day; so must by a natural +consequence the consumption of the cloths they wear. + +And this increase is so great, and is so demonstrably growing every day +greater, that it is more than equal to all the decrease occasioned by the +check or prohibitions put upon our manufactures, whether by the imitation +of the French or any other European nation. + +I might dwell upon this article, and extend the observation to the East +Indies, where a remarkable difference is evident between the present and +the past times; for whereas a few years past the quantity of European +goods, whether of English or other manufactures, was very small, and +indeed not worth naming; on the contrary, now the number of European +inhabitants in the several factories of the English, Dutch, and +Portuguese, is so much increased, and the people who are subject to them +also, and who they bring in daily to clothe after the European fashion, +especially at Batavia, at Fort St. George, at Surat, Goa, and other +principal factories, that the demand for our manufactures is grown very +considerable, and daily increasing. This also the said Plan of the +Commerce insists much on, and explains in a more particular manner. + +But to proceed: not only our English colonies and factories are increased, +as also the Portuguese in the Brazils, and in the south part of Africa; +not only the factories of the English and Dutch in the East Indies are +increased, and the number of Europeans there being increased call for a +greater quantity of European goods than ever; but even the Spaniards, and +their colonies in the West Indies, I mean in New Spain, and other +dominions of the Spaniards in America, are increased in people, and that +not so much the Spaniards themselves, though they too are more numerous +than ever, but the civilized free Indians, as they are called, are +exceedingly multiplied. + +These are Indians in blood, but being native subjects of Spain, know no +other nation, nor do they speak any other language than Spanish, being +born and educated among them. They are tradesmen, handicrafts, and bred to +all kinds of business, and even merchants too, as the Spaniards are, and +some of them exceeding rich; of these they tell us there are thirty +thousand families in the city of Lima only, and doubtless the numbers of +these increase daily. + +As all these go clothed like Spaniards, as well themselves as their wives, +children, and servants, of which they have likewise a great many, so it +necessarily follows that they greatly increase the consumption of European +goods, and that the demand of English manufactures in particular increases +in proportion, these manufactures being more than two-thirds of the +ordinary habit or dress of those people, as it is also of the furniture of +their houses; all which they take from their first patrons, the Spaniards. + +It will seem a very natural inquiry here, how I can pretend to charge the +English nation with indolence or negligence in their labouring or working +their woollen manufactures; when it is apparent they work up all the wool +which their whole nation produces, that the whole growth and produce of +their sheep is wrought up by them, and that they buy a prodigious quantity +from Ireland and Scotland, and work up all that too, and that with this +they make such an infinite quantity of goods, that they, as it were, glut +and gorge the whole world with their manufactures. + +My answer is positive and direct, viz., that notwithstanding all this, +they are chargeable with an unaccountable, unjustifiable, and, I had +almost said, a most scandalous indolence and neglect, and that in respect +to this woollen manufacture in particular; a neglect so gross, that by it +they suffer a manifest injury in trade. This neglect consists of three +heads: + +1. They do not work up all the wool which they might come at, and which +they ought to work up, and about which they have still spare hands enough +to set to work. + +2. They with difficulty sell off or consume the quantity of goods they +make; whereas they might otherwise vend a much greater quantity, both +abroad and at home. + +3. They do not sufficiently apply themselves to the improving and +enlarging their colonies abroad, which, as they are already increased, and +have increased the consumption of the manufactures, so they are capable of +being much further improved, and would thereby still further improve and +increase the manufactures. By so much as they do not work up the wool, by +so much they neglect the advantage put into their hands; for the wool of +Great Britain and Ireland is certainly a singular and exclusive gift from +Heaven, for the advantage of this great and opulent nation. If Heaven has +given the wool, and we do not improve the gift by manufacturing it all up, +so far we are to be reproached with indolence and neglect; and no wonder +if the wool goes from Ireland to France by whole shiploads at a time; for +what must the poor Irish do with their wool? If they manufacture it we +will not let them trade with those manufactures, or export them beyond +sea. Our reasons for that prohibition are indeed very good, though too +long to debate in this place: but no reason can be alleged that can in any +sense of the thing be justifiable, why we should not either give leave to +export the manufactures, or take the wool. + +But to speak of the reason to ourselves, for the other is a reason to them +(I mean the Irish). The reason to ourselves is this: we ought to take the +wool ourselves, that the French might not have it to erect and imitate our +own manufactures in France, and so supplant our trade. + +Certainly, if we could take the whole quantity of the Irish wool off their +hands, we might with ease prevent it being carried to France; for much of +it goes that way, merely because they cannot get money for it at home. + +This I charge therefore as a neglect, and an evident proof of indolence; +namely, that we do not take effectual care to secure all the wool in +Ireland; give the Irish money for it at a reasonable market price, and +then cause it to be brought to England as to the general market. + +I know it will be objected, that England does already take off as much as +they can, and as much as they want; and to bring over more than they can +use, will sink the market, and be an injury to ourselves; but I am +prepared to answer this directly and effectually, and you shall have a +full reply to it immediately. + +But, in the mean time, this is a proof of the first proposition; namely, +that we do not work up all our own wool, for the Irish wool is, and ought +to be, esteemed as our own, in the present debate about trade; for that it +is carried away from our own dominions, and is made use of by those that +rival our manufactures to the ruin of our own trade. + +That the Irish are prohibited exporting their wool, is true; but it seems +a little severe to prohibit them exporting their wool, and their +manufactures too, and then not to buy the wool of them neither. + +It is alleged by some, that we do take off all the wool they bring us, and +that we could and would take it all, if they would bring it all. To this I +answer; if the Irish people do not bring it all to us, it is either that +it is too far for the poor people who own the wool to bring it to the +south and east coast of Ireland, there being no markets in the west and +north-west parts of that island, where they could sell it; and the farmers +and sheep-breeders are no merchants, nor have they carriage for so long a +journey; but either the public ought to appoint proper places whether it +shall be carried, and where they would receive money for it at a certain +rate; or erect markets where those who deal in wool might come to buy, and +where those who have it to sell would find buyers. + +No doubt but the want of buyers is the reason why so much of the Irish +wool is carried over to France; besides, if markets were appointed where +the poor farmers could always find buyers at one price or another, there +would be then no pretence for them to carry it away in the dark, and by +stealth, to the sea side, as is now the case; and the justice of +prohibitions and seizures would be more easily to be defended; indeed +there would be no excuse for the running it off, nor would there want any +excuse for seizing it, if they attempted to run it off. + +But I am called upon to answer the objection mentioned above; namely, that +the manufactures in England do indeed already take off a very great +quantity of the Irish wool, as much as they have occasion for; nay, they +condescend so far to the Irish, as to allow them to manufacture a great +deal of that wool which they take off; that is to say, to spin it into +yarn, of which yarn so great a quantity is brought into England yearly, as +they assure us amounts to sixty thousand packs of wool; as may be seen by +a fair calculation in the book above mentioned, called the Plan; in a +word, that the English are not in a condition to take off any more. Now +this is that which leads me directly to the question in hand; whether the +English are able to take off any more of the Irish wool and yarn, or no. I +do not affirm, that, as the trade in England is now carried on, they are +able, perhaps they are not; but I insist, that if we were thoroughly +resolved in England to take such wise measures as we ought to take, and as +we are well able to do, for the improvement and increase of our +manufactures, we might and should be able to take off, and work up the +whole growth of the wool of Ireland; and this I shall presently +demonstrate, as I think, past doubt. + +But before I come to the scheme for the performance of this, give me leave +to lay down some particulars of the advantage this would be to our +country, and to our commerce, supposing the thing could be brought to +pass; and then I shall show how easily it might be brought to pass. + +1. By taking off this great quantity of wool and yarn, supposing one half +of the quantity to be spun, many thousands of the poor people of Ireland +who are now in a starving condition for want of employment, would be set +immediately to work, and be put in a condition to get their bread; so that +it would be a present advantage to the Irish themselves, and that far +greater than it can be now, their wool which goes away to France being all +carried off unwrought. + +2. Due care being then taken to prevent any exportation of wool to France, +as, I take it for granted, might be done with much more ease when the +Irish had encouragement to sell their wool at home, we should soon find a +difference in the expense of wool, by the French being disabled from +imitating our manufactures abroad, and the consumption of our own would +naturally increase in proportion. First, they would not be able to thrust +their manufactures into foreign markets as they now do, by which the sale +of our manufactures must necessarily be abated; and, secondly, they would +want supplies at home, and consequently our manufactures would be more +called for, even in France itself, and that in spite of penalties and +prohibitions. + +Thus by our taking off the Irish wool, we should in time prevent its +exportation to France; and by preventing its going to France, we should +disable the French, and increase the consumption of our own manufactures +in all the ports whither they now send them, and even in France itself. + +I have met with some people who have made calculations of the quantity of +wool which is sent annually from Ireland to France, and they have done it +by calculating, first how many packs of wool the whole kingdom of Ireland +may produce; and this they do again from the number of sheep which they +say are fed in Ireland in the whole. How right this calculation may be I +will not determine. + +First, they tell us, there are fed in Ireland thirty millions of sheep, +and as all these sheep are supposed be sheared once every year, they must +produce exactly thirty millions of fleeces, allowing the fell wool in +proportion to the number of sheep killed. + +It is observable, by a very critical account of the wool produced annually +in Romney marsh, in the county of Kent, and published in the said Plan of +the English Commerce, that the fleeces of wool of those large sheep, +generally weigh above four pounds and a half each. It is computed thus; +first he tells us that Romney marsh contains 47,110 acres of land, that +they feed 141,330 sheep, whose wool being shorn, makes up 2,523 packs of +wool, the sum of which is, that every acre feeds three sheep, every sheep +yields one fleece, and 56 fleeces make one pack of wool, all which comes +out to 2,523 packs of wool, twenty-three fleeces over, every pack weighing +two hundred and forty pounds of wool. Vide Plan, &c. p. 259. + +I need not observe here, that the sheep in Ireland are not near so large +as the sheep in Romney marsh, these last being generally the largest breed +of sheep in England, except a few on the bank of the river Tees in the +bishoprick of Durham. Now if these large sheep yield fleeces of four +pounds and a half of wool, we may be supposed to allow the Irish sheep, +take them one with another, to yield three pounds of wool to a fleece, or +to a sheep, out of which must be deducted the fell wool, most of which is +of a shorter growth, and therefore cannot be reckoned so much by at least +a pound to a sheep. Begin then to account for the wool, and we may make +some calculation from thence of the number of sheep. + +1. If of the Romney marsh fleeces, weighing four pounds and a half each, +fifty-six fleeces make one pack of wool; then seventy fleeces Irish wool, +weighing three pounds each fleece, make a pack. + +2. If we import from Ireland one hundred thousand packs of wool, as well +in the fleece as in the yarn, then we import the wool of seven millions of +sheep fed in Ireland every year. + +Come we next to the gross quantity of wool; as the Irish make all their +own manufactures, that is to say, all the woollen manufactures, needful +for their own use, such as for wearing apparel, house furniture, &c., we +cannot suppose but that they use much more than the quantity exported to +England, besides that, it is too well known, that notwithstanding the +prohibition of exportation, they do daily ship off great quantities of +woollen goods, not only to the West Indies, but also to France, to Spain, +and Italy; and we have had frequent complaints of our merchants from +Lisbon and Oporto, of the great quantity of Irish woollen manufactures +that are brought thither, as well broadcloth as serges, druggets, duroys, +frieze, long-ells, and all the other sorts of goods which are usually +exported from England; add these clandestine exportations to the necessary +clothing, furniture, and equipages, of that whole nation, in which are +reckoned two millions and a half of people, and we cannot suppose they +make use of less than two hundred thousand packs of wool yearly among +themselves, which is the wool of fourteen millions of sheep more. + +We must, then, allow all the rest of the wool to be run or smuggled, call +it what you please, to France, which must be at least a hundred to a +hundred and twenty thousand packs more: for it seems the Irish tell us +that they feed thirty millions of sheep in the whole kingdom of Ireland. + +If, then, they run over to France a hundred thousand packs of wool yearly, +which I take to be the least, all this amounts to twenty-eight millions of +fleeces together; the other two millions of fleeces may justly be deducted +for the difference between the quantity of wool taken from the sheep that +are killed, which we call fell wool, and the fleece wool shorn. + +Upon the foot of this calculation, there are a hundred thousand packs of +wool produced in Ireland every year, which we ought to take off, and +which, for want of our taking it off, is carried away to France, where it +is wholly employed to mimick our manufactures and abuse our trade; +lessening thereby the demand of our own goods abroad, and even in France +itself. This, therefore, is a just reproach to our nation, and they are +certainly guilty of a great neglect in not taking off that wool, and more +effectually preventing it being carried away to France. + +It must be confessed, that unless we do find some way to take off this +wool from the Irish, we cannot so reasonably blame them for selling it to +the French, or to anybody else that will buy, for what else can they do +with it, seeing you shut up all their ports against the manufacturers; at +least you shut them up as far as you are able; and if you will neither let +them manufacture it, for not letting them transport the manufacture when +made is in effect forbidding to make them; I say, if you will neither let +them manufacture their wool nor take it off their hands, what must they do +with it? + +But I come next to the grand objection; namely, that we cannot take it +off, that we do take off as much as we can use, and a very great quantity +it is too; that we are not able to take more, that is to say, we know not +what to do with it if we take it; that we cannot manufacture it, or if we +do, we cannot sell the goods; and so, according to the known rule in +trade, that what cannot be done with profit or without loss, we may say of +it that it cannot be done; so in the sense of trade, we cannot take their +wool off, and if they must run it over to France, they must, we cannot +help it. + +This, I say, is a very great mistake; and I do affirm, that as we ought to +take off the whole quantity of the Irish wool, so we may and are able to +do it. That our manufacture is capable of being so increased, and the +consumption of it increased also, as well at home as abroad; that it would +in the ordinary course of trade call for all the wool of Ireland, if it +were much more than it is, and employ it profitably; besides employing +many thousands of poor people more than are now employed, and who indeed +want employment. + +Upon this foundation, and to bring this to be true, as I shall presently +make appear, I must add, that a just reproach lies upon us for indolence, +and an unaccountable neglect of our national interests, in not +sufficiently exerting ourselves to improve our trade and increase our +manufactures; which is the title, as it is the true design, of this whole +work. + +The affirming, as above, that we are able to increase our manufacture, and +by that increase to take off more wool, may, perhaps, be thought an +arrogance too great to be justified, and would be a begging the question +in an egregious manner, if I were not in a condition to prove what I say; +I shall therefore apply myself directly to evidence, and to put it out of +doubt:-- + +By increasing our manufacture, I am content to be understood to mean the +increasing the consumption, otherwise, to increase quantity only, would be +to ruin the manufacturers, not improve the trade. This increasing the +consumption is to be considered under two generals. + + 1. The consumption at home. + 2. The exportation, or consumption abroad. + +I begin with the last; namely, the consumption abroad. This is too wide a +field to enter upon in particular here, I refer it to be treated at large +by itself; but as far as it serves to prove what I have affirmed above, +namely, that the consumption of our manufactures may be improved abroad, +so far it is needful to speak of it here; I shall confine it to the +English colonies and factories abroad. + +It is evident, that by the increase of our colonies, the consumption of +our manufactures has been exceedingly increased; not only experience +proves it, but the nature of the thing makes it impossible to be +otherwise; the island of St. Christopher, is a demonstration beyond all +argument; that island is increased in its product and people, by the +French giving it up to us at the treaty of Utrecht. Its product of sugar +is almost equal to that of Barbadoes, and will in a very few years exceed +it; the exports from hence to that island are increased in proportion; why +then do we not increase our possessions, plant new colonies, and better +people our old ones? Both might be done to infinite advantage, as might be +made out, had we room for it, past contradiction. + +We talk of, and expect a war with Spain; were the advantages which new +settlements in the abandoned countries of America, as well the island as +the continent considered, we should all wish for such a war, that the +English might by their superiority at sea, get and maintain a firm +footing, as well on the continent as the islands of America: there the +Spainards, like the fable of the dog in the manger, neither improve it +themselves, nor will admit others to improve; I mean in all the south +continent of America, from Buenos Ayres to port St. Julien, a country +fruitful, a climate healthful, able to maintain plentifully any numbers, +even to millions of people, with an uninterrupted communication within the +land, as far as to the golden mountain of the Andes or Cordilleras, where +the Chilians, unsubdued by any European power, a docible, civilized +people, but abhorring the Spaniards, would not fail to establish a +commerce infinitely profitable, exchanging gold for all your English +manufactures, to an inexpressible advantage. + +Among the islands, why should not we, as well as the French, plant upon +the fruitful countries of Cuba and Hispaniola, as rich and capable of +raising sugars, cocoa, ginger, pimento, indigo, cotton, and all the other +productions usual in that latitude, as either the Barbadoes or Jamaica. + +Our factories, for they cannot yet be called colonies, on the coast of +Africa, offer us the like advantages. Why are they not turned into +populous and powerful colonies, as they might be? Why not encouraged from +hence? And why is not their trade espoused and protected as our other +colonies and factories? but left to be ravaged by the naked and +contemptible negroes; plundered, and their trade ravished by the more +unjust and more merciless interlopers, who, instead of thieves, for they +are no better, would be called separate traders only, though they break in +by violence and fraud upon the property of an established company, and rob +them of their commerce, even under the protection of their own forts and +castles, which these paid nothing towards the cost of. + +Why does not England enlarge and encourage the commerce of the coast of +Guinea? plant and fortify, and establish such possessions there as other +nations, the Portuguese for example, in the opposite coast on the same +latitude? Is it not all owing to the most unaccountable indolence and +neglect? What hinders but that we might ere now have had strong towns and +an inhabited district round them, and a hundred thousand Christians +dwelling at large in that country, as the Portuguese have now at Melinda, +in the same latitude, on the eastern coast? + +And what hinders, but that same indolence and neglect, that they have not +there growing at this time, the coffee of Mocha, as the Dutch have at +Batavia; the tea of China, the cocoa of the Caraccas, the spices of the +Moluccas, and all the other productions of the remotest Indies, which grow +now in the same latitude, and which cost us so much treasure yearly to +purchase, and which, as has been tried, would prosper here as well as in +the countries from which we fetch them? + +What a consumption of English manufacture would follow such a plantation? +and what an increase of trade would necessarily attend an increase of +people there? + +I have not room to enlarge here upon these heads; they are fully stated in +the said Plan of English Commerce, and in several other tracts of trade +lately published by the same author, and to that I refer. See the Plan, +chap. iii. page 335. and chap. v. page 363. + +I come next to the consumption at home, and here indeed the proof lies +heavy upon ourselves; nothing but an unaccountable supreme negligence of +our own apparent advantages can be the cause of the whole grievance; such +a negligence, as I think, no nation but the English are, or can be guilty +of; I mean no nation that has the like advantage of a manufacture, and +that has a hundred thousand packs of wool every year unwrought up, and a +million of people unemployed. + +N. B. All our manufactures, whether of wool, silk, or thread, and all +other wares, hard or soft, though we have a very great variety, yet do not +employ all our people, by a great many; nay, we have some whole counties +into which the woollen, or silk, or linen manufacture, may be said never +to have set their feet, I mean as to the working part; or so little as not +to be worth naming; such in particular as Cambridge, Huntingdon, Hertford, +Bedford; the first three are of late indeed come into the spinning part a +little, but it is but very little; the like may be said of the counties of +Cheshire, Stafford, Derby, and Lincoln, in all which very little, if any, +manufactures are carried on; neither are the counties of Kent, Sussex, +Surry, or Hampshire, employed in any of the woollen manufactures worth +mentioning; the last indeed on the side about Alton and Alresford, may be +said to do a little; and the first just at Canterbury and Cranbrook. But +what is all they do compared to the extent of four counties so populous +that it is thought there are near a million of people in them? + +Seeing then, I say, there are yet so many people want employ, and so much +wool unwrought up, and which for want of being thus wrought up, is carried +away by a clandestine, smuggling, pernicious trade, to employ our enemies +in trade, the French, and to endanger our manufactures at foreign markets, +how great is our negligence, and how much to the reproach of our country +is it, that we do not improve this trade, and increase the consumption of +the manufactures as we ought to do? I mean the consumption at home, for of +the foreign consumption I have spoken already. + +It seems to follow here as a natural inquiry, after what has been said, +that we should ask, How is this to be done, and by what method can the +people of England increase the home consumption of their woollen +manufactures? + +I cannot give a more direct answer to this question, or introduce what +follows in a better manner, than in the very words of the author of the +book so often mentioned above, as follows, speaking of this very thing, +thus:-- + +"The next branch of complaint," says this author, "is, that the +consumption of our woollen manufacture is lessened at home. + +"This, indeed," continues he, "though least regarded, has the most truth +and reason in it, and merits to be more particularly inquired into; but +supposing the fact to be true, let me ask the complainer this question, +viz., why do we not mend it? and that without laws, without teazing the +parliament and our sovereign, for what they find difficult enough to +effect even by law? The remedy is our own, and in our own power. I say, +why do not the people of Great Britain, by general custom and by universal +consent, increase the consumption of their own manufacture by rejecting +the trifles and toys of foreigners? + +"Why do we not appear dressed in the growth of our own country, and made +fine by the labour of our own hands?" Vide Plan of the English Commerce, +p. 252. + +And again, p. 254; "We must turn the complaints of the people upon +themselves, and entreat them to encourage the manufactures of England by a +more general use and wearing of them. This alone would increase the +consumption, as that alone would increase the manufacture itself." + +I cannot put this into a plainer or better way of arguing, or in words +more intelligible to every capacity. + +Did ever any nation but ours complain of the declining of their trade and +at the same time discourage it among themselves? Complain that foreigners +prohibit our manufactures, and at the same time prohibit it themselves? +for refusing to wear it is the worst and severest way of prohibiting it. + +We do indeed put a prohibition upon our trade when we stop up the stream, +and dam up the channel of its consumption, by putting a slight upon the +wearing it, and, as it were, voting it out of fashion; for if you once +vote your goods out of wear, you vote them out of the market, and you had +as good vote them contraband. + +With what an impetuous gust of the fancy did we run into the product of +the East Indies for some years ago? How did we patiently look on and see +the looms empty, the workmen fled, the wives and children starve and beg, +the parishes loaded, and the poor's rates rise to a surprising height, +while the ladies flourished in fine Massulapatam, chints, Indian damasks, +China atlasses, and an innumerable number of rich silks, the product of +the coast of Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bay of Bengal, and the poorer +sort with calicoes? And with what infinite difficulty was a remedy +obtained, and with what regret did the ladies part with that foreign +pageantry, and stoop to wear the richest silks of their own manufacture, +though these were the life of their country's prosperity, and those the +ruin of it? + +When this was the case, how fared our trade? The state of it was thus, in +a few words:-- + +The poor, as above, wanted bread; the wool lay on hand, sunk in price, and +wanted a market; the manufacturers wanted orders, and when they made +goods, knew not where to sell them; all was melancholy and dismal on that +side; nothing but the East India trade could be said to thrive; their +ships went out full of money and came home full of poison; for it was all +poison to our trade. The immense sums of ready money that went abroad to +India impoverished our trade, and indeed bid fair to starve it, and, in a +word, to beggar the nation. + +At home we were so far from working up the whole quantity or growth of our +wool, that three or four years' growth lay on hand in the poor tenants' +houses, for want of which they could not pay their rent. + +The wool from Scotland, which comes all to us now, went another way, viz., +to France, for the Union was not then made, and yet we had too much at +home. Nor was the quantity brought from Ireland half so much as it is now. + +Was all this difference from our own wearing, or not wearing the produce +of our own manufacture? How unaccountably stupid then are we to run still +retrograde to the public good of our country, and ruin our own commerce, +by rejecting our own manufacture, setting our people to furnish other +nations with cloths, and recommending the manufacture to other countries, +and rejecting them ourselves? + +If the difference was small, and the clothing of our own people was a +thing of small moment, that it made no impression on the commerce, or the +manufacture in general, it might be said to be too little to take notice +of. + +If our consumption at home is thus considerable, and the clothing of our +own people does consume the wool of many millions of sheep; if the silk +trade employs many thousands of families; if there is an absolute +necessity of working up if possible all the growth of our wool, as well of +Ireland as of England, or that else it would be run over to France, to the +encouragement of rival manufactures, and the ruin of our own; in a word, +if our own people, falling into a general use of our own manufacture, +would effectually do this, and their continuing to neglect it would +effectually throw our manufacture into convulsions, and stagnate the whole +trade of the kingdom; if our wearing foreign silk manufactures did +annually carry out 1,200,000_l._ sterling per annum for silks, to France +and Italy, and above 600,000_l._ per annum for the like to India, all in +spices, to the impoverishing our trade, by emptying us of all our ready +money, as well as starving our poor for want of employment. + +Again, if these grievances were very much abated, and indeed almost +remedied by the several acts of parliament, first to prohibit East India +silks, then to lay high duties, equal to prohibition, upon French silks; +and, in the last place, an act to prohibit the use and wearing of printed +calicoes; I say, if these acts have gone so far in the retrieving the +dying condition of our woollen manufacture, and encouraging the silk +manufacture; that in the first, we have wrought up all the English growth +of wool, and that of Scotland too, which was never done before; and in the +last have improved so remarkably in the silk manufacture, that all that +vast sum of 1,800,000_l._ per annum, expended before in French and Indian +silks, is now turned into the pockets of our own poor, and kept all at +home, and the silks become a mere English manufacture as was before a +foreign. + +If all this is true, as it is most certainly, what witchcraft must it be +that has seized upon the fancy of this nation? What spirit of blindness +and infatuation must have possessed us? that we are in all haste running +back into the old, stupid, and dull unthinking state, and growing fond of +anything, nay of everything that is injurious to our own commerce, and be +it as ruinous as it will to our own poor, and to our own manufactures; +nay, though we see our trade sick and languishing, and our poor starving +before our eyes; and know that we ourselves are the only cause of it, are +yet so obstinately and unalterable averse to our own manufacture, and fond +of novelties and trifles, that we will not wear our own goods, but will at +any hazard make use of things foreign to us, the labour and advantage of +strangers, pagans, negroes, or any kind of people, rather than our own. + +Unhappy temper, unknown in any nation but ours! The wiser pagans and +Mahometans, natives of India, Persia, China, Japan, Siam, Pegu, act +otherwise; wherever we find any people in these parts, we find them +clothed with their own manufacture, whether of silk, cotton, herba, or of +whatever other materials they were made; nor to this day have our nicest +or finest manufactures, though perfectly new to them, (and novelties we +see take with us to a frenzy and distraction) touched their fancies, or so +much as tempted them to wear them; all our endeavours to persuade them +have been in vain; but with us, any new fancy, any far-fetched novelty, +however antick, however extravagant in price, nay the dearer the more +prevailing, presently touches our wandering fancy, and makes us cast off +our finest and most agreeable produce, the fruit of our own industry, and +the labour of our own poor, making a mode of the foreign gewgaw, let it be +as wild and barbarous as it will. + +But I meet with an objection in my way here, which is insisted upon with +the utmost warmth; namely:-- + +Objection: you seem to acknowledge that the prohibition of India silks and +the duties upon French silks, have effectually answered the end as to +silks; and that the late act against the use and wearing of printed or +painted calicoes has likewise had its effect on the woollen manufacture. +There is nothing now left to support your complaint but the printed linen; +which, though it is become a general wear, yet is our own product and +growth, and the labour of our own poor; for the Scots and Irish, by whom +the linen is manufactured, are our own subjects, and ought as much to be +in our concern as any of the rest, and that linen is as much our own +manufacture as the silk and the wool. + +Nothing could, in my opinion, be more surprising of its kind, than to hear +with what warmth this very argument was urged to the parliament, and to +the public, by not the Scots and Irish only, but even by some of our own +people, possessed and persuaded by the other, at the time the act against +the printed calicoes was depending before the parliament; as if an +upstart, and in itself trifling manufacture, however increased by the +corruption of our people's humour and fancy, could be an equivalent to the +grand manufacture of wool in England, which is the fund of our whole +commerce, and has been the spring and fountain of our wealth and +prosperity for above three hundred years; a manufacture which employs +millions of our people, which has raised the wealth of the whole nation +from what it then was to what it now is; a manufacture that has made us +the greatest trading nation in the world, and upon which all our wealth +and commerce still depends. + +I insist upon it that no novelty is to be encouraged among us to the +prejudice of this chief and main support of our country, let it be of what +kind it will; nor is it at all to the purpose to say such or such a +novelty is made at home, and is the work of our own people; it is to say +nothing at all, for we ought no more to set up particular manufactures to +the prejudice of the woollen trade in general, which is the grand product +of the whole nation, and on which our whole prosperity depends, than we +would spread an universal infection among us, on pretence that the +vegetable or plant from whence the destructive effluvia proceeded, was the +growth of our own land; or than we should publish the Alcoran and the most +heretical, blasphemous, or immodest books, to taint the morals and +principles of the people, on pretence that the paper and print were our +own manufactures. + +I am for encouraging all manufactures that can be invented and set up +among us, and that may tend to the employment of the poor and improvement +of our produce; such things having a national tendency to raising the rent +of our lands, assisting the consumption of our growth, and, in a word, +increasing trade in general; I say I am for encouraging new manufactures +of all sorts, with this one exception only, namely, that they do not +interfere with, and tend to the prejudice of the woollen manufacture, +which is the main and essential manufacture of England. + +But the woollen manufacture is the life and blood of the whole nation, the +soul of our trade, the top of all manufactures, and nothing can be erected +that either rivals it or any way lessens it or interferes with it, without +wounding us in the more noble and vital part, and, in effect, endangering +the whole. + +To set up a manufacture of painted linen, which, touching the particular +pride and gay humour of the ordinary sort of people, intercepts the +woollen manufacture, which they would otherwise be clothed with, is so far +wounding and supplanting the woollen manufacture for a paltry trifle, and +though it is indeed in itself but a trifle, yet as the poorer sort of +people, the servants, and the wives and children of the farmers and +country people, and of the labouring poor, who wear this new fangle, are a +vast multitude, the wound strikes deeper into the quantity than most +people imagine, makes a large abatement of the consumption of wool, +lessening the labour of the poor manufacturers very considerably; and on +this account, I say, it ought not to be encouraged, though it be our own +manufacture. + +Do we not, from this very principle, prohibit the planting tobacco in +England, though our own land would produce it? Do we not know there are +coals in Blackheath, Muzzle-hill, and other places, but that we must not +work them that we may not hurt the navigation? The reason is exactly the +same here. + +This consideration is so pungent in itself, and so naturally touches every +Englishman that has the good of his country at heart, that one would think +there should be no occasion for an act of parliament to oblige them to it; +but they should be moved by a mere concern of mind, and generous endeavour +for the public prosperity, not to fall in with or encourage any new +project, any new custom or fashion, without first inquiring particularly +whether it would not be injurious to the prosperity of the main and grand +article of the English Commerce, the woollen manufacture. + +Were this public spirit among us, we need fear no upstart manufacture +breaking in upon us, whether printed linen or anything else; for no people +of sense, having the good of their country at heart, would touch it, much +less make it a general fashion. But, as the Plan of English Commerce +observes, our people, the ladies especially, have such a passion for the +fashion, that they have been the greatest enemies to our woollen +manufacture; and I must add that this passion for the fashion of printed +linens at this time is a greater blow to the woollen manufacture of +England than all the prohibitions in Germany and Italy, of which we may +have formed such frightful ideas in our minds; or even than all the +imitation of our manufactures abroad, whether in France, or any other part +of Europe. + +And yet, to conclude all, + +How easy, how very easy is it for us to prevent it; which, by the way, +deserves a whole book by itself. + + +FINIS. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + superfluous "I" removed (page 12) + "of of" corrected to "of" (page 29) + "at at" corrected to "at" (page 31) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Humble Proposal to the People of +England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures, by Daniel Defoe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HUMBLE PROPSAL *** + +***** This file should be named 32384.txt or 32384.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/3/8/32384/ + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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