HAD we, in the Four last Reigns, exemplified the Policy of the wise Venetians, to incourage and promote our Trade and Commerce, being posted by Nature on The Emporium of the World, and being a warlike People, what could we not have done?

A well-managed Trade is the Creator and Preserver of Mony, and Mony and Trade are the Sinews of War.

But it doth not become me to say much of the Trade of this Nation in general, it being under the Care of that Honourable Counsel, now, most seasonably, appointed to inspect the same.

Nevertheless, having a natural Affection for Cornwall, as it is my Native County, and having informed my self thereof, I take it to be so Rich in it self by Nature, that Art and Industry might make it exceed all that hath been said by any Author in praise of Zant, the Place we have hitherto been speaking of.

CORNWALL (by the Providence of God) doth naturally produce Tin: A Mettal, when fine, is, in its Nature, next to Silver, and is said to have given the Name of Britain to this Nation; Sams Brit. pag. 1. which may ingage the King's most Excellent Majesty, as Gods Representative; and His High Court of Parliament, to have the greater Value and Esteem for it.

Being Environed as it is by the Sea, and having the ad­vantage of good Harbors, Nature seems to have designed it for a flourishing Trade; and the more, because that Land not only abounds with the best Tin in the World, and the greatest Quantities thereof, but the Sea affords it the best Fish also.

And abounding with Tin and Fish, as Zant doth with Currants and Wine, as the Venetians have improved the Trade of Zant, so we should use our utmost Endeavour to Encourage and Revive the Trade of Cornwall.

NOW the practice of our Factory at Zant, and the method of Policy which the Venetians made use of when [Page 3]the Western Trade failed them, gave me an occasion to reflect on the Causes of the Decay of Trade in our natu­rally rich County of Cornwall, and to consider of some Means to repair and improve it; and I hope that the In­genious Lovers of that County, and of this Kingdom, will contribute their Assistance to make the Proposal take effect.

WHAT Prices Tin bore, and what Trades were driven thereby in Queen Elizabeth's time, when we had the absolute Empire of the Ocean, and a flourishing Trade, I cannot so well inform my Reader as I would.

But some Years before the Restauration, when we had again the Command of the Seas, That Commodity of Cornwall yeilded to the Tinners there 6 l. 5 s. a hundred Merchants Weight, clear of all Coinage Duties; and then the Income to that County (by that Commodity only) amounted to 200000 l. Sterling a Years and upwards.

The Quantities of Tin are now almost the same as for­merly, only that Trade hath been, of latter Years, mis­manged, to the great Disadvantage both of that County and the Kingdom, the Price of Tin being now brought down to 50 s. per Cent, or thereabouts.

For the Cornish Factors are less kind to their Country­men the Tinners, than our English Factors are to the Zanteots; and more faithful to the London-Pewterers, than those are to their English Principals. And (being no less careful for themselves) as our Factors imploy their Mer­chants Capitals, to prevent and fore-stall those that imploy them; so our Cornish Factors imploy the Stock, remitted to them by the Pewterers, in necessary Materials for car­rying [Page 4]on the Tin-Trade; which Materials they sell at extraordinary Rates to the labouring Tinners, to be paid for the same in Tin, much under the Market-price.

And having once got those People into their Debt, they do by Interest and Extortion always keep them so Poor, that (to gratify the London-Pewterers and Merchants that imploy them, and for another Interest) they compel those poor Tinners to sell at what Price they please, and by that means do govern the Market, not only to the great Detri­ment of the County, but to the Disadvantage of the Kingdom.

NOW the Tin-Trade being divided into so many Peoples Hands, as those labouring, adventuring Tinners are, it will be difficult to do them good, but by a Law Enacted to redress their Grievances; and such a Law, as (being executed) may have the like effect with that of the Novis­sima Imposta, when the Venetians had almost lost the West­ern Trade.

And we having so far lost our Western Trade of Tin, that the Labouring Tinners can scarce get their Bread, I am of Opinion that we may regain it with Advantage, and raise the Price or Tin in some degree, if (after the President and Example of the Venetians) a Novissima Imposta be laid upon all such as shall buy and sell Tin in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, under three or four Pounds a hun­dred, or such a Price as The Kings most excellent Majesty, The right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and The Honourable the Commons in Parliament, shall think meet. And Tin being now at 50 s. per Cent, such an Imposition will be of considerable Advantage to the Nation, both in general and in particular.

AT 4 l. per Cent. (considering the present Price) the King will gain by the Benefit and Advantage of his Subjects, [Page 5]altho' His Majesty should have no more than his former Duty.

The Kingdom will gain (according to the present Rate of Tin) Three Parts in Eight of all that is Transported, because the same Quantity being Transported at that Price, will occasion the Importation of three eighth Parts more in return, either in Mony or Merchandize; For all other Markets are governed by the first Market-price.

The County in general will gain by it, because Land and Trade are in natural Sympathy; and the Tinners having 4 l. a hundred for their Tin, will have the more Mony and Credit to support themselves and their Families.

The Cornish Factors will gain by it three eighth Parts in their Provision, if no more; and this will take away the Occasion of Grinding the Poor to gratifie the Princi­pal, &c.

The London-Pewterers will have the like Advantage, insomuch as they are Factors for: And I have heard the chiefest of them wish, That the Price of Tin might never be less than 3 l. a hundred in Cornwall.

And, after all, the principal Merchants can be no Losers by it, if it be true what a certain Merchant once wrote me at Zant, That the dearer they bought abroad, the dearer they sold at home.

So that it is as much the Interest of the whole King­dom to keep up the Price of Tin in Cornwall, as it was for the Venetians, the Zanteots, and the Praemorratory, to keep up the Price of Currants at Zant.

AND that it may not be urged, That the advancing the Price of Tin will cause the less Quantity thereof to be Transported, I must here take notice, That there is no Part of the known World, besides Cornwall and Devon, that doth produce Tin, unless it be Germany and the East-Indies; and the Tin which is made there, is not so good [Page 6]as our Tin by 20 s. the Hundred; nor can they afford to sell the same so cheap as 5 l. per Cent.

Neither will the East-India or German Tin serve so well as ours, for the very many Uses which are made thereof throughout the World; and, not to mention its ex­cellent Usefulness for making Looking-glasses, Lackering, Painting, &c. I am informed, That the finest Earthen Ware in the World cannot be made without our Cornish Tin, which occasions so great a Consumption of that Commodity, beyond what is expended in all common Uses.

And farther it hath been observed, That when the greatest Quantities of Tin have been made in Cornwall, there hath been none left Uncoined or Unsold; and the higher the Price, the better those Quantities have gone off; which (to me) seems a good Argument of a Necessity the World is under to buy this Commodity of us: And their Necessity, as well as our great Costs and Charges, and the Danger and Difficulty of coming at the Tin, should bring us to understand its true Value, and make our utmost Advantage by it.

And did we make but half the Quantity of Tin, we now do, we might advance that Quantity to what Price we pleased; and then the one half of the Charges would be saved also.

The Charge of Deals, Cordage and Iron, which for the most part come from Norway, the East-Country and Spain, and Eat up a great part of the Profit, would then be but half as much.

And one half of the Labourers would be imploy­ed in the Fishing Trade, &c. and to improve the Lands by Husbandry, that County being capable of Improvement, that way, to double the Value it is now [Page 7]off; besides the Advantage that might be made by a full Improvement of the Fishery, &c.

AND now to shew the deplorable Circumstance of the poor, Labouring Tinners, we will suppose (for De­monstration-sake) there are Eight thousand Tinners Yearly imployed about the Tinning-Trade, although I am satisfied that they much exceed that Number, who (with their Families) depend upon the Product of their Labour.

And all the Tin coined in Cornwall in the Year, 1692. (which was the Year before I designed to publish these Grievances) was by the Coinage-Books of that County 11174 Pieces, and the Coinage-Duty thereof being 4 s. a Hundred in Cornwall, amounted that Year to 5449 l. 17 s. 00 d. By which it doth appear, That there must have been 27249 hundred Weight of Tin made that Year in Cornwall only.

And supposing that Quantity sold at 50 s. per Cent. the whole Product of the Tin made in Cornwall in the Year, 1692. must then come to 69222 l. 10 s. 00. d. which is a Sum much inferiour to the 200000 l. a Year and up­wards.

Which being deducted out of the abovesaid 69222 l. 10 s. 00 d. there will remain clear to be divided among the said Eight thousand Tinners, but 40338 l. 00 s. 02 d. which comes to Five Pounds and Ten Pence and about a half Farthing, to each Tinner.

And this is all each Tinner hath to maintain Himself and Family, and for his whole Years hard Labour, not only under Ground, but under God knows how-many Grievances.

But indeed they have been the better able to bear them, as being the most Herculean and stoutest Men upon Earth; and for their most faithful and loyal Services, have the greatest Privileges of Liberty and Property, of any People in the Kingdom.

FOR there are other Grievances relating to the Tin-Trade, which are almost, if not altogether, as prejudicial as what hath been said.

The Cornish Factors, and others, are not the only Causes of the poor Tinners Misery, the Cornish Lawyers must come in for a Share too: For as the Factors grind the poor Tinners to gratify the principal Traders, and there­by increase their Commissions, &c, So the Lawyers (up­on the Discovery of a Rich Mine) (taking the advantage of the Tinners Ignorance in the Stannary Laws, they being not set forth and Published in Print) do use all Means (by way of pretended Justice) to right those Clients against the Bounder, the Landlord, or their Fellow-Adventurers, When in Truth it is in the main a Contrivance to make themselves Masters of those Mines, and the Profits there­of, and the Tinners the Slaves only to dig the Oar for them.

And this they the sooner do, because their Fees are so great, and the Law-suits (which they create) so delatory, that (in proportion) they exceed all other Grievances; Whereas the Tinners Privilege (as I am inform'd) is to have their Proceedings at Law altogether in English; and, upon Payment of a Penny only, they are at liberty to appear in Person, and to Speak and Act for themselves, that their Causes may be the sooner ended.

UPON the whole it may be said, That it is with the Tinner and his Tin, as it is with the Spaniard and his Silver; And indeed the Tinner takes all the Pain, and others carry away the Profit.

And, to shew my Reader, that our Cornish Tin is valued abroad next to the Spaniards Silver, I shall hereto add an Account of what part of that Tin, which (being Coined in Cornwall in the Year, 1692.) was Ship'd off at the Port of London, from the First of January, 1692/3. for one whole Year, with each Merchants Name, and the several Ports to which the same were sent that Year.

AND now, by the foregoing Particulars, it doth, part­ly, appear how our Tin is valued and dispersed in the World; and (which is very remarkable) how much of it goes even to Germany it self; and how all that comes from the East-Indies to Holland, doth not divert, or hinder, the Dutch, likewise, from taking great Quantities of it from us; The Quantities of Un-wrought Tin transported (from London only) in the Year, 1693. amounting, in the whole, to 61413 hundred Weight, Besides the Un-wrought Tin transported that Year from other Ports and Places of the Kingdom; And besides all the Pewter made in England, and Exported also; which is very considerable.

And the Consideration the [...] should make us Unite, to Revive, and Advance the Tin-Trade in Cornwall, and Devon to our own Benefit, with more Reason, Justice, and Honesty, than The Venetians, the Greeks, and the Eng­lish Factory did to recover, and increase the Trade of Venice and Zant, to their Advantage.

AND, in short, it is not impossible (but easie) to raise the Price of Tin, to redress the Tinners Grievances, and to propose such other Means, as may Raise the County of Cornwall, and this whole Kingdom, to great Riches and Honour.

NATURE hath cut out GREAT BRITAIN to answer the Great Name and Character it ever had in the Universe: And no Nation can deny, but that it is by Nature The Emporium of the World, The Center of Trade, and The most Valiant in War.

AND, as Rome became Mistress of the W [...]ld, by pur­suing such Rules as Necessity, and Nature [...] taught her; So Nature, and Necessity, have put This [...] Land and Nation into the most Proper State and Condition of fol­lowing her Examples.

Whereby we may raise the Kingdom to a Pitch of Honour and Empire, which Old England (in all its Glory) was never capable of Acquiring.