WHEN a Nation has some Rich and Necessary Materials for Manufacture within it self, exclusive, of other Countries, it has the Monopoly of that Manufacture to the rest of the World; and therefore can never be under-sold, but may vend it so as to pay all Extra­ordinary Charges, with sufficient Gain to the Manufacturer and Merchant.

As Manufacture seems a kind of Debt to the Laborious Part of the Peo­ple, who by Nature are entitled to Live; so it is the Highest of all Cha­rities, and the most Substantial and Universal: For, What signifies the Distribution of a little Broken Meat amongst a few Wretches, in compa­rison of this Noble Way of supporting many thousands of Families, which at the same time preserves them from Starving, keeps them from Idleness, and makes them Useful to the Publick?

The Labours of People bestow'd this way, especially when the very Women and Children may get good Livelihoods by it, must necessarily make a Nation a Prodigy of Wealth: For whilst every ones Hand and Head is employ'd, and continually improving one Commodity or other, they work for the Nation wherein they live, as well as for themselves. For if 100000 Manufacturers get 6 l. apiece per Annum, the Nation must gain or save yearly 600000 l. by their Labours, tho' the Materials be better'd onely the Value of their Wages. And if the Number be greater, or Gain more apiece, then the National Gain still encreases more and more in proportion. All which is too evident in the present State of France, [Page 2]and the contrary in that of Spain, which, notwithstanding the Wealth of the Indies, is yet, for want of Home-Manufactures, the poorest and Weak­est of all Europe, and the most dispeopled.

Wooll was ever held, and still is, the Principal Commodity of this Island; and, if duely look'd after, might be made the Greatest in the World: First, Because our Neighbour-Nations, whose Wooll is too Course or too Fine to be wrought alone, can make but little Cloth of any consi­derable Price, without a Mixture of our English or Irish Wooll: Second­ly, Because the Materials of the Wollen Manufacture are of small Value whilst Raw and Unwrought, at least in comparison of the Manufacture when fully Improv'd; which may be made Ten or Twelve times the Va­lue, according to the Workmanship; and consequently, will make a Re­turn of so much more Treasure to the Nation, than the Raw Materials.

'Tis therefore very imprudent, and of most dangerous consequence, to suffer our English or Irish Wooll, unwrought, to be Exported into Forreign Countries; since this may in time transfer the Manufacture it self to For­reigners, and with it the incident Riches and Populacy, because our Manu­facturers must follow the Wooll, to our unspeakable prejudice: And by this means, besides our present Loss of Men and Money, these innocent Materials may at length return in the shape of Armed Men and Ships, to the Terrour and Confusion of an Unthinking Lazie People.

These Considerations made our Ancestors very severe against the Ex­portation of Wooll, as appears by the many Laws they Enacted, and the several Methods they us'd for preventing this National Mischief; and His late Majesty of Blessed Memory was no less zealous, who first by His Proclamation, dated 15 Sept. 1660. the better to hinder the Exportation of Wooll, granted half His own Moiety of the Forfeitures to all such Per­sons as would seise any Wooll, or Prosecute the Exporters; and when nei­ther this would do, nor yet the great Penalties the same Year impos'd, in the Fourteenth Year of His Reign He made it Felony to Export any Wooll whatsoever. Yet notwithstanding, for want of due Care for putting the said Laws in Execution, the Mischief still continues, to the great decay of that Noble Manufacture.

For now our Wooll being stoln out of England, and therefore sent away Custom-free; and our Clothes and Stuffs being carried away undyed and undressed, and great Customs being laid on English Cloth by our Neigh­bours, because they get great store of our Wooll, very cheap, to make Cloth enough of their own, the Dutch and French are now our Competitors in this Manufacture, and will in a short time beat us out of it, if speedy Care be not had to prevent the Exportation of Wooll: For they have actually beaten us out in the Northern, East-land, and German Trades, and share with us in that of Turkey; for having found means to get our Midling Wooll from Ireland, cheaper than the English Clothier, and mixing it with their Forreign Woolls, which are Two thirds cheaper than ours, they make thereof vast quantities of Course Clothes, Druggets, and Stuffs, which are acceptable Merchandise not onely to Spain, Portugal, Germany, and other Countries, but even to England and Ireland.

This, if not timely prevented, will quickly destroy our Forreign Mar­ket and Vent of Cloth; it has already sunk the Value of our Raw Wooll, which was formerly valued at 30 or 40 s. but is now in most Parts of England sold at 12 or 13 s. the Todd; and when Exported, because so common abroad, it yields not above a Third of its late Price, and must yet sink lower, while the French and Dutch Manufactures encrease, and ours decay; for if the English Clothier pays more for his Materials, than they do, he must quit his Trade, because he cannot live by it; and then our Neighbours must have our Wooll, and we their Cloth, at what Rate they please.

Our Woollens formerly Exported, were reckon'd at near Two millions of Pounds Sterl. per Ann. and particularly what went to France at 600000 l. But the French King having set a Tax of 50 per Cent. upon our Cloth, has rendred this Trade impracticable there.

The Dutch have so prevailed upon us, that the Clothes we now export to Hamburgh are but of low Price, from 3 to 7 s. a Yard, and most of them undyed and undressed.

Our East-land Trade is sunk more; for heretofore this Company alone usually exported above 20000 Broad Clothes, 60000 Kersies, and 40000 Doubles Yearly; but of late not above 4000 Broad Clothes, 5000 Kersies, and 2000 Doubles. And now at Dantzick, our late great Staple, we sell so little, that it is not worth the naming. We trade to those Places with Treasure, whence we use to import much.

In Swedland the Natives have set up a Manufacture of their own Course Woolls; but are still, as well as Denmark, Liefland, and Norway, very much supplied by the Dutch, and impose greater Customs upon us for what we vend, and insist to have ready Money for what we have to buy; where­as formerly they barter'd for Commodity.

Our former Great Trade to Muscovy is in a manner lost: The Dutch now send 1500 Ships into the Soundt, and 40 to Muscovy yearly; and we send not above seven into the Soundt in a Year, and of those, but two loaden with Woollen Manufacture; the other five with Ballast, and therefore are to buy their Forreign Lading with ready Money: And to Muscovy we hardly send two in three Years.

But what is still worse, we Import yearly much Fine Cloth from the Dutch, and Stuffs and Druggets, and Hats also, from the French; our own Trade in English Hats and Stockings much decaying, through the Expor­tation of Wooll: So that our late Monopoly of Woollens is quite vanish'd, and our People starving at Home, or running into Forreign Countries after the Wooll, leave their Wives and Children a Parish-Charge: whereof we may take one obvious Instance in the Town of Reading, where the late Number of Clothiers being about 160, are now reduc'd to 12 or 13; and the Poor so increas'd, that they cost the Town near 1000 l. a Year. Per­haps in some Towns, where Provisions are cheaper, the Clothiers may bear [Page 4]up somewhat better; but he that will examine into our Clothing Towns, will find the Trade decaying every where more or less, and hear the grie­vous Complaints of the Clothiers that continue in the Manufacture.

Thus the French and Dutch having long envied this great Manufacture of England, have of late made a mighty Progress towards its Extirpation, and thereby of the great Support of the English Nation; (Doubtless the Wool-sacks were plac'd in the Upper House of Parliament, to give us a Precaution of it.) Yet I question not, but if we did Manufacture all our Wooll, we might again monopolize the Trade of Woollen Clothing; And 'tis plain, that if we did Manufacture all our English and Irish Wooll, it would find vent in the World; since it is now all Manufactur'd in Eng­land, France, Flanders, and Holland, and finds vent in the aforesaid Mix­tures of Course Woolls, whereby the Bulk of the Manufacture must be much increas'd.

Sir Walter Rawleigh, above sixty years since, proves, That England in fifty five years time lost fifty five Millions of Pounds Sterling, by the Dutch Dying and Dressing our White Clothes: What then may we imagine they get, and we lose, now, that they have our Wooll also?

Upon the whole Matter, as it is undeniable, that while our Cloath yields no rate abroad, our Wooll can bear no price at home, and therefore Lands must decrease in their Rents; so 'tis plain, the only way to make both valuable, and consequently to raise the Rents of Lands, is to hinder the Exportation of Wooll, without which our Neighbours can make very few pieces of Cloath of any considerable value; And 'tis demonstrable, it is the Interest of this Nation rather to burn yearly all the Wool not Ma­nufactur'd in England and Ireland, and pay the Proprietors out of a Pub­lick Fond, than to suffer it to be Exported into Forreign Countries.

'Tis therefore humbly offer'd as the most effectual expedient for pre­venting so great, and so general a Mischief for the future, that because 'tis found by experience, that what is every ones business is no bodies busi­ness, and therefore, the Exporters of Wooll are seldom taken notice of; a certain number of Commissioners be appointed by His Majesty to put the said Laws in due Execution: And that the Clothiers, whose immediate concern it is, be oblig'd by Act of Parliament to contribute, as most of them have already subscrib'd, toward the charge of such Officers as shall be employ'd to that purpose; which in a short time will certainly raise the price of their Cloath abroad, a Shilling for every Penny they lay out that way; and then, the value of our Wooll, and consequently of Lands, must naturally rise in proportion.

Much more might be added to this purpose, too long to be crowded into a single Sheet; which is ready with all Humility to be offer'd to a Committee of either House, when the Bill for the more effectual pre­venting the Exportation of Wooll, &c. shall be taken into Consideration.