A modest offer of some meet considerations, tendred to the English about their coyne and trade, and particularly to East India Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. 1695 Approx. 15 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A45304 Wing H396 ESTC R219932 99831379 99831379 35842 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A45304) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35842) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2049:34) A modest offer of some meet considerations, tendred to the English about their coyne and trade, and particularly to East India Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. 1 sheet ([2] p) s.n., [London : anno 1695] Imprint from colophon. By Joseph Hall. Reproduction of the original in the University of London, London. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng East India Company -- Early works to 1800. Money -- England -- Early works to 1800. Commerce -- Early works to 1800. 2005-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-10 Taryn Hakala Sampled and proofread 2006-10 Taryn Hakala Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Modest Offer of some Meet Considerations , tendred to the ENGLISH about Their Coyne and Trade , and particularly to East India . THE Ordinary Means of Encreasing our Wealth being Foreign Trade , Managed so that the Ballance be for Us , not against Us ; And the Seat of our now War being distant from us , ( which is our Happiness ) where we must pay our Armies and Fleet , we ought to provide that Forreigners ( be they Friends or Foes ) do not get our Trade nor our Wealth from us . It doth behove us therefore to secure our Foreign Trade in the first place , by safe guarding and wisely Conducting our Merchants Ships at Sea : Which may be done if our Naval Affairs and Strength ( our chief and commanding Point ) be put into the Hands of Men of Integrity , Skill and Courage , of Sobriety and Diligence , and of desire to shorten the War. Such Men as these we may hope will effect the like Qualities in them they do Command ; and then from the Nature of the Thing , and by Divine Ordination too , we may expect all good Success . Our Armies and Fleet may then be paid abroad , because the Goods we Import being Exported again will create Bills for us , ( which are not now to be had ) and make the Exchange in our favour . The Kings Customs and our Wealth will encrease , and the French being without Trade and Captures at Sea , will the sooner be reduced to Extremity . The next Thing is our Money : Not to alter its Fineness , Weight , nor Denomination , but to permit none that is ( lip'd or False to pass in Payment , and the Good at no higher Value than formerly . Our Mill'd Money , as now it is , is not only the Common and True Measure of our Lands , and of all our Means in the Kingdom , but also of our Foreign Commerce with Strangers ; therefore to alter it would bring us into Confusion and Loss too : For Gold and Silver being their Product , not Ours , when we add to its Value , They have the Advance of us . This encreases the Ballance against us , and we must pay it in Gold or Silver , not at our Valuation , but as the Exchange will allow ; which whilst we pay our Armies and Fleet abroad , will not exceed Five Shillings our Mill'd Crown , and Twenty Shillings the Guinea . And if , as some propose , we advance the one to Thirty Shillings , and the other to Six Shillings Three Pence , in Payment , we thereby Add to Spain , &c. 50 per Cent. in their Gold , and 25 per Cent. in their Silver , and Substract as much from our selves in all our Rents , in all our Now made Contracts , and Loans , in all the Customs and Charges that Forreigners pay for Goods they Import here , and in all we buy here and send abroad to Foreign Markets , ( in case that Strangers do buy the like with us ) and in all that we do remit to discharge the Ballance upon us . When Gold or Silver from Abroad comes to pay their Debt to us , it is Good ; but when to encrease our Debt to them , it 's an Evil to us : For it must go from us at less Value than it came to us We should therefore hasten to Extinguish this Ballance , or lessen it all we can , by safe guarding at Sea our Ships in Trade , and by sending our own Product and Manufacture to Markets abroad upon equal Terms with Foreigners who buy them of us ; which cannot be done if we add to the Value of our Money : What we add they have our Manufacture , &c. cheaper than our Merchants , and then we lose our Trade too . The Course of all Exchanges in Time of Peace , or when we are free and safe in Foreign Trade , doth shew that generally our Mint at Twenty Shillings a Guinea , and at Five Shillings the Mil'd Crown , is the best Market in Europe for Gold and Silver , it will then come to us , and what we now part with for Payment of our Armies and Fleet abroad ( which by the way will be done with one Third less if we do not advance our Money than if we do ) will Return to us in Time of Peace , and I hope it is not far off , if it be , I am sure , when it comes it will be the better and more lasting with us for this War Upon the whole , to advance our Crown to Six Shillings Three Pence can serve no Purpose of ours , is needless , and pernicious , therefore not to be done . But if we do not reduce Guineas to 21 s. 6 d , or 22 s. and make our Money good to 5 s. the Mill'd Crown , and no more , ( as formerly it did pass in Payment , ) and stop the Currancy of Clip'd and False Money , and if we do not make Forreign Trade free , and safe to all the Subjects of England , and put it so that they may set forth in it upon equal Terms with Foreigners ; I say if this be not done , there can be no Paying our Armies and Fleet abroad ; consequently , no Army or Fleet of ours there : Then the French will soon subdue our Allies , and next us , then Slavery and Popery will be the Lot of our Inheritance for ever , and we with our Allies thus ruined , shall soon end this War , Object . But is not our Coin rather to be Ordered hereafter than now , and by Degrees ( the Guineas at least ) than all at once . Answ . If we will go on with the War , it must be done presently . Last Years Delay giving them opportunity for it , some ( I wish them branded ) to distress our King by making the Payment of his Army in Flanders , if not impossible yet very difficult and costly , set upon the Project of raising Guineas , others for their particular Gain did the like , and these together advancing Guineas to 30 s. it left neither Silver nor Bills for Payment of the Army in Flanders , and by that Means made it next to a Miracle that our King did subsist there the last Campaigne . Every Moment we delay , our Clippers and false Coiners are at work , and which is worse , Guineas at 30 s. and Clipt and false Money from abroad is poured in upon us , and so we encrease our Ballance and Loss by th●se degrees , and this Delay . Now is a fit Time to do it , when some , confident that our 5 s. would be made 6 s. 3 d. have laid up in Silver Bullion about 200000 l. value , that must be brought to our Mint , or applied ( which is as well ) to pay our Armies abroad . The Bulk of the Guineas are now with ( or of Right belong unto ) Bankers , Goldsmiths , the India and Africa Companies , Jews , Stock-jobbers , and the Victualers , Agents , or Under-payers of the Navy or Armies , Persons well provided by the Gains they have had , and who do now oppose the Fall of Guineas only because they shall lose by it . And the doing it by degrees cannot help us , nor will it ease us in the least . The next Thing is the East-India Trade : Which , though the most mischievous of any to us , yet since we must have it , and it is become in Value near one half of the Foreign Trade of the Kingdom , it ought to be made National , and secured that it be not lost to the Dutch ( who by the continuance of our Now Company are much encreased in that Trade , ) nor gotten from us by the Scotch Company , who Invested as it is in Act of Parliament , and having Jews , Hamburghers , Hollanders , English , and some of other Nations , Subscribers into it , will soon ( if not timely prevented ) get that Trade , and more Beneficial Trades from us , I mean those to Guinea and West-India , and perhaps all Trade : For the Grants in that Act set together , make that Company as it were Universal Monarch of Trade . Now for Prevention against the One and the Other , I do humbly offer against Establishing by Act of Parliament the East-India Trade in a Company with a Joint-Stock Exclusive of others the Subjects of England . For such Establishments of Trade in England are Malum in se , Monopolies at Common Law , for that they Give and Appropriate that to Some onely which is the Common Right of All : And in the Instance now before us , do make but One Buyer for what is Exported , and but One Seller for what is Imported , to the Value of near One Half of the Foreign Trade of this Kingdom . It is true , New Invention and Discovery hath alwayes been incouraged and rewarded with Exclusive Grants ; for that in those Cases no other have any Right Antecedent to the thing Granted . Yet even in these Cases , it hath been usual with Parliaments to allow no more than Fourteen Years , Exclusive to others the Subjects of England , because they should not be long excluded in any Case . And for time out of mind , the Wisdom of our Nation in Parliament hath condemned Exclusive Grants of Trade , as appears in Magna Charta , and in many other Statures Unrepealed . It may , and most likely will , endanger the Peace and Being of the English Monarchy . It is a most pernicious Contraction of Trade , for that it cannot be extended to Persons so as to make it National . If the whole Trade of the Nation were Contracted as this to East India is , it would soon Nationally perish ; for that the whole then in proportion , would scarce enrich One Hundred and Sixty Persons , and maintain very few Adventurers or Traders . If the Trade be thus settled for Twenty One Years , it will for many of those Years Exclude from Trade the greater number of Merchants , and many others , as Minors ; Those who are not now in Cash , and those who have their Trades swallowed up by this . Future Admission into this Trade will be precarious , very costly , and may be lost . It will cause the Dutch and Scotch to surmount us in this Trade . Where our Trade is without a Company we out-do the Dutch ; and where we have a Company and they none , they out-do us . Therefore , The Dutch above all things desire the Continuance of the Now Company in England . They by their Agents here in 1656 , importuned O.C. to establish the Now Joynt-Stock . It will unavoidably give being and support unto Stock-Jobbing . The loss of Estates by Cheats this way , and by the Monopolists double Tax upon us of One Buyer and One Seller , in so great a Trade as this is , will in less than Twenty Years exceed Two Millions . The Proposal in ease of our Lands to raise Money by such Grants , if accepted , will lessen the Value of our Lands , and soon rid us of them . The Benefits to our Nation are many , if the Trade to India be Free , or in a Regulated Company , without a Joynt-Stock . Ingenuity will be encouraged . New Places of Trade will be applyed to , others Discovered . More of the Sons of our Gentry may be sent Factors . It will increase the Exportation of our Manufacture and Product . It will enable us to furnish Europe with all the Commodities of those Countries , much Cheaper than the Dutch. It will add to our Navigation , and Augment the Kings Custom , Stock-Jobbing will cease . And it will prevent taking up Money at Interest upon a Common Seal , which as done by our Now Company , is a thing very unequal and hazardous to the Subject ; and make it impossible to do the Evil Deeds our Now Company hath done ( and if continued may do ) here and in India , fully proved upon them before the Commons in Parliament . The India Trade hath been carried on better for the Nation without a Company in a Joynt-Stock than with one , and may be so again . Forts and Castles in India , if we have them , cannot defend us in case the Dutch , or French , or Indians , be our Enemies ; but may tempt us ( as it did the Now Company ) to offend them , or create a Jealousie in the India Princes of us , and by that means tempt them to offend us . And however Joynt-Stocks in Trade may have been used here in the Infancy of Foreign Trade , and granted by Kings to a number of Subjects named , ( the intention whereof was not particular but to them in Trust for the general good , and in prospect of a future opening it unto National Benefit ) yet now when we of this Kingdom are arrived at the utmost degree of Experience in Commerce with all Countries , I cannot see any Reason why the Subjects should lose their Right , or should be clogg'd by Joynt-Stocks to the great Dammage of the Nation , as I have before made evident . What I have here said with respect to the India Trade , is applicable to the Guinea Trade also . I am Troubled for the late Loss of Six Ships coming from the East-Indies , whereof Two were Interlopers ; the whole , I compute , did cost them in India Three Hundred Thousand Pounds , not more . But I cannot infer thence any Reason for an Exclusive Grant of that Trade : For if so , then the Interlopers who lost One Third , must have One Third of that Trade , Exclusive of the Now Company . And by a Parity of Reason , the Now Jamaica , Barbadoes , and West-India Merchants , who during this War have sustained greater Loss , must have Grants of those Trades , Exclusive of all others ; which if done , would make it cruel pity , and most unjust . As it had been if when London in 1666 was burnt , we to Rebuild it , in compassion to them , had Taxed the Nation to the value of all our Lands . To prevent Scotland being the Chief Seat of all Trade , or as it were the Universal Monarch in it ; I think we ought to make that design ( if we can ) Abortive : And I think it will be so in case our Parliament shall please . ( 1. ) To Declare that the East-India Trade is and shall be Free to all the Subjects of England . And that it shall be Managed in a Regulated Company ( as the Turkey , or as near it as may be ) without a Joynt-Stock , except a small One to defray the Common and Necessary Charges of Embassadors , &c. And , ( 2. ) That from and after the end of the Session of Parliament , which shall be in the Year 1697 , in case it shall appear that the East-India Company in Scotland have made any progress in Trade , that then all Goods Imported from East-India , in English Ships and by English Men , shall be Custom free . To induce the former I have said enough before ; and to enforce the latter I say , That the doing it will not lessen Our Kings Revenue ( comparatively ) One Peny : For if it be not done , and the Scots do proceed in that Trade , &c. as it is Enacted or Granted to them , we shall not Import any thing from India , &c. because they will have gotten all that Trade from us . A Court of Merchants might be of use to us at this Time. LONDON , Anno 1695.