Reflections upon the East-Indy and Royal African Companies with animadversions, concerning the naturalizing of foreigners / by Roger Coke. Coke, Roger, fl. 1696. 1695 Approx. 38 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 14 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A33690 Wing C4980 ESTC R18371 12395655 ocm 12395655 61161 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. A33690) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61161) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 958:14) Reflections upon the East-Indy and Royal African Companies with animadversions, concerning the naturalizing of foreigners / by Roger Coke. Coke, Roger, fl. 1696. 25 p. [s.n.], London : 1695. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. 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. Royal African Company. 2006-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-08 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-08 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion REFLECTIONS UPON THE EAST-INDY AND Royal AFRICAN COMPANIES . WITH Animadversions , concerning the Naturalization of Foreigners . By ROGER COKE , Esquire . LONDON , Printed in the Year , 1695. CHAP. 1. Reflections upon the East-Indy COMPANY . MOnopolies are the most wicked , tyrannical and injurious Usurpations over other Men , and the greatest Violations of the Law of Nature , of any other , and are so much worse than Robbery , by how much the Quality of them is worse , and the Extent farther . A Monopoly , is the arrogating a Power of Working or Trading , by one Man , or Company of Men , exclusive to all other : Here consider , that all Men are born naked , and the generality of Mankind have nothing but their Labour , Industry and Ingenuity ( I do not mean undue Craft and Deceit ) to Feed , Cloath and Provide themselves an Habitation with ; and therefore for one Man , or Company of Men , to impose upon all others besides themselves , a Negative of not Working or Trading , infinitely resolves into all others , who , if this Restriction had not been , might have not only subsisted in these Trades and Imployments , but also have enlarged and improved them by their Industry and Ingenuity ; for all Arts are infinitely improvable , and one Man in the present Time , and another in future Generations , may proceed further in any Art than was known or understood in former Ages , which will be lost , if this Man shall be Excluded from having any benefit of it , or be punished for working in it . If one Man , or Company of Men , rob another , or more Men , this extends no farther than the Loss of what these were robbed , which it may be is easily Repairable : But for any Man , or Company of Men , to arrogate to themselves a Power of Robbing all others in those Imployments , which they Ascribe to themselves , for ever Ruins multitudes of Men and Families , which might have been imployed in them : And let any Prince consider the consequence of Granting Monopolies to his Subjects ; for if any of his Subjects , which might have been imployed , if the Imployments and Trades had been free , shall , to supply their Necessities , Steal or Beg ; the same Prince hangs and punishes these poor People for not Working , when before he had given others a Power to punish them , in case they did Work. Nor are these Monopolies less impolitick than wicked and injurious ; for the greatest Benefit which any Country or Kingdom enjoys , is by the Imployment of the Inhabitants , which being restrained to a few , the residue become a Burden to that Country to maintain them , and these also become dangerous to that Country for want of Imployment : From whence it follows , that they must either seek unlawful Means to subsist , or flee into other Countries to get Subsistance there , which was denied them here , and this will be in double proportion , as much to the Benefit of that Country , as a Loss to this . Besides , Monopolies , I say , are injurious to the rest of the Inhabitants of the Kingdom and Country within , and to the Vent of the foreign Trade of them ; for by their Restraint , the Inhabitants shall pay dearer for worse Commodities , than if the Trade were free ; and being dearer and worse than in other Countries , enables the Inhabitants of those Countries to vend these in foreign Parts , whilst these are necessitated to be consumed at Home . Objection . If any finds out a new Invention beneficial to the Country , in any Mystery ( which he could not have done , in case he had been restrained from working in it ) the King , by Act of Parliament , may grant him the sole use of it for 14 Years . Answer . But then where there is no Mystery for the benefit of the Subject found out , the King can grant no Patent , or Monopoly for any other , or the Law had been in vain , if the King could have granted such Patent without it . 'T is true , that it is great Wisdom in any King and State , to give all due Encouragement for improving any Art or Mystery beneficial for the Country ; but this of Granting a Patent for the sole Use of it for Fourteen Years , is of all other the worst , and will be of little Use to the Country ; whilst the Inhabitants of other Countries , will have manifoldly more Advantages by it : For when this Mystery shall be practised , it will necessarily be known to others , besides the first Projectors , and so cannot be contained in the limits of that Country ; and when this shall be known in other Countries , where the Working it shall be free , this will be so much cheaper Wrought and Vended , than where it is more restrained ; and therefore I have heard that the Dutch ( who are Wise in their Generation ) will give Noble Rewards to any who shall find out any New beneficial Mystery , but then they will permit the Use of it to be free . King James the First , in the first Year of his Reign , viz. May 7. 1603 , issues out a Proclamation , calling in several Monopolies ; and in his Speech at the opening the first Parliament of his Reign , exclaimed mightily against them ; and in the second Year made Peace with Spain , whereby the English solely ( the Dutch then being at War with Spain ) enjoyed a more beneficial and enriching Trade than any other . But the King had no sooner made this Peace notwithstanding his Proclamation and Speech in Parliament , but he Incorporated the Spanish Trade exclusive to others ; which the Wisdom of Parliament , in that celebrated Law 3. Jac. c. 6. made free for these Reasons . 1. For that Trade is a Nationall Interest , and the Support of the Nation , is to be upon a Publick Account ; and therefore the Incorporating the Spanish Trade , to a few , enfeebled the Publick Support of the Nation . 2. It would ruine infinite Numbers of Artificers , whose Labours would be maintained , if the Trade should be free , which could not be if it were restrained to a few , and these would have a Prerogative of giving what Prizes they pleased unto poor Artificers , otherwise they should not be imployed . 3. The Incorporating this Trade , would restrain the Navigation of the Nation ; to the manifold ruin of many mariners , which otherwise might be imployed in it , and also multitudes of Ship-wrights , and Ship-Carpenters , which may be imployed in it . 4. The Incorporating this Company , would cause a Dearness upon all sorts of Commodities returned in this Trade , the Corporation being hereby enabled to set what Prizes they pleased upon them , otherwise none could be had . 5. The Incorporating this Trade , would so much more lessen the King's Revenues by Customs , as the Trade hereby should be diminished ; and all these Reasons are as strong against all other Companies which trade exclusive to other men , whether it be to Hamburg , Muscovey , or to the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound , as in the Spanish Trade ; and , I say , it was this most beneficial Law which has enabled this Nation to continue the Spanish Trade to this day , whilst it hath lost those . And if this King were so loose of his Royal Word , almost so soon as he made it , it cannot be doubted , but that he will be more constant of it afterward ; for in the Parliament , in the Eighteenth Year of his Reign , no less than 37 Monopolies were Voted Grievances , and damned ; and as the Father laid the Foundation , so his Son built upon it ; for in the Year 1640. when King Charles marched to York against the Scots , who then had Invaded England , upon the the Complaint of the Northern Gentry , he recalled by Proclamation thirty one Monopolies ; and then declared he did not know how Greivous they were to his subjects , because he was Governed by such ( I cannot say ) Counsels , that no man durst before complain of them . From Monopolies granted by these two Kings , we proceed to that of Oliver Cromwel , in his erecting this now East-Indy Company , An. 1657. to Trade to the East Indies , exclusive to all others of the Nation ; but before a further view be taken of this Patent , its fit to see the Extent of it , under the Title of the East Indies , and if I mistake in it , it is in the power of the Company to correct me . Their Patent extends from Cape Bon Sperance , to the North of China , taking in the Eastern Coast of Asia , with the Eastern Coast of China ; together with all the Islands which lie between the Cape of Good Hope , and the North of China , which I say is more , if you compute the Coast on both sides of the Red Sea , and the Gulph of Persia , than half the circumference of the Globe of the Earth ; and that their Power may be as unlimited , as the Extent of their Dominion , they doubly impose an Oath upon every Member , to be true to the Company : How Oliver was endued with such a Prerogative , needs not be disputed , because he would have his Will to be Law ; but I do not find any King of England , ever assumed such a Power , nor any other , but the Convocation , which imposed the Oath Ex Officio , without Consent in Parliament , An. 1640. However Oliver would , in his Zeal , have the Pope to be Anti-Christ in exalting himself above God , and in disposing the Kingdoms upon Earth , wherein the Pope and he were Simeon and Levy ; but herein the Pope and he differed : The Pope would have all his own Tribe to Partake of his Blessings ; whereas Oliver , by this Patent , excluded all the rest of the English Nation in this Trade , but permitted the Dutch , French , Portuguese , Hamburgers , &c. to Trade in it , It may be , because he could not help it ; yet I do not find he , or his Company , ever made War upon them for so doing , though his Company has upon the rest of the English Nation , and that with such Barbarity , as was never Practised , by Turks , Jews , or any other Infidels upon them ; It s too long to recite them here , this Parliament has heard thereof sufficiently ; and are particularly set forth by Mr. White , in his Account of the Trade to the East Indies . But though the Company have not been pleased to make War upon any other Nation but the English , for Trading to the East Indies ; yet they were pleased to make War , without any Declaration , or Cause , upon the King of Syam , and the Mogull ; and rob the Mogul's Subjects to carry on the War , as Mr. White Observes , and whilest the Company have thus rent themselves from the rest of the English Nation , they patiently submit to the Dutch in forcing Poloroon from them , caused by their own neglect and avarice ; from which the Dutch are become the sole Proprietors in the Spice Trade ; and also from the Trade to Bantam for Pepper , whereby they are forced to Trade for it to the most unhealthful parts of Sumatra , ( which Queen Elizabeth forbid ) whereby we lose more English Men than the Trade is worth , which is little regarded by this Company ; and whilest they are making their Causeless Wars , upon the King of Syam and the Mogul they permit the Sophy of Persia , whose Predecessor An. 1621. granted the English the half Duties of all Nations , Trading into the Gulph of Persia ; and which in the year 1672 came to 80000 l. per An. ( I would know by what Right this Company Claim these ) to reduce them to 3000 l. per An. And is it not strange this Company should exclude the rest of the Nation from trading to the East Indies , because of the Charges of their Forts ; and yet for 15 years receive more from the Sophy of Persia , than the value of the Stock they traded thither with . For the further Frauds which this Company exercises over the rest of the Nation , in the Returns of Commodities from the East Indies ; and how being a Monopoly in the whole , they Monopolize the Sales by private Contract among themselves , to the farther Grievance of the Subject . I referr the Reader to Mr. White 's Account of the East Indy Trade , too long to be here inserted . CHAP. II. Reflections upon the Royal African COMPANY . AS Oliver established this present East Indy Company , and excluded the rest of the Nation from trading into that half of the World , which the Company call the East Indies ; So King Charles the 2 d. erected this present African Company , excluding all others of the English Nation from trading to Africa , from the Country of Susa , to the Cape of Good-Hope ; so that if you take the extent of this part of the Coast of Africk , its little less than a Quadrant of the Globe , being above 80 Degrees ; so that the prerogative which these two Companies claim against the rest of their fellow Subjects in these two Trades , extend to two thirds of the circumference of the Globe of the earth , and herein both are at peace with all the world besides , and only in a state of War with the rest of their fellow Subjects , in Case any of them presume to trade to either . Here let 's see first the Consequences of this Restraint , upon the Nation in the foreign vent of our domestick manufactures : Secondly , in reference to our American Plantations ; and Thirdly , in reference to the returns , which this Company imports into England from that part of Africa , wherein they Trade , I am not sure of the Companies Patent for this Trade , they know better , nor will I take notice how far the export of our woollen manufactures have been restrained in other Countries of England , I shall only take notice of it from the County of Suffolk : Before this African Company was Incorporated , the Cloathiers in Suffolk yearly vended 25000 Cloths to Africa , but about two years after this Company were Incorporated , the Clothiers in Suffolk , as they did before , endeavoured to have vented their Cloths in the African Trade , but they were not permitted , and the Company would take off but 500 , and those at scarce half the Prizes they were sold before : Hereupon both the Great Inquest of Suffolk ( the Guildalle , and the Franchise of Bury ) at their next Assizes , presented this as a Grievance ; and Imployed Sir Jervais Elvais ( who is now Knight of the shire for Suffolk ) and some others , to represent this to the King and Council ; but the Duke of York being president of this Company , no Redress could be had ; and so the Case now stands at this day . So it is submitted to the Wisdom of Parliament , whether this Exaction by this Company , be not the ruine of many Multitudes of Poor English Artificers ; and gives the Imployment in them , as well as Navigation to Africk with these , to the Dutch and other Nations . I am assured that this Company ( and the Parliament may Inquire into the Truth of it ) after it was Erected , carried it so that the Planters in our American Plantations , were not permitted to Buy Negroes but of the Company , and the Planters must buy only such as the Company would sell , and at the Price of 30 l. per Cent. more than they did before ; so this is submitted to judgment , whether this will not resolve into a dearness of all the Products of our American Plantations , and thereby enable both the French and Dutch , who are Competitors with us in these Trades , to the Endangering the Loss of them , so far as either French or Dutch shall carry on Theirs in Competition with us . The Returns into England from Africk are principally Gold-dust , which is so much less as the restraint by the Company is more . Elephant's Teeth and Bees-wax I say nothing of Bees-wax , but I say the Company raised the price of Elephant's Teeth so high , that the Dutch could bring them in cheaper , and so work the Manufactures of them cheapor than the poor English could work them ; and this being a Manufacture of Holland , the Dutch by the Act of Navigation may Import them . Hereupon several of our Artificers in Ivory , for several Years , I 'll name two of them , Mr. Jole in the Old Baily , and Mr. Tanner in Colemanstreet , were necessitated to go into Holland , and work them there , and then bring the Manufactures into England ; and whether this be not a grievous tyranny of this Company over multitudes of poor Artisicers in Ivory , is submitted to Judgment : Yet this , as well as the East Indy Company , have the Confidence to petition the Parliament , to have this abominable Tyrannies over the rest of their fellow Subjects , to be Established by a Law. As these two Companies are Simeon and Levi in their Wickednesses over the rest of their fellow Subjects , in the Exercise of their Dominion , so are their Pretences the same for their so doing , viz. First , That these Trades cannot be managed but by a Joint Stock , to the excluding the rest of the English Nation , which is a Lye diametrically to their Practice ; for then Interlopers could not Trade in either , which , above all others , they persecute , by seizing their Ships and Cargoes , and Imprisoning their Persons ; and it s Well they escape so . The Second is , That they are at great Charges in erecting Forts , for securing these Trades : If they have any such Forts , as the East Indy , the Fort of St. George , and another at Bombay , for which they pay Ten Pounds a Year to the Crown ; yet I fear the African Company have not the same Plea , now the French took from them their Fort this last Summer , at one of the Mouths of Gambo ; but the Fort St. George , and that at Bombay are of no use in the Indian Trade , being quite out of the way ; and if they be of use to the Company , is this a Reason that no English but themselves shall Trade to near half the known World. The Zealanders have built a Fort , in the Scheld called Lillo , whereby they restrain all other Nations , but the Dutch , from Trading to Flanders and Brabant , &c. Yet sure it would be a strange Impudence in the Zealanders , to forbid the rest of the Inhabitants of the United Netherlands to Trade to any part of the World , because they have erected a Fort in the Scheld called Lillo ; yet they may do this , as well as these Companies forbid all the other English to Trade to Africk and the East Indies , because one Company has Fort St. George , and the other a Fort at one of the Mouths of Gambo . But there is a difference between the Zealanders and these Companies ; for they permit the other Dutch to Trade up the Scheld , and restrain Foreigners ; whereas these Companies permit Foreigners to Trade in the East Indies and Africk , and only forbid the English , upon pretence of their Forts . And sure it is just with God , that these Companies which have thus Rent themselves from the rest of the Nation , and insult over their fellow Subjects , should themselves be Subject to the Insults and Injuries of the French and Dutch , without any reasonable Prospect of relief from this Nation , so treated by them . CHAP. III. Of the State of the Nation , in reference to the Law against Foreigners enjoying the Liberties of the Natives of England . THe Glory and Majesty of every Kingdom and Country is founded in the Number of People , and the well Ordering and Governing of them : So that as the Loss of any of the Subjects , is a Diminution of the Grandeur and Strength of that Country , so is the Addition of more Subjects , an Encrease of both ; and therefore it is not the greatness of the Extent of a Country which makes it formidable , but the Number , and well Governing of the People : So that though the Kingdoms in Spain , Subject to the now King , be one hundred fold greater than the United Netherlands ; yet these are five fold more formidable by Sea and Land than all those Kingdoms in Spain , wherein they cannot Raise an Army to defend Catalonia against Thirty Thousand French. And as the Strength and Grandeur of every Country is founded in the Number of the Inhabitants , so is the Riches and Trade of it , for every Man s Necessities is supplied by Trade ; so that though men be poor , and maintained by the Loss of Particulars , yet in the whole , Trade is encreased by it , yet more or less , as Men live more or less in Society and Conversation ; and therefore wherever People are thin , or few , they are poor , lazy , rude , and of little use to the Publick , yet a publick Charge : As in Spain , it may be the Inhabitants are tenfold more than in Holland ; yet by Reason of the vastness of Spain , the Inhabitants are few and thin in proportion to it , so as all the Wealth of the West-Indies cannot support the burden of Maintaining them ; whereas in Holland , where the People are numerous , and daily conversant in Business , every Man is a benefit to the Country , as well by Strength and Trade . We have formerly compared the State of Spain and England , from not unlike Causes ; for as Spain's Expelling the more , and the Inhabitants excursion into the West-Indies has exhausted the Inhabitance of Spain , and the Inquisition debarred it of a Supply ; so hath the Peopling our American Plantations , and the repeopling Ireland since the Massacre , and late Wars , so much dispeopled England , as the Peopling them hath been more ; and the Law against Naturalizing Foreigners as a greater bar for a Supply , than the Inquisition in Spain . As the Law against Naturalizing Foreigners , debars the Nation from a Supply for the exhausting the Nation in peopling Ireland , and our American Plantations ; so the Priviledges of Corporations , exclude all the rest of the Nation , but the Freemen , from Trading in them ; whereby these Men Ignorant of their own Interest , from the poor Estate they are thereby reduced to , daily decline to worse , whereby it becomes impossible to encrease the Strength and Trade in them beyond the power of these men in them . To supply this Defect , the Commons in the third Westminster-Parliament , the 3d. of December , 1680. Gave Liberty to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of all Alien Protestants , and allowing them Liberty to Exercise their Trades in all Corporations . So did the Commons last Session : And is not there as much Reason all Native English should have the same Liberty ? But why must this Liberty be permitted only to Protestant Artificers and Traders ? For my part , I understand but little Benefit can accrue to the Nation by it , now the French King has expelled these out of France ; for as the Case stands , Holland , Flanders and France are the places from whence we can expect any benefit by this Liberty : In Holland , Artificers and Traders are as free , as they can expect to be in England ; but in Flanders , though they be an industrious and honest sort of People , yet they are all Popish , and I am confident , if they might enjoy the exercise of their Religion in England , multitudes of them would seek an Asilum here , to be freed from the Insults they are always subject to from the French ; and it s not unlike , but Multitudes would free from the Tyranny and Oppressions of the French in their New Conquests , if they might use their Religion here . The English pretend to love English-men above all others , and it becomes them so to do ; but in our practise , this Love is both partial and unreasonable ; I say , it is partial by the Freemen in Corporations , excluding the rest of their fellow Subjects from working and Trading in them , which is a prime Cause of their Poverty ; and I say , it is unreasonable to exclude Foreigners from being a Supply for those sent out of England , into our American Plantations and Ireland : Suppose a Man is so in love with his Family that he will not imploy any other in managing his Farm whereby half of it lies wast ; Is it not unreasonable that he will not imploy none of his Neighbours to help him to improve it to the best Advantage ; or if by Fire or Rapine he cannot by his Family preserve his House or Goods , yet would it not be prudence in him in such Case to make use of his Neighbours ? Is not the Case ours ? Have not the French and Dutch upon the matter got from us all the Fisheries upon the Coasts of England and Scotland , to Iseland , Westmony , Greenland , and the Newfoundland ; and are our poor Port-towns , by excluding the Natives and all other , in a Condition to Oppose them herein , much less to retrieve these Fisheries from them ? Suppose any one of these Corporations should lose one half , more or less , of their Ships and Freight , Would not this be so much a Loss and Weakning to it ? Convert the Proposition , and admit like number of others Ships and Freight , should set Up and Trade in that Corporation , Would not this be as much an Enriching and Strengthing to it ? And therefore if in this Conjunture of time if it please God so to bless his Majestys Arms , that the French could not , or without great hazard , trade in the Newfoundland Fishery , and to Green-land ; and the French might more surely manage these Fisheries from our Ports , whereby many of the French should buy fish from our Ports , would be as much a strengthing and Inriching to this Nation , as it would be an impoverishing and weakning to the French. If we should permit Foreigners to purchase Lands in England , the Nation without any hazard would get so much Treasure , as the Purchase-money is more , which had it not before , and retain the Lands still , which it had before ; and be so much more strengthened as the Purchasers are more ; whereas a Merchant in acquiring Wealth , runs hazards of being Undone and gets no new Inhabitants . Ambitious Princes venter their own Dominions to acquire New by War , and that by Oppression , Rapine , Murder , Desolation , and making Men miserable ; whereas by permitting Foreigners the Freedom of English Native , we Conquer without a War , run no hazard , and Enrich and strengthen the nation ; and all this in double proportion ; for so much as the Nation hereby gains , and is strengthned , so much are those , which may be Enemies to us , impoverished and weakned . Xenophon , in Cyropoedia , Says , That by reason of the Goodness and justice of Cyrus his Reign many nations became Subject to him , and was Cyrus the less Great and Glorious by it ? why then should this Law debar she Nation the benefit which it might enjoy by Naturalizing Foreigners , whereby the Nation would be so much more enriched and strengthened , as this Admission of these Foreigners shall be more . Objection . If we should admit popish Foreigners the Freedom of English-Men , it might endanger the Peace of our Church and State. Answer . For my Part , if I thought so , I would never Plead for it ; for I do as much abhor the popish Superstition , as any Man , and am as fearfull of the Usurpation which the Pope Arrogates over princes , and the Consciences of Men ; yet I apprehend no danger of either , by permitting popish Artificers to work and trade in England , as well as Holland : For it is one thing for popish Priests and Jesuits to make it their business to pervert Men to their Sentiments ; and another thing for poor People to make it their business how to Subsist , which will take up their whole time ; especially where they are in a strange place , and strangers to the People , unless by accident in their Dealings for their support , and also to the Language of the People where they live : I would know what inconvenience has followed from permitting Brewer in the Year One Thousand Six hundred and sixty seven , and his Followers , which were all Papists , to instruct our Natives in making and Dying Fine Cloths ; and in all the Tumults and Wars in the late times , after the Year One Thousand Six hundred and forty , let any shew any one Instance wherein the Walloons , or their Descendents , planted in London Norwich , Canterbury and Colchester , Contributed to either of them , however they had been provoked thereto by the Bishops Laud and Wren . Besides if these Men cannot be prevailed upon in their Persons to alter their Sentiments in their Religion , their Posterity may , if our Church-men will make it their business . Can any man believe that all Sciences and Arts , or the improvement of them is circumscribed within our English Pale ; or would it become us , as the Romans and Grecians did , to esteem all the World besides to be barbarous ? Or is any Science or Art less valuable because found out or improved by a Foreigner ? Was Thucidides History of the Peloponesian War , or Plutarch , Livy , or Th●●●●…'s Histories &c. or Euclid's Elements less valuable because written by Foreigners ? Or was Christianity less valuable , because it was planted by Foreigners ? And I say , next after Spiritual Benefits , the honest Imployment of Poor People , is it the greatest Benefit to any Nation : And I submit it to Judgment , whether Religion may not be better improved upon Men in honest Callings , than upon idle Persons who subsist by Pilfering , Begging , Stealand Pining . Edward the Third was the most Generous and Noblest Prince of the Norman Race , and did not he , notwithstanding the Law against Naturalizing Foreigners , and against his own Profit , introduce the Walloons , who instructed the Natives in making Woollen Manufactures ? And is this benefit less valuable to the English Nation , because it was introduced by Foreigners . After Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk , the City of Norwich became almost desolate ; and in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign , it was often debated in Council , whether it should be demolished , as being a Receptacle of vagrant and idle Persons , and so dangerous to the Government . But Queen Elizabeth ( the most Noble Princess of the British Race ) when the Rage of Alva's Persecution , drove numbers of the Flemins into England , Planted them chiefly in Norwich and Colchester , who instructed the Natives in making Norwich Stuffs , and Colchester Bays , and are not these above all Places in the World become the most famous hereby ? Or are the Benefits less valuable , because the Natives were first instructed in them by Foreigners ; So King Charles the 2d ( as is said before ) entertained in the year One Thousand six hundred and Sixty seven , Brewer and his followers , who instructed our natives in making and Dying Fine Cloths , Thirty Pounds per Cent : cheaper and better than before ; and is this improvement less valuable , because the natives were instructed in it by Foreigners ? I dare say at this day above an Hundred Thousand people ( Men , Women and Children ) are imployed in silk weaving and silk throwing in and about London and Canterbury , which was first taught by Foreigners , are these therefore less valuable ? And is not the famous Engineer Sir Martin Beckman , a Brandenburger ? or are the benefits the Nation now enjoys by him less valuable , because he is a Foreigner ? or would the benefits which the Nation may reap by Foreginers instructing our natives how to Cure white Herrings , Pilchards and Codfish be less valuable , if they were instructed in them by Foreign people &c. CONCLUSION . IF I have but Superficially , yet to the best of my Ability , discoursed in this little Treatise , so that the end designed by it , be not so Manifest , but that a better and more intelligent Person may make it more ; yet it may be a Ground-work for another to do it better ; I am sure the Design is Noble the end being the Publick's Good. I was the rather induced to this Undertaking , because the Circumstances of the Nation , as the Case stands , render it very difficult to have the State of it truely represented : For the Nobility , Gentry , Clergy and Lawyers , whose Interest it is to have the Nation and Trade of it encreased , whereby the value of the Lands of it , would be so proportionably ; do not make it their business to enquire into it ; and our English Merchants who understand it to be the Interest of the Nation to enlarge the Trades of it , yet their Interest , especially those which trade by excluding the rest of the Nation , is to continue the Trades of England , as they now stand ; for thereby they take off the Manufactures of the poor Natives at what prizes they please , and no more then they please , whereby the Artificers in them , are not only reduced to Poverty in Working , but cannot be further imployed than these Merchants please : And also impose what prizes they please upon the Natives in their Returns . In Holland the Interest of the States , is founded in their Trades ; and they are generally Merchants which understand it , and sit all the year round , and so no Grievances arise in Trade , but they take notice of them , and Redress them . Whereas our Parliaments for near eighty years together , have either rarely met , whereby Grievances have been so multiplied and fixed , and so many interested in them , that the body of the Parliament has been Distempered thereby , not only in electing Members , but in their Sessions ; so that as the humour of the Times were , Parliaments were continued for near twenty years together , and at other times discontinued above half as long ; but it s hoped these will be prevented in time to come , and then the Parliament will be at more leisure , and in a better Temper , truely to confider the State of the Nation , in reference to what has been beforesaid . Nota Bene. HEre I make an end of these three Heads , and what I have offered , if I mistake not very much , carries its own light with it , and is enough to convince the Unprejudiced : If any think themselves aggrieved or injured hereby , let them object , and expose themselves , as I have done , and I shall either make my Rejoynder , or Comply with their Sentiments : But for the further satisfaction of those that are well-wishers to their Native Country , and would have it flourish in Trade and Navigation , without which it cannot long continue , the Figure it makes at present in the world , but must daily fall from bad to worse ; I may shortly advance something they may approve of , as conducing for the benefit of it , by way of Reply to Sir Francis Brewster's late Book , Entituled , Essays of Trade and Navigation . FINIS