This would also prevent great Mischiefs, which arise from pressing Sailors out of Merchants Ships whilst on their Voyages, many of them being thereby lost at Sea, and others have been detained in the _West-Indies_, to the discouragement of Trade; And it would also prevent an other Mischief, too much Practiced abroad, where Captains of Men of War press Sailors from one Merchant Ship, only to make Advantage by Selling them to another.
I come now to our Outland Trade, or the Trade we drive with Foreign Countries.
[Sidenote: How this Kingdom may be said to be enrich’d by our Outland Trade.]
Here ’tis necessary to enquire, how each doth encourage our Product and Manufactures, how our Navigation, what Commodities we receive in Returns, and how the Ballance of our Trade stands with either, that so we may be the better able to know, which of them we ought to encourage, and which to discourage; I shall therefore lay down such general Rules, as I presume will be allowed by all Unbiassed Persons; as,
1. That Trade is an Advantage to this Kingdom, which takes off our Product and Manufactures.
2. Which supplies us with such Commodities as we use in making our Manufactures, and encreases our Bullion.
3. Which Incourages Navigation, and breeds up Sailors.
And consequently, any Trade which Exports little or none of our Product or Manufactures, nor supplies us with things necessary for the latter, nor Incourages Navigation, cannot be supposed to be profitable to the Kingdom in General, tho’ perhaps it may be so to particular Persons; especially if it carries away our Bullion.
I shall begin with the _East-India_ Trade, which I take to be very prejudical to us, as ’tis now driven; because it exports our Bullion, spends little of our Product or Manufactures, and brings in Commodities perfectly Manufactured, which hinder the Consumption of our own, and discourage the Wearing such as are purchased with them; the chief Profit thereof arising from Underselling the Labour of our Poor, because ’tis bought there cheaper, than by reason of the Value of our Lands, and the Prices of Provisions, they are able to work here. But having spoken fully of this in a former Discourse, and the Parliament having since been pleased, by an Act made in the 10th and 11th Years of his late Majesty King _William_, to prohibit the Wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, Stuffs mixt with Silk or Herba, of the Manufacture of _Persia_, _China_, and _India_, and all Callicoes Painted, Dy’d, Printed or Stained there. The Reason of which is in the said Act set forth to be, The great Detriment the Nation received as the Trade was then manag’d, by exhausting the Treasure thereof, and taking away the Labour of the People, whereby very many of the Manufacturers were become excessively burthensome and chargeable to their respective Parishes, and others compell’d to seek for Employment in Foreign Parts, I shall not now repeat what I then wrote, but will consider how far the Remedy they then provided hath answer’d the End.