Part I

, pp. 547-48_], 1571.

For the better increase of tillage, and for maintenance and increase of the navy and mariners of this realm, be it enacted, that from and after the feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist next coming, it shall be lawful to all and every person and persons being subjects of the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, and inhabiting within her highness' realms and dominions, only out of such ports and creeks where are or shall be resident a customer or collector of subsidy of tonnage and poundage, or one of their deputies, and not elsewhere, to load, carry or transport any wheat, rye, barley, malt, peas or beans into any parts beyond the seas, being in amity with this realm, and not prohibited by any restraint or proclamation, only to sell as a merchandize in ships carriers or other vessels bearing cross sails, whereof any English born subjects inhabiting within her Highness' realms and dominions then shall be the only owners, at all such times as the several prices thereof shall be so reasonable and moderate in the several counties where any such transportation shall be intended as that no prohibition shall be made, either by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, by proclamation to be made in the shiretown or in any port towns of the county, or else by some order of the lord president and council in the north, or the lord president and council in Wales, within their several jurisdictions, or of the justices of assizes at their sessions in other shires out of the jurisdiction of the said two presidents and councils, or by the more part of the justices of the peace of the county at their quarter sessions, in this manner following; that is, the said lord president and councils of the shires within their jurisdiction, the justices of assize at their several sessions in other shires out of the said jurisdictions belonging to the said councils in the north and in Wales, yearly shall, upon conference had with the inhabitants of the country of the cheapness and dearth of any the said kinds of grain within the countries within jurisdictions of the said councils, or in the other countries within the limits of the said justices of assize, by their discretion determine whether it shall be meet at anytime to permit any grain to be carried out of the realm by any port within the said several jurisdictions or limits, and so shall in writing under their hands and seals cause and make a determination either for permission or prohibition, and the same cause to be by the sheriff of the counties published and affixed in as many accustomed market towns and ports within the said shire as they shall think convenient, and in such manner as the Queen's Majesty's proclamations are usually published and affixed; which determination of the said presidents and councils in their jurisdictions, and of the justices of assize in their limits, shall continue in force for the time, place, and manner therein expressed until the said presidents and councils shall otherwise order, or until the justices of assize at their being in their said circuits in every of the said counties shall alter or otherwise order the same, except the same shall be otherwise in the mean time altered or countermanded by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs or successors, or by some order of the justices of the peace in the counties situated out of the jurisdictions of the said two councils in their quarter sessions to be holden in the meantime, or the greater part of them, shall find the same determination of the justices of assize to be hurtful to the county by means of dearth, or to be a great hindrance to tillage by means of too much cheapness, and shall by their writings under their hands and seals make any determination to the contrary, either for permission or prohibition of carrying of any kind of grain out of the realm; ...

... Provided nevertheless, that neither any of the said presidents and councils, nor the said justices of assize nor the said justices of peace above mentioned, shall publish any their determinations above mentioned until the same shall be first by writing notified to the Queen's Majesty or to her privy council, and by her Majesty or her privy council shall be liked and allowed.

Provided also, that the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall have and receive by the customers and officers of her ports for the custom or poundage of every quarter of wheat to be transported by force of this statute, twelve pence, and of every quarter of any other grain, eight pence, and of every quarter of wheat that shall be by any special licence hereafter to be granted transported out of the realm, and not by force of this statute, two shillings, and of every quarter of other grain, sixteen pence, notwithstanding any manner of words that shall be contained or inserted in any licences to the contrary; which said several sums, so to be had or taken as custom or poundage, to be in full satisfaction of all manner of custom or poundage for the said corn or grain by any constitution, order, statute, law or custom heretofore made, used, or taken for transporting of any such manner of corn or grain.

Provided also and be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, may at all times by her writ of proclamation to be published generally in the whole realm, or in the counties of this realm where any port towns are, command that no person shall by virtue of this act transport or carry out any manner of grain to any parts out of her dominions, either generally out of any port in the realm, or particularly out of any special ports to be in the same proclamation named; and that it shall not be lawful for any person to carry out any such grain contrary to the tenor of the same proclamation, upon such pains as by the laws of the realm are and have been provided.

11. INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN ENGLISH FACTOR IN TURKEY [_Hakluyt. The Principal Voyages of the English Nation_], 1582.

... And for that of many things that tend to the common benefit of the State, some tend more and some less, I find that no one thing, after one another, is greater than clothing, and the things incident to the same. And understanding that you are of right good capacity, and become a factor at Constantinople, and in other parts of Turkey, I find no man fitter of all the English factors there than you. And therefore I am so bold to put you in mind and to tell you wherein with some endeavour you may chance to do your country much good, and give an infinite sort of the poor people occasion to pray for you here throughout the realm. This that I mean is in matter of cloth, etc.

1. First, you cannot deny but that this realm yieldeth the most fine wool, the most soft, the most strong wool, the most durable in cloth, and most apt of nature of all others to receive dye, and that no island or any one kingdom so small doth yield so great abundance of the same....

2. There is no commodity of this realm that may set so many poor subjects on work, as this doth, that doth bring in so much treasure, and so much enrich the merchant, and so much employ the navy of this realm, as this commodity of our wool doth.

Ample and full vent of this noble and rich commodity is it that the commonweal of this realm doth require.

Spain now aboundeth with wool, and the same are clothed. Turkey hath wools, and so have divers provinces of Christendom and of heatheners, and cloth is made of the same in divers places.

1. But if England have the most fine and the most excellent wools of the world in all respects (as it cannot be denied but it hath). 2. If there may be added to the same excellent artificial, and true making, and excellent dyeing. 3. Then no doubt but that we shall have vent for our cloths, though the rest of the world did abound much more with wool than it doth....

But if foreign nations turn their wools, inferior to ours, into truer and more excellent made cloth, and shall dye the same in truer, surer, and more excellent and more delectable colours, then shall they sell and make ample vent of their cloths, when the English cloth of better wool shall rest unsold, to the spoil of the merchant, of the clothier, and of the breeder of the wool, and to the turning to bag and wallet of the infinite number of the poor people employed in clothing in several degrees of labour here in England.

Which things weighed, I am to tell you what things I wish you in this realm, and after in Turkey, to endeavour from time to time, as your leisure may permit the same.

Before you out of the realm, that you learn:

1. To know wool, all kinds of cloth made in this realm, and all other employments of wool, home or foreign.... All the deceits in clothmaking ... The faults in weaving. The faults in walking, rowing, burling, and in racking the cloth above measure upon the tenters....

2. Then to learn of the dyers to discern all kinds of colours, as which be good and sure, and which will not hold; which be fair, and which not....

3. Then to take the names of all the materials and substances used in this city or in the realm in dyeing of cloth or silk....

4. These things superficially learned in the realm before you go, you are fitter in foreign parts to serve your country....

What you shall do in Turkey, besides the business of your factorship.

1. Forasmuch as it is reported that the woollen cloths dyed in Turkey be most excellently dyed, you shall send home unto this realm certain ... pieces of shred, to be brought to the Dyers' Hall, there to be shewed,

## partly to remove out of their heads the too great opinion they have

conceived of their own cunning, and partly to move them for shame to endeavour to learn more knowledge, to the honour of their country of England and to the universal benefit of the realm.

2. You shall devise to amend the dyeing of England, by carrying hence an apt young man brought up in the art, or by bringing one or other from thence of skill, or rather to devise to bring one for silks, and another for wool and for woollen cloth....

3. Then to learn to know all the materials and substances that the Turks use in dyeing, be they of herbs, simple or compound, be they plants, barks, wood, berries, seeds, grains, or mineral matter....

5. And in any wise, if anile that coloureth blue be a natural commodity of those parts, and if it be compounded of an herb, to send the same into this realm by seed, or by root in barrel of earth, with all the whole order of sowing, setting, planting, replanting, and with the compounding of the same, that it may become a natural commodity in this realm, as woad is, to this end, that the high price of foreign woad (which devoureth yearly great treasure) may be brought down....

8. The wools being natural, and excellent colours for dyeing by this means here also natural, in all the art of clothing then we want but one only special thing. For in this so temperate a climate our people may labour the year throughout ... and the people of this realm by the great and blessed abundance of victual are cheaply fed, and therefore may afford their labour cheap. And where the clothiers in Flanders, by the flatness of their rivers, cannot make water-mills for their cloths, but are forced to dress and thicken all their cloths by the foot and by the labour of men, whereby their cloths are raised to an higher price, we in England have in all shires store of mills upon falling rivers.... Then we have also, for scouring our cloths, earths and clays.... Then also have we some reasonable store of alum and copperas here, made for dyeing.... Then we have many good waters apt for dyeing, and people to spin and to do the rest of all the labours we want not. So as there wanteth, if colours might be brought in and made natural, but only oil; the want whereof if any man could devise to supply at the full with anything that might become natural in this realm, he, whatsoever he were that could bring it about, might deserve immortal fame in this our commonwealth....

10. And if you shall find that they make any cloth of any kind not made in this realm, that is there of great use, then to bring of the same into this realm some "mowsters,"[309] that our people may fall into the trade, and prepare the same for Turkey. For the more kinds of cloth we can devise to make, the more ample vent of our commodity we shall have, and the more sale of the labour of our poor subjects that else for lack of labour become idle and burdenous to the commonweal, and hurtful to many. And in England we are in our clothing trade to frame ourselves according to the desires of foreign nations, be it that they desire thick or thin, broad or narrow, long or short, white or black.

11. But with this proviso always, that our cloth pass out with as much labour of our people as may be, wherein great consideration ought to be had. For (if vent might so admit), as it were the greatest madness in the world for us to vent our wool not clothed, so were it madness to vent our wool in part or on the whole turned into broad cloth, if we might vent the same in kersies; for there is a great difference to our people between the clothing of a sack of wool in the one and the like sack of wool in the other, of which I wish the merchant of England to have a great care as he may for the universal benefit of the poor; and the turning of a sack of wool into bonnets is better than both, etc. And also not to carry out of the realm any cloth white, but dyed, if it may be, that the subjects of this realm may take as much benefit as is possible, and rather to seek the vent of the cloths dyed with the natural colours of England than such as be dyed with foreign colours.

Thus giving you occasion, by way of a little remembrance, to have desire to do your country good, you shall, if you have any inclination to such good, do more good to the poor ready to starve for relief than ever any subject did in this realm by building of almshouses, and by giving of lands and goods to the relief of the poor. Thus may you help to drive idleness, the mother of most mischief, out of the realm, and win you perpetual fame, and the prayer of the poor, which is more worth than all the gold of Peru and of all the West Indies.

[Footnote 309: _i.e._ Samples.]

12. THE ADVANTAGES OF COLONIES [_A True Report of the late Discoveries and Possession Taken in the Right of the Crown of England of the Newfound Lands by ... Sir Humfrey Gilbert_[310]; _Hakluyt's Principal Voyages of the English Nation_], 1583.

... The fourth chapter sheweth how that the trade, traffic, and planting in these countries is likely to prove very profitable to the whole realm in general.

Now to show how the same is likely to prove very profitable and beneficial generally to the whole realm. It is very certain that the greatest jewel of this realm, and the chiefest strength and force of the same, for defence or offence in martial matter and manner, is the multitude of ships, masters, and mariners ready to assist the most stately and royal navy of her Majesty, which by reason of this voyage shall have both increase and maintenance. And it is well known that in sundry places of this realm ships have been built and set forth of late days for the trade of fishing only; yet, notwithstanding, the fish which is taken and brought into England by the English navy of fishermen will not suffice for the expense of this realm four months, if there were none else brought of strangers. And the chiefest cause why our English men do not go so far westerly as the especial fishing places do lie, both for plenty and greatness of fish, is for that they have no succour and known safe harbour in those parts. But if our nation were once planted there or thereabouts, whereas they now fish but for two months in the year, they might then fish for so long as pleased themselves ... which being brought to pass shall increase the number of our ships and mariners.

Moreover, it is well known that all savages ... will take marvellous delight in any garment, be it never so simple, as a shirt, a blue, yellow, red, or green cotton cassock, a cap, or such like, and will take incredible pains for such a trifle, ... which being so, what vent for our English cloths will thereby ensue, and how great benefit to all such persons and artificers, whose names are quoted in the margin, I leave to such as are discreet....

To what end need I endeavour myself by arguments to prove that by this voyage our navy and navigation shall be enlarged, when as there needeth none other reason than the manifest and late example of the near neighbours to this realm, the Kings of Spain and Portugal, who, since the first discovery of the Indies, have not only mightily enlarged their dominions, greatly enriched themselves and their subjects, but have also, by just account, trebled the number of their ships, masters and mariners, a matter of no small moment and importance?

Besides this, it will prove a general benefit unto our country, that, through this occasion, not only a great number of men which do now live idly at home, and are burdenous, chargeable, and unprofitable to this realm, shall hereby be set on work, but also children of twelve or fourteen years of age, or under, may be kept from idleness, in making of a thousand kinds of trifling things, which will be good merchandise for that country. And, moreover, our idle women (which the realm may well spare) shall also be employed on plucking, drying, and sorting of feathers, in pulling, beating, and working of hemp, and in gathering of cotton, and divers things right necessary for dyeing. All which things are to be found in those countries most plentifully. And the men may employ themselves in dragging for pearl, working for mines, and in matters of husbandry, and likewise in hunting the whale for trane, and making casks to put the same in, besides in fishing for cod, salmon and herring, drying, salting and barrelling the same, and felling of trees, hewing and sawing of them, and such like work, meet for those persons that are no men of art or science.

Many other things may be found to the great relief and good employment of no small number of the natural subjects of this realm, which do now live here idly, to the common annoy of the whole State. Neither may I here omit the great hope and likelihood of a passage beyond the Grand Bay into the South Seas, confirmed by sundry authors to be found leading to Cataia, the Moluccas and Spiceries, whereby may ensue as general a benefit to the realm, or greater than yet hath been spoken of, without either such charges or other inconveniences, as, by the tedious tract of time and peril, which the ordinary passage to those parts at this day doth minister....

I must now, according to my promise, show forth some probable reasons that the adventurers in this journey are to take particular profit by the same. It is, therefore, convenient that I do divide the adventurers into two sorts, the noblemen and gentlemen by themselves, and the merchants by themselves. For, as I do hear, it is meant that there shall be one society of the noblemen and gentlemen, and another society of the merchants; and yet not so divided, but that each society may freely and frankly trade and traffic one with the other.

And first to bend my speech to the noblemen and gentlemen, who do chiefly seek a temperate climate, wholesome air, fertile soil, and a strong place by nature whereupon they may fortify, and there either plant themselves or such other persons as they shall think good to send to be lords of that place and country:--To them I say that all these things are very easy to be found within the degrees of 30 and 60 aforesaid, either by south or north, both in the continent and in islands thereunto adjoining, at their choice ... and in the whole tract of that land, by the description of as many as have been there, great plenty of mineral matter of all sorts, and in very many places both stones of price, pearl and chrystal, and great store of beasts, birds, and fowls, both for pleasure and necessary use of man are to be found....

And now for the better contemplation and satisfaction of such worshipful, honest-minded and well-disposed merchants as have a desire to the furtherance of every good and commendable action, I will first say unto them, as I have done before to the noblemen and gentlemen, that within the degrees aforesaid is doubtless to be found the most wholesome and best temperature of air, fertility of soil, and every other commodity or merchandise, for the which, with no small peril, we do travel into Barbary, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Muscovy and Eastland, and yet, to the end my argument shall not altogether stand upon likelihoods and presumptions, I say that such persons as have discovered and travelled those parts do testify that they have found in those countries all these things following, namely:--[a list of beasts, birds, fishes, trees, minerals, etc.] ...

Now for the trial hereof, considering that in the articles of the society of the adventurers in this voyage there is provision made that no adventurer shall be bound to any further charge than his first adventure, and notwithstanding keep still to himself, his children, his apprentices and servants, his and their freedom for trade and traffic, which is a privilege that adventurers in other voyages have not; and in the said articles it is likewise provided that none other than such as have adventured in the first voyage, or shall become adventurers in this supply, at any time hereafter are to be admitted in the said society, but as redemptionaries, which will be very chargeable; therefore, generally, I say unto all such, according to the old proverb. "Nothing venture, nothing have" ...

The sixth chapter sheweth that the traffic and planting in those countries shall be unto the savages themselves very beneficial and gainful....

... First and chiefly, in respect of the most happy and gladsome tidings of the most glorious gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, whereby they may be brought from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from the highway of death to the path of life, from superstitious idolatry to sincere Christianity, from the devil to Christ, from hell to heaven. And if in respect of all the commodities they can yield us (were they many more) that they should but receive but this only benefit of Christianity, they were more than fully recompensed.

But hereunto it may be objected that the Gospel must be freely preached, for such was the example of the apostles.... Yet for answer we may say with St. Paul: If we have sown unto you heavenly things, do you think it much that we should reap your carnal things? And withal, The workman is worthy of his hire. These heavenly tidings which those labourers our countrymen (as messengers of God's great goodness and mercy) will voluntarily present unto them, do far exceed their earthly riches....

[Footnote 310: Gilbert was drowned in the "Squirrel" on September 9th, 1583. The above document purports to have been written after the return of the "Golden Hind," but before the loss of the "Squirrel" was certainly known.]

13. LORD BURGHLEY TO SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON ON THE STATE OF TRADE [_Sir H. Nicholas, Memoirs of Sir Christopher Hatton, pp. 470-2_], 1587.

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

My Lord,

I am sorry that my pains are such as I cannot attend on you to-day in the Star Chamber, having yesterday, by more zeal of service in the Exchequer Chamber than of regard to my harms, so weakened and pained my leg, as I cannot stir it out of my bed; but this my declaration of my state is to no purpose to occupy your Lordship withal. This great matter of the lack of vent, not only of clothes, which presently is the greatest, but of all other English commodities which are restrained from Spain, Portugal, Barbary, France, Flanders, Hamburgh, and the States, cannot but in process of time work a great change and dangerous issue to the people of the realm, who, heretofore, in time of outward peace, lived thereby, and without it must either perish for want, or fall into violence to feed and fill their lewd appetites with open spoils of others, which is the fruit of rebellion; but it is in vain to remember this to your Lordship, that is so notorious as there need no repetition thereof. The evil being seen and like daily to increase beyond all good remedies, it is our duties that are Councillors to think of some remedies in time, before the same become remediless; and briefly the best means of remedy must follow the consideration of the causes of this evil, and so _contrariis contraria curare_. The original cause is apparently the contentions and enmities betwixt the King of Spain and his countries, and her Majesty and her countries. The reduction hereof to amity betwixt the Princes, and to open traffic according to the ancient treaties of intercourse, would be the sovereign remedy; but this may be wished sooner than speedily effectuated. But yet, seeing there is a signification notified of the good inclination of both the Princes, and a great necessity to press them both thereto for the suagement of their people, it were pity any course should be taken either to hinder this or not to hasten it, which surely in the Low Countries would be done, with whatsoever a reasonable cost may be, to keep the enemy from victuals, and to withstand his enterprises against our friends until this next harvest; and by this proceeding against him, there is no doubt but he will yield to all reasonable conditions meet both for her Majesty and her protected friends; otherwise, if the good fortune of our friends do decay, and the enemy recover that which he now lacketh, that is store of victuals, he will either underhand make peace with our friends, whom he shall find both weak and timorous, and leave her Majesty in danger for recovery of all that she hath spent, and in greater charges to maintain her two cautionary towns against the whole Low Countries than two Boulognes were, or else he will, being puffed with pride, make a very Spanish conquest of Holland and Zealand,--a matter terrible to be thought of, but most terrible to be felt. But to insist upon this remedy is as yet in vain, and therefore such other poor helps are to be thought of as may somewhat mitigate the accidents present, and stay the increase thereof, whereof when I do bethink myself, I find no one simple remedy, but rather compounded of divers simples, and to say truly they are but simple remedies, until peace may ensue, which is the sovereign sole medicine of all. To have vent increase, there must be more buyers and shippers than there are, and seeing our merchants say that they cannot have sales sufficient,

1. It were good that the Steelyard men were licensed to trade as they were wont to do, with condition upon good bonds that our merchants adventurers shall have their former liberties in Hamburgh;

2. These Steelyard merchants must also have a dispensation to carry a competent number of unwrought cloths that are coarse, which are the cloths whereof the great stay is in the Realm.

3. Beside this, the merchant strangers might have a like dispensation for the buying and shipping of a competent number of like white coarse cloths.

4. And if her Majesty, for some reasonable time, would abate only 2s. upon a cloth, I think there would grow no loss to her Majesty, having respect to the multitude of the cloths that should be carried, whereas now the strangers carry few, but upon licences, for which her Majesty hath no strangers' customs, but English.

5. The strangers also must have liberty to buy in Blackwell Hall, or else there may be a staple set up in Westminster, out of the liberties of the City of London, which, rather than London would suffer, I think they will grant liberty to strangers in respect to the hallage money which they shall lease. Notwithstanding all these shows of remedies, I could wish that our merchants adventurers were made acquainted herewith, and to be warned, that if they shall not amend the prices to clothiers for their coarse cloths, whereby the clothiers may be reasonably apparent gainers, and that to be put in practice this next week, that then her Majesty will give authority to put the former helps in practice. Thus, my good Lord, because I understand you are to go to the Court this afternoon, I have thought good to scribble, as I do (lying in pain) these few cogitations, submitting them to a more mature disquisition.

Your Lordship's most assured,

W. BURGHLEY.

14. A LIST OF PATENTS AND MONOPOLIES [_Lodge. Illustrations of British History, Vol. III, pp.. 159,[311] ff._]

33. Eliz.--A grant to Reynold Hopton only, and no other, to make flasks, touch-boxes, powder-boxes, and bullet-boxes, for 15 years.

34 Eliz.--A grant to Simon Farmer and John Craford only, and no other, to transport list shreds of woollen cloth, and all manner of horns, for 21 years.

35 Eliz.--A grant to Bryan Annesley, solely, and no other, to buy and provide steel beyond sea and sell the same within this realm for 21 years.

36 Eliz.--A grant to Robert Alexander only, and no other, to buy and bring in anise-seeds, sumach, etc., for 21 years.

39 Eliz.--A grant to John Spillman only, and no other, to buy linen rags, and to make paper.

40 Eliz.--A grant to Ede Schetts, and his assignees only, and no other, to buy and transport ashes and old shoes for 7 years.

36 Eliz.--A grant to [_blank_] only, and no other, to provide and bring in all Spanish wools for making of felt hats, for 20 years.

34 Eliz.--A grant that Sir Jerome Bowes, and no other, shall make glasses for 12 years.

42 Eliz.--A grant made to Harding and others only, concerning saltpeter.

41 Eliz.--A grant that Brigham and Wimmes shall only have the pre-emption of tin.

Other Monopolies for one man only and no other--

To register all writings and assurances between merchants, called policies.

To make spangles.

To print the Psalms of David.

To print Cornelius Tacitus.

To sow woad in certain numbers of shires.

To print grammars, primers, and other school books.

To print the law.

To print all manner of songs in parts.

To make mathematical instruments.

To plainish and hollow silver vessels.

That one man and no other shall make writs of _subpoena_ in Chancery, Sir Thomas George.

To write all writs of supplication and _supersedeas_ for the peace and good behaviour, and all pardons of outlawry, George Carew.

To draw leases in possession made by the King, Sir Edward Stafford.

To engross all leases by the great seal.

Licenses and Dispensations to one man only, of the Penalty of Penal Laws, and Power given to license others--

[18] Eliz.--A license to Sir Edward Dyer, to pardon and dispense with tanning of leather, contrary to the statute of 5 Eliz., and to license any man to be a tanner.

30 Eliz.--A patent to Sir Walter Raleigh, to make licenses for keeping of taverns and retailing of wines throughout England.

31 Eliz.--The grant to John Ashley and Thomas Windebank, to have all forfeitures and penalties for burning of timber trees to make iron, contrary to the statute of 1 Eliz.

36 Eliz.--A license to Roger Bineon, and others, to take the whole forfeiture of the statute of 5th and 6th of Edw. VI, for pulling down gig-mills.

37 Eliz.--A license to William Smith only, and no others, to take the benefit of the statute of 5 Eliz. for gashing of hides, and barking of trees.

38 Eliz.--A license to Thomas Cornwallis only, and no other, to make grants and licenses for keeping of gaming-houses, and using of unlawful games, contrary to the statute of 33 Henry VIII.

39 Eliz.--A license to William Carre, for nine years, to authorize and license any person to brew beer to be transported beyond sea.

40 Eliz.--A license to Richard Coningsby, to give license for buying of tin throughout England.

41 Eliz.--A license to Richard Carnithen only, to bring in Irish yarn for seven years.

_Impositions._

41 Eliz.--A grant to Bevis Bulmer to have an imposition of sea-coal, paying £6,200 rent for 21 years.

36 Eliz.--A grant made to John Parker, Esq., to have twelve-pence for filing of every bill in Chancery in respect whereof the subject is to be discharged of payment of anything of search.

41 Eliz.--A license to trade the Levant Seas with currants only, paying £4,000 per annum.

## Particular licenses to transport certain numbers of pelts of sheep-skins

and lambskins.

Certain numbers of woollen cloths.

Certain numbers of dickers of calf-skins.

_New Inventions._

Only and no other, so as they were never used in England before.

To inn and drain [_blank_] grounds.

To take water fowl.

To make devices of safe-keeping of corn.

To make a device for soldiers to carry necessary provisions.

[Footnote 311: Quoted, _English Patents of Monopoly_, Appendix c, W.H. Price, 1603.]

15. INSTRUCTIONS TOUCHING THE BILL FOR FREE TRADE [_Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. I, p. 218_], 1604.

The Committees from the House of the Commons sat five whole afternoons upon these Bills; there was a great concourse of clothiers and merchants, of all parts of the realm, and especially of London; who were so divided, as that all the clothiers, and, in effect, all the merchants of England, complained grievously of the engrossing and restraint of trade by the rich merchants of London, as being to the undoing, or great hindrance, of all the rest; and of London merchants, three parts joined in the same complaint against a fourth part; and of that fourth part, some standing stiffly for their own company, yet repined at other companies. Divers writings and informations were exhibited on both parts; learned Counsel was heard for the Bill, and divers of the principal Aldermen of London against it; all reasons exactly weighed and examined; the Bill, together with the reasons on both sides, was returned and reported by the Committees to the House; where, at the third reading, it was three several days debated, and in the end passed with great consent and applause of the House (as being for the exceeding benefit of all the land) scarce forty voices dissenting from it.

The most weighty reasons for the enlargement of trade were these:

_Natural Right._--All free subjects are born inheritable, as to their land, so also to the free exercise of their industry in those trades, whereto they apply themselves and whereby they are to live. Merchandize being the chief and richest of all other, and of greater extent and importance than all the rest, it is against the natural right and liberty of the subjects of England to restrain it into the hands of some few, as now it is; for although there may be now some five or six thousand persons, counting children and prentices, free of the several Companies of the Merchants, in the whole; yet apparent it is, that the Governors of these Companies, by their monopolizing orders, have so handled the matter, as that the mass of the whole trade of all the realm is in the hands of some two hundred persons at the most, the rest serving for a shew only, and reaping small benefit.

_Judgement of Parliament._--The law stands for it; and a law made 12th of Henry the Seventh, never repealed by Parliament, only restrained since by charters, unduly, or by untrue suggestions, procured (by which means all other monopolies have had their original) and the first of those charters since the making of that statute (which was purchased in the end of the reign of Henry the Seventh, at what time Empson and Dudley were instruments of so much wronging and oppressing the people) yet doth in no wise restrain this liberty of free trade, but expressly allow it (with a reverence unto that very act in the 12th of this reign) and so continued till the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

_Examples of Nations._--The example of all other nations generally in the world, who avoid in themselves, and hate in us, this monopolizing way of traffic; for it cannot be otherwise counted than a monopoly, when so large a commodity is restrained into the hands of so few in proportion, to the prejudice of all other who by law and natural right might have interest therein. And whereas some allege that there are like Companies in other countries, as of the East Indies in Lesbone, the House of Contraction there, the Fontego at Venice, the Travesana at Noremberg, these allegations are either untrue or unproper. There are places of assembly for merchants, and to consult for good orders in all other countries, but without restraint of trading from any man; and how traffic, by this freedom, doth flourish in other countries, and principally in the Low Countries, far more than in ours, is apparent to all the world.

_Wealth._--The increase of the wealth generally of all the land by the ready vent of all the commodities to the merchants at higher rate; for where many buyers are, ware grows dearer; and they that buy dear at home, must sell dear abroad: this also will make our people more industrious.

_Equal Distribution._--The more equal distribution of the wealth of the land, which is a great stability and strength to the realm, even as the equal distributing of the nourishment in a man's body; the contrary whereof is inconvenient in all estates, and oftentimes breaks out into mischief, when too much fullness doth puff up some by presumption, and too much emptiness leaves the rest in perpetual discontent, the mother of desire of innovations and troubles: and this is the proper fruit of monopolies. Example may be in London, and the rest of the realm: The custom and impost of London come to a hundred and ten thousand pound a year, and of the rest of the whole realm but to seventeen thousand pound.

_Strength._--The increase of shipping, and especially of mariners, in all ports in England. How greatly the mariners of the realm have decayed in all places of latter times, and with how great danger of the state in these late wars, is known to them who have been employed in that kind of service; who do also attribute the cause thereof to this restraint of trade; free traffic being the breeder and maintainer of ships and mariners, as by memorable example in the Low Countries may be seen.

_Profit of the Crown._--The increase of custom and subsidy to the King, which doth necessarily follow the increase of foreign traffic and wealth. And they which say otherwise, will dare to say anything. These reasons are in great part set down in the Act of the 12th of Henry VIIth; other particular reasons there are, which this present time doth not yield.

_Opportunity Abroad._--Under our gracious Salamon, a Prince of wisdom and peace, we are like to be in league or amity with all nations; whereby, as there will be greater freedom abroad to trade to all places, so fit to have greater at home for all persons to trade. This alteration of times may make that fit now, which in times of hostility might have seemed unfit.

_Necessity at Home._--And as there will be greater opportunity abroad, so also much greater necessity at home; for what else shall become of gentlemen's younger sons, who cannot live by arms when there is no wars, and learning preferments are common to all and mean? So that nothing remains fit for them, save only merchandize (and such is the use of other politic nations) unless they turn serving men, which is a poor inheritance.

The general reasons to continue the restraint of trade, and the answer to them, were these:

_Imputation of the State._--It is a taint to the King and State, that these restrained companies should be called or counted monopolies; and by this Act we insist and strengthen the complaint of the Haven Towns and other nations against the State for suffering such companies.

_Answer._--The same reason doth justify all the monopolies that ever were. It is no touch to the State if abuses creep in, but if reformation, desired by parliament, be denied. But surely this taint doth no ways attaint his Majesty, who hath declared himself a just enemy to all these unjust monopolies.

_Not Monopolies._--These Companies are not monopolies; for a monopoly is, when liberty of selling, due to all men by right, is restrained to one, with prejudice of all others.

_Answer._--The name of monopoly, though taken originally for personal unity, yet is fitly extended to all improportionable paucity of the sellers in regard of the ware which is sold. If ten men had the only sale of all the horses in England, this were a monopoly; much more the Company of Merchant Adventurers, which, in effect not above two hundred, have the managing of the two third parts of the clothing of this realm, which might well maintain many thousand merchants more. And with how great prejudice this is sundry ways to all the land, let example suffice; let the cry of all the clothiers of England testify, and the utter overthrow of infinite poor persons, which live by them and their works. For the clothiers having no utterance of their cloth but to the merchant adventurers, they, by complot among themselves, will buy but at what time, what quality, and what price themselves list; whereby the clothiers are fain often to return with loss, to lay their cloths to pawn, to slack their trade, to the utter ruin of their poor workmen, with their wives and children.

_Keeping up our Commodities._--These Companies keep up the price of our commodities abroad, by avoiding an over-glut of our commodities in places whereto they trade. And this experience doth witness; for our cloth is of late years much dearer than in former times; whereas contrarywise, when trade is free, many sellers will make ware cheap and of less estimation.

_Answer._--It is true that all monopolies keep up their commodities for their own private lucre; but they do it unjustly, and to the discontent of all other men; which hath been the cause of so many edicts of the Empire against the Company of Merchant Adventurers, which hath driven them so often to shift their marts; and is the cause, that our merchants are so generally hated, no other nation Christian either using or enduring such restrained Companies in matter of merchandizes. Howbeit both by reason and experience we may conjecture that there is no greater [_blank_] that if trade be made free, our commodities will much abate their price abroad; for the merchants must first buy their commodities at home; and where many buyers are, wares will grow dearer; and buying dear at home, he must sell dear abroad. For it is not true that there will be a greater glut of our commodities in foreign parts; the sellers will be more, but the wares sold will be much the same, especially in those principal commodities, which grow out of the land. It is the store of the merchandize, not the multitude of merchants, which doth make things cheaper. Besides, when trade is free, it is likely that many young men will seek out new places, and trade further for great benefit; whereby the glut in the former places will be less.

The weakness of their argument of experience is plain; for not cloth only, but all other things in the world are risen greatly in price; and in France, where there is no Companies, our kerseys are sold at exceeding good price, and as dear, in proportion, as broad cloths by the Merchant Adventurers. But if it were so, that they kept up our commodities abroad, so do they, by the same skill, foreign commodities at home: so a few rich men do gain by their out-going, and the whole land doth lose much more by their return. They say that they gain little by return of foreign commodities. There lieth a mystery, for it is true, and will be avowed upon certain knowledge, that upon the arrival of the Merchant Adventurers' fleet, the commodities, on the other side, are ordinarily raised at least twenty in the hundred; for so do they quit one wrong with another. But hereby the loss still falls heavy on the subject, who is damnified now again in the commodities returned, as he was before in the engrossing of those which were issued.

_Venting all Now._--The Companies that now are, do vent all the commodities of the land, and yet are they hardly able to live one by another.

_Answer._--It is not all vented, which the land might spare; and that by reason of the courses held by these Companies, to their own excessive gain, and certain loss of all other men: besides, when traffic shall flourish with us, as doth in other countries, where trade is free, and namely in the Low Countries, who thereby have supported the huge charge of their long wars, things merchantable will increase daily by this encouragement to the subjects' industry, even as there they do; for natural commodities are more than trebled by access of art and industry; and howsoever, yet the division of wealth will be more equal; for now, by the plotting of the governor of these Companies, some few overgrown men devour the wealth, and make merry, whilst the rest, even of their own Companies, do want and weep.

_Prenticeship Necessary._--This Act makes it lawful to become merchants without prenticeship; which is an injury to them which have served, and hurt to them that serve not; who, venturing unskilfully, shall be sure of loss.

_Answer._--The loss of new merchants, it may be, is as much the desire, as fear of the objectors; but they that have served, have their skill for their labour; and they that serve not, must be at charge of a factor, or join with their friends, and learn skill by them; or at least wise men adventure their stocks with other men, after the fashion of the Low Countries, and other places, where trade doth flourish. By the same reason young gentlemen might be kept from their lands, for want of skill to govern them.

_Dissolving Companies._--This Act, by enlarging the Companies, and giving free access to all men, doth in effect dissolve them; for hardly are they able to govern those that are in already; and where government faileth, there will be certain confusion.

_Answer._--This Act dissolveth no Company, taketh away no good government. Those orders in Companies, which tend to monopoly, it abrogateth: orders for necessary contribution to public charges it establisheth; the rest it leaves as it found them, neither in worse state, nor better. It is weakness to say, that a greater multitude cannot be governed; for so neither Kings in their Dominions and subjects, nor cities in their amplitude should increase. If for matter of merchandize there were no such government at all, nor more than there is for our merchants in France, or hath been at Stade, for divers years past, or than there is in the Low Countries, where are the best merchants in the world; yet provident men would consult and join together in that which were for their common benefit, ease, and safety. Such Companies there are in other countries, but no such monopolies as ours are.

_Joint Stock Necessary._--This Act is against trading in a joint stock together, which in long and dangerous voyages (as to Musco, and especially the East Indies) is necessary; for in that voyage one alone will not adventure; besides the merchants must keep some port there amongst the infidels.

_Answer._--It is true that it is fit to trade to the East Indies with a joint stock, and so do the Hollanders; this Act therefore doth not forbid men to trade in a joint stock, if they list, and see it fit; only forbiddeth to constrain men to trade so against their wills; which heretofore in other trades, and at this day in the Muscovie trade, doth turn to the great damage both of the Commonwealth and of the particular persons so constrained to trade. The Muscovie Company, consisting of eight score, or thereabouts, have fifteen directors, who manage the whole trade; these limit to every man the proportion of stock which he shall trade for, make one purse and stock of all, and consign it into the hands of one agent at Musco, and so again, at their return, to one agent at London, who sell all, and give such account as they please. This is a strong and a shameful monopoly--a monopoly in a monopoly--both abroad and at home. A whole Company, by this means, is become as one man, who alone hath the uttering of all the commodities of so great a country. The inconveniences, which have ensued thereof, are three apparent.

First, by this means they vent less of our commodities; for, by reason of the one agent, they vent all through his hands; by which means the Hollanders have come in between us; who, trading thither in several with our own English commodities (which are most proper for that country) utter much more than our own merchants, and make quicker return; which has occasioned many Englishmen to join in trade with the Hollanders, to the detriment of the King's Majesty in his customs. And by this means that trade is like utterly to decay; for the Hollanders have grown in short time from two ships to above twenty; this spring they are gone to Muscovie with near thirty ships, and our men but with seven. The like fell out in the Turkie Company, when they constrained men to a joint stock; since the breaking of which combination, there go four ships for one.

Secondly, in their return with Muscovie commodities, they greatly prejudice the Commonwealth and State. Example in cordage, which they bring home in such scarcity, and sell so dearly, as that they have raised it in short time from twenty to thirty shillings; yea, to sell their ware dear, they have contracted with the buyer not to bring any more of that commodity within three years after.

Thirdly, this is hurtful to all the young merchants of their own Company, who cannot forbear their stock so long as now they do, and desire to employ their own industry in managing it, and having oftentimes been all damnified by the breaking of that general factor.

_Public Charges._--In divers places, as namely, in Turkey and Muscovy, the merchants are at charge of sending presents, maintaining ambassadors, consuls, and agents, which are otherwise also necessary for the service of his Majesty, and of the State; these charges are now defrayed by these Companies.

_Answer._--This matter is expressly provided for by this Act, that all that trade to those places shall be contributory to those charges.

_The New Merchants will give over._--The like attempt for free trade was in Anno 1588, at what time liberty being given to all men to buy cloths at Westminster, the Merchant Adventurers gave over to trade at all; whereby the cloth of the land lying on the clothier's hands, they were forced, by petition, to get the former restraint restored.

_Answer._--This is true, and the same mischief were likely to ensue again; for it is said, that the same policy is now in speech in their Company. But the times being well altered from war to peace, this mischief would be but short, and other merchants soon grow to take their places, if they should, as (being rich) they may, forsake them. But it were to be trusted that this stomachness, being to their own loss, would not long continue. Howsoever, it doth not stand with the dignity of parliament either to fear or favour the frowardness of any subject.

_The Rich will eat out the Poor._--If poor merchants should trade together with the rich, the rich beyond the seas would buy out the poor, being not able to sell at the instant, to make themselves savers; and so there would grow a monopoly _ex facto_.

_Answer._--This reason sheweth thus much, that a crafty head, with a greedy heart, and a rich purse, is able to take advantage of the need of his neighbour (which no man doubteth of); but if the difficulties and dishonesties should deter men from action, and not rather increase their diligence and wariness, then should there be no trading at all in any sort.

_Strangers will eat out the English._--If all men may be merchants, the sons of strangers denized will, in time, eat out the natural merchants of this kingdom.

_Answer._--If the sons of strangers become natural English, why should they not [have] a subject's part? And more they cannot reap. If any further mischief should grow, it might at all times by a new Act be easily remedied.

_All Men may go out of the Realm._--If trade be free for all men, then all may become merchants, and under that pretext any may go out of the realm; which will be good news for the papists.

_Answer._--This conceit is weak; for so it may be said that all men may become mariners, and so quit the kingdom; and it is provided by express words of the bill that they may not go out of the realm but for their present traffic.

_Against London._--This Act is against London, and the wealth thereof, which is necessary to be upheld, being the head city of the kingdom.

_Answer._--Nay, it is for London, unless we will confine London into some two hundred men's purses; the rest of the City of London, together with the whole realm, sue mainly for this bill; and they cry, they are undone, if it should be crossed.

_Hurt to the King's Customs._--It will be prejudicial to the King's customs, who in other parts will easier be deceived than here in London.

_Answer._--Nothing can be more clear than that if transport and return of merchandize will increase by this Act, also the King's customs, which depend thereon, must withal increase: And if this Bill may pass, if the King be pleased to let his custom to farm, to give 5,000l. a year more than, _communibus annis_, hath been made these last years. The deceiving of the King is now, when, for want of this freedom, men are enforced to purchase the vent of their commodities out of creeks, because they cannot be admitted to public trade; whereas otherwise they should have no reason to hazard their whole estate, for the saving of so reasonable a duty. As for faults in officers, they may as well happen in London, as in any other place.

_Decay of Great Ships._--During freedom of trade, small ships would be employed to vent our commodities, and so our great ships, being the guard of the land, would decay.

It is war, more than traffic that maintaineth great ships; and therefore, if any decay grow, it will be chiefly by peace, which the wisdom of the State will have a regard of; but for as much depends of traffic, no doubt the number of smaller ships will grow by this freedom, and especially mariners, whereof the want is greatest, and of whom the smallest vessels are the proper nurseries. But that the great ships will decay, doth not necessarily follow; for the main trade of all the white cloth, and much of other kind, is shipped from the Port of London, and will be still, it being the fittest Port of the kingdom for Germanie and the Low Countries, where the Merchant Adventurers' trade only lieth; who shall have little cause to alter their shipping. Then the Levent Sea, Muscovy, and East Indies, whither we trade with great ships, the employing of them will be still requisite in the merchants' discretion; for otherwise both the commodity of the returned will be less, and the adventure too great in so rich lading not to provide for more than ordinary assurance against the common hazard at sea.

Other particular reasons there are, for restraint of trade in favour of certain Company.

_Merchant Adventurers._--The Company of Merchant Adventurers is very ancient, and they have heretofore been great credit to the Kings, for borrowing money in the Low Countries and Germany.

_Answer._--The Company indeed is as ancient as Thomas of Beckett, their founder, and may still continue. Their restraining of others, which this Bill doth seek to redress, is not so ancient, and was so disallowed by parliament in the twelfth year of Henry the seventh; which Act stands impeached by particular charter, but never by consent of the realm repealed. But in truth this Company, being the spring of all monopolies, and engrossing the grand staple commodities of cloth into so few men's hands, deserves least favour. The credit of the King hath been in the cloth (not in their persons) which will be as much hereafter, as heretofore.

_Muscovy Company._--The Muscovy Company, by reason of the chargeable invention of that trade two and fifty years since, and their often great loss, was established by Act of Parliament in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth.

_Answer._--The chargeable invention hath been a reason worthy of respect thirty or forty years ago, when the inventors were living, and their charge not recompensed by counter-vailable gain; which since it hath been their loss, hath been their own fault, in employing one factor, who hath abused them all. Private Acts for favour, when the cause thereof is ceased, are often revoked. Howbeit this Bill dissolveth no Company, only enlargeth them, and abrogateth their unjust orders for monopolies.

_An Argument Unanswerable._--Another argument there is, not to be answered by reason, but by their integrity and love of their country, who shall be assaulted with it. In sum, the Bill is a good Bill, though not in all points, perhaps, so perfect as it might be; which defects may be soon remedied and supplied in future parliament.

* * * * *

Sir Edward Sandys proceeded in the report, and delivered in the two Bills for free trade; the first (being the principal Bill) with amendments; which were twice read; and the Bill, upon question, ordered to be ingrossed.

16. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMPANY TO EXPORT DYED AND DRESSED CLOTH, IN PLACE OF THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS[312] [_Pat. Rolls, 13 James I, p. 2_], 1616-17.

James by the Grace of God, etc.:

We have often and in divers manners expressed ourselves ... what an earnest desire and constant resolution we have that, as the reducing of wools into clothing was the act of our noble Progenitor King Edward the Third, so the reducing of the trade of white cloths, which is but an imperfect thing towards the wealth and good of this our Kingdom, unto the trade of cloths dyed and dressed, might be the work of our time,

To which purpose we did first invite the ancient Company of Merchant Adventurers to undertake the same, who upon allegation or pretence of impossibility refused.

Whereupon nevertheless not discouraged but determined to maintain our princely resolution against impediments and difficulties in a work so excellent, We did find means to draw and procure divers persons of good quality within our City of London and elsewhere with great alacrity and commendable zeal to give a beginning to this our purpose,

In respect whereof, for that above all things We were to take a princely care that between the cessation of the old trade and the inception and settling of the new there should not be any stand of cloth nor failing or deadness in the vent thereof, whereby the work which is so good for the future might prove dangerous in the entrance thereof, we were inforced to grant several licences under our Great Seal unto the said persons for a trade of whites to be temporary and in the interim until this work by due and seasonable degrees without inconvenience of precipitation might be happily accomplished, giving them likewise some powers of assembling, keeping of Courts and the like, but yet without any actual incorporation of them,

But notwithstanding, having evermore in contemplation our first end, We have still provoked and urged on the said persons unto whom the trade is now transferred to some certainty of offer and undertaking concerning a proportion of cloths dressed and dyed to be annually exported, and the same proportion to increase and multiply in such sort as may be a fruitful beginning of so good a work and also an assured pledge of the continuation thereof in due time.

Whereupon the said persons or new Company have before the Lords of our Privy Council absolutely condescended and agreed at a Court holden the seventeenth day of June one thousand six hundred and fifteen, that thirty-six thousand cloths shall be dressed and dyed out of such cloths white as were formerly used to be shipped out by the old Company undressed and undyed....

... And did further promise and profess with all cheerfulness to proceed as it shall please God to give ability and the trade encouragement to the settling of the whole trade of cloths dressed and dyed, which is the end desired.

Wherefore We, in our princely judgement foreseeing that as long as the said new Company shall remain not incorporated it doth much weaken both the endeavour and expectation which belongeth to this work, as if it were a thing but only in deliberation and agitation and not fully and thoroughly established, have thought it now a fit time to extend our princely grace unto them for their incorporation and to indue and invest them with such liberties and privileges as the old Company formerly had, with such additions and augmentations as the merit of concurrence to so good an end may require, with this, nevertheless, that because the nature of the present liberties and privileges must of necessity differ from those which shall be fit and requisite when the whole trade shall be overcome and settled, there be therefore a power in Us to revoke or alter the same.

Know ye therefore that We ... by these presents have given, granted and confirmed, and for Us our heirs and successors do give, grant and confirm, unto our right trusty and right well beloved Cousin and Counsellor Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer of England [and others named], and to every of them, and to all and every such person and persons whatsoever our loving subjects as shall, between this and the feast of St. Michael the Archangel next ensuing come in, subscribe, and be admitted of their Society, That they and every of them, their and every of their sons and apprentices according to the constitutions and ordinances hereafter by the Company to be made and presented, shall be one Fellowship and Commonalty and one body corporate and politic in deed and in name, by the name of Governor, Assistants, and Fellowship of the King's Merchants Adventurers of the New Trade of London.

[Power to have common seal, etc.]: [There shall be one Governor, William Cokayne, Alderman of our City of London, to be the first and present Governor, to continue till June 24 next] and from thence until the said William Cokayne or some other of the said Fellowship or Company shall in due manner be chosen and sworn to the said office according to the ordinances and provisions hereafter in these presents expressed and declared, if he the said William Cokayne shall so long live:

[And further] there shall be from henceforth for ever hereafter one or more, not exceeding the number of six, of the said Company or Fellowship to be elected and chosen, which shall be called the Deputy or Deputies of the said Company or Fellowship: ...

And furthermore We for Us, our heirs and successors, do by these presents grant and confirm to the said [Fellowship] and their successors that it shall and may be lawful to and for them and every of them, and their successors for ever, hereafter to trade, traffic, and occupy and use the trade and feat of merchandise unto, from and with the Town of Callice in the Realm of France and the marches thereof, and into, from and with all and every the countries of Holland, Zeland, Brabant, Flaunders, West Frizeland and all other the countries nigh thereunto adjoining heretofore under the obeisance of the Dukes of Burgundy, or into East Frizeland and Hamborough and the Territories of the same, and into from and with the countries of Germany and all the Territories, Provinces, Cities and Towns thereof with all manner of woollen cloths, kersies, wares, commodities and merchandises whatsoever not prohibited, without any let contradiction or interruption of Us, our heirs or successors, or of any other person or persons whatsoever:

And our will and pleasure is, and We do hereby for Us, our heirs and successors, grant and confirm unto the said [Fellowship &c.], that the said Governor or Deputy and the said Assistants or the more part of them for the time being, being at least thirteen, shall from henceforth for ever have, use and exercise full jurisdiction, power and authority lawfully to rule and govern the same Company or Fellowship and their successors, and all and every merchants and members of the same, in all their private causes, suits, quarrels, misdemeanours, offences and complaints among them touching the said trade, as well here in England as beyond the seas in Callice and the marches thereof, and also in the Countries and Towns of Holland [etc. Germany, etc., as above] rising, moved and to be moved....

And moreover We ... do by these presents grant unto the said [Fellowship, etc.] that the said Governor, Deputy and Assistants, or thirteen of them at the least, and their successors for the time being from time to time and at all times from henceforth, shall and may enact, establish, allow and confirm, and also revoke, disannul and repeal all and every act and acts, laws, and ordinances heretofore had or made by the said [Fellowship, etc.] or by what name or names or additions soever, and also shall and may from henceforth from time to time and at all times hereafter for ever enact, make, ordain and establish acts, laws, constitutions and ordinances [for the good government of the Fellowship] and of every merchant and peculiar member of the same Fellowship or body corporate [and also of all our subjects] intermeddling exercising or using the feat or trade of the said [Fellowship] by any means, as well here in England as in the said countries towns and places beyond the seas, so that the said acts laws [etc.] be not hurtful to any the rights of our Crown, honour, dignity royal or prerogative, or to the diminution of the common weal of this our Realm or contrary to any our laws and statutes.... And that the said [Fellowship, or thirteen as aforesaid] shall and may take order with every the subject or subjects of Us our heirs and successors, not being of the said Company and trading or haunting the said countries or places beyond the seas or any of them for merchandise, and compel every of them by fines, forfeitures, penalties, imprisonments or otherwise to obey, hold and perform all such orders, acts and ordinances that hereafter shall be ordained, made, allowed or confirmed by the said [Fellowship or majority as above] for the good government, rule, order and condition of the said subject or subjects, so as the state of the said Company be not by them impeached or hindered but by all means and ways maintained and continued. And that all such forfeitures fines [etc.] so as aforesaid to be levied and taken shall be for evermore to the use and behoof of the said [Fellowship, etc.]

... And also We will, and for Us, our heirs and successors, by these presents do grant to the said [Fellowship] that the said [Fellowship or a majority, thirteen at least, as above] shall have full and whole power and authority to impose and lay, and also to take and levy, all reasonable impositions and sums of money whatsoever as well upon all persons trading into the said countries as also upon the merchandise to be transported and carried into the countries, towns, provinces and territories before rehearsed or any of them either by water or land....

And, for the better encouragement of the said Company or Fellowship ... We do hereby for Us our heirs and successors straitly charge and command all and singular the customers, comptrollers, searchers, surveyors, waiters and all others the officers and ministers of Us our heirs and successors for the time being in all every or any of our ports, havens, creeks and the members of the same within our Realms and Dominions ... that they and every of them ... shall not at any time or times hereafter wilfully permit or suffer any of the subjects of Us our heirs or successors or any aliens denizens or strangers to freight, lade or ship out in any ship, crayer, lighter or other vessel whatsoever any goods wares or merchandises whatsoever (being native commodities of this Realm) for any of the said territories, countries and towns before-mentioned wherein the said [Fellowship etc.] according to the intent of these presents are to trade and traffic, but such goods, wares and merchandises only whose entries shall be subscribed and allowed by the Governor or Deputy of the said Company for the time being by bill or writing subscribed with his or their hand or hands, or such other person or persons as by the said Governor or Company shall be thereunto named and appointed, and in such ship or ships or other vessel or vessels only as shall be named in such bills or writings....

And for the better encouragement of the said [Fellowship] to proceed in exportation of cloths dressed and dyed here in this our Realm, which will tend so much to the common weal of the same, and which by the said Company or Fellowship cannot as yet in such full manner be perfected as that they can have sufficient vent for the said dressed and dyed cloths in foreign parts without a temporary liberty to export cloths white, until by continuance of time they shall be further enabled and encouraged, We do by these presents ... give and grant unto the said [Fellowship etc.] full and free liberty, licence, power, privilege, authority and immunity that they or any of them, by themselves or by their or any of their servants, factors or agents, at their or any of their liberties and pleasures yearly and every year shall and may provide and buy, or cause to be provided and bought, within this our Realm of England and other our Dominions for their or any of their proper use or uses the number of thirty thousand woollen cloths unrowed unbarbed and unshorn and not fully and ready dressed and wrought, of which said number of thirty thousand cloths yearly five and twenty thousand shall be every cloth above the value or price of six pounds of lawful money of England, and the number of five thousand cloths residue of the said yearly number of thirty thousand cloths uncoloured or white above the value or price of four pounds of lawful money of England, or of any higher or greater prices whatsoever, ... and the same from this our Realm of England into the towns of Callice and the marches thereof in the Realm of France and into the countries and towns of Holland [etc., as above] to transport, send, convey, ship and carry over or cause to be transported, sent, shipped, conveyed and carried over there to be by them unladen, discharged, vented, sold ... or otherwise disposed ... and from thence to freight, lade, ship, return, import and bring back into this our said Kingdom or into any part thereof all such wares, commodities, goods and merchandises already not prohibited as to them or any of them their servants, factors or agents shall seem good, paying to Us our heirs and successors our duties and customs due and to be paid for the same, and further paying unto our trusty and well-beloved Cousin the Earl of Cumberland, his executors or assigns, for every white unwrought or undressed woollen cloth so to be by them or any of them shipped or transported out of this Realm under the warrant of his present licence over and above the said thirty thousand cloths two shillings and eight pence....

And our will and pleasure is, and We do hereby declare our Royal intent and meaning to be, and the said [Fellowship, etc.] do covenant, promise and agree to and with Us our heirs and successors by these presents, that they and their successors shall from time to time and at all times do their utmost endeavours that after the end and expiration of the said three years ensuing, during which the proportion of thirty-six thousand cloths are undertaken to be exported as is before in these presents expressed, that their trade of exporting and merchandising into the foresaid countries, provinces, towns and places aforesaid of woollen cloths may be wholly reduced unto the venting of such cloths only as shall be dyed and dressed here within this our Realm and other our Dominions, so far forth as it shall please God to give them and their successors ability and the trade encouragement, anything in these presents contained to the contrary notwithstanding: ...

... Provided also that these our Letters Patents or any matter or thing therein contained shall not extend to give authority or power to the said [Fellowship of the King's Merchants, etc.] or to any member or person of the said Company to transport or carry out of the realm any cloths, kersies, wares, commodities or merchandises whatsoever, which by the laws and statutes of this Realm are restrained or prohibited to be transported or carried over the seas, otherwise than according to the true intent and meaning of these presents, unless they shall obtain and procure licence for the same.

[Footnote 312: Printed in the publications of the Selden Society, Vol. 28, pp. 78-98.]

17. SIR JULIUS CAESAR'S PROPOSALS FOR REVIVING THE TRADE IN CLOTHS [_Lansdowne MSS._,[313] _clii. 56, f. 271_], 1616.

Means to avoid the present stand of cloth--

(1) Commissioners honest and substantial and sufficient for skill to be presently appointed for the view of the cloth weekly to Blackwell Hall, and the faulty cloth to be returned upon the clothier with imprisonment till he put in security to answer it in the law; and the good to be justly valued, according to the usual prices for these two years past, and the new Merchant Adventurers enforced to buy the same.

(2) So many of the new Merchant Adventurers as shall refuse to lay out for cloth such sums as they have subscribed for to be presently committed, to abide the censure of the Star Chamber for abusing of his Majesty and the State in so desperate and dangerous a case as this is.

(3) The fines of them to be employed in the buying of cloth for the riddance of the market.

(4) So many in London as are thought worth 10,000l. to be moved by my Lord Mayor to buy up clothes for 1,000l. at the least; especially all woollen drapers of half that worth, viz., 5,000l.

(5) Express commandment and present example of King's Counsellors and Courtiers and all their servants to wear nothing but broad cloth in their gowns, cloaks, girths, robes or breeches till Easter next, to the end that woollen drapers may be encouraged to buy the cloth made or to be made before that day; or else on pain of imprisonment not to come into Court....

(10) And if it be doubtful whether these proceedings agree with law, the answer is that they do, for the law giveth place to parlous cases of State and leaveth them to be provided for by the wisdom of the King and his Counsellors; and _Salus reipublicæ suprema lex est_, which is a sufficient answer to all cavillers and peevish lawyers.

[Footnote 313: Quoted, Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, pp. 192-3.]

18. THE GRANT OF A MONOPOLY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SOAP [_W.H. Price, The English Patents of Monopoly, Appendix W._], 1623.

James, by the grace of God, etc., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.

Whereas We, by our letters patents ... did give and grant unto our well-beloved subjects Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, full and free liberty, license, power, privilege, and authority that they, ... and none other, by themselves, their deputies, servants, factors, or workmen, should or might at all and every time and times thereafter, and from time to time, during the term of twenty and one years next ensuing the date of the said letters patents, ... use, exercise, practice, and put in use ... the mistery, art, way, means, and trade of "making of hard soap with the material called barilla, and without the use of any fire in the boiling and making thereof, and also of the making of soft soap without the use of fire in the boiling thereof," with such privileges and clauses as in said letters patents are contained and may more at large appear: And whereas since the granting of the said letters patents the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, and such others, their assistants, as by great expense and travail have aided and assisted them in perfecting the said invention, have found out and added to their former invention many

## particulars conducing much to the profitableness and perfection of the

work, both in the use of native and home commodities of this kingdom in the working and composition of the said soaps, and thereby in sparing and saving many thousands yearly which are now expended on foreign commodities bought and brought from beyond the seas, and employed here in the making of soap, in the manner now ordinarily used; ... Forasmuch as such profitable inventions are not at once and at the first brought to their full perfection, We hold it fit in justice and honour to give all encouragement to such our loving subjects as shall employ their travails, industries, and purses to the furthering of the common good, and to reward them to the full with the fruits of their own labours; and forasmuch also as the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer have now approved their inventions and skill to be such as deserveth encouragement, their soap, made (_blank_) the material of our kingdom only, being found to be as sweet and good as the best soft soap now already made, and to extend further in the use thereof, as they in the behalf of themselves and their assistants have also made offer unto us to respect our own particular profit, in such measure as that the loss we may receive in our customs and other duties by the not importing of foreign commodities for the making of soap as in former times, shall by their industries be recommended unto us, our heirs, and successors, in certainty with good advantage; and our loving subjects, who have long complained of the bad and stinking soap now ordinarily in use, shall have good, sweet, and serviceable soap for their money, and yet shall not have the price thereof raised upon them above the usual rate of the best sweet soap now made and sold by the soap-boilers.

Know ye, that We, for the considerations aforesaid, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer on the behalf of themselves and their assistants, full and free liberty, license, power, privilege and authority that they, the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, by themselves or their deputies, servants, factors, or workmen, and none other, shall and may at all and every time and times hereafter, and from time to time during the term of twenty and one years next ensuing the date of these presents, at their own proper costs and charges, use, exercise, practice, and put in use, within our said realms of England and Ireland and dominion of Wales, and our town of Berwick, at their liberty and pleasure, the mistery, art, way and means of making of hard soap and soft soap, as well with the materials and in such manner as in the said former letters patents are expressed, as also of burning and preparing of bean-straw, pea-straw, kelp, fern, and other vegetables to be found in our own dominions, into ordinary ashes or into potashes, and with the said materials of the ashes of bean or pea straw, and kelp, fern, and all other vegetables whatsoever not formerly and ordinarily used or practised within these our realms and dominions to make soap hard or soft, at their will and pleasure, and in such way or form as they have invented or devised; and also of the using of the assay glass for trying of their lye and making of hard and soft soap by their said new inventions, in the way of making of the said soaps by sundry motions, and not boiling of the same with the expense of much fuel, in such sort as was formerly accustomed by such as now usually make soap in and about our city of London and elsewhere in our said dominions; ... and to the end that this our pleasure may be the better effected, and the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer may the more fully enjoy the benefit of this our grant, We will, and for us, our heirs and successors, do straightly charge, inhibit, and command, and do also of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, for us, our heirs and successors, grant to the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, that no person or persons whatsoever born within any our realms or dominions, nor any other person or persons whatsoever, either denizens or strangers born in any foreign realm or country whatsoever, of what estate, degree, or condition soever he or they be or shall be, other than the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns or such as shall by them or some of them be set on work or authorised, shall or may, at any time or times during the said term of one and twenty years hereby granted or mentioned, or intended to be granted, practice, use, exercise, or put in use the said mistery, art, way, means, or trade of making the said hard or soft soaps with any the materials aforesaid, ... And to the end it may the better appear when any such soap shall be made contrary to the true intent and meaning of these presents, for us, our heirs, and successors, give and grant full liberty, power, and authority unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, that a stamp or stamps, seal or seals, to be engraven with a rose and crown, shall be stamped, sealed, or marked on all the soaps by them or any of them to be made in manner and form before declared, the better to distinguish their said soap from all counterfeit soap, either hard or soft, made or to be made by any person or persons contrary to the true intent and meaning of these presents or of the letters patents before recited, which seal or stamp so to be made as aforesaid We do by these presents will and command be set upon the hard soap, and upon the firkins, barrels, and other vessels containing the said soft soap so to be made, and shall not be set upon soaps hard or soft made by any other person or persons whatsoever contrary to the true intent of these presents, but shall be set and fixed only upon such soap as shall be from time to time made by the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, or assigns, according as is herein before setdown, and no other; and further, We do by these presents grant that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, or assigns, or any of them, by himself or themselves, or by his, their, or any of their deputies, factors, or servants, at any time or times convenient, and from time to time during the said term of one and twenty years, with assistance of a constable or some other officer, to enter into all and every place and places, house and houses, where they or any of them shall have any just cause to suspect any such hard soap or soft soap, or soap-ashes, or potashes, to be made or endeavoured to be made or stamped or sealed, or to be sold or uttered or set to sale, contrary to the true intent and meaning of these presents or of the letters patents before recited, or any vessels, engines, or instruments to be erected, framed, or used contrary to the true meaning hereof, ... and finding any such, to seize the hard soaps and soft soaps, and potashes, and other ashes hereby granted so made to the use of us, our heirs, and successors: ... And forasmuch as the public having an interest herein, which by the enhancing of the prices of the commodities aforesaid may be prejudiced and damnified, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby straightly charge and command, that they the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, and assigns, or any other person or persons by them to be authorised for the making of the said hard soap or soft soap, shall not, at any time during the said term of one and twenty years, sell, or cause to be sold, the said hard soap or soft soap, by them or any of them to be made as aforesaid, at any higher or dearer rates and prices than hard soap and soft soap of the best sorts and kinds were most usually sold for, within the space of seven years now last past before the date of these presents. And further, We do hereby charge and command all and singular justices of peace, mayors, sheriffs, constables, headboroughs, comptrollers, customers, searchers, waiters, and all other officers and ministers to whom it shall or may appertain, to be aiding and assisting in all lawful and convenient manner unto the said Roger Jones and Andrew Palmer, their executors, administrators, deputies, and assigns, in the due execution of these our letters patents, as they tender our pleasure and will avoid our indignation and displeasure in the contrary....

19. THE STATUTE OF MONOPOLIES [_21 James I, c. 3, Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part. II, pp. 1212-14_], 1623-4.

Forasmuch as your most excellent Majesty, ..., did, in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred and ten, publish in print to the whole realm and to all posterity, that all grants of monopolies and of the benefit of any penal laws, or of power to dispense with the law, or to compound for the forfeiture, are contrary to your Majesty's laws ...; and whereas your Majesty was further graciously pleased expressly to command that no suitor should presume to move your Majesty for matters of that nature: yet nevertheless upon misinformations and untrue pretences of public good, many such grants have been unduly obtained and unlawfully put in execution, ...; for avoiding whereof and preventing of all the like in time to come, may it please your Majesty, at the humble suit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament, that all monopolies and all commissions, grants, licenses, charters, and letters patents heretofore made or granted to any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate whatsoever, of or for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using of anything within this realm or the dominion of Wales ... are altogether contrary to the laws of this realm, and so are and shall be utterly void and of none effect, and in no wise to be put in use or execution.

II. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid that all monopolies and all such commissions, grants, licenses, charters, letters patents, proclamations, inhibitions, restraints, warrants of assistance, and all other matters and things tending as aforesaid and the force and validity of them and every of them ought to be, and shall be forever hereafter examined, heard, tried, and determined by and according to the common law of this realm and not otherwise.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that all person and persons, bodies politic and corporate whatsoever, which now are or hereafter shall be, shall stand and be disabled and incapable to have, use, exercise, or put in use any monopoly or any such commission, grant, license, charters, letters patents, proclamations, inhibition, restraint, warrant of assistance, or other matter or thing tending as aforesaid, or any liberty, power, or faculty grounded or pretended to be grounded upon them or any of them.

IV. [Persons aggrieved by monopolists to recover at Common Law treble the damages incurred.]

V. Provided nevertheless, and be it declared and enacted that any declaration before mentioned shall not extend to any letters patents, and grants of privilege, for the term of one and twenty years or under, heretofore made of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufacture within this realm, to the first and true inventor or inventors of such manufactures which others at the time of making of such letters patent and grants did not use, so they be not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the state, by raising of the prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient, but that the same shall be of such force as they were or should be if this act had not been made, and of none other: and if the same were made for more than one and twenty years, that then the same for the term of one and twenty years only, to be accounted from the date of the first letters patents and grants thereof made, shall be of such force as they were or should have been if the same had been made but for the term of one and twenty years only, and as if this act had never been had or made, and of none other.

VI. Provided also, and be it declared and enacted, that any declaration before mentioned shall not extend to any letters patents and grants of privileges for the term of fourteen years or under, hereafter to be made of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufactures within this realm, to the true and first inventor and inventors of such manufactures which others at the time of making such letters patents and grants shall not use, so as also they be not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the state, by raising prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient, the said fourteen years to be accounted from the date of the first letters patents or grants of such privilege hereafter to be made, but that the same shall be of such force as they should be if this act had never been made and of none other.

VII. [This Act not to be prejudicial to grants conferred by Act of Parliament.]

VIII. [This Act not to extend to warrants directed to judges to compound for forfeitures under penal statutes.]

IX. Provided also, and it is hereby further intended, declared, and enacted that this act or anything therein contained shall not in any wise extend or be prejudicial unto the city of London, or to any city, borough, or town corporate within this realm, for or concerning any grants, charters, or letters patents to them or any of them made or granted, or for or concerning any custom or customs used by or within them or any of them or unto any corporations, companies, or fellowships of any art, trade, occupation, or mistery, or to any companies or societies of merchants within this realm, erected for the maintenance, enlargement, or ordering of any trade of merchandise, but that the same charters, customs, corporations, companies, fellowships and societies, and their liberties, privileges, powers and immunities shall be and continue of such force and effect as they were before the making of this act, and of none other: anything before in this act contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

X. [This Act not to extend to grants relating to printing, the manufacture of saltpetre or gunpowder, the casting of ordnance or shot, or to offices other than those created by royal proclamation.]

XI. [This Act not to extend to grants relating to alum or alum-mines.]

XII. [This Act not to extend to the fellowship of the Host-men of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or to grants or commissions relating to the licensing of taverns.]

XIII. [This Act not to extend to any grant or privilege concerning the manufacture of glass given to Sir Robert Mansell, or to a grant for the transportation of calf-skins made to James Maxwell.]

XIV. [This Act not to extend to a grant concerning the making of smalt made to Abraham Baker, nor to a grant concerning the melting and casting of iron ore made to Edward, Lord Dudley.]

20. AN ACT FOR THE FREE TRADE OF WELSH CLOTHES,[314] [_2 James I, c. 9, Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV,