I THE Antient Company of Merchant Adventurers always took Care to pre­serve the Credit and Esteem of our English Manufacture abroad, and had good judgment in Cloth; and thereby kept the Trade from For­eigners, and Exported far greater quantities of the Cloth of our Coun­try for Hamborough, Holland and Germany than hath been Transported of late Years since we have sold to Interlopers; and the same Cloth that was then sold currant at Twelve Pound per Cloth will not now yield above Nine; and the same Wooll that was then sold at Twenty Four Shillings per Tod will not now yield above Fifteen Shillings.

II These Merchants always paid the Clothiers ready Mony for their Cloths, and there was no Expence upon the Woollen Manufacture between the Merchant and Clothier: This enabled the Clothier to buy his Commodity at the first hand, and to make good Cloth, by paying his Work-people with ready Money. And in those days Wages was continued at a certain price, and no Losses came upon the Clothier, he then turned his Stock three times for once now; came to London and met the Merchant at Blackwell-Hall, sold his Cloth, and was dispatch'd home again in Two or Three Days, and had fair Measure for his Goods.

III That since these Interlopers have intruded into the Trade, Cloth is Sold at Six Months and Nine Months Credit, and many times not paid in Twelve Months, which makes many bad Debts to the Clothiers, and puts them upon straights to pay their Work-people with Com­modities: By which means such stops in Trade are occasioned, Wages is many times beaten down from Nine Pence a Weight for Spining, to Five Pence; which hath so far impoverish'd m [...] parts of the Clothing Trade, that the same Parishes that formerly did not pay [...] the Pound towards the Relief of their Poor, do now pay Three Shil­lings, a [...] forced to Buy his W [...]oll of the Factor or Wooll-Broker, which car­r [...] [...] [...]east Eight per Cent out of th [...] Wollen Manufactures.

[...] [...]ners commit great Abuses against the Clothiers in the M [...] [...] Cl [...] many times get Two Yards in Thirty more than our English Merchants; and the Clo­thier can be at no certainty for Payment with the Foreigner, for having Ship'd off his Cloth he can easily follow, and so no opportunity left the Clothier to secure himself, he being One Hundred Miles in the Country.

V The English Merchant being laid aside, who stood by the true Interest of the English Nation, our Manufacture is extreamly falsifyed, and its esteem lost, and thereby the For­eigners get the Trade from us. The Wool that formerly made Eight Cloths doth now make Nine, and a Tenth made out by straining; so that Ten Cloths are carried abroad with the same Wool that formerly made but Eight, whilst a due care to make our Wool­len Manufacture true, substantial and good, will occasion a rise upon Wooll from a true ground, and preserve a Credit abroad. The present pretence of a rise upon Wooll can have no real substance in it, the advance being only in long Wooll, and not in Clothing­Wooll, which is the far greater part; which if occasioned by the Exportation of the Wool­len Manufacture, what is pretended must have the same Effect upon both: Therefore the Reason of this Rise must rather come from the great bane of Sheep that hath hapened these Two last Years, which always Effects long Wooll, more than Clothing-Wooll, that grow­ing from low Pasture and deeper Feed, more subject to bane; and from other Reasons.

VI Since the Trade of our Woollen Manufacture is fallen into the hands of Foreigners, the Mysteries of our Trade are stoln away from us; these men always searching into the Ways and Methods of making our Cloth, which we are well assured hath been of ill con­sequence to us; For through the want of the English Merchants to instruct us in the humor of Markets abroad, for Colours and the like, the Foreigners have very much prevail'd up­on us. And if the Merchandice of so considerable a part of our Woollen Manufacture, as is vended in Germany, Holland and Flanders doth hereby come into the hands of Foreign Merchants, Packers and Factors, at One or Two per Cent, What room can there be left for the Younger Sons of the English Gentleman? who bring into this Kingdom what they acquire and gain abroad, to the Enriching of the Nation; whereas the Foreigner carryeth all he gaineth into his own Country, to the Impoverishing of ours.