I Am against an absolute or unlimited Exportation of WOOLL as much as any Person whatsoever, but then there ought to be found out a way for a full Consumption of it within our selves, or else,

I. First, Let it be considered, whether the making of such an Act of Parliament as shall and will inevitably occasion the Fall of RENTS of most of the Gentlemen's and Free-holder's Estates all over England (those of the Inland Counties as well as others) only to gratify Three or Four Hundred particular Persons of the Hamborrow-Company, East-India-Com­pany, &c. Let all the Members of the Inland Counties, and others, I say, consider, Whether such an Act can be for the General and Publick Good of the Kingdom?

II. Then Consider, If when the Price of our WOOLL was brought down from Twelve Pence a Pound to Nine Pence and Eight Pence a Pound, your RENTS did then fall a Quarter part, whether your RENTS will not proportionably fall, if you bring WOOLL from Eight Pence to Four Pence a Pound, that is half in half, (or proportionably, be it what it will;) so as that several Gentlemen, who are now worth Four Hundred Pound per Annum, (and Twenty years ago were worth Five or Six Hundred Pound per Annum) in good Land, may not be worth in Two or Three Years time above Two Hundred and Fifty or Three Hundred Pound per Annum, and only by the fall of their RENTS, without any thing of bad Husbandry, but occasioned by your Act.

How such a general loss of the real value of our Estates should be for the common Good of the Kingdom, I know not, except you will say Ireland is in a better condition, and able to bear greater Taxes than England, because Land is as yet but of half the value there that it is here, and therefore that you would bring your Lands down to be only equal in value to those in Ireland.

III. Consider, Whether upon all emergent occasions and necessities of the Government, you do not constantly fly to a Land-Tax, as the most sure and [Page 2]certain to preserve the King and Kingdom; How can it be the Interest of Eng­land then to pull down and sink our own RENTS thus? Can we (either Landord or Tenant) bear and pay as much out of Two Hundred or Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Year, as we can out of Four or Five Hundred Pounds, proportionably to what it falls, it will hold, be it what it will.

When that Estate of ours which brought us in Six Hundred Pounds a Year, will now bring us in but Four Hundred Pounds a Year, and sometimes hardly that, don't we pay a Tax with a vengeance in the fall of our RENTS?

IV. Consider, That if the PARLIAMENT do not take some care, or make some Provision in their Act, for the better Consumption of WOOLL, you must needs lower and fall the Price of all your WOOLL thereby.

First, We have seen and found this by Experience, ever since the Prohibi­tion, all the time of Charles the II. and James the II. it hath continued Falling more and more every Year.

Secondly, It stands to Reason, for if any way or method of the Vending or Consumption be stopp'd or obstructed, and no other way Substituted in the room thereof, that shall make away with as much, it must necessarily lower the Price.

And who is it that gets by this lowering of the Price of WOOLL? Cer­tainly you will all say, not the Landlord nor the Tenant, no nor yet the Carder, the Spinner, nor the Worker, the Clothier nor the Dyer, for they are forc'd to sell their Clothes low accordingly to them that Buy them; Who then? Chiefly a few Factors and particular Persons of the Hamborrow-Company and other Companies, who do and will beat down the Prices of our Cloth here at home, and Buy it at the lowest Rates, (nay, and under the Rate that the Clothier can many times well afford it) and then sell it beyond Sea at their own Rates; and thus, this which the whole Countrey loses, they put into their own private Pockets.

Let them keep up a moderate Price for our Cloth here, and that will keep up the Price of our WOOLL, and then they need not fear the Exporting of it, For if we could have a reasonable Price for it here, without hazard, so as to pay our RENTS, none would be so foolish or mad, to venture their Necks to Transport it: But it is the necessity that is put upon them, that now enforces them to it, when the Clothier will or can not Buy their WOOLL, at such an indifferent Rate as will enable them to Pay their Landlords, because the cun­ning BUYERS of our Cloth endeavour still to beat down the Prices at home.

V. Therefore I inquire, and let it be Considered, in such a Case, what shall the COUNTREY do, or what would you have them do with the over-plus of their WOOLL, (who at this time have Two Years WOOLL lying on their hands) which our own Clothiers are not able or willing to Buy at such rea­sonable Rates as aforesaid?

VI. Let it be considered, Whether it can be for the Interest of England, when we have more WOOLL of our own, than we can or at least do con­sume in Manufactures, to suffer the Importation of great quantities of Irish WOOLL, which also helps to bring down the Prices of our own; and 'tis cer­tain that they have all along for these many Years brought in great Quantities of Irish WOOLL into London, Barnstable, and other places in the West, which serves every jot as well as our own WOOLL for their use; must not that then hinder the Consumption of so many Pounds of our own WOOLL, and that being so much cheaper than ours, bring down the Price of ours?

VII. Let it be considered, Whether the lowness of the Price of our WOOLL, hath not some influence on the lowness of the price of Corn? and so conse­quently doth affect all the Lands of England: It is most certain it does, which is easily demonstrated; for when WOOLL is low, and bears but a small price, so that the Tenant cannot live and raise his RENT by that, then he turns more [Page 3]to Tillage, breaks up and sowes more Land, which brings down the Price of Corn; but if WOOLL bears a good Price, then they will run more into breed­ing Sheep and Grasing, and so let more of their Land ly, till Corn grows so dear again, as sufficient to answer the honest Husband-man's Labour and Charge, which now it is not.

Therefore to keep up the Price of our WOOLL, is one certain way to keep up the Prices of our Corn; and how necessary that is, you are all sensible, by making so many Acts for the Exportation of it.

Thus then upon the whole, let it be duly Considered; whether it is not most advisable,

• I. Either that the PARLIAMENT should set or fix, from time to time, such reasonable Price or Prices upon WOOLL, as shall be thought in­different and convenient betwixt Buyer and Seller, Landlord and Tenant, and continue an absolute Prohibition, as now it is, for Three Years; I dare say less WOOLL will be Exported then, than hath been for many Years before, notwithstanding the late Prohibition, and that the higher the Price is put on it, the higher it will advance the Price of Corn, both which are now so low, and have been for some time, that all are sensible, Farmers are not able long to hold it at those Rates, much less pay Taxes.
• II. Or that the Parliament make the Prohibition conditional, as it is for Wheat, &c. (though Bread is the staff of the Poor and all Mens Lives,) viz. when it is not above such or such a Price at the place of Exportation, or at London, (to be duly certified) then to be Exported, and not else. Nay, Fur­ther, That the Prohibition may be made absolute for Six or Seven Months in the Year, as from the First of May or June to the First of December, or more, That no WOOLL shall be Exported within those Months (upon the severest Penalties that can be invented) that so our own people shall and may have the opportunity and benefit of pre-emption if they please; and this way I con­ceive there will be less WOOLL openly Transported, than is now done secretly by stealth.
• III. Or that the Parliament direct Work-houses to be set up in ev'ry Market-Town in England, for the working out of all our WOOLL, with such Regulati­ons as shall be thought fit, which might be so constituted, as in some measure to ease the burthensome Parish-Charge of the Poor, which begins to grow too heavy for us to bear already in many places; or direct some other way for the Buying up, destroying or consumption of it at home by Sumptuary Laws, ordering such and such Degrees of Men and Women to wear only our Woollen Manufactures, &c
• IV. Or that the Parliament give free liberty to all Persons (being our own Free-born Subjects) to Export our own Woollen Manufactures to any part or places beyond the Seas whatever; and that the several Companies be Regu­lated, as to the Trade in Woollen Manufactures and their Exporting our Bullion, and also as to what Goods they Import, which hinders the Consumption of our own Manufactures at home.
• V. And that they Prohibit the Importation of Irish WOOLL, as strictly in all respects as they Prohibit the Exportation of our own; or else that Ire­land be prevented as strictly from Exporting any of their WOOLL into France, Flanders, Holland, or any other Foreign Parts, as well as we are pre­vented: For there's no Reason we should impoverish our selves, and the greatest part of the Nation, to make the Irish in general Rich, or some pri­vate Persons and particular Companies of our own, to the prejudice and dammage of Five Hundred times as many.

I know nothing can hardly be Proposed, which may not be attended with some Inconveniency, (and we owe most of it to the making of the unfortu­nate Irish Act,) but that which we ought now to consider, is, which will be the less, and the greater Inconveniency.

I know also there are two vulgar Objections, to this, commonly made; but if they be throughly and rightly considered, are very small, or indeed no Ob­jections at all.

Object. I. That this will be a great loss and hinderance to the setting our own Poor at Work.

Answer. It can be no loss at all, for whether the Price of WOOLL be at Ten Pence, Eight Pence, or Six Pence a Pound, the Work of the Poor is all one and the same about it, neither more nor less, nor have they more or less for it, and now much is stolen over, which they do not Work out at all; which if a good Price was fixed on it, would remain here to be work'd out.

But I will make it apparent, that this is meerly a bare Pretence in these Objectors, more than any thing else.

• 1. Then let it be considered, Why the Hamborrow-Company send over so many White Clothes, to the great loss and hinderance of the Poor Dyers here?
• 2. But if they indeed consult the good of the Poor, why do the East-India Company import so many WROUGHT Indian Silks, to the prejudice and hinderance of so many Thousand Silk-Weavers of our own? and why do they, (or are they suffered to) Import many other such Goods as hinder the Sale of our own Manufactures both at home and abroad?
• 3. And why do the French Merchants Import ( [...] by stealth, as well as otherwise) so great quantities of Wrought Silks from France, (and 'tis no small shame, as well as loss to the King­dom in general, they are suffered to Import so much any ways) both to the over ballancing of their Exporting Trade with France, and to the great prejudice, damage, and impo­verishing of Ten Thousand of poor Weavers, and Others of our Poor, that might be im­ployed in working and making the same Silk Manufactures here at home? And thus many Thousands more of our Poor might be set to Work than now are by them.

Besides, if these Objectors were in good earnest for the good of the Poor why do they not Buy up all our WOOLL, (and not put any for want of vent, upon a necessity of Exporting any of it) and so imploy more of our Poor; but instead of that, they leave a Year or Two Years WOOLL upon our hands, and let the Poor want so much Imployment.

Object. II. That then they beyond Sea, if they have our WOOLL, would make Cloth, and under-sell us at our Markets, and so we should lose the whole Manufactury.

Answer. This Objection doth indeed concern such as were the first makers of the Irish Act, and Prohibited the bringing in of live Sheep from Ireland with their WOOLL on their backs, into England, whereby their WOOLL became our own growth; but now it can have no weight with us, so long as they beyond Sea have had, and can have WOOLL from Ireland, which is as good as ours; besides from Spain, which is better.

Therefore, so long as they have Irish WOOLL at a much cheaper Rate than ours, they might under-sell us, though they had not a Pound of ours. And the Irish (since the Irish Act) have set up Woollen Manufacturies, and can and will serve Foreign Mar­kets cheaper than us, let us now do what we can.

Thus then, unless you, or those that make the Objection, can Buy up or Destroy all the WOOLL of the growth of Ireland, the Objection proves altoge­ther insignificant: Certainly we ought not be so weak to destroy our selves, and let Ireland have liberty to advance it self, that they may make the best of their Market for their Growth, whil'st we Prohibit and Retrench our own; giving them leave to supply those Markets, that We our selves might and formerly did; and so we wisely raise the Rents of Lands in Ireland, and fall our own, which certainly (one would think) cannot sute well with our right Policy, or true Wisdom for the Publick Good.

Besides, there may be such a Toll and Custom put upon all such WOOLL, as shall happen so to be Exported, as shall render it so dear to them beyond Sea, that they shall never be able to under-sell us at our Markets; whereas now the Price of WOOLL is so low here, 'tis certain that it causes such as steal it over, to sell it so much the lower to them in France, than they would do, if it did bear a good price here at home.

So that, I say, it will be found by experience, the lowering the Price of WOOLL so much here, does certainly cause so much the more WOOLL to be stollen over, or Transported, notwithstanding all the Prohibitions that ever can be made.

The Conclusion of all is this, Let there be some way found out for a full Consumption at home, and then let not a lock of WOOLL be Exported; otherwise, without that, it will prove unreasonable, it will fall our RENTS, and never will have the desired Effect.

All which is humbly submitted to the mature Consideration of This Honourable HOUSE.