and by compositions with the French farmers,[1] to the value (as I am well informed, when in Holland about six years since) of near 300,000l. per annum. Since the trade with the Spaniards has been interrupted, they must have carried of the same goods great quantities to Portugal; otherwise, how could they dispose of all the baize sent from hence to Holland, which article of baize, from 1699 to 1704, amounts to, at a medium of the said five years, 92,526l. per annum—a larger proportion than they can possibly be conceived to consume themselves; and from Portugal it must have found its way to Spain and the West Indies. The same may be said of perpetuauas, serges, says, and other stuffs; as also of stockings, woollen and worsted, for men, women, and children. During both the wars, not only the fine draperies, but manufactures from the long wool, got into France from the frontier places, which turned to the profit of Holland; and of late years, since they have so much enlarged their traffics, and accumulated such a stock of wealth to support their trade, they have carried up the rivers into Germany great parcels of fine cloths, stuffs, says, and serges, which our merchants were wont formerly to export to Hamburgh and other parts of the German empire upon their own accounts." So likewise with regard to the tin taken from us by the Dutch. Our export of tin to all foreign countries amounted in 1663 to 153 tons; in 1669 to 240; in the three years of peace, from 1698 to 1700, on an average, to 1297; and in the ten years of war, from 1700 to 1710, on an average, to 1094. In these last ten years the Dutch alone bought from us annually, on an average, 5937 cwt,, or nearly 300 tons, of the estimated value of 21,374l. "It is not difficult," says Davenant, "to account for the reasons why our late exportations of tin so far exceed those of former times. All our neighbours, as well as ourselves, have increased in the luxurious ways of living; such who heretofore were content with pewter are now served in plate, and such as made use of trenchers, wooden platters, and earthenware will now have pewter; all which is visible
- ↑ Of customs.
