then to have fortified himself with Money as aforesaid. But of this more may be said, we hasten to the great point of Wool.
17. The Hollanders having gotten away our Manufacture of Cloth, by becoming able to work with more art, to labour and fare harder, to take less fraight, Duties and Ensurance, hath so madded us here in England, that we have been apt to think of such exorbitantly fierce wayes of prohibiting Wool and Earth to be exported[1], as perhaps would do us twice as much harm as the losse of our said Trade. Wherefore to return to our Wits and Trade again, before we can tell what to do in this case, we must consider;
1. That we are often forced to buy Corn from abroad, and as often complain that we are pestered with abundance of idle hands at home, and withall that we cannot vend the Woollen Manufactures even which our few working hands do produce. In this case were it not better to lessen our sheeptrade, and convert our hands to more Tillage? Because 1. Flesh becoming dearer, there would be encouragement for Fish, which will never be till then. 2. Our Money would not run so fast away for Corn. 3. We should have no such Gluts of Wool upon our hands. 4. Our idle hands would be employed in Tillage and Fishing, one man by the way of grazing, tilling as it were many thousand Acres of Land by himself and his Dog.
2. Suppose we wanted no Corn; nor had any idle hands, and yet that we abounded with more Wool then we can work up; in this[er 1] certainly Wool might be exported, because 'tis |41| supposed, that the hands which work, are already employed upon a better Trade.
3. Suppose the Hollander outdo us by more art, were it
- ↑ The 15th August, 1660, the House of Commons had desired the king to issue a proclamation forbidding the exportation of wool, woolfells, yam, and fullers' earth, and had directed that a bill for the same purpose be brought in. The bill was passed, and became 12 Charles II., c. 32. At the next session of Parliament a similar but more stringent bill was introduced, 4 March, 1662. As this did not become a statute—14 Charles II., c. 18—until the following May it was probably pending at the time when Petty wrote. H. C. Jour., viii. 120, 236, 378, 414, 432.
errata:
- ↑ before [certainly] interline [case]
