Preface.
243
'Tis true, the Expence of foreign Commodities hath of The real Prejudices of England. late been too great; much of our Plate, had it remain'd Money, would have bet-||ter served Trade; too many Matters have been regulated by Laws, which Nature, long Custom, and general Consent, ought only to have governed; the Slaughter and Destruction of Men by the late Civil Wars and Plague have been great; the Fire at London, and Disaster at Chatham[1], have begotten Opinions in the Vulgus of the World to our Prejudice; the Nonconformists increase[2]; the People of Ireland think long of their Settlement; the English there apprehend themselves to be Aliens, and are forced to seek a Trade with Foreigners, which they might as well maintain with their own Relations in England. But notwithstanding all this (the like whereof was always in all Places), the Buildings of London grow great and glorious; The Improvements of England. the American Planta-||tions employ four Hundred Sail of Ships; Actions in the East-India Company are near double the principal Money; those who can give good Security, may have Money under the Statute- Interest; Materials for building (even Oaken-Timber) are little the dearer, some cheaper for[3] the rebuilding of London[4]; the Exchange seems as full of Merchants as formerly; no more Beggars in the Streets, nor executed for Thieves, than heretofore; the Number of Coaches, and Splendor of Equipage exceeding former Times; the publique Theatres very magnificent; the King has a greater Navy, and stronger Guards than before our Calamities; the Clergy rich, and the Cathedrals in
- ↑ Refers to the presence of the Dutch fleet in the Thames, the attack on Chatham, and the burning of the English ships there 10 June, 1667. Mahan, Influence of the Sea Power, 132.
- ↑ Among the 'nonconformists' Petty may have included Roman Catholics. In the Further Observations he numbers them among the 'dissenters.'
- ↑ Edward Arber, in his ed. of the Polit. Arith. inserts an 'all' in brackets.
- ↑ Coke admitted that the superior durability of English timber had theretofore offset the advantage which the Dutch enjoyed in being able to build ships for half what the English could. But he held that all the best English timber was at length wasted and destroyed and still more must be in rebuilding the City of London. He could not therefore, understand how, for the future, the English could possibly build as good ships as either Dutch, Dane or French for three times the price. Treatise II, p. 115.
