clothing comparable to the English bay, nor pheasant excelling a seasonable English red herring!"

The India Company, he says, trading to Persia, India, and Arabia, export to these countries our English commodities, and bring back thence "pepper, cloves, maces, nutmegs, cottons, rice, calicoes of sundry sorts, bezoar stones, aloes, borax, calamus, cassia, mirabolans, myrrh, opium, rhubarb, cinnamon, sanders, spikenard, musk, civet, tamarinds, precious stones of all sorts, as diamonds, pearls, carbuncles, emeralds, jacynths, sapphires, spinals, turques, topazes, indigo, and silks, raw and wrought into sundry fabrics, benjamin, camphire, sandal-wood, and infinite other commodities." "And, though in India and these parts," he adds, "their trade equalizeth not neither the Portugals nor the Dutch, yet, in candid, fair, and merchantlike dealing, these Pagans, Mahometans, and gentiles hold them in esteem far before them, and they deservedly have here the epithet of far more current and square dealers. And, although for the present this trade and company do suffer under some adverse clouds, and groan under some unkind losses by the falsehood of the Netherlanders, and sad accidents at sea, yet their adventures and acts are praiseworthy, and their fair endeavours for England's honour in point of trade meriteth due commendations and just applause." The affairs of the company, in truth, had been all this reign in a very depressed

state.

The Turkey Company is the next that Roberts notices. Of this body he says, "Not yearly, but monthly, nay, almost weekly, their ships are observed to go to and fro, exporting hence the cloths of Suffolk, Gloucester, Worcester, and Coventry, dyed and dressed, kerseys of Hampshire and York, lead, tin, and a great quantity of the abovesaid India spices, indigo, and calicoes; and in return thereof, import from Turkey the raw silks of Persia, Damasco, Tripoly, &c., galls of Mosolo and Toccat; chamlets, grograms, and mohairs of Angora; cottons and cotton-yarn of Cyprus and Smyrna, and sometimes the gems of India, and drugs of Egypt and Arabia, the muscadins of Candia, the corance (currants) and oils of Zante, Cephalonia, and Morea, with sundry others." The mention of cotton by Roberts in these accounts of the exports of the East India and Turkey companies appears to have been generally overlooked; the earliest notice either of the English cotton manufacture or of the import of the raw material being commonly stated to be that found in his subsequent work, "The treasure of Traffic," published in 1641, where, it is said, "The town of Manchester, in Lancashire, must be also herein remembered, and worthily for their encouragement commend

ed, who buy the yarn of the Irish in great quantity, and, weaving it, return the same again into Ireland to sell. Neither doth their industry rest here; for they buy cotton-wool in London that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home work the same, and perfect it into fustians, vermillions, dimities, and other such stuffs, and then return it to London, where the same is vented and sold, and not seldom sent into foreign parts, who have means at far easier terms to provide themselves of the said first materials." This account implies that the cotton manufacture had already reached a point of considerable advancement, so that it must have been established for some years at the time when the "Treasure of Traffic" was written. Various old acts of parliament and other authorities, it may be observed, make mention of Manchester cottons and cotton-velvets before the seventeenth century; but it is certain that the fabrics so denominated were all really composed of sheep's wool. The manufacture of cottons, properly so called, in England, cannot be traced farther back, than to the period with which we are now engaged, the early part of the reign of Charles I.-(Craik's British Commerce.)

The ancient company of the Merchant Adventurers is the third in Roberts' list. They are described as furnishing the cities of Hamburgh, Rotterdam, and others in the Netherlands, with English cloth of sundry shires, and some other commodities, monthly, and as bringing back thence to England tapestries, diaper, cambrics, Hollands, lawns, hops, mather, (madder,) steel, Rhenish wines, and many other manufactures, as blades, stuffs, soap, latten, wire, plates, &c.

The Eastland and Muscovy (or Russian) Companies are stated to "export principally cloth, as the best commodity, as also tin, lead, with some spices of India, and other southern commodities, and to bring home ashes, clapboard, copper, deals, firs, rich furs, masts, pipe-staves, rye, timber, wainscot, wheat, fustians, iron, latten, linen, mathers, quicksilver, flax, hemp, steel, caviare, cordage, hides, honey, tar, ropes, tallow, pitch, wax, rosin, and sundry others."

The exports of the French Company were cloths, kerseys, and bays of English manufacture, with galls, silks, and cottons from Turkey; their imports, buckrams, canvas, cards, glass, grain, linens, salt, claret, and white wines, wood, oils, almonds, pepper, with some silk stuffs and some other petty manufactures. England and France, however, were at this time, as they have continued to be, with little interruption, down almost to the present day, jealous rivals, when they were not open enemies, in trade as in everything else, and the commer

cial intercourse between them was extremely insignificant. Although Roberts here speaks of the French Company, it does not appear that the English merchants trading to Franco were really incorporated. The merchants trading to Spain, he proceeds to inform us, carried to that country bays, says, serges, perpetuanos, lead, tin, herring, pilchards, salmon, Newland (Newfoundland) fish, calf-skins, with many other commodities; and brought back wines of Xeres, Malaga, Bastard, Candado, and Alicant, rosins, (or resins,) olives, oils, sugars, soaps, anise-seeds, licorice, soda barillia, pate, (?) and sundry West India commodities. This account embraces also the trade with Portugal, for the present united under the same sovereignty with Spain; although in 1640, two years after the publication of Roberts' book, the great revolution which placed the Duke of Braganza on the Portuguese throne again separated the two countries for ever-an event which, by depriving Spain of the Portuguese possessions in the East Indies, compelled her to depend upon the English and Dutch for her supplies of the produce of that part of the world, and thereby opened a new and valuable field to the trade of both these nations.

"The merchants of England trading into Naples, Sicilia, Genoa, Leghorn, and Venice, &c., which I term Italy, are not," says our author, "observed to have any joint society or company;" but, trading separately, they export to Italy, he tells us, "bays, says, serges, perpetuanos, kerseys, lead, tin, cloth, and many other native commodities, besides pepper, indigo, cloves, and other Indian commodities, in great abundance; and for returns thence have cloths of gold and silver, satins, velvets, taffetas, plushes, tabins, (?) damasks, alum, oils, glass, anise-seeds, rice, Venice gold and silver, great quantity of raw silks of sundry sorts, and divers other commodities." "And here likewise," he adds, repeating nearly the same formula with which he has wound up every preceding paragraph, "all other foreign nations give willingly place to the English, as the prime and principal merchants, that either abide amongst them or negociate with them." Of some other branches of our commerce he gives merely a to insist upon naked enumeration; thinking it unnecessary the reliques of that famous Barbary trade," or to mention "the petty adventures of the English to Guinea and Beny," (or Benin;) "neither," says he, in conclusion, "need I nominate the homeland commerce of this kingdom to Scotland and Ireland; neither go about to particularize the large traffic of this island to their late plantations of Newfoundland, Somers Islands, Virginia, Barbadoes, and New England, and

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to other places which rightly challenge an interest in the present trade and traffic of this kingdom."

SECT. XXXVI.-THOMAS MUNN, MERCHANT OF LONDON.

This commercial writer is chiefly noticeable now, because he was one of the ablest exponents of what was called the "Mercantile System;" also because he continued to be referred to, up to a recent period, as a mercantile authority. From the omission of commercial men, no matter how eminent, from biographical literature, it is impossible now to do justice to the memories of some of these old merchants. The following remarks on Munn we quote from Mr Maculloch :

"Munn may be considered as the earliest expositor of what has been called the Mercantile System of commercial policy. It was found to be indispensable to the profitable carrying on of the trade to India and the East generally, that the exportation of gold and silver, which had hitherto been prohibited, should be permitted. But though Munn, in accordance with the prejudices of his time, admitted that the precious metals were the only real wealth a country could possess, he contended that their exportation might be safely allowed, provided the balance of payments were in our favour; that is, provided the total value of the exports exceeded the total value of the imports; for in that case, said Munn, the balance must be paid in bullion, and our riches will annually increase by its amount. It would be useless to take up the reader's time by entering into any lengthened statements illustrative of the hollowness of this theory. Everybody is now aware that the circumstances which determine the importation and exportation of bullion are the same with those which determine the importation and exportation of other things; and that, though the balance of payments were 10 to 20 millions in our favour, or against us, not a single ounce of bullion would be imported or exported, if there were any other article whatever that might be imported or exported with greater advantage. Everybody is also aware that but little bullion can be exported from one country and imported into another, without so raising its value in the exporting, and lowering it in the importing country, as to put an end to its transfer. And everybody further knows that, in all ordinary cases, the value of the imports must considerably exceed the value of the exports; and that the excess of the former, (and not its defect,) is the measure of the profit realized in the trade with the foreigner. But, such as it was, this theory

kept its ground for a lengthened period, and was all but universally assented to by the merchants and legislature. Hence the bounties and premiums so frequently given on the exportation of domestic produce, and the formidable difficulties thrown, by means of prohibitions and heavy duties, in the way of importing foreign produce; and hence also the fact that, though its principles have been completely overthrown, it still continues to exercise a powerful practical influence."— (Literature of Political Economy.)

SECT. XXXVII.-SIR JOSIAH CHILD.

This eminent merchant published a defence of the East India Company about the year 1609; but he is better known for his "New Discourse on Trade," published in 1668, and written in 1665, "in the sickness year at his country house," as he states. His views on many subjects were in advance of his age; but there is certainly no soundness in the leading doctrine of the present work, which is, that the principal cause of national wealth is a low rate of interest established by law, the fact being, that the natural rate of interest, being merely another name for the price of credit, is always dependent upon the state of the market of credit, that is to say, upon the supply of disposable capital, and the demand for it by borrowers; and that all that the establishment of a legal rate of interest can do is in some degree to impede and disturb the course of the influences which regulate the natural rate, and which, if they were left to themselves, would determine the actual rate. In other words, a low rate of interest, instead of being, as Child imagined, a cause of national wealth, by which he meant the accumulation of capital, might more truly be said to be a consequence of such accumulation; for if the rate of profit, and consequently the demands of borrowers, should continue the same, the rate of interest would be brought down by the mere growth of disposable capital. But, notwithstanding this fundamental mistake of the book on a theoretical point, it may, from the position and opportunities of the author, be safely taken as a trustworthy authority in regard to most of the statements as to matters of fact contained in it.

The branches of English commerce which Child speaks of as having been most extended in his time are the trade with Spain and Portugal, and with the East Indies. In his preface he asserts that, since the year 1640, our exports of native commodities to the Peninsula had been more than trebled. He was