The Causes of the decay of Trade, in the Merchandize of England Such are the causes of the matter of trade considered in the want of money, themerchandize followeth. Merchandize is that naturall matter of Commerce, whereby men busie themselves in buying and selling, chopping and changing, to the encrease of Artes, and enriching of Common-wealths: according to that of the Poet {Greek phrase omitted}, Bona lis mortalibus haec est.
And to the end there should be a Commerce amongst men, it hath pleased God to invite as it were, one Countrey to traffique with another, by the variety of things which the one hath, and the other hath not: that so that which is wanting to the one, might be supplied by the other, that all might have sufficient.
Which thing the very windes and seas proclaime, in giving passage to all nations: the windes blowing sometimes towards one Country, sometimes toward another; that so by this divine justice, every one might be supplyed in things necessary for life and maintenance.
And this, Seneca thought to be a principall benefit of nature, Quod & vento gentes locis disipatas miscuit, & sua omnia in regiones ita descripsit, ut necessarium mortalibus esset inter ipsos Commercium. Nature by the benefit of the wind, hath so mixed people, dispersed in divers places, and so distributed her gifts in divers Countries, that there should be a necessity of Commerce amongst men. Which agreeth with that of Aristotle, Est translatio rerum omnium caepta ab initio, ab eo quod est secudum naturam, cum homines haberent plura quam sufficerent, partim etiam pauciora, negotiatione suppleri id quod natura deest, quo commode omnibus sufficiat.
And that we doe not goe out of the Christian world for an example hereof, let us consider the state of the Netherlands, in what a miserable case those people were, if they received not supply from all other Nations. They have nothing of their owne, and yet they seeme to possesse all things in the supply they receive from all the world.
And surely if any Kingdome under the Sunne can subsist of it selfe, none hath more cause to blesse God, then this Iland of ours, which Almighty God hath richly adorn'd with variety of allthings necessary for mans life and welfare. As with Corne, and our Wine: Cattle, Wooll, Cloth, Tynne, Iron, Lead, Saffran, Waxe, Hoppes, Hydes, Tallow, Flaxe, Fowle, Fish, and many othres: whereby, thanks bee to God, the people of this Land, have not onely sufficient for their owne mainenance, but doe abundantly supply the wants of all other Nations.
Now the Trade and Commerce of this Kingdome within it selfe, and with Forreine Nations, consisting of so many rich Commodities; let us consider them all joyntly, and then some principall of them apart.
Jointly considered, the causes of the decay of Trade in them, may be said either to be Deficient or Efficient. Deficient, either in the generall want of money in the Kingdome; or the particular want of the East India stocke. I shewed before, what were the causes of the want of money: & that the disaster upon the East India Trade is a remote cause thereof: but these are both causes of the decay of trade. For money is the vitall spirit of trade, and if the spirits faile, needs must the body faint.
And as the body of trade seemeth to be dead without the life of money: so doe also the members of the Common-wealth, without their means of trade. We say, that an Artizan or workeman, cannot worke without tooles or instruments: no more can a Merchant trade without money or meanes. And in the want of so great a stocke, as is that of the East India Company, the Body of this Common-wealth hath lost the use of many of it principall members; by whose industry, art, and action the Commerce thereof might wonderfully have been encrea'st. The losse whereof, to him that is not wilfully blinde, is apparently sensible in the Drapery of the kingdome, whereby the poore are set on worke: and in all the other trades of the kingdome, whereby the subjects are employed: and hath begot that great and generall dampe and deadnesse in all the trades of the kingdome, which we unhappily feele at this day.
The Efficient causes of the decay of trade jointly considered, are either Usuary, or unnecessary suits in law. In the former I am prevented, and my labour spared, by him that wrote a little treatise against usury: which it seeme's for modesty he refuseth to owe: though I could wish, that those that deserve of the publique were knowne to the publique: least they be served as sometimes Batillus served Virgil, and so be forc'd too late to proclaime, Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter Honores.
I have a word onely to adde to his Usury, that it is not an Usury of ten in the hundred only, that wringeth this Common-wealth, but an extorsion also of 20-30-40, nay of Cento per Cento per Anno, as the Italians speake, given and taken on pledges and pawnes, and that on poore peoples labours, in London especially: which is a biting Usury indeed, and a fearefull crying sinne before God.
Unnecessary suites of Law are also Efficient causes of the decay of trade. Wherein certainely this Kingdome exceedeth all other kingdomes in the world. As the Justice of this kingdom is the Diadem of the King, and doth stabilire Regis thronum, and tribuere cuique suum: whereby men may five Caesar Caesar's, and meum and tuum one to another: so is the Justice of the King, in the sacred person of His Majestie, amongst other His Royall Vertues, and Embleme and represation of highest Majesty: and it is an incomparable happinesse of this kingdome, to have such a Malchizedec, a King of Justice, a King of Peace.
