Of the Effects of the former Causes as they concerne the King Such were the Causes considered in the Matter and Forme of trade. The Effects follow: which doe either concerne the King or the Common-wealth.
Such as are the Causes, such also must needs be the Effects arising from the same: and those doe either respect the King in point of Honour, or in point of Revenue: and both in the Matter and Forme of Trade.
In point of Honour, there is a relation to the King from the Matter of Trade, considered Generally, or Specially.
Generally, in the general neglect of all trades, by temerous, rash, and litigious suites of law: whereby the Peace of the Kingdome is disturbed, the Justice thereof abused, and in both the King dishonoured.
Or Specially in some speciall Commerce of this Kingdome, abused by the Kings Subjects, or Strangers. By the Kings Subjects, in the Drapery of the Kingdome, when His Majesties Seale of Armes, which, as I said, shall be dishonoured by false Cloth and other Manufactures, that are unworthily honoured therewith: and whereby, those that buy the same both within and without the Land, are perswaded the same is good and true, when the same is utterly false: which is a great indignity offered to the King.
By Strangers, in the East India Action, and the matter of Fishing. In the East India Action certainely the Kings Honour is interessed; not onely to protect his subjects against the Injuries done them by the Dutch in the East Indies; but also to maintaine the Glory and Revowne, of His Sacred Fame, which hath heretofore beene Illustrious even unto the Heathen: which some have dared to doe what they could to obscure. The Fishing hath aslo reference to the Kings Honour: for it is a Royalty of the Crowne, which the King in Honour cannot but protect.
There is also an Effect that extendeth it selfe to the Kings Honour in the Forme of Trade, as it is too strict, or too loose.
Too strict, in respect of Monopolies, wherein the Prerogative of the King is abused, and therein His Honour also, by those that thereby seeke to priviledge and Patronize things unlawfull.
Too loose, in the disorderly Trade of the subjects out of Government. For those Strangers that have not beene in our Countrey, nor seene the Order of His Majesties Government, must needes Ex Ungue Leonem, guesse at the Soveraigne by the Subject:
And like to Archimedes who drew the whole pourtraiture of Hercules body, by his footstep onley found in Mount Olympus, proportion the Royall and Regall Government of His Majestie at home, by the deportment of his subjects abroad. And as the Orderly Trade of Merchants is an Honour to the King, when the same is contained within the listes of Government; so the contrary cannot choose but produce a quite contrary effect.
In point of Revenue the Kings treasure is diminished, in the Mater also and Forme of Trade. In the Matter of Trade, either in the Generall course of Trade, or in some Particulars. In the Generall, the great want of money, and decay of Trade throughout all callings and conditions of men, must needes cause a great diminution of His Majesties Revenue, both in His Customes and Supplies. For the Customes, those perpetually rise and fall with Trade: And for Supplies, the subjects being impoverished through want of Money and decay of Trade, are disabled to doe that service to His Majestie, which otherwise they would be willing, and heretofore have beene able to performe, in flourishing times of Trade. And if our experience hereof had beene in the {Greek word omitted} and not in the {Greek word omitted}, in the Contemplation only, and not in Action: we had been much more happy in this Kingdom and Nation.
In the particular course of Trade, it shall content me to instance onely the East India Action, and the Fishing, before referred to the Kings Honour, here to his Revenue. By the East India Action there is a very great losse to the King in His Customes, by the losse of all the Customes which that Trade would have produced in all this time: and of the Encrease also of Trade, which that employment had brought with it, which would have yeelded to His Majesty a great Increase of Customes answerable to the same. Of both which if we had not beene deprived, certainly His Majesties Ferme of His Customes had yeelded Many Thousand pounds a yeare, more then now they have done.
By the Fishing, the Customes and Tolles which are undoubtedly due to His Majesty for the Strangers Fishing upon our Coasts, together with the encrease of Trade, and consequently of Customes thereby also, wold amount to so great a value, that I cannot wonder enough, that the same hath beene neglected all this while.
And lastly in the Forme of Trade, the Kings Revenue is mightily diminished, when by the disorder of Trade, the very course of Trade inverted, and therein the Kings Customes and Subsidies also.
