

Bnt'yb Trade with Turhy. $% 



Iraders, and our navigators, will again reftore to us our lore 

 Turkey trade. 



It may be faid, that at prefent the Levant Company is not 

 a monopoly, as any one, by paying twenty pounds, maybe- 

 come a member of it. When the trade was already ruined, 

 it was imagined that this regulation was equivalent to laying 

 the trade open, (a proof that government have thought it 

 neceflary to abolifh the monopoly;) but the bye-laws of the 

 companv, and the power to enforce them, were permitted to 

 exile, and thefe fo fetter the trade to new adventurers, that 

 few have found their account in purfuing it, and the trade 

 it ill remains a monopoly in favour of the old houfes. 



It will be neceflary to pafs in review thefe bye-laws, which 

 have operated fo injurioufly to the trade in general; and to 

 Know how they have gradually effected its total ruin, and the 

 introduction of rivals, who have gotten pofleffion of what 

 we have loft. 



By one of the bye-laws, for inftance, it was enacted, that 

 all merchandife brought from Turkey, and imported into 

 England, (hould be the produce of goods exported from Eng- 

 land to Turkey. The following are the words of the bye-law: 

 " That upon entering goods received in England from 

 Turkey or Egypt, every member fhall in like manner fub- 

 fcribe the following affirmation; videlicet: 



" I affirm, by the oath I have taken to the Levant Com- 

 pany, that the goods above mentioned are for account of 

 myfelf, or others free of the faid company, or of fuch as now 

 have their licence to trade, and are beyond the feas; and that 

 the faid goods, nor any part of them, are not, to the beft of 

 my knowledge, the produce of gold or fiber, either in coin 

 or bullion, fent into Turkey ; but that the faid goods are 

 purchafed by merchandife, or monies arifing or to arife from 

 the fale of merchandife fent into Turkey or Egypt, from 

 Europe, or from the Britiih fettlements in America, on ac- 

 count of freemen of the Levant Company, or fuch as have 

 their licence to trade, and of which regular entries have been 

 n made 



