A. D. 1622. 319 



In this year Gerard Malynes publiflied bis book intitled, Lex vicrcato 

 ria, in folio. He flates the quantity of woollen goods of all ibrts, broad 

 and narrow, long and fhort, made yearly in all England, to be 250,000 

 pieces or cloths, befide the new draperies called perpetuanas, &c. Yet 

 he is fo incorred and fo wide from probability in other matters, that 

 there is no depending on him ; for inftance, he reckons the number 

 of people in England to be 16,800,000, and in Scotland 9,000,000; 

 in Ireland 5,500 pariflies ; and in France 22,000,000 of people. 



At this time a controverfy arofe, in print, between Malynes (who was 

 a Netherlander, and had been much employed by King James in mer- 

 cantile and money matters, and Edward MifFelden, Efq. an eminent 

 merchant of London, concerning the balance of commerce running 

 againlt us, as before flated, and for redrefling the fcarcity of money, 

 then much complained of. 



Malynes propofed, as the means of keeping our money at home, to 

 alter the courfe of exchange by authority ; a wild and injudicious fancy : 

 as if foreigners beyond fea would be direded, againft their own interefl, 

 to regard any fuch laws made in England. This was in his work inti- 

 tled, the Canker of England's commonwealth, dedicated to Sir Robert 

 Cecil fecretary of flate ; and in his treatife which he called his Little fifli 

 and great whale. Mr. MifTelden, in a piece intitled Free trade, or the 

 means to make trade flourifh, [i2mo, 1622] difplayed the folly of com- 

 pulfion in fuch matters; and more fully in a quarto treatife in 1623, 

 which he called the Circle of commerce ; wherein, and in another in- 

 titled Free trade, he explained the bufinefs of mercantile exchange as it 

 is imderftood at this day, and the weaknefs of attempting to regulate 

 by public authority what is governed by our imports and exports, by 

 the greater or lefs demand for money at home and beyond fea, by wars, 

 famines, peftilences, and by other accidental caufes ; all which render 

 it impoifible to regulate exchanges by authoritative rneans in dealings 

 with other nations. For though it may be true (as Malynes alleged) 

 that the undervaluing of our own monies, in comparifon with the mo- 

 nies of foreign nations, may contribute fomewhat to the overbalance, 

 or to the exchange going againft us, yet the principal caufe will ever be 

 found to be, the greater value of our importation of foreign goods than 

 of our own merchandize exported. This Malynes would not admit, but 

 obftinately mfifted that exchange abfolutely over- rules all money and mer- 

 chandize ; and that a royal proclamation for railing the value of our money 

 equal to, or rather higher tljan, foreign monies, would effectually turn 

 the exchange, and alio the balance of trade, in our favour. Malynes alfo 

 furioufly attacked Tur. MifTelden's laft treatife in one he named the 

 Centre of the circle of commerce. Miflelden, upon the whole, has plain- 

 ly the advantage of his conceited antagonift ; and judicioufly treats of 

 the true caufes of the general balance of trade, then fuppofed to be run- 



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