$^S A. D. 1669. 



board flilps of Holland. This was the cafe in his time. Voltaire (in' 

 his Age of Louis XIV) fays, that this great prince foon after granted a 

 bounty of five livres per ton for every new fhip built in France, where- 

 by fhipping foon became more plenty : yet he fays, that fo ignorant 

 were they then in France, that not a few condemned thofe wife mea- 

 iures as pernicious. 



With refpe6t to the woollen manufactures-, there is a general miftakc 

 prevails with many even to this day, in imagining that the fine broad 

 cloth in France is principally fupported by our Englifli run wool, fee- 

 ing it is well known that the real fuperfine cloth everywhere mufl: be 

 entirely of Spanifli v>'ool, and therefor often called Spanifli cloths ; and 

 that though the fecond fort of French cloth is much meliorated by the 

 help of our fine fliort wool, yet for the mofi; part the beft wool of France 

 alone may do well enough for tli,eir coarfe cloths. And it is principally 

 for their fine fluffs, hofe, caps, &c. that the French find our foft and 

 long combing wool (the beft of its kind in all Europe) abfolutely necef- 

 fary, feeing, without a certain proportion thereof mixed itp with their 

 own wool, they cannot make thofe fine goods fit for the markets of 

 Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Moreover, by running our wool to Ham- 

 burgh, Holland, Flanders, France, &c. thofe countries are enabled to 

 manufacture thofe fluffs and ftockings, to the great detriment of our 

 own manufacturers. 



The French in our days take from us no other commodities than 

 what they can farther improve or manufa6hu-e ; or fuch as they cannot 

 as yet be without, viz. raw hides, leather, beef, and butter, chiefly from 

 Ireland ; and alfo much leaf tobacco. 



De Witt eflimates the increafe of the commerce and navigation of 

 Holland in the fliort fpace of time from the pacification with Spain, in 

 tlie year 1648, to this year 1669, to be fully one half. He obferves 

 that, during the war with Holland, Spain loft the bulk of her naval 

 power : and fince the peace the Dutch have moflly beat the Eaflerlings 

 and the Englifh out of the trade to Spain, all the coafts of which coun- 

 try are navigated chiefly by Dutch fliipping ; and for want of fliips and 

 fulors of their own, Spain has now openly begun to hire Dutch fliips 

 to fail to her Indies, though formerly fo careful to exclude all foreigners 

 from thence : and fo great is the fupply of Dutcli. manufactures to 

 Spain, &c. that all the nierchandize brought from the Spanifli Wefl- 

 Indies is not fufficient to make returns for them ; fo that the Dutch 

 carry home the balance in money. [Irjte/r/i of Holland, part ii, c. 8.] 



The fame great author, for the better illuftration of the increafe of 

 ,the Dutch commerce and of their people, has exhibited the computed 

 number of the inhabitants of the province of Holland and Weft-Friefe- 

 land at this time, with the feveral means whereby they are fupported.,. 

 viz. 



