548 A. D. 1670. 



* fupplies. And thofe goods exported, do produce in foreign parts to 



* be returned to England, fix times the treafure in fpecie which the 



* company exports from England to India. 



He therefor concludes, ' that although the Eaft-India company's im- 



* ports greatly exceed its exports of our manuta6lures, yet, for the above 

 ' reafons, it is clearly a gainful trade to the nation : he fubjoins to this, 



* ill, that if we had not this trade ourfelves, the imgle article of falc- 

 ' petre, fo abfoultely neceffary for making gunpowder, would coft us a 



* vafl annual fum to purchafe it from the Dutch : 2dly, the lofs of fo 

 ' many flout fhips and mariners would be a great detriment to the na- 

 ' tion : 3dly, were we forced to buy all our pepper, calicoes, &c. from 

 ' the Dutch, they would make us pay as dear for them as vve do for 

 ' their nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, and mace ; and if we did not ufe 

 ' calicoes, we fhould fall into the ufe of foreign linens*.'" 



In the ingenious Mr. Polexfen's Difcourfe on trade (1696), there is 

 the following remarkable paragraph, relating to our Englilli Eaft-India 

 company, viz. ' till after the year 1670, the importations from Eaft- 

 ' India were chiefly drugs, ialtpetre, fpices, calicoes, and diamonds: 

 ' then throwfters, weavers, dyers, &c. were fent to India by the compa- 

 ' ny, for teaching the Indians to pleafe the Europeans fancies.' And 

 this brought to us an inundation of wrought lilks and fluffs of many 

 various forts, whereby our own manufadures were greatly obftructed : 

 wherefor, long after, the legiflature found it neceflary abfolutely to pro- 

 hibit the wear of them at home. So now they are all re-exported. 



After all that has formerly been faid on the following fubjed, we are 

 neverthelefs greatly obliged to Sir ]ofiah Child in particular, for the 

 firfl judicious difl^rtation we have met with on the difficulties attending 

 the means of difcovering the true ftate of our national balance of trade : 

 wherefor we have thrown this, and the arguments of fome other later 

 authors together, on this curious and mofl interefting inquiry, that the 

 whole may appear in one view. 



There are (lay they) but three ways of judging whether the balance 

 of trade be for or agamft us, viz. 



1) By difcovering the true value of our exports and imports from 

 the cuftom-houfe books ; and this would doubtlefs be a good rule were 

 it practicable : yet as there is a difficulty, and even an impoflibility, of 

 taking a true account, as well of the quantity as of the value of commodi- 

 ties exported and imported, this rule will by no means effectually ferve us. 



i) Becaufe many fine goods, as jewels, fine lace, cambrics, rich fiiks^ 

 8cc. are imported by flealch. 



* The immenfe incieafe and improvement of In the revolutions of trade and manufaftures, 



Scottilli and Iiifh linens fincc Child's time have linens are now ( 1 798) lilscly to be fiiptricded by 



rendered the ule of foreign linens unnecefrary : home-made calicoes, wliich, by means of the great 



but the other arguments remain valid even to the fiving of labour in the fpinning engines, are now 



prefent times. /!. ijande much cheaper than them. M. 



