A. D. 1696. 687 



happen to be at variance with France, fo as to prevent a correfpond- 

 ence, the demand for our woollen goods at foreign markets has then 

 proved fudden and great ; that we have hands enow in Great Bri- 

 tain to work up all our wool at home, fince in England alone, by an 

 eftimate of the parifh rates, in the year 1735 the poor amounted to 

 1,400,000 peribns, of whom 300,000 were reckoned helplefs through 

 age, &c. and orphans; but that the remaining 1,100,000 poor were 

 all, in fome meafure, fit for labour. Laflly, that the only effedual 

 means to keep our wool at home would be to eftablifli a regiftry in 

 every parifh of Great Britain and Ireland, of flock in hand, of wool, 

 and of the dayly increafe or decreafe of the faid flock, by transferring 

 the property from one to another, &c. 



Now, though all that is therein aflerted is not abfolutely to be relied 

 on, and moll of the writers on this very interefling lubject feem, in 

 their computations, to have more or lefs overlhot the mark, fome from 

 zeal, or perhaps private interell, and others merely from ignorance and 

 want of abilities, yet, it inufl be allowed, that a remedy for fo perni- 

 cious a pra61ice, as running great quantities of our wool into foreigti 

 parts, well known to be a reality, is very much wanted ; and that, whe- 

 ther by a regiftry, as above mentioned, or by more flrid guard- floops 

 on our coalls, or by both jointly, whoever fhall be fo happy as to point 

 out an effedlual remedy for fo great an evil, will richly deferve a high 

 reward from the public *. 



1697. — The ill-judged abortive fcheme of a land bank in England, al- 

 ready defcribed, with the deficient funds for the annual fnpplies ; the bad 

 flate of the filver coin, more efpecially in the years 1695 and 1696, and 

 the ill humours contradled thereby, and by difaffedlion to the govern- 

 ment, had brought the infant bank of England into fuch difhculty and 

 diftrefs, that their calh notes were now at a difcount of 15 to 20 per 

 cent, their credit being fo low as to be neceffitated to pay thofe notes 

 only by 10 per cent once in a fortnight, and, at length, to pay only 3 

 per cent on thofe notes once in three months. This diftrefs was occa- 

 fioned by the bank having taken the clipped and diminifhed filver mo- 

 ney at the legal or par value by tale, and guineas at 30/, for which they 

 ifTued their notes payable on demand, and not having received from 

 the mint a fufficient quantity of the new filver coins to anfwer the dayly 

 demands on them for their outftanding notes. The diredlors were 

 thereupon obliged to make two different calls, of 20 per cent each, on: 



* Will there ever be any efFeflual means to pre- there arrived in the one port of Roterdam, nine- 

 vent the Irifh from felling their wool to thofe who teen velfels from Scotland with 982 great bags of 

 are willing to give the belt price for it, except en- Englifli and Scottilh wool ; and In the year 169?^ 

 couraging them to manufaflure it ihemfclves ? I fifteen veflVIs from Scotland carried 981 bags to 

 have feveral accounts of Scottifh velfels carrying the fame port. Similar caufcs muft produce fimi- 

 whole cargoes of wool about this time to Holland, lar eflfeifle. M, 

 Sweden, &c. In the beginning of Odober 1697, 



4 



