lffl ENGLAND. • 



the insolence of their masters; they therefore invoked, and> after a 

 struggle in which they were assisted by the money and forces of Eli- 

 zabeth, erected an independent and powerful commonwealth. 



When the inhabitants of the Low-Countries had formed their sys- 

 tem of government, and some remission of the war gave them leisure 

 to provide for their future prosperity, they easily perceived, that, as 

 their territories were narrow, and their numbers small, they could 

 preserve themselves only by that power which is the consequence of 

 %vealth ; and that by a people, whose country produced only the neces- 

 saries of life, wealth was not to be acquired but from foreign domi- 

 tiions, and by transportation of the products of one country into ano- 

 ther. 



From this necessity, thus justly estimated, arose a plan of com- 

 merce, which was for many years prosecuted with an industry and 

 success perhaps never seen in the world before ; and by which the 

 poor tenants of mud-walled villages and impassable bogs, erected 

 themselves into high and mighty states, who set the greatest mo- 

 narchs at defiance, whose alliance was courted by the proudest, and 

 whose power was dreaded by the fiercest nations. By the esta- 

 blishment of this state, there arose to England a new ally and a new 

 rival. 



When queen Elizabeth entered upon the government, the customs 

 produced only 36,000/!. a year : at the Restoration, they were let to 

 farm for 400,000/. and produced considerably above, double that sum 

 before the revolution. The people of London, before we had any 

 plantations, and when our trade was inconsiderable, were computed 

 at about 100,000 ; at the death of queen Elizabeth they were increas- 

 ed to 1 50,000, and are now nearly six times that number. In those 

 days we had not only naval stores, but ships, from our neighbours. 

 Germany furnished us with all things made of metal, even to nails : 

 wine, paper, linen, and a thousand other things, came from France. 

 Portugal furnished us with sugars : all the produce of America was 

 brought to us from Spain ; and the Venetians and Genoese retailed to 

 us the commodities of the East-Indies at their own price. The legal 

 interest of money was twelve per cent, and the common price of our 

 land ten or twelve years purchase. We may add, that our manufac- 

 tures were few, and those but indifferent ; the number of English 

 merchants very small ; and our shipping much inferior to what lately 

 belonged to the American colonies. 



Great Britain is, of all other countries, the most proper for trade ; 

 as well from its situation as an island, as from the freedom and excel- 

 lency of its constitution, and from its natural products and considera- 

 ble manufactures. For exportation, our country produces many of 

 the most substantial and necessary commodities ; as butter, cheese, 

 corn, cattle, wool, iron, lead, tin, copper, leather, copperas, pit-coal, 

 alum, saffron, &c. Our corn sometimes preserves other countries 

 from starving. Our horses are the most serviceable in the world, and 

 highly valued by all nations for their hardiness, beauty, and strength. 

 With beef, mutton, pork, poultry, biscuit, we victual not only our 

 own fleets, but many foreign vessels that come and go. Our iron we 

 export manufactured in great guns, carcasses, bombs, Sec. Prodi- 

 gious and almost incredible is the value likewise of other goods from 

 hence exported, viz. hops, flax, hemp,' hats, shoes, household-stuff, 

 ale, beer, red-herrings, pilchards, salmon, oysters, liquorice, watches., 

 ribands, toys, &c. 

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