The stock England formerly had running in trade and manufactures was very considerable, and I am sorry, upon a careful inquiry, to find it so much decreased: what remains, and more than can be gathered in many years of peace, will be sufficiently employed in that business, where the nation is a certain and known gainer; and therefore should not be diverted upon uncertain objects, and turned upon new inventions, in which it cannot be determined, in many years, whether we get or lose, and how the balance stands; and of this nature and kind are the silk and linen manufactures in England.
Silk is a manufacture of a foreign extract, and not the genuine product of this country; it employes indeed the poor, but is not composed froma material of our own growth. Whatever encouragement it meets with, it cannot thrive with us, being not calculated for our meridian: it is fit only for frugal nations, where parsimony renders craft and workmanship not dear, upon which score the French, Italians and Dutch will always be able to undersell us in that commodity, and hinder any success we can propose. And as an example of this, did not the Hollanders, lately, bring hither French lustring, under their seal, which they could afford so cheap, as to undersell the projectors of it here, though they were at the charge of freight and custom?
The stock and industry laid out on the silk manufacture, would be more usefully employed in such as are made from materials of our own growth.
If the luxury of wearing silk could be quite abolished, such a reformation would undoubtedly be beneficial to the kingdom; but since this is not easily to be compassed, a wise state must consider which way the folly of their people can be supplied at the cheapest rate, for frugality of this nature as certainly enriches the whole, as it does any private person.
There are brough from India two sorts of silks.
The one is of such a sort as is not made in England, and consequently only hinders the importation of the like kind, at a dearer rate, from Holland, France, Turkey, and other places.
The other is of the like sort with those made here, notwithstanding which, it must certainly be prejudicial to the interest of England, to forbid their importation from India, unless those, and all other kinds of silk applicable to the same uses, could be prohibited to be brought from foreign countries:
since by such prohibition (unless the vanity itself can be cured)we only enrich the neighbouring nations at our expence.
The East-India goods, since they were in use, have apparently lowered the price of silks from France, Spain, and Italy, at least 25 per cent and if their importation should be prohibited, will it not follow naturally that the European countries will again advance upon us?
And the French, Italians and Dutch, who upon several accounts are able to underwork us, will undoubtedly fall to making and sending hither such commodities, as may stand in the room here of Indian goods, and, at the low rates they can afford them, they will quickly ruin our silk manufactures: and when the fabric is destroyed, and the stock and hands employed in it are diverted to other uses, they may put what fine they please upon our vanity.
The Dutch have such a silk manufacture in their country, that, by computation, there is imported hither, from thence, more of that commodity, one year with another, than we bring from India. Most of the velvets used here come from thence, and are purchased by us at a dearer price than could be afforded from India, or made here at home, if we were skilled in the workmanship.
And notwithstanding the Dutch have so considerable a silk manufacture of their own, instead of prohibiting, they encourage the importation of all East-India silks; well knowing, that it is the interest of every nation, to go to their own, or foreign markets, with goods as cheap as they can, thereby to beat out all others. And that the cheapness of any commodity will force a way into those countries where it is prohibited, if any of the like sort and kind is indulged and permitted to be worn there; nothing being able to render the prohibition of goods intirely effectual in any nation, but a capacity in the inhabitants of such a country to afford them at cheaper rates, which can hardly be the case of England.
As to the linen manufacture, it is no more the genuine offspring of this kingdom than that of silk.
It is true, that some of the materials for it may be had from our own soil, but not enough to supply our whole consumption, and we can never pretend to make the finer sort.
And if the now intended prohibition should so operate, as utterly to lose us the East-India trade (which peradventure may be the case) the Dutch may put what rate they please upon their callicoes; and the Dutch and French, and other nations, will impose any price upon their fine linens, (which our callicoes for some years have kept down) so that our necessary consumption in this commodity will stand us in above 40 per cent more than it does at present.
This manufacture is proper only for countries where they can have flax and hemp cheap, and where the common people work at very easy rates.
But though with forcing nature, and by art and industry, we could bring it to greater perfection, yet upon other accounts it is perhaps not advisable, nor for the nation's interest, to promote it.
1st, Our soil, and the labour of the people, may be employed about materials more advantageous, and wherein we cannot be undersold by other countries.
