An Essay on the East-India Trade [14]
of this nature, without contemplating the universal posture and business of the nation: and when so important deliberations are afoot, the number of the people should be examined, their annual consumption, both of home and foreign materials, should be well stated, the ready-money, and other stock of the kingdom, should be enquired into; the sum of money, and hands employed in every distinct trade, should be duly contemplated; and upon such a general inspection and view of the whole, we might be ripe to deliberated on any single point. And false measures and rash counsels in affairs so important, are hardly capable of a future remedy. The Hollanders have in their possession all the spice islands, which they have strongly fortified; and by this means they lay a kind of excise upon those necessary commodities which all Europe is forced to pay. By the seizing of Bantam, they have got almost 3 parts in 4 of the pepper trade.
Brought into Europe since the loss of Bantam, and before the present war (communibus annis) of pepper, about 5000 Tuns Of which imported by the French and Danes, about 500 Tuns By the English, about 900 Tuns By the Dutch, about 3600 Tuns Total 5000 Tuns
The Hollanders, at this time, are very powerful in India; they have many good forts and castles well provided, and large colonies of men; and they can, upon any occasion, call together there 40 strong frigates; so that if it agreed with the present circumstances of their affairs in Europe, or with the nature of the alliance they are engaged in, it is undoubtedly in their power, to engross this rich traffic wholly to themselves, and to expel us for ever from those countries. Perhaps they may not think it a safe advice, to attempot doing this by force, but we shall have no reason to complain, if they take in hand, what we give over and abandon. But suppose they should drive us from thence by force of arms, or that we should quit the trade to them through negligence and folly, it will be worth while to consider, what addition of wealth and strength an entire monopoly of East-India goods may prove to that commonwealth. And, my lord, if I am not much deceived in political arithmetic, it would bring yearly a much greater mass of treasure to the united provinces, than is brought into Europe from the mines of Peru and Mexico. This side of the world is so fond of those vanities, that if they could be had but at one market such a market might, by their means, draw from the rest of Europe continually per ann at least 6 millions. To prove this assertion will take up more time than consists with the brevity intended in this discourse; I shall therefore only give one instance, and that is pepper, by which some judgment may be made of all the other commodities. Pepper 5000 tuns at 2 d. per lb as it may cost the Dutch in India, amounts to 74,666 l. 13 s. 4 d. Add to this 3 d. per lb for freight into Holland, then it costs 5 d. per lb which amounts to 186,666 l. 13 s. 4 d. Ditto 500 tuns sold in Holland at 12 d. per lb the profit being 7 d. per lb will amount to 261,333 l. 6 s. 8 d. But this commodity is grown so necessary, and has so obtained, and is of such general use, that it may be sold in Holland at 6 s. per lb which is less than any of the other spices, as cheap in India as pepper. Then 5000 tuns sold in Holland at 6 s. per lb the profit bing 5 s. 7 d. per lb will amount to 2,498,836 l. 13 s. 4 d. If from the single article of pepper, such a sum as 2,498,836 l. may be raised, it will not be difficult to conceive, that by raising the price of other spices, wrought silks, callicoes, raw silks, saltpetre and other Indian goods, the Hollanders, by an entire monopoly of this trade, may drain the rest of Europe every year of at least 6 millions. Considering their naval force, and
Brought into Europe since the loss of Bantam, and before the present war (communibus annis) of pepper, about 5000 Tuns Of which imported by the French and Danes, about 500 Tuns By the English, about 900 Tuns By the Dutch, about 3600 Tuns Total 5000 Tuns
The Hollanders, at this time, are very powerful in India; they have many good forts and castles well provided, and large colonies of men; and they can, upon any occasion, call together there 40 strong frigates; so that if it agreed with the present circumstances of their affairs in Europe, or with the nature of the alliance they are engaged in, it is undoubtedly in their power, to engross this rich traffic wholly to themselves, and to expel us for ever from those countries. Perhaps they may not think it a safe advice, to attempot doing this by force, but we shall have no reason to complain, if they take in hand, what we give over and abandon. But suppose they should drive us from thence by force of arms, or that we should quit the trade to them through negligence and folly, it will be worth while to consider, what addition of wealth and strength an entire monopoly of East-India goods may prove to that commonwealth. And, my lord, if I am not much deceived in political arithmetic, it would bring yearly a much greater mass of treasure to the united provinces, than is brought into Europe from the mines of Peru and Mexico. This side of the world is so fond of those vanities, that if they could be had but at one market such a market might, by their means, draw from the rest of Europe continually per ann at least 6 millions. To prove this assertion will take up more time than consists with the brevity intended in this discourse; I shall therefore only give one instance, and that is pepper, by which some judgment may be made of all the other commodities. Pepper 5000 tuns at 2 d. per lb as it may cost the Dutch in India, amounts to 74,666 l. 13 s. 4 d. Add to this 3 d. per lb for freight into Holland, then it costs 5 d. per lb which amounts to 186,666 l. 13 s. 4 d. Ditto 500 tuns sold in Holland at 12 d. per lb the profit being 7 d. per lb will amount to 261,333 l. 6 s. 8 d. But this commodity is grown so necessary, and has so obtained, and is of such general use, that it may be sold in Holland at 6 s. per lb which is less than any of the other spices, as cheap in India as pepper. Then 5000 tuns sold in Holland at 6 s. per lb the profit bing 5 s. 7 d. per lb will amount to 2,498,836 l. 13 s. 4 d. If from the single article of pepper, such a sum as 2,498,836 l. may be raised, it will not be difficult to conceive, that by raising the price of other spices, wrought silks, callicoes, raw silks, saltpetre and other Indian goods, the Hollanders, by an entire monopoly of this trade, may drain the rest of Europe every year of at least 6 millions. Considering their naval force, and