An Essay on the East-India Trade [15]
their competition with us in trade, such an addition of wealth must make them a very formidable people. And though they may not peradventure turn their strength to hurt the traffic or peace of England, yet it is no very remote fear to apprehend, that notwithstanding all their riches, they may at last become a prey to France. And if the French, with the Dutch shipping in their right, and as their lords, should once become masters of this rich trade, such an accession to that wise, well peopled, and large empire, must prove our ruin. And I must here take notice, that (as I am informed) all the saltpetre, produced in this side of the world, is not sufficient to take such a place of strength as Dunkirk. If the fact be so, as war is made now, must not whatever country can obtain the sole trade to India, and the monopoly of that commodity, give laws to the rest of Europe? The principal care, my lord, incumbent upon persons in your station, is very cautiously to weigh new counsels, to which you are adapted by nature and practice. Wise men will never engage in rash advices; from whence, if they succeed not, there is no good retreat; and empires of state only will be tampering at every turn, with the body politic, and venturing upon bold and unsafe remedies. That the common people want work, that there is a general deadness of trade, and that our home manufactures are in an ill condition, must certainly be granted; but these mischiefs proceed not from the importation of East-India goods, and may be plainly assigned to other causes. UPON the whole matter, my lord, I am of opinion, (with submission to better judgments) that the intended prohibitions of East-India and Persia wrought silks, etc. will be destructive to the trade in general, and hazard its being utterly lost to the kingdom.
The End
The End