Expedient IX.
That Foreigners be excluded from the Trade in Ireland, and that the Trade between England and Ireland be free, so that England may be the Store-house of the Irish Wools, Beef, Tallow, H••des, &c. as well as of the Products of our Plantations, whereby England may have alone the Navigation, as well as the Trade to it; and by the benefit of Manufacturing their Wools, Hides and Tallow, not on∣ly victual our Fleet in Navigation, and the King his Navy Royal cheaper, but also drive a Foreign Trade to France, Spain and Hol∣land, upon the account of salted Beef, &c.
Let's see the dangerous State of this Nation, as the Case now stands between England and Ireland: Our Trades to Norway, Prus∣sia and Liesland for Pitch, Tar, Masts, Raff, Boards, Timber, and rough Hemp and Flax, are generally a Foreign Expence, so is that to the East-Indies, which at a moderate Estimate amounts to a Mil∣lion Sterling yearly; and we have little to supply for these, but by our Trade to Spain for Woollen Manufactures, which if we lose, the Nation could not support the Foreign Expence in these.
Now let's see the State of our Woollen Manufactures in England, compared with that in Ireland, in case Foreigners be permitted to trade into Ireland for them. In England the Wools of most of the Counties on this side York-shire, are brought by a Land-Carriage to Norwich and Colchester, to be manufactured there, and after that by another Land-Carriage brought up to London, as generally your Western Cloths are, where only the Free-men of London must buy them at their own Prices; and then in Foreign Vent they are re∣strained by the Act of Navigation to Ships doubly as dear built, and sailed with near double the Hands Foreign Ships of like Dimen∣sions are; and all the Western Cloths in their Vent to Spain, Por∣tugal, Italy and Turkey, by a much longer Voyage, than if they had been exported from any of their Ports.
Whereas Ireland is seated better than England for the Trades of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey, and the Ports equally good, or better than those of England, I'm sure much better than from London: The Irish shall have no need to carry the Wools of Leinster and Munster to Ʋlster by a Land-Carriage; and when they are wrought there, to bring the Cloths to Dublin by another, where none must buy them but the Free-men at their own Rates, and these bound to vend them in double as dear-built Ships, and sailed with near double the Hands of other Nations: but if Fo∣reigners be permitted to trade, they may have the Cloths from the next Ports where they are wrought, and where the Artificers can