England's improvements in two parts : in the former is discoursed how the kingdom of England may be improved ... : in the latter is discoursed how the navigation of England may be increased and the soveraignty of the British seas more secured to the crown of England ... / by Roger Coke.

Annot.

Britain being an Island, and so as another World divided from the Continent, the encrease of Navigation and Mari∣ners is more proper to it and desirable, than where the Sea lies but on part of the bounds of the Country: and this En∣crease is so much more desirable, by how much the Coast a∣bounds with many Excelling and Noble Ports, and the Coun∣try Naturally watred with Rivers more apt for Navigation than any other, and which through those lose themselves in the Ocean. But Navigation and Marriners cannot be o∣therwise encreased, than from such Principles as God and Na∣ture has ordained. Trade therefore being a Principle to Navigation, is superiour and more excellent than it, and may subsist without Navigation; but Navigation never without Trade. A Nation may be rich and flourishing by Trade, yet upon the Navigation of other Countries. The great Ri∣ches which France lately enjoyed, did arise chiefly from the English and Dutch Trading into their Ports. So Legorne and Florence grow rich by the Trade which the English French, and Dutch Navigation bring into Legorne. So it is in the Turkie, East Indie, and Muscovy Trades, by the English, French, Dutch, and Venetians, whereby those Countries grow vastly rich, yet employ no Shipping or Navigation to procure it.

Trade being a principle to Navigation, Navigation may be infinitely encreased, as Trade is encreased: I desire there∣fore Navigation to and from the Ports of England might be encreased by the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufactures, rather than by the Newcastle-trade, or the Trade to our Plantations: For the home-vent of the New∣castle-trade employs few of the Natives but Miners and Ma∣nners, and those but half the year, and is driven to the loss of the Nation: for we consume the Coals; and besides the Consumption of our Timber in the Shipping in this Trade, we generally buy the Pitch, Tar, Cordage and Sails employ∣ed in it, of the French, Dutch, Swedes, and Norwegians.

Add hereto, that this Trade has caused, vast destruction of the Wood-land-Grounds of the Eastern, Southern and Mid∣land parts of England; which by reason of the plenty and cheapness of Newcastle-Coals, can finde no vent. Whereas Navigation, which would arise from the forrein Trade of our Woollen and other Manufacturers, would so much en∣rich the Nation, as the value of the Manufactures is more than the Principles of them are in value. And I prefer the Navigation which may arise from encreasing our Ma∣nufactures at home, before that Navigation which arises from our Trades to our Plantations; because the Nation hereby would be more and better peopled, and the Lands of the Crown, Church, Nobility, Gentry and others of Eng∣land, would become so much more valuable, as Trade and Navigation would be hereby encreased: whereas the Planta∣tions rob us of our people, to the weakning the Nation, and diminishing the value of the Lands of it; and that besides Mariners, few people in England except Retailers, Sugar-Ba∣kers, Porters, and Car-men, are employed in the Trades of them. And the Riches which arise by the Trade of them, accrews to few but the King, Merchant, Sugar-bakers, and Retailers. And I do not question, but the value of the Consumption of the Commodities of the Plantations here in England, is much more than the profit of them by forrein Trade: And yet we have little else but the forrein Trade of our Woollen Manufactures, so Taxed, so Restrained, and so Endangered, as hath been in all the Three precedent Treatises demonstrated, to sustain the Loss the Nation re∣ceives by the Newcastle-trade, the Trade to our Plantations, and the Trades to Norway France, the Canaries, and for Lin∣nen.

I desire as much as any man, that Navigation and Mari∣ners may be encreased by the Natives of England, and Eng∣lish Ships, so far as the Natives of England in such Shipping can maintain Navigation, yet both must be done in time, and by such means as God and Nature have ordained, viz. by encreasing Trade in England: and if both Trade and Navigation cannot be carried on by the Natives alone, I

see no reason why (at least at present) Trade (which is more excellent than Navigation) should not be encreased, though upon the account of forrein Navigation. And I say, it is impossible, as the case stands, that the forrein vent of our English Manufactures, and the Fish caught upon the Coasts of England, and Scotland, can be encreased by Eng∣lish Mariners in English-built Ships: For the Towns upon the Coast of England generally are become so decayed, that they are not neer half Inhabited; and so poor, that they have no Means to build Ships, or to buy our Woollen or other Manufactures, or the Fish caught upon our Coast; nor have Factories or Correspondence in forrein parts to establish Trade and Commerce: yet if they had, it is impos∣sible long to continue the Navigation we now possess in English-built Ships, therefore less possible to encrease it.

It's believed, the French Nation, before their War with the Dutch, gained above 6000000 l. yearly by the English and Dutch trading into their Ports, for Wine, Salt, Brandy, Linnen, Paper, and other Commodities of France: Suppose the French King upon the account of encreasing the Navi∣gation and Mariners of France, should have excluded the English, and Dutch trading into his Ports, and by Edict have Commanded, that all the Commodities of France ven∣ded in forrein Trade, should first be brought to Paris, there none to buy them but Free-men and Companies, (if they have any) and they only to vend them in French-built Ships, and Sailed by ¾ French, whether they have Ships or Mariners or not; and that the Returns of them should pay the King twenty times the Duties they should in case they were imported into Holland or Hamburg: whether the em∣ployment of the Shipping and Mariners of France would have countervailed the loss France would have sustained thereby? Or Reader consider (chainging the places) if this be not the Condition of England, in reference to the forrein Trade of the Manufactures, and the Fish caught up∣on the Coast of it.