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 4of 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, about900 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. 4d.
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 to261,333 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 2,498,836l. 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 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
