THE Corporation of the Pin-Makers of the City of London are a Corporation first incorporated by Charter of King James the First , confirmed afterwards and enlarged by King Charles the First , and now lastly confirmed again by Letters Patents of His Majesty King Charles the Second , and into the Membership , Regulation , and Government of this Company are all the Pin-Makers in England and Wales incorporated .

This Company consists for the most part of poor and indigent People , who have neither Credit nor Mony to purchase Wyre of the Merchant at the best hand , but are forced for want thereof , to buy only small Parcels of the second or third Buyer , as they have occasion to use it , and to sell off the Pins they make of the same from Week to Week , as soon as they are made , for ready Mony , to feed themselves , their Wives , and Children , whom they are constrained to imploy to go up and down every Saturday Night from Shop to Shop to offer their Pins to Sale , otherwise cannot have Mony to buy Bread .

And these are daily so exceedingly multiplyed and encreased by reason of the unlimited Number of Apprentices that some few covetous minded Members of the Company ( who have considerable Stocks ) do constantly imploy and keep , that they are not able to live one by another when they come out of their Times . Besides that , they are exceedingly prejudiced in their Trades , and under-sold by the clandestine Importation of foreign Pins from beyond the Seas , which are daily exposed and put to Sale here under the English Mark , to the great abuse of the King and Queens liege People , the same being slight and unserviceable ( and at the best ) , far worse than those of the English making .

The Persons that buy the Pins from the Maker , to sell again to other retailing Shop-keepers , taking Advantage of this Necessity of the poor Workman ( who are always forced to sell for ready Mony , or otherwise cannot subsist ) , have by degrees so beaten down the Price of Pins , that the Workman is not able to live of his Work , and make serviceable Wares ; and divers of them have been constrained to sell their Pins for less than the Wyre cost them , to provide Bread for their necessitous Families , which otherwise must perish ; whereupon many have been compelled to give over their Trades , and betake themselves to be Porters , Tankard-Bearers , and other Day-Laborours , who formerly lived very well , and many of their Children do daily become Parish-Charges .

And those who continue , are constrained to make their Pins of weak , insufficient , and defective Wyre , or otherwise they must sell at loss . The richer sort , who are but few , and perhaps may have some small Stock to buy a quantity of Wyre at the best hand , are by these means likewise constrained to give longer time to the Buyer than their Stocks will-bear ; to ballance which ill Convenience , they are forced to make their Pins every day worse and worse ; and by this means the Trade decays more and more , and the Credit and Estimation of English Pins is lost in foreign Parts , where they always heretofore were wont to out-sell those of any other Nation ( it being then a considerable Manufacture ) and the Trade is conveyed into the hands of Foreigners .

To recover which , and to prevent the Ruin of their Trade , the Company find only one Expedient , which is , to agree with some Person or Persons to raise a Stock for them , which Persons to have always Thirty Thousand Pounds at the least , and with part thereof to furnish as well the poor as the richer sort with Wyre of all sorts ( to be ready laid in at some convenient place to be provided for that purpose ) at one and the same certain Rate , as they shall have occasion to use it , and so much in Ready Mony as will weekly buy off from the Pin-Makers hands all the Pins they shall make of that Wyre , at one and the same Price both to rich and poor . And the Company have covenanted with William Killigrew , Esquire , and his Partners , to buy and take off from his or their hands Two Hundred Tun of Wyre yearly , and so much more as they shall have occasion to use at a certain Profit agreed upon between them , and to bring to the Hall to be provided for that purpose , and there weekly sell to the said William Killigrew , and his Partners , Agents , and Assigns , all the Pins they shall make with the same Wyre , at the Rates and Prices mentioned in a Schedule which they have annexed to their Petition , which Prices do not exceed what they were heretofore sold at , when the Commodity could be afforded to be well and truly made .

And the said William Killigrew , in consideration of the Profit that he and his Partners are to have upon the Wyre , hath covenanted with the Pin-Makers to take of weekly from the hands of every Member of the said Company , all the Pins he or they shall so make , and bring at the Rates and Prices so agreed upon , and to sell the same again to the Shop-keepers , and all other their Majesties Subjects , at the same Rates and Prices , without enhauncing the same , or making any Profit or Advantage thereupon .

And the sole End of this Proposal , is to raise up again the Credit , Estimation , and Goodness of the Commodity , both at home and abroad , and to keep themselves from being made a Prey to the Avarice of others , who eat out all the Profit of their Labour .

But because the said William Killigrew , and his Partners , are unwilling to venture on the said Contract , wherein so great a Stock is to be concerned , without the warrant of an Act of Parliament , to declare the lawfulness thereof , the Contract being on condition that an Act of Parliament do pass . The Pin-Makers are therefore humble Petitioners to Their Majesties and both Houses of Parliament , for a Declaratory Act in that behalf , which they rather hope will not be deny'd them , for that there is no other way left to preserve the Manufacture .

And for encouragement of so considerable an English Manufacture , they likewise humbly pray all foreign Pins may by a stricter Law than formerly be prohibited to be imported , and to stop the unreasonable encrease and multiplying of Pin-Makers who have little or no Stocks , and are already hardly able to live one by another . They are likewise Petitioners , That no Pin-Makers may be permitted to keep above . Three Apprentices at a time , and those not for less than Seven Years by Indenture bound , as in the Trade of Felt-Making is already Enacted by Parliament , in the First Year of the Reign of King James the First .

And that all Persons who petitioned against us the last Sessions , may be summoned to appear , and that both parties may be fairly heard .

Lastly , We most humbly beg , That there may be a Clause inserted in the Act , to mitigate the heavy Tax of fifteen Shillings on every hundred Weight of Wyre , which amounts to 3000 l. year for five years , on the poorest of People , to their utter ruin , if not mitigated by some Expedient : such as in your Wisdom shall be thought fit . And to this End pray that they have leave to prepare to bring in a Bill accordingly .

ASCHEDULE of the Names,Weights,andPricesofPINS.   Best . 2d . Sort . 3d . Sort .   l. s . d . l. s . d . l. s . d . Two Pounds Four Ounces   10     9     8 6 Two Pounds Eight Ounces   10 5   9 11   9 5 Two Pounds Twelve Ounces   10 10   10 4   9 10 Three Pounds   11 2   10 8   10 2 Three Pounds Four Ounces   11 8   11 2   10 8 Three Pounds Eight Ounces   12     11 6   11   Three Pounds Twelve Ounces   12 6   12     11 6 Short Whites .                   One Pound   8 2   7 8   7 2 One Pound Six Ounces   8 8   8 2   7 8 One Pound Ten Ounces   9     9 6   7   Lillikins .   9     8 6   8   Middle Whites .                   Two Pounds Four Ounces   10 2   9 8   9 2 Double Long Whites , al. Cawkings .                   Three Pounds Eight Ounces   12 4   11 10   11 4 Four Pounds   13 1   12 7   12 1 Packetts .                   Nine Ounces   16 8   16 2   15 8 Eleven Ounces 1       19 6   19   Thirteen Ounces 1 3 6 1 3   1 2 6 Sixteen Ounces 1 8 10 1 8 2 1 7 10 Twenty Ounces 1 17 6 1 17   1 16 6 Twenty Four Ounces 2 7 2 2 6   2 6   Spanish Pins .                   Six Pounds   16 8   16 2   15 8 Seven Pounds   19     18 6   18   Eight Pounds 1 1   1   6 1