The returns of what is Exported to the East-Indies , being Granted to be in Commodities necessary , as well for Home expence as Exportation ( Callicoes and wrought Silks excepted ) if we make appear the use of Callicoes and Wrought Silks doth not prejudice , but increase the Sale of Woollen Manufactures : We hope the Essayer will see reason why the Wearing of them should not be Prohibited , and that he will not Petition the Parliament against the use of them in England .

We desire he would not expect , we should follow him into Germany to plead their Cause against Sletias Linnens . We will indeavour to convince him , that the improvement of the Woollen Manufactures in Germany was not occasioned by the Importation and use of Callicoes in England ; that Manufacture being set on foot before the Fire of London , when the East-India Trade was nothing so considerable , and Callicoes much dearer then they have been since ; and that the cheapness of Callicoes may be a means ( if any thing can ) to put them by that improvement : This is all he may expect from us on that Head .

The present War , as we understand , hath put a stop to the Progress of the Woollen Manufacture in Germany . If England can afford ours so cheap , that they may not have incouragement to begin it again , that Controversie is at an end . Plenty of Callicoes is a certain Expedient to moderate the price of all Commodities , and thereby preserves and increases the Forreign Trade ( which is the profitable Trade of England ) and Regulate the Home . To Prohibit the use , is to Prohibit the Importation , and destroy all ; so that the Germans will return again to their making of Woollen , not because they cannot find Vent for their Linnen , but because not being supplied at Reasonable Rates from us ; returning to the Woollen is more to their advantage .

We will not Reflect on our Essayers Ingenious Descants on the Extravagances of the Age , his good Advice to the Nobility and Gentry , nor his Proposals to the Government ; we wish him good Success in it . Our difference with him is upon his mistaken Maxims , That the way to improve the English , is to Prohibit the use of Forreign Manufactures ; and that to inrich the Kingdom , is to confine its Growth to our own Dominions ; not considering that if we prohibit the use of the Commodities of other Nations , they may , and in all probability will do the same by ours ; and that this will prejudice our Forreign Trade , and that the very Prohibition is insensibly laying a Tax on the Nation , to make us pay the more for what we use , and abridging the King of so much Custom which the Subject must make good .

We say it is the Interest of the Kingdom , that the Home Consumption should be little , of a Cheap and Forreign Growth , and that our own Manufactures should be spent abroad and at the highest Market ; because by all that is spent at home , one loseth what another gets , the Nation is not the richer . But a Forreign Consumption is clear profit , adds ro the heap , without taking from the Inhabitant .

The Trade of any Nation is its Riches , how it comes to pass that our Essayer hath made Trade of less advantage to England than Holland , is the next thing to be inquired into .

He tells us the Dutch have little Land , are rather maintained by Buying and Selling , then Manufacturing ; but England is a large Spot of Ground , hath a great Product of its own , gets by the Imployment of its People ; and concludes it s the Wisdom of the Government to Regulate Forreign Trade by Methods that may make it useful in Promoting our own Manufactures .

True it is England hath more Land than Holland , and a greater Product of its own ; but this is no Argument that it is not the Interest of England as well as Holland , to incourage and promote Commerce . We say we are an Island better accommodated to and more immediately depending on Trade ( especially Forreign Trade ) than Holland it self . Our Ships are our Walls , our Trade our Riches . We are situated by Nature to be the Mart of Europe , it is the Restraint upon us ( because England is not a Free Port ) that all Trade doth not Center here . To prohibit the use of Forreign Manufactures , were still to do us farther mischief ; this would render our Shipping useless and lessen Navigation : and in our Naval Force lies not only the Welfare , but the very Being of Our Nation .

It is the undoubted Interest of England to incourage our own Manufactures , and in proportion to their usefulness and benefit , such should be their incouragement . We differ with the Essayer only about the method .

We conclude from daily experience it can be done by no Law so effectually , as by leaving Trade free and sheltering it against all Prohibitions . He from an evil and covetous Principle , like the Dog in the Fable , would catch at the shadow and lose the substance .

The Manufactures in Holland , in proportion to their Hands , equal , if not exceed ours in England : If we have more of the Woollen , they have more of Linnen and Silk . It was once a received opinion amongst them , that the use of Callicoes did prejudice their Linnen Manufacture , and therefore they Prohibited the use of it in Holland ( they were not so quick sighted as our Essayer to see that it did affect the Woollen . ) This gave advantage to our English East-India Company , that England at that time had the whole Trade for Callicoes : The Dutch are an Ingenious people , and soon saw their Errour , and recalled their Placeat , but could never retrive the Trade : The English East-India Company kept that part of it to the time of this French War , that by Intestine Fewds and Forreign misfortunes , they have lost both it and themselves .

The Prohibition of the use of these Commodities in England , will either settle this Noble Trade on the Scots , or divide it between them and the Dutch . The English Manufacture will be prejudiced , not advantaged thereby : It will advance the price at Home , and so lessen the Trade , but not augment the Sale ; and render it unfit for a Forreign Market , because they may be supplied cheaper elsewhere .

We conclude with the Essayer , and Humbly pray the Wisdom of the Nation would undertake the Patronage of our Trade , and particularly this of the East : Indies ; to settle it on its True Basis , to make it a real advantage to the Kingdom , which can never be effectually done , but by leaving it free to that Company , they in their Wisdom shall think fit to Establish , that every Commodity may shift for it self .