IT hath hitherto been the Care and Prudence of this Nation , to endeavour all they could to propagate , incourage and increase the Trade thereof ; and have expressed , by their great Zeal and Concern for Trade , so much Concern for it , as if it were the Unum Necessarium of this Kingdom and People : To which purpose , have made many Laws for its Incouragement ; as , The Act of Navigation , which was solely made for Incouragement of Shipping and Trade ; and by a Clause in that Act did lay 5 s . per Tun on all French Shipping , for no other Reason , but that the French King had laid 50 Sols per Tun on all English Shipping .

In an Act made also in King Charles II.'s time , Intituled , An Act to prevent Frauds , and regulating Abuses in His Majesty's Customs , there Incouragement was given to all Persons to build good and defendable Ships , and they should be allowed , out of the Customs , one Tenth Part of the Customs of all the Goods Exported or Imported in such Ships ; besides , in that Act there is another Clause that lays a Duty of one per Cent . on all Goods and Merchandize Exported and Imported , from any Port of this Kingdom , to any Port or Place in the Mediterranean-Sea , beyond the Port of Malaga , in any Vessel , less than 200 Tuns and 2 Decks .

It will be also of a very dangerous Consequence to lay any Duty upon all Shipping , being a means to provoke other Countries to do the like on the Shipping of this Nation . Who can be assured the Portuguees will not lay on a Duty of 2 l. per Tun , in regard it is the Shipping of this Nation , that stops their having the most part of the Uropean-Trade , at this time , to themselves ? Nor who knows how the Dutch and the Hanse-Towns will relish it ? Nor Sweedland and Denmark especially , who doth so much follow the Steps , and imitate the absolute Power of France , but that they may also use one French Practice more , and lay on a heavy Duty on English Shipping ; which will be to the great Loss and Damage of this Kingdom , by becoming Tributaries to Foreign Nations ?

The laying on a Duty on Shipping now , seems to be ill timed , for these Reasons . First , the very great weight of discouragement Trade at present labours under , and the multitude of Losses the Merchants daily sustain , and those not small ones , loudly testify . Secondly , that it may not answer the End of raising Mony designed by it , by reason that there is but very few Ships left in this Kingdom , not Two Thirds what there was before the War begun ; which few this Duty , if Imposed , will make less , and put it out of a possibility of increasing their Number ; from which ill Consequence , God defend us .

Amongst the many , and almost insupportable , dead Losses the Merchants sustain , may be ranked the vast Disappointments all Ships meet with in their Voyages , by long detention in Ports , waiting for Convoy , as the the Berbadoes , Virginia and Maryland Fleets outward last Year , and long and tedious lying in Ports , of almost all Ships homewards , causes the Voyage to be so extream long , that the very Seamens Wages and Provisions , carries all the Freight away ; and to many Ships ( reckoning 6 per Cent . Interest and 10 per Cent . Insurance , which is much less than is usually paid ) there will not be enough left to pay a Duty of Tunnage .

The laying on this Duty will be Taxing one sort of Estate twice : All Shipping are esteemed a Personal Estate , and every Man is Taxed , and pays as such : All Merchandize pays a very considerable Duty already , and more than most can well bare , as Tobacco , &c. and therefore it will be extream hard , absolutely to drown what is already sinking , and wants a most powerful Hand to rescue from utter Destruction .

Should this Duty be laid , in all probability other Nations would be as kind to us as we to them , and double it possible for ever , tho' we should ease our selves and them in Four Years . It is very well known and manifest to all the World , that the Shipping of the English Nation , before this War , were 20 Tun in all Foreign Ports for one Tun of Foreign Shipping in England , out of which great disproportion , a great advantage will arife to all Foreign Nations , which they will be very tenacious of .

It is to be considered , that the Shipping and Commerce of this Kingdom , is the very Life of it and Principle of Motion , which to wound in any Part , is very dangerous in all the Consequences of it . In a word , the Trade of this Kingdom is greatly discouraged , and so little regard to secure it , that the Merchants are ready enough , as the Case already stands , to cease their Trade , and secure something to maintain their Families ; which a further Duty may constrain them to put in execution with speed , what they are now in doubt to do .

If Shipping should be discouraged , what would then become of all the Woollen Manufacture , and all other Things , the Product of this Nation ? It is true , we might eat and consume it our selves , and be Poor when we have done .

It is nothing but Trade can make a Nation great , rich and powerful , feared Abroad and honoured at Home ; it will , with God's Blessing , bring Happiness and Peace into the Nation , and Plenty , abundant Plenty , into our Streets and Houses .