The
Dutch, whose labour and manufactures are dear by reason of home
excises, can notwithstanding sell cheap abroad, because this
disadvantage they labour under is balanced by the parsimonious
temper of their people; but in England, where this frugality is
hardly to be introduced, if the duties upon our home consumption are
so large as to raise considerably the price of labour and
manufacture, all our commodities for exportation must by degrees so
advance in the prime value, that they cannot be sold at a rate which
will give them vent in foreign markets, and we must be everywhere
undersold by our wiser neighbours. But the consequence of such
duties in times of peace will fall most heavily upon our woollen
manufactures, of which most have more value from the workmanship
than the material; and if the price of this workmanship be enhanced,
it will in a short course of time put a necessity upon those we deal
with of setting up manufactures of their own, such as they can, or
of buying goods of the like kind and use from nations that can
afford them cheaper. And in this point we are to consider, that the
bulk of our woollen exports does not consist in draperies made of
the fine wool, peculiar to our soil, but is composed of coarse broad
cloths, such as Yorkshire cloths, kerseys, which make a great part
of our exports, and may be, and are made of a coarser wool, which is
to be had in other countries. So that we are not singly to value
ourselves upon the material, but also upon the manufacture, which we
should make as easy as we can, by not laying over-heavy burdens upon
the manufacturer.
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