A Discourse of Trade
By Nicholas Barbon
TRADE is the Making, and Selling of one sort of Goods for another; The making is called Handy-Craft Trade, and the maker an Artificer; The Selling is called Merchandizing, and the Seller a Merchant: The Artificer is called by several Names from the sort of Goods he makes. As a Clothier, Silk-weaver, Shoo-maker, or Hatter, &c. from Making of Cloth, Silk, Shooes, or Hats; And the Merchant is distinguished by the Names of the Countrey he deals to, and is called, Dutch, French, Spanish or Turkey Merchant. [From the text]
Translator/Editor
Jacob H. Hollander, ed.
First Pub. Date
1690
Publisher
Baltimore, MD: Lord Baltimore Press
Pub. Date
1905
Copyright
The text of this edition is in the public domain.
||
*Of Trade
and the Stock,
or Wares of Trade.
TRADE is the Making, and Selling of one sort of Goods for another; The making is called Handy-Craft Trade, and the ma|2|ker an Artificer; The Selling is called Merchandizing, and the Seller a Merchant: The Artificer is called by several Names from the sort of Goods he makes. As a Clothier, Silk-weaver, Shoo-maker, or Hatter, &c. from Making of Cloth, Silk, Shooes, or Hats; And the Merchant is distinguished by the Names of the Countrey he deals to, and is called,
Dutch, French, Spanish or
Turkey Merchant.
The chief End or Business of Trade, is to make a profitable Bargain: In making of a Bargain there are these things to be considered; The Wares to be Sold, the Quantity and Quality of those Wares, the Value or Price of them, the Money or Credit, by which the Wares are bought, the Interest that relates to the time of performing the Bargain.
The Stock and Wares of all |3|
Trade are the Animals, Vegitables, and Minerals of the whole Universe, whatsoever the Land or Sea produceth. These Wares may be divided into Natural and Artificial; Natural Wares are those which are sold as Nature Produceth them; As Flesh, Fish, and Fruits,
&c. Artificial Wares are those which by Art are Changed into another Form than Nature gave them; As Cloth, Calicoes, and wrought Silks, &c. which are made of Wool, Flax, Cotten, and Raw Silks.
Both these Sorts of Wares are called the Staple Commoditys of those Countreys where they chiefly abound, or are made. There are Different Climates of the Heavens, some very Hot, some very Cold, others Temperate; these Different Climates produce Different Animals, Vegitables, & Minerals. The Staples of the hot Coun|4|try are Spices; the Staples of the Cold, Furrs; but the more Temperate Climates produce much the same sorts of Commoditys; but by difference of the Quality or Conveniency of place where they abound, they become the Staple of each Country, where they are either best or easier acquired or exchanged: Thus,
Herrings, and other Fish are the Staples of
Holland; the
Dutch living amongst the Water, are most naturally inclined to Fishing:
English Wool being the best in the World, is the Staple of
England, for the same reason. Oyles of
Italy, Fruits of
Spain, Wine of
France, with several other sorts of Commoditys, are the Staples of their several Countrys.
Staple Commodities may be divided into Native or Forreign; the Native Staple is what Each Country doth Naturally and best produce; Forreign Sta|5|ple, is any Forreign Commodity, which a Country acquires by the sole
Trade to a Forreign Place, or sole possession of a particular Art; as Spices are the Staple of
Holland; and the making of Glass and Paper, were the Staple of
Venice.
From the Stock, or Wares of
Trade, these Three Things are Observable:
1. The Native Staple of each Country is the Riches of the Country, and is perpetual, and never to be consumed; Beasts of the Earth, Fowls of the Air, and Fishes of the Sea, Naturally Increase: There is Every Year a New Spring and Autumn, which produceth a New Stock of Plants and Fruits. And the Minerals of the Earth are Unexhaustable; and if the Natural Stock be Infinite, the Artificial Stock that is made of
the Natural, must be Infinite, as Woollen and Linnen |6| Cloth, Calicoes, and wrought Silk, which are made of Flax, Wool, Cotton, and Raw Silks.
This sheweth a Mistake of Mr.
Munn, in his Discourse of
Trade, who commends Parsimony, Frugality, and Sumptuary Laws, as the means to make a Nation Rich; and uses an Argument, from a
Simile, supposing a Man to have 1000
l. per
Annum, and 2000
l. in a Chest, and spends Yearly 1500
l. per
Annum, he will in four Years time Waste his 2000 l.
*7 This is true, of a Person, but not of a Nation; because his Estate is Finite, but the Stock of a Nation Infinite, and can never be consumed; For what is Infinite, can neither receive Addition by Parsimony, nor suffer Diminution, by Prodigality.
2. The Native Staple of Each Country, is the Foundation of it’s Forreign
Trade: And no Na |7| tion have any Forreign Commodities, but what are at first brought in by the Exchange of the Native; for at the first beginning of Forreign
Trade, a Nation hath nothing else to Exchange; The Silver & Gold from
Spain; the Silks from
Turkey, Oyls from
Italy, Wine from
France, and all other Forreign Goods are brought into
England, by the Exchange of the
English Cloth, or some other Staple of
England.
3. That Forreign Staples are uncertain Wealth: Some Countries by the Sole
Trade to another Country, or by the Sole Possession of some Arts, gain a Staple of Forreign Commodities, which may be as profitable as the Native, so long as they enjoy the Sole possession of that
Trade or Art. But that is uncertain; for other Nations find out the way of |8| Trading to the same place: The Artists for Advantage, Travel into other Countries, and the Arts are discover’d. Thus
Portugal had the Sole
Trade of
India; afterwards the
Venetians got a great Share of the
Trade, and now the
Dutch and
English, have a greater share than both: The Arts of making several sorts of Silks, were chiefly confined to
Genoa, &
Naples; afterward Travelled into
France, since into
England and
Holland, and are now Practised there in as great perfection as they were in
Italy; So have other Arts wander’d, as
the making of Looking-Glasses from
Venice into
England, the making of Paper from
Venice into
France and
Holland.
Essay 5, Of the Use and Benefit of Trade