To begin with the _French_ Trade; in the 22d _Car._ II. a new Import was laid on Wines, _viz._ Eight Pounds _per_ Ton on the _French_, and Twelve Pounds _per_ Ton on _Spanish_ and _Portuguese_: This Difference (with the low Subsidies put on their Linnens by former Acts, in respect to those of other Places) was a great Means of bringing the Ballance of that Trade so much against us, that the Parliament in the 7th and 8th of _Gul._ III. thought fit to make an Act, (and is continued by this present Parliament for a longer time) which in Effect, prohibited all Trade with that Nation for One and Twenty Years, by laying a great Duty on the Importations thence, in order to prevent a Correspondence, till the Trade should be better regulated. In the 14th _Car._ II. Logwood was permitted by Act of Parliament to be imported, paying five Pounds _per_ Ton Duty; the same Act repeals two Statutes of Queen _Elizabeth_ against Importing and Using it in Dying here, and sets forth the Ingenuity of our Dyers, in finding out Ways to fix the Colours made with it; and yet at the same time gave a Draw-back of three Pounds fifteen Shillings _per_ Ton on all that should be Exported, whereby Foreigners use it so much cheaper in their Manufactures than ours can here; which proceeded from a too hasty making that Law, and being advised, or rather abused, by those, who regarded more their own Interest, than that of the Nation. By an Act made 1 _Ja._ II. an Impost of Two Shillings and Four Pence _per Cent._ was laid on Muscovado Sugars imported from the Plantations, to be drawn back at Exportation; the Traders to the Plantations stirr’d in this Matter, and set forth, That such a Duty would discourage the Refining them here, by hindering the Exportation of refined Sugars, which was then considerable, and carry that Manufacture to _Holland_ and _Flanders_; but the Commissioners of the Customs prevailed against them, and the Bill past; the fatal Consequences whereof soon appear’d; for the Exporters of Muscavado Sugars, drawing back two Shillings and Four-pence _per Cent._ by that Act, and Nine-pence _per Cent._ by the Act of Tunnage and Poundage, foreign Markets were supplied with refined Sugars from other Places cheaper, by about Twelve _per Cent._ than we could furnish them hence, by which means we were beat out of that Trade: and though the Duty of two Shillings and Four-pence _per Cent._ was not continued on the Expiration of that Act, by the Parliament 2d W. and M. (as they did the Three-pence _per_ Pound on Tobacco) the bad Effects thereof being then apparent, yet ’tis Difficult to retrieve a lost Trade, trading Nations being like expert Generals, who make Advantages of the Mistakes of each other, and take care to hold what they get.