The Design of this little Treatise, is to dissect and lay open the Trade of this Kingdom, as it is now driven, that so those Branches that shall appear to be Profitable may be Encouraged, and those that are Otherwise may be Amended. The Profits of this Kingdom arise from its Product and Manufactures at Home, and from the Growths of those several Plantations it hath settled Abroad, and from the Fish taken on the Coasts, all which being raised by the Industry of the People, are both its true Riches, and the Tools whereby it Trades to other Nations, the Products coming from the Earth, and the Manufacturing of them being an Addition to their Value by the Labour of the People; now where we barter these Things abroad for such as are only fit to be eat and drank, or are wasted among ourselves, though one Man may get by the Luxury of another, yet the Wealth of the Kingdom doth not encrease; but it is otherwise where we change them for Bullion, or for Commodities fit to be manufactured again. [Sidenote: Its Original.] The first Original of Trade both Domestic and Foreign was Barter, when one private Person, having an Overplus of such Things as his Neighbour wanted, furnished him therewith for their Value in such whereof the other had plenty, but he stood in need of the same, when one Nation abounding in those Products which another wanted, supply’d it therewith, and received for them Things equally necessary in their stead; and by how much the Products of any Nation exceeds its Wants, by so much it grew richer, the Remainder being sold for Bullion, or some Staple Commodity, allowed by all to have an intrinsic Value. And as People encreased, so did Commerce, which caused many to go off from Husbandry to Manufactures, and other Ways of Living, for Convenience whereof they began Communities: This was the Original of Towns, which being found necessary for Trade, their Inhabitants encreased by Expectation of Profit; this introduced Foreign Trade or Trafic with neighbouring Nations; and this a Desire to settle rather on some navigable Rivers, than in remote Inland Places, whereby they might be more easily supply’d from the Country with Commodities fit to export, and disperse thither those they had imported from abroad. [Sidenote: The Trade of this Kingdom.] I shall now take the Trade of this Kingdom, as it is divided into Domestic and Foreign, and consider each, and how they are advantagious to the Nation, and may be made more so. [Sidenote: Inland Trade.] [Sidenote: Buying and Selling.]