I shall begin with the _East-India_ Trade, which I take to be very prejudical to us, as ’tis now driven; because it exports our Bullion, spends little of our Product or Manufactures, and brings in Commodities perfectly Manufactured, which hinder the Consumption of our own, and discourage the Wearing such as are purchased with them; the chief Profit thereof arising from Underselling the Labour of our Poor, because ’tis bought there cheaper, than by reason of the Value of our Lands, and the Prices of Provisions, they are able to work here. But having spoken fully of this in a former Discourse, and the Parliament having since been pleased, by an Act made in the 10th and 11th Years of his late Majesty King _William_, to prohibit the Wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, Stuffs mixt with Silk or Herba, of the Manufacture of _Persia_, _China_, and _India_, and all Callicoes Painted, Dy’d, Printed or Stained there. The Reason of which is in the said Act set forth to be, The great Detriment the Nation received as the Trade was then manag’d, by exhausting the Treasure thereof, and taking away the Labour of the People, whereby very many of the Manufacturers were become excessively burthensome and chargeable to their respective Parishes, and others compell’d to seek for Employment in Foreign Parts, I shall not now repeat what I then wrote, but will consider how far the Remedy they then provided hath answer’d the End. The making this Law gave a new Life to our Manufactures, and would have given more, if the true Intent of the Parliament had been answered: But we have since found that it has not; for it neither keeps our Treasure at home, nor prevents those Commodities from being worn here, which they design’d it should; and I very much question, whether any thing less than a total Prohibition of their Importation will do it; for though they are directed to be Exported again, yet there is great Reason to believe, that they are privately brought back, both from _Ireland_, our Plantations, and other Places to which they are sent, to the Loss of his Majesty’s Customs, and the Prejudice of the Stainers and Painters here, besides the Injury to our Manufactures: Otherwise, how come such great Quantities to be worn and used here, when the Stock on hand hath been so long since spent? There are other Commodities, which the Company may trade in, and the Tract of Land within their Charter is large enough to afford an advantagious Commerce there, the Profits whereof might be returned hither, in things no way injurious to our Manufactures, such as Raw-Silk, Indigo, Pepper, Salt-Peter, Spices, Drugs, China-Wares, Coffee, Tea, and many other things, if they were industrious to make Discoveries, as private Merchants would do, if the Trade lay open; and I believe it will not be disputed, that greater Quantities of Raw-Silk, have been brought thence since the Making of that Law, than were used to be done before.