Regulating the TRADE, AND Employing the POOR OF THIS KINGDOM. [Sidenote: Of Trade in General.] IN Order to discover, whether a Nation gets or loses by its Trade, ’tis necessary first to enquire into the Principles whereon it is built; for Trade hath its Principles, as other Sciences have, and as difficult to be understood: But when they are, ’tis easy to discover whether a Nation gets or loses by its Management, and without this, we are not capable of making any true Judgment, it being possible for the Publick to grow Poor, whilst private Persons encrease their Fortunes. 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 Encourag’d, 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, tho’ 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 manufactur’d 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, furnish’d 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 exceeded its Wants, by so much it grew richer, the Remainder being sold for Bullion, or some Staple Commodity, allow’d by all to have an intrinsick 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 Traffick 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.]