[9] Queen ELIZABETH sometimes raised this Duty to 20 and 25 per Cent. by Orders and Warrants issued from her Privy Council; that is, by her own sole and absolute Authority. Yet she was _good Queen_ BESS: And her Days were _golden Days_. See also the shocking Number of Monopolies granted in her Reign, set forth at large in TOWNSHEND's _Collection_; or in Sir SIMON d'EWE's _Journal_ of _Parliament_. See more particularly the Debates which past in the 43d Year of her Reign, after a Struggle of upwards of 20 Years for abolishing these Monopolies. [10] A few shallow, half-sighted Politicians have objected to the Trade with _Russia_, because the Balance, according to their narrow Ideas, is visibly against us. But what Balance do they mean?--Not the Balance of _Industry_, for that is plainly in our Favour; or, in other Words, we export more _manufactured_ Goods to _Russia_, than we receive from it. And as to the Balance of _Money_, they ought to have known, that it is much more beneficial to an industrious, commercial Country to import Raw-Materials (_if it wants them_) than to import Gold and Silver; because there cannot be so many Hands employed in the manufacturing of these Metals, as in the working up of Timber, Iron, Hemp, Flax, &c. &c. to their respective Uses. It is amazing, how little these self-evident Principles have been understood, or at least attended to by commercial Writers of some Note and Character, and particularly by JOSIAH GEE; according to whose Doctrine of the Balance of Trade, this Nation hath not been worth a single Shilling for almost these 100 Years. [11] I am told, that this Deficiency of the Excise this Year, on Liquors imported into the Out-Ports, is owing to a new Species of Smuggling lately put in Practice, whereby the Revenue is grossly defrauded. If so, the Balance would have been still greater, had all the Duties on Rum, and other Liquors imported into the Out-Ports, been justly and fairly paid; or at least paid as fairly and justly as usual. _Lately published by the same Author_, TRACTS Political and Commercial. 1. _A Solution of the important Question, whether a poor Country, where raw Materials and Provisions are cheap, and Wages low, can supplant the Trade of a rich manufacturing Country, where raw Materials and Provisions are dear, and the Price of Labour high._ 2. _The Case of going to War for the Sake of Trade considered in a new Light._ 3. _A Letter from a Merchant in_ London _to his Nephew in_ America, _concerning the late and present Disturbances in the Colonies._ 4. _The true Interest of_ Great-Britain _set forth in regard to the Colonies; and the only Means of living in Peace and Harmony with them._ 5. _The respective Pleas and Arguments of the Mother Country and of the Colonies distinctly set forth; and the Impossibility of a Compromise of Differences, or a mutual Concession of Rights plainly demonstrated; with a prefatory Epistle to the Plenipotentiaries of the Congress._