William Temple

“ The long Civil-Wars, at first of France, then of Germany, and lastly of England, served to encrease the swarm in this Country, not only by such as were persecuted at home, but great numbers of peaceable Men, who came here to seek for quiet in their Lives, and safety in their Possessions or Trades; Like those Birds that upon the approach of a rough Winter-season, leave the Countrys where they were born and bred, flye away to some kinder and softer Climate, and never return till the Frosts are past, and the Winds are laid at home. ”

“ The vulgar mistake, That Importation of Foreign Wares, if purchased abroad with Native Commodities, and not with Money, does not make a Nation poorer, is but what every Man, that gives himself leisure to think, must immediately rectifie, by finding out, that, upon the end of an Account between a Nation, and all they deal with abroad, whatever the Exportation wants in value, to balance that of the Importation, must of necessity be made up with ready Money.
By this we find out the Foundation of the Riches of Holland, as of their Trade by the Circumstances already rehearsed. ”

“ And wherever they are so, if it lies upon the Sea, they naturally break out into Trade, both because, whatever they want of their own, that is necessary to so many Mens Lives, must be supply'd from abroad; and because, by the multitude of people, and smalness of Country, Land grows so dear, that the Improvement of Money, that way, is inconsiderable, and so turns to Sea, where the greatness of the Profit makes amends for the Venture. ”

“ But the only and certain Scale of Riches, arising from Trade, in a Nation, is the proportion of what is exported for the Consumption of others, to what is imported for their own.
The true ground of this proportion lies in the general Industry and Parsimony of a People, or in the contrary of both. Industry encreases the Native Commodity, either in the product of the Soil, or the Manufactures of the Country, which raises the Stock for Exportation. Parsimony lessens the consumption of their own, as well as of Foreign, Commodities ”

“ This extinguishes Industry, whilst Men are in doubt of enjoying themselves what they get, or leaving it to their Children; The others encourage it, by securing Men of both: One fills a Country with Soldiers, and the other with Merchants; Who were never yet known to live well together, because they cannot trust one another: And as Trade cannot live without mutual trust among private Men ”

“ Whenever this should happen, the People would scatter, Industry would faint, Banks would dissolve, and Trade would decay to such a degree, as probably, in course of time, their very Digues would be no longer maintained by the Defences of a weak People against so furious an Invader; but the Sea would break in upon their Land, and leave their chiefest Cities to be Fisher-Towns, as they were of old. ”

“ This firmness in the State, has been one of the circumstances, that has invited so many unhappy Men out of all their Neighbourhood, and indeed from most parts of Europe, to shelter themselves from the blows of justice, or of Fortune. Nor indeed does any Country seem so proper to be made use of upon such occasions, not only in respect of safety, but as a place that holds so constant and easie correspondencies with all parts of the World; And whither any Man may draw whatever Money he has at his disposal in any other place; Where neither Riches expose Men to danger, nor Poverty to contempt ”

“ What begins in Native will proceed in Foreign Commodities; And though the Example arise among idle Persons, yet the Imitation will run into all Degrees, even of those Men by whose Industry the Nation subsists. And besides, the more of our own we spend, the less we shall have to send abroad; and so it will come to pass, that while we drive a vast Trade, yet, by buying much more than we sell, we shall come to be poor: Whereas when we drove a very small Traffique abroad, yet by selling so much more, than we bought, we were very rich in proportion to our Neighbours. ”

“ The Convoys of Merchant-Fleets into all parts, even in time of Peace, but especially into the Streights; which give their Trade Security against many unexpected Accidents, and their Nations Credit abroad, and breeds up Sea-men for their Ships of War.
The lowness of their Customs, and easiness of paying them, which, with the freedom of their Ports, invite both Strangers and Natives to bring Commodities hither, not only as to a Market, but as to a Magazine, where they lodge till they are invited abroad to other and better Markets. ”

“ The invitation these People had, to fix rather in Holland than in many better Countrys, seems to have been, at first, the great strength of their Towns, which by their Maritime Scituation, and the low flatness of their Country, can with their Sluces overflow all the ground about them at such distances, as to become inaccessible to any Land-Forces. And this natural strength has been improv'd, especially at Amsterdam, by all the Art and Expence that could any ways contribute towards the defence of the place. ”

“ Since the ground of Trade cannot be deduced from Havens, or Native Commodities, (as may well be concluded from the survey of Holland, which has the least and the worst; and of Ireland, which has the most and the best, of both;) it were not amiss to consider, from what other source it may be more naturally and certainly derived: For if we talk of Industry, we are still as much to seek, what it is that makes people industrious in one Country, and idle in another. ”

“ The Government manag'd either by Men that Trade, or whose Families have risen by it, or who have themselves some Interest going in other Mens Traffique, or, who are born and bred in Towns, the Soul and Being whereof consists wholly in Trade, which makes sure of all favour, that, from time to time, grows necessary, and can be given it by the Government. ”

“ And if that be the great foundation of Trade, the best account that can be given of theirs, will be, by considering the Causes and Accidents, that have served to force or invite so vast a confluence of People into their Country. In the first rank may be placed, the Civil-Wars, Calamities, Persecutions, Oppressions, or Discontents, that have been so fatal to most of their Neighbours, for some time before as well as since their State began. ”

“ The entrance of the Tessel, and passage over the Zudder-Sea, is more dangerous than a Voyage from thence to Spain, lying all in blind and narrow Channels; so that it easily appears, that 'tis not an Haven that draws Trade, but Trade that fills an Haven, and brings it in vogue. Nor has Holland grown rich by any Native Commodities, but by force of Industry; By improvement and manufacture of all Foreign growths; By being the general Magazine of Europe, and furnishing all parts with whatever the Market wants or invites ”

“ The cause of this great cheapness of Corn seems to be, not so much a course of plentiful and seasonable years, as the general Peace that has been in Europe since the year 59 or 60; by which so many Men and so much Land have been turned to Husbandry, that were before employ'd in the Wars, or lay wasted by them in all the Frontier-Provinces of France and Spain, as well as throughout Germany, before the Peace of Munster ”

“ As in a great populous Village, the first Grocer, or Mercer, that sets up among them, grows presently rich, having all the Custom; till another, encouraged by his success, comes to set up by him, and share in his Gains; at length so many fall to the Trade, that nothing is got by it ”

“ But among the whole body of the Civil Magistrates, the Merchants, the rich Traders, and Citizens in general, the Fashions continue still the same; And others, as constant among the Sea-men and Boors: So that Men leave off their Clothes, only, because they are worn out, and not because they are out of Fashion. ”

“ Order in Trade; Interest of Persons in the Government; particular Traffick affected to particular places; Application to the Fishery; and Acquisitions in the East-Indies.
It is no constant Rule, That Trade makes Riches; for there may be a Trade, that impoverishes a Nation: As is not going often to Market, that enriches the Country-man ”

“ In all which Countrys it has of late years gone so low, as to discourage the Import of so great quantities, as used to come from Poland and Prussia, and other parts of the North. Now the less value those Nations receive for Corn, the less they are able to give for Spice, which is a great loss to the Dutch on both sides, lessening the vent of their Indian Ware in the Northern, and the Traffick of Corn in the Southern, parts. ”

“ Nay, it is generally esteemed, that they have more Shipping belongs to them, than there does to all the rest of Europe. Yet they have no Native Commodities towards the Building or Rigging of the smallest Vessel; Their Flax, Hemp, Pitch, Wood, and Iron, coming all from abroad, as Wool does for cloathing their Men, and Corn for feeding them. Nor do I know any thing properly of their own growth, that is considerable either for their own necessary use, or for Traffick with their Neighbours, besides Butter, Cheese, and Earthen Wares. ”

“ But that may be allow'd them, as the only Reward they enjoy of all their pains, and as that alone, which makes them rich and happy in their voluntary Poverty, who would otherwise seem poor and wretched in their real Wealth. ”

“ Where, by the largeness and plenty of the Soil, and scarcity of People, all things necessary to Life are so cheap, that an industrious Man, by two days labour, may gain enough to feed him the rest of the week ”

“ And thereby raised a State in the Indies, governed indeed by the Orders of the Company, but otherwise appearing to those Nations like a Sovereign State, making War and Peace with their greatest Kings, and able to bring to Sea Forty or Fifty Men of War, and Thirty thousand Men at Land, by the modestest computations. The Stock of this Trade, besides what it turns to in France, Spain, Italy, the Streights, and Germany, makes them so great Masters in the Trade of the Northern parts of Europe, as Muscovy, Poland, Pomerania, and all the Baltique ”

“ It appears to every Mans eye who hath travell'd Holland, and observed the number and vicinity of their great and populous Towns and Villages, with the prodigious improvement of almost every spot of ground in the Country, and the great multitudes constantly employ'd in their Shipping abroad, and their Boats at home, That no other known Country in the World, of the same extent, holds any proportion with this in numbers of People ”

“ Every Man following his own way, minding his own business, and little enquiring into other Mens; Which, I suppose, happen'd by so great a concourse of people of several Nations, different Religions and Customs, as left nothing strange or new ”

“ And by the general humour, bent all upon Industry, whereas Curiosity is only proper to idle Men.
Besides, it has ever been the great Principle of their State, running through all their Provinces and Cities, even with emulation, to make their Country the common refuge of all miserable Men; From whose protection, hardly any Alliance, Treaties, or Interests, have ever been able to divert or remove them. So as, during the great dependence this State had upon France, in the time of Henry the Fourth, all the Persons disgraced at that Court or banisht that Country, made this their common Retreat ”

“ One is the Reputation of their Government, arising from the observation of the Success of their Arms, the Prudence of their Negotiations, the Steddiness of their Counsels, the Constancy of their Peace and Quiet at home, and the Consideration they hereby arrived at among the Princes and States of Christendom. From all these, Men grew to a general opinion of the Wisdom and Conduct of their State ”

“ For never any Country traded so much, and consumed so little: They buy infinitely, but 'tis to sell again, either upon improvement of the Commodity, or at a better Market. They are the great Masters of the Indian Spices, and of the Persian Silks ”

“ Such the Triumphs, Trophees, and Secular Plays of old Rome, as well as the Spectacles exhibited afterwards by the Emperors, with such stupendous effects of Art and Expence, for courting or entertaining the People ”