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<DATE>2014-10-09</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140716.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">S541</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99832038</BIBNO>
<VID>198865</VID>
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>THE <HI>Citizens and Trade&s;mens Ca&s;e:</HI> Humbly to be Pre&s;ented to the En&s;uing Parliament, relating to the Price of Corn, by &s;everal Citizens and Trade&s;men of <HI>London.</HI></HEAD>
<P>WE have cho&s;en a King who hath taken from us our Fears and Jealou&s;ies of Popery and Slavery at home, and ventur'd his Royal Per&s;on to defend us from our Enemies a|broad; and in his ab&s;ence left Lords Ju&s;tices, who have taken notice of the Di&s;tre&s;s the Poor labour under, by the Exce&s;&s;ive Price of Corn, and have I&s;&s;ued forth a Pro|clamation, and order to &s;uppre&s;s the Cau&s;es thereof; And we &s;till enjoy our Ancient liberty to Choo&s;e our Repre&s;entatives who are &s;hortly to &s;it, to hear the Peoples Grievances and Redre&s;s them, and if we have cho&s;en &s;uch as do not, it's our own fault: No doubt, but they will at this time hear the Cry of the Poor for Bread, and not let them Peri&s;h amid&s;t Gods abounding mercies.</P>
<P>Food and Raiment is the &s;upport of mankind, (the greate&s;t of Men Enjoy no more.) And God hath &s;eated us in a Land of <HI>Go&s;hen</HI> which abounds in both, and by the Manufactory thereof pro|vided a Maintenance for the Poor, and to augment our Happine&s;s, we have been hitherto a Trad|ing People, Inabled by our Ships and Seamen to out-do our Neighbours, and by which our Mer|chants by Trading abroad, and our Mechanicks and Trade&s;men at home have gotten Riches, whereby our Honourable City of <HI>London,</HI> hath hitherto been able to a&s;&s;i&s;t our Prince, to defend us from our Envious Enemies both at home and abroad.</P>
<P>Trade and Indu&s;try beget Riches, and Riches (with Gods Ble&s;&s;ing) is the Glory of this World, and is that, which made the Poor di&s;tre&s;&s;ed States of <HI>Holland,</HI> High and Mighty, <HI>Ho|gan, Mogan.</HI></P>
<P>In the whip for the Mealman, Fore&s;tallers, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> Publi&s;hed by <HI>A. Baldwin</HI> in <HI>Warwick-Lane,</HI> I &s;et forth &s;ome Rea&s;ons of the pre&s;ent Dearne&s;s of Corn, which by wi&s;e men hath been taken no|tice of; and &s;ome di&s;creet Citizens and Trade&s;men of <HI>London,</HI> being &s;en&s;ible of the decay of their &s;ub&s;tance, by bad Trade and Dearne&s;s of Corn, have de&s;ired me to give my further thoughts herein (that they, together with their Brethren in City and Country, may pray for a redre&s;s) which I &s;hall endeavour to do by further Demon&s;trating other Cau&s;es thereof, then what I have &s;et forth, which of it &s;elf will An&s;wer Objections, that &s;ome Per&s;on may make; and &s;hew the remedies thereof.</P>
<P><HI>Forestallers, Regrators,</HI> and <HI>Ingro&s;&s;ers</HI> of Corn, do not only buy Corn on the Ground, at the Farmers Hou&s;es, and at Inns, but them&s;elves, or Factors have a &s;trict watch upon the markets; And when the Labouring Farmer brings forth his Corn to &s;ell plentifully to pay his Rent, or to &s;upply his nece&s;&s;ary occa&s;ions, then the <HI>Ingro&s;&s;ers, &amp;c.</HI> Buy up the Corn, and when the Poor Far|mers Corn is out, then the&s;e unmerciful Men rai&s;e the price at their plea&s;ure, and tho there may be &s;ome plentiful markets, Yet there is never &s;o many together, that will fall the price of Bread in <HI>London.</HI></P>
<P>I am not again&s;t &s;uch as (<HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> like) do pre&s;erve Corn in a plenty, again&s;t the time of &s;car|city; It's as good for the Poor as for the Farmer, and plea&s;ant to &s;ee &s;uch plenty of Corn in the Farmers Yards, when it's kept only for the Markets.</P>
<P>Another Rea&s;on of the Dearne&s;s of Corn is the Tran&s;porting of it, and that mo&s;tly in For|reign bottoms, which other Nations al&s;o have, for fear of War and Scarcity, forbid the Tran&s;|porting thereof. And it's generally reported, that there is &s;ome Hundred Thou&s;and Pounds tran&s;mitted in Bills to <HI>England</HI> from <HI>Holland,</HI> to buy up our Corn; E&s;pecially in the <HI>We&s;t,</HI> where there hath been a plentiful Harve&s;t. I remember a Story of a <HI>French</HI> Admiral, who &s;ent Com|mi&s;&s;ions to Factors in <HI>Poland,</HI> to buy Corn to Victual his Fleet, by which they bought up &s;o much (the Poor Farmers being glad to receive ready Money) that it made Corn &s;o &s;carce and dear, that the People of the Country were forced to buy again of the Factors, at double the rate they had paid for it.</P>
<PB REF="2">
<P>Another Rea&s;on of the Dearne&s;s of Corn is occa&s;ioned by the Di&s;tillers, which &s;ome are &s;o confident as to aver, that they con&s;ume as &s;uch Malt in &s;ome places as the Brewers, but as <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> out of my knowledge, &s;o I dare not meddle with it, neither do I know how it &s;tands in the Kings Books. But this I know, that Barly in a &s;carce Year, (&s;ellers being forced by the Magi|&s;trates care to &s;erve the poor therewith for Bread before the Maul&s;ters bought in the Market) greatly pre&s;erved the Poor, and what with the Exci&s;e on Beer, and Tax on Mault, Barly, in &s;ome places is near as dear as Wheat, which hath brought Mault to an Exce&s;&s;ive rate; In&s;omuch, that it hath cau&s;ed the Brewen to rai&s;e the price of Beer, that it's like to ruin the poor Retailers. And beer being &s;uch a &s;uccour to poor Labouring Men, that I pray God it may not cau&s;e a Cla|mour among&s;t the People; and the drinking of &s;trong Waters, cau&s;es the Poor to &s;pend the more ea&s;ily what their Families want, and Impair, their Health. And it's worthy of con<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">de|ration, the abominable practice of <HI>Di&s;till<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rs</HI> in u&s;ing Mault made of Wheat.</P>
<P>The greate&s;t Objection that the Farmers make, and which the Poor fear will be to their preju|dice) is, the Farmers &s;ay, that if the Laws are put in Execution again&s;t Fore&s;tallers, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> it will thereby lower the price of Corn, and make the Landlords Rents to fall.</P>
<P>This is that which in King <HI>Charles</HI> the Second's time (Corn being then cheap) cau&s;ed the Act to pa&s;s again&s;t bringing in <HI>Iri&s;h</HI> Cattle; which in time of War and Scarcity, the poor Handycrafts Men have much wanted: And now if the Price of Corn and other Provi&s;ions do not fall, and the Trade&s;men able to work as cheap as in other Nations, (that have more plenty of Provi&s;ions) we &s;hall lo&s;e our Trade, and the poor Handycraftmen mu&s;t leave the Country or &s;tarve. And &s;o this Objection is only to amu&s;e the World, and to affright the Landlords; for the Ingro&s;&s;ing of Farms, will in time be as great a prejudice to the Landlords, as the Dearne&s;s of Corn is to the Poor, for in many places, Rich Farmers have now Ingro&s;&s;ed &s;o many Farms into their hands, that they have much Depopulated the Pari&s;hes where they live, having drove away the working Te|nants (who would pay their Rents well and be at the Landlords command) let fall the Farm Hou&s;es, lo&s;e the Kings Window Tax, and have the Landlord at command, by being tied to one Tenant; For to my own knowledge, a Per&s;on of Honour in the <HI>We&s;t</HI> Depopulated a Pari&s;h to his great lo&s;s. Whereas the worthy Sir <HI>John Strangeways,</HI> made his Servants good Husbands to &s;ave their Wages, and lent them Money to enable them to Farm, and thereby increa&s;ed his Te|nants and made them &s;erviceable to him&s;elf and Country, and are at this Day Men of repute.</P>
<P>How to cure &s;o long growing and profitable a corruption, is too hard a task for my poor un|der&s;tanding, the more con&s;idering how many Per&s;ons have already been &s;tigmatized in their re|putations, with the odious Name of Informers, ruined in their &s;ub&s;tance and in danger of their lives for di&s;covering Frauds and Cheats; And tho tho&s;e that wrong'd the King and got great E&s;tates thereby, yet have they gone unpuni&s;hed, which does &s;o di&s;courage Men that they, dare not meddle with &s;uch rich offenders.</P>
<P>As to the great out-cry there is again&s;t Corn Meeters, and the Actions of <HI>Bear-Key</HI> (judged to be through the neglect of the City Officers, who buy their places, and mind only their own pro|fit) which relates to the City, the wi&s;e Heads in their Councils can be&s;t order, and no Que&s;tion the next Lord Mayor will be as Zealous in a&s;&s;i&s;ting the Poor, in puting the&s;e whole&s;om Laws in Execution to keep them from &s;tarving, as this pre&s;ent Lord Mayor hath been in puni&s;hing of|fenders.</P>
<P>Our Ance&s;tors have left us good Laws and Remedies, again&s;t this foul di&s;temper of Fore|&s;talling, Ingro&s;&s;ing and Tran&s;porting of Corn; Our Lords Ju&s;tices have I&s;&s;ued out a Proclama|tion, and order thereupon to prevent both. The Magi&s;trates have full Power and Incourage|ment to Act in it, and the Laws already made hath given &s;o great a Power to the Ju&s;tice of the Peace, that it will look as if it were their fault if the Laws be not put in Execution, but if they want power to make a full cure of this Di&s;temper, we have a Parliament &s;uddenly to &s;it, and per&s;ons ready to pray for their a&s;&s;i&s;tance, which no doubt will give it them, if wanting, and they de&s;ire it; and the people, by the Act, may pro&s;ecute &s;uch that in 2 Years pa&s;t have been guilty of Fore&s;talling, Tran&s;porting, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> And there has been an in&s;tance &s;een lately, of the good effect of the Pro&s;ecuting of offenders, by the Lute&s;tring Company, that put the Law in Execution again&s;t &s;uch as Imported <HI>French</HI> Goods, tending to the de&s;truction of the <HI>Allamode</HI> Pattent; and carried on by a Rich Man, who did not value the By-Name of an Informer, whereby the offenders were puni&s;hed, and that di&s;temper to appearance cured. I wi&s;h all that have cheated the King and Country, and Tran&s;gre&s;s the Law may be &s;o &s;erved, then the King would have more Money, the People fewer Taxes, and the Poor more bread, and all Men cau&s;e to prai&s;e God for having &s;uch good Laws and Good Magi&s;trates.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Tho. Sam&s;on.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed for the Author. 1698.</P>
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