The
Venetians, Who Had For Many Years Supplied Constantinople And Other Ports
Of The Levant, Were Driven From Their Markets
By the English, who could
afford to sell them cloths cheaper; and English ships began to be preferred
to those
Of Venice and other nations, for the carrying trade in the
Mediterranean. According to Sir W. Monson, England exported broad cloth,
tin, &c. enough to purchase all the wares we wanted in Turkey; and, in
particular, 300 great bales of Persian raw silk yearly: "whereas a balance
of money is paid by the other nations trading thither. Marseilles sends
yearly to Aleppo and Alexandria at least 500,000_l_. sterling, and little
or no wares. Venice sends about 400,000_l_. in money, and a great value in
wares besides: the Low Countries send about 50,000_l_., and but little
wares; and Messina 25,000_l_. in ready money: besides great quantities of
gold and dollars from Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c.; and all these nations
take of the Turks in return great quantities of camblets, grograms, raw
silk, cotton wool and yarn, galls, flax, hemp, rice, hides, sheep's wool,
wax, corn, &c."
The first check which the Levant trade received was given by the East India
Company: about the year 1670 the Levant Company complained that their trade
in raw silk was much diminished; they had formerly imported it solely from
Turkey, whereas then it was imported in great quantities direct from India.
In 1681, the complaints of the one company, and the defence of the other,
were heard before the Privy Council. The Levant Company alleged, that for
upwards of one hundred years they had exported to Turkey and other parts of
the Levant, great qualities of woollen manufactures, and other English
wares, and did then, more especially, carry out thither to the value of
500,000_l_; in return for which they imported raw silks, galls, grograms,
drugs, cotton, &c.; whereas the East India Company exported principally
gold and silver bullion, with an inconsiderable quantity of cloth; and
imported calicoes, pepper, wrought silks, and a deceitful sort of raw silk;
if the latter supplants Turkey raw silk, the Turkey demand for English
cloth must fail, as Turkey does not yield a sufficient quantity of other
merchandize to return for one fourth part of our manufactures carried
thither.
The East India Company, on the other hand, alleged that the cloth they
exported was finer and more valuable than that exported by the Turkey
Company, and that, if they were rightly informed, the medium of cloths
exported by that company, for the last three years, was only 19,000 cloths
yearly: it is admitted, however, that before there was any trade to China
and Japan, the Turkey Company's exportation of cloth did much exceed that
of the East India Company. With respect to the charge of exporting bullion,
it was alleged that the Turkey Company also export it to purchase the raw
silk in Turkey. The East India Company further contended, that since their
importation of raw silk, the English silk manufacturers had much encreased,
and that the plain wrought silks from India were the strongest, most
durable, and cheapest of any, and were generally re-exported from England
to foreign parts.
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