s but my own; upon
all which accounts, and several others, you might easily have found
among my fellow-citizens, persons more capable to resolve the weighty
questions you put to me, than I can pretend to be.

But being entirely at leisure, even at this season of the year, when I
used to have scarce time sufficient to perform the necessary offices of
life, I will endeavour to comply with your requests, cautioning you not
implicitly to rely upon what I say, excepting what belongs to that
branch of trade in which I am more immediately concerned.

The Irish trade is, at present, in the most deplorable condition that
can be imagined; to remedy it, the causes of its languishment must be
inquired into: But as those causes (you may assure yourself) will not be
removed, you may look upon it as a thing past hopes of recovery.

The first and greatest shock our trade received, was from an act passed
in the reign of King William, in the Parliament of England, prohibiting
the exportation of wool manufactured in Ireland. An act (as the event
plainly shews) fuller of greediness than good policy; an act as
beneficial to France and Spain, as it has been destructive to England
and Ireland.[103] At the passing of this fatal act, the condition of
our trade was glorious and flourishing, though no way interfering with
the English; we made no broad-cloths above _6s._ per yard; coarse
druggets, bays and shalloons, worsted damasks, strong draught works,
slight half-works, and gaudy stuffs, were the only product of our looms:
these were partly consumed by the meanest of our people, and partly
sent to the northern nations, from which we had in exchange, timber,
iron, hemp, flax, pitch, tar, and hard dollars. At the time the current
money of Ireland was foreign silver, a man could hardly receive _100l._,
without finding the coin of all the northern powers, and every prince of
the empire among it. This money was returned into England for fine
cloths, silks, &c. for our own wear, for rents, for coals, for hardware,
and all other English manufactures, and, in a great measure, supplied
the London merchants with foreign silver for exportation.

The repeated clamours of the English weavers produced this act, so
destructive to themselves and us. They looked with envious eyes upon our
prosperity, and complained of being undersold by us in those
commodities, which they themselves did not deal in. At their instances
the act was passed, and we lost our pro