Page:PettyWilliam1899EconomicWritingsVol2.djvu/289

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594
Treatise of Ireland.

there is no reason to think that there was in pay above 17000 at a Medium at any one Time.

As to the Body of the English, we shall by the subsequent Accounts of Foreign Trade make it probable, That ¾ of the Foreign Commerce and Manufacture is managed by them. We further add that all the Real and Personal Estate of Ireland being worth about 20 Millions, that onely ¼ thereof doth belong to the Irish (vizt) 3 Millions worth of Land, and 2 Millions-worth of Cattle and other Commodities. All which is said that how much soever it be thought fit to magnify the Irish, that the English there be not mistaken to be despicable.

Wherefore it may well enough become this Place, to take a gross View (which I heartily beg those who better understand Trade to examine and correct) of the Foreign Trade of Ireland, as it stood in the Year 1685, beginning with the Exportations, vizt.

1. There were exported 1054 horses, which (I suppose) were bred by the English of Ireland.

2. There were exported 2080 Flitches of Bacon, 2514 Barrels of Pork, 75231 Barrels of Beef, and 1135 Dozen of Neat's-Tongues: The Salting and Saving all which, I take to have been brought in by the English.

3. There were exported 134712 Barrels of Butter, 2814 hundred Weight of Cheese. Which I take to be the English Manufactory, That which is made by the Vulgar Irish being scarce a vendible Commodity in Foreign Parts.

4. There was exported 84 hundred of Glew, with great Quantity of Ox-horns, Ox-Gutts, and Ox-bones: All which is English Manufacture.

5. There were exported 1435 hundred of Lamb-Skins, 4067 Dozen of Calves-Skins, 1665 hundred of Coney-Skins, 494 Dear-Skins, 4331 Fox and Otter-Skins, 278 hundred of Goat-Skins, 93412 Raw-Salted Oxhydes. All which were exported, because the English for their Paucity, and the Irish for Want of Skill, could not manufacture them to the best Advantage.

6. There were exported 86093 Tan'd hydes, which