Penny Dreadfuls, 1736 · page 5 of 16
Thoughts on Trade — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a **title page and opening prose** from an 18th-century economic treatise (not a Victorian penny dreadful, as the document predates that genre by over a century). The page presents "Thoughts on TRADE," a manuscript submitted to Parliament members in 1735 concerning woolens and silks manufacturing petitions. The visible text argues that despite England and Ireland's similar geographic size, England's vastly larger population (eight million versus Ireland's 1.2 million) creates a trade disparity. The author questions whether Ireland's domestic consumption of manufactured goods leaves enough surplus for export to meaningfully damage British wool and silk trades, which are already depressed.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Thoughts on TR ADE. (Prefented in Manufcript to feveral Mem- bers of Parliament, in 1735, om the Woollen and Silken Manufaiturers Pe- titions to Parliament.) | #).H E Difference between the Be twolflands and Kingdoms, 5 England and Ireland, as Ze to Circumference, is but {mall ; but as to Number of People, the Difpropor- tion is very great; in Eng- land Eight Million ; in Jreland 1200,090. Admitting 300,000 or more of the = to be Manutacturers and Artificers, after the manufactured Goods confumed in Ireland, can there remain fuch large Quantities to ex- port, as to caufe a Decay in the Woollen, Silken, and almoft every other Branch of the Britifb Trade, at this Time very low, as is moft other Interefts in England, tho no