Penny Dreadfuls, 1736 · page 8 of 16
Thoughts on Trade — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running prose from what appears to be a political or economic treatise (not a typical penny dreadful of sensation fiction). The text discusses trade policy between England, France, and Ireland, arguing that England lost commercial advantages to France in previous wars, and that recovery requires Ireland's assistance. The author contends that if a certain Bill had passed unopposed, competing English trades (wool, silk manufacturers) might have demanded equal relief by blaming Irish conduct, creating problematic legislative precedent. The page ends mid-argument with a rhetorical question about the consequences of such a law.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CGT 2 2 CARRE tothe te ta ch nine Ce me Cds in Ireland, but they will do it in the moft extenfive manner. For before the two laft Wars, the Exgli/b certainly had very much the Advantage of the French in Trade ; and the Author being pretty well fatisfied how we came to lote that Advantage, and of the Methods made ufe of by the French to increafe their Trade, he cannot doubt but he fhall give full Sat:f- faction, that we may recover our Commerce by the Affiftance of Ireland, and not pol- fible to do it, without making ufe of that Kingdom. _ Therefore if no Oppofition had been given to paffing the Bill, what was alledged by the Petitioner to be the Caufes of the Decay in their feveral Trades might have been credi- ted, and the Bill paffed, as worded in the firft Draught. When room had been giventoevery Trade in England to have complained to Parlia- ment of a Decay, and to have imputed the fame to the Conduct of the People in Ireland, and all Petitioners with equal Juftice might expec the fame Relief as the Woollen and Silken Manufacturers ; what might have been the Confequence of fuch a Law? As ee PS eg Ma slit dh sina tee "COMIEHDOOKS Ee