Author: John Bellers
Original publication: 1723
Release date: 12 June 2024
Credits: This ebook was produced for Theories of Value from images provided by The Internet Archive and Google Books. Proofreading, HTML markup and commentary by George Surmava
One obvious error has been fixed on page 5: "Imploying" instead of "Imyloying". Otherwise, the original orthography has not been changed.
Blackletter type was used in the original edition for heavy emphasis. Here it was replaced by simple bold text.
If there were no Labourers, there would be no Lords.
And if the Labourers did not raise more Food, and Manufactures than what did subsist themselves, every Gentleman must be a Labourer, and idle Men must starve.
London:
Printed and Sold by the Assigns of J.Sowle, at the Bible in George-Yard Lombard-Street, 1723.
King William1 in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament, the 9th of December 1698, said,
My Lords and Gentlemen,
I Think it would be happy, if some Effectual Expedient could be found for imploying the Poor, which might tend to the great Increase of our Manufactures, as well as remove a heavy Burden from the People.
I hope also you will employ your Thoughts about some good Bills for the Advancement of Trade, and for the further discourageing of Vice and Profaneness.
The Lord Chief Justice Hale2, in his Discourse for imploying the Poor, said,
1st, They that are Rich, are Stewards of their Wealth; and they that are wise are Stewards of their Wisdom, unto that great master of the Family of Heaven and Earth, to whom they must give an Account of both: And one (I am sure) of the best Accounts they can give of both, is to imploy them in the Reformation and Relief of those that want both, or either. Am I my Brother's Keeper? was the Answer of One of the worst of Men.
2d, It would be a Work of great Humanity, we owe to those of our own Nature as we are men, and that as well becomes a Christian as any; and the ill Provision for the Poor in England, is one of the greatest Reproaches to our Christian Profession.
3d, The Want of a due Provision for Education and Relief of the Poor in a Way of Industry, is that which Fills the Jails with Malefactors, and the Kingdom with idle Persons that consume the Stock of the Kingdom, without improving it; and that will daily encrease, even to a Desolation in Time. And this Error in the first Concoction, is never remediable but by Gibbets, and Whipping: But a sound prudent Method, for an industrious Education of the Poor, will give a better Remedy against these Corruptions, that all the Gibbets and whipping Posts in the Kingdom; for as necessitous and uneducated Persons increase, the Multitude of Malefactors will increase, notwithstanding the Examples of Severity.
Sr. Josiah Child3 saith in his Discourse about the Poor.
And if a whole Session of Parliament were imployed on this singular Concern, I think (saith he) it would be Time spent as much to the Glory of God, and Good of this Nation, as in any Thing that noble and worthy Patriots of their Country can be engaged in.
Here are strong and pathetick Lines in Behalf of the Poor, by a powerful King an honourable Judge, and one of the greatest Merchants.
No Man need be ashamed to espouse the same Cause with such Advocates.
The 5 Advantages I propose by a Colledge of Industry, are no less than all that the Poor want, or that the Rich can reasonable desire.
| The 5 Advantages are, | I Prove these 5 Propositions thus. |
|---|---|
| 1st, That the Poor will have constant Imployment. | 1st, Because they cannot want Work there any Time of the Year, they having all the Conveniencies for Life, to raise for themselves and their Founders. |
| [4] 2d, That they will have a constant Vent, for what manufactures or Food they will or can raise more then they use themselves. | 2d, Because whatever they raise more than they spend, their Founders will gladly receive it, (and the more the better) it being all Profit to them. |
| 3d, That they will have Plenty of Food, as well as all other Necessaries for themselves and their Children, without Eating the Bread of others, but raising their own. | 3d, For as a proportionable Part of them are imployed upon the Land in Husbandry, they will raise Food sufficient for the whole Society. |
| 4th, There may be a good Education for their Children. | 4th, There may be all Conveniences for Instruction and Oversight, both in Vertue and Industry, equal if not better than in any other Method of Settlement. |
| 5th, There may be a considerable Profit for their Founders, that shall so imploy them. |
5th, It being plain that the Nobility, Gentry, Shop keepers, &c. spend much more than the Labourers. Therefore it may well be concluded, that 1000 Labourers or Mechanicks can raise all the Necessaries of Life for 2000 Persons; so then the Labour of the other 1000 Persons may be reckoned Profit to the Founders. But if we reckon 500 of these Poor to be aged, sick, and Infants with necessary Officers, and for Rent, the Labour of 500 will pay the Founders sufficiently. |
This Method will appear the more necessary, if we consider, That to increase of Manufactures, without increasing our Husbandry, we shall come to short Allowance (as they do at Sea when they set 5 or 6 Men to 4 Mens Mess) by placing more Men to Table, without putting any more Food there.
Therefore as Imploying our Poor is highly needful, so to do it in a regular Method is as needful; that the Poor may not starve for want of Bread, by wanting of Vent for their Manufactures, when the Market shall be overstockt, as is often Times the Case.
By which it appears, that Imploying our indigent Poor in Manufactures and Husbandry, in a due Proportion to their Wants of both, is the most certain Way of Imploying them with Advantage.
For as these Poor are thrown out of any Trade, as being more than sufficient to supply the general Want of the Nation; so the Collecting of those supernumerary expelled Poor, into such a Colledge of Industry, will enable them to live in Plenty of all Things, as much as the Rest of the Kingdom doth.
One bright Pattern will shine to every County of the Kingdom; and when the Method shall be thoroughly tryed, if it succeeds well, it will make them fond of such Settlements among them.
Our Forrests and great Commons, which lye much of them as waste Land, if they were made lyable to be divided by a Writ of Partition, in proportion to every One's Right, much of those Lands would be greatly improved.
I have computed in another Treatise4 that the nation loseth five Millions Sterling in a Year,
By wanting a good Method for the Imploying of the Poor.
But if it is but half that Sum, that is two Millions and a half, it is a Treasure in our own Country, we need [6]not run the Hazards of War, nor compass the Globe, to come at.
Twenty Shillings a Year at 6 pr. Ct. Interest upon Interest in 58 Years comes to Five Hundred Pound.
And a 100l. a Year saved, at the same Rate and in the same Time will raise Fifty Thousand Pound.
Therefore 2 Millions and a half got or saved yearly by a suitable Imployment of the Poor on Manufactures and Husbandry would in that Proportion in 58 Years, come to one Thousand two hundred and fifty Millions Sterling.
Which is 4 times as much, as all the Lands in the Kingdom are now worth; for if they are 15 Millions a Year at 20 Years Purchase, that comes but to 300 Millions.
Whereas in 58 Years time such a Body as our present idle Poor, if they were imployed about it, would be able to turn all our wast and unimproved Lands (which some think may be near a quarter Part of the Lands in the Kingdom) into fruitful Fields, Orchards, and Gardens, and their mean Cottages into Colledges, and fill our Barns with Plenty of Bread, and our Store-houses with Manufactures, which would greatly incourage the Increase of our People, and the Strength, and Riches of the Nation.
Our Riches consist very little in our Money, in Comparison of the other Parts of our Estates: For what is 14 Millions of Money in this Kingdom, to 4000 Millions which the Lands and Stock of Goods and Cattle, &c. may be valued at; or the Money that every Man is Master of, in Comparison of the Value of all the rest of his Estate, in Land, Housing or Goods.
By which it may appear what Sort of Forreign Trade, as well as what Sort of Imployment of our People, hath most increased the Value of the Kingdom, since it was a Wilderness and first inhabited.
It being, what our Ancestors did, or we have done to improve our Lands, Housing, &c. that is now accounted[7] our chief Riches: But for the Wine, Silks and Sauces, which they or we have imported, (for Pleasure,) they are Expences, that have added little or nothing to the present Value of the Kingdom.
Our foreign Trade, as well as the Imployment of our People at Home, may be considered under 3 Heads.
1st, Those which give a necessary Supply for our present Subsistence, Pleasure, or Curiosity, which are our yearly Expences: Of which nothing descends to our Heirs.
2d, Those which transfer any Riches to our Posterity, may be accounted a lasting Improvement to the Kingdom.
3d, Those which run into the Excess of Pride and Luxury, and such Trades or Imployments will then be our Extravagancy, and tend to impoverish Us and our Posterity; and consequently so far the Publick suffers.
For tho' some Traders may grow rich, by supplying Fuel to our Vanities and Excesses, as when the Dealers may get 30 Thousand Pounds by Flanders Lace, Claret, &c. the Users spends 100 Thousand Pounds upon them, and consequently sink their Estates (if not their own Health) from their Heirs by those Expences, double to what the Dealers get for theirs by selling of them.
When the Timber, Iron, and other lasting Commodities that have been fetched from Swedeland, and Norway and other Places; and those raised at Home for Building; with other Improvements on the Lands, &c. are the valuable Monuments which our Predecessors have left us of their good Husbandry and Improvement.
But if every man in the World had a Million of Money, there would not be one Pound of Bread, nor an Inch of Cloth, nor a Cottage the more for it, to support the Life of one Man.
Therefore except a suitable Number of those Moneyed Men[8] become Labourers, Mankind must perish through Hunger or Cold.
Duty and Interest are two as great Obligations as can be laid upon Mortals, and they both, as powerful Advocates, call upon the Rich to take care of the Poor.
Not only for the Present Time, but by such a Provision, as may continue to Posterity, by which they will not only shew their Charities to others, but by it they will make Provision for many of their own Heirs and Posterity, that may come to want it: Which will be an Entail to them that no Fines or Recoveries can cut off.
For as there are no Poor now, but some of their Ancestors have been Rich; neither are there now any Rich, but some of their Ancestors have been poor, and some of their Posterity or Heirs, will, or may become poor.
And it is greatly dishonourable to a Christian and Flourishing Nation, to see in our Streets the many miserable and helpless Objects, as well as Cheats, that frequently appear there.
If Incouragement were given by the Legislature for any new Discovery in the Mechanicks and Husbandry, it would produce great Effects, possibly to double the Conveniencies they have with the same Labour, and therefore to double the People that have them now.
The Suppresing of Saw-Mills I account a great Loss to the Nation, by which many of the Boards we use are sawed in foreign Countries, and our Building of Houses and Shipping are the more chargeable, to the Poor as well as the Rich.
Laws against shortening of Labour are as unreasonable, as to make a Law that every labouring Man should tye one Hand behind him, that two Men might be imploy'd in one Body's Work, which would be to make the Rich poor, by doubling their Charge, and the Poor miserable for the same Reason, whil'st they would earn less, or must pay double what is usual for all their Necessaries of Life.
Wherefore I humbly move that You would please to appoint a Committee to consider of this Proposal, and to receive what else may be offered unto them from Others on the Same Subject.
J. B.
FINIS.
An Essay for Imploying the Poor to Profit is the last economic text of John Bellers. It is heavily based on his previous texts, mostly on An Essay towards the Improvement of Physick (1714). Most of the Essay is a remake of the older version - more concise, sometimes with different accents. Here are the most important differences: