Londons Resurrection, Discourse 17
DISCOURSE XVII.
That a ſtudious advancing and promoting of Trade by thoſe that have power to do it, would greatly contribute to the Re-building of London.
WHat ſhould we do with a City without a Trade? Can men pay great rents, and fines, keep ſervants, &c. with little or no trade? Citizens (as is ſaid of the Fowls of the Air) can neither ſow nor reap illis nec ſeritur nec metitur in a literal ſenſe. London ſtreets are neither arable nor Paſture. Take away their Trade, and you take their Milſtone to pledg, which is their very life, for ſo a mans livelyhood is ſaid to be. London is a Lamp, Trade the Oil that feeds it. What is a Lamp without Oil? Give them but Oil enough, and if others have made them burn, you will make them ſhine again.
If Trade be deſtroyed, Citizens will be ſtarved, and that will make them deſperate: for Hunger (as they ſay) will break through ſtone walls. Thoſe Bees will care for no hive, if they can ſuck no honey. If Trades be not the making of men, uſually they are their undoing. If Trading take wings and fly away, they will be gone too. Could Londoners foreſee there would be no Trade, they would preſently ceaſe from building, and betake themſelves to the Countrey, where they could profit more both by the earth and by the air, and could live for leſs. No Trade, no City; no City, no Kingdom. Impoveriſh London, and you impoveriſh the Countrey (for the City doubtleſs was, and is the beſt door of utterance for the Countrey mans beſt Commodities) impoveriſh the Farmer, and you undo both Gentry and Nobility, for what ſhall Landlords live upon, when Tenants cannot pay their rents?
Who knows not that Trade is that to the Politick Body, that the Circulation of the Bloud (whereby proper nouriſhment is conveyed to every part) is to the Body natural? When the Bloud ſtagnates, or doth not circulate freely, the Body languiſheth. Trade is a Myſtery of gaining by thoſe that do gain by us, and in the ſame Commodity. The Merchant gains by the Drugſter, the Drugſter by the Apothecary, the Apothecary by the Patient, and the Patient by the Apothecary (with the bleſſing of God) though not wealth, yet health, which is better. As friendſhip is upheld in the World by an intercourſe of kindneſſes, and doing of courteſies one for another, ſo the greateſt part of humane ſociety, is upheld by Commerce and Traffique, one man needing anothers Commodities, and he his again.
Trade is as I may call it a grave Tennis-play, whereby the Ball of profit is banded from one man to another, an exerciſe which moſt men are ſo well pleaſed with, that ſhould they be deprived of it, many men would not much care to be in the World, much leſs in the City. In a word, Trade is the very radical moiſture of London, and of other Cities, when that is almoſt dried up, Citizens, like thoſe that are fallen into a Conſumption, or hectick Feaver, will change the Air, and chooſe to be in the Countrey, and to build there, if they build any where. Give Citizens what you will beſides, they will never be content without a Trade, and the reaſon is, becauſe they cannot be content to ſtarve: as we ſee the Inhabitants of thoſe Towns are ready to do, where the ancient Trade (were it of Cloathing or whatſoever elſe) is almoſt quite loſt. Though Trade would not content them without any thing elſe, yet I am ſure nothing elſe would without the acceſſion of a Trade. Men will never believe they have any love for them, who have none for their Trading, and do naturally hate thoſe whom they do but ſuſpect to be enemies thereunto.
Enemies to Trade (if there be any ſuch Monſters) can be no friends to the honour of the King, for to be a King of Beggars muſt needs be a diſgrace, ſith God counts it his honour to be a King of Kings.
I think the honour, as of a King, ſo of a Parliament, is not a little concerned in the welfare of Trade. For a Parliament is a Colledge of State Phyſitians, and Trade hath been their Patient all along (a cachectick, obſtructed Patient) could they cure it at laſt, they would be famous. London, in the Act for the rebuilding of it, is ſpoken of by the Honourable Title of a place renowned for Traffique and Commerce all the World over: So will the contrivers of that Act be, for their Wiſdom and prudence, when they ſhall bring it to that paſs again.
Could Londoners regain ſuch a Trade as formerly they have had, they would not grudg to build ſuch a City as might even dazle the eyes of its beholders; but as Trade goes now, they think it is fine enough as it is, and is intended to be, if not too fine.