Incomplete report on foreign tin trade
The quantity of German Tin is uncertain, the Mines yeilding {sic} One yeare more then Another, and at present many workmen being pressed to the Warr, the quantity hath not been of late years so great as formerly, and Concerning East India Tin, Some yeares agoe above 300 Tun came home in One year, Whereas Last year there Came home but 80 Tun and this year as yet only 50 Tun, what may Come in a great ship yet Expected from Batavia is yet uncertain, but I don't belive {sic} it will be must the Price I was ordered at the Treasury to keep at, was £44 to £45 ꝑ 100ll states Weighouse Weight and if wee Drive the price higher, it will both be an Incouragement to the East India Company, to bring home. Large parcells, and for the Mines in Germany to work faster. The Driveing of Goods (which severall Different Nations of the World afford) up to a high price at one place, proves Generally the Ruin of that place where the price is drove so high of which a Clear Evidence has happen'd in my time, for from the year 1695 to 1703 the English Plantation sugars were kept up generally above 40 to 56sh ꝑ 100li in England, and above 10d ꝑ l here this has made the Dutch at Surinam wh{illeg}enever made above 5000 hh:s sugar yearly, bring home, 12 to 15000hh:s for severall Late years, and what has and is Like to proove {sic} more fatall to the English Plantations, is our Dutch E: I: Company upon these high prices have planted a great part of the Island of Iava with sugar and have brought home the 3 years past. 14 to 1600 Tuns yearly of fine Blanco sugars, where not many years ago they used to carry Loafe sugar from this to Batavia, and the East India Company is resolved so to Enlarge and Encourage the sugar Plantations that it must prove very Disadvantageous to the to the {sic} English Plantations, for this Excellent Blanco sugar does not Cost the Company free on Board at
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Source
MINT 19/3/577, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UKBefore 23 September 1706, c. 353 words.