forget the deliverance when the danger is past. But I shall come to
speak of that part again.
It must not be forgot here to take some notice of the state of trade
during the time of this common calamity, and this with respect to
foreign trade, as also to our home trade.
As to foreign trade, there needs little to be said. The trading nations
of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland, or
Spain, or Italy would admit our ships or correspond with us; indeed
we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in a furious war with
them, but though in a bad condition to fight abroad, who had such
dreadful enemies to struggle with at home.
Our merchants were accordingly at a full stop; their ships could go
nowhere – that is to say, to no place abroad; their manufactures and
merchandise – that is to say, of our growth – would not be touched
abroad. They were as much afraid of our goods as they were of our
people; and indeed they had reason: for our woollen manufactures are
as retentive of infection as human bodies, and if packed up by persons
infected, would receive the infection and be as dangerous to touch as
a man would be that was infected; and therefore, when any English
vessel arrived in foreign countries, if they did take the goods on shore,
they always caused the bales to be opened and aired in places
appointed for that purpose. But from London they would not suffer
them to come into port, much less to unlade their goods, upon any
terms whatever, and this strictness was especially used with them in
Spain and Italy. In Turkey and the islands of the Arches indeed, as
they are called, as well those belonging to the Turks as to the
Venetians, they were not so very rigid. In the first there was no
obstruction at all; and four ships which were then in the river loading
for Italy – that is, for Leghorn and Naples – being denied product, as
they call it, went on to Turkey, and were freely admitted to unlade
their cargo without any difficulty; only that when they arrived there,
some of their cargo was not fit for sale in that country; and other parts
of it being consigned to merchants at Leghorn, the captains of the
ships had no right nor any orders to dispose of the goods; so that great
inconveniences followed to the merchants. But this was nothing but
what the necessity of affairs required, and the merchants at Leghorn
and Naples having notice given them, sent again from thence to take
care of the effects which were particularly consigned to those ports,
and to bring back in other ships such as were improper for the markets
at Smyrna and Scanderoon.
The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were still greater, for they
would by no means suffer our ships, especially those from London, to
come into any of their ports, much less to unlade. There was a report
that one of our ships having by stealth delivered her cargo, among
which was some bales of English cloth, cotton, kerseys, and such-like
goods, the Spaniards caused all the goods to be burned, and punished
the men with death who were concerned in carrying them on shore.
This, I believe, was in part true, though I do not affirm it; but it is not
at all unlikely, seeing the danger was really very great, the infection
being so violent in London.
I heard likewise that the plague was carried into those countries by
some of our ships, and particularly to the port of Faro in the kingdom
of Algarve, belonging to the King of Portugal, and that several persons
died of it there; but it was not confirmed.
On the other hand, though the Spaniards and Portuguese were so shy
of us, it is most certain that the plague (as has been said) keeping at
first much at that end of the town next Westminster, the
merchandising part of the town (such as the city and the water-side)
was perfectly sound till at least the beginning of July, and the ships in