The only manufactured wares we are allowed to export, are linen cloth and linen yarn, which are marketable only in England; the rest of our commodities are wool, restrained to England, and raw hides, skins, tallow, beef, and butter.  Now, these are things for which the northern nations have no occasion; we are therefore obliged, instead of carrying woollen goods to their markets, and bringing home money, to purchase their commodities.

In France, Spain, and Portugal, our wares are more valuable, though it must be owned, our fraudulent trade in wool is the best branch of our commerce; from hence we get wines, brandy, and fruit, very cheap, and in great perfection; so that though England has constrained us to be poor, they have given us leave to be merry.  From these countries we bring home moydores, pistoles, and louisdores, without which we should scarce have a penny to turn upon.

To England we are allowed to send nothing but linen cloth, yarn, raw hides, skins, tallow, and wool.  From thence we have coals, for which we always pay ready money, India goods, English woollen and silks, tobacco, hardware, earthenware, salt, and several other commodities.  Our exportations to England are very much overbalanced by our importations; so that the course of exchange is generally too high, and people choose rather to make their remittances to England in specie, than by a bill, and our nation is perpetually drained of its little running cash.

Another cause of the decay of trade, scarcity of money, and swelling of exchange, is the unnatural affectation of our gentry to reside in and about London.[104] Their rents are remitted to them, and spent there.  The countryman wants employment from them; the country shopkeeper wants their custom.  For this reason he can’t pay his Dublin correspondent readily, nor take off a great quantity of his wares.  Therefore, the Dublin merchant can’t employ the artisan, nor keep up his credit in foreign markets.

I have discoursed some of these gentlemen, persons esteemed for good sense, and demanded a reason for this their so unaccountable proceeding,—­expensive to them for the present, ruinous to their country, and destructive to the future value of their estates,—­and find all their answers summed up under three heads, curiosity, pleasure, and loyalty to King George.  The two first excuses deserve no answer; let us try the validity of the third.  Would not loyalty be much better expressed by gentlemen staying in their respective countries, influencing their dependents by their examples, saving their own wealth, and letting their neighbours profit by their necessary expenses, thereby keeping them from misery, and its unavoidable consequence, discontent?  Or is it better to flock to London, be lost in a crowd, kiss the King’s hand, and take a view of the royal family?  The seeing of the royal house may animate their zeal for it; but other advantages I know not.  What employment have any of our gentlemen got by their attendance at Court, to make up to them their expenses?  Why, about forty of them have been created peers, and a little less than a hundred of them baronets and knights.  For these excellent advantages, thousands of our gentry have squeezed their tenants, impoverished the trader, and impaired their own fortunes!