ROBINSON, Henry.

Englands Safety, in trades encrease. Most humbly presented to the High Court in Parliament.

London, E. P. for Nicholas Bourne, 1641. 4to, pp. [6], 26, 33-62 + errata leaf, complete; woodcut printer’s device on title-page; cut close at foot, just touching the imprint and one or two catchwords; library shelf mark in manuscript at the foot of the title, corners and fore-edges a little worn, but sound; sometime stab-sewn, now in quarter calf and marbled boards, spine ruled gilt in compartments, contrasting leather label. Rare first edition. Henry Robinson (fl. 1641-1656) was a merchant, parliamentarian and member of the committee for taking the accounts of the Commonwealth. Englands safety is his most important work in which his conception of wealth is clearly seen to be in advance of his age. He puts forward seventeen principal proposals, including various measures for reducing interest rates, increasing exports and promoting home manufactures. They also include the proposition to cherish and further ‘our severall plantations in Virginia, Bermudas, Saint Lawrence, Saint Christophers and elsewhere, especially perswading to inhabit and fortifie, so farre as may bee requisite’. He argued that trade restrictions invited retaliation; described high customs duties as a temptation to evade customs; impugned efforts to prohibit the export of bullion; advised that free trade might be beneficial at first but would lead to disorder and the utter ruin of many; but urged merchants to sell as cheaply as they could and find ways to make other nations co-operate.Goldsmiths’ 735; Hollander 64; Kress 597; Massie 592; Sabin 72083; Wing R 1671; see Appleby, Economic Thought & Ideology in 17th Century England and Hecksher, Mercantilism.

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