histofthought1

Mercantilism andfreedoln in Englandfrom the Tudors to the Civil War 289vourable balance of trade'. Misselden, then, was not concerned with regulatingthe exchanges. But he did want the state to force a favourable balanceinto being by subsidizing exports, restricting or prohibiting imports, andcracking down on the export of bullion. In short, he called for the usual set ofmercantilist measures. Misselden was largely concerned to defend his MerchantAdventurers. Like Wheeler a generation earlier, he maintained that hiscompany was not at all a monopolist, but simply the organization of orderlyand structured competition. Besides, wrote Misselden, his Merchant Adventurersexported cloth to Europe and therefore fitted in with the interests ofEngland. The truly evil firm was the privileged East India Company, whichhad a decidedly unfavourable balance of trade of its own with the Indies, andwhich continually exported bullion abroad.Misselden now entered into a series of angry pamphlet debates withMalynes, who replied in the same year with The Maintenance ofFree Trade.(Neither party, of course, had the slightest interest in what would now becalled 'free trade'.) In 1623, Misselden accepted a post as deputy governor ofthe Merchant Adventurers in Holland, perhaps as a reward for his stirringdefence of the company in the public prints. But, in addition, the East IndiaCompany, seeing in Misselden an effective champion and a troublesome foe,made him a member and one of their commissioners in Holland during thesame year. As a result, when his second pamphlet, The Circle of Commerce,was published in 1623, Misselden displayed a miraculous change of heart.For the East India Company had been suddenly transformed from villain tohero. Misselden, quite sensibly, now pointed out that while the East IndiaCompany did export specie in exchange for products from the Indies, it canand does re-export these goods in exchange for specie.The outstanding defender of the East India Company in the early seventeenthcentury was one of its prominent directors, Sir Thomas Mun (1571­1641). Mun was early engaged as a merchant in the Mediterranean trade,especially with Italy and the Middle East. In 1615, Mun was elected adirector of the East India Company, and after that he 'spent his life in activelypromoting its interests'. He entered the lists on behalf of the company in1621, with his tract, A Discourse ofTrade from England unto the East-Indies.The following year he and Misselden were both members of the Privy Councilcommittee of inquiry. Mun's second and major work, England's Treasureby Forraign Trade, or the Balance of Forraign Trade is the Rule of ourTreasure, taking a broader view of the economy, was written about 1630 andpublished posthumously by Mun's son John in 1664. When published, itcarried the stamp of approval of Henry Bennett, secretary of state in theRestoration government, and also an architect of England's mercantilist policyagainst the Dutch. The pamphlet was highly influential and was reprinted inseveral editions, the last being published in 1986.