CHAPTER VI

OF IRON AND ALL IRONWORKS

MUCH of this provision is used in the navy and bought by the commissioners for the State's service. Sometimes the material itself is bought in gross, which is either forest or English iron,' or else Spanish iron. When it is thus supplied as a magazine, it is either that the State may be sure to have

English iron-works were generally in the neighbourhood of a forest, in order that fuel for the furnaces might be easily obtained, and this was one of the causes of the spoiling of the forests. By an Act of 1558 (1 Eliz. c. 15) the using for fuel for making of iron of oak, beech, or ash timber of the breadth of one foot square at the stub, and growing within fourteen miles of the sea' or of any navigable river, had been prohibited under a penalty of forty shillings. In 1636 it was calculated that there were 300 iron-works in England, and that they consumed about 300,000 loads of wood annually (Cal. S. P. Dom. 1635-6, p. 400). In 1649 it was complained that there were 'twelve furnaces and forges' in the Forest of Dean, 'kept on foot by forest wood, beside others in places adjacent. It is conceived by those who have seriously considered of these wastes that the State has been defrauded of at least 20,000%., besides the destruction of so much timber, and the goodliest forest in England' (ibid. 1649-50, p. 444). By an order in Parliament, dated January 1, 1650, iron-works within Dean Forest were 'suppressed and demolished' (ibid. p. 465), but in 1653 authorised State iron-works for the making of great shot and ordnance for the use of the navy were established in the Forest of Dean, under Major John Wade. He was instructed, however, only to cut 'dotards,' to make charcoal, and not timber fit for the navy (ibid. 1653-4, p. 107). The accounts of this department were examined in 1656 and approved, and a new commission was drawn up by which Major Wade was placed under the admiralty commissioners instead of the council of state (ibid. 1656–7, p. 155).

good iron wrought, or else the better to stock the smith who works the same, and is ofttimes poor, who hath it delivered to him out of the stores, and doth allow so much for the price thereof in discount of his bill upon his balance with the State; but most an end the smith serves and supplies his own iron, and delivers it wrought into all manner of ironworks the service may require, which if I should particularise would savour more of show than use in this discourse. It shall suffice that I tell my reader, that the several species of ironwork are sufficiently known to all clerks of the check, who have particular lists of all or most of them, together with the particular rates set upon all rated or rateable works by the piece; as for other ironworks (except anchors and grapnels) they are for form's sake distinguished into ordinary and extraordinary ironworks, and delivered into store by weight at so much an hundred by agreement.

It is true all nails (except spikes) are sold by the thousand, and have a limited price and weight by the statute to each thousand. It is not to be believed what various ways of abuse and deceit there is or may be in the State's service in this provision, nor am I able to hint or detect the tithe of them, being by reason of the smallness of most and the extreme greatness of some kinds of this provision so easy to be executed and so difficult to be discovered; yet I dare not pass it over with silence, as knowing this material of great concernment in the navy, and to prevent a tacit judgment of security in those abuses by such as are guilty, as if nothing was seen or known by any man, because that which is both seen or known by a man is not the tenth part of what is both suspected and practised. I told you before that for form's sake petty iron

1 See p. 260, infra.

works in the State's service are distinguished into ordinary and extraordinary, the one usually rated at thirty, or two and thirty shillings the hundred, and the other at seven and thirty shillings and fourpence, or forty shillings the hundred. What was the ground of this way of dealing at the first I know not, nor am I solicitous to inquire; this I am only sure of, that this way gives a great latitude of deceit, and renders the smith singly considered, and the smith and clerk of store or check jointly considered, too much masters of the State's treasure; for though it be true that such ironwork is distinguished by a list of particulars (as I said before) always lying with the clerk of the check into ordinary and extraordinary ironworks, whereby he knows what sorts to put on the ordinary and what upon the extraordinary rates, yet it is as true that the storekeeper that makes out the bill never mentioneth the fourth part of the kinds of ironwork wrought in that bill, but for brevity's sake, after the mention of half a score species, cuts the rest short with an etcetera. Now if the storekeeper's clerk shall enter upon his book that which is ordinary upon extraordinary, the smith gains at the least seven shillings and fourpence in every hundred by that mistake or miscarriage. That such things may be done is undeniable-nay, that such things have been done even in the bodies of the bills themselves that is to say, ordinary ironwork shuffled

1 Cf. a letter from Francis Hosier, muster-master at Gravesend, to the Navy Commissioners, written from Deptford, November 24, 1669. Two bills of Mr. Foley's for spikes supplied were brought me, and I signed them with the rest of the officers, though contrary to reason; ordinary spikes are included with extra, and both cast up at the same rate, although by his contract he is allowed less for the ordinary than the extra; by that means he gains 197. 10s. more than his due. I let the bill pass that I might beg your advice, as should I endeavour to hinder the officers, I should reap much envy and trouble' (Cal. S. P. Dom. 1668-9, p. 589).

amongst the extraordinary, of purpose to gain a greater rate to the smith-hath been seen and observed more than once; and for my part I cannot imagine that those that would not stick to insert it into the bill, which they knew must come to the test of public view, would much less boggle at it in their books of receipt, which are seldom or never consulted, or if they be, to little purpose, for that the trust is solely in the storekeeper, who commits it to his clerk, and sometimes to a labourer, instruments altogether unfit for such a trust.

I would only ask this question, why the State should not buy their ironwork in the same way that all other men that have the same use thereof do theirs. The alone use the State hath of it is for shipping, houses, storehouses, &c., and the merchant hath the same use, and doth spend the same species of ironwork on their ships that the State doth on theirs. It is true the State's ships are greater, but that cannot vary anything in the way of rating, but rather gives the smith an advantage, by its bulkiness, of profit in one entire rate. Certainly (though I know not what it is) there is a mystery in this way of distinction of rates, and I the rather believe it because no man else in the whole River of Thames do take it up. I am sure that were there either profit or safety in this way more than in the way practised by all master builders, their own interest would long since have invited them to imitate the commissioners' frugality for the State's service; but seeing they do it not, but rather decline it, it is a convincing argument to me that the way used is neither safe nor profitable, especially considering that many of them have been and are the State's immediate servants, and do at the same time build for themselves and for the State, and yet at the same time buy their iron

work for themselves in a different way from the State's.

The way the merchant or master builders go is to agree with the smith for all sorts of ironwork (except nails) at a certain rate, and by that means have nothing to do more than to demand what they would have, and to see what they demanded well wrought and justly weighed off upon delivery; and why the State should not manage their service in the same way, I know not. I am sure it will be more safe, and less trouble to the clerks of the store and check in the respective yards. The smith doth exactly know what kinds of ironwork are requisite for one ship as well as another, for a great ship as well as a small, and why the way of rating should be different is a riddle to me, if there be not something in the pad. I shall not positively affirm what it is, yet, besides what was formerly said, suppose the rates distinct, and that the storekeeper's clerk keeps the books right, and enters every species upon its proper head, and as it ought to be, yet by this distinction the smith hath a great latitude given him to make his extraordinary works (wherein lies his profit) gouty or more ponderous than it might or ought to be, and in all the State's yards there is not any man appointed to view its well workmanship, but the goods are weighed off in the presence of, it may be, a drunken clerk, or a poor labourer, and either whipped away into the store, or immediately spent upon ships in dry dock or on the stocks, to avoid inspection and put all things out of dispute as to bigness, goodness, &c.-nay, that which is more, the master shipwrights, whose duty it is to certify upon the back of all smiths' bills, do either refuse or neglect it, or if they do it, it is of course, and for provisions they never saw, and much less strictly surveyed, as they ought to have done.