THE RESTORATION ERA 51 
into being, the population of England had increased, 
not decreased, and that © every Englishman in Barbados 
or Jamaica creates employment for four men at 
home.”? But while Child had the good sense to see 
the fallacy of the contention that the plantations had 
robbed England of people who might have been put 
to more profitable use if they had remained at home, 
he was very far from being in love with the New 
England type of plantation. ‘New England,” he 
wrote, ‘is the most prejudicial plantation to this 
kingdom,’ 2 and ‘a more independent government 
from this kingdom than any other of our plantations.’ 
The same, we have seen, was the view of the Council 
of Trade and Plantations, over which Lord Shaftesbury 
presided, and of which John Evelyn was a member. 
Child saw a menace to England in the fact that New 
England was good for shipbuilding and was breeding 
a race of seamen; ‘in my poor opinion there is 
nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more 
dangerous to any kingdom than the increase of 
shipping in her colonies, plantations, or provinces.” * 
Holding these views, he was consistent in being a 
strong supporter of the navigation laws. ‘I am of 
opinion that, in relation to trade, shipping, profit and 
power, it is one of the choicest and most prudent acts 
1 A New Discourse of Trade, by Sir Josiah Child. He was born in 
1630 and died in 1699. The first edition was in 1665. It was largely 
expanded in subsequent editions in his lifetime. The quotations in 
the text are from an edition of 1804. This quotation is from chap. x., 
Concerning Plantations, p. 178. Among Select Tracts relating to 
Colonies in the British Museum, B.M. 1029, 15, is A Discourse Con- 
cerning Plantations, by Sir Josiah Child, published 1692, and expressing 
the same views as above. The Tract follows the Tract by William 
Penn on The Benefit of Plantations and Colonies. 
2 P 10%. 3 P. 188. 4 P, 201.