The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul 16.6

16.6

But I proposed a generall Care, wherin if the Dutch and Portugall fayle in their duties, it doth not follow you should err in your Judgment. . . . Howeuer you esteeme that little losse, the Parliament of England, which is the spiritt and soule of the wisedome of England, more valewes 10,000li. mony in regard of substantiall wealth then 100,000 in estimation in China dishes, silkes, spices, dyes and trash, that consume in one yeare, the fuell of yearely pride and gluttony ; for in the neede or perill of the Commonwealth none of these will sett out a fleete to sea nor pay an army. And if their authorytye prevaile with you, know, if the last [The Addled Parliament (1614), in which Roe had sat as member for Tamworth] had proceeded, they had limited both this and the Turkish Company, supposing the Crye of the Kings mynt to be as mournfull a hearing as if the liver, the fountayne of blood, should complayne in a naturall body. For they Consider not like you that more profitt came to the Kings coffers by Customes of East India goodes then would arise by all the mony that is transported ;