Londini Emporia (London's Markets) · chunk 2 of 3

And that your charge so carefully be borne They may be never But in Season shorn: Great reason too you have, for by this Trade, (Of which Great Freeman, you first Free were made) The whole Land's Cloth, no Mystery, no Art, Science, or Manifacture, that hath part In Theory or Practic, but must all Give due respect to this in general: For since the Trade of Clothing first begun, Both from the scorching of the summer's Sun, And blustering North-Winds, Rich, Poor, Young and Old Have been defenced, nor could that Fleece of Gold Colchos still boasts, (in the'Auncient Poets rode So useful prove, or make so fine a thread With ours, (low prized because not counted rare) No remote Climat's able to compare: It is that only Marchand Zewhich brings All novels wanting here, even foreign Kings Have thought themselves Rich Habited to have worn Such Cloth as for the commonness we scorn, Oh bless then our increase, those that have been I'th' World's remote parts, and strange Nations seen, For want of Cloth find them go naked there, Yet men like us, and the same Image bear, Make much Sir of your great Charge, 'tis not mine, Y' are the true Shepherd, I my place resigns. I Mercury, the Patron of all Trade, Of Traffic and Commerce, am this day made A speaker from the Gods: (for my quick motion Can sail as well upon the Land as Ocean: And who the Merchant better can assure, Then Mercury, the Lord of Mercature? To you, this Day with state and power endowed, Whose winged Ships all foreign Seas have ploughed, And maugre, surge, gust; or tempestuous flaw Discovered what our Polestar never saw. They from cold Arctos to the burning Zone Have washed their keels to find out lands unknown. Crossing the Boreal and the austral lines, To view the set and rise of all the Signs. To you whose Factors in both Indies lie, The East and West: (all parts both far and nigh,) Who sometimes up, then down the Volga steer, To know in Musco what is cheap or dear: And what Hesperian Tagus can afford, (To match this noble Island) take aboord. There's nothing the brave Persian can hold rare, But hither brought by your great Cost and Care. The potent Turk (although in faith adverse) I pd th he with England can commerce. What Genova, Luca, Florence, Naples yields, What grows, or's found through all the Latian fields. What is in China, Greece, or Ormous sold, (That Diamond worthy to be set in Gold.) For Norway, Dansk, France, Spain, the Netherlands, What's best in them, comes frequent to our hands. And for transportage of some surplus ware, (Our own wants furnished) what we best can spare. No rarity for profit or for pleasure, But brought to us in an abundant measure. To this brave Isle, (by Neptune moared round) You give a Wall; not fixed on any ground, But moving 'tween the Ocean and the Air, Which as you build, so yearly you repair. And (though a wooden Fabric) so well knit, That should invasive force once menace it With loud voiced Thunder, mixed with Sulphurous flame, 'Twould sink, or send them back with fear and shame. Grave Sir, no other precedents you need To follow now, then him whom you succeed: Next on your Motto think: so happy prove, Let your trust be in him that reigns above.