Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/257

 in which, as above, there died Twenty Thouſand in a Week, &c. Juſt as we have had it reported in London, that there was a Plague in the City of Naples, in the Year 1656, in which there died 20000 People in a Day, of which I have had very good Satisfaction, that it was utterly falſe.

But theſe extravagant Reports were very prejudicial to our Trade as well as unjuſt and injurious in themſelves; for it was a long Time after the Plague was quite over, before our Trade could recover it ſelf in thoſe parts of the World; and the Flemings and Dutch, but eſpecially the laſt, made very great Advantages of it, having all the Market to themſelves, and even buying our Manufactures in the ſeveral Parts of England where the Plague was not, and carrying them to Holland, and Flanders, and from thence tranſporting them to Spain, and to Italy, as if they had been of their own making.

But they were detected ſometimes and puniſh’d, that is to ſay, their Goods confiſcated, and Ships alſo, for if it was true, that our Manufactures, as well as our People, were infected, and that it was dangerous to touch or to open, and receive the Smell of them; then thoſe People ran the hazard by that clandeſtine Trade, not only of carrying the Contagion into their own Country, but alſo of infecting the Nations to whom they traded with thoſe Goods; which, conſidering how many Lives might be loſt in Conſequence of ſuch an Action, muſt be a Trade that no Men of Conſcience could ſuffer themſelves to be concern’d in.

I do not take upon me to ſay, that any harm was done, I mean of that Kind, by thoſe People: But I doubt, I need not make any ſuch Provifo in the Caſe of our own Country; for either by our People of London, or by the Commerce, which made their converſing with all Sorts of People in every