By Ioana Lungescu

(1630 – June 22, 1699?)

Josiah Child, 1st Baronet, is best known for his roles in conjunction with the East India Company (EIC), of which he was director from 1677 until he was elected governor of the company in 1681. While he was not above grafting from the company, he did publish important works in regard to the EIC and the general economic circumstances of the time.

A New Discourse of Trade (1693)

One of the principal points Child makes in this publication is that the interest rate in England ought to be reduced from six to four percent. He then gives multiple reasons in support of his argument, namely that

• the Dutch (their main trade competitors) offered higher wages to their manufacturers (because of their lower interest rates),
• high wages imply a wealthy nation, low wages imply an impoverished nation,
• laborers flock to wherever the best wages are offered (e.g. the English laborers will leave to the Netherlands),
• and the taxes on trade will decrease with a decrease in interest rates.

Next, pulling on English sensibilities, Child demonstrates the trade routes England had lost in recent years, mainly to the Dutch, which he attributes to their unwillingness to lower rates. One of the most profitable that he mentions happens to be the trade of nutmeg via the EIC in India. Furthermore, Child ties this treatise back to one of his older publications, Sir Josiah Child’s Proposals, for the Relief and Employment of the Poor, where both then and now he advocates that higher wages to encourage the poor to seek work rather than keep on begging. He also appeals to the wealthy of England to stop giving blind charity to the poor, without encouraging them to take jobs first. In reality, Child believes in the stimulation of the English economy, which works best when there are more people contributing to the system (paying taxes, placing money in banks, buying stocks, etc.).

Child also spends a portion of this book reaffirming the need for joint-stock companies, like the East India Company, for trade in lands where the Crown is unable to have a direct relation and must maintain a presence of force. Child claims that such companies were also created for the public good, being that they bring in wealth into the nation, and cites the prosperity of their Dutch rival as a prime example.

Another portion of the treatise is dedicated to protecting English trade with India by lowering tariffs on goods brought into England by the EIC and placing higher tariffs on trade with other European countries. Child claims that many fine items are brought into England by stealth (and are thus not taxed) and other countries (France, the Netherlands) are offering more favorable rates to merchants bringing goods from the East Indies, upsetting the balance of trade in England, as the country, in turn, has to import more goods from European rivals and merchants than it exports back to India and other colonies.