John Cary (businessman) facts for kids
John Cary (born around 1649, died around 1722) was an important merchant from Bristol, England. He also wrote a lot about trade and how countries could become wealthy. Many people see Cary as one of the first thinkers to treat economics like a science. He believed that a country should export more than it imports (a "favorable balance of trade") and that workers should earn good wages.
Contents
John Cary's Life Story
Early Years in Bristol
John Cary was born in Bristol, England, likely in March 1649. We don't know the exact dates of his birth or death, but he probably passed away between 1717 and 1722. John was the oldest son of Mary and Shershaw Cary. His family had a history of being merchants; his father traded sugar in places like Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. John himself started as an apprentice to a linen draper, learning about fabrics and trade.
Becoming a Merchant
In 1672, John Cary became a merchant. He started by trading goods and raw materials, such as sugar from the Caribbean and wines from Madeira. His business took him on ships across the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
By 1677, Cary joined the Society of Merchant Venturers in Bristol, a group for important traders. He became a warden in 1683. In the 1690s, he even represented the Society in London, giving advice to city leaders about trade in Bristol and sharing important concerns.
Helping the Poor
Cary was very keen on setting up workhouses to help poor people. He was known as a "philanthropic Bristol merchant" because he saw that over a thousand poor people lived in Bristol. This inspired him to build a place where these individuals could "be compelled to maintain themselves."
In 1697, he was the main person behind the Bristol Corporation of the Poor. This group offered help after the 1696 Poor Act in Bristol.
Cary imagined the workhouses like this: "A large workhouse should be built in the city. It would be big enough for all the poor people who need work. It would also have space for those who cannot work and need charity."
At these workhouses, poor people would get a place to live, food, wages, and free education for poor women. Cary believed this would help them become "civilized and love their work."
Views on Other Countries
In the 1690s, Cary wrote a book called Discourse on trade and other matters relative to it. In it, he shared common views about Spain. He noticed that Spain seemed to be falling behind other powerful economies because it wasn't involved much in trading.
Cary thought: "Spaniards are proud people, not very interested in trade or making things themselves... other trading nations, like the English, French, Dutch, and Genoese, take advantage of them."
He also believed that countries like Spain were weaker because they wanted too many foreign luxury goods. This led to job losses and bad habits. He felt this was "why Spain stays poor, even with its riches from the Indies. Everything its people buy costs its full value in treasure or goods, and their own work adds nothing to their wealth because they lack manufacturing."
Later Life and Challenges
In his later years, Cary faced some legal trouble related to money. While he was in jail, he wrote his last work in 1718, called Vindication of the Rights of Parliament. He passed away around 1720.
John Cary's Impact
Because he was a merchant, especially in the West Indian sugar trade, Cary became very interested in how politics affected business. He supported social changes, signing petitions to lower taxes on imported sugar and to open up the slave trade to Bristol.
Main Ideas
- He believed in the importance of good citizenship and a government that represents its people.
- He thought that being dependent on others was similar to slavery.
- He focused on the idea of the "common good" for everyone.
- He trusted in citizen armies.
- He was wary of too much focus on just buying and selling.
- He supported Protestantism, Parliament, military strength, and trade.
Economics as a Science
Around the early 1700s, Cary's writings started to use more legal terms. He stressed the need for "proof" and "evidence." In a 1717 version of his Essay, he said that economics needed to be a science, just like other fields, because "Trade has its principles as other Sciences have." He came to this idea because he had seen and taken part in trade firsthand. This helped him understand how international trade worked.
While Cary didn't fully make economics a science, he understood the value of using evidence and experience to make strong arguments.
Essay on the State of England
In 1695, Cary wrote about the state of England. He explained how England could become wealthy through manufacturing and by the government getting involved in the economy.
He wrote this book during the Nine Years' War (1688 to 1697). Cary saw how the war had drained England's money. So, his book was a guide for countries to create wealth and overcome problems during difficult times.
During the 1700s, Cary's Essay was translated into French, Italian, and German. Government leaders across Europe were influenced by his writings. They liked his idea that the government should play a big role in managing everyday business to help the economy grow.
The Essay covered three main topics: trade, the poor, and taxes.
On Trade
Cary believed that countries traded to create strong exports that would lead to international competition, not just cooperation.
He argued that what mattered most was not the type of trade, but what goods were traded. Cary thought that "money coming into a country was just a sign of a nation's strong ability to produce." He believed that "real wealth came from hard work and new technologies."
Cary dreamed of England becoming a powerful empire, strong in both its economy and military. It would import raw materials and export finished goods.
He also thought that labor was more useful in manufacturing than in farming. This difference, according to one historian, "helped win wars, encouraged shipping, and, most importantly, offered a chance for people to improve their lives. It increased workers' wages and made them more moral, while still keeping them competitive in foreign markets."
On the Poor
Cary suggested creating workhouses for the poor. In these places, the poor would "help with manufacturing rather than doing it themselves." This would make "idle" people work and put "lazy people to work in the very industries that had made them lazy in the first place." This process would make the poor "come to love their work." They could then become apprentices, learning more skills, which would increase their wages and improve their lives.
On Taxes
Cary believed that tariffs (taxes on imported goods) in international trade should help long-term industrial growth, not just raise money for the government.
He didn't focus much on how to pay off public debt in his early works. Only later in his life did he suggest linking people's money to public debt through a new national bank.
Friendship with John Locke
Towards the end of the 1600s, especially after Cary published An Essay on the State of England, he became friends with another famous Englishman, John Locke. They wrote many letters to each other.
Locke really liked Cary's writings. He once said, "I think you have hit the mark... It's the balance of our trade with foreign countries, not changing our money's value, that increases or lessens our gold at home..."
Locke thought very highly of Cary's Essay, seeing truth and honesty in his work. In one letter, Locke wrote to Cary: "I see no side or interest you fight for except that of truth and your country."
In another letter about Cary's Essay, Locke gave a strong compliment: "It is the best discussion I have ever read on that topic. Not only for how clear everything you say is, and how true most of it is, but for a reason that matters more to me than both of those: the honest goal of public good and the fair thinking that appears in all your ideas. This is something I haven't found in other writers on the same topic. The country gentleman, who cares most about proper trade, both by duty and interest, is the furthest from understanding it. It's time someone woke him up and informed him, so he can pay attention to it."
They also joked and critiqued each other. Cary pointed out mistakes in Locke's calculations of exchange rates, while Locke noted Cary's poor Latin grammar.
Lasting Impact
Ideas on Machinery
Cary's 1695 book A Discourse on Trade is known for having one of the "earliest clear discussions of machinery." Cary believed that using machines would boost manufacturing and help the economy grow. He wrote that England had an advantage over other countries because English manufacturers were so innovative.
He wrote: "Tobacco is cut by Machines; Books are printed; Boards are sawn with Mills; Lead is melted by Wind Furnaces; all these save the work of many Hands, so the Wages of those employed don't need to fall... New ideas are always appearing to make our Woollen Manufacturers easier, which should be made cheaper by the cleverness of the Manufacturers, not by lowering wages; Low prices create more spending, and give new jobs, so the Poor will always be kept at Work."
Reinert's View of Cary
Sophus Reinert, a historian, wrote about Cary's An Essay on the State of England in his 2011 book, Translating Empire. Reinert studied economic translations from 1500 to 1849 to understand England's policies in the 1700s and how political economy worked back then. Cary's 1695 work has been called "the forgotten book that helped shape the modern economy."
See also
