My very good Lord.
If I had not had already
sufficient knowledge of Carmarden’s honesty, I would have the more wondered at
this impudent part of his to avow before her Majesty so manifest &
intolerable untruths. But when I remember how earnest he was against my Lord of
Buckhurst proceedings in this matter, how he was the man which set me, one: to
move her Majesty, and your Lordship, for the Imposition of the Crown upon the
hundred; how he was the first that assured me that, at the least in his knowledge,
the quantity of Tin came to xv hundred thousand; how he promised me to inform
your Lordship faithfully, and assure you thereof. & that since that time he
has run a double course with her Majesty with your Lordship myself I do the
less regard his treachery and the more trust unto the truth of my actions,
which I will answer to her Majesty by your Lordship.
And for that I go about now to
lay open his evil and corrupt service I will not for my own particular hereafter
move your Lordship’s furtherance, but if I shall defer anything in this action,
I will leave the whole consideration thereof to her Majesty. But as a principal
counselor of hers and as one holding the place of her Treasurer of England, who
does especially look into her profit, I shall desire your Lordship, that those
matters which I allege and bring forth to be judged by you, that they be so
pondered that reason be not oppressed, with a vain confidence in a light person,
nor truth smothered up rather by false appearance, then assisted by indifferent
hearing, nor that her Majesty’s former trusts, be now made the very instruments
of her infinite loss.
But whereas he says her Majesty
is not paid in respect of their small quantity, he should have said for that,
she has nothing at all for such slabs.
And herein is the deceit, that under
the color of some to have a slab of Tin for their household provision, or to
send into France for wine for their houses and such like colors, that they not
forfeit them they have the Lion stamped one them and such slabs although they
mount to the number of a 100 or 200 thousand weight, are not put into the Customer’s
Books, whereby the quantity of Tin cannot truly appear.
And whereas it seems your
Lordship heard him avow this the reason that her Majesty is not paid, your
Lordship I know can easily see that he does ere by the part, to account the whole.
& this is a foul abuse.
But for the Books which I affirm
in Cornwall to be 13 hundred thousand that they be commonly 300, 400, and sometime
500l weight a Load, adding that her Majesty’s weights are more than the
Merchants, whereby I may well account one with another 700l weight I appeal
and fly to your Lordship’s justice and care of her Majesty’s revenue that she
be not abused by the so cunning of such a merchant, who doth abuse her trust.
And therefore as well for her Majesty
as for my discharge I do crave and exhort your lordship that you will be
content, and procure her Majesty to appoint some she knows will prefer her
profit, before any respect either to me or the other side, to survey the Blocks
of Tin which are to be seen now in town, as well in Alderman Somes’s warehouse,
as in other places, and at this present a shipful nearly come in Laden with Blocks
of Alderman Tayler’s, and then if your Lordship shall find more Blocks of 300l
weight and upward then of slabs, I pray you hereafter in her Majesty’s behalf
that the rest of my information be the better heard.
For the sending down of Middleton
alone, a man wholly disposed to that party against which I inform, I do not
think myself indifferently dealt withal, and though not from, but for her Majesty’s
better and more certain information, it should not be amiss and not against
equity, that another whom I would have named might have been sent with him,
that this devise might have had no suspect of corruption.
But I shall desire your lordship
for her Majesty’s better service, that whereas by delaying of Time her Majesty
may chance to lease this coinage, and so in conclusion the benefit of the whole
year. That your Lordship would procure a letter to be sent down, wherein order
may be given that no Tin be sold or bought until July which is the first coinage.
And this is agreeable with their
old custom, that no Tin should be bought or sold until all the Merchants were
come together, and by the breach of this custom, many abuses creep in which are
neither profitable to the Realm, nor to her Majesty in especial.
And for that I would proceed to
the proof of the exact number of Tin I shall desire your Lordship that I may
appoint the messenger and that he may have from her Majesty equal authority
with Middleton, in his service, which shall take away all ambiguity which may
grow through suspect of partial and unjust dealing, hoping that her Majesty
will have an equal regard, in her countenancing the cause as well to them that
study her profit as they which covet nothing more than their own this vij of June
1595
Your Lordship’s to Command
(signed) Edward Oxenford
Addressed: To the right honourable
and his very good Lord, the Lord Treasurer of England
Endorsed: vijmo Iunij 1595, Earl of
Oxford to my Lord
(in Burghley’s hand) For the tinworks.[1]
[1]
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Shakespeare and Thomas North. April 5, 2021. “It might have been more of a surprise if North had not been advanced after one or another fashion.”
- On Shakespeare and Drinking Smoke. January 4, 2021. “The debate raged for some time: Had Shakespeare smoked pot? Tobacco? Both?”
- On the Question “Who knew Edward de Vere was Shakespeare?” December 14, 2020. “But was the word going around that his wife, the Countess of Oxford, conceived two children in his absence?”
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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