Proposals for Building, in Every County, a Working-Alms-House or Hospital as the Best Expedient to Perfect the Trade and Manufactory of Linnen Cloth

This mid‑century pamphlet lays out a sweeping plan to turn England’s chronic poverty into a productive force. Its author argues that every county should host a “working‑alms‑house,” where the idle, the sick, and even children could spin linen under disciplined supervision. By converting the nation’s most vulnerable into a permanent linen workforce, the proposal promises to ease parish burdens and create a domestic supply of cloth that England currently imports at great cost.

The document mixes moral appeal with detailed arithmetic, estimating that a modest network of two thousand spinners per house could generate more than a million pounds’ worth of linen each year. It also links the scheme to broader benefits: freeing up land for flax and hemp, reducing the outflow of wealth, and restoring England’s once‑thriving woollen trade. Written in the plain yet persuasive rhetoric of the Restoration era, the pamphlet offers a vivid snapshot of early modern social engineering and the optimism that public policy could solve both economic and humanitarian crises.