The long debated issue about the authorship of Considerations upon the East-India Trade(1701) was finally settled by an article of Christine Macleod in 1983. She identified Considerations with Martin's writing. This identification seems to lead us yet again to another long-held problem, that is, how to harmonise Martin's pro-free trade stance in Considerations with his contribution to the British Merchant that threw its weight behind protectionism in the controversy over the Anglo-French Treaty of Navigation and Commerce of Utrecht(1713). Martin, as a practical pamphleteer, undoubtedly expressed contradictory views now and then, and a considerable number of scholars have focused their researches on the contradictory aspect of his arguments. But I would rather like to attempt in this paper to find some consistency of his arguments by way of reviewing his writings: Considerations, an essay in the Spectator, some chapters presumably written by Martin in the British Merchant, and his report on trade as Inspector-General of Exports and Imports(1715-21). From this point of view of a re-examination of his arguments, the chapters 18-22 of Considerations, to which most academics have paid little attention so far, seems to be important. What he emphasized in those chapters was the significance of reexport trade or carrying trade based on strong and powerful shipping and navigation that depend greatly on the exploitation of resources of America. The similar opinion could be found in the British Merchant and his above-mentioned Inspector-General's report as well. It is evident, therefore, that Martin was almost consistently maintaining the pivotal importance of foreign trade, particularly reexport trade or carrying trade, as a contemporary of 'commercial revolution' era, along with advocating the protective system for the interests of woollen industry. Researches on Martin's work was liable to overlook this aspect of Martin's stress on carrying trade, because they put so much emphasis on either his renowned free trade theory or his protectionism of woollen industry. But if you draw your attention to his emphasis on carrying trade, you would find some consistency in his views.

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