. IRLF Me CULLOCH Oft COM ME R C E University of California. FROM THE LIBRARY OF DR. FRANCIS LIEI5ER. Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, New York. THE GIFT OF MICHAEL REESE, Of San Francisco. 1873. LIBRARY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. A TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, & HISTORY OF COMMERCE. / L I B R A H BY J. R. McCULLOCH>UNIVER8lf Y PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: BALDWIN AND CRADOCK, PATERNOSTER-ROW. NEW-YORK: WILLIAM JACKSON, 71 MAIDEN-LANE. MDCCCXXXm. LIBRARY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. A TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, & HISTORY OF COMMERCE. / LI Bit A It 1 If BY J. R. McCULLOCH., PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: BALDWIN AND CRADOCK, PATERNOSTER-ROW. NEW-YORK: WILLIAM JACKSON, 71 MAIDEN-LANE. MDCCCXXXHI. A TREATISE H 11 A 'W W< ON THE PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, AND HISTORY COMMERCE. CHAPTER I. Definition and Origin of Commerce Separation of Employments among those by whom Commercial Transac- tions are carried on Advantages of this Separation Wholesale Dealers Retailers Brokers, fyc. COMMERCE, from commutatio mercium, is the exchange of one sort of commodi- ties for some other sort of commodities. This species of industry has its origin in the nature of man and the circum- stances under which he is placed ; and its rise is coeval with the formation of society. The varying powers and dispo- sitions of different individuals dispose them to engage in preference in parti- cular occupations ; and every one finds it for his advantage to confine himself wholly or principally to some one em- ployment, and to barter or exchange such portions of his produce as exceed his own demand, for such portions of the peculiar produce of others as he is de- sirous to obtain and they are disposed to part with. The division and combina- tion of employments is carried to some extent in the rudest societies, and it is carried to a very great extent in those that are improved. But to whatever extent it may be carried, commerce must be equally advanced. The divi- sion of employments could not exist without commerce, nor commerce with- out the division of employments : they mutually act and react upon each other. Every new sub-division of employments occasions a greater extension of com- merce ; and the latter cannot be ex- tended without contributing to the better division and combination of the former. In rude societies, the business of com- merce, or the exchange of commodities, is carried on by those who produce them. Individuals having more of any article than is required for their own use, endeavour to find out others in want of it, and who at the same time possess something that they would like to have. But the difficulties and incon- veniences inseparable from a commer- cial intercourse carried on in this way are so obvious as hardly to require being pointed out. Were there no mer- chants or dealers, a farmer, for exam- ple, who had a quantity of wheat or wool to dispose of, would be obliged to seek out those who wanted these com- modities, and to sell them in such por- tions as might suit them ; and, having done this, he would next be forced to send to, perhaps, twenty different and distant places, before he succeeded in, supplying himself with the various arti- cles he might wish to buy. His atten- tion would thus be perpetually diverted from the business of his farm ; and while the difficulty of exchanging his own produce for that of others would prevent him from acquiring a taste for improved accommodations, it would tempt him to endeavour to supply most that was essential by his own labour and that of his family ; so that the division of em- ployments would be confined within the narrowest limits. The wish to obviate such inconveniences has given rise to a distinct mercantile class. Without em- ploying themselves in any sort of pro- duction, merchants or dealers render the greatest assistance to the producers. They collect and distribute all sorts of commodities; they buy of the farmers and manufacturers the things they have to sell; and bringing together every variety of useful and desirable articles in shops and warehouses, individuals are able, without difficulty or loss of time, to supply themselves with whatever they want. Continuity is in consequence, given to all the operations of industry. As every one knoWs beforehand where he may dispose to the best advantage of all that he has to sell, and obtain all that he wishes to buy, an uninterrupted motion B COMMERCE. is given to the plough and the loom. Satisfied that they will have no difficulty about finding merchants for their pro- duce, agriculturists and manufacturers think only how they may improve and perfect their respective businesses. Their attention, no longer dissipated upon a variety of objects, is fixed upon one only. It becomes the object of every individual to find out machines and processes for facilitating the sepa- rate task in which he is engaged ; and while the progress of invention is thus immeasurably accelerated, those who carry on particular businesses acquire that peculiar dexterity and sleight of hand so astonishing to those who live in places where the division of labour is but imperfectly established. Facility of exchange is, in truth, the vivifying principle, the very soul of in- dustry; and no interruption is ever given to it without producing the most ruinous consequences. The merchants, or dealers, collect their goods in different places in the least expensive manner ; and by carry- ing them in large quantities at a time, they can afford to supply their respec- tive customers at a cheaper rate than they could supply themselves. Not only, therefore, do they, by enabling every employment to be carried on without interruption, and the divisions of labour to be perfected, add pro- digiously to the powers of industry, and by consequence to the wealth of the community, but they also promote the convenience of every one, and re- duce the cost of merchandising to the lowest limit. According as commerce is extended, each particular business becomes better understood, better culti- vated, and carried on in the best and cheapest method: where it is far ad- vanced, the whole society is firmly linked together ; every man is indebted to every other man for a portion of his necessaries, conveniences, and enjoy- ments ; everything is mutual and reci- procal ; and a large country becomes, in effect, from the intimate correspond- ence kept up through the medium of the mercantile class, like a large city. The annihilation of the class of traders would deprive us of all these .advantages. The difficulties that would then be experienced in selling and buy- ing would oblige every one to attempt, in so far as possible, directly to supply his own wants ; the division of employ- ments would be contracted, on all sides, and the country would gradually relapse into a state little, if at all, superior to its state at the Conquest. The celebrated Italian economist, the Count di Verri, has defined commerce to be the conveyance of commodities from place to place (trasporlo delle mercanzie da un luogo a luogo). This definition has been adopted by M. Say, who contends that commerce does not consist in exchanges, but in bringing commodities within reach of the con- sumers (il consists essentiellement a placer un produit a la portee de ses consommateurs). But this is plainly to confound the means with the end ; the preparations for an exchange with the exchange itself. The conveyance of commodities from place to place is ne- cessary to enable commerce to be car- ried on ; but unless they be conveyed in the view of being sold or exchanged for other commodities, and unless that exchange actually takes place, there is no room or ground for considering the conveyance in the light of a commercial operation. It is obvious, too, that though the Count di Verri's definition were not erroneous in this respect, it is not sufficiently comprehensive. Suppose that a hat-manufactory is established in Recent- street, and that a shop is attached to it, where the hats are sold ; no one doubts that those employed in this shop are engaged in a commercial undertaking, and yet they have nothing to do with the carriage of commodities. Whatever, therefore, may be the parti- cular sort of commerce carried on, whether the commodities have been brought from a distance or produced on the spot, its object and end is an ex- change ; when this end is not attained, no act of commerce can be said to have taken place. The erroneous definition of commerce which M. Say has adopted, has hindered him from rightly appreciating its influ- ence. * In commerce, 1 says he, * there is a genuine production, because there is a modification productive of utility and value. The merchant, after buying a commodity at its current price, sells it again at its current price; but the last price is greater than the former, because the merchant has brought the commodity into a situation which has really augmented its price ; and the society is enriched by this augmenta- tion.' (Cours d Economic Politique, t. ii., p. 213.) But though this be true, it is not the whole truth, nor even the greater COMMERCE. part of it. Suppose that a hatmaker and a shoemaker live in contiguous houses : if the one exchange his hats for the other's shoes, society will not, cer- tainly, other states. l ( ) ' That, in thus declaring, as>our titioners do, their conviction of the policy and injustice of the restrictive system, and in desiring every practicable relaxation of it, they have in view only such parts of it as are not connected, or only subordinately so, with the public revenue. As long as the necessity for the present amount of revenue subsists, your petitioners cannot expect so im- portant a branch as the Customs to be given up, nor to be materially diminished, unless some substitute less objectionable be suggested. But it is against every restrictive regulation of trade, not es- sential to the revenue, against all duties merely protective from foreign compe- tition, and against the excess of such duties as are partly for the purpose of revenue and partly for that ofprotection t ? > that the prayer of the present petition is respectfully submitted to the wisdom of parliament. * May it, therefore, &c.' CHAPTER V. 1. Speculative Transactions. 2. Com- mercial Revulsions. 3. Abuse of Credit Usury Laws. 4. Habits of Saving, fyc. 1. Speculative Commercial Transac- tions. IT very rarely happens that either the actual supply of any species of pro- duce in extensive demand, or the in- tensity of that demand, can be exactly measured. Every transaction in which an [individual buys in order to sell again, is, in fact, a speculation. The buyer anticipates that the demand for the article he has purchased will be such at some future period, either more or less distant, as will enable him to dis- pose of it with profit ; and the success of the speculation depends, it is evident, on the skill with which the circumstances that must determine the future price of the commodity have been estimated. It follows, therefore, that in all highly eommercial countries where merchants are possessed of large capitals, and where they are left to be guided in the use of them by their own discretion and foresight, the price of commodities will be very much influenced, not merely by the actual occurrence of changes in the accustomed relation of the supply and. COMMERCE. demand, but by the anticipation of such changes. It is the business of the mer- chant to acquaint himself with every circumstance affecting the particular description of commodities in which he deals. He endeavours to obtain, by means of an extensive correspondence, the earliest and most authentic informa- tion with respect to every thing that may affect their supply or demand, or the cost of their production ; and if he learned that the supply of an article had failed, or that, owing to changes of fashion, or the opening of new channels of commerce, the demand for it had been increased, he would most likely be disposed to buy in the expectation of profiting by the rise of price, which, under the circumstances of the case, could hardly fail of taking place : or, if he were a holder of the article, he would refuse to part with it, unless for a higher price than he would previously have ac- cepted. If the intelligence received by the merchant had been of a contrary description, if, for example, he had learned that the article was now pro- duced with greater facility, or that there was a falling off in the demand for it, caused by a change of fashion, or by the shutting up of some of the markets to which it had been previously admitted, he would have acted differently : in this case he would have anticipated a fall of prices, and would either have declined purchasing the article except at a re- duced rate, or have endeavoured to get rid of it, supposing him to be a holder, by offering it at a lower price. In con- sequence of these operations, the prices of commodities, in different places and periods, are brought comparatively near to equality. All abrupt transitions from scarcity to abundance are avoided ; an excess in one case is made to balance a deficiency in another, and the supply is distributed with a degree of steadiness and regularity that could hardly have been deemed attainable. It is obvious from what has now been stated, that those who indiscriminately condemn all sorts of speculative engage- ments have never reflected on the cir- cumstances incident to the prosecution of every undertaking. In truth and reality, they are all speculations. Their undertakers must look forward to periods more or kiss distant, and their success depends entirely on the sagacity with which they have estimated the proba- bility of certain events occurring, and the influence which they have'ascribed to them. Speculation is,therefore, really only another name for foresight, and though fortunes have sometimes been made by a lucky hit, the character of a successful speculator is, in the vast majority of in- stances, due to him only who has skil- fully devised the means of effecting the end he had in view, and has outstripped his competitors in the judgment with which he has looked into futurity, and appreciated the operation of causes pro- ducing distant effects. Even in those businesses, such as agriculture and manufactures, that are apparently the most secure, there is, and must be, a great deal of speculation. Those engaged in the former have to encounter the variations of seasons, while those engaged in the latter have to encounter the variations of fashion ; and each is besides liable to be affected by legislative enactments, by discoveries in the arts, and by an endless variety of circumstances which it is al- ways very difficult, and sometimes quite impossible, to foresee. On the whole, indeed, the gains of the undertakers are so adjusted that those who carry on different businesses obtain at an average the common and ordinary rate of profit. But the inequality in the gains of indi- viduals is most commonly very great ; and while the superior tact, industry, or good fortune of some enable them to realise large fortunes, the want of dis- cernment, the less vigilant attention, or the bad fortune of others, frequently reduces them from the situation of capitalists to that of labourers. The risk to which merchants are ex- posed, when they either sell off any commodity at a reduced price in antici- pation of a fall, or buy at an advanced price in anticipation of a future rise, is a consequence of the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the true state of the fact with respect to the grounds on which an abundant or a deficient supply, or an increasing or decreasing demand, may be expected. Rules can here be of no ser- vice : every thing depends upon the ta- lent, tact, and knowledge of the party. The questions to be solved are practical ones, varying in every case from each other ; the skill of the merchant being evinced by the mode in which he con- ducts his business under such circum- stances, or by his sagacity in discovering coming events, and appreciating their character, and the extent of their in- fluence. Priority, but, above all, accu- COMMERCE. racy of intelligence, is in such cases of the utmost consequence. Without well- authenticated data to go upon, every step taken may only lead to error. The in- stances, indeed, in which speculations, apparently contrived with the greatest judgment, have ended in bankruptcy and ruin, from a deficiency in this essen- tial requisite, are so very numerous, that every one must be acquainted with them. Hence the importance of selecting acute and cautious correspondents ; and hence also the necessity of maturely weighing their reports, and of endeavouring, by the aid of information, gleaned from every authentic accessible source, to ascertain how far they may be depended upon. The great cotton speculation of 1825 took its rise partly and chiefly from a supposed deficiency in the supply of cotton, partly from an idea that there was a greatly increased demand for raw cotton in this country and the continent, and partly from a belief that the stocks on hand were unusually low. Now, it is obvious that the success of those w ho embarked in this speculation depended entirely on two circumstances : viz.jfirst, that they were right in the fundamental supposition on which the whole specu- lation rested, that the supply of cotton was no longer commensurate with the demand ; and second, that their compe- tition did not raise the price so high, as to diminish the consumption by the manufacturers in too great a degree to enable them to take off the quantity actually brought to market. Had the merchants been well founded in their suppositions, and had their competi- tion not raised the price of cotton too high, the speculation would certainly have been successful. But instead of being well-founded, the hypothesis on which the whole thing rested was per- fectly visionary. There was no defi- ciency in the supply of cotton, but, on the contrary, a great superabundance ; and even it there had been a de- ficiency, the excess to which the price was carried must have checked con- sumption so much, as to occasion a serious decline. The falling oft' in the import of cotton from America in 1824, seems to have been the source of the delusion. It was supposed that this falling off was not accidental, but that it was a consequence of the price of cotton having been for a series of years inadequate to defray the expenses of its cultivation. The result showed that this calculation was most erro- neous. And besides, in entering on the speculation, no attention was paid to Egypt and Italy, countries from which only about 1,400,000 Ibs. of cotton were obtained in 1824, but from which no less than 23,800,000 Ibs. were obtained in 1825 ! This unlocked for importation was, of itself, almost enough to overturn the combinations of the speculators; and, coupled with the increased importa- tion from America and other countries, actually occasioned a heavy glut of the market. When a few leading merchants pur- chase in anticipation of an advance, or sell in anticipation of a fall, the spe- culation is often pushed beyond all rea- sonable limits by the operations of those who are influenced by imitation only, and who have never perhaps reflected for a moment on the grounds on which a variation of price is anticipated. In speculation, as in most other things, one individual derives confidence from another. Such a one purchases or sells, not because he has any really accurate information as to the state of the de- mand and supply, but because some one else has done so before him. The ori- ginal impulse is thus rapidly extended ; and even those who are satisfied that a speculation, in anticipation of a rise of prices, is unsafe, and that there will be a recoil, not unfrequently adventure, in the expectation that they will be able to withdraw before the recoil has begun. It may, we believe, speaking gene- rally, be laid down as a sound practical rule, to avoid having anything to do with a speculation in which many have already engaged. The competition of the speculators seldom fails speedily to render an adventure, that miijht origi- nally have been safe, extremely hazard- ous. If a commodity happen to be at an unusually reduced price in any par- ticular market, it will rise the moment that different buyers appear in the field ; and supposing, on the other hand, that it is fetching an unusually high price, it will fall, perhaps, far below the cost of its production, as soon as supplies begin to be poured in by different merchants. Whatever, therefore, may be the success of those who originate a speculation, those who enter into it at an advanced price are almost sure to lose. To have been preceded by others ought not, in such matters, to inspire ^confidence : on the contrary, it ought, unless there be something special in the case, to induce 72 COMMERCE. every considerate person to decline in- terfering with it. The maintenance of the freedom of intercourse between different countries, and the more general diffusion of sound instruction, seem to be the only means by which those miscalculations that are often productive of great national, as well as private loss, can be either ob- viated or mitigated. The effects conse- quent on such improvident speculations being always more injurious to the par- ties engaged in them than to any other class, the presumption is, that they will diminish, both in frequency and force, according as the true principles of com- merce come to be better understood. But whatever inconvenience may occa- sionally flow from them, it is abundantly plain, that instead of being lessened, it would be very much increased, were any restraints imposed on the freedom of adventure. When the attention of many individuals is directed to the same line of speculation ; when they prosecute it as a business, and are responsible in their own private fortunes for any errors they may commit, they acquire a know- ledge of the various circumstances in- fluencing prices, and give, by their com- binations, a steadiness to them which it is easy to see could not be attained by any other means. It is material, too, to bear in mind, as was previously stated, that many, perhaps it might be said most, of those who press so eagerly into the market when any new channel of commerce is opened, or when any con- siderable rise of price is anticipated, are not merchants, but persons engaged in other businesses, or living perhaps on fixed incomes, who speculate in the hope of suddenly increasing their fortune. A tendency to gambling seldom fails to break out upon such occasions ; but fortunately these are only of compara- tively rare occurrence ; and, in the ordi- nary course of affairs, mercantile specu- lations are left to be conducted by those who are familiar with business, and who, in exerting themselves to equalise the variations of price, caused by varia- tions of climate and of seasons, and to distribute the supply of produce pro- portionally to the effective demand, and with so much providence, that it may not, at any time, be wholly exhausted, perform functions that are in the highest degree important and beneficial. They are, it is true, actuated only by a desire to advance their own interests, but the results of their operations are not less advantageous than those of the agricul- turist, who gives greater fertility to the soil, or of the mechanist, who invents new and powerful machines. 2 . Commercial Revulsions. By a com- mercial revulsion is usually meant a sud- den decline in the prices of commodities, and the prevalence of distress either in one or more branches that were pre- viously flourishing. Such revulsions are ascribable to a variety of causes ; but, for the most part, they originate in some miscalculation on the part of the pro- ducer or dealer, and practically illus- trate the principles already laid down. Every exertion of industry involves a certain degree of speculation. The in- dividual who buys raw cotton or raw silk, in the intention of manufacturing it into articles of dress or furniture, sup- poses that the article, when manufac- tured, will sell for a price sufficient to indemnify him for his expenses, and to leave him the customary profits on his capital. There is, however, a good deal of risk in an adventure of this sort : were the fashion to change while the articles are in preparation, it might be impossible to get them disposed of, ex- cept at a considerable loss ; or, were new facilities given to the commerce with countries whence similar articles may be procured, or any discovery made which facilitated their production, their price would certainly fall, and the speculation would turn out an unpro- fitable one. But, how. singular soever the statement may at first appear, it will be found that miscalculation and gluts are more frequently produced by an in- crease than by a decline in the de- mand for produce. Suppose that, owing to the opening of new markets, to a change of fashion, or to any other cause, the demand for hardware were suddenly increased : the consequences of such in- creased demand would be, that its price would immediately rise, and the manu- facturers would obtain comparatively high profits. But the rate of profit cannot, unless monopolies interfere to prevent or counteract the operation of the principle of competition, continue for any considerable period, either higher or lower, in one employment, than in others. As soon, therefore, as this rise of price had taken place, additional capital would begin to be employed in its production. Those already engaged in the trade would endeavour to extend their business by borrowing fresh capi- COMMERCE. 73 tal, while a number of those engaged in other businesses would withdraw from them and enter into it. Unluckily, how- ever, it is next to certain that this trans- ference of capital would not stop at the point when it would suffice to produce the additional supply of hardware at the old prices, but that it would be carried so much farther as to produce a glut, and a consequent revulsion. A variety of causes conspire to produce this effect ; the advantages which any class of pro- ducers derive from an increased demand for their peculiar produce, are uniformly exaggerated, as well by that portion of themselves who are anxious, in order to improve their credit, to magnify their gains, as by those engaged in other em- ployments. The adventurous and san- guine those who are particularly dis- posed to takeomwe ignotumpro magni- ffco crowd into a business which they readily believe presents the shortest and safest road to wealth and consideration ; at the same time that many of that ge- nerally numerous class who have their capitals lent to others, and are wait- ing till a favourable opportunity oc- curs for vesting them in some indus- trious undertaking, are tempted to follow the same course. It occurs to few that the same causes which impel one to enter into a department that is 1 yielding comparatively high profits are, most probably, impelling thousands. Confi- dent in his own good fortune, the ad- venturer leaves a business to which he had been bred, and with which he was well acquainted, to enter, as a compe- titor, on a new and untried arena ; while those already engaged in the advan- tageous business stretch their credit to the utmost, that they may acquire the means of extending their concerns, and of increasing the supply of the commo- dity in unusual demand. The result, that every unprejudiced observer would anticipate, almost invariably takes place. A disproportionate quantity of capital being attracted to the lucrative business, a glut of the market, and a ruinous de- pression of prices, unavoidably follow. Those who investigate the history of industry, either in this or any other country, will find that a period of peculiar prosperity, in any one branch, is the almost uniform harbinger of mischief. If we turn, for example, to the history of agriculture, the alternation between periods of high prices and great agricul- tural prosperity, and of low prices and great agricultural distress, is so striking, that it cannot fail to arrest the attention of every one. The high prices of 1800 and 1801 gave an extraordinary sti- mulus to agricultural industry. Nearly double the number of acts of parlia- ment were passed in 1802, for the inclo- sure and drainage of land, that had been passed in any previous year. A great extent of old grass-fields was, at the same time, subjected to the plough. And in consequence of this extension of cultivation, and of the improvements that were then entered upon and com- pleted, the supply of corn was so much increased in 1804, that prices sunk con- siderably below the previous level ; and an act was passed, in consequence of the representations made by the agricul- turists of their depressed condition, grant- ing additional protection against foreign competition. The high prices of 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, had a precisely similar result. They attracted so much fresh capital to the land, and occasioned such an extension of tillage, that we grew, in 1812 and 1813, an adequate supply of corn for our own consump- tion. And, under such circumstances, it is certain that the price of corn must have fallen, in consequence of the un- usually abundant harvest, of 1 8 1 4 , though the ports had been entirely shut against importation from abroad. The history of the West India trade may also be referred to, as affording the most convincing proofs of the truth of this principle. The devastation of St. Domingo by the negro insurrection, which broke out in 1792, by first dimi- nishing, and in a very few years entirely annihilating, the supply of 115,000 hhds. of sugar, which France and the conti- nent had previously drawn from that island, occasioned an extraordinary rise of prices, and gave a proportional en- couragement to its cultivation in other parts. So powerful was its influence in this respect, that Jamaica, which, at an average of the six years preceding 1799, had exported only 83,000 hhds., exported in 1801 and 1802 upwards ot 286,000, or 143,000 a-year! But the duration of this prosperity was as brief as it was signal. The rise of price which had produced such effects in the British islands occasioned a similar, though less rapid, extension of cultivation in the colonies of the continental powers. The increased supplies of sugar and coffee that were in consequence obtained from Cuba, Porto Rico, Martinique and Guadaloupe, Brazil, &c., became, in no COMMERCE. very long time, not only sufficient to fill up "the vacuum caused by the cessation of the supplies from St. Domingo, but actually to overload the market. The great foreign demand for British planta- tion sugar, which had been experienced after the destruction of the St. Domingo trade, gradually diminished, until 1 805 or 1806, when it almost entirely ceased; and the whole extra quantity raised in consequence of that demand, being thrown upon the home market, its price, which had been 66*. a cwt. in 1798, ex- clusive of duty, fell, in 1806, to 34s., a price which the committee, that was then appointed by the House of Com- mons to inquire into the distresses of the planters, states, was not only insuf- ficient to yield them any profit, but even to indemnify them for their actual outlay. And we may add, that owing to the ill- advised measures that were soon after adopted for creating a forced and unna- tural demand for sugar, by substituting it, in the place of barley, in the distil- lery, its supply \vas prevented from being diminished in proportion to the diminu- tion of the effective demand ; and this circumstance, combined with the op- pressive regulations on the trade of the islands, and particularly on their inter- course with the United States, have since retained the planters, some short intervals only excepted, in distress and difficulty. The history of the silk-trade, of distil- lation, and indeed of every branch of industry, furnishes but too many proofs of the constant operation of this prin- ciple of compensation. The greater and more signal the peculiar prosperity of any one department, the greater, inva- riably, is the subsequent recoil. Such an increased demand for any commodity as would raise its price 10 per cent, above the common level, would certainly cause it to be produced in excess, and would, in consequence, occasion a re- vulsion. But were the price to rise 30 or 40 per cent, above the common level, the temptation to employ additional ca- pital in its production would be so very great, that the revulsion would both take place sooner, and be incomparably more severe. Revulsions of the sort now described will necessarily continue to occur, to a greater or less extent, under all systems of public economy. But there is nothing that would tend so much to lessen their frequency and violence, as a determina- tion, on the part of government, to with- hold all relief, except in cases of extreme necessity, from those who have the mis- fortune to be involved in them. It must be acknowledged that this seems rather a harsh doctrine ; but, on examination, it will be found to be the only safe and really practicable line of conduct that government can follow. Almost all the restrictions and prohibitions which fetter our commerce and enterprise have been occasioned by government stepping out of its proper province, and interfering for the relief of those who had got them- selves entangled in difficulties. By this means, a very large proportion of the industry of the country was at one time placed on an insecure foundation ; and, notwithstanding the reforms that have been effected, a great deal is still in that situation. Merchants and manufactur- ers have been, in this way, partially re- lieved from that natural responsibility under which every man ought to act, and tempted to trust to the support given by government in the event of their spe- culations giving way. Were it possible, indeed, to grant such assistance without injury to the rest of the community, none would object to it ; but, as this cannot be done, it appears not only that sound policy, but also that real huma- nity, would dictate the propriety of its being withheld in all but extreme cases. We are happy to be able to corrobo- rate what is now stated, by the au- thority of one of our ablest practical merchants. * The only beneficial care,' says Mr. Alexander Baring, ' that a government can take of commerce, is to afford it general protection in time of war ; to remove, by treaties, the re- strictions of foreign governments in lime of peace, and cautiously to abstain from any, however plausible, of its own creating. If every law of regulation, either of our internal or external trade, were repealed, with the exception of those necessary for the collection of re- venue, it would be an undoubted benefit to commerce, as well as to the commu- nity at large. An avowed system of allowing things to take their own course, and of not listening to the interested solicitations of one class or another for relief, whenever the imprudence of spe- culation has occasioned losses, would, sooner than any artificial remedy, repro- duce that equilibrium of demand and supply, which the ardour of gain will frequently derange, but which the same cause, when let alone, will as infallibly restore. '4* 30,659 15,229,051 1803 25,195,893 45,102,330 19,906,437 1804 20,042,596 36,127.787 16,085,191 Excess of Official Value 1805 22,132,367 37,135,746 15,003,379 over 1806 22.907,371 37,234,396 14,327,025 Real Value. 1807 25,266,546 39,746,581 14,480,035 1808 22,963,772 36,394,443 13,430,671 1821 37,820,293 35,569,077! 2,251,216 1809 24.179.854 36,306,385 12,126,531 1822 40,194,681 35,823,127 4,371,554 1810 32,916,858 46'049,777 13,132,919 1823 43.558,488 36,176,897 7,381,591 1811 33,299,408 47 000,926 13,701,518 1824 43^166,039 34,589,410 8,576,629 1812 21,723,532 30,850,618 9,127,086 1825 48,024,952 37,600,021 10,424,931 1813 28,447,912 39,334,526 10,886,614 1826 46,453,022 38.077,330 8,375,692 1814 . . Records destroyed bv fire. 1827 40,332,854 3(^847,528 9.485.3261 1815 33,200,580! 43,447,373 10,246,793 1828 51,279,102 36.394,817 14^884,285 1816 41,712,002 49,653,245 7,941,243 1829 52,019,728 36,150,379! 15,869,349 1817 34,774,521 40,328,940 5,554,419 1830 55,465,723 35,212,873 20,252,850 COMMERCE. 87 JIT. ACCOUNT of the" Quantities of the Principal Articles of^ Foreign and Colonial Her- chandise imported and retained for Home Consumption, and also the Quantity exported, in the year 1830 (fractional quantities omitted.) Quantities imported. Detained for Home Con- sumption. Quantities exported. Ashes, pearl and pot .... cwts. 162,258 165,338 143,657 236,563 19,780 lark, oak, and cork tree ... do. 1,009,816 302,038 1,004,070 313 766 1,715,488 1,695,083 148,139 147 951 817,968 62,252 795,242 Cheese cwts. 168,900 544,225 166,484 29,720 386,108 36,071 48,638 57,904 Cochineal ...... do. 288,456 3 209,933 127,954 393847 153,738 1,674,613 Coffee do. 39,071,215 10,267 19,466,028 14 23,023,410 13,743 }ork, unmanufactured .... do. Corn : \\heat qrs. 46,494 1,544,969 281 713 45,636 1,267,914 202 405 52,190 10,297 Oats do. Rye ,..,.. do. 541,858 65,910 82,139 192,889 65,331 96 513 58,635 7,861 2,345 \Vheat-meal and flour . . . cwts. Cortex Peruvianus or Jesuits' bark . . Ibs. Cotton, piece goods of India, not printed . pieces Cottons, printed .... sq. yds. Currants ...... cwts. Dye and hard woods : Fustic . . ... . . tons Logwood ...... do. Mahogany ...... do. 461,895 405.552 1,403,397 131,420 119,927 7,364 13,893 19,335 4,345 337,065 103,695 al U e44.883 2,873 114,076 6,006 8,851 16,546 3,605 70,652 296,382 614,085 171,969 6,226 21 938 19702 ?lax and tow, and codilla of hemp, &c. . do. Furs : Bear ...... number 922,039 12,583 76427 909,709 884 68,665 14,227 Fitch .... .do 278 740 278 846. Martin ...... do Mink do 151,937 77,36 1,070016 121,74 34,109 491 978 49,712 281,347 618 187 629 170 Gitter do Onger ...... cwts Gum : Arabic ...... do 14,862 11,007 8,23' 59449 857 5,947 17,249 462 988 14,751 11,209 2,049 26 763 Shell-lac . . . , do 703 88 316 07 446 598 Hats, straw ..... numbe Hemp, undressed ..... cwts 160,19 374,93 286 41 234,25 422,12 231 87 6 748 28 2 113 83 40*86605 15,72 13,06 3,024 1 50 3 1 700 865 15 837,20 Lemons and Oranges : Packages not exceeding 5000 cubic inches Ditto above 5000, and not exceeding 7300 Ditto above 7300, and not exceeding 14,000 . 53,21 130,94 67,33 40 77 48,92 130,34 65,66 41,22 88 COMMERCE. Quantities imported. Retained for Home Con- sumption. Quantities exported. Linens, plain and diaper : Entered by the ell . . . ells Entered by the piece .... piece Entered by the square yard . . sq. yds 372,697 31,638 138,458 4 031 692 6 674 451,533 30,175 124',2% 1 144 4 44( 5 795 f! SJi 1 d 9^d on i OK 70 01 7 f:n fi^fi QO 41 qq OI\A Vlolasses . , . . . do Nutmegs ...... Ibs Oil: 394,432 38,868 396 104 386,142 113,273 293 028 47,913 Olive ...... gallons 1,153,834 179 945 1,334,758 175 393 5 754 R 7&4 Spermaceti . . . . do Not blubber or spermaceti . . do. 5,571 11.974 48 634 5,694 9,047 23 970 41 919 2 015 184 1 933 641 2 962 063 3 599 268 339 013 2,732493 6 283 6 245 635,905 162 816 575 552 145 750 121 737 Ihubarb ...... Ibs. 146,881 222 547 33.673 116 854 91,738 95 584 293,354 222 472 Safflower ...... cwts. Sago ....... do. Saltpetre . . . . . .do. 4,623 486 176,489 228,164 4,370 4,026 155,095 104 679 34,537 Seeds : Clover " . . . . . . cwts. Flax and Linseed .... bushels Rape ...... do. 40,529 2,052,258 378,304 87,101 88,662 1,899,936 375,162 101 160 ~ Senna ....... Ibs. Shumac ...... cwts. Silk : 187,492 80,191 3,594,754 122,601 78,874 2 601 516 221,412 Thrown ... ... do. Manufactures of Europe . . do. 211,179 132,313 168,985 121,584 26,715 6,909 Bandanas, Romals, &c. pieces Crape in pieces . . do. Crape scarfs, shawls, &c. . . . number Taff'aties, damasks. &c. . . . pieces Skins : Calf and kid, untanned . .. . cwts. Deer, undressed .... number Goat, undressed .... do. 99,393 53 70,299 9,052 43.764 123,276 306,579 106.319 67,465 Before July 5, ^ Ibs. 7,675 i. After Julv5, 1 5,926 43,046 36,314 182.062 '107,513 79,886 602 13,981 4,064 101,387 113,724 591,094 591,091 . 1,888,487 1,887,891 Seal, undressed .... do. 289,541 376,675 262,446 353,468 84,603 12,430 79,279 Spirits: Rum .... proof gallons 6,938,426 1.994,649 3,375.866 1,300,746 1,644,663 661,097 Geneva . . . . . do. '177,847 4856,393 37,146 3,539,821 148,176 297,912 fallow ....... do. 1,177,908 1,024,993 COMMERCE. 89 Quantities imported. Retained for Home Con- sumption. Quantities exported. 5,812 30,544,404 11,149 51,587 10,386 13,475 4,803 1,433 95,953 16.924 549,259 4,221 2,674 22,399,335 169,634 262,832 111,391 11,699 13,305 222.767,767 21,525,542 967,363 498,320 2,405,342 2,841,030 320,581 199,026 85,858 300,677 29,646 158,026 6,492 29,493,205 11,065 51,890 10,282 13,676 5,591 1,551 89,009 16,835 541,565 3,407 18,819.021 66,743 277,509 110,773 6,568 12,876 204,097,037 22,614,550 579,744 365,336 2,682,084 1,964,162 229,392 101,699 76,396 218,839 29,645 157,085 251,971 2,581 7,369,749 27,813 30,289,115 406,566 20,162 109,292 246,670 442.88] 168,446 115,640 9,153 85,366 Timber : Battens and Batten ends . great hundreds Deals and Deal ends .... do. Masts, yards, &c., under 12 inches "1 mun ber diameter . . J Ditto, 12 inches and above . . do. Oak-plank, 2 inches thick or upwards . loads Staves .... great hundreds Timber, 8 inches square or upwards . . do. "\Yainscot logs, ditto . . . . do. Tobacco, unmanufactured . . . Ibs. Tobacco, manufactured, and snuff . . do. Turpentine, not worth more than 12*. per cwt. cwts. V'alouia .... do. Wax, bees' . . . ... . do. Wool sheep's ..... do. \Vine : Spanish . . . . . . do. 2. Decline in the Real Value of the Eocports. The increase in the official, and the decline in the real or declared value of the exports, since 1815, has given rise to a great deal of irrelevant discussion. It has been looked upon as a proof that our commerce is daily becoming less prosperous, whereas, in point of "fact, a precisely opposite con- clusion should be drawn from it. We have already stated, that the rates ac- cording to which the official values of the exports are determined, were fixed so far back as 1C 96, so that they have long ceased to be of importance, as affording any criterion of their actual value, their only use being to show the fluctuations in the quantities ex- ported. To remedy this defect, a plan \vas formed, during the early part of Mr. Pitt's administration, for keeping an account of the real value of the ex- ports, as ascertained by the declarations of the exporters. Those who con- tend that our trade is getting into a bad condition, argue that the great increase in the official value of the ex- ports since 1815, shows that the quan- tity of the articles exported has been proportionally augmented ; while the fall in their real value shows that we are selling this larger quantity for a smaller price, a result which they affirm is most injurious. But the circumstance of a manufacturer, or a merchant, selling a large or a small quantity of produce at the same price, aifords no criterion by which to judge as to the advantage or disadvantage of the sale ; for, if in con- sequence of improvements in the arts, or otherwise, a particular article may now be produced for half the expense that its production cost ten or twenty years ago, it is obvious that double the quantity of it may be afforded at the same price, without injury to Ihe producers. Now, this i's the case with some of the most important ar- ticles exported from England. Cot- tons, and cotton-twist, form a full half, 90 COMMERCE. or more, of our entire exports ; and, since 1814, there has been an extraor- dinary fall in the price of these articles, occasioned partly by cotton wool having fallen from about Is. 6d. per Ib. to about 7d. per Ib., but more by improvements in the manufacture. To such an extent have these causes operated, that yarn, No. 40, which cost, in 1812, 2*. 6d., cost, in 1830, Is. 2^of. ; in 1812, No. 60 cost 3s. Gd., in 1830 it cost 1*. lO^d. ; in 1812, No. 80 cost4*.4d., in 1830 it cost 2*. 6d., and so on ; and in the weav- ing department the reduction has been similar. Hence, while the official value of the exports of cotton goods and twist has increased from about 18,000,000/. in 1814, to about 37,000, OOO/., in 1830, their declared.value has sunk from about 20, 000, OOO/. at the former period, to about 16,000,000/. at the latter. Surely, however, this is, if anything; can be, a proof of increasing prosperity : it shows that we can now export, and sell with a profit, (for, unless such were the case, does any one imagine the exportation would continue ?) nearly double the quantity of cotton goods and yarn we exported in 1814, for about the same price. In so far, therefore, as an abun- dant and cheap supply of cottons may be supposed to increase the comforts of society, it is plain they must be about double, not in this country only, but in all those countries to which we ex- port. (M'Culloch's Dictionary of Com- merce, Article COTTON.) Owing to the fall that has taken place in the prime cost, and consequently in the price, of most of the principal arti- cles of import, we obtain, at this mo- ment, a much larger quantity of the Eroduce of other countries in exchange )r the articles we send abroad, than at any former period. The fall has been particularly sensible in the great articles of sugar, sheep's-wool, cotton-wool, corn, indigo, pepper, &c. The imports of all sorts of foreign merchandise have been increasing rapidly since 1815 ; and it is material to bear in mind, that we had no gold coin in circulation at that epoch, and that, besides the greater quantities of other articles, we have im- ported, in the intervening period, an extra supply of from 40 to 50, 000, OOO/. of gold and silver. The truth is, there- fore, that, instead of the decline in the real value of our exports having been in any degree prejudicial, it has been, in all respects, distinctly and completely the reverse. It has ensured for our goods a decided superiority in every market, while, as the cost of the articles has fallen in an equal degree, their pro- duction continues equally advantageous. It appears, too, that a similar fall has been going on in other countries ; that if we send more goods to the foreigners, they send us more of theirs in return. Instead of being an evidence of decline, increased facilities of production and increased cheapness are the most cha- racteristic and least equivocal marks of commercial prosperity. 3. Causes of the Magnitude of Bri- tish Commerce. The immediate cause of the rapid increase and vast magnitude of the commerce of Great Britain is, doubtless, to be found in the extraordi- nary improvements, and consequent ex- tension, of our manufactures since 1770. The cotton manufacture may be said to have grown up during the intervening period. It must also be borne in mind, that the effect of an improvement in the production of any article in considerable demand is not confined to that parti- cular article, but extends itself toothers. Those who produce it according to the old plan, are undersold unless they adopt the same or similar improvements ; and the improved article, by coming into competition with others for which it may be substituted, infuses new energy into their producers, and impels every one to put forth all his powers, that he may either preserve his old, or acquire new advantages. The cotton manufac- ture may be said to be the result of the stupendous inventions and discoveries of Hargraves, Arkwright, Crompton, and a few others ; but we should greatly underrate the importance of their in- ventions, if we supposed that their in- fluence was limited to this single de- partment. They imparted a powerful stimulus to every branch of industry. Their success, and that of Watt and Wedgwood, gave that confidence to genius so essential in all great under- takings. After machines had been in- vented for spinning and weaving cottons whose fineness emulates the web of the gossamer, and steam-engines had been made 'to engrave seals, and to lift a ship like a bauble in the air,' everything seemed possible nil arduum visum est. And the unceasing efforts of new as- pirants to wealth and distinction, and the intimate connexion of the various arts and sciences, have extended and perpetuated the impulse given by the COMMERCE. 91 invention of the spinning-frame and the steam-engine. The immense accumulation of capital that has taken place since the close of the American war has been at once a cause and a consequence of our in- creased trade and manufactures. Those who reflect on the advantages which an increase of capital confers on its posses- sors can have no difficulty in perceiving how its increase operates to extend trade. It enables them to buy cheaper, because they buy larger quantities of goods, and pay ready money; and, on the other hand, it gives them a decided supe- riority in foreign markets where capital is scarce, and credit an object of pri- mary importance with the native dealers. To the manufacturer, an increase of capital is of equal importance, by giv- ing him the means of constructing his works in the best manner, and of carry- ing on the business on such a scale as to admit of the most proper distribution of whatever has to be done among different individuals. These effects Have been strikingly evinced in the commercial history of Great Britain during the last half century ; and thus it is, that ca- pital, originally accumulated by means of trade, gives, in its turn, nourishment, vigour, and enlarged growth to it. The improvement that has taken place in the mode of living during the last half century has been partly the effect, and partly the cause, of the improvement of manufactures, and the extension of com- merce. Had we been contented with the same accommodations as our ances- tors, exertion and ingenuity would long since have been at an end, and rou- tine have usurped the place of inven- tion. Happily, however, the desires of man vary with the circumstances under which he is placed, extending with every extension of the means of grati- fying them, till, in highly civilised coun- tries, they appear almost illimitable. This endless craving of the human mind, its inability to rest satisfied with previous acquisitions, combined with the constant increase of population, renders the de- mand for new inventions and discoveries as intense at one period as at another, and provides for the continued ad- vancement of society. What is a luxury in one af, however, the reign of Ed- mt of ill more remarkable, from iti le era of very great improve- i the woollen manufa< Jward, judiciously availing him- tome discontents amongst the in Flander*. invited them id. Historians mention sive manufacturer, of the John Kemp, was the first who invitation. Having come ith his workmen and appren- was most graciously received king, who took him under his TV! puMishrd a promising tin- like reeep- all foreign weavers, dyers, and rho should come and settle in In conseOjUei nilies of Flemish to have come over in the course ame year ; and these were fol- f many more during the subat- ears of King Edward's reign, ise and politic measures were, , exceedingly unpopular. The rs were openly insulted, and es endangered in London and irge town* ; and a few of them equence returned to Flanders, raid was not to be driven from ote by an unfounded clamor of . A proclamation was issued, i every person accused of dis- or attacking the foreign H eaten fred to be committed to New- id threatened with the utmost of punishment. In a parlia- Id at York, in 1335, an act was ar the better protection and se- r foreign merchants and others, h penalties were inflicted on all re them any disturbance. This have had the effect, for a while, of preventing any outrages, orporations of Ixmdon, Bristol. >r great towns, have been at all e principal enemies to the im- of foreigners. Perhaps, in- ey were not more hostile to them such of their own countrymen, i* to another part of the" should have attempted to settle t them without being free of Nrporation. But in denouncing :rs they had the national uuja dice on their side ; and their attempts fo confirm and extend their mon< their exclusion, were regarded as noblest efforts of pat r io vard III. \\ as fully aware of the re:i by which they were ad UK' ;u lily resisted their prefer reigns of his successors they succeeded better: some of these were feeble and unfortunate, while others enjoyed crown only by a disputed title, and in defiance of powerful competitors. The support of the great towns was of the utmost consequence to such princes, who, whatever might be tt >n as to iti policy, could hardly venture to resist the solic powerful bodies to exclude strangers, . : t :. - : . ' ' - . , :..:.. , ,. From the death of Bd wsj the reign of Elizabeth, the progress made country was not inconsiderable, but it was little promoted by legislative enactments. Throughout the whole of this period, the influence of corporations to have predominated in aU matters to trade and the treatment of foreigners; and our legislation partook of the selfish, monopolising of the source whence it was pnnci pally derived. Were the acts and pro- ceedings as to aliens the only extant memorials of our policy from 1560, we should certainly seem to have retrograded materially during the b val. Some of these acts were passed with so little consideration, and were so very absurd, that they had to be imme- diately repeals sort wav statute of the 8 Henry VI. cap effect, * That no Englishman shall v this realm sell, or cause to be hereafter, to any merchant alien, any manner of merchandises ready payment in hand, or else in mer- chandises for merchandises, to be paid and contented in hand, upon pa forfeiture of the same.' But as an en- actment of this sort was very speedily found to be more injurious to our* than to the foreigner, it was repealed in the following session.. The more tyrannical their conduc other respects, the more were our princes disposed to humour the national cheap, it was, at least, an easy method of acquiring popularity. In the first parliament after the accession of KichardIII.,astatute was passed full of the most ridiculous, contradictory . and unfounded allegations as to the injury COMMERCE. sustained by the influx of foreigners, and laying them under the most oppressive restraints. Considering, indeed, the sort of treatment to which aliens were then exposed, it may excite surprise that they should have thought of visit- ing the country ; and, in point of fact, it appears that the resort of foreign mer- chants to our ports was materially im- paired by the statutes referred to, and others of the same description. This is evident from the act 19 Henry VII. cap. 6, where it is stated that * woollen cloth is not sold or uttered as it hath been in divers parts, 1 and that ' foreign commodities and.merchandises are at so dear and exceeding high price, that the buyer cannot live thereon/ But in despite of this authoritative exposition of the mischiefs arising from the re- straints on aliens, and on trade, they were both increased in the reign of Henry VIII. And it was not till the reign of Elizabeth that the pretensions of the corporations seem to have been disre- garded, and an attempt made to act, not by starts, but consistently, on the po- licy of Edward III. The influx of foreigners during the reign of Elizabeth was occasioned chiefly by the persecutions of the Duke ofAlva and the Spaniards in the Low Coun- tries. The friends of the reformed re- ligion, which, at the time, was far from being firmly established, and the go- vernment, were glad to receive such an accession of strength ; and from the superiority of the Flemings in com- merce and manufactures, the immi- grants contributed materially to the im- provement of the arts in England. It would seem, however, that the mini- sters of Elizabeth contented themselves, perhaps that they might not excite the public prejudice, with decliningto enforce the laws against aliens, without taking any very active steps in their favour. In the reign of James I. the corpora- tion of London renewed with increased earnestness their complaints of aliens. In 1622 a proclamation was issued, evi- dently written by James himself, in which, under pretence of keeping * a due temperament' between the interests of the complainants and those of the foreigners, he subjects the latter to fresh disabilities. Since the revolution more enlarged and liberal views as to the conduct to be followed with respect to aliens have continued to gain ground : several of the restraining statutes have fallen into dis- use, while others have been modified by the interferenc< courts, which have generally clined to soften their severity, more offensive provisions an inoperative. Attempts have ally been made to pass an a general naturalization of foreh tants, and the policy of such f was ably vindicated by Dean r . two celebrated tracts publishe and 1752*. But no such st hitherto been passed, and a continue subject to various d The principal of these regard session of fixed property. I that lands purchased by an al own use, may be seized by ' If,' says Blackstone.'he con a permanent property in land? owe an allegiance, equally ] with that property, to the kin: land ; which would probably sistent with that which he ov own natural liege lord: bei thereby the nation might ii subject to foreign influence, many other inconveniences, by the civil law such conti made void, but the prince ha advantage of forfeiture therel us in England.' (Commentar Cap. 10.) An alien cannot take a ben out the king's consent, nor c joy a place of trust, or take lands from the crown. Al however, acquire property goods, or other personal e may have houses for tlu> j their habitation, and for carry i business. They may bring to their personal effects, and m of them by will. The droit (jus albinatus, i. e. alibi nati right of the crown to sucu effects of an alien at his long the custom in France, tained in England. If an all die intestate his whole propei distributed according to the 1 country where he resided ; bu sidence must have been stati< not occasional, otherwise tl municipal regulations will IK the property. The reasons assigned by B Blackstone and others for aliens from acquiring fixed Historical Remarks on the late I Bill, 1751; Queries occasioned by t ralization Bill, 1752. 9G COMMERCE. seem to be very unsatisfactory. In small states there might be grounds, perhaps, for fearing lest the easy ad- mission of aliens to the rights of citizen- ship should give them an improper bias; but in a country like England, such apprehensions would be quite futile. In this respect the example of Holland seems quite decisive. Notwithstanding the comparatively limited population of that country, it was ' the constant policy of the republic to make Holland a perpetual, safe, and secure asylum for all persecuted and oppressed strangers ; no alliance, no treaty, no regard for, nor solicitation of any potentate whatever has at any time been able to weaken or destroy, or make the state recede from protecting, those who have fled to it for their own security and self-preserva- tion*.' A short residence in the country, and a small payment to the state, was all that was required in Holland to entitle a foreigner to every privilege enjoyed by a native. It is of importance to remark, that it has not been so much as insi- nuated that this liberal conduct was in any instance productive of a mischiev- ous result. On the contrary, all the highest authorities consider it as one of the main causes of the extraordinary progress made by the republic in wealth and commerce. It is said in the official paper just quoted, that " Throughout the whole course of all the persecutions and oppressions, that have occurred in other countries, the steady adherence of the republic to this fundamental law has been the cause that many people have not only fled hither for refuge, with their whole stock in ready cash, and their most valuable effects, but have also settled and established many trades, fabrics, manufactures, arts, and sciences, in this country ; notwithstanding the first materials for the said fabrics and manufactures were almost wholly want- ing in it, and not to be procured but at a great expense from foreign parts -K" With such an example to appeal to, we are warranted in affirming that no- thing can be more ridiculous than to suppose that any number of foreigners which it is at all likely should ever come to England, under the most liberal system", could occasion any political in- convenience ; and in all other respects their immigration would be advan- * Proposals for amending the Trade of Hol- land, printed by Authority. Loud. 1751. t Ibid, iu loc. at. tageous. A general naturalization act wculd, therefore, as it appears to us, be a wise and politic measure. It might be enacted that those only who had re- sided three or four years in the country, and given proofs of their peaceable con- duct, should be entitled to participate in its advantages. CHAPTER X. Remarks on the Progress of Commerce and Industry in England, from the accession of Edward I. to the death of Elizabeth. 1. Progress of Commerce and In- dustry in England from the acces- sion of Edward I. to the accession of Henry F//. DR. ROBERTSON has re- marked, that the early progress of com- merce in England gave no earnest of the vast extent to which it was destined to arrive. Its growth was at first ex- tremely slow. During the Saxon Hep- tarchy, England, split into many king- doms, which were perpetually at variance with each other, exposed to the fierce invasions of the Danes and other north- ern pirates, and sunk in barbarity and ignorance, was in no condition to "culti- vate commerce, or to pursue any system of useful and salutary policy. When a better prospect beganto open by the \inion of the kingdom under one monarch, the Norman conquest took place. This oc- casioned such a sudden and total revolu- tion in the state of property as has hardly been paralleled in any other country. The conqueror divided almost the whole kingdom among his followers ; and the disorders incident to the establish- ment of the feudal system, the op- pressive and rapacious conduct of the great barons, many of whom possessed almost regal power, and the enslaved and degraded condition of the mass of the people, prevented all but the rudest and most indispensable species of in- dustry from being attempted. The great charter, extorted in 1215 by the barons from King John, established, for the first time, principles to which all men could appeal; and which were hostile alike to the violence of the crown and of the nobles. From this period the constitution began to acquire sta- bility ; and the English and Normans having gradually coalesced, became, in the thirteenth century, one people. In- dustry began to revive, and was prose- COMMERCE. 97 cut eel with an energy previously un- known, during 1he reign of Edward I. Though many of the measures of this able prince were strongly marked with the prevalent prejudices of the time, his administration is, on the whole, enti- tled to very high praise. 'He con- sidered,' says Hume, ' the great barons both as the immediate rivals of the crown, and the oppressors of the people ; and he proposed by an exact distribu- tion of justice, and a rigid execution of the laws, to give at once protection to the superior orders of the state, and to diminish the arbitrary power of the great, on which their dangerous autho- rity was chiefly founded. Making it a rule of his own conduct, to observe, ex- cept on extraordinary occasions, the privileges secured to them by the great charter, he acquired a right to insist upon their observance of the same charter towards their vassals and supe- riors ; and he made the crown be re- garded by all the quality and common- alty of the kingdom, as the great foun- tain of justice, and the general asylum against, oppression. Besides making several excellent, statutes, in a Parlia- ment which he summoned at Westmin- ster, he took care to inspect the con- duct of all his magistrates and judges, to displace such as were either negli- gent or corrupt, to provide them with sufficient force for the execution of jus- tice, to root out all bands and confede- racies of robbers, and to repress those more silent robberies, which were com- mitted either by the power of the nobles, or under the countenance of public au- thority. By this rigid administration the face of the kingdom was soon changed ; and order and justice took place of violence and oppression.' (Hist. of England, chap. 13.) Previously to the reign of Edward I., there seems to have been no legal pro- cess for the recovery oi debts due to merchants or traders. But in 1285 (13th Edward I.), a statute was passed for enabling merchants, as well in fairs and markets as in towns and cities, to recover their debts. ' The want of which good regulations, (it is said in the preamble to the act,) has occasioned many merchants to fall into poverty, and also hindered foreign merchants coming into this realm with their mer- chandise ; to the great hurt and damage of merchants and of all the realm.' This act authorizes the summoning of debtors to foreign merchants before the mayors of London, York, and Bristol ; a proof that these were considered, at this re- mote period, the most eminent commer- cial cities in the kingdom. Indeed, se- veral large towns, now of the first con- sequence, as Hull, did not then exist, while many others, as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, &c., were quite inconsiderable. The improved state of things, intro- duced by Edward I. was changed ma- terially for the worse during the reign of his feeble and unfortunate son and successor, Edward II. But it .was again restored during the reign of Ed- ward III., which forms an important epoch in our commercial history. The little commerce carried on by the English, from the conquest to the accession of Edward III., in 1327, was restricted to a few articles. The im- ports principally consisted of woollen cloths from the Netherlands, wines from France, wood for dyeing, with silks, spices, drugs, and other eastern pro- ducts imported by the Venetians and Genoese. The principal article of ex- port was wool, which has always formed the staple product of the kingdom ; tin, lead, salt, salmon, cheese, &c., and, in plentiful years, corn, were also exported. However singular it may now appear, the fact is certain, that previously to the conquest, and for more than a cen- tury thereafter, slaves formed a consi- derable article of export from England. When an estate was conveyed from one proprietor to another, all the villains or slaves, annexed to it, were conveyed at the same time, and by the same deed. When any person had more children than he could maintain, or more domes- tic slaves than he chose to keep, he sold them to a merchant, who disposed of them at home or abroad, as he found most profitable. In a Great Council held at St. Peter's, Westmin- ster, in 1102, a strong law was made against this practice : ' Let no one,' it is said, ' for the future presume to carry on that wicked traffic by which men in England have hitherto been sold like brute animals.' But this law was insuf- ficient to repress the abuse. Ireland seems, in those days, to have been a considerable market for the sale of slaves : and the Irish, in a national synod held at Armagh, in 1171, agreed to emancipate all the English slaves in the kingdom. This measure was not, however, adopted from any sense of the impropriety of retaining fellow-men in H 98 COMMERCE. a state of bondage, but in order to take away all pretext for the threatened in- vasion of Henry II. (See Henry's Bri- tain, vol. vi., p. 268, and Lyttleton's Henry //., vol. iii., p. 70, and the autho- rities there referred to.) It has been commonly supposed that the woollen manufacture was intro- duced into England by Edward III. But, though the measures of that mo- narch tended, as has been shown in the previous chapter, materially to its im- provement, it certainly existed amongst us from the time of the Romans. There are notices in the statute book of 'broad cloths, two yards, within the lists,' 1 07 years previously to the in- troduction of the Flemish weavers in the reign of Edward III. At this pe- riod, however, and for long after, Flan- ders was the great seat of the woollen manufacture; and the wool of England was principally carried to that country, whence were brought in return, not only woollen cloths, but a large propor- tion of the foreign products required for our consumption. The policy with respect to the expor- tation of wool, in the early ages of our history, was fluctuating and various. Generally speaking, it might be freely exported ; but this liberty was some- times entirely suspended, though, for the most part, the prohibition was only to the extent that no wool should be exported except by licence. This was a device fallen upon for the sake of revenue ; and, as may easily be con- ceived, was often resorted to. Customs seem to have existed in Eng- land before the conquest, ; but the king's claim to them was first established by the statute 3 Edward I. These duties were, at first, principally laid on wool, wool-felts (sheep-skins), and leather when exported. There were also ex- traordinary duties paid by aliens, which were denominated parva costuma, to dis- tinguish them from the former or magna costuma. The duties of tonnage and poundage, of which mention is so fre- quently made in English history, were custom duties ; the first being paid on wine by the ton, and the latter being an ad valorem duty of so much a pound on all other merchandise. When these duties were granted to the crown they were denominated subsidies; and the duty of poundage having continued for a lengthened period, at the rate of Is. a pound, or five per cent., a subsidy came, in the language of the customs, to denote an ad valorem duty of five per cent. A new subsidy was an addition of five per cent, to the previous ^duties. (Blackstone's Com., Book I. cap. 8.) For several centuries after the con- quest, but particularly after the mar- riage of Henry II. with Eleanor, heiress of some of the fairest provinces of the south of France, wines formed the prin- cipal article of importation into Eng- land. In King John's reign, a law was made regulating the prices of the dif- ferent sorts of wines, and appointing twelve individuals in each city, town, and borough to see its provisions car- ried into effect. In 1299, 73 vessels ar- rived in London with cargoes of wine of more than 19 tuns each, exclusive of the ships belonging to the Cinque Ports, which might probably amount to as many more. Froissart states that, in 1372, above 200 sail arrived at Bor- deaux from England for wine. During the first three centuries after the conquest, the merchant vessels be- longing to England were comparatively few in number, and were either em- ployed in the coasting trade, or in voy- ages to the British possessions in France. They were of a small size, rarely ex- ceeding seventy or eighty tons. At this period, the sovereign was master of very few ships of war. Until the six- teenth century, the navy consisted of a sort of marine militia, every sea-port being obliged to furnish its quota of ships and sailors according to its trade and resources. In the fleet under the orders of Edward III. at the siege of Calais, in 1347, there were 738 English ships, carrying 14,956 men, being at the rate of about twenty men to each ship. The pay of the seamen was four- pence a day, or about twelve-pence of our money. London, Bristol, Norwich, York, Lin- coln, Southampton, &c., were, in the fourteenth century, the principal com- mercial and manufacturing cities in England. But, from their advantageous situation for carrying on an intercourse with the Netherlands and France, Yar- mouth and the Cinque Ports seem to have possessed the greatest quantity of shipping. The former sent 43 ships and 1905 men to the siege of Calais, while London only sent 25 ships and 662 men. It is pretty certain, however, that the shipping of Yarmouth, if it equalled that of the metropolis, which is doubtful, did not really exceed it ; and it is probable that Lo'ndon. had pur- COMMERCE. ' * .' 9* chased an exemption from the obliga- tion to send ships, by a pecuniary con- tribution, or in some other way which it is now impossible to discover. (Ander- son, Anno 1347.) The peculiar privileges enjoyed by the citizens of the Cinque Ports, and the turbulence of the times, tempted them on several occasions to engage in pira- tical expeditions, in which they not un- frequently attacked ships belonging to other English ports. They earned this EXPORTS. One and thirty thousand, six hundred, fifty-one sacks and a half of wool, at six pounds va- lue each sack, amount to . Three thousand, thirty- six hundred, sixty-five felts, at 40s. value, each hundred at six score, amount to Whereof the Custom amounts to Fourteen last, seventeen dicker, and five hides of leather, after six pounds value the last. Whereof the Custom amounts to Four thousand, seven hundred, seventy-four cloths and a half, after 40s. value the cloth, is Eight thousand, sixty-one pieces and a half of worsted, after 16s. Sd. value the piece, is Whereof the Custom amounts to Summa of the out-car- ried Commodities, in Value and Custom . These sums are stated in money of the time, and may, therefore, be about trebled to get their value in money of the present day. Though treated as authentic by Sir William Temple and others, this ac- count is entitled to very little credit. It is not conceivable that the exports should have amounted to between seven and eight times the value of the im- ports! The account is obviously, indeed, intended only to exhibit the exportation and importation of such commodities as 189,909 *. d. 6,073 1 8 81,624 1 1 89 5 6 17 6 9,549 6,717 18 4 215 13 7 294,184 17 2 . . species of outrage to a vyfygreat Height in 1264. r r>- (T In a tract published in 162%'X Circle of Commerce \ by E. Misselden, p.' H)?).^ there is a statement, said to be takenj from an ancient record in the Exche- quer, of the amount and value of the imports and exports in 1354. An ab- stract of it, given by Anderson, has been often referred to ; but the genuine ac- count is as follows : IMPORTS. One thousand, eight hun- dred, thirty-two cloths, after six pounds value $. d. the cloth . . 10,992 Whereof the Custom amounts to . 91 12 Three hundred, ninety- seven quintals and three quarters of wax, after the value of 40*. the hundred or quintal 795 10 Whereof the Custom is 19 17 One thousand, eight hun- dred, twenty-nine tons and a half of wine, ai'ter 40s. value per ton . 3,659 Whereof the Custom is 182 Linen cloth, mercery, and grocery wares, and all other manner of mer- chandise . . 22,943 6 10 Whereof the Custom is 285 18 3 Summa of the in-brought Commodities in Value and Custom, is 38,970 13 8 Summa of the surplusage of the out -carried, above the in-brought Commodities, amount- eth to . . . *255,214 13 paid duties ; and it omits all mention of tin, lead, cheese, and other articles of native produce exported from England. Every one is, however, aware that dur- ing the middle ages, and down, indeed, to the reign of James I., custom-house regulations were but little attended to : and the clandestine trade in commodi- ties on which duties were charged, rarely * The totals do not exactly agree with the items; and there are no means of ascertaining where the error lies, H 2 n J 100 COMMERCE. fell short, and frequently much exceeded, southern and northern divisions of Eu- that which was legitimately carried on rope, as much to the liberality of their in them. government, and the freedom of their institutions, as to their central situation. Owing to the proximity of France The good order established amongst and the Low Countries to England, their them at a period when the rest of Europe vessels were doubtless tha first that fre- was a prey to feudal anarchy seems to quented the ports of Britain. The Fie- have been the real cause of the early su- miirgs, however, were more distinguished periority of the Flemings in the arts of as a manufacturing than as a maritime civilized life. A circumstance occurred people; and the shipping of France in the reign of Edward II., which sets the was, at this remote period, as it still con- liberal policy of the Flemish sovereigns, tinues to be, very inferior to that of and their enlarged notions as to trade, England. The Hanse Towns in the in the most striking point of view, north, and the Italian republics in the Edward, in a letter addressed to Robert south, engrossed, for several centuries, Earl of Flanders, states that he had the principal part of the carrying trade learned that an active intercourse was of Europe ; and it was in their ships carried on between the Scotch and the that the greater part of the foreign com- Flemings ; and as the Scotch had taken modities required for our consumption part with Robert Bruce, who was in were imported, and that the most part rebellion against him, and excommuni- even of our native produce was ex- C ated by the Pope, he begged that the ported. The foundations of the Han- Earl would put a stop to this inter- seatic League were laid by treaties be- course, and exclude the Scotch from his tvveen Hamburgh, Lubeck, and Bremen dominions. The Earl returned an an- your Majesty, tended to promote commerce and na- our country of Flanders is common to vigation, and to secure good order and a ll the world, where every person finds free government, by suppressing piracy a free admission. Nor can we take at sea and predatory attacks on travellers away this privilege from persons con- by land, and by protecting the cities cerned in commerce, without bringing belonging to the League from the tyran- ru | n and destruction upon our country. nical interference and oppressive exac- if the Scotch goto our ports, and our tions of the surrounding nobles and subjects go to theirs, it is neither the princes. The advantages resulting from intention of ourselves nor our subjects the union were so very great, that it to encourage them in their error, but was speedily joined by every consi- only to carry on our traffic without derable city in the north of Europe; taking any part with them.' (Rymefs and became so very powerful that its Foedera, vol. iii., p. 771.) alliance was courted and its enmity A factory belonging to the Hanseatic dreaded by the greatest monarchs. merchants W as early established in Lon- Bruges, in- the Netherlands, was the d on . It was situated in Thames Street, entrepot to which the Venetians, Ge- on a S pot of ground called the Steel noese, and other Italians, brought the Yard, which became the common appel- silks, velvets, spices, drugs, fruits, and lation for the Hanseatic or German mer- other products of the south, and ex- chants in England. The members of changed them for the ruder and more this factory acquired very considerable bulky, but not less useful products privileges*. They were permitted to of the north, as iron, tin, fish, flax, pitch, govern themselves by their own laws &c. The Hanseatic merchants carried and regulations ; the custody of one of the Italian commodities to the Baltic, the city gates (Bishopsgatej was com- and up the great rivers into the interior rmtted to their care ; they were ex- of Germany. A taste for improved empted from contributing to subsidies, accommodations was thus diffused tenths, and fifteenths, and were not sub- amongst those whose barbarism had iected to the additional duties imposed ever remained impervious to the Roman from time to time on goods imported power, and a powerful stimulus every _ _____ __ where given to industry. The Netherlands probably owed their Hltu. Selection as the grand emporium Of the tUey had been conceded long before. COMMERCE. 101 and exported ; paying only the ancient customs agreed upon at the time of their establishment, which were very small. These privileges could not fail to excite the ill-will and animosity of the English. The Hanse merchants were every now and then accused of acting with bad faith ; of introducing commodities as their own which were really the produce of others, that they might evade the duties with which they ought to have been charged ; of capriciously extending the list of towns belonging to the association ; and of obstructing the commerce of the English in the Baltic. Efforts were continually making to bring these dis- putes to a termination; but as they grew out of the privileges granted to and claimed by the Hanse merchants, this was found to be impossible, so long as these were preserved. The Hanse merchants contrived to engross the prin- cipal part of the foreign trade of Eng- land till the reign of Henry VII. ; and they were not entirely stripped of their peculiar privileges till 1597. Next to the Germans and Flemings the Italians were the most numerous class of foreigners in England, in the in- terval between the beginning of the thir- teenth and the close of the fifteenth cen- turies. They were commonly known by the name of Lombards ; and were princi- pally engaged in pecuniary transactions, being at the time the bankers and money-brokers of Europe. They were also the great importers of spices, drugs, silks, and other eastern products. But, notwithstanding the advantages that must have resulted from their resi- dence amongst us, they were at all times exceedingly unpopular. To such an excess was the prejudice against them carried, that in 1283 the Commons granted the fiftieth part of their move- able property to Edward I. on condition of Ills expelling the Italians from the king- dom. They were, however, soon after recalled ; although, notwithstanding the protection of the king, they were ex- posed to many vexatious annoyances. In 1316, Edward II. endeavoured to dissuade the Genoese, as he had done the Earl of Flanders, from maintaining any intercourse with the Scotch. On this occasion he reminded them that a very ancient and friendly intercourse had subsisted between their states and his ancestors, kings of England, and their subjects. (Anderson, Anno 1316.) The trade carried on with the Venetians seems, however, to have been more con- siderable than that with the Genoese In 1323, a quarrel happened between the crews of five Venetian ships lying at Southampton, and the townspeople, in which several lives were lost. The king fearing that this might deter the Venetians from continuing their trade to England, granted a free pardon to all concerned in the affair, promising, at the same time, the most perfect security and friendly treatment to all Venetian, merchants and mariners who should come to England. In 1325, a treaty-, which will be afterwards noticed, was concluded with the Venetians. The trade with Italy, at this early period, and for long after, was carried on exclu- sively in Italian ships*. It was not, in fact, till the reign of Richard III., that the English merchants appear to have resorted in any considerable numbers, or to have obtained any solid footing in Italy. This is evident from the com- mission given by that prince, in 1485, to Laurentio Strozzi to be English con- sul at Pisa: 'Whereas certain mer- chants and others from England intend to frequent foreign parts, and chiefly Italy, with their ships and merchandise, and we being willing to consult their peace and advantage as much as pos- sible, and observing, from the practice of other nations, the necessity of their having a peculiar magistrate among them for the determining of all disputes, &c.' Strozzi was allowed a commission of one-fourth per cent, on all goods be- longing to Englishmen imported into or exported from Pisa. The necessities of the monarchs, and the difficulty, already alluded to, of en- forcing payment of duties on imports and exports in the middle ages, seem to have given rise to the regulations as to the Staple, so famous in the commer- cial history of this period. The mer- chants of the Staple consisted of a com- pany formed about the beginning of the fourteenth century. It was established to serve a double purpose ; viz., first, to purchase and collect all that could be spared for exportation, of wool, wool- felts, leather, lead, and tin, which were denominated the staple products of the kingdom ; to convey these to the staple towns, or to the towns whence only they could be exported, so that the col- * Anderson, Anno 1323; Henry's Britain, vol. viii., p. 322. 102 COMMERCE. lection of the customs might be faci- litated, and that foreign merchants might know where to find stocks of the commodities referred to: and second, to export these commodities to foreign countries, and to bring back returns in goods, coin, or bullion. Natives and foreigners were indiscriminately em- ployed in the purchase and collection of staple commodities in the kingdom ; but, by a regulation of which it is difficult to discover the motive, no native of Eng- land, Ireland, or Wales, was permitted to engage, either directly or indirectly, in the exportation of any staple com- modity. The staple towns for England were Newcastle, York, Lincoln, Nor- wich, Wesi minster, Canterbury, Chi- chester, Winchester, Exeter, Bristol, and Caermarthen ; those for Ireland were Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda. Staple commodities could only be ex- ported to certain foreign towns, that consequently received the name of fo- reign staples. The staple for the Low Countries was, for a lengthened period, established at Bruges; but after the conquest of Calais by Edward III., it was transferred to the latter. Merchants of the staple were exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary ma- gistrates, being subjected only to the authority of a mayor and constables of the staple, chosen annually in each of these towns, who were to judge in all disputes by the merchant law, "and not by the common law. A certain number of correctors were chosen in each staple town, whose office it was to register all bargains, for which they received a small fee from the parties. There were also six auditors two Germans, two Lom- bards, and two Englishmen in each staple town, who were to determine all disputes referred to them, in the pre- sence of the mayor and constables. Many privileges and immunities were conferred on this famous company, which proved a sort of subordinate com- monwealth ; and it was made felony to attempt to deprive it of any of its pri- vileges. (See Statutes of 27th Edward Ill^caps. 6, 8, 21, 22, 24, and 25.) It is needless to dwell on the ob- vious inexpediency of such regulations. But, owing probably to the facility with which most of them were evaded, they do not seem to have been so in- jurious as we might now be disposed .to conclude. In 1458 the merchants of the staple paid 68,000^. (money of the times) duty on the commodities they exported ; a fact which shows that their trade was very considerable. The measures of Edward III. for the improvement of the woollen manufacture, and the privileges he conferred on towns, contributed to raise up a class of free labourers. But .though there were dif- ferences in their condition, there is abun- dant evidence to prove that at this period the mass of the people residing in the country were in the most miserable state of servitude. The great pestilence that raged in England in 1349, is sup- posed to have cut off a half, or more, of the inhabitants. The services of those that survived having in consequence become more valuable, they demanded and received higher wages. This rise was, however, regarded as a grievous hardship : and the king, with the advice of ' his prelates, nobles, and learned men,' issued an edict, by which all labourers were, under severe penalties, ordered to work at their old occupation for the same wages as they teceived before the pestilence ! But ' the servants having no regard to the said ordinance, but to their ease and singular covetize,' refused to serve unless for higher wages than it al- lowed. In consequence of this resistance, the famous statute of the 21st Edward III. c. 1, commonly called the statute of labourers, was passed. It enacts that every able-bodied person under sixty years of age, not having sufficient to live on, being required, shall be bound to serve him that doth require him, or else shall be committed to gaol till he finds surety to serve. If a servant or work- man depart from service before the time agreed on, he shall be imprisoned ; and if any artificer take more wages than were wont to be paid, he shall be committed to gaol. But the increase of wages having originated in natural causes, could not be checked by such enact- ments. Their inefficacy did not, how- ever, lead to the adoption of a policy more consistent with justice or common sense. On the contrary, fresh efforts were made to give effect to the statute of labourers ; and to prevent its being defeated by the peasantry taking refuge in towns, or emigrating to a distant part of the country, it was enacted by the 34th Edward III., that if any labourer or servant flee to any town, the chief officer shall deliver him up ; and if they depart from another country, they shall be burned in the forehead with the letter F ! COMMERCE. 103 The injustice done to the labourers by these oppressive statutes was the more glaring, as Edward, to obtain funds to prosecute his schemes of conquest in France, had had recourse to the dis- graceful expedient of enfeebling the standard of the coin. Not only, there- fore, did the regulations as to wages, so far at least as they were effectual, deprive the common people of that increased payment to which they were entitled from the diminution of their numbers, but they also hindered them from being compensated for the fraud practised on the coin. It was attempted, indeed, to obviate the effects of the diminution of the latter by fixing the prices of most articles ; but this was only to bolster up one absurdity by another, and it is not possible that such limitations could have any material influence. Notwithstanding the degradation and ignorance of the mass of the people, the oppressions to which they were sub- jected made them at length rise en masse against their oppressors. So long indeed as Edward III. lived, the public tranquillity was preserved, and the vil- lains and labourers submitted to the in- justice of which they were the victims. But the increase of towns and manufac- tures during the lengthened reign of this monarch having materially increased the number of free labourers, a new spirit began to actuate the peasantry, who, contrasting their servile condition with the condition of the citizens, became sensible of their inferiority, and more alive to the oppressions they suffered. An attempt to enforce the provisions of the statute of labourers, in the reign of Richard II., was the ground-work of the famous rebellion headed by Wat Tyler. The demands made by the pea- santry show the grievances under which they laboured. They required the abolition of slavery, freedom of com- merce in market towns without tolls or imposts, and a fixed rent on lands, in- stead of the services due by villanage. The rebellion, after having attained to a formidable magnitude, was suppressed with much bloodshed. But though re- established, the servitude of the peasantry was relaxed, and the class of free labour- ers became gradually more numerous. On the whole, the domestic policy of Edward III. was favourable to the pro- gress of commerce and the arts, and to the advancement of society. The effici- ent protection he afforded to alien mer- chants and manufacturers does honour to his sagacity, and was undoubtedly productive of the best effects. He en- deavoured not only to render his domi- nions the resort of foreigners, but to establish a perfect freedom of trade. In a statute passed in 1350, confirming one that had previously been passed to the same effect, it is enacted that ' all per- sons, as well foreigners as natives, may buy and sell by wholesale and retail, when, where, and how they please, pay- ing the several duties and customs, notwithstanding any franchises, grants, or usages to the contrary ; seeing such usages and franchises are to the com- mon prejudice of the king and people.' The judicious observations of Mr. An- derson on this statute deserve to be quoted: 'Had this excellently well- judged act been suffered to remain in force, and to operate to this hour, the nation would, very probably, have in- creased much faster in people and wealth. But the monopolizing grants of subsequent times from the crown, which, by long use, came to be looked on as legal, though not confirmed by act of parliament ; and the city of Lon- don and other cities and towns having also had weight enough to obtain certain laws for curtailing and frustrating the privileges allowed to all, by this act, and for confining the said privileges solely to the freemen of their corpora- tions, gradually brought things to the monopolizing state in which we see them at present in all our corporate towns. Although every person of dis- cernment, in this age, sees and laments an evil not so easily to be remedied, by reason of so many estates bequeathed to and settled in possession of the said mo- nopolizing societies.' (Historical and Chronological Deduction^ &c. vol. i. p. 181.) Edward III., though more powerful and vigilant than any of his predeces- sors, was unable to repress the disorders that grew out of the state of society in which he lived. The barons, by their confederacies with each other, braved the authority of the crown ; while, by protecting their dependents in every ex- cess, the laws were rendered inoperative. Innumerable complaints were made by the Commons of the murders, rapes, robberies, and other outrages, by which every part of the country was disgraced and afflicted. But they admitted of no effectual remedy ; the nuisance con- tinued unabated, till the increasing power of the crown and the towns subverted 104 COMMERCE. the feudal system, and secured the as- cendancy of the court. The most objectionable, perhaps, of all the measures of Edward III. was his enfeebling the standard of the cur- rency, which at that time consisted wholly of silver. The necessities in which he was involved, by his wars with France, drove him to this ruinous expe- dient. It must, however, be admitted that the subject was then but little un- derstood ; and that those who degraded the currency in the middle ages, were in- nocent, compared with those who have perpetrated similar frauds after the im- portance of preserving the standard in- violate had been fully demonstrated. Besides the merchants of the Steel Yard and of the Staple, a famous mer- cantile association was early founded in London, at first under the title of the Brotherhood of St. Thomas Becket, and afterwards under that of the Merchant Adventurers. It consisted entirely of Englishmen ; and originally any one who desired it might become a member, and participate in all its privileges, on pay- ment of a moderate fine. It appears to have been the intention of govern- ment, that the foreign trade of the coun- try should be divided between this soci- ety and the merchants of the Steel Yard. A violent jealousy consequently grew up between these associations, and their conflicting rights and claims led to per- petual disputes, that continued till the dissolution of the Hanseatic factory. But whatever benefits might otherwise have been derived from the vigorous and generally equitable government of Edward III., were countervailed by the obstinacy with which this able prince and his immediate successors urged their pretensions to the throne of France. The nation engaged with the greatest ardour in the support of this unfounded claim ; and continued, for a lengthened period, to waste its energies and exhaust its resources in efforts to conquer that kingdom. The mutual and cruel ravages of the French and English, during this length- ened and sanguinary struggle, are said to have been such, that in extensive districts of Normandy and other French provinces, neither man nor woman was to be seen, except in the fortified towns. The de- scription given by Speed, after Polydore Virgil, of the barbarous warfare then carried on in France, is not, in any re- spect, overcharged : 'While the English and French contend for dominion, sove- raignty, and life itselfe, men's goods in France were violently taken by the li- cence of warre, churches spoiled, men every where murthered or wounded, others put to death or tortured; ma- trons ravished, maydes forcibly drawn out of their parents armes to be de- flowered, townes daily taken, daily spoiled, daily defaced, the richest of the inhabitants carried whether the con- querors thinke good ; houses and vil- lages round about set on fire : no kind of cruelty is left unpractised upon the miserable French. Neither was England herself void of those mischiefes, who every day heard the newes of her valiant children's funerals, slaine in perpetual skirmishes and bickerings, her general wealth continually ebd, and wained, so that the evils seemed almost equall, and the whole westerne world echoed the groans and sighs of either nation's quar- rels, being ^the common argument of speech and compassion throughout Christendom.' (p. 668.) The statement in this striking para- graph, as to the injury sustained by England in this sanguinary contest, is corroborated by other evidence. The draughts of men and money required for the reinforcement and maintenance of the armies in France, and the licence given to all sorts of disorders at home, by the absence of the sovereign, could not fail of having a most mischievous influence. A statute of the 9th of Henry V. recites, ' That whereas at the making of the act of the 14th of Edward III. (13-10,) there were sufficient of proper men in each county to execute every office ; but that, owing to pestilence and wars, there are not now (1421) a sufficiency of respon- sible persons to act as sheriffs, coroners, and escheators.' The laurels, as Mr. Barrington has justly observed, which were gained by Henry V., are well known ; but it is not so well known that he has left us, in the above statute, irre- fragable proof that they were not ob- tained but at the dearest price, the im- poverishment and depopulation of the country. The success of the French arms dur- ing the minority of Henry VI. at length put a period to this fatal phrenzy. Un- fortunately, however, the tranquillity en- joyed by the English subsequently to their expulsion from France was but of short duration. England soon after became the theatre of civil war. The COMMERCE. 105 parties attached to the interests of the rival houses of York and Lancaster were pretty equally balanced, and for nearly forty years, with a few short in- tervals only excepted, one half the na- tion may be said to have turned its arms against the other. The insecurity of property, and the rapine and bloodshed inseparable from a civil war, which raged with more than ordinary fury, proved ex- ceedingly unfavourable to the growth of industry and commerce. So feeble was the naval power of England in the reign of Edward IV., that that monarch was glad, after being defeated in several en- gagements, to conclude a treaty, in 1474, on very disadvantageous terms, with the Hanse Towns*. * This treaty being the most important of any entered into between England and the Hanse Towns, we subjoin an abstract of its principal conditions. 1. All past injuries and complaints shall be bu- ried in oblivion, and all injuries and violences shall be absolutely forborne for the future. 2. For the greater safety of the merchants and people of the Hanse Society, King Edward agrees to grant his charter or obligation in the strongest terms, and shall also get it confirmed by act of parliament, that no kind of damage shall be done to their persons or goods, by reason of any sentence or determination of the said king and his council, for reprisals, &c. on account of matters done prior to this treaty. 8. The merchants of England may freely resort and trade to the countries of the Hanse League, as the Hanseatic merchants may to "England, with their ships and merchandise, freely to sell the same and purchase others there, without paying in either country any more than the ancient duties and customs, on any pretence whatever. 4. All the privileges and immunities of the Han- seatics in England are hereby renewed, and shall also be confirmed by act of parliament; and the English shall enjoy all their immunities at the Hanse Towns as formerly. 5. The Hanseatic merchants in England shall not henceforth be subject to the lord high admi- ral's court of jurisdiction ; but in controversies about maritime affairs, &c. shall have two judges allotted to them by the king for determining the same. 6. That the steel-yard in London, in its utmost extent, shall be confirmed to the said German merchants, as also the steel-yard at Boston ; and that a like house be assigned for their use at Lynn, near the water side. 7. That 10,000 sterling, liquidated to be due by the king to the said German Hanse merchants, shall be paid or deducted out of the customs and duties on their merchandise, till the whole sum be discharged. 8. If any city of the Hanseatics shall hereafter separate itself from the general union, the king of England shall cause all the privileges of that sepa- rating city to cease in England until they be re- united to the league. 9. The said German merchants of the steel- yard shall have the possessing and keeping of the gate of the city of London called Bishopsgate, as by ancient agreement between that city and them. 10. The king shall provide that the woollen cloth of England be reformed, both as to the qua- lity of the wool, and the length and breadth of the cloth. 11. The said steel-yard merchants shall be at liberty to sell their Rhenish by retail as well as wholesale, according to ancient custom. It is difficult to form any very accu- rate conclusions as to the state of mer- cantile shipping from the reign of Ed- ward III. to that of Henry VII. ; but the increase, if there was any, seems to have been very inconsiderable. During the whole of this period, most foreign commodities consumed in England, with the exception of wine, were im- ported in foreign bottoms. In 1381, an act was passed in consequence, as appears from the preamble, of the com- plaints of the Commons of the decay of shipping prohibiting all English mer- chants from freighting foreign ships, under forfeiture of the goods embarked in them. But it was very soon found that this act could not be enforced with- out great injury to trade ; and in the following year a statute was passed which, in effect, suspended the former, by authorizing the employment of foreign vessels when English ones could not be procured. A famous merchant of Bristol, of the name of Canynge, who was five times mayor of that city, is said to have been the greatest English ship-owner of the reign of Edward IV. The prevalent opinion seems to be that he had in his employment ships of 900, 500, and 400 tons burden *. The only authority for this statement is an inscription on Ca- nynge's tomb, at Bristol, where it is stated, that ' having forfeited the king's peace, he was condemned to pay 3000 marks, in lieu of which sum King Ed- ward IV. took ;of him 2470 tons of shipping, among which was one ship of 900 tons burden, another of 500 tons, and one of 400 tons, the rest being smaller.' (Anderson, anno 1449.) Mr. Anderson conjectures, apparently with much probability, that the ' forfeiture of the king's peace,' alluded to in this in- scription, refers to some act of piracy, or to some abuse of letters of marque, committed by Canynge. At all events, it is sufficiently certain that no merchant ships of the burden of 900, or even 500 tons, were built in England for more than a century after this period ; so that if the statement as to the tonnage may be depended on, the fair presumption is, that the vessels had been taken from the Venetians or Genoese. The circum- stance of the forfeiture of the ships being recorded on Canynge's tomb does not, as Mr. Macpherson seems Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 386, octavo edition. 106 COMMERCE. to suppose, prove that they were not acquired by piracy. This offence was estimated very differently in those days and at present ; and there might have been colourable grounds for the capture. The truth is, that the navigation of England continued throughout this whole period very limited. * While,' says Dr. Robertson, * the trading vessels of Italy, and Spain, and Portugal, as well as those of the Hanse Towns, vi- sited the most remote parts of Europe, and carried on an active intercourse with its various nations, the English did little more than creep along their own coasts in small barks, which conveyed the pro- ductions of one county to another. The cross of St. George was seldom dis- played beyond the precincts of the nar- row seas. Hardly any English ship traded with Spain and Portugal before the beginning of the fifteenth century ; and half a century more elapsed before the English mariners became so adven- turous as to enter the Mediterranean.' (America, book 9th.) A rhyming tract, printed by Hakluyt, (vol. i. p. 187,) entitled the 'Process of .English Policy,' appears to have been written about the middle of the fif- teenth century. Its object is to inculcate the policy of keeping the sea ; that is, of having the absolute command of the Channel, and particularly of the straits of Dover. The writer then enumerates the different products of such European nations, with the exception of France, as had any over-sea traffic. His state- ments on this head, which are very cu- rious, have been condensed by Mr. Mac- pherson nearly as follows : The exports of Spain consisted of figs, raisins, bastard wine, dates, liquo- rice, Seville oil, grain, Castile soap, wax, iron, wool, wadmole, skins of goats and kids, saffron and quicksilver, which was all shipped for Bruges, the great Flemish emporium ; of these wool was the chief article. In return the Spaniards received fine cloth of Ypres, which is noted as superior to that of England, cloth of Curtrike (Courtray), fustian and linen*. The Flemings could not make good cloth of the Spanish wool by itself, and were obliged to mix it * It is necessary to remember that Spain, at this time, contained several kingdoms often at war among themselves. The trade here described is apparently that of Castile. Catalonia possessed flourishing manufactures of wool, cotton, linen, silk, &c. with the English, which (according to the author) was the chief support of their manufacture, as without it they could not possibly carry it on, or sup- port their numerous population, their country not producing food sufficient for their support for one month in the year. (This is doubtless a great exaggeration.) With Portugal the English maintained a considerable intercourse, and were in the habit of making voyages to it. The commodities were wine, osay, wax, grain, figs, raisins, honey, cordovan, dates, salt, hides, &c. Bretagne exported salt, wine, crest cloth, and canvass. The Bretons, especi- ally those of St. Malo, are described as much addicted to piracy, and as caring very little for their duke. The writer states that they often plundered the east coasts of England, and levied contribu- tions, or ransoms, from the towns. The exports of Scotland consisted of wool, wool-felts, and hides. The Scotch wool, mixed with English, was made into cloth at Popering and Bell, manufactur- ing towns in Flanders. The Scotch vessels carried home from Flanders mer- cery, haberdashery ware, and 'cart wheels and barrows.' The exports of Prussia were beer, ba- con, osmunds, copper, steel, bow staves, wax, peltry, pitch, tar, boards, flax, thread of Cologne, fustian, canvass, cards, buckram, and also silver pur- chased from Bohemia t and Hungary. The returns from Flanders were woollen cloths of all colours. And many of the Prussians are described as sailing to the Bay of Biscay for salt. The Genoese in great carracks im- ported into England cloth of gold, silk, black pepper, wood in great plenty, wool, oil, wood ashes, cotton, rochealum, and gold for paying their balances. They took in return wool and woollen cloths of all colours, which they sometimes carried to Bruges, the chief staple of their trade. The Venetians and Florentines im- ported into England, in large galleys, all kinds of spiceries and groceries, sweet wines, sugar, apes and other foreign animals, and many trifling articles of luxury. In return they received wool, cloth, and tin. The balance was sup- posed to be in their favour; for the author is much displeased that 1 Thei here the gold out of this lond And sowketh the thrif te out of our bond As the waspe sowketh hony of the be.' COMMERCE. 107 The Venetians were also dealers in exchange and lent money at interest. They also used to travel to Cotswold and other parts of England to buy up wool, cloth, tin, &c. The author regrets that they were not compelled to unload in forty days, and to load in other forly, nor obliged to act under a host or land- lord broker as formerly, and as the English at Venice were obliged to do. In the marts or fairs of Brabant, the English (and probably other foreigners also) were obliged to sell their cloths, &c., in fourteen days, and make the pur- chases, consisting chiefly of mercery, haberdashery, and groceries, in as many more, on pain of forfeiture. Those fairs were frequented by the English, French, Dutch (or Germans), Lombards, Ge- noese, Catalonians, Spaniards, Scotch and Irish. The author affirms that the English bought more in the marts of Brabant, Flanders, and Zealand, than all other nations. Brabant and Zealand exported mad- der, wood, garlic, onions and salt fish. The Hollanders bought the English wool and wool- felts at Calais. In the marts of Brabant were also sold the merchandise of Hainault, France, Bur- gundy, Cologne, and Cambray, which were brought in carts over land. The exports of Ireland were hides, wool, salmon, hake, herrings, linen falding, and the skins of martens, harts, otters, squirrels, hares, rabbits, sheep, lambs, foxes and kids. Some gold ore had lately been brought from Ireland to London. The abundant fertility and excellent harbours of Ireland are noted by the author, who laments that the island was not made more profitable to England by a complete conquest. The trade to Iceland for stock fish, hitherto, according to the author, almost confined to Scarborough, had, for about twelve years past, been taken up in Bristol and other ports. It is said to have been over done, and that the ves- sels engaged in it could not obtain full freights. Some faint traces of the negotiation of bills of exchange have been disco- vered, or supposed to be discovered, in antiquity. We believe, however, that we are really indebted to the Jews and Italians of the middle ages for the dis- covery of this admirable expedient for adjusting the claims of individuals resi- dent at a distance from each other. According to Mr. Macpherson (Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 405), the first mention of bills of exchange, in con- nexion with the history of England, occurs in 12 5 5 . The Pope having quar- relled with Manfred, King of Sicily, agreed, on Henry III. engaging to de- fray the expense, to depose Manfred and raise his second son Edmund to the Sicilian throne. The enterprise misgave ; but the merchants of Sienna and Florence, who advanced the money to carry it into effect, were repaid by bills of exchange, drawn on the pre- lates of England; who, though they protested they knew nothing at all about the transaction, were nevertheless com- pelled, under pain of excommunication, to pay the bills and interest. Capmany (Comercio Antiguo de Barcelona, tomo i., p. 212) has given a copy of an ordinance of the magistracy of Barcelona, issued in 1394, enacting that bills should be accepted within twenty-four hours of their presentation ; a sufficient proof that they were then in general use. Bills, however, were rarely either seen or negotiated in Eng- land previously to the middle of the fif* teenth century. The value of land during the civil wars seems to have been about ten years' purchase. This may be fairly inferred from proclamations issued in 1470 by Edward IV., and in 1483 by Richard III., offering in both instances a reward of 1000/. in money, or 100/. a year in land, to any one who should arrest the individuals named in the proclamations. This sufficiently evinces the insecurity of property in those barbarous times. (Rymefs Fcedera, vol. xi., p. 654, &c.) The fisheries seem to have been early the object of legislative arrangements. In the reign of Edward IV., various statutes were enacted, prescribing rules for the packing of salmon, herrings, eels, &c. ; and there are several older statutes for the preservation of the fry of salmon, lampreys, &c. (Anderson, Anno 1483.) Even though the situation of the coun- try in other respects had been favourable to foreign commerce, the state of society previously to the reign of Henry VII. was such as to hinder it from making any material progress. Except in a few large towns, there was no such thing as a middle class. The great mass of the people was held in thraldom by the nobility; and the laws enacted in the reign of Edward III. show the 108 COMMERCE. obstacles opposed to their improvement and emancipation. Such persons were compelled to satisfy themselves with mere necessaries. And the revenues of the great lords being exhausted in main- taining crowds of dependents, and in a rude sort of hospitality, the demand for foreign commodities was confined within very narrow limits. The clergy, in- deed, and the monks belonging to the richer monasteries, introduced a more refined mode of living ; at the same time that the villains on their estates were less oppressed than on those of the nobles. Most part, however, of the increase that really took place in the trade of the country between the death of Edward III. and the accession of Henry VII. is ascribable to the growth of the towns in the interim, which, though far from rapid, was not so inconsider- able as is sometimes stated. The char- ters of enfranchisement given to these communities, the privilege which they early acquired of electing their own magistrates and regulating their muni- cipal government, and the police and good order they established, gave them great advantages, and rendered their inhabitants immeasurably superior, in point of wealth and civilization, to those of country districts. By an edict of William the Conqueror, such villeins as fled to a town and were not reclaimed by their masters within a year and a day, acquired their freedom : and even of those that fled to the towns and were reclaimed, few comparatively were given up. So early as the reign of Edward I. the influence of the towns began to be very sensibly felt ; and it became still more decided after that of Richard II. In every country the towns have been the cradles of civilization, and of public liberty ; but in England this has been most strikingly the case. Having been early admitted into par- liament, their representatives speedily acquired a considerable influence,.which continued to increase with the increas- ing numbers, intelligence, and wealth of their constituents. This circumstance, more than any thing else, prevented the establishment of arbitrary power in England. The destruction of the feudal privileges of the aristocracy by the house of Tudor was accomplished with com- paratively little difficulty ; but when the Stuarts attempted to act by the com- mons as the Tudors acted by the nobles, they found the wide difference between attacking oppressive privileges engrossed by a class, -and rights enjoyed by a whole people. But notwithstanding the vast advan- tages that have resulted from the growth of towns and cities, they have not been altogether without alloy. The citizens engaged in particular trades were early joined into corporate bodies, which im- mediately began to discover that rapa- cious, short-sighted, monopolizing spirit by which corporations have always been distinguished. Instead of endeavouring to promote their interests by an hospi- table reception^of strangers from other parts of the country, and of foreigners, they exerted themselves to exclude both the one and the other from participating in the advantages they enjoyed. The regulations as to apprentices originated in the efforts made by the corporate bodies to exclude competitors. They were intended to prevent the exer- cise of any trade in any town corporate, except by those who had served an ap- prenticeship of a certain specified dura- tion. The by-laws of the different corporations to this effect were con- firmed by the celebrated statute of the 5th of Elizabeth (1563), commonly called the statute of apprenticeship, which fixed the duration of such en- gagements at seven years, and extended the regulation to all the corporate towns in the empire. And what is most ex- traordinary, this statute, though inter- fering so "directly with the freedom of industry, and intended to bolster up the most oppressive monopolies, preserved its place on the statute book till 1814. But in the early part of our history, the landlords were disposed, even more than the corporate bodies, to increase the difficulties of apprenticeship. The advantages enjoyed by mechanics resi- dent in towns over country labourers, were so very great, that the latter were anxious, under any conditions, to bind their children apprentices. To coun- teract this practice the great lords fell upon several devices ; and in the reign of Henry IV. an act was passed prohi- biting all persons from binding their sons and daughters by an apprentice- ship, unless they possessed twenty shil- lings a year in land ! The decay of husbandry was pleaded as a justification of this and similar enactments ; but their real intention was to prevent the emancipation of the peasantry, the lords being unwilling to lose the services to which they were bound, or to resign the jurisdiction they were accustomed to COMMERCE. 109 exercise over them. When, however, money payments began, after the acces- sion of the House of Tudor, to be pre- ferred to services, the landlords not only ceased to oppose, but encouraged the emigration of the peasantry to the towns ; and their increasing influx, by ex- citing the fears of the corporate bodies, seems to have given birth to the statute of apprenticeship referred to above. Down to the reign of Henry VII. the commerce of England, in common with that of most other countries, suffered severely from piratical de- predations. Even those esteemed as good citizens, and engaged in trade pursuit, were so much under the judged, so early as the reign of Henry I., that if any person escaped alive out of a ship it should be no wreck. And after various modifications it was de- cided in the reign of Henry III., that if goods were cast on shore, having any marks by which they could be identi- fied, they were to revert to the owners, if claimed any time within a year and a day. The statute 27 Edward III., cap. 13, enacted, that if a ship were lost and the goods came to land, they were to be delivered to the merchants, paying only a reasonable reward or salvage to those by whom they were saved or pre- served. But these ancient statutes, ow- ing to the disorders of the times, were but feebly enforced ; and the disgraceful practices alluded to did not entirely dis- as a influence of the predatory spirit of the appear till a comparatively recent period. i- In all countries, however barbarous, times, that they did not hesitate to en- gage in marauding adventures. The mischief was aggravated by the prac- tice, then very prevalent, of grant- ing letters of marque to private indivi- duals, authorizing them to make repri- sals on the subjects of states with which the princes, by whom the letters were granted, were at peace ! Such licences to carry on private wars necessarily led to every sort of abuse, and increased, in no ordinary degree, the dangers of na- vigation. The suppression of piracy was, indeed, the principal object con- templated by the founders of the Han- seatic League ; but notwithstanding the efforts of that powerful association, the offence continued to be very prevalent till the end of the fifteenth century. At length, however, the establishment of good order, and the prevalence of sounder views of national interest, occa- sioned the suppression of piracy, and of the practices which had given coun- tenance to it. Letters of marque were no longer granted except when states were at war ; and pirates, being every where treated as robbers, were finally banished from the European seas. Besides the dangers which mariners encountered in those barbarous ages from the attacks of pirates, they were exposed to tiie most cruel treatment in the event of their being wrecked. After the subversion of the Roman power it was customary in most coun- tries to reduce the survivors to slavery, and to confiscate their property for the use of the king or of the lord of the manor ! But such disgraceful proceed- ings could only be tolerated in the very darkest ages. In England it was ad- that have any shipping or foreign trade, we meet with some system of maritime law. The Romans borrowed their regu- lations as to naval affairs from the Rlio- dians ; the justice and equity of whose code were celebrated by the best ancient writers, and are demonstrated by the fragments that are still extant. A code of maritime law, entitled the ' Consolafo dd Mare," founded principally on the basis of the Roman law, but interspersed with rules and regulations of a later origin, appears to have been issued at Barcelona somewhere about the end of the thir- teenth or the beginning of the four- teenth century, and speedily obtained great authority among the nations bor- dering on the Mediterranean. The col- lection of sea laws, entitled the ' Rooledes Jugements d'Oleron; was the first body of maritime jurisprudence that appears to have acquired any influence in Eng- land, where it has long been held in the highest esteem. There is much diversity of opinion as to the origin of this code. The prevailing opinion in Great Britain has been that the ' Jugements d'Oleron ' were compiled by direction of Queen Eleanor, the wife of Henry II., in her quality of Duchess of Guienne ; and that they were afterwards enlarged and improved by her son, Richard I., at his return from the Holy Land ; but this statement is now admitted to be destitute of any good foundation. The most pro- bable theory seems to be, that they are a collection of the rules or practices fol- lowed at the principal French ports on the Atlantic, as Bordeaux, Rochelle, St. Malo, &c. They contain, indeed, rules, the observance of which is essential to 110 COMMERCE. all maritime transactions, wherever they may be carried on ; but the references in the code sufficiently prove that it is of French origin. The circumstance of pur monarchs having large possessions in France, when the rules of Oleron were collected and reduced into a system, naturally facilitated their introduction into England, and made them be re- garded with peculiar favour. 'I call them the laws of Oleron,' said Sir Leoline Jenkins, ' not but that they are peculiarly enough English, being long since incorporated into the customs and statutes of our Admiralties; but the equity of them is so great, and the use and reason of them so general, that they are known and received all the world over by that, rather than by any other name." Molloy, however, has more cor- rectly, perhaps, said of the laws of Ole- ron, that * they never obtained any other or greater force than those of Rhodes formerly did ; that is, they were esteemed for the reason and equity found in them, and were applied to the case emergent.' (M'Culloch's Com.Dict. Art. MARI- TIME LAW.) Previously to the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, acts had occasionally been passed restraining the importation of certain species of foreign produce, particularly of woollen manufactures. But these were, for the most part, soon after repealed ; and it is probable, from the inefficiency of cus- tom-house regulations at the time, had but very little influence. They seem principally to have been passed at the solicitation of the incorporations of Lon- don, Bristol, and other great towns ; and from the way in which petitions for prohibitory enactments were treated by Edward I., Edward III., and others of our most able princes, it may be inferred that they were quite aware of the real motives of the petitioners. But during the civil wars, the princes on the throne and their competitors were particularly anxious to conciliate the support of the great towns ; and there was no mode of accomplishing this so easy, and at the same time so effectual, as the exclusion of foreign products and artisans. Hence the reigns of Edward IV. and Richard III. form an important epoch in the his- tory of the prohibitive system. The preamble to the great restraining act of 1643, (3rd Edward IV. cap. 4.) con- tains an epitome of the allegations usually put forth by the advocates of prohibition: ' Whereas in the said parliament, by the artificers, men and women, inhabiting and resident in the city of London, and the cities, towns, boroughs, 'and villages within this realm and Wales, it hath been piteously shewed and complained, how that all they in ge- neral, and every of them, be greatly im- poverished, and much injured and pre- judiced of their worldly increase and daily living, by the great multitude of divers chaffres and wares, pertaining to their mysteries and occupations, being fully wrought and ready made to sale, as well by the hands of strangers, being the king's enemies as others, brought into this realm and Wales from beyond the sea, as well by merchant strangers as denizens, and other persons, whereof the greatest part is deceitful and nothing worth, in regard of any man's occupa- tion or profit, by occasion whereof the said artificers cannot live by their mys- teries and occupations as they used to do in times past ; but divers of them, as well householders as hirelings, and other servants and apprentices in great num- bers, be at this day unoccupied, and do hardly live in great idleness, poverty, and ruin, whereby many inconveniencies have grown before this time, and here- after more be like to come, (which God defend) if due remedy be not in their behalf provided, &c.' It seems not to have then occurred to any one that reciprocity is of the essence of commerce. Foreigners import no- thing without getting an equivalent ; so that when we consume large quantities of their goods, it admits of demonstra- tion that they consume equally large quantities of ours. Admitting, therefore, that the allegations referred to above were true, yet it is plain that the idleness and poverty complained of could not be obviated by prohibiting importation. Such prohibitions might give additional employment to the producers of such articles as had previously been supplied by the foreigner; but it is certain it could not do this without depriving all those of employment who had been en- gaged in the production of the articles sent abroad in payment of the imports. A prohibition never fails to destroy as much, or more, on the one hand, as it builds up on the other. It is a contra- diction and an absurdity to suppose that the prevention of importation should in- crease the field of employment. All that it can possibly do, is to divert labour into channels into which it would not COMMERCE. Ill naturally flow, and in which it is, con- sequently, sure to be less productive than if it had been left to seek out, in- vestments for itself. But such arguments are reluctantly admitted, even in the nine- teenth century, and could not, therefore, be supposed to have much influence in the fifteenth. The remedy then provided for the grievances complained of, was the prohibition of almost every wrought ar- ticle, either of convenience or ornament, at that time known. This prohibition was renewed and extended by the act of 1484. (1st Richard III. cap. 12.) The monopoly principles that were thus early engrafted into our commercial policy have continued ever since to main- tain their ground. During the sixteenth century they were sometimes partially suspended, but they were never wholly repealed, and were always enforced whenever any circumstance occurred to give additional influence to the manu- facturers and the incorporated bodies. The justly celebrated William Caxton was a member of the Mercers' Company of London, and was employed by Edward IV. in the negotiation of a com- mercial treaty with Philip, Duke of Burgundy. While engaged in this mission, he acquired a knowledge of the then recently invented art of printing, which he introduced into England. It would be worse than useless to dwell on the importance of this invention. Knowledge ceased to be confined to a few individuals. Books being mul- tiplied and cheapened in a degree that could not previously have been supposed possible, became accessible to all classes ; nor can there be a doubt that the universal diffusion of every sort of information by means of the press, has contributed more than any- thing else to the wonderful improve- ments that have since been made in the arts and sciences. 2. Progress of commerce and indus- try in England,' from the accession of Henry VII. to the death of Elizabeth. The accession of Henry VII., in 1485, marks an important era in the history of English commerce. It terminated that civil war which had so long de- luged the country with blood ; while the vigorous and prudent, though severe ad- ministration of the king, and the good terms on which he endeavoured to keep with his neighbours, gave unusual faci- lities for the prosecution of commercial enterprises. The love of money, the ruling passion of this monarch, led him to set a high value on commerce, which he endeavoured directly to promote. It may be doubted, however, whether the laws passed in his reign with this view, were not, speaking generally, rather in- jurious than otherwise. Attempts were made to fix the prices of several com- modities and articles of provision ; the taking of interest for money was for- bidden, under very severe penalties ; as were the profits of exchange, on pre- tence of their savouring of usury ! The exportation of money, plate, and bullion, was prohibited ; and aliens who had im- ported produce into the kingdom, were obliged to invest the produce of their sales in English commodities, lest the precious metals might be carried out. Some of Henry's laws are, however, characterized by sounder views of public policy. Of this description is an act passed in 1494, providing for the uni- formity of weights and measures. It directs that models of all standard weights and measures be delivered to the knights, citizens, and burgesses in parliament assembled ; that the latter ihould deliver them to the mayor and bailiffs of the cities and towns which they represented ; these functionaries being required once a year to compare the weights and measures in use in their respective districts with the models ; to destroy those that did not correspond with them, and to impose fines on those by whom they were used. Unluckily, however, it was speedily found that the models sent to the country did not ex- actly correspond with the standards in the exchequer; and though the defect was remedied, it seems to have thrown so much discredit on the project, that the advantage resulting from it was comparatively unimportant. The vexatious restraints on industry, imposed by the different corporate bodies, were in some respects modified by Henry VII. They were prohibited from making by-laws without the con- sent of three of the chief officers of state; but this judicious regulation seems to have speedily fallen into disuse. Cor- porations were also prohibited from im- posing tolls at the gates of their towns. The cities of Gloucester and Worcester had proceeded so far in this way as to levy a tax on vessels or boats navigating the Severn, which was abolished by this act, (19th Hen. VII. cap. 18.) Henry negotiated a great many com- 112 COMMERCE. mercial treaties with foreign countries. Of these the most celebrated was the treaty entered into with the Archduke Philip, sovereign of the Netherlands, in 1496. Unlike the greater nuraher 01 such agreements, it was founded on a fair principle of reciprocity ; and contains several very judicious regulations for facilitating the intercourse between the two countries, and making it advan- tageous to both. It was denominated the Inter cur sus Magnus ; and was ex- ceedingly popular in England as well as in the Netherlands. As this treaty has been often referred to, and throws con- siderable light on the nature of commer- cial transactions at the time, we have given it below. The precautions taken to prevent piracy, and the stipulations as to shipwrecked vessels, are particu- larly worthy of attention.* * 1. Mutual liberty allowed on both sides to trade to each other's dominions, without asking for li- cence or passport. To carry all manner of mer- chandise, whether wool, leather, victuals, arms, horses, jewels, or any other wares, either by land or water, from Calais, England, and Ireland, to the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Mechlin, and from these provinces to Calais, England, and Ireland; and that both parties may freely resort to and unload at all the customary ports, and reload, and thence freely depart. 2. Merchants, mariners, &c. may on both sides carry weapons of defence in their ships, and bring them on shore to their lodgings, where they shall leave their swords, daggers, &c. till they shall go on board again. 3. The fishers on both sides may freely fish on the seas without any safe conduct asked; and when driven into each other's ports by tempest or other necessity, they shall be safe there, and have free liberty to depart, paying the customary dues. 4. Pirates and ships of the enemies of either party shall not be permitted to rob or otherwise injure the subjects of either party in their respec- tive havens and countries ; nor to land nor sell there the goods or ships taken from either party. 5. And to the end that captures of ships, per- sons, and goods may hereafter cease between both parties, it is agreed that security, to double the value of ship and goods, be given by shipmasters setting out on a voyage, that they shall not com- mit any piracy or robbery on the subjects of the other party. 6. The ships of either party driven into the ports of the other party by storm, enemies, &c., sh;ill re- main there safely, and may depart again freely; but they shall not open nor unload their merchan- dise without a visible necessity, and without the presence and the consent of the custom-house officer. ". Merchants, mariners, &c. of both parties shall not import into the other party's country the goods of an enemy to that party. 8- If it shall happen that a ship of either of the contracting parties be wrecked on the shores of the other party, though there shall not be found therein either man, woman, cat, dog, or cock, yet the goods in the said ship shall be preserved, and laid up for a year and a day, by the proper officers of the place; within which time the proper owners may come and make out their claim, and receive their goods, paying the requisite expenses for re- covering and keeping the same. We have already noticed the establish- ment of the company of merchant ad- venturers, originally the fraternity of St. Thomas Becket. They were not a joint stock, but a regulated company, established in London. It would seem that they had early acquired, or usurped the right, of demanding a fine from the merchant adventurers belonging to other parts of England, trading to foreign 9. The merchants of both parties shall have pro- per houses for themselves and their merchandise in the several towns and cities of the other party, with the same privileges and immunities as have been customary before the last fifty years; and shall in all respects be as kindly treated as any other foreign nation residing there. 10. The officers in either country appointed for searching for contraband goods, shall perform it civilly, without spoiling them, or breaking the chests, barrels, packs, or sacks, under pain of one month's imprisonment. And when the searchers shall have opened them, they shall assist in the shutting and mending of them, &c. Nor shall they compel the owners to sell or dispose of the same against their own inclinations. 11. If the English residing in the Netherlands shall suspect a debtor there to intend an elope- ment, the debtor may be compelled to give secu- rity there for paying the debt; and the Nether- landers in England shall enjoy the same benefit. 12. Upon any damage or violence done to the subjects of the contracting parties, the damaged party shall not immediately take out letters of marque or reprisals, nor arrest either the person or the goods of the accused party, but shall first warn or summon him before his respective prince, who alone ought to give redress to the injured party. 13. All letters of marque and reprisals shall be called in, and shall remain suspended on both sides, unless it shall be otherwise determined by a future congress of both parties. 14. And it is forbidden to the English and others to enter the castle of Sluys, in Flanders; and it is now stipulated that in case, through ignorance or any other cause not appearing to be fraudulent, any merchants or other subjects of the King of England shall happen to enter the gate of the said castle, they shall not, merely from that cause, be injured in their persons nor goods. 15. The English shall freely bring bullion of gold or silver through the Netherlands and from other countries, in order to carry the same into England, provided they bring certificates from the proper officers of those other countries of the quantity of bullion so bought or otherwise lawfully acquired. 16. None but the public and anciently known and received weights shall be used in either country. J7. For conservators of this peace and inter- course of commerce, there were appointed by Henry VII., on the part of England, sundry lords therein named, and likewise the mayors and al- dermen of London, York, Bristol, Winchester, Canterbury, Rochester, Southampton, Sandwich, (Sandwic) Dover, Lynn, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Hull.Winchelsea, Boston, Yarmouth, and Berwick, who also bound themselves, to the Archduke Philip, under the obligation of all their goods, present and future, to endeavour, to the utmost of their power, that their sovereign Henry VII. should faithfully keep it inviolable in all its parts ; and on the part of the Archduke there were also bound several lords of his countries, and also the burgo-nmsters of Gaunt, Bruges, Ypres, Dunkirk, Newport, Antwerp, Bergen-op-zoom, Doort, Delft, Leyden, Amsterdam, Middleburgh, Zirikzee, Terveer, Mechlin, and Briel, to see the said peace and in- tercourse of commerce faithfully kept. Signed at London. 24th Feb. 1496 j ratified April, 1496. COMMERCE. 113 countries, and particularly to the Nether- lands. At first this fine was only an old noble, or 6,?. 8d., money of the time; but by successive additions it was raised to no less than 40/., money of the time, and was justly complained of by the merchants and traders in the outports as an intolerable burden. In 1497, an act was passed (I2th Hen. VII. cap. 6.) to obviate this abuse. It declares that all Englishmen shall have free liberty * to trade to the coasts of Flanders, Holland, Zealand, and Brabant, and other parts adjoining, 1 on payment of a fine of ten marks (61. 13-?. 4d. money of the time,) to the merchant adven- turers of London. That this act effected a very great improvement on the pre- vious practice is obvious ; but the cir- cumstance of a private company in Lon- don being allowed to impose a fine on all merchants in other parts of the kingdom engaged in foreign adventures, shows how little the most obvious prin- ciples were then understood. The influence of the measures adopted by Henry VII., in the view of directly encouraging commerce and navigation, was trifling compared with the influence of those which operated indirectly, by putting down abuses and establishing the authority of the law. From a very remote period the great lords had been accustomed to maintain vast numbers of servants and retainers, partly for the purpose of displaying their grandeur, and partly as the means of security and of attack. The retainers generally lived on the estates of their masters, who sup- plied them with badges and liveries, and with provisions while in service. These persons were not only ready upon all occasions, when called upon, to support the cause of their lords, to execute their orders, and to give evidence for them in courts of law, but trusting to their in- fluence to screen them from justice, they scrupled not, whenever an opportunity offered, to attack those they considered as their master's enemies! The pre- datory habits acquired in such a mode of life could not be easily laid aside ; and when dismissed from service, or not employed by their masters, they ge- nerally supported themselves by theft and robbery. Many statutes had been passed for repressing so enormous an abuse, but without any perceptible effect; and during the civil wars the evil attained to a frightful excess. No provision being made for disbanded sol- diers or retainers, it was not unusual to expose liveries for sale, and the compe- tition for them amongst idle and disor- derly persons was such that they occa- sionally brought considerable sums. Henry VII. determined to abate this nuisance ; and his sagacity and firmness, and the circumstances under which he was placed, enabled him to succeed. Many of the principal nobles had pe- rished in the struggles terminated by the battle of Bosworth ; and their power had been impaired by repeat- ed confiscations, and by the extraor- dinary expenses they had had Fto sus- tain. They were, therefore, but ill-fitted to defend their privileges against so able and powerful a prince as Henry, who perceived and made use of his advan- tage. The laws against giving badges and liveries, and employing retainers, were renewed and enforced with a ri- gour that none could expect to elude. At the same time, too, that the barons were compelled to lay aside their feudal pomp, and to dismiss their vassals, the improved and more luxurious habits that began to be diffused throughout the nation, disposed them to receive money payments, instead of personal ser- vices, from their tenants and depen- dents. And the lower ranks of people being thus, as it were, abandoned by their feudal superiors, were obliged, instead of trusting to them for support and protection, to resort to some species of industry, and to respect those laws they could no longer trample upon with impunity. The change that was thus effected was of the greatest importance, and had the most decisive and beneficial influence on all ranks and orders. Had the practice of maintaining crowds of retainers continued, order and tranquil- lity could never have been established. The power of the great lords was undermined by another law, which, though less felt at the time, has been hardly less important perhaps in its consequences than any other passed in the reign of Henry VII. This was the legitimation of the practice, introduced in the reign of Edward IV., of break- ing entails by a fine and recovery. ' By means of this law/ says Hume, 'joined to the beginning luxury and refinement of the age, the great fortunes of the ba- rons were gradually dissipated, and the property of the commons increased in England. It is probable that Henry foresaw and intended this consequence ; because the constant scheme of his po- 114 COMMERCE. licy consisted in depressing the great, and exalting churchmen, lawyers, and men of mean families, who were more dependent on him.' The circle of commerce being now en- larged on all sides, merchant-ships began to be built of larger size, and to be fitted up with better accommodations. Henry VII. was a considerable ship-owner. He built several large ships, which, when not employed in the public service, he was accustomed to freight to the merchants. Still, however, these favourable cir- cumstances had less influence than might have been imagined in extending the sphere of foreign commerce. The nation had been so long distracted by intestine commotions, and the merchants and seamen of the Hanse Towns and the Italian Republics continued to en- gross so large a share of the trade and navigation of England, that but few, comparatively, of Henry's subjects had any desire to engage in remote adven- tures. The persevering efforts of the Portuguese to discover a route to India by sailing round Africa, and their discoveries, appear to have ex- cited little attention and no emulation in England. The discovery of a new world by Columbus was, indeed, too extraordinary an event not to arrest the attention of every one, and to arouse even the most indifferent to some degree of enterprise. An association having been formed in England for the purpose of prosecuting discoveries, a patent was granted by Henry to John Cabot and his three sons, authorising them to make discoveries, * on their own proper costs and charges,' in all parts of the world unknown to Christians. Under this sanction, an expedition, consisting of five ships, sailed from England in 149G. It was commanded by Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John, who, though his father was a Venetian, was himself born in Bristol. In point of nautical skill, sagacity, and perseverance, Sebas- tian Cabot seems to have been little, if at all, inferior to Columbus ; and as the lands seen by the latter in his first and second voyages were situated in the West Indies, the honour of being the first discoverer of the American conti- nent is due to Sebastian. He sailed along the whole coast from Hudson's Bay to Florida; and in so far as priority of discovery gives any right to dominion, the claim of the English to the exclusive possession of the greater part of the continent of North America is unquestionable*. Two years after (1498) Cabot was sent out as commander of a squa- dron of six ships, equipped at King Henry's expense, further to explore the lands and islands discovered on his pre- vious voyage. But though this shows that the King was not insensible to the value and importance of so splendid a discovery, no attempt was made either in his reign, or for a long time after, to turn it to account, by founding a colony in the countries visited by Cabot, or by opening an intercourse with them. Various circumstances contributed to occasion this neglect. As soon as Fer- dinand and Isabella, by whose marriage the crowns of Castile and Arragon had been united, learned the success of Co- lumbus, they applied to Pope Alexander VI. for a grant of such territories as they might discover, that were in the posses- sion of infidels. The Pontiff, desirous at once to display, and at the same time to extend, his power, readily assented to the wish of the Spanish monarchs. As vicar and representative of Jesus Christ, he conveyed to them the full right to, and sovereignty of, all the countries lying to the west of an imaginary line, supposed to be drawn from pole to pole a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores. And as the Portuguese had previously acquired, by a bull of Eugene IV., a right to all the countries between Cape Non, on the coast of Africa, and the continent of India, the two penin- sular nations engrossed between them, by what was then believed to be a good title, two-thirds of the entire surface of the globe! The lands discovered by Cabot plainly formed a part of the ample donation made to the crown of Spain by Alexander VI. ; and ridiculous as the pretension to make such a grant may now appear, its validity was, at the time, universally acknowledged. Henry besides was exceedingly anxious to preserve the friendship of Ferdinand, * The Memoir of Sebastian Cabot (by Mr. Bid- dle, an American), published in 1831, is one of the most valuable books that has ever appeared on the history of maritime discovery. The author has resorted to original sources. He discovered in the Ilolls Chapel, and has printed for the first time, the patent granted to John Cabot in 1499, in which reference is made to ' the londe and ides of late found by the S'tid John;' and which, consequently, puts to rest all doubts as to the era of Cabot's discovery. The reasons assigned by the author for concluding that Sebastian Cabot the son, and not John the father, commanded in both expeditions, are less satisfactory than the other parts of the work. COMMERCE. 115 for whom he professed the greatest esteem ; and was endeavouring, indeed, at the very moment when Cabot's dis- covery transpired, to negotiate the mar- riage that afterwards took place between his eldest son and the Princess of Spain. These circumstances, coupled with the distrustful character of the king, suffi- ciently account for no effort being made by the English, during the reign of Henry VII., to found any colony, or to acquire any footing in a distant country. His son and successor, Henry VIII., was frequently at war with Spain ; and having emancipated himself from the authority of the Pope, the bull of Alex- ander VI. could hardly have much influence on his conduct. His subjects had also become more commercial, and exaggerated ideas began to be enter- tained of the value of foreign posses- sions. But in the first part of his reign, Henry engaged with inconsiderate ar- dour in the great struggle between Charles V. and Francis I. ; and in the sequel he, as well as the nation, was too much occupied and agitated with domestic affairs, particularly with the subversion of the papal authority, and the disputes to which it gave rise, to be able to bestow any considerable degree of attention on projects of .discovery or colonization. But, though not im- mediately concerned in them, the splendid discoveries of Columbus and Vasco de Gama had a powerful influence in England, as well as in every other country. ' The enlarge- ment of commerce and navigation increased industry and the arts every- where : the nobles dissipated their for- tunes in expensive pleasures ; men of an inferior rank both acquired a share in the landed property and created to themselves a considerable property of a new kind, in stock, commodities, art, credit, and correspondence. In some nations, the privileges of the commons increased by this increase of property. In most nations, the kings, finding arms to be dropped by the barons, who could no longer endure their former rude manner of life, established standing armies and mastered the liberties of the kingdom. But in all places the condi- tion of the people, from the depression of the petty tyrants, by whom they had formerly been oppressed rather than governed, received great improvement, and they acquired, if not entire liberty, at least the most considerable advan- tages of it. And as the general course of events thus tended to depress the nobles and exalt the people, Henry, who also embraced that policy, has, perhaps, acquired more praise than his institu- tions, strictly speaking, seem of them- selves to deserve on account of any profound wisdom attending them.' (Humes England, cap. xxvi.) Like his father, Henry VIII. was dis- posed to promote the interests of com- merce, and some of the measures he took in this view were not ill calculated to effect their object. In 1515 he esta- blished, or rather, perhaps, renewed and extended, the famous guild or cor- poration of the Trinity House at Dept- ford, for the licensing and regulating of pilots, and for the erection and ordering of light-houses, beacons, &c. Similar establishments were soon after founded at Hull and Newcastle. In this in- stance Henry followed the example of Charles V., who, observing the nume- rous shipwrecks in the voyages to the West Indies occasioned by the ignorance of seamen, established at the Casa de Contratacion, in Seville, lectures on na- vigation, and [a pilot major for the ex- amination of other pilots and mariners. Charles also directed treatises on navi- gation to be published for the use of navigators. On the whole, however, there is little reason to think that commerce gained much by the efforts of Henry VIII. for its encouragement; and its increase during his reign ought rather to be ascribed to the gradual development of the national resources, occasioned by the subversion of the feudal system, and the natural growth of opulence, than to the efforts of government to ex- cite the dormant energies of the people. Many of the laws and institutions of Henry were indeed calculated to have a precisely opposite effect. Among others that might be mentioned, the influence of which, had they ben acted upon, must have been exceedingly inju- rious, were statutes restraining the cloth manufacture, in Worcestershire, to the city of Worcester, and four other towns, and prohibiting the manufacture of co- verlets anywhere in the county of York except in the city. The groundless complaints of the city of London against aliens were favourably listened to by the king. Henry even went so far as to affirm in an edict of the star-chamber, printed amongst the statutes, that the foreigners starved the natives, and obliged them from idleness to have re- 12 116 COMMERCE. course to theft murder, and other enor- mities ! To prevent the increase of these imaginary evils, fresh restraints were laid on the employment of foreign artisans, and on the residence of foreign merchants. But, as the philosophical historian has observed, Henry had done better to have encouraged foreign mer- chants and artisans to come over to England ; which might have excited the emulation of the natives, and improved their skill. Henry VIII. may be styled the foun- der of the royal navy of England. He appointed a board of commissioners for its regulation ; erected warehouses for naval stores ; and constructed the dock- yards at Deptford and Woolwich for building and equipping ships of war. Some of Henry's predecessors had a few ships, which they employed some- times in trade, and sometimes in war; but they did not deserve the name of a navy. At his death, however, fifty-three ships belonged to the crown, some of which were of considerable magnitude. The Henry Grace de Dieu was of 1,000 tons ; she carried 19 brass and 103 iron guns, and her crew consisted of 301 mariners, 349 soldiers, and 50 gunners. There was another ship of 700 tons, two of 600, and two of 500 ; the tonnage of the whole fleet being 6,255 tons. The trading ships were also larger and bet- ter built than at any previous period. (Henry's Great Britain, vol. xii., p. 344.) The reign of Henry VIII. is famous for the introduction of several new ma- nufactures, and of many new articles of food and clothing. Among the former, the art of knitting stockings may be mentioned ; for, though Howell states that Henry wore only cloth hose, (His- tory of the World, vol. in., p. 222,) it is certain that knit stockings were then made in England, though probably in very limited quantities and only of wool. Sir Thomas Gresham, the famous mer- chant, presented Edward VI. with a pair of silk stockings received from Spain ; 'and Queen Elizabeth is re- presented as having laid aside the use of cloth hose in the third year of her reign. Lord Herbert affirms, in his history of Henry VIII., that cannon were not made in England till 1535 ; and though the perfect accuracy of this statement has been impeached, there is no doubt that by far the greater num- ber, if not the whole, of those previ- ously made use of, were imported. Soap was not manufactured in London till 1524. The culture of currants, hops, and several other fruits and vegetables, seems to have been, for the first time, introduced into England about this period. The earliest notice of hops in the statute-book occurs in 1552. The introduction of turkies into England dates, it is said, from Henry VIII. (Anderson, vol. i., p. 354.) The prodigal expenditure of Henry VIII., having speedily occasioned the dissipation of the immense treasures left by his father, forced him to resort to many disgraceful expedients for ob- taining supplies, and among others to the degradation of the coin. He carried this vile species of fraud to an extent unknown in any other period of our history ; and the consequences were most pernicious. Coins of full weight were either hoarded or withdrawn from circulation ; and all sorts of produce were withheld from market, so that prices rose to the full extent of the de- gradation, and everything was thrown into extreme confusion. The most vio- lent measures were resorted to for the purpose of counteracting these effects. Farmers were ordered "to bring their grain to market, and to sell it at rea- sonable prices; buying in one market in order to sell in another was prohi- bited under the severest penalties ; and the exportation of all sorts of provisions was forbidden except to Calais. But such arbitrary measures only served to aggravate the evil. ' At length,' says Mr. Martin Folkes, 'it was found by experience that gold and silver had, by the common consent of all people, throughout the civilized parts of the world, acquired certain real and proper values; and that in such a nation as this, not destitute even then of all com- merce with strangers, it was impossible that the arbitrary value set upon pieces of base metal could, for any considera- ble time, supply the want of the silver that used to be contained in the pieces of the same denominations. Whatever names were given to those pieces of base metal, or by whatever authority their imaginary value was supported, the poor people would either not bring their provisions at all to the markets, to exchange them for such money, or would then sell them at much higher rates than before ; as the nominal sums they received for their goods would not now purchase them the same conveni- ences elsewhere, as the same nominal COMMERCE. 117 sums of better money had formerly done. It was, therefore, judged abso- lutely necessary to reform and to amend the coin. The affair was very seriously considered, and the work was under- taken and carried on with so much dili- gence and vigour, that within a few months a reformation of the money was brought about, truly memorable, and no less remarkable than the former abuses of it had been : for the new pieces that were coined before the end of this year 1551, were of more than four times the value of those of the same denominations that had been coined in the former months of the same*.' The reformation of the coin was nearly completed in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, and was per- fected before its close. Moneta in jus- turn valorem restituet, says her histo- rian. Her conduct in this respect has been deservedly eulogized ; and on two memorable occasions", in 1698 and 1819, was appealed to with effect by the advo- cates of sound principles. Though, in their immediate effects, the Reformation, and the destruction of the monasteries, were probably injurious to the lower classes, they have been of the greatest public advantage. The Re- formation broke those trammels by which the human mind had been en- chained for ages, and gave it the impulse which it still retains. The destruction of the monasteries converted into in- dustrious citizens many thousand indi- viduals of both sexes, who, with very few exceptions, lived, under the cloak of religion, in luxurious idleness, de- bauched by every sort of vicious indul- gence. A crowd of fast days and super- stitious observances were at the same time abolished ; and the court of Rome ceased to derive from England a large part of the supplies required to defray its extravagant expenditure. Il is no part of our business to inquire into the motives of Henry in effecting so great a revolution. His measures, how un- worthy soever the principle whence they sprung, were as beneficial as if they had been dictated by the most de- liberate wisdom. A less rough and violent hand might have been inclined to tamper with abuses which the public interest required should be rooted out. Notwithstanding the little encourage- * Table of English Silver Coins, p. 36. ment given by the king and the public, some attempts at discovery, with a view to commerce, were made in the reign of Henry VIII. The grand object at that time, and for several years afterwards, was the discovery of a passage to India, by sailing in a north-westerly direction, that they might thus avoid infringing the rights claimed by the Portuguese. These efforts were prosecuted with much perseverance. Notwithstanding the ill success with which they had been attended, a fresh attempt of this sort was made in 1553, in the reign of Ed- ward VI., in two ships commanded by the famous Sir Hugh Willoughby and Captain Richard Chancellour. These na- vigators carried with them a letter from the king, translated into Latin, Greek, and other languages, addressed to all kings, princes, and persons in authority. This letter, which is preserved in Hakluyt, evinces the most enlightened views as to commerce and discovery ; and is, in all respects, so creditable to our ances- tors, that we shall lay an extract from it before the reader. It begins by set- ting forth the disposition to cultivate the love and friendship of his kind, im- planted by the Almighty in the heart of man, the consequent duty of all, ac- cording to their power, to maintain and augment this desire, and the conduct of the king's ancestors in this respect, which had ever been * to shewe good af- fection to those that came to them from farre countries.' It then proceeds as follows : * And if it be right and equity to shewe such humanities to all men, doubt- less the same ought chiefly to be shewed to merchants, who, wandering about the world, search both the land and the sea, to carry such good and profitable things as are found in these countries to remote regions and king- doms, and again to bring from the same such things as they find there commodious for their own countries: both as well that the people to whom they goe may not be destitute of such commodities as their countries bring not forth to them, as that also they may be partakers of such things whereof they abound. For the God^of heaven and earth, greatly providing for man- kinde, would not that all things should be found in one region, to the end that one should have need of another ; that by this means friendship might be esta- blished among all men, and every one seek to gratifie all. For the establish- 118 COMMERCE. ment and furtherance of which univer- sal araitie, certaine men of our realme, moved hereunto by the said desire, have instituted and taken upon them a voy- age by sea into farre countries, to the intent that, between our people and them, a way may be opened to bring in and carry out marchandises, desiring us to further their enterprises. Who, assenting to their petition, have licensed the right valiant and worthy Sir Hugh "Willoughby, Knight, Sec., according to their desire, to goe to countries, to them heretofore unknown, as well to seek such things as we lacke, as also to carry to them, from our regions, such things as they lacke. So that hereby not only commoditie may ensue both to them and us, but also an indissolu- ble and perpetual league and friend- ship, &c. We, therefore, desire you, kings and princes, and all others to whom there is any power on earth, to permit, unto these our servants, free passage by your regions and dominions ; for they shall not touch any thing of yours unwilling unto you. Consider you that they also are men. If, there- fore, they shall stand in neede of any- thing, we desire you of all humanitie, and for the nobilitie which is in you, to aide and help them with such things as they lacke. Shewe yourselves to- wards them, as you would that we and our subjects should shewe themselves towards your servants, if at anie time they shall pass by our regions.' (Hak- luyt t yQ\. in., p. 231.) This expedition was partly successful, and partly unsuccessful. The ships having parted company in a storm, Wil- loughby took refuge in a harbour in Russian Lapland, where, having at- tempted to winter, he, and all his com- panions, perished of cold. Chancellour was more fortunate. Having entered the White Sea, he wintered in safety at Archangel, and, though the first stranger who had visited their port-, was kindly treated by the inhabitants. Here Chancellour learned that Archangel formed part of the dominions of the Grand Duke or Czar of Muscovy, who resided at Moscow, 1200 miles distant. Undismayed by the difficulty and dan- ger of the journey, Chancellour set out for Moscow, where he arrived in safety. He was hospitably received by the Czar Ivan Vassilovitch ; who, per* ceiving the advantages that might ac- crue to his subjects from an intercourse with the states of Western Europe, gave Chancellour a letter to the King of England, in which he invited his sub- jects to trade with his dominions, and gave them ample assurances of favour and protection. In consequence, an ac- tive and advantageous intercourse was immediately established with Archangel ; which continued, till the foundation of Petersburg!!, to be the only port in the Russian dominions frequented by foreigners. In all barbarous and semi-civilized countries dealers in corn are the objects of popular indignation. The people sup- pose that they would obtain this great article of provision at a lower price were they to buy it directly from the pro- ducers. The profits of the middleman, or dealer, seem to be wholly taken out of their pockets. They do not reflect that if he were driven from the trade, the farmer would be obliged, with much inconvenience to himself, to perform the duties that he performs ; to carry his corn to distant markets, and to sell it in such small quantities as might suit the demands of his customers. It would obviously be impossible for him to do this without having additional capital at his command, and without his attention being constantly diverted from the culture of his farm. But the mere disposal of the crop, to the consumers is but the smallest part of the business of the corn dealers. They estimate and equalize the con- sumption with the supply. If the corn merchants, who endeavour to inform themselves correctly as to such matters, ascertain that the crop of any given sea- son is deficient, they immediately raise its price, so that the whole nation is placed as it were upon short allowance ; improvident consumption is checked; and the supply that might otherwise have been exhausted in ten months is distributed equally over the twelve. Dealers in corn also buy up a portion of the produce of a plentiful year, and reserve it as a stock to be disposed of in the first scarcity that occurs ; so that they not only equalize the supply of each- particular season, but contribute to equalize the supplies of different sea- sons. Their operations are thus advan- tageous alike to the consumers and the producers. They protect the former from famine, and husband for them those resources they could not have so advantageously husbanded for them- selves, and they protect the latter from COMMERCE, destructive oscillations of price. In fact, if there be one class of dealers more deserving; of encouragement and pro- tection than another, that class consists of those who deal in corn. But, for the reasons already stated, our ancestors, instead of encouraging the trade of the corn dealers, endea- voured to annihilate it altogether. By the statute 5 and 6 Edward VI. cap. 14, it was enacted, ' That whosoever shall buy any corn or grain with intent to sell it again, shall be reputed an unlawful engrosser ; and shall for the first fault suffer two months' imprisonment, and forfeit the value of the corn ; for the second, suffer six months' imprisonment, and forfeit double the value; and for the third, be set in the pillory, and suffer imprisonment, during the king's pleasure, and forfeit all his goods and chattels.' But it was found impossible to dispense entirely with the services of those who were then denominated kidders, or carriers of corn ; no one, however, was allowed to undertake this business without having previously ob- tained a license, ascertaining his quali- fications as a man of probity and fair dealing. In the reign of Elizabeth, the privilege of granting such licenses was confined to the Quarter Sessions. It would be useless to waste the rea- der's time by dwelling on the absurdity of such regulations. .Those familiar with the prices of corn in the ages under review, are aware that the fluctuations exceed anything of which we can now form any idea. Owing to the badness of the roads, and to the difficulties in the way of transporting corn to any con- siderable distance, its prices in places remote from each other often differed considerably* ; and it was almost always exceedingly scarce and dear before har- vest. As society advanced, the more in- telligent portion of the community became aware of the impolicy of the restraints on the corn dealers. The rigour of the act of Edward VI. was, in consequence, modified by several sub- sequent statutes, principally enacted during the reisn of the Stuarts. The statutory restrictions on the internal corn trade were not, however, entirely repealed till 1772. And, such is the * In fact such transportation was once prohi- bited. This appears from a retaliation established in 1440, by which commissioners of the customs were authorised to grant licenses for the carrying of corn from one county to another. influence of prejudice, that in 1800 an individual of the name of Rusby was indicted at common law, and convicted of the imaginary crime of ngrating, that is, of selling a quantity of corn in the same market in which he had pur- chased it, at an advance of Is. a quar- ter ! So slow is the progress of sound philosophy even among those whose education and station ought to set them above vulgar delusions. Mary, who espoused Philip II. of Spain, was quite as bigoted as her hus- band, to whose wishes she gave the rea- diest assent. She was, consequently, induced, not only by deference to the Pope s bull, but out of respect to Philip, to discountenance all plans of commerce or discovery that might have brought the English into collision with the Spa- nish, by exploring or settling any part of the New World. It is, however, pretty certain that the study of the Spa- nish language, which became fashion- able at court after the marriage of Philip, and the facility which was thus afforded of reading Spanish works on geography and navigation, as well as the information obtained from the Spaniards who accompanied Philip to England, as to their possessions in the New World, and the policy followed in respect to them, excited the desire of the English to acquire some share in such valuable possessions ; at the same time that it furnished them with information that was of material service in their ex- peditions during the following reign. At length, under the vigorous sway of Elizabeth, the taste of the nation for naval enterprise was fully awakened. The attempt at invasion made by Spain, though it failed, opened the eyes of all classes to the importance of having a powerful fleet; at the same time that the enthusiasm inspired by the success which attended the English in their struggle with the armada, and in their expeditions under Drake, Raleigh, Haw- kins, Frobisher, Norris, Borroughs, &c., infused a spirit of daring and bold- ness into our navigators, that rendered them equal to the most arduous under- takings. The attempts that were made to establish colonies in America, in the reign of Elizabeth, were not, however, successful. But in the early part of the reign of her successor, James I., the foundations were laid of the English empire in America ; the unprecedented advance of which had a wonderful influ- 120 COMMERCE. ence in promoting the commerce and navigation of the mother-country. The opening of the trade to India, and the formation of the East India Com- pany, events of the utmost importance in the commercial history of the empire, illustrate the reign of Elizabeth. Captain Stephens, who performed the voyage in 1582, was the first Englishman who sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage of Sir Francis Drake contributed to make the English better acquainted with the newly-opened route to India. But the voyage of the celebrated Mr. Thomas Cavendish was, in the latter respect, the most important. Cavendish sailed from England in a lit- tle squadron, fitted out at his own ex- pense, in July, 1586, and having ex- plored the greater part of the Indian Ocean as far as the Philippine Islands, and carefully observed the most impor- tant characteristic features of the peo- ple and countries which he visited, re- turned to England, after a prosperous navigation, in September, 1588. Per- haps, however, nothing contributed so much to inspire the English with a de- sire to embark in the Indian trade, as the captures that were made at this time from the Spaniards. A Portuguese East India ship or carrack, captured by Sir Francis Dr^ke, during his expedition to the coast of Spain, inflamed the cu- pidity of the merchants by the richness of her cargo, at the same time that the papers found on board gave specific in- formation respecting the traffic in which she had been engaged. A still more important capture of the same sort was made in 1593. An armament fitted out for the East Indies by Sir Walter Ra- leigh, and commanded by Sir John Borroughs, fell in, near the Azores, with the largest of the Portuguese carracks, a ship of 1,600 tons burden, carrying 700 men and 36 brass cannon, and after an obstinate conflict carried her to Dartmouth. She was the largest ves- sel that had been seen in England, and her cargo, consisting of gold, spices, calicoes, silks, pearls, drugs, porcelain, ivory, &c., excited the ardour of the English to engage in so opulent a com- merce. In consequence of these and other concurrent causes, an association was formed in London, in 1599, for prose- cuting the trade to India. The adven- turers applied to the Queen for a char- ter of incorporation, and also for power to exclude all other English subjects who had not obtained a license from them, from carrying on any species of traffic beyond the Cape of Good Hope or the Straits of Magellan. As exclusive com- panies were then very generally looked upon as the best instruments for prose- cuting most branches of commerce and industry, the adventurers seem to have had little difficulty in obtaining their char- ter, which was dated the 31st Dec. 1600 : the corporation was entitled ' The Gover- nor and Company of Merchants in Lon- don trading to the East Indies.' The first governor (Thomas Smythe, Esq.) and twenty-four directors were nominated in the charter; but power was given to the company to elect a deputy-governor, and in future to elect their governor and directors, and such other office-bearers as they might think fit to appoint. They were empowered to make bye-laws ; to inflict punishments, either corporal or pecuniary, provided such punishments were in accordance with the laws of England : to export all sorts of goods free of duty for four years ; and to ex- port foreign coin or bullion to the amount of 30,000/. a year, 6,000/. of the same being previously coined at the mint; but they were obliged to import within six months after the completion of every voyage, except the first, as much silver, gold, and foreign coin, as they exported. The duration of the charter was limited to fifteen years ; but with and under the con- dition that, if it were not found for the public advantage, it might be cancelled at any time upon two years' notice being given. Such was the origin of the British East India Company, the most celebrated commercial association either of ancient or modern times, and which has now extended its sway over the whole of the Mogul empire. The trade from England to Africa commenced in 1526, when some mer- chants of Bristol sent thither cloth, soap, and a few other articles in Spanish ships. Within a short period, however, English ships traded direct to that con- tinent, whence they brought ivory, gold dust, druo-s, &c. ; but the trade was of trifling importance till slaves began to be carried from the west coast of Africa to the West Indies. The famous Sir John Hawkins is said to be the first Englishman who engaged in this infa- mous traffic. Having fitted out a small squadron in 1562, he sailed for the coast of Guinea, where he procured a cargo of slaves, which he carried to St, Domingo, COMMERCE. 121 where he disposed of them to advan- tage. The first adventure seems to have excited little attention, but. it was speedily followed by others ; and as the trade increased, it was regarded as of great national importance. It was not till a comparatively recent period that the public became alive to its guilt and horrors. There is scarcely, indeed, a branch of foreign commerce carried on at present, with the exception of that to China, that was not prosecuted, to a greater or less extent, in the reign of Elizabeth. The number of vessels was greatly increased. The flag of England floated on every sea, and everywhere commanded respect. Many branches of manufacture were introduced, while those already esta- blished received large augmentations. The very well-informed Mr. John Smith estimates the value of the woollen goods annually exported from England to the Low Countries, Scotland, and the north of Europe, &c., in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, at 1,200,000/. or 1,300, OOO/. ; and this immense expor- tation of the manufactured article is exclusive of a considerable exportation of raw wool, which might be freely ex- ported.* Many circumstances conspired to produce this development of the na- tional resources. The old plan of pay- ing rents by services was well nigh re- linquished ; the public tranquillity was rarely interrupted; and a taste for im- proved accommodations was diffused throughout all classes. In addition to these favourable circumstances, the per- secutions in the Low Countries occa- sioned the emigration of several thou- sands of the most industrious citizens, many of whom came to England, and materially promoted the improvement of our manufactures. There were some circumstances, how- ever, the tendency of which was far less favourable. Of these the most injurious was the practice of giving patents to particular individuals or associations, authorising them to carry on some particular branch of trade or in- dustry to the exclusion of others. Such monopolies were granted in im- mense numbers by the Queen to her favourites, who sold the patents to speculators, who raised the mo- nopolized articles to whatever price they pleased, to the extreme injury of the public. The number and import- ance of the commodities that were thus * Memoirs of Wool, vol. ii. p. 106. assigned are quite astonishing. Cur- rants, salt, iron, powder, cards, calf- skins, fells, pouldaries, ox-shin bones, train oil, lists of cloth, potashes, ani- seed, vinegar, sea-coal, steel, aqua vitae, brushes, pots, bottles, saltpetre, lead, accidences, oil, calamint, stone, glasses, paper, starch, tin, sulphur, new drapery, dried pilchards, with the trade in Spanish wools, are but a part of the commodities and businesses that were made over to monopolists. When this list was read in the House of Commons, a member cried out, 7* not bread in the number f Bread / said every one with astonishment. Yes, 1 assure you, replied he, if affairs go on at this rate we shall have bread reduced to a monopoly before next Parliament. The monopolists were so exorbitant in their demands, that in some places they raised the price of salt from Is. 4d. a bushel to 1 4*. and 1 5*. These high pro- fits naturally produced interlopers and emigrants ; and in order to secure their rights against encroachments, the pa- tentees were armed with such high and arbitrary powers from the Council, that they were able to oppress the people at pleasure, and to exact money from such as they thought proper to accuse of interfering with their patents. The patentees of saltpetre, having the power of entering into every house, and of committing what havoc they pleased in stables, cellars, or wherever they suspected saltpetre might be gathered, commonly extorted money from those who desired to free themselves from this damage or trouble. And while domestic industry was thus restrained and fettered, most branches of foreign trade were surrendered to exclusive companies, who carried them on for their own advantage merely, without any regard to the interests of the public. (Hume's England, cap. xliv.) Such scandalous abuses became at length quite intolerable ; and notwith- standing the deference that was then en- tertained for the royal prerogative, a Bill was introduced for abolishing all mono- polies. It was zealously opposed by the courtiers; but the queen, who perceived how odious her grants were become, had the good sense to give way ; and volun- tarily cancelled those that were most oppressive. The evil, however, was not wholly abated till near the close of the following reign, when the famous statute of the 21st Jac. I. cap. 3. was passed. This statute declares that all monopolies, grants, and letters-patent, for 122 COMMERCE. the sole supplying, selling, and making of goods and manufactures, shall be null and void. It excepts patents for fourteen years, for the sole working or making of any new manufacture within the realm, to the true and first inventors of such manufactures, provided they be not contrary to law or mischievous to the state. It also excepts grants by act of parliament to any corporation, com- pany, or society for the enlargement of trade, and letters-patent concerning the making of gunpowder and a few other articles. With the exception of the restraints imposed by the charters of incorporations, this act effectually se- cured the freedom of industry in Great Britain, and has done more, perhaps, to excite a spirit of industry, and to acce- lerate the progress of wealth, than any other in the statute-book. Among other means for promoting and facilitating commerce and naviga- tion, that were either discovered or im- proved during the reign of Elizabeth, may be mentioned the' act of 1601, (43rd Eliz. cap. 12,) with respect to ma- rine assurance. The preamble sets its utility in the clearest point of view. * Whereas it hath been, time out of mind, an usage among merchants, both of this realm and of foreign nations, when they make any great adventure, (espe- cially into remote parts,) to give some consideration of money to other persons, (which commonly are in no small num- ber,) to have from them assurance made of their goods, merchandises, ships, and things adventured, or some part thereof, at such rates and in such sort as the parties assurers and the parties assured can agree ; which course of dealing is commonly termed a policy of assurance; by means of which it cometh to pass, upon the loss or perishing of any ship, there followeth, not the undoing of any man, but the loss lighteth rather easily upon many than heavily upon few, and rather upon them that adventure not than upon those that adventure ; where- by all merchants, especially the younger sort, are allured to venture more wil- lingly and more freely.' "According to Malynes, (LexMercat. p. 1 05,) insurance was first practised amongst us by the Lombards, and had, most probably, been introduced some time about the middle of the sixteenth century. It appears from the statute that it had originally been usual to refer all disputes that arose with respect to assurances, to the decision of * grave and discreet ' merchants, ap- pointed by the Lord Mayor, But abuses having arisen out of this practice, the statute authorized the Lord Chancellor to appoint a commission for the trial of insurance cases ; and in the reign of Charles II. the powers of the commis- sioners were enlarged. But this court soon after fell into disuse ; and, what is singular, no trace of its proceedings can now be discovered. There are no means of forming any accurate account of the extent of the foreign trade of England at the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; but some in- teresting details with respect to it have been preserved in a tract of J. Wheeler, secretary to the Merchant Adventurers, printed at Middleburg in 1601. The Steel-yard and Hanseatic Associations having been previously abolished, the Merchant Adventurers engrossed, at the period referred to, most part of the trade to other countries. Their dealings are thus described by their secretary : * There is sent out yearly by the afore- said company, at least 60,000 white cloths, (besides coloured cloths of all sorts, kerseys, short and long bayz, cottons, Northern dozens ; the just va- lue of these 60,000 white cloths cannot well be calculated or set down, but in my opinion they are not worth less than G00,000l. sterling. * The coloured cloths of all sorts, bayz, kerseys, &c., I reckon at the number of 40,000 at least; and they are worth 400,000/. sterling. ' There goeth also out of England, besides their woollen cloths, into the Low Countries, wool, woolfels,lead, tin, saffron, coney-skins, leather, tallow, alabaster, stones, corn, beer, and divers other things, amounting unto great sums of money. * We have next to show," what the Mer- chant Adventurers buy, for return, of strange nations and people frequenting their mart towns and bringing their country commodities thither. ' Of the Dutch and German merchants they buy Rhenish wine, fustians, copper, steel, hemp, onion seed, copper and iron ware, lattice, kettles and pans, linen cloth, harness, saltpetre, gunpowder, all things made at Nuremberg; and, in fine, there is no kind of wares that Ger- many yieldeth, but generally the Mer- chant Adventurers buy as much or more thereof as any other nation. \Qf the Italians they buy all kinds of silk wares, velvets wrought and un- COMMERCE. 123 wrought taffitas, satins, damasks, sars- nets, Milan fustians, cloth of gold and silver, programs, camlets, satin and sewing silk, organzine, orsoy, and all other kind of wares either made or to be had in Italy. ' Of the Easterlings they buy flax, hemp, wax, pitch, tar, wainscot, deal boards, oars, corn, furs, cables and cable- yarn, tallow, ropes, masts for ships, soap ashes, estridge wool, and almost whatsoever is made or grown in the east countries. * Of the Portuguese they buy all kinds of spices and drugs. ' With the Spaniards and French they have not much to do, by reason that other English merchants have had a great trade into France and Spain, and so serve England directly from thence with the commodities of those countries. 'Of the Low Country merchants, or Netherlanders, they buy all kinds of manufactures and handiwork not made in England ; tapestry, buckram, white thread, inkle, linen cloth of all sorts, cambrics, lawns, madder ; and an infinite number of other things, too long to rehearse. I have heard it credibly re- ported, that all the commodities that come out of all other countries besides England, were not wont to set so many people at work in the Low Countries as the commodities which came, out of England only did ; neither that any other two of the greatest nations that fre- quented the said Low Countries for trade, buy or carry out so much goods in value as the Merchant Adventurers.' (See pp. 25 28, original edition. We have modernized the spelling, but made no other alteration.) Wheeler gives no data by which to judge of the total value of the exports and imports ; but in an official account given by Misselden, in his Circle of Com- merce, (p. 121,) published in 1623, the total value of the exports in 1612 is set down at 2,487,435/., and that of the im- ports at 2,141,1511.; and this, if accu- rate, may be considered as not differing materially from their value in 1601. No mention is made in the account given by Wheeler of sugar, which, how- ever, had been imported, though in small quantities, long previously. Tobacco had barely been introduced into England in the reign of Elizabeth ; tea was not heard ' of till hall' a century afterwards ; and the foundations of the cotton ma- nufacture had not been laid. The sti- mulus given by the desire to possess these and other articles, and the addi- tional scope afforded for the exercise of talent and enterprise in the new chan- nels of employment and adventure that were now opened, had a most astonish- ing influence. The progress of improve- ment was somewhat retarded by the civil war during the reign of Charles IT. ; but the retardation was only temporary; and it has continued ever since rapidly to advance. At this moment the manu- factures and commerce of Great Britain have attained to an unrivalled degree of improvement, and to an extent that in the earlier ages would not have been deemed possible. Nor is there any reason to suppose that they have reached their zenith. On the contrary, the greater freedom of industry we now enjoy, the greater amount of our capital, and the greater skill and intelligence of our merchants and artificers, will (supposing the public tranquillity is preserved) un- doubtedly lead to still more astonishing displays of ingenuity and invention. The coasting trade of England was, at an early period, very considerable ; and it has continued to increase even more rapidly than .the population and wealth of the country. Its great amount is principally to be ascribed to the ready access afforded by the Sea to most considerable places in Great Bri- tain and Ireland, and the extraordinary facility of conveyance that is thereby afforded. The general use of coal as an article of fuel in modern times, and the circumstance of London and the southern counties being almost wholly supplied from the north, has occasioned the employment of a very large number of ships and seamen. The first men- tion of coal in England is believed to occur in a charter of Henry III. granting licence to the burgesses of Newcastle to dig for it. In 1281 New- castle is said to have had a consider- able trade in this article. About the end of this century, or the beginning of the fourteenth, coals began to be im- ported into London, being at first used only by smiths, brewers, dyers, soap- boilers, &c. ; this innovation was, how- ever, loudly complained of. A notion got abroad, that the smoke was highly injurious to the public health ; and in 1316 the Commons petitioned Edward I. to prohibit the burning of coal, on the ground of its being an intolerable nuisance. His Majesty issued a pro- clamation conformable to the prayer of the petition ; but it being but little at- 124 COMMERCE. tended to, recourse was had to more vigorous measures; a commission of oyer and (erminer being issued out, with instructions to inquire as to all who burned sea-coal within the city, or parts adjoining, to punish them for the first offence by * pecuniary mulcts,' and upon a second offence, to demolish their furnaces, and to provide for the strict observance of the proclamation in all time to come. But notwithstanding the efforts that were thus made to prohibit the use of coal, and the prejudice that was long en- tertained against it, it continued progres- sively to gain ground. This was partly, no doubt, owing to experience having shown that coal smoke had not the noxious influence ascribed to it, but far more to the superior excellence of coal as an article of fuel, and the growing scarcity, and consequent high price of limber. In the reign of Charles I., the use of coal became universal in London, where it has ever since been used, to the exclusion of all other articles of fuel. At the Restoration, the quantity imported was supposed to amount to about 200,000 chaldrons. In 1670, the imports had increased to 270,000 chaldrons. At the Revolution they amounted to about 300,000 chaldrons, and have since gone on increasing with the growing magnitude of the city; being, in 1 750, about 500,000 chaldrons ; in 1800, about 900,000 chaldrons; and at present, about 1,600,000 chaldrons.* It may be worth while to remark, that coal is not the only article now reckoned of the highest utility, the introduction of which into general use has been violently opposed. Hops, among many others, were in this predicament. When they first began to be employed in the manufacture of beer, in the reign of Henry VIII., they were objected to on the ground that they would in- jure its taste and its quality. In the ' Improver Improved,' of Walter Blithe, originally published in 1649, (3rd edit., p. 240,) there is the following striking paragraph: "Hops are now grown to 1 be a national commodity : but it was not many years since the famous city of London petitioned Parliament against two nuisances ; and these were Newcastle coals, in regard to their stench, &c. ; and hops, in re- gard they would spoyl the taste of * Campbell's Political Survey of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 30. Edington on the Coal Trade, p. 41, &c. drink, and endanger the people. And had the Parliament been no wiser than they, we had been in a measure pined, and in a great measure starved, which is just answerable to the principles of those men who cry down all devices, or ingenious discoveries as projects, and thereby stifle and choak improve- ments." The prejudice against taking interest for a loan of money, which appears to have principally originated in a mis- taken interpretation of a text in the Jewish law (Deut. chap, xxiii. v. 20), exercised a powerful influence in the middle ages. In England, as in most other countries, Christians were abso- lutely prohibited, by the laws both of the church and state, from bargaining for interest ; but as Jews, according to the Mosaic law, were allowed to lend at interest to a stranger, its exaction by them was at first connived at, and sub- sequently authorised by law : the same privilege being afterwards extended to the Italian or Lombard merchants. In consequence of this exemption, many Jews early settled in England, and engrossed a large share of the com- merce of the kingdom. Such, however, was the contempt in which they were held, that they and their families were regarded as the slaves of the crown, by whom they were not {infrequently plun- dered, under the miserable pretence of punishing them for their ' hellish extor- tions.' To such an extent, indeed, were these oppressive practices carried, that a particular exchequer, called the Ex- chequer of the Jews, was established for receiving the sums extorted from them in fines, customs, forfeitures, tallages, Sec.* In consequence they were obliged to indemnify themselves by charging an enormous interest ; so that at nearly the same time that the republic of Genoa, where sounder principles prevailed, was paying from 7 to 10 per cent, interest on loans, and that bills were discounted in Barcelona at 1 per cent., we are told by Matthew Paris that the debtor in England paid 10 per cent, every two months! This, indeed, was quite im- possible as a general practice; but it may not be far from the rate charged on the few loans that were then madet- The disorders occasioned by this ruin- ous interference on the part of govern- ment, at length became so serious that, * Madox's History of Exchequer, p. 150. t Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 402. COMMERCE. 125 notwithstanding the powerful prejudice to the contrary, a statute was passed in 1646, (37th Hen. VIII. cap. 7,) legal- izing the taking of interest to the extent of ten per cent, per annum ; and this be- cause, as is recited in the words of the act, the statutes 'prohibiting interest altogether have so little force that little or no punishment hath ensued to the offenders.' In the reign of Edward the VI. the horror against taking interest seems to have revived in full force ; for in 1552 the taking of any interest was again prohibited ' as a vice most odious and detestable,' and 'contrary to the word of God.' But in despite of this denunciation, the ordinary rate of in- terest, instead of being reduced imme- diately, rose to 14 per cent.; and con- tinued at this rate, until 1571, when an act was passed (13th Eliz. cap. 8), re- pealing the act of Edward VI. and reviving the act of Henry VIII., allow- ing 10 per cent, interest. In the pre- amble to this act, it is stated 'that the prohibiting act of Edward VI. had not done so much good as was hoped for ; but that rather the vice of usury hath much more exceedingly abounded, to the utter undoing of many gentlemen, merchants, occupiers, and others, to the importable hurt of the commonwealth.' This salutary statute was opposed, even by those who, it might have been ex- pected, would have been among the first to emancipate themselves from the pre- judices of the age, with all the violence of ignorant superstition. Dr. John Wilson, a man famous in his day, and celebrated for the extent and solidity of his learning, stated in the House of Commons that ' it was not the amount of the interest taken that constituted the crime, but that, all lending for any gain, be it ever so little, was wickedness be- fore God and man, and a damnable deed in itself, and that there was no mean in this vice any more than in murder or theft!' In order to quiet the con- sciences of the bench of bishops, a clause was inserted, declaring all usury to have been forbidden by the law of God, and to be in its nature sin- ful and detestable ! When first enacted this statute was limited to a period of five years, but ' forasmuch as it was by proof and experience found to be very necessary and profitable for the commonwealth of this realm,' it was in the same reign made perpetual. (39th Eliz. cap. 18.) . In the 2 1st of James I. the legal rate of interest was reduced to 8 per cent, by an act to continue for seven years only, but which was made perpetual in the succeeding reign (3d Car. I. cap. 4.) During the Commonwealth the legal rate of interest was reduced to 6 per cent., a reduction which was soon after confirmed by the act of 12th Car. II. And finally, in the reign of Queen Anne, a statute (12th Anne, cap. 16) was framed, reducing the rate of interest to 5 per cent., at which it now stands. No complaint was so prevalent during the reigns of the princes of the house of Tudor, as that of the increase of sheep- farming, and the decay of tillage and population. Soon after the accession of Henry VII. it was enacted, in order to arrest the progress of the supposed evil, that the owner of every house let to farm, with twenty acres of land in tillage, should be obliged under penalty of the king's incurring a moiety of the pro- fits of such lands, to keep up such houses and buildings upon them as were required for keeping them in tillage. This law was commended by Sir Thomas More and Lord Bacon, a striking proof, if any such were required, how little the principles of public economy were then understood. Statutes to the same effect were passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth. They appear, however, to have had little influence. The current of circumstances could not be controlled ; and lands continued to be enclosed and consolidated into larger farms, notwithstanding the denunciations of the clergy, the lamentations of patriots, and the prohibitions of the legislature. Many attempts have been made, but seldom with much success, to explain the circumstances that led to this change in the mode of occupying land, and in the constitution of society. In point of fact, however, it^was really nothing more than the necessary result of the breaking up of the feudal system. The modes in which the nobles could display their magnificence being no longer the same, money and not services came to be in demand. The foundations of the feudal system had been shaken in the reign of Edward IV., and most part of it was thrown down in that of Henry VII. The suppression of the practice of giving liveries, and of keeping large bodies of retainers constantly at command, took from the barons the principal motive that had induced them to subdivide 126 COMMERCE. their estates. Instead of endeavouring to excel each other in the number and boldness of their retainers, their com- petition was diverted into less dangerous channels in vying with each other in the sumptuousness of their houses and tables, and the splendour of their equi- pages. The rude magnificence in which they formerly lived needed, with the exception of supplies of wine and a few other articles, little that was not pro- duced at home. But this simplicity no longer sufficed. The products of foreign countries became more and more the objects of desire. To acquire the means of supporting this increased expense, the landlords began to consolidate their properties, and to turn them to the best account ; and as woollen-manufactures and wool were the only great articles produced in the country that met with a ready and advantageous sale abroad, the increasing demand for foreign com- modities led to a corresponding increase in the demand for woollens and wool for exportation, and the consequent exten- sion of the sheep husbandry. Had there been any other native commodity, that would have answered better as an article for sending abroad, it would have been raised in preference. But most of our home manufactures for exportation grew up by slow degrees ; and during the reign of the Tudors woollen goods and raw materials were almost the only means of traffic. Hence the extension of sheep-farming so much complained of, and the impotence of all attempts to counteract it; and hence also the decline of that system, when the country began to be more copiously supplied with other exportable articles. So inconsequential was the legisla- ture in its proceedings during the reign of the Tudors, that at the very period it was passing acts prohibiting the ex- tension of tillage, and limiting the size of farms and the number of sheep an individual might keep, (25 Hen. VIII. cap. 15, &e.,) laws were actually enact- ed to prevent the slaughter of calves, and to increase the breed of neat cattle ! (21 Hen. VIII. cap. 8, &c.) The ex- portation of corn was also "prohibited, except when its price was ruinously low. This was evidently to destroy with the one hand what was raised up with the other. Wool was produced in pre- ference to corn because it might be manufactured and exported, and was found, principally on that account, to be most proiitable. Had the free ex- portation of corn been allowed, its value relatively to wool would have risen, and the advantage on the side of the former would have been reduced ; but by pre- venting its exportation the market was glutted with corn, and the unnatural depression of its value prevented the statutes for promoting its cultivation from having any efieot. The increased price of corn towards the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, and the greater freedom of exportation that was then allowed, gave the first effectual encou- ragement to tillage. But we need not wonder at the contradictory policy of our ancestors. Even now it is far from being universally acknowledged that the self-interest of the producers will always lead them to employ themselves in the mode that is most advantageous ; and that all legislative enactments, intended to force capital and industry into chan- nels in which they would not naturally flow, are either useless or pernicious. The first laws and regulations as to the support of the poor were enacted under the princes of the Tudor line. No legislative notice seems to have been taken of the poor till 1376 ; and their existence as a separate class was not recognized previously to the four- teenth century. The truth is, how pa- radoxical soever the assertion may at first appear, that we owe the origin of the poor to the overthrow of the feudal sys- tem, and the establishment of liberty and independence. For several centu- ries after the conquest, the mass of the inhabitants of England were in a state of predial slavery. They could not leave the lands to which they were attached ; they were the property of their owners, who, though they were prohibited from killing them, might beat them with im- punity. During this state of society, the poor, in the modern acceptation of the term, were necessarily unknown ; for, being slaves, they could look to none but their lords for support. But after towns began to be enfran- chised, and to acquire privileges, and manufactures were established, a class of independent labourers was formed ; the maimed, impotent, and unemployed portion of which, having no one on whom they could foil back, became a burden on the public, and were designated the poor. The sudden breaking up of the feudal system under Henry VII. , and the practice then so generally followed by the lords of sub- COMMERCE. 127 stituting money-rents in the place of services, and of dismissing their re- tainers, added greatly to the numbers of the poor ; these were still farther aug- mented in the reign of Henry VIII. by the dissolution of the monasteries, which had been pretty generally in the habit of contributing largely to the support of the dependent portion of the com- munity. Some idea may be formed of the influence of this sudden change in the condition of society from an act of Henry VIII., (3 Hen. VIII. cap. 15,) in which it is stated that 60,000 persons were then imprisoned for debts and crimes ! The necessity of endeavouring, if possible, to put a stop to such disorders, led, in the reigns of Henry VII. and his successors, to different legislative mea- sures with respect to the poor. At first, an attempt was made to provide for their wants by voluntary contributions ; but this having failed, a compulsory pro- vision was resorted to, which was per- fected and completed by the famous act of the 43d of Elizabeth, which con- tinues, to this day, the foundation of the entire fabric of the poor-laws. This is not the place to enter into any de- tailed examination as to the policy of this system. But it appears to us, (that is, to the writer of this article, who alone is responsible for this opinion,) after allowing liberally for its defects, to have been, on the whole, singularly advan- tageous. It improved the character of the poor by giving them a security against want; at the same time that it prompted the landlords, and other persons of influence, from a regard to their own interests, to take mea- sures for checking the growth of cot- tages, the subdivision of farms, and the too rapid increase of the labouring class. Its influence on manufactures and commerce has, we think, been most salutary. By providing a resource for the poor in periods of national distress, or when the usual channels of employ- ment were obstructed, it has preserved the public tranquillity unimpaired ; a condition indispensable to the full de- velopment of the national resources, and to the continued growth of capital. We must here close these brief and desultory notices of the rise of commerce and industry in England, and of their progress down to the accession of the house of Stuart. The foundation of the colonies in America and the West Indies, and the opening of the trade to India, gave a wonderful stimulus to industry, and excited a spirit of bold and daring enterprise, which was further promoted by various circumstances, some of which, though less striking, were not, perhaps, less powerful. But as any attempt to trace the progress of commerce in England since 1600 would require an amplitude of detail quite in- consistent with the objects and limits of the present treatise, it must be deferred to some other opportunity. The reader will observe, that we have passed very cursorily over the important subjects of the corn trade and the co- lonies. This was not done through inadvertence, but intentionally. The object of this treatise was to unfold principles applicable to all sorts of commercial transactions, without en- tering into discussions relative only to single branches. Both the subjects now alluded to are of such interest and importance, and involve so many dis- tinctive and peculiar' details, that each would require for its proper discussion a treatise not much less than this. We flatter ourselves that the principles ac- cording to which the trade in corn, and the intercourse with colonial posses- sions ought to be conducted, will be found sufficiently explained in these pages. But those who wish to go farther, who desire to be informed as to the peculiar regulations under which the corn and colony trades have been placed, and the reasonings of those by whom these regulations have been impugned and defended, must resort to publications treating exclusively of such subjects. We intended at one time to have added to this treatise tables of the principal coins, weights and measures made use of in this and other countries ; but, on reflection, we considered it better that these should be collected in a separate treatise; not only because adequate space would thus be found for the proper treatment of the subject, but that any individual might have it in his power to obtain Tables of great practical utility, without their being tacked to anything else. We cannot better conclude this trea- tise than in the words of Mr. Stevenson : ' What a picture does modern com- merce present of the boundless desires of man, and of the advancement he makes in intellect, knowledge, and power, when stimulated by these de- 128 COMMERCE. sires ! Things familiar to use cease to attract our surprise and investigation ; otherwise we should be struck with the fact, that the lowest and poorest pea- sant's breakfast-table is supplied from countries lying in the remotest parts of the world, of which Greece and Rome, in the plenitude of their power and knowledge, were totally ignorant. But the benefits which mankind derives from commerce are not confined to the ac- quisition of a greater share and variety of the comforts, luxuries, or even the necessaries of life. Commerce has repaid the benefits it has received from geography : it has opened new sources of industry ; of this the cotton manu- factures of Great Britain are a signal illustration and proof: it has contri- buted to preserve the health of the human race, by the introduction of the most valuable drugs employed in me- dicine. It has removed ignorance and national prejudices, and tended most materially to the diffusion of political and religious knowledge. The natural philosopher knows, that whatever affects, in the smallest degree, the re- motest body in the universe, acts, though to us in an imperceptible manner, on every other body. So commerce acts ; but its action is not momentary ; its impulses, once begun, continue with augmented force. And it appears to us no absurd or extravagant expecta- tion, that, through its means, either directly, or by enlarging the views and desires of man, the civilization, know- ledge, freedom and happiness of Europe will ultimately be spread over the whole globe.' J. R. M'CULLOCH. L1BHAHY ' UNIVERSITY OF VLIFORNIA. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AlKtNITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. APft 10 1940 : in E IM\ ILL r (F) 3s) LD 21-100t-7,'39(402s X* //P/067 A. -7 - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY