Holland did all the fishing.

Parliament failed to make

or trade.

Zutphen, Deventer, Campen, Swoll, &c., about 7000 lasts of herrings, at £20. per last, £140,000.

"And we none at all.

"To Guelderland, Artois, Hainault, Brabant, Flanders, Antwerp, and up the Scheldt, all over the Archduke's countries, 8000 and 9000 lasts, at £18. per last, £162,000.

"And we none.

"The Hollanders and others carried, of all sorts of herrings, to Roan alone, in one year, (besides all other parts of France), 5000 lasts, £100,000.

"And we not 100 lasts."

The sum of it is, that to all these places the fishermen, chiefly of Holland, carried £1,759,000. worth of fish annually, and we carried but £2480. worth. But this was not the worst of the case.

"Over and above these," says Sir Walter, "there is a great quantity of fish vended to the straits. Surely the stream is necessary to be turned to the good of this kingdom, to whose sea-coasts alone God has sent these great blessings and immense riches for us to take; and that any nation should carry away out of this kingdom yearly great masses of money for fish taken in our seas, and sold again by them to us, must needs be a great dishonour to our nation, and hindrance to this realm."

So it seems that neither keeping off foreigners, nor the apeither fishermen pointment of fast days, could make fishermen. The foreigners came as far as they might, into our seas and fished there, and whatever benefit came of the fish eating by law, they had it. Our coast men trusted neither to boat, nor net, nor line, but to Parliament. Parliament was to make their market, to find them customers, and to fix the prices, and it in reality made the fishermen lazy, lubberly, and useless.

Dutch trade and
English.

The rest of our trade was protected too, and from the same pamphlet we learn, to pretty much the same purpose: "The Dutch every where surpassed us, they had as many ships and vessels as eleven kingdoms of Christendom, let England be one."

Their own commodities would not lade a hundred ships, yet they sent annually to the east countries 3000 ships. We but 100. To France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy 2000 ships. We

How the Dutch

none. To Russia they sent thirty or forty. We but three or
four. We had great abundance of native commodities. They
almost none; but they gathered and warehoused the produce
and manufactures of all countries, and redistributed them,
and were the greatest carriers and the greatest shipowners
in the world. We are told how they arrived at this pre-
eminence, "by the privileges they allowed to strangers, by
the lowness of their customs, and by the structure or roominess
of their shipping, holding much merchandize, though sailing shipping.
with fewer hands than our ships, thereby carrying their goods
much cheaper to and from foreign ports than we can, whereby
the Dutch gain all the foreign freights, whilst our ships lie
still and decay, or else go to Newcastle for coals."

Here then we have the whole secret. The freights in English ships were high, and they carried little. In the Dutch ships the freights were low, and they did most of the carrying trade of the world. "And yet," says Raleigh, "is England better situated than Holland for a general storehouse."

True, we command the best position. Great Britain is an island kingdom, with island colonies; her empire is washed by nearly every sea that flows, while her subjects, spread over the four quarters of the globe, may be said to be in almost daily communication. Her sailors are braving peril and disease in the cause of humanity in the torrid zone, or undergoing toils and privations in the cause of science in the frozen seas; her merchants are the best customers in all the markets of mankind; her manufacturers are surpassed by none in industry and ingenuity; the resources of her capital are the greatest—the construction of her ships the best." And since your day, Sir Walter, there have sprung from us, in the land you so long laboured to colonize, twenty millions of people, and still we are afraid to trust to our best position-afraid to believe that we must be the world's store-house, and that it is not in the power of any nation to take the lead of us at sea. In your day high freights left little for our ships to do. Instead of meeting competition, and becoming superior in the face of it, they shrunk

came to have

such vast

The secret of
Dutch pros-

perity.

from it-trusted to acts of Parliament-fell into inferiority— sought by excessive charges to maintain their position and so diminished the whole amount of trade.

By and by we shall show that to no small extent the same errors are still mischievously at work, and that the advantages of our position, our natural productions, and the industrial and inventive genius of our people have carried, it might be almost said forced, us to pre-eminence in spite of Navigation Laws, and all kindred restrictions. Like grass under a stone, we have grown by the very force of growth that was in us.

A.D. 1612. Low freights and plenty to do.

The sea ought

to be free to all.

THE FREE SEA.

While the Dutch, as Raleigh has described, had become, by charging the lowest freights, the carriers for all Christendom, and having more and larger ships than any other people, were full of enterprize, and for ever on the look-out for extension of their trade, Spain claimed the exclusive navigation of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Against which assumption, Grotius, the fame of whose learning filled all Europe then, published a little Latin treatise, called Mare Liberum, or "The Free Sea," that had so much truth and force of reason in it, that it has been referred to and quoted ever since. He argues that by law of nature, commerce is free to all mankind.

That Navigation on the open seas should be also free.

That the reasons given for the freedom of navigation hold equally good for that of fishing on the seas, which also ought to remain common or free to all. He urges earnestly, and at length, the necessity of vindicating by all possible means, the freedom of navigation and commerce; claims no exclusive privilege for the Dutch, but addressing them says: Go on thou most invincible nation on the ocean, in boldly asserting and defending that freedom which is not thine alone, but is equally the right of all mankind.

This assertion of world-wide freedom to commerce and Navigation, found no favour with James the First, he was indignant beyond measure, that the Dutch should claim the right of navigating the narrow seas, called them "the blood-suckers of his kingdom,”* and laid deep the foundation of that national envy and hatred on which was afterward built the notion, that to make room for the ships of England, the navy and the commerce of Holland must be destroyed.

The wisest spirit of the time had no such fear of Holland— no such want of faith in the skill and energies of England.

Sir Francis Bacon said :---

"For the body of ships, no nation of the world doth equal England Lord Bacon for the oaken timber wherewith to build them; and we need not on English borrow of any others, iron for spikes or nails to fasten them together. shipbuilding. "For the true art and building of ships, for burden and service

both, no nation in the world exceeds us.

"Powder and ammunition of all sorts we can have at home, and in exchange for other home commodities we may be plentifully supplied from our neighbours, which must not be neglected.

66

But, especially, care must be taken that monopolies, which are the cankers of all trading, be not admitted under specious colours of public good."+

Lord Bacon knew that England had within herself resources which would enable her to compete successfully in commerce with all nations, and that the danger was, lest these resources should be covered up by the rubbish of monopolies, and so suffered to remain undeveloped. He also knew right well, that such mischievous monopolies would always hide their narrow selfishness under some fair pretence of public good. Just as the Corn Laws, a monopoly to landowners, were set forth as being essential to the existence of the bold peasantry, their country's pride; and the Navigation Laws, a monopoly to shipowners and most injurious to trade, as the nursery of the navy, and essential to the glory and safety of the realm.

* M'Cullagh's Industrial History of Free Nations, vol. ii. p. 334. + Lord Bacon's Advice to Sir George Villiers.

Our Exports and Imports. A.D. 1613.

It is worth while to note what trade we had in those

years.

Our exports to all the world between Christmas 1612 and Christmas 1613, were £2,090,640. 11s. 8d. Imports during that time, with all the customs thereon, £2,141,151. 10s.

We have also the account from the same very credible author, of the total amount of the customs of England for the year 1613.*

A.D. 1635.

A.D. 1635.

Charles the
First and the
Dutch.

THE SHUT SEA.

Jealousy of the Dutch at this period began to be on the ascendant. Twenty-three years after the publication of "The Free Sea," Selden published, by way of reply to Grotius, Mare Clausum, or "The Shut Sea;" asserting "Exclusive right of navigation in the Channel, and all the waters round the coast of the three kingdoms."

This brought matters to a crisis. Charles the First, sore beset by the dislike of the people, sought to gather a little popularity by going with the tide of popular hatred to the Dutch; and therefore issued an order in Council, at once prohibiting them from fishing off Yarmouth, which they were wont to do by charter, and by treaty.

To remonstrate against this breach of friendship, and of faith, the Dutch sent a fruitless embassy to England. The King gave them no redress. A war broke out, and was waged vigorously amongst the Yarmouth herring-boats. Some

* Circle of Commerce, by Edward Misselden, Merchant, p. 121. Published 1623.