The seven years' market was not continued to Calais. At the expiration of five years, the statute of staples ordained the removal of the continental staple, and the fixing of it, for ever, in certain English towns. The which for ever proved to be ten years, the staple was then again fixed at Calais. Six years afterwards, the fortune of war sent it back to England, and in seven other years, the complaints of the inhabitants of Calais, that their city was sinking into decay and ruin, gained them once more the much sought-after staple, with certain additions, by way of compensation for lost time; for besides the lead, tin, and so forth, all cheese, butter, honey, tallow, skins, and osiers, were sent the same desirable voyage, and were all to be sold at the one town of Calais, which was, in fact, made the market general of the kingdom. This limitation did not work well, and there were various exceptions, and alterations, and counter enactments, until at length the staple was held at one part of the year in England, at the other in Calais, and the lords of the council could order it to be held at whatever towns they pleased. "Staples and restraints in England, and a second staple and other restraints at the same time on the continent, the condition of the merchants who were obliged to deal in staple goods, was truly pitiable in those days." So says Macpherson, in his history of the commerce of that period. We agree with him; the condition of the merchant was truly pitiable then, and so it has been more or less ever since. The law has never rested from meddling, and has never meddled but to do mischief. During the very period when early Kings and Parliaments were be-puzzled with devices to make the navy great, there existed the oddest net-work of laws that perverse ingenuity could have devised, if it had set itself to work with the express purpose of breaking down trade and forcing the navy into littleness. A.D. 1353. A.D. 1363. A.D. 1376. Pitiable con dition of mer chants. More restrictions. Herrings were to be caught and sold and salted by rule. sheep, malt, or beer. B 2 Edward III. 28th Edward III. c. 5. 37th Edward III. Merchants were to make election of one kind of goods to deal in. Artificers of one occupation to work at. Boys and girls born to husbandry and keeping to it until twelve years of age, must never quit it. It was settled by law, how ploughmen, servants, tradesmen, gentlemen, knights, clergy, and all their wives and daughters should be dressed. The wages of labour were fixed, and men compelled under heavy penalties to work for the fixed rate, and so on through à multitude of statutes, with the very last respresentative of which we now wage war. The Staple was of the same order as the Navigation Law, and the law-givers of that time in their wildest dreams of legislative restriction, could scarcely have imagined that the fruit which sprung from it would, in our day, have compelled a cargo to sail from Havre to New York, before it could be admitted to Liverpool. It was given in evidence before the committee of 1844, and it was one of a hundred similar cases, that a cargo of American hides, brought from Europe, and being, by virtue of the Navigation Laws, denied entrance at Liverpool, was re-salted, re-shipped to New York, landed in America, and thence brought back for sale at Liverpool. The merchant of the 14th century was compelled to send his hides to Calais to be sold; the merchant of our time must make the voyage to New York and back again, before an English port can become his Staple. WHAT KIND OF FLEET ENGLAND HAD ABOUT THE TIME OF THE FIRST NAVIGATION LAW. We have no return of the number of ships that the trade required, or of the whole number that then belonged to England; but, when war broke out, the trading vessels, men and all, were impressed. The various ports furnished either a contingent of vessels, or gave up to the king's service all the ships they had; and from the records of such contingents and impressments, we may gather some idea of the then navy of England. On the 11th of October, 1340, Edward III. sent letters to the several sheriffs of the maritime shires, stating that the navy of the kingdom, (which meant then all the mer. chant ships,) was much reduced by the war, and as the security of the kingdom depended upon the vessels being kept in the hands of his own subjects, the sheriffs were commanded to make proclamation, "That no person should sell or give away any vessels to a foreigner upon any account." There was also ordered an exact return of all the vessels, great and small, in each port, with the names of their owners. This was the first attempt to form a complete register of the shipping of England, and to increase it by command. From the wording of the letter, it would seem that England was then accustomed to build ships for foreigners; if they built ships at all, it could not well be for any other purpose, as the multitude of cross-purposed and perpetually changing restrictions upon trade, commerce, merchants, and money, must have prevented any increased demand for them in English hands. A.D. 1340. No one to sell or give ships to foreigners. A.D. 1346. all vessels for France. The return ordered was perhaps never made; at all events, it is not to be got at now; but, six years afterwards, "all Impressment of vessels, however small, that were able to stand the sea,' were the invasion of impressed for the invasion of France. The whole were present at the siege of Calais: 710 vessels belonging to English ports, carrying 14,151 men, no doubt as many as they could carry, and yet not 20 men to each ship. So that the probability is, that these noted vessels were rather less than our mackerel-boats. The foreign vessels at the siege, were not much larger than our own, and we have further evidence of the nature of foreign shipping, in the fact, that in 1385 the governor of Calais, and the seamen of the Cinque ports, cap* Macpherson, b. 1. 528. English ships. tured 80 vessels of various kinds; "and there were taken," says Walshingham, "and slain in those ships, 226 seamen and mercenaries (being an average of 2 to each). Blessed be God for all things." In the Harleian Manuscript, we have a drawing of ships of the time of Richard II., broad, Dutch-built tubs, something like punts turned up at the ends, one mast, with a square pigeon-box looking top, one great broad square lug of a sail, half-a-dozen armed men in each, and no deck. Such were the biggest and the best of the then marine of England. It was much persecuted by commercial restrictions and piracy; but most of all, by the liability to be seized for the purposes of war, of which the Merchant Shipowners made bitter complaint. The Commons represented in Parliament, that Ships were often taken up for the King long before they were wanted, and the merchants ruined by supporting their seamen in idleness; that by the merchants, against impress- the supporters of the navy, being so often deprived of their ships, the mariners were driven into other trades; and that the masters of the King's vessels took up the masters of other vessels, as good men as themselves, whereby the men were also obliged to seek other means of living, and the ships were rendered useless; and that by these means the navy was reduced.* A.D. 1370. Complaint of ment. A.D. 1377. This does seem a very reasonable remonstrance, but the King paid no attention to it. Wars and impressments went on, and commercial restrictions were increased in number and complication, through all of which, the commercial navy had to fight its way, and to live on as it might, and a hard struggle it must have had: as at the best there could have been no great quantity of goods for ships to carry, the whole population of England and Wales, in 1377, being only 2,500,000, the most of them too poor to use many articles of import, and the exports being of very small amount. It was believed, however, that Parliament could make a A.D. 1381. navy-that there was no more to do than to pass a law for the purpose, and forthwith there would be ships ready either for peace or war,-ships, by Act of Parliament, although there were no goods for them to carry, and no persons to take passage in them. In order, therefore, to augment the navy of England, or in the old words, per encresir la Navie First Navid'Engleterre, which was declared to be greatly reduced (notwithstanding the interdict to sell or give away ships issued forty years before), it was enacted, "That no subject of the king should ship any merchandize, outward or home- allegiance. ward, save in ships of the king's allegiance, on penalty Richard II., of forfeiture of vessel and cargo.” gation Act. Imports and Exports only in ships of the king's Stat. 1, 5 c. 3. Richard II., c. 2. Neither gold, silver, clergy, or laity, must go out of the king dom. This was the first Navigation Act passed by the Parliament of England, and it stands on the Statute Book in curious. company. Immediately before it is a preamble declaring, Stat. 1, 5 "That in consequence of the grievous mischief of carrying abroad money and bullion, there was scarcely any gold or silver left in the kingdom. All merchants and clergymen, aliens or natives, were therefore prohibited from carrying abroad any gold or silver, in coin, bullion, or vessel, or by exchange. The negotiators of the exchange were to be sworn, that they would send no gold nor silver out of the country for the purpose of answering their bills. No person, either of the clergy or laity, except lords, and other great men, real known merchants, and the king's soldiers, was to be allowed to go out of the kingdom. London, and one or two other chief ports, were declared to be the only places from which any one might pass over to the continent, and all evaders and breakers of the said law were to suffer heavy fines and forfeitures.' Richard II., Next after the Navigation law, comes an enactment, "That if any Englishman passed over the sea to import Stat. 1, 5 wines, he must sell them at certain fixed prices, by certain measurements only; and sweet wines and claret must not be retailed any where in the kingdom." * Macpherson, vol. i. p. 592. c. 4, 5. Goods not to be imported. |