142. Medieval ideas on commerce.—When commerce was undeveloped and only an incidental feature in the economic life of peoples, those high in authority in church and state held ideas of it which have faded away as commerce has proved its power and shown its benefits. Many kinds of commerce, including some forms of money-lending now considered legitimate, were prohibited because they seemed to give a man something for nothing. In ordinary trade one man was thought to make his profit at the expense of another, and government was always vigilant to protect the weaker party. A government, moreover, looked on foreign commerce rather as a privilege of its citizens than as their right, and used it freely as a political weapon instead of considering it an economic necessity. The ports of the kingdom were the “king’s gates,” which he could open or close at his pleasure, to further his royal policy.
143. Characteristic features of commercial policy.—Among the characteristic features of national economic policy in the later centuries of the Middle Ages we find the following:
(1) Export and import could be carried on only by favor of royal license, which was granted to and withdrawn from groups of natives and foreigners as suited the king’s ideas.
(2) The export of necessaries was frequently prohibited (as had previously been the custom with the towns), to increase the supplies of the kingdom and keep an enemy from getting the good of them.
(3) The export of money, as a specially valuable asset of the kingdom, was prohibited and its importation was favored.
(4) The growth of native industries was stimulated by a variety of regulations. The English cloth manufacture was protected, for instance, in the following ways: the export of raw material (wool, teasles, etc.) was forbidden from time to time, that the home manufacturer might supply himself more cheaply; the import of foreign cloth was restricted; and the wearing of fur was limited to certain classes, that the home market for woolen manufacture might be larger. Among the protected industries was shipping. “Navigation acts,” requiring the use of native ships, were common, though they ordinarily remained in force but a short time and had not yet hardened into a system.
(5) The foreign trade of a country was not only restricted, as at present, to certain points on the frontier where duties could be collected, but was often concentrated in one or more special places, the “staples.” The government could then oversee the trade more easily, could collect its dues, insure good quality, and protect merchants more readily, and it could also make better use of trade as a weapon of policy, directing the stream of goods where it pleased, and so rewarding or punishing other states.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Review the sections on feudalism, and see how the modern system of government grew up from feudalism as the forces which had created feudalism were reversed. [Cf. Seebohm, Prot. Rev., pp. 15-21.]
2. Write a report on the rise or decline in power of the central government in one of the following countries, in the period 1100-1500: France, England, Germany, Italy, Spain. [Consult the current history manuals, or the encyclopedia.]