231. Agencies helping to extend English commerce.—Among the influences aiding the development of English commerce in this period we must put the skilful diplomacy of the sovereigns of the Tudor line, which secured important privileges for English merchants in other countries, and the energy of the fellowship of Merchants Adventurers, which made the most of these privileges. The Merchants Adventurers differed from the Merchants Staplers (see section 126), in three important points, each of which marks an advance: they were all native Englishmen instead of foreigners; they exported manufactured goods, chiefly cloth, instead of raw materials; they were not bound to a fixed staple but “adventured” to different places. Though the association was not nearly so close as that of later stock companies, it was strong enough to protect the interests of English commerce against abuses by individual merchants and attacks by foreigners; and was especially helpful in pushing English trade along the coast of the North Sea (Flanders, Netherlands, Germany).
232. Enlargement of the commercial area.—Beyond these nearby districts English merchants were building up an important trade with Spain and Portugal in the South, and with the Scandinavian countries in the North, where the Hanseatic League was now unable to hold its own. English ships were voyaging further still. Bristol merchants like Sturmys and Canning built up merchant fleets of considerable size, and sent them as far as the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the coasts of Iceland and Finland. A London grocer recorded in his diary about 1550 the voyage of an English vessel to “Russier” laden with “English bookes of the Scriptures” and with other wares which probably sold to better advantage.
Nor have we yet reached the limit of English voyages. American readers are familiar with the exploits of the Cabots, which began a series of frequent voyages to America, and which were followed by daring expeditions to the far North in search of a passage to India, either east or west. These distant voyages were too venturesome as yet to be the means of regular commerce; they sought rather discoveries or plunder. The English merchant who went outside the narrow circle of civilized Europe turned his hand chiefly to smuggling, kidnapping, robbery, and murder. John Hawkins shared with Queen Elizabeth the profits of the African slave trade, and was proud to add to his coat of arms a demi-Moor proper, bound with a cord, to record his achievements.
233. Relative standing of the English ports.—An idea of the relative rank in foreign commerce of the English ports can be gained from the proportions which they contributed to the customs revenue. The most striking fact is the immense lead of London over other ports, like that of New York in the United States now; it contributed half of the total in the time of Henry VII (say 1500). The second port, Southampton, fell in this period from 18 per cent to 9 per cent; the Flanders galleys had ceased coming, and the Guinea trade, by which it revived later, had not yet begun. Newcastle upon Tyne paid 5 per cent of the total, while the port of Bristol, destined to be later the great haven for the American trade, paid only 3 per cent and was exceeded by Boston. No other port than those named contributed as much as 3 per cent of the total customs revenue. The list of minor ports comprises some which had been great in the Middle Ages but which were now rapidly declining in relative importance (Ipswich, Sandwich, etc.), some, like Hull, which were destined to grow in importance, while great modern ports like Liverpool and Cardiff are not yet heard of at all.
234. Partition of the field of commerce among companies.—The reader will remember the discussion in a previous section of the difficulties experienced in this period when commerce was left to individuals, and the reasons for the association of the merchants who traded to any country. With that discussion in mind the organization of English commerce in the period of the later sixteenth century and following years will not seem so strange as it may appear to be at first. An ordinary Englishman could trade about 1600 with only three countries: France, Spain, and Portugal. Commerce with the rest of the world could be carried on only by members of specific companies, who had mapped out and occupied the routes of trade much as modern railroads divide the territory inside a country. Beginning in the North and going around the compass the companies were as follows: the Eastland Company, trading to Scandinavia and the Baltic; the Russia Company; the Merchant Adventurers, controlling trade from Denmark to France, where the free-trade gap appears; the Levant Company, trading in the Mediterranean; the Guinea or Africa Company; the East India Company, with its immense Asiatic field; and then the various companies familiar to students of American History, the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company, later the Hudson’s Bay Company, etc. By means of the trade of these companies England marketed her surplus wares, especially her woolen fabrics, and imported the goods of which she stood in need—naval stores from the Baltic, manufactures and wine from the Continent, gold from Africa (cf. the English “guinea” of twenty-one shillings), Oriental products, and furs and fish from America. The colonies which had been founded in the New World were still too young to affect greatly the sum total of English trade in the early seventeenth century, but increased rapidly in commercial importance.
235. Characteristics of the companies.—In their organization and development these companies show such variety that it is impossible here to do more than indicate some common features of their history. They tended to one of the two types (joint-stock or regulated) which have been described, and sometimes wavered between the two. The monopoly which they enjoyed made them unpopular with the public, who thought that it was used to secure unduly high profits, and still more unpopular with private merchants who were prevented from sharing in the trade. These merchants who could not gain admission to the companies, because of lack of capital, or distance from London, formed a class of “interlopers” or smugglers trading inside the companies’ preserves. Toward the close of the seventeenth century the feeling against the companies grew so strong that reform was forced upon them; entrance fees were lowered or exclusive privileges were taken away and the trade was thrown open. Some of the companies continued to exist, however; the greatest of them all, the East India Company, kept its hold on the trade with Asia, and other companies continued as semi-public or private corporations after their chief privileges had been annulled. The Levant Company was not dissolved till 1825, and the Hudson’s Bay Company is still in existence, as an ordinary trading corporation.
236. Rapid growth of commerce in the eighteenth century.—The period in which the companies were most active, roughly the seventeenth century, was preparatory to the period of individual enterprise which in the eighteenth century brought England to the leading position among the commercial states. The advance is shown by the following table, giving in millions of pounds sterling (and a rough equivalent in dollars) the annual average of trade in the different periods:
| Average of | Imports | Exports | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1698-1701 | £ 5.5 | $ 27 | £ 6.4 | $ 32 |
| 1749-1755 | 8.2 | 41 | 12.2 | 61 |
| 1784-1792 | 17.7 | 88 | 18.5 | 92 |
| 1802 | 31.4 | 157 | 41.4 | 207 |
The figures show that the foreign trade of England grew between five and six fold in the course of the century; that it advanced considerably in the first half, but moved with the speed of a revolution in the second.