The mainspring of the whole affair was undoubtedly the persistent belief in the existence of a practicable channel leading to Cathay and India, the discovery of which would have given England the possession of the shortest route and an immense advantage over all rivals. And here is most likely the clue to the colonizing ideas set forth in the patents; for such a passage, when discovered, would need to be fortified if its use was to be monopolized by the English.

After preliminary investigations, which held out strong hopes of success, if we may judge from Henry’s liberality to the Portuguese and the Bristol men in 1502, insuperable obstacles were encountered, and no clear evidence survives of anything being done later than 1504 or, at latest, 1505. The enterprise had, unfortunately, no chronicler, and the details of its audacities and its heroisms have fallen into complete, though undeserved, oblivion.

CHAPTER VI
THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

The death of Henry VII and the accession, in April 1509, of his son, then in his eighteenth year, inevitably caused great changes in nearly all departments of the state. The new king was a typical child of the Renaissance in its most exuberant aspect. Young and enthusiastic, he bubbled with energy both of body and mind, and was at once the champion of the tiltyard and an earnest worshipper at the shrine of the new learning. He was surrounded by nobles whose natures were as fiery as his own and who were impatient of the restraints of a sober and prosaic régime. Thus circumstanced, like a generous rider bestriding a mettled steed, it was natural that he should seize the first opportunity of playing a part in the shifting and treacherous politics of Europe, from which his father had ever remained watchfully aloof.

The old dream of Continental conquest, which seemed to have been finally abandoned by Henry VII, was again revived; and the country was soon resounding with the noise and rumour of warlike preparations. England, Spain, the Emperor, and the Pope united in an alliance to which the sanctity of the spiritual partner gave the name of the Holy League. Henry was eager to do his share. In 1512 he dispatched the Marquis of Dorset to the Biscayan coast of Spain with an English force which was to join hands with the Spaniards and, advancing east and north, to achieve the reconquest of Guienne. The outcome was disastrous. Deserted by its Spanish allies, the English army fell a prey to its own indiscipline and lack of experience, and returned without having had one serious encounter with the enemy. Next year Henry himself took the field, invaded the north of France, routed the French at the Battle of the Spurs, and received the surrender of Tournay and Terouenne. But in the meantime the other members of the Holy League had achieved their own objects by expelling the French from Italy. Having done so, they unhesitatingly made peace, leaving Henry in the rôle of confiding dupe to pursue unaided his conquest of France—a task for which his resources were manifestly inadequate. It was his first practical experience of the faithless diplomacy of the time, and the romantic strain noticeable in his earlier character received a permanent check when he realized how he had been used as a tool by such a veteran pair of schemers as Ferdinand of Aragon and Maximilian the Emperor.

Accordingly, peace was made with France in 1514, and for seven years Europe enjoyed an uneasy tranquillity which was but the prelude to fiercer storms. During the war Thomas Wolsey had climbed to a position of supreme authority under the king, which he was able to retain for close on fifteen years. Until 1528 the policy of Wolsey was the policy of England. In the main he was mediaeval in his outlook, as befitted the last English representative of a type which was so essentially a product of the Middle Ages, the statesman-ecclesiastic. Although advanced in his appreciation of the balance of power, his ideas were centred rather on royal marriages and intrigues at Rome than on colonies and maritime expansion. His outlook was that of a man oblivious of the marvellous opening-up of the world which was going on around him and of the part which his country might play therein. Until quite the end of his ascendancy there is no authenticated voyage of discovery or attempt to penetrate new markets with the produce of industry. In the long run this was not disadvantageous. An enduring empire was only to be built upon a basis of consolidated experience and battleworthiness which England had yet to acquire, and which the reign of Henry VIII was in large part to supply. In spite of initial mistakes, Wolsey and his master steadily increased the prestige of the nation. They trained up a new generation of diplomatists, able to fathom and cope with the designs of the continental masters of the craft; they increased the navy and encouraged the practice of warlike exercises by the people; they strengthened the executive until treason counted the cost before it showed its head, and legitimate adventures became the only outlet permissible to turbulent spirits.

Meanwhile commerce, no longer the prime object of governmental care, was allowed to pursue its course practically without the assistance or hindrance of diplomacy, along the lines which Henry VII had laid down. The North Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and the Mediterranean afforded for the time an ample field for the training of Englishmen in the arts of trade and seamanship. They saw the world, and rubbed shoulders with the nations of Europe; acquiring in the process a pride in themselves and a talent for dealing with their fellow men, which have been incalculable but nevertheless important factors in their subsequent development. The sixteenth century is the first of the great tradition-building periods of English history. The tradition which it produced, and which flourishes in a tarnished form to the present day, was that Englishmen were unsurpassed as fighters, explorers, traders, and money-getters by every means, fair or foul, upon the sea. And this tradition rests, not only upon the deeds of the great names which History records in her most lurid passages, but also upon the accumulated exploits of the infinite number of small men, but for whom the Drakes and the Hawkinses, the masters of the sea, would never have been. Hence the activities of the numerous undistinguished units producing such notable results would, taken in the mass, appear worthy of study. During the years immediately under consideration, the commercial side of the story predominates over the exploring and fighting side.

For thirty years the policy of protection—the efficacy of which no sane person dreamed of doubting—was maintained. In the first Parliament of the reign a subsidy Act was passed, granting tonnage, poundage, and wool duties for the king’s life. The provisions were practically identical with those of the corresponding Act under Henry VII. The customs, as distinguished from the subsidy, were continued unchanged. Henry VII’s fiscal system thus passed on intact to his successor. It is significant that the usual clause was again inserted providing for the maintenance of the privileges of the Hansa. There was as yet no thought of the abolition of the greatest obstacle to England’s commercial advancement.

No modification of the imposts occurred until 1539, although laws were made at various times for the regulation of trade. The Government of Henry VIII, if at times unjust, was seldom corrupt, and generally sought to strike a fair balance between the interests of the manufacturer, the consumer, and the trader. Hence we find Acts for such purposes as forbidding the import of foreign-made hats and caps and fixing the prices of the home-produced article, for forbidding the export of foodstuffs, and for ensuring that the more expensive kinds of cloth should not be exported unless fully manufactured. The practice of granting bounties for the construction of new shipping was continued. In 1509 a licence was granted to a merchant to carry a cargo to Bordeaux and bring another home, duty free, in consideration of his having built a vessel of 120 tons, and for the encouragement of others to do likewise. Highly detailed legislation, of which the above are examples, although crude and irritating to modern ideas, shows at least that the Government was taking an interest in the welfare of the classes of its subjects who were affected. No doubt the initiative came usually from the Commons, and the countenance given to it by the king made them more disposed to support him in other matters.

Broadly speaking, English commerce was in the happy condition of having no history until some years had elapsed after the fall of Wolsey. In the year 1534 an innovation of the utmost importance to its constitutional status was appended to an Act relating to the import of French wines.[[86]] It consisted of a clause stating that the Act in question, together with others relating to export and import, might be contrary to certain treaties; and that the king might therefore repeal such Acts by proclamation, and revive them from time to time as he thought fit. This conferred upon the Crown a power which, if wisely used, might be of great advantage to England’s interests, but which was also capable of abuse by a government actuated by corrupt motives. In any case such facility for suddenly changing the conditions of trade was undesirable, as tending to increase the insecurity which was the bane of the time. The constitutional import of the Act was far-reaching: it implied that a treaty was of superior validity to an Act of Parliament, and consequently gave to the executive, which makes treaties, a power of legislation which it had never possessed since Magna Charta. This Act is not to be confused with the better-known one of 1539 which gave to all the king’s proclamations the force of law, and which was repealed by the first Parliament of Edward VI.