With many a tempest hadde his berd ben shake.
He knew wel al the havenes, as they were,
From Scotland to the Cape of Fynestere,
And every cryk in Bretayne and in Spayne;
His barge y-clepud was the Maudelayne.
It had been in accordance with Henry VII’s indirect methods of taxation to grant licences to foreigners to infringe the navigation laws, for which licences they were obliged to pay sums of ready money. The expenses of the first war with France, coupled with the temporary restraint of English trade to Bordeaux which it involved, tempted his successor to do the same to such an extent that serious discontent was aroused among the mercantile community, and a discontinuance of the practice was demanded. Accordingly, Parliament passed an Act in 1515 revoking all licences granted to foreigners to import French wines and woad in foreign ships. Thenceforward the grant of such licences became much less frequent, and the English monopoly was more firmly established. It is indicative of the inertness with regard to commercial matters which prevailed in France that such an arrangement should have continued so long unchallenged. For French merchants were included in the scope of the law; they could not send their own wines to England save in English ships. They were also subjected, in common with other foreigners, to irritating restrictions in England, of which the most irksome was the prohibition of taking more than ten crowns in money out of the realm. In pursuance of this law, they complained, they were searched to their shirts on departure.
In 1531 the Navigation Act of Henry VII was amended by a new Act providing that all existing regulations should be maintained, and with the addition that no wine was to be imported from France between Michaelmas and Candlemas (February 2). The reason for this was apparently to discourage navigation at the dangerous season of the year by preventing the too early return of keenly competing merchants. The French took offence at the interference with trade, and detained several English ships by way of reprisal. Henry VIII explained that his action was due to the numerous losses of ships on the voyage, but promised to remove the offending regulation, as he was empowered to do by a later Act of 1534.[[187]] An international crisis due to religious changes was impending, and he was obliged to conciliate the French. He even spoke of abrogating the Navigation Act altogether, although it is not likely that he really intended to do anything of the kind. There is evidence, however, that the administration of the laws was relaxed and infractions connived at. The new Navigation Act of 1540 expressly referred to those of 1489 and 1531 and stated that, although they had been neglected, they were now to be fully confirmed and regulations as to prices and freights enforced. For every tun of wine from Bordeaux the freight was fixed at 18s., and no one was allowed to retail French wine in England at more than 8d. per gallon. A tun contained 252 gallons and might thus be sold for more than £8, so that the freight was not excessive as compared with the value of the goods. The import duty, or tonnage, was also comparatively slight, being but 3s. per tun.
In September 1542 the third French war of Henry VIII was in sight, and was heralded by acts of commercial hostility. The French, who had hitherto not protested against the last Navigation Act, suddenly discovered that they were injured by it, and a proclamation was issued that no goods were to be brought from England to France except in French ships.[[188]] This was copying English methods with a vengeance. The French proclamation, if enforced, would have involved the stoppage of the wine fleet, as, Englishmen being forbidden to export money, they could not pay for French wines if they were not allowed to do so with English goods. Nevertheless, the situation became more easy for a time, and the wine fleet sailed as usual. On their return in January 1543 sixteen of the laden vessels were taken by four Scottish privateers who waited for them in the neighbourhood of Brest. Orders were sent for those which had not yet left the Gironde to wait until an escort could be provided.[[189]] In April 1543 war with France had become a certainty, and Henry refused to allow twenty French ships with wine and woad to proceed up the Channel to the Netherlands, as it would put such a large sum of money into the enemy’s pockets. The Netherlands Government had requested a safe-conduct for the wine, as it was for the use of the army which was to act against France, but the king maintained that he personally would rather drink beer, or even water, than permit his own subjects to have wine from the French, to say nothing of allowing it to pass to oblige foreigners.[[190]]
In 1551–2 the first breach in the Tudor navigation policy was made by the selfish and improvident Council-government of which Northumberland was becoming the moving spirit. An Act of that year effected a partial repeal of previous laws by allowing the importation of wine and woad in the ships of any friendly nation between February 1 and October 1. Of course the English still had the privilege of selling, without competition, the first cargoes of the season which were brought home in December and January, but it was nevertheless very injudicious to remove any measure of protection from English shipping at a time when the naval defences of the country were being allowed to deteriorate. The reason alleged for taking this step was the dearness of wine and woad; the probable explanation being that the London retailers brought pressure or bribery to bear upon the Council, while the seamen and merchants engaged in the Bordeaux trade had no such corporation to stand up for their interests as had those who did business with the Low Countries. An Act of 1563 restored the full navigation law of Henry VII, and thenceforward there is no record of any subsequent legislation with regard to this traffic, from which it would appear that the English monopoly was allowed gradually to die out. As other liquors obtained a greater hold upon public favour, French wines lost their relatively important position; while changes in the methods of dyeing rendered obsolete the use of Toulouse woad in the cloth industry.
The commercial intercourse between England and Spain, of ancient origin and the subject of careful negotiations on the part of Henry VII, continued to expand under his successor until religious cleavage arising between the two nations threatened it with extinction. It was advantageous to both countries, although the Spaniards complained that all the gold which changed hands went from Spain to England and nothing but cloth came in return. The reign of Henry VIII opened with the Anglo-Spanish Alliance against France, in which the sea power of both England and Spain was utilized to blockade the French coast. Although Henry was bitterly mortified at his desertion by his ally in 1514, he smothered his resentment so far as to conclude a commercial treaty in the following year, which repeated the agreement made by his father in 1489. Commerce in each country was to be free, without necessity for licence or safe-conduct.[[191]] ‘Freedom’ of trade meant, of course, not the abolition of duties, but a guarantee of fair treatment.