The Merchant Marine.
That ‘merchantmen dare hardly sail’ was scarcely a condition of things conducive to commercial enterprise. Piracy was becoming a more serious drawback than formerly because ships were bigger and more costly, the network of commerce more sensitive and complex, and losses could no longer be recouped by successful privateering on a small scale. Little can be said of the merchant shipping of these years, as the returns of available ships, so frequently occurring among the Elizabethan papers, are entirely absent for this period. But all the notices of trade met with, are invariably characterised by lamentation. The Dutch were said to be obtaining the carrying trade owing to the greater cheapness with which their vessels were built and worked, the difference in their favour being as much as one-third of the English owner’s demand for freight. In 1620 it was stated that the number of London-owned ships had fallen to one-half of that of former years, and, as accounting for part of the decrease, we have a certificate for 1618 of vessels belonging to the river but lately sold for want of employment.[891] The list in question shows an enormous depreciation in value, since none of them could have been very old:—
| Tons | Guns | Cost | Sold for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |||
| Neptune | 500 | 30 | 5000 | 1500 |
| Paragon | 280 | 24 | 3200 | 1000 |
| Martha | 250 | 20 | 2400 | 500 |
| Industry | 350 | 26 | 4500 | 2000 |
| Clement and Job | 300 | 24 | 3600 | 1000 |
The building price here almost certainly does not include the cost of ordnance, while it is probable that the sale price does, and it will be noticed that these merchantmen are nearly as strongly armed as men-of-war. Complaints came from all quarters: the Muscovy Company had employment for only two instead of seventeen ships, as in former days, and the Norway trade was ‘in pawn to the Dutch’; the Levant Company found its trade destroyed by piracy, and still more by the competition of the Dutch, who now sent one hundred ships a year to the Mediterranean. The greater portion of the Newcastle coal traffic was carried on in foreign bottoms; there were some twenty vessels trading to Spain and Portugal, and fifty or sixty to the North German ports, but in both cases the Dutch trade was now far greater than ours; and the fisheries in English waters were entirely in the hands of the Hollanders who were reputed to make a profit of £1,000,000 a year from that which under a stronger sovereign would have been held for England. The Newfoundland and Iceland fisheries, which employed 150 and 120 sail respectively, were still chiefly in English hands, but the Greenland, to which fifteen sail were sent, had to face the ubiquitous Dutch competitor.[892]
During this reign the most flourishing association was the East India Company, although its profits were not so large as were those of its Dutch rival.[893] In twenty years it had despatched eighty-six ships, of which eleven had been seized by the Dutch, and fourteen had been wrecked or worn out, and the estimation in which it was held is shown by its being more heavily assessed towards the expenses of the Algiers expedition than was any other company. This association attempted, in 1613, to start iron and shipbuilding works near Cork, but was forced, by the hostility of the natives, to discontinue the enterprise. The largest merchantman built during the reign of James, the Trade’s Increase of 1100 tons, was constructed for the East India Company. With a smaller ship, the Peppercorn of 250 tons, it was launched in January 1610, and there are some curious notes by the captain of the Peppercorn describing the event.[894] On Saturday, 30th December the king came down to name the two ships, but every attempt to launch them failed, and continued efforts on the Sunday, ‘God made fruitless that day.’ On 1st Jan. the Peppercorn was launched, and it was only then found that the dockhead was too narrow to let the Trade’s Increase pass. On the Wednesday, however, she was got clear and the captain of the Peppercorn complains that ‘on this ship was all the Company’s pride set; she was altogether regarded, tended and followed while the other, the Peppercorn was left in manner desolate.’ The Trades Increase was wrecked in 1613 on her first voyage. The hire of merchantmen taken up for government service was still two shillings a month per ton; and the bounty of five shillings a ton on new and suitable vessels ceased in 1624, only to be renewed early in the next reign for similar ships.
Merchants, generally, were liable to the exactions and dishonesty of the officials of the Customs department as much as in the previous reign. But by this time the two formerly antagonistic interests seem to have come to a working arrangement. We are told that merchants and the farmers of the customs were now in partnership, and that goods were cleared on payment of little or no duty. The importation or exportation of prohibited wares was only a matter of terms; and, altogether, the king was frequently defrauded of 75% of the customs.[895] The collection of light dues was placed in the hands of the customs’ farmers, and, when a licence to build a lighthouse at Dungeness was granted to Sir Edward Howard in 1615, they had to receive the one penny a ton payable from all ships passing it. At Winterton there was also another light, and the receipts were £1000, of which, £350 went in expenses.[896] As the Trinity House claimed the control of the coast lights as a part of its privileges, there was a good deal of litigation on the subject during the reign.
The Navy List.
In the following list[897] certain vessels, the Defiance, Dreadnought, Merhonour, and Repulse have been admitted as rebuilt and new, although it is quite possible that, notwithstanding the large sums spent upon them, they were only more or less badly repaired.
| Built | Rebuilt | Burden | Ton and Tonnage | Guns | Keel | Beam | Depth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ft. | ft. | ft. | ||||||
| Nonsuch[898] | 1603 | 636 | 38 | 88 | 34 | 15 | ||
| Assurance[899] | 1603 | 600 | 38 | 95 | 33 | 14.6 | ||
| Speedwell[900] | 1607 | 400 | ||||||
| Anne Royal[901] | 1608 | 800 | 44 | 103 | 37 | 16 | ||
| Lion’s Whelp | 1608 | 90 | ||||||
| Red Lion[902] | 1609 | 650 | 38 | 91 | 35.2 | 16 | ||
| Due Repulse | 1610 | 700 | 40 | 97 | 37 | 15 | ||
| Prince Royal | 1610 | 1200 | 55 | 115 | 43.6 | 18 | ||
| Phœnix | 1612 | 250 | 20 | 70 | 24 | 11 | ||
| Primrose | 1612 | |||||||
| Merhonour[903] | 1612 | 800 | 44 | 104 | 38 | 17 | ||
| Dreadnought | 1612 | 450 | 32 | 84 | 31 | 13 | ||
| Defiance | 1612 | 700 | 40 | 97 | 37 | 15 | ||
| Vanguard | 1615 | 650 | 40 | 102 | 35 | 14 | ||
| Seven Stars | 1615 | 140 | 14 | 60 | 20 | 9 | ||
| Convertine[904] | 1616 | 500 | 34 | |||||
| Desire | 1616 | 80 | 6 | 66 | 16 | 6 | ||
| Rainbow[905] | 1618 | 650 | 40 | 102 | 35 | 14 | ||
| Antelope | 1618 | 450 | 34 | 92 | 32 | 12.6 | ||
| Happy Entrance | 1619 | 437 | 582 | 32 | 96 | 32.6 | 14 | |
| Constant Reformation | 1619 | 564 | 752 | 42 | 106 | 35.6 | 15 | |
| Victory | 1620 | 656 | 875 | 42 | 108 | 35.9 | 17 | |
| Garland | 1620 | 512 | 683 | 34 | 93 | 33 | 16 | |
| Swiftsure | 1621 | 650 | 887 | 42 | 106 | 36.10 | 16.8 | |
| Bonaventure | 1621 | 506 | 675 | 34 | 98 | 33 | 15.8 | |
| St George | 1622 | 671 | 895 | 42 | 110 | 37 | 16.6 | |
| St Andrew | 1622 | 671 | 895 | 42 | 110 | 37 | 16.6 | |
| Triumph | 1623 | 692 | 922 | 42 | 110 | 37 | 17 | |
| Mary Rose | 1623 | 288 | 394 | 26 | 83 | 27 |