The following calculation of the shipping of Europe in 1690, is given by Sir William Petty. England, 500,000 tons; the United Provinces, 900,000; France, 100,000; Hamburgh, Denmark, Sweden, Dantzic, 250,000; Spain, Portugal, Italy, 250,000: total 2,000,000. But that this calculation is exceeding loose, so far as regards England at least, is evident from the returns made to circular letters of the commissioners of customs: according to these returns, there belonged to all the ports of England, in January 1701-2., 3281 vessels, measuring 261,222 tons, and carrying 27,196 men, and 5660 guns. As we wish to be minute and enter into detail, while our commerce and shipping were yet in their infancy, in order to mark more decidedly its progress, we shall subjoin the particulars of this return.
Ports. Vessels. Tons. Men.
London 560 84,882 10,065 Bristol 165 17,338 2,359 Yarmouth 143 9,914 668 Exeter 121 7,107 978 Hull 115 7,564 187 Whitby 110 8,292 571 Liverpool 102 8,619 1,101 Scarborough 100 6,860 606
None of the other ports had 100 vessels: Newcastle had sixty-three, measuring 11,000 tons; and Ipswich thirty-nine, measuring 11,170; but there certainly is some mistake in these two instances, either in the number of the ships, or the tonnage. The small number of men employed at Hull arose from eighty of their ships being at that time laid up.
III. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the great rivals of the English in their commerce were the Dutch: they had preceded the English to most countries; and, even where the latter had preceded them, they soon insinuated themselves and became formidable rivals: this was the case particularly with respect to the trade to Archangel. Some curious and interesting particulars of this rivalry are given by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his Observations concerning the Trade and Commerce of England with the Dutch and other foreign Nations, which he had laid before King James. In this work he maintains that the Dutch have the advantage over the English by reason of the privileges they gave to foreigners, by making their country the storehouse of all foreign commodities; by the lowness of their customs; by the structure of their ships, which hold more, and require fewer hands than the English; and by their fishery. He contends that England is better situated for a general storehouse for the rest of Europe than Holland: yet no sooner does a dearth of corn, wine, fish, &c. happen in England, than forthwith the Hollanders, Embedners, or Humburghers, load 50 or 100 ships, and bring their articles to England. Amsterdam, he observes, is never without 700,000 quarters of corn, none of it the growth of Holland; and a dearth of only one year in any other part of Europe enriches Holland for seven years. In the course of a year and a half, during a scarcity in England, there was carried away from the ports of Southampton, Bristol, and Exeter alone, nearly 200,000 l.: and if London and the rest of England were included, there must have been 2,000,000 more. The Dutch, he adds, have a regular trade to England with 500 or 600 vessels annually, whereas we trade, not with fifty to their country. After entering into details respecting the Dutch fishery, by means of which, he says, they sell herrings annually to the value of upwards of one million and a half sterling, whereas England scarcely any, he reverts to the other branches of Dutch commerce, as compared with ours. The great stores of wines and salt, brought from France and Spain, are in the Low Countries: they send nearly 1,000 ships yearly with these commodities into the east countries alone; whereas we send not one ship. The native country of timber for ships, &c. is within the Baltic; but the storehouse for it is in Holland; they have 500 or 600 large ships employed in exporting it to England and other parts: we not one. The Dutch even interfere with our own commodities; for our wool and woollen cloth, which goes out rough, undressed, and undyed, they manufacture and serve themselves and other nations with it. We send into the east countries yearly but 100 ships, and our trade chiefly depends upon three towns, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Dantzic; but the Low Countries send thither about 3,000 ships: they send into France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, about 2,000 ships yearly with those east country commodities, and we, none in that course. They trade into all cities and port towns of France, and we chiefly to five or six.
The Low Countries have as many ships and vessels as eleven kingdoms of Christendom have; let England be one. For seventy years together, we had a great trade to Russia (Narva), and even about fourteen years ago, we sent stores of goodly ships thither; but three years past we sent out four thither, and last year but two or three ships; whereas the Hollanders are now increased to about thirty or forty ships, each as large as two of ours, chiefly laden with English cloth, herrings, taken in our seas, English lead, and pewter made of our tin. He adds, that a great loss is suffered by the kingdom from the undressed and undyed cloths being sent out of the kingdom, to the amount of 80,000 pieces annually; and that there had been annually exported, during the last fifty-three years, in baizes, northern and Devonshire kersies, all white, about 50,000 cloths, counting three kersies to one cloth.
Although there is undoubtedly much exaggeration in the comparative statement of the Dutch and English commerce and shipping in the details, yet it is a curious and interesting document, as exhibiting a general view of them. Indeed, through the whole of the seventeenth century, the most celebrated and best informed writers on the commerce of England dwell strongly on the superior trade of the Dutch, and on their being able, by the superior advantages they enjoyed from greater capital, industry, and perseverance, aided by the greater encouragement they gave to foreigners as well as their own people, to supply the greatest part of Europe with all their wants, though their own country was small and unfertile. A similar comparative statement to that of Raleigh is given by Child in 1655; he asserts that in the preceding year the Dutch had twenty-two sail of great ships in the Russia trade,--England but one: that in the Greenland whale fishery, Holland and Hamburgh had annually 400 or 500 sail,--and England but one last year: that the Dutch have a great trade for salt to France and Portugal, with which they salt fish caught on our coasts; that in the Baltic trade, the English have fallen off, and the Dutch increased tenfold. England has no share in the trade to China and Japan: the Dutch a great trade to both countries. A great part of the plate trade from Cadiz has passed from England to Holland. They have even bereaved us of the trade to Scotland and Ireland. He concludes with pointing out some advantages England possesses over Holland: In the Turkey, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese trades, we have the natural advantage of our wool:--our provisions and fuel, in country places, are cheaper than with the Dutch;--our native commodities of lead and tin are great advantages:--of these, he says, as well as of our manufactures, we ship off one-third more than we did twenty years ago; and he adds, that we have now more than double the number of merchants and shipping that we had twenty years ago. He mentions a circumstance, which seems to indicate a retrograde motion of commerce, viz., that when he wrote most payments were in ready money; whereas, formerly, there were credit payments at three, six, nine, twelve, and even eighteen months. From another part of his work, it appears that the tax-money was brought up in waggons from the country.
The gradual advancement of a nation in knowledge and civilization, which is in part the result of commerce, is also in part the cause of it. But besides this advancement, in which England participated with the rest of Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were other circumstances peculiar to this country, some of which were favourable, and others unfavourable to the increase of its commerce.
Among the favourable circumstances may be reckoned the taking away of the exclusive privileges of the steelyard merchants by Edward VI., by which native merchants were encouraged, private companies of them formed, and the benefits of commerce more extensively diffused:--the encouragement given by Elizabeth, particularly by her minister Cecil, to commerce; this was so great and well directed, that the customs which had been farmed, at the beginning of the reign, for 14,000 l. a year, towards its close were fanned for 50,000 l.;--the pacific character of James I., and the consequent tranquillity enjoyed by England during his reign;--the strong and general stimulus which was given to individual industry, by the feeling of their own importance, which the struggle between Charles I. and the Parliament naturally infused into the great mass of the people;--the increased skill in maritime affairs, which was produced by our naval victories under Cromwell;--the great vigour of his government in his relations with foreign powers; and the passing of the navigation act. The Restoration, bringing a great fondness for luxury and expence, naturally produced also exertions to gratify that fondness. If to these and other causes of a similar nature, we add the introduction of East India commodities direct to England, and the import trade to the West Indies and America, the emigration of the industrious Flemings during the Spanish wars in the Low Countries, and of the French after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, we shall have specified most of the efficient circumstances, which, in conjunction with the progress of mankind in industry and civilization, were beneficial to our commerce.
The causes and circumstances which were unfavourable to it during the same period are much fewer in number; and though some of them were powerful, yet, even these, for the most part, when they ceased to operate, gave birth to a reaction favourable to commerce. The more general causes may be sought for in the erroneous notions entertained respecting commerce, in consequence of which monopolies were granted, especially in the reign of James I.; and laws were made to regulate what would have gone on best, if it had been left to itself. The civil wars, and the emigration occasioned by them, and the religious persecutions in the time of Mary, Elizabeth, and Charles, may be regarded as the most remarkable particular causes and circumstances, which were injurious to commerce.