We must again lay down the position, that in what respects the improvement of a country in industry and wealth, whether agricultural manufacturing, or commercial, the same circumstances may often be viewed in the light both of effect and cause. This position will be clearly illustrated by a very common and plain case. The trade in a certain district improves, and of course requires more easy and expeditious communication among different parts of this district: the roads are consequently made better, and the waggons, &c. are built on a better construction; these are the effects of an improved trade: but it is plain that as by the communication being thus rendered quicker, the commodities interchanged can be sold cheaper, a greater quantity of them will be sold; and thus better roads, which in the first instance proceeded from an improvement in trade, will, when made, improve the trade still more.
We have introduced these observations as preparatory to our notice of the establishment of the Bank of England. This undoubtedly was the effect of our increased commercial habits, but it was as undoubtedly the cause of those habits becoming stronger and more general: it supposed the pre-existence of a certain degree of commercial confidence and credit, but it increased these in a much greater ratio than they existed before: and if England owes its very superior wealth to any other causes besides its free government, its superior industry, and improvements in machinery, those causes must be sought for in the very extensive diffusion of commercial confidence and credit. The funding system, which took place about the same, time that the Bank of England was established, may be regarded as another powerful cause of the increase of our commerce: we do not mean to contend that the national debt is a national blessing, but it is certain that the necessity of paying the interest of that debt produced exertions of industry, and improvements in manufactures, which would not otherwise, have been called forth; while, on the other hand, the funds absorbed all the superfluous capital, which, otherwise, as in Holland, must have had a bad effect on commerce, either by reducing its profits very low, or by being transferred to other countries; and the interest, which so many individuals felt in the stability of the funds, induced them most steadily and strongly to support government.
The commerce of Scotland and Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, supplies us with very few materials. In the year 1544, Scotland must have had no inconsiderable foreign trade, as in the war which took place at this time between that country and England, twenty-eight of the principal ships of Scotland, laden with all kinds of rich merchandize, were captured by the English, on their voyage from France, Flanders, Denmark, &c.; and in the same year, when the English took Leith, they found more riches in it than they had reason to expect. While Scotland and England were at peace, however, the former was principally supplied through the latter with the commodities which Antwerp, during the sixteenth century, dispersed over all Europe. The exports of Scotland to Antwerp, &c. were indeed direct, and consisted principally, as we have already remarked from Guicciardini, of peltry, leather, wool, indifferent cloth, and pearls.
The earliest account which occurs of the Scotch carrying on commerce to any port out of Europe, is in the year 1589, when three or four Scotch ships were found at the Azores by the earl of Cumberland. In the year 1598, it appears, from a letter of king James to Queen Elizabeth, that some Scotch merchants traded to the Canaries. There is evidence that the Scotch had some commerce in the Mediterranean in the beginning of the seventeenth century; for in the "Cabala," under the year 1624, the confiscation of three Scotch ships at Malaga is noticed, for importing Dutch commodities. The principal articles of export from Scotland to foreign countries consisted of coarse woollen stuffs and stockings, linen goods, peltry, leather, wool, pearls, &c. The principal imports were wine and fruits from France, wine from Spain and Portugal, the finer woollen goods from England, timber, iron, &c. from the Baltic, and sugars, spices, silks, &c. from Antwerp, Portugal, &c.
The following statement, with which we shall conclude our account of Scotch commerce, is interesting, as exhibiting a view of the commercial intercourse by sea between England and Scotland, from the commencement of the inspector general's accounts in 1697, to the Union in 1707.
England received from Scotland Scotland received from England Merchandize to the value of merchandize to the value of
1697. £91,302 £73,203 1698. 124,835 58,043 1699. 86,309 66,303 1700. 130,087 85,194 1701. 73,988 56,802 1702. 71,428 58,688 1703. 76,448 57,338 1704. 54,379 87,536 1705. 57,902 50,035 1706. 50,309 60,313 1707. 6,733 17,779
The earliest notices of Irish trade, to which we have already adverted, particularly mention linen and woollen cloth, as two of the most considerable articles of export from that country. Hides, wool, fish of different kinds, particularly salmon, and the skins of martins, otters, rabbits, sheep, kids, &c. are also specified, as forming part of her early export. From Antwerp in the middle of the sixteenth century she received spices, sugar, silks, madder, camblets, &c. Pipe staves were a considerable article of export in the beginning of the seventeenth century; they were principally sent to the Mediterranean. In 1627 Charles issued a proclamation respecting Ireland, from which we learn that the principal foreign trade of Ireland was to Spain and Portugal, and consisted in fish, butter, skins, wool, rugs, blankets, wax, cattle, and horses; pipe staves, and corn; timber fit for ship-building, as well as pipe staves, seem at this period to have formed most extensive and valuable articles of export from Ireland. In the middle of this century, Irish linen yarn was used in considerable quantities in the Manchester manufactures, as we have already noticed. The importation into England of fat cattle from Ireland seems to have been considerable, and to have been regarded as so prejudicial to the pasture farmers of the former country, that in 1666 a law was passed laying a heavy duty on their importation. This statute proving ineffectual, another was passed in 1663, enacting the forfeiture of all great cattle, sheep, swine, and also beef, pork, or bacon, imported from Ireland. Sir W. Petty remarks, that before this law was passed, three-fourths of the trade of Ireland was with England, but not one-fourth of it since that time. Sir Jonah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, describes the state of Ireland as having been much improved by the soldiers of the Commonwealth settling there; through their own industry, and that which they infused into the natives, he adds, that Ireland was able to supply foreign markets, as well as our plantations in America, with beef, pork, hides, tallow, bread, beer, wood, and corn, at a cheaper rate than England could afford to do. Though this country, as we have seen, exported linen goods at a very early period, yet this manufacture cannot be regarded as the staple one of Ireland, or as having contributed very much to her foreign commerce, till it flourished among the Scotch colonists in Ulster towards the middle of the seventeenth century. As soon as they entered on it with spirit, linen yarn was no longer exported to Manchester and other parts of England, but manufactured into cloth in Ireland, and in that state it formed the chief article of its commerce. The woollen manufactures of Ireland, which were always viewed with jealousy by England, and were checked in every possible manner, gradually gave way to the restraints laid on them, and to the rising and unchecked linen manufacture, and of course ceased to enter into the exports.
The commerce of Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was kept low, by ignorance and want of industry, by the disturbed state of the country, by disputes between the king and nobility, and, till the union of the crowns, by wars with England. The commerce of Ireland had still greater difficulties to struggle with; among which may be mentioned the ignorant oppression of the English government in every thing that related to its manufactures or trade.
The commerce of France, during the sixteenth century, presents few particulars worthy of notice; that, which was carried on between it and England, was principally confined to the exportation of wines, fruit, silk and linen, from France; and woollen goods, and tin and lead, from England. There seems to have been a great exchange between the woollens of England and the linens of Bretagne. The French, however, like all the other nations of Europe at this period, were ignorant of the principles, as well as destitute of the enterprize and capital essential to steady and lucrative commerce; and amply deserve the character given of them by Voltaire, that in the reign of Francis I., though possessed of harbours both on the ocean and Mediterranean, they were yet without a navy; and though immersed in luxury, they had only a few coarse manufactures. The Jews, Genoese, Venetians, Portuguese, Flemings, Dutch, and English, traded successively for them. At the very close of this century we have a very summary account of the commerce of France by Giovani Bolero. France, says he, possesses four magnets, which attract the wealth of other countries;--corn, which is exported to Spain and Portugal;--wine, which is sent to Flanders, England, and the Baltic;--salt, made by the heat of the sun on the Mediterranean coast, and also on that of the ocean, as far north as Saintoigne; and hemp and cloth, of which and of cordage great quantities are exported to Lisbon and Seville:--the exportation of the articles of this fourth class, he adds, is incredibly great.