The exertions of his people were so energetically supported by their king, that at length a fleet was raised sufficiently powerful to guard the sea coast, and protect the foreign trade of the country. Nor were the defences of the sea-port towns, and especially those of London, where the chief commercial wealth of the country had been collected and stored, forgotten.[481] In addition to these judicious measures, he introduced new manufactures, and discovered new articles of growth which, if exported, would prove a considerable source of profit to those merchants who undertook their shipment to other countries. It was by such means, by liberal and wise laws, and by well conceived arrangements for the best development of the natural resources of England, that he greatly increased the wealth of his people, and laid the foundation of that powerful royal and commercial navy, which, through many vicissitudes, has continued, though often neglected, to be the pride and boast of the English people.
His voyages of discovery and missions to the East.
Nor, indeed, was this all. Alfred, also, sent out ships on voyages of discovery to the south as well as to the north; and, having opened communications with the patriarch of Jerusalem, obtained from him much information on various important subjects, which ultimately proved of great value to his people: moreover, if William of Malmesbury can be relied on, he sent Sighelm, bishop of Sherbourne, with many gifts to the Nestorian Christians of St. Thomas, at Maliapur, on the Coromandel coast, and received from them in return various products of Indian growth and manufacture.[482]
To Alfred the Great, England also owes the first attempt to secure a more speedy and equal distribution of justice by the division of the kingdom into hundreds and tithings, combined with a careful survey of the whole country, known as the “Book of Winchester,” the model probably of the later and still more famous Domesday Book. The laws of the Anglo-Saxons were also revised, and a code was formed with selections from the best of those of other nations. The wisdom and the justice of Alfred first raised England out of the darkness of one of the darkest ages, and secured for her a position at sea she had never previously held; and, though a thousand years have since passed away, we cannot but think that those statesmen who are now devoting their attention to the commercial and maritime interests of their country would do well to study the policy of Alfred at a period of bigotry, superstition, and ignorance, when piracy at sea, and plunder on land, afforded a large source of remunerative employment to the people.
Reign of Edward the Elder, A.D. 901-925, and of his son Athelstan, A.D. 925-941.
His son Edward followed his example in the care he bestowed on his fleet; and, though much of his time was occupied in constructing castles to keep back the ever encroaching Danes, he was able to equip and to maintain during his reign one hundred ships to protect trade and guard the coasts. But his son, Athelstan, displayed even greater anxiety to increase the power of his fleet, being at the same time the first English monarch who, by his laws, made trade a road to honour. One of these laws enacted, that if any merchant or mariner successfully accomplished three voyages on the high seas with a ship and cargo of his own, he should thenceforth be advanced to the dignity of a Thane and entitled to all the privileges attaching to his rank; and he, at the same time, established mints in such towns as enjoyed any considerable amount of foreign trade, with the necessary provisions to ensure the purity and just weight of the coins issued.[483] These salutary laws and other prudent regulations had the effect of considerably improving trade during his reign.
William of Malmesbury has preserved the record of a gift by Harold, king of Norway, to Athelstan, about the year 931, of a ship adorned with a golden prow, having a purple sail, and armed with a complete bulwark of shields. A similar arrangement of shields may be seen on many of the ships delineated on the Bayeux tapestry.[484]
Edgar’s fleet, and his arrangements for suppressing piracy.
From the death of Athelstan to the accession of Edgar, there are no incidents in connection with shipping or commerce worthy of record. Edgar, however, greatly increased the royal navy; nay, the monkish writers of the period assert that he had three or four thousand vessels, an exaggeration not requiring refutation.[485] Edgar, besides living in considerable splendour, spent large sums of money on monastic foundations; hence the only historians of his day took care to sound his praises with their highest notes. The more effectually to repress the ravages of the Danes, he is said to have divided his fleet into three divisions, and to have sent each squadron to separate stations, thus, for the first time, stationing his ships in a systematic manner along the English coasts, so as to guard against surprise, and protect the merchantmen trading with his seaports. Nor was he satisfied with the mere organization of his plans. Every summer he himself visited the fleets, making excursions from station to station, and by his vigilance kept the sea from being disturbed by marauders, thereby greatly contributing to the strength of his kingdom.
The wisdom of his policy.