But though he has been credited with numerous victories, nay even with the complete subjugation of Ireland, it is clear that his policy was really one of peace and progress, and that he was anxious to maintain peace as the best safeguard for progress by the maintenance of a force sufficient for that purpose, rather than by increasing it to such dimensions as might have overawed his neighbours and rendered it an aggressive one. To be prepared for war is undoubtedly a guarantee for peace; but a naval force exceeding what is necessary for the protection of its shores and commerce is dangerous to the nation which has created it, as other nations then naturally increase their forces, and a rivalry in arms arises, with war for its probable result. Edgar evidently knew where to draw the line, and having secured the safety of his dominions from foreign aggression, he devoted his attention to the improvement of his internal affairs. Thus, to facilitate commerce, all money coined in the kingdom was decreed to be of one kind in its relative value,[486] so far as regards receipts and payments; and the Winchester measures were fixed as the standard of all measures throughout the country. Many restrictions were enforced as to the method of transacting business; and no one was permitted to buy or sell except in the presence of two or more witnesses. Every member of a tithing was required, if he went to a distant market, to inform the borst-holder, not merely what he intended to purchase or dispose of, but on his return to declare into what transactions he had entered. Restrictions, however, which would be ruinous to modern commerce may have been necessary in its infancy.
Ethelred II., A.D. 979-1016. Sufferings of the people.
The annals of the long and disastrous reign of Ethelred II. afford but one continued picture of rapine and plunder. “The Danish and Norwegian robbers,” remarks Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce,[487] “now united, and led by Swein, king of Denmark, and Olaf Trygvason, who afterwards became king of Norway, spread the horrors of slaughter, captivity, and desolation over all the country. After wasting the lands, and utterly extinguishing cultivation and industry, they compelled the miserable people to bring in provisions for their subsistence; and they moreover extorted in the name of tribute, as the price of peace, but in reality the premium for invasion, the enormous sums of ten thousand pounds of silver in the year 991, sixteen thousand pounds in 1007, and forty-eight thousand pounds in 1012. After which the greatest part of the country sunk under the power of the Danes.”[488] Nor was this all. London itself was burnt; extraordinary inundations prevailed in different parts of the country, followed by contagious disorders destructive of both man and beast.
Charges upon vessels trading to London.
Yet amid all the desolations of this unhappy reign, some attention was paid to maritime and internal commerce, and a law was passed commanding every proprietor of 310 hides[489] of land to furnish a ship for the protection of the State; the result being a larger naval force than had ever been collected before.[490] Fresh regulations were also made with reference to the coasting trade. Boats arriving at Billingsgate were required to pay a toll of a halfpenny, a penny, or four pennies, according to their size and build. Each vessel with wood left one piece as toll or tribute; boats with fish coming to London bridge (first mentioned, according to Spelman, in the reign of Ethelred)[491] paid either one halfpenny, or one penny, according to their size. Foreign merchants from Rouen, Flanders, and Liege, frequenting the Port of London with their ships and manufactures, were in some respects privileged, but were still required to pay the duties, and forbidden to “forestall the market to the prejudice of the citizens.” At Easter and Christmas the German merchants,[492] resident in the city, were further required to pay for the privilege of trading two pieces of grey cloth and one piece of brown cloth, ten pounds of pepper, five pairs of gloves, and two casks of wine. The larger description of vessels engaged at this period in the foreign trade, appear to have discharged their cargoes on the Middlesex shore at wharves or jetties, between the Tower and London bridge, while the smaller craft lay above bridge, chiefly in the Fleet river near the port of Ludgate, where many of the merchants then resided. Within the limits of the Fleet to the west, and of Billingsgate to the east, were to be found the warehouses and dwellings of all the traders, and the chief portion of London was then, and, indeed, for two or three centuries after the Conquest, embraced within those limits.
Olaf, king of Norway, his ships, and those of Swein.
Olaf, who had given so much trouble to Ethelred, having by his piratical excursions gained considerable knowledge of the wants of various countries, endeavoured on his accession to the crown of Norway to encourage commerce in his own country. With this object he founded Nidaros, now known as Drontheim, and made it an emporium for trade. He also built various ships of war, larger than had ever been seen in the Northern seas. One of these, the Dreki, or “Dragon,” is described as having a hull one hundred and eleven feet in length, with thirty-four benches or thwarts for rowers. Her head and stern were finely adorned with carved work, elaborately gilt, and from the description of her which has been preserved, she must have resembled in many respects the state galleys of the Italian republics during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, thus showing very considerable advancement in the science of ship-building among the nations of the north.[493]
Some record has also been preserved of the ships with which Swein, the father of Canute, made a descent in A.D. 1004 on the coasts of Norfolk. Each vessel had a high deck, and their prows were ornamented with figures of lions, bulls, dolphins, or men, made of copper gilt; at their mast-heads were vanes in the shape of birds with expanded wings to show the quarter whence the wind blew. Swein’s own ship, also called “the Great Dragon,” is said to have been built in the form of the animal whose name it bore; its head forming the prow, and its tail the stern. It bore also a standard of white silk, having in the centre a raven with extended wings and open beak, which had been embroidered by three of that monarch’s sisters.[494]
Love of display.
Nor need we suppose that there was much exaggeration in the chronicles describing these and other ships of that time. It was evidently a period when gorgeous displays were not uncommon. Only a few years later, Earl Godwin, to appease the wrath of Hardicanute, presented him with a ship, the prow of which was richly decorated with gold;[495] and Macpherson has recorded how the step-father of Olaf, though usually a plain man and good farmer, would, on state occasions, dress himself in “breeches or trousers of Cordovan leather, and clothes made of silk, with a scarlet cloak over them. His sword,” remarks the same writer,[496] “was richly adorned with carving in gold, and his helmet and spurs were gilded. His horse had a saddle embellished with golden ornaments, and a bridle shining with gold and gems.”[497]