History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

State of the merchant navy during his reign.

Loss sustained by war, and encouragement afforded thereby to foreign nations.

Although Edward, throughout the whole of his long reign, had encouraged a liberal commercial policy, and had devoted, in an especial manner, his attention to naval affairs, it was impossible for maritime commerce to flourish in the midst of turmoil and war. England, though she lost the greater portion of her unnatural territory in France, may have preserved, as against the fleets of that country, her superiority at sea, and her wars with France on the one hand, and with Scotland on the other, may have developed the natural bull-dog courage of her seamen; but war, while it lasted, transferred the bulk of her over-sea carrying trade to the ships of Spain, Flanders, Holland, and of the Mediterranean nations, the whole energy of her people, which might have been better employed in the development of her natural resources and manufactures, having been devoted to war and to the creation of its instruments of destruction. Commissioners were even summoned to London to hold a sort of naval parliament during these struggles with France, and to render an account of the number of vessels which each port could supply to the naval force of the country. The press warrants authorized the appointed officers to seize not merely all vessels lying in the several ports, but every vessel which came from sea during the continuance of the commission; and these vessels were frequently compelled immediately to discharge the whole of their cargoes, although their last port of destination had not been reached, till Edward, during the greater part of his reign, had actually more than one-half of the merchant vessels of the kingdom in his service.[573] Operations such as these could not fail to seriously injure the maritime commerce of England, and, at the same time, afford encouragement to foreigners to absorb her over-sea carrying trade.

But although the ships of Spain and of the Mediterranean were at first the chief gainers by this state of things, those of the more northern nations of Europe soon became, from the same causes, the most formidable commercial rivals of England. While the English were engaged in unprofitable conflicts, they were steadily increasing in wealth and commercial greatness. Flemish ship-owners, taking advantage of the constant disputes of England with France and Scotland, acquired a considerable portion of the trade which would otherwise have fallen to England, and materially increased their business relations with the Mediterranean, with Egypt, and the East. Nor were they alone in their efforts. The advantages to be derived from distant commerce had now become known to all the nations of the North; while they were rapidly gaining an insight into the most profitable mode of conducting it, and ascertaining the class of goods best adapted for the markets of the East, and the description of vessels most suitable for carrying on the trade.

Rapid increase of the trade of Flanders.

The people occupying the Netherlands, observing on the one hand how English genius and energy were being wasted in war, and, on the other, perceiving the vast progress of the Italian republics, and the wealth which their inhabitants had accumulated by their intercourse with the East, endeavoured, and with success, to imitate their example. Besides being carriers by sea they became themselves large manufacturers, opening up an extensive trade with Persia through the medium of Constantinople, and enjoying during the reign of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, an amount of prosperity second only to that of Venice, then the chief of the Italian republics. Protected by the franchises which their energy had wrung from their lords paramount, the inhabitants of Flanders were thus induced to apply themselves with vigour to commercial and manufacturing pursuits. Almost every town emulated its neighbour in works of usefulness or taste, exhibiting alike their habits of industry and their inventive genius. Their population increased to an astonishing extent, their wealth in a yet greater ratio; and the modern traveller may note in buildings still extant the superabundant pecuniary resources of that period, and the joint results of freedom from war and of unwearied industry.

Trade between Italy and Flanders.

Somewhere towards the close of the thirteenth century the merchant vessels of the Italian republics first began to frequent the markets of the Netherlands, and in 1318 Venetian ships brought to Antwerp spices, drugs, and silk-stuffs. The Hanseatic League, which had now become a commercial association of considerable importance, readily entered into relations with the Italian traders, so that the markets of Flanders became the best supplied of any in the north of Europe with the products and manufactures of the Mediterranean, Arabia and India, furnishing in exchange from their factories a variety of fine cloths in assortments adapted to the wants of the Eastern people. Thus, while England was distracted and impoverished by war, foreign merchants found safety and protection, and became greatly enriched, under the government of the Count of Flanders. The Flemings were satisfied with moderate duties. Whilst clearing their coasts of pirates and of hostile corsairs to the utmost extent in their power, they in all cases respected the property of shipwrecked vessels, which had too often been considered the prize of any promiscuous wrecker, and encouraged traders from all nations to frequent or settle on the banks of the Scheldt and the Meuse, many of whom realized large profits out of England’s folly or misfortunes.

Commercial importance of Bruges and Antwerp.

During the period of the commercial splendour of the Netherlands, Bruges and Antwerp were the chief entrepôts of the north of Europe for foreign goods. The former of these, in the course of the fourteenth century, had successfully negotiated favourable commercial treaties with the German empire, as also with Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland, and Ireland, which, in the following century, were extended with great advantage to Venice, Genoa, and Aragon; but, towards the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century Bruges was surpassed by Antwerp, where, after the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape, Flemish vessels trading with the East landed their cargoes. Antwerp had, indeed, previously to that period enjoyed a large and profitable maritime commerce. Apart from the many advantages which the port possessed, the liberal policy established by the Duke of Brabant and the privileges he conferred on foreigners had induced English, German, Genoese, and Florentine merchants to make it a rendezvous for their ships, and a depôt for storing their goods, whence they were distributed throughout the continent and the whole of the north of Europe.