Relaxation of the Navigation Act, A.D. 1382-8.
But these evils found their natural remedy: the evasion of such restrictive laws was so general, that those affecting shipping were relaxed almost as soon as they had come into operation. In October, 1382, permission was given to English merchants in foreign ports, if they did not find in them sufficient native tonnage for their purpose, to ship their goods for England in foreign vessels;[595] aliens were allowed[596] to bring fish and provisions into any town or city, preparing them for sale in any manner they pleased; lastly, in 1388, it was enacted, in direct opposition to the recently adopted restrictive policy, that foreign merchants might sell their goods by retail or wholesale in London or elsewhere, any claims or privileges of corporations or individuals notwithstanding, while the late impositions on their merchandise were, at the same time, declared illegal and of no effect.[597]
It is alike curious and instructive to examine the many and inconsistent laws passed about this period to regulate maritime commerce, and to compel Englishmen as well as foreigners to conduct their business otherwise than they would have preferred for their own interests. Thus, in 1390,[598] foreign merchants bringing goods to England were required to give security to the officers of customs at the port of landing, that they would invest half of the proceeds in wool, hides, cloths, lead, tin, or other English commodities; while another law passed in the same year[599] provided that a merchant, drawing a bill of exchange on Rome or elsewhere, should lay out the whole money received for it within three months on articles of English growth or manufacture. But perhaps the most curious and unmeaning Act of this year was one[600] which, in order “to keep up the price of wool,” forbade any Englishman to buy that article from any one but the owners of sheep or of the tithes, unless in the staple, or to purchase wool, except on his own account for sale at the staple, or for manufacture into cloth: he was also forbidden to export either wools, hides, or wool-fells; although, by the same Act, full permission to do so when and how they pleased was granted to foreigners. By another Act, the merchants of England were obliged to export their merchandise in English vessels only; and the ship-owners were desired to carry them for “reasonable freights”!
Free issue of letters of marque, and of commissions for privateering.
Few reigns, in proportion to its extent, were likewise more prolific for the issue of letters of marque than that of Richard II. They were freely granted, for the purpose of revenging or compensating hostile aggressions on individuals, and also to enable the English creditor to recover debts, not only from foreign countries, but likewise from natives of his own country, whose property he could thus conveniently confiscate. Among the most conspicuous of these were the letters granted in 1399 to John de Waghen, of Beverley, against the subjects of the Count of Holland, because that prince had not compelled two of them to pay some money due to Waghen; while orders were actually issued to detain all vessels and property in England, belonging to Holland and Zealand, till the Count should determine this affair “according to justice.”[601] The people of Dartmouth took the lead in these semi-piratical acts, as they held from the king a general privateering commission, whereby they brought away (1385) various rich vessels from the mouth of the Seine, one of which, according to the testimony of Walsingham,[602] bore the name of “Clisson’s Barge”[603] (Clisson being at that time Constable of France), and “had not its equal in England or France;” while one of their merchants, with a fleet of his own, captured no less than thirty-three vessels, with fifteen hundred tuns of Rochelle wine.[604]
Special tax for the support of the Navy, A.D. 1377.
There can be no doubt that, at the period of Richard’s accession, the English navy was in a very neglected state, and wholly unfit to protect even the comparatively small number of English merchant vessels then engaged in foreign commerce. France, with fifty ships under the command of Admiral Sir John de Vienne, had made a descent on Rye, and, after plundering that town and neighbourhood, had levied a contribution of one thousand marks upon the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight; on the same occasion pillaging and burning Hastings, Plymouth, and Dartmouth; while the Scots, under Mercer, one of their most daring adventurers, plundered every English vessel that fell in his way, and thereby realised enormous booty.[605] The English government became, at length, seriously alarmed, and were induced, in October 1377, to pass the first law on record, whereby dues were levied on all merchant vessels frequenting English ports, for the purpose of restoring and maintaining an efficient royal navy.[606] The only exceptions made were those in favour of ships bringing merchandise from Flanders to London, and of the traders from London to Calais with wool and hides; every other vessel leaving the Thames was required to pay sixpence per ton; while a similar tax, payable weekly, was levied on boats engaged in the herring-fisheries, and one-third that amount on all other fishing-boats. A monthly duty of 6d. per ton had likewise to be paid by colliers, as well as by all merchant vessels sailing from any port in England to Russia, Norway, or Sweden.[607] In the belief that the Navy thus created would be applied as proposed, this tax was readily voted and as willingly paid by the shipowners; but, in the end, it was appropriated to entirely different purposes. There seems, in those days, to have been a restless desire, scarcely now wholly forgotten, to interfere with the affairs of other countries. Thus the “grand fleet,” when equipped, sailed under the command of the Duke of Lancaster and besieged St. Malo ineffectually, the natural result being that French cruisers ravaged the coasts of Cornwall, while a combined fleet of French and Spanish galleys sailed up the Thames to Gravesend, plundering and destroying the towns and villages along the Kentish shores.[608]
Superiority of English seamen.
Here again the merchant service came to the timely aid of the state.[609] The hostile galleys, on their way down the Channel with the view of ravaging every defenceless place on the coast, were met by a fleet of west-country merchantmen,[610] who had united for their mutual defence, and thus, for the present, checked their further course. Though their vessels were generally much smaller than those of the Spaniards and often more than over-matched by their superior equipment, the English far surpassed the seamen of the south in daring skill and hardihood. By the boldness of their attack, especially during inclement weather, they often, as in the present instance, achieved victories over their better found and more scientific adversaries. They had, however, a long career of thankless, though of noble and patriotic, struggles. Heavily taxed for the maintenance of a fleet, too often used for purposes of no concern to the nation, they were still obliged to create one of their own to protect their commerce and to defend their homes, at a time, too, when legislative enactments threw nearly the whole of their carrying trade into the hands of aliens and strangers.[611]
Their intrepidity and skill.