On the other hand, the complaints of the Hanse Towns merchants were not confined to losses sustained by the piratical acts of the cruisers, who, after due inquiry, really appear to have been the greatest delinquents; they alleged also not a few infringements by English traders of their chartered privileges. They urged that many new charges and duties had been exacted from their goods and shipping; that, besides the ancient duty of 3s. 4d. upon every sack of wool, a charge of 1s. 7d. was imposed by the town of Calais; that the officers of the Customs over-rated the value of their goods, exacting duties for various kinds of cloths formerly exempted by the charter of merchants; that, in order to remove their goods from one port of England to another, they had to pay duties twice over; and that needless delays were created, whereby they often lost the market for their goods, which were, further, sometimes damaged by lying three or four weeks on the wharves. This, they asserted, was mainly due to the neglect of the officers of the Customs. The English commissioners retorted that the Hanse merchants had combined to destroy the commerce and manufactures of England by refusing to hold intercourse with their merchants in the Hanse Towns, or to buy English cloth from Englishmen, and that they had even imposed fines on those who had English cloth in their possession. They accused them also of passing the goods of merchants not belonging to the Hanse under their name, to avoid paying the proper duties.[616]
These differences, which had their origin mainly in absurd laws framed to protect one nation from competition with another, though, in reality, by endeavouring to put a stop to all intercourse between nations, affording encouragement to violent dissensions, private warfare and piracy, were at last settled by the payment of modified sums to each of the claimants; but while England had to pay 32,326 nobles, there was found to be due to her people only 766! a pretty convincing proof that she had been by far the greater delinquent in fitting out these piratical expeditions.
Agreement for guarding the English coasts.
Although Henry made extraordinary exertions to provide England with a royal navy, the entire guardianship of the sea from May 1406 to Michaelmas of the following year was entrusted to her merchant vessels,[617] the law requiring their owners “to maintain certain ships on the seas.” They were further empowered to select out of their body two fit persons, to whom the king granted commissions to act as his admirals. As a recompense for their services, the owners of the vessels thus employed were allowed three shillings per tun on all wines imported during that period, and twelve pence per pound on the value of all other merchandise exported or imported, with the fourth part of the then existing subsidy on wool and leather. Although the king complained shortly after these privileges were granted that “they had not sufficiently guarded the seas according to contract,” the system of entrusting, if not wholly, at least in a great measure, the protection of its shores and maritime commerce to its merchant ship-owners, prevailed for many years: indeed, as already shown, it was upon them that England mainly depended in her maritime wars. In those early days they had also their own wrongs to redress as well as those of the nation.
Henry V., A.D. 1413: his liberal policy, and ambition.
When Henry V. ascended the throne, he, according to Rymer, confirmed the privileges which had been granted by some of his predecessors to foreign merchants and shipping frequenting his kingdom.[618] From the same authority[619] we learn that the king, who held the sole right of drawing bills of exchange for the use of persons visiting the papal court, Venice, and other places abroad, leased this right for three years at the annual rental of 133l. 16s. 8d., afterwards increased to 208l., the contractor being bound not to export any gold or silver on account of the bills he drew. Merchants, however, trading with these places were allowed to draw bills for their merchandise, but for no other purpose. In his reign also the exemption from the obligation of carrying the staple goods to Paris, granted to the commercial states of Italy and Spain by the act of the second year of Richard II., was renewed.
The short and, as it has been called, “brilliant reign of Henry V.” was disastrous to the commercial interests of England, in that it was devoted more to foreign conquests than to the internal affairs of his people. He had, indeed, hardly ascended the throne (March and April 1413), when he resolved to assert his claim to the crown of France by force of arms. Every vessel in England, of twenty tons and upwards, was pressed into the service and ordered to assemble at London, Southampton, Sandwich, Winchelsea, and Bristol, ready for immediate action. Nor could the ports of England supply his wants. Commissioners were despatched to engage on hire whatever vessels could be obtained in Holland and Zealand; his whole force, when collected ready for the invasion of France, consisting of fifteen hundred vessels, English and foreign, manned to a large extent by crews collected through the instrumentality of the press-gang.[620]
The extent of his fleet.
Size and splendour of the royal ships.
Perhaps no finer fleet had before been despatched from the shores of England, but it was created at an enormous cost. In vain the Parliament remonstrated against the outlay, and “humbly” represented that the conquest of France would be the ruin of England, while the merchants and ship-owners, exhausted by former unprofitable wars, were equally opposed to what they considered a vain-glorious expedition. But Henry paid no attention to either their remonstrances or prayers. He had fixed his mind upon the expedition. The expense was to him a matter of little or no consideration. Observing that the vessels brought to the assistance of the French by the Castilians and Genoese were larger and better than any he possessed, he ordered to be built at Southampton[621] the “Trinity,” “Holy Ghost,” and the “Grâce de Dieu,” vessels said, from their size, rig, and power, to have been “such as were never seen in the world before.”[622] But his two flag-ships, styled the king’s chamber and his hall, in one of which he embarked, were, from the descriptions preserved of them, the most magnificent of his fleet. Adorned with purple sails, whereon the arms of England and France were embroidered, they represented this proud monarch’s court and palace upon the sea.