Various similar treaties appear to have been made in the fifth year of Edward’s reign. Desirous of fortifying himself against the rival house of Lancaster by the friendship of continental sovereigns, he entered into treaties of offensive and defensive alliance with as many of the neighbouring nations as possible, including the king of Castile, so that the merchants of each country might, reciprocally, buy and sell whatever merchandise they required, and be treated, in all respects, the same as his own subjects.[641] Moreover, the English people themselves soon perceived the evil effects of a prohibitory system, so that, at their instigation, Edward, in the sixth year of his reign, concluded a treaty with the Netherlands, whereby he and the Duke of Burgundy agreed that, for thirty years, the subjects of both countries were to have free access by land or water, with liberty to buy and sell all kinds of merchandise, except warlike stores, on paying the same duties as were established when formerly commerce had free course between the two countries.[642] Soon afterwards similar commercial treaties were made, with France, the towns of Flanders, and the people of Zealand; and in the fourteenth year of his reign, Edward granted to the Hanse merchants the absolute property of the Steelyard in London, with certain other privileges, which they may be said to have enjoyed, through various changes and vicissitudes, almost to our own time.[643] He also favoured the merchants of Italy with an exemption from most of the additional duties which had been imposed upon them during his own and former reigns.[644]
Treaties of reciprocity.
Extension of distant maritime commerce, A.D. 1485.
These treaties of reciprocity greatly encouraged the ship-owners of England in embarking on more distant voyages. Hitherto, their ships had been confined almost exclusively to a coasting trade with the Baltic and with the Spanish Peninsula. A few only of the more wealthy and enterprising traders had ventured through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean ports; nor, indeed, had even they been able to compete on equal terms with the larger vessels of the north of Europe or with the still superior vessels of the Italian republics which, throughout the middle ages, monopolised the most important and most lucrative branches of the over-sea carrying trade. In the reign, however, of Richard III., English merchants had increased their distant operations to an extent sufficient to justify an application for the appointment of an English consul at Pisa, who should have the power of hearing and of summarily determining all disputes between English subjects resident in Italy or belonging to ships frequenting the ports of that country. Lorenzo Strozzi, a merchant of Florence, was, consequently, at the request of the English merchants then in Italy, appointed the first commercial representative of the English nation in the ports of the Mediterranean.[645]
First English consul in the Mediterranean, A.D. 1490.
The advantages derived from reciprocal intercourse.
From this time the trade of England with the Mediterranean, conducted in her own ships, steadily though slowly, increased. Five years afterwards, a treaty with Florence enabled the English to resort freely to all her territories, and carry thither any kind of lawful merchandise, whether the produce of England or of other countries, not even excepting those countries which might be at war with Florence. On the other hand, the Florentines agreed not to admit any wool produced in the English dominions, if imported in any vessels but those belonging to subjects of England; while the English bound themselves to carry every year to Pisa, the appointed staple port, as much wool as used to be imported annually, on an average of former years, to all the states of Italy, except Venice, unless circumstances, of which the king should be judge, rendered this impracticable. Privileges, similar to those which had been granted to the merchants of the Steelyard, were also then allowed to an association of English traders in Italy. In some respects, indeed, these were even more liberal. Besides having the privilege of forming themselves into a corporate body at Pisa, with power to frame their own regulations and to appoint their own officers, they had placed at their disposal a suitable edifice or a site on which to build one, and were to be independent of the jurisdiction of the city, while enjoying all the advantages of its citizens or those of Florence.[646]
From this period the business of the ship-owner may be considered as distinct from that of the merchant, although, to the present day, many of the latter are still owners of ships. For the first time English ships were engaged in the trade between England and Italy as carriers alone, deriving their remuneration entirely from the amount of freight they earned. About this time, also, the spirit for discovery in far distant and then unknown regions began to open up new and vast fields of employment for merchant shipping, from which England, in after years, derived greater advantages than any other nation.
FOOTNOTES:
[578] Rymer’s Fœd. v. p. 719; Macpherson i. pp. 544-5.