His encouragement of maritime commerce,
Beyond the encouragement he afforded to maritime discovery, Henry adopted various measures to promote, as he conceived, the interests of the merchant navy, among others removing the differential duties which had been in force against English shipping; but unfortunately, as has been too frequently the case in the conduct of the navigation laws of England, he adopted a policy of protection almost as ruinous to her commerce as that which had previously conferred special advantages upon the shipping of foreign nations. Thus we find a law of his first parliament[48] prohibiting the importation of Bordeaux wines in any other than English, Irish, and Welsh bottoms, these vessels being manned with sailors wholly of their own countrymen, a law which was, two years afterwards, even further extended and enlarged, the reasons assigned being “that great minishing and decay hath been now of late time of the navy of this realm of England, and idleness of the mariners within the same, by the which this noble realm, within short process of time, without reformation be had therein, shall not be of ability, nor of strength and power, to defend itself.” Of course such reasoning was then unanswerable; indeed, has been held to be so even in our own time. Accordingly it was enacted[49] that no wines of Gascony or Guienne should be imported into England unless in ships belonging to the king (of which, by the way, his Majesty had a goodly number) or to his subjects; nay more, any such wines imported in foreign bottoms were to be forfeited.
Many arguments might, indeed, at that time have been urged in favour of these stringent laws, more especially as the policy of the Italian republics aimed at monopolising in their own ships the transport of all they required, and at rendering their ports the entrepôt for the supply of goods not merely for their own peoples, but for all other nations. Although a difference of opinion has ever existed as to the best means of attaining these objects, Henry VII. lays down sound principles of political economy and liberal sentiments with regard to the advantages to be derived from free intercourse with all nations, in his instructions to the commissioners appointed to negotiate treaties of commercial reciprocity with foreign countries. “The earth,” he says, “being the common mother of all mankind, what can be more pleasant and more humane than to communicate a portion of all her productions to all her children by commerce?” This opinion, though at variance with the laws prohibiting the importation of French wines except in English ships, was practically carried into effect with the maritime states of Italy. His chief object in doing so may have been to obtain reciprocal advantages in their ports, and such was no doubt the case, for it is well known that Henry VII. materially reduced his import duties on the goods of Venice and of other Italian cities, and that he afterwards entered into a liberal commercial treaty with France.
and treaties with foreign nations.
Voyages to the Levant.
On the 1st July, 1486, Henry likewise concluded a treaty with James III. of Scotland, by which a cessation of hostilities by sea and land was stipulated and mutual good will exchanged; while he also procured privileges for English fishermen in Norway and Sweden with the view of giving greater scope to the enterprise of English ship-owners.[50] These liberal measures produced the desired effect. We now[51] read of “tall ships” belonging to London, Southampton, and Bristol making their annual voyages to the Levant; their principal trading places at first being Sicily, Crete, Chios, and sometimes Cyprus, Tripoli, and Beyrout in Syria. Their outward cargoes consisted chiefly of fine kerseys of divers colours, coarse kerseys, and other kinds of cloths, in return for which they obtained silks, camlets, rhubarb, malmseys, muscatel and other wines, sweet oils, cotton, wool, Turkey carpets, galls, pepper, cinnamon and other spices. These details, with particulars of the more important of these voyages, were copied by Hakluyt himself “from certaine auncient Ligier bookes”[52] of Sir William Locke, mercer, of London, Sir Wm. Bowyer, Alderman, and Master John Gresham.
Many of these accounts are interesting and instructive, and two of them may be referred to with advantage as illustrative of the size and character of the ordinary English merchant vessels then trading with the Mediterranean. One of the smaller class, named the Holy Cross, is described as “a short ship of 160 tons burthen.” She traded with Crete and with Chios, and her last voyage seems to have been an unfortunate one. Having been a full year at sea in performance of this voyage, “she with great danger returned home, where, upon her arrival at Blackwall, her wine and oil casks were found so weak that they were not able to hoist them out of the ship, but were constrained to draw them as they lay, and put their wine and oil into new vessels, and so unload the ship.” As to the ship herself, she is described as having been “so shaken in this voyage and so weakened that she was laid up in the dock and never made voyage afterwards.”
As there is no reason for doubting the accuracy of the above statement, it is clear that these English merchantmen must have been badly-built vessels and very slow sailors. Indeed, the description of the voyage of a larger vessel confirms this opinion so far as regards speed. She is spoken of as “the good ship Matthew Gonson, of burthen 300 tons,” and the names of her owner, “old Mr. William Gonson, Pay-master of the King’s Navie,” and of her principal officers are also given. The whole number of this ship’s company is represented to have been one hundred men; she is said to have had “a great boat which was able to carry ten tons of water, which at our return homewards we towed all the way from Chio until we came through the Strait of Gibraltar into the main ocean,” as well as a long-boat and skiff; while it is remarked that, “we were out upon this voyage eleven months, and yet in all this time there died of sickness but one man.”
These are the only extant narratives furnishing any insight into the working of English merchant ships at the beginning of the sixteenth century; but the trade with the Levant must then have been of considerable importance, as an English consul was established at Chios in the year 1513,[53] while English factors were about that period sent to Cuba and the other countries in the West discovered and colonised by the Spaniards.
Leading English shipowners.