Making every allowance for the spirit of exaggeration adopted, doubtless with the laudable intention of inciting English merchants and shipowners to greater exertions, “so that our ships and mariners might be trebled,” there is, nevertheless, in the paper he presented to King James a very large amount of valuable information with regard to the merchant shipping of the period, and much still more valuable advice. It is manifest from what he states that in consequence of the laws which even then greatly favoured foreign shipping, the English stood no chance of competing with the Dutch. But though the shipowners of England were loud in their complaints against the privileges granted to foreign nations, neither their rulers nor they themselves were disposed to entertain Raleigh’s liberal policy. They preferred that of one “Tobias, gentleman fisherman and mariner” [what a number of Tobiases we have had since then!] who afterwards published a pamphlet entitled “The best way to make England the richest and wealthiest kingdom in Europe,” in which he recommends the construction of one thousand busses upon a “national design,”—“each ward in London to provide one Busse, every company, and, if needs be, every parish, one,” in order to compete with the Dutch. To encourage these investments he furnishes an estimate of the capital required and of the probable profits.
His estimate of the profits of busses.
A busse, measuring from sixty to eighty tons, complete for sea, with her fishing implements and appurtenances, would cost, he estimates, somewhere about 500l. sterling, and such a vessel, he calculated, would hold good for twenty years with very little expenditure in the way of repairs, and only about 80l. annually for the wear and tear of her tackle, ropes, masts, and sails. Presuming that the busse caught herrings equal to one hundred last of barrels, which he values at 10l. per last, she would earn in the gross 1000l.; and as he calculates that her expenses, exclusive of tear and wear, would not exceed 335l.,[161] he shows a large and tempting profit to those corporations, companies, and parishes who might be induced to act on his advice. Having satisfied, as he conceives, all pecuniary considerations, he appeals to their patriotism by showing the advantage to the nation of having ready for its service in the hour of need “lusty-fed younkers bred in the Busses, who could furl a top-sail or sprit-sail, or shake out a bonnet in a dark and stormy night, and not shrink from their duty like the surfeited and hunger-pinched sailors who made the southern voyages.” Nor were the proverbial remarks of the Dutch forgotten, who taunted the English with the sneer, “that they would make them wear their old shoes.”
The effect of these publications.
Although this appeal did not produce the desired patriotic effect, it directed public attention to the depressed state of the merchant shipping interest of England, which reached so low an ebb in 1615 that there were only ten ships belonging to the port of London of more than two hundred tons burthen.[162] In that year the corporation of the Trinity House presented a petition to the King pointing out, in very strong terms, the evil results which would ensue from a perseverance of such neglect of the shipping interest, and recommending a highly protective policy; but numerous persons who were deeply interested in maintaining the merchant navy in a high state of prosperity, opposed altogether any measure prohibiting, as had been proposed, the export of British commodities in foreign bottoms. When, however, extremes meet, the necessity of a change becomes apparent, and the unfair advantages so long granted to foreign nations as against English shipping had at length roused the people to adopt those retaliatory measures of legislation which, ignoring Raleigh’s sound advice, eventually culminated in the highly protective maritime laws of Cromwell.
Colonising expeditions to North America.
But amid the depression which then prevailed, English shipowners did not overlook the advantages to be derived from trading with the newly discovered world of North America. Though the expeditions to that country, promoted by Sir Walter Raleigh and his relations, had terminated disastrously, the merchants of London and Bristol frequently despatched small vessels thither with trinkets and articles of little value, exchanging them profitably for the skins and furs of the native Indians. In 1602 Captain Gosnold[163] made for the first time the voyage direct across the Atlantic, without sailing by way of the Canaries round the West Indies and through the Gulf of Florida, as had been the previous practice of navigators. In 1606, two maritime companies, under charter from King James, were authorised to colonise and plant the American coast within the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude. One of these, known as the South Virginia Company, afterwards formed the provinces of Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina; and the second, the “Plymouth Adventurers,” was empowered to establish plantations as far as the 45th degree of latitude, their assignment of territory embracing Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and other New England towns. In the same year the “London Company” sent out two ships and founded “James-Town” in Virginia; and in 1612 Bermuda was also settled.
1625.
Charles I. assumes power over the colonies.
When Charles I. ascended the throne he commenced putting into execution one of those doubtful prerogatives of the crown which, pushed too far, led to a fatal revolution. Either under the pretence or conviction that the government of the transatlantic colonies could be more advantageously carried on by himself and his council, through the intervention of a governor resident on the spot and appointed by the Crown, he assumed the direct government of Virginia, and not only treated the charter of the Company as annulled, but broadly declared that colonies founded by adventurers, or occupied by British subjects, were essentially part and parcel of the dominion of the mother country.[164] The Company very justly complained that they had expended 200,000l. in the Virginian undertaking alone, and as yet had not received any returns. Nevertheless the whole of that province, as also the West India Islands not previously taken possession of and colonised, were occupied, under the authority of the Crown of England, within a few years afterwards. About that period also the Bahama Islands were appropriated, together with North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and the southern part of Louisiana. This immense territory was granted to Robert Heath and his heirs, and afterwards conveyed by him to the Earl of Arundel. In like manner Maryland, previously considered a part of Virginia, became the property of Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, a grant afterwards productive of deep religious animosities, when the Puritans were driven to Virginia. In 1641 Lord Willoughby made a settlement at Surinam on the southern continent of America. The commercial results of these colonisation schemes were at first slow and unsatisfactory, but they eventually exercised a vast influence on merchant shipping, and contributed essentially to the gradual consolidation and greatness of England.