The Turkey Company alone despatched their ships, not yearly, but monthly, indeed almost weekly, thus securing a large proportion of that important trade;[172] while the Muscovy Company, on the other hand, in virtue of their exclusive monopoly, enjoyed with their own ships almost undisputed possession of the maritime commerce of the Baltic.[173]
The Dutch pre-eminent.
The reasons for this pre-eminence.
But though English merchant shipping now stood higher than ever it had done, the Dutch were still far in advance of England, as of all other nations. Their commercial marine had been gradually arriving at its then high state of prosperity, through the efforts of many centuries;[174] the commerce of the north of Europe having, as we have seen, concentrated itself at a somewhat remote period in the Low Countries, and more especially in Holland, where after the destruction of Antwerp, when the States shook off the yoke of Spain, a fortunate combination of circumstances, improved by industry and economy, concurred to render them thus powerful in their commercial marine. No doubt the freedom of her government, tended materially to improve these natural, physical, and adventitious causes. Her fisheries formed a nursery for her seamen, from which her fleets could be constantly reinvigorated with hardy and able sailors. In addition to these highly favourable circumstances, Holland, during the long period that other nations of Europe were engaged in intestine or international wars, contrived generally to avoid intermingling in their affairs or quarrels, moreover was often able to adhere to this policy, partly through her prudence, and, still more so, as her comparatively small territory inspired little jealousy in surrounding nations. Like Tyre of old and Venice in her earlier history, Holland escaped from kindred causes convulsions which overthrew more powerful neighbours.
But apart from other considerations, the maintenance of the power of Holland may be ascribed in great measure to the care with which she always preserved her navy, so necessary in those times, if not to create, at least to maintain her commercial and maritime prosperity. While Spain and Portugal, either from internal corruptions, the supineness of their rulers, or national decay, neglected their navies, Holland zealously maintained a predominating naval force at sea, and was thereby enabled, if not to perpetuate her naval greatness, at least to retard its decline and fall. To her own people and to every foreigner who sought an asylum in her territories, she granted the fullest religious and political freedom, and though it is difficult to trace any special free-trade enactments, as regards her navigation, to which her maritime success can be ascribed, abundant reasons for that success may be seen in her policy of non-intervention with the affairs of other nations, and in the facilities she afforded for the importation of every material suitable for ship-building purposes, and of the wool for her manufactures, which the English people preferred parting with to working it up at home. But, above all, the Dutch owed their success in maritime pursuits to many of the ancient laws of England, which, as we have seen in numerous instances, actually forbad any English exports in home bottoms, thus enabling the Dutch to grasp and keep to themselves large and valuable portions of the carrying trade, and thus laying the foundation of their wealth and greatness.
When the English were at last awakened by the advice of Sir Walter Raleigh and other writers who followed him to a full consciousness of their own strength and of their previous legislative errors, they, with characteristic energy, resolved to adopt the most effective measures then in their power to remedy existing evils, although in attempting to remove the yoke which ancient custom, combined with their own inconsistent and absurd laws, had imposed, they by rushing into the opposite extreme laid the foundation for those stringent navigation laws which, curiously enough, a republic was the first to enforce.
That they had maritime opponents of no ordinary kind to contend against, may be seen in the illustrations of some of the Dutch ships of the period which have been preserved. In the Print-room of the British Museum there will be found a drawing by Hollar of the stern of one of their largest and finest Indiamen, from which [the above] is a copy.
No doubt this vessel was built, like the English Indiamen of much more modern times, so as to be applicable for war when the necessity arose, as well as for the ordinary purposes of commerce; but neither England nor any other nation possessed at that period any vessel engaged in commerce which could be compared to her either in dimensions, construction, or equipment. Indeed the finish of the stern of one of the finest modern vessels of the English navy, The Asia, constructed towards the close of the first quarter of the present century, and of which [this cut] is an illustration, shows no very marked improvement during the two centuries which had elapsed.
