Its main provisions recited.
Trade with the Dutch prohibited.
The Act of Charles apparently modified Cromwell’s law, by making the prohibition of “the importation of foreign commodities, except in British ships, or in ships belonging to the country or place where the goods were produced,” to apply only to the goods of Russia and Turkey and to certain other specified articles, which could not be imported into the United Kingdom except in British ships. But as the enumerated articles comprehended almost all the chief articles of freight, it can scarcely be said that any relaxation of the principles of Cromwell’s law was thus sanctioned. At all events, the supplemental statute of the 14th Charles II. fully carried into effect the declared intentions of the Legislature. By this Act all importation of a long list of enumerated goods, whether from Holland, the Netherlands, or Germany, was prohibited under any circumstances and in any vessels, British or foreign, under the penalty of the seizure and confiscation of the ships and goods.
The Dutch navigation seriously injured.
It would be vain to deny that, whatever prospective results in after times were produced by these laws, the Dutch trade and navigation suffered most seriously from them. The triumphant career of Blake against the Spanish navy in the Mediterranean had previously crippled the maritime power of Spain. The English had acquired a vast territory in North America, and rich islands in the West Indies with a virgin soil. In the East they had surmounted their first difficulties in making settlements, and only required such protection as their own government could supply to become the general carriers of Indian produce to the chief consuming nations of Europe. As it was idle to expect relaxations of their prohibitive systems from France, Spain, or Portugal, the Parliament and the people saw clearly the necessity of maintaining at all hazards the maritime superiority of England, and by such means too as were then within their reach.
Fresh war with the Dutch, 1664.
Its naval incidents.
Action off Harwich, 1665.
The Dutch perceived in these regulations the augury of their maritime downfall, and a fresh war in consequence supervened, the origin of which we need not here discuss; indeed many circumstances concurred to bring about this second rupture. France had endeavoured, by secret intrigues, to embroil the English and the Dutch, in order that when their fleets had been crippled and destroyed, she might step in and acquire an undisputed maritime ascendency. The conduct of the Dutch on the coast of Africa in excluding the African Company from trading to that country had given great umbrage. The King sent a fleet there, doubtless with no friendly intentions. On the other hand the Dutch complained that the English had forbidden the importation of Dutch commodities into England. The two countries were therefore ripe for a fresh war, but the Dutch endeavoured to gain time, so that their fleet of merchantmen might reach home previously to the declaration of war. Charles, however, without waiting for a formal declaration of hostilities, seized one hundred and thirty of their ships, laden with wine and brandy, homeward bound from Bordeaux, conveying them into English ports, where they were condemned as lawful prizes. Though such an act was rightly condemned as unjustifiable by the law of nations, the voice of the people forced the King into the war, and his desire to gain prize-money only accorded too well with the eagerness of the shipowners to plunge into another struggle with their powerful commercial opponents. War was consequently again declared, and a battle off Harwich took place on the 3rd (or 14th N. S.) of June 1665. The Dutch fleet under Cortenaar, Evertz, and Cornelis van Tromp, son of the famous Martin Tromp, was ordered to seek out the English, whose fleet was under the command of the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and the Earl of Sandwich. It is unnecessary to detail the particulars of this celebrated engagement; suffice it to say that the Dutch lost nineteen ships, burnt and sunk, with about six thousand men. The English lost only four vessels, and about fifteen hundred men; but the Dutch retired, with their remaining ships, to their own coasts, and the Duke of York refrained from pursuing them.[184]
Dutch Smyrna fleet.