The corruption of the Council extends to the merchants. the markets of Europe. Genoese and Venetian ship-*owners had bought the woollens of England as cargoes for their vessels in preference to all other similar manufactures. Portuguese ships sailed with them from the Thames for the Brazils, Peru, and the Indies, East and West. The Germans on the Rhine, and the Magyars on the Danube, were clothed in English broadcloth. But the spirit of deception which had pervaded the Council in the debasement of its coin extended to the merchants, and the guilds became powerless because their members were corrupt. Huge bales of English goods lay unsold on the wharves at Antwerp, because they were "fraudulent in weight, make, and size." Such was the state of commercial affairs in England when Edward VI. closed his reign, and it was only by the sale of the crown lands, and other property, that the government was enabled to remedy the many evils which a debased currency had created.
Accession of Elizabeth, A.D. 1558.
War with Spain.
Nor did commercial affairs improve when Mary
ascended the throne. Though her marriage with
Philip of Spain may have given English merchants
an increased knowledge of the West Indies, Mexico,
and South America, that unfortunate union became
the source of so much trouble, that the maritime commerce
of England decreased during the five years of
her reign, and, when Elizabeth succeeded her sister,
was even more depressed than it had been at the
death of Edward. The events that followed did not
tend to improve it. The war with Spain, the immediate
result of her accession, if it developed the
energy and daring of English seamen, and opened
wider and richer fields for buccaneering, almost
