The Maritime Charter of England. of the Acts of 1646 and 1651, and its principles continued in force until the year 1849, when, under a totally different state of circumstances, they gave way to a system more liberal and better adapted to preserve that share of the trade of the world, both as manufacturers and carriers of merchandise, which Great Britain had acquired on the transfer of the maritime power of the Dutch to her own people two centuries before.
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
