any of the statesmen who, at various periods, had held the chief power in England.
High estimate abroad of English Navigation Laws. For nearly two centuries an opinion had prevailed in England, as well as in all foreign countries carrying on maritime commerce, that the English Navigation Laws, created originally to check, if not to annihilate, the maritime power of Holland, had been the means of raising Great Britain to her unquestioned superiority on the ocean. But this opinion is best answered by the fact that, long after the creation of these laws, the Dutch still remained more powerful at sea than any other nation;[1] while, on the other hand, the shipping of England, under a different policy, has become much more prosperous than it ever was at any period during which the laws of Cromwell were enforced.
Change necessary, Other nations, however, could not fail to see that English shipowners upheld these laws with much tenacity; hence when, on the cessation of the wars of Napoleon, they had more time to devote their attention to individual pursuits, they asked themselves two questions: (1st) if protective laws had been beneficial to English ships, why should they not follow the example of that country and enact for themselves similar laws? and (2nd) if England persisted in excluding their ships from her ports, why should they not treat her vessels in the same
- ↑ In a little book, 'Political Arithmetic,' by Sir William Petty, written about 1675, and published in 1691, the author of it remarks, "The extent of the shipping of Europe being about two millions of tons, I suppose the English have five hundred thousand—the Dutch nine hundred thousand, the French an hundred thousand, the Hamburgers and the subjects of Dantzic two hundred and fifty, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c., two hundred and fifty thousand!" the value of which the author reckoned "at 8l. per tun" (ton).
