her agricultural tools, and even her wheel-barrows and cart-wheels from abroad.
The fifth chapter relates to Germany and the Hanse Towns; the sixth to Genoa; the seventh to Venice and Florence; and the eighth to the non-German Hanse Towns, especially those of the Low Countries. These chapters mainly insist upon the evils resulting from English encouragement of foreigners, and upon the advantage to England, should she secure the trade carried on by others, as she might do, were she strong at sea[1]
The ninth chapter contains a survey of the commerce of Ireland, with a suggestion that English trade would he more benefited by a thorough reduction of that island than by all the efforts to conquer France by military methods. The tenth chapter speaks of the trade from Scarborough and Bristol to Iceland and includes an excursus on the importance of Calais. The eleventh chapter is devoted to recalling the naval power of Edgar and of Edward III., and to setting forth the progress made under Henry V. in the construction of larger ships than had been previously built in England.
The twelth and final chapter is recapitulatory, and it closes with a strong exhortation to the people of England to consider the importance of the author’s pleas, and in particular to bear in mind the necessity of maintaining the sovereignty of the seas, whereon the peace, plenty, and prosperity of the island chiefly depend. The spirit of the conclusion strangely recalls the wording of the preamble
- ↑ The evils complained of were already in process of correction. Mr. Oppenheim says: “If the Norman conquest gave the first great impulse to English over-sea trade, the events of the close of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries may be held to mark the second important era in the development of merchant shipping by the opening up of fresh markets. Hitherto, the products of the countries of the Baltic had been mainly obtained through the agency of the merchants of the Hansa, who had their chief factory in London, with branches at York, Lynn, and Boston. In the same way, English exports found their way to the north only through Hansa merchants and in Hausa ships. For two centuries they had held a monopoly of the purchase and export of the products of the north, by virtue of treaties with, and payments made to, the northern powers, and an unlicensed, but very effective, warfare waged on all ships which ventured to trade through the Sound. But the war against Waldemar III. of Denmark, the depredations of the organised pirate republic known as the Victual Brothers, followed by the struggle with Eric XIII. of Sweden, were times of disorder lasting through more than half a century, from which the Hansa emerged nominally victorious, but with the loss of the prestige and vigour that had made its monopoly possible. While it was fighting to uphold its pretensions, the Dutch and English had both seized the opportunity of forcing their way into the Baltic, and when, in 1435, the Hansa extorted from its antagonists a triumphant peace, the real utility of the privileges thus obtained had passed away for ever.”—‘Admin. of Roy. Navy,’ 10, 11.
