WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 61
prosperity of the country and by the voyages of Drake and other seamen, and Burghley's connec- tion with and attitude towards these matters must be briefly defined. From his earliest days of authority he had done everything in his power to encourage the trading classes and to protect and expand commerce. In the first year of his Secretaryship, under Edward VI., he had done away with the privileges of the merchants of the Stillyard, to the great advantage of English traders. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth, he was responsible for the reform of the currency, fine silver coin being substituted for the base money issued by her predecessors ; and by this measure, aided by economy in administration and the prevention of waste, he had in a very short time reduced the financial chaos to order and restored the national credit. He was always on the look-out for an opportunity to introduce new industries, and established communities for foreign weavers in Stamford and other towns.
Above all he encouraged and subsidised ship- building and foreign trade. " A realm can never be rich," he said, " that hath not an intercourse and trade of merchandise with other nations," and he added a maxim often forgotten at the present day, " A realm must needs be poor that carryeth not out more than it bringeth in." 1 When the Spanish Ambassador complained of English expeditions to the Gold Coast, Cecil replied, " that the Pope had no right to partition
1 Peck.
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