1921 THE CORUNNA PACKETS 523 afterwards dropped out, extending the prohibition to all letters and bills of exchange, a matter which, as we shall see, took up later a good deal of attention. The chief struggle had been about the maximum price. The London vintners had represented that this provision would ruin them, and had done their best to get it relaxed in their favour ; but the majority in the houses, whether from a desire to injure France or from a desire to protect British industries or both, refused any mitigation of the policy. During the following winter they twice gave further proof of their determination not to modify it, although now it was the government which sought relief. A cargo of salt had been captured from the French, at a time when the British navy was in need of salt. A bill was therefore introduced to enable this particular cargo to be confiscated for the use of the navy instead of being destroyed in accordance with the statute. It was rejected by the lords. 1 Later a general bill was introduced to apply this principle to all cargoes of salt, but, though brought up from the commons to the lords, was never read there. 2 Only in 1691/2 was an act passed for preserving two ships' ladings of bay-salt for the use of the navy. 3 The intentions of the legislature at the beginning of the war seem to be in agreement with those of the government which made the treaty with the Dutch. There is some room for doubt about their motives and their expectations, but there is not much doubt about what they attempted to do. To pass on, however, to the questions of how far they succeeded, and why it was that they gradually departed from their original plan, is to enter a darker region. It is certain that trade with the enemy went on, but there can be little certainty as to how much, or where, or in what articles. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the great age of smuggling, and it might be expected that the restrictions on enemy trade would be evaded in much the same way as the customs restrictions, by the same men and perhaps, since the profit would be greater, even by a larger proportion of the seafaring population. During the whole war there was a steady run of arrests and convictions. 4 Some of them were for grave offences. Lead was an English article of export, and one that all nations wanted in time of war for making bullets. There were cases of shipmasters who intended to carry lead to France, 5 who tried to do it on pretence 1 Lords' Journals, 23 November/2 December 1689 ; see the draft in House of Lords Papers, 1689-90, p. 349. » Ibid. p. 424. 3 3 William and Mary, c. 4 ; see House of Lords Papers, 1690-1, pp. 444-5.
- Col. of State Papers, Dom., passim. A petition to the commons against various
merchants trading to France is mentioned in the dispatch of Citters to the states - general, 8/18 January 1691/2 (Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 17677). 5 Col. of State Papers, Dom., 10/20 December 1689.
