From The Sketch We Have Already Given Of English Commerce Prior To The End
Of The Fifteenth Century, It Is Evident That It Was Of Very Trifling Extent
And Amount, Being Confined Chiefly To A Few Articles Of Raw Produce, And To
Some Woollen Goods.
The improvement of the woollen manufacture, the
establishment of corporations, and the settlement of foreign merchants, as
well as
The gradual advancement of the English in the civilization, skill,
and industry of the age, - in the wants which the first occasions, and in
the means to supply those wants afforded by the two latter, - these are the
obvious and natural causes which tended to improve English commerce. But
its progress was slow and gradual, and confined for a long time to
countries near at hand; it afterwards ventured to a greater distance.
Companies of merchant adventurers were formed, who could command a greater
capital than any individual merchant. Of the nature and extent of their
foreign commerce at the close of the fifteenth century we are informed by
an act of parliament, passed in the 12 Hen. VII. (1497.)
From this act it appears, that England traded at this time with Spain,
Portugal, Bretagne, Ireland, Normandy, France, Seville, Venice, Dantzic,
Eastland, Friesland, and many other parts. The woollen cloth of England is
particularly specified as one of the greatest articles of commerce. In a
licence granted by Henry VII. to the Venetians, to buy and sell at London,
and elsewhere in England, Ireland, and Calais, woollen cloth, lead, tin,
and leather, are enumerated as the chief exports. From this document it
also appears, that there resided in or traded to England, the following
foreign merchants: Genoese, Florentines, Luccans, Spaniards, Portuguese,
Flemings, Hollanders, Brabanters, Burgundians, German, Hanseatic, Lombards,
and Easterlings.
From these two documents, the nature and extent of English commerce at this
period may be inferred: its exports were sent as far north as the southern
countries of the Baltic, and to all the rest of Europe, as far south and
east as Venice; but this export trade, as well as the import, seems to have
been almost entirely carried on by foreign capital and ships; the merchant
adventurers having yet ventured very little from home.
In 1511, English commerce, in English ships, extended into the Levant,
chiefly from London, Bristol, and Southampton. Chios, which was still in
the possession of the Genoese, was the port to which they traded. This
branch of trade flourished so much in a few years, that in 1513 a consul,
or protector of all the merchants and other English subjects in Chios, was
appointed. The voyages were gradually lengthened, and reached Cyprus, and
Tripoli, in Syria. The exports were woollen goods, calf-skins, &c.; and the
imports were silks, camblets, rhubarb, malmsey, muscadel, and other wines:
oils, cotton wool, Turkey carpets, galls, and Indian spices. The commerce
was in a small degree carried on by English ships, but chiefly by those of
Candia, Ragusa, Sicily, Genoa, Venice, Spain, and Portugal.
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