PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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This Act was, as might have been expected,
found impracticable, and had to be amended, in
the after its enactment, by a qualification 6 Ric. II. c. 8.
year
that foreign ships might be employed if English
ships were not to be had; and subsequently a
proviso was added, that English ships should 14 Rie. II, c. 6.
take only reasonable freights, which principle appears to have been further carried out in a
C. 14.
Compare
9 Edw. IV, c. 1.
Hen. VII, c. 8.
later reign by a statute fixing the highest rates 32 Henry VIII, of freight to be charged in respect of voyages from London to the principal ports of Europe.
This Act formed the basis of all our legisla. tion till the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by which time the injury it inflicted upon commerce had begun to be sensibly felt. The statute of Henry VIII, already alluded to, which fixes the rates of freight, is a sign of the commencement of a reaction in favour of com-
merce.
The same statute extended certain pri- vileges which had been granted to alien mer- chants importing or exporting goods in English ships, to the case of exports or imports in foreign ships when English were not to be had, and it required English shipowners to give a week's public notice of the sailing of any of their ships. In the following reign, a statute that had been passed in the beginning of Henry VIIth's reign for restricting the importation of French wine and Toulouse woad to English ships, was
4 Hen VII, c. 10.
7 Hen. VIII, c. 2.
23 Hen. VIII, c. 7
virtually repealed; the preamble to the repealing 5 & 6 Edw. VI,
statute stating that the former Act was supposed c. 18.
to be made for the maintenance of the navy, and
in good hope that the articles therein mentioned
would be obtained cheaper; but, on the contrary, those articles daily sold dearer, and the navy was thereby never the better maintained. The statute of Edward VI allowed these articles to be imported in the ships of any country in amity with England, at any time in the year between the months of February and October.
Thus it appears that the restrictions on com- merce were felt as an objection to the then Navi. gation Laws. Another objection was, however, arising also. "The cause of commerce was backed by the jealousy of foreign States, who retaliated our prohibitions to freight foreign ships by making penal laws against such as should ship goods out
1 Elis., c. 13.
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of their countries in any other than the vessels of the country." (Reeves' "Law of Shipping,"
p. 18.) On this account Queen Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign, passed an Act repealing the statutes of Richard II and Henry VII, and leaving it free to the merchant to use any ship he pleased; subject, however, to the necessity of paying the aliens' duty, if he used the ship of an alien.
It is not to be argued that Elizabeth made this alteration owing to her greater sagacity, but simply because it was forced upon her. It was obvious that if foreign nations retaliated upon us, our system must be given up, or com- merce must absolutely come to an end; for if they would admit no goods in English ships, and we would send them in no other, they could not be sent at all. Elizabeth did not abandon the attempt to nurse up a navy by protective laws. She was the first to introduce the reservation of the coasting trade to British shipping; and she gave encouragement to the fisheries, which she reserved to native fishermen, with a view to in- crease her maritime power. She also subse- quently restored the restriction on the importa- tion of wine and woad. Besides, it will be seen that she made a distinction in duty between goods imported in national or in alien vessels. With regard to this last point it may be ob- served, that the policy of imposing additional burdens upon alien merchants was adopted at that time by nearly every State in Europe, with one remarkable exception. The exception
is in the case of Holland; and it is to the great privileges which they gave to foreigners, to the lowness of their customs duties, the absence of commercial restrictions of any kind, and the immense increase of commerce consequent upon all these causes, that the Dutch owed the extra- ordinary maritime pre-eminence which they attained.
From the time of Elizabeth to that of Crom- well, the Law of Navigation was very similar to that which is now adopted by most of those foreign countries which have any navigation laws at all; that is to say, foreign vessels were al- lowed (generally speaking) to import and export
D