XIII

TRADE AND THE TUDORS

ENRY VII. became King in 1485, and in another few years Columbus returned to Europe to announce his great discovery. Both events greatly affected the commerce of England.

For many years before Henry's accession political wars had caused trade to languish, and almost with the retirement of Canynge began a period of depression, during which the name of no great merchant-adventurer stands out conspicuously. The Wars of the Roses had done much to bring the supremacy of the barons to an end, and in its place was to arise the supremacy of the great towns, or in other words the supremacy of the merchants and manufacturers who made the wealth of the towns.

With Henry's reign, then, commerce began to revive. This ruler, whose faults overbalance his virtues, was at least wise enough to learn from history that a progressive country must have a progressive commerce, and that active trade meant a richer state. He therefore did his utmost to foster the greatest wealth-producing power which England contained her unconquerable inclination to trade with the other peoples of the earth.

A contemporary and enthusiastic historian of Henry VII. says: "This good prince by his high policy marvellously enriched his realm and himself and left his subjects in high wealth and prosperity, as is apparent by the great abundance of gold and silver yearly brought in to the

realm by merchants passing and repassing, to whom the King, of his own goods, lent money largely, without any gain or profit, to the intent that merchandise, being of all crafts the chief art, and to all men both most profitable and necessary, might be the more plentifully used, haunted and employed in his realm and dominion." It is a little difficult to read this long sentence without taking breath, and equally difficult to believe that so niggardly a king ever lent anyone anything, at all events without obtaining full interest for it. But there is no doubt that he did leave the country much richer than he found it, and this because he fostered commerce so excellently. There were more matters to be adjusted and corrected, however, than could be made right in one reign, and Henry VIII. was fortunately minded to continue his father's good work. If he did not encourage so much as Henry VII. had done the very expensive and doubtful voyages of discovery, it was because he felt that his country could be best served by steady trade with such places as had already proved profitable sources of supply. This was a wise course from the standpoint of the country no doubt, but one from which certain adventurous spirits departed, more to their fame than profit.

This very arbitrary ruler also granted charters, licences, immunities and the like, but his greatest contribution toward developing trade lay in his efforts to strengthen the English Navy. From time immemorial the English had been a seafaring people. Alfred the Great set an example to future kings by trying to improve the shipping of his time, and each succeeding ruler had done little or much to encourage this branch of industry; but the credit of being the creator of England's maritime greatness belongs to Henry VIII.

Yet for many years after this the Navy depended more upon merchant vessels in time of wars than upon the actual men-of-war in the possession of the Government, and when called upon for aid each city prided itself on

"doing its duty" to its country and its King. Queen Elizabeth put her trust in private enterprise, and considered an annual naval estimate of £4000 as excessive, and when the Spanish Armada threatened England her Navy consisted of only thirty-seven ships and fourteen more hired by her for this special work of defence; but the actual fleet with which Drake met the Spanish admiral numbered one hundred and forty-three vessels. Of these London was asked for ten, and her merchants proudly sent thirty, all completely manned, provisioned and supplied with ammunition. Bristol sent three and a tender, Barnstaple "three merchant ships converted into frigates," Exeter two and "a stout pinnace," Plymouth "seven stout ships in every way equal to the Queen's men-of-war, and a fly boat." We see, therefore, that commerce not only filled the strong-boxes of the people and the Government with gold, but in time of war turned her peaceful merchant ships into fighting ships of line, and assumed the royal privilege of defenders of the country.

Among the most notable and the most famous of the merchants of England during this sixteenth century were the Greshams, of whom Thomas was the greatest merchant prince of them all.

Norfolk was the home of the first Gresham of whom we hear. John Gresham, gentleman, of Gresham, lived in that county in the latter part of the fourteenth century and possessed apparently a fair fortune which he had inherited. His son James was a lawyer, and spent much of his time in London. He removed the family seat from Gresham to a place called Holt, about four miles from the sea on the Norfolk coast. This new estate was in the neighbourhood of busy towns frequented by traders from Flanders, and he no doubt acquired a certain taste for trade from this association. At all events during the latter years of his life he seems to have been a merchant in a small way.