A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 22

The Dutch, he adds, have a regular trade to England with 500 or 600 vessels annually, whereas we trade, not with fifty to their country. After entering into details respecting the Dutch fishery, by means of which, he says, they sell herrings annually to the value of upwards of one million and a half sterling, whereas England scarcely any, he reverts to the other branches of Dutch commerce, as compared with ours. The great stores of wines and salt, brought from France and Spain, are in the Low Countries: they send nearly 1,000 s.h.i.+ps yearly with these commodities into the east countries alone; whereas we send not one s.h.i.+p. The native country of timber for s.h.i.+ps, &c.

is within the Baltic; but the storehouse for it is in Holland; they have 500 or 600 large s.h.i.+ps employed in exporting it to England and other parts: we not one. The Dutch even interfere with our own commodities; for our wool and woollen cloth, which goes out rough, undressed, and undyed, they manufacture and serve themselves and other nations with it. We send into the east countries yearly but 100 s.h.i.+ps, and our trade chiefly depends upon three towns, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Dantzic; but the Low Countries send thither about 3,000 s.h.i.+ps: they send into France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, about 2,000 s.h.i.+ps yearly with those east country commodities, and we, none in that course. They trade into all cities and port towns of France, and we chiefly to five or six.

The Low Countries have as many s.h.i.+ps and vessels as eleven kingdoms of Christendom have; let England be one. For seventy years together, we had a great trade to Russia (Narva), and even about fourteen years ago, we sent stores of goodly s.h.i.+ps thither; but three years past we sent out four thither, and last year but two or three s.h.i.+ps; whereas the Hollanders are now increased to about thirty or forty s.h.i.+ps, each as large as two of ours, chiefly laden with English cloth, herrings, taken in our seas, English lead, and pewter made of our tin. He adds, that a great loss is suffered by the kingdom from the undressed and undyed cloths being sent out of the kingdom, to the amount of 80,000 pieces annually; and that there had been annually exported, during the last fifty-three years, in baizes, northern and Devons.h.i.+re kersies, all white, about 50,000 cloths, counting three kersies to one cloth.

Although there is undoubtedly much exaggeration in the comparative statement of the Dutch and English commerce and s.h.i.+pping in the details, yet it is a curious and interesting doc.u.ment, as exhibiting a general view of them. Indeed, through the whole of the seventeenth century, the most celebrated and best informed writers on the commerce of England dwell strongly on the superior trade of the Dutch, and on their being able, by the superior advantages they enjoyed from greater capital, industry, and perseverance, aided by the greater encouragement they gave to foreigners as well as their own people, to supply the greatest part of Europe with all their wants, though their own country was small and unfertile. A similar comparative statement to that of Raleigh is given by Child in 1655; he a.s.serts that in the preceding year the Dutch had twenty-two sail of great s.h.i.+ps in the Russia trade,--England but one: that in the Greenland whale fishery, Holland and Hamburgh had annually 400 or 500 sail,--and England but one last year: that the Dutch have a great trade for salt to France and Portugal, with which they salt fish caught on our coasts; that in the Baltic trade, the English have fallen off, and the Dutch increased tenfold.

England has no share in the trade to China and j.a.pan: the Dutch a great trade to both countries. A great part of the plate trade from Cadiz has pa.s.sed from England to Holland. They have even bereaved us of the trade to Scotland and Ireland. He concludes with pointing out some advantages England possesses over Holland: In the Turkey, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese trades, we have the natural advantage of our wool:--our provisions and fuel, in country places, are cheaper than with the Dutch;--our native commodities of lead and tin are great advantages:--of these, he says, as well as of our manufactures, we s.h.i.+p off one-third more than we did twenty years ago; and he adds, that we have now more than double the number of merchants and s.h.i.+pping that we had twenty years ago.

He mentions a circ.u.mstance, which seems to indicate a retrograde motion of commerce, viz., that when he wrote most payments were in ready money; whereas, formerly, there were credit payments at three, six, nine, twelve, and even eighteen months. From another part of his work, it appears that the tax-money was brought up in waggons from the country.

The gradual advancement of a nation in knowledge and civilization, which is in part the result of commerce, is also in part the cause of it. But besides this advancement, in which England partic.i.p.ated with the rest of Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were other circ.u.mstances peculiar to this country, some of which were favourable, and others unfavourable to the increase of its commerce.

Among the favourable circ.u.mstances may be reckoned the taking away of the exclusive privileges of the steelyard merchants by Edward VI., by which native merchants were encouraged, private companies of them formed, and the benefits of commerce more extensively diffused:--the encouragement given by Elizabeth, particularly by her minister Cecil, to commerce; this was so great and well directed, that the customs which had been farmed, at the beginning of the reign, for 14,000_l_. a year, towards its close were fanned for 50,000_l_.;--the pacific character of James I., and the consequent tranquillity enjoyed by England during his reign;--the strong and general stimulus which was given to individual industry, by the feeling of their own importance, which the struggle between Charles I. and the Parliament naturally infused into the great ma.s.s of the people;--the increased skill in maritime affairs, which was produced by our naval victories under Cromwell;--the great vigour of his government in his relations with foreign powers; and the pa.s.sing of the navigation act. The Restoration, bringing a great fondness for luxury and expence, naturally produced also exertions to gratify that fondness. If to these and other causes of a similar nature, we add the introduction of East India commodities direct to England, and the import trade to the West Indies and America, the emigration of the industrious Flemings during the Spanish wars in the Low Countries, and of the French after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, we shall have specified most of the efficient circ.u.mstances, which, in conjunction with the progress of mankind in industry and civilization, were beneficial to our commerce.

The causes and circ.u.mstances which were unfavourable to it during the same period are much fewer in number; and though some of them were powerful, yet, even these, for the most part, when they ceased to operate, gave birth to a reaction favourable to commerce. The more general causes may be sought for in the erroneous notions entertained respecting commerce, in consequence of which monopolies were granted, especially in the reign of James I.; and laws were made to regulate what would have gone on best, if it had been left to itself. The civil wars, and the emigration occasioned by them, and the religious persecutions in the time of Mary, Elizabeth, and Charles, may be regarded as the most remarkable particular causes and circ.u.mstances, which were injurious to commerce.

We must again lay down the position, that in what respects the improvement of a country in industry and wealth, whether agricultural manufacturing, or commercial, the same circ.u.mstances may often be viewed in the light both of effect and cause. This position will be clearly ill.u.s.trated by a very common and plain case. The trade in a certain district improves, and of course requires more easy and expeditious communication among different parts of this district: the roads are consequently made better, and the waggons, &c. are built on a better construction; these are the effects of an improved trade: but it is plain that as by the communication being thus rendered quicker, the commodities interchanged can be sold cheaper, a greater quant.i.ty of them will be sold; and thus better roads, which in the first instance proceeded from an improvement in trade, will, when made, improve the trade still more.

We have introduced these observations as preparatory to our notice of the establishment of the Bank of England. This undoubtedly was the effect of our increased commercial habits, but it was as undoubtedly the cause of those habits becoming stronger and more general: it supposed the pre-existence of a certain degree of commercial confidence and credit, but it increased these in a much greater ratio than they existed before: and if England owes its very superior wealth to any other causes besides its free government, its superior industry, and improvements in machinery, those causes must be sought for in the very extensive diffusion of commercial confidence and credit. The funding system, which took place about the same, time that the Bank of England was established, may be regarded as another powerful cause of the increase of our commerce: we do not mean to contend that the national debt is a national blessing, but it is certain that the necessity of paying the interest of that debt produced exertions of industry, and improvements in manufactures, which would not otherwise, have been called forth; while, on the other hand, the funds absorbed all the superfluous capital, which, otherwise, as in Holland, must have had a bad effect on commerce, either by reducing its profits very low, or by being transferred to other countries; and the interest, which so many individuals felt in the stability of the funds, induced them most steadily and strongly to support government.

The commerce of Scotland and Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, supplies us with very few materials. In the year 1544, Scotland must have had no inconsiderable foreign trade, as in the war which took place at this time between that country and England, twenty-eight of the princ.i.p.al s.h.i.+ps of Scotland, laden with all kinds of rich merchandize, were captured by the English, on their voyage from France, Flanders, Denmark, &c.; and in the same year, when the English took Leith, they found more riches in it than they had reason to expect. While Scotland and England were at peace, however, the former was princ.i.p.ally supplied through the latter with the commodities which Antwerp, during the sixteenth century, dispersed over all Europe. The exports of Scotland to Antwerp, &c. were indeed direct, and consisted princ.i.p.ally, as we have already remarked from Guicciardini, of peltry, leather, wool, indifferent cloth, and pearls.

The earliest account which occurs of the Scotch carrying on commerce to any port out of Europe, is in the year 1589, when three or four Scotch s.h.i.+ps were found at the Azores by the earl of c.u.mberland. In the year 1598, it appears, from a letter of king James to Queen Elizabeth, that some Scotch merchants traded to the Canaries. There is evidence that the Scotch had some commerce in the Mediterranean in the beginning of the seventeenth century; for in the "Cabala," under the year 1624, the confiscation of three Scotch s.h.i.+ps at Malaga is noticed, for importing Dutch commodities.

The princ.i.p.al articles of export from Scotland to foreign countries consisted of coa.r.s.e woollen stuffs and stockings, linen goods, peltry, leather, wool, pearls, &c. The princ.i.p.al imports were wine and fruits from France, wine from Spain and Portugal, the finer woollen goods from England, timber, iron, &c. from the Baltic, and sugars, spices, silks, &c. from Antwerp, Portugal, &c.

The following statement, with which we shall conclude our account of Scotch commerce, is interesting, as exhibiting a view of the commercial intercourse by sea between England and Scotland, from the commencement of the inspector general's accounts in 1697, to the Union in 1707.

England received from Scotland Scotland received from England Merchandize to the value of merchandize to the value of

1697. 91,302 73,203 1698. 124,835 58,043 1699. 86,309 66,303 1700. 130,087 85,194 1701. 73,988 56,802 1702. 71,428 58,688 1703. 76,448 57,338 1704. 54,379 87,536 1705. 57,902 50,035 1706. 50,309 60,313 1707. 6,733 17,779

The earliest notices of Irish trade, to which we have already adverted, particularly mention linen and woollen cloth, as two of the most considerable articles of export from that country. Hides, wool, fish of different kinds, particularly salmon, and the skins of martins, otters, rabbits, sheep, kids, &c. are also specified, as forming part of her early export. From Antwerp in the middle of the sixteenth century she received spices, sugar, silks, madder, camblets, &c. Pipe staves were a considerable article of export in the beginning of the seventeenth century; they were princ.i.p.ally sent to the Mediterranean. In 1627 Charles issued a proclamation respecting Ireland, from which we learn that the princ.i.p.al foreign trade of Ireland was to Spain and Portugal, and consisted in fish, b.u.t.ter, skins, wool, rugs, blankets, wax, cattle, and horses; pipe staves, and corn; timber fit for s.h.i.+p-building, as well as pipe staves, seem at this period to have formed most extensive and valuable articles of export from Ireland. In the middle of this century, Irish linen yarn was used in considerable quant.i.ties in the Manchester manufactures, as we have already noticed. The importation into England of fat cattle from Ireland seems to have been considerable, and to have been regarded as so prejudicial to the pasture farmers of the former country, that in 1666 a law was pa.s.sed laying a heavy duty on their importation. This statute proving ineffectual, another was pa.s.sed in 1663, enacting the forfeiture of all great cattle, sheep, swine, and also beef, pork, or bacon, imported from Ireland. Sir W.

Petty remarks, that before this law was pa.s.sed, three-fourths of the trade of Ireland was with England, but not one-fourth of it since that time. Sir Jonah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, describes the state of Ireland as having been much improved by the soldiers of the Commonwealth settling there; through their own industry, and that which they infused into the natives, he adds, that Ireland was able to supply foreign markets, as well as our plantations in America, with beef, pork, hides, tallow, bread, beer, wood, and corn, at a cheaper rate than England could afford to do. Though this country, as we have seen, exported linen goods at a very early period, yet this manufacture cannot be regarded as the staple one of Ireland, or as having contributed very much to her foreign commerce, till it flourished among the Scotch colonists in Ulster towards the middle of the seventeenth century. As soon as they entered on it with spirit, linen yarn was no longer exported to Manchester and other parts of England, but manufactured into cloth in Ireland, and in that state it formed the chief article of its commerce. The woollen manufactures of Ireland, which were always viewed with jealousy by England, and were checked in every possible manner, gradually gave way to the restraints laid on them, and to the rising and unchecked linen manufacture, and of course ceased to enter into the exports.

The commerce of Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was kept low, by ignorance and want of industry, by the disturbed state of the country, by disputes between the king and n.o.bility, and, till the union of the crowns, by wars with England. The commerce of Ireland had still greater difficulties to struggle with; among which may be mentioned the ignorant oppression of the English government in every thing that related to its manufactures or trade.

The commerce of France, during the sixteenth century, presents few particulars worthy of notice; that, which was carried on between it and England, was princ.i.p.ally confined to the exportation of wines, fruit, silk and linen, from France; and woollen goods, and tin and lead, from England.

There seems to have been a great exchange between the woollens of England and the linens of Bretagne. The French, however, like all the other nations of Europe at this period, were ignorant of the principles, as well as dest.i.tute of the enterprize and capital essential to steady and lucrative commerce; and amply deserve the character given of them by Voltaire, that in the reign of Francis I., though possessed of harbours both on the ocean and Mediterranean, they were yet without a navy; and though immersed in luxury, they had only a few coa.r.s.e manufactures. The Jews, Genoese, Venetians, Portuguese, Flemings, Dutch, and English, traded successively for them. At the very close of this century we have a very summary account of the commerce of France by Giovani Bolero. France, says he, possesses four magnets, which attract the wealth of other countries;--corn, which is exported to Spain and Portugal;--wine, which is sent to Flanders, England, and the Baltic;--salt, made by the heat of the sun on the Mediterranean coast, and also on that of the ocean, as far north as Saintoigne; and hemp and cloth, of which and of cordage great quant.i.ties are exported to Lisbon and Seville:--the exportation of the articles of this fourth cla.s.s, he adds, is incredibly great.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, the finer manufactures of woollen and silken goods having been carried to great perfection in France, her exports in these articles were greatly increased. In the political testament of Richelieu, we are informed that a considerable and lucrative trade in these articles was carried on with Turkey, Spain, Italy, &c., and that France had driven, in a great measure, out of those markets the serges of Milan, the velvets of Genoa, and the cloth of gold of Italy.

Early in the reign of Louis XIV., Colbert directed his attention to the improvement of manufactures and commerce; and though many of his plans were frustrated from the operation of causes over which he had no control, and princ.i.p.ally because he went before the age in which he lived, yet there can be no doubt that to him France was indebted for the consolidation, extension, and firm footing of her commerce. Immediately before the revocation of the edict of Nantes, her commerce was at its greatest heighth, as the following estimates of that she carried on with England and Holland will prove. To the former country the exportation of manufactured silks of all sorts is said to have been to the value of 600,000_l_.;--of linen, sail-cloth, and canva.s.s, about 700,000_l_.;--in beaver hats, watches, clocks, and gla.s.s, about 220,000_l_.;--in paper, about 90,000_l_.;--in iron ware, the manufacture of Auvergne, chiefly, about 40,000_l_.;--in shalloons, tammies, &c. from Picardy and Champagne, about 150,000_l_.;--in wines, about 200,000_l_.; and brandies, about 80,000_l_.

The exports to Holland, shortly before the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in silks, velvets, linen, and paper, are estimated at 600,000_l_.; --in hats, about 200,000_l_.;--in gla.s.s, clocks, watches, and household furniture, about 160,000_l_.;--in small articles, such as fringes, gloves, &c., about 200,000_l_.;--in linen, canva.s.s, and sail cloth, about 160,000_l_.; and in saffron, dye-wood, woollen yarn, &c., about 300,000_l_.

In the year 1700 a council of commerce was const.i.tuted in France, consisting of the princ.i.p.al ministers of state and finance, and of twelve of the princ.i.p.al merchants of the kingdom, chosen annually from Paris, Rouen, Bourdeaux, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles, Roch.e.l.le, Nantes, St. Maloe, Lisle, Bayonne, and Dunkirk.

From the first report of this board, we gain some information of the state of French commerce at this time; according to it, the French employed in their West India and Guinea trade only 100 vessels, whereas the English employed 500. The princ.i.p.al articles they drew from these islands were sugar, indigo, cotton, cocoa, ginger, &c. The exclusive trades formed in 1661, when France was little versed in commerce and navigation, are deprecated: the chief of them were, that granted to Ma.r.s.eilles for the sole trade to the Levant;--the East India Company;--the prohibiting foreign raw silk to be carried to Paris, Nismes, Tours, &c., till it had pa.s.sed through Lyons;--the Canada and Guinea Companies, besides various farms or monopolies of certain merchandize in trade: the princ.i.p.al of these last was lead from England, with which, made into shot, the persons who had the monopoly supplied not only France, but, through France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Levant, and the French West Indies.

The report contains some information respecting the comparative commerce of France, and the other nations of Europe. The Spaniards, it is observed, though they possess within their own country wool, silk, oil, wine, &c., and are in no want of good ports, both on the ocean and Mediterranean, nevertheless neglect all these advantages. Hence it happens that the raw silk of Valencia, Murcia, and Grenada, is exported to France: the wool of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Leon, to England, Holland, France, and Italy; and these raw articles, when manufactured, are sent back to Spain, and exchanged for the gold and silver of the American mines. France also supplies Peru and Mexico, through Spain, receiving in return, cochineal, indigo, hides, &c., besides a balance of eighteen or twenty million of livres, and by the flotas, seven or eight million more. The report adds, on this head, that latterly the English and Dutch have interfered with some branches of this trade with Spain; and it also complains that the former nation carry on the Levant trade to much more advantage than the French, their woollen cloths being better and cheaper. The English also carry to the Levant, lead, pewter, copperas, and logwood, together with a great deal of pepper;--with these, and the money received on the coasts of Portugal, Spain and Italy, for the dry fish and sugar they sell there on their outward voyage, they purchase their homeward cargoes. This superiority of England over France in the Levant trade, is ascribed in the report to the monopoly enjoyed by Ma.r.s.eilles.

The report, in relation to the commerce of France with the northern nations of Europe, observes, that it appears from the custom books, that the Dutch had possession of almost the whole of it. The Dutch also are accused of having, in a great measure, made themselves masters of the inland trade of France. In order to secure to this latter country the direct trade with the north of Europe, certain plans are suggested in the report; all of which were objected to by the deputies from Nantes, princ.i.p.ally, it would seem, on the ground, that the Dutch trade to the Baltic was so well settled, that it governed the prices of all the exports and imports there, and that the Dutch gave higher prices for French goods than could be obtained in the Baltic for them, while, on the other hand, they sold at Amsterdam Baltic produce cheaper than it could be bought in the Baltic. One objection to a direct trade between France and the Baltic affords a curious and instructive proof of the imperfect state of navigation at this time, that is, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The deputy from Ma.r.s.eilles urged that the voyage from Dantzic, or even from Copenhagen to Ma.r.s.eilles, was too long for a s.h.i.+p to go and come with certainty in one season, considering the ice and the long nights; and that therefore, there is no avoiding the use of entrepots for the trade of Ma.r.s.eilles. Mr. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, very justly observes, "that the dread of a long voyage from the north to the south parts of Europe, contributed, in a great measure, to make Antwerp, in former times, the general magazine of Europe."

The decline of the commerce of the Italian states, in consequence of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, has been already mentioned; their efforts however to preserve it were vigorous, and we can trace, even in the middle of the sixteenth century, some Indian commerce pa.s.sing through Venice. Indeed in the year 1518, Guicciardini informs us that there arrived at Antwerp, five Venetian s.h.i.+ps laden with the spices and drugs of the East: and 1565, when the English Russia Company sent their agents into Persia, they found that the Venetians carried on a considerable trade there; they seem to have travelled from Aleppo, and to have brought with them woollen cloths, &c. which they exchanged for raw silks, spices, drugs, &c. The agents remarked, that much Venetian cloth was worn in Persia: in 1581, Sir William Monson complains that the Venetians engrossed the trade between Turkey and Persia, for Persian and Indian merchandize. In 1591, when the English Levant Company endeavoured to establish a trade over land to India, and for that purpose carried some of their goods from Aleppo to Bagdat, and thence down the Tigris to Ormus and to Goa, they found that the Venetians had factories in all these places, and carried on an extensive and lucrative trade. It is difficult to perceive how Indian commodities brought by land to Europe, could compete with those which the Portuguese brought by sea. The larger capital, more numerous connexions, greater credit, and skill of the Venetians, must however have been much in their favour in this compet.i.tion.

We have noticed that, even so late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, a voyage from Ma.r.s.eilles to the Baltic and back again, was thought by French navigators an impracticable undertaking in the course of one year; and yet a century earlier, viz. in 1699, Venice sent at least one s.h.i.+p annually for Archangel: the first instance we believe of a direct commercial intercourse between the northern and southern extreme seas of Europe.

We must turn to the northern nations of Europe, Sweden, Denmark and Russia, and glean what few important materials we can respecting their commerce during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We have already seen that the commerce of the Scandinavian nations of the middle ages was by no means despicable, though it was chiefly confined to Britain and Iceland, and among themselves: the establishment of the Hanseatic League, some of the cities composing which lay in the Baltic, gradually made the Scandinavian nations better known, and by creating a demand for their produce, stimulated them to industry and commerce. In a poor country, however, with a sterile soil and ungenial climate; where winter prevented intercourse by sea, for several months every year, capital must increase very slowly, and commerce, reciprocally the cause and effect of capital, equally slow.

Besides the piratical habits of the early Scandinavians, were adverse to trade; and these habits shed their influence even after they were discontinued. But though the Scandinavian nations were long in entering into any commercial transactions of importance, yet they contributed indirectly to its advancement by the improvements they made in s.h.i.+p-building, as well as by the ample materials for this purpose which their country supplied. Their s.h.i.+ps indeed were constructed for warfare, but improvements in this description of s.h.i.+ps naturally, and almost unavoidably, led to improvements in vessels designed for trade. In 1449, a considerable commerce was carried on between Bristol, and Iceland, and Finmark, in vessels of 400, 500, and even 900 tons burden, all of which, there is reason to believe, were built in the Baltic; and, about six years afterwards, the king of Sweden was the owner of a s.h.i.+p of nearly 1000 tons burden, which he sent to England, with a request that she might be permitted to trade.

Gustavus I. who reigned about the beginning of the sixteenth century, seems to have been the first Swedish king who directed the attention and industry of his subjects to manufactures and commerce; but, in the early part of his reign, the inhabitants of Lubec had the monopoly of the foreign trade of Stockholm. This sovereign, in 1540, entered into a commercial treaty with Francis I., King of France; the princ.i.p.al article of which was, that the Swedes should import their wine, salt, &c. directly from France, instead of obtaining them indirectly from the Dutch. The conquest of Revel by Sweden, and the consequent footing obtained in Livonia, in 1560, greatly increased its commerce and wealth; while important improvements were introduced into its manufactures of iron a few years afterwards by the Flemings, who fled there on the destruction of Antwerp. Prior to their arrival, most of the Swedish iron was forged in Dantzic and Prussia; but they not only taught the Swedes how to forge it, but also how to make iron cannon, and other iron, copper, and bra.s.s articles. The Swedes had from an early period, been sensible of the real riches of their territory, and how much their timber, iron, pitch, and tar, were converted for maritime and other purposes. The pitch and tar manufacture especially had long const.i.tuted a very considerable part of their commerce. In 1647, Queen Christiana very unwisely granted a monopoly of these articles, which was productive of the usual effects, injury to commerce, without a correspondent benefit to those who held it. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the tar company in Sweden not only put a very high price on their goods, but refused to sell them, even for ready money, unless they were exported in Swedish vessels.

In consequence of this, England began at this period to encourage the importation of tar, pitch, hemp, and naval timber, from her American colonies.

The commerce of Denmark, besides its common origin with that of the rest of Scandinavia, seems, in the middle ages, to have been chiefly nourished by two circ.u.mstances:--The trade which Iceland carried on, and the establishment of Bergen, first as the staple of the German merchants, and afterwards as the chief factory of the Hanse merchants. In 1429, it was also established by the king of Denmark, as the sole staple for the fish trade. In 1553, its trade began to decline, in consequence, it is said, of its being deserted by the Hanseatics. The historian of the Hanseatic League adds, that "whereas the ancient toll of the Sound had been only a golden rose-n.o.ble on every sail, which was always understood to be meant on every s.h.i.+p; the court of Denmark had for some time past put a new and arbitrary construction on the word sail, by obliging all s.h.i.+ps to pay a rose-n.o.ble for every sail on, or belonging to each s.h.i.+p". In consequence of this, the Vandalic-Hanse Towns, or those on the south sh.o.r.es of the Baltic, deserted the Bergen trade.

The same sovereign, however, who increased the tolls of the Sound, counterpoised the bad effects of this measure, by the encouragement he gave to manufactures and commerce; in this he was seconded by the Danish gentry, who began to carry on merchandize and factorage themselves, and also established manufactories. Copenhagen at this time was the staple for all Danish merchandize, especially corn, b.u.t.ter, fish, &c.

The commercial history of this country, towards the close of the sixteenth century, is remarkable for having given rise to the earliest dispute, of which we have any notice, respecting, the carrying of naval stores, of contraband of war, in neutral bottoms, to any enemy. It seems that the English merchants endeavoured to evade the custom duties in the Danish ports, particularly on their skins, woollen goods, and tin; on which they were siezed. On a remonstrance however from Elizabeth, they were restored, when the king of Denmark, on his part, complained that the English committed piracies on his subjects; for now, says Camden, there began to grow controversies about such matters, that is, the carrying naval stores, &c. to the Spaniards.

The commercial history of Denmark, during the period to which we are at present confined, presents no other circ.u.mstance sufficiently striking or interesting to detain us; for the establishments of this country in the East Indies are too trifling to deserve or require notice in a work whose limits and objects equally confine it to those points which are of primary importance.

The locality of Russia, cut off from the sea till a comparatively late period, except the almost inaccessible sea on which Archangel stands; the ignorance and barbarism of its inhabitants, and its wars with the Tartars, necessarily prevented and incapacitated this immense empire from engaging in any commercial intercourse with the rest of Europe till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it became independent, and began to be powerful. Novogorod, indeed, which was in fact a republic under the jurisdiction of a nominal sovereign, enjoyed in the fifteenth century, a great trade, being then the mart between Russia and the Hanseatic cities.

On its conquest by the Russians in the beginning of the next century, the Hanseatic merchants deserted it, though it continued for a considerable period afterward the largest and most commercial city in Russia. In 1509, Basilicus IV. conquered the city and territory of Pleskow and Smolensko, and consolidated the Russian empire, by reducing all the petty princ.i.p.alities into which it had been previously divided. Pleskow, situated near the head of the lake Czudskoc, soon became a celebrated emporium, and before the end of this century was frequented by merchants from Persia, Tartary, Sarmatia, Livonia, Germany, Britain, and other countries.

The accidental discovery of the White Sea by the English, in 1553, has been already narrated: this led to the first intercourse by sea between Russia and the rest of Europe, for previously, whatever of their produce was exported, was carried in Livonian s.h.i.+ps. In the following year, the facilities of Russia with Asia were encreased by the conquest of the city and kingdom of Astracan: by this conquest the entire navigation of the Wolga became theirs, and by crossing the Caspian, they carried their commercial transactions into Persia. The spirit of conquest was now alive among them, and exerting itself both to the east and west; for in 1558 they conquered Narva, in Livonia, and by means of it formed a communication with the rest of Europe by the Baltic sea. To this city the Hanseatic merchants removed their mart from Revel. The conquest of Samoieda and Siberia near the close of the sixteenth century, contributed to encrease the exportable commodities of Russia by their furs, salmon, sturgeon, &c.

In the mean time the Russian commerce in the Caspian was increasing: the Persian vessels brought into Astracan dyed silks, calicoes, and Persian stuffs, and returned with cloth, sables, martens, red leather, and old Russia money. The trade from Archangel also increased in a still more rapid manner, princ.i.p.ally, as we have already seen, with the English and Dutch.

In the year 1655, the exports were valued at the 660,000 rubles, two rubles at that period being equal to one pound sterling. The princ.i.p.al articles were potash, caviare, tallow, hides, sables, and cable yarn; the other articles of less importance, and in smaller quant.i.ties, were coa.r.s.e linen, feathers for beds, tar, linen yarn, beet, rhubarb, Persian silk, cork, bacon, cordage, skins of squirrels, and cats; bees' wax, hogs' birstles, mice and goats' skins, swan and geese down, candles, &c.

Peter the Great became emperor in 1689; he soon unfolded and began to execute his vast plans of conquest, naval power, and commerce. He gained for his country a pa.s.sage into the Black Sea, by reducing Asoph, at the mouth of the Don, and he soon established a navy on this sea. His personal exertions in Holland and England, to make himself acquainted with s.h.i.+p-building, are well known. The event of his reign, however, which most completely changed the relative situation of Russia, and established her as a commercial nation, was the conquest from Sweden of Livonia, Ingria, and Carelia. Scarcely were these provinces secured to him, when he built, first Cronstadt, and then St. Petersburgh. The erection of this city, and the ca.n.a.ls he constructed in the interior for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of merchandize from the more southerly and fertile districts of his empire to the new capital, soon drew to it the greater portion of Russian commerce. Archangel, to which there had previously resorted annually upwards of one hundred s.h.i.+ps from England, Holland, Hamburgh, &c.

declined; and early in the eighteenth century Petersburgh, then scarcely ten years old, beheld itself a commercial city of great importance.

Having now brought the historical sketch of the progress of discovery and of commercial enterprise down to the commencement of the eighteenth century, it will be necessary, as well as proper, to contract the scale on which the remainder of this volume is to be constructed. For, during nearly the whole of the period which intervenes between the commencement of the eighteenth century and the present time, the materials are either so abundant or so minute, that to insert them all without discrimination and selection, would be to give bulk, without corresponding interest and value, to the work.

So far as discovery is concerned, it is evident, from the sketch of it already given, that nearly the entire outline of the globe had been traced before the period at which we are arrived: what remained was to fill up this outline. In Asia, to gain a more complete knowledge of Hither and Farther India, of China, of the countries to the north of Hindostan, of the north and north-east of Asia, and of some of the Asiatic islands. In Africa, little besides the sh.o.r.es were known; but the nature of the interior, with its burning sands and climate, uninhabitable, or inhabited by inhospitable and barbarous tribes, held out little expectation that another century would add much to our knowledge of that quarter of the world; and though the perseverance and enterprise of the eighteenth century, and what has pa.s.sed of the nineteenth, have done more than might reasonably have been antic.i.p.ated, yet, comparatively speaking, how little do we yet know of Africa! America held out the most promising as well as extensive views to future discovery; the form and direction of her north-west coast was to be traced. In South America, the Spaniards had already gained a considerable knowledge of the countries lying between the Atlantic and the Pacific, but in North America, the British colonists had penetrated to a very short distance from the sh.o.r.es on which they were first settled; and from their most western habitations to the Pacific, the country was almost entirely unknown.

The immense extent of the Pacific Ocean, which presented to navigators at the beginning of the eighteenth century but few islands, seemed to promise a more abundant harvest to repeated and more minute examination, and this promise has been fulfilled. New Holland, however, was the only portion of the world of great extent which could be said to be almost entirely unknown at the beginning of the eighteenth century; and the completion of our knowledge of its form and extent may justly be regarded as one of the greatest and most important occurrences to geography contributed by the eighteenth century.

The truth and justice of these observations will, we trust, convince our readers, that, in determining to be more general and concise in what remains of the geographical portion of our works, we shall not be destroying its consistency or altering the nature of its plan, but in fact preserving both; for its great object and design was to trace geographical knowledge from its infancy till it had reached that maturity and vigour, by which, in connection with the corresponding increased civilization, general information and commerce of the world, it was able to advance with rapid strides, and no longer confining itself to geography, strictly so called, to embrace the natural history of those countries, the existence, extent, and form of which it had first ascertained.

The great object and design of the commercial part of this work was similar; to trace the progress of commercial enterprises from the rudest ages of mankind, the changes and transfers it had undergone from one country to another, the causes and effects of these, as well as of its general gradual increase, till, having the whole of Europe under its influence, and aided by that knowledge and civilization with which it had mainly contributed to bless Europe, it had gained its maturity and vigour, and by its own expansive force pushed itself into every part of the globe, in which there existed any thing to attract it.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, commerce had not indeed a.s.sumed those features, or reached that form and dimensions by which it was distinguished at the end of this century; but as its dimensions gradually enlarge, it will be necessary to be less particular and more condensed.

Our plan indeed of being more minute in the early history of geographical science and commercial enterprise, is founded on an obvious as well as a just and important principle. In the infancy of geography and commerce, every fact is important, as reflecting light on the knowledge and state of mankind at that period, and as bearing on and conducing to their future progress; whereas when geography and commerce have been carried so far as to proceed in their course as it were by their own internal impulse, derived from the motion they have been acquiring for ages, their interest and importance is much diminished from this cause, as well as from the minuteness of the objects to which,--all the great ones having been previously occupied by them,--they must necessarily be confined.

Several circ.u.mstances co-operated to direct geographical discovery, during the eighteenth century, princ.i.p.ally towards the north and north-east of Asia, and the north-west of America. The tendency and interest of the Russian empire to stretch itself to the east, and the hope still cherished by the more commercial and maritime nations of Europe, that a pa.s.sage to the East Indies might be discovered, either by the north-east round Asia, or by the north-west, in the direction of Hudson's Bay, were among the most powerful of the causes which directed discovery towards those parts of the globe to which we have just alluded.

The extent of the Russian discoveries and conquests in the north and north-east of Asia, added much to geographical knowledge, though from the nature of the countries discovered and conquered, the importance of this knowledge is comparatively trifling. About the middle of the seventeenth century, they ascertained that the Frozen Ocean washed and bounded the north of Asia: the first Russian s.h.i.+p sailed down the river Lena to this sea in the year 1636. Three years afterwards, by pus.h.i.+ng their conquests from one river to another, and from one rude and wandering tribe to another, they reached the eastern sh.o.r.es of Asia, not far distant from the present site of Ochotsk. Their conquests in this direction had occupied them nearly sixty years; and in this time they had annexed to their empire more than a fourth part of the globe, extending nearly eighty degrees in length, and in the north reaching to the 160 of east longitude; in breadth their conquests extended from the fiftieth to the seventy-fifth degree of north lat.i.tude. This conquest was completed by a Cossack; another Cossack, as Malte Brun observes, effected what the most skilful and enterprising of subsequent navigators have in vain attempted. Guided by the winds, and following the course of the tides, the current and the ice, he doubled the extremity of Asia from Kowyma to the river Anadyn. Kamschatcka, however, which is their princ.i.p.al settlement in the east of Asia, was not discovered till the year 1690; five years afterwards they reached it by sea from Ochotsk, but for a long time it was thought to be an island. The Kurile Islands were not discovered till the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The direction of discovery to this part of the world, as well as the plan by which it might be most advantageously and successfully executed, was given by Peter the Great, and affords one proof, that his mind was capacious, though his manners, morals, and conduct, might be those of a half-civilized tyrant. Peter did not live to carry his plan into execution: it was not, however, abandoned or neglected; for certainly the Russian government, much more than any other European government, seems to pursue with a most steady and almost hereditary predilection, all the objects which have once occupied its attention and warmed its ambition. On his death, his empress and her successors, particularly Anne and Elizabeth, contributed every thing in their power to carry his plan into full and complete execution. They went from Archangel to the Ob, from the Ob to the Jenesei. From the Jenesei they reached the Lena, partly by water and partly by land; from the Lena they went to the eastward as far as the Judigirka: and from Ochotsk they went by the Kurile Islands to j.a.pan.