on interest was generally esteemed unlawful, and the law by which it was permitted was repealed during the following reign. In 1557 glass was manufactured in England. The disorders at

Rise and Progress of Commerce.] The commerce of England began to establish itself at a period long before that of Scotland came into existence In early periods, the trade of England was that of Britain: a few historical facts, therefore, concerning Eng-tending the minority of Edward VI., and the religious disturblish trade may not improperly introduce our account of the present state of B. commerce. Tin-which though not exclusively furnished by England, is found there in much greater quantities than in any other long accessible place-is said to have been the first article of B. commerce. The Phoenicians, who left unexplored for commercial purposes few places of the world as known to them, are said to have visited the coasts of England for the purpose of procuring this metal. The Romans, while they possessed the island, had a cloth-manufactory at Winchester; and, though little addicted to the arts of commerce, probably shipped from this country some articles of raw produce. During the successive invasions by the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, trade and commerce could not flourish; but under William the Conqueror, a body of Flemish weavers settled in the island, and for some centuries from this period the staple of England was coarse woollens. The tyrannic John assumed absolute power over the commerce of his kingdom, and erected corporations and monopolies as he thought proper, or whenever tempted by the offer of a sufficient bribe. Under such control, the trade of the kingdom, domestic as well as foreign, must have been almost annihilated. No adventure was made, unless with the prospect of exorbitant profits; and the interest of money became extremely high. In the reign of Henry III. we find it often to have been no less than 50 per cent. Under this latter prince, however, commercial regulations were made respecting broad-cloths, russets, &c.; and we find that fine linens were woven in England to a considerable extent at this early period. During the vigorous, and in some measure, prosperous reign of Edward L, commerce met with some encouragement; but the true principles of trade were ill-understood. In 1296, a society of "merchant-adventurers" was instituted for the purpose of improving the woollen manufactures, and encouraging the exportation of that national staple. Edward granted more protection to foreign merchants than they had formerly enjoyed in England; and though he still left them subject to the iniquitous law of being answerable for the debts and crimes of any of their countrymen, he allowed them the privilege of trial by jury, and fixed the duties on importation and exportation. Manufactures and commerce, during the weak reign of Edward II. were almost entirely unprotected. The disorders of this reign rendered property insecure, and consequently discouraged honest adventure and the exertion of useful ingenuity. That English manufactures were in a rude state at this time, appears from the fact that the wealthy men of the age often bequeathed their silk or velvet garments, formally by will, as constituting a valuable part of their property. The first great historical encouragement given to the woollen manufactures of this country was in the reign of Edward III. He protected for eign weavers, and prohibited his subjects from wearing any cloth not of English manufacture. In 1331, John Kemp, with 70 Walloon families, was invited into England, and Kendal became the metropolis of the woollen-manufacture. Wool was at this period exported to a considerable amount; but by a very absurd law, the exportation of woollen cloth, as well as of wrought iron, was strictly prohibited. The exports at this period consisted entirely of raw materials, such as wool, hides, butter, tin, lead; manufactures were almost unknown. The imports were chiefly linen, fine cloth, and wine. The value of the total exports in 1354, was £294,184 178. 2d.: reduced to the present denomination and value, this sum would be very large. It is remarkable that the value of imported cloth, per piece, was at this time three times as great as that of the exported. It may be inferred that the quality was also greatly superior. The troubles of the reign of Richard II,-the exclusive attention which Henry IV. was obliged to devote to the preservation of that authority to which his title was but lame,the incessant military expeditions of Henry V.,-the misfortunes of Henry VI.,--and all the miseries brought upon the nation by the bloody contest between the houses of Lancaster and York,effectually opposed throughout a long series of years the progress of arts, manufactures, and commerce in England. Nevertheless, some foreign merchants residing in England at this period amassed great wealth. The commercial regulations of Henry VII., however well meant, were in reality destructive of national industry. Laws prohibiting the exportation of certain articles were multiplied; the number of corporations and monopolies was increased; and many other restraints imposed which tended powerfully to obstruct the national prosperity. The manufacture of fine cloths, however, was much improved about this time; and in 1458 the company of staplers paid to the Crown £68,000 sterling for the customs of staple wares. The foreign commerce of England, under Henry VIII, was confined to Flanders; and of such im'portance was this commerce found, that when war broke out between the English and Flemings, it was agreed that the commercial relations of the two countries should not be interrupted. Foreign artists were now numerous in England; and we find that their superior skill and industry excited the envy and ill will of the natives, and caused the enactment of many severe and preposterous laws against aliens. The Flemings, in particular, were so numerous, that 15,000 of them were expelled at one time from the city of London. The true method of encouraging native industry was miserably misunderstood. Monopolies and corporations were multiplied; the prices of labour and provisions were fixed; sumptuary laws were enacted; and the legal interest of money was ruled at 10 per cent., while the lending of money

ances under Mary, were opposed to the commercial progress of
the nation. Under Mary, however, the law which prohibited
any one making cloth who had not served an apprenticeship of
seven years, was repealed; but, little to the honour of Eliza-
beth's penetration in affairs of trade, it was revived by Mary's
successor. Elizabeth, though doubtless warmly desirous of ad-
vancing the commerce of England, pursued measures of a directly
opposite tendency. In particular, she exerted her prerogative in
the creation and encouragement of monopolies of every descrip-
tion. Besides innumerable others of inferior importance, she
established the East India company in 1600. She confined the
trade with Turkey to a company known by the name of the
Turkey company. She likewise procured from John Basilides, a
Russian prince, a law forbidding all nations except the English
to trade with his subjects; but this law was abrogated by his
wiser successor. Several attempts during her reign were made
to discover a north-west passage to the East Indies; and several
colonies were founded in North America; but in these attempts
and undertakings Elizabeth's subjects enjoyed her permission
only, not her encouragement or aid. English manufactures were
still surpassed by those of many other nations. Much of our ex-
ports consisted in white undressed cloths; and the profits upon
dyeing and finishing, amounting to £1,000,000 a-year, were lost to
us, these operations being generally performed on the continent.
The legal interest of money was fixed at 10 per cent. during this
reign, while the legal interest in France was 6 per cent. The
pacific reign of James I. imparted a degree of prosperity to the
commerce of England which it had not formerly known. Her
manufactures, however, were still inconsiderable, consisting in
large part of the building of ships, and the casting of cannon.
Wool continued to be a principal material of national trade;
and, during this reign, the exportation of raw wool was forbidden.
The greater part of English cloth, however, was still exported
without being dressed and dyed.-operations which it under-
went in Holland. The attempts for the discovery of the north-
west passage led to the discovery of Greenland; and the whale-
fishing was soon after carried on with some success. The trade to
Spain-originally a monopoly-was now laid open, and imme-
diately augmented in an unexampled degree; but the govern-
ment, incapable of profiting by such a plain argument, proceeded
no further in the work of commercial reform than to compel the
monopolizing companies to extend their stock, and to render the
admission of new adventurers less difficult than it had formerly
been. The chief glory of James' reign in a commercial point of
view was the establishment of the American colonies,-estab-
lishments which founded an empire of Englishmen in the New
world, and which, perhaps, more than any other cause, gave im-
pulse to the commercial energies of Britain.
In 1618, The exports of England amounted to
The imports,

In 1622, The exports were
The imports,

.

£2,487,435

2,141,151

2,320.436

2,610,315

The number of seamen engaged in the commerce of England, during this reign, is said to have been 10,000. In 1641, the customs of England were said to amount to £500,000.

The disorders which preceded the death of Charles I. rather promoted than retarded the vigour of B. commerce. They were the means of carrying abroad. to other and freer spheres of action, the energy and activity of industrious citizens; and the acquisition of a lucrative external commerce, through such means, became a fertile source of both public and individual wealth in the mother-country. Notwithstanding the civil wars and commotions from 1640 to 1659, there appears to have been raised for the public service no less than £83,331,198, being, on an average, £4,385,850 per annum. During the period which elapsed from the death of Charles I. to the abdication of James II., improvements in manufactures and trade advanced with unprecedented rapidity. The naval war carried on against the Dutch had curtailed the maritime power of that commercial people, and, in the same proportion, added to that of England; so that the Revolution found this country a great commercial nation. Its shipping was more than double what it had been left by James I.; many new branches of manufacture had been introduced; several new colonies had been established in America, and several wrested from the Dutch. In Jamaica-an island which had been taken from the Spaniards during the protectorship of Cromwell-the foundations were laid of our West Indian commerce; and the destruction of Dutch influence in the East, gave a new impulse to the exertions of the East India company. In 1670, a boardof-trade was instituted, for the purpose of consulting on, and protecting the interests of B. commerce. All these conspiring circumstances were greatly favoured by the Revolution,-an event which defined the rights of the prince and of the people,-which insured a degree of political and religious liberty to B. citizens till then unknown in the world,-and which secured to all their property as well as their personal rights. The progress of arts and commerce, and the accumulation of wealth, since that period, have proceeded throughout the empire with unremitted acceleration. Some parliamentary documents of the year 1739 assert, that the total value of cloths manufactured in that year may have been £1,600,000,-a sum exactly double of their value in 1699. During the 18th cent., these manufactures increased in the proportion

ef 6 to 1; and the time which has elapsed since its conclusion has evinced a similar tendency. "It was under the administration of Lord Chatham, in the very midst of a seven years' war"

-says the illustrious foreigner whose enlightened and liberal remarks we have so often quoted-"that we behold the commencement of all those great interior works useful to commerce which are now the admiration of every foreigner. Up to 1756, England had not a single line of artificial navigation; and she pussessed, for communication by land, only a small number of roads injudiciously cut and ill kept up. Of a sudden, an individual conceives the idea to profit by the general impulse which industry has received, by cutting a canal, to carry to Manchester the produce of his mines. Shortly afterwards, a town which thrives, and of which the exuberant wealth seeks every where productive outlets-Liverpool-aspires to still higher designs: she is the first to form and to realize the project of opening a navigable channel betwixt the Irish sea and the German ocean. Other channels even more extended, are established by degrees in both ends of the island; and thus, within the short space of half-a century, a line of canals is formed, both for great and for small navigation, for the purpose of uniting opposite seas,-basins separated by numberless chains of hills,-opulent ports,industrious towns,-fertile plains,-and inexhaustible mines."

Since Dupin thus wrote, a new and gigantic system of intercourse and transit by railway has been established throughout the B. islands, which has linked the most remote districts of the country to the great centres of commercial and trading activity, and increased the powers and energies of the whole community for the development of every branch of human industry to an extent beyond all calculation; while moles, piers, lighthouses, have been newly established, and the security of access and shelter of every anchorage upon the whole line of the coast greatly increased. These works not only insure to commerce increasing prosperity, but add prodigiously to the value of landed property; while, at the same time, in becoming proprietors of railroads, canals, bridges, basins, quays, and the various entrepôts necessary to commerce, British merchants acquire at once that stable interest which is attached to the possession of property inseparable from the soil, and that moveable interest which changes its objects or its seat according to the vicissitudes of external commerce. In reviewing all these sources of national wealth and power, it must be confessed that there is a tendency in our ancient laws and political organization, as well as in our commercial and manufacturing system itself, favourable to the accumulation of property in the hands of a comparatively small number of individuals; and that it has resulted from this, that while in no country is the soil better cultivated, the arts more advanced, or manufactures more flourishing-while nowhere is a nobler and more skilful use made of human ingenuity and mechanical and scientific appliances,--and while nowhere is there so much opulence and luxury,-yet, at the smallest commercial derangement, cries of distress are heard in every quarter. "There exists," says M. Passay, "between England and other countries in which wealth is equally ill-shared, a difference which ought to be kept constantly in view. In these countries, if the people suffer withcut murmuring, it is because, having only the ideas and the habits natural to their condition, they do not experience the evils of retrogradation, and enjoy even the advantages resulting from the gradual melioration of their industry. In England, on the other hand, the people have declined, from the effect of laws too favourable to large properties; and hence there is a discontent with regard to social order which it would be dangerous to allow to break out. The destinies of England have been delivered by her institutions into the hands of a territorial aristocracy. A small number of families excessively rich, and a multitude of poor, have supplanted the classes of which the graduated property formerly preserved harmony in all parts of the body politic." At the same time, as has been observed by M. Dupin, another principle, the combination of capitalists, establishes a salutary check on this tendency of wealth to concentrate in too small a number of hands; and, in practice, great proprietors are not Esually found the enemies of improvements and inventions propitious to industry and favourable to commerce. The great famiBes of B.-of England especially-have often themselves descended into the ranks of industry, and there acquired new claims to popularity, esteem, and honours, in that path where, perhaps, their ancestors first acquired them. If a duke of Bridgewater, a duke of Portland, a Cavendish, or a Bedford, have constructed canals, and bridges, and streets, it ought not to be forgotten that B. no

"The fact," says one of our ablest journalists, writing in 1846, "that the sums of the annual exports and imports of Great B. have about doubled within the last twenty years is of itself enough to excite astonbility owes much to the industry and enterprise of B. merchants. ishment upon reflection. But this is not all. The The duke of Leeds is the descendant of Edward Osborne, a Lon-principal civilised nations have, without one excepdon merchant. The noble house of Wentworth was founded by a London alderman. Laurence de Bouveries married the daughter of a German silk-mercer, and, settling in London, laid the foundation of the house of Radnor, An ancestor of the earl of Dartmouth was a skinner; the earl of Craven is lineally descended from a merchant-tailor; and the earl of Warwick from "the flower of the wool-staplers." The nobility of B. have been often charged with hauteur; but it is the boast of our constitution that there is nothing to prevent the humblest citizen, if gifted with the necessary talents and energy, from rising to the highest rank which a B. subject can enjoy. The sentiment implied in this principle is worthy of a free people, and deserves the imitation of every government which wishes to walk in the path of national prosperity.

tion, increased their annual exports and imports in about the same ratio. The sleepless enterprise, the almost preternaturally rapid expansion of the powers of productive industry, which the last twenty years have witnessed in this country, have had their counterparts over the whole of Europe and throughout the United States of America: And yet we have all found markets. If anything can extirpate the silly jealousies which states and statesmen have been too apt to entertain when contemplating the growing prosperity of their neighbours, this reflection ought Imports and Exports.]—The following is an ab- to do it. Far a-head of the commerce of all contem

porary states is that of our own country. If the 4-5; the ratio of French increase as 1-2 to 24. We figures 124.8 be taken to represent the annual aggre- still keep the lead, and are likely to keep it; but our gate exports and imports of the principal manufac-ingenious and indefatigable neighbours will put us to turing and trading states of Europe and America [in it to maintain our present position." 1845], their respective shares in this sum will be found to be as follows:

1827 to 1846.

The following is a statement of the real or declared | countries and colonial possessions, in each year from value of British and Irish produce and manufactures exported from the United kingdom to different foreign