Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/168

166 recover for many a day, and that every branch of social industry in the kingdom paid dear for the glory with which Henry's victories crowned the English name. These victories drained the land both of men and of money, and then spread among all classes of the people a spirit of restless and impatient aversion to every peaceful pursuit. Still it appears, from the account of the Treasurer for the year 1421, that even in this anticommercial reign the greater part of the public revenue was derived from the trade of the country. Among the new articles of English manufacture, and occasionally, as it would appear, of export, that now appear, may be mentioned both gunpowder and guns. The manufacture and export of guns are mentioned in a licence granted in 1411, for sending two small guns for a ship, along with the king's great gun, to Spain.

The misgovernment and political misfortunes of the greater part of the reign of Henry VI. probably did not oppress and injure the commerce of the kingdom nearly so much as the successful wars of his great father, which, by the very intoxication they produced in the public mind, dried up the spirit of mercantile industry and enterprise, and carried off the whole current of the national feelings and energies in an opposite direction. The loss of France, which was accounted at the time the great calamity and disgrace of the reign, was no loss to the trade of England. Even the weakness of the government did not operate so unfavourably as might be supposed upon that interest, which was now strong enough, if let alone, in a great measure to protect itself, or was, at least, pretty sure of receiving what facilities it needed in the shape of privileges or conventional stipulations from the general feeling of its importance and the mutual wants which bound one country to another. It is remarkable, that in this age a free commerce was not unfrequently continued between two countries even while their governments were at war, and treaties were made between them in contemplation of this state of things.