Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/24

22 the mouth of the Thames; though it was probably only at two or three points in the course of that long distance that the continental vessels were in the habit of touching. There is no evidence that any of the vessels in which the trade with the continent was carried on belonged to Britain. The island in those days seems only to have been resorted to by strangers as the native place of certain valuable commodities, and to have maintained little or no interchange of visits with foreign shores. Even from this imperfect intercourse with the rest of the world, however, the inhabitants of all this line of coast must have been enabled to keep up, as we are assured they did, a very considerably higher degree of civilization than would be found among the back-woodsmen beyond them. It is to be remembered that no small amount of the commercial spirit may exist in a country which maintains no intercourse with foreigners except in its own ports. The situation of Britain in this respect, two thousand years ago, may be likened, indeed, to that of Spitzbergen or New Zealand at present; but the same peculiarity, which at first sight seems to us so remarkable and so unnatural, characterizes the great commercial empire of China. There the national customs and the institutions of the government have done their utmost to discourage and restrain the spirit of commercial enterprise; but that spirit is an essential part of the social principle, and as such is unextinguishable wherever the immutable circumstances of physical situation are not adverse to its development. Hence, although their laws and traditionary morality have operated with so much effect as to prevent the people of China from pushing to any extent what may be called an aggressive commerce, that is to say, from seeking markets for their commodities in foreign countries, these adverse influences have not been able so far to overcome the natural incentives arising out of their geographical position as to induce them to refrain equally from what we may call admissive commerce, or indeed to be other than very eager followers of it. The case of the early Britons may have been somewhat similar. The genius of most of the Oriental religions seems to have