Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/463

 and her merchants were the first to carry this now great article of commerce to foreign countries.

For the first time we obtain also at this period something like reliable information with regard to the extent of trade of England and the number and size of her merchant vessels. Hitherto everything with regard to them, and indeed to the vessels of almost all other countries, has been, in a great measure, a matter of conjecture, the accounts preserved being so conflicting that scarcely more than the vaguest idea of their form or size can be ascertained. Nor, indeed, so far as we know, were there any returns of the actual strength of the navy of England or of the number of vessels which each port could send to sea on an emergency, until Edward III. ordered a roll to be prepared of the fleet he employed in the blockade and siege of Calais.

From the details given in this roll we have the means of forming a tolerably correct impression of the merchant shipping of the time; and it is remarkable how small was the proportion of ships and men which the king himself supplied. Many of the ports, it will be seen, supplied a larger number of both than the king himself, these being, obviously, the merchant shipping at other times employed in the foreign trade of the country. This interesting document clearly shows that from the earliest period up to the siege of Calais, as was also the case for a long period subsequently, the