Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/479

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and a few other articles of minor importance; thereby showing that this ship was freighted with the produce of India as well as of the Mediterranean. For all of these England might then have become the depôt, but her merchants could not, as yet, discern the advantages of a free intercourse with foreign nations; they still believed that a ruinous competition and the loss of their bullion would be the probable results; and in this spirit persuaded Parliament to prohibit, unless under special circumstances, the exportation of bullion, either in the shape of coin or otherwise. They pretended, further, that under the existing regulations all their carrying trade passed into the hands of foreigners, who, in point of wealth, commercial experience, and command of shipping were far superior to themselves.

Doubtless, there was some justice in these complaints. Foreigners, by law, were able to undersell the English in their own markets, as they could bring goods from foreign ports at rates of freight which would have been unremunerative to the shipowners of England. The first Navigation Act was consequently passed, but, as one extreme frequently begets another, this law proved to be one of the most restrictive kind against foreign vessels. What effect it produced upon English shipping we have been unable to ascertain, as there are no statistical returns nor accounts, however crude, now extant, of the shipping and commerce of this period; but, unless it enhanced the rates of freight to the