Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/504

 sort of submission the saluters are put in remembrance that they have entered a territory in which there is sovereign power and jurisdiction to be acknowledged, and protection to be expected."

Although from the earliest periods of history successive nations have periodically claimed the sovereignty of certain seas, England appears to have been the only one of either ancient or modern times which not merely asserted and maintained that power in the English Channel and neighbouring waters, but was fully acknowledged to possess it by other nations, who admitted "the striking or veiling the bonnets" to be a ceremonious homage in recognition of her absolute sovereignty.

Towards the close of the reign of Henry V. an account is, for the first time, published of the revenue of the kingdom. It appears to have amounted, in 1421, to the sum of 55,743l., obtained chiefly, if not altogether, by duties upon commerce; the customs and subsidy upon wool alone amounting to more than one-half, or 30,000l.; while the small customs, and a duty of twelve pence in the pound in value on other goods, realized 10,675l. Out of that year's revenue there was expended no less than 38,619l. in the custody and defence of Calais, Scotland, and Roxburgh, and their "marches;" while the custody