Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/220

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war alone enabled us to withstand that competition, Sir Josiah averring that "during the seventeen years the Act of Navigation had been in force, not one single English ship had been built for this, which we may call the Lower Baltic trade."

Sir Josiah, it will be seen, estimates the cost of constructing an English ship at that time at somewhat under eight pounds per ton, while a vessel could be built by the Danes and Swedes at very little more than one half that price. We must, however, remember that in stating these prices he was arguing in favour of a certain line of policy, and, in doing so, may have made the cost of construction in the Northern ports of Europe considerably less than it actually was. Besides, so much depends upon quality and outfit that a price per ton, unless all the particulars are stated, gives only a vague idea of the actual value.

Another well-known writer of that period, Sir Henry Petty, estimates the value of the whole of the shipping of Europe, old and new, at eight pounds per ton. He also furnishes some valuable information with regard to the extent of the shipping of Europe at the time he wrote. Estimating the whole at 2,000,000 of tons, he apportions to the English 500,000, the Dutch 900,000, the French 100,000, the Hamburgers, with the subjects of Denmark and Sweden, and the town of Dantzic 250,000 tons, and he gives, which seems small, the remaining 250,000 tons as belonging to Spain, Portugal, and Italy. He further states that the Dutch East India Company had then a capital of 3,000,000l., and that goods to the value of that sum were annually exported from Holland into England.