Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/70

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to the maritime commerce of England, and consequently rendered the reign of Henry VII. more important, so far as concerns her naval history, than that of any previous English monarch.

Like the sovereigns of more ancient times, Henry was not only a merchant on his own account, but a great encourager of maritime expeditions; in that he often himself furnished the ships and advanced the requisite capital for their equipment. Indeed, it seems probable that the vast sums found in his exchequer at his death were, in a great measure, derived from his own successful commercial adventures. Although the pursuit of trade may be sometimes deemed incompatible with regal functions and dignity, there can be no doubt that the example and practice of Henry VII. extended the field for maritime adventure among his subjects, and at the same time aroused the cupidity of the English nation by the prospect of incalculable wealth derivable from intercourse with distant foreign lands.

Beyond the encouragement he afforded to maritime discovery, Henry adopted various measures to promote, as he conceived, the interests of the merchant navy, among others removing the differential duties which had been in force against English shipping; but unfortunately, as has been too frequently the case in the conduct of the navigation laws of England, he adopted a policy of protection almost as ruinous to her commerce as that which had previously conferred special advantages upon the shipping of foreign nations. Thus we find a law of his first parliament prohibiting the importation of