TRADE AND SHIPPING. The foreign trade of England is coeval with its earliest history. It must not, however, be supposed that the commercial dealings of those early days bore much resemblance to those of more modern times. The visits of foreigners to our shores (for England was an exporting country before its inhabitants were become ship-owners or navigators) were then confined to procuring tin from Cornwall. We may be certain that those by whom this earliest British trade was conducted did not obtain the metal without leaving in exchange that which was considered more valuable by the miners. Of what those importations emulated we are not precisely informed. "Salt, carthenwarea. implements made of copper, of ivory, and of amber," are said to have formed the principal merchandise at that time imported into Britain ; but no mention is made of wool, which after wards, and at a comparatively remote period of our annals, became a principal article of export from this country. We learn from Medea 's ' History of the Exchequer' that in the reign of Richard I. Gervaso de Aldermanbury accounted, as chamberlain of London, for money received as fines from merchants for leave to export wool. In 1275, according to Rymer (torn ii., p. 50), wool was allowed to be exported upon payment to the king of 10e per sack. Within the next twenty yearn the custom of wool was raised to 20s. the sack, and in 129G was further raised at the will of the king to 40s. the sack. This export duty has been justified on the ground of its being a tax upon, the foreign manufacturers or consumers, to whom English wool was an article of necessity ; but the duty acted as a burden upon the grower, not only in respect of his surplus quantity which was necessarily exported, but also because the price of the remainder was as necessarily governed by the net value that could be obtained fur that surplus. Accordingly we find that this imposition of customs upon the export of wool was a frequent cause of ill feeling between the commons and the crown.
In a statement of the trade of England, said to have been found upon record in the Exchequer, and quoted in a tract called the 'Circle of Commerce,' published in 1623 by Edward Misselden, the list of our exports comprised only wool, coarse woollen cloths, and a small quantity of leather, amounting in value to 294,1844, including the export-duty; while the imports included fine woollen cloths, wax, wine, linen cloth, memory, and grocery wares, to the amount of 33,970/. The shilling at that time contained 213 grains of silver.
Taking into account the different value of money then and at present, these values are equivalent to 723,6064 and 96,5181. of the present coin respectively. This statement of imports and exports does not appear entitled in all respects to he considered accurate ; but it is remarkable that this circumstance was brought forward and commented upon as the proof of " an extraordinary balance of trade in favour of the nation," a strange conclusion from such premises. It is now generally acknowledged that the commerce of a country to be successful must include in the value of its imports the whole value of its exports, together with the gain which forme the solo inducement of the merchants by whom it is prosecuted.
Still, however, the trade and commerce increased, and from the beginning of the present century has continued to increase till it has attained a most colossal importance. This has arisen in a great degree from a juster perception of the true principles of political economy, and Alpo from the vast improvement in mechanical contrivances for the diminution of mere manual labour, of which the application of the powers of steam by the invention of Watt, may be doomed the chief. It ls due also to the memory of Pitt to say, that he early perceived the truth of the principles propounded by Adam Smith, and in the commencement of his career endeavoured, though circumstances rendered hie efforts ineffective, to establish is more liberal, if not an entirely free trade. 01d prejudices and the war with France combined to prevent the adoption of those principles, and the first quarter of the century showed little permanent increase. Thus the official valna of imports in 1802 amounted to 20,826,2104, and the declared value of exports to 45,102,3304; while, with considerable fluctuationa in the interval, in 1825 the imports only reached 44,137,4824, and tho exports 38,877,3884, the latter year Including Ireland, which the former does not, but the amount of Irish trade was not great. The official valuation is, however, deceptive, as the price fixed does not represent the real value.