the hands of the Steelyard.

Edward III. seems first of our kings to have understood the value of
manufactures and of foreign trade. He first passed laws for the repair
of the highways: under his reign the Merchant Adventurers were
encouraged and assisted: he first stimulated the making of English
cloth instead of selling our wool: under him the shipping of the London
merchants began to increase and to develop. Still the foreign merchants
continued to occupy the Steelyard: still our merchants were shut out of
the northern ports: still other foreigners received permission to
settle: even craftsmen came over from Germany and the Low Countries and
followed their trade in London. Richard III., in order to please the
citizens, ordered their expulsion, but it does not appear that the order
was obeyed. Henry VII., on the other hand, persuaded many Flemish
woollen manufacturers to come over to this country.

Early in the sixteenth century the exports of English cloth by the
foreign merchants amounted to 44,000 pieces, while the English ships
took away no more than 1,000 pieces. When our own merchants were
prepared with ships and had what may be called the machinery of trade;
as a market, wharves, permission to buy and sell; it is obvious that the
old state of things could no longer continue. It was not, however, until
the reign of Edward VI. that the foreign merchants were finally deprived
of all their privileges and charters.

These rivals, with their powerful organisations and their hold over all
the northern ports, once out of the way the English merchants began to
push out their enterprises in all directions. You shall see immediately
how they prospered.

Meantime there remains a monument erected in memory of the Hanseatic
League. In the reign of Queen Anne the merchants of Hamburg presented to
the church where the merchants of the Steelyard had worshipped for 400
years, a splendid screen of carved wood. Unless the church, which is
already threatened with destruction, is pulled down, you should go to
see that screen, and remember all that it means and commemorates.

44. TRADE.

PART II.

English trade, that is to say, trade in English hands, practically began
with Edward III. and, slowly increasing under his successors, gained an
enormous development under Elizabeth. Several causes operated to produce
this increase. In the first place the abolition of the Steelyard, though
ordered by Edward VI., was not com