at at this time
many foreign ships resorted to Newcastle for coals: whole fleets of 50 sail
together from France, besides many from Bremen, Holland, &c. The Greenland
fishery employed 14 ships.

The following calculation of the shipping of Europe in 1690, is given by
Sir William Petty. England, 500,000 tons; the United Provinces, 900,000;
France, 100,000; Hamburgh, Denmark, Sweden, Dantzic, 250,000; Spain,
Portugal, Italy, 250,000: total 2,000,000. But that this calculation is
exceeding loose, so far as regards England at least, is evident from the
returns made to circular letters of the commissioners of customs: according
to these returns, there belonged to all the ports of England, in January
1701-2., 3281 vessels, measuring 261,222 tons, and carrying 27,196 men, and
5660 guns. As we wish to be minute and enter into detail, while our
commerce and shipping were yet in their infancy, in order to mark more
decidedly its progress, we shall subjoin the particulars of this return.

Ports. Vessels. Tons. Men.

London 560 84,882 10,065
Bristol 165 17,338 2,359
Yarmouth 143 9,914 668
Exeter 121 7,107 978
Hull 115 7,564 187
Whitby 110 8,292 571
Liverpool 102 8,619 1,101
Scarborough 100 6,860 606

None of the other ports had 100 vessels: Newcastle had sixty-three,
measuring 11,000 tons; and Ipswich thirty-nine, measuring 11,170; but there
certainly is some mistake in these two instances, either in the number of
the ships, or the tonnage. The small number of men employed at Hull arose
from eighty of their ships being at that time laid up.

III. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the great rivals of
the English in their commerce were the Dutch: they had preceded the English
to most countries; and, even where the latter had preceded them, they soon
insinuated themselves and became formidable rivals: this was the case
particularly with respect to the trade to Archangel. Some curious and
interesting particulars of this rivalry are given by Sir Walter Raleigh, in
his Observations concerning the Trade and Commerce of England with the
Dutch and other foreign Nations, which he had laid before King James. In
this work he maintains that the Dutch have th