over Holland: In the Turkey, Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese trades, we have the natural advantage of our wool:--our
provisions and fuel, in country places, are cheaper than with the
Dutch;--our native commodities of lead and tin are great advantages:--of
these, he says, as well as of our manufactures, we ship off one-third more
than we did twenty years ago; and he adds, that we have now more than
double the number of merchants and shipping that we had twenty years ago.
He mentions a circumstance, which seems to indicate a retrograde motion of
commerce, viz., that when he wrote most payments were in ready money;
whereas, formerly, there were credit payments at three, six, nine, twelve,
and even eighteen months. From another part of his work, it appears that
the tax-money was brought up in waggons from the country.

The gradual advancement of a nation in knowledge and civilization, which is
in part the result of commerce, is also in part the cause of it. But
besides this advancement, in which England participated with the rest of
Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were other
circumstances peculiar to this country, some of which were favourable, and
others unfavourable to the increase of its commerce.

Among the favourable circumstances may be reckoned the taking away of the
exclusive privileges of the steelyard merchants by Edward VI., by which
native merchants were encouraged, private companies of them formed, and the
benefits of commerce more extensively diffused:--the encouragement given by
Elizabeth, particularly by her minister Cecil, to commerce; this was so
great and well directed, that the customs which had been farmed, at the
beginning of the reign, for 14,000_l_. a year, towards its close were
fanned for 50,000_l_.;--the pacific character of James I., and the
consequent tranquillity enjoyed by England during his reign;--the strong
and general stimulus which was given to individual industry, by the feeling
of their own importance, which the struggle between Charles I. and the
Parliament naturally infused into the great mass of the people;--the
increased skill in maritime affairs, which was produced by our naval
victories under Cromwell;--the great vigour of his government in his
relations with foreign powers; and the passing of the navigation act. The
Restoration, bringing a great fondness for luxury and expence, naturally
produced also exertions to gratify that fondness. If to these a