been erected into a corporation
by Henry III., had obtained a patent, were endowed with privileges,
and were exempted from several heavy duties paid by other aliens.
So ignorant were the English of commerce, that this company, usually
denominated the merchants of the "stil-yard," engrossed, even down to
the reign of Edward, almost the whole foreign trade of the kingdom;
and as they naturally employed the shipping of their own country, the
navigation of England was also in a very languishing condition. It was
therefore thought proper by the council to seek pretences for annulling
the privileges of this corporation, privileges which put them nearly on
an equal footing with Englishmen in the duties which they paid; and as
such patents were, during that age, granted by the absolute power of
the king, men were the less surprised to find them revoked by the same
authority. Several remonstrances were made against this innovation by
Lubec, Hamburgh, and other Hanse Towns; but the council persevered in
their resolution, and the good effects of it soon became visible to the
nation. The English merchants, by their very situation as natives, had
advantages above foreigners in the purchase of cloth, wool, and other
commodities; though these advantages had not hitherto been sufficient
to rouse then industry, or engage them to become rivals to this opulent
company: but when aliens' duty was also imposed upon all foreigners
indiscriminately, the English were tempted to enter into commerce; and a
spirit of industry began to appear in the kingdom.[*]

About the same time a treaty was made with Gustavus Ericson, king
of Sweden, by which it was stipulated, that if he sent bullion into
England, he might export English commodities without paying custom;
that he should carry bullion to no other prince; that if he sent ozimus,
steel, copper, etc., he should pay custom for English commodities as an
Englishman; and that if he sent other merchandise, he should have free
intercourse, paying custom as a stranger.[**] The bullion sent over by
Sweden, though it could not be in great quantity, set the mint to work:
good specie was coined, and much of the base metal formerly issued was
recalled: a circumstance which tended extremely to the encouragement of
commerce.

* Hayward, p. 323 Heylin, p. 108. Strype's Mem. vol. ii. p
295.

** Heylin p 109.

But all these schemes for promoting industry were likely to prove
abortive by the fe