of all European
countries England had for more than half-a-century been making the
greatest advance in its trade with the Netherlands. As early as in the
eight years which preceded Elizabeth's accession and the eight years
that followed it, while the trade of Spain with the Low Countries had
doubled, and that of France and Germany with them had grown threefold,
the trade between England and Antwerp had increased twentyfold. The
increase remained at least as great through the forty years that
followed, and the erection of stately houses, marriages with noble
families, and the purchase of great estates, showed the rapid growth of
the merchant class in wealth and social importance. London above all was
profiting by the general advance. The rapidity of its growth awoke the
jealousy of the royal Council. One London merchant, Thomas Sutton,
founded the great hospital and school of the Charter House. Another,
Hugh Myddelton, brought the New River from its springs at Chadwell and
Amwell to supply London with pure water. Ere many years had gone the
wealth of the great capital was to tell on the whole course of English
history. Nor was the merchant class alone in this elevation. If the
greater nobles no longer swayed the State, the spoil of the Church
lands, and the general growth of national wealth, were raising the
lesser landowners into a new social power. An influence which was to
play a growing part in our history, the influence of the gentry, of the
squires--as they were soon to be called--told more and more on English
politics. In all but name indeed the leaders of this class were the
equals of the peers whom they superseded. Men like the Wentworths in the
north, or the Hampdens in the south, boasted as long a rent-roll and
wielded as great an influence as many of the older nobles. The attitude
of the Lower House towards the Higher throughout the Stuart Parliaments
sprang mainly from the consciousness of the Commons that in wealth as
well as in political consequence the merchants and country gentlemen who
formed the bulk of their members stood far above the mass of the peers.

[Sidenote: Growth of national spirit.]

While a new social fabric was thus growing up on the wreck of feudal
England, new influences were telling on its developement. The immense
advance of the people as a whole in knowledge and intelligence
throughout the reign of Elizabeth was in itself a revolution. The hold
of tradition, the unquestioning awe wh