ed of the sixteenth-century state, and so it fell out that in western
Europe the middle class--the merchant and the capitalist and the
money-lender--was the chief resource of kings in conflict with feudal or
ecclesiastical privilege. The prosperity of the trading class and the
efficiency of the Government were thought to be inseparable; and that
commerce should be regulated in the interest of the state was,
therefore, the unquestioned maxim of the age.

Two things above all the interest of the state demanded: that the supply
of precious metals should not diminish; and that the nation should not
be dependent upon rival countries for staple commodities. The supply of
gold and silver actually present in the king's coffers, or within the
radius of his tax-gatherers, was of far greater moment then than now.
The issues of war, in an age when credit was relatively undeveloped,
were likely to depend upon it. Scarcely less important was the question
of staples. To be dependent upon rivals for necessities was thought to
threaten at once the prosperity of the trading class and the strength of
the Government: giving hostages to the enemy in time of war and a
diplomatic advantage in time of peace; carrying off the supply of gold
and silver; and likely, therefore, by raising the value of money, to
disorganize industry and deplete the sources of the state's revenue. To
be economically self-sufficing in order to be politically independent
was the cardinal doctrine. "That Realme is most compleat and wealthie
which either hath sufficient to serve itselfe or can finde means to
exporte of the naturall comodities [more] than it hath occasion
necessarily to import," said an English writer, expressing in a phrase
the essential principle of mercantilism, which, indeed, was only the old
feudal or municipal ideal adapted to the needs of the national state.

A theory which crystallized the practice of two centuries must have been
more than "an economic fallacy." And, indeed, in the time of Elizabeth
and the first Stuarts it was a condition and not a theory that
confronted England. Many essential commodities had long been imported
from countries which, toward the close of the sixteenth century, were
disposed to place obstacles in the way of English trade. From Baltic
lands came naval stores, and potash so necessary to the woolen industry.
Mediterranean countries furnished salt, dried fruits, sugar, and the
staple luxuries wine and silk. Dyes, salt