The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-04-29
III.

| What with tho new inland and outland trade
| riches were gathered into the hands OF tn,
merchants with bewildering rapidity. ant
| with social and political results that alarme
| conservatives The truth Is that tho whole
| people from sovereign to peasant. shared IL
tho traders profits 1t is calculated that Ia
the reign OF Henry VIII. English exports sc
far exceeded i'm ports as to bring out $780,
600. an enormous sum In those days. an
nually into the country. The balance Of trade
had inclined yet more strongly In favor oil
England under Henry VII. Not only did the
last-named King lay up vast treasure. but the
Rodsmiths' shops In London were reported
by foreign traveller to contain moro OF
the precious metals than all those Of
Rome. Milan. Florence. and Venice taken
together. So far as the middle class
10 concerned. evidence OF accommodating
wealth is to be found on every side-we shall
refer to this presently-but the masses OF the
working people also had reason to bless the
general prosperity. In the middle OF tho
fifteenth century Chief Justice Fortescue con-
trAsts the state OF what we should now call
the English proletarlat with that OF the French
commonalty The latter. he says. drink
water; they eat apples with bread right brown
made OF rye. They eat no flesh: but. II II he
right seldom. little lard. or OF the entrails
and heads OF beasts slain for thu mobiles and
merchants OF the land. They wear no
woollen. but II 1t be a poor coat
under their 'outermost garment made OF
great canvas and called q frock. Their
hosen be OF light canvas. and pass not their
knee. wherefore they be gartered and their
thighs bare. Their wives and children 20
barefoot; they may In no other wise live.
Their nature is wasted. and the kind OF them
brought to nought. They go crooked and be
feeble. not able to fight. nor to defend the
realm nor have they weapon nor money to
buy them weapon withal But blessed be
God this land Is ruled under a better law and.
therefore. the people thereof be not In such
penury. nor thereby hurt In their PERSONS but
they be wealthy. and have all things necss sary
10 the sustenAncs OF nature" Elsewhere For.
tescue notes that in France the people salt
but little meat except their bacon. for they
would buy little salt" unless the Kings oil
GERS went round and forced every household
to take certain MEASURE. such as they
thought reasonable. But. he aids, this ruls
would be sore abhnrrsi in England. a. will by
the merchants tia; lie wont to have their free
dom in tuYing and ceiling OF salt as tY the
people that use much 10 salt their meats"
or course such an Industrial revolution
brought after It u commercial revolution. The
whole system OF distribution had to lie reor-
Ganized. II In the reign Of Edwsrd Ill prac-
ticaly the whole OF the foreign commerce Of
England was carried In foreign vessels. in the
reign OF Henry VII the great bulk OF the trade
ha passed into English hands. In the face
Of the powerful confedeTatlons that held the
tTaflle OF tho northern and southern seas.
English merchants laid violent hands on the
commerce Of the world. by the end Of the
fifteenth century they had vanquished their
rivals In the north. while in the south they
had firmly planted themselves 10 every
i'm Dortant trading port along the west
ern eoast OF EurOPe. and competed with
the Italian republics not Ouly for their
own carrying trade but for that Of
the Netherlands as we'll BritisL merchants
were to be found In every port from Alexandria
10 RsYkiaYik. and WherAYer they touched they
left behind then an organized and firmly es-
trade. II was. In a word in the
fifteenth century the history Of which In ordl-
nary text books chronicles nothing but a dull
succession OF civil wars. that tins foundations
of EnRlAnd's manufacturing and commercial
supremacy we're quietly but surely laid.