120 Introduction 



elude the series of traders through whose hands commodities pass 

 on their way from the maker or producer to the consumer. The 

 period chosen to which greatest particularity is given is roughly 

 defined by the dates 1660 and 1760. It is a round century marked 

 off by great political, religious, commercial, and industrial events. 

 The organization of any business must, from its very nature, develop 

 by slow transformations; for this reason these terminating dates 

 cannot be rigidly adhered to; the roots of some parts of the organi- 

 zation will be followed back of 1660, and the tendencies beyond 1760 

 indicated. 



The year 1660 was a turning point in English and European 

 history. England had passed through two decades of civil war, and 

 had lived under the stern military and Puritanic government of 

 Cromwell. She now returned to Stuart monarchy and entered the re- 

 actionary period of the Restoration. Abroad the Peace of West- 

 phalia and of the Pyrenees and the accession of Louis XIV and the 

 revocation of the Edict of Nantes were momentous events. Here- 

 after differences of religious creeds ceased to be even nominally a 

 source of political activity. Theological liberalism came. The 

 papacy ceased to be preeminent in European diplomacy. The 

 traditional unity and dignity attaching to the imperial authority 

 wasted as Spain and Germany declined. Louis introduced personal 

 sovereignty and monarchic absolutism into France, and Charles 

 tried it in England. Dynastic and commercial wars succeeded 

 religious wars. 



The doctrines of mercantilism and national power were revived 

 and made ascendant. England began her contest for maritime 

 supremacy over Holland and for the colonial mastery of the world. 

 The Acts of Navigation, 1651 and 1660, and the prohibition of the 

 export of wool initiated the policy of the economic self-sufhciency of 

 the English nation. The Dutch wars were thrusts at her greatest 

 competitor on the sea; retaliatory tariffs were used as weapons 

 against France. The prohibition of the export of wool aided Eng- 

 lish woolen manufacturers, caused the decline of the Merchants of 

 the Staple, and developed the exportation of cloth instead. The 

 Navigation Acts tended to shift ship-building from Holland to Eng- 

 land and her colonies. 



The period of the Restoration was one of very rapid extension in 

 economic respects. In spite of the Plague and Great Fire, 1665-6, 

 and the foreign wars, there was a remarkable increase in wealth and 



