124 Introduction 



mounted to nearly 70,000 pieces by 1760.' The Post Office receipts 

 rose from 180,000 pounds sterling about 1725 to 229,000 about 

 1760.^ Rough and incomplete as these data are, it seems fair to 

 conclude that the domestic commerce underwent a still more rapid 

 extension than the foreign commerce during the century 1660 to 

 1760. There is a general agreement among writers on this sub- 

 ject that with the exception of the ''seven barren years," 1693 to 

 1700, England enjoyed exceptional prosperity until 1760.^ "The 

 first half of the eighteenth century — was one of great plenty, high 

 profits, low prices, and increasing wages."'* Statistics of woolen 

 manufactures, of importation of woo and cotton, of the value of 

 exports and imports in general, of shipping revenues, population 

 and poor rates — all validate this conclusion.^ 



The causes of this increase wxre undoubtedly many : the complexity 

 of its causation makes it impossible to trace the effect of any one 

 element. The geographical distribution of commerce was changed 

 and new areas included within the market. New products, wares 

 and industries were introduced. The technical processes of produc- 

 tion were improved. Better highways and vehicles of transport 

 furthered communication. The policies of government with respect 

 to trade were liberalized and devoted to its extension. Population 

 increased, that of England and Wales rising from five and a half to 

 nearly seven millions.^ These and many other factors contributed 

 to make England the commercial nation of Europe. 



The thesis here proposed is that there developed a trading and 

 mercantile class, a new kind of man— one w^ho saw and created op- 

 portunities for trade at home and abroad — who took the initiative 

 in new methods of organization, correlating and establishing a 

 mutual interdependence between specialized producers and con- 

 sumers — ^who influenced the policies of state to the furtherance of 

 commerce — and who undertook activities new to the economic life 

 then existent. It is believed that commerce and its growlh are 

 inexplicable if little or no countenance is paid to this active, think- 

 ing, constructive, organizing class. The class did not exist, except 

 in embryo, in the medieval system of barter-market. Before the 



' Anderson, Origin, IV, 146-7. 



2 Hemmeon, 245. 



3 See Hewins, Eng. Trade, 114; Tooke, Prices, I, 38-61. 

 * Rogers, Ec. Interpr., 247; see also p. 58. 



^ For such statistics of progress see Cunningham, Growth, 928, App. 4. 

 8 See the estimates of Petty, King, Chalmers, and Davenant. 



