PREFACE. k 



Frobisher, but the exploits of these famous rovers rose 

 little above the level of piracy, however much they 

 may have trained men for higher purposes, and 

 familiarised them with maritime adventure. The 

 seventeenth century witnessed the development of the 

 t India Company, from the humble beginnings 

 under Clifford Earl of Cumberland in 1600, to the time 

 when Child and his associates could afford, out of the 

 surplus profits of the Company, to bribe Leeds and 

 Seymour, and create a party in Parliament. In the 

 period before me too was begun that creation of the 

 English-speaking colonies, from which in the fulness of 

 time and by the folly of a Hanoverian king was developed 

 that great Eepublic, which seems destined by peaceful 

 changes to vindicate the vast continent in which they 

 were planted for the English race. 



A fifth fact is the mass of social legislation, pro- 

 ductive of such lasting effects, which this period 

 witnessed, permitted or endured. Many of the con- 

 sequences which are derived from this legislation 

 influence English social and economical life at the 

 present time, and are inducing economical problems 

 upon us of no common greatness and difficulty. The 

 seventeenth century is the beginning of modern econo- 

 mical history. 



A sixth marked feature in the economical history 

 of England, during the seventeenth century especially, 

 is the development of the joint stock principle in 

 commerce and manufacture. The beginnings of some 

 <>f these agencies are to be found in the reign of 



