142 TRADE AND MARKETS. 



civil war, the cost of which was reckoned at near seven millions 

 annually. But great as the sacrifices were of those who had 

 to meet this charge, it was in no slight degree compensated 

 by the rapid development of English commerce, which was 

 extending itself in all directions. 



That this commerce was aided by the famous Navigation 

 Act of 1651 cannot I think be disputed, any more than one 

 can doubt that the repeal of this Act (renewed after the 

 Restoration) within the memory of many was wise and politic. 

 It is said that most of the carrying trade between Europe 

 and England was in the hands of the Dutch, that their freights 

 were low, and that English seamen were largely employed by 

 them. The Dutch democracy, always inclined to the house 

 of Orange, and always sacrificed by them to the family in- 

 terests of that house, had connived at the murder of Doris- 

 laus, and had avowed its interest in the deposed family 1 . 

 The political differences between the two commonwealths 

 were aggravated by the rivalry of the two companies in the 

 East, and by claims which the English made to supremacy in 

 the narrow seas. Very likely the claims set out in Selden's 

 mare clausum were unfounded, and that the mare liberum of 

 Grotius represents more accurately the case of international 

 right and the ultimate interpretation of international law. 

 But in the interpretation of political action and its consequences, 

 one must take into account political sentiment and prevalent 

 opinion. 



The Navigation Act of 1651, re-enacted in 1660, extorted the 

 admiration of Adam Smith, and is treated by him as a dis- 

 tinct exception to his general doctrine of free trade. He does 

 not doubt that the Act was ' not favourable to foreign com- 

 merce, or to the growth of the opulence which can arise from 

 it,' and for obvious reasons. But he adds that * as defence is 

 of much more importance than opulence, the Act of Navigation 

 is, perhaps, the wisest of all the commercial regulations of 



1 The Stewarts had no warmer partisans than the Dutch were. Charles repaid 

 them after his return with characteristic ingratitude and perfidy. 



