A, D. 1412. 627 



Henry IV, the commerce and manufadures of the kingdom appear to 

 have been in a fiate of progredive improvement. The guard of the fea 

 (to the negled of which by his predeceflbr he owed his elevation) was 

 more flridly maintained ; piracy was more rigorouOy fupprefled ; and 

 more attention was beftowed in terminating the quarrels, or petty wars, 

 ©f the feanien and merchants of England with thofe af the continent, 

 than in any preceding reign. 



1413 — 'The book of duties on imports and exports, compiled at this 

 time under the authority of Fernando I, king of Aragon, gives a good 

 idea of the trade and commercial policy of the antient and flourifliing 

 city of Barcelona — All goods, imported or exported, paid a duty of two 

 thirds per cent ad valorem, except thofe imported from Conftantinople, 

 Syria, and Egypt, which paid only one third — Corn and all vegetables, 

 wine, and pork, were free from duty on importation ; but they were 

 charged with five per cent on exportation, except to Majorca, Minorca, 

 and Iviza. Wrought filver, jewels, arms, and wearing apparel, exported 

 as merchandize, paid two and a half per cent. — Cloth and other manu- 

 fadlures paid no duties on exportation : and the like goods^ imported 

 for fairs, paid only at the place of fale, where a duty of three quarters 

 per cent was levied on the fales, the home manufadures being charged 

 three eights — Ships built for foreign countries, and all fhip timber ex- 

 ported, paid thi"ee per cent on the value — Small parcels, not exceeding 

 in value five fueldos (twenty reals of modern money), paid no duty, ei- 

 ther inward or outward. — Neither was any duty charged on caflcs, wrap- 

 pers, or other packages. — Veflels arriving in port, and neither landing 

 nor trans-lhipping any goods, were not required to pay any duty. [Cap- 

 many, Mem. hiji. de Barcdona^ V. i, Com. p. 231.} The wifdom and hber- 

 ality of thefe regulations, in an age wherein cuftoms were generally 

 impofed with no other view than merely to raife a revenue for the fo- 

 vereign, mufl imprefs us with a very high opinion of the commercial 

 policy and experience of the Barcelonians, in which they appear to have 

 been nothing inferior to the moil enlightened legiflators of the prefent 

 age *. It is a pity that we have no firnilar documents of the commer- 

 cial jurifprudence of Venice or Genoa, or of the Hanfe towns. In all 

 fuch matters our own country, now fo pre-eminent,. was then exceeding- 

 ly deficient. 



King Henry V, in the beginning of his reign, confirmed the privileges - 

 granted by his predecefTors to the Venetians and to foreign merchants 

 in general. \Fcsdera, V. ix, pp. 26, 72.]" 



* Other proofs of the commercial wifdom and which occupies almoft the whole of his fecond vo- 



liberality of Barcelona have already appeared ia Iflme ; and I obfcrve that Sir John Talbot Dillon, 



this work. Bnt the general wife pohcy of the when mentioning thefe diilies in his Hlflory of Pc- 



other duties and exemptions Teems to render the Ur the Cruel, has written ^ imptirud' infteadof^x- 



genuinenefs of the duty on filver ware, jewels, Sec. portsd, perhaps from the original Llibre dt!s JV 



tstporled for fale (' fi fe extrahian por via de com. fenjah d:l g^iral de Cujhinya, which certainly is 



' mcrciu') rather doubtful. Capmany has not in- more copfuter.t with found commercial policy, 

 icrted the ori^aji^] {q the C'jlccdcn diplomatka ^ 



4 K 2 



