CHAP. XVI. FRENCH COMMERCE. 1? 



the duties, by which the revenue, instead of de- 

 clining, was improved from the larger quantity of 

 the imports, whilst the domestic products given in 

 exchange for such imports were raised in price. 



The attention of this monarch was particularly 

 directed to the increase of the ships and sailors of 

 his kingdoms, and in this reign we find the rudi- 

 ments of that celebrated navigation act, afterwards 

 passed, to which the naval superiority of England 

 has been commonly attributed. By the law 14 

 Henry VII. cap. 10, it was enacted that no wines 

 of Gascony or of Guienne, nor the woads of 

 Thoulouse, should be imported into England, 

 except in ships belonging to the king, or in 

 English, Irish, or Welsh ships navigated by sea- 

 men of those nations. This gave great encou- 

 ragement to the constructing of ships, and caused 

 the education of a considerable number of seamen. 



The cloths made in England were bought up 

 by the Steelyard company in an unfinished state, 

 and sent to Flanders to be dyed, dressed, and 

 finished ; but Henry encouraged the perfecting 

 the cloths of his own kingdom, and is said to have 

 furnished capital for that and other purposes, and 

 even to have become a partner, and to have drawn 

 gain from mixing in such operations ; as he also 

 appears to have done to a greater extent by the 

 practice which he pursued through his whole 

 reign of employing his ships in trading voyages or 

 hiring them to the merchants on freight. 



VOL. n. c 



