44 ^' D. 15 1 2. 



biting the exportation of our own coin is, when (like our crown-pieces 

 at prefent) it happens to be too weighty ; for it would be impracticable 

 to be continually altering our coins, in order to keep pace with the cur- 

 rent prices of gold and filver on the continent. Moreover, notwithfland- 

 ing this prohibition, we know that our crown-pieces are melted down, 

 and carried beyond fea, fo that few or next to none are to be feen cur- 

 rent ; which fhows that it is the intrinfic value alone of our coins which 

 is at all times regarded, and not their nominal value. 



From this year we may properly date the commencement of what 

 may be called an Englifli royal navy, i. e. a number of flout fliips for 

 war, acftually belonging to, and permanently kept on foot by the crown 

 for national defence ; king Henry VIII being the firft Englifli king 

 who effedually purfued this plan, and for that end firfl: eflablifhed a 

 navy-office, with commiflioners, &c. nearly as at prefent. He certainly 

 employed great funis of money on his marine affiiirs, as well for the 

 conftru6lion of fhips of war, as of docks, yards, wharfs, florehoufes, &c. 

 Before his time there was no fixed and permanent royal navy, but, on 

 ordinary occafions, the Cinque-Ports fupplied the crown with a deter- 

 mined number of fuch fliips as they had in thofe times ; and on great 

 emergencies, we have alfo feen that all the m.aritime towns of the king- 

 dom were bound, on due notice, to fend their quotas of fhips and ma- 

 riners tor a determined time, commanded either by the king or his ad- 

 miral ; fuch as was the fleet of king Edward III at the fiege of Calais 

 in the year 1347, and other capital expeditions. 



Bifliop Gibfon, in his additions to Cambden's Britannia, obferves, 

 that king Plenry VIII, in the fourth year of his reign, for the advance- 

 ment of navigation and commerce, eftabliflied a corporation for exa- 

 mining, licenfhig, and regulating pilots, and for ordering and directing 

 beacons, lighthoufes, buoys, 8cc. which is fliled ' The corporation of the 

 trinity-houfe of Deptford Strond', and has proved of great benefit for 

 accomplilhing the valuable ends of its foundation. Another fociety, for 

 the like good purpofes, he afterwards eftablifhed at Hull, by the name 

 of the trinity-houie at Hull ; and alfo another at NewcaiVle upon Tyne, 

 in the year i 537 ; which three eflablifhments (fays Hakluyt) were in 

 imitation of that which the emperor Charles V had erected at Seville in 

 Spain, who, obferving the many fliipwrecks in the voyages to and from 

 the Weft Indies, occahoned by the ignorance of feamen, eftablifhed, at 

 the contradation-houle, lecftures on navigation, and a pilot-major for 

 the examination of other pilots and mariners ; he alfo directed books to 

 be publiflied on that fubjecl for the ufe of his mariners. The king, by 

 his charter, confirmed to the Deptford trinity-houfe fociety all the 

 ancient rights, privileges, &c. of the fliipmen and mariners of England, 

 and their feveral pofTeflions at Deptford ; whereby it is plain they had 



