ВООК V. REIGN OF HEN. VII. 23 16 oppressor. It was no less humane than important to the stability of the throne, to enact, that no person who served the reigning king in war, should be attainted of treason.1s The extortions of sheriffs and under-sheriffs were repressed. That every proprietor of land might enjoy his sport, no man was to take pheasants or partridges on another's estate without his leave; nor to take, even on his own ground, eggs of hawks or swans, nor to bear certain English hawks, nor to import foreign hawks." This may be called the foundation of our game laws. The public morals were attended to, in the prohibition of apprentices and artificers from games and diversions that were found to be connected with vice.18 Usury was discountenanced." Fraudulent deeds of gift, to cheat creditors, were made void." Delays of final redress by writs of error, were lessened." To keep the air of populous places pure, butchers were forbidden to kill animals within walled towns." An Act passed to encourage an English population in the Isle of Wight, in which it is mentioned, that many towns and villages had decayed, and the fields diked and made pastures. No one was to take more farms than one, exceeding ten marcs in rent. To check the growing evil of pulling down towns, and laying lands into pasture, by which, in many parts, two or three herdsmen only were living, where 200 persons had pursued their lawful labours; it was enacted, that all owners of houses, with twenty acres of land, should maintain the houses and buildings necessary for tillage; and an attempt was made to regulate the prices of labour, which was afterwards abandoned." Many other provisions were made for the general convenience. Perjury and corruption in officers was severely pursued. The fraud of the great, or gentry, who had covenanted with the king to find a certain number of soldiers, taking full pay for a less quantity, and withholding, even from these their just wages, was visited by forfeiture and imprisonment." From a policy not immediately comprehensible, as larger dealing usually increases and improves production, valuable horses were not to be transported beyond the seas without a license, nor any mare above the price of 6 s. 8d. Wars becoming less suitable to the taste of the age, the heads of the 26 30 IV. REIGN OF HEN. VII. law, the masters of the rolls, clerks of chancery, the judges, barons CHAP. of the exchequer, attorney and solicitor-general, were released from the obligation to attend them." The qualifications of jurors were diminished to 10s. But what seems to strike at the root of all independent use of their important functions, jurors were to be prosecuted by writs of attaint for untrue verdicts, where the value exceeded 40 1.31 Some gross cases of corrupt use of their powers, must have occasioned an enactment so dangerous. But it was a valuable addition to the effective jurisprudence of the nation, that similar processes might be had in actions on the case, as in trespass and debt." What are technically called Actions on the Case, present the most comprehensive means of obtaining redress for personal and pecuniary wrongs, that the English law can provide. To relieve his people from the grievance of their property being taken, as formerly done, for the maintenance of the royal household, he obtained a fixed revenue from assigned funds for his expence, and for his wardrobe.33 34 Some regulations were made for the peculiar benefit of the crown and its officers. The steward, treasurer, and comptroller of the king's household, received authority to inquire into offences committed in it; and especially of conspiracies by the king's servants to murder him, his counsellors or great officers. The patent grants of the yeomen and grooms of the crown, who did not give attendance, were made revocable at the king's pleasure.3 Several legal privileges were granted to those who went abroad in the king's wars; 36 and he was empowered to make void all grants of land to persons who should neglect to attend him in his wars."7 HENRY'S LAWS ON TRADE AND NAVIGATION. THE wars and factions of the great and turbulent; the excitement they caused, the necessities they created, the supplies they needed, and the aversion to their disasters, which increased as these multiplied, made both internal and external trade more popular, beneficial and important, in the reign of Henry VII. As in Richard's time, we find the nation pursuing its commercial voyages towards the north pole, as far as Iceland; so, under 29 Statutes of the Realm, v. 2. p. 582. 31 Ib. 588. 649. 33 Parl. Rolls, 6, p. 299. 25 Ib. 333. 32 lb. 693. 30 Ib. 590. 34 Statutes of the Realm, v. 2. p. 521. V. REIGN OF BOOK Henry VII. we find them trafficking in the Mediterranean with the Venetians, in the Isle of Candia; and maintaining commercial relations with Italy, Spain, Flanders, France, Germany, and the Hanse Towns; all which places had agents and establishments in England. The attention of Henry was directed to favor all mercantile enterprise, as far as the experience and judgment of commercial men then thought expedient; and more laws were made on trade during his reign, than on any other single subject. The true principles of commerce could not indeed, at that time, have been understood; we ascend to these from a practical endurance of evils, which gradually disclose to us our errors, as well as from the enjoyment of the benefits which better systems impart. It is a natural but a slow process of the human mind, to discover on what rules and actions good and evil depend; and all the regulations and conduct of our trade, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were but experiments aiming usually at some immediate good, from which later times were to discern and to deduce those true principles of commerce, which it is now the common interest of mankind to establish universally. Our ancestors were but exploring their ground, opening channels, and feeling cautiously their way. They were laboring amid ignorance, prejudice, obscurity, and obstacles of all sorts; and they deserve our applause for what they achieved, rather than our censure for what they mistook, or were unable to command or to rectify. But Henry appears to have steadily enforced that great principle of our navigation laws, the bringing foreign produce in British ships, which has so powerfully contributed to the superiority of our navy. This rule has made the growth of our naval strength bear always a due proportion to our commerce. Hence, upon the allegation that our navy was decaying, and our mariners idle, it was enacted, that all Gascony wines and Thoulouse wood, should be imported in English ships only; and that the masters and mariners should be subjects of England. It was also directed, that no natives should freight alien ships, if English ones could be had." In his regulations of the woollen trade, there appears an anxiety 38 The parliament, in 1487, levied a capitation tax of 6s. 8d. on every artificer who had not been born in England, or made a denizen, if a householder; and 2s. on all who were not householders, except servants in husbandry; and 20 s. on those who were brewers. And from every Venetian, Italian, Genoese, Florentine, Milanese, Catalonian, Albertine, and Lombard merchant, broker, or factor, if he had a house three months, 40s.; and if not a householder, 20 s. Rolls Parl. 6, p. 402. 39 Statutes of the Realm, v. 2. p. 535. to confine the manufacture of the raw article to English workmen; hence no one was to buy wool before the middle of August, except those who made yarn or cloth of it.40 And no foreigner was to carry any out of the country, until it had received that degree of manufacture which is called barbed, rowed, and shorne. The prices of cloth and hats were limited." Thus, our silk manufactures were encouraged, by prohibiting foreigners from bringing in girdles, ribands, laces, called silk or Cologne silk, thrown or wrought." The citizens of London were authorized to carry all manner of goods to foreign markets." The corporation ordinance, that no freeman of the city should go to any market or fair to sell, that all buyers might be compelled to resort to London, was made void." Oppressive usury, and unlawful bargains, were discouraged." Denizens were ordered to pay custom and subsidies." Richard had compelled the Italian merchants to sell only in gross, Henry allowed them to retail." Brokers were punished for unlawful dealing. 48 To prevent frauds in the weight and working of the gold brought from Venice, Florence, and Genoa, the pound was not to be less than 12 ounces; and the metal was not to be packed differently from its outward show.49 To encourage our fishermen, foreigners were forbidden to sell salmon or other fish.50 No arts or trade were to prejudice the merchants of the Hanse, who had, in London, their own guildhall. Englishmen were allowed to resort to the marts of Flanders, and to deal there freely, without any other exaction, than one payment of ten marcs." And to countervail a tax levied by the Venetians, upon wine, an equal imposition was placed on the malmsey, which foreigners brought into England.53 52 51 The permission to the chancellor to grant commissions of sewers, was enlarged for 25 years. Measures and weights of brass were sent to every chief town and borough, to become standards, and none were to sell but by these." Upholders' were punished for stuffing feather beds with improper feathers." Itinerant pewterers were forbidden, to prevent thieving." The 55 CHAP. IV. REIGN OF HEN. VII.: BOOK rule of the river Thames, from Staines to Yenlade, was given to the lord mayor.5" V. REIGN OF The coin became an object of his attention; a new coinage was circulated. The forging of foreign money, that was current in the kingdom, was made treason." It was deemed of great importance to keep the precious metals forcibly in the country; few being then aware, that bullion is a flowing commodity of trade, like any other article in demand; and, therefore, money was ordered not to be carried out of the country for goods brought into it. No one was to pay to foreigners, by way of exchange, any gold, coin, plate or bullion. And by a subsequent law, the exportation of these was limited to the small sum of six shillings and eight pence. 62 61 To secure the payment of the custom duties, merchants were not to carry goods from one port to another, without a certificate from the customs where the goods had been first entered.63 58 Stat. of the Realm, v. 2. p. 139. co Ib. 517. 61 Ib. 546. 50 Ib. 541. c3 Ib. 516. |