and other English bishops, was forced in 1555 to yield to the demands of the merchants of London. Even the prayer of a husband whom the Queen passionately loved was without effect. The Germans were deprived of their right to monopolise the commerce of England. In their anger they placed England under a commercial interdict, which lasted until Mary's death in 1558.

In 1557 the Spanish alliance involved England in war with France. Before Mary's death, Calais, England's last Continental possession, was lost, and England was smarting under this loss when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and to the debts and debased coinage of her predecessors. Elizabeth at once made Cecil her secretary, and he remained her devoted servant and adviser until his death in 1598, when his son took his place. Favourites-such as Leicester, Essex, and Raleigh-give a handle to those who care to discuss the private character of England's rulers. The exact truth can never be known, and this perhaps makes the subject fascinating; but those who judge monarchs by the work they do for the lands they govern will find little to blame in the policy which Cecil pursued under the orders of his Queen. The supremacy of the Pope was once more abolished, and a form of service was introduced which was intended to please all schools of religious thought, and, to a large extent, answered the wishes of its designers.

The difficult question of Scotland was solved with equal wisdom. In 1560 an English army helped Knox and the Scotch unionists to expel the French. When their task was done the English withdrew, and the Scotch were left to sever themselves from France and Rome in their own way. At the end of this year

Francis II. died and the French power over Scotland ceased. England was recompensed for the loss of Calais by the love of Scotland. Scotch reformers would have married Elizabeth to the Earl of Arran and thus united Great Britain; but Elizabeth was wiser. War would have interfered with the work Cecil had to do for England, and Mary's followers would have fought for their Queen; hence in 1560 the fate of Scotland was left to a Scotch Parliament, which broke with Rome and removed the great obstacle to the union of Great Britain.

Good fortune favoured Elizabeth from first to last. The wars of religion distracted France during the greater part of her reign. In 1562 an English force occupied Havre in order to aid the Huguenots in the first religious war. When French Catholics and Protestants forgot their differences and joined in expelling the English, Elizabeth laid the lesson to heart. Henceforward the French were allowed to fight their civil wars without the interference of an English army. In 1559 Philip II. of Spain left the Netherlands, enraged with subjects who demanded redress of grievances before they would vote supply. For eleven years there was trouble brewing in the Low Countries. Then followed the eighty years' war of Dutch independence. Again Elizabeth interfered only when England's interests were vitally affected. Thus the Queen was able to restore England's finance and coinage, and, whilst France and Spain were weakened by discord, England, guided by Elizabeth and Cecil, increased her productive power, added foreign commerce to home production, and began to build the greatest Empire which has ever existed.

XIX

INCREASE OF ENGLAND'S NAVAL POWER

1560-1585

A DEPUTATION of Hanse merchants approached Queen Elizabeth in 1560. They were received with the greatest courtesy, but were told that they must no longer expect more favourable treatment than their English competitors, and that German trade with England would in future be regulated in the interests of the English. They were also told that they would have to give English merchants in their German ports the same rights as they were allowed in England. When foreign commerce was thus brought under national control, Parliament prohibited the importation of many articles which were being imported from Antwerp although they could be made in England. This prohibition was at once felt in the Netherlands, since the Hanse merchants could no longer carry the forbidden goods. Commercial relations between England and the dominions of Philip II. of Spain were broken off; but the English found a market for their cloth at Emden, from which port it could be sold to the inhabitants of the Low Countries or Germany. Although Spanish ships were pillaged in the Narrow Seas, Spain had to submit to the insult in order to

save Antwerp's trade from ruin. In 1564 AngloSpanish trade was resumed on terms dictated by England. The empire of traders was too weak to wage a commercial war with a nation of producers.

Mining was encouraged and the smelting of iron. Alum works were started in the Isle of Wight. Cecil was personally interested in this venture, which for a time succeeded and then failed. Alum was the one thing needed to give England absolute supremacy in cloth-making. From the surface rock which had been weathered alum could be easily prepared, but the working of deeper deposits was a secret jealously guarded by the Pope. Just before Elizabeth's death this difficulty was overcome. Italian alum-workers were smuggled out of papal territory. Alum works were started in Yorkshire, and England had an ample supply of cheap alum with which she could finish her rough cloth.

From the time of Edward III. the exportation of iron was forbidden, that English iron-workers might have a cheap and abundant supply of raw material. When this measure was supplemented by the protection given to finished iron goods, the industry made rapid progress. The Elizabethan English were, however, too wise to sacrifice strength for wealth. It was not until much later that the method of using coal in iron-smelting was invented. The use of charcoal necessitated a great consumption of wood, and this endangered the growth of English shipping; hence the use of wood, growing near the coast and rivers, in iron-smelting was forbidden by repeated Acts of Parliament. Cecil prepared the way for Howard,

Drake, Hawkins, and the defeat of the Armada, just as at a later date Pitt and Barham made it possible for Nelson to do his duty at Trafalgar. One article, in particular, had the honour of a special statute, frequently re-enacted, prohibiting its importation. Freetrade economists argue that to produce cheaply raw materials and instruments used in manufacture should

be imported duty free. The Elizabethan English thought otherwise, for wool-cards were the subject of the statute. According to the free-trade theory English cloth-making ought to have been injured by the statute prohibiting the importation of foreign woolcards, but, in fact, England before long made not only the best cloth but the best wool-cards. This ounce of fact is worth tons of theory. Elizabeth inherited a debased coinage and debts contracted by her brother and her sister. Though prices continued to rise in her reign, the efficiency of her protective system enabled her to restore the coinage, discharge the debts, and maintain the navy without resorting to excessive taxation. Whilst England's production was protected, Cecil enforced rigid economy in governmental departments. Thus England could afford to subsidise the struggling Protestants in France and the Netherlands. In defiance of the laws of free trade England became wealthy, and, better still, she became strong.

The Merchant Adventurers, who carried English cloth to Antwerp in competition with the Hanse merchants, were encouraged by government. In 1581 a Levant company was incorporated in order to trade with the Turk, and these merchants in 1584 sent