shipping, however, began far back
in the dim ninth century with Alfred the Great. Under the inspiration of
this Saxon of many virtues, his people increased the number of English
merchant vessels and laid the foundation for the creation and
maintenance of a royal navy.[B] The Saxon Athelstan, Alfred's grandson,
whose attention to commerce was also marked, first made it a way to
honor, one of his laws enacting that a merchant or mariner successfully
accomplishing three voyages on the high seas with a ship and a cargo of
his own should be advanced to the dignity of a thane (baron).[C]

The first navigation law was enacted in the year 1381, fifth of Richard
II. This act, introduced "to awaken industry and increase the wealth of
the inhabitants and extend their influence,"[D] ordained that "none of
the King's liege people should from henceforth ship any merchandise in
going out or coming within the realm of England but only in the ships of
the King's liegeance, on penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo."[E]

This act of Richard II was the forerunner of the code of Cromwell, which
came to be called the "Great Maritime Charter of England," and the
fundamental principles of which held up to the second quarter of the
nineteenth century.

Under Charles I was enacted (1646) the first restrictive act with
relation to the commerce of the colonies, which ordained "That none in
any of the ports of the plantations of Virginia, Bermuda, Barbados, and
other places of America, shall suffer any ship or vessel to lade any
goods of the growth of the plantations and carry them to foreign ports
except in English bottoms," under forfeiture of certain exemptions from
customs.[F] It was followed up four years later (1650) under the
Commonwealth, by an act prohibiting "all foreign vessels whatever from
lading with the plantations of America without having obtained a
license."[G]

Cromwell's code, of which the act of 1381 was the germ, was established
the next year, 1651. Its primary object was to check the maritime
supremacy of Holland, then attaining dominance of the sea; and to strike
a decisive blow at her naval power. The ultimate aim was to secure to
England the whole carrying trade of the world, Europe only excepted.[H]
These were its chief provisions: that no goods or commodities whatever
of the growth, production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America
should be imported either into England or Ireland, or any of the
plantations,