No More Learning

He overlooked the function of the scientific imagination
-a power with which he himself was richly endowed.
According to Bacon, ‘human knowledge and human power
meet in one'; and the stress which he laid upon this doctrine
lends interest to his discussions on practical principles. His views
on ethical and political theory, however, were never set forth
systematically or with completeness. They are to be found in the
second book of the Advancement and in the seventh and eighth
books of De Augmentis, as well as in the Essays and in some of
his occasional writings. His observations on private and public
1 Compare Spedding, in Bacon's Works, III, pp. 511, 725.


## p. 291 (#313) ############################################

Bacon's Philosophical Position
291
affairs are full of practical wisdom, for the most part of the kind
commonly called 'worldly. He was under no illusions about the
'
ordinary motives of men, and he thought that 'we are much
beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do and
not what they ought to do. ' Fundamental principles are dealt
with less frequently, but they are not altogether neglected. A
preference is expressed for the active over the contemplative life,
for 'men must know that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved
only for God and angels to be lookers on. ' Aristotle's reasons for
preferring the contemplative life have respect to private good
only. But the 'exemplar or platform of good' discloses a double
nature: 'the one, as everything is a total or substantive in itself;
the other, as it is a part or member of a greater body; whereof
the later is in degree the greater and the worthier. In this way,
Bacon introduced into English ethics the distinction, on which
many controversies have turned, between private and public good.
But the nature of this good is not subjected to philosophical
analysis. A similar remark has to be made regarding Bacon's
contributions to political theory. There is much discussion of
matters of detail, but first principles are barely mentioned. The
'arts of government' are said to contain three duties: the pre-
servation, the happiness and prosperity and the extension, of
empire; but only the last is discussed. Bacon maintained the
independence of the civil power, and, at the same time, defended
the royal prerogative; nevertheless, his ideal of the state was not
arbitrary government, but the rule of law. In the Advancement,
he had noted that
all those which have written of laws have written either as philosophers or as
lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the philosophers, they make imaginary
laws for imaginary commonwealths; and their discourses are as the stars,
which give little light because they are so high. For the lawyers, they write
according to the states where they live, what is received law, and not what
ought to be law.
And he goes on to say that 'there are in nature certain fountains
of justice, whence all civil laws are derived but as streams. ' To
this subject he returns in the eighth book of De Augmentis, which
closes with a series of aphorisms on universal justice. In these
aphorisms, all civil authority is made to depend on the sovereign
power of the government, the structure of the constitution, and
the fundamental laws'; law does not merely protect private rights;
it extends to 'everything that regards the well-being of the state'; ,
its end is or should be the happiness of the citizen : and that law
6
19-2


## p. 292 (#314) ############################################

292 The Beginnings of English Philosophy
may be set down as good which is certain in meaning, just in
precept, convenient in execution, agreeable to the form of govern-
ment, and productive of virtue in those that live under it. '
Bacon's contributions to 'human philosophy do not rank in
importance with his reforming work in natural philosophy; and
his influence on the moral sciences was later in making itself felt,
though it was similar in character to his influence on natural science.
He often appealed for help in carrying out his new philosophy;
but, neither in natural science, nor in moral science, nor in
philosophy generally, did he found a school. Harvey's unfavour-
able judgment has been already quoted. Hobbes, who acted for
a time as his secretary, does not seem to have been influenced by
him in any important manner. And yet it is the leading thinkers
-men such as Leibniz and Hume and Kant—who acknowledge
most fully the greatness of Bacon. His real contribution to in-
tellectual progress does not consist in scientific discoveries or in
philosophical system; nor does it depend on the value of all the
details of his method. But he had the insight to discover, the
varied learning to illustrate and the eloquence to enforce, certain
principles, regulative of the mind's attitude to the world, which,
once grasped, became a permanent possession. He did more
than anyone else to help to free the intellect from preconceived
notions and to direct it to the unbiassed study of facts, whether
of nature, of mind, or of society; he vindicated an independent
position for the positive sciences; and to this, in the main, he
owes his position in the history of modern thought.
While Bacon was engaged upon his plan for the renewal of the
sciences, his younger contemporary Edward Herbert was at work
upon a similar problem. But the two men had little in common
except their vaunted independence of tradition and their interest
in the question of method. And their thinking diverged in result.
Bacon is claimed as the father of empirical or realistic philosophy;
Herbert influenced, and, to some extent, anticipated, the charac-
teristic doctrines of the rationalist or intellectualist school of
thought.
Edward Herbert, the representative of a branch of the noble
Welsh family of that name, and elder brother of George Herbert
the poet, was born at Eyton in Shropshire on 3 March 1583,
matriculated at University college, Oxford, in 1595, married in
1599 and continued to reside at Oxford till about 1600, when he
removed to London. He was made a knight of the Bath soon


## p. 293 (#315) ############################################

Herbert of Cherbury
293
after the accession of king James. From 1608 to 1618, he spent
most of his time on the continent, as a soldier of fortune; seeking,
occasionally, the society of scholars, in the intervals of the cam-
paign, the chase, or the duel. In 1619, he was appointed ambas-
sador at Paris ; after his recall, in 1624, king James rewarded him
with an Irish peerage. He was created an English peer as baron
Herbert of Cherbury in 1629. The civil war found him unprepared
for decision ; but he ultimately saved his property by siding with
the parliament. He died in London on 20 August 1648.
His works were historical, literary and philosophical. His
account of the duke of Buckingham's expedition to Rhé and his
history of Henry VIII were written with a view to royal favour.
The latter was published in 1649; a Latin version of the former
appeared in 1658, the English original not till 1860. His literary
works-poems and autobiography-are of much higher merit.
The former were published by his son in 1665; the latter was first
printed by Horace Walpole in 1764. His philosophical works give
him a distinct and interesting place in the history of thought.
His greatest work, De Veritate, was, he tells us, begun in England
and 'formed there in all its principal parts. ' Hugo Grotius, to
whom he submitted the manuscript, advised its publication; but
it was not till this advice had been sanctioned (as he thought) by a
sign from heaven that he had the work printed (Paris, 1624). To the
third edition (London, 1645) he added a short treatise De Causis
Errorum, a dissertation entitled Religio Laici and an Appendix
ad Sacerdotes. In 1663 appeared his De Religione Gentilium-
a treatise on what is now called comparative religion. A popular
account of his views on religion was published in 1768 under the
title A Dialogue between a Tutor and his Pupil, by Edward Lord
Herbert of Chirbury; and, although the external evidence is
incomplete, it may have been from his pen.
Herbert does not stand in the front rank of speculative thinkers;
but his claims as a philosopher are worthy of note. In the first
place, he attempted a far deeper investigation of the nature of
truth than Bacon had given ; for he based it on an enquiry into
the conditions of knowledge. Here, his fundamental thought is
that of a harmony between faculty and object. Mind corresponds
with things not only in their general nature but in all their dif-
ferences of kind. The root of all error is in confusion-in the
inappropriate connection of faculty and object. Underlying all
experience and belonging to the nature of intelligence itself
are certain common notions. In the second place, Herbert's


## p. 294 (#316) ############################################

294 The Beginnings of English Philosophy
treatment of these common notions made him the precursor of the
philosophy of common sense afterwards elaborated by Reid and
the Scottish school. Some of his tests of common notions are
logical: knowledge of particulars depends upon them. But others
of them are psychological : they are prior in time, and all sane
minds possess them. And it is this last test—that of universality-
that he uses most frequently. "What is in all men's ears,' he says,
‘that we accept as true'; and he adds that this universal consent
is the highest philosophy and theology. In the third place, the
common notions which he discovered in all minds determined the
scope and character of English Deism. He attempted no complete
account of them, except in the sphere of religion. These common
notions of religion are: (1) that there is a supreme Deity; (2) that
this Deity ought to be worshipped ; (3) that virtue combined with
piety is the chief part of divine worship; (4) that men should
repent of their sins and turn from them; (5) that reward and
punishment follow from the goodness and justice of God, both in
this life and after it. These five articles contain the whole doctrine
of the true catholic church, that is to say, of the religion of
reason. They also formed the primitive religion before the people
‘gave ear to the covetous and crafty sacerdotal order. ' In the
fourth place, Herbert was one of the first-if not the first-to
make a systematic effort after a comparative study of religions ;
but he had no idea of the historical development of belief, and he
looked upon all actual religions—in so far as they went beyond his
five articles—as simply corruptions of the pure and primitive
rational worship.


## p. 295 (#317) ############################################

CHAPTER XV
EARLY WRITINGS ON POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
THE political and economic life of England has had an enormous
effect on the whole modern world; her constitutional monarchy
and her parliamentary government have been consciously imitated
by one nation after another, since the time when Montesquieu
held them up to admiration. The political ideas which have had
such far-reaching influence were taking definite shape in our own
country in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. They have left
their mark on our literature in many ways; but, in attempting to
survey these early writings on politics and economics, and to group
them conveniently, it is important to remember that the views
they embodied were finding their fullest expression in political
action and fiery debate, rather than in graceful literary form. The
first essays in English political and economic literature can be best
appreciated when they are viewed in connection with contemporary
struggles and experience.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, England was really
anticipating the movement which occurred in many continental
countries at a subsequent time; she was taking the lead in the rise
of nationalities, and her literature, at that era, illustrates the
various phases of conscious life which this revolution seems to
involve wherever it occurs. In the first place, there was an intense
patriotic sentiment, and a keen interest in national history and
traditional custom. Secondly, with the aim of advocating increased
opportunity for popular self-government, reflection was directed to
the basis on which existing authority rested and the limits within
which it should be exercised. Lastly, much consideration was
given to the material means of gratifying national ambitions for
such political objects as the maintaining of English independence
and the expansion of English influence.
Taking these three divisions, we may say that the literary
expression of patriotic sentiment and the discussions as to natural


## p. 296 (#318) ############################################

296 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
resources and the means of developing them were intensely, though
not exclusively, insular; while the discussions on the power of the
prince and the nature of sovereignty were much more easily
applicable to the circumstances of other countries, and were rela-
tively cosmopolitan. England was working out her own destiny ;
and the form of democratic doctrine which was eventually popu-
larised in this country attracted attention both in the old world
and in the new. But history has repeated itself in regard to the
other elements of national consciousness. Similar patriotic senti-
ment, which may be stigmatised as narrow, and jealous care for
material resources, have been developed, in one country after
another, among the rising nationalities. The special importance
of our literature lies in the fact that it not only reflects the first
emergence of this modern type of community, but that this early
example had a complexity of its own: Great Britain was the
scene of the simultaneous rise of two nationalities. Throughout
the seventeenth century, with the exception of the years of the
protectorate, this island was governed as a dual monarchy.
England and Scotland were each prepared in turn to expand
and to assimilate her neighbour, and each has exercised an
important influence on the political development of the other.
The reaction of these two nationalities upon one another, during
the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, is a political feature that
can be best brought into full light by the study of the literature
of the day.
It might seem to follow that this political and economic writing,
as a direct expression of actual political experience, would be
little affected by foreign influence; but this is only true with
considerable qualifications. Even as regards the expression of
patriotic sentiment, the influence of foreign models may be seen in
the form that was adopted, as in the case of the Debate Betwene
the Heraldes. Further, England was a backward country, both
commercially and industrially, in Tudor times; and the economic
literature of the day is full of suggestions for copying expedients
that had been devised in Holland or in France. It is also notice-
able that the reflection on the problem of sovereignty, though the
forms in which it was raised were dictated by English experience,
was yet concerned with issues that had been defined by Jesuits
and Calvinists in France. Still, when all this is admitted, it is
true to say that English thought seems to have been but little
affected by the writers who were chiefly making their mark in
Italy and France. Bodin's great work had, indeed, been translated
7


## p. 297 (#319) ############################################

Foreign Influences
297
and was used as a text-book at Oxford, but it does not appear
to have had more than academic influence. The Prince of Machia-
velli may, possibly, have influenced the careers of particular men
such as Edmund Dudley or Thomas Cromwell ; but, for the most
part, the great Florentine lay outside the circle of English thought.
He was very frequently alluded to as though he had been the evil
genius of political life; but, even as a bugbear, he did not obtain
such a tribute of antagonism as was paid in the latter part of the
seventeenth century to the commanding figure of Hobbes.
The early writers on political and economic subjects did not
confine themselves to formal treatises; of these, there were very few.
The thought of the day found incidental expression in literature of
every sort : in plays and sermons, as well as in essays, satires and
pamphlets. There can be no attempt to deal exhaustively with all
the references in contemporary English literature to political and
economic topics. On the other hand, some question may be raised
as to how far all the fugitive pieces dealing with political and
economical subjects which have survived attained to the dignity
of literature. It certainly is difficult to find any criterion, and to
say with confidence what should be dismissed as merely technical;
but it is at least to be remembered that Malynes and Misselden
and other writers on such highly technical subjects as foreign
exchanges were anxious to obtain attention for their writings in
polite and courtly circles ; they attempted to deck their argument
with literary graces in the fashion of the day. It would be
churlish to refuse them a place among English authors.
Students of political science in recent times have been inclined
to classify and compare different types of polity, with the view
of elucidating the strong points of each and of noting their various
contributions to the sum of political wisdom; but the early writers
in England on political subjects seem to have felt no need of
adopting this method. They concentrated their attention on
England, almost as if it were the only type of polity worthy of
consideration, and they discussed its characteristics. The example
was set by Fortescue in his De Laudibus Legum Angliae', but the
same tone prevailed among Elizabethan and Jacobean writers.
Sir Thomas Smith, who, like Sir Henry Wotton after him, had seen
much of foreign lands, does, indeed, in his Discourse on the Common-
wealth of England recognise a more general study of politics and
alludes to other states, ancient and modern; he has some difficulty
1 See vol. II of the present work, p. 297.


## p. 298 (#320) ############################################

298 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
in classifying the realm of England under any of the Aristotelian
divisions; but, while he assigns a very high place to regal power,
he does not, like Bodin, treat England as an example of monarchy,
but includes it among the democracies. On the whole, he is pre-
pared to justify the institutions of his country as superior to those
of any other land, and to regard it as a well organised common-
wealth, in which the crown, the nobility and gentry, the burgesses
and yeomen, have each their part to play. The free cooperation of
distinct classes for the good of the community is a characteristic
feature on which he insists; and a similar political ideal appears
to have been in Shakespeare's mind. There is a striking speech in
Troilus and Cressida, act I, sc. 3, in which Ulysses insists on the
importance of degree, and its necessity in well ordered society:
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, bark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself.
Shakespeare, too, seems to recognise the supreme importance of
the kingly office in a well-ordered community. The conversation
between king Henry and his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt is
very instructive on this point; and it is clear that his political
ideals were closely connected with his conception of the English
constitution. The glory and greatness of the English monarchy, as
a controlling power in the English realm, is eloquently set forth in
the speech assigned to Cranmer at the baptism of queen Elizabeth.
A similar conception runs through Bacon's writings; and he also calls
attention to the importance of the personal qualities of the prince,
since, 'in the great frame of kingdoms and commonwealth, it is in the
power of princes or estates to add amplitude and greatness to their


## p. 299 (#321) ############################################

299
a
Patriotic Feeling
kingdoms. ' Selden, who was by no means inclined to exalt the
kingly office unduly, yet recognises it as the source from which the
various titles of honour and grades in the higher ranks of society
spring. This well-ordered community, with a monarch at the
head, was habitually spoken of as the respublica or commonwealth;
and this last was a current term for the English realm long before
it was officially adopted under the Long parliament. The im-
portance of a strong personality at the head of a state was apparent
in the reigns of Henry VIII and his children; the personality of
Elizabeth, in particular, and her success in rallying round her the
loyalty of her subjects and in guiding the affairs of state, continued
to give actual shape to the vague political ideas of cultivated
Englishmen, so that Massinger, in The Maid of Honour, pointed
to the English monarchy as a model for less fortunate peoples.
This view as to the exceptional merit of the English régime
was strengthened by the religious sentiment, and the belief that
England was called by God to a high destiny. In looking out on
the nations of the world, and on the tyrannies and internecine
struggles in Spain and in France, Englishmen of the Elizabethan
and Jacobean periods felt as if there had been direct divine
intervention on behalf of England and, hence, divine approval of
the English type of polity. The success of England, in holding her
own against the power of Spain and against the dangers which
beset the realm from foreign plots, was referred to by archbishop
Sandys and others as a token that the course which England
had pursued was divinely sanctioned. Such historical writings
as Camden's Annales are full of patriotic sentiment; and this
faith also inspired many of the efforts for expansion which were
made by Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Ralegh. In reading
the journal in which the first of these empire builders recorded his
adventures in sailing round the world, we see how keenly he felt
that it would be a crime against God and man to leave the newly
discovered lands to be dominated by Spanish influence, and that
there was a positive duty in striving to bring about the expansion
of England.
So far as internal political problems are concerned, discussion
in Tudor times turned almost exclusively on the conflict between
public and private interests. The doctrines of Mandeville, that
private vices were public virtues, and of Bastiat, that private
interests necessarily cooperated for public good, were unknown,
and would have been wholly repugnant, to Elizabethan writers.
Private interest appeared to be diametrically opposed to patriotic


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300 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
sentiment The writers of the first half of the sixteenth century
who describe the social evils of that period of rapid economic
transition are constantly inveighing against the mischief wrought
by private men who disregarded public welfare. They had little
sympathy with the spirit of competition, since the efforts of indi-
viduals to get on in the world might easily come to be inconsistent
with the maintenance of each man's proper degree, and of the whole
social order. This idea appears to have taken hold of the mind of
Edward VI; it found expression in the prologue of Fitzherbert's
Husbandry and in Caxton's Game and playe of the Chesse as well
as in Starkey's Dialogue between Cardinal Pole and Thomas
Lupset and in More's Utopia. The anarchy which Shakespeare
describes as arising from Cade's rebellion is a picture of the dis-
order which ensues when private interest has free play and the
maintenance of social order is neglected.
In the latter part of the sixteenth century, there was increasing
difficulty in seeing what classes or persons were to be trusted to
act for the public good in the present and in the future, and as
willing to leave in the background private tastes and personal
interests which conflicted with public duty. There are frequent
complaints as to the neglect of country gentlemen to play their
part in the work of local government; the new type of non-
resident proprietors was regarded with special suspicion, and
depopulating and enclosing, which continued to be denounced
from time to time, seemed to be a survival of the ruthless
evictions which had moved the indignation of bishop Latimer,
and of John Hales in his Discourse of the Commonweal. While
the gentry were thus negligent, the mercantile classes and the
burghers in the towns appeared to need direction and guidance,
if the reputation of our manufactures was to be maintained
and the commerce of the country to develop. So far as old
traditions survived among the industrial classes, they favoured
a narrow civic patriotism rather than the good of the realm;
while the merchants concentrated in London were affected by
the new commercial morality, and inclined to commercial enter-
prises, from which political trouble might easily ensue. Every
class needed to be kept up to the sense of public duty; the
clergy and ecclesiastical corporations were not above diminishing
the future value of their livings with a view to immediate
gain. The council, inspired by the ceaseless activity of Burghley,
was continually engaged in putting down abuses at which men,
who ought to have been public-spirited citizens, were accustomed


## p. 301 (#323) ############################################

Public Welfare
301
to connive. Under these circumstances, it was plausible to
look to the crown as the one hope of public-spirited conduct
throughout the realm, and to regard the king as being not only
the source of honour, the fount of justice and the arm of military
power, but as supreme trustee for the public good in all the affairs
of life. This, in substance, is the claim which was put forward by
king James in The True Lawe of Free Monarchies, and it would
probably have been admitted as sound by men who were repelled
by the arguments with which his adherents endeavoured to sup-
port it. The real refutation was a practical one; and it was the
misfortune of James and Charles that many of the undertakings
in which they endeavoured to execute this trusteeship miscarried
disastrously, and not only interfered with private interests, but
proved detrimental to the realm as a whole.
As a consequence, under the early Stewarts, the legitimacy of
giving free play to private interests was advocated in a way in
which it had never been done before; and an attempt was made to
treat as merely private many matters which had hitherto been
regarded as of public concern. It is, of course, true that, in a body
politic, no action can be exclusively private; the interconnection
between individuals in the body politic is so close that wrong
done by an individual may be at least a bad example and injurious
to the community. Religion, which many today regard as a
merely personal affair, was generally thought of in the Elizabethan
and Jacobean periods as of supreme importance to the state.
Christianity, as understood and practised by Englishmen, was
held to be the foundation of Christian morality; and, hence,
was a matter of public concern in which the king might be bound
to interfere. The extreme Erastianism of men like Cranmer, or,
for that matter, of Luther, is a surprise to many in the present
day; but, among Englishmen generally in Elizabeth's time, there
was little sympathy with the scruples of a private conscience which
set itself up against the established order, though sympathy was
growing. While freedom, within limits, for conscientious con-
viction was coming to be regarded as not unreasonable, the freedom
of the individual to carry on his business as he liked, and where he
liked, apart from old moral restrictions or considerations of what
was expedient for the public good, asserted itself more and more.
Under Elizabeth and Burghley, it had been taken as an axiom
that the direction of commercial intercourse between this country
and foreign nations was a matter of public concern, and that even
the internal trade of the country, so far as regards the necessaries


## p. 302 (#324) ############################################

302 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
of life, ought to be a matter of public regulation. It may be
doubted whether the Elizabethan monarchy, as organised by
Burghley, could have maintained itself in all its activities against
the invading agitations for freedom of conscience and freedom of
enterprise ; but king James and king Charles completely failed to
justify their position as trustees for the public welfare. Under
the Council of State, the machinery for control fell into desuetude;
and individual freedom, both as regards conviction and enterprise,
asserted itself as it had never done before. In this era, there was
a new type of patriotic sentiment, which contained no element of
loyalty to the crown.
Whether they proceeded from a religious or an economic motive,
the attempts to evade interference on the part of the crown with
the consciences or enterprise of individuals demanded some justi-
fication. The writers of the day did not attack the fundamental
question in regard to the meaning and ground of sovereignty as a
mere philosophical problem: the issue was raised by practical
experience and took different forms in England and in Scotland;
and the efforts to organise popular self-government were very
distinct in the two countries.
In England, throughout the reign of Elizabeth, popular opinion,
on the whole, sympathised with the royal claims to very extensive
authority in matters ecclesiastical and in foreign and commercial
policy. The bull of Pius V, which was issued in 1570, had ex-
communicated Elizabeth and released her Roman Catholic subjects
from the obligations of allegiance; it roused fierce indignation
among her subjects, who felt that the maintenance of all they held
dear in church and state depended on the preservation of the
queen's person; and it opened the way for a rigorous persecution,
as the Roman priests, and those who harboured them, were under
suspicion of being traitors. Just, however, because feeling ran
high, there does not seem to have been much printed discussion
of the validity of the pope's claim to release subjects from their
allegiance to the crown. Parsons, the Jesuit, was content to argue
against the claims of the English crown to inherent authority;
and Sir John Hayward, in his answer, insisted on the right of
hereditary succession to the regal power of England. The under-
lying difficulty was scarcely dealt with by English writers of the
period ; if the authority of the crown was not derived from the
papal authority, it would seem that it must either be directly con-
ferred by God, inherent in the princely stock or derived from the


## p. 303 (#325) ############################################

Scottish Ecclesiasticism 303
subjects. Hooker and other writers who defended the existing
order failed to make their position clear as regards these various
alternatives ; expressions might easily be quoted which would go
to show that they did not always maintain the same standpoint.
In Scotland, during the last half of the sixteenth century,
issues of fundamental principle were raised more definitely. The
reformation, in that country, had been thoroughly Calvinistic;
and the doctrine of Calvin was inconsistent with any claims to
inherent authority on the part of a hereditary monarchy. Calvin
and his followers were keenly alive to the supremacy of the
Divine Will, and they believed that this will was fully set forth
in the pages of the Bible. The ministers and stewards of God's
Holy Word professed to be in a position to interpret that Will
from day to day and hour to hour. The conception of a mundane
authority which claimed to exercise any control in matters of
religion seemed to be blasphemous; and the part which was
left for civil officials to play in the management of public
affairs was very restricted. In the free cities, like Geneva, in
which Calvinism had established its hold at first, magistrates
were not in a position, even if they had desired it, to contest
these claims; but, when Calvinism crossed the channel from
Switzerland and France to Great Britain, its pretensions came
into conflict with those of the monarchy. The first notes of
defiance had been sounded by Goodman, and by John Knox in
his Monstruous Regiment of Women ; and the line of argument by
which he attacked the claims of queen Mary to the throne of
England showed that he was out of sympathy with those who
exalted the power of the prince. But the full consequences of
the Calvinistic doctrines only came into light north of the
Tweed. George Buchanan put forward a Calvinistic theory of
national government in 1579 ; his De Jure Regni insists that the
monarch is elected by the people, that he is responsible to the
people and that he may be judged by the people. Though
Buchanan's doctrine was not accepted by constitutional authority,
it found congenial soil in Scotland. In that kingdom, the monarchy
had hardly ever enjoyed a position of independence from the
attacks of a turbulent nobility, and there was little difficulty in
supporting the principle of the responsibility of the crown by
illustrations drawn from Scottish history. The reception of civil
law in the northern kingdom rendered it less possible to regard
the crown as the supreme source of right. While the prerogatives
of the crown were thus minimised, the claim to self-government


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304 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
was being effectively pushed forward. The Scottish parliament
had not, indeed, been an important popular power, and, therefore,
there was a field left in which the self-government of the Scottish
people could be organised afresh on new lines. Despite the oppo-
sition of the regent and the antagonism of the nobility, Andrew
Melville succeeded in completely recasting the ecclesiastical system
in 1580, and in creating a series of representative assemblies, local,
provincial and national, throughout the country. Popular opinion
was able to take complete possession of the national ecclesiastical
system; the new scheme of government professed to be strictly
scriptural, and it treated the king as an official who was bound
to be subservient to this ecclesiastical democracy.
The form which national self government attempted to assume
north of the Tweed was a direct challenge to the constitutional
authorities : it raised the whole question as to the duty of civil
obedience. An attempt to counteract Buchanan's influence was
made in The True Lawe of Free Monarchies, which was attributed
to king James. The defenders of Scottish monarchy were forced
to take very high ground in order to meet their assailants; and
it was under these circumstances that the Stewart doctrine of the
divine right of kings was formulated. Similar principles had, in-
deed, been widely disseminated in England by the Homily published
in 1547, as well as by that in 1570; but the English puritans
did not, by their refusal to submit to the ecclesiastical authorities,
directly raise the issue as to the duty of obedience to the king.
Their struggle was with ecclesiastical administrators and the ques-
tion as to the nature of civil authority was hardly raised. The
high doctrine of monarchy does not seem to have received much
attention or roused much antagonism until it re-entered England
from the north along with the Stewarts. The doctrine of divine
right, as fully formulated, had two aspects: on the one hand,
it maintained that the monarchy was not elective, but that the
occupant of the throne had an inherent hereditary right; on
the other hand, it asserted that the king was a trustee who
was not responsible in any way to his subjects, but to God
Himself. Hence, it appeared that, if there had been any con-
tract between the king and his people, the people could never be
justified in claiming to judge of a breach of contract or to take
the law into their own hands. It was their duty to obey God's
minister, the king; or, if he commanded them to do anything
directly contrary to God's word, they might, indeed, refuse to carry
out his wishes actively, but were yet bound to show their respect by


## p. 305 (#327) ############################################

English Constitutionalism 305
submission to the punishment he might impose for their refusal.
Archbishop Ussher and others, who viewed civil authority in this
religious aspect, would not admit for a moment that they were
giving any apology for arbitrary or tyrannical government, while
they insisted on a duty of passive obedience. At all events, the
doctrine is self consistent; and those who reject it, and try to
formulate principles which shall justify resistance in emergencies,
have always found difficulty in explaining any rational grounds
for obedience at all, except in so far as the dictates of self interest
render it expedient at the moment.
The question between popular self-government and the inter-
ference of the crown was raised in another form and debated on
other grounds in England, where the parliamentary system had
long been in vogue. In Elizabeth's time, the puritans had en-
deavoured to bring ecclesiastical grievances before the House of
Commons; this, the queen resented, as it seemed that the commons
were endeavouring to go outside their province and legislate on
matters which could only be constitutionally dealt with by the
clergy in convocation and by the crown. In this way, the religious
question assumed a constitutional form. There were, indeed, many
abuses in the church, both as regards ceremonial and the enforce-
ment of discipline; and, among many Englishmen, there was little
confidence in either the desire or the power of the bishops to
carry out what they regarded as necessary reforms. There was,
besides, widespread dissatisfaction, among the public and among
lawyers, in regard to both the pretensions and the practice of the
ecclesiastical courts. When the House of Commons insisted on
dealing with these matters, the question came to be one of consti-
tutional right. Hence, the party who desired an extension of
popular self-government over ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs
devoted their attention to the search for precedents rather than to
the laying down of principles. The struggle for ecclesiastical
democracy had led to the creation of a new system of popular
assemblies in Scotland; in England, it took the shape of the
demand for increased power on the part of one estate of the
realm as against the other elements in the constitution.
At the accession of James I, the struggle was both confused
and embittered by the misunderstandings which arose through
identifying the corresponding movements in England and Scotland.
The puritans in England doubtless expected that a Scottish king
might be willing to have the church of England reformed on the
lines of the Scottish church, which they regarded as scriptural.
20
E. L. IV.
CH. XV.


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306 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
They could hardly have been aware of the horror with which he
regarded this presbyterian organisation, as inconsistent with effec-
tive control of public affairs by the civil power, and incompatible
with the good government of the realm. On the other hand,
James was probably unaware of the importance of the House of
Commons as an organ through which popular self-government
might be exercised. He assumed that it might be induced to play
the rôle with which the Scottish parliament had been content.
He regarded the popular assembly as an excellent place in which
to bring private grievances to the knowledge of the sovereign, but
he held that it was for the sovereign, as trustee of the common
weal and directly responsible to God, to shape the policy of the
country for the public good.
Whether the new claims of the House of Commons called forth
the assertion of higher privileges by the crown, or the manner in
which the prerogative of the crown was put forward roused the
antagonism of the commons, the old balance between the different
elements in the life of the state was upset. The well-ordered
community, as vaguely conceived in Elizabethan times, had been a
body in which the nobles and gentry, and the burgesses and
yeomen, co-operated for the common weal. But, in view of the
need of finding a basis for insisting on the duty of civil obedience,
this whole conception of the realm was modified. The supporters
of the crown regarded England as a monarchy in which the king
was personally responsible to God, and to God only, for all public
affairs, while it was desirable that he should get such assistance
from his subjects, by counsel and advice, as seemed to him to be
required. This new view of the English realm failed to commend
itself to moderate churchmen ; while much of the secular learning
and sentiment of England, which, under other circumstances, might
have been conservative, was thrown into opposition to the crown.
Those who were aggrieved by the advancement of Williams and
Juxon, or irritated by the reforms of Laud, threw the weight of
their influence into opposition to the crown. The controversialists
were somewhat at cross-purposes ; on the royalist side, there was
an assertion of principles, while Prynne and his associates were
engaged in accumulating precedents and attacking persons.
Both in England and in Scotland, the determination not to
brook royal interference in matters of religion was momentous;
but, while the presbyterians in England were willing to accede ta,
the claims of the House of Commons, the presbyterians in Scotland
were more thorough-going in their insistence on spiritual inde-


## p. 307 (#329) ############################################

Private Economy
307
pendence, and had far greater difficulty in coming into line with
any form of civil government. For our immediate purpose, it may
suffice to note that each movement made its own contribution to
the criticism of the Stewart régime and proved to be a step in the
progress of democratic ideas,
a
The century is remarkable in the history of economic thought,
since the close connection between political wellbeing and economic
activities was more generally recognised than had ever been the
case before. So soon as the king came to be dependent for a sub-
stantial part of his income not on his own estates, but on the
money regularly raised by taxation, it was obviously important to
him that the sources from which taxation was drawn-whether
landed property or commercial profit-should be well supplied.
Hence, in the writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
there was a new concern for the material resources of the realm as
contributing not merely to the wealth of private persons, but,
indirectly, to the power and dignity of the realm as a whole. The
few medieval treatises which have survived may be regarded as
prudent maxims about private affairs—such are Robert Grosse-
teste's rules for the management of a household, Walter of Henley's
paternal advice on the management of an estate and the ancient
treatises on the duties of a seneschal. Even Fitzherbert and Tusser,
in the sixteenth century, hardly pass beyond this point of view.
A new note is set in John Hales's Discourse of the commonweal of
this realm in England, which was written in 1549 and published
in 1581. In no previous work had the interconnection of private
business concerns and the public weal been so clearly recognised,
and no writer has put more forcibly the fact that the pursuit of
private interest is not necessarily inimical to, but may often be for
the good of, the state. In modern times, when the government
has been largely dependent for its revenue upon taxation, the
promotion of the harmony between public and private interests
became more apparent. Unless subjects were prosperous, there
was no fund from which revenue could be drawn, and, hence,
it came to be a matter of definite importance to develop the
resources of the realm and to give private enterprise free play, or
to guide it into those directions in which it could contribute most
effectively to the maintenance of the power of the realm. This
doctrine was clearly grasped by Burghley, who set himself to build
up the industrial and maritime greatness of England as the founda-
tion of her power. As the Elizabethan monarchy presented the
20-2


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308 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
type of polity which was accepted as normal in English literature,
so the Elizabethan organisation gave a concrete economic system,
which the economic writers of the period accepted as typical, and
in regard to which they endeavoured to suggest improvements.
A great deal of the literature of the period is concerned with
the description of the realm and its actual resources. Very
interesting, in this connection, is the Itinerary of John Leland; a
more complete account of England as a whole was issued in 1578
by Harrison in his Description of England'. Additional informa-
tion, from a later date, occurs in the admirable descriptions of
each county in turn which are to be found in Fuller's Worthies;
there are also accounts of particular counties such as Westcote's
Devonshire and John Aubrey's Surrey and Wilts, which give
vivid descriptions of the conditions of large areas of the country.
Very special attention, also, was turned to the condition of the
Fens. The rivers which ran through these districts served as
convenient channels for navigation; but, at time of high tide or of
heavy rain in the midlands, they were apt to flood the adjoining
country. During the latter part of the sixteenth and the seven-
teenth century, great efforts were made to recover the land thus
inundated for purposes of pasturage during the summer, if not for
tillage. Dugdale's History of Imbanking gives a clear account
of the steps which were being taken for reclaiming fen-land in
this and other parts of England, while The Anti-projector puts in
an interesting plea for the maintenance of the old conditions and
the value of the products which could be obtained in the Fens by
those who were acclimatised to life there. It was in these regions
that the work of agricultural improvement was most obviously a
matter of public concern, to which the private interests both of
the fen men and of all those who were busied with internal
navigation were opposed. The story of the successive attempts to
deal with this problem, through different bodies of undertakers,
and under the personal direction of the crown, illustrates not only
the physical obstacles which had to be encountered, but the
difficulty of reconciling conflicting interests and the public good.
Improvement in the practice of tillage was also urged, not merely
as a means of successful estate management, but because of its
bearing on the prosperity of the realm. It was in this spirit that
Gervase Markham and others directed attention to the agriculture
of the Dutch, and indicated that, in regard to the conditions of
tenure, the treating of the soil and the crops which it was well
i See vol. ui of the present work, chap. xv.


## p. 309 (#331) ############################################

Administrative Officials
309
to cultivate, England would profit by studying Dutch experience.
Much was to be learned from the Low Countries in regard to the
development of English resources, both by sea and by land. The
success of the Dutch in fishing off the English coasts roused a
patriotic sense of the expediency of ousting them from this en-
croachment by copying their methods. Lord Burghley had been
particularly keen in regard to the importance of encouraging the
fishing trades as a school for seamanship. With his enormous
grasp of detail, he set himself, both by precept and by example,
to increase the consumption of fish; and numerous writers-
Jeninges, Keymor, Hitchcock and others-insisted on the advan-
tages which would accrue to the wealth of the realm from
attention to the harvest of the sea.
Another large section of the economic writing of the period
was undertaken by men who were concerned in the official ad-
ministration of national or local affairs. Such handbooks had
existed from time immemorial ; a great example of this kind of
writing was set by bishop Richard of London, in the Dialogus de
Scaccario, and a similar treatise on the business of the mint was
probably compiled by Walter de Bardes; but, in subsequent times,
there had been an enormous expansion of the administrative
duties undertaken by local officials on behalf of the crown.
Fitzherbert's book on the justice of the peace was the recognised
manual for those who were increasingly employed in economic
duties connected with apprenticeship, the conditions and remune-
ration of labour and the employment of the poor. The book of
John Fisher, of Warwick, gives a vivid picture of the duties which
fell to the clerk of the market at the time. The regulation of the
prices of the necessaries of life was a constant subject of public
care. No part of the economic activities of the crown was more
necessary, and none presented greater difficulties in practice, than
that of authoritatively maintaining the qualities of wares presented
for sale in the markets. Much may be gathered on this topic, so
far as the reputation of our chief English export was concerned,
from the writings of Thomas Milles, a collector of customs, and of
John May, who held the office of `aulnager' and was responsible
that the pieces of cloth exported should be of full length. A con-
siderable portion of the writing of the period takes the form of
complaint as to the want of regulation, and the desirability of
bringing some new department under the direct control of govern-
ment, or of reviving the care which had been formerly bestowed.
It is in this way that Malynes, in a work which has considerable
6


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310 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
a
pretensions to literary grace, argues against the malpractices of
dealers in coin and in favour of more stringent regulation in
regard to currency and exchange.
The needs of the time called forth a form of business manage-
ment which was generally regarded as almost peculiar to England.
In no other country did company trading proceed on quite the
same lines. The great commercial companies of the seventeenth
.
century were, historically, an offshoot of older civic institutions ; for
the most part, they had the character of associations where each
member traded independently, but with the use of common facilities
and under the acceptance of common rules. The Merchant Adven-
turers' was by far the most celebrated of these companies; its affairs
were managed in a residency beyond the sea, and it had a large
membership not only in London but in Newcastle, York and Hull.
Along with the Eastland company, which traded to the Baltic, it
had been the chief organ through which the successful rivalry
of Englishmen with the Hanse league had been carried on. There
were many complaints, however, that this company did not show
an enterprising spirit and had failed to develop the market for
English cloth abroad as it might have done. Its privileges were
suspended, for a time, by James I, and were the subject of constant
debate. Two of the secretaries of the company, John Wheeler and
Henry Parker, wrote effectively in its defence, and the policy for
which they argued may be said to have triumphed. The Adven-
turers entered on a new lease of life before the restoration, and
maintained an important position in the commercial world till
the Hamburg residency was suppressed by Napoleon in 1806.
The great company which was formed to compete with the
Dutch and Spaniards, and to obtain direct access to the markets
of the east, was organised on somewhat different lines, as it was
soon found convenient that such distant adventures should be
carried out on the basis of a joint stock. The advantages and
disadvantages of this new trade gave rise to much criticism and
discussion. The critics argued that it diverted capital from home,
and denied the expediency of allowing bullion to be exported
from the country. The answers were given by Sir Dudley
Digges, by Robinson and, especially, by Thomas Mun, whose
Discourse of Trade to the East Indies and England's Treasure
by Foreign Trade put the case extremely forcibly; and this
company also was reinstated under Cromwell and entered on a
career of commercial greatness and political power, such as its
first advocates could never have foreseen.


## p. 311 (#333) ############################################

Commercial and Colonising Companies 311
The company form was also employed successfully for purposes
of colonisation. The Virginia company has the credit of over-
coming the difficulties which had rendered the first experiments of
English plantation on the American continent disastrous failures.
It was under the wing of a Plymouth company that the Pilgrim
Fathers settled in the New world, and the settlers who were sent
out by the company of Massachusetts bay developed powers not
only of self-government but of federation which have done much
to determine the character of the polity of the United States. The
possibilities and methods of plantation called forth a large amount
of pamphlet literature, and the writings of captain John Smith,
Sir William Alexander and many others, show, not only the extra-
ordinary risks which had to be run by the pioneers, but the fore-
thought and enthusiasm by which they were inspired to surmount
them.
The risk of distant colonisation threw the adventurers back upon
considering more closely the possibilities of plantation in Ireland.
Indeed, it was generally recognised that, while it might be deşirable
for England to obtain a footing in the New world, it was essential
that Ireland should be so developed as to become a source of
strength rather than of weakness to the crown. The problem why
Ireland had not been brought into line with the English model of
well-ordered society was discussed by Edmund Spenser and by
Sir John Davies. Efforts continued to be made to introduce such
elements from England and from Scotland that portions of the
country might be successfully Anglicised; and, in some cases, this
work was facilitated by the deportation of the older inhabitants,
for which political unrest had given an excuse. The most com-
pletely organised and interesting of the settlements was that which
was carried out in the county of Derry with the help of the great
London companies ; in it we see most clearly what was the Stewart
ideal of a well-organised territory, with a city and market towns
and townships and estates. The whole policy of these under-
takings was bitterly criticised on the fall of Strafford, and James I
cannot be said to have been very successful in inducing the
citizens of London to enter heartily into this scheme of public
welfare.
Another direction in which the development of public resources
occupied the attention of the government was in regard to the
introduction of new industries. England, which has since become
the workshop of the world, was then almost entirely destitute of
skilled work in iron or steel, and was particularly badly equipped


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312 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
with guns and munition of war. From the beginning of the reign,
lord Burghley set himself steadily and persistently to introduce
new industries from abroad; but he was careful that they should
not be injurious to existing trades, and that they should be really
planted in the country, and not merely carried on by foreigners
settled in England, who had no abiding interest in the realm. The
same policy was pursued, though with less wisdom and caution, by
both James I and Charles I. On paper, their schemes for intro-
ducing the art of dyeing, the manufacture of alum, the development
of a silk industry and the use of native materials in the manufac-
ture of soap, appeared admirable; but the projects were not
practically successful, and private interests were roused in oppo-
sition without the attainment of any real public good. Sometimes,
these attempts were made by concessions granted for a period of
years; sometimes, they were undertaken by the crown under official
management. James and Charles could not but be inspired by
the successes of Henri IV in dealing with similar problems in
France; but they were unfortunate in not having advisers of the
capacity of Sully and Olivier de Serres.
The attempts made under Elizabeth and the early Stewarts to
control all the relations of economic life in the public interest gave a
new character to the morality of industrial and commercial life. It
ceased to be entirely concerned with a man's personal relations, and
his personal connections, and came to be more a matter of loyal ac-
ceptance of the course projected in the public good. In its ultimate
effect this change was wholly bad. The Stewarts failed to secure
respect for their efforts to promote the public good; and, in the time
of Adam Smith, the merchant who professed to trade in the public
interest was, apparently, an object of some suspicion. When this
new criterion of honourable dealing was entirely abandoned, there
was neither tradition nor principle available for the maintenance
of disinterested business morality, and the course of deliberately
pursuing individual interest came to have defenders and, indeed,
to be idealised. At least, we may see that the defenders of the old
morality, who appeared to be mere pedants, were right in thinking
that the new morality, which was coming in, was built on insecure
foundations. The chief question of dispute was as to the terms on
which capital might rightly be lent. According to the old ecclesi-
astical tradition, which is embodied in the 109th canon of 1604, it
was wrong to bargain for any payment for certain for the use of a
principal sum. The man who had borrowed it might fail to make
money with it; and, therefore, though the lender was justified in


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a
Business Morality
313
requiring the return of the principal, and even in bargaining for a
share of the profit if any accrued, he had no right to ask for a cer-
tain gain, or to put himself in the position of gaining at the expense
of another. But in the conditions of extending business which
were current in the latter part of the sixteenth, and the first half of
the seventeenth, century, it was desirable, in the public interest,
that hoards of money should be brought into play and used as capital
in agriculture, industry or trade. In order that this might be done
as easily as possible, the practice of lending money on moderate
interest came into vogue, and it could be certainly argued that,
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, or in nine hundred and
ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, the merchant who borrowed at
what was regarded as low interest, say, six per cent. , was able to
pay this interest easily and make a considerable gain for himself,
while the lender got interest on money that would have been other-
wise unremunerative. Henceforward, the term usury came to be
applied to excessive interest, where an element of extortion might
be supposed to come in; but city men generally had no scruple
about the giving or taking of moderate interest as likely to land
them in harsh or unneighbourly conduct. The purists, the most
remarkable of whom was Thomas Wilson, whose treatise was pub-
lished in 1576, and who was followed by Fenton and many of the
clergy, condemned what we now call lending money on interest as
a wrong bargain for a man to make, since it might render him
subject to the temptation of extortion. Malynes, and the English
public generally, insisted that moderate interest, which gave free
play to capital, was for the public good, and that harm only arose
when excessive rates were charged. This was the view which was
adopted by parliament in 1624; the new commercial morality was
accepted by the state, and the efforts of churchmen to maintain
the old standard soon fell into abeyance.
In a somewhat similar fashion, the duty of paying a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work had been, to a large extent, a personal
thing, though the obligation, doubtless, was limited by gild rules and
manorial customs; but, after the statute of 1562, when an elaborate
machinery was set up for regulating the proper rates of wages
and providing for their necessary variation, the duty of considering
what was fair and right almost ceased to be personal and became
official, and the conscientious employer might be satisfied if he
paid the rates as authoritatively fixed by statute. In that age,
the personal kindness of an employer towards his hands took the
form of continuing to give them employment at times when the
a


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314 Early Writings on Politics and Economics
markets were bad and work was unremunerative. It was to this
course that clothiers, in times of interrupted trade, were urged by
Wolsey, and by other statesmen who held that capitalists, since
they carried on their business under the protection of the state and
obtained a market through royal alliances, were not at liberty, in
their own private interest, to dismiss their hands and thus to
render their unemployed workmen desperate and liable to break
out into riot.
In the Elizabethan period, attempts were also made to sub-
stitute public organisation for private benevolence in the relief
of the poor. By seeking to take over the care of the poor, the
state may be said to have condemned the spasmodic efforts of
personal charity as insufficient, and to have attempted organised
relief which rendered them unnecessary. The problem of pauperism
had assumed enormous proportions, both in town and country, in
the early part of the sixteenth century; and the dissolution of the
monasteries and the breaking up of religious houses had, at all
events, helped to render the evil more patent. The Supplication
for the beggars is an instructive picture of the variety of mendicants
who were to be met with before affairs reached their worst. The
drastic measures of Edward VI were insufficient; but it appears
that the administration of Elizabethan laws, coupled with the
efforts that were made to introduce new industries, and especially
with the wide diffusion of spinning as a domestic art, caused an
enormous improvement in many parts of the country before the
civil war broke out. There is much interesting writing in this period
on the causes of poverty and on the best means of meeting it.
We hear both from Devonshire and Wiltshire of fluctuations in the
clothing trade as the main causes of distress, while there was also a
tendency to attribute it to the introduction of pasture farming and
the enclosure of commons; others urged that the squatters on
the commons were the most usual source of mischief, and that
greater stringency in dealing with them was essential if the
problem was to be tackled. The charitable spirit, indeed, was not
dead, and, during the early part of the seventeenth century, a very
large number of parochial benefactions were founded for the
teaching of children, for apprenticing boys or enabling them to
start in business and for the care of the aged. But, on the whole,
the relief of the poor was coming to be thought of more and more
as a duty that was to be exercised through public channels and not
by personal gifts. How far this machinery could have continued
i Cf. also vol. III of the present work, chap. v.


## p. 315 (#337) ############################################

The Mercantile System
315
to serve its purpose may be doubtful; but, at all events, the dis-
order which was caused by the outbreak of the civil war put an
end to the centralisation on which its efficiency depended; many
years were to elapse, and many local abuses to arise, before the
various factors could be once more co-ordinated in the pursuit of a
common policy throughout the realm.
The early seventeenth century was a period of transition, when
the power of capital was beginning to make itself felt in many
directions. There was great difficulty in finding any practical
reconciliation of the aims of maintaining the social stability on
which comfort depends, and yet of giving sufficient scope for
progress and change. The storm which broke out in the civil
war was the most obvious result of the efforts of the Stewarts to
exercise a mediating influence, and to organise a well-ordered
system of industry and trade. Eventually, the interplay and
conscious interdependence of interests in all parts of the country
in carrying out the common object of building up a national mer-
cantile marine gave cohesion to the economic activities of the
realm, but this was effected by the parliaments of the Restoration
period and of the Whig ascendancy, not through the personal
government of the crown. Patriotic sentiment found satisfaction
in the success of the efforts to develop material resources of every
kind, and to render them conducive to national power.


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CHAPTER XVI
LONDON AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF POPULAR
LITERATURE
CHARACTER WRITING. SATIRE. THE ESSAY
SINCE the collapse of feudalism, London had become the centre
of political power in England, and the nobility tended more and
more to abandon their estates and frequent the court, where
preferment was to be won. But, since the fall of Antwerp (1576),
London had also established itself as the capital of European
commerce, to which all nationalities crowded in search of wealth.
Thus, the rich men of the upper, as well as the middle class were
gradually being gathered into one city where, for want of other
investments, their wealth was converted into gold plate, jewellery
and rich apparel, till London became the city of fastastic costumes
and extravagant ostentation. With its cosmopolitan population
and foreign imports, London son inspired the desire for travel ;
and Italy, the cradle of the renascence and the school of courtesy,
became the goal of all voyagers. But Italy was also the home of
immorality and intrigue, and northerners brought back to their own
country the cynical curiosity and the ribald insincerity of the
south. The centre of wealth and commerce is, also, the centre of
civilisation, and the sons of rich men, whether nobles or farmers,
came to London to avail themselves of its opportunities. These
young men, though nominally students of law, attendants at
court, or professional soldiers, formed a new and disturbing
element in society. They affected a cult of modernity in which
literary dilettantism and a false sense of honour combined with
contempt for English traditions and indulgence in all forms of
dissipation. These gilded vagabonds crowded places of public
resort, introduced new fashions, cultivated foreign vices and even
made their influence felt in current literature. But they achieved
more lasting harm by calling into existence a class of unscrupulous


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>
The New Spirit
317
tradesmen and insidious usurers, who grew rich by ministering to
their capricious extravagance.
Such degeneracy, however, was not universal. Ever since Tudor
times, the evils of progress had met with strong opposition from the
steadier and sounder portion of the nation. Brinkelow, Bansley,
Awdeley, Copland, Harman, Bullein, Gosson and a host of anony-
mous writers had lamented specific abuses of society? , and reflected
the feeling of discontent which oppressed the people. But their
work was not adjusted to the new conditions. In the last half of
the century, London had grown to twice the size it had reached
at the reformation, and this vast concentration of human beings,
together with new activities, luxuries and temptations, occasioned
problems of existence which the Tudor pamphlets were powerless
to solve. Besides, the number of educated men had increased
enormously. Grammar schools had been multiplied%; the univer-
sities were in closer touch with the capital; a literary atmosphere
was being created; intellectual interests were bringing men to-
gether. It became fashionable to read books, to criticise them and
to introduce their phraseology into conversation. But the social
writers of Tudor times had not that subtle persuasiveness which
comes from style, and without which the man of taste can never
be won.
And it was this type, whether courtier, graduate, divine,
soldier, lawyer, merchant, or 'prentice, who now formed the reading
public. Among them arose a generation of brilliant, but mostly
penurious, youths who, urged by the pinch of hunger or the spur
of ambition, now came forward as authors. Their task was to
interpret the features of London social life and, at the same time,
to gratify the existing tendency towards literary style and conver-
sational witticisms. In their efforts to meet this double demand,
they created a literature of comment and observation which was,
eventually, to evolve some of the best work in the language.
But the secret of realism was not discovered at once. Thomas
Lodge made one of the first attempts in An Alarum against
Usurers containing tryed experiences against worldly abuse85
(1584). Money-lenders, with their devices for discovering the
· Ante, vol. II, chap. v, bibl. , pp. 491–2.
2 C. Creighton, in Traill's Social England, vol. I, p. 375.
3 Ante, vol. III, chap. XIX.
4 Barnabe Rich catches the spirit of the times when he talks of this quicke sprited
age, when so many excellent wittes are endeavouring by their pennes to set upp lightes,
and to give the world new eyes to see into deformitie. ' The Honestie of this Age, 1614.
5 For the prose fiction of Lodge, Greene and Nashe, see vol. II of the present
work, chap. xvi; for their plays, see vol. v.


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318
London and Popular Literature
pecuniary embarrassments of young men, for gradually involving
the spendthrift in debt and then using him as a decoy to enmesh
others, were a theme of deadly interest to a large number of
Londoners and offered endless opportunity for wit and narrative
power. Although usurers had been an object of satire for more
than a century, Lodge was the first systematically to expose
their practices. But he still, in a style designed to appeal to the
educated, relies for literary effect on the insincerities of the
euphuistic novel, and presents a narrative full of apostrophes,
harangues and reflections.
One of the next efforts was an examination of the age by
Thomas Nashe, in The Anatomie of Absurditie (1588). The work
is a prolix and erratic satire, coloured by touches of euphuism
and confused by innumerable digressions. But, amongst an arraign-
ment of feminine character, in the manner of The Schole-howse of
Women, a defence of fabulists, an interpretation of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses, a discussion on diet, an invective against ballad-mongers
and the customary defence of poetry, the writer vigorously criticises
classical pedantry as one of the great errors of the age; while his
thoughts on study and conduct, with the assertion that the fruits
of our private studie ought to appeare in our publique behaviour,'
and the warning to think not common things unworthy of thy
knowledge,' foreshadow a literature of counsel and reflection which
Bacon was to realise.