The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

YOU CANNOT DODGE THE ECONOMIC 19

kept the whole Kingdom of England under their thumbs.’’ Not much of that in conventional English History, is there? Let us, then, glance at the economic situation in England, when Elizabeth came to the throne.

At that time, both financially and commercially, England was truly ‘“‘under the thumbs”’ of the Society of German Merchants, the agents of the HanseaticLeague. Maitland tells us that “‘ almost the whole trade was driven by them to the degree that when Queen Elizabeth came to have a war, she was forced to buy hemp, tar, pitch, powder and other naval provisions which she wanted of foreigners, and that, too, at their rates. Nor were there any stores of either in the land to supply her occasions on a sudden but what, at great rates, she prevailed with them to fetch for her, her own subjects, even in time of war, being very little traders.’’ Largely guided by the commercial statesmanship of Sir Thomas Gresham, we soon find a working alliance between the Queen and the Merchant Venturers, to put an end to this economic vassalage. In the history of the world, is there such a sudden, such a dramatic commercial revolution? Before the death of Elizabeth, the relative situations of the English Venturers and the Hanse Merchants had been completely reversed.

In fact, both under Elizabeth and Cromwell, we discover an informal House of Industry successfully administering our industrial and commercial life. Had it been actually formed, we can almost