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MARITIME ENTERPRISE
1485–1558
WARSHIP, Period 1514–45.
From Cott. MS. Aug. 1. i. 18.
Frontispiece
PREFACE
The subject of English maritime enterprise during theperiod 1485–1558 falls naturally into two divisions—discoveryand trade. The former has engaged the attentionof numerous historians in the last thirty years, theirworks centring mainly on the voyages of the Cabotswith subsequent exploring adventures more or less summarilytreated. Commerce, on the other hand, has beensomewhat neglected as a factor in that great developmentof the powers of the English nation which made itselfevident in the sixteenth century. The only exhaustivebook on the maritime trade of our country in the periodin question is that of G. Schanz,[1] published in Germanin 1881, and never translated into English. This workstops at the year 1547.
The object of the present work is to present a comprehensivepicture of English maritime affairs from theaccession of Henry VII to that of Elizabeth; to traceout such lines of policy as are visible in the existingrecords; and to elucidate certain incidents concerningwhich disputable ideas, or no ideas at all, are current.
With regard to the Cabot voyages, no new evidence