London: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. LEIPZIG: F. A. BROCKHAUS. W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D. VICAR OF S. MARY'S THE GREAT, FELLOW AND LECTURER IN TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; [The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.] PREFACE. HE present volume treats of a clearly marked episode in English economic history; it deals, not indeed with the origins, but with the rise and fall of the Mercantile System. The sketch of this portion of the subject in my First Edition was so slight, that it has hardly served even as a scheme for arranging the mass of material that had to be dealt with. There is no lack of excellent books on different parts of the subject, like those of Chalmers, Tooke, Macculloch, Roscher, Thorold Rogers and Toynbee; but I know of none that treats it as a whole, or that carefully combines the study of economic aims and opinions, with an examination of the events of our commercial history. This is the characteristic feature of the method I have adopted, and to it I have sedulously adhered. My primary aim has been to understand the economic policy of Englishmen in past days; the logic of events has already subjected it to crushing criticism. There is much in the past which we cannot but condemn, especially in the light of after events; we need not condemn it less decidedly when the reasons which brought it about become intelligible. But we cannot understand the economic measures of bygone days, unless we examine the evidence patiently, and try to read it in the light of contemporary thought and opinion. We are doomed to failure if we are content to take the attitude of doctrinaire economists, and explain the course of our history on the assumption that it has been dominated by the economic |