number about 5000, with about 4 millions of aggregate tonnage.[2]

In olden times this country possessed the materials for great
things, as well as the men fitted to develope them into great
results. But the nation was slow to awake and take advantage of
its opportunities. There was no enterprise, no commerce--no "go"
in the people. The roads were frightfully bad; and there was
little communication between one part of the country and another.

If anything important had to be done, we used to send for
foreigners to come and teach us how to do it. We sent for them
to drain our fens, to build our piers and harbours, and even to
pump our water at London Bridge. Though a seafaring population
lived round our coasts, we did not fish our own seas, but left it
to the industrious Dutchmen to catch the fish, and supply our
markets. It was not until the year 1787 that the Yarmouth people
began the deep-sea herring fishery; and yet these were the most
enterprising amongst the English fishermen.

English commerce also had very slender beginnings. At the
commencement of the fifteenth century, England was of very little
account in the affairs of Europe. Indeed, the history of modern
England is nearly coincident with the accession of the Tudors to
the throne. With the exception of Calais and Dunkirk, her
dominions on the Continent had been wrested from her by the
French. The country at home had been made desolate by the Wars
of the Roses. The population was very small, and had been kept
down by war, pestilence, and famine.[3] The chief staple was
wool, which was exported to Flanders in foreign ships, there to
be manufactured into cloth. Nearly every article of importance