The fact, often exemplified, of the rapidity with which a country recovers from the obstruction and waste of war, as if the spirit of enterprise started forth on the return of peace like a spring from which a heavy pressure had been removed, and the very vacuum to be filled up occasioned a sudden rush of activity and consequent gain into the re-opened channels of industry and commerce, verified Davenant's hopes and prognostications. The total tonnage of English ships cleared outwards rose again in 1697, the very first year of the peace, to 144,264 tons, and that of foreign ships to 100,524: and the entire official value of the exports to 3,525,907l. On the average of the three years 1699, 1700 and 1701, the last of the peace, the value of the annual exports was 6,709,881l., conveyed in 337,328 tons of shipping, of which no less a proportion than 293,703 was English, the foreign having by this time fallen to 43,625.[1] Comparing this state of things with the point to which our commerce had been depressed (as above recorded) in the last year of the war, we find that in five years of peace our exports had very considerably more than doubled, and our mercantile marine more than quadrupled. It appears also, that, whereas the net average annual income of the Post Office during the eight years of the war was only 67,222l. (it had fallen, as we have seen, to something considerably under this sum in 1697), its average amount for the space from 1698 to 1701 inclusive was 82,319l.[2] These figures look insignificant enough at the present day, but they do not for that the less distinctly indicate the movements of what may perhaps be styled one of the best barometers we possess of the commercial activity, and even of the general economical condition, of the country.
Having cast this summary glance over the progress of our trade and public wealth during the reign of William, we will now proceed to notice some of the most important or most illustrative particulars by which this portion of the history of our national industry is marked.
