CHAPTER VIII.
FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE REVOLUTION.—A.D. 1600—1688.
In the interval between the Restoration and the Revolution the increase of our trade appears to have been both more considerable upon the whole, and more steady in its progress, than in any former period of the same length; and the same thing may probably be affirmed of the national industry in all its great branches. The hurricane of the civil war, disastrous as it may have been in its immediate operation, had yet put a new life into the air, the inspiration of which, on the return of a settled condition of things, was felt by our commerce and manufactures, as well as by all other parts of our social system; the very gap that remained to be filled up, in consequence of the partial suspension of mercantile and other industrial activity during the war, quickened that activity when the war was over; the government of the protectorate exerted itself to promote the trading interests of the country; and the impulse thus given continued to carry forward the spirit of enterprise after the Restoration, in a state of greater public security, and in circumstances otherwise much more favourable, than had existed previous to that event.
The best evidence of the regular growth and general prosperity of English commerce throughout the present period is afforded by the returns of the Custom-house duties, an account of which we have for its whole extent.[1] From this account it appears that the produce of
- ↑ First published in Chalmers's Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, p. 49 (edit, of 1804). Mr. Chalmers observes, that "there was an additional duty on wines imposed in 1672, and an impost on wine, tobacco, and linen, in 1685; but, as these duties were kept separate, they appear neither to have swelled nor diminished the usual receipt of the Custom-house duties in any of the years, either of peace or of war." We understand the sums given in the account, therefore, to be the produce of the rates which used to be called the Old Subsidy.
