Stranica 171 [171]
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COMMERCE 149
of her ancestor Edward IV, who had greatly encouraged his subjects
to increase their exports. The destruction of the Spanish Armada
established the English naval power, and ships began to sail from
London to many distant places. The growth of the American
colonies was followed by the West India settlement, and that by the
gradual conquest of India; and this slow but sure progress of English
commercial enterprise was, owing to the power of the English fleet,
uninterrupted even by the great wars which concluded with Waterloo
in 1815. The addition of Australia to the British possessions abroad
has given a fresh impetus to the London shipping trade, and at least
eighty out of every hundred ships that thread their way through the