Page 171 [171]
OCR
vie — fa ee ek ih = ML" F al he ath, Stig Vee: Ror (isa m= é 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
