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Chapter 9—The Rise and Fall of Industries
3. An industry is
a. a group of firms that produce similar products.
b. a collection of production facilities.
c. a group of consumers who wish to purchase similar products.
d. supply and demand for a product.
e. a union of workers from different firms.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: basic OBJ: factual
NAT: Markets, market failure, and externalities TOP: Industry
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge
4. T or F. One reason old industries die off is that entrepreneurs create new industries that replace the old
ones.
ANS:
New ideas, cost-reducing technology, and changes of taste
ANS:
An industry is a group of firms that produce similar products.
10. The long-run competitive equilibrium model describes what happens to an industry after
a. all existing firms disappear.
b. only one firm survives.
c. the government intervenes.
d. the entry and exit of firms over time.
e. the market no longer exists.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: basic OBJ: factual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium Model
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge
14. In the long run, if price is greater than average total cost in an industry, then
a. some firms leave the industry.
b. some firms are attracted to the industry.
c. all firms leave the industry.
d. there is no incentive for any firm to enter or leave the industry.
e. the industry disappears.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: factual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Entry and Exit
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
16. T or F. The number of firms increases in the long run when the industry realizes profits.
17. T or F. The entry and exit of firms occurs in the long run.
19. T or F. The long-run competitive equilibrium model can be used to predict the number of firms in an
industry given a certain level of market demand.
ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: factual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium Model
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
28. Which of the following does not need to be true for long-run equilibrium to be attained?
a. Constant returns to scale are reached.
b. The latest in technology is utilized.
c. Profit is being maximized.
d. There is no incentive to enter or exit the industry.
e. Economic profits equal zero.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
30. If the government subsidizes the production of wind energy, then the industry produces
a. more energy in the short run and firm entry occurs in the long run.
b. more energy in the short run and firm exit occurs in the long run.
c. less energy in the short run and firm entry occurs in the long run.
d. less energy in the short run and firm exit occurs in the long run.
e. the same amount of energy in both the short run and long run.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
31. If higher taxes raise the unit cost of a competitive industry, then producers
a. decrease production in the short run and the number of producers decreases in the long
run.
b. decrease production in the short run and the number of producers increases in the long run.
c. increase production in the short run and the number of producers decreases in the long run.
d. increase production in the short run and the number of producers increases in the long run.
e. keep production constant in the short run and the number of producers remains the same in
the long run.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
32. If higher taxes raise the unit cost of a competitive industry, then in the long run, industry supply
a. and market price decrease.
b. decreases and market price increases.
c. increases and market price decreases.
d. and market price increase.
e. and market price remain constant.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
33. If an innovation lowers the marginal cost of production for firms in a competitive industry, then in the
long run, the number of firms
a. increases and firms in the industry make normal profits.
b. does not change and firms in the industry make profits.
c. decreases and firms in the industry incur losses.
d. decreases and firms in the industry make profits.
e. decreases and firms in the industry make normal profits.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
35. T or F. Free entry and exit refers to industries with very low start-up costs.
36. T or F. When economic profits equal zero for firms in an industry, there is no entry or exit.
37. T or F. By definition, when market supply (the sum of firms' marginal cost curves) equals market
demand, long-run equilibrium is achieved.
38. T or F. In long-run competitive equilibrium, market price equals a firm's average total cost.
39. If, at the equilibrium level of output, a typical competitive firm's price is greater than its ATC, the firm
a. should raise the price.
b. should lower the price.
c. should decrease output.
d. finds that new firms are attracted to this industry.
e. should increase output.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Short Run
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
40. In a competitive market, the presence of short-run economic profits would, in the long run, cause
economic profits to
a. disappear because market costs increase.
b. disappear because firms are able to take advantage of economies of scale.
c. continue.
d. decline but be larger than zero.
e. disappear because the market supply curve has shifted to the right.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long Run
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge | AACSB: Analytic
43. Suppose that a competitive market is initially in long-run equilibrium. Which of the following are the
most likely results of an increase in market demand?
a. Existing firms will produce less and some firms will exit the market so that the market
supply curve will shift to the left.
b. Some existing firms will produce more while some other firms will exit the market so that
the market supply curve will remain the same.
c. Existing firms will produce more and new firms will enter the market so that the market
supply curve will shift to the right.
d. Existing firms will produce less while new firms will enter the market so that the effect on
the market supply curve is uncertain.
e. Nothing will change in the market.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition
TOP: Market Demand Change and Effect on Industry Supply
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
44. T or F. An increase in market demand can be shown by shifting a firm's demand curve to the right.
45. T or F. In the long run, market supply increases as market demand increases.
46. Suppose a mechanic uses $150,000 of his own money to start a business. The rate of interest he could
earn in a savings account is 5 percent, and the rate of interest he could earn by investing in bonds is 8
percent. What is the opportunity cost of capital when the mechanic uses his money to start his own
business?
a. $8,000/year
b. $7,500/year
c. $150,000
d. $12,000/year
e. $19,500/year
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: challenging OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Costs of production TOP: Implicit Cost
BLM: Bloom's: Application | AACSB: Analytic
47. Suppose a dentist has total revenue of $320,000, and his total costs are $250,000 for the year. Also
suppose the dentist left a job paying $112,000 a year to start his own practice. What is the dentist's
accounting profit?
a. −$28,000
b. −$42,000
c. $182,000
d. $70,000
e. $112,000
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Costs of production TOP: Accounting Profit
BLM: Bloom's: Application | AACSB: Analytic
48. Suppose a dentist has total revenue of $320,000, and his total costs are $250,000 for the year. Also
suppose the dentist left a job paying $112,000 a year to start his own practice. What is the dentist's
economic profit?
a. $182,000
b. −$42,000
c. −$28,000
d. $112,000
e. $70,000
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Costs of production TOP: Economic Profit
BLM: Bloom's: Application | AACSB: Analytic
Exhibit 9-1
52. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. If all firms are identical, the equilibrium number of firms in the industry is
a. 125,000.
b. 3,333.
c. 2,500.
d. 3,000.
e. 250,000.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Number of Firms
BLM: Bloom's: Application
53. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. If the market demand curve is D1, what happens in the long run?
a. Firm entry occurs.
b. Firm exit occurs.
c. Some firms increase capital input.
d. Some firms increase labor input.
e. Most firms do nothing.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: basic OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Firm Exit
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
54. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. If the market demand curve is D3, what happens over time?
a. Some existing firms increase capital input.
b. Firm exit occurs.
c. Some existing firms decrease labor input.
d. Market price decreases.
e. Most firms do nothing.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition
TOP: Market Demand Change and Effect on Industry Supply
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
56. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. Which of the following describes a long-run competitive equilibrium?
a. When market demand is at D2, each firm produces more than 75 units.
b. When market demand is at D2, each firm produces 75 units.
c. When market demand is at D2, each firm produces fewer than 75 units.
d. When market demand is at D2, each firm produces 250,000 units.
e. When price is P2, each firm produces 250,000 units.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
57. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. Which demand curve results in normal profits?
a. D1
b. D2
c. D3
d. Both D1 and D2
e. Both D2 and D3
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Normal Profit
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
58. Refer to Exhibit 9-1. Which demand curve results in economic losses?
a. D1
b. D2
c. D3
d. Both D1 and D2
e. Both D2 and D3
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Economic Profit
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
Exhibit 9-2
59. T or F. Refer to Exhibit 9-2. If the market demand curve is D1, then the firm earns normal profit.
60. Refer to Exhibit 9-2. If the demand curve shifts from D1 to D2, then
a. some firms enter the industry.
b. some firms exit the industry.
c. the number of firms does not change.
d. firms earn a normal profit.
e. most firms earn a loss.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Entry
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
63. In a competitive industry, which of the following cannot be true for a firm in the long run?
a. Price equals marginal cost.
b. Profits are maximized.
c. The firm takes market price as given.
d. Economic profits equal zero.
e. Price equals average variable cost.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Profits in the Long Run
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
64. In a competitive industry where the typical firm is making economic profit,
a. entry occurs as long as economic profit can be made.
b. entry occurs until supply equals demand.
c. entry occurs until price equals minimum average variable cost.
d. entry occurs until price equals marginal cost.
e. exit occurs as firms are sold to the highest bidders.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: challenging OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Entry in a Competitive Industry
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
65. Suppose a competitive industry is in long-run equilibrium. When demand increases, market price
a. decreases in the short and long run.
b. rises in the short run and falls in the long run.
c. decreases in the short run and rises in the long run.
d. rises in the short and long run.
e. rises in the short run and rises more in the long run.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Entry in a Competitive Industry
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
69. T or F. A firm earns normal profit if its total revenue is greater than its total cost.
71. T or F. An increase in market price is likely to result in more firm entry in the long run.
72. T or F. In the long run, an industry can expand when existing firms expand by investing in new capital.
73. All else being constant, when firms leave a competitive market, then
a. market supply decreases and market price rises.
b. both market demand and market supply decrease.
c. market supply decreases and market price falls.
d. market demand decreases and market price falls.
e. market demand increases and market price rises.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Industry Decline
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
78. Suppose that a competitive market is initially in long-run equilibrium. Which of the following are the
most likely results of a decrease in market demand?
a. Some existing firms will produce more while some other firms will exit the market so that
the market supply curve will remain the same.
b. Existing firms will produce less and some firms will exit the market so that the market
supply curve will shift to the left.
c. Existing firms will produce more and new firms will enter the market so that the market
supply curve will shift to the right.
d. Existing firms will produce less while new firms will enter the market so that the effect on
the market supply curve is uncertain.
e. Nothing will change in the market.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition
TOP: Decrease in Market Demand and Effect on Industry Supply
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
79. In the long run, if a firm cannot cover its costs, then the profit-maximizing firm
a. increases output and lowers price.
b. continues to produce as long as total revenue exceeds fixed costs.
c. seeks more rewarding opportunities in some other industry.
d. continues to produce so that it maximizes its opportunity costs.
e. continues to produce as long as total revenue exceeds variable costs.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Firm Exit
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge | AACSB: Analytic
81. T or F. If losses are incurred in a competitive industry, then over the long run, we can expect a greater
quantity supplied because market price will rise.
82. T or F. When an industry is in decline, firms do not necessarily exit; they may just shrink.
83. An industry previously in long-run equilibrium might experience economic profits for any of the
following reasons except when
a. new, cost-saving production technology is developed.
b. new markets open up as trade barriers are reduced.
c. prices of inputs in the production process increase.
d. substitutes for the industry's output cease to be produced.
e. market demand increases.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Changes in Costs
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
84. A change in production costs may occur for any of the following reasons except when
a. new production technology is introduced.
b. a new, cheaper, rival product is introduced.
c. the price of an input falls.
d. demand of other industries for a key input increases.
e. the use of cost savings management is introduced.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Changes in Costs
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
85. A technological breakthrough that reduces the cost of materials in a perfectly competitive industry
would, in the long run,
a. lead to higher profits.
b. raise prices.
c. lower the output produced by each firm.
d. increase the number of producers.
e. decrease the number of producers.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Change in Technology
BLM: Bloom's: Application | AACSB: Analytic
86. In the long-run equilibrium, which of the following is at its minimum point?
a. Price
b. Average variable cost
c. Average fixed cost
d. Average total cost
e. Marginal cost
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: basic OBJ: factual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Average Total Cost
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge
87. Which of the following conditions results in firms producing at the minimum average total cost in the
long run?
a. Free entry and exit of firms
b. Government price control
c. Economies of scale
d. Diseconomies of scale
e. Industry expansion
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: factual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Firm Entry and Exit
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge | AACSB: Analytic
89. When firms in an industry are all producing at the minimum of average total costs,
a. consumers pay the highest possible price.
b. firms begin to leave the industry.
c. per unit costs are at their lowest.
d. there is no consumer surplus.
e. price is greater than marginal cost.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: basic OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Long-Run Equilibrium
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge
90. In the long run, firms reduce capital input under which of the following conditions?
a. Economies of scale
b. Diseconomies of scale
c. Constant returns to scale
d. When average total cost increases with output
e. When price equals marginal cost
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Perfect competition TOP: Movement of Capital
BLM: Bloom's: Knowledge | AACSB: Analytic
94. T or F. A reduction in capital cost shifts the long-run average total cost curve down.
95. T or F. Cost saving technologies result in an increase in economic profits in both the short run and the
long run.
ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: moderate OBJ: conceptual
NAT: Costs of production TOP: Change in Costs
BLM: Bloom's: Analysis | AACSB: Analytic
96. T or F. In the long-run competitive equilibrium, consumers pay for the lowest cost that a firm incurs.
97. T or F. If price is greater than minimum average total cost in a competitive industry, entry occurs.
98. T or F. The long-run equilibrium for a competitive firm occurs when its average total cost continues to
decline.
99. T or F. In the long-run competitive equilibrium model, capital is allocated in the most efficient
manner.
100. T or F. In a system of competitive markets, capital, like all inputs, is allocated to its most highly valued
uses, making its allocation efficient.
102. Explain what is wrong with the following statement: "It's not fair that firms profit so highly in an
industry that benefits from new, cost saving technology; they should have to immediately pass cost
savings directly on to the consumer."
ANS:
This statement assumes that consumers do not eventually benefit from the reduced costs. As a result of
the economic profits earned by firms already in the industry, entry occurs, increasing supply and
decreasing market price. This increases benefits to consumers over time. If profits were somehow
forced to be reduced by immediately passing cost savings directly to consumers, such entry and
expansion of the industry would not occur and consumers would benefit less in the long run than
otherwise.
103. Explain why a sudden decrease in demand in a competitive industry causes price to fluctuate more in
the short run than in the long run, compared to the original equilibrium price.
ANS:
In the short run, the number of firms cannot change, so the reduction in output in an industry when
demand decreases can occur only by firms reducing output along their respective marginal cost curves.
In the long run, however, firms can divest and other firms can exit. Both of these actions cause
short-run market supply to shift left, bringing price back down, nearer to the original price. In the short
run, price adjustment is greater. In the long run, quantity adjustment is greater.
104. Draw a diagram of a competitive industry in a long-run equilibrium. Be sure to illustrate both the
market and a representative firm. When would entry occur? When would exit occur?
ANS:
If market demand increased for some reason or if market supply increased due to lower costs, entry
would occur. Exit would occur in the opposite circumstances.
ANS:
Yes. When an individual firm expands, its quantity of capital input increases. This shifts it to the right
along its long-run average total cost curve. The long-run average total cost curve is made up of many
short-run average total cost curves, so the firm actually shifts from one set of short-run cost curves to
another. This means that the firm's supply curve, its marginal cost curve, shifts right. Because market
supply is the sum of firm supplies, market supply also shifts right.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of A history of the
administration of the Royal Navy and of merchant
shipping in relation to the Navy from MDIX to
MDCLX, with an introduction treating of the
preceding period
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.
Author: M. Oppenheim
Language: English
VOLUME I
MDIX-MDCLX
BY M. OPPENHEIM
VOL I
MDIX-MDCLX
BY M. OPPENHEIM
JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
LONDON AND NEW YORK
MDCCCXCVI
The creation of the modern Royal Navy has been variously The Modern Navy.
attributed to Henry VII, to Henry VIII, and to Elizabeth.
Whichever sovereign may be considered entitled to the honour, the statement, as
applied to either monarch, really means that modification of mediæval conditions,
and adoption of improvements in construction and administration, which brought
the Navy into the form familiar to us until the introduction of steam and iron. And
in that sense no one sovereign can be accredited with its formation. The
introduction of portholes in, or perhaps before the reign of Henry VII,
differentiated the man-of-war, involved radical alterations in build and armament,
and made the future line-of-battle ship possible; the establishment of the Navy
Board by Henry VIII, made the organisation of fleets feasible and ensured a
certain, if slow, progress because henceforward cumulative and, in the long run,
independent of the energy and foresight of any one man under whom, as under
Henry V, the Navy might largely advance, to sink back at his death into decay.
Under Elizabeth the improvements in building and rigging constituted a step
longer than had yet been taken towards the modern type, the Navy Board
became an effectively working and flourishing institution, and the wars and
voyages of her reign founded the school of successful seamanship of which was
born the confidence, daring and self-reliance still prescriptive in the royal and
merchant services.
It is not the purpose of this work to deal with the history, of The origin of the
the Navy previous to the accession of Henry VIII, but no real Navy:—William I.
line of demarcation can be drawn in naval more than in other
history, and it will be necessary to briefly sketch the conditions generally existing
before 1509, and in somewhat more detail, those relating to the fifteenth century.
[3] In the widest sense the first Saxon king who possessed galleys of his own may
be said to have been the founder of the Royal Navy; in a narrower but truer
sense, the Royal Navy as an appanage of imperial power, and an entity of steady
growth, really dates from the Norman conquest. The Saxon navy although
respectable by way of number, was essentially a coast defence force, mustered
temporarily to answer momentary needs, and lacking continuity of existence and
purpose. There is but one instance of a Saxon fleet being employed out of the
four seas, that which Canute used in the conquest of Norway, and in it the
Scandinavian element was probably larger than the Saxon. With the advent of
William I, the channel, instead of remaining a boundary, became a means of
communication between the divided dominions of one monarch, and a
comparatively permanent and reliable naval force, both for military transport and
for command of the passage between the insular and continental possessions of
the Crown, became a necessity of royal policy. For nearly two centuries this duty
was mainly performed by the men of the Cinque Ports who, in return for certain
privileges and exemptions, were bound, at any moment, to place fifty-seven ships
at the service of the Crown for fifteen days free of cost, and for as much longer
time as the king required them at the customary rate of pay.[4] These claims,
practically constituting the Cinque Ports fleet a standing force, were ceaselessly
exercised by successive monarchs, and, at first sight, such demands might seem
to be destructive of that commercial progress which is the primary basis of the
growth or maintenance of shipping. But the methods of warfare in those ages
were more profitable than commerce, and the decay of the Ports was not due to
poverty caused by the calls made upon their shipping for military purposes. The
existence of the Cinque Ports service was indirectly a hindrance to the growth of
a crown navy, since it was obviously cheaper for the king to order the Ports to act
than to man and equip his own vessels; it was not until ships of larger size and
stronger build than those belonging to the Ports were required, that the royal
ships came into frequent use.
As well as mobilising the Cinque Ports fleet, the sovereign Results of the
was able to issue writs to arrest the ships of private owners Conquest:—Growth
throughout the kingdom, together with the necessary number of Trade and
Shipping.
of sailors, when rival fleets had to be fought or armies to be
transported. The Normans, descendants of the Vikings, must have been better
shipbuilders and better seamen than the Saxons, and the large number of
nautical words that can be traced back to Norman French bear witness to
improvements in rigging and handling due to them. The Crusades must have
reacted on the English marine by bringing under the observation of our seamen
the construction of ships belonging to the Mediterranean powers, then far in
advance of the North in the art of shipbuilding. And during the century which
followed the Conquest, the foreign trade, which is the nursery of shipping, was
steadily growing. Under the Angevin kings the whole coast line of France, from
Flanders to Bayonne, was, with the exception of Brittany, subject to English rule,
and the inter-coast traffic that naturally followed was the greatest stimulus to
maritime enterprise this country had yet experienced. The result was seen in the
Crusade of 1190, when the fleet of Richard I for the Mediterranean was made up
of vessels drawn from the ports of the empire, but many of them doubtless
belonging to the continental possessions of the crown; and as John certainly
possessed ships of his own, it may be inferred that Richard, and his
predecessors also had some. When a general arrest was ordered, foreign ships
were seized as well as English, and this practice continued as late as the first
years of Elizabeth. Richard I issued, in 1190, regulations for the government of
his fleet. These regulations doubtless only methodised customs already existing,
and as they dealt with offences against life and property bear the mark of their
commercial origin. Offences against discipline must have been punished by
military law and military penalties, and required no new code.
During the reign of John we meet the first sign of a naval John:—The Clerk of
administration in the official action of William of Wrotham, like the Ships.
many of his successors a cleric, and the first known ‘Keeper
of the king’s ships.’ This office, possibly in its original form of very much earlier
date and only reconstituted or enlarged in function by John, and now represented
in descent by the Secretaryship of the Admiralty, is the oldest administrative
employment in connection with the Navy. At first called ‘Keeper and Governor’ of
the king’s ships, later, ‘Clerk of the king’s ships,’ this official held, sometimes
really and sometimes nominally, the control of naval organisation until the
formation of the Navy Board in 1546. His duties included all those now performed
by a multitude of highly placed Admiralty officials. If a man of energy, experience,
and capacity, his name stands foremost in the maintenance of the royal fleets
during peace and their preparation for war; if, as frequently happened, a
merchant or subordinate official with no especial knowledge, he might become a
mere messenger riding from port to port, seeking runaway sailors, or bargaining
for small parcels of naval stores. Occasionally, under such circumstances, his
authority was further lessened by the appointment of other persons, usually such
as held minor personal offices near the king, as keepers of particular ships. This
was a method of giving a small pecuniary reward to such a one, together with the
perquisites he might be able to procure from the supply of stores and provisions
necessary for the vessel and her crew.
In the course of centuries the title changed its form. In the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries the officer is called ‘clerk of marine causes,’ and ‘clerk of the
navy;’ in the seventeenth century, ‘clerk of the acts.’ Although Pepys was not the
last clerk of the acts, the functions associated with the office, which were the
remains of the larger powers once belonging to the ‘Keeper and Governor,’ were
carried up by him to the higher post of Secretary of the Admiralty.
With the reign of Henry III we find the royal ships large Henry III.
enough to become attractive to merchants, who hired them
from the king for freight, perhaps at lower rates than could be afforded by private
owners. There is hardly a reign, down to and including that of Elizabeth, in which
men-of-war were not hired by merchants, and the earlier trading voyages to Italy
and the Levant during the last quarter of the fifteenth century were nearly all
performed by men-of-war let out for the voyage. The Navy was mainly made up
of sailing vessels even before the reign of Henry III, and by that period many of
them possessed two masts, each carrying a single sail. The conversion of a
merchantman into a fighting-ship was accomplished by fitting it with temporary
fore and after castles, which became later the permanent forecastle and poop,
the addition of a ‘top castle’ or fighting top, and the provision of proper armament.
Doubtless the king’s own ships were more strongly built, and better adapted by
internal arrangements for their work, than the hired merchantmen. The supreme
government of the Navy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was in the
hands of the King’s Council, who ordered, equally, the preparation and fitting of
ships and the action of the admirals commanding. These officers, known during
the greater part of the thirteenth century as keepers or governors of the sea, were
usually knights or nobles in command of the soldiers. While holding commission
they appear to have had jurisdiction in the matter of discipline on board their
fleets, but not of law suits or maritime causes until 1360; before that date such
causes were dealt with at common law.[5] There were usually two, one having
charge of the East, the other of the South Coast, but occasionally, an officer had
a particular section placed under his care, such as the coasts of Norfolk and
Suffolk. Their period of service was commonly short and often only for a special
employment. The maintenance of a fleet was a part of the King’s Household
expenses; in the Wardrobe Accounts for 1299-1300 are the amounts paid for
fifty-four vessels and their crews hired for the conveyance of stores for the Scotch
war.
Galleys, although frequently mentioned, were at no time a Galleys.
chief portion of our fleets. Large fleets were mainly composed
of impressed merchantmen, and galleys are expensive and useless for trading
purposes compared with sailing ships; the natural home of the galley was the
landlocked Mediterranean, and even there its utility was limited to the summer
months, so that it was still less suitable for Northern latitudes. But the great
difficulty was in manning them. Forced labour by captives taken in the continual
warfare normal amongst the states on the Mediterranean littoral solved that
problem for them, but here the cost of the free oarsman, to whom the drudgery
was in any case distasteful, was prohibitive. We shall see that, down to the close
of the sixteenth century, attempts were at various times made to form such a
service, but always unsuccessfully, and the supreme moment of the galley
service, so far as it ever existed here, was the reign of Edward I.[6] This king
steadily increased the strength of the Navy. In 1294 and 1295 galleys were built
by him at York, Southampton, Lynn, Newcastle and Ipswich, of which at least two
pulled 120 oars apiece. Perhaps the experiment was conclusive for, neither as
regards number or size do such ever occur again. Although Edward III had one or
two built, most of those he employed were temporarily hired from the Genoese or
from Aquitainean ports, and the total number bore a very small proportion to the
sailing vessels in his fleets. The records of the first years of Edward II show that
the crown possessed at least eleven vessels, all sailing ships, but the
circumstances of the reign were not conducive to the growth of a Royal Navy,
although there seem to have been ten ships in 1322.
A far-seeing statesmanship in relation to the political value Edward III:—Relative
of sea-power has been attributed to Edward III on the estimation of Army
strength of the victories of 1340 and 1350, and of two lines of and Navy.
a poem, written nearly a century later, referring to the gold noble of 1344.[7] This
view assigns to Edward a knowledge, in the modern sense, of ‘the influence of
sea-power on history’ greater than that possessed by such a statesman as
Edward I, and a policy in connection with maritime matters of which the results, at
anyrate, were directly the opposite of his intentions. The claim to be lord of the
narrow seas was not a new one, and was as much and merely a title of dignity as
any other of the sovereign’s verbal honours, not following the actual enforcement
of ownership but consequent to the fact of the channel lying between England
and Normandy.[8] And it was a title also claimed by France. There is no sign in
the policy of the early kings of any perception of the value of a navy as a militant
instrument like an army, or any sense of the importance of a real continuity in its
maintenance and use. Society was based on a military organisation, but there
was no place in that organisation for the Navy except as a subsidiary and
dependent force. Fleets were called into being to transport soldiery abroad, to
keep open communications, or to meet an enemy already at sea, but the real
work of conquest was always held to be the duty of the knights and archers they
carried from one country to another. There is no understanding shewn of the
ceaseless pressure a navy is capable of exercising, and the disbandment of all,
or the greater part, of the fleet was usually the first step which followed the
disembarkation of troops or a successful fleet action. In an age when the land
transit of goods was hampered by innumerable disadvantages, the position of
England, dominating the natural way of communication between the prosperous
cities of the north and their customers, was one of splendid command had its far-
reaching political possibilities been realised. That they did not comprehend a
function only understood many generations later cannot be made a subject of
censure, but it has a distinct bearing on the question of Edward’s superiority in
this matter to his predecessors and successors. In the same way as theirs the
methods of Edward III were directed to conquests by land, and, once the troops
were transported or an opposing fleet actually in existence was crushed, the
Channel was left as bare of protection to merchantmen, and as destitute of any
power capable of enforcing the reputed sovereignty of the narrow seas, as it
remained down to the days of the Commonwealth. Beyond the fact that in 1340
and 1350 Edward commanded in person, where his predecessors had been
represented by deputies, his action in relation to the Royal Navy differs in no
respects from theirs. The gold noble of 1344, into which so much meaning has
been read, was struck in combination with the people of Flanders for political and
trading purposes, and in connection with Edward’s intrigues to obtain their
financial and military support. It is noteworthy that in December 1339, six months
before the battle of Sluys, Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault, agreed that a
common coinage should be struck, and this, in all probability, marks the first
inception of the noble when Edward realised the purposes to which a common
coinage for England and the Low Countries might be made to work. In 1343 the
Commons petitioned for a gold coin to run equally in England and Flanders and
thus strengthened the king’s purpose. But the ship on this coin, the noble, was
obviously an afterthought since the florin, the first issue of the same year, called
in on account of its unpopularity, bore the royal leopard on the whole and half
noble and the royal crest on the quarter one; if therefore the king meant all that is
supposed to be implied by the device it occurred to him very suddenly and
subsequent to the first, and deliberately thought out, issue.[9] All that the writer of
the Libel of English Policie says is that, in 1436, the noble proves to him four
things. Further reasons, in relation to other passages of the poem, will be
adduced on a later page to show that his work is only one more instance among
the many in which individual and unofficial thinkers have been in advance of the
statesmanship of their age and whose views, ignored by their contemporaries
have become the accepted opinions of a subsequent period.
The commercial policy of Edward III was emphatically not Edward III:—
one of protection to English shipping, being a nearer Commercial policy in
approach to free trade than existed for centuries after his relation to shipping.
death. During the greater part of his reign the needs in ships for his campaigns
were supplied from the accumulations of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II,
the second of which was not necessarily disastrous to commerce. But when
these were exhausted it was found that a system which had aimed merely at
obtaining a highest possible yearly revenue for the purpose of supporting armies
had, whether or not in itself, fiscally praiseworthy resulted in the ruin of English
shipping. In 1372 and 1373, the Commons complained of the destruction of
shipping and the decay of the port towns, and it is collateral evidence of Edward’s
real lack of insight into the value of a marine—its slow creation and its easy loss
—that some of the causes to which they attributed these circumstances were
directly due to a reckless indifference to, or ignorance of, the only conditions
which could render a merchant marine, subject to conscription, possible.[10]
Vessels, they said, were pressed long before they were really wanted, and until
actually taken into the service of the crown, ships were idle and seamen had to
be paid and supported at the expense of the owners; the effect of royal
ordinances which had driven many shipowners to other occupations, and the
decrease in the number of sailors due to these and other causes, formed further
articles of remonstrance.[11]
The year which saw the decease of the ‘Lord of the Sea,’ was marked by the
sack of Rye, Lewes, Hastings, Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Folkestone,
Portsmouth, and the Isle of Wight, a sufficient commentary on the title, and an
adequate illustration of the system which had left absolutely no navy, royal or
mercantile, capable of protecting the coasts.
In 1378 the Commons again attributed the defenceless Payment of hired
state of the kingdom not so much to the late king’s ships.
impressment of ships as to the losses and poverty caused by
non-payment, or delay in payment for their use, and lack of compensation for
waste of fittings and stores. Every meeting of Parliament was signalised by fresh
representations, and that of 1380 obtained a promise that owners should receive
3s 4d a ‘ton-tight’ for every three months, commencing from the day of arrival at
the port of meeting; in 1385 this allowance was reduced to two shillings, and
remained at that rate, notwithstanding frequent petitions for a return to the older
amount, for at least half a century.[12] It is not known when the payment of 3s 4d
a ton was first introduced, nor on what principle it was calculated, but, in 1416,
the Commons said that it ran ‘from beyond the time of memory.’ The following
petition, undated, but probably belonging to one of the early years of Henry IV,
shows that it was older than the Edwards, and, incidentally, yields some
interesting information:
‘To the very noble and very wise lords of this present Parliament very
humbly supplicate all owners of ships in this kingdom. That whereas in
the time of the noble King Edward and his predecessors, whenever any
ship was commanded for service that the owner of such a ship took 3s
4d per ton-tight in the three months by way of reward for repair of the
ship and its gear, and the fourth part of any prize made at sea, by which
reward the shipping of this kingdom was then well maintained and ruled
so that at that time, 150 ships of the Tower were available in the
kingdom;[13] and since the decease of the noble King Edward, in the time
of Richard, late King of England, the said reward was reduced to two
shillings the ton-tight, and this very badly paid, so that the owners of such
ships show no desire to keep up and maintain their ships, but have them
lying useless; and by this cause the shipping of this kingdom is so
diminished and deteriorated that there be not in all the kingdom more
than 25 ships of the Tower.’[14]
They then beg a return to the old rates. We may gather from this document
that, at some time during the reign of Edward III there were one hundred and fifty
large fighting ships available, and there is some reason to believe that, both in
number and size, the fourteenth and fifteenth century navy has been too much
underrated when compared with that of the sixteenth century. At least one
merchantman of the time of Edward III was of three hundred tons, others were of
two hundred, and it will be shown that, in the middle of the fifteenth century, the
number and tonnage of merchant vessels will compare favourably with any
subsequent period up to, and in fact later, than the accession of Elizabeth.
While, under Richard II, the guard of the seas was The close of the xiv
maintained with chequered success by hired ships, the century:—The
French, under the able rule of Charles V, not only possessed French Navy.
a navy but had founded a dockyard at Rouen completely equipped according to
the ideas of the age.[15] Thirteen galleys and two barges are mentioned in this