ABSTRACT
Whilst the Government endeavoured to promote foreign trade by granting, or at least confirming, privileges to exclusive trading companies, and to encourage the colonies by tariff concessions on their exports, it sought to stimulate English commerce also by action directed towards the protection of merchant shipping. One of the most difficult problems with which the early English merchant was faced was how to ensure the safe arrival of his cargo at its destination when it had to encounter on the way not merely the usual risks of maritime enterprise, but also swarms of pirates, all animated by the desire for booty and some also by the passions of political antagonism.
