ABSTRACT
The growth of capitalist enterprise in England, requiring to break the narrow bounds of the town economy and to be supreme in the wider national market, had for some time much to contend against. The result of this was to make England a virtual colonial area, open to the exploitation of foreign undertakers, in a dependent position similar to that which countries like China, India and Turkey suffer at the present day. The English buyer, confined to a local market, was at a disadvantage in buying from a stranger merchant. The demand-price of English buyers for foreign goods tended to be relatively high, and the supply-price of their goods for export tended to be relatively low. The prelude to the establishment of an English merchant class as supreme in a national market was, therefore, the dethronement of the foreign merchants from their position of privilege and advantage.
