Like the sovereigns of more ancient times, Henry was not only a merchant on his own account, but a great encourager of maritime expeditions; in that he often himself furnished the ships and advanced the requisite capital for their equipment. Indeed, it seems probable that the vast sums found in his exchequer at his death were, in a great measure, derived from his own successful commercial adventures. Although the pursuit of trade may be sometimes deemed incompatible with regal functions and dignity, there can be no doubt that the example and practice of Henry VII. extended the field for maritime adventure among his subjects, and at the same time aroused the cupidity of the English nation by the prospect of incalculable wealth derivable from intercourse with distant foreign lands. [Sidenote: His encouragement of maritime commerce,] Beyond the encouragement he afforded to maritime discovery, Henry adopted various measures to promote, as he conceived, the interests of the merchant navy, among others removing the differential duties which had been in force against English shipping; but unfortunately, as has been too frequently the case in the conduct of the navigation laws of England, he adopted a policy of protection almost as ruinous to her commerce as that which had previously conferred special advantages upon the shipping of foreign nations. Thus we find a law of his first parliament[48] prohibiting the importation of Bordeaux wines in any other than English, Irish, and Welsh bottoms, these vessels being manned with sailors wholly of their own countrymen, a law which was, two years afterwards, even further extended and enlarged, the reasons assigned being “that great minishing and decay hath been now of late time of the navy of this realm of England, and idleness of the mariners within the same, by the which this noble realm, within short process of time, without reformation be had therein, shall not be of ability, nor of strength and power, to defend itself.” Of course such reasoning was then unanswerable; indeed, has been held to be so even in our own time. Accordingly it was enacted[49] that no wines of Gascony or Guienne should be imported into England unless in ships belonging to the king (of which, by the way, his Majesty had a goodly number) or to his subjects; nay more, any such wines imported in foreign bottoms were to be forfeited.