It was by these means that England obtained her mercantile pre-eminence, achieving her maritime superiority by such methods rather than by any complicated scheme of legislative enactments, and in this she was assuredly far more indebted to the discoveries and wise policy of Sebastian Cabot, than to the so-called “celebrated Navigation Laws of Oliver Cromwell,” a hundred years afterwards. Barrow in his history frankly owns that Cabot’s knowledge and experience, combined with his zeal and penetration, were the means, not only of extending the foreign commerce of England, but of keeping alive the “spirit of enterprise which even in his lifetime was crowned with success, and which ultimately led to the most happy results for the nation”;[91] and Campbell observes “that with equal justice it may be said of Sebastian Cabot, that he was the author of our maritime strength, and opened the way to those improvements which have rendered us so great, so eminent, so flourishing a people.”[92] But the Merchant Adventurers, besides leading the way to and developing the trade with Russia, were instrumental in the establishment of the whale fishery of Spitzbergen, and in the equally great, if not more important, fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland. Nor were their efforts confined to discoveries of new sources of wealth at sea, for, besides their extensive commercial operations with the interior of Russia where they had established various agencies, they entered into trading relations with Persia. Writing to one of these agents, they remark, “We have further hope of some good trade to be found out by Master Anthonie Jenkinson, by reason we do perceive by your letters, that raw silk is as plentiful in Persia as flax is in Russia, besides other commodities that may come from thence.”[93] [Sidenote: The Steel-Yard merchants partially restored to their former influence.] [Sidenote: Cabot loses favour with the court,]