The King was glad to entrust his capable adviser with the preservation of that advantageous commercial position which had been won for England through the masterful policy of Henry VII. Cromwell’s varied experience in foreign markets and his intimate knowledge of all the details of the wool-trade, which was by far the most important element of English commerce, had taught him in his earlier years many lessons of which the whole nation was to reap the benefit. In general his administration witnessed but few departures from the highly successful commercial policy inaugurated by the first Tudor. His aim was rather to strengthen the advantages already gained, and to increase the security of English commerce and industry against the competition of continental rivals, than to attempt any radical innovations. The monopoly of the trade in the Mediterranean which Venice had enjoyed in Lancastrian times, had been a serious menace to the interests of the English merchants; but the Italian wars had now almost totally deprived the Republic of that prominent political position which she had occupied at the beginning of the century, and with the loss of her national greatness her commercial supremacy fell. The ancient privileges which had been granted to Venetian merchants and galleys previous to Tudor times, had been exchanged for a set of stringent enactments, which dealt a heavy blow to her trade and shipping during the reign of Henry VII. Cromwell followed the same policy, and further seized the favourable opportunity afforded by Venice’s decline to foster the interests of English merchants in other parts of the Mediterranean[293]. With the towns of the Hanseatic League the case was slightly different. The extensive privileges the merchants of the North German cities had enjoyed in earlier times, had raised them to such a commanding position that the growth of English commerce in the north was rendered well-nigh impossible. Henry VII.’s aim had been to overthrow the supremacy of the Hanseatic League, by a gradual withdrawal of the concessions which it had wrung from his predecessors. The early part of his son’s reign had witnessed a continuation of this wise policy, but during Cromwell’s ministry an alliance which the threatening situation on the Continent had led England to conclude with Lübeck, necessitated a temporary cessation of the process of curtailing the privileges of the Hanse merchants[294]. But the loud outcries of the people against the destructive competition of the Germans were sufficient to prevent Cromwell from making any permanent stand in their favour. Political necessity alone had induced him to postpone the complete withdrawal of their privileges: he knew that the tendency of the times was irresistibly against the Hanseatic towns, and he was perhaps the more willing to grant them a few temporary concessions in that he realized that nothing could ever raise them again to the position of dangerous rivals to English trade.