BUSINESS MAN
The Stannaries--His grasp of detail--"Do it with thy
might"--Estimate of squadron--Scheme of coast defence--
The clash-mills of Mr. Crymes--Irish plans.
The Virginian enterprise did not engage all Ralegh's energy in affairs.
Undoubtedly it was his greatest scheme. Its eventual results were of no
less than world-wide importance, for they include the American nation,
they include tobacco; and without either commodity modern civilization
would surely be desolate. Ralegh had a capacity for business which
approached genius; and would have attained to genius had his imagination
not run a little in advance of his power over detail.
In his hands the posts which he obtained were no sinecures. Proper
arrangement of things in being fascinated him almost as deeply as the
possible development of the embryonic.
The various expeditions to Virginia involved a vast amount of work. But
during that time he was actively engaged in the management of lesser
matters.
As Lord Warden of the Stannaries his duties were to look after the
interests of the tin-miners in Devonshire and Cornwall. He was head of
the Stannary Courts in which justice was legally administered to the
tinners; and he would be obliged to see that his substitutes performed
their functions properly. For a privilege was granted to the tin-workers
to have their disputes settled upon the spot in their own court, in
order that they might not be drawn from their business during the long
time that a visit to another court would involve. All through the time
when he was engaged in great things at Court, or in great dreams of an
Eldorado in South America, he always paid proper attention to the
exacting little business of these tinners in Cornwall. In 1600 he writes
a minute account to the Lord Treasurer, Buckhurst, and Secretary, Sir
Robert Cecil, about the abatement of some tax on tin. He kept the
interests of the tinners always in mind. In the same year he enters into
the case of a gentleman, Mr. Crymes, who had erected certain clash-mills
upon Roxburgh Down "to worke the tynn which upon that place is gott with
extreame labour and charge out of the ground." But the townsmen of
Plymouth objected to the mills, because they said that the mills
diverted the course of their water. Ralegh went to view the clash-mills
on Roxburgh Down in person, though it was the autumn of the year, and
decided against the townsmen of Plymouth. If they had their way, as
according to the letter of the law only they should, countless tinners
would be thrown out of work. In reality no harm was done to the course
of the river.
Accordingly Ralegh asks Secretary Sir Robert Cecil to take the matter
from the Star Chamber, where the townsmen of Plymouth had sent it, and
to let it be tried, as it was fitting that such a matter should be
tried, in the Stannary Courts. "If this be suffered to proceed in the
Starre Chamber it will not be avaylable to speake of her Majesties late
imposicion or encrease of Custom, or to establish good laws among
Tynners; when others who can by a great purse or procuring
extraordinary meanes, diminish to their power her Majesties duties and
the common benefytt of the people."
_Do it with thy might_ was as sincerely his motto in little things as in
big; and this it is well to remember in protest against those who are
inclined to regard Ralegh merely as an unsuccessful dreamer of great
dreams.
He was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. Among other duties which the post
entailed, was the important duty of keeping the county ready to ward off
an invasion, which was a very real danger all through his period of
office. His letters to Lord Burghley give ample evidence of his care and
wisdom. In 1587, one year before the Armada, he sent the Lord Treasurer
a letter in which he gave it as his opinion that a company of two
thousand foot and a troop of two hundred should be levied from the
counties of Cornwall and Devon, and should be trained to be ready for
defence at a moment's notice against surprise. The difficulties of his
plan he saw clearly. There was, in the first place, a feeling of rivalry
between the two Duchies which increased the difficulty of combination.
The Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire, the Earl of Bath, was not easily
brought to see the wisdom of the plan, though Sir John Gilbert and Sir
Richard Grenville, staunch Devon men, were its supporters. The merchants
of Exeter were not disposed to bear willingly any additional outlay in
the matter of defence, because they were obliged to pay heavily to
defend their merchandise against Barbary and other pirates. Ralegh
incloses a tabulated list in his letter, showing exactly how these
levies could be raised, and the exact cost of the raising. The payment
of the troop of horse is of much interest. The men were to receive
1_s._ a day (the pay of an infantry man was 8d.). The horsemen were to
be divided into four cornets: that would imply four captains at 5s.,
four lieutenants at 3_s._, four guidons at 2_s._ 6_d._, four clerks at
1_s._ 6_d._, four trumpetts at 1_s._ 6_d._ per day. He adds the charge
of ammunition. "There is allowed for each soldier for this service of
sixteen daies, tenn pounde of Powder at 12_d._ the pounde and is L500.
Ther is allowed of matche for each soldier at halfe a pounde the daye,
at 6_d._ the pounde and is L200. Of leade for each mann one pounde at
11/2_d._ the pounde, and is L6 8_s._
The whole estimated cost of training and raising came to L2163 5_s._ and
unlike the majority of estimates, the one drawn up by Ralegh is as clear
as it is concise.
But his best contribution to the problem of defence is a letter, written
in the year 1595 to the Lords of the Council. It had been decided that
"mutual succour be gyven from the Counties of Devon and Cornwall to each
other," and the point of the letter is to show that Devonshire should be
supplied with reinforcements from Somerset rather than from Cornwall.
His reasons are well put and convincing. "If there shall any discent be
made by the enymye in either county by the waie of surprise, and that
the enymye doe but burne or sacke, and departe, then can nether be
releeved as aforesaid, bycause there wilbe no tyme given to unite the
forces of the same shere, where such attempt shalbe offered, much lesse
for the drawing in of any numbers from affarr; and for any such
enterpryze, where there is no purpose to hold and possesse the places
gotten, each shire with 4000 men shalbe able either to repel or to
resiste the same. But if the enymy dispose himself to fortyfye any part
in Cornewall or to strengthen any neck of land of advantage, and thereby
begyne to dryve us to a defensive warr, then there is noe country
adjoyneth to Cornwall but Devon from whence any spedy supplie maie be
had to impeach the begining of such a purpose. And if ought be attempted
in Devon--of which Plymouth is most to be feared, having, in one
indraught, two goodly harboroughes, as Cattwater and Aishewater--then it
is also very likely that the enymye will either assure Cornewall, or
seeke utterly to waste yt, because yt is next his supplies, both from
Spayne and Brittaine (Brittany); and hath divers ports and good rodes to
receive a fleete."
He proceeds to point out the length and narrowness of Cornwall, and the
extreme difficulty of sending succour to Plymouth. The river can only be
forded in two places, and that by small ferries at Stonehouse and Aishe,
which would be of little use for horses or ammunition. Moreover, the
enemy would bring "gallies" with them, which would enable them to
command the river Tamar. If four thousand men were taken from Cornwall,
the enemy would certainly become cognizant of the fact, and nothing
would be easier for them, in that event, than to lay waste the whole
shire, either by sending round a ship from Plymouth or across from
Brittany. Three hundred soldiers would be sufficient.
He points out that no county in England is so dangerously situated as
Cornwall, with the sea on both sides of it, and with sparse inhabitants.
It is so narrow that if the enemy were to possess any of two or three
straits, the men of the West would be quite cut off from the men of the
East, for between Mount's Bay and the sea entering within St. Tees, it
is but three miles and a half from sea to sea; between Truro and St.
Pirom but five miles. He concludes the letter by making manifest the
advantages of the position of Somerset, its breadth, its richness, and
lack of separating rivers.
And he set his mind to these details of his defence at the time when his
mind was eager to bring down to the realm of reality those high dreams
by which Guiana caused him to be obsessed. A few days afterwards he
writes to Sir Robert Cecil: "I beseich you lett us know whether wee
shalbe travelers or tinkers; conquerors or novices. For if the winter
pass without making provision there can be no vitling in the summer; and
if it be now fore-slowed, farewell Guiana for ever.... Honor and gold
and all good, for ever hopeless."
A great man, this Elizabethan, whose imperial dreams did not prevent him
from mastering the little businesses under his hand! Visions of Eldorado
did not blurr his view of Minnett or lessen his interest in the
clash-mills of Mr. Crymes.
Not only was Ralegh Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Lord Lieutenant of
Cornwall, but he was also what Edwards calls Captain of Industry in
Ireland. The work connected with these duties was what may be looked
upon as the _business_ of his life. Each entailed work and
responsibility which would suffice the energy of an ordinary man of
business, a little above the modern average of capacity. It was typical
of Ralegh's immense vitality that he dealt with them with as much
thoroughness and ease as he managed his own household, and always he
inspired them with new ideas and new life, even as his garden was the
first in which orange-trees were cultivated. His imagination made him an
originator. He was never content with the old way of doing things--he
found a better. He was always seeing old facts for the first time, as
though he had never seen them before, as all men of vigorous intellect
do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, and he had good cause to
trust it.
Ralegh had first become prominent by his actions in Ireland, and very
soon after he had attained to eminence he was employed by the Crown in
their endeavour to bring some kind of prosperity to the country ravaged
to desolation by war. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. Six hundred
thousand acres of land had been confiscated from the Earl of Desmond,
and probably at his own suggestion Ralegh undertook to plant an English
colony there. Others joined in the enterprise. Ralegh's share consisted
of some twelve thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Waterford, and
Tipperary, and he rented, in addition, Lismore Castle at the annual
charge of L13 6_s_. 8_d_., from Meyler Magrath, Bishop of the See of
Lismore and Archbishop of Cashel. His tenants he had taken from men of
Devon (the stamp of man he knew and approved), and his land was soon
recognized as the most prosperous among all the estates which these
"gentlemen under-takers," as they were called, were opening out.
Fertility did not satisfy him. His acres were well forested, and an idea
occurred to him by which he could turn the timber to good account. His
scheme was to construct pipe-staves and hogsheads and barrel boards, and
to transport them to the wine growers of Spain and France. It was a good
scheme and practical. But he found the utmost difficulty in obtaining a
licence from the Privy Council for their export. He was not in favour
with Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, nor the deputy's
cousin, one Richard Wingfield. By the time that sanction was obtained,
Ireland was again in too unsettled a state for prosperity in quiet
commerce, and Ralegh sold his estate to Richard Boyle, who afterwards
became Earl of Cork. He had planted many products, which his men had
brought from Virginia, on the land of his Irish estate, and among these
was the potato. He also tried to cultivate tobacco, but with less
success.
Had Ralegh been supported during the last ten years of the Queen's
reign, he would have benefited Ireland considerably by his activity,
even though he was, at the same time, engaged in many other affairs,
naval, political, and commercial. But he was badly hampered in his
projects by loss of favour. His enemies were many, and they found
pleasure in vexing him in small matters. This enmity, while Elizabeth
lived, did not seriously injure his power or his reputation, but it set
obstacles in the way of his projects which were just sufficient to
thwart them.
Such were Ralegh's chief business activities, which were the groundwork
of his life, these and the duties of Captain of the Guard, which were
chiefly decorative. It is not easy to realize, in a time of great
splendour, the day to day existence of the men who made that time
splendid. The mind is apt to leap from dramatic moment to dramatic
moment, when mighty exploits mark out a time's history like
stepping-stones. When events are sufficiently great to stand prominently
forth, not only in the history of the reign, but in the history of all
time, the prosaic intervals of dull hard work are apt to be forgotten;
but they are the essential training, without which those events would
not have happened.
The life of the man is the life of the nation in little. Just as Ralegh
thought nothing beneath his notice, thought nothing to which he put his
hand too insignificant not to be done with his might, so England, under
her great Queen, was working and working to collect her strength, so
that, when the moment at last came to strike, she might strike with
effect.
Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of the Guard, superb in pearls and silver,
whom magnificence became, did not disdain on occasion to ride for many
miles through the muddy roads of Devonshire to inspect the river at
Roxburgh Down, and found time to write at length to Secretary Sir Robert
Cecil, his opinion that the clash-mills of Mr. Crymes, the tinner, did
not harm the townsmen of Plymouth. That incident is as significant of
the time's energy as the defeat of the Spanish Armament.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH
From an oil-painting made, probably by Federigo Zuccaro, in 1586
Copyright, Emery Walker, London, E. C.]