A monopoly at home—­like those which we have been considering—­was endurable because it was a working compromise that suited existing circumstances more or less, and that could be either mended or ended as time went on.  But a general foreign monopoly—­like Spain’s monopoly of America—­was quite unendurable.  Could Spain not only hold what she had discovered and was exploiting but also extend her sphere of influence over what she had not discovered?  Spain said Yes.  England said No.  The Spaniards looked for tribute.  The English looked for trade.  In government, in religion, in business, in everything, the two great rivals were irreconcilably opposed.  Thus the lists were set; and sea-dog battles followed.

Elizabeth was an exceedingly able woman of business and was practically president of all the great joint-stock companies engaged in oversea trade.  Wherever a cargo could be bought or sold there went an English ship to buy or sell it.  Whenever the authorities in foreign parts tried discrimination against English men or English goods, the English sea-dogs growled and showed their teeth.  And if the foreigners persisted, the sea-dogs bit them.

Elizabeth was extravagant at court; but not without state motives for at least a part of her extravagance.  A brilliant court attracted the upper classes into the orbit of the Crown while it impressed the whole country with the sovereign’s power.  Courtiers favored with monopolies had to spend their earnings when the state was threatened.  And might not the Queen’s vast profusion of jewelry be turned to account at a pinch?  Elizabeth could not afford to be generous when she was young.  She grew to be stingy when she was old.  But she saved the state by sound finance as well as by arms in spite of all her pomps and vanities.  She had three thousand dresses, and gorgeous ones at that, during the course of her reign.  Her bathroom was wainscoted with Venetian mirrors so that she could see ‘nine-and-ninety’ reflections of her very comely person as she dipped and splashed or dried her royal skin.  She set a hot pace for all the votaries of dress to follow.  All kinds of fashions came in from abroad with the rush of new-found wealth; and so, instead of being sanely beautiful, they soon became insanely bizarre.  ‘An Englishman,’ says Harrison, ’endeavouring to write of our attire, gave over his travail, and only drew the picture of a naked man, since he could find no kind of garment that could please him any whiles together.

   I am an English man and naked I stand here,
   Musing in my mind what raiment I shall were;
   For now I will were this, and now I will were that;
   And now I will were I cannot tell what.