THE PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN 413 
formation and intervention of capital, but these were im- A.D. 1689 
mensely enlarged in the eighteenth century, by the rapid —tre. 
development of credit in all its forms. The institution and the 
of the Bank of England not only gave stability to the we 
Government, but provided the means for material progress Jacihties 
of every kind, It has been the very heart of the economic mercial 
life of the country during the last two hundred years, and 
we must look closely at the character of the new Bank, and 
the circumstances under which it was launched. We shall 
then see how these new facilities for the formation and 
investment of capital gave scope for extension in commerce 
and in industry. The greater activity at the centre, syn- 
chronised with an expansion of the sphere in which the 
commercial system of England was consciously maintained 
212. The success of the representative assembly, in 
controlling the power of the Crown, led indirectly to an 
enormous expansion of its sphere of influence. At the 
time of the accession of James L, Parliament had no occasion 
to concern itself with anything outside the limits of England 
and Wales, Scotland was a distinct realm, with its own 
Parliament ; Ireland was also a separate kingdom, in which 
the House of Commons took little interest; foreign trade 
was in the hands of companies, which held patents from 
the Crown ; and as the plantations were founded, they were 
similarly controlled. It was only as trade reacted on the well- 
being of English taxpayers, that Parliament had ventured to 
meddle with it at all. But after the Revolution, this was 
entirely changed; the increased power of Parliament gave it 
a status for exercising both an economic and political control 
over the whole of the territory under English rule. The 
dominant party in Parliament was inclined, by its traditional 
principles, to take a somewhat narrow view of its duties to in ajealous 
Englishmen in distant regions, while the colonists were even sprit: 
more jealous of the interference of Parliament than of the 
exercise of authority by the Crown! 
It was, of course, true that the establishment of the 
plantations had involved a considerable drain on English 
resources, both in men and money: there were many people 
I Fiske. Civil Government, 156.