the country stretched to the remotest
corners of the globe. The inhabitants of the Netherlands, trained from
early youth to battle with the waves, found their true element on the
ocean. "As much as Nature," says an enthusiastic writer, "restricted
their domain on the land, so much the more did they extend their empire
on the deep."[377] Their fleets were to be found on every sea. In the
Euxine and in the Mediterranean they were rivals of the Venetian and the
Genoese, and they contended with the English, and even with the
Spaniards, for superiority on the "narrow seas" and the great ocean.

The wealth which flowed into the country from this extended trade was
soon shown in the crowded population of its provinces and the splendor
of their capitals. At the head of these stood the city of Antwerp, which
occupied the place in the sixteenth century that Bruges had occupied in
the fifteenth, as the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands. Two
hundred and fifty vessels might often be seen at the same time taking in
their cargoes at her quays.[378] Two thousand loaded wagons from the
neighboring countries of France, Germany, and Lorraine daily passed
through her gates;[379] and a greater number of vessels, freighted with
merchandise from different quarters of the world, were to be seen
floating at the same time on the waters of the Scheldt.[380]

The city, in common with the rest of Brabant, was distinguished by
certain political privileges, which commended it as a place of residence
even to foreigners. Women of the other provinces, it is said, when the
time of their confinement drew near, would come to Brabant, that their
offspring might claim the franchises of this favored portion of the
Netherlands.[381] So jealous were the people of this province of their
liberties, that in their oath of allegiance to their sovereign, on his
accession, it was provided that this allegiance might lawfully be
withheld whenever he ceased to respect their privileges.[382]

Under the shelter of its municipal rights, foreigners settled in great
numbers in Antwerp. The English established a factory there. There was
also a Portuguese company, an Italian company, a company of merchants
from the Hanse Towns, and, lastly, a Turkish company, which took up its
residence there for the purpose of pursuing a trade with the Levant. A
great traffic was carried on in bills of exchange. Antwerp, in short,
became the banking-house of Europe; and capitalists, t