rivalled by those of England: yet he says, that,
though their wool was very coarse, above 12,000 pieces of cloth were made
at each of the following places; Amsterdam, Bois-le-duc, Delft, Haarlem,
and Leyden. Woollen manufactures were carried on also at other places,
besides taffeties and tapestries. Lisle is particularised by him as next in
commercial importance to Antwerp and Amsterdam. Bois-le-duc seems to have
been the seat of a great variety of manufactures; for besides woollen
cloth, 20,000 pieces of linen, worth, on an average, ten crowns each, were
annually made; and likewise great quantities of knives, fine pins, mercery,
&c. By the taking of Antwerp, the Spanish or Catholic Netherlands lost
their trade and manufactures, great part of which, as we have already
observed, settled in the United Provinces, while the remainder passed into
England and other foreign countries.

The destruction of the Hanseatic league, which benefited Amsterdam, seems
also to have been of service to the other northern provinces of the
Netherlands: for in 1510, we are informed by Meursius, in his History of
Denmark, there was at one time a fleet of 250 Dutch merchant ships in the
Baltic: if this be correct, the Dutch trade to the countries on this sea
must have been very great. The circumstance of the Dutch, even before their
revolt from Spain, carrying on a great trade, especially to the Baltic, is
confirmed by Guicciardini; according to him, about the year 1559, they
brought annually from Denmark, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, 60,000 lasts
of grain, chiefly rye, worth 560,000_l_. Flemish. They had above 800
ships from 200 to 700 tons burden: fleets of 300 ships arrived twice a year
from Dantzic and Livonia at Amsterdam, where there were often seeing lying
at the same time 500 vessels, most of them belonging to it. He mentions
Veer in Zealand (Campveer) as at that time being the staple port for all
the Scotch shipping, and owing its principal commerce to that circumstance.

The destruction of Antwerp brought to Amsterdam, along with other branches
of commerce, the valuable trade which the former city had with Portugal for
the produce and manufactures of India; these the Dutch merchants resold to
all the nations of the north. As soon, however, as Philip II. had obtained
possession of the throne of Portugal in 1580, he put a stop to all further
commerce between Lisbon and the Dutch. The latter, having tasted the sweets
of this commerce, r