s, against whom the coasts of Spain were closed,
were compelled at last, however reluctantly, to visit the Flemish fairs,
and purchase their Spanish goods in the markets of the Netherlands.

Bruges, in Flanders, was, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
central point of the whole commerce of Europe, and the great market of
all nations. In the year 1468 a hundred and fifty merchant vessels were
counted entering the harbor of Sluys it one time. Besides the rich
factories of the Hanseatic League, there were here fifteen trading
companies, with their countinghouses, and many factories and merchants'
families from every European country. Here was established the market
of all northern products for the south, and of all southern and
Levantine products for the north. These passed through the Sound, and
up the Rhine, in Hanseatic vessels to Upper Germany, or were transported
by landcarriage to Brunswick and Luneburg.

As in the common course of human affairs, so here also a licentious
luxury followed prosperity. The seductive example of Philip the Good
could not but accelerate its approach. The court of the Burgundian
dukes was the most voluptuous and magnificent in Europe, Italy itself
not excepted. The costly dress of the higher classes, which afterwards
served as patterns to the Spaniards, and eventually, with other
Burgundian customs, passed over to the court of Austria, soon descended
to the lower orders, and the meanest citizen nursed his person in velvet
and silk.

[Philip the Good was too profuse a prince to amass treasures;
nevertheless Charles the Bold found accumulated among his effects,
a greater store of table services, jewels, carpets, and linen than
three rich princedoms of that time together possessed, and over and
above all a treasure of three hundred thousand dollars in ready
money. The riches of this prince, and of the Burgundian people,
lay exposed on the battle-fields of Granson, Murten and Nancy.
Here a Swiss soldier drew from the finger of Charles the Bold, that
celebrated diamond which was long esteemed the largest in Europe,
which even now sparkles in the crown of France as the second in
size, but which the unwitting finder sold for a florin. The Swiss
exchanged the silver they found for tin, and the gold for copper,
and tore into pieces the costly tents of cloth of gold. The value
of the spoil of silver, gold, and jewels which was taken has been