rought back wine, oranges, lemons and
timber. To France went wax, tallow, butter, cheese, wheat, rye,
"Manchester cloth," beans and biscuit in exchange for pitch, rosin,
feathers, prunes and "great ynnions that be xii or xiiii ynches
aboute," iron and wine. To the Russian Baltic ports, Riga, Reval and
Narva went coarse cloth, "corrupt" (_i.e._, adulterated) wine,
cony-skins, {535} salt and brandy, and from the same came flax, hemp,
pitch, tar, tallow, wax and furs. Salmon from Ireland and other fish
from Scotland and Denmark were paid for by "corrupt" wines. To the
Italian ports of Leghorn, Barcelona, Civita Vecchia and Venice, and to
the Balearic Isles went lead, fine cloth, hides, Newfoundland fish and
lime, and from them came oil, silk and fine porcelain. To Barbary went
fine cloth, ordnance and artillery, armor and timber for oars, though,
as a memorandum of 1580 says, "if the Spaniards catch you trading with
them, you shall die for it." Probably what they objected to most was
the sale of arms to the infidel. From Barbary came sugar, saltpetre,
dates, molasses and carpets. Andalusia demanded fine cloth and cambric
in return for wines called "seckes," sweet oil, raisins, salt,
cochineal, indigo, sumac, silk and soap. Portugal took butter, cheese,
fine cloth "light green or sad blue," lead, tin and hides in exchange
for salt, oil, soap, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, pepper and all other
Indian wares.

While the English drove practically no trade with the East Indies, to
the West Indies they sent directly oil, looking-glasses, knives,
shears, scissors, linen, and wine which, to be salable, must be
"singular good." From thence came gold, pearls "very orient and big
withall," sugar and molasses. To Syria went colored cloth of the
finest quality, and for it currants and sweet oil were taken. The
establishment of an English factor in Turkey [Sidenote: 1582] with the
express purpose of furthering trade with that country is an interesting
landmark in commercial history.

Even as late as the reign of Elizabeth England imported almost all
"artificiality," as high-grade manufactures of a certain sort were
called. A famous Elizabethan play turns on the scarcity of needles,
[Sidenote: _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, c. 1559] the whole household being
turned upside down to look for {536} the one lost by Gammer Gurton.
These articles, as well as knives, nails, pins, buttons, dolls,
tennis-balls, tape, thread, glass, and laces