sed Duerer as
the greatest city he had seen in the Low Countries. For the whole
territory of the Netherlands, including Holland and Belgium, and a
little more on the borders, the population was in 1560 about 3,000,000.
This is the same figure as that given for 1567 by Lewis Guicciardini.
Later in the century the country suffered by war and emigration.

[Sidenote: Germany]

The lack of a unified government, and the great diversity of
conditions, makes the population of Germany more difficult to estimate.
Brandenburg, having in 1535 an area of 10,000 square miles, and a
population between 300,000 and 400,000, has been aptly compared for
size and numbers to the present state of Vermont. Bavaria had in 1554
a population of 434,000; in 1596 of 468,000. Wuerzburg had in 1538 only
12,000; Hamburg in 1521 12,000 and in 1594 19,000. Danzig had in 1550
about 21,000. The largest city in central Germany, if not in the whole
country--as a chronicler stated in 1572--was Erfurt, with a population
of 32,000 in 1505. It was the center of the rising Saxon industries,
mining and dying, and of commerce. Luebeck, Cologne, Nuremberg and
Augsburg equalled or perhaps surpassed it in size, and certainly in
wealth. The total population of German Switzerland was over 200,000.
The whole German-speaking population of Central Europe amounted to
perhaps twenty millions {455} in 1600, though it had been reckoned by
the imperial government in 1500 as twelve millions.

[Sidenote: France]

The number of Frenchmen did not greatly increase in France in the 16th
century. Though the borders of the state were extended, she suffered
terribly by religious wars, and somewhat by emigration. Not only did
many Huguenots flee from her to Switzerland, the Netherlands and
England, but economic reasons led to large movements from the south and
perhaps from the north. To fill up the gap caused by emigration from
Spain a considerable number of French peasants moved to that land; and
it is also possible that the same class of people sought new homes in
Burgundy and Savoy to escape the pressure of taxes and dues. Various
estimates concur in giving France a population of 15,000,000 to
16,000,000. The Paris of Henry II was by far the largest city in the
world, numbering perhaps 300,000; but when Henry IV besieged it it had
been reduced by war to 220,000. After that it waxed mightily again.

[Sidenote: Italy]

Italy, leader in many ways, was the first to