nd rendered more formidable by the imaginary
difficulties which had been supposed to attend an expedition beyond the
straits of Hercules. But the English, accustomed to their own rough seas,
were always more intrepid, and probably more skilful navigators. Though it
was extremely rare, even in the fifteenth century, for an English trading
vessel to appear in the Mediterranean,[601] yet a famous military
armament, that destined for the crusade of Richard I., displayed at a very
early time the seamanship of our countrymen. In the reign of Edward II. we
find mention in Rymer's collection of Genoese ships trading to Flanders
and England. His son was very solicitous to preserve the friendship of
that opulent republic; and it is by his letters to his senate, or by royal
orders restoring ships unjustly seized, that we come by a knowledge of
those facts which historians neglect to relate. Pisa shared a little in
this traffic, and Venice more considerably; but Genoa was beyond all
competition at the head of Italian commerce in these seas during the
fourteenth century. In the next her general decline left it more open to
her rival; but I doubt whether Venice ever maintained so strong a
connexion with England. Through London and Bruges, their chief station in
Flanders, the merchants of Italy and of Spain transported oriental produce
to the farthest parts of the north. The inhabitants of the Baltic coast
were stimulated by the desire of precious luxuries which they had never
known; and these wants, though selfish and frivolous, are the means by
which nations acquire civilization, and the earth is rendered fruitful of
its produce. As the carriers of this trade the Hanseatic merchants
resident in England and Flanders derived profits through which eventually
of course those countries were enriched. It seems that the Italian vessels
unloaded at the marts of London or Bruges, and that such part of their
cargoes as were intended for a more northern trade came there into the
hands of the German merchants. In the reign of Henry VI. England carried
on a pretty extensive traffic with the countries around the Mediterranean,
for whose commodities her wool and woollen cloths enabled her to pay.

[Sidenote: Commerce of the Mediterranean countries.]

[Sidenote: Amalfi.]

The commerce of the southern division, though it did not, I think,
produce more extensively beneficial effects upon the progress of
society, was both earlier and more splendid th