Indeed In The Year 1518, Guicciardini Informs Us That There Arrived
At Antwerp, Five Venetian Ships Laden With The Spices And Drugs Of The
East:
And 1565, when the English Russia Company sent their agents into
Persia, they found that the Venetians carried on
A considerable trade
there; they seem to have travelled from Aleppo, and to have brought with
them woollen cloths, &c. which they exchanged for raw silks, spices, drugs,
&c. The agents remarked, that much Venetian cloth was worn in Persia: in
1581, Sir William Monson complains that the Venetians engrossed the trade
between Turkey and Persia, for Persian and Indian merchandize. In 1591,
when the English Levant Company endeavoured to establish a trade over land
to India, and for that purpose carried some of their goods from Aleppo to
Bagdat, and thence down the Tigris to Ormus and to Goa, they found that the
Venetians had factories in all these places, and carried on an extensive
and lucrative trade. It is difficult to perceive how Indian commodities
brought by land to Europe, could compete with those which the Portuguese
brought by sea. The larger capital, more numerous connexions, greater
credit, and skill of the Venetians, must however have been much in their
favour in this competition.
We have noticed that, even so late as the beginning of the eighteenth
century, a voyage from Marseilles to the Baltic and back again, was thought
by French navigators an impracticable undertaking in the course of one
year; and yet a century earlier, viz. in 1699, Venice sent at least one
ship annually for Archangel: the first instance we believe of a direct
commercial intercourse between the northern and southern extreme seas of
Europe.
We must turn to the northern nations of Europe, Sweden, Denmark and Russia,
and glean what few important materials we can respecting their commerce
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We have already seen that
the commerce of the Scandinavian nations of the middle ages was by no means
despicable, though it was chiefly confined to Britain and Iceland, and
among themselves: the establishment of the Hanseatic League, some of the
cities composing which lay in the Baltic, gradually made the Scandinavian
nations better known, and by creating a demand for their produce,
stimulated them to industry and commerce. In a poor country, however, with
a sterile soil and ungenial climate; where winter prevented intercourse by
sea, for several months every year, capital must increase very slowly, and
commerce, reciprocally the cause and effect of capital, equally slow.
Besides the piratical habits of the early Scandinavians, were adverse to
trade; and these habits shed their influence even after they were
discontinued. But though the Scandinavian nations were long in entering
into any commercial transactions of importance, yet they contributed
indirectly to its advancement by the improvements they made in
ship-building, as well as by the ample materials for this purpose which
their country supplied. Their ships indeed were constructed for warfare,
but improvements in this description of ships naturally, and almost
unavoidably, led to improvements in vessels designed for trade. In 1449, a
considerable commerce was carried on between Bristol, and Iceland, and
Finmark, in vessels of 400, 500, and even 900 tons burden, all of which,
there is reason to believe, were built in the Baltic; and, about six years
afterwards, the king of Sweden was the owner of a ship of nearly 1000 tons
burden, which he sent to England, with a request that she might be
permitted to trade.
Gustavus I. who reigned about the beginning of the sixteenth century, seems
to have been the first Swedish king who directed the attention and industry
of his subjects to manufactures and commerce; but, in the early part of his
reign, the inhabitants of Lubec had the monopoly of the foreign trade of
Stockholm. This sovereign, in 1540, entered into a commercial treaty with
Francis I., King of France; the principal article of which was, that the
Swedes should import their wine, salt, &c. directly from France, instead of
obtaining them indirectly from the Dutch. The conquest of Revel by Sweden,
and the consequent footing obtained in Livonia, in 1560, greatly increased
its commerce and wealth; while important improvements were introduced into
its manufactures of iron a few years afterwards by the Flemings, who fled
there on the destruction of Antwerp. Prior to their arrival, most of the
Swedish iron was forged in Dantzic and Prussia; but they not only taught
the Swedes how to forge it, but also how to make iron cannon, and other
iron, copper, and brass articles. The Swedes had from an early period, been
sensible of the real riches of their territory, and how much their timber,
iron, pitch, and tar, were converted for maritime and other purposes. The
pitch and tar manufacture especially had long constituted a very
considerable part of their commerce. In 1647, Queen Christiana very
unwisely granted a monopoly of these articles, which was productive of the
usual effects, injury to commerce, without a correspondent benefit to those
who held it. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the tar company in
Sweden not only put a very high price on their goods, but refused to sell
them, even for ready money, unless they were exported in Swedish vessels.
In consequence of this, England began at this period to encourage the
importation of tar, pitch, hemp, and naval timber, from her American
colonies.
The commerce of Denmark, besides its common origin with that of the rest of
Scandinavia, seems, in the middle ages, to have been chiefly nourished by
two circumstances: - The trade which Iceland carried on, and the
establishment of Bergen, first as the staple of the German merchants, and
afterwards as the chief factory of the Hanse merchants. In 1429, it was
also established by the king of Denmark, as the sole staple for the fish
trade. In 1553, its trade began to decline, in consequence, it is said, of
its being deserted by the Hanseatics.
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