The Dutch And The English First Began To Seek A Participation In The
Commerce Of The North.
The chief cities which formed the republic of
Holland had been among the earliest members or confederates of the
League,
and when they threw off the yoke of Germany, and attached themselves to the
house of Bourbon, they ceased to form part of the League; and after much
dispute, and even hostility with the remaining members of it, they
succeeded in obtaining a part of the commerce of the Baltic, and commercial
treaties with the king of Denmark, and the knights of the Teutonic order.
The commerce of the League was also curtailed in the Baltic, where it had
always been most formidable and flourishing, by the English, who, in the
beginning of the fifteenth century, gained admission for their vessels into
Dantzic and the ports of Sweden and Denmark. The only port of consequence
in the northern nations, to which the ships of the League were exclusively
admitted, was Bergen, which at this period was rather under their dominion
than under that of Norway. In the middle of the sixteenth century, however,
they abandoned it, in consequence of disputes with the king of Denmark.
About the same time they abandoned Novogorod, the czar having treated their
merchants there in a very arbitrary and tyrannical manner. These, and other
circumstances to which we have already adverted, made their commerce and
power decline; and, towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, they
had ceased to be of much consequence. Though, however, the League itself at
this period had lost its influence and commerce, yet some cities, which had
been from the first members of it, still retained a lucrative trade: this
remark applies chiefly to Lubeck and Hamburgh; the former of these cities
possessed, about the middle of the seventeenth century, 600 ships, some of
which were very large; and the commerce by which Hamburgh is still
distinguished, is in some measure the result of what it enjoyed as a member
of the Hanseatic League.
We shall now turn our attention to the Italian states: Venice and Amalfi
were the first which directed their labours to the arts of domestic
industry, the forerunners and causes of commercial prosperity. New wants
and desires being created, and a taste for elegance and luxury formed,
foreign countries were visited. Muratori mentions several circumstances
which indicate a revival of a commercial spirit; and, as Dr. Robertson
remarks, from the close of the seventh century, an attentive observer may
discern faint traces of its progress. Indeed, towards the beginning of the
sixth century, the Venetians had become so expert at sea, that Cassiodorus
addressed a letter to the maritime tribunes of Venice, (which is still
extant,) in which he requests them to undertake the transporting of the
public stores of wine and oil from Istria to Ravenna. In this letter, a
curious but rather poetical account is given of the state of the city and
its inhabitants: all the houses were alike:
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