The exports of Scotland were wool, wool-fells, and hides to Flanders; from
which they brought mercery, haberdashery, cart-wheels, and barrows.
The
exports of Ireland were hides, wool, salmon, and other fish; linen; the
skins of martins, otters, hares, &c. The trade of England is not described:
the author being an Englishman, and writing for his countrymen, we may
suppose, thought it unnecessary.
The exports of Prussia were beer, bacon, copper, bow-staves, wax, putty,
pitch, tar, boards, flax, thread of Cologne, and canvas; these were sent
principally to Flanders, from which were brought woollen cloths. The
Prussians also imported salt from Biscay.
The Genoese employed large vessels in their trade; their principal exports
were cloth of gold and silver, spiceries, woad, wool, oil, wood-ashes,
alum, and good: the chief staple of their trade was in Flanders, to which
they carried wool from England.
The Venetians and Florentines exported nearly the same articles as the
Genoese; and their imports were nearly similar.
Flanders exported madder, wood, garlick, salt-fish, woollen cloths, &c. The
English are represented as being the chief purchasers in the marts of
Brabant, Flanders, and Zealand; to these marts were brought the merchandize
of Hainault, France, Burgundy, Cologne, and Cambray, in carts. The
commodities of the East, and of the south of Europe, were brought by the
Italians: England sent her wool, and afterwards her woollen cloth.
From this view of the trade of Europe in the middle of the fifteenth
century, it appears, that it was principally conducted by the Italians, the
Hanse merchants, and the Flemings; and that the great marts were in
Flanders. Towards the end of this century, indeed, the other nations of
Europe advancing in knowledge and enterprize, and having acquired some
little commercial capital, each began, in some degree, to conduct its own
trade. The people of Barcelona, at a very early period, form the only
exception to this remark; they not only conducted their own trade, but
partook largely in conducting the trade of other nations.
From the remotest period to which we can trace the operations of commerce,
we have seen that they were chiefly directed to the luxuries of Asia; and
as the desire of obtaining them in greater abundance, and more cheaply and
easily, was the incitement which led to the discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope by the Portuguese, it will be proper, before we narrate that event,
briefly to give such particulars respecting Asiatic commerce as occur
within the period which this chapter embraces, and to which, in our account
of the Arabians, we have not already alluded. This will lead us to a notice
of some very instructive and important travels in the East; and the
information which they convey will point out the state of the geography of
Asia, as well as its commerce, during the middle ages.
The dreadful revolutions which took place in Asia in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, and which threatened to extend to Europe, induced the
European powers, and particularly the Pope, to endeavour to avert the evil,
by sending embassies to the Mogul potentates.
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