In The Year 1541, It Contained 100,000 Inhabitants:

Soon afterwards the persecutions on account of religion in Germany, England, and France, drove many people thither, and of course increased both its population and wealth.

If we may believe Huet, in his History of Dutch Commerce, it was, at this time, not uncommon to see 2500 ships at once lying in the Scheldt.

The picture, however, which Guicciardini draws of Antwerp in 1560, when it had reached the zenith of its prosperity and wealth, - being that of a contemporary author, and entering into detail, - is at once much more curious and interesting, and may be depended on as authentic. It is also valuable, as exhibiting the state of the manufactures, commerce, &c. of most of the nations of Europe at this period.

"Besides the natives and the French, who are here very numerous, there are six principal foreign nations, who reside at Antwerp, both in war and peace, making above 1000 merchants, including factors and servants, viz. Germans, Danes, and Easterlings - that is, people from the ports in the south shores of the Baltic, from Denmark to Livonia - Italians, Spaniards, English, and Portuguese of these six nations; the Spaniards are the most numerous. One of those foreign merchants, Fugger, of Augsburg, died worth above six millions of crowns; there are many natives there with from 200,000 to 400,000 crowns."

"They meet twice a day, in the mornings and evenings, one hour each time, at the English bourse, where, by their interpreters and brokers, they buy and sell all kinds of merchandize.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 587 of 1007
Words from 160163 to 160425 of 273188