Thus, With Respect To These
Two Latter Articles, Sending To Venice What They Formerly Obtained From
Her.
For, prior to the Portuguese discovery of the Cape, the merchants of
Antwerp brought from Venice all sorts of India spices and drugs:
And even
so late as the year 1518, there arrived in the Scheldt, five Venetian
ships, laden with spices and drugs, for the fair at Antwerp. In 1560,
however, the imports from Venice consisted of the finest and choicest
silks, carpets, cotton, &c. and colours for dyers and painters."
"To Naples they export great quantities of Flemish and English cloths and
stuffs, tapestry, linens, small wares of metal, and other materials: and
bring back raw, thrown and wrought silk, fine furs and skins, saffron and
manna. The exports to Sicily are similar to those of the other parts of
Italy: the imports from it are galls in great quantity, cinnamon, oranges,
cotton, silk, and sometimes wine. To Milan, Antwerp exports pepper, sugar,
jewels, musk, and other perfumes, English and Flemish woollen manufactures,
English and Spanish woollinens, and cochineal. The imports are gold and
silver, thread, silks, gold stuffs, dimities, rich and curious draperies,
rice, muskets and other arms, high priced toys and small goods; and
Parmesian cheese. The exports to Florence are nearly the same as to the
other parts of Italy, but in addition, fans are specified. Besides the
usual imports of silks and gold stuffs, there are also fine furs. Household
furniture is exported to Genoa, besides the usual articles: velvets, which
were then the best in the world; satins, the best coral, mithridate, and
treacle, are the principal or the peculiar imports. Genoa, is the port
through which Antwerp trades with Mantua, Verona, Modena, Lucca, &c."
"Besides all these articles, Antwerp imports from Italy by sea, alum, oil,
gums, leaf senna, sulphur, &c. and exported to it by sea, tin, lead,
madder, Brazil wood, wax, leather, flax, tallow, salt fish, timber, and
sometimes corn. The imports from Italy, including only silks, gold and
silver, stuffs, and thread camblets and other stuffs, amount to three
millions of crowns, or 600,000_l_. yearly.
"Antwerp exports to Germany precious stones and pearls, spices, drugs,
saffron, sugars, English cloths, as a rare and curious article, bearing a
high price: Flemish cloth, more common and not so valuable as English,
serges, tapestry, a very large quantity of linen and mercery, or small
wares of all sorts: from Germany, Antwerp receives by land carriage,
silver, bullion, quicksilver, immense quantities of copper, Hessian wool,
very fine, glass, fustians of a high price, to the value of above 600,000
crowns annually; woad, madder, and other dye stuffs; saltpetre, great
quantities of mercery, and household goods, very fine, and of excellent
quality: metals of all sorts, to a great amount; arms; Rhenish wine, of
which Guicciardini speaks in the highest terms, as good for the health, and
not affecting either the head or the stomach, though drunk in very large
quantities: - of this wine 40,000 tuns were brought to Antwerp annually,
which, at thirty-six crowns per tun, amounted to 1,444,000 crowns."
"To Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, Antwerp exports
vast quantities of spices, drugs, saffron, sugar, salt, English and Flemish
cloths, fustians, linens, wrought silks, gold stuffs, tapestries, precious
stones, Spanish and other wines, alum, Brazil wood, merceries, and
household goods. From these countries, particularly from Eastland and
Poland, that is, the countries on the south shore of the Baltic, Antwerp
receives wheat and rye to a large amount; iron, copper, brass, saltpetre,
dye-woods, vitriol, flax, honey, wax, pitch, tar, sulphur, pot-ashes, skins
and furs, leather, timber for ship building, and other purposes; beer, in
high repute; salt meat; salted, dryed, and smoked fish; amber in great
quantities, &c."
"To France, Antwerp sends precious stones, quicksilver, silver bullion,
copper and brass, wrought and unwrought, lead, tin, vermillion; azure,
blue, and crimson colours, sulphur; saltpetre, vitriol, camblets, and
Turkey grograms, English and Flemish cloths, great quantities of fine
linen, tapestry, leather, peltry, wax, madder, cotton, dried fish, salt
fish, &c. Antwerp receives her returns from France, partly by land and
partly by sea. By sea, salt to the annual value of 180,000 crowns; fine
woad of Thoulouse, to the value annually of 300,000 crowns; immense
quantities of canvass and strong linen, from Bretagne and Normandy; about
40,000 tuns of excellent red and white wines, at about twenty-five crowns
per tun; saffron; syrup, or sugar, or perhaps capillaire; turpentine,
pitch, paper of all kinds in great quantities, prunes, Brazil wood, &c. &c.
By land, Antwerp receives many curious and valuable gilt and gold articles,
and trinkets; very fine cloth, the manufacture of Rouen, Peris, Tours,
Champagne, &c.; the threads of Lyons, in high repute; excellent verdigrise
from Montpelier, merceries, &c."
"To England, Antwerp exports jewels and precious stones, silver bullion,
quicksilver, wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, gold and silver
thread, camblets, grograms, spices, drugs, sugar, cotton, cinnamon, galls,
linens, serges, tapestry, madder, hops in great quantities, glass, salt
fish, small wares made of metal and wood, arms, ammunition, and household
furniture. From England, Antwerp imports immense quantities of fine and
coarse woollen goods; the finest wool; excellent saffron, but in small
quantities; a great quantity of lead and tin; sheep and rabbit skins, and
other kinds of fine peltry and leather; beer, cheese, and other sorts of
provisions, in great quantities; also Malmsey wines, which the English
import from Candia."
Guicciardini observes, that Antwerp exported but little to Scotland, as
that country was principally supplied from England and France: some
spiceries, sugars, madder, wrought silks, camblets, serges, linen, and
merceries, are exported. In return, Antwerp received from Scotland vast
quantities of peltry of various kinds, leather, wool, cloth of coarse
quality, fine large pearls, but not of quite so good a water as the
oriental pearls.
The exports to Ireland were nearly the same as to Scotland: the returns
were skins and leather, some low-priced cloths, and other coarse and common
articles of little value.
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