It naturally partook of the
wealth and commercial improvement which Flanders derived from her woollen
manufactures, and was in fact made the emporium of that country at the
beginning of the fourteenth century; and within 100 years afterwards, the
staple for English and Scotch goods. When the increased industry of the
north of Europe induced and enabled its inhabitants to exchange the produce
of their soil, fisheries, and manufactures, for the produce of the south of
Europe, and of India, Bruges was made the great entrepot of the trade of
Europe. In the beginning of the sixteenth century its commercial importance
began to decline, but the trade which left it, did not pass beyond the
limits of the Netherlands; it settled in a great measure at Antwerp, which,
as being accessible by sea, was more convenient for commerce than Bruges.
This city, however, would not have fallen so easily or rapidly before its
rival, had it not been distracted by civil commotions. From it the commerce
of the Netherlands, and with it of the north of Europe, and the interchange
of its commodities with those of the south of Europe and of Asia, gradually
passed to Antwerp; and about the year 1516, most of the trade of Bruges was
fixed here, the Portuguese making it their entrepot for the supply of the
northern kingdoms.
Even before this time the ships of the Netherlands seem to have been the
carriers of the north of Europe; for in 1503, two Zealand ships arrived at
Campveer, laden with sugars, the produce of the Canary Islands.
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