New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-05

Low Countries have made, lndeeo' no
such splendid contributions TO CIVIL
zation as have those OF ancient greece
or of medieval Italy; but they nave .
place Of their own in the history OF
human progress, while for Englisnmen
their affairs have ever been q matter
Of very direct concern. The present
war is the latest illustration OF that
fact.
In the work before us Mr.. Wegg has
given a very careful and detailed &C,
count of Antwerp during the perioe
when Il reached its greatest pitSh o.
Importance and stood at the helghI Oh
it's prosperity. He starts from the
year 1AA7. that rnomentous epoch for
the Low Countries which saw the tragic
death at Nancy of their sovereign
Duke Charles the Bold Of Burgundy
the succession to his dominions OF MS
young daughter Mary, and her subse-
ouent marriage to the Archduke MAX
imilian of Austria. By that alliance
the seventeen provinces OF the Neither
lands became part of the Austrian
family possessions, and were involved
thenceforth, whether they would OF
not, in the long drawn out STRIFE pc
tween the rival dynssties OF hapsourg
and Valois. But the date which MARKS
for the Low Countries the beginning
of their political subsection 70 outside
power corresponds, as nearly as any
particular date can do so, to grea.
economic change within. The decay OF
the Flemish towns had then set in, the
rise of Antwerp had begun. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
Flanders had become prosperous
through the pursuit Of the weaving IN
dustry, for which wool was imported
from England while the chief flem-
ish city, Bruges, had been the great
commercial centre for Western Europe
But England had since learned 70
weave her own wool and had become
an exporter Of cloth; the Flemish cities
quarrelled among themselves to the
detriment Of their industry; worst Of
all, the Zwyn, the arm of the sea by
which ships brought merchandise 10
Bruges, gradually silted up. .,
This last circumstance, combined
with natural enlargement of the
western mouth of the Scheldt which
took place about the same time, en-
abled Antwerp to supplant Bruges as
a port. But that alone would hardly
have given Antwerp the first place
among commercial cities. More than
anything else it was the liberal policy
adopted toward strangers. Antwerp
had always been on good terms with
her feudal lords, the Dukes Of Bra
bant, and had received from them
series Of charters which not only gave
her citizens almost complete self-goV-
eminent, but which encouraged foreign
merchants to visit the place and to
establish agencies within it. Any one
who would pay the usual dues and
would behave himself peaceably could
settle in Antwerp and do business
there. Nor were merchants hampered,
as in the Flemish cities, by restrictions
as to the commodities they might deal
in, or as TO the persons with whom
they might trade. The result was, first,
that an immense concourse or foreign
ers came TO attend the two annual
/ fairs, each lasting six weeks, at which
business of all kinds was transacted;
and. secondly, that the trading cor
porations of foreign nations had their
permanent establishments within the
city. The English Merchant Adventur-
ers. the merchants of the Hanse towns,
/ Spanish and Portuguese traders, and
those OF several Italian cities were
thus represented. The native Antwerp
ers themselves had little share at first
/ in this commercial activity, but won
( great profit nevertheless through the
/ enhanced rents obtained for accommo-
dation, and through the demand for
the necessaries Of life and for the
products of minor industries. Lastly,
| Antwerp gained immensely by the open
/ ing of the Cape route to India by the
Portuguese. The Eastern produce
which previously had been brought TO
Europe by way of the Red Sea, and had
been distributed by Venice, now came
to Lisbon. Thence it was fetched by
Antwerp merchants, who disposed Of 1t
/ over Northern and Western Europe.
B From commerce there developed
/ finance. Men who had engaged in pure
~ mercantile transactions and had &C
cumulated capital found that fortunes
could be more quickly made in the
| business of money lending to mer-
chants. TO cities or to monarchs; IN
the last case, however, not without risk.
Antwerp, now of the first Importance
IS a commercial city, offered splendid
OPPORTUNITIES TO fnanciers, and its fair
times were taken advantage OF for the
negotiation of money business and as
terms for the repayment Of loans. The
place formerly held by Augsburg, Ven
| ice and Florence as banking centres
was now occupied by Lyons and Ant
werp, and in the latter Italian fnan-
ciers and such German capitalists as
the Fuggers did an immense business.
Sir Thomas Gresham, among English
men. was a frequent visitor TO Antwerp
10 negotiate loans for the Tudor SOW
ereigns.