Chap. II.] REVOLT OF THE LOW COUNTRIES. 33 



commerce peculiarly suited to their position, tlieii' mer- a.d. 

 chant ships successfully competed, as the carriers of 

 Eiu^ope, with those of the Hanse Towns and Italy. In 

 this department the Dutch maintained an intimate inter- 

 course with Portugal, and their vessels resorted to Lisbon 

 in search of the rich productions of India, wliich they 

 transported to aU the countries of tlie North. ^ For some 

 years a lucrative and prosperous trade, mutually advanta- 

 geous to both countries, was permitted to flourish, unin- 

 terrupted even by the rupture between the Low Countries 

 and Spain ; the Portuguese as an independent people 

 having no other interest in the quarrel between Philip II. 

 and his Dutch subjects, than that which arose from the 

 accident of the two penhisular kingdoms being rided by 

 the same sovereign. 



At length in 1694, Phihp, impatient to strike a blow 

 at the commerce of the Dutch, and regardless of the con- 

 sequent injury to the trade of the Portuguese which the 

 contemplated prohibition involved, forbade liis new sub- 

 jects to hold intercourse with his enemies, laid an 

 embargo on the Dutch ships in the Tagus, imprisoned 

 their supercargoes and masters, and, professing to treat 

 them as heretics, subjected them to the disciphne of the 

 Inquisition.^ 



It admits of no question that this despotic effort to 

 annihilate the commerce of HoUand, acted as an imme- 

 diate stimulus to its expansion ; and suggested to the 

 Dutch those enterprising expeditions to India, whicli led 

 to the acquirement of large territory, the establishment of 

 their own trade and the subversion of the Portuguese 

 monopoly in the East.^ 



Within a year from the issue of the tyrannous veto to 



^ Raynal, Commerce des Indes, 

 8jC., liv. ii. ch. i. voL i. p. 805. 



"^ Jleoteil des Voiac/es de la Cum- 

 pagnie des Indes Orientales, i^-c, vol. i. 

 p. "105. 



^ " II sembloit que ces tirannios 



VOL. II. D 



devoient miner le pais et fairo perir 

 la nation : mais au-coutraire ellfs ont 

 cause le saint et la prosperite de I'un 

 et de I'autrc!" — Recueil, ^'c, vol. i. 

 p. 9 ; Valentyn, ch. XV. p. 282. 



