TRADE AND MARKETS. 145 



but several of them imports from Spain and the Levant, are 

 proof that the Low Countries at this time possessed the prin- 

 cipal carrying trade. As part of the possessions of the House of 

 Austria, they would naturally, if not legally, have the monopoly 

 of Spanish produce. But pepper, sugar, and currants must have 

 come from the Mediterranean. It is noteworthy that the Act 

 contains no reference to products of the New World. 



The trade from London to Danske, by which seems to be 

 meant all the district from Hamburgh, Denmark, and Scandi- 

 navia, was in woollens and rabbit skins, the latter being packed 

 in a roll, pack or maund, and charged with a freight of 1 8s. or 

 less according to size. But the same region sent divers raw 

 and coarse products to England, the rates of carrying which 

 are given. A last of wheat or rye is to pay 2,6s. 8d., a pack or 

 two half-packs of flax 30^., a pack of canvas 305-., a last of pitch 

 or tar, i.e. 14 barrels, i2s., a last of osemonds, also 14 barrels, 

 i.e. of steel goods, 8s., a last of ashes, also 14 barrels, us., two 

 dozen bundles of bow-staves 26s. 8d., a nest of counters i8j., 

 a last of faggots of iron 45-., a fat of sturgeon or eels 2s., a sack 

 of feathers, i.e. 9 cwts., i$s. 6d., and a straw of wax containing 

 16 cwts. i^s. This list of products is instructive, because it 

 points out how this country depended for iron, tar, flax, and 

 other articles on Northern Europe. 



The trade with Bordeaux was in wine. The freight of a tun 

 of the first vintage was to be 18^., the tun containing two pipes, 

 four hogsheads, or six tierces. The tun of the rack vintage 

 was to be i6s. freight. Toulouse wad was to be eight bales, 

 or sixteen half baletts, equalling a ton, at zos. 



The trade with London and Biscay, Portugal and Southern 

 Spain, was intended to favour these countries. For every five 

 tons of freight the ship was to carry to Biscay a fardel of cloth 

 containing eighteen broadcloths free. For every other cloth 

 seventy maravedis = ^d. was to be paid. Return freight was 

 to be 1 3.$-. ^d. the tun. 



To the other districts, Portugal and Southern Spain, a fardel 

 of fifteen cloths was to be carried free, and each pack of sixteen 



VOL. TV. L 



