A. D. 1440, 659 



blocks containing the whole letters of a page in one piece : and this kind 

 of printing is apparently of very high antiquity among the Chinefe, 

 who ftill ufe no other. Moveable types of lead, tin, &c. were very foon 

 fubflituted : and the various improvements upon the manufadure and 

 management of them in a very iliort time brought printing to a con- 

 liderable degree of perfed:ion. 



1441 — A fui-ious war broke out in the year 1438 between Holland 

 and Zeland on the one fide, and the cities of Lubeck, Hamburgh, Lun- 

 enburg, Wifmar, Rollock, and thofe of the Sound, affilled by the Vene- 

 tians, Spaniards, and Pruflians, on the other ; and the Netherlanders 

 fuffered very much from the frequent captures made by their enemies. 

 In vain the duke of Burgundy endeavoured to accommodate matters by 

 a convention of deputies. The claim of his fubje6ts for compenfation, 

 amounting to 50,000 florins of gold, was haughtily received by the 

 Eflerlings, and the meeting broke up with mutual defiance. The Hol- 

 landers and Zelanders, with the confent of the duke, immediately built 

 a number of ftout fhips (but not equal in fize to thofe of the Efiierlings) 

 at Harlem, Amfi;erdam, Home, Enkhuyfen, Dort, Gouda, Roterdam, 

 Middelburg, Vere, Flufhing, Armuyden, Ziriczee, and fome other towns, 

 and fent them out, well armed and manned, againll their enemies. Thefe 

 cruifers took twenty large hulks, three carracks from Prufila, and a great 

 Venetian carrack loaded with all forts of goods, by which the damages 

 of the Netherlanders were compenfated. At lafi; a truce of ten years, 

 concluded with Lubeck and five other principal cities, terminated, or 

 fufpended, this war of commercial rivalry. IPetit, Chron. de Hollande, 



1442, January 26'" — It was apparently in order to avoid the hard- 

 fhips impofed upon foreign iTierchants by the late law, that Jeronimo 

 Dandulo of Venice and his fon Marino paid forty marks for a licence, 

 whereby the king made them denizens of England, and inverted them 

 with all the privileges of native fubjeds *, and leave to export wool, tin, 

 and cloth, without being obliged to carry them to Calais, paying in that 

 cafe the duties paid by aliens. {Foedera^ V. x\,p. 2.] 



January — The parliament enaded, that denizen merchants, having 

 the king's licence to export wool, wool-fells, and tin, to any other place 

 than the fl;aple at Calais, fliould pay the fame duties, which aliens paid 

 upon fuch goods. {ylSls 20 Hen. VI, c. 4.] 



It had become ufual for the oflEicers of the cufioms to employ, as 

 their clerks or deputies, perfons who were owners of fliips, engaged in 

 trade, occupiers of wharfs and quays, tavern-keepers, brokers, &c. wherc- 



tion of an art in its infancy. \_Schcpjlin, in Mem. priming figures upon blocks, there cau be no doubt, 



de Vacocl. V. xvii, p. 762.] The advocates for thnt it Is at leafb as old as the year 1423. 



Full and Laurence are equally fatisfied in the jijft- * The king fays, they (hall be iiativcj (' ind:- 



nefs of their claims to the honour of the invention. « genx') ; and that word continued for focie time 



The contelt will never be decided. Perhaps each to be ufcd inilead of dAiizen. 



of them invented fome improvcinent. As for 



4O 2 



