CHAP. XVI. TRADE OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOMS. 29 



The wealth of the family we have here traced 

 was but in a small degree collected from their 

 transactions in Germany. That country was too 

 poor to have contributed largely to it. Their 

 prosperity must have been created more by the 

 operations in Italy, in the Netherlands, and in 

 Spain, than by those within the poor and feudal 

 territory comprehended within the Germanic em- 

 pire. The metallic wealth which the family 

 possessed would, like the other commodities which 

 composed their property, be in the countries 

 wherein their commercial, or mining, or agri- 

 cultural establishments were carried on, and in 

 a proportion determined by the relative extent of 

 such establishments, and not by the division of 

 Europe, from which the family at the head of 

 them had originally sprung. 



It can scarcely be supposed that any consider- 

 able quantity of the precious metals, either in the 

 form of coin, of ornaments, or of utensils, was to 

 be found in the northern divisions of Europe at 

 the period now under our review. The riches 

 displayed by Canute, to which we have in a 

 former part of this inquiry adverted, had been 

 collected at a time when their sea kings had risen 

 to naval power from the almost exclusive pos- 

 session of the fisheries. With their barks which, 

 though feeble, were superior to those of the rest 

 of the world, they were seduced by their superior 

 skill in navigation first to plunder other countries, 



