24 A. D. 1503. 



of thefe points were pretty well profecuted ; but others of them, and 

 the moft important too, very much neglefted, though enforced by many 

 fubfequent laws. 



The fame year we firfl find mention, in a Scottifh adl of parliament 

 (c. 81), of the office of confervator of that nation's mercantile privi- 

 leges in the Netherlands, though the office was apparently of an earlier 

 date than this time ; when it was now enaded, that for the well of 

 merchants, and becaufe of the great exorbitant expenfes made by them 

 upon pleas in parts beyond the leas, the confervator of this realm fhall 

 have jurifdidion to do juftice between the faid merchants (being the 

 king's fubjecls) in the parts beyond the feas. But the confervator fliall have 

 fix, or at leaft four, Scottifli merchants to lit, and determine all matters 

 jointly with him ; and that no Scottifh merchant beyond Tea iliLill fue ano- 

 ther Scottifii merchant there before any other judge than the confervator. 

 By another ad; of the fame year (c. 82), the confervator is direcled to 

 come home yearly to Scotland, or elfe to fend his refponfible procura- 

 tor to anfwer for his condud in his office beyond fea. This office of 

 confervator nearly refembles that of the Englifti confuls in foreign 

 ports ; and although in neither of the above-quoted ads the place of 

 his refidence be mentioned, yet it is well known that he always did, and 

 ftill does refide in the Netherlands, where the principal foreign com- 

 merce of Scotland had always centered. And in a Scottifh ad of par- 

 liament, anno 1535, which confirms certain former laws, prohibiting 

 petty merchants from going beyond fea to France, Flanders, &c. with 

 lefs than half a lafi of merchandize, he is called the confervator of the 

 nation in Flanders, and is thereby direded to fend home the names of 

 all merchants going thither in every fhip, contrary to the tenor of this 

 ad. 



Under this year we may tranfiently remark, that the acceflion of 

 Spain to the houfe of Auflria, by a marriage at this time, paved the 

 way for great alterations in the commercial as well as in the political 

 fyftem of Europe ; v/hich conjundion had like to have been an over 

 match for all the refl of Chriflcndom, had not England and France 

 been vigilant on the oppofite fide. 



According to Morifot [Grbis Maritimus, L. ii, c. 13, p. 410.], there ar- 

 rived two Zealand fliips at Campveer, loaded with fugars, the produce 

 of the Canary iflands. As yet no fugar-canes were produced in Ame- 

 rica ; they were tranfplanted foon after this time from the Canaries. 

 We have already feen, that the firft fugar-canes, weft of the Mediterra- 

 nean fea, were planted at the ifle of Madeira, which had them from Si- 

 cily, from whence, or elfe from the coafts of Africa, they might be 

 brought to the Canaries. ' The boiling and baking of fugars,' (fays 

 X3r. Heylin in his Cofniography, vvhofe firfl edition was printed anno 



