A. D. 1504. 25: 



J624), ' as it is now ufed, is not above 200 years old* ; and the refin- 

 ing of it more new than that firft found out by a Venetian in the days 

 of our forefathers, who got ico,ooo crowns by the invention. Before 

 which art of boiUng and refining it, our anceflors made ufe of it rough 

 as it came from the canes. But they mofl commonly ufed honey in- 

 flead of it,' 



1504. — It was not till the year 1504, that any French fhip arrived oiv 

 the coafi:s of North America, even according to their own accounis ; 

 which was eight years later than the Englifh difcovery thereof by Ca- 

 bot, &.C. ; but it was not till two years later that one Denis difcovered 

 the entrance into the river of Canada or St. Laurence. So that the) 

 priority of difcovery is undoubtedly on the fide of England for all- 

 North America y and confequently England, beyond all the other na- 

 tions of Europe, had the befh claim to the whole, until fhe gave up part 

 of it by her fucceeding treaties with other European nations. 



The renowned city of Antwerp was at this time arrived very near to 

 the fumniit of its wealth, and glpry, which it had acquired by the two- 

 following confiderations, viz. 



I.) By the grants of free fairs for commerce, made formerly by the 

 fovereigns of the Netherlands (two of which fairs lafled each time fix 

 weeks), whither merchants reforted from all parts of Chriftendom with 

 their merchandize, cufl:om free. At thefe fairs vafl: concerns were ma- 

 naged, not only in merchandize, but in bills of exchange, with all parts 

 of Europe. 



II) But what more immediately and fuddenly brought about the- 

 wealth, -grandeur,, and renown of Antwerp, was when Portugal now 

 brought home, in immenfe quantities, the fpices, drugs, and other ricb 

 produdions of India, firft to Lilbon, and thence to Antwerp, as to an 

 entre-port or half-way port, between the north and fouth parts of Eu-* 

 rope. This drew the German and other merchants to fettle at Ant- 

 werp, which brought great riches to it ; and the merchants of Bruges. 

 alfo removed thither, after the archduke Maximilian had, about the year 

 1499, reduced their city. 



Louis Guicciardin (in his judicious defcription of the Netherlands), 

 was of opinion, that the fpices alone, brought from Lifbon to Antwerp, 

 one year with another, amounted to above a million of crowns yearly. 

 In thofe days the people of Europe were much fonder of the ufe of 

 Ipices in their cookery, &c. than they have been in later times. 



An Englifli ad of parliament (19. Hen. FII, c. 21.), for the advance- 

 ment of the fmaller filk manufactures in England, prohibited the im- 



* It appears by the atToun/f 0/" f.6c chamberlain land at the price of if <)\ (above an ounce of 



of Scotland, piiblifhed from the originals in tiie ex- itandard filver), by the pound. So Dr. Heylin is 



chequer by John Davidfon, Efq. that, fo early as furely miftaken at leall in the date of the iaven- 



rhe year 1329, haves affu^ar were fold in Sect- tion of fugar-baking. M, 



Vol. II. D 



