28 A. D. 1505. 



filver, fair and broad pieces. Thefe were the firft real {hillings in Eng- 

 land, the fhillings of former ages being merely ideal, as the pound is 

 now. They are now only to be found in the cabinets of the curious. 



The Portuguefe now firft landed on the ifland of Ceylon, where they 

 were ftrenuoufly oppofed by the Moors, who had long before been fet- 

 tled there, and had fupplied all Europe with cinnamon by the way of 

 Alexandria: Yet, in the end, the Portuguefe got the better; and having 

 fortified the principal ports of that ifland, they, in their turn, totally en- 

 grofi^ed the cinnamon trade till the year 1639, when they were fupplant- 

 ed by the Hollanders. This fpice was well known to the ancients, ever 

 fmce the commerce from Egypt to India was pradifed ; whereas the 

 fpices from the Moluccos, and more efpecially the places producing 

 them, were not generally known fo early. 



1506. — King Philip of Spain and his queen, on their voyage from 

 Flanders to Spain, being, by ftrefs of weather, driven into Falmouth, 

 Mrere invited by Henry VII to Windfor and London, where they were 

 entertained with much feafting and fplendour. King Henry on this oc- 

 cafion concluded a new commercial treaty with king Philip for his do- 

 minions in the Netherlands, which treaty the Flemings termed inter- 

 curfus malus, for that there be fome things in it (feys lord Bacon) more 

 to the advantage of the Englifti than of them ; efpecially for that the 

 free filhing of the Dutch upon the coafts and feas of England, granted 

 in the treaty of the year 1496, termed by the Flemings intercurfus 

 magnus, was not by this treaty confirmed. 



This new treaty follows, in fubftance, viz. That whereas the Englifti, 

 refiding in and trading to the Netherlands, had made grievous com- 

 plaints of new and unprecedented tolls and duties Jaid on their mer- 

 chandize there, contrary to treaties fubfifting ; and that there were pro- 

 hibitions of felling Englifti cloth in many places there ; alfo that there 

 were feizures made of fliips and merchandize, and the imprifonment of 

 their perfons, &c. 



For redrefs therefor of all grievances on both fides, it was now fti- 

 pulated, 



I) That former treaties be confirmed, particularly thofe of 1495 and 

 1499 (that of 1496 being artfully omitted), except fo far as altered by 

 this treaty, and all new tolls and exadions utterly aboliflied. 



II) The Englifti merchants may freely refort to Bruges in Flanders, as 

 alfo to all the other provinces of the Netherlands, with their ftiips, cloth, 

 and other merchandize, freely to buy and fell. But, in the province 

 of Flanders (and there only), they fliall not iell their cloth by retail, or 

 in a fmaller quantity than an entire piece ; neither fhall they be per- 

 mitted either to drefs or to dye their cloth in the faid province of Flan- 

 ders. 



And III) For prevention of all impofitions for the future, a table of 



