A. D. 1553- 113 



* parliament of that time had laid a heavy duty (20 per cent) upon 

 ' their exports and imports,' inflead of their antient duty of one per 

 cent). He farther adds, ' that this adl was renewed in Queen Mary's 



* firft parliament: But in the beginning of the year 1554, the queen, 

 ' to gratify the Hanfe towns, fufpended the execution of thofe ads for 

 ' three years, and difcharged them from the payment of that heavy du- 



* ty, all ads to the contrary notwithftanding. And this (he obferves) 

 ' was the firft effed of this queen's alliance with the empL-ror ;' fhe hav- 

 ing juft been married to his eldeft fon Philir *. 



Two of the other three comptoirs of the lianfe league were now alfo 

 become of little confequence to them (fays Wardenhagen) ; ' for firft 

 ' Novogrod, by reafon of the czar's arbitrary and tyrannical proceed- 

 ' ings (who, without any juft grounds, aflumed a power to imprifon the 

 ' German merchants, and to feize on their effeds), was nov? quite aban- 



* doned ; the merchants having removed firft to Revel, and afterward to 

 ' Narva. 



' Bergen in Norway was alfo deferted by the Hanfeatics, by reafon 



* of the like arbitrary proceedings of the king of Denmark ; For 



* whereas the antient toll for pafling the found had been only a golden 

 ' rofe-noble on every lail, which was always underftood to be meant on 

 ' every fliip, the court of Denmark had for fome time paft put a new 



* and arbitrary conftrudion on the word fail, by obliging all fliips to 

 ' pay a rofe-noble for every fail in or belonging; to each fnip. More 



' over, not content with this impofition, they proceeded to lay a duty 

 ' on the corn and other merchandize per laft or ton, diftind from that 

 ' on the fails ; which burdens obliged the Vandalic Hanfe towns' (i. e. 

 thofe towns on the German ftrore fituated within the Sound) ' to re- 

 ' linquifti the Norway trade : And as they had vaft dealings in tranf- 



* porting the corn of Poland and Livonia to other parts of Europe, 

 ' thofe high tolls fo difcouraged them, that they alfo gradually left off 

 ' that commerce, to which the Hollanders fuccceded, and have conti- 



* nued thereiii ever fmcc, greatly to their advantage. Their third comp- 



* toir, which was at Bruges, had, by the decay of that once moft opulent 

 ' city, been removed firft to Dort, and afterward to Antwerp ;' where 

 indeed it continued to nrofper for fome time after. 



Thuanus [A. 51] aftigns another good reafon for the decline of the 

 trade of the Hanfe towns to Eergen, where, he fays, the marks of their 



» 



•we 



* Though Rapin exprefsly aflcrts llint tlure both tliofc tranf;nflioiis were any oilier tlian orders 



were two aCi\s of parhanient, viz. one of the lall or determinations of the countil-boardo <'f thole 



ytar of King Edward VI, aad another of the fii ll times, which in thole days, wLc.i the boiirds of 



of Queen Mary, for laying on that high duty on the prerogative were more txtenlive, frequent]' af- 



the imports and exports of the Steelyard mer- fumed fo grc.it a latitude ; at leaft, if they w: re 



chants, yet in the printed ilatute-hook thi re is not re: ly llatutes, we migl^t have had their titles ir 



fo much as the title of athti u thole fuppofcd th- printed Itatute-book. 

 flat, tea; which may make t doubt ul whether 



Vol. II. P 



