A, D. 1575. 15,7 



1575. — We have before obferved, under the year 1548, that the 

 Emperor Charles V, for poHtical ends, had allowed a large rate of in- 

 rereft on the great fums he had borrowed of the republic of Genoa, 

 which was alfo for fome time continued by his fon King Philip TI, and 

 thofe loans farther increafed on the fecurity of the revenues of Spain 

 and Spanifh America ; and although upon the reducftion of the interefl; 

 on thofe debts, Philip had given alTurances to the Genoefc that the re- 

 duced interefl fliould afterward be pundnally paid, yet we find that at 

 feveral times after, and particularly in the year 1575, he again flopped 

 the payment of their interefl, at a time when divifions ran high at Ge- 

 noa between the old and the new nobility. He alio ordered a revifal 

 of his accounts with the Genoefe for fifteen years backward, which 

 greatly alarmed them, as (according to their hiflorian De Mailly), 

 [Z,. xii.] they had taken fuch advantage of that prince's neceffiiies, as 

 to make eleven, twelve, and fometimes eighteen per cent interefl on 

 their loans, whereby the antient nobles alone had drawn annually from 

 Spain a revenue of fifteen millions of gold. And this review of tiie 

 court of Spain is faid to have produced a farther redu(51ion of interefl 

 on thofe debts due to Genoa. 



In the firft volume of Hakluyt's voyages (London, 1598, p. 413), 

 we have this year the ' requefl of an honefl merchant, by letter to a 

 'friend of his, to be advifed and direded in the courfe of killing the 

 ' whale.' The anfwer in fubftance was, that there fhould be a fliip of 

 200 tons burthen, with proper utenfils and inflruments. But what is 

 mofl to be noted is, that all the neceflary officers were then to be had 

 from Bifcay; which fhews (what is alfo elfwhere to be obferved) that the 

 Bifcayners were the earlieft whale-filhers of any nation of Europe, ex- 

 cepting however the people of Norway, who were employed iji that 

 trade at leafl as early as the time of King Alfred. 



1576. — Many new devices having been found out for impairing, di- 

 minifhing, fcaling, and otherwife lightening the coins of England, or 

 the coins of other realms allowed by proclamation to be current in 

 England, all fuch arts were declared to be high treafon. [iS EUz. 

 c. i.] 



The {greets of the city of Chichefter v/ere firfl directed to be paved 

 with flone. [18 Eliz. c. 19.] 



An accord being at length patched up between the old and the new 

 nobility of Genoa, after their quarrels had brought the very exiflence 

 of the republic into great danger, it was now fiipulated, that the old 

 and new nobility fhould for ever after be deemed but one body, utter- 

 ly abolifiiing the former diflindlion of old and new nobles. And as 

 idlenefs is ever pernicious to the public, noblemen were now permitted 

 to exercife certain arts or trades, and alfo to pnidife a wholelale trade 

 or merchandife, without any difparagement of their nobility ; proviu- 



