490 



THE NETHERLANDS. 



Common lands are rapidly diminishing, but another kind of tenure, known as 

 belxJein-regf, is gradually extending from Groningen. Under it the tenants, on 

 payment of a fixed rent to the original owner of the land, are not disturbed, and 

 may sublet or sell the farms they hold, and transmit them to their heirs. Under 

 this tenure agriculture is prospering, and Groningen has taken the lead in many 

 improvements. 



Industry. — As a manufacturing country Holland does not rank as high as in 



Fig. 278.— The Pkincipal Canals of the Netheklands. 

 Scale 1 : 2,500,000. 



4° EoPGt 



agriculture. There is but little coal, and clay, used in the manufacture of earthen- 

 ware and clinkers, is the only mineral product of any importance. Still the cotton- 

 mills of the Twenthe and the cloth factories of Brabant are of some importance, and 

 woollen stuffs are exported even to Belgium. Maastricht has glass houses and 

 machine shops, whilst Schiedam is known throughout the world for its distilleries. 

 CoMMEKCE. — In 1652, when Cromwell forbade the importation of British 

 colonial produce in foreign bottoms, the Dutch had a commercial marine of 16,000 

 vessels and. 900,000 tons, equal to the combined marines of the rest of Europe. At 



