INTRODUCTION. 51 



merce of Europe was almost entirely in the hands of the Italians, 

 more commonly known in those ages by the name of Lombards. 

 Companies or societies of Lombard merchants settled in every dif- 

 ferent kingdom ; they became the carriers, the manufacturers, and 

 the bankers of Europe. One of these companies set led in London ; 

 and thence the name of Lombard-street was derived. 



While the Italians in the soinh of Europe cultivated trade with 

 such industry and success, the commercial spirit awakened in the 

 north towards the middle of the 13th century. As the Danes, 

 Swedes, and other nations around the Baltic, were at that time 

 extremely barbarous, and infested that sea with their piracies, the 

 cities of Lubec and Hamburgh, soon after they had begun to open 

 some trade with the Italians, entered into a league of mutual de- 

 fence. They derived such advantages from this union, that other 

 towns acceded to their confederacy ; and, in a short time, eighty of 

 the most considerable cities, scattered through those large coun- 

 tries of Germany and Flanders which stretch from the bottom of 

 the Baltic to Cologne on the Rhine, joined in an alliance, called 

 the Hanseatic League, which became so formidable, that its friend- 

 ship was courted and its enmity dreaded by the greatest monarchs. 

 The members of this powerful association formed the first sys- 

 tematic plan of commerce known in the middle ages, and conduct- 

 ed it by common laws enacted in their general assemblies. They 

 supplied the rest of Europe with naval stores, and selected different 

 towns, the most eminent of which was Bruges in Flanders where 

 they established staples, in which their commerce was regularly 

 carried on. Thither the Lombards brought the productions of 

 India, together with the manufactures of Italy, and exchanged them 

 for the more bulky but not less useful commodities of the north. 



As Bruges became the centre of communication between the 

 Lombards and Hanseatic merchants, the Flemings traded with 

 both in that city to such extent as well as advantage, as diffused 

 among them a general habit of industry, which long rendered 

 Inlanders and the adjacent provinces the most opulent, the most 

 populous, and best cultivated countries in Europe. 



Struck with the flourishing state of these provinces, of which 

 he discovered the true cause, Edward III. of England en- . _. 

 deayoured to excite a spirit of industry among his own sub- ' ' 

 jects, who, blind to the advantages of their situation, and 

 ignorant of the source from which opulence was destined to flow 

 into their country, totally neglected commerce, and did not even 

 attempt those manufactures, the materials of which they furnished 

 to foreigners. By alluring Flemish artisans to settle in his domi- 

 nions, as well as by many wise laws for the encouragement and re- 

 gulation of trade, he gave a beginning to the woollen manufacture 

 of England, and first turned the active and enterprising genius of 

 his people towards those arts which have raised the English to the 

 first rank among commercial nations. 



The Christian princes, alarmed at the progress of their invete- 

 rate enemies the Turks, endeavoured to gain the friendship and 

 assistance of the khans of Tartary. The Christian embassies 

 were managed chiefly by monks, an active and enterprising set of 

 men, who, impelled by zeal, and undaunted by difficulties and dan- 

 ger, penetrated to the remote courts of those infidels. The Eng- 

 lish philosopher, Roger Bacon, was so industrious as to collect from 



