w. The country had little commerce, and what
it had was still mostly in the hands of foreigners. The Hanse towns
had their large entrepot for merchandise in Cannon Street, on the site
of the present Cannon Street Station. The wool was still sent abroad
to Flanders to be fashioned into cloth, and even garden produce was
principally imported from Holland. Dutch, Germans, Flemings, French,
and Venetians continued to be our principal workmen. Our iron was
mostly obtained from Spain and Germany. The best arms and armour came
from France and Italy. Linen was imported from Flanders and Holland,
though the best came from Rheims. Even the coarsest dowlas, or
sailcloth, was imported from the Low Countries.

The royal ships continued to be of very small burthen, and the
mercantile ships were still smaller. The Queen, however, did what she
could to improve the number and burthen of our ships. "Foreigners,"
says Camden, "stiled her the restorer of naval glory and Queen of the
Northern Seas." In imitation of the Queen, opulent subjects built
ships of force; and in course of time England no longer depended upon
Hamburg, Dantzic, Genoa, and Venice, for her fleet in time of war.

Spain was then the most potent power in Europe, and the Netherlands,
which formed part of the dominions of Spain, was the centre of
commercial prosperity. Holland possessed above 800 good ships, of from
200 to 700 tons burthen, and above 600 busses for fishing, of from 100
to 200 tons. Amsterdam and Antwerp were in the heyday of their
prosperity. Sometimes 500 great ships were to be seen lying together
before Amsterdam;[9] whereas England at that time had not four merchant
ships of 400 tons each! Antwerp, however, was the most important city
in the Low Countries. It was no uncommon thing to see as many as 2500
ships in the Scheldt, laden with merchandize. Sometimes 500 ships
would come and go from Antwerp in one day, bound to or returning from
the distant parts of the world. The place was immensely rich, and was
frequented by Spaniards, Germans, Danes, English, Italians, and
Portuguese the Spaniards being the most numerous. Camden, in his
history of Queen Elizabeth, relates that our general trade with the
Netherlands in 1564 amounted to twelve millions of ducats, five
millions of which was for English cloth alone.

The religious persecutions of Philip II. of Spain and of Charles IX. of
France shortly supplied England with the population of whi