few
wealthy merchant families. In choice pieces of the noble metals, the
artistic work of the goldsmith was of more value than its weight. Among
the opulent citizens, the place of silver and porcelain was supplied by
pewter; it was displayed in great abundance, shining with a bright
polish; it was the pride of the housewife, and together with it were
placed fine glasses and pottery from foreign countries, often painted
and ornamented with either pious or waggish inscriptions. On the other
hand the dress and adornments of the men were far more brilliant and
costly than now. The feeling of the middle ages was still prevalent, a
tendency of the mind for outward display and stately representations
directly opposed to ours, and nothing tended so much to preserve this
inclination, as the endeavours of the authorities to meet it, by
regulating even the outward appearance of individuals, and giving to
each class of citizens their own peculiar position. The endless
sumptuary laws about dress gave it a disproportionate importance; it
fostered more than anything else vanity and an inordinate desire in
each to raise himself above his position. It appears to us a ludicrous
struggle, which the worthiest magistrates maintained for four centuries
up to the French Revolution, against all the caprices and excesses of
the fashion, and always without success.

Surrounded by these forms and regulations, lived a rich, vigorous,
laborious, and wealthy people; the citizens held jealously to the
privileges and dignity of their cities, they liked to exhibit their
riches, capacity, and enterprise among their fellow-citizens.
Handicraft and trade were still very prosperous. It is true, that in
wholesale commerce with foreign countries Germany had already lost
much. The splendour of the Hanse towns had faded. The great commercial
houses of Augsburg and Nuremberg even then existed, only as heirs of
the great riches of their fathers. Italians, French, and above all,
English and Flemish, had become dangerous rivals, the Swedish, Danish,
and Dutch flags floated on the Baltic more triumphantly than those of
Lubeck and other Baltic ports, and the commerce with the two Indies ran
in new currents and into foreign marts. But the German herring fishery
was still of great importance, and the vast Sclave lands of the East
were still an open market to the commerce of the country. But
throughout the whole width of the Empire industry flourished, and a
less pro