CHAPTER II THE GROWTH OF FOREIGN TRADE
§ 1. The expansion of commerce. The new spirit
§ 2. Foreign trade in the fifteenth century
A fair amount of trade was done with Portugal and Spain, which sent us iron and war-horses; Gascony and other parts of France sent their wines; rich velvets, linens, and fine cloths were imported from Ghent, Liège, Bruges, and other Flemish manufacturing towns. The ships of the Hanse merchants brought herrings, wax, timber, fur and amber from the Baltic countries; and Genoese traders came with silks and velvets and glass of Italy. And all met one another, as we saw before, in the great fairs, as at Stourbridge, or in the great trading centre of the Western world, London.
§ 3. The Venetian fleet
[31] Hence the Venetians themselves called it the “Flanders fleet.”
§ 4. The Hanseatic League’s station in London
§ 5. Our trade with Flanders. Antwerp in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
This list is sufficient to show an extensive trade, and we shall comment upon one or two items of it in the next chapter. Here we need only remark upon the great growth of English manufactures of cloth.