A short history of Belgium

by Léon van der Essen

The existence of the communes exerted a powerful influence on the internal politics of the feudal lords of Belgium. The latter were forced to take the communes more and more into account and to change their political attitude in accordance with the wishes of the burgesses. The knights, almost ruined by the decline of the value of the land, rendered military service only when paid for it. The feudal troops were no longer sufficient in numbers. The princes were obliged to seek the aid of the cities, to beg for taxes in order to pay the loans they were now obliged to contract for the allowances of the mercenary troops which they were compelled to hire. The princes no longer governed alone; they had to respect and cultivate the friendship of the cities. Their subjects began to take part in the political combinations of the feudalists. As a matter of fact, war was no longer possible without the consent of the communes, and it resulted, therefore, that the burgesses, if in disagreement with their lord, instead of assisting him, appealed to foreign rulers and fought against their own prince. It may be said that, owing to these changes in political life, the communes had succeeded in breaking the régime of feudalism. This may be cited as a supreme instance of their importance in Belgian history.

No less important was the influence they exerted—mainly during the thirteenth century—in the development of the economic, industrial, social, intellectual, and artistic life of the country. During that period trade and industry were essentially prominent in the life of the people. On account of their excellent location, the Belgian seaports became the meeting-places of vessels from the North Sea, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Orient. Ever since the existence of the commercial highroad between Cologne and Bruges the trade of the former had declined more and more. Given a shorter route by land, it is, generally speaking, that which is selected by merchants by which to forward their goods. Ghent became the center of commercial relations between Flanders and Germany, and many privileges were granted to Ghent tradesmen. Antwerp also grew little by little into an important commercial center, being connected with the Cologne-Bruges road by means of the Scheldt, that joins that road at Ghent.

Bruges, however, remained the commercial metropolis. It was in direct contact with the sea. Located midway between the Sunt and the straits of Gibraltar, it stored goods arriving from the north and from the south. A new harbor was constructed at Damme and connected with Bruges by a canal, whose powerful moles have been immortalized by Dante in his Divina Commedia.[10] The market-place at Bruges was crowded as much as was the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Toward the middle of the thirteenth century Bruges was enjoying trade relations with England, Normandy, Gascony, Spain, Provence, and the Hanseatic cities. In the fourteenth century the development of the harbor reached its climax by the organization of a regular transport service between the Flemish port and Genoa and Venice.

The growth of Flemish commerce was increased by the liberal free exchange policy of the counts of Flanders, especially since the time of Baldwin IX (1202). There was no taking advantage of foreign trade, no heavy taxes, no stringent customs. Many privileges were granted to the “Osterlings,” the merchants from Germany. If a war broke out between Flanders and a Hanseatic city, the Osterlings were allowed a period of three months in which to leave the country and to put their belongings in safety. The same privileges were granted to merchants from Poitou, Gascony, and Spain.

Necessarily, also, Bruges became a center of financial operations: pawnbrokers from Cahors, Lombardy, Florence, and Sienna flocked to the city in large numbers and soon monopolized all credit operations. The Lombardic pawnbrokers, especially, invaded the whole country between the Meuse and the sea, and it is an astonishing fact that in small cities like Léau (in the neighborhood of Louvain) branch offices of the mighty banking houses of Paris were to be found. The important part played by the circulation of money is also proved by the many coin reforms of that time. The Belgian coins, owing to their excellence and high standard, were imitated in Germany by the Hanseatic cities.

At the time of the communes manufacture was even more important than trade. The Belgian provinces became essentially an industrial country: from Douai to Saint-Trond there is not a city which was not connected with the cloth industry. Belgian textures became unequaled in suppleness, delicacy, and beauty of color; they were to be found everywhere throughout Europe, and were exported even to the bazaars of the Orient by vessels from Venice, Marseilles, and Barcelona. It is in the south of Flanders that the art of dyeing seems to have reached the highest perfection. Ypres, Douai, with its famous écarlate, and Arras are especially entitled to mention in this particular. The cloth industry was soon introduced farther north, in Ghent and Bruges, and also in Brabant. Brussels, Malines, and Louvain early rivaled the Flemish cities.

The annexation of Walloon Flanders by France deprived the Flemish cloth industry of one of its sources of raw material, and it became necessary to obtain it from England. Since that time Flanders and England have been naturally dependent on each other and in this fact is to be found the reason for the close alliance between these countries, from a political point of view, especially in the fourteenth century. The commercial relations between Flanders and England were monopolized by a powerful association of wool importers, the Hansa of London, composed of Flemish tradesmen. After a while the cloth industry developed to such an extent that the supply of English wool was no longer sufficient: wool from Spain and Navarre was also employed.

THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF SAINT GUDULA, BRUSSELS

Aside from the territory in which the cloth industry flourished, Belgium possessed also an agricultural region, far less developed, of which Hainaut was the center. Here the cities were merely large villages: Mons, Binche, and Ath cannot be compared with the cities of Flanders and Brabant. Namur and Luxemburg also were merely agricultural regions with no more than 8,000 and 5,000 population, respectively; whereas Ghent and Bruges had a populace of no less than 80,000, at least at the climax of their development.