ABSTRACT
The Netherlands, in the Middle Ages, had been among the richest and most industrious countries in Europe. Thickly populated and studded with communes jealous of their independence, they were as famous for their cloth manufacture as were the Italian cities, and during the fourteenth century they had even, thanks to their regular communications with the Levant, introduced the manufacture of cotton. Bruges had been a great centre of commercc and of banking. Ghent and Liège had had gilds as active as those of Florence. The country had been a huge market, the meeting-place of the people and products of North and South, and was quite ready to profit by the great geographical discoveries which marked the end of the fifteenth century.
