And it is also strange to think, when wandering along the
canals of Bruges, where now the swans glide silently about in the
almost stagnant water which laps the basements of the old houses,
how in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ships of every nation
carried in great bales of merchandise, and that rich traders stored
them in warehouses and strong vaults, which are now mere coal-cellars,
or the dark and empty haunts of the rats which swarm in the canals.
'There is,' says Mr. Robinson, 'in the National Library at Paris a
list of the kingdoms and cities which sent their produce to Bruges
at that time. England sent wool, lead, tin, coal, and cheese; Ireland
and Scotland, chiefly hides and wool; Denmark, pigs; Russia, Hungary,
and Bohemia, large quantities of wax; Poland, gold and silver;
Germany, wine; Liege, copper kettles; and Bulgaria, furs.' After
naming many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, that sent goods,
the manuscript adds: 'And all the aforesaid realms and regions
send their merchants with wares to Flanders, besides those who
come from France, Poitou, and Gascony, and from the three islands
of which we know not the names of their kingdoms.' The trade of
Bruges was enormous.
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