Sometimes 500 great ships were to be seen lying together before Amsterdam;[9] whereas England at that time had not four merchant ships of 400 tons each! Antwerp, however, was the most important city in the Low Countries.

It was no uncommon thing to see as many as 2500 ships in the Scheldt, laden with merchandize.

Sometimes 500 ships would come and go from Antwerp in one day, bound to or returning from the distant parts of the world.

The place was immensely rich, and was frequented by Spaniards, Germans, Danes, English, Italians, and Portuguese the Spaniards being the most numerous.

Camden, in his history of Queen Elizabeth, relates that our general trade with the Netherlands in 1564 amounted to twelve millions of ducats, five millions of which was for English cloth alone.
The religious persecutions of Philip II.