In the Levant, during the long residence of Cornelis Haga at Constantinople, trade had been greatly extended.
Considerable privileges were conceded to the Dutch by the so-called "capitulation" concluded by his agency with the Porte in 1612; and Dutch consuls were placed in the chief ports of Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Greece and Italy.

The trading however with the Mediterranean and the Levant was left to private enterprise, the States-General which had given charters to the different Companies--East India, West India and Northern--not being willing to create any further monopolies.
The lack of coal and of metals has always seriously hindered industrial development in the United Provinces.

Nevertheless the advent into Holland of so many refugees who were skilled artisans, from the southern Netherlands, led to the establishment of various textile industries at Leyden, Haarlem and other towns.

One of the chief of these was the dressing and dyeing of English cloth for exportation.
Amsterdam, it should be mentioned, had already at this time become the home of the diamond industry.

The art of cutting and polishing diamonds was a secret process brought to the city on the Y by Portuguese Jews, who were expelled by Philip II; and in Amsterdam their descendants still retain a peculiar skill and craftmanship that is unrivalled.