Agents of the principal bankers and merchants of every country had their offices within its walls.

It has been estimated that, inclusive of the many foreigners who made the town their temporary abode, the population of Antwerp in 1560 was about 150,000.

Five hundred vessels sailed in and out of her harbour daily, and five times that number were to be seen thronging her wharves at the same time.
To the north of the Scheldt the condition of things was not less satisfactory than in the south, particularly in Holland.

The commercial prosperity of Holland was in most respects different in kind from that of Flanders and Brabant, and during the period with which we are dealing had been making rapid advances, but on independent lines.

A manufactory of the coarser kinds of cloth, established at Leyden, had indeed for a time met with a considerable measure of success, but had fallen into decline in the time of Mary of Hungary.