In the time of Charles the trade and industries of the Netherlands were in a highly prosperous state.  The Burgundian provinces under the wise administrations of Margaret and Mary, and protected by the strong arm of the emperor from foreign attack, were at this period by far the richest state in Europe and the financial mainstay of the Habsburg power.  Bruges, however, had now ceased to be the central market and exchange of Europe, owing to the silting up of the river Zwijn.  It was no longer a port, and its place had been taken by Antwerp.  At the close of the reign of Charles, Antwerp, with its magnificent harbour on the Scheldt, had become the “counting-house” of the nations, the greatest port and the wealthiest and most luxurious city in the world.  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.  The nature of his country led the Hollander to be either a sailor or a dairy-farmer, not an artisan or operative.  Akin though he was in race to the Fleming and the Brabanter, his instincts led him by the force of circumstances to turn his energies in other directions.  Subsequent history has but emphasised the fact—­which from the fourteenth century onwards is clearly evident—­that the people who inhabited the low-lying sea-girt lands of dyke, canal and polder in Holland and Zeeland were distinct in character and temper from the citizens of Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Brussels or Mechlin, who were essentially landsmen and artisans.  Ever since the discovery of the art of curing herrings (ascribed to William Beukelsz), the herring fishery had acquired a great importance to the Hollanders and Zeelanders, and formed the chief livelihood of a large part of the entire population of those provinces; and many thousands, who did not themselves sail in the fishing fleets, found employment in the ship and boat-building wharves and in the making of sails, cordage, nets and other tackle.  It was in this hazardous occupation that the hardy race of skilled and seasoned seamen, who were destined to play so decisive a part in the coming wars of independence, had their early training.