natural are good land, fair mines, &c. artificial, are manufactures, coins,
&c. Many kingdoms are fertile, but thin of inhabitants, as that Duchy of
Piedmont in Italy, which Leander Albertus so much magnifies for corn, wine,
fruits, &c., yet nothing near so populous as those which are more barren.
[542]"England," saith he, "London only excepted, hath never a populous
city, and yet a fruitful country." I find 46 cities and walled towns in
Alsatia, a small province in Germany, 50 castles, an infinite number of
villages, no ground idle, no not rocky places, or tops of hills are
untilled, as [543]Munster informeth us. In [544]Greichgea, a small
territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20 walled towns,
innumerable villages, each one containing 150 houses most part, besides
castles and noblemen's palaces. I observe in [545]Turinge in Dutchland
(twelve miles over by their scale) 12 counties, and in them 144 cities,
2000 villages, 144 towns, 250 castles. In [546]Bavaria 34 cities, 46 towns,
&c. [547]_Portugallia interamnis_, a small plot of ground, hath 1460
parishes, 130 monasteries, 200 bridges. Malta, a barren island, yields
20,000 inhabitants. But of all the rest, I admire Lues Guicciardine's
relations of the Low Countries. Holland hath 26 cities, 400 great villages.
Zealand 10 cities, 102 parishes. Brabant 26 cities, 102 parishes. Flanders
28 cities, 90 towns, 1154 villages, besides abbeys, castles, &c. The Low
Countries generally have three cities at least for one of ours, and those
far more populous and rich: and what is the cause, but their industry and
excellency in all manner of trades? Their commerce, which is maintained by
a multitude of tradesmen, so many excellent channels made by art and
opportune havens, to which they build their cities; all which we have in
like measure, or at least may have. But their chiefest loadstone which
draws all manner of commerce and merchandise, which maintains their present
estate, is not fertility of soil, but industry that enricheth them, the
gold mines of Peru, or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have
neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oil, or scarce any corn