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. of Spain and of Charles
IX. of France shortly supplied England with the population of
which she stood in need--active, industrious, intelligent
artizans. Philip set up the Inquisition in Flanders, and in a
few years more than 50,000 persons were deliberately murdered.
The Duchess of Parma, writing to Philip II. in 1567, informed him
that in a few days above 100,000 men had already left the country
with their money and goods, and that more were following every
day. They fled to Germany, to Holland, and above all to England,
which they hailed as Asylum Christi. The emigrants settled in
the decayed cities and towns of Canterbury, Norwich, Sandwich,
Colchester, Maidstone, Southampton, and many other places, where
they carried on their manufactures of woollen, linen, and silk,
and established many new branches of industry.[10]

Five years later, in 1572, the massacre of St. Bartholomew took
place in France, during which the Roman Catholic Bishop Perefixe
alleges that 100,000 persons were put to death because of their
religions opinions. All this persecution, carried on so near the
English shores, rapidly increased the number of foreign fugitives
into England, which was followed by the rapid advancement of the
industrial arts in this country.