History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 154

a cheat, from schwindeln, to be giddy, swindle. The vb. is later, Swindle (1797), and is
from the sb. swindler.
Chapter IV
Intercourse between English and Low Dutch on the Sea
4. 1.
ENGLISH and Low Dutch intercourse on the sea has been continuous since the
beginning of the Middle English period, and so important and influential has it been
that many nautical terms have been borrowed from Low Dutch into the English
vocabulary.
This intercourse can be best considered under three heads: (1) The meeting of the
two races through trade; this embraces the visits of English ships to Low Dutch ports,
the visits of Low Dutch ships to English ports, the meeting of the sailors of both
nationalities in other ports to which they both traded, and the freighting trade or the
carrying of English merchandise in Low Dutch vessels. The evidence for this is given
fully in Chapter III and only a little needs to be added concerning Dutch shipping in the
17th and 18th centuries. (2) The intercourse on the various fishing grounds and in the
whale fisheries; the evidence for this will be found in Chapters V and VI. (3) The naval
intercourse in the numerous wars and naval fights between the two peoples.
In Chapter III it has been shown how close and continuous was the mercantile contact
at sea between English and Low Dutch up to the end of the 16th century, and this
contact was maintained during the 17th and 18th centuries. The cause of Dutch
prosperity in the 17th century was their great carrying trade. In 1609 they possessed
12,000 ships, more than three times as many as England had at that time; at the time
of the First Dutch War England was still dependent upon Dutch commerce, which had
made itself master of nearly all the carrying trade of northern and western Europe, so
that even the trade between England and France went on largely in Dutch bottoms.
The Navigation Act was aimed at this Dutch supremacy in the carrying trade, but
though it hindered in certain ways, it by no means ruined the trade, and after the
Second Dutch War the Act had to be modified by the stipulation that goods from
Germany and the southern Netherlands might henceforth be imported in Dutch
vessels. Nevertheless, by the end of the 17th century the working of the Act had put
practically all the native English import and export trade into English hands, while
England had gained a monopoly of trade with its American colonies; spices alone,
being a Dutch monopoly, were imported through connivance in Dutch ships. The
English maintained their cloth and wool staple at Dordrecht, and also exported to
Amsterdam much lead, tin, and corn, beside English colonial goods; the Scots
retained their staple at Veere and brought there coal, wool, and hides. The Dutch
could not change this, for their situation compelled them to keep on friendly terms with
the English who dominated the Channel. Their exports to England in those years were
three times less than their imports from England, but considerable smuggling must be
taken into account. The Dutch shared the Spanish and Levant trades with England
alone.

154