Folia archeologica 13.

L. Huszár: Merchant's seals of the 16th and 17th centuries

192 L. Huszár We have little knowledge concerning the provisions in the fortresses but even the few data available disclose the fact that among other articles cloth was one of the most important. We know for instance that in Eger after the great siege in 1552 cloth had been distributed among the soldiers as a reward.

14 In 1557/58 at an inspection of the fortress of Sáros the good quality of the cloth was mentioned which had been given by the Hungarian and the court treasuries to be used for soldiers' pay.

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5 It often happened in the border fortresses that cloth brought there by merchants was distributed at a reasonable price by the commissioned officers to the soldiers as their pay. It also happened that the soldiers got an ell (somewhat less than an English yard) of cloth as their monthly pay.

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6 In general, in the course of the 16th century it became a practice more and more usual to pay the fortress soldiery in cloth.

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7 The cloth was purchased through the merchants of Vienna and other Austrian cities as well as of those at Nuremberg,

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8 and it was perhaps forwarded to the fortresses by the paymaster of the treasury at Pozsony. Hence it may be with good reason assumed that the occurrence of these medals in the fortresses is connected just with the considerable cloths supplies as closing seals of the imported cloth bales. This is even more likely when we take into consideration the important part the English cloth had been playing in European trade at that time. Prospering even in the beginning of the 16th century, German trade had lost ground with an unprecedented rapidity by the end of the same century. One of the principal causes of its decline was the breaking-up of the Hanseatic League. The inheritance of the Hanse was taken over by the Dutch and the English traders of whom especially the latter came to considerable importance during the Tudor reign. The Tudor sovereigns namely backed the export trade by important privileges.

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9 In the Middle Ages commerce was carried on in England for a considerable part by foreigners but about 1500 great changes came about in this field and the trading activity was gradually taken over by the English. A great many English ships carried in every direction the export goods and among them chiefly woollens. Foreign trade was generally carried on by merchants' associations among which great part was played by the „Merchant Adventurers". To a great extent it was due to them that English goods have gained ground in countries as the Netherlands and Germany among others. The associations had many advantages and of the bigger trading companies with special aims are to be mentioned as the more important from our point of view: the Eastland Company (founded in 1579) with its sphere of activity embracing principally Scandinavia and the Baltica countries, the Russia Com1

1 Pataki v., op. cit. 1

5 HK 7(1894) 72. 1

8 Demkő К., HK 18(1917) 194. 1

7 HK 1(1888) 424—425. 1

8 Mentioned by name: Antonius Moscau dealer in Moravian and Silesian cloth (1582), Gösswein and Rottenberg merchants in Nurenberg (1585), Hencz and Angerer merchants similarly in Nurenberg (1587), Andrew and Sylvester Joanelli from Vienna (1588), George Zolikoffer from Vienna (1588), Lucas Basinio merchant in Pettau and Wolfgang Stubenfoll merchant in Vienna (1577—1592).; Demká K., HK 18(1917) 193—198. 1

9 For the contemporary commercial conditions see: Langenbeck, If

7., Geschichte des deutschen Handels. (Leipzig 1908)