Folia archeologica 13.
L. Huszár: Merchant's seals of the 16th and 17th centuries
Merchant's seals of the 16th and 17th centuries 193 pany which displayed its activity in the direction of Russia, and finally the Levant Company with its trade directed towards the Mediterranean. These companies supplied the world with British products of which cloth, of course, remained the principal export article. 2 0 In the 16th century the English merchants glutted with English cloth not only the German ports but even the inland markets. In spite of the declining German trade a few towns in Germany still were able to keep, their significant position in the trade owing to their central situation. Thus Hamburg acted as the principal intermediary in the German —English trade, and Breslau played an important part from our point of view as it was lying at the iunction of the trade routes to the Vistula (Krakow) and to the Danube (Vienna). Finally Nuremberg may be pointed out as being crossed by the trade route from Venice to the region around the Elbe and on the other hand, by the route connecting the Danube and the Rhine. So Nuremberg became an important intermediate centre of the international trade also for the Danubian towns (Regensburg, Passau, Vienna). The knowledge of the trade routes and centres makes it obvious why the sources known to us mention in connection with the cloth provisions alove all the cloth merchants in Vienna and Nuremberg. It was obviously English cloth, known all over the Continent, that found its way through the merchants of Nuremberg and Vienna to our fortresses for the supply of the soldiery. Thus it may be assumed with great probability that our medals were in connection with this cloth import in the way of using them as closing seals or lead seals attached to the delivered bales. This presumption arrived at by mere deductions appears to be strikingly borne out by the medal n° 13 found in Túrkeve or rather by the imprint of a coarse woven fabric visible on its reverse. Obviously, the reverse of the medal had touched the material of the cloth bale and so came about the imprint now mentioned. In the present case, as all the circumstantial facts indicate that the medals had probably been closing seals on cloth bales, this material proof, in our opinion, has decisive weight as to the rightness of our presumption. The English research so far as it has dealt with this modest material of archaeological finds agrees with our above conception. 2 1 We are confirmed in our opinion also by the specimens excavated in USSR which had got there probably in a similar manner through the Russia Company. It still remains as an open question whether the medals found in Hungary at places which had been under Turkish occupation (Buda, Békés, Túrkeve), have got there from the West or whether they are connected with the trading activity of the Levant Company. As to the place of production of these medals, the English hold the problem as undecided. In their opinion the medals were undoubtedly closing seals, chiefly for cloth bales but they had not been made in England. For supporting this opinion one of the principal arguments is that such medals have 2 0 For the history of the English commerce see: Day, C., A History of Commerce. (New York 1925) and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. VI. 110. ' 8 1 At our request Mr. Allan Jay kindly make inquiries about this matter and for his kindness we desire to express our sincere appreciation. In the opinion of Mr. Thompson, too, the medals served such a purpose. 13 Folia Archaeologica
