Parvus sed bene cultus ager.
As those Athenian, Lacedaemonian, Arcadian, Aelian, Sycionian,
Messenian, &c. commonwealths of Greece make ample proof, as those
imperial cities and free states of Germany may witness, those Cantons
of Switzers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscany, Luke and
Senes of old, Piedmont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Ragusa, &c.
That prince therefore as, [555]Boterus adviseth, that will have a rich
country, and fair cities, let him get good trades, privileges, painful
inhabitants, artificers, and suffer no rude matter unwrought, as tin,
iron, wool, lead, &c., to be transported out of his country,—[556]a
thing in part seriously attempted amongst us, but not effected. And
because industry of men, and multitude of trade so much avails to the
ornament and enriching of a kingdom; those ancient [557]Massilians
would admit no man into their city that had not some trade. Selym the
first Turkish emperor procured a thousand good artificers to be brought
from Tauris to Constantinople. The Polanders indented with Henry Duke
of Anjou, their new chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families
of artificers into Poland. James the first in Scotland (as
[558]Buchanan writes) sent for the best artificers he could get in
Europe, and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects their several
trades. Edward the Third, our most renowned king, to his eternal
memory, brought clothing first into this island, transporting some
families of artificers from Gaunt hither. How many goodly cities could
I reckon up, that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands of
inhabitants live singular well by their fingers' ends: As Florence in
Italy by making cloth of gold; great Milan by silk, and all curious
works; Arras in Artois by those fair hangings; many cities in Spain,
many in France, Germany, have none other maintenance, especially those
within the land. [559]Mecca, in Arabia Petraea, stands in a most
unfruitful country, that wants water, amongst the rocks (as Vertomannus
describes it), and yet it is a most elegant and pleasant city, by
reason of the traffic of the east and west. Ormus in Persia is a most
famous mart-town, hath nought else but the opportunity of the haven to
make it flourish. Corinth, a noble city (Lumen Greciae, Tully calls it)
the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and Lecheus, those excellent
ports, drew all that traffic of the Ionian and Aegean seas to it; and
yet the country about it was curva et superciliosa, as [560]Strabo
terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say the same of Athens, Actium,
Thebes, Sparta, and most of those towns in Greece. Nuremberg in Germany
is sited in a most barren soil, yet a noble imperial city, by the sole
industry of artificers, and cunning trades, they draw the riches of
most countries to them, so expert in manufactures, that as Sallust long
since gave out of the like, Sedem animae in extremis digitis habent,
their soul, or intellectus agens, was placed in their fingers' end; and
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