But we have seen, too, that the Hanseatic League and the fishing industry had from early times done much; nor were these influences yet dead. It is interesting, as showing the far-sightedness of the Hanseatics, to note that they were careful to get into their hands the entire corner of hemp, from which ropes were made. Everywhere the League had extended its tentacles as a powerful European trading combine. The market of Bruges was a place where you met all the great travellers and merchants of Europe. Every one who was any one in commerce sooner or later came here. In London they had entrenched themselves with characteristic German astuteness, and their privileges had been marvellously protected by the English sovereigns from the twelfth century. Indeed the Hanseatics became, so to speak, the Rothschilds of Europe for financing regal schemes. The Wars of the Roses and the hostilities with France were the means of making the Hanseatics very useful financially, and they got their reward in the shape of special privileges, which their depôt just above London Bridge in Thames Street enjoyed for many a year. Down to the time of Edward VI they indeed prospered exceedingly. In Portugal the League had established a factory at Lisbon, and thence they traded with the Italian commercial republics and also got a hold on the big Levantine trade. But during the reign of Elizabeth Englishmen began to realise their own strength and capabilities at sea. The defeat of the Armada, and the many fights with the Spanish and Portuguese, had given them a confidence which they had never before enjoyed. The English sailors were to justify their maritime ability not merely against the southerners, but against these very powerful and historic members of the northern league. Consequently they did not hesitate to seize sixty Hanseatic ships about to enter the Tagus with grain for the Spaniards. In 1598 the Hanseatics were turned out of England, and though they were allowed eventually to come back, and their property in the city of London was not sold until 1853, when the Cannon Street railway station was erected, yet the rise of English sea-power, expressed not merely in actual fighting, but in the maritime spirit generally, had given the ancient league its death-blow. Thereafter it merely lingered.