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A34614 Remarks of the government of severall parts of Germanie, Denmark, Sweedland, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Hansiactique townes, but more particularly of the United Provinces with some few directions how to travell in the States dominions : together with a list of the most considerable cittyes in Europe, with the number of houses in each citty / written by Will. Carr ... Carr, William, 17th cent. 1688 (1688) Wing C636; ESTC R5052 66,960 226

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assemble and make a glorious appeareance There one may see many Knights of the order of the Elephant of Malto but I never saw any order of the like nature as that of Sweden that King rarely appearing in his George and garter but on days of publick audience I have observed at one time above 150 coaches attending at the Court of Denmark which are ten times more than ever I saw together at that of Sweden The King is affable and of easy accels to strangers seen often abroad by his subjects in his gardens and stables which are very large and well furnished with all sorts of Horses He is a great lover of English horses and dogs and delights much in Hunting as his eldest son the Prince with his brothers doe in cockfighting in so much that the English Merchants can not make a more acceptable present to those Princes then of English game-cocks The standing forces of Denmark are well disciplined men and commanded by good Officers both natives and strangers both French and Scots as Major General Duncan and Major General Veldun both Scottishmen whom I saw at Copenhaguen The Soldiers aswell as courtiers are quartered upon the citizens a custome which is likewise practised in Sweden and tho somewhat uneasy yet not repined at by the people who by the care and good government of the King find trade much advanced For his Majestie by encouraging strangers of all religions to live in his dominions and allowing the French and dutch Calvinists to have publick Churches hath brought many tradeing families to Coppenhaguen and by the measure he hath taken for settling trade in prohibiting the importation of forreigne manufactures and reforming and new modelling the East and West India Companies hath much encreased commerce and thereby the wealth of his subjects so that notwithstanding the new taxes imposed upon all coaches waggons Ploughs and all reall and personall estates which amount to considerable summs of money the people live very well and contented There are commonly about eight thousand men in garison in Coppenhaguen and his Majesties Regiment of foot guards who are all cloathed in red with cloaks to keep them warm in the winter time is a very handsome body of men and with the horse guards who are bravely mounted and have their granadeers and Hoboyes make a very fine shew His Majestie hath caused severall new fortifications to be built upon the Elb and other rivers and hath now in his possession that strong Castle called Hilgueland at present commanded by a Scottishman The Queen of Denmark is a most virtuous Princess sister to the present Landgrave of Hessel-Cassel and in persuasion a Calvinist having a chappell allowed her within the Court though the publick religion of the King and Kingdome be Lutheran The Clergie here are learned many of them having studied at Oxford and Cambridge where they learnt the English Language and amongst the Bishops there is one Doctor King the son of a Scottishman But seing it is my designe rather to observe the condition of the people then to be punctuall in describing all the rarities that are remarkeable in the Countries I have been in I shall conclude what I have to say of Denmark by acquainting the Reader that the people of that Countrey live far better then the Swedes and aswell as most of their adjoyning neighbours and that there are severall places both there and in Norway which have the names of English towns as Arundale Totness London c. When I fist began to write this treatise I had some thoughts of making observations upon the severall governments of other States and Dominions where I had travelled some years before I was in the Countries I have been speaking of as of the rest of Germany Hungary Switzerland Italy and France but that was a subject so large and the usefulness of it to my present designe so inconsiderable that by doeing so I found I could neither satisfie the curious by adding any thing materiall to those many who have already obliged the publick by the remarks of their travells in those places or make my discontented Countrey men more averse then they are already from removing into those Countries where I think few of them will chuse to transport themselves for the sake of liberty and Propertie tho England were even worse than they themselves fancy it can be All that remains to be done then is to conclude this treatise with an obvious and popular remark that those Countries where cities are greatest and most frequented by voluntary inhabitants are alwayes the best to live in and by comparing the city of London with all other cities of Europe and demonstrating by the surveys I have made which I think will hardly be contradicted or confuted that of all the capitall cities of Europe it is the biggest and most populous so prove consequentially that England for the generality of people is the best Countrey in the world especially for its natives to live in Now this being an observation for what I know not hitherto made good by induction and instance as I intend to doe it I hope it will please the Reader as much as if I gave him a particular account of other Countreys and governments and leave it to his own reflexion to State the comparison Though London within the walls cannot vie for bigness with many cities of Europe yet take the city and suburbs together according as it hath been surveyed by Mr. Morgan in breadth from St. Georges Church in Southwarke to Shore ditch and in length from Limehouse to petty France in Westminster and it is in a vast proportion larger in compass of ground and number of houses then any city whatsoever in Europe This I shall demonstrate first by compareing it with some cities of Holland and then with the most considerable cities of the other Countries of Europe which I shall set down in an alphabeticall order with the number of the houses they severally contain When London and suburbs was surveyed some years agoe by Mr. Morgan there were reckoned to be in it 84000 houses besides hospitalls Almeshouses and other buildings that payed no chimney money to the King Now if those were added and the vast number of new houses that have been built since that survey upon modest computation London may be reckoned to countain 100000 houses I know the French doe vapour and would perswade the world that Paris is much bigger then London And the Hollanders will scarce believe that London hath more Houses then the 18 Cittyes in Holland that have voyces in the States for say they Amsterdam Stands upon a 1000 Morgens land and London Stands but upon 1800 To both which I answer that it is very true that Paris takes up a great spot of ground but then you must consider that in Paris there are severall hundreds of Monasteries Churches Coledges and Cloysters some of them haveing large Gardens and that in Paris there are 7500 Palaces and Ports for Coaches
his place This custome is Religiously observed by all his highnesses garrisons whilest he himself with his Children being five sons two Daughters and two Daughters in law goe constantly to the Calvinist Church adjoyning to the Court. Amongst other acts of publick pietie and charitie this Prince hath established and endowed some Religious houses or Nunneries for Protestant young ladies where they may live virtuously and spend their time in devotion as long as they please or otherwise marry if they think fit but then they lose the benefit of the Monastery There is one of these at Herford in Westphalia where I was and had the honour to wait upon the Lady Abbess the Princess Elisabeth eldest sister of the Elector Palatine and Prince Rupert who is since dead Notwithstanding the late wars with Sweden and that by the prevalency of France in that hasty treaty of peace concluded at Nimwegen his Electorall Highness was obliged to give back what he had Justly taken from that crown yet his subjects flourish in wealth and trade his highness having encouraged manufactures of all sorts by inviting Artizans into his dominions and estalished a Company of tradeing Merchants to the West-Indies which will much advance navigation amongst his subjects And in all humane probabilitie they are like to continue in a happy condition seing by the alliances his highness hath made with the Protestant Princes of the Empire and especially the house of Lunenbourg they are in no danger of being disturbed by their neighbours I told you before that the Prince of Brandenbourg was married to the Daughter of the duke of Hanover so that so long as that alliance holds the families of Brandenbourg and Lunenbourg will be in a condition to cast the ballance of the Empire they both together being able to bring into the field 80000 as good men as any are in Europe When I parted from Berlin I made a turn back to Lunenbourg in my way to Swedland where I found severall of my Countrey men Officers in the garison who shew'd mee what was most remarkeable in the city as the Saltworks which bring in considerable summes of money to the duke of Lunenbourg the Stathouse and Churches in one of which I saw a communion table of pure ducat gold From thence I went into the Province of of Holstein and at a small sea port called Termond of which I spake before I embarked for Sweden He that hath read in the histories of this last age the great exploits of Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes perhaps may have a fancy that it must be an excellent Countrey which hath bredsuch warriours but if he approach it he will soon find himself undeceived Entering into Sweedland at a place called Landsort wee sailed forwards amongst high rocks having no other prospect from Land but mountains till wee came to Dollers which is about four Swedish that is twenty four English miles from Stockholm the capitall citie of the Kingdome upon my comeing a shore I confess I was a litle surprised to see the poverty of the people and the litle wooden houses they lived in not unlike Soldiers huts in a leaguer but much more when I discovered litle else in the Countrey but mountanous rocks and standing lakes of water The Reader will excuse mee I hope if I remarke not all that I may have taken notice of in this Countrey seing by what I have already written he may perceive that my designe is rather to observe the manner of the inhabitants living then to give a full description of every thing that may be seen in the Countrey they live in However I shall say somewhat of that too having premised once for all that the ordinary people are wretchedly poor yet not so much occasioned by the Publick taxes as the barrenness of their Countrey and the oppression of the nobles their Landlords and immediate superiours who till the present King put a stop to their violences tyrannically domineered over the lives and fortunes of the poor peasants From Dollers I took waggon to Stockholm changing horses three times by the way by reason of the badness of the rode on all hands environed with rocks that hardly open so much as here and there to leave a shred of plain ground At two miles distance upon that rode the citie of Stockholme looks great becaus of the Kings palace the houses of Noblemen and some Churches which are seated upon rocks and indeed the whole citie and suburbs stand upon rocks unless it be some few houses built upon ground gained from the rivers that run throw the town Stockholme has its name from a stock or logg of wood which three brothers threw into the water five miles above the city making a vow that where ever that stock should stop they would build a castle to dwell in The stock stopt at the Holme or rock where the palace of the King now stands and the brothers to be as good as their word there built their castle which invited others to doe the like so that in process of time the other rocks or holmes were covered with buildings which at length became the capital citie of the Kingdome It is now embellished with a great many Stately houses and much emproved from what it was 4●0 yeares agoe as indeed most cities are for the Stathouse then built is so contemtible and low that in Holland or England it would not be suffered to stand to disgrace the nation The Council Chamber where the Burgemaster and Raedt sit is two rooms cast into one not above nine foot high and the two rooms where the sheriffs and the Erve colledge which is a Judicature like to the Doctors Commons in England sit are not above eight foot and a halfe high The Kings Palace is a large square of stone building in some places very high but an old and irregular fabrick without a sufficient quantitie of ground about it for gardens and walks It was anciently surrounded with water but some yeares since part of it was filled up to make a way from the castlegate down into the old town In this Palace there are large rooms but the lodgings of the King Queen and Royall familie are three pair of stairs high the rooms in the first and second story 's being destin'd for the Senat Chamber and other courts of Judicature The Kings library is four pair of stairs high being a room about fourty six foot square with a closet adjoyning to it not half the dimensions When I considered the appartments and furniture of this Court I began to think that the French Author wrote truth who in his Remarks upon Swedland sayes that when Queen Christina resigned the Crown to Carolus Gustaphus the father of this present King she disposed of the best of the furniture of the Court and gave away a large share of the Crown lands to her favorites in so much that the King considering the poor condition she had left the Kingdome in and seeing the Court
contemptible that the libraries of many Grammar Schools and of privat men in England or Holland are far better stored with books then it is Upon viewing of it and that of the Kings Palace I called to mind the saying of a French man upon the like occasion That Swedland came behind France and England in the knowledge of men and things at least 800 yeares yet some Swedes have been so conceited of the antiquity of their Countrey as to bragg that Paradice was seated in Sweden that the Countrey was turned into such heaps of rocks for the rebellion of our first parents and that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel in a Countrey three Swedish miles distant from Vpsall A French man standing by and hearing this Romantick story as I was told fitted him with the like telling him that when the world was made in six days at the end of the creation all the Rubbish that remained was throw'n together into a corner which made up Sweden and Norway And indeed the French seeme to have no great likeing to the Countrey what ever kindness they may have for the people for a French Ambassadour as an author of that Countrey relates being by order of Queen Christina treated in a Countrey house 4 Swedish miles from Stockholme and upon the rode goeing and comeing with all the varieties and pleasures that the Countrey could affoard on purpose to make him have a good opinion of the same made answere to the Queen who asked him upon his return what he thought of Sweden that were he master of the whole Countrey he would presently sell it buy a farme in France or England which under favour I think was a litle tart and sawcy Having stayed a considerable time in Swedland and most part at Stockholme I set out from thence to goe to Elsenbourg by land and went a litle out of my way to see a small city called Eubrone famous for a coat of Arms which it got in this manner A certain Masculine Queen of Denmark who had conquered a great part of Sweden comeing to this city asked the Magistrates what was the Arms of their city who having told her that they had none she plucked up her coats and squatting upon the Snow bid them take the marke she left there for their Arms It 's pity she did not give them a suitable motto to it also What that figure is called in blazonerie I know not but to this day the city uses it in their Armes and for marking their commodities This Queen came purposely into Sweden to pay a visit to a brave woman that opposed a King of Swedland who in a time of famine would have put to death all the men and women in his Countrey above sixty years of age The Countrey all the way I travelled in Swedland is much of the same qualitie of the land about Stockholme untill I came neare the Province of Schonen which is called the store house and Kitchin of Sweden where the Countrey is far better It was formerly very dangerous to travell in this Province of Schonen becaus of the Snaphances who were a kind of bloody robbers now utterly destroyed by the King so that it is safe enough travelling there Entering into Schonen I saw twenty nine of these rogues upon wheeles and elsewhere in the Countrey ten and twenty at severall places The King used great severitie in destroying of them some he caused to be broken upon the wheele others speeted in at the fundament and out at the shoulders many had the flesh pinched off of there breasts and so were fastened to stakes till they died and others again had their noses and both hands cut off and being seared with a hot Iron were let goe to acquaint their camerades how they had been served The King is very severe against Highway-men and duellers In above a hundred miles travelling wee found not a house where there was either French wine or brandie which made mee tell a Swede of our Company who was travelling to Denmark that I would undertake to shew any man 500 houses wherein a traveller might have wine and other good accommodation in the space of an hundred miles upon any rode from London There are severall small towns and fertile land in this Countrey of Schonen lying upon the Sound at the narrowest part whereof lies Elsenbourg burnt down by the Danes in the last war Here I crost over to Elsenore the passage being but a league broad The King of Denmark has a castle at Elsenore which commands the narrow passage of the Sound where all Ships that enter into or come out of the Baltick sea must pay toll Having visited this castle and stai'd about a fortnight with the English Consul and Sr. John Paul late resident at the Court of Swedland I went to the danish Court at Coppenhaguen Copenhaguen is the capitall city of Zeeland Jutland or Denmark and place of residence of the King It stands on a flat encompassed with a pleasant and delightfull Countrey much resembling England The streets of the city are kept very neat and cleane with lights in the night time for the convenience and safetie of those who are then abroad a custome not as yet introduced into Stockholme where it is dangerous to be abroad when it is dark The Kings men of war lye here very conveniently being orderly ranged betwixt Booms after the manner of Amsterdam and neare the Admiralty house which is a large pile of building well furnished with stores and Magazines secured by a citadell that not onely commands the city but also the Haven and entrey into it The Court of Denmark is splendid and makes a far greater figure in the world then that of Sweden tho not many yeares agoe in the time of Carolus Gustaphus the father of the present King of Swedland it was almost reduced to its last when the walls of Copenhagen saved that Crown and Kingdome That siege was famous caried on with great vigour by the Swede and as bravely maintained by the Danes The monuments whereof are to be seen in the canon bullets gilt that still remain in the walls of some houses and in the steeple of the great Church of the town The Royall palace in Copenhaguen is but small and a very ancient building but his Majesties house Fredenburg is a stately fabrick of Modern Architecture and very richly furnished Denmark is at present a flourishing Kingdome and the King who hath now made it hereditary surpasses most of his predecessours in power and wealth He hath much enlarged his dominions aswell as Authority and by his personall and Royall virtues no less then the eminent qualities of a great many able ministers of State he hath gained the universall love of his subjects and the esteeme of all forreigne Princes and States The Court if much frequented every day but especially on Sundays where about eleven of the clock in the morning the Nobility forreigne Ministers and Officers of the Army
virtue and parts die neglected and poor in the eyes of the world though rich in the enioyment of a contented mind But this is a digression which the honour I have for the memory of that great man hath led mee into and therefore I hope will be pardoned by the Reader In the citadel of Manheim I saw some of the Records of that illustrious familie which without dispute is the most ancient of all the Secular Electors being elder to that of Bavaria which sprung from one and the same stock to wit two Emperours of Germany Many writers derive them originally from Charle le maigne by the line of Pepin King of France There have been severall Emperours of that race one King of Denmark and four Kings of Sweden one of which was King of Norway also besides many great Generals of Armies in Germany Hungary France and other Countries Since I can remember there vere five Protestant Princes heires to that Electorall dignity alive which now by their death is fallen to the Duke of Nowbourg a Roman Catholick whose Daughter is Empress of Germany and another of his Daughters maryed to the King of Portugall Being so neare Strasbourg I had the curiositie to goe see what figure that famous citie now made since it had changed its master for I had been thrice there before when it flourished under the Emperours protection with the liberty of a Hausiatick town And Indeed I found it so disfigured that had it not been for the stately Cathedrall Church and fair streets and buildings I could scarcely have know'n it In the streets and Exchange which formerly were thronged with sober rich and peaceable Merchants you meet with none hardly now but men in buff Coats and scarffs with rabbles of Soldiers their attendants The churches I confess are gayer but not so much frequented by the inhabitants as heretofore seing the Lutherans are thrust into the meanest churches and most of the chiefe Merchants both Lutherans and Calvinists removed to Holland and Hambourg Within a few years I beleeve it will be just such another city for trade and Richess as Brisac is It was formerly a rich city and well stockt with Merchants and wealthy inhabitants who lived under a gentle and easy government but now the Magistrats have litle else to doe in the government but onely to take their rules and measures from a citadell and great guns which are Edicts that Merchants least understand I confess Strasbourg is the less to be pityed that it so tamely became a slave and put on its chains without any strugling Those Magistrats who were instruments in it are now sensible of their own folly and bite their nails for anger finding themselves no better but rather worse hated than the other Magistrats who did what they could to hinder the reception of their new masters the French. I quickly grew weary of being here meeting with nothing but complaints of poverty and paying exorbitant taxes I therefore soon returned to my Petty-London Francfort and from thence went to Cassells the chiefe residence of the Landgrave of Hessen This Prince is a Calvinist as most of his subjects are very grave and Zealous in his religion He married a Princess of Courland by whom he hath an hopefull issue to wit three sons and two Daughters The late King was God father to one of his sons who was Christened by the name of Charles Captain William Legg Brother to the Lord Dartmouth representing his Majestie as his Envoy The court of this Prince does indeed resemble a well governed colledge or Religious Cloyster in regard of its modestie and regularitie in all things and especially in the houres of devotion He is rich in money and entertains about nine thousand men in constant pay under the command of Count van derlipp a brave and expert Soldier his Lieutenant Generall but can bring many more upon occasion into field This familie hath been very happy both in its progenie and alliances many wise Princes of both sexes having sprung from it and the mother of this present Landgrave may be reckoned amongst the illustrious women of the present and past ages After the death of William the 5. Landgrave of Hessen her husband she not only supported but advanced the war wherein he was engaged did many signall actions Enlarged her territories and at the conclusion of the peace kept under her pay 56 Cornets of horse in five Regiments 166 Companies of foot besides thirteen Companies of Dragons and 14 independent Companies in all 249 Companies of horse and foot she was a Princess extreamly obliging to strangers especially virtuous and learned divines I had the honour a good many yeares agoe to kisse her highnesses hand at which time she was mighty Zealous in promoting an accommodation amongst different Religions as the Roman Catholick Lutheran and Calvinist but especially betwixt the two latter and therefore entertained Doctor Duris at her court in Cassels who wrote severall pieces upon that subject of reconciliation and with some of his friends had a conference with a learned priest that came from Rome to forward the project whereupon the Doctor published his book of the Harmoney of Consent which is highly esteemed in Germany From this Princes court I directed my journey to Hanover taking Lambspring in my way a place where there is a convent of English Monks and there I met with a very aged worthy and harmeless Gentleman St. Thomas Gascoigue a Person of more integrity and pietie then to be guilty so much as in thought of what miscreants falsly swore against him in the licentions time of plotting the Lord Abbot and severall of the Monks I had seen there formerly This monastery is very obliging to all strangers that travell that way as well as to theire own Countreymen and is highly respected by the neighbouring Princes of all persuasions as the Princes of the house of Lunenburg the Landgrave of Hessen and Elector of Cologne who as Bishop of Hildersheim is their ordinary The town of Lambspring is Lutheran though under the government of the Lord Abbot and his chapter who constantly choose Lutheran Magistrats and Officers for the civill administration and live together in that love and unitie that as yet there hath never the least debate happened amongst them and indeed this harmoney is now to be observed in most parts of Germany where different Religions are professed When I considered so many goodly faces both of Monks and students in that Abbey I could not forbeare to make a serious reflexion on the number of the English whom I had seen in the colledges and Cloysters abroad as at Rome Rattesbonne Wirtzburg in Lorraine at Liege Louvain Brussels Dunkerk Ghent Paris and other places besides the severall Nunneries and withall on the loss that both King and Kingdome suffered thereby when so many of our natives both men and women should be constrained to spend their own Estats and the benevolence of others in a strange Land which amounts
so meanely furnished said that had he know'n before he accepted the Crown what then he did he would have taken other measures There are many other Stately palaces in Stockholme belonging to the nobilitie but many of them for want of repairs and not being inhabited run to ruine severall of the nobles who lived in them formerly having lost the estates that maintained their ancient splendour as wee shall see hereafter being retired unto a Countrey life There are also some other magnificent structures begun but not finished as that Stately building intended for a Parliament house for the nobles and two or three Churches but what I most wonder at is the vault wherein the late King lies buried is not as yet covered but with boards for it is to he observed that the Kings of Sweeden have no tombs and monuments as in England and other Countries but are put into copper coffins with inscriptions on them and placed one by another in vaults adjoyning to the Gray Friers Church These vaults are about Eight in number having turets over them with vains of Copper gilt carved into the ciphers of the severall Kings who give them their names by being the first that are interred in them The vault of the late King is not yet finished no more then the fabricks above mentioned which perhaps may be imputed to the late troubles of Swedland The number of the inhabitants of Stockholme are also much decreased within these few yeares partly by reason of the removal of the Court of Admiraltie and the Kings Ships from that citie to Charles-crown a new haven lately made about 200 English miles from thence which hath draw'n many families belonging to the fleet and Admiralitie from Stockholme to live there and partly becaus many of the nobilitie gentry and those that depended on them are as I said before withdraw'n from Stockholme to a retired life in the Countrey Nevertheless the ordinary sort of Bourghers who still remain are extreamly poor seing the women are fain to worke like horses drawing carts and as labourers in England serving masons and bricklayers with stone bricks and mortar and unloading vessells that bring those materials some of the poor creatures in the summertime toyling in their smocks without either shoes or stockings They performe also the part of watermen and for a small matter will row passengers 40 miles or more if they please The Court here is very thin and silent the King living frugally seldome dining in publick He eats commonly with the two Queens his mother and consort who is a virtuous Princess sister to the King of Denmark She is the mother of five Children three sons and two daughters with whom she spends most of her time in retirement The King is a goodly Prince whom God hath blessed and endowed with accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his education wherein he was extreamly abused being taught litle more than his mother tongue He is gracious Just and valiant constant at his devotion and utterly averse from all kind of debauchery and the unfashionable vanities of other courts in playes and danceing His Sports are hunting and exerciseing of his guards and he rarely appeares publickly or gives audience to strangers which is imputed to his sense of the neglect of his education He is a Prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the world which hath many times proved fortunate to great men and indeed if wee consider all the circumstances of his early misfortunes how he was slighted and neglected by his nobles who would hardly vouchsafe to pay him a visit when he was among them in the Countrey or to doe him homage for the lands they held of the Crown and how by the Pernicious councels of the French and the weakeness or treachery of his governours he was misled into a war that almost cost him his Crown having lost the best of his territories in Germany and Schonen and most of his forces both by sea and land If I say these things be considered it will probably appeare that hardly any Prince before him hath in a shorter time or more fully setled the Authority and prerogative of the Crown then he hath done in Sweden for which he stands no wayes obliged to France as he was for the restauration of what he lost during the war. He is now as absolute as the French King and makes Edicts which have the force of Laws with out the concurrence of the Estates of the Kingdome He hath erected two Iudicatures the one called the colledge of Reduction and the other of inspections the first of which hath put his Majesty in possession again of all lands alienated from the Crown and the other called to account all persons even the heires and executors of those who had cheated the Crown and made them refound what they or their predecessors had appropriated to their own use of the Publick revenue These two necessary constitutions as they have reduced many great families to a pinch who formerly lived splendidly upon the Crown lands and revenues and obliged them to live at home upon their ancient and private Patrimonie in the Countrey which is one great cause that the Court of Sweden is at present so unfrequented so have they enabled his Majestie without burdening of his subjects to support the Charges of the government and to maintain 64000 men in pay The truth is his other Renues are but small seing Queen Christina enjoys the best of his territories as her allowance and that what arises from the Copper and Iron mines one Silver mine the Pitch and Tar the customes and excise amounts to no extraordinary summ of money the land tax in so barren a Countrey scarcely deserving to be named The customes and excise I confess are very high and the rigorous manner of exacting them pernicious to trade as for instance I● a ship come to Stockholme from London with a hundred severall sorts of goods and those goods assigned to fifty several men more or less if any of those fifty doe not pay the custome of what belongs to him though it be for a barrel of Beer the Ship shall not be unladen nor no man have his goods out though he hath fully payed the customes for them till this last man hath payed his There are severall other silly customes in Swedland that discourages men from tradeing there as if any stranger die there a third of his Estate must goe to the city or town where he traded No forreigne Merchant in Stockholm can travell into any Countrey where there is a faire without a passport and at present seing there is no treaty of trade betwixt England and Sweden though the English bring as considerable a trade to that Kingdome as any other Countrey whatsoever yet they are very unkindly used by the Officers of the custome house whereas the Dutch in Lubeck and other cities have new and greater Priviledges allowed them Nor would I Counsel an Englishman