Then he asked permission to make a digression, and being greeted with cries of “Go on!” from all sides, began in brief, clear sentences to show how the commerce of Nuremberg from small beginnings had reached its present prosperity.  Instead of the timid, irregular exchange of goods as far as the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube, regular intercourse with Venice, Milan, Genoa, Bohemia, and Hungary, Flanders, Brabant, and the coast of the Baltic had commenced.  Trade with the Italian cities, and through them, even with the Levant, had made its first successful opening under the Hohenstaufen rule; but during the evil days when the foreign monarchs had neglected Germany and her welfare, it sustained the most serious losses.  By the election of Rudolph of Hapsburg who, with vigour, good-will, and intelligence, had devoted his attention to the security of commerce in the countries over which he reigned, better days for the merchant had returned, and it was very evident what his work required, what injured and robbed it of its well-earned reward.  Confidence at home and abroad was the foundation of prosperity, not alone of the Nuremberg merchant but of trade in general.  Under the Hohenstaufen rule their upright ancestors had so strengthened this confidence that wherever he went the Nuremberg merchant received respect and confidence above many—­ perhaps all others.  The insecurity of the roads and of justice in the lawless times before the election of the Hapsburgs might have impaired this great blessing; but since Rudolph had wielded the sceptre with virile energy, made commerce secure, and administered justice, confidence had also returned, and to maintain it no sacrifice should be too great.  As for him, Berthold Vorchtel, he would not spare himself, and if he expected the city to imitate him he would know how to answer for it.

Here he was interrupted by loud shouts of applause; but, without heeding them, he quietly went on:  “And it is necessary to secure confidence in the Nuremberg merchant in two directions:  his honesty and the capital at his command.  Our business friends, far and near, must be permitted to continue to rely upon our trustworthiness as firmly as upon rock and iron.  If we brought the arrogant Italian to say of us that, amongst the German cities who were blind, Nuremberg was the one-eyed, we ought now to force them to number us amongst those who see with both eyes, the honest, trust-inspiring blue eyes of the German.  But to attain this goal we need the imperial protection, the watchful power of a great and friendly ruler.  The progress which our trade owed to the Hohenstaufen proves this; the years without an Emperor, on the contrary, showed what threatens our commerce as soon as we lack this aid.  Rights and privileges from sovereigns smoothed the paths in which we have surpassed others.  To obtain new and more important ones must be our object.  From the first Reichstag which the Emperor Rudolph held here, he has shown that he esteems us and believes