The Virginia Gazette

By a private Letter from Amsterdam we learn, that the Conferences begun at Antwerp for forming a new Tarif, have been interrupted by the Difficulties that the Demands of the Imperial Commissaries have rais'd, some of which have a strong Tendency to diminish the Subsidies given by the Emperor to the States-General, by Virtue of the Barrier Treaty, for the Maintenance of the Troops that their High Mightinesses have in Garrison in the Towns in Flanders. The Dutch Commissaries were not only surprised with these Demands, but likewise at the Haughtiness of rejecting as invalid the 115 Grievances represented by them, and at the Imperial Commissaries declaring, that his Imperial Majesty in abolishing the Ostend Company, intended one Day to make his Subjects of the Austrian Netherlands full Satisfaction for the Loss they sustained in the Suppression of that Establishment; and nothing could be more natural than that he should procure them this Satisfaction by a new Tarif.

The Commissaries of England and Holland have provisionally demanded, that an exact List of the Merchandizes which come in and go out of the Austrian Low Countries may be delivered them, with a Specification of the Customs design'd to be exacted by a new Tarif. It's foreseen that these Customs will be greatly advanc'd: and upon the Refusal of Great-Britain and the States-General to acquiesce therein, the Commissaries of the Emperor will propose this alternative, either to agree to the Stipulation of these new Customs, or to permit the Ostend Company annually to send Ships to the East-Indies.

In order to prevent the Inconveniencies that might happen from the latter Part of this Proposition, the Dutch Commissaries have Orders from the East-India Company established in Holland, to purchase the Factories of the Ostend Company, which the Emperor has undoubtedly order'd to be sold. These Factories can be of no great Advantage to the Dutch: But what most powerfully engages them to make this Purchase is, to hinder the Danes or Swedes from buying them, which would tend highly to the Prejudice of their own East-India Company. Upon this Occasion it's natural to call to Mind the large Sum of Money that was paid heretofore to the King of Prussia, for a Fort which belonged to him, call'd Arguin, upon the Coast of Africa, and that with no other View than to prevent the Navigation and Commerce of other Nations from extending itself.