III
SWARMS AND WASPS' NESTS
Master Jean Vingerhout immediately engaged the young man recommended by his friend Vincent Tilbak. Jean was a jolly fellow, vigorously, solidly built, the youngest son of a well-known family of farmers of the Polders, the alluvions of the Scheldt, who, tired of farming at a loss, had bought, with the proceeds of his inheritance, a share in one of the "Nations."
The "Nations," trades unions reminiscent of the ancient Flemish guilds, shared the business of loading, unloading, stowage, cartage and warehousing of merchandise; they formed a power in the modern city upon which the most powerful merchants had to rely, for, combined, they had at their command an army of not too precise workers capable of entailing a complete paralysis of commerce and holding the power of the Municipal Council under their thumb. With them, at least, the rights of the native sons would be safeguarded; no immigrant would ever supplant the true born inhabitant of the district of Antwerp as baes, or director, or even as a simple journeyman.
The "America," the oldest and richest of these nations, into whose service Laurent had just entered,
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