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BOOK

I.

Revival of

commerce

tion in Eu

rope.

ages capable of comprehending and of perfect. ing them.

By degrees, the calamities and defolation and naviga- brought upon the western provinces of the Ro man empire by its barbarous conquerors, were forgotten, and in fome measure repaired. The rude tribes which fettled there, acquiring infenfibly fome idea of regular government, and fome relifh for the functions and comforts of civil life, Europe began to awake from its torpid and unactive ftate. The first symptoms of revival were difcerned in Italy. The northern tribes which took poffeffion of this country, made progrefs in improvement with greater rapidity than the people fettled in other parts of Europe. Various caufes, which it is not the object of this work to enumerate or explain, concurred in reftoring liberty and independence to the cities of Italy. The acquifition of these roufed induftry, and gave motion and vigour to all the active powers of the human mind. Foreign commerce revived, navigation was attended to and improved. Conftantinople became the chief mart to which the Italians reforted. There they not only met with a favourable reception, but obtained fuch mercan

*Hift. of Charles V. vol. i. p. 33.

I.

tile privileges as enabled them to carry on trade BOOK with great advantage. They were supplied both with the precious commodities of the east, and with many curious manufactures, the product of ancient arts and ingenuity which still fubfifted among the Greeks. the Greeks. As the labour and expence of conveying the productions of India to Conftantinople by that long and indirect course which I have defcribed, rendered them extreinely rare, and of an exorbitant price, the industry of the Italians difcovered other methods of procuring them in greater abundance, and at an easier rate, They fometimes purchafed them in Aleppo, Tripoli, and other ports on the coaft of Syria, to which they were brought by a route not unknown to the ancients. They were conveyed from India by fea, up the Perfian Gulf, and afcending the Euphrates and Tigris, as far as Bagdat, were carried by land across the Desert of Palmyra, and from thence to the towns on the Mediterranean. But from the length of the journey, and the dangers to which the caravans were expofed, this proved always a tedious, and often a precarious mode of conveyance. At length, the Soldans of Egypt, having revived the commerce with India in its ancient channel, by the Arabian Gulf, the Italian merchants, notwithstanding the vio lent antipathy to each other with which Christ

BOOK ians and the followers of Mahomet were then

I.

Their pro

greis fà.

voured by the Cru

fades;

poffeffed, repaired to Alexandria, and enduring, from the love of gain, the infolence and exactions of the Mahometans, established a lucrative trade in that port. From that period, the commercial spirit of Italy became active and enter. prifing. Venice, Genoa, Pifa, rose from inconfiderable towns, to be populous and wealthy cities. Their naval power increased; their veffels frequented not only all the ports in the Mediterranean, but venturing fometimes beyond the Streights, vifited the maritime towns of Spain, France, the Low Countries, and England; and, by diftributing their commodities over Europe, began to communicate to its various nations fome taste for the valuable productions of the Eaft, as well as fome ideas of manufactures and arts, which were then unknown beyond the precincts of Italy.

WHILE the cities of Italy were thus advancing in their career of improvement, an event happened, the most extraordinary perhaps in the history of mankind, which, instead of retarding the commercial progrefs of the Italians, rendered

more rapid. The martial spirit of the Europeans, heightened and inflamed by religious zeal, prompted them to attempt the deliverance of the Holy Land from the dominion of infidels. Vast

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1.

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armies, composed of all the nations in Europe, BOOK marched, towards Afia, upon this wild enterprife. The Genoefe, the Pifans, and Venetians, furnished the transports which carried them thither. They fupplied them with provifions and military stores. Beside the immenfe fums which they received on this account, they ob. tained commercial privileges and establish ments, of great confequence in the fettlements which the Crusaders made in Palestine, and in other provinces of Afia. From those fources, prodigious wealth flowed into the cities which I have mentioned. This was accompanied with a proportional increase of power, and by the end of the Holy War, Venice, in particular, became a great maritime ftate, poffeffing an extenfive commerce, and ample territories'. Italy was not the only country in which the Crufades contributed to revive and diffuse such a spirit as prepared Europe for future difcoveries. By their expeditions into Afia, the other European nations became well acquainted with remote regions, which formerly they knew only by name, or by the reports of ignorant and credu lous pilgrims. They had an opportunity of observing the manners, the arts, and the accommodations of people more polished than

Effai de l'Hiftoire du Commerce de Venife, p. 52, &c.

themselves.

BOOK themselves. This intercourfe between the eaft

I.

by the difcoveries of travellers by jand,

and weft fubfifted almost two centuries. The adventurers, who returned from Afia, communicated to their countrymen the ideas which they had ac quired, and the habits of life they had contracted by visiting more refined nations. The Europeans began to be fenfible of wants with which they were formerly unacquainted: new defires were excited; and fuch a tafte for the commodities and arts of other countries gradually spread among them, that they not only encouraged the refort of foreigners to their harbours, but began to perceive the advantage and neceffity of applying to commerce themfelves ".

THIS Communication, which was opened be tween Europe and the western provinces of Afia, encouraged feveral perfons to advance far beyond the countries in which the Crufaders carried on their operations, and to travel by land into the more remote and opulent regions of the east. The wild fanaticifm, which feems at that period to have mingled in all the schemes of individuals, no less than in all the counfels of nations, first incited men to enter upon those long and dangerous peregrinations. They were afterwards undertaken from profpects of commercial ad

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