an

ftructive rage. In that city, the knowledge of BOOK cient arts and discoveries was preserved; a tafte for fplendour and elegance fubfifted; the productions and luxuries of foreign countries were in request; and commerce continued to flourish there, when it was almoft extinct in every other part of Europe. The citizens of Conftantinople did not confine their trade to the islands of the Archipelago, or to the adjacent coafts of Afia; they took a wider range, and following the courfe which the ancients had marked out, imported the commodities of the Eaft Indies from Alexandria. When Egypt was torn from the Roman empire by the Arabians, the industry of the Greeks discovered a new channel, by which the productions of India might be conveyed to Conftantinople. They were carried up the Indus, as far as that great river is navigable; thence they were tranfported by land to the banks of the river Oxus, and proceeded down its stream to the Cafpian fea. There they entered the Volga, and failing up it, were carried by land to the Tanais, which conducted them into the Euxine sea, where veffels from Conftantinople waited their arrival'. This extraordinary and tedious mode of conveyance merits attention, not only as a proof of the violent paffion which the inhabitants of Conftantinople had conceived for the luxuries of the eaft, and as a fpecimen of the ardour and ingenuity with which they carried on commerce; but be

VOL. I.

i Ramufio, vol. i. p. 372, F.
Ꭰ .

caufe

BOOK cause it demonftrates, that, during the ignorance

and among the Arabi

ans,

commerce

which reigned in the reft of Europe, an extenfive knowledge of remote countries was still preserved in the capital of the Greek empire.

Ar the fame time, a gleam of light and know. ledge broke in upon the east. The Arabians having contracted fame relifh for the fciences of the people whofe empire they had contributed to overturn, tranflated the books of feveral of the Greek philosophers into their own language. One of the firft was that valuable work of Ptolemy, which I have already mentioned. The ftudy of geography became, of confequence, an early object of attention to the Arabians. But that acute and ingenious people cultivated chiefly the speculative and. fcientific parts of geography. In order to afcertain the figure and dimenfions of the terrestrial globe, they applied the principles of geometry, they had recourse to aftronomical obfervations, they employed experiments and operations, which Europe, in more enlightened times, has been proud to adopt and to imitate. At that period, however, the fame of the improvements made by the Arabians did not reach Europe. The knowledge of their discoveries was referved for ages capable of comprehending and of perfecting them.

Revival of By degrees, the calamities and defolation brought and naviga- upon the western provinces of the Roman empire by its barbarous conquerors, were forgotten, and

tion in Europe.

I.

in fome measure repaired. The rude tribes which B 0 0 K fettled there, acquiring infenfibly fome idea of regular government, and fome relish for the functions and comforts of civil life, Europe began to awake from its torpid and unactive ftate. The firft fymptoms of revival were difcerned in Italy. The northern tribes which took poffeffion of this country, made progress in improvement with greater rapidity than the people settled in other parts of Europe. Various causes, 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 thefe roused industry, 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 mercantile privileges as enabled them to carry on trade with great advantage. They were fupplied both with the precious commodities of the eaft, and with many curious manufactures, the product of ancient arts and ingenuity, which still fubfifted among the Greeks. As the labour and expence of conveying the productions of India to Conftantinople by that long and indirect courfe which I have defcribed, rendered them extremely rare, and of an exorbitant price, the industry of

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

D 2

the

BOOK the Italians difcovered other methods of procuring

I.

But

them in greater abundance, and at an easier rate.
They fometimes purchased them in Aleppo, Tri-
poli, and other ports on the coast 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 Eu-
phrates and Tigris, as far as Bagdat, were carried
by land across the Defert to Palmyra, and from
thence to the towns on the Mediterranean.
from the length of the journey, and the dangers to
which the caravans were expofed, this proved al-
ways a tedious, and often a precarious mode of
conveyance. At length, the Soldans of Egypt,
having renewed the commerce with India in its
ancient channel, by the Arabian Gulf, the Italian
merchants, notwithstanding the violent antipathy
to each other with which Chriftians and the follow-
ers of Mahomet were then 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 fpirit of Italy became
active and enterprifing. 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 Me-
diterranean, 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

I.

began to communicate to its various nations fome BOOK tafte for the valuable productions of the east, as well as fome ideas of manufactures and arts, which were then unknown beyond the precincts of Italy.

grefs fa

the Cru

WHILE the cities of Italy were thus advancing in Their protheir career of improvement, an event happened, voured by the most extraordinary perhaps in the hiftory of fades, mankind, which, inftead of retarding the commercial progress of the Italians, rendered it more rapid. The martial fpirit of the Europeans, heightened and inflamed by religious zeal, prompted them to deliver the Holy Land from the dominion of infidels. Vaft armies, compofed of all the nations in Europe, marched towards Afia, upon this wild enterprise. The Genoefe, the Pifans, and Venetians furnished the tranfports which carried them thither. They fupplied them with provi. fions and military ftores. Befide the immenfe fums which they received on this account, they obtained commercial privileges and establishments, of great confequence in the fettlements which the Crufaders made in Palestine, and in other provinces of Asia. From those sources, 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 territories1,

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