450 TIE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
the lagunes fits out a small fleet to purge the Adriatic of Istrian 
pirates. By a prudent course of policy she renders herself indis- 
pensable to the Byzantine court, and acquires great privileges in 
Constantinople. It is here she purchases the costly productions 
of the East, with which during the ninth and tenth centuries, 
she provides Northern Italy and a great part of Germany. About 
the beginning of the eleventh century her trade with Egypt an¢ 
Syria begins to flourish, and soon raises her te the pinnacle of 
her power and wealth. In the year 1080 she extends her rule 
over Croatia and Dalmatia, and gains in 1204 considerable ad- 
vantages by assisting the western crusaders in the conquest of 
Constantinople. Pera, numerous coast towns from the Helles- 
pont to the Ionian Sea, a great part of the Morea, Corfu, and 
Candia fall to the winged lion’s share, and requite the services 
of “blind old Dandolo.” The silk manufacture is transported, 
as a valuable fruit of conquest, from the Morea to Venice, and 
becomes a new source of wealth to the Adriatic Tyre. The 
Euxine opens her ports to the Venetian seamen, treaties of 
commerce are concluded with Trebizond and Armenia, and a 
factory is established at Tana, at the mouth of the Don. 
While thus the power of Venice rises more and more in the 
East, Genoa, which already in the tenth century carried on a 
flourishing trade, acquires by degrees the supremacy in the 
Western Mediterranean. The aid afforded by the republis to 
the Greek emperor Michael Palzologus contributes largely to the 
overthrow of the Latin throne of Constantinople, and opens the 
Bosphorus and the Black Sea to the enterprise of her merchants. 
The grandeur of Genoa now reaches its height; she holds forti- 
fied possession of Pera and Galata, and covers the coasts of the 
Crimea with her strong-holds and castles. 
At a later period the Florentines appear on the scene, and 
assume the rank formerly held by Pisa in Mediterranean com- 
merce. The acquisition of the sea-port of Leghorn (1421) opens 
the barriers of the ocean to the birthplace of Dante and 
Galileo. 
After their deliverance from the Moorish yoke in the ninth 
century, a fresh and vigorous spirit begins also to animate the 
Catalans. They conclude treaties of commerce with Genoa and 
Pisa, and towards the end of the thirteenth century the ships of 
Barcelona ave found visiting all the ports of the Mediterranean. 
eo 
