AND COMMERCIAL ROUTES. 149 



Sanuto, depends largely on Europe for oil, honey, hafcel-nuts, 

 almonds, saffron, and mastic, and absolutely for iron, timber, 

 and pitch, on all of which a duty of twenty-five per cent, is 

 levied in Egypt. Silk, wool, cloth, and silk fabrics were also 

 imported, and in seasons of scarcity, corn. On every vessel, 

 great and small, the Sultan levies a tax of three and a half 

 gold florins. Male slaves of all nations, Christian and heathen, 

 are purchased for the same market in order to form soldiers; 

 and girls for the harems of the chief persons in Egypt. 



Sanuto's remedy is twofold: first, a distinct prohibition to 

 be laid, under penalties of excommunication, on all persons 

 who traffic in Egypt; and next, the formation of a consider- 

 able fleet, with a view to checking the power of the Sultan, 

 and preventing him from taking any hostile measures against 

 Europe. 



It seems therefore, from Sanuto's account, that there are 

 three ways by which the produce of tropical climates was 

 brought into Italy and thence dispersed over Europe at the 

 beginning of the fourteenth century. One of these routes was 

 through Egypt ; another through Bagdad, if this be, as seems 

 likely, to be identified with Baldac, to TabreeT, in Azerbijan, 

 and thus onwards to the ports of Licia, that is, Seleucia and 

 Antioch. The third, which was adopted from the hindrances 

 put in the way of the second, passed through the highlands of 

 Armenia to Trebizond. It is Sanuto's policy to restore the 

 course of trade from the East to the route by Licia and 

 Antioch. 



On the other hand, this country must have derived the 

 greater part of its furs, then so important an article of dress 

 among the wealthier classes, from the coast of North-eastern 

 Europe d . The exigencies of this trade created the cities of 

 the Baltic, and led to the formation of -the Hanseatic League, 

 the fruitful source of mercantile law, and in no small degree of 



d According to Macpherson, the trade with Bergen was so important during the 

 middle of the fourteenth century, that this town became the richest port of Northern 

 Europe. Macpherson, Hist, of Commerce, {.421. 



