268 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



from the distant Urals, and from the still more remote empire of 

 China. Many flourishing towns were within easy reach of Kair- 

 wan, each boasting its marble palace and its market-place. Bak- 

 kadah was noted as the only town where palm wine was sold, and 

 Kassch numbered in its environs as many as two hundred castles. 

 Sabrah, in the line of the grain trade, was connected with the 

 capital by means of a long wall. Several busy harbours lay near 

 Sabrah, as famous for their manufacturing industry as for their 

 maritime trade. Susah wove a transparent tissue so exceed- 

 ingly fine that it was designated " woven wind." Mahadiah and 

 Safakus cultivated the white mulberry, and reared silkworms. 

 Tarabolos was situated near a saline plain, from which the inha- 

 bitants obtained large supplies of salt. Every port on the coast 

 carried on a vigorous trade, both inland and marine, the latter 

 chiefly with Sicily and Spain, while caravans kept them all in 

 connection with the capital. 



The region of Mauritania, corresponding to Morocco, Fez, and 

 western Algeria, attracted inhabitants from Arabia, as well as 

 many of the Moors from Spain, who together founded the city of 

 Fez in the eighth century. Fez became eminent for its manu- 

 factures, especially that of Fez caps, still worn by the Turks. 

 Besides its looms and dye-works, it fabricated silk and gold 

 thread, and possessed smelting furnaces and manufactories of 

 soap. The fertile soil produced grain, dates, grapes, and olives. 

 Rich meadow lands fed fine herds of horses, goats, camels, asses, 

 and flocks of sheep. Iron, copper, and antimony held the chief 

 place among its mineral produce. Commerce was carried on with 

 Mecca by caravans, and with the Levant, Sicily, and Spain by the 

 feluccas or Arab vessels. Central Africa (Soudan, Nigritia, or 

 Negroland) was visited for black slaves, gold-dust, ivory, and 

 feathers, for which Segel-Messa was made the emporium. From 

 Segel-Messa, which was a manufacturing town, caravans struck 

 off east and west to Egypt and the Niger. So important was 

 this commerce, that the Arabs cut through a mountain pass 

 fourteen leagues in length, in order to facilitate the traffic. 



There is a marked contrast between the nearly arid strip of 

 desert which now occupies its place and the fruitful land of 

 Mauritania, which once boasted of numberless castles and villages, 

 and was intersected by a network of aqueducts for irrigation. Is 

 Nature less benign than aforetime ? It is hard to believe that 

 man's neglect has brought about the change ; yet fertility is 

 restored even now, wherever water is supplied ; and with the 

 renewal of industry and skill, the capabilities of the soil might 

 be relied upon to sustain in comfort a thousand inhabitants for 

 every ten who at present exist half -famished on its produce. 



Under Arab rule the commerce of Egypt rose to a high degree 

 of prosperity. Syene was the emporium of the caravan trade. 

 Tennis and Damietta stood nearly on an equality as the principal 

 industrial towns. Caravans going to the East met at Fostat, 

 then the capital of Egypt. Many advantages resulted to the 

 town from this arrangement, and it became the centre of Oriental 

 riches and splendour. Fostat was burnt to the ground in 1167. 



From A.D. 832 to 1090, the Arabs held possession of the delight- 

 ful island of Sicily, where winter is as delicious as spring, and 

 summer is tempered by the sea-breezes. As conquerors, they 

 conciliated the Sicilians, and added to their native productions 

 cotton and sugar from Egypt, and manna from Persia. Immense 

 crops of corn, especially wheat, had long made Sicily the granary 

 of the ancient world. Vines, olives, and many kinds of fruits 

 abounded ; its minerals were also rich and varied. Sicilian 

 embroidered works and tissues were highly esteemed, and were, 

 it is said, always in request at the coronation of the German 

 emperors. 



Everything connected with the Arab system of trade indicates 

 a highly advanced and noble-minded race. Their commercial 

 laws, even when violating the principles of political economy, 

 were framed in a spirit of humanity. They regulated the price 

 of the necessaries of life in the interest of the poorer classes, so 

 that the burdens of these should be light ; and they forbade the 

 over-lading of sea-going vessels, so that merchants over-eager 

 for profit should not freight their ships at the risk of seamen's 

 lives. 



The maritime commerce of the Arabs was extensive, yet insig- 

 nificant compared with their caravan trade. Travelling by sea 

 was a power for which their antecedents had not prepared them. 

 Considering, however, the poor craft to which they entrusted their 



lives and goods, the extent of their maritime commerce may well 

 excite our astonishment. 



Eastward they started from Bassorah for Muscat, at which 

 place they had before them the south-east coast of Africa on the 

 one hand, and India on the other ; both of these regions they 

 visited, for the purposes of trade. Nearly every place now 

 existing on the east coast of Africa had an Arab origin. Gold- 

 dust, ostrich and peacock feathers, leopards' skins, elephants' 

 tusks, amber, and tortoise-shell, were brought to these marts or 

 depots by the inhabitants of the interior. Similar stations were 

 established on the Malabar coast of India, whence they pushed 

 their trade to still more distant parts the Maldive Islands. 

 Ceylon, Sumatra, Further India, and the Nicobar Islands. The 

 Arab merchants were welcomed in China on their first arrival, in 

 787, and although the Chinese imposed upon them strange modes 

 of selling the goods, yet the founding of agencies was permitted, 

 the traders were exempted from fiscal burdens, and justice was 

 permitted to be administered by their own judges. Few ships, 

 however, ventured on a voyage so full of risk as that to the 

 distant seas of China : still even wheti the merchandise of India, 

 after Vasco de Gama's discovery of the passage round the Cape, 

 was diverted to Portugal, the Arabs, as agents and interpreters 

 between the Portuguese and Hindoos, regained much of tho 

 importance they lost as active merchants. 



In these voyages they used a piece of floating wood, furnished 

 with a needle, which had the curious property, under all circum- 

 stances, of pointing northward. Such an instrument is still 

 used by the Chinese. It is needless to say that an improved 

 form of this instrument is used by ourselves, under the name of 

 the "mariner's compass." 



CHAPTER XVIII COMMERCE OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 



VENICE. 



VENETIA, on tho mainland of Italy, had for many generations 

 been a flourishing province of the Roman empire, when Attila, 

 King of the Huns, with his fierce hordes drove the inhabitants 

 from their homes, to seek shelter in the lagunes at the head of 

 the Adriatic Sea. These lagunes, about four miles in breadth, 

 lay within a long, narrow, insular belt of sand, having several 

 openings to the sea, and were so shallow that a considerable part 

 of their bed was laid bare at every ebb-tide. Here the city of 

 Venice was slowly reared. The difference between the conditions 

 of their old and their new habitations was as great as can be con- 

 ceived. The generous Italian soil, which had heretofore lavishly 

 supplied them with oil and honey and wine, and whose meadows 

 had given sustenance to fine breeds of cattle, was exchanged for 

 flats of mud and sand the deposits of the southern Alpine 

 streams. Little of the ground was capable of producing more 

 than a stunted vegetation, and its possession was disputed by 

 sea-fowl. Upon so unpromising a foundation the Venetians 

 built their commercial greatness. Their natural resources were 

 salt, in exhaustless quantities, from the lagunes, and equally 

 unlimited supplies of fish from the sea. These were their earliest 

 articles of trade, and they obtained in exchange from the neigh- 

 bouring shores greater variety of food, articles of clothing, and 

 timber for their galleys. Life on the water was as natural as 

 that on land to such a race, and they became expert and darin.tr 

 sailors. Their obscure position caused them to be overlooked 

 while the Goths were paramount, and each succeeding age their 

 vessels increased in number and in size. With their growth in 

 power and wealth, the Venetians re-possessed themselves of their 

 ancient territories. 



The foundation of Venice was laid in 452, ere Genoa and Pis.<v 

 had entered upon mercantile pursuits, or even emerged front 

 obscurity. Commerce must have made considerable progress 

 before the end of the fifth century, when the Venetians are 

 referred to in history. In the latter part of the seventh century 

 their government assumed the form of a republic, citizenship in 

 which was easily obtainable. It was net, however, till the time 

 of the Saracens that Venice attained its greatest power, ruling 

 territories on the mainland of nearly 20,000 square miles in area. 

 Their ships made them the chief carriers of Europe, and they 

 were called upon to convey the crusaders to the Holy Land. 

 Venice was aggrandised by this traffic, not only getting rich 

 freight from passengers, but bringing costly cargoes home from 

 the East ; her merchants, too, were ever ready to take possession 

 of trading stations wrested from the infidels by the soldiers of 

 the Cross, and even to trade with the Saracens. 



