314 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



The only other group of South Turanian languages that we 

 shall notice is the Malay, that spoken by the race so named in 

 Blumenbach's arrangement, and by him regarded as one of the 

 primary varieties of mankind. For its physical characteristics 

 we would refer our readers to a former paper. A very interest- 

 ing point connected with it is that, as the evidence of language 

 shows, it is not confined to the Malay peninsula or archipelago, 

 but is spread from Madagascar on the one side all through the 

 Pacific islands to the expanse of water severing these from the 

 coast of America. Among many other tribes it includes the 

 New Zealand Maories, of whom a chief, by name Heki, who in 

 his day gave our troops no slight amount of trouble, is repre- 

 i sented in the engraving. 



At the opening of the next paper we shall treat of the 

 American Bed men, the only remaining portion of the extensive 

 Mongolian race. . 



INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY 

 OF COMMERCE. 



CHAPTER XXI. INFLUENCE OP THE CRUSADES UPON 

 COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 



IN order to trace the influence of the crusades upon commerce, 

 a succinct review of the previous conditions of society must be 

 entered upon. The crusades were the collision of Western and 

 Eastern fanaticism. The Arabs, who swarmed round the standard 

 of the Prophet, were at first as rude as the Goths of Europe. But 

 the facility with which the Oriental character adapted itself to 

 industry, and the precepts enforced by the Koran, refined the 

 Children of the Desert wherever they settled, and made them keen 

 to perceive the capabilities of different regions. Wealth re- 

 warded Arab industry and intelligence, and for some ages civili- 

 sation was kept alive almost solely in their dominions. They 

 revived a Chaldean splendour in their cities. From Bagdad to 

 Granada, science, art, and letters flourished, while innumerable 

 luxuries, unknown to the races out of the pale of Arab conquest, 

 were enjoyed by them in abundance. In their dominions com- 

 merce became free ; for, as they were almost sole masters, to 

 restrict the trade at any place was to impose a penalty upon 

 themselves. They broke up the system of concentrating wealth 

 upon one gorgeous capital till it sank under the weight of its 

 voluptuous burden ; they made their whole dominion a hive of 

 industry. Moorish Granada enjoyed a state of prosperity never 

 since witnessed in Spain, the era of fictitious wealth due to 

 the discovery of the American gold and silver mines not ex- 

 cepted. 



Contrasted with Asia as represented by the Arabs, Europe is 

 obscured in a mist of prejudices, superstition, and ignorance. 

 Literature was almost unknown to the barbarous successors of 

 the polished Eomans. The native inhabitants were reduced to 

 serfdom, and the land became the property of chieftains, who 

 divided it under feudal tenure among their vassals. Labour, 

 as of old, was servile, and therefore degrading to free men. 

 Being the heritage of slaves, whose interest was to do as little 

 as possible, there was in work no elevating principle to match 

 with the dignity supposed to attach to war. Greece and Eome 

 held the false belief that idleness and fighting were the worthiest 

 human occupations, and this not from any want of capacity 

 on the part of the citizens, as witness their military engines 

 and roads, their canals and aqueducts, temples, palaces, and 

 sculpture. 



The degradation of serfdom was for a long while unrelieved, 

 for lords and their slaves were equally ignorant. Ihe only ark 

 of hope and safety was the Church. Industry, like learning, 

 was free in the hands of the monks. Whether imposed for the 

 purpose of self-mortification, or adopted with a true insight into 

 its humanising influences, it was pursued with pious devotion, 

 and became an important element in the salvation of Europe. 

 Then arose monastic guilds and grades of handicrafts, from 

 masonry with its mystic symbolism, developed in cathedrals too 

 grand for our imitation, to the simple cultivation of the soil, 

 and devotion like that of Otho, Bishop of Bamberg. 



This good Bishop, who is styled in the legends the Apostle of 

 Pomerania, visited that country in 1124 for the purpose of con- 

 verting the inhabitants : he observed that the art of making hy- 

 dromel was well understood, but it was thought unbecoming to 

 substitute that liquor instead of wine in the sacrament of the 

 Lord's Supper. When he returned in 1128, he brought with 



him a large cask filled with young vines, which were planted by 

 his directions, in order that he might be enabled to administer 

 wine to the converts ; for at that period laymen as well as 

 ecclesiastics partook of the communion in both kinds. It is 

 owing, without doubt, to the same cause, that the culture of the 

 vine was introduced with Christianity into several northern coun- 

 tries. Moehsen makes an important and curious remark on this 

 subject : he affirms that the difficulty of obtaining wine in the 

 north, otherwise than by commerce or an expensive cultivation, 

 gave rise to the custom of communicating in one kind. "Thus," 

 says that writer, " necessity brought about a sophism, by which 

 the most solemn of all the institutions founded by the 

 Author of Christianity was changed in its mode of adminis- 

 tration." 



The crusades extended over 200 years of European history 

 a period of many important social changes. Great as was 

 the loss of life and treasure in the crusades, many benefits 

 therefrom accrued to Europe, which with its spirit, sinews, and 

 Christianity, had few of the arts of civilisation to give, but 

 many to learn. 



To commence : First, the natural resources of Europe bore no 

 comparison with those of Asia and Africa. From the soil were 

 obtained the bare necessaries of life, securing in the rudest 

 fashion the essentials of food, warmth, and rest. Of substances 

 used for food there were grain, flesh, and salt, in coarse abun- 

 dance ; but the indigenous fruits were few, and unimproved, while 

 the finer sorts had to be introduced from a distance. Wine was 

 scarcely known, and the taste for spices had yet to be acquired. 

 For clothing, linen and wool were the only fabrics woven. 

 Cotton and silk were as little worn as diamonds and pearls. 

 Acquaintance with these things, formerly confined to courts, 

 excited a desire for them on the part of the Christians who 

 had seen their profusion among the more refined nations of the 

 East. 



The Venetians and the Genoese, together with the Pisanese and 

 the citizens of Marseilles and Barcelona, became the purveyors of 

 food, clothing, and arms, as well as the owners of the transport 

 vessels for the crusaders, and reaped thereby large profits. 

 Following in the wake of the armies, they rivalled each other in 

 concluding treaties, erecting factories, and founding settlements 

 even on the enemy's shores ; and the products of their enter- 

 prise were dispersed through Europe. Jealousies amongst the 

 Italian cities, giving rise to wars, could not destroy the great 

 advantage derived from the new produce imported into Europe, 

 nor its general diffusion. Silk dresses, spices, perfumes, came 

 into common use among the wealthy; and food, clothing, and 

 household arrangements underwent a complete revolution. 

 Commerce became almost entirely free. Woollens employed a 

 multitude of workmen in Florence and Catalonia. The rearing 

 of the silkworm gave rise to a staple of wealth in Italy and 

 France. The Levantine commerce vivified the manufactures of 

 Flanders, and the northern commerce in turn enlivened that of 

 the Levant. Navigation, pursued with an ardour never before 

 witnessed, received the greatest impetus, when men learnt, from 

 the Saracens, the French, or the Italians for all claim the 

 merit, and with some show of reason to guide their course by 

 the mysterious power of the magnet. 



To keep pace with the growth of commerce, capital was 

 economised, and credit used as a great agent of production by 

 means of bills of exchange, interest on loans, and banking. 

 The promiscuous customs, or unwritten law of the sea the 

 ancient usages of the Mediterranean states were systematised, 

 and agreed to by them all in the church of St. Sophia at Barce- 

 lona, as the established maritime code, or statutes of the sea 

 (consolato del mare). 



As religions fanaticism wore itself out, treaties of commerce 

 began to be framed with the Saracen rulers in Syria, Tunis, 

 Tripoli, and other parts of the Asiatic and African coasts, and 

 thus the maritime traffic became extended and improved. The 

 result on the land traffic of Europe was even more remarkable. 

 Every Mediterranean port served as a centre for the diffusion 

 of the fruits of labour. Commerce was incompatible with feu- 

 dalism. The wealth arising from industry and trade, which be- 

 longed to a class whose property was at the mercy of their lords, 

 was distinguished from land or real property by the name of 

 chattels or movable property. The traders in towns, anxious 

 to retain the produce of their labour, learnt to take advantage 

 of their "lord's necessities, and to make bargains with him for 



