ayo A. D. 947. 



which fituation obliged all that was brought to them to come in on the 

 weft fide of their country *. Their fkins were obferved to be of a finer 

 and deeper black than thofe of the Habefhis (Abyfllnians) or Zingians 

 (Ethiopians). In Andalus (Spain) there were feveral mines of gold 

 and filver. [Oriental geography of Ebn Haiikal, tranjlated by Sir William 

 Oufelcy.\ 



950 — In the book of Tadics, written by the emperor Leo, and tran- 

 fcribed by his fon Conftantine Porphyrogenitus, the gallies of the im- 

 perial navy are directed to be of due length, and to carry two tires of 

 oars, one above and another below. On this reduced fcale, we fliall find 

 the antient conftrudion of the gallies retained in the Mediterranean, at 

 leaft to the end of the twelfth century. 



Among the laws of Conftantine, entitled the Bafilics, there is an ab- 

 folute prohibition of taking intereft for the ufe of money ; a fufficient 

 proof, that the value of money, and the principles of commerce, were 

 as utterly unknown in the Greek empire, as they were in the weftern 

 parts of Europe, where a canon of fimilar import, pafled in the reign of 

 Charlemagne, was fo managed by the priefts, that they made themfelves 

 the arbiters of every bargain between man and man. 



960 — About this time, or perhaps fomewhat earlier, the woollen raa- 

 nufaclure of Flanders commenced, which continued flouriftiing and in- 

 ereafing for feveral centuries, during which the chief part of the cloth- 

 ing trade of Europe was in the hands of the Flemings. At firft the fales 

 were moftly to the French, whofe fertile and comparatively well-cultiv- 

 ated foil, enabled them to purchafe fine woollen cloths from their in- 

 duftrious Flemilh neighbours. On account of the fcarcity of money 

 the trade was carried on moftly by barter, to facilitate which Baldwin, 

 earl of Flanders, who feems to have exceeded moft of the fovereigns of 

 his age in difcerning the real intereft of himfelf and his fubjeds, fet up 

 weekly markets, and eftabliflied regular fairs at Bruges, Ccurtray, Tor- 

 hout, and Mont-Cafel, at all which he exempted the goods fold, or ex- 

 changed, from paying any duties on being brought in or carried out. 

 \_Meyeri Ann. Flandr.J. i8 b — De Witt's Interejl of Hullana-\, p. 47. EngL 

 tranjl.'\ 



* The trade with the Negroes was mod pro- biifiiiefs of weaving is familiar, and, as It were, pe- 



bahly entirely managed by the Moorifli caravans, culiar to the Flemings : and Ralph de Diccto 



iinlcis the fcamen of Moroceo ventured to double {coL 528] marks ihem as a manufacluring nation, 



the ftormy capes, whieli in alter ages io long con- — The hi^;h value of wool in England (which will 



tinued bugbears to tlie Portugutfe navigators. be noted under the year 1066) feems to infer that 



■\ It m\i(l be acknowlegcd, that the authority it was exported ; and Flanders was apparently the 



of De Witt, though very rcfpectable, is much too only country that could have a demand for it, and, 



modern for an event of the tenth eentury. But being adjacent to the River Rhine, was apparently 



it is corroborated by that of Giraldus Cambrenfis, the country which lent filver by that river to pur- 



\_llm. Camhiix, L- ii, c. 2] who alcribes :;reat (lull chafe ' the moll prctious wool,' and other articles 



in the woolln maiuifafture to a colony of Flemings, of Englilh produce, as we are told by Henry of 



who fettled in England in the enfuing centurj-. — Huntingdon, in the beginning of his hillory. — 



Gervafc of Canterbury [co/. J 349] fays, that the The epithet of the weaver, twice given to Flan. 



den 



