A. D. 1259. 411 



■many, has been formed by an accefllon of new members to the fociety 

 called in the year 1220 the merchants of Cologne^ the original pofleflbrs of 

 the Teutonic Gildhall. The articles imported by thofe merchants, ac- 

 cording to Stow, {Survey of London^ p. 431, ed. 161 8] were wheat, rye, 

 and other grain, cables and other cordage, mails, pitch, tar, hemp, linen, 

 wainfcot, wax, fteel, &c. 



1261 — As long as the Latin emperors of Conftantinople polTefTed their 

 feeble and precarious fovereignty, the Venetians, the main inllruments 

 of their elevation to that lofty title, enjoyed fuch a commercial fuperi- 

 ority in the eaftern parts of the Mediterranean fea, that they, almofl ex- 

 clufively, fupplied the other nations of Europe with the productions of 

 Alia on their own terms. The Genoefe, who had long been their rivals 

 in commerce and naval power, could not behold without envy the ad- 

 vantages they enjoyed by their union with thofe emperors. They there- 

 for attached themfelves to Michael Palaeologus the Greek fovereign of 

 Nice, and affifted him with powerful fuccours, regardlefs of the indig- 

 nation of the pope, who favoured Baldwin the Latin emperor, and exe- 

 crated Michael, who refufed obedience to the Holy fee. The city was 

 taken by furprife (July 25"') ; and Baldwin, without making the fmall- 

 eft effort to repell the invaders, feemed very happy to make his efcape 

 witli a few friends onboard the gallies of his Venetian allies, who car- 

 ried him to Italy, where he was fupported during the remainder of his 

 life by the pope and the king of Sicily. 



During the Latin government in Conftantinople the trade and opul- 

 ence of the city had declined, and the number of the people had de- 

 creafed. The new fovereign reftored the heirs of thofe who had been 

 deprived of their poflellions by the Latins, fixed the troops, who had 

 made him mafter of the city, as inhabitants, and invited fettlers from 

 the provinces. The merchants and traders of every defcription of Ita- 

 lian birth or parentage were willing, and were made welcome, to re- 

 main in the city, which, by their eftablifhed bufinefs and connections 

 was become their proper home. Among thefe the Venetians, the Ge- 

 noefe, and the Pifans, had been the moft eminent, ever fince the de- 

 cline of Amalfi, and each of thole nations poflefled their fadiories and 

 fettlements in their own particular quarter of the city, where they lived, 

 in fome degree independent of the imperial government, having chiefs 

 or governors and laws of their own. The Pifans, and even the Vene- 

 tians, were continued in the enjoyment of their fadories and privileges : 

 but the larger, and more favoured, colony of the Genoefe were put in 

 pofleflion of the neighbouring town of Heraclea, the antient Perinthus, 

 which was built in the flourifliing days of Greece by the Samians on a 

 peninfula projeding into the Propontis or Sea of Marmara; and thence 

 they were foon after tranfplanted to Galata (called afterwards Pera) a 

 fuburb fituated on the north fide of the Golden horn, the inlet of the 



3F2 



