A. D. 1265. 41^ 



the kingdoms, like the grandeur of the Chaldfeans. The fhips of 

 TarQiifh were not comparable to thy (hips carrying aromatics and all 

 pretious merchandize throughout the four climates of the globe (' or- 

 bis'). T'be fea zvas thy wall; and caftles ftrongly fortified were the gates 

 of thy harbours. In thee chivalry, the church, and commerce, flourifh- 

 ed. For thee the Pifans, the Genoefe, and the Venetians, tranfport- 

 ed the fapphire, the carbuncle, and the fmaragdus, drawn from the 

 rivers of Paradife. Afia fupplied thee with the finell linen (' byflo') 

 and purple, Africa with cinnamon and balfam, Spain with gold, and 

 Germany with filver. For thee Flanders, thy weaver, made pretious 

 drapery of thy own materials. For thee thy own Gafcoigne produced 

 wine. To thee all the iflands between the Hyades and Ardlurus were 

 fubfervient. Thy inland parts abounded with the wild beafts of the 

 woods, and thy hills with cattle of every kind. Thou didfl poflefs 

 all the fowls of the air. Thy fields were beautiful. In the abundance 

 of fifh thou furpaflefl every region. And though thou haft but a nar- 

 row trad of land, confined within the fhores of the fea, yet the coafts 

 of all the nations of the world, warmed by the fleeces of thy ftieep, 

 have blefl^ed thy celebrated fertility. In thee the fwords were con- 

 verted into plough-fliares, and peace and religion were fo flourifliing, 

 that thou wert looked up to as a mirror and example by all the other 

 catholic kingdoms. Alas ! why art thou now fi:ripped of fuch great 

 glory, &c.' — Though the panegyric, which is probably an amplifica- 

 tion of thofe of Fitz-Stephen and Henry of Huntingdon, (fee above, 

 pp. 329, 344) is prodigioufly overftrained, yet the nations of the earth 

 being clothed with Englifli wool, and that wool being made into cloth 

 in Flanders, are valuable notices of the Hate of manufadlures and com- 

 merce in the thirteenth centurj ; and the importation of gold from 

 Spain in that age (which was probably in payment for wool) is a cir- 

 cumfi:ance exceedingly curious, and, I believe, not to be found in any 

 other Englilh author or record *. But, while he tells us that Oriental 

 luxuries were imported by the^ Pilans and other Italians, and at the 

 fame time reprefents the commerce of England as adive, and the fhip- 

 ping as very numerous and trading to all parts of the world, he evi- 

 dently wanders into the regions of romance England, at leafl; in the 



prefent day, does not need to have recourfe.to fictitious naval or com- 

 mercial renown. 



April 1 2'" — James I, king of Aragon, during the whole of his long 

 reign did every thing in his power to extend and improve the manu- 

 factures and commerce of his i'ubjeds, and efpecially thofe of the citizens 

 of Barcelona. Senfible of the pernicious eflfects of the taxes, which the 

 feudal lords afllimed a power of levying, he now relieved the merchants 



* We {hall afterwards fee good authority, from Spanifh r.corJs, for thi importation of EngliHi 

 wool in that country. ^ 



