A. D. 1269' 419 



magnetic needle, and even the conftruitiou of the azimuth compafs *. 

 Thus we fee, that the fcience of magnetifm, and the appUcation of it 

 to the fervice of navigation, were brought to a degree of perfedion, 

 little inferior to that of the prefent age, at a time, when, it is general- 

 ly beUeved, that the polarity of the magnet was utterly unknown in 

 Europe. 



1270 — At this time the k^al intered of money at Modena was four 

 pence per month for every pound lent (or twenty per cent for the year). 

 \Muratori Ant'iq. V. i, col. 893.] What defcription of people could bor- 

 row money at fuch interefl? If traders or manufadurers, what profits did 

 they get upon their goods, to enable them to pay fuch interefl ? As all 

 things are great or fmall, only by comparifon with others, is not this 

 rate of interefl a fufficient proof, that the trade of the Italian flates, 

 though a vafl deal greater than that of their ignorant and llothful neigh- 

 bours, and alfo than that of their own anceflcrs, was not, even now, 

 very extenlive, according to our modern ideas of the magnitude of com- 

 mierce, and that the profperous ftate of the merchants, and confequent- 

 ly of the commercial cities, was owing to the prodigious great profits 

 which the fmall number of competitors in trade enabled them to make ? 

 We have already feen, [/>. 391] that a great improvement in the cir- 

 cumflances of the people of Italy, took place before the conclufion of 

 the thirteenth century : but the high rate of interefl warrants a belief, 

 that it had fcarcely begun in the year 1270. 



Louis IX king of France, who had already been made a prifoner in 

 an expedition againfl the Saracens in Egypt, after an interval of (ixteen 

 years, undertook a new crufade, which was the fevenih fmcc the com- 

 mencement of them, and the lafl one of any confequcnce. Now, as 

 well as on the former occafion, he applied to foreigners for the ufe of 

 their lliipping : and we learn from the original treaty, as quoted by 

 Formaleoni, \_E[[ai fur la marine des Vemtiens p. 31, trad, iv-.] that he ob- 

 tained three Ihips from the republic, and twelve from the private citi- 

 zens, of Venice. The Santa Maria, the largellof the republican veflels, 

 meafured ro8 Venetian feet (a little more than 125 Englifli feet) in 

 length, but whether by the keel, or on the deck, we arc not told, and flie 

 carried iiofeamen. We are thus, in fome degree, informed of the 

 lize of what was reckoned an extraordinary large Ihip in the Mediter- 

 ranean at that time ; and we are alfo authorized to withhold our belief 

 from the account of ten thoufand foldiers, and four thouland horfcs, 

 being carried by thole fifteen fhips, in addition to their own feamen. 

 The death of the king and the greatefl part of his army on the burn- 



* This moft curious letter is preferved among but extracls from it are infertcd by Cavallo in th- 

 the manufcripts of the univeifity of Leydeo, and fecond edition of his Trcatife on magnetifm. 

 has not, I believe, ever been publiflied entire : 



3G2 



