A. D. 132 1. 491 



pafs through his territories, and his fubjcds had thereby a monopoly of 

 all the trade in that channel, the prices of India goods were now much 

 higher in Europe, than when they were chiefly conveyed by the inland 

 route of Bagdad and Antioch. The moft valuable goods, fuch as cu- 

 bebe, fpikenard, cloves, nutmegs, and mace, flill continued to be brouglit 

 from Bagdad and Thorifium * to various ports on the coaft of the Me- 

 diterranean : and by that route many Chriflian merchants had already 

 penetrated to India. Though this conveyance was more expenfive, fome 

 of the articles, fuch as ginger and cinnamon, were from 10 to 20 per 

 cent f better than thofe brought by the longer water carriage, efpecially 

 the ginger, which was apt to heat and be wafted, if kept long onboard 

 the veflel. 



Sanuto, envying the fultan and the Saracens the great revenues and 

 profits they derived from filk and fugar, obferves, that the later grows in 

 Cyprus, Rhodes, Amorea, and Marta %. He adds, that it would grow in 

 Sicily and other Chriftian countries, if there were demand for it §. Silk, 

 he fays, is produced in confiderable quantities in Apulia, Romania, 

 Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus, and the quantity might be increafed. Though 

 flax abounds in the Ghriftian countries, the Egyptian fpecies, on ac- 

 count of its fuperior quality, is carried to the fartheft extremities of 

 the Weft ; and the Egyptian manufadures of linen, and of filk, and 

 others of linen mixed with iilk, as alfo dates and caftia-fi^ftula, are carried 

 in Chriftian and Saracen vefl'els to Turkey ||, Africa, the Black fea, and 

 the weftern parts of Europe. 



He obferves, that the fultan's dominions produce no gold, filver, 

 brafs, tin, lead, quickfilver, coral, or amber, which are carried to them 

 by the Mediterranean fea, and bring in a vaft revenue in duties paid 

 upon them at Alexandria, which are, on gold 6f per cent ; on filver at 

 Cairo 10 per cent, but to fome, by favour, only 34- ; on brafs about 25 : 

 tin 20, &c. and thofe are the articles, which are moft valuable to his 

 fubjedts in their trade with Ethiopia and India. Great quantities of oil, 

 honey, nuts, almonds, faffron, and maftic, all of them paying heavy 

 duties at Alexandria ; alfo filk, cloth, wool, and other goods, are car- 

 ried to the fultan's dominions, and contribute to enrich him and his 



* Thorifiuni, according to De Guignes, [Mem. when the name of Morea fuperfeded that of Pe- 



cU Un. V. xxxvii, p. 507] was Tauris in Adher- loponnefus. 

 bigian, the antieiit Media. § He did not know that fugar had been culti- 



f ' A decern ad viginti pro centenario.' Here vated in Sicily long before, 

 and clfewhere in his work we have the modern way || Turkey innft here mean Afia Minor, at this 



of rating at fo much per cent. Earher authors time occupied by tlie Turks. Sanuto elfewhtre 



generally reckon by one twentieth, one tenth, one fays, that Turkey was antiently called Greece : 



fiftlh, one third, &c. and Sanuto lometimes does but the application of that name to the coaft of 



the fame. For the firft undoubted appearance of Afia, if, 1 believe, fcarcely warranted by any aa- 



the calculation /■£7- cin/, fee above, p. 393. tient authority. — Querc, if the blundering correc- 



+ Thefe are apparently the Morca and Malta, tion of a tranfcriber ? 

 But I cannot at prcfent detetniine the cxaft liiUL-, 



3 0.2 



