634 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY, 



[Part V. 



The productions of India, whether they passed by 

 tlie Oxus to the Caspian, or were transported in cara- 

 vans from the Tigris to the shores of the Black Sea, 

 were poured into the magazines of Constantinople, the 

 merchants of which, previous to the fall of the Lower 

 Emph-e, were the most opulent in the world. During 

 the same period, Egy[>t commanded the trade of the 

 Eed Sea ; and received, through Aden, the luxuries of 

 the far East, mth which she supphed the Moorish 

 princes of Spain, and the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean. ^ 



Even when the dominion of the Khahfs was threat- 

 ened by the rising power of the Turks, and long 

 after the subsidence of the commotions and vicissitudes 

 which marked the period of the Crusades, part of this 

 lucrative commerce was still carried to Alexandria, 

 by the Nile and its canals. The Genoese and Vene- 

 tians, each eager to engross the supply of Europe, 

 sought permission from the Emperors to form estabhsh- 

 ments on the shores of the Black Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean. The former advanced their fortified factories as 

 far eastward as Tabriz, to meet the caravans returning 

 from the Persian Gulf^, and the latter, in addition to 

 the formation of settlements at Tyre, Bep^out, and 

 Acre ^, acquired after the fourth crusade, succeeded (in 

 defiance of the interdict of the Popes against trading 

 with the infidel) in negotiating a treaty with the 

 Mamelukes for a share in the trade of Alexandria.^ It 

 was through Venice that England and the western na- 



^ Odoabdo Babbosa, in Ramusio, 

 vol. i. p. 292. Baldelli Boni, Rela- 

 zione (h'lr JEuropn e dcW Asia, lib. ix. 

 ch. xlvii. Fakia y Sotjsa, Portug. 

 Asia, part i. cli. viii. 



2 Gibbon, Dcd. and Fall, cli. Ixiii. 



2 Dabtj, Hist, de Venise, lib. xix. 

 vol. iv. p. 74. Macpherson's Annals 

 of ConuiuTce, vol. i. p. 370. 



* So impatient were the Venetians 



to grasp the trade of Alexandria 

 that Marino Sannto, about the year 

 1321 A.D., endeavoured to excite a 

 new crusade in order to "^Test it from 

 the Sultan of Eg^'pt by force of 

 arms. Secreta Fidelium Crucis, in 

 BoNGAES, Gesta Dei jjer Francos, 

 Hanau, 1611. Adam Smith, Wealth 

 of Nations, h. iv. ch. vii. Dahu, Hist, 

 de Venise^ lib, xix. vol. iv. p. 88. 



