TRADE OF GERMANY. CHAP. XVI. 



rivers were insecure, and the protection either to 

 property or persons passing along them dependent 

 upon the interest, the caprice, or the cupidity of 

 the various princes or nobles who ruled the several 

 minor dominions. In such a state of society the 

 precious metals, which were obtained by the labour 

 of the vassals, might for a time be kept in security 

 within the walls of the castles of noble or princely 

 robbers, but little of it would circulate in coun- 

 tries where no protection was afforded to inter- 

 course, and where commerce was consequently 

 almost unknown. In the keeps of the castles it 

 would be useless to the owners, and equivalents 

 would be sought for which would either secure 

 and extend the power of its possessors, or serve to 

 display their pomp and luxury in the exhibitions 

 of those tournaments which were the chief theatre 

 for displaying the power and the wealth of those 

 petty sovereigns. The wants which such ex- 

 hibitions required were not supplied by domestic 

 labour. The arms and the decorations of the 

 knights, the dresses and the ornaments of the 

 high-born ladies, who by their presence gave 

 splendour and excitement to such assemblages, 

 were the products of other countries, for which 

 none of their own territories yielded any equi- 

 valents but silver and gold. Those metals would, 

 therefore, be naturally exchanged for the costly 

 armour of Milan, for the rich silks and velvets 

 of Bologna and Genoa, for the trinkets of Venice, 



