32 OPERATIONS OF THE LOMBARDS. WAP. XVI. 



the precious metals could have been required. 

 The amount of the articles imported from and 

 exported to foreign countries was small, when 

 compared with that of subsequent ages, and the 

 Lombards, by their operations in exchanges, would 

 tend to lessen the demand for metallic money. 

 The operations of the Lombards of that day had 

 not received such extensive developments as they 

 have since assumed, but as far as they did proceed, 

 they tended to centralise payments and to draw 

 them to a focal point in the large cities where there 

 were bourses or exchanges in which bills on one 

 country could, by sale and indorsement, be ex- 

 changed for those on others. 



Antwerp was the chief place for these kinds of 

 exchanges in the north, and Genoa in the south 

 of Europe. A Hollander might sell his salted 

 fish to an Italian, and send his bill for the amount 

 to Antwerp. A Londoner might sell wool to 

 Flanders, and a bill for the amount to the same 

 place, where it might be exchanged for the Hol- 

 lander's bill, and payment with it made in Italy 

 for the India or other goods which the Londoner 

 had purchased at the trading cities in that country. 

 By such an operation the demand for metallic 

 money would be vastly less than it would have 

 been if the Englishman had sent money to Italy 

 for the India goods, and the Brabanter money to 

 England for his wool, and if the Dutchman, in- 



