350 ITALIAN TRADE WITH CHAP. XIII. 



western Europe, in exchange for the wool, 

 wine, iron, linen, and other commodities which 

 the industry of those divisions of Europe fur^ 

 nished. 



Although this commerce between Europe and 

 Asia was of trifling extent as compared with 

 what has existed since the discovery of the route 

 to India by the Cape of Good Hope, yet as 

 its influence on the civilization of Europe was 

 powerful at an early period, it would be improper 

 not to take a slight review of its history and 

 progress. Constantinople, from its first esta- 

 blishment as the capital of the Roman em- 

 pire, had gradually become the depot for the 

 valuable productions of Asia. Spices, in- 

 cense, perfumes, garments of silk, and dia- 

 monds and other precious stones, were stored 

 there and distributed from thence to the other 

 parts of Europe. Some parts were conveyed by 

 land through the valley of the Danube, but the 

 greater portion passed through the hands of the 

 Venetians, a people that arose out of the ruins 

 of the kingdom of Lorn bar dy. 



The turbulent state of the Italian continent 

 rendered all property insecure at first, and this 

 led to the occupation of some islands in the 

 Adriatic, where commerce might be conducted 

 with less danger of interruption from the pre- 

 vailing commotions. When the Arabian power 

 arose in Asia, the intercourse between Venice 



