356 EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES CHAP. xm. 



When the Crusaders had so far succeeded as 

 to capture Jerusalem and to establish in that city 

 a Christian kingdom, there is good ground to 

 conclude that the revenues raised within it were 

 insufficient to defray *the expenditure of the go- 

 vernment, but that sums were annually contri- 

 buted by the several powers which had achieved 

 the conquest to maintain the throne they had 

 erected. 



The rude nations of western Europe must 

 have been powerfully impressed with the magni- 

 ficent objects which the oriental world presented 

 to their view. The thousand luxuries of the 

 east would excite a desire to possess them, and 

 to transfer them as well to ornament their own 

 countries as to serve as memorials of the adven- 

 turous expeditions in which they had borne a 

 part. A great portion of what had been acquired 

 as booty in the east would be expended in ob- 

 jects which could not be supplied by the in- 

 dustry of their own countries, but whose value 

 when they arrived there would be estimated as 

 much from the danger and glory by which they 

 had been acquired, as by their rarity, their 

 beauty, or their utility. 



It cannot be doubted but that the several 

 crusades tended to soften the manners of those 

 who were engaged in them ; that they advanced 

 the knowledge, the civilization, and the industry 

 of Europe, and by these means increased the 



