274 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



The Marquis of Montferrat, Seigneur of Tyre, gave 

 permission in 1187 to the Marseilles traders in that 

 city to appoint a consul to dispense justice.* Three 

 years after this, Guy de Lusignan allowed this city 

 of Marseilles, by letters patent, to appoint at Acre 

 consuls or viscounts, who were sworn in by the 

 King of Jerusalem, and who had jurisdiction in all 

 civil and criminal cases, murder and high treason 

 except ed. 



Although at this period, Marseilles had no foreign 

 consuls in the city, her own magistrates took special 

 care of the interests of foreign traders. In her muni- 

 cipal statutes (statuta civitatis Massilice) drawn up in 

 1228, 1233, and 1255, Marseilles laid down as a 

 principle that, even when at war with a city or a 

 State, it was the duty of the adversary to respect the 

 private property of the inhabitants of that city or 

 State a principle which does honour to the city 

 which proclaimed it. Avignon, following the example 

 of Marseilles, had also declared the property of 

 strangers to be inviolable, in time of war as well as 

 of peace. 



In 1148, the town of Narbonne possessed at Tor- 

 tosa, in Spain, a commercial establishment, and the 

 privilege of having a consul there ; while similar 

 privileges had been obtained by Narbonne at Genoa 

 in 1166 and at Pisa in 1171. 



* See Histoire du Commerce entre le Levant et VEurope, by 

 Depping. 



