276 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



couragement of the Sovereign, who had the wisdom to 

 guarantee protection and assistance to all foreign 

 ships, even to those of the Sarrazins. The thirteenth 

 century is the epoch in which the Catalonian trade 

 made its greatest advance. The relations between the 

 Catalonians and France were very important; they 

 attended the fairs in Champagne, and, as we learn 

 from Pardessus's " Collection des Lois Maritimes," 

 they maintained a consul there. Thus the capital of 

 Catalonia, which has provided maritime and commercial 

 legislation with the celebrated " Consulate of the 

 Sea," showed as keen an appreciation as Marseilles of 

 the usefulness of foreign consulates. 



James I., King of Aragon, granted in 1266 to the 

 municipal magistrates of Barcelona the privilege of 

 annually electing and sending out to Egypt and Syria 

 consuls of their own ; and towards the close of the 

 fourteenth century the Catalonians drew up some 

 regulations for the consulate at Alexandria, accord- 

 ing to which the consul was appointed for three 

 years and was re- eligible. He was forbidden to keep 

 a tavern or sell wine by retail, to let the shops on the 

 ground-floor to any but Catalonians, or to admit into 

 his house Jews, or women of ill-fame. He was to be 

 present all day at the custom house, if required, to 

 take part in the examination of goods, and whenever 

 he left his house he was to be preceded by two men 

 in livery.* As early as the thirteenth century, the 



* See Capmany's Memoires Historiques, vol. xi. 



